***************************************************************** 06/16/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.152 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POLICY 1 Officials want to question three over nuclear scandal 2 UK: Nuclear power flounders 3 US: DIGGING OUR NUCLEAR GRAVE 4 Officials want to question three over nuclear scandal NUCLEAR REACTORS NUCLEAR SAFETY 5 Blind Calves Born Near India's Nuclear Tests Site* 6 Blind Calves Born Near India's Nuclear Tests Site 7 Inquiry gives fresh hope to Gulf veterans NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 8 US: Officials: Yucca site is prepared for quakes 9 US: Utahns face likelier risks than spills of N-waste 10 US: Yucca quake a welcome gift 11 US: Group Says Shipping Nuclear Waste a Hazard 12 US: Nuclear industry drowns out effort to halt repository 13 Staff shortages 'halt nuclear checks' 14 US: Mayors Oppose Dump in Nevada 15 US: Yucca Mountain becoming issue in Minnesota Senate race 16 US: Storing nuclear waste a necessary business 17 US: Plutonium dispute escalates 18 US: Troopers on relaxed watch for plutonium 19 US: Yucca Mountain Will Be One of the Most Expensive Projects Ever 20 US: Anderson Urges Mayors To Oppose Yucca Storage 21 US: On Yucca Mountain, the Stars Come Out 22 US: A mobile Chernobyl? 23 US: Mayors Conference Urged to Oppose National Radioactive Waste Dum 24 US: Nevada helping fight nuclear waste hauling 25 US: Yucca Op: Time is now, place is Nevada NUCLEAR WEAPONS 26 UK: New N-bomb factory for use on terrorists 27 'Plans to be submitted for new nuclear bomb factory'* 28 US: How dirty bombs are made, and what they can do* 29 Terror check at Britain's nuclear sites 30 Israel denies report subs can launch nuclear missiles 31 US: Anti-Missile Work Begins in Alaska 32 UK: Secret plan for N-bomb factory 33 'N-bomb' may float past Australia 34 US: FORT GREELY: First dirt turned for missile defense silos. 35 US: trash bomb: Outrage on top of outrage 36 Flaws in Japan’s nuclear-arms debate 37 US: State confident in security for radioactive materials 38 Flaws in Japan?s nuclear-arms debate US DEPT. OF ENERGY 39 Lab seeks feds' OK for advanced work OTHER NUCLEAR ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Officials want to question three over nuclear scandal The Taipei Times Online: 2002-06-16 CUTTING CORNERS: Prosecutors want to question those responsible for building and partly assembling a defective pedestal for the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant STAFF WRITER WITH CNA Prosecutors sought three people yesterday to question them about their work on a reactor pedestal for the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant. Work and materials on the pedestal have been found to be inferior and defective. Prosecutors filed an appeal with the Kaohsiung District Court to detain Chen Chih-kuang (³¯´¼¥ú), an on-site supervisor for China Shipbuilding Corp (¤¤²î¤½¥q), and Lee Hsin-ching (§õ·s¼y), manager of the Huang-chie Company (¬Ó³Ç¤½¥q), which was contracted to build the pedestal, and Chen Han-chuan (³¯º~¤t), a welder who worked on the pedestal. Reactor pedestal * Welding materials were below specifications making the structure 11 to 12 percent weaker. * Taipower will not have to pay for the rebar work, which will cost an extra NT$30 million and delay the plant's construction for three months. In court documents, prosecutors said there is reasonable cause to believe that the three colluded to use a weaker welding material to join the rebar framework of the pedestal on which the reactor would be positioned. Investigators also suspected that Huang-chie was involved in bid-fixing to win the contract from China Shipbuilding. Prosecutors began investigating the case after the Atomic Energy Council found on June 4 that welding materials used on the framework were below specifications and resulted in the structure being 11 to 12 percent weaker than called for in the contract. The Taiwan Power Company (¥x¹q), which divided the construction of the nuclear plant into a number of projects and contracted them out in public bidding, has ordered that the foundation be dismantled and rebuilt. The New Asia Construction and Development Corporation, which was awarded the contract to build the pedestal, ordered the rebar framework from China Shipbuilding, which in turn hired Huang- chie to weld the joints. Taipower said the pedestal has yet to be completed and that it had not yet taken delivery of the item. The company would, therefore, not have to pay for redoing the rebar work, which will cost an extra NT$30 million (US$882,350) and delay the plant's construction for at least three months. Construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, which was initially slated to be completed by 2004, is already one year behind schedule because of the government's flip-flop in 2000 on whether to press ahead with the project. In related news, the Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday published its investigation into the matter. The report blamed recent problems on unsatisfactory construction and quality management, saying that if fundamental control, supervision, inspection and follow-up systems had been thoroughly implemented, problems would have been much less serious. The ministry also published a list detailing the punishments for those involved. The list included 22 employees of China Shipbuilding and Taipower, who will have demerits written into their work records. China Shipbuilding General Manager Chiang Yuan-chang (¦¿¤¸¼ý) was given one demerit for unsatisfactory supervision and direction, and Deputy General Manager Fan Kuang-nan (­S¥ú¨k) was given two demerits for the same offense. He Ming-ching (¦ó©ú­ë), a mechanical plant manager, and Shih Chi-jung (¬I±Òºa), a project manager at the plant, were given one major demerit each, both for unsatisfactory supervision and direction, while Wu Chao-kui (§d¬L¤ì¶Q), manager of the mechanical plant's Luchi factory, was given two demerits. This story has been viewed 316 times. URL=[http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2002/06/16/story/0000140562] Copyright © 1999-2002 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 2 UK: Nuclear power flounders Independent.co.uk © 2002 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd The discovery of radioactive fish in the Severn estuary might yet break Britain's nuclear industry By Severin Carrell 16 June 2002 The nuclear industry is facing a multi-million pound increase in its clean-up costs after it emerged that some of its radioactive waste was more dangerous than thought. The Environment Agency (EA), the government regulator, is to impose tougher discharge limits on firms such as British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), nuclear engineering company Devonport Management and British Energy, cutting their releases of radioactive tritium. The clampdown began after safety studies around the Severn estuary close to medical-equipment company Amersham's radio-isotope plant near Cardiff discovered tritium in flounder and shellfish several hundred times higher than expected. Tritium, a mildly radioactive by-product of industry production lines, is the most heavily discharged waste across the nuclear industry. BNFL's Sellafield reprocessing plant in Cumbria and Chapelcross nuclear power station in south-west Scotland discharge millions of litres of tritiated water and air every year. The agency's crackdown began after a report by specialists from the National Radiological Protection Board and St Bart's Hospital in London disclosed that tritium was at least twice as dangerous to humans as previously thought. Organically bound tritium ? the more dangerous form of tritium which was found in large quantities in the Severn estuary fish samples ? can be up to 12.5 times more dangerous for infants. The International Commission on Radiological Protection is now expected to raise health limits for tritium two-fold for adults and four-fold for children. Amersham was the first firm hit by the revised figures. Ordered by the EA to make an 85 per cent cut in tritium discharges, it has halted all releases of organically bound tritium as part of a £20m programme to cut discharges. Devonport Management, which refits Royal Navy nuclear submarines in Plymouth, is planning to spend up to £5m building a new undersea pipeline to carry its tritiated water further out into the Tamar estuary. The pipeline was ordered by the EA after it granted Devonport a five-fold increase in its tritium discharge authorisations in February. But the heaviest bills are likely to be born by BNFL, which has already spent £2bn on cutting its radioactive discharges over the last 20 years. The EA is expected to ask for a deep cut in its tritium releases this summer, when it gives Michael Meacher, the environment minister, a revised discharge authorisation for Sellafield. BNFL was unable to predict how much a cut would cost, but its finances are already fragile. The company said it expected to reduce radioactive discharges as part of an international convention. But Stephen Tindale, executive director of Greenpeace, claimed: "These new estimates will be a major headache for the industry. It will make their dreams of building new nuclear power stations even more unrealistic and hasten the end to reprocessing at Sellafield." ***************************************************************** 3 DIGGING OUR NUCLEAR GRAVE Healthy Spring - A Guide to Living Well Yucca Ban AMARGOSA VALLEY, NEV. - The government assured locals that the spectacle at the Nevada Test Site was safe - installing park benches and inviting them to come close, sit, enjoy. And they would - families with sandwiches and thermoses of Kool-Aid would marvel at their front-row view of the bright flashes, the heat and the mushroom clouds of the government's nuclear test explosions. That was more than 40 years ago, before the dangers of nuclear fallout were widely known. Today, in the bowels of a mountain on this same otherworldly expanse of desert, the government is once again engaged in nuclear experimentation, and once again is assuring the people of Nevada that they have nothing to fear. This time it is Yucca Mountain. Its hollowed-out center on the western edge of the test site is destined to become the world's first centralized storage area for highly dangerous, radioactive waste left over from the nation's production of nuclear power. The Bush administration and the nuclear energy industry tout Yucca as a remedy for the vexing and potentially hazardous practice of storing nuclear waste at 72 reactor sites and dozens of other locations across the country, including at Connecticut's nuclear plants in Haddam Neck and Waterford. Supporters say that the mountain, in an area once so remote and mysterious that it was rumored to be where the military secretly studied alien spaceships, is a solution for 39 states where waste storage facilities have or will one day run out of room. For most residents of the Silver State, it looks more like another raw deal. Copyright 2002, Hartford Courant ***************************************************************** 4 Officials want to question three over nuclear scandal * Sunday, June 16th, 2002* Go to today's issue CUTTING CORNERS: Prosecutors want to question those responsible for building and partly assembling a defective pedestal for the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant STAFF WRITER WITH CNA Prosecutors sought three people yesterday to question them about their work on a reactor pedestal for the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant. Work and materials on the pedestal have been found to be inferior and defective. Prosecutors filed an appeal with the Kaohsiung District Court to detain Chen Chih-kuang (³¯´¼¥ú), an on-site supervisor for China Shipbuilding Corp (¤¤²î¤½¥q), and Lee Hsin-ching (§õ·s¼y), manager of the Huang-chie Company (¬Ó³Ç¤½¥q), which was contracted to build the pedestal, and Chen Han-chuan (³¯º~¤t), a welder who worked on the pedestal. *Reactor pedestal* *** Welding materials were below specifications making the structure 11 to 12 percent weaker. *** Taipower will not have to pay for the rebar work, which will cost an extra NT$30 million and delay the plant's construction for three months. In court documents, prosecutors said there is reasonable cause to believe that the three colluded to use a weaker welding material to join the rebar framework of the pedestal on which the reactor would be positioned. Investigators also suspected that Huang-chie was involved in bid-fixing to win the contract from China Shipbuilding. Prosecutors began investigating the case after the Atomic Energy Council found on June 4 that welding materials used on the framework were below specifications and resulted in the structure being 11 to 12 percent weaker than called for in the contract. The Taiwan Power Company (¥x¹q), which divided the construction of the nuclear plant into a number of projects and contracted them out in public bidding, has ordered that the foundation be dismantled and rebuilt. The New Asia Construction and Development Corporation, which was awarded the contract to build the pedestal, ordered the rebar framework from China Shipbuilding, which in turn hired Huang- chie to weld the joints. Taipower said the pedestal has yet to be completed and that it had not yet taken delivery of the item. The company would, therefore, not have to pay for redoing the rebar work, which will cost an extra NT$30 million (US$882,350) and delay the plant's construction for at least three months. Construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, which was initially slated to be completed by 2004, is already one year behind schedule because of the government's flip-flop in 2000 on whether to press ahead with the project. In related news, the Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday published its investigation into the matter. The report blamed recent problems on unsatisfactory construction and quality management, saying that if fundamental control, supervision, inspection and follow-up systems had been thoroughly implemented, problems would have been much less serious. The ministry also published a list detailing the punishments for those involved. The list included 22 employees of China Shipbuilding and Taipower, who will have demerits written into their work records. China Shipbuilding General Manager Chiang Yuan-chang (¦¿¤¸¼ý) was given one demerit for unsatisfactory supervision and direction, and Deputy General Manager Fan Kuang-nan (­S¥ú¨k) was given two demerits for the same offense. He Ming-ching (¦ó©ú­ë), a mechanical plant manager, and Shih Chi-jung (¬I±Òºa), a project manager at the plant, were given one major demerit each, both for unsatisfactory supervision and direction, while Wu Chao-kui (§d¬L¤ì¶Q), manager of the mechanical plant's Luchi factory, was given two demerits. This story has been viewed 315 times. URL=[http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2002/06/16/story/0000140562] Copyright © 1999-2002 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 5 Blind Calves Born Near India's Nuclear Tests Site* /Sun Jun 16, 2:37 AM ET/ /By Paul Holmes/ POKHARAN, India (Reuters) - Ranjeeta Ramji grabbed the calf by its head with one hand and ran the other up and down in front of its eyes, the absence of a reaction evidence that it was blind. Then the Indian farmer pointed to a cyst-like swelling on the startled young animal's neck. "Cancer, cancer," he said, in English. Four years after India exploded a series of nuclear devices in underground tests here in the arid Thar desert near the border with Pakistan, villagers are still asking themselves whether to believe government assurances that no radioactivity was released. In Khetolai, a village of 1,500 inhabitants about 3.5 km (two miles) from the security fence that rings the Pokharan military test range, villagers say their cows have given birth to several blind and diseased calves since the tests took place. Although they are not sure of the reason, they say they suspect it is because the cattle head off up a sandy track leading out of the village to graze on whatever they can find near where the fence cuts through the scrub-dotted desert. Ramji said his herd had produced four blind calves with tumors since the test blasts, none of which survived more than a year. Other villagers tell similar tales. "We've contacted the authorities a number of times but no one has to come to see," said Ramji, 60, who can still remember how the ground beneath his feet shook "like an earthquake" when the five tests were carried out on May 11 and May 13, 1998. "These cows are our bread and butter," he said. "There is so little water here that we can't grow crops so they're our livelihood," added Ramji, head of a family of 12. PROUD BUT BITTER India's tests, one of a device nearly three times more powerful than the hydrogen bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, were swiftly followed by similar nuclear tests by Pakistan. For the past six months, the hostile neighbors have been locked in a dispute over the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir, with one million troops massed on their border in a military standoff that has raised international fears of a nuclear war. Like many Indians, the villagers of Khetolai, in the western state of Rajasthan, derive satisfaction from knowing that their country is a nuclear power and has a threat to wave at Pakistan. In Khetolai's case, though, that knowledge is tinged with bitterness. "It is good for the country, but for the people around here it isn't," said Mooli Devi, the woman head of the village. "We've had a lot of problems with the animals getting sick." She said villagers had received compensation of 5,000 to 10,000 rupees ($100 to $200) to repair cracks made by the test explosions in the walls of their sandstone-built homes and water cisterns, but it had not been enough. "We had to spend a lot more money from our own pockets," said Devi, 40. "They should have taken care of the people here." None of the villagers were evacuated when the tests took place. Instead, they say, soldiers arrived in jeeps and told them to stay outside their homes. They only found out what made the earth in Khetolai tremble and kicked up a spiral of the dust on the horizon when they heard reports of the tests on the radio. AILMENTS "There was a very strange smell, like gunpowder," said Dhana Ram, a 55-year-old farmer who stood knotting a rope in the shade to escape the heat that can soar to 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in summer and turn this part of India into a furnace. Ram, like some of the other villagers, said his nose had bled after the nuclear tests and became severely swollen. "Two days after the tests, a doctor came and asked people if anyone had any problems, so I showed him my nose" Ram recalled. "At first he said I must have stuck my fingers up my nose. Then they gave me some medicine and did a blood test. It showed there was nothing wrong with me, but it took nearly two months to get better." Others in the village also complained at the time of the tests of itchy skin and vomiting, ailments that doctors in the area put down to the summer heat. Villagers were not routinely screened and the government insists there was no risk to health. "We never got proper check-ups," said Bhagirath Ram, a 30- year-old who runs a small store in Khetolai. Now, he says, he is worried about the long-term effects on his three children, aged two, four and six. "It's a very proud thing to have a nuclear bomb," the man said. "But if you think of the people of this village, we should have gotten better medical examinations."' Copyright © 2002 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 6 Blind Calves Born Near India's Nuclear Tests Site Yahoo! News - Sun Jun 16, 2:37 AM ET By Paul Holmes POKHARAN, India (Reuters) - Ranjeeta Ramji grabbed the calf by its head with one hand and ran the other up and down in front of its eyes, the absence of a reaction evidence that it was blind. Then the Indian farmer pointed to a cyst-like swelling on the startled young animal's neck. "Cancer, cancer," he said, in English. Four years after India exploded a series of nuclear devices in underground tests here in the arid Thar desert near the border with Pakistan, villagers are still asking themselves whether to believe government assurances that no radioactivity was released. In Khetolai, a village of 1,500 inhabitants about 3.5 km (two miles) from the security fence that rings the Pokharan military test range, villagers say their cows have given birth to several blind and diseased calves since the tests took place. Although they are not sure of the reason, they say they suspect it is because the cattle head off up a sandy track leading out of the village to graze on whatever they can find near where the fence cuts through the scrub-dotted desert. Ramji said his herd had produced four blind calves with tumors since the test blasts, none of which survived more than a year. Other villagers tell similar tales. "We've contacted the authorities a number of times but no one has to come to see," said Ramji, 60, who can still remember how the ground beneath his feet shook "like an earthquake" when the five tests were carried out on May 11 and May 13, 1998. "These cows are our bread and butter," he said. "There is so little water here that we can't grow crops so they're our livelihood," added Ramji, head of a family of 12. PROUD BUT BITTER India's tests, one of a device nearly three times more powerful than the hydrogen bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, were swiftly followed by similar nuclear tests by Pakistan. For the past six months, the hostile neighbors have been locked in a dispute over the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir, with one million troops massed on their border in a military standoff that has raised international fears of a nuclear war. Like many Indians, the villagers of Khetolai, in the western state of Rajasthan, derive satisfaction from knowing that their country is a nuclear power and has a threat to wave at Pakistan. In Khetolai's case, though, that knowledge is tinged with bitterness. "It is good for the country, but for the people around here it isn't," said Mooli Devi, the woman head of the village. "We've had a lot of problems with the animals getting sick." She said villagers had received compensation of 5,000 to 10,000 rupees ($100 to $200) to repair cracks