***************************************************************** 11/14/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.295 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 Pakistan dismisses North Korea nuclear link 2 UK: Taxpayer left with £48bn nuclear bill 3 Letter Submitted by Iraq to the United Nations 4 US: Consumers Win with Congressional Rejection of Energy Bill* 5 US: NRC Lessons Learned Task Force to Discuss Findings At Public 6 India will use nuclear weapons if it is threatened: Kalam : 7 Japan: Fuqua aids anti-nuclear campaign 8 US: U.S. energy bill dead until next Congress 9 US: Gas centrifuge plant Paducah's epicenter at quake meeting 10 Iraq: Repairing the damage 11 US: Aerojet shifts toward nonmilitary projects - NUCLEAR REACTORS 12 MSP CALLS FOR PROBE IN N-PLANT LEAK ROW 13 Dounreay nuclear power plant near Caithness in the far north of Scot 14 Students get walking for Chernobyl kids* 15 US: NRC cites ex-TVA contractor for nuclear security violations 16 US: NRC Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste to Meet November 19 - 21 17 US: Davis-Besse to install leak-detection system 18 US: County may get nuclear plants (Indian Pt) 19 UK: Dounreay releases higher than thought 20 US: Takeover of Indian Point by Westchester Is Proposed 21 Nuclear plant 'should be prosecuted' 22 US: Nuclear regulators concerned about monitoring of Davis-Besse wor 23 US: Davis-Besse needs to gain confidence 24 US: NRC Has Concerns About Workers at Davis-Besse* 25 Probe of Pickering nuclear restart slammed 26 Experts fear probe will slow Pickering 27 US: Westchester To Study Buying Or Condemning Indian Point Nuclear 28 Probe of Pickering nuclear restart slammed 29 Country's N-reactors have good safety standards: AEC chief NUCLEAR SAFETY 30 War in Iraq could kill up to four million 31 US: Notice of Consideration of Amendment Request for the U.S. Army's 32 US: Notice of Consideration of Amendment Request for the Molycorp 33 US: Former TVA contractor cited for falsifying background checks 34 Navy Says U.S. Submarine Bumped Ship 35 Three Sites Remain Radioactive from Bosnian War 36 US: Study of cancer cluster to be ready in 2003 37 US: Senate approves bill to aid DOE workers NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 38 US: Hansen's effort to block N-waste killed in D.C. 39 Notice of Consideration of Amendment Request for Sequoyah Fuels 40 US: Yankee Atomic Electric Company, Independent Spent Fuel Storage 41 US: Reid says Yucca money bill is out of his control 42 UK: Nuclear waste route 'is risking lives'* 43 Nuclear Waste Arrives at German Dump 44 US: Plutonium bill clears House 45 US: Yucca funding restored to bill 46 US: South Carolina: Raiding of funds criticized 47 Sellafield: FEARS OVER SAFETY INCENTIVES 48 US: Md. on battle line over water pollutant NUCLEAR WEAPONS 49 US: Partial Victories on Nuclear Weapons in Congress 50 So is it war? 51 US, Iraq May Be Nearing Showdown 52 NORTH KOREA: HIGH STAKES IN NUCLEAR TEST CASE 53 Saddam must admit he has nuclear weapons: Downer. US DEPT. OF ENERGY 54 EPA concerned with citizen protection at K-25 55 Flats cleanup levels set 56 New cleanup rules for Flats introduced 57 Rocky Flats reveals new plan 58 DOE, ORNL expanding use of U-233 59 Energy Secretary Abraham: U.S., Russia &International Atomic 60 DOE Appoints New Members to Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory OTHER NUCLEAR 61 Democrats urged to slow down -- The Washington Times 62 U.S. energy bill dead until next Congress 63 Senate shift on trees, oil and air 64 Who knew? Try Einstein. | csmonitor.com 65 Report: New Fabric Protects Against Radiation ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Pakistan dismisses North Korea nuclear link Reuters AlertNet - 14 Nov 2002 12:49 ISLAMABAD, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Pakistan on Thursday denied a news report suggesting it assisted North Korea's nuclear programme as recently as three months ago. "It is totally baseless, fictitious and tendentious report," Foreign Office spokesman Aziz Ahmad Khan told Reuters in response to a report in Wednesday's Washington Post. The Post report said Washington had evidence suggesting Pakistan assisted North Korea's nuclear programme only a few months ago -- much later than previously disclosed. If true, it could call into question Pakistan's commitment to the war on terrorism, in which its leader President Pervez Musharraf has been a key ally of the United States. It could also confront the U.S. administration with a difficult choice since under U.S. law the president must suspend economic and military aid if a country transfers nuclear technology to programmes without international safeguards. Pakistan was sanctioned for such behaviour in the past but penalties were waived after the anti-terror war began. On Wednesday, a senior U.S. official told Reuters the administration had no conclusive proof of Pakistan's involvement with North Korea, a country President George W. Bush branded as part of an "axis of evil" with Iraq and Iran in January. At the same time he said: "That's not to say they might not have...I'm not saying we are convinced there is no Pakistani government involvement." The official said North Korea could have acquired its expertise and materiel from other sources and left open the possibility that the culprit might be Pakistani individuals or entities rather than the government itself. ***************************************************************** 2 UK: Taxpayer left with £48bn nuclear bill Independent.co.uk © 2002 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd By Michael Harrison, Business Editor 14 November 2002 The Government is to press ahead with controversial plans to put Britain's £48bn of civil nuclear clean-up liabilities into a fund financed by the taxpayer. The move will pave the way for the part-privatisation of British Nuclear Fuels once it is shorn of the liabilities of decommissioning its Magnox nuclear reactors and the Sellafield reprocessing site in Cumbria. A draft Bill to create the Nuclear Liabilities Agency will be published in this session of Parliament, but officials at the Department of Trade and Industry said the relevant legislation would not be introduced until the 2003-04 session. The move will ease the way for the sale of BNFL's profitable Westinghouse and fuel fabrication businesses. BNFL's chief executive, Norman Askew, welcomed the move, even though he said the timetable for setting up the agency had slipped by about six months. "In the scheme of things, that's not fatal," he said. The anti-nuclear campaigner Greenpeace said the legislation raised the spectre of nuclear plants being built while the industry's historic liabilities were shovelled on to the taxpayer. "People living near the sites earmarked for new nuclear stations should be worried. All this when we have huge untapped reserves of renewable energy," a Greenpeace spokesman said. There is speculation that the agency might also take on the £14bn in liabilities of the nuclear electricity generator British Energy. | 3 | 4 | Next>> Copyright The New York Times Company ***************************************************************** 4 Consumers Win with Congressional Rejection of Energy Bill* Public Citizen through */Nov. 13, 2002/* */Statement of Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook/* Consumers won a big victory today when congressional conferees wisely decided to abandon the retrograde energy bill. This legislation was based on Bush administration proposals that were plotted in secret with Enron executives and other energy lobbyists. It would have wasted billions of taxpayer dollars in handouts to nuclear, coal and oil companies, including some of the wealthiest corporations in the world. The legislation included provisions to repeal vital electricity consumer protections as a reward for campaign contributions from energy companies, many of which are under investigation by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and other agencies for rigging California?s deregulated energy market and costing consumers billions of dollars. The failure to pass this legislation also means that Congress has failed to reauthorize the Price-Anderson Act, which would subsidize new nuclear power plants by making taxpayers responsible for nuclear catastrophes. Finally, the bill did nothing to address America?s dependence on foreign oil, such as addressing consumption or efficiency. We hope that if the 108^th Congress revisits energy policy, lawmakers will address the real needs of Americans and the environment rather than simply caving in to the demands of greedy energy executives who have proven over the past few years that do not have the best interests of consumers at heart. Public Citizen ***************************************************************** 5 NRC Lessons Learned Task Force to Discuss Findings At Public Meeting November 20 in Oak Harbor, Ohio NRC: News Release - Region III - 2002-062 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region III 801 Warrenville Road, Lisle IL 60532 www.nrc.gov No. III-02-062 November 13, 2002 CONTACT: Jan Strasma (630) 829-9663 Viktoria Mitlyng (630) 829-9662 E-mail: opa3@nrc.gov [opa3@nrc.gov] The Nuclear Regulatory Commissions Lessons Learned Task Force will discuss the findings of its review of NRC activities associated with the reactor vessel head damage at the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Plant in a public meeting November 20 in Oak Harbor, Ohio. The meeting will be at 7 p.m. in the Oak Harbor High School Auditorium, 11661 West State Route 163, Oak Harbor. Members of the public are invited to participate in the meeting. Beginning at 6:30 p.m., displays and background materials will be available, and NRC staff members will be present for informal discussions with the public. The Task Force report, which was issued in early October, is available on the NRCs web site: http://www.nrc.gov. Select Davis-Besse from the key topics menu; then select the News and Correspondence link where the report is posted. The findings and recommendations of the task force are being evaluated by an NRC Senior Management Review Team. The team will then recommend to the NRCs Executive Director for Operations any changes to agency policies and practices to address the issues arising out of the task forces review. The recommendations are expected by the end of November. On March 5 of this year workers at the Davis-Besse plant found a cavity, caused by boric acid corrosion, in the top of the reactor vessel during repair activities while the plant was shut down. The plant remains shut down for replacement of the reactor vessel head and for broad safety reviews and performance improvement activities. The Lessons Learned Task Force was formed to review the full scope of NRC regulatory activities related to the Davis-Besse damage, including the agency inspection and assessment program, industry-wide generic activities, research work, and international practices. It was comprised of NRC staff members not previously associated with the oversight of the Davis-Besse plant. Art Howell, a senior manager at the NRCs Region IV Office in Texas, directed the effort. An official from the Ohio State Emergency Management Agency participated in the task force as an observer. Wednesday, November 13, 2002 ***************************************************************** 6 India will use nuclear weapons if it is threatened: Kalam : National News : IndiaExpress.Com 18.40 IST 14th Nov 2002 By IndiaExpress Bureau President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam said on Thursday that India would use nuclear weapons if peace is threatened and some other country uses them against it, despite New Delhi’s "no first use" policy. "We have taken a decision that India will not use nuclear weapons first but when peace is threatened and somebody else uses it, India will use it for defending the country," Mr. Kalam said when a student asked how nuclear weapons can be used for peace. "When two of our neighbors have got nuclear weapons, naturally for India, to protect peace, we have to have it," asserted the President. The President mingled with the children answering questions, which ranged from his vision to make India a developed nation to how to stop brain drain and development of North-East. The teacher in Mr. Kalam surfaced when he went to the big slide screen to explain his "vision for India". Acclaimed music director A.R. Rehman composed a song based on Kalam's "ignited minds" which was sung by a group of children at the Vigyan Bhavan. Recalling that he had visited several states after he became President, Kalam said that one question that he often encountered was how to make a "secure, prosperous and peaceful India. "It is possible. If their (children) minds are ignited, it will be very powerful." Another youngster wanted to know whether the government could use the funds spent on testing missiles in Chandipur for the poor, the President said that the spending was not much and it was for the Defence and security of the country which were important. The President did not agree with a young questioner, who said there was a brain drain towards multinationals and that there was lack of incentives in the government sector for the youth. "Indian companies should become multinationals. There are IT companies in the country. I don't believe brain drain continues. India produces 200,000 engineers and 100,000 scientists and 15,000 or 20,000 people leaving does not harm the country," he said. Referring to a large number of Indians and Chinese working in Silicon Valley, Mr. Kalam said, "movement in the global world is nothing wrong." ***************************************************************** 7 Japan: Fuqua aids anti-nuclear campaign Atlanta Journal-Constitution: ajc.com: November 14, 2002 Maria Saporta - Staff Atlanta businessman J.B. Fuqua is giving $1 million as a show of support for Ted Turner's Nuclear Threat Initiative. That gift, which will be announced today, follows a $2.5 million gift from businessman Warren Buffett to the initiative last month. The funds come at a critical time for the initiative, according to former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn, who co-chairs NTI along with Turner. The initial funding for the initiative was with AOL Time Warner stock that at the time was going for $50 a share, or about $250 million. Now AOL stock is trading at $15 a share. Fuqua's gift coincides with his long-term interest in Russia. In 1989, he gave $4 million to Duke University's Fuqua School of Business to educate Russian managers on the free-market system. NTI hopes to provide jobs for unemployed nuclear engineers so their knowledge doesn't fall into the wrong hands. Depression talk scheduled Speaking of Fuqua ... he and retired CNN executive Tom Johnson and Atlanta executive Larry Gellerstedt III are going on a road show to spotlight the problems of depression. The President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health has asked the Atlantans, who have gone public with their struggles with depression, to talk in Washington on Dec. 4. "It's a wonderful opportunity not to just talk about the issue and treatment but also the stigma," Johnson said. "Government employees and applicants are especially fearful to disclose their depression because they feel it will disqualify them in security checks." AOL chief's future clouded The future leadership of AOL Time Warner could all depend on timing. It's no secret that Chairman Steve Case is under fire for financial disclosure irregularities that occurred under his watch at AOL before the merger. The question is whether that heat will be enough to oust him as chairman. According to his contract, it would take three-fourths of the board to remove Case. That means that of the 14-member board, only three directors other than Case are needed for him to keep his job. But everything changes after 2003 when new terms go into effect. As of Jan. 1, 2004, it would only take a simple majority --- eight votes --- to remove Case as chairman. The bottom line is that if Case survives the next 13 months, it doesn't necessarily mean he'll be around long after that. Marcus challenges downtown Georgia Aquarium benefactor Bernie Marcus is challenging the city and the downtown hospitality community to improve the area and their properties by 2005 when the attraction is expected to open. "This is a great opportunity for a complete revitalization," Marcus told a select group from the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau this week, adding that visitors need to have a great total experience when they come to town. "I'm putting in $200 million," he said. "I can guarantee you that this aquarium is going to be a winner. What is the rest of the area and the rest of the city going to do? I'm just imploring all of you to get this done." Swearingen could get post There is speculation that Carl Swearingen, formerly president of BellSouth Georgia and now chairman of Gov.-elect Sonny Perdue's transition team, is in the running to become commissioner of the Georgia Department of Industry, Trade and Tourism. That post currently is held by R.K. Sehgal, who was a political appointee of Gov. Roy Barnes. While I don't usually publish rumors, this one may have some traction. Swearingen used to be on the GDITT board, serving as its chairman until 2001. Ex-city official an ADA candidate With Atlanta Development Authority President Kevin Hanna leaving for Philadelphia, a successor could be Byron Marshall, who served as the city's chief operating officer from 1994 to 1997. Marshall, who coordinated the groundbreaking Renaissance Program with the city's top business leaders, drafted the vision of a super economic development agency that became ADA. At the time, he was hoping to be named ADA's first president, but the job went to Hanna. Marshall, a consultant who continues to live in Atlanta, is said to be interested. Mayor updates Will Rogers Mayor Shirley Franklin, who had been a strong supporter of Gov. Barnes, was asked recently about how she would be able to work with Gov.-elect Perdue. Franklin, quick on the draw, quipped, "I haven't met a governor I don't like." msaporta@ajc.com © 2002 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ***************************************************************** 8 U.S. energy bill dead until next Congress Reuters AlertNet - 14 Nov 2002 00:04 (Adds details on ANWR drilling) By Tom Doggett WASHINGTON, Nov 13 (Reuters) - The first major overhaul of U.S. energy policy in a decade is dead for this year and will have to wait until the new Congress convenes next year, Senate negotiators decided on Wednesday. The senators, deadlocked for months in talks with House counterparts, agreed there was not enough time left to wrap up the bill in the limited number of days left in the current congressional session. The bill will die formally when Congress adjourns. "They reached a consensus that there ain't enough time left with the House set to adjourn," said Bill Wicker, spokesman for Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, New Mexico Democrat. "It's just not possible." The delay was a big disappointment to farmers, who hoped for a new congressional mandate to more than double the market for corn-based ethanol. While House and Senate negotiators were willing to agree on a 5 billion-gallon mandate for ethanol, they disagreed on when. The Senate proposed that it take effect in 2012, the House in 2014. House and Senate lawmakers were stymied for months over a comprehensive energy bill. With adjournment only days away, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin proposed an "energy lite" bill dealing only with pipeline safety and nuclear power plant insurance. Senate negotiators did not formally reject the offer sent by House Republicans, which contained the pared-back bill, Wicker said. Republican Pete Domenici of New Mexico, who announced Wednesday he would chair the Senate Energy Committee in the next Congress, would help shepherd through a new energy bill when lawmakers return in January. While Republicans will control the new Congress, they will still have a tough time passing energy legislation that would allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a key part of the Bush administration's national energy plan. Republicans are still short of the 60 votes needed in the 100-member Senate to cut off debate and vote on controversial bills like giving energy firms access to the refuge. Democrats John Kerry of Massachusetts and Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut -- both possible presidential candidates in the 2004 election -- have promised to filibuster legislation that would open the Arctic refuge to oil exploration. Democrats and environmentalists argue there is not enough oil in the refuge to justify harming the wildlife that lives there and it could take eight years for the refuge's oil to reach the market. President George W. Bush said he wants to tap the refuge's potential 16 billion barrels of oil to help reduce U.S. dependence on foreign crude. The refuge, which is home to polar bears, caribou and other wildlife, sprawls across 19 million acres (7.7 million hectares) of Alaska's northeast corner. ***************************************************************** 9 Gas centrifuge plant Paducah's epicenter at quake meeting [http://www.paducahsun.com/] The Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky Thursday, November 14, 2002 Local, state and federal officials will discuss geological maps and the easing of building code restrictions in earthquake-prone areas. By Joe Walker jwalker@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650 About 100 scientists, emergency management personnel, engineers and public officials from California to Washington, D.C., will meet Monday in Lexington to discuss ways of easing building code restrictions in earthquake-prone areas, notably western Kentucky. At stake are high costs and work to make buildings more earthquake-resistant based on county-by-county U.S. Geological Survey maps that experts say are hard to interpret and don’t take into account conditions unique to various regions. Mapmakers and others attending the daylong workshop — starting at 7:30 a.m. CST at the Holiday Inn North on Newtown Road — will discuss what can be done to make the maps more practical, he said. Meeting organizer John Kiefer, vice chairman of the Kentucky Governor's Council for Earthquake Risk Reduction, said the maps put the Paducah-area earthquake risk higher than the risk in California. "We don't belong in that class," said Kiefer, assistant state geologist with the Kentucky Geological Survey in Lexington. "We know we've got a threat in Paducah, but we need to be realistic about it." Kiefer's group has begun a state-funded seismic study designed to make the maps more specific to the Paducah area, which is in the New Madrid Fault zone. The findings could lessen the cost of construction generally and improve Paducah's chances of landing a 500-job gas centrifuge plant to enrich uranium. Because tall centrifuge cylinders spin at high speed, they are very prone to shaking. A local nuclear energy task force is concerned about the potential added cost of making the plant earthquake resistant. Kiefer said representatives from USEC Inc., which will build the plant, and the Department of Energy are expected to attend the meeting. "The meeting is very important to the centrifuge plant and the effects the maps are having on construction in our neck of the woods," said Ken Wheeler, head of the task force and chairman-elect of the Greater Paducah Economic Development Council. Wheeler said he and McCracken County Administrator Steve Doolittle will be among the local officials at the workshop. Mark Caldwell of Apex Engineering in Calvert City is scheduled to speak Monday afternoon on seismic issues relative to stricter state building codes. Caldwell, past president of the Structural Engineers Association of Kentucky, earlier called the maps ludicrous but said his group made suggestions to make the codes more user friendly, particularly as they relate to seismic standards. The Kentucky Geological Survey is conducting a second study to test how soil would affect shock waves during a major earthquake. Crews have drilled an 825-foot-deep hole in the Sassafras Ridge area of south Fulton County and plan to install instruments before Christmas to read shock waves. The U.S. Geological Survey is paying $70,000 of the roughly $90,000 cost. Landowner Austin Voorhees of Hickman allowed free access to his property, said project leader Ed Woolery, a senior researcher for the state survey. Woolery said the site was picked because it is central to the New Madrid Fault and normally has one or two very small tremors monthly. "It has a relatively high rate of activity, so we're hoping to collect the most data in the shortest period," he said. "When Mother Nature provides us with an event, we will be able to do the calculations and that sort of thing in short order." Woolery said he expects the results to confirm modeling data that suggest soil amplifies small tremors in the New Madrid Fault area but dampens larger earthquakes. The information will be valuable in reassessing the USGS seismic maps, which represent what occurs in bedrock but not in soil, he said. "To be