***************************************************************** 04/11/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.92 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POLICY 1 Russia to loan 45m dollars to Ukraine for nuclear power plants 2 MinAtom Hints at British Deal 3 Nunn-Lugar in Jeopardy 4 US: US nuclear regulators accused of bowing to industry 5 US: U.S. Questions Nuclear Plant's Repair Plan 6 US: Documents: Task Force Sought Views 7 North Korea Agrees to Receive American Envoy to Renew Talks 8 US: Cheney task force documents released 9 US: Misplacing of gauge rates NRC hearing 10 Blowing the whistle on ethics bill 11 US: Task Force Made Hasty Overture to Opponents 12 Bulgarians demonstrate to demand referendum on reactor shutdowns 13 French union plans nuclear power cuts on April 16 NUCLEAR REACTORS 14 Bulgarian negotiator, EU official discuss closure of nuclear 15 Minatom's results in 2001 16 US: New York to hold meetings on several NYC power plants 17 US: NRC to review safety issue at Wis. Energy nuke 18 US: Ohio Utility Offers Repair Plan 19 US: Reactor issue: Quick fix or 2-year shut-off 20 US: Browns Ferry Unit 3 work sets record 21 Incident happens on Volgodonsk nuclear power station 22 US: Indian Point: Disaster Awaits 23 Russian nuclear plant closes again - 24 US: U.S. finds no widespread corrosion at nuclear plants NUCLEAR SAFETY 25 No uranium discovered in fuel tubes stolen from Lithuania's 26 US: Anti-nuke Pills 'a Token Gesture' 27 Malay: UN Team Visits Over Uranium 28 US: Radiation Pill Distribution Will Expand NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 29 US: Nevada Delegation Announces Hundreds of Environmental Groups 30 US: Abraham Wants Congress Vote On Nev. Nuclear Dump Site Soon 31 US: Incline woman donates to Yucca Mountain battle 32 US: Perma-Fix Becomes First Company to Treat Radioactively 33 US: L.A. City Council Orders Study at Bradley Landfill 34 US: Guinn sends YMP debate to Congress 35 US: Canon City spared toxic dirt 36 US: NRC to Take Part in Meetings on Decommissioning Criteria for 37 US: Nevada Has Cash Crunch in Dump Fight 38 US: Nevada digs deep for Congress fight against nuclear waste dump 39 US: State shuts off water to Yucca Mountain; research continues 40 US: Nevada panel OK's $3 million for nuclear dump fight 41 US: Nuclear utilities say they need Utah waste site 42 US: Panel OKs $3 million to fight nuke dump 43 US: Yucca EDITORIAL: National interest 44 US: LETTERS: Don't trust government on nuclear waste 45 US: Fight over Yucca water continues 46 US: $3 million allocated for dump fight, with strings 47 US: Trent Lott Predicted 60 senators would vote for dump 48 Russia May Import British Nuclear Waste 49 US: Anti-Yucca fund gets a push 50 US: Freshman senator now at center of Nevada's lobbying campaign 51 US: Scientists plan nuke waste transmutation experiment 52 US: N-Waste: Jet Crash a Risk? 53 US: Abraham Wants Congress Vote On Nev. Nuclear Dump Site Soon 54 Taipei pressed to remove nuke waste from Orchid Island 55 Sellafield Contractors Walk Out on Strike NUCLEAR WEAPONS 56 US: Peace And Nuclear Disarmament: Call To Action by Rep. Dennis 57 Russia keen to resolve arms cuts "nuances" ahead of Putin-Bush 58 Iraq demands Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction 59 Iranian UN envoy calls for total elimination of nuclear missiles 60 AU: Govt to open nuclear test listening station 61 Pakistan’s nuclear stand according to global principles 62 Al Qaeda sought nuclear scientists 63 British troops find nuclear weapon equipment in Afghanistan 64 US: Nuclear-Tipped Interceptors Studied 65 US: Progress Reported on Nuclear Weapons Deal 66 Don't Regard Politician's Clamor as Ravings, How Far Japan Is Away F US DEPT. OF ENERGY 67 S.C. puts Flats plans at risk, Allard says 68 ORNL construction progresses 69 Energy Department Releases Final Installment of Documents OTHER NUCLEAR 70 Senators to push for Alaska oil drilling this week 71 Reactor role for 'fake' diamonds TECHNOLOGY ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Russia to loan 45m dollars to Ukraine for nuclear power plants BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 10, 2002 Moscow, 10 April: Russia will loan 45m dollars to Ukraine this year to let it finalize the construction of the Rivne and Khmelnytskyy nuclear power plants, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said after talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Anatoliy Kinakh on Wednesday [10 April]. The loan will be used to finance last equipment supplies and the final phase of building work, Kasyanov said. BBC Monitoring/ © BBC ***************************************************************** 2 MinAtom Hints at British Deal Spent fuel imports The Russian Ministry of Nuclear Energy (Minatom) is actively promoting plans for large scale imports of spent nuclear fuel to Russia for storage or reprocessing. (Moscow:) Russia's nuclear energy minister says British spent nuclear fuel may be imported to Russia. Charles Digges, 2002-04-11 17:38 Russia's nuclear power minister hinted broadly that he intends to sign off on a deal early next year allowing the import of high-level nuclear waste, or spent nuclear fuel, from an unspecified atomic research facility in Great Britain, environmentalists and ministry officials said Thursday. According to Vladimir Slivyak, co-chairman of Ecodefense, who was present at a Wednesday meeting with Nuclear Power Minister Aleksandr Rumyantsev, the ministry, known as MinAtom, intends next year to sign a contract giving a British nuclear research facility rights to import high-level, spent nuclear fuel, including plutonium, to Russia for reprocessing. Rumyantsev would neither specify the amount of fuel that would be imported, the price Britain would pay Russia to accept the waste, nor what plant in Britain the waste would originate from. In a telephone interview Thursday, Slivyak speculated that the waste may be coming from Britain's recently closed Dounrey facility in Scotland, though Rumyantsev would not confirm this. Press officials at the British Embassy in Moscow likewise declined comment on the spent fuel's origins. Ironically, Britain, along with France, are two of Russia's biggest competitors in the nuclear fuel reprocessing market ever since Russia controversially legalized its own import practices last year. That Britain would then turn to Russia with a proposal to reprocess its own high level waste is proof that reprocessing is a "financial and environmental dead end," said Slivyak. Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge 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 ***************************************************************** 3 Nunn-Lugar in Jeopardy International cooperation on naval clean-up This section covers international efforts to tackle the challenges deriving from inactive nuclear subs and nuclear waste. The US, Norway and EU have been main contributors to on-going projects. (Moscow:) The Bush administration has told Moscow that it is squeezing several new disarmament projects because of its concerns about Moscow's compliance with treaties banning many chemical and biological weapons, State Department and Pentagon officials said Wednesday. Charles Digges, 2002-04-10 13:50 Some existing programs may be affected too, the New York Times reported in an article published April 8. By American law, the US government must decide annually whether Russia is "committed" to complying with the treaties it has signed with the United States. In a cable sent to Moscow last week, according to U.S. embassy officials here and State department officials in Washington, the State Department said the United States had not been able to certify that commitment and, thus, the administration would be unable to start new initiatives or provide new financing for programs to reduce the threat posed by each country's considerable nuclear, biological and chemical stockpiles, those officials said. That the cable was, in fact, sent is seen as a victory for Russia detractors within the Bush administration, the Times reported. But, said one embassy official, it does not indicate that it will become policy. It's a cable, nothing more and does not mean that any of these disarmament programs will be cut," he said Wednesday. "It does not signal new policy." But if, eventually, its contents become law on Capitol Hill, it could leave one of the most importnant Russio-American nuclear submarine decommisioning in dry dock. According to a source that refered not to be identified in any way, former Senator Sam Nunn, co-author of the Nunn-Lugar Act of 1991 has spent most of the past two days in meetings trying to get the Bush administration to change its tack. Critics have recommended that the administration inform Russia that it had not issued the certification and, therefore, that there would be no new Cooperative Threat Reduction projects. Nor would existing programs be extended beyond their current level of financing. These same critics had been pushing for months for a tougher stand toward Russia on weapons of destruction and its compliance with arms control treaties, even though the administration has concluded that the programs benefit American national security, said the Times. The lack of certification affects a range of disarmament activities from military exchanges to American help in stopping the theft of Russian nuclear warheads, Pentagon officials said Wednesday. Such projects account for about $370 million in programs carried out under the Cooperative Threat Reduction Act, an effort started in 1991 on Capitol Hill that has enjoyed strong support from Congress and the Clinton administration, and record budget requests from Mr Bush, State Department officials said Wednesday. The cable, coming a month before President Bush is to meet the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow, does not accuse Russia of violating the bio aand chemical weapons treaties. Nor has the administration ruled out a certification in the future, a US Embassy source said. But the decision puts Moscow in the hot seat that Washington insists on more co-operation and transparancy with respect to weapons of mass destruction, local and US anaysts say. "The last few months Russia has not been co-operating with inspection teams," said Alexander Pikayev of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Wednesday. "Whether or not they are hiding anything is one question, but the true tragedy of any cuts to CTR would be the submarines awaiting full decommissioning in Murmank and Vladivostok," he added. "This would simply fuel an ecological disaster for political posturing." State Department Officials said in emails and phone interviews that the bulk of the $1.3 billion in projects intended to reduce the threat of unconventional weapons would not be affected by the lack of certification. For example, the $500 million in disarmament projects supervised by the Department of Energy do not require the certification. But the approximately $450 million in programs managed by the Defence Department and the $70 million run by the State Department will probably be affected, officials said. The threat reduction program has aided countries in the former Soviet bloc destroy nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and associated infrastructure, and stop the theft or spread of such weapons. In exchange for American aid and scientific co-operation, the law requires that the administration certify that Russia is "committed" to complying with the treaties it has signed banning and restricting such weapons. While several similar programs permit the president to waive the certification requirement if the program is deemed essential to national security, the law authorising Cooperative Threat Reduction projects contains no such waiver. The Clinton administration issued the certification each year and most recently in January 2001. But the Bush administration did not issue the certification when it was due this January. In March, Mr. Bush's top aides and cabinet members decided to ask Congress to give the administration the authority to waive the certification requirement. The administration has included the request for such authority in the emergency supplemental spending bills for the State Department it sent to Capitol Hill House and Senate aides said in interviews last week that while it was likely that Congress would grant the waiver authority, it was unlikely to do so before Mr Bush travels to Russia to meet with Mr. Putin, the Times reported. Hard-liners in the Bush administration have grown increasingly disturbed by Russian actions with respect to its chemical and biological weapons treaty commitments. Though the United States has approved plans to help Russia destroy vast stocks of chemical weapons, officials noted, Moscow has yet to acknowledge that it made in Soviet times "fourth generation" chemical weapons agents, which are many times more lethal than the most advanced nerve agents the United States produced, the Times said. While Western scientists have been able to visit several former Soviet facilities where such weapons were made, Russia has not given any foreigners access to the four biological laboratories that have been controlled by the military. Russia maintains that it is not violating the biological or chemical warfare conventions, and argues that American military labs are not open either. "Russia's actions, like its declarations about what was done in Soviet times, the lack of transparency in its ostensibly defensive programs, and its refusal to share the strain, among other things, raise serious questions about Russia's willingness to abide by its treaty obligations," one state department official was quoted as saying in the Times on Tuesday. Lietenant Stepan Nikorov of the the Defence Ministry press office, however, took a more optimistic view of the situation. "Well, if we're not destroying weapons, that's all the better for us then, isn't it?" he asked rhetorically. Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge 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 ***************************************************************** 4 US nuclear regulators accused of bowing to industry USA: April 10, 2002 WASHINGTON - Anti-nuclear activists criticized the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) this week for shelving mock attack drills at plants and bowing to other requests by the utility industry after the Sept. 11 attacks raised concerns about nuclear plant safety. Several lawmakers and watchdog groups have urged the agency to tighten security at the nation's 103 nuclear power plants to prevent sabotage or attacks that might release dangerous radioactive material. "What's lacking throughout is the NRC acting as an independent regulator," Paul Leventhal of the Nuclear Control Institute said at a meeting held by the agency to discuss actions taken after Sept. 11. The NRC was chastised for meeting over a dozen times with industry and only twice with activists or watchdog groups since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The meetings were held "for industry to tell the NRC what it will allow the NRC to do," said David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer at the Union of Concerned Scientists. After ordering a top-to-bottom review of security measures last year, the NRC in February issued new measures to shore up security at nuclear power plants, which provide about 20 percent of the nation's electricity. SECURITY EXERCISES CANCELLED The NRC was criticized for shelving security exercises to test preparedness against attacks and for limiting public information on security. Known as force-on-force drills, the exercises pit plant guards against law enforcement officers who pose as attackers and try to breach defenses at the plant. The NRC had slated force-on-force tests at 14 nuclear plants this year, Lochbaum said. The NRC later shelved them. That decision was a mistake, Lochbaum said, adding: "We don't see any justification for shelving the best security tool available as America faces its greatest security challenge." NRC officials said the agency had a good reason to cancel the exercises - with its staff working round the clock to be on alert after the Sept 11 attacks, it did not have the resources to stage mock drills. "This was not a prudent time" to conduct exercises given other security requirements, said Glenn Tracy of the NRC's office of nuclear security. The agency's decision to upgrade its own security plans was made by "the most senior managers of the agency," he added. Tracy, saying the NRC is "dialoguing directly with security managers" at plants, denied that the agency gave the industry too much say over security issues at the plants. "The industry telling me what to do is not something that would sit well with me," Tracy said. The utility industry has lobbied against any major new security requirements, saying nuclear plants are already among the most closely guarded facilities in the nation. DAVIS-BESSE, SEPT. 11 UNRELATED Some activists also said the NRC has been cutting corners on other nuclear plant problems, such as the recent discovery of severe corrosion near the reactor of an Ohio plant. The NRC chastised FirstEnergy Corp. last week for failing to find, as early as 1999, corrosion on the plant's reactor that was so severe that acid had nearly eaten through a vessel head 6 inches (15-cm) thick. NRC officials denied this week that the agency's security push had distracted staff from routine maintenance. "I believe that Davis-Besse would have occurred, 9-11 or no 9-11. It's a moot point," Tracy said. Industry groups also rejected claims the NRC was giving undue weight to its suggestions. The Nuclear Energy Institute said allegations that it dictated policies to the agency were "totally false." NRC officials "don't let anyone tell them what to do," said a spokesman for the industry group. Story by Chris Baltimore REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ***************************************************************** 5 U.S. Questions Nuclear Plant's Repair Plan April 11, 2002 By MATTHEW L. WALD BETHESDA, Md., April 10 — Officials from an Ohio nuclear power plant assured federal regulators today that they could repair corrosion that had eaten nearly all the way through a reactor lid, but faced a barrage of questions from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff. Executives of the Davis-Besse nuclear plant near Toledo met with commission officials to convince them that they could repair the hole by filling it with a 13-inch stainless steel disk, welded into place. After a three-hour meeting, the executives left with a long list of questions to answer, including how they would make sure that the heat of a welder's torch would not further damage the metal. Sixty-eight other reactors around the nation have a design similar to Davis-Besse's, and the commission is trying to determine if any of them have incurred the same kind of corrosion. All 68 have said they did not, but some did not provide enough of a basis for their assurances, said Ken Karwoski, a corrosion specialist with the commission. At Davis-Besse, which is owned by the FirstEnergy Corporation of Akron, Ohio, cooling water from the reactor leaked from nozzles on the reactor head; boric acid, which is mixed into the water to control the nuclear reaction, ate away about 70 pounds of metal, going through six inches of exterior steel. When the 25-year-old reactor was shut for refueling and repair of the nozzles this year, all that was left was a thin layer of steel meant to control corrosion inside the vessel. The regulators were shocked by the extent of the corrosion. Leaks were well known, but government and industry officials believed that when they occurred, the temperature at the vessel head, more than 600 degrees, would boil the water away and leave nothing but a harmless boron powder. After investigating, the commission staff concluded that the Davis-Besse operators had missed many opportunities to find the problem before it became so serious. Critics of nuclear power agreed. "When you're using a crowbar to knock the stuff off the reactor head, it's a sign you've gone too far," said David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists. Workers had pried boric acid off the head during a refueling shutdown in 2000. At the meeting today, about a dozen commission staff members asked about the "repair concept" that company officials presented. "It's a first-of-a-kind repair," said Brian W. Sheron, associate director for project licensing and technology assessment at the commission. "The staff is very concerned that whatever we approve, they are confident it is going to hold up." One issue, Mr. Sheron said, was "just the sheer size of the weld" — to hold in place a piece 13 inches in diameter and about 6 inches thick. FirstEnergy officials said the session had given them a clear indication of what information their plan would need to include to satisfy the commission. The company had hoped to submit that plan next week but company executives said after the session that it might take longer. If contractors cannot repair the vessel head, the company plans to replace it with the head from a reactor in Midland, Mich., that was abandoned during construction, or the head of a retired plant in Sacramento. They have also ordered a new reactor head, but do not expect delivery before February 2004. Delays are expensive because the plant employs 780 people, whether or not it generates electricity; property taxes alone run $500,000 a month. Officials hope to have the reactor running by summer. Opponents say that would be too soon. Christine Patronik-Holder, a spokeswoman for the Safe Energy Communication Council, said that until everyone agreed on exactly how the corrosion occurred, "plans to place patches amount to little more than Russian roulette with the lives of northern Ohioans." But the company is proceeding to figure out repair details, including how it will check for leaks when the work is completed. Radiation dosage in the repair area is so high that a welder would absorb in two hours as much radiation as the industry usually allows workers to incur in a year. In two and a half hours, the welder would reach the annual limit the commission sets. So the plan will rely on robot welders. Indeed, radiation in the affected area is so high that it will be a challenge just to X-ray the completed repairs to look for any flaws. Framatome, the French reactor company that will do much of the work, said it could compensate for the high background radiation. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company | Privacy Information ***************************************************************** 6 Documents: Task Force Sought Views Las Vegas SUN April 11, 2002 WASHINGTON (AP) - As criticism began to surface that Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force was ignoring environmentalists, an Energy Department staffer was told to make a two-day sweep of environmental groups and get their views, documents show. The aide was ordered to make a telephone survey and to recommend to higher-ups those views that were consistent with the administration's energy policy, the papers say. "Need by noon Friday," Margot Anderson, who coordinated the department's activities related to the energy task force, wrote to the staffer, Peter Karpoff, in an e-mail sent at midday Wednesday, March 21 of last year. The modest nod to environmentalists came the same week that Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham met with executives of Duke Energy, Westinghouse Electric, Entergy, Exelon and other nuclear power industry officials to discuss the Bush administration's energy plan. Environmentalists have complained that they were largely shut out of the process as the Cheney task force crafted the energy blueprint. The policy document was released in mid-May 2001. The memo by Anderson and handwritten notes made by Karpoff as he surveyed the environmental groups were among about 1,000 pages of papers released by the Energy Department late Wednesday in response to two lawsuits. DOE spokeswoman Jeanne Lopatto emphasized that the March 21 e-mail and the telephone survey do not reflect all the efforts that were made to enlist environmentalists' views. "One e-mail isn't going to be a good description of this whole process," said Lopatto. "We had a number of ways of collecting information," including from environmental groups' Web sites, she said, and other agencies also had contacts. It also was known previously that a group of environmental leaders met with Andrew Lundquist, staff director of the Cheney task force, in early April, about five weeks before the energy report was issued. The documents released Wednesday involved mostly calendars by midlevel and some senior Energy Department officials and a handful of internal e-mails, including the March 21 memo by Anderson. "Can you contact these groups and get them to send you any energy policy options they are advocating?" Anderson asked Karpoff. She then asked him to "review the proposals and recommend some we might like to support that are consistent with the administration's energy statements to date." "You can add others to the list, should you so desire," she continued, and added "if this requires more than one person let me know. ... Need by Friday noon." Lopatto said Karpoff is a career Energy Department employee in the policy office. He could not be reached late Wednesday. The documents gave no indication that Karpoff ever submitted a formal report or list of recommendations. Among the papers released were five pages containing brief handwritten notes pertaining to three telephone contacts he made with the 11 groups listed in Anderson's memo. The groups listed for Karpoff to contact were the Alliance to Save Energy, Environmental Defense, Union of Concerned Scientists, Sierra Club, Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund, World Resources Institute, the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, the American Wind Energy Association, Resources for the Future and the Tellus Institute. In his handwritten notes, Karpoff indicated he had contacted at least three people, each time adding brief descriptions of what they had suggested. "Automotive efficiency ... strengthening CAFE ... clean coal," were among the entries after Karpoff apparently talked to Daniel Becker of the Sierra Club. After talking with Howard Geller at the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, Karpoff made references to the need for new efficiency standards for appliances and noted that Geller will e-mail "some stuff." Documents released earlier by the department included a lengthy paper from the group on energy efficiency. A late entry in Karpoff's notes, dated Feb. 28, 2002, said a conversation with Resources of the Future, an environmental think tank, took place in early May 2001, about a week before the final Cheney task force report was released. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 7 North Korea Agrees to Receive American Envoy to Renew Talks April 11, 2002 By HOWARD W. FRENCH SEOUL, South Korea, April 10 — An American envoy will travel to North Korea in coming days to restart a discussion that has been stalled for months, a South Korean official said. His visit is part of the busiest flurry of diplomatic activity here since the end of the Clinton administration. Last Saturday, a special South Korean presidential envoy, Lim Dong Won, returned from a four-day visit to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. That mission ended an equally long impasse in high-level dialogue between South Korea and North Korea. Mr. Lim secured a statement of North Korea's willingness to receive the American envoy, Jack Pritchard. The sudden activity, after months of worsening relations all around, has set off debate here and in Washington over whether North Korea is resuming engagement because of a dramatically harder line from the Bush administration, or because of the tireless promotion of dialogue by South Korea's president, and Nobel Peace laureate, Kim Dae Jung. In his State of the Union address in January, President Bush labeled North Korea as part of an "axis of evil," along with Iran and Iraq. Anxiety has risen in this region that a military confrontation with North Korea could be looming. "Washington and Seoul are sleeping in the same bed but dreaming very different dreams," said Moon Chung In, a political science professor at Yonsei University, who has recently been a diplomatic adviser to the government on North Korea. Mr. Moon said that in reality a "good cop, bad cop" routine by Washington and Seoul — albeit a scarcely coordinated one — broke the diplomatic impasse. With his time in office winding down, President Kim fears that his vaunted plan for Korean reconciliation, or "sunshine policy," is withering. To save it, he has used secret diplomatic channels through China since January to press for renewed discussions with North Korea. (President Kim, 76, canceled engagements and was hospitalized today, complaining of leg pain and loss of appetite.) During his trip last week Mr. Lim warned the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, that ignoring the hostile signals from the Bush administration was to invite peril. "Lim spent five hours with Chairman Kim trying to persuade him that the United States he is dealing with has really changed, and that this goes way beyond rhetoric," said one South Korean who was extensively informed about the discussions. "His most important message was that brinkmanship no longer works. Another round of that would create a major military crisis on the Korean peninsula. "On the other hand, he said that George Bush is willing to engage with Pyongyang if it shows sincerity on some of the major issues." Nuclear weapons development and proliferation are at the top of the agenda between the United States and North Korea. The Bush administration has also emphasized other concessions it would like to see from North Korea, including ending the forward deployment of artillery near the border with South Korea. Since it completed a policy review on North Korea last June, the Bush administration has expressed a willingness to resume dialogue without conditions. But before Mr. Lim's visit, North Korea had shunned a visit by Mr. Pritchard, a State Department expert on Korean affairs, complaining that he was too low in the diplomatic hierarchy. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company | Privacy ***************************************************************** 8 Cheney task force documents released Orange County Register - Top News Memo suggests the panel made a hasty effort to get input from environmentalists. April 11, 2002 By H. JOSEF HEBERT The Associated Press WASHINGTON -- After months of meeting with corporate executives, the Energy Department directed a staffer to make a cursory, two-day sweep of environmental groups to gather their views for Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force, newly released documents show. In a memo dated March 21, 2001, the staffer was told to analyze the environmentalists' responses "and recommend some we might like to support." The report is "needed by Friday noon," wrote Margot Anderson, who coordinated the project, in her memo sent at 12:49 p.m. Wednesday to Peter Karpoff, a career employee in the department's policy office. The brief nod to environmentalists came the same week that Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham met with executives of Duke Energy, Westinghouse Electric, Entergy, Exelon and other nuclear power industry officials to discuss the energy plan. Environmentalists have complained that they were largely shut out of the process as the Cheney task force crafted the energy blueprint. While Abraham met eight times with various energy industry groups from February to April as the energy plan was being formed, he had no meetings with environmental leaders. The memo by Anderson and handwritten notes made by Karpoff as he surveyed the environmental groups were among about 1,000 pages of papers released by the Energy Department late Wednesday in response to two lawsuits. DOE spokeswoman Jeanne Lopatto emphasized that the e-mail and the telephone survey do not reflect all the efforts that were made to enlist environmentalists' views. ***************************************************************** 9 Misplacing of gauge rates NRC hearing -- The Washington Times April 11, 2002 By Joyce Howard Price THE WASHINGTON TIMES Personnel from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission were to meet today with a Wisconsin firm that lost a gauge containing a sealed capsule of radioactive material in December and mistakenly sent it to China. NRC staffers will meet with representatives of Stora Enso North America, a paper manufacturing company based in Wisconsin Rapids, for a "predecisional enforcement conference to discuss apparent violations of NRC regulations associated with the loss," the agency announced. The gauge, which contained a capsule of cesium-137, was lost during dismantling of equipment and piping that Stora Enso North America sold to a paper mill in China, according to NRC spokesman Victor Dricks. "The company has about 10 or 20 of these gauges that contained cesium-137, which they use to measure the thickness of paper during the manufacturing process," he said. There were 200 millicuries of cesium-137 in the gauge that wound up in China. If removed from the metal camera-style device that encapsulated the radioactive material, Mr. Dricks said, it could expose someone carrying the gauge on his person to "many times the annual radiation exposure limit for an individual" and could cause "severe health effects," possibly even death. The quarter-sized gauge that went to China was attached to a metal beam that was part of the equipment purchased by the Asian paper mill. "The gauge should have been marked with yellow paint so the subcontractors dismantling that equipment wouldn't have taken it along," Mr. Dricks said. He noted that an NRC inspector — not Stora Enso — discovered the gauge missing in January. A company representative traveled to China and found the gauge Jan. 31, still attached to a portion of the original piping. The NRC said the gauge was locked in a secure, shielded position. As such, he said, it would not have presented a safety hazard. The gauge was placed in a secure location until arrangements could be made to return it to Wisconsin. At the conference today at an NRC regional office in Lisle, Ill., consideration will be given to three apparent NRC safety violations the agency has identified: Failure to control and maintain constant surveillance of radioactive material. •Failure to clearly label the gauge as containing radioactive material. •Failure to ensure that the gauge was removed by persons licensed for such work. Repeated attempts to reach Stora Enso North America yesterday were unsuccessful. Mr. Dricks said, "there are about 2 million radioactive sources" across the United States. Users include medical facilities, industries, government agencies and nuclear power plants. He said cases in which radioactive material is lost or misplaced are "infrequent." More common, he said, are situations where devices containing radioactive material are stolen from jobs or work sites or are abandoned. In the past five years, there have been an average of 300 such cases per year, he said. "There have been cases where [nuclear power] plants lost entire fuel rods," said Paul Fain, spokesman for the Union of Concerned Scientists. But Mr. Dricks said that happened years ago at the Millstone nuclear power plant in Waterford, Conn., and unlike the Wisconsin gauge, the fuel rod was never found. "We think it's been disposed of, buried in a low-level nuclear waste site," he said yesterday in an interview. Mr. Fain said he's certain the amount temporarily lost by Stora Enso North America was small in comparison. "Still, it's a good thing the NRC is taking it seriously," he said in an interview yesterday. ***************************************************************** 10 Blowing the whistle on ethics bill Daily Yomiuri On-Line Toshiyuki Ito Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer Has Japan become so corrupt that only such an extreme action as informing on one's peers can maintain fairness and justice in the society? A bill, which inspires that feeling, is being prepared by Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan). The