***************************************************************** 05/10/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.120 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POLICY 1 Indonesia to set up nuclear energy monitoring agency 2 US: TVA weighs nuclear restart Browns Ferry on May 16 agenda 3 US: NRC Proposes $6,000 Fine for High Mountain Inspection Services, 4 Russian: US Fears Ease on Nuke Plant 5 Martin Villa defends nuclear power 6 US: TVA board expected to OK reopening Browns Ferry Unit 1 after 17 7 US: TVA staff to recommend restart of Browns Ferry Unit 1 8 Minatom Chief in America to Lower Pulses Over Iranian Nuke Plant 9 Russian Nuke Minister Says US Tensions Easing Over Iranian Nuke 10 Slovene People's Party against ratification of Krsko nuclear 11 Bulgaria: European Commission proposes new dates for Kozloduy 12 Russia, US increase nuclear cooperation NUCLEAR REACTORS 13 US: Closing Indian Point Wouldn't Ease Terrorism Risk 14 Ukrainian nuclear reactor shut down for planned repairs 15 Ukrainian nuclear reactor shut down for planned repairs NUCLEAR SAFETY 16 US: EDITORIAL: Cold War workers 17 US: Nuke worker reparation plan panned NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 18 US: Common sense on nuclear waste 19 US: Nuke Waste: An Unsolvable Problem? 20 US: Yucca Mt. approval may bring waste to Utah 21 US: Nevada tunnels will house US nuclear waste 22 US: Common sense on Yucca 23 US: Tainted soil a step closer to state Canon City foes doubt safety 24 Loughlin quits as BNFL director 25 US: CCAGW Applauds House for Yucca Resolution 26 US: S.C. Plutonium Shipments Postponed 27 US: Physicians Speak Out Against Yucca Mountain Transports 28 US: Task force looks at options for site 29 US: Nuclear water leaked into Hudson 30 US: Misinformation about Yucca reinforces cynicism toward Washington 31 US: EDITORIAL: End-game is near 32 US: Yucca Mt. approval may bring waste to Utah 33 US: Anti-Yucca message spreads to Oregon, Utah 34 US: Goshute: Atomic Board Plans Saturday Meeting 35 US: TV Commercial Presses Utahns to Oppose Yucca Nuclear Dump 36 US: Several Bay Area Reps Vote Against Yucca Nuclear Waste 37 USEC credit ratings drop another notch - 38 US: AU: Team finds operations satisfactory at Beverley mine. 39 US: Plutonium ruling will come June 13 NUCLEAR WEAPONS 40 US: Senate Armed Services Committee Approves $50 Million to Expand 41 U.N. nuclear chief sees treaty soon on stronger protection for bomb 42 US: Senate Panel Delays Decision on Artillery Gun News 43 US: Spirit Runners encircle sacred test site ground 44 Russia's Supreme Court reinstates confusion 45 Think tank outlines US fears of Mideast nuclear proliferation 46 U.N. nuclear chief sees treaty soon on stronger protection for 47 U.S., Russia unite to locate material used in 'dirty' bombs US DEPT. OF ENERGY 48 House may hike Pantex funding 49 DOE drafts guidelines for radioactive scrap Likely contaminated 50 Bill adds $20M to Y-12 upgrade 51 Bill aims to derail SRS plant ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Indonesia to set up nuclear energy monitoring agency BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; May 9, 2002 8 May, attributed to Antara Jakarta: There are increasingly open signs that nuclear technology will be developed in Indonesia. At the opening of the 2002 National Convention on Nuclear Safety at the State Palace in Jakarta on Wednesday (8 May), President Megawati Soekarnoputri stressed that Indonesia could not cease in its efforts to develop nuclear technology just because of concerns about the threat it could pose. Megawati stated that the utilization of nuclear technology should focus on efforts to minimize the risks and impact which could arise. To address that, said Megawati, a Nuclear Energy Monitoring Agency is to be formed to monitor the utilization and exploitation of nuclear technology in cooperation with the legal authorities. "The international community has agreed that nuclear safety is one of the conditions which is not subject to negotiation," she said. Nuclear technology can be applied in various sectors such as industry, agriculture, health, electricity and activities in outer space. "Nations of the world also have to see how the capability of applying nuclear technology to arms makes invulnerability possible only by offering apparent supremacy," continued Megawati. Source: Suara Merdeka web site, Semarang, in Indonesian 8 May 02 /© BBC Monitoring /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. ***************************************************************** 2 TVA weighs nuclear restart Browns Ferry on May 16 agenda KnoxNews: Local By Richard Powelson, News-Sentinel Washington bureau May 10, 2002 The Tennessee Valley Authority confirmed Thursday that its staff recommended upgrading and restarting one of its nuclear reactors that has been shut down for 17 years and may cost $1.8 billion to resume generation of power. The agency's three-member board of directors will discuss the proposal May 16 about its Browns Ferry Unit 1 reactor in North Alabama. Board member Bill Baxter of Knoxville recently said the restart looked like a good business decision. Two members of Congress, U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp of Chattanooga and U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala, immediately hailed the news as good for meeting future power needs without producing air pollution. But environmental groups have protested the idea, questioning whether the nation is prepared to safely store the nuclear waste for perhaps 10,000 years. TVA already operates two nuclear reactors at Browns Ferry, two at its Sequoyah Plant near Chattanooga and one at Watts Bar about 50 miles southwest of Knoxville. Browns Ferry Unit 1 was shut down 17 years ago over safety concerns. It could provide enough power for two cities the size of Chattanooga, TVA has said. Wamp said he welcomes more safe, efficient nuclear power in the region, but he wants TVA to find a way to finance the reactor work without borrowing on top of its current high debt of about $25 billion. "It's going to be a difficult task but one that they may very well be able to accomplish," Wamp said. "Clearly nuclear power is a clean alternative to the fossil-fired dependency within the Tennessee Valley," and has proven to be safe and reliable. Sessions said the TVA staff recommendation was good news that he has worked toward for five years. "I believe it will prove to be cost efficient for the ratepayers and environmentally friendly." Richard Powelson may be reached at 202-408-2727 or PowelsonR@shns.com The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 3 NRC Proposes $6,000 Fine for High Mountain Inspection Services, Inc. NRC: Press Release Region IV - 2002 - 24 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region IV 611 Ryan Plaza Drive, Suite 400, Arlington TX 76011 www.nrc.gov No. IV-02-024 May 8, 2002 CONTACT: Breck Henderson Phone: 817-860-8128 Cellular: 817-917-1227 E-mail: [opa4@nrc.gov] The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has proposed a fine of $6,000 against High Mountain Inspection Services, Inc., of Mills, Wyoming, for failure to properly manage and limit radiation doses to its employees. Following an inspection completed on October 2, 2001, and an enforcement conference held on February 27, the NRC determined that two High Mountain radiographers, during the year 2000, received annual occupational doses in excess of NRC limits of five rem per year. These overexposures occurred as a result of the failure of the company's managers to follow NRC requirements concerning the administration of radiation safety programs. Ten violations of NRC regulations were identified overall. The overexposures were not significantly above the five-rem limit, and no health effects would be expected for the two workers. Of the ten violations, four were collectively categorized as a Severity Level III problem, which carries a civil penalty of $6,000. The NRC uses a four-level scale to rate the seriousness of violations, with Severity Level I being the most serious. In a letter to High Mountain president Bill R. Fraser, NRC's Regional Administrator Ellis W. Merschoff said he is imposing the fine ". . . to emphasize the importance of assuring on an ongoing basis that you are operating your radiation safety program in accordance with NRC requirements . . ." High Mountain is required to respond to the letter and Notice of Violation with actions the company is taking to assure future compliance with regulatory and license requirements. The company has 30 days to pay the fine or protest it. If the protest is denied, the company may request a hearing by the NRC. ***************************************************************** 4 Russian: US Fears Ease on Nuke Plant Las Vegas SUN May 09, 2002 WASHINGTON- Russia's nuclear energy minister cited progress Thursday in easing U.S. concerns about Russian involvement in building a nuclear power plant in Iran. Alexander Rumyantsev, head of Russia's nuclear agency, acknowledged that the deal with Iran remains "a sensitive topic," but said that "we are close to finding a solution." Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, at a joint news conference with Rumyantsev, said Russia's nuclear assistance to Iran remains a concern. But, he added, "We had positive discussions." The two officials have met for three days to discuss energy issues related to the May 23-26 summit in Russia between President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Russia-Iran deal probably will come up at their talks, which will focus on nuclear weapons reductions and other nonproliferation issues. Rumyantsev repeated Russia's view that the light water nuclear reactor under construction in Iran in an $800 million contract cannot be used to develop material for weapons. The reactor "is not a source of proliferation of nuclear material," Rumyantsev said. The officials announced agreement on a U.S.-Russia task force to look at better safeguarding low-grade radioactive materials that could be used to fashion a "dirty bomb" - which does not have a nuclear chain reaction but can disperse radiation over a limited area by using conventional explosives. These nonweapon radiation sources - isotopes used in medicine, construction and, often in Russia, as a power source in remote locations - are "potentially attractive targets for theft" and could be used by terrorists to make a dirty bomb, Abraham said. Rumyantsev said his government has acted to improve the protection of such radioactive materials. As an example, he cited a recent decision to let the atomic agency control the disposition of radioactive material used in beacons used for directional lights in remote parts of Russia. The action "shows how serious this issue is and that we're ready to solve it," said Rumyantsev, who was named to his post by Putin last year. Last week, in a letter to Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., the Nuclear Regulatory Commission acknowledged that about 1,500 such radiation devices have disappeared across the United States over the past five years and that about half are missing. An NRC spokesman said the devices individually contain only very small amount of radioactive material. "We have no reason to believe that somebody is systematically collecting this material," the official said. Devices with small amounts of radioactive material are used in everything from medical diagnostics and research to determining moisture density at construction sites or to illuminate signs. Abraham also said Thursday that the United States plans to resume purchases of plutonium 238 from Russia for use as a power source in NASA spacecraft. Since 1992, there has been an agreement with Russia to buy the nonweapons grade plutonium, but in recent years none has been bought because the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's needs could be met with U.S. supplies, an Energy Department official said. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 5 Martin Villa defends nuclear power (Martin Villa deja la presidencia de Endesa con una fuerte defensa de la energia nuclear) El Pais - Spain; May 10, 2002 Rodolfo Martin Villa, the 67 year-old chairman of Spanish power group Endesa, will chair his last meeting of shareholders at the company today. He will be replaced by Manuel Pizarro, vice-chairman of Endesa and chairman of the confederation of savings banks. In his last press conference as chairman of Endesa yesterday, Mr Martin Villa vehemently defended nuclear power. He predicted that there would be more nuclear power stations in Spain. He said that Loyola de Palacio, the European energy commissioner who is speaking in favour of nuclear power stations, is speaking clearly on the matter. Mr Martin Villa will stay on as chairman of Endesa Italia, as board member of Endesa Chile and as chairman of the foundation. Original article by Santiago Carcar Abstracted from El Pais ***************************************************************** 6 TVA board expected to OK reopening Browns Ferry Unit 1 after 17 years al.com: News » More From The Huntsville Times A billion-dollar second chance 05/09/02 By BRIAN LAWSON Times Business Writer brianl@htimes.com It was born about 35 years ago, took its first steps in 1973 and ran afoul of authority in 1985. Now, Tennessee Valley Authority officials appear ready to give reactor Unit 1 at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant another chance. The agency's experts believe the reactor, which was shut down for safety reasons and hasn't operated for 17 years, can be rehabilitated, that the mistakes from its troubled past are well-known and won't be repeated. Critics charge TVA is ignoring its financial problems by planning to restart the reactor and hasn't considered other power source options. The nuclear power industry remains plagued by problems of radioactive waste storage and fears of catastrophe from a terror attack or serious nuclear accident. The three-member Tennessee Valley Authority board - Chairman Glenn McCullough, Bill Baxter and Skila Harris - will meet in Huntsville next Thursday and is expected to approve the project. While board members have held back so far from a direct endorsement, based on their recent comments and TVA staff recommendations it seems TVA is ready to bet up to $1.8 billion that things will be different this time for Unit 1. TVA's staff report on the proposed restart concluded that the recovery of Unit 1 is possible because of TVA's ''thorough understanding of the scope and risks'' associated with the project. In making the argument for the restart, TVA points to the successful recovery of Units 2 and 3 at Browns Ferry, which TVA board expected to OK restart of Browns Ferry Unit 1 reactor Chance Continued from page A1 were shut down in 1985 along with Unit 1. TVA restarted Unit 2 in 1991 and Unit 3 in 1995. Each recovery carried a $1.4 billion price tag, according to TVA. The reactors have gotten glowing operating records in recent years from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees commercial nuclear reactors. TVA's board members have all stressed that any decision to restart Unit 1 would be a business decision and signal that it makes the most sense for TVA in terms of power production, efficiency and cost. TVA is not only considering restarting Unit 1 but also increasing its generating capacity by 20 percent to more than 1,100 megawatts, which would light 200,000 homes. TVA also plans to ask federal regulators to extend the operating licenses of Browns Ferry Units 1, 2 and 3 by another 20 years. U.S. reactors were initially licensed for a 40-year expected life cycle. Unit 1's current license is scheduled to expire in 2013. Growth and debt The financial case for restarting Unit 1 has not been made publicly, but TVA estimates a continued, annual increase in demand for electricity in the Tennessee Valley over the next 20 years. That means it needs to be able to make more power. At the same time, the agency has a $25 billion debt, most of it due to nuclear expansion plans in the 1980s. The effort was largely abandoned due to construction cost overruns and limited demand. Last year, TVA wrote off $1.7 billion for costs that won't be recovered from a second, unfinished reactor at its Watts Bar plant in Tennessee, $500 million spent on the Bellefonte site in Scottsboro, and more than $400 million spent on a planned reactor site near Nashville. TVA has spent more than $4 billion on the Bellefonte site, which is estimated to be 80 percent complete. It cost $900 million to build the three Browns Ferry reactors. In 1997, with Congress howling, TVA pledged to cut its then-$27.7 billion debt in half by 2007. The debt has been trimmed by more than $2 billion, but two years after its pledge, TVA began stressing the need for more generating capacity to fuel growth in the Tennessee Valley. According to a General Accounting Office analysis, TVA won't meet that debt reduction goal by 2007. Steven Smith, director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy based in Knoxville, said the debt prevents TVA's power bills, which are among the lowest in the United States, from being even lower. Smith estimates the debt consumes 20 cents of every dollar TVA earns. TVA paid $1.6 billion in interest charges in 2001 and $610 million for debt reduction. The debt reduction pace will drop sharply this year, as TVA expects to pay about $50 million to reduce its debt. Baxter has said he believes Unit 1 can be restarted with existing cash rather than incurring more debt. What TVA hasn't outlined is whether debt payments will shrink if it uses its cash for restarting Unit 1. U.S. Rep. Bob Clement, D-Tenn., a former TVA board member, said TVA has to make decisions to cope with increased power demand in the Tennessee Valley. He offered conditional support for the Unit 1 restart. ''As a longtime advocate for TVA debt reduction and because of the high cost of restarting this facility, I would like to know more about the long-term rate ramifications and if they could bring it on line without a rate increase,'' Clement said. Clearing skies Members of the Alabama congressional delegation, including U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile, and U.S. Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Huntsville, have been calling for years for TVA to restart Unit 1 or finish work on the nuclear reactors at the Bellefonte site in Scottsboro. Those calls were bolstered by the Bush administration last year. The president's national energy policy touts the advantages of nuclear power and calls for more nuclear energy production. The nuclear industry, which had seen its would-be customers scared off by the disasters and near-disasters at Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, has found itself getting more congressional attention. The attention, no doubt, has been bolstered by an estimated $40 million that nuclear energy companies and their supporters have contributed to candidates, political action committees and political parties since 1990, according to an estimate prepared by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Responsive Politics. But while environmentalists gnash their teeth at the thought, the nuclear industry has managed to score political points with the argument that nuclear power does not emit greenhouse gases that pollute the air and contribute to global warming. TVA is facing millions in additional spending required by the federal government because of pollution generated by its coal plants. Board members have pointed to nuclear power as a source of relief from that pollution, but stop short of endorsing the elimination of the coal plants. About two-thirds of TVA's electricity generation comes from coal, nuclear energy provides more than 30 percent and the rest comes primarily from hydroelectric plants. Nuclear's homegrown appeal is also being touted as U.S. policymakers stress the need to reduce America's need for foreign oil and natural gas supplies. Cramer and Sessions cite both advantages in their support for Unit 1 and point to TVA's successful record of providing low-cost power in the Tennessee Valley for economic development as a further incentive for expanding the power supply. ''The TVA of old was not very good at making big decisions,'' Cramer said. ''The TVA we are dealing with today is good at decision-making. TVA as a bureaucracy changed too slowly. But the new (board) members have breathed life into it and they're more proactive than reactive.'' Sessions said the board has shown it is preparing for the future, and he hopes that will include Bellefonte. ''During the (Vice President) Al Gore days - he sort of dominated the board - he opposed nuclear power,'' Sessions said. ''The new board is talking about bringing on Browns Ferry. I don't dispute their view it is the best one to bring on first. They had to consider what to do with that non-performing asset that could bring in revenue.'' But it is still unclear whether nuclear power is making a real comeback. There hasn't been a new nuclear plant built in the United States in 20 years, and publicly traded utilities are still leery of investing in new plants until issues of cost, construction time and financing can be sorted through, said Carl Crawford, a spokesman for Louisiana-based Entergy Corp. Entergy is the second-largest nuclear power plant operator in the country. It is considering expanding a site it owns in Mississippi, but is not close to a final decision, Crawford said. A new nuclear plant, generating about 1,000 megawatts, would cost about $1 billion. Such a project would not likely get financial support from Wall Street at this point, Crawford said, because of continued uncertainties about the industry. As a result, a company that builds a new nuclear plant would have to go it alone, by issuing bonds or selling stock to finance the project. ''At least the first couple are probably going to need government support to guarantee the debt,'' Crawford said. ''The utilities won't be able to take the financial risk without it or Wall Street support.'' U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., a frequent critic of the nuclear industry, said the market wouldn't bear what TVA, a regional monopoly, is considering for Unit 1. ''If (TVA) were subject to the same market constraints as other commercial nuclear power plant operators they would probably not be following such a path,'' Markey said. ''TVA should have kept the Browns Ferry reactor mothballed and built a new gas plant in the mid-1990s.'' TVA recently decided to stop work on a new gas plant in Tullahoma, Tenn., after spending $150 million on the project. Lingering problems Nuclear energy supporters stress its clean energy features, but Congress is in the middle of a war about the nuclear Achilles heel. Each nuclear reactor uses fuel rods that are highly radioactive. Once used, they remain poisonous for thousands of years. The storage problem was supposed to be solved by the creation of a central nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. President Bush favors the proposal; the state of Nevada is opposing it. The U.S. House has voted to override Nevada's opposition to the bill, and the U.S. Senate must follow suit by July for the vote to be binding. Utility company officials insist the waste storage problem can be solved by Yucca Mountain, while opponents argue transporting waste from places like Alabama, Florida and New York across the country increases the risk of nuclear accidents or terrorism. Browns Ferry is running out of space for its spent fuel rods and plans to put above-ground storage casks at the site within five years. Waste from Browns Ferry would eventually be carried to Nevada, if Nevada's efforts to block it are overcome. The unique nature of nuclear energy has also raised the nuclear industry's profile in a less flattering light since Sept. 11. While industry officials stress plants are safe, Markey issued a report in March that ripped those assumptions. Based on Nuclear Regulatory Commission records, the report found that federal inspectors are inadequately monitoring plant security measures including background checks for plant workers and how much nuclear plant license holders spend on security. The report also found that nearly all U.S. reactors were designed without regard to impact by an aircraft, that safeguards for spent fuel are inadequate and that it took NRC nearly six months to require enhanced security measures at nuclear plants. Sessions and Cramer said they are both conscious of terror threats, but Sessions stressed that plants are staffed by trained guards, usually with military experience, and that the plants are ''hardened targets'' difficult to overcome. The study that found that TVA could restart Unit 1 was conducted by ''10 TVA managers with more than 200 years'' of experience in the nuclear power industry, nuclear contractors and manufacturers. Smith, of the Clean Energy Alliance, said the process has lacked any independent review. His organization has asked the Senate's Committee on Environment and Public Works, which has jurisdiction over TVA, to review the matter. © 2002 al.com. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 7 TVA staff to recommend restart of Browns Ferry Unit 1 By Dennis Sherer Staff Writer May 10, 2002 Northwest Alabama's economy is expected to get high-voltage boost next week. Tennessee Valley Authority staff members plan to recommend Thursday that the agency's three board members restart the Unit 1 reactor at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant near Athens. The recommendation will be made during TVA's board meeting at the Huntsville Marriott. The meeting begins at 9 a.m. An agenda for the meeting was released this week. Another issue of major local interest was not on the agenda, however. Local leaders working on an economic development project in the Shoals had hoped board members would act on a request to allow 15.6 acres near the Renaissance Tower in Florence. The land would be used in a development project offered by the Retirement Systems of Alabama. A luxury hotel would be built on the land as part of the package that is designed to create a major tourist attraction in the Shoals. Restarting Unit 1 would create about 2,400 temporary construction jobs, with many of the workers coming from the Shoals. TVA officials say it will take at least five years and cost about $1.7 billion to bring the unit back on line. "That would be a big shot of adrenalin for the Shoals," said Steve Holt, president of the Shoals Chamber of Commerce. "Those are good jobs, and they will be a huge boost to our economy." The reactor can produce up to 1,065 megawatts of electricity at a time. TVA spokesman John Moulton said just because the Browns Ferry restart is on Thursday's agenda does not mean the board will vote on the issue. "I can't say what the board is going to do," he said. "But the members will hear a staff recommendation to take steps needed to restart Unit 1." The reactor has not produced electricity since 1985 when it was shut down because of safety concerns. Browns Ferry Units 2 and 3 were also shut down in 1985. Unit 2 returned to service in 1991, with Unit 3 going back into operation in 1995 after extensive renovations. Units 2 and 3 have the combined capabilities to produce enough electricity to supply power to more than 500,000 homes. The committee studying the feasibility of restarting the unit has determined TVA would need the additional electricity to meet expected growth in the Tennessee Valley. The reactor can produce enough electricity to supply more than 200,000 homes. The restart is expected to create more than 100 permanent jobs. Labor leaders and elected officials have urged TVA to restart the reactor, citing the economic impact it would have on the entire region. "TVA's announcement that it will consider the restart of Unit 1 during next week's board meeting in Huntsville is good news," said U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. "I have been recommending a restart for five years because I believe it will prove to be cost-efficient for ratepayers and environmentally friendly," he said. "Restarting Unit 1 has the support of local officials throughout the area, and it promises to produce a very large, 24-hour supply of electricity with no air pollution." The restart also has opponents. Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said restarting the unit is unwise. He questions the safety of restarting a reactor that has not operated in 17 years. He also questions the safety of extending the life of the Browns Ferry reactors. Smith said the cost of the restart could force TVA to increase its rates for electrical power. He said he plans to ask Congress to halt the restart if the TVA board approves it. Moulton said a report on the land transfer near the tower would not be completed before Thursday's meeting. However, the board can approve the transfer as soon as the report has been finalized. The report will contain a recommendation from TVA staff members who have conducted an environmental assessment on the land. "They can make that approval between meetings," Moulton said. He said a decision on the land transfer should be made before May 31. Florence Mayor Dick Jordan said he is not overly concerned that the request is not on Thursday's meeting agenda. "I feel certain they will go ahead and give their approval once they get all the paperwork they need," Jordan said. The hotel is part of a development plan that includes a 36-hole golf complex near Ford City and renovation of the Renaissance Tower. Dennis Sherer can be reached at 740-5746 or dennis.sherer@timesdaily.com [dennis.sherer@timesdaily.com] . Copyright © 2002 TimesDaily ***************************************************************** 8 Minatom Chief in America to Lower Pulses Over Iranian Nuke Plant MOSCOW - Russian Nuclear and Foreign Ministry officials have this week launched a two front visit to assuage American fears over Russia's nuclear deals with Iran. They also present a new plan for cooperation with the United States regarding Moscow's support for Iran's nuclear infrastructure, Nuclear Power Ministry officials said Wednesday. Iranian NPP was being constructed near the Persian Gulf city of Bushehr. With the cooperation and support of West Germany, Iran was building two reactors, each with a capacity of 1,200 megawatts to be operational in 1980. The entire programme came to an abrupt end in 1979. Russia decided to take the project over in 1990s. Charles Digges, 2002-05-08 09:17 Alexander Rumyantsev will meet US Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and other American officials during the week-long visit, according to Nuclear Energy Ministry spokesman Yuri Bespalko in a telephone interview with Bellona Web Tuesday. The trip comes ahead of a summit this month between President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Differences over Iran have strained US-Russian relations despite an overall warming of ties since Putin offered strong support for the US-led anti-terrorist campaign last fall. Rumyantsev, whose trip runs through Friday, will present a Russian-designed proposal for cooperation on peaceful uses of nuclear energy. "We want an agreement that will provide a durable foundation for cooperation," Bespalko said. While there are many US-Russian programs in the nuclear energy sector, they are not anchored by a broad overall agreement, he said. Russia's nuclear cooperation with Iran will be a "major subject" of Rumyantsev's talks, Bespalko said. "The Americans are always talking about Iran. There are many issues we want to clarify," he said, without elaborating. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov paved the way for Rumyantsev's visit by coming to Stanford University in California on Monday, where reiterated Moscow's stance that the Kremlin was unaware of any Iranian efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction. The US government, which accuses Iran of sponsoring terrorism, is concerned Russia's $800 million contract to build a nuclear reactor at the Iranian city of Bushehr could help Iran build nuclear weapons. Paving way for spent fuel imports The attempts of Russia to persuade the US that Bushehr NPP presents no threat aim among other things at spent nuclear fuel import project Minatom has been promoting the past years.  Spent Fuel Import section » Russia's Nuclear Energy Ministry (Minatom) insists the light-water reactor could not be used for developing a nuclear bomb and would remain under international control. Indeed, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) under whose supervision the reactor is being built has repeatedly said the Iran's Bushehr facility corresponds to international standards for the peaceful use of atomic energy. Speaking to a group of about 100 professors and students at Stanford's Institute of International Studies, or IIS, Ivanov said his US counterparts regularly contacted him about "Moscow's possible illegal deeds linked with nuclear or missile technologies," he was quoted as saying by the RIA News agency. But, according to one IIS source in attendance at Monday's speech, Ivanov challenged the United States to produce evidence of this collaboration. "They have no reason to suspect such collaboration and if the US intelligence community has evidence of it, they should share this intelligence," he said according to the source. "If the USA has such information, we are ready to study it jointly and resolve these concerns if this information is confirmed," Ivanov said. To achieve this cooperation, Rumyantsev is carrying a proposal to Washington to set up joint working groups between the countries special services. Moscow has also rejected US accusations that Russian institutes or companies have leaked missile technologies to Tehran. But in recent years, a handful of Russian academics and their institutions have run afoul of the US government for suspected technology exchanges with Iran. In 2000, Baltic University in St Petersburg was banned by the US Department of State from receiving any American support — from financial aid down to American produced textbooks. The sanctions drew little more than a yawn from the institute's flamboyant rector who answered the Americans by publicly touting the profitability of selling nuclear technology to Tehran. Anton Khlopkov, author of a book called "The Iranian Nuclear Program in Russian-American Relations," was quoted by the ITAR-Tass news agency as saying Tuesday that it remains unclear whether the Russian government is in full control over the export of sensitive technologies to Iran. He also predicted that the United States "will shortly start using economic and political levers against Russia to seek a halt to nuclear cooperation with Iran." Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] , President: Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no] Information: info@bellona.no [info@bellona.no] , Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no [webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 9 Russian Nuke Minister Says US Tensions Easing Over Iranian Nuke Plant MOSCOW - Russia's nuclear energy minister cited progress in easing US concerns about Russian involvement in building a nuclear power plant in Iran on Thursday, the last day of his three-day trip to the United States. Aleksandr Rumyantsev, Russia's nuclear energy minister, does hope the US agrees Iranian NPP poses no threat, but the topic remains to be "sensitive." Charles Digges, 2002-05-10 12:36 Alexander Rumyantsev, head of Russia's nuclear ministry, Minatom, acknowledged that the deal with Iran remains “a sensitive topic,” but said that “we are close to finding a solution,” he was quoted by The Associated Press as saying. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, at a joint news conference with Rumyantsev in Washington, DC, said Russia's nuclear assistance to Iran remains a concern, AP reported. But, he added, “We had positive discussions.” The two officials have met for three days to discuss energy issues related to the May 23-26 summit in Russia between President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Russia-Iran deal probably will come up at their talks, which will focus on nuclear weapons reductions and other nonproliferation issues. Rumyantsev repeated Russia's view that the light water nuclear reactor under construction in Iran in an $800 million contract cannot be used to develop material for weapons. The reactor “is not a source of proliferation of nuclear material,” Rumyantsev said, according to RIA Russian news agency. Indeed, in recent weeks, Minatom officials have told Bellona that Russia would maintain consent rights on nuclear fuel sold to the Iranian facility at Bushehr, meaning the spent nuclear fuel (SNF) would be sent back to Russia for storage or reprocessing — an apparent guarantee that the SNF does not pose a nonproliferation danger within Iran. Rumyantsev also said he agreed with his US counterpart to continue negotiations on Agreement of Cooperation on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy. Such agreement among other things is a precondition for the US to grant Russia permission to import American origin spent nuclear fuel. Minatom plans to import foreign spent nuclear fuel to Russia for storage/reprocessing and earn around $20 billion on such operations. The most promising clients, according to the plan, will be Asian countries, which use US origin fuel. Agreement reached on "dirty bombs" Rumyantsev and Abraham announced an agreement on a US-Russia task force to look at better safeguarding low-grade radioactive materials that could be used to fashion a “dirty bomb” — which does not have a nuclear chain reaction but can disperse radiation over a limited area by using conventional explosives, AP said. These non-weapon radiation sources — isotopes used in medicine, construction and, often in Russia, as a power source in remote locations — are “potentially attractive targets for theft” and could be used by terrorists to make a dirty bomb, Abraham said at the joint press conference. Rumyantsev said his government has acted to improve the protection of such radioactive materials. As an example, he cited a recent decision to let Minatom control the disposition of radioactive material used in beacons used for directional lights in remote parts of Russia. According to a Russian government report recently cited in the Washington Post, many of these beacons have not been visited by government staff for years and have fallen prey to scrap metal thieves and the elements. Minatom's new efforts to control the disposition of these devices "shows how serious this issue is and that we're ready to solve it," AP quoted Rumyantsev as saying. The United States has similar problems. Last week, in a letter to Massachusetts Congressman Ed Markey, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission acknowledged that about 1,500 such radiation devices have disappeared across the United States over the past five years and that about half are missing. NASA spacecraft to be fuelled with Russian plutonium Abraham also said Thursday that the United States plans to resume purchases of plutonium 238 from Russia for use as a power source in NASA spacecraft. Since 1992, there has been an agreement with Russia to buy the non-weapons grade plutonium, but in recent years none has been bought because the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's needs could be met with US supplies, the RIA reported. Publisher: [bellona@bellona.no] , President: [frederic@bellona.no] Information: [info@bellona.no] , Technical contact: [webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 10 Slovene People's Party against ratification of Krsko nuclear plant accord BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; May 10, 2002 Ljubljana: The bill on ratification of the agreement with Croatia on the Krsko nuclear power plant [JEK] was yesterday adopted by the government and forwarded to the National Assembly. All three SLS [Slovene People's Party] ministers voted against its adoption (Franc But, Jakob Presecnik and Ivan Bizjak). Yesterday, after the government session, Agriculture Minister and SLS chairman Franci But told [daily] Delo that the SLS ministers proposed to the government not to discuss the bill on ratification and not to forward it to the National Assembly. "On the basis of some new facts and the debate in the Croatian parliament, we have concluded that certain parts of the agreement would remain totally unachievable. We are convinced that the storage of nuclear waste and its decommission will remain total responsibility for Slovenia because we could not count on Croatia wanting to resolve this