***************************************************************** 02/19/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.44 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POLICY 1 Finland urges EU to keep nuclear power 2 Russian firm signs contract to supply Indian nuclear power plant 3 Russian urges labs to back push for nuke power 4 US: Rivals Battled Enron In Energy Lobbying NUCLEAR REACTORS 5 Pipe rupture in Brunsbuettel NPP, Germany 6 US: Alna cites lack of training for fires at nuclear plant 7 India: L&T may form JV with Nuclear Power Corpn 8 German nuclear power plant shut down due to defective pipe 9 Romanian nuclear plant stopped due to malfunctioning cooling 10 US: NRC Announces Availability of License Renewal Application for 11 Indian Point N-plants draw 2 opposing demonstrations NUCLEAR SAFETY 12 Break-in Highlights Nuclear Security Problems 13 Scotland: Safety flaws caused nuclear accident 14 Iraq sees 12 fold increase in cancer, depleted uranium cited 15 US: No Quick Relief for Sick Nuclear Workers 16 Russia: Stunt Exposes Nuclear-Safety Risks - NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 17 US: N-waste may pass through state 18 Federal study includes Piketon as possible nuclear-reactor site Satu 19 Russia: Nuclear Security System Comes Under Question 20 US: LETTERS: NUCLEAR WASTE DECISION: The Yucca Mountain matter 21 US: Yucca: A merry-go-round of folly 22 US: Resort association to escalate anti-Yucca effort 23 US: Public Companies Tweak Accounting to Hide Environmental Debt 24 US: Goshutes: Task Force Findings Do Little to Help Utah Tribes 25 US: Nuclear waste decision provokes storm of protest 26 US: Lawmakers, lobbyists gear for a long battle 27 US: Debate to focus on 'reasonable expectations' 28 US: Yucca: Legislature has few options in 2003 29 US: Casinos to launch Yucca blitz 30 US: On the Road to Yucca Mountain 31 US: Neighbors doubt safety of Yucca Mountain site 32 US: County Commission Chairman Dario Herrera Responds to Bush 33 US: Bush breaks his campaign promise to Nevada - Guy W. Farmer 34 US: MailBox: Yucca: Letters to the Editor 35 US: Nevada ups battle against nuclear-dump site 36 US: Bush OKs nuke trash shipments 37 US: Science at heart of Yucca struggle NUCLEAR WEAPONS 38 US: US to develop enhanced nukes for 'hardened targets' 39 US: US army turns to Lloyd's for cover against terrorist attacks 40 Torpedo Eyed in Kursk Disaster 41 French go virtual with nuclear testing 42 Saddam's Bombmaker: Iraq Working on 'Hiroshima size' Nuke 43 Russian navy says torpedo explosion caused Kursk sub disaster 44 Nude protesters arrested 45 Iran, uranium, and Uncle Sam 46 Admiral: Kursk Had Unstable Torpedoes 47 US: Nuclear Plans Go Beyond Cuts US DEPT. OF ENERGY 48 DOE supports conversion of plutonium 49 Paul Parson: Axing water study at Oak Ridge bad move OTHER NUCLEAR 50 GLOBAL WARMING COULD PERSIST FOR CENTURIES 51 Fusion reactors remain decades off, experts say ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Finland urges EU to keep nuclear power By Lionel Barber and Quentin Peel Published: February 18 2002 19:12 | Last Updated: February 18 2002 20:46 The European Union must preserve the option of nuclear power as part of its energy mix if it is not to become a "fossil monster", according to Paavo Lipponen, the Finnish prime minister. In an extraordinary defence of nuclear power generation, he accused fellow EU member states of imposing a form of "energy imperialism" on the countries of central and eastern Europe seeking to join the union. He also warned that excessive dependence on imported natural gas from Russia would inevitably lead to price rises. Mr Lipponen, whose government has just decided to build a fifth nuclear reactor, was sharply critical of fellow Social Democrats in other EU countries for representing the "fossil interests" of leading electricity utilities. Finland is the only country in the EU to consider building a new nuclear plant. "How is it that some are trying to make the EU a real fossil monster, dependent on coal and natural gas?" he asked. "We must keep nuclear power as one of the options." He said those countries that had decided to phase out nuclear power - they include Germany and Sweden - were really trying "in every way to avoid rapid decommissioning. But it does mean huge amounts more fossil energy will be needed". "If all western Europe is now counting on natural gas coming mostly from Russia, what will happen? The price will go up." He said Finland had deliberately opted for energy diversity. "Our concern is that we are becoming too dependent on imported electricity." As for EU policy towards east European applicant members who are being forced to close nuclear plants based on Soviet-era technology, "that is to a great extent unfair," he said. "This is some kind of energy imperialism." Finland still operated a nuclear reactor using Soviet technology, he said, and it was "the safest in the world". ***************************************************************** 2 Russian firm signs contract to supply Indian nuclear power plant BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Feb 18, 2002 Text of report in English by Russian news agency Interfax Moscow, 18 February: The Izhora works last week signed a contract with Russia's Atomstroyeksport to manufacture equipment worth 5m dollars for the Kundankulam nuclear power plant in India. The Izhora works, which is based in St Petersburg, said in a news release that it intended to supply 300 tonnes of equipment, such as filters and metal parts required for the initial stages of nuclear power plant construction. The contract follows the signing on 12 February of a framework agreement between Atomstroyeksport and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India for the supply of priority and long manufacturing cycle equipment. The Izhora works and Atomstroyeksport plan to sign the first subcontract for the supply of reactor and steam generator housing, internal mechanisms and main piping systems for two generating units at Kudankulam in March. However it takes abut three years to make a reactor housing, and Izhora started preparations back in December last year. Russian Atomic Energy Minister Aleksandr Rumyantsev and Anil Kakodkar, Chairman of the [Indian] Atomic Energy Commission, signed a memorandum on the main principles of cooperation on the power plant's construction in November last year. Atomstroyeksport and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India signed a general agreement on the construction of the VVER-1000 power plant with total capacity of 2,000 megawatts outlining mutual obligations, supplies and services and a schedule of works to be completed in 2007-2008. Source: Interfax news agency, Moscow, in English 1310 gmt 18 Feb 02 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. ***************************************************************** 