***************************************************************** 08/13/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.206 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POLICY 1 US: Objections filed on NFS project 2 Two Koreas Delay Talks, Aides Haggle on Statement 3 NZ: Nuclear firm fails in bid to sue Greenpeace 4 Energy crunch is coming 5 Koreas Hold Talks for Second Day 6 US: Tribe seeks uranium enrichment 7 SA: Anti-Nuclear Lobby Marches to Parliament 8 UK: Nuclear firm hit by racism claims 9 N. Korea threatens to ditch nuclear deal - NUCLEAR REACTORS 10 US: Security Zone; Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant, Seabrook 11 US: Michael Hay Named NRC Senior Resident Inspector at Waterford 3 12 British Energy shuts Scottish reactor; starts inspections * 13 SHARES in British Energy crashed spectacularly after a safety 14 US: NRC Inspection Team to Discuss Results of Recent Inspection at 15 UK: Nuclear power plant shuts down 16 US: NRC Recommends Supplemental Inspections for Pressurized Water 17 US: NRC Announces Opportunity for Hearing on License Renewal NUCLEAR SAFETY 18 US: Pentagon commits to ordnance plant flyover NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 19 US: Q&A about the nuclear waste case 20 Unicoi: Rezoning issue brings heated meeting 21 US: From Atomic Dump to Tourist Draw 22 US: Assurances needed on Hanford-bound wastes 23 US: Idaho: Judge stands firm on nuke waste 24 US: Nevada mayors express concern over Yucca Mountain 25 US: Nevada mayors concerned about Yucca transportation 26 Bulgaria Signs Spent Nuclear Fuel Housecleaning Deal With Russia 27 US: Plutonium heading for safety of Test Site 28 Pacific leaders to speak out against nuclear waste shipments 29 US: Ohio waste not higher priority than local cleanup, DOE says 30 US: Judge Allows Suit to Proceed Against Energy Department over Nucl 31 US: Judge: Energy Department must defend waste plan in court* NUCLEAR WEAPONS 32 Wales: Protesters swim into nuclear base 33 Risks preclude nuclear option for Japan US DEPT. OF ENERGY 34 Test site probable home for Los Alamos material 35 Iowa senator challenges DOE on delay - 36 New problems surface for FFTF supporters OTHER NUCLEAR 37 Nuclear Research Supercomputer 'Q' To Get Bigger, Faster ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Objections filed on NFS project Story published in the Johnson City Press: 8/13/2002. By Chris Garland Erwin Bureau ERWIN ? Objections to Nuclear Fuel Services Inc.?s amendment requests of its nuclear licenses for a Tennessee Valley Authority project have been filed recently with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Attorney Todd Chapman, with the Greeneville law firm, King, King & Chapman, filed (15) declarations Thursday from concerned citizens of Northeast Tennessee. A second known filing has surfaced from actress Park Overall, who is a Greeneville native and owns 15 acres of farm property in Greene County along the Nolichucky River. According to NRC Public Relations in Washington, D.C., several documents have been filed. However, the number of documents and the intentions expressed are being reviewed before any further action is taken. The filings are in response to a notice of opportunity for hearing on the license amendment for the NFS project. NFS Vice President of Safety and Regularity Marie Moore said, ?The determination by the NRC that project posed no significant impact, was a decision based on years of research and a thorough review by federal and state regulatory agencies. This was a decision that has involved multiple reviews by federal and state agencies for the past six years. ?The petitions are an effort by environmentalist groups to derail a project that is at the very essence of environmental protection. It is surprising that organizations that claim to have peace and environmental preservation as their mission are attempting to intervene in a project that will eliminate an environmental liability and turn it into clan, useful electrical power,? Moore said. The project, nicknamed project (BLEU), for Blended Low Enriched Uranium, would reduce stockpiles of defense-related highly enriched uranium into low enriched uranium for the Tennessee Valley Authority. NFS officials say rather than disposing of the HEU, the project would convert the material into LEU to power TVA commercial nuclear reactors to generate electricity. NFS said the U.S. Department of Energy performed an extensive Environmental Impact Statement for the TVA project in 1997. Public hearings on the project were held in 1996. Since that time, the EIS has been reviewed by the TVA, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. Moore said, ?I consider everyone on my staff as environmentalists. NFS has aggressively addressed environmental issues with positive result that reduce or eliminate the company?s impact of the environment.? The NRC said currently there is no way to determine how long processing the request will take. An Atomic Safety Licensing review will come first, and a decision will then be made on any intervention. The NRC also said NFS was filing a notice of intent and has not formally filed a license application for the proposed licensing changes. A copy of the filed declaration being handled by attorney Chapman lists the following people as participants in separate ?declarations". They are Julia Beach, Greeneville; Tamara Davis Chapman, Greeneville; David Byrd, Erwin; William Cooper, Erwin; Brandon Davis, Washington County; Julia B. Evans, Greeneville; Denne E. Evans, Greeneville; Toni L. Foreman, Greene County; Linnea Gilmer, Johnson City; JoAnna Hammonds, Gray; Whitney Johnson, Gray; Gerald M. O?Connor Jr., Kingsport; James Smith, Unicoi; Drew Walsh, Johnson City, and Peter H. Zars, Erwin. /(Contact Chris Garland at cgarland@johnsoncitypress.com )./ © 2001-02 Johnson City Press and Associated Press All Rights ***************************************************************** 2 Two Koreas Delay Talks, Aides Haggle on Statement The New York Times *August 13, 2002* *By REUTERS* *Filed at 11:47 p.m. ET* SEOUL (Reuters) - North and South Korea delayed the start of their final day of high-level talks on Wednesday, a sign aides were battling to narrow differences on when to hold military meetings before issuing a joint statement. South Korean Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun and North Korean cabinet member Kim Ryong-song were to have begun their third day of talks at 9:00 a.m. at a hotel in central Seoul. Officials said aides had worked through the night on narrowing differences on when to hold military talks that are crucial to an existing deal to restore a railway through the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that has bisected the peninsula since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. ``The military meeting is the problem. They are still working on setting a date for the military talks. We are not sure when the last meeting will start,'' a Unification Ministry official told Reuters. ``It's already lunch time.'' The delegations had been scheduled to have lunch at 0300 GMT before the North Koreans headed back to Pyongyang. South Korean officials say the sides have made headway, notably on family reunions and economic talks. The North has said it is optimistic about the outcome of the highest-level talks since the two navies clashed in disputed waters in June. Forecasting the outcome of talks between the bitter rivals has always been risky. Promises made have often not been fulfilled, while optimistic assessments during the talks have on occasions degenerated into recriminations. Tuesday's talks focused on how to revive a plan to reconnect a railway across one of the world's most dangerous borders, and how to reunite families split for half a century. WASHINGTON WATCHING South Korean media said it was possible a temporary reunion of some families could be held at the North's Mount Kumgang resort around the September 21 Chusok national holiday. The most recent reunions -- when family members meet for a few days and then part again -- were held in April and May. South Korean media also said economic talks could be held this month and Red Cross talks in early September. The United States and Japan, and other regional players, have been closely monitoring the North-South talks to see whether Pyongyang's recent burst of diplomatic activity will be translated into action. There was fresh signs on Tuesday of just how volatile diplomacy can be on the Korean peninsula. As the teams negotiated at a Seoul hotel, the North Korean Foreign Ministry in Pyongyang denounced the United States and threatened to pull out of a crucial nuclear agreement. Harsh statements in the past have proved to be pre-negotiation bluster, and U.S. officials tend to view them as a sign Pyongyang is gearing up for serious exchanges. North Korea held military talks with officers from the U.S.-led United Nations Command on Tuesday at the truce village of Panmunjom in the DMZ to discuss the June naval clash in which five South Korean sailors died. The South estimates up to 30 North Koreans were killed or wounded. At an unprecedented summit two years ago, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il agreed to rebuild the rail line. The South has completed its railway and a parallel road right up to the edge of the DMZ, but the North has done little. President Kim, now 77 and in the final months of his single five-year term, was resting on Wednesday after having been diagnosed with pneumonia. His office said he would be unable to deliver a speech on Thursday, the anniversary of the end of Japanese colonial rule in 1945. Kim won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for his ``Sunshine Policy'' efforts to engage the North and is eager to show a skeptical South Korean public some tangible results ahead of a presidential election in December. Kim cannot stand again, but his party's chosen candidate is trailing in opinion polls. A civic delegation from the North arrived in South Korea on Wednesday to take part in joint events to mark liberation day. ***************************************************************** 3 NZ: Nuclear firm fails in bid to sue Greenpeace Wednesday August 14, 2002 13.08.2002 The nuclear sponsor of French America's Cup challenger Le Defi Areva has failed in a court bid to sue Greenpeace groups in France and New Zealand. Areva, formed from France's nuclear fuel and power plant industries, complained that the two Greenpeace groups and a French internet company had degraded its trademark. Greenpeace had depicted a skull and nuclear symbol behind Areva's stylised A on website stories about the sponsor. Areva argued that the logo discredited and devalued its trademark and sought almost $200,000 in damages. But a French judge rejected the case, said Greenpeace New Zealand spokeswoman Bunny McDiarmid. Greenpeace and Areva have already clashed over its sponsorship of the America's Cup challenge. A rubber inflatable carrying protesters crashed into the side of Defi's new boat when it was launched in France this year, damaging the hull. Greenpeace has objected to Areva's involvement in the cup, saying the company is owned in part by the French Government and indirectly by the Government-controlled Atomic Energy Commission, which was responsible for France's nuclear weapons programme. Greenpeace ship the Rainbow Warrior was bombed in Auckland by French secret agents 17 years ago, killing a photographer, as it was about to leave to protest against French nuclear testing in the Pacific. ©Copyright 2002, New Zealand Herald ***************************************************************** 4 Energy crunch is coming /by Brian O'Connor, Daily Mail/ FOR months, trouble has been looming in the UK electricity market. The meltdown in British Energy's share price is ample evidence. The slump suggests the market is beginning to fear that British Energy could be the next Railtrack. It fell below 90p last night, from a high of 749p three years ago. In between, £4bn of market value has gone up in smoke. The prospect of a nuclear power generator getting into difficulty is not a reassuring one. BE generates one quarter of the UK's power, employing 5,000 people. Fortunately, it is still making some money, though not from the UK but from its US nuclear acquisitions. At home, NETA, the new electricity trading arrangement, has been good for industry in bringing about a 20% fall in wholesale power prices. But it has hammered BE. Power retailers now buy from the lowest bidder. There are too many power stations, after the 'dash for gas' of the 1990s, so prices are extremely keen. The trouble for BE is that it cannot simply switch off nuclear stations. It has to keep them going and take what prices it can get. At the very least, that endangers its dividend, which is not covered by profits. Admittedly, it has made matters worse for itself. Two years ago, it paid a stonking £646m - more than the whole of BE is worth now - for the Eggborough coal plant. Today it would be lucky to get a fraction of that back. If it had retail customers, it could set profits from them against any losses on generation. It is growing its pool of business customers, but having moved into retail in South Wales, it changed tack and sold out. But if some of BE's woes may be its own fault, that hardly matters from the government's point of view. One of the big reasons for privatising it was to shelter the taxpayer from potentially vast nuclear clean-up liabilities. If BE hits trouble, so does this notion. That is why some sort of help for BE is likely to come. It is asking the government for relief on the climate change levy - nuclear stations do not emit carbon dioxide, on which the levy is based. It is seeking relief on its hefty rates bill, claimed to be £20m a year more than rivals. If it gets help on both issues, that could be worth £100m a year. BE says fears of its demise are 'absolutely overdone'. It hopes one day to build new nuclear stations. The government promises a white paper on energy policy, possibly by end-year. But between the various regulators and the various forms of taxation, there is a danger of BE being suffocated. Some joined-up energy policy is needed to address the issue. If not, the ultimate costs to taxpayers could dwarf any savings on their electricity bills. *Cooling down * CONSUMER spending slowed from 7.5% annual growth in January to 3.8% in July, says the British Retail Consortium. And though dearer oil pushed up industry's raw material costs, prices at the factory gate are just 0.4% above a year ago. There is nothing here to alarm the markets or put any pressure on interest rates. But stock markets went into reverse after last week's rally. Belatedly dealers are worrying that a cut in the Federal Reserve's funds rate, already down to 1.75%, is by no means a sure thing tonight. But a cut signals trouble; the really encouraging sign would be if there were none and markets celebrated. *Gerrard lights gloom* LIFE insurer Old Mutual was one of a wave of companies with South African origins - Anglo American, Xstrata, Billiton, Dimension Data - that sought a London share listing and swept straight into the Footsie 100. Billiton and Anglo have done all right, the rest have been best avoided. Old Mutual, floated at 120p three years ago, hit 181p but is now languishing at 78 3/4p. It claims to have 'outperformed' the European life assurance index this year. If it were a ship, it could claim it had outperformed the Titanic. But there is some good news. Its move into US fund management looks better timed than its UK acquisitions. These, including three UK stockbroking firms, are now merged as Gerrard, and following 450 job cuts, they turned a tiny profit in the six months to June. In South Africa, profits are emaciated by the rand's slump, but still growing in local terms. Old Mutual held its dividend and hopes to hold the full year payout. That puts it on a 6% yield. But for the moment, the best way to enjoy South Africa is to take a holiday there, rather than buy the shares that are on holiday over here. © Associated Newspapers Ltd., 13 August 2002 Terms and Conditions This Is London ***************************************************************** 5 Koreas Hold Talks for Second Day Las Vegas SUN Today: August 13, 2002 at 5:20:16 PDT By PAUL SHIN ASSOCIATED PRESS SEOUL, South Korea- North and South Korea said they held a productive round of talks Tuesday on key projects, including the reunion of family members separated by the 1950-53 Korean War. Dozens of protesters burned a North Korean flag near the site of the talks. "It's going well," said Kim Ryong Song, the chief North Korean delegate, after a morning meeting that lasted an hour and 20 minutes. It was unclear whether he knew about the demonstration. Rhee Bong-jo, a spokesman for the South Korean delegation, said the meeting took place "in a good atmosphere as both sides engaged in substantive discussions, rather than arguments." Rhee said the two sides had working contacts in the afternoon to "narrow differences" while their chief delegates visited a park outside Seoul with replicas of traditional farm houses. Outside the compound of the hotel where negotiators met, about 100 Korean War veterans and supporters burned a large North Korean flag. They demanded that the agenda of the talks include the accounting for tens of thousands of South Koreans who they said were abducted by the North during and after the Korean War. "Damn Shoe-Shine Policy," read a sign on one picket, referring to South Korean President Kim Dae-jung's "sunshine" policy of engaging the North's communist government. "Don't shine Kim Jong Il's military boots," another sign read, referring to the North Korean leader. Critics argue that the South Korean government has been too generous in meeting North Korea's demands. The talks, which opened Monday after a nine-month hiatus, marked a resumption of a reconciliation process that thrived after a historic summit in 2000 but stalled amid U.S.