***************************************************************** 10/16/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.266 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POLICY 1 US: Thorium comment period extended 2 UK: Energy shutdown risks reviewed 3 UK: Monti joins crisis talks over BE 4 European Parliament pledges support for nuclear clean-up in 5 US: Entergy seeks more time to make case against lawyer 6 Nuclear treaty to be approved (between Argentina and Australia) 7 Japan: New TEPCO head vows change 8 German govt to keep nuke power plant open longer 9 UK: Power failure NUCLEAR REACTORS 10 US: Reactor reactivated after shutdown and fire* 11 US: NRC meetings important to build confidence - 12 US: Millstone workers to vote on joining union - 13 US: NRC: Ohio plant didn't check workers well enough 14 US: San Onofre To Test Sirens Wednesday NUCLEAR SAFETY 15 US: Base to test training for nuclear accident 16 UN testing for depleted uranium contamination in Bosnia* 17 U.N. Scientists Start Examining Bosnia's Soil, Water for Depleted 18 US: LATEST ON TWO RADIOACTIVE CONTAINERS FOUND IN THE PORTNEUF RIVER 19 Chechen caught with radioactive package* 20 US: More nuclear plant workers exposed to radiation 21 UN Assesses Depleted Uranium in Bosnia-Herzegovina 22 Great Britain to sponsor nuclear safety projects in Russia 23 US: A-Bomb Survivors at Risk for Tumors 24 US: Specially equipped helicopter to look for radiation. 25 Radioactive smuggling attempt foiled NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 26 US: Toxic-dirt shipments to Cotter rejected 27 Uranium Plant Company Tries to Win over Hartsville* 28 Russia Says US Proposing to Send Spent Fuel if Moscow Gives Up on 29 US: County urged to take Yucca stand 30 US: Angry Exchange Spices N-Waste Initiative Debate 31 US: No green light yet for radioactive soil 32 Hartsville Panel On Uranium Plant* NUCLEAR WEAPONS 33 Bush to Sign Iraq Force Resolution 34 Castro Worried Ahead of 1962 Crisis 35 UK: Read between the lines 36 Walker's World: Remember Russia's Nukes* 37 Russia digs in heels against U.S. move on Iraq 38 First nuclear power submarine delivered to the ship-repairing 39 Israel plans to avoid Iraq war 40 US: Now what do we do in Iraq? 41 Russia digs in heels against U.S. move on Iraq 42 U.S. huddles with Britain over Iraq Compromise sought to get 43 U.S., Britain still at odds with France, Russia, China over Iraq US DEPT. OF ENERGY 44 Study rips handling of nuclear cleanups, cost hikes 45 Plutonium: Size Does Matter 46 Hearing held on plutonium proposal 47 Secretary of Energy Announces Innovative e-Government Strategic 48 Rocky Flats cleanup beating clock OTHER NUCLEAR 49 Silex amends uranium tech deal with its US backer 50 Philippines: Preemptive mode - ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Thorium comment period extended Tuesday, October 15, 2002 By TOM DAVIS Staff Writer MAYWOOD - The public will have another month to weigh in on the federal government's plan to clean the rest of the Maywood Superfund site by 2008. But not everyone is happy about that. The comment period on the plan - which calls for tons of the thorium-tainted soil to be treated locally and then kept in the borough - now runs until Nov. 11, the second such extension. Maywood Council President Thomas Gaffney worries that any delay will unnecessarily postpone the cleanup's completion. "For me, personally, I want it out of here," he said. "Get it dug up and get it out of here." The new proposal, with a price tag of $244 million, is one of several options for the completion of the decades-long cleanup of the old Maywood Chemical site. Among the possibilities is continuing the status quo: simply excavating all the soil and sending it to Utah or Colorado for permanent disposal, which would cost $254 million. The Army Corps of Engineers also has proposed taking no further action, or capping the Maywood Chemical site and then monitoring it. For now, the corps continues to dump contaminated soil from Maywood, Lodi, and Rochelle Park into train cars and haul it to Utah for disposal. In August, the corps invited the public to comment on its plans by Sept. 12. The period was later extended to Oct. 11. Allen Roos, project administrator for the corps, said the agency merely acted on some requests for extensions. He said he was not aware who requested them, but added that public input could ultimately determine what course the corps takes. The new plan already has come under fire. Some residents blame contamination from the old Maywood Chemical site on West Hunter Avenue for local cases of cancer, and say they would prefer that all the soil be shipped as far away as possible. Since 1984, the federal government has spent more than $174 million to clean up 64 of the 88 contaminated sites. The Maywood Chemical plant relied on thorium, a naturally occurring radioactive metal, to make parts for gas lanterns until 1956. Radioactive materials from the plant seeped into waterways and contaminated nearby properties. Under the new proposal, which federal officials stressed is still under review, the contaminants would be separated through the treatment process and shipped west. Soil deemed safe would stay in Bergen County. Tom Davis' e-mail address is davist@northjersey.com 5307432 north jersey news ***************************************************************** 2 UK: Energy shutdown risks reviewed FT.com Wednesday Oct 16 2002. All times are London time. By Jean Eaglesham Ministers have discussed with Ofgem the risks that an unplanned shutdown of British Energy's plant could pose to the security of supply, Patricia Hewitt revealed yesterday. The trade and industry secretary's confirmation of talks with the regulator highlights the pressures placed on the government by the nuclear generator's financial crisis, given its commitment to ensuring the "lights do not go out". Tim Yeo, the shadow trade and industry secretary, said the Tories would be pressing the government for a debate on British Energy before the state's £650m emergency loan to the company expired at the end of next month. Jean Eaglesham Comment | Surveys © Copyright The Financial Times ***************************************************************** 3 UK: Monti joins crisis talks over BE Scotsman.com *Wednesday, 16th October 2002* *EU commissioner?s backing needed on state aid Share price plunges further amid sector surge* /IAIN DEY/ TONY Blair and Gordon Brown were locked in talks with EU Competition Commissioner Mario Monti yesterday over the possibility of further state aid for struggling nuclear power firm British Energy. Monti arrived at the Treasury at 9am for talks with the Chancellor, before moving on to Downing Street one hour later. The Prime Minister?s official spokesman confirmed that state aid had been among the issues covered in the private discussions, along with broader issues of competition and EU enlargement. Downing Street insisted that there were no specific issues on the agenda, but it is understood the legitimacy of British Energy?s current £650 million aid package and the possibility of further aid formed the back-bone of the discussions. A Treasury insider said: "No10 has already said state aid issues were being discussed so, obviously, British Energy is part of that." British Energy?s exisiting loan package only runs until 29 November. Talks are continuing with executives, investors and trade unions about the group?s future, but it is expected that further interim measures may need to be taken. The company provides roughly one fifth of the electricity consumed in the UK, and 42 per cent of the power consumed in Scotland, from its Torness and Hunterston B generators. Shares in British Energy have plunged 96 per cent in the past year and the company is now teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Amid further Greenpeace protests at its Sizewell B plant in Suffolk yesterday, the shares dipped a further 0.25p in the London market, to close 2.4 per cent down at 9.6p, despite surging prices elsewhere. Monti has yet to publicly comment on the state aid package awarded to British Energy. Although the Department of Trade Industry has repeatedly insisted that the mix of loan covenants and working capital awarded to BE is in line with EU guidelines, state-aid rules only allow bail-outs where a company is providing a service that is necessary to a country?s national need. Leggmason Investors fund manager Andrew Whalley said: "It?s a really important problem for the government - it?s important they get his [Monti?s] assent for this. They?ve got to keep the plants running, by hook or by crook." Powergen, the UK?s third-largest power generator, said last week it will shut down one fifth of its capacity because over-supply in the market means electricity prices have declined by more than half this year. TXU has two units idle, while International Power has also closed a plant. Amicus official Dougie Rooney, who represents BE staff and met with government officials last Friday, said the Treasury and the DTI were aware that the recent developments in the energy market had thrown a spanner in the rescue plan?s works. He also said that the government has to find a means to attract private investors back to the company to avoid funding further bridging loans from the public purse. Last month Claude Termes, a Green member of the European Parliament from Luxembourg, blasted the UK?s rescue package for BE, insiting that Monti should block the deal and leave the publicly-listed firm open to market forces. ©2002 scotsman.com | contact ***************************************************************** 4 European Parliament pledges support for nuclear clean-up in north-west Russia Inter-Parliamentary Working Group In 1998 Bellona organised an Inter-Parliamentary Working Group (IPWG), which is a forum of Russian and Western parliamentarians. The main goal of the IPWG is to address issues of nuclear safety co-operation that require political attention. MURMANSK-OSLO - On a trip organised by Bellona and the Russian Duma, members of the European Parliament visited Kola's nuclear sites and pledged support to fill the gaps in the existing programmes. Participants of the Inter-Parliamentary Working Group touring the nuclear-powered icebreakers' base, Atomflot. Nils Bøhmer/Bellona Igor Kudrik, 2002-10-10 17:01 While the Nobel Peace Prize favourites, senators Nunn and Lugar, fight in the US Congress for the very existence of the Co-operative Threat Reduction programme, we register an increased European interest in the issue. Last week, Bellona and a member of the Russian State Duma, Valentin Luntsevich, took a group of ten members of the European Parliament to Murmansk to study nuclear safety and security issues, which have been haunting the region since the late 1980s. A more active and structured participation from the European countries regarding nuclear safety in north-west Russia is becoming vital. Moreover, politicians may have to compromise on their misunderstandings, which up to now have obstructed the successful implementation of the existing programmes. The Kola region, of which Murmansk is the capital, in north-west Russia, hosts Russia's once mighty Northern Fleet, which operated two-thirds of the 250 nuclear powered submarines built in the Soviet Union. Today, the submarine fleet has fallen to 34 nuclear powered vessels. The remaining 115 submarines have been taken out of active service and are currently scattered along the coast line of the Kola Peninsula and in Arkhangelsk county, awaiting decommissioning. The Northern Fleet's dilapidated infrastructure for managing spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste has turned into ruins during the past decade. Inter-Parliamentary Group Working Group background In 1998 Bellona created an Inter-Parliamentary Working Group, IPWG, whose members visited Murmansk last week. This forum provided the possibility for politicians from Russia, Europe and the United States to focus on the issue of nuclear safety co-operation. Currently, the IPWG is co-chaired by Bart Staes, member of the European Parliament, and Sergey Mitrokhin, member of the Russian State Duma. To intensify the economic development of the Arctic, the Soviet Union built nine nuclear powered civilian vessels — eight icebreakers and one container ship. But with the industry's downsizing following the collapse of the Soviet Union, this nuclear fleet faced economic hardships, as well as enormous expenses to handle radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel. The management of the hazardous products of submarine and icebreakers' operation was not a top priority in the Soviet Union; Russia therefore inherited a whole package of problems it was unable to cope with on its own. USA steps in In the period following the break-up of the Soviet Union, the Soviet Nuclear Threat Reduction Act of 1991, championed through Congress by Senators Nunn and Lugar, has achieved significant results. The act, renamed the Co-operative Threat Reduction (CTR) programme in 1993, was designed to help the countries of the former Soviet Union destroy nuclear, chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction and their associated infrastructure, and establish verifiable safeguards against the proliferation of those weapons. According to the US government's Defense Threat Reduction Agency website (http://www.dtra.mil/ctr/ctr_score.html [http://www.dtra.mil/ctr/ctr_score.html] ), as of July 7th 2002 5,970 nuclear warheads have been deactivated, 1,269 ballistic and long-range nuclear cruise missiles eliminated, 829 missile launchers destroyed, 97 long-range bombers eliminated and 24 ballistic missile submarines destroyed. To ensure the decommissioning of ballistic missile submarines, CTR has created the infrastructure for their elimination both at the shipyards in north-west Russia — Nerpa at the Kola Peninsula and Zvezdochka in Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk county — and in the Russian Far East where the Pacific Fleet is based — Zvezda shipyard. Later CTR started to contract shipyard directly to carry out the decommissioning of submarines as well as to create the infrastructure for spent fuel management. This year a nuclear fuel unloading site was commissioned at Zvezdochka shipyard. The first submarine to be de-fuelled there is a Typhoon class (TK-202) — the world's biggest submarine and a cold war demolition machine. All in all, CTR is planning to completely dismantle 41 ballistic missile submarines by 2007. CTR has been a success first of all in terms of securing weapons of mass destruction and its carriers, but the programme also assisted in creating the needed infrastructure to dismantle submarines and to manage unloaded spent nuclear fuel, as well as to process liquid radioactive waste generated as a result of decommissioning. The water area of Nerpa shipyard: Diesel submarines are on the left side and Deltas are on the right side. Vincent Basler But any assistance that goes beyond the weapons' destruction has been never popular among Republicans in the US Congress. Starting in 1996, the US Congress added amendments to funding bills to limit CTR's authority in assisting with environmental restoration projects and has continued to include prohibitive language in defence authorisation bills. The debate around CTR culminated this October when Senator Lugar attempted to get approval of a permanent waiver from the Capital Hill. Under current legislation, the Pentagon must "certify" Russia as committed to non-proliferation, or else roughly one-third of CTR activities controlled by the US military shuts down. That certification process is run on a fiscal-year basis. The waiver for the 2002 fiscal year was signed by President Bush August 2002 and was valid only until October 1st. This was the day when the hard battle for CTR started. And all the old anti-CTR arguments emerged in that debate. "[The opposition] says Nunn-Lugar is foreign aid, they say the US military should not be involved, they think [Nunn-Lugar deals with] environmental issues, they think they are issues the Pentagon should not be involved with," said a US government official to Bellona Web earlier this week. According to non-proliferation experts, CTR is unlikely to receive a permanent waiver and its activities may become limited solely to weapons' destruction. In today's reality, though, it is very hard to separate environmental and non-proliferation programmes. Securing radioactive and nuclear material has become crucial not only for the environment, but also to a larger extent it has become vital in preventing "evil doers" getting hold of such materials. Fortunately, European countries have recently shown greater interest in providing their share of assistance, which is now starting to be of great importance. Nerpa shipyard exemplified Nerpa shipyard was one of the visit points for European Parliament members, their State Duma colleagues and Bellona last week. The shipyard has so far decommissioned nine submarines, including six ballistic missile submarines, or SSBNs. SSBNs were scrapped using of CTR supplied equipment and with CTR funds. But CTR's contract with Nerpa is due to expire, as CTR plans to transfer all future decommissioning operations to Severodvinsk where an extensive infrastructure for spent nuclear fuel management has been built. While Nerpa has American supplied equipment for cutting-up submarines, it is unlikely to use these equipment since the spare parts are expensive and the Russian state budget does not have enough funds to pay for the decommissioning of non-strategic submarines, largely referred to as multi-purpose submarines. Around 80 multi-purpose submarines are waiting to be decommissioned in the Northern Fleet, posing no strategic danger to the United States, but threatening the surrounding environment and containing tonnes of spent nuclear material in their reactors. The long debate over western assistance for decommissioning multi-purpose submarines has so far achieved no result from the USA, despite Senator Lugar's intensive lobbying of such an initiative. But the European countries may well step in and fill the gaps which CTR has been unable to fulfil so far. And Nerpa shipyard has the available infrastructure to deal with multi-purpose submarines. On the recent initiatives by G8 countries and the European Union to secure nuclear materials.  The Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership (NDEP)
» [http://www.bellona.no/en/international/russia/waste-mngment/ipwg/26350.html]  The G8 Global Partnership against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction
» [http://www.bellona.no/en/international/russia/waste-mngment/ipwg/26340.html] In July this year, the Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership, or NDEP, a European initiative to channel funds to environmental problems in north-west Europe, arranged a pledging conference, where European Union countries, Norway and Russia contributed 110 million euro, including 62 million euro exclusively for nuclear safety issues in north-west Russia. In the draft projects list, the sites, which were not covered by CTR due to the restrictions imposed on the programme, but may well be secured with the European assistance. Among those sites is Andreeva Bay, an infamous dumping ground for spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste in the western part of the Kola Peninsula. The European delegation was able to visit the premises of Andreeva Bay during their visit last week. During the visit to Nerpa, Bart Staes, the head of the European delegation and member of the European Parliament, also announced that his group — Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance — filed an amendment to the EC's 2003 budget for 60 million euros for assistance in the nuclear sector, which contains a specific item about channelling the funds for radwaste management at the Kola Peninsula. Mr Staes mentioned specifically that the amendment was prompted by Bellona's work in the area of nuclear safety in Russia. G8 pledge — uniting the efforts The G8 "Global Partnership against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction [WMD]" issued by the world's eight leading industrial nations at the G8 Summit on 27 June 2002, is an initiative aimed at accounting, securing and clearing up Russia's vast nuclear legacy. The initiative is still in a rather vague state, but it can be seen as an attempt to unite all efforts aimed at securing Russia's nuclear legacy. This gives the chance to involve Europe and other countries more actively into the work that the United States has been doing for the past decade. The countries taking part in the initiative can fill the gaps, which arose due to the limitations in the existing programmes, such as CTR, and ensure that the artificial distinction between environmental issues and non-proliferation are wiped away. After all, any radiological device can become a weapon, thus securing those devices makes the world a safer place both from the environmental and security standpoints. Huge undertakings stem from small steps Bellona has created an Inter-Parliamentary Working Group, IPWG — whose members visited Murmansk last week — back in 1998. This forum provided politicians from Russia, Europe and the United States with the possibility to focus on issues in nuclear safety co-operation. Such issues still exist and require quick resolution. The signing of the agreement referred to as the Multilateral Nuclear Environment Programmes in the Russian Federation, or MNEPR, is just one example. This agreement would free the funds pledged by the NDEP, for example. The harsh debate over CTR in the US Congress is another issue. In Bellona's opinion, the lawmakers from different countries should understand the importance of nuclear security issues and act swiftly in the areas where executive bodies fail to come to an agreement. The MNEPR agreement is a prime example. There is always room for compromise when a goal is clear, and unless this room is used words and pledges will just evaporate. And it is important those compromises should be agreed to move ahead with such undertakings as the G8 initiative. Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] , President: Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no] Information: info@bellona.no [info@bellona.no] , Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no [webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 5 Entergy seeks more time to make case against lawyer The Times Argus Online - October 16, 2002 Southern Vermont Bureau BRATTLEBORO — Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee has asked the Public Service Board for additional time to make its case for sanctions against a lawyer for an anti-nuclear group. In a motion filed with the Public Service Board, Entergy Nuclear asked for an additional 30 days to do legal research into its complaint against James Dumont, the attorney for the New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution of Brattleboro. Entergy Nuclear wants to prohibit Dumont, a Middlebury lawyer, from practicing before the Public Service Board, because of comments he made to Associated Press reporter David Gram last June about the sale of Vermont Yankee. Entergy Nuclear of Jackson, Miss., bought Vermont Yankee this summer from a group of New England utilities. During the hearings into the sale, attorneys were given access to confidential financial and trade secret information about both Yankee and Entergy, but on condition that the information wouldn’t be made public. Entergy claims Dumont made information about how much money would be left over in Vermont Yankee’s $300 million decommissioning trust fund public, by speaking to Gram. The fund became the make-or-break issue in the sale, with the Public Service Board ordering that Vermont ratepayers get back their share of the leftover funds, once Yankee is dismantled. One state expert testified during the hearings that there could be as much as $100 million left over. In its motion, Entergy Nuclear said it needed additional time to get a statement from Gram and Dumont, as well as other people who might have been involved. Rob Williams, spokesman for Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, declined further comment. Dumont had asked the Public Service Board to dismiss the complaint against him, but the board refused. hearing on the proposed sanctions is slated for Oct. 30. [http://www.timesargus.com/] . ***************************************************************** 6 Nuclear treaty to be approved (between Argentina and Australia) Financial Review - Oct 17 Clinton Porteous in Santiago The Argentine Government is confident the nation's Congress will finally vote in favour of accepting responsibility for spent fuel from Australia's new $300 million nuclear research reactor, after a delay of almost a year. Approval of the spent-fuel deal with Australia should start tomorrow with the final vote in the Congress scheduled for October 24. The nuclear treaty covering the spent-fuel agreement has been stalled for 11 months as environmentalists wage a campaign against it and Argentina's economic crisis has pushed it off the political agenda. But an official for the ruling Justicialista Party told The Australian Financial Review there was sufficient cross-party support for approval. There should not be a problem, the official said. The Foreign Affairs and Energy Committee, which has been examining the agreement, should approve the treaty tomorrow and send it to the 256-strong Chamber of Deputies for a final decision. The Argentine Senate has already voted in favour. Ratification will be a major relief for the Australian Federal Government. Led by Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer, who signed the original treaty in August 2001, and Federal Science Minister Peter McGauran, the Australians have lobbied strongly for the deal. But Ruben Giustiniani , a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and a deputy opposed to the treaty, warned the Chamber could still vote it down. He said most deputies had not announced their position and could reject it at the final moment. It would depend very much on how the debate went in the chamber, Mr Giustiniani said. When it is public, it was much more difficult. The Argentine Constitution prohibits the entry of radioactive waste and opponents of the spent-fuel deal argue it is a blatant violation. But the Argentine and Australian Governments say that spent fuel is not radioactive waste because it can be further processed to produce more energy. They also argue the spent fuel would only be parked in Argentina for a matter of months before long-term storage in Australia. The nuclear treaty was drawn up after the Argentine state-owned company INVAP won the $300 million Sydney replacement reactor contract and said spent-fuel treatment could take place in Argentina. The new reactor is being built alongside the existing reactor at Lucas Heights in south-west Sydney. Australian authorities want the option to treat spent fuel in Argentina as a back up if France cannot continue reprocessing. The treaty stipulates Argentina must take responsibility for the spent fuel from the new reactor, if requested by Australia, and the proposal is for Argentina's National Commission of Atomic Energy to do the work in Buenos Aires. There have been signs the Australian Government was getting nervous that the treaty would not be passed before campaigning began for Argentine presidential elections next March. [http://www.afr.newsalert.com ***************************************************************** 7 Japan: New TEPCO head vows change asahi.com : ENGLISH Asahi Shimbun www.asahi.com [http://www.asahi.com/] By JURO OSAWA, Asahi Shimbun News Service The new president of scandal-ridden Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) vowed Tuesday to rebuild the company's tattered reputation with a stricter safety regime and a continued investigation into its cover-up scandal. ``At the moment, the most important goal for us is to improve nuclear safety and regain trust among the local residents around nuclear plants,'' Tsunehisa Katsumata, 62, told a news conference. Katsumata, who formally took office the same day, said the nation's largest electric utility had on Tuesday established a nuclear quality management department in its head office, to prevent future misconduct. When asked what was at the root of the cover-up scandal, Katsumata-the former executive vice president who has led the subsequent in-house probe-said there had been a tendency among employees to take regulatory manuals too lightly. While flexibility is required to some degree in all companies, he said the nuclear division allows no room for a loose attitude. ``I was really shocked to find out about the cover-ups because I had thought the nuclear division, where the manuals stated what to do in great detail, was the most strict division in terms of following regulations,'' he said. The new nuclear quality management department will operate independently of the nuclear division, auditing safety management at nuclear plants and providing advice and suggestions. Asked about the falsification of safety check data at TEPCO's Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Katsumata said an outside committee consisting of lawyers, which is currently investigating the case, will release an interim report within a month. Katsumata also said Vice President Shigemi Tamura, 64, will become company chairman on Oct. 30.(IHT/Asahi: October 16,2002) (10/16) [Copyright Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. No reproduction ***************************************************************** 8 German govt to keep nuke power plant open longer Planet Ark : GERMANY: October 16, 2002 BERLIN - German Environment Minister Juergen Trittin said the government would allow the 340 megawatt Obrigheim nuclear power station, owned by electricity firm EnBW , to operate for two more years. Obrigheim, Germany's oldest nuclear power station, was due to be decommissioned under the country's nuclear phase-out law next January, but Energie Baden Wuerttemberg (EnBW) had applied to extend the life of the plant. Under the law, each of Germany's nuclear plants was allowed to produce a fixed amount of energy. Trittin said Obrigheim's extension would be matched by a reduction in the lifetime of the Philippsburg I reactor, also owned by EnBW. "The sum of nuclear power (to be produced) will remain the same," Trittin told a news conference, putting a brave face on a decision criticised by environmentalist groups who make up the Greens party's political bedrock. Greens party officials said the decision could be contested at a special party congress on Friday and Saturday, called to approve a new coalition government programme with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats. The coalition agreement is due to be signed on Wednesday. REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ***************************************************************** 9 UK: Power failure Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | The energy sector is in turmoil, even 'bust', but Labour won't quit the free market model David Gow Wednesday October 16, 2002 The Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk] Britain's energy market, promoted by the government as the very model of a liberalised, competitive market for recalcitrant EU partners, is in turmoil. The country's biggest nuclear power producer, privately owned British Energy, is in effect insolvent, bailed out by a £627m state loan that is due to "run out" in late November. Last week PowerGen, the German-owned group once seen in the City as a paragon, shut down a quarter of its generating capacity and bluntly told ministers that the sector as a whole was "bust". Now TXU Europe, with more than 5m customers in the UK, is heading for insolvency, cut adrift by its struggling American parent which refused to invest £450m to help it meet long-term contracts with other producers and has put it up for sale. Yesterday TXU confirmed that the British operation is being kept alive - just - by the goodwill of its suppliers after it was accused of failing to make a £20m payment on a power supply deal with AES, the American owners of Britain's largest power station, Drax, which is itself tottering on the edge of bankruptcy. Martin Stanley, the managing director of TXU's British operation, said it was trying to renegotiate several contracts. "It can come as a surprise to nobody that, while contract renegotiations are ongoing, pre-scheduled payments are subject to that same renegotiation." As a result, his aides said: "We did not make a payment we were not due to make." In a febrile atmosphere Mr Stanley added: "It is encouraging to see that many players in the market are acting responsibly to promote stability during these difficult times." As well they might, as nobody has any interest is seeing the lights go out over swaths of the UK. Indeed, fears of a Californian-style crisis in Britain are unfounded. For one thing - as Ofgem, the energy regulator, pointed out yesterday - the state suffered from lack of generating capacity, and generators could not pass on increased wholsesale costs because of regulatory price caps. Britain has 22% overcapacity and a fully competitive retail market, the inverse of the Californian situation. Legal powers For another thing, Ofgem has legal powers to step in and appoint another supplier if TXU goes bust, guaranteeing security of supply to its customers in north-west and eastern England. If security of supply is guaranteed in the short term, there are grounds for believing that the present turmoil will last substantially longer. Power producers are deeply divided about how to resolve the problems they are experiencing. Ofgem is digging in its heels, arguing that it should have been no surprise to generators that the new electricity trading arrangements, Neta, which it introduced 18 months ago and planned from 1998, would bring a steep decline in wholesale prices; and ministers, planning a new energy policy that is due to be delivered in the new year, are increasingly at loggerheads about what to do. David Kurtz, the director of analysis at Datamonitor, believes that TXU will be sold, with heavy job losses. Both E.ON, the owner of PowerGen, and Scottish & Southern Energy are known to have made informal bid approaches, partly as they have contractual relations with TXU and would be hard hit if it were to collapse. PowerGen would be keen to acquire TXU's 5.2m British customers as it has just 3.5m gas and electricity customers, well short of the 5m "critical mass" needed. But a sale is by no means a foregone conclusion, with sources at one of the would-be buyers pointing to obstacles such as TXU's three power stations and expensive long-term contract with Drax. If that sale is problematic, there are even deeper problems about how to deal with overcapacity and restore profitability to the sector. Mr Kurtz said more power stations could be closed, including British Energy's coal-fired plant at Eggborough and plant owned by Innogy. PowerGen's chairman, Ed Wallis, wants 10 stations to be closed, taking out 9,000 megawatts of the 12,000MW overcapacity and including BNFL's six ageing Mag nox nuclear plants, all due to be closed by 2010. He also wants capacity payments reintroduced to help boost prices - but these, given under the discredited Pool arrangements simply for making plant available, are stiffly resisted by Ofgem. One senior Ofgem official said: "It seems to me really very odd when you have got overcapacity coming out of your ears and the prospect of even more capacity coming on stream to be talking of such payments." The regulator strongly believes that the market - "relationships between consenting adults" - is working and that generators who overpaid for plant in the late 1990s are now suffering, with their shareholders and banks. "They made some very poor investment decisions and are going to be hurt. What's going on in the sector is the inevitable but rather abrupt facing up to reality," officials said. David Porter, the chief executive of the Association of Electricity Producers, admits, too, that these and other mooted changes to Neta do not find favour among a majority of his members. "Most of them don't want to see wholesale change to trading arrangements that are still only 18 months old. It cost them a small fortune to equip themselves to deal with Neta, and that money has by no means been paid back." The problems at TXU - which is, ironically, bringing parts of two power stations out of mothballs - have sent wholesale prices over £19 a megawatt-hour, compared with the recent £15 and the £20-22 required to earn money. There is no evidence that this upward movement will be sustained. Excess capacity So far producers have mothballed 6% of capacity but only 1% of the electricity produced has been removed, suggesting that generators are reluctant to close more plants. Some analysts believe they are playing a political game, trying to scare the government into artificial changes to the market to restore profitability to levels enjoyed in pre-Neta days. Late next month ministers will have to decide the future of British Energy and, producers are pressing them to extend any concessions made to the nuclear operator to the entire industry. "If there's to be a fix we have all got to play a part in it, and the integrity of the market needs to be maintained," Mr Porter said. The government is on the horns of a dilemma. If it bows to the producers it risks undoing the benefits of the reforms it undertook on coming to office in 1997, especially the reduced prices. If it allows the turmoil to continue, its model will lose more credibility in Europe. Insisting Neta has proven its flexibility, Callum McCarthy, the chief executive Labour appointed to run Ofgem, said: "The fundamentals we face are inherited from a decade during which generation was overcompensated, which resulted in excess capacity - and we are painfully living with the consequences of it." It would be surprising if, in the end, the government refused to stick by its guns - and its chosen model of regulator. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 ***************************************************************** 10 Reactor reactivated after shutdown and fire* October 15, 2002 *The Susquehanna Nuclear Power Plant returned to service Monday, two weeks after a mechanical failure and a subsequent fire shut it down.