fair to the USGS, they're charged with a huge task to go out and prepare seismic hazard maps for the whole nation," Woolery said. "And they're trying to incorporate a lot of uncertainties." New Madrid Fault bedrock is below more than 2,000 feet of soil and sediment, compared with California bedrock, which is near the surface. He said that makes mapping easier in California, where big quakes occur once or twice a century, and harder in western Kentucky, where an 1822-type tremor occurs every 500 to 700 years. The USGS conducted blasts two weeks ago near Memphis, Tenn., that were 160 feet below ground and felt by instruments 31 miles away. Arch Johnston, director of the University of Memphis Center for Earthquake Research and Information, told The Associated Press that instead of helping absorb the wave, the soil in that part of the New Madrid Fault zone "sort of resonated out to longer distances." The assessment was consistent with recent computer models showing seismic waves would become trapped in the sediment layers, bouncing back and forth between the surface and the hard bedrock thousands of feet below. Researchers said that could amplify high-frequency ground motion, increasing the hazards from large quakes. But Kiefer said blast waves are at a much higher frequency and much lower amplitude than seismic waves. "It's kind of comparing apples and oranges," he said, explaining that the Fulton County tests should provide better data. "...Unfortunately, I don't think the kinds of waves that are generated by these blasts would give us the answer." Woolery said the preliminary information from the Memphis-area blasts "is not overly surprising" and supports the idea that smaller shock waves are amplified and larger waves are muted by the abundance of soil above bedrock. ***************************************************************** 10 Iraq: Repairing the damage Al-Ahram Weekly | Opinion | [Al-Ahram Weekly Online] 14 - 20 November 2002 Issue No. 612 Opinion Current issue [http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/] Baghdad has no choice but to comply with Security Council Resolution 1441, writes Ibrahim Nafie [Ibrahim Nafie] The prospects for war or peace in Iraq are now in the balance following the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 1441. Which way the scales will tip will depend to a large extent on Iraq's behaviour towards the international arms inspection teams. Baghdad can either avert an American-led strike by implementing the resolution to the letter or it can present the Bush administration with the pretext for which it is waiting. Washington is continuing its military buildup against Iraq as though war were inevitable. Although the US administration has had to back down from the hard-line position on Iraq it has held until recently it is clearly determined to take advantage of any remiss on the part of Baghdad. Yet, however firm its resolve to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein, Washington will not be able to act on this resolve without strong justification, in the form of proof that Iraq is still in possession and remains determined to produce weapons of mass destruction. Although officials and public opinion in Iraq fear that Resolution 1441 is little more than a prelude to an American assault and that the return of the inspection teams is a mere formality, Iraq still stands to benefit from the return of the inspection teams. Iraq, therefore, must be extremely forthright and scrupulous in observing its commitments to the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), thereby enabling it to put the weapons issue behind it as soon as possible. When the inspectors resume their work the Iraqi leadership must keep in mind that the international community will be keeping very close tabs on how it comports itself. Any evasiveness or chicanery will all too readily be interpreted as a justification for military action. Iraq must therefore set itself, and adhere to, a set of guidelines for dealing with the inspection teams. Above all, it must learn from its past mistakes and avoid repeating the catastrophic policy it adopted towards the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) between 1991 and 1998. During that period Iraq deliberately concealed sites, misled the inspectors and only coughed up information when confronted with US threats and intelligence information. In other words, Iraq failed to cooperate willingly and honestly, with the result that it undermined its credibility with the international community. In pursuing this policy of deception Baghdad hoped to achieve a number of objectives. It wanted to hold on to some ballistic missiles and a quantity of chemical and biological substances. It wanted to keep a part of its infrastructure for producing weapons of mass destruction intact. It thought that by withholding relevant documentation revealing the extent of progress it had achieved in its arms manufactures, when it got the all clear, it could start rebuilding its arsenal again. Such were its pipe dreams, but they went up in smoke when its strategy of deception was exposed. This happened over a period, the most notorious event in the exposure occurring when President Hussein's son-in-law, General Hussein Kamel Al-Majid, fled the country and furnished UN inspection teams and western intelligence agencies with abundant information on the advanced weapons programme over which he had been in charge. Suddenly Baghdad had to change tack and cooperate with the UN teams, but only after having its duplicity exposed and having given international and regional powers hostile to Iraq the opportunity to continue with international sanctions. This strategy had more tragic consequences. Whereas it had initially been predicted that the process of eliminating Iraq's weapons of mass destruction would end in at most two years, the regime's ploys ensured that it dragged on through the 1990s until the present, while the sanctions continued to reap their toll on the Iraqi people. It follows from the foregoing that Baghdad must radically alter its strategic outlook, which since the mid-1970s has rested on developing a powerful advanced weapons capacity. The immense quantities of human and material resources that Iraq has poured into achieving this objective was one of the major reasons behind the economic crisis that struck Iraq in the late 1980s. That crisis, in turn, inspired the Iraqi regime to embark on its mad adventure into Kuwait, the price of which the Arab world is still paying today. It is time the Iraqi regime realised that it has never really benefited from its advanced weapons capacities, that it will be better off if it freed itself from this obsession to possess such an arsenal. During the Gulf War it could not avail itself of its biological and chemical weapons for fear of US retaliation, and it remains the case that the political losses entailed in using or threatening to use such weapons would far outstrip any possible political or military advantages. Indeed, rather than serving to safeguard Iraqi security, its determination to possess weapons of mass destruction has only rendered its security more vulnerable. Moreover, it would benefit the region as a whole if Iraq bore in mind that its long cherished armaments programme has furnished Israel with the excuse to sustain and augment its nuclear arsenal. If Iraq abides by UN resolutions it will strengthen the hand of Arab governments in their campaign to implement paragraph 14 of Resolution 687, which links the elimination of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction to a process of making the Middle East a zone free of such weapons. Iraq must be prepared to accept that the inspections will entail certain activities that some might construe as a violation of Iraqi sovereignty. The relevant Security Council resolutions state that these activities will cover all Iraqi territory, without exception. The inspections will focus on completing the destruction of all Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, the process of which was suspended in December 1998, and to ascertain that Iraq has not resumed developing its weapons capacities since that time. Iraq should also expect a period of follow-through aimed at ensuring that it has no intention of resuming its weapons programmes. Hans Blix, the chairman of UNMOVIC, has described the inspection process as "invasive" in that his teams are to be accorded free and unrestricted access to any site, including presidential palaces and other sensitive locations, without advance notice. However, as harsh as these conditions may appear, it should be borne in mind that they were established several years ago, specifically in the memorandum of understanding between Iraq and the UN in February 1998. Indeed, that memorandum had already been acted upon before inspections came to a halt in December 1998. There is no reason, therefore, that this issue should stir Iraqi sensitivities and provoke discord between Baghdad and the inspection teams. Iraq will naturally be enjoined to hand over remaining documents pertaining to its armaments programmes. This has been a central demand of the inspections team since they began their work in 1991, and these documents are vital for ascertaining the accuracy of the information Iraqi officials supply them. Under Resolution 1441 Iraq must furnish, within 30 days of the vote on that resolution, a comprehensive statement detailing all aspects of its programmes for producing chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. The resolution further stated that in the event of Iraq providing false information, leaving out information or failing to comply fully and accurately with the conditions set by the inspection teams, a fundamental breach of its obligations will have been committed. Should this transpire, the Security Council will convene immediately to consider military operations. Finally, Iraq will be obliged to help UNMOVIC and the IAEA meet employees in its arms development and manufacturing programmes. This highly sensitive issue has long been a major bone of contention between the US and Iraq, which naturally wishes to safeguard its wealth of specialised scientists, engineers and technicians. Iraq, perhaps not without grounds, suspects that the US wants to strip Iraq of these invaluable human resources so that it cannot avail itself of their skills to revive its prohibited arms programmes in the future. Resolution 1441 gives the inspection teams the right to meet with any individual connected to Iraq's advanced weapons programmes. It further provides that these individuals can be interviewed inside Iraq or abroad and, in the event of the latter, that their families can be flown out with them so as to obviate the possibility of Iraqi authorities using family members back home as pressure cards. While this condition, too, appears severe, Baghdad has, in reality, little cause to object. After all, many dissident Iraqi scientists and technicians who have worked on its armaments programmes are currently living in the West. Certainly, the new Iraqi interviewees will not have much to add to the information those dissidents have already furnished Western intelligence agencies. Baghdad, therefore, will have much to gain and little to lose by displaying the highest degree of flexibility and wisdom in its dealings with the international inspection teams. By offering them every possible assistance in their task of demonstrating that Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction and has no designs to possess such weapons again in the future Baghdad will avert the agonies of an imminent strike, restore its damaged credibility and bring the date closer when sanctions can be lifted. © Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 11 Aerojet shifts toward nonmilitary projects - 2002-11-11 - Sacramento Business Journal Mark Larson Staff Writer The noisy rumble created last week when Aerojet tested a solid-fuel rocket motor in Rancho Cordova could be the sound of the old Cold Warrior's future. Instead of powering nuclear missiles aimed overseas, as Aerojet's rocket motors did from the 1950s through the 1980s, this motor has an updated mission: to power rockets delivering satellites into space. "We drew upon 30 years of ICBM-type technology for reliability in that solid-rocket motor," says Mark Kaufman, the rocket program's director. The test succeeded. A final test-firing is planned next month. If all goes well, Kaufman's 50-worker crew will produce a string of motors to power the Atlas V rocket to launch communications satellites starting early next year. It's a new world for Aerojet's technology, as the 1,326-employee company focuses on finding uses for its rocket-propulsion technology in satellite launches, space flight and post-Sept. 11 demands for missile defense. The company's Cold War dominance of rocket propulsion evaporated as relations with Eastern Bloc countries were normalized in the '90s, leading to cuts in U.S. defense spending. That forced consolidation of big defense contractors because the demand for Cold War defenses was all but gone. Nearly sold, unit could double: In the '90s Aerojet's parent GenCorp Inc. put the unit up for sale, but no other company stepped up to buy. Some observers blamed its liability to clean up its polluted groundwater, or a shaky defense market. Talks of an Aerojet buyout by Pratt & Whitney fizzled in November 2000. If they hadn't, Aerojet's 1,000-plus jobs would have been moved from Rancho Cordova to Pratt & Whitney operations out of the area. Terry Hall was appointed CEO of GenCorp to replace the retiring Robert Wolfe in July. Hall says his goal is to double the size of Aerojet by 2005 by buying key companies in profitable niches. Two of its biggest deals in the past year — one a sale of a hefty unit, the other a buy of a General Dynamics unit — show the jockeying for profit. In October 2001, Aerojet sold off its Electronic and Information Systems business, which generated $323 million annually in revenue, to Northrop Grumman Corp. for $315 million in cash. That unit had 1,234 employees at sites in Colorado and Southern California, and specialized in space-borne sensors for early-warning systems, weather, and "smart" weapons technology. This summer, Aerojet paid $90 million in cash for General Dynamics' space propulsion and fire protection business, which employs 300 in Redmond, Wash. That unit brings about $60 million in annual sales to Aerojet. Hall is playing the odds, swapping sensors for propulsion with an eye on a long-term payoff. The Department of Defense is focusing on space as a place to bolster its capabilities. And the 20-year-old space shuttle propulsion system is slated for an upgrade. All that means more demand for space propulsion business that Aerojet has in its sights. The acquisition hunt is continuing, says Hall, for companies or divisions in related niches with long-term growth potential. He wants future acquisitions to bring $150 million to $200 million in annual revenue to Aerojet. The key is not only to plug into commercial uses of its propulsion technology, but also into the new defense strategy of the day. That strategy calls for the United States to be able to fight two or more battles at a time with faster, lighter equipment that can make surgical strikes and minimize casualties. That's a huge change from the old intercontinental missile war model. Financial remodeling: Over the first nine months of its fiscal year, GenCorp reported Aerojet's aerospace and defense net sales at $201 million, less than half its $511 million sales of a year earlier. Its fine chemicals division brought in $28 million over nine months, up from $10 million a year ago. Startup production costs for several new products have contributed to past losses from the chemicals division, but it expects a profit by Nov. 30, the end of the fiscal year. GenCorp, which also has an automotive division, reported a nine month net income of $17 million, or 40 cents a share, on sales of $818 million. That compared to last year's nine month net of $22 million, or 52 cents a share, on sales of $1.1 billion. The lower 2002 numbers show the absence of revenue from the sold-off sensor unit. But third-quarter numbers for Aerojet, considered apart from the sensor operations, show a 17 percent sales increase from the year before. During the quarter, Aerojet won a $43 million contract from Boeing to develop test-flight engines for federal defense research projects. Aerojet has been a fixture in the local economy since the 1950s, having enjoyed many boom years employing thousands. But it had to pare down its payroll dramatically 12 years ago because the new geopolitical picture cut the volume of work. Over the past dozen years, the company has been working to adjust to the new demands for its technology on a much smaller scale. Aerojet's 1,300 jobs are prized by local economic developers. Paul Hahn, Sacramento County's economic development director, is among the appreciative. "We look at Aerojet as an important player," he says. "They've worked really hard to diversify, and they're beginning to succeed." Noting the consolidation by defense contractors in recent years, Hahn hopes the company and its payroll don't get bought out and leave. With its downsizing and market readjustments, Hahn says, Aerojet had been keeping a low profile in recent years. But over the last two years he's noticed more community outreach from Aerojet. "They seem to have stabilized," he says. GenCorp is also trying to develop thousands of acres of land along Highway 50. Barbara Hayes, executive director of Sacramento Area Commerce and Trade Organization, is also big on Aerojet. "They're the perfect model of how to successfully transfer technology from old uses to new uses," she says. "They're still strong in defense, but they haven't put the whole company in it." Hayes figures the company is doing all it can to clean up its groundwater pollution problems. "They're not ignoring it, and they're jumping into private-sector development." Getting back to it: In February 1999, Aerojet won a $360 million contract with Lockheed Martin Space Systems to build seven to 15 solid-rocket motors annually through 2010 for the Atlas V launch vehicle, an order that could increase with bigger demand. The Atlas V is targeted at the domestic and overseas commercial satellite markets, as well as toward civil and military spacecraft launch programs. "This is the only solid-rocket propulsion contract in the last 10 years," Kaufman says. He walks along the assembly line for the 67-foot-long cylindrical units inside an airplane-hangar-sized work floor. On the back wall high above the floor is a large U.S. flag, along with a "This is Atlas V Territory" message in big letters. Up to five of these aerodynamic, silo-like motors, more than 5 feet in diameter, can be attached to a 200-foot tall rocket, with the number depending on the weight of the payload in the rocket's nose. Encased with carbon fiber, the motors burn 102,000 pounds of fuel in 90 seconds, creating an average thrust of more than 250,000 pounds. Four seconds after burning out, the motor is jettisoned. Once the first order of the rockets is used by early next year, Kaufman sees a steady demand for more. "There's a lot of interest coming back to rejuvenate the propulsion systems," he says. The Cold War missiles still in silos around the country are aging, and at some point will have to be replaced. Kaufman figures Aerojet will be in position for that job. "That's 20 years down the road," he says. "But it's in the talking and planning stage now." © 2002 American City Business Journals Inc. ***************************************************************** 12 MSP CALLS FOR PROBE IN N-PLANT LEAK ROW Thu 14 Nov 2002 Call to prosecute Dounreay /JAMES REYNOLDS ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT/ ENVIRONMENTAL groups have called for prosecution of the management at Dounreay after the worst nuclear contamination incident in the reprocessing plant?s history. The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate has been informed of the accident where 20 workers were contaminated with radioactive particles on Tuesday morning and is expected to launch a separate inquiry. The UK Atomic Energy Authority confirmed that it is already investigating the cause of the contamination, which was discovered during routine checks when radiation was found on the shoes of one worker. Further checks revealed 18 other workers? shoes were contaminated, and two employees had traces on their hands while one had traces on his face. A UKAEA spokesman said there was no radioactive release into the environment and there was no evidence that any of the workers ingested particles. The Scottish Green Party led the call for an inquiry by the NII with a view to "possible prosecution" of the management. Robin Harper MSP said: "Whilst this incident is a consequence of working with an invisible and deadly poison, at the same time everything must be done on the management side to minimise the danger to the workers and the public. "I?m calling for an external inquiry by the NII. It?s not good enough just to allow an internal inquiry." The Transport and General Workers Union backed Mr Harper?s calls and said "urgent questions needed to be addressed to allay fears". Chris Kaufman, the national secretary of the TGWU, inquired whether the fragmentation of the operations on site, which he claimed had led to a number of employees taking various responsibilities, has led to a "lack of centrally controlled management direction". He added: "An investigation by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate is required. [We] believe the focus should be on whether or not there was proper management control in place and whether or not there are sufficient people employed to ensure safety standards are met." John Swinney, the SNP leader yesterday said the incident showed that nuclear energy is "a risk that [Scotland] can not afford to take", adding: "It is not safe, Scotland doesn?t need it and it shouldn?t be on our soil." In January this year, Dounreay met all the short-term recommendations outlined in a safety review. The Health and Safety Executive said the plant fulfilled 89 of the 143 recommendations made. A further 27 outstanding matters associated with strategic decommissioning and waste management issues will take decades to address. And 27 medium-term recommendations will be introduced over the next few years, as part of the normal regulatory regimes of both the HSE and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA). Lorraine Mann, of Scotland Against Nuclear Dumping, also called for Dounreay officials to be prosecuted over the incident. She said: "We are quite horrified by this. There really have been serious attempts to improve safety at Dounreay but clearly they have not been effective and incompetence at the heart of the plant remains." At the time of the incident, 70 employees at the D2001 plant were carrying out decommissioning work. Dounreay spokesman Colin Punler denied it had downplayed the incident. He said: "Our priority is to minimise the exposure of staff to radiation and any incident of this sort whereby radioactive materials gets into the workplace is a matter for concern." The plant will not restart until investigations into the incident have been completed. ©2002 scotsman.com | contact ***************************************************************** 14 Students get walking for Chernobyl kids* /14/11/2002 - 10:16:45/ Around 50,000 college students are expected to take part in 10km walks throughout the country today to raise money for children affected by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Ukraine. The fundraiser was organised by the Union of Students of Ireland, which hopes to raise ?500,000. Around 10,000 students are expected to take part in the Dublin walk, while campaigners Adi Roche and Ali Hewson are expected to attend the Waterford event. * Visit IOL's NEW e-learning channel and chose from a wide range of training courses! * Irish News © Thomas Crosbie Media, 2002. ***************************************************************** 15 NRC cites ex-TVA contractor for nuclear security violations By Rebecca Ferrar, News-Sentinel business writer November 14, 2002 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has cited a former TVA contractor for violations involving falsified background checks on several employees who were allowed to work in sensitive areas at three of the agency's nuclear plants. Also cited and banned from the nuclear industry for three years was the employee of the contractor who falsified the background records, according to NRC documents. The contractor cleared five employees without full background investigations, causing a potential "security threat" to TVA's nuclear plants, the NRC said. The NRC said the actions by the human resources coordinator allowed "unescorted access'' to persons into TVA's protected areas at Watts Bar, Sequoyah and Browns Ferry nuclear plants and two other nuclear plants owned by other companies. In all, nine background files were falsified. While the contractor and its employee were cited with violations, the NRC used an "exercise of enforcement discretion" in TVA's case because of corrective actions taken by the agency. Still, the NRC notes nuclear plant licensees