-North Korea tension last year. South Korean officials said the agenda included sports exchanges, the construction of a cross-border railway and another round of reunions for separated family members. Kim Hong-je, a spokesman for South Korea's Unification Ministry, said contacts Tuesday would focus on setting details for these and other previously agreed projects. The two sides were to issue a joint statement outlining their discussions before concluding the three-day talks on Wednesday, he said. As part of a summit accord in 2000, the Koreas started work on reconnecting a railway across their border and have staged four rounds of reunions for thousands of separated family members. Relations deteriorated in January following President Bush's branding of North Korea as part of "an axis of evil," and a naval skirmish in June between the two Koreas. Officials of the U.S.-led U.N. Command and North Korea met Tuesday at the border village of Panmunjom to discuss reducing tensions along the western sea border where the clash took place. The U.N. Command oversees the armistice that ended the Korean War. A key to progress on the railway project is cooperation between the militaries of the two sides for work inside the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two countries. South Korea proposed that the defense chiefs of the two sides meet at an early date. The high-level talks, one of a series of inter-Korean contacts scheduled this week, come as North Korea moves to improve ties with Japan and the United States. During a recent Asian regional security forum in Brunei, North Korea agreed to restart talks with Japan and accept a visit by a special U.S. envoy. Paik Seung-gi, a political science professor at Kyongwon University near Seoul, said the conciliatory North Korean moves appear to be related to its efforts to reform its dilapidated economy. "North Korea is at crossroads. It has reached a point where it can no longer sustain itself without outside assistance," Paik said. North Korea has also undertaken economic changes, including increases in prices and wages and the slashing of the value of its currency, the won, against the U.S. dollar. However, North Korea on Tuesday reiterated its threat to withdraw from a 1994 accord with the United States, saying the delay in building two nuclear reactors promised by Washington was hurting its economy. Under the 1994 agreement, a U.S.-led international consortium is building two light-water reactors in the North in return for a freeze on Pyongyang's suspected nuclear weapons program. U.S. officials hoped to build the first reactor by 2003, but political tensions and funding problems have delayed the project by several years. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 6 Tribe seeks uranium enrichment By Martin Kasindorf, USA TODAY SKULL VALLEY, Utah  Midday on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation. Nothing is moving. Eighty miles by road from Salt Lake City, the broiling desert landscape has the grandeur of an Old West painting by Frederic Remington. And the emptiness. A road sign warning along Highway 186 leading to the Goshute Indian Reservation in Skull Valley, Utah. Douglas C. Pizac, AP The tribe's 12 buffalo gaze blankly at 18,000 acres of sagebrush. Clerks at the tribally owned Pony Express Station convenience store haven't seen a car for 20 minutes. Since a rocket-engine testing facility closed in 1998, the only jobs here have been at the store. "It's a wasteland  a beautiful wasteland," says tribal chairman Leon Bear, 46. The 112-member Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians, one of the USA's smallest and poorest tribes, is desperate for prosperity. Opening a casino, the path of many other tribes, is not an option. Because Utah has no legal gambling, federal law rules out casinos on Indian lands there. So the Goshutes, defying the state's most powerful politicians, are trying to make the economic leap from buffalo to nuclear energy. Hoping for millions of dollars in rent, the obscure tribe has formed an alliance with big business to offer the nation's nuclear power plants a temporary home for overflowing radioactive waste until the controversial Yucca Mountain facility in Nevada opens years from now. As one of 562 federally recognized Indian "nations," the tribe has sovereign status conferring immunity from hostile state regulators. But Utah's political leaders say 40 years of open-air waste storage would gamble with the lives of 2.3 million people in fast-growing Utah. Skull Valley, Gov. Mike Leavitt says, is "40 miles from Salt Lake City as the radiation travels." That an isolated band of Indians is talking about atomic waste reflects the nation's protracted struggle over what to do with the stuff. Forty-five years after the first commercial power plant opened in Shippingport, Pa., the USA is still years from a solution. All 50 states shun the nuclear power industry's high-level waste, the uranium pellets stacked in metal rods that are replaced in reactors when they stop forming chain reactions to produce energy. Deadly for 10,000 years, it is the most toxic junk on the planet. The spent fuel rods are piling up at 103 plants in 31 states. The country has spent more than 20 years arguing over how to permanently dispose of nuclear waste. In 1982, Congress voted to take the waste off the utilities' hands and bury it. Later, Congress designated Yucca Mountain as the only site to be studied. Earlier this year, President Bush approved burying the waste at Yucca Mountain. He signed the $58 billion federal project into law July 23. Nevada has moved its long fight against the plan into the courts. Lobbying for Yucca Mountain, Bush and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham argued after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that atomic waste kept outdoors at far-flung sites is vulnerable. However, even when Yucca Mountain's tunnels reach their 77,000-ton capacity in 2046, 44,000 tons of waste still would remain at power plants. Because Yucca Mountain won't open until at least 2010, the Goshutes are proposing a stopgap  a vast parking lot for 4,000 cylinders of waste, each 19 feet tall. The facility would open in 2005, enriching the tribe by $48 million or more, if the Nuclear Regulatory Commission were to issue a license. The agency is expected to rule early next year. Cousins of the Shoshones, the Goshutes once numbered 20,000 and dominated 3 million acres of desert. Visiting in 1872, Mark Twain wrote in Roughing It that their homeland was a "rocky, wintry, repulsive" wilderness. But the Goshutes clung to it, refusing President Lincoln's 1864 order to move 250 miles east. Today, only 560 Goshutes remain on tribal rolls. The 448 members of the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation govern themselves separately and have their own reservation 75 miles from here. A 1917 presidential order created the reservation at Skull Valley, which got its name when early white travelers found human skulls scattered on an old Indian battlefield. Only 25 tribal members, including three children, live here. The others have moved away for jobs. With the income from the nuclear project, Bear envisions a medical clinic, a police and fire station, a cultural center, a college scholarship fund. There would be 30 to 40 new jobs, mostly as security guards, enabling some of those who have left to come home, Bear says. The Energy Department suggested nuclear waste storage to the tribe in 1989 as an economic development tool. In 1997, Bear signed a contract with Private Fuel Storage LLC, a consortium of eight utilities. Private Fuel Storage wants to ship 44,000 tons of waste to flatlands within sight of the ramshackle reservation village. "You have a group of utility companies, exploiting what Indian nations value most, who have shopped around America until they could find someone who was willing to sell their sovereignty," says Leavitt, a Republican. He promises state aid if the Goshutes drop the project. "We will go to the point of giving everyone who is qualified the guarantee of a college education, job placement and transportation in and out if they want to stay on the reservation," he says. Bear's reply: "We feel that if we follow federal guidelines and rules, we can pretty much do what we want to do on our property." A vocal faction of the band, joined by the separate Confederated Goshute tribe, opposes Bear's pro-nuclear stand. "As soon as one piece of that material gets in Skull Valley, it's a dead zone," says Sammy Blackbear, 38, who is Bear's cousin. Blackbear is one of a group suing the Interior Department to void the contract. "They're not going to build a damn thing out here until they deal with us," Blackbear says. He says the contract is invalid because its financial terms have been kept secret; Utah officials and many tribal members haven't seen them. Utah Sens. Orrin Hatch and Robert Bennett, both Republicans, say the Skull Valley plan is unsafe. Horse-trading for the wavering senators' votes, Abraham told them that if Yucca Mountain died, "temporary" Skull Valley was likely to become the permanent dump that Utah fears. He acted to undercut Skull Valley by promising to give utilities no federal dollars to ship waste there. As another inducement, six of Private Fuel Storage's eight partner utilities told the senators they would pay for no construction at Skull Valley as long as Yucca Mountain "proceeds in a timely fashion." Hatch and Bennett voted July 9 for Yucca Mountain. Additional Utah actions: + State lawyers are stressing to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that Skull Valley is on two earthquake faults. It's also under the flight path of bomb-laden Air Force F-16s making 7,000 training flights a year on a nearby test range. Private Fuel Storage says chances of a crash into a cask are fewer than one in a million. + The Legislature has banned high-level nuclear waste from entering Utah for storage. Another law subjects any business dealing with Private Fuel Storage to daily $10,000 fines and a 75% tax. The Goshutes sued, calling the laws unconstitutional. A federal district judge in Salt Lake City agreed. Environmental activists call Utah politicians hypocrites for declaring nuclear waste non grata in Utah while backing it for Nevada. But Leavitt says Yucca Mountain's storage tunnels, studied by scientists for 20 years and guarded by the military, are "substantially different" from Skull Valley. Beyond the money the tribe could gain, Bear says, the nuclear deal has an Indian spiritual rationale. "Much of the uranium was mined by Navajos on their reservation, and now it's returning to a reservation," he says. "It was taken out of Mother Earth, and now it's looking for a place to rest. We're stewards of the Earth, and who's better to take care of this than the Native Americans?" [http://www.gannett.com] ***************************************************************** 7 SA: Anti-Nuclear Lobby Marches to Parliament allAfrica.com: South African Press Association (Johannesburg) August 12, 2002 Cape Town About 200 members of anti-nuclear movements on Monday toyi-toyed to the beat of bongo drums on Thibault Square in Cape Town ahead of a march to Parliament to protest against nuclear power, and specifically the proposed new pebble bed modular reactor on the Cape West Coast. Spokeswoman for Earthlife Africa Liz McDaid said the proposed reactor was a waste of time and money. She said the reactor was supposed to generate electricity but it was expensive and dangerous "because nuclear waste lasts thousands of years and is highly toxic to people." "We think the money should rather be invested in safe, clean energy like wind or solar energy," McDaid said. Other issues concerned the nuclear ships rounding the Cape coast carrying toxic waste, and safety and health issues around the Koeberg nuclear power station. McDaid said the series of nuclear material shipments were part of a contract between Japan, Britain and France. These shipments were another instance in which Africa was being placed in jeopardy through the risk of nuclear contamination. McDaid said the Environmental Justice Networking Forum (EJNF) which organised the march had called for a commission of enquiry into health and safety issues at Koeberg and at Vaalputs. She said they believed that the death of a Koeberg worker from cancer earlier this year was related to his work at the station. "We call for an investigation into the health and safety of all nuclear workers as laid down in the National Nuclear Act, as well as the Occupational Health and Safety Act," McDaid said. Also marching was Greenpeace International member Mike Townsley, presently based in Amsterdam. He is here for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) which is to take place in Johannesburg later this month. Townsley said the "nuclear option" for Africa was not safe. Townsley said the ships carrying nuclear waste, which would soon round the Cape, were a dangerous terrorist target. "If they (the ships) go down on your coast they would destroy the tourist industry and the fishing industry." The procession to Parliament got off to a colourful start when a travelling monk clad in green skirt joined in. Marchers held aloft a variety of posters proclaiming: "Stop nuclear Eskom reactors -- Earthlife Africa", "Nuclear waste and toxic equals environmental injustice", "Nuclear wastes our health and jobs", and "Kill Koeberg -- create alternatives." A memorandum calling on Minerals and Energy Affairs Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka to phase out nuclear power generation and a commitment to alternative clean safe sources of energy was to be handed over to the minister later on Monday. Copyright © 2002 South African Press Association ***************************************************************** 8 UK: Nuclear firm hit by racism claims BBC NEWS | UK | Tuesday, 13 August, 2002, BNFL has a 40% economic interest in the US plant Black employees at a nuclear plant in America part-owned by the UK's BNFL are suing over claims they suffered racism at work. The employees at the South Carolina plant have made a series of allegations, including that they were exposed to twice as much radiation as their white colleagues. They claim they were overlooked for promotion despite being better qualified than some white workers. It is alarming that this lynch mob mentality persists in the 2002 Simon Woolley, Operation Black Vote And they also allege that they found racist graffiti on toilet walls and nooses in their lockers at the Westinghouse Savannah River Company (WSRC), in which British Nuclear Fuels has a 40% economic interest. BNFL told BBC News Online the allegations were made before its involvement in the company. A spokesman said: "BNFL has a strict policy on equal opportunities and does not condone any activities which are contrary to this". But MPs and anti-racism campaigners have called for the UK company to investigate the allegations. Legal action by 32 people seeking compensation is expected to return to court in the US in October. Although BNFL has a stake in the Savannah River Site - which processes nuclear waste in Aiken, in South Carolina - it is not involved in the day-to-day running of the business. Investigation calls But Simon Woolley, head of British pressure group Operation Black Vote, told BBC News Online that BNFL should send in independent assessors to speak to the workers about their experience to restore public confidence. "This is a throwback to the bad old days in Mississippi and Alabama," he said. Following the allegations policies and procedures were extensively reviewed by external experts BNFL spokesman "It is alarming that this lynch mob mentality persists in 2002." Alan Simpson, Labour MP for Nottingham South and a former race relations official, told the Independent newspaper that it was unacceptable "under any circumstances" for a British company to be in any way implicated in such practices. He told the paper: "No one is suggesting BNFL was responsible for this but they have rebranded themselves as a clean up company and they ought to clean up their own house first." 