* PPL Corp.'s reactor near Berwick had been off-line since Sept. 30, when a momentary power loss triggered an automatic shutdown. The problem was fixed within days, but an electrical transformer caught fire Oct. 3 when personnel tried to turn the reactors back on. No one was injured and the fire was confined to the transformer, PPL said. The damaged equipment has since been replaced. Before Sept. 30, the plant about 25 miles southwest of Wilkes-Barre had run for 526 consecutive days. PPL is a global energy company based in Allentown. /©NEPA News 2002/ ***************************************************************** 11 NRC meetings important to build confidence - portclintonnewsherald.com Tuesday, October 15, 2002 EDITORIALS Once again, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is providing area residents and officials with an opportunity to gain first-hand information and ask questions about the efforts to resolve problems at the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station. Such meetings -- which have been held regularly throughout recent months -- are crucial to rebuilding public confidence in the plant and the NRC. The detailed process being followed by the NRC in investigating the problems at Davis-Besse and keeping the public informed about progress is both greatly prefered and badly needed. The public and local officials must have a clear understanding of the problems and the solutions. And they must believe they can trust company and government officials to make sure that public safety is the top priority. Three meetings have been scheduled for Wednesday at the Oak Harbor High School Auditorium. All of the meetings will include public participation sessions. The first meeting at 9 a.m. will deal with two NRC inspections conducted early this month at the plant. These inspections stemmed from radioactive particles found outside the plant on workers' clothing and in residences. The NRC has been investigating the discovery of these particles for months, but last week expanded it to look at the dosage contractors received while working on the steam generators during a February refueling outage. NRC officials believe the contractors were able to leave the plant without the particles being detected and moved on to other facilities. The particles were found while they were working at other power plants. Lab results prompted NRC officials to expand the investigation to see just how much exposure the contractors received while working inside Davis-Besse. The plant has not restarted because of the discovery of boric acid corrosion on the reactor head. The 2 p.m. meeting involves FirstEnergy and the NRC. FirstEnergy is to report on its progress on correcting issues related to the corrosion problem. At 7 p.m., the public will have the opportunity to ask questions of the NRC and make comments. Take advantage of the opportunity. Originally published Tuesday, October 15, 2002 Copyright ©2002 News Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 12 Millstone workers to vote on joining union - Local News - norwichbulletin.com Wednesday, October 16, 2002 By BRIAN SCHEID Norwich Bulletin WATERFORD -- The third attempt in three years to unionize Millstone Power Station workers will go to a vote today. An appeal of a recent ruling on who is eligible for the union vote is pending before the National Labor Relations Board, meaning the outcome of the vote may not be known any time soon. Nearly 580 employees who work in maintenance and operations jobs at the Waterford nuclear power plant will vote in the elections, which will be held today and Thursday at Millstone. Eligible voters will be asked to join the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Union organizers say the move stems from reductions in salaries and benefits that took place after Virginia-based Dominion Resources Inc. purchased Millstone in March 2001. The plant was owned previously by Northeast Utilities, which sold Millstone under the state's plan to promote fair competition between electric companies. Cliff Marlow, a radiation protection technician and a member of the union organizing committee, said even though a union did not exist at the power station while Northeast owned Millstone, workers were paid "union scale" salaries and benefits. "That was sort of a ploy on their part to keep the union out," Marlow said. "But, everybody was pretty satisfied with it." When Dominion took over Millstone, the state's General Assembly passed a one-year moratorium on salary and benefit changes at the plant, protecting employees' wages and benefits from being reduced. But now that the moratorium has expired, Marlow said costs of employee medical coverage have skyrocketed, pay rates have been reduced by as much as 10 percent, overtime and on-call pay have been cut and retirement plans have been slashed, among other decreases. Peter Hyde, a spokesman for Millstone, confirmed this week's union vote, but declined to comment on labor and management relations. "We're going to let our employees speak their minds," Hyde said. "Were just going to await the outcome of the vote." When union organizers filed an attempt to form a union with the National Labor Relations Board regional office in Hartford, Dominion requested that more employees be included in the union vote. The board expanded the number of eligible voters from 426 to 576. Marlow said Dominion's requests were motivated by a desire to keep unions out of Millstone. Dominion recently filed an appeal of the Hartford ruling with the board's national office in Washington, D.C., to open the vote to 350 more employees, Marlow said. "Because this has not been resolved, the ballot box is going to be sealed," Marlow said. "In all likelihood, we're not going to know what the results are going to be." bscheid@norwich.gannett.com [bscheid@norwich.gannett.com] Copyright © 2002 Norwich Bulletin. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 13 NRC: Ohio plant didn't check workers well enough AP Wire | 10/16/2002 | JOHN SEEWER Associated Press Writer OAK HARBOR, Ohio - Operators of an Ohio nuclear power plant didn't adequately check five workers before they left the plant with specks of radiation on their clothes, federal inspectors said Wednesday. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it found three possible violations of federal rules while looking into the levels of exposure at the Davis-Besse plant. The plant also did not properly assess how much radiation the workers were exposed to inside the plant's steam generator, said Tom Kozak, an NRC inspector. Five workers accidentally carried the radioactive particles out of the plant in February. The particles were found in hotel rooms and homes in Ohio, Texas, South Carolina and Virginia, according to FirstEnergy Corp., which operates the plant. There was no threat to the public, Kozak said. The five workers and two others were performing maintenance during a routine shutdown at the plant near Toledo. One of the other workers was not contaminated; the second had to be decontaminated. Although the workers had taken several showers, their shoes and underwear were not checked, Kozak said. The plant assumed that the contamination was ingested or inhaled and not on their clothes, he said. The Akron-based company did not dispute the NRC findings. "We did not handle the issue as good as we could," said Lew Myers, head of the company's nuclear division. The company said it has new equipment and a new supervisor to monitor levels of radiation inside the plant. It also now requires all workers who go inside the generator to wear respirators, which would further limit their exposure to radiation, said company spokesman Todd Schneider. Respirators had not been worn before because the company didn't think they were needed, Kozak said. The NRC and FirstEnergy are awaiting tests to determine whether the radiation exposure for the workers was higher than initially thought, he said. Regulators then will determine the significance of the problem and whether FirstEnergy should be penalized. Kozak said FirstEnergy had thoroughly examined the exposure and plant conditions at the time and that the changes made should prevent workers from being exposed again. The NRC also is investigating leaks that allowed boric acid to eat a 7-inch wide hole almost through the 6-inch thick steel cap that covers the Davis-Besse plant's reactor vessel. The leaks were discovered in March, during a maintenance shutdown. FirstEnergy officials said at another meeting with the NRC on Wednesday that they were a little more than a month behind on their schedule to fix the reactor damage. A new reactor should be installed by Dec. 8, said Mike Stevens, director of work management at Davis-Besse. The company still hopes to restart the plant early next year. ***************************************************************** 14 San Onofre To Test Sirens Wednesday NBCSandiego.com - News - Residents Do Not Need To Take Action POSTED: 2:49 p.m. PDT October 15, 2002 SAN DIEGO -- The San Onofre nuclear plant will test its community alert sirens this week. And residents in the area are being advised that there will be no need to take action when they sound. The sirens will be set off twice on Wednesday morning, sometime between 10 a.m. and noon. There are 49 community alert sirens located within ten miles of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, which is near San Clemente. The sirens are tested annually. Federal regulators require that the sirens be in place in case plant operators need to alert the community to an emergency. Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 15 Base to test training for nuclear accident October 16, 2002 Last modified October 16, 2002 - 12:39 am *Associated Press * CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - Some 600 federal, state and local personnel will participate in a training exercise simulating a nuclear weapon accident, officials at F.E. Warren Air Force Base said. The exercise next Tuesday will include a mock collision between a tanker truck and a payload transporter carrying a simulated Minuteman III re-entry system. Called Diligent Warrior 2003, the four-day field training exercise will be sponsored by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and held by the 90th Space Wing from the air base. It will take place within the Wyoming Army National Guard's training facility at Camp Guernsey near Wheatland. ***************************************************************** 16 UN testing for depleted uranium contamination in Bosnia* ReliefWeb ReliefWeb ReliefWeb *Source:* Agence France-Presse (AFP) *SARAJEVO, Oct 14 (AFP) -* Experts from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) on Monday began tests for contamination in several locations in Bosnia where NATO forces used depleted uranium shells during the country's 1992-1995 war. "The UNEP's aim is to determine whether the use of depleted uranium during the conflict in Bosnia may pose health and environmental risks either now or in the future," team leader Pekka Haavisto told reporters. Last year the UNEP concluded that depleted uranium shells used by NATO forces in Yugoslavia had not caused widespread contamination. But in early 2001 many NATO and non-NATO countries raised concern over possible link between the use of depleted uranium ammunition in the Balkans and increased cancer rates among soldiers who had participated in peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and the Serb province of Kosovo. Over the next 10 days, the 17-member UNEP team plans to take soil, water and vegetation samples from 12 sites across the country. Six of the sites have been identified by NATO as having been struck by depleted uranium weapons during air strikes against Bosnian Serbs in 1994 and 1995. The samples will be tested in nuclear laboratories in Italy, Britain and Switzerland, Haavisto said, adding that the final conclusions were expected be published in March next year. At the request of the local authorities, the UNEP will also examine cancer rates in Sarajevo, Banja Luka and the eastern town of Bratunac, where many refugees from areas hit during bombing raids now live. Bosnia was hit by three tons of depleted uranium NATO shells in 1994-1995, Haavisto said. Bosnian officials said at the time that the number of cancer cases increased after the war, but gave no evidence to link it with depleted uranium. A NATO committee has said that scientific and medical research has so far not shown any link between depleted uranium and reported health problems. anh/zbl/txw AFP *Copyright (c) 2002 Agence France-Presse *Received by NewsEdge Insight: 10/14/2002 10:04:18 *©AFP:* The information provided in this product is for personal use only. None of it may be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the express permission of Agence France-Presse. ***************************************************************** 17 U.N. Scientists Start Examining Bosnia's Soil, Water for Depleted Uranium Contamination* * October 16, 2002 By KATARINA KRATOVAC | Associated Press 10/15/2002 * SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina?A United Nations team on Tuesday launched its first probe in Bosnia into the effects of depleted uranium on the environment, seven years after NATO bombed Bosnian Serb forces to halt their siege of Sarajevo. * Scientists from the U.N. Environment Program are to work with Bosnian experts to determine whether depleted uranium contaminated the soil, plants and water, as well as its effects on people's health, according to team chief Pekka Haavisto. "The study will assess short-term and long-term effects ... and give recommendations on how to eliminate any possible danger," Haavisto said. The 17-member international team is to complete the study, estimated to cost US$300,000, by March 2003. The funds are provided by Switzerland and Italy. During its 1995 bombings of Serb positions around Sarajevo, NATO aircraft used munitions containing depleted uranium, a slightly radioactive heavy metal that is effective for piercing armor. According to the Bosnian government, some 10,800 of such rounds - 30 mm armor-piercing projectiles - were fired in Bosnia. Buried in the soil, such ordnance can contaminate ground water, leading to anything up to a 100-fold increase in uranium levels in drinking water. Scientists will also visit hospitals across Bosnia to look for a possible increase in radiation-related diseases. The team's first stop Tuesday was at a former Serb military factory in Hadzici, a Sarajevo suburb and one of seven sites that will be the focus of the U.N. investigation. Although this is the first such U.N. study in Bosnia, earlier speculations that the ammunition may have adversely affected the health of not only the local population but also of the international peacekeepers in Bosnia had prompted several governments to investigate their troops serving in this Balkan country. A similar U.N. study has been conducted on sites in neighboring Yugoslavia and its ethnic Albanian province of Kosovo, where NATO's 1999 bombing campaign halted a Yugoslav army crackdown on independence-seeking Albanians. The U.N. scientists there found areas where the soil and even the air were contaminated by depleted uranium but concluded those levels did not threaten the environment or human health. However, the U.N. recommended precautionary measures at those sites. *On the Net:* United Nations Environment Program: http://postconflict.unep.ch /©Santa Fe New Mexican 2002/ *Date: Oct, 15 2002* Depleted uranium rounds also being pyrophoric, often burn to completion. In impact situations less severe, e.g., not used against high-strength tank armor, any contact with metal still can produce some vaporizing, distribution of incandescant materials. All resulting in "mildly" radioactive materials distributed as particulate matter -- ready and waiting to be inhaled and ingested. Sooner or later -- just like Agent Orange -- our government will have to own up to the long-term effects of such broadcast weapons of war. It starts with "Gulf War Syndrome" and continues on through Kosovo -- and, next, of course, Iraq. ***************************************************************** 18 LATEST ON TWO RADIOACTIVE CONTAINERS FOUND IN THE PORTNEUF RIVER* NBC Newschannel 6 kpvi.com *10/15/2002* Authorities say that two radioactive containers that were found near Lava Hot Springs, over the weekend couldn't have ended up there by accident. Officials say, nuclear densometers like these are used to determine road conditions, soil density, and moisture content. They cost several thousand dollars, apiece and are not something that would wind up in a river on accident. Haz-mat crews say, none of the radioactive material leaked into the river or environment. Police are now trying to find out, who owns the two densometers and how they wound up in the Portneuf River. © *Copyright 2002 Oregon Trail Broadcasting KPVI* ***************************************************************** 19 Chechen caught with radioactive package* United Press International By Bojan Soc Published 10/15/2002 6:04 PM MOSCOW, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Russian border guards detained a resident of Chechnya allegedly carrying a package of radioactive material Tuesday, as he tried to cross the Russian border into the predominantly Moslem former Soviet state of Azerbaijan, NTV television network reported. The man, identified by the customs authorities as Ilyasdavlet Murzaliyev, was detained in the southern Russian province of Dagestan as he attempted to pass the Yarag-Kazmalyar checkpoint. The smuggler was wearing a container attached to his chest and neck. The Russian news agency Itar-Tass described the container as lead and weighing about 2.2 pounds. Experts working on the case identified the smuggled substance later in the day Tuesday as an alloy of plutonium and osmium, a metallic element more often associated with industrial catalysts. The package Murzaliyev carried does not itself constitute any kind of bomb. It could potentially contribute to one, however, as well as comprise a so-called "dirty bomb" of radioactive material dispersed by conventional explosives. About 17.6 pounds of plutonium combined with about 55 pounds of uranium, enriched from the crude natural form, is considered the standard threshold to ignite a true nuclear bomb. The substance reportedly emitted radiation at the rate of 1.7-1.8 roentgens per hour -- a substantial though not fatal level for exposures measured in days. The dose of a single chest X-ray is 0.02-0.04 roentgens per hour, and most humans can absorb about 5-7 roentgens per day for several weeks without compromising their health. Russia's State Sanitary Epidemiological Inspection has taken possession of the container. The suspect remains in the Dagestani city of Derbent in the custody of investigators, who have started criminal proceedings on contraband charges, Tass reported. Muslim militants in Chechnya has been fighting a decade-long struggle for independence from Russia, and have been accused of having links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaida network. Copyright © 2002 United Press International ***************************************************************** 20 More nuclear plant workers exposed to radiation TCPalm: Local News By Eve Modzelewski staff writer October 16, 2002 SOUTH HUTCHINSON ISLAND -- Six more workers were exposed to low-level radiation last week during a refueling outage at St. Lucie Nuclear Plant, raising the tally to 38, Florida Power &Light Co. has reported. One of the plant's two nuclear containment buildings was evacuated Oct. 7 when a radiation alarm went off as workers were replacing a piece of equipment, said Rachel Scott, FPL spokeswoman. The six employees were exposed to low levels -- about 20 to 25 millirems -- of radiation. The incident came one day after 32 workers inhaled radioactive particles during a pressure cleaning project on one of the nuclear vessel heads. One of those workers inadvertently brought contaminated clothing back to his hotel room, and FPL on Sunday reported the contamination to the state Department of Health. "People wear their own underclothes, but over that they wear plant-issued shorts and a T-shirt," Scott said Tuesday. "When he changed clothes, it remained on the undergarment." The low-level contamination was imbedded in the fiber of the underwear and no radioactivity was detected elsewhere in the hotel room, FPL reported. The worker, who was contracting for FPL, reported no health problems and is back at work, Scott said. He and the other workers absorbed radiation ranging between 1 and 2 millirems after inhaling the particles. "It's not unusual for a radiation worker to pick up about 1,000 millirem over a period of a couple weeks during a refueling outage ... if they're involved in the most high-intensity work around the reactor," Scott said. The two reactors are refueled every 18 months, and Unit One has been shut down since Oct. 1. Refueling typically takes three to four weeks, Scott said. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has two on-site inspectors at the St. Lucie plant, limits annual radiation exposure to 5,000 millirems. It takes about 100,000 millirem to induce health problems, Scott said. Representatives at the NRC did not return phone calls Tuesday, but spokesman Ken Clark said Monday the agency was looking into the first incident. NRC records show the company also evacuated an area of the plant Friday after chlorine gas was detected in the area. Scott said there were no injuries reported after the incident. It was unusual for the two radiation exposure events to occur consecutively, Scott said, adding that FPL plans to adjust some of its procedures. "It's really a factor of the number of jobs that are being done during a refueling outage," Scott said. "We certainly learn that there are different ways to do the job so that in the future we will be able to minimize these types of occurrences." Some plant employees have expressed concern about the exposure, and FPL managers were working to keep them informed, Scott said. "All of these incidents are very closely monitored, and we do operate conservatively when we're doing this type of work," she said. The St. Lucie Nuclear Plant is in the process of extending its two NRC operating licenses for an additional 20 years. The NRC will present the results of its first inspection of the plant at a public meeting scheduled for 9 a.m. on Oct. 25 at the FPL Energy Encounter adjacent to the plant. © 2002 - The E.W. Scripps Co. ***************************************************************** 21 UN Assesses Depleted Uranium in Bosnia-Herzegovina SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina, October 15, 2002 (ENS) - At the request of the government of Bosnia-Herzegovina, a team of experts from the United Nations Environment Programme is investigating 12 sites in the country that may have been targeted by ordnance containing depleted uranium (DU) during the Bosnian conflict in 1994 and 1995. The 17 member team UNEP Depleted Uranium Assessment Team began its research October 12 and will be in the field until October 24. Their conclusions will be presented in a report to be published in March 2003. [Haavisto] Pekka Haavisto examines a DU munitions target for radioactivity. (Photo courtesy UNEP Post Conflict Assessment Unit [http://postconflict.unep.ch/] ) The assessment mission is headed by Pekka Haavisto, the former Finnish environment minister who has led war damage assessment teams in the Balkans, and most recently in the Palestinian Territories. "UNEP's aim is to determine whether the use of depleted uranium during the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina may pose health or environmental risks - either now or in the future," said Haavisto. "Previous studies of DU in Kosovo and Serbia recommended that governments and civilians take precautionary action to avoid contact with DU," he said. The team will take soil, water, air and vegetation samples at six sites that have been identified by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as having been struck by DU weapons. They will examine six other sites that local residents believe may have also been targeted. At the request of the local authorities, the medical sub-team, led by an expert from the World Health Organization (WHO), will examine data on cancer rates in the main urban centres of Sarajevo and Banja Luka. They will also visit a local hospital in Bratunac to meet with the local medics and with patients who may have been exposed to DU during the conflict. The mission is being funded by the governments of Italy and Switzerland. [storage] Radioactive materials found by a UNEP post-conflict assessment team in Vinca, Serbia in 2001 (Photo courtesy UNEP) The assessment team includes experts from UNEP, the Swedish Radiation Protection Authority, Spiez Laboratory of Switzerland, Italy's National Environmental Protection Agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Greek Atomic Energy Commission, the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventative Medicine, the Nuclear Safety Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the University of Bristol, UK. The samples being collected will be analyzed in detail for radioactivity and toxicity in the Spiez Laboratory, in Italy's National Environmental Protection Agency lab, and at Bristol University. The uranium remaining after removal of the enriched fraction contains about 99.8 percent 238U, 0.25 percent of 235U and 0.001 percent 234U by mass. This material is referred to as depleted uranium or DU. Due to its high density, about twice that of lead, and other properties, DU is used in munitions designed to penetrate armor plate and for protection of military vehicles such as tanks. DU is described by the World Health Organization (WHO) in an April 2001 Fact Sheet as "weakly radioactive." A radiation dose from it would be about 60 percent of that from purified natural uranium with the same mass. DU has both chemical and radiological toxicity that affects the kidneys and the lungs. UNEP's Balkans Task Force report giving field measurements taken around selected impact sites in Kosovo indicates that contamination by DU in the environment was localized to a few tens of meters around impact sites. "We learned," UNEP reports, "that still, more than two years after the end of the conflict, particles of DU dust can be detected from soil samples and from sensitive bio-indicators like lichen." The "extremely low" levels were only detectable through lab analysis, but UNEP confirmed that "contamination at the targeted sites is widespread, though no significant level of radioactivity can be measured." [sampling] Djakovica, Kosovo. UNEP assessment team member measures DU contamination with a gamma meter. (Photo courtesy UNEP) But the task force found that levels of DU may be significantly raised over background levels in close proximity to DU contaminating events. Over the days and years following such an event, WHO warns, the contamination will become dispersed into the wider natural environment. "People living or working in affected areas can inhale dusts and can consume contaminated food and drinking water." "Levels of contamination in food and drinking water could rise in affected areas after some years and should be monitored where it is considered that there is a reasonable possibility of significant quantities of DU entering the ground water or food chain," the agency says. Young children playing in or near DU impact sites could ingest the radioactive substance lingering in contaminated soil when putting their fingers in their mouths, WHO warns. There is a possibility of lung tissue damage leading to a risk of lung cancer if a high enough radiation dose results from insoluble DU compounds remaining in the lungs for many years, says WHO. "No reproductive or developmental effects have been reported in humans, but studies are limited." The UNEP Balkans assessment team used modern air sampling techniques and detected airborne DU particles at two sites, indicating for the first time, that the radioactive substance could remain in the air for months, and possibly for years. "One of the most significant findings," of the Balkans research, UNEP says, is that "future risks to groundwater maybe posed by the gradual corrosion of DU penetrators." The magnitude of this risk is unknown, and UNEP recommended continued monitoring. In April 2001, WHO published a monograph entitled "Depleted Uranium: Sources, Exposures and Health Effects [http://www.who.int/environmental_information/radiation/depleted_uranium.htm] " which reviews the best available scientific literature on uranium and depleted uranium. UNEP's post-conflict depleted uranium reports are online at: http://postconflict.unep.ch/publications.htm#du [http://postconflict.unep.ch/publications.htm#du] Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2002. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 22 Great Britain to sponsor nuclear safety projects in Russia Pravda.RU ¹ Oct, 15 2002 Great Britain will allocate about $3m to $5m a year for nuclear safety projects at nuclear power stations of Rosenergoatom, a Russian nuclear power concern. The corresponding agreement was reached between heads of the Russian concern and the UK department of trade and industry today. The British company BNFL will be responsible for distributing the funds. Participants of today's meeting have come to a conclusion that UK funds allocated within the TASIS program for safety at Russian nuclear power stations are spent inefficiently and decided to set up direct collaboration. First contracts for implementing the safety program are expected to be signed at the end of the first quarter of 2003. © RBC Copyright ©1999 by "Pravda.RU [http://www.pravda.ru/] ". ***************************************************************** 23 A-Bomb Survivors at Risk for Tumors Las Vegas SUN October 15, 2002 By PAUL RECER ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON- Japanese survivors of the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki have a 40 percent increased risk of developing a rare brain tumor and have a slightly elevated lifetime risk of other types of nervous system tumors, according a new study. Dr. Dale Preston said a study of the medical histories of some 80,160 Japanese survivors of the nuclear attacks found that they had about a 6 percent increased risk of developing some type of tumors in the brain or spinal cord over a lifetime. But for schwannomas, the risk soared to about 40 percent, he said, although he emphasized that even with this increase the occurrence of these tumors is rare. Out of the more than 80,000 survivors, Preston said they found 55 cases of schwannomas. He said this is about 20 more cases than would be expected to occur among a typical population not linked to known radiation exposures. A report on the study appears Wednesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Preston is a researcher with the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima, a joint U.S.-Japanese agency that studies the health effects of the nuclear attacks on the Japanese survivors. The U.S. military dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. The attack was swiftly followed by the unconditional surrender of Japan and the end of World War II. Schwannomas are tumors of the nerve sheath and usually occur along nerves of the spine and along the auditory nerve in the brain. "These are dangerous because of their location," said Preston. Preston said the conclusion does not suggest that current allowed exposures in routine medical procedures, such as X-ray, pose a significantly increased risk of cancer because the atomic bomb survivors were exposed to higher doses. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 24 Specially equipped helicopter to look for radiation. Ammunition plant flyover scheduled for next week The Hawk Eye Newspaper Wednesday, October 16, 2002 By Dennis J. Carroll The Hawk Eye MIDDLETOWN — After months of controversy and pressure by state officials, the low–level flyover of the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant to scout for hidden radiation hazards is to begin Oct. 23, plant officials said Tuesday. Rodger Allison, IAAP environmental projects manager, said the flyover of the entire 19,000–acre complex is expected to take four to six days, depending on weather and other variables. Two pilots will be flying the specially equipped Bell 412 helicopter about 50–feet above the ground in 200–foot swaths, covering five square miles a day. The only areas that cannot be scoped by the copter will be surface water sources such as Mathis Lake, and Brush and Spring creeks, Allison said. However, the helicopter, owned by the Remote Sensing Laboratory from Las Vegas, a Department of Energy contractor, will follow the path of the two creeks as they meander toward Skunk Creek south of the plant. Tree cover will not impede the helicopter's ability to spot radiation on the ground, Allison said. The pilots will also maneuver the helicopter along areas of Middletown that border the plant, Allison said. The detection gear will be able to spot radiation hazards within buildings, Allison said. The choppers radiation–detection gear will be looking for radiation hazards such as plutonium, depleted uranium, radium and other hazards that may have been left behind by the now–shuttered Atomic Energy Commission. The AEC built, disassembled and in later years test–fired components of nuclear weapons at IAAP from the late 1940s until the mid 1970s, when its nuclear operations were moved to Texas. In the early years, IAAP was the only facility in the United States assembling nuclear weapons, DOE officials have said. Over the decades the Army and plant officials had insisted that the AEC had cleaned up its operation before leaving. However, newly discovered and declassified documents, as well as interviews with former workers, suggested otherwise. In addition, in the past couple of years, shards of depleted uranium were discovered at two firing sites, and tons of barium, used in atomic weapons production, were unexpectedly found buried on the plant grounds. The discoveries prompted state officials including Gov. Tom Vilsack, and both of Iowa's U.S. senators, Tom Harkin and Charles Grassley, to begin pressing the Army for a flyover. Army officials initially balked, contending a flyover was not needed and would not accomplish what its proponents claimed. All that changed however, when Harkin and Vilsack summoned Pentagon officials to a meeting in Vilsack's office earlier this year. The discussions prompted the Army to do an about–face. Congress has appropriated $500,000 for the flyover. Allison said flyover crews will be arriving at the plant Monday, with the helicopter scheduled to begin flying two days later. The flyover is not expected to affect operations at the plant. If anything is determined to be an imminent threat to public or worker health it will receive immediate protective attention, Allison said. "We will spring into action," Allison said. A draft report of the flyover's findings will be issued by the Army in March, with the final report due in June or July, Allison said. In addition to the flyover, special radiation crews from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers office in St. Louis have been conducting "an historical review" of AEC operations, interviewing former workers about where radioactive materials may have been dumped. The Hawk Eye 800 S. Main St., Burlington Iowa 52601 319-754-8461 Front Desk · 319-754-6824 FAX · 1-800-397-1708 Toll Free ***************************************************************** 25 Radioactive smuggling attempt foiled Ananova - Customs officers in eastern Kazakhstan have foiled an attempt to smuggle nearly 2,000 pounds of radioactive waste into China. Customs inspectors on the Kazakh-Chinese border seized 17 sacks containing a light-brown substance and one sack with a dark substance. The sacks had come from Russia and were hidden under the wooden floor of a truck. Valentina Lisitskaya, a regional customs department official, said the seizure was made on September 30 but has only just been made public. Radiological tests at the national epidemiological centre identified the substances as radioactive waste. The cargo belonged to a private Russian firm and was shipped to a Chinese citizen. The substances have been put in safe storage, the truck driver has been taken into custody and the case is being investigated, officials said. Story filed: 14:57 Wednesday 16th October 2002 ***************************************************************** 26 Toxic-dirt shipments to Cotter rejected Denver Post.com [kminiclier@denverpost.com] Denver Post Staff Writer Wednesday, October 16, 2002 - Cotter Corp.'s controversial application to import an initial shipment of 30,000 tons of toxic dirt from a New Jersey Superfund site to its uranium mill on the edge of Cañon City was rejected Tuesday by state health officials. The rejection was cheered by Sharyn Cunningham of Colorado Citizens Against Toxic Waste, who said about 10,000 people live within a 3-mile radius of the site. "We are very happy. The community has said as loudly as we can that we do not want to become a radioactive- waste storage or recycling site," she said. Her group collected 4,000 signatures against bringing in up to 470,000 tons of toxic material. However, the rejection is temporary, "pending submission and approval of a more comprehensive environmental assessment," said Douglas Benevento, acting executive director of the state Department of Public Health and Environment. Cotter actually is encouraged by some of the wording in Tuesday's rejection, because the health department characterizes the initial 30,000 tons as "mildly contaminated waste soil" from the Maywood Chemical Co. Superfund site, said Rich Ziegler, Cotter executive vice president. He said the state concluded that the company's "analysis of public and occupational health risk and safety, both radiological and nonradiological, are acceptable." He predicted that his employees and contract experts on transportation and socioeconomic impacts could meet with state health officials within the next two or three weeks and address all the questions, clearing the way for shipments to begin. Benevento of the health department disagrees. "This is not a matter of sitting down for a couple of hours together and having a sudden epiphany ... there are tough hurdles to get over," said Benevento, also director of the state health department's environmental programs. A new state law - enacted earlier this year to safeguard the people of Cañon City living near the site and others along the proposed rail route across southern Colorado - demands a full study of transportation alternatives, Benevento said. Still, "there may not be any," he said. He said the company's environmental assessment is inadequate and fails to consider potential types of transportation accidents "releasing radioactivity or other hazardous material; possible comments; and safety requirements for transport." The state wants current data on rail-accident rates east of Cañon City and a more complete analysis of the socioeconomic impacts, Benevento said, including "the perceived stigma associated with radioactive waste." All contents Copyright 2002 The Denver Post ***************************************************************** 27 Uranium Plant Company Tries to Win over Hartsville* October 15, 2002 HARTSVILLE (AP) -- A consortium of U.S. and European companies that wants to build a uranium enrichment plant in Hartsville has opened an information office as part of its efforts to woo skeptical townspeople. Louisiana Energy Services executives want to process uranium into nuclear fuel for use in power-generating reactors at a $1.1 billion plant they propose to build on old Tennessee Valley Authority land. Britain-based Urenco is in the consortium, as are the U.S. utilities Duke Power and Exelon. The Hartsville land about 40 miles northeast of Nashville is owned by five counties ? Sumner, Wilson, Smith, Macon and Trousdale. Local officials have been seeking unbiased information about the risks and rewards of putting a uranium plant in their area. The plant would use centrifugal force to divide the elements of uranium and produce fuel for nuclear power plants. It would not have nuclear reactor capabilities or use materials with high-level radiation. The LES information office opened on Main Street on Monday, and a public meeting that attracted about a dozen picketers and experts on all sides of the issue was held that evening at Trousdale County High School. "This is a very benign facility," George Dials, president and CEO of LES, told residents during the meeting. LES picked Hartsville ahead of a property in Hollywood, Ala. Company officials hope to secure a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license by 2004 and have the plant running by 2007. The consortium earlier considered a site in Unicoi County, Tenn., but opposition from environmentalists scuttled that idea. "They are trying to push over little Hartsville, and we don't push over easy," said Mike Butler, a local resident who opposes the plant. A decade