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10/10/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.261
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NUCLEAR POLICY
1 Japan: Despite assurances, 90% fear nuclear accident
2 Russia urged to speed up efforts to reduce its stockpile of
3 NZ: Time to set aside our nuclear illusions
NUCLEAR REACTORS
4 US: Nuclear restart attracts interest
5 US: Ginna Nuclear power station cited for a violation
6 US: Feds on Davis-Besse: Blame us, too
7 US: Problems at Ohio's Davis-Besse found in another nuclear plant
8 US: Attorneys general ask Congress for more nuclear power protection
NUCLEAR SAFETY
9 Medical Consequences of Attacking Iraq
10 US: [radiation-survivors] Incurable ills: Veteran believes his
11 UK: Servicemen exposed to radiation*
12 US: NRC Failed to Perform Inspections
13 Ukrainian nuclear plant workers under investigation for using
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
14 US: Open books, Envirocare told
15 US: Pact extended at West Valley
16 Sellafield: SEVEN-STOREY CENTRE REDUCED TO RUBBLE
17 BNFL: the strangest privatization yet
18 UK: Plan to recover nuclear gas rejected
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
19 CIA deflates BUSH claims / Russia doesn't believe them either
20 Show us some money: Russia sets out its conditions
21 Iraq throws open suspect sites
22 US to give Israel 72 hours notice before Iraq
23 Think Carefully- Saudi Warns Bush
24 US 'wants to destroy Iraq, divide Arab world'
25 CIA Report Contradicts Bush Warnings on Iraq
26 France Sees Compromise on Iraq, Remains Strongly Opposed to War
27 US says concerned at Syrian nuclear program*
28 U.S. Eyes Iraq's Former Arms Sites
29 Russia Urged to Cut Weapons Faster
30 Castro Blames Khrushchev for Crisis
31 Iraq Denies Efforts to Rearm
32 US: Feds defend secret '60s tests
33 US: An Iraq strategy full of holes
34 Iraq after our nukes
35 U.S. intelligence monitors activity at former Iraqi nuclear sites
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
36 Hanford Plan would accelerate tank work
37 Benton rejects plan for divvying Hanford aid
38 Officials at Hanford hope to empty 40 nuclear tanks by 2006
39 The pits: Supporters, opponents cite views
40 Fluor considers cuts in Hanford firefighting effort
OTHER NUCLEAR
41 House proposes budget boost for NASA
42 Pandora's Lab
43 Different Parties, Similar Views in Tooele
44 House proposes budget boost for NASA
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 Japan: Despite assurances, 90% fear nuclear accident
Asahi Shimbun www.asahi.com [http://www.asahi.com/]
JAPANESE
The Asahi Shimbun
Nearly 90 percent of Japanese fear a nuclear accident will hit
the nation's scandal-plagued power industry, according to an
Asahi Shimbun poll conducted after cover-ups and false reports
were exposed at nuclear power plants.
The telephone poll over the weekend also touched upon cracks on
reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) plants. The company
has admitted covering up this damage.
Voters were asked if they believed the central government's
explanation that these cracks posed no safety risks at the
nuclear power plants.
Eighty-six percent of the respondents said they were not
convinced.
Overall, 44 percent of the respondents opposed the government's
promotion of nuclear energy, while 38 percent said they favored
the power source.
Even among those who supported the nuclear energy policy, about
80 percent were concerned about nuclear plant accidents and not
convinced by the central government's explanation.
Forty-nine percent said they were seriously concerned about an
accident, while 38 percent said they felt some concern.
Ninety percent of women feared an accident, compared with 85
percent of men.
In an interview survey conducted last December, 40 percent of
respondents said they were largely concerned about a possible
nuclear accident, while 35 percent said they felt some concern.
(10/08)
[Copyright Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. No reproduction
*****************************************************************
2 Russia urged to speed up efforts to reduce its stockpile of
nuclear, chemical weapons
Oct 10, 2002
By HARRY DUNPHY, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The United States and other industrialized
democracies are urging Russia to speed up efforts to reduce its
vast, poorly secured stockpile of nuclear and chemical weapons, a
State Department official said Wednesday.
A Senate committee chairman warned the material could find its
way to terrorists or countries such as Iraq.
John Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control, said a
major part of a meeting last month in Canada of those industrial
powers dealt with problems that have hindered an initiative to
stop the spread of weapons and materials of mass destruction.
The participating countries — the United States, Britain, Canada,
France, Germany, Italy and Japan — have pledged to spend at least
$20 billion over the next 10 years on the effort.
President George W. Bush committed the United States to providing
half of the $20 billion at June's G-8 summit in Canada when he
proposed the initiative. Russian President Vladimir Putin has
pledged to take actions to help achieve the program's goal.
Bolton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said that
among the priority concerns in Russia, the G-8 countries
specifically named the destruction of chemical weapons,
disposition of fissile material and dismantlement of
decommissioned nuclear submarines.
"For the global partnership to be successful," Bolton said, "the
Russian Federation will need to take concrete action to resolve
outstanding problems. ... We pressed the Russians hard on this
issue" at the September meeting in Canada.
Bolton said the other G-8 countries were more than half way in
meeting their $10 billion commitment, including $1.5 billion from
Germany and $1 billion from the European Commission He said some
countries have not publicly announced pledges or decided on their
amounts.
Bolton praised Canada's tireless commitment as the current G-8
chairman to make the initiative a reality and said France has
said it will make the program a priority as it prepares for next
year's summit in Evian. Bolton welcomed bipartisan legislation,
proposed by the committee chairman Sen. Joseph Biden and Sen.
Richard Lugar that expands the president's authority to reduce
Russia's debt in exchange for nonproliferation programs.
"Nothing poses a more clear or present danger to our security,"
Biden said, than the vast repository of nuclear, chemical and
possibly biological weapons still in Russia more than a decade
after the Soviet Union's collapse.
"Our greatest concern remains that groups like al-Qaida or states
like Iraq will steal or illicitly purchase poorly guarded stocks
of weapons of mass destruction in Russia," Biden said.
He said the United States has provided billions of dollars in aid
to reduce the threat posed by Russia's possession of these
weapons. But, he said, there remain roughly 1,000 metric tons of
highly enriched uranium, 40,000 metric tons of chemical weapons,
including 2 million artillery shells containing nerve gas at one
of Russia's facilities alone, and an unknown supply of biological
pathogens.
Lugar said that because of the threat of terrorism. "We must not
only accelerate weapons dismantlement efforts in Russia, we must
(also) broaden our capability to address proliferation risks in
other countries."
Lugar said the major industrialized nations must keep pressing
Russian officials to abide by Putin's commitment to help. Putin's
"biggest obstacle could well be his own government's
bureaucracy," said Lugar, co-sponsor of legislation that has
provided millions for weapons destruction in Russia over the past
11 years.
Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The
information
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3 NZ: Time to set aside our nuclear illusions
Friday October 11, 2002
/Max Bradford:/
10.10.2002
What is the Government playing at? Why would Finance Minister
Michael Cullen suddenly announce what people on the inside have
known for years - that there is a link between New Zealand's
defence (nuclear) policy and trade?
Good on him for doing it. For too long, New Zealanders have
basked in the illusion we can indulge ourselves on a soft - some
would say irresponsible - defence and nuclear policy, yet believe
there is no linkage to our ability to get preferential trade
access to markets such as the United States.
Perhaps it didn't matter so much while the world promoted trade
liberalisation through multilateral negotiations such as Gatt and
the WTO. In these circumstances it was in everybody's interests
not to muddy the waters of a general move to freer trade by
introducing particular thorny issues between pairs of countries.
However, as the world moves more towards bilateral trade
liberalisation (rather than multilateral) these particular burrs
in the saddle of free trade become more important.
We have seen it with the major New Zealand-Australia free trade
agreement, the CER. The Australian Government was not prepared to
give ground on trade and business law liberalisation until the
burr of the huge imbalance in social security payments paid to
New Zealanders living in Australia was removed.
That was solved by the Labour-Alliance Government at a cost, by
reducing New Zealanders' long-held rights to work, live and
become citizens of Australia. And lo and behold negotiations have
since resumed on business tax and law harmonisation under the
CER.
The same sort of thing is now happening to our desire to get a
free trade agreement with the US. This time the burr in the
saddle for the US is our defence policy and, in particular, one
aspect of the country's anti-nuclear policy to do with
nuclear-powered (but not nuclear-armed) ship visits.
The memory of the high-handed way the anti-nuclear policy was
introduced by the Lange Labour Government in 1984-85 has rankled
many successive American administrations. Many of the players in
the 1984 US administration are now back in power. Some have long
memories and have made it explicit that there is a link between
defence and trade policy.
There is no particular surprise in this. The link has been there
for a long time, even though New Zealand has tried to pretend it
wasn't important in securing better access to the growth
powerhouse of economic markets in the US.
The explicitness of the link has ebbed and flowed over the years.
There were as many hardliners in the Democrat administrations
(mostly in the Defence Department, and a few in the State
Department) as there were in Republican administrations. More
often than not, little was said publicly.
What is happening now is simply that senior Republican officials
are openly talking of links that were always there in the
background.
Successive senior New Zealand ministers were told of the explicit
link, though this was not disclosed to the public in the manner
that Dr Cullen has done in the past few days. Business
delegations have been told of the link as well in recent months.
So why has Dr Cullen announced this now?
Is it a fear that by trying to keep the explicit reference of a
link a secret from the public, so long denied by politicians, it
will leak out to the disadvantage of the Government? In other
words is the motivation classic Blair-style damage control? Or
has the ground really shifted to our disadvantage so that to deny
the link will carry a significant economic cost the Government
can no longer ignore?
There are important issues here which every New Zealander should
confront. If we want a free trade agreement with the US (or,
equally critical, can we afford not to have one when our trade
partners, especially Australia, will use every device to get one
for themselves?), then the country has to face up to the real
economic cost of not removing the ban on nuclear-powered ships
visits.
It is important to remember the ground has shifted. Bilateral
trade negotiations allow each country to raise all issues between
them as part of the claim for offering better trade access to the
other.
If New Zealand continues with the ban on nuclear-powered ship
visits it will be at a cost - either no free trade agreement
between the US and New Zealand, or a delayed one.
Either way the cost is significant. If Australia gets a free
trade agreement ahead of us, they will establish the conditions
for any free trade agreement we might later get. It will be to
our disadvantage in some respect, if only because an
Australian-US agreement will be Aussie-centric, not
Australasian-centric which is much more likely if we negotiated
with the US together.
If the agreement is later (or perhaps never) then the real loss
will be Australia and any other country getting free trade access
pulling ahead of us in the economic growth stakes.
Perhaps that is a price New Zealanders are willing to pay.
Nevertheless, there is a real cost. There will be less money to
spend on education, health and retirement provision, and that
affects people.
Dr Cullen will have far greater difficulty reaching his 4 per
cent growth target. Indeed, he may never get it without a New
Zealand-US free trade agreement, because investment and talented
people will be sucked out of the economy into Australia and the
other faster-growing economies. There are estimates that a free
trade agreement will give a permanent growth spurt of between 0.5
and 1.5 per cent a year. This isn't to be sniffed at given the
difficulty of getting our long-term growth rate above 2.5 per
cent.
I, for one, think the time is right, indeed long overdue, for a
proper public debate on removing the ban on nuclear-powered
visits by any ships.
We live in a far different world from the Cold War environment
the policy was born into in 1984.
The debate should then be followed by a referendum to let the
public make the final decision with their eyes open to the real
economic and social consequences, as well as to the feel-good
factor.
Only then can successive Governments say to successive US
Administrations that an informed New Zealand public has spoken.
* Max Bradford is a former Minister of Defence.
©Copyright 2002, New Zealand Herald
*****************************************************************
4 Nuclear restart attracts interest
Several firms eyeing TVA's Browns Ferry
By Rebecca Ferrar, News-Sentinel business writer October 10, 2002
TVA consultants told board members Wednesday they have found
"serious" interest from several outside companies that may want
to provide private financing for the restart of the Browns Ferry
Nuclear Plant.
The meeting included TVA board members; top TVA financing and
nuclear officials; Charles Trabandt, vice president of Charles
River Associates of Boston; and other Charles River officials.
The firm is exploring TVA's options in seeking private financing
to help restart Unit 1 at the Browns Ferry plant near Athens,
Ala.
"The reports of their briefing were very encouraging," Glenn L.
McCullough Jr., TVA board chairman, said after the closed-door
meeting. "A number of potential partners have expressed an
interest in submitting a more detailed proposal. We asked the
question, 'Is there interest out there,' and there very
definitely is interest.''
The board in May approved the $1.8 billion restart of the Unit 1
reactor and decided to seek private financing to help pay for it.
The White House Office of Management and Budget has urged TVA to
seek private financing for the project.
Also this week, Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss.,
introduced a bill to require TVA to get approval from Congress
and OMB before borrowing more money. TVA's debt now stands at $25
billion.
"We are attentive to Sen. Lott and all members of the Senate and
House and will be responsive," McCullough said. "We expect to be
accountable, and we are accountable to Congress and OMB, and we
recognize the good points Sen. Lott makes in his bill.''
Lott was instrumental in McCullough's board appointment.
McCullough said he could not identify the names of firms
interested in financing Browns Ferry or even the number of firms.
"These are reputable firms, and we didn't look at any specifics,"
he said.
Because of the interest, TVA asked Charles River to develop an
"action plan" to detail "how a financing partnership might work
so we can determine the business benefit for TVA and move from
there. The board wants to move as quickly as possible. We're not
talking months. We're talking weeks."
TVA Director Bill Baxter, who also attended the meeting, said,
"It appears we'll have several viable alternatives to analyze
over the next several weeks, and we're confident we'll come up
with a very competitive financing package for Browns Ferry I.''
The Lott bill would require TVA to seek written approval from the
OMB director and congressional committees overseeing the agency
before undertaking a financing of new, additional or replacement
power plants or equipment. It also would require TVA to develop a
strategy for managing the agency's debt.
Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for
Clean Energy, said Congress doesn't have time this year to take
up Lott's bill but that the bill is good news for TVA ratepayers.
"If the minority leader of the Senate says he wants to see a plan
on how to reduce debt, that's about as big a shot across the bow
as you can get without George Bush delivering the message,''
Smith said.
"It is clear from the language Trent Lott introduced that TVA
will not do this without being forced to. I think this is
important, and as ratepayers we should applaud when a member of
Congress wants to exercise accountability over TVA."
TVA spokesman John Moulton said TVA already is taking steps to
address Lott's concerns, including development of a 10-year
strategic plan to be completed by mid-2003.
Rebecca Ferrar may be reached at 865-342-6357 or
ferrarr@knews.com.
Copyright 2002, Knoxville News-Sentinel Co.
*****************************************************************
5 Ginna Nuclear power station cited for a violation
[Rochester, NY]
Democrat and Chronicle
(October 10, 2002) The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued
a notice of violation for Rochester Gas and Electric Corp.s
Robert E. Ginna nuclear power station in Ontario, Wayne County.
The commissions inspectors found problems with the plants siren
feedback system during an inspection completed June 29.
As a result, plant operators and officials in Monroe and Wayne
counties could not identify whether any sirens failed to operate
during activation of the alert and notification system.
The sirens are used to alert the public in case of an emergency
at the plant.
Mike Power, spokesman for RG, said the system has been replaced
and will be tested Oct. 24.
*****************************************************************
6 Feds on Davis-Besse: Blame us, too
The Plain Dealer
10/10/02 John Mangels and John Funk Plain Dealer Reporters
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, FirstEnergy Corp. and the
nuclear industry all share blame for the mistakes and oversights
that allowed a rust hole to fester unnoticed for years in the lid
of the Davis-Besse nuclear reactor.
"We and the industry recognized the potential for this
type of event 10 years ago," but along with FirstEnergy, failed
to piece together the clues that were piling up at Davis-Besse,
said Ed Hackett, the co-author of a scathing 96-page NRC report
released yesterday.
The "lessons learned" study, which the agency sometimes
undertakes to critique its performance in the wake of major
problems at nuclear plants, recommends significant changes in the
NRC's supervision of reactor operators. It calls for more
scrutiny and skepticism, as well as stronger follow-up to make
sure utilities are doing what they promise.
But FirstEnergy bears much of the responsibility for the
unprecedented rust hole, which took the Toledo-area plant to the
brink of a serious accident, the NRC report concludes. The
company ignored problems, misinterpreted information, slashed its
engineering budget and kept vital information from the NRC that
might have helped catch the lid damage much sooner.
U.S. Sen. George Voinovich, Republican of Ohio, who was
briefed by NRC Chairman Richard Meserve, called the findings
"serious and troubling."
He called for congressional hearings and a General
Accounting Office investigation into the Davis-Besse affair,
joining U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, the Cleveland Democrat, who
previously called for such hearings.
Both Voinovich, a strong supporter of nuclear power, and
Kucinich, a longtime critic of FirstEnergy, serve on committees
that oversee the NRC.
The NRC report's 52 recommendations will be reviewed by a
team of senior agency officials.
They will decide which ones merit action. The increased
oversight the study calls for no doubt will require more dollars
and staff, its authors said. The agency's budget comes mostly
from fees paid by the nuclear industry, and it will be up to a
cost-conscious and heavily lobbied Congress to determine if it
should grow.
"The tough job is the follow-up," said report co-author
Joe Donoghue. "Our charter was to look hard and tell [NRC
management] what needs to get done. The next group has to decide
where to get the money and resources."
Although lacking in some areas, the report does "a good
job of identifying some problems that need to be fixed," said
David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer with the Union of
Concerned Scientists, a watchdog group.
"You can only juggle so many balls," he said of the NRC,
whose staff and money cuts in its Midwest office challenged the
agency's ability to oversee Davis-Besse, according to the report.
"They need the resources to make things happen." Otherwise, the
study "is just going to go up on a shelf." They also need relief
from congressional pressure to fast-track nuclear industry
demands, Lochbaum said.
Other watchdog groups - Ohio Citizen Action and the
Nuclear Information and Resource Service - faulted the report for
not probing the NRC's decision last fall to let Davis-Besse delay
a shutdown to inspect its reactor lid.
The NRC report was sharply critical of the agency's own
multiple failures to identify glaringly obvious problems at
Davis-Besse throughout the 1990s. More broadly, the agency
mishandled the industrywide problem of stress cracks in the
reactor lid that allowed coolant to leak and corrode metal parts.
The report says that the NRC was wrong to go along with
the American nuclear industry's assessment that such lid cracks
weren't a safety risk and that corrosion could be easily spotted
long before it caused a problem.
Rather than focus on preventing such leaks, as the French
nuclear industry did by replacing reactor lids, the NRC chose to
encourage reactor operators to find ways to catch the oozing
cracks early. However, the report said, the NRC did not press
nuclear plants to install equipment that would detect tiny
amounts of spilled coolant.