'Wrongdoing' denied The workers pursuing the legal action allege that black employees were deliberately placed in jobs that carried a greater risk of exposure to radiation than whites. Five years ago a New York lawyer unsuccessfully attempted to bring a "class action" or group litigation on behalf of 99 employees. But the judge refused to accept a report making claims about the disparity in radiation levels as evidence. The court ruled in favour of the WSRC and three people withdrew their claims while 62 settled out of court. The company did not accept any wrongdoing. Westinghouse acquisition A spokesman told the Independent it was cheaper than going to court and the company would defend itself in court against further claims. The BNFL spokesman said of the fresh legal action: "These claims have already been considered and dismissed as a class action by a Judge in the US Federal Court. "Since the acquisition of Westinghouse, BNFL has been satisfied that Westinghouse Government Services has conducted itself properly. "Following the allegations policies and procedures were extensively reviewed by external experts and we are confident they are consistent with best equal opportunities practice." BNFL Savannah River Corporation, a company that BNFL owns, has a subcontract with WSRC. It has also been named in the continuing legal action. © MMII | News Sources | Privacy ***************************************************************** 9 N. Korea threatens to ditch nuclear deal - CNN.com - August 13, 2002 [The concrete pouring ceremony marked the start of major construction at the site] SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) - North Korea has rejected a U.S. demand to submit to nuclear inspections and has threatened to pull out of a 1994 deal under which Pyongyang froze its atomic weapons programme in return for two reactors. Last Wednesday, U.S. and other officials attended a concrete-pouring ceremony at the planned reactor site at Kumho, North Korea. U.S. envoy Jack Pritchard said in a speech there the North should allow international checks on old atomic sites and plutonium stocks "now, not later." (Full story) The North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman, in a statement issued by the official KCNA news agency on Tuesday, said the United States was to blame for years of delays to the project. Originally, the first reactor was to have been ready by 2003. "The reality is pushing us to the phase where we should make a final decision to go our own way," the ministry spokesman said. This was a reference to the core of the U.S.-North Korea deal which was brokered in 1994 after the peninsula came close to war. The crux of the accord was to stop Pyongyang acquiring weapons-grade plutonium and give it light-water reactors which are harder to misuse than the North's Soviet-era models. Pyongyang has made similar threats in the past, but the timing of Tuesday's comments was particularly sensitive as the two Koreas hold talks and Washington decides when to send an envoy to the North. Washington has rejected previous compensation claims. Agreed Framework Under the 1994 accord, known as the Agreed Framework, a multinational consortium including the United States will deliver key components for the reactors only when the International Atomic Energy Agency has inspected the old sites and stocks. The agency has said it needs to start that work now for the consortium to deliver the crucial parts on time. Washington has said the North caused delays by rejecting inspections. North Korea argues there is no such deadline or requirement, and wants Washington to compensate it for lost energy. "By delaying construction...the U.S. has caused a huge loss of electricity to the DPRK and created grave difficulties in its economy as a whole," the ministry spokesman said. "This has seriously threatened its right to existence." The DPRK is the acronym for North Korea's official title, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The spokesman said Washington should discuss compensation "whether it likes it or not" and save the deal by agreeing to simultaneous action rather than demanding early inspections. "We will move if the U.S. does," he said, according to KCNA. Copyright 2002 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may ***************************************************************** 10 Security Zone; Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant, Seabrook Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2002 11:52:25 -0400 (EDT) http://www.epa.gov/fedreg/ ====================================================== [Federal Register: August 13, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 156)] [Rules and Regulations] [Page 52607-52609] >From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr13au02-4] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Coast Guard 33 CFR Part 165 [CGD01-01-207] RIN 2115-AA97 Security Zone; Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant, Seabrook, New Hampshire AGENCY: Coast Guard, DOT. ACTION: Temporary final rule; change in effective period. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: The Coast Guard is extending the effective period for the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant, Seabrook, New Hampshire Security Zone. This change will extend the effective period of this temporary final rule until November 15, 2002, allowing adequate time to continue with informal rulemaking to develop a permanent rule. This rule will continue to close certain land and water areas in the vicinity of the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant. DATES: The amendment to Sec. 165.T01-207 in this rule is effective August 13, 2002. Section 165.T01-207, added at 66 FR 67487, December 31, 2002, effective December 7, 2001 until June 15, 2002, and extended in effect until August 15, 2002 at 67 FR 30807, May 8, 2002, as amended in this rule is extended in effect until November 15, 2002. ADDRESSES: Documents as indicated in this preamble are available for inspection and copying at Marine Safety Office Portland, Maine, 103 Commercial Street, Portland, Maine 04101 between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal Holidays. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Lieutenant (Junior Grade) R. F. Pigeon, Port Operations Department, Marine Safety Office Portland, Maine at (207) 780-3251. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Regulatory History On December 31, 2001, the Coast Guard published a temporary final rule (TFR) entitled ``Security Zone: Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant, Seabrook, New Hampshire'' in the Federal Register (66 FR 67487). The effective period for this rule was from December 7, 2001 until June 15, 2002. The effective period for this rule was extended until August 15, 2002 in a TFR of the same title published in the Federal Register on May 8, 2002 (67 FR 30807). We expected the extension of the temporary rule through August 15, 2002, would have provided us enough time to complete the rulemaking process for a [[Page 52608]] permanent security zone surrounding Seabrook. Now, however, we are extending the effective period of the temporary rule until November 15, 2002, to ensure sufficient time to complete the rulemaking process, for public comment and advanced publication. Continuing the temporary rule in effect while the permanent rulemaking is in progress will ensure the security of the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant and the maritime and surrounding communities during that period. We did not publish a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for this regulation. Under 5 U.S.C 553(b)(3), the Coast Guard finds that good cause exists for not publishing an NPRM. The original temporary final rule was urgently required to protect the plant from subversive activity, sabotage or possible terrorist attacks initiated from waters surrounding the plant. It was anticipated that the Coast Guard would assess the security environment at the end of the effective period to determine whether continuing security precautions were required and, if so, to propose regulations responsive to existing conditions. We have determined the need for continued security regulations does exist. The Coast Guard will utilize the extended effective period of this TFR to complete notice and comment rulemaking in order to develop a permanent regulation tailored to the present and foreseeable security environment within the Captain of the Port, Portland, Maine zone. Under 5 U.S.C. 553(d)(3), we find that good cause exists for making this rule effective less than 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. The measures contemplated by the original rule were intended to prevent possible terrorist attacks against the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant and were needed to protect the facility, persons at the facility, the public and the surrounding communities from subversive activity, sabotage or possible terrorist attacks, either from the water or by access to the facility by utilizing public trust lands between the low and high water tide lines. The Coast Guard published a NPRM entitled ``Security Zone: Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant, Seabrook, New Hampshire'' in the Federal Register on July 31, 2002 (67 FR 49643). This NPRM proposes to establish a permanent security zone that is temporarily effective under this rule. Background and Purpose Due to the terrorist attacks on New York City, New York and Washington DC on September 11, 2001 and continued warnings from national security and intelligence officials that future terrorist attacks are possible, heightened security measures are necessary surrounding the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant. A temporary security zone was implemented around the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant to protect against possible damage to the facility from subversive activity, sabotage or terrorist attacks initiated from the surrounding waters. The rule was also implemented to protect persons at the facility, the public and surrounding communities from the catastrophic impact release of nuclear radiation would have on the surrounding area, and to provide the Captain of the Port, Portland, Maine with enforcement options to deal with potential threats to the security of the plant. There is a continuing need for the protection of the plant. The temporary security zone surrounding the plant is only effective until August 15, 2002. The Coast Guard intends to implement a permanent security zone surrounding the facility. In order to provide continuous protection to the plant until the permanent zone is promulgated, the Coast Guard is extending the effective date of the rule until November 15, 2002. This extension will permit sufficient time to implement a permanent zone through notice and comment rulemaking, while ensuring that there is no lapse in coverage of the facility. No person or vessel may enter or remain in the prescribed security zone at any time without the permission of the Captain of the Port, Portland, Maine. Each person or vessel in a security zone shall obey any direction or order of the Captain of the Port. The Captain of the Port may take possession and control of any vessel in a security zone and/or remove any person, vessel, article or thing from a security zone. No person may board, take or place any article or thing on board any vessel or waterfront facility in a security zone without permission of the Captain of the Port, Portland, Maine. These regulations were issued under authority contained in 33 U.S.C. 1223, 1225 and 1226. Regulatory Evaluation This temporary final rule is not a ``significant regulatory action'' under section 3(f) of Executive Order 12866, Regulatory Planning and Review, and does not require an assessment of potential costs and benefits under section 6(a)(3) of that Order. The Office of Management and Budget has not reviewed it under that Order. It is not ``significant'' under the regulatory policies and procedures of the Department of Transportation (DOT) (44 FR 11040, February 26, 1979). We expect the economic impact of this rule to be so minimal that a full Regulatory Evaluation under paragraph 10e of the regulatory policies and procedures of DOT is unnecessary. The effect of this regulation will not be significant for several reasons: there is ample room for vessels to navigate around the zone, notifications will be made to the local maritime community and signs will be posted informing the public of the boundaries of the zone. Small Entities Under the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601-612), the Coast Guard considered whether this rule would have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. The term ``small entities'' comprises small businesses, not-for-profit organizations that are independently owned and operated and are not dominant in their fields, and governmental jurisdictions with populations of less than 50,000. The Coast Guard certifies under 5 U.S.C. 605(b) that this rule will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. For the reasons enumerated in the Regulatory Evaluation section above, this security zone will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. Assistance for Small Entities Under section 213(a) of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 [Public Law 104-121], the Coast Guard offered to assist small entities in understanding this temporary final rule so that they can better evaluate its effects on them and participate in the rulemaking process. If your small business, organization or governmental jurisdiction would be affected by this rule, and you have questions concerning its provisions or options for compliance, please call Lieutenant (Junior Grade) R. F. Pigeon, Marine Safety Office, Portland, Maine, at (207) 780-3251. Small businesses may send comments on the actions of Federal employees who enforce, or otherwise determine compliance with, Federal regulations to the Small Business and Agriculture Regulatory Enforcement Ombudsman and the Regional Small Business Regulatory Fairness Boards. The Ombudsman evaluates these actions annually and rates each agency's responsiveness to small business. If you wish to comment on actions by [[Page 52609]] employees of Coast Guard, call 1-888-REG-FAIR (1-888-734-3247). Collection of Information This rule calls for no new collection of information under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520). Federalism A rule has implications for federalism under Executive Order 13132, Federalism, if it has a substantial direct effect on State or local governments and would either preempt State law or impose a substantial direct cost of compliance on them. We have analyzed this rule under that Order and have determined that it does not have implications for federalism. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act The Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1531-1538) requires Federal agencies to assess the effects of their discretionary regulatory action. In particular, the Act addresses actions that may require expenditure by a State, local or tribal government, in the aggregate, or by the private sector of $100,000,000 or more in any one year. Though this rule will not result in such expenditure, we do discuss the effects of this rule elsewhere in this preamble. Taking of Private Property This rule will not effect a taking of private property or otherwise have taking implications under Executive Order 12630, Governmental Actions and Interference with Constitutionally Protected Property Rights. Civil Justice Reform This rule meets applicable standards in section 3(a) and 3(b)(2) of Executive Order 12988, Civil Justice Reform, to minimize litigation, eliminate ambiguity and reduce burden. Protection of Children We have analyzed this rule under Executive Order 13045, Protection of Children from Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks. This rule is not an economically significant rule and does not create an environmental risk to health or risk to safety that may disproportionately affect children. Indian Tribal Governments This rule does not have tribal implications under Executive Order 13175, Consultation and Coordination with Indian Tribal Governments, because it does not have a substantial direct effect on one or more Indian tribes, on the relationship between the Federal Government and Indian tribes, or on the distribution of power and responsibilities between the Federal Government and Indian tribes. Environment The Coast Guard has considered the environmental impact of this regulation and concluded that, under Figure 2-1, paragraph 34(g) of Commandant Instruction M16475.1D, this rule is categorically excluded from further environmental documentation. A ``Categorical Exclusion Determination'' is available in the docket for inspection or copying where indicated under ADDRESSES. Energy Effects We have analyzed this rule under Executive Order 13211, Actions Concerning Regulations that Significantly Affect Energy Supply, Distribution, or Use. We have determined that it is not a ``significant energy action'' under that order because it is not a ``significant regulatory action'' under Executive Order 12866 and is not likely to have a significant adverse effect on the supply, distribution, or use of energy. It has not been designated by the Administer of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs as a significant energy action. Therefore, it does not require a Statement of Energy Effects under Executive Order 13211. List of Subjects in 33 CFR Part 165 Harbors, Marine safety, Navigation (water), Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, Security measures, Waterways. For the reasons set out in the preamble, the Coast Guard amends 33 CFR Part 165 as follows: PART 165--REGULATED NAVIGATION AREAS AND LIMITED ACCESS AREAS 1. The authority citation for Part 165 continues to read as follows: Authority: 33 U.S.C. 1231; 50 U.S.C. 191, 33 CFR 1.05-1(g), 6.04-1, 6.04-6 and 160.5; 49 CFR 1.46. 2. Revise paragraph (b) of Sec. 165.T01--207 to read as follows: Sec. 165.T01--207; Security Zone: Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant, Seabrook, New Hampshire. * * * * * (b) Effective period. This section is effective from December 7, 2001 until November 15, 2002. * * * * * Dated: August 2, 2002. M. P. O'Malley, Commander, U.S. Coast Guard, Captain of the Port, Portland, Maine. [FR Doc. 02-20482 Filed 8-12-02; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4910-15-P ***************************************************************** 11 Michael Hay Named NRC Senior Resident Inspector at Waterford 3 NRC: Press Release Region IV - 2002 - 37 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region IV 611 Ryan Plaza Drive, Suite 400, Arlington TX 76011 www.nrc.gov No. IV-02-037 August 12, 2002 CONTACT: Roger Hannah Phone: 817-860-8128 E-mail: [opa4@nrc.gov] Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials in the Region IV office in Arlington, Texas, have selected Michael Hay as the Senior Resident Inspector at the Waterford 3 nuclear power plant in Taft, Louisiana. He joins Resident Inspector Grant Larkin. Hay replaces Tom Farnholtz, who has accepted a senior project engineer position in the Region IV office. Hay joined the NRC's Region IV office in 1995. During his tenure, he has served as a Resident Inspector at Cooper Nuclear Station in Brownsville, Nebraska. He has also worked as a specialist inspector in the Region's Division of Reactor Safety. Prior to joining the NRC, Hay served as an Instructor/Supervisor, U.S. Navy, A1W Prototype Training Unit, in Idaho Falls and as a Technician/Supervisor, U.S. Navy Nuclear Power Program, with responsibilities for operation and maintenance of nuclear submarine reactor controls on the U.S.S. Albuquerque. Hay earned an Associate in Science degree from the University of the State of New York, a Bachelors in Science in Health Physics degree from Idaho State University and a Masters in Health Physics degree from Texas A University. Hay and his family live in Gonzales, Louisiana. Every commercial nuclear power plant in the U.S. has at least two NRC resident inspectors. They have an office and work at the facility, conducting regular inspections and monitoring significant work projects. The Waterford 3 resident inspectors can be reached at 985/783-6253. ***************************************************************** 12 British Energy shuts Scottish reactor; starts inspections * online.ie home /Business & Finance 13 Aug 2002/ UK nuclear power producer British Energy today announced that it has taken a Scottish reactor out of service and begun a programme of inspections. Shares have tumbled over 34pc or 30.75p, on the news, valuing the company at about UK£380m, as investors await clarification of the situation. The company said its 600 megawatt Torness Reactor 1 was taken out of service at midday on Monday to investigate vibrations on a gas circulator and it was unclear when it would come back on stream, a spokesman said. A second reactor at Torness, was shut down in mid-May when a gas circulator failed and repairs are continuing there. The company said circulators at its Heysham 2 reactor were similar, but those operations were normal, though the situation was being reviewed. "British Energy is quantifying the implications of the above for this year's generation forecast and a further statement will be made on this later today," it said in a statement. The company also said its two-yearly planned maintenance programme at the Dungeness nuclear power station in southeast England had been brought forward to allow repair work to be done in parallel with other planned activities. Us *What is the case about? *The Natural Resources Defense Council, the Snake River Alliance, the Confederated Yakama Tribes and the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes say a Department of Energy rule that gives its managers discretion to reclassify highly radioactive nuclear waste violates the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982. *The problem: *Millions of gallons of high-level radioactive waste are stored in Idaho, Washington and South Carolina. *The solution: *The Department of Energy wants to reclassify the waste and reduce the cost of dealing with it. Environmentalists and the state of Idaho say that´s a bad ? and illegal ? idea. *What happened? *U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill refused to let the Energy Department reclassify highly radioactive residual waste in Idaho and elsewhere without defending the plan. *What is high-level waste? *High-level radioactive waste is the highly radioactive material produced as a byproduct of the reactions that occur inside nuclear reactors. High-level waste takes one of two forms: spent fuel and waste material remaining after spent fuel is reprocessed. The waste in this case is the material left after reprocessing. *Why is this a problem? *The waste is located above the Snake River Plain Aquifer, the water source for most of southern Idaho that drains into the Snake River. Even though the waste would be diluted by the trillions of gallons of water in the aquifer, Idaho officials worry it could taint the state for centuries. ? Statesman staff Edition Date: 08-13-2002 Story published in the Johnson City Press: 8/13/2002. By Chris Garland Erwin Bureau UNICOI ? A large, vocal crowd gathered at Unicoi?s Town Hall to participate in a sometimes heated Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting, where there was no standing room inside and some people stood outside open windows to listen. Three agenda items were of particular interest to a local group called Citizens for the Preservation of the Valley Beautiful, which was represented at the meeting. Those were abolition of the town?s zoning, consideration of permits for parades and demonstrations and having the town plan a public forum on the proposed uranium enrichment plant. The issue of abolishing zoning was raised early in the meeting. Alderman Ted Hopson said there has been a lot of ill will in the town due to zoning, and the issue was placed on the agenda for discussion and not because of the proposed uranium enrichment plant. Mayor Kenneth Lewis banged his gavel on the table repeatedly during Hopson?s speech, telling the crowd the meeting would be held in a professional manner or the room would be cleared. Following the discussion of zoning by several board members, those attending the meeting were able to voice personal opinions. Hopson and several aldermen said the proposed $1.1 billion Louisiana Enrichment Services plant was tearing the town apart. The issue of rezoning property in the town is one hurdle the plant would have to clear should it locate here. Even though Lewis, Hopson and Alderman Urban Bird told the crowd the zoning issues had nothing to do with the plant?s interest in property here, several in the audience obviously did not agree. Alderman Johnny Lynch, who is also a member of the citizens group and holds almost weekly meetings at his farm, accused the mayor of placing the zoning abolition on the agenda for the LES project. ?Control is when a mayor of a town can tell you to sell your house or they will build a plant all around you and you can look him in the eye and tell him where he can shove it. That?s control! We want to control our own destiny, and through zoning we can,? Lynch said. Lewis denied accusations by Lynch and confronted him about personal quotes he was using. At one point, Lewis and Lynch resorted to finger-pointing. Citizens for the Preservation of the Valley Beautiful, in a statement presented by Rebecca Nunley, said that the town?s proposal to abolish zoning regulations was an attempt to silence public opposition to a nuclear plant. ?There is a clear connection between this resolution to abolish zoning and the proposed siting of a nuclear plant it the town of Unicoi. It is wrong to manipulate the playing field in a way which puts all the power in the hands of one man,? Nunley said. After hearing from both sides on the zoning issue, the board approved a motion to table the resolution until after LES announces its plant site. Also tabled was the consideration to look at permits for parades and demonstrations in the town. Lynch claimed this was another way to take rights away from the citizens and keep them from voicing their views. Bird said he was all for freedom of speech and he may want to have a big gathering of people in the near future. The board did approve Lynch?s request for the town to develop a public forum for informational purposes about the LES enrichment facility. Lynch told the board he had tried to get the request on the list earlier without success and thanked them for ?finally? getting around to it. Lynch said he wanted the board to participate with the forum in helping to set up the place, dates and time. Lynch was designated to handle the project. Lewis said before the discussions began on the zoning resolution that he had no problem with putting off the zoning issues until the plant location was announced. Bird and Hopson stated it was probably bad timing to bring up the zoning issue with the community currently divided. LES and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are expecting to have a short list of possible plant sites named by the end of this week and a site chosen out of that list by the end of the month. /(Contact Chris Garland at cgarland@johnsoncitypress.com )./ © 2001-02 Johnson City Press and Associated Press All Rights Johnson City Press 204 W.Main St. ? Johnson City, Tennessee 37605 423.929.3111 ***************************************************************** 21 From Atomic Dump to Tourist Draw Los Angeles Times - latimes.com August 13, 2002 * Environment: Public can visit cleaned-up Missouri site. Although spot has its critics, U.S. plans similar facilities. By STEPHANIE SIMON, Times Staff Writer WELDON SPRING, Mo. -- They had a little time after picking peaches and before swimming, so Marie and Tom Burrows decided to take their grandson Zack to America's newest tourist attraction: An enormous pile of radioactive waste. His flip-flops flapping as he ran, 9-year-old Zack Aiello scrambled up the mini-mountain of boulders that entombs waste from decades of bomb making: TNT, asbestos, arsenic, lead and, above all, uranium, purified here in this St. Louis suburb to power the Atomic Age. From the top of the mound, seven stories up, Zack scanned the sprawl of the dump. "Cool," he judged. "Am I glowing?" his grandma teased, laughing. A butterfly darted by. Zack gave chase over the waste pile. The Burrows lingered at the top, admiring the view. "If you have to have this here," Tom Burrows said, "you might as well enjoy it." Talk about a tourist hot spot. After a cleanup that has lasted 16 years and cost nearly $1 billion, the U.S. Department of Energy opened Weldon Spring to the public last week. Visitors can hike up the nuclear dump or check out the Geiger counters in a new museum, set up in a building that was once used to check uranium workers for contamination. A six-mile bike trail on the property will open soon, winding past the massive waste "containment cell" and along an old limestone quarry that just a decade ago was packed with radioactive rubble, TNT residue and crumpled metal drums oozing chemicals. *U.S. Hopes to Encourage Tourism at Waste Sites* Weldon Spring is the first of more than 120 industrial sites in the U.S. nuclear weapon complex to near complete cleanup. Even after billions of dollars of high-tech scrubbing, many of them, like Weldon Spring, will retain a radioactive repository. But federal officials maintain that when the waste is entombed between thick layers of clay and rock, it's safe