3 Russian urges labs to back push for nuke power By LAWRENCE SPOHN U.S. and Russian nuclear scientists hope by June to submit a formal appeal to the presidents of both nations asking them to collaboratively jump-start nuclear power. An informal agreement to produce a joint Russian-American report on nuclear power to the two presidents followed the appeal late last week of prominent Russian physicist Evgeny Pavlovich Velikhov to his counterparts at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque. In a formal address, Velikhov specifically asked his Sandia colleagues to help prepare a joint report within two months for President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin stressing the urgency of revitalizing nuclear power research and development. One of three U.S. nuclear weapons labs, Sandia has played a major research role in nuclear energy, particularly in the realm of safety and testing. President of the prestigious Kurchatov Institute in Moscow, Velikhov said, "Nuclear energy has a very important role to stabilize things (economically) in Russia." Soon, he said, it will be crucial as well to the economy and security of the United States and could play a central role in enhancing global security and environmental integrity. In addition to references to energy insecurity fueling global conflict, Velikhov said that human health and the threat of global warming - both at risk because of traditional fossil fuels - should motivate the two nations to lead a resurgence of nuclear power that he noted does not pollute the atmosphere. Critics of nuclear power argue that radioactive waste is a big problem with nuclear energy. Sandia President C. Paul Robinson pledged his labs' support in the endeavor, saying his scientists hold similar views and concerns about the long-term energy supply for the United States and the world. Robinson in recent years has stressed that U.S. national security is fundamentally linked to the country's energy, environmental and economic security. Saying Sandia's own studies show there are national security, economic, environmental and geopolitical reasons supporting a resumption of nuclear energy development, Robinson said: "The time is ripe for that (a binational research effort)." While Sandia also has been a world leader in developing green energy alternatives, like solar and wind power, many scientists there believe that these sources remain immature and incapable of supplying the vast, growing and unlimited demand for instant energy at the flick of a switch. Sandia Vice President Joan Woodard, however, warned that scientists have a major task in convincing a fearful public that nuclear energy is safe and can be made even safer. Velikhov agreed but said the first hurdle is convincing government leaders, noting his scientists already are making strides in the Russian Duma, or congress. He suggested Americans should have a much easier task because the problem in Russia, since the Chernobyl nuclear reactor incident, "is five orders of magnitude" worse than here. "We must have a very comprehensive program of public education," he said. Velikhov warned that the task must be undertaken soon because both countries are rapidly losing their nuclear expertise, as nuclear physicists and engineers age and die. (Contact Lawrence Spohn of The Tribune in Albuquerque, N.M., at http://www.abqtrib.com.) February 18, 2002 ***************************************************************** 4 Rivals Battled Enron In Energy Lobbying (washingtonpost.com) Firm Thwarted in Key Business Moves By Dan Morgan Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, February 19, 2002; Page A04 Just weeks after Enron Corp. Chairman Kenneth L. Lay wrote checks for $175,000 to the Republican Party in April 2000, executives and lobbyists from one of his arch rivals hosted a fundraiser in Alabama for Sen. Frank H. Murkowski (R-Alaska), then chairman of the Senate Energy Committee. Utility giant Southern Co. raised a modest $25,000 for Murkowski's Americans for Sound Energy Policy. But the event, representing a fraction of Southern Co.'s multimillion-dollar lobbying effort, illustrated the competitive battle for political influence in which Enron was not the only energy firm making strategic campaign contributions. Politically speaking, Enron's story is notable not because it gave millions of dollars to elected officials and party leaders, but because its financial implosion pulled back the curtain and exposed the corporate world's sharp-elbowed lobbying that usually remains behind the scenes. "The criticism du jour is that Enron just gave money and things mysteriously happened," an industry lobbyist said. "The fact is, Enron was a mere kid on the block" in many of its Washington battles. Among its adversaries were big utility companies that sought to slow the pace of electricity deregulation; regional telephone companies such as SBC and Verizon, which opposed Enron's attempt to create a competitive market for broadband services to homes and businesses; and national cable companies such as AT&T and AOL Time Warner, which refused to allow Enron and its partner, Blockbuster, to use their cable platforms to deliver "video on demand" services to homes. The New York Mercantile Exchange gave $50,000 to the Democrats' Senate campaign fund in early 2000, when the NYME was fighting energy-trading legislation favored by Enron. After Senate supporters engineered a compromise, the exchange contributed another $50,000 to the Democrats' senatorial committee. Enron also crossed swords with the ethanol industry, dominated by the global company Archer Daniels Midland Co. Corn growers and ethanol producers lobbied the Clinton administration, Congress and governors to ban the petrochemical product MTBE, an additive that competes with ethanol in reformulated gasoline. As the nation's third-largest producer of MTBE, Enron fought the ban. But it proved no match for the ethanol industry. California ordered a phaseout of MTBE in 1999, and a pending Senate energy bill would ban it nationally by 2006. ADM has contributed $1.5 million to the two political parties since 1997, more than Enron's $1.4 million. To counter the influence of entrenched companies, Enron organized a major effort to increase its name recognition in political circles. "We had to make sure people knew what our argument was," because of the power of Enron's competitors, Enron spokesman Mark Palmer said. Since 1989, Enron, its executives and employees have contributed $5.7 million to parties and candidates. Lay, who resigned as Enron's chairman in January, cultivated friendships with President George H.W. Bush as well as President Bush, and he golfed with President Bill Clinton. In 2000, Enron and Lay were among the largest contributors to George W. Bush's presidential campaign, but also donated $532,000 to the Democratic Party. As Enron moved into