made by the test explosions in the walls of their sandstone-built homes and water cisterns, but it had not been enough. "We had to spend a lot more money from our own pockets," said Devi, 40. "They should have taken care of the people here." None of the villagers were evacuated when the tests took place. Instead, they say, soldiers arrived in jeeps and told them to stay outside their homes. They only found out what made the earth in Khetolai tremble and kicked up a spiral of the dust on the horizon when they heard reports of the tests on the radio. AILMENTS "There was a very strange smell, like gunpowder," said Dhana Ram, a 55-year-old farmer who stood knotting a rope in the shade to escape the heat that can soar to 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in summer and turn this part of India into a furnace. Ram, like some of the other villagers, said his nose had bled after the nuclear tests and became severely swollen. "Two days after the tests, a doctor came and asked people if anyone had any problems, so I showed him my nose" Ram recalled. "At first he said I must have stuck my fingers up my nose. Then they gave me some medicine and did a blood test. It showed there was nothing wrong with me, but it took nearly two months to get better." Others in the village also complained at the time of the tests of itchy skin and vomiting, ailments that doctors in the area put down to the summer heat. Villagers were not routinely screened and the government insists there was no risk to health. "We never got proper check-ups," said Bhagirath Ram, a 30- year-old who runs a small store in Khetolai. Now, he says, he is worried about the long-term effects on his three children, aged two, four and six. "It's a very proud thing to have a nuclear bomb," the man said. "But if you think of the people of this village, we should have gotten better medical examinations."' Fri Jun 21, 1:00 AM ET - (Reuters) ***************************************************************** 7 Inquiry gives fresh hope to Gulf veterans Guardian Unlimited Observer | International | [UP] Commission flies in to hear evidence of British troops' disabilities and increase pressure on Government Kamal Ahmed, political editor Sunday June 16, 2002 The Observer [http://www.observer.co.uk] Compelling evidence that thousands of British troops who served during the Gulf war are dying prematurely and suffering debilitating illnesses because of exposure to a lethal cocktail of chemicals is to be put before a powerful commission of inquiry. Experts on war illnesses will tell a meeting in London of the US Congressional Subcommittee on National Security this week that there is now enough evidence to make a direct link between serving in the Gulf and physical and mental disability. Shaun Rusling, chairman of the National Gulf Veterans and Families Association, will reveal that tests on veterans have found traces of depleted and enriched uranium in their blood and urine. Depleted uranium was used by the Ministry of Defence in 'tank-busting' missiles during the Gulf war. Many of the men affected were involved in clean-up operations following Desert Storm in 1991. Illnesses among more than 5,000 British veterans will also be linked to powerful immunisation tablets given to soldiers to protect them from chemical attack, including anthrax, and the use of corrosive organophosphates to try to keep down disease. The US Congressional subcommittee, one of the most powerful investigatory bodies in America, will make an unprecedented trip to London this week to hear the evidence. Ross Perot, the billionaire former American presidential candidate who is funding a campaign for US Gulf war victims to be properly compensated for their ill nesses, will also come here to push for a full public inquiry. The moves will increase pressure on the Government to hold a wide-ranging investigation. The MoD has always insisted that there is no proof of a link between serving in the Gulf and increased incidence of illness. Tests on immunisation tablets given to most of the 50,000 British troops who served in Kuwait and Iraq are continuing at Porton Down, Wiltshire, but results are not expected for another year. MoD officials fear that if they accept there is a link the department will be liable for millions of pounds in compensation claims. Many of the civil servants who agreed to allow the men to be exposed to the cocktail of chemicals are now in very senior positions in Whitehall. Some of the most harrowing evidence will be given by the widow of Nigel Thompson, a petty officer in the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm who served in the Gulf. Thompson, the father of a seven-year-old daughter, Hannah, died in January of motor neurone disease, one of the fatal nerve disorders now being linked to the conflict. 'As a military operation [Desert Storm] appeared a stunning success,' a memorandum of evidence drawn up by his widow Samantha to be presented to the committee will say. 'Unfortunately, though, on returning home a substantial number of veterans became ill. 'Very early on it became clear to Nigel and many others that a number of potentially fatal mistakes had been made in the pre-treatment of our troops against a possible chemical or biological attack by the Iraqis. 'By authorising the use of Naps [immunisation] tablets, an unlicensed drug, and then totally ignoring the warnings of organophosphates and anthrax the MoD were guilty of the worst type of negligence. 'Nigel always maintained that had his condition been triggered by something in the Gulf he would far rather it had been the enemy responsible than his own side.' New research expected to be published in the medical journal the Lancet later this year will show that although there is no such thing as 'Gulf war syndrome', an illness said to be specifically linked to veterans, there is a connection between a myriad of illnesses and serving in the region. Tests on 300 armed forces personnel by the respected Gulf War Illnesses Unit at King's College Hospital, found there were higher incidents of unexplained illnesses among those who had served in the Gulf as opposed to those who had served in Bosnia or Northern Ireland. The research was undertaken by Professor Simon Wesley. Although he refused to comment on the new findings, he said there was now enough evidence to make a link. 'We have shown, in the work we have already done, an association between serving in the Gulf and substantial levels of ill health,' he said. 'The effect is significant. I am convinced there is no single one cause to what we are seeing but that the immunisation policy is part of a wider jigsaw.' [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 ***************************************************************** 8 Officials: Yucca site is prepared for quakes Scientists found no damage after Friday temblor Wire and Staff Reports [online@rgj.com] 6/15/2002 12:50 am LAS VEGAS — Federal officials insisted Friday that the site of a proposed national nuclear waste repository in the Nevada desert is safe, despite an early morning earthquake that rumbled nearby. No damage or injuries were reported after the magnitude 4.4 temblor struck at 5:40 a.m. near Little Skull Mountain. The epicenter is about 121/2 miles southeast of the Yucca Mountain site and 75 miles northwest of Las Vegas, according to the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colo. The quake was felt at the Nye County Sheriff’s Office in Pahrump, 40 miles to the southeast, but not in hotels on the Las Vegas Strip. About 100 scientists and employees found no damage Friday at Yucca Mountain, said Allen Benson, a federal Department of Energy spokesman in Las Vegas. However, the minor quake reverberated in Washington, D.C., where the Senate is due before July 26 to vote on whether to entomb highly radioactive waste at the site. “The earthquake is a wake-up call for the U.S. Senate,” declared Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., who raised the specter of radioactivity contaminating ground water if an earthquake were to strike an active Yucca Mountain repository. The House already has voted to support President Bush’s selection of Yucca Mountain to store the nation’s radioactive waste. “Today, we saw more proof that the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear dump site is not safe,” said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who along with Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., has been trying unsuccessfully to drum up 51 votes to block the project in the Senate. “Nuclear waste and earthquakes are a deadly combination,” Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn, who in April vetoed the president’s selection, said in a prepared statement. I hope the United States Senate will take notice of this earthquake and realize that putting nuclear waste on a seismically active fault is not in the best interest of the citizens of the United States.” The federal Energy Department plans to bury 77,000 tons of spent commercial, industrial and military nuclear waste in a grid of underground tunnels beneath the ancient volcanic ridge. The site would remain radioactive for more than 10,000 years. Benson, at the Energy Department office in Las Vegas, released a statement calling the area “a known and studied geologic zone” that project scientists have monitored for 24 years. He said a magnitude 5.6 earthquake hit in 1992 in the same area — near Little Skull Mountain in the Nevada Test Site — but didn’t dislodge boulders at Yucca Mountain. “In fact, Yucca Mountain scientists have used earthquakes greater in magnitude than this morning’s quake to study and design a nuclear waste repository,” he said. “Scientific studies show that an underground repository at Yucca Mountain would perform safely in accordance with regulatory standards, including during an earthquake.” David von Seggern, a seismologist at the Nevada Seismological Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno, said Friday’s earthquake came as no surprise because the entire state is seismically active. “Earthquakes have happened and will continue to happen in this area,” he said. Von Seggern said Yucca Mountain is in a 6-mile zone in which scientists found no documented evidence of a temblor greater than magnitude 3 since the 1800s. UNR has been monitoring the site since 1978, he said. A quake of magnitude 4.4 or even 6.4 would not damage a well-designed nuclear repository, von Seggern said. But he declined to comment on the Energy Department declaration that the repository would be safe. Opponents of the project seized on the quake as a reason to reject Yucca Mountain. “If you’re out looking for sites, three things you want to avoid are earthquakes, the potential for volcanoes and contamination of a pristine and valuable aquifer,” said Judy Treichel, an executive director of the Las Vegas-based Nuclear Waste Task Force and an opponent of the project. “Yucca Mountain gives you all of those.” Yucca Mountain is at the western edge of the Nevada Test Site, a vast federal reservation the size of Rhode Island where the federal government conducted nuclear weapons testing from 1952 to 1992. © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett ***************************************************************** 9 Utahns face likelier risks than spills of N-waste [deseretnews.com] Sunday, June 16, 2002 By Jay Evensen Deseret News editorial page editor A group has just launched a Web site that lets you type in your address and see how close it is to a road or rail track where nuclear waste may someday travel. This comes on the heels of other news stories suggesting nuclear waste shipments will be hazardous to the value of any property within a certain radius of transportation routes. As Congress inches closer to approving Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as the site for the first permanent high-level nuclear-waste repository, you can expect more tactics like these. They are pursued under the banner of "things the public has a right to know." That has the ring of truth to it. Why shouldn't you have the right to know whether spent fuel rods, which may cool down and become safe again in a few dozen millennia, are being wheeled down the street near your school or your house — even if they are in secure containers? But then again, why shouldn't you know about all the other hazards that exist around you? The truth is, there are many. All you have to do is read the newspaper. Earlier this month, 13 people were sent to the hospital from South Salt Lake when an unknown material leaked in a recycling plant. This wasn't just your garden-variety itchy, stinging, nauseating kind of chemical spill. People were retching and dry-heaving in a yard outside the company. They were having trouble breathing. Even a fire chief responding to the trouble reacted so strongly he needed help just to stand up. All of the tests were inconclusive, and the people were released from the hospital a day later. This qualifies as a minor news story to everyone except, of course, the unfortunate few who were retching in the yard. But these kinds of minor news stories happen with some frequency. A year ago, for example, three businesses along Redwood Road were evacuated when a forklift driver accidentally punctured a drum filled with slourosilicic acid, which can corrode the skin and cause a burning in the lungs. But from time to time, larger leaks have qualified as major news stories. One of the biggest toxic spills in the state's history happened a little more than 10 years ago at Thatcher Chemical Co. on Salt Lake City's west side. It was a quiet Sunday afternoon. Many people were in church or at home relaxing when a hose coupling to a railroad car broke lose, releasing thousands of gallons of sulfur dioxide, which formed a toxic cloud that began drifting for miles. The wind was erratic that day. The cloud ended up moving in several different directions. That wasn't the worst part. The community's slow reaction compounded the problem. First, workers at the plant waited 30 minutes before calling the fire department. That slowed down emergency crews and allowed several people to drive cars right into the plume. Even some paramedic units and police drove through it on their way to the scene. Then, when the city tried to get local TV and radio stations to broadcast alerts, they were told by weekend crews that it was too close to the regular newscast to begin flashing warnings on the screen. Even if they had broadcast warnings, few people were watching or listening at that hour. Two police officers ended up trying to evacuate 13,000 people from their homes. In the end, 322 people were sent to area hospitals and 200 others were treated at an emergency medical command post. No one died or suffered long-lasting effects, but the community had been shaken awake. Suddenly, everyone wanted to know about the invisible dangers lurking in our midst. A committee came up with a plan to install warning sirens at strategic locations to alert people when the next spill occurred. The interest lasted for a few months, then faded away. No one ever found the money for the warning sirens. We are too much like Pavlov's dog, salivating when we hear the bells of a major news event, or when activists sound the alarm of pending doom, but otherwise easily distracted by the routines and apparent safety of daily life. Yes, casks containing spent nuclear fuel rods will traverse this area if Congress approves the Yucca Mountain project. But in some ways, worrying about them is like worrying about a bus that regularly transports inmates down your street on the way to the penitentiary. You would be wiser to worry about the thugs who might be casing your house and planning a burglary. Nuclear waste could cause big problems if the casks fail, but the government has been shipping it for years without incident, and the high-level stuff going to Yucca is likely to receive a lot of special care and attention. The stuff being used at the company down the street may or may not be dangerous, but few people even care. Speaking for myself, that's a bit more troubling. Jay Evensen is the Deseret News editorial page editor. E-mail: even@desnews.com [even@desnews.com] © 2002 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 10 Yucca quake a welcome gift [online@rgj.com] 6/15/2002 01:01 pm Friday’s magnitude 4.4 earthquake at Yucca Mountain couldn’t have come at a better time for Nevada’s senators as they try to head off Senate action overturning Gov. Kenny Guinn’s veto of the site for disposing of high-level nuclear waste. The state’s senior senator, Democrat Harry Reid, said the quake was proof that the site is not safe. More important, however, it demonstrated that there remain many unanswered questions about the Yucca Mountain plan, questions that members of Congress would normally be asking but now seem inclined to simply ignore in their hurry to get the nuclear waste out of sight and therefore out of mind. For senators to bury their collective head in the sand won’t make the site any safer, however. As Friday’s quake showed, it’s quite possible that nothing will. © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett ***************************************************************** 11 Group Says Shipping Nuclear Waste a Hazard The Ledger: Lakeland, Florida Sunday, June 16, 2002 By THOMAS ROE OLDT An organization calling itself the Environmental Working Group has embarked on an ambitious plan to scare the pants off anyone who lives near a railroad track or a road, which, as it turns out, is just about everybody. They say that when Congress, as expected, approves plans for permanent underground storage of spent nuclear power plant waste materials, millions of citizens will be endangered by shipments of the radioactive byproducts to the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada. Their declared purpose is to keep these toxic materials right where they are -- smack in the middle of highly populated parts of the country, including three locations in Florida. Of course, you have to concede their point: If you're going to move something from Florida to Nevada, it has to get there somehow. And since roads and rail lines are built between population centers -- surprise! -- the shipments are naturally going to go near people. Thus it is a potential hazard for anyone who lives along the route. To make the scare more tangible, EWG has helpfully provided a Web site -- yet another great use of the Internet -- that purports to show the route near or through your own personal town. The one going through Polk County supposedly traverses the west side of Winter Haven before linking up with a rail line that -- inconveniently for their case -- has long since been abandoned. Maybe EWG thinks the waste will be taken from there by horseback. With or without this glitch in their data base, their main concern, apparently, is that trains will derail, trucks will crash, terrorists will attack and environmental disaster will follow. It could happen, of course, and rational people should be wary of potential hazards. So we should be scared, all right, but not of the shipments. What we should rationally fear is the prospect of terrorists and their death-loving supporters causing far greater havoc by crashing explosive-laden planes into existing, sitting-duck, above-ground, unprotected nuclear power plant storage facilities across Florida and the nation. There are three in Florida: one at the unfortunately named Turkey Point plant near Miami, another near West Palm Beach and a third near Crystal River. Like nuclear power plants everywhere, spent fuel is sitting in exposed pools, waiting for -- well, waiting for the federal government to find a permanent home, which it is on the brink of doing, finally, after all these years. Apparently, EWG thinks the current, temporary sites are just dandy, despite the fact they are virtual invitations for terrorists to turn them into potent means of mass contamination and death. Oddly enough, their Web site makes no mention of this not-inconsequential terrorist threat. What they are railing against, so to speak, is the threat posed by shipments suffering accidents or purposefully being intercepted and breached. How likely are accidents? Spent nuclear fuel has been moved by rail and truck for years, yet accidents are rare and leakage is virtually non-existent. No matter, says EWG, there is no guarantee that this safety record will be maintained. But given the choice between moving the material to a permanent storage site or chancing a radioactive mess from exposing such an inviting target to terrorists, which is the more rational alternative? Thomas Roe Oldt is a Winter Haven-based columnist for The Ledger. His opinion column appears on Sunday. online@theledger.com [online@theledger.com] ***************************************************************** 12 Nuclear industry drowns out effort to halt repository Sunday, June 16, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Nevada ad campaign's effectiveness doubted By ED VOGEL REVIEW-JOURNAL CAPITAL BUREAU CARSON CITY -- Nevada's Yucca Mountain Project foes have learned how it feels to be sandwiched. When one of their anti-Yucca commercials airs on television stations in the East, the nuclear power industry counters with pro-Yucca pitches that run before and after them. "They have more money than us," said Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects. "We are up against a big monster here." Loux said Nevada has assembled a $6.5 million war chest to pay for TV and newspaper advertisements, lobbying by nationally renowned political consultants and a grass-roots campaign to convince U.S. senators to oppose Yucca Mountain. The advertisements are being broadcast in Vermont, Utah and other states where Nevada hopes to pick up support from senators whose votes are in doubt. Gov. Kenny Guinn acknowledges the ads have not been as successful as anticipated. The Senate is expected to vote by July 5 on whether to override the governor's veto of President Bush's move to put 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. In light of the recent 13-10 vote in a Senate committee to back the repository, Guinn questions whether Nevada should spend more money on the anti-repository public relations campaign. "I asked our guys to take a look and see if we need this program," said Guinn, referring to Nevada Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign. "If not, we would like this money set aside for litigation. But I have to