***************************************************************** 11/16/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.297 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 Blix: Inspections to Resume Nov. 27 2 KASHMIR TO DEFY DELHI OVER INMATES 3 Russia mindful of non-proliferation dealings with Iran: Ivanov 4 What to Expect When You're Inspecting 5 Warning to Pyongyang for real 6 British Energy considers asset sale 7 UK: Nuclear base 'intruders' charged 8 6 nuclear plants planned in Latur 9 Bush Backs KEDO Suspension of Fuel Oil to North Korea NUCLEAR REACTORS 10 Canada: Plans to restart Bruce reactors still on 11 US: Indian Point 3 shuts down 12 LFP Business: Bruce nuclear plans stifled NUCLEAR SAFETY 13 Terrorist planned attack on nuclear warhead stockpile - 14 US: Letter: McConnell, others helped plant workers obtain 15 US: Plan to distribute anti-radiation pills to students called ?ridi 16 US: Gulf War sickness behind gruesome US crimes? 17 US: Radioactive emergency simulated 18 US: Plutonium tests set for Canon City NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 19 US: NRC plans tests on nuclear waste shipping containers* 20 US: Study says Vermont Yankee spent fuel should be separated, 21 US: NRC plans tests on nuclear waste shipping containers 22 US: New waste put into 'burping tank' 23 US: Molycorp seeks extension in York cleanup 24 NL: Uranium plant tour addresses safety * 25 US: Group seeks Cotter closure 26 US: State outlines procedures for plutonium tests 27 US: Judge must OK gypsum stack plan 28 NRC Corrects Errors In Revised Public Notice* 29 US: NFS joint venture aims for pilot plant 30 US: US scientific community lauds NSF bill* NUCLEAR WEAPONS 31 US: U.S. ponders resumption of nuclear weapons tests US DEPT. OF ENERGY 32 Rocky Flats: Impressive cleanup 33 Whistle-blower's damages up 34 Fluor plans layoffs by mid-January OTHER NUCLEAR 35 Effort Will Be Made to Build Up Technology (4DOE) ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Blix: Inspections to Resume Nov. 27 Guardian Unlimited | World Latest | From the Associated Press Saturday November 16, 2002 3:50 AM UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Announcing that U.N. weapons inspections in Iraq will likely resume on Nov. 27, chief inspector Hans Blix started his journey to Baghdad on Friday with a warning to Saddam Hussein that the Security Council won't tolerate ``cat and mouse'' games. Saddam's government told Iraqis on Friday they must welcome Blix and other inspectors who are scheduled to arrive Monday after a nearly four-year break. While the government said it hoped to spare Iraqis from war, it warned them to prepare for the worst. President Bush insists Iraq must disarm or face almost certain war. ``You do not want Saddam Hussein, who is a homicidal dictator, armed with a nuclear weapon in the Middle East, which is the most volatile region in the world,'' National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Friday. Blix told a news conference Friday the Security Council was offering Iraq ``a last opportunity'' to declare all its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and he urged the Iraqi government to examine its archives, storage facilities and stocks before submitting its declaration to inspectors by Dec. 8. In a letter Wednesday accepting the council's tough resolution on the return of inspectors, Iraq said it will prove to the world that it is free of weapons of mass destruction. Blix said Iraq still has a few weeks to change its position. He urged the United States or any country with knowledge of secret Iraqi weapons programs to hand over evidence to inspectors. The United States believes Iraq has been illegally rearming for several years. Inspectors have ``a great many questions'' about Iraq's weapons programs, but since they have been barred from the country since December 1998, they have not been able to answer them - or verify U.S. allegations, Blix said. Once inside, Blix's team will conduct searches to determine the accuracy of reports that Iraq has hidden banned weapons underground or on trucks. Omissions in Iraq's declaration could be reported to the Security Council, as could delays in gaining access to sites which could give the Iraqis time to hide documents, vials, and other banned weapons material. ``Certainly, cat and mouse is something that I'm sure will not be tolerated in the future,'' he said. Still, Blix said: ``We are not instructed to carry out provocative inspections. We perceive our task as carrying out effective inspections. Otherwise they will not be credible and that will be of no use to Iraq or to anyone else.'' As Blix began his journey, U.S. and British warplanes bombed a radar site in southern Iraq Friday after Iraq fired at warplanes patrolling a no-fly zone. State Department spokesman Frederick Jones said the United States had the option of reporting the Iraqi firing to the Security Council but had not decided whether to do so. President Bush and other U.S. officials have said they believe that Iraq's firing on coalition planes patrolling the northern and southern no-fly zones would violate the latest U.N. resolution. When inspections began in 1991, after a U.S.-led coalition routed Iraqi troops from Kuwait, Iraq was also required to make a declaration of its weapons programs. The new resolution threatens Iraq with serious consequences if it fails again to accurately report its holdings. ``We are now getting back to a declaration which, in the Security Council's view, offers Iraq a last opportunity to declare what it has. Iraq's declaration is a very important document, and we hope that they take it very seriously,'' Blix said. The chief inspector said his staff would try to pay attention to Iraqi concerns about working during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, but he stressed that no sites, including mosques, are excluded from inspections. Blix said he will present the Security Council with any evidence of Iraqi weapons programs or infractions. Then it would be up to the council to determine whether Iraq's actions merit a military response. ``We do not judge whether something constitutes a material breach,'' of Iraq's obligations, he said. After Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the Security Council imposed economic sanctions that cannot be lifted until U.N. weapons inspectors verify that Iraq is free of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and of missiles that could deliver them. Blix said inspectors would consider the potential Nov. 27 start date as their first day of work under the terms of the resolution, which calls for him to report his findings 60 days later. Blix headed to Paris on Friday for talks with French officials, and was bound for Larnaca, Cyprus, on Sunday. He was scheduled to arrive in Baghdad on Monday with Mohamed ElBaradei, his counterpart at the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is in charge of nuclear inspections. They will be accompanied by a small advance team charged with reopening the office used by the previous inspections regime and setting up new secure phone lines and transportation. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 ***************************************************************** 2 KASHMIR TO DEFY DELHI OVER INMATES India File - NOV 16, 2002 'THE new Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, will defy New Delhi to free political prisoners, some with separatist leanings. He also rejected Delhi's suggestion that a panel screen the prisoners before their release, The New Indian Express said. GUJARAT TOLD TO BAN HINDU RALLY INDIA'S Election Commission has told the western state of Gujarat to ban a Hindu fundamentalist rally as it could lead to violence with Muslims. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has vowed to go ahead anyway, The New Indian Express said. CHILD BEHEADED TO APPEASE THE GODS A THREE-YEAR-OLD boy has been beheaded in what is believed to be a religious ritual to propitiate the gods in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, The New Indian Express said. The child was found in a forest area amid a pile of flowers and incense sticks. URANIUM STOLEN FROM POLICE STATION A PORTION of uranium seized from a scrap merchant a year ago and stored in a police station has been stolen in the southern Andhra Pradesh state, said The New Indian Express. But it did not specify how much was stolen. PARLIAMENT BLAMED FOR SLOW REFORMS THE delay in the Indian parliament approving 'important economic' legislation is responsible for the slow pace of reforms and the poor inflow of foreign investments, The Hindu quoted a Planning Commission member saying. -- By V.K. Raghunathan In Madras ***************************************************************** 3 Russia mindful of non-proliferation dealings with Iran: Ivanov Islamic Republic News Agency ( I R N A )HeadLines News Paris, Nov 16, Itar-Tass/ACSNA/IRNA -- Russia is not violating any commitment to non-proliferation in its cooperation with Iran, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said here on Friday. Ivanov told reporters that Russia maintains normal commercial contacts and agreements with Iran, stressing that Moscow will observe all international norms and rules in its interactions with Tehran. "Unfounded statements that Moscow's cooperation with Tehran is necessarily a violation by Russia of some obligations is a myth. But this myth is widely developed in the world, and I will not conceal it, (and) is encouraged by some countries," he said. Ivanov further stressed that Russia's building a nuclear power plant in Bushehr in Iran is under full control of the International Atomic Energy Agency. "For this reason, when accusations of violating the non-proliferation regime in this project are presented to Russia, this does not cause anything but our indignation," he said. AA/LS last Update Sunday, 17-Nov-2002 05:20:24 PST ©2000 Islamic Republic News Agency ( IRNA). All rights reserved Best viewed by ***************************************************************** 4 What to Expect When You're Inspecting The New York Times *November 16, 2002* *By BILL KELLER* To the trigger-happy, the United Nations resolution sending weapons inspectors back to Iraq looks like a dangerous trap for President Bush. For starters, the resolution, which defines the goal as disarming Saddam Hussein, pays no mind to other motives for ousting him ? his monstrous treatment of his own people, his role as a spoiler in the region. Worse, Mr. Bush has submitted himself to the grip of a process (the word is reviled by gung-ho interventionists as synonymous with appeasement). And this process is in the hands of people who seem to be in no hurry. Hans Blix, who heads the inspection apparatus, is a confrontation-averse Swedish diplomat who likes to remind people that it took him three years to investigate South Africa's nuclear program ? with the South Africans' full cooperation. The administration suggests that a war-triggering "material breach" could come as early as Dec. 8. That is when Iraq is obliged to provide a detailed inventory not only of its weapons programs but of every insecticide plant, brewery, vaccine lab and research reactor that could conceivably be put to nefarious use. If that declaration is a pack of lies, bam! "Zero tolerance," says the president. But Dr. Evil is surely capable of concocting a semi-plausible document, giving up whatever he thinks the inspectors will find anyway, owning up to forbidden stockpiles but insisting they have been destroyed. For Mr. Bush to launch a war before inspectors have looked at anything would be taken as a worse affront to world opinion than not to have enlisted the U.N. in the first place. By the time the inspectors have set up shop, looked around a little and made their first report to the Security Council, it could be nearly March. By April temperatures in Baghdad are in the 80's and climbing fast, making an inhospitable climate for soldiers in hazmat suits. So unless Saddam does something reckless or the White House has a case of post-election overreach, we are not going to war just yet. We are going to inspect. That is why the cheerleaders of the new imperialism ? The Weekly Standard, The Washington Times, The Wall Street Journal editorial page ? are uneasy. They worry that Mr. Bush has been Blixed. They may be right. But is that such a bad thing? It's obvious why the peace camp would favor inspections. It favors whatever is not war. Not so obvious is that hawks, those who believe overthrowing Saddam is the only way to contain him, also have a stake in giving these inspections some time to work. Here's why. First, inspections can significantly diminish Saddam's arsenal, which is a good thing whether the ultimate outcome is peace or war, or for that matter whether he ends up fighting the United States or some much-to-be-welcomed indigenous uprising. It is fashionable to ridicule inspection as a farce. The last exercise, called Unscom, failed in the end because the U.N. declined to put muscle behind it. In its early years, though, it unearthed and destroyed a tremendous amount of Iraqi weaponry, including a fairly advanced nuclear program. Most of what we know about Saddam's weaponry we know from methodical detective work. Under the first Unscom chief, Rolf Ekeus, inspectors exposed Saddam's production of anthrax, VX nerve agent and other poisons by following the paper trail of raw ingredients and determining that large amounts were not accounted for. If you are contemplating sending troops into Baghdad, wouldn't you rather do that after the U.N. has spent time pinpointing and destroying some of Saddam's most lethal weapons of retaliation? Second, inspections immobilize Iraq while we deploy. Whatever weapons Saddam has hidden away now he is less likely to use or move while he is under serious surveillance. As William J. Broad reported this week in The Times, inspectors this time will have superior technology ? portable germ detectors, radar that can spot underground bunkers, high-resolution spy satellites. They will have aerial drones with cameras and other sensors, and equipment to intercept phone conversations. They can impose no-flight and no-driving zones around suspect sites. It will be particularly hard to reconstitute a nuclear weapons program under such scrutiny. No one, of course, can prevent Iraq from handing a vial of germs to Al Qaeda ? now or later ? but under an inspection regime the Iraqis will know they stand a far greater risk of being identified as the supplier. *Continued* 1 | 2 Copyright The New York Times Company ***************************************************************** 5 Warning to Pyongyang for real Daily Yomiuri On-Line Yomiuri Shimbun The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization on Thursday said it would suspend heavy fuel oil deliveries to North Korea, beginning with the December shipment, unless Pyongyang immediately dismantles its highly enriched uranium program. This constitutes a stern warning from KEDO to North Korea that it must freeze its nuclear weapons development program, which it has conducted in defiance of international agreements, or face punishment. Under the 1994 Agreed Framework between North Korea and the United States, KEDO was to build two light-water nuclear power reactors, which cannot easily