The task force found that NRC has done a poor job sharing
information about plant conditions and research results. For
example, a former NRC senior inspector based at Davis-Besse said
he knew in 2000 that plant workers had found clumps of acid left
behind when spilled coolant evaporated from the hot reactor lid.
"However, he decided not to perform inspection follow-up
and did not notify his supervisor," the report said. The NRC
inspector didn't think that the built-up acid was significant,
and thought that the company - which the agency viewed as a "good
performer" - would clean it up.
The report also cited problems with the process the NRC
uses to alert reactor operators to potentially dangerous
conditions that might affect similar plants. From 1980 to 2002,
the NRC issued 17 bulletins, information notices and other
warnings to utilities about leakage and corrosion incidents, and
yet the problems continued at many nuclear plants.
"This calls into question the effectiveness of the
process as a catalyst for addressing issues," the task force
said.
For example, in 1997, the NRC asked all plants to provide
their plans for inspecting reactor lids for cracks. Davis-Besse
had not planned to do the detailed crack inspections the NRC
wanted until 2002.
FirstEnergy was more intent on keeping the reactor
running to make electricity than on safety issues, the report
said. The company accepted degraded equipment rather than fixing
or replacing it, failed to learn from previous brushes with
corrosion damage, and cut its engineering budget by 60 percent
and staff by 44 percent from 1991 to 2001. The heavy workload and
high turnover hurt the plant staff's ability to diagnose the
signs of corrosion.
"The report provides some valuable insights," said
FirstEnergy spokesman Todd Schneider. "We've said we made
mistakes, missed opportunities. Most importantly, we're putting
into place more procedures and processes to make sure this
doesn't happen again."
To reach these Plain Dealer reporters:
jmangels@plaind.com, 216-999-4842
jfunk@plaind.com, 216-999-4138
© 2002 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.
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7 Problems at Ohio's Davis-Besse found in another nuclear plant
The Plain Dealer
10/10/02 Stephen Koff Plain Dealer Bureau Chief
Washington- At least one other nuclear power plant has recently found the kind
of leaks and cracks that led to severe problems at Ohio's Davis-Besse nuclear
plant.
The extent of leaking boric acid at the North Anna nuclear station, north of
Richmond, Va., pales when compared with what happened at Davis-Besse,
according to interviews and an incident report filed this week with the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission. But the North Anna cracks, along with isolated
cracks found at several other plants over the last year, are indicative of the
serious problems and safety risks the nation faces as its nuclear power plants
age, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The problems suggest a need for greater vigilance by the
NRC and the companies that own the power plants, says David
Lochbaum, a UCS nuclear safety engineer who used to work in the
industry and maintains there is "industrywide negligence."
The leaks and cracks "clearly demonstrate that the NRC is
not requiring a thorough safety overhaul of aging nuclear power
plants," Lochbaum said.
NRC officials agree on the need for vigilance - but not
on the conclusions about agency complacency and potential
disaster.
"I think the NRC has been pretty active on this topic,"
said Edwin Hackett, the assistant team leader of the NRC's
lessons learned task force, which reported yesterday on the
Davis-Besse debacle. He cited agency alerts on possible cracks
and leaks since 1997.
The NRC has "pretty reasonable assurance that there's not
something on the order of another Davis-Besse situation out
there," Hackett said. "That's not to say there aren't cracks" in
the nickel alloy nozzles that pass through reactor lids, guiding
the rods that control the nuclear reaction.
It is widely known that the nozzles and the welds that
attach them to the lids "are susceptible to stress corrosion
cracking, and they do crack and will crack over time," Hackett
said. "It's a question of what happens with the cracks. And if
plants are doing reasonable inspections," they will discover the
cracks, "and you would take steps to fix it before you got into a
problem like Davis-Besse."
The question is, what is a reasonable inspection?
Dominion Energy, the company that owns North Anna,
conducted visual inspections last year and found no cracks. But
in recent weeks, when Dominion used ultrasonic and
liquid-penetrant testing to check the nozzles during a routine
refueling - a procedure requested, but not required, by the NRC
as a result of Davis-Besse - it discovered widespread cracking.
Of 59 nozzles in the North Anna unit, 49 had cracks,
according to the UCS. Preliminary tests showed that none of them
appeared to be all the way through, but leaks were discovered in
six welds where nozzles were attached to the lid, Dominion says.
And boric acid was found on the reactor lid.
Dominion on Monday announced that it will replace the lid
over the reactor rather than try to repair the nozzles, which are
attached to the lid.
Dominion spokesman Richard Zuercher says the boric acid
deposits were "very, very slight," barely enough to fill a small
sugar packet.
But Lochbaum points out that other plants have found
cracks since 2001: the Oconee nuclear station in South Carolina,
Palisades in Michigan, Crystal River in Florida and Arkansas
Nuclear One in Arkansas. Most of the cracks were minor but
nonetheless in violation of NRC rules, which require a plant to
shut down within six hours of discovering a crack.
Although the plants said they had not discovered the
cracks before then, Lochbaum says they could employ better
detection devices, like moisture detection equipment used in
France.
"If the NRC doesn't enforce federal safety regulations
like the six-hour rule," he said, "the price tag could include an
avoidable accident."
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
skoff@plaind.com, 216-999-4212
© 2002 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.
*****************************************************************
8 Attorneys general ask Congress for more nuclear power protection
heraldsun.com:
The Associated Press Oct 10, 2002 : 12:33 am ET
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Attorneys general from 27 states, including
North Carolina, are asking Congress to step up efforts to protect
nuclear power plants from terror attacks.
The attorneys submitted a letter to congressional leaders on
Wednesday urging creation of a task force and a more aggressive
timetable to update plant security standards.
North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper thinks that federal
and state officials have done a good job improving security at
the plants, said J.B. Kelly, his general counsel. But Cooper
supports efforts to centralize those efforts in a task force run
by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Office of Homeland
Security.
The letter signed by Cooper and the others singles out risks
posed by spent fuel pools at nuclear plants, where radioactive
waste is stored. Those pools are a target of criticism by groups
like NC WARN, which is critical of safety conditions at the
Shearon Harris nuclear plant in Wake County.
Earlier this year, NC WARN asked Cooper to order owner Progress
Energy to stop shipping spent waste to the Harris plant pools,
saying the rail transports themselves pose a terrorist risk.
But on Wednesday, Kelly said there is no evidence that Progress
Energy violates any laws or regulations with its transports. The
Attorney General's Office sees no reason to take action against
them, although it will continue to seek out information regarding
their safety.
"We're not hearing anything from local law enforcement that they
are concerned," Kelly said. "There is nothing that indicates that
there is an imminent threat to anyone."
Shearon Harris is believed to have the largest waste storage
capacity of any nuclear power plant in the country and to be the
only commercial plant that imports waste for storage.
NC WARN this week submitted more information to Cooper's office.
Stan Goff, a retired U.S. Army master sergeant with experience in
security assessments, evaluated the vulnerability to attack of
the Progress transports.
While keeping some details confidential, Goff said he concluded
that the trains, which travel about 200 miles from Eastern North
Carolina to the Harris site, are highly vulnerable. The train
tracks they travel on are embedded in a heavily forested corridor
where it would be simple for attackers to hide themselves and
explosives, said Goff, a former Army Special Operations member
who now works for NC WARN as an organizer.
Keith Poston, a Progress Energy spokesman, said it's highly
unlikely that anyone could ever reach fuel locked inside 70-ton
casks on the guarded shipments, which occur about 10 times a year
on unannounced dates.
Copyright 2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
*****************************************************************
9 Medical Consequences of Attacking Iraq
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 18:01:13 -0500 (CDT)
Published on Thursday, October 10, 2002 by the San Francisco Chronicle
Medical Consequences of Attacking Iraq
by Helen Caldicott
As the Bush administration prepares to make war on the Iraqi people -- and
make no mistake, it is the civilian population of that country and not Saddam
Hussein who will bear the brunt of the hostilities -- it is important that we
recall the medical consequences of the last Gulf War. That conflict was, in
effect, a nuclear war. During the 1991 Gulf War, the United States deployed
hundreds of tons of weapons, many of them anti-tank shells made of depleted
uranium 238. This material is 1.7 times more dense than lead, and hence when
incorporated into an anti-tank shell and fired, it achieves great momentum,
cutting through tank armor like a hot knife through butter.
What other properties does uranium 238 possess? First, it is pyrophoric: When
it hits a tank at high speed it bursts into flames, producing tiny aerosolized
particles less than 5 microns in diameter that are easily inhalable into the
terminal air passages of the lung. Second, it is a potent radioactive
carcinogen, emitting a relatively heavy alpha particle composed of 2 protons
and 2 neutrons. Once inside the body -- either in the lung if it has been
inhaled, or in a wound if it penetrates flesh, or ingested since it
concentrates in the food chain and contaminates water -- it can produce cancer
in the lungs, bones, blood, or kidneys. Third, it has a half-life of 4.5
billion years, meaning the areas in which this ammunition was used in Iraq and
Kuwait during Gulf War will remain effectively radioactive for the rest of
time.
Children are 10 to 20 times more sensitive to the effects of radiation than
adults. My fellow pediatricians in the Iraqi town of Basra, for example, are
reporting an increase of 6 to 12 times in the incidence of childhood leukemia
and cancer. Yet because of the sanctions imposed upon Iraq by the United
States and United Nations, they have no access to drugs or effective radiation
machines to treat their patients. The incidence of congenital malformations
has doubled in the exposed populations in Iraq where these weapons were used.
Among them are babies born with only one eye or missing all or part of their
brain.
The medical consequences of the use of uranium 238 almost certainly did not
affect only Iraqis. Some U.S. veterans exposed to it are reported, by at least
one medical researcher, to be excreting uranium in their urine a decade later.
Other reports indicate it is being excreted in their semen. (The fact that
almost one-third of the American tanks used in Desert Storm were themselves
made of uranium 238 is another story, for their crews were thereby exposed to
whole-body gamma radiation.) Would these effects have surprised the U.S.
authorities? No, for incredible as it may seem, the American military's own
studies prior to Desert Storm warned that aerosol uranium exposure under
battlefield conditions could lead to cancers of the lung and bone, kidney
damage, non-malignant lung disease, neurocognitive disorders, chromosomal
damage and birth defects.
Do George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Condoleezza Rice, and Donald
Rumsfeld understand the medical consequences of the 1991 war and the likely
health effects of the next one they are now planning? If they do not, their
ignorance is breathtaking; even more incredible though -- and alas, much more
likely -- is that they do understand, but do not care.
Helen Caldicott has devoted the last 25 years to an international campaign to
educate the public about the medical hazards of the nuclear age. She spoke in
San Francisco recently in a benefit for the Nuclear Policy Research Institute,
which she founded.
)2002 San Francisco Chronicle
*****************************************************************
10 [radiation-survivors] Incurable ills: Veteran believes his
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 23:34:51 -0500 (CDT)
From: lona
Incurable ills: Veteran believes his family's sickness is due to
his radiation exposure
-------------------- Incurable ills: Veteran believes his family's
sickness is due to his radiation exposure --------------------
By R.W. Rogers Daily Press
September 17 2002
For nearly as long as Jim Lyerly dreamed of being a sailor, he
dreamed of being a father.
But early attempts by Jim and his wife, Jerry, to have children
were heartbreaking and futile.
In 1958, Jerry went into labor 24 weeks early and bore a stillborn
daughter in the back of a station wagon as Jim made a mad dash to
the hospital.
"She was perfect. She had hair and fingernails," said Jim, who
still weeps for his daughter more than 40 years dead. "But her
lungs just weren't formed enough for her to live."
Premature births and unexplainable health problems have plagued
the Lyerlys' children and grandchildren ever since.
But in 1958, Jim blamed nature, not radiation, for their troubles.
"I thought to myself - I didn't tell Jerry this because I loved
her - but I thought that I had married a dud," Jim said. "But the
doctor said that my wife was as strong as a horse and that the
problem was me."
Doctors told Jim that his sperm count was too low to father children.
At this time - the late 1950s - the Lyerlys were still years away
from connecting Jim's radiation exposure to the medical problems
they were encountering. It's now well documented that radiation
can cause sterility and low-birth weights.
"I prayed on it," Jim said. "I knew I had to have kids. I knew I
couldn't go through life without kids."
After years of praying and trying, James E. Lyerly Jr. was born in
October 1963 - six weeks early and so tiny he could sleep in a
cigar box. Doctors gave him only a slight chance to live. Though
Jamie would survive, he'd always be self-conscious about being
physically smaller and mentally slower than his friends.
In the next four years, Jerry had three more children, including
daughter Michelle. One was born prematurely and all four suffered
chronic illnesses as adults.
Lyerly loved all his children, but Jamie might have been his
favorite. In 1992, at age 28, Jamie choked to death after a drinking
binge. His parents believe he's as much a victim of radiation
exposure as his father.
"When he was born, Jamie stayed in the hospital and they told us
that he was not going to live," Jim said. "His brain was not
developed, and he didn't have any lung capacity. He was always
embarrassed about the way he was. He was a sad person."
"I guess he weighed 110, 115 pounds. He wasn't right mentally. But
he could tear down an engine. I could say, 'Jamie, I need this
rebuilt.' He didn't have any education whatsoever," Jim said.
"But I could go back two or three days later and it would be done.
But as far as keeping a job, he just couldn't do it."
Next to his bed, Jim keeps a
black and white photo dated July 1964. In it, Jamie sits on his
father's lap. Only a scar centipeding down Jim's stomach hints at
the devastating health problems the family was living through and
foretells future ones. Most of his stomach and a pre-cancerous gall
bladder were removed in June 1964.
If linking Jamie's death to his father's radiation exposure seems
like a stretch, other health problems the family pins on radiation
might be on firmer scientific ground.
The Lyerlys' eldest grandchild - Michelle's firstborn - was born
with a partially webbed left hand.
The two grandchildren Lyerly lives with - Shana, 7, and C.J., 10
- miss so much school due to complications from asthma that they
need a tutor.
Each of the postcard-beautiful children has been whisked to the
hospital at least a dozen times for harrowing breathing attacks
that are only marginally managed by medication and a breathing
machine.
Michelle McRoy - Shana and C.J.'s mother and the Lyerlys' daughter
- knows exactly what her children are living through. She's labored
her whole life with severe asthma and has taken medication since
childhood. Michelle still gets sick easier than most people and
stays sick longer - just like her children.
"There are so many hospital visits," said McRoy, 35. "My son is so
allergic to so many things. This started when he was about 9 months
old. He would get sick and just never get over it."
"We'd go from an ear infection to a respiratory infection and then
on to something else. He's kept back from doing things, taking gym
and going on field trips. I make him wear a coat and hat when the
other kids aren't because I'm afraid he's going to get sick. I
don't want him to think he's a geek, but I tell them this is how
it is."
McRoy doesn't know about the scientific debate regarding low-dose
radiation or its potential to mutate genetic codes of succeeding
generations. She simply knows that no chronic health problems
existed in her family before her father's military service and now
they surround her.
McRoy doesn't hesitate when asked to pinpoint the source of the
health problems: Operation Redwing in 1956.
"What convinced me is that in my extended family nothing like this
exists," said McRoy, a restaurant manager. "There's no asthma or
respiratory problems on my husband's side of the family either."
Radiation-altered genes have been found in animal studies, but none
yet in humans, said Dr. Stewart Bushong, a professor of radiology
at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas.
But the link might exist.
Researchers at the University of California and in Britain have
discovered that radiation-induced genetic mutations can be passed
from one generation to the next in mice. More studies are ongoing.
Atomic Veterans have long begged the government to do a study of
Atomic Vets' children and grandchildren to settle this debate.
Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., one of the few friends Atomic Vets
have in Congress, requested such a study in 1999. It was also
Wellstone who, after a 1994 meeting with Minnesota veterans who
took part in nuclear testing in Nevada, dubbed Atomic Vets "America's
most forgotten veterans."
But officials from the Institute of Medicine, which is largely
funded by the federal government, turned Wellstone down saying the
study wasn't feasible.
Atomic Vets are convinced that the government intends to stall them
into the grave and thereby save billions of dollars in compensation
and much embarrassment.
If that's the plan, bureaucrats might be whistling through the
graveyard, said Dick Conant, commander of the National Association
of Atomic Veterans, an Atomic Vet advocacy group that's waging an
e-mail and letter-writing campaign for recognition and compensation.
Genetically impaired offspring, Conant said, could easily exceed
the number of Atomic Vets, which at one time numbered about 220,000.
The government refuses to investigate the correlation between
radiation exposure and genetically based health problems, Conant
said, because of what might be found.
HERB BATEMAN HELPS
Jim Lyerly has written every president since Eisenhower - except
for Johnson, whom he didn't like - and has petitioned the Department
of Veterans Affairs four times for help since 1958.
But help has rarely come. A partial victory is the best he's done
in more than 40 years of trying and only came after the late Rep.
Herbert H. Bateman, R-Newport News, took up Lyerly's case in 1991.
In response to a Bateman letter, the Veterans Administration sent
the congressman a fact sheet on Lyerly.
"Detailed Department of the Navy reports of 1981 and 1983 place
his radiation exposure level during the operation at one-fourth of
the national occupational radiation exposure standards in effect
in 1981," it read.
"Mr. Lyerly's claim history has been reviewed repeatedly during
the past two years in response to multiple inquiries on his behalf
from a wide variety of public officials.
"However, no jurisdiction of VA has concluded that there is an
evidential basis sufficient to establish a reasonable doubt" of
Lyerly's conditions being caused by his military duty.
VA officials might not have thought the government owed Lyerly
anything. But Bateman, a man not known to suffer fools or deadbeats
gladly, did.
"Herb always believed that Mr. Lyerly wasn't dealt with fairly,"
said Angela Welch, a former Bateman staff worker on the Peninsula.
"He absolutely believed Mr. Lyerly's story. It all checked out when
he looked into it."
"In fact, I probably shouldn't tell you this," Welch said, "but
Herb raised the money for Mr. Lyerly when he was going to lose his
house because he couldn't pay the mortgage."
Bateman also took the uncommon step of speaking on Lyerly's behalf
at a VA hearing convened to evaluate his case. With Bateman's help,
Lyerly received a 40 percent disability compensation for having
most of this stomach removed after the Navy forced him from the
service.
It pays him $427 a month, which does not begin to cover Lyerly's
medical bills that now top $150,000. Lyerly has no idea how he'll
pay or how much longer doctors will continue treating him without
being paid.
And Lyerly is one of the lucky ones. Few Atomic Veterans - or their
widows - ever get any money from the government.
In fact, government policies make it tougher for Atomic Vets to
qualify for VA compensation than it is for Vietnam or Gulf War vets
to do so, said Dr. Susan H. Mather, a senior VA official.
"I think it is fact that by law the Atomic Veterans are held to
higher standards of proof than Gulf War vets," said Mather. "This
has been pointed out and Congress has chosen not to act on it."
Until the late 1980s, Atomic Vets could only qualify for disability
compensation by proving they'd been exposed to at least 5 rems of
radiation, a standard that has proven nearly impossible to meet.