for the public to visit. Indeed, if the experiment here works, they hope to encourage tourism at such sites around the nation. At a time of fierce debate about the proposed nuclear repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain, proponents say that giving public tours of containment cells may offer reassurance that radioactivity can be controlled. In an age when the governor of South Carolina threatens to lie down in the road to block plutonium shipments, bringing Boy Scout troops to explore a nuclear dump may send a comforting signal that the waste can be managed. Politicians in a dozen states have protested transportation routes that would ship nuclear material through their turf. But at Weldon Spring, families will soon be able to hike through a complex where clumps of yellow uranium ore were scattered casually about as recently as the mid-1980s. Kids from the high school half a mile down the street can picnic atop 1.5 million cubic yards of nuclear waste. "If you put up a fence, all that communicates is fear," said Pam Thompson, the Weldon Spring project manager. "The only way to defeat fear is knowledge." To some critics, that smacks of propaganda. The Weldon Spring museum lays out every detail of the cleanup process, down to a photo of a worker mowing the lawn in full protective gear and respirator. Visitors can feel the impermeable synthetic liners used in the containment cell, which covers 45 acres. They can study models showing how the waste is trapped in the center of the dump, surrounded by clay and stone barriers up to 40 feet thick. Yet there's little information about why such elaborate precautions are necessary?little about the danger of radiation, the cancers many uranium workers suffered, the environmental damage caused by federal employees chucking radioactive waste in open-air lagoons through much of the 1950s and '60s. "There is nothing glamorous about the history of Weldon Spring," said Dr. Daniel McKeen, a local pathologist who has long raised health concerns about the site. An exhibit focused on the heroics of the cleanup effort "really offends me," McKeen added. State officials bristle as well, complaining that the museum may make people think that every scrap of waste from decades of weapon production has been locked inside the cell. In truth, uranium persists, at low levels, along a spring in a nearby wildlife refuge. TNT from a World War I ordnance factory at Weldon Spring has been found in drinking water two miles away. Groundwater near the uranium plant is contaminated with a dangerous chemical called trichloroethylene. And soil and water on the site and off will need to be monitored for tens of thousands of years to make sure the containment cell does not leak. "This whole ribbon-cutting ceremony totally distracts from the remaining work that needs to be done," said Ron Kucera, deputy director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Added Kay Drey, a local environmental activist: "This is an unbelievable creation. The place should be a tourist repellent. Yet they may be able to talk people into thinking that all things radioactive are good." *An Emphasis on Perils of Radioactive Waste* Thompson insists that's not her goal. In fact, she says, opening Weldon Spring to tourism is an effort to emphasize, not minimize, the perils of radioactive waste. By integrating the dump into the fast-growing suburban community that surrounds it, Thompson hopes to keep the public aware of what's buried under the huge mound of rocks?and why they must keep a close eye on it. By inviting school tours and family visits, she hopes to ensure that each new generation will respect the deadly power of the waste in their backyard. "If we want people to be protected and to keep the area protected, we need to get them involved," she said. "You don't do that by keeping everything locked behind closed doors." In the past, the Department of Energy's first instinct might have been to surround the site with barbed wire. But in recent years, officials have begun to worry that locking the danger out of sight might push it out of the public's mind as well. They point to tragedies like Love Canal, where homes in a neighborhood of Niagara Falls, N.Y., were built atop a buried chemical waste dump. "One of the great fears all of us have is that people will forget," said Kai Lee, who chairs a panel on managing radioactive sites for the National Academy of Sciences. "You have to expect that the controls you put in place [to keep the waste safe] will fail," added John Applegate, a member of the panel. "You have to be sure that in the future, people know exactly what's there and what you did to it." Written records, of course, are one way of preserving the information. The Internet is another. But some experts say an oral tradition?facts passed from one generation to the next?is vital, because files tend to get lost or forgotten and Web pages may be inaccessibly obsolete by the time they're needed. "I cannot tell you how many times I've gone to look at documents about a toxic site and it's, 'Golly, Gladys lost her key to that file cabinet,' or 'Wasn't that the one that washed away in the flood?' " said Jim Werner, who directed research into long-term stewardship of radioactive sites for the Clinton administration. *Open-Door Policy at Site a New Approach* The open-door policy at Weldon Spring represents a novel approach to keeping the story alive. "I don't know if it's the right answer. I don't think anyone knows," Werner said. "This is definitely unplowed territory." For the next few months, while the bike path is being built, visitors to Weldon Spring must make appointments so they can be escorted up the cell, wearing orange vests and safety goggles. Once the heavy equipment is gone, however, those restrictions will be lifted. The fence and the parking lot guard station have already been torn down. There are no plans to post security on site; officials say the cell can withstand even a terrorist truck bomb without releasing radiation. Such assurances don't calm everyone. One tourist at the site last week, a young mother who had just moved nearby, noted in the visitor's log that she was "curious and afraid" about the looming waste heap. Another local said with an uneasy chuckle that he doesn't plan a visit any time soon. "I'd give it a few years," he said. "There's a lot of nasty stuff out there." Still, many here in St. Charles County, which hugs the Missouri River north of St. Louis, view the new tourist attraction with more excitement than trepidation. The opening ceremony last week drew 200, despite oppressive heat. Since then, scores of visitors have overwhelmed the staff. "It's become quite a madhouse," said Wendy Drnec, community relations manager. William Selinger, a 58-year-old manufacturing engineer, took his wife, Marilyn, to the top of the cell and pronounced it "very nice," although he did worry that the long, sloping sides might entice snowboarders come winter. As for Zack, he allowed that he would have preferred a morning at Six Flags St. Louis amusement park, screaming his way through the roller coasters. But the waste dump, he decided, wasn't a bad way to pass an hour. His grandparents, meanwhile, were fascinated. "Any time you say 'nuclear,' it makes some people uptight," Tom Burrows said. "But I think it's pretty neat." Copyright 2002 Los Angeles Times ***************************************************************** 22 Assurances needed on Hanford-bound wastes Published Aug. 11, 2002 This community is well aware that Hanford will never be a pristine place, but it will not stand for being the nation's dump, either. The Tri-Cities has long done its duty for the country. And if the Department of Energy must once again call on Hanford - this time to repack and temporarily store highly radioactive waste from other nuclear sites - this community will step up to the task. But before the first barrel arrives, the federal government better have its plans in order for where that waste is going after it leaves here. The Herald editorial board has said it before, and will say it again: Any waste sent to Hanford also must leave Hanford. The site has enough of its own troubles without shouldering problems from elsewhere. The Energy Department is on the verge of signing off on a plan to send to Hanford 150 barrels of transuranic wastes - highly radioactive, slowly decaying junk - from a Battelle lab in Ohio and 50 barrels from a small San Francisco lab. The other sites don't have the capability to check and repack the barrels nor the capacity to store them while awaiting approval to send the wastes to New Mexico for permanent storage. Taxpayers have invested in Hanford's facilities, and those facilities should be put to good use - especially if they can save further expense and help speed cleanup elsewhere without slowing it at Hanford. But the community is rightfully wary about getting stuck with the wastes. Hanford already is a dumping ground for low-level wastes, a role not entirely embraced by the community but one that is accepted with the realization that there will be some parts of Hanford off limits to the public forever. But now the Energy Department is looking at sending more low-level wastes to Hanford, as well as treating - in some undetermined way - and storing mixed chemical and radioactive wastes. Top it off with the transuranic wastes nearly on their way, and Hanford looks like a full-fledged dump in the making. The Energy Department recognizes that there are more appropriate spots for permanent storage of highly radioactive waste, having designated Yucca Mountain in Nevada and the Waste Isolation Pilot Project in New Mexico as permanent repositories for such materials. And it pledges that the transuranic waste will be on its way to New Mexico within just a few years of arriving at Hanford. But there remains cause for unease. Shuffling wastes around the Energy Department complex does not amount to cleanup. While it might be part of the overall scheme, the Energy Department has yet to show its master plan for that cleanup and how it plans to pay for the work. Given the history here, the Energy Department's "trust us" response is not good enough. Without a look at the bigger picture, this community cannot be assured that the department can deliver on its promises about one facet of that plan. The situation warrants the current healthy dose of suspicion. What's your opinon? Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 23 Idaho: Judge stands firm on nuke waste The News Tribune - Tacoma, WA [Tribnet.com] The Associated Press BOISE - A federal judge has refused to let the Energy Department reclassify highly radioactive residual waste in Idaho and Washington without defending the plan against challenges from environmentalists and Indian tribes. The order, entered Monday, keeps alive the challenge of the Snake River Alliance, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, and the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. The groups claim the government is attempting to ignore federal environmental law requiring the removal of the waste. The states of Idaho and Washington also have objected to the plan. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill rejected the Energy Department's argument that classification of radioactive material is solely its responsibility and cannot be challenged. The judge said he could not find federal law to support the claim. "Likewise, the court cannot rule out the possibility," Winmill wrote, that the department will use its existing authority "as a tool to circumvent the more stringent disposal requirements." The Energy Department was sued last year after it announced plans to reclassify material so it would not have to remove it from the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Government lawyers have repeatedly argued the agency is following procedures used for years without environmental problems. (Published 12:30AM, August 13th, 2002) Tacoma News, Inc. 1950 South State Street, Tacoma, Washington 98405 253-597-8742 Fax Machines: Newsroom, 253-597-8274 Advertising, 253-597-8764 Send comments to the Webmaster ***************************************************************** 24 Nevada mayors express concern over Yucca Mountain Tuesday, August 13, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MINDEN -- Mayors from across Nevada have expressed concern about transportation risks stemming from President Bush's recent approval of Yucca Mountain as the nation's high-level nuclear waste dump. At the annual Nevada League of Cities conference here over the weekend, the mayors questioned whether waste shipments to Yucca Mountain 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas would be safe and secure. "We haven't seen real evidence of planning when it comes to the transportation of this material," Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson said during a panel discussion Saturday. "Somebody has to involve people at our level in the plans." Although the state continues to fight the dump in the courts, the top challenges of Yucca Mountain now concern the mix of rail and truck shipments of waste through Nevada communities, said Elko Mayor Mike Franzoia. "As a mayor and a parent, I do not want to see my investment in the state go away because of Yucca Mountain," he said. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 25 Nevada mayors concerned about Yucca transportation August 13, 2002 [online@rgj.com] ASSOCIATED PRESS 8/12/2002 10:50 pm Mayors from across Nevada have expressed concern about transportation risks stemming from President Bush’s recent approval of Nevada’s Yucca Mountain as the nation’s high-level nuclear waste dump. At the annual Nevada League of Cities conference in Minden over the weekend, the mayors questioned whether waste shipments to Yucca Mountain 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas would be safe and secure. “We haven’t seen real evidence of planning when it comes to the transportation of this material,” Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson said during a panel discussion Saturday. “Somebody has to involve people at our level in the plans.” Although the state continues to fight the dump in the courts, the top challenges of Yucca Mountain now concern the mix of rail and truck shipments of waste through Nevada communities, said Elko Mayor Mike Franzoia. “As a mayor and a parent, I do not want to see my investment in the state go away because of Yucca Mountain,” he said. Dump opponents see a disaster in the making as the radioactive cargo moves past cities, over bridges and through tunnels on its way to Yucca Mountain. But the Bush administration and other Yucca site supporters said waste has been transported for years without radiation releases. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham has promised a transportation plan by the end of next year. Mayors also discussed what their communities have done to stimulate business after Sept. 11. Southern Nevada lost tens of thousands of jobs because of a tourism slump following the terror attacks. “We find we’re now doing business differently,” said Boulder City Mayor Bob Ferraro. “Sept. 11 caused us to rethink our decisions and our strategies.” In other business, the Nevada League of Cities unanimously approved a resolution urging local governments to set policies aimed at improving voter registration and turnout. The resolution contains a number of joint actions to meet its goals, including strengthening civics education and recognition of people and programs that promote participatory democracy. The league hopes the strategies will help achieve 75 percent voter registration and 70 percent voter turnout by 2008. © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a [http://www.gannett.com] Newspaper. ***************************************************************** 26 Bulgaria Signs Spent Nuclear Fuel Housecleaning Deal With Russia Spent fuel imports The Russian Ministry of Nuclear Energy (Minatom) is actively promoting plans for large scale imports of spent nuclear fuel to Russia for storage or reprocessing. MOSCOW - A government agreement with Ukraine has paved the way for the first round of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) imports to Russia from Bulgaria's Kozlodui nuclear power plant since a financial scandal about payments for past shipments shut them down last year. The shipments, routed through Ukraine, are expected to resume by the end of this year, Bulgarian officials said Monday. Charles Digges, 2002-08-13 14:43 But the parameters of the plan, as outlined by one Bulgarian official, hint at a dubious motivation to clear that country of as much radioactive waste as cheaply as possible before its prospective membership in the European Union (EU) takes effect — a membership that carries with it restrictions that ban sending toxic waste to countries that are not considered by EU authorities to be technologically capable of dealing with it. The announcement of the deal is also bound to open a can of environmental worms in Russia, especially following the publication of a letter written by Russia's nuclear regulatory body, Gosatomnadzor (GAN), to the Kremlin, which stated that Russia's nuclear infrastructure was not capable of handling reprocessing waste from abroad. It is also likely to cause friction for Bulgaria with the EU, where it is generally held that Russia's nuclear facilities are not even able to handle the safe storage of their own waste, to say nothing of imports from abroad. But in recent weeks — a year after the controversial passage of legislation allowing the import of radioactive waste to Russia — Russia's nuclear ministry, Minatom, has been mounting a vociferous campaign to attract foreign customers for the SNF storage and reprocessing plans that it says will net the government $20 billion over the next ten years. Among the pitches Nuclear Minister Alexander Rumyantsev has made to potential clients is that Russia's prices for accepting waste are a third to a half lower than those of its competitors, England and France. But the $620 per kilogram of SNF being paid by Bulgaria is a mark-down even on Rumyantsev's proposed bargains of $1,000 per kilogram. The governmental agreement on the Kozlodui shipments, signed between Ukraine, Russia and Bulgaria at the end of last week, gives Russia the right to transport SNF from the Bulgarian plant across the territory of Ukraine for 10 years, a spokesman at the Bulgarian Embassy in Moscow told Bellona Web Monday. Bulgarian government officials contacted in Sofia Monday confirmed the agreement. According to one government official in Sofia, who asked not to be identified, the SNF exports from the plant — for which the Bulgarian government will be paying Russia $620 per kilogram to take for reprocessing — are, "in part," an effort to clear the Kozlodui plant of as much SNF as it can before the country becomes an EU member state. According to one EU official, however, it is unclear when that membership will be granted to Bulgaria. The Bulgarian government source said the first shipment, which he estimated to be approximately 40 tonnes with a price tag of $24.8 million, is likely to leave Bulgaria for the Mayak Chemical Combine sometime before the end of the year. "We have always returned fuel to Russia for reprocessing, but when we become an EU member state, this option may no longer be open to us because of EU concerns about the state of Russia's reprocessing infrastructure," the official said. "Nonetheless, we now have and have always had confidence in Russia's ability to safely fulfil this undertaking." The Kozlodui plant has four VVER-440 reactor blocs, whose waste Mayak is equipped to reprocess. It also has two VVER-1000 reactors, whose waste is slated for reprocessing at Zheleznogorsk — if Zheleznogorsk ever finishes building its reprocessing facility. The SNF would meanwhile have to be stored for what GAN estimates to be 20 years until the reprocessing facility is completed. The EU's stance Just what the EU Commission's position on exports of fissile materials to Russia is has not been codified. But Derek Taylor, head of the nuclear unit at the European Commission's Directorate-General for Energy and Transport, told Bellona Web in an email interview that member states of the EU can export their waste to other countries as long as the receiving country has the legal, regulatory and technical capability to manage it safely, and has agreed to the import — a position known as EURATOM Directive 92/3. Under this directive, such imports have to be authorized by the European Commission. To more carefully enforce these regulations, the European Commission and members of Russia's State Duma have established, on Bellona's initiative, a watchdog group to monitor contacts between Minatom and European nuclear power plants regarding possible import contracts to Russia. Although the European Commission has not yet adopted any formal position on the export of spent nuclear fuel to the Russians, the line that is now generally followed, according to officials, is that Russia is not in a currently in a position to guarantee the safety and security of any such imports as its facilities are thought to be inadequate for the safe management of spent fuel generated within the country. GAN's recent letter to the Kremlin unequivocally endorses this line, suggesting that Bulgaria's efforts to ship its SNF to Russia represent an inconsistency in Bulgaria's current policies and the behaviour it intends to exhibit for the EU in the future. When asked if the import plan represented a hypocritical stance for his state, the official said: "We prefer to view it as practical." He added however, that since the waste was slated for reprocessing, it might not constitute waste under EURATOM Directive 92/3, which regulates storage of SNF. That being the case, the spent fuel would fall under the jurisdiction of a Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and Radioactive Waste. This Convention has yet to take effect, but it will contain similar standards for destination countries that apply when SNF is shipped as waste for storage. According to GAN Deputy Chairman Alexander Dmitriev, who co-authored the letter to the Kremlin criticizing Minatom's import plans, the Mayak Chemical Combine — which is the apparent destination for at least the first shipment of Bulgarian SNF — doesn't meet those standards. "Forty tonnes [of SNF] to Mayak is theoretically possible because Mayak can theoretically handle 400 tonnes [of reprocessing] a year," he told Bellona Web. "But there are unfortunately a number of technical questions about how they deal with waste at Mayak, and I'll just say that these methods can easily be criticized." Past Bulgarian shipments problematic Despite several calls, responsible officials at Minatom could not be reached to comment on the Bulgarian deal, but it is consistent with recent pronouncements by Rumyantsev that his ministry would be pursuing contracts with former Soviet Bloc countries, especially Bulgaria, where Russia has undisputed consent rights over spent fuel. The United States control the remaining 70 to 90 percent of the world's SNF. Indeed, imports from Bulgaria are nothing new and have been coming even prior to last year's package of legislation that opened the borders for radioactive waste from any country with rights to send it. But a shipment of waste from Kozlodui's two VVER-1000 reactors to Zheleznogorsk at the end of 2001— the first Bulgarian shipments since 1998 — resulted in scandal when it became known that the contract for the load was a sham. In the contract, a company by the name of Energy Invest and Trade Corporation, an offshore company based in Cyprus, was listed as the payee for the shipment. As was later discovered, however, Energy Invest and Trade had ceased to exist as early as the beginning of 2001. According to government and environmental sources, President Vladimir Putin was enraged by the scam and called Minatom on the carpet over the apparent dupe. In the resulting fallout, Deputy Minister of Atomic Energy Valentin Ivanov was fired. But that was not all. The fuel assemblies in the SNF load, according to GAN's Dmitriev, arrived still packed with so-called absorption rods, in strict violation of GAN policies governing imports. Additionally, according to Vladimir Slivyak of the anti-nuclear group Ecodefence!, the train carrying the load only narrowly avoided a disastrous accident that would have led to it shedding its load. The Bulgarian shipments have also been the target of fierce environmental protests in Moldova and Romania, both of which have denied Bulgaria more convenient shipping routes across their own territory. Future of deal unclear GAN's Dmitriev criticized the new tri-government agreement as "unclear" and "vague," and predicted — despite Bulgaria's assertion that the first load would come before year's end — that "[SNF import plans] will all be discussed at higher levels before that happens." "President [Vladimir] Putin will apparently be returning to this issue and apparently there will be more discussions about it," he said. Dmitriev asserted that the basic foundations of the import programme have yet to be clarified and codified as law. "At present, though [Bulgaria] says this SNF is for reprocessing, we never know if we are taking a shipment for reprocessing or for storage," he said, adding that any shipments to Zheleznogorsk, even if they are for prospective reprocessing, amount to storage because of the 20-year lag-time before reprocessing of Kozlodui's VVER-1000 fuel can begin there. "If they absolutely have to start importing now," said Dmitriev somewhat wryly, "then it should be done gradually, in small quantities, because the legislative basis has to be improved and the technical basis has to be improved — and we need to know, finally, what we are supposed to do with all this material and waste." Publisher: [bellona@bellona.no] , President: [frederic@bellona.no] Information: [info@bellona.no] , Technical contact: [webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 27 Plutonium heading for safety of Test Site Las Vegas SUN: August 12, 2002 By Matthew L. Wald NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE WASHINGTON -- The United States is moving rapidly toward shipping tons of bomb-grade plutonium and uranium out of a vulnerable laboratory in New Mexico to the Nevada Test Site, according to Energy Department officials and internal documents. Experts said it would be the first time the government has moved nuclear weapons fuel to reduce the risk of terrorists stealing it. The plutonium and uranium would be shipped to a complex at the Test Site, about 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas, that was built to assemble nuclear devices for detonation. It would be taken from a place called Technical Area 18, known as TA-18, at Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory. The $100 million Device Assembly Facility was completed in 1998 as a sophisticated laboratory to assemble weapons before experiments at the Test Site. The facility was planned during the early 1980s, when the United States was at the height of the Cold War with the former Soviet Union. No nuclear experiments have been conducted at the Test Site since 1992. Several internal Energy Department documents describing the plan were obtained by a nonprofit group based here, the Project on Government Oversight, which has been lobbying for better security at nuclear weapons sites. The Energy Department estimated it would cost between $80 million and $90 million to refinish walls to handle radioactive materials from New Mexico in order to protect workers and sensitive controls. The estimated cost of the move from New Mexico to Nevada is $100 million. In one document the director of Los Alamos wrote on June 28 to a deputy administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration that the laboratory supported moving the material as "the best overall decision to meet the post-September 11th challenges for the long-term security of nuclear activities." The National Nuclear Security Administration is the part of the Energy Department that manages the inventory of weapons, weapons components and weapons fuel. No decision has been made, though the Energy Department has been looking at the move for a couple of years, said Tessa Hafen, spokeswoman for Assistant Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "This is a very long road as to what should be done," she said this morning. If the DOE decides to bring the material to the Test Site, "Sen. Reid will want assurances that what is done will be done safely." The senator has been told it is a small amount of material, Hafen said. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said this morning the Test Site is the nation's premier facility, but added, "I have continuing objections to Nevada being the only solution" to the nation's nuclear problems. She said she has been told that the issues are different from the transportation of commercial nuclear waste to a proposed repository at Yucca Mountain -- a move Nevada officials have fought -- but added she still has reservations, particularly about transportation. "I think it undermines your argument against nuclear waste if you don't lodge a protest against the transportation of any nuclear material," she said. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., a member of the House Intelligence Committee and vice chairman of its Terrorism and Homeland Security subcommittee, has been briefed by the Energy Department on the plan, his spokeswoman Amy Spanbauer said. "He understood that the Test Site has better facilities for materials like this than Los Alamos," she said. "That is a large motivating factor in this decision." The congressman, who was returning to the U.S. today from a trip to Russia, was still reviewing the information the Energy Department gave him and has not taken a position on the move, she said. The Project on Government Oversight has previously released documents that show that TA-18 has performed poorly in security drills. According to one document, a team sent to play terrorist in 1997 used a garden cart from Home Depot to remove 200 pounds of simulated bomb fuel. The laboratory, with some buildings that are 50 years old, is at the bottom of a shallow canyon in a spot experts say is difficult to defend. The documents released by the Project on Government Oversight include a draft of an Energy Department press release announcing that an environmental impact statement on the move has been completed and that the Nevada Test Site is the preferred alternative. An official at the Energy Department said that the assessment was not finished but that "the department is heading in that direction." Peter Stockton, who was special assistant to the last energy secretary in the Clinton administration, Bill Richardson, said Richardson had worked for two years to get the weapons material out of the area but had been stymied by bureaucrats at the department. Officials are often reluctant to give up weapons materials, Stockton and others say, because it means a loss of prestige and resources for their programs. "It is the first time that it's ever been moved for security reasons," Stockton said. "There are multiple tons of plutonium and highly enriched uranium, certain other things down there you wouldn't want a terrorist to get his hands on," he said. Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., who has been a critic of security at the energy agency, said he was pleased that the department may be taking steps to remove the material. "Al-Qaida terrorists are fully capable of taking advantage of poor security at DOE facilities if they remain unaddressed," Markey said. In addition to terrorism, fire swept through the forests around Los Alamos in May 2000, another threat to the security of the nuclear materials, Energy Department officials said. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 28 Pacific leaders to speak out against nuclear waste shipments Radio Australia News - A senior Fijian public servant says he is hopeful this year's Pacific Islands Forum will approve a strong resolution against countries involved in the shipping of nuclear waste in the region. Ratu Isoa Navidi, permanent secretary of Fiji's ministry of foreign affairs, says officials meeting in Suva are angry that shipping nations do not appear to be concerned at the environmental threat the shipments pose. Nuclear waste has been shipped from Japan to Britain since1970 but the traffic has been more frequent during the 1990s. Ratu Isoa says Pacific officials are now likely to recommend a strongly worded resolution be drafted for the approval of forum leaders, who are scheduled to meet on Friday. "It may not look very important to the shipping nations, but for the Pacific, you have one of these ships land on our reef," he says. "And now with September the 11th you've got other forms of possible terrorism that could strike one of the ships, and so the concerns are heightened. "But the responses are really minimal, and so we are hoping to make a very strong statement. "That's all we can make. There's not really much more we can do.," Ratu Isoa says. 13/08/2002 22:32:40 | ABC Radio Australia News ***************************************************************** 29 Ohio waste not higher priority than local cleanup, DOE says This story was published Sat, Aug 10, 2002 By John Stang Herald staff writer A document saying Hanford would give plans for importing Ohio wastes priority over its own cleanup is a Battelle draft work sheet that made an incorrect assumption, according to the Department of Energy. While some Ohio transuranic wastes will be shipped to Hanford for temporary storage, no plans were made to give those wastes a higher priority than Hanford's cleanup, said DOE spokeswoman Colleen Clark. On Tuesday, two Hanford watchdog organizations, Heart of America Northwest and Columbia Riverkeeper, distributed a work sheet that they obtained from DOE's Ohio office through a Freedom of Information Act request. Twice, the work sheet said: "Hanford will make receiving (transuranic wastes) from off-site generators a priority over" ongoing cleanup work at the site. The work sheet apparently surprised DOE Hanford officials Tuesday, who said they were unaware of its existence. Hanford is being eyed as a site to accept transuranic wastes from Ohio and other smaller DOE sites to be checked, repacked and temporarily stored. Those wastes are supposed to eventually go to a permanent storage site in New Mexico. Transuranic wastes are highly radioactive with extremely slow decay rates. And now, DOE is on the brink of signing an agreement that Hanford will accept 150 barrels of transuranic wastes temporarily from a Battelle lab in Columbus, Ohio, and 50 barrels of transuranic wastes from a small lab near San Francisco. The DOE Ohio office document is a work sheet put together by a Battelle Memorial Institute employee, who incorrectly assumed off-site transuranic wastes would get higher priority than Hanford cleanup, Clark said. That assumption was rejected by DOE and Fluor Hanford, and never made it beyond that preliminary draft work sheet stage, she said. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 30 Judge Allows Suit to Proceed Against Energy Department over Nuclear Waste ENN From Natural Resources Defense Council Monday, August 12, 2002 WASHINGTON ? A federal district court judge late Friday denied the Department of Energy's motion to dismiss a suit alleging that the agency gave itself the authority to illegally reclassify high-level nuclear waste so that it could leave it at three facilities. In his ruling, the judge, B. Lynn Winmill at U.S. District Court in Boise, said, "[I]t is inconceivable that Congress intended to allow the DOE unfettered discretion in the management of radioactive waste as the Defendants [DOE] have alleged." (A pdf file of the judge's decision is available from NRDC.) "We are pleased Judge Winmill denied DOE's motion to dismiss and that the facts of this case will be heard," said Geoffrey Fettus, an attorney with NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), one of the plaintiffs and lead counsel in the case. "It's stunning that the Energy Department is trying to cut corners when dealing with a substance as dangerous as high-level nuclear waste. "The agency says it would like to accelerate cleanup," Fettus added. "We would like the cleanup to take less time, but not by stashing thousands of tons of the nation's most radioactive waste under a concrete cap in leaky tanks and hoping no one notices." The original lawsuit, filed in February 2002 by NRDC, the Snake River Alliance and the Yakama Indian Nation, argues that DOE, by giving itself the authority to reclassify high-level nuclear waste as "incidental waste," would use an illegally low standard for cleaning up some 100 million gallons of the nation's most highly radioactive waste. Most of this waste is located in underground tanks at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington; the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) near Idaho Falls; and the Savannah River site near Aiken, South Carolina. Dozens of the tanks in Washington and South Carolina are leaking. NRDC and its coplaintiffs maintain that DOE is required by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act to bury all of its high-level radioactive waste deep underground in a geologic repository. They say that leaving the waste in tanks and covering it in concrete would ensure it would eventually leach into groundwater adjacent to the Columbia River in Washington, the Snake River Aquifer in Idaho, and into the water table at the Savannah River site. Since filing the suit, the plaintiffs have been joined by the Shoshone-Bannock tribe, whose reservation sits about 40 miles downstream on the Snake River from the INEEL. The court also has allowed Washington and Idaho standing in the lawsuit as "friends of the court." The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national, nonprofit organization of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists dedicated to protecting public health and the environment. Founded in 1970, NRDC has more than 500,000 members nationwide, served from offices in New York, Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco. For more information, contact: Geoffrey Fettus or Elliott Negin Natural Resources Defense Council 202-289-6868 Web site: http://www.nrdc.org ENN Toolbox ENN is a registered trademark of the Environmental News Network Inc. Copyright © 2001 Environmental News Network Inc. ***************************************************************** 31 Judge: Energy Department must defend waste plan in court* *Tuesday, August 13, 2002* *Twin Falls, Idaho* The Times-News and The Associated Press BOISE -- A federal judge refused to let the U.S. Energy Department unilaterally reclassify highly radioactive and long-lived nuclear waste from "high-level" to "incidental" waste without defending the plan in court. Reclassification would allow the department to avoid sending the waste to a geological repository. Instead, the government could cement radioactive sludge in aging underground storage tanks held in concrete vaults about 500 feet above the Snake River aquifer. Activists and American Indian tribes brought the lawsuit. Idaho filed a friend of the court brief in support of the lawsuit, because leaving the waste in the tanks violates the 1995 nuclear waste cleanup agreement between the state and the Energy Department. It's a separate lawsuit than the one between the state and Energy Department over whether the agreement covers removal of all plutonium-contaminated waste buried in a landfill at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. The tank sludge at INEEL and at federal nuclear sites in Washington and South Carolina is a byproduct of a discontinued process to recover usable uranium in spent reactor fuel. Liquid from 11 tanks at INEEL has been emptied, but a total of about 1 million gallons of sludge remains. "While the judge has not yet ruled on the merits of this case, he made it very clear that the DOE may not continue to act as a law unto itself when it comes to how it disposes of radioactive waste," said Gary Richardson, executive director of the nuclear watchdog group Snake River Alliance. "This comes as very good news to the people of Idaho, Washington and South Carolina whose water supplies are being threatened by irresponsible nuclear waste disposal practices," he said. The order, entered on Monday, allows the Snake River Alliance, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakima Nation and the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes to be heard in court. The court challenge claims the Energy Department is violating federal law and that the waste plan threatens the Snake River aquifer in Idaho, the Columbia River in Washington and groundwater in South Carolina. The state of Washington also filed a friend of the court brief in support of the lawsuit. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill rejected the Energy Department's argument that classification of radioactive material is solely its responsibility and cannot be challenged. The judge said he could not find a substantive provision of federal law to support the claim. "Likewise, the court cannot rule out the possibility," Winmill wrote in his 17-page order, that the department will use its existing authority "as a tool to circumvent the more stringent disposal requirements." Government lawyers have repeatedly argued that the agency is following procedures used without environmental problems for years. The Energy Department refused to comment on the judge's refusal to dismiss the case. "We don't comment on pending litigation," said Tim Jackson, an Energy Department spokesman at INEEL. Times-News writer Jennifer Sandmann contributed to this report. Copyright © 2002, Magic Valley Newspapers ***************************************************************** 32 Wales: Protesters swim into nuclear base Aug 13 2002 Ceri Jones, The Western Mail AN investigation is under way into security at the home of Britain's nuclear submarine fleet after it was broken into by two peace protesters. The two activists swam into the base at Faslane in Scotland and daubed slogans on the side of a Trident submarine. Veteran peace campaigner Dave Rolstone from Pembrokeshire clambered aboard the vessel and rang its bell before being apprehended by armed guards. He and his companion, Gillian Sloan, 40, from Edinburgh, who are both members of peace group Trident Ploughshares, have been charged with malicious mischief and will appear in court in October. The incident, which has been described as the biggest breach in security at a military base since the September 11 terrorist attack in New York, has led to calls for security at the base on the Clyde to be tightened. It comes just weeks after a House of Commons report on nuclear safety highlighted "lapses in the integrity of bases". An MoD spokeswoman yesterday played down the incident and said the two protesters only got to the boat after being challenged by a guard. But she said an investigation was taking place. "Obviously we have levels of security at the base, which we cannot discuss and we would prefer to prevent them gaining access," she said. "They were picked up and challenged before they got to the boat and on that level the security worked. But it was not as effective as we would have liked." Trinity Mirror Plc 2002 icWales^TM is a trade mark of Trinity ***************************************************************** 33 Risks preclude nuclear option for Japan ©The Frontier Publications (Pvt) Ltd. Address: 27 abdara road univeristy town Peshawar. Pakistan. P.O.Box.1161. Phone: +92-91-845157 Fax : +92-91-845162 Eliot Walker Updated on 8/13/2002 12:49:29 PM Just like the Constitution...the amendment of (Japan’s non-nuclear principles) is also likely.” Two months have passed since Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda made his infamous nuclear weapons comments. The comments were so sensational that the media fixation continued even after both Fukuda and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi retracted them. Once the excitement ebbed, however, more reasonable voices emerged from the crowd. It became clear that Fukuda’s comments were grossly distorted by overzealous reporting. Perhaps more notably, popular Japanese nuclear pacifism is as steadfast as ever. As of a year ago, 55 per cent of polled Japanese even stated that the US nuclear umbrella is unnecessary for Japan’s defence. But opinions can change, can’t they? Such must be the rationale for questioning Japan’s non-nuclear policy. Japan’s democratic system will keep in check any nuclear militarism - for now. But Japan’s security environment is changing, and so is Japanese military policy. The dispatch of Japan’s maritime Self-Defence Force abroad punctuated changes that have been going on for some 10 years, and have accelerated since 9/11. How should Japan deal with national security, post-Cold War and post-9/11? The question inevitably suggests that Japanese pacifism must undergo at least some changes, or else be at odds with Japan’s national interests. Then, if pacifism can change, why not nuclear pacifism? There is a fundamental problem with this line of argument, however. What are Japan’s national interests? It is widely assumed abroad that obtaining nuclear weapons is simply a nationalistic goal of Japan. This is an assumption that needs to be challenged and, ultimately, rejected. Unfortunately, an explanation that will satisfy the media may never arrive, and it must come from the government rather than observers. Nevertheless, even the most cursory analysis of Japan’s nuclear options reveals that obtaining nuclear weapons poses unacceptable problems for Japan. First, how would obtaining nuclear weapons affect Japan’s economic environment? Unlike the United States, Japan is so dependent on trade, imports and international cooperation that multilateralism is a necessity. In particular, Japan is heavily dependent on imported energy sources. As of 1999, over 79 per cent of Japan’s total energy consumption was dependent upon foreign sources. Were Japan to test its diplomatic waters by going nuclear, foreign energy suppliers could easily put the squeeze on Japan. Moreover, the US and others could quickly move to stop the export of uranium to Japan. Nuclear power provides 15 per cent of Japan’s energy consumption, and such a loss would cripple the Japanese economy. It can be assumed that such a loss would not be acceptable for Japan’s affluent society. Second, what would nuclear acquisition mean for Japan’s military security? As foreign observers may believe, would nuclear strength really give Japan some sort of military supremacy in the Pacific? The Pacific security balance is a complicated one, but it isn’t difficult to imagine how Japan’s neighbours would react to a nuclear Japan. China would react defensively, and likely start an arms race if nothing else. Rather than a situation in which Japanese supremacy prevailed, a nuclear standoff like the one between India and Pakistan might result. And what about the reaction of other regional military powers? What would be the reactions of North and South Korea? Would this have implications in Taiwan? How would the US military presence deal with the situation, and how would it deal with its relationship with Japan vis-a-vis China? The current security situation of the Pacific Rim, while not perfect, is certainly better for all without these problems in the mix. Additionally, how would going nuclear affect Japan’s political clout? Those who believe it would increase Japan’s diplomatic leverage generally see nuclear weapons as symbols of power and prestige. This, however, is an outdated Cold War notion. Four years ago, Richard