***************************************************************** 05/13/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.123 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POLICY 1 US: Nuclear Industry Spends $5 Million to Woo Senators 2 Aussie nuke row 3 Norway imports Russian uranium 4 Russian minister urges understanding with USA on Iranian nuclear 5 US: Nukes For Sale 6 Environmental Minister wants more information on uranium imports NUCLEAR REACTORS 7 Lithuanian premier against setting specific dates for nuclear 8 Bulgarian experts inspect nuclear plant reactor before restart 9 US: Reactors' cracks cause safety concerns 10 Dispute between Slovenia, Croatia over Krsko thermo-nuclear 11 US: Vt. nuke plant needs new fuel assemblies NUCLEAR SAFETY 12 Nuclear plant terror attack exercise was done in secret 13 US: Terrorists threaten to strike nuclear plants July 4, sources say NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 14 Argentina: Nuclear waste `not wanted' 15 US: NRC to Hold Public Meetings May 21 - 23 in Nevada on Draft Yucca 16 NUCLEAR TRANSPORT VESSEL ENTERS PANAMA CANAL UNDER HEAVY GUARD 17 GREENPEACE AND THE SHUT SELLAFIELD CAMPAIGN URGE THE IRISH 18 US: Nuclear-waste risk small but lethal 19 US: Yucca: Nuclear waste plan comes under attack 20 US: Inept efforts in Yucca defeat 21 US: Public meetings set on NRC's Yucca plan 22 US: Democrats to hold GOP accountable for Yucca 23 US: South Carolina governor under attack by DOE 24 US: How do you design a "Keep Out!" sign to last 10,000 years? 25 Landslide threatens radioactive waste dump in Kyrgyzstan 26 US: AU: Spills prompt calls for SA uranium review 27 US: Nevada still has lots of bullets in Yucca fight 28 US: George Will: The political gamble inside Nevada 29 US: Zach Wamp: The Yucca Mountain repository is vital for 'energy 30 US: Opinions:Stand with Hodges on SRS dumping 31 US: Opinions:Hodges playing election politics 32 Taiwan says export of nuclear waste to Marshall Islands "unlikely" NUCLEAR WEAPONS 33 U.S., Russia to Slash Nuclear Arsenals 34 Bush Says He'll Ink Russia Nuke Pact 35 Putin Hails Nuclear Arms Deal 36 Israel lists Kazakhstan as country supplying nuclear materials to 37 NATO Prepares to Reach Out to Russia 38 Israeli Nuclear Whistleblower in Court 39 U.S., Russia Reach Deal on Nukes 40 US: Nuclear activists arrested at protest 41 Moscow Denies US Reports that Russia is Planning Nuclear Tests 42 US: Mothers hold nuke protest at NTS 43 US: Senate panel OKs funds for training 44 US: More than 40 years of nuclear standoff and missile defense 45 Japanese team in Fiji to examine nuclear test veterans US DEPT. OF ENERGY 46 Lax Federal Lab Safeguards Found OTHER NUCLEAR 47 Truck Drivers Needed for Terror War 48 U.S. has no energy policy ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Nuclear Industry Spends $5 Million to Woo Senators Public Citizen May 13, 2002 Senate Gears up for Vote on Shipping Nuclear Waste Across America WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators and senatorial candidates have taken more than $5 million from the nuclear power industry in political action committee contributions since 1997, a new report from Public Citizen shows. PACs of corporations belonging to the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the industry’s powerful Washington lobby, have contributed $1.3 million to Senate campaigns from Jan. 1, 2001, through Feb. 28, 2002, alone. The cash has been distributed in advance of a vote that will be critical to the future of the industry – whether to establish a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. "Politicians bristle at the suggestion that their votes can be purchased by campaign contributions, but the money has an effect or the industry wouldn’t be handing out so much," said Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook. "The nuclear power industry, on the other hand, candidly boasts that campaign cash influences public policy, and the industry funnels money to candidates because ‘the system operates this way.’ " Public Citizen’s report, Hot Waste, Cold Cash: Nuclear Industry PAC Contributions and the Senators Who Love Them, is based primarily on PAC filings with the Federal Election Commission compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. Transporting nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain would entail tens of thousands of shipments on roads, rails and waterways in 44 states and the District of Columbia. The transportation casks that will be used have never been tested, and even the U.S. Department of Energy acknowledges that there will be traffic accidents involving nuclear waste. An accident involving just one of these shipments could be catastrophic. Local emergency response and public health infrastructures do not have the capacity to respond to a nuclear disaster. Further, the Yucca Mountain site itself is unsuitable. It sits atop an aquifer and in an earthquake zone, and the site selection process has been rife with conflicts of interest and industry influence. Public Citizen found that U.S. Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Ala.), ranking minority member of the Senate Energy Committee, is the indisputable "Nuclear PAC Man." The $143,582 Murkowski took from the nuclear PACs since 1997 is more than any other senator. Among the report’s other findings: Of the Senate’s 20 leading recipients of nuclear PAC money, eight serve on the Senate Energy Committee, and six sit on the Environment and Public Works Committee. Both are key committees for legislation related to nuclear power. The top 20 also includes Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi. All but seven current U.S. senators have accepted nuclear PAC money. Thus far in the 2002 campaign cycle, U.S. Rep. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who is seeking a vacant Senate seat from South Carolina, has received $62,500, more PAC money than any other candidate for Senate, including senators who are seeking re-election. Another Senate non-incumbent, Minnesota Republican Norm Coleman, former St. Paul mayor, ranks fourth in nuclear PAC money so far in the 2002 cycle, with $43,250. Republican senators and Senate candidates receive about twice as much money from the nuclear PACs as Democrats. Of the 20 sitting senators who have accepted the most money from the nuclear PACs since 1997, 14 are Republicans, including the top four and eight of the top 10. Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), who chairs the Senate Energy Committee, is the Democrats’ top Senate recipient of nuclear PAC money. While nuclear power utilities feature prominently on the list of corporations that contributed most heavily to senators and Senate candidates, the largest total contributions by an NEI member came from General Electric, which designs and services nuclear power plants. Other leading PAC contributors among NEI’s membership include Deloitte & Touche, which provides auditing services to some of the country’s largest energy and utility corporations, and Enron, whose subsidiary, Portland General Electric, has stockpiled nuclear waste at the defunct Trojan plant in Oregon. "Yucca Mountain presents a wonderful opportunity for members of the United States Senate to reject the industry’s cynical assertion that policy is for sale," Claybrook said. "The Senate should put public health and safety ahead of special interest influence, vote to uphold Nevada’s veto of the Yucca Mountain project and get the nation started toward finding a truly sound method of dealing with nuclear waste, a method based on science, not politics." To view the full report, click here. Scroll down to view a chart listing the top Senate recipients of NEI PAC money from 1997 to 2002. SenatorMoney from NEI member PACs 1Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska$143,582 2Rick Santorum, R-Pennsylvania$122,541 3Conrad Burns, R-Montana$119,600 4Robert Smith, R-New Hampshire$106,500 5Jeff Bingaman, D-New Mexico$99,648 6Chuck Hagel, R-Nebraska$98,881 7Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana$98,000 8George Voinovich, R-Ohio$97,005 9Christopher Bond, R-Missouri$95,224 10Mark Crapo, R-Idaho$89,530 11Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania$84,428 12Ernest Hollings, D-South Carolina$82,000 13Trent Lott, R-Mississippi$79,500 14Larry Craig, R-Idaho$70,500 15 (Tie)Don Nickles, R-Oklahoma$70,500 15 (Tie)Gordon Smith, R-Oregon$70,500 17John Breaux. D-Louisiana$69,500 18Blanche Lincoln, D-Arkansas$68,500 19James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma$68,250 20Charles Schumer, D-New York$66,841 Source: Public Citizen analysis of data compiled by Center for Responsive Politics and, for 2002, monthly and quarterly PAC filings with Federal Elections Commission. ***************************************************************** 2 Aussie nuke row [13may02] news.com.au - 13 May 2002 From AFP and AAP BUENOS AIRES: About 3000 demonstrators gathered in Argentina's capital yesterday to protest against plans to import nuclear waste from Australia. "We all know there is an effort under way to win approval of the plan by the Chamber of Deputies in the coming weeks," said Juan Carlos Villalonga, an activist of Greenpeace, which organised the rally. Greenpeace said the plan involves Argentinian company INVAP, which has negotiated with the Australian Government to build a nuclear research reactor in exchange for taking Australian nuclear waste. Last month, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency granted a construction licence to the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation for the reactor, to be built by INVAP. Australia's Science Minister Peter McGauran said then the $300 million project represented the largest investment in Australian science history. Greenpeace has joined the Australian Conservation Foundation, Friends of the Earth and People Against a Nuclear Reactor in the Reaction coalition, vowing to actively oppose construction of the reactor. Greenpeace campaigner in Sydney James Courtney said the INVAP decision made a mockery of ARPANSA's claim to protect the community from the harmful effects of radiation. "This reactor will put Sydney at risk for at least 40 more years, both as a terrorist target and as a nuclear waste producer," Mr Courtney said. Environment and local resident groups have long campaigned against the building of the reactor. Herald Sun ***************************************************************** 3 Norway imports Russian uranium Section on international co-operation covering nuclear waste imports to Russia and exports of Russian nuclear technology. OSLO - The Norwegian Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) have imported at least 500 kg. of Russian uranium. The uranium will be used in a research reactor. Erik Martiniussen, 2002-05-13 16:24 In 1999, IFE imported 500 kilos of Russian uranium, Atle Valseth, information chief at the Halden research reactor, said to Norwegian newspaper Dagsavisen. The uranium will keep the 45-year old reactor going for approximately six more years. Today, there are 470 kilos of uranium loaded into the reactor. Gift from Russian nuclear industry The uranium was provided to IFE on terms of barter agreement with the Russian Kurchatov-Institute, which wanted to participate in the OECD-Halden Reactor Project. Where in Russia the uranium may come from is not known, but Børge Brende, Norway's environmental minister, told IFE to find it out. The Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority (NRPA) told Bellona earlier this week that "this was not a part of their supervision". The uranium may come from storage facilities at the Mayak reprocessing plant in Siberia, or it could come from the uranium mine at Krasnokamensk, east of the Baikal Lake, on the Russian border to China. This is one of the largest uranium mine in the world — a 500-meter deep crater. The environmental conditions at this mine are appalling. According to reports from various environmental organisations, large amounts of contaminated water are being pumped out in the surroundings without any purification. The radon exposure to the population is much higher than what is being recommended by radiation protection regulations. — Not our responsibility The Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority says they do not have any responsibility for the origin of the uranium. In a letter to Bellona Foundation NRPA writes: Which companies IFE buys uranium from is not a supervision subject for NRPA. The uranium is in the form of powder, usually referred to as "yellow cake", and is transported to Kjeller, outside Oslo, where IFE produces its own nuclear fuel. The fuel is enriched to six percent for uranium-235. Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] , President: Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no] Information: info@bellona.no [info@bellona.no] , Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no [webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 4 Russian minister urges understanding with USA on Iranian nuclear links BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; May 13, 2002 Moscow, 13 May: Russia and the United States must reach an understanding on Russian-Iranian cooperation in nuclear energy, Atomic Energy Minister Aleksandr Rumyantsev told the press in Moscow on Monday [13 May]. "We must find an option that will suit everyone without harming anyone," he said. During his recent official visit to the United States, Rumyantsev said that the issue of Russian-Iranian cooperation in nuclear energy "was left off the agenda for Russia's negotiations with the US". "We discussed various options that would bring Russia and the United States closer together on this issue," he said. During the talks, the US negotiators again made it clear that cooperation with Iran in the nuclear field is out of the question, Rumyantsev said. "On the other hand, we keep telling the United States that this cooperation does not infringe on IAEA principles," he said. Iran has signed all the documents required by the IAEA, Rumyantsev said. He noted that IAEA officials carried out over 60 verifications in Iran and found no offences against its rules. Russia has notified Iran that it will now supply nuclear fuel to the Bushehr station, which is under construction, provided that the fuel be sent back. Russian engineers are currently working on the construction of one power unit in Bushehr under a Russian-Iranian contract worth over 800m dollars. Rumyantsev believes that a compromise with the United States regarding Russian-Iranian cooperation may be reached within six weeks after the Russian-US summit. Source: Interfax news agency, Moscow, in English 1434 gmt 13 May 02 /© BBC Monitoring ***************************************************************** 5 Nukes For Sale Rense.com By Joseph E. Stiglitz 2001 Nobel Winner - Economics Professor, Columbia University From Forbes Magazine 5-12-2 "It was lunacy to privatize the U.S. agency that processes uranium for bombs." Sept. 11 brought home the dangers of terrorism. But years before that, during the mid-1990s, a decision was made that worsened the risk of nuclear terrorism today: The government privatized the U.S. Enrichment Corp., commonly known as USEC... A division of the Energy Department, USEC had been the government entity charged with enriching natural uranium metal. Low-enriched uranium fuels nuclear power plants; highly enriched uranium fuels nuclear weapons. The two products are made by the same process. In 1993 USEC was also entrusted with implementing a swords-to-plows deal with the Russians. It would dilute highly enriched uranium from deactivated Soviet nuclear warheads and sell it to utility companies for power. We had no desire to see some underpaid apparatchik sell nuclear material to an Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein. To most people the idea of privatizing the agency making ingredients for nuclear bombs made as much sense as selling shares in the Defense Department. But forces were arrayed to push a USEC sale. Clinton was desperate to balance his budget. To budget bureaucrats every dollar counted--although I believe that sound accounting would not allow receipts from privatization to be counted. Treasury was blinded by ideology--the notion that privatization was always and everywhere a good thing. And Wall Street hungrily eyed the underwriting fees. As chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, I saw the proposal as bad economics and, worse, bad national security. Over the CEA's objections, the agency went public in July 1998, raising $1.5 billion at $14.25 a share. Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch led the underwriting, reaping $43 million in fees, an amount that seems out of proportion to the government's take, especially taking account of the hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of uranium stockpiles that the government threw in to the deal. We worried that a profit-motivated USEC would put obstacles in the way of getting more uranium out of Russia, and this is just what happened. USEC has no desire to see the U.S. market flooded with uranium from abroad. So USEC has pushed for unrealistically low prices from the Russians and asked for U.S. government subsidies. So far it has bought only 141 metric tons of the 500 tons of bomb-grade uranium to which it is committed to purchasing. By some estimates the amount of highly enriched uranium still in Russia is equivalent to 26,000 warheads. Consider: A terrorist or state need buy (or steal) only 55 pounds of the high-grade uranium to make a bomb. And the engineering prowess required to turn that U-235 into a weapon is not great. It would be accessible to a rogue state, probably to a very well financed terrorist. Those 55 pounds would be enough to flatten everything in a half-mile diameter. If USEC bought more uranium we could rest easier about it not ending up in a terrorist's hands. As a business proposition USEC is a loser, too. Its technology is antiquated. One argument for the sale--that it would enable the company to proceed with the development of a new laser-based technology--has evaporated: As the CEA predicted, USEC abandoned the laser effort. Net income fell to $16.6 million in the last year from $250 million before privatization. The stock is trading at around $7. But USEC officials aren't regretting the stock sale. Last year Chief Executive William Timbers made $990,000 in salary and bonus, more than triple what he could have made as a government official. Privatization was a mistake. What should we do now? Renationalization is one option. Another idea comes from USEC's customers, the utilities. They want to form a new company that would buy uranium directly from Russia and sell it to the utilities at a price lower than USEC offers, cutting out the middleman. This would benefit American consumers while speeding up the removal of uranium from Russian depositories. In the post-9/11 world it has become even more necessary to find a way to prevent nuclear proliferation. Research assistance by Christopher Helman. Copyright © 2002 Forbes.com. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 6 Environmental Minister wants more information on uranium imports The Norway Post - Doorway to Norway 12. Mai 2002 Environmental Minister Boerge Brende has asked the Norwegian Institute for Energy Technology to find out where the Russian uranium the institute imported has been produced. The environmental organization Bellona has strongly criticized the Institute, after it became known that Norway's two reactors use uranium imported from Russia. Bellona-leader Frederic Hauge says to Dagsavisen that to trade with the Russian nuclear industry in this way is extremely risky. According to Hauge, the uranium could come from a mine in Siberia, which could be responsible for large emissions of radioactive pollutants. Bellona's expert on nuclear energy, Erik Martiniussen, says a number of reports show that the Russian uranium mines in Siberia are a source of danger to both the environment and the health of the population. The Environmental Minister therefore says to Dagsavisen that he wants to know the source of the uranium imported to Norway. (NRK/Norway Post) Rolleiv Solholm ***************************************************************** 7 Lithuanian premier against setting specific dates for nuclear plant's closure BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; May 13, 2002 [Presenter] At his meeting with the parliamentary speaker, Arturas Paulauskas, the prime minister, Algirdas Brazauskas, has asked the parliamentary leader to persuade the members of the Seimas [parliament] not to set any specific dates or intervals of dates for the closure of the Ignalina nuclear power plant. Tomorrow the Seimas plans to discuss and adopt a resolution whereby it would authorize the cabinet to negotiate with the European Commission [EC] on the financing terms and timetable for the closure of power units one and two of the Ignalina nuclear power plant. Lithuania has already undertaken to close down power unit one of the plant by 2005 but has not yet decided when to decommission power unit two... Some Seimas members have proposed to include in the draft resolution an interval of dates which would serve as a reference for the Lithuanian negotiators in talks on the plant's decommissioning. More from Janina Mateikiene who is in the Seimas: [Correspondent] ...The head of the parliamentary European Affairs Committee, Social Democrat Vytenis Andriukaitis, favours freedom of manoeuvre in the negotiations with the EC on the decommissioning of the Ignalina plant. He said the Seimas could authorize the government to conduct negotiations with the EC on several decommissioning dates of power unit two of the plant within the interval between 2009 and 2015. The prime minister, Algirdas Brazauskas, said this move would impede Lithuania's talks with the EU. [Brazauskas] These intervals would impede negotiations because the negotiators will be deprived of a certain possibility of manoeuvring. Therefore, in our draft proposal [on the government's negotiating powers] we had not mentioned any intervals and we thought that ours was the best option. The life will show what position we should adhere to at the end of the talks. The more so that this is directly linked with costs and the costs depend on years. Now when we have this interval, we face uncertainty, and it is not only us, but the EC negotiations team as well... Source: Lithuanian Radio, Vilnius, in Lithuanian 1200 gmt 13 May 02 /© BBC Monitoring ***************************************************************** 8 Bulgarian experts inspect nuclear plant reactor before restart BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; May 13, 2002 [Announcer] Experts of the Committee on the Peaceful Use of Nuclear Energy began a five-day inspection of the readiness for restarting the first reactor of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant after completion of the planned annual overhaul. Iva Antonova reports from Vratsa: [Antonova] It is expected that the first reactor of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant will be activated after 20 May, subject to obtaining the permission of the Central Control Department at the National Electricity Company and the Committee on the Peaceful Use of Nuclear Energy, the Kozloduy nuclear plant information centre announced. The first reactor was stopped for its planned annual overhaul on 9 March. During the overhaul period, the reactor was recharged with fresh nuclear fuel for the 23rd time, and planned safety-improving measures were carried out... Source: Bulgarian Radio, Sofia, in Bulgarian 0800 gmt 13 May 02 /© BBC Monitoring ***************************************************************** 9 Reactors' cracks cause safety concerns -- The Washington Times May 13, 2002 By Justin Bergman ASSOCIATED PRESS RICHMOND — Small cracks in the reactors at Virginia's two nuclear power plants are prompting concern among some industry watchdogs that necessary safety precautions are not being taken to prevent serious problems. Twenty-one cracks have been found in the control-rod nozzles and tubes at the two plants — North Anna and Surry — over the last year, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Three of the cracks were leaking minute amounts of boric acid, which is used as a coolant in reactors. Of the 21 cracks, nine have been repaired — including those that were leaking — but the others have not, said Rick Zuercher, spokesman for the operator of the plants, Dominion Virginia Power. Mr. Zuercher said the remaining fissures are so hairline thin, they "do not pose any threat." But some industry critics, including the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) in Washington, say the cracks may not hold up until the next inspection period, when the reactors shut down for refueling. That happens every 18 months in Virginia. "The chief concern is we don't know how quickly cracks can grow during one operating cycle to result in failure of the reactor," said Paul Gunter, director of the Reactor Watchdog Project at NIRS. The nuclear industry "is operating in the dark here and will continue to do so." The heightened concern follows the discovery of a hole at the Davis Besse power plant in Ohio two months ago and severe cracks in other reactors nationwide over the past year. The 6-inch hole in the steel dome of the Besse reactor was caused by the accumulation of boric acid that had leaked from tiny fissures similar to the ones found in the Virginia plants. The discovery was made when the U.S. government ordered inspections of all power plants after 23 cracks were discovered in the nuclear reactors at the Oconee plant in Greensville, S.C., in the spring of 2001. Those cracks have subsequently been fixed. So far, no one else is reporting the kind of corrosion found at the Ohio plant. But the two Virginia plants have been placed on an NRC "close-watch" list with 12 other plants that have reported cracks in the past year, industry officials said. Mr. Gunter fears what happened at the Besse plant could happen in Virginia, or at any of the 12 plants on the list. "Not only did they miss the cracks [in Ohio], they missed the eating away of the vessel head," he said. "It's always a problem leaving defective, cracked material in service." Mr. Zuercher, however, said Dominion has taken the necessary steps to meet NRC safety standards, as well as American Society of Mechanical Engineers regulations under which all nuclear power plants operate. "There is very hard data about how well this material holds up," Mr. Zuercher said. "The NRC would never let a plant operate if it were dangerous." Roger Hannah, spokesman for the NRC's second division in Atlanta, agreed that the precautions taken are acceptable. "If there were any strong possibilities that these sorts of things could lead to serious safety issues, they certainly would be addressed immediately," he said. The areas where officials are most concerned about cracking are the tubes that carry the boric acid into the reactors and, specifically, the welded nozzles where the nozzles meet the roof of the reactors. The tubes are made of alloy 600, a durable metal said to be resistant to corrosion. The cracks that remain in the Virginia plants, measuring 2 millimeters deep at the most, are in the tubes, not the nozzles, Mr. Zuercher said. Cracks in the nozzles are generally considered more dangerous. The boric acid accumulation at the Besse reactor was caused by leakage in the nozzles. The minute amounts of boric acid found on the outside of the tubes at the Virginia plants were also caused by leakage in the nozzles. The accumulation was only discovered after officials conducted a close-up inspection of the reactors last fall following reports of the cracks at Oconee. As a result of the findings, Dominion officials decided to make the close-up inspections a regular, 18-month occurrence, Mr. Zuercher said. There is also now talk of replacing the reactor heads themselves, which range in age from 22 to 30 years old. "We made the determination [the cracks] will be fine to support 18 months of operation," he said. "If we didn't feel comfortable going 18 months, we would fix it; we wouldn't mess around." © 2002 News World Communications, ***************************************************************** 10 Dispute between Slovenia, Croatia over Krsko thermo-nuclear plant continues BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; May 12, 2002 [Presenter] For some time now, Slovenia has been trying to enforce a new agreement on the thermo-nuclear plant Krsko. Thus, this week the text of the agreement was ratified at the highest level. After the first reading, the final decision is expected to be reached in the Croatian Assembly, perhaps even by the end of next week. Do our ministers, deputies and the public know what it is all about? The following report is by Branka Separovic: [Reporter] What do those who have to make a decision need to know? Firstly, the new law is excellent, clear, precise and just. Croatia does not have a single reason to change it, quite the opposite, it is in a position to insist on damages incurred due to the breaking of this law. The decision reached by the Slovene Assembly four years ago, which was never disputed by a single Slovene media outlet, that the delivery of the Croatian share of power to Croatia be stopped, that the number and role of Croatian employees be reduced and control be taken away from Croatia was illegal and unjustified. The fact that the Slovenes were using the power generated for themselves, and were even selling it to the Austrians, and that the value of daily power produced in Krsko amounts to DM1m, are only further arguments in support of an early solution to the problem. However, the Slovenes insist on, and this weekend they have even ratified, a new agreement. They are trying to achieve two things. Firstly, they wish to annul the old agreement which they have blatantly breached, for which they will have to pay damages, with interest of course. Secondly, they are trying to impose new obligations regarding waste disposal and the dismantling of the plant. This is where matters become unclear. Firstly, nowhere in the world are thermo-nuclear plants dismantled. They are shut down and will have to be overseen and controlled for the next one million years. Since the Slovenes have in the meantime built new steam generators into the new plant which they are just about to close, without any consultation and agreement from the Croatian side, this can only mean that they foresee a long cycle of production. And yet, they are proposing this new agreement, according to which the cost of dismantling the plan would be 2bn dollars. Suddenly they have remembered that they share the plant with Croatia, so now they expect us to give them 1bn dollars, saying that we are unreliable partners and want us to give them the money immediately, regardless of how much longer the plant is to operate. They also suggest that we pay the money directly into, listen carefully, Ljubljanska banka [Croatia is currently involved in a dispute with Slovenia involving savings of Croatian citizens, which are allegedly still held by the Slovene Ljubljanska banka after the collapse of the former Yugoslavia]. Apart from the fact that our assembly has to ensure that the current agreement is abided by, and that damages are paid for its breach, it would perhaps be a good time to remember Slovenia's reaction when Croatia recently introduced corridors for petrol transit. This decision, both legitimate and justified, was withdrawn in less than two days. But the Slovenes worked out very minutely how much they had incurred in losses and filed charges against us internationally two months later. In any case, whichever way Slovene-Croatian disputes are resolved in future, and particularly the one concerning Krsko, one joint problem is here to stay, namely the radioactivity which will threaten us for a long time at locations along the Sava river, close to Zagreb. Source: HRT1 TV, Zagreb, in Serbo-Croat 1730 gmt 11 May 02 /© BBC Monitoring ***************************************************************** 11 Vt. nuke plant needs new fuel assemblies Local briefs Monday, May 13, 2002 VERNON, Vt. - Vermont Yankee officials say that up to 40 suspect nuclear fuel assemblies might have to be replaced during shutdown of the nuclear power plant that began this weekend. Vermont Yankee began shutting down Saturday, five months earlier than planned, to replace the faulty fuel assemblies to ensure the plant can generate power reliably through the high-demand summer months. The plant is expected to be down for two weeks. While the problem fuel is emitting elevated levels of radioactivity, the radioactivity is well within federal limits, officials said. © Copyright by the Boston Herald and [http://www.hiasys.com] . ***************************************************************** 12 Nuclear plant terror attack exercise was done in secret Irish Newspapers - BRITISH emergency experts simulated a plane crash yesterday into one of the country's most radioactive power stations - but Ireland's nuclear watchdog was not told about it. The exercise was the largest civil emergency exercise in the UK in the last five years and was designed to test whether the government, hospitals and other services could cope with the results of such an attack. Codenamed "Isis", the simulation envisaged the crashing of a fully-loaded plane of medium size into Bradwell nuclear power station in Essex. It involved 50 top officials and planners from Cobra, the British government's secret emergency committee. Concern about the possibility of a terror attack on a power station has mounted since September 11 and the subsequent warnings by US and nuclear authorities that the al-Q'aida network has threatened to hit a nuclear plant. But while France has placed anti-aircraft defences at the sites of its power stations, Britain has not followed suit. The new chief executive of the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland, Dr Ann McGarry, said the possibility of a major incident at a British power plant was something that was kept under review. Exercises such as the one carried out yesterday were not unusual, she said, and although the RPII normally liaised with British authorities, it would not be normal for consultations to take place in relation to such a simulation. In the past, the RPII has expressed concern to their British counterparts about the level of security at Sellafield. Bradwell's two reactors were closed down at Easter after 40 years but the facility is regarded as the country's most contaminated nuclear power station. Meanwhile, Irish sailors have pledged their support for a campaign protesting about a British government decision to ship 225kg of weapons-grade plutonium to the Sellafield plant from Japan. Following a series of meetings over the weekend with environmental group Greenpeace, sailors will form a "nuclear-free flotilla" on the Irish Sea later in the summer when the shipment is due at the Cumbria plant for reprocessing. Greenpeace have warned that the shipment - which carries enough plutonium for 50 nuclear bombs presents a "floating terrorist target" and poses a danger to the health and safety of millions of people. Sailors from Dublin, Co Louth and the south of Ireland met with a Greenpeace activist over the weekend to pledge support for the protest. Irish ships will sail to a point near two British armed freighters transporting the plutonium and registering their opposition to the shipment. "I hope they do what's being done in the Pacific and South America in forming themselves into an anti-nuclear group to protest against these shipments," said Henk Haazan from Greenpeace. "We're making a strong stand and saying we want these shipments stopped. The message is to take your own boat out to meet the ships." Legal action could also be undertaken by Greenpeace, which claims the shipment breaches UK and international law. © Copyright Unison ***************************************************************** 13 Terrorists threaten to strike nuclear plants July 4, sources say JOHN J. LUMPKIN, Associated Press Writer Monday, May 13, 2002 (05-13) 14:29 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. intelligence officials have received threats that terrorists will strike a U.S. nuclear power plant July 4, and are reviewing the information to determine whether it is reliable. The government is taking the threats seriously, though officials have preliminarily determined that the information is not credible enough to act upon, said officials familiar with the investigation. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the alleged plot to attack on America's celebration of independence is one of scores of threats filtering through U.S. intelligence and is not considered serious enough to formally warn the public or change the nuclear industry's already high level of alert. The threat received last week suggested that an unidentified Islamic terrorist group was planning to attack a nuclear power facility in the Northeast, officials said. It did not specify a target. Unlike some other recent threat information, the power plant threat did not come from Abu Zubaydah, the senior al-Qaida operational leader in U.S. custody. Abu Zubaydah's interviews with U.S. interrogators led a recent warning to banks, and heightened concerns al-Qaida was developing a radiation-spreading dirty bomb. Rep. Edward Markey of Massachusetts, a senior Democrat on the House Energy Committee, said that while he didn't know if the threat was credible, it indicated that "al-Qaida is seriously targeting U.S. nuclear facilities for future attacks." He said he is urging the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to take such steps as restoring a no-fly zone within a 10-mile radius of nuclear plants, federalizing the security force and conducting more extensive background checks of all plant employees. The Washington Times first reported the threat. The San Francisco Chronicle] ***************************************************************** 14 Argentina: Nuclear waste `not wanted' The Advertiser: [13may02] Nuclear waste `not wanted' BUENOS AIRES: About 3000 protesters gathered in Argentina's capital yesterday to demonstrate against plans to import nuclear waste from Australia. The rally was organised by environmental group Greenpeace, which is campaigning with the Australian Conservation Foundation and other groups against construction of a new nuclear reactor in Sydney. A spokesman said an Argentine company, INVAP, negotiated with the Australian Government to build the research reactor in exchange for taking in Australian nuclear waste for processing. Opponents of the $300 million project cited fears over safety and waste disposal. © Advertiser Newspapers Ltd ***************************************************************** 15 NRC to Hold Public Meetings May 21 - 23 in Nevada on Draft Yucca Mountain Review Plan NRC: Press Release - 2002 - 58 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov [opa@nrc.gov] The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold three public meetings in Nevada in late May to discuss the draft version of a plan it would use to review an application to build a potential high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, if Congress approves the President's Site Recommendation and if the Department of Energy (DOE) submits such an application. The meetings will be: -- Tuesday, May 21, from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Mountain View Casino and Bowl, 1750 South Pahrump Valley Boulevard, Pahrump. -- Wednesday, May 22, from 2:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Clark County Building Department, 4701 W. Russell Road, Las Vegas. The cross street is Decatur. -- Thursday, May 23, from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Clark County Building Department. (See above address.) The meetings will include several brief presentations on the purpose, scope, structure and content of the "Yucca Mountain Review Plan, Draft Revision 2." The principal purpose of the plan is to ensure the quality and uniformity of the NRC staff's licensing reviews of the potential application by DOE. The NRC is seeking public input on whether the draft plan, which was issued in March, would effectively assess the safety of a potential geologic repository for high-level nuclear waste. Copies of the "Yucca Mountain Review Plan, Draft Revision 2" will be available at the public meetings. The draft plan is also available at the NRC's web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr1804 /. A hard copy is available from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Attention: Reproduction and Distribution Services Branch, Washington, D.C. 20555-0001, or by sending an e-mail request to distribution@nrc.gov [distribution@nrc.gov] . NRC will keep a transcript of each meeting to ensure full consideration of all comments and questions. In addition, interested individuals may submit comments electronically by clicking on the "comment form" at the above web site address. Comments may also be submitted by regular mail via a letter to the Rules and Directives Branch, Office of Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Mail Stop T-6D59, Washington, D.C. 20555-0001. The comments should be submitted by June 27. ***************************************************************** 16 NUCLEAR TRANSPORT VESSEL ENTERS PANAMA CANAL UNDER HEAVY GUARD TO RETRIEVE FAULTY PLUTONIUM MOX FROM JAPAN 11 May 2002 Panama – The Pacific Pintail, an armed British-flagged nuclear transport ship, entered the Panama Canal at 4.30pm local time, guided by three armed patrol boats and an army helicopter. Armed police prevented Greenpeace campaigners, Panamanian citizens and local media from observing the ship entering the Gatun Lock. Greenpeace urged en route countries to oppose the shipment before it returns with faulty mixed oxide (MOX) plutonium (1). Threatened countries are prompted to take action to prevent the ships entering their Economic Exclusion Zones (EEZ). The Pintail will continue its controversial voyage to Japan as the second armed nuclear transport ship, Pacific Teal, transits the Canal in a few days when it is planned to join the Pintail in Japan as part of a two-ship mission to retrieve the plutonium MOX. The Public Relations Office of The Panama Canal Authority stated that the passage of the ships would not be made public for security reasons, although the three 30mm cannons on the Pintail are concealed during the 8-hour transit of the Panama Canal. The ships, which departed England together on April 26, are on a journey to recover and return to Britain a rejected consignment of plutonium MOX shipped by British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) to Japan in 1999. Originally it was intended to use the MOX as fuel in the Takahama nuclear reactor. The MOX waste contains 255 kilograms of weapons-usable plutonium, enough for 50 nuclear weapons. "Countries along possible routes of the return plutonium shipment must immediately protest against this unnecessary and provocative transport by BNFL. It is not too late to stop this transport from taking place but time is running out," said Tom Clements of Greenpeace International, who was detained while attempting to observe the Pintail's transit through the Gatun Lock near the Caribbean entrance to the Panama Canal. "En route countries face all the risks and receive no benefits of a deadly cargo best left in Japan to be managed as nuclear waste." An empty cask to transport the MOX waste was loaded on the Pintail just before its departure from England. Japan, which has been engaged in a failed decade-long effort to use MOX fuel, rejected the MOX for the Takahama reactor after it was revealed that BNFL's manufacture of it did not meet critical quality control safety specifications, and it was revealed that BNFL had deliberately falsified vital safety data. The return voyage of the two ships could begin as early as the second half of June. The two lightly-armed vessels will endeavour to protect one another from attack aimed at stealing the weapons material on board or using explosives against the ship which could disperse large amounts of radiological material. In spite of the heightened concern caused by the September 11th attack, the shippers have failed to prepare a security threat assessment on the shipment. The transit of the vessels is taking place before the Environment Committee of the Panamanian Legislative Assembly meets to debate a law banning all transit through the Panama Canal of radioactive waste and plutonium. That law appears to have Committee support but will be hotly debated in the full assembly. Britain, France and Japan, all of which engage in state-supported nuclear transport, have applied pressure to Panama not to ban the shipments. The shipment runs contrary to various provisions of the 1982 United Nations Law of the Sea Convention. This includes lack of preparation of an environmental impact assessment; lack of prior consultation with en route states; and lack of a liability regime needed in case of damage resulting from accident or radiological sabotage. It is unknown, which return route will be used for the transport, but countries along the three possible routes will be on alert for incursions into their territorial waters and Exclusive Economic Zones. The Japanese Foreign Ministry confirmed in late January that three potential routes are under consideration: 1) via Panama and the Caribbean; 2) between Australia and New Zealand and via the Africa's Cape of Good Hope; or 3) via South America's Cape Horn. Both the Panama Canal and Cape of Good Hope route via the South Pacific have been used for plutonium transports. All three routes have been used for the transport of high level waste. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: - Shaun Burnie – Greenpeace International, in UK +44 1557 814 195 - Mhairi Dunlop – Greenpeace International Communications +31 65 350 4731 For photographs please contact the Greenpeace International Photo Desk on +31 62 900 11 62 A selected list of statements of concern by en route countries can be found at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) website: www.iaea.org/worldatom/About/Policy/GC/GC45/Documents/gc45inf-18. pdf [http://www.iaea.org/worldatom/About/Policy/GC/GC45/Documents/gc4 5inf-18.pdf] Visit Greenpeace's Stop Plutonium Terror website www.greenpeace.org/~nuclear/bnfl [http://www.greenpeace.org/~nuclear/bnfl] Tránsito de Material Radioactivo por Panamá (Spanish) - Raúl Escoffery, November 2001 www.geocities.com/raul_escoffery/pntl/ [http://www.geocities.com/raul_escoffery/pntl/] Notes to editors: (1) Plutonium Mixed Oxide (MOX) - "MOX" stands for Mixed Oxide fuel, made of both plutonium and uranium mixed together. Plutonium is created in nuclear reactors, it does not occur naturally. The uranium used is usually freshly mined uranium and not the uranium recovered by reprocessing. Reprocessed uranium still contains small amounts of radioactive waste and many nuclear power companies won't use it in their reactors. The plutonium and uranium are mixed together as a powder and then turned into a ceramic fuel pellet (2cm high by 1cm wide). About 300 pellets are loaded into 3 metre long metal fuel pins. ***************************************************************** 17 GREENPEACE AND THE SHUT SELLAFIELD CAMPAIGN URGE THE IRISH GOVERNMENT TO STEP UP ITS OPPOSITION TO THE SELLAFIELD PLUTONIUM FACILITY 10 May 2002 Dublin - Greenpeace and the Shut Sellafield campaign today made a joint call to the Irish Government to step up its opposition to Britain's Sellafield plutonium facility, and to pressure the UK and Japanese Governments to cancel an imminent plutonium shipment from Japan, which will sail through the Irish Sea to Sellafield. The two organisations plan to link with anti-nuclear activists globally to oppose the shipment. Mr Henk Haazen, a leader of a flotilla of small yachts from Australia and New Zealand, which last year challenged a shipment of plutonium fuel through the Tasman Sea, will meet with Irish sailors this weekend to encourage them to oppose the shipment when it sails through the Irish Sea.(1) Last month, two armed British freighters left the UK bound for Japan to pick up a cargo of rejected plutonium MOX assemblies and to return them to the UK.The shipment is being made after it was discovered that British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) had deliberately falsified quality control data during the assemblies' manufacture. Japan demanded the return of the material as a pre-condition for new plutonium MOX contracts. BNFL and the UK Government hope that the return shipment from Japan in June, which includes 255 kilograms of plutonium, enough for 50 nuclear bombs, will result in contracts to ship more than 25,000 kilograms of plutonium to Japan over the next decade. As little as five kilograms of this plutonium could build one advanced nuclear weapon. "Sellafield's future pivots to a large extent on this proposed shipment of rejected material back to the UK," Greenpeace International Nuclear Campaigner Simon Boxer said. "Without new Japanese contracts, the new Sellafield MOX plant is dead in the water. This shipment poses severe risks as it sails around the world and through the Irish Sea; the implications of new contracts with Japan would see perhaps 80 more shipments from Sellafield to Japan over the next decade and the continued expansion of operations at Sellafield". Greenpeace has announced it is considering legal action to stop the return shipment because it would breach UK and international law. The return shipment would also violate an undertaking given by the UK Government to the International Law of the Sea Tribunal in November 2001. Following a challenge by the Irish Government to the Tribunal against the newly approved Sellafield MOX Plant, the UK told the Tribunal that no imports of plutonium MOX associated with the operations of the Sellafield MOX Plant would go ahead before October 2002. "If this shipment proceeds, the UK and Japan will be creating a floating terrorist target and a huge danger to the health and security of millions of people globally," Mr.Boxer said. "This shipment must be cancelled." The exact timing and route of the June shipment from Japan to the UK remains secret but it is likely to sail through the Irish Sea in August. "The UK and Japan arrogantly refuse to warn countries en route in advance, or to consult them on the environmental and security risks. We believe millions of people around the world have a right to know of the dangers they are being exposed to because of the arrogance and incompetence of the nuclear industry," Mr.Boxer said. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: - Simon Boxer, Greenpeace International Nuclear Campaigner +31 629 001132 - Mhairi Dunlop, Greenpeace International Nuclear Press Co-ordinator +31 65 350 4731 - Lindsey Holmes, Shut Sellafield Campaign - +353 1 49 70 313. For photographs, please contact Greenpeace International Photo Desk +31 62 900 1162 Visit Greenpeace's Stop Plutonium Terror website [http://www.greenpeace.org/~nuclear/bnfl] Visit the Shut Sellafield campaign website [http://www.shutsellafield.com] Notes to Editors: (1) Sat May 11th at 2.00pm in the Unicorn Bar (behind the Unicorn Restaurant) Merrion Row, Dublin 2 and Sunday May 12th at 5.00.pm. in the Carlingford Marina, Carlingford, Co Louth ***************************************************************** 18 Nuclear-waste risk small but lethal Duluth News Tribune | 05/12/2002 | [http://www.duluthsuperior.com] BY SETH BORENSTEIN KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS WASHINGTON -- Opponents of the Bush administration's plan to haul 154 million pounds of nuclear waste across the nation to be buried in Nevada's Yucca Mountain warn of "mobile Chernobyls'' chugging through America's heartland. They want Congress to reject the plan. To muster support outside Nevada, opponents are trumpeting the fact that every year starting around 2010, 175 train and truck convoys filled with nuclear waste would pass through counties where more than a third of all Americans live. The trains and trucks could be targets of terrorist attacks or have accidents, Yucca opponents warn. Radiation could then leak into the air from the sealed containers, killing thousands, they say. Impartial scientists, engineers and terrorism experts, as well as a database analysis by Knight Ridder, concluded that such a disaster is extremely unlikely. Nevertheless, a major radiation leak would be a catastrophe, and America will have to live with its decision about how to dispose of nuclear trash virtually forever. After more than 50 years in the nuclear era, the nation has accumulated nearly 100 million pounds of radioactive waste, which will remain lethal for millions of years. It's stored at temporary sites in 39 states. The Bush administration wants to haul it all to Yucca Mountain, about 100 miles north of Las Vegas, and bury it for 10,000 years. The administration's plan would require shipping nuclear waste about 1.1 million miles every year, mostly across rural areas. Still, more than 125,000 of those miles would be through populous suburbs and cities. The casks that contain the wastes are designed to withstand almost any shock, and the nature of the waste helps ensure that it's unlikely to threaten public safety even if it's released. But the margin for error is small. One type of terrorist attack could cause more than 18,000 people to die from cancer, according to a study Nevada sponsored that the plan's opponents will release this week. The Prairie Island nuclear plant south of St. Paul would ship four or five rail cars of waste each year, according to the Department of Energy. The Monticello, Minn., nuclear plant would load 32 rail shipments and eight truck shipments of nuclear waste over 24 years. Nuclear-waste convoys would steer clear of North and South Dakota, as well as northern Minnesota. "I'm in favor of transporting the materials; I used to be against it years ago,'' said University of Georgia toxicologist Cham Dallas. He has spent 10 years studying the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear accident in the former Soviet Union. "We've got a system now that we can live with. From a risk-management point of view, it's just not a major issue.'' The storage casks feature layers of steel and lead several inches thick. They are designed to withstand being dropped from 30 feet, impaled on a spike, then plunged into water. They must withstand temperatures of 1,475 degrees for 30 minutes. Even so, skeptics note that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission tests only parts of the containers and relies on computer models to test their overall strength. The waste itself is solid ceramic, which means it could not be dispersed as easily as a liquid or a gas. Dallas, who consults with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on nuclear-incident health preparations, said that if the casks were breached, "nothing is going to happen'' because of the waste's physics. "It's a metallic waste. It just goes right to the ground,'' Dallas said. "It's just not mobilized and thrown up in the atmosphere like we used to think it would be.'' Even if the waste somehow were changed into smaller particles -- by fire, for example -- the pieces would be too big to be inhaled, he said. A missile attack on a nuclear waste truck in an urban area could release enough radiation to give 1,820 people lethal doses of cancer, according to two reports that Nevada will release next week. That number could grow tenfold if missiles blew two holes in a cask, which would create better airflow. That could lead to a reaction with oxygen that would turn the waste into a powder that could be inhaled, the reports say. Other threats include land mines or a hijacked gasoline tanker rammed into a nuclear-waste convoy, which could set off an explosion and release radiation, warned James David Ballard, a Grand Rapids, Mich., terrorism consultant whom Nevada hired. Yet virtually every terrorism expert interviewed who isn't being paid by Nevada said a terrorist attack on a nuclear convoy would be too difficult to coordinate. "Yeah, (an attack on a convoy) is always a possibility, but there are a lot of easier targets,'' said Amy Sands, a terrorism expert and deputy director of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, Calif. "This is one of those activities that is so overplanned, on some level it's just ridiculous.'' Moving 175 shipments of nuclear waste a year would offer more targets, experts conceded. But the shipments would be so well-protected and difficult to find that a successful attack would be harder than the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center were, said Rusty Capps, a former top FBI counterintelligence official who's now president of the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies in Virginia. Such confident assertions don't convince skeptics. "Terrorist experts haven't been able to allow us to avoid the USS Cole or the World Trade Center or the embassies in Africa,'' said David Lochbaum, a nuclear-safety engineer for the Union of Concerned Scientists, a public-interest group that has raised concerns about the safety of nuclear power. While guards may stop terrorists, they can't stop accidents. The Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository would require trains to carry radioactive waste more than 1 million miles a year, and trucks with similar loads would add another 100,000 miles, according to the Department of Energy. The current U.S. mishap rate for trains and trucks suggests there would be nearly 100 rail accidents and one or two truck accidents over the 24 years the Yucca facility would be accepting waste. Still, no