That standard changed in 1988. Under the Radiation Exposed Veterans
Compensation Act, Atomic Vets suffering from leukemia, cancer of
the thyroid, breast, pharynx, esophagus, stomach and gall bladder
and six other cancers found were entitled to benefits. All Atomic
Vets had to do to qualify was to prove they were present during
nuclear testing.
Veterans' organizations applauded the act, but were disappointed
that more cancers weren't included and that there were no benefits
for Atomic Vets with non-cancerous health problems.
Lyerly fell into this latter group. Despite getting sick while in
the Navy, then having most of his stomach and a pre-cancerous gall
bladder surgically removed, he failed to qualify for benefits.
A bigger disappointment was coming.
In 1990 Congress passed "down-winders" legislation that benefited
people living down wind of nuclear testing in Nevada, Utah and
Arizona. Uranium miners were also covered.
The cancer list for down-winders included those listed in the 1988
act as well as cancer of the lung, colon, brain and ovaries.
This new, expanded list didn't apply to the Atomic Vets.
Disabled American Veterans were incensed.
"Veterans exposed to radiation suffer debilitating illnesses and
disabilities, but are treated as second-class citizens by the
federal government," said Michael E. Dobmeier, the DAV national
commander at the time.
Dave Autry, a DAV spokesman, wasn't surprised. He'd seen Atomic
Vets repeatedly slighted over the years and this slight was just
another in a long line.
"The way Congress compensates some veteran groups and not others,"
Autry said, "is arbitrary, and the government has been historically
slow to help Atomic Vets."
Lyerly said he's seen first hand what he considers unequal and even
mean-spirited treatment.
"The VA has fought me. You wouldn't believe what their officials
have said to me over the years," Lyerly said after a recent visit
to a Hampton VA center. "One guy said, '45 years after the incident
you are filing a claim?'"
"I said, 'I was filing claims before you were born,'" Lyerly
recalled. "Since 1958 and in four states."
"He said, 'You should've been a Vietnam vet. They give them
everything.' "
Vietnam Vets have won where Atomic Vets have lost, Autry contends,
because, "The Atomic Vet community is not very well-heeled and does
not provide money for congressional leaders. All they have is a
committed grassroots effort. It is not a block at the voting booth."
"NEW LAW WILL NOT CURE CANCERS"
In October 2000, President Clinton signed the Floyd D. Spence
National Defense Authorization Act that included the Energy Employees
Occupational Illness Compensation Act. It benefited certain Department
of Energy employees, contractors and subcontractors.
Wellstone used the legislation to argue that fairness dictated that
veterans get the same benefits as civilians. The law was eventually
expanded to cover veterans and took effect in March.
"The new rules will not cure their cancers, but they will ease the
burden of proof required to receive appropriate compensation for
their disabilities," said Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony J.
Principi.
The latest act is expected to cost $80.3 million a year for the
next 10 years. That's based on approving 16,764 of an expected
139,617 claims for both disability and death benefits.
The 12 percent claim-approval rate forecast would be more then
double any approval rate Atomic Vets have seen in the past.
Bernie Clark, a spokesman for the National Association of Atomic
Veterans, proclaimed this "the best time ever" for an Atomic Veteran
to get a claim through.
"The VA wants to get a lot of these claims settled," Clark said.
"Of course a lot of these vets have passed on. But their widows
can file."
But the "best time" is just the same old time for Lyerly and his
family. None of the legislation helps them because he has no
condition recognized as resulting from radiation exposure. For
Lyerly, absolutely nothing has changed for the better and time
grinds on.
Lyerly's health is now deteriorating by the month. Lately, his mind
wanders on the wisps of pain medication taken to counter complications
of prostate cancer surgery.
Surgical tubing pokes out his zipper and runs to a large pouch of
urine that he carries around in a doubled-up plastic supermarket
bag. He might be catheterized for life.
A growth on the inside of his leg might be cancerous, but fear and
cost keep him from finding out.
"He's worried," said his estranged wife, Jerry. "He's scared. He
doesn't know what is going to happen."
Lyerly can't speak of his life - much less his time in the Navy -
without becoming distraught. Bitter does not begin to describe his
feelings.
But he draws a sharp distinction between what the United States
stands for and the injustices he believes have been done to him by
those in the government.
"No one is more patriotic than I am," Lyerly said. "I love this
country more than I do my own life."
In the next breath, he equates America's treatment of Atomic Vets
with Saddam Hussein's use of poison gas on his own people. He
verbally lashes out at Jerry in front of company and leaves his
daughter Michelle, whose family he now lives with, wondering what
to do.
Jerry fears that radiation exposure may have addled her husband's
mind. Sometimes his actions are an argument that she may be right.
When not raging at someone or something, sickness and loss envelop
Lyerly in an oppressive cocoon that can be suffocating to be near.
Interspersed are calm moments of clarity and acceptance.
"I don't think anything will happen until after we are all dead,"
said Lyerly of the Atomic Vets. "It will come out afterwards. I
just wanted my story told so people would know what happened to
me."
"I want you to talk to everyone. Don't take my word for any of
this. And if you find that one word that I have told you is a lie,
I want you to write that Jim Lyerly is a liar. You must tell the
truth about this so everyone knows what they did."
From the shirt pocket over his heart Lyerly pulls out a small,
dog-eared Bible. The nine one-dollar bills that his son Jamie Jr.
carried in his wallet when he died mark a passage from Romans:
"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we are yet
sinners, Christ died for us."
Much of Lyerly's Bible is underlined, especially the passages
promising comfort and justice in the next life.
"They took my life away. They ruined my whole family and took away
my life and the only dream I ever had."
Rick Rogers can be reached at 247-4629 or by e-mail at
rrogers@dailypress.com.
Copyright (c) 2002, Daily Press
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11 UK: Servicemen exposed to radiation*
The Ministry of Defence has admitted it used Australian
servicemen in radiation experiments in the 1950s.
The men were ordered to run, walk and crawl across contaminated
areas but the MoD says they were only exposed to very low levels
of radiation and were not put at risk.
British researcher Sue Rabbit Roff discovered a document in the
Australian National Archive which revealed that Australian
personnel were used to test different types of clothing to find
out what protection they offered against radiation.
"We never used people as human guinea pigs," an MoD spokesman
said.
We were testing the effects of very low level radiation fallout
on clothing not personnel
MoD spokesman
"We did conduct tests in the 1950s and 1960s on Commonwealth
officers and they were asked to participate as logistical
support.
"We were testing the effects of very low level radiation fallout
on clothing not personnel."
Ms Roff, senior research fellow at Dundee University, said the
document she discovered lists 24 Australian personnel who were
used in experiments to see what clothing would be more protective
in a nuclear war.
The men were asked to wear particular types of clothing and to
crawl and walk through ground zero some hours and days after the
detonation of nuclear and atomic weapons at Maralinga," she said.
The Australian Government has said it intends to investigate the
allegations.
* Nuclear tests timeline * 1952-63 - British Government carries
out nuclear tests in Australia 1956 - Maralinga becomes location
for all tests in Australia 1967 - Maralinga officially closed
1984 Australian Royal Commission set up in response to safety
concerns
Britain conducted a series of tests at Monte Bello Island off
Western Australia and at Maralinga in the southern Australian
desert.
Morris May, a lawyer representing a group of 30 Australian
veterans seeking compensation for exposure to radiation during
nuclear testing, told the radio his clients had long claimed they
were used as guinea pigs.
He said one veteran, a driver, had described how he had been
instructed to walk through a contaminated area wearing army issue
woollen clothing. No one believed him.
© MMII
*****************************************************************
12 NRC Failed to Perform Inspections
October 09, 2002 By JOHN SEEWER ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOLEDO, Ohio- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission failed to perform
inspections that could have detected an acid leak well before it
caused the most extensive corrosion ever found on a U.S. nuclear
reactor, according to an agency review released Wednesday.
The internal review marks the first time the NRC has formally
acknowledged making mistakes that led to the damage at the
Davis-Besse plant near Toledo. The agency also blames the plant's
operator, FirstEnergy Corp. An NRC report issued last week said
inspectors found violations of 10 federal regulations at the
plant.
Boric acid nearly ate through a 6-inch-thick steel reactor cap by
the time the first of two leaks was discovered in March. The
discovery, which the NRC has said should have been spotted
several years earlier, led to a nationwide review of all 69
similar plants.
The report released Wednesday said the NRC and the nuclear
industry did not think boric acid deposits would cause
significant corrosion. An NRC senior inspector became aware of
the deposits in 2000 but never notified superiors or inspected
the area more closely, the report said.
Agency spokesman Jan Strasma said NRC managers will review the
report's more than 50 recommendations.
"Certainly there'll be changes made," he said.
"This is a first step," said David Lochbaum, of the Union of
Concerned Scientists, which has advocated tighter safety rules
for nuclear plants. "We need to see how successful the agency is
at making these changes happen."
Davis-Besse spokesman Richard Wilkins said Wednesday that the
company is focusing on improving its inspections and standards.
The plant remains shut down. Workers have replaced the damaged
reactor head. The company wants to restart the plant early next
year, but regulators have not indicated if they will allow that.
On the Net: http://www.nrc.gov [http://www.nrc.gov]
http://www.ucsusa.org [http://www.ucsusa.org]
http://www.firstenergycorp.com [http://www.firstenergycorp.com]
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
13 Ukrainian nuclear plant workers under investigation for using
fake diplomas to get jobs
Oct 10, 2002
KIEV, Ukraine - Authorities are investigating several nuclear
plant workers in western Ukraine for allegedly using fake
diplomas to get high-paying jobs, a spokesman for Ukraine's state
nuclear power monopoly said Thursday.
The 10 workers bought fake diplomas between 1999-2001 for as much
as US$600 from a university in the southern city of Odessa,
indicating that they were specialists in "atomic energy and
electric power stations," the daily Kievskiy Vedemosti reported,
citing the deputy prosecutor general for Rivne, Vasyl Kundiuk.
Doubts about the workers' qualifications arose when officials
investigated a number of reports of technical problems at the
plant, the report said. The workers held a variety of engineering
and administrative positions, ranging from senior operator to
shift boss.
The apparent motive for the workers' ruse was higher salaries.
They earned 6,000-8,000 hyrvnas (US$1100-US$1500) per month at
the plant — more than 10 times the average wage in this
struggling former Soviet republic, Kievskiy Vedemosti wrote.
Three Soviet-designed reactors operate at Rivne and construction
of a new reactor is about 85 percent complete.
Ukraine received international funds to build new reactors at
Rivne and Khmelnytskyi to compensate for power lost when the
Chernobyl nuclear plant, site of world's worst nuclear disaster
in 1986, was closed in 2000.
Ukraine operates four nuclear power plants with 13 reactors that
are frequently shut down for both planned and unscheduled
repairs. (tv/ee)
Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
14 Open books, Envirocare told
[deseretnews.com] Wednesday, October 9, 2002
Activists suspect firm involved in secret deals
By Donna Kemp Spangler Deseret News staff writer
Environmentalists and government watchdogs on Wednesday called on
the Utah Attorney General's Office to investigate allegations
that a radioactive waste company negotiated secret deals with
Tooele County commissioners.
"Cooperation and partnerships between local government and
local business can be a good thing and should be encouraged,"
said Tooele County activist Chip Ward. "But those relationships
should always be open and accountable, especially if the business
has a history that is tainted by corruption."
The activists are hoping to enlist the attorney general's
help and thereby turn up the heat on Envirocare and its owner
Khosrow Semnani to open the company's books — something they have
been trying to look at for years but have been denied because
Envirocare is a private company.
The activists, all part of a larger initiative campaign to
raise taxes on Envirocare, are aching to look at the books before
November's election when voters may well decide Envirocare's
future.
"Certainly, this is part of a bigger push to get them to
open their books," Ward said. "Envirocare says the initiative
will put them out of business. But how do we know that? We don't
know if they made $20 million last year or $50 million or $100
million. Open their books and we would have a more objective view
of what they are talking about."
With the election but 3 1/2 weeks away, Ward acknowledged
the timing of Wednesday's planned press conference was
politically motivated more than it was to trumpet new
information.
Former Envirocare President Charles Judd made accusations
of "anti-competitive conduct" in a civil suit filed months ago
after he was unceremoniously terminated by the radioactive waste
disposal company. The merits of those allegations have yet to be
heard in court, but the charges have nonetheless provided fodder
for initiative proponents. Judd is represented by the law
firm of Jones, Waldo Holbrook and McDonough. The initiative is
being organized out of the offices of Frank Pignanelli and Doug
Foxley, who work for the same law firm.
The initiative would raise taxes on Envirocare by several
hundred percent, ostensibly to raise money for schools and the
homeless. A major instigator of the initiative is former Salt
Lake Tribune Publisher Jack Gallivan, who hopes it will raise
money for his Crusade for the Homeless project.
But Envirocare says it will raise only false hope because
the company could not afford the taxes and would just close its
doors.
Ward said Judd's allegations are serious enough they
warrant investigation regardless of whether or not there is an
initiative.
An amended complaint was filed in 3rd District Court on
May 28, but at the request of Judd's attorney the documents were
sealed and replaced with a "corrected" version.
James Lowrie, Judd's attorney, said the reason the amended
complaint was filed at all was a result of a "miscommunication
between me and others in my office."
The sealed complaint alleges Envirocare engaged in a
pattern of "anti-competitive conduct" such as inducing state
legislators to enact legislation that would preserve Envirocare's
monopoly and negotiating secret agreements with Tooele County
commissioners.
"The relationship he describes between Envirocare and
Tooele County commissioners could not be characterized as
above-board," Ward said. "It could be characterized as over the
phone, behind the back and under the table."
Ward said the federal government did not fine Semnani
$100,000 on tax charges because his "business ethics were
impeccable and his integrity laudable."
Semnani was fined for his role in what prosecutors
described as a scheme by a former state regulator to extort
money, gold and property from Semnani. Semnani reportedly paid
hundreds of thousands of dollars to Larry Anderson, who was
convicted of some charges in connection with that scheme.
Judd's lawsuit alleges Semnani had sweetheart deals with
Tooele County commissioners, including one where a $1.5 million
contribution to a firefighters museum was credited against the
company's future taxes.
"People in Tooele County work for Khosrow Semnani. They
did not elect him the fourth invisible commissioner," Ward said.
Contributing: Linda Thomson
© 2002 Deseret News Publishing Company
*****************************************************************
15 Pact extended at West Valley
Buffalo News -
[http://www.buffalonews.com
ANTHONY CARDINALE News Staff Reporter 10/9/2002
West Valley Demonstration Project has received a 27-month
contract extension worth $230 million.
The federal contract will allow the firm to continue in its third
decade of work at the former nuclear waste-processing plant and
to complete construction of a remote-handled waste facility.
The announcement of the contract with the U.S. Department of
Energy was made Tuesday by West Valley Nuclear Services Co.,
primary manager of the 3,000-acre site since 1981.
The firm has done nearly $2 billion in work since it was awarded
the original contract to decontaminate the site for the Energy
Department and the state Energy Research and Development
Authority.
Last month, the firm announced the historic completion of a
project in which 600,000 gallons of highly radioactive waste were
stabilized in stainless-steel-encased glass logs.
"This extension is a reconfirmation of the unique capabilities
our people have to safely manage a project like this across its
entire life cycle," said Stephen G. Hanks, president and CEO of
Idaho-based Washington Group International, parent of West Valley
Nuclear Services.
He credited the company with "achieving a world-class safety
record and earning the DOE's most prestigious safety honor - the
Voluntary Protection Program "star' status."
Under the contract extension, Hanks said, the firm "will focus on
decontaminating the former processing facility and completing
construction of a remote-handled waste facility" by the end of
2004.
[http://www.buffalonews.com/copyright.htm]
*****************************************************************
16 Sellafield: SEVEN-STOREY CENTRE REDUCED TO RUBBLE
[The Whitehaven News]
HOW the mighty are fallen - or nibbled to bits in the case of
B403, Sellafield's administration/management centre which has
dominated the main entrance to the nuclear site for the best part
of 40 years.
The seven-storey office block which has been second home to
hundreds of BNFL staff and top brass is now on its way down.
The Nibbler, or Muncher as the machinery is also known among site
staff, is chewing it up bit by bit.
By the end of November the 120ft B403 will be no more. A vast
empty space will be returned to greenfield.
The area inside the Sellafield main gates will be grassed over
and landscaped - just as it used to be before vehicular pressures
resulted in some attractive greenery being dug up, concreted over
and turned into a car park.
The BNFL man behind the Ł700,000 demolition project, Tony Price,
said: "We are going to build a mound and make some sort of
pleasing feature, possibly a flower-bedded type of arrangement.
"The intention is to change the look and image of the site."
For the first time ever, there will be a Welcome to Sellafield
sign - possibly spelled out in flowers.
For the next few weeks, B403 will be munched away by The Nibbler,
a long-reach piece of relatively-new machinery with huge jaws.
BNFL engineering expert Tom Gilroy said: "It's job is to nibble
away at the structure, cracking it all up, pulling it all down.
"Then the rubble is loaded on to lorries and taken away for
recycling."
The decision to knock down B403 was taken several years ago when
BNFL set about decamping around 300 staff. The project bosses
categorically deny it was becoming unsafe.
"It is a very strong structurally," said Mr Price.
"In fact, the contractors say they haven't seen anything like it
since they were in the Nat West Bank vaults.
"Unfortunately, the characteristics of the era in which it was
built don't fit with the safety and suitability of today's modern
office work."
The cost of dismantling the building is Ł700,000.
Most of the B403 staff are now housed in a custom-built block
near Thorp.
[http://www.whitehaven-news.co.uk
*****************************************************************
17 BNFL: the strangest privatization yet
Tuesday October 8, 09:18 PM
The CEO of BNFL believes the company may be privatized within
the next three or four years.
Later in the decade, the UK government might try to privatize
BNFL, the part of Britain's nuclear industry that remains
government-owned. It is very unlikely that such a privatization
would generate sufficient investor interest, given the recent
woes of British Energy shareholders. However, certain parts of
the company could viably be spun off.
When the UK's nuclear industry was partially privatized in the
mid-1990s, the newly-created private entity British Energy
inherited the bulk of the country's nuclear generation capacity.
The state retained the technically obsolete Magnox reactors, as
well as the Sellafield reprocessing plant, via British Nuclear
Fuels (BNFL). Those were the assets that private investors did
not want.
Nevertheless, BNFL has now embarked on a major restructuring
program, which could pave the way for an eventual privatization.
The restructuring will split the company's business into the
Nuclear Utilities Business Group (NUBG), comprising of the global
fuel manufacturing and reactor services business, and the
Government Services Business Group (GSBG), consisting of the
Magnox power plants, environmental services and the reprocessing
facilities at Sellafield. BNFL's CEO Norman Askew envisages
privatization within four years, by which time, the government
will have established the Liabilities Management Authority to
assume BNFL's multi-billion nuclear clean-up obligations. Without
such a step, BNFL's long-term financial position would be
untenable, given its ageing power plants and the huge financial
burden.