ago, LES wanted to build a uranium enrichment plant in Claiborne Parish, La. Opponents accused the group of environmental racism for picking a site populated by minorities. The plan was abandoned. Nuclear power supplies about 20 percent of the nation?s electricity. (Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.) ***************************************************************** 28 Russia Says US Proposing to Send Spent Fuel if Moscow Gives Up on Bushehr Spent fuel imports The Russian Ministry of Nuclear Energy (Minatom) is actively promoting plans for large scale imports of spent nuclear fuel to Russia for storage or reprocessing. MOSCOW - Russia's Atomic Energy Ministry says it's discussing a deal with the United States in which the Kremlin's cessation of nuclear assistance to Iran's controversial Bushehr reactor project would mean imports to Russia of US origin spent nuclear fuel (SNF), a deal the ministry, or Minatom, has been courting for more than a year, a Minatom spokesman and a prominent nuclear industry magazine reported. A protest on the Red Square against spent nuclear fuel import to the Russian Federation. Up to 90% of Russia's population are against the plans. photo: SEU (www.seu.ru) Charles Digges, 2002-10-16 13:19 The report was immediately dismissed by US embassy officials in Moscow, who said they had heard nothing about the supposed deal. These officials further expressed their reservations about Russia's SNF import program as a whole, characterizing it as a proliferation risk. But according to the article, published September 30th in Nuclear Fuel — as cited on the website of the US based and privately funded Nuclear Threat Initiative, or NTI — the United States is planning to offer Moscow a series of import contracts on US controlled SNF if Minatom agrees withdraw from its $800 million 1000 megawatt reactor project in Bushehr Iran. If true, the United States — which controls an estimated 90 percent of the world's nuclear fuel — seems to be hoping that Minatom will view long term SNF import programmes involving US controlled fuel as more profitable than short term contracting jobs in countries that US President George Bush has characterized as part of the "axis of evil." Under former President Bill Clinton, the United States "never understood that unless Minatom is offered an alternative way to make money" it would not stop doing business with Iran, a Russian diplomatic source was quoted as saying by Global Security Newswire, or GSN, which publishes on NTI's website. Minatom spokesman Yury Bespalko confirmed to Bellona Web Tuesday that talks on the SNF for Bushehr swap were taking place. "Yes there are discussion about such a deal underway between Minatom and the United States, but they are taking place among 'mid-level' managers — this has not reached discussion among the highest authorities on either side," he said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "At present, we are still pursuing our cooperation with Iran," he said. But the US Embassy in Moscow poured cold water on the deal outlined by Nuclear Fuel and said that the US position about the Iranian reactor had not changed. "We have no knowledge of such a deal and repeat that the Bushehr reactor programme should be shut down without any deals at all," an embassy spokesman said. "We also view the import of spent nuclear fuel [to Russia] as a proliferation problem that has not been addressed." However, GSN further reported that Russian diplomats have recently said the possibility of receiving and reprocessing spent fuel and supplying mixed-oxide — or MOX — fuel to foreign customers has Moscow talking to Washington again after the chill cast on their relations by the by the dispute over the Iranian reactor. But, Minatom — and particularly Atomic Minister Aleksander Rumyantsev — has been actively pursing Washington for import rights to US consent fuel. Without import rights to at least of this US controlled fuel, Minatom has scant hopes of becoming a major competitor on the SNF storage and reprocessing market, which is controlled mostly by England and France Aside from the report in Nuclear Fuel, Minatom's import wish was recently given a small endorsement by Russell Dyer of the US Energy Department (DOE), who said in an interview with Nuclear.ru at last month's irradiated fuel conference in Moscow, that small quantities of US controlled SNF may soon be shipped to Russia. But the financial and quantitative parameters of the apparent SNF-for Bushehr deal, as recapped from Nuclear Fuel by GSN, are foggy. It is unclear, for instance, whether Minatom would be allowed to start seeking contracts in any country holding US consent fuel, or if the United States would control which countries where allowed to import. Furthermore, if spent fuel is to be imported for the production of MOX that will be sold to foreign customers, it is currently unclear — as Bellona reported in August — whether MOX fabrication will take place, if it ever does, at Zheleznogorsk, as had been previously envisioned in DOE plutonium disposition plans, or at Mayak, a site so contaminated that industrial level production of the fuel would be beyond devastating. Russia's modest debut on the SNF market was made possible last year when a dubious package of legislation was rifled through the State Duma by then Minatom chief Evgeny Adamov, who promised Russia would reap $20 billion over the next 20 years in storage and reprocessing fees. The legislation package, which became three laws, was hugely unpopular and environmentalists around the country collected 2.5 million signatures — more than the required 2 million in 60 regions of the Russian Federation. The referendum was scuttled by the Central Election Commission, however, which disqualified some 600,000 signatures for minor technical reasons, some as insignificant incorrect street abbreviations. Suffice to say that what is limiting Russia's aspirations to becoming an SNF storage and reprocessing magnate is not the opposition of nearly 90 percent of the Russian public — according to a recent poll commissioned by Minatom — but the mammoth US control has over spent fuel, which has restricted Russia's client base to former Soviet fuel customers like Bulgaria and Ukraine — a drop in the bucket compared to reprocessing giants like France and Britain. Should Minatom overcome US security reservations and Russian environmental opposition, Russia's new clients, according to Nuclear Fuel, as citied by GSN, could include western European countries, as well as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, the last three of which buy US made fuel, though lack the resources for building their own geologic repositories for spent fuel storage. At present, however, Russia's reprocessing infrastructure is in a shambles, and any fuel accepted would be stored temporarily for up to 30 years. Client countries would be charged for that storage, and the proceeds would go toward revamping Russia's ailing reprocessing infrastructure. Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] , President: Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no] Information: info@bellona.no [info@bellona.no] , Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no [webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 -38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 29 County urged to take Yucca stand Las Vegas SUN October 15, 2002 By Mary Manning Two Clark County advisory committees recommended that the County Commission support the state in its effort to stop a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain without negotiating for benefits. It was the first time the Clark County Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee and the Yucca Mountain Advisory Committee met together to discuss the proposed repository, said Irene Navis, director of the county's Nuclear Waste Division. For the 44 people attending the meeting Monday night at the County Government Center, threats of radioactive contamination from accidents during transportation of 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain dominated the discussion. Members of the joint committees urged county officials to act in time to present local concerns to the 2003 session of the Nevada Legislature opening in February. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 30 Angry Exchange Spices N-Waste Initiative Debate The Salt Lake Tribune -- Wednesday, October 16, 2002 BY JUDY FAHYS One minute, Utah campaign veteran Hugh Matheson was recalling the old adage about truth being war's first casualty. The next minute, the Initiative 1 opposition leader was apologizing for impugning the motives of Initiative 1 proponent Mickey Gallivan. The pugnacious exchange came during a Salt Lake City Rotary luncheon on Tuesday, where Matheson and Gallivan had been invited to make their rival pitches three weeks before voters will be asked to say "yes" or "no" to Citizens Initiative 1. During a presentation in which he accused proponents of misleading the public about Initiative 1, Matheson hinted that Gallivan's advertising firm has a beef with the radioactive waste company now bent on defeating the initiative, Envirocare of Utah. As Matheson told it, Gallivan's firm solicited a publicity contract from Envirocare and had its bid rebuffed. "That's a lie," Gallivan cried out angrily. "That's an absolute lie." Matheson, who had leveled the same charge at an Oct. 4 Radiation Control Board meeting, apologized and told the Rotarians he would not repeat the accusation. He said he had gotten his information about the alleged business solicitation "by several folks around the company." Gallivan said Envirocare approached his advertising firm, through an intermediary in Idaho, to bid on the company's campaign to accept higher levels of radioactive waste, but the firm declined. "It is absolutely reflective of the way they are running this campaign," Gallivan said of the opposition. "They are trying to create distrust through innuendo and lies, and today was a perfect example." Initiative 1 would prohibit companies from disposing of higher levels of radioactive waste in Utah, raise taxes on the low-level waste already permitted and channel any revenue from those taxes to school and anti-poverty programs. Opponents say the initiative, if passed, would put Envirocare out of business. fahys@sltrib.com © Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on ***************************************************************** 31 No green light yet for radioactive soil Rocky Mountain News: State By Dick Foster, Rocky Mountain News October 16, 2002 State health officials on Tuesday rejected an application by Cotter Corp. to bring 470,000 tons of radioactive dirt to its uranium processing mill in Cañon City. But the health department left the door open for later approval if Cotter amends its application with additional information. Cotter applied last February to receive the low-level, thorium-laced soil, which was being removed from industrial properties on a Superfund cleanup site in Maywood, N.J. Cotter's Cañon City mill had refined uranium from 1958 to 1987. It was declared a Superfund cleanup site in 1984, when radioactive contamination of surrounding land and domestic wells was traced to the mill. An uproar by Cañon City residents prompted Gov. Bill Owens to block the Maywood shipments last February, pending state health department review of Cotter's application. The shipments have never begun. State health officials told Cotter Tuesday that the application was rejected not for the properties of the waste itself, but for the inadequacy of Cotter's environmental assessment. One key element of the application - the analysis of the public health risk posed by the radioactive material - was acceptable, state health officials said. But other issues regarding transportation of the material and "socioeconomic impacts on the community" were inadequately addressed, said Douglas Benevento, the health department's acting executive director. Cotter executive vice president Rich Ziegler called the rejection a temporary setback and said that Cotter will try to provide the necessary information. 2002 © The E.W. Scripps Co. Privacy Policy and User ***************************************************************** 32 Hartsville Panel On Uranium Plant* Residents in trousdale county are speaking out about a proposed uranium plant. Monday night, the county sponsored a public forum on the proposed uranium enrichment plant. It drew people from across the area. The panel included a Vanderbilt professor, a nuclear safety expert, officials from the company that would operate the plant, and people who oppose it. Orti Tucker,of Citizens For Smart Choices, is concerned about the plant, /"It is a fact that they have gone to smaller communities. Homer, Louisiana, Unicoy, Tennessee...they're not wanted there, they're not wanted here. We're concerned about our environment, the health issues, and the future of our children."/ It could take several years to begin construction because the plant requires federal approval. News 2 This Morning 10.15.02 *Hartsville Hosting Proposed Uranium Plant Public Forum* This Monday night, Hartsville is hosting a public forum to discuss plans for a proposed uranium plant. A panel of guests will speak to the public on the pros and cons of having the plant in their backyard. ***************************************************************** 33 Bush to Sign Iraq Force Resolution Las Vegas SUN Today: October 16, 2002 at 7:05:15 PDT By JENNIFER LOVEN ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON- President Bush is looking to prod the United Nations to declare resolve on Iraq as he formally accepts Congress' go-ahead for military action against Saddam Hussein. Bush summoned about 100 supportive lawmakers to the White House to join him Wednesday as he signed into law the newly passed resolution authorizing the use of force. A senior administration official said Bush would use a speech at the East Room ceremony to press the U.N. to adopt a new resolution compelling Iraq to submit to unconditional weapons inspections. The president's message came on a day when the U.N. Security Council is holding its first day of open debate on Iraq at the behest of the dozens of non-Security Council nations who oppose an attack on Baghdad. The debate is mostly designed to take the administration to task on its Iraq policies, and White House officials expected sharp criticism throughout the day. Among the dozen lawmakers who were invited to stand on stage with Bush at the signing ceremony were Sens. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., John McCain, R-Ariz., Joe Biden, D-Del., minority leader Trent Lott, R-Miss. and John Warner, R-Va. Absent from the list was Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., whose granddaughter was born early Wednesday and whose schedule was packed with legislative and political business. House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., who helped negotiate the resolution and provided Bush with welcome Democratic support at a White House appearance before the vote, was not attending. Gephardt's travel schedule was keeping him away, a day after he ratcheted up his strong criticism of the Bush administration and Republicans on the economy. In a major victory for the president, weeks of back-and-forth between Congress and the White House produced little significant change in Bush's initial draft of the resolution. The measure giving Bush the authority to use military force, if necessary, to rid Iraq of its biological and chemical weapons and disband its nuclear weapons program was approved Friday by strong margins in the House and Senate. The resolution requires the president to notify Congress, before or within 48 hours after an attack, that further diplomatic approaches would not have protected U.S. security and to explain to Congress how the military action will not hurt the war on terror. But it allows Bush to take unilateral action regardless of U.N. activities. Just seven Republican lawmakers - six in the House and one in the Senate - opposed the resolution, while nearly half the congressional Democrats were unwilling to give Bush such open-ended war-making authority and voted no. Passage of the resolution came with entreaties by lawmakers from both parties for Bush to exhaust all diplomatic efforts before using military force. The Bush administration had hoped the congressional action would fortify the U.S.- and British-backed effort at the United Nations. France, Russia and China, the Security Council's other veto-capable permanent members, remain opposed to a resolution authorizing military action if it refuses to cooperate with inspectors. France has preferred a separate resolution to be debated afterward. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday that France, which has led the opposition, is proposing new ideas. But diplomatic sources at the United Nations, insisting on anonymity, said France stood by its demand for two Security Council resolutions. The first would toughen U.N. demands to reopen suspect weapons sites to international inspectors after a lapse of nearly four years and would threaten possible use of force if Iraq refused. The second resolution would authorize possible military action, the diplomatic sources said. Until now, France wanted to reserve any threats for a second resolution. The United States wants a single resolution, telling Iraq what it must do and warning of consequences of noncompliance. "No breakthroughs have taken place to date, but the conversations continue," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. Fleischer also noted Bush would not wait forever. The president is "content to wait for days and weeks, not months. It still is within that days and weeks timeframe," Fleischer said. Also, as the Bush administration contemplates plans for a postwar Iraq, a top official signaled Tuesday that the "regime change" desired in Baghdad would involve more than just Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's ouster. Pointing to the major housecleaning of Germany's leadership overseen by the United States and its allies after World War II, Undersecretary of State John Bolton called for a form of "de-Nazification" that would remove other Iraqi high-level officials who "are fundamentally a part of Saddam's regime." -- All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 34 Castro Worried Ahead of 1962 Crisis By GEORGE GEDDA Associated Press Writer October 15, 2002, 1:43 PM EDT WASHINGTON -- Weeks before the Cuban missile crisis erupted, Fidel Castro's biggest concern was that his "imperialist" neighbor would somehow discover the secret Soviet rocket deployments on Cuban soil. Castro outlined his concerns in a speech he delivered to a Communist Party conclave in January 1968. Excerpts of the speech, kept secret until now, are contained in a book by two American professors that coincides with the 40th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis. When Castro dispatched his brother, Raul, to Moscow to raise his concerns about possible American discovery of the missiles, Raul got the following response from Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev: "Don't worry. I'm going to grab Kennedy by the testicles and he will just have to come and talk it over because, after all, they have our country surrounded by bases, in Turkey, here, there, everywhere." The United States did, indeed, discover the missiles, and on Oct. 16, 1962 -- 40 years ago Wednesday -- President Kennedy was informed of them. Khrushchev's actions in the aftermath did not match the swaggering threat he had described in his conversation with Raul. After two weeks, he agreed to withdraw the missiles -- but not before the two superpowers had come closer than at any time during the Cold War to nuclear annihilation. Fidel Castro spoke to the Communist Party's Central Committee for 12 hours over two days in January 1968. Raul