fundamental question. According to our estimates, in order to do this, Croatia would have to change its constitution, something that it is not to be expected judging by their disposition and opinions," But explained. Hence, the SLS is proposing that new talks be held with Croatia in which its contribution in JEK would be acknowledged and new solutions would be sought for the resolution of the open question. The buyout of the Croatian share is one of the possibilities. According to But, the SLS agrees that the open questions with Croatia need to be resolved, however not as a package. The idea of solving them as a package was favoured some months ago since a solid agreement on the border had been achieved, but not on the JEK. And this is not good. How did the LDS [Liberal Democracy of Slovenia party] and ZLSD [United List of Social Democrats party] ministers - who did not oppose the bill on ratification yesterday - accept the arguments of the SLS ministers? But: "I would not like to talk about the others. They should be telling this themselves"... Source: Delo web site, Ljubljana, in Slovene 10 May 02 /© BBC Monitoring ***************************************************************** 11 Bulgaria: European Commission proposes new dates for Kozloduy reactors closure BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; May 10, 2002 [Announcer] The Foreign Policy Commission of the European Parliament has produced a report which allows for a review of the term within which Bulgaria must shut down the third and fourth reactors of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant. The European Parliament is to vote on the report in June, the Bulgarian Socialist Party [BSP] headquarters announced after the participation of its representatives in the meeting of the parliamentary faction of the Party of European Socialists in Spain. Diyana Yankulova reports: [Yankulova] This is the first serious breakthrough in changing the attitude of the European Commission towards Bulgaria, in addition to adopting a timetable for our country's admission to the EU by December 2002, Rumen Ovcharov, BSP representative to the Seville meeting, said. He recalled that this is the first time that an official EU document has posed the issue of reviewing the term within which Bulgaria must close the third and fourth reactors of the Kozloduy nuclear plant. The report of the European Parliament Foreign Policy Commission notes the good assessment of the technical reliability and safety of the Bulgarian nuclear plant, and allows for closing it only around 2010. The European Parliament is to vote on the commission's report in June and the parliamentary faction of the Party of European Socialists will support it. This is the decision that has been adopted in Seville. The faction of the party of European Socialists is second in its influence in the European Parliament, after the European People's Party. Source: Bulgarian Radio, Sofia, in Bulgarian 1200 gmt 10 May 02 /© BBC Monitoring ***************************************************************** 12 Russia, US increase nuclear cooperation United Press International: By Scott R. Burnell UPI Science News From the Science & Technology Desk Published 5/9/2002 3:06 PM WASHINGTON, May 9 (UPI) -- U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said Thursday Russian and American nuclear specialists will work jointly on improving security for industrial and medical radiation sources. Speaking at a news conference with Alexander Rumyanstev, Minister of Atomic Energy in Russia, Abraham said the bilateral task force will study the threat posed by such isotopes and how to decrease their vulnerability to terrorism. Existing funds from the Energy Department's nonproliferation budget will help launch the program, he said. "This effort will be a logical extension of the work we're already doing together on protecting nuclear materials in the Russian Federation," Abraham said. "This has been a highly successful program, but Sept. 11 has made clear to both Russia and the United States that more needs to be done." The main area of concern with the radiation sources is their possible use in radiological weapons, where something other than a nuclear explosion is used to spread radioactive contamination among a civilian populace. Casualties from an isotope-dusted conventional explosive or other attack would likely be light, but guidelines on radiation exposure, as well as public misconceptions and fears, could prompt the long-term abandonment of contaminated areas. Such sources are used frequently in Russia, especially for remote wilderness facilities, Rumyanstev said, and he welcomed the opportunity to work with Abraham. "All our strategic aims at using nuclear technologies are in sync," Rumyanstev said through an interpreter. "They are in line with our times, they support the process of disarmament and the use of nuclear materials for peaceful purposes." The two countries' efforts to better account for and control Russian materials have improved markedly since Sept. 11, Rumyanstev said. The cooperation is paying off, Abraham said. "We now expect to complete the work of protecting some 600 tons of fissile material by the year 2008, a full two years earlier than we expected at this time last year," Abraham said. The bilateral task force will be very useful, as long as it is not used as an excuse to stall further action, said Henry Kelly, president of the Federation of American Scientists. "They've got to start somewhere, and there's a lot of work to be done on both sides," Kelly told United Press International. "There's a lot of shared technology we can talk about -- tracking the movement of materials, monitoring ports of entry, and so on." Abraham said the United States would also restart a program for purchasing Russian plutonium-238, a non-weapons-grade isotope used in applications such as providing electrical power for spacecraft. Copyright © 2002 United Press International ***************************************************************** 13 Closing Indian Point Wouldn't Ease Terrorism Risk Newsday.com - EDITORIAL May 10, 2002 The possibility of a Sept. 11-type terrorist attack on the Entergy Corp.'s two nuclear power plants at Indian Point, less than 30 miles up the Hudson from Manhattan, has ignited new demands that the plants be shut down for safety's sake. On balance, that's a bad idea: The cost of a shut-down - in lost electricity supplies, in the increased cost of power and in new air pollution from other plants - is far greater than the entirely speculative risk of an assault. But while the reactors, by design, may be substantially shielded from an airliner attack, the spent fuel that has been removed from the plants and stored in water-filled pools on the site is not. Transferring as many of the old fuel rods as feasible from the pools, where they cool down for a few years after removal from a reactor, and dispersing them in super-strong shipping/storage casks would make them less of a target for an attack. Because Indian Point's pools are near full, Entergy wants to move some of the fuel into casks anyway, to make room for newly spent fuel rods coming out of its reactors. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission should encourage it to remove from the pools as many of the rods as are sufficiently cooled, to reduce the quantity stored in the more vulnerable cooling pools. With the right kind of casks, the fuel would be all the readier for shipping to a short- or long-term storage site. The House helped bring that day closer Wednesday, when it approved using federal land at Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a permanent nuclear-waste depository. Entergy insists the spent-fuel pools are secure and, being relatively small, difficult targets. But with Indian Point adjoining a major population center, extra precautions are in order. Closing the plants is not. The reactor buildings are designed to survive extreme stresses and, even if shuttered, the spent fuel would still be there. Replacement power sources would burn oil or gas, degrading the region's air. And New York can ill afford to lose the low-cost power from Indian Point at a time when summer supplies are already perilously tight. Copyright © 2002, Newsday, Inc. ***************************************************************** 14 Ukrainian nuclear reactor shut down for planned repairs Fri May 10, 4:01 AM ET KIEV, Ukraine - Ukrainian authorities shut down reactor No. 2 at the Yuzhna nuclear plant in southern Ukraine on Friday for planned repairs, news reports said. Ukraine's state nuclear company, Energoatom, said repairs are expected to continue until Aug. 22, according to the Interfax news agency. Meanwhile, reactor No. 3 at the Yuzhna plant was put back on line after two days of scheduled repairs. Reactors at Ukraine's four nuclear power stations are frequently shut down for both planned and unscheduled repairs. Currently, 10 out of 13 nuclear reactors are functioning, producing about 40 percent of Ukraine's electricity output. Ukraine was the site of world's worst nuclear catastrophe in 1986 when a reactor at the Chernobyl power plant exploded and caught fire, spewing radiation over much of Europe. Chernobyl was closed down for good in 2000. (tv/jai) Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. ***************************************************************** 15 Ukrainian nuclear reactor shut down for planned repairs Fri May 10, 4:01 AM ET KIEV, Ukraine - Ukrainian authorities shut down reactor No. 2 at the Yuzhna nuclear plant in southern Ukraine on Friday for planned repairs, news reports said. Ukraine's state nuclear company, Energoatom, said repairs are expected to continue until Aug. 22, according to the Interfax news agency. Meanwhile, reactor No. 3 at the Yuzhna plant was put back on line after two days of scheduled repairs. Reactors at Ukraine's four nuclear power stations are frequently shut down for both planned and unscheduled repairs. Currently, 10 out of 13 nuclear reactors are functioning, producing about 40 percent of Ukraine's electricity output. Ukraine was the site of world's worst nuclear catastrophe in 1986 when a reactor at the Chernobyl power plant exploded and caught fire, spewing radiation over much of Europe. Chernobyl was closed down for good in 2000. (tv/jai) Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 16 EDITORIAL: Cold War workers Friday, May 10, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal More delay on medical claims Members of Congress recently passed a bill intended to guarantee that thousands of Cold War-era nuclear weapons workers, who were exposed to toxic substances at Energy Department facilities run by private contractors, will have their related medical costs paid. But the legislation had to be converted into a detailed rule by the Department of Energy, and some congressmen are now complaining that rule, as drafted, may actually make it harder for the workers -- not easier. Congress told the Energy Department to help workers file claims under state workers' compensation systems, which vary and often have high burdens of proof for occupational diseases. The agency was also supposed to instruct its contractors not to fight the claims, reversing a decades-old practice. (The majority of DOE contractors are self-insured, and the Energy Department reimburses them for worker compensation costs.) But the draft rule allows contractors to contest the findings of medical panels assigned to determine whether workers got sick from on-the-job exposures. "Their draft regulations are very contrary to what our intent was," says Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky. The delegates are also upset that, under the proposed rule, the Energy Department would reimburse contractors for some costs associated with contesting a claim. "It seems to me as if it's providing an incentive to fight," complained Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Ohio. The Energy Department is not entirely wrong, of course. There have to be some safeguards to screen out bogus claims, rather than just opening the candy store to anyone who ever performed such work. But an aging worker, his funds and stamina already depleted by illness, is hardly a match for the hired legal and medical guns who can be deployed by a major corporation intent on stretching out a case "till it goes away." The Americans in question were willing to do their part in ventures vital to the national defense. If they were injured -- particularly due to risks that were either ill-understood or poorly explained at the time -- a grateful nation owes it to them to pay for their medical care. The congressmen have it right. The goal here is not and should not be to make sick and failing "home front" patriots jump through yet more bureaucratic hoops. It's time to stop messing around and get these medical claims paid. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 17 Nuke worker reparation plan panned Friday, May 10, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal By TONY BATT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Nevada's senators signed a letter Thursday accusing the Energy Department of ignoring federal law in drafting a plan that could make it more difficult for nuclear weapons workers to get compensated for job-related illnesses. The department's draft would allow government contractors to contest compensation claims. Under a law passed two years ago, the DOE is instructed to tell its contractors not to contest the claims, the senators said. "If these regulations are not altered to reflect the intent of Congress, they will continue the sad legacy of mistreatment of America's brave nuclear workers," said the letter signed by Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev. The letter, signed by seven other senators, was expected to be sent today to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. A similar letter was issued by members of the House including Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev. A spokesman said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., also was investigating the matter. Energy Department spokeswoman Dolline Hatchett declined to comment on the draft regulation, saying it has not been finalized. Reid said he was disappointed by the department's draft proposal. "It appears quite clear that the intent of Congress was to get compensation for these people," Reid said. "It's totally unfair for the contractors to try to use some loophole to avoid paying them. If the contractors aren't going to pay them, the government should." The compensation program included in the Energy Department's draft proposal is different from another program which provides medical care and $150,000 to workers exposed to cancer-causing radiation or silica and beryllium, which cause lung diseases. While those diseases qualified for automatic payments, workers suffering from other ailments tied to their jobs in the government's nuclear weapons complex were directed to go through a compensation process within their states, with help from the Energy Department. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 18 Common sense on nuclear waste Jacksonville Daily News Run Date: 05/10/2002 By a vote of 306-117, the House has voted its support for shipping nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain in Nevada, but the opposition keeps voicing two main objections that zigzag all over the map in an apparent effort to avoid common sense. Objection one: There is not yet proof that this site will be safe, and there is no reason to rush things. Absolute proof? Nothing like that is even possible. But $7 billion has been spent over the past 24 years studying this area, and reputable panels of scientists have found it sound. The alternative to moving the waste to Nevada is not that it will somehow disappear. The alternative is to continue leaving it at 131 locations that are reasonably safe but not nearly as safe as this site will be. The government had pledged to move the waste by 1998, and some of these other sites are beginning to run out of storage space. Under the best of circumstances, the Yucca site will not now be open until 2010. Postponing the date longer is much riskier than moving ahead with a process that has been extremely cautious and will not cease being cautious in the years ahead. Objection two: When the trucks and trains start rolling, they will have to make thousands of trips carrying thousands of tons of this radioactive material, and they will put millions of unsuspecting Americans in frightful danger as they pass by or through the cities in which they live. Fact one is that there is nothing new about transporting radioactive materials in the United States. There have been thousands of such shipments since the 1960s with no one ever being hurt by the materials and next to no prospect that anyone would be. Fact two is that millions more people live close to the materials now than will be close to the materials during shipment. Fact three is that, sooner or later, the nuclear waste must be and will be shipped. It cannot just sit where it is forever. Like the House, the Senate will likely vote to back the president in his determination to move the waste to Nevada, which happens to be suitable because of its geological and climatic characteristics and sparse population. The sooner the vote comes, the better for common sense and reasonable public policy. © 2001 Jacksonville Daily News. ***************************************************************** 19 Nuke Waste: An Unsolvable Problem? EXCHANGE | Special Report New York City Thank you for Matt Bivens's excellent "The Yucca Lemon" ["The Failsafe Point," March 5] about the possibility of the Yucca Mountains being used as a waste site for nuclear spent fuel rods. I reside near Indian Point in New York and am one of the leaders of the effort to close down the plant--a plant within fifty miles of 2l million people. Transporting spent fuel rods from the current noncontained area to Yucca on trains makes absolutely no sense. I'm scared of the potential for a terrorist attack and a possible Indian Point meltdown now. Transporting spent fuel rods in noncontained trains makes absolutely no sense. Yucca should be preserved as open space--and should not be used as a dumping ground. Close down Indian Point, place the spent fuel rods in contained dry cask containers. PAUL FEINER GREENBURGH NY Town Supervisor Knoxville, Tenn. Enjoyed Matt Bivens's piece on the political conundrum this issue has become and DOE's efforts to bulldoze it through Congress with support of President Bush. There is a better solution--one that is cheaper, far safer, and takes these dangerous high level wastes (HLW) out of everybody's backyard permanently with almost no long-term danger to the environment. The solution is entombment in the deep sediments of abyssal plains in the oceans that now cover 71 percent of the planet. This method offers many benefits that I would be pleased to explain in detail. (My interest is an outgrowth of over twenty years of research on expansion of the Earth. See my website: www.expanding-earth.org. This method was examined by Congress in the late seventies and eighties after it was proposed by D.A. Deese in 1977, but was quietly shelved by Congress and left in the hands of OECD. Their rationale then is unknown to me, but one of the reasons a terrestrial site was chosen was to make it possible for future recovery of these wastes in case of national need--an utterly crazy idea, although spent fuel rods can be reprocessed (at great expense) for further use. I recently sent a letter to Senator Reid recommending this solution because it requires international agreement through the IAEA and other nuclear nations to modify the London Protocol that now prohibits use of the oceans for "dumping" nuclear wastes. LAWRENCE S. MYERS Commander, US Navy, Ret. Washington, D.C. Matt Bivens pretty well recounted the doubters' complaints about the basis for the Secretary of Energy's recommendation to the President that the Department of Energy proceed to the next step of seeking a license application to actually build and operate a nuclear waste disposal repository underground in Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The president accepted that recommendation on February 15 and the matter will end up before Congress this summer. If the project survives those