such as TVA "are responsible for the acts of their contractors." The NRC issued the notice of violations to RCM Technologies, formerly Cataract/RCM of Pennsauken, N.J., and its employee Patricia A. McGinn on Oct. 31. An NRC investigation from September 2000 to May 2002 concluded that the falsified background checks took place from 1996 to 2000. TVA spokesman John Moulton said after TVA received a report from the TVA inspector general on the situation, the clearances of the employees were suspended. "We rescreened them without using any of the background information developed by the contractor," Moulton said. "After doing that, our review determined that each met the qualifications for plant access, and their clearances were reinstated. We took a conservative action in that we decided to suspend these five employees that the inspector general said had some inaccuracies in their background." In addition, TVA now shares with other utilities annual audits of contractor background screening and conducts random checks to verify the accuracy of background investigations. As for McGinn, the NRC investigation found that she "deliberately submitted" to nuclear plants holding NRC licenses incomplete and inaccurate information on required background checks necessary to grant the unescorted access authorizations by employees. RCM Technologies held a contract with TVA to provide background clearances for personnel to work at nuclear plants. RCM no longer works for TVA. "The inaccurate information was material in that it was relied upon to grant unescorted access to individuals who potentially could have presented a security threat to nuclear power plants," the NRC said in its order to McGinn, prohibiting her from future NRC-licensed activities. The NRC notified J.A. Scalice, TVA chief nuclear officer and executive vice president, by letter of the violation as a Severity Level IV, the lowest level of violation. The NRC letter says TVA "initiated action to verify the integrity" of the access authorization process. The letter continues that the NRC is "exercising enforcement discretion" based on TVA's corrective actions, including the determination that no individual gained unescorted access who should not have such access if an accurate background check had been done. "The NRC considers this matter closed and plans no further actions regarding your facility," said the letter from Stuart A. Richards, NRC director in the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. The regulatory commission used an investigative report by the TVA inspector general and testimony and documentation developed by the NRC's Office of Investigations to substantiate the allegations about the falsified background checks. In the NRC notice of violation to RCM, the NRC interviewed other RCM employees and managers and concluded that McGinn "acted alone." Still, the NRC notes that "RCM afforded very little oversight of her activities and did not perform any verification of her work other than allowing audits by nuclear power industry representatives. These audits failed to reveal the problems." RCM was notified that it is required to respond within 30 days to the NRC's notice of violation, which will determine if further enforcement action is necessary. Rebecca Ferrar may be reached at 865-342-6357 or ferrarr@knews.com. The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 16 NRC Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste to Meet November 19 - 21 in Rockville, Maryland NRC: News Release - 2002-132 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov [opa@nrc.gov] www.nrc.gov No. 02-132 November 13, 2002 The Nuclear Regulatory Commissions Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste (ACNW) has scheduled a meeting on November 19-21 in Rockville, Maryland, to discuss, among other issues, the testing and analysis performed to assess the safety of spent fuel transportation packages. The meeting, which is open to the public, will begin at 8:30 a.m. each day. As shown on the attached agenda, some portions of the meeting will be held in the Auditorium of the agencys Two White Flint North building, at 11545 Rockville Pike. Other portions will be held in Room T-2B3 of the same building. For additional information or schedule changes, contact Howard Larson at 301-415-6805, between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. ACNW Meeting Agenda NOVEMBER 19, NRC AUDITORIUM, TWO WHITE FLINT NORTH 8:30 - 8:40 a.m. Introductory Comments, Statement of Objectives and Overview (Open) The Chairman will open the meeting and then turn it over to the Working Group Chairman who will state the objectives of the Workshop and provide an overview of the sessions. TRANSPORTATION WORKING GROUP WORKSHOP 8:40 a.m. - 12:05 p.m. The Committee will hear presentations from and hold discussions with staff, industry, and government representatives regarding testing and analysis performed to assess the safety of spent fuel transportation packages. Overview of Research Program Objectives 8:40 - 9:00 a.m. Presentation by a representative from the NRCs Spent Fuel Projects Office (SFPO). 9:00 - 9:20 a.m. Discussion Summary of Sandia National Laboratory (SNL) Research 9:20 - 10:05 a.m. Presentation by a representative from SNL. 10:05 - 10:35 a.m. Discussion 10:35 a.m. - 10:50 a.m. ***BREAK*** Summary of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Research 10:50 - 11:35 a.m. Presentation by a representative from LLNL. 11:35 - 12:05 p.m. Discussion 12:05 - 12:30 p.m. Public Comments 12:30 - 1:30 p.m. ***LUNCH*** 1:30 - 4:10 p.m. Vendor Analysis and Testing 1:30 - 1:50 p.m. Presentation by a representative from Holtec International. 1:50 - 2:10 p.m. Presentation by a representative from the Transnuclear Corporation. 2:10 - 2:30 p.m. Presentation by a representative from NAC International. 2:30 - 3:15 p.m. Discussion 3:15 - 3:30 p.m. ***BREAK*** Analysis of Fires 3:30 - 3:50 p.m. Presentation by a representative from the NRCs SFPO. 3:50 - 4:10 p.m. Discussion 4:10 - 4:50 p.m. Comparison of Analysis and Testing to Actual Railway Experience 4:10 - 4:30 p.m. Presentation by a representative from the Association of American Railroads (AAR). 4:30 - 4:50 p.m. Discussion 4:50 - 5:15 p.m. Public Comments 5:15 - 5:45 p.m. Committee Discussion NOVEMBER 20, CONFERENCE ROOM T-2B3 10:00 - 10:05 a.m. Opening Statement The Chairman will make opening remarks regarding the conduct of todays sessions. 10:05 - 11:30 a.m. Igneous Activity Update Presentation by a representative of the NRC staff updating the Committee on recent activities on the igneous activity issue at Yucca Mountain. 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. **LUNCH*** NRC AUDITORIUM TRANSPORTATION WORKING GROUP WORKSHOP (CONTINUED) 12:30 - 12:35 p.m. Opening Remarks The Working Group Chairman will provide opening remarks for this session. The Committee will hear presentations from and hold discussions with staff, industry, and government representatives regarding spent fuel transportation safety in the U.S. 12:35 - 1:45 p.m. Transportation Safety in the U.S. and Worldwide 12:35 - 1:15 p.m. Representatives from the Department of Transportation will provide a summary of DOT experience with spent nuclear fuel shipments by Rail. 1:15 - 1:45 p.m. Discussion 1:45 - 3:30 p.m. Summary of DOE Shipping Experience 1:45 - 2:05 p.m. Presentation by a DOE representative on WIPP shipping experience. 2:05 - 2:25 p.m. Presentation by a DOE representative on foreign fuel shipment experience. 2:25 - 2:45 p.m. Presentation by a DOE representative on Navy fuel shipment experience. 2:45 - 3:30 p.m. Discussion 3:30 - 3:45 p.m. ***BREAK*** 3:45 - 4:45 p.m. Summary of Utility Experience 3:45 - 4:15 p.m. Presentation by a U.S. Utility representative. 4:15 - 4:45 p.m. Discussion 4:45 - 5:25 p.m. Summary of International Experience 4:45 - 5:05 p.m. Presentation by a representative from Transnuclear Cogema. 5:05 - 5:25 p.m. Discussion 5:25 - 5:45 p.m. Public Comments 5:45 - 6:30 p.m. Workshop Summary and General Discussion Discussion among Members and meeting participants as to workshop findings and a summarization of key observations resulting from this two-day workshop. 6:30 p.m. Workshop Concluded NOVEMBER 21, CONFERENCE ROOM T-2B3 8:30 - 8:35 a.m. Opening Statement The Chairman will make opening remarks regarding the conduct of todays sessions. 8:35 - 10:30 a.m. Commission Presentation The Committee will discuss its presentation for the December 18 public meeting with the Commission. Topics proposed: HLW Program Risk Insights Initiative Spent Fuel Transportation Waste Package Performance Igneous Activity at Yucca Mountain Yucca Mountain Review Plan 10:30 - 10:45 a.m. ***BREAK*** 10:45 - 12:00 Noon Preparation of ACNW Reports The Committee will discuss proposed reports on the following topics: Principal Observations from September Trip to Yucca Mountain and Environs Observations from October Trip to Swedish Waste Management Facilities and Berlin Quadripartite Meeting Comparison of TSPA and TPA Results Conclusions Regarding the Safety of Spent Nuclear Fuel Transportation 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. ***LUNCH*** 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. Preparation of ACNW Reports The Committee will continue preparation of reports previously noted. 3:00 - 3:15 p.m. Miscellaneous The Committee will discuss matters related to the conduct of Committee activities and matters and specific issues that were not completed during previous meetings, as time and availability of information permit. 3:15 p.m. Meeting Adjourns Wednesday, November 13, 2002 ***************************************************************** 17 Davis-Besse to install leak-detection system The Plain Dealer 11/14/02 John Funk and John Mangels Plain Dealer Reporters Oak Harbor, Ohio - The Davis-Besse nuclear plant, devastated by a large rust hole spawned by leaks in its reactor lid, will become the first plant in the nation to install leak detectors intended to prevent a recurrence. The ultra-precise, German-made instruments can pick up tiny increases in humidity, an early warning that the reactor's vital coolant is seeping out. Such leakage is a major concern for reactor operators and federal regulators because it is a sign that the reactor's heavy steel lid may have dangerous cracks. The coolant itself can pose a corrosion threat, as Davis-Besse learned the hard way. The Toledo-area plant won't be able to have the detectors in place on the top and bottom of its reactor before its planned restart early next year, however. That's because the probes must be custom-made. Davis-Besse's owner, FirstEnergy Corp., hopes to install them in 2004, during a shutdown in which the extensive repairs and improvements to the plant are to be evaluated. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not require such devices, but its representatives indicated yesterday that they are pleased with FirstEnergy's initiative. "We'd be very interested in an online leak-rate detection system," said Sam Collins, the agency's senior reactor safety official. Collins, who is based at NRC headquarters near Washington, D.C., attended the monthly meeting where the special NRC panel overseeing Davis-Besse's rehabilitation judges the plant's progress. Although it's possible the sophisticated monitors could force the reactor to shut down for repairs sooner than if there were no such system, FirstEnergy nuclear division chief Lew Myers said the added safety margin they provide is worth it. "It's the right thing to do, and I'd like to be the first to do it," Myers said. "If you've got a leak, it's just going to get worse. You might as well go after it." Myers could not put a price on the monitoring system, but said it is "expensive." The company has estimated the total cost of repairs, improvements and buying replacement power during the nearly 12 months the plant is expected to remain idled at about $400 million. FirstEnergy officials hope to have the reactor ready for restart in mid-January, although the final decision is the NRC's. Major hurdles remain, however, including finding the source of rust stains on the bottom of the reactor's huge steel vessel, and determining whether the stains are the result of leaks in tubes that carry instruments up through the base and into the reactor core. Company and NRC representatives are planning to meet at the agency's Rockville, Md., headquarters on Nov. 26 to discuss FirstEnergy's proposal to test for leaks by bringing the reactor up to its normal operating temperature and pressure. Although its uranium fuel will be reloaded for the test, no nuclear reaction will occur because the reactor's control rods will stay inserted in the core. The reactor's coolant-circulating pumps and the natural decay of its radioactive fuel will generate the heat and pressure. Before that test can occur, the company must make sure the reactor's huge concrete and steel containment building is leak-tight. The containment check is planned for Jan. 8. Myers said he is "90 percent certain" the instrument tubes in the reactor's base are not leaking, but because of the rusty red deposits the company's contractor found there this summer, the NRC is insisting on tests to confirm there are no leaks. The NRC's Collins, whose appearance yesterday surprised FirstEnergy managers, is the most senior agency official yet to attend the Davis-Besse meetings. The NRC considers the hole in the reactor's lid to be the most serious breach of nuclear safety since the partial meltdown at Pennsylvania's Three-Mile Island plant in 1979. Collins, along with others on the special NRC panel overseeing the plant, probed the adequacy of the many changes FirstEnergy officials say they are making in equipment, management and Davis-Besse's "safety culture." Plant workers who have safety concerns are still suspicious of their bosses' willingness to deal with those issues, and are complaining to the NRC three times as often as they are to the company's ombudsman, said panel chairman Jack Grobe. "You need to take immediate action to regain the confidence of the staff," Grobe told Myers. Collins also was in attendance to explain why the NRC allowed Davis-Besse to delay a costly shutdown to inspect its lid for cracks. "We believed, based on the information we received, that it was acceptable for the plant to continue to operate," Collins said. "We did not know of the erosion on the head. If we had, clearly we would have made a different decision." To reach these reporters: jfunk@plaind.com, 216-999-4138 jmangels@plaind.com, 216-999-4842 © 2002 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission. ***************************************************************** 18 County may get nuclear plants (Indian Pt) [Democrat and Chronicle] Democrat and Chronicle staff and wire reports (November 14, 2002)  WHITE PLAINS  Westchester County will study the possibility of taking over the Indian Point nuclear power plants and replacing them with gas-fired generators, County Executive Andrew Spano said Wednesday. Spano acknowledged that the cost could be more than $3 billion but said that might eventually be recovered in cheaper electricity. Even if not, he said, residents might be willing to pay to be rid of their fears of nuclear catastrophe. Indian Point security has been a major political issue in Westchester since last years terrorist attack on neighboring New York City. Village boards have voted for a shutdown and activists have criticized Spano for defending the countys evacuation plan. www.DemocratandChronicle.com ***************************************************************** 19 UK: Dounreay releases higher than thought HIGHER levels of radioactive material have been released into the environment from the Dounreay nuclear plant than previously thought, it emerged yesterday. A fresh study of figures gathered since the plant opened in 1957 revealed contamination peaked in the 1970s and ended only in the last few years. Anti-nuclear campaigners called for a more detailed investigation of Dounreay's discharge history and a fresh examination of the possible link to leukaemia cases. The new information came to light as inquiries continued yesterday into how 14 workers at the Caithness plant were contaminated with radioactive particles after a spillage. The report, published yesterday by the Dounreay Particles Advisory Group, said: "A larger number of particles of irradiated fuel than previously thought appeared to have been released into the environment over an extended period, ending possibly in the last few years. "Most of these particles appear to have been released during the 1970s. As a result of this history, there appears to be at least two distinct populations of particles in the marine environment." The report, which did not quantify the levels of contamination, also said it appeared "highly unlikely" that beach monitoring systems could meet specifications set by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa). A spokesman for the UK Atomic Energy Authority, which runs Dounreay, played down the significance of the report, saying that even a discharge of one million particles would be relatively small. A Sepa spokesman said the report's significance lay in the fact it showed detection equipment was not as good as it could be. -Nov 14th Lost source :( ***************************************************************** 20 Takeover of Indian Point by Westchester Is Proposed The New York Times November 14, 2002* *By WINNIE HU* WHITE PLAINS, Nov. 13 ? The Westchester County executive, Andrew J. Spano, said today that he wanted to shut down the two nuclear power plants at Indian Point by buying them, or if necessary, taking them through a condemnation process. Citing concerns about the safety of the plants, Mr. Spano said he was setting aside $500,000 in his proposed 2003 budget for a six-month study on acquiring the Indian Point plants in Buchanan, about 40 miles north of Midtown Manhattan, and replacing them with a new natural gas plant. He estimated the purchase and construction costs alone at $2 billion to $3 billion, at least twice the amount of the county's annual budget. "We think that these plants should not have been built here in the first place, and we'd rather have them somewhere else, and we're going to pursue this attack," Mr. Spano said during a news conference at his office. But Mr. Spano and other county officials offered few details about their proposal, except to say that the study would address a wide range of questions, including where the money would come from and whether the county would act alone or try to seek partners. Mr. Spano has said he would not raise taxes to buy the plants. Indian Point's owner, the Entergy Corporation, said today that it was not interested in selling the nuclear plants and that it would oppose any effort to close them. "Entergy hasn't put out a for-sale sign," said Jim Steets, an Entergy spokesman. "We'll talk to the county executive about whatever he wants, but we're not looking to sell Indian Point. It's too valuable to Entergy and to the residents of New York State." The company bought the plants in the last two years, and Mr. Steets said it had spent hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade equipment and increase training. Together, the two plants generate about 2,000 megawatts of electricity for homes, businesses and public buildings in Westchester and New York City; one megawatt is enough to power about 1,000 average homes. Mr. Spano's announcement follows more than a year of divisive public debates here over the safety of Indian Point since the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The Westchester Board of Legislators and dozens of villages and towns across the county have passed resolutions calling for the nuclear plants to be decommissioned. Brian Nickerson, director of the Michaelian Institute for Public Policy at Pace University, said that while Mr. Spano was clearly responding to the concerns of his constituents, his proposal for a takeover of Indian Point faced many logistical and regulatory hurdles. "I don't know if it's completely unrealistic," he said. "But I think it's a difficult sell." Several Westchester legislators and others questioned whether the financially strained county could afford to buy the plants, let alone build a new one. Just last month, Mr. Spano, a Democrat, proposed a 31.7 percent increase in the county's share of the property tax levy to help offset a projected gap of more than $100 million next year in the county's roughly $1 billion budget. "I'm not willing to sign off on Westchester County becoming Westchester Lighting Company," said Legislator George Oros, the Republican minority leader. "I think there are basic, fundamental questions that you have to address first before you commit the $500,000 for the study." But Legislator Michael B. Kaplowitz, a Democrat, said that whether or not the county took over the nuclear plants, the proposed study would take a serious look at issues that need to be addressed. "The economic arguments to keep it open are very powerful," he said. "And yet the reasons to close it for public safety are more compelling. This is a way to do both. You would close the nuclear side and build a natural gas plant." Copyright The New York Times Company ***************************************************************** 21 Nuclear plant 'should be prosecuted' BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Wednesday, 13 November, 2002, 15:02 GMT [Dounreay] Contamination was spotted during routine checks Campaigners have called for an independent inquiry after 20 workers at the Dounreay nuclear plant were contaminated with radioactive particles. Scotland Against Nuclear Dumping said the Caithness facility should be prosecuted over the incident. However, the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) - which runs the plant - has already launched its own investigation into the cause of the contamination. The contamination appears to have come from drips of liquid that spilled during this transfer and has been contained well within the building itself Colin Punler Dounreay spokesman And the company stressed that measures had been put in place to avoid a repeat of the incident. Routine checks on Wednesday detected contamination on the footwear of staff at a waste handling plant. Subsequent investigations found two employees in the D2001 plant had radioactivity on their hands, while one of them also had traces on his face. UKAEA said that most of the contamination was cleaned from their skin and the workers were sent home wearing rubber gloves. The operation was stopped and the building was sealed off. Ventilation system At the time of the incident 70 workers were carrying out decommissioning work using robotics arms to lift radioactive materials, which were shielded from them by protective screens. Spokesman Colin Punler said: "Any contamination on the skin is a cause for concern, but the information we have is that it was very low levels. "There has been no release to the environment, and that has been confirmed by checking with the sampling and the ventilation system. "The contamination appears to have come from drips of liquid that spilled during this transfer and has been contained well within the building itself." The public must know how this material was allowed to leak Robin Harper Green MSP The UKAEA said that the plant would not re-open until it had completed its investigations into the incident. However, Lorraine Mann of Scotland Against Nuclear Dumping said an independent inquiry should be carried out. "We believe that the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) should be investigating this incident with a view to prosecuting Dounreay," she told BBC Scotland. "They cannot get away with doing this sort of thing to people and they cannot get away with these levels of incompetence at the site." That call was echoed by Green MSP Robin Harper, who said: "It is not good enough just to allow an internal inquiry. 