However, in the wake of the huge losses incurred by BE
shareholders, privatization may not appeal to investors. BE
received what was at the time considered the country's prime
nuclear assets, and still found itself on the brink of
insolvency.
Many of the same business fundamentals that created grave
problems for BE apply to BNFL, not to mention the general
anti-nuclear sentiment in the investor community. In addition, BE
is BNFL's largest client, with an annual GBP300 million
reprocessing contract: BE's difficulties are BNFL's difficulties.
A feasible avenue for the government would be to further split
BNFL, keeping the GSBG and spinning off the NUBG. The latter
would not be burdened with obsolete nuclear power stations nor
dependent on the long-term well-being of BE and so should be able
to position itself as a lean, global nuclear asset-manager
specialist.
You can download a FREE utilities report from
www.dmfreereports.com
Copyright © 2002 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
18 UK: Plan to recover nuclear gas rejected
NewScientist.com
19:00 09 October 02
The UK's Environment Agency plans to allow emissions of a
radioactive gas from the Sellafield nuclear complex in Cumbria to
rise threefold.
In recommendations to health and environment ministers, the EA
has rejected an option from its own consultants to introduce
technology to freeze and store the gas in question, krypton-85,
and in doing so make money by extracting valuable xenon gas. The
EA's decision has been dubbed "spineless" by Greenpeace.
As the krypton freezes, the xenon condenses from the air. The
market is growing for xenon, which is used in car headlights,
double-glazing and lasers.
Krypton-85 is created in nuclear reactors and released when spent
fuel is reprocessed. In 2001, reprocessing plants at Sellafield
discharged 103 million gigabecquerels of krypton-85 into the air.
The gas circulates the globe and, according to standard risk
estimates, future emissions could cause an extra 80 cases of
cancer worldwide over 10 years.
A study commissioned by the Environment Agency from RM
Consultants in Warrington, Cheshire, says that it would be
"technically possible" to separate out the krypton-85, and then
store it for 100 years while its radioactivity decayed.
The state-owned company that runs Sellafield, British Nuclear
Fuels, estimates that this would cost at least Ł335 million. But
the EA has decided not to force BNFL to build a krypton-85
removal plant.
In its latest review of radioactive discharges from Sellafield,
the EA simply asks BNFL to justify its claim that it will take
seven years to develop the technology. As reprocessing may end in
2016, introducing the technology now would be "uneconomic", the
EA says. Greenpeace is urging ministers to overturn the
recommendation.
The consultants' study says the separation process could earn
BNFL Ł10 million a year. Producing xenon at Sellafield could also
benefit BNFL by showing that there is at least one valuable
by-product from the plant's controversial operations. Similar
technology has already been used in the US to prevent krypton-85
being emitted from a processing plant at Argonne National
Laboratory in Idaho Falls.
BNFL was first told to develop the technology to prevent
krypton-85 emissions 25 years ago, when it was given permission
for a new reprocessing plant.
It says it has devoted considerable time, effort and expense to
investigating options for removing krypton-85. But it has
concluded that the technology would involve "unjustified exposure
risks to both workers and potentially members of the public".
Rob Edwards
*****************************************************************
19 CIA deflates BUSH claims / Russia doesn't believe them either
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 01:28:22 -0500 (CDT)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,808956,00.html
The Guardian (London) Thursday October 10, 2002
Julian Borger in Washington
CIA IN BLOW TO BUSH ATTACK PLANS
President George Bush's attempt to maintain public support for
military action against Iraq has taken a fresh blow from an unexpected
quarter, with the publication of a letter from the CIA stating that
while Saddam Hussein poses little threat to America now, a US invasion
could push him into retaliating with chemical or biological weapons.
The unusually detailed public statement, in the form of a letter from the
CIA director, George Tenet, to Congress, comes at a highly
sensitive moment, potentially damaging Mr Bush's attempt to rally an
overwhelming congressional mandate for the use of force against Iraq.
In a chilling excerpt, Mr Tenet warned that if Saddam was personally
threatened he might seize "his last chance to exact vengeance by
taking a large number of victims with him".
The risk of such an attack, possibly involving weapons of mass
destruction, would rise from "low" to "pretty high" were Saddam to
feel cornered by US military might.
Such a stark judgment seems likely to increase public anxiety about the
prospect of a new war. There is still majority backing for military
action, but that support appears to be fading despite a concerted
public relations campaign by the administration to put its case.
Approval for military action has fallen from 57% last month to 53%
this week, according to a US Gallup poll.
The CIA letter was seized on by Democrat opponents of military action, at
the height of the congressional debate on a resolution authorising an
invasion if and when the president deems it necessary.
Donald Payne, a House Democrat, said that Mr Tenet's letter showed
that the Bush administration's aggressive strategy "could trigger the
very things that our president has said that he is trying to prevent: the
use of chemical or biological weapons. In view of this report, the policy
of a pre-emptive strike is troublesome."
Mr Tenet's letter came in response to a congressional request to
declassify segments of CIA briefings on Iraq over the past few days. He
said: "Baghdad for now appears to be drawing a line short of
conducting terrorist attacks with conventional or CBW [chemical and
biological weapons] against the United States."
This assessment is reinforced by testimony given to Congress last week by
an unnamed senior intelligence officer, which Mr Tenet allowed to be
declassified.
The officer said: "My judgment would be that the probability of
[Saddam] initiating an attack . . . in the foreseeable future, given the
conditions we understand now, the likelihood I think would be low."
Asked about the likelihood of an Iraqi chemical or biological attack on
the US in response to an invasion, the intelligence officer said: "Pretty
high, in my view."
Mr Tenet emphasised the same point in his own words. "Should Saddam
conclude that a US-led attack could no longer be deterred, he probably
would become much less constrained in adopting terrorist actions," he
wrote.
He added that Saddam might work with Islamist terrorists to carry out an
attack.
It is unusual for the CIA to put such details of its intelligence
assessments into a public document. The letter was produced after
intense pressure from senators.
The letter also comes at a time when the CIA is competing with the
more hawkish Pentagon, which is also supplying the White House with
intelligence on the Iraqi threat.
"You have to ask yourself the question, since Tenet is part of the
team, why now?" said Fred Hitz, a former CIA inspector general. "You
have to go back to the Vietnam era to find a time when the judgment of the
intelligence community was in the public eye on such a current affairs
basis."
The White House last night denied that the CIA analysis undermined Mr
Bush's message on the urgency of confronting Baghdad.
Mr Tenet "did not say we're OK," the White House spokesman, Ari
Fleischer, said. "If Saddam Hussein holds a gun to someone's head,
while he denies he even owns a gun, do you really want to take a
chance that he'll never use it."
In a bid to dampen the controversy, Mr Tenet later put out a statement
insisting: "There is no inconsistency between our view of Saddam's
growing threat and the view as expressed in [Bush's] speech.
"Although we think the chances of Saddam initiating a WMD [weapons of
mass destruction] attack at this moment are low, in part because it
would constitute an admission that he possesses WMD, there is no
question that the likelihood of Saddam using WMD against the US or our
allies in the region for blackmail, deterrence or otherwise grows as his
arsenal continues to build."
===========
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,808849,00.html
The Guardian Thursday October 10, 2002
Ewen MacAskill and David Munk and Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow
SECURITY COUNCIL NEAR COMPROMISE ON ACCESS FOR WEAPONS INSPECTORS
Blair to urge Putin to accept tough resolution
The UN security council is edging towards a compromise resolution on
Iraq demanding unfettered access for weapons inspectors to Saddam
Hussein's eight presidential palaces.
The five permanent members of the UN security council, the US,
Britain, France, China and Russia, met in private in New York on
Tuesday and would not reveal their discussions. They are awaiting
instructions from their capitals.
Tony Blair is to fly to Moscow tonight to try to persuade the Russian
president, Vladimir Putin, to accept the UN compromise.
The weapons inspectors are to establish whether Iraq is hiding
biological, chemical or nuclear-linked weapons.
The US and Britain have put forward tough proposals that would see any
Iraqi obstacles to the weapons inspectors trigger military action.
France, Russia and China oppose such a trigger and have argued that a new
resolution is unnecessary.
Although publicly France, Russia and China have not changed their
position, in private they are moving towards a compromise. France is
reported to have put forward a draft on Tuesday that is closer to the US
position.
The likely compromise is that a 1998 memorandum agreed between Iraq and
the UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, will be annulled. The
memorandum set out conditions for entry by the inspectors into
President Saddam's eight palaces: the inspectors had to give notice and
to be accompanied by international diplomats.
Annulling the 1998 memorandum would see a return to the position of
unfettered access that the inspectors had after the Gulf War in 1991.
The question of a trigger is likely to be fudged.
Mr Blair is to spend 24 hours with Mr Putin at his country retreat.
They will also discuss Chechnya. Mr Blair, who regards himself as
having a good relationship with the Russia leader, will tell Mr Putin he
has sympathy with him over the problems posed by the Chechens, who have
been blamed for attacks in Moscow.
But Iraq will dominate. In an unusually critical outburst, Sergei
Yastrzhembsky, one of Mr Putin's advisers, accused Mr Blair of
behaving like a public relations officer for Washington.
Mr Yastrzhembsky told British journalists that aggression against Iraq was
not only unwarranted but also threatened to destabilise Russian growth
and interests.
He confirmed that Russia is prepared to look at a new resolution. But he
remained sceptical about US and British motives: "The international
community has seen no evidence that Iraq has weapons of mass
destruction, including the well-known document published in London. All
this cannot be regarded as evidence. We could call it PR support for
possible strikes."
He complained that Washington had kept Russia out of the loop and said Mr
Putin was looking forward to hearing some answers from Mr Blair.
He added that Russia had a financial rather than ideological interest in
Iraq: "Russian oil companies have promising oil fields in Iraq that they
want to develop. Iraq buys the produce of our machine-building industry.
They owe us between $8bn and $10bn. Our concerns are that we do not want
those financial and economic interests to be affected."
Russia's deputy foreign minister, Yuri Fedotov, also signalled that Mr
Putin was moving towards acceptance of a new resolution. "There have
been many resolutions," Mr Fedotov said. "And if there will be another
resolution, there will be another resolution."
According to western diplomats, the US has been threatening that
Russia would lose huge amounts in western aid if it proves troublesome
over Iraq. One diplomat said the negotiations were no longer about
trade or oil concessions but instead focused on securing Russian
support in the light of US aid it receives annually.
======================
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20 [southnews] Show us some money: Russia sets out its conditions
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 23:30:45 -0500 (CDT)
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Show us some money: Russia sets out its conditions for backing war with Iraq
By Julius Strauss and George Trefgarne in Moscow and London
October 11 2002
Russia has indicated it would demand a high price for its support in the
campaign against Iraq but that it would not ultimately stand in the way of
the United States.
Briefing Western journalists on Wednesday, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, President
Vladimir Putin's official spokesman, said: "The devil will be in the detail
of these [United Nations] resolutions, but our position is essentially
pragmatic. What is interesting for us is our economic and financial
interests."
France also moved closer to accepting the inevitability of war in Iraq,
while continuing to criticise Washington's hawkish stance.
Following a parliamentary debate on Iraq on Tuesday evening, the French
Foreign Minister, Dominique de Villepin, said France would not use its UN
Security Council veto to block a US-backed resolution on Iraq, because that
would deprive it of its influence.
While France still appeared wedded to its insistence that there must be a
two-stage process of UN resolutions on Iraq, the latest diplomatic
manoeuvres may render a second resolution moot.
The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, in an interview with the BBC before
his scheduled arrival in Moscow yesterday, played down suggestions that Mr
Putin would demand huge financial guarantees in return for support in a war
against Iraq.
"Obviously, there are interests that Russia has in this issue, but I don't
think it's a question of price tags," Mr Blair said.
"It's a question of making sure that we do this in such a way that the
world is made a safer place, that Iraq can develop and that the interests
of everybody, including Russia, are taken account of."
However, Mr Yastrzhembsky made it clear that Russia's policy on Iraq was
driven by economic concerns.
At the heart of its fears are the effects that a war in Iraq might have on
the price of oil. Russia, which relies on oil for half of its external
income, fears that if Saddam Hussein is deposed, the US may attempt to
flood the market with cheap Iraqi oil to bolster its own economy.
Economists say that for Russia, still battling with the huge costs of
economic restructuring, a steep fall in the oil price could provoke
financial disaster.
The price of oil, presently about $US29 a barrel, is widely expected to
fall if the US wages a successful war against Iraq. Mr Yastrzhembsky said
Russia could cope with a fall in price to $US18 a barrel, but not any
lower.
A fall of this magnitude in the crude oil price would probably translate to
a fall of between 20" and 25" a litre at the Australian petrol pump.
Moscow said it would also be looking for guarantees that Russian companies
would be able to keep valuable oilfields in western Iraq if Saddam was
deposed.
The Telegraph, London
This story was found at:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/10/11/1034222548197.html
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21 [southnews] Iraq throws open suspect sites
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 23:31:27 -0500 (CDT)
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Iraq Shows Suspected Nuclear Site
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER
Associated Press Writer
October 10, 2002, 3:54 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqi generals threw open a sprawling complex Thursday
that the United States suspects may be developing nuclear arms. Iraq
insists it turns out nothing more deadly than toothbrushes.
As Western and Iraqi reporters clambered on machine parts or skidded on
machine oil, the latest tour showed what past outings have: How hard it
would be for any eyes -- untrained, in the skies, or expert -- to see what
Saddam Hussein might wish concealed.
"This shows that this site has nothing to hide. You can see for yourself,"
said Gen. Hussan Mohammed Amin, surrounded by machine parts heavily
shrouded in plastic.
The stacks of covered gear were machines that workers dismantled and
scattered for fear of a U.S. attack, said Amin, director-general of the
Iraqi commission that has worked with U.N. arms inspectors.
"I told the people here they should have buried them" for protection, the
general added under his breath. Journalists were told the plant made dies,
molds, and steel structures.
Iraq's top military industrialization minister repeated Thursday that his
country has no programs for weapons of mass destruction -- but said it
could retaliate for any attack nonetheless.
"If the Americans commit another such crime against us, we will teach them
something they will never forget," Gen. Abdel Tawab Mullah Huweish said at
a news conference in Baghdad.
Sprawling over two square miles north of Baghdad, the Nassr industrial site
twice has been the target of U.S.-led attacks -- during the 1991 Persian
Gulf War and in 1998 after U.N. inspectors withdrew to protest what they
called Iraq's noncooperation with efforts to monitor its weapons programs.
After each strike it was rebuilt.
U.N. resolutions after the Gulf War ordered Iraq to destroy all nuclear,
biological and chemical weapon programs and the missiles to deliver such
arms.
As President Bush tried this week to build his case with the American
people for action against Iraq, he and the White House cited the Nassr
plant and three others as being sites used in Iraqi efforts to develop
nuclear weapons. The White House produced what it said were satellite
photos of two of the sites.
Iraq has agreed to the return of weapons inspectors, absent since 1998. But
before the inspections resume, the United States is holding out for a
tougher U.N. resolution that would demand access to Saddam's many
presidential palace sites, among other stipulations.
The Americans "don't want the inspectors to come ... (because) they will
visit the accused sites and see that nothing has taken place," Amin told
reporters outside the Nassr plant.
"For Americans, this will create a crisis, a crisis for their credibility,"
he said.
In recent months, Iraqi officials have escorted journalists to a number of
suspected sites, to dispute American claims. Iraqis said they would take
Western reporters on Saturday to a second of the four alleged nuclear sites
specified by Bush.
The second site, Al Furat, south of Baghdad, conducts electronics research
for civilian use, Huweish said. U.S. intelligence officials charged last
week that the Iraqi government has made repeated attempts to smuggle in
goods for Al Furat that could be used for a centrifuge in nuclear work.
At the Nassr plant Thursday, Amin led reporters through four vast
buildings. Plant director Tahssin Salman Mousa called it a "surprise
visit." Officials said journalists were free to see anywhere in the plant,
but there were dozens of tin-roofed structures in the complex that
journalists did not have time to view.
There was little sign of trucks with goods going in or out of the plant.
Amin said some production had been shut down as a precaution against
U.S.-led attacks.
At issue for U.N. inspectors is machinery that can be used either for
civilian or military ends. Amin said the Nassr plant does have some
"dual-use" technology, including 3-dimensional computer imaging for molding
complex parts, but only for civilian ends.
Inside, cameramen climbed atop machines to video the crowd and random
machine parts. Reporters surrounded Iraqi officials, who sometimes tried to
edge away.
Journalists were shown workers laboring at a fierce furnace and welders
sweating over oil tankers. Brochures in English showed the plant producing
goods including something called a "heart machine" and the bases for
toothbrushes.
Without the expertise to know what to ask about or where to look, the crowd
looked more like a kindergarten class touring a soft drinking bottling
plant.
"Oh, yeah, it's the D-D-D triple X," one cameraman muttered sarcastically
as an official offered no sound explanation to what the machine does.
Iraq denies it has ever had a nuclear weapons program. In 1993, Hans Blix
of the International Atomic Energy Agency declared that Iraq's nuclear
weapons program had been "either destroyed or neutralized."
Soon after, U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq said they had discovered a
nuclear weapons program well under way. Aides say the chagrined Blix, now
foremost in the renewed inspections effort, has been put on his guard by
that event.
Copyright ) 2002, The Associated Press
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22 [southnews] US to give Israel 72 hours notice before Iraq
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 23:31:36 -0500 (CDT)
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Official: U.S. Would Give Israel 72 Hours Notice Before Attacking Iraq
By Mark Lavie Oct 10, 2002
JERUSALEM (AP) - The United States will give Israel three days notice
before attacking Iraq, a senior Israeli official said Thursday, giving the
country time to prepare for a possible Iraqi strike.
With Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon scheduled travel to Washington to
meet President Bush Oct. 16 for discussions about the possibility of a U.S.
attack on Iraq, the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The
Associated Press that Israel was satisfied with preparations and
coordination with the United States.
The senior official would not give specifics, declining to comment on the
possibility that in the case of an Iraqi missile attack, Israel would
receive real-time information from U.S. military satellites, as reported in
Israeli media.
Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot reported Sunday that the United States had
agreed to give Israel the satellite intelligence, but didn't cite any
sources. According to reports in Israeli publications, intelligence sharing
was limited during the 1991 conflict.
In Israel, many fear that Saddam would seek support from the Arab world by
firing Scud missiles at Israel, as in the Gulf War, when Israel was
targeted with 39 Scuds that caused damage and injuries, but no deaths.
All Iraqi missiles in the Gulf War had conventional warheads - but the main
fear now, as then, is the possibility of a nonconventional attack,
including biological and chemical war heads.
The Patriot missile defense batteries, built by the United States as an
anti-aircraft system and modified to guard against incoming missiles, had
only partial success against the Scuds in the Gulf War.