harmful radiation is likely to leak in those accidents, according to an NRC statistical analysis, as well as outside experts. Since 1960, 5 million pounds of spent nuclear fuel has been hauled 1.6 million miles across the country. Eight accidents have occurred in that time. No radiation has ever been released. "The likelihood of anything happening is extremely small. The system has been so overly designed from a taxpayer's point of view,'' said John Plodineck, a Mississippi State University chemist and a former nuclear-waste specialist at the government's Savannah River Site, which produces the materials for nuclear weapons. "This is scare-mongering of the worst sort.'' DuluthSuperior.com ***************************************************************** 19 Yucca: Nuclear waste plan comes under attack Tallahassee Democrat | 05/13/2002 | By Seth Borenstein KNIGHT RIDDER TRIBUNE WASHINGTON - Opponents of the Bush administration's plan to haul 154 million pounds of nuclear waste across the nation to be buried in Nevada's Yucca Mountain warn of "mobile Chernobyls" chugging through America's heartland. They want Congress to reject the plan. To muster support outside Nevada, opponents are trumpeting the fact that every year starting around 2010, 175 train and truck convoys filled with nuclear waste would pass through counties where more than a third of all Americans live. The trains and trucks could be targets of terrorist attacks or fall victim to accidents, Yucca opponents warn. Radiation could then leak into the air from the sealed containers, killing thousands, they claim. Impartial scientists, engineers and terrorism experts, as well as a database analysis that Knight Ridder conducted, determined that such a disaster is extremely unlikely. Nevertheless, a major radiation leak would be a catastrophe, and America will have to live with its decision about how to dispose of its nuclear trash. After more than 50 years in the nuclear era, the nation has already accumulated nearly 100 million pounds of radioactive waste, which will remain lethal for millions of years. It's stored at temporary sites in 39 states. The Bush administration wants to haul it all to Yucca Mountain, about 100 miles north of Las Vegas, and bury it there for 10,000 years. The administration's plan would require shipping nuclear waste about 1.1 million miles every year, mostly across rural areas. Still, more than 125,000 of those miles would be through populous suburbs and cities. The casks that contain the waste are designed to withstand almost any shock, and the nature of the waste itself helps ensure that it's unlikely to threaten public safety even if it's released. "I'm in favor of transporting the materials; I used to be against it years ago," said University of Georgia toxicologist Cham Dallas. He has spent 10 years studying the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear accident in the former Soviet Union. "We've got a system now that we can live with. ...From a risk-management point of view, it's just not a major issue." The storage casks feature layers of steel and lead several inches thick. They're designed to withstand being dropped from 30 feet, impaled on a spike, then plunged into water. They must withstand temperatures of 1,475 degrees for 30 minutes. Even so, skeptics note that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission tests only parts of the containers and relies on computer models to test their overall strength. The waste itself is solid ceramic, which means it could not be dispersed as easily as a liquid or a gas. Dallas, who consults with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on nuclear incident health preparations, said that if the casks were breached, "nothing is going to happen" because of the waste's physics. "It's a metallic waste. It just goes right to the ground," Dallas said. "It's just not mobilized and thrown up in the atmosphere like we used to think it would be." Even if the waste somehow were changed into smaller particles - by fire, for example - the pieces would be so big they couldn't be inhaled, he said. A missile attack on a nuclear waste truck in an urban area could release enough radiation to give 1,820 people lethal doses of cancer, according to two reports that Nevada officials will release this week. That number could grow tenfold if missiles blew two holes in a cask, which would give better airflow. That could lead to a reaction with oxygen that would turn the waste into a powder that could be inhaled, the reports say. Other threats include land mines or a hijacked gasoline tanker rammed into a nuclear-waste convoy, which could set off an explosion and release radiation, warned James David Ballard, a Grand Rapids, Mich., terrorism consultant whom Nevada officials hired. Yet virtually every terrorism expert interviewed who isn't being paid by Nevada officials said a terrorist attack on a nuclear convoy would be too difficult to coordinate. "Yeah, (an attack on a convoy) is always a possibility, but there are a lot of easier targets," said Amy Sands, a terrorism expert and deputy director of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, Calif. "This is one of those activities that is so overplanned, on some level it's just ridiculous." "... The likelihood of anything happening is extremely small. The system has been so overly designed from a taxpayer's point of view," said John Plodineck, a Mississippi State University chemist and a former nuclear waste specialist at the government's Savannah River Site, which produces the materials for nuclear weapons. "This is scare-mongering of the worst sort." Tallahassee could escape the nuclear waste shipments depending on where in Nevada a rail spur is built, which would dictate the route of Florida's nuclear waste. In one somewhat unlikely scenario, Tallahassee would get about eight rail shipments a year, according to calculations by the state of Nevada, which opposes the shipments. Florida nuclear power plants would generate 28 to 29 truck and rail shipments a year. ***************************************************************** 20 Inept efforts in Yucca defeat Las Vegas SUN May 10, 2002 Jon Ralston hosts the public affairs program Face to Face on Las Vegas ONE and also publishes the Ralston Report. Ralston can be reached at ralston@vegas.com [ralston@vegas.com] or (702) 870-7997. I DON'T KNOW about you, but I felt much better this week knowing that congressional candidates Dario Herrera and Jon Porter were in Washington during that close vote on Yucca Mountain. There was Herrera, wearing his "Watch me score political points" T-shirt, claiming to have flipped members of the Hispanic caucus to vote with Nevada. Even though he couldn't name any whose votes he actually changed when a reporter asked him, how lucky are we that he helped close the gap so it was only 306 to 117. Without him, it could have been really ugly. And then there was Porter, who also was there on Capitol Hill, donning his T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan, "Watch me be ineffectual on the national stage." Porter's persuasive powers were prodigious, as 13 out of 216 Republicans voted with Nevada. At least he got Transportation Chairman Don Young; that's something to put in the campaign literature. Porter was quoted later as saying he called the GOP members who voted with Nevada to thank them for their support. As one wag put it: "Bet that didn't take long." Two decades of soulless politics on Yucca Mountain -- by opponents and proponents -- are reaching a nadir this year as the arrogance first visited upon the state in 1987 with Screw Nevada I now soars toward a zenith, with the consummation of a process that has turned states' rights on its head and revealed just how the Gang of 535 views Nevada: A desert wasteland with a puny congressional delegation that substantively and politically is the perfect place to store nuclear waste. I understand the tireless lobbying by Rep. Shelley Berkley, whose vociferous floor statements and incessant "Dear Colleague" letters are more than just signs of political activity. That's her job. And I also feel some sympathy for Rep. Jim Gibbons, who was like one of those cartoon characters as he put his hand up to stop the onrushing tide of his own troops and got flattened. What else was he -- or Berkley -- supposed to do? Their performance I accept. But to push the single most important issue in the state's history into the background so the foreground can be lush with political maneuvering and silly speechifying is nothing short of obscene. Neither Porter nor Herrera had any reason to be on Capitol Hill, except that they wanted attention for their campaigns. They have no influence -- none. And the irony there is that they both look foolish, albeit Porter more so because the GOP, with a baker's dozen of exceptions, rammed this through. All Herrera seemed to care about was getting on TV and looking like he was doing something. But no one should confuse a lot of activity with a lot of progress. So I ask: What does it say about a candidate who is willing to exploit the most important state issue purely to help himself politically? I am profoundly cynical about the Democratic House leadership, too, which voted with Nevada but couldn't hold half its caucus. Thanks for that. And when I see Minority Leader Dick Gephardt stand with the state, I wonder whether he really believes the Nevada line or lusts after the state's electoral votes in '04. For Gephardt &Co., this was risk-free -- pander to the enviros, try to help Herrera and take on the GOP. As for Porter, it was nothing short of embarrassing for him to be there, meekly standing by as the steamroller cruised along. What truly perplexes me is how the GOP congressional hopeful cannot reject (or now return) money from guys like House Commerce boss Billy Tauzin and zealous dump advocate Joe Barton, who were like a couple of rabid dogs frothing to put the dump here. I ask again: What does it say about a candidate who would accept money from congressfolk he knows have no regard for the state he hopes to represent? The GOP leadership and President Bush are responsible for what's happening now. And now onto the Senate, where an overwhelming number of GOP senators will forget that pesky 10th Amendment, disregard a historic gubernatorial veto and Club of 100 parliamentary precedents and line up behind an administration imperative. The political problem now is that a majority of Nevadans probably believe that the dump is inevitable, especially after the House vote. Yes, there are still the legal cases and the dump licensing process -- but most people don't focus on that or the 2010 target date. Still there is no reason to surrender yet -- the Negotiate Now crowd misses a couple of points. First, why not wait to see if Harry Ensign can pull off a political miracle? There is no rush. Second, where are these putative benefits that Bob List &Co. are offering? Anyone see a bill with these hundreds of millions of dollars? A month or two from now, no one will remember the House vote or how many Democrats or Republicans voted for the bill or the silliness of Porter and Herrera being there when it happened. But if the Senate votes to override the governor's veto, too, my guess is the political elite and many candidates will have a serious problem, which is how to explain all this political activity and all these promises -- and the state is left holding the dump. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 21 Public meetings set on NRC's Yucca plan Las Vegas SUN May 13, 2002 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled three public meetings in Nevada this month to explain to residents how it would use a draft plan to review an application to build a proposed high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. President Bush has recommended the site, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, for burying 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste. The House endorsed the president's recommendation last week. The NRC could receive an application from the Department of Energy in late 2004 if the Senate approves the project and Nevada loses several lawsuits filed against the project. The meetings are: + 6:30 to 9 p.m. May 21 at the Mountain View Casino in Pahrump. + 2 to 4:30 p.m. May 22 at the Clark County Building Department, 4701 W. Russell Road near Decatur Boulevard. + 6:30 to 9 p.m. on May 23 at the Clark County Building Department, 4701 W. Russell Road near Decatur. The meetings will include several brief presentations on the purpose, scope and structure of the Yucca Mountain Review Plan in its second revision. The NRC is asking the public to review the plan, issued in March, to see if it would assess the safety potential of a geologic repository for high-level nuclear waste. Copies of the plan will be available at the public meetings. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 22 Democrats to hold GOP accountable for Yucca Las Vegas SUN May 13, 2002 By Erin Neff < [erin@lasvegassun.com] > Yucca Mountain, which supposedly unified state politicians in opposition, has become one of the top political issues for Democrats trying to pick up seats in this fall's election. The state's Democrats made it clear Saturday that they will attack the GOP this election cycle on Yucca Mountain. Democrats point out that the proposed nuclear waste repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas was recommended during a Republican administration and approved by President George W. Bush. But speaker after speaker at the Nevada State Democrat Convention took aim at local Republicans -- specifically 3rd Congressional District candidate Jon Porter -- blaming them for their ties to their party's leaders. Porter has drawn the ire of Democrats because the seat is closely contested -- it's being watched nationally because a Democratic win could help push the House their way -- and Democrats think Yucca Mountain is the wedge issue that separates the candidates. Dario Herrera, a Democrat running against Porter, highlighted Porter's campaign contributions Saturday in a slide show with select quotes from national GOP leaders and the amount of money each has donated to Porter's campaign. Porter has received $60,000 from the political action committees of pro-Yucca House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., House Majority Leader Dick Armey and Reps. Joe Barton, and Tom DeLay, all Republicans from Texas. "Jon Porter hasn't even been a worn-down speed bump of opposition to Yucca Mountain," Herrera said in his speech to delegates. Ted Jelen, chairman of the political science department at UNLV, said he thinks Democrats can make a legitimate issue out of the campaign contributions. "It's hard to get any legs on an issue that everyone is on the same side on," Jelen said. "But the money may have some legs. People think the whole idea of campaign fund-raising is pretty corrupt to begin with." And Jelen added, given the high amount of the contributions to Porter's campaign, "he's really in no position to return it. He needs it and he's stuck with that issue." At the convention, Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, also attacked Porter, her state Senate colleague, by calling him a "paragon of indecisiveness who goes along to get along." Titus said Porter would acquiesce to Hastert the same way he does to Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, in Carson City. "The argument is nothing short of ludicrous," said Mike Slanker, Porter's campaign consultant. "Every two years the Democrats try to tell Nevadans that they're better on nuke waste." Slanker said Herrera is "like a 2-year-old that just learned a new word -- nuke waste." Porter has noted that he has long been against Yucca Mountain, noting he voted for his first resolution against the dump 20 years ago. Porter consistently said that he will not return the donations because, he said, he will need to work with those Republicans if he is elected to Congress. Herrera also ridiculed Porter's trip to Washington last Wednesday to talk to House Republicans before the Yucca vote, which was 306-117, with 13 Republicans and 103 Democrats voting with Nevada. Slanker said Democrats have nothing else to talk about -- as evidenced in their lack of candidates for state constitutional offices and open state Senate seats. "Dario Herrera is a completely flawed messenger at this point," Slanker said, referring to Porter's 11 to 15 point lead in Republican polls. "He's double-digits behind. He's got to have surrogates like Dina Titus to be his mouthpiece." In the keynote address Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., made it clear what message voters should hear this fall by repeating the following three times: "We can never forget what George Bush did to us on nuclear waste." "The Republican Party in Nevada will always be associated with the big lie of George Bush," Reid added. But Slanker said Reid has also taken campaign contributions from Yucca proponents, including SAIC -- the project contractor and from Bennett Johnston, author of the so-called 1987 Screw Nevada bill. Attorney General candidate John Hunt said his Republican opponent, Brian Sandoval, cannot stand up to fight for Nevada in court at the same time he takes donations from former Gov. Bob List, now a lobbyist for the Nuclear Energy Institute. "Is Yucca Mountain a legitimate issue?" Slanker asked. "I guess it is if you're running against Bob List." Even Democrat gubernatorial candidate Matthew Dushoff jumped on the Yucca assault by reminding that Democrats did not bring then-candidate George Bush to Nevada in 2000 -- a trip during which Bush pledged to decide the merits of the repository on "sound science, not politics." "Gov. Guinn, take responsibility for your actions," Dushoff said. Guinn has repeatedly said he has done everything possible to stop Yucca Mountain -- including vetoing Bush. Jelen said he thinks most Republicans will get through this election cycle without being linked to Yucca Mountain, but he added Bush will be hurt in Nevada. "I think that'll really affect Bush in 2004," Jelen said. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 23 South Carolina governor under attack by DOE Reelection Ads In South Carolina Produce Static From Washington (washingtonpost.com) By Brian Faler Monday, May 13, 2002; Page A05 The Department of Energy blasted South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges (D) last week for launching a television advertising campaign criticizing the Bush administration's plan to move more than 30 metric tons of plutonium to his state. "It is well-established in this country that matters of national security and foreign policy are viewed as nonpartisan and certainly should never be politicized for personal gain," said department spokesman Joe Davis. "We strongly urge Governor Hodges to pull his TV ad immediately out of respect for this national security tradition." The radioactive material is to be moved, beginning as early as this month, from a Colorado weapons plant that is being retired in accordance with a treaty with Russia. It is slated to be converted in South Carolina into fuel for nuclear power plants. Hodges, a Democrat seeking reelection, worries that the conversion plan might fall through, leaving the material in his state forever. He has pressed the administration for some kind of enforceable guarantee to prevent that. Last week, Hodges took his case to the airwaves, with a statewide ad campaign that, amid pictures of people in radiation suits, told viewers: "Call the Department of Energy and tell them you support our governor. Tell Washington, 'No plutonium dumping in South Carolina.' " Kevin Geddings, a former Hodges staffer who helped produce the ads, said they will not be pulled and accused the Bush administration of politicizing the issue. "They're taking dangerous plutonium from Colorado to South Carolina because George Bush is rampantly popular in South Carolina and probably not as popular in Colorado," Geddings said. Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) is also running for reelection this year. Mass. Governor May Join Postal Board When She Leaves Massachusetts Acting Gov. Jane Swift, who has had her share of challenges juggling duties as the Bay State's Republican-in-charge and a working mother of three, is weighing a part-time job on the board that oversees the U.S. Postal Service when she leaves office in January, among other options, according to GOP insiders. Swift announced that she would not seek reelection in March, just hours before businessman and Winter Olympics organizing committee presidentMitt Romney was to launch a primary bid against her. The prospect of a federal post arose the next month when Swift visited the White House, one party insider said. The position -- appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate -- pays up to $42,000 a year, including travel and meeting expenses, which would allow her to continue to live in western Massachusetts and spend more time with her three young daughters. Swift spokeswoman Sarah Magazine would say only that Swift is considering a number of options. "The governor is focused on doing her job as governor, and obviously, she would be flattered to serve the Bush administration in a position such as that or be of service to the federal government in any way she can," Magazine said. Special correspondent Pamela Ferdinand contributed to this report. © 2002 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 24 How do you design a "Keep Out!" sign to last 10,000 years? Salon.com People | The Department of Energy is creating a vast monument to scare future trespassers away from radioactive waste sites. Their plan: A granite Stonehenge thing with warnings in Navajo! By Douglas Cruickshank May 10, 2002 | Imagine you're part of an archaeological expedition 6,000 years from today, stomping around the desert in an area known long ago as Yucca Mountain, Nev. You are looking for the remnants of a once flourishing civilization, a nation state that apparently called itself the USA back in 2002. You're 10 days into your quest, not finding much of anything, when one of your team runs up, all sweaty-faced and panting, insisting that you come see what he's discovered. You follow your flushed, jabbering colleague around a rocky outcropping, and there, vividly etched on a granite monolith, is a towering reproduction of Macauley Culkin in "Home Alone," hands to face, mouth agape; or maybe it's one of Francis Bacon's shrieking pope paintings or Edvard Munch's "The Scream." You don't recognize any of these startling cultural icons from the distant past; you don't know who made them, or what they symbolize. Hell, you don't even know that they're cultural icons, but the whole scene briefly scares the bejesus out of you. Then, like Howard Carter stumbling on the tomb of Tutankhamen, you experience a serious rush of exhilaration, aggravated by a serious case of the heebie-jeebies, as you realize that you've just chanced on a history-making breakthrough, a discovery of earthshaking significance. So, which do you do? 1) Immediately pack up the entire expedition and evacuate the area never to return? 2) Waste no time in commencing a major archaeological dig and cementing your place in history? Amazingly enough, the folks over at the U.S. Department of Energy are banking on curious humans (or whomever) from future millennia to go for Door No. 1. As it becomes increasingly likely that, despite Nevada's protests, President Bush will get his wish for Yucca Mountain to become the nation's central nuclear waste repository (the House has approved it by a 3-1 margin; the Senate may vote on it as early as next week), the doings of the DOE, which will be charged with building the facility, warrant greater attention. For the last two decades, it has been the daunting, if not nutty, business of the department to study and design warning monuments for radioactive waste sites, such as Yucca Mountain or the already functioning Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad, N.M. When I heard about this eerie undertaking, I called the DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management's Yucca Mountain Project (YMP) to see what I could learn about the harebrained -- I mean, farsighted -- scheme. The YMP has a toll-free line staffed by real people, specifically established to field questions from yo-yos like you and me. When I called, a very nice, patient, soft-spoken woman named Jenny McNeil picked up the phone. "You know," McNeil told me, "there has been a lot of research, since the '80s, in an effort to come up with plans for monuments that would transcend specific cultures and languages." Ms. McNeil was a kind soul, and her voice had a definite calming effect, but she wasn't a fount of information, so I called Sandia National Laboratories where, in 1991, the monument plan was first described in a study produced by the lab for the DOE. I talked to an official there (who asked not to be quoted by name). "Is this something that's actually going to happen," I asked him, "or is it a dead subject?" "Oh, no, no, no," the Sandia official told me. "It definitely will happen." The monuments are intended to last for thousands of years -- the waste may stay toxic for as long as 100,000 years. If everything goes as the DOE hopes, an archaeological expedition tens of centuries hence will take one look at these structures and hightail it in the other direction -- just like we do now whenever we come across mysterious ancient monuments covered with strange inscriptions and odd images. What are they thinking? And they are big thinkers over at the DOE. They're not talking about slapping up a few signs with a red circle and diagonal line over a mushroom cloud or a glowing mutant, or even something slightly more ambitious like that unnerving black obelisk in "2001: A Space Odyssey." No, what the DOE has in mind is more on the order of Stonehenge, but with a better class of stone -- granite -- and magnets. Magnets? Of course. You need magnets to "give the structure a distinctive magnetic signature." (I knew that.) But also because they nicely complement the "metal trihedrals" (three-sided pyramids) that will provide that all important "radar-reflective signature." Very Captain Kirk, and more and more fascinating as you get further into its psychotic science fiction novel aspects. Copyright 2002 Salon.com Salon, 22 4th Street, 16th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94103 Telephone 415 645-9200 | Fax 415 645-9204 ***************************************************************** 25 Landslide threatens radioactive waste dump in Kyrgyzstan BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; May 13, 2002 Bishkek, 13 May: A huge landslide nearly 400,000 cu m in size has barricaded a local river, posing a threat of flooding a radioactive dumping site near the town of Maylisu in the south of Kyrgyzstan, ITAR-TASS was told by press service chief of the Kyrgyz Ministry for Ecology and Emergencies Aleksey Yermolov. Local civil defence teams are making all possible efforts in order to clear the river grounds. Otherwise, the river might flood one of the nuclear dumping sites near Maylisu, Yermolov said... Experts in nuclear waste dumping from countries of the Euro-Asian community have arrived in Bishkek today. They will study the possibility of moving part of the radioactive waste to a different dumping site. Source: ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in English 0629 gmt 13 May 02 /© BBC Monitoring ***************************************************************** 26 AU: Spills prompt calls for SA uranium review ABC Business News - 13/05/02 : [Australian Broadcasting Corporation Online] The Australian Conservation Foundation is calling on the Federal Government to review its approval for the Honeymoon uranium mine in light of spills at the Beverley mine, in South Australia's north-east. The South Australian Government is expected this week to complete a report into two separate uranium spills in the past two weeks at the Beverley uranium mine. The Honeymoon mine, proposed for the state's far north, will use the same mining method used at Beverley. Foundation national nuclear spokesman David Sweeney says the spills show the in situ leaching method is flawed. "We've seen two years at Beverley and the accidents and spills are getting more frequent rather than less and the clear message is that something is clearly wrong in the industry. "It's time we pushed the pause button and its time we said no more and Honeymoon should not go ahead." © 2002 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ***************************************************************** 27 Nevada still has lots of bullets in Yucca fight - By Bob Loux [http://www.nevadaappeal.com] May 12, 2002 Hindsight, as the saying goes, is always 20-20. That was certainly demonstrated in Kirk Caraway's opinion piece ("Yucca Mountain fight was lost two years ago"). What Mr. Caraway failed to grasp is the fact that the political fight over locating a nuclear waste repository in Nevada is only the opening skirmish in a much larger battle. While DOE and the federal government have always had home court advantage in the political arena -- the 1982 federal law and its 1987 amendments were designed to make it nearly impossible for Nevada (or any other repository host state) to prevail in Congress -- the next rounds in the contest will be played out in the legal and technical arenas, where the advantage will be Nevada's. DOE's decision to recommend Yucca Mountain as a repository has been a foregone conclusion almost from the beginning -- certainly since the passage of the 1987 amendments to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which singled out the Nevada site as the only one to be "studied." No one expected DOE to come to any other conclusion, regardless of the facts or the serious deficiencies present at the site. This has been a mission-driven program all along, with DOE's mission being to do whatever is necessary to move the project along politically. The only reason Nevada is in the congressional game at all is because the framers of the original law never considered the possibility that small, insignificant Nevada would have a member of its delegation serving as assistant majority leader in the U.S. Senate at the very time Congress is with attempting to override the state's veto of the project by a majority vote in both chambers. Winning in the Senate would certainly be a welcome victory for Nevada, but a loss there is by no means the end of the battle -- it is really just the beginning. Even with the deck stacked strongly -- overwhelmingly -- in their favor, DOE and the commercial nuclear power industry are having to pull out all the stops to try to override Gov. Kenny Guinn's notice of disapproval. The fact the outcome remains in doubt in the Senate is a tribute to the strength of Nevada's arguments that the site is unsafe and transportation of deadly spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste presents a clear and present danger to millions of Americans along the nation's highways and railroads. It is also a testament to the hard work and unrelenting opposition to this dangerous and ill-conceived program on the part of Gov. Guinn, Sen. Harry Reid, Sen. John Ensign, Rep. Shelly Berkeley, Rep. Jim Gibbons, and virtually every other elected official in the state. Make no mistake about it, as difficult and contentious a time as they are having in the political arena, this is by far the easy part of the fight for DOE and the nuclear power industry. Yucca Mountain proponents have always had natural allies and a generally friendly audience in Congress, where many members have nuclear power plants in or near their states and districts and where the "anywhere-but-my-state" attitude dominates. It's been a relatively easy sell. Even so, DOE and the industry have had to resort to fear mongering and factual misrepresentations with respect to the suitability of the Nevada site and the transportation of waste to keep their troops in line. The hard part for DOE and the industry comes when and if the Senate overrides Gov. Guinn's veto. That's when the playing field shifts to the courts and to the technical arena, where DOE will, for the first time ever, be forced to defend a program that is in clear violation of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the department's own regulations governing how the suitability of the Yucca Mountain site should been evaluated. Unlike the political process, where the rules are stacked in DOE's favor and where DOE never had to address, much less answer, the hard questions, DOE will be held accountable for its conclusions and decisions in the legal and technical arenas. Nevada has been preparing for the legal and technical battle for almost two decades. The state intends to challenge the Yucca Mountain project on every front and in all forums. DOE, for the first time, is going to face hard hitting and unrelenting cross examination about how it arbitrarily turned away from the concept of geologic disposal when it became apparent that Yucca Mountain was incapable of isolating the waste and transformed the federal program into one relying solely on man-made, engineered systems -- in clear violation of the law. The state has put together strong and compelling legal cases challenging DOE's site recommendation process, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's gerrymandered radiation health protection regulations, DOE site evaluation guidelines that were revised to mask Yucca Mountain's deficiencies, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's illegal revision of the licensing regulations governing licensing of a repository at Yucca Mountain, and the constitutionality of the heavy-handed Yucca Mountain program itself. In addition to the legal challenges, Nevada is fully prepared to contest any application DOE might make to the NRC for a license to construct and operate a repository at Yucca Mountain -another hurdle DOE must clear before any waste can be shipped there. As in the courts, NRC licensing is an adjudicatory proceeding where DOE will be forced to defend it shoddy and politically-driven science at Yucca Mountain. The state has assembled a first-rate team of licensing attorneys and technical experts to represent Nevada in these proceedings who will see to it that the real facts regarding Yucca Mountain's unsuitability as a geologic repository prevail. In both the legal and technical forums, DOE is going to find that defending its actions under oath and under cross examination by the premier legal and technical experts in the country is a far cry from pulling the wool over the eyes of willing and complicit members of Congress. Governor Guinn has vowed that, win or lose in Congress, Nevada will continue the fight to assure that Yucca Mountain is defeated. The battle over Yucca Mountain is just beginning, and it is in the in the legal and technical arenas that Nevada will, ultimately, prevail. Bob Loux is the executive director of the Governor's Agency for Nuclear Project. He lute been directly involved with Nevada's oversight of the Yucca Mountain program since 1982. ***************************************************************** 28 George Will: The political gamble inside Nevada opEd 4 Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 11:06 a.m. on Monday, May 13, 2002 Washington Post Writers Group LAS VEGAS -- An incumbent is running in Nevada's 1st Congressional District, yet the race resembles one for an open seat. Why? Because it is in this city, which could startle the nation come November. Republicans control the House of Representatives 222-211. There are two independents. The challenger here, City Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald, 38, attracts interest because she participated as Miss Oregon in the 1989 Miss America pageant, and if elected she will be the first African-American woman Republican ever to serve in the House. But most important, this race is one of the small number in 2002 -- probably fewer than 40 -- that are truly competitive. Few of those involve incumbents. This is one of the races that will determine who controls the House, and it will turn on small local factors. The incumbent, seeking a third term, is Shelley Berkley, 51. Although the district as configured in 1998 had an even more substantial preponderance of registered Democrats than it now has, she won with just 49 percent of the vote while outspending her rival more than 2-to-1. In 2000 she won 52-44, again with a substantial spending advantage. She is a generally centrist Democrat, although very attentive to organized labor. She is an energetic campaigner and prolific fund-raiser in a city that is a magnet for contribution-hungry politicians nationwide. Fund raising and other advantages make incumbents difficult to dislodge, especially immediately after redistricting. In democracy, as quaintly understood, voters pick their representatives. American democracy increasingly reverses that. Legislative districts are drawn to protect incumbents who, effectively, pick their voters. But Berkley has not been helped by the redistricting made necessary by the fact that this is the nation's fastest-growing major city -- a city that prints a new phone book twice a year, and that needs 12 new schools a year to accommodate 6,000 new residents a month. The portion of northwest Las Vegas that has been put into the redrawn 1st District had 50,000 residents four years ago. Today it has 150,000. Berkley is hardly an incumbent there. Nevada's senior senator, Harry Reid, now in his third term, looms large in Washington -- he is Senate Majority Whip. But he was first re-elected in 1992 with just 51 percent of the vote, and was re-elected in 1998 with 48 percent -- by only 428 votes. Why? Because almost everyone starts almost from scratch in every election. Even incumbents quickly become strangers to the constantly churned electorate in a state whose population increased two-thirds in the last decade. The land near Las Vegas Boulevard -- The Strip, home of the casinos -- is a developer's dream, which is why elections of county commissioners can loom larger than elections of U.S. senators. The Strip has 11 of the world's 13 largest hotels (the other two are in Thailand and Malaysia; go figure), which is why the Culinary Union matters so much in endorsing candidates and turning out the vote. The union will support Berkley, but soon it may be distracted by collective bargaining difficulties. This city's current preoccupation is President Bush's decision, capping decades of study, to store nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain 90 miles northwest of here. Every Nevada politician opposes this but Bush remains popular. The abiding preoccupation of this city that depends on visitors arriving at McCarran Airport -- this city that lost 20,000 jobs immediately after Sept. 11 -- is attracting businesses to diversify the economy. This and charter schools, which help explain McDonald's support among African-American civic leaders who normally support Democrats, are her strongest passions. Poised (a beauty pageant can be spring training for politics), articulate (she has worked as a journalist) and entrepreneurial by conviction (Can you have too many Reagan election posters? Her office is trying), she is a born booster. In this city of perpetual unpacking, voter turnout spikes in presidential election years, but sags, particularly among Democrats, when, as this year, there is not even a gubernatorial or Senate race. And in 2000 Berkley ran two points behind Gore's performance in her district. In 32 of the 34 mid-term elections since the Civil War, the party holding the presidency has lost House seats. However, Democrats have gained seats in the three elections since their shellacking in 1994, and only three times in the 69 elections since the Civil War has a party gained seats in four consecutive elections. Which pattern will prevail this year depends partly on the fate of a conservative, pro-life African-American Republican woman. That is implausible, but not more so than this city exploding across the desert. (c) 2002, Washington Post Writers Group ***************************************************************** 29 Zach Wamp: The Yucca Mountain repository is vital for 'energy independence' 05/13/02 The Oak Ridger Online - R-Third District Zach Wamp Last week during the Republican members meeting I spoke to my colleagues about the importance of domestic energy production and energy independence, especially during these uncertain times in the Middle East. I told my colleagues that we need to put "energy independence" on the same priority level as national security because you really cannot have one without the other. I have long been a strong supporter of clean, safe nuclear energy to replace some of the fuel produced by these coal-fired plants. Nuclear power discharges no emissions and is the most economical source of electricity in the Tennessee Valley Authority region. Currently, 20 percent of all energy produced in the United States is nuclear energy (27.1 percent of energy in Tennessee is nuclear). However, the major roadblock in being able to move toward the use of more nuclear energy has been the question of how to dispose of the nuclear waste material. Fortunately, this administration has "stepped up to the plate" on this issue and developed a plan based on science, health and safety. Today (May 8) in the House of Representatives, I voted in favor of using the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository. I also spoke on the House floor about this important issue because our "national security hangs on this decision." Using Yucca Mountain as a major spent-fuel repository is essential to national security for two reasons. First, spent nuclear fuel must have a safe storage facility. Right now, there are 131 above-ground sites in 39 different states that are temporarily housing spent fuel (three are in East Tennessee). More than 161 million people live within 75 miles of the current nuclear waste sites and while these sites are safe, we must consolidate this waste into one underground location that can be better protected. Nevada's Yucca Mountain is a logical choice because it is already located in a "no fly" zone and will have the extensive security already in place at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site. Since 1987, in compliance with the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, the scientists at the Department of Energy have been studying the suitability of Yucca Mountain as a repository. They have researched the likelihood of earthquakes, volcanoes, groundwater contamination and human intrusion. They have concluded that the mountain would still withstand rigorous Environmental Protection Agency's standards for 10,000 years! The remote mountain is a volcanic ridge that is located in an isolated part of Nevada (100 miles from a populated town) on federal land adjacent to a nuclear test site. This single repository would be 1,000 feet underground protected by a titanium shield, as opposed to the 131 current temporary sites that are mostly above ground. The second important aspect of Yucca Mountain is that it will help our country move forward with using nuclear energy and move away from foreign oil dependence. The attacks on September 11 have made us realize that we may not be able to count on cooperation from the Middle East. Congressional scholar Lawrence C. Kumins said, "the involvement of Middle Eastern terrorists in the recent attacks on the United States has raised concern that oil production in the region might somehow be affected. Crude oil price initially rose following the attacks." The United States must have energy production that is self-sustaining. Nuclear energy is a key to providing Americans with cleaner power generation that is free from interruptions caused by international events or price fluctuations. Yucca Mountain is vital to the 103 operating commercial nuclear reactors that help provide us with carbon-free electricity. The legislation that passed the House of Representatives this week will give our nation a safe, central repository for spent nuclear fuel that will support the expansion of nuclear energy. President George W. Bush and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham should be commended for tackling this issue, instead of "passing the buck" like previous administrations. Yucca Mountain and energy independence are vital for national security and the preservation of freedom for generations to come. Zach Wamp represents Tennessee's Third Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 30 Opinions:Stand with Hodges on SRS dumping 05/13/02 Augusta Georgia: Web posted Monday, May 13, 2002 Letter to the Editor I am one of thousands of proud nuclear pioneers who helped win the Cold War against the Soviet Union during more than 40 years of faithful service at the Savannah River Site. During that time we produced nuclear materials for our national defense, space exploration, and medicine. I continue to wholeheartedly support SRS, but I also agree with South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges to keep the Department of Energy from making South Carolina a nuclear material dumping ground. I encourage all South Carolinians and Georgians to support Gov. Hodges' efforts to stop shipments of plutonium to SRS until the Bush administration signs off on an enforceable agreement to process the plutonium and a timetable to remove it from our neighborhood. I believe the Bush administration has no plan to either process or remove the plutonium from SRS; therefore, Gov. Hodges needs to do everything within his power, including a road blockade, to stop those shipments. Paul L. Cook, Augusta [http://augusta.com] . ***************************************************************** 31 Opinions:Hodges playing election politics Augusta Georgia: 05/13/02 Letter to the Editor Let's hear it again for the uninformed. Joe Nirenberg's May 3 letter is concerned that Savannah River Site will become the nation's dumping ground for nuclear waste. The shipments in question are weapons-grade plutonium to be processed for use in commercial reactors. This is not at all about nuclear safety in Mr. Hodge's mind. He has the issue right where he wants it to stay. The environmentalists/anti-nukers are backing the governor 100 percent as well as the fearful, uninformed public. He even has SRS people backing him, thinking he will assure them of getting a MOX plant built. If Mr. Hodges reaches an agreement to ship the material, he will immediately lose the environmentalists' support during this election year. If he succeeds in permanently blocking the shipments, he loses support of the counties surrounding SRS and millions in tax revenues. So, he will keep delaying the process until the election is over. Then we will see his true colors on this issue. Tom Nicodemus, Aiken, S.C. [http://augusta.com] . ***************************************************************** 32 Taiwan says export of nuclear waste to Marshall Islands "unlikely" BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; May 13, 2002 Taiwan says it is unlikely that it will export nuclear waste to the Marshall Islands. The Foreign Ministry says talks have been held between the electricity supplier Taipower and a number of countries to get rid of waste stored near Taipei. Among the countries mentioned are North Korea and the Marshall Islands. Earlier, Taiwan's economics minister accidentally named Solomon Islands, instead of the Marshalls, as a possible destination for nuclear waste. A Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Chang Siao-yue, says Taiwan will honour whatever international agreements are in place. [Chang] We will certainly notify Taipower and stop that. We will comply with the international agreements. That is very important for Taiwan. Source: Radio New Zealand International, Wellington, in English 2100 gmt 12 May 02 /© BBC Monitoring ***************************************************************** 33 U.S., Russia to Slash Nuclear Arsenals Date: Mon, 13 May 2002 15:27:34 -0500 (CDT) Environment News Service U.S., Russia to Slash Nuclear Arsenals By Cat Lazaroff WASHINGTON, DC, May 13, 2002 (ENS) - President George W. Bush announced this morning that the U.S. and Russia have agreed to cut their nuclear arsenals by more than 50 percent. The planned cuts were revealed within days of closed door Congressional briefings over Russia's alleged plans to resume nuclear testing, and less than two weeks before Bush's planned trip to Russia. President Bush made the surprise announcement this morning before boarding a plane for a planned trip to Chicago. "I'm pleased to announce that the United States and Russia has agreed to a treaty which will substantially reduce our nuclear arsenals to the agreed upon range of 1,700 to 2,200 warheads," Bush told reporters. "This treaty will liquidate the legacy of the Cold War." The United States now has about 7,000 strategic nuclear weapons, and Russia has about 6,000. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on targets for nuclear arsenal cuts in principle last year. Diplomats from both nations have been working out the details of the agreements for the past year. President Bush had initially proposed an informal agreement, rather than a formal treaty that must be approved by the Democratically controlled Senate, but the U.S. ultimately agreed to the more binding formal treaty. Bush and Putin plan to sign the agreement on May 24, during a trip by Bush to Russia. "When I sign the treaty with President Putin in Russia, it will begin the new era of U.S.-Russian relationships," Bush said today. "The new era will be a period of enhanced mutual security, economic security, and improved relations." When Putin learned of the agreement today, he said Russia is "satisfied with the joint work" that culminated in the treaty. "Without the interested, active position of the American administration and the attention of President Bush, it would have been difficult to reach such agreements." Putin added. The treaty will help President Bush fulfill one of his campaign pledges, to cut the nation's nuclear arsenal and modernize U.S. defensive strategies and systems. After taking office, Bush directed the Pentagon to review areas where nuclear weapons stockpiles could be reduced. Since the end of the Cold War, both nations have been looking at ways to save money by cutting stockpiles, reducing arms storage and security needs. In 1997, the U.S. and the former Soviet Union signed a treaty on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, known as the START treaty, that began a round of cuts in each country's nuclear arsenals. The START II treaty, signed in 1997, required that each nation cut their stockpiles to between 3,000 and 3,500 strategic weapons by 2004. That same year, then U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin agreed in principle on a third round of formal arms reductions that would have reduced those numbers to between 2,000 and 2,500. The treaty announced today, which has not yet been named, will make even deeper cuts, leaving each country with between 1,700 and 2,200 nuclear weapons. Details of the treaty, such as which missile types will be reduced the most, have not yet been announced. "This is good news for the American people today," Bush concluded. "It'll make the world more peaceful, and put behind us the Cold War once and for all." However, the pact will not end all areas of disagreement between the two countries on nuclear issues. Last year, Bush announced plans to withdraw the U.S. from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty to allow the U.S. to develop a missile defense system, a proposal that Russia opposes. And last week, some members of Congress were briefed on intelligence reports that suggest that Russia may be planning to resume nuclear testing. The "New York Times" reported that selected House and Senate members met in closed door sessions with administration officials regarding an analysis by the Joint Atomic Energy Intelligence Committee. The analysis suggests that activities on the island of Novaya Zemlya, a Russian test range and research area above the Arctic Circle, may be preparations for nuclear tests. Such tests would be a violation of the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which the U.S. has signed but not yet ratified. President Bush has said the pact would not protect the national security. Russian scientists and political officials have said the work done at Novaya Zemlya aims to confirm the readiness and reliability of existing weapons, not to create new weapons. The U.S. performs similar research regularly at the Nevada Test Site. An amendment to the Defense Department 2003 budget bill, passed by the House last week, would authorize the U.S. to develop a new class of nuclear warheads, and establish an exchange program in which Russian scientists could visit the Nevada Test Site, and U.S. scientists could visit Novaya Zemlya. On Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov again denied that Russia plans to resume nuclear testing on Novaya Zemlya. In an interview aired Sunday on state controlled ORT television, Ivanov responded to concerns raised by the "New York Times" article and U.S. Congress members, stating, "Unfortunately such statements often emerge from Congress for no reason at all." "Russia is demanding that the U.S. administration clarify the reason for such declarations, if we are to have new strategic relations based on mutual trust and respect," Ivanov added. ***************************************************************** 34 Bush Says He'll Ink Russia Nuke Pact Las Vegas SUN May 13, 2002 WASHINGTON- President Bush announced Monday that he will sign a landmark accord in Moscow this month to dramatically shrink American and Russian nuclear arsenals. "The treaty will liquidate the legacy of the Cold War," he said. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed in principle last year to reduce their arsenals to 1,700 to 2,200 warheads from the 6,000 now allowed by the START I treaty. Their diplomats struggled for months to make the deal official in time for the May 23-26 summit. One sticking point had been Russia's objections to U.S. plans for storing some of the nuclear weapons rather than destroying them. Senior administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said some of the arms will be stored and others destroyed under the accord. Details of the agreement were not immediately available. In a victory for Putin, the president dropped his desire for an informal agreement and will sign a treaty. That means the deal must be approved by the Senate, which is controlled by rival Democrats - a step Bush had hoped to avoid. The president said he would sign the treaty May 24 in Russia while meeting with Putin. Officials have said for weeks an agreement was virtually certain to be ready for the May 24 meeting, but Bush's announcement Monday was a surprise. He said that with the treaty signing, "We will begin the new era of U.S.-Russian relations and that's important." Undersecretary of State John Bolton and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Mamedov worked in Moscow in recent days on the agreement. "This is good news for the American people today," the president said. "It will make the world more peaceful and put behind us the Cold War once and for all." All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 35 Putin Hails Nuclear Arms Deal Las Vegas SUN May 13, 2002 MOSCOW- Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed the agreement reached Monday between U.S. and Russian negotiators on landmark cuts in nuclear weapons that he and President Bush will sign at a summit next week. "We are satisfied with the joint work," Putin said shortly after he was informed that the agreement was finalized. "Without the interested, active position of the American administration and the attention of President Bush, it would have been difficult to reach such agreements." Bush announced the deal in Washington on Monday, immediately after talks in Moscow between U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Mamedov. "The treaty will liquidate the legacy of the Cold War," Bush said. The arms control agreement would require each country to cut its nuclear arsenal to 1,700 to 2,200 warheads from the 6,000 now allowed by the START-I treaty. Bush and Putin agreed to those levels last fall, and negotiators have been trying to work out a formal document codifying them in time for the May 23-26 summit. One sticking point had been Russia's objections to U.S. plans for storing some of the nuclear weapons rather than destroying them. Senior administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said some of the arms will be stored and others destroyed under the accord. In a victory for Putin, the president dropped his insistence on an informal agreement and will sign a treaty. That means the deal must be approved by the U.S. Senate, which is controlled by rival Democrats - a step Bush had hoped to avoid. The Russian parliament largely supports Putin. Putin had no comment on details of the accord. Earlier Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry had issued a statement saying that as a result of Monday's talks "it was possible to bring the sides closer in a cardinal way," without elaborating. At the start of talks, Mamedov had called them "difficult," saying they were complicated by changes in U.S. nuclear and other military policies in recent months. "We needed to conduct an analysis of our plans taking into account new moments in the American side's approach," he said in remarks shown on ORT television. Mamedov said the agreement includes a clause allowing either party to pull out "in case of a threat to national interests." He said the two delegations were discussing specifics of the agreement Monday as well as overall strategic stability issues. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 36 Israel lists Kazakhstan as country supplying nuclear materials to Iraq BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; May 11, 2002 [Presenter over video of Israeli street scenes] Israel has listed Kazakhstan as a country supplying nuclear materials, nuclear systems and technologies to Iraq. The list of eight such countries says that Syrian special services acted as mediators in deals concluded between Kazakhstan and Iraq. No concrete information has been presented. UN conventions forbid the supply of any nuclear technologies to Iraq. So, if a report by the Israeli government is deemed reliable, then international sanctions may well be imposed on Kazakhstan. It is a long time since the USA has established control over exports of Kazakh products [which may be] linked with the production of weapons of mass destruction. So, this is the USA that bears responsibility for any incidents involving any nuclear materials in our country. Source: Kazakh Commercial Television, Almaty, in Russian 1300 gmt 11 May 02 /© BBC Monitoring ***************************************************************** 37 NATO Prepares to Reach Out to Russia Las Vegas SUN May 13, 2002 REYKJAVIK, Iceland- When Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov meets his NATO counterparts to seal an accord that aims to take cooperation between the former foes to a new level, the venue could hardly be more symbolic. Sixteen years ago, a summit in Iceland's capital between then-President Reagan and his Soviet counterpart Mikhail Gorbachev degenerated into a bad-tempered Cold War exchange over arms control. If all goes according to plan, Tuesday's meeting here will show how far relations have come by creating a new body where Russia sits alongside the 19 NATO allies to plot common policy against terrorism, the spread of nuclear weapons and other security threats. NATO Secretary-General George Robertson says the "quantum leap" forward in cooperation was inspired by the perception that, since Sept. 11, Russia and the western allies face a common menace from international terrorism, as they once did against Nazi Germany. "Sept. 11 proved an extraordinary catalyst. For the first time since 1945, it focused attention here in Europe and in Moscow on what we have in common," Lord Robertson said in a recent speech. "It led, not to a temporary thaw, but to a real sea change in attitudes on both sides." The first meeting of the new NATO-Russia Council is set for May 28 when President Vladimir Putin joins NATO leaders for a summit meeting at an Italian air base outside Rome. The NATO decision to reach out to Russia is a recognition of Putin's help since the attacks on New York on Washington, which has included political and diplomatic support, shared intelligence and approving American use of bases in former Soviet Central Asia. Under the new arrangement, Russia will sit as an equal partner at NATO meetings where the alliance discusses a range of issues, including counterterrorism, arms proliferation, missile defense, peacekeeping, management of regional crises and arms control. "It's a qualitatively new level of cooperation," Ivanov said recently. "If this works - and we want it to work - it could become an important element in building a new European security architecture." Skeptics however will point to an earlier new dawn in NATO-Russia relations five years ago when a beaming Boris Yelstin embraced then-President Clinton in Paris and signed the NATO-Russia cooperation and security agreement. That agreement set up a council where the two sides could consult on matters of mutual interest, but by 1999 it was in tatters as Russia curtailed contacts in protest over NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia. After the Kosovo war, relations gradually improved, but Moscow has continued to complain that it is simply informed of NATO decisions rather than helping to formulate policies. On paper, the new agreement changes that, but while it may create the foundation for a new partnership, analysts stress good will is needed from both sides to make it work in practice. "Architecture is less important than action," says Robert Hunter, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO. "The Reykjavik decisions are really just teeing up the changes." NATO officials stress the alliance's core mutual defense role will be unaffected. They insist Russia will have no right of veto over allied action since either side will be able to act alone where there is no agreement. That should give NATO guarantees that if the relationship sours Moscow won't be able to disrupt alliance business. "There is concern Russia will make it still harder for NATO to take a decision," says Sir Timothy Garden, European defense expert at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. "I don't doubt Russia will play hardball to get more control over what NATO does." By gaining greater say at NATO, analysts say Putin's hand is strengthened against an old guard in the Russian political and defense establishment that continues to view the western alliance with suspicion, especially as it moves later this year to take on up to seven new members from the old East bloc. Experts also point to differences over Chechnya, Iraq or Russian arms sales to the likes of Iran or Syria as showing how fragile the relationship remains. "Reykjavik is not the end, it's a beginning ... of a new stage in NATO-Russia relations that could take years" to develop into a real "alliance with the alliance", said Sergey Rogov, director of Moscow's Institute of USA and Canada Studies. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 38 Israeli Nuclear Whistleblower in Court Las Vegas SUN May 13, 2002 JERUSALEM- Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu made a rare court appearance Monday to request that secret documents from his trial be made public and to seek permission to meet with his British attorneys. The gray-haired, tanned Vanunu arrived in court handcuffed and wearing brown prison garb. Vanunu, who is serving an 18-year prison term for treason, has spent several years in solitary confinement. He was recently granted permission to spend outdoor recesses with other inmates. Vanunu, a former nuclear technician, was sentenced in 1988, two years after he gave The Sunday Times of London pictures of Israel's nuclear reactor near the Negev Desert town of Dimona. Israel, employing a policy it describes as "nuclear ambiguity," has never confirmed it has nuclear capability. Avigdor Feldman, Vanunu's Israeli attorney, said Monday's Supreme Court hearing dealt mostly with a lower court ruling that Vanunu cannot access the protocols of his trial. No decision was made at the closed-door hearing. "The decision is absurd. The trial is about him, he was the defendant in the trial. Just as he was present at the trial he should be allowed to read the protocols," Feldman told Israel Army Radio at the end of the three-hour closed-door session. Based on Vanunu's pictures, experts concluded Israel had the world's sixth-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons. The CIA estimated more recently that Israel has between 200 and 400 nuclear weapons. In recent years, public debate on Israel's nuclear policy has picked up. In August 2000, the daily Yediot Ahronot published new satellite pictures of the desert reactor. A television documentary last year said the Jewish state developed its nuclear capability from French technology received in the 1950s. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 39 U.S., Russia Reach Deal on Nukes Las Vegas SUN May 13, 2002 WASHINGTON- President Bush announced Monday that he will sign a landmark accord in Moscow this month to dramatically shrink American and Russian nuclear arsenals over 10 years. "The treaty will liquidate the legacy of the Cold War," he said. Under the agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the United States and Russian stockpiles will be 1,700 to 2,200 warheads by 2012. The United States has about 6,000 strategic nuclear weapons, Russia about 5,500, according to the State Department. Putin welcomed the agreement. "We are satisfied with the joint work," the Russian leader said shortly after he was informed that agreement had been reached between U.S. and Russian diplomats. "Without the interested, active position of the American administration and the attention of President Bush, it would have been difficult to reach such agreements." Bush and Putin agreed to the nuclear reduction targets in principle last year, leaving difficult negotiations over details to their diplomats. One sticking point had been Russia's objections to U.S. plans for storing some of the nuclear weapons rather than destroying them. The U.S. position apparently prevailed; a senior administration official said each nation will have authority under the treaty to decide how to reduce its arsenals. The official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, said some U.S. weapons will be destroyed, some put in "deep storage" and others will be stored but kept as "operational spares." He said Russia also is likely to keep some of its weapons on standby. In Moscow, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told reporters that Russia had not dropped its objections to the idea of stockpiling warheads. He did not elaborate. In a victory for Putin, the president dropped his desire for an informal agreement and will sign a treaty. That means the deal must be approved by the Senate, which is controlled by rival Democrats - a step Bush had hoped to avoid. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Bush expressed a willingness to codify the arms arrangement during his meeting with Putin last November in Crawford, Texas. "President Putin made it clear that he wanted to have it in writing. The president initially would have been prepared to do so orally, but it was clear President Putin thought this would be helpful," Fleischer said. The president said he would sign the treaty May 24 in Russia while meeting with Putin. U.S. officials said the treaty will be about three pages - unusually short for a nuclear arms accord. Seeking nuclear arms cuts has been the easiest part of U.S.-Russian relations; neither country needs the Cold War-sized arsenals, and the agreement is likely to earn both men favor with their countrymen. Tough issues remain, such as Bush's plans for an anti-missile system and Russia's proliferation of nuclear technology. Officials have said for weeks an agreement was virtually certain to be ready for the May 24 meeting, but Bush's announcement Monday was a surprise. "When I sign the treaty with President Putin in Russia, it will begin the new era of U.S.-Russian relations and that's important," Bush said before departing the White House for a political trip to Illinois. Undersecretary of State John Bolton and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Mamedov worked in Moscow in recent days on the agreement. Secretary of State Colin Powell said he planned to celebrate the agreement when he meets with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov Tuesday night in Reykjavik. "We might even have a drink or two," Powell said. As a presidential candidate, Bush pledged to reduce the number of U.S. nuclear arms in conjunction with an effort to modernize U.S. defense systems. Soon after he became president, he directed the Pentagon to consider cuts in nuclear weapons regardless of Russia's plans for its arsenal. Putin had suggested reductions to 1,500 warheads each, because his nation can no longer afford to maintain the Cold War-sized stockpiles. Under the START II agreement with Russia, that number will fall to between 3,000 and 3,500. In 1997, President Clinton and President Boris Yeltsin agreed in principle that a START III treaty should cut numbers to 2,000 to 2,500. Last summer, Bush and Putin met in Genoa, Italy, and agreed to pursue deep cuts in their nuclear arsenals. They assigned their diplomats to the difficult task of finding agreement on the numbers while discussing Bush's push to build a missile defense system over Putin's objections. Bush announced last fall that the United States would withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, clearing way for the development of a missile shield. In November, Putin and Bush pledged to slash their nuclear arsenals by two-thirds. Negotiators for both men have said for weeks they were close to agreement and Bush advisers have long planned to seal the deal in a Moscow ceremony. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 40 Nuclear activists arrested at protest Monday, May 13, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal MERCURY About 40 anti-nuclear activists were arrested Sunday at the Mercury entrance to the Nevada Test Site, and more civil disobedience was expected today, Department of Energy officials said. The protest was staged as part of the annual Mother's Day rally by the Shundahai Network, an international anti-nuclear group. About 120 protesters took part in the rally. The organization objects to continued nuclear weapons research at the Nevada Test Site and opposes the federal government's plan to dispose of the nation's spent nuclear fuel at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 41 Moscow Denies US Reports that Russia is Planning Nuclear Tests MOSCOW - Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has denied suggestions published in The New York Times that Moscow is planning nuclear tests on the Arctic island of Novaya Zemlya, Russian television quoted the Foreign Minister as saying. Charles Digges, 2002-05-13 14:18 The US House of Representatives on Saturday urged President George W. Bush to seek access to a Russian nuclear test site in the Arctic amid reports the Russians were preparing to resume testing. "Unfortunately such statements often emerge from Congress for no reason at all," Ivanov said in an interview aired late on Sunday on state controlled ORT television. "Russia is demanding that the US administration clarify the reason for such declarations, if we are to have new strategic relations based on mutual trust and respect," he added. The New York Times reported that the call by the US House of Representatives was prompted by a recent intelligence briefing in Congress, which featured new data indicating that Russia was preparing to resume nuclear tests on the Arctic island of Novaya Zemlya. Nikolai Shingaryov, assistant to Russia’s deputy atomic energy minister, also strongly denied the US allegations in a telephone interview with Bellona Web Monday. “The Atomic Ministry is not preparing for any kinds of nuclear tests on Novaya Zemlya, and the American intelligence that was given to congress simply doesn’t correspond with reality,” he said. Pavel Felgenhauer, a Moscow-based defence analyst, however, contradicted this. Citing several interviews he conducted with high ranking Russian government officials, Russia is indeed gearing up for testing on the island — and has been ever since the Bush administration released its Nuclear Posture Review earlier this spring. The Nuclear Posture Review suggested it may be necessary for the United States to resume testing to make new nuclear weapons and to ensure the reliability of existing ones. In a March article in Moskovsky Novosty, Felgenhauer quoted several anonymous government sources as saying Russia, too, would prepare for nuclear tests, but would not begin weapons testing until the Americans began testing first. “Naturally, the government began preparing for major tests as soon as the US Posture Review came out,” said Felgenhauer in a telephone interview with Bellona Web. “But they won’t move until the Americans do.” Neither the Kremlin press office nor Ministry of Defence would comment on the Felgenhauer’s assertions, although Russia has admitted conducting in 1999 a series of so-called "subcritical" nuclear experiments on Novaya Zemlya, which are not banned by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The information presented to Congress about possible preparations for major tests on Novaya Zemlya was contained in a report by the Joint Atomic Energy Intelligence Committee, a panel that collects the views of many federal agencies on nuclear issues, the Times reported Sunday. The assessment in the report described a pattern of technical activities on Novaya Zemlya — the Arctic equivalent of the US nuclear test range in the state of Nevada — that matched known Russian activities to prepare for past nuclear tests, the newspaper quoted officials as saying. The intelligence report on Novaya Zemlya was included in a broader briefing to Congress on cooperative programs between the United States and Russia to reduce threats from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, a project that includes tracking Moscow's compliance with a number of arms control agreements, including the test-ban treaty. It was not immediately clear how large scale nuclear testing would affect US-Russian non-proliferation programs, which past aided in dismantling nuclear weapons covered under the START treaty and worked to dispose of weapons-grade plutonium stockpiles. Moscow officials for the US Department of Defence’s Cooperative Threat Reduction program referred “policy” questions to Washington. Officials there were unavailable for comment. Sean McCormack, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, declined comment on the report of the alleged test, saying the Bush administration did not discuss intelligence matters, Reuters reported. "We are concerned that we may not be able to know if any entity were testing in a way designed to avoid detection," the spokesman added. "We expect Russia to abide by the testing moratorium that it has declared for itself." The Times report — noting US President George W. Bush was to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin this month to discuss a pact to cut their nuclear arsenals — said the lawmakers who attended the briefing had a range of reactions from scepticism to alarm. It said some questioned whether the intelligence report was a tactic to help pave the way for Washington to resume nuclear testing, while others were so troubled by it they drafted legislation calling for access to Russian nuclear sites and allowing work on a new generation of US nuclear warheads. The report comes less that two weeks before Bush is to fly to Moscow for a May 23-26 summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, at which the US and Russia hope to sign new nuclear arms reduction treaty. Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] , President: Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no] Information: info@bellona.no [info@bellona.no] , Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no [webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 42 Mothers hold nuke protest at NTS Las Vegas SUN May 13, 2002 By Mary Manning MERCURY -- Forget the flowers, chocolates or buffet brunches for Mother's Day. Mothers from Nevada, Washington state, New Mexico, Oregon and Indian tribes spent the Mother's Day weekend camped in the desert across from the entrance to the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Out of a crowd of about 200 people, at least 20 anti-nuclear activists were cited for trespassing at the Test Site Sunday during the third annual Mother's Day march. Peggy Maze Johnson, executive director of public affairs group Citizen Alert, said she came to the event because she is the mother of four children and grandmother of seven. "This is a women's issue," Johnson said. "As a woman and a mother, it's my job to be a nurturer. That's not what's happening now." Johnson said that since President Bush announced his support for a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, more people across the country are becoming aware of the dangers of transporting radioactive shipments to Yucca. "Let's stop shouting and start a whispering campaign to stop this insanity," Johnson said. Susan Gordon of Seattle, executive director of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, said she came to her first protest at the gates of the Test Site 15 years ago to make her feelings about nuclear weapons experiments known. She is continuing to demonstrate against storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. "It certainly changed my life," Gordon said. "It motivates me for the work I do." If the walk to the Test Site doesn't convince enough people, the mothers gathered Sunday say they may walk across the nation to deliver the message of how dangerous a Yucca Mountain repository would be. Another walk, an 800-mile trek from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico to the Test Site from Aug. 9 to Oct. 12, is planned. Ten members of the Shoshones walked 250 miles from Warm Springs to the Test Site, logging about 50 miles a day, to join the camp, said Darlene Graham, whose Shoshone name is "Gasawaipi," meaning feather woman. Although Graham, who turns 58 today, fell and injured her right knee before reaching the camp, she said she finished the walk. "It is very important for the Shoshones to run and walk here, because our ancestors came to gather plants and herbs by season," Graham said. From those plants, she makes candles, salves and soap. The Shoshone are concerned about radiation contaminating the water, Western Shoshone Tribal Council Chief Raymond Yowell said. "Water is in the earth like the Earth's blood. It is flowing. Where it flows, we don't know." Indians, who have traveled to Yucca Mountain for thousands of years, consider it a desecration to bury 77,000 tons of nuclear waste at the site. "It's not going to just affect my people," Graham said. "It will affect all the people." Photos: A crowd of protesters march | One protester sits under the watch of a guard | A guard at the Nevada Test Site escorts a protester | Marge Detraz leads a group of activists | A group of activists All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 43 Senate panel OKs funds for training Las Vegas SUN May 13, 2002 WASHINGTON -- The bomb-scarred Nevada Test Site may be moving closer to becoming a national academy for counterterrorism training. As Congress hammers out its budget for the next fiscal years, the Senate Armed Services Committee last week approved $50 million for the training -- $40 million more than President Bush's budget proposal. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the No. 2 Senate Democrat who also sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, negotiated to have the money increased. The Test Site is already home to weapons of mass destruction training for a variety of first-responder teams from around the nation. The training includes response to chemical and biological attacks. Since Sept. 11, Nevada lawmakers have renewed their effort to establish a more permanent "premier" national training school that offers a broad array of anti-terrorism training, from combat exercises to emergency response. The 1,350-square-mile Test Site, with its nearest border about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, has been redefining its mission since 1992 when a nuclear weapons test ban was put in place by Bush's father. An arm of the Department of Energy manages the site. "The Test Site possesses an ideal combination of assets for such a facility, including a secure location for mission preparation, a large land area for training, exercises, and experimentation, and a work force skilled in combat experimentation, testing and training," Reid said. Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham toured the Test Site earlier this year but they have not endorsed the national academy. Leaders in other states also are angling for more federal money for counter-terrorism activities. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 44 More than 40 years of nuclear standoff and missile defense Search in: Articles - 30 days - Archive - Photos ----- Classifieds Jobs Rentals Real Estate Vehicles ----- Dining Movies Events Art Music PerfArts ----- Lodging [http://sfgate.com] Today's Chronicle Sports Entertainment News & Features Business Technology Crime Science Opinion --> Weird News Polls Photo Gallery Columnists Lottery Obituaries [http://personalshopper.sfgate.com] Classifieds Jobs [http://sfgate.com/personals/] Real Estate Rentals Vehicles Regional Traffic Weather Live Views Maps Bay Area Traveler Wine Country Reno & Tahoe Ski & Snow Outdoors Entertainment Food & Dining Movies Music & Nightlife Events Performance Art Books Comics TV & Radio Search Listings Living Health Home & Garden Gay & Lesbian Horoscope Resources Search & Archives Feedback/Contacts Newsletters Conferences Promotions Site Index Print Services [http://www.sfchron.com/customer_service/complaint.php] [http://www.sfchron.com/subscriptions/vacation.php] Subscribe [http://www.sfchron.com/about/contact.php] Advertising Advertise Online [http://www.sfchron.com/classified/index.php] [http://www.sfchron.com/advertise/contact.php] Media Kit [http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/sf.gate/news;abr=!ie;sect=news__a rt_topban;zip=;kw=WAR;width=468;height=60;sz=468x60;ord=85909?] ----------------------------------------------------------------- More than 40 years of nuclear standoff and missile defense The Associated Press Monday, May 13, 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------- (05-13) 06:14 PDT (AP) -- With BC-US-Russia A chronology of events in the nuclear standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union: May 13, 2002: President Bush announces he will sign a treaty to reduce American and Russian nuclear arsenals to 1,700 to 2,200 warheads from the 6,000 now allowed. He will sign the agreement on May 24, when he is in Russia to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. December 2001: President Bush alerts congressional leaders that he will withdraw from the 1972 ABM Treaty. November 2001: During a U.S. summit, Bush and Putin emphasize their shared commitment to nuclear arms reductions, but fail to reach a compromise on Bush's plans for a national missile defense, which would violate the 1972 ABM Treaty. Putin vows that the issue would not harm relations between the two nations as it had in the past. October 2001: The Pentagon announces it has put off several missile defense tests scheduled for the fall to avoid being accused of violating the ABM Treaty. Bush and Putin also hold separate talks following the annual meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders, in preparation for their November summit. August 2001 - September 2001: Several Bush administration Cabinet members and officials meet intermittently with their Russian counterparts but have little success in breaking down Russian opposition to the notion of scrapping the ABM Treaty. July 2001: Bush and Putin agree to tie U.S. plans for building a missile defense shield to talks on reducing both nations' nuclear stockpiles. May 2001: Bush declares, "We need a new framework that allows us to build missile defenses to counter the different threats of today's world." 2000: President Clinton decides not to authorize work to begin on deploying national missile defense. 1997: Members of a congressionally chartered panel chaired by Donald Rumsfeld are named to examine missile threats to the United States. 1993: President George H.W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign START II treaty. 1991: Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev sign the START I Treaty. Soviet Union disbands. 1989: Berlin Wall falls. Soviet Union cuts conventional forces in Europe. 1987: President Reagan and Gorbachev sign the INF Treaty, which bans ground-launched, medium-range nuclear missiles. 1986: An agreement to drastically reduce strategic nuclear arms collapses at the Reykjavik summit because of Soviet opposition to American Strategic Defense Initiative development. 1983: Reagan announces during a nationally televised speech that the United States will embark on an extensive research and development program to examine the feasibility of a missile defense program. 1982: Soviets and United States begin Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START). 1979: In response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, President Carter withdraws the SALT II treaty from Senate consideration. 1972: President Nixon and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT I agreement, and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. 1968: President Johnson says the United States and Soviet Union will discuss limits on strategic nuclear arsenals and ballistic missile defenses. Talks are canceled when Moscow invades Czechoslovakia in August. 1962: Cuban missile crisis. 1961: Berlin Wall built. Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba fails. 1957: Soviet Union launches Sputnik, the first earth-orbiting satellite. 1950s: Cold War accelerates. 1949: The Soviet Union explodes its first atomic bomb. 1945: The United States drops atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima to end World War II. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Sources: Associated Press reports, Center for Defense Information and Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. · Printer-friendly version · Email this article to a friend [ WIDTH=] DENTAL RECEPTIONIST &Treatment Coord. ----------------------------------------------------------------- HVAC Great Benefits! 401k NORDSTROM ----------------------------------------------------------------- INSURANCE Personal Line CSR Lic., w/3 Yrs Exp. ----------------------------------------------------------------- INSURANCE Comm. 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Included in the delegation is a medical doctor with expertise in radiation illnesses, a survivor of the nuclear bombing in Hiroshima and three anti-nuclear peace activists. Between 1957 and 1958, Britain conducted nine atmospheric nuclear tests on Christmas [Kirisimasi] and Malden islands in the central Pacific. Together with British and New Zealand troops, nearly 300 Fijian soldiers and sailors served in "Operation Grapple". Pacific News Bulletin editor Stanley Simpson said many of Fiji's nuclear tests veterans were suffering from a range of medical complaints they attributed to radiation exposure at the test sites... He said PCRC [Pacific Concerns Resource Centre] had gathered evidence that showed many of veterans were affected by serious illnesses, including aplastic anaemia, leucopoenia, lipomatous growths and psoriatic dermatitis - all could be related to radiation exposure. "This has been documented in the book `Kirisimasi', published by PCRC in 1999. The FNTVA [Fiji Nuclear Test Veterans' Association] has now extended this research to descendants and has been conducting a family medical study. The Japanese delegation will examine both the veterans and their descendants for illnesses attributed to radiation exposure," Mr Simpson said. He said the British government had so far refused any moral, legal and financial responsibility for the health impacts of the tests. "It is hoped that results from the examinations can be used as evidence in the veterans' fight for justice and recognition," he said. The delegation was officially welcomed by the FNTVA at Epworth Hall in Suva yesterday morning. They will be visiting Suva and Kadavu to conduct the examinations. Source: Fijilive web site, Suva, in English 13 May 02 /© BBC Monitoring ***************************************************************** 46 Lax Federal Lab Safeguards Found Las Vegas SUN May 12, 2002 WASHINGTON- Investigators reviewing federal safeguards against terrorism found lax oversight at hundreds of Agriculture Department laboratories where dangerous viruses are stored and say the Energy Department failed to closely track nuclear material sent abroad decades ago. Department officials acknowledged some problems and said they have acted on recommendations by the agencies' inspectors general. The Agriculture Department review found that even after the anthrax attacks by mail last year, several agency labs did not keep accurate records of potentially dangerous biological agents, had no centralized inventory system and kept vials without labels. In several cases, there were either more or fewer vials on hand than in inventories, and one facility lost track of a vial containing 3 billion doses of Vesicular stomatitis virus, which can cause a flu-like illness in humans as well as fever and lesions in animals that can lead to malnutrition. Inspectors, in visits to 124 department labs, found security at nearly half needed improvement. Labs often had no alarm systems, security fences or surveillance cameras, and though lab directors knew they needed upgrades, improvements were slow due to budget constraints and "pre-Sept. 11 management priorities." For example, several high-risk labs did not install fences even though they had been recommended, the review said. Labs on college campuses often rely on campus security, and in these cases, background checks are not always done on people with access to the labs and their biological agents, according to the review. In one case, the report said, locks to a lab had not been changed in five years, and a lab official said students who had graduated may not always have turned in their keys. In its formal response to the findings, the Agriculture Department said it was working to improve security and inventory its biological agents. It also said it would relocate one lab that was in a strip mall; it will take as long as five years for a permanent replacement, but the department said "all pathogens of consequence" had been removed. In a separate report, inspectors said the Energy Department could not account for small amounts of nuclear materials lent to dozens of foreign countries for nonmilitary uses under a Cold War-era program. An effort to track the materials was abandoned in 1984 because of concerns over its usefulness. The report said the Energy Department should revive that effort. The department's Office of Security agreed, but its National Nuclear Security Administration disagreed with the recommendations, saying the department is not required to monitor the shipments. Under the "Atoms for Peace" program, 33 countries, including Iran, Pakistan, Colombia and Malaysia, received shipments of sealed plutonium for calibrating radiation measurement and monitoring instruments and for nuclear research and development. Since Sept. 11, the International Atomic Energy Agency has said small amounts of industrial or medical-grade radioactive material could be mixed with conventional explosives to fashion "dirty bombs," which terrorists could use to contaminate cities with radioactivity. No such attacks have ever been reported. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 47 Truck Drivers Needed for Terror War Las Vegas SUN May 13, 2002 WASHINGTON- The trucking industry plans to enlist 3 million of its drivers in the war on terrorism. Industry officials said Monday that employees would be trained to spot suspicious activities that could indicate a potential terrorist attack. They would be given a toll-free number to call to report anything out of the ordinary, with the information forwarded to law enforcement agencies. The drivers would be asked to monitor bridges, highways, tunnels and ports, and fellow truckers as well, said an announcement by the Trucking Security Working Group, a coalition of trade associations. "The trucking industry wants to make a contribution to national security and the war on terrorism," said Mike Russell, a spokesman for the American Trucking Associations, lead organization in the coalition. "We think this proposal makes the best use of what we do every day, and that is travel across America, keeping our eyes on what is going on." There has been concern that terrorists could use a truck hauling gasoline or other hazardous materials to kill thousands of people, the way hijackers turned four airliners into flying bombs on Sept. 11. CIA official Robert Walpole told the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee in March that terrorist groups or rogue nations were less likely to fire a missile at the United States than to use trucks, ships or planes to deliver chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. State transportation officials have stepped up surveillance of bridges and tunnels and have begun training maintenance workers on what to look for. Last week, the Transportation Department's inspector general said there were insufficient federal and state safeguards to stop would-be terrorists from illegally obtaining commercial truck driver's licenses. On the Net: American Trucking Associations: http://www.truckline.com [http://www.truckline.com] All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 48 U.S. has no energy policy Monday, May 13, 2002 The anti-nuclear energy forces are doing everything in their power to stop Utah from accepting a relatively small amount of nuclear waste. Once this happens, they are apprehensive that we will find such storage safe and profitable in every way. Many good opinion pieces based on fact have been written in the Deseret News. Among the best was an article on nuclear energy submitted on April 2 by Steve Barrows, a scientist. I kept informed on this subject from its inception while in the military service and can vouch for every statement he made. The United States has no energy policy. The things that would be developed in such a policy will be long-range projects. Even the ANWR project in Alaska, a short-range project, has failed to pass the Senate. Some seem to think that the Senate will pass a 40-miles-to-the-gallon bill, but this cannot be our energy policy because it would be a hope, not a policy. Wind and solar depend too much on the weather to be of any great value in a national energy policy. Let me refer to another article published in the News by Wm. D. Peterson. It could be policy if adopted. We can further reduce our nuclear waste by processing it "over and over." The "stuff" we call waste has a lot of usable energy left. France produces 80 percent of her electrical needs via nuclear power. Why can't we do the same? Their death by nuclear radiation must be terrific — or is it? Admiral Rickover, who modernized the U.S. Navy, was a thorn in the lives of many people. But we have the best Navy of all time, and we are still exploiting its virtues! The rest of us can't even come up with an energy policy! Harold O. Johnson Salt Lake City © 2002 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************