***************************************************************** 04/09/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.90 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POLICY 1 US: Nuclear Sites Delay Tighter Security Plans 2 US: Anti-Nuclear Grps: NRC Shuts Out Public On Security Plans 3 US: US nuclear regulators accused of bowing to industry 4 US: Nuclear Power May Be Solution to Energy Problems-(Texas A&M U.) 5 US: Nuclear legacy infects industrial plans 6 Japanese MP raises nuclear spectre 7 AEC to audit radioactive materials 8 Vietnam asks China for help to apply nuclear energy to 9 Chinese envoy backs no limits on peaceful use of nuclear 10 Europe will need nuclear energy to meet future demand - 11 Bulgaria to restart building new nuclear plant 12 Russian Atomic Energy Ministry woos Siberian public 13 US: Anti-Nuclear Grps: NRC Shuts Out Public On Security Plans 14 Taiwan: AEC to audit radioactive materials NUCLEAR REACTORS 15 Czech nuclear power plant Temelin due to come on stream April 15 16 Bulgaria must consider alternative to nuclear reactors to be 17 Chernobyl a 'Forgotten Crisis,' UN Official Says News 18 Japan shuts leaking nuclear reactor 19 Japan says nuclear safety record improved in 2001 20 Chernobyl a 'Forgotten Crisis,' UN Official Says NUCLEAR SAFETY 21 Leak at nuclear plant mars Japan's safety report News NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 22 US: Nation Magazine: The Fight Over Yucca Mountain 23 US: The Fight Over Yucca Mountain 24 US: Groups Praise Nevada’s Veto of Dangerous Nuclear Dump 25 US: Skull Valley wasting away 26 AU: N-waste transfer challenged 27 US: Foes of Nuclear Dump Gear Up Campaign 28 US: Nevada Gov. Takes Nuke Veto to D.C. 29 US: Nevada Fights Nuke Waste Storage 30 US: Your Turn: Yucca Mountain risks cannot be ignored 31 Nuclear safety body urges MOX fuel use 32 US: Nevada steps up protest against N-waste plan 33 Japan government approves report that MOX fuel is safe 34 US: Nevada presses effort to kill nuclear dump 35 Russian environmentalists vow to take fight against nuclear waste 36 US: Your Turn: Abraham pulling a fast one on Nevada 37 US: Residents skeptical of deal with feds 38 US: LETTERS: Yucca: Game over? 39 US: YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Guinn vetoes Bush 40 US: Empty anti-dump fund will make Guinn's veto an empty gesture 41 US: Yucca: Guinn goes to D.C. 42 US: Congress must decide on Yucca nuclear site 43 US: Ad agencies prepare anti-Yucca campaign 44 US: Hearings begin on nuclear waste proposal 45 US: Herrera halves request for anti-Yucca money 46 US: Congress to Decide on Storing Nuclear Waste 47 US: Skull Valley wasting away 48 US: Protestors hold rally against storage of waste on Skull Valley r 49 US: Brian Greenspun: Lead the way, governor 50 US: Editorial: Red-letter day in the Yucca fight 51 US: Letter: Community must stand firm against waste 52 US: Letter: 'West Wing' full of inaccuracies 53 US: County may add $1.5 mil. to fight Yucca 54 US: Yucca project believed to be 'legally dead' 55 US: Guinn takes case to D.C. 56 US: House minority whip expects new anti-Yucca votes 57 Russia to resume nuclear shipments 58 US: Protestors hold rally against storage of waste on Skull Valley 59 US: Utahns Rally Against N-Waste Facility 60 US: Mountain of Controversy Created by Proposed Waste Site 61 US: Nevada governor takes veto to Washington to kill nuclear dump 62 US: The Yucca issue plays the big room NUCLEAR WEAPONS 63 Another Holocaust In the Making 64 OZAWA CONFIRMS NUCLEAR WEAPONS POTENTIAL OF JAPAN'S PLUTONIUM 65 US: THE WAR ON TERRORISM: Doomsday threat grips Congress 66 US: Air Force can use uranium weapons 67 China condemns Ozama's remarks on nuclear weapons 68 Russia lashes out at U.S. statement of concern on Moscow's US DEPT. OF ENERGY 69 Port of Benton gives FFTF rescue efforts office space 70 K-31 cleanup still on hold; radioactive isotopes detected 71 HAB concerned about cleanup risks 72 Brake maker latest victim of Hanford industrial park dreams 73 Fluor Hanford near layoff announcement 74 Bill Would Bar New Homes at Rocket Facility 75 Oak Ridge organization ready to 'react' 76 Fluor Fernald lays off 61 - 77 Effort to result in deactivation of Y-12 facility 78 Extra money could speed PFP cleanup ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Nuclear Sites Delay Tighter Security Plans Newsday.com - By Thomas Frank WASHINGTON BUREAU April 9, 2002 Washington - Nearly three-quarters of the nation's nuclear reactor sites are seeking a delay in fully responding to tighter security regulations, a watchdog group said yesterday. Edwin Lyman, scientific director of the nonpartisan Nuclear Control Institute, said the delays could mean the plants will not meet an Aug. 31 deadline to strengthen fortifications against a possible terrorist attack. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Feb. 25 ordered reactors at the nation's 64 nuclear power stations to make about 30 security improvements, such as adding guards and extending perimeter barriers to prevent a truck bomb from causing a radioactive leak. The order marked a departure from the NRC's immediate post-Sept. 11 action when it suggested safety improvements but did not mandate them. Reactors have until Aug. 31 to comply with the security upgrades and were supposed to give the NRC compliance plans by mid-March. But extensions of the mid-March deadline were sought by 47 of the 64 stations, including the Millstone Power Station on the Connecticut shore, 12 miles north of Montauk, according to documents reviewed by Lyman. "If you have to do a computer simulation to assess whether your spent-fuel pool is safe from a truck bomb at the nearest vehicle barrier, then you can't say with confidence if the plant is safe," Lyman said. William Dean, deputy director for the NRC division of inspection program management, said 29 of the reactors sought extensions to conduct a detailed engineering analysis that would determine whether security upgrades were needed. "We expected many would ask for a delay," Dean said. No plant operator has asked to exceed the Aug. 31 deadline, but Dean said, "That's not outside the realm of possibility." The NRC plans to give power companies more time to prepare their plans, Dean said, but is talking with those that have sought the longest extensions to make sure they meet the deadline. Glenn Tracy, the NRC's director of nuclear security, said the agency plans to adhere to the deadline because it may order additional security improvements shortly afterward. Tracy said the agency initially issued advisories, which reactors generally complied with, though "there was some variability to what plants were doing." Copyright © 2002, Newsday, Inc. ***************************************************************** 2 Anti-Nuclear Grps: NRC Shuts Out Public On Security Plans Mon Apr 8, 1:06 PM ET By: Bryan Lee, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES ROCKVILLE, Md. -(Dow Jones)- A handful of anti-nuclear groups Monday complained that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has shut out the public as it frames enhanced security measures in the wake of Sept. 11 . The complaints came as the NRC held a public meeting on the first business day following Friday's announcement that the agency would consolidate nuclear security oversight in the new Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response. The anti-nuclear groups, which included the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Nuclear Control Institute, Greenpeace and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, told the NRC that the public has lost confidence in the agency's nuclear power plant security oversight. This loss of confidence stems from the NRC's actions, such as bringing down the agency's Web site to prevent terrorist access to sensitive information, and holding a series of closed-door meetings with the Nuclear Energy Institute to discuss post- Sept. 11 security needs. The NRC acknowledged the concerns and described Monday's meeting as the agency's first step in bringing the public back into the process. The NRC intends to "maximize public involvement" in order to assure public confidence in the agency's security oversight of the industry, said Roy Zimmerman, director of the new office. "We recognized this meeting's been a long time in coming," Zimmerman said. (This story was originally published by Dow Jones Newswires) Since the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon (news - web sites), the NRC has put the nation's nuclear power plants on the highest stage of alert, said Glenn Tracy, director of the NRC's new Division of Security. "We have yet to have a specific, credible threat since Sept. 11 ," Tracy said, although the NRC has issued several nonspecific threat advisories. The NRC has coordinated security planning with plant operators and numerous federal agencies, including the Office of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Energy Department, Defense Department, Federal Emergency Management Agency (news - web sites) and U.S. intelligence agencies, Tracy said. As part of the NRC's top-to-bottom review of its plant-security requirements, the agency has issued numerous advisories and, in February, orders on stepped-up security procedures, he said. "Additional orders are being worked on as we speak," Tracy said. Tracy declined to discuss specifics of the enhanced security measures, saying it wouldn't be "prudent," since it might give terrorists information they need to launch a successful attack against a nuclear power plant. Antinuclear activists repeatedly called for the NRC to immediately resume force-on-force mock terrorist-raid training drills. The mock raids on nuclear plants to test security, known officially as Operational Safeguards Response Evaluations, won't resume until the NRC decides what level of enhanced security should be the benchmark against which plant operators are evaluated, Tracy said. "We're at a crossroads of change," Tracy said, noting that the NRC is attempting to assess what specific measures plant operators must adopt in response to the various color-coded threat advisories issued by the Office of Homeland Security. David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said that after months of silence and closed-door meetings, "We've lost confidence in the NRC in terms of security." While officials during the recent Olympics in Salt Lake City described security measures in detail through various media outlets, the NRC has instead chose a "duck-and-cover" approach, Lochbaum said. Without some details of the improved security arrangements, the NRC is asking the public to trust the agency when it says that stricter security is in place, he said. Further contributing to the loss of public confidence was the NRC's postponement of 14 planned force-on-force security evaluations, Lochbaum said. Tracy defended the waivers of security evaluation tests, saying that NRC staff is working overtime in a "massive effort" to review security procedures. He also suggested it didn't make sense to conduct mock raids using dummy weapons, which terrorists could exploit as an avenue of attack. Resuming attack drills using the old criteria would be "negative training," Tracy said. Lochbaum said the public was locked out of private meetings where the nuclear industry received "kid-gloves" treatment from the NRC, while the public was subjected to "boxing gloves" and further shut out when the NRC took down its Web site. Jim Riccio of Greenpeace complained that the public can't use the NRC's Web site to access even public-policy information unrelated to security. Meanwhile, press reports indicate that U.S. forces in Afghanistan (news - web sites) found information about U.S. nuclear plants in former Taliban and al-Qaida strongholds. "You've basically closed the barn door after the horse is out," Riccio said. The NRC has conducted only two public meetings since Sept. 11 , while the Nuclear Energy Institute, the trade group representing the industry, enjoyed nine closed-door meetings with the agency, Lochbaum said. "Stop yelling that nuclear plants are safe and secure from behind locked doors," he said, calling for immediate resumption of force-on-force testing and the publication of results, as was done prior to Sept. 11 . As to the NRC's promise of greater public participation going forward, Lochbaum said, "The dust is settled. It doesn't matter any more. Now you can meet with us." Tracy rejected Lochbaum's suggestion that NRC watered down its security requirements in response to industry "whining." The industry has reserved its right to challenge the new security requirements, he noted, suggesting this was an indication that the NRC is imposing tough new security requirements. "We are aligned on the need for performance tests," Tracy told the antinuclear activists. Where we are not aligned is on the timing," he said. "We're acting as fast as we can prudently," he said. "We're not laggards in terms of security." Copyright © 2002 Dow Jones. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 3 US nuclear regulators accused of bowing to industry Monday April 8, 4:58 PM EST By Chris Baltimore WASHINGTON, April 8 (Reuters) - Anti-nuclear activists criticized the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Monday for shelving mock attack drills at plants and bowing to other requests by the utility industry after the Sept. 11 attacks raised concerns about nuclear plant safety. Several lawmakers and watchdog groups have urged the agency to tighten security at the nation's 103 nuclear power plants to prevent sabotage or attacks that might release dangerous radioactive material. "What's lacking throughout is the NRC acting as an independent regulator," Paul Leventhal of the Nuclear Control Institute said at a meeting held by the agency to discuss actions taken after Sept. 11. The NRC was chastised for meeting over a dozen times with industry and only twice with activists or watchdog groups since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The meetings were held "for industry to tell the NRC what it will allow the NRC to do," said David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer at the Union of Concerned Scientists. After ordering a top-to-bottom review of security measures last year, the NRC in February issued new measures to shore up security at nuclear power plants, which provide about 20 percent of the nation's electricity. SECURITY EXERCISES CANCELLED The NRC was criticized for shelving security exercises to test preparedness against attacks and for limiting public information on security. Known as force-on-force drills, the exercises pit plant guards against law enforcement officers who pose as attackers and try to breach defenses at the plant. The NRC had slated force-on-force tests at 14 nuclear plants this year, Lochbaum said. The NRC later shelved them. That decision was a mistake, Lochbaum said, adding: "We don't see any justification for shelving the best security tool available as America faces its greatest security challenge." NRC officials said the agency had a good reason to cancel the exercises -- with its staff working round the clock to be on alert after the Sept 11 attacks, it did not have the resources to stage mock drills. "This was not a prudent time" to conduct exercises given other security requirements, said Glenn Tracy of the NRC's office of nuclear security. The agency's decision to upgrade its own security plans was made by "the most senior managers of the agency," he added. Tracy, saying the NRC is "dialoguing directly with security managers" at plants, denied that the agency gave the industry too much say over security issues at the plants. "The industry telling me what to do is not something that would sit well with me," Tracy said. The utility industry has lobbied against any major new security requirements, saying nuclear plants are already among the most closely guarded facilities in the nation. DAVIS-BESSE, SEPT. 11 UNRELATED Some activists also said the NRC has been cutting corners on other nuclear plant problems, such as the recent discovery of severe corrosion near the reactor of an Ohio plant. The NRC chastised FirstEnergy Corp. (FE) last week for failing to find, as early as 1999, corrosion on the plant's reactor that was so severe that acid had nearly eaten through a vessel head 6 inches (15-cm) thick. NRC officials denied on Monday that the agency's security push had distracted staff from routine maintenance. "I believe that Davis-Besse would have occurred, 9-11 or no 9-11. It's a moot point," Tracy said. Industry groups also rejected claims the NRC was giving undue weight to its suggestions. The Nuclear Energy Institute said allegations that it dictated policies to the agency were "totally false." NRC officials "don't let anyone tell them what to do," said a spokesman for the industry group. ©2002 Reuters Limited. ***************************************************************** 4 Nuclear Power May Be Solution to Energy Problems-(Texas A&M U.) U-WIRE ( April 09, 2002 ) (U-WIRE) COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- A group of Texas A&M University scientists, including one who is now a part of a national group examining the country's energy problem, say nuclear power is the answer. Last year, President Bush said that energy production, including the building of power plants, has not kept up with the country's growing population and dependence on electricity. His administration announced a new national energy policy which called for nuclear power to play a key role in meeting the nation's energy needs. Nuclear power already supplies one-fifth of the country's electricity. Dr. Alan Waltar, professor and head of the nuclear engineering department, said that though there is definitely a need for them, no new nuclear energy plants will be built for years. "It is essential that we move on with the nuclear era," Waltar said. "Nuclear power plants deliver the cheapest source of energy besides hydroelectric power. Nuclear technology must be brought back to center stage." Nuclear engineering is making a big comeback at many universities, including A&M, because of the growing demand for energy sources. Texas A&M has the largest nuclear engineering undergraduate department in the nation. A&M is also the only university in the country to house two nuclear reactors, one of which is used to research the possibilities of nuclear energy as a possible source of power and electricity. Environmentalists feel that Bush's plan does little to limit America's consumption of energy and instead focuses on improving energy supplies which can harm the environment. But Waltar says there is also a need to find alternate ways to power the country's everyday appliances. "We have to wean ourselves away from Mid East oil. It's a finite energy source, and over the long term we need to fuel our airplanes and cars," Waltar said. Associate Vice Chancellor for Engineering and Deputy Director of the Texas Engineering Experiment Station Dr. B. Don Russell is part of a group of energy specialists working for the National Academies to study types of technology to see where energy fits in and advise the country on energy issues. This group, made up of people from industry, academia and government, is trying to analyze energy issues in which the National Academy of Engineering can provide assistance. Working with the National Research Council, the NAE will identify problems and develop strategies for their solution. Group members were first invited to Washington, D.C., for the two-day National Academies Workshop on Current and Emerging Energy Issues in October 2001, sponsored by the National Research Council. Other representatives include members of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. Department of Energy. During a recent visit to A&M, Dr. David Scott, a professor at Victoria University, also said the Bush energy plan is necessary. "It will not be possible for the U.S. to meet transportation needs in 30 to 40 years," Scott said. In 50 years, the world's average citizen will be using 50 percent more energy than he is using today, Waltar said. "We can't squeeze more power out of oil, water, solar and wind," he said. "They all have limits in terms of scaling up. Nuclear is the answer." (C) 2002 The Battalion via U-WIRE ***************************************************************** 5 Nuclear legacy infects industrial plans This story was published Mon, Apr 8, 2002 By John Stang Herald staff writer Energy Northwest's Site No. 1 is the second Hanford site to flop as an industrial development location because of nuclear-related reasons. And that raises doubts about how successful efforts will be to make southeastern Hanford a viable home for new non-nuclear businesses. Two years ago, plans to make Hanford's 300 Area, just north of Richland, an industrial park died quietly because its buildings are too contaminated with radioactivity. Then in February, Energy Northwest terminated the leases of three business tenants at Site No. 1 to simplify how it manages safety around its nearby Columbia Generating Station reactor. Energy Northwest hasn't decided yet what it will do with Site No. 1. That uncertainty includes whether it will later seek new tenants for the site. The decision largely depends on whether the utility will restart building the adjacent terminated Reactor No. 1. A consultant's report is due to say this month whether it makes financial sense to resume construction of the plant after a 20-year halt. One possibility is Energy Northwest might relinquish the site to a small business venture, Composite Power Corp., which is interested in brokering construction of a conventional power plant there. Composite Power officials declined to comment on how the recently surfaced safety issues could affect their plans. Economic development officials believe Site No. 1 could be a good industrial park. But they also say Durametal's lease termination could make prospective tenants wary about a lease that Energy Northwest could terminate for nuclear safety reasons. "No company is going to move in there with the chance it can be kicked out in six months," said Ben Bennett, who retired March 31 as director of the Port of Benton. Tri-City Industrial Development Council President Bill Martin added, "A company like Durametal would never invest in that site ... without a long-term lease." Site No. 1 has been part of a loosely defined federal and local plan to use some of Hanford's unneeded buildings and raw land to attract new industries to wean the area off a nuclear cleanup economy heavily dependent on the whims of congressional funding. The efforts have centered on a 10-mile-long stretch of southeast Hanford straddling Stevens Drive. It starts eight miles inside Hanford at the Fast Flux Test Facility and Site No.1, then goes south past the 300 Area to almost two miles deep in Richland to the 1100 Area and 3000 Area. The area includes miles of vacant, predominantly uncontaminated Hanford land, but Bennett said industries don't want to build plants from scratch. Instead, they want buildings, roads and utilities already in place. That's why Site No. 1, the FFTF area, 300 Area, 1100 Area and 3000 Area are Hanford's main economic development attractions. Strengths, weaknesses of key Hanford sites: The 300 Area This site has several dozen leftover, industrial Cold War buildings just north of Richland. The problem is that most are radioactive to various degrees. Also, unknown amounts of radioactive contaminants are beneath some buildings. DOE and TRIDEC tried to recruit businesses to the 300 Area with promises to help decontaminate buildings. But they learned in 2000 that the best-suited buildings are too radioactive to clean up. The 300 Area has nurtured one non-nuclear business. Richland Specialty Extrusions used a huge surplus Hanford extrusion press to set up an aluminum tubing plant at the 313 Building in 1994. Early this year, the company moved to a bigger building in the 1100 Area. The FFTF site Several unused buildings are next to this dormant reactor, which DOE has begun dismantling. But the site is isolated and efforts to attract businesses there have never been pursued seriously. The 3000 Area This small complex of World War II buildings is on the east side of Stevens Drive inside Richland. In 1996, DOE gave the site to the Port of Benton, which uses it to nurture several fledgling mom-and-pop businesses. The 1100 Area This narrow finger of Hanford sticks into Richland along the west side of Stevens Drive, and used to be the hub for Hanford's vehicle and railroad maintenance. In 1998, DOE transferred ownership of the decontaminated land to the Port of Benton. Various Hanford and non-Hanford contractors occupy most of the 1100 Area, which still has at least 20,000 square feet of empty space to offer prospective tenants. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 6 Japanese MP raises nuclear spectre theage.com.au - By Shane Green April 9 2002 One of Japan's leading politicians has raised the prospect of his country becoming a nuclear power to counter the growing military might of China. Ichiro Ozawa, the outspoken leader of the opposition Liberal Party, said Japan had the technological expertise and enough plutonium to make thousands of nuclear weapons. His comments are certain to be viewed dimly in Beijing, coming before a visit to China on Thursday by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. They also break the silence of most Japanese politicians in refusing to discuss a nuclear weapons program for the country, influenced by the horror of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which forced Japan to surrender in World War II. Japan, which has a war-renouncing constitution and limits its forces to self-defence, also has a policy of no nuclear weapons. In a lecture at the weekend, Mr Ozawa said China was "applying itself to expand its military power in the hope of becoming a superpower". ");document.write(" advertisement "); } } // --> "If China gets too inflated, the Japanese people will get hysterical," he said. "It would be so easy for us to produce nuclear warheads - we have plutonium at nuclear power plants in Japan, enough to make several thousand such warheads." Mr Ozawa said he had delivered the same message in a recent conversation with a Chinese intelligence officer. "I told that person that if we get serious, we will never be beaten in terms of military power." Mr Ozawa, a confrontationalist in a society shunning such an approach, said his comments were meant to strengthen ties between Japan and China. He wanted Japan and China to coexist peacefully. He later tried to tone down his remarks. Mr Ozawa said he had told a deputy chief of staff from China's People's Liberation Army that while Japan had the technology and economic might to become a nuclear power, "it would be tragic if such a thing occurs and we must not let it happen". Mr Ozawa said the Chinese officer had told him that China's nuclear weapons and build-up of forces was for the purpose of self-defence. "That's why I told him such a view could apply to any nation including Japan and prompt some Japanese to insist on a further build-up for self-defence and nuclear armament," he said. "You may be surprised, but I'm against nuclear armament." Mr Ozawa, whose party ranks fourth in terms of seats held, defected from the Liberal Democratic Party in 1993, leading a walk-out that pushed the LDP from power for the first time since its formation in 1955. An MP from his party was forced to resign a junior defence post in 1999 after calling for a debate on whether Japan should develop a nuclear deterrent. Copyright © 2002 The Age Company Ltd ***************************************************************** 7 AEC to audit radioactive materials The Taipei Times Online: 2002-04-09Tuesday, April 9th, 2002 INVENTORY CHECK: The audit comes after radioactive rods were discovered where they shouldn't have been -- in a heap of scrap metal scheduled to be melted down By Chiu Yu-tzu STAFF REPORTER The Atomic Energy Council (AEC)plans to conduct an audit of the nation's radioactive materials to make sure that none have been disposed of improperly or misplaced. The move comes after a radioactive rods were discovered among scrap metal that was destined for the smelter. According to the council, the audit will begin on April 16 and run until July 15. The agency plans to audit 538 companies that hold a total of 1,280 licenses to handle radioactive materials. The primary purpose of the inventory check is to ensure that all materials are accounted for. The council's last audit was conducted in 1994.Taking stock * The audit comes after a radioactive rods were discovered among scrap metal that was destined for the smelter. * According to the AEC, the audit will begin on April 16 and last until July 15. The council plans to audit 538 companies that hold 1,280 licenses to handle radioactive materials. * The primary purpose of the inventory check is to ensure that all materials are accounted for. The last audit was conducted in 1994. Source: Atomic Energy Council Also yesterday, the AEC praised the actions of Tai Ming-kuen (½²©ú©[) and Lu Ben-tsun (§f¥»§ø), the scrap-metal handlers who earlier this month found five radioactive rods that had been reported missing. The pair were given NT$100,000 -- or NT$20,000 for each lost cylinder of cesium-137. Tai and Lu found the rods among scrap metal that was to be melted down. The council had been searching for the five lost rods since early last month and having little luck, although it was turning up other misplaced dangerous materials in the process. For example, investigators found a 42cm-by-10cm stainless steel cylinder with krypton-85 at a Kaohsiung plant -- in yet another heap of scrap metal. When checking 19 steel works, council investigators also learned that the Liencheng Steel Plant in Taoyuan County had accidentally smelted cesium-137 in its furnaces three years ago. AEC Chairman Ouyang Min-shen (¼Ú¶§±Ó²±) said many owners of steel plants have been careless in discarding radioactive materials. "We have to review controls and incorporate assistance from private sector," Ouyang told the Taipei Times yesterday. Chiou Syh-tsong (ªô¿üÁo), AEC vice chairman, said that a centralized location to deposit dangerous materials would ensure better control. "Gathering both spent and unused radioactive materials for storage would be a direction to go in," Chiou said. As for the Liencheng plant, the council said a health check of the steel works' 64 employees turned up no problems as a result of the accidental smelting. However, the council said the plant should also contact former workers for a health examination. The Liencheng plant has been shut down since April 1. Three areas of the plant show radioactive contamination. But an analysis of 32 samples of water, soil and plants indicate no contamination of the environment. In addition, the council discovered that roughly 40,000 tonnes of radioactive ash from the plant's furnaces are still stored at the plant. The AEC has ordered the plant to come up with a clean-up plan by the end of this month. Su Shian-jang (ĬÄm³¹), director of the council's Department of Radiation Protection, said that the accidental smelting of radioactive materials was common in other countries, including the US and Japan. Because Taiwan lacks a permanent repository for radioactive waste, officials said, Liencheng's radioactive ash might end up at the council's Institute of Nuclear Energy Research or its own storage site. This story has been viewed 221 times. URL=[http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2002/04/09/story/0000131110] Copyright © 1999-2002 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 8 Vietnam asks China for help to apply nuclear energy to economic sector BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 9, 2002 Text of report in English by Vietnamese news agency VNA web site Hanoi, 8 April: Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem has asked China to help Vietnam apply nuclear energy to its agricultural, industrial and medical sectors. Deputy PM Khiem made this request to visiting President Zhang Hua Zhu of the Chinese Nuclear Energy Agency and his delegation at a reception held in Hanoi this afternoon, 8 April. Khiem appreciated the Vietnam-China nuclear energy cooperation programme conducted within the framework agreement on cooperation in the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes signed by the two countries on 25 December, 2000. He welcomed the Chinese delegates' visit to a number of Vietnam's radiation technology and nuclear establishments. Both sides made inquiries into possible areas for future cooperation. Zhu, who is on an 3-10 April visit to Vietnam, expressed his thanks to the Vietnamese government for helping the nuclear energy agencies of both countries to implement cooperation projects. He also expressed his hope to welcome Vietnam's delegations to China's nuclear energy establishments. Source: VNA news agency web site, Hanoi, in English 8 Apr 02 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. ***************************************************************** 9 Chinese envoy backs no limits on peaceful use of nuclear energy BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 9, 2002 Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency) United Nations, 8 April: China said here Monday [8 April] that the non-proliferation and the peaceful use of energy - the two functions of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) - should be balanced and state parties' rights to the peaceful use of nuclear energy should not be restricted in the name of preventing nuclear weapons proliferation. The statement was contained in a speech by Hu Xiaodi, head of the Chinese delegation to the first session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2005 NPT Review Conference, which opened here on Monday morning. "Along with the prevention of nuclear weapons proliferation, the important role of nuclear energy in exploring clean and efficient energy and in promoting economic and social progress of developing countries must be affirmed and enhanced," he said. "This is an important condition for the NPT to keep its vitality and for the non-nuclear weapon states to strictly abide by their non-nuclear weapon commitment," he said. "As one of the nuclear capable members of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), China constantly supports the agency's work and values the cooperation on the peaceful use of nuclear energy with other members organized and coordinated by the agency," he said. Since joining the IAEA in 1984, China has always paid its voluntary contributions to technical cooperation in full and in a timely manner, he said, adding that China has signed intergovernmental agreements in the peaceful use of nuclear energy with 17 countries and conducted various forms of cooperation in this respect. China has also actively participated in multilateral nuclear cooperation, he added. The NPT, which entered into force in 1970 and extended indefinitely in 1990, requires that review conference be held every five year. The treaty, which has a total of 187 state parties, is regarded as the cornerstone of the global nuclear non-proliferation regime. Source: Xinhua news agency, Beijing, in English 2346 gmt 8 Apr 02 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. ***************************************************************** 10 Europe will need nuclear energy to meet future demand - EU's de Palacio AFX News Limited ( April 08, 2002 ) MADRID (AFX) - Europe will need to use nuclear energy to meet future demand, EU energy commissioner Loyola de Palacio said. Speaking at a conference, de Palacio called for greater "transparency, information and debate" on the subject of nuclear energy, which is "fundamental" for the competitivity of the European economy. Nuclear waste remains a "very serious problem... (although) it can be controlled," but climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions associated with non-nuclear power generation cannot, she added. Last week, Union Electrica Fenosa SA chairman Victoriano Reinoso said Spain may need to have recourse to nuclear energy in the future, but ruled out any new plants being constructed before 2010. Copyright 2002 AFX News Limited. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 11 Bulgaria to restart building new nuclear plant BULGARIA: April 9, 2002 SOFIA - Bulgaria said yesterday it planned to restart building a new nuclear power plant in Belene to compensate for the early closure of old reactors at its existing plant in Kozloduy. Bulgaria is the main power exporter in the Balkans and seeks to keep its leading position after a planned earlier closure of four of the Soviet-design Kozloduy's six 3,760-megawatt reactors, which produces 45 percent of the country's power. The decommissioning of the old reactors is a key pledge in Bulgaria's accession talks with the European Union, which it is striving to join. The completion of the halted construction in Belene is part of a new energy strategy, which the government is expected to approve on Thursday, an Energy Ministry spokesman told Reuters. Investment needed to rebuild the plant in Belene, 250 km (160 miles) north of Sofia, might reach up to $2 billion, depending on the capacity and type of reactors that would be bought, the spokesman said. He said investors from Russia, Canada, Europe and the United States had shown interest in funding the new plant in Belene but declined to give more details. Bulgaria bowed to the EU pressure in 2000 and agreed to shut down Kozloduy's two oldest 440-megawatt reactors, number one and two, before 2003. It is still not clear when it would close the other two 440 MW reactors, numbers three and four. According to a 1999 deal with the European Commission, Bulgaria should close them in 2008 and 2010, respectively, but in the last two annual reports on Bulgaria the commission insisted it should be in 2006 at the latest. Most officials in Sofia say the two reactors have been modernised to be safe and Bulgaria, which covered 50 percent of the regions power deficit last year, cannot afford to close them so early. A final decision over the closure of Kozloduy's reactors number three and four will be taken after negotiations with the European Commission this year. Over the weekend Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg, whose cabinet took over last July, said Bulgaria would meet its obligations to the EU, while maintaining its national interest by completing the construction of the Belene plant. The building of the 1,000-megawatt Soviet-designed Belene plant started in the 1980s and 40 percent of the construction works worth $1 billion has been completed. Forty percent of the main equipment, including a reactor, have been supplied to Belene. But works were halted in 1990 due to a lack of cash and environmental protests. REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ***************************************************************** 12 Russian Atomic Energy Ministry woos Siberian public BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 9, 2002 A regional information centre of the Russian Atomic Energy Ministry will be opened in Krasnoyarsk. Representatives from the Zheleznogorsk-based Mining and Chemical Integrated Works - which stores nuclear waste - announced the move at a news conference on 3 April, regional state-owned KGTRK TV reported the same day During the news conference, Greenpeace representative Maksim Shingarkin asked Konstantin Kudinov, deputy chief engineer at the Works, about current security in light of a recent video allegedly shot by activists on the roof of the storage facility for worked nuclear materials. Kudinov responded that there were some problems but they were being resolved, the state TV reported. Commercial Afontovo 9 TV showed Kudinov saying that the Atomic Energy Ministry was paying only half the costs of storing the waste. Anatoliy Mutovin, who is to be the director of the Krasnoyarsk regional information centre, said that the centre aimed to promote maximum openness. Kudinov added that some information could not be disclosed because it was classified. Afontovo TV concluded its report by showing a billboard in the city which is part of the Works' image-building exercise. The TV added that the exact location of the information centre had still to be decided. BBC Monitoring/ © BBC ***************************************************************** 13 Anti-Nuclear Grps: NRC Shuts Out Public On Security Plans Mon Apr 8, 1:06 PM ET By: Bryan Lee, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES ROCKVILLE, Md. -(Dow Jones)- A handful of anti-nuclear groups Monday complained that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has shut out the public as it frames enhanced security measures in the wake of Sept. 11 . The complaints came as the NRC held a public meeting on the first business day following Friday's announcement that the agency would consolidate nuclear security oversight in the new Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response. The anti-nuclear groups, which included the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Nuclear Control Institute, Greenpeace and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, told the NRC that the public has lost confidence in the agency's nuclear power plant security oversight. This loss of confidence stems from the NRC's actions, such as bringing down the agency's Web site to prevent terrorist access to sensitive information, and holding a series of closed-door meetings with the Nuclear Energy Institute to discuss post- Sept. 11 security needs. The NRC acknowledged the concerns and described Monday's meeting as the agency's first step in bringing the public back into the process. The NRC intends to "maximize public involvement" in order to assure public confidence in the agency's security oversight of the industry, said Roy Zimmerman, director of the new office. "We recognized this meeting's been a long time in coming," Zimmerman said. (This story was originally published by Dow Jones Newswires) Since the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the NRC has put the nation's nuclear power plants on the highest stage of alert, said Glenn Tracy, director of the NRC's new Division of Security. "We have yet to have a specific, credible threat since Sept. 11 ," Tracy said, although the NRC has issued several nonspecific threat advisories. The NRC has coordinated security planning with plant operators and numerous federal agencies, including the Office of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Energy Department, Defense Department, Federal Emergency Management Agency and U.S. intelligence agencies, Tracy said. As part of the NRC's top-to-bottom review of its plant-security requirements, the agency has issued numerous advisories and, in February, orders on stepped-up security procedures, he said. "Additional orders are being worked on as we speak," Tracy said. Tracy declined to discuss specifics of the enhanced security measures, saying it wouldn't be "prudent," since it might give terrorists information they need to launch a successful attack against a nuclear power plant. Antinuclear activists repeatedly called for the NRC to immediately resume force-on-force mock terrorist-raid training drills. The mock raids on nuclear plants to test security, known officially as Operational Safeguards Response Evaluations, won't resume until the NRC decides what level of enhanced security should be the benchmark against which plant operators are evaluated, Tracy said. "We're at a crossroads of change," Tracy said, noting that the NRC is attempting to assess what specific measures plant operators must adopt in response to the various color-coded threat advisories issued by the Office of Homeland Security. David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said that after months of silence and closed-door meetings, "We've lost confidence in the NRC in terms of security." While officials during the recent Olympics in Salt Lake City described security measures in detail through various media outlets, the NRC has instead chose a "duck-and-cover" approach, Lochbaum said. Without some details of the improved security arrangements, the NRC is asking the public to trust the agency when it says that stricter security is in place, he said. Further contributing to the loss of public confidence was the NRC's postponement of 14 planned force-on-force security evaluations, Lochbaum said. Tracy defended the waivers of security evaluation tests, saying that NRC staff is working overtime in a "massive effort" to review security procedures. He also suggested it didn't make sense to conduct mock raids using dummy weapons, which terrorists could exploit as an avenue of attack. Resuming attack drills using the old criteria would be "negative training," Tracy said. Lochbaum said the public was locked out of private meetings where the nuclear industry received "kid-gloves" treatment from the NRC, while the public was subjected to "boxing gloves" and further shut out when the NRC took down its Web site. Jim Riccio of Greenpeace complained that the public can't use the NRC's Web site to access even public-policy information unrelated to security. Meanwhile, press reports indicate that U.S. forces in Afghanistan (news [http://rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/*http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news? p=%22Afghanistan%22&c=&n=20&yn=c&c=news&cs=nw] - web sites [http://rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/*http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=Afgh anistan&cs=nw] ) found information about U.S. nuclear plants in former Taliban and al-Qaida strongholds. "You've basically closed the barn door after the horse is out," Riccio said. The NRC has conducted only two public meetings since Sept. 11 , while the Nuclear Energy Institute, the trade group representing the industry, enjoyed nine closed-door meetings with the agency, Lochbaum said. "Stop yelling that nuclear plants are safe and secure from behind locked doors," he said, calling for immediate resumption of force-on-force testing and the publication of results, as was done prior to Sept. 11 . As to the NRC's promise of greater public participation going forward, Lochbaum said, "The dust is settled. It doesn't matter any more. Now you can meet with us." Tracy rejected Lochbaum's suggestion that NRC watered down its security requirements in response to industry "whining." The industry has reserved its right to challenge the new security requirements, he noted, suggesting this was an indication that the NRC is imposing tough new security requirements. "We are aligned on the need for performance tests," Tracy told the antinuclear activists. Where we are not aligned is on the timing," he said. "We're acting as fast as we can prudently," he said. "We're not laggards in terms of security." -By Bryan Lee, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6647; Bryan.Lee@dowjones.com [http://dowjones.com] Copyright © 2002 Dow Jones. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 14 Taiwan: AEC to audit radioactive materials The Taipei Times Online: 2002-04-09 Tuesday, April 9th, 2002 INVENTORY CHECK: The audit comes after radioactive rods were discovered where they shouldn't have been -- in a heap of scrap metal scheduled to be melted down By Chiu Yu-tzu STAFF REPORTER The Atomic Energy Council (AEC)plans to conduct an audit of the nation's radioactive materials to make sure that none have been disposed of improperly or misplaced. The move comes after a radioactive rods were discovered among scrap metal that was destined for the smelter. According to the council, the audit will begin on April 16 and run until July 15. The agency plans to audit 538 companies that hold a total of 1,280 licenses to handle radioactive materials. The primary purpose of the inventory check is to ensure that all materials are accounted for. The council's last audit was conducted in 1994. Taking stock * The audit comes after a radioactive rods were discovered among scrap metal that was destined for the smelter. * According to the AEC, the audit will begin on April 16 and last until July 15. The council plans to audit 538 companies that hold 1,280 licenses to handle radioactive materials. * The primary purpose of the inventory check is to ensure that all materials are accounted for. The last audit was conducted in 1994. Source: Atomic Energy Council Also yesterday, the AEC praised the actions of Tai Ming-kuen (½²©ú©[) and Lu Ben-tsun (§f¥»§ø), the scrap-metal handlers who earlier this month found five radioactive rods that had been reported missing. The pair were given NT$100,000 -- or NT$20,000 for each lost cylinder of cesium-137. Tai and Lu found the rods among scrap metal that was to be melted down. The council had been searching for the five lost rods since early last month and having little luck, although it was turning up other misplaced dangerous materials in the process. For example, investigators found a 42cm-by-10cm stainless steel cylinder with krypton-85 at a Kaohsiung plant -- in yet another heap of scrap metal. When checking 19 steel works, council investigators also learned that the Liencheng Steel Plant in Taoyuan County had accidentally smelted cesium-137 in its furnaces three years ago. AEC Chairman Ouyang Min-shen (¼Ú¶§±Ó²±) said many owners of steel plants have been careless in discarding radioactive materials. "We have to review controls and incorporate assistance from private sector," Ouyang told the Taipei Times yesterday. Chiou Syh-tsong (ªô¿üÁo), AEC vice chairman, said that a centralized location to deposit dangerous materials would ensure better control. "Gathering both spent and unused radioactive materials for storage would be a direction to go in," Chiou said. As for the Liencheng plant, the council said a health check of the steel works' 64 employees turned up no problems as a result of the accidental smelting. However, the council said the plant should also contact former workers for a health examination. The Liencheng plant has been shut down since April 1. Three areas of the plant show radioactive contamination. But an analysis of 32 samples of water, soil and plants indicate no contamination of the environment. In addition, the council discovered that roughly 40,000 tonnes of radioactive ash from the plant's furnaces are still stored at the plant. The AEC has ordered the plant to come up with a clean-up plan by the end of this month. Su Shian-jang (ĬÄm³¹), director of the council's Department of Radiation Protection, said that the accidental smelting of radioactive materials was common in other countries, including the US and Japan. Because Taiwan lacks a permanent repository for radioactive waste, officials said, Liencheng's radioactive ash might end up at the council's Institute of Nuclear Energy Research or its own storage site. This story has been viewed 220 times. URL=[http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2002/04/09/story/0000131110] Copyright © 1999-2002 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 15 Czech nuclear power plant Temelin due to come on stream April 15 - spokesman AFX Europe; Apr 9, 2002 PRAGUE (AFX) - The second reactor at the Czech Republic's Temelin nuclear power plant is due to come on stream on April 15, plant spokesman Milan Nebesar said. The Soviet-designed plant has been the subject of a row with neighbouring Austria since its first reactor was powered up in October 2000 and has been repeatedly been forced to shut down since then because of recurrent technical problems. Operators at the power plant will shortly carry out tests on the boric acid pump in the primary circuit of reactor 2, which is currently being inspected by officials from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Nebesar said. The operators completed loading nuclear fuel into the second reactor on March 11, a week after the process started, he added. Reactor 1 at the plant, which was shut down on February 24 for checks and maintenance work, would be refired in mid-April for a series of tests to see if it functioned correctly at full capacity, Nebesar said. These tests are required before the reactors -- each have can generate 1,000 megawatts of power -- can enter into commercial operation. Reactor 2 is due to be taken to full power in August. jma/jkm/wf ***************************************************************** 16 Bulgaria must consider alternative to nuclear reactors to be closed - president BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 9, 2002 Text of report by Bulgarian radio on 9 April [Announcer] On 9 April President Georgi Purvanov began a visit to the Kozloduy nuclear power plant. Our correspondent Iva Antonova reports: [Antonova] The head of state has just said that he will insist on our state observing the commitments it assumed in the document signed in November 1999 and close down the first and second reactors by the end of the current year. I believe that the modernization of the third and fourth reactors will be deemed successful and that an agreement will be reached not to discontinue their operation ahead of time, Georgi Purvanov said. The president also said that the obligatory period for switching off the first and second reactors could be utilized to implement measures related to their modernization in absolutely the same manner as was done with the third and fourth reactors, after which they could demand a new licence from our regulatory bodies. The financing of this enterprise must not be related to seeking aid from the EU. The Bulgarian side must fully finance the operation, the president said. I believe that the Bulgarian people are ready to assume this risk, Purvanov said. The president recommended that the Bulgarian government contemplate in a timely fashion the necessary actions needed to replace the closed nuclear capacities by new ones. He also said that the Belene nuclear power plant [which will be Bulgaria's second nuclear plant if construction is finished as the government intends] should not be an alternative to the Kozloduy nuclear plant. Source: Bulgarian Radio, Sofia, in Bulgarian 0000 gmt 9 Apr 02 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. ***************************************************************** 17 Chernobyl a 'Forgotten Crisis,' UN Official Says News Mon Apr 8, 5:19 PM ET GENEVA (Reuters) - A top United Nations (news - web sites) official said on Monday that Chernobyl, site of the world's worst nuclear disaster almost 16 years ago, still needed international aid but was in danger of becoming a "forgotten crisis." Kenzo Oshima, UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, was speaking after a trip to the contaminated region in and around the former Soviet republic of Ukraine, where he put forward a 10-year recovery strategy. "The human dimension of the Chernobyl disaster has tended to be driven into a forgotten crisis despite the continuing nature of the very serious problems and hardship suffered by a large population," Oshima told a news conference. On April 26, 1986, one of the reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine exploded, releasing a deadly cloud of radioactivity. Ukraine, Belarus and Russia--the countries of the former Soviet Union most affected by the accident--wanted to work with UN agencies to implement self-help recovery projects, UN officials said. "We propose to make a shift from an attitude people have where they have often been passive recipients of assistance to making them more active participants in their own life," said Neil Buhne, UN resident coordinator in Minsk. Between $50 million and $80 million would be needed to address the region's future needs, the officials said. Oshima said a meeting on Monday of UN agencies and donor countries was not intended to gather pledges, but he did not rule out a new appeal to rekindle the interest of international donors. Much of the aid for Chernobyl has been used for medicines, hospital care and food for those poisoned by the radioactive cloud. But Oshima said future assistance should focus on longer term economic, social and environmental problems in the region. Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or ***************************************************************** 18 Japan shuts leaking nuclear reactor BBC News | ASIA-PACIFIC | 9 April, 2002 [Emergency workers at Tokaimura in 1999] Accidents have undermined support for nuclear power A nuclear reactor in Japan has been shut down after radioactive steam leaked from a pipe. The authorities at the Fugen plant at Tsuruga, in the north of Honshu island, said that some 200 cubic centimetres of radioactive steam were released in Monday's incident, but they said it had been contained within the plant and there was no danger to the public. The shutdown came just hours after the plant restarted following 10 months of repairs for an earlier leak. The reactor is due to be decommissioned in March next year. The accident coincided with the release of a Japanese Government report which said that the nuclear industry - which supplies nearly a third of the country's power - had improved its safety record in 2001. The report, called the White Paper on Nuclear Safety, said accidents at the country's nuclear plants fell to 14 in 2001, compared to 30 in 2000. Radiation was detected at one-seventh the level considered dangerous Nuclear spokesman Hiroyuki Nakagawa Accident record Japan is heavily reliant on nuclear power but correspondents say that a number of accidents over the past decade have undermined public support for the nuclear energy programmes. The most serious incident happened in September 1999 at a uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, north-east of Tokyo. Two people died and more than 40 others were treated for radiation exposure after an uncontrolled nuclear fission reaction was triggered when workers added uranium to tanks using buckets. ***************************************************************** 19 Japan says nuclear safety record improved in 2001 (04/09/2002) (Agencies) Japan's nuclear safety record improved in 2001, a government report said on Tuesday, but there was hardly a mention of the September 11 attacks that heightened worldwide anxiety about the vulnerability of nuclear sites. The White Paper on Nuclear Safety also made no reference to power industry deregulation and how it might impact on safety in the nuclear industry, which some experts see as a crucial issue. * On a positive note, the report said accidents at Japan's nuclear plants fell to 14 in 2001 from 30 the previous year. The report focuses on the safe use of plutonium, which Japan is trying to use at some power plants in the form of MOX fuel, a blend of uranium and plutonium recycled from spent nuclear fuel. Japan has fallen behind in its schedule to begin using the fuel due to public opposition. Shinichi Kawarada, General Affairs Director of the Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC), said little space was given to the September 11 attacks because the report concentrated on certain topics each year, and chose plutonium for 2001. He said, however, that the government had stepped up safety measures after the attacks, including mobilising more police guards at nuclear power plants and providing more coast guard surveillance in waters near nuclear facilities. The NSC, part of the Cabinet Office, has broad powers to plan and make decisions on nuclear safety and is responsible for drafting the report. Copyright 2002 By chinadaily.com.cn. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 20 Chernobyl a 'Forgotten Crisis,' UN Official Says Health - Reuters Mon Apr 8, 5:19 PM ET GENEVA (Reuters) - A top United Nations official said on Monday that Chernobyl, site of the world's worst nuclear disaster almost 16 years ago, still needed international aid but was in danger of becoming a "forgotten crisis." Kenzo Oshima, UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, was speaking after a trip to the contaminated region in and around the former Soviet republic of Ukraine, where he put forward a 10-year recovery strategy. "The human dimension of the Chernobyl disaster has tended to be driven into a forgotten crisis despite the continuing nature of the very serious problems and hardship suffered by a large population," Oshima told a news conference. On April 26, 1986, one of the reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine exploded, releasing a deadly cloud of radioactivity. Ukraine, Belarus and Russia--the countries of the former Soviet Union most affected by the accident--wanted to work with UN agencies to implement self-help recovery projects, UN officials said. "We propose to make a shift from an attitude people have where they have often been passive recipients of assistance to making them more active participants in their own life," said Neil Buhne, UN resident coordinator in Minsk. Between $50 million and $80 million would be needed to address the region's future needs, the officials said. Oshima said a meeting on Monday of UN agencies and donor countries was not intended to gather pledges, but he did not rule out a new appeal to rekindle the interest of international donors. Much of the aid for Chernobyl has been used for medicines, hospital care and food for those poisoned by the radioactive cloud. But Oshima said future assistance should focus on longer term economic, social and environmental problems in the region. Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 21 Leak at nuclear plant mars Japan's safety report News Tue Apr 9, 2:18 AM ET By Miho Yoshikawa TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's nuclear safety record improved last year, a government report said on Tuesday, but the news was marred by the shutdown the same day of an advanced thermal reactor due to a leakage of steam containing radiation. The report, which hardly mentions the September 11 attacks that heightened worldwide anxiety about the vulnerability of nuclear sites, said accidents at Japan's nuclear plants fell to 14 in 2001 from 30 the previous year. The White Paper on Nuclear Safety also made no reference to power industry deregulation and what impact it might have on safety in the nuclear industry that some experts see as a crucial issue. The shutdown in the morning of the Fugen 165,000-kilowatt reactor in western Japan came just a day after operations had resumed following an 11-month break. The reactor was shut down last May when a tritium leak was detected between the outside of the reactor container and the concrete wall surrounding the facility. A spokesman for the reactor's operator, state-run Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute, said the latest incident posed no health risk because the steam had not leaked outside the plant. It was unclear when Fugen would restart and the cause of the incident was under investigation, he said. Tuesday's white paper focuses on the safe use of plutonium, which Japan is trying to use at some power plants in the form of MOX fuel, a blend of uranium and plutonium recycled from spent nuclear fuel. Japan has fallen behind in its schedule to begin using the fuel due to public opposition. Shinichi Kawarada, General Affairs Director of the Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC), said little space was given to the September 11 attacks because the report concentrated on certain topics each year, and chose plutonium for 2001. However, the government had stepped up safety measures after the attacks, including mobilising more police guards at nuclear power plants and providing more coast guard surveillance in waters near nuclear facilities, he said. The NSC, part of the Cabinet Office, has broad powers to plan and make decisions on nuclear safety. IAEA TAKES ACTION The NSC's approach to the September 11 attacks contrasts to the action taken by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog. The director-general of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, said in November that an act of terrorism was far more likely than previously thought after September 11 and that concern was no longer limited to secret nuclear weapons programmes. Acting on its concerns, the IAEA's governing board last month approved a plan of action aimed at upgrading worldwide protection against attacks on nuclear facilities. Energy-starved Japan operates 52 commercial nuclear reactors, which supply roughly a third of its power. Less than 30 percent of Japan's power market to end-users is open to competition, but a decision is due this year on the next stage of deregulation. Many experts have raised doubts about whether nuclear energy can remain economically competitive given the high cost of building plants and the problem of waste disposal. Takamitsu Sawa, Director at Kyoto University's Institute of Economic Research, said nuclear energy, which requires massive spending, and industry deregulation, which calls for cost-cutting, were moves that run counter to each other. "You cannot avoid spending money if you want to secure the safe operation and management of (nuclear facilities)," he said. "There is a need to discuss the government's role in maintaining and funding safety. That is missing now," he said. URGENT ISSUE The NSC's Kawarada said this was an urgent issue that the government needed to address. "There is no reference (to the issue) in our review of the past year because we have not yet started a serious study ... although we believe it is an important topic," Kawarada said. Sawa said corporate haste in cutting costs was partly to blame for causing Japan's worst nuclear accident, at a uranium processing plant in September 1999. Hundreds of residents near the plant in Tokaimura, 140 km (90 miles) northeast of Tokyo, as well as plant and rescue workers, were exposed to radiation when workers put nearly eight times the normal amount of uranium into a container, causing a chain reaction that took 20 hours to bring under control. Two workers died from massive radiation exposure. Revelations of systematic violations of safety guidelines by plant operator JCO Co Ltd, including the absence of safety training and illegal operations to cut costs, shocked the public and deepened distrust of the nuclear industry. The Japanese government is pressing for continued operation of nuclear power plants because it believes Japan would not be able to meet targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions if the use of nuclear power were curtailed. At a United Nations (news - web sites) climate conference in 1997, Japan pledged to cut emissions of six greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2), by six percent by 2008-2012 from 1990 levels. In Japan, about 90 percent of CO2 emissions derive from energy consumption. Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or ***************************************************************** 22 Nation Magazine: The Fight Over Yucca Mountain Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2002 16:07:30 -0500 (CDT) From: "The Nation Magazine" Sent: Monday, April 08, 2002 4:10 PM Subject: The Fight Over Yucca Mountain Imagine you're buying a car. You ask: Does it have an air bag? The salesman hems and haws--and then offers to sell you a titanium crash helmet, a flame-retardant racing suit and a comprehensive health insurance plan. Would you buy that car? Would you buy it if George W. Bush and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham were doing the selling? Welcome to Yucca Mountain, the site in Nevada that President Bush has recommended for permanent storage of the nation's radioactive nuclear waste despite a host of unresolved scientific and health concerns. For the full story, check out recent installments of The Failsafe Point -- Matt Bivens' exclusive Nation Online feature. Currently available at: http://www.thenation.com/failsafe/ And, after you read the piece, you may want to think about joining opponents of Bush and Abraham's plan to ship nuclear waste to Nevada at a rally on Tuesday April 16 outside the Capitol in Washington, DC. Or, if you want to help devise a better solution to dealing with the country's radioactive waste, you can sign up for the People's Nuclear Waste Summit, to be held April 12-14 in Middletown, Connecticut. Check this site for details on both events: http://www.nirs.org And, if you want to tell Washington to rethink the Yucca Mountain project but can't make it to the April 16 rally, Public Citizen has made it possible for you to customize and send a free fax to your Senators. Go to Public Citizen's special page for details: http://www.citizen.org/fax/background.cfm?ID=42&source=3 Finally, please remember that you can email articles on The Nation website (http://www.thenation.com) to friends, family and foes using the Email-To-A-Friend feature found by clicking on the "email" link in the box adjoining each published article. Best Regards, Peter Rothberg, Associate Publisher ***************************************************************** 23 The Fight Over Yucca Mountain Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2002 23:41:46 -0500 (CDT) Imagine you're buying a car. You ask: Does it have an air bag? The salesman hems and haws--and then offers to sell you a titanium crash helmet, a flame-retardant racing suit and a comprehensive health insurance plan. Would you buy that car? Would you buy it if George W. Bush and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham were doing the selling? Welcome to Yucca Mountain, the site in Nevada that President Bush has recommended for permanent storage of the nation's radioactive nuclear waste despite a host of unresolved scientific and health concerns. For the full story, check out recent installments of The Failsafe Point -- Matt Bivens' exclusive Nation Online feature. Currently available at: http://www.thenation.com/failsafe/ And, after you read the piece, you may want to think about joining opponents of Bush and Abraham's plan to ship nuclear waste to Nevada at a rally on Tuesday April 16 outside the Capitol in Washington, DC. Or, if you want to help devise a better solution to dealing with the country's radioactive waste, you can sign up for the People's Nuclear Waste Summit, to be held April 12-14 in Middletown, Connecticut. Check this site for details on both events: http://www.nirs.org And, if you want to tell Washington to rethink the Yucca Mountain project but can't make it to the April 16 rally, Public Citizen has made it possible for you to customize and send a free fax to your Senators. Go to Public Citizen's special page for details: http://www.citizen.org/fax/background.cfm?ID=42&source=3 _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: toeslist-unsubscribe@egroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 24 Groups Praise Nevada’s Veto of Dangerous Nuclear Dump Public Citizen ALLIANCE FOR NUCLEAR ACCOUNTABILITY - AMERICAN RIVERS - CLEAN WATER ACTION - EARTHJUSTICE - FRIENDS OF THE EARTH - NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL TRUST - NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL - NUCLEAR INFORMATION AND RESOURCE SERVICE - PHYSICIANS FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY - PUBLIC CITIZEN - SIERRA CLUB - U.S. PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH GROUP - THE WILDERNESS SOCIETY - WOMEN'S ACTION FOR NEW DIRECTIONS April 8, 2002 Congress Should Uphold Nevada’s Well-founded Objection, Groups Say WASHINGTON, D.C. – National public interest and environmental organizations today applauded Governor Kenny Guinn's decision to officially reject a plan to store 77,000 tons of radioactive nuclear waste at Nevada's Yucca Mountain and urged Congress to similarly reject the proposal. "This issue concerns not only Nevada, but virtually the entire country," said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. "Roads, rails, and waterways in 44 states would become thoroughfares for dangerous radioactive waste shipments en route to Yucca Mountain. Elected leaders in other states should join Governor Guinn in opposing this unjustifiably risky project." The threats to public health and the environment at the repository site itself are equally concerning. Scientists have been unable to demonstrate that Yucca Mountain could effectively isolate waste throughout the time it remains dangerously radioactive. The site is in an earthquake zone and sits atop a source of drinking water. "Regulators, eager to ‘rubber stamp’ this dangerous dump have downgraded environmental regulations and safety standards to allow the unsafe Yucca Mountain Project to move forward," said Anna Aurilio, legislative director for U.S. Public Interest Research Group. "This will threaten the drinking water for future generations and sets a dangerous precedent that could outlast the current repository debate." "The Department of Energy is riding roughshod over the science" said Debbie Sease, legislative director of the Sierra Club. "Decisions on what to do with the most dangerous substance we have created must be grounded in science, not expedience." Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham recommended the plan in February. Congress could override Nevada's veto with a majority vote in both Houses. A vote is expected in the coming months. Citizens groups across the country have consistently opposed the Yucca Mountain dump and the flawed process that has characterized the project. In 1998, when the Department of Energy announced proposed changes (since adopted by the Bush administration) to weaken repository siting guidelines, nearly 200 groups petitioned Energy Secretary Bill Richardson to disallow the rule change and disqualify the Yucca Mountain site. In January 2002, responding to revelations of unchecked conflicts of interest involving Department of Energy Yucca Mountain contractors, 232 groups from 50 states urged Congress to shelve the repository proposal. Last month, in response to Energy Secretary Abraham’s site recommendation, 16 national environmental organizations sent a joint letter to Congress advocating opposition to the Yucca Mountain dump. "Yucca Mountain is a top priority of the major national environmental, consumer and safe energy organizations because of the potential harm to human health and the environment that this project poses," said Brent Blackwelder, president of Friends of the Earth. "We stand as one in urging Congress to uphold Governor Guinn’s veto." ### ***************************************************************** 25 Skull Valley wasting away BYU NewsNet Daily Universe This sign greets visitors to the Goshute Indian reservation. The reservation is at the center of a debate about whether or not to store 400,000 tons of nuclear waste on the land. By Elise Christenson NewsNet Staff Writer 4/9/2002 At their peak, the Goshute Indians numbered 20,000 and inhabited several hundred square miles sprawling from the Wasatch front westward past Wells, Nevada. The Goshutes lived among native sagebrush, pine trees and food plants. Wild game roamed the country freely. The land was lush then. Now there are less than 500 Goshutes, 124 of which live on the Skull Valley Reservation, located 35 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, on approximately 18,000 acres of land. Things look different in Skull Valley. The land is no longer lush. "It is parched and barren there. It's a desert," said Elise Lazar, Tooele County resident. East of Skull Valley is the world's largest nerve gas storage facility, recently built to destroy thousands of deadly chemicals. South of Skull Valley lies the Intermountain Power Project, which provides coal-fired electrical power. Northwest of Skull Valley is the Enviro-care Low-Level Radioactive Disposal site, which buries radioactive waste for the entire country. North of Skull Valley, is the Magnesium Corporation plant, identified by the Environmental Protection Agency as the most polluting plant of its kind in the United States. "The United States government pushed the Goshutes onto the most God-forsaken country in the state," said Scott York, legal counsel for the Goshute tribe. Isolated in the desert, the Goshutes have struggled for survival, York said. They apply for state and federal funds, but the funds simply don't provide enough economic relief, he said. Because of this, the Skull Valley Goshutes signed a lease agreement in 1998 with Private Fuel Storage to store 40,000 tons of nuclear waste in Skull Valley for 20 years, with a 20-year optional renewal. "They get remuneration for the use of the land and there's also opportunity for members of Skull Valley to apply for jobs at the facility," Martin said. The project provided hope to a people plagued with hopelessness, York said. But this hope has been hampered by the recent backlash from the community. "They've put them in the nation's garbage dump and now they're upset that they want to store the nation's garbage there," he said. The Goshutes have tried several business ventures before, York said, none of which have been successful. "They have spent years looking for other economic development opportunities," said Sue Martin, spokesman for Public Fuel Storage. "It's difficult to interest anyone in locating a plant out there because of the surroundings." One such venture was to bottle water on the reservation, but the Goshutes were unable to persuade bottled-water companies to have water bottled on their site. "Who would want water bottled in Skull Valley with all of that other stuff around?" Martin said. Marlinda Wash, secretary of the Skull Valley Reservation, said only about 29 of the members actually live in Skull Valley. The other members have sought work in nearby areas but return to the reservation for meetings. "There aren't job opportunities for us here," Wash said. The lease with Private Fuel Storage was signed out of economic necessity, York said. "It's a choice between this or dying. They couldn't get any assistance from anyone else," he said. ght ©2002 BYU NewsNet ***************************************************************** 26 AU: N-waste transfer challenged news.com.au - [09apr02] AUSTRALIA'S agreement with Argentina on the transportation of nuclear waste will create an outcry from regional neighbours and trading partners, Greenpeace has argued. Greenpeace will protest about the agreement to federal parliament's joint standing committee on treaties. Under the agreement, Argentina must take spent fuel rods from Australia's new Lucas Heights reactor if the French company COGEMA cannot accept them. The reactor is to be built by the Argentinian company INVAP. Sections of the treaty were specifically designed to overcome constitutional hurdles with the Lucas Heights reactor deal in Argentina, Greenpeace said. Outstanding problems included the fact the Argentinian constitution forbids the importation of nuclear waste, opposition from Chile to the transport of nuclear waste through its territory, and other Latin American opposition, it claimed. "Pacific island countries, including New Zealand, are opposed to the prospect of spent fuel and other nuclear shipments through their waters," Greenpeace said. "Their opposition was demonstrated during the 2001 shipment from Lucas Heights and the 2001 plutonium (Mox) fuel shipment from Europe to Japan." ***************************************************************** 27 Foes of Nuclear Dump Gear Up Campaign April 9, 2002 By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE WASHINGTON, April 8 — When a train carrying thousands of gallons of propane gas derailed near here on Sunday, it was not just a local disaster story. Some of the top lobbyists in Washington immediately went to work, picking up their telephones and strategizing about how the incident could be used to galvanize support for their latest cause: stopping President Bush's recommendation that the nation's nuclear plants send deadly waste to Yucca Mountain, Nev. The lobbyists hope the wreck will help them persuade Virginia's two Republican senators, John W. Warner and George F. Allen, that transporting hazardous materials by rail and road is dangerous. As Congress returns from recess this week, the Senate is the focus of an intensifying lobbying campaign over whether the thousands of tons of high-level radioactive waste stored at more than 130 nuclear plants and military sites should be sent to Nevada. Most of Nevada has been battling the idea for 20 years. In 1982 in a highly unusual nod to a state, Congress gave Nevada the power to veto any presidential decision about Yucca. Today, Gov. Kenny Guinn, a Republican, filed his veto. His action started the clock for 90 legislative days during which Congress can sustain the veto or override it, with a deadline of July 26. Both sides consider the House solidly behind the administration and say the real battle will be in the Senate. Mr. Guinn is scheduled to travel to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to present his veto formally. "The fight is not over; it's just beginning on a national level," Mr. Guinn said in an interview, adding that his state intended to spend $10 million to $16 million to fend off Yucca's designation. He will be joined on Capitol Hill by his state's senators, Harry Reid, a Democrat, and John Ensign, a Republican. Mr. Guinn's trip here opens the national phase of a fight that Nevada, pinpointed years ago as the dump site in part because of its relative lack of population and political influence, has essentially been waging on its own. Now the state and its lobbyists plan to alert the rest of the country by highlighting the dangers of transporting waste. Nevada has enlisted the services of two ex-chiefs of staff to former presidents — John Podesta, who served President Bill Clinton, and Kenneth M. Duberstein, who worked for President Ronald Reagan. Nevada tried to enlist several other Republican lobbyists, but was turned down by those who did not want to cross the White House. Mr. Duberstein has long represented the American Gaming Association, which strongly opposes the dump for Yucca, which is 90 miles from Las Vegas. The campaign plans television and billboard advertising across the country to spur people to put pressure on their senators. Television commercials are expected to start soon in Vermont, where the don't-dump-in-Nevada team hopes to win the endorsement of Senator James M. Jeffords, an independent. Pro-environmental Republicans in the Northeast will also be targeted, including Senators Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island. But as the frenzy of phone calls after the Virginia accident showed, almost all Republicans are considered fair game. Still, both sides say the Nevada-led campaign has an uphill climb. The last time the Senate voted on a measure that might reflect Nevada's strength, only 32 Democrats voted with the state against the dump. On the other side is a powerful lineup: the Bush White House, the nuclear industry, several governors of states that have nuclear plants, the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America and a slew of lobbyists. "They're running a fear-mongering campaign," William L. Kovacs, vice president of environment, technology and regulatory affairs at the Chamber of Commerce said of the dumping opponents. He said that newspaper editorials were running 6-to-1 in favor of using Yucca Mountain, in part because in the last 40 years, more than 3,000 shipments of spent nuclear fuel had traveled 1.6 million miles in the United States with no radiation-related injuries or deaths. Governor Guinn bristled at suggestions that his state was not patriotic, saying that Nevada endured years of atom bomb tests. "We've been patriotic, more so than anyone else," said Mr. Guinn. He said that his campaign would focus on Spencer Abraham, the energy secretary, for recommending that President Bush support Yucca rather than on President Bush. "I love what Bush is doing for America," Governor Guinn said, adding that the Yucca decision just happened to occur "on his watch." Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company | Privacy Information ***************************************************************** 28 Nevada Gov. Takes Nuke Veto to D.C. Las Vegas SUN April 08, 2002 LAS VEGAS (AP) - Nevada stepped up its campaign against burying nuclear waste in the state on Monday with the governor's veto of a presidential endorsement and activists readying a lobbying campaign to reinforce his action. In February, President Bush picked Yucca Mountain as the place to entomb up to 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel that will remain radioactive for 10,000 years. The site is 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. A veto of Bush's endorsement was signed on Friday by Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn and was delivered to the House and Senate on Monday. "Let me make one thing clear, crystal clear in fact. Yucca Mountain is not inevitable," Guinn told supporters Monday before heading to Washington to lobby on behalf of the state's position. Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said the Yucca Mountain project has received a thorough review by scientists. "It is strongly in the interest of national security, energy and homeland security and environmental protection to move forward and not leave waste stranded in 131 scattered sites around the country," Davis said. Guinn's veto was allowed under rules Congress wrote for developing a national nuclear waste dump. Congress will have the final say, however, and a vote on whether to override Guinn is expected before August. Opponents of the Yucca Mountain plan were organizing a coast-to-coast lobbying campaign against an override vote. The governor asked Nevada residents to each donate $1 or more to the lobbying campaign Opposition to the project is overwhelming in Nevada. "We will expose the Department of Energy's dirty little secrets about Yucca Mountain," Guinn said, saying Americans have not been told of the danger of transporting nuclear waste through their neighborhoods. "Nuclear energy can be a good thing," Earl McGhee, a 74-year-old retiree, said from his home in Amargosa Valley, less than 15 miles from Yucca Mountain. "But if it's mishandled, it's a bad thing. A longtime bad thing." The lobbying effort is being directed by two former White House chiefs of staff - Democrat John Podesta, who worked for President Clinton, and Republican Kenneth Duberstein, who worked for President Reagan. The campaign is to include television ads targeting lawmakers in races that could swing on votes from environmentalists. Spent nuclear fuel has accumulated for decades at power plants and defense facilities in 34 states, as lawmakers debated whether and where to establish a national repository. Opponents of the Yucca Mountain project, led by environmentalists and Nevada's congressional delegation, are focusing their lobbying effort on the Senate, considering it almost certain that the Republican-controlled House will side with Bush. Nevada's campaign will focus on lingering questions about the safety of the Yucca Mountain site and fears that the thousands of truck and train trips it will take to haul the waste across the country will lead to accidents and potential radioactive spills. On the Net: Yucca Mountain Project: http://www.ymp.gov [http://www.ymp.gov] Pro-Yucca Mountain site: http://www.nei.org [http://www.nei.org] Anti-Yucca Mountain site: http://www.nirs [http://www.nirs] . All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 29 Nevada Fights Nuke Waste Storage Las Vegas SUN April 09, 2002 WASHINGTON (AP) - Nevada's congressional delegation and its governor predicted Tuesday an uphill fight in Congress to keep thousands of tons of nuclear waste from being shipped into their state for disposal. "The deck is stacked against us. We're going to try to restack the deck," said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who knows something about card games as a former chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission. While the Nevadans are facing a long-shot chance of succeeding, they outlined their essential strategy at a news conference: Convince enough lawmakers that it's too risky to allow thousands of shipments of nuclear waste to travel by highway and rail across their states. A majority of nuclear reactors are located in the eastern half of the country. Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn, a Republican, formally rejected construction of the Yucca facility in papers filed with Congress on Monday, leaving the next step to the House and Senate. President Bush in February directed that the Nevada site be built, but under the law Nevada has a right to veto that decision. Congress, in turn, can override Nevada's objection. The procedures outlined by the law assures that Congress move as quickly as possible to consider a resolution upholding the president's decision. Unlike normal legislation, no senator may filibuster the resolution and any senator may bring it to the Senate floor for consideration after 60 days. Congress has 90 legislative days to act, or the Yucca site will be abandoned. On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle told Reid he would "try and ensure" that no Democratic senator acts to bring the resolution up for floor consideration. Whether he will succeed remains to be seen. While Daschle normally would control when a measure is taken up by the Senate, in this case any Republican senator may force Senate action after a 60-day waiting period. Approval is by majority. "We have an uphill fight to pick up 49 more votes," said Reid. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and other supporters argue that the Nevada site, which eventually would contain 77,000 tons of waste that will remain radioactive for more than 10,000 years, is scientifically proved and that the waste can be stored there safely. If Congress gives the go-ahead, the Energy Department must still receive a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and also faces a court challenge. "Our court case will be very strong," said Guinn. Nevada in a lawsuit charges that the Energy Department was obligated to find a disposal site where the geology will keep the waste from escaping into the environment for thousands of years. The lawsuit alleges the Yucca site does not meet that standard, requiring reliance on manmade barriers whose future performance is uncertain. For the time being, however, the Nevadans hope to convince enough members of Congress to question the transportation of thousands of tons of highly radioactive waste from civilian power reactors and federal facilities in 34 states. "It isn't a question of if there will be an accident, it's a question of when and where," maintained Reid, standing in front of a large map showing the likely routes nuclear waste shipments will take, mostly across the country's Interstate system. He said there will be more than 120,000 shipments over 24 years by both rail and highway. The Energy Department has yet to develop a detailed transportation plan showing routes, but administration officials and the nuclear industry maintain that the shipments can be conducted safely and securely. The administration has argued that consolidating the highly radioactive waste - most used fuel rods from power reactors - at one location will add to security and safety. If not taken to Yucca Mountain, the wastes would remain in aboveground storage at reactor sites. Storage at reactors could be done safely and with security for as long as 100 years "while we study the technology to recycle the waste," said Ensign. Currently the United States has a policy against recycling nuclear waste, although the Energy Department is studying ways to possibly do it in the future, thereby reducing - although not entirely eliminating - the volume of waste that will eventually have to be buried. Even if the Yucca Mountain repository were opened - as is planned by 2010 if approval is given - there would still be nuclear waste at reactor sites, argue the Nevadans. Fuel rods coming from a reactor must be cooled for several years before they are ready for shipment. On the Net: Yucca Mountain Project: [http://www.ymp.gov] All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 30 Your Turn: Yucca Mountain risks cannot be ignored [online@rgj.com] 4/8/2002 12:38 am As a sixth-generation Nevadan, I am outraged that many people, including some Nevada residents, wish to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada. With all of the many dangers and facts against this project, I don’t see how anyone could be pro-dump. There would be 140,000 truck shipments — that’s equal to a shipment every hour and 45 minutes — for 30 years passing right through downtown Reno. Most accidents will happen in Nevada, since this is where the nuclear waste will be shipped to. With the war going on, instead of hijacking a plane and killing a load of passengers, it would be easier and more beneficial for terrorists to kill thousands while contaminating water supplies with just one sabotaged truck out of the 140,000 shipments. While researchers love to say that Yucca Mountain is favorable because of the relatively deep water table, low annual rainfall, and low population, these issues are far outweighed by numerous significant facts. For example, there are 32 earthquake faults and nearby young volcanoes that will likely become active and release radioactivity. In 1932, there was an earthquake registering 7.1 on the Richter scale, which equals the force of the 1989 San Francisco earthquake. Researchers predicted that another earthquake like this would happen only once in 10,000 years. However, in 1992, just four years later and less than 12 miles from Yucca Mountain, another similar earthquake struck. Another factor is that one of the radioactive elements to be buried at Yucca Mountain is plutonium, which is named after the Roman god of Hell and death for a good reason: it remains radioactive for 240,000 years. We live in a tourist dependent state. Our economy depends upon people coming to Nevada and spending their money. One nuclear waste accident — even if no radioactivity is released — could leave the Silver State a bankrupt, nuclear dump. Families won’t want to vacation to the radioactive state. Some think the solution is bargaining for money. Instead of protesting and getting off their couches, they want to strike a deal. How can one put a price on the future of their children/grandchildren/great-grandchildren, and on and on, for 100 generations? How can one bargain with cancer and contaminated water? It’s impossible. One can’t bargain with death! Other countries are storing their waste where it is produced. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has stated that waste can be safely stored on-sight at nuclear power plants in above ground storage containers for 200 years. We can use these 200 years for research. The “experts” of Yucca Mountain say that they have all the “facts,’ and say that Yucca Mountain is completely safe. Haven’t we learned from history that human beings make mistakes? In 1986 — the year I was born — both the Challenger Space Shuttle and Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded. Didn’t the “experts” pronounce these “safe”? Going further back in history, wasn’t the Titanic “unsinkable”? Wasn’t that based on “sound science”? I encourage everyone who cares about our state and future to do all they can to stop this catastrophe. Please write to President George W. Bush, U.S. Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign, Congressman Jim Gibbons and Governor Kenny Guinn, and express your concern! ***** Emma Fulkerson is a sophomore at Reno High School. © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a [http://www.gannett.com] ***************************************************************** 31 Nuclear safety body urges MOX fuel use Japan Today Tuesday, April 9, 2002 at 09:30 JST TOKYO The Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan on Tuesday assured the nation that it is safe to use plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel at nuclear plants, and recommended stepped-up safety measures at plants nationwide, in an effort to overcome growing public concerns that have so far prevented the fuel's debut in the country. In its 2001 white paper on nuclear safety, the commission affiliated with the Cabinet Office also virtually conceded that its lack of a cohesive safety inspection system was to blame for an accident last November at a Hamaoka plant in Shizuoka Prefecture. (Kyodo News) ***************************************************************** 32 Nevada steps up protest against N-waste plan Financial Times; Apr 9, 2002 Nevada has stepped up its campaign against burying nuclear waste under one of the state's mountains, with the governor vetoing a presidential endorsement and activists preparing a lobbying campaign to reinforce his action, AP reports from Las Vegas. In February, President George W. Bush picked Yucca Mountain as the place to entomb up to 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel that will remain radioactive for 10,000 years. The site is 90 miles north-west of Las Vegas. On Friday, Republican Governor Kenny Guinn signed a veto of Mr Bush's endorsement. It was to be submitted to the House of Representatives and Senate yesterday. Governor Guinn's veto was allowed under the rules that Congress wrote for developing a national nuclear waste dump. Congress will have the final say, however, and a vote on whether to override Mr Guinn is expected before August. Opponents of the plan are organising a coast-to-coast lobbying campaign against an override vote. Opposition to the project is overwhelming in Nevada. "Nuclear energy can be a good thing," Earl McGhee, a 74-year-old retiree, said from his home in Amargosa Valley, less than 15miles from Yucca Mountain. "But if it's mishandled, it's a bad thing. A longtime bad thing." The lobbying effort is being directed by two former White House chiefs of staff - Democrat John Podesta, who worked for President Bill Clinton, and Republican Kenneth Duberstein, who worked for President Ronald Reagan. The campaign is to include television advertising targeting legislators in election races that could swing on votes from environmentalists. Opponents of the Yucca Mountain project are focusing their lobbying effort on the Senate, considering it almost certain that the Republican-controlled House will side with Mr Bush. Nevada's campaign will focus on concern about the safety of the site and fears that the thousands of truck and train trips it will take to haul the waste across the country will lead to accidents and potential radioactive spills. Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 1995-2002 ***************************************************************** 33 Japan government approves report that MOX fuel is safe AFX Europe; Apr 9, 2002 TOKYO (AFX-ASIA) - The government has approved an advisory report which concludes it is safe to use plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel at nuclear plants. The Nuclear Safety Commission said a "sufficient technological basis has been established" to ensure the safe use of plutonium at light-water reactors, provided the ratio of MOX to total fuel of a plant is about one-third. But the advisory panel also called for special care in an annual report on nuclear safety, citing the fuel's extremely high radioactivity level, which is 200,000 times that of a type of uranium. The commission also reaffirmed its support for plans by the Japanese electric industry and government to use the so-called "pluthermal" method at 16-18 nuclear reactors in the country by the year 2010. In the pluthermal process, plutonium extracted from spent nuclear fuel is combined with uranium oxide to create MOX fuel, which is then burned in light-water reactors. The plans stalled in May last year when residents in the small northern Japanese village of Kariwa rejected a move by Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) to convert an existing nuclear reactor there to a pluthermal plant. The resistance was seen as a blow to the government's scheme to promote the method as an answer to the needs of the resource-poor nation, which relies on 51 nuclear reactors to provide about one-third of its electricity. The pluthermal scheme took another knock in 1999 when Kansai Electric Power Co, which serves Osaka and its vicinity, suspended its planned use of MOX fuel imported from British Nuclear Fuels PLC (BNFL). The commission's annual report added it was necessary for MOX users to inspect on the spot the quality of such nuclear fuel to be shipped to Japan. A Japanese ecology group, Green Action, said that the report was deceptive. "What the NSC (Nuclear Safety Commission) fails to inform the Japanese public and international community is that experience with MOX fuel at nuclear power plants in Japan is virtually non-existent, and that use of MOX fuel internationally is minimal when compared to use of uranium fuel," the group said in a statement. It added that the commission had also failed to say that the "scale of MOX fuel use in Japan will be unprecedented." "There is to be a higher concentration of plutonium in the fuel, and a higher burn-up rate," it said. sps/pb ***************************************************************** 34 Nevada presses effort to kill nuclear dump sunspot.net Governor to lobby in D.C. after vetoing Bush's plan Associated Press Originally published April 9, 2002 LAS VEGAS - Nevada stepped up its campaign against burying nuclear waste in the state yesterday with the governor's veto of a presidential endorsement and activists readying a lobbying campaign to reinforce his action. In February, President Bush picked Yucca Mountain as the place to entomb up to 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel that will remain radioactive for 10,000 years. The site is 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. A veto of Bush's endorsement was signed Friday by Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn and was being delivered to Congress yesterday. "Let me make one thing clear, crystal clear, in fact. Yucca Mountain is not inevitable," Guinn told supporters yesterday before heading to Washington to lobby on behalf of the state's position. Guinn's veto was allowed under rules Congress wrote for developing a national nuclear waste dump. But Congress will have the final say; a vote on whether to override Guinn is expected before August. Opponents of the Yucca Mountain plan were organizing a coast-to-coast lobbying campaign against an override vote. The governor asked Nevada residents to each donate $1 or more to the lobbying campaign. "We will expose the Department of Energy's dirty little secrets about Yucca Mountain," Guinn said, saying Americans have not been told of the danger of transporting nuclear waste through their neighborhoods. Opposition to the project is overwhelming in Nevada. "Nuclear energy can be a good thing," Earl McGhee, a 74-year- old retiree, said from his home in Amargosa Valley, less than 15 miles from Yucca Mountain. "But if it's mishandled, it's a bad thing - a longtime bad thing." The lobbying effort is being directed by two former White House chiefs of staff - Democrat John Podesta, who worked for President Bill Clinton; and Republican Kenneth M. Duberstein, who worked for President Ronald Reagan. The campaign is to include television ads targeting lawmakers in races that could swing on votes from environmentalists. Opponents of the Yucca Mountain project are focusing their lobbying effort on the Senate, considering it almost certain the GOP-controlled House will side with Bush. Nevada's campaign will focus on lingering questions about the safety of the Yucca Mountain site and train trips it will take to haul the waste across the country. Copyright © 2002, The Baltimore Sun ***************************************************************** 35 Russian environmentalists vow to take fight against nuclear waste reprocessing to court Tue Apr 9,11:21 AM ET By JUDITH INGRAM, Associated Press Writer MOSCOW - Fighting to reverse the government's decision to accept spent nuclear waste for reprocessing, Russian environmentalists said Tuesday that they would take their demand for a referendum on the issue to court. Last summer, Russian President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) signed into law a plan to allow the import of spent nuclear fuel for storage and reprocessing. Proponents of the plan have argued Russia could earn dlrs 20 billion over the next decade and use part of the money to clean up existing nuclear pollution. But environmentalists fear the program would turn the country into a nuclear dump. Environmental groups said they had collected 2.5 million signatures in support of a nationwide referendum on the issue, but the Central Election Commission rejected the initiative, saying some of the signatures had been falsified. The Greenpeace environmental organization has brought a case on the Russian government's refusal to hold a referendum to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, and expects a decision in about a year, said Ivan Blokov, a Greenpeace activist in Moscow. Meanwhile, an election commission in Siberia's Krasnoyarsk region, where the waste reprocessing facility is located, has rejected a local attempt to initiate a referendum on the plan. Alexei Yablokov, president of the Center for Ecological Policy, told a news conference Tuesday that environmentalists would also file suit over that decision. Yablokov said the government had rushed to occupy a niche in the market for reprocessed plutonium and uranium, but that the prices were far lower than reprocessing advocates had predicted. Instead of earning dlrs 20 billion, he said, "It will maybe be dlrs 2 billion — and with that we cannot do anything." "There is no market that has to be won," he added. James Werner, a former U.S. Energy Department official who now heads the non-governmental Reprocessing Policy Project, said reprocessing made no sense from an economic, environmental or national security point of view. A glut on the market has prompted some countries to start destroying plutonium, while reprocessing yields a small amount of plutonium and a great volume of highly radioactive waste, he said. "The economic and environmental reasons are always there, but now there are security concerns, because we're extracting materials that can be used in nuclear weapons," he said. (ji/bh) ***************************************************************** 36 Your Turn: Abraham pulling a fast one on Nevada By Jim Hulse [online@rgj.com] SPECIAL TO THE RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL 4/8/2002 07:07 pm “Yucca is needed for homeland security,” writes Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham in the March 31 edition of the Reno Gazette-Journal. In Mr. Abraham’s dissembling op-ed piece, what he does not say is more interesting than the argument he makes for dumping thousand of tons of high-level nuclear waste in Nevada. His statement resembles a shell game with the public. Abraham would have us believe that scientific evidence and concerns about homeland security produced the decision to select the Yucca Mountain site. What he did not tell us in his article is he personally has long been a favorite of Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the special interest group that has repeatedly promoted the plan to transport hazardous nuclear waste from 35 other states to Nevada. The nuclear power cabal gave at least $15,000 in soft-money campaign contributions to then Senator Abraham in his unsuccessful bid for re-election in Michigan in 2000. The secretary of energy also conveniently overlooked the fact that the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of the legislative branch, said last year that the scientific data on the proposed Yucca Mountain site were far from complete. The GAO urged the administration to delay the decision until the scientific research has been further advanced. The GAO has been ignored. Common Cause, a leading non-partisan, citizen-backed watchdog group, issued a report in March showing that members of the NEI have dumped nearly $30 million in soft money contributions into the coffers of the Republican and Democratic parties over the past decade. Most of the money has gone to Republicans in recent years, and this “generosity” is paying off during the present Bush administration. The secret energy policies crafted last year by Vice President Richard Cheney recommended an increase in nuclear power production. The Bush administration has, so far, resisted all attempts by Congress and the media to learn who participated in the meetings that designed these policies, but it is clear that only industry representatives — no environmentalists or consumer advocates — took part in shaping the recommendations. How can the public have any confidence that this policy truly serves the public interest and not just the narrow private interest of the nuclear energy industry? The fact is we can’t. As it does with many important political issues, the soft money system has cast a huge cloud of public skepticism over government decisions related to the Yucca Mountain project. It also has left us wondering whether our health and safety are being jeopardized to serve the bottom line of the nuclear energy industry. The campaign finance reform bill (Shays-Meehan or McCain-Feingold) that was enacted by the Congress and signed (reluctantly) by President Bush last month should greatly reduce this kind of soft money influence-buying in the future, but only after the 2002 election cycle is finished. In the meantime, we can expect more of the same. We Nevadans should commend our elected officials who are standing firm against the kind of trickery that the Bush administration and especially Secretary Abraham are trying to foist upon us. We have seen enough sleight-of-hand tricks in this state to recognize this kind of blatant deception. Jim Hulse is a Nevada historian and chairman of Common Cause of Nevada. © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett ***************************************************************** 37 Residents skeptical of deal with feds Staff Reports [online@rgj.com] RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL 4/8/2002 09:28 pm An unscientific sampling in Reno and Carson City found there was general support for Gov. Kenny Guinn’s proposal for residents to donate $1 or more each to mount a lobbying campaign against the Yucca Mountain plan. Whether the governor should attempt to cut a deal in Washington, D.C., for burying the waste in Nevada produced mixed comments. “They’ve got to put it somewhere,” said Robert Kerley, 66, of Carson City, outside the city’s library. “But they should compensate us something for thrusting the bloody thing in our lap. They should compensate us massively.” He said he’d toss a dollar in a lobbying kitty to try to defeat the White House plan. But, in the end, he thought Guinn’s efforts were doomed. Debbie Neddenriep, a Carson City mother, said she wouldn’t donate even a buck for a lobbying fund. Too late for that, she said. Like Kerley, she said, go for the best deal. “It’s inevitable that it’s going to be here, and rather than pitch in the money, I think we should charge them out the nose to put it here,” she said. Joanie Week, 58, a retired Carson City resident, said she supports Guinn’s position, but doesn’t think Nevada should try to nail down a deal. “It’s going to be coming through Reno’s populated areas,” she said. “I don’t think that’s right.” Reno residents said they would contribute a dollar for a lobbying effort. “One dollar is no big deal,” said Rie Ichisaka, 21, of Reno, a student at Truckee Meadows Community College. “I would be happy to donate a dollar, but how can I verify that it goes to that?” said a skeptical Yvonne Conely, 23, of Washoe Valley, a massage therapist interviewed at a car wash. “I don’t want the waste dump here, either,” said Jason Mann, 22, of Reno, who said he was getting ready to enlist in the Marine Corps. “Guinn should fight it to the bitter end. But if it does come to that, at least make it as safe and containable as possible.” “The governor should be tough because of the risks involved,” said TMCC student Nicholas Munyei, 30, of Reno. “Because of the transportation of the waste to Yucca Mountain, many more people, not just Nevadans, will be exposed to these risks.” Reporters Andy Bourelle in Carson City and Janice Hoke and Mary Thompson in Reno contributed to this story. © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett ***************************************************************** 38 LETTERS: Yucca: Game over? Tuesday, April 09, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal To the editor: To the editor: The "In Depth" section of the April 7 Review-Journal, highlighting the "Friends of Yucca" and their take on a repository, was interesting and informative. The article about plutonium burial in Carlsbad, N.M., was especially eye-opening. Why? I have heard it said several times by Sen. Harry Reid that New Mexico was promised a lot and received practically nothing. Instead this project has proven to be a safe economic boon for the town and the state. I have also heard it said by Rep. Shelley Berkley that one of the key elements of our campaign against Yucca will be highlighting the risk of transporting nuclear waste through other states. The facts show there are already 32 states home to a total of 108 nuclear reactors. That leaves 16 with no nuclear power plants. Oddly enough, one of these 16 is New Mexico. It comes down to this: To win the vote "against" Yucca we are going to have to convince many states which already have waste stored that transporting it is more hazardous than keeping it. That will be a hard sell. Mathematically, it appears as though spending time and money on this is going to be an effort in futility. Like Carlsbad, we can face the inevitable and prosper from it, or leave empty handed with a repository. Bottom line: You have to know when to hold them, and know when to fold them. It's too late when the game is done. LOUIS FREDERICK NORTH LAS VEGAS Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 39 YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Guinn vetoes Bush Gov. Kenny Guinn responds to an audience of 300 Monday after announcing his veto of President Bush's decision to build a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. Guinn, in the 10-minute speech at UNLV, said the repository is not inevitable. Tuesday, April 09, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Fight moves to Congress, where lawmakers have 90 legislative days to override Nevada's governor By KEITH ROGERS AND STEVE TETREAULT REVIEW-JOURNAL Declaring that "the battle is not over," Gov. Kenny Guinn departed Monday for Washington, D.C., to follow through on his historic veto of the president's decision to build a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. "Let me make this clear, crystal clear in fact. Yucca Mountain is not inevitable, and Yucca Mountain is not a bargaining chip," Guinn said in a morning address at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Tam Alumni Center. "I assure you, as long as I am governor, it will never become a bargaining chip. Yucca Mountain is not suitable, it is not safe. ... We will expose the Department of Energy's dirty little secrets about Yucca Mountain," he said in a 10-minute speech before leaving on a private flight. The signed "notice of disapproval" and a 10-page Guinn statement were submitted to Congress as Guinn was preparing to leave Las Vegas. Robert Dove, a former U.S. Senate parliamentarian currently advising Nevada, delivered the documents first to the office of Senate President Pro Tem Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., and 10 minutes later to the office of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. It was the first time in history that a governor has vetoed a presidential decision. Congress authorized the state's veto power over the Yucca Mountain Project in 1982. When Congress reconvenes today, the House and the Senate will have 90 legislative days to override Guinn's veto. If either the House or the Senate sustains the veto through a majority vote, or if no action is taken during that period, then the decision that President Bush made on Feb. 15 to build a repository at Yucca Mountain fails. The deadline for congressional action will probably fall in late July. "This is indeed a moment we have anticipated and we have prepared for, one that will go down in history as one of the most significant proceedings in Congress," Guinn told the audience of some 300 state, county, and local officials and a group of middle school students. "The battle is not over," he said near the end of his speech. "In fact we are just beginning to fight." Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., and Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., sat in the front row, along with Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., was in Washington, D.C., and Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., was traveling back to the United States from a recent trip to Afghanistan. Ensign said after Guinn's address, "We're ready for the fight. Obviously it's going to be an uphill struggle, but we've got a few tricks up our sleeves." Berkley said she, too, is ready to persuade her colleagues to back Guinn's veto, although Nevada leaders have said that they don't believe there is enough support in the House. Berkley, nevertheless, was optimistic. "We've got some heavy lifting to do back in Washington, but I think we're up to the task," she said. In his speech, Guinn asked each Nevadan to donate at least $1 to a fund to fight the Yucca Mountain Project, saying legal bills and communications costs will run into the millions. Guinn planned a full day today to take Nevada's case to the media and to Capitol Hill. Following an appearance on CNN, he was to appear at a morning news conference on the Capitol grounds with Nevada lawmakers. He also scheduled a midday briefing that was to include state lawyers and scientists. Other parts of Guinn's schedule were unclear. Reid said he planned to take the governor to see Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., a key ally. Reid suggested Guinn also might attempt to contact senators who are ex-governors, such as Sen. George Allen, R-Va., whose state suffered a five-car train derailment Sunday. "I'm glad he's going to be here," Reid said. "He doesn't need to meet with Democrats. I can handle that." House Minority Whip Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaking at McCarran International Airport during a brief stopover en route to Las Vegas, said the Democratic leadership in that body supports Guinn's veto. Yucca Mountain would be "the first order of business" when Democratic leaders meet this morning to discuss strategy on upcoming votes, she said. "This decision that the governor has made ... is one that is of national concern," Pelosi said. Pelosi predicted that more Democrats would vote to sustain Guinn's veto than voted with Nevada on the last Yucca-related vote. In that vote, 147 Democrats and 18 Republicans voted against the project. "However great our numbers were before, they'll be even greater now," Pelosi said. In his speech, Guinn blasted the federal government's approach to transporting 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel and other highly radioactive wastes to Yucca Mountain. "One-hundred twenty-three million Americans have not been told of the danger to their families and future generations from shipping thousands of tons of radioactive waste through their neighborhoods, alongside their schools, their rivers, their parks and their downtown areas," Guinn said. He directed part of his speech at John Sununu, a pro-Yucca Mountain lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a former New Hampshire governor and chief of staff to the first President Bush, who in January criticized Nevada for being "not willing to do its part" in regard to nuclear waste and national security. "Mr. Sununu and other high-powered lobbyists of the nuclear industry, hear me -- hear all Nevadans -- loud and clear. The health, safety and well-being of present and future generations of Nevadans is not for sale at any price," Guinn said. Sununu and former Rep. Geraldine Ferraro, who also is a pro-Yucca lobbyist, said in a statement that now that Guinn has vetoed the project on behalf of Nevadans, "it is time now for the Congress to act on behalf of the American people and the myriad national energy and security considerations at stake" by affirming the Yucca Mountain designation. In his reasons for disapproving the Yucca Mountain Project, Guinn noted that at the Nevada Test Site, the state hosted hundreds of nuclear weapons tests. "The government misrepresented the risks and impacts of those test to our citizenry, and many Nevadans were injured as a result," he said. Besides being the nation's nuclear proving grounds, Guinn added that hundreds of millions of cubic feet of radioactive and hazardous garbage from nuclear weapons facilities have been buried at the test site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Some time ago "the concept of `environmental equity' would have made it unthinkable, given the sacrifices already imposed on Nevada, that the state would be forced to play host to yet an additional nuclear waste dump -- indeed, the dump to end all dumps," Guinn stated among his reasons for submitting his veto. "The scientific uncertainties of the Yucca Mountain Project are so numerous as to defy enumeration," Guinn said in the documents. Guinn referred to the nuclear power industry's ability to continue to safely store spent fuel at reactor sites as an alternative to entombing the waste in Yucca Mountain. Among his conclusions, Guinn reasoned that scientists found Yucca Mountain to be a fractured, volcanic-rock ridge situated among earthquake faults. "Yes, Yucca Mountain is the most studied piece of real estate in the world. What the studies starkly concluded, however, has been overshadowed by the mere fact they occurred. "A hundred more years of study will not change the fatally poor geology of Yucca Mountain, or remove the site from an earthquake fault zone." The president of the Nuclear Energy Institute said Guinn's disapproval notice brings the Yucca Mountain process a step closer to being completed. "Our elected leaders must answer the call to advance U.S. energy security and act in the best interests of our national security and the environment," said NEI head Joe Colvin. Review-Journal reporter Jan Moller contributed to this report. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 40 Empty anti-dump fund will make Guinn's veto an empty gesture Tuesday, April 09, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal COLUMN: John L. Smith After the cheers for Gov. Kenny Guinn's historic veto of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump subsided Monday morning at UNLV, a troublesome question should have been asked not only by politicians and corporate bosses, but by ordinary Nevada citizens as well: Where's Jerry Lewis? That's right, Jerry Lewis. Mr. Nutty Professor himself. Funny guy. Big in France. Not to fill in for the governor, but to raise money -- serious money -- to fight the nuclear dump. Through the years, Lewis has raised hundreds of millions of dollars over the Labor Day weekend in the name of the Muscular Dystrophy Association. He ought to be able to raise $10 million or so to battle Yucca Mountain over a long lunch. Although Lewis is busy with his own charity, the real question remains: Will we put our money where our mouth is? If so, we'd better hurry. With 90 days and counting down before Congress' probable overriding of Guinn's veto, the time for changing minds and perceptions through advertising and image-making is long past. While the nuclear lobby is busy spending at least $25 million to serenade politicians and the public, Nevada has managed to squeeze only a fraction of that amount from its formidable deep-pockets crowd. Which made the circulation Monday of cards soliciting $1-and-up donations to help fight Yucca Mountain all the more, well, quaint. While terribly well-meaning, the cards weren't exactly cutting-edge in the fund-raising game. How pea-shooters-versus-atomic- weapons pathetic can you get? Are there no good, sleazy telemarketers left in Nevada? What's the matter, had the women's auxiliary already grabbed that dandy bake sale idea? The junior high debate team must have claimed the last good location for a car wash fund-raiser, and surely those Pony League kids already were aggressively working the door-to-door raffle tickets. What next, tin cans positioned at the checkout counter of your local supermarket hustling spare change? "Chump Change for a Dump Change" has a nice ring to it. Something tells me the other guys aren't using the same strategy. It takes plenty of money to fight a national public relations campaign, and for some reason Nevada insists on entering the battle all but unarmed. Few major players have stepped up, and some of those have managed only baby steps. The gaming industry recently called a full-dress news conference to announce its $250,000 donation, and other business groups have been even more reluctant to part with funds on such a long shot in challenging economic times. Businesses that figure to be devastated in the event of an accident have taken their phones off the hook. While Clark County has contributed $1 million and is entertaining thoughts of adding as much as $3 million more, the city of Las Vegas has cut a $100,000 check and has begun to mumble when fielding questions about making a larger donation. Tough times, flat revenues and all that sort of thing, you understand. Meanwhile, Guinn has declined to call a special session of the Legislature to suck as much as $10 million from what state officials are calling depleted coffers. With budget shortfalls on the horizon, the state will be hard pressed to make good on the new donation estimate of $3 million. It's all a definite maybe, which of course plays into the strategy of the nuclear industry. When it comes to playing with high stakes, it's unlikely Nevada will have a seat at the table. The reluctance of Nevada's business elite can't be bolstering the confidence of the wage-earners in the state. If Nevada's Dom Perignon crowd isn't willing to cough up the cash, should the Bud drinkers? Of course, a little planning years ago might have created a fund to conduct a fight on a national level. It also might have boosted public opinion that battling the dump anywhere outside the courts is an empty gesture. For now the question is not whether the dump ends up in your back yard, but whether you're willing to fight it with your back pocket. Meanwhile, where's the Nutty Professor when we really need him? John L. Smith's column appears Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. E-mail him at Smith@lvrj.com or call him at 383-0295. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 41 Yucca: Guinn goes to D.C. Tuesday, April 09, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal COLUMN: Steve Sebelius Two significant things came out of Gov. Kenny Guinn's ceremonial rally at UNLV Monday morning, called to announce the governor's veto of President Bush's decision to store high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. The formal veto was being delivered by Nevada's Washington, D.C., lawyers even as Guinn spoke, but the day was tinged with history: Because of the internecine provisions of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, Guinn was the first governor to be able to say no to the president of the United States. But Guinn hit two points repeatedly that will form the basis of Nevada's nuclear endgame, for good or ill. First, Nevada won't negotiate for benefits. Second, the battle against the nuclear industry's "dirty little secret" has been joined, and everyone needs to help. Heard it before? So have we all. But let's take a closer look. "Yucca Mountain is not inevitable," Guinn told the crowd, to applause. "And Yucca Mountain is not a bargaining chip. I assure you that as long as I am governor, it will never be a bargaining chip." And then again, toward the end of the 10-minute address (possibly Guinn's shortest ever) he returned to the theme: "The health, safety and welfare of present and future generations of Nevadans is not for sale at any price." Guinn spoke for the entire Nevada congressional delegation when he made these remarks, and answered a question that's long fascinated us in the pundit class:. What will the state's leaders do when it becomes clear to everyone that the dump is coming? The answer: Keep fighting anyway. Make no mistake: Guinn's pronouncement leaves just two possibilities: Nevada wins, either in Congress (unlikely) or the courts (slightly more likely); or Nevada gets the dump, and nothing in return beyond the jobs that will be created to manage the burial of the wastes over the next two decades. For some, that course is reckless. If Guinn is wrong, and the dump is inevitable, Nevada is missing an opportunity to get the government to pay up for the privilege of dumping waste in the desert 90 miles from Las Vegas. Benefits could range from a rail line that avoids populated areas and is specifically designed for wastes to a fund similar to Alaska's Permanent Fund, which pays oil royalties to state residents. And the quipsters who retort that Nevada isn't a prostitute should realize that this view is popular with many in the general public, not just the nuclear waste industry's paid lobbyists. Guinn's other point says more about the nature of the fight than anything else. He asked each Nevada resident to donate at least $1 to the Nevada Protection Fund, the account set up to pay for anti-Yucca advertising designed to generate support in states with persuadable senators, and for lawyers who will fight the Yucca legal battles in court. Donations can even be made via the state's Web site. Has it really come to this? Guinn, unable to get support among some high-profile lawmakers to tap the state's rainy day fund for $10 million that U.S. Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign say is needed for anti-Yucca ads, is reduced to asking for $1 contributions from the public? His March 27 appeal to private business has gone largely unanswered (the gambling and real estate industries have thrown some money into the pot). What's left? Bake sales and car washes? How about those little orange U.N. Children's Fund boxes at lunch counters? Guinn in a dunking booth? Maybe all the state's constitutional officers could sell magazine subscriptions? Could it be that appeals to legislators and businessmen have gone unanswered because they, unlike the state's elected leaders, don't see a win for Nevada and don't have access to other people's money? Private businessmen have their shareholders and employees to consider. The general failure of business to respond in large numbers is a clue that the free market takes a dim view of Nevada's chances of success. Far from being greedy, businesses that don't contribute could simply be practical. And those groups that have contributed, such as the Nevada Resort Association, did so, at least in part, to avoid a continual public relations beating. Let's face it: "Come to Nevada, the place where all those deadly casks of nuclear waste are headed," is not exactly the best way to pump up tourist numbers. Or, could it be that businessmen think the fight itself is irrelevant, that even if Yucca Mountain becomes the home for the nation's nuclear waste, it doesn't matter? Sure, it's a gamble, because of environmental risks and transportation dangers, but it appears to be a popular proposition nonetheless. But those concerns were easily drowned by cheers and applause that attended Guinn as he left UNLV to wing his way back to Washington, D.C., for yet another show. Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist. His column runs Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at 383-0283 or by e-mail at Steve_Sebelius@reviewjournal.com. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 42 Congress must decide on Yucca nuclear site United Press International: From the National Desk Published 4/8/2002 7:20 PM LAS VEGAS, April 8 (UPI) -- Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn said Monday he was vetoing the Department of Energy's recommendation that a remote mountain north of Las Vegas become the final resting place of as much as 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel and other radioactive waste from power plants across the country. Guinn's veto came as no surprise and will have to be overturned by Congress in order for the controversial Yucca Mountain project to move forward. "Yucca Mountain is not safe. It is not suitable," Guinn told an audience in Las Vegas prior to leaving for Washington where he will formally file his veto at the Capitol. "We will expose the Department of Energy's dirty little secrets about Yucca Mountain." Under the provisions of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which includes the establishment of a permanent national nuclear waste site, the governor of the state selected for the dubious honor is allowed to veto the Energy Department's selection. A simple majority vote in Congress can override the veto. The Bush administration and the energy industry see a permanent waste site as vital to allowing nuclear power plants to continue functioning and removing tons of waste that have been gathering dust at temporary storage sites across the country. In a recent letter to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, a coalition of New England governors offered support for Yucca Mountain, stating that "indefinite storage at our New England sites is not an acceptable policy solution." Abraham said in announcing his choice of Yucca Mountain in February: "Not completing the site designation process and moving forward to licensing the development of a repository, as Congress mandated almost 20 years ago, would be an irresponsible dereliction of duty." Guinn and Nevada's congressional delegation have maintained that Nevada was selected not so much for its remote location and geological characteristics but for the lack of political clout in Washington. "Notwithstanding that Yucca Mountain is thousands of miles away from 90 percent of the nation's 110 nuclear power plants, Congress was persuaded by one simple fact -- a population of less than one million and only four legislative representatives," Guinn's office said in a statement. Guinn called on Nevada residents to kick in $1 each to a fund to counter what he said was a high-powered Capitol Hill lobbying effort by the nuclear power industry. The war chest of the Nevada Protection Fund recently topped $6 million, according to the governor's office. Although Yucca Mountain has been on the short list of potential sites since 1987, several environmental studies still are not completed and Nevadans believe the safety issues of radioactive waste flowing into the state by truck and rail have not been adequately addressed. "The fact that the Yucca Mountain decision was made without any analysis of the transportation risks to the 123 million Americans in states through which this dangerous waste will travel is the dirty little secret," Guinn said. (Reported by Hil Anderson, UPI Chief Energy Correspondent) Copyright © 2002 United Press International ***************************************************************** 43 Ad agencies prepare anti-Yucca campaign Tuesday, April 09, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Hauling dangers will be emphasized By ED VOGEL REVIEW-JOURNAL CAPITAL BUREAU CARSON CITY -- Advertising agencies hope Nevada-sponsored television announcements critical of the Yucca Mountain Project will scare Easterners off their sofas and persuade federal lawmakers to sustain Gov. Kenny Guinn's veto of the nuclear waste repository. Mark Brown, whose Las Vegas ad agency was hired by the state, said the campaign will emphasize the potential dangers to people who live along the routes trucks and trains will use to haul nuclear waste. "We are going to scare them with facts," Brown said. "When they find out 3,000 to 4,000 shipments (a year) are coming through their communities, let's see how much they want Yucca Mountain. Some of these communities have only volunteer fire departments." In response to a request by U.S. Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign, Guinn wants legislators to provide more funding for the anti-Yucca Mountain campaign. The Legislature's Interim Finance Committee on Wednesday will consider allocating an additional $3 million for the fight. Brown and a Washington-based agency headed by Tony Podesta would be the primary recipients of that money. Reid and Ensign initially wanted $10 million, but Guinn rejected that idea after key legislators balked at holding a special session to consider that request. The Legislature last year appropriated $4 million for an anti-repository campaign, including money for legal expenses. "More (money) is always better," said Ed Rothchild, an executive with Podesta's company. "But I think the issues and the arguments are on our side." Rothchild has been assigned to head a committee called Citizens Against Radioactive Transportation to Yucca. It will be his job to convince leaders in the 43 states with nuclear plants to contact their senators and express opposition to the nuclear dump. He will seek allies among local environmental groups, doctors and Parent-Teacher Associations. He said a fire caused by a railroad accident last year near Camden Yards in Baltimore was hot enough to melt a cask carrying nuclear waste. Besides the problem of roadway accidents, Rothchild said terrorists could commandeer a truck or train hauling nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain. In addition to the potential $3 million, Brown said the advertising agencies were granted $1 million last year by the state for an anti-repository campaign. They have spent about $50,000 of the funds. Their campaign actually began Monday with the publication of full-page advertisements in newspapers around Nevada. The advertisements showed Nevada's flag and stressed that residents of the Battle Born state are ready to fight the planned repository. Those ads largely were designed to shore up state support because as many as 80 percent of Nevadans oppose the dump, Brown said. Although the $3 million they hope to receive Wednesday won't buy as much TV time as they wanted, Brown intends to put the advertisements on stations in states where senators might be undecided on Yucca Mountain. He said he currently cannot identify those states. With the help of Reid and Ensign, he predicted Nevada might need to persuade as few as 10 senators to back Guinn's veto. Besides television, radio and print advertisements, Brown said agency representatives will visit chambers of commerce and local leaders along the transportation routes. They want to encourage a letter-writing campaign against the repository. Rothchild said many residents near power plants have been duped by the nuclear power industry into thinking that once Yucca Mountain opens, the nuclear waste in their back yards goes away. In reality, he said, the power industry will build new nuclear plants and extend the lives of current plants if a Yucca Mountain repository opens. "People are still going to have nuclear power in their back yards," he said. "The nuclear power industry sees Yucca as its answer." webmaster@lvrj.com Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 44 Hearings begin on nuclear waste proposal Tuesday, April 09, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SALT LAKE CITY -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's atomic safety and licensing board began a series of hearings Monday on a proposal to store spent nuclear fuel on the Goshute Indian reservation. Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of eight utilities that operate nuclear power plants, has applied for a license to build and run the storage area on the reservation of the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes. The reservation is about 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. Lawyers for the 127-member tribe said the development will bring significant income to the reservation, and the decision about what happens on tribal land is one for the tribe to make. But lawyers for the state said the site would sit in the path of Hill Air Force Base planes flying to and from the Utah Test and Training Range. Utah Assistant Attorney General James Soper questioned an NRC staff study estimating the risk of an aircraft crashing into the site at less than 1 in a million per year. "The number of aircraft is unknown. The bombs they carry is unknown. The risks involved are unknown," Soper said. Denise Chancelor, an attorney representing the state, challenged the ability of the U.S. rail system to bring the waste to Utah. She also said that Private Fuel Storage has not provided a design that would protect against possible earthquakes along two faults near the proposed site. And Goro Walker, of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said the group takes issue with a proposed rail line that would transport the waste casks through the North Cedar Mountains. It is a roadless area that qualifies as wilderness, according to SUWA. webmaster@lvrj.com Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 45 Herrera halves request for anti-Yucca money Tuesday, April 09, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal By FRANK GEARY REVIEW-JOURNAL Clark County Commission Chairman Dario Herrera on Monday cut in half his request for $3 million to fight Yucca Mountain after county administrators reported that the fiscal outlook isn't as rosy as it's been in the past. Herrera, a candidate for Congress, said the reduction makes sense considering the county's revenue growth has dried up and in light of other financial demands, such as $30 million allocated last week to complete construction of the new courthouse and jail projects. The state is trying to raise $10 million more for an anti-Yucca Mountain television advertising campaign. It will try and show voters in other states the potential dangers of transporting nuclear waste and ask them to urge their senators to oppose President Bush's decision to bury the waste at the site, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The county is legally prohibited from contributing taxpayer funds for such a campaign, but Herrera wants to use the money to pay for a lengthy legal battle that is expected to ensue if the lobbying campaign fails. The commission last year spent $1 million in taxpayer money for the anti-Yucca Mountain legal fund, and Herrera said additional county funds are needed so other contributions can be set aside immediately for advertising. Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates said she supports Herrera's scaled back request, but commissioners Bruce Woodbury and Chip Maxfield said they oppose the $1.5 million proposal because it's still too expensive. "I am comfortable with that," Atkinson Gates said. "It's critical. We have to fight this thing the best we can. It's critical to the economic vitality of the state." Maxfield, after a 3 1/2-hour workshop Monday on the county budget, said he needs more information on the county's financial outlook before he can support Herrera's proposal. Woodbury said the $1 million the county already contributed is significant, and, according to county officials, only half of that money has been spent. In addition, County Counsel Mary-Anne Miller told the commission that the state won't need millions of dollars this year for a legal battle that could last 10 years and cost as much as $15 million. "It's still more than we can afford," Woodbury said. "We legally can't spend money on advertising, but the purpose seems to be to spend money on advertising." Herrera said the commission isn't likely to approve his request next week if the state Legislature's Interim Finance Committee on Wednesday doesn't approve some of the $3 million that Gov. Kenny Guinn is expected to request for the Yucca Mountain campaign. "It's critical that members of the IFC step up to the plate," Herrera said. "If they fail to do so it will make it extraordinarily difficult to provide additional resources of our own. ... My colleagues believe this shouldn't just be a Clark County issue." Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 46 Congress to Decide on Storing Nuclear Waste [NewsMax.com] Congress to Decide on Storing Nuclear Waste NewsMax.com Wires and NewsMax.com Tuesday, April 9, 2002 LAS VEGAS – Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn said Monday he was vetoing the Department of Energy's recommendation that a remote mountain northwest of Las Vegas become the final resting place of as much as 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel and other radioactive waste from power plants across the country. Guinn's veto came as no surprise. It would have to be overturned by Congress for the Yucca Mountain project to move forward. "Yucca Mountain is not safe. It is not suitable," Guinn told an audience before leaving for Washington, where he will formally file his veto at the Capitol. "We will expose the Department of Energy's dirty little secrets about Yucca Mountain." Under the provisions of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which includes the establishment of a permanent national nuclear waste site, the governor of the state selected for the dubious honor is allowed to veto the Energy Department's selection. A simple majority vote in Congress can override the veto. The Bush administration and the energy industry see a permanent waste site as vital for national security, and vital for allowing nuclear power plants to continue functioning and removing tons of waste that have been gathering dust at temporary, poorly guarded storage sites across the country. His Damage Never Ends The choice of a site was overdue, one of many booby traps Bill Clinton left for his successor in the White House. In a recent letter to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, a coalition of New England governors offered support for Yucca Mountain, because "indefinite storage at our New England sites is not an acceptable policy solution." Abraham said in announcing his choice of Yucca Mountain in February, "Not completing the site designation process and moving forward to licensing the development of a repository, as Congress mandated almost 20 years ago, would be an irresponsible dereliction of duty." Guinn and Nevada's congressional delegation have maintained that Nevada was selected not so much for its remote location and geological characteristics but for the lack of political clout in Washington. "Notwithstanding that Yucca Mountain is thousands of miles away from 90 percent of the nation's 110 nuclear power plants, Congress was persuaded by one simple fact - a population of less than one million and only four legislative representatives," Guinn's office said in a statement. Guinn called on Nevada residents to kick in $1 each to a fund to counter what he said was a high-powered Capitol Hill lobbying effort by the nuclear power industry. Nevada Protection Fund recently topped $6 million, according to the governor's office. Although Yucca Mountain has been on the short list of potential sites since 1987, a few environmental studies are still not completed. Nevadans say the safety issues of radioactive waste flowing into the state by truck and rail have not been adequately addressed. "The fact that the Yucca Mountain decision was made without any analysis of the transportation risks to the 123 million Americans in states through which this dangerous waste will travel is the dirty little secret," Guinn said. Copyright 2002 by United Press International. All Rights Reserved © NewsMax.com ***************************************************************** 47 Skull Valley wasting away BYU NewsNet This sign greets visitors to the Goshute Indian reservation. The reservation is at the center of a debate about whether or not to store 400,000 tons of nuclear waste on the land. By [elise@newsroom.byu.edu] NewsNet Staff Writer 4/9/2002 At their peak, the Goshute Indians numbered 20,000 and inhabited several hundred square miles sprawling from the Wasatch front westward past Wells, Nevada. The Goshutes lived among native sagebrush, pine trees and food plants. Wild game roamed the country freely. The land was lush then. Now there are less than 500 Goshutes, 124 of which live on the Skull Valley Reservation, located 35 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, on approximately 18,000 acres of land. Things look different in Skull Valley. The land is no longer lush. "It is parched and barren there. It's a desert," said Elise Lazar, Tooele County resident. East of Skull Valley is the world's largest nerve gas storage facility, recently built to destroy thousands of deadly chemicals. South of Skull Valley lies the Intermountain Power Project, which provides coal-fired electrical power. Northwest of Skull Valley is the Enviro-care Low-Level Radioactive Disposal site, which buries radioactive waste for the entire country. North of Skull Valley, is the Magnesium Corporation plant, identified by the Environmental Protection Agency as the most polluting plant of its kind in the United States. "The United States government pushed the Goshutes onto the most God-forsaken country in the state," said Scott York, legal counsel for the Goshute tribe. Isolated in the desert, the Goshutes have struggled for survival, York said. They apply for state and federal funds, but the funds simply don't provide enough economic relief, he said. Because of this, the Skull Valley Goshutes signed a lease agreement in 1998 with Private Fuel Storage to store 40,000 tons of nuclear waste in Skull Valley for 20 years, with a 20-year optional renewal. "They get remuneration for the use of the land and there's also opportunity for members of Skull Valley to apply for jobs at the facility," Martin said. The project provided hope to a people plagued with hopelessness, York said. But this hope has been hampered by the recent backlash from the community. "They've put them in the nation's garbage dump and now they're upset that they want to store the nation's garbage there," he said. The Goshutes have tried several business ventures before, York said, none of which have been successful. "They have spent years looking for other economic development opportunities," said Sue Martin, spokesman for Public Fuel Storage. "It's difficult to interest anyone in locating a plant out there because of the surroundings." One such venture was to bottle water on the reservation, but the Goshutes were unable to persuade bottled-water companies to have water bottled on their site. "Who would want water bottled in Skull Valley with all of that other stuff around?" Martin said. Marlinda Wash, secretary of the Skull Valley Reservation, said only about 29 of the members actually live in Skull Valley. The other members have sought work in nearby areas but return to the reservation for meetings. "There aren't job opportunities for us here," Wash said. The lease with Private Fuel Storage was signed out of economic necessity, York said. "It's a choice between this or dying. They couldn't get any assistance from anyone else," he said. + Protestors hold rally against storage of waste on Skull Valley reservation Copyright ©2002 BYU NewsNet comments to: [online@newsroom.byu.edu] ***************************************************************** 48 Protestors hold rally against storage of waste on Skull Valley reservation BYU NewsNet By Elise Christenson [elise@newsroom.byu.edu] NewsNet Staff Writer 4/9/2002 Outside the Salt Palace at 7 p.m. Monday, April 8, hundreds of protesters - students dressed as the grim reaper, women carrying faux caskets and bohemians beating drums - stood in not-so-quiet protest of the storage of 400,000 tons of nuclear waste in Skull Valley. Inside the Salt Palace at 7 p.m. Monday, room 25 was quiet. Four men, administrative judges appointed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, sat waiting at four desks in front of four microphones. The men were waiting for the doors to open, signifying the beginning of a public forum to discuss the transportation of nuclear waste to a temporary storage facility, 35 miles southwest from Salt Lake. They didn't have to wait long. Several hundred Salt Lake citizens, after being systematically searched by Salt Lake Police, packed into the room to add their voice to the mounting opposition against the controversial project. "The project is a crime against humanity, against the ecology and against generations of Utah citizens to come," said Bob Bruester, a Salt Lake City resident. The public forum kicked off a six-week investigation by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, to look into allowing the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians to lease their land to a temporary independent spent fuel storage facility. Hearings begin Tuesday. The proposition to store spent nuclear fuel on Native American Reservations began with a proposal in 1990. The Federal Government sought a voluntary candidate site to store the waste, temporarily, until it could be permanently housed in Yucca Mountains, Nevada. In response to the proposal, the Skull Valley Goshute Tribe signed a lease in 1998 with Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of eight utility companies, to temporarily store the fuel on the Goshute reservation. Because the tribe has been granted sovereignty by the federal government, they did not need to go through Utah officials to undertake the project. Utah Governor Mike Leavitt, state officials and Utah's congressional delegation have all vehemently opposed the venture. "The people of Utah don't want nuclear waste here. It doesn't make sense for Utah to store it," Leavitt said. "It never has made sense and it never will." Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson was the first to speak at the forum. He said the risks are too great for Salt Lake City. A transport of nuclear waste of that scale has never been attempted before, he said. "It is a deadly experiment and a horrific accident waiting to happen," Anderson said. Although the lease with Public Fuel Storage is for 20 years, with a possible 20-year renewal, Anderson said he fears the waste will find a permanent home in Utah. "All eyes will be looking at Skull Valley as the tried and true place to store nuclear waste," he said. Chip Ward, speaking for Families Against Incinerator Risk, said with the threat of earthquakes, wildfires, avalanches and flash floods, Skull Valley is not the place to store nuclear waste. "You can approve the project, but you cannot validate it. You can put your blessing on it, but your blessing will be our curse," he said to the licensing board. The licensing board will make a recommendation to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in September. Copyright ©2002 BYU NewsNet ***************************************************************** 49 Brian Greenspun: Lead the way, governor Las Vegas SUN April 09, 2002 THERE IS other news today. Of course. But, for Nevadans, can there be any more important news than that which our governor, Kenny Guinn, is making in Washington, D.C., where he is delivering the first-ever veto of a U.S. president's decision. That decision, as we all know, was to go back on his word to Nevada's voters during the last election when he said any decision on Yucca Mountain would be based on science and not politics. Had this state not fallen for the ruse there would have been a different president and, likely, no Yucca Mountain. But that is for the pundits and historians to grapple with -- what we have to fight now is the rest of the country's plan to bury us under 77,000 tons of radioactive waste. Hence, Mr. Guinn goes to Washington and with him go the hopes, dreams and aspirations of every Nevadan. We, unlike the bought-and-paid-for lobbyists and loud mouths who spout the nuclear power industry's party line, have to live with the callous disregard that appears so easy to come by for those who see dollar signs at the road's end in the Silver State. You see, this whole Yucca Mountain thing is about letting the power companies build more nuclear power plants around the country. They can't do that without an answer to the nuke waste problem -- any answer, good or bad, will do -- so Nevadans get to pay the heavy price so that the rich power producers can get richer. I was going to say here that I can understand the private industrialists wanting to get wealthier at the expense of hard-working little people -- that's what they all want to do -- but to make the president of the United States complicit in their scheme was just not right. But I decided not to say that because this president has not been shy in his quest to make his wealthy friends wealthier at the expense of others. I also am not going to say anything negative about President George W. Bush because he is leading us in a just and necessary war and, heaven knows, I don't want all of "those people" to think that I am unpatriotic. So I will hold my tongue and just stick to the rest of the facts. It is an amazing thing to open my mail these days -- electronic and carrier delivered -- to read some of the missives being sent my way that give explicit directions about where I should go and just how I should get there because I have dared to speak out against the people in the nuclear power industry who know what is good for us out here in Nevada. To think that our governor and the tens of thousands of other Nevadans who will now answer his call for help in our great fight will be subjected to the same "good wishes" is heartening because I learned a long time ago, the louder the bad guys squeal the more right and proper is our cause. And this cause is not only right, it is just and it is as American as any fight can get. What Gov. Guinn does in Washington will set the tone for the months of hard and patriotic work to come. Anyone who cares about this country and its Constitution will soon understand that the fight in which we are now engaged is the good fight. It is rooted in the concept that all people in this country are created equal and that no people in this country shall be set upon by an overbearing and unjust majority. If ever there were a fight for which our Founding Fathers would be itching, this is the one. They were tired of royal edicts, lost liberty and oppression from the high and mighty. This one has all that, and more. There are also very long odds attached to our fight, which is another reason the spunky guys who started this whole thing would be suiting up for the game. So we have right and justice on our side, we have history on our side, we have the very basis of a constitutional democracy on our side. We also have our governor, two senators and a whole lot of other Americans who know Bush's plan is wrong and wrong-headed, on our side. And, lest anyone think that there are just a few of us chickens out here afraid of a falling sky, pay attention. We have Republicans, Democrats and independents; we have young and old, newcomers and oldtimers; we have parents and children, those who never grew up and those who have seen too much; and we have many who don't understand why all this is happening. But, mostly, what we have is a state full of people who will soon come together behind our governor and our congressional leaders to do what we have to for our families and our futures. That, my friends, is the American way and that is democracy at its best. File your resolution of disapproval, Gov. Guinn. Tell the president he has done all Nevadans wrong. And let your voice be heard across this country. Then, come home and lead us the way we know you can and you know you must. We are Battle Born, governor. It is up to you to make sure we are battle ready. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 50 Editorial: Red-letter day in the Yucca fight Las Vegas SUN April 09, 2002 Today could very well be one of the most critical yet in the 20-year fight against the federal government's plans for Yucca Mountain. Gov. Kenny Guinn officially informed Nevadans and Congress on Monday that he is vetoing President Bush's recommendation to bury 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste under the ridge 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Today, however, with an outdoor news conference on the Capitol grounds and a speech to the National Press Club, Guinn began the most critical phase of Nevada's fight -- getting the word out to the country's general population. In Nevada, we have been hearing for the past decade all the reasons why Yucca Mountain will not work as the nation's single burial site for the world's deadliest material. But millions of people in other states are only vaguely aware, if that, of the burial plan's national implications. The federal government does not have an interest in releasing balanced information -- it has 20 years and billions of dollars invested in its Yucca plan. The nuclear power industry, certainly, is not being square on the issue, having spread $30 million around in Washington over the past 10 years to sway votes its way. Other state governments aren't jumping in to help -- the dump isn't within their borders, after all. Environmental groups are helping, but they do not reach uncommitted people in any great numbers. So that leaves Nevada. We have about three months, maybe less, before Congress votes to sustain or override Guinn's veto. So far we have two high-powered lobbyists working Capitol Hill and a number of lawsuits in the works. The Nevada Protection Fund -- a special fund set up to fight Yucca -- has about $6 million thanks to appropriations from the state and local governments and donations from businesses and individuals. The Legislative Interim Finance Committee, we believe, should vote for another $3 million -- already approved by the Board of Examiners -- when it meets Wednesday. A no vote would give ammunition to the pro-Yucca forces in Washington. But a yes vote would make more money available for a national advertising campaign. If we reach enough people, we may reach enough U.S. senators -- 51 are needed -- to sustain Guinn's veto. At a rally Monday morning, Guinn urged all Nevadans to pitch in at least $1. We hope people get into the spirit of that request. Maybe another million could be raised. More importantly, it would show the nation that behind the ad campaigns and speeches, Nevadans are united in their opposition to this very dangerous plan. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 51 Letter: Community must stand firm against waste Las Vegas SUN April 09, 2002 I retired last April and moved to Nevada, where I had vacationed over the past few years, and fell in love. I felt the change would be beneficial to my physical and mental health. I have been unable to live up to those expectations. Daily I am reminded of the underlying dilemma we are living with, that of the choosing of our state as a "nuclear repository." I am astounded to find overwhelming apathy on the part of many of our elected officials and citizens to this issue. I get the uneasy feeling these people are resolved that to fight this issue is a waste of our resources, as it will eventually become a reality. How can something as critical as nuclear waste, being transported through nationwide communities, and stored in our community, be handled matter-of-factly? I love Nevada, and am having an extremely hard time understanding why people who are drawn here because of her beauty, would be willing to jeopardize her. I am hopeful, once our governor and legislative team reach out to other state representatives, that our fight will take a different turn. In the meantime, I would feel so much better knowing we, as a state of "Battle Born" citizens, will stand firm and not let others dictate our future. THOMAS S. WOOLSEY All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 52 Letter: 'West Wing' full of inaccuracies Las Vegas SUN April 09, 2002 It appears that the "West Wing" writers have pulled, nay, yanked the chains of anti-Yucca Mountaineers. Anyone with a science background would know that depleted uranium cannot fuel a reactor. The greatest danger from depleted uranium would be dropping it on your foot. Further, transuranics is not the term used for the materials used at Rocky Flats. It is more appropriately used to describe some waste products at the Savannah River Plant. But the fast one they slipped in was the tunnel fire at 1,500 degrees F. Many of us have stainless steel pots and pans and some have gas stoves. Has anyone seen a pot melt on the stove? No, because its melting point is about 2,500 degrees F. And, by the way, has anyone seen a pot corrode through in their lifetime? The shipping container is 100 times thicker and would get less torment in a year than a pot would in a week. Apparently, even common sense seems to be lacking. Not surprised that you were duped by West Wing's joke. You only listen to what you want to hear in order to get votes by squandering more taxpayer money betting against the sun rising in the morning. My vote goes to the gaming industry -- at least they seem to understand. ALFRED MOWERY All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 53 County may add $1.5 mil. to fight Yucca Las Vegas SUN April 09, 2002 By Adrienne Packer Clark County Commission Chairman Dario Herrera tried to make a motion to designate $1.5 million toward the Yucca Mountain fight -- even though he could not legally do so because the item was not on the agenda at a county budget workshop Monday. But after fielding commissioners' cost-cutting recommendations -- including housing family court judges in portable trailers and putting a temporary courthouse in the Jean airport -- County Manager Thom Reilly agreed to find the $1.5 million. If the board approves the funding today, the money will go toward a legal fund and an anti-nuclear waste dump campaign led by Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev. "If (the campaign) is as successful as we expect, maybe we'll consider adding additional allocations in the future," Herrera said. Herrera said Monday's workshop was an ideal setting to discuss Yucca Mountain because it also fell on the day Gov. Kenny Guinn vetoed President Bush's recommendation to store nuclear waste in Nevada. The workshop was originally designed to prioritize the county's policy and service objectives. "This is a historic moment that will gain national attention," Herrera said. "This is a one-time opportunity. The governor needs our outreach more than ever during the next 90 days." The redirection of Monday's planned brainstorming session left workshop facilitator Craig Holt sidelined and administrators scouring a tight $800 million general fund budget for spare cash. The county's entire budget is about $3 billion. Herrera initially asked that $3 million be taken from $6 million designated for a countywide update of antiquated computer systems. But according to Assistant County Manager Mike Alastuey, holding off on new computers could cause serious problems. "Delaying half (the computer replacements) would place the county in a position of not functioning properly," Alastuey said. "We would suffer severe function problems." Scanning the county's major projects scheduled for fiscal year 2002-03, Commissioner Erin Kenny suggested delaying a $1 million courthouse in Goodsprings and placing a temporary facility at the Jean airport. Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates tossed out the idea of postponing the reconfiguration of Family and Youth Services courthouses and instead housing judges in portable trailers. "If portables are good enough for our kids to learn in, they're good enough for our judges," Atkinson Gates said. Although County Finance Director George Stevens said he hasn't been able to find spare money "rattling around in the budget," he and Reilly agreed to take the money from a source that would not threaten public safety. Stevens said the budget picture is not as grim as it was expected to be after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The attacks and tourists' subsequent fear of traveling primarily affected sales tax revenues. "We're already seeing the economy come back," Stevens said, "although we're nowhere near where we were a year ago." Commissioners, looking for ways to beef up the county's general fund coffers, considered raising the countywide operating tax by six-tenths of a cent. Because the tax increase would be offset by retired bond debts, homeowners would not pay more money, they simply wouldn't receive a tax break related to the expired bonds. The increase -- which amounts to about $3.50 a year for owners of homes with an assessed valuation of $100,000 -- would add about $2.5 million a year to the county's general fund, Stevens said. Reilly said the county has worked to save money by enacting a hiring freeze. Since Sept. 11, an average of 225 positions have remained vacant, saving the county $4 million in salaries and benefits. Although the budget won't be finalized until late May, commissioners are considering requests for 132 new positions amounting to nearly $8 million in salaries. The bulk of the new jobs requested are related to the Regional Justice Center and new fire stations. Most of the $54 million designated for major projects will be used to cover some $30 million in overrun costs at the Regional Justice Center and detention center expansion. The county also plans to begin renovating its Clark Place building downtown, build a new courthouse in Goodsprings, reconfigure the courtrooms at Family and Youth Services and update antiquated computers. The facilitator on Monday asked commissioners to prioritize the county's upcoming projects given their budget. Board members, who ultimately decided that air quality should top the county's list, pushed issues they have personally adopted over the past year. Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, a member of the Regional Transportation Commission, advocated a better transportation system. Atkinson Gates pushed health care. Kenny, who pleaded for residents to vote for a children's hospital bond in 2000, continued her campaign for more parks and hospitals. "It doesn't do any good to have good roads and clean air if everyone leaves because we don't have hospitals or places to play," she said. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 54 Yucca project believed to be 'legally dead' Las Vegas SUN April 09, 2002 By Erin Neff Nevada officials plan to use Gov. Kenny Guinn's veto of the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain to boost their efforts to stop the project in the courts. Today the Energy Department's water permit runs out and the state will argue that since Guinn has vetoed the project, the federal government isn't entitled to any more water. "Our reading of the statute is that the project has been vetoed," said Marta Adams, the deputy attorney general who is assigned to the Nevada Nuclear Projects Office. "It is legally dead unless it is revived by a new act of Congress." The 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act gave Guinn the ability to veto a presidential decision in favor of the waste site. That law also defines how and when Congress must act to sustain or override the veto. Now that Guinn has acted, the state believes the Yucca Mountain project is "legally dead" until revived by an act of Congress. The water issue has become contentious. The state says there's no need to allow further water use because the Energy Department says the water would be used as part of its study of Yucca Mountain. State lawyers say the study is essentially over since the president's decision to recommend the site, and the federal government should wait for a permanent license of the site to apply for water. Now with Guinn's veto, the project is dead, state lawyers believe. The Energy Department does not interpret the law the same way and will not cease any action on the Yucca project now that Guinn has filed his veto, Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said. Only an action of Congress could grind the Yucca project to a halt, Davis said. The department does not interpret federal nuclear waste laws to direct a stop of work on the Yucca project while the governor's veto is pending, he added. Nevada won't ask a judge to issue an injunction barring the Energy Department from conducting any operations at the site because state officials believe the matter will be decided in a lawsuit -- perhaps as early as this week. The Energy Department's water permit expires today, and the state has denied the department's request for a temporary permit extending the ability to draw water. Mike Turnipseed, director of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, said Monday traditionally the state will issue a cease and desist order against the party who has lost the water right but continues to pump. Turnipseed said if the Energy Department does not follow the stoppage order, then the state will sue in court to force the government to obey the law. Turnipseed said he hopes the case will be brought in state district court, instead of the federal court where water issues are pending now. The government pumps 430 acre-feet of water from the Fortymile Canyon-Jackass Flat Groundwater Basin in Nye County each year. The suit by the Energy Department says it would not be able to complete scientific studies to determine if Yucca Mountain was a suitable location of the repository. The state issued temporary permits in 1992 and 1994. But state Engineer Hugh Ricci refused this year to extend the temporary permits on grounds the federal government had completed its study. Ricci based his decision on the announcement by the Energy Department and President Bush that the site has been found to be safe for storing the waste. The state engineer said the site characterization process has been complete and the temporary water permits were not necessary for continued study. The Energy Department responded by suing and building storage tanks to hold water while the issue is being resolved in court. The Energy Department also has a suit pending on the state's denial of a permanent water right for Yucca Mountain. No hearing has been set on that case. That water issue is pending in U.S. District Court -- with the government seeking expedited legal filings from the state to resolve the case quickly. "This is obviously a political chess game right now, but it can spill over into the judicial arena," Adams said. "I can't tip my (hand) right now, but I think you're going to see that played out in the water case." The state will likely argue that Guinn's veto has killed the proposed nuclear waste repository 90 miles outside of Las Vegas, and as a result, gives the Energy Department no right to access the state's water. "Until Congress acts, we don't see any reason for them to continue with their activities," Adams said. DOE officials continue to monitor ongoing studies of the site and are preparing to apply for a license to bury the waste with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Davis said. Adams was expecting the judge in the water case to require her to file briefs showing the state's opposition to the Energy Department's request on Monday -- the day before the permit expires. Now Adams said she expects the government will demand the case be expedited as early as today. In addition to the water suit, Nevada has also filed suit in federal court in Washington, D.C. based on the geology of Yucca Mountain. "On the geology alone this mountain can't hold anything," Adams said. The Energy Department has won approval to change the guidelines for storing waste at Yucca Mountain from rules based on the geologic isolation of the ridge to a requirement that natural geology coupled with manmade barriers be used in the repository. A number of Nevada officials, including former U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan, said they believe the state's best chance to block the dump is in the courts. "The state's case is very good," Bryan said. Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said he hoped Nevada would be able to muster enough political support in the U.S. House of Representatives to stop the project, even though he believes that to be a long shot. "If we don't prevail in the House, we will prevail in the Senate," Goodman said. "And if we don't prevail in the Senate, we will definitely prevail in the courts because might is right." All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 55 Guinn takes case to D.C. Las Vegas SUN April 09, 2002 Nevadans highlight risk of shipping nuclear waste By Benjamin Grove WASHINGTON -- The Yucca Mountain project is riddled with flawed scientific research, broken laws and centers on bad public policy, Gov. Kenny Guinn said today in the glaring spotlight of the national media outside the Capitol. "We have known for some time that it is bad public policy to take some of the most dangerous man-made waste in the history of the country and expose it to 123 million Americans," Guinn said. Nevada officials filed Guinn's veto of the nuclear waste repository project on Monday, and Guinn is taking full advantage of national news attention in the nation's capital to stress anti-Yucca messages. Guinn and Nevada's four congressional lawmakers, standing in front of network and cable news cameras and national newspaper reporters, made a public pitch against the waste dump, stressing the risks of transporting nuclear waste to Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. "Nuclear waste is not a Nevada problem," Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said. "It is a problem for all Americans." Under the law that created the selection process for a high-level nuclear dump, the governor was allowed to veto the president's recommendation on the site. The issue goes to Congress for a vote. A simple majority in both chambers is required to override Guinn's objection. Nevada leaders are using Guinn's veto -- the first time a governor has been able to veto a presidential decision -- to make their case to the nation. It is not yet clear if people nationwide are paying attention to Yucca Mountain project, Guinn said after the press conference, fresh from interviews on CNN on Monday and again this morning. But he is beginning to see a ripple of interest. "You're starting to see articles in newspapers all across the country," Guinn said after the press conference. "You are getting people to say, 'What is Yucca Mountain?' We are trying to get the American people to understand that this is an American story." Fanning media interest can be tricky -- numerous newspaper editorial pages support a Yucca repository. A Wall Street Journal editorial today said, "The U.S. political system works its will slowly, but the decision on nuclear waste is getting ridiculous. The waste has to go somewhere, and better one site than 131. Americans should understand that the vote over Yucca Mountain is whether nuclear power is going to have any future at all." Nevada lawmakers made familiar points on the transportation issue. Reid stressed that if Congress approves Yucca Mountain -- and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission licenses it -- 100,000 shipments of waste could be made through America, near "people's homes, schools, churches and businesses." Energy Department officials bristle at that figure. Nevada officials repeatedly exaggerate, department spokesman Joe Davis said. He said 4,600 shipments over 24 years was a better estimate: 3,500 train shipments and 1,100 truckloads. Nevada's estimate assumes that Congress will decide later to expand the size of the repository, which by current law is limited to 77,000 tons of waste, Davis said. Reid also repeated today that the Energy Department for years has not negotiated in good faith with the state, which Energy officials dispute. Davis said Nevada lawmakers have not taken up Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham on an invitation to meet with him. "That still stands," Davis said. He had no specific response to Guinn's media blitz. "The secretary always looks forward to what the governor has to say." Davis added that the Yucca repository is in the nation's best interest in terms of national security because it isolates waste into one secure storage facility. If Congress approves Yucca Mountain during the coming weeks, the department plans to apply for a license to bury the waste in Nevada with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a process that could take years. Lawmakers should let the NRC make the call, Davis said. "Congress should realize the importance of allowing the impartial and independent experts at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to make a decision on this issue instead of short-circuiting the process with so much at stake." Nevada officials loudly argued today that department and nuclear industry officials are falsely arguing that Yucca Mountain would create one waste site. They stress that nuclear plants will continue to generate power and waste -- and will always store some waste on-site, even as the plants send some waste to Yucca. "That truly is the government's big lie," Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said. "There will not be just one waste site." Guinn may meet with a Republican senator before he leaves Washington today. Guinn said he will meet with more Republican senators when directed by Reid and Ensign. Mostly as a political courtesy, Guinn said he planned to meet today with House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., a Yucca advocate. Guinn also plans to meet today with Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. Daschle is working with Reid behind the scenes to ensure that no Democrat brings the issue to the floor for a vote, Daschle spokeswoman Ranit Schmelzer said today. "He is looking to Sen. Ensign to work with (Republican leader) Sen. (Trent) Lott to do the same on his side of the aisle," Schmelzer said. "If no one brings Yucca Mountain to the floor, the governor's veto stands." Daschle and Ensign have traded a few jabs in the media over who can do more to block the Yucca vote, with Ensign urging Daschle to block it and Daschle saying that his power is limited because federal law allows any senator to bring the issue forward. Congress has 90 days to vote on Yucca Mountain and whether to override Guinn's veto. Reid and Ensign need 51 senators to vote against Yucca, and Reid is likely to have 32 or so Democrats preparing to vote with him, sources say. Much of the pressure is on Ensign to round up Republican senators. Only one, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., is said to be against Yucca. Today Ensign said several other Republican senators were undecided. Ensign said he is stressing several themes with Republican colleagues: transporting waste is dangerous and transportation studies incomplete and that constructing Yucca Mountain is fiscally irresponsible. "We have the facts on our side and what we are trying to do is open minds," Ensign said. If Congress approves Yucca, the issue will be in the hands of the NRC -- and the courts. The state has filed four lawsuits, with two more likely. Guinn said state officials already are looking beyond the "uphill battle" in the Senate to a long legal battle. Nuclear industry officials shrugged off Guinn's long-expected veto and urged Congress to shift the Yucca project from a study phase to a licensing phase. "President Bush did the right thing when he approved Yucca Mountain as a suitable site," said Joe Colvin, president and chief executive of the Nuclear Energy Institute, a leading industry lobby group. "Now it's time for Congress, in accord with the best principles of sound science, to do the right thing for U.S energy security as well." All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 56 House minority whip expects new anti-Yucca votes Las Vegas SUN April 09, 2002 By Erin Neff The House of Representative's second-ranking Democratic said she thinks opponents of a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain will make strong gains from a 2000 vote on the issue. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the House minority whip, admitted Monday during a stop in Las Vegas that Nevada has practically no chance of winning a vote in the Republican-controlled House. But she pledged to work with Nevada officials to get a large enough vote in the House to help affect the outcome in the Senate, where opponents of the dump believe they have a chance to sustain Gov. Kenny Guinn's veto of the project. "We salute the decision of Gov. Guinn and we will do everything in our power to get the biggest possible vote," Pelosi said, referring to the lobbying work she, House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., and Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., plan in coming weeks. In 2000, the House voted 253-167 in favor of a Yucca Mountain item. Pelosi trumpeted her party as Nevada-friendly, saying only 18 Republicans voted to oppose the dump, compared with 147 Democrats. Two Independents also voted against the dump. "I say that not in a partisan vein, but to tell you what a big fight we have ahead," Pelosi said. She declined to give an estimate on how the next vote in the House -- expected in May -- will turn out. Today Pelosi was to meet with Gephardt, Berkley and others to analyze how much support there is for Nevada's position. "We want this to be a big number so that the senators have a comfort level," Pelosi said. "However great our numbers were before, they'll be greater now." Pelosi said sustaining Guinn's veto is a Democratic priority. And, she added, it will be easier for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., to get 51 votes if the House vote shows greater opposition to the dump than it did in 2000. "We're going to strategically look at each vote," Berkley said. "More than the numbers, it's a strategic location of where those votes are." Berkley and Pelosi both said Nevada's strategy in the House will be to target representatives in states with senators that are on the fence. "We're not yielding one grain of sand, or one vote on this," Pelosi added. Pelosi said she had not yet been able to get information from House Speaker Dennis Hastert's office on when a Yucca vote would be scheduled. Under the rules of the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the House will vote on the item first. Both the House and Senate must vote on the issue within 90 legislative days. Pelosi said President Bush could "honor his statements" to Nevadans by asking Republican House leaders to delay a vote on Yucca so that representatives can learn more about the issue. But Pelosi also coyly avoided a question about whether she and other Democratic leaders can delay the item from coming to a vote. "Let's just say we have our parliamentary arrows in our quivers," Pelosi said. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 57 Russia to resume nuclear shipments IHT: AP Tuesday, April 9, 2002 MOSCOW After months of debate over prices, Russia will resume shipments of nuclear fuel from Soviet-era weapons to the United States this month for use in U.S. power plants, Russia's nuclear energy minister said Monday. The shipments are part of a U.S.-funded program to keep nuclear materials out of terrorists' hands. The program appeared to be in jeopardy after the previous contract for the fuel expired at the end of last year. Copyright © 2002 the International Herald Tribune All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 58 Protestors hold rally against storage of waste on Skull Valley reservation BYU NewsNet By Elise Christenson NewsNet Staff Writer 4/9/2002 Outside the Salt Palace at 7 p.m. Monday, April 8, hundreds of protesters - students dressed as the grim reaper, women carrying faux caskets and bohemians beating drums - stood in not-so-quiet protest of the storage of 400,000 tons of nuclear waste in Skull Valley. Inside the Salt Palace at 7 p.m. Monday, room 25 was quiet. Four men, administrative judges appointed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, sat waiting at four desks in front of four microphones. The men were waiting for the doors to open, signifying the beginning of a public forum to discuss the transportation of nuclear waste to a temporary storage facility, 35 miles southwest from Salt Lake. They didn't have to wait long. Several hundred Salt Lake citizens, after being systematically searched by Salt Lake Police, packed into the room to add their voice to the mounting opposition against the controversial project. "The project is a crime against humanity, against the ecology and against generations of Utah citizens to come," said Bob Bruester, a Salt Lake City resident. The public forum kicked off a six-week investigation by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, to look into allowing the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians to lease their land to a temporary independent spent fuel storage facility. Hearings begin Tuesday. The proposition to store spent nuclear fuel on Native American Reservations began with a proposal in 1990. The Federal Government sought a voluntary candidate site to store the waste, temporarily, until it could be permanently housed in Yucca Mountains, Nevada. In response to the proposal, the Skull Valley Goshute Tribe signed a lease in 1998 with Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of eight utility companies, to temporarily store the fuel on the Goshute reservation. Because the tribe has been granted sovereignty by the federal government, they did not need to go through Utah officials to undertake the project. Utah Governor Mike Leavitt, state officials and Utah's congressional delegation have all vehemently opposed the venture. "The people of Utah don't want nuclear waste here. It doesn't make sense for Utah to store it," Leavitt said. "It never has made sense and it never will." Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson was the first to speak at the forum. He said the risks are too great for Salt Lake City. A transport of nuclear waste of that scale has never been attempted before, he said. "It is a deadly experiment and a horrific accident waiting to happen," Anderson said. Although the lease with Public Fuel Storage is for 20 years, with a possible 20-year renewal, Anderson said he fears the waste will find a permanent home in Utah. "All eyes will be looking at Skull Valley as the tried and true place to store nuclear waste," he said. Chip Ward, speaking for Families Against Incinerator Risk, said with the threat of earthquakes, wildfires, avalanches and flash floods, Skull Valley is not the place to store nuclear waste. "You can approve the project, but you cannot validate it. You can put your blessing on it, but your blessing will be our curse," he said to the licensing board. The licensing board will make a recommendation to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in September. Copyright ©2002 BYU NewsNet ***************************************************************** 59 Utahns Rally Against N-Waste Facility The Salt Lake Tribune -- Tuesday, April 9, 2002 Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson speaks out against nuclear waste in Utah at the Gallivan Center Plaza on Monday as Gov. Mike Leavitt waits for his turn to speak. (Ryan Galbraith/The Salt Lake Tribune) BY JUDY FAHYS THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Federal regulators at the Salt Palace Convention Center were too far away to hear the resounding "no" Utahns shouted Monday during a rally two blocks away protesting a plan to store highly radioactive nuclear waste on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian reservation. But the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board certainly did get the message throughout the opening day of its final hearings on whether to license such a storage facility as proposed by the tiny Tooele County tribe and a consortium of out-of-state utilities. In public comments to the board, speaker after speaker complained the proposal offers too few assurances the site would be protected against terrorist attacks and manageable by the conflict-torn Goshutes. They wanted assurances the risk of deadly transit accidents is low. They doubted the waste would leave Utah after 40 years. "We do not want high-level nuclear waste in our state -- period," Gov. Mike Leavitt told the crowd of about 300 that rallied at the Gallivan Center in downtown Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson roused the crowd by saying the project "exemplifies the worst kind of corporate greed and economic opportunism." "We can't simply roll the dice and hope that nothing will happen," said Anderson, calling transporting the waste a safety and financial risk nationwide, and especially in Salt Lake City. The city and the state teamed up to help organize the protest. The city mailed notices paid for by the state to people on its 6,000-address community-events mailing list. The hourlong gathering took on the motley air of a festival or wholesome, Utah-style Mardi Gras. Gray-haired grandparents carried "No high-level waste" posters, as did a few toddlers in strollers. Educators and students, Goshutes and medical professionals, kids and moms sang "This Land Is Your Land" at the end. Then the crowd marched down 200 South to the licensing board's public session. The procession was led by a mock waste casket, a larger-than-life skeleton puppet, and troupe of drummers and was protected by a motorcycle police escort. Licensing-board members have no obligation to weave the public comments into their decision on the storage project. Legally, their job is only to discern whether the facility meets federal regulations for safety, financial and technical standards. But they set aside six hours to hear from about four dozen people, most of whom oppose granting a 20-year waste storage license to Private Fuel Storage (PFS), the consortium of eight utility companies that has leased 125 acres on the reservation for the $3.1 billion facility. Plans call for putting the steel-and-concrete casks of waste upright and outdoors on a 3-foot-thick concrete storage pad. The facility's 4,000-ton capacity could hold all of the used power-plant fuel created in 40 years of U.S. use of commercial nuclear energy. The consortium, whose member utilities fear having to shut down over a lack of onsite storage at the nuclear plants they own, sees the Utah facility as a way to extend the lives of its plants until the federal government offers them permanent disposal, probably at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Tribal leaders sought the facility in the 1990s as a way to beef up economic development for the 127-member band. But critics say the storage could become permanent because the federal government has not determined a place to dispose the waste. Several Goshute tribal members, including some who insist the current, federally recognized tribal leaders have been recalled, criticized the licensing board for undermining the tribe. "We will not allow our tribal government to be hijacked," said Goshute dissident leader Margene Bullcreek. "And we will not allow our reservation to become a national nuclear-waste dump." Rep. Jim Matheson, the first to speak to the licensing board during its morning public-comment session, said Utahns are skeptical about government assurances that its nuclear programs are safe, based on the harm citizens suffered from open-air nuclear weapons testing during the Cold War. "Why do we have to go through this again?" he asked the panel. Mary Draper, an opponent who described herself as "a mom and a citizen," told how her fears about the facility have grown since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. She said plans to build the facility further undermined her sense of security. "You are the people with the power. You're the ones with the authority," she told the board. "Now do the right thing." © Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune ***************************************************************** 60 Mountain of Controversy Created by Proposed Waste Site (washingtonpost.com) Nevada Veto Shifts Debate to Congress By Eric Pianin Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, April 9, 2002; Page A03 AMARGOSA VALLEY, Nev. -- Here in the Nevada desert, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas and a thousand feet beneath the surface of an ugly mountain ridge, the Bush administration is preparing to bury the nation's least desired waste: 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel that will remain radioactive for at least 100 centuries. Over the past 20 years, government engineers and scientists have carved a vast underground netherworld of tunnels, vaults and test bores to assess Yucca Mountain's geology, part of a controversial plan to store the byproduct of the nation's nuclear power plants. By relying on a combination of natural barriers and hardened steel alloy storage casks, President Bush and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham declared recently that the government could safely bury the deadly radioactive refuse for at least 10,000 years without it leaching into underground water or escaping into the environment in harmful doses. During a recent trip into the bowels of this remote mountain, Michael D. Voegele, the government's chief scientist on the project, fervently declared: "There's overwhelming evidence this is a good site." But the debate over Yucca Mountain is far from settled. Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn (R) has invoked a unique provision of federal law to veto Bush's Feb. 16 decision authorizing construction of the nation's first centralized nuclear waste repository. His veto, delivered to Congress yesterday, sets the stage for a bruising, election-year battle this summer when the House and Senate must decide whether to uphold or override his action. "Yucca Mountain is but the latest in a long series of [Energy Department] boondoggles -- one based on bad science, bad law and bad public policy," Guinn said in his notice of disapproval. "Better, cheaper and safer alternatives exist." Nevada's political establishment and gambling industry oppose the repository. Yet even with the backing of Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) and Majority Whip Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), they face an uphill challenge in trying to scuttle the projected $58 billion project, which is strongly favored by the nuclear energy industry, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and many lawmakers with nuclear power plants in their states. The repository would receive huge stockpiles of nuclear waste and radioactive material from 131 above-ground nuclear power plants in 39 states. The waste now is primarily stored in "temporary" concrete-encased pools, and the states are eager to ship it to a permanent site. While the House is expected to approve the Nevada project by a wide margin, the vote will be much closer in the Senate, where controversy over the safety of the proposed underground repository and problems associated with shipping the waste cross-country could influence some votes. In ordering the government to proceed, Bush and Abraham declared the proposed centralized nuclear waste repository "scientifically sound and suitable." Yet scientists and experts representing Nevada and environmental groups argue that Yucca Mountain's volcanic rock is too porous, the waste containers have not been shown to be dependable over long periods of time, and the environmental effects of storing so much heat-generating nuclear waste for so long are unknown. Last January, the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, created by Congress in 1987 to provide an ongoing independent assessment of the project, declared that "the technical basis for the DOE's repository performance estimates is weak to moderate at this time." The Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently identified 293 unresolved technical issues, ranging from the extent of faulting and fracturing of the repository rock over time to the speed with which water can seep through heated rock and corrode the storage canisters to the possibility of future volcanic activity. Critics also say the Energy Department has virtually ignored the risks of transporting deadly waste through 43 states, within one mile of 50 million Americans, providing another target for terrorists. Government officials respond there's more of a threat of terrorism by leaving the nuclear waste scattered at plants throughout the country -- as Nevada officials and environmentalists are proposing. Abraham said recently there is plenty of time to resolve the remaining scientific and safety issues to satisfy the NRC, which must issue a license before the repository can be built. The DOE is shooting for a 2010 deadline for opening the repository, but it could take much longer. Abraham said a system of "multiple and redundant safeguards" -- the combination of the site's natural barriers and the engineered canisters -- will protect the underground water system and nearby residents from dangerous levels of radioactive contamination. But Allison Macfarlane, a geologist and co-director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Yucca Mountain monitoring project, said DOE scientists are vastly understating the technical problems. "This isn't to say Yucca Mountain is not the place for the waste," she said. "I'd say they just don't know yet." The project's tortuous history dates back to the 1950s, when the federal government promised to assume responsibility for disposing of radioactive waste from nuclear power plants and defense activities. Nine other sites were considered. But after widespread opposition from those states, Congress in 1987 ordered the Energy Department to consider only Yucca Mountain, adjacent to the Nevada Test Site. The rugged 5,000-foot high ridge -- created more than 12 million years ago by volcanic eruptions -- consists of alternating layers of tightly compacted, granite-like rock and more spongy, tan rock resembling sandstone. Using 720-ton tunnel-boring equipment that resembles a train fitted with a huge circular cutting head, engineers penetrated the mountain to create miles of test tunnels in order to examine faults and determine how quickly small amounts of rainfall can travel through cracks and how intense heat given off by the stored nuclear material -- as high as 390 degrees Farenheit -- would affect the rock's ability to serve as a shield. In a report to the president in February, the Energy Department concluded that a Yucca Mountain repository would provide the location, natural barriers and design elements "most likely to protect the health and safety of the public," including the 3,500 people and dairy farmers who live nearby. The study said that workers and residents would at worst be exposed to minor levels of radiation -- no more than 15 millirems a year -- and that radioactive contaminants in groundwater would be no higher than four millirems per year, well within Environmental Protection Agency standards. By comparison, Americans on average are exposed to 360 millirems a year through contact with equipment and their natural surroundings. The Energy Department said there was "virtually no realistic foundation" to concerns that rainwater could seep through the mountain, penetrate titanium drip shields and the waste containers, and then carry radioactive material into the groundwater. Yucca Mountain receives less than eight inches of rain in an average year, the study said, and most of that runs off the mountain or evaporates. Less than four-tenths of an inch per year would ever reach the repository. But Nevada state officials charge that the administration is providing a distorted picture and that the mountain would provide far less protection from radioactive leaks than DOE contends. In ordering a study of Yucca Mountain, Congress specified that the decision should be based largely on geologic characteristics. In 1995, a government geologist discovered traces of Chlorine 36, a byproduct of 1950s-era atmospheric nuclear weapons testing, in small amounts of rain water that had seeped down through cracks in Yucca Mountain to the level where nuclear waste would be kept, 800 feet below the surface. The finding's implications were staggering. If rain water could reach the repository in half a century, then it was possible for radioactive material to reach the groundwater used by a nearby dairy farming community in as little as a few hundred years, according to Nevada officials. "They suddenly realized they didn't have waste isolation based on the geology itself," said Steve Frishman, Gov. Guinn's technical policy coordinator. Voegele concedes that the Chlorine 36 finding "shook us up to the extent that it heightened our awareness of the importance of engineered barriers working with geologic barriers." There is also doubt about the long-term effectiveness of the waste canisters in resisting corrosion, in part because DOE has done only about four years of laboratory experiments. Officials agree more testing is needed and said they are considering a design change that would greatly reduce the canisters' exposure to heat and moisture. "Nevada has never said we don't want it at any cost," Guinn said. "We're saying we want sound science." © 2002 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 61 Nevada governor takes veto to Washington to kill nuclear dump - 4/9/2002 - ENN.com Tuesday, April 09, 2002 By Ken Ritter, Associated Press LAS VEGAS — Nevada stepped up its campaign against burying nuclear waste in the state on Monday as the governor vetoed a presidential endorsement and activists readied a lobbying campaign to reinforce his action. In February, President Bush picked Yucca Mountain as the place to entomb up to 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel that will remain radioactive for 10,000 years. The site is 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. A veto of Bush's endorsement was signed on Friday by Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn and was delivered to the House and Senate on Monday. "Let me make one thing clear — crystal clear, in fact. Yucca Mountain is not inevitable," Guinn told supporters Monday before heading to Washington to lobby on behalf of the state's position. Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said the Yucca Mountain project has received a thorough review by scientists. "It is strongly in the interest of national security, energy and homeland security, and environmental protection to move forward and not leave waste stranded in 131 scattered sites around the country," Davis said. Guinn's veto was allowed under rules Congress wrote for developing a national nuclear waste dump. Congress will have the final say, however, and a vote on whether to override Guinn is expected before August. Opponents of the Yucca Mountain plan were organizing a coast-to-coast lobbying campaign against an override vote. The governor asked Nevada residents to each donate $1 or more to the lobbying campaign "We will expose the Department of Energy's dirty little secrets about Yucca Mountain," Guinn said, saying Americans have not been told of the danger of transporting nuclear waste through their neighborhoods. Opposition to the project is overwhelming in Nevada. "Nuclear energy can be a good thing," Earl McGhee, a 74-year-old retiree, said from his home in Amargosa Valley, less than 15 miles from Yucca Mountain. "But if it's mishandled, it's a bad thing. A long-time bad thing." The lobbying effort is being directed by two former White House chiefs of staff: Democrat John Podesta, who worked for President Clinton, and Republican Kenneth Duberstein, who worked for President Reagan. The campaign is to include television ads targeting lawmakers in races that could swing on votes from environmentalists. Spent nuclear fuel has accumulated for decades at power plants and defense facilities in 34 states, as lawmakers debated whether and where to establish a national repository. Opponents of the Yucca Mountain project, led by environmentalists and Nevada's congressional delegation, are focusing their lobbying effort on the Senate, considering it almost certain that the Republican-controlled House will side with Bush. Nevada's campaign will focus on lingering questions about the safety of the Yucca Mountain site and fears that the thousands of truck and train trips it will take to haul the waste across the country will lead to accidents and potential radioactive spills. Copyright 2002, Associated Press ***************************************************************** 62 The Yucca issue plays the big room Las Vegas Business Press By Dennis Myers Since U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham's recommended Yucca Mountain to George Bush and Bush's subsequent designation to Congress of Yucca nuclear waste repository, the entire issue has been elevated to a new rank as a national issue. Interest groups like the Ralph Nader-founded Public Citizen have swung into action. Newspaper reports sometimes now assume the public's greater familiarity with the issue by referring to the Yucca Mountain project without further explanation of what it is. The story has spread across the world, generating international coverage of the issue. By the way, seeing Yucca through the eyes of overseas observers is fascinating. In the London Independent, an article on the Yucca Mountain project ran under the headline "Bush to dump nuclear waste in earthquake zone." Some unique approaches have been used. For example, there is the mail generated to Congress against the dump project by Working Assets Long Distance Service. Working Assets is an unusual corporation that provides a variety of services with liberal goals, such as a stock brokerage arm that emphasizes socially responsible corporations. Working Assets also helps fund liberal causes. People who subscribe to its long-distance service each month get billing that offers two boxes that customers can check. Checking a box means letters will be sent out under the customer's name to his or her senators and representative (or selected other officials), with the two issues changing each month. For instance, in February customers could request letters opposing mining in wilderness areas or war-spawned curbs on disclosure of federal documents. In March, hundred of thousands of Working Assets customers all over the United States were given the opportunity to check a box sending letters opposing Yucca storage to their local Congress members. Some news reports that would probably never have seen print a year ago have taken on greater import for those who read inside-the-beltway tea leaves. For instance, the Washington Post's Al Kamen ran an item about Nevada's U.S. Sen. Harry Reid and Bush political advisor Karl Rove and their wives having dinner at Signatures, a Washington hot spot. The item said both men are Nevada natives (Rove is from Sparks), but that the dinner conversation probably "had more to do with dumping nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain than in birthplaces." One reason for the increased attention to Yucca, obviously, is that official benchmarks such as Bush's targeting of Nevada for the dump and Gov. Kenny Guinn's impending veto have raised the issue's visibility. But there has also been a juxtaposition of other developments that have kept Yucca Mountain in the news. For instance, there was a flurry of stories about George Bush abandoning his campaign promises in publications like the New York Times and Washington Post. Bush's failure to keep his "promise" to veto the dump fell naturally into such articles; two different pieces in the Post alone mentioned Bush's broken Yucca promise. (As noted in this space on Febr. 25, Bush never actually promised to veto the dump, only to veto Congressional interference in the study process.) Another development that kept the Yucca issue in a prominent place in the news was the release of documents that Bush had tried to keep secret on the cozy relationship between the administration and energy industry lobbyists and executives. The increased space given to Yucca has turned up some revealing and subtle hints of the way the issue is seen in newsrooms. The Washington Post on March 26 published an essay by U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham under a title that fairly characterized its content: "One Safe Site is Best." On April 1 the Post ran a competing view from Clark County Commission Chairman Dario Herrera. Instead of running as an essay, as Abraham's did, it ran as a letter to the editor - and it ran under a headline that depicted it as an expression of selfish parochialism: "Nuclear Waste: Not in Our Neighborhood." The Post also ran a roll call of the vote on the campaign finance reform bill that said Nevada Sen. Richard Bryan (who left office in January 2001) voted yes, which prompted Reno columnist Guy Clifton to suggest, "Maybe he can vote on Yucca, too." Copyright 2002 Las Vegas Business Press ***************************************************************** 63 Another Holocaust In the Making Updated on 2002-04-06 21:38:46 Pakistan News Service As a global human civilization we all believed we had advanced in the arena of universal human rights, the rule of law, justice and roll back in weapons of mass destruction. The World War II holocaust of Jewish people by Nazis is a reminder of systematic and state sponsored atrocities and genocide based upon intense hate and rage. Speilburg's film 'Shindler's list' documented this gruesome era of suffering for human race. The culprits responsible for the holocaust are still being brought to justice and restitutions being paid to the victim's families as of today. The only case of nuclear weapons use is on Japan's Hiroshima and Nagasaki by United States. Learning from the immense destruction and sufferings, world has vowed to limit and monitor nuclear use. Rogue nations are brought under intense scrutiny and international sanctions if deemed to be pursuing this path. Suddenly, a week ago, all this changed once more. Misusing the tailwind of United States’ war on terrorism, Israel decided to unleash world's 2nd most powerful army and latest weaponry against civilians in Palestine. Surrounding President Arafat's office ensuring he has a gun to his head. We heard political analysts advocating mass slaughtering of Palestinians and cartoonists suggesting annihilating Palestinians with nuclear weapons. One has to wonder if we as a race have learned anything from the past mistakes of holocaust and nuclear weapons use. After throwing out of reporters and sealing the entire civilian cities, the world is very aware of what is really going on. If someone needed a hint, the official Israeli declarations of 'successful sweep', 'area secured', 'leader nabbed' and sketchy reports of lineup, summary executions, letting wounded bleed, blowing up of ambulances with doctors inside and mass graves paint the familiar gruesome picture of another holocaust in the making. While United Nations & world leaders urge on 'restraint' and 'withdrawal' to Israel, the holocaust continues very minute. This is a devastating reminder of brutal massacres in Sabra & Shatila refugee camps, not surprisingly under the familiar Israeli leadership of Sharon. Shockingly, this holocaust is being conducted by the same nation whose ancestors lived and fortunately survived through a holocaust. Over a week has passed, one has to ask how long will world let this holocaust to continue while still make believe it is 'civilized' any more? ***************************************************************** 64 OZAWA CONFIRMS NUCLEAR WEAPONS POTENTIAL OF JAPAN'S PLUTONIUM PROGRAM AS FURTHER NUCLEAR TRANSPORTS LOOM 7 April 2002 Tokyo, Japan - The statement made Saturday by senior Japanese politician Ichiro Ozawa that Japan could use its commercial plutonium stockpile for making nuclear weapons is further confirmation for Greenpeace of the threat posed by the country's massive plutonium program. The leader of the opposition party Jiyuto (Liberal Party) declared that for Japan, if the military threat posed by China continued to grow, "It would be so easy for us to produce nuclear warheads - we have plutonium at nuclear power plants in Japan, enough to make several thousand such warheads."(1) In fact, Japan has sufficient plutonium already for more than 7000 nuclear warheads. Currently, Japan has a stockpile of over 38,000 kilograms of plutonium, of which more than 5,000kg is stored at various sites around the country. The largest stock of its plutonium of around 31,000kg is currently stored in France and the UK. This is to be shipped back over the next 10 to 15 years. In total Japan is expected to have more than 45,000kg of plutonium by around 2006-10. This will be even larger if a new plutonium reprocessing plant currently under construction at Rokkasho-mura in northern Japan is completed and operated. The Rokkasho plant is scheduled to produce as much as 100,000kg plutonium during the first fifteen years of operation. In total Japan would have more plutonium than is contained in all United States nuclear warheads. It takes as little as 5kg of this plutonium to make one nuclear weapon. "Ozawa is right to state the potential of Japan to use its so-called peaceful plutonium program for nuclear weapons purposes. He has exposed the myths of it being a peaceful energy program for a resource poor country. Under this international cover the country has acquired massive stocks of plutonium serving the purpose of an undeclared nuclear weapons program. Ozawa's statement may actually serve an important role in forcing on to the international agenda the scale of Japan's plutonium program and the threat of confrontation in North-east Asia. The challenge is how to make sure that the threat he declares is never carried out," said Shaun Burnie of Greenpeace International. Japan's plutonium stocks largely consist of so-called reactor-grade plutonium. For years Japanese government and nuclear industry officials have claimed that reactor-grade plutonium is not suitable for nuclear weapons. This despite the fact that the United States conducted a nuclear weapons test with such material forty years ago and even provided classified data to Japan in the 1970s to prove that it was possible to make nuclear weapons. That was done in a failed effort by the Carter Administration to stop Japan's "commercial" plutonium program. In fact, Japan could make highly sophisticated nuclear weapons with its stocks of plutonium, including that contained in MOX fuel.(2) International concern over Japan's plutonium program will be highlighted in the near future by the shipment of plutonium MOX fuel due to leave Japan for the UK within the coming months. The shipment of 255kg of plutonium contained in MOX fuel was only transported to Japan in 1999 from the UK. However, following disclosures that producers of the fuel, British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) had deliberately falsified vital safety data, the Japanese government demanded its return. The UK government and BNFL hope that its return will open the way for the shipment of thousands of kilograms of plutonium to Japan in the form of MOX fuel over the next 10-15 years. Since 1985, Japan has shipped more than 2,300kg of plutonium from France and the UK. All of it justified to the tens of en-route countries opposed to the shipments on the grounds that it was for Japan's peaceful energy program. Not one gram of the plutonium has been loaded into a nuclear reactor, and not one kilowatt of energy has been produced from it. "The responsibility of the UK and France, as well as the United States, in supporting and supplying plutonium and reprocessing technology to Japan cannot be overstated. They have fanned the flames of nuclear proliferation in the highly unstable North-east Asia region. Ozawa is also right to make the connection between Japan's plutonium program and the threat from China's unjustified nuclear weapons program. That is a connection made by Japanese defense planners for the last thirty years. But he is wrong to suggest that Japan's possession of nuclear weapons would give it military superiority over China. It would only bring a nuclear arms race and catastrophe for hundreds of millions of people. Nuclear disarmament and an end to all trade in weapons plutonium is part of the solution to the underlying problems in this region and globally," said Kazue Suzuki of Greenpeace Japan. So long as nuclear weapons are retained and justified by the existing nuclear weapon states, the threat of nuclear proliferation will grow. On Monday 8th at the United Nations in New York talks will open on the Treaty for the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Issues on the agenda will be the growing threat posed by the US nuclear weapons program, including the possibility of a resumption in nuclear testing, as well as the Bush missile defense program. The continued failure by the US as well as the other NPT nuclear weapon states, Russia, China, Britain and France to abide by their NPT commitments to disarm will also be under the spotlight by the majority of non-nuclear weapon states party to the NPT. The breakdown of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime, including the threat posed by new states acquiring nuclear weapons to counter existing weapons states will also figure highly during the two weeks of talks. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Shaun Burnie - Greenpeace International - Tokyo 090 2253 7306 Kazue Suzuki - Greenpeace Japan - Tokyo - 090 2249 1502 1. Ozawa's statement was made during a lecture given in the southern City of Fukuoka. 2. Defense planners as far back 1969 stated that Japan should retain the option to go nuclear if the conditions required it. The acquisition of plutonium under the guise of a peaceful energy program as well as the development of missile technology was included in that a 1970 Defense White Paper. By coincidence, Japanese Government officials announced also on Saturday that they would develop a more powerful H2-A rocker for their space program. The H2 program includes the development of an orbital re-entry vehicle, suspected to be related to Japan's researching the delivery of multiple independently targeted re-entry vehicles (MIRV). China is also considered to be developing MIRV systems for its intercontinental ballistic missiles. ***************************************************************** 65 THE WAR ON TERRORISM: Doomsday threat grips Congress Pioneer Press | 04/08/2002 | BY FRANK DAVIES Washington Bureau WASHINGTON — Members of Congress rarely grapple with issues of life and death, especially their own. But the threat of terrorism is forcing them to look for ways to ensure the continuity of government if they are wiped out. In an age of "suitcase" nuclear devices, the "doomsday scenario" poses horrific questions: How would America's government function if Congress were destroyed? What would happen if many lawmakers were incapacitated, perhaps by a bioterrorist attack? "This is an issue no one likes to deal with," said former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., who joined ex-Speaker Tom Foley, D-Wash., in urging Congress to do just that. "There's a growing realization that we have to have some system in case of a true catastrophe." Before last year, such a calamity might have seemed like an absurd Tom Clancy plot. Then came the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington and the anthrax-laden mail that shut down Capitol Hill buildings for weeks. Congressional leaders initially ignored questions of how to revive the legislature after a disastrous attack, citing more pressing issues. But that changed when the news leaked that the Bush administration is maintaining a "shadow government," rotating scores of officials to secure sites outside the city, because of the threat of nuclear terrorism. "Congress was shaken by that, because it was clear there was genuine concern that a suitcase nuke could wipe out much of official Washington," said Norman Ornstein, an expert on Congress at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative policy research center. He helped organize a group of scholars to advise on the issue. By Friday, a majority of the House of Representatives — 218 members — had signed a letter to Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., urging them to appoint a panel of members to examine the issue and make recommendations in three months. "Few things that come before us will have been more important," the letter says. The threat of incapacitation lies mainly in the House. Governors could reconstitute the Senate quickly by making appointments to fill vacancies, as they do now. But the Constitution requires direct election to the "people's House," as its members like to call it. It takes 117 days to fill a vacancy on average, a recent study found. In a crisis, even an accelerated election process could take weeks, at a time when the nation might need emergency laws and expenditures. House members suggest a number of possible solutions: • Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., offers a constitutional amendment that would allow governors to appoint interim House members until special elections are held if 25 percent of the House were killed or incapacitated. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., has introduced a similar amendment, setting the threshold at 50 percent. During the Cold War, the Senate passed an amendment three times giving governors the power to make temporary appointments to the House, but the House never passed it. "Congress was like the person who puts off making a will, but we can't avoid this issue any longer," said Baird, a psychologist. "Not to deal with it would be the height of irresponsibility." • Republican Gingrich and Democrat Foley, antagonists while in Congress, said a constitutional amendment might be necessary, but that enacting one was a time-consuming process. One quick fix they favor is changing House rules to allow each member to designate an "interim successor" who could serve until a special election. "It's a jury-rigged solution until something long term can be worked out," Gingrich said. He said House members "embody the latest expression of the voter's will" in each district and would be better suited than the governor, who's often from a different party, to appoint a temporary successor. "The fact that Tom Foley and I are working on this says to the country that this transcends politics," Gingrich said. • The line of presidential succession, last changed in 1947, is also under scrutiny. If the president and vice president died, the House speaker and the senior member of the majority party in the Senate are next in line. House Speaker Hastert is 60, but the senior majority party senator is Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., who is 84. Last year it was Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., now 99. This line of succession could make an elderly member of Congress, or one from a party different from the president, the next commander-in-chief. Several pending proposals would let the president designate top congressional leaders from his or her own party as potential successors. Possible solutions provoke plenty of disagreement. Foley and Gingrich said their plan would pass constitutional muster because the House could make its own rules for membership. Others doubt that. "I have difficulty believing the Supreme Court would support even temporary appointments," said Don Wolfensburger, a former House staffer who's now at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, citing the constitutional requirement of direct election. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., sees no need for an emergency plan, except for "maybe speeding up special elections. These apocalyptic scenarios might make good Hollywood movies, but I don't think they will ever occur. It's certainly not worth changing the founders' very specific plan: Representatives are elected, not appointed." Ros-Lehtinen said her colleagues were not spending any time thinking about whom they might designate as temporary successors. In the past, spouses and other relatives often have succeeded members who died in office. "I don't think my daughters have eyes on this seat," she joked. ***************************************************************** 66 Air Force can use uranium weapons Las Vegas SUN April 08, 2002 Jet pilots training to destroy tanks at the Nellis Air Force Range will resume using a limited number of depleted uranium rounds to test cannon accuracy, Air Force officials said. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service raised objections in 1993 about low-level radioactive fragments contaminating the environment, and military officials stopped using the armor-piercing projectiles fired by A-10 Thunderbolt jets at the Nellis range. The ammunition had been used during the Gulf War and after 1993 in combat missions in Yugoslavia and other areas. Depleted uranium was suspected of causing medical problems in people near combat zones. The World Health Organization, however, reported no firm medical evidence linking symptoms in Kosovo to depleted uranium exposure. An Air Force environmental assessment issued in 1998 said there would be no significant impact on human health or the environment from depleted uranium fragments. The RAND research organization also said there was no significant risk. The Fish and Wildlife Service and the Air Force have signed an agreement on the use of depleted uranium. The Air Force will initiate a management and monitoring plan for the heavy metal, which is 40 percent less radioactive than natural uranium and can be handled safely with bare hands, Air Force officials said. The plan includes monitoring, air and soil sampling, clearing and disposing of depleted uranium rounds and targets. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 67 China condemns Ozama's remarks on nuclear weapons (04/09/2002) (xinhua) China has condemned remarks by Japanese Liberal Party leader Ichiro Ozawa on Japan's nuclear weapons potential as irresponsible. Chinese Foreign spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue Monday said that the remarks ran opposite to the wishes of both Chinese and Japanese peoples. She made the statement in response to a question on Ozama's remark last Saturday that Japan could easily develop nuclear weapons and would not lose militarily as China was increasing military spending. Zhang said that Ozama's words were provocative, representing an outdated cold war mentality just as the two countries were celebrating the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, His remarks contradicted hopes for peace and long-term friendship between the two countries and peoples, she added. Copyright 2002 By chinadaily.com.cn. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 68 Russia lashes out at U.S. statement of concern on Moscow's compliance with disarmament [http://www.sfgate.com/index/] JUDITH INGRAM, Associated Press Writer Tuesday, April 9, 2002 (04-09) 08:16 PDT MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia rebuked the United States on Tuesday for deciding to hold back some disarmament projects because of doubts over Moscow's commitment to biological and chemical weapons treaties, accusing Washington itself of undercutting disarmament efforts. "Such actions can have the most negative impact on achieving mutual trust and can be reflected in the two countries' cooperation in liquidating weapons of mass destruction and in the sphere of nonproliferation," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said in a statement. The U.S. government put Russia on notice last week it would not certify Russia's full commitment to carrying out the treaties. Such certification is necessary to disburse new funds for existing U.S.-Russian programs to reduce the threat of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Among the reasons behind the U.S. decision were Russia's refusal to share a bioengineered strain of anthrax it had long promised the United States, refusal to provide access to biological institutes run by the Defense Ministry, and failure to own up to decades of secret work on biological and chemical weapons, The New York Times reported. U.S. officials say such withholding of access and information has dented faith in Russia's commitment to disarmament. Yakovenko said the U.S. decision was not accompanied by concrete examples, and it caused "bewilderment" in Moscow. Russia certainly is observing the terms of the two treaties, he said, and any U.S. concerns could be discussed under existing mechanisms for dialogue. He added that his government found it "incomprehensible" that the United States could cast aspersions on Moscow's fulfillment of the biological weapons treaty after a November summit when the U.S. and Russian presidents pledged to expand cooperation in the area. "One gets the impression that the American references to Russia's supposed non-fulfillment of its international obligations are being used basically in order to distract attention from the United States' own actions," Yakovenko said. He noted that the U.S. government had refused to support a protocol that would have provided for inspections under the 1972 Biological Weapons Treaty. U.S. negotiators argued that the inspection system wouldn't work and would expose U.S. secrets to its enemies, but its position provoked protest even from close allies, who argued that the inspections would put teeth in a treaty that is difficult to enforce. Yakovenko also accused Washington of "disorganizing" the activity of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Last month, Washington initiated a vote of no-confidence in organization chief Jose Bustani, accusing him of financial mismanagement. The U.S. government has said it will not provide funds to the organization -- for which it provides 22 percent of the budget -- until Bustani goes. ©2002 Associated Press   ***************************************************************** 69 Port of Benton gives FFTF rescue efforts office space This story was published Sat, Apr 6, 2002 By Nathan Isaacs Herald staff writer Claude Oliver, Benton County Commission chairman, is getting some free office space from the Port of Benton to boost his efforts to save Hanford's Fast Flux Test Facility. "There is a heavy demand on my schedule to coordinate things with FFTF," Oliver said. "The clock is ticking. ... Deadlines are approaching" Oliver is heading efforts to get the reactor restarted so it could make cancer-treating medicines. "The project is world changing with its significance and immediate health benefits," he said. The county, port and Richland are teaming to convince the federal government to allow them to find a private company to take over FFTF. But the government said restarting the reactor for medical research and commercial use is too big a financial gamble, and work already has begun to decommission the reactor. That's why Oliver said he needs the office space. He said the agreement between the port, county and Richland allows them to share resources. He said his "office" is a corner of a conference room in the north Richland building. He has a desk, computer, phone and a chair -- and access to coffee. Oliver said the space is convenient because of its proximity to key players involved in FFTF. He said his time in the port digs is flexible, or whenever they have meetings scheduled. "Folks can still reach me by calling the Prosser office anytime," he said. And he said the two other commissioners and county staff can reach him throughout the day. He estimated he spent about 15 hours at the port office this week. Commissioners assign responsibilities and projects important to the county amongst themselves each year. Oliver has been working on FFTF for the last 1 1/2 years. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 70 K-31 cleanup still on hold; radioactive isotopes detected - Tuesday, 04/09/02 OAK RIDGE — Employees cleaning one of the huge buildings at the former K-25 uranium enrichment plant have not been allowed to work for a week because radioactive isotopes have been detected. British Nuclear Fuel Limited Inc. employees were asked to leave work April 1 and remained home yesterday because preliminary lab results indicated the presence of radioactive transuranic isotopes in the K-31 building, company spokesman Norman Hammitt said. The company was awaiting final lab results to determine when the workers can return. No one has been injured or contaminated, Hammitt said. The Department of Energy contracted with BNFL to dismantle equipment at the closed weapons plant. Samples were taken from the 1.4 million-square-foot K-31 building last week after traces of the uranium isotope were found in the K-33 building, where the cleanup is nearly complete. Officials intend to also test the K-29 building before cleanup begins. All of the buildings make up the shuttered K-25 plant. The traces found in K-33 were too small to cause a problem, Hammitt said. Final results from K-31 will determine what kind of safety measures the workers will need. BNFL employs about 900 workers in Oak Ridge. — Associated Press © Copyright 2002 The Tennessean ***************************************************************** 71 HAB concerned about cleanup risks This story was published Sat, Apr 6, 2002 By the Herald staff The Hanford Advisory Board wonders if the Department of Energy could be shortchanging risks to people and the environment in its plans to speed up nuclear cleanup. The board sent a memo Friday to DOE to voice its concerns on the issue. DOE is making a big nationwide push to accelerate its nuclear cleanup efforts, saying the environmental problems posing the greatest risks should get top priority. The board supports that concept. But the board's memo contended DOE's master plan does not say how it selected which projects should get top priority. Consequently, the board outlined its positions on how DOE should develop detailed acceleration plans. These are: -- Credible studies of health and environmental risks must precede any DOE move to relax cleanup standards to cut costs and speed up its efforts. -- There should be public discussions prior to DOE's decisions on specific acceleration proposals. -- Risks from chemical contamination should be considered along with radioactive contamination. -- The state and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should keep their roles and clout intact under any acceleration proposal. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 72 Brake maker latest victim of Hanford industrial park dreams This story was published Mon, Apr 8, 2002 By John Stang Herald staff writer Durametal Brake Co. was once a poster child for building a non-nuclear future at Hanford. Now it may go bankrupt. Tri-City business leaders recruited the then-fledgling brake manufacturer from the San Francisco area in 1998 to set up shop in an unused building between Energy Northwest's never-completed No. 1 and No. 4 reactors. That area -- dubbed "Site No. 1" --has been touted for years as a prime spot for an industrial park. It already has buildings, roads and utilities -- all waiting for industrial tenants. The dream was to use Hanford's leftover areas, including Site No. 1, to grow non-nuclear businesses to help wean the Tri-City area from its nuclear-based economy. But in late February, Energy Northwest terminated the leases of Durametal and two other Site No. 1 tenants. The reason cited: Energy Northwest's Columbia Generating Station reactor is a half-mile away. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission cited Energy Northwest in November for not adequately ensuring people at Site No. 1 could be alerted and evacuated in a nuclear emergency. Utility officials believe they can better manage safety at Site No. 1 if only Energy Northwest employees work there. But a bigger reason for the lease termination appears to be a troubled relationship between tenant and landlord. The lease termination has two primary repercussions. On a smaller scale, Durametal faces potential bankruptcy. That's because of the high costs it faces to move its heavy equipment, coupled with 6 to 12 months of downtime without revenue. On a larger scale, Site No. 1 is the second effort to create an industrial park at Hanford that has flopped in the past two years. Inspection flunked The safety problem with Site No. 1 came up during an NRC inspection of Energy Northwest's complex, which is leased from the Department of Energy in southern Hanford. That site holds the Northwest's only power-producing nuclear reactor -- the 1,150-megawatt Columbia Generating Station. To the east are the partially built No. 1 and No. 4 reactor complexes, abandoned since an early 1980s financial debacle. In recent years, Tri-City business interests and Energy Northwest attracted a few small tenants to Site No. 1's auxiliary buildings. But last fall, NRC inspectors wandered unannounced into Durametal's site at quitting time to see how well Energy Northwest could alert and evacuate Site No. 1 employees in a nuclear emergency. They grabbed employees at random and asked questions such as could they hear Energy Northwest's emergency sirens and what would they do if they heard a siren? Several Durametal employees could not answer, and the NRC cited Energy Northwest for failure to establish an adequate warning system. Those problems since have been addressed by Energy Northwest. The federal agency never told Energy Northwest to remove tenants from Site No. 1. But in late February, Energy Northwest told Site No. 1 tenants Durametal, Master-Lee Hanford and Tri-Cities Assets Reinvestment Corp. that it was terminating their leases for nuclear safety reasons. Tri-Cities Assets Reinvestment Corp. uses buildings solely as unmanned warehouses. Master-Lee Hanford is a nuclear support services firm with a small office at Site No. 1. Officials with both said they have no problems leaving, and have no quarrel with Energy Northwest. The leases give Master-Lee and TARC 60 days to leave, while Durametal -- by far the largest -- has six months, and a huge job ahead. "When we got the termination letter, it shocked us," said Neil Shroff, who owns Durametal with his father, Gerry Shroff. A specialized venture Gerry Shroff is an engineer who originally worked in a foundry in Bombay in his native India. He moved to the United States, where he earned a master's degree in metallurgical engineering. He then joined General Electric's nuclear division, where he helped build today's Columbia Generating Station. Eventually, Shroff moved to California to earn a business degree, and started his own business as a broker for construction materials. He bought Portland-based Durametal in 1997, and his son, Neil, who likes working with big machines, joined him. The company has several hundred molds that it uses to custom-build brake drums that range in use from buses to tanks. Its niche is one big foundries avoid: special orders in small quantities on short notice. "I'm proud when I see trucks go down the road, and I know that they use our brakes," Neil Shroff said. The wooing of Durametal When Gerry Shroff bought Durametal, the Tri-City Industrial Development Council began wooing him. "Metal manufacturing makes sense for the Tri-Cities," said TRIDEC President Bill Martin. TRIDEC has been leading efforts to diversify the area's economy to wean it away from Hanford. Officials particularly want to develop a larger manufacturing base. Manufacturing doesn't have Hanford's nuclear baggage. It hires skilled, well-paid workers. It avoids the economic, environmental and political factors that shadow nuclear cleanup and agriculture. The Site No. 1 complex had been considered ideal for new manufacturing. "There're a helluva lot of assets up there," said Ben Bennett, who recently retired as director of the Port of Benton. The site's drawbacks are that many businesses don't want a reactor as a next-door neighbor, and it is isolated, with the nearest city -- Richland -- eight miles away. TRIDEC put on a full-court press to attract Durametal. Energy Northwest, TRIDEC and other local interests offered Durametal a 40,000-square-foot warehouse and 10,000 square feet of extra land. The offer also came with a promise of cheap power from Energy Northwest for the foundry, which consumes large amounts of electricity. Durametal moved to Site No. 1 in early 1998, paying $100,000 a year with annual incremental increases. In 1998, Durametal employed 12 to 14 people and made about $250,000. That grew to 18 people and about $2 million in revenue in 2001. That same year, the Richland Rotary Club and TRIDEC gave Durametal and eight other firms awards for their entrepreneurship. The Shroffs believe their company can grow to 40 employees with $7 million in annual revenue. Relationship deteriorates The glow of success in landing Durametal at Site No. 1 has dimmed in the past four years. Enough so, in fact, that Energy Northwest wouldn't mind being rid of its tenant. "Our business relationship with Durametal has become strained over time," said David Fraley, manager of Site No. 1 for Energy Northwest. Fraley said both the nuclear safety issues and strained relationship led to the decision to terminate Durametal's lease. But he said the troubled relationship was the bigger factor. He said Durametal routinely failed to keep Energy Northwest updated on changes that it made to the warehouse and its nuclear safety training. And almost 112 years ago, Durametal filed a lawsuit against Energy Northwest, alleging the utility did not fulfill all its landlord duties. In Benton County court filings, Durametal alleged Energy Northwest did not fulfill lease obligations to upgrade the electrical system for the foundry's needs and to repair a leaking roof. Durametal itself spent about $100,000 to upgrade the electrical system. In turn, Energy Northwest's court filings claim it had fulfilled its requirements. On Oct. 5, Judge Vic VanderSchoor ruled the lease's language is ambiguous and ordered a jury trial. Moving could kill company Moving Durametal's foundry will be a huge task, perhaps a company killer. The equipment is massive. Some are 1 1/2 stories high. Pieces can weigh 20 tons and run up to 50 feet long. Along one wall sits a 50-ton, 25-foot-tall device with 1,000 bags inside that scrub metallic dust out of the foundry's air. This isn't stuff that can be lifted intact onto a flatbed truck. A tremendous amount of dismantling will be needed. Besides finding several hundred thousand dollars to dismantle and move the equipment, Durametal can't afford to not earn any money for the six to 12 months a move will require, the Shroffs said. "We don't have the resources to move the entire company," Gerry Shroff said. Even given resources, Durametal still must find a place big enough with sufficient electrical capacity. TRIDEC's Martin and the Port of Benton's Bennett have searched for state and federal money to help Durametal -- but found nothing. "We'll go bankrupt," Gerry Shroff said. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 73 Fluor Hanford near layoff announcement This story was published Tue, Apr 9, 2002 By John Stang Herald staff writer Fluor Hanford is on the brink of identifying "less than 100" employees who will be laid off in the near future. The company is making final preparations before issuing the formal layoff announcement, said Fluor spokesman Michael Turner. Fluor warned its employees in early February that the reduction would occur this spring as part of its efforts to streamline the company's work. The streamlining is a response to the Department of Energy's major push to tackle its nationwide nuclear work faster and cheaper. Fluor and its three permanent subcontractors -- Duratek Hanford, Numatec Hanford and Protection Technology Hanford -- employ about 4,300 people. The contractor still is nailing down where the layoffs will occur, Turner said. However, many are expected among the site's maintenance and utility workers. Last fall, Fluor absorbed subcontractor DynCorp Tri-Cities Services and its almost 200 employees in another streamlining measure. DynCorp was in charge of maintaining roads, buildings and utilities, plus some other functions. Fluor plans to help laid-off workers find jobs elsewhere at Hanford. The company's last major reduction occurred in spring 2001, when it laid off 200 to 300 employees for efficiency-related reasons. Despite that measure, Fluor's work force ultimately grew slightly over 2001. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 74 Bill Would Bar New Homes at Rocket Facility April 8, 2002 LOS ANGELES Safety: Measure would restrict development and accelerate cleanup at the Santa Susana lab, site of a 1959 nuclear reactor accident, other research. By MARGARET TALEV, TIMES STAFF WRITER Future housing development at Boeing's Santa Susana Field Laboratory near Chatsworth would be prohibited under legislation proposed by state Sen. Sheila Kuehl. Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) wants to permanently bar housing construction on the scenic hilltop should Boeing ever vacate the property, which is operated by the company's Rocketdyne division. Kuehl's concerns stem largely from a partial nuclear meltdown that occurred at the lab in 1959. Cleanup of radiation and chemical contamination from decades of nuclear research and ongoing rocket-engine testing at the site continues to this day. In addition to barring residential development, Kuehl's bill would accelerate cleanup of radioactive contamination and tighten restrictions on disposal of affected materials. It would also prohibit the sale or transfer of Boeing's 2,800-acre Santa Susana property until all contaminated soil is removed or determined to be safe. "I want to protect people from the possibility of radiation poisoning," Kuehl said. Her bill is still in the development stages. A Senate committee said last week that the legislation must undergo more revisions before it can come back for a vote. One issue is whether the restrictions should apply to the entire site. Kuehl's bill as currently proposed has met with strong resistance from Boeing officials. "It's placing an egregious restriction on our ability to determine what we want to do on our property," said Dan Beck, a Boeing spokesman. "We've been engaged in a very extensive cleanup program, cleaning it up to a level that the regulatory agencies say [the property] could be used for residential use in the future." Even if the Boeing property is never sold to a developer, Beck said local governments should have final say over zoning and development issues regarding the lab site. "There are private property rights in this country, and beyond that, local authorities have the right to make zoning decisions," Beck said. "Where does it end? Next week, maybe it's something about fuel spills or pesticides on other properties." Beck said Boeing has no plans to move its rocket-engine testing facility, but it might do so in the future if it made good business sense. Over the years, residential development has cropped up at the base of the lab on both sides of the county line. Opened in 1947, the Santa Susana lab had the first nuclear reactor in the United States to produce power for a commercial grid. At the time, the lab was operated by Atomics International. The plant was crippled by a serious accident in July 1959, when 13 of its 43 uranium fuel rods ruptured or suffered a partial meltdown. The plant was repaired and operated until 1967. But the accident was unknown to the public until 1979, when an anti-nuclear group released records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Department of Energy officials have maintained that radioactive contamination at the lab was quickly contained and did not pose a threat to the public, but the issue has long been a source of heated debate. Nuclear testing and research were halted at Santa Susana in 1989. Cleanup of the nuclear portion of the site continues and could be completed within five years, officials said. Copyright 2002 Los Angeles Times ***************************************************************** 75 Oak Ridge organization ready to 'react' Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 11:59 a.m. on Tuesday, April 9, 2002 Over the past 25 years Oak Ridge's Radiation Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site -- more commonly referred to as REAC/TS -- has built a national and international reputation for training, consulting, and assisting in the response to all types of radiation accidents or incidents. This 24-hour emergency response program at the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education responded to 55 calls in fiscal year 2001 and has been in a heightened state of readiness since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "Our pace quickened following Sept. 11," said Ron Townsend, president of ORISE. Since its formation in 1976, REAC/TS has trained more than 4,000 people for the United States and 53 foreign countries, hosted four international conferences and implemented the use of two drugs for the treatment of patients with internal contamination. REAC/TS has responded to more than 1,200 calls for assistance from around the world. Some of these incidents include the diagnostic evaluation of 10 people following rupture of an iridium-192 source in Venezuela; on-site health physics assistance following leakage of a radium-226 implant source at a hospital in Kingston, Jamaica; and assistance to the government of Mexico after a cobalt-60 therapy unit accident in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. * NOT YET: The Department of Energy has not yet made a decision on the future of the Toxic Substances Control Act Incinerator. DOE has been considering shutting down TSCA in 2003, but officials last year indicated it could be March or possibly later before the federal agency makes a decision on the incinerator's fate. March has come and gone, and DOE spokesman Steven Wyatt said Friday that "no decision has been made on TSCA." * IN THE CROWD: Michael Holland, the Department of Energy's interim Oak Ridge manager, is definitely making the rounds. Holland and Jeff Smith, deputy for operations at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, were among the officials who attended an emergency response forum hosted by the Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee last week. * WHAT'S UP: The public will have an opportunity to learn about the status of the Spallation Neutron Source project during an open house that's scheduled for 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 30, at the SNS office building, located at 701 Scarboro Road. Paul Parson is the science and technology reporter for The Oak Ridger. He can be contacted at (865) 220-5533 or [pparson@oakridger.com] . [http://www.oakridger.com] ***************************************************************** 76 Fluor Fernald lays off 61 - Cincinnati Business Courier April 4, 2002 In a move the company says will better align its work force with the amount of work to be done, Fluor Fernald is laying off 61 salaried employees. Since 1992, the company has been cleaning up the former Fernald uranium processing facility located in Crosby Township, about 18 miles northwest of Cincinnati. Fluor Fernald President Jamie Jameson said the layoffs put the company in a position to finish up the project with "the right amount of people planning, doing and supervising the work." "We are far enough along right now that we need to be proactive in aligning our work force so that we can reduce the cost and schedule of the project while holding fast to our commitment to safety," he said. Demolition of the Fernald plants and cleanup of the soil and aquifer are expected to be complete in 2006. Fluor Fernald said the project is about three years ahead of the latest estimate, resulting in a cost savings of $228 million. The layoffs are in addition to a voluntary separation program that was offered to employees. Fluor Fernald said 34 employees took the voluntary leave, while another 50 left through normal attrition, transfers and reductions in temporary staff. Copyright 2002 American City Business Journals ***************************************************************** 77 Effort to result in deactivation of Y-12 facility Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 11:36 a.m. on Tuesday, April 9, 2002 Andy Moore with the Y-12 National Security Complex's manufacturing organization uses a glovebox to prepare material as part of the deactivation process in Building 9206. -- Photo Submitted by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff A major chemical processing facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex is being restarted in an effort to remove uranium. Officials with the National Nuclear Security Administration say the startup is the first step toward the eventual deactivation and demolition of the facility known as Building 9206, which has been idle since a 1994 safety stand-down. Prior to the NNSA's approval of the restart, a significant quantity of uranium present in facility was removed and placed in protective storage vaults at Y-12. During the deactivation, all processing and handling equipment inside Building 9206, which was built in 1946, will be purged of remaining uranium compounds. According to a NNSA press release, the first step is to remove the remaining uranium, which is combustible in air. It will be recovered, stabilized in an inert atmosphere, and removed. The material will be handled in glove boxes and cast into small metal discs for safe storage at the Y-12 weapons plant. When this step is completed, uranium present in process equipment will be removed and the facility will be permanently shut down and deactivated, the press release stated. However, officials said there is no schedule for demolition once deactivation has been completed. Paul Parson can be contacted at (865) 220-5533 or [pparson@oakridger.com] . [http://www.oakridger.com/contact/index.html] All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 78 Extra money could speed PFP cleanup This story was published Sat, Apr 6, 2002 By John Stang Herald staff writer Cleanup and demolition of Hanford's Plutonium Finishing Plant could finish six or seven years ahead of schedule -- if enough extra federal money materializes. Right now, the PFP aims to convert 4.4 tons of scrap plutonium into safer forms by a May 2004 deadline. "We're tracking to beat that," said Pete Knollmeyer, DOE's assistant manager for Hanford's central plateau. DOE and contractor Fluor Hanford believe they can finish that high-priority job by February 2004. Meanwhile, the state's and DOE's Tri-Party Agreement negotiators tentatively have agreed on a plan to reduce the PFP complex to a concrete foundation in 2009 or 2010. The Tri-Party Agreement, the legal pact governing Hanford's cleanup, currently has a 2016 deadline for that task. State and DOE officials are mulling that tentative agreement before unveiling it for public feedback. After the public has its say, they will consider changes before adopting the agreement. The PFP is considered Hanford's third-biggest problem behind radioactive tank wastes and the K Basins' spent nuclear fuel. During the Cold War, the PFP was Hanford's last step to convert plutonium-laced liquids into pure plutonium "buttons" that were the size of hockey pucks. The complex has 4.4 tons of plutonium mixed within 19.6 tons of different types of scrap materials. DOE and Fluor have set up several processes to deal with those different forms of plutonium-laced scrap. "Now it's just a matter of cranking away," said George Jackson, Fluor's vice president for nuclear materials stabilization. Most of the material goes through one of nine muffle furnaces -- either the size or twice the size of a microwave oven -- that bakes the plutonium into safer powders. Some plutonium is in liquids. Fluor and DOE have tried two ways of precipitating plutonium granules out of the fluids before settling on a third precipitation method. The precipitation work should be done by this summer. Some plutonium materials are reduced to ashes to be packed in enclosed pipes. The rest of the powders or metal chunks of converted plutonium are repacked in special canisters. Ultimately, Hanford plans to send some plutonium material to an underground storage site in New Mexico. But most of the plutonium was supposed to go to DOE's Savannah River site in South Carolina to be immobilized in glass there to be shipped eventually to Nevada. However, DOE has abandoned the glass option. Instead, it plans to convert Hanford's and other sites' plutonium into mixed-oxide reactor fuel at Savannah River if tests show that can be done. But South Carolina's government is leery of DOE's plan. South Carolina frets that could lead to Savannah River becoming a permanent plutonium storage site for the rest of the nation. South Carolina has threatened to block DOE from moving plutonium to Savannah River unless it can get better guarantees that the plutonium eventually will leave the state. Originally, Hanford was schedule to ship its plutonium to Savannah River between 2010 and 2014. But if the PFP's cleanup efforts speed up, Hanford will look at shipping its plutonium to Savannah River in 2005, Knollmeyer said. If South Carolina is blocking plutonium shipments at that time, Hanford will need its own backup storage spot. DOE is looking at a central Hanford site as that backup. Knollmeyer declined to say which site is under consideration. If Congress gives the PFP an extra $3 million in 2002 for some preparation work, the project could end in 2009, Knollmeyer and Jackson said. Without that, the projects should end in 2010, they said. Like many other Hanford projects, the PFP is in budget limbo for 2003. DOE has asked Congress for $1.46 billion for Hanford in 2003, much less than it needs to meet its 2003 obligations. But DOE hopes Congress will send an extra $433 million to Hanford if DOE, the state and the Environmental Protection Agency agree on overall acceleration plans. The PFP has $85 million budgeted for 2002. DOE's current 2003 budget request calls for $68.1 million for the PFP. However, extra money is earmarked for the PFP in the additional $433 million. Knollmeyer declined to say how much until the budget wrangling is further along. The proposed extra cash will be enough to meet the PFP's deadlines and to speed up work there, he said. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************