'Grave concern' "The public must know how this material was allowed to leak." Local Liberal Democrat MSP John Thurso warned against "over-dramatising" the incident. However, he added that contamination at Dounreay was a matter of "grave concern". "It is essential that UKAEA investigate the cause and report promptly so that any necessary lessons can be learned," he said. © MMII | News Sources | Privacy ***************************************************************** 22 Nuclear regulators concerned about monitoring of Davis-Besse work AP Wire | 11/13/2002 | BEACON JOURNAL JOHN SEEWER Associated Press OAK HARBOR, Ohio - Nuclear regulators on Wednesday told operators of the Davis-Besse nuclear plant that they had concerns about the company's monitoring of contractors working at the site. Lew Myers, president of FirstEnergy Corp.'s nuclear division, said minor problems with the contractors, who are replacing the plant's reactor head, forced some work to stop. He said the Akron-based company wasn't overly concerned with any of the problems. The reactor cap is being replaced after boric acid nearly ate through it. It was the most extensive corrosion ever at a U.S. nuclear reactor and led to a nationwide review of all 69 similar plants. A second, smaller hole was found later at Davis-Besse located near Toledo. Members of a Nuclear Regulatory Commission panel looking into damage at the plant asked FirstEnergy on Wednesday if it had too much work going on at the site to properly monitor the contractors. As many as 1,300 contractors are working on repairs there. FirstEnergy officials said they have added more staff members to oversee and inspect the work and are confident it's being done properly. FirstEnergy also told regulators that as part of its plan to repair the plant, it will add monitors that can detect small leaks on and around the reactor vessel. The company plans to have the monitors working sometime next year. FirstEnergy is paying about $200 million to repair the plant, install a new lid and buy replacement power until it is restarted. The reactor has been shut down since Feb. 16. The company wants to restart the plant early next year. Regulators have not indicated when they will allow it to operate again. ON THE NET http://www.nrc.gov [http://www.nrc.gov] http://www.ucsusa.org [http://www.ucsusa.org] http://www.firstenergycorp.com [http://www.firstenergycorp.com] About Ohio.com | About Realcities Network | ***************************************************************** 23 Davis-Besse needs to gain confidence Beacon Journal | 11/14/2002 | [beaconjournal.com - The beaconjournal home page] People are key to restarting nuclear plant, official says By Jim Mackinnon Beacon Journal business writer OAK HARBOR - People, not hardware, will largely determine when the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant can restart, a top Nuclear Regulatory Commission official said Wednesday. ``We will have to have the confidence of the people at the plant to allow restart,'' said Jack Grobe, who heads a panel investigating the progress being made to repair the damaged nuclear power plant owned by Akron utility FirstEnergy Corp. Re-establishing confidence could take a while -- the company's own survey from earlier this year shows that employees mistrust plant management. And any restart will have to follow the conclusion of NRC investigations into Davis-Besse, including whether officials lied to the NRC about the plant's condition. FirstEnergy hopes to have Davis-Besse restarted early in 2003, but that may be an overly optimistic wish, officials indicated after a meeting between the utility and the NRC at Oak Harbor High School. Company managers outlined the steps they are taking to safely repair and maintain Davis-Besse, as well as repair relations with the plant's 800 or so employees. Sam Collins, the Washington-based director of the NRC's Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, defended his decision to allow Davis-Besse to continue to operate past a Dec. 31, 2001, deadline despite regulatory and industry concerns involving cracks in special nozzles that lead into nuclear reactors. During the public comment period following the formal afternoon meeting, Collins said it was NRC staff consensus that Davis-Besse could be operated safely until a scheduled fuel outage in February 2002. Two NRC staff members disagreed with the decision to keepDavis-Besse running past Dec. 31, but did not base that on safety concerns, Collins said. It was during a safety inspection conducted during the refueling outage that the two cavities were found on top of the old Davis-Besse vessel head. Just a thin inner lining of stainless steel held back radioactive, high-temperature coolant. The Akron utility reported Wednesday it plans to install state-of-the-art coolant-leak detection equipment to monitor the reactor at the damagedDavis-Besse plant similar to systems now used at nuclear plants in Europe. But FirstEnergy isn't sure that it will be able to install the equipment before its hoped-for restart at Davis-Besse early in 2003. Instead, it is more likely that the monitoring system will be put in place during a scheduled, normal mid-cycle shutdown of the plant. The monitoring equipment is not required under federal regulations. Davis-Besse would be the first plant in the United States to have the equipment, spokesman Todd Schneider said. Coolant leaks from cracked nozzles on top of the reactor that allowed boric acid to eat two cavities on top of the reactor's former vessel head have kept the plant in Oak Harbor shut down since March. Total repair costs, including having to buy replacement power, could top $300 million. The plant also is trying to figure out if any nozzles at the bottom of the reactor vessel have developed leaks. The company found small boric acid deposits and rust streaks on the lower side of the vessel that may have been caused by water flowing from the top, or by coolant leaking out from a bottom nozzle. Tests have not been able to determine how the rust and boron deposits developed. ``We're 90 percent confident we don't have a leak,'' said Lew Myers, chief operating officer for FirstEnergy's nuclear operating company. FirstEnergy says it plans to bring the reactor up to operating temperature and pressure for three to seven days, probably in early January, to test for any leaks at the bottom nozzles, which are used to let instruments into the reactor. (Nozzles on top allow rods to move in and out of the reactor to control the nuclear reaction.) The test will be done with nuclear fuel in the reactor, FirstEnergy managers said. In other matters discussed with the NRC, Davis-Besse managers said the work being done to repair, maintain and upgrade the plant, involving up to 1,300 contractors, has stressed organization. The plant's quality assurance team has had to stop contractors temporarily from working on some projects when it found problems that needed correcting, the head of the team told NRC officials. Also, Myers said the organization is meeting regularly with employees and taking other steps to improve relations between managers and employees and create a safety-conscious work environment. The company's self-study of its role in the damage said it had put the pursuit of profit and production over safety at Davis-Besse. Oak Harbor resident James Douglas asked the NRC officials how Davis-Besse management could justify how the plant was damaged. ``I could almost vomit,'' he said. The NRC has final say on if and when Davis-Besse will be allowed to restart using anever-used replacement vessel head bought from a mothballed Michigan nuclear plant. The federal agency has scheduled another meeting on Wednesday to discuss its own performance in the series of missteps dating to the 1990s that led up to the unprecedented damage at Davis-Besse. Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or [jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com] ***************************************************************** 24 NRC Has Concerns About Workers at Davis-Besse* OAK HARBOR -- Nuclear regulators on Wednesday told operators of the Davis-Besse nuclear plant that they had concerns about the company's monitoring of contractors working at the site. Lew Myers, president of FirstEnergy Corp.'s nuclear division, said minor problems with the contractors, who are replacing the plant's reactor head, forced some work to stop. He said the Akron-based company wasn't overly concerned with any of the problems. The reactor cap is being replaced after boric acid nearly ate through it. It was the most extensive corrosion ever at a U.S. nuclear reactor and led to a nationwide review of all 69 similar plants. A second, smaller hole was found later at Davis-Besse. Members of a Nuclear Regulatory Commission panel looking into damage at the plant asked FirstEnergy on Wednesday if it had too much work going on at the site to properly monitor the contractors. As many as 1,300 contractors are working on repairs there. FirstEnergy officials said they have added more staff members to oversee and inspect the work and are confident it's being done properly. FirstEnergy also told regulators that as part of its plan to repair the plant, it will add monitors that can detect small leaks on and around the reactor vessel. The company plans to have the monitors working sometime next year. FirstEnergy is paying about $200 million to repair the plant, install a new lid and buy replacement power until it is restarted. The reactor has been shut down since Feb. 16. The company wants to restart the plant early next year. Regulators have not indicated when they will allow it to operate again. Posted 7:00 PM Wednesday, November 13th vfiorello@wtol.com All content © Copyright 2000 - 2002 WorldNow and WTOL. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 25 Probe of Pickering nuclear restart slammed TheStar.com - News/News Thu Nov 14, 2002 | Updated at 12:45 PM FROM CANADIAN PRESS A government investigation into costly delays in restarting several nuclear reactors at Pickering, Ont. — shutdowns that helped create a supply crunch and soaring power prices — will offer little more than finger pointing, critics of the probe said Wednesday. The inquiry will only further delay work on the project, which would bring about 2,000 megawatts of power back into the province's supply — about 8 per cent of what's needed at peak demand times, an electricity consultant said. "By holding an inquiry, you're essentially distracting the attention of management and the other people who are involved with the actual work and arguably, you're delaying the return to service date as a result," said Jan Carr, with Barker Dunn &Rossi in Toronto. "To me, the important thing would not be to hold an inquiry, but to get the job done." Ontario Energy Minister John Baird will release details in the next few days on how the province plans to proceed in an independent investigation into delays at restoring power at the Pickering A station east of Toronto, said the minister's spokesman Dan Miles. The "significant initiative," Miles said, will also find out why total costs to retrofit four nuclear reactors at the station — which has been out of service since 1997 — are estimated at $2.5 billion, more than twice the original budget estimate. The restoration is intended to bring units built in the 1960s and 1970s to today's standards. But Miles said progress reports on the revamp gave the provincial government a "gross underestimation" of the project's scope and cost. The stations were originally supposed to be back on line in time for this past hot summer, when rising air conditioner use helped create shortages and forced Ontario to import higher-cost electricity to meet demand. Combined with electricity market deregulation that began May 1, those shortages produced soaring prices that created a political backlash by consumers against the government. Last month, Ontario Power Generation — the Crown-owned company that owns the Pickering plant — announced a third major delay of the restart. It said that one of the four A units would reach the ``commissioning" stage in the first quarter of 2003, a testing process which the utility says could take one to three months. The remaining three units are to be reassessed once the first unit is back online. OPG spokesman John Earl said the big power producer isn't commenting on the proposed investigation, announced Monday as part of a broad plan by Ontario's Conservative government to cap soaring electricity prices, promote alternative energy and attract more private power producers to the province. Last month, OPG chief executive Ron Osborne said the delays and higher expenses were from "overly optimistic" early budgets, too much outsourcing of project management and lengthy environmental assessments which create higher salary and other costs. That's about all an inquiry would reveal, said Jonathan Dickman-Wilkes, a senior analyst at Navigant Consulting in Toronto. "It's kind of more of a finger-pointing exercise than anything else," he said, noting that it would be unfair to suggest retrofitting the decades-old stations is an easy task. "This is 1970s technology," he said. "They need to sort of overhaul a 1970 Chevy. That hadn't been done before." This week, the Tory government of Premier Ernie Eves blamed rising prices partly on Ontario Power Generation's failure to get the nuclear plants running again. OPG is the electricity producing successor to the former Ontario Hydro and accounts for nearly three quarters of electricity generated in Ontario. Others blame the provincial government for not being more directly involved in the Pickering project. "The government is blaming everybody but themselves and they are responsible for putting this (market) together," said Arthur Dickinson, president of the Association of Major Power Consumers in Ontario, which supported energy market competition but only if it lured more suppliers. Private power producers have said that confusion over when the huge reactors would come back online left them unable to predict whether it would be worth it for them to build new plants in Ontario. New plants would reduce supply concerns and in the long term lead to more stable prices. Dickinson said that in retrospect, the May 1 opening of Ontario'e energy market to competition should have been held off until the Pickering A reactors were back on stream. "Why were they asleep at the switch?" he said of the government. "It's not good enough to say, `that's not what we were told.' " "When the delay was repeated, why didn't they get more interested then?" Tom Adams of Energy Probe — whose group claims nuclear energy is too costly and unreliable — said the Pickering project should be cancelled. He said the government "should never have bet on Pickering in the first place." He also said the probe would reveal that problems were discovered during Pickering A's retrofit, partly because there were discrepancies between on-paper designs of the station drawn up decades ago and the actual reactors. That left federal safety regulator officials asking more questions. "We know that the scope of the project has been steadily expanding," Adams said. "But I don't suspect that there's a lot of wrongdoing here." Dickinson said a panel of politicians at an inquiry would provide little insight into OPG's problems. "Running a nuclear station is highly technical. If they have a panel of MPPs, what are they going to know? The easiest thing in the world is to snow MPPs on something as technical as this," he said. "You need people that understand nuclear facilities to have any chance at reasonable analysis." Legal Notice:- Copyright 1996-2002. Toronto Star Newspapers ***************************************************************** 26 Experts fear probe will slow Pickering [http://www.fyilondon.com] Thursday, November 14, 2002 Ontario Power Generation and the province blame each other for costly delays. By STEVE ERWIN, CP TORONTO -- A government investigation into costly delays in restarting several nuclear reactors at Pickering -- shutdowns that helped create a supply crunch and soaring power prices -- will offer little more than finger-pointing, critics said yesterday. The inquiry will further delay work on the project, which would bring about 2,000 megawatts of power back into the province's supply -- about eight per cent of what's needed at peak demand times, an electricity consultant said. "By holding an inquiry, you're essentially distracting the attention of management and the other people who are involved with the actual work and arguably, you're delaying the return-to-service date as a result," said Jan Carr, with Barker Dunn and Rossi in Toronto. "To me, the important thing would not be to hold an inquiry, but to get the job done." Ontario Energy Minister John Baird will release details in the next few days on the province's plans for an investigation into delays restoring power at the Pickering A station east of Toronto, said spokesperson Dan Miles. It will also find out why total costs to retrofit four nuclear reactors at the station -- out of service since 1997 -- are estimated at $2.5 billion, more than twice the original budget estimate. Miles said progress reports on the revamp gave the provincial government a "gross underestimation" of the project's scope and cost. The station was supposed to be back online this year, when rising air conditioner use helped create shortages and forced Ontario to import electricity to meet demand. Combined with electricity market deregulation that began May 1, the shortages produced soaring prices, creating a backlash against the government. Last month, Ontario Power Generation -- the Crown-owned company that owns the Pickering plant -- announced a third major delay of the restart. It said one of the four A units would reach the "commissioning" stage in the first quarter of 2003, a testing process which could take one to three months. The remaining three units are to be reassessed once the first unit is back online. OPG spokesperson John Earl said the power producer won't comment on the proposed investigation, announced Monday as part of a broad plan by Ontario's Conservative government to cap electricity prices, promote alternative energy and attract more private power producers to the province. Last month, OPG chief executive Ron Osborne said the delays and higher expenses were from "overly optimistic" early budgets, too much outsourcing of project management and lengthy environmental assessments that create higher salary and other costs. That's all an inquiry would reveal, said Jonathan Dickman-Wilkes, an analyst at Navigant Consulting in Toronto. "It's kind of more of a finger-pointing exercise than anything else," Dickman-Wilkes said, noting it's unfair to suggest retrofitting the decades-old stations is an easy task. "This is 1970s technology," he said. This week, Premier Ernie Eves's government blamed rising prices partly on Ontario Power Generation's failure to get the nuclear plants running again. OPG, the electricity-producing successor to former Ontario Hydro, accounts for nearly three-quarters of electricity generated in Ontario. Others blame the provincial government for not being more directly involved in the Pickering project. "The government is blaming everybody but themselves and they are responsible for putting this (market) together," said Arthur Dickinson, president of the Association of Major Power Consumers in Ontario. Private power producers have said confusion over when the huge reactors would come back online left them unable to predict whether it would be worth it to build new plants in Ontario. Dickinson said the May 1 opening of Ontario's energy market to competition should have been held off until the Pickering A reactors were back on stream. "Why were they asleep at the switch?" he said of the government. "It's not good enough to say, 'That's not what we were told.' "When the delay was repeated, why didn't they get more interested then?" Previous story: Aeroplan spreading its wings Next story: Iraq approval of inspectors fails to give lift to markets For all of today's stories [http://www.lfpress.com/subscribe/default.asp] Copyright © 2002, The London Free Press. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 27 Westchester To Study Buying Or Condemning Indian Point Nuclear Plant 7Online.com: (White Plains-WABC, November 13, 2002) — Can Westchester County turn the Indian Point nuclear power plant into a gas-fire power generator? That's the question County Executive Andrew Spano hopes to answer after a $500,000, six month study. Spano acknowledged that the conversion could cost more than $3 billion, but said that might eventually be recovered in cheaper electricity. He added that even if the money is not made back, residents might be willing to pay to be rid of their fears of nuclear catastrophe, saying, "This is a matter of safety." Indian Point security has been a major political issue in Westchester since the September 11th terrorist attacks. Village boards have voted for a shutdown, residents have lined up for pills to fight possible radiation sickness and activists have criticized Spano for defending the county's evacuation plan. The county executive has said repeatedly that while he wishes the two plants in Buchanan had been built elsewhere, he has no power to close them. During a news conference on Wednesday, Spano said recent county reports on electricity generation had pointed the way to a possible solution. He announced that, despite the county's budget woes, he was budgeting $500,000 for a six-month study to look into the Indian Point possibilities, including buying or condemning the plants. Andrew Spano, Westchester County Executive: "Replacing Indian Point's nuclear reactors will make us all feel safer. If we buy the facility, or if needed, condemn it... we can be masters of our own fate." County Legislator Michael Kaplowitz, who suggested months ago that the nuclear plants be replaced with gas plants, said, "This is fiscally possible. The jobs, the power and the tax considerations will be appropriately and reasonably dealt with. The sky will not fall." The plants' current owners issued a chilly reception to the idea and a political foe said it was "beside the point" of nuclear safety. But environmentalists were delighted. The Riverkeeper environmental organization, which has fought for the plants closing, said, "We applaud Andy Spano ... for putting together a concrete plan with substantial funds toward facilitating the decommissioning and conversion of the Indian Point site." Meanwhile, a spokesman for plant owner Entergy said the company "expects to operate Indian Point for a long time to come" as a nuclear power site and is not considering selling it. The spokesman added that he expects Spano's study to show that "electric rates would rise through the roof" if the county took over the plants and converted them. Among the questions to be considered in the study, Spano said, are what would become of Indian Point's 1,500 workers, how the taxes now paid by Entergy would be replaced, who would run the new plants and whether the county would need a partner, like New York City or the state, to handle the early costs. + Talk About This Story [http://boards.go.com/cgi/WABC/request.dll?LIST&room=wabc_newscha t] Last Updated: Nov 14, 2002 For More Information: + Spano's Statement On The
Emergency Response Plan [http://www.westchestergov.com/currentnews/indianpoint2.htm] + Indian Point Emergency
Response Preparedness [http://www.westchestergov.com/health/indianpoint.htm] + Westchester County's Planning