Betts wrote in Foreign Affairs that “(weapons of mass destruction) no longer represent the technological frontier of warfare. Increasingly, they will be weapons of the weak states or groups that militarily are at best second class.” One need only look at the present international security landscape to affirm this view; nuclear proliferation is no longer vertical but horizontal. States like Iraq or Pakistan threaten to use nuclear weapons as political leverage, because they see no other means to do so. The US, however, can exercise its overwhelming military supremacy through high-tech conventional means. Japan is also capable of increasing its conventional strength, while suffering less diplomatic damage relative to going nuclear. And who wants another nuclear situation developing, at the hands of Japan? There are better options. Even if one finds this argument unconvincing, it’s worth noting that Japan has taken it to heart. No Japanese government body has any sort of study group or initiative investigating the nuclear question. No one is taking the issue seriously. Furthermore, alternative measures for deterrence and national security are being pursued, as with Japan’s joint efforts with the US to develop Theater Missile Defence. Thus, a serious debate on whether Japan will go nuclear must clarify Japan’s motives for doing so. To forego this while ascribing pro-nuclear ambitions to Japan is to build an argument on nothing. The problems mentioned here are only the tip of the iceberg, and Japan’s military is well aware of this. Certainly, Japan could go nuclear. But why? The writer is a research analyst at the Japan Chair of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington © Copyright 2001 The Frontier Post ***************************************************************** 34 Test site probable home for Los Alamos material Tuesday, August 13, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal By TONY BATT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- About two tons of weapons-grade nuclear materials are likely to be transported from a laboratory in New Mexico to a Nevada Test Site facility that is considered one of the most secure buildings in the world, officials said Monday. It's still not clear when the transfer will begin, but Energy Department documents indicate national security demands the transfer of plutonium and highly enriched uranium from the TA-18 site at Los Alamos National Laboratory to the Device Assembly Facility at the test site. "Special forces have made a run at DAF any number of times and gotten absolutely nowhere," said Peter Stockton, a nuclear weapons security expert for the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit watchdog group. The Device Assembly Facility "probably is the most secure facility in the world," Stockton said. By contrast, TA-18 at Los Alamos is considered a high risk facility after security breaches occurred there during a series of war games. The Device Assembly Facility "is the preferred alternative, but a final decision has not been made," said Bryan Wilkes, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration in the Energy Department. As a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., will be in a key position to obtain funding for the move. Reid said Monday he would support the move unless he sees something he doesn't like in an environmental impact statement scheduled to be released next month. "This is totally different" from 77,000 tons of nuclear waste scheduled to be transported to Yucca Mountain, Reid said. "There are less than two tons of this stuff. It would (add) about $15 (million) to $20 million a year for the test site (budget), mostly for security." Wilkes echoed the caution urged by Everet Beckner, who oversees defense programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration. In an Aug. 1 interview, Beckner hinted the move could be rejected because of expenses. "Until we know more about those costs, it's premature for us to assume that that's definitely going to happen," Beckner said. But the Project on Government Oversight last week released Energy Department documents that said Beckner wants nuclear materials moved out of TA-18 as soon as possible. "Nine months is unacceptable," the document said. The Device Assembly Facility is a 100,000 square foot bunker about 85 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The facility was completed in 1998 at a cost of $180 million and is designed to control the release of nuclear materials during experiments. Originally planned for underground nuclear tests, the facility is used to assemble subcritical or nonnuclear tests. "It's unclear to me why they are trying to deny this is happening," Stockton said. "(The Department of Energy) had a team up in Nevada last week for three days working on the transition." Before joining the Project on Government Oversight, Stockton was a special assistant to former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson. Under Richardson, the department suggested the move of nuclear materials at TA-18 to the test site could be completed in six to nine months. "This would be a huge step forward because TA-18 is the most vulnerable site in the (U.S. nuclear) complex, and it would be the first effective thing DOE has done in years to increase security," Stockton said. The move would cost about $90 million, Stockton said. That sum would cover engineering improvements at the Device Assembly Facility as well as transportation and packaging of nuclear materials from Los Alamos. "The move will pay for itself in about 2 1/2 years because the savings in security and operational costs will be enormous," Stockton said. In a June 28 letter to Beckner, Los Alamos director John Browne supported the move. Browne noted Beckner agreed that a project manager from Los Alamos would supervise the transition with support from the federal staff at the Nevada Operations Office and experts from Bechtel Nevada. Tim McEvoy, a deputy assistant manager at the test site for the National Nuclear Security Administration, would serve as deputy team leader at the beginning of the transition and assume lead responsibility once physical components are received at the Device Assembly Facility, according to an Energy Department document. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 35 Iowa senator challenges DOE on delay - The Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky Tuesday, August 13, 2002 The whistle-blower case involving the Paducah plant has the lawmaker concerned about a cozy relationship with Lockheed. By Bill Bartleman bbartleman@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650 Another high-ranking senator has written a letter accusing the U.S. Department of Energy of failing to cooperate with the Department of Justice's investigation of claims in a whistle-blower lawsuit that Lockheed Martin filed false environmental reports when it operated the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, ranking Republican on the Senate Committee on Finance, expressed concern that DOE "may not be moving as quickly or efficiently as they could be," possibly to protect Lockheed from a potential judgment that some say could be $1 billion or more. He is asking Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham for documents showing DOE's dealings in the case. "Specifically, I am seeking documents and other materials to determine whether any relationships with Lockheed Martin may be slowing, or stalling, your department's pace in reaching a resolution in this matter expeditiously," Grassley said. Grassley, who wrote major provisions of the 1986 whistle-blower law, said he's concerned that cozy relationships between government agencies and private contractors sometimes prevent investigations from being pursued. "Too often in the past, I have seen agencies place a premium on cozy relationships with their contractors, especially those with well-connected lobbyists on the job, over and above the need to protect the taxpayers' money," Grassley said. The suit, filed in 1999 by three plant workers and an environmental watchdog group, claims Lockheed Martin was paid millions of dollars in operating bonuses based on false environmental reports. It also claims that improper disposal of waste caused workers to become ill and is now costing the federal government more than $1 billion to clean up. Lockheed Martin has denied the claims. Justice officials have been investigating the accusations to determine whether the federal government should become a plaintiff in the suit. The Sun reported last year that Justice investigators in Kentucky recommended joining the suit, but that the final decision has been delayed because of DOE opposition. The Justice Department now faces a Sept. 1 deadline for making a formal decision. The letter by Grassley follows a letter sent last week by U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., ranking minority member of the U.S. House Committee on Government Reform. One of his concerns was that DOE might not be cooperating fully because of its close relationship with Lockheed. Grassley said the False Claims Act was strengthened in 1986 to combat waste of taxpayers' funds. Since, he said, more than 2,800 cases have been filed and more than $5.2 billion recovered. Grassley's request for information includes telephone and electronic records of contacts with Lockheed, a list of DOE employees who have been involved in the case and a list of employees who would be available to be interviewed by the Finance Committee about the case. ***************************************************************** 36 New problems surface for FFTF supporters This story was published Sat, Aug 10, 2002 By Annette Cary Herald staff writer U.S. House committee language has created a new worry for supporters of restarting Hanford's Fast Flux Test Facility as they race to get federal permission to commercialize the reactor. An appropriations committee draft report on the proposed budget for next year said the Department of Energy should choose the most cost-effective way to decommission the reactor, which might lead to a call for bids to attract a wide range of experienced companies to submit proposals for the work. Supporters of FFTF believe that language puts pressure on current contractor Fluor Hanford to find a faster, cheaper way to permanently shut down the reactor or risk losing its contract. One bright spot for FFTF supporters is that the comments are "purely committee language" and don't yet carry the force of law, said Fluor Hanford spokesman Michael Turner. Fluor already has an operations contract for FFTF lasting until 2006. Presumably, DOE would have to break that contract to put decommissioning up for bid. But representatives of Citizens for Medical Isotopes remain concerned that decommissioning could proceed to the point of no return, dashing the group's hopes of saving the reactor. A panel hired by Fluor to look at decommissioning the reactor has already concluded there are cheaper and faster ways to do it. Among its recommendations was that basic decontamination and dismantling operations "can be started immediately in the deactivation phase without a final plan, with adjustments being made as necessary once a final decommissioning plan is approved." Fluor expects to have a decommissioning plan ready by the end of September, which may draw on the panel's recommendations. "They are just destroying for the sake of destroying," said Benton County Commissioner Claude Oliver during a CMI news conference Friday. "I'm saying 'Give us time because we have a lot going.' " Energy secretaries under both the Clinton and Bush administrations have ordered the reactor permanently shutdown, and DOE is moving toward that goal with its contractor, Fluor Hanford. Milestones for when decommissioning work must be completed also are being set under the Tri-Party Agreement, with details to be released for public comment later this month. Supporters of the reactor want it turned over for commercial use to produce isotopes for medicine and other industrial needs. Demand for medical isotopes is growing, but the United States has primarily relied on imported isotopes. In recent months, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved new drugs or devices relying on radioactive isotopes to treat non-Hodgkins lymphoma, breast cancer and liver cancer. Oliver said he had given up on getting help from DOE to commercialize the reactor and instead is looking for action from the Department of Health and Human Services. "This issue is a pure public health issue," he said. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 37 Nuclear Research Supercomputer 'Q' To Get Bigger, Faster By Jay Lyman NewsFactor Network August 12, 2002 A newly constructed simulation facility at [http://www.lanl.gov/worldview/] in New Mexico is putting US$93 million and 30 teraOps –- 30 trillion floating point operations per second –- to work for nuclear and other research. The Nicholas C. Metropolis Center for Modeling and Simulation, named for a senior fellow of the national laboratory who died in 1999, houses "Q," one of the world's largest and fastest supercomputers. Q's peak performance of 30 teraOps is equivalent to every person on the planet performing 5,000 calculations in one second. The Metropolis Center and Q, part of the National Nuclear Security [Relevant Products/Services from IBM] Administrations trib-lab coalition between Los Alamos, [http://www.llnl.gov/] and [http://www.sandia.gov/] national laboratories, will have the ability to expand up to 100 teraOps, researchers said. It Had To Be Q Housed inside the Metropolis Center, which is surrounded by a grounding ring and includes a "signal reference grid" to reduce electrical noise, Q eventually will have 33 terabytes of memory –- equivalent to 55,000 CDs. The computer can do in one day what would take a current high-end PC 60 years to accomplish. Los Alamos officials said the present computer room for Q is 43,500 square feet. As requirements for the total $215 million supercomputer [Latest News about supercomputer] system grow beyond 30 teraOps, the building is designed to grow with additional mechanical and electrical equipment, such as a chiller, cooling towers, air-conditioning units, substations, power conditioners and transformers. Los Alamos officials report the supercomputer system is about 6,000 times faster than the fastest supercomputer in 1990 and about 150,000 times faster than the fastest supercomputer in 1980. Transition to 3D The goal of Q and the Advanced Simulation and Computing Initiative (ASCI), launched in 1995, is to develop simulation and modeling software and hardware with the speed, memory, interconnects and visualization needed to transition from two-dimensional codes to complex, three-dimensional simulations. To assist researchers, which include some 300 nuclear weapons designers, computer scientists, engineers and others, the Metropolis Center has two immersive visualization theaters that project images and data on a large "power-wall theater" set in a 200-seat auditorium. The cutting-edge display system, which features the latest projection technology [Relevant Products/Services from IBM] , multiple monitors and electronic white boards, is aimed at promoting effective learning and collaborative discussion, and includes conferencing capabilities. Tsunami Study Among the first applications of 3D simulation at Los Alamos, which is primarily focused on nuclear weapons research and stewardship, was the modeling of giant, theoretical Tsunami waves. Los Alamos National Lab spokesperson Jim Danneskiold told NewsFactor the simulation did not require as much processing power as a nuclear weapon simulation or a climate model, but still took a lot of code to pull off. "The 3D takes a lot more computing power and a lot more code writing, but it gives you a more accurate representation of the physics," Danneskiold said. ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************