be converted to produce weapons, in North Korea, in exchange for Pyongyang's halting its graphite-moderated reactor program. Under the accord, the United States was to supply 500,000 tons of heavy fuel oil to North Korea every year until the completion of the first light-water reactor. By stating that it would stop delivering heavy fuel oil, KEDO is prodding Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear development program. The nuclear weapons development program poses a great threat not only to Japan, but also to all East Asia and the international community. Penalties only natural It is only natural for North Korea to be penalized if it continues to violate international accords. North Korea needs to take the KEDO warning seriously. It should suspend its nuclear weapons program and accept international inspection teams unconditionally and immediately. The leaders who gathered at the recent Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit also adopted a special statement, urging Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons program. North Korea has to recognize the unified opinion of the international community. The KEDO statement also hints at the possibility that it might scrap the light-water reactor construction project, unless North Korea abandons its nuclear arms program. While Japan and South Korea were initially cautious about suspending heavy fuel oil deliveries, the United States took a hard line, saying a fuel oil delivery freeze was unavoidable. The United States said it would stop deliveries as of November, in a show of its determination to force Pyongyang to suspend its nuclear arms program. That Japan, the United States and South Korea have gotten in step with each other in taking a tough line on Pyongyang's nuclear program is significant. The ball is now in North Korea's court. North Korea needs to show with concrete actions that it is dismantling its nuclear arms program. Other WMD development at issue Besides the nuclear arms program, the issue of Pyongyang's development of biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction has emerged. A South Korea defense white paper pointed out that North Korea has eight chemical weapons plants and possesses 2,500 to 5,000 tons of such weapons, and is also capable of producing biological weapons. The Japanese government has to include not only the nuclear weapons program, but also the chemical and biological weapons program on the agenda of Japan-North Korea normalization talks and bilateral security talks, and strongly urge Pyongyang to abandon such programs. The government needs to form a clear view of how Pyongyang will act regarding how to proceed with normalization talks. While North Korea has indicated its intention of linking the nuclear arms issue to that of the Japanese abducted by North Korea and their families, the government should be steadfast, rather than hasty, in dealing with these matters. It is also important for Japan to be fully prepared for armed threats from North Korea. The state's responsibility is to reinforce its national security system, to defend itself from ballistic missiles and to respond to weapons of mass destruction. It also must improve legislation related to contingencies such as armed attacks by foreign powers. (From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Nov. 16) Copyright 2002 The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 6 British Energy considers asset sale BBC NEWS | Business | Friday, 15 November, 2002, 20:00 GMT [Nuclear power plant, Dungeness] British Energy runs eight power plants in the UK The struggling nuclear power firm British Energy has said it is thinking of selling all or part of its Canadian subsidiary, Bruce Power. It said it would use the money raised to repay a £650m loan from the UK government. British Energy got the emergency loan in September after it warned it was facing insolvency. But the assistance has proved controversial, with opponents arguing that it goes against European regulations. Canadian interest British Energy holds an 82% stake in Bruce Power which analysts say could be worth between £600m and £800m. It is thought that Canadian uranium producer Cameco, which is British Energy's partner in Bruce Power, is interested in buying the holding. "British Energy confirms that it is in discussions which may, or may not, result in the sale of all or part of its stake in Bruce Power," British Energy said in a statement on Friday. "If there were to be a sale, the proceeds would first be applied to repay funding from the UK Government under its credit facility." Loan controversy British Energy operates eight plants in the UK and produces more than a fifth of the of the UK's power. It was hit hard by a steep drop in electricity prices since the wholesale power market was reformed last year. When the extent of the crisis at British Energy became apparent in September, the UK government granted the company an emergency loan facility of £410m. This was then increased to £650m, with the loan due for repayment on 29 November. But the government loan has upset competitors and environmental groups. The environmental lobby Greenpeace is attempting to have the aid blocked in the High Court. © MMII | News Sources | Privacy ***************************************************************** 7 UK: Nuclear base 'intruders' charged BBC NEWS | UK | England | Saturday, 16 November, 2002, 20:11 GMT [HMS Vanguard in dry dock] HMS Vanguard arrived at Devonport in February Two people have been charged with breaking into a naval base where seven nuclear submarines are based. The pair were found inside Devonport Naval Base, Plymouth, at about 1130GMT on Friday. A Ministry of Defence spokeswoman said Petter Joelson from Sweden and Elisa Silvennoinen from Finland had been remanded in custody to appear before Plymouth magistrates on Monday. They were arrested at 9 Dock, where the Trident submarine HMS Vanguard is currently undergoing a re-fit. [HMS Vanguard close-up] Intruders got onto the casing of the submarine In a statement anti-nuclear campaigners alleged the couple had got onto the submarine and rung its bell. A perimeter fence and a fire alarm were reported to have suffered minor damage during the break-in. The campaign group Trident Ploughshares is currently holding a four-day "peace camp" in Plymouth. A statement released by the group on Saturday said its activists had entered the naval base, showing MoD security to be "woefully inadequate." A Royal Navy spokeswoman said the pair had been found on the submarine. 'Lax security' The Ministry of Defence Police, Devonport Management Ltd (DML), which runs the dockyard, and the civil police are investigating the incident. In a statement the MoD said wider safety issues were not compromised by the incident. Ian Martin, South West spokesman for CND, said: "I convey my congratulations to this latest Trident Ploughshares initiative which exposes the absurdity of Trident. It should be scrapped, not re-fitted." HMS Vanguard, which arrived at Devonport in February this year, is one of seven nuclear-powered submarines based there. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/devon] © MMII | News Sources | Privacy ***************************************************************** 8 6 nuclear plants planned in Latur Mid Day - Nation - By: Ram Parmar November 16,2002 Palghar: The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) is planning to set up six nuclear power plants at Jaitapur in Ratnagiri district. Currently, exhaustive seismic testing is being done as the Jaitapur site falls in the Latur region, which saw a major earthquake in 1993. The six plants would make Maharashtra the state with the maximum nuclear power plants in the country. In addition to the plants, the Department of Atomic Energy has also sanctioned the construction of Tarapur Atomic Power Stations (TAPS) 5 and 6, and work on TAPS 3 and 4 has already reached an advanced stage and would be over by 2005. V K Chaturvedi, chief managing director of NPCIL, the apex body controlling all of India’s nuclear power plants, said the six plants in Ratnagiri would have a total generation capacity of 6,000 mwe (each plant will have a capacity of 1,000 mwe). Chaturvedi was in Tarapur yesterday on the occasion of Nuclear Power Awareness Day. Various micro-seismic stations have been set up in Jaitapur to study faults, he said. The National Environment Engineering Research Institute, New Delhi, has been asked to conduct environmental studies at the site, while NPCIL has already completed land survey and is on the lookout for suppliers of equipment needed for the project. The Jaitapur land belongs to the state government and is barren, so there would be no issue of displacement or rehabilitation of villagers. In all probability, a French consortium would be given the job of constructing the Ratnagiri plants, though talks are also on with the Russians, he said. The six plants, spread across an area of 700 hectares, will cost the Central government Rs 40,000 crore. They are included in the nation’s 11th Five-Year Plan. The plants would be located close to the Arabian Sea, so that transportation of reactor fuel and other equipment is easy, Chaturvedi said. TAPS 5 and 6 would also be constructed along with the Ratnagiri plants, he added. Meanwhile, the Centre has sanctioned Rs 4,500 crore for seven more nuclear power plants in various parts of the country. By 2004, at least 15 nuclear power plants would be in various stages of construction. They would have a total capacity of 11,400 mwe by the year 2011. Currently, eight nuclear power plants in the country, including TAPS 3 and 4, are in varying stages of construction. It is expected that by the year 2011, the country would have overtaken South Korea in terms of nuclear power generation and would join the club of Canada, Germany, China and France. India will reach its target of generating 20,000 mwe and more by the year 2020, Chaturvedi said. © 2002 [http://www.middaymultimedia.com] All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 9 Bush Backs KEDO Suspension of Fuel Oil to North Korea News from the Washington File [International Information Programs] Washington File [Washington File] 15 November 2002 (Calls nuclear program a challenge to all responsible nations) (500) President Bush welcomed the strong statement by the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) on the need for North Korea to eliminate its nuclear weapons program and the organization's decision to suspend further shipment of fuel oil to North Korea beginning in December. In a statement released November 15, Bush said North Korea's pursuit of a nuclear weapons program undermines regional and international security and the international nonproliferation regime. "North Korea's clear violation of its international commitments will not be ignored," he said. "The United States hopes for a different future with North Korea," the President said. "As I made clear during my visit to South Korea in February, the United States has no intention of invading North Korea. This remains the case today. The United States seeks friendship with the people of North Korea." Following is the text of the President's statement: (begin text) THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release November 15, 2002 STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT I welcome yesterday's strong statement by the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) on the need for North Korea to eliminate its nuclear weapons program and its decision to suspend further shipment of fuel oil to North Korea beginning in December. We are working closely with our partners in KEDO and our friends around the world to address this shared challenge. North Korea has acknowledged that it is actively pursuing a nuclear weapons program based on enriched uranium. This program undermines regional and international security and the international nonproliferation regime. North Korea is also in direct violation of the North's commitments under the Agreed Framework, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), its International Atomic Energy Agency Safeguards Agreement, and the Joint North-South Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. North Korea's clear violation of its international commitments will not be ignored. The United States hopes for a different future with North Korea. As I made clear during my visit to South Korea in February, the United States has no intention of invading North Korea. This remains the case today. The United States seeks friendship with the people of North Korea. In June 2001, we offered to pursue a comprehensive dialogue with North Korea. We developed a bold approach under which, if the North addressed our long-standing concerns, the United States was prepared to take important steps that would have significantly improved the lives of the North Korean people. Now that North Korea's covert nuclear weapons program has come to light, we are unable to pursue this approach. North Korea's nuclear weapons program is a challenge to all responsible nations. The leaders of the Asia-Pacific region made clear in a unanimous statement in October that North Korea's potential to benefit from participation in the international community rests upon the prompt and visible dismantlement of this program. We are united in our desire for a peaceful resolution of this situation. We are also united in our resolve that the only option for addressing this situation is for North Korea to completely and visibly eliminate its nuclear weapons program. (end text) (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov) This site is produced and maintained by the U.S. Department of State's Office of International Information Programs (usinfo.state.gov). Links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views contained therein. http://www.state.gov] ***************************************************************** 10 Canada: Plans to restart Bruce reactors still on the Sun Times* / Price cap won't affect project; negotiations to sell confirmed / * Jim Algie * /Saturday, November 16, 2002 - 08:00 /*Local news * - Bruce Power stands by plans to restart two 800-megawatt nuclear reactors on schedule in 2003, a company spokesman said Friday. Bruce Power chief executive officer Duncan Hawthorne could not be reached for comment Friday, but spokesman Steve Cannon confirmed statements by Hawthorne earlier this week that provincial energy market changes, such as caps on retail charges, would not affect the timetable for Bruce A repairs. Bruce Power officials would not comment on a Globe & Mail story that suggested there could be delays in a possible takeover bid by Cameco Corp., which has a 15 per cent stake in Bruce Power, due to the changes announced in Ontario’s electricity market. The Globe cited unnamed industry sources who say Cameco is leading a group of potential new investors in Bruce Power, including TransCanada PipeLines of Calgary and Borealis Capital Corp. of Toronto. British Energy also confirmed Friday it’s in talks about selling part or all of its share of Bruce Power. Meanwhile, work on the two Bruce A units continues. “I can say that the Bruce A restart project is on line, in fact we’re ahead of the originally announced schedule,” Cannon said. “We have spent nearly $300 million of the $400 