new businesses such as telecommunications services in the late 1990s, however, it often was a relative unknown in industries dominated by big companies. Enron's strategy in telecommunications was to create a wholesale market, much as it had done in electricity. It installed more than 15,000 miles of fiber-optic cable with an eye to connecting with other carriers and selling time on the network to businesses needing "broadband" capacity. But to deliver the service end-to-end, Enron needed the local wires of regional phone companies, which had their own plans for high-speed Internet services. Although Congress in 1996 mandated open access to local lines, negotiating interconnection agreements with local phone companies turned out to be difficult, sources said. Enron officials met with members of Congress and voiced opposition to Bell company proposals at the Federal Communications Commission. "We didn't get in their face, but we did get more involved," said Scott Bolton, Enron's former director of government affairs. "But while we may have been a gorilla in energy, on the telecom side we were midgets." During the 2000 election, BellSouth and Verizon contributed nearly $2.4 million in unregulated "soft money" to the two parties, nearly double what Enron and Lay gave. Last year, the top Republican and Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, each a heavy recipient of phone company money, introduced a telecommunications bill that would prevent competitors from hooking into new broadband lines built by regional phone companies. Enron proved far more successful in deregulating the nation's electricity markets, but there too it ran into opposition. A more competitive electricity distribution system threatened regulated utilities, which feared an open market could drive prices below a level needed to pay off debts on costly nuclear plants. The utility industry's strategy was to slow the transition long enough to reach deals with regulators and federal officials to recover these "stranded costs." From 1996 to 2000, some of the biggest utilities in the South and Midwest spent $17 million on lobbying and campaign contributions to bottle up Enron-backed legislation requiring states to allow nonutilities to compete with regulated power companies for retail customers. The utilities set up two front groups, Citizens for State Power and the Electric Utility Shareholders Alliance, which were run by veteran Republican operatives and labor union officials. The enterprise, nicknamed "The Project," worked to defeat members of Congress who supported Enron's deregulatory push. Enron was instrumental in setting up a pro-market front group of its own -- Americans for Affordable Energy, headed by former representative William Paxon (R-N.Y.) -- to rally support from business groups that saw deregulation as a way to lower costs. But the legislation made no headway in the House or Senate, where utility companies benefited from years of cultivating friendships. Southern Co.'s top lobbyist in Washington is former Republican National Committee chairman Haley Barbour. Since 1999, Southern Co.'s political action committee has spread more than $700,000 to candidates and parties, exceeding the $500,000 spent by Enron, according to the monitoring group PoliticalMoneyLine. In 1999, Southern Co. and its affiliates reported they had spent more than $20 million on political, civic causes and nonprofit organizations. In the Senate last year, Enron backed a bill calling for retail deregulation of electricity and changes in the federal role in wholesale electricity sales. Murkowski opposed it. "Enron was pushing very hard for a date certain for retail deregulation, but the senator felt Enron wanted to just pick off the large, lucrative industrial customers," a GOP political consultant said. "He saw it as a raid, and wanted to go slow." © 2002 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 5 Pipe rupture in Brunsbuettel NPP, Germany Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 01:29:47 +0100 Brunsbuettel broke on December 14, 2001. Apparently the pipe was schredded to pieces, possibly by a hydrogen explosion. The operators, HEW (owned by the Swedish Government's Vattenfall group), decided to keep the reactor running and inspect the damage during the scheduled revision in May this year. Now the German authorities ordered a shutdown and an inspection. The incident is being rated as a 2 on the INES scale. Brunsbuettel is situated west of the city of Hamburg, on the north bank of river Elbe, close to the North Sea coast. Bernd Frieboese, Germany ***************************************************************** 6 Alna cites lack of training for fires at nuclear plant Lincoln County Weekly Firefighters just say 'no' BY KRIS FERRAZZAFebruary 14, 2002 ALNA - Citing a lack of training, volunteer firefighters from Alna no longer will answer the call to the Maine Yankee nuclear power station in Wiscasset. The department membership took a vote on the matter Jan. 30 and unanimously agreed that without the proper training, they have no business responding to fires at the facility. The newly enacted policy states the Alna department will continue to offer mutual aid to Wiscasset's department, which is trained, and will respond to cover that town's fire station. However, volunteers will not be permitted to respond to the nuclear power site. The policy is signed by Fire Chief Michael Trask and Assistant Fire Chief Peter Christine and has the support of the selectmen. "This is something, in my mind, that should have been done years ago," Christine said of the new policy. "We don't have enough information to deal with this stuff." The assistant chief explained the department has had no training for fighting fires in a radiological environment. And with the limited hazardous materials training they have had, volunteers have been instructed specifically to stay away from radioactive materials. He said Alna began to debate the issue after departments were asked to respond to a small fire that burned last November on the radiological side of the plant. From those discussions, the new policy evolved. Maine Yankee is closed and undergoing decommissioning, however radiological materials remain at the site, including a large amount of spent nuclear fuel. The material, which is high-level radioactive waste, is isolated and stored in an underwater pool. Alna Selectman Jim Bruce, who is a safety officer and 20-year member of the town's fire department, said the selectmen support the new policy. "We wouldn't send people who weren't qualified to go into a burning building. This is the same thing," he said. "If you don't have the training, you don't go in." He said the board also considered the potential liability the town could face as a result of sending untrained volunteers to a fire at the facility, but safety is the main concern. Bruce said he