take my cues from the senators there. The sooner they vote, the more money we will have left for litigation." Guinn emphasizes it was not him, but Reid and Ensign who sought establishment of the Nevada Protection Fund in April to raise contributions to fight the repository. The governor pleaded for every Nevadan to contribute a dollar to the fight, but most have ignored his call. Reid and Ensign call the shots on the public relations campaign. Reid hired John Podesta, former chief of staff to President Clinton, to lobby Democratic senators against the dump. Podesta's brother, Tony, handles the ad campaign. Ensign hired Kenneth Duberstein, former chief of staff to President Reagan, to try and convince Republicans to oppose the repository. An aide to Reid said the senator does not favor ending the public relations campaign. She said Reid believes the ads have convinced some senators to look at the issue with new eyes. Ensign's office did not return calls seeking comment. Mark Brown &Partners, a Las Vegas advertising agency, directs money to the Washington lobbyists and out-of-state advertising agencies. Brown's firm also operates phone banks and responds to e-mail from people in states where the anti-Yucca advertisements are run. He admits that the TV ads have not been successful. Newspaper advertisements have drawn 10 to 15 times the response as the TV ads. "This is an issue people have to digest," Brown said. "They have to do a little research." About $3.8 million has been contributed to the Nevada Protection Fund, although donations have dwindled in recent weeks. All but $220,000 came from either the Legislature or local governments as just 1,700 individuals made donations. The fund fell $1.1 million short of initial expectations. The Legislature's Interim Finance Committee agreed to donate $3 million, but stipulated it would only match the contributions made by citizens and local governments. Citizens and local governments have contributed $1.9 million. Some of the money in the $6.5 million Nevada Protection Fund war chest comes from money previously allocated by the Agency for Nuclear Projects to Brown &Partners. The state already had earmarked $5 million for legal and other expenses to fight the repository in court. Most of that money came from an appropriation by the Legislature last year. Loux anticipates he will need an additional $4 million from the Legislature next year to continue the legal fight. The state has filed five separate lawsuits challenging moves by the Energy Department to place the repository in Yucca Mountain. "We have always felt litigation was our strongest position," Guinn said. "We are going to always need more money for litigation. We always knew that and I support it." Nevada has signed contracts with three law firms and has money on hand to pay legal fees up until July 2003. The state recently hired Washington lawyer Charles Cooper, who was one of the attorneys who handled the election vote challenge before the Florida Supreme Court on behalf of President Bush. Eagan &Associates in Washington will be paid $2.5 million, working at a rate of $395 per hour. Another firm, headed by Antonio Rossman of San Francisco, earns $300,000 a year at a rate of $300 per hour. Cooper will be paid $200,000 a month. Loux called Cooper the best constitutional law practitioner in the country. "He thinks those guys aren't getting out of the legal noose," Loux said. But Steve Kraft, an executive with the Nuclear Energy Institute, said the nuclear power industry is ready to battle Nevada in court. "We have lawyers, too," said Kraft, referring to how the U.S. Supreme Court declined a decade ago to hear Nevada's case when it asserted its constitutional right to reject the repository. Kraft chuckled about the nuclear industry's move to counter the anti-Yucca ads with a rash of its own advertisements. "All's fair in love and war," he said. "We are trying to get our message out. We feel the other side's campaign is to create fear. It is outrageously misleading." The anti-Yucca advertisements show scenes of children in playgrounds while the announcer talks about "deadly nuclear waste" being driven through American cities. Accidents are inevitable, the pitch states. Kraft objects mostly to the assertion that 50,000 truckloads of waste will be hauled to Yucca Mountain. He said only 176 shipments will be made, most on trains used exclusively to haul wastes. He also maintains the Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will protect citizens from any danger. "We operate the safest facilities in the country. We are confident that with NRC licensing and the DOE adopting the safe type of system that we work under, that the Yucca facility will be quite safe," Kraft said. "The only way you can measure our success is in the final vote," Loux said. "It's a long shot. We are up against a beast that spends $30 million a year to beat us." Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 13 Staff shortages 'halt nuclear checks' BBC News | UK | 16 June, 2002, [Dounreay] The reprocessing plant at Dounreay in Scotland The government's nuclear security chief says anti-terrorist checks at nuclear facilities across the UK have been cut back due to staff shortages. Michael Buckland-Smith says he has cancelled security checks at 22 of the 31 nuclear power and waste processing plants, according to a Sunday newspaper. The director of the Office of Civil Nuclear Security admitted in his office's annual report that the agency was having trouble recruiting staff, Scotland on Sunday reports. If I were a terrorist I would be heading for Britain Richard Dixon Friends of the Earth The newspaper said Mr Buckland-Smith admitted in the report that he had lost highly experienced security staff to the private sector which offered better wages. In the report Mr Buckland-Smith said: "It is impossible without a thorough and comprehensive programme of site inspections undertaken by experts to identify security weaknesses, or monitor compliance with standards and regulations." Staff have been removed from doing routine checks to more detailed security work. All nuclear facilities stepped up security in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the US on 11 September. 'Unauthorised' But security at facilities is still being compromised, it is alleged. The report said one member of security staff at an unnamed British power station attempted to bring an unauthorised person into the plant. However, Mr Buckland-Smith also said he was confident that the "stringent security precautions" being taken were "commensurate" with the current terrorist threat. Richard Dixon, head of research at Friends of the Earth Scotland, said he was shocked by the report, which he described as "damning". "If I were a terrorist, looking at this report and scouting out what is happening with the nuclear industry across the world, I would be heading to Britain," he told the paper. Bomb-making Tam Dalyell, Labour MP for Linlithgow , said he was "extremely concerned" . "The quid pro quo for having nuclear facilities is that no corners are cut in the regulation of the security regime covering plants and these staff shortages must mean corners have been cut," he told the paper. Meanwhile, a massive nuclear bomb-making factory is being planned for Berkshire. The Observer described the proposed Aldermaston site as one of the most "state-of-the-art" bomb plants in Europe capable of building a "new generation" of bombs. © MMII | News Sources | Privacy ***************************************************************** 14 Mayors Oppose Dump in Nevada Las Vegas SUN June 15, 2002 MADISON, Wis.- A committee of mayors voted Saturday to oppose transporting high-level nuclear waste to a national repository unless federal officials can guarantee the safety of all cities along proposed routes. The resolution adopted on an unanimous voice vote stopped short of opposing the creation of a nuclear waste repository in Nevada's Yucca Mountain. Three Western mayors had urged their counterparts earlier in the day to oppose the repository, saying that shipping radioactive waste to the site would threaten the entire country. Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said an earthquake centered 12.5 miles from the proposed site at Yucca Mountain on Friday reinforced his concern that the site was unsafe for storing nuclear waste. "That's our problem," Goodman told the U.S. Conference of Mayors. "The nation, however, has a problem with transportation." Goodman, Salt Lake City Mayor Ross Anderson and Reno, Nev., Mayor Jeff Griffin said the federal government had not done enough to study the risks posed by shipping nuclear waste to the proposed site by highway or rail. The federal plan would bury 77,000 tons of nuclear waste in tunnels inside Yucca Mountain, where it would remain radioactive for more than 10,000 years. The House has already approved the plan; the Senate has to vote on it by July 26. The conference energy committee's resolution calls on Congress to prohibit moving high-level nuclear waste until cities along its route have adequate funding, training and equipment in the event of an accident. The full conference was expected to vote on the resolution Monday. The conference, which drew about 250 mayors, includes a series of meetings on issues ranging from affordable housing to the environment. The mayors also approved a resolution urging Washington to distribute homeland security block grants directly to cities and counties. President Bush has proposed sending about $3.5 billion in such grants to states, with three-fourths of it targeted for local governments. "There should be no middlemen. It should go directly to the cities," said Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, a Democrat who is president of the group. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson told the mayors that distributing money through the states was the quickest way. He noted that before states could receive the money, their plans for spending it had to be approved by the federal government. "If we had to do this with all of the cities, we probably wouldn't have been able to do it," said Thompson, who was governor of Wisconsin for 14 years. A survey of 122 mayors found that three-fourths were concerned about the threat of a chemical or biological attack, and almost four out of five said they had inadequate funding to detect threats. Three out of four said they do not have enough money for emergency response equipment or programs to protect city infrastructure. Also scheduled to speak at the conference, which started Friday, are Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge and FEMA Director Joe Allbaugh. The mayors' international affairs committee put off a vote on a resolution urging the administration to lift the trade embargo against Cuba and restore diplomatic relations. The mayors met under tight security, with the city closing nearby streets as well as the shore of Lake Monona that borders the front of the convention center. Police outnumbered the handful of protesters, many of whom favored legalization of marijuana, who gathered down the block from the meeting. On the Net: Conference of Mayors: http://www.usmayors.org/ [http://www.usmayors.org/] All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 15 Yucca Mountain becoming issue in Minnesota Senate race [startribune.com] Frederic J. Frommer Associated Press Published Jun 15, 2002 WASHINGTON -- Minnesota has a stake in next month's Senate vote on storing nuclear waste in Nevada's Yucca Mountain - and so do Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., and his GOP challenger, Norm Coleman. Because Xcel Energy will run out of storage space in five years at its Prairie Island nuclear facility, the company is lobbying intensively for the Yucca site. But Minnesota environmentalists worry that transporting the waste will endanger communities along the route. ``It's a huge issue for the company,'' said John O'Donnell, a Washington lobbyist for Xcel. ``We've always thought of ourselves as sort of the point of the sword to open Yucca Mountain,'' because of the Prairie Island storage issue. Both Wellstone and the state's other senator, Democrat Mark Dayton, are undecided. But the spotlight is more on Wellstone because he faces a tough re-election campaign this year. The House has already voted to override Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn's April veto of the presidential selection of Yucca Mountain. Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., joined the state's three Republicans in voting for the override; Minnesota's other four Democrats voted against it. The Senate is likely to take up the issue next month. Wellstone said he favors the Yucca site, as long as it can be demonstrated that the waste can be shipped safely. ``The real question is the risks associated with the transportation of materials on our roadways and our railways,'' he said. ``I've been pressing the administration and pressing the administration to provide some information and some action on these concerns.'' Wellstone said that so far, the Department of Energy has been unresponsive to his questions on the method and routes of transport, and has yet to consult with any of the affected communities. The Energy Department did not return a phone message seeking comment. ``There should be a commitment that there will be the necessary training, if God forbid there's an accident, so people will know what to do,'' Wellstone said. Coleman has no such reservations, arguing that the issue has been studied and it's more dangerous not to move the nuclear waste. ``For Minnesotans, it's a slam dunk,'' he said. ``If we don't do this, we run the risk of shutting down our facilities. We'd lose 600 jobs at Prairie Island and face increased energy costs.'' Coleman said it should be an ``easy vote'' for Wellstone. ``This should not be one where you're wringing your hands. Part of his base is the no-nukes crowd, and at this point, he's not willing to say no to them. A senator from Minnesota should be actively and aggressively supporting this.'' But Wellstone said, ``That's absurd.'' ``If you're a senator from Minnesota you'll do everything you can to get some commitments that the training will be there, that this will be done safely, and that people will be prepared if there's an accident,'' he said. ``That's what you do if you're the senator from Minnesota.'' Another player in the debate is the Prairie Island Mdewakanton Community, which strongly supports the Yucca site. The tribe is taking out full-page ads in both Twin Cities daily newspapers, as well as Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, highlighting that its reservation is only 600 yards from the Xcel waste storage site. The tribe has a Washington lobbyist working on the issue, and tribal leaders are meeting with lawmakers as well. ``This is turning into crisis mode for us,'' said Mason Pacini, the tribe's vice president. ``People are living in a state of fear. We have no other hope. There is no light at the end of the tunnel for us. There is no plan B.'' In the last election cycle (1999-2000), the tribe contributed $37,500 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, but this year, it has swung its support behind Coleman, giving $18,000 to a soft money account established on his behalf. ``Whoever will step up and take our issue is the one we will support,'' said Pacini. Prairie Island isn't the only pro-Yucca group contributing to Coleman. According to Political Money Line, a web site that tracks campaign contributions, Coleman has so far received $97,000 from energy political action committees - including $8,000 from Xcel's. ``They should be supporting me,'' said Coleman. ``You should get the support of somebody who agrees with you on critical issues.'' He said the contributions are not influencing his position. ``I'm there,'' Coleman said. ``I'm there before, I'm there now and I'll be there tomorrow.'' The Sierra Club, meanwhile, which opposes the Yucca site, has given just under $4,000 to Wellstone. Heather Cusick, conservation director of the Sierra Club's North Star Chapter in Minneapolis, said her group has urged both Wellstone and Dayton to vote against Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste site. ``We've been on notice in Minnesota that the nuclear waste issue is a problem for decades, and yet we continue to create the waste,'' Cusick said. ``The Sierra Club position is we need to stop producing the waste and start shifting to renewables, which are more environmentally-friendly.'' Wellstone stressed that he's not for closing down the nuclear power plants. On the Net: Wellstone for Senate: http://www.wellstone.org/ Coleman for Senate: http://www.colemanforsenate.com/ Return to top© Copyright 2002 Star Tribune. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 16 Storing nuclear waste a necessary business The Macon Telegraph | 06/16/2002 | Posted on Sun, Jun. 16, 2002 [story:PUB_DESC] The prospect of transporting nuclear waste through Middle Georgia - en route to a proposed repository in the Nevada desert - invokes several nightmare scenarios. As trucks or trains move through the midstate, any would-be terrorist could potentially hijack the vehicles and use the waste to make one of those 'dirty bombs' we now unfortunately know so much about. Or, more likely and just as troubling, a truck could turn over on Interstate 75, spilling radioactive material. Much worse than either of these, however, is to do nothing and let the waste keep piling up at 131 power plants scattered across the country. Nevada's Yucca Mountain, settled on as the site for a federal nuclear waste repository in 1986, is finally nearing the needed congressional approval. The U.S. House has already heeded President Bush's call to green light the project, and the Senate is expected to vote on using the site this summer. Action is needed now because sites around the country, like the Hatch Nuclear Power Plant near Baxley in Appling County, are rapidly running out of storage space for spent fuel. A 1982 federal law required the Department of Energy to take possession of the waste, and until that happens, nuclear power plants will continue to pass their storage costs onto consumers in the form of higher electric rates. The watchdog Environmental Working Group has pointed out on its Web site, www.mapscience.org [http://www.mapscience.org] , that potential rail or road routes for waste from Hatch and sites in Florida would pass through Macon. While local officials have voiced concerns about the aforementioned accident or attack scenarios, these only become more likely every day the waste piles up down the road at Hatch. They are right to be asking questions about notification, the details of which can be worked out well before any waste starts moving toward Nevada in 2010. If it comes down to a choice between road or rail, moving the waste by train would be preferable. The prospect of shutting down major highways to allow for secure transport of waste would be far too disruptive . The Yucca Mountain site is ideal for many reasons. The first is its remote location, in the middle of the desert about 100 miles from the nearest large population center, Las Vegas. It also features a deep water table - 800 to 1,000 feet below the level of the potential repository - limiting the possibility of water contamination. Most importantly, the Air Force's nearby Nellis Air Range will offer protection against potential attacks. It is time to look beyond short-term, local concerns and get behind this long-term solution to get nuclear waste out of our communities and into this remote, secure location. - Keith Demko/For the editorial board ***************************************************************** 17 Plutonium dispute escalates Charlotte Observer | 06/15/2002 | [http://www.charlotte.com] Posted on Sat, Jun. 15, 2002 [story:PUB_DESC] JENNIFER TALHELM AND BRUCE HENDERSON Staff Writers COLUMBIA - S.C. Gov. Jim Hodges on Friday ordered state troopers to prepare to block shipments of weapons-grade plutonium from entering the state. But if a standoff between Hodges and the U.S. Department of Energy is going to happen, it has been delayed a week. The shipments originally were scheduled to begin as early as today. But a day after the Energy Department got the go-ahead from a U.S. District Court to begin moving the plutonium to South Carolina, the agency said it won't be geared up to send any plutonium until next Saturday. Hodges on Friday issued an executive order that all shipments of plutonium be blocked from entering the state and said the Energy Department's delay did not change his plans. "The plutonium still presents a threat to our state, and my executive order stands," he said. Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said the department still intends to ship plutonium to the Savannah River Site near Aiken, 160 miles southwest of Charlotte. And it will ask the Justice Department for legal help in response to Hodges' blockade. "The court's decision allows DOE to move forward with plutonium shipments to South Carolina from Rocky Flats, Colo., and the department intends to proceed with those shipments," Davis said in a statement. As a part of a nuclear disarmament agreement with Russia, the Energy Department plans to transform the plutonium into mixed-oxide, or MOX, fuel to be used in Duke Power's Charlotte-area nuclear reactors. The governor is afraid the federal government will not build the MOX facility and instead store plutonium in South Carolina indefinitely. He has said he wants a court-enforceable agreement that the plutonium will be removed. Hodges sued in May, asking for a judge to halt the shipments while the department finished environmental studies he said were not done. But U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie ruled Thursday that Hodges was wrong and that a delay would interfere with the federal government's plans to shut down the Rocky Flats site. Hodges sent his appeal via overnight delivery to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., Thursday night. A date for the appeal had not been set as of Friday evening. Hodges held a news conference Friday afternoon to announce his executive order. Hodges said the shipments pose an immediate hazard to the people of South Carolina and that gives him the authority to declare an emergency. He said he would continue his blockade until a court orders him not to. "I know the folks in Washington will not like this action," he said. "But until ordered otherwise, I will continue to exercise every lawful power that I possess to keep plutonium from coming to our state and threatening our citizens' safety." Davis of the Energy Department said Hodges legally can't prevent the department from shipping plutonium to the state. He said Currie made that clear in her Thursday ruling. "We are extremely disappointed the governor has chosen to totally disregard the court's admonition," Davis said. University of South Carolina law professor Eldon Wedlock said the Energy Department is probably right. "(Hodges) is just trying to get press over the fact and trying to impress people with the gravity of the situation," Wedlock said. The plutonium will be shipped in heavily armored tractor-trailers, escorted by a convoy of armed guards and tracked by satellite. Shipping routes and schedules won't be revealed to state and local authorities. Edwin Lyman, a physicist who heads the anti-proliferation Nuclear Control Institute, said the plutonium oxides to be shipped from Rocky Flats could be the makings of a radioactivity-spreading dirty bomb or, in trained hands, a nuclear explosive. Hodges raised this concern in his news conference. The government announced Monday it had arrested a man suspected of being involved in a terrorist plot to build such a dirty bomb. The man, Jose Padilla, also known as Abdullah al Muhajir, is being housed in a military jail in Charleston, 130 miles from SRS. Said Lyman: "The whole thing's silly, given that the MOX facility won't be built and ready to accept waste for another four years. There's absolutely no reason to go ahead with these shipments when we're in a heightened state of alert." According to a federal study of surplus plutonium, a severe accident involving one of the trucks would pose more risk to the public from the collision itself than from its cargo. No fatalities are likely, the study said. The trucks themselves are so heavily armored they've been dubbed "rolling bank vaults," said Jim Hardeman, manager of environmental radiation for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Hardeman said the chances of an accident or terrorist attack that releases radiation from the shipment as remote. But unlike shipments of highly radioactive used nuclear fuel, state authorities will get no heads-up when plutonium is headed their way. Despite that and the Energy Department's announcement that shipments wouldn't begin for a week, S.C. Highway Patrol and transport police began carrying out the order to block shipments Friday afternoon. State Public Safety Director Boykin Rose said state police are deployed. In April, Hodges supervised a drill in which troopers practiced stopping a truck. Friday, he said he had no option but to block the shipments. "Once plutonium arrives, it will never leave," he said. "They want South Carolina to quietly become the nation's dumping ground. Any accident would potentially cause great damage to our state and to the people in the surrounding area." Staff writer Henry Eichel contributed to this article. About Charlotte.com | ***************************************************************** 18 Troopers on relaxed watch for plutonium Charlotte Observer | 06/16/2002 | JENNIFER TALHELM Staff Writer AIKEN, S.C. - State troopers are still carrying out Gov. Jim Hodges' executive order banning plutonium from state roads, but they have dramatically scaled back their efforts since the federal government announced it won't begin shipments until next weekend. "The troopers and state transport police are riding in the area, making sure nothing suspicious comes through," said Sid Gaulden, a spokesman for the S.C. Department of Public Safety. "They're monitoring things visually." On Thursday, a U.S. District Court cleared the way for the U.S. Department of Energy to begin moving plutonium from its Rocky Flats, Colo., plant to its Savannah River nuclear facility near Aiken, 160 miles southwest of Charlotte. Under a disarmament pact with Russia, the department plans to turn 34 metric tons of plutonium into mixed-oxide, or MOX, fuel to be used in Duke Power's Charlotte-area nuclear power plants. Hodges fears the MOX plans will fall through, and South Carolina will wind up storing the plutonium indefinitely. He wants a court-enforceable date the substance will be removed. On Friday, Hodges said the plutonium poses an immediate hazard to the people of South Carolina. He ordered all roads closed to plutonium until a court orders him to lift the blockade. Shortly afterward, the Energy Department announced it would not be able to send plutonium until next Saturday. Gaulden said the public safety department has pulled back its effort until then. "We will be back out there in force," Gaulden said. "Basically, we're standing by until they say they're coming." Meanwhile, Hodges is still waiting to hear whether the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will schedule a date to hear his last-minute appeal of the District Court's decision. Hodges had asked the shipments be delayed until the Energy Department completed environmental studies he said weren't done. The court ruled against him, and Hodges appealed immediately. The courts may be the last chance to resolve the issue and avoid a standoff between the governor and the Energy Department. Negotiations between the department and the S.C. congressional delegation appear to have stalled. U.S. Rep. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., of Seneca, and Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., of Aiken, several months ago introduced bills that would penalize the Department of Energy if the MOX program never got off the ground. The department agreed to the compromise, but Hodges opposed it, saying it wouldn't prevent the government from depositing plutonium in the state for several decades. Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop said Graham still hopes for a compromise. But since Hodges sued in May, the Energy Department has refused to negotiate. The same appears true of the Democrats' side. A source close to Hodges said there have been no direct talks with the federal government recently, although U.S. Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., of York, and others may still be working on legislation Hodges would agree to. -- STAFF WRITER HENRY EICHEL CONTRIBUTED TO THIS ARTICLE. -- JENNIFER TALHELM: (803) 327-8507; JTALHELM@CHARLOTTEOBSERVER.COM [JTALHELM@CHARLOTTEOBSERVER.COM] ***************************************************************** 19 Yucca Mountain Will Be One of the Most Expensive Projects Ever The Salt Lake Tribune -- Sunday, June 16, 2002 BY DOUG ABRAHMS GANNETT NEWS SERVICE WASHINGTON -- The proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, Nev., will cost several times what America spent to build the Hoover Dam, World Trade Center and even the Panama Canal in equivalent dollars. Combined. Yucca Mountain's estimated price tag of $58 billion rivals the world's costliest construction projects -- the Three Gorges Dam in China, which will hold back the Yangtze River, and the International Space Station. The proposed nuclear waste repository, the first of its kind in the world, includes the cost of building casks to store the highly radioactive material and constructing miles of rail line to the site, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Electricity users are supposed to foot the entire bill. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., has tried to raise a red flag about Yucca Mountain's steep price tag, which has more than doubled since 1983. But he says the costs have been overshadowed by safety concerns about transporting 77,000 tons of nuclear waste across the country from commercial reactors and federal facilities to Nevada. "This is the most expensive construction project in the history of the world for something that we do not need to do," Ensign said. "It's outrageous." A spokesman for the nuclear industry said costs continue to mount for Yucca Mountain because of added safety requirements. And money, he said, should not be a factor when it comes to safety. "You're not going to lowball the requirements to keep the costs down," said Steve Kraft, director of fuel supply and used fuel management at the Nuclear Energy Institute. "That would be a mistake." The Senate is expected to vote within 45 days on approving the Bush administration's plan to make Yucca Mountain the nation's nuclear waste dump. If the Senate concurs with the House, the Energy Department would be free to ask for a construction permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Waste could be moved to Nevada as early as 2010. Because the storage facility must prevent radioactivity from leaking for 10,000 years, Yucca Mountain will utilize state-of-the-art technology. The Energy Department has not finalized many essential elements of Yucca Mountain's design, but some overall details from department reports include: * Boring at least 35 miles of tunnels -- some as large as 25 feet in diameter -- into the mountain. * Buying more than 10,000 stainless steel and alloy containers to house the nuclear material, costing almost $5 billion. Billions of dollars more will be spent on titanium drip shields over the casks to keep water out. * Building a railroad line to Yucca Mountain, which could be as long as 350 miles. The cost is not included in the $58 billion price tag. The construction project will employ about 1,500 people, but that number doesn't include workers building the containers, according to the Energy Department. Another huge cost will be operating the site long into the future. Yucca Mountain should be filled with nuclear waste by about 2041, according to Energy Department projections, but operations will continue until 2118 at a minimum of $60 million annually. But new technology and continued study of Yucca Mountain have pushed up the price of the project. The cost to build the waste dump, originally scheduled to open in 1998, has grown from about $24 billion in 1983 to abut $58 billion today, according to data from the Energy Department and Government Accounting Office (GAO), the watchdog agency of Congress. To pay for Yucca Mountain, electricity consumers pay 0.1 cent per kilowatt-hour generated by nuclear plants into a fund. Already, $11.5 billion has been collected and another $5.9 billion has been earned through interest since 1983. About $5.8 billion has been spent on Yucca Mountain to date on engineering and tests. But like Social Security and other government trust funds in Washington, the money is not sitting in a bank account. The funds that have been collected for Yucca Mountain have been used by Congress to pay for other things. Once construction begins on Yucca Mountain, Congress will have to start allocating billions from the fund to pay for it. Whether taxpayers will have to kick in any money for the nuclear waste dump is unclear. The Energy Department has said the Yucca Mountain fund will hold enough to pay for the project. But the General Accounting Office said the account will fall short, forcing taxpayers to make up the difference. The funding question will become more of an issue later this decade when the Energy Department starts issuing long-term construction contracts that will require appropriations from Congress, said Dwayne Weigel, assistant director at the GAO, who has followed Yucca Mountain for more than a decade. Robert Card, energy undersecretary, told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last month that Yucca Mountain will be completed on time and on budget if the Senate and the NRC give the agency the go ahead. But opponents said the Energy Department has a poor track record of building large projects and keeping costs down. Examples include large cost overruns to clean up the former nuclear weapons production facility in Hanford, Wash., and the superconducting super collider -- a large atom smasher -- that was halted in 1994 after $2 billion was spent. "We know the price is going to go up from today," Ensign said. © Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on ***************************************************************** 20 Anderson Urges Mayors To Oppose Yucca Storage The Salt Lake Tribune -- Sunday, June 16, 2002 Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson spoke out Saturday against storing high-level nuclear waste at the Yucca Mountain Repository in nearby Nevada. And while he had originally hoped to convince his colleagues at the U.S. Conference of Mayors to urge the U.S. Senate to reject sending waste there, they instead agreed to urge Congress to prohibit the movement of high-level waste anywhere -- unless federal officials can guarantee the safety of all cities along the proposed routes. The resolution, unanimously passed Saturday by a subcommittee of mayors attending the annual conference in Madison, Wis., asks Congress to pass legislation prohibiting the transportation of the waste unless all of the cities along the route have "adequate funds, training and equipment to protect the public health and safety in the event of an accident." "In my view, there would be no transportation of this material," Anderson said following the meeting. "There is no way to protect the community along the transportation route against an accident or terrorist attack." The resolution will be up for debate by all of the 250 mayors Monday. -- Heather May © Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on ***************************************************************** 21 On Yucca Mountain, the Stars Come Out (washingtonpost.com) Celebrities Get Busy As Senate Vote Nears By Eric Pianin Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, June 16, 2002; Page A05 In the high-stakes fight over the administration's proposal to bury nuclear waste in the Nevada desert, President Bush may have the votes, but his opponents have the glitter. Or put another way: Barbra Streisand and Bonnie Raitt trump John Sununu and Geraldine Ferraro in the scramble for public attention. Until recently, the long-running debate over the wisdom of burying radioactive waste for centuries beneath Yucca Mountain has been a dreary affair, dominated by technocrats, politicians and environmentalists spewing often conflicting and mind-numbing data about geological faults and transportation risks. As the Senate prepares to take up the measure next month, however, the battle is shaping up in part as a Hollywood thriller. It pits the improbable team of former New Hampshire GOP governor Sununu and onetime liberal House Democrat Ferraro against an array of anti-nuke luminaries including Streisand, Martin Sheen, Melissa Gilbert, Tim Robbins, Alec Baldwin, Morgan Freeman and Mike Farrell. "In terms of star wars, the nuclear industry simply doesn't have the star power," said David C. Blee, a former Reagan administration Energy Department official and now a public relations consultant to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a big backer of the Yucca Mountain project. "There is no Charlton Heston on our side." The closest they have to a Heston is actor Paul Newman, an environmentalist who told a reporter at a May 20 dinner in New York that he supports the Yucca project because "I found the science very compelling." At issue is whether to use the site to bury current and future stockpiles of spent fuel rods from 131 nuclear power plants in 39 states. The waste, which stays radioactive for thousands of years, is now kept in "temporary" concrete-encased pools at the plant sites. For the nation's nuclear power industry to survive, analysts agree, the government eventually must settle on a long-term solution to the waste storage dilemma. The Bush administration and most members of Congress say Yucca is the answer. But critics say the plan to store nuclear waste 1,000 feet below the surface might contaminate the area's ground water. Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn (R) in April formally objected to the president's decision to move ahead; the House voted last month to override the objection, and now the Senate must decide what to do. In the battle for Senate votes and general public opinion, supporters of the Yucca project say they have something more valuable than actors and rock stars: the support of many senators intent on shifting their states' nuclear waste storage problems to Nevada, as well as the deep pockets of the nuclear power industry, which has advocated the repository for two decades. "I don't think any Hollywood star who hasn't really delved into the issue will have any effect on any vote in the Senate," said Joe Davis, a spokesman for Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. "When it comes down to it, senators will listen to scientists and regulators who have been dealing with this for a long time versus somebody who is on the silver screen." The administration says the Yucca Mountain site is "scientifically sound and suitable" as a repository. But Nevada officials say the project is being foisted on them despite strong evidence of serious problems in transporting and storing the radioactive waste. Opponents cited a mild earthquake early Friday near Yucca Mountain as evidence of the potential dangers. The nuclear energy industry and its business allies have spent about $72 million since 1994 promoting the Yucca Mountain project. About $16 million recently went into polling, regional ads, lobbyists and consultants including Sununu and Ferraro, according to industry sources. The Nuclear Energy Institute, a trade group, and its industry members contributed $29.2 million in unregulated "soft money" to the Republican and Democratic parties over the past two decades, according to Common Cause. By comparison, the anti-Yucca Mountain forces -- led by Nevada officials and gambling and tourism groups -- have spent about $10 million on advertising, legal action and lobbying. That includes about $600,000 to retain Washington lobbyists John Podesta, a former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, and Kenneth Duberstein, a former chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan. The Nevada gambling industry, a major foe of the Yucca Mountain project, has contributed $21 million in soft money to the two parties since 1992. Opponents say their only hope in the Senate is to block a final vote on procedural grounds. That long-shot prospect would require Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) and Majority Whip Harry M. Reid -- a Nevada Democrat -- to secure the cooperation of most of the chamber's 50 Democrats and win over a few Republicans. The GOP, with the exception of Sens. John Ensign (R-Nev.) and Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.), appears strongly behind the Yucca Mountain project. "There are a lot of procedural games people are talking about," Sununu said last week. "You always worry when votes are procedural, rather than on substance." The recent infusion of Hollywood activists has, if nothing else, heightened the issue's visibility and forced undecided senators to hear the opponents' arguments. A few undecided Democrats, including Deborah Ann Stabenow (Mich.), Tom Harkin (Iowa) and Christopher J. Dodd (Conn.), have been treated to personal appeals from Farrell, star of the NBC series "Providence" and the old "M*A*S*H" TV series. Jamie Farr, another "M*A*S*H" veteran, and actors James Cromwell and Morgan Freeman have prowled the halls of Congress in search of support. "The lunacy of these policies is more evident all the time," Farrell said during his Capitol Hill visit. He distributed a letter to Democrats signed by more than 70 Hollywood figures, including Richard Dreyfuss, Norman Lear, Rob Reiner and Farrell's wife, Shelley Fabares. "I think we are seeing a lot of very public figures engaging in these very important events, and it raises the visibility of the issue," said Stabenow, a friend of Farrell's. Singer Bonnie Raitt, a veteran anti-nuclear-power activist, denounced the administration plans for transporting nuclear waste across the country as a "mobile Chernobyl" during an Earth Day appearance in Washington. Other popular singers, including the Indigo Girls and Kate Pierson of the B-52's, have performed in opposition to the Yucca project. The producers of NBC's "West Wing," starring Martin Sheen, devoted an April 3 episode to a fictionalized accident involving a truck hauling nuclear waste. And Jon Stewart's "Daily Show" on Comedy Central plans to spoof the Yucca Mountain project this week by depicting residents of the small town near the site feverishly competing for the project. By contrast, the public face of the pro-Yucca Mountain forces is rather bland. There is Abraham, the energy secretary and lead spokesman on Capitol Hill; Sununu, the prickly White House chief of staff under President George H.W. Bush; and Ferraro, the vice presidential nominee on Walter F. Mondale's 1984 ticket. The Chamber of Commerce hired Sununu and Ferraro late last year as part of a $1 million "Alliance for Energy & Economic Growth" campaign to lobby Congress. Sununu made waves almost immediately, telling a Nevada reporter in January: "If Nevada is not willing to do its part in what is part of a national plan for homeland security . . . maybe Americans ought to vacation somewhere else." He later amended his comments, saying he had been quoted out of context, but not before enraging Reid, who denounced Sununu as "a paid gun" for the nuclear energy industry who "would say anything for money." Sununu said in an interview last week, "My point was, I know this is a tough issue in Nevada and I know Nevada is going to try to prevent this from happening. I just urged that they do it in a way that doesn't create a backlash" against the state. Environmental groups, meanwhile, have particularly criticized Ferraro for her role in the lobbying effort. "I feel that removing this waste is pro-environment," Ferraro said in an interview last week. "I'd like to reassure [critics] that I'm not being paid a lot of money. Why impugn my motive on this? My motive is to remove waste." © 2002 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 22 A mobile Chernobyl? PalmBeachPost.com: By Deborah Circelli, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Sunday, June 16, 2002 Charles Grande lives within 5 miles of more than 20 years' worth of nuclear waste. If the 61-year-old had his way, he and his neighbors would rather see that radioactive waste stored in another state than down the street from their homes, at Florida Power & Light Co.'s St. Lucie nuclear plant. "It's a matter of risk and establishing priorities," said Grande, chairman of the Presidents Council of Hutchinson Island, which represents about 5,000 residents. "The very low-level risk during a controlled transport is a whole lot better than allowing it to accumulate in a facility that was not designed for long-term storage." But getting that waste to another state, however, is what's fueling debate from Nevada to Washington, D.C., to Port St. Lucie. The question is will residents be safe when trucks and trains carrying nuclear waste from FPL's St. Lucie and Turkey Point plants barrel through Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast -- coming within 1 mile of many schools, hospitals and homes. According to a U.S. Department of Energy report earlier this year, preliminary plans to transport spent nuclear fuel to a facility in Nevada will have thousands of shipments going through Florida's most populated cities. That's not the kind of scenario Congress likes to think about as it debates whether to bury about 70,000 tons of used nuclear fuel 1,000 feet below Yucca Mountain in the Mojave Desert, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. That waste -- which has outlived its power usage but is still highly radioactive -- is now stored at 131 nuclear plants and DOE weapons facilities in 39 states. And stuck footing the storage bill is utility customers, including those of FPL. Ratepayers have kicked in billions of dollars over the past two decades for a federal storage facility that has yet to be approved. Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives approved President Bush's resolution supporting Yucca Mountain, essentially overturning a veto by Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn opposing the site. And earlier this month, a key Senate committee gave its support. A decision could be made by the full Senate by the end of July. Meanwhile, utilities are running out of room. FPL, at the end of the year, is planning to ask the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for permission to add space to its storage facility at the St. Lucie plant. Also, FPL and seven other big utilities are awaiting word from the NRC on a request to temporarily store used fuel on an Indian reservation 75 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. Utah, however, shares Nevada's sentiment about becoming a dumping ground for the nation's nuclear waste. More important, the emotion-charged atmosphere post-Sept. 11 has given environmental groups the fuel they need to possibly halt both projects -- fear. The groups conjure up frightening images of hijackings and terrorist attacks on the nation's busiest highways. There is also the concern of nuclear waste being stolen and used to make "dirty bombs" that could spread radiation over a community. "This has a potential to be a mobile Chernobyl," said Holly Binns, environmental advocate for the Tallahassee-based Florida Public Interest Research Group. "It's just an incredibly dangerous proposition." Shipments safe, DOE says The DOE assures, however, that the shipments will be safe. They will be classified top secret and have 24-hour escorts bolstered in populated areas by armed federal guards. The agency also says it's safer than having 131 aboveground targets in open areas. "If a terrorist is going to attack spent fuel, why not attack it now, when they know where it is, rather than waiting 10 years and then try to figure out when a classified shipment is going to occur?" DOE spokesman Joe Davis said. "It's safer in one controlled place." It is the getting to that "one controlled place," that most critics take issue with. In Florida, the preliminary plan calls for barges to carry waste along the east coast from the St. Lucie nuclear plant to Port Everglades near Fort Lauderdale and from the Turkey Point plant near Homestead to the Port of Miami. The waste would then head north on I-95 on trucks through Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast, and continue north out of the state. Or, trains could carry most of the waste along tracks through Palm Beach County and cut through central Florida and then back toward Jacksonville. In Florida, the nuclear waste amounts to about 1,765 tons at FPL's two nuclear plants and 420 tons at Florida Power Corp.'s Crystal River plant north of St. Petersburg. About 6 pounds of nuclear fuel is also being used in a testing reactor at the University of Florida and one day may need to be moved. In all, it would equal 2,359 truck shipments on Florida's highways over a span of 24 years beginning in 2010, based on one scenario by the DOE. Another shows a combination of 202 train shipments and 491 trucks traveling through Florida's main cities on I-75 and I-10. Nationally, it amounts to 53,000 truck shipments over the 24-year period if DOE uses mostly trucks or 10,000 shipments if trains are the primary mode of transportation. There would be even more if Yucca Mountain receives an extended license for 38 years. Assuming that Congress approves the Yucca project, the final go-ahead would need to come from the NRC. But FPL and others are choosing not to wait for Congress or the NRC to make up their minds about Yucca. The utilities are running out of room at the nuclear plants. Two holding pools that hold nuclear fuel rods at FPL's St. Lucie plant will be full in three to five years. Thus, if the NRC gives the utility companies approval on the temporary storage site on a Utah reservation by yearend, shipments could start arriving there as early as 2005. Yucca has been gaining some momentum in Congress, however. Lawmakers, particularly those in our region, are expressing satisfaction with the fact that all shipments will also be monitored by satellite tracking. In addition, federally trained drivers will call into the DOE every two hours, and governors in each state will be notified prior to each transport. "This is not a ragtag operation," said U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-West Palm Beach. "The people who handle this material know of the volatility and the safety concerns. It's risking lives to sit where it is at and do nothing." The DOE's Davis said the routes are not final and are part of an environmental report on transportation aspects of the Yucca Mountain project. The DOE will start talking in 2004 or 2005 to state transportation offices and law enforcement on route suggestions. The Florida Department of Transportation and state and local law enforcement officials say they will be heavily involved in coordinating any transport of nuclear waste through the state. "We will always have that concern" about terrorism, said Steve Lauer, chief of the Office of Domestic Security for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in Tallahassee. "But we believe it can be done safely and correctly." Florida Sen. Bob Graham, chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, is still reviewing routes in DOE's environmental study. A spokesman said he is committed to moving the waste safely to protect Floridians. Not all concerns have been allayed. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Delray Beach, voted against Yucca Mountain. He said that transporting nuclear waste was reasonable to consider before Sept. 11 but that now the U.S. needs to reexamine the idea. "We're just not there yet in terms of planning," Wexler said. "If I was Osama bin Laden and I heard there would be hundreds of trucks (carrying nuclear waste) across America's highways, it seems to me that would become a very appealing target." Residents can check routes Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, a Washington-based organization, agreed. His group opened a Web site this past week, www.mapscience.org, where people can plug in their address to see how close they live to DOE's preliminary routes. "The Yucca Mountain issue is downtown Miami and West Palm Beach. It isn't just Nevada," Cook said. "It's about thousands of communities who live nowhere near a power plant." Based on DOE's preliminary routes, the Environmental Working Group estimates that 38.4 million people nationwide live within 1 mile of the proposed routes to Yucca Mountain -- 2.1 million in Florida. That amounts to 1,035 Florida schools and 47 hospitals. In West Palm Beach, for example, Palm Beach International Airport, CityPlace and city hall are all less than a mile from proposed routes. Downtown Delray Beach is also within the 1-mile range, with West Atlantic Avenue even closer at 0.4 mile. Downtown Fort Pierce is 0.1 mile, and areas in Stuart are farther, within about 5 miles. That provides little comfort to alarmists who picture terrorists standing on I-95 near West Palm Beach or another city, firing a rocket-propelled explosive at the trucks or trains racing through Florida's communities. Or, even an accident or train derailment puncturing the nuclear containers and sending radioactive substances roaming through the air. "Nuclear power has always been dangerous," said Debbie Evans, a parent in West Palm Beach and co-chair of energy for the Florida Chapter of the Sierra Club. "But in this new world of terror, the possibility of an attack is not just becoming real -- it is real." But Mac Harris, spokesman for Florida Power Corp., said its sister utility Carolina Power & Light Co., has safely shipped nuclear waste by train for 13 years between three plants in South Carolina and North Carolina. "Moving nuclear fuel is one of the safest commercial enterprises," Harris said. "The Environmental Working Group is trying to raise concerns to defeat Yucca Mountain. It's a lobbying tool." The 14-foot-long fuel rods, which contain ceramic-like pellets of uranium, are housed in fuel assemblies and shipped in vault-like steel casks that use multiple layers of lead to protect the fuel. The DOE says the casks are robust and can withstand numerous impacts without leaking radiation. A new exhibit this year at FPL's St. Lucie plant's public Energy Encounter building shows videos of government tests such as smashing a cask into a concrete wall, broadsiding it with a train and setting it on fire. "The individuals who are talking about fuel transportation and calling it unsafe are fear-mongering," said Eileen Supko, a Washington nuclear waste consultant whose clients include the Nuclear Energy Institute, a utility trade organization. In 1978 and 1979, FPL shipped 7.5 metric tons of nuclear waste from Turkey Point to a DOE laboratory in Ohio and then to a test storage site in Nevada -- without incident. "The shipping of used fuel will be a top priority, just as it is a priority in the way it is stored," FPL spokeswoman Rachel Scott said. But U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass. and U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the majority whip, say tests on transportation and storage containers are inadequate because they are not conducted on full-size containers. Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Nils J. Diaz, a former professor of nuclear engineering sciences at the University of Florida, said the NRC plans new testing drills in the next two years on full-size containers, as opposed to using computer models. He admits the worst-case scenario would be for a terrorist to blow a hole into the side of the container. "Just like any explosion, if you are there you will get seriously hurt or killed," Diaz said. "But the farther away you get from there, you will not be seriously hurt. We know how to identify and isolate radioactivity. We have a tremendous amount of protective measures that come into play." Taxpayers pay for site U.S. taxpayers have paid $17.6 billion into the DOE's Nuclear Waste Fund since 1983, after Congress authorized DOE to find a permanent storage site. Taxpayers continue to pay about one-tenth of one cent per kilowatt hour of power generated by nuclear plants. Floridians have paid more than $585 million since 1983, with FPL customers dishing out the lion's share -- about $460 million. Utilities nationwide, including FPL, have sued to get some of the money back to help pay for adding room at existing nuclear plant sites. The suit is pending. FPL will need more room at its St. Lucie and Turkey Point plants because the company is seeking to renew the licenses for another 20 years. Turkey Point received approval June 7. The plants provide about 24 percent of FPL's power supply. "Eventually this plant is going to shut down," said Don Jernigan, who oversees FPL's St. Lucie nuclear plant. "The question comes, 'What do we do with (the nuclear waste)?' You need a place that, once it's stored, you can walk away from it and know it's safe and secure." deborah_circelli@pbpost.com [deborah_circelli@pbpost.com] Copyright © 2002, The Palm Beach Post. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 23 Mayors Conference Urged to Oppose National Radioactive Waste Dump in Nevada FOXNews.com MADISON, Wis. — Three Western mayors urged their counterparts Saturday to oppose a plan that would create a national nuclear waste repository in Nevada, saying that shipping radioactive waste to the site would threaten the entire country. Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said an earthquake centered 12.5 miles from the proposed site at Yucca Mountain on Friday reinforced his concern that the site was unsafe for storing nuclear waste. "That's our problem," Goodman told the U.S. Conference of Mayors. "The nation, however, has a problem with transportation." Goodman, Salt Lake City Mayor Ross Anderson and Reno, Nev., Mayor Jeff Griffin said the federal government had not done enough to study the risks posed by shipping nuclear waste to the proposed site by highway or rail. A conference committee planned to vote Saturday evening on a resolution supported by the three mayors that would urge the Senate to reject the federal plan to bury 77,000 tons of nuclear waste in tunnels inside Yucca Mountain. The waste would remain radioactive for more than 10,000 years. The House has already approved the plan. The conference, which drew about 250 mayors, includes a series of meetings on issues ranging from affordable housing to the environment. The mayors also were considering several other resolutions, including one urging Washington to distribute about $3 billion in grants for homeland security directly to cities and counties rather than through the states, as Bush proposed in his budget. "There should be no middlemen. It should go directly to the cities," said Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, a Democrat who is president of the group. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson told the mayors that distributing money through the states was the quickest way. He noted that before states could receive the money, their plans for spending it had to be approved by the federal government. "If we had to do this with all of the cities, we probably wouldn't have been able to do it," said Thompson, who was governor of Wisconsin for 14 years. A survey of 122 mayors found that three-fourths were concerned about the threat of a chemical or biological attack, and almost four out of five said they had inadequate funding to detect threats. Three out of four said they do not have enough money for emergency response equipment or programs to protect city infrastructure. Also scheduled to speak at the conference, which started Friday, are Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge and FEMA Director Joe Allbaugh. The mayors' international affairs committee put off a vote on a resolution urging the administration to lift the trade embargo against Cuba and restore diplomatic relations. The mayors met under tight security, with the city closing nearby streets as well as the shore of Lake Monona that borders the front of the convention center. Police outnumbered the handful of protesters, many of whom favored legalization of marijuana, who gathered down the block from the meeting. ©Associated Press. ***************************************************************** 24 Nevada helping fight nuclear waste hauling SUNDAY, JUNE 16, 2002 By Holly Hollman DAILY Staff Writer hhollman@decaturdaily.com Nevada does not want nuclear waste from Alabama or any other state. To stop the federal government from turning Nevada's Yucca Mountain region into a radioactive waste dump, the state is doing its own research and public campaign against the project. Questioning the safety of transporting nuclear waste from plants like Browns Ferry in Limestone County is one of the ways Nevada is trying to garner support against the project. According to the state's research, the federal government is looking at shipping 314 casks of waste from Browns Ferry by rail through the Shoals area and into Mississippi. The government also could use trucks to haul casks on Interstate 65 into Tennessee. The casks are thick cylinders with multiple layers of lead that hold the spent radioactive fuel. The U.S. Department of Energy's map of proposed routes is so vague that in Alabama, the only city it identified was Montgomery. It doesn't list highway names. It uses colored lines throughout the state to signify possible routes. Nevada and a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog organization, Environmental Working Group, created online maps that identify the routes for each state. Those maps show usage of the railway and Interstate 65 in Alabama. Environmental Working Group spokeswoman Liz Moore said the group is upset that the environmental plan on Yucca Mountain didn't address the transportation routes adequately. "They didn't come out and say to people that this could be coming through their back yard," she said. "They buried a terrible map of proposed routes in a 4,500-page environmental statement. In Alabama, they only listed Montgomery and where Browns Ferry is located." The Department of Energy's proposal before Congress calls for moving tons ofnuclear waste by train, truck and barge, with a preference for rail. No specific transportation security plan is included, and the department hasn't decided the routes it will use. It won't start transporting the waste to Nevada before 2010. If Congress approves the plan, DOE will make 175 shipments a year and 95 percent will be by rail. Nevada's Web site said that means waste will pass through 703 counties with a total population of about 123 million people. Wrecks and spills of radioactive wastes are a concern. The Department of Energy said the casks are made to withstand fire, submersion in water and impacts. Radioactive waste has made 2,700 shipments across 1.6 million miles in 30 years, the department said, and there hasn't been harmful release of radiation. Copyright 2002 THE DECATUR DAILY. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 25 Yucca Op: Time is now, place is Nevada Opinion June 16, 2002 *Our position:* /Yucca Mountain is the best choice for permanent storage of nuclear waste./ Where is the best place to store 48,000 metric tons of used radioactive fuel rods? In above-ground capsules at 131 different locations, or buried at a single site deep within Nevada's Yucca Mountain? The question, debated for 20 years, will be decided in the next few weeks by the U.S. Senate. We urge Indiana Sens. Richard G. Lugar and Evan Bayh to vote to proceed with the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. In 1997, the last time The Star editorialized on this subject, we held strong reservations about the safety of nuclear waste being shipped through Indiana -- perhaps on three different highways and seven rail lines -- en route to Nevada. At the time, studies of the geologic suitability of Yucca Mountain were incomplete and the prospect of lengthy above-ground storage at multiple sites seemed innocuous. Since Sept. 11, however, the question has become urgent. Although there is nothing intrinsically unsafe about above-ground facilities, it would be easier and more efficient to confine the waste to a single heavily protected area in a remote location. This would give Americans greater peace of mind as well. Nor is Yucca Mountain "entombment" irreversible. The facility would remain open, and the material retrievable, for up to 300 years in the event technology and/or thinking change. We acknowledge that many Nevadans, including that state's congressional delegation, strongly oppose this project and believe alternative sites should be further studied. Their "not-in-my-backyard" reservations are understandable. But this is one case in which the national interest must supercede local concerns. It's worth noting that a good chunk of Nevada belongs to the federal government, including the Yucca Mountain location, which is no bigger than a football field 15 to 20 feet deep. Indiana, as a transportation crossroads, will experience a disproportionate share of the nuclear shipments when the repository gets up and running in approximately 2010. But experience has shown nuclear waste transport to be safe and to pose less risk to population centers than large fuel tank carriers or other hazardous waste loads. Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, Congress spelled out a process through which disposal would eventually occur. That law established a fund to plan, build and fill a single national waste repository that many Hoosiers -- those served by a nuclear plant in Michigan -- have paid into. It is in all our interests that the billions collected for this project not be wasted. It is in all our interests that the plutonium in nuclear fuel rods, which could be used to make nuclear bombs, be kept as safe and secure as possible from terrorists who seek to harm our country. Copyright 2002 The Indianapolis Star | Questions, comments? AP materials © 2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 26 UK: New N-bomb factory for use on terrorists Date: Sun, 16 Jun 2002 05:14:24 -0500 (CDT) http://www.observer.