million that’s been earmarked for the project and we’re still very much on line, pending regulatory approval.” Environmental assessment hearings are scheduled for Dec. 12 on the restart with licensing hearings set for Jan. 15, Feb. 26 and 27. Hawthorne said earlier this week he expects approval by late February “based on a good showing at the regulatory hearings.” He said power production should follow by summer at both units. “Bruce Unit 4 should be operational by April of 2003 followed by Unit 3 soon after, before summer,” Cannon said. Bruce Power, which operates reactors at the Bruce nuclear generating station under a two-year-old lease from Ontario Power Generation, is a partnership of majority owner British Energy, Saskatoon-based uranium supplier Cameco and two employee unions. The partnership has put together a profitable operation in the past year and a half. Cameco’s third quarter financial report released Oct. 31 shows pre-tax earnings at Bruce Power of $61 million on revenue of $682 million. Please See PLANS, Page 2 But Bruce Power’s majority owner has troubles at home and that’s created uncertainty in Canada. There has been press speculation in the United Kingdom about a cutoff of government aid for British Energy. A 650-million pounds sterling ($1.62 billion) government loan guarantee expires Nov. 29 and European Community officials have begun investigating the arrangement for violations of anti-subsidy rules. British Energy issued a brief statement Friday confirming talks “which may, or may not, result in the sale of all or part of its stake in Bruce Power.” The two-paragraph statement said proceeds from any sale would be used first to repay funding from the British government. An analyst quoted in a Reuters news service story from London estimated the value of British Energy’s 82 per cent interest in Bruce Power at between 600 and 800 million pounds sterling ($1.49 billion-$1.99 billion). That would be enough for the company to pay back loans to the British government but leaves little for the Edinburgh-based company’s future, the report said. Cameco spokesman Jamie McIntyre confirmed Friday that his company has begun talks with British Energy about “increasing its stake” in Bruce. In September, Cameco renewed its commitment to invest up to $100 million in Bruce Power and to provide financial assurances of up to $102 million. Cameco’s third quarter earnings statement, issued Oct. 31, indicates the company is prepared to make further commitments to Bruce Power. It refers to “several actions” by Cameco designed to “protect its interests” in the Tiverton company. McIntyre would not place a deadline on talks with British Energy. “The complexity of the issues are really quite enormous and I think the negotiators are just making their way through them as they go,” he said. His company remains keenly interested in Bruce, McIntyre said. Hawthorne met with Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission officials Thursday to discuss potential fallout from British Energy’s financial problems. The commission wants $264 million in new guarantees to cover costs in the event of a forced shutdown. Hawthorne and safety commission officials told reporters later the company “may be in a position to resolve this matter in the very near future.” Asked on Friday how soon Hawthorne would speak publicly about new financial guarantees for Bruce, Cannon said “it would be a matter of weeks.” © 2002, OSPREY MEDIA GROUP INC. ***************************************************************** 11 Indian Point 3 shuts down THE JOURNAL NEWS: A Gannett Suburban webpaper [http://www.thejournalnews.com] --> By ROGER WITHERSPOON THE JOURNAL NEWS (Original publication: November 16, 2002) BUCHANAN — A powerful circuit breaker that governs the 1,000 megawatts of electricity flowing from the Indian Point 3 nuclear power plant burned out early yesterday, causing the plant's immediate shutdown. The accident occurred about 10 a.m. in a Consolidated Edison substation across the street from Indian Point, although the failed equipment is owned by Entergy Nuclear Northeast, which operates the two nuclear plants there. The substation takes power from the plants for distribution into the regional power grid. "This is our equipment, so we will have to fix it," Entergy spokesman Jim Steets said. "We have another breaker we can use. After we check out that equipment to make sure it won't fail, we can install it and come back online in a few days." Steets said it was too soon to tell what caused the breaker's failure. He said there was no fire or other damage, and no injuries to plant personnel. The accident was reported to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a requirement when incidents trigger emergency reactor shutdowns. The electrical system's failure caused an immediate shutdown of the plant's 214-ton generating turbine. That, in turn, caused the nuclear reactor's safety system to trigger an automatic shutdown of the plant's nuclear side in less than 2 seconds. The reactor operates at about 560 degrees Fahrenheit and it can take several days for the heat to dissipate. The shutdown comes at a time when Indian Point 2 is closed for a planned, monthlong refueling and repair. Electricity from Indian Point 2 is contracted to Con Edison, which provides power to about 1 million customers in Westchester County and New York City. While the plant is shut down, Con Edison is buying electricity on the open market. Electricity from Indian Point 3 is contracted to the New York Power Authority, which provides electricity to government customers including Westchester, local school systems, the New York City Housing Authority and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Agency officials said the loss of power from Indian Point 3 would not affect their customers. "If we don't have excess capacity within our own generating resources," spokesman Peter Bardon said, "then we would buy it on the spot market along with everyone else. Our contract with Entergy contemplates both scheduled and unscheduled outages, so there is no reimbursement provision unless it is extended." Entergy, as part of its agreement to buy Indian Point 3 from the power authority, is required to provide power 80 percent of the year or pay a penalty to cover the authority's cost of purchasing replacement power. The agreement's penalty clause expires in 2004. Send e-mail to [rwithers@thejournalnews.com] [http://www.thejournalnews.com] - Copyright 2002 The Journal News, [http://www.gannett.com/] . ***************************************************************** 12 LFP Business: Bruce nuclear plans stifled [Canoe: Canadian Online Explorer] [The London Free Press Business] Saturday, November 16, 2002 Three firms looking to buy British Energy's lease are leery after power market moves. By Free Press staff and news services TORONTO -- Plans to recruit new investors to take over the half-shut Bruce nuclear power plant, whose output is crucial if Ontario is to avoid power blackouts, have been thrown into doubt by the province's about-face on electricity deregulation. Industry sources say three Canadian companies that wanted to buy the Bruce Power lease from near-bankrupt British Energy are trying to renegotiate their offer for fear the new cap on retail power will hurt the business's long-term value. Cameco Corp. of Saskatchewan, the world's largest publicly traded uranium supplier, leads the group of potential Bruce investors. Its partners are thought to be TransCanada PipeLines of Calgary and Toronto's Borealis Capital Corp., a merchant bank funded by the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement Board. Cameco already owns 15 per cent of the Bruce partnership. British Energy, based in Scotland, owns 82.4 per cent and two unions representing Bruce employees own the rest. Cameco wouldn't comment on the purchase talks. The glitch in the talks comes as Ontario's Conservative government is under pressure to assure customers they won't face California-style rolling blackouts next summer, even as it guarantees customers a relatively low fixed price. This week, amid mounting public complaints about rising power rates, Premier Ernie Eves put a four-year freeze on retail electricity rates, capping them at 4.3 cents a kilowatt hour -- their level before Ontario's market was opened to competition in May. Industry observers have said the move could scare off private investors from building new generating plants Ontario needs to satisfy its growing demand for power. A source said a breakdown in negotiations to sell British Energy's interest could delay the startup of Bruce A nuclear reactors, especially if it prompts litigation. He said that could happen if British Power argues Ontario's involvement in the electricity market has damaged the Bruce plant's value. British Energy and its partners lease the eight reactors at the huge Bruce complex from Ontario Power Generation, the generating arm of the former Ontario Hydro monopoly. Half the reactors -- the entire A plant -- are shut down, with plans to bring two back online by next summer The Bruce station employs 3,000 and supplies about 15 per cent of Ontario's electricity. British Energy PLC confirmed yesterday it is in talks to sell its 82-per-cent stake in the money-making consortium that operates Bruce. The company is on the brink of bankruptcy. Elsewhere, the province's changes to the energy market are being blamed for the halt of a huge project -- giving Ontario reliable access to cheap U.S. power -- for Hydro One, which runs the province's transmission grid. The Ontario-owned transmitter has asked the National Energy Board to halt its environmental assessment on the Lake Erie transmission link initiative, a joint venture announced with much fanfare last year. Hydro One and TransEnergie, a unit of Hydro-Quebec, were set to build an underwater cable -- capable of transporting up to 975 megawatts, or enough power for a city of almost a million people -- that would connect the province with the U.S. East Coast, home to the world's largest deregulated electricity market and an abundant source of cheap power. "We didn't get any agreements negotiated to get the project to proceed at this time, so we are not proceeding," said Terry Young, speaking for Hydro One. But industry analysts say Ontario's move this week to repeal elements of its restructured electricity market mark an end to the Lake Erie plan. "The project is dead," said Tom Adams, executive director of industry watchdog Energy Probe. "In a rational world, the project would be tested on its merits. But in the irrational world of Ontario, the project doesn't stand a chance. "And that means another expected means of keeping the lights on in the long term has been lost." Next story: Costco's car, truck buyer-referral plan stalls in Ottawa For all of today's stories subscribe to The London Free Press [http://www.lfpress.com/subscribe/default.asp] Copyright © 2002, The London Free Press. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 13 Terrorist planned attack on nuclear warhead stockpile - smh.com.au By Philip Delves Broughton November 17 2002 The Sun-Herald An Al Qaeda terrorist has confessed that he planned to drive a giant explosive device into a United States air force bunker in Belgium believed to contain nuclear warheads. News of the plot came as the US warned that a broadcast thought to contain the words of Osama bin Laden foreshadowed a likely attack. The FBI said national landmarks and the aviation, oil and nuclear industries were all possible targets. In an interview with a Belgian radio station, Tunisian Nizar Trabelsi, 31, a former professional footballer in the German league, said he had hoped to attack the Kleine Brogel base in eastern Belgium with a bomb similar to those used to blow up the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. The base includes a munitions store and is believed by anti-nuclear groups to contain 20 free-fall nuclear bombs. "I am guilty, I will have to pay for it," Trabelsi said in the radio interview from his cell. "What I did is not good, but I had no choice." Trabelsi was arrested last year, suspected of involvement in an Al Qaeda plot to attack the US embassy in Paris. Copyright © 2002. The Sydney Morning Herald. ***************************************************************** 14 Letter: McConnell, others helped plant workers obtain compensation - Jim Chesnut [http://www.paducahsun.com/] The Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky Saturday, November 16, 2002 EDITOR: I have read the letter to the editor from Mark Donham saying the truth was distorted by Sen. McConnell. All the things that people working at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant were subjected to as brought to light for the first time in September1999 by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson astounded me and most everyone else who ever worked at the plant. Until that time everything was kept in secret. It was quite a blessing to the former and current workers to receive this information. I worked at the plant for 41 years, and in my first 16 years worked all over the plant and investigated every building on the plant site, never knowing what I was subjected to. We were sworn to never tell anyone about the work and what we knew about the plant. I met with Secretary Richardson when he made it known about all the substances and atrocities the workers were exposed to. What a shock. I have and will always appreciate the efforts Sens. McConnell and Bunning and Congressman Whitfield made to see that compensation was made available for those workers who were injured by being exposed to these substances. It is a fact that to bring legislation before Congress takes time and effort. Energy Secretary Richardson had no power whatsoever to compensate workers. This was a combination effort on the part of our representatives. I have personally met with both U.S. senators and the congressman and can really appreciate all the efforts put forth by all of them. I also was in contact with attorneys and reporters from the Washington Post and know that information was solicited and received and considered from a minimum of 100 former workers. If Mr. Donham had ever worked at the plant, especially in the early days, he would also be astounded by all the atrocities he may have been exposed to himself. If conditions from an environmentalist point of view were perfect, we would have no need for our senators and congresspersons to fight our battles. These men have all done a splendid job for us, their voting public. Again, Mr. Donham, being the intelligent man that you are, you place yourself in a petty position of questioning political slogans. Since you never worked at the plant and were never subjected to the many substances we were (subjected to), your comments about Sen. McConnell are offensive to me and others who worked there. JIM CHESNUT Paducah ***************************************************************** 15 Plan to distribute anti-radiation pills to students called ?ridiculous?* Evan Brandt, Mercury staff writer November 16, 2002 *POTTSTOWN -- Perhaps this week?s FBI announcement that nuclear facilities are among the potential targets of suspected terrorist plots has you running for the potassium iodide pills the state distributed in August.