believes Maine Yankee officials made a mistake when they did away with the plant's trained on-site fire brigade several years ago. The company eliminated its professional five-member brigade after receiving an exemption from a number of federal regulations in September 1998. The plant had ceased to operate, and managers argued that a number of risks, including fire, was diminishing as the facility was dismantled. Maine Yankee spokesman Eric Howes said although the special fire force is gone, the company continues to have two people on duty during each shift who are responsible for "taking the lead" on fire protection. Howes said one is in charge of calling the fire department, if necessary. Beyond that, the staff is capable of fighting small fires using fire extinguishers, but nothing more. "We do rely primarily on Wiscasset for fire protection," he said. Howes added he does not expect Alna's decision will diminish the timely response the plant has received from Wiscasset's volunteer department. He said Maine Yankee President Wayne Norton met last week with Christine to discuss the department's concerns. Mutual aid Fire chiefs in the neighboring towns of Edgecomb and Westport, who also provide mutual aid to Wiscasset, say they will not change their policy on Maine Yankee calls. Westport Fire Chief Rusty Robertson said his department never was trained to enter the radiological side of the plant in the past, so there is no reason they would go now. "If we're called, we're going to respond," he said. "But at no time are we ever going to do anything we're not qualified to do." He said assistant fire chief Bob Gann works at Maine Yankee and is well informed on radiological issues. Gann's knowledge would ensure volunteers in the Westport department were protected, he said. Westport Selectman Stanley Lane, who was a New York volunteer firefighter for 21 years, says he is uncomfortable with the idea of responding to an emergency at Maine Yankee. "I can guarantee you I would never go to a nuclear accident. That's not what volunteer firemen are trained for," Lane said, adding he "fully agrees" with Alna's decision. "I applaud them. I think it makes sense," he said. Lane said additional training would be necessary to prepare local fire departments to respond to an emergency at the plant, and it is "not fair to the midcoast" to ask the towns to bear that burden. "I think there's a question of safety, and I think there's a question of financial liability," he said, questioning what would happen if a person was harmed or killed. Edgecomb Fire Chief Barry Johnston says his department has not discussed Alna's decision, but he remains comfortable with responding to emergencies at Maine Yankee. "If we did go, we wouldn't be on the front line," he said. "We'd be there more for support than anything else." The chief said he and one other volunteer in the Edgecomb department underwent additional hazardous materials training in October 2000, which elevated them from the "awareness" level to the "operational" level. He added Boothbay Harbor has people trained to the highest level. Johnston said Maine Yankee supervisors and technicians are trained and must advise the departments on what they need and what hazards could exist. "We've never had a problem with it," the chief said. "If this issue was going to come up, I think it would have been back when the plant was running." ©Lincoln County Weekly 2002 ***************************************************************** 7 India: L&T may form JV with Nuclear Power Corpn Published Since 1961New Delhi, Tuesday, February 19, 2002Net The Financial Express > FE > Jyotsna Bhatnagar Hazira, February 18: Larsen & Toubro is negotiating with the public sector Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) for forging a joint venture for execution of forthcoming nuclear power projects. Speaking to The Financial Express, senior vice-president (operations) of L&T’s heavy engineering division, PM Mehta, admitted that “Talks for forming a joint venture with NPCIL are currently going on.” L&T’s entry as an equity partner in nuclear power projects would be the first foray by the private sector into this highly sensitive area, which has hitherto been controlled totally by the government and the NPCIL. L&T is already working closely with NPCIL for its ongoing nuclear power projects and currently has an order book position of over Rs 1,300 crore exclusively for NPCIL projects. It may be mentioned that the nuclear power sector in the country is poised for major expansion in the near future. At present, there are 14 existing power projects which include two each at Tarapore, Madras, Narora, Kakapar and Kaiga and four at Rajasthan with a total capacity of around 2,500 MW. L&T has contributed actively to these projects as a major equipment supplier along with two other private sector players, namely Walchandnagar Industries and Kirloskar and the public-sector BHEL. However, since all the existing nuclear projects are small and medium-sized projects with the largest being Tarapore III and IV which are both of 540 MW each, the NPCIL is now contemplating upgrading their size to at least 680 MW and also setting up 1000-1500 MW projects in the future. Meanwhile, the government has already committed its partial support to NPCIL for an additional 4000 MW of nuclear power. The projects are to be started within the next two years. What is likely to facilitate the execution of these projects is the success which the government has recently had with exploration of nuclear fuel reserves as well as recycling of fuel. It may be mentioned that there have been successful strikes in Lambapur in Andhra Pradesh, some villages in Karnataka while there is a distinct possibility of reserves being found in Rajasthan too. In view of the huge expansion plans in the nuclear power sector on the anvil and the fact that L&T is fully equipped to participate actively in this crucial arena with totally indigenous dedicated facilities at Powai, Hazira and to some extent Chennai for the fabrication of equipment required for nuclear reactors, equity participation is being viewed as the next logical step for the conglomerate. ... fabricates N-power end-shield for NPCIL Our Bureau Ahmedabad, Feb 18: The Rs 8,000-crore engineering, construction and cement conglomerate Larsen & Toubro has successfully fabricated a 500 MWe nuclear power end-shield, a crucial component for nuclear power plants, for the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL). At a function at L&T’s Hazira works on Saturday, the end-shield was handed over to the NPCIL CMD VK Chaturvedi by the senior vice-president (heavy engineering division) PM Mehta. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Chaturvedi lauded L&T’s role in the development of the nuclear power sector. He maintained that with its cutting edge technology in areas ranging from fertilisers to petrochemicals to space to nuclear power, L&T had emerged as a super power among Indian companies. According to Mr MV Kotwal, executive vice-president of the heavy engineering division, the company had been able to develop many manufacturing technologies in the nuclear arena in association with NPCIL. “Today, we at L&T, with multi-dimensional capabilities in project management, construction and manufacturing are poised to match the demands placed on us by the ambitious plans for augmentation of nuclear power in our country.” The 500MWe end-shield has been fabricated in India for the first time and will be installed at Tarapore Atomic Power Plant in Maharashtra. The Rs 20-crore end-shield is the first among four such shields to be manufactured by L&T. They form a crucial part of the pressurised heavy-water cooled and heavy-water moderated nuclear power reactors that India has opted for in the first phase of the country’s nuclear power programme. The advantage of these reactors is that natural uranium can be used as fuel and all components can be made within the country. The travel for the reports was sponsored by L&T © 2002: Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd. All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 8 German nuclear power plant shut down due to defective pipe BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Feb 18, 2002 Text of report by German news agency ddp Kiel: A problem has occurred at the Brunsbuettel nuclear power plant in Schleswig-Holstein. During an inspection on Monday [18 February], a defective pipe was discovered, which had broken inside the safety tank, a spokesman for the Energy Ministry said in Kiel. The affected reactor was shut down. The exact extent of the damage can only be determined after the shut-down of the plant, it was stated. The pipe is located next to the cover of the reactor vessel, which shortens the cooling time during the shut-down operation... Source: ddp news agency, Berlin, in German 1610 gmt 18 Feb 02 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. ***************************************************************** 9 Romanian nuclear plant stopped due to malfunctioning cooling system BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Feb 18, 2002 Text of report in English by independent Romanian news agency Mediafax Bucharest, 18 February: Unit one of the reactor of the nuclear electric power plant in Cernavoda was stopped for the second time this year, on Monday [18 February] morning, to remove certain water loses found on Sunday in the reactor's cooling system, shows a press release issued by Nuclearelectrica Company, and sent to Mediafax. According to the release, the water losses were caused by a fissure in the system's pipeline. The water flowing though the cooling system is not radioactive, and the cease was carried out in normal safety conditions. The electricity production of the reactor was supplied by three groups of Termoelectrica, in Turceni, Rovinari and Doicesti. The experts of the British company Furmanite will arrive on Monday to Cernavoda, to contribute to the settlement of the remedy. The reactor will be stopped for at least 72 hours. During this period, a series of works and repairs are to be carried out, as they were planned for the cease in May this year. The Cernavoda nuclear electricity plant has a nominal power of 700 MW, and provides around 12 per cent of the annual electricity consumption at the national level. Source: Mediafax news agency, Bucharest, in English 1500 gmt 18 Feb 02 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. ***************************************************************** 10 NRC Announces Availability of License Renewal Application for Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Station NRC: Press Release - 2002 - 21 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-001 E-mail: [opa@nrc.gov] www.nrc.gov No. 02-021 February 19, 2002 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is announcing the availability of an application for a 20-year renewal of the operating license for the Fort Calhoun Station, Unit 1, nuclear power plant. The Omaha Public Power District, which operates the plant, submitted the application on January 11. Ft. Calhoun is located in Washington County, Nebraska. The current operating license for the plant expires on August 9, 2013. Copies of the application are available for public inspection at the Commission's Public Document Room, located at One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland, or electronically through the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS). The ADAMS Public Electronic Reading Room is accessible from the NRC web site at [http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html] Help in using ADAMS is also available through the NRC Public Document Room by calling 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737 or by e-mail to [pdr@nrc.gov] . A copy of the license renewal application is also available to local residents at the Blair Public Library in Blair, NE, and the W. Dale Clark Library in Omaha, NE. The NRC staff is currently conducting an initial review of the application to determine whether it contains sufficient information to start the required formal review. If the application has sufficient information, the NRC will formally "docket," or file, the application and will announce an opportunity to request a hearing. ***************************************************************** 11 Indian Point N-plants draw 2 opposing demonstrations Buffalo News - 2/18/2002 PEEKSKILL (AP) - Hundreds of protesters from two community groups have held opposing demonstrations over the fate of the Indian Point nuclear power plants. Workers at the plants, union members and residents gathered Saturday in Riverfront Green Park to argue that the plants should stay open, while a group of protesters against the plant held a rally nearby, the Journal News reported Sunday. Some activists have said that the plants, which are 35 miles north of New York City, pose a danger in the densely populated metropolitan area. Pressure to close the plants has mounted amid fears that they could be a target for an airborne terrorist attack. Officials have said that the plants are safe and that an emergency plan is in place. Anti-nuclear activist Susan Shapiro of Rockland County called closing the plant "a win-win situation." "We hear what our president is saying," Shapiro said. "He is saying look for danger in our back yards - we see Indian Point." Thursday, officials said that a small leak in a steam generator at the plants had been detected but that it was releasing only a tiny amount of radioactive steam and did not present a danger. Copyright © 1999 - 2002 The Buffalo NewsTM ***************************************************************** 12 Break-in Highlights Nuclear Security Problems