With assistance from the United States, Israel spent the past decade
developing the Arrow system, designed to intercept a Scud missile at high
altitude early in its flight, before reaching Israeli airspace.
A Patriot can knock out an incoming missile only as it nears the end of its
flight.
Israel has already deployed one Arrow battery at the Palmachim Air Force
Base, south of Tel Aviv, the military said.
Sharon has said if an Iraqi attack caused many casualties, Israel would
have to strike back.
AP-ES-10-10-02 1907EDT
This story can be found at: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGA2QPBA57D.html
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23 [southnews] Think Carefully- Saudi Warns Bush
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 23:32:31 -0500 (CDT)
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Think Carefully
Saudi Crown Prince Warns President Bush About War With Iraq
By Jim Sciutto [ABCNEWS.com]
R I Y A D H, Saudi Arabia, Oct. 10 As talk of war on Iraq builds in
the United States, fear and anger is felt in the streets of Saudi
Arabia, one of the United States' most powerful allies in the Gulf.
We were invited inside the palace of Saudi Crown Prince
Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz for his weekly audience with people from around
the country.
It was the first time Western television cameras were allowed to film the
event. Inside a hall the size of a football field, more than 500 Saudi
citizens lined up for a face-to-face meeting with the heir to the throne
who is de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, due to the ill health of his half
brother King Fahd.
Inside the ornate palace, painted glass covers a 30-foot-high ceiling.
The possibility of war in Iraq was not acceptable dinner conversation at
the royal table but around the country, it is the No. 1 concern of many
Saudis. In a rare interview with Western media, even the crown prince
himself expressed little enthusiasm for war.
When I asked him if he thought the Bush administration has made the case
for war on Iraq, the crown prince answered: "I wish him well, but I think
President Bush should think carefully about what he's about to do. He is a
man of peace and the American people are people of peace."
Instead of talk of war during the event, most requests which were handed
to the crown prince on pieces of paper were personal.
One man asked for a job. Another asked for help getting his son into
military school. A lucky 50 or so people got a more intimate conversation
with the crown prince: two or three minutes to explain why he should
answer their petition.
Later, inside Crown Prince Abdullah's private dining room, everyone was
invited to a lavish, eight-course meal. Grilled shrimp was followed by
lamb, then turkey, then beef, then veal along with hummus and fresh
fruits and vegetables, many from the royal family's own farm.
During dinner, average Saudis sang folk songs and recited poems right in
front of the crown prince's table. One man praised the royal family at the
top of his lungs for uniting the kingdom and "bringing the Saudi people
out of the desert."
An Attack on Islam?
Before the Gulf War, many Saudis genuinely feared Iraq. They thought that
after the Iraqis invaded Kuwait, Saudi Arabia could be next on their list.
But today, they see Saddam Hussein and his military as much weaker more
of a nuisance than a real threat.
Interviewed in Riyadh's ancient soukh, or market, one man said: "Economic
sanctions have kept Saddam in check. Another war would be bad for the
whole region."
At traditional majalis, or council meetings, where Saudis discuss politics
and world affairs, they're also saying a U.S. attack on Iraq would be an
attack on Islam.
Why else, they say, would Washington embrace U.N. resolutions against
Baghdad but not on Israel, despite escalating violence against
Palestinians?
The crown prince reserved his strongest language for this issue: "Do you
think what's happening to the Palestinians is acceptable to any human
conscience? I think President Bush should fulfill his obligations to the
Palestinian people."
He added that Saudi Arabia's efforts to bring the two sides to the
negotiating table are continuing.
This sentiment is echoed throughout the Gulf, but in Saudi Arabia,
America's closest ally in the region for decades, there's something more
a deep sense of betrayal following the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Fahad al-Amar fought alongside U.S. troops in the Gulf War, but says he
would never join a new U.S. war on Iraq.
"Nobody wanted to have anything to do with you and we did. Now we get
pictures taken when we go to the U.S. like you do for criminals when you
take them to jail," he said. "You know, for us, that's heartbreaking."
Ambassador: Listen to Saudi Concerns
U.S. Ambassador Robert Jordan says America should listen closely to Saudi
concerns. The alliance is very important to U.S. national interests, he
says.
"This isn't some favor we're conferring on the Saudis," said Jordan. "In
many, many ways we need the relationship as much as they do."
The Saudi government has said it will allow the United States to launch
attacks on Iraq from bases inside Saudi Arabia, if there's a new U.N.
resolution. And joint-U.S.-Saudi military exercises continue.
But the Saudis are performing a delicate balancing act, trying to give
some support to the United States on Iraq, without creating more anger at
home.
Copyright ) 2002 ABC News Internet Ventures.
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24 [southnews] US 'wants to destroy Iraq, divide Arab world'
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 00:24:59 -0500 (CDT)
Sell a Home with Ease!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/SrPZMC/kTmEAA/MVfIAA/7gSolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->
----------
US 'wants to destroy Iraq, divide Arab world'
October 10 2002
Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz accused the United States yesterday
of planning to "annihilate Iraq" and then divide up the Arab world as he
rallied Syrian support for Baghdad's isolated regime.
The United States "wants to annihilate Iraq and then divide up the Middle
East. We are all threatened. No Arab countries will be spared even if they
participate in the (US) assault against Iraq," Aziz told a conference of
Arab groups who oppose the 12-year-old international embargo of Iraq.
"After having finished their crime in Iraq, they will turn their attention
to the others because for the United States, the Arabs are forbidden to own
their own wealth and have a voice," Aziz told an audience of about 500
people.
Washington and London have accused Iraq of harbouring terrorists and
developing weapons of mass destruction and have threatened military action
to disarm Iraq.
Aziz said the question of Kuwait, Iraq's oil-rich neighbour which suffered
a seven-month occupation by Baghdad between 1990 and 1991, "is only a
pretext to annihilate Iraq and its national leadership, to plunder its
riches and put an end to its role in the Israeli-Arab conflict."
Aziz also vehemently denied US and British charges that Iraq possesses any
chemical or biological weapons as well as a secret programme to build a
nuclear bomb.
"Since the end of 1991, all prohibited weapons were destroyed in Iraq," he
insisted.
Aziz blasted the threat of "American imperialism which represents
political, military and economic hegemony" for the Arab world.
"The United States' imperialists are stealing the Middle East's wealth.
They are stirring up problems in the regions they want to dominate."
He warned that Washington was drawing up "a new map of the region."
Aziz also paid tribute to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who has forged
strong ties with Baghdad since taking power in July 2000.
"All Arab leaders have abandoned us, but the Syrian regime led by Bashar
al-Assad helps Iraq," Aziz said.
Western experts believe Syria allows Iraq to smuggle out oil and bring in
weapons through the two countries' shared borders.
Aziz also boasted about Iraq's role in backing the two-year-old Palestinian
uprising and accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of wanting to use
the violence "to expel the Palestinians from their land."
But unlike in 1948 when Israel was established or in the 1967 Middle East
war, "the Palestinians do not leave. They stay in their homes," he said.
Aziz added: "It is Iraq which gives them the strength (to stay)."
According to Israel, Baghdad had donated some 15 million dollars to the
families of Palestinian suicide bombers.
Aziz was speaking on the second day of a visit to Syria before going on to
Lebanon.
AFP
This story was found at:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/10/10/1034061260715.html
----------
Arab Public Opinion Deeply Ambivalent About U.S.
Jim Lobe,Inter Press Service
WASHINGTON, Oct 8 (IPS) - Public opinion across the Arab world is deeply ambivalent
about the United States, which is widely admired for its technological prowess and political
institutions but disdained and even hatred for its policies toward Palestinians and Israel,
says an unprecedented survey released here Tuesday.
The survey, whose results directly contradict declarations by top U.S. officials
that Arab opposition to Washington derives from hatred of western ideals of
democracy and freedom rather than U.S. policies, found that other western
countries, particularly France and Canada, were widely respected throughout the
Arab world.
''They like our values but are angry at our policies,'' said James Zogby, president
of the Arab American Institute (AAI), an influential, Washington-based lobby and
public-education group.
The survey was based on face-to-face interviews last April and May of 3,800 adult
Arabs in eight countries: Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi
Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Each respondent was asked 92 questions
covering their personal values, political attitudes and priorities, and views of
other countries.
It was funded by the Beirut-based Arab Thought Foundation and carried out by Washington-based
Zogby International.
The unprecedented survey was undertaken in part to better define who Arabs are, particularly
in the aftermath of last year's Sep. 11 terrorist attacks against New York and Washington,
when U.S. public opinion became fixated on the question, ''Why do they hate us?''
The administration of President George W. Bush (news - web sites) and its supporters in the
Christian Right and the mainly Jewish neo-conservative movements claimed the attacks were
inspired by Arab hatred for western values and ''what we stand for''.
But experts on the region, as well as Middle Eastern governments, insisted that whatever
anger was directed at Washington was due to the perception that its policies were unfair,
especially to Palestinians.
An earlier poll released by Zogby International last April appeared to bear that out. It
found that large majorities of respondents in five countries, including several Gulf states
and Egypt, felt very positively about U.S. science and technology, education, exports, and
political values.
''They told us in effect that they hated U.S. policy toward Iraq, toward other Arab counties,
and most of all, U.S. policy toward Israel,'' said John Zogby, the firm's CEO, who is also
James Zogby's brother.
The latest survey was aimed more at determining the personal values and perspectives of
Arabs.
What it found is that Arabs, like most other ethnic and other groups around the world, are
focused most on matters close to home, said James Zogby.
Asked to choose among a list of a dozen values they felt were important to teach their
children, respondents selected ''self-respect, good health and hygiene, personal
responsibility, respect for elders and working to achieve a better life'', according to the
report.
When asked to rank political issues that were of importance to them, respondents placed civil
and personal rights at the top, followed closely by health care.
But, in a highly significant twist, respondents ranked ''Palestine'' and ''the rights of
Palestinians'' with their personal economic situation as the next-ranking concerns, far ahead
of other issues, such as their national economies and their country's relationship with other
Arab or non-Arab countries.
Palestine ranked as the highest political concern for Saudis and Moroccans, third highest
among Egyptians, and fourth among Jordanians and Israeli Arabs.
''The issue of Palestine doesn't exist as a foreign-policy concern,'' said James Zogby.
''Palestine is an existential, a personal issue,'' he noted, adding that Arabs may view it
similarly to how U.S. Jews see the Nazi Holocaust.
As a result, Arabs' views about how Palestinians are being treated appear to play a major
role in how they rate foreign countries, particularly the United States, he suggested.
Asked to rank 13 foreign countries, Israel consistently scored the lowest marks by far,
followed, almost invariably, by the United States and the United Kingdom -- the two western
countries most closely identified with support for Israel -- in that order. Respondents from
the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt gave the United States the lowest marks.
''The attitudes toward the U.S. are framed in terms of its relationship with Israel,'' said
James Zogby.
On the other hand, France, Canada, Japan, and Iran all received positive ratings from six of
the eight countries covered by the survey, while China and Germany were viewed positively in
five of the eight.
Those ranked in the middle included Russia, India, Pakistan and Turkey, although Turkey also
received consistently negative scores.
Turkey's poor ratings in comparison to Iran were particularly striking. Neo-conservative
commentators close to the anti-Iraq hawks in the Bush administration cite Turkey, whose
military has close ties with Israel, as the model on which a ''liberated'' Iraq should be
rebuilt.
On other issues, the survey found that a significant plurality of Arabs in seven of the eight
countries prefer to identify themselves as ''Arabs'' rather than as citizens of specific
countries or adherents of Islam or other religions. ''The nation-state is still new,'' noted
James Zogby.
The one exception was Lebanon, where respondents said they preferred to be identified as
Lebanese rather than as belonging to any specific religious or ethnic group.
John Zogby said that the office of public diplomacy at the State Department, which has
mounted a number of major initiatives designed to affect Arab and Islamic opinion toward the
United States, has taken an interest in his firm's two surveys and may have used its earlier
work in setting up Radio Sawa, which broadcasts music and news in the Middle East.
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25 CIA Report Contradicts Bush Warnings on Iraq
Go To Original
[http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-US-Iraq.html] C.I.A.
Director Suggests Iraq May Not Strike Unless Provoked
By The Associated Press Tuesday, 8 October, 2002
WASHINGTON (AP) -- CIA Director George Tenet told lawmakers
Tuesday that Saddam Hussein might not use his weapons of mass
destruction -- unless provoked by an imminent U.S.-led attack.
Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., a fierce opponent of the President
Bush's Iraq war resolution, indicated he would use delaying
tactics in an effort to block the measure. Senate Majority Leader
Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said that could easily put off a final vote
until next week.
Eventual approval of the administration-backed resolution still
appeared likely and it was gaining broad bipartisan support in
both chambers. A final House vote was expected by late Thursday.
``We take this step knowing that Saddam Hussein is a threat to
the American people, to Iraq's neighbors and to the civilized
world at large,'' said House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., as
the House opened its three-day debate on the measure.
Bush continued to try to drum up U.S. and international support
for his hardline policies.
A day after he told the nation Saddam might be plotting to attack
the United States with biological and chemical weapons, Bush told
a Tennessee audience Tuesday, ``The full force and fury of the
United States military will be unleashed'' should he decide to
use force against Iraq.
``And make no mistake about it, we will prevail,'' Bush said.
Despite Bush's assertion that the Iraqi leader might be planning
a chemical or biological attack on U.S. interests, Tenet
suggested Baghdad ``for now appears to be drawing a line short of
conducting terrorist attacks with conventional or chemical or
biological weapons.''
Should Saddam conclude that a U.S.-led attack against his country
could not be deterred, ``he probably would become much less
constrained in adopting terrorist action,'' Tenet said in a
letter read before a joint hearing of the House and Senate
intelligence committees.
Tenet also discussed Iraq privately with a group of senators.
The Bush administration has made the case that going after Saddam
is necessary because he has the capability to use weapons of mass
destruction and is trying to expand it. The administration also
stresses that he has used them in the past.
Tenet provided a slightly different take, suggesting that
Saddam's possession of such weapons doesn't necessarily mean
he'll use them soon.
Byrd, who has been criticizing the Iraq war resolution daily
since the Senate began its debate on the measure last Thursday,
told colleagues at a party luncheon that he planned to make full
use of Senate rules to try to derail the legislation,
participants said.
Byrd, a former majority leader, is widely regarded for his
knowledge and skilled use of Senate rules.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., a Democratic sponsor of the
resolution, complained about the tactics. ``If Sen. Byrd
continues to use all the procedural rules the Senate allows him,
there's no way we are going to get anything until next week,''
Lieberman told reporters. ``This is too important a matter to
frustrate.''
Daschle suggested the delaying tactics might only be postponing
the inevitable approval of the measure. He said some Democrats
would still try to modify the wording to narrow the scope of the
resolution.
Daschle suggested a procedural vote scheduled for Thursday --
essentially to decide whether to stay on the bill or go to
something else -- would be a critical vote that will signal the
depth of the resolution's overall support. Secretary of State
Colin Powell, meeting with senators and House members, said the
congressional resolution ``will definitely strengthen my hand as
I try to do the diplomatic work up in New York to get a United
Nations Security Council resolution'' demanding unimpeded weapons
inspections in Iraq.
Powell said there was increasing support at the U.N. for a new
inspections mandate. ``All of my colleagues at the United Nations
and others I've spoken to around the world clearly see the
threat,'' he said.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is
distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving the included information for research and
educational purposes.)
*****************************************************************
26 France Sees Compromise on Iraq, Remains Strongly Opposed to War
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2311155.stm]
BBC | World | Middle East Tuesday, 8 October, 2002
Signs have emerged of a possible compromise on how to deal with
Iraq between the United States and other permanent members of the
United Nations Security Council.
The French Foreign Ministry said a constructive dialogue was
under way on a new Security Council resolution.
The French comments came as Iraq dismissed as "misleading" a
speech by President Bush in which he warned Baghdad to disarm or
be disarmed. In his address to the nation on Monday, President
Bush also said that war with Iraq was not a foregone conclusion.
With no draft resolution yet agreed, it now seems likely that the
UN Security Council will not meet on the issue before next week.
Raffarin warning
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Francois Rivasseau said in
Paris that progress was being made on the new resolution.
"We are not yet at the point of working on a single text but the
dialogue we are having is very constructive," he said. "Things
are coming together." The law does not rule out resorting to
force but international rules rule out unilateral force
French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin
Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin used his first major foreign
affairs speech to the French parliament to warn again that any
operation against Iraq must have United Nations backing.
"The law does not rule out resorting to force but international
rules rule out unilateral force," he said.
But he warned Baghdad that it could not keep defying the Security
Council. While war must be a last resort, he said, no option was
excluded provided it had the Security Council's support.
In Moscow, Foreign Minister Ivanov said Russia would support
proposals aimed at making UN weapons inspectors more effective.
"If proposals are submitted to the UN Security Council that raise
the effectiveness of weapons inspectors in Iraq, we will support
them," he said, without giving details.
French objections
President Bush stressed in a new speech on Tuesday that military
action was his "last choice".
In his TV address on Monday, he called on Iraq to stop "denying,
deceiving and delaying" over its the weapons of mass destruction
it allegedly still possesses.
But the Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri dismissed the speech as
a "misleading attempt to justify an attack".
He said US and British threats of military action were illegal.
The BBC's diplomatic correspondent, Barnaby Mason, says that it
is still not clear what compromise may be possible with
Washington.
French objections to the draft resolution favoured by America and
Britain are not confined to its option for military action -
which would, if the French and the Russians prevail, have to
feature in separate, follow-up resolution. The French object to
some of the draconian powers it proposes for the inspectors
either:
* The declaration of exclusion zones in Iraq
* The right to take Iraqis out of the country for
questioning
* A big say in the inspections for the five permanent
members of the Security
Council, including the United States.
Diplomatic lull
Diplomats at the UN now say it may be next week before the
Security Council meets to consider the new resolution.
No document has yet to be circulated among the non-permanent
members of the Security Council.
Our correspondent notes that the sense of diplomatic urgency
which followed President Bush's speech to the UN General Assembly
on 12 September has all but disappeared.
Diplomats said Iraq was not even discussed at the Security
Council's monthly lunch with Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
*****************************************************************
27 US says concerned at Syrian nuclear program*
Fri, October 11, 2002, 06:43 GMT *
zawya*
Reuters
WASHINGTON, Oct 9 (Reuters) - The United States, campaigning
against alleged weapons of mass destruction in mainly Muslim
countries, brought up Syria's nuclear program on Wednesday and
said that it was very concerned.
Under Secretary of State John Bolton coupled Syria and its old
ally Iran as the beneficiaries of Russian technology for their
nuclear and missile programs.
"We remain very concerned that the nuclear and missile programs
of Iran and others, including Syria, continue to receive the
benefits of Russian technology and expertise," Bolton told the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
State Department officials said that in the case of Syria Bolton
was referring to programs of both kinds.
U.S. officials have complained previously about Russian
assistance to Syrian missile programs but in a comprehensive May
speech on the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction Bolton
did not mention any Syrian nuclear program.