additional political steps it would then be submitted to the independent Nuclear Regulatory Commission which will examine in a rigorous and publicly open license review process whether those technical questions on earthquake, hydrology and many more factors. So are we to conclude that Bivens has a superior plan to safely dispose of nuclear waste from commercial nuclear power plants, navy reactors, weapons programs, research and other sources? The policy choice of underground disposal was chosen by Congress in 1982. If the doubters don't like the disposal method, they should seek to change the law. If they don't like the site, identify a better one. But, if the "answer" is to "leave it where it is" I suggest he and others read the environmental impact of that choice in the Yucca Mountain environmental impact statement. Does he really beleive that leaving this material on the shores of the Great Lakes and the Connecticut River is a solution? Read Secretary Abraham's Yucca Mountain recommendation (it's on the web)--it is well-written and not boring. BRIAN O'CONNELL PE Director, Nuclear Waste Program Office National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners BIVENS RESPONDS Olney, Md. Here are some other suggestions for dealing with our thousands of tons of nuclear waste and the thousands more on the way, as nuclear power still provides nearly 20 percent of our electricity, among other current uses: * Put it on rockets and shoot it into the sun. * Invest in "transmutation" to, hopefully someday, make the radiation disappear in a puff of pink smoke. (OK, I made up the bit about the pink smoke). * Send it all to Russia. The Department of Energy has fortunately rejected sending rockets full of deadly radiation to the sun, as too expensive and too dangerous. (Whew!) The government is more excited about transmutation, an idea that had its heyday in the mid-1980s. Last year Los Alamos National Laboratory got another $34 million in funding to continue research. Check out the Los Alamos "Transmutation of Waste Overview Tour" for the official word on this futuristic possibility. Then you might check out "Magical Thinking," an article in last year's March/April issue of The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, where authors Arjun Makhijani et al. pour scorn on the idea as a massive boondoggle. The Russians? Their Nuclear Power Ministry, Minatom, has a horrific public safety record, even aside from Chernobyl. But Minatom dreams of growing rich by turning Russia into the world's nuclear pay toilet. Ordinary Russians have gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures demanding a national referendum vote. The authorities keep rejecting the signatures on technical grounds. So who knows? Perhaps one day Russia will be Yucca to the world. Happily for me, it's not my job to decide what to do with the waste. In "The Yucca Lemon" I confined myself to making two main points: (1) the Department of Energy was supposed to find a geologically suitable site, i.e., a site where natural geological barriers could contain waste for thousands of years even if man-made containers failed; (2) when, after much study, Yucca Mountain turned out to lack that geology, the Department of Energy decided to fudge, and change the rules. Brian O'Connell of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners asks archly if I have "a superior plan" to simply plowing forward with Yucca and proving that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will license anything put in front of it. I would refer him, and others, to a pretty common-sense course of action suggested by Dr. Makhijani of the Institute for Energy & Environmental Research (www.ieer.org/sdafiles/vol_7/7-3/longterm.html): Be honest with ourselves that Yucca Mountain's geology is unfavorable--why waste the Energy Department's expensive and high-caliber research by refusing to come to grips with it?--and start over. Makhijani suggests not even looking for a site for the next several years, and instead studying anew the various general options like deep geological repositories, sub-seabed disposal--letter writer Lawrence Myers's preferred option--and even disposal tens of miles down, below the earth's crust. Makhijani suggests Yucca Mountain should host the research center for that work. Not very satisfying, is it? I sympathize; there's something in us that doesn't like an unsolvable problem, that rejects the very notion. So how about this for closure: There is probably no responsible option, from transmutation to Yucca to Russia, that doesn't make already-expensive nuclear power too costly to compete on a market basis. It doesn't compete with natural gas-fired plants, it doesn't compete with wind power. Ergo, we should move away from nuclear power, and recognize that disposing of the remaining waste will be a non-market project. MATT BIVENS thenation.com Webmanager | Subscribe | Subscription Help | Privacy © 2002 The Nation Company, L.P. Permissions | Letters to the Editor ***************************************************************** 20 Yucca Mt. approval may bring waste to Utah BYU NewsNet The Scroll By Chris Wilkinson and Elise Christenson NewsNet Staff City Editor and NewsNet Staff Writer 5/8/2002 The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday May 8, approving the permanent storage of high-level nuclear waste in Nevada. If the Senate approves the House bill, the Yucca Mountain Repository Site Approval Act could lead to temporarily storing the waste in Utah. "People need to understand a vote for Yucca is a vote for private fuel storage with Skull Valley," said Steve Erickson, lobbyist with the Citizen's Education Project. The House bill, which passed with a vote of 306-117, solves the problem of where to permanently store spent fuel produced by 103 nuclear reactors in 31 states. However, the problem still remains as to where to store the waste until the Yucca Mountain facility is complete. Located in close proximity to the permanent storage facility, Utah's Skull Valley is a prime candidate. Pending approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Goshute Indians, which own the Skull Valley land, will lease the land to house a temporary storage facility. "If Yucca is approved, public fuel storage will be approved, opposite of what everybody says," Erickson said. Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, said he voted for the bill to prevent the waste from being stored in Skull Valley. "The truth is that without Yucca Mountain, the Skull Valley proposal would be one step closer to reality," Hansen said in a press release. Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt and Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson have both publicly spoken out against temporarily storing the waste in Utah. "It is a deadly experiment and an accident waiting to happen," Anderson said in a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission meeting. Perhaps even more controversial than storing the spent fuel in Skull Valley is transporting it on Utah's highways. "It is important issue, especially in times of terrorism," said Bill Jones, director of state for Chris Cannon, R-Utah. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is against the bill, not only because he does not want the waste in Nevada, but also because there is not a secure method of transporting it, said Nathan Naylor, press secretary for Reid. "There is no accident, terrorist attack or natural disaster that can compare with the dangers of this stuff and Americans will share the road with nuclear waste before the end of the decade," Naylor said. Copyright ©2002 BYU NewsNet ***************************************************************** 21 Nevada tunnels will house US nuclear waste Times Online May 10, 2002 From Giles Whittell in Washington A NETWORK of concrete tunnels in a Nevada mountain is to store tens of thousands of tonnes of nuclear waste after Congress voted to centralise the US waste storage system. Twenty years and $7billion (£4.7billion) in construction costs after the Yucca Mountain site northwest of Las Vegas was proposed, the House of Representatives approved it by a large majority on Wednesday. One supporter of the plan said it would “wipe clean the terrorist shooting gallery of 131 sites currently scattered throughout this country”. Subject to endorsement by the Senate later this year, the vote paves the way for 77,000tonnes of highly radioactive waste to be moved by lorry and train to the remote site from nuclear power stations, research laboratories and US Navy aircraft carriers and submarines over the next 34 years. It is expected to fill up by 2036. Backers say that the waste, stored in hardened steel cannisters and shielded from terrorists and the elements by billions of tonnes of rock, will be safe for 10,000 years. The threat of opportunistic nuclear terrorism was invoked by both sides in a long and impassioned debate that effectively ended on Wednesday. While supporters said it would deprive terrorists of targets, opponents said the process of moving the waste would create hundreds of “mobile Chernobyls”. Such arguments have been made before, and have been undermined by the fact that the US nuclear industry has already handled some 3,000 cross-country waste transfers without incident. A more serious obstacle to Yucca Mountain came in the form of fervent objections from Nevada’s Governor and citizens. The state produces no nuclear waste of its own. It also has a tragic record of cancer deaths from “downwinders” persuaded not to move during the era of nuclear testing on the vast Nellis test range in the 50s and 60s. The US Government is now “asking us to trust them like our parents and grandparents did”, Shelley Berkley, a Democrat opposed to the site, protested. President Clinton opposed using the site, but since the Republican victory in 2000 the US nuclear industry has lobbied hard and successfully for the site: it was approved by 306 votes to 117. America stores 44,000tonnes of spent nuclear material at 131 surface sights including the Great Lakes basin, whose most industrialised state, Illinois, has the nation’s highest concentration of nuclear power plants. The US produces 2,000tonnes more waste each year, and will still have 44,000tonnes above ground when Yucca Mountain is sealed in 2036. [http://www.timesonline.co.uk ***************************************************************** 22 Common sense on Yucca Rocky Mountain News: Opinion May 10, 2002 By a vote of 306-117, the House has voted its support for shipping nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain in Nevada, but the opposition keeps voicing two main objections that zigzag all over the map in an apparent effort to avoid common sense. Objection one: There is not yet proof that this site will be safe, and there is no reason to rush things. Absolute proof? Nothing like that is even possible. But $7 billion has been spent over the past 24 years studying this area, and reputable panels of scientists have found it sound. The alternative to moving the waste to Nevada is not that it will somehow disappear. The alternative is to continue leaving it at 131 locations that are reasonably safe but not nearly as safe as this site will be. The government had pledged to move the waste by 1998, and some of these other sites are beginning to run out of storage space. Under the best of circumstances, the Yucca site will not now be open until 2010. Postponing the date longer is much riskier than moving ahead with a process that has been extremely cautious and will not cease being cautious in the years ahead. Objection two: When the trucks and trains start rolling, they will have to make thousands of trips carrying thousands of tons of this radioactive material, and they will put millions of unsuspecting Americans in frightful danger as they pass by or through the cities in which they live. Yet there is nothing new about transporting radioactive materials in the United States. There have been thousands of such shipments since the 1960s with no one ever being hurt by the materials and next to no prospect that anyone would be. In addition, millions more people live close to the materials now than will be close to the materials during shipment. And to repeat: Sooner or later, the nuclear waste must be and will be shipped. It cannot just sit where it is forever. Like the House, the Senate will likely vote to back the president in his determination to move the waste to Nevada, which happens to be suitable because of its geological and climatic characteristics and sparse population. The sooner the vote comes, the better for common sense and reasonable public policy. © The E.W. Scripps Co. ***************************************************************** 23 Tainted soil a step closer to state Canon City foes doubt safety Denver Post.com By Erin Emery [eemery@denverpost.com] Denver Post Southern Colorado Bureau Friday, May 10, 2002 - CANON CITY - The first of two public meetings about a controversial plan by Cotter Corp. to receive radioactive soil from a Superfund site in New Jersey is history, and that means 440,000 tons of soil is likely a step closer to Colorado. In mid-March, Gov. Bill Owens ordered the state health department to delay shipments of the soil from Maywood, N.J., until after a review of an environmental assessment and two public meetings. About 250 people - many of them opposed to Cotter's plan - gathered at a VFW hall Thursday and heard company executives explain that the soil is five to 10 times less radioactive than tailings already on the site. The company said the soil might even protect Can~on City residents from environmental harm because the dirt from New Jersey will cover more potent tailings. The majority in the crowd opposed the plan, although about two dozen people - including 45 employees from Cotter who were laid off last week - support the plan because it would bring their jobs back. Opponents sneered and laughed, especially when Jan Johnson, a consultant for Cotter and an environmental health expert from Carbondale, said there is less thorium in the soil than in fertilizer available at hardware stores. Thorium is a mineral used in the manufacture of gas lanterns. "Thorium is a naturally occurring radioactive element," Johnson said. She said a skier who hits the slopes for a week at 10,000 feet will be exposed to three times as much radiation as the resident living closest to the Cotter uranium mill, 5 miles south of Can~on City. If the material is so safe, the crowd wanted to know, then why is the U.S. government spending millions of taxpayer dollars to move it out of New Jersey? Kevin Franklin, senior vice president of Massachusetts-based Franklin Environmental Services, said that's because the dirt at the Maywood industrial site is not contained and it needs a better site. The dirt will be moved by rail from New Jersey to Syracuse, N.Y., to Chicago to Pueblo and then to Can~on City. Dan Slater, an opponent and Democratic candidate in the newly formed Senate District 2, received applause when he said: "I think Cotter has confused social and economic impacts and tried to combine that into one." Slater said bringing the soil to Can~on City would dampen tourism and the ability to bring new businesses to the area. "We'll get a reputation as a toxic or radioactive dumping ground," he said. He also attacked the company, saying Cotter is not in "management shape" to accept the material. He cited a state inspection of Cotter on April 23 that showed 16 violations of state regulations, including four that were repeat offenses from an earlier inspection. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment cited the company for violations involving airborne radioactivity, a failure to implement a program to keep radioactivity doses as low as possible, unacceptable soluble uranium intake and lack of action when a urine test showed higher-than-acceptable levels of radiation in an employee. "The number and type of violations identified by this department indicate a serious and substantial breakdown in the management oversight of this facility," the report said. The next public meeting is in two weeks. All contents Copyright 2002 The Denver Post ***************************************************************** 24 Loughlin quits as BNFL director Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Terry Macalister Friday May 10, 2002 [http://www.guardian.co.uk] Tensions at the top of BNFL, ahead of a planned government shakeup of the troubled nuclear industry, were signalled yesterday with the departure of a senior board member with control over the loss-making Sellafield reprocessing operation. Chris Loughlin, business group director with ultimate control over spent fuels and engineering, will be replaced "in the short term" by Brian Watson, his deputy. The company insisted that Mr Loughlin was leaving to pursue other interests, but he received the briefest of verbal send-offs from chief executive Norman Askew. "We wish Chris well and I would like to thank him for the work he has done," said Mr Askew, who was drafted in to clean up BNFL after a damaging scandal involving the falsification of documents for shipping recycled nuclear fuel. Mr Loughlin was head of transport when the problems occurred and some industry figures expressed surprise that he had escaped the fate of his boss, John Taylor, who left soon afterwards. Mr Loughlin was also said by insiders to have had a tense relationship with Mr Askew, exacerbated by differences of opinion over the future of BNFL. "I am very surprised he has lasted this long, to be honest," said one source. "He never got on well with the new chief executive and did not want the business to be fragmented," he added. Useful links [http://www.bnfl.co.uk/website.nsf/default.htm] [http://www.cnduk.org/] [http://www.hse.gov.uk/nsd/ilrwglos.htm] [http://www.ukaea.org.uk/] [http://www.nrpb.org.uk/] [http://www.uilondon.org/] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 ***************************************************************** 25 CCAGW Applauds House for Yucca Resolution U.S. Newswire 8 May 17:25 Nuke Depository is Cost Effective, and Safeguards Environment, National Security To: National Desk Contact: Sean Rushton or Mark Carpenter, 202-467-5300 both of The Council For Citizens Against Government Waste WASHINGTON, May 8 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) applauded the House of Representatives for voting in favor of making Yucca Mountain, Nevada the nation's primary nuclear waste depository. The decision comes after Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn vetoed the government's initial decision to move forward on Yucca. Today's vote came after two decades of scientific analysis and political wrangling over where and how to deposit and store nuclear waste. "After spending more than $6 billion to determine the safest and most secure site, the government has correctly concluded that it is safe to bury nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain," CCAGW President Tom Schatz said. "In addition, keeping the waste at its current location at nuclear plants around the nation wastes taxpayer dollars." The cost of maintaining nuclear waste at sites around the country could be more than $60 billion. In addition, federal court decisions over the last several years have found the Department of Energy has violated the law by failing to construct a permanent nuclear waste site. The president's support of Yucca Mountain should end that litigation track, but open up another as activists have said they intend to delay Yucca's activation as long as possible. "Nevada's officials should recognize that this project is safe and makes sense, and drop all legal road blocks. Almost $18 billion in taxpayer money has already been allotted for this project; it's time to move forward," Schatz said. "Additionally, Sept. 11 should have taught this country a lesson about its potential weak spots," Schatz added. "Yucca is a crucial security precaution against terrorism. Currently, a terrorist has over 100 chances in 39 states to breach security where nuclear waste is stored, and there are scores of sites -- power plants, old reactors, etc. -- where nuclear material now resides. The shallow nuclear storage pools built in the 1970s were only designed as a temporary measure, and are often located near major U.S. cities. Putting most or all nuclear waste in one facility that can be carefully documented and guarded, like Ft. Knox, ensures high security, not to mention enormous economies of scale financially." "Everyone from the U.S. Geological Survey to the Department of Energy has agreed the Yucca Mountain site is scientifically sound. Further delay means the waste of yet more money -- it's time to act. Hopefully the Senate will follow in the footsteps of the House, and pass a similar resolution," Schatz concluded. The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. http://www.usnewswire.com ***************************************************************** 26 S.C. Plutonium Shipments Postponed Las Vegas SUN: May 09, 2002 COLUMBIA, S.C.