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4434696,00.html Secret plan for N-bomb factory Berkshire plant will build weapons for use on terrorists, say experts Mark Townsend Sunday June 16, 2002 The Observer A massive nuclear bomb-making factory is being planned for Aldermaston, raising concern that Britain is heading towards a new era of atomic weapon production. The plant will be able to test, design and build a new generation of nuclear bombs. Arms experts believe it will focus on smaller atomic warheads for use against terrorist groups and rogue states. Details to be submitted to West Berkshire planning authorities in the next 10 days reveal plans for one of the most state-of-the-art nuclear weapons plants in Europe. Described by environmentalists as one of the most momentous decisions of Tony Blair's leadership, the plant will cost hundreds of millions of pounds, despite being officially approved without parliamentary debate, sparking fury among MPs. Analysts warn that it appears to be a blatant breach of Britain's obligations under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. William Peden, nuclear disarmament expert at Greenpeace, said: 'We are talking a massive nuclear bomb-making factory.' The plans - the existence of which were confirmed by the Atomic Weapons Establishment - will involve closure of the 270-acre Burghfield site, where Britain's atomic warheads have been produced for almost 50 years. It will be replaced by a futuristic complex capable of designing atomic weapons as well as storing existing Trident warheads at AWE's 700-acre headquarters. Details of the proposals were discovered in AWE's annual report, which refers to plans to 'transfer all operations' from Burghfield to the Aldermaston site. It also reveals proposals for a hydrodynamics research facility to help design and develop nuclear weapons, a #15 million supercomputer to simulate the effects of atomic devices and a factory producing tritium, a substance used to maximise the effects of a nuclear explosion. An AWE spokesman said they had to 'maintain the capability to design a successor' to Trident, although the Government had not asked it to start work on one. Paul Rogers, professor of peace studies at Bradford University, said: 'But, at the very least, they want to build the infrastructure to create a new generation of weapons. 'It is clear that the Government is committing itself to a long-term nuclear future after Trident. This suggests a nuclear-free world more in theory than in practice.' Menzies Campbell , Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said Government policy remained unclear. 'There has never been a serious parliamentary debate about a Trident replacement or what form it should take,' he added. 'But before embarking on expenditure of this size on an issue of such political controversy, at the very least Parliament ought to be con sulted. I even suspect that the Cabinet may not have been involved in the decision. There are also legitimate concerns about facilities like this after 11 September.' The planning application will be submitted by the Ministry of Defence on behalf of AWE, which is responsible for running Britain's nuclear weapons' sites. The proposals must abide by normal planning procedures because crown immunity was removed after AWE - in effect, private contractors - took control of the running of Aldermaston in 1993. Planning officers do not have the power to reject the plans but, in the event of strong objection, can demand that Environment Minister Michael Meacher examines them. Labour MP Martin Salter - who claims that his Reading West constituency lies downwind of Aldermaston - said: 'I am appalled that plans have been drawn up to extend the nuclear weapons plant at Aldermaston without reference to local communities, or indeed Parliament.' Tomorrow he will table a series of parliamentary questions about the Government's long-term nuclear policies. The revelation arrives amid allegations that the UK is keen to pursue the Bush administration's lead in wanting to develop a range of tactical nuclear devices that can be used pre-emptively against terrorist groups or rogue states. America's recent Nuclear Posture Review Report details the need for an 'offensive' nuclear deterrent and a revitalised nuclear weapons complex with massive investment in facilities in order to modernise its weapons production capability. Experts point to a series of statements from Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon in which he insists Britain has a right to use nuclear devices - pre-emptively if necessary - against states that are not nuclear powers. Rebecca Johnson, exceutive editor of Disarmament Diplomacy, a leading independent journal in arms control, warned that US and UK policy was becoming increasingly 'hand in glove'. Ian Davis, director of the British American Security Information Council, an indpendent think-tank, said there was mounting evidence of increased co-operation between Britain and the US on nuclear policy. Inquiries had found Labour becoming increasingly secretive over nuclear policy and demanded 'greater parliamentary scrutiny' over future decisions. Investigations by The Observer confirm increased activity between US and UK weapons officials. Parliamentary answers from defence ministers reveal the number of UK defence personnel visiting the US has grown substantially. Visits to the Nevada nuclear test site have risen from nine in 1999 to 40 last year with a further 182 meetings between both countries. There are now 16 joint working groups on weaponry issues, including nuclear warhead physics, nuclear counter-terrorism technology and nuclear weapon code development. Peden said that the planned development mirrored the secrecy surrounding the replacement of Polaris with Trident in the late 1970s.New facilities were then also sited at Aldermaston, but construction was hampered by delays and escalating costs, which eventually soared to #1.5 billion. There has still been no official acknowledgment on the type of warhead Trident carries. An AWE spokesman said the current proposals depend on a number of factors such as the results of a feasibility study. They also have to be approved by regulators including the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate. If approved, construction of the new plant would be included within the current #2.3bn 10-year contract. He added that leaflets detailing the proposals would be released to the public in two weeks' time. Guardian Unlimited ) Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 ***************************************************************** 27 'Plans to be submitted for new nuclear bomb factory'* Ananova There are plans for a new nuclear bomb making factory in Berkshire, according to reports. The plant at Aldermaston will reportedly test, design and build a new generation of nuclear bombs. The factory would be one of the most advanced nuclear weapons plants in Europe. The Observer reports the Atomic Weapons Establishment has confirmed the plans do exist. It says details of the proposals were discovered in the AWE's annual report. It referred to plans to 'transfer all operations' from Burghfield, where Britain's weapons have been produced for the last 50 years, to Aldermaston. An AWE spokesman says they have to 'maintain the capability to design a successor' to Trident, although they had not been asked by the Government to start work on one. Planning officers in West Berkshire do not have the power to reject the plans, but if there is strong objection, they can demand Environment Minister Michael Meacher examines them. An AWE spokesman says the current proposals depend on a number of factors such as the results of a feasibility study. They also have to be approved by regulators including the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate. If approved, construction of the new plant would be included within the current £2.3bn 10-year contract. The spokesman added leaflets detailing the proposals will be released to the public in two weeks' time. Story filed: 11:26 Sunday 16th June 2002 /Copyright © 2002 Ananova Ltd/ ***************************************************************** 28 How dirty bombs are made, and what they can do* Economist.com Whitehead Mann * Radiological devices* *Weapons of mass dislocation* Jun 13th 2002 From The Economist print edition AP *Too much radioactivity around* EVER since the September 11th attacks, it has been clear that the capacity of al-Qaeda and its affiliates to plot death and destruction is limited only by the power of the weapons they can obtain. Keeping nuclear, chemical and germ weapons out of their hands has therefore been a priority.The arrest of Abdullah al-Muhajir on suspicion of plotting to build and set off in America a radiological device?a ?dirty bomb? that uses radioactive materials packed around a conventional explosive core?is an indication of how hard that fight will be. Why a radiological bomb? Unlike chemical, biological or even the more familiar sort of nuclear-fission bombs, radiological weapons have never been used. Only Iraq's government is thought to have experimented with them for deployment on the battlefield. It is not just that they cause far fewer casualties than their atomic cousins. Like chemical and biological weapons, which are already outlawed, radiological weapons have long been considered inappropriate for military use. But for the al-Qaeda breed of terrorist, such weapons have value precisely for their power to shock. All do-it-yourself mass-destruction weapons have their drawbacks. Nuclear fission bombs are devastating?think of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945?but require technical skills that would be hard, though not impossible, for terrorists to master. Getting hold of enough weapons-grade enriched uranium and plutonium is also not easy. Chemical weapons, by contrast, can be simply made from fertiliser or pesticides, though more deadly nerve agents need considerably more expertise. But you need a lot of chemical agent to produce a lot of casualties. Germ weapons can kill with much smaller doses?either of viruses or bacteria?but are hard to deliver effectively. The anthrax-laced letters sent through the United States postal system last year resulted in only 18 confirmed cases of the disease and seven deaths. Radiological weapons have their drawbacks, too. Technically, they are not weapons of mass destruction at all. In most cases, the greater risk to those nearby would be from the conventional explosives used rather than the radioactive materials dispersed. Even the long-term health effects of heightened radiation exposure after such a device exploded are quite uncertain, according to Abel Gonzalez, the director of radiation and waste safety at the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The Chernobyl nuclear accident in Ukraine in 1986, he points out, pumped vastly more radioactive material into the atmosphere than any imaginable ?dirty bomb?, yet scientists are still trying to guess what real effect this will have on cancer rates among people exposed to fall-out from the radioactive plume that spread across Europe. The point, says Mr Gonzalez, is that however uncertain the health effects, sensors can immediately pick up even a slight increase in background radiation. Given people's fears about radiation exposure, it would be panic, rather than the numbers of dead or damaged, that would give the terrorists their success. It is this psychological impact, combined with their ease of assembly, that makes radiological devices so attractive to terrorists. *First find your cesium* Officials trying to stem nuclear proliferation used to congratulate themselves that only a very few of the known incidences of trafficking involved the sort of uranium and plutonium useful for a bomb. Yet the black market in materials of the sort needed for a dirty bomb is much bigger. These materials include low-grade waste from power stations and small devices containing radioactive materials?such as cesium-137, used in some cancer treatments, cobalt-60, used in food irradiation, or americum, incorporated in sensors for oil exploration. Such materials have literally hundreds of applications in industry, medicine and university research, and they are scattered about the world accordingly. Although the IAEA has for some years been prodding governments to tighten up procedures, it is only recently that some of them have started to take notice. Controls over such devices are often poor, and get poorer still when the devices themselves have outlived their usefulness. Every year in the United States, a couple of hundred such devices are known to go missing?lost, stolen or simply abandoned. The would-be dirty-bomber now in custody would not have had to look abroad for his materials. The record in other countries is often worse. This week, an IAEA-led team was fanning out in western Georgia in search of the remaining two of a batch of eight abandoned devices containing strontium-90, another radioactive element, which had been used in generators for communication stations. Similar generators with radioactive elements are known to litter remote parts of Russia. Many governments keep no record of such ?orphaned? devices, although, over the years, they have been known to turn up in scrap metal without any terrorist involvement?and, without use of any detonator, have still caused horrible damage. In 1987, a scrap-scavenger in Brazil unwittingly cut up a canister containing cesium powder which he had stolen from an abandoned clinic: the resulting contamination left several people dead and 28 with radiation burns. The clean-up produced 3,500 cubic metres of radioactive waste and left the local economy devastated. Dirty bombs made of such materials might better be called weapons of mass dislocation. A recent study by the Federation of American Scientists tried to estimate the health and other effects of three relatively small bombs, detonated in either New York or Washington, designed to disperse radiation in quantities that might be found in a stolen medical device or some other industrial radiation source. Estimates of injury and damage, it is admitted, could be out either way by a factor of ten: much depends on the nature of the material used and on prevailing weather conditions. In each case, however, the number of immediate deaths and injuries was thought to be relatively low. It was decontamination, in areas from a few to dozens of city blocks, that posed the greatest challenge. Often the only solution would be demolition. It was these economic consequences, from the costs of cleaning up to longer-term damage to business, running together into tens or hundreds of billions of dollars, that proved devastating. Economist.com ***************************************************************** 29 Terror check at Britain's nuclear sites Scotsman.com Sun 16 Jun 2002 Full security checks at 22 of the 31 nuclear power stations and waste reprocessing stations have been canceled due to a recruitment crisis. /STEPHEN FRASER/ SECURITY inspections of Britain?s nuclear facilities to ensure they are safe from terrorist attack have been abandoned because of a chronic staff shortage. The government?s own director of civil nuclear security has admitted that a recruitment crisis in his office has forced him to cancel full security checks at 22 of the 31 nuclear power stations and waste reprocessing stations it regulates. The admission, which casts doubt on government claims of increased security in the wake of September 11, has shocked experts and MPs. The revelation comes in the first annual report of the Office of Civil Nuclear Security, the government agency responsible for protecting Britain?s civil nuclear sites, including five in Scotland. The office?s director, Michael Buckland-Smith, admits that he has been forced to cancel ?compliance inspections? at 22 facilities after the attack on the Twin Towers. Instead, his staff had switched to giving ad hoc security advice and would not have enough staff to resume inspections until next month at the earliest. Buckland-Smith, who has five inspectors among his staff, admitted his agency was suffering a recruitment crisis and had lost staff with police or security service experience to private sector companies who could pay more. He said: "I have lost two experienced inspectors over the past 18 months and faced considerable difficulty and delay recruiting replacements. Unfortunately, four of my most experienced staff are either retiring or leaving in the next 12 months, compounding the difficulties we anticipate finding suitably qualified replacements and filling new posts." Earlier in the report Buckland-Smith admits: "It is impossible without a thorough and comprehensive programme of site inspections undertaken by experts, to identify security weaknesses or monitor compliance with standards and regulations." Buckland-Smith also said his agency had discovered "deficiencies" in the security arrangements adopted by a number of facilities, though he did not give full details. He did, however, reveal one incident at an unnamed power station two years ago when a security guard, who was later sacked, had attempted to sneak an unauthorised person into the plant. Buckland-Smith refused to answer questions on his report but a Department of Trade and Industry spokesman admitted: "Compliance inspections involve a lot of paperwork, so we have concentrated on offering security advice though we will resume inspections as soon as possible. We are confident the regulator?s staff issues can be resolved through the introduction of pay incentives." Dr John Large, an independent nuclear safety consultant who advised the Russian Federation on the salvage of the Kursk nuclear submarine, said the failure to carry out compliance inspections meant security at facilities could not be fully tested. He said: "You cannot test the response of nuclear plants to a terrorist threat by having cosy chats over a coffee with the plant?s security people. Dropping compliance inspection is like handing a driving licence to somebody without putting them through a test." He said compliance inspections involve a group of inspectors running exercises to test the reaction of site staff to different scenarios. The scenarios might involve a simulated attack by terrorists or mock acts of sabotage by insiders. "Compliance inspections are the best way of winkling out weaknesses in a plant?s defences and systems," added Large, a former research scientist for the UK Atomic Energy Authority. Tam Dalyell, the Labour MP for Linlithgow , said he was "extremely concerned" . "The quid pro quo for having nuclear facilities is that no corners are cut in the regulation of the security regime covering plants and these staff shortages must mean corners have been cut." The OCNS regulates security at Scotland?s four nuclear power stations, Torness, Hunterston A and B, and Chapelcross . It is also responsible for checking security at the UK Atomic Energy Authority?s plant at Dounreay . It is not clear whether any of the five facilities are included in those that have had compliance inspections . The safety of nuclear facilities is regulated by a separate agency, the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate. Richard Dixon, the head of research for the Friends of the Earth Scotland, said the report was "damning" . "If I were a terrorist, looking at this report and scouting out what is happening with the nuclear industry across the world, I would be heading to Britain because our nuclear facilities look like a soft touch." British Energy, the private company which operates Torness and Hunterston B power stations, and the state-owned UKAEA, which controls Dounreay, both insisted their security arrangements were extremely tight in the wake of September 11. ***************************************************************** 30 Israel denies report subs can launch nuclear missiles Last update - 12:30 16/06/2002 By Nathan Guttman, Ha'aretz Correspondent and agencies One of Israel's fleet of Dolphin submarines. (Photo: Archive) WASHINGTON - Reacting to a report in the Washington Post newspaper, Israel denied Sunday that it possesses cruise missiles equipped with nuclear warheads. "The command of our navy would be pleased to have a few of those. There are various kinds of reports that repeat themselves every so often," Army Spokesman Ron Kitri told Israel Army Radio. "I don't know what their source is," Brigadier Kitri added. Citing former U.S. State Department officials, /The Washington Post/ reported Saturday that Israel has the capability to deliver nuclear cruise missiles from diesel submarines. The report said Israel had armed its three Dolphin class submarines with cruise missiles that can carry nuclear warheads. The modern Dolphin submarines, with the most sophisticated sailing and combat systems in the world, were built in German shipyards during the late 1990s for the Israel Navy. The purpose of these submarines, the IDF said at the time they were purchased, was "to enable the Israel Navy to meet all the tasks faced in the Mediterranean in the 21st century." Pentagon sources told /The Washington Post/ the American navy had monitored cruise missile tests Israel subs carried out two years ago in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Sri Lanka. Israel's decision to enhance its nuclear attack capability with submarine launched missiles derives from mounting concern about the possibility of a non-conventional strike launched by Iran or Iraq, /The Washington Post/ report said. Sea-launched missiles would boost Israel's deterrent capability, making clear to a potential enemy that even if a surprise attack wiped out Israel's land-based nuclear arsenal, it would still have the ability to retaliate with weapons of mass destruction. The Washington Post report followed disclosures last week in a book published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which refers to Israeli attempts to arm its diesel submarines with nuclear missiles. The book claims that Israel tested the sea-launched cruise missiles in May 2000. "Probably the most important nuclear-related development in Israel is the formation of its sea-based nuclear arm," wrote Joseph Cirincione, co-author of the book and an endowment official. Israel has never officially admitted to possessing a nuclear arsenal, but has said it will not be the first to introduce such weapons in the Middle East. © Copyright 2002 Ha`aretz. All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 31 Anti-Missile Work Begins in Alaska Las Vegas SUN June 15, 2002 FORT GREELY, Alaska- Federal officials broke ground Saturday on six underground missile interceptor silos as part of the new national missile defense system. It will take more than two years to install the silos 115 feet beneath the earth at Fort Greely for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system. "We need this for the defense of our country," said Brigadier Gen. John W. Holly, program director for the GMD Joint Program Office. The Fort Greely site, about 100 miles southeast of Fairbanks in the Alaska interior, will at first be used for testing. But the Pentagon hopes to have it ready as an emergency anti-missile system by September 2004, should the need arise. The Bush administration's hurry to put a rudimentary system in place in Alaska by 2004 comes 19 years after President Reagan proposed a national defense against nuclear missile attack. Critics suggest presidential politics is the driving force behind the timetable. The project's stated purpose is to defend against the use of a limited number of nuclear missiles by rogue nations such as North Korea, and is designed to eliminate mutual destruction as a strategy, said Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens. The actual missile test bed work will be done by Boeing and its subcontractors, while Fluor Alaska will handle the general contracting. "They're just going to start digging holes," said Lt. Col. Rick Lehner, spokesman for GMD. When completed, the six silos, about 100 feet apart, will each have a 24-foot circumference and hold 70-foot-long missiles. There is room for 100 missile beds on the site. Fluor will install roads, fencing, support buildings and a power substation. Officials say the work at Fort Greely is expected to cost $325 million. The full system is estimated to cost $64 billion, including a sophisticated "X-band" radar station in the Aleutian Islands and a new satellite system to detect launches. Protesters waited at the main gate of Fort Greely and at a pulloff along the highway about two miles north of the entrance. No Nukes North, a Fairbanks-based anti-nuclear group, organized the protest, which began June 6 as a peace caravan across Alaska. The protesters have been in the area since Thursday voicing objections to the GMD as an offensive, not defensive program, its expense and the nuclear dangers. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 32 UK: Secret plan for N-bomb factory Guardian Unlimited | Archive Search Berkshire plant will build weapons for use on terrorists, say experts Mark Townsend Observer Sunday June 16, 2002 A massive nuclear bomb-making factory is being planned for Aldermaston, raising concern that Britain is heading towards a new era of atomic weapon production. The plant will be able to test, design and build a new generation of nuclear bombs. Arms experts believe it will focus on smaller atomic warheads for use against terrorist groups and rogue states. Details to be submitted to West Berkshire planning authorities in the next 10 days reveal plans for one of the most state-of-the-art nuclear weapons plants in Europe. Described by environmentalists as one of the most momentous decisions of Tony Blair's leadership, the plant will cost hundreds of millions of pounds, despite being officially approved without parliamentary debate, sparking fury among MPs. Analysts warn that it appears to be a blatant breach of Britain's obligations under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. William Peden, nuclear disarmament expert at Greenpeace, said: 'We are talking a massive nuclear bomb-making factory.' The plans - the existence of which were confirmed by the Atomic Weapons Establishment - will involve closure of the 270-acre Burghfield site, where Britain's atomic warheads have been produced for almost 50 years. It will be replaced by a futuristic complex capable of designing atomic weapons as well as storing existing Trident warheads at AWE's 700-acre headquarters. Details of the proposals were discovered in AWE's annual report, which refers to plans to 'transfer all operations' from Burghfield to the Aldermaston site. It also reveals proposals for a hydrodynamics research facility to help design and develop nuclear weapons, a £15 million supercomputer to simulate the effects of atomic devices and a factory producing tritium, a substance used to maximise the effects of a nuclear explosion. An AWE spokesman said they had to 'maintain the capability to design a successor' to Trident, although the Government had not asked it to start work on one. Paul Rogers, professor of peace studies at Bradford University, said: 'But, at the very least, they want to build the infrastructure to create a new generation of weapons. 'It is clear that the Government is committing itself to a long-term nuclear future after Trident. This suggests a nuclear-free world more in theory than in practice.' Menzies Campbell , Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said Government policy remained unclear. 'There has never been a serious parliamentary debate about a Trident replacement or what form it should take,' he added. 'But before embarking on expenditure of this size on an issue of such political controversy, at the very least Parliament ought to be con sulted. I even suspect that the Cabinet may not have been involved in the decision. There are also legitimate concerns about facilities like this after 11 September.' The planning application will be submitted by the Ministry of Defence on behalf of AWE, which is responsible for running Britain's nuclear weapons' sites. The proposals must abide by normal planning procedures because crown immunity was removed after AWE - in effect, private contractors - took control of the running of Aldermaston in 1993. Planning officers do not have the power to reject the plans but, in the event of strong objection, can demand that Environment Minister Michael Meacher examines them. Labour MP Martin Salter - who claims that his Reading West constituency lies downwind of Aldermaston - said: 'I am appalled that plans have been drawn up to extend the nuclear weapons plant at Aldermaston without reference to local communities, or indeed Parliament.' Tomorrow he will table a series of parliamentary questions about the Government's long-term nuclear policies. The revelation arrives amid allegations that the UK is keen to pursue the Bush administration's lead in wanting to develop a range of tactical nuclear devices that can be used pre-emptively against terrorist groups or rogue states. America's recent Nuclear Posture Review Report details the need for an 'offensive' nuclear deterrent and a revitalised nuclear weapons complex with massive investment in facilities in order to modernise its weapons production capability. Experts point to a series of statements from Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon in which he insists Britain has a right to use nuclear devices - pre-emptively if necessary - against states that are not nuclear powers. Rebecca Johnson, exceutive editor of Disarmament Diplomacy, a leading independent journal in arms control, warned that US and UK policy was becoming increasingly 'hand in glove'. Ian Davis, director of the British American Security Information Council, an indpendent think-tank, said there was mounting evidence of increased co-operation between Britain and the US on nuclear policy. Inquiries had found Labour becoming increasingly secretive over nuclear policy and demanded 'greater parliamentary scrutiny' over future decisions. Investigations by The Observer confirm increased activity between US and UK weapons officials. Parliamentary answers from defence ministers reveal the number of UK defence personnel visiting the US has grown substantially. Visits to the Nevada nuclear test site have risen from nine in 1999 to 40 last year with a further 182 meetings between both countries. There are now 16 joint working groups on weaponry issues, including nuclear warhead physics, nuclear counter-terrorism technology and nuclear weapon code development. Peden said that the planned development mirrored the secrecy surrounding the replacement of Polaris with Trident in the late 1970s.New facilities were then also sited at Aldermaston, but construction was hampered by delays and escalating costs, which eventually soared to £1.5 billion. There has still been no official acknowledgment on the type of warhead Trident carries. An AWE spokesman said the current proposals depend on a number of factors such as the results of a feasibility study. They also have to be approved by regulators including the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate. If approved, construction of the new plant would be included within the current £2.3bn 10-year contract. He added that leaflets detailing the proposals would be released to the public in two weeks' time. [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 ***************************************************************** 33 'N-bomb' may float past Australia [theage.com.au] By Paul Daley London June 16 2002 In the next 10 days two gunboats will sail from Takahama in Japan on a hazardous 18,000-nautical-mile journey to Barrow-in-Furness, an industrial port on the north-west coast of England. Aboard one boat will be 225 kilograms of weapons-grade nuclear fuel made from uranium and plutonium oxides - enough, critics say, to build up to 50 massive nuclear bombs and contaminate much of the Earth many times over. Irish, Australian, Asian and South Pacific intelligence officers, military chiefs and diplomats refer privately to the ships as "the floating N-bomb". But to the Japanese and British Governments, both of which remain intractable in the face of mounting international pressure, the boats are a necessary - and defensible - byproduct of a deal gone wrong. Within weeks, if the fears of Australian diplomats and military leaders are founded, the two ships, Pacific Pintail and Pacific Teal, will pass from Asia through the Pacific Islands, along the east coast of Australia, through the Tasman Sea, across the Indian Ocean and through the Atlantic Ocean on its way to the Sellafield nuclear processing plant near Barrow-in-Furness. "By our reckoning this plutonium will pass spitting distance through at least five regions where there are known al Qaeda sympathisers or groups which can be proven to be funded directly by (Osama) bin Laden or al Qaeda," a South Pacific intelligence source told The Sunday Age. "And that's just in the Asia Pacific... the risk beyond Cape Town is, we believe, unquantifiable." An Irish official said that Ireland had always been opposed to the Sellafield plant just across the Irish Sea, because of the risk to the country of contamination from an accident at the plant or en route. ");document.write(" advertisement "); } } // --> "Now there can be no doubt, since September 11, that these shipments form a serious terrorist target, that the whole box and dice is a whole lot more dangerous. Common sense tells you that, standard threat assessments tell you that and the UK and the US tell you that - it's part of their standard rhetoric in the war against terror," the official said. "They (the ships) will move slowly, they are not well-armed and the fear is not that terrorist groups will attempt to hijack the load and make N-bombs out of it, but that they will attempt to detonate the load as close to land as possible. We know they can fly planes and we know they can drive boats." Such fears were compounded this week by disclosures that American intelligence networks had foiled a plot by al Qaeda operatives to blow up - possibly by using small, lightweight speedboats laden with explosives - heavily armed British naval ships in the Strait of Gibraltar. It is the first evidence that al Qaeda has targeted British military forces outside Afghanistan. Sources maintain it has worried the British Ministry of Defence that the two boats carrying the nuclear material could be targets. Bin Laden activists have a proven capacity to inflict death at sea; a suicide bomber rammed the battleship USS Cole, killing 17 American crew in October, 2000. It is a tactic, intelligence sources say, that they picked up from the Sea Tigers, the nautical branch of the separatist Tamil Tigers, which has carried out sea-borne suicide bombings with dramatic effect against the Sri Lankan Navy. Australia, despite the best efforts of diplomats in London and Canberra, has apparently not been able to determine which route the ships will take. The British Government, citing "security concerns", refuses to disclose the route; it is also unwilling to provide extra security for the fleet. "I can tell you there is deep concern about this... not least because the British will not engage with us on the security concerns it raises," an Australian security source said. "This shipment might be intended to go past our doorstep, with no security but the second ship, and they won't tell us yet." The reason for the shipment began in late 1999 when documents were discovered at the publicly-owned British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) plant at Sellafield, which showed that quality controls on some of the company's nuclear fuel export products had been forged. The Japanese power utility, Kansai Electric - BNFL's biggest client - had asked for the documents to ensure that the plutonium fuel pellets it had recently received were appropriate for Japanese reactors. BNFL insisted the product had been properly product-controlled and the paperwork was correct. Not surprisingly, Japan lost faith in BNFL when the British Government's Nuclear Installations Inspectorate uncovered the shortcomings. Japan insisted that Britain retrieve the material. The German power industry, BNFL's second biggest client, was also affected. The error was, however, compounded in Germany's case because some of the suspect material had been burning in one German reactor since at least 1996. Copyright © 2002 The Age Company Ltd advertise ***************************************************************** 34 FORT GREELY: First dirt turned for missile defense silos. Mothballed post now front line Anchorage Daily News "> By Zaz Hollander Anchorage Daily News (Published: June 16, 2002) Fort Greely -- In a groundbreaking ceremony as surreal as it was significant, this remote mothballed U.S. Army post officially became the country's first line of defense against a nuclear missile attack. A white canopy tent in the middle of a 235-acre dirt clearing issued patriotic strains of "Stars and Stripes Forever" as dignitaries hopped off buses and onto the rocky ground. Beneath the tent, red carpets were stuck to the dirt with red tape. The Alaska Range gleamed in the southern sky. During a short round of speeches, Black Hawk helicopters scanning the ground for intruders flew low over an apocalyptic forest of fire-scorched spruce. The ceremony Saturday hinged on an international event: The United States withdrew last Thursday from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia to allow President Bush to pursue plans for a missile defense system. The test range at Greely is part of a $7.5 billion missile system designed to shoot incoming missiles down 140 miles above the earth. Coupled with plans for facilities at Kodiak and Shemya Island in the Aleutians, it's also the costliest construction project to hit the state since the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. The missiles will come to Greely by train or truck for testing as long-range interceptors. Current plans don't call for real launches of armed missiles. But switching the test interceptors over would be easy, military officials have said. Saturday just after 10 a.m., a dozen dignitaries holding 12 shiny steel shovels dug into ground intended for five 115-foot underground missile silos and a sixth test silo. "If everybody could just hold up a shovelful, please," said Brig. Gen. John Holly, program director for ground-based missile defense. The men in white hard hats obligingly held up little piles of brown dirt and looked at a cameraman. "OK, the command will be one, two, three and then toss," Holly said. "One, two, three -- toss." Twelve piles of dirt hit the ground. The United States crossed a threshold into a new nuclear age. A strategy of missile defense is vital to safeguard the United States against 17 or 18 rogue nations with access to nuclear or biological weapons, Sen. Ted Stevens said as he walked back to his seat under the tent. "What threat we have in the future is absolute blackmail. They could literally hold our country hostage," he said. "We need this system to prevent that from happening." The dignitaries and the media detoured past Greely's main gate, where a group of protesters waited. Barricades forced buses to take a side entry, one official explained. Activists had set up a "Peace Camp" at a mosquito-ridden campground south of town Thursday. They moved to a roadside rest area Friday with an inflatable missile and a sign advertising free gourmet coffee. Missile defense is an unproved and costly strategy that guards against the least likely scenario, attack by intercontinental ballistic missiles, said Greg Garcia, of No Nukes North. It's far more likely that the United States faces attack by cruise missiles or a "dirty bomb" -- a conventional bomb packed with radioactive material -- like one authorities say was plotted by a suspected Muslim extremist arrested in Chicago last month. "The reason this is being done, it's about enriching corporations. It's about corporate welfare," Garcia said. The military is paying $325 million to the government's contractor, Fluor Daniel, to build a missile assembly building and a command center and install fiber-optic systems, said Lt. Col. Rick Lehner, spokesman for the Missile Defense Agency. Boeing Co.'s contractor to build the silos, Bechtel National Inc., is under a $150 million contract. Everything is supposed to be finished by Sept. 30, 2004. City administrator Pete Hallgren said Delta Junction takes pride in its newfound status as the nation's only shield against nuclear attack. "If we can defend the entire country from Delta Junction against somebody heaving a nuke at Baltimore, or biological weapons, we're sort of proud to have that happen," he said. Around town, however, many longtime residents appeared more cautious than celebratory as the groundbreaking approached. Most locals seem to think the missile defense site is a flash in the pan that will pump up Delta's economy for a few years and then disappear, as did jobs building the trans-Alaska oil pipeline and an active U.S. Army garrison at Fort Greely. Two roofers buying coffee Friday at the IGA Food Cache grocery used money from paychecks earned at $39.85 an hour. Ryan Kindy and Eric Jansen work for a Fairbanks company doing a job for Bechtel at the site. They are earning federal Davis-Bacon wages for the next month or so -- until this job ends. The dawning of the missile defense era in Delta will bring several hundred temporary jobs in the next few years, Lehner said. After that, about 50 jobs will be permanent and probably half will go to locals, he said, adding that more locals will be hired whenever there's a test. The U.S. Department of Defense has promised $15 million to $20 million to Delta Junction in the next three years to compensate for the influx of personnel, Hallgren said. The school district is expected to receive $4 million to $6 million. With that money, and with hopes that the missile defense site will revitalize the community, the city plans to build a roughly $5 million swimming pool and perhaps enter private partnerships to build a bowling alley or movie theater, he said. The base provided all those services before it was shuttered last year. Real estate broker Cleeta Barger has visited with outside investors looking to build hotels, bars and restaurants as soon as they can. Some recalled the influx of workers that descended on town during construction of the pipeline, drawing prostitutes and a free-for-all mentality. The construction "man camp" going up on a giant concrete slab just south of town will hold 350 workers bound by Fluor Alaska Inc. to a 24-month commitment and asked not to bring their families. "Most of us believe we're going to have pipeline days for two or three years," said Ray Andreassen, the town doctor for 20 years. "There will be all the wine, women and song that goes with the man camp." Joanne Heitman, owner of Diehl's Shopping Center, chatted Friday afternoon with Fran Columbo about skyrocketing local rents. Columbo, who is trying to sell a downtown lot, said she turned down an offer from somebody looking to build a strip club. Delta bills itself as "The Friendly Frontier." About 840 people live in town, about 3,500 in a 30-mile radius. Farms and game ranches have sprung up in the lush grasses outside of town. A dairy sells ice cream on the main drag. Buffalo is a menu mainstay. Delta's economy flagged when the U.S. Army decided about five years ago to mothball Fort Greely, effective last year. An influx of Russian immigrants in the past decade changed the area's demographics some, but nothing has provided the necessary labor boost. With missile defense work starting, home values are rising but still haven't topped values of the mid-1980s, said Barger, with Mt. Hayes Inc. Realty. Residential values have gone up about 10 percent in the past few months, rents are definitely rising, and she expects permanent missile defense employees might need 50 to 75 new homes over the next three years. But Barger is only cautiously optimistic about the future, based on the lessons of the past. In the 1980s, a commander at Greely asked the town to provide housing in a hurry, she said. Then the commander who replaced him decided to build modular housing on post. Fifty-five of the 75 units built to accommodate the request went into foreclosure in 1988, she said. "And now we have people coming to find a place to live and wondering why this town hasn't speculated and built a place for them." Reporter Zaz Hollander can be reached at zhollander@adn.com [zhollander@adn.com] or 907 257-4591. McClatchy Company Privacy Policy The Anchorage Daily News [http://www.adn.com] ***************************************************************** 35 trash bomb: Outrage on top of outrage Sunday, June 16, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal COLUMN: John Brummett Fierce and frantic competition marked last week's American Outrage Sweepstakes. The only fair solution is to declare a three-way tie for first place. -- A petty thug out of Brooklyn and Chicago, who had been detected by Pakistani intelligence meeting with Central Asian terrorists, was detained on suspicion of being a field hand in a plan to detonate a crude device on American soil, perhaps in Washington, D.C., which would blend traditional explosives with radioactive material. Such a bomb likely would kill some, injure more and scare the daylights out of the rest. It was good to corral the creep. But then Attorney General John Ashcroft, seeking to defend turf and deflect criticism of FBI bungling before Sept. 11 -- to serve bureaucratic, political and ego interests -- went on American television live from Moscow to declare that an international plot to radiate Washingtonians had been intercepted. Even the White House, none too squeamish about politicizing terror itself and fresh from proposing a homeland security department to trump Democratic advantages on a Medicare prescription drug benefit for the midterm election, was aghast at Ashcroft's dramatic words, second-coming tone and general hyperbole. Now the young man is held not on charges, and not with a bill of particulars, and not with attention to the constitutional entitlements that make us so much better than those who hate us, but as a secret military prisoner. -- The head of a drug company was arrested on securities fraud. He was accused of overstating the testing success of an anti-cancer drug, then unloading his own stock, which had skyrocketed on the basis of this ballyhooed anti-cancer breakthrough, and tipping kinfolk to do the same. He did so after learning that the Food and Drug Administration intended to rein in development of the hyped drug. Investors were defrauded. Cancer victims were lied to and subjected to tragically dashed hopes. -- The Democratic Party, which embraced McCain-Feingold and campaign finance reform, now urges the Federal Election Commission to write the regulations imposing the law in a way that would allow soft money to continue to flow through back channels. The Democrats want FEC regulators to permit the national parties to direct filthy rich donors to fund state parties, where soft money donations are still permitted, and let the state parties use the money for attack ads so long as these ads do not unambiguously advocate the election of party candidates. That's no different from the horrid status quo. It scales new heights in hypocrisy. At least Republicans admitted they had no intention of trying to stop the corrupt and gluttonous practice. Alas, it is insufficient merely to cite these outrages, for that simply feeds the hungry beast of cynicism. Responsible citizenship compels the prescription of antidotes. First, an American citizen suspected of cavorting with foreign murderers to commit an act of terror in America -- and whose arrest is deemed worthy of a special news bulletin featuring the dramatic intonations of the attorney general -- must be dealt with openly, judiciously and constitutionally, by a traditional grand jury and trial jury. Second, the FDA and the Securities Exchange Commission must devise a partnership by which American medical patients and investors are protected against the lies and greed of 21st century quackery. Third, Tom Daschle and Dick Gephardt must announce forthwith that the Democrats insist that McCain-Feingold be subjected to strict, not elastic, bureaucratic interpretation. Otherwise, we risk raising the bar on outrage so high that garden-variety affronts would seem practically virtuous. John Brummett, an award-winning columnist and reporter for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock, is author of "High Wire," a book about Bill Clinton's first year as president. His e-mail address is jbrummett@arkansasnews.com. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 36 Flaws in Japan’s nuclear-arms debate ©The Frontier Publications (Pvt) Jun Sakurada Updated on 6/16/2002 10:48:38 AM The ongoing debate in Japan on nuclear arms lacks sophistication. On May 31, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said if the international situation were to change, public opinion might favor a nuclear-armed Japan. He was commenting on the government’s long-standing three non-nuclear principles of not possessing, manufacturing or allowing the entry of nuclear arms. The remarks touched off controversy at home and abroad. Fukuda’s remarks followed Liberal Party chief Ichiro Ozawa’s statement during a lecture April 6 that Japan could easily build nuclear warheads. Criticising China for its continuing military buildup, Ozawa said: “Japanese nuclear power plants have enough plutonium for production of thousands of nuclear warheads. We could have better military equipment than China, if we really got serious.” The remarks by Fukuda and Ozawa suggested a changing consciousness in Japan about nuclear arms. Although Ozawa sometimes makes illogical remarks, I understood what he meant. Fukuda’s observations on “future possibilities” do not deserve censure. The three non-nuclear principles were announced under special circumstances, immediately before the reversion of then-US-ruled Okinawa to Japan in 1972. It would be foolish to think that the principles would be valid forever. China lodged a strong protest against Fukuda’s remarks, since it does not want to see Japan develop into a strong military power. It is strange, though, that Japanese politicians from both the ruling coalition and opposition forces are trying to negate Fukuda’s views. They should be considering all possibilities to protect national interests. That is why I say the current debate lacks sophistication. Nevertheless, I saw two problems with Fukuda’s remarks. First, they were untimely when the international community was working hard to avert a war between the nuclear-armed India and Pakistan. Japanese Senior Foreign Vice Minister Seiken Sugiura visited India and Pakistan to persuade the two countries to end the fighting. Fukuda’s comment caused confusion about Japanese intentions. Second, it was unclear what political calculations Fukuda had made prior to his remarks. The merits and demerits of Japan’s potential nuclear-arms capability are unknown. Of more than 180 countries in the world, nuclear powers are a minority. What would Japan gain by acquiring nuclear arms and joining the minority? Regarding the Indian-Pakistan conflict, Japan should coordinate with all non-nuclear powers to apply pressure on both countries to avert war, instead of trying to persuade each nation to do so. The United States and Britain, the major nuclear powers, are making major diplomatic efforts to prevent a war between India and Pakistan. As a non-nuclear power, Japan could pursue independent diplomacy with the two nations. I believe that Japan would have more influence as a non-nuclear power than as a nuclear power. Has Japan been promoting diplomacy as a nuclear-capable but non-nuclear power? This is the question that we should ask ourselves before debating the pros and cons of the three non-nuclear principles. Sophisticated debate on nuclear options should be based on the evaluation of the merits and demerits of nuclear weapons. I have proposed that Japan should modify its non-nuclear principles by removing the phrase “not allowing nuclear arms into Japan.” If Japan seeks to maintain the principles of not possessing and not manufacturing nuclear arms and adapt to the realities of depending on the US nuclear umbrella for national security, the only choice would be to preserve two of the three principles. This position may be hard to accept for those who uphold all three non-nuclear principles as dogma. © Copyright 2001 The Frontier Post ***************************************************************** 37 State confident in security for radioactive materials MetroWest Daily News.c o m - LOCAL NEWS By Michelle Hillman Sunday, June 16, 2002 As threats of "dirty bombs" surfaced this week, state officials in charge of licensing the use of radioactive materials are confident in the security measures at hundreds of facilities across Massachusetts. This week, the federal government announced the arrest of a man with ties to al Qaeda who allegedly obtained radioactive material used to make a dirty bomb. Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, D-7th, said he believed a national tracking system should be reinstated to monitor use of the materials. "We need a better system put in place in our country," said Markey, whose district includes Framingham and Natick. "I think people should voice their concern that there isn't full security." The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission stopped tracking radioactive materials by serial number in 1984 but maintains a list of facilities licensed to use radioactive materials. In Massachusetts, the Department of Public Health is in charge of granting licenses for the use of radioactive materials in hospitals, universities and research facilities. The DPH also is in charge of inspecting facilities with the materials. Roseanne Pawelec, DPH spokesman, said there are strict guidelines for obtaining a license to use radioactive materials which include submitting a security plan. There are currently 550 facilities licensed to use radioactive materials in the state, she said. No facility can do research or use materials for diagnostic or industrial purposes without a license from the DPH. While hundreds of facilities are licensed to use radioactive materials, the amounts and types of radioactive materials vary. Except in very high doses radiation is not immediately fatal and experts say the psychological damage of a dirty bomb would be worse than physical harm. Charlotte Roy, education and safety specialist for radiology at Newton-Wellesley Hospital, said the type of materials used for diagnostic purposes are low-level forms of radiation that decay rapidly. "That's not something a terrorist would be interested in," she said. If terrorists were interested in obtaining materials, they would have a hard time getting to them because all materials are under lock and key. The DPH closely regulates how materials are secured and stored. Depending on the size of the facility, materials are locked in a safe kept behind locked doors or in locked storage facilities. Some have 24-hour security guards. "We're very meticulous about how we store and secure radioactive material," said Roy about the procedures at the hospital. Pawelec said there are 15 DPH inspectors who visit facilities unannounced to scrutinize record-keeping and find out if materials are being stored and secured properly. The DPH follows guidelines set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for inspections which can happen once or several times a year. Since September 11 the DPH has notified facilities with licenses to use radioactive materials to be as alert as possible. "We are confident that security plans are in place," said Pawelec. Steven Shea, safety officer at MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham, said the hospital is in compliance with all the state and federal regulations. "Following the stories that came up (after 9/11) we revisited our procedures," Shea said. "We feel that we are in compliance. Our procedures are providing a safe storage of these materials." Markey said he wrote to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about sites where radioactive materials are being used. He said the list included hospitals, medical research centers and food sterilization facilities. He said 1,500 materials have been stolen nationally and 800 cases are unsolved. Markey has called for better criminal and national security and a renewed tracking system. While there are hundreds of facilities using materials, some have trace amounts on hand that wouldn't be useful in constructing a dirty bomb. For instance, companies that make "EXIT" signs must have licenses to use radioactive materials. There are also companies that use gauges to measure the thickness of materials which require a license because there is radioactive materials in the gauge, said Pawelec. "It runs the gamut, these licensed facilities," Pawelec said. Experts believe if radioactive materials were to fall into the wrong hands, dirty bombs would not produce a nuclear detonation. Creating a dirty bomb would also require the right combination of ingredients and the ability to detonate the bomb efficiently. "You're not going to get a summer job and steal radioactive material," said Roy. "There's no short way to get radioactive material." Roy said hospitals are licensed for specific amounts and types of radioactive materials and do not maintain a large stock. Pawelec said the effects of dirty bombs are more psychological than physical. "Everything that needed to be done ... that has been done, " she said. "There are never any guarantees, but there are assurances that security plans are in place at these facilities." (Associated Press material was used in this report.) U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, D-7th, believes a national tracking system should be reinstated to monitor the use of radioactive materials. //--> © Copyright by the MetroWest Daily News and Herald Interactive ***************************************************************** 38 Flaws in Japan?s nuclear-arms debate The Frontier Post */ ©The Frontier Publications (Pvt) / Updated on 6/16/2002 10:48:38 AM/ * The ongoing debate in Japan on nuclear arms lacks sophistication. * On May 31, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said if the international situation were to change, public opinion might favor a nuclear-armed Japan. He was commenting on the government?s long-standing three non-nuclear principles of not possessing, manufacturing or allowing the entry of nuclear arms. The remarks touched off controversy at home and abroad. Fukuda?s remarks followed Liberal Party chief Ichiro Ozawa?s statement during a lecture April 6 that Japan could easily build nuclear warheads. Criticising China for its continuing military buildup, Ozawa said: ?Japanese nuclear power plants have enough plutonium for production of thousands of nuclear warheads. We could have better military equipment than China, if we really got serious.? The remarks by Fukuda and Ozawa suggested a changing consciousness in Japan about nuclear arms. Although Ozawa sometimes makes illogical remarks, I understood what he meant. Fukuda?s observations on ?future possibilities? do not deserve censure. The three non-nuclear principles were announced under special circumstances, immediately before the reversion of then-US-ruled Okinawa to Japan in 1972. It would be foolish to think that the principles would be valid forever. China lodged a strong protest against Fukuda?s remarks, since it does not want to see Japan develop into a strong military power. It is strange, though, that Japanese politicians from both the ruling coalition and opposition forces are trying to negate Fukuda?s views. They should be considering all possibilities to protect national interests. That is why I say the current debate lacks sophistication. Nevertheless, I saw two problems with Fukuda?s remarks. First, they were untimely when the international community was working hard to avert a war between the nuclear-armed India and Pakistan. Japanese Senior Foreign Vice Minister Seiken Sugiura visited India and Pakistan to persuade the two countries to end the fighting. Fukuda?s comment caused confusion about Japanese intentions. Second, it was unclear what political calculations Fukuda had made prior to his remarks. The merits and demerits of Japan?s potential nuclear-arms capability are unknown. Of more than 180 countries in the world, nuclear powers are a minority. What would Japan gain by acquiring nuclear arms and joining the minority? Regarding the Indian-Pakistan conflict, Japan should coordinate with all non-nuclear powers to apply pressure on both countries to avert war, instead of trying to persuade each nation to do so. The United States and Britain, the major nuclear powers, are making major diplomatic efforts to prevent a war between India and Pakistan. As a non-nuclear power, Japan could pursue independent diplomacy with the two nations. I believe that Japan would have more influence as a non-nuclear power than as a nuclear power. Has Japan been promoting diplomacy as a nuclear-capable but non-nuclear power? This is the question that we should ask ourselves before debating the pros and cons of the three non-nuclear principles. Sophisticated debate on nuclear options should be based on the evaluation of the merits and demerits of nuclear weapons. I have proposed that Japan should modify its non-nuclear principles by removing the phrase ?not allowing nuclear arms into Japan.? If Japan seeks to maintain the principles of not possessing and not manufacturing nuclear arms and adapt to the realities of depending on the US nuclear umbrella for national security, the only choice would be to preserve two of the three principles. This position may be hard to accept for those who uphold all three non-nuclear principles as dogma. © Copyright 2001 The Frontier Post ***************************************************************** 39 Lab seeks feds' OK for advanced work Tri-Valley Herald Sunday, June 16, 2002 - 3:11:07 AM MST Nuclear earth penetrator cited in House testimony By Glenn Roberts Jr. Staff Writer Nuclear weapons lab directors and Energy Department officials, in congressional testimony this week, asked for freedom in pursuing advanced concepts in weapons designs. A program designed to maintain and refurbish weapons in the U.S. nuclear arsenal should also encompass "exploratory work on advanced weapons concepts," Lawrence Livermore Laboratory Director C. Bruce Tarter stated in written testimony this week. In comments to Congress about the state of nuclear weapons, Tarter said, "New weapons capabilities, not present in the current stockpile, may be needed to meet future post-Cold War threats." His statements echo a 2002 Nuclear Posture Review conducted by the Bush administration to guide nuclear weapons policy, and an Energy Department order this year for weapons labs to set up "advanced warhead concepts teams" to pursue theoretical studies and engineering design work for advanced weapons. Directors at the nation's two other nuclear weapons research labs -- Sandia National Laboratories, with sites in Livermore and New Mexico, and Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico -- also discussed advanced concepts work in their testimony on the Energy Department's Stockpile Stewardship Program. Created in 1995, the program is intended to maintain the effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear arsenal in an era without actual nuclear testing. John C. Browne, director of Los Alamos Lab, stated in written congressional testimony that it is important for Los Alamos, Livermore's sister lab, to pursue advanced concepts to "address new requirements for the U.S. nuclear deterrent, and avoid technological surprise with new or unanticipated developments." Weapons labs should be free of any congressional restrictions that would force the labs "to ask permission before beginning even preliminary investigation of advanced concepts," he added. Advanced concepts work would also serve as training, allowing the labs "to exercise the scientific and technical expertise of weapons designers, especially those who do not have nuclear test experience," Browne said. "We will need explicit funding for the study of these advanced concepts if they proceed beyond the paper study phase." C. Paul Robinson, Sandia Labs director, said in testimony that "design skills can only be proved on real products," and "exploratory work on advanced concepts will ... be necessary to ensure that our design skills are sufficiently challenged for evolving needs in the nation's nuclear forces." He also noted, "Assuming that a new warhead design will not be authorized for the foreseeable future," the only effective way to exercise design skills is to work on extending the life of full nuclear weapons systems already in the stockpile. Other Energy Department site managers and officials presented testimony, too, during the June 12 meeting of the House Armed Services Committee's Military Procurement Subcommittee. John Gordon, who is head of the Energy Department's nuclear security agency, said that an advanced concept program is needed to "provide future presidents with the national security tools suited to post-Cold War strategic environment." Nuclear weapons that are currently deployed "cannot hold at risk a growing category of potential targets deeply buried in tunnel facilities, possibly containing chemical, biological, nuclear, or command and control facilities," Gordon said. The labs should be allowed to pursue advanced concepts, such as a Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator weapon, Gordon said, to "provide the nation with options that could be considered for future production and deployment." This earth-penetrator work, as announced, focuses on potential modifications for one or two existing nuclear weapons that would provide "enhanced penetration capability into hard rock geologies." Proposed congressional restrictions would treat such "modest research and development activities as line items in the budget, greatly reducing the flexibility of the labs and (production) plants to respond," he said. "Unless this provision is substantially modified it could have a chilling effect on research and development activities associated with maintaining the stockpile." Nuclear watchdogs and critics have said that pursuing advanced concepts in weapons designs could spur other nations to pursue new nuclear weapons designs and capabilities. Also in testimony provided by Livermore Lab, Tarter presented information on other aspects of the lab's weapons work, including improved analysis technologies used to study nuclear weapons components. The testimony discussed the use of high-resolution X-ray tomography, a technology that is used to detect tiny anomalies in plutonium pits, the weapons components used to trigger thermonuclear explosions. Also, Tarter said, workers at Livermore and Los Alamos Labs have been meeting over the past year to refine a new set of standards that are used to assess the reliability of warheads in the stockpile. These standards were first used in 2000 to certify the reliability of a refurbished warhead. Tarter's testimony also discussed progress on the National Ignition Facility, a stadium-sized laser project under construction since 1997. Experts at the three weapons labs, other federal agencies and university-based science groups are actively developing a schedule for experiments that will be conducted as soon as the facility's first four beams are ready next year, lab officials said. Lab officials also said that all NIF optics -- the mirrors and lenses that are used to direct the planned 192 NIF laser beams at a tiny target -- "now meet or exceed their original design performance specifications." Copies of testimony presented to the Military Procurement Subcommittee are available online at www.house.gov/hasc/schedules/2002.html ©1999-2001 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************