was at his side, and it was he who summed up Khrushchev's ribald response about how he planned to deal with Kennedy. The passage is contained in "Sad and Luminous Days," by James G. Blight of Brown University and Philip Brenner of American University. According to the book, Fidel Castro also had these observations about the crisis: * The Soviets showed great "carelessness" in not doing more to keep the 20-meter-long missiles out of view. "In a country so full of construction projects, it would have been the easiest thing in the world for us to build those emplacements under the guise of something totally different and they never would have been discovered. ... I was amazed that they weren't discovered earlier." * The high-level contacts that Cuba had with the Russians in Moscow were so secretive that Cuba's official interpreters were barred from the meetings. * After three years of U.S. harassment, having missiles available was a heady feeling for Castro despite the dangers. "We were defending those rockets with amazing fervor and love. For the first time we were participating in a certain state of equality with an enemy that had been attacking us and provoking us incessantly, and we were really enjoying such a new and different situation." * The missiles raised the possibility of Cuba entering into a negotiation with the United States over their fate, an idea that Castro relished. He believed the missiles would have given him leverage to reclaim the naval base at Guantanamo Bay from U.S. control. * On Oct. 26, during the darkest hours of the crisis, Castro said in a memo to Khrushchev: "I believe that aggression is imminent in the next 24 to 72 hours." Much of the world applauded days later when the crisis ended with Khrushchev's promise to remove the missiles in exchange for a pledge by Kennedy not to invade Cuba and to remove U.S. missiles from Turkey, a Soviet neighbor. But the outcome left Castro inconsolable. He told Khrushchev in a letter: "We knew -- do not presume that we did not -- that we would be exterminated. ... Nonetheless, we did not ask you to withdraw the missiles. "Do you perhaps believe that we desired that war? But how could it have been avoided if they had invaded. ... The majority of Cubans are currently experiencing unspeakable bitterness and sadness. The imperialists have again begun to speak of invading our country, a demonstration of how short-lived and untrustworthy their promises are." Copyright © 2002, The Associated Press ***************************************************************** 35 UK: Read between the lines Guardian Unlimited | World dispatch | The current 'intelligence war' between the CIA and the Bush administration highlights the questionable nature of the evidence against Baghdad, writes Julian Borger Wednesday October 16, 2002 The determination of the current US administration to seek an urgent confrontation with Baghdad has convinced many Americans that it must know something the rest of us are not aware of. But over the past few days it has become clear the Bush team has access to the same ambiguous mix of information and speculation as the rest of the world. It simply requires a lower standard of proof. The past week has witnessed a behind-the-scenes revolt by US intelligence and other government employees in sensitive positions, against the White House and Pentagon over the use of classified information about Saddam Hussein's activities. Piece by piece, the evidence against Baghdad laid out by President Bush and his senior aides has been called into question. It has become clear that the administration's case has been built on a reading of intelligence that has been selective to say the least. The debate has revealed an "intelligence war" inside the administration, in which the CIA is struggling to maintain its primacy in the face of a challenge to its credibility from Pentagon hawks seeking to build a "bulletproof" argument for invasion. The rivalry threatens to politicise the role of intelligence to an extent that it becomes less of a decision-making tool than a political weapon. That in itself is a dangerous development for any administration. In the absence of objective, credible information, executive decisions about war and peace risk being made in the dark. There have of course been battles over intelligence before. Most notably, CIA assessments of Soviet strength were constantly second-guessed by conservatives who insisted the spies were under-estimating the Red threat. These critics gathered together in groups to promote their own, more pessimistic analyses. The groups took on a variety of sinister-sounding names like Committee on the Present Danger and Team B, and included such familiar names as Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle. This time, however the situation is a good deal more serious. Despite having been comprehensively wrong about the Soviet army, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Perle are now in positions of power in and around the Pentagon. They have the ear of the White House, where they have an important, often decisive, ally in Dick Cheney. So while the CIA prevailed as the last word in intelligence assessments during the Cold War, that is no longer the case in the current debate over Iraq. Information gathered by the Pentagon through other channels, including informal contacts with Iraqi exiles, is pouring into the intelligence pool, muddying the water. Meanwhile, in its major pronouncements on Iraq, the president and his top officials have taken a highly one-sided interpretation of the raw material the CIA has offered. For example, in its 'white paper' on Iraq's arsenal of weapons of mass destruction the agency said there were differences of opinion over the purpose of aluminium tubes that Iraq had tried to buy on the international market. Some in the agency believe they were intended for gas centrifuges to enrich uranium. Others in the CIA, together with experts from the energy department, pointed out that the tubes were too thick for use in a centrifuge and had a special "anodysed" coating that would be useless for enriching uranium, but that is ideal for conventional rockets or missiles. However, the tubes have surfaced in speeches by both Bush and Cheney as a key exhibit in the case against Saddam. In his address to the nation last week, President Bush also drew attention to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV's) that Iraq are allegedly developing from trainer jets as a means of dispersing chemical or biological weapons. Bush said the UAV's could thus threaten "the United States". As these aircraft only have a range of a few hundred miles, he presumably meant they could be used against US forces in the region, but the wording used gave the misleading impression they could be reach American territory. Moreover, there is considerable disagreement within the US intelligence community over the nature of the links between Baghdad and al-Qaida. In a declassified letter to Congress, the CIA director, George Tenet, appeared to give credence to the administration's case, going further than earlier, more cautious assessments by saying that there had been "high-level" contacts for "a decade" and that there were reports that Iraq had provided al-Qaida members with training in the use of poisonous gases. Beneath these apparently straightforward assertions, however, there are many shades of grey. US intelligence sources can confirm meetings between al-Qaida leaders and Iraqi agents in Sudan ten years ago and then again in Afghanistan in 1998, when Baghdad's ambassador in Turkey, a high-level intelligence agent called Farouk Hijazi, paid a visit to Osama Bin Laden. However, they say there is no evidence any significant cooperation grew from these sporadic meetings, and dismiss Czech reports that the lead September 11 hijacker, Mohamed Atta, met an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague only months before the attack. The source of the claim that Iraq had been giving Bin Laden's men lessons in chemical weapons is apparently Abu Zubeidah, al-Qaida's chief recruiter who is now helping US investigators with their enquiries in a secret location. But his interrogators are aware he may be playing games with them, mixing accurate tidbits with disinformation. It is in al-Qaida's interest to foment a conflict with Iraq. Such a conflict could easily contribute towards their goal of triggering a war between Islam and the West. It is a point made in the taped address by Bin Laden's deputy and mentor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, broadcast by al-Jazeera last week, which portrayed any future military action on Iraq as an anti-Islamic crusade. Bin Laden once boasted the September 11 attacks would be the spark to ignite a world war between Islam and the rest of the world, and from that point of view al-Qaida's endeavour has been a colossal failure. Its leader's calls for jihad have had little resonance on the Arab street. But Washington, pumped up by sketchy and ambivalent intelligence, is on the point of opening a second front, which could do more to turn the Saudi fugitive's dreams into reality than any atrocity al-Qaida could possibly devise. Email [julian.borger@guardian.co.uk ] [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 ***************************************************************** 36 Walker's World: Remember Russia's Nukes* United Press International By Martin Walker UPI Chief International Correspondent Published 10/16/2002 1:49 PM WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 (UPI) -- Under the command of the Russia's General Staff, the Strategic Rocket Forces mounted last Saturday their most ambitious nuclear and missile exercise since the fall of the Soviet Union. They tested all three legs of the strategic triad, simultaneously launching three intercontinental ballistic missiles from land and from submarine and also delivered a nuclear strike by four strategic bombers firing standoff missiles. Two of the bombers were Tu-95s, the old Soviet equivalent, at least in age, of America's B-52s. Dating from the 1950s, and powered by turboprops, they were known to NATO as the "Bear." The other two were Tu-160 Blackjack bombers, the equivalent of the American B-1. No nuclear warheads were involved in the test, only the missiles that would deliver them. This was a command exercise, testing the countdown and failsafe and launch and control procedures, as well as the 4,500-mile trajectories of the ICBMs. All went according to plan, as monitored by the radars of Russia's new "Space Force," and by the Titov test center of Spacecraft Command. They did not test the nukes; there is a Test Ban Treaty, after all. But then, the Russians have no shortage of nuclear warheads. At last count, they admitted to more than 7,000. There have been few better demonstrations of the degree to which Russia remains a serious nuclear power, with military capabilities that put the other main nuclear pretenders, China and Britain and France, Israel, India and Pakistan, into suitably modest perspective. This was the biggest exercise for Russia's Strategic Air Force since the sudden cancellation on Sept. 11 last year -- in deference to American concerns after the terrorist attacks -- of a three-day exercise with the navy's Pacific and Northern fleets, operations that might have come uncomfortably close to U.S. territory in Alaska at a hypersensitive time. In its own commentary on the exercise, the Russian newspaper Vremya Novostei proposed various theories to explain the timing, and the scale, of this exercise, which the Russian General Staff said was a relatively routine test of command procedures to wind up the summer training cycle. One of the newspaper's sources said it was a none-too-subtle reminder to the West of Russian capabilities, in the month before the NATO summit at Prague formally accepts the enlargement of the alliance, and as the American forces gather around Iraq. Another source suggested that it was a preemptive response to U.S. plans, picked up by Russian intelligence, to reactivate an American nuclear test site. Yet another source, said to be close to Russian counter-intelligence, claimed that the highly expensive exercise was carried out at the suggestion of the United States to test "its own means of deterrent to the declining, but still adequate, nuclear might of the Russian Federation." This instinctive Russian assumption that they remain such a great power that the Americans watch their every move, or that every Russian initiative has its American response (or inspiration) is touching, although possibly naïve. The U.S. military and intelligence, like their political masters, are spending less time and energy on Russia these days, and the Russian General Staff know it. The Americans also know how much expense and effort and staff time the Russians put into their exercises, and how seldom Moscow can afford to run them. So it's tempting to think that if Russia was sending anyone a message with this reminder of its nuclear versatility, then the intended recipients were probably those to the south. The wretched performance of the Russian troops in Chechnya, along with Russian acquiescence in the installation of the U.S. military in Central Asia, has left Russia with an enfeebled image in the region. And nukes matter. Just ask Saddam Hussein. Or consider the concern in Washington over Russia's construction of a nuclear power station for Iran at Bushehr. Periods of tension between India and Pakistan in the past attracted barely a fraction of the international alarm provoked over the last year by the tensions over Kashmir between the two new nuclear powers. So a reminder to Russia's Asian neighbors of Russia's full-spectrum nuclear capability could have its uses. But the Russian nuclear exercise coincided with another important military test over the weekend, the fourth successful test in a row of the U.S. anti-missile defense program. A modified Minuteman ICBM target vehicle was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, and the prototype interceptor was fired 22 minutes later and 4,800 miles away from Kwajalein atoll. Six minutes later, and 140 miles above the earth, the target was hit right on the nose. As America's National Missile Defenses begin to look rather more credible, the real message of Russia's strategic exercise may have been to remind the United States, and to reassure itself, that even if the odd ICBM can now be shot down, an old and impoverished superpower that can still deliver nukes from land and sea and from the air must still be taken seriously. Copyright © 2002 United Press International ***************************************************************** 37 Russia digs in heels against U.S. move on Iraq AlertNet banner 16 Oct 2002 13:51 MOSCOW, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Russia dug in its heels over Iraq on Wednesday ahead of a wide-ranging debate in the United Nations, describing Washington's tough stance as "unacceptable". Russia, a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, has favoured France's more cautious two-tier approach to solving the Iraqi crisis over U.S. proposals which envisage military strikes if Iraq is deemed to have violated new Council demands. "The American draft resolution on Iraq has not undergone any changes. It is unacceptable and Russia cannot support it," Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov, a public conduit for policy on Iraq, told Interfax news agency. He repeated that Russia's position was close to that of France which wants the resolution changed to allow inspectors to do their work first, report any difficulties and then have the Security Council decide on military force. The Iraqi crisis poses a dilemma for President Vladimir Putin because of his new pro-West foreign policy on the one hand, and Moscow's deep economic ties with Baghdad on the other. Putin repeated on Wednesday that any new U.N. resolutions would aim to help U.N. arms inspectors, due to return soon to Iraq to carry on their search for weapons of mass destruction. But, highlighting his quandary, he diplomatically refrained from making any comment on Washington's threat of possible military action against Iraq. "All questions and worries ought to be resolved during the work of the inspectors who, we firmly believe, must return to Iraq as quickly as possible," Putin told reporters after talks with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Berlusconi, a NATO supporter of Washington on Iraq, told the Italian parliament last month that it had a "duty" to support the United States in its struggle with Iraq. In New York, nations prepared for a marathon U.N. debate on the Iraqi crisis. The United States and close ally Britain are suspicious of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's agreement to let U.N. arms inspectors return to Iraq to search for chemical, biological and nuclear weapons technology. So far there has been no agreement among the five permanent Security Council members -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China -- over the U.S. draft proposals. The U.S.-drafted resolution has yet to be put to the Security Council formally. Putin told visiting British Prime Minister Tony Blair, President George W. Bush's biggest ally on Iraq, last Friday that Moscow had no proof Baghdad was accumulating weapons of mass destruction. ***************************************************************** 38 First nuclear power submarine delivered to the ship-repairing plant in the city of Polyarny for utilization Pravda.RU Oct, 15 2002 On Tuesday representatives of the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy reported to the RIA Novosti correspondent that on Monday, 14 October, the first submarine of the first generation of nuclear power submarines written off by the Northern Fleet was delivered to the ship-repairing plant of the city of Polyarny on the Kola peninsula. The submarine would be processed as metal scrap. Representatives of the Ministry of Atomic Energy pointed out that "supposedly all 16 nuclear power submarines of the first generation which were presently stationed at the Northern Fleet base in Gremikha would be gradually utilized. That would significantly improve the radiation and ecological security of the north-eastern region of the country." © RIAN Copyright ©1999 by "Pravda.RU [http://www.pravda.ru/] ". When reproducing ***************************************************************** 39 Israel plans to avoid Iraq war Wed, Oct 16, 2002 Barbara Slavin USA TODAY [http://www.usatoday.com:80/] WASHINGTON -- Israel has promised to try to stay out of a U.S.