For Emergencies Booklet [http://www.westchestergov.com/currentnews/nypanew.htm] More On Nuclear Security In New York: + Westchester To Mail Out Indian Point Emergency Guide To Residents [http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/WABC_101002_indianptguides.html ] + FEMA To Release Indian Point Report Card Friday Afternoon [http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/WABC_092702_indianpt.html] + Westchester Officials: Dosage Guidelines For 'Anti-Radiation' Pills Fouls Distribution Plan [http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/WABC_032002_KIpill.html] + Governor Calls For Federal Review Of Emergency Plans At NY's Nuke Sites [http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/WABC_020102_nynukes.html] + Some Are Still Concerned About Westchester County's Evacuation Plan [http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/WABC_012402_wcevac.html] + Westchester County Execs Sign Off On Evacuation Plan; Legislature Says It Won't Work [http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/WABC_011602_indian.html] + More Pressure On Westchester County Schools To Stockpile Anti-Radiation Drug [http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/WABC_010902_kifight.html] + The Nuke Pill: Why Aren't Counties Stocking Up? [http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/WABC_110501_hoffer.html] ***************************************************************** 28 Probe of Pickering nuclear restart slammed Sen. Harry Reid downplayed a move by congressional negotiators Wednesday to restore $100 million in authorized money to the Yucca Mountain Project. But the move, which happened before Senate passage Wednesday of a Defense Department bill, indicates to Reid that Yucca proponents are going to try to find as much money as they can for the proposed nuclear waste dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. "We will continue to work to cut appropriations," Reid, D-Nev., said this morning. "They are looking for money to spend." Reid said Wednesday's bill, which increased the Defense Department's Yucca budget line from $215 million to $315 million, was out of his control. "What happened Wednesday was an authorization that I can't do anything about," Reid said. "It doesn't mean anything because it doesn't give anyone the appropriation." The bulk of 2003 Yucca funding is contained in the Department of Energy budget, which has not yet been approved by Congress. But some Yucca money is contained within the Defense budget because that department will pay for military nuclear waste stored at Yucca. This summer Reid had lobbied Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., to reduce the total amount of Yucca funding contained in the defense bill. Both the White House and the Department of Energy this week lobbied lawmakers to restore the $100 million authorization in the budget. DOE officials could not be reached this morning. The total defense bill approved Wednesday authorizes nearly $400 billion for military programs. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 42 UK: Nuclear waste route 'is risking lives'* Belfast Telegraph | Sunday Life Belfast Telegraph Publication Date: 14 November 2002 AN Ulster politician has claimed the transportation of radioactive waste through the Irish Sea is putting people's lives at risk. South Down MP Eddie McGrady said that the shipment of radioactive waste via the Irish Sea from Holland to Sellafield for reprocessing was "further evidence that British Nuclear Fuels and the British Government will go to any lengths to keep this plant open". The SDLP man pointed to "continued reports about inadequate safety at the plant" and "the ongoing discharges of radioactive and toxic waste into the Irish Sea from the plant". He added: "The transportation of radioactive and toxic waste up and down the Irish Sea to Sellafield from other countries places the local inhabitants in Ireland, both north and south, at risk." Mr McGrady called on the British Government and BNF to implement a plan for the decommissioning of all sections of the plant. *_Belfast Telegraph Digital competitions_* ***************************************************************** 43 Nuclear Waste Arrives at German Dump Las Vegas SUN November 14, 2002 By CLAUS-PETER TIEMANN ASSOCIATED PRESS DANNENBERG, Germany- A shipment of nuclear waste arrived early Thursday at a dump in northern Germany following a trip across the country that was slowed by determined protesters. A convoy of trucks carrying the 12 containers of reprocessed waste arrived shortly after dawn at the Gorleben waste storage site, about 75 miles southeast of Hamburg and for more than two decades a focus of Germany's strong anti-nuclear lobby. With the loaded containers weighing in at a total 1,320 tons, it was the biggest shipment yet to the site. Overnight, police cleared several hundred protesters from the road along the 12-mile final stretch of road from a rail terminal in the town of Dannenberg, where the containers were loaded onto trucks overnight. Accompanied by a fleet of police vans, the convoy set off from the sealed-off terminal for its hour-long trip to the above-ground shed at Gorleben, where it was greeted with loud whistles but no trouble. Demonstrations were banned within 50 yards on either side of the route. Protesters caused a delay of several hours as the containers traveled by train across Germany Tuesday and Wednesday on their journey from a reprocessing plant in western France, repeatedly occupying tracks. Police twice had to free demonstrators who had chained themselves to the rails. They were holding more than 160 people in custody Wednesday night. An estimated 10,000 to 15,000 officers throughout Germany were deployed for the latest shipment. Waste shipments to Gorleben resumed in March last year after a three-year break. The previous German government suspended shipments after radioactive leakage was discovered in some containers. Activists argue that neither the waste containers nor the dump are safe. Spent fuel from Germany's 19 nuclear power plants is sent to France and Britain for reprocessing under contracts that oblige Germany to take back the waste. Last year, the government and power companies signed an agreement to phase out nuclear power within about 20 years. Activists hope that protesting waste shipments will force a quicker shutdown. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 44 Plutonium bill clears House GreenvilleOnline.com - News November 13, 2002 - 8:26 pm e-mail By James T. Hammond CAPITAL BUREAU COLUMBIA – The U.S. House of Representatives has approved compromise legislation that would award South Carolina financial compensation if the federal government fails to reprocess and remove from the state 34 tons of surplus weapons-grade plutonium. U.S. Sen.-elect Lindsey Graham said the legislation "provides unprecedented protections for the state." "It has a requirement that all plutonium leave the state at a date certain if the MOX program fails and those requirements are backed by unprecedented financial penalties for non-compliance," Graham said. Last year, Gov. Jim Hodges warned that the Bush administration was scaling back federal government promises to build the necessary facilities to reprocess the plutonium in South Carolina and then remove it to a permanent repository in another state. The Democratic governor first threatened to blockade state highways to keep the plutonium out of the state, then went to federal court to try to stop the shipments. His court challenge was rejected in U.S. District Court. Morton Brilliant, Hodges spokesman, said Wednesday the legislation was "better than nothing." "The governor has consistently said that legislation is a good last step. It gives no certainty that the plutonium will leave South Carolina. It provides no security for the citizens of our state. It's helpful, but it's not a solution," Brilliant said. The Senate is due to vote on the Defense Authorization Act soon. The House-passed measure is a compromise agreement by a joint House-Senate conference committee. The 34 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium from the U.S. nuclear arsenal is currently being shipped to Savannah River Site, where it will be chemically converted into fuel to power commercial nuclear reactors to produce electricity or otherwise treated to be disposed of outside of South Carolina. According to a statement from Graham, the major elements of the plutonium provision include: -- Requires the Secretary of Energy report to Congress on the progress of the MOX program. Program failure could not be hidden and Congress could act to protect the state. -- If the secretary fails to certify the program is on schedule provisions are in place to cease plutonium shipments. -- If the program is not producing MOX fuel on schedule (by 2009), the Department of Energy must within two years produce one ton of MOX or remove one ton of plutonium from the state. A failure to meet this requirement results in a $1 million per day -- up to $100 million per year -- fee until the requirement is met. -- By 2017, the department must produce a total of three tons of MOX fuel. The production schedule must also produce one ton a year for two consecutive years. -- By 2017, if the MOX program is not successfully operating, then all remaining plutonium must be removed immediately. In addition, a $1 million per day -- up to $100 million per year -- fee will be assessed during the removal period to ensure expeditious removal. The $1 million per day up to $100 million per year fee does not absolve the government of its legal responsibility to remove all plutonium. "A bipartisan federal law is the best protection to prevent South Carolina from becoming the permanent storage site for plutonium," said Graham. Copyright 2001 The Greenville News. ***************************************************************** 45 Yucca funding restored to bill reviewjournal.com -- News: Thursday, November 14, 2002 Reid downplays change to defense measure By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- House and Senate negotiators restored $100 million to the Yucca Mountain Project that had been cut from a defense bill over the summer at the urging of Sen. Harry Reid. The bill, which the Senate passed Wednesday and sent to President Bush, contains $315 million as the Defense Department's 2003 contribution to nuclear waste storage in Nevada. An earlier version slashed the amount to $215 million after Reid, D-Nev., lobbied the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. It was not immediately clear what led to the restoration. The White House and Energy Department lobbied for the money to be put back, arguing the reduction could stall efforts to develop a repository at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. DOE officials could not be reached Wednesday night for comment. The defense bill authorizes $393 billion overall for weapons, personnel and other programs managed by the Pentagon. The Yucca Mountain Project is part of the defense budget because the Defense Department has committed to pay for part of the repository to store military nuclear waste. Most of the project is funded through the Energy Department, whose budget remains unsettled because Congress has not acted on the department's 2003 appropriations bill. Reid was not directly involved in the defense bill talks and downplayed the final product, saying the Yucca Mountain budget will be determined ultimately through the appropriations process. "This doesn't mean anything," he said. "I can't control the authorization." Reid said the funding is a sign that Yucca supporters "are going to do everything they can to spend all the money they can" on nuclear waste storage in Nevada. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 Stephens Media ***************************************************************** 46 South Carolina: Raiding of funds criticized The State | 11/14/2002 | Wildlife Federation says Legislature is hurting efforts to protect environment By SAMMY FRETWELL Staff Writer Programs to protect rivers, clean up gasoline spills and find leaks at a nuclear waste dump are suffering because of the state's ever-worsening financial crisis, a new report says. South Carolina legislators took $53.4 million last year from environmental protection accounts to help balance the state's budget, according to a report by the S.C. Wildlife Federation. The report, being released today, says the S.C. General Assembly shouldn't raid the funds again if the state wants to protect natural resources. The federation analyzed 15 funds set up specifically for environmental programs, ranging from pollution response to land protection. It found the Legislature had lifted money from each of these accounts, in most cases interest that was building up. "It's a breach of trust," said Angela Viney, director of the environmental group. "We're putting the public at risk. I don't think people had any idea about this." Wildlife Federation officials said some of the environmental funds were established with fees and other government money set aside to pay for specific programs. But other funds were created from citizen donations for specific programs. The funds hit by the Legislature do not include general budget reductions environmental agencies have absorbed the past two years. By far, the biggest fund tapped by the Legislature was the Barnwell County low-level nuclear waste fund. It was established to look for pollution leaks and clean up contamination at the nuclear dump. The Legislature took $49.3 million of the fund, leaving a $23 million balance, the report said. Lawmakers said earlier this year they would try to replenish the fund in $5 million annual increments. State agencies, which oversee the funds, didn't dispute the report's numbers. Legislators who crafted this year's budget said the decision to take money from the environmental funds was unavoidable. The state's faltering economy contributed to a multimillion-dollar shortfall the state had to overcome, legislators said. Charleston Republican Bobby Harrell, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, said he preferred to save health care programs for disabled children and the elderly and programs for education. South Carolina's budget shortfall this past year was $320 million. "I share their concern," Harrell said of the Wildlife Federation. "But if you ask me to pick, ‘.‘.‘. it's not a hard call." Harrell said the Legislature did not take all of the money from the special environmental funds, only the interest being earned. Even so, Ways and Means Committee member Larry Koon, R-Lexington, said he hopes the Legislature will restore the environmental money in next year's budget. Legislators have previously committed to put back some of the money, although state agencies fear lawmakers could change their minds. The Wildlife Federation's report said the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control lost $3 million from six special environmental funds, while DNR lost nearly $700,000 from cuts to five funds. Specific cuts identified in the report included: • More than $1 million from two funds to clean up leaks from aging underground fuel tanks. The tank funds have $17 million left, but DHEC's Wanda Crotwell said most of that is already committed for specific cleanups. South Carolina has about 3,800 leaking underground storage tanks; • More than $940,000 from a fund to clean up pollution at the old Safety-Kleen hazardous waste landfill near Lake Marion. The account, called the permitted site fund, has about $13.7 million today. Previous reports have placed the cost of the landfill's closure and potential cleanup at more than $100 million; • Nearly $440,000 from a DNR fund to clean up and restore the Reedy River near Greenville. The river was heavily polluted by an oil spill about six years ago. A company responsible for the pipeline leak paid a fine to help restore the river. The fund today has less than $6 million; • More than $212,000 from the Heritage Trust land fund, money set aside to buy and preserve ecologically important property. ***************************************************************** 47 Sellafield: FEARS OVER SAFETY INCENTIVES [The Whitehaven News] EXPERTS are worried that Sellafield's safety could be jeopardised once future site management is put into the hands of big nuclear contractors. They fear that incident reports might be faked if contractors take risks to capitalise on the near-£50 billion of taxpayers money available for massive clean up work. The warning comes from the country's radioactive waste advisors, RWMAC, in its advice to the government on proposals for setting up the new Liabilities Management Authority. The LMA will own Sellafield along with other nuclear sites and hand out contracts for future key work. But RWMAC fears that bonus money paid to contractors to meet safety targets could lead to them faking incident reports and covering up safety issues. It is vital that responsibilities and accountabilities for ensuring safety are clearly allocated. David Moore, chairman of the watchdog Sellafield Local Liaison Committee, said: "Safety must be put in front of profits. It is not inconceivable that one day we could have French companies running Sellafield." The LMA is due to take over ownership of Sellafield from BNFL and the UKAEA armed with nearly £50 billion to spend on cleaning up Britain's nuclear waste legacy, most of it at Sellafield. Future work will be put out to contractors who will be offered incentives to do well. BNFL and the AEA will be given initial contracts but after that they face competition. RWMAC - the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee - says that while the LMA will own nuclear sites the direct management of them will go to other bodies like BNFL who will also hold the site licences. Delivery of clean-up programmes will be the responsibility of site licensees under incentivised arrangements. RWMAC believes that potentially this structure "could give rise to serious difficulties in adequately ensuring safety." Under the LMA proposals, the key legal accountabilities would lie with the contractors. RWMAC says: "There is the question of whether safety can, in principle, be incentivised. Safety is an absolute which cannot be delivered in part. Bonus payments based partly on achievement on safety targets can risk false reporting of incidents and accidents and driving safety issues underground. "The need is for careful setting of targets linked to payment levels that obviate these risks while encouraging contractors to "go the extra mile" to ensure a high degree of safety. "Very great care on setting contractual conditions will therefore be needed if the potential benefits are to be realised. This is an area about which RWMAC does have serious concerns, and the one to which it believes the government in conjunction, in particular with the Health &Safety Executive, needs to give considerable thought." http://www.whitehaven-news.co.uk ***************************************************************** 48 Md. on battle line over water pollutant APG contaminates wells, agencies fight over limit By Lane Harvey Brown Sun Staff Originally published November 14, 2002 For weeks, high-level discussions between federal and state environmental officials and the Defense Department have produced no solutions about how to treat a Harford County town's contaminated drinking water. Military training exercises at Aberdeen Proving Ground, a key center for Army testing and research, have left most of the city of Aberdeen's wells tainted by perchlorate. The chemical, which is used as a propellant, impairs thyroid function and is suspected of contributing to developmental problems in fetuses, infants and young children. As it negotiates cleanup of Aberdeen's wells, Maryland is being drawn into a national dispute over perchlorate, a saltlike compound detected in ground water in 21 other states from Massachusetts to California. The major question facing states is this: How much perchlorate can people safely ingest? The Environmental Protection Agency, the Maryland Department of the Environment and the Defense Department have not reached a consensus on the standard to be allowed. So, states are setting their own advisory levels - with Maryland and Massachusetts having the nation's lowest. The standard is critical in Aberdeen and across the nation, because the lower the level allowed, the higher the cleanup cost. It could push Defense Department spending into the billions of dollars instead of millions. But without an EPA-determined national limit for perchlorate in drinking water, the military's response has been blunt: No standard, no cleanup. "The battle line is really being drawn between EPA and DoD," said California lawyer Barry Groveman. In Aberdeen, a community group that monitors cleanup at APG has written Maryland senators, Gov.-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman, decrying the drawn-out discussions between state and federal officials as "sending the wrong message to the DoD." The Defense Department argues that the message on perchlorate is simple: Research has not clearly defined a public health hazard. "I don't think anyone is satisfied with the level of scientific information on perchlorate," said John Paul Woodley Jr., assistant deputy undersecretary of defense for environmental matters. He was surprised when asked how the military would respond to a cleanup order in Maryland of 1 part per billion, the state's current advisory level. "I would not expect them to propose anything along those lines," he said. "I would expect us to continue ... discussions about what action, if any, is appropriate under these circumstances." *Protecting citizens * But Robert S. Summers, director of MDE's Water Management Administration, said last week that EPA research led his agency to issue the 1 part per billion advisory level for perchlorate in August, and that there were no plans to revise it. "Based on EPA work, we think the science is there to say 1 [part per billion] is a safe level," he said. "We're trying to protect our citizens," Summers said. "We want the Army to clean up the contamination. We don't want these levels to get any worse." Contamination in Aberdeen's well field ranges from 5 parts to 14 parts per billion. Asked if the Defense Department would sue the state or appeal a cleanup decision, Woodley said: "I would not speculate on that." Summers said he hopes it won't come to that. "We're working with the Environmental Protection Agency and APG to try to come to a resolution," he said. "We haven't achieved that to this point." EPA appears to be years away from issuing a standard - known as a maximum contaminant level, or MCL - for perchlorate. MCLs are used to define cleanup standards. Right now, the chemical is wending its way through EPA reviews. But there is wide-ranging disagreement over any figures, which are measured in parts per billion - a hard-to-imagine number for the average person. One part per billion is equivalent to about one drop of water in an Olympic-size swimming pool, said Will Humble, chief of the environmental health office in the Arizona Department of Health Services. "It sounds so infinitesimal, but it can be so important," he said. "Every compound has its own toxicity." An Air Force toxicologist meeting with water utility officials last month in Ontario, Calif., posited 70 parts per billion of perchlorate in drinking water as an acceptable limit; California officials, on the other hand, are considering a limit of 4 parts per billion. Several states, including Arizona, have advisory limits as high as 14 parts per billion. If Maryland orders a cleanup to 1 part per billion, communities in other states could demand the same treatment level, said Kevin Mayer, a scientist in EPA's Pacific Southwest office. At any site, the amount of water requiring treatment increases significantly as the maximum contaminant level decreases, Woodley said. "The lower it gets, exponentially, the costs will increase," he said. So will the number of sites requiring treatment. Perchlorate has been used for decades as an oxidizer in jet and rocket fuels. The chemical is also used in the nuclear and space industries, and in fireworks. Only eight states have no known manufacturers or users. While the Defense Department is not the sole consumer of perchlorate, the explosive salt is widely used by the military to jump-start smoke grenades, jet fuel and other incendiary devices. In Massachusetts, the military is committed to a $300 million cleanup around Cape Cod's Massachusetts Military Reservation that includes perchlorate remediation, said Joel Feigenbaum, a community college mathematics professor and activist. Perchlorate levels as high as 300 parts per billion have been found in the area's ground water, he said. In San Bernardino County, east of Los Angeles, one water district has found 820 parts per billion of perchlorate in its wells. The Department of Defense, private industries, a fireworks plant and a landfill have operated in the area. Perchlorate has been found in 59 municipal water supplies in California, from Sacramento to Southern California, said the EPA's Mayer. He said the contaminant has also been found in Nevada's Lake Mead and the Colorado River, which irrigates more than 90 percent of the nation's winter vegetable crops and supplies water to as many as 20 million residents in Arizona, Nevada and California. "Statewide, perchlorate's becoming a very serious problem," said Barry Groveman, a Los Angeles lawyer who heads the Perchlorate Task Force, a group formed several months ago that includes water companies, city governments, lawyers and other agencies. *Much more to learn * Much remains to be learned about perchlorate's effect on the human body, and those most vulnerable - fetuses, infants and small children - cannot be safely tested. Impaired thyroid function can cause retardation, hyperactivity and other developmental problems. Regulators and toxicologists say that until more is known, the perchlorate limit should be conservative. Adding to the dispute is the fact that the studies that discount risks of perchlorate have been funded by the Defense Department, perchorate producers or the Perchlorate Study Group, which is constituted primarily of defense contractors. An Arizona health department study completed in 2000, however, suggested adverse health effects in newborns whose mothers were exposed to perchlorate in drinking water. "It's a smoking gun; it's a real problem for the military," said Lenny Siegel, director of the Center for Public Environmental Oversight, based in California. "The fear for the Army is that once they start looking for [perchlorate], they'll find more of it." Groveman, the Los Angeles lawyer, said a class action lawsuit similar to the one filed by states against tobacco companies could be a way to force the military to act. He said Defense Department efforts to fight cleanup and dispute safe perchlorate levels are unacceptable. But Woodley said the military is acting appropriately under the circumstances. "Apply common sense, don't panic and do the best you can," he said. "That's the policy that we're trying to apply here." Copyright © 2002, The Baltimore Sun ***************************************************************** 49 Partial Victories on Nuclear Weapons in Congress Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 14:38:42 -0600 (CST) Partial Victories on Nuclear Weapons in Congress On Wednesday, November 13, 2002, Congress completed action on the defense authorization bill, H.R. 4546. This annual bill authorizes funds for the Defense Department and for the nuclear weapons portion of the Energy Department. Nuclear disarmament advocates had both victories and losses in the final bill. In short, we stopped the mini-nuke and we put speed bumps in the way of the bunker buster. Ban on "mini-nukes" retained. In 1993, Congress banned the development of nuclear weapons of less than five kilotons, also known as "mini-nukes." The House version of this year's military authorization bill would have weakened the Congressional ban and allowed research to begin on developing these new nuclear weapons. The conference committee dropped this language in the final bill, leaving the current prohibition on "mini-nukes" in place. "Bunker buster" funded with restrictions. The administration requested $15 million to begin the first year of a three-year feasibility study on another new nuclear warhead, called