Monday, Feb. 18, 2002. Page 3 By Nabi Abdullaev Staff Writer Igor Tabakov / MT Greenpeace activists protesting against the importing of spent nuclear fuel outside the Nuclear Power Ministry in November. In broad daylight, a State Duma deputy, two Greenpeace activists and three NTV cameramen sneaked into a supposedly high-security industrial complex in western Siberia and spent several hours near storage facilities containing 3,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel. The six men took dozens of photographs, shot a video and returned to Moscow undisturbed. "We entered through two-by-two-meter holes in the barbed wire and walked on well-trampled paths, probably made by local citizens," Sergei Mitrokhin, a liberal lawmaker in the Duma's Yabloko faction, said of his break-in at the Krasnoyarsk Mining and Chemical Plant, which was shown in a special report by NTV broadcast Thursday night. "The guards drove past us several times, and we passed by their sentry boxes, but we pretended to be locals and nobody stopped us." In November, the Krasnoyarsk plant received 41 tons of spent nuclear fuel from the Kozlodui plant in Bulgaria under a controversial new law allowing the import of spent nuclear fuel for reprocessing and storage. Advocates of the law, which was signed by President Vladimir Putin in July, argue that Russia could earn $20 billion over the next decade by importing some 20,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel. However, environmentalists have fought the law, saying that turning Russia into the world's leading nuclear recycling facility would cause far greater ecological damage than the billions earned could repair. When the first consignment of spent nuclear fuel arrived in Russia from Bulgaria in November, Greenpeace activists demonstrated outside the Nuclear Power Ministry in gas masks and chemical protection suits. At a news conference in Moscow on Friday, Mitrokhin said that his break-in at the Krasnoyarsk plant was designed to show that Russia is not ready to import radioactive material. The country's system of nuclear safety is not just poor but "nonexistent," he said. Mitrokhin, a member of the presidential commission on controlling imports of spent nuclear fuel, said that during a hearing on ecological safety in the Duma on Feb. 7, the Nuclear Power Ministry assured deputies that there were no security problems at its facilities. But Mitrokhin said Friday that he could have easily climbed onto the roof of the Krasnoyarsk plant's storage building and got inside it. "I was shaken to see it," he said. "Anybody can come to a depository with extremely dangerous materials and do whatever he wishes near them. And the Nuclear Power Ministry plans to bring 20,000 tons of nuclear supplies from abroad here and leave it adrift." According to Mitrokhin, safety measures at most of Russia's 96 nuclear plants and research centers are not covered by the federal budget at all. As a member of the international coalition fighting terrorism, Russia must be more responsible for the safety of its nuclear facilities, Mitrokhin said, otherwise it will become "the weakest link of the coalition and a potential target for terrorists." Vladimir Chuprov, a Greenpeace nuclear expert, shared his fears. "Several dozen kilograms of regular explosives would be enough to trigger a new Chernobyl there," he said Friday. Chuprov said the plant's storage facilities contain 1 billion curies of radioactive waste. The radioactive discharge from Chernobyl was about 50 million curies, he said. However, the management of the Krasnoyarsk plant insisted last week that security at its storage and transportation facilities remained unbreakable. "We employ several hundred guards, and one regiment of Interior Ministry troops is delegated to guard us," Vasily Zhidkov, the head of the plant, said in the NTV report. It was unclear whether Zhidkov was aware of Mitrokhin's break-in at the time. Zhidkov could be reached for comment about Mitrokhin's claims Friday. Mitrokhin said that he would send a video about the break-in to Putin. In addition, Greenpeace said it has sent letters about the security breaches at the plant to the Federal Security Service and to the Prosecutor General's Office. [http://www.themoscowtimes.com ***************************************************************** 13 Scotland: Safety flaws caused nuclear accident BBC News | SCOTLAND | 19 February, 2002, [Magnox fuel rods] The fuel rods fell down a discharge shaft Investigators have blamed "procedural and hardware deficiencies" for an accident at a Scottish nuclear power station. Two dozen fuel rods slipped and fell to the floor at Chapelcross in Dumfriesshire during the incident last July. However, nuclear inspectors said the accident had not posed any health risk to workers or the public. HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) made several recommendations to improve safety at the plant in their report, which was published on Tuesday. BNFL has made a positive response to our findings and has initiated a programme to implement the necessary improvements Laurence Williams HM Chief Inspector of Nuclear Installations The incident took place at the British Nuclear Fuels-run (BNFL) power station, near Annan. The accident happened during a refuelling operation for reactor three. The 12kg rods - bars of uranium metal clad in an outer magnox can - were in a large cylindrical basket which came loose as it was being lowered into a cooling pond. Twelve of the rods remained in the basket and were quickly accounted for. The other 12 dropped 50ft down a discharge shaft and were found following an inspection of the area around the reactor. Safety recommendations The rods are placed inside reactors as part of the nuclear fission process that generates heat and ultimately electricity. Members of the plant's incident team were called to deal with the situation as carbon dioxide was sprayed over the basket to ensure it did not catch fire. Laurence Williams, HM Chief Inspector of Nuclear Installations, said the report into the incident had made several recommendations to improve the safety of the defuelling operation. Chapelcross plant is at Annan "BNFL has made a positive response to our findings and has initiated a programme to implement the necessary improvements. "Whilst I have no doubts that BNFL will deliver the required improvements, we shall monitor progress via our normal process of regulation," he said. He said the NII, part of the Health and Safety Executive, would take the necessary action if inadequate progress was made at the plant. Mr Williams said: "The incident ... occurred as a result of a combination of procedural and hardware deficiencies. "As a result of our investigation, I am satisfied that no worker or member of the public incurred any harm from release of radioactive material. "I am also satisfied that there was no