-led war with Iraq, provided Saddam Hussein does not attack the Jewish state with biological or chemical weapons. Israeli officials say Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will refine contingency planning for a possible Iraq war when he meets today with President Bush in the Oval Office. The Israeli pledge is important to U.S. war plans because Israel's involvement in any attack on Iraq could antagonize Arab states that otherwise might assist the United States or at least stay on the sidelines. In the past, Israeli officials have suggested they would retaliate, without making distinctions about the form of an Iraqi attack. ''We will do our best not to be involved,'' a senior Israeli official said. ''The dilemma is if there is an unconventional attack without casualties.'' That -- or a conventional attack with extensive casualties -- would cross a line that might force Israel to respond, the official said. During the 1991 Gulf War, Israel yielded to U.S. pressure not to retaliate, despite being hit by 39 Iraqi missiles with conventional warheads. But Israeli concerns have grown about proliferation of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons in the region, particularly in Iraq's neighbor, Iran. A failure to respond to an Iraqi chemical or biological attack would send the wrong signal to other potential foes, Israelis say. U.S. officials have told Israelis that they will make strenuous efforts to prevent new Iraqi attacks by scouring Iraq's western desert for missiles and launchers. Beyond reassurances on Iraq, Bush is expected to urge Israel to show restraint in trying to prevent, or retaliate for, Palestinian acts of terrorism. A letter from Bush to Sharon last weekend criticized Israel for causing civilian casualties in raids in Gaza. Bush also urged the Israelis to do more to ease a humanitarian crisis in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel tried to hamper suicide bombers by sealing off the territories and preventing Palestinians from seeking work in Israel. It has released a small fraction of $450 million in taxes collected by Israel on the Palestinians' behalf, Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad said recently. Fayyad urged the Israelis to resume monthly payments of about $30 million that has been suspended for the past two years. The money would ''inject some life into a cash-strapped economy,'' Fayyad said. ''What people need is a sense of hope that there is a way out of this morass.'' Copyright © 2002 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. ***************************************************************** 40 Now what do we do in Iraq? Chicago Sun-Times - Robert Novak October 14, 2002 Now that Congress has droned through a week of largely desultory debate to authorize the use of force against Iraq, how will it be exercised? That is properly a military secret, unknown even to members of Congress. More questionable, it is also unknown to senior military officers. If there is a precise plan for action to remove Saddam Hussein from power, general officers at the Pentagon tell members of Congress that they are in the dark. This may be another example of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld working with a small circle of both official and unofficial advisers, fostering concern among career officers that plans are not being sufficiently reviewed by military experts. Hawkish civilians, in and out of the government, have been suggesting that Saddam's elite Republican Guard will throw up its arms in surrender. No serious person believes that. The question is whether an uprising of the persecuted Shia majority will be enough to overthrow the Baghdad regime without heavy application of U.S. force. If there is no effective revolt, the generals and their friends on Capitol Hill worry that the unknown plans may not call for sufficient U.S. forces. The concern goes to the executive style of Rumsfeld, who recalls the abrasive qualities demonstrated by war secretaries in the mold of Edwin Stanton during the Civil War. To his credit, Rumsfeld has attempted to toughen up the officer corps, softened by standards of political correctness during the eight Clinton years. However, the officers who thought that happy days were here again on the day that George W. Bush became president have been disappointed. Their disappointment stems from Rumsfeld's inclination, born of a turbulent lifetime in governmental and corporate affairs, to make decisions within a restricted circle. That includes war planning. According to Pentagon sources, the secretary does not consult the uniformed service chiefs. Participating in the immediate planning are Gen. Tommy Franks, commander in chief of the Central Command, and a few officers from the Pentagon's Joint Staff. What most bothers the generals, however, is Rumsfeld's preference for outside advice. For example, sources say a frequent consultant with the secretary is former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, an amateur military expert and member of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board. There is no distribution through the Pentagon of such advice. Generally, this advice probably follows the longtime line by Richard Perle, the Policy Board's chairman, that indigenous Shia forces will do most of the fighting to dislodge Saddam. That leads to the internal debate over whether 250,000 U.S. troops are needed for combat in Iraq or, instead, a much smaller number will do. The professional military thinks that Saddam's Republican Guard will fight, and that substantial U.S. forces will be needed. Contrary to a widespread popular impression, these elite troops did not surrender at the first sign of American troops in 1991. Saddam, displaying his instinct for survival, had brought his Guard back to Baghdad and placed untrained Shia recruits on the front line in the desert. One Republican Guard unit, the Hammurabi tank division, was trying to get to Baghdad when it was mowed down by the U.S. 24th Division at the Rumaila oil field in the Gulf War's famous ''turkey shoot.'' Saddam decided not to risk his elite units in a hopeless military situation when he figured, correctly, that his regime could survive. His options figure to be different this time. Officers at the Pentagon cut off from the secretary of defense worry about the Republican Guard conducting a last-ditch defense of Baghdad, using civilians as shields. They ask: What are U.S. plans for conducting this kind of warfare, which would inflict a high casualty rate on both sides? I asked a senior, well-informed Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who is a strong supporter of President Bush, whether the U.S. military was preparing for war with Iraq with sufficient force to cover all possibilities. ''They better have,'' he replied. When I rephrased the question, he gave exactly the same answer. He does not know, and neither do some gentlemen with four stars on their shoulders. Copyright 2002, Digital Chicago Inc. ***************************************************************** 41 Russia digs in heels against U.S. move on Iraq Reuters AlertNet - 16 Oct 2002 13:51 MOSCOW, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Russia dug in its heels over Iraq on Wednesday ahead of a wide-ranging debate in the United Nations, describing Washington's tough stance as "unacceptable". Russia, a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, has favoured France's more cautious two-tier approach to solving the Iraqi crisis over U.S. proposals which envisage military strikes if Iraq is deemed to have violated new Council demands. "The American draft resolution on Iraq has not undergone any changes. It is unacceptable and Russia cannot support it," Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov, a public conduit for policy on Iraq, told Interfax news agency. He repeated that Russia's position was close to that of France which wants the resolution changed to allow inspectors to do their work first, report any difficulties and then have the Security Council decide on military force. The Iraqi crisis poses a dilemma for President Vladimir Putin because of his new pro-West foreign policy on the one hand, and Moscow's deep economic ties with Baghdad on the other. Putin repeated on Wednesday that any new U.N. resolutions would aim to help U.N. arms inspectors, due to return soon to Iraq to carry on their search for weapons of mass destruction. But, highlighting his quandary, he diplomatically refrained from making any comment on Washington's threat of possible military action against Iraq. "All questions and worries ought to be resolved during the work of the inspectors who, we firmly believe, must return to Iraq as quickly as possible," Putin told reporters after talks with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Berlusconi, a NATO supporter of Washington on Iraq, told the Italian parliament last month that it had a "duty" to support the United States in its struggle with Iraq. In New York, nations prepared for a marathon U.N. debate on the Iraqi crisis. The United States and close ally Britain are suspicious of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's agreement to let U.N. arms inspectors return to Iraq to search for chemical, biological and nuclear weapons technology. So far there has been no agreement among the five permanent Security Council members -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China -- over the U.S. draft proposals. The U.S.-drafted resolution has yet to be put to the Security Council formally. Putin told visiting British Prime Minister Tony Blair, President George W. Bush's biggest ally on Iraq, last Friday that Moscow had no proof Baghdad was accumulating weapons of mass destruction. ***************************************************************** 42 U.S. huddles with Britain over Iraq Compromise sought to get France to agree Robin Wright, Tyler Marshall, Maggie Farley, Los Angeles Times [chronfeedback@sfchronicle.com] Wednesday, October 16, 2002 --> Washington -- The United States and Britain plotted strategy Tuesday for a new offensive on Iraq -- this time against recalcitrant France, the key opponent to a single tough U.N. resolution threatening the use of force unless Iraqi President Saddam Hussein bends to the will of the world body. Secretary of State Colin Powell and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw huddled in Washington to discuss possible compromises to break the monthlong impasse that has led to the emergence of France as the dealmaker, or dealbreaker, in determining how the world deals with the Baghdad regime. The diplomatic chasm reflects the disparate approaches to the problem of Iraq. It also portends tough times ahead for the Bush administration, and not just on this long-sought resolution. As it tries to mobilize world support, Washington views its position in terms of the practical challenges in an era of constant terrorist threats. U.S. officials rail against the hard realities of Iraq's past record and future potential. They warn that the dangers mean dealing not only with Baghdad's alleged weapons of mass destruction but also with its leadership. In yet another reflection of Washington's goals, Undersecretary of State John Bolton on Tuesday called daringly for the "de-Nazification" of Iraq. In stark contrast, the French have been opining about the historic stakes at play in Iraq, the lofty principles of global collective security in the post-Cold War world, and the fate of the U.N. Charter in the 21st century. French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin called on the United States this week to "remain faithful to the vision of collective security that rests on the law." In a speech to the Institute for National Defense Studies in Paris, he also warned Washington not to be tempted by the "solitude of power." Ironically, French officials are even talking about the imperiled "new world order," a term coined by the first Bush administration and often used to describe the importance of standing up to Hussein after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. So far, the French seem to be scoring more points. France has the backing, in varying degrees, of the larger bloc of the 15 countries on the U.N. Security Council. A resolution requires nine votes to pass and no vetoes from the five permanent members -- the United States, Britain, Russia, China and France. At this point, the French have the backing of eight countries, including three of the permanent members, to block the American goal of one resolution that lays out not only what Hussein must do to comply but the consequences of his failure to act. In contrast, the United States has six votes and a wobbly seventh, according to U.N. diplomatic calculations. Unlike the days of the Cold War, the divide is neither East-West nor ideological; Russia and China are siding with France. Powell conceded to reporters Tuesday that the diplomatic maneuvering on a new Iraq resolution is "intense." But he said he was still "hopeful" that a resolution would eventually win backing. The government of French President Jacques Chirac is intent on holding out for two separate resolutions. The first would cover the terms of new weapons inspections to find and destroy any chemical, biological and nuclear arms and ballistic missiles. It could even have language warning of consequences, but it would not have an automatic "trigger" that would effectively authorize the U.S. to use force at the first sign of a violation, according to U.N. diplomats. The United States is also under pressure to give up its proposals for three of the toughest provisions on disarmament, dubbed by one U.N. diplomat as "show-stoppers." They include demands for armed escorts for the weapons inspectors, taking Iraqi scientists or military officers out of the country for interviews and sending in representatives from the five permanent members of Security Council with U.N. teams. These were always ideas deemed part of the "negotiating fat" of the diplomatic bargaining process, U.S. and U.N. officials say. But Washington is still standing firm against dropping language that warns the Hussein's regime about the danger of serious "consequences" if he does not fully turn over all weapons of mass destruction. ©2002 San Francisco Chronicle.   Page A - 9 ***************************************************************** 43 U.S., Britain still at odds with France, Russia, China over Iraq resolution UN-Iraq, 1st Writethru 01:20 AM EDT Oct 17 EDITH M. LEDERER UNITED NATIONS (AP) - France, Russia, China and several other members of the UN Security Council remain opposed to a resolution backed by the United States and Britain that would authorize military action against Iraq if it fails to co-operate with UN weapons inspectors. Intense negotiations have been going on among the five veto-holding countries, and U.S. deputy ambassador Richard Williamson said Tuesday that "the dance continues." "No breakthroughs have taken place to date, but the conversations continue," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said in Washington. U.S. President George W. Bush has said "he was content to wait for days and weeks, not months. It still is within that days and weeks timeframe. . . . We'll see if it goes beyond that." France has led the opposition - instead favouring two UN resolutions - a first toughening UN inspections and a second authorizing action against Iraq if it fails to comply. French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin reaffirmed on Monday that Paris is opposed to unilateral U.S. military action and urged the Bush administration to "remain faithful to the vision of collective security that rests on the law." "America seems tempted by the solitude of power," he told the Institute for National Defence Studies, a think-tank in Paris. "We cannot accept an intervention that is not a last resort, the final resort." Zhang Qiyue, China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said Tuesday that inspectors should return to Iraq before the Security Council decides on any action. "We believe that the imperative is to readmit UN weapons inspectors to Iraq as soon as possible to have outside inspection and then submit a report to the UN Security Council. After reviewing such an objective report, then the UN Security Council should take some actions," she said. Affirming China's opposition to military action, Zhang said, "A political and diplomatic way should be sought within the UN framework." Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix was asked to brief the council Tuesday at Russia's request on two letters from Iraq on the return of inspectors after nearly four years, diplomats said. Blix, who is in charge of searching for biological and chemical weapons, and Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is in charge of nuclear inspections, asked Iraq to confirm agreements reached in Vienna earlier this month on resuming inspections. The two Iraqi letters did not explicitly confirm the agreements, but Iraq said it saw no obstacles to a resumption of the hunt for weapons of mass destruction and promised to behave "professionally" if UN weapons inspectors return. Meanwhile, negotiations on a new UN resolution continued. In a move to placate France, U.S. diplomats last week offered to remove a threat to use "all necessary means" if Saddam Hussein doesn't co-operate. France objected because the new U.S. draft resolution would still threaten "serious consequences" if Iraq remained defiant, which U.S. officials said was enough for Washington to attack if necessary. On Monday, U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte met France's UN Ambassador John David Levitte. Council diplomats said France still insists on a two-stage resolution but offered more precise language in its draft to address U.S. concerns. Council diplomats said Monday they do not believe the United States and Britain have enough support in the 15-member Security Council for a resolution that would give a green light for the use of force in Iraq. To win approval, a resolution must get nine "yes" votes and must not be vetoed by a permanent member. Diplomats said they believe a U.S. resolution with any language that could authorize force would likely be opposed by France, Russia, China, Syria, Ireland, Mexico, Cameroon, Guinea and probably Mauritius - which means it would get a maximum of only six or seven "yes" votes. Britain's UN Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock told the General Assembly on Monday that UN. inspectors should be given "the strongest powers possible to ensure successful disarmament and to make it crystal clear to Iraq that this time, it is complete disarmament or serious consequences." But last week, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said "the member states want a two-stage approach" and on Tuesday, Colombia's UN Ambassador Alfonso Valdivieso, a council member, echoed this assessment. The council is expected to hold a two-day open debate on Iraq starting Wednesday to hear a wide range of views. "I think most of the countries are going to call for a very strong position on Iraq, but at the same time I would say they are going to make reservations about the authorization of the use of force," Valdivieso said. © The Canadian Press, 2002 ***************************************************************** 44 Study rips handling of nuclear cleanups, cost hikes *10-16-2002* Tim Woodward Inadequate planning and poor management more than doubled the government´s cost of meeting two deadlines in cleaning up radioactive waste in eastern Idaho, a federal audit says. The audit by the Energy Department´s Office of Inspector General said the cost overruns caused postponement ? for two years in a row now ? of shipping highly radioactive material from western New York to Idaho. It also caused deferral of repairs and maintenance at a waste storage facility at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. Jessie Hill Roberson, assistant energy secretary for environmental management, said the department has taken steps to correct the problems cited by the Oct. 9 report. State officials were checking to determine whether that $390,000 of work scheduled for two years ago at the Irradiated Fuel Storage Facility was eventually done. The facility is a focal point in handling spent nuclear fuel at INEEL. The audit confirmed that the Energy Department had met the June 1, 2001, deadline for depositing in dry storage the highly radioactive waste from the 1979 Three-Mile Island nuclear accident in Pennsylvania. The audit also said the department would meet the Dec. 31, 2002, deadline for shipping 15,000 drums of plutonium-contaminated waste out of INEEL to the government dump in New Mexico. But the report found that handling the Three-Mile Island waste cost $57 million, $18 million more than budgeted. Shipping the waste to New Mexico was expected to cost $214 million, $150 million over budget. INEEL officials reported on Tuesday that the government had completed another 20 shipments ? 