bill is to create a law protecting those who disclose information in the public interest and covers reporting of information related to work by national public servants, with the aim of ensuring that the nation's administrative affairs are conducted properly, according to Minshuto. In short, the bill aims to encourage whistle-blowing by protecting the employment status of the inside informant, in order to bring corruption to light inside administrative organizations. Minshuto is putting the finishing touches on the bill and plans to submit it to the current Diet session. The opposition party is considering not only a bill targeting government organizations but also a similar bill to cover private corporations, with the aim of establishing a comprehensive system to protect whistle-blowers. As the ruling camp does not support the move, the bill's passage through the Diet is unlikely. But the proposed bill has renewed discussion about political and corporate ethics. The draft of the bill aims to prevent an inside informant from being penalized or treated in an unfavorable way in personnel management matters because of their actions. At the same time, the bill proposes that if the whistle-blower was involved in the unlawful deeds they are reporting, they should receive reduced sentences from the courts. The bill limits its definition of whistleblowing to four areas: -- Revealing illegal actions. -- Revealing facts about cases in which public servants should face disciplinary punishment. -- Revealing information that may prevent serious negative effects on people's lives and health. -- Revealing unlawful accounting actions. Minshuto House of Councillors member Mitsuru Sakurai, who compiled the draft of the bill, said: "I was told that a whistle-blowing law is out of kilter with Japan's traditions. But the deterrent effect of the existence of such a law is large." Another lower house Minshuto member, Toshimasa Yamada, said he initially did not favor the bill, partly because he was formerly a bureaucrat in the defunct International Trade and Industry Ministry, but now he is advocating the need for the law as he has seen at firsthand the maladies of the bureaucratic system. "The misdeeds of Muneo Suzuki, former Hokkaido and Okinawa development agencies director general, and former lower house member Kiyomi Tsujimoto would not have come to light without inside informants," Yamada said. "Problems of HIV-contaminated medical products; the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry's improper responses to bovine spongiform encephalopathy; Mitsubishi Motors Corp.'s concealment of defects in cars; and the scandal at Snow Brand Foods Co. could have been resolved more quickly if there had been a system of protection for inside informants," he said. Britain, the United States and Australia already have laws to protect whistle-blowers. In the case of Britain, a train collision in 1988 and an incident involving an improper diagnosis at a hospital in 1993 revealed that efforts by insiders to warn of the dangers had been repressed. Britain enacted its whistle-blowing law in 1998 because these incidents increased public demands for such legislation. South Korea enacted a similar law to prevent corruption in late January. The law gives inside informants up to 200 million won as a reward. The sum is much higher than rewards for informing on spies or tax evaders. There is a legal precedent in Japan. A law to regulate nuclear reactors and materials stipulates that company employees who report illegal activities to the relevant minister should not be dismissed or receive other unfavorable treatment as a result of their actions. However, the crux of the problem is political and corporate ethics. The scandals that have surfaced recently lead many to think that such a law would be effective in Japan. At the same time, the Foreign Ministry's disclosure of documents that drove Suzuki into a corner seemed to have been motivated by the bureaucrats' desire to protect their best interests at the ministry. If whistle-blowing is abused to protect bureaucrats' personal interests or to justify their misdeeds, ethics go out the window. Though the ideal scenario is that bureaucrats would police themselves, we must remember that lives could be threatened and the nation's future course affected while the public waits for this ideal situation to come to pass. However, Friedrich Hayek, in his book "The Constitution of Liberty," said freedom has never functioned well without moral beliefs being deeply ingrained in people. The power of the law is limited in making up for a lack of ethics. Such an action may rather weaken the foundation of Japan as a free society. Is the whistle-blowing bill the ultimate weapon to combat corruption, or does it mark the decline of a free society? The attempt to systematize whistleblowing reflects an aspect of the fundamental problems that have taken deep root in Japanese society. Copyright 2002 The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 11 Task Force Made Hasty Overture to Opponents (washingtonpost.com) Views 'Consistent' With Bush's Sought By Dana Milbank and Dan Morgan Washington Post Staff Writers Thursday, April 11, 2002; Page A08 The White House energy task force sought to include recommendations from environmental groups only if they were "consistent" with existing Bush administration policy, according to an internal administration e-mail released yesterday. The information, contained in a court-ordered release of 950 pages of Energy Department documents, indicates that the administration made only a symbolic effort to include input from environmental groups. The administration first began to solicit environmentalists' recommendations on March 21, 2001, almost two months after Bush assembled the task force and after draft reports were already written. A March 21 e-mail to Peter Karpoff, an Energy policy analyst, from Margot Anderson, the deputy assistant energy secretary for policy, listed 11 environmental groups and said: "Can you contact these groups and get them to send you any energy policy options they are advocating? Can you then review the proposals and recommend some we might like to support that are consistent with the Administration energy statements to date?" The papers released yesterday were almost entirely copies of Energy Department officials' schedules and, like earlier materials released under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, contained substantial deletions. Groups that filed the suit to win the release of administration records, including the Natural Resources Defense Council and Judicial Watch, are seeking a court order for a fuller release of information. An Energy Department spokesman said yesterday's document release was the "final installment." The schedules released yesterday include dates of meetings between Energy Department officials and dozens of representatives from the coal, nuclear and petroleum industries, both before and after the release of the administration's energy policy. The documents indicate that Deputy Energy Secretary Francis Blake had a meeting on Sept. 19 with Enron Corp. vice chairman Mark Frevert, Enron chief of staff Steve Kean and Enron vice president Linda Robertson. At the time of the meeting, the company was struggling for cash after a severe drop in its stock price. The papers did not indicate the subject of the meeting. Other individuals and groups consulted by Energy Department officials included Mid American Energy Holdings Co.{cedil} Sinclair Oil Co., Reliant Energy, Exxon Mobil, BP Amoco, attorney C. Boyden Gray, and the lobbying firm of former GOP chairman Haley Barbour. The documents also indicated that Bush's top political aides worked with energy industry officials to sell the White House's energy plan weeks before the policy was publicly released in May. Last April 25, Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, and the White House deputy political director, Matt Schlapp, were scheduled to address a meeting of coal producers at the White House on "energy strategy" and "energy politics and action items." Also scheduled to brief the coal producers were Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, Andrew Lundquist, the director of the administration's energy task force, and Bush economic adviser Robert McNally. The administration said Rove, whose attendance was listed as tentative, did not attend the session. Included in the papers are phone logs of March 21-23, 2001, of Karpoff, as he solicited information from the environmental groups. The logs contain notations such as "will e-mail some stuff" and "no response received" as well as concrete recommendations such as energy efficiency standards. Jill Schroeder, an Energy Department spokeswoman, said the e-mail demonstrated that environmentalists were consulted. "To suggest that the entire energy policy pivots on one e-mail is absurd, but we are delighted to see the environmental groups have stopped denying that we contacted them and incorporated their own policies," she said. The papers released yesterday also show that senior White House officials met on March 9, 2001 to discuss an "oxygenate waiver" for California. The meeting on oxygenates preceded an administration decision in June not to grant California a waiver of federal Clean Air Act provisions covering the formulation of low-pollution gasoline used in areas with heavy smog. Democratic Gov. Gray Davis sought the waiver after announcing that he planned to ban the most widely used anti-smog oxygenate, the petrochemical MTBE, because traces of it had been found in drinking water in some communities. California officials argued that refiners in the state could produce a clean-burning gasoline without oxygenates. But farm-state advocates of ethanol, a corn-based oxygenate that also can be added to gasoline to reduce some forms of pollution, pressed the administration not to waive the provisions of the Clean Air Act. Some ethanol producers hope their product will supplant MTBE in the huge California energy market. Staff writers Ellen Nakashima and Mike Allen contributed to this report. © 2002 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 12 Bulgarians demonstrate to demand referendum on reactor shutdowns Thu Apr 11,10:09 AM ET SOFIA, Bulgaria - Fearing power shortages and an economic downturn, up to 4,000 Bulgarians demonstrated Thursday to protest the planned shutdown of four aging reactors at the country's only nuclear plant. The European Union (news - web sites) has demanded that the two oldest units at the Kozlodui plant be closed by the end of this year because it considers them unsafe. The government has agreed to close those units, and it has promised to negotiate a deadline for early closure of two other units. The demonstrators handed a petition demanding a referendum on the closures signed by 500,000 Bulgarians to parliament speaker Ognyan Gerdzhikov. President Georgi Parvanov and Prime Minister Simeon Saxcoburggotski have opposed calls for a referendum about the closures, which have been a key condition for Bulgaria to start accession talks with the EU in 2000. The four units to be closed are 440-megawatt pressurized water reactors without safety containment. They were installed 1974 to 1982, and manufacturers say they have 30-year life spans. Two newer 1,000-megawatt units with safety containment won't be affected by the closures. Many Bulgarians fear that the shutdowns will cause power shortages and electricity price hikes. Revenue from electricity exports are crucial for the economically weak country. The government recently announced it would resume the construction of a second nuclear power plant near the Danube port of Belene, 250 kilometers (156 miles) northeast of Sofia. The government has already invested dlrs 1.2 million into the project, which was frozen in 1990 after pressure from environmentalists. (vz/vt) Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 13 French union plans nuclear power cuts on April 16 FRANCE: April 11, 2002 PARIS - French union leaders are planning to reduce output at all of Electricite de France's nuclear power plants on April 16 in a one-day strike to protest against worsening work conditions, a union official said yesterday. The strike by workers in the nuclear industry is planned to coincide with the first round of presidential elections on April 21, and will include a demonstration of about 3,000 workers outside the National Assembly in Paris, the official said. "The objective is to have a reduction (in production) at all EdF's nuclear plants," said an official from the CGT union, adding that the exact cuts will be only known on the day of the strike itself. State-owned EdF, which operates all of France's nuclear plants, declined to comment on the potential impact of the strike on its 62,360 megawatts of nuclear power output. It has during past industrial actions given assurances that the supply of electricity will not be disrupted. The union, which last organised a strike a month ago to protest energy deregulation, fears that several thousand jobs in the nuclear industry could be threatened by cost-cutting as the electricity market opens up. The action will also include workers from nuclear research institute CEA and state-owned Areva and Cogema, which are involved in the nuclear fuel cycle from uranium mining, conversion and enrichment to spent fuel reprocessing and recycling. France's dependence on nuclear reactors for nearly 80-percent of its electricity output has developed into a political issue ahead of the presidential elections. Last month, the Greens party threatened not to back Socialist presidential candidate and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin if he did not agree to phase out nuclear power. "The nuclear industry is at the heart of the pre-election debates. We consider the stakes of this industry merits more than just political discussions or vote-catching deals," the union said in a statement. "The condition of operating and of maintenance of installation have deteriorated seriously, so much so that we doubt that the safety and the security can be guaranteed today," the CGT said. REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ***************************************************************** 14 Bulgarian negotiator, EU official discuss closure of nuclear reactors BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 11, 2002 Sofia, 11 April: The European Commission vice-president in charge of relations with the European Parliament, Transport and Energy, Loyola de Palacio, met [on] Thursday [11 April] with the chief negotiator with the EU, Meglena Kuneva, and Foreign Minister Solomon Pasi. They discussed the progress of accession talks and this country's expectations from the European Council meetings in Sevilla and Copenhagen, the Press Office of the Foreign Ministry said. After meeting with de Palacio, Kuneva said: "If we honour our commitments and the signature of the country's foreign minister that would mean the decision regarding the 440MW units three and four of the Kozloduy N-plant will have to be made between 2006 and 2007." Under a memorandum signed with the European Commission in 1999, Bulgaria is bound to define the deadline for the decommissioning of the two units by the end of 2002; the commission wants the units closed down in 2006. De Palacio arrived on a visit here late Wednesday evening. She will meet President Georgi Purvanov, Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg and Energy Minister Milko Kovachev. BBC Monitoring/ © BBC ***************************************************************** 15 Minatom's results in 2001 Russia has 10 nuclear power plants (NPPs) in operation. The safety standards of the Soviet designed reactors have been highly questioned by international experts. During the last decade, the social issues at the Russian NPPs have become of major concern in line with the technical flaws. The Russian ministry for nuclear energy reports about profit and production increase, plans to intensify its activities, but pays little attention to the environment. Minister for nuclear energy Alexander Rumyantsev photo: minatom.ru Igor Kudrik, Vladislav Nikiforov, 2002-04-11 11:04 The Russian nuclear power plants generated 136.4 TWh of electricity last year, up 4.7% on 2000. It is planned to generate 144 TWh of electricity in 2002, up 5.6% on 2001. Rosenergoatom and the Leningrad nuclear power plant closed 2001 with a net profit of $160 million. Export in 2001 totalled $2.51 billion, up 9.9% on 2000. Total capital of Minatom industry is up 19.7% on 2000. The Minatom personnel accounts for 350,000 people. Nuclear power plants In 2001, Russian nuclear power plants generated 136.4 TWh of electricity. The average load factor was 70.3% in 2001, up 1.2% on 2000, compared with 80% in the West. The Russian power plants managed to operate without incidents rated more than level 0 on INES scale. The incidents quantity reduced from 69 down to 66 rated level 0. According to the northern-European department of the Russian Nuclear Regulatory, the nuclear power plants in 2001 suffered 31 violations in operation: 5 at the Kursk NPP, 7 at the Leningrad NPP, 14 at the Smolensk NPP. 14 incidents involved generators failure. Smolensk NPP equipped with RBMK Chernobyl type reactors experienced three incidents on the same generator. The measures taken were not enough as the main cause was not determined. The quantity of the incidents due to the bad quality pipes discovered during maintenance is still high, 8 incidents. In 2001, Unit 1 at Volgodonsk (Rostov) went into operation. This event was accompanied by the information that Minatom did not pay to the contractors, and that the unit launch led to the excessive energy supply in the region. Unit 3 at the Novovoronezh NPP was licensed to operate by December, 2006. The unit was put into operation back in 1971. The requirements for operation of RBMK-1000 unit 1 at Kursk were fulfilled, the unit was launched in 1976. Unit 3 at Kalinin is expected to go into operation by 2003, Volgodonsk 2 by 2005 and Balakovo 5 by 2005. Kalinin 4, Balakovo 6, and Novovoronezh 6 are due to go into operation between 2006 and 2010. Construction of the most of the above-mentioned units was stopped in the beginning of 90s. Export Minatom's export of the production and services totalled $2,506.4 million, up 10% on 2000. Technical participation in construction works abroad increased in 2.5 times than in 2000. Minatom will continue building nuclear stations in China, Iran and India. Construction of unit 1 and 2 at the Tnvan NPP in China continues according to the schedule. 8.5 thousand tons of equipment was delivered to the site. Memorandum on basic principles of cooperation on Kudankulam NPP construction in India. The Russian company Atomstroyexport and the Indian Corporation on Atomic Energy signed the agreement about NPP construction listing services and deliveries from Russia. Busher NPP construction site in Iran received 5,000 tons of equipment from Russia. The Russian government approved the initiative of Minatom and the Russian Foreign Ministry regarding development of the cooperation in the area of peaceful application of atomic energy. This project has raised great concerns in the US, which suspect Iran in financing terrorist organisation. A contract on unit 5 and 6 up-grade at Kozloduy in Bulgaria has been signed and comes in force on July 1, 2002. In Finland, Minatom plans to take part in tender on NPP construction with 1000-1500 MW capacity. The final decision on NPP construction, however, has not been made on political level. In Hungary, Atomstroyexport agreed to take part in Paks NPP modernisation. Investments Investments in capital construction continued to increase and accounted 114.6% up on 2000. This year it is expected 121.6% up on 2001. Financing of conversion projects of the program on restructuring and conversion of the facilities and organisations located in "closed" towns continues. After completion of 166 conversion projects in 1998-2001 civil production facilities were established. They managed to produce goods for about $200 million. Environment protection Despite all the mentioned achievements, Minatom has nothing special to be proud of regarding environmental safety. Concerning nuclear submarines decommissioning the following was done: spent nuclear fuel was unloaded from 18 submarines; 15 shipments of special nuclear train; 9 tons of spent nuclear fuel reprocessed; 1966 m3 of liquid nuclear waste reprocessed; construction of onshore loading facilities at Zvezdochka and Zvezda plants; maintenance and service of 54 laid-off nuclear submarines to keep them afloat. The spent nuclear fuel unloaded from 18 submarines was shipped to Mayak plant in the sourthern Ural for reprocessing, while Mayak still has unsolved problems with contaminated Karachay lake and Techa reservoirs. One tonne of nuclear fuel reprocessing generates 45 m3 high-level, 150 m3 medium-level, 2,000 m3 low-level liquid radioactive waste, and 7,500 kg of solid radioactive waste. High-level waste should be vitrificated in theory, while medium- and low-waste is still dumped into Karachay lake. Minatom claims that works on filling in the Karachay lake are completed for 80%. It is worth mentioning that figure 80% is stated in Minatom reports every year during the last years. It seems that if the lake is completely eliminated than Mayak reprocessing plant will have to place to dump its waste from reprocessing. Minatom suggests to resume South-Ural NPP construction in order to solve Karachay and Techa reservoirs problems. The new vitrification facility for high-level liquid radioactive waste, launched in October 2001, is currently out of operation due to some manufacture defects. So, shipment of spent nuclear fuel to Mayak does not solve environmental problems, but just transfers them from the Kola Peninsula and the Far East to Chelyabinsk region. According to the minister of atomic energy Alexander Rumyantsev, Minatom will not manage to unload 25 submarines this year. Serious financing of the sites for spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste collected during nuclear submarines operation and decommissioning is neither planned. International cooperation Implementation of the Russian-American agreement regarding plutonium reactors in Siberia continues. The joint committee approved the idea to create alternative source of energy on organic fuel in Seversk and Zheleznogorsk in 2005-2006. Minatom, however, keeps forgetting that the plutonium reactors had to be shut down in 2000. New extension until 2005-2006 stipulates maximum reactors lifetime. The Russian State Nuclear Regulatory gives warnings regarding their operation already now. Minatom does not pay much attention to nuclear fuel deliveries to the United States. Russia mixes weapon-grade plutonium with uranium, so it can be used in nuclear power plants. Uranium export to the US, however, is the significant of Minatom's export. The deliveries are made in accordance to the agreement between Russia and US, so it cannot be considered a technological or commercial achievement of Minatom. Therefore, it is traditionally paid little attention to this activity in Minatom's report. Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge 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 ***************************************************************** 16 New York to hold meetings on several NYC power plants USA: April 10, 2002 NEW YORK - The New York power plant siting board will hold meetings to review three proposed generating facilities and a new transmission line, the State Department of Public Service said in statements yesterday. On April 18, the Siting Board will meet in the state capital Albany to consider air emission and other issues related to a proposed 1,100 megawatt (MW) generating facility in the town of Ramapo in Rockland County, about 30 miles north of New York City. Ramapo is an American National Power (ANP) project. ANP is a subsidiary of energy giant International Power Plc of the UK. Also on April 18, another Siting Board scheduled a meeting to consider air emissions and other issues associated with Consolidated Edison Co. of New York's (Con Edison) proposed 360 MW repowering of the East River station in Manhattan. Con Edison is a unit of New York City-based energy giant Consolidated Edison Inc. . After granting Con Edison a certificate to construct the East River facility in August 2001, the Siting Board in January approved a request for a rehearing on the emissions and other issues in January. On April 26, the Public Service Commission scheduled a meeting to allow the public to comment on Neptune Regional Transmission System LLC's application to build two undersea transmission lines from a GPU/FirstEnergy Inc. substation in Sayreville, New Jersey to sites in New York. GPU/FirstEnergy is a subsidiary of Ohio-based energy giant FirstEnergy Corp. . Under the proposal, a 54-mile line would connect to the Long Island Power Authority in Hempstead, Nassau County, and another 36-mile line would connect to Con Edison's system in Manhattan. Neptune's proposed project consists of two 600 MW high voltage direct current cables, each about seven inches in diameter, that would connect the power hungry load centers in New York City and Long Island with the generating resources of the Mid-Atlantic region. Finally, the Department of Public Service scheduled a public forum to explain the power plant siting process for the construction of a peaking facility at the Indian Point nuclear station in the town of Buchanan in Westchester County, about 35 miles north of New York City. New Orleans-based energy giant Entergy Corp. has proposed to build a 330 MW simple-cycle natural gas-fired peaking facility at the site. A peaking plant is generally one that does not operate continuously but rather operates at times when demand for electricity is at a high level, like in the summer when air conditioner usage causes energy demand to peak. NYC POWER PROJECTS All of these projects would add to the power supplies of the transmission constrained New York City and Long Island. Since 1999, more than 50 facilities, totaling more than 23,000 MW of electric generating capacity, have been proposed for the New York City area. On Long Island nearly 30 facilities, totaling more than 9,000 MW of capacity, have been proposed since 1999. To date, however, only about 600 MW have been built in New York City and just 44 MW on Long Island. By this summer, energy companies from across the United States expect to build more than 700 MW of generating capacity on Long Island. In New York City, however, no additional plants are expected to enter service this year. Energy experts have long said that only about a third of the planned power plants will ever be built. Story by Scott DiSavino REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ***************************************************************** 17 NRC to review safety issue at Wis. Energy nuke USA: April 11, 2002 SAN FRANCISCO - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said its staff will meet with Wisconsin Electric, a unit of Wisconsin Energy , to review a potentially dangerous problem discovered last year at the company's Point Beach nuclear power station. Tagged with a red safety code by the NRC, signifying a "high safety significance," the problem was found last November by plant operator Nuclear Management Co. in a backup cooling system. While since corrected, a preliminary NRC review concluded the problem could have posed a serious safety threat under certain, though unusual, operating conditions. Normal plant operations were not affected by the problem. Subsequent inspections of the twin-reactor, 1,022-megawatt generating station might be ordered to ensure the problem does not recur, the NRC said. NRC spokesman Jan Strasma said a date for the meeting with Wisconsin Electric has not been set. Nuclear Management, which operates the plant, said new procedures have been put in place and new equipment installed to prevent the problem from reoccurring. REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ***************************************************************** 18 Ohio Utility Offers Repair Plan Las Vegas SUN April 10, 2002 WASHINGTON (AP) - An Ohio utility proposed Wednesday the most extensive repair job ever done to an operating nuclear power plant to repair two spots of acid corrosion on a reactor head. The plan, which must be approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, would use a 300-pound, 5-inch-thick stainless steel plate, welded into a 13-inch-wide circle around the largest corroded area of FirstEnergy Corp.'s Davis-Besse plant on the shores of Lake Erie. Two steel plugs would be welded into nozzles to blend over the second corroded area, said Jim Powers, a nuclear engineer for the company. The nozzles are steel pipes that protect control rods, which are used to control the amount of power produced or, in an emergency, shut down the reactor. The company stressed that although the rods from the damaged nozzles will be moved, the plant will still be able to operate safely. Davis-Besse is on the lake about 25 miles east of Toledo, Ohio, Last month, inspectors found that longtime water leaks had allowed boric acid to eat a 7-inch-wide hole almost through the 6-inch-thick steel cap that covers the plant's reactor vessel. The hole was stopped by an inner lining made of noncorrosive stainless steel. Critics of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission questioned whether the agency would be able to monitor the plant enough to keep the corrosion from recurring. "This utility has demonstrated a lack of responsibility, and the regulators have demonstrated a lack of oversight. Those are broader issues that this repair plan doesn't address," said Paul Gunter of the Washington-based Nuclear Information &Resource Service. Davis-Besse has been shut down since discovery of the corrosion. Since then, federal inspectors have begun a review of the 68 other similarly designed pressurized reactors across the country. Preliminary findings of the industrywide review have turned up nothing similar to the Davis-Besse damage, the NRC said this week. The repairs, expected to cost between $15 million and $20 million, should keep the plant operating until a refueling shutdown in 2004, during which FirstEnergy plans to install a new reactor head, said company spokesman Todd Schneider. The 24-year-old Davis-Besse plant generates enough power for 450,000 homes, 24 percent of FirstEnergy's nuclear power capacity. --- On the Net: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission: [http://www.nrc.gov] FirstEnergy Corp.: [http://www.firstenergycorp.com] All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 19 Reactor issue: Quick fix or 2-year shut-off 04/11/02 John Funk and Sabrina Eaton Plain Dealer Reporters FirstEnergy Corp. yesterday told federal regulators that it could repair the hole in the head of its crippled Davis-Besse nuclear reactor near Port Clinton with a large stainless steel plug. Officials of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said they would take as long as necessary to decide the matter. Rejection of FirstEnergy's proposal would mean shutting the plant down for as long as two years. That could potentially cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars for electricity it would have to buy on the open market. For anti-nuclear activists, accepting the proposal would mean trusting the potential safety of the region to an experiment never tried before by a company that they say was careless enough to let the hole develop in the first place. They want the plant to stay shut until a new head can be fabricated in two years. The plant has been idled since Feb. 16 for an NRC-ordered inspection and refueling. It was then that FirstEnergy officials discovered that cracks in stainless steel sleeves in the reactor head had allowed acid to leak out of the reactor and corrode the carbon steel portion of the head. Yesterday, the company said its plan is to first cut out a large area of the head containing the rust cavity, coat the resulting hole with stainless steel and then weld the 400-pound plug into the hole using a special welding technique. It would cost $16 million. NRC officials said it would be the largest repair to an in-service nuclear reactor vessel that they had ever supervised. John Wood, vice president of FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co., which runs Davis-Besse, said the repairs would be engineered to high enough standards to last the life of the plant, another 15 years, although it would not be used that long. Wood said the company still intends to replace the head but perhaps not in 2004 as previously planned because of the elaborate preparations required, including cutting much larger passages into the rector containment building than now exist. The company has ordered a new head. Because of high radiation in the reactor and above it, the company's contractors would use robotic cutting and welding machines to make the repairs. Workers would, however, have to manually weld the stainless steel coating into the cavity, the company said. The head is so radioactive that each worker could get a year's worth of exposure in ninety minutes to 10 hours, depending on where they were working. The repair would also involve moving several control rods - crucial to maintaining control of the nuclear fission - and plugging two other holes that until now contained control rods. FirstEnergy staff and engineers from Framatome ANP, a French nuclear company, made the repair proposal to NRC engineers, scientists and metallurgists at the NRC's Rockville, Md., headquarters. The public was able to participate in the meeting by telephone. NRC staffers bombarded FirstEnergy officials with questions on whether the proposed welding could be done at all and whether the repair, if completed, would further stress the head, making it weaker. They said industry codes do not allow such large welds on a pressurized vessel. "A lot of issues need to be addressed," said Gene Imbro, chief of the mechanical and civil engineering branch of the NRC's nuclear reactor regulation division. He said the repair plan that FirstEnergy presents must address metal fatigue and thermal expansion questions. The reactor operates at pressure of more than 2,200 pounds per square inch and at temperatures of 600 degrees Fahrenheit. Company engineers argued that the code quoted by the NRC was outdated and not applicable to the high-tech welding they are proposing. They said the welding had been used to repair control rods sleeves - though not large holes - at other reactors. The NRC questioned the applicability of the analytical techniques the company proposed to test the integrity of the repairs. U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich has asked the NRC not to allow the company to repair the head but to keep the plant shut down until a new head arrives from overseas in early 2004. Kucinich noted that 6 million people live within 100 miles of the power plant. A coalition of about a dozen anti-nuclear groups wants the plant permanently shut down. Paul Gunter of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, a watchdog group, noted that the NRC had warned nuclear plants about boric acid corrosion in 1988. "Obviously, we're concerned that the utility hasn't been on the ball with this problem for more than 12 years," Gunter said. "Now they're taking on an unprecedented repair that's got to challenge regulatory and public confidence. The regulator and company are going into uncharted waters as to the repair's safety and reliability." The company has emphasized that, despite the corrosion, there was no radiation leak into the environment and thus that the situation did not create a health hazard. Dave Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the NRC asked tough questions at the meeting because it doesn't want to be embarrassed by future problems at the plant. "If this patch doesn't work, they'll have trouble explaining it," Lochbaum said. Jim Powers, engineer with FirstEnergy, told the NRC staffers that the company would first build a mock-up of the damaged part of the reactor head and repair it before trying to restore the damaged head. Wood, vice president of FirstEnergy's nuclear operating company, thanked the NRC staff for the three-hour grilling they gave him and his staff, saying that was exactly what the company wanted. "It was a bit more interruptive than we anticipated, but it's better to get the questions now than later," he said. He said his company would submit a formal proposal to the commission as early as next week. The NRC said it will take as long as its needs to evaluate the proposal, and if approved, inspect each step of the repair. Still, company spokesman Todd Schneider said yesterday that FirstEnergy's plan is to have the plant operating by July. Buying power to replace the output of the reactor will cost $10 million to $15 million per month. The company by law cannot raise its rates. © 2002 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission. © 2001 cleveland.com. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 20 Browns Ferry Unit 3 work sets record By Dennis Sherer Staff Writer April 11, 2002 Electricity began flowing Wednesday from the Unit 3 reactor at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant, just two weeks after the reactor was shut down for refueling and maintenance. It was the quickest refueling outage on record for a nuclear power plant in the United States, according to Tennessee Valley Authority officials. Refueling outages often last more than 30 days. Browns Ferry spokesman Craig Beasley said it took only 14 days and 16 hours to replenish Unit 3's supply of nuclear fuel and perform routine maintenance. "There are a lot of happy folks," he said Wednesday afternoon. "There has been a lot of handshaking going on around the plant today." The previous record for a refueling outage of a power plant reactor in the country was set by Florida Power and Light at its Turkey Point Nuclear Plant south of Miami. That refueling effort, which was completed April 7, took 15 days and 15 hours. Beasley attributed the limited downtime at Browns Ferry to good planning. Four electrical workers were burned about nine hours after the outage began when an arc of electricity erupted from a high-voltage circuit breaker. The arc occurred when a worker placed a safety grounding cable too near an energized portion of the circuit breaker in the turbine room of the power plant near Athens, Beasley said. The injured workers - Fred Pendergrass of Muscle Shoals, Dan Young and David Letson of Florence, and Ed Minyard of Athens are recovering at home after being treated at UAB Hospital in Birmingham, Beasley said. TVA Chairman Glenn McCullough Jr. commended Browns Ferry employees for returning Unit 3 to service so quickly. "Browns Ferry's record-setting performance reaffirms TVA's commitment to excellence in our nuclear operations as well as throughout our business," McCullough said. "The people of Browns Ferry continue to demonstrate they can safely deliver affordable, reliable power to meet the needs of the people, business and industries of the Tennessee Valley." Beasley said the electrical power output of Unit 3 will be gradually increased until it reaches 100 percent. He declined to say when the maximum output will be reached, citing the competitive nature of the electrical power business. "We go through a methodical process with our power ascension program to make sure everything with the unit is within tolerances and specifications before we take it to 100 percent capacity," he said. At 100 percent capacity, the reactor can produce enough electricity to supply 650,000 homes. Construction crews could return to Browns Ferry later this year if TVA opts to restart the Unit 1 reactor. That reactor has been idle since being shut down because of safety concerns in 1985. A TVA committee studying the possible restart reported last month that returning Unit 1 to service was a "technically viable option." TVA directors are awaiting results of environmental and financial studies before deciding if the reactor should be restarted. A decision is expected by late June. If the restart is approved, up to 2,400 temporary construction jobs would be created during a five-year period. It would also create more than 100 permanent jobs at the plant. About 900 people now work at Browns Ferry. The construction phase of the restart would last about five years and cost about $1.7 billion. Shoals elected officials and labor union leaders are hopeful the restart will be approved because of the boost it would provide to the local economy. Opponents, such as the Knoxville, Tenn.-based Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, contend that the restart would force TVA to raise electrical power rates to pay for the project. Dennis Sherer can be reached at 740-5746 or dennis.sherer@timesdaily.com [dennis.sherer@timesdaily.com] . Copyright © 2002 TimesDaily | ***************************************************************** 21 Incident happens on Volgodonsk nuclear power station Pravda.RU Apr, 10 2002 As a result of some technical defect a reactor facility of the Volgodonsk nuclear power station was shutdown. The reactor No 1 was scrammed by its protective system at 5:07 today. The reason for this was a false closure of a shut-off valve on a steam drum of steam generator No 4. All technological systems and the personnel of the station are working normally. Radiation level at the station and within a 30 km zone has not changed and it is normal. The power-generating unit is expected to restart on April 11. Copyright ©1999 by "Pravda.RU [http://www.pravda.ru/] ***************************************************************** 22 Indian Point: Disaster Awaits The New York Observer [2001 THE NEW YORK OBSERVER, L.P.] In a city forever stunned and horribly awakened by the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, there ought to be a new awareness of the ways in which unexpected and “impossible” events can—and do—happen. This is why every New Yorker, provided with the facts, must conclude that the Indian Point 2 and Indian Point 3 nuclear reactors, located just 30 miles north of Manhattan, must be shut down immediately. A meltdown or terrorist attack at Indian Point—both of which are well within the realm of the probable, according to experts—would make Sept. 11 look like a minor tragedy. Twenty million people—including every resident of New York City and those living in Westchester, Orange, Rockland, Putnam, Bergen and Fairfield counties—would have their lives endangered, followed by years of widespread cancer from radiation. Even before Sept. 11, Indian Point was a Chernobyl in the making, with the worst safety record among the country’s 103 nuclear reactors. And as The New York Times’ Bob Herbert pointed out in a recent series of columns about Indian Point, American soldiers found diagrams of U.S. nuclear plants when they searched caves in Afghanistan. Mr. Herbert also noted that nuclear reactors were not built to withstand the impact of a commercial airliner, and that American Airlines Flight 11 flew over Indian Point on its way toward the World Trade Center. Previously and wrongly seen as a “suburban” issue, Indian Point is a catastrophe waiting to happen. City, state and federal officials—including Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Governor George Pataki, andSenators Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton—bear full responsibilityfor averting this disaster now; to do any less is to risk the lives and well-being of those who elected them. They must spend whatever political capital they have and apply public and private pressure on the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has final say over the reactors. If President George Bush is truly concerned for the safety of New Yorkers, who have already lost so many to terrorism, he will immediately call for Indian Point to be shut down. Indian Point is owned by the $10 billion New Orleans–based Entergy Corporation, which bought the two reactors from the New York State Power Authority and Con Edison for about $1.1 billion in 2000 and 2001. Entergy plans to run the reactors until their licenses run out in 2013 and 2025.  Indian Point has been good to Entergy: A company press release states that for the fourth quarter of 2001, “Entergy Nuclear earned $28.9 million, or 13 cents per share, compared to $19.1 million, or 9 cents per share, in fourth quarter 2000. The increase was due primarily to increased revenue resulting from the contribution for the full quarter in 2001 of the Indian Point 2 and Indian Point 3 nuclear units in Buchanan, N.Y., and FitzPatrick nuclear unit in Lycoming, N.Y.” Entergy’s chief executive, J. Wayne Leonard, and its board of directors are naturally averse to taking the billion-dollar write-down they would have to absorb if they closed the plant. But that would be far less expensive than the cost of a nuclear meltdown, which would put Entergy out of business and put an end to Mr. Leonard’s career. What are the arguments against mothballing Indian Point? The plant provides 7 to 8 percent of the electricity consumed in the state and is a significant power source for the city. But shutting it down would notaffect the quality of New Yorkers’ lives in any lasting way. The grid ofpower plants in New England and the lower Hudson Valley, all of which run on coal, would take over. There would be some risk of minor summertime power shortages—including the possibility of sporadic brown-outs—and a 20 percent rise in electric bills, according to The Times. This would be a small price to pay in exchange for knowing that New York would no longer be 30 miles downwind of a profoundly unsafe, poorly managed terrorist target filled with radioactive fuel. And by 2004, several non-nuclear power plants now being built will be able to replace all the power, and then some, currently being generated by Indian Point. Nuclear plants do, of course, create less air pollution than other power sources, though that argumentcollapses when weighed against the fatally toxic pollution that would be released in the event of an attack or accident. Is an accident likely? N.R.C. spokeswoman Diane Screnci told The Times’ Mr. Herbert that the commission categorizes a reactor’s safetyby the colors green, white, yellow and red, with green being the safest, red the least safe. She told him that Indian Point 2 is “currently the only plant with a red finding.” In other words, it’s the most dangerous nuclear plant in the United States. In 2000, an accident at the plant released 20,000gallons of radioactive water into a less secure area of the reactor, and the reactor was closed for a year. Last December, the reactor automatically shut down after an unexpected electrical malfunction. And it’s hardly comforting to learn that four of the plant’s seven control-room crews flunked their annual qualification exams last year when they failed to react properly in accident drills. In one test, the workers took 25 minutes to realize that a valve they thought was open was actually closed. Rather than being fired, the crews were given remedial training. Entergy executives are blasé about the dangers (perhaps because they live in New Orleans); a company spokesman says that any opposition to the plant is a “political stunt.” Apparently they’ve never read the 1982 N.R.C. study which reported that a meltdown at Indian Point 2 could kill 46,000 people immediately and injure 141,000. Entergy’s evacuationplan, which Governor Pataki approved in a severe lapse of judgment, is a joke; it applies to just a 10-mile radius of the plant. The inability tosafely evacuate the much larger vulnerable zone of 50 miles around the plant—including all of New York City—may hold the key for shutting down Indian Point. Evacuation concerns are what doomed Long Island’s Shoreham nuclear plant before it even got running, and it doesn’t take much to imagine the gridlocked roads, bridges and tunnels that would result if news of a meltdown at Indian Point flashed across TV screens. The risks of a disaster at Indian Point far exceed the benefits of keeping the facility operational. Mr. Leonard and Entergy’s board of directors can save their reputations, and their company, by suspending operations atIndian Point and overseeing safe disposal of its nuclear fuel. Meanwhile, Governor Pataki must take a public and principled stand against Indian Point before it’s too late. There is no need for New Yorkers to provideterrorists with another golden opportunity. THE NEW YORK OBSERVER COPYRIGHT © 2002 THE NEW YORK ***************************************************************** 23 Russian nuclear plant closes again - CNN.com - April 10, 2002 [Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear plant.] The Chernobyl tragedy in 1986 was the world's worst civilian nuclear disaster MOSCOW, Russia -- Russia's newest nuclear reactor, the first to open since the 1986 explosion at Chernobyl, has been shut down. The closure -- the reactor's second since it entered service last year -- occurred automatically on Wednesday after a steam valve failed. No excess radiation was recorded at or near the Rostov plant in southern Russia, its spokesman Yegor Obukhov told The Associated Press. The cause of the problem was unclear, and engineers were waiting for the reactor to cool down so they could examine it more closely. The reactor, which took nearly 20 years to build, has been heavily opposed by environmental groups. The Chernobyl accident in Ukraine sent a large radiation cloud over much of Europe and contaminated large areas of then-Soviet Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. More than 4,000 people died. According to the Ukraine Health Ministry 400,000 adults and 1.1 million children are entitled to state aid for illnesses contracted as a result of the disaster. Levels of thyroid cancer in Ukraine and Belarus are abnormally high, and experts are predicting that the incidence of cancer and other disabling diseases will continue to rise for at least another 30 years. The reactor involved in the Chernobyl accident was encased in a huge steel and concrete tomb to prevent more radiation leaking out. The plant's other three reactors continued operating until December 2000, when they were closed down. © 2002 Cable News Network LP, LLLP. ***************************************************************** 24 U.S. finds no widespread corrosion at nuclear plants - 4/11/2002 - ENN.com Thursday, April 11, 2002 By Tom Doggett, Reuters WASHINGTON — A U.S. government-ordered review of more than five dozen nuclear power plants has not found any corrosion in reactor caps similar to that at the Davis-Besse facility in Ohio, a top U.S. energy official said on Wednesday. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) launched an investigation last month after a corroded cavity was found in the reactor vessel head of the 25-year-old plant owned by FirstEnergy Corp . The agency ordered 68 other similar reactors — more than half of the nation's 103 nuclear plants — to look for similar problems. "I am not aware of any other problems they found," said U.S. Energy Undersecretary Robert Card, adding that he had been briefed by NRC officials on the matter. "Thus far, there haven't been any surprises or safety issues in the nuclear plant review," said an NRC spokeswoman. Card, who was attending a meeting of the National Petroleum Council, said the Energy Department was worried that if serious corrosion had been detected, some of these reactors could have been shut down for up to a year. That was because the companies that make the huge metal reactor caps were already behind in filling other orders. He also said the department was worried that shutting down nuclear plants would have caused a spike in natural gas prices, as utilities would be forced to ramp up generation at plants that run on natural gas. "If half the nuclear fleet went down for six months, you'd nearly double the natural gas need. It can't be done," he said. Natural gas provides 15 percent of electricity generation, nuclear power accounts for 20 percent, and coal about 50 percent. During a scheduled refueling outage at the Davis-Besse plant that began Feb. 16, FirstEnergy engineers found boric acid had leaked at the base of several of the control rod nozzles that penetrate the reactor. Boric acid is used in the primary coolant bath surrounding uranium rods in the reactor core. At one of the nozzles, the acid had eaten all the way through the vessel head, which was 6 inches (15 cm) thick. The vessel head is a massive piece of carbon steel 17 feet (5.2 meters) wide that is bolted down on top of the reactor to prevent any radioactive material from escaping. The corrosion was so severe that a stainless steel liner 3/8-inch (1 cm) thick inside the reactor was the only barrier left between the reactor core, which operates under enormous pressure, and the metal shroud surrounding the reactor vessel. FirstEnergy representatives met on Wednesday with officials from the NRC to discuss proposed repairs at the Davis-Besse plant. Agency approval is needed before work could begin. The company wants to cut the most damaged area at the top of the reactor head and cover it with a stainless steel plate. The plate would be 12 to 13 inches in diameter, about five inches thick, and weigh between 300 to 400 pounds. It would be welded in place using robotic equipment. Copyright 2002, Reuters Copyright © 2001 Environmental News Network Inc. ***************************************************************** 25 No uranium discovered in fuel tubes stolen from Lithuania's nuclear plant BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 11, 2002 Vilnius, 11 April: Lithuanian experts have found no nuclear fuel in the parts of nuclear fuel plates found in Ignalina district, eastern Lithuania, last week, local daily said. The Respublika daily reported on Thursday [11 April] that analysis of the zirconium tubes, stolen from the Ignalina nuclear power plant a decade ago, was completed on Wednesday. The examination confirmed the presumption made after the tubes were found that they no longer contained uranium dioxide. Thirty-four zirconium tubes were found in the Ignalina district at the beginning of April. The zirconium tubes, 1.5 metre long, were buried some 30-40 centimetres deep, emitting radiation of 18 micro-roentgen per hour, which is very similar to the natural [background] radiation level... BBC Monitoring/ © BBC ***************************************************************** 26 Anti-nuke Pills 'a Token Gesture' [NewsMax.com] April 10, 2002 Health officials in Maryland plan to hand out 160,000 potassium iodide pills to 80,000 people who live within 10 miles of a nuclear power plant. But critics say a terrorist attack or nuclear accident would affect many more people in a much larger area, Capital News Service reported. "The release will move with the speed of the wind," said Anna Aurilio of an anti-nuclear organization that calls itself Maryland Public Interest Research Group. She said the areas covered "should be more like 50 to 100 miles." Troy Jones, who owns an Internet business selling the pills, agreed. "People will be affected way beyond the 10-mile radius" if a radiation release occurs. "This is just a token gesture by the NRC." Maryland is one of 11 states that requested the pills from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in January. Potassium iodide can help protect against thyroid cancer caused by exposure to radiation but does not guard against the worst effects of radiation. All Rights Reserved © NewsMax.com ***************************************************************** 27 Malay: UN Team Visits Over Uranium allAfrica.com: The Monitor (Kampala) April 11, 2002 Tom Malaba & Agencies Two specialists from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of the United Nations were here last week to verify the radioactive material in uranium that police impounded from Prof. Akisoferi Kisoro of Makerere University Physics department. The specialists came at the invitation of Uganda Police Force. The investigation is part of an earlier case where over Shs 1bn worth of uranium was robbed along Masaka road enroute to Mombasa. "We called in experts to help us verify the radioactive material in the uranium that was impounded from Prof. Kisoro of the physics department," Police Public Relations Officer, Asuman Mugenyi said. He said they could not use Makerere University because it would still be the same person to taste the uranium. Prof. Kisoro, Fred Kisubi and Kalema were arrested two weeks ago and released on police bond as they wait for results of taste. The radioactive material that was impounded by Ugandan authorities contained a significant amount of cobalt-60. Copyright © 2002 The Monitor. ***************************************************************** 28 Radiation Pill Distribution Will Expand (washingtonpost.com) By Raymond McCaffrey Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, April 11, 2002; Page SM01 Potassium iodide pills designed to guard against the effects of radiation will be distributed to all Maryland schools within 10 miles of a nuclear power plant and also made available to residents living in that fallout zone. The distribution policy, worked out by state and local officials in five affected counties, including Calvert and St. Mary's, has not been formally announced. However, Michael J. Sharon, chief of the emergency response division of the Maryland Department of the Environment, confirmed that those officials had agreed on general guidelines for distribution of the pills, and hoped to have the details "nailed down in the next couple of weeks." "We believe we have arrived at a strategy that makes it available to the maximum number of people possible," Sharon said this week. Seventy-five percent of affected Maryland residents live in St. Mary's, Calvert and Dorchester counties -- all within 10 miles of Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, Maryland's only such facility. The rest of those affected live in Harford and Cecil counties, near the Peach Bottom nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. St. Mary's County already has begun distributing pills. That effort, which began two weeks ago, involved delivery of doses to local schools within 10 miles of the facility. The pills also will be distributed to other residents at central locations. On Tuesday, health and emergency management officials in Calvert presented a similar distribution plan to the county commissioners. The proposal, which will begin being implemented later this month, will involve delivery of the doses to schools in the fallout zone. The medication also will be available for residents to pick up at other locations. David Rogers, the county's health officer, explained that a nurse will be available to distribute the pills, which can help prevent thyroid damage, and educate those who pick them up. "This is a very, very safe substance," Rogers said. Affected residents will be able to get the pills on certain dates at certain schools, at the Health Department in Prince Frederick and at the Solomons firehouse. Maryland received roughly 160,000 doses of potassium iodide -- or two doses for each of the 80,000 state residents who live within 10 miles of a reactor. In January, Maryland became the second state to announce that it would accept the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's offer of potassium iodide. Sharon acknowledged then that Maryland's decision was strongly influenced by public reaction to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Like most states, it had advocated evacuating and sheltering residents in response to a nuclear plant emergency, but had not stockpiled potassium iodide, partly in fear that residents would become reliant on a pill offering limited protection. "Evacuation is still our primary method," Sharon said. © 2002 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 29 Nevada Delegation Announces Hundreds of Environmental Groups Supporting Fight Against Nuclear Waste Plan Senator Harry Reid Wednesday, April 10, 2002 WASHINGTON, DC - Today the Nevada Congressional delegation released the names of 47 national organizations and 477 state and local organizations, representing all 50 states and the District of Columbia, that have committed to oppose the Administration's plan to send radioactive waste to Las Vegas, NV. National environmental organizationNevada Delegation Announces Hundreds of Environmental Groups Supporting Fight Against Nuclear Waste Plan Senator Harry Reid Wednesday, April 10, 2002 WASHINGTON, DC - Today the Nevada Congressional delegation released the names of 47 national organizations and 477 state and local organizations, representing all 50 states and the District of Columbia, that have committed to oppose the Administration's plan to send radioactive waste to Las Vegas, NV. National environmental organizations opposed to shipping radioactive waste on America's roads rails and waterways: (47 National Groups) Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, Seattle, Washington Americans for Democratic Action, Washington, DC Center for Safe Energy, Earth Island Institute, Berkeley, California Clean Water Action, Washington, DC Friends of the Earth, Washington, DC Government Accountability Project, Seattle, WA Grandmothers for Peace International, Elk Grove, CA Greenpeace, Washington, DC Honor the Earth, St. Paul, Minnesota Indigenous Environmental Network, Bemidji, MN Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, Takoma Park, Maryland International Association of Fire Fighters, Washington, DC League of United Latin American Citizens, Washington, DC National Environmental Trust, Washington, DC Natural Resources Defense Council, Washington, DC Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Washington, DC Peace Action, Washington, DC Physicians for Social Responsibility, Washington, DC Psychologists for Social Responsibility, Washington, DC Public Citizen, Washington, DC The Safe Energy Communication Council, Washington, DC Sierra Club, Washington, DC U.S. Public Interest Research Group, Washington, DC The Women Legislators' Lobby (WiLL), Washington, DC Women's Action for New Directions (WAND), Washington, DC 20/20 Vision, Washington, DC Statewide & Local environmental and civic organizations opposed to shipping radioactive waste on America's roads rails and waterways: (477 Total groups representing all 50 States and the District of Columbia) Alabama Environmental Council, Birmingham, Alabama Alaska Center for the Environment, Anchorage, Alaska Air, Water, Earth Organization, Lake Havasu City, Arizona Alliance of Atomic Veterans, Topock, Arizona Arizona Citizen Action, Phoenix, AZ Arizona Safe Energy Coalition, Tucson, Arizona Black Mesa Indigenous Support, Flagstaff, AZ DON'T WASTE ARIZONA, INC., Phoenix, Arizona Environmental Justice Action Group, Tucson, AZ Flagstaff Activist Network, Flagstaff, Arizona Flagstaff Opposed to Nuclear Transportation (FONT), Flagstaff, Arizona GE Stockholders Alliance, Tucson, Arizona Sky Island Watch, Tucson, Arizona Southwest Toxic Watch, Tucson, Arizona Student Environmental Action Coalition, SW, Tucson, Arizona The Nuclear Resister, "a chronicle of hope", Tucson, Arizona Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Tucson, Arkansas Arkansas WAND, Little Rock, AR Student Activists that Value the Earth (SAVE), Conroy, Arkansas The Arkansas Public Policy Panel, Little Rock, Arkansas Abalone Alliance, San Francisco, California Alliance for Survival, Costa Mesa, California Americans for a Safe Future, Santa Monica, California The Atomic Mirror, Port Hueneme, CA Berkeley Women in Black, Berkeley, CA Butte Environmental Council, Chico, CA Calaveras County Green Party, Calaveras County, CA California Alliance in Defense of Residential Environments, Sherman Oaks, CA California Communities Against Toxics, Rosamond, California Californians for Radioactive Safeguards, Atherton, California Call to Action, Santa Cruz, CA Committee to Bridge the Gap, Los Angeles, California Conference of Social Justice Coordinatord, Los Angeles, CA Desert Citizens Against Pollution, Lancaster, California Earth Action Network, Los Angeles, California Earth Regeneration Society, Berkeley, CA East Bay Peace Action, Albany, CA EcoBridge, San Francisco, CA El Dorado County Green Party, Placerville, CA Grandmothers for Peace International, Elk Grove, California Grandmothers for Peace, Sacramento Chapter, Sacramento, CA Grandmothers for Peace/San Luis Obispo County Chapter, San Miguel, CA Gray Panthers of LA West, Los Angeles, California Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, San Francisco, CA Green Party, San Bernardino, CA Gray Panthers of Sacramento, Sacramento, CA Healing Global Wounds, Freedom, California HOME - Healing Ourselves and Mother Earth, Tecopa, CA Independent Power Providers, North Fork, California Inland Independent People's Campaign, Claremont, CA Life on Planet Earth, Atascadero, California Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Santa Barbara, CA The Nuclear Democracy Network, Bolinas, CA Nuclear Guardianship Project, Berkeley, CA Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Commission, Arcata, CA Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, Occidental, CA People Against Radioactive Dumping, Needles, CA Physicians for Social Responsibility - Santa Monica, Santa Monica, CA Bonnie Raitt, ARIA Foundation, Los Angeles, CA Redwood Alliance & REEI, Arcata, California Sacramento Green Party, Sacramento, CA SF-Bay Area Physicians for Social Responsibility, San Francisco, CA San Luis Obispo GREEN Party, San Luis Obispo, CA San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, San Luis Obispo, CA Save Ward Valley, Needles, California Social Justice Center of Marin, Fairfax, CA Southern California Abolition 2000, Santa Monica, CA Students for Social Responsibility, California Polytechnic Institute, San Luis Obispo, CA The Green Party of Santa Barbara County, Santa Barbara, California Tri-Valley CAREs (Citizens Against a Radioactive Environment), Livermore, CA Women's Energy Matters, Berkeley, CA Women For - Orange County Chapter, Laguna Beach, California American Friends Service Committee, Colorado Office, Denver, Colorado Citizens for Peace in Space, Colorado Springs, CO Colorado Clean Water Action, Denver, CO Colorado Coalition for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Denver, CO Global Response, Boulder, CO Peace and Justice Task Force, United Church of Christ, Denver, CO Physicians for Social Responsibility, Denver, CO Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, Boulder, Colorado The Colorado Environmental Seminars, Denver, Colorado Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Colorado, Boulder, Colorado Citizens Awareness Network , CT Chapter, Haddam, Connecticut Citizens Regulatory Commission, Waterford, Connecticut Connecticut Green Party, Hartford, Connecticut Connecticut Opposed to Waste, Broad Brook, Connecticut Don't Waste Connecticut, New Haven, CT E3 (Earth, Equality, Education), Middletown, Connecticut Earth Challenge, Inc., New Haven, Connecticut Peoples Action for Clean Energy (PACE), Canton, CT Stonington Chapter of the Connecticut Green Party, Stonington, CT Toxics Action Center, West Hartford, Connecticut Green Delaware, Port Penn, Delaware Students for the Environment, University of Delaware, Newark, DE Environmental and Peace Education Center, Fort Myers, Florida Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice, Gainesville, Florida Lower Florida Keys Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Summerland Key, Florida Action for a Clean Environment, Alto, Georgia Campaign for a Prosperous Georgia, Savannah, GA Food Not Bombs, Atlanta GA Georgians Against Nuclear Energy, Atlanta, Georgia Grandmothers for Peace/Southeast Chapter, Alpharetta, GA Physicians for Social Responsibility - Atlanta, Atlanta, GA Women's Action for New Directions/Atlanta, Atlanta, GA Irradiation Free Food Hawaii, Big Island of Hawaii, Hawaii Life of the Land, Honolulu, HI Environmental Defense Institute, Troy, Idaho Chicago Media Watch, Chicago, Illinois Chicago Greens, Chicago, IL Coalition for Nuclear Justice, Brookport, IL Committee for New Priorities, Chicago, IL Environmental Concerns Organization (E.C.O.), DePaul University, Chicago, IL Illinois Student Environmental Network, Urbana, IL Lake County Conservation Alliance, Grayslake, IL Lake County Green Party, Mundelein, IL Northwestern University Students for Ecological and Environmental Development (SEED), Evanston, IL Nuclear Energy Information Service, Evanston, Illinois Nuclear-Free Great Lakes Campaign, Evanston, IL Prairie Alliance, Dahinda, IL Regional Association of Concerned Environmentalists, Brookport, IL Rogers Park Greens, Chicago, IL USASC Justice and Peace Office, Red Bud, IL Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, Indianapolis, Indiana Community Times, West Lafayette, IN Heartwood, Bloomington, IN Michiana Earth Day, South Bend, IN Valley Watch, Inc., Evansville, Indiana Integrative Educational Systems, Ames, Iowa EarthCare, Des Moines, IA Iowa Citizen Action Network, Des Moines, IA Iowa Renewable Energy Association, Muscatine, IA Iowa Sustainable Energy for Economic Development (SEED) Coalition, Iowa City, IA Enviro-Health Concerns, Wichita, Kansas The Southwind Group, Lawrence, Kansas Appalachia Science in the Public Interest, Mt. Vernon, Kentucky Chemical Weapons Working Group, Berea, KY Coalition for Health Concern, Benton, KY Common Ground, Berea, KY Kentucky Environmental Foundation, Berea, KY Non-Stockpile Chemical Weapons Citizen Coalition, Berea, KY Yggdrasil Institute, Georgetown, KY Safe Schools, Lafeyette, Louisiana Alliance for Affordable Energy, New Orleans, LA Cheaper, Safer Power, Portland, Maine Earth Day Commitment, Edgecomb, Maine Friends of the Coast Opposing Nuclear Pollution, Wiscasset, ME Woolwich Greens, Woolwich, ME Alternative Press Center, Baltimore, Maryland DC Solar, College Park, Maryland Maryland Safe Energy Coalition, Baltimore, MD Nuclear Free Takoma Park Committee, Takoma Park, MD SERV, Kensington, MD Citizen Awareness Network, Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts Don't Waste Massachusetts, Duxbury, Massachusetts Massachusetts Citizens For Safe Energy, Boston, Massachusetts MetroWest WAND, Hopkinton and Woodville, MA Post Cassini Flyby News, Wendell Depot, MA WAND and Mass Action for Women, Natick, MA Women's Action for New Directions, Amesbury, MA Women's Action for New Directions, Mt. Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA Women's Action for New Directions of Western Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts Bertha Cappan Reynolds Society/Social Workers for Justice Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan BOND-Border Opposes Nuclear Dump, Temperance, MI Chernobyl Children's Project, Kalamazoo, Michigan Citizens for a Healthy Planet, Emmett, Michigan Citizens for Environmental Protection, Niles, Michigan Citizens' Resistance at Fermi Two, Monroe, MI Coalition for a Nuclear Free Great Lakes, Monroe, MI Don't Waste Michigan, Grand Rapids, Michigan EnvOrg Student Environmental Organization, Kalamazoo, Michigan Kalamazoo Area Coalition for Peace and Justice, Kalamazoo, Michigan Leonard Peltier Support Group, Pavilion Township, Michigan Non-Violent Student Organization, Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, Michigan Northwoods Wilderness Recovery, Marquette, MI Palisades Watch, Kalamazoo, Michigan People's Food Co-Op, Kalamazoo, Michigan Positives for Peace and Environmental Justice, Niles, MI Professional Inventor's Alliance, Grand Blanc, Michigan Radiological Evaluation & Action Project, Great Lakes , Ewen, MI Students for a Sustainable Earth, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan West Michigan Environmental Action Council, Grand Rapids, Michigan Women's Action for New Directions, Ann Arbor, MI Women's Action for New Directions-Metro Detroit, Southfield, MI Clean Water Action Alliance of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota Communities United for Responsible Energy, Lake City/Frontenac, Minnesota Duluth-Superior FOR, Duluth, MN Mankato Area Environmentalists, Mankato, MN MN-WEB (Minnesota Women's Earth Brigade), Minneapolis, MN Minnesotans for an Energy-Efficient Economy, Saint Paul, Minnesota Mississippi Corridor Neighborhood Coalition, Minneapolis, MN North American Water Office, Lake Elmo, Minnesota Prairie Island Coalition, Lake Elmo, Minnesota Sunrise Alternatives, Cannon Falls, MN Kansas City Greens, Kansas City, Missouri Mid-Missouri Peaceworks, Columbia, MO Mississippi River Basin Alliance, St. Louis, MO Missouri Coalition for the Environment, St. Louis, Missouri Missoula Women for Peace, Missoula, Montana Native Forest Network -- West, Missoula, Montana Women's Action for New Directions, Missoula, MT Nebraskans for Peace, Lincoln, Nebraska South Salt Creek Community Organization, Lincoln, NE Alliance of Atomic Veterans, Atomic Workers Division, Las Vegas, NV Alliance for Worker's Rights, Reno, Nevada Campaign for Nevada's Future, Las Vegas, NV Citizen Alert, Las Vegas, Nevada Great Basin Mine Watch, Reno, NV Nevada Desert Experience, Las Vegas, Nevada Nevada Empowered Women's Project, Reno, Nevada Nevada Green Party, Reno, NV Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force, Las Vegas, Nevada Nevada Wilderness Project, Reno, NV Nuclear Risk Management For Native Communities, Duckwater, NV Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada Public Resource Associates, Reno, Nevada Rural Alliance For Military Accountability, Reno, Nevada Truckee River Yacht Club, Reno, Nevada Western Shoshone Defense Project, Crescent Valley, NV Yucca Mountain Raggers, Las Vegas, NV New Hampshire Peace Action, Concord, New Hampshire Seacoast Anti-Pollution League, Portsmouth, NH Coalition Against Toxics, Marlton, New Jersey Coalition for Peace & Justice, Cape May, New Jersey Grass Roots Environmental Organization of New Jersey, Flanders, New Jersey Green Party of New Jersey, Trenton, New Jersey Jersey Shore Nuclear Watch, Brick, NJ NJ/NY Environmental Watch, Elizabeth, NJ Oyster Creek Nuclear Watch, Island Heights, New Jersey Stockton Peace Action, Richard Stockton College, Pomona, NJ UNPLUG Salem, Linwood, NJ Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice, Albuquerque, New Mexico Citizen Action of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM Citizens for Alternatives to Radioactive Dumping, Albuquerque, NM Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, Santa Fe, NM Los Alamos Study Group, Santa Fe, NM Nuclear Watch of New Mexico, Santa Fe, NM Peace Action New Mexico, Santa Fe, New Mexico Progressive Student Alliance of the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico Southwest Research and Information Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico Tribal Environmental Watch Alliance, Espanola, NM Water Information Network, Albuquerque, NM Alliance to Close Indian Point, Ossining, New York Bronx Greens, Bronx, NY Chenango North Energy Awareness Group, South Plymouth, New York Citizens Awareness Network/Central New York, Syracuse, New York Citizens' Environmental Coalition, Albany, NY Coalition on West Valley Nuclear Wastes, Concord, NY Environmental Advocates, Albany, New York EnviroVideo, Tilden, NY Fish Unlimited, Shelter Island, New York Genesee Valley-Rochester Greens, Rochester, NY Long Island SHAD, Huntington, NY Metro New York Peace Action Council, New York, New York New York City WAND, New York, NY New York City Citizen's Awareness Network, Brooklyn, NY New York State Greens/Green Party, Flushing, NY NGO Committee on Disarmament, New York, NY No Escape, Peekskill, NY Nuclear Free New York, Huntington, New York Peconic Green Party, Eastern Long Island, NY Peoples Video Network, New York, New York Physicians for Life, Watermill, NY STAR (Standing for Truth About Radiation), East Hampton, New York Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC), Syracuse, NY Sustainable Energy Alliance of Long Island, Bridgehampton, NY Syracuse Food Not Bombs, Syracuse, New York Syracuse Nuclear Action Group, Syracuse, New York Temple Beth El Social Action Committee, Tonawanda, NY UFT/PS 108 Chapter, Brooklyn, NY Utica Citizens in Action, Utica, NY War & Peace Foundation, New York, New York WESPAC (Westchester People's Action Coalition), White Plains, NY Western New York Peace Center, Working Group on Disarmament, Buffalo, NY Working Group on Disarmament of the Western New York Peace Center, Buffalo, New York Women's Action for New Directions, Brooklyn, NY Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, NY Metro, New York, New York Active Students for a Healthy Envronment, Asheville, North Carolina Anson County Citizens Against Chemical Toxins in Underground Storage (CACTUS), Clemmons, NC Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Glendale Springs, North Carolina Chapel Hill Greens Party, Chapel Hill, NC Communities for Sustainable Forestry, Union Mills, NC Haywood Peace Fellowship, Waynesville, NC Long Branch Environmental Education Center, Leicester, North Carolina NC Citizens Research Group, Inc., Durham, NC North Carolina Waste Awareness and Reduction Network, Raleigh-Durham, NC Protect All Children's Environment, Marion, NC Triangle Chapter Physicians for Social Responsibility, Raleigh, NC North Dakota Clean Water Action, Fargo, North Dakota Citizens Protecting Ohio (C-Pro), Bexley, Ohio Cleveland Peace Action, Cleveland, OH Coalition for a Safe Environment, Toledo, OH Congress of the Greens/Green Party USA, Cleveland, OH Earth Day Coalition, Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio Environmental Health Watch, Cleveland, OH Green Environmental Coalition, Yellow Springs, OH Green Party of Cuyahoga County, Cleveland, OH Green Party of Ohio, Cleveland, OH HELP the Environment, Walbridge, OH Ohio Citizen Action, Cleveland, OH Ohio Greens Anti-Nuclear Organizing Committee, Cleveland, OH Toledo Coalition for Safe Energy, Toledo, OH Walk Across America for Mother Earth, Columbus, Ohio Women Speak out for Peace & Justice, Women's Int'l League for Peace & Freedom, Cleveland Branch Citizens Action for Safe Energy, Claremore, OK Coalition for Environmental Awareness, Newkirk, OK Earth Concerns of OK (ECO), Tulsa, Oklahoma EcoLaw Institute, Tahlequah, OK National Environmental Coalition of Native Americans, Prague, Oklahoma Oklahoma Toxics Campaign, Guthrie, OK Oklahomans United, Oklahoma City, OK OUr Earth, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK Student Action Network, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK Center for Energy Research, Salem, Oregon Columbia Riverkeeper, Hood River, OR Don't Waste Oregon, Boring, Oregon HANFORD WATCH, Portland, Oregon Indigenous Support Coalition of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon Northwest Environmental Advocates, Portland, Oregon Northwest Veterans for Peace, Milwaukie, Oregon Nuclear Free America, Salem, OR Oregon Conservancy Foundation, Portland, OR Oregon Peaceworks, Salem, Oregon Pacific Party of Oregon (Greens), Portland, Oregon Southern Oregon Forest Coalition, Medford, OR Activists' Center for Training In Organizing and Networking (ACTION), Philadelphia, PA Allegheny Green Party, Strattonville, Pennsylvania Central Pennsylvania Citizens for Survival, State College, Pennsylvania Citizen Power, Pittsburgh, PA Clean Air Council, Philadelphia, PA Communities for Sustainable Forestry, Kane, PA Concerned Citizens for SNEC Safety, Six Mile Run, PA Eco-Action, Penn State University Environmental Coalition on Nuclear Power, State College, Pennsylvania Green Party of Pennsylvania, Lancaster, Pennsylvania Greens of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania McKean County Citizens Against Nuclear Waste, Bradford, PA No Nukes, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Northeast Pa. Audubon Society, Honesdale, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Citizen Action Network, Reading, PA Pennsylvania Consumers Action Network, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Environmental Network, Blossburg, PA Philadelphia Solar Energy Association (PSEA), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania PROACT, Kane, PA R.E.S.C.U.E., Nicholson, Pennsylvania Stop the Organizations Raping Mankind, Seneca, PA Three Mile Island Alert, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Voices of Central Pennsylvania, State College, Pennsylvania Women in Black, Lancaster Group, Lancaster, Pennsylvania Women's International League for Peace and Freedom-Main Line Branch, Haverford, PA Appalachian Mountain Club, Providence, Rhode Island Citizen's League for Environmental Action and Recovery (CLEAR), Manville, Rhode Island Clean Water Action, Providence, RI Carolina Peace Resource Center, Columbia, South Carolina Bison Land Resource Center, Brookings, South Dakota Coalition for a Healthy Environment, Knoxville, Tennessee Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, Oak Ridge, Tennessee Green Party of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN Physicians for Social Responsisbility, Knoxville, Tennessee Tennessee Citizen Action, Nashville, TN Bastrop County Environmental Network, Bastrop, Texas Border Environmental Network, Alpine, Texas Chambers Appraisal Service, Odessa, Texas Downwinders at Risk, Duncanville, TX El Paso Chapter, National Lawyer's Guild, El Paso, Texas Grandmothers and Mothers Alliance for the Future, Austin, Texas Mothers Organized to Stop Environmental Sins (MOSES), Dallas, Texas Peace Farm, Amarillo, TX SEED Coalition, Austin, Texas Senior Citizens Alliance of Tarrant County, Political Action Committee, Ft. Worth, TX Sierra Blanca Legal Defense Fund, Sierra Blanca, Texas Southwest Workers Union, San Antonio, TX STAND (Serious Texans Against Nuclear Dumping), Amarillo, Texas Texas Alliance for Human Needs, Austin, TX Citizens Against Radioactive Waste in Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah Escalante Wilderness Project, Escalante, UT Families Against Incinerator Risk, Salt Lake City, UT HEAL Utah, Salt Lake City, UT Shundahai Network, Salt Lake City, UT Utah Peace Test, Salt Lake City, UT Native Forest Network, Eastern North America, Burlington, Vermont New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution, Brattleboro, Vermont Peace and Justice Center, Burlington, VT Rural Vermont, Montpelier, VT Solar Action for Vermont, Townsend, Vermont Vermont Citizens Awareness Network, Dummerston, VT Earth Lodge/Gray Panthers, Manassas Park, Virginia Nurses.Net, Woodbridge, VA Taking Responsibility for the Earth and the Environment, Blacksburg, Virginia Virginia Consumer Action, Virginia Environmental Center, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington HEAL (Hanford Education Action League), Spokane, Washington Heart of America Northwest, Seattle, WA Mangrove Action Project, Port Angeles, WA The Radioactivist Campaign, Belfair, WA Waste Action Project, Seattle, Washington Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, Washington, DC Power Shift, Washington, DC Proposition One Committee, Washington, DC Voices Opposed to Environmental Racism, Washington, DC Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Huntington, West Virginia West Virginia Citizen Action Group, Charleston, WV Grandmothers for Peace/Northland Chapter, Superior, WI Indigenous Law Students Association, Madison, WI Mining Impact Coalition of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin Nukewatch, Luck, Wisconsin Wisconsin Green Party, Sun Prairie, Wisconsin Powder River Basin Resource Council, Douglas, Wyoming Wyoming Outdoor Council, Lander, Wyoming Wyoming Peace Initiatives, Cheyenne, WY Supporting documentation: 1. March 26, 2002 letter to the U.S. Senate from major national environmental, consumer and safe energy organizations urging Senators to uphold Nevada's veto of DOE's "premature and technically unfounded recommendation in favor of the Yucca Mountain site." 2. January 29, 2002 letter to the U.S. Congress about the DOE Inspector General report on alleged conflict of interest involving the Yucca Mountain Project's law firm, Winston and Strawn. 3. December 14, 2000 letter to Energy Secretary Richardson regarding alleged bias by DOE Yucca Mountain Project contractor TRW, Inc. in the preparation of the "Yucca Mountain Site Recommendation Considerations Report". 4. May 1, 2000 letter to U.S. Senators urging them to sustain President Clinton's veto of S. 1287. 5. Policy Statement Adopted by the Governing Council of the American Public Health Association on November 10, 1999, as reported in American Journal of Public Health, March 2000, Vol. 90, No. 3, page 461: "Declare Proposed National Permanent Nuclear Waste Repository Site Unsafe.". 6. December 12, 1998 "Petition to the Secretary of Energy for Disqualification of Yucca Mountain from Consideration as a Nuclear Waste Repository". 7. List of 129 environmental, religious, and citizen organizations against S. 104 (2/13/97). 8. Letters to US Senators and Representatives on HR 1020, January 8, 1997. 9. April 16, 1996 Letter to Hon. Robert Dole, Majority Leader, United States Senate. 10. Letter to Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and US Representatives on HR 1020, November 8, 1995. Copies of these and additional supporting documents are available upon request. Revised April 9, 2002, by Kevin Kamps, Nuclear Information & Resource Service, 202.328.0002. ***************************************************************** 30 Abraham Wants Congress Vote On Nev. Nuclear Dump Site Soon Wed Apr 10, 9:15 AM ET By Bryan Lee OF DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The Bush administration will submit a formal request for Congress to act quickly to override the state of Nevada 's statutory veto of a planned nuclear waste repository, U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham (news - web sites) told reporters Tuesday. The official request will occur Tuesday or Wednesday, Abraham said in meeting with reporters in the Capitol. "Our view is the time has come," Abraham said, noting that the Energy Department has spent $4 billion over two decades studying the proposed repository site at Yucca Mountain, Nev., some 90 miles from Las Vegas . In February, President Bush (news - web sites) accepted Abraham's recommendation to develop the Yucca Mountain waste site, triggering a 45-day timetable for the state to exercise its veto right under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn, a Republican, signed the veto Friday and submitted it to Congress this week, triggering a 90-day deadline for the U.S. House and U.S. Senate to either affirm or override the state's veto. Abraham spoke as Guinn was on Capitol Hill meeting with members of Congress asking them to sustain the state's veto. Guinn and other Nevada lawmakers seized on a recent train derailment near Washington , D.C ., involving volatile propane gas to highlight what they say is the danger of shipping nuclear waste to Nevada . The U.S. nuclear power sector is anxious to ship to Nevada more than 40,000 metric tons of highly radioactive spent-fuel waste now stored at more than 100 nuclear power plants in more than 30 states. A nearly equal amount of high-level nuclear waste generated by the U.S. nuclear weapons program is also slated for storage at the repository. Opponents of storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain hope to pick up the votes they need to stop the project by illustrating how the dangerous material will be shipped, primarily by rail, through thousands of communities that would otherwise not be at risk of an accident involving nuclear materials. Yucca Mountain advocates are highlighting the safety record of nuclear waste transport to counter the campaign. Majorities in both House and Senate must vote to override the veto if the Energy Department is to take the next step in developing the repository: seeking an operating license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Since the proposed facility still must receive an NRC license, an override of Nevada 's veto doesn't guarantee the repository will be built, Abraham said. "We've done the research, now let's let the experts make a final decision," Abraham said. "The logical step is to let the objective, neutral experts at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission make a final decision of whether or not the project should go ahead." The House is widely expected to vote to override the state's veto by a comfortable margin. The vote in the Senate is expected to be much closer. Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle, D-S.D., who opposes Yucca Mountain, has indicated in recent weeks he will need a sizable number of Republican votes to sustain the state's veto. "I can say that we have well over 30 (Democratic) votes right now in opposition, and I hope (Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.) can match those votes on his ( Republican) side," Daschle told reporters Tuesday. Previously, Daschle indicated 29 Republicans are expected to vote to send nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain. That accounting would require 21 Democrats vote with those Republicans to override the state's veto. But it is highly unlikely that all of the remaining 20 Republicans will vote against Yucca Mountain. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said Tuesday he has introduced a Senate resolution approving Yucca Mountain for the development of a centralized storage facility for high-level radioactive waste. The announcement came after Daschle told reporters he would "strongly" urge his colleagues not to offer a Yucca Mountain legislative proposal. Daschle ordinarily could use his authority as majority leader to block the Yucca Mountain vote. But the Nuclear Waste Policy Act allows any senator to bypass the majority leader and call for a vote on the state's veto. Bingaman said it was his "duty" as chairman of the Senate Energy Committee to move the Yucca Mountain site-selection process forward. "Once we have finished the energy bill, our committee will hold hearings that will fairly and thoughtfully examine all sides of this important issue," Bingaman said. Given the protracted Senate energy bill debate and Bingaman's plans for hearings on the matter, it would appear the only hope for Abraham's request for quick congressional action lies with the House. -By Bryan Lee, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6647; Bryan.Lee@dowjones.com Copyright © 2002 Dow Jones. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 31 Incline woman donates to Yucca Mountain battle Nevada Appeal April 11, 2002 Wealthy philanthropist Dorothy Lemelson, left, talks with Nevada Assemblyman David Parks, D-Las Vegas, center, and Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, on Wednesday at the Legislative Building. Cathleen Allison photo by staff reports An Incline Village woman handed the state of Nevada a $75,000 check on Wednesday to help fight the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump. "The storage of nuclear waste threatens all of us," Dorothy Lemelson told state legislators. Lemelson's donation is the largest contribution from an individual yet received for the state's effort to prevent Congress from locating the high-level nuclear waste dump in Southern Nevada. But Gov. Kenny Guinn said it's far from the only contribution. "We are receiving numerous checks like this," he said holding up another donation of $200 he received. Bob Loux of the state Nuclear Projects Office said he has received hundreds of inquiries about donating money to the cause. Loux said there were some donations earlier, but the real flood started when Guinn issued a plea for help during a Monday press conference. He could not say how much money is rolling in, since some of it is from credit cards and they haven't cleared the bank. Guinn established the Nevada Protection Fund during his 2001 State of the State Address. He has asked Nevada's residents and other governments to contribute. Brown & Partners Advertising and Public Relations was retained last fall to create a national public information campaign to educate people in other states of the risks of transporting nuclear waste. You can help Send donations to: Nevada Protection Fund 1802 N. Carson St. Suite 252 Carson City, NV 89701 Make checks payable to the Governor's Protection Fund or use a credit card to donate online www.state.nv.us./nucwaste Copyright Nevada Appeal. ***************************************************************** 32 Perma-Fix Becomes First Company to Treat Radioactively Contaminated Liquid Elemental Mercury Waste PR Newswire - USA; Apr 10, 2002 Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc. (Germany: PES.BE) today announced that it has completed successful treatment of radioactively contaminated liquid elemental mercury waste, which has been accomplished through proprietary technologies, developed in cooperation with ADA Technologies, Inc. Much of this waste has been in storage since the early Cold War, awaiting a treatment methodology that would render the waste acceptable for disposal. Since the early 1950s, mercury has been widely used throughout the Department of Energy (DOE) complex for activities associated with the production of weapons and various research and development projects. The legacy is more than 50,000 cubic meters of low-level radioactive and transuranic wastes co-contaminated with mercury. Radioactively contaminated mercury wastes require complex treatment processes that meet the requirements of federal regulations and disposal site criteria. Perma-Fix and ADA have partnered to address the different types of legacy mercury wastes so that the government and commercial sectors will have a safe and proven means to dispose of these wastes. The availability of this elemental treatment system offers the government and commercial sectors a breakthrough treatment option for this problematic waste stream. Dr. Louis F. Centofanti, Perma-Fix chairman and chief executive officer, commented, "We are excited to begin this treatment process that will support the DOE's effort to clean up legacy waste generated at sites throughout the United States. This new treatment technology expands our capabilities and is another example of how Perma-Fix is working diligently to commercialize technologies to address such problematic waste streams, existing at government and industrial facilities." Cliff Brown, President of ADA Technologies, stated, "Aligning ourselves with Perma-Fix, enables ADA to implement our breakthrough technologies with the support of one of the foremost waste treatment companies in the U.S. Importantly, we foresee tremendous opportunity for future technologies, which we are currently developing in cooperation with Perma-Fix." ADA Technologies, based in Littleton, Colorado, is a leading developer of commercial environmental technologies, which assist with waste cleanup and resource conservation. Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc. is a national environmental services company, providing unique mixed waste and industrial waste management services. The Company has increased its focus on the nuclear services segment, which provides radioactive and mixed waste treatment services to hospitals, research laboratories and institutions, numerous federal agencies including the Departments of Energy and Defense and nuclear utilities. The industrial services segment provides hazardous and non-hazardous waste treatment services for a diverse group of customers including Fortune 500 companies, numerous federal, state and local agencies and thousands of smaller clients. The company operates nine major waste treatment facilities across the country. This press release contains "forward-looking statements" which are based largely on the company's expectations and are subject to various business risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the company's control. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the information concerning possible or assumed treatment capabilities, viability of this mercury treatment technology, commercializing technologies to solve problematic waste streams and the Company's support of DOE's efforts to clean up legacy waste. These forward-looking statements are intended to qualify for the safe harbors from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. While the company believes the expectations reflected in this news release are reasonable, it can give no assurance such expectations will prove to be correct. There are a variety of factors which could cause future outcomes to differ materially from those described in this release, including without limitation, future economic conditions, industry conditions, competitive pressures, the ability of the company to apply and market its technologies, or the DOE's failure to deliver waste as anticipated. The company makes no commitment to disclose any revisions to forward-looking statements, or any facts, events or circumstances after the date hereof that bear upon forward-looking statements. Please visit us on the World Wide Web at http://www.perma-fix.com. http://tbutton.prnewswire.com/prn/11690X81552619 Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc. Contact: Dr. Louis F. Centofanti, Chairman and CEO of Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc., +1-404-847-9990; or Investor Relations, Stan Altschuler or David Waldman, both of Strategic Growth International, Inc., +1-516-829-7111, or info@sgi-ir.com, for Perma-Fix; or European Investor Relations, Herbert Strauss, +011-43676-43676-77, or herbert@eu-ir.com, for Perma-Fix; or Media Relations, Stephanie Stern, sstern@sternco.com, or Stan Froelich, sfroelich@sternco.com, +1-212-888-0044, for Perma-Fix Website: http://www.perma-fix.com/ ***************************************************************** 33 L.A. City Council Orders Study at Bradley Landfill April 10, 2002 Talk about itE-mail storyPrint LOS ANGELES Council Orders Study at Bradley Landfill Safety: Effect of radioactive waste dumped at Sun Valley site will be examined. By PATRICK McGREEVY, TIMES STAFF WRITER The Los Angeles City Council ordered a study Tuesday into whether low-level radioactive waste was dumped at the Bradley Landfill and whether it presents a health hazard, even as the dump operator downplayed the problem. The council also separately agreed to launch a study of alternatives to expanding the Sunshine Canyon Landfill into Granada Hills. The Bradley Landfill issue stems from a report last week by the state Integrated Waste Management Board that Rocketdyne's Santa Susana Field Laboratory disposed of low-level radioactive waste in the Sun Valley dump without the knowledge of state or local regulators or the landfill operator. The material dumped at Bradley during the last decade was mostly concrete, dirt, asphalt and other demolition debris. It was checked separately for radiation by Rocketdyne, Oakridge Institute of Science and Education, the state Health Services Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, said Doug Corcoran, district manager for Waste Management Inc., which runs the landfill. "Each one of those checks confirmed that the materials could be released for unrestricted use," Corcoran told the council. City inspectors went to the landfill Monday and determined that measuring devices aimed at keeping radioactive waste out of the dump were working. "We found no violations of any permit requirements," said Gary Gero, assistant general manager of the city Department of Environmental Affairs. The council also asked the city Sanitation Bureau to study expansion alternatives for Sunshine Canyon, including a plan to send the waste by rail to landfills in remote desert areas. The report is to be completed within 60 days. Councilman Hal Bernson sought the study after the city rejected an incomplete application by Browning Ferris Industries for an operating permit at the expanded landfill. "We are happy [the city is] doing this study, because it's going to show what previous studies have, that anything else is going to be extremely more expensive and not as environmentally sound," said Browning Ferris spokesman Arnie Berghoff. Copyright 2002 Los Angeles Times ***************************************************************** 34 Guinn sends YMP debate to Congress Pahrump Valley Times By HENRY BREAN, Managing EditorApril 10, 2002 Governor vetoes Bush endorsement of nuclear waste repository in Nye The long fight over the Yucca Mountain Project could end on Capitol Hill later this year, perhaps in as little as 90 days. Gov. Kenny Guinn moved the battle to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on Monday, when he signed a "notice of disapproval" that essentially serves as a veto of President Bush's Feb. 15 decision to build a national nuclear waste repository in Nye County. It will take joint resolution from Congress to override Guinn's veto, which represents the first time in history that a governor has vetoed a presidential decision. The governor was granted such special authority under the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the same document that gave birth to the Yucca Mountain Project. The House and the Senate reconvened Tuesday and have 90 legislative days to act on Guinn's notice. If the veto is sustained by a majority vote in either the House or the Senate or no action is taken within 90 legislative days, the president's decision will fail. Guinn and members of Nevada's congressional delegation continue to rally support on Capitol Hill, but they concede that victory appears unlikely. No one is giving up, however. Guinn delivered a 10-minute address Monday at UNLV's Tam Alumni Center before boarding a private flight to Washington, D.C. During the address, he told the audience of reporters and state leaders that the repository "is not inevitable. Yucca Mountain is no bargaining chip, and, so long as I am governor, it will never become one. "Yucca Mountain is not safe," Guinn said. "It is not suitable, and we will expose the Department of Energy's dirty little secrets about Yucca Mountain." Along with his notice of disapproval, which was submitted just days before the statutory deadline for a veto, Guinn also submitted a 10-page statement to Congress. In it, he outlines the nuclear burden Nevada has already had to bear for the federal government. For almost 50 years, the Nevada Test Site served as the nation's proving ground for nuclear weapons. More than 900 nuclear devices were detonated in Nye County from 1945 to 1992, leaving an untold quantity of radioactive contamination and causing serious - and in many cases, fatal - health problems for test site workers and some off-site residents. In addition to that, Guinn noted that the test site currently serves as a dumping ground for millions of tons of low-level radioactive waste and other hazardous materials from federal facilities across the country. Nevada leaders and other opponents of the project are also launching numerous legal challenges to Yucca Mountain that, should Guinn's veto fail, may serve to at least delay construction of the repository. Assuming the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approves a license for the facility, construction could begin as early as 2006 and waste shipments could start to arrive in 2010. Yucca Mountain is a ridge of volcanic rock located roughly 20 miles from the Nye County communities of Beatty and Amargosa Valley. Billions of dollars have been spent over the past two decades to study the site's suitability as a permanent storage facility for 77,000 metric tons of high-level radioactive waste from more than 100 nuclear reactor sites and federal facilities across the county. Transportation figures to play a key role in the fight against the project. Most of the waste destined for Yucca Mountain would come from east of the Mississippi River, and some are predicting that shipments will have to pass through as many as 43 states. Congressional representatives from those states can expected an earful from opponents of the project about the risks associated with transporting nuclear waste. ©Pahrump Valley Times 2002 ***************************************************************** 35 Canon City spared toxic dirt Denver Post.com Future shipments possible from N.J. site By Kit Miniclier> [kminiclier@denverpost.com ] Denver Post Staff Writer --> Thursday, April 11, 2002 - The good news, for protesters, is that 30,000 tons of toxic dirt from New Jersey that was originally destined for the Cotter Corp. Uranium mill on the edge of Can~on City will probably go to a storage site in Utah instead. However Cotter, Colorado health officials and the federal Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that the remaining 440,000 tons of toxic dirt is still destined for Ca~non City, as soon as the company can meet requirements of a new law signed last week by Gov. Bill Owens. The image of hundreds of thousands of tons of toxic dirt being shipped from one federal Superfund site in Bergen County, N.J., to another Superfund site at Can~on City is difficult for Sharyn Cunningham of Colorado Citizens Against Toxic Waste to understand. Cunningham is also concerned about the content of the dirt, from two chemical companies, and worries that the storage site "is directly across the street from a large housing development of $150,000 to $500,000 homes that were built while Cotter was dormant." In order to keep the cleanup in New Jersey going, the Army Corps of Engineers asked Envirocare of Utah Corp. to take 30,000 tons at its site at Clive, Utah. The ground at the site is contaminated with thorium, a radioactive mineral used in the manufacture of gas lanterns. Last Friday, Owens signed a bill requiring two public meetings and state approval before a Can~on City company could accept the soil. Cleanup efforts at the Maywood site have been ongoing since 1984 at a cost of about $184 million. In this final phase of the project, federal officials believe 470,000 tons of toxic dirt must be disposed of. "Cotter sits uphill, upwind and upstream from our city. We feel if they add more (toxic waste) to it, the likelihood of more contamination seeping out is high," Cunningham said. Her group was founded March 7. She's heard it may take 7 or 8 years to ship the dirt to Colorado by rail and then move it by truck to the site. "Cotter has room for 1.8 million tons of toxic dirt," said vice president Rich Ziegler. Cotter began producing uranium in the 1950s, and has produced it intermittently ever since. Fremont County, Florence and Can~on City sought a six-month delay in the shipment last month. The Associated Press contributed to this report All contents Copyright 2002 The Denver Post ***************************************************************** 36 NRC to Take Part in Meetings on Decommissioning Criteria for Former Reprocessing Facility in West Valley, N.Y. NRC: Press Release Region I - 2002 - 34 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region I 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406 www.nrc.gov No. I-02-034 April 10, 2002 CONTACT: Diane Screnci (610) 337-5330 Neil A. Sheehan (610) 337-5331 E-mail: [opa1@nrc.gov] Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will hold a public meeting on Wednesday, April 17, to discuss the Commission's Final Policy Statement on cleanup criteria for the West Valley Demonstration Project, a former nuclear fuel reprocessing facility in West Valley, N.Y., that is currently being decommissioned. The meeting is scheduled for 7 to 10 p.m. at the Ashford Office Complex, 9030 Route 219, West Valley. It will include a discussion of the perspectives, roles and responsibilities of the NRC and other federal and state agencies involved at the site. Other participants in the discussion will include representatives of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the New York State Department of Health. Prior to the meeting, there will be an open house from 6 to 7 p.m. at the same location to allow for individual discussions between members of the public and federal and state regulatory agency staff members. In addition to the evening meeting on April 17, NRC staff will meet with representatives of federal and state agencies earlier that day to discuss the Final Policy Statement and the Regulators Communication Plan. This meeting will be held at the Ashford Office Complex from 8 a.m. to noon. On the evening of April 16, from 7 to 9 p.m., NRC staff will also meet with the West Valley Citizen Task Force at the same location. Both sessions will be open to the public. The West Valley site is currently being decommissioned by the DOE and NYSERDA. Nuclear Fuel Services (NFS), Inc., formerly operated a spent nuclear fuel reprocessing facility at the site. NFS conducted reprocessing from 1966 to 1972 before permanently shutting down the facility. Reprocessing involves extracting usable uranium or plutonium from irradiated fuel so that it can be re-used. Under the West Valley Demonstration Project Act (WVDPA) of 1980, DOE, in cooperation with NYSERDA, the site's owner, was authorized to carry out a high-level waste management demonstration project at the site that includes decommissioning. High-level waste at the site is currently being removed from underground tanks, vitrified (solidified into glass logs) and stored for eventual off-site disposal in a federal repository. The vitrification efforts are now