The State Department officials referred inquiries to a CIA report
dated Jan. 30, 2002, which says the Syrian nuclear program is for
research and civilian purposes.
The report notes that Syria is a signatory of the Nuclear
Non-proliferation Treaty and is under comprehensive safeguards
through the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"Broader access to Russian expertise could provide opportunities
for Syria to expand its indigenous capabilities, should it decide
to pursue nuclear weapons. We will continue to monitor Syria's
nuclear R&D (research and development) program for any signs of
weapons intent," the report added.
The State Department official said they had no immediate
explanation for Washington's new concern about the program.
Bolton, who is in charge of arms control and international
security at the State Department, is a hawk suspicious of
multilateral arms control agreements.
He caused a stir earlier this year by saying that Cuba has a
program to develop biological weapons. Many analysts said there
was no credible evidence for the allegation. ((Jonathan Wright,
State Department bureau, +1 202 898 8393, fax +1 202 659 5254,
jonathan.wright@reuters.com))
© Reuters Limited. Click for Restrictions
*Copyright © 2002 Zawya.com Ltd. All rights reserved.* Please
*****************************************************************
28 U.S. Eyes Iraq's Former Arms Sites
Las Vegas SUN
October 09, 2002 By MATT KELLEY ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON- Iraq has built new structures at several former
nuclear weapons research and development sites, but its efforts
to conceal the activity make it difficult to determine what's
going on inside them, U.S. officials said. The sites' past
association with Saddam Hussein's nuclear weapons program, along
with a number of other signals, suggest Iraq has intensified its
nuclear efforts in the past year, officials said.
Iraqi officials have repeatedly denied they are working on
nuclear weapons. U.S. intelligence does not believe Saddam has
developed any, but thinks he may be able to by 2010.
But Saddam has successfully thwarted U.S. and international
efforts to find out what his banned weapons programs are doing,
especially since U.N. inspectors left in 1998, Defense
Intelligence Agency analyst John Yurechko told reporters Tuesday.
Iraq's efforts at "denial and deception," have prevented
intelligence agencies "from producing the kinds of smoking guns
and smoking-gun photographs ... demanded by those who are
skeptical of Iraqi violations of U.N. resolutions," Yurechko
said.
After President Bush's speech Monday on Iraq, the White House
released satellite photos of two such sites. An analyst at the
Defense Intelligence Agency identified two more Tuesday while
briefing reporters on Saddam's attempts to conceal his programs.
All four sites - the Al Furat centrifuge development center, the
Nassr/Taji Steel Fabrication and Military Production Facility,
the Al Qa'im uranium ore refinery and the Tuwaitha Nuclear
Research Center - were bombed, either in the Gulf War or in the
four days of U.S. and British airstrikes in 1998 that began after
Saddam ejected U.N. inspectors.
Rebuilding has taken place at each site.
The Al Furat site, south of Baghdad, is of particular interest
because Saddam has made several attempts to smuggle prohibited
equipment that could be used in a centrifuge project, according
to a U.S. intelligence paper issued by CIA officials last week.
That equipment, precision-made metal tubes, could be used in a
uranium-enrichment program, although some analysts believe they
are for conventional weapons.
While authorities have stopped several shipments of tubes from
reaching Iraq, it's possible some have gotten through.
Enriched uranium or plutonium is needed to construct a nuclear
weapon, and Saddam isn't believed to have either.
The Nassr site, a large military industrial plant north of
Baghdad, contains much of the precision manufacturing equipment
that could support a nuclear program, said a U.S. defense
official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Saddam is believed
to have significant stockpiles of chemical and biological
weapons, although he goes to great lengths to conceal his efforts
and persuade the world he has no weapons programs, Yurechko said.
Citing reports from U.N. inspectors and Iraqi defectors, Yurechko
accused Saddam's regime of a litany of lies and obfuscation.
These include staging media tours attributing legitimate civilian
functions to alleged weapon sites; and situating weapon centers
in residential areas to increase the risk of civilian deaths in
case of a strike.
Saddam has a propensity for dressing up U.S. attacks on weapons
sites as attacks on civilians, Yurechko said. In one case, he
ordered the top of a mosque removed to make it seem like it was
hit during a U.S. airstrike. Iraq is also preparing its weapons
sites for either new inspections or U.S. attack, moving equipment
around. Some biological weapons labs are believed to be housed on
large trucks that move around the country.
Also Tuesday, CIA Director George Tenet said in a letter to
lawmakers that Saddam would probably use his existing chemical
and biological weapons only if he believes a U.S. attack on his
regime is inevitable.
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
29 Russia Urged to Cut Weapons Faster
Las Vegas SUN
October 09, 2002 By HARRY DUNPHY ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (A) - The United States and other industrialized
democracies are urging Russia to speed up efforts to reduce its
vast, poorly secured stockpile of nuclear and chemical weapons, a
State Department official said Wednesday. A Senate committee
chairman warned the material could find its way to terrorists or
countries such as Iraq.
John Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control, said a
major part of a meeting last month in Canada of those industrial
powers dealt with problems that have hindered an initiative to
stop the spread of weapons and materials of mass destruction.
The participating countries - the United States, Britain, Canada,
France, Germany, Italy and Japan - have pledged to spend at least
$20 billion over the next 10 years on the effort.
President Bush committed the United States to providing half of
the $20 billion at June's G-8 summit in Canada when he proposed
the initiative. Russian President Vladimir Putin has pledged to
take actions to help achieve the program's goal.
Bolton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said that
among the priority concerns in Russia, the G-8 countries
specifically named the destruction of chemical weapons,
disposition of fissile material and dismantlement of
decommissioned nuclear submarines.
"For the global partnership to be successful," Bolton said, "the
Russian Federation will need to take concrete action to resolve
outstanding problems. ... We pressed the Russians hard on this
issue" at the September meeting in Canada.
Bolton said the other G-8 countries were more than half way in
meeting their $10 billion commitment, including $1.5 billion from
Germany and $1 billion from the European Commission. He said some
countries have not publicly announced pledges or decided on their
amounts.
Bolton welcomed bipartisan legislation, proposed by the committee
chairman Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., and Sen. Richard Lugar,
R-Ind., that expands the president's authority to reduce Russia's
debt in exchange for nonproliferation programs.
"Nothing poses a more clear or present danger to our security,"
Biden said, than the vast repository of nuclear, chemical and
possibly biological weapons still in Russia more than a decade
after the Soviet Union's collapse.
"Our greatest concern remains that groups like al-Qaida or states
like Iraq will steal or illicitly purchase poorly guarded stocks
of weapons of mass destruction in Russia," Biden said.
He said the United States has provided billions of dollars in aid
to reduce the threat posed by Russia's possession of these
weapons. But, he said, there remain roughly 1,000 metric tons of
highly enriched uranium, 40,000 metric tons of chemical weapons,
including 2 million artillery shells containing nerve gas at one
of Russia's facilities alone, and an unknown supply of biological
pathogens.
Lugar said that because of the threat of terrorism. "We must not
only accelerate weapons dismantlement efforts in Russia, we must
(also) broaden our capability to address proliferation risks in
other countries."
Lugar said the major industrialized nations must keep pressing
Russian officials to abide by Putin's commitment to help. Putin's
"biggest obstacle could well be his own government's
bureaucracy," said Lugar, co-sponsor of legislation that has
provided millions for weapons destruction in Russia over the past
11 years.
On the Net: Background on initiative:
http://www.state.gov/e/eb/rls/othr/11514.htm
[http://www.state.gov/e/eb/rls/othr/11514.htm]
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
30 Castro Blames Khrushchev for Crisis
October 09, 2002 By ANITA SNOW ASSOCIATED PRESS
HAVANA- President Fidel Castro said on the eve of the 40th
anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis that Soviet Premier
Nikita Khrushchev aggravated the standoff by misleading President
Kennedy - indicating that there were no nuclear weapons on the
communist island.
Castro's comments, which came in an interview with ABC's "20/20"
program, coincided with a conference here bringing together
Cubans and Americans who played roles during the real life Cold
War drama. ABC, which will broadcast the interview Friday, made
the transcript public Wednesday.
"He believed what Khrushchev told him," Castro said during the
interview, conducted this week in Havana. "Therefore, Kennedy was
misled. That was a very big mistake on the part of Khrushchev ...
one that we opposed vehemently." The transcript, while not
elaborating on Khrushchev's position, reflected the mistrust that
grew between the leaders.
Documents from that period show that Khrushchev continued to
insist to American officials in mid-October 1962 that all Soviet
activity in Cuba was defensive - even after U.S. officials had
spy plane photographs showing that on the island there were
Soviet surface-to-surface missiles with a range of approximately
600 to 1,500 miles.
The discovery of the Soviet nuclear warheads just 90 miles south
of the Florida coast brought the world to the edge of nuclear
conflict.
As President Bush musters support to oust Saddam Hussein, former
members of the Kennedy administration are heading to the Cuba
conference to revisit that earlier standoff.
Former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and former special aide
Arthur Schlesinger Jr. are among those expected at the
conference, aimed at showing a lesser known view of the crisis:
Cuba's. Castro is also expected.
In his ABC interview with Barbara Walters, Castro said his
country did not agree to accept the missiles out of fear, and "we
would have rather not had them in order to preserve the prestige"
of Cuba.
He also said officials on the communist-run island did not like
being considered "the Soviet base in the Caribbean."
Still, Castro indicated respect for Khrushchev and his support of
the Cuban revolution.
"Even though Nikita was a bold man, he was a courageous man ...
and I can make criticisms of him ... of the mistakes he made. I
have reflected a lot on that," Castro said. But misleading
Kennedy, the Cuban president said, "was his main ... flaw."
The crisis, marking the Cold War's tensest moments, was defused
when Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles from Cuba.
Cuban Vice President Jose Ramon Fernandez, an organizer of the
conference, was an army commander when Castro put 400,000
soldiers in position to repel a possible invasion of the island.
As Kennedy's words clicked onto the paper rolling off the
teletype machine at military headquarters Oct. 22, 1962,
Fernandez knew the Americans meant business.
"I had the impression that war was probable," recalled the
79-year-old Fernandez, now a vice president in Castro's
government. "I was also preparing myself to die, all the while
hoping that I would stay alive."
Kennedy's message to the United States and the world was direct.
"Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the
fact that a series of offensive missiles is now in preparation on
that imprisoned island," Kennedy said in his speech to the
nation. "The purpose of these bases can be none other than to
provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western
Hemisphere."
Earlier that day, about 2,500 relatives of U.S. forces stationed
at Guantanamo Bay were given 15 minutes to pack a bag each before
evacuated to Norfolk, Va. "I was ordered to destroy papers and
help move ourselves elsewhere because obviously the ministry (of
defense) would be a target," Fernandez told The Associated Press
this week.
Most Americans invited to the conference, including McNamara,
Schlesinger, former Kennedy speechwriters Richard Goodwin and Ted
Sorensen and ex-CIA analyst Dino Brugioni, will arrive Thursday.
Also attending are several Kennedy family members, including
Ethel Kennedy, widow of Robert F. Kennedy, the president's
brother who was attorney general and a key player in the crisis.
Along with the gathering, Cuba will release some formerly
classified documents about the days known here as the Crisis of
October.
The nonprofit National Security Archive at George Washington
University will also release newly declassified American
documents about the crisis. During a similar conference last
year, Cuban organizers worked with the National Security Archive
to release a wealth of U.S. and Cuban documents about the
unsuccessful CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion.
The missile crisis conference will feature seminars on Friday and
Saturday. Participants will visit crisis-related sites, including
a former missile silo in the western province of Pinar del Rio.
Fernandez said he hoped new lessons would emerge for politicians
and military leaders, "to never again take the world to the brink
of nuclear catastrophe."
On the Net (note tilde): http://www.gwu.edu/(tilde
[http://www.gwu.edu/(tilde] )nsarchiv/nsa/cuba-mis-cri/
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
31 Iraq Denies Efforts to Rearm
Today: October 10, 2002 at 8:26:48 PDT By SAMEER N. YACOUB
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq- Iraq repeated denials that it is rearming and said
Thursday that even without sophisticated weapons, it will teach
the United States an unforgettable lesson if it is attacked.
Minister of Military Industrialization Abdel Tawab Mullah Huweish
spoke at a news conference Thursday, after U.S. officials claimed
that Iraq is rebuilding at weapons research and development
sites.
"I am in charge of the weapons programs and I am saying here and
now that we do not have weapons of mass destruction and we do not
have programs to develop them," Huweish said.
After President Bush's speech Monday in which he accused Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein of pursuing a nuclear weapon and
plotting to attack the United States with biological and chemical
arms, the White House released satellite photos of two alleged
weapons sites. An analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency
identified two more Tuesday.
Iraqi officials have repeatedly denied they are working on
nuclear weapons. U.S. intelligence does not believe Saddam has
developed any, but thinks he may by 2010.
All four sites - the Al Furat centrifuge development center, the
Nassr-Taji Steel Fabrication and Military Production Facility,
the Al Qa'im uranium ore refinery and the Tuwaitha Nuclear
Research Center - were bombed, during either the Gulf War or the
four days of U.S. and British airstrikes in 1998 that began after
U.N. inspectors accused Iraq of failure to cooperate and left the
country.
While Huweish said Iraq was not pursuing mass weapons, the
minister said it had a right to rebuild at the sites.
"We have rebuilt some of what the evil aggressors destroyed
because Iraq has not vanished and we have the right to live like
any other people."
On the possibility of a U.S. strike, he said, "If the Americans
commit a new stupidity, we will teach them a lesson that they
will not forget."
Asked what Iraq could do to match the American superiority in
weapons, he said: "They will concentrate on airstrikes to destroy
our infrastructure, but when they are on the ground they will not
be able to move even one inch." "We are peaceful people but when
we fight we fight fiercely because we are defending our
existence, our heritage and our future," he said.
Iraq's Deputy Premier Tariq Aziz, who is traveling the region
trying to rally support, told reporters upon arrival in Lebanon
Thursday that U.S. threats against Iraq were threats against "the
Arab nation." --
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
32 Feds defend secret '60s tests
[deseretnews.com]
Wednesday, October 9, 2002
Pentagon says sailors didn't know all details
By Lee Davidson Deseret News Washington correspondent
WASHINGTON — After studying Dugway Proving Ground records,
Pentagon officials said Tuesday that at-sea tests of chemical and
biological weapons designed by Army scientists in Utah in the
'60s and '70s were not reckless and sought to protect sailors.
But they conceded in a House Veterans Affairs Committee
hearing that sailors working around the deadly agents "may not
have known all of the details of the tests."
And Veterans Affairs Department officials said they have
awarded disability compensation to dozens of sailors who blame
cancer and other ills on the tests and are trying to contact
thousands more about potential dangers.
That information emerges about Project SHAD (Shipboard
Hazard and Defense) and its parent series of tests, called
Project 112. Both were designed between 1962 and 1973 by
scientists at the now-defunct Deseret Test Center, originally
housed at Salt Lake City's Fort Douglas and later moved to
Dugway.
The Deseret News first revealed problematic Project SHAD
tests, based on documents obtained through the Freedom of
Information Act, seven years ago. It told how sailors were then
being denied VA benefits because the Defense Department denied
that such tests ever occurred, despite documents obtained by the
Deseret News.
After national media stories and a push in Congress for
more information by Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., the Pentagon
last May finally acknowledged that the tests occurred and that
live nerve agent and other chemical and germ agents were used in
some of them.
However, William Winkenwerder Jr., assistant secretary of
defense for health affairs, said Tuesday that a review since then
of records at Dugway shows that most tests did not use live
agents but safer materials that simulate their effects.
"Our investigation has confirmed that Deseret Test Center
tests were primarily conducted using simulants believed to be
safe in place of chemical or biological warfare agents," he told
the Veterans Affairs Committee.
"In those instances when potentially harmful substances
were used, there is no evidence that any of the service members
involved were exposed to them without proper protection. Service
members were vaccinated before testing that involved live
biological agents," he said.
He added, "If actual chemical agents were used, they
(sailors) were confined to airtight sections of their ship. When
appropriate, protective clothing was also worn," he said.
But Winkenwerder conceded that sailors were not
necessarily warned they were working with some of the most deadly
substances known to man, such as nerve agent VX, a tiny drop of
which may kill.
"While some service members may not have known all of the
details of these tests, it is likely they knew that they were
participating in testing due to the use of precautionary
measures," he said.
Winkenwerder said the review of records so far shows that
the Deseret Test Center planned 134 SHAD-related tests. He said
records have confirmed that 46 tests were conducted and 62 were
canceled. He said research is ongoing about the other 26.
He noted that the Pentagon has posted information sheets
about each test, when available, on its Web site,
(DeploymentLINK.mil). The Pentagon released more information
about Project 112 tests Tuesday, including some that used
chemical and germ weapons on the ground in Alaska and Hawaii.
Of note, the Deseret News through the years has revealed
that the military conducted more than 1,700 open-air trials of
germ and chemical weapons and simulants in Utah.
Army documents say that spread at least 494,700 pounds of
nerve agent to the winds there. One accidentally killed more than
6,000 sheep in Skull Valley in 1968, and many Utahns blame such
testing for ills they suffer.
Winkenwerder said the Army does not need such open-air
tests as much today.
"With modern technology we can determine the effectiveness
of defensive measures by using mannequins. The military services
do still use simulants during operational testing and training.
We are reviewing all policies governing the use of simulants
during testing and training," he said.
Winkenwerder added, "Our objective is to ensure that
concerns like those surrounding the Deseret Test Center tests do
not arise in the future."
Meanwhile, Jonathan Perlin, deputy undersecretary of the
Veterans Affairs Department, testified that 5,000 veterans have
been identified as Project 112 participants so far.
He said 53 have been compensated for disabilities deemed
as caused by the testing. He said about a third of the Project
112 veterans it has contacted already were receiving treatment
through the VA, so no new treatment programs for them was needed.
He said over the next three years the VA will conduct a
study to compare the health of Project 112 veterans and other
veterans who served elsewhere in the same time period.
The VA has a SHAD help line for veterans, 1-800-749-8387.
It also has a Web site at ( www.va.gov/shad
[http://www.va.gov/shad] ).
© 2002 Deseret News Publishing Company
*****************************************************************
33 An Iraq strategy full of holes
[chronfeedback@sfchronicle.com] Wednesday, October 9,
2002 -->
LIKE A tough-minded prosecutor, President Bush made his case
against Saddam Hussein in measured, forceful terms. But doubters
were left with important questions unanswered as he takes the
country to the precipice of war.
In a summation of his position, Bush laid out Hussein's murderous
record as "a student of Stalin" and his disregard for United
Nations agreements to disarm after the Gulf War.
No argument there, Mr. President.
But the speech fell short on other scores. His evidence of
Hussein's near- term nuclear capability was questionable. A
smoking-gun link between Baghdad and al Qaeda leaders was not
established. The "imminent threat" to the United States to
justify a pre-emptive strike was implied, not shown.