355 drums of plutonium-contaminated waste ? to New Mexico in the past week. That leaves it 434 shipments short of complying with the deadline the state and the federal government agreed upon when Phil Batt´s was governor. Edition Date: 10-16-2002 ***************************************************************** 45 Plutonium: Size Does Matter ScienceDaily Magazine -- Source: Los Alamos National Laboratory (http://www.lanl.gov/) Date: Posted 10/16/2002 LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Oct. 15, 2002 -- Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers have found a better way to measure plutonium oxide particles in glove boxes where plutonium research is done. The new system will help improve the quality and safety of several key plutonium processes. Los Alamos technician Carl D. Martinez of PIT Disposition Science and Technology group (NMT-15) today presented findings on improved glove-box measurements of plutonium oxide particle size at the Rocky Mountain Regional meeting of the American Chemical Society in Albuquerque. Martinez's work focuses on the implementation and use of a new Beckman Coulter Counter particle measurement instrument. The Coulter unit is one of three instruments that will be used to gather particle data with a third instrument being installed in November. The project is part of a quality assurance initiative in place at NMT-15. Using off the shelf instrumentation such as the Coulter Counter, Lab researchers are working to improve the methods and quality of the data gathered. With just two of the three instruments up and running the researchers have begun to take data and have begun the process of comparing the data and evaluating the instruments. Once all three instruments are online, data from all the instruments will be taken and compared to one another as well as against existing standards. "This in turn will help us create a baseline for developing a systematic approach for measuring Plutonium oxide and how process changes affect particle size," said Donna Smith, technical staff member with NMT-15. In addition to providing valuable data, the new quality improvement initiative will also help to ensure that production is meeting program specifications and that methods and processes employed remain safe, with the majority of measurable plutonium particle size above 5 micrometers. "The data and information that we have gotten so far has been invaluable and will help us as we continue forward with our plan" Martinez said. "It will be very helpful in ensuring the quality and safety of our oxide operations". ### Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by the University of California for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) of the U.S. Department of Energy and works in partnership with NNSA's Sandia and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories to support NNSA in its mission. Los Alamos enhances global security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health and national security concerns. For more Los Alamos news, visit http://www.lanl.gov. Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Los Alamos National Laboratory for journalists and other members of the public. If you wish to quote from any part of this story, please credit Los Alamos National Laboratory as the original source. You may also wish to include the following link in any citation: ***************************************************************** 46 Hearing held on plutonium proposal reviewjournal.com -- News: Wednesday, October 16, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Activists press DOE to abandon plan to build new facility By TONY BATT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Instead of bolstering the nation's nuclear deterrence, the production of new plutonium components at the Nevada Test Site or elsewhere might spur development of earth-penetrating bombs and other dangerous new weapons, anti-nuclear activists charged Tuesday. Jim Bridgman, program director for the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, urged Department of Energy officials to abandon plans to construct a facility to manufacture plutonium "pits," which serve as triggers for nuclear weapons. "The notice of intent (to build such a plant) conceals one of the prime motives underlying such a facility, the desire of the hawks in the (Bush) administration and Congress to design and build new types of pits, such as for a robust nuclear earth penetrator," Bridgman said. The Bush administration wants a modern pit facility because the United States has been unable to produce the grapefruit-sized triggers since the Rocky Flats plant, 18 miles outside Denver, was shut down in 1989 for safety and environmental reasons. Tuesday's 75-minute hearing at the Department of Energy was the third since the Bush administration introduced its proposal last month to build a new pit factory. Twenty-five people showed up at the hearing, which lasted half the time that had been allotted. A fourth hearing is scheduled from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday in the auditorium of the Nevada Operations Office at 232 Energy Way in North Las Vegas. Bob Loux, director of Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects, said the state will wait until after Thursday's hearing before taking a position on the pit facility. "We want to hear what they have to say, but if this new facility shows signs of becoming another Rocky Flats, we would be opposed," Loux said. Besides the test site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, other candidates for the pit plant include Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico; the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas; the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad, N.M. Hearings already were conducted last week in Amarillo and Carlsbad. During Tuesday's hearing, Jay Rose of the Energy Department said a draft environmental impact statement on the pit facility should be completed by next May. A final statement is expected in March 2004. Estimates on construction costs of the new pit facility range from $2 billion to $4 billion. Between 1,000 and 1,500 jobs are expected to be created at the facility, which would operate for 50 years, according to Rose. Bridgman's skepticism was echoed by the other three persons who spoke at Tuesday's hearing. David Culp of the (Quaker) Friends Committee on National Legislation said he doubted Congress would approve funding for a pit facility. "I wish you would focus on something more urgent," Culp told Energy Department officials. "I don't see this project being built." Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 47 Secretary of Energy Announces Innovative e-Government Strategic Action Plan Initiative Supports President Bush's Management Agenda for Expanding e-Government energy.gov - Headquarters' Press Release RELEASE DATE: October 16, 2002 WASHINGTON, DC - In a ceremony today, Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham presented Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels with a digitally signed copy of the Department of Energy (DOE) e-Government Strategic Action Plan: A Road Map for Delivering Services. Secretary Abraham also presented Director Daniels with a government wide license to use this digital signature technology. "This plan will revolutionize the way the federal government operates," Secretary Abraham said. "The Energy Department is committed to expanding e-Government to secure greater services at lower costs and to meet the public demand for a more efficient, effective government." The plan was developed through the Innovative Department of Energy e-Government Applications (IDEA) Task Force. Key elements of the department's strategic plan include developing DOE's enterprise architecture, enhancing the public trust, focusing resources, improving information technology security, enhancing a capital planning and investment control process, as well as addressing the requirement of the Government Paperwork Elimination Act. Secretary Abraham used digital signature technology in February when he electronically transmitted to President Bush the department's recommendation and thousands of pages of supporting documents and technical data on Yucca Mountain to be the nation's nuclear waste repository. In doing so, DOE became the first federal agency to submit legislatively mandated documents with digital signatures. DOE continues to use and develop electronic document and digital signature technology. "DOE is excited to be a lead on a number of projects under President Bush's e-Government initiative that are being delivered across the federal government to significantly improve productivity and performance," Abraham said. The first five projects under this plan to be implemented include redeveloping the departments web site, implementing software standards across the DOE system, developing a digital repository that will serve as an electronic warehouse for archived documents, developing e-Signatures which allow for the sharing of official documents electronically, and managing research and development portfolios electronically. The development and improvement of electronic government practices in the federal government and among federal agencies is one of the five key elements of President Bush's management agenda. DOE's IDEA initiative expands on this by addressing the efficiency of business procedures within the department. Secretary's Remarks Media Contact: Corry Schiermeyer, 202/586-5806 Hope Williams, 202/586-5806 Release No. PR-02-219 ***************************************************************** 48 Rocky Flats cleanup beating clock By ANN IMSE October 15, 2002 Managers of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant say the risk of a major plutonium accident has been 99 percent eliminated and that the cleanup may be finished ahead of schedule. Rocky Flats, which produced the cores of nuclear weapons, had been called the most dangerous site in the United States because of the chance deadly radiation could escape, killing workers and possibly spreading across Denver and its suburbs. Today, that danger has been drastically reduced because much of the plutonium is gone and the rest has been stabilized. The exact amounts that have been shipped to disposal sites and the amounts remaining at Rocky Flats are secret. And the $7 billion cleanup, which started in the mid-1990s, is going so well that managers now think they might finish a year early, in 2005. When the cleanup is done, the site is to become a wildlife refuge. Managers are optimistic about the pace for two reasons. Tests have shown some areas are not nearly as contaminated as once thought. In addition, places that once had horrific radiation levels have been successfully cleaned up. One example: the so-called infinity room, closed off 30 years ago as too dangerous to enter, now stands open. "Risks were more folklore," said Joe Legare, the Department of Energy's environmental manager for Rocky Flats. "Or the risk was there and we found it was manageable." Rocky Flats, 17 miles northwest of downtown, produced the plutonium pits at the center of nearly all the nation's tens of thousands of nuclear weapons. It closed temporarily in 1989 because of safety problems. It never reopened because of the end of the Cold War. In 1969, plutonium spontaneously combusted, setting a building on fire and threatening the city with radiation. Legare no longer is worried about that happening because of the safety and containment work that has been done. There is, of course, a chance for an ordinary industrial accident. "We do worry about a car catching on fire and running into a factory full of drums," said Allen Schubert of Kaiser-Hill, the cleanup contractor. The other major danger with plutonium is that it can "go critical," setting off a chain reaction. That danger is particularly high when plutonium is in a liquid state. It had to be monitored to prevent it from settling into a shape and concentration that could set off a chain reaction and kill all the workers nearby, Legare said. Now, usable plutonium has been packed in solid form, in small containers, where it is much less dangerous, Legare said. What remains at Rocky Flats today is bits of plutonium contaminating vast areas of walls, equipment and soil. Breathing it still could be deadly, and some workers still must wear respirator suits inside air-filled moon suits to be sure they are protected. The contractor, Kaiser-Hill, is spending $2 million a day and has 3,500 to 4,700 workers and subcontractors on site. Kaiser-Hill can earn up to $340 million in bonuses for finishing early or under budget. Kaiser-Hill also can lose huge sums in penalties for going over budget and beyond the schedule. It has made huge progress on the cleanup by reducing the area with usable plutonium to just one building. That means about $150 million to $250 million a year previously spent keeping plutonium safe and secure has been shifted to cleanup, said Allen Schubert of Kaiser-Hill. But finishing early depends on key decisions yet to be made - such as whether to leave certain old contaminated buried piping where it lies. Rocky Flats spokesman Pat Etchart warns an early finish could be derailed by something unexpected. For example, the South Carolina governor went to court earlier this year and delayed shipment of Rocky Flats plutonium to his state for storage. "Nothing has ever gone to plan," Etchart said. "There are still some unknowns." (Contact Ann Imse of the Rocky Mountain News at Imse(at)RockyMountainNews.com.) The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 49 Silex amends uranium tech deal with its US backer smh.com.au - The Sydney Morning Herald By Colin Kruger October 17 2002 Lucas Heights technology developer Silex Systems has announced amendments to its agreement with United States Enrichment Corp which it says will assist the development of its laser-based uranium enrichment technology. Under the amendments, project milestones and payment schedules will be expanded and a previously conditional royalty to USEC will be formalised. While the technology is still in a testing phase, the agreement shows that the partners are "collectively starting to think about funding for future deployment", said Silex chief executive Dr Michael Goldsworthy. USEC purchased the exclusive rights to the commercial use of the Silex process of uranium enrichment in 1996 and has funded development since. Goldsworthy said the most significant thing about yesterday's announcement was that it demonstrated "once and for all, the strength of the USEC-Silex relationship". ");document.write(" advertisement Silex shares collapsed from more than $2.50 to under $1 in June when USEC announced plans to build a plant using a rival US Centrifuge technology. Mr Goldsworthy said the rival plant was needed to fulfil an agreement to fund the US partners' survival for the next five years. The companies also announced plans to recruit a third partner with "deep pockets" to help fund further development as USEC's funding abilities had become limited due to the market downturn, Mr Goldsworthy said. Despite $40 million cash reserves and zero cash burn, analysts still have a cautious outlook. The next milestone for Silex will be in the first half of next year when results of the test phase are available and USEC decides whether to continue development. Copyright © 2002. The Sydney Morning Herald. ***************************************************************** 50 Philippines: Preemptive mode - Thursday Oct. 17, 2002, Philippines WITH the bomb attack that devastated beautiful Bali and shook the rest of the world, Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri is under pressure to make drastic moves, foremost among which is the arrest of Abu Bakar Bashir, the supposed spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah. Authorities have heretofore balked at taking the elderly cleric in custody on the grounds that there is and has been no evidence to link him to terrorist acts. But Megawati, rendered extremely vulnerable by the horrific body count, ought to be now feeling the heat with US President George W. Bush announcing that he intended to speak with her regarding the need for urgent action. "I hope to hear the resolve of a leader who recognizes that any time terrorists take hold in a country, it's going to weaken the country itself," he said. It would not be difficult for the attentive observer to read the lips of the man who has taken on the posture of emperor of the world. Bush expects the president of the most populous Muslim nation on the planet to go on preemptive mode--that is to say, to act on mere suspicion and despite absence of evidence proving that such an act is necessary. He also expects her to unsettle the young democracy by vesting its military with powers that led to untold rights abuse once upon a time in its tumultuous past. In short, to succumb to the mode of the sole superpower on earth, the same mode that it demands of the rest of humanity to adopt--and that is galvanizing Bush's planned war on Iraq. The United Nations Security Council has condemned the bomb attack on Bali as an "act of international terrorism." But it is uncertain whether the US government under Bush employs the same language in fighting a scourge that threatens us all, whether in Bali, New York, Basilan, or elsewhere. It includes in its definition of "terrorist" everyone that it deems fit (with evidence or without), rides shotgun over sovereign states (but then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo welcomes it), and indeed, it has thumbed its nose at the UN and boldly threatened to go it alone in using military force against Iraq should the world body refuse to dance in rhythm with its war drums (an act of racism, as has been pointed out, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan being a person of color). Other citizens of the global village have not allowed this startling behavior to pass without protest. Nelson Mandela went so far as to say that the United States was a threat to world peace. But that's Nelson Mandela. In this livid day and age (a super-enhanced McCarthy era, as it were) where the dictum of "either you're for us or against us" holds frightening sway, the act of resistance by people of lesser stature has become fraught with extreme danger. Mercifully, certain valiant Americans have spoken out, raising the hope that, despite allegations to the contrary, the American people will not die of ignorance or indifference. "There are nations all over this globe that suffer from policies that we have implemented. People go away bitter, with a great sense of loss, and families are destroyed," Harry Belafonte told Larry King. "This administration is violating almost every single nuclear arms control treaty that has been negotiated by the wisest statesmen in the world over years of negotiation," Dr. Helen Caldicott, founder of the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize co-winner Physicians for Social Responsibility, said in an interview with TomPaine.com. "War with Iraq is now inevitable," wrote Charles Levendosky of the Casper Star-Tribune. "It's not a war against terrorism, not a war against weapons of mass destruction. It would be more accurate to call it an 'oil war'--a military invasion to secure Iraq's vast oil resources for American oil companies and the American people." And standing on the floor of the US House of Representatives to say why he would vote against the resolution authorizing Bush to use military force on Iraq, Rep. Pete Stark (Dem., California) said the "bottom line" was that he did not trust the US President and his advisers. Stark borrowed a piquant quote from a piece written three years ago by Molly Ivins, "an observer of Texas politics," in the course of explaining his distrust: "For an upper-class white boy, Bush comes on way too hard. At a guess, to make up for being an upper-class white boy. Somebody should be worrying about how all this could affect his handling of future encounters with some Saddam Hussein." ©2002 www.inq7.net all rights reserved ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************