nearing completion. The WVDPA also calls for the NRC to issue decommissioning criteria for the site. The NRC published a draft policy statement on the criteria in December 1999 and held a meeting to solicit public comment on January 5, 2000, in West Valley. As a result of that meeting, the agency extended the comment period to April 1, 2000. After consideration of those comments, a final policy has now been developed. The agenda for the meeting as well as the Federal Register notice regarding the session are available on the NRC's web site at: www.nrc.gov/public-involve/public-meetings/agenda/2002-0282.pdf In addition, the material can be viewed at the agency's Public Document Room (PDR), 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Md., or obtained for a fee by calling the PDR at 1-800-397-4209. Members of the public who would like to speak at the meeting on the evening of April 17 should contact Chad Glenn of the NRC at 1-800-368-5642, ext. 6722, or by e-mail at [cjg1@nrc.gov] by the close of business on April 15. They may also register at the meeting site up until 15 minutes before the start of the session. Individual oral comments may be limited by the time available, depending on the number of persons who register. Due to security concerns, all attendees are asked to bring photo identification. ***************************************************************** 37 Nevada Has Cash Crunch in Dump Fight Las Vegas SUN April 10, 2002 LAS VEGAS- Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn, not wishing his state to become the nation's home to 77,000 tons of nuclear waste, has so far defied the Energy Department and the president of the United States. Now he must take on Congress - and he says he's running out of money. "This is one state fighting an uphill battle," Guinn told a cheering rally before flying to Washington to argue his state's case. This week, Guinn rejected a plan endorsed by the Energy Department and President Bush to store the nation's nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. A 1982 federal law that began studies about hauling nuclear waste to Yucca gave Nevada the power to exercise such a veto. Congress must now decide in 90 legislative days whether to uphold the president or side with Nevada. Strategists believe public opinion could sway senators in some key states to sustain the Republican governor's action. The strategy would include television ads in places where lawmakers' re-election chances might be determined by environmentalists. But the state campaign - boosted by catchy slogans like "Hell no, we won't glow" - is short of money. After failing to raise the $10 million it says it needs, Nevada is now soliciting donations $1 at a time. Last week, Nevada had to pass on buying expensive commercial time on an episode of "The West Wing" that depicted the fictional White House dealing with a nuclear transportation accident. The ads were expected to raise the specter of a radioactive accident in one of the 43 states through which trucks and trains would carry spent nuclear fuel to Yucca Mountain. Defenders of the project argue it is safe. Bush, in a letter to congressional leaders last week, said he approved the Yucca Mountain project because a central repository for nuclear waste "is necessary to protect public safety, health and this nation's security." Nevada officials have argued there are still many outstanding issues not yet fully resolved when it comes to whether Yucca Mountain's geology will adequately contain the waste thousands of years from now. Guinn initially raised $6 million from state and local governments and a handful of businesses for lobbying, advertising and legal opposition to the plan. But he said all but $2.5 million of that fund has been spent, and the rest is being reserved for anticipated legal battles. "We have to convince everybody that this isn't just Nevada's problem," said Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, an outspoken opponent of the Yucca Mountain plan. "We have to alert, not alarm, senators' constituents about the potential of a disaster happening in their back yards so they tell their elected officials, 'Don't let this come by my house.'" Guinn has backed off convening a special session of the Nevada Legislature to fund the campaign after it became clear he didn't have support. The state is facing a $100 million shortage, and some lawmakers worried the lobbying campaign might not help anyway. On the day Guinn headed to Washington, full-page advertisements in the state's four largest newspapers invited residents to donate $1 or more to Nevada's "Stand Together" campaign. By comparison, the Nuclear Energy Institute, the main pro-Yucca nuclear lobbyist, contributed $25 million to political parties and $13.8 million to candidates during the 2000 election, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group. Guinn isn't done fund-raising. He recommend using $3 million from a state emergency fund for the Yucca Mountain fight. A legislative committee was to consider the idea Wednesday. As part of the $6 million already raised, gambling interests have reported contributing $750,000 toward the anti-nuclear lobbying effort. But some grumble that the gambling industry hasn't done enough. "I don't believe the casinos and businesses and people stepped up," Goodman last week. Las Vegas has contributed $100,000 to the effort. Bill Bible, president of the Las Vegas-based Nevada Resort Association, defended the casino industry's efforts. "I think it's the nuclear industry against the state of Nevada," Bible said. "We're part of the community." Some think the monied interests are hedging their bets. "I think the people of Nevada are increasingly prepared to say it's time to talk about benefits, what we can get in return," said consultant Robert List, a former Nevada governor. "I think citizens and businesses of Nevada feel that this is wasted money; that this is a done deal." On the Net: Yucca Mountain Project: http://www.ymp.gov [http://www.ymp.gov] Pro-Yucca Mountain site: http://www.nei.org [http://www.nei.org] Anti-Yucca Mountain site: http://www.nirs.org [http://www.nirs.org] All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 38 Nevada digs deep for Congress fight against nuclear waste dump Las Vegas SUN April 10, 2002 LAS VEGAS (AP) - Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn had high hopes but virtually empty pockets when he delivered his unprecedented veto this week of a presidential order to bury the nation's nuclear waste in his state. Guinn's veto sends the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear repository to Congress, where strategists believe senators in some key states could be swayed by public opinion to sustain the Republican governor's action. The strategy would include television ads in places where lawmakers' re-election chances might be determined by environmentalists. However, the state campaign - boosted by catchy slogans like "Hell no, we won't glow" - is short of money. After failing to raise the $10 million it says it needs, the state is now soliciting donations $1 at a time. "This is one state fighting an uphill battle," Guinn said. Last week, Nevada had to pass on buying expensive commercial time on a "West Wing" television episode depicting the White House dealing with a nuclear transportation accident. Yucca Mountain opponents mourned missing a chance to raise the specter of a radioactive accident in one of the 43 states through which trucks and trains would carry spent nuclear fuel to southern Nevada. Guinn initially raised $6 million for lobbying, advertising and legal opposition to Yucca Mountain: $4 million from the state Legislature, $1 million from Clark County; and a combined $1 million from various smaller governments and businesses, including $100,000 from Las Vegas. Guinn said all but $2.5 million of the state's initial anti-Yucca Mountain fund has been spent and the rest was being reserved for anticipated legal battles. Guinn and Nevada's senators, Democrat Harry Reid and Republican John Ensign, held a recent news conference with other state leaders recently to announce Nevada needed $10 million to wage a successful national campaign. "We have to convince everybody that this isn't just Nevada's problem," said Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, an outspoken opponent of the Yucca Mountain plan. "We have to alert, not alarm, senators' constituents about the potential of a disaster happening in their back yards so they tell their elected officials, 'Don't let this come by my house.'" However, the governor has been unable to raise anything close to what he says is needed. Guinn backed off convening a special session of the Nevada Legislature to fund the campaign after it became clear he didn't have support. The state is facing a $100 million shortage, and some lawmakers worried the lobbying campaign might not help anyway. On Monday as Guinn headed to Washington to lobby Congress, full page advertisements in the state's four largest newspapers invited residents to donate $1 or more to Nevada's "Stand Together" campaign. By comparison, the Nuclear Energy Institute, the main pro-Yucca nuclear lobbyist, contributed $29.2 million to political parties during the last decade, according to Common Cause. The watchdog group also reported $25 million in nuclear industry lobbying in 2000, the last time Congress debated nuclear waste burial at Yucca Mountain. And the Center for Responsive Politics reported that the nuclear industry contributed $13.8 million to candidates during the 2000 election. Guinn isn't done fund-raising. He led the three-member state Board of Examiners in recommending using $3 million from a state emergency fund for the Yucca Mountain fight. The Legislature's Interim Finance Committee considers the idea Wednesday. Some commissioners in Clark County, home to Las Vegas and three-fourths of the state's 2 million residents, want to match the state's $3 million allocation. However, approval has been postponed and is not certain. As for Las Vegas, Goodman says his city is tapped out but that others with the means haven't done their share. "I don't believe the casinos and businesses and people stepped up," he said last week. Some think monied interests are hedging their bets. "I think the people of Nevada are increasingly prepared to say it's time to talk about benefits, what we can get in return," said consultant Robert List, a Republican former Nevada governor. "I think citizens and businesses of Nevada feel that this is wasted money; that this is a done deal." Bill Bible, president of the Las Vegas-based Nevada Resort Association, defended the casino industry's efforts in the state and in Washington. "I think it's the nuclear industry against the state of Nevada," Bible said. "We're part of the community." As part of the $6 million already raised, gambling interests have reported contributing $750,000 toward the anti-nuclear lobbying effort. That money - from the Resort Association and the Washington-based American Gaming Association - is paying lobbyists Kenneth Duberstein, a Republican chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan, and John Podesta, former Democratic chief of staff to President Bill Clinton. "This fight on the Senate floor is the most critical," Guinn said. "Win or lose, you have to make every valid effort after 19 years." All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 39 State shuts off water to Yucca Mountain; research continues Las Vegas SUN April 10, 2002 LAS VEGAS (AP) - Nevada made good Wednesday on a promise to shut off water to the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump, but the federal Energy Department project won't run dry. The nuclear waste project 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas switched to a newly built 1-million gallon tank and one small well. Energy Department officials said the stored water, plus 400,000 gallons stored in other tanks at the Nevada Test Site, should last several months while scientists continue experiments and design work at the proposed national radioactive waste repository. "We have a small window until this water issue begins to impede our ongoing scientific work," said Joe Davis, spokesman for Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham in Washington. Nevada State Engineer Hugh Ricci banned the Energy Department from drawing water from all but one Nye County well after a temporary permit letting the federal government draw up to 140 million gallons per year expired at midnight Tuesday. "Beginning today, the permit is no longer valid," Ricci said Wednesday, adding that he believed the government complied with his verbal request to shut down the wells before he issued a cease-and-desist order. It was the second time the state shut off the tap to the arid desert site. Officials say Yucca Mountain averages less than seven inches of precipitation a year. The first time the state acted, in February 2000, the federal government sued and the water kept flowing. Ricci's predecessor as state engineer said at the time it was not in the state's best interest to let water be used for operating a repository where highly radioactive waste would be handled. That case is pending before U.S. District Court Judge Roger Hunt in Las Vegas, who last month heard from a federal Justice Department lawyer that the Yucca Mountain project would be in "dire need of water" if Ricci denied the water permits. Ricci said Wednesday that the one well, providing up to 750,000 gallons a year, was still pumping because the federal government filed a document Monday asserting that water drawn from it was being put to "beneficial use." The state engineer noted that the remaining well is providing less than 1 percent of the 140 million gallons a year the Energy Department has requested. Robert Loux, Nevada's top administrative appointee in the fight against Yucca Mountain, said Gov. Kenny Guinn's veto of President Bush's approval for the project means the Energy Department doesn't need water at the site. "The project is over with, unless Congress overrides the governor's veto," Loux said. Davis called the veto "procedural," and said the status of the project is in litigation limbo pending review of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982. "There is nothing in the act that we're aware of that says scientific work cannot continue following the procedural veto of the governor," Davis said. "We anticipate we're going to get litigation every step of the way on this project." All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 40 Nevada panel OK's $3 million for nuclear dump fight Las Vegas SUN April 10, 2002 CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - Pressed by Gov. Kenny Guinn, state lawmakers voted Wednesday to tentatively approve up to $3 million in emergency funds for a do-or-die lobbying effort to keep a federal nuclear dump out of Nevada. The legislators' Interim Finance Committee in a 17-3 vote said that the state funding must be matched by an equal sum from other public or private sources - and a wealthy philanthropist promptly handed over a $75,000 check. While three lawmakers objected to the state funding, Dorothy Lemelson of Incline Village said they hadn't changed her mind. "I'm with you all the way," she told Guinn as she presented the $75,000. Opponents included state Sen. Bill O'Donnell, R-Las Vegas, who said it's ludicrous to challenge the federal government; Sen. Lawrence Jacobsen, R-Minden; and Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, who said the state was "throwing money down a rat hole." But Guinn said Nevadans are "in a fight for our lives." He said the nuclear power industry has more than $100 million to promote the proposed dump at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, and all the state's residents are being urged to give at least $1 apiece to the anti-dump lobbying fund. Bob Loux, head of the state Agency for Nuclear Projects which is taking the contributions, said the office has been getting hundreds of calls a day from potential donors since the campaign was announced Monday. Besides individual donations, Clark County commissioners will consider adding $1.5 million, and Guinn spokesman Greg Bortolin said that the Nevada Resort Association, representing major hotel-casinos, has given $250,000 and has pledged another $250,000. The contributions don't come close to what was sought by Nevada's U.S. senators, Democrat Harry Reid and Republican John Ensign. But their request for $10 million atop the $6 million-plus the state had previously collected would have required a special legislative session, and there wasn't enough support among lawmakers for that. Guinn said the funds will help buy television ads in several key states to try to pressure their U.S. senators into opposing the dump. Estimates of senators who support Nevada range from 35 to 40. But the state needs 51 - a one-vote majority in the 100-member Senate - to sustain the GOP governor's historic veto of President Bush's designation of Yucca Mountain as the nation's high-level nuclear waste site. Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., predicted Tuesday that the anti-dump effort will fail. He said at least 60 senators will vote to approve it. Nevada's two representatives, Democrat Shelley Berkley and Republican Jim Gibbons, are trying to develop opposition in the House even though it is expected to pass there overwhelmingly. Besides Nevada's media battle, which included ads that ran Wednesday in the Washington Post, the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's top trade group, is firing back with its own ads, describing Yucca Mountain as the right place for the waste. A legal attack also has been mounted, with three Nevada lawsuits already filed against the project and at least one more in the works. Also Wednesday, Nevada's congressional delegation released names of more than 500 environmental groups from throughout the nation that oppose the Yucca Mountain plan. The organizations range from the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, Defenders of Wildlife and the Green Party to entertainer Bonnie Raitt, the San Francisco-based Abalone Alliance and scattered chapters of Grandmothers for Peace. On the Net: www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/ All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 41 Nuclear utilities say they need Utah waste site Associated Press April 10, 2002 18:10:00 SALT LAKE CITY - Private Fuel Storage has a deal for Utah. Hold on to this deadly spent nuclear fuel for a few decades. In exchange, Utah helps solve the national problem of what to do with nuclear waste, and a destitute American Indian tribe gets a ticket out of poverty. State leaders aren't buying it. Two supporters of the plan to store used nuclear fuel on the reservation of Utah's Skull Valley Band of Goshute, which has 73 adult members, met with The Associated Press on Wednesday to tell their side of the story. Private Fuel Storage, a group of nuclear utilities, is now seeking a license from federal regulators. A series of public hearings is scheduled during the next few weeks. Scott Northard, the project's manager, and Eileen Supko, a Washington consultant working for the utilities, say the nation's nuclear power plants desperately need someplace to store spent fuel. Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt is adamant that it won't be in his state. The Legislature has passed laws to block the plan. But Northard and Supko say dealing with nuclear waste is a national problem, and storing spent fuel at Skull Valley, sovereign territory as an Indian reservation, is part of the solution. Spent fuel has been accumulating at the nation's nuclear power plants during the past two decades. The federal government is in the process of developing a site at Nevada's Yucca Mountain as a permanent repository for waste. Northard and Supko say moving the waste to a single spot while Yucca Mountain is built will save millions of dollars - and the steel-and-concrete casks storage casks that hold the spent fuel are perfectly safe. Northard said it's more efficient for regulators to monitor the spent fuel at a single site, rather than scattering their attention among dozens of power plants. Further, there are 14 nuclear plants that no longer generate power but must stay open to monitor the spent fuel stored there, Supko said. Clearing the waste out of those plants and shutting them down completely would save millions, she said. Nuclear storage opponents point out that Utah has no nuclear power plants and shouldn't be stuck with the leftovers from those that do. But Supko countered that nuclear power benefits every state. "Do you drive a car? Do you use products built in the United States?" she said. "Most U.S. manufacturing relies on nuclear power." Leavitt and other state leaders doubt that the Skull Valley site, about 45 miles west of Salt Lake City, will really be temporary. They fear nuclear waste, deadly for 10,000 years, will end up staying in Utah for good. But Supko said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission license would allow waste to stay in Skull Valley for 40 years at most. This month and next, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board is holding hearings in Utah on the storage plan. The board is expected to make a recommendation on the plan to the NRC this fall. If nuclear regulators grant the permit, the Skull Valley site could be running by 2005, Supko said. Yucca Mountain probably won't be ready to store spent fuel before 2010, she said. The Utah Legislature has passed laws to block the plan, barring counties from doing business with the facility and demanding an enormous security deposit from the utilities. But federal laws regulating nuclear waste and interstate commerce trump any state laws, Supko said. "Interstate commerce laws have been tested in other jurisdictions, and the interstate commerce laws have always prevailed," she said. Private Fuel Storage and the tribe have filed suit in federal court to get the Utah laws invalidated. Although the storage deal promises to bring substantial income to the small band of Goshute Indians, Leavitt said nuclear storage is not in the best interest of the tribe. On the Net: Goshutes: http://www.skullvalleygoshutes.org [http://www.skullvalleygoshutes.org] Private Fuel Storage: http://www.privatefuelstorage.com/project/partners-svb.html [http://www.privatefuelstorage.com/project/partners-svb.html] Gov. Leavitt: http://www.utah.gov/governor/nukewaste.html [http://www.utah.gov/governor/nukewaste.html] The Arizona Republic [http://www.arizonarepublic.com/] ***************************************************************** 42 Panel OKs $3 million to fight nuke dump [abourell@rgj.com] RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL 4/10/2002 11:46 pm Call: (800) 366-0990 Mail to: Nevada Protection Fund, care of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, 1802 N. Carson St., Suite 252, NV 89701 The Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee approved $3 million Wednesday to fight the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump, while a northern Nevadan gave $75,000, the largest personal donation to the effort so far. The state money is contingent upon matching funds’ being raised by residents and local governments for the Nevada Protection Fund, a war chest designed to sway U.S. Senate support for Gov. Kenny Guinn’s veto of President Bush’s order. The money would be used to purchase advertising and to lobby for congressional support in other states. Immediately after the committee vote, philanthropist Dorothy Lemelson of Incline Village handed a $75,000 check to Guinn for the fund. Lemelson, 76, widow of inventor Jerome Lemelson, said she heeded Guinn’s call to all Nevadans to donate $1 to fight the nuclear waste repository. “It’s a dreadful concept,” Lemelson said after the meeting in Carson City. “The ground has not been proven to be receptive to anything like this. Until they can prove it’s safe, why do it? We’re just asking for some ghastly problems down the line.” The state faces an estimated $115 million budget shortage by the end of the fiscal year in June. Nevertheless, Guinn asked the senators and Assembly members on the committee for $3 million to aid Nevada’s U.S. senators, Republican John Ensign and Democrat Harry Reid, in their efforts to win votes when Congress considers the governor’s recent veto. The congressional delegation had asked for $10 million. “It will be the right thing for us to do, even in tough times,” said Guinn, who added that numerous donations have been pouring in since Monday. However, the nuclear power industry has spent more than $100 million to promote the proposed dump at Yucca Mountain, Guinn said. “We are in a fight for our lives,” Guinn said. Committee Chairman Bill Raggio, Republican senator from Reno, said after the meeting he expects $6 million will be donated. “If they only raise another $2 million, then it will be $4 million. Ours is a match dollar-for-dollar (of) what they raise from the public or private sector, up to $3 million.” Raggio said he wasn’t convinced the donation would help, but he didn’t want the committee members to be characterized as the ones who “scuttled the effort.” “I’m hoping what we do here will be a lever for others (to donate),” Raggio said. Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, said the state should continue fighting the nuclear waste dump. “I want to complement you and our senators for not giving up the fight,” Leslie said to Guinn. “The fight has not been lost.” Others disagreed. Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, said that using the $3 million to stop the dump was a waste of resources. “It’s tantamount to putting me in the ring with Mike Tyson,” Neal said. “The chances are that money is going to be lost.” Neal, Republican Sen. Bill O’Donnell of Las Vegas and Republican Sen. Lawrence Jacobsen of Minden voted against allocating $3 million to the fight. The rest of the 21-legislator committee voted for the proposal, except for Assemblyman Joe Dini, D-Yerington, who was absent. Guinn initially raised $6 million for lobbying, advertising and legal opposition to Yucca Mountain: $4 million from the state Legislature during the 2001 session, $1 million from Clark County and a combined $1 million from various smaller governments and businesses. Guinn said all but $2.5 million of the state’s initial anti-Yucca Mountain fund has been spent and the rest was being reserved for anticipated legal battles. Previously raised money doesn’t count toward the state’s challenge, Raggio said. Only the funds raised since Guinn’s challenge on Monday will qualify. Clark County commissioners have indicated they want to match the state’s $3 million allocation but were waiting for state lawmakers to decide, said Assemblywoman Vonne Chowning, D-Las Vegas. “I feel by our allocating this, and throwing the challenge back, they’re not going to fail us,” Chowning said. Nuclear waste has accumulated for decades at power plants and defense facilities in 34 states. In February, Bush picked Yucca Mountain — about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas — to entomb up to 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel that will remain radioactive for 10,000 years. Congress must act to overrule Guinn’s decision before the project can move forward, and lawmakers must vote within 90 legislative days. Nevada’s congressional delegation is focusing its lobbying effort on the Senate, anticipating the Republican-controlled House will side with Bush. Lemelson, who has donated more than $400,000 to other northern Nevada projects over the past two years, said she hopes her contribution prompts others to help out. “Each of us needs to support our public officials as they fight this critical battle to keep nuclear waste out of Nevada,” Lemelson said. © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a [http://www.gannett.com] ***************************************************************** 43 Yucca EDITORIAL: National interest Thursday, April 11, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal The perfunctory Kenny Guinn veto of the president's decision to move forward on Yucca Mountain has thrown the issue into the national spotlight -- soundbites from the governor on the networks, news stories, editorials and commentaries in major publications, radio and TV talk show discussion. On Tuesday, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., staked out the state's anti-Yucca position on the popular CNN shoutfest "Crossfire," pairing off against industry hired gun John Sununu. Whether Nevada's dig-in-the-heels, all-or-nothing strategy -- pursued under the tutelage of its architect, Sen. Harry Reid -- will ultimately succeed remains unlikely. But the fact that the debate now stokes the airwaves across the country certainly helps -- especially when it comes to moving minds outside Nevada by highlighting issues such as the danger of nuclear waste transport. Ultimately, the more national scrutiny of the Yucca project, the better the odds that the notion of "sound science" driving this issue can be exposed for what it is -- malarkey. webmaster@lvrj.com Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 44 LETTERS: Don't trust government on nuclear waste Thursday, April 11, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal To the editor: The president and nuclear power advocates have never addressed the key issue of how to safely store and dispose of highly toxic nuclear waste that will be around for at least a few thousand years. The Hanford nuclear-waste repository in Washington state has given us a clear picture of how well the government has performed to date: Of the 177 underground tanks, 69 are acknowledged to have failed to date, leaking an estimated 1 million gallons of radioactive and chemical toxins into the soil, and leaking into the Columbia River; this is after less than 75 years of storage. While the technology for storing spent nuclear fuel has improved over the years, the fact remains the government failed in the past and should not be trusted in the future. The real aim here is to make nuclear power more appealing by relieving the 37 states that produce nuclear power from having to deal with the long-term risks. How dare the states that produce this nuclear waste try to dump it into any state but their own, much less Nevada? How convenient that none of the people who benefit from nuclear power and those who decide its fate will be alive when its deadly legacy is fully realized. TED NEFF LOS ANGELES Long legacy To the editor: The lack of attendance at the Yucca Mountain repository meetings held across the state should have told our elected officials that Nevadans, especially locals, have resigned ourselves to the fact the nuclear waste site is going to be at Yucca Mountain. Those who have bothered to educate themselves know that it is not going to harm us in any way. Now, we have a small window of opportunity to pursue benefits such as those granted to the people in Alaska for the pipeline, and other locations that are close to dam sites. Instead of negotiating such benefits, though, our politicians seem hell-bent on grandstanding and denying the inevitable. When the waste site becomes fact, and we suffer whatever inconveniences that may follow, let's hope we all remember our great Gov. Kenny Guinn and the master of the head-in-the-sand crowd, Sen. Harry Reid, are responsible for our personal lack of financial considerations. They may be out of office by then, but their legacy will live forever. R.M. LOTTERMOSER LAS VEGAS Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 45 Fight over Yucca water continues Thursday, April 11, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal DOE official's statement lowers estimate of time that site's stored supply would last By KEITH ROGERS REVIEW-JOURNAL The Department of Energy has stockpiled enough water for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project to last only 18 days instead of the several months previously estimated, an agency official says. The lower estimate was made in a March 27 statement signed by Scott Wade, DOE team leader for environmental safety and health. Wade had told the Review-Journal on Feb. 27 that the water in the tank was enough to last several months for dust control. The state is restricting the use of underground water as part of its battle to prevent the federal government from building the nation's first high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The difference in the time that DOE estimates the water, stored in a 1 million-gallon tank and other storage tanks at the site of the Yucca Mountain Project, will last stems from how the water will be used. Under normal use, the water would last 18 days. But with conservative use, the stockpiled water could last several months, project spokesman Allen Benson said. Wade's signed statement was made to support the government's request for an injunction to allow the Energy Department to continue to withdraw water from five wells in Nye County after temporary permits from the state for 140 million gallons per year expired at midnight Tuesday. The statement was attached to a ruling Wednesday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Lawrence Leavitt, who denied a request by Justice Department lawyers for emergency action to speed up the injunction as the temporary permits expired. DOE has storage capacity for about 1.1 million gallons of nonpotable water and 196,000 gallons of potable water at the Yucca Mountain site. Historically, the project has used 70,300 gallons of nonpotable water and 2,000 gallons of potable water daily, according to Wade's statement. "The volume of water that could be in storage would be depleted in 18 days," he stated. In seeking the preliminary injunction, Justice Department lawyers wrote, "Without water, DOE would be required to terminate activities associated with the Yucca Mountain site." They said the water is needed for dust control, sanitation, firefighting and "to carry out ongoing scientific and engineering work." Nevada Senior Deputy Attorney General Marta Adams said she intends to file court papers early next week opposing the Justice Department's request for an injunction. She also is opposing the Justice Department's attempt to overturn the state engineer's denial two years ago of a permanent water supply to build and operate a repository at Yucca Mountain. That case is before U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt. Adams, in a March 1 hearing on the permanent water issue, asked Hunt to delay the case because the legal landscape changed when President Bush on Feb. 15 recommended building the repository. Gov. Kenny Guinn on Monday vetoed Bush's recommendation. Congress now has about three months to decide on overriding the veto. If Congress has not acted on Guinn's disapproval of the site after 90 legislative days, the veto would stand and work couldn't proceed on a Yucca Mountain repository. "Whether they've got 18 days or 18 minutes (of water left), they have no authority to go forward anyway," Adams said Wednesday. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 46 $3 million allocated for dump fight, with strings Philanthropist Dorothy Lemelson, left, talks with Nevada Assemblyman David Parks, D-Las Vegas, center, and Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, Wednesday in Carson City. Lemelson donated $75,000 to the anti-Yucca fight. Photo by Associated Press Thursday, April 11, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal By ED VOGEL REVIEW-JOURNAL CAPITAL BUREAU CARSON CITY -- Despite a looming nine-figure state budget shortfall, the Legislature's Interim Finance Committee voted 17-3 Wednesday to spend an additional $3 million on a drive to persuade Congress to reject the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. But Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, stipulated that the state cannot spend any money unless it is matched by a like amount of donations by citizens or local governments. If local governments and private citizens give $500,000 to battle plans for the repository, then the state allocation will be only $500,000. Approval of the $3 million anti-dump contribution came at the same meeting where lawmakers were told they face a $115 million shortfall in their current budget and a possible $249 million shortfall by June 30, 2003. Assemblywoman Vonne Clowning, D-North Las Vegas, immediately challenged the Clark County Commission to make a large donation to the drive. Last week, the commission postponed making a $1.5 million contribution. Commissioners said they first wanted to see whether the Legislature would act. "I am not convinced it will be useful," Raggio said about the Legislature's contribution to the campaign against Yucca Mountain. "If we don't do it, it will be said we might have succeeded. If we don't try, they will say we scuttled the effort." Dorothy Lemelson of Incline Village made a $75,000 donation during Wednesday's meeting. She is the widow of Jerome Lemelson, an inventor who held 550 patents, including those on the Sony Walkman, the camcorder, cordless phone and fax machine. Money will be funneled to advertising agencies and political consultants, who will run announcements on television stations and in newspapers in states with nuclear power plants. Efforts also will be made to induce leaders in those states to urge their members of Congress to vote down the Yucca Mountain repository. The national campaign already is under way. The Washington Post ran an anti-Yucca Mountain advertisement in its Wednesday editions along with one touting the dump, paid for by the nuclear power industry. The Nevada advertisement lists the 43 states from which as many as 3,000 trucks and trains would haul nuclear waste each year. The ad says these states are at risk of a "catastrophic nuclear disaster" as shipments pass in front "of your city, in front of your children's schools and next to your home." The nuclear power industry advertisement shows a photo of desolate Yucca Mountain and says "it only makes sense" that used nuclear fuel should be disposed of at "one remote, specially designed facility" instead of 131 reactor sites across the country. It also says "the science is in," but only Congress can ensure the waste goes to Nevada. State Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, said the campaign against the federal government has as much chance of succeeding as he has of defeating boxer Mike Tyson. He said U.S. Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., already is bragging he has 60 votes, nine more than he needs to put the nuclear dump 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Neal added that nuclear waste is being held near power plants in 35 states. He said it would be foolish to assume senators in those states will not back a move to haul that waste to Nevada. Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, was more optimistic about Nevada's chances. He said he has spoken with the speakers in the 49 other state legislatures and calculates that Nevada can prevail if it wins the votes of 12 more U.S. senators. State Sens. Bill O'Donnell, R-Las Vegas; Lawrence Jacobsen, R-Minden; and Neal were the only legislators to vote against the $3 million allocation. O'Donnell said the campaign could backfire and convince potential tourists that Nevada is a dangerous place to visit. "They are already digging the hole," he added. "We should be negotiating and getting compensation for what the rest of the country is doing to us." Rather than emphasize the benefits of the state's campaign, Gov. Kenny Guinn spent much of his time before the panel Wednesday predicting that Nevada will prevail in court, through its lawsuits against the U.S. Energy Department and President Bush. Two lawsuits already have been filed, and Guinn said three more are coming. "We are in the fight for our life," Guinn said. "Even if we don't win on the Senate floor, our litigation team is one of the best." He said the Energy Department failed to follow the law requiring scientific evidence that Yucca Mountain is a sound geological site, and Nevada can prove that in court. "We are patriotic, but we are going to demand sound science," he said. Guinn on Monday vetoed Bush's plan to place 77,000 tons of nuclear waste inside Yucca Mountain. Congress now has 90 legislative days -- likely until late July -- to sustain or override the governor's veto. A simple majority vote sustaining the veto in either the House or the Senate would kill the Yucca Mountain Project. The governor said Nevada has no chance of winning in the House. Instead, he said the focus of the state's campaign will be on the Senate, particularly in states like Vermont, where senators are undecided. webmaster@lvrj.com Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 47 Trent Lott Predicted 60 senators would vote for dump Dennis Hastert Eyeing early May for Yucca vote Thursday, April 11, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal House vote on Yucca could come in May Congress has limited time to act By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Dennis Hastert is eyeing early May for a House vote on whether to send nuclear waste to Nevada, a spokesman said Wednesday. The House was given 90 legislative days starting Tuesday to debate the Energy Department's plans to locate a spent nuclear fuel repository at Yucca Mountain. Gov. Kenny Guinn's veto of a site recommendation by President Bush started that countdown. For Congress to override Guinn's veto, a majority of both the House and Senate must support the Yucca Mountain Project. If the House or the Senate fails to override the veto during the 90-day period, the federal government's efforts to send nuclear waste to Nevada would be dead. Hastert, R-Ill., is prepared to wrap up the matter in about one-third the time. "We're looking at sometime in early May," Hastert spokesman John Feehery said without specifying a date. Feehery said that timetable should come as no surprise because Hastert is among the strongest proponents of removing the spent fuel cooling in pools at nuclear plants across the country, including 11 in Illinois. "I don't think it's a shock" the speaker wants to move forward, Feehery said. The House historically has been welcoming to the idea of establishing a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. In the Senate, meanwhile, Republicans expressed confidence they would have a comfortable margin of votes to pass a Yucca Mountain resolution. Following comments from Republican leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., that more than 60 senators would approve a Nevada repository, Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, predicted the Senate would override Guinn's veto "in the national interest." Another pro-repository senator, Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, predicted 70 votes in favor of a repository. Asked about Craig's prediction, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said, "That may be Idaho math, but I don't think that's going to happen." Reid and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., have not issued predictions on a vote total, but they have said they are short of the 51 votes against the project they need to prevail. Hastert told Guinn during a meeting Tuesday he was planning a vote "before the Memorial Day recess," which is scheduled to begin May 24, said Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., who attended. "Look, the speaker and the majority leader (Rep. Richard Armey, R-Texas) are the primary proponents of doing this vote on the floor as quickly as possible," said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. "The longer this goes on, the less likely it is for success on their part." House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., said he plans to commit his vote-gathering organization to help Berkley. Gibbons said Nevada is fortunate Hastert is waiting as long as he is. The House speaker originally planned to call a vote sooner. Gibbons, who has met with Hastert on several occasions on Yucca Mountain, said the speaker was persuaded to approve hearings of the House energy committee and the House transportation committee. But with the speaker eyeing a fast track, the schedule for those hearings could change. Gibbons and Berkley said separately that an April 25 energy committee hearing, at which they will present Nevada's case against Yucca Mountain siting for perhaps the final time, might be moved up to April 18 to accommodate an early May vote. A May 9 hearing on nuclear waste transportation that was sought by Nevadans as a key forum also might be affected. A relatively quick House vote would not force faster action in the Senate. Under the special law that established vote procedures especially for this issue, senators have a maximum 90 legislative days to vote on the nuclear waste issue. Among other strategies, Reid and Ensign want to delay a vote to buy time for lobbying. Reid reportedly has cut a deal with Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., to bottle up a Yucca Mountain resolution for close to two months. As lawmakers begin to focus on Yucca Mountain, Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., announced 15 pro-repository House members have formed a Nuclear Fuel Safety Caucus to influence the issue. Most are from districts that house nuclear power plants. At a news conference, Rep. Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich., dismissed concerns about the safety of spent fuel shipments, an argument Nevadans are stressing as they try to raise doubts about Yucca Mountain. "Safe transportation is a non-issue," said Ehlers, a research physicist. "Anyone who makes that an issue is simply trying to stop Yucca Mountain or nuclear power." webmaster@lvrj.com Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 48 Russia May Import British Nuclear Waste Environment News Service: MOSCOW, Russia, April 10, 2002 (ENS) - Moves by Russia to import nuclear waste from the United Kingdom and United States were clarified in the first meeting of environmentalists with the chief of the Russian Ministry of Atomic Power (Minatom) Alexander Rumyantsev since he assumed the post last year. At a meeting late Tuesday, Rumyantsev told the group of seven Russian anti-nuclear environmentalists that the British nuclear industry wants to dump its radioactive waste in Russia. [Rumyantsev] Russian Minister of Atomic Power Alexander Rumyantsev (Photo courtesy [http://www.ecoline.ru/] ) A plan sponsored by Minatom to import spent nuclear fuel to Russia was approved by both the Russian parliament and President Vladimir Putin in 2001, changing Russian law to permit such imports. Vladimir Slivyak, co-chairman for Russian environmental group Ecodefense, who participated in the meeting with Rumyantsev, said the minister "repeatedly insisted that there is the spent fuel reprocessing market across the world where Britain and France are main competitors to Russia." Slivyak said, "Now it appears that British industry wants to dump its nuclear waste in Russia because reprocessing is no more economically profitable." "Import of nuclear waste is crime against the environment and future generations. Britain should not dump its radioactive garbage on Russia," said Slivyak. Rumyantsev, a nuclear physicist, told the activists that next year a contract to import spent nuclear fuel from British research reactors will be signed, although he refused to say how much nuclear fuel would be imported and at what price. The spent fuel will be stored at Krasnoyarsk Mining and Chemical Combine in Zheleznogorsk, Siberia and processed at the Mayak Chemical Combine near Chelyabinsk. To make the imports feasible, the storage capacity at the Krasnoyarsk will have to be increased five-fold to 30,000 tons Rumyantsev said last July. A dry storage facility is being designed, and construction is expected to cost $300 to 450 million, which will come from the initial payments for the imports. Commenting on the prospect of importing spent fuel from foreign civil reactors, Rumyantsev said he sees "no opportunities for any contracts to be signed in the next few years." [fuel] Spent nuclear fuel storage pool in Europe (Photo courtesy [http://foratom.org/Foratom/foratom.html] ) The minister explained that the United States controls over 80 percent of the world's spent nuclear fuel and his ministry is working to get American permission for Russia to import this waste. Rumyantsev said after the terrorist attacks of September 11, Minatom representatives repeatedly asked U.S. officials to offer Minatom the possibility of earning enough funds to improve physical protection of nuclear facilities in Russia. Such funds could be obtained through nuclear waste import, the minister said. On the issue of the possible import of low-level radioactive waste into Russia, and on disposal of Asian radioactive waste in Russian Far East, the minister said, "There is great economic profit Russia may get, but I can't call for this because Russian law prohibits such import." On March 27, Ecodefense made public documents confirming that Russian nuclear industry and politicians are involved in a secret deal with Taiwan, aimed at importing radioactive waste and dumping it on Simushir island in the Russian Far East. Several Russian media reports pointed to Rumyantsev as the main supporter of the Simushir project. In his meeting with the activists, Rumyantsev refused to comment on whether or not his ministry would lobby to change Russian legislation in order to allow the import of low-level radioactive waste from Asia. ***************************************************************** 49 Anti-Yucca fund gets a push Las Vegas SUN April 11, 2002 Legislative panel approves $3 million in matching funds By Cy Ryan SUN CAPITAL BUREAU CARSON CITY -- A state legislative committee pledged $3 million Wednesday to fight Yucca Mountain but only if the Gov. Kenny Guinn can find matching funds from local governments and private donors. The Legislative Interim Finance Committee authorized $3 million in emergency funds to be used in an advertising campaign in other states to convince U.S. senators to vote against the selection of Yucca Mountain by President Bush. But the committee accepted the suggestion of Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, that the $3 million must be matched with contributions from government and private sources. That does not include donations previously made to the state's fight, and the state money will be given as new donations come in. The administration "hopes to raise a lot more" than $3 million, said Guinn's chief of staff Marybel Batjer. She said Guinn, and U.S. Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., are looking at some "non-traditional" sources, including Hollywood to raise the money. The legislative committee's action, which passed by one vote among the members of the Senate on the committee, came amid the state's struggle to raise money for the fight against the proposed high-level nuclear waste dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Already the state has campaigned for donations from local governments and business and met with mixed success. Much of the state's Nevada Protection Fund, which has a little more than $6 million, has already been accounted for with lobbying costs and attorney fees. Mark Brown, who is running the state's advertising campaign, said ads targeting the Senate in the Washington Post and Washington Times cost about $35,000, and a television campaign to kick off next week in Vermont will cost about $500,000. A group of business leaders met earlier this week to discuss raising more money, Bill Bible, president of the Nevada Resort Association, said this morning. "I think it's going to be very difficult," Bible said, noting there's a "sense of inevitability" among some in the community. "We do not believe that's the case, there's a possibility in Congress and there are merits in the court" challenges, Bible said. His group pledged $250,000 to help pay lobbying costs but recently found that number would be a little more than $300,000. Neal expressed sentiment against spending money to fight the federal government. "We cannot win the battle," he said. "It would be like sending me into the ring to fight Mike Tyson." He said there were other pressing issues that the money could be spent on and the people would benefit more. "We're throwing money down a rat hole," he said. State officials have refused to give in and believe there is a chance the state could pull off enough votes to win in the Senate, and if not there, they say they have good arguments for their fight in court. The state, though, needs money to fight the nuclear industry, which is pushing Yucca Mountain with its considerable lobbying operation. Batjer said today the governor and his administration are "beating the bushes," including looking to private foundations for money. Reid and Ensign asked for $10 million for an advertising campaign to drum up grass-roots opposition to the dump. The idea is to put pressure on senators who represent states in which nuclear waste would be transported through. Guinn declined to call a special session as there was mixed support in the Legislature, especially in the Senate. A Sun poll of senators at the time showed opposition to the special session. Guinn instead went to the interim committee with a scaled back request. The committee is made of seven senators and 14 Assembly members. Each side must approve the allocation. The vote on the Senate side was 4-3 with Sens. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, Bill O'Donnell, R-Las Vegas and Lawrence Jacobsen, R-Minden opposing spending the money. The Assembly members unanimously voted in favor. The first major contribution from an individual came from Dorothy G. Lemelson of Incline Village who donated $75,000. Lemelson, widow of prolific inventor Jerome Lemelson, told the committee that "Storage of nuclear waste threatens us all." And she told Guinn, who was seated next to her at the meeting, "I'm with you all the way." After the announcement of her donations, she received applause from those in attendance at the meeting. Bob Loux, director of the state's Agency for Nuclear Projects, said his agency has been inundated with telephone calls since full-page advertisements appeared in Las Vegas, Reno and Carson City newspapers, asking for donations. He said he doesn't have a firm count on how much as been donated but said there were "hundreds of calls." He believed most of the donations were small amounts adding up to "a couple thousand dollars." The state advertisements urged residents to give at least $1. It now falls to opponents of Yucca Mountain to convince other governments, such as Clark County, the city of Las Vegas, private businesses and foundations to chip in more. Local government officials say they are not sure how they will come up with additional funds. Clark County commissioners will consider contributing $1.5 million to the fund next Tuesday, but local municipalities are skeptical they can pool $1.5 million more to meet the requirements of the IFC. "You can't get blood from a turnip," North Las Vegas Mayor Michael Montandon said. "We have been considering donating money, but the number we're talking about is around $50,000." If the North Las Vegas City Council approves an expenditure of $50,000, the three large Southern Nevada cities will have earmarked $200,000 for the fund. The city of Las Vegas will give $100,000 and the city of Henderson will appropriate $50,000 -- both when the new fiscal year begins July 1. Both cities are also considering additional funding. Much of the money already pledged likely won't be counted as matching funds because it had already been approved. Las Vegas City Manager Virginia Valentine said she has briefed the council members on the issue, and on Wednesday they are set to discuss whether the city should put more money toward the fight. City officials are in the midst of preparing the tentative budget for fiscal year 2003, which begins July 1, but Valentine said all signs show there isn't any extra money. "This money would come out of another project, it would mean deferring some other project or some other expenditure," she said. The council will have a budget workshop on Monday, and could allocate additional funds, Valentine said. Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson said money is very tight for municipalities, and he is not sure how his city could come up with any more money for the fund. "We're not in a position to do much in the first place, but we have given $50,000," Gibson said. "I'll be a little surprised if we can do much more." Gibson said that while Henderson supports the fight, the support the state wants to see is a monetary one. "The municipalities are in very difficult straits right now," Gibson said. In the legislative committee's debate, Raggio said he was not sure that $3 million would be effective and suggested the matching grant condition. Guinn said he had no objection. Half of the $3 million will come from the emergency fund of the finance committee and the other half will come from the fund of the state Transportation Department. O'Donnell said the $3 million should be spent to convince Congress to give Nevada compensation for the work the Energy Department has already done and intends to do. Guinn told the committee there are 32 Democrats and 3 Republicans in the Senate so far siding with Nevada. It will take 51 votes to stop approval. The governor said Vermont and Oregon are two of the states that are targeted. Raggio, who was considered one of the swing votes in the Senate, said he was not convinced that the $3 million will turn the vote in the Senate. But he added, "If we don't try, we will be charged by people saying we scuttled the effort." Assemblywoman Vonne Chowning, D-North Las Vegas, who made the motion to allocate the money said "Clark County is waiting to see what we will do. Clark County almost approved that last week. I don't think the rest will fail us." Guinn also said that the state has already sued President Bush and others and will now launch two other legal suits this week. The state filed suit today against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, alleging the rule to license Yucca Mountain ignores the federal law that created the Yucca Mountain site. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 50 Freshman senator now at center of Nevada's lobbying campaign Las Vegas SUN April 11, 2002 By Benjamin Grove WASHINGTON -- As the behind-the-scenes lobbying on both sides of the Yucca Mountain issue intensifies on Capitol Hill, many eyes are on Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev. Ensign is key, arguably the most important person at the moment, in Nevada's effort to stop plans to bury radioactive waste at Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. With Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. and his close ally, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, pledging to corral at least 30 fellow Democrats -- possibly as many as 35, sources say -- the pressure is on Nevada's first-term Republican senator to line up 15 to 20 senators on his side of the aisle. So far, only one, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., has reportedly said he would vote with Ensign. Campbell is "leaning against" Yucca Mountain because of concerns over transportation and whether the project has been thoroughly studied, spokeswoman Camden Hubbard said today. To that end, Ensign is in the middle of a quiet, door-to-door campaign in the Capitol, he said today, revealing one strategy in the state's anti-Yucca effort. Ensign is sitting down with most of the 48 other Republican senators for half-hour meetings in which he is outlining reasons for opposing the nuclear repository. Since he began the face-to-face meetings in early March, he has seen 15 senators, and planned to see four today. Of the 15, some have agreed to be "undecided," Ensign said, although none have agreed to vote against Yucca. The meetings mostly are being in the other senators' offices, although a few have been on the Senate floor, aides said. Ensign takes along just one staffer: legislative director Pam Thiessen. The other senators so far have included just a top aide or two, if any, Thiessen said. The meetings are tailor-made for each lawmaker. Ensign and Thiessen bring a gift, an inch-thick "briefing book," written especially for each senator. For example, each book has statistics about the number of estimated truck and train shipments of waste that could one day travel through their state en route to Yucca Mountain. Today an Ensign aide was toting a briefing book assembled for Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Data on one page indicated that 18,435 truck and 3,312 train shipments could rumble through Kentucky on their way to Yucca. Ensign varies his pitch, too. "You might emphasize the transportation issue in one office and you might talk about the billion-dollar boondoggle aspect of it in another, or maybe it's the stupidity of burying waste when we should be talking about the opportunity to recycle," Ensign said. "It depends on what their hot-button issues are." Most senators have been willing to sit down with Ensign, although staffers for one tried to prevent a meeting, Thiessen said. "I said to the staff, 'Look, the senators are going to talk,' " Thiessen said. " 'It's going to be in the cloakroom or on the floor or in your office. So you can either have your staff there or not. But it's going to happen.' " Ensign knows it's a longshot to line up 15 or 20 Republicans. Some are under intense lobbying and constituent pressure to approve Yucca, especially from nuclear power companies in their states. Some have established a voting record in favor of the repository and are reluctant to switch. Party leaders, including Minority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi, are urging approval of the project. In the meetings Ensign counters with familiar arguments, including that Yucca Mountain is a waste of money -- noting that it could cost as much as the nation's aircraft carrier fleet, Thiessen said. He stresses transportation risks. And Ensign debunks what he calls "the big lie:" that nuclear waste will disappear from states where it is stored on-site at nuclear plants and defense sites. Nevada officials note that waste will continue to pile up as long as plants operate, whether Yucca Mountain is approved or not, Thiessen said. Yucca Mountain will merely add one more nuclear waste site to America's landscape. At the end of meetings with senators, the lawmakers have generally said, "'I'll have staff look into it and, 'You've made some good arguments,' " Thiessen said. Not much of a commitment. But Reid and Ensign today insisted they were "making headway." Ensign is hopeful that for the moment he can at least persuade some of his colleagues to fall in the "undecided" category. Among those is Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo. Ensign, accompanied by Gov. Kenny Guinn, who was in Washington for a whirlwind media tour, met Tuesday with Bond in his office. Bond has not taken a public stance on the issue. He may announce how he intends to vote as early as next week, spokesman Ernie Blazar said. Missouri has no commercial nuclear power plants and would be heavily traveled by waste shipments. But Bond has voted in favor of Yucca in past votes and there is no indication that will change. "He's sort of coming down on the side of Yucca Mountain," Blazar said. Part of the challenge Ensign faces is that deal-making is best done far from media attention and long before issues enter the public spotlight, University of Nevada, Las Vegas political science professor Ted Jelen said. Senators don't want their constituents to think they changed their minds after lobbying from a Nevada lawmaker, he said. At this point, Ensign has little chance of recruiting Republican senators, Jelen said. "He's got to buck a president of his own party who has over an 80 percent approval rating, on an issue that is fairly popular in (the senators') home states," Jelen said. "It's a tall order. I frankly think it's too late." Ensign is trying to "unsell a sold item," University of Nevada, Reno political science professor Erik Herzik, said. Another problem is that Nevada officials are recommending alternatives to burial at Yucca that are not being well received. Herzik has examined where Ensign might find a few Senate allies. Even Western, states-rights Republicans such as Sens. Orrin Hatch and Robert Bennett of Utah are not likely to vote with their neighbor, Herzik said. "I don't know where (Ensign) can find the votes, and I don't think he'll find many," Herzik said. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said his former House ally can have "tremendous sway." But Gibbons, who is in the middle of his own mad scramble to line up Republicans, said they face a similarly daunting task. "He's got smaller numbers to deal with, but the challenge is the same," Gibbons said. Ensign needs no reminders of the intense pressure on him. He feels it everyday, from a wide variety of sources -- including the state's allies. As Ensign has implored Daschle to do everything he can in his position to block Yucca, Daschle has repeatedly put the spotlight back on him to round up Republicans. Ensign, at a press conference this week, repeated lines he used in his campaign to stress Nevada's need for a GOP member in the Senate, where most Republicans line up with party leaders in favor of Yucca Mountain. "Most of it is self-imposed pressure," Ensign said today. "I feel such a heavy responsibility, because I feel so passionately that we need to stop this project." Ensign has the opportunity to prove his advantage, several Democratic sources said. With the Senate's 90-day clock running in the high-stakes game of vote gathering, the ball is in the court of the freshman senator. It can be difficult for a new lawmaker, with less tenure and less power to make deals. But that can play to Ensign's advantage, too, Reid said. "Members of the party want new members to do well," Reid said. "He has the power to be very persuasive." It is hard to tell whether Republicans are putting more stock in Ensign's pitch, or the arguments made by the influential nuclear industry lobby, Reid said. "We're going to see, aren't we?" Reid said. "That's why we are working so hard." All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 51 Scientists plan nuke waste transmutation experiment Las Vegas SUN April 11, 2002 Results may speed development of costly process By Mary Manning A process to convert highly radioactive waste into less dangerous substances, which has been touted as an alternative to dumping nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, may get on a fast track. Scientists will meet in Europe in June to prepare an experiment in a reactor there to see if transmutation will work in that environment, one of the researchers said this week in Las Vegas. The approach has the potential to put the process within reach in five years and make it more affordable that early estimates. The plan, which involves the Energy Department and nuclear experts from 12 European countries, could make transmutation available before a Yucca Mountain repository would open in 2010, said Massimo Salvatores, who was appointed April 2 by the Energy Department to work with the European nations. If the radioactive elements can be transformed into less harmful materials by transmutation, waste such as plutonium that remains dangerous for 1 million years would become manageable in less than 1,000 years, Massimo said. Critics have promoted transmutation as a possible alternative to a repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, though the process, if successful, would only reduce the amount of waste that would need to be stored. But two years ago the Energy Department concluded it would be too expensive to develop the process. Congress still has earmarked money -- $34 million this fiscal year -- to continue research. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has received $3 million of that for laboratory experiments, project director Anthony Hechanova said. The new proposal would reduce the cost of research and ultimately the actual transmutation by using existing reactors. The original research relied on plans to build an accelerator, which would speed up the atoms for their transformation. Costs of such an accelerator were estimated at $100 million. The research was expected to take 10 to 20 years. The cost of using existing reactors could range from $20 million to $80 million, and it could be completed in five to 10 years, Massimo said. The Energy Department has spent $7 billion on nuclear waste studies, almost $5 billion of it at Yucca Mountain. Massimo said the new approach, while experimental, is viable. "We know very well the physics of transmutation," Massimo said. "We are not telling fairy tales." The idea is to blunt the effect of the waste over the long term. Yucca Mountain, which has been recommended by President Bush and vetoed by Gov. Kenny Guinn, is being designed to last 10,000 years, but the most dangerous radioactive waste remains toxic for 1 million years. People thousands of years from now could stumble into a repository, releasing radioactive wastes into the air or the water, Massimo said. That is why physicists are working together to find a method that will reduce the radioactivity and its toxic consequences, he said. Scientists are looking for an available reactor somewhere in Europe, he said, "without starting from scratch." The United States has 103 operating commercial reactors and Europe has 145 producing electricity. No other country has a repository for high-level nuclear waste on the drawing boards. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 52 N-Waste: Jet Crash a Risk? The Salt Lake Tribune -- Thursday, April 11, 2002 BY JUDY FAHYS THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Federal regulators said Wednesday they want to hear from a pilot who has ejected from a fighter jet before they try to assess how risky it would be to allow storage of nuclear-plant waste just outside a military bomb and flight-testing range in Utah. Members of the U.S. Atomic Safety and Licensing Board requested first-person pilot accounts during licensing hearings for a $3.1 billion high-level nuclear waste facility on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation. Duty-bound to certify the public is probably safe from a dangerous nuclear waste accident at the facility, board members said they needed to size up the human factors that might lead a bomb-carrying F-16 between Hill Air Force Base and the Utah Test and Training Range to crash into the waste casks stored on the ground. "This question is about attitudes and not arithmetic," said Board Chairman Michael C. Farrar, adding he was uneasy about judging the scenario from accident reports and third-person accounts of crashes. The state of Utah says the potential for military aircraft accidents is one reason the board should reject the Goshute facility license. During the remaining five weeks of the board's hearings in Utah, the state also plans to raise concerns about earthquakes, groundwater contamination and ruining a proposed wilderness area. Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of out-of-state utility companies, insists that the state's fears are overblown and that the storage site is unlikely to harm people or the environment during the 40-year term of a federal operating license. PFS has leased about 600 acres on the reservation and plans to build the storage facility on about 100 acres. Steel and concrete casks filled with spent nuclear power plant fuel would stand outdoors atop a 3-foot-thick concrete pad. Licensing board hearings Tuesday and Wednesday centered on the likelihood of a fighter jet careening into a waste cask. The site PFS has proposed is about three miles from the Utah Test and Training Range, a practice area for the Air Force spanning 1.7 million acres. Air Force pilots make about 5,700 flights through Skull Valley yearly, about 115 of them carrying bombs or missiles. Private Fuel Storage attorneys say there is no sense in imagining the consequences of a military aircraft accident at the proposed storage site since there is a 1 in a million chance of a crash in a typical year. A trio of retired Air Force officers testifying for PFS downplayed the probability of military crashes, saying fighter jet pilots, before they eject, are trained to steer disabled aircraft away from people and buildings. Utah Assistant Attorney General Jim Soper nipped at the PFS witnesses' credibility, trying to expose gaps in what they know about Utah test range operations and the pressures facing F-16 pilots. Soper said it would be "an unbelievable omission" if the board did not hear from a survivor of an F-16 ejection. © Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune ***************************************************************** 53 Abraham Wants Congress Vote On Nev. Nuclear Dump Site Soon Wed Apr 10, 9:15 AM ET By Bryan Lee OF DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The Bush administration will submit a formal request for Congress to act quickly to override the state of Nevada 's statutory veto of a planned nuclear waste repository, U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham told reporters Tuesday. The official request will occur Tuesday or Wednesday, Abraham said in meeting with reporters in the Capitol. "Our view is the time has come," Abraham said, noting that the Energy Department has spent $4 billion over two decades studying the proposed repository site at Yucca Mountain, Nev., some 90 miles from Las Vegas . In February, President Bush accepted Abraham's recommendation to develop the Yucca Mountain waste site, triggering a 45-day timetable for the state to exercise its veto right under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn, a Republican, signed the veto Friday and submitted it to Congress this week, triggering a 90-day deadline for the U.S. House and U.S. Senate to either affirm or override the state's veto. Abraham spoke as Guinn was on Capitol Hill meeting with members of Congress asking them to sustain the state's veto. Guinn and other Nevada lawmakers seized on a recent train derailment near Washington , D.C ., involving volatile propane gas to highlight what they say is the danger of shipping nuclear waste to Nevada . The U.S. nuclear power sector is anxious to ship to Nevada more than 40,000 metric tons of highly radioactive spent-fuel waste now stored at more than 100 nuclear power plants in more than 30 states. A nearly equal amount of high-level nuclear waste generated by the U.S. nuclear weapons program is also slated for storage at the repository. Opponents of storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain hope to pick up the votes they need to stop the project by illustrating how the dangerous material will be shipped, primarily by rail, through thousands of communities that would otherwise not be at risk of an accident involving nuclear materials. Yucca Mountain advocates are highlighting the safety record of nuclear waste transport to counter the campaign. Majorities in both House and Senate must vote to override the veto if the Energy Department is to take the next step in developing the repository: seeking an operating license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Since the proposed facility still must receive an NRC license, an override of Nevada 's veto doesn't guarantee the repository will be built, Abraham said. "We've done the research, now let's let the experts make a final decision," Abraham said. "The logical step is to let the objective, neutral experts at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission make a final decision of whether or not the project should go ahead." The House is widely expected to vote to override the state's veto by a comfortable margin. The vote in the Senate is expected to be much closer. Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle, D-S.D., who opposes Yucca Mountain, has indicated in recent weeks he will need a sizable number of Republican votes to sustain the state's veto. "I can say that we have well over 30 (Democratic) votes right now in opposition, and I hope (Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.) can match those votes on his ( Republican) side," Daschle told reporters Tuesday. Previously, Daschle indicated 29 Republicans are expected to vote to send nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain. That accounting would require 21 Democrats vote with those Republicans to override the state's veto. But it is highly unlikely that all of the remaining 20 Republicans will vote against Yucca Mountain. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said Tuesday he has introduced a Senate resolution approving Yucca Mountain for the development of a centralized storage facility for high-level radioactive waste. The announcement came after Daschle told reporters he would "strongly" urge his colleagues not to offer a Yucca Mountain legislative proposal. Daschle ordinarily could use his authority as majority leader to block the Yucca Mountain vote. But the Nuclear Waste Policy Act allows any senator to bypass the majority leader and call for a vote on the state's veto. Bingaman said it was his "duty" as chairman of the Senate Energy Committee to move the Yucca Mountain site-selection process forward. "Once we have finished the energy bill, our committee will hold hearings that will fairly and thoughtfully examine all sides of this important issue," Bingaman said. Given the protracted Senate energy bill debate and Bingaman's plans for hearings on the matter, it would appear the only hope for Abraham's request for quick congressional action lies with the House. -By Bryan Lee, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6647; Bryan.Lee@ [http://dowjones.com] Copyright © 2002 Dow Jones. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 54 Taipei pressed to remove nuke waste from Orchid Island Asia Times: [Asia Times Online] [http://www.asiatimes-chinese.com] April 11, 2002 atimes.com TAIPEI - The Taiwanese government will "do its best" to relocate the nuclear waste stored on Orchid Island off the main island's southeast coast, Premier Yu Shyi-kun said on Tuesday. He made the remarks while answering questions raised by legislators representing the aboriginal constituency. Admitting that it is "inappropriate" for the government to store nuclear waste on the island, Yu said that it must be removed as soon as possible, since the government had promised to do so. The nuclear waste from the six nuclear units operated by the state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) at three nuclear power plants is all stored on Orchid Island at present. The legislators from the aboriginal constituency complained that the government "cheated" the island's aboriginal residents by telling them that the nuclear-waste disposal facility was a plant for making canned food. According to an agreement reached by the government and local residents, the waste must be removed by the end of this year. Kao Chin Su-mei, a singer-turned-lawmaker from the aboriginal constituency, pressed Yu to begin relocating the waste this year. The premier said that Taipower is trying hard to find an alternative location for the waste and added that he "cannot make a guarantee" on the issue because it is not easy to find a new dump site. He also claimed that it will take as long as seven years to complete the removal. A junior-high-school student from Orchid Island, Hsieh Wen-lung, handed a petition to President Chen Shui-bian in Taipei on Monday demanding that the government take prompt action to remove the waste from his homeland, a move that precipitated a visit to the child's school by the police, who claimed they wanted "to gain an understanding of the child's background". The Public Affairs Office of the Presidential Office issued a news release on Tuesday saying that Chen affirmed Wen-lung's courage and that "outsiders" should not create pressure and trouble for the student. During an inspection trip to Taitung county that day, Chen told county Magistrate Hsu Ching-yuan that the student "has done the right thing and the school should present him with an award". Hsu said the president understood the "kind intention" of the police, but pointed out that the visit was an excessive reaction, which he said might lead to complaints from the people. (Asia Pulse/CNA) ©2001 Asia Times Online Co., Ltd. ***************************************************************** 55 Sellafield Contractors Walk Out on Strike THE WHITEHAVEN NEWS Thursday, April 11, 2002 More than 700 contracting and civil engineering workers voted for an unofficial strike at Sellafield yesterday. The decision to walk out until Monday will affect several projects including the commissioning of the MOX plant at Sellafield. At a mass meeting at Yottenfews yesterday morning there were angry scenes as workers learned that the normal procedures for dealing with the use of outside contractors had failed to resolve the issue. Already 71 workers have been made redundant. The crucial vote on whether to strike for just one day or through until next week was close at one stage, but after the ranks of workers were split, a head count gave the result 426 for a strike until Monday and 296 for the one day stoppage. There will be a further mass meeting next Wednesday for an update on the situation. Sam Morton, shop steward for Amicus (AEEU), said before the vote: "We fear this is the thin end of the wedge in terms of downgrading many jobs. We have just seen packages of work handed out to a firm that pays lower wages and looks set to bring in travelling men." The factor that has sparked the union action is that 50 men were made redundant by Shepleys and 21 by APEL (formerly William Press). Meanwhile a Yorkshire firm allegedly paying £6.10 per hour has moved on site taking over several projects. There were cries from the mass meeting that "if we let them get away with this everyone on this site will end up on £6 an hour". Another worker referred to previous disputes when he shouted: "People crossing picket lines is what's wrong with this site.'' Regional officer Grant Cattanach added: "We have just had a nationally accepted pay deal for two years and then without any negotiation they start laying off and handing work over to contractors offering lower wage rates. It is understandable that the men are concerned, these sort of moves could affect all 800 men.'' Another shop steward, David Ferguson from Shepleys staff, added: "The correct procedures were raised with BNFL but BNFL have failed to respond.'' Mr Morton said: "Our lads did all the tricky work and then they farmed the follow-up work out. They want everyone to be on £16,000 a year...it won't wash.'' Sellafield press spokesperson Ali McKibbin said: "BNFL is aware of the situation and hope it can be resolved as soon as possible. It is a local and unofficial dispute that is not supported by the union national officers. It is a matter between the contractors and their employees.'' The contract workers were joined by civic engineering workers at the mass meeting. nA party of 18 Norwegian businessmen, opposed to Sellafield's nuclear discharges, visited the area yesterday after flying into Carlisle airport. They visited the Neptun's Eye sculpture on the beach. ***************************************************************** 56 Peace And Nuclear Disarmament: Call To Action by Rep. Dennis Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 23:13:00 -0500 (CDT) Peace And Nuclear Disarmament: A Call To Action by Rep. Dennis Kucinich "... Come my friends, 'tis not too late to seek a newer world, ..." --Alfred Lord Tennyson If you believe that humanity has a higher destiny, if you believe we can evolve, and become better than we are; if you believe we can overcome the scourge of war and someday fulfill the dream of harmony and peace earth, let us begin the conversation today. Let us exchange our ideas. Let us plan together, act together and create peace together. This is a call for common sense, for peaceful, non-violent citizen action to protect our precious world from widening war and from stumbling into a nuclear catastrophe. The climate for conflict has intensified, with the struggle between Pakistan and India, the China-Taiwan tug of war, and the increased bloodshed between Israel and the Palestinians. United States' planned troop deployments in the Philippines, Yemen, Georgia, Columbia and Indonesia create new possibilities for expanded war. An invasion of Iraq is planned. The recent disclosure that Russia, China, Iraq, Iran, Syria, North Korea, and Libya are considered by the United States as possible targets for nuclear attack catalyzes potential conflicts everywhere. These crucial political decisions promoting increased military actions, plus a new nuclear first-use policy, are occurring without the consent of the American people, without public debate, without public hearings, without public votes. The President is taking Congress's approval of responding to the Sept. 11 terrorists as a license to flirt with nuclear war. "Politics ought to stay out of fighting a war," the President has been quoted as saying on March 13th 2002. Yet Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution explicitly requires that Congress take responsibility when it comes to declaring war. This President is very popular, according to the polls. But polls are not a substitute for democratic process. Attributing a negative connotation here to politics or dismissing constitutionally mandated Congressional oversight belies reality: Spending $400 billion a year for defense is a political decision. Committing troops abroad is a political decision. War is a political decision. When men and women die on the battlefield that is the result of a political decision. The use of nuclear weapons, which can end the lives of millions, is a profound political decision. In a monarchy there need be no political decisions. In a democracy, all decisions are political, in that they derive from the consent of the governed. In a democracy, budgetary, military and national objectives must be subordinate to the political process. Before we celebrate an imperial presidency, let it be said that the lack of free and open political process, the lack of free and open political debate, and the lack of free and open political dissent can be fatal in a democracy. We have reached a moment in our country's history where it is urgent that people everywhere speak out as president of his or her own life, to protect the peace of the nation and world within and without. We should speak out and caution leaders who generate fear through talk of the endless war or the final conflict. We should appeal to our leaders to consider that their own bellicose thoughts, words and deeds are reshaping consciousness and can have an adverse effect on our nation. Because when one person thinks: fight! he or she finds a fight. One faction thinks: war! and starts a war. One nation thinks: nuclear! and approaches the abyss. And what of one nation which thinks peace, and seeks peace? Neither individuals nor nations exist in a vacuum, which is why we have a serious responsibility for each other in this world. It is also urgent that we find those places of war in our own lives, and begin healing the world through healing ourselves. Each of us is a citizen of a common planet, bound to a common destiny. So connected are we, that each of us has the power to be the eyes of the world, the voice of the world, the conscience of the world, or the end of the world. And as each one of us chooses, so becomes the world. Each of us is architect of this world. Our thoughts, the concepts. Our words, the designs. Our deeds, the bricks and mortar of our daily lives. Which is why we should always take care to regard the power of our thoughts and words, and the commands they send into action through time and space. Some of our leaders have been thinking and talking about nuclear war. Recently there has been much news about a planning document which describes how and when America might wage nuclear war. The Nuclear Posture Review recently released to the media by the government: 1. Assumes that the United States has the right to launch a preemptive nuclear strike. 2. Equates nuclear weapons with conventional weapons. 3. Attempts to minimize the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons. 4. Promotes nuclear response to a chemical or biological attack. Some dismiss this review as routine government planning. But it becomes ominous when taken in the context of a war on terrorism which keeps expanding its boundaries, rhetorically and literally. The President equates the "war on terrorism" with World War II. He expresses a desire to have the nuclear option "on the table." He unilaterally withdraws from the ABM treaty. He seeks $8.9 billion to fund deployment of a missile shield. He institutes, without Congressional knowledge, a shadow government in a bunker outside our nation's Capitol. He tries to pass off as arms reduction, the storage of, instead of the elimination of, nuclear weapons. Two generations ago we lived with nuclear nightmares. We feared and hated the Russians who feared and hated us. We feared and hated the "godless, atheistic" communists. In our schools, each of us dutifully put our head between our legs and practiced duck-and-cover drills. In our nightmares, we saw the long, slow arc of a Soviet missile flash into our neighborhood. We got down on our knees and prayed for peace. We surveyed, wide eyed, pictures of the destruction of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. We supported the elimination of all nuclear weapons. We knew that if you "nuked" others you "nuked" yourself. The splitting of the atom for destructive purposes admits a split consciousness, the compartmentalized thinking of Us vs. Them, the dichotomized thinking, which spawns polarity and leads to war. The proposed use of nuclear weapons, pollutes the psyche with the arrogance of infinite power. It creates delusions of domination of matter and space. It is dehumanizing through its calculations of mass casualties. We must overcome doomthinkers and sayers who invite a world descending, disintegrating into a nuclear disaster. With a world at risk, we must find the bombs in our own lives and disarm them. We must listen to that quiet inner voice which counsels that the survival of all is achieved through the unity of all. We must overcome our fear of each other, by seeking out the humanity within each of us. The human heart contains every possibility of race, creed, language, religion, and politics. We are one in our commonalties. Must we always fear our differences? We can overcome our fears by not feeding our fears with more war and nuclear confrontations. We must ask our leaders to unify us in courage. We need to create a new, clear vision of a world as one. A new, clear vision of people working out their differences peacefully. A new, clear vision with the teaching of nonviolence, nonviolent intervention, and mediation. A new, clear vision where people can live in harmony within their families, their communities and within themselves. A new clear vision of peaceful coexistence in a world of tolerance. We must move away from fear's paralysis. This is a call to action: to replace expanded war with expanded peace. This is a call for action to place the very survival of this planet on the agenda of all people, everywhere. As citizens of a common planet, we have an obligation to ourselves and our posterity. We must demand that our nation and all nations put down the nuclear sword. We must demand that our nation and all nations: Abide by the principles of the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Stop the development of new nuclear weapons. Take all nuclear weapons systems off alert. Persist towards total, worldwide elimination of all nuclear weapons. Our nation must: Revive the Anti Ballistic Missile treaty. Sign and enforce the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Abandon plans to build a so-called missile shield. Prohibit the introduction of weapons into outer space. We are in a climate where people expect debate within our two party system to produce policy alternatives. However both major political parties have fallen short. People who ask "Where is the Democratic Party?" and expect to hear debate may be disappointed. When peace is not on the agenda of our political parties or our governments then it must be the work and the duty of each citizen of the world. This is the time to organize for peace. This is the time for new thinking. This is the time to conceive of peace as not simply being the absence of violence, but the active presence of the capacity for a higher evolution of human awareness. This is the time to conceive of peace as respect, trust, and integrity. This is the time to tap the infinite capabilities of humanity to transform consciousness which compels violence at a personal, group, national or international levels. This is the time to develop a new compassion for others and ourselves. When terrorists threaten our security, we must enforce the law and bring terrorists to justice within our system of constitutional justice, without undermining the very civil liberties which permits our democracy to breathe. Our own instinct for life, which inspires our breath and informs our pulse, excites our capacity to reason. Which is why we must pay attention when we sense a threat to survival. That is why we must speak out now to protect this nation, all nations, and the entire planet and: Challenge those who believe that war is inevitable. Challenge those who believe in a nuclear right. Challenge those who would build new nuclear weapons. Challenge those who seek nuclear rearmament. Challenge those who seek nuclear escalation. Challenge those who would make of any nation a nuclear target. Challenge those who would threaten to use nuclear weapons against civilian populations. Challenge those who would break nuclear treaties. Challenge those who think and think about nuclear weapons, to think about peace. It is practical to work for peace. I speak of peace and diplomacy not just for the sake of peace itself. But, for practical reasons, we must work for peace as a means of achieving permanent security. It is similarly practical to work for total nuclear disarmament, particularly when nuclear arms do not even come close to addressing the real security problems which confront our nation, witness the events of September 11, 2001. We can make war archaic. Skeptics may dismiss the possibility that a nation which spends $400 billion a year for military purposes can somehow convert swords into plowshares. Yet the very founding and the history of this country demonstrates the creative possibilities of America. We are a nation which is known for realizing impossible dreams. Ours is a nation which in its second century abolished slavery, which many at the time considered impossible. Ours is a nation where women won the right to vote, which many at the time considered impossible. Ours is a nation which institutionalized the civil rights movement, which many at the time considered impossible. If we have the courage to claim peace, with the passion, the emotion and the integrity with which we have claimed independence, freedom and, equality we can become that nation which makes nonviolence an organizing principle in our society, and in doing so change the world. That is the purpose of HR 2459. It is a bill to create a Department of Peace. It envisions new structures to help create peace in our homes, in our families, in our schools, in our neighborhoods, in our cities, and in our nation. It aspires to create conditions for peace within and to create conditions for peace worldwide. It considers the conditions which cause people to become the terrorists of the future, issues of poverty, scarcity and exploitation. It is practical to make outer space safe from weapons, so that humanity can continue to pursue a destiny among the stars. HR 3616 seeks to ban weapons in space, to keep the stars a place of dreams, of new possibilities, of transcendence. We can achieve this practical vision of peace, if we are ready to work for it. People worldwide need to be meet with like-minded people, about peace and nuclear disarmament, now. People worldwide need to gather in peace, now. People worldwide need to march and to pray for peace, now. People worldwide need to be connecting with each other on the web, for peace, now. We are in a new era of electronic democracy, where the world wide web, numerous web sites and bulletin boards enable new organizations, exercising freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, to spring into being instantly. Thespiritoffreedom.com is such a web site. It is dedicated to becoming an electronic forum for peace, for sustainability, for renewal and for revitalization. It is a forum which strives for the restoration of a sense of community through the empowerment of self, through commitment of self to the lives of others, to the life of the community, to the life of the nation, to the life of the world. Where war making is profoundly uncreative in its destruction, peacemaking can be deeply creative. We need to communicate with each other the ways in which we work in our communities to make this a more peaceful world. I welcome your ideas at dkucinich@aol.com or at www.thespiritoffreedom.com. We can share our thoughts and discuss ways in which we have brought or will bring them into action. Now is the time to think, to take action and use our talents and abilities to create peace: in our families. in our block clubs. In our neighborhoods. In our places of worship. In our schools and universities. In our labor halls. In our parent-teacher organizations. Now is the time to think, speak, write, organize and take action to create peace as a social imperative, as an economic imperative, and as a political imperative. Now is the time to think, speak, write, organize, march, rally, hold vigils and take other nonviolent action to create peace in our cities, in our nation and in the world. And as the hymn says, "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me." This is the work of the human family, of people all over the world demanding that governments and non-governmental actors alike put down their nuclear weapons. This is the work of the human family, responding in this moment of crisis to protect our nation, this planet and all life within it. We can achieve both nuclear disarmament and peace. As we understand that all people of the world are interconnected, we can achieve both nuclear disarmament and peace. We can accomplish this through upholding an holistic vision where the claims of all living beings to the right of survival are recognized. We can achieve both nuclear disarmament and peace through being a living testament to a Human Rights Covenant where each person on this planet is entitled to a life where he or she may consciously evolve in mind, body and spirit. Nuclear disarmament and peace are the signposts toward the uplit path of an even brighter human condition wherein we can through our conscious efforts evolve and reestablish the context of our existence from peril to peace, from revolution to evolution. Think peace. Speak peace. Act peace. Peace. ### This article was published at: http://thenation.org/doc.mhtml?i=special&s=kucinich20020401 ---------------- Breaking news and views for the progressive community: http://www.commondreams.org ------------------ "Man must change or die. There is no other course." The World Teacher http://www.share-international.org ***************************************************************** 57 Russia keen to resolve arms cuts "nuances" ahead of Putin-Bush summit BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 11, 2002 Madrid, 11 April: Moscow is in favour of real rather than virtual cuts in nuclear warheads, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said today after talks with US Secretary of State Colin Powell. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry chief, "this is one of the most complex issues and there are nuances of approach". "There is a concept that the Strategic Offensive Arms Limitation Treaty should be legally binding," the minister said. He also said that experts will come to Moscow next week for further discussion of the document. Igor Ivanov is to have a meeting with his US counterpart in Washington on 3 May, which will determine the degree of the sides' readiness to finalize the documents. "We are committed to a productive meeting in Moscow between the Russian and US presidents, Vladimir Putin and George Bush," the minister said. Thus far, Igor Ivanov said, "certain differences remain in the sides' positions, which is only natural. After all, these are issues that touch on the security of our countries." BBC Monitoring/ © BBC ***************************************************************** 58 Iraq demands Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 11, 2002 Director of the disarmament department at the Iraqi Foreign Ministry's Organizations Bureau, Mr Wajdi Abbas, is reported to have said that the US threat to use nuclear weapons puts the world on the brink of a "destructive nuclear war" and a "feverish race to accumulate weapons of mass destruction". He called for the Middle East to be a region free of weapons of mass destruction and said that Israel should be included in this. The following is the text of a report by the Iraqi news agency INA web site: UN, 10 April: Iraq has called on the international community to make the Middle East a region free of weapons of mass destruction with nuclear weapons being the first to go. It has also called on the implementation of paragraph 14 of Resolution 687 to clear the region of such weapons. In a speech at the preparatory round of the seventh conference for signatories of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Wajdi Abbas, director of the disarmament department at the Foreign Ministry's Organizations Bureau, said this requires the involvement of the Zionist entity [Israel], which is the only state in the region that has not joined this treaty and subjected its nuclear installations to a comprehensive guarantees system by the International Atomic Energy Agency, or got rid of its arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, especially nuclear weapons. He added that the US threat to use nuclear weapons places the world on the edge of the abyss of a destructive nuclear war and opens the door for the redeployment of missile systems and space militarization leading to a feverish race to accumulate weapons of mass destruction. He noted that this US threat affirms a dire need to give guarantees to countries that do not have nuclear weapons by not threatening to use these weapons against them. The Iraqi representative said in his speech: "International security is an indivisible whole, and security and stability are a legitimate and just demand for all the members of the international family." He expressed hope that the first preparatory round would adopt a document that guarantees a future vision based on treating the negative aspects and downfalls of the past and affirming the importance of making the treaty comprehensive, as well as reach clear mechanisms to implement the resolution regarding the Middle East which was passed in 1995. The Iraqi official added that limiting the proliferation of nuclear weapons is not a goal in itself but a means to the complete removal of weapons of mass destruction. "Unfortunately, we see attempts to separate these two objectives." He said that while some countries are allowed to own a huge arsenal of nuclear weapons, continue to develop them and threaten to use them, other countries are stripped of even basic nuclear technology needed for peaceful purposes. He stressed that the selective treatment of this issue has created a great sense of frustration and moved us away from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty's main goal of complete disarmament of nuclear weapons, which is one of the main foundations of international security and friendly relations between nations. Iraq's representative affirmed the importance of the conference establishing a body to discuss the practical measures needed to exert systematic efforts to remove nuclear weapons, in addition to forming another body to make recommendations on measures needed to implement the resolution pertaining to the Middle East, which was passed by the fifth conference in 1995. He also stressed the need for nuclear states to respect their pledges under article six by conducting negotiations in good will regarding reaching effective measures to stop the arms race at an early stage, get rid of weapons, and completely remove all nuclear weapons within a set timeframe. Mr Wajdi Abbas concluded his speech: "The barbaric aggression the Zionist entity is launching against the people of Palestine and its attacks on Palestinian cities and villages with its tanks and planes is state terrorism and a blatant violation of the UN Charter and international law. This action constitutes a serious threat to international pace and security and exposes the fragility of the situation in the Middle East as a result of the aggressive policies of the Zionist entity, and the urgent need to remove this usurping entity's nuclear weapons. BBC Monitoring/ © BBC ***************************************************************** 59 Iranian UN envoy calls for total elimination of nuclear missiles BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 11, 2002 Tehran, 11 April: Iran's permanent representative to the UN headquarters in New York Hadi Nezhad-Hoseynian here on Wednesday [10 April] called on all countries, especially those having access to nuclear missiles, to empty their arsenals of nuclear weapons. Addressing a conference of the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Nezhad-Hoseynian pointed to Israel's nuclear programme and called on countries represented in the conference to verify the matter for themselves and address the issue. He went on to say that the Israeli regime's bloody offensive and massacre of innocent lives in the occupied territories is in keeping with its offensive nature and lack of respect for international laws and regulations. "While member countries, signatories to the NPT treaty are responsible for enforcing its provisions," he said, "no positive and proper steps have been taken against violators in recent years". The envoy recalled the US unilateral withdrawal from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missiles (ABM) treaty and the abandonment of negotiations for a reduction of nuclear missiles as well as Washington's new military doctrine and threat to use its nuclear weapons against "rogue" countries, now under consideration by the US Congress, as the primary factors weakening or thwarting efforts towards achieving global peace. The envoy further pointed out that the USA, in a statement submitted to the United Nations Security Council in 1968, had made a commitment to use its missiles in a defensive capacity and not against non-nuclear or member states, unless these countries are guilty of an attack against it. Nezhad-Hoseynian referred to the US unilateral decision to withdraw from the ABM treaty thereby neutralizing international efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons and called on the international community to react against such unilateral move. BBC Monitoring/ © BBC ***************************************************************** 60 AU: Govt to open nuclear test listening station [11apr02] AUSTRALIA [http://news.com.au] > STORY A NEW listening station capable of detecting hidden nuclear test blasts will be opened by the federal government in Western Australia next week. The $10 million station, at Cape Leeuwin on WA's south-west tip, will join a worldwide chain of 321 similar facilities being set up to ensure compliance with the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). The CTBT, which prohibits all nuclear test explosions in all environments, was opened for signature in New York on 24 September 1996, when it was signed by 71 states, including the five nuclear-weapon states. The new network of listening stations will make it virtually impossible for a nuclear device to be detonated without anyone knowing, constantly watching the air, sea and land for signs of nuclear explosions. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who will open the first Australian monitoring station on Monday, said the facility would be the first of 20 and would be backed by a laboratory. "The Cape Leeuwin station is significant as one of only six hydrophone stations in the global network," he said. He said it would monitor for signs of underwater explosions over large areas of the Indian, Southern and South Pacific Oceans. The CTBT has already been signed by 165 countries and ratified by 90, including Australia. ***************************************************************** 61 Pakistan’s nuclear stand according to global principles The Frontier Post From Peshawar Pakistan BB’s remarks based on hostile media reports’ Naveed Miraj Updated on 4/11/2002 10:02:22 AM ISLAMABAD: President General Pervez Musharraf’s principled stand on the nuclear issue has been consistent with Pakistan’s declared policy on the subject, an official spokesman said Wednesday, adding that it was regrettable that Benazir Bhutto “who has served as the Prime Minister of the country twice should have such a short memory on crucial and sensitive national security issues”. The spokesman took serious exception to Bhutto’s attributing of remarks on the use of nuclear weapons to President Musharraf, which he said were based on Indian media reports. Bhutto’s comments “were not surprising as she is in the habit of taking her cue from sources hostile to Pakistan”, said the spokesman. “The fact that she did not even bother to refer to the original text of the interview published in the German magazine and hastened to issue a statement says much about her irresponsible attitude to sensitive national security issues”. The spokesman said the President had clearly said that “for us, the use of nuclear weapons is possible only as a last resort if all of Pakistan were threatened to disappear from the map”. “The President has been repeatedly emphasizing both to the Pakistani and the international media as well as to the international leadership the fact that Pakistan was a responsible state whose nuclear capabilities were of deterrent nature only”, said the spokesman. He reminded that the President has also been emphasizing that Pakistan acquired nuclear capability only in response to the Indian nuclear acquisitions and also in view of the fact that Pakistan is vastly outgunned and outnumbered in terms of conventional weapons and numerical strength in relation to the Indian armed forces. The spokesman quoted from the German magazine Der Spiegel to clarify that the President had said that “Pakistan acts responsibly and I am so optimistic and self-confident as to believe that we can also defend ourselves conventionally, even though the Indians in their megalomania are buying the most modern weapons everywhere. “Only if all of Pakistan were threatened to disappear from the map, the pressure of our people to take this option would be too great. Then it will be valid: In an emergency also, the atom bomb”. The spokesman reminded Benazir Bhutto “of the many somersaults that she has been taking on important national issues” and dismissed her assertions that the President had taken a strong position on nuclear issue in view of the forthcoming referendum. “If her comments and statements were directed at the Western audience, she has failed miserably as they are now well aware of her antiques and her somersaults, said the spokesman”, said the spokesman. “If it was intended to please the Indians, she may have achieved some success but only at the cost of Pakistan’s strategic interests. But coming as it does from Benazir Bhutto, Pakistanis are not surprised”. © Copyright 2001 The Frontier Post ***************************************************************** 62 Al Qaeda sought nuclear scientists -- The Washington Times April 11, 2002 By Julian West THE WASHINGTON TIMES KABUL, Afghanistan — Two Afghan nuclear scientists, in the strongest indication yet that al Qaeda was trying to construct a nuclear bomb, have revealed how the terrorist group attempted to recruit them. The scientists disclosed how they had risked their lives by hiding radioactive materials, sufficient to make dozens of "dirty bombs," in the ruins of the old Aliabad mental hospital in Kabul and in the grimy basement of Kabul University's nuclear physics department. Last week, a team of specially trained British soldiers equipped with state-of-the-art instruments were led to the caches by the two nuclear physicists. What they found astounded them. There was a broken radiotherapy machine, containing enough cobalt 60 to kill a man instantly, in the lead-lined cancer treatment room of the hospital. In the basement of Kabul University, there were containers of solid and liquid radioactive material, some broken or with the lids off; chemical warfare agents; and instruments emitting radiation. "We've been finding stuff that's far more potent and dangerous than even 'dirty bombs,' which are made of nuclear waste," said Capt. James Cameron, who heads an eight-member team from the Joint Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Regiment, based in Bury Saint Edmunds, England, which also monitors the activities of Iraq's Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. The team is in Kabul to protect the international peacekeeping force. Capt. Cameron said much of the material was left over from the Soviets, "who used far higher doses of radiation than we would." Some of the containers were damaged by the Afghan mujahideen in the early 1990s, he said. "But al Qaeda and the Taliban never knew about it. The atomic scientists tore up their papers and never said a word," Capt. Cameron said. Last week, the two Afghan scientists, Mohammed Jan Naziri, a professor of applied nuclear physics, and Jora Mohammed Korbani, a nuclear physics professor, revealed how they had concealed their knowledge from the Taliban. They said that in 1996, when the Taliban militia first entered Kabul, they and some other colleagues on the faculty had gathered all the radioactive sources and instruments they could find from the university's laboratories and stored them in the nuclear science faculty's basement. Because they had no radiometers and no protective clothing, the scientists moved the items as carefully as they could, storing them between sheets of lead. They then tore up their research documents and papers on atomic physics. "We didn't really know how radioactive some of the sources were," Mr. Naziri said. "We just tried to protect them." Initially, the Taliban came to the university and simply registered the names of all the professors in the nuclear physics department. "They didn't understand anything about physics or what we were doing, but we knew they were looking for physics and chemistry experts," Mr. Korbani said. Then, one day a man from Kandahar, the Taliban's heartland and Osama bin Laden's main base, came to talk to the scientists at the faculty. Mr. Naziri said he refused to talk to the man, whom he described as "an Arab who spoke Pashtu and Farsi poorly." He said he asked the man for official letters of request from the Foreign Ministry or the university and told him he couldn't do anything without the Atomic Energy Authority's permission. "We never saw him again," Mr. Naziri said. Meanwhile, Mr. Korbani, who lost his job a year after the Taliban took Kabul, was approached by a mysterious aid agency called the "Chand Groupi," or "Multi Group," which operated out of a house in Kabul's Wazir Akbar Khan district, where bin Laden kept several safe houses and where many Arab al Qaeda fighters lived. The agency operated separately but was linked to the Ummah Tameer-e-Nau minority, run by the renegade Pakistani nuclear scientist Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmoud, who the CIA has called "bin Laden's nuclear secretary." Mr. Mahmoud is currently under house arrest in Pakistan. Although evidence found by the Sunday Telegraph last November — and more recently, the joint team headed by Capt. Cameron — in Mr. Mahmoud's house revealed that he was engaged in an experiment to float a helium balloon filled with anthrax over the United States, the Multi Group was clearly attempting to construct a nuclear bomb. "They said to me, 'We know you're working for the faculty of nuclear science, and we need you,'" Mr. Korbani said. "They offered me a lot of money and said that they wanted me to find 100 other nuclear scientists and technicians and come to Karachi." Mr. Korbani was then asked to write a paper on atomic energy. "They told me, 'Pakistan has a very powerful atomic bomb, and we are very keen on bringing such a power to Afghanistan,'" he said. The men told him that people in Pakistan's tribal areas would pay for the program. "They kept calling me, but I never returned [the calls]. I knew it was too dangerous." Capt. Cameron said there was little doubt that al Qaeda and the Taliban were attempting to make chemical weapons. If not for the Kabul University scientists, al Qaeda might have successfully constructed several "dirty bombs," he said. Unlike a conventional nuclear bomb, in which atoms are split to produce a massive explosion, a dirty bomb is simply a conventional bomb wrapped in radioactive material. A dirty bomb is much easier to produce because it requires only a conventional explosive plus some radioactive waste, such as spent fuel from a nuclear power plant or radioactive material used in medicine. "The Taliban would have given their eyeteeth for the stuff these men were hiding, and if they'd found it, I hate to think what they'd have done," Capt. Cameron said. ***************************************************************** 63 British troops find nuclear weapon equipment in Afghanistan Ananova - British troops in Kabul have discovered a cache of radioactive equipment, capable of making nuclear weapons, that had been kept hidden from al Qaida. The specially-trained soldiers were said to be "astounded" by what they found in the basement of Kabul University and the ruins of a mental hospital, after being led to it by two nuclear physicists. It included a broken radiotherapy machine, containing enough cobalt 60 to kill a man instantly. There were also containers of solid and liquid radioactive material, some broken or with the lids off, chemical warfare agents, and instruments emitting radiation. "We've been finding stuff that's far more potent and dangerous than even 'dirty bombs', which are made of nuclear waste," Captain James Cameron, from the RAF Honington, Suffolk-based Joint Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Regiment, told the Washington Times. The eight member team, which also monitors the activities of Saddam Hussein, from Kuwait, is in Kabul to protect the international peacekeeping force. Captain Cameron told the paper that much of the material was left over from the Soviets, who used "far higher" doses of radiation. He said some of the containers were damaged by the Afghan mujahideen in the early 1990s, but that the scientists kept it secret and al Qaida and the Taliban never knew about it. Had the terror group been told they might have built several "dirty bombs", a conventional bomb wrapped in radioactive material, he said. Mohammed Jan Naziri, a professor of applied nuclear physics, and Jora Mohammed Korbani, a nuclear physics professor, said al Qaida had attempted to recruit them. The pair collected all the radioactive sources and instruments they could find from the university's laboratories and hid them after the Taliban first took Kabul in 1996. They also destroyed their research documents and papers on atomic physics. Story filed: 15:01 Thursday 11th April 2002 Copyright © 2002 Ananova Ltd ***************************************************************** 64 Nuclear-Tipped Interceptors Studied (washingtonpost.com) By Bradley Graham Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, April 11, 2002; Page A02 Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has opened the door to the possible use of nuclear-tipped interceptors in a national missile defense system, reviving an idea that U.S. authorities rejected nearly three decades ago as technically problematic and politically unacceptable. William Schneider Jr., chairman of the Defense Science Board, said yesterday that he had received encouragement from Rumsfeld to begin exploring the idea as part of an upcoming study of alternative approaches to intercepting enemy missiles. "We've talked about it as something that he's interested in looking at," Schneider said in an interview. The Pentagon experimented with nuclear-armed interceptors in the 1950s and 1960s and, for a short time in the mid-1970s, deployed an anti-missile system that relied on them. But the notion of nuclear explosions going off high overhead to block incoming missiles proved unsettling for many people. And the prospect that ionized clouds and electromagnetic shock waves associated with the explosions could end up blinding radar on the ground and scrambling electronic equipment eventually helped kill the plan. Since then, defense officials have focused on developing interceptors to destroy targets without the need for explosives, relying instead on the force of direct impact, a concept known as "hit to kill." Driving the new interest in arming interceptors with nuclear devices is the problem of dealing with decoys and other measures that an enemy might use to confuse an interceptor, Schneider said. The hit-to-kill approach depends on interceptors picking out the real enemy targets and homing in on them. By contrast, nuclear-armed interceptors need not distinguish actual targets from clusters of decoys but could rely on explosive power or radiation to wipe out everything in the vicinity. One other arguable advantage of nuclear interceptors, Schneider suggested, is their potential for ensuring destruction of missile-borne biological warfare agents such as anthrax. President Bush has made clear his interest in pursuing technological solutions to missile defense, removing long-standing constraints by deciding last December to withdraw the United States from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Moscow. The Pentagon has embarked on experimental anti-missile programs, including land- and sea-based interceptors as well as airborne lasers and space-based weapons, with the hope of having at least a rudimentary capability in place by fall 2004. But until now, defense officials had shied away from the nuclear option. An extensive Pentagon review of missile defense alternatives undertaken in the first months of the Bush administration raised the possibility of nuclear-tipped interceptors, according to two officials familiar with the review. But the idea failed to make the list of programs worth funding. Its return comes in the context of other recent signs of the administration's general readiness to consider broader uses of nuclear weapons. A Pentagon review of U.S. nuclear policy, concluded late last year, put new emphasis on possible nuclear strikes against Third World adversaries and backed development of low-yield nuclear bombs to hit hardened or deeply buried targets. Russia, which built a missile defense system around Moscow in the 1960s that survives to this day, relied from the start on nuclear-armed interceptors. Although U.S. defense experts regard the Russian system as anachronistic, Russian military officials worry that the United States will eventually adopt the nuclear approach, according to Pavel Podvig, editor of an authoritative book about Russian strategic nuclear forces published last year by the Center for Arms Control Studies in Moscow. "They believe strongly that you cannot get an effective missile defense system using hit-to-kill," Podvig said. The Defense Science Board, set up in the 1950s, is a senior advisory body that reports to the secretary of defense on technological, operational and managerial matters. One of its task forces already is looking at some aspects of missile defense, including command and control systems, international cooperation and countermeasures such as decoys. Schneider said he plans to initiate the review of nuclear interceptors and other alternatives to hit-to-kill after the task force completes its study this summer. "The issue hasn't been looked at for about 30 years," said Schneider, a consultant and undersecretary of state for security assistance under President Ronald Reagan. "The last test involved a four-megaton device on a Spartan interceptor in 1971." Richard L. Garwin, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and prominent missile defense skeptic, said nuclear interceptors still pose several significant technical problems. "When you actually look at the question, you find that it takes a very large warhead -- more than a megaton -- to destroy anthrax spores in bomblets that may be spread over a distance of five kilometers or more," he said. "Worse, there are hundreds of civilian satellites as well as many U.S. military satellites vital to our national security that would be imperiled by nuclear explosions. And there are electromagnetic pulse vulnerabilities in an advanced society such as ours that would occur to any point within line-of-sight of the nuclear explosions." © 2002 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 65 Progress Reported on Nuclear Weapons Deal (washingtonpost.com) By Alan Sipress Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, April 11, 2002; 6:44 AM MADRID – Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov reported progress today in talks over a new agreement on cutting nuclear weapons but said that differences remained over how these reductions would be counted and whether they would be enshrined in a traditional treaty. Powell and Ivanov announced that arms experts would resume negotiations in Moscow next week and that they would meet again personally in Washington during the first week of May. These discussions come in advance of President Bush's visit to Russia late next month for a summit with President Vladimir Putin, where they hope to sign a deal on strategic weapons. The two governments are looking to complete two documents, one governing major cuts in their nuclear arsenals and another spelling out new strategic relations between the two countries. "There is serious rapprochement of opinion on both documents though differences remain," Ivanov said during a press conference with Powell. For both sides, an agreement over cutting offensive nuclear weapons would mean going down from the current level of about 6,000 warheads to about 2,000 each by 2012. The sides have not agreed on whether the warheads taken out of service should be destroyed or, as U.S. officials prefer, mothballed. And while both sides have agreed that this deal would take the form of a legally binding agreement, the Bush administration has so far balked at Russian insistence that it take the form of a treaty. The two diplomats were also upbeat about the prospects for an agreement establishing a new council including NATO and Russia, saying this could be attained before the next meeting of alliance foreign ministers in Iceland next month. They said this agreement would likely be marked by a high-level signing ceremony. Powell met with Ivanov before flying to the Middle East today, heading first to Jordan for talks with King Abdullah and then to Jerusalem for several days of discussions with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. President Bush announced a week ago that he was dispatching Powell to the Middle East to try to reverse the escalating violence and to restart political negotiations toward a final settlement. © 2002 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 66 Don't Regard Politician's Clamor as Ravings, How Far Japan Is Away From Nuke Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, April 10, 2002 Don't Regard Politician's Clamor as Ravings, How Far Japan Is Away From Nuke Japanese Liberal Party chief Ichiro Ozawa openly threatened on April 6 that Japan could make thousands of nuclear weapons "overnight" to curb China's "excessive expansion". Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue sternly pointed out on April 8: Ozawa's remarks were provocative, typically reflecting an outdated Cold War mentality. However, this wildly arrogant Japanese might have spoken out Japan's real nuclear potential-Japan is fully capable of making nuclear weapons overnight enough to destroy the entire world. Politician's Frequent Clamor to Wave Nuclear Big StickThe Japan Times gives thorough disclosure of the background against which Ozawa made the remarks. Ozawa brazenly attacked China at a seminar held in Fukuoka on April 6: "In the event of China's excessive expansion, Japan would make nuclear weapons to 'curb' China; the plutonium of Japan's nuclear power plant can fully turn out more than 4,000 nuclear warheads, we'll not lose to China in terms of military strength!" Ozawa is not the first Japanese politician who clamors to wave the nuclear big stick: On June 17, 1994, the then Japanese Prime Minister Hata Tsutomu openly told reporters: "Japan does have the ability to possess nuclear weapons." In March 1995, well-known Japanese magazine, Hoseki Gem, revealed that while accepting the interview by the magazine's correspondent, a senior Japanese government official said: "Japan can produce atom bomb within 183 days!" In July 2001, Japan set up a special nuclear detachment in the National Self-defense Corps on the pretext of protecting nuclear safety. This means Japanese politician is telling the truth. Japan's Promise to Abide by "Nuclear-related Three-No Principles"After War World II, Japan's Constitution forbids Japan to possess nuclear weapons, beginning in 1956 the Japanese government declared that it would abide by the "nuclear-related three-no principles", i.e., forbidding Japan to possess nuclear weapons, to produce nuclear weapons and to introduce any nuclear weapons. On November 24, 1971, Japanese Diet formally included the "nuclear-related three-no principles" into the law; in 1976 the Japanese government signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and made further promise: it will "not develop, not use, and not allow the transfer of nuclear weapons in its territory." How Far Japan Is Away From NukeTo know how far Japan is away from nuclear weapon, it is necessary first to make an examination of its nuclear capability: First of all, Japan possesses advanced, comprehensive nuclear technology. Although Japan currently still lacks nuclear weapons, it has the world's first-rate nuclear energy technology and 49 nuclear power stations with an annual power output of about 40,000 megawatt, ranking in the frontline of the world. Japan also possesses multiplication reactor technology that has all along been the key and difficult points in nuclear technology research. Secondly, Japan possesses super-strong computer simulation nuclear blasting capability. Thirdly, Japan is actively exploring new technology for obtaining nuclear raw materials. Fourthly, Japan possesses extremely high-level nuclear warhead-carrying technology. Fifthly, Japan stores astonishing nuclear raw materials. By the year 2010, Japan's gross plutonium reserves will reach 100 tons, thus making it the world's number 1 country with the largest plutonium storage. After deducting normal nuclear reactor consumption, it still has a surplus of over 60 tons. One ton plutonium can make 120 nuclear warheads, it is self-evident how many nuclear warheads these plutonium can make. Japan's Nuclear Policy Becomes Increasingly DisturbingAlthough Japan has signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, its attitude, however, arouses suspicion. As early as 1967 period when discussion began on "nuclear non-proliferation", Japan was astonishingly passive. It strongly opposed the "nuclear non-proliferation" treaty for it maintain that the treaty did not stipulate the obligation of nuclear countries to cut down nuclear weapons, and only prohibited non-nuclear countries from developing nuclear weapons. After the conclusion of the Cold War, the world pattern clearly tended to become multi-polarized, Japan's role in Asia, particularly East Asia, further improved. From the long-term point of view, the possibility of Japan's pursuit of independent defense capability is on the rise. Japan "will not count on permanent US mild nuclear protection policy", even if the United States was willing to provide such protection, Japan's national interest could not invariably be identical with that of the United States, "Japan will ultimately be independently responsible for its own security". This has enormously increased the possibility of Japan's development of nuclear weapons. Given this situation, don't regard Ozawa's threatening remarks as merely foolish talks. By People's Daily Online Copyright by People's Daily Online, all rights reserved /TD> ***************************************************************** 67 S.C. puts Flats plans at risk, Allard says Denver Post.com Mike Soraghan [msoraghan@denverpost.com ] Denver Post Washington Bureau Thursday, April 11, 2002 - WASHINGTON - Plans to turn Rocky Flats into a wildlife refuge by 2006 are falling apart, and Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard says the governor of South Carolina is to blame. Allard on Wednesday accused South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges of engaging in "political gamesmanship" in negotiations over shipping Rocky Flat's plutonium to the Savannah River Site in his state. "As a result of his dangerous gamesmanship, our national security and our nation's environmental security have been placed at riAllard said in a committee hearing on Capitol Hill. Hodges, who has pledged to lie down in front of the trucks to keep the plutonium out of his state, said the Bush administration is at fault, because it won't give South Carolina the guarantees it needs. "Sen. Allard is mistaken," said Hodges spokeswoman Cortney Owings. "Sen. Allard really needs to be questioning the commitment of the Department of Energy to cleaning up Rocky Flats and their dedication to national security." Allard's comments set off a partisan war of words with implications for not only nuclear weapons cleanup, but presidential and Senate politics. Allard, a Republican, and Hodges, a Democrat, both face tough re-election battles this year. Both have staked a lot of political capital on their positions in the plutonium fight. Allard also drew in President Bush, who pledged his commitment to the 2006 closure date that is now slipping. Rocky Flats, northwest of Denver, made plutonium "triggers" for nuclear bombs until 1989. The federal government is spending $7 billion to turn it into a wildlife refuge. To meet the 2006 deadline, the Department of Energy needs to begin shipping plutonium out soon, but officials won't give an exact date. Allard conceded last week while visiting the Flats that the deadline might not be met. In a Senate hearing Wednesday on nuclear-weapons cleanup, he blamed Hodges. "Up until now, I have tried to be patient waiting and watching as DOE kept offering more and more to the governor's increasing demands," Allard said. Hodges has pledged to send state troopers to stop the shipments or lie in front of the trucks if there isn't a rock-solid guarantee the plutonium will eventually leave the state. Such political theatrics are Hodges' only card. Legally, the Bush administration could start shipping the waste with 30 days' notice. Instead, the Bush administration has been negotiating with Hodges. On Wednesday, Allard and the administration said that Hodges has been negotiating in bad faith, constantly upping his demands. But Hodges says that in months of negotiations, DOE has never met the criteria he's laid out: a clear path out of the state for the waste, a timeline for creation of a facility to process the waste and a commitment from the administration and Congress to fund the project fully. Hodges sent a letter to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham on Wednesday, complaining that the administration won't make legally enforceable commitments. A DOE spokesman said the department did offer such a commitment on Wednesday, but the only response it got was the letter. All contents Copyright 2002 The Denver Post ***************************************************************** 68 ORNL construction progresses Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 10:24 a.m. on Thursday, April 11, 2002 Drill rigs and cranes work on installing caissons, or foundation piers, for a new computational science portion of a privately funded facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The three-story complex on the east end of ORNL will house the "next generation" of microscopes, computers and other equipment. ORNL's $300 million modernization effort has been a top priority for UT-Battelle, which began managing the lab for the Department of Energy in April 2000. The lab has a significant number of post-World War II facilities that officials say are hindering ORNL's ability to accomplish its missions. [http://www.oakridger.com] All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 69 Energy Department Releases Final Installment of Documents Relating to National Energy Policy in FOIA Cases energy.gov - Headquarters' Press Release RELEASE DATE: April 10, 2002 WASHINGTON, DC -- The Department of Energy today released the final installment of documents to comply with the federal court's second deadline of April 10 in the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act requests. Today's action by DOE concludes its production of documents in response to these FOIA requests. In addition to the previous March 25 release of 11,000 pages of documents, the Court's original February 21, 2002 order required DOE to release "a final package of all non-exempt records, and parts of records, responsive to the NRDC's April 2001 FOIA request, no later than April 10, 2002." Today's release includes about 20 documents comprising of approximately 950 pages. The documents released relate to DOE's role in the development of the President's National Energy Policy, which was released last May. NOTE: Copies of the letters sent to the NRDC and Judicial Watch have also been released. Copies of all released material are available for viewing in the FOIA reading room in the Forrestal Building located at 1000 Independence Avenue, SW. Hours of operation are from 9am to 4pm daily. Media Contact: Jeanne Lopatto, 202/586-4940 Jill Schroeder, 202/586-4940 Release No. PR-02-059 ***************************************************************** 70 Senators to push for Alaska oil drilling this week USA: April 11, 2002 WASHINGTON - Arguing that the United States should not depend on Iraq as an oil supplier, Republican Sen. Frank Murkowski of Alaska said on Tuesday he will offer this week an amendment to a broad energy bill to allow drilling in the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Republicans, who have been scrambling to pick up more Senate support for the Arctic drilling proposal, said two prominent Jewish groups concerned about rising Middle East tensions endorsed the plan. The Democratic-led Senate has been debating a broad energy policy for several weeks, with the Alaskan drilling amendment looming as one of its most contentious issues. The bill also seeks to promote conservation, increase funding of renewable energy sources, and encourage more domestic production of coal, nuclear power, natural gas and oil. Murkowski said Iraq's threat on Monday to stop its oil exports for 30 days in protest of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict shows why oil companies should be allowed to tap the Arctic wildlife refuge's potential 16 billion barrels of oil. "My intention is to offer an ANWR amendment this week," Murkowski told his colleagues in a Senate floor speech. Republicans want to allow drilling in a small part of the 19 million acre (7.7 million hectares) refuge, a move they say is safe for the environment and important for U.S. security. Democrats and green groups contend the Alaskan refuge, which they have dubbed "America's Serengeti," must remain closed to protect caribou, migratory birds and other wildlife. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle accused Republicans of dragging out the ANWR debate and said he wants to have a vote on the drilling issue this week. JEWISH SUPPORT FOR DRILLING A coalition of Jewish groups, including the influential American Jewish Congress and B'nai Brith, came out on Tuesday in favor of Senate passage of an energy bill that would allow drilling in the Arctic refuge. The groups said U.S. foreign policy should not be blackmailed by Iraq's attempt to use oil as a weapon. Endorsement of Arctic drilling is a reversal for the American Jewish Congress, which adopted a resolution in January saying the amount of potential oil from the refuge was "too small to make a significant impact" on U.S. supplies. Chuck Brooks, a spokesman for the mainstream group, said on Tuesday that passing comprehensive energy legislation that includes drilling in the refuge was now "a national security imperative." U.S. purchases of oil from Iraq provide funds to Saddam Hussein to help pay Palestinians suicide bombers $25,000 each, Murkowski said. "Each time an American goes to the gas pump he is funding indirectly the suicide bombers," he said. BUSH DOWNPLAYS THREAT Iraq, which ships about 2 million barrels per day of crude oil, is the sixth-largest foreign supplier to the U.S. market. Murkowski asked Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham late Tuesday for an emergency review of the impact of lost Iraqi oil supplies on the U.S. economy. "Americans have reason to be concerned. Safe, secure and affordable energy is to our economy as oxygen is to our existence," the senator said in a letter to Abraham. The White House has downplayed Iraq's threat. President George W. Bush said he did not expect other oil-producing nations to fall in line behind Iraq. "You know my opinion about Saddam... the world's not going to follow him," Bush told a Republican fund-raising lunch in Connecticut. "But it just goes to show how important it is to diversify our supply away from places like Iraq." Abraham said the Bush administration was not seriously considering releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or delaying crude deliveries to the emergency stockpile to counter any supply disruptions from Iraq. "We're not at the point of even looking at those options," Abraham said. "It's obviously, however, a tool available to the president should he conclude that national security interests are involved." The United States has plenty of oil. The American Petroleum Institute reported late Tuesday that U.S. weekly oil inventories reached a 3-year high of 326 million barrels. Lawmakers have spent a total of 15 days so far debating energy legislation, a long period by Senate standards. But Republicans face an uphill battle to win congressional approval for drilling in the Alaskan refuge. A Reuters survey late last month found that 40 senators were on record in favor of opening the refuge. Fifty opposed drilling and 10 lawmakers were undecided. Under the Senate's rules, 60 votes are needed to end debate on controversial measures and proceed to a final vote. The Republican-led House passed an energy bill last summer that would allow drilling in the Arctic refuge. "Now it's time for the Senate to finish its job. I regret it's taken this long," Abraham said. Story by Tom Doggett REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ***************************************************************** 71 Reactor role for 'fake' diamonds TECHNOLOGY Financial Times; Apr 11, 2002 By FIONA HARVEY Synthetic diamonds are not nearly as high quality as the real thing, despite the industry's best efforts. What if, instead of just trying to make synthetic diamonds more like the real thing, scientists tried to exploit some of the imperfections of the synthetic variety? A group of physicists at Commissariat a` l'Energie Atomique Saclay, the French atomic energy body, are doing just that, and presented their findings at the Institute of Physics Congress in the UK this week. They have discovered that they can closely tailor the qualities of synthetic diamond in such a way as to make it highly suitable for monitoring radiation at the core of nuclear reactors. Measurements of radioactivity in such environments are normally carried out using gaseous ionisation chambers, because solid-state devices cannot withstand the high radioactivity levels. Diamond, however, has an extremely high resilience to radiation. It also refuses to react with most chemicals, especially acids that are required for reprocessing radioactive waste. The researchers believe synthetic diamond, which can be produced relatively cheaply, could make a good alternative to the gaseous ionisation chambers, which tend to be very large. They are also exploring possible uses for diamond radiation detectors in radiotherapy, where diamond detectors could measure the amount of radiation patients receive. Commissariat a` l'Energie Atomique, Essonne, France; tel: +33 1 69 08 6000; www.cea.fr Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 1995-2002 ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************