The president's case is plausible but circumstantial for now.
It's exactly why weapons inspectors, with broad powers and no
Iraqi hindrances, are needed before a combat assault is
unleashed.
The president's future course remains a worry. If Hussein refuses
to disarm, Bush said an unnamed "coalition of nations" would do
it for him. The president promised to stabilize and rebuild a
post-Hussein Iraq in the wake of war, a costly and complicated
task. The ripple effect of military action in the Mideast was
left undescribed.
These points, as much as Hussein's depraved record, are what need
discussing. Where will this war take us?
To be sure, the speech served useful purposes. Bush pledged to go
through the United Nations, at least for now. He didn't denigrate
his opponents or repeat a recent clumsy suggestion that war
critics were anti-American. His listing of ethnic groups within
Iraq showed a basic understanding of the country's complexity.
The speech was eloquent, but less than convincing. Polls show the
country is justly ambivalent. A majority supports the president
in his view that Iraq is a deadly danger in the wake of Sept. 11.
But large numbers of those polled want diplomatic pressure
brought to bear and weapons inspectors supplied by the United
Nations before this country uses force. A genuine coalition is
preferred over unilateral action.
The speech was designed to galvanize this week's debate by both
houses on Capitol Hill. Bush timed his remarks to run up the
score in what is expected to be winning margins in the House and
Senate on war powers resolutions. Don't forget that the
president's speech comes a month before mid-term elections. The
holes in the White House argument -- partial evidence, an
incomplete future vision, and a threat of unilateral force --
should ignite a high-noon debate on Iraq.
"Congress is being stampeded, pressured, abjured and importuned
into acting before the election," said Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va.,
characterizing the resolution as open-ended authority to wage
war. He's right. Bush has not made the case for a war he wants
Congress to sanction.
©2002 San Francisco Chronicle. Page A - 22
*****************************************************************
34 Iraq after our nukes
Thursday, October 10, 2002
By TOM GODFREY [tgodfrey@sunpub.com] , TORONTO SUN
Canadian spy agencies are zeroing in on terrorists and their
associates involved in helping rogue countries acquire weapons of
mass destruction, a federal committee says.
Security officials said Canadian technology and parts are in
demand by countries such as Iraq, who are pursuing biological,
chemical and other weapons of mass destruction.
Canadian agencies have obtained double the number of national
security warrants since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as they
target operatives from developing countries who obtain Canadian
technology and parts to assemble abroad.
"Some technology for weapons of mass destruction or missiles can
be obtained in Canada," said Scarborough-Rouge River MP Derek
Lee, chairman of a sub-committee on national security.
Lee said 56 national security warrants were issued last year, as
compared to 111 this year. CSIS now has 266 outstanding warrants
for those involved in threats against the country.
OBTAINED PARTS
"The number of warrants related to Sept. 11 has almost doubled,"
Lee said. "The agencies are watchful of people who are getting
technology or parts required for the weapons."
CSIS spokesman Nicole Currier confirmed an unidentified Canadian
was charged and convicted of helping a country develop a nuclear
weapon several years ago.
CSIS said the engineer collected technical data in Canada and the
U.S. and went to the unspecified country to train young
engineers. The man also obtained parts for high-speed inverters
used to enrich uranium for a nuclear bomb. Previous story: Fear
takes hold in small U.S. town Next story: Grit MPP fighting suit
on spending
Copyright [http://www.canoe.ca/copyright.html] © 2002, CANOE, a
division of Netgraphe Inc
*****************************************************************
35 U.S. intelligence monitors activity at former Iraqi nuclear sites
_ but the nature is unclear
Oct 10, 2002
By MATT KELLEY, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Iraq has
built new structures at several former nuclear weapons research
and development sites, but its efforts to conceal the activity
make it difficult to determine what's going on inside them, U.S.
officials said.
The sites' past association with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's
nuclear weapons program, along with a number of other signals,
suggest Iraq has intensified its nuclear efforts in the past
year, U.S. officials said. Iraqi officials have repeatedly denied
they are working on nuclear weapons. U.S. intelligence does not
believe Saddam has developed any but thinks he may be able to by
2010.
But Saddam has successfully thwarted U.S. and international
efforts to find out what his banned weapons programs are doing,
especially since U.N. inspectors left in 1998, Defense
Intelligence Agency analyst John Yurechko told reporters Tuesday.
Iraq's "denial and deception" have prevented intelligence
agencies "from producing the kinds of smoking guns and
smoking-gun photographs ... demanded by those who are skeptical
of Iraqi violations of U.N. resolutions," Yurechko said.
After President George W. Bush's speech Monday on Iraq, the White
House released satellite photos of two such sites. An analyst at
the Defense Intelligence Agency identified two more Tuesday while
briefing reporters on Saddam's attempts to conceal his programs.
All four sites — the Al Furat centrifuge development center, the
Nassr/Taji Steel Fabrication and Military Production Facility,
the Al Qa'im uranium ore refinery and the Tuwaitha Nuclear
Research Center — were bombed, either in the Gulf War or in the
four days of U.S. and British airstrikes in 1998 that began after
U.N. inspectors withdrew.
Rebuilding has taken place at each site.
The Al Furat site, south of Baghdad, is of particular interest
because Saddam has made several attempts to smuggle prohibited
equipment that could be used in a centrifuge project, according
to a U.S. intelligence paper issued by CIA officials last week.
That equipment, precision-made metal tubes, could be used in a
uranium-enrichment program, although some analysts believe it is
for conventional weapons.
While authorities have stopped several shipments of tubes from
reaching Iraq, it's possible some have gotten through.
Enriched uranium or plutonium is needed to construct a nuclear
weapon, and Saddam isn't believed to have either.
The Nassr site, a large military industrial plant north of
Baghdad, contains much of the precision manufacturing equipment
that could support a nuclear program, a U.S. defense official
said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Saddam is believed to
have significant stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons,
although he goes to great lengths to conceal his efforts and
persuade the world he has no weapons programs, Yurechko said.
Citing reports from U.N. inspectors and Iraqi defectors, Yurechko
accused Saddam's regime of a litany of lies and obfuscation.
These include staging media tours attributing legitimate civilian
functions to alleged weapon sites, and situating weapon centers
in residential areas to increase the risk of civilian deaths in
case of a strike.
Saddam has a propensity for dressing up U.S. attacks on weapons
sites as attacks on civilians, Yurechko said. In one case, he
ordered the top of a mosque removed to make it seem like it was
hit during a U.S. airstrike. Iraq is also preparing its weapons
sites for either new inspections or U.S. attack, moving equipment
around. Some biological weapons labs are believed to be housed on
large trucks that move around the country.
Also Tuesday, CIA Director George Tenet said in a letter to
lawmakers that Saddam would probably use his existing chemical
and biological weapons only if he believes a U.S. attack on his
regime is inevitable.
Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
36 Hanford plan would accelerate tank work
This story was published Wed, Oct 9, 2002
By John Stang Herald staff writer
Hanford unveiled a plan Tuesday to speed up removal of
radioactive wastes from the site's underground tanks.
However, state officials are puzzled by the plan's details, which
they have not yet agreed to.
There's also questions about gaps in the plan and whether the
Department of Energy can complete all the legally required
studies fast enough to keep to this latest accelerated timetable.
Hanford has 53 million gallons of radioactive wastes in 149
older, leak-prone, single-shell tanks and in 28 newer and safer
double-shell tanks. Hanford is moving all wastes to double-shell
tanks and plans to permanently seal the 149 single-shell tanks.
Most liquid wastes are gone from the single-shell tanks. But 31
million gallons of solids and super-thick sludge remain in them.
At a Tuesday news conference, DOE and CH2M Hill Hanford Group
announced a plan to accelerate plans to empty and close the
single-shell tanks.
"We're entering a new important phase," said John Swailes,
assistant manager for tank farms at DOE's Office of River
Protection.
He said Hanford can keep the new pace without extra money,
although the budget may be revisited in two years.
The plan's main goals are to:
-- Remove all wastes and permanently close 26 to 40 single-shell
tanks by the end of 2006.
-- Remove and treat 1 million gallons of transuranic and
low-level radioactive tank wastes by 2006 without glassifying the
material. The transuranic wastes then would go to a permanent
underground storage site in New Mexico.
-- Remove the final 550,000 gallons of pumpable fluids from the
single-shell tanks by 2004.
-- Increase efforts to upgrade systems to deliver wastes to a
glassification complex now under construction.
Tuesday's announcement surprised state officials, who only
recently heard inklings of the plan.
DOE and Washington's Department of Ecology, which is the lead
regulator on Hanford tank waste matters, have not yet entered
serious talks on DOE's proposal.
And state officials were confused about how DOE's proposal fits
with an agreement that DOE and the state signed two months ago to
close seven tanks by 2011.
Under the August agreement, Hanford would begin "closing"
single-shell tank C-106 in 2004, 10 years ahead of schedule. Tank
C-106 is to be the first of seven tanks to be closed through 2011
in an effort to find the best ways to handle tank closures. After
that, emptying and sealing single-shell tanks are expected to
drastically speed up.
A confusing factor is that the federal-state legal timetable has
only Tank C-106 emptied and sealed by 2006.
Tuesday's DOE-CH2M Hill plan would seal at least 26 tanks by
2006, possibly stretching that to 40 tanks.
State officials could not figure out Tuesday how the plans would
mesh.
Swailes and Dale Allen, CH2M Hill Hanford Group's senior vice
president, said the seven tanks in the August agreement are to be
demonstration tanks to work out technical, chemical and
regulatory problems -- then serve as templates for quickly
removing wastes from other single-shell tanks.
"The goal of closing (26 to) 40 tanks over a limited period of
time may seem improbable," Swailes said. "Right now, we think 40
is an achievable number."
Besides tank C-106, DOE and CH2M Hill still have to select 25
more tanks for the accelerated waste removal. DOE and the state
have not conferred on that selection.
It is unclear how much tank C-106 would be a template for the
other 25 tanks. It holds a relatively small amount of liquid
wastes with even less solids.
Tanks among the first 25 will likely be a mix of liquids, solids
and sludge of various volumes, with budget and environmental risk
considerations also entering the selection process, Swailes and
Allen said.
Meanwhile, the state and DOE have not agreed on what "closing" a
tank means -- a definition that is the key to declaring work done
on a tank.
Suzanne Dahl, the Ecology Department's tank waste disposal
project manager, noted that it would likely take one to two years
to complete the required federal and state environmental studies
and permit work in order to empty and seal 26 tanks in four
years.
She said wastes could be removed from those tanks during the
study and permitting processes. But that work has to be finished
before a tank could be sealed.
Meanwhile, details are sketchy on DOE's proposal to remove 1
million gallons of wastes from the tanks by 2006 to dispose by
means other than glassification. This concept targets mostly
wastes that contain highly radioactive transuranic wastes that
would be shipped to New Mexico.
A major hurdle exists in that the New Mexico repository does not
accept any fluids of any type for storage. And wastes removed
from Hanford's tanks are fluids and water-logged sludge.
Consequently, Hanford will have to build a facility to convert
tank liquids and sludge into something solid that meets the New
Mexico repository's standards.
Allen and Swailes declined to comment on the construction of that
facility, citing procurement sensitivity matters. DOE has sent
out a request for proposals on this concept.
Dahl speculated that the required federal and state environmental
studies and permits for this facility could take up to three
years to complete.
Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This
*****************************************************************
37 Benton rejects plan for divvying Hanford aid
This story was published Tue, Oct 8, 2002
By Nathan Isaacs Herald staff writer
Mid-Columbia communities that are waiting on a share of $2
million in state money to deal with the effects of Hanford's
growing work force were told Monday to keep waiting.
Benton County commissioners agreed to write the Hanford
Communities area lobbying group saying they cannot accept the
group's proposal to dole out the money based on where the 7,300
newcomers working on Hanford's waste treatment plant will live.
The idea is that the communities would receive money in
proportion to how many new residents they have to provide
services for.
But the commissioners want a larger share of the money because
they anticipate serving more than just the workers who live in
unincorporated areas of the county.
Dividing the money based on where the workers are expected to
live would give Richland the lion's share of the money, or about
$900,000. Benton County would get only about $96,500 or about 5
percent, said Gary Ballew, sustainable development manager for
the county.
Commissioner Max Benitz Jr. suggested the county should receive
the same one-eighth share it gets under a formula used to
disperse the county's rural capital funds. That would give the
county 12.5 percent of the money, or about $241,250.
He also does not want to send any of the money to Pasco or
Franklin County.
Those suggestions would not be acceptable to the cities, said
Richland Mayor Bob Thompson afterward.
And, he said, further delays may risk getting any more money from
the state. Richland plans another lobbying effort in the next
legislative session.
Tri-City-area governments, through the Hanford Communities
coalition, lobbied the Legislature in the last session seeking
$10 million to offset impacts of the Hanford glassification
project.
The federal project isn't paying the property taxes or payments
in lieu of taxes normally associated with projects of its size.
So local governments are scrambling to find ways to pay for
services such as additional police officers and firefighters.
But the state's economic troubles precluded getting more than $2
million from the Legislature. And the money is to be sent to the
county through a state budget line item to help build the new
Benton County jail and Justice Center.
Hanford Communities and state lawmakers have maintained the money
was intended to help mitigate the Hanford impacts. But the way
the $2 million was budgeted has created a paperwork quagmire and
requires new agreements be signed among the many participants.
In the letter sent Monday, the commissioners said other money the
county has expected to get from the Hanford project has yet to
materialize.
The county has received only about $296,000 this year in use
taxes from Bechtel, the project's contractor. That's about 41
percent below the $505,000 estimated, said Troy Wilson of the
county treasurer's office. The county expects to get about $10
million from the project.
The letter also says the Hanford Communities distribution formula
did not account for the boom in sales taxes Kennewick is getting
from additional spending by the new residents. Also, the formula
does not account for taxes Richland will collect from Bechtel's
office within the city.
Commissioners said they plan to follow the letter with a meeting
among the parties with Benitz leading efforts to find a
compromise.
Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
38 Officials at Hanford hope to empty 40 nuclear tanks by 2006
The Olympian, Olympia Washington Wednesday, October 9, 2002
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
YAKIMA -- In an effort to meet legal deadlines for cleaning out
aging tanks filled with highly radioactive waste, contractors at
the Hanford nuclear reservation hope to essentially empty as many
40 by 2006.
It might seem like a long shot given that not one of the 177
underground tanks has been closed out yet, said John Swailes,
assistant manager for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of
River Protection.
But "right now, we think that 40 as an achievable number is the
right goal," he said during a teleconference Tuesday.
Construction is currently under way on a $5.6 billion
vitrification complex to convert the nearly 54 million gallons of
lethal waste in the underground tanks to glass logs for long-term
storage.
Under the Tri-Party Agreement, the 1989 legal pact governing
cleanup at Hanford, glassification of waste is supposed to begin
in 2007. Ten percent of the waste -- the most radioactive portion
-- should be turned into glass by 2018. By 2028, all the tank
waste is supposed to be treated.
It is the largest environmental cleanup project in the nation,
considered a top priority in part because some of the tanks are
well past their planned use and have leaked more than 1 million
gallons into the soil and an aquifer, threatening the Columbia
River.
The Energy Department, under its performance incentives program,
has challenged contractor CH2M Hill to close at least 26 of 149
single-shell tanks, and, if that goes well, as many as 40 by the
end of 2006.
The first tank should be emptied and closed by 2004 or earlier.
"Time is money, and momentum is important to achieving the
milestones," said Dale Allen, a senior vice president for CH2M
Hill Hanford Group.
There are still issues to be resolved in the process, including a
specific definition agreed to by DOE, contractors and regulators
as to what actually constitutes closure of a tank, Swailes said.
Last month, CH2M Hill noted that it had reached a major milestone
by pumping out, since 1998, more than 2.5 million gallons of
liquid radioactive waste from the single-shell tanks.
On the Net: www.hanford.gov/orp/ [http://www.hanford.gov/orp/]
www.hanford.gov/contrctr/ch2m.htm
[http://www.hanford.gov/contrctr/ch2m.htm]
©2002 The Olympian
*****************************************************************
39 The pits: Supporters, opponents cite views
Amarillo Globe-News: Local News:
10/09/02
Nuclear Knowledge: Mike Mitchell, an official with the National
Nuclear Security Administration, shares what he knows with those
attending Tuesday\'d5s public hearing on a proposed plutonium pit
production facility for Pantex. Steven Line /
sline@amarillonet.com [sline@amarillonet.com]
By Jim McBride/jmcbride@amarillonet.com
[jmcbride@amarillonet.com] And Max
Albright/malbright@amarillonet.com [malbright@amarillonet.com]
Supporters and opponents of a proposed plutonium pit production
facility at the Pantex Plant aired their views during a public
hearing Tuesday at Amarillo College.
Besides Pantex, other possible sites include the Waste Isolation
Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M.; Los Alamos National Laboratory
in New Mexico; Nevada Test Site and Savannah River Site in South
Carolina..
City Commissioner Debra Ballou told DOE officials that
transporting plutonium now at Pantex to other sites would be
unsafe and said her priority is to ensure that any Pantex
expansion would not impair the safety or health of area
residents.
"It is my belief that Pantex, which has a production culture
supported by a well-trained, unionized work force, is the safest
and most cost-effective site to undertake the responsibility of
this new mission," she said.
Katherine Gray, a 13-year-old from Panhandle, told DOE officials
that she lives downwind from Pantex and that a fire or explosion
at the proposed facility would be devastating to her town and way
of life.
"Any airborne plutonium would probably come my way," Gray said.
She also said that she doesn't take unnecessary risks in her
life and urged DOE to place the facility at another site such as
the Savannah River Site that already is contaminated.
"Money can't buy good health," she said.
Michael Bourn, head of the Amarillo Economic Development Corp.,
said Pantex already is uniquely suited to take on the plutonium
pit mission and questioned the need to transport plutonium now
stored at Pantex to other sites.
"Due to its advantageous labor costs and utility rates and water
and land availability, Pantex clearly is the most cost-effective
site over the life of the production and stewardship program," he
said.
Billie Poteet, who lives near Pantex, raised concerns about
potential contamination of area water resources.
"Before we start another mess, let's clean up the one that they
have," she said. "We need clean water."
Kenneth Peddicord, associate vice chancellor of the Texas A
University System and professor of nuclear engineering, said he
was impressed with new technologies now used at a small pit
production facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory and urged
DOE officials to examine facilities now operating in other
countries.
"I think Pantex is a preferred alternative for the Modern Pit
Facility," Peddicord said.
Jeri Osborne, a Pantex neighbor, said she is concerned about
contamination of Amarillo's water supply and noted that city
wells now draw water from underneath the Pantex Plant.
"Plutonium is really nasty stuff. We need to keep it out of our
area," she said. "We need to keep our water clean. We need to
keep our air clean and we need to keep our agricultural products
clean so we can feed the world."