- A standoff between the state of South Carolina and the federal government over plutonium shipments is on hold at least until next month. The Energy Department agreed Thursday to postpone planned shipments to South Carolina until at least June 15 so a judge can hear arguments in the state's lawsuit against the agency. Gov. Jim Hodges sued the federal agency and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham last week in an attempt to halt plans to ship tons of weapons-grade surplus plutonium to the Savannah River Site near Aiken for conversion to nuclear reactor fuel. "Given that the governor has elected to throw this matter into litigation, DOE believes that the best way to avoid an undue delay in shipments is an expedited briefing schedule that will allow the court the opportunity to make an informed decision on the merits of the matter," Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said Thursday. The first shipments from the former nuclear weapons plant at Rocky Flats outside Denver had been expected to begin later this month. But Hodges fears the conversion program will never be funded and the plutonium will remain in the state indefinitely. "That's good news for us that they've agreed to delay shipments," Hodges said Thursday night. But he added, "all this does is move from May to June the day of reckoning." All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 27 Physicians Speak Out Against Yucca Mountain Transports U.S. Newswire 9 May 10:37 Physicians Speak Out Against Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Transports Through Utah To: National Desk, Environment and Energy reporters Contact: Tarek Rizk of Physicians for Social Responsibility, 202-667-4260, ext. 215 SALT LAKE CITY, May 9 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Stepping up its attack on the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization announced a series of television ads highlighting the dangers of transporting highly radioactive waste through Utah. The plan to store 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles Northwest of Las Vegas would bring the waste through 44 states and the District of Columbia. More than 90 per cent of that waste would pass through Utah. "Senators Hatch and Bennett have the power to stop hauling this dangerous waste through Utah, protecting the health and welfare of all Utahns," said Physicians for Social Responsibility Executive Director and CEO Robert K. Musil Ph.D., M.P.H. "Utah's citizens deserve better than to host thousands of tons of nuclear waste headed to Yucca Mountain on their highways and through their communities." Trucks transporting nuclear waste will become frequent sight on I-70 and I-15 and in cities like Salt Lake, Provo and Orem. Emergency response teams and the public health infrastructure in Utah and all across the nuclear waste route are ill-prepared and poorly-equipped to handle a radiological accident. This sort of event could result from a terrorist attack or a devastating accident, quickly overwhelming our public health services. "A conservative Department of Energy estimate claims that only 66 truck accidents or 10 rail accidents will occur over the span of Yucca Mountain's dangerous transportation scheme," said PSR Board Member and Salt Lake City Pediatrician Louis Borgenicht, M.D. "Even one severe accident would cause up to 18,000 latent cancer deaths and cost over $17 billion to clean up. This is unacceptable to the people of Utah." Physicians for Social Responsibility has joined a broad coalition of public health, environmental and civic organizations to oppose the Yucca Mountain project and its transportation scheme. To this end, they will be broadcasting television spots throughout the month of May. The United States Senate will vote in July on whether to uphold Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn's veto of the waste dump. Most view this vote as the final referendum on the Yucca Mountain project. The ads urge Senators Robert Bennett and Orrin Hatch to support Guinn's veto. "The people of Utah must urge their Senators to action," said PSR Board Member and Salt Lake City physician Clara Michaels, M.D. "By pursuing this reckless course of action, President Bush and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham are putting the interests of the nuclear industry above the health of millions of Utahns and tens of millions of Americans." http://www.usnewswire.com -0- /U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/ 05/09 10:37 Copyright 2002, U.S. Newswire ***************************************************************** 28 Task force looks at options for site Buffalo News - WEST VALLEY KATHY KELLOGG Cattaraugus Correspondent 5/9/2002 ASHFORD - Development options are being considered for the future of the West Valley Demonstration Project site. The West Valley Citizens Task Force, a group of community and industry representatives advising federal and state officials on cleanup options for the former commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing facility, discussed the possibilities Tuesday night. Tom Barnes of Southern Tier West said he received encouragement from Citizen Task Force members and their support in a preapplication for a $75,000 federal grant to study the options. If approved, the grant would have to be matched by Western New York interests - possibly Erie and Niagara counties, whose officials are working with Southern Tier West to frame the study. Cattaraugus County is another possible source, but Barnes said, "There would be lots of partners." The goal is to find a development activity for the site. Currently, West Valley faces continued uncertainties about congressional funding, and work force reduction as well as progress toward eventual closure of the West Valley Demonstration Project. The highly successful vitrification project is drawing to a close and what was once 600,000 gallons of high-level liquid nuclear waste - now encapsulated in solid form and stored in a temporary building in an above-ground storage area - awaits final disposal. About $110 million has been funneled into the area over the past two decades by the Department of Energy and the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority for site cleanup. Barnes said he hopes private sector investments will be found to foster a growth plan that would redeploy the area's skilled work force. All the options would have to be evaluated by a consultant and Barnes refused to detail any of the ideas that have already been suggested. At Tuesday's meeting, a separate funding effort offered by the Department of Energy was discussed. That would be used to determine the best future uses of the site, according to Tom Attridge of NYSERDA. The task force will next meet June 11. Copyright © 1999 - 2002 The Buffalo NewsTM ***************************************************************** 29 Nuclear water leaked into Hudson [http://www.thejournalnews.com] --> By ROGER WITHERSPOON © 2002 THE JOURNAL NEWS (Original publication: May 10, 2002) Hundreds of gallons of radioactive water from Indian Point 2 leaked into the Hudson River and the Buchanan water system days after a Feb. 15, 2000, accident at the nuclear power plant, contrary to assertions by Consolidated Edison that all the contaminated liquid was contained, according to documents from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Nearly 20,000 gallons of water that circulated in the nuclear reactor's core poured out of a burst tube in one of the plant's huge aging steam generators and flowed into a second, nonradioactive water system used to power the plant's 200-ton electric generating turbine. The spill triggered a radiation alert throughout the region and was the worst accident in the plant's history. Officials from Con Edison, which owned the plant at the time, said after the accident that some radioactive steam had been released into the atmosphere — at no harm to the public — but that the coolant itself was contained in the turbine's pressurized water system. Until now, no one from Con Edison, the NRC or Entergy has disputed that assertion. NRC documents show that coolant also spilled from the second system at least twice and flowed out of the plant through storm drains. "Statements we have made in the past were accurate, and that's all we are saying," Con Edison spokesman Chris Olert said yesterday. In fact, Con Edison spokesmen have publicly insisted none of the contaminated liquid entered the environment. "We were always told at public hearings that it was not technically a leak because it was all contained, and there was no environmental exposure," said Marilyn Elie of the Citizens Awareness Network. "That's what we were always told, and we had no way to verify that. The utility lied. There are no two ways about it, and the NRC did nothing to uncover the lie." NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said, "We made the documents public as soon as they were filed." He referred to the agency's first report, filed Aug. 28, 2000, which said "a small amount of liquid activity ... was unexpectedly released into the discharge canal" and flowed into the Hudson River. NRC reports reviewed by The Journal News show the coolant from the nuclear reactor was contaminated with several radioactive elements, including isotopes of tritium, cesium, iodine and radioactive gases. The documents said that there was no danger to the public's health or Hudson River fish, and that the level of contamination to the public water system and the river was considered minute because the reactor coolant was heavily diluted. The plant's storm-water discharge canal runs the length of the site and carries 100,000 gallons of water per minute. Because of the dilution, the NRC reports said that the unplanned discharge of contaminated water still fell well within the technical license requirements of Indian Point 2. It could not be learned by a review of the reports, however, how contaminated the coolant was before being dumped into the discharge canal. One NRC report, dated Jan. 6, 2001, included annual discharge audits compiled by Con Edison and assessments from NRC inspectors who reviewed the discharge reports and noted where violations of regulatory rules or procedures might have occurred. In the report was a criticism of Con Edison for not cleaning up the contaminated storm-drain system months after the spill. The accident led to the plant's shutdown for nearly a year and renewed criticism of the plant's safety that has intensified since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The January 2001 NRC report said that as late as October 2000, "the Unit 2 storm drain system still contained contaminated water due to the February 2000 primary to secondary leak." The report added that despite regulations requiring immediate cleanup of the contaminated drainage system, "these actions have not occurred despite over three months elapsing." In addition, the report said that while the Buchanan water system was identified as containing contaminated water four times in 2000, "no action has been taken to restrict its use or to decontaminate it." "While programs exist to (decontaminate it) they are not being implemented," the report said. John Kelly, director of licensing for Entergy, which now owns Indian Point 2, said yesterday that after researching Con Edison's records he found that "in the neighborhood of hundreds of gallons of contaminated water leaked into the floor drain and went into the discharge canal leading to the river." At the time of the accident, Kelly said, the radioactive water flowed into massive "reheaters" adjacent to the power generating turbine. All drainage systems at Indian Point that may hold radioactive material contain radiation detectors and holding centers where the liquid is decontaminated before it is released. The system even includes special lavatories used by personnel who are undergoing chemotherapy. But the electric generating system is in a nonnuclear building, Kelly said, and its storm drainage system does not have the built-in holding area. In the course of trying to remove the contaminated water from the building on Feb. 21 and 22, 2000, some of it spilled and went untreated down the drain. "Con Ed reported the discharge to the NRC," Entergy's Kelly said, "and they removed the water from the drain, though there is some question as to how well it was documented. It was cleaned up before we got it." Entergy purchased the plant Sept. 6, 2001. Roger Witherspoon [rwithers@thejournalnews.com] Copyright 2002 The Journal News, a Gannett Co ***************************************************************** 30 Misinformation about Yucca reinforces cynicism toward Washington BILL HANLON: Pseudoscience and government 'education' Friday, May 10, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal A report released by the National Science Foundation suggests that Americans' understanding of science improved very little in the past two years. It also noted that the United States remains heavily dependent on scientists from other countries to keep U.S. technology ahead of that in the rest of the world. Why isn't there a greater interest in science in America? One may have to only look at how the government, and in particular the Bush administration, handles policy issues involving the scientific community that ultimately affect the general public. In the 1950s the government told us the nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site were safe. Military personnel were purposely put in harm's way ... and they were harmed. People who lived close to the test site were told they were safe, and people living north and east of the test site in Nevada and Utah were never told to anticipate any negative impacts. These unfortunate people have become known as the "downwinders." Why the name? Because many of them developed medical problems as a result of nuclear testing program that was supposed to be safe. For years, the federal government's response to the needs of these people was repeated denials. Now the federal government would like to ship nuclear waste across country and store it in what the government describes as a "remote" location: Yucca Mountain. Remote? That site is a mere 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. It's not that remote. A point man for the nuclear industry, former White House Chief of Staff John Sununu, tells people it is safe to store nuclear waste in Nevada and implied Nevadans would be unpatriotic if they refused the shipments. This is the same man, who, as governor of New Hampshire, wanted no part of storing nuclear waste in his home state. And Sununu has the Bush administration's ear. If I were a kid in school, I would have no interest in studying science, seeing how much disrespect it gets from the government. If that is not bad enough, in order for Yucca Mountain to qualify for the nation's nuclear waste repository, scientific standards had to be changed. Doesn't that just breed confidence in the Bush administration's decision to move forward on this project. How much has the nuclear power industry contributed to the Bush campaign? When Vice President Dick Cheney disclosed the names of energy industry people he consulted with last year, nuclear industry types were sitting in on the secret meetings. The government said "trust me" to the nation's military and to Nevadans in the '50s. It appears the nation's trust was misguided. The government is at it again, even though hundreds of questions and concerns have gone unanswered. It is saying "trust me" even though it had to lower the "scientific" standards to allow the dump to go to Yucca Mountain. The National Science Foundation's report suggests that pseudoscience is widespread in United States. The facts seem to suggest that pseudoscience is also widespread in the Bush White House. Otherwise, Americans in 43 states would not be placed in harm's way as nuclear waste is shipped across the nation, and the likelihood of earthquakes and contaminated water seepage would be studied and addressed before a final decision was made regarding the storage of nuclear waste. The Clark County School District is the sixth largest in the nation with more than 260,000 K-12 students, I wonder how most American parents would feel about having a nuclear waste dump with so many unanswered questions placed so close to their children? The administration's "Leave No Child Behind" legislation appears to be just a political slogan -- not based in facts or the scientific process, but in politics, friendships and the almighty dollar. Yes, and he's the president who values education, at least an education in science that falls in line with his administration's policies -- not science based on the scientific process -- not sound science. Now you know why the nation's students don't take studying science seriously. Bill Hanlon (bhanlon@accessnv.com) is a former member of the state Board of Education and a director with the Clark County School District. His column appears every other Friday. ***************************************************************** 31 EDITORIAL: End-game is near Friday, May 10, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal There's no way to sugarcoat it: Nevada got crushed on the Yucca Mountain vote in the House on Tuesday, 306-117. There was clear bipartisan support for the Yucca plan, which spells disaster for Nevada's anti-dump strategy as we head to the Senate. The state's anti-Yucca strategy -- designed and vociferously carried out by Sen. Harry Reid, among others -- has been to win in Congress. The game plan (foolish, or not) was to label those who advocated bargaining as heretics and instead to delay the process until science proved the folly of Yucca Mountain or Sen. Reid could gain enough seniority and clout to muster the votes to kill the project. The science approach was always shaky because the issue was unlikely to ever be decided on pure science, given the politics of it. The political approach, however, seemed to have merit in that Sen. Reid was climbing the liberal Democratic ladder in Washington. Today he is the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate and his close friend, Sen. Tom Daschle, is No. 1. Because Democrats control the Senate, Sen. Reid's assurances and Sen. Daschle's support provided the state hope. Now, though, Sen. Reid says he has little chance of winning in the Senate. If so, Sen. Reid -- who told Nevadans that his re-election would help ensure the death of the repository -- will have failed on Yucca Mountain. Nevada will then have been screwed twice. Once by the federal government and once by the miscalulated stragegy of the state political establishment and our own senior senator. With the political approach likely doomed, the state should quit wasting money on scare-mongering ad campaigns and divert its resources to the inevitable legal fight. The courts are a long shot, to be sure. But if we can gain a hearing from the U.S. Supreme Court, which recently has been very sympathetic to states' rights arguments, Nevada's voice might resonate with the nation. What our federal government is getting ready to do to us ought to worry every state in the union. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 32 Yucca Mt. approval may bring waste to Utah BYU NewsNet By Chris Wilkinson [cgw@email.byu.edu] and Elise Christenson [elise@newsroom.byu.edu] NewsNet Staff City Editor and NewsNet Staff Writer 5/8/2002 The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday May 8, approving the permanent storage of high-level nuclear waste in Nevada. If the Senate approves the House bill, the Yucca Mountain Repository Site Approval Act could lead to temporarily storing the waste in Utah. "People need to understand a vote for Yucca is a vote for private fuel storage with Skull Valley," said Steve Erickson, lobbyist with the Citizen's Education Project. The House bill, which passed with a vote of 306-117, solves the problem of where to permanently store spent fuel produced by 103 nuclear reactors in 31 states. However, the problem still remains as to where to store the waste until the Yucca Mountain facility is complete. Located in close proximity to the permanent storage facility, Utah's Skull Valley is a prime candidate. Pending approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Goshute Indians, which own the Skull Valley land, will lease the land to house a temporary storage facility. "If Yucca is approved, public fuel storage will be approved, opposite of what everybody says," Erickson said. Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, said he voted for the bill to prevent the waste from being stored in Skull Valley. "The truth is that without Yucca Mountain, the Skull Valley proposal would be one step closer to reality," Hansen said in a press release. Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt and Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson have both publicly spoken out against temporarily storing the waste in Utah. "It is a deadly experiment and an accident waiting to happen," Anderson said in a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission meeting. Perhaps even more controversial than storing the spent fuel in Skull Valley is transporting it on Utah's highways. "It is important issue, especially in times of terrorism," said Bill Jones, director of state for Chris Cannon, R-Utah. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is against the bill, not only because he does not want the waste in Nevada, but also because there is not a secure method of transporting it, said Nathan Naylor, press secretary for Reid. "There is no accident, terrorist attack or natural disaster that can compare with the dangers of this stuff and Americans will share the road with nuclear waste before the end of the decade," Naylor said. Copyright ©2002 BYU NewsNet ***************************************************************** 33 Anti-Yucca message spreads to Oregon, Utah Las Vegas SUN May 10, 2002 Donations to fund growing By Benjamin Grove and Cy Ryan WASHINGTON -- An Australian rock band playing a gig in Oregon and a television commercial running in Utah urged senators in the two states to vote against Yucca Mountain. Nevada officials and environmental groups are plugging into whatever media they can access in their battle to kill the nuclear waste dump plan in the Senate, following the House's 306-117 vote in favor of the project Wednesday. The Senate vote, expected in July, could be close, and Yucca lobbyists and activists are working hard to influence the outcome. Each of the 100 senators has become crucial in Nevada's effort to convince a simple majority to oppose the nuclear waste repository. If both the House and Senate approve Yucca Mountain, the Energy Department will seek a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Waste piling up at nuclear power plants and defense sites nationwide could be shipped to Nevada for permanent burial as early as 2010. The band Midnight Oil, led by longtime environmentalist Peter Garrett, denounced Yucca at a press conference Thursday before a show in Portland, Ore. Garrett is a longtime opponent of Yucca, Susan Stewart, a band representative, said. Garrett has spoken against a national nuclear waste repository in Australia similar to Yucca. "Mass transport of large amounts of highly dangerous radioactive waste through Oregon is a very dumb idea; dangerous for people and their environment," Garrett told reporters at a Portland hotel, according to a press release. "We oppose it in Australia, and we oppose it here. Our fans and the Oregon public deserve a lot better than this harebrained recipe for hell." Midnight Oil has been active on a number of environmental issues for more than two decades. The group's biggest hit, the late-1980s single "Beds Are Burning" was about Aboriginal land rights. Meanwhile on Thursday, Nevada officials launched their second anti-Yucca Mountain commercial in Salt Lake City, aimed at Utah Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch and Robert Bennett. Both have supported Yucca in the past, but Hatch is reportedly still undecided on the upcoming vote. He opposes a private business coalition plan to store high-level waste temporarily at a Goshute Indian site. Hatch will look at the issue with "fresh eyes," spokeswoman Heather Barney told The Salt Lake Tribune. The 30-second commercial says that shipping waste across the nation risks accidents and terrorist attacks. Nevada officials estimate that 90 percent of the waste would be shipped by truck and rail through Utah. "We want everybody to understand that this is an issue of national significance, and is not just limited to Nevada," said Bob Loux, executive director of the Neavda Nuclear Projects Agency, the state's Yucca watchdog. Nuclear industry officials adamantly deny that shipping waste is risky. They point to a long safety record of shipping high-level waste that dates from the 1960s. To counter the Nevada commercial, the pro-Yucca group Alliance for Sound Nuclear Policy plans to run a commercial of its own. The Salt Lake City commercial will air through May 29 on the three network affiliates, plus Fox, sources said. The ad's cost was not disclosed. The anti-Yucca group Physicians for Social Responsibility helped the state of Nevada pay for it. The state has a fund for anti-Yucca activities, including advertising, grass-roots lobbying and legal work. More than 1,000 people have chipped in more than $250,000 since April 10 when Gov. Kenny Guinn urged citizens to contribute. That's important because on April 10 the state's Legislative Interim Finance Committee pledged up to match incoming private donations up to $3 million, officials said, Loux said Thursday that there are a "couple of hundred more envelopes to be opened" that contain money to wage the battle. He said people are still phoning in pledges. Guinn and Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign have contributed $1,000 of their personal money. Loux said Reps. Shelley Berkeley and Jim Gibbons have also donated, but he did not know the amount. State Treasurer Brian Krolicki gave $50 -- or $10 each for himself, his wife, his two daughters and a third child expected June 6. The $250,000 does not include donations by companies and organizations. The gaming industry has given more than $750,000. The fund started when the 2001 Legislature, at the request of Guinn, allocated $4 million. Local governments chipped in more than $1.5 million. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 34 Goshute: Atomic Board Plans Saturday Meeting The Salt Lake Tribune -- Friday, May 10, 2002 The U.S. Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, which is hearing testimony on whether a nuclear waste dump should be located in Utah, is holding a rare Saturday hearing. The board will be discussing whether the proposed dump, on the land of the Skull Valley Band of the Goshutes, would be safe in case of an earthquake. If licensed by the board, the dump could be used to store the nation's nuclear waste for as long as 40 years. The board will meet from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Wasatch Room of the Sheraton Hotel at 500 South and 500 West, Salt Lake City. The public is invited to attend. © Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on ***************************************************************** 35 TV Commercial Presses Utahns to Oppose Yucca Nuclear Dump The Salt Lake Tribune -- Friday, May 10, 2002 Nevada state officials unveiled a commercial on Utah television Thursday urging Utahns to press their senators to reject the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste-dump project. The 30-second spot shows scenes of the Wasatch Front and Utah canyonlands, with a voice saying: "What if it happened in Salt Lake City? Or Ogden? What if it happened in St. George? While our children are getting out of school or playing soccer?" The "it," according to anti-nuclear activists, is an accident involving a truck or train carrying the waste. Advocates of the project, who emphasize the industry's perfect highway safety record, say the commercial is misleading and relies on scare tactics, including showing children at play intercut with trucks loaded with nuclear waste casks. "Most of it is totally inaccurate or untrue," says Mitch Singer, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute. Wednesday, the U.S. House overwhelmingly approved the Yucca Mountain project, but opponents hope to muster votes in the Senate to stop it. They argue that Yucca Mountain is a national transportation nightmare because the 77,000 tons of radioactive waste from eastern power plants will have to travel through western states on trucks and trains. Utah, being Nevada's eastern neighbor, would see 90 percent of the waste cross its borders, the opponents say. The spot ends with the phone numbers of Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett. Both say they are leaning toward approving the dump. -- Glen Warchol © Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune ***************************************************************** 36 Several Bay Area Reps Vote Against Yucca Nuclear Waste 5/09/02 Over the opposition of several Bay Area members of Congress, the House of Representatives voted by a 3-to-1 margin today in favor of a bill that would establish a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Several Bay Area congressional representatives, including U.S. Reps. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, and Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, voted today against the bill. The House passed the Yucca Mountain Repository Site Approval Act by a vote of 306 to 117. Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, the Department of Energy was instructed to establish a permanent storage facility for nuclear waste. Farr and Lee both expressed concern about nuclear waste being transported on the nation's highways en route to Nevada. "There are plenty of unanswered questions from scientists and other experts about whether it is safe to transport large amounts of radioactive waste across the country,'' Farr said. "The risk of an accident is always there and clearly we don't need this waste moving by truck or train through the Salinas Valley.'' Lee said the emphasis must instead be on shifting to safer energy technologies. "We must invest in safe, renewable energy research and development,'' Lee said. "We cannot keep producing nuclear waste that we clearly cannot manage safely.'' She said Yucca Mountain would barely make a dent in nuclear waste stores across the country. But supporters of the bill say studies conducted at the site showed that it would be the most suitable for a nuclear waste repository and meets the Environmental Protection Agency's guidelines. Farr pledged to keep working to defeat the bill, both as it moves to the Senate and on a parallel track in the courts. "I am encouraged that with 117 votes that our message is being heard,'' he said. "This will become a national issue if 77,000 tons of deadly nuclear waste begins traveling down our highways past 123 million people in 43 states.'' Source: KTVU/Fox2 and Bay City News ***************************************************************** 37 USEC credit ratings drop another notch - The Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky Friday, May 10, 2002 Standard &Poor's, a bond rating service, downgraded the rating and may do so again soon. By Joe Walker jwalker@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650 Already at junk bond status, the USEC Inc. credit ratings have dropped a notch and could do so again if a deal to lower prices of uranium bought from Russia continues to languish, according to Standard &Poor's, the bond rating service. The S has lowered its ratings, including its corporate credit rating of USEC, from BB+ to BB and called the outlook negative. The ratings, which have been below investment grade since early 2000, mean USEC must pay higher interest for newly borrowed money. S credit analyst Scott Sprinzen cited "protracted delays" in getting governmental approval of a new contract to lower the cost of enriched uranium that USEC buys from Russia. He said the ratings could drop again if the agreement is not finalized, "or if the apparent contamination of a substantial portion of the company's natural uranium inventories leads to a material writedown." USEC says about 9,500 metric tons of natural uranium stored in cylinders at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant could have traces of technetium-99, a contaminant more radioactive than uranium. The material was transferred from the Department of Energy to the company as part of its privatization, but USEC has been unable to get DOE to replace the uranium with untainted stock. Contamination issues cloud the potential use of the material for enrichment or sale. In February, USEC reached a new agreement to lower Russian uranium prices through 2013, but the deal has still not been approved by the U.S. and Russian governments. USEC has repeatedly said lower Russian uranium costs help preserve the Paducah plant, where production expenses are higher. "We still remain confident that the government will approve the Russian agreement and this uncertainty will be removed," USEC spokeswoman Elizabeth Stuckle said. She said the ratings drop has no immediate financial impact on USEC because it has no short-term debt and its long-term bonds have fixed interest. "It could affect the cost of future borrowing," Stuckle said. Stuckle pointed out that the S gives below-investment ratings to 43 percent of the more than 1,700 publicly traded firms it rates. She said 142 are rated BB, "so apparently that's not uncommon." When the S dropped the rating the first time, energy workers' union officials and some lawmakers said they feared USEC orchestrated the move to avoid legal requirements to keep operating both Paducah and its sister plant in Ohio. Although USEC downplayed those claims, the Ohio plant closed 16 months later. USEC reported in April that despite more revenue, its net income dropped by nearly $62 million in the past nine months, but the firm expected gradual improvements by getting the Russian deal approved. Despite continued rumors and union concerns of several hundred more layoffs at the 1,500-employee Paducah plant, Stuckle said there are no plans for job cuts. Issued last week, the S's latest summary of USEC mentions the earnings drop, but also notes the company is the world's largest producer of enriched uranium. It cites the firm's cost cutting, cash flow and moderate debt amid a "difficult market environment" marked by oversupply and lower prices. ***************************************************************** 38 AU: Team finds operations satisfactory at Beverley mine. [Australian Broadcasting Corporation Online] Friday, May 10, 2002. Posted: 20:34:36 (AEDT) Team finds operations satisfactory at Beverley mine Operations at the Beverley uranium mine in northern South Australia have been given a satisfactory rating by an inspection team. But the company which operates the mine says it cannot guarantee that there will not be any more spills. There have already been four spills at the Beverley mine this year and 30 in the past four years. A six-man team sent by the South Australian Government has inspected the facility which uses the controversial insitu leach mining process. Nicholas Newland from the Environment Protection Authority says the inspection showed no obvious problems. "I think the operators of the mine are operating in a pretty satisfactory manner," Mr Newland said. Stephen Middleton a spokesman for Heathgate Resources which operates the mine, says the spills will continue to happen because around 20 million litres of liquid is pumped through the plant every day. "The important thing to consider is not the number of spills but whether there's been any environmental impact and in this instance there hasn't been," Mr Middleton said. A report on the facility will be presented to the State Government next week. © 2002 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ***************************************************************** 39 Plutonium ruling will come June 13 Augusta Georgia: Technology: Web posted Friday, May 10, 2002 By Brandon Haddock [bhaddock@augustachronicle.com] Staff Writer A federal judge could end South Carolina's plutonium debate by June 13. On that day, U.S. District Court Judge Cameron M. Currie is scheduled to rule on South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges' lawsuit to block plutonium shipments to Savannah River Site. The hearing is set for 10 a.m. at Charles E. Simons Jr. Federal Courthouse, 223 Park Ave., in downtown Aiken. Mr. Hodges and the U.S. Department of Energy, the lawsuit's defendant, agreed Thursday to a schedule for expediting the suit. Mr. Hodges filed it last week. In return for a speedy resolution, the Energy Department agreed to delay plutonium shipments to SRS until June 15, agency spokesman Joe Davis said. Shipments had been scheduled to begin as soon as Wednesday. Mr. Hodges and the Energy Department have feuded for months over the planned shipments. The governor vowed to block shipments until the agency entered a binding agreement to treat and remove the plutonium from SRS. The governor said he feared the plutonium would be sent to SRS, but that the federal government would cancel plans to build plants there to treat the radioactive metal. Without those plants, South Carolina ran the risk of becoming a permanent storage site for plutonium, Mr. Hodges said. The metal can cause cancer if inhaled or ingested in even small amounts. Reach Brandon Haddock at (706) 823-3409 or bhaddock@augustachronicle.com [bhaddock@augustachronicle.com] . [http://augusta.com] . ***************************************************************** 40 Senate Armed Services Committee Approves $50 Million to Expand Counter-Terrorism Training at Nevada Test Site Senator Harry Reid Friday, May 10, 2002 WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Senate Armed Services Committee today authorized a $50 million funding request by Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) to increase training for counter-terrorism first responders at the National Center for Combating Terrorism at the Nevada Test Site. The funding approved today by the committee indicates a significant step forward in creating a premier national counter-terrorism facility that Reid has proposed establishing at the Nevada Test Site. "There is currently no facility in the United States where the entire spectrum of activities associated with combating terrorism can be addressed in an integrated manner," Senator Reid said. "The Nevada Test Site is just the place to do that, and the funding approved today by the Armed Services Committee demonstrates that we are gaining more and more support for establishing a national counter-terrorism center." At Senator Reid's invitation, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, FEMA Director Joe Albaugh, and National Nuclear Security Administration General John Gordon recently toured the Test Site to explore the possibility of establishing the counter-terrorism school. This year's Bush Administration budget included $10 million for training exercises at the National Center for Combating Terrorism at the Nevada Test Site. Senator Reid increased the request to $50 million which was what the Armed Services Committee approved today. "The Test Site possesses an ideal combination of assets for such a facility, including a secure location for mission preparation, a large land area for training, exercises, and experimentation, and a work force skilled in combat experimentation, testing and training," Reid added. "The president's request for funding and the support of the Armed Services Committee is an encouraging indication of support for the National Center for Combating Terrorism. The National Center for Combating Terrorism will allow emergency responders, the intelligence community, the military, and other agencies