* But the Pottstown School District may not be in any rush to dig them out. That?s because, as they explore the guidelines for distributing the pills to school children, some school officials are finding the idea impractical. Pointing in the direction of the cooling towers of Exelon Nuclear?s Limerick Generating Station, Director of Pupil Services David Krem said: "When that thing goes, for us to be lining up and handing out pills to kindergartners is ridiculous." He said, "our plan calls for us to totally evacuate the district out to Emmaus within 30 to 40 minutes if there is an incident at Limerick. I?m not sure that?s enough time to evacuate the district, let alone stand there and tear open foil packets and try to get kindergartners who may not be able to swallow pills to take something that tastes like eight tablespoons of salt," said Krem. "We?re still waiting for word from the district?s doctor," Krem said this week. "But the district nurse agrees with me. If that thing goes, we should just grab the kids and get the heck out of Pottstown." Krem said because the pills taketwo hours to become effective in temporarily protecting the body?s thyroid gland from radiation, he favors evacuating the children first, and then distributing the pills in Emmaus. Of course the irony of that plan, said Krem, is "if you?re more than 10 miles away, you don?t need to take the pills in the first place." All this sounds fine to Richard McGarvey, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Health. "We just decided to make the pills available to the school districts," said McGarvey. "We didn?t say they had to do it in a particular way. They should decide what?s right for their district. We never said they had to do it. It?s only an extra layer of protection if they want it." McGarvey was unable to say if any other school districts in Pennsylvania have made similar complaints. Krem represented Pottstown schools at the information session conducted by the state several weeks ago in which the pill distribution was explained. "I thought they were going to use the schools as distribution points to the general public, but then it turns out they were talking about us giving pills out to the students," said Krem. While the schools can distribute the pills however they wish, there are requirements governing who gets them. "We are supposed to keep a card on each student, with the parents? permission and any special information about having the student take the pill -- that?s a lot of work," said Krem. In some cases, that might mean giving a half dose to a younger child. The problem is, a half dose doesn?t actually exist. "Can you imagine us trying to cut these tiny pills in half while they?re evacuating a school, and then taking the time to mix it into some apple sauce? It?s ludicrous," he said. "This whole thing really just puts us behind the eight-ball," said Krem. /©The Mercury 2002/ ***************************************************************** 16 Gulf War sickness behind gruesome US crimes? Saturday, November 16, 2002 Sarah Edmonds * Washington, November 15: * The Beltway sniper, the University of Arizona gunman, the Fort Bragg murders, and the Oklahoma City bomber. The terrible and unfathomable crimes behind the headlines vary widely but all share a common thread that researchers say may merit a closer look: With the exception of one of the four Fort Bragg killings, all are alleged to have been committed by veterans of the 1991 Gulf War. There are too many unanswered questions to draw broad conclusions about whether the men connected with these crimes were suffering from the illnesses that research has shown afflict some 25 to 30 per cent of the 697,000 US Gulf veterans. However, studies have turned up evidence of injury to the brain in some ill veterans of the conflict, including damage to the deep brain structures where personality is determined. What caused this damage, and other symptoms veterans describe, isn?t clear, but researchers have said possibilities could include environmental toxins, low-level nerve agents, depleted uranium, oil fires, mustard gas, stress as well as vaccines given to soldiers to guard against biological warfare and nerve gas. Dr William Baumzweiger, a California neurologist and psychiatrist who specialises in Gulf War ailments, said he was not surprised that so many of the high-profile crimes were tied to Gulf veterans. ??Gulf War veterans have a very high frequency of turning to violence to deal with frustration,?? he said. Baumzweiger testified for the defence at the trial of Gulf veteran Jeffrey Hutchinson, convicted last year of the 1998 murders of his girlfriend and her three children in Florida. September and October of this year brought two more high-profile cases involving veterans. John Allen Muhammad, along with a young accomplice, has been accused of killing 10 people in and around Washington D.C. He is also charged with shootings in Louisiana and Alabama and could be linked to others. Then in late October, failing Arizona nursing student Robert Flores, who served in the Army during the Gulf War, mowed down three of his professors before shooting himself. Earlier in 2002, four servicemen allegedly killed their wives at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Three of the four were Gulf War veterans. Last week, a military team probing the Fort Bragg deaths blamed marital woes, deployment stress and reluctance to seek counselling. Privacy Act rules make it impossible to find out if any of the Gulf veterans in these crimes ever officially complained of symptoms. /(Reuters)/ © 2002: Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd. All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 17 Radioactive emergency simulated Ukiah Daily Journal Friday, November 15, 2002 - 12:07:02 PM MST By MARK HEDGES/The Daily Journal On Thursday morning, medical and administrative personnel at the Ukiah Valley Medical Center received a "Code Black" page and call informing them that an explosion had occurred on a school campus and that wounded individuals were en route with maladies that included radiation exposure. "There was an explosion at a school," said UVMC spokesman Jarrod McNaughton. "Apparently, 10 minutes before the explosion which occurred at 8:25 a.m. the principal received a phone call warning that a dirty bomb was on the campus. "After the explosion the school was evacuated," continued McNaughton. "Mendocino County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) did a perimeter around the school, evacuating residents from a five-block area. According to EMS, radioactive material was found. The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) has established a no-fly zone to keep news folks and such out. That's about all we know right now." The entire hospital was bustling by this point, preparing for the arrival of the lacerated and the irradiated. But, fortunately, the scenario here unfolding was part of a statewide emergency drill. From 8 a.m. to noon, UVMC, along with many hospitals, other healthcare facilities and ambulance providers in Mendocino County and across the state of California, voluntarily participated in the fourth annual statewide medical and health disaster exercise. The scenario this time an explosion involving radiological materials required preparing for exposure to radiation and the decontamination of the victims. An odd twist lay in the timing of the simulated disaster on this morning. Just the night before, a warning was released by the government telling of possible attacks at hospitals in four U.S. cities, including San Francisco, and involving anthrax or explosives. Such disaster exercises "assess the effectiveness and evaluate the readiness of our community emergency preparedness programs and communication links," McNaughton said. Last year, nearly 400 healthcare facilities, over 50 ambulance providers and nearly every county in California participated in the exercise, he added. Today, a similar event was taking place, with local, regional and state governmental agencies, volunteer organizations and public and private healthcare providers activating their disaster plans and communication systems to coordinate their community response to the simulated radioactive or "dirty" bomb attack. As 9 a.m. approached (the estimated time of arrival for the radiation victims) a number of things were occurring. "We're shutting down the ventilation facility to the hospital so that no air gets in," McNaughton said. "Also, we're securing the hospital perimeter. The emergency team is meeting immediately and the medical staff is having an emergency meeting as well." Everybody first congregated in the cafeteria, the official "meeting point," and then all were off to their respective assignments. McNaughton led the way into the "incident command center," a corner room where the crisis response was being orchestrated. "This is the de-briefing, where we share what we know and delegate tasks," McNaughton explained. "Each person gets a folder with a job description and other information we need to have." Everyone was equipped with a radio, a precaution against the phone lines going dead. When the victims arrived, they were given a wash-down and scrub-down to remove radioactive particles. Nurse Jannon Hutton explained that her new arrivals were suffering from radioactive shrapnel wounds, a lovely scenario indeed. "This victim has shrapnel in the stomach and arm," Hutton said. "We know that by maintaining a certain distance from the radioactive material we can cut back on the exposure danger. So, knowing that, we will proceed to the Emergency Room." The victims were carted into the hospital's innards. Of course, in real life, this would be the occasion of some serious surgical procedures something the "victims" in this case couldn't undergo. But here the adventure for onlookers was fizzling out. "Well, that's pretty much it," McNaughton said in the Emergency Room. "From here we'll receive continuing communication from the county. Then there will be another de-briefing, where we'll talk about stuff we need to work on, stuff that we did well." The key point, McNaughton said, was the practicing of a full response to one of the many scenarios which, unfortunately, are all too possible. "It's fun for the staff," McNaughton said. "It's a good exercise, for the staff to have top-of-the-mind awareness." Agencies involved in Thursday's drill included: the Emergency Medical Services Authority, the Department of Health Services, State/Regional and local Office of Emergency Services, the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, the California Healthcare Association, the Regional Hospital Associations, the California Ambulance Association, California Fire Chiefs, and the Auxiliary Communications Systems (ACS) volunteers. © 1999-2001 MediaNews Group, Inc. ***************************************************************** 18 Plutonium tests set for Canon City The Pueblo Chieftain Online - [http://www.chieftain.com] [The Pueblo Chieftain] Publish Date: November 16, 2002 Chieftain photo/Tracy Harmon LEFT: Tony Harrison, a physicist for the State Health Department radiation laboratory, discusses plans to take soil samplings in the Cotter Uranium Mill area, during a public meeting Thursday night in Canon City.. RIGHT: Phil Stoffey, on-site coordinator the State Health Department's inspection, looks on. By TRACY HARMON The Pueblo Chieftain CANON CITY - More than 17 volunteers signed up during a public meeting Thursday to become part of a working group that will help the Colorado Department of Public Health choose 20 sites for soil sampling near the Cotter Uranium Mill in the Lincoln Park community. Public pressure, stemming from concern that an independent study previously done in the 1990s found some plutonium in dust in an attic in Lincoln Park, has prompted the state to agree to sample soil at 20 sites in the area. Although Phil Stoffey, on-site clean up coordinator for the state, said he understood the data was not allowed in court and the lab conducting that independent study was discredited, tests will be conducted to search for plutonium, uranium, lead and molybdenum in Lincoln Park area soil. Cotter Corp. Environmental Affairs Manager Steve Landau said he does not think there are any sources of plutonium and he does not believe the tests will find anything other than "background" levels. "Certainly there was never an incinerator for plutonium at our site. That accusation just isn't true and I will say that everywhere and every time the topic comes up," Landau said. Soil samples will be split and tested by the state, the EPA, Cotter and an independent lab hired by the Colorado Citizens Against Toxic Waste. Canon City resident Emily Tracy urged the state to collect samples away from the mill site such as the neighborhood of Brookside. Canon City Re-2 Finance Director Burt Huszcza suggested the state sample at McKinley Elementary School; and the Brookside School which is used by Fremont County Head Start. Among other testing sites suggested by some of the approximately 50 citizens in attendance at a public meeting Thursday night were the Canon City Rodeo Grounds, the Canon City Middle School, the Fremont County Family Center, Shadow Hills Golf Course, all Lincoln Park area churches and several private residences. Several citizens also urged state health officials to test the Cotter impoundment ponds where tailings, or the byproducts of the uranium milling process, are stored at the mill site. Stoffey said the state has not wanted to test the impoundments in order to preserve the 30-inch clay and hypalon fabric liners which prevent leaks into the groundwater. Stoffey, who will oversee the sample collection, said the state helps monitor five locations around the impoundments. Using magnesium as a tracer (because it can seep through the clay liner) Stoffey said there has been no indication of leakage from the impoundments. Radiation laboratory health physicist Tony Harrison will be in charge of collecting and testing the soil samples. Because of his work at the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons site near Denver, Harrison said he has become good at finding plutonium and has refined the expensive and time consuming procedure. Having collected many samples around the state to determine background levels for plutonium, Harrison said the average background of plutonium in Colorado is 0.04 to 0.05 parts per million, a result of fallout from nuclear weapons testing conducted in the 1950s and 1960s. Levels of plutonium in soils collected as close as Penrose and the Huerfano Butte are a little higher than state average at 0.05 to 0.07 parts per million, he said. Harrison said it helps the testing process if he can look in the areas where prevailing winds blow (both to the west and east of the mill). He also pointed out that he prefers testing undisturbed soil. Harrison expects to find average plutonium levels and said anything two or three times greater, roughly 0.15 or more, cannot be attributed to background. "After taking 20 samples, if there is evidence of significant plutonium contamination, we will be back and we will take plenty of samples," Harrison explained. Harrison hopes that the newly formed working group can meet within a week to draft a list of testing sites. A second meeting will be conducted to finalize the list with consideration given to suggestions made by the public during a 30-day comment period. If all goes as planned, Harrison will collect the soil samples in December and will have raw data available within six weeks. Final analyses should be completed within 10 weeks. "So by March or so, we should have some data to look at and talk about what kind of conclusions we can draw," Harrison said. The public still has until Dec. 2 to submit comments on other suggested sampling locations. A preliminary testing plan can be reviewed at the Canon City Public Library, Fifth and Macon. Comments can be mailed to Brian Vamvakias, acting manager of the radiations services program, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, 8100 Lowry Blvd., Denver, CO 80230-3090. ©1996-2002 Chieftain.com [http://www.chieftain.com] The Star-Journal Publishing Corp. ***************************************************************** 19 NRC plans tests on nuclear waste shipping containers* RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL Associated Press 11/15/2002 04:00 pm The Nuclear Regulatory Commission plans full-scale tests on two nuclear waste shipping containers that may transport highly radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, an NRC expert said. The commission will write a plan for testing one container for trains and the other for trucks early next year, Chester Poslusny, a project officer working on nuclear waste transportation, told the Las Vegas Sun for a report in Friday's editions. Nine designs for shipping containers are available, he said. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., says it's about time. "Last year, I wrote a letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission asking if they had ever done safety tests on nuclear waste transportation casks (and) the answer was no, they had only run simulations on computers and scale models,"Reid said. "After that embarrassing incident, I am glad to see the NRC is finally planning some actual safety tests. But I am concerned that these tests will be used as a smoke screen to pacify the public." Reid said he wanted to see"comprehensive, rigorous and through safety tests so we can determine whether the casks are strong enough to withstand accidents or terrorist attacks." Poslusny said at a Yucca Mountain Education Project forum at UNLV that the tests would be conducted at Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico, owned by the Energy Department, because it was the only facility capable of challenging the containers. Bob Loux, director of the state Office of Nuclear Projects, said testing two containers is not a"commitment to a full-scale testing"of nuclear containers by the NRC. The state has asked for full-scale testing, arguing that the safety of the nation is at risk. State officials have criticized the testing of the casks after it was shown that a missile could penetrate a container. Industry officials have debated the conclusions of the test, but Nevada officials say more work is required on the casks before radioactive waste is shipped. Nevada officials have been asking the NRC to tighten the rules for shipping 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and before Congress and President Bush approved the nuclear repository site earlier this year. Each shipment by rail or road would have two security guards traveling with it, and the NRC has been reviewing its safety requirements since the terrorism attacks, Poslusny said. Poslusny said that the Energy Department does not know how many shipping containers it needs, how often they will ship or for how long. A federal national transportation plan could become available next year. © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal ***************************************************************** 20 Study says Vermont Yankee spent fuel should be separated, fortified, buried Bennington Banner Saturday, November 16, 2002 - 12:30:56 AM MST EESHA WILLIAMS Reformer Staff BRATTLEBORO -- Vermont Yankee's potentially lethal spent fuel should be kept in buried, fortified containers, spaced far apart. That was the main conclusion of a new study released at a public forum here Wednesday. "The spent fuel pool at Vermont Yankee contains 25 million curies of cesium. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima released 2,000 curies," said Gordon Thompson, the author of the study and a professor at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. "The choice Yankee has now is to put its waste in dry casks that look like bowling pins, ready to be knocked over in a terrorist attack, or the kind of hardened system we are proposing." Thompson showed an overhead projector image of the alternative his report concluded would be safest to an audience of about 50 people at the West Village Meeting House. Based on a "hardened" storage system Thompson said is already is use at Air Force bases, the image showed a metal dry cask sitting on a concrete slab, covered with steel and concrete, and surrounded on all sides by a mixture of dirt and gravel. This was markedly different than a photograph of a dry cask storage tank showed at a press conference last week by Jay Thayer, the Entergy Corp. vice-president in charge of Vermont Yankee. In that image, the metal tank, which looked like a large soup can, stood unprotected on a concrete slab. "That's as good as putting a 'hit me' sign on it," said Deb Katz of the Citizens Awareness Network, the group that sponsored Wednesday's forum. Thompson agreed. "We have inadvertently created in our midst radiological weapons that are waiting for an enemy to detonate them," he said. As an example of the risk to the seven story high pool where Yankee's waste is now stored, he said there are 200,000 "general aviation" aircraft in the United States, many of which could fall into a terrorist's hands. Annually, 2 million tons of explosives are sold in the U.S., he said. "In many states, no identification and no background check is required to buy industrial explosives," Thompson added. If water were somehow allowed to drain out of Yankee's spent fuel pool, "the fuel would self-ignite, catch fire, and release radioactive material into the atmosphere," Thompson said. "An area larger than the state of Vermont would have to be permanently evacuated." David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer who worked at nuclear plants for 17 years before being hired at the Washington-based Union of Concerned Scientists, was also at the forum. He said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has never tested the vulnerability to terrorist attack of spent fuel pools at any of the nation's 103 nuclear plants. Lochbaum also cited a 1982 study that found a helicopter crash into a nuclear plant's control room could cause a meltdown. Paul Gunter, of the Washington-based Nuclear Information Resource Service, said the NRC has never denied a request from a nuclear plant owner for a license renewal. He also said the type of reactor used at Vermont Yankee, a General Electric Mark 1, is the most vulnerable type. In the question and answer period, Ned Childs of Dummerston suggested using a boycott of General Electric to try to compel the company to repair flaws in the reactor. Vermont Yankee employee Sean Butler credited the work of anti-nuclear groups with improving the industry's security practices, but criticized the speakers at the forum. "This event seems dogmatic, rather than a free exchange of ideas," he said. "Things aren't always black and white." As an example, Butler said thousands of Russians had been harmed not by the Chernobyl nuclear plant melt-down, but by anti-nuclear activists who exaggerated the risks and frightened people near the plant, causing high rates of alcoholism and psychological disorders. Rep. Steve Darrow, D-Putney, attended the forum. "What I heard tonight is not reassuring," he said. "Nuclear power plants' inherent danger is magnified and brought into focus by 9/11 and the possibility of a terrorist attack. They are very logical targets for terrorists." Darrow said the state Legislature has little power over Vermont Yankee, especially since its sale in July to Entergy Corp. of New Orleans. "Our authority is generally pre-empted by the federal government," he said. The state Public Service Board, whose members are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate, must also approve the request Thayer said Entergy will make to extend Yankee's operating license beyond its current expiration in 2012, Darrow said. Thompson challenged Entergy officials to a public debate about whether Vermont Yankee is vulnerable to a terrorist attack. Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee spokesman Rob Williams late Wednesday declined Thompson's invitation. "There will always be people who are opposed to anything that we do," he said. "Our responsibility is to transfer our spent fuel to dry casks and make it available for transportation to Yucca Mountain." Katz said the recently approved Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada will not have enough room for all Yankee's waste. ©1999-2002 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and NENI Newspapers ***************************************************************** 21 NRC plans tests on nuclear waste shipping containers Las Vegas SUN: November 15, 2002 ASSOCIATED PRESS LAS VEGAS (AP) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission plans full-scale tests on two nuclear waste shipping containers that may transport highly radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, an NRC expert said. The commission will write a plan for testing one container for trains and the other for trucks early next year, Chester Poslusny, a project officer working on nuclear waste transportation, told the Las Vegas Sun for a report in Friday's editions. Nine designs for shipping containers are available, he said. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., says it's about time. "Last year, I wrote a letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission asking if they had ever done safety tests on nuclear waste transportation casks (and) the answer was no, they had only run simulations on computers and scale models," Reid said. "After that embarrassing incident, I am glad to see the NRC is finally planning some actual safety tests. But I am concerned that these tests will be used as a smoke screen to pacify the public." Reid said he wanted to see "comprehensive, rigorous and through safety tests so we can determine whether the casks are strong enough to withstand accidents or terrorist attacks." Poslusny said at a Yucca Mountain Education Project forum at UNLV that the tests would be conducted at Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico, owned by the Energy Department, because it was the only facility capable of challenging the containers. Bob Loux, director of the state Office of Nuclear Projects, said testing two containers is not a "commitment to a full-scale testing" of nuclear containers by the NRC. The state has asked for full-scale testing, arguing that the safety of the nation is at risk. State officials have criticized the testing of the casks after it was shown that a missile could penetrate a container. Industry officials have debated the conclusions of the test, but Nevada officials say more work is required on the casks before radioactive waste is shipped. Nevada officials have been asking the NRC to tighten the rules for shipping 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and before Congress and President Bush approved the nuclear repository site earlier this year. Each shipment by rail or road would have two security guards traveling with it, and the NRC has been reviewing its safety requirements since the terrorism attacks, Poslusny said. Poslusny said that the Energy Department does not know how many shipping containers it needs, how often they will ship or for how long. A federal national transportation plan could become available next year. Information from: Las Vegas Sun All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 22 New waste put into 'burping tank' This story was published Fri, Nov 15, 2002 By John Stang Herald staff writer For the first time in a couple of decades, Hanford has pumped new radioactive wastes into its notorious Tank SY-101. Tank SY-101 is the former "burping tank" -- the most famous and infamous of Hanford's waste tanks. The transfer of about 150,000 gallons of wastes into the double-shell tank finished Thursday, according to officials with the Department of Energy and CH2M Hill Hanford Group. From there, the wastes eventually will be sent to glassification plants being built nearby. Volatile hydrogen gas in SY-101 used to build up in the tank's wastes and routinely erupt to the surface in "burps." That increased the danger of an explosion or flames from tank vents. A mixer pump fixed that problem in 1993. But the pump created gas bubbles that caused the crust to grow thicker and increased the danger of a leak. Ultimately, Hanford officials pumped out roughly half of the wastes and added water to dilute the remaining wastes to stop the troublesome chemical reactions. Now CH2M Hill has added 150,000 gallons of wastes to SY-101's existing 900,000 gallons of diluted wastes. The wastes are being monitored so past troubles don't resurface and are part of an effort to transfer a vast amount of wastes from the 200 West Area to the 200 East Area by mid-December. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 23 Molycorp seeks extension in York cleanup O-R Online | [http://www.observer-reporter.com] Saturday, November 16, 2002 WASHINGTON (AP) - A company is asking the federal government to push back an already-passed deadline to rid its former metals manufacturing plant in York of any radioactive waste material. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering a request by Molycorp Inc. to set a new cleanup schedule by Feb. 15, according to a notice posted Thursday on the Federal Register. The initial plans had called for Molycorp to "decommission," or finish the cleanup, by last June. Molycorp, which mines and manufactures metal used for electronic devices such as computer chips, operated a 6-acre plane in York between 1930 and the early 1990s. The raw materials used there contained low levels of radioactive material thorium and uranium, and therefore required federal oversight and licensing. The site is expected to be available for "unrestricted use" development after it is fully cleaned, said NRC inspector Craig Gordon. The York plant is one of 47 sites nationwide that are in the process of decommissioning. Molycorp's Canton Township plant also is on the NRC decommissioning list. George Dawes, project manager for the Canton Township plant, said 4 of the 6 acres at the York site have been decommissioned, but the company is now determining if the remaining two acres must also be decommissioned. The process always takes "longer than you think," he said. All buildings at the 65-acre site on Caldwell Avenue have been demolished. Dawes said the company is waiting for the NRC to inspect the concrete rubble at the Canton Township site for contamination. This phase of the decommissioning process is expected to be completed in December and the work is right on schedule, Dawes said. Contaminated soil will eventually be excavated and taken out of state. The goal is to have a green field when completed. "It's pretty flat right now," Dawes said. [http://www.observer-reporter.com/INTERACT/about.html] ***************************************************************** 24 NL: Uranium plant tour addresses safety * *Saturday, 11/16/02* By KATHY CARLSON /Staff Writer/ *ALMELO, The Netherlands* ? One of the most contentious issues before Midstate officials ? what to do with the depleted uranium that would be left over if a uranium enrichment plant is built near Hartsville, Tenn. ? may be moving toward resolution. Over the past week, county executives and commissioners from five Middle Tennessee counties have visited the Urenco enrichment facility here. It's similar to one that a Urenco-affiliated group, known as Louisiana Energy Services, proposes to build in Trousdale County, northeast of Nashville. During three days in Almelo, an industrial town near the German border, the Tennessee visitors raised health concerns, including worker safeguards, cancer rates and environmental monitoring. The handling of the radioactive depleted uranium, called tails, was on the minds of many officials. ''We found out they're willing to talk about it,'' Trousdale County Commissioner John Kerr said of LES. He added that he thinks the two sides ''can come to a mutual decision.'' The county officials' goal is to hammer out a written agreement with LES on disposition of tails. That language would be made part of any agreement under which LES would buy or lease the 260 acres on which it would build its facility or any rezoning agreement, or possibly both documents. Kerr said the agreement would have to address how long tails could stay on site and how many tons would remain there. Urenco officials said the proposed Tennessee facility could process 8,600 tons of uranium hexafluoride feed each year, producing about 800 tons of enriched uranium and leaving 7,800 tons of depleted uranium. Production would be phased in gradually. Failure to reach agreement over tails could be a deal breaker, Trousdale County Executive Jerry Clift said. ''I believe with my commission, it sure would,'' he said. Overall, Urenco answers to questions about worker safety and radiation exposure seemed to satisfy many county officials. Urenco managers said workers in areas where uranium is processed wear devices that sample the air for radiation exposure. These tests are done 13 times a year. Depending on the area where workers are assigned, they may have urine tested as often as quarterly, to check for the presence of uranium. Results from both the air and urine tests have come back well within allowable limits, said Ben Dekker, who is in charge of safety at the Almelo plant. Urenco also tests emissions into the air and water and radiation levels in the air at the perimeter of the Almelo complex. The tests show that all emissions are about 10% of the licensed limit, Dekker said, and perimeter radiation also is within required limits. Summaries of test results weren't immediately available yesterday. Urenco officials also touted the performance of the 5/8-inch-thick metal containers used to store tails on site. ''There have never been any holes in any Urenco cylinders anywhere in the world,'' nor has there ever been a failure or leak, said design engineering manager Chris Andrews, who is working in the United States on a design for the proposed Trousdale County plant. Even some who have taken a critical look at Urenco's operations say serious safety problems have diminished over the years. ''In general, I suppose they're a good employer,'' said Natasha Gerson, a Dutch woman who has written about the decommissioning of one part of the Urenco facility in Almelo. ''On the whole they're very good in their information.'' Albert Holteman, the Almelo editor of the daily newspaper /De Twentesche Courant/Tubantia, /has lived in Almelo for 25 years and notes that attitudes have changed. ''There was, when they came, some aversion,'' he said of Urenco's beginnings. Nowadays, he said, people don't necessarily embrace the plant, but they accept it. Holteman is not aware of any unusual health problems, emergencies that required hospitalization or other problems stemming from the plant. ''There is not any fear at all about diseases,'' he said. The delegation of about 20 Tennesseans returns home tomorrow. © Copyright 2002 The Tennessean ***************************************************************** 25 Group seeks Cotter closure The Pueblo Chieftain Online - [http://www.chieftain.com] [The Pueblo Chieftain] Publish Date: November 16, 2002 Steve Landau By TRACY HARMON The Pueblo Chieftain CANON CITY - The board of directors for the newly formed Colorado Citizens Against Toxic Waste recently passed a resolution calling for the closure of the Cotter Corp. Uranium Mill here based on the board's belief that Cotter does not run a safe operation. The group formed earlier this year to protest the proposed disposal of Maywood, N.J., Superfund site contaminated soil at the Cotter Mill. CCAT members have argued that such disposal goes beyond the realm of Cotter's licensed purpose as a milling facility. "We have been checking with the (Cotter-related documentation available at the local) library and as we read and digest material, we can see this is not good at all," said CCAT co-chair Jeri Fry. "Based on Cotter's practices from a long time ago and recently, we believe Cotter does not have the expertise necessary to run a safe operation." "I would disagree with that," said Steve Landau, Cotter Corp. manager of environmental affairs. "We have done a lot of work and what we think is good work." Fry was referring to the fact that the Lincoln Park neighborhood has been on the national Superfund list since 1983 because the Cotter Mill used unlined containment ponds to store tailings from 1958-1979 and contaminated groundwater seeped into the area. Since then, Cotter has undergone numerous cleanup and monitoring activities under the direction of Colorado Department of Public Health and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials. "It is not like this is all done in a vacuum without any government control," Landau said. In more recent history, Cotter has been barred since July from receiving shipments for processing at the mill here pending the outcome of a state health department probe into worker safety issues. State health officials are specifically concerned about workers' radiation dose calculations, bioassay and respiratory protection. "We've worked with the health department closely to revise procedures and implement improvements in those three specific areas. We are essentially just waiting for the health department to lift the ban, plus we are going forward and working beyond those three areas that gave them the most concern," Landau said. An additional factor that helped the CCAT board reach its resolution, Fry said, is that Cotter violates a Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulation. "The A-No. 1 NRC regulation says that no tailings ponds should be allowed near a community. The community grew up around the mill and so it is just not safe anymore," Fry said. Fry said at this point the CCAT resolution is an internal document and it has not been forwarded to the state health department. Please send us your [comments@chieftain.com] and suggestions ©1996-2002 [http://www.chieftain.com] The Star-Journal Publishing Corp. Pueblo, Colorado U.S.A. ***************************************************************** 26 State outlines procedures for plutonium tests Public questions element's danger 11-15-02 [Canon City Daily Record - Canon City and the Royal Gorge Region, Colorado] [http://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com] Public questions element's danger Brian Taylor Record Staff Writer Representatives of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment heard numerous comments and questions from area residents on possible plutonium contamination and how government agencies have dealt with the Cotter uranium mill at a public meeting Thursday night. While the meeting at the Fremont County Commissioners' Room was set in order to collect citizen input on where samples should be taken to test for plutonium contamination from the Superfund site south of town, much of the two-hour meeting was spent on other related issues. Moderator Marion Galant, health physicist Tony Harrison and health department Project Manager Phil Stoffey fielded questions on the dangers of plutonium, the possibility of leaks in tailing pond liners and the cost of testing during the meeting, which was attended by approximately 40 people. Only a handful of the comments actually touched on where the 20 soil samples that have been approved might be collected. "If we find evidence of significant plutonium contamination, then we can decided how high is a high level and where else we'd like to sample," said Harrison, the radiochemistry manager of the CDPHE's Laboratory and Radiation Services Division. "A lot of people would sit up and pay attention. There will be a lot more samples taken all over the place, and you'll probably see more bureaucrats and politicians than you've seen in a long time." Harrison, who will be taking the samples and doing the lab analysis, described plutonium as most dangerous when inhaled in small particles, which migrate to the liver and lungs and greatly increase the risk of cancer. Paul Kendall asked Harrison specifically how much plutonium is dangerous, but Harrison was unable to give an exact figure. "The answer has to be couched in term of dose and exposure," he said."It's different for someone who works there or someone who chooses to live nearby." Harrison presented maps made during the EPA-sponsored Human Health Risk Assessment, showing where abnormally high concentrations of lead, radium, uranium and thorium were found outside the mill. "From the data we have collected, we can see that the wind almost always blows west to east or east to west in this area," he said. "We can see that the concentration of this contamination has pretty much gone east and west (of the mill), which is pretty much what you'd expect." Harrison suggested concentrating the sampling for plutonium in areas where other heavy metal contamination had already been discovered. "If plutonium was released into the air, I think it would be in these areas," he said. "As an expert, I recommend sampling close to the source. If you find it, then spread out from there." When asked who conducts the current testing at the mill, Stoffey said Cotter is responsible for the sampling, but is monitored by the state. "I do go out and observe the testing, and have split samples with them to check their results," he said. "The numbers have come back within four parts per billion, so they are very close. They haven't tried to change the results – in fact, their numbers have come back showing more contamination than ours." Several members of the crowd suggested the area around Sand Creek be tested, citing flooding through the area in 1965 and 1984. Bert Huszcza asked the Brookside School property and McKinley Elementary School be tested, and Emily Tracy asked for sampling over a larger area, including Lincoln Park and Brookside. The possibility of testing the air pollution filters and existing sample sites was also proposed. A work group comprised of volunteers from the meeting and CDPHE researchers will make the final determination of which sites will be tested. Harrison said he would like to have samples collected by some time in December, and work on the analysis over the next 8-10 weeks. "Hopefully by March, we'll have some data to look at and can figure out what kind of conclusions we can draw," he said. Harrison said all the samples will be split, with portions going to the EPA, the Cotter Corporation and Colorado Citizens Against Toxic Waste for their own analysis. CDPHE representatives said that all the available data, as well as recent updates and plans for the testing, are available at the Cañon City Public Library. News and information is updated Monday - Friday at 5:00pm. Entire contents Copyright Ó 2000 Royal Gorge Publishing Corporation. All ***************************************************************** 27 Judge must OK gypsum stack plan By HOWARD M. UNGER posted 11/16/02 MANATEE COUNTY -- State officials are ready to seal off a network of radioactive gypsum stacks at the Piney Point phosphate plant by 2007. But before engineers can begin treating the billion gallons of acidic water inside the mountainous white piles of fertilizer byproduct, they need a federal judge's approval. They also need to find some of the nearly $75 million to pay for the project, which calls for draining the ponds, treating the acidic water, and refilling already emptied areas with cleaner, treated water. An industry-paid trust fund earmarked for funding the project will run out by 2006, DEP engineer Phil Coram said. "At some point, you're going to have to look at increasing revenues into the fund," he said. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has been paying a safety crew at the plant near Port Manatee since the owners, the Mulberry Corp., filed for bankruptcy in February 2001 and abandoned the site. Crews have worked to keep water from seeping through the stacks and into nearby Bishop Harbor. A spill could also contaminate local ground water. Workers have pumped millions of gallons of treated water into the county's reclaimed water system, but nearly every gallon treated has been replaced by rainwater, continuing a cycle that so far has cost more than $4.5 million. Thursday, DEP engineers presented their plans to close the stacks to the Agency on Bay Management of the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Commission. The agency comprises state and local authorities with interests in the bay and its waters. Money for the last phase of the project still needs to be found, DEP officials said. So far, the plant's work crews have been paid through an industry trust fund intended to pay for reconstructing abandoned phosphate mines. Even without the money in place, local officials say they are ready for the state to go ahead with the project. "Their plan is a good one and Manatee County could have a reservoir or a source of fresh water when it's completed," said Agency for Bay Management staffer Suzanne Cooper. She said a federal judge overseeing Mulberry's bankruptcy proceedings would be hard-pressed to find another use for the stacks. Last modified: November 16. 2002 12:00AM heraldtribune.com /Serving the Herald-Tribune newspaper and SNN Channel 6 / © Sarasota Herald-Tribune. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 28 NRC Corrects Errors In Revised Public Notice* *125 West Summer Street - Greeneville, TN - (423) 798-0545* By: /By BILL JONES/Staff Writer/ Source:/ The Greeneville Sun / 11-15-2002 The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has published a notice in the Federal Register to correct errors in a revised public notice published Oct. 30, concerning a request from an Erwin industry to amend its nuclear materials license. Nuclear Fuel Services Inc., of Erwin, is seeking an amendment to its nuclear materials license in order to begin a new project in which highly enriched uranium from U.S. Department of Energy stockpiles will be ?down-blended? to a low-enriched form suitable for use in manufacturing fuel for Tennessee Valley Authority nuclear power reactors. The revised public notice currently being corrected appeared in the Federal Register on Oct. 30. It was published after an administrative judge, who was appointed to review petitions from individuals and environmental groups opposed to the NFS license amendment, found that a public notice about the license amendment request that had been published in the Federal Register this past July had been insufficient. Dated Nov. 5, the correction notice states, in part that ?This notice corrects a previous notice appearing in the Federal Register on Oct. 30, 2002 (67 FR 66172), that considers issuance of an amendment of Materials License SNM-124. ?This notice is necessary to correct an erroneous Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) accession number, and to add the address of the attorney for the licensee. ?On page 66172, in the third column, in the second complete paragraph, the ADAMS accession number is changed from ?ML02730343? to ?ML020730343.? (Anyone wishing to review information posted about the NFS license amendment request on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission?s on-line document system (called ADAMS) needs the correct accession number to do so.) In addition, anyone wishing to file comments or a request that the NRC hold a public hearing on the NFS license amendment request needs the correct address of NFS and its Washington, D.C., law firm, both whom must received copies of documents filed with the NRC, according to the correction notice. ?Also, on page 66173, second column, fifth paragraph should be changed from (1) The applicant, Nuclear Fuel Services, 1205 Banner Hill Road, Erwin, Tennessee, 37650-9718 to ?(1) The applicant, Nuclear Fuel Services, 1205 Banner Hill Road, Erwin, Tennessee, 37650-9718. A copy of the request for hearing should also be sent to the attorney for the licensee, Daryl Shapiro, c/o Shaw Pittman, L.L.P., 2300 N. Street, NW., Washington, DC 20037.? Procedures For Seeking Hearing In the public notice published Oct. 30 in the Federal Register, the NRC spelled out the intricate procedures to be followed by anyone wishing to request that a public hearing be held on the NFS license amendment request. ?The NRC hereby provides notice of an Opportunity for Hearing on the February 28, 2002, license amendment request to construct and operate the Uranyl Nitrate Building (UNB) under the provisions of 10 CFR part 2, subpart L, ?Informal Hearing Procedures for Adjudications in Materials and Operator Licensing Proceedings,? the Oct. 30 notice stated. ?Pursuant to Sec. 2.1205(a), any person whose interest may be affected by this proceeding may file a request for a hearing. In accordance with Sec. 2.1205(d), a request for hearing must be filed within 30 days of the publication of this notice in the Federal Register. The request for a hearing must be filed with the Office of the Secretary, either: ?(1) By delivery to the Docketing and Service Branch of the Office of the Secretary at One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852; or ?(2) By mail or telegram addressed to the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555, Attention: Docketing and Service Branch. ?In accordance with 10 CFR 2.1205(f), each request for a hearing must also be served by delivering it personally or by mail to: ?(1) The applicant, Nuclear Fuel Services, 1205 Banner Hill Road, Erwin, Tennessee 37650-9718. A copy of the request for hearing should also be sent to the attorney for the licensee (Daryl Shapiro, c/o Shaw Pittman, L.L.P., 2300 N. Street, NW., Washington, DC 20037); and ?(2) The NRC staff, by delivery to the Office of the General Counsel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, and because of continuing disruptions in delivery of mail to United States Government offices, it is requested that copies be transmitted either by means of facsimile transmission to (301) 415-3725 or by e-mail to OGCMailCenter@nrc.gov. ?In addition to meeting other applicable requirements of 10 CFR part 2 of the NRC's regulations, a request for a hearing filed by a person other than an applicant must describe in detail: ?(1) The interest of the requestor in the proceeding; (2) How that interest may be affected by the results of the proceeding, including the reasons why the requestor should be permitted a hearing, with particular reference to the factors set out in Sec. 2.1205(h); (3) The requestor's areas of concern about the licensing activity that is the subject matter of the proceeding; and (4) The circumstances establishing that the request for a hearing is timely in accordance with Sec. 2.1205(d). ?The request must also set forth the specific aspect or aspects of the subject matter of the proceeding as to which petitioner wishes a hearing. ?In addition, members of the public may provide comments on the subject application within 30 days of the publication of this notice in the Federal Register (from Oct. 30).? The comments may be provided to Michael Lesar, Chief, Rules and Directives Branch, Division of Administrative Services, Office of Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington DC 20555. The correction notice published Nov. 12 indicates that for further information, members of the public should contact: Mary Adams, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, telephone: 301-415-7249, e-mail: mta@nrc.gov. © 2002 East Tennessee Network - R.A.I.D. (Regionalized Access Internet ***************************************************************** 29 NFS joint venture aims for pilot plant Story published in the Johnson City Press: 11/16/2002. By Chris Garland Erwin Bureau ERWIN ? Nuclear Fuel Services has joined with a Denver-based company to pursue funding for a pilot facility here to blend uranium to produce a natural uranium ore. NFS and International Uranium Corp. announced Thursday they have formed a joint-venture company, Urizon Recovery Systems LLC. IUC President Ron F. Hochstein said the company and NFS are pursuing funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to cover the cost of the design of a pilot facility and other costs of pursuing the project. ?Application testing funded by the DOE has been ongoing for the past two years,? Hochstein said. ?The success of the program will depend on securing funding and DOE?s support of the program as a means to (disposal of) orphan nuclear materials within the DOE complex.? IUC processes uranium-bearing materials to recover the uranium and other metals as an alternative to the direct disposal of these materials. NFS said Friday that limited quantities of uranium material would be converted at the Erwin plant from uranium-235 enrichment of less than 5 percent (most will be less than 1 percent) to 0.71 percent, which is the level of naturally occurring uranium. The material would then be shipped to IUC?s White Mesa uranium mill in Utah for recovery of the contained uranium. The resulting product would be sold as a feedstock on the commercial uranium market. ?The venture would produce DOE stockpiled low-enriched material and provide a recycle alternative other than continued storage or burial of the stored DOE material,? Frank Hahne, NFS vice president of new business development said. ?No foreseeable processing activities are expected until funding for the pilot-scale testing is secured from the DOE.? Hochstein said the first phase of the project would be the preparation and submittal of a request for approvals from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and other agencies. ?This critical phase is under way,? an IUC report said. ?Assuming receipt of regulatory approvals, construction of a pilot plant at NFS? site in Erwin . . . could be completed by late 2004. The operation of the pilot facility and processing of the (ore) at the company?s White Mesa Mill is expected to last for a year and will result in some production of commercially saleable yellowcake. Yellowcake is the refined chemical compound of uranium and the form in which uranium is usually shipped from the mine to the nuclear fuel manufacturer. ?Upon successful completion of the pilot test and a positive feasibility study, the pilot facility will be converted to a commercial facility. Commercial production is expected to last six to 10 years or longer depending on the amount of DOE materials that are available,? IUC said. Hochstein said blending low-enriched uranium with depleted uranium to make a reconstituted natural uranium ore that can be returned to the nuclear fuel cycle as yellowcake has never been accomplished before. ?This program will allow DOE to deal with its orphaned low-enriched uranium and depleted uranium in a cost-effective manner, while providing for the recovery of valuable energy resources that would be lost through direct disposal of the materials . . . ,? Hochstein said. /(Contact Chris Garland at cgarland@johnsoncitypress.com )./ © 2001-02 Johnson City Press and Associated Press All Rights Johnson City Press 204 W.Main St. ? Johnson City, Tennessee 37605 423.929.3111 ***************************************************************** 30 US scientific community lauds NSF bill* United Press International By Scott R. Burnell UPI Science News Published 11/15/2002 6:20 PM WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- The House and Senate should be commended for reaching a compromise on reauthorizing the National Science Foundation and setting it on a path to double its budget within five years, scientists said Friday. Both bodies have passed the final version of H.R. 4664, the "National Science Foundation Authorization Act of 2002," overcoming White House objections to the final two years of funding. The bill, which authorizes more than $37 billion in funding through 2007 for the agency's research, grant and facilities construction programs, heads to President George W. Bush for final approval. Congressional appropriators retain final say on spending levels. The legislation's success on Capitol Hill this year lies in sharp contrast to previous battles over the NSF, which sometimes survived only by the good graces of appropriators at budget time, said Martin Apple, president of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents. A common view among scientists recently was that portfolio of Federal research spending had been overly focused on the National Institutes of Health, Apple told United Press International. "This is a fundamental issue -- most of the medical advances have come from fundamental research in (physical sciences)," Apple said. "Nuclear magnetic resonance became MRI, which became the best revolution in diagnostics in years. Even people in the health sciences were saying the money was coming in faster than they could put it into good (research)." The NSF has been chronically underfunded to the point where worthwhile research proposals could not be funded, Apple said. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich first raised the call for increased basic science funding, and the first President Bush also supported increased NSF budgets, Apple said. Even the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology recommended better balance in the nation's science portfolio, Apple said, but congressional wrangling held the idea up until now. The bill will mean more investment in education and research, said Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Science Committee, which worked on much of the legislation that made it into the final version. "We turn to NSF to solve some of our most pressing problems," Boehlert said after the bill's passage. "We can't turn from NSF when we decide where to invest federal funds." The NSF's support for research has been invaluable, said Nils Hasselmo, president of the Association of American Universities. "This is an outstanding plan for further investment in this very important agency," Hasselmo told UPI. "We've supported it very strongly and look forward to getting the actual appropriations for the coming year." The bill's beneficiaries will go beyond advanced researchers, said Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif. "The National Mathematics and Science Partnership component of this legislation establishes programs that target elementary age students and will provide a stepping stone for our youngest minds to begin their journey through the world of science and discovery," Calvert said. Copyright © 2002 United Press International ***************************************************************** 31 U.S. ponders resumption of nuclear weapons tests Mercury News | 11/16/2002 | [mercurynews.com - The mercurynews home page] By Dan Stober and Jonathan S. Landay Mercury News WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is laying the groundwork for the resumption of nuclear testing and the development of new nuclear weapons, according to a memo obtained by the Mercury News. The memorandum circulated recently to members of the Nuclear Weapons Council, a high-level government body that sets policy for nuclear weapons. The two-page memo urges the U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories to assess the technical risks associated with maintaining the U.S. arsenal without nuclear testing, which President Bush's father halted in 1992. In addition, the memo suggests that the United States take another look at conducting small nuclear tests, a policy rejected by the Clinton administration. ``We will need to refurbish several aging weapons systems,'' writes council chairman E.C. Aldridge Jr., undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. ``We must also be prepared to respond to new nuclear weapons requirements in the future'' -- a reference to a push to develop ``earth penetrating'' weapons that might destroy buried stocks of biological, chemical or nuclear weapons in countries such as Iraq. ``It's recognizing that the stockpile that we designed 25 or 30 years ago for the Cold War really might not be the stockpile for the war on terrorism,'' a senior Pentagon official said Friday. ``The rest of the world realized after Desert Storm that if you could be seen, you could be killed.'' The memo is backed up by little-noticed language in the defense authorization bill that Congress approved this week. The bill suggests that the U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories -- Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos and Sandia -- should be ready to resume testing with as little as six months' notice. Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, said the memorandum demonstrates the Bush administration's intention to end the testing moratorium. ``The administration is chipping away at the barriers to a resumption of testing,'' Kimball said. ``They are doing their best to establish a rationale to resume testing, either for reliability problems or for new weapons. The reality is that there is no scientific nor military basis for a resumption of testing, and to do so would be an enormous strategic blunder that would invite a wave of proliferation that could swamp the entire non-proliferation regime.'' New testing could prompt the Russians, the Chinese, the Indians and the Pakistanis to do likewise, or harden North Korea's refusal to abandon its nuclear program, he warned. `Collect our thoughts' But a Pentagon official said there is no movement afoot to resume testing. ``It was just time to go back and collect our thoughts'' after 10 years of maintaining the nuclear stockpile without tests conducted beneath the Nevada desert, said Frederick Celec, the deputy assistant to the secretary of defense for nuclear matters. ``Let's take stock and see where we are. What are the risks involved in not testing?'' Democrats in Congress say the interest in resumed testing comes not from the uniformed generals or the physicists in the weapons labs, but primarily from conservative civilian officials, such as Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, and advisers such as Richard Perle and John Foster, a former defense official and nuclear weapons designer. Since 1992, weapons scientists in California and New Mexico have used a multibillion-dollar system of supercomputers and large-scale technology to understand the underlying physics of bombs and missile warheads. The Aldridge memo suggests that this Science-Based Stockpile Stewardship program may not be enough. It requests studies ``to assess the potential benefits that could be obtained from a return to nuclear testing with regard to weapons safety, security and reliability.'' The memo suggests another look at the potential benefits of a ``low yield'' testing program, which might produce a nuclear explosion equivalent to only a few hundred pounds of conventional explosives. Such tests might involve small amounts of plutonium -- not in bomb form -- at the Nevada Test Site, according to a well-placed defense official. So-called subcritical tests are now designed to produce no nuclear yield at all. Portions of the defense authorization bill passed Wednesday require nuclear weapons scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and elsewhere to report whether nuclear explosions beneath the Nevada desert might be ``helpful'' in resolving reliability questions about existing nuclear weapons, even if the tests are technically ``unnecessary.'' ``I don't know of any reason why we can't'' maintain the stockpile without testing, Bruce Goodwin, the head of the nuclear weapons program in Livermore, told the Mercury News. Testing might be required ``if somebody came along and said we needed a completely new, ultra-lightweight weapon,'' he said. ``But I don't see anything like that on the horizon.'' Although some nuclear weapons scientists unsuccessfully sought permission to conduct low-yield nuclear tests after the testing moratorium began in 1992, Goodwin said he sees no need for it now. ``I don't think I would ask for that today. We know a lot more, we're a lot more capable,'' he said. New design Congress this week authorized the three nuclear weapons labs to create preliminary designs for a weapon known as the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, designed for underground targets. The project involves strengthening existing hydrogen bombs, rather than creating new designs. Livermore weapons designers say they don't expect the project to require nuclear tests. But critics fear that development of such weapons could increase pressure to resume nuclear testing. The defense bill includes language, inserted by Democrats opposed to the earth penetrator, such as Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Walnut Creek, that specifically prohibits the scientists from beginning work until a list of written questions is answered, involving the bomb's purpose and targets, and an assessment of whether such targets could be destroyed using non-nuclear weapons. The authorization bill tasks the labs with studying the costs and benefits of reducing the time required to prepare for a nuclear test to six months, 12 months, 18 months or 24 months. The current ``readiness'' time is two to three years. In March, an influential Pentagon advisory panel chaired by Foster, a former Lawrence Livermore director, recommended a lead time of ``no more than three months to a year.'' A veteran nuclear weapons physicist said a test deployed in only six months would be a ``political test'' rather than a science test. ``Historically, in order to do a test in six months you pretty much had to have the device picked out already and have preliminary plans on what to do. How can you predict a problem in advance?'' Contact Dan Stober at dstober@sjmercury.com [dstober@sjmercury.com] or (650) 688-7536 and Jonathan Landay at jlanday@ krwashington.com. ***************************************************************** 32 Rocky Flats: Impressive cleanup November 16, 2002 Changes proposed for the clean-up program at Rocky Flats would keep the project on time and on budget while reducing the risk to human health. That's heading in the right direction. The original agreement on cleaning up Rocky Flats was signed in 1996. It called for reducing the amount of radiation in the soil at Rocky Flats to no more than 651 picocuries per gram. That level satisfies federal and state safety standards. However, as the work has proceeded the contractor, Kaiser-Hill, and the government agencies monitoring the site have concluded that most of the plutonium contamination is being and will be found in the top few inches of soil. Therefore, the agencies propose a tradeoff: Soil down as far as three feet below the surface will be cleaned to the level of 50 picocuries per gram, and below that the monitoring agencies will follow any "hot spots" they find and treat as necessary to reduce the cancer risk to negligible levels. That's a good tradeoff. It won't satisfy some opponents, who want every last atom of plutonium removed from all 6,000 acres of what will become a wildlife refuge. But that's neither necessary nor feasible. Money is not unlimited, and to the extent it is spent at Rocky Flats in ways that have an insignificant effect on health, it's not available to be spent on other projects. We don't want to get too technical here, but we would like to put the actual risks in perspective. Ralph Condit, who studied plutonium risks for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, has written that a 150-pound person gets about 2,500 picocuries a day from naturally radioactive potassium in the diet. Someone living in an average U.S. home inhales 14,400 picocuries a day from radon gas. And the total radioactivity of a 150-pound human body is 220,000 picocuries. Nothing that will be left at Rocky Flats will make a significant addition to radiation hazards we already experience just by being alive. The nature of the opposition may be suggested by one critic's comment that three feet isn't safe because prairie dogs can dig down that far. Yes, they can, but not on any scale that would endanger people. If that's the best argument anyone can muster, the changes should be adopted. 2002 © The E.W. Scripps Co. ***************************************************************** 33 Whistle-blower's damages up Oakland Tribune Online [http://www.oaklandtribune.com/] Saturday, November 16, 2002 - 3:07:44 AM MST By Ian Hoffman , STAFF WRITER Officially, Dee Kotla was fired from Lawrence Livermore lab for $4.30 in personal phone calls. A jury found instead it was retaliation, and now the taxpayer bill for damages and legal wrangling in the case has just doubled to $2.6 million and rising. A judge last week awarded $1.1 million in attorneys' fees and costs to Kotla, a former computer technician at the nuclear weapons lab, which is run by the University of California. Last March, jurors awarded $1 million to Kotla after hearing evidence that a lab attorney said, "If Kotla knows what's good for her, she'll keep her mouth shut" about a sexual harassment case at the laboratory. The lab launched an investigation of Kotla that turned up the phone calls and ended up in her firing in February 1997. At the university's request, a judge reduced the award to $745,000. The university now is seeking a new trial. Livermore and university legal fees are reimbursed by the U.S. Department of Energy. Contact Ian Hoffman at href="mailto:ihoffman@angnewspapers.com ">ihoffman@angnewspapers.com . The persistent vigor of those battles against whistleblowers and against Kotla in particular drew Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., to ask the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, for an inquiry into DOE's legal reimbursement policy. Meanwhile, Livermore is pressing for a lead research role in the new Department of Homeland Security. After seeing the university fight several whistleblowers and internal critics, Gwilliam wonders whether the lab is the right employer for the job. "How can we give this job to the lab when they continue to mistreat their employees?" he said. "Is this the kind of organization we want to entrust our most important national security job to?" University attorneys protested the attorney fee award as motivated by "greed." The actual fees were $714,127, but the judge upped the amount due to the complexity of the case. "This award gives her attorney more money than she gets, which we find more ironic," said Livermore's Houghton. Actually, Gwilliam said, Kotla shares in the fees as well. And when it comes to greed and irony, he says, the university's San Francisco law firm is no shirker: The Energy Department so far has reimbursed UC more than $780,000 in the case. If the university wins its appeal, Kotla will get another trial. "They had a chance to settle this case for $500,000, and they didn't do it," Gwilliam said. Contact Ian Hoffman at href="mailto:ihoffman@angnewspapers.com ">ihoffman@angnewspapers.com . "We're planning to appeal," said Livermore spokeswoman Susan Houghton. "We were shocked by the judge's ruling in this case. It certainly was not supported by case law. ... We believe this only gives us more grounds to talk about a deliberation that we feel was incorrect to begin with." Kotla attorney and veteran lawyer J. Gary Gwilliam was hardly surprised. "They appeal everything. There's no such thing as a ruling they feel is right." ©1999-2002 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers ***************************************************************** 34 Fluor plans layoffs by mid-January This story was published Fri, Nov 15, 2002 By John Stang Herald staff writer Fluor Hanford plans to lay off up to 400 employees by mid-January as it shifts from planning to field work to accelerate Hanford cleanup. Dave Van Leuven, Fluor executive vice president, told the Fluor team's roughly 4,300 employees about the pending layoffs Thursday in a memo. Fluor told its workers several weeks ago that layoffs were one option being considered in its efforts to put the Department of Energy's accelerated cleanup plans into action. The biggest portion of the layoffs will be in planning, engineering and administrative areas, said company spokesman Michael Turner. Most layoffs will be within Fluor, with a handful likely among its permanent subcontractors. Fluor wants to consolidate administrative functions and has completed a significant amount of planning, Turner said. Now it wants to concentrate on putting those plans into action. Fluor cannot yet be sure how close it will come to the estimated 400 layoffs, Turner said, because it doesn't know the amount of its fiscal 2003 budget. DOE expects to receive a budget boost over fiscal 2002, but until Congress and President Bush approve new legislation, DOE has been directed to operate at 2002 levels. For now, it appears Hanford won't have solid 2003 budget figures before mid-January. Fluor plans to offer early retirements and voluntary separations. Anyone interested in those options will have to tell Fluor by Dec. 2. Van Leuven said Fluor will try to help laid-off employees find new jobs elsewhere at Hanford and will provide help with off-site job searches. No solid figures were available Thursday on how much money would be saved by the layoffs. One Hanford formula says each employee costs about $100,000 a year. Under that, a 400-person layoff could shift $40 million to field work. This is the same budget-shifting effort that led Fluor to consider trimming a fire station and 17 firefighters at the Fast Flux Test Facility. Fluor rejected that proposal because of safety issues. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 35 Effort Will Be Made to Build Up Technology (4DOE) [The Independent] 2250 First St., Livermore, CA 94550 Phone: (925) 447-8700 Fax: (925) 447-0212 E-mail: editmail@compuserve.com [editmail@compuserve.com] Technology Ventures Corporation (TVC) is setting up operations in California. The thrust of TVC will be to build up the technology around Livermore and Sandia. TVC has been awarded $1.5 million from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to implement TVC's model for the commercialization of technologies at national laboratories in California, Nevada and New Mexico. Tom Anyos will head the California operations. To augment existing commercialization efforts at NNSA's other facilities, TVC will open offices at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the Nevada Test Site. TVC is a Lockheed-Martin Private Foundation. It takes no fees or equity. TVC works with laboratories or individuals to identify technology with the potential for development in the private sector. The technology to be considered comes mainly from the labs. Also included is technology developed by companies who work with the labs. The funds were authorized through a $1.5 million 2002 Congressional appropriation. The money is to promote partnerships with private industry. In the future there may be an additional $3 million 2003 appropriation. The approval for the funding represents a recognition of TVCs successful technology commercialization efforts in the area surrounding Sandia National Laboratories. The technology resulted in over 5600 jobs and over $330 million in equity investment in the state. Anyos said TVC's program is the next step in technology transfer. In order to be successful, money is needed. "That is where we come in." A selection committee looks at the technology and the market place. "If a proposed technology makes sense, we will accept the entrepreneurs as clients. We don't take everyone," Anyos explains. Anyos said he will be meeting with Tom O'Malley, CEO of the Tri-Valley Business Council, about possible joint projects. The business council operates an incubator which provides facilities that allow small businesses to get started. Anyos said that an incubator is not the thrust of TVC's program. "An incubator provides space. We provide everything else," Anyos explained. TVC works with a client to cleanup a business plan and perfect a presentation to be shown to a network of venture capital and other investors who are looking for early-stage investment opportunities. Since its inception, TVC has had a much higher percentage of success when it comes to finding investment funds, said Anyos. About 35-37% of TVC's clients receive funding. The normal rate is about 10%, Anyos stated. "I am very excited about the opportunities that TVC's new contract to expand commercialization to NNSA laboratories presents for the Tri-Valley," said Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher. "TVC will initiate the kind of high paying jobs and successful companies that will attract national interest and investment in our local economy." ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************