Jerry Johnson, co-chairman of Panhandle 2000, a group
established about 10 years ago to promote Pantex expansion, cited
Pantex's long role as a nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly
plant and urged DOE officials to bring the new facility to
Pantex.
"Certainly the health and safety of whatever is done out there
is the primary concern of all of us," he said. "When it is
finally built, it will be the safest facility in the world."
Mike Mitchell, the project manager for the proposed pit
facility, said the $2- to-$4 billion facility would produce 125
or more plutonium pits a year.
"The Modern Pit Facility would maintain the nuclear stockpile by
producing replacement pits," Mitchell said.
The facility's operating costs are estimated at $200-
to-$300-million a year with a total employment of more than
1,000, he said.
By 2006, the planning phase should end and design work would
begin, with construction starting in 2011, Mitchell said. Initial
operations could start in 2018 with full-scale production planned
for 2020.
Environmental impact statements for the five proposed sites
should be completed by March 2004, said Jay Rose of the DOE's
National Nuclear Security Administration.
In April 2004, the secretary of energy is set to decide whether
to proceed with the plutonium pit facility and, if so, where to
locate it, Rose said.
Rose said he will receive more public comments on the
environmental impact of the proposed plutonium pit facility by
mail at:
Mr. Jay Rose, NA-53, 1000 Independence Ave., S.W., Washington
D.C. 20585
Or by e-mail, James.Rose@nnsa.doe.gov Or by fax, 1-202-586-5324.
The comment period ends Nov. 20.
1996-2002 Amarillo Globe-News
*****************************************************************
40 Fluor considers cuts in Hanford firefighting effort
This story was published Tue, Oct 8, 2002
By John Stang Herald staff writer
Fluor Hanford is considering trimming one fire station and up to
17 firefighters as a budget-shifting measure.
The plan has drawn the ire of Local I-24 of the International
Association of Firefighters, which represents Hanford's
firefighters and says the reductions will hurt responses to fires
and accidents on the Hanford site.
The Hanford Fire Department already has trouble meeting the
desired response times to fires and accidents with its current
fire station setup, concluded a June report to Fluor and the
Department of Energy.
Fluor is considering closing the fire station at the Fast Flux
Test Facility, which would increase response times even more,
according to figures in the report prepared by Baltimore-based
fire science consulting firm Hughes Associates Inc.
Fluor spokesman Michael Turner emphasized that Fluor has not
decided if it wants to pursue the possible cuts. The company is
looking at many potential cost-cutting measures to keep momentum
on DOE's efforts to speed cleanup at Hanford, he said.
Complicating the picture is that Fluor does not know how much
money it wants to save, nor even when it will have to make that
decision.
That's because Hanford does not know what its budget is for
fiscal 2003, which began Oct. 1.
DOE has asked the Bush administration and Congress for a $1.893
billion budget for fiscal 2003, an increase of $117 million over
the site's 2002 budget. But the 2003 budget has stalled at
various places in Washington, D.C.
Consequently, Hanford already has begun fiscal 2003 with funding
at the 2002 level until the 2003 budget is adopted.
But no one knows when that will happen, or even if the $1.893
billion figure will survive intact or be enough to speed up all
the Hanford projects earmarked for acceleration.
So, Fluor is looking for what it can trim elsewhere to meet DOE's
acceleration requirements.
"We understand accelerating cleanup but not at the expense of
safety," said Gary Bumgarner, Local I-24's president.
Local I-24 officials voiced concerns about trimming firefighters
and the FFTF fire station at the same time work will blossom at
the FFTF and central Hanford's glassification construction site.
There are 101 rank-and-file Hanford firefighters in Local I-24.
The site has four fire stations with 17 to 22 firefighters on
duty. Each station has at least one fire engine, one ambulance
and one crew member who is a paramedic. The stations and staffing
levels are as follows:
-- 300 Area. Officially five firefighters per shift, but the
minimum could be four.
-- FFTF. Officially six firefighters per shift, but the minimum
could be four. This station also covers the nearby Energy
Northwest site. All the FFTF's station's shifts total 18
firefighters -- one more than the maximum of 17 Fluor is studying
for possible layoffs.
-- 200 Area. Officially seven firefighters per shift and a
minimum of five. A battalion commander and a radio operator also
are based at this station.
-- Two miles east of the two K Reactors. Four firefighters to
cover the 100 Area.
The Hughes report said the first firefighters and paramedics
should arrive at a fire or accident scene within four minutes of
the alarm, and 15 firefighters should be at a major fire within
eight minutes.
In 2001, it took an average of five minutes, seven seconds for an
ambulance to reach an accident site and an average of nine
minutes, 23 seconds for 15 firefighters to arrive at a scene.
"If we start eliminating stations, that's going to lengthen the
response times," said Tom Smith, past president of Local I-24.
The 300 Area and FFTF stations are more than eight minutes from
the 200 Area, the report noted.
And if the FFTF station is eliminated, the 300 Area fire crew
would have to wait for more than eight minutes for any backup to
arrive. Also, the 300 Area fire crew is four to eight minutes
away from FFTF and Energy Northwest, the report said. The FFTF
station is two minutes from Energy Northwest, union officials
said.
Since some of Hanford's buildings and some of its open areas are
contaminated, that limits support from nearby non-Hanford fire
departments, which are not equipped or trained to deal with
radioactive environments, Bumgarner said.
In 2001, Hanford tallied fewer fires and accidents than similar
industrial sites, the Hughes report said. But a dramatic increase
in work at the FFTF and 200 Area likely will increase the number
of fires and accidents that firefighters must handle, the report
added.
"You don't get rid of emergency services just prior to demolition
and decontamination work," Bumgarner said.
Meanwhile, Greg Hughes, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife's manager of
the Hanford Reach National Monument, said he didn't know how any
possible trimming of firefighters or of the FFTF station would
affect controlling range fires on the monument's lands, other
than decreasing what Hanford's department can send to a fire. The
monument makes up slightly less than half of Hanford's 560 square
miles.
Local I-24 plans to lobby Fluor, DOE and Washington's
congressional delegation to keep the FFTF station open.
2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This material may not
*****************************************************************
41 House proposes budget boost for NASA
HoustonChronicle.com -
Oct. 10, 2002, 8:38AM
By KAREN MASTERSON Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle Washington
Bureau
WASHINGTON -- House conservatives this week gave NASA an
unexpected boost, proposing to increase the space agency's 2003
budget by $300 million more than the Bush administration's
request.
But the international space station would see none of it. Rather,
the House proposed to cut $781.5 million from human spaceflight
programs -- work done at Houston's Johnson Space Center and
several other NASA centers.
The House-proposed increase -- $100 million more than the Senate
offered -- would go toward space sciences, aerospace technology,
microgravity research and nuclear jet propulsion.
Not surprisingly, certain Texas lawmakers are worried,
particularly because NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe has been mum
to Congress on his intentions when it comes to Johnson.
"As long as we don't have people at NASA saying to Congress, `We
need this,' then we have problems," said Rep. Nick Lampson,
D-Beaumont, whose district includes Johnson.
The only Houston-area member on the House Appropriations
Committee, where matters of the purse are decided, is Rep. Tom
DeLay, the House majority whip from Sugar Land. But even he said
Congress has to think more creatively about the space station's
embarrassing budget problems and cost overruns.
DeLay did secure at least $30 million for NASA's National Space
Biomedical Research Institute, which is housed at Baylor College
of Medicine. That's well above the Senate's allocation and Bush's
request.
Overall, the House would allot $15.3 billion for NASA, which is
still less than a 1 percent increase over last year and well
below the inflation rate. Bush had sought even less for the
agency. And he has made it clear that NASA's budget will remain
trim, despite pressures on the agency to take on a more diverse
agenda.
Figures kept by the White House budget office show NASA's funding
will remain flat through 2007, the last year for which budget
projections are available. Yet, lawmakers with NASA centers in
their home states are making more demands on the space agency.
For example, the House Science Subcommittee on Space and
Aeronautics held a hearing last week to showcase the need for a
substantial federal investment in tracking asteroids and
developing nuclear jet propulsion technology -- which holds
possibilities for helping to redirect asteroids headed for Earth.
The subcommittee's Republican chairman, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher --
whose state of California has four NASA centers, two of which do
asteroid and propulsion work -- invoked images of Armageddon to
make his points.
Expert witnesses, responding to his questions, testified that if
any one of three large meteors barely missing Earth in the last
few years had actually struck Southern Califonia, "everyone would
have died." And the experts said even a small asteroid landing in
the Atlantic or Pacific would drown coastal states under a
1,000-foot wall of water.
Proponents of shifting NASA's focus to asteroids hope such strong
images will propel the administration to realign its priorities
in the coming months. The pressure is expected to pit supporters
of NASA's programs against each other, a prospect that troubles
champions of the space station and its scientific research
potential.
"You can't take a research program and turn if off one year and
on the next," said Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, a member of NASA's
advisory council and Congress' most vocal NASA supporter before
he retired in 1994.
He said despite the project's budget problems and enormous cost
overruns, the station has a limited lifespan and should be
utilized now. To shelve it even temporarily would be a waste of
the investment already made, he added.
Even within human space travel programs, NASA is being tugged in
several directions. Johnson Space Center lost its contract to
complete the X-38, an emergency evacuation vehicle that would
have increased the space station's capacity to seven astronauts
instead of three.
Lampson suspects that the new vehicle, to be developed for
multipurpose use -- perhaps even for carrying missiles -- will
not be built at Johnson. Rather, he said it may go to the
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
The Alabama delegation is made up of "very organized and
tight-knit members of Congress" who "play their politics" better
than the Houston delegation, Lampson said.
"One or two or three of us is not enough to make sure Johnson
Space Center gets its share," he added. "We need the strong and
active support of Tom DeLay."
Lampson said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, is able to
influence the appropriations process on the Senate side. But he
said DeLay has the power to "almost by himself turn things our
way."
DeLay countered that he is using his power to help Johnson: "I'm
the guy that's saving human spaceflight programs. I'm the one
getting upgrades on the shuttle. Particular people in the Houston
delegation only look at line items (earmarking funds) and keeping
people working. There are different ways of bringing in money."
DeLay offered no specifics. But officials at NASA have suggested
greater privatization of the space station and sharing part of
its mission with the Pentagon.
*****************************************************************
42 Pandora's Lab
The Salt Lake Tribune --
Thursday, October 10, 2002
Utah State University officials are seeking "guidance" from
state officials about the construction of a Biosafety Level 4 lab
in the state (Tribune, Oct. 5). BSL-4 labs are designed to
contain the most deadly of biological agents such as Ebola virus.
Michael Keene is quoted as saying that "we have vaccines and
therapies to cure BSL-3 diseases. For BSL-4 diseases, we do not."
This statement is patently false: HIV research is routinely
carried out in a BSL-3 lab: vaccine and therapies to cure HIV are
not yet realized.
But more to the point, we fail to see the necessity for this
lab in Utah at this time. On one hand the governor is fighting to
keep high-level radioactive waste out of the state, on the other
hand by supporting the construction of this lab, the state would
be endorsing the importation into this state of a Pandora's box
of deadly infectious agents from the far corners of the world.
Make no mistake, this initiative is not driven by science but
by money. The National Institutes of Health alone have $1.5
billion this year earmarked for bioterrorism research, other
agencies no doubt will bring more money to the table. This
initiative is simply an attempt to garner such funds before they
disappear into someone else's pockets.
We have spent our professional careers studying the
mechanisms of pathogen infections and host responses. We endorse
the investment of state and federal funds and resources into the
furthering of such studies. But the construction of a BSL-4
containment facility in Utah for biological testing of the
deadliest of infectious agents is simply not warranted. If the
state wants to support microbiological research, we can come up
with a number of projects to study pathogens that kill or
incapacitate Utah residents daily.
JOHN H. WEIS, Ph.D. JANIS J. WEIS, Ph.D. Professors of
Pathology University of Utah School of Medicine Salt Lake City
© Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on
*****************************************************************
43 Different Parties, Similar Views in Tooele
The Salt Lake Tribune --
Thursday, October 10, 2002
BY MARK EDDINGTON
The Tooele County Commission race between Democrat Frank
Scharmann and Republican Matt Lawrence can be summed up as much
ado about geography.
Scharmann -- a Tooele resident who is stepping down as county
sheriff to run for the seat Commissioner Teryl Hunsaker is
vacating -- contends that his 30 years in law enforcement means
he knows the terrain. Lawrence -- an LDS seminary teacher -- says
voters need a Grantsville resident on the commission to broaden
representation.
Other than that, there seems to be little separating the
pair. Both oppose Initiative 1, a ballot measure that would raise
taxes on Envirocare of Utah, a Tooele County company that handles
low-level radioactive waste.
"We need to support Envirocare to keep the company and its
400 employees here," Scharmann said.
They also agree on upgrades for state Route 36. The $35
million project is designed to widen the road between Interstate
80 and Tooele.
"Getting money from the Legislature to finish the Highway 36
project is critical because so many county residents commute to
work in Salt Lake City," Lawrence said.
Both candidates back Wendover annexation, saying residents
there should have the right to choose to become part of Nevada's
West Wendover. They further agree that it is up to the Goshutes
to decide if they will store nuclear waste on tribal lands.
"The Goshutes are a sovereign nation and we really do not
have a say," Scharmann said. "If storing nuclear waste is
important to them, then that's what they need to do."
If elected, Scharmann, 56, will push for construction of a
"mid-valley highway" to ease pressure on Highway 36. He also
would look at boosting wages for county employees while reducing
the cost of their medical insurance.
Lawrence, 47, wants to clean up the canyons. "We have
terrible problems with garbage, crime and drug-and-alcohol
parties in our canyons," he said.
He also wants to make Desert Peaks Complex more
self-sustaining by attracting more paying business to the county
recreation site.
In the sheriff's race, Frank Park, 52, Scharmann's chief
deputy and a 21-year veteran with the department, argues Tooele's
top cop is a job for an insider.
Republican Steven Swartz- fager, a Tooele City police
sergeant with 18 years on the force, counters that an outsider
would bring fresh ideas.
If elected, Park says he will re-energize Neighborhood Watch
programs and set up citizen advisory boards to act as extra "eyes
and ears" for the department in isolated places that dot the
county's 7,200 square miles.
Swartzfager, 45, vows to reorganize to put more deputies in
the canyons and other county areas. He says his time with the
Tooele Police Department has made him streetwise about how to
best deploy officers and get the most out of tax dollars.
He also says too many criminals are being set free because of
a lack of space at the county jail. But rather than building a
new jail, he favors contracting with entities elsewhere to house
inmates.
Another countywide contest looms for county clerk, a battle
pitting GOP challenger Mike Worthington against incumbent
Democrat Dennis Ewing. In the surveyor's race, Democratic
incumbent Donald Rosenberg faces Republican Douglas Kinsman.
meddington@sltrib.com
© Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on
*****************************************************************
44 House proposes budget boost for NASA
HoustonChronicle.com
/Oct. 10, 2002, 8:38AM/
*By KAREN MASTERSON*
WASHINGTON -- House conservatives this week gave NASA an
unexpected boost, proposing to increase the space agency's 2003
budget by $300 million more than the Bush administration's
request.
But the international space station would see none of it. Rather,
the House proposed to cut $781.5 million from human spaceflight
programs -- work done at Houston's Johnson Space Center and
several other NASA centers.
The House-proposed increase -- $100 million more than the Senate
offered -- would go toward space sciences, aerospace technology,
microgravity research and nuclear jet propulsion.
Not surprisingly, certain Texas lawmakers are worried,
particularly because NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe has been mum
to Congress on his intentions when it comes to Johnson.
"As long as we don't have people at NASA saying to Congress, `We
need this,' then we have problems," said Rep. Nick Lampson,
D-Beaumont, whose district includes Johnson.
The only Houston-area member on the House Appropriations
Committee, where matters of the purse are decided, is Rep. Tom
DeLay, the House majority whip from Sugar Land. But even he said
Congress has to think more creatively about the space station's
embarrassing budget problems and cost overruns.
DeLay did secure at least $30 million for NASA's National Space
Biomedical Research Institute, which is housed at Baylor College
of Medicine. That's well above the Senate's allocation and Bush's
request.
Overall, the House would allot $15.3 billion for NASA, which is
still less than a 1 percent increase over last year and well
below the inflation rate.
Bush had sought even less for the agency. And he has made it
clear that NASA's budget will remain trim, despite pressures on
the agency to take on a more diverse agenda.
Figures kept by the White House budget office show NASA's funding
will remain flat through 2007, the last year for which budget
projections are available.
Yet, lawmakers with NASA centers in their home states are making
more demands on the space agency.
For example, the House Science Subcommittee on Space and
Aeronautics held a hearing last week to showcase the need for a
substantial federal investment in tracking asteroids and
developing nuclear jet propulsion technology -- which holds
possibilities for helping to redirect asteroids headed for Earth.
The subcommittee's Republican chairman, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher --
whose state of California has four NASA centers, two of which do
asteroid and propulsion work -- invoked images of Armageddon to
make his points.
Expert witnesses, responding to his questions, testified that if
any one of three large meteors barely missing Earth in the last
few years had actually struck Southern Califonia, "everyone would
have died." And the experts said even a small asteroid landing in
the Atlantic or Pacific would drown coastal states under a
1,000-foot wall of water.
Proponents of shifting NASA's focus to asteroids hope such strong
images will propel the administration to realign its priorities
in the coming months.
The pressure is expected to pit supporters of NASA's programs
against each other, a prospect that troubles champions of the
space station and its scientific research potential.
"You can't take a research program and turn if off one year and
on the next," said Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, a member of NASA's
advisory council and Congress' most vocal NASA supporter before
he retired in 1994.
He said despite the project's budget problems and enormous cost
overruns, the station has a limited lifespan and should be
utilized now. To shelve it even temporarily would be a waste of
the investment already made, he added.
Even within human space travel programs, NASA is being tugged in
several directions. Johnson Space Center lost its contract to
complete the X-38, an emergency evacuation vehicle that would
have increased the space station's capacity to seven astronauts
instead of three.
Lampson suspects that the new vehicle, to be developed for
multipurpose use -- perhaps even for carrying missiles -- will
not be built at Johnson. Rather, he said it may go to the
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
The Alabama delegation is made up of "very organized and
tight-knit members of Congress" who "play their politics" better
than the Houston delegation, Lampson said.
"One or two or three of us is not enough to make sure Johnson
Space Center gets its share," he added. "We need the strong and
active support of Tom DeLay."
Lampson said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, is able to
influence the appropriations process on the Senate side. But he
said DeLay has the power to "almost by himself turn things our
way."
DeLay countered that he is using his power to help Johnson: "I'm
the guy that's saving human spaceflight programs. I'm the one
getting upgrades on the shuttle. Particular people in the Houston
delegation only look at line items (earmarking funds) and keeping
people working. There are different ways of bringing in money."
DeLay offered no specifics. But officials at NASA have suggested
greater privatization of the space station and sharing part of
its mission with the Pentagon.
*****************************************************************
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information go to:
*****************************************************************