engaged in combating and responding to terrorism to participate in specialized training exercises suited to each organization's particular needs and skills. Additionally, the Center would offer a central location for coordinated training activities between organizations that are not accustomed to working together. ***************************************************************** 41 U.N. nuclear chief sees treaty soon on stronger protection for bomb materials Yahoo! News - Fri May 10, 2:52 PM ET By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent VIENNA, Austria - The world's nations, spurred on by fears of catastrophic terror attacks, are expected by year's end to put the final touches on a toughened treaty obligating governments to better protect nuclear material from bombmaking terrorists, the head of the U.N. nuclear agency said Friday. Mohamed ElBaradei also said he hopes for a "breakthrough" agreement with Washington and Moscow giving his International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) responsibility for verifying reductions in U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals. Historically, such reductions have been verified by the two nuclear powers alone. In a third area, international lawyer ElBaradei said he favors a treaty requiring regulation of radioactive materials, such as cobalt used for cancer therapy, that cannot be made into true nuclear weapons but that terrorists could blow up with explosives — so-called "dirty bombs" — to spread panic. ElBaradei, in an interview, said global attitudes toward such nuclear threats have changed since the terror attacks of Sept. 11. Just last month, American officials reported that a captured leader of al-Qaida, the group blamed for those attacks, told interrogators it planned to build some kind of nuclear device. "We have seen a new kind of risk we have not seen before, people who would sacrifice their lives in the process of committing an act of violence. We have seen a high degree of sophistication in committing an act of violence," he said. "That necessitated a complete re-evaluation of the (nuclear) security risk." One early result, ElBaradei said, should be an expansion of the 1980 Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material. That treaty set technical standards for protecting plutonium and enriched uranium — the material of nuclear bombs — but only in international transportation. Specialists have been negotiating a major amendment to the treaty to expand its requirements to also guard such bomb-grade material when it is in civilian use or in storage — at research or power plants, for example — with specified protective structures and security measures. The working group meets again next month, planning to submit a draft document to a full-scale diplomatic conference for approval. "We hope that we'll be successful and complete the exercise by the end of the year," ElBaradei said. The IAEA chief was also hopeful about chances for wrapping up the three-way negotiations with the United States and Russia on submitting to IAEA verification any nuclear bomb material declared excess under arms control agreements. Since its founding almost a half-century ago, the U.N. agency has not played an active role in any kind of review of the nuclear powers' weapons inventories. "We are making some progress," ElBaradei said. "I hope in the not very distant future, we'll have an agreement. That, I think, would be an important breakthrough." In the third area, the IAEA head said he favored "binding norms" — that is, a treaty — to set worldwide standards for the security of cobalt-60, cesium-137, strontium-90 and other radioactive isotopes used in medicine and industry, materials that could contaminate large areas for long periods if blown up in a terrorist bomb. ElBaradei said negotiating a treaty could take years, however, and for now he would like to see governments commit, less formally, to IAEA security guidelines published last December. (cjh/vg) Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. ***************************************************************** 42 Senate Panel Delays Decision on Artillery Gun News Fri May 10, 2:25 PM ET By Vicki Allen WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Democrats unveiled a $393 billion defense bill on Friday that shifts nearly $1 billion from President Bush (news - web sites)'s missile defense program, blocks a "bunker-busting" nuclear weapon and delays a fight over the future of the Crusader artillery system. While the overall bill meets Bush's price tag for a post-Sept. 11 military buildup, it reflects different priorities and presages a fight with the Republican-led House of Representatives that passed a bill more closely following Bush's blueprint. The Senate Armed Services Committee (news - web sites) skirted a confrontation for now with the administration over the Pentagon (news - web sites)'s plan to kill the Crusader system, saying it would decide whether to try to save the $11 billion program after a hearing on Thursday with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Bush said he would veto legislation that tried to overturn Rumsfeld's decision to cancel development of the 40-ton gun the Pentagon says does not fit plans for a more agile Army. In closed sessions this week to craft its bill, the committee deflected a bid by Republican Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, where much of the Crusader is to be built, to insert language to force the Pentagon to continue the weapons program that has been eight years in development. "We want to hear both cases," Committee Chairman Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said at a news conference. "There's obviously a U-turn here that's been taken by the secretary of defense," Levin said, saying the Pentagon had backed the Crusader until the abrupt cancellation. If the committee decides to support the Crusader, he said language will be inserted before the bill reaches the Senate floor, possibly before the Memorial Day recess. The House, which passed its defense bill in the early hours of Friday after an all-day session, included nonbinding language endorsing the Crusader but ducking Bush's veto threat. Both the Senate and House bills keep the $475 million that Bush asked for in February to continue the gun's development. The White House has not formally rescinded that request. The 155mm self-propelled howitzer and its components are built by United Defense Industries Inc. MISSILE DEFENSE CUTS Senate Democrats said the committee cut more than $800 million from Bush's $7.8 billion request to develop a system to intercept missiles and shift more than $100 million into securing nuclear facilities and other uses. Democrats have been skeptical that a system to block ballistic missiles can work, and inserted a number of oversight measures to track its progress. Sen. John Warner of Virginia, the committee's top Republican, said he opposed the bill because of the cuts in missile defense, and said attempts to restore the money died on party-line votes. The committee passed the overall bill 17-8, with four Republicans supporting it. In another dig at Bush's nuclear programs, the bill blocks development of an earth-penetrating nuclear missile the administration says will be a tool in the war on terrorism. Critics said the weapon sets a wrong precedent as the United States is trying to dissuade other countries from developing such nuclear devices. The House by a substantial margin endorsed the bunker-busting weapon in a vote late on Thursday. The committee shifted $690 million from missile defense to Navy shipbuilding, which lawmakers said was shortchanged in the Pentagon's request. The money would buy a Virginia-class attack submarine, and start procurement of LPD-17 dock landing ships and DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. The committee avoided the dispute over whether the Air Force should lease Boeing Co. 767 commercial aircraft as aerial refueling tankers. Levin said the committee needed to see firm proposals before weighing in on the debate over leasing the commercial aircraft versus upgrading existing 40-year-old 126 KC-135s. Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 43 Spirit Runners encircle sacred test site ground Frank X. Mullen Jr. [fmullen@rgj.com] RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL 5/9/2002 09:38 pm [Members of the Western Shoshone tribe, led by elder Corbin Harney, center in green jacket, hold a sunrise ceremony in Warm Springs on Monday in protest of the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. Runners from the tribe began a 200-mile journey on foot Monday from the crossroads near their reservation to the proposed site. - Associated Press/ASSOCIATED PRESS] Associated Press/ASSOCIATED PRESS Members of the Western Shoshone tribe, led by elder Corbin Harney, center in green jacket, hold a sunrise ceremony in Warm Springs on Monday in protest of the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. Runners from the tribe began a 200-mile journey on foot Monday from the crossroads near their reservation to the proposed site. Fifteen tired but happy Western Shoshone Spirit Runners plan to hold a prayer service this morning at the gates of the Nevada Nuclear Test Site after running and walking in a 240-mile encirclement of the most radioactive ground in the nation. “We are praying for the land and the people,” said Johnnie Bobb, the Western Shoshone National Council member, artist and spiritual leader who started the annual run around the site’s perimeter two years ago. “Through our prayers and with the help of other people, we will keep more nuclear waste from our lands.” The Run on Sacred Lands is designed to bring attention to Nevada’s fight against the federal government’s plan to bury high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain next to the Test Site. The runners said the event also underscores the injustices suffered by the Western Shoshone in the last 200 years. “We are letting people know we are still here,” said Santiago Lozada of Sacramento, a member of the Battle Mountain Shoshone band who participated in last year’s run. “We are still here, and we demand respect.” The Indian runners traveled from Warm Springs to Mercury along the western edge of the Test Site during the 2000 and 2001 events, and this year they ran from Warm Springs to Mercury around the western perimeter of the site, completing the circle. The Western Shoshone continue to claim their ancestral lands in central Nevada, stretching from what is now the Idaho border to the southern tip of the Silver State. The Shoshone have been offered monetary settlements from Congress for the government’s treaty violations, but the leadership has turned down the offers. “This land is not for sale,” Lozada said. Rudy Luis Lozada, Santiago’s brother, said the desert run was hard but rewarding. “It’s wonderful to run and see our ancestors, the rock people, all around,” he said. “We run, pray and think. It’s a deeply spiritual thing.” The runners passed the ground where their ancestors lived for untold generations. They said they knew they were passing the graves of the ancient ones and that the spirits of the departed Shoshone people were with them. The runners stopped to plant willows carried by support vehicles and said prayers into the planting holes. They said they prayed for the mountains, the animals and the people, so that the nuclear fallout does no harm to them. Santiago Lozada said the people they have seen on the run — from passing motorists to rural residents — have been very supportive. Truckers blew their horns and people waved from the roadside, he said. “The Yucca Mountain issue, the nuclear fallout from the Test Site, are not just Indian issues or white issues,” he said. “It’s a cause for all people. It’s poisoning the sacred lands and poisoning the people.” The runners covered about 120 miles to a point just south of Alamo by Tuesday night. They were expected to arrive in Mercury, the town outside the Test Site entrance, late Thursday night. This morning, they plan to be at the annual Peace Camp near Mercury, where the Shundahai Network, a Western Shoshone advocacy group, will welcome the runners. The network also plans a Mother’s Day Action Against Nuclear Testing on Saturday in Mercury. “(This morning) we will form a morning circle and say prayers and then talk to the guards at the Test Site gate,” said Bobb, a member of the Yomba band of Western Shoshone. “We will tell them about the reasons for our run and about our ways. “The guards and state troopers will warn us about trespassing, but this is still Western Shoshone land. It is they who are trespassing.” © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett ***************************************************************** 44 Russia's Supreme Court reinstates confusion The Pasko Case Gregory Pasko, an investigative journalist who worked for the Pacific Fleet's newspaper, was arrested on 20 November 1997 by the FSB and charged with high treason for his writing about the nuclear safety issues in the Russian Pacific Fleet. ST PETERSBURG - The Appeals Board of Russia's Supreme Court said this week that an internal Defence Ministry decree on military secrets is no longer a normative legal act. This means by definition that it cannot form a basis for criminal persecution of citizens. But such definition may be alien to Russia's Security Police. Charles Digges, 2002-05-08 16:47 The decree served as the basis for the espionage conviction of Grigory Pasko and charges against several other alleged spies. Lawyers and their environmentalist clients who have battled — and in Pasko's case, continue to battle — espionage charges under Defence Ministry decree No. 055 were sanguine about the decision. But other free speech advocates slammed the decision as a step backward, saying it was made under pressure from security officials eager to prosecute aggressive journalists and researchers. Decision may favour Pasko The Supreme Court's Military Collegium had overturned the Defence Ministry decree in February, on an appeal from convicted military journalist Grigory Pasko. His St Petersburg-based attorney Ivan Pavlov said that the decree, which laid out confidential information relating to the armed services, had been used unjustly in Pasko's case. Defence Ministry decree No. 055 was issued in August 1996 and lays out broad terms items that constitute state secrets. Information considered a threat to national security under the decree include reporting on the loss of military hardware, technical problems of naval vessels and any information concerning radiation accidents aboard Russian vessels. Defence Ministry officials protested the February ruling, and the Supreme Court's Appeals Board heard their appeal on Tuesday. The judges ruled that the order was in fact valid, but that it was not a law, said Pavlov in an interview with Bellona Web. Ivan Pavlov was on the team of the prominent St Petersburg lawyer Yury Schmidt to defend Aleksandr Nikitin, who was also accused by the Russian Security Police, or FSB, of high treason for making a report on radiation hazards in the Russian Northern Fleet. Nikitin was acquitted in 1999 of all charges. According to Pavlov, the Supreme Court Appeals Board Tuesday reconsidered its earlier decision to throw out Defence Ministry decree No. 055 because the decree itself does not constitute a "normative legal act," or law. In reinstating decree No. 055, the court concluded that it had no jurisdiction to adjudicate on the legality of a document which is not a law, Pavlov said. As such, by reinstating it, Pavlov said that the court concluded that the decree does not have the legal force of a normative act. "If it is not a normative act, you can't accuse people of violating it and you can't sentence them according to it," he said. "The basis of our appeal for Pasko's release," added Pavlov, "is based on this concept — that he broke no laws." The appeal is due to be heard in late May or June, Pavlov said. Pasko was sentenced, in accordance with Defence Ministry decree No. 055 in December 2001 to four years in prison for attending a meeting of Russian naval commanders and possessing notes he made there. Amnesty International has said that the conviction appears as a retaliation for his reports uncovering alleged environmental abuses by Russia's Pacific Fleet, including the dumping of radioactive waste at sea. He is imprisoned in the Russian Pacific port of Vladivostok. Nikitin, too, was pleased with the ruling. "The position of the court is good," he said in a telephone interview with Bellona Web from Moscow. "It means you can't refer to the Ministry of Defence decree No. 055," when charging or sentencing defendants. Decision may create chaos Free speech advocates had hoped that the February court decisions would lead to the overturning of Pasko's conviction and the release of people suspected of revealing or obtaining military secrets, including arms control researcher Igor Sutyagin and Valentin Danilov, an institute director at Krasnoyarsk State University. But Tuesday's rulings may deflate that hope and create confusion. "It's a bad day for freedom of speech and of law," Schmidt said. "The court came under intense pressure from the Defence Ministry and the FSB. They got what they wanted." Although the decree is no longer a normative legal act, the FSB and prosecutors can still argue that they can refer to it. Russia's Law on State Secret and the Presidential Decree on this matter set a framework for data, which can pertain to state secrets, whereas decrees in various ministries expand that framework to detail the general provisions in federal laws. "They can say that they are just referring to the decree but use the federal laws," says Ivan Pavlov. Everything, according to Pavlov, would depend on how a judge who is considering an individual case understands the legislation. If he understands it according to the general principles of law, then the yesterday's Supreme Court decision has created a deadlock for prosecution, Pavlov added. "Prosecution cannot use just the federal laws on state secrets because they just set frames. On the other hand, prosecution cannot use the decree either because from now on it is not a normative act," he said. What human rights defenders most fear was voiced by Defence Ministry lawyer Konstantin Rusanov, who hailed Tuesday's decision. He said that the reinstated order No. 055 could not be used against civilians but could be used against Pasko, because he was a military serviceman, according to the Interfax news agency. Military servicemen can communicate with foreigners Defence Ministry officials also appealed another February ruling by the Supreme Court's Military Collegium, which had overturned a Soviet-era decree No. 010 that was also cited in Pasko's verdict. On Tuesday, the appeals board dismissed that appeal, confirming that the 1990 decree No. 010 was invalid. That order forbade servicemen and all others with access to state secrets from contacting foreigners when off-duty. Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] , President: Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no] Information: info@bellona.no [info@bellona.no] , Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no [webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 45 Think tank outlines US fears of Mideast nuclear proliferation [The Daily Star on line] Report highlights american strategic thinking Study argues that Iraq’s weapons program could lead to a Gulf arms race Compiled by Daily Star staff The United States seeks to prevent Iraq from obtaining weapons of mass destruction in order to stop nuclear proliferation to Iran, Saudi Arabia and even the United Arab Emirates, a newly released strategic survey said Thursday. The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) warns that from a US perspective “Iraq presents the threat of a revanchist dictator in possession of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, and the means to deliver them. “If Iraq’s nuclear weapons development program is not blocked, reasons Washington, it will be all the more difficult to constrain Iranian nuclear ambitions,” says the IISS strategic survey for 2002. “And if these are unchecked, then at some point Saudi Arabia and possibly the United Arab Emirates will acquire a nuclear capability from a third country,” it warned. “There is no guarantee that a nuclearized Gulf will be stable in a crisis,” the London-based IISS warned. “Stopping Gulf nuclear proliferation by preventing Iraq from gaining weapons of mass destruction and especially a nuclear capability, therefore, is a strategic imperative” for the United States. US President George W. Bush has repeatedly vowed to seek to oust the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and threatened military strikes if UN weapons inspectors are not allowed to return to Iraq. The study says Iraq continues to pose “a clear threat to its Arab neighbors as well as to the US and its allies,” 12 years after it invaded Kuwait. However, it details the difficulties Washington faces trying to change the regime and the resentment caused by the harsh UN sanctions which have impoverished ordinary Iraqis. “With respect to Iraq … the battle for hearts and minds in the wider Arab world probably cannot be won,” the IISS cautioned. “As long as Washington is committed to its current Iraq policy, American forces will have to remain in Saudi Arabia, aggravating a delicate political situation there and fueling resentment over what bin Laden calls military occupation and the alleged desecration of the land.” The IISS said US policymakers were gradually coming to the conclusion that the longer-term stability to be gained from removing Saddam Hussein’s regional military threat would outweigh the short-term upset. The IISS underlined that the number of US troops in Kuwait has doubled to 10,500 since the Sept. 11 attacks on the US. It also noted “indications that American computer and communications equipment was being moved from Saudi Arabia to Qatar. This suggested that US Central Command was contemplating military action against Iraq even without Saudi support.” Building a consensus within the US administration “on this audacious strategy, however, is proving difficult due to aversion to near-term risk.” The study highlighted that Saudi defense spending rose to $27 billion in 2001 but questioned the fighting ability of the kingdom’s forces. “Riyadh still lacks the minimum personnel required to defend the country,” the IISS said, citing “limited” training above the battalion level and “questionable” army leadership. Riyadh boasts the largest modern air force in the Gulf and the only one in the region with airborne warning and air control procedures, a major in-air refueling capability and a modern land-based air-defense sensor and control network. Yet, “despite high defense expenditures and vast programs to absorb modern Western military hardware into the kingdom’s armed forces, the Saudi military remains relatively weak against its opponents,” according to the report. Prince Khaled, commander of Saudi forces during the 1991 Gulf War and currently No. 2 at the Defense Ministry, told Saudi troops on Thursday that the kingdom’s “armed forces are for peace and for achieving security and stability.” The troops recently ended several weeks of land, sea and air war games conducted at Sherma, in the kingdom’s northwes, close to the borders with Israel and Jordan. The exercises, codenamed Saiful Islam 4 (Islam Sword 4), involved transporting around 20,000 troops more than 500 kilometers from other parts of the kingdom to the site of the northern Red Sea war games. The Saudi Defense Ministry last month denied reports of a military build-up in the region in anticipation of an Israeli attack on the oil-rich kingdom, asserting that the troop movement was part of previously scheduled exercises. Nonetheless, the IISS forecast a bleak outlook for the Middle East polarised by Iraq, Sept. 11 and the spiralling Palestinian-Israeli conflict. “The US, the status quo superpower par excellence, is likely to be in for a rough ride in a Middle East on the brink of turbulent and potentially violent change,” the report said. Despite this, the think tank said the US was the only country with the credentials to tread a path between warring Israelis and Palestinians. “While Saudi Arabia filled the diplomatic vacuum with a peace proposal, obviously neither Riyadh nor any other Arab capital is an acceptable mediator. The US has little choice but to assume that role,” it said. “It will be necessary for Washington to immerse itself still further in mediation.” The IISS added that Iran was becoming a “destabilizing player” in the conflict, citing Israel’s interception in January of a large shipment of Iranian arms on a vessel bound for the Palestinian Authority and a rise in activity by Hizbullah. Underscoring growing concerns about Iran, the Bush administration plans to slap new sanctions on companies accused of aiding Tehran’s alleged weapons programs, a US official said Wednesday. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Congress would be formally notified soon of the decision. The sanctions were imposed because “we’re paying increased attention to the Iran Nonproliferation Act,” the official said. ­ With agencies Copyright© 2000 The Daily Star. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 46 U.N. nuclear chief sees treaty soon on stronger protection for bomb materials Yahoo! News - Fri May 10, 2:52 PM ET By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent VIENNA, Austria - The world's nations, spurred on by fears of catastrophic terror attacks, are expected by year's end to put the final touches on a toughened treaty obligating governments to better protect nuclear material from bombmaking terrorists, the head of the U.N. nuclear agency said Friday. Mohamed ElBaradei also said he hopes for a "breakthrough" agreement with Washington and Moscow giving his International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) responsibility for verifying reductions in U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals. Historically, such reductions have been verified by the two nuclear powers alone. In a third area, international lawyer ElBaradei said he favors a treaty requiring regulation of radioactive materials, such as cobalt used for cancer therapy, that cannot be made into true nuclear weapons but that terrorists could blow up with explosives — so-called "dirty bombs" — to spread panic. ElBaradei, in an interview, said global attitudes toward such nuclear threats have changed since the terror attacks of Sept. 11. Just last month, American officials reported that a captured leader of al-Qaida, the group blamed for those attacks, told interrogators it planned to build some kind of nuclear device. "We have seen a new kind of risk we have not seen before, people who would sacrifice their lives in the process of committing an act of violence. We have seen a high degree of sophistication in committing an act of violence," he said. "That necessitated a complete re-evaluation of the (nuclear) security risk." One early result, ElBaradei said, should be an expansion of the 1980 Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material. That treaty set technical standards for protecting plutonium and enriched uranium — the material of nuclear bombs — but only in international transportation. Specialists have been negotiating a major amendment to the treaty to expand its requirements to also guard such bomb-grade material when it is in civilian use or in storage — at research or power plants, for example — with specified protective structures and security measures. The working group meets again next month, planning to submit a draft document to a full-scale diplomatic conference for approval. "We hope that we'll be successful and complete the exercise by the end of the year," ElBaradei said. The IAEA chief was also hopeful about chances for wrapping up the three-way negotiations with the United States and Russia on submitting to IAEA verification any nuclear bomb material declared excess under arms control agreements. Since its founding almost a half-century ago, the U.N. agency has not played an active role in any kind of review of the nuclear powers' weapons inventories. "We are making some progress," ElBaradei said. "I hope in the not very distant future, we'll have an agreement. That, I think, would be an important breakthrough." In the third area, the IAEA head said he favored "binding norms" — that is, a treaty — to set worldwide standards for the security of cobalt-60, cesium-137, strontium-90 and other radioactive isotopes used in medicine and industry, materials that could contaminate large areas for long periods if blown up in a terrorist bomb. ElBaradei said negotiating a treaty could take years, however, and for now he would like to see governments commit, less formally, to IAEA security guidelines published last December. (cjh/vg) Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. ***************************************************************** 47 U.S., Russia unite to locate material used in 'dirty' bombs The Wall Street Journal - US Abstracts; May 10, 2002 In a bid to prevent the proliferation of radioactive materials that could be used to make dirty bombs, the U.S. and Russia are setting up a joint task force aimed at developing systems that would protect Russian nuclear facilities and locate unaccounted radioactive equipment. The initiative was announced at a press conference by U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and Russian Minister of Atomic Energy Alexander Rumyantsev. The two officials had earlier engaged in three days of talks on the project. Of particular concern to the effort is Russia's nuclear-powered radio thermal generators deployed in Siberia and the Arctic during the Cold War. Abstracted from: The Wall St Journal Copyright © Financial Times Information ***************************************************************** 48 House may hike Pantex funding Amarillo Globe-News: US & World News: -->Web posted Friday, May 10, 2002 By David Enrich States News Service WASHINGTON - With the Pantex Plant's workload expected to increase over the next decade, the U.S. House on Thursday prepared to authorize a hike in the plant's operating budget for next year. At the behest of GOP Rep. Mac Thornberry of Clarendon, the House debated a bill Thursday that would provide Pantex with a $414 million budget. That is $25 million higher than President Bush has proposed and $36 million, or about 10 percent, more than the plant's 2002 funding level. The extra $25 million will help pay for personnel costs, improvements to the plant's dilapidated infrastructure and upgrades to outdated technology. Plant officials have complained to Congress that the plant is facing a $248 million backlog in infrastructure improvement projects, which could undermine its central mission to keep nuclear weapons safe and in working order. "We cannot meet the future infrastructure requirements of the Stockpile Stewardship Program without continued expenditures to keep our facilities in the condition necessary for high-quality, safe nuclear weapons work," Dennis Ruddy, BWXT Pantex president and general manager, testified at a Senate committee hearing last month. The $25 million supplement will not directly pay for weapons to be revamped or stored safely, areas that Ruddy has said are in desperate need of additional funding. The plant, which assembled nuclear weapons during the Cold War, is expected to see its workload grow due to reductions in the size of America's nuclear arsenal and the fact that many weapons need upgrades. A recent military review of the status and future of the American nuclear arsenal recommended cuts in the number of nuclear weapons being kept on high-alert status, according to lawmakers and federal officials familiar with the report. As a result, Pantex is likely to spend more time disassembling and maintaining old weapon systems. The plant's mission is going to become even more important, as more and more nuclear weapons are going to be taken off alert status and more and more weapons are going to have to be maintained, said Thornberry, a member of the House Armed Services Committee that proposed the $25 million increase above the president's request. Thornberry said the U.S. government plans to reduce the country's nuclear arsenal to between 1,700 and 2,200 weapons by the end of the decade, although the specific number of weapons to be disassembled is classified. Meanwhile, a growing number of nuclear weapons will be due for upgrades starting around 2005. "We project an increase in the Pantex workload," said Lisa Cutler, a spokeswoman for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the plant.' 'There are a number of weapons that need to be refurbished and that means more work for Pantex." "As our nuclear weapons are aging beyond their intended design life, it's going to be a very difficult job to keep them safe and reliable and credible (and) to keep the people, the infrastructure, the scientific knowledge we have to have to make sure that that deterrent is credible and does work," Thornberry said on the House floor. Nonetheless, Cutler was unenthusiastic about the boost in funding. "It's not requested in the president's budget, but if the Congress and the president ultimately decide it should be spent, we will do our best to spend it wisely," she said. The House tucked the provision into its massive defense authorization bill, which also included $1.8 billion for production, research and testing of the V-22 Osprey aircraft. That is the same amount that Bush recommended earlier this year in his budget proposal to Congress. There is no guarantee that Pantex will receive the higher funding levels. The Senate has not yet considered its defense authorization bill, which is not certain to include a similar increase in money for Pantex. In addition, Congress does not actually allocate any money in authorization bills. That does not happen until the appropriations process, which usually wraps up in the fall. Historically, though, authorization bills are reliable predictors of how much money Congress will ultimately approve. After a full day of debate on the bill, the House was expected to approve it late Thursday night. © 1996-2002 Amarillo Globe-News ***************************************************************** 49 DOE drafts guidelines for radioactive scrap Likely contaminated areas to be noted Tri-Valley Herald Friday, May 10, 2002 - 3:07:04 AM MST By Staff Writer: Glenn Roberts Jr. A 2-year-old moratorium continues to block unrestricted releases of potentially radioactive scrap materials from Energy Department sites, though department officials are proposing measures to improve handling of the debris. The moratorium was veloped new policies to prevent the recycling of contaminated metals, "internal and public comments on these proposed changes raised significant and substantive issues," the proposed guidelines state. "Consequently, additional deliberation is necessary, and the new requirements are not complete. The moratorium will continue until new policies are adopted, the draft guide also states. Bert Heffner, a spokesman at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, said that the lab continues to release material that is not contaminated with radiation. Radiation monitors ensure that the outgoing material is not contaminated, he said. But to comply with the moratorium, "if something is contaminated, it's held -- kept in the area where it was found," he said. "We're simply holding the stuff that is contaminated." Before the moratorium, lab workers would have decontaminated some materials according to department standards or shipped contaminated materials to a waste site, he said. Once new standards are set for the handling of radioactive debris and the moratorium is lifted, the lab will resume decontamination efforts and shipment of contaminated debris accord-ing to those new standards, he said. The draft guide, released last month, sets several goals for releases of materials from department sites: Materials should be "evaluated, radiologically characterized, and, where appropriate, decontaminated before release." The level of radioactivity in materials to be released "is as near background levels as is reasonably practicable ... and meets (department) authorized limits. All releases of materials "are appropriately certified, verified, documented and reported; public involvement and notification needs are addressed; and processes are in place to appropriately maintain records." ©1999-2001 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers ***************************************************************** 50 Bill adds $20M to Y-12 upgrade The Oak Ridger Online 05/10/02 The National Defense Authorization Act approved by Congress late Thursday includes an additional $20.8 million for upgrades at the Y-12 National Security complex for production at the old special materials complex of a highly classified substance, according to U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp's office. "Now, more than ever, we must make sure that our weapons facilities are top-notch," Wamp said today in a release. "By making further investments to modernize the decades-old manufacturing facilities at Y-12, we are improving national security. This authorization is the first step in making sure that Y-12 gets the resources it needs next year to do its part to protect America." The $20.8 million was authorized for the new Purification Prototype Facility because the current building is not designed to meet today's stringent health, safety, environmental and security requirements, Wamp said. All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 51 Bill aims to derail SRS plant Augusta Georgia: Technology: 05/10/02 Web posted Friday, May 10, 2002 By Brandon Haddock [bhaddock@augustachronicle.com] Staff Writer A U.S. senator from Colorado has introduced a bill that could derail plans to build a new plutonium-treatment plant at Savannah River Site. The bill, by U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., would allow the Energy Department to reconsider its decision to build a mixed-oxide, or MOX, fuel plant at SRS. The plant would turn surplus plutonium from nuclear weapons into fuel for nuclear-power plants. The MOX program would cost up to $3.8 billion and would create about 500 long-term jobs at SRS. The site employed more than 25,000 people in the early 1990s, but post-Cold War cutbacks have trimmed that figure to about 13,500. Mr. Allard said he introduced the bill because of South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges' efforts to block plutonium shipments from Colorado's Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site to SRS. "The governor of South Carolina has convinced me through his words and actions that his state is no longer interested in having the MOX facility at Savannah River," the Colorado senator said in a statement. "We need to give the Energy Department the option of finding a new location in order to avoid any more delays on this important national-security issue," Mr. Allard said. A Hodges spokeswoman denounced Mr. Allard's bill as a "scare tactic" to force South Carolina to accept the plutonium from Rocky Flats, which the Energy Department plans to close by 2006. Mr. Allard spearheaded an effort to turn Rocky Flats into a wildlife refuge after the former nuclear-weapons site is cleaned up. "Senator Allard is attempting to bully South Carolina into sacrificing our citizens' health and safety," said Cortney Owings, a spokeswoman for Mr. Hodges. Mr. Hodges and other South Carolina politicians have worked for months to end the plutonium debate. South Carolina officials fear the Energy Department will ship plutonium to South Carolina, but abandon plans to build the MOX plant at SRS to treat the radioactive metal. Without those plants, South Carolina would become a de facto permanent storage site for plutonium, state officials said. The debate has grown increasingly partisan in recent weeks. Mr. Hodges refused to endorse a bill, introduced by Republican members of South Carolina's congressional delegation, that would fine the Energy Department $1 million per day if it failed to meet certain deadlines for building the MOX plant and treating plutonium there. Instead, the governor filed a federal lawsuit to stop the shipments, which had been scheduled to begin this month. Reach Brandon Haddock at (706) 823-3409 or bhaddock@augustachronicle.com [bhaddock@augustachronicle.com] . [http://augusta.com] . ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************