the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP), or "bunker buster." The Senate deleted the funds in its version of the defense bill. The final bill funds the warhead study with restrictions. The funds will not be released until 30 days after the Defense Department reports on (1) the military requirements for the RNEP; (2) the nuclear weapons employment policy for the RNEP; (3) the detailed categories or types of targets that the RNEP is designed to hold at risk; and (4) an assessment of the ability of conventional weapons to address the same types of categories of targets that the RNEP is designed to hold at risk. The National Academy of Sciences will conduct a study for Congress on the short-term and long-term effects of using a nuclear earth penetrator on the nearby civilian population and on U.S. military personnel who may carry out operations in the area after such use. This outcome delays the beginning of the feasibility study by half a year and throws the decision on whether to continue the warhead into the next Congress. Test Site readiness remains unchanged. The House bill would have required the Energy Department's Nevada Test Site to be able to resume nuclear testing within 12 months. The final bill simply requires the administration to prepare cost estimates of being able to resume testing within six, 12, 18 and 24 months. This is an important partial victory. These issues will be raised and debated again by nuclear weapons proponents in the new Congress next year. David Culp Friends Committee on National Legislation (Quakers) November 14, 2002 ***************************************************************** 50 So is it war? BY BRET STEPHENS The Jerusalem Post Internet Edition Thu., Nov. 14, 2002 The war plans are on the president's desk and, by any measure, the force assembled in the Persian Gulf is immense. Tens of thousands of troops, three aircraft carriers, hundreds of fighter and attack jets, dozens of bombers and 575 cruise missiles are poised to strike Iraq following its refusal to open suspected weapons sites to United Nations inspectors. Predictably, Saudi Arabia will not allow the US to launch strikes on its neighbor from the Prince Sultan air base. But smaller Persian Gulf states are proving amenable, and 15 nations have joined the US-led coalition, despite resistance in the UN from France and Russia. In the White House, a top administration official tells the president the time to "diddle around" with UN resolutions is over, and the other principals agree. "Finally, after years of frustration with the Iraqi dictator," goes the report in The Wall Street Journal, "the unanimous judgment came almost with a sense of relief." A preview of next month's news? Not exactly. This was the state of play on February 17, 1998, just days before UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, with the aid of six Cuban cigars, secured from Saddam Hussein (who "only smokes cigars with people I trust") a pledge to open all suspected sites, including presidential palaces, to UN weapons inspectors. In the event, Saddam violated the terms of the agreement and expelled the inspectors that summer. A four-day Anglo-American air strike dubbed Operation Desert Fox followed in December, but by that time the urgency of the moment was lost and the effects of the attack on Iraq's weapons' capabilities were negligible. It is too soon to tell whether a repeat of this scenario is in the offing. On Friday last week, the UN Security Council unanimously endorsed Resolution 1441, holding Iraq "in material breach" of its past disarmament obligation and offering it "a final opportunity to comply" lest it face "serious consequences." Iraq decided Wednesday to accept the resolution and has until December 8 to provide a "currently accurate, full and complete" list of any weapons of mass destruction still in its arsenal. For its part, the UN must place a team of inspectors - known by the acronym Unmovic - in Iraq by December 23; a full report from the team is due 60 days thereafter, when the matter will again be taken up by the Security Council for review. The Bush administration sees Resolution 1441 not only as a diplomatic triumph but also as cover for all-but inevitable military action. Though the resolution gives Saddam the opportunity to avert his own overthrow by complying fully with its terms, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told CNN that was about as likely as him "jumping over the moon." Other commentators agreed. "Bush joyous as way opens to topple Saddam," went the headline in the November 9 issue of Britain's Daily Telegraph. Not everyone is quite so sure, however. Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, tells The Jerusalem Post that war with Iraq is now "further off, because there's less of a chance of Saddam misreading the international politics of the situation." Sam Lewis, the former US ambassador to Israel, agrees. "War is less imminent than a month ago," he says. "The UN resolution, though it's tough, leaves room for Saddam Hussein to stall and delay long enough to confuse the issue." Stall, delay and confuse have been the hallmarks of Saddam's dealings with the UN over the past decade. According to US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, the administration plans to take a "zero tolerance" approach to "the next material breach" by Iraq of Security Council resolutions. Yet the term "material breach" remains substantially undefined and open to interpretation. What's more, its definition rests largely in the hands of Unmovic chief Hans Blix, a former director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency whose record as a whistle-blower is not encouraging. During his tenure at the IAEA before the Gulf War, Blix adjudged Iraq's compliance with the agency "exemplary," even as the country secretly moved forward with its nuclear weapons' program. Then too, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, in 1993 Blix tried to muzzle former IAEA inspector David Kay when he went public with allegations (since confirmed) of North Korea's nuclear program. "The way that Blix has now chosen to intervene," wrote Kay in a letter to the Journal, "gives the appearance of an attempt at coercion and suppression of uncomfortable ideas." Blix's questionable reliability is not the only potential obstacle to America's military designs. "Against the full resources of a nation state, with thousands of people and many intelligence and security organs, it was a hopeless endeavor," says Charles Duelfer, a former top UN weapons' inspector, of the inspections process. Since Israel's destruction of the Osirak reactor in 1981, Hussein has dispersed his WMD programs across the country, so that it is now nearly impossible to uncover without the aid of defectors. In 1995, the West caught a lucky break when information gleaned from one such defector, Lt. Gen. Hussein Kamel Hassan al-Majid, gave inspectors details about undeclared and unsuspected WMD production sites. The text of Resolution 1441 insists that Iraq furnish Unmovic with "immediate, unimpeded, unrestricted and private access to" anyone suspected of involvement in Iraq's WMD programs. Yet Blix sees "practical difficulties" with this approach, meaning he's unlikely to pursue it. Fresh intelligence is thus not likely to become available via the UN. Yet perhaps the greatest pitfall for the US is partial Iraqi disclosure. "Hussein will certainly try to create the impression that he is complying with the resolution," writes Dennis Ross in The Washington Post. "No doubt he will turn over voluminous quantities of documents; he may even turn over materials he has heretofore hidden. But he will not turn over the crown jewels of his WMD programs." For the administration, then, two things are required for Iraq to be found in material breach of 1441: not just hard information on previously undisclosed Iraqi WMD sites, but information Saddam does not suspect the US already to have and is unlikely to turn over on his own. "If Saddam comes forth on December 8 and says 'I've got A, B and C,' and we say, 'that's ludicrous, you've also got D, E, and F, and that is it, you've lied,' that would be great," says William Kristol, publisher of Washington's influential conservative Weekly Standard. But whether the administration actually has "D, E and F" is not yet known. Of course, the administration may tire of playing by the UN's rulebook, just as the Clinton administration nearly did in 1998. Nor is the US technically obliged to go back to the Security Council to seek another resolution authorizing force against Iraq. Yet having chosen to go the UN route, it is difficult to imagine the US now backing out of it barring flagrant Iraqi provocation. "The administration has promised its allies that they will go ahead and prove Saddam is lying," adds Kristol. "They'll send inspectors in to confirm. Once you get inspectors on the ground, the thing drags out." For how long? The 105-day process currently mandated by Resolution 1441 - 45 days for Blix to get his people on the ground, plus 60 to produce a report - concludes at the end of February. That gives the US and its allies sufficient time to assemble a massive military force in the region. But it gives little time, given meteorological conditions and probable diplomatic imbroglios, to launch and conclude a successful invasion. By then, the US may face a radically different, possibly more hostile, international climate. The winds of war may abate. Or Saddam may unveil, to an astonished world, the Arab world's first nuclear bomb. Whatever happens, the countdown has begun, but towards what nobody can yet say. *THE WEAPONS: HOW GRAVE A THREAT* - From Baghdad to the health ministry of a European country comes the eeriest of questions: How does one treat an outbreak of anthrax? Several weeks later, another odd missive, this time to a Turkish pharmaceutical supplier: an order for a million doses of 18-cm. atropine auto-injectors. Atropine is a drug used for heart attack victims. It is also a nerve gas antidote. It is not clear whether the first message was intended as a warning to the West of what an invasion force might expect or as a genuine plea for help following an accidental outbreak at a weapons lab. What isn't in doubt is that over the past decade Iraq has produced huge quantities of chemical and biological weapons. According to Kelly Motz of the Washington DC-based Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, this includes 3.9 tons of the VX nerve agent and 12,500 gallons of anthrax, among other poisons. Nor is it a secret that Iraq retains a limited capacity to deliver these weapons ballistically, with up to 20 al-Hussein missiles with a 1000 km. range. But it is equally clear that even in the event of a US-led attack, which most analysts believe will prompt Saddam Hussein to strike Israel with every weapon at his disposal, the missiles pose only a limited threat, for three reasons. First, because Iraqi missile sites are more difficult to conceal than weapons-making facilities, and will be among the first targets of an American air strike. London's Sunday Times has also reported that Israeli commando teams may already be trying to locate and destroy the missiles in the deserts of Western Iraq. Second, because Israel's anti-ballistic missile defenses, bolstered by the Arrow, are relatively robust. And third, because ballistic missiles are not effective vehicles for dispersing chemical or biological agents over wide areas. But the threat doesn't end there. "Under ideal delivery conditions," write terrorism experts Laurie Mylroie and Richard Speier, "one manned or unmanned aircraft - operating upwind outside of Israeli airspace - could cover 10,000 square kilometers with a lethal [anthrax] dose." There's another delivery system: a terrorist. Palestinian suicide bombers have been known to soak the nails packed in their explosives with rat poison and have attempted to use cyanide as well. Conceivably, too, terrorists could deposit antibiotic-resistant anthrax spores in the ventilation systems of large buildings or contaminate Israel's water supply with nerve gas. Israelis might then begin dying in massive numbers before the government could mount a preventive campaign. Oh, and smallpox. In 1994, UN weapons inspectors came across a freeze-dryer at an Iraqi medical complex labeled "smallpox"; US and UN officials are convinced Iraq possesses the smallpox virus in weaponized form. So far, the government has vaccinated 15,000 emergency workers. Yet Israel has not vaccinated children for smallpox since 1980. In the event of an outbreak, nearly two million young Israelis would have to be inoculated within four days. In the end, however, nature herself may prove the best deterrent. Palestinians seeking to spread disease among Israelis would run a high risk of contaminating the Palestinian and Arab-Israeli populations as well. Also, anthrax spores are mainly infectious at night; a few hours' exposure to daylight quickly kills them. As US Justice Louis Brandeis said in a wholly different context, sunshine really is "the best disinfectant." *THE REGION: WIDER WAR?* - But the threat to Israel's security comes not only from Iraq and its Palestinian minions and fellow travelers. There are other terror groups, Hizbullah especially, that might seek to draw Israel into a wider war. European diplomatic sources in close contact with Syria and Iran tell The Jerusalem Post that Hizbullah is unlikely to attack. And Syria's vote in favor of Resolution 1441 does suggest that Bashar Assad, who's in a position to put the brakes on Hizbullah, was "buying life insurance" in the war on terror, as New York Times columnist Tom Friedman put it Wednesday. Israeli experts are less sure. The younger Assad is known to have a love affair with what he views as the swashbuckling adventurers of Hizbullah. And Hizbullah also takes its cues from the power-wielding radicals of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, who would certainly not relish the establishment of a pro-Western government in Iraq. In such circumstances, it is conceivable that Teheran might try to use its Lebanese proxy to exacerbate an already volatile situation. According to Gabriel Ben-Dor, director of the University of Haifa's National Security Studies Center, Hizbullah might also be emboldened by the perception that, in the event of war, it would enjoy a free hand against an Israel "restrained by the US and international considerations, which was the case 11 years ago." What does that entail, exactly? On the low end, Ben-Dor believes, Hizbullah could send infiltrators to Israel in support of Palestinian groups; on the high end, "it will use its missiles to attack targets in northern Israel, as far south as Haifa." A nightmarish scenario thus comes into view: chemical and biological attacks by Iraq, Hizbullah bombardments and missile strikes and terror attacks from the Palestinians. Will Israel then be restrained? Former Labor minister Ephraim Sneh told the Post last month that Israel would do what it could to placate America. But, he added, "we're not going to sit on our ass." *THE PALESTINIANS: SHALL WE DANCE?* - If an American attack on Iraq - and an Iraqi attack on Israel - puts the Jewish state in a quandary, something similar goes for the Palestinians. The Palestinian Authority is instinctively sympathetic toward Iraq; the Palestinian media speak of "our sister Iraq." And to date, Saddam has given the Palestinians some $25 million; $10,000 apiece to the families of suicide bombers. "The same feeling that engulfs the Palestinian street also engulfs the Iraqi one," says Mordechai Keddar of the Begin-Sadat Center at Bar-Ilan University. "They are in the same ditch, fighting the same powers, with no support from the Arab world." Yet just as Israel might be forced to stay its hand against Iraq, the Palestinian Authority also has reasons - as it did on September 11 - to tamp popular expressions of support for Iraq. Israel, many Palestinians believe, will use the distracting spectacle of a war against Baghdad to wipe out the PA or carry out wide-scale population transfers. As a result, Keddar believes, even as some Palestinians dance on their rooftops, most "will get into the shelter in order not to have the wrath of Israel and the States fall upon them." They will do so, moreover, under the watchful gaze of a PA terrified of losing the last shred of support it enjoys from the American administration. Then again, maybe not. On Wednesday, the Fatah web site published an Internet poll showing 80 percent support for suicide bombings on both sides of the Green Line. Other polls in the Palestinian press indicate 60% to 70% support for the attacks. And there has been no attempt by either Yasser Arafat, his Fatah organization or his mouthpieces in the media to slow the pace of terror, as this week's attack on Kibbutz Metzer shows. If war comes, says Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch, Palestinians "would probably want to show they're doing their bit for Saddam" in their common struggle against Israel and America. That means more terror attacks, not fewer. He may be right. Precisely because Arafat is today so unpopular among Palestinians (surveys regularly show Saddam is the more admired figure of the two), he may be reluctant to clamp down on pro-Saddam demonstrations, much less reign in Hamas, Islamic Jihad or his own al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade. Then too, the consequences of Arafat's support for Saddam during the first Gulf War were not, in retrospect, utterly catastrophic. Though Palestinians were expelled from Kuwait and Arab states cut their support for the PLO, within three years he was making his triumphal entry into Gaza. *THE FUTURE: A NEW NEW MIDDLE EAST* - And so it could happen again. Even today, scenarios are being limned for the proverbial "day after," not just in Iraq, but throughout the region. "Saddam's removal," says Dennis Ross, "would represent a seismic change in the Middle East. But like any earthquake the land resettles, and if the seismic change is to mean anything, action would be required quickly to promote longer term change in the region - including on the peace process." Ambassador Lewis agrees: "After a war - a successful war that doesn't leave the US trying to pacify a country that's fallen apart - then there will be another phase of effort to get movement on the Israeli-Palestinian front, something analogous to the Madrid conference." Israelis with bitter memories of where that conference led - huge pressure from the US on a Likud-led government leading to its collapse, followed by seven divisive and ultimately fruitless years of Oslo - may look on this scenario with alarm. But not everyone thinks that history will repeat itself. Amir Taheri, an Iranian-born journalist and editor of the French magazine Politique Internationale, notes one difference. In the first Gulf War the Arab states lined up solidly behind the US, for which they expected, and got, something in return. This time, he says, "the US is not treating the Arabs as a bloc anymore. They are treating them according to their performance individually." Countries like Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait may expect favors from the US. Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the most recalcitrant of America's "partners," may see their relationships with Washington reassessed. There is another difference. In 1991, Arafat was widely perceived as the only man who could "deliver" the Palestinians and thus deliver peace. But Israel is unlikely to travel that road again. In 1991, too, the reigning paradigm in American policy circles was "land for peace," which put the onus on Israel to make the hard concessions. By contrast, President George W. Bush's doctrine of June 24 suggests a new framework: reform for land. The purpose of a second Madrid conference, says Ross, "would have to require the Palestinians to assume a responsibility for ensuring their territory would not be a safe haven for those who attack Israel - not in words but in deeds." But that is still some time off. In the meantime, the world girds for a war that may yet never be fought. With reporting by: Khaled Abu-Toameh, David Rudge, Janine Zacharia, Margot Dudkevitch, Elli Wohlgelernter, Leora Eren Frucht and Jenny Hazan. © 1995-2002, The Jerusalem Post - All rights reserved, ***************************************************************** 51 US, Iraq May Be Nearing Showdown Guardian Unlimited | World Latest | [UP] Thursday November 14, 2002 12:30 PM WASHINGTON (AP) - Iraq's bitterly worded acceptance of U.N. demands that it disarm has failed to ease tensions with the Bush administration. Instead, the two sides are moving into position for a showdown. President Bush, signaling unabated impatience with Saddam Hussein, says he will not tolerate deception, denial or deceit as Iraq faces a series of deadlines imposed by the U.N. Security Council. ``The world expects Saddam Hussein to disarm for the sake of peace,'' Bush said Wednesday with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan at his side in the White House Oval Office. Annan quickly concurred. The U.N. resolution that requires Iraq to disarm or be faced with serious consequences, ``must be implemented,'' he said. ``Let the inspectors go in,'' Annan said. ``I urge the Iraqis to cooperate with them and to perform and I think that is the test we are waiting for.'' Bush, meanwhile, renewed his warning that if Iraq ``chooses not to disarm, we will have a coalition of the willing with us'' to do the job. The international weapons inspectors are to resume their search for illegal caches by Dec. 23 and are to report to the Security Council 60 days after they start looking. At any point, failure by Iraq to comply with its obligations, and any false statements or omissions in the list, are to be reported by the inspectors to the Security Council. Administration officials suggested that Iraq may already be flouting the spirit of the resolution, first by declaring Wednesday it has no weapons of mass destruction. If Saddam continues to make that claim after the Dec. 8 deadline to declare his weapons program, he would be inviting war, U.S. officials said. The nine-page acceptance letter by Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri was delivered to Annan's office at the United Nations. While Sabri declared Iraq would comply with the resolution in an effort to spare the Iraqi people harm, he warned inspectors, who will begin to move into position next week, that Iraq would watch their actions very closely. ``Dealing with the inspectors, the government of Iraq will ... take into consideration their way of conduct, the intentions of those who are ill-intentioned among them and their improper approach in showing respect to the people's national dignity, their independence and security, and their country's security, independence, and sovereignty,'' the letter said. In the letter, Sabri accused Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair of fabricating ``the biggest and most wicked slander against Iraq'' by claiming that it had or was on its way to producing nuclear weapons and had already produced biological and chemical weapons. At the State Department, spokesman Richard Boucher did not yield an inch. ``Iraq needs to account for a lot,'' he said. ``They need to account for the programs that they still had when the inspectors left in 1998. They need to account for the procurements that they've made and the new developments that we know have been ongoing. And they need to provide lists of all their holdings, and ... the personnel involved and the organizations involved, as well.'' Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 ***************************************************************** 52 NORTH KOREA: HIGH STAKES IN NUCLEAR TEST CASE NORTH KOREA -- November 21, 2002 (* free access *) A CHALLENGE TO THE NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY By John Larkin Issue cover-dated November 21, 2002 The latest bout of nuclear tension on the Korean peninsula has ramifications that could ripple far. How it is resolved will be a crucial testing ground for future efforts to prevent other small states with big nuclear dreams from building a bomb. North Korea's admission that it has been enriching uranium is a flouting, rather than a violation, of the 1994 Agreed Framework under which Pyongyang agreed to dismantle its nuclear programme. That's because it is not legally binding. It is, however, a clear violation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, or NPT, which faces a major challenge. "There's more at stake here than just what's going to happen in North Korea and Northern Asia," says Henry Sokolski of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Centre in Washington. He says other countries aspiring to join the exclusive nuclear weapons club will watch closely to see whether the world allows North Korea to get away with an illicit arms programme. "The implications of how we handle North Korea will ricochet off every nuclear proliferator," Sokolski stresses. The NPT is a controversial document that binds nuclear powers Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States to reducing their arsenals while banning all other nations from developing nuclear weapons. Nonsignatories India and Pakistan have also developed nuclear weapons. Safeguard inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency are the NPT's most crucial weapon against nuclear proliferation. North Korea's rejection of full-blown IAEA inspections and a perceived reluctance by the U.S. to back international security treaties has weakened the NPT's moral force. Though a signatory to the treaty, North Korea has fallen short of its obligations. If it declares itself a nuclear power, the NPT could be dealt a potentially fatal blow. Though the Bush administration publicly supports the NPT, continued violation by North Korea could force a rethink. The U.S. withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia last year, arguing that it prevented the development of effective defences against missile attack. "We would have to figure out whether the Bush administration sees the NPT as a useful tool or whether, like the ABM [treaty], it's not necessarily worth the time," says Scott Snyder of the Asia Foundation. The danger of that scenario is the possibility of a nuclear arms race between China, Japan and South Korea. To some, that's a good enough reason to save the Agreed Framework, as one of its requirements is that North Korea remain a signatory to the NPT. "We can't nullify the Agreed Framework," says Han Seung Joo, who was South Korean foreign minister during the 1994 nuclear crisis. "That would give North Korea a degree of legality and even legitimacy to ransom its nuclear activities." Copyright ©2002 Review Publishing Company Limited, Hong Kong. ***************************************************************** 53 Saddam must admit he has nuclear weapons: Downer. 14/11/2002. ABC News Online The Foreign Minister says it is worrying that Iraq is still denying it has any weapons of mass destruction. Alexander Downer says the threat of military action has forced the Iraqi leader to accept the return of United Nations weapons inspectors. He says that is an important first step in the processing of disarming the Arab state, although it is disappointing that Saddam Hussein is continuing to insist he has no chemical or biological weapons. "It does concern me that they're embarking on an inspection process in denial, but Saddam Hussein has until the 8th of December to declare all the chemical, biological and any nuclear capabilities that he has," he said. "Obviously the inspections will be getting underway fairly soon, in any case, so we'll have to just wait and see how that unfolds." [http://www.abc.net.au] © 2002 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ***************************************************************** 54 EPA concerned with citizen protection at K-25 The Oak Ridger Online -- Area News -- p.m. on Thursday, November 14, 2002 R. Cathey Daniels Oak Ridger staff The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is concerned that the U.S. Department of Energy is not assuring the "protection of private citizens" in the DOE's leasing arrangements for two buildings at the K-25 site. The DOE plans to sign an arrangement with USEC Inc. in late November for lease of Buildings K-1600 and K-101 at the former gaseous diffusion plant site. USEC, a supplier of enriched uranium fuel for commercial nuclear power plants, in September signed an agreement with Oak Ridge National Laboratory worth $121 million to develop and demonstrate a uranium enrichment technology there. According to an Oct. 7 letter to the DOE Oak Ridge Operations office from J.L. Palmer, regional administrator of the EPA, the DOE is moving forward with the lease without performing two assessments on the properties. "EPA has strong reservations about this approach and is concerned that the protection of private citizens cannot be assured," wrote Palmer, who noted the DOE was neglecting to perform a Baseline Environmental Assessment Report and a Screening-Level Human Risk Assessment. When asked for a response Thursday, spokesman Frank Juan said: "DOE does not agree with the EPA that the protocol applies in this particular case." Juan said the lease for USEC is "not like the leases we do with CROET, to which the protocol does apply." The Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee is responsible for leasing arrangements for industry at the K-25 site. "USEC in this case is performing activities on behalf of DOE through leases with DOE," said Juan. "We don't consider the USEC work the same as commercial enterprise to which the protocol would be applied." Palmer of EPA wrote in his letter: "Contractors and grantees are private entities employing private citizens and, as such, deserve protection under our regulations." The DOE and the EPA agreed to pilot the assessment-based protocol from January to December 2001. While the See K-25, Page 5A pilot period has concluded, a follow-up period was expected, said Palmer. "There has been no progress made with respect to this follow-up. In the interim, DOE has been continuing to follow the protocols in good faith. "This is the first attempt to deviate from the protocols." In addition, Palmer noted that DOE must comply with applicable Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act requirements. "Absent these documents (CERCLA and the protocol assessments) EPA cannot support DOE's efforts to lease the Š referenced property to USEC." The lease could also create problems for the accelerated cleanup program, which calls for remediation and closure of the site by the end of fiscal year 2008. Building K-1600 sits elbow to elbow with Building K-25, which is scheduled for take-down. "We are working very hard to make these two missions (compatible)," Gerald Boyd, ORO's assistant manager for environmental management, said Thursday. Boyd noted that conflicting issues would be "captured" in the lease arrangements. He said he is working toward keeping the expense -- including disconnecting utilities and water lines for the take-down of Building K-25 while keeping Building 1600 up and running -- out of the environmental management program's bailiwick. "That's what our plan is," said Boyd. The DOE in October issued a "finding of no significant impact" decision for the leasing to USEC of equipment and facilities adjacent to the K-25 building. R. Cathey Daniels can be contacted at (865) 220-5515 or danielsrcd@oakridger.com [danielsrcd@oakridger.com] . All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 55 Flats cleanup levels set Rocky Mountain News: Local Special reports In-depth and investigative reports from the pages of the Rocky Mountain News. Click here. They're 'as low as I've seen achieved,' EPA official says By Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News November 13, 2002 Federal and state officials committed for the first time Tuesday to specific cleanup levels at Rocky Flats, vowing that the defunct nuclear-weapons site will be safe as a wildlife refuge when work is finished. Enough plutonium-contaminated soil and building rubble will be carted away to reduce the cancer risk to one in 500,000 for people who will enter the site, officials of three agencies said. The risk of cancer from drinking water leaving Rocky Flats will be one in 1 million. "' 'How clean is clean' has been a controversial question at Rocky Flats forever," said Tim Rehder, who follows Rocky Flats issues for the Environmental Protection Agency. But Rehder said the proposed cleanup levels are "as low as I've seen achieved on any Superfund site." Work at the defunct nuclear-weapons plant is scheduled to be completed on Dec. 15, 2006, and its 6,000-acre site will be turned over to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Until the announcement Tuesday, the state and federal governments had not committed themselves to cleanup levels. Under the plan, soil containing more than 50 picocuries of radiation will go to a nuclear-waste dump. In comparison, a home smoke detector emits 1,000 picocuries of radiation. The standard will apply to soil up to 3 feet below the surface. The vast majority of pollution is believed to be in the top 6 inches of soil. However, surrounding cities and counties that have weighed in on the levels have expressed concern about deeper contamination. Decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis if deeper pollution is found, the officials said Tuesday. Wildlife workers will receive less radiation in a year at Rocky Flats than travellers on a single flight from New York to Los Angeles, said Steve Gunderson of the Colorado health department. A 60-day public comment period on the levels will end on Jan. 13. A public meeting is planned for December on a day to be announced. Five of the seven cities and counties surrounding Rocky Flats voiced support for the cleanup levels - but they had reservations about pollution below 3 feet. In a letter signed by Westminster Councilwoman Samantha Dixion, the cities said their "trepidation . . . is exacerbated" by the fact that the state and federal agencies haven't said how they'll monitor subsurface pollution to be sure it isn't moving off-site. Boulder County and the city of Boulder didn't sign the letter. Boulder County Commissioner Paul Danish said he's wary of signing onto an opinion when all the facts aren't known. Rocky Flats Manager Gene Schmitt said the U.S. Department of Energy will continue to monitor the site after it becomes a wildlife refuge. "I want to emphasize that the Department of Energy is not walking away from it's responsibilities at the site," Schmitt said. "If the unforeseen should ever happen in the future, the department does have a responsibility to go back and address that cleanup, and the department is prepared to do so." Opposition comes from the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center in Boulder, which seeks a more stringent cleanup. "Because (plutonium) is potentially harmful in very small amounts, any quantity left in the environment poses an essentially permanent danger," the group wrote. "At some future time, after fences fall and memory fades, families that eat homegrown food and spend much time out-of-doors year-round are likely to occupy the site." Steve Smith of the Sierra Club said, "Getting down to 50 picocuries is a pretty thorough cleanup." Smith said the area might not be clean enough for homes or schools. But getting out the last bits of plutonium will be extremely costly, he said. Bill Kossack, also of the Sierra Club, questioned the decision to clean the soil to 3 feet. Prairie dogs can dig deeper than that and bring contaminated soil to the surface, he said. morsonb@RockymountainNews.com or (303) 892-5072. 2002 © The E.W. Scripps Co. Privacy Policy and User ***************************************************************** 56 New cleanup rules for Flats introduced Denver Post.com By Joey Bunch Denver Post Environment Writer Wednesday, November 13, 2002 - Regulators rolled out new cleanup levels Tuesday, saying the revised rules will ensure that when Rocky Flats becomes a wildlife refuge in 2006, it will be safer than any former toxic site in the United States. Skeptics, and there are plenty, say the new cleanup levels are better but still not clean enough. They say that the proposal to leave trace contaminants 3 feet below ground is unacceptable and that it all should be removed. Changes to the 1996 cleanup plan focus more time and money on removing radioactive contamination from surface soils, as well as ensuring that clean water runs from the former nuclear bomb factory complex just northwest of Denver. The amendments place less attention underground, where regulators - the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy and the state health department - contend that leaky old pipes, water plumes, and trace amounts of plutonium and other contaminants pose little threat. Critics worry that plutonium left behind will remain a cancer-causing threat for thousands of years. "We have no way of knowing what happens when fences fall and memories fade," said Leroy Moore, a founder and leader of the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center in Boulder, an organization formed in 1983 to campaign for the shutdown of Rocky Flats. "They should clean up the site to protect the hypothetical future family that moves there when the memory of Rocky Flats is gone," Moore said. In the near future, the Rocky Flats refuge is likely to include little more than hiking trails for wildlife watching. A citizens committee was formed last summer to study public uses of the site. Under the amendments up for public review and comment until Jan. 13, the allowable level of plutonium radiation would be 13 times lower than in the original 1996 cleanup plan. At that level, according to regulators, the occasional visitor to the Rocky Flats refuge would get more radiation on a plane trip from New York to Los Angeles and about the same cancer risk as taking one puff from a cigarette. Regulators aren't surprised by the criticism. The public and local governments have pushed for stricter levels since the $7 billion cleanup began six years ago. Once the nation's main nuclear weapons supplier, the 51-year-old plant between Arvada and Boulder ceased bomb production in 1989 after an FBI raid over unlawful environmental controls. Just five years ago, environmentalists called Rocky Flats the most dangerous place in the country because of its proximity to millions of metro Denver residents. "How clean is clean has been a big question and a big controversy at Rocky Flats forever," said Tim Rehder, the EPA's regional manager in charge of the site's cleanup. Rocky Flats has an unsavory history of controversy, government secrets and broken promises, which some contend evolved from the top-secret nature of its Cold War origins as well as the ongoing need to classify information in the name of national security. "When you look at the history of Rocky Flats, you have to keep your skepticism intact," said Len Ackland, director of the Center for Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado at Boulder and author of the 1999 book "Making a Real Killing: Rocky Flats and the Nuclear West," a history of the site, its opponents and its owner, the Department of Energy. "The past has shown that the Department of Energy and its contractors do their best work when the public has its eye on them," Ackland said. The Rocky Flats Coalition of Local Governments, a board made up of representatives from the seven neighboring towns and counties, offered a letter of "general support" for the plan but "remains apprehensive" about leaving some contaminants below ground. Boulder city and county representatives on the coalition, however, refused to endorse the proposed cleanup plan. Boulder County Commissioner Paul Danish said he won't stake his support on blind faith in the government's information on subsurface contaminants. "That information may be incomplete; it may be erroneous; it may lies," he said. Activist Moore said it's not unreasonable to expect taxpayers to dig deeper to clean up the site to near-perfect levels for generations hundreds or thousands of years in the future. "We're the ones responsible for putting it there," he said of the contamination. "We should be the ones responsible for removing it - completely." All contents Copyright 2002 The Denver Post or other copyright ***************************************************************** 57 Rocky Flats reveals new plan The Daily Camera: Environment Surface soil cleanup will be more rigorous By Katy Human, Camera Staff Writer November 13, 2002 Rocky Flats officials formally rolled out a controversial new plan Tuesday that outlines a more strict cleanup of surface soils than originally planned, but lets Flats managers leave behind more contamination below ground. The plan will be open for public comment through mid-January and finalized soon after, officials said. Rocky Flats, a former nuclear weapons plant contaminated with radioactive chemicals and other waste, is scheduled to be cleaned up and closed down in 2006 or earlier. Flats watchdogs said they were not surprised by the cleanup plan. Most of its details have been widely discussed publicly in the past several months. Some said they're still disappointed it doesn't protect all possible future users of Rocky Flats, which will become a wildlife refuge. The new plan was designed to protect the health of a person who works at the refuge 40 hours a week, said LeRoy Moore, an activist with the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center in Boulder. But plutonium, once used to make nuclear bombs at Rocky Flats, remains dangerously radioactive for 240,000 years, and it is potentially harmful in very small amounts, he said. "This makes it is a very poor plan for long-term protection, for fences will fall and memory fail," Moore said. "People who may not know a thing in the world about Rocky Flats and what's in the environment there ... may choose to live there, grow food there." But even Moore acknowledges that the new plan would leave surface soils at Rocky Flats far cleaner than originally planned. If it is finalized, and workers tearing out the basement of an old building uncover dirt with more than 50 picocuries of radiation per gram of soil, they must scoop it out and dispose of it. That's 13 times lower than the most recent cleanup standard, 651 picocuries of radiation per gram, said Steve Gunderson, Rocky Flats expert with the state health department. It's also 30 times more protective of human health than the cleanup of most uranium mining sites around the West, said Tim Rehder, Rocky Flats expert with the Environmental Protection Agency. The rigorous surface cleanup is a direct response to pressure from people living around Rocky Flats, Gunderson said. "The communities didn't like the original number," he said. In response, managers began asking community members to consider a "revenue-neutral" cleanup tradeoff: Workers could spend more time cleaning surface dirt at Rocky Flats — down to 3 feet depth — but would need to save money by leaving old pipes and building slabs buried underground if they don't pose a significant threat to human health. David Abelson, executive director of the Rocky Flats Coalition of Local Governments, said the community leaders in his organization are generally supportive of the new cleanup plan, because plutonium in surface soils is clearly more likely than buried contamination to harm people. Plutonium below ground is nearly immobile, studies show. But activist Moore called the surface/subsurface tradeoff plan "a bad faith deal." To make surface cleanup more rigorous but not increase the site's cleanup budget is not fair, he said, because it steals money from other cleanup work. Public comments on the new plan are due by Jan. 13. The Rocky Flats Citizens Advisory Board has requested that be extended to July 31, to account for the holiday season and to give everyday citizens more time to understand the document. The full plan should be posted this week on http://www.rfets.gov, and will also be available at the Rocky Flats reading rooms at Front Range Community College in Westminster. Contact Katy Human at (303) 473-1364 or humank@dailycamera.com. [http://web.dailycamera.com/aboutus/index.html] to contact Daily ***************************************************************** 58 DOE, ORNL expanding use of U-233 The Oak Ridger Online -- Area News -- p.m. on Thursday, November 14, 2002 R. Cathey Daniels Oak Ridger staff Follow the elaborate decay chain of uranium 233, and eventually you arrive at an isotope highly valued in cancer research. Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory want to milk that isotope, thorium 229, for all it's worth. That's why they are watching closely a request for proposals currently making its way through the Department of Energy procurement hopper. That deal is to process and repackage the nation's largest inventory of U-233, housed at Building 3019 at ORNL. Tucked into the proposal is one additional step in processing that would extract the thorium 229, which decays to another isotope, actium 225, which can be sent directly to cancer research institutions. "We are now doing that on a small scale," said Jerry Klein, program manager for the Isotope Program at ORNL. "That supply of U-233 would produce enough thorium 229 to probably meet all the needs for at least a half-dozen years or so," he said of the nation's current demand from hospitals and research institutions. About every six weeks the lab sends the actium 225 to those institutions, where workers pull off the real gold -- bismuth 213 -- to use in direct applications to patients with skin cancer and certain types of leukemia. Currently the two primary clinical trials are at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and St. George Hospital in Sydney, Australia. But proposals have been submitted with other institutions for prostate and breast cancer research, said Klein. "Unfortunately as far as we know we are the only supplier of this material (U-233) outside Russia and India, and I'm not sure whether either are doing thorium extraction," said Klein. The lab can now supply in the neighborhood of 450 millicuries to 500 millicuries of actium 225 every year. But the current need is for about twice that much, said Klein. And with the Bush administration's performing some extraction of its own -- funds for isotope production were removed in the proposed fiscal year 2003 budget -- the pressure is on for commercial companies to come up with acceptable bids on the DOE work. "The current administration actually took all money out for isotopes, though they left funding for infrastructure," said Klein. "The customer (research institutions) is paying the full cost of recovery of the actium, so it's the initial extraction of the thorium we are paying for. "We have plenty of U-233 for extraction of thorium 229, but it's a very costly process," noted Klein. One reason the isotope is so valuable in cancer research is its ability to zap cancer cells without creating too much damage to surrounding tissue and organs. "It's an alpha-emitting isotope, so it's a high energy and large particle," said Klein. "Therefore it does a lot of damage to the cancer, but because it's so big it only travels a short distance from where the cancer is located." According to Beverly Harness, contracting officer for DOE's Oak Ridge Operations office, the bids for the project are in and now under review. An award for the work is slated for early to mid-April. According to the DOE Web site, part of the procurement is the "leasing" of the thorium 229 back to the successful contractor "for commercial beneficial use." The Web site states that "beneficial use of the leased isotope must support medical research and treatment, and reduce overall project costs or provide other financial benefits to the government." R. Cathey Daniels can be contacted at (865) 220-5515 or danielsrcd@oakridger.com [danielsrcd@oakridger.com] . border="0"> [http://www.oakridger.com] All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 59 Energy Secretary Abraham: U.S., Russia &International Atomic Energy Agency To Host March 2003 International "Dirty Bomb" Conference In Vienna "International Conference on Promoting the Security of Radiological Materials" To Expand World Framework For Tackling the Problems Posed by "Dirty Bombs" energy.gov - Headquarters' Press Release RELEASE DATE: November 13, 2002 Washington, D.C. - Following bilateral meetings to discuss joint cooperation between DOE and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on continuing cooperation on nuclear nonproliferation efforts, U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and Mohamed El Baradei, Director General of the IAEA, today announced that the United States, Russia and IAEA will jointly sponsor a three-day, international convention on radiological dispersal devices (RDD), or "dirty bombs," in March 2003 in Vienna. Abraham proposed the conference two-months ago while attending the IAEA's 46th General Conference in Vienna. The International Conference on Promoting the Security of Radiological Materials will be open to all member countries of the IAEA to join together in addressing threats posed by dirty bombs. Abraham said addressing the new and present threats posed by 'dirty bombs' and their potential use for terror is vital to America's homeland security and international security. "The detailed instructions on how to make dirty bombs found in Al Qaeda's caves make horrifyingly clear our need to have a firm plan to reduce the vulnerability of dangerous radiological materials to acquisition by those seeking to use them as weapons," Abraham said. "The primary purpose of this international conference is to address the new and present dangers posed to our communities and further develop the international framework for dealing with the specific threat posed by dirty bombs," Abraham said. Topics of discussion for the conference will likely cover four major themes: 1) recovering and securing high-risk, poorly controlled radioactive sources; 2) strengthening long-term regulatory control of radiological materials; 3) interdicting illicit trafficking/border controls; and 4) RDD scenarios, possible consequences, mitigation strategies, and emergency response. Radiological Dispersal Devices, or dirty bombs, are much simpler to make and use than nuclear weapons. "Unlike nuclear weapons, which require scarce, highly enriched uranium and plutonium for their destructive capabilities, dirty bombs can be made using many different types of dangerous radiological material," Secretary Abraham said. "While dirty bombs are not comparable to nuclear weapons in destructiveness, they are far easier to assemble and employ." Materials for use in "dirty bombs" exist in many usable forms from medical isotopes to other radiography sources. The comparative ease to which these types of materials are available and can be put to use in a dirty bomb presents a special challenge to international nonproliferation efforts. The international conference will build on several earlier initiatives launched by Abraham and his counterparts in Russia. In May 2002, Abraham and Russian Minister of Atomic Energy Aleksandr Rumyantesev agreed to work cooperatively to secure radioactive sources in Russia. Recently, news coverage (Washington Post, Monday, November 11, 2002) outlined those joint efforts with Russia and the IAEA to halt the proliferation of such radiological materials. Earlier this year, in June, the U.S., Russia, and the IAEA established a tripartite working group on "Securing and Managing Radioactive Sources." This working group is developing a coordinated and proactive strategy to locate, recover, secure, and recycle orphan (radiological) sources through the Former Soviet Union. "Safeguarding weapons usable material should be the highest priority for the IAEA and its member countries," Abraham said. "However, the organization also needs to seek ways to formally expand its scope to deal with the dangers posed by lower grade nuclear materials. Working with Director General El Baradei and our counterparts in Russia, this conference is a first step to expanding those efforts." Media Contact: Jeanne Lopatto or Joe Davis 202-586-4940 Release No. PR-02-237 The Secretary's Remarks at the Press Availability with IAEA DG ElBaradei ***************************************************************** 60 DOE Appoints New Members to Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board NEWS MEDIA CONTACT: Walter Perry, (865) 576-0885 www.oakridge.doe.gov [http://www.oakridge.doe.gov] November 7, 2002 Photo Caption: New Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board members and student representatives (left to right): Amy DeMint, David Johnson, Jenna Carignan, Dick Berry and George Rimel. OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – The U.S. Department of Energy has announced the appointment of five area residents and two high school students to the Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board. The new members were appointed to fill vacancies on the Board. The Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board (ORSSAB) is a federally-chartered citizens’ panel that provides recommendations to the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge Environmental Management (EM) Program. "We’re very pleased to welcome these new members," said Gerald Boyd, DOE Oak Ridge Assistant Manager for EM. "The SSAB plays an important role in providing public input on EM program activities at the Oak Ridge Reservation, and we appreciate the fact that they’re willing to volunteer to serve on the Board." Ben Adams is an engineer, landscape architect, and land surveyor with 41 years of practice in design sciences. He is a member of the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce and is on the board of the East Tennessee Economic Council. Adams lives in Oak Ridge and is employed by ACHW Inc. Richard (Dick) Berry is the former chairman and CEO of Rembco Geotechnical Contractors Inc., based in Knoxville. He now consults in the geotechnical field. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Berry is a resident of Lenoir City. Amy DeMint has lived in Kingston for the past 18 years and works as a metallurgical engineer at BWXT Y-12 in Oak Ridge. DeMint holds a bachelor and a master of science degree in metallurgical engineering. Colin Loring is a natural resource conservationist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service. For the past year, he has worked with the National Resources Inventory Program inventorying resource base changes in East Tennessee. He received his bachelor of arts degree in geology from The University of Tennessee and has completed two years of graduate work at East Tennessee State University in environmental health. Loring lives in Oak Ridge. George Rimel works as a steam plant operator/stationary engineer with BWXT Y-12 in Oak Ridge. He is a member of the Atomic Trades and Labor Council and has lived in Clinton for the past 26 years. Jenna Carignan and David Johnson are the new ORSSAB student representatives. Each year, two high school students are seated on the Board to represent the views and interests of area youth. One student (Carignan) is selected from Oak Ridge High School. The other (Johnson) is chosen on a rotating basis from schools in surrounding areas. Carignan is a senior at Oak Ridge High School. She is interested in pursuing a major in environmental law in college. Last year, Carignan was involved in an ORSSAB student project to summarize an environmental document for high school student audiences. David Johnson is a senior at Karns High School, where he maintains a 4.17 GPA and is currently ranked first in his class. He has won several science awards and is captain of the Karns Scholar School and Vice President of the math honor society. ORSSAB meetings are usually held on the second Wednesday of each month at 6 p.m. at the DOE Information Center in Oak Ridge. Meetings of the Board and its committees are open to the public, and notices are posted on the Board’s Web site (http://www.oakridge.doe.gov/em/ssab) and through the Board’s 24-hour information line, (865) 576-4750. -DOE- R-02-042 ***************************************************************** 61 Democrats urged to slow down -- The Washington Times November 14, 2002 By Stephen Dinan and S.A. Miller THE WASHINGTON TIMES      The race for House Democratic minority leader yesterday became more complex as Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio announced her own protest candidacy while Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr. of Tennessee showcased support from conservative Democrats and the front-runner, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, attempted to reach out to conservatives.      Miss Kaptur, the senior female Democrat in the House, said she hopes to delay today's vote so members can digest and discuss the Republican gains in last week's midterm elections. Barring that, the only way she can make a case for changing her party is to stand as a candidate.      "The purpose of that, I hope, will be to open our caucus up and to provide the kind of discussion — incisive, healing, forward-looking — that I think needs to happen inside the caucus itself," she told reporters.      But several key members saw little likelihood the debate would be delayed, and Mrs. Pelosi continued on a path toward election as minority leader.      Mrs. Pelosi announced that her first action as leader would be to appoint Rep. John M. Spratt Jr. of South Carolina as her assistant — a move that could counter the charge that she is too liberal and unable to appeal to more conservative members.      "Congressman Spratt is a leader who has earned the respect of his colleagues from across the political spectrum," Mrs. Pelosi said.       She said Mr. Spratt would be her liaison to the Budget Committee, where he is the ranking minority member.      Mrs. Pelosi has released a list of supporters comprising more than half of the Democratic caucus for the 108th Congress. She has added more supporters since Rep. Martin Frost of Texas dropped out of the race last week.      One new supporter is Rep. Shelley Berkley of Nevada, who voted with President Bush on tax cuts and on authorizing use of force to disarm Iraq. She said she may differ with Mrs. Pelosi on many issues but that Mrs. Pelosi is the only viable candidate who can unite and strengthen Democrats.      Mrs. Berkley said she and Mrs. Pelosi agree on two issues that are critical to Las Vegas: opposing the federal plan to store nuclear waste at nearby Yucca Mountain and maintaining a "hands-off" approach to the gaming industry.      "If I'm going to be standing side by side with someone in the U.S. House, I want someone who's going to support me on Yucca Mountain and gaming," she said.      Mr. Ford continued to win over uncommitted members, including Rep. Albert R. Wynn of Maryland, who said Mr. Ford represented a good new direction.      "I think his focus is one we need to have to appeal to a broad cross-section of Americans," Mr. Wynn said, praising in particular Mr. Ford's proposal for a payroll tax holiday.      Mr. Ford, who met Tuesday night with fellow members of the Congressional Black Caucus, said he was making headway but wouldn't talk about numbers.      "Blue Dog, Black Caucus members, Hispanic Caucus members, Progressive Caucus members — this coalition is steadily building," he said at a news conference, where he was joined by eight members of the Blue Dog Coalition made up of conservative-leaning Democrats.      "I can assure you the race is not over, and Ms. Pelosi does not have all of the votes locked up," said Mr. Ford, a member of the Blue Dogs.      Senate Democrats yesterday voted unanimously to retain their leadership, including Tom Daschle of South Dakota in the top post. That move stood in stark contrast with the soul-searching in the House, where Democratic leader Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri had declined to run again for the job after his party lost ground in the election.      The contest for Mr. Gephardt's replacement has been described alternately as a chance for the party to find a new face, to recommit itself to basic principles or to turn in a new direction.      Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, who is running unopposed for Democratic whip, said the choice can't be between a liberal or centrist stance.      "The issue for Democrats is going to be not selecting the two alternatives that people put forward, either appealing to the base or appealing to the swing voters," Mr. Hoyer said. "Frankly, if the Democrats don't do both, we are going to lose. So, we need to reach out and energize our base while at the same time reach out to swing voters who are not necessarily aligned with the party or the philosophy."      That means focusing on jobs, education and health care as issues to distinguish Democrats from Republicans, Mr. Hoyer said.      "I also think we need to make sure the American public knows that we are a party that believes in a strong national defense, we are a party that believes in homeland security, and that we will support both these."      Meanwhile, Miss Kaptur will make her pitch for the party to embrace a new agenda that takes its cues from local and state Democratic organizations whose fund-raisers feature "fish-fries and bake sales, not $1,000-a-plate dinners."      "The objective must be reform, neither left nor right nor center," she said in her letter to colleagues. ***************************************************************** 62 U.S. energy bill dead until next Congress 14 Nov 2002 00:04 (Adds details on ANWR drilling) By Tom Doggett WASHINGTON, Nov 13 (Reuters) - The first major overhaul of U.S. energy policy in a decade is dead for this year and will have to wait until the new Congress convenes next year, Senate negotiators decided on Wednesday. The senators, deadlocked for months in talks with House counterparts, agreed there was not enough time left to wrap up the bill in the limited number of days left in the current congressional session. The bill will die formally when Congress adjourns. "They reached a consensus that there ain't enough time left with the House set to adjourn," said Bill Wicker, spokesman for Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, New Mexico Democrat. "It's just not possible." The delay was a big disappointment to farmers, who hoped for a new congressional mandate to more than double the market for corn-based ethanol. While House and Senate negotiators were willing to agree on a 5 billion-gallon mandate for ethanol, they disagreed on when. The Senate proposed that it take effect in 2012, the House in 2014. House and Senate lawmakers were stymied for months over a comprehensive energy bill. With adjournment only days away, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin proposed an "energy lite" bill dealing only with pipeline safety and nuclear power plant insurance. Senate negotiators did not formally reject the offer sent by House Republicans, which contained the pared-back bill, Wicker said. Republican Pete Domenici of New Mexico, who announced Wednesday he would chair the Senate Energy Committee in the next Congress, would help shepherd through a new energy bill when lawmakers return in January. While Republicans will control the new Congress, they will still have a tough time passing energy legislation that would allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a key part of the Bush administration's national energy plan. Republicans are still short of the 60 votes needed in the 100-member Senate to cut off debate and vote on controversial bills like giving energy firms access to the refuge. Democrats John Kerry of Massachusetts and Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut -- both possible presidential candidates in the 2004 election -- have promised to filibuster legislation that would open the Arctic refuge to oil exploration. Democrats and environmentalists argue there is not enough oil in the refuge to justify harming the wildlife that lives there and it could take eight years for the refuge's oil to reach the market. President George W. Bush said he wants to tap the refuge's potential 16 billion barrels of oil to help reduce U.S. dependence on foreign crude. The refuge, which is home to polar bears, caribou and other wildlife, sprawls across 19 million acres (7.7 million hectares) of Alaska's northeast corner. http://www.reuters.com/> ***************************************************************** 63 Senate shift on trees, oil and air MSNBC.com *Environment and energy committees get new priorities* Image: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Alaska cotton blooms on a pond next to a caribou antler on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where the Bush administration wants to drill for oil. By Miguel Llanos MSNBC Nov. 12 ? When Republicans settle into chairing the Senate?s 14 committees, it?ll be hard to find any changes starker than those in the two panels that decide energy and environmental policies. Under Democrats, those committees were pulpits for critics of Bush administration policies on logging, air pollution and oil drilling. Now they are about to become pulpits for those who say that environmental regulations often outweigh any benefits and hurt the economy. STARTING IN JANUARY, when the new Congress is sworn in, those two pulpits will be occupied by Republican senators with very strong views on topics ranging from oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to revising the Clean Air Act. It?s not a coincidence, either, that several Republican priorities revolve around energy. Campaigning for GOP candidates before last week?s elections, President Bush regularly asked for support to pass an energy bill that?s been tied up in Congress. Below is a look at the incoming chairmen, the committees they?ll run and the issues they?ll push. ***************************************************************** 64 Who knew? Try Einstein. | csmonitor.com [http://www.csmonitor.com/] from the November 14, 2002 edition Almost 100 years since his theories blew away Newtonian physics, he's still shaking up the scientific world By Gregory M. Lamb | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor At the dawn of the 20th century, a curly-haired, 26-year-old Swiss physicist with nothing but pen, paper, and a big imagination shook up the world. In the 21st century, it's still shaking. In 1905, Albert Einstein's annus mirabilis ("miraculous year"), he published three of the four major papers that would lead him to be characterized, arguably, as the greatest scientific mind ever. Blown away would be big patches of Newtonian physics, with its seemingly undeniable truths that were as apparent as, well, an apple bopping you on the head. Einstein's logic was provable, too, as later experiments would show, but also counterintuitive. The universe, he showed us, was a stranger neighborhood than we had thought. Einstein, who died in 1955, may have been Time magazine's Person of the 20th Century (sorry, Winston Churchill), but to Einstein scholars he's just as relevant today. His work has led to the search for "the scientific underpinnings of 'Star Trek,' the technologies of the 22nd century," says Michael Shara, an astrophysicist and the curator of a major new Einstein exhibition opening Friday at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. His search for a "grand unified theory," a "theory of everything" that in the 1940s and '50s made him the self-proclaimed "village idiot" of Princeton University, is now the accepted holy grail being sought by modern physicists. As a persona, an icon, Einstein remains one of the most familiar presences on the face of the earth, a celebrity personality as well known as Mickey Mouse or Marilyn Monroe. He's been portrayed in movies by actors from Walter Matthau to Robert Downey Jr. He's been seen on TV's "Star Trek" playing cards with present-day physicist Stephen Hawking and on stage sparring with Pablo Picasso in Steve Martin's play "Picasso at the Lapin Agile." His E=mc2 is the world's most famous (if inscrutable) equation, the basis for both nuclear power and nuclear bombs. Amazon.com lists 248 books for sale with his name in their titles, and the Google Internet search engine links his name to 641,000 sites on the Web. His portrait (often in a lab coat and on the world's worst bad-hair day) can be seen selling products from books to cameras to computers. Yet how he came to his remarkable conclusions about the nature of time and space remains elusive. "When the blind beetle crawls over the surface of the globe, he doesn't realize that the track he has covered is curved," Einstein once said, trying to explain his unorthodox conclusions. "I was lucky enough to have spotted it." "It is nearly impossible for me to comprehend how the human mind came up with something so subtle as Einstein's special relativity paper. But he did!" admires David Ward, a professor of philosophy at Widener University in Chester, Pa. Unique childlike curiosity Einstein thought of himself as asking questions only children ask. He had "this simplifying way of looking at the world, and taking the risk that he might be wrong," says Gerald Holton, a Harvard University physicist who organized Einstein's papers into an archive after his death and has studied him for nearly five decades since. Rather than look for complexity, Einstein sought coherence and simplicity, a view of the big picture. "That is really running through his physics and everything else he did," Dr. Holton says. "I have not found that in any other of the many scientists I've studied." Probing the nature of Einstein's genius is likely to continue during this centennial period, along with new tests of his theories. Atomic clocks will be sent to the International Space Station in the next few years, for example, to see if Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity holds up in that environment. "It's one of the most fundamental assumptions that's built into most physical theories, so a violation of it would be a very major thing, a very big deal," says Charles Lane, a physicist at Berry College in Mount Berry, Ga., who is helping to design the experiments. In the past decade, Einstein's image as a genial Germanic grandfather has suffered, and his personal life will no doubt get more scrutiny. He was accused of mistreating his family, particularly his daughter, Professor Ward says. "Feminists have a justifiable beef with him about his treatment of women in general. That's certainly hurt the reputation a bit." At the same time, Einstein used his fame to promote social causes. He was a pacifist and socialist who saw a single world government as the antidote to war. "His politics now seem kind of naive," Ward says. "More naive than just idealistic.... The world is a great deal more complicated place than that. "We forgive him all that because he is such a wise man and a gentle man. But I don't think we look to Einstein for political insights these days." Overwhelmingly, though, Einstein's image is still positive. People all over the world who know little about him, and even less about his work, somehow still connect with him, says physicist Holton. "They have a feeling that this person is somehow in touch with the way the world should be at its best." For 15 years, motivational speaker Arden Bercovitz of Vista, Calif., has portrayed Einstein in front of student, business, and technical groups. "Einstein said, 'The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible,' " says Dr. Bercovitz. "That is a very hopeful, optimistic statement" in a modern world of great uncertainty. Bercovitz uses his Einstein character to make points with his audiences about creativity and finding fresh ways of solving problems. Einstein's definition of creativity, he says, is "seeing what everyone sees - and thinking what no one has ever thought." Einstein liked to think in pictures rather than words. "This is a very powerful method of thinking," Bercovitz says. "It lets us go beyond our vocabulary into new areas of thought." Shifting the culture of science Hanoch Gutfreund, a theoretical physicist and former president of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which is lending important Einstein documents from its archives for the New York exhibition, has high hopes it will bring out the impact Einstein had on science, on the culture of science, and on present-day technology better than ever before. Dr. Gutfreund says he believes each of Einstein's three 1905 papers was worthy of a Nobel Prize (which Einstein finally won in 1921), as was his general theory of relativity, published in 1916. "His work on Brownian motion gave rise to statistical mechanics," Gutfreund says. "His work on the explanation of the photoelectric effect is one of the bases of quantum theory. His work on special relativity is proved beyond any doubt and reflected in many branches of physics. "And maybe the most sophisticated intellectual achievement, his general theory of relativity - which has revolutionized the Newtonian picture of space, matter, and gravitation - has been the basis of the present theories of the universe, cosmology, [and] the black-hole phenomenon. All these stand as the pillars of modern science." The calculations in the special relativity paper, Holton says, aren't what is impressive - "there's hardly any mathematics in it that is beyond high school now." But the implications are enormous. For Gutfreund, "teaching the special theory of relativity to young students was always the greatest thrill of my career. You begin with two very, very simple assumptions, deceivingly simple, and then ... you go through a set of logical arguments - and you get to the most far-reaching consequences." " The exhibition 'Einstein,' the kickoff event of the Einstein centennial, opens at the American Museum of Natural History in New York Friday and runs through Aug. 10, 2003. It will travel to three other US venues (Los Angeles and most likely Boston and Chicago) before arriving in Jerusalem, home of the Einstein archives at The Hebrew University, in time for the official 2005 anniversary. www.csmonitor.com | Copyright © 2002 The Christian Science ***************************************************************** 65 Report: New Fabric Protects Against Radiation November 14, 2002 03:05 AM ET LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have created what is claimed to be the world's first radiation-proof fabric which provides as much protection as a lead vest but at a fraction of the weight. Instead of heavy metals to block radiation and X-rays, the new fabric called Demron is non toxic, lead-free and fused between two layers of woven fabric. "Demron's potential applications range from lightweight full-body suits -- that would allow the wearer to move unencumbered in high-radiation areas -- to protective tents and radiation-proof linings for aircraft and spacecraft," New Scientist magazine said Wednesday. Unlike traditional protective clothing that only protects against alpha radiation, the new fabric developed by the Florida-based company Radiation Shield Technologies also blocks beta and gamma rays. All three are emitted by the decay of radioactive substances and X-rays. The fabric was originally designed to protect medical staff from X-ray radiation in operating rooms but its creators believe it will also be useful in the nuclear industry. But Janine Claber, of British Nuclear Fuels, said the real test of how good the fabric is will depend on the level of protection it offers and how it reacts when subjected to radiation. ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************