deliberate attempt by BNFL to deceive NII in relation to the reporting of the event or the status of plant at the time." While it is reassuring that the public were not exposed to danger, it is not reassuring that the incident was the result of procedural difficulties Kevin Dunion Friends of the Earth Friends of the Earth Scotland's chief executive Kevin Dunion welcomed the report. But he said: "We remain concerned that the accident was not immediately made public, even though the Chapelcross emergency plans were activated and the regulatory authorities were informed. "Also, while it is reassuring that the public were not exposed to danger, it is not reassuring that the incident was the result of procedural difficulties." Scottish National Party MSP Fiona McLeod said: "BNFL must immediately implement the recommendations of this report and I am confident that the HSE will be monitoring the situation closely to ensure that this happens." ***************************************************************** 14 Iraq sees 12 fold increase in cancer, depleted uranium cited Iraq, Health, 2/18/2002 Number of cancer cases (Leukemia and kidney, liver and lung cancer) reported has increased in Iraq especially in the southern Iraqi cities. Doctors from the environment and pollution control centers at al-Mousel university unveiled that types of cancers resulting from environmental pollution witnesses a notable increase following the second Gulf war, adding that the use of depleted uranium and other traces of war and the pollution of air and soil are among the first reasons for cancer. The surgeon at al-Nasareyah hospital Kamal Naeem al-Khafaji attributed the spread of kidney diseases among children, youths and elderly to the pollution of drinking waters and of containing the depleted uranium, while the two researchers at al-Basra university Amal Saleh and Mustafa Abdullah said that the grave environmental deterioration resulted in the increase in the number of cancer cases, especially in Basra as number of reported cancer cases increased to more than 12 folds over the figures of 1991. A specialized European delegation visited Iraq in April 1998 from the south to the north and was briefed on the negative health conditions resulting from the American attacks and the use of internationally banned weapons. Copyright © 1995-2001 Arabic News.com, All Rights ***************************************************************** 15 No Quick Relief for Sick Nuclear Workers (washingtonpost.com) By Judy Lin Associated Press Tuesday, February 19, 2002; Page A07 PITTSBURGH -- Steelworker Stephen Kaurich remembers those mysterious shipments to his mill in the two years after World War II, the strange metal bars he and his crew were told to roll down to a smaller, more usable size. The shipments arrived hidden under the floorboards of boxcars, and once workers began rolling them through the steel mill's machinery, they noticed the bars did not cool like the materials they were used to shaping. When the work was finished, the factory was washed down with acids, and the boxcars left as mysteriously as they came. "They didn't tell us they were uranium bars," Kaurich said. Now an 80-year-old colon cancer survivor, Kaurich is convinced his illness was caused by exposure to radiation. He is among tens of thousands of sickened nuclear weapons workers and survivors expected to seek federal compensation for the health toll of contributing to the nation's Cold War buildup of atomic weapons. But six months after workers and their families were allowed to begin applying for the $150,000 lump sums, many applicants are still waiting, with older workers wondering if they will live long enough to see a payout. "Nothing yet," said Kaurich, who filed last year and was not asked for medical records on his 1974 surgery until last month. "Most of the guys are all dead. They should have done something about it a long time ago." Program director Pete Turcic said the process for approving claims can be long and asked applicants to be patient. Of 18,980 claims filed in the first six months, 1,228 cases have been paid out and 74 denied, he said. An additional 2,216 cases have been recommended for approval, and 629 have been recommended for denial. "I understand people are concerned, but we are committed to processing claims as rapidly as possible," Turcic said. Two years ago, Congress approved the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program to provide $150,000, plus medical benefits, for living workers who got sick. Survivors of the dead can apply for the lump sum. The program, administered by the Labor Department, is intended to compensate workers who became ill after being exposed to cancer-causing radiation or silica and beryllium, two metals that can cause lung disease, while working on dangerous weapons materials, often without knowing it. Officials are anticipating 80,000 claims in the first two years of the program. The Energy Department has to verify the person was employed at certain installations when dangerous materials were handled. Then the Department of Health and Human Services has to determine whether the illness was caused by the work. The program covers 318 facilities in 37 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Marshall Islands, with the highest number of sites in New York (38) and Ohio (35). The list includes the University of California at Berkeley, the Great Lakes Carbon Corp. in Chicago, the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab in New Jersey and a Bethlehem Steel operation in Lackawanna, N.Y. Kaurich worked at the Vulcan Crucible Steel Co. in Aliquippa, Pa., 20 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. He said many of the workers died long before the compensation program began. He said eight men in his crew of 10 are already gone. The workers knew the shipments were odd but gave them little thought. Kaurich said he later learned that the uranium was sent to a nuclear plant in Washington state, where it was used to produce plutonium for bombs. Dorothy Baron filed an application in October for her stepfather, Nick Arbutina, a steelworker who worked at the Vulcan plant from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. He died of leukemia in 1984. Baron, 71, said she has run into obstacles because the hospital where Arbutina died no longer has his medical records. Baron said she is mainly concerned for her 89-year-old mother, who lost her first husband to a fire in 1937. "She got nothing then because Social Security was just coming out," Baron said. "It'd be nice if she could get something now." © 2002 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 16 Russia: Stunt Exposes Nuclear-Safety Risks - The St. Petersburg Times. General news from St.Petersburg and Russia - #746, Tuesday, February 19, 2002 By Nabi Abdullaev STAFF WRITER Photo by Igor Tabakov / SPT MOSCOW - In broad daylight, a State Duma deputy, two Greenpeace activists and three NTV camera operators sneaked into a supposedly high-security industrial complex in western Siberia and spent several hours near storage facilities containing 3,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel. The six men took dozens of photographs, shot a video and returned to Moscow undisturbed. "We entered through two-by-two-meter holes in the barbed wire and walked on well-trampled paths, probably made by local citizens," Sergei Mit rok hin, a liberal lawmaker in the Du ma's Yabloko faction, said of his break-in to the Krasnoyarsk Mining and Chemical Plant, which was shown in a special report by NTV broadcast Thursday night. "The guards drove past us several times, and we passed by their sentry boxes, but we pretended to be locals and nobody stopped us." In November, the Krasnoyarsk plant received 41 tons of spent nuclear fuel from the Kozlodui plant in Bulgaria under a controversial new law allowing the import of spent nuclear fuel for reprocessing and storage. Advocates of the law, which was signed by President Vladimir Putin in July, argue that Russia could earn $20 billion over the next decade by importing some 20,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel. However, environmentalists have fought the law, saying that turning Russia into the world's leading nuclear-recycling facility would cause far greater ecological damage than the billions earned could repair. When the first consignment of spent nuclear fuel arrived in Russia from Bulgaria in November, Greenpeace activists de mon strated outside the Nuclear Power Ministry in gas masks and chemical-protection suits. At a news conference in Moscow on Friday, Mitrokhin said that his break-in to the Krasnoyarsk plant was designed to show that Russia isn't ready for the import of radioactive material. The country's system of nuclear safety is not just poor but "nonexistent," he said. Mitrokhin, a member of the presidential commission on controlling the import of spent nuclear fuel, said that, during a hearing on ecological safety in the Duma on Feb. 7, the Nuclear Power Ministry assured deputies that there were no security problems at its facilities. But Mitrokhin said Friday that he could have easily climbed onto the roof of the Krasnoyarsk plant's storage building and got inside it. "I was shaken to see it," he said. "Anybody can come to a depository with extremely dangerous materials and do whatever he wishes near them. And the Nuclear Power Ministry plans to bring 20,000 tons of nuclear supplies from abroad here and leave it adrift." According to Mitrokhin, safety measures at most of Russia's 96 nuclear plants and research centers are not covered by the federal budget at all. The only exception is the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow, which gets enough money to ensure reliable security, he said. As a member of the international coalition fighting terrorism, Russia must be more responsible for the safety of its nuclear facilities, Mitrokhin said, otherwise it will become "the weakest link of the coalition and a potential target for terrorists." Vladimir Chuprov, a Greenpeace nuclear expert, shared his fears. "Several dozen kilograms of regular explosives would be enough to trigger a new Chernobyl there," he said at Friday's news conference. Chuprov said the plant's storage facilities contain 1 billion curies of radioactive waste. According to Russian health standards, if 10 curies are spread over one square kilometer of land, its population must be evacuated immediately, he said. The radioactive discharge from Chernobyl was about 50 million curies, according to Greenpeace. However, the management of the Krasnoyarsk plant insisted last week that security at its storage and transportation facilities remained unbreakable. "We employ several hundred guards, and one regiment of Interior Ministry troops is delegated to guard us," Vasily Zhidkov, the head of the plant, said in the NTV report. It was unclear whether Zhidkov was aware of Mit rokhin's break-in at the time. "If there was an accident during the transportation of spent nuclear fuel by train, we guarantee that it would not lead to radioactive discharge affecting the environment," Pavel Morozov, spokesperson for the plant, said in the report. Neither Zhidkov nor Morozov could be reached for comment about Mitrok hin's claims Friday. Mitrokhin said that he would send a video about the break-in to Putin. In addition, Greenpeace said it has sent letters about the security breaches at the plant to the Federal Security Service and to the Prosecutor General's Office. [Copyright] copyright The St. Petersburg Times 2002 ***************************************************************** 17 N-waste may pass through state Denver Post.com By Mike Soraghan, Theo Stein and Marissa Yaremich [msoraghan@denverpost.com] --> Tuesday, February 19, 2002 - WASHINGTON - President Bush's decision to make a Nevada site the nation's nuclear waste dump means that waste could someday be trucked through Denver and Colorado's mountain passes. According to the Nuclear Waste Project Office, a Nevada state agency opposed to the project, the spent fuel from commercial nuclear reactors, could pass through Colorado on Interstate 70. That would take it through Denver and its suburbs, then through the mountains, including the winding corridor through Glenwood Canyon, on its way to Yucca Mountain, Nev. Rail cars could haul the radioactive waste by rail through Pueblo, through the mountains and Moffat Tunnel to Grand Junction and then to the Yucca site, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. No waste is to be shipped until at least 2010. A February DOE study depicts the waste being trucked to Denver, then being loaded onto trains. Previous studies have indicated the waste would be trucked through the mountains. DOE says it's too early to say exactly what route the waste would take. "Colorado's really in the cross-hairs on this one," said Lisa Gue of Public Citizen, a Ralph Nader group that vehemently opposes the Yucca Mountain plan. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said the waste can be transported safely, and "it poses a greater risks to the communities where it is" now kept since many of the power plants are near urban areas. President Bush approved the site Friday, saying sending the waste to the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas is "necessary to protect public safety, health, and the nation's security." The law gives Nevada 60 days to override Bush's decision. Congress then has 90 legislative days to counter Nevada's objection by majority votes in both houses. The Yucca Mountain issue has split the Colorado delegation along regional lines more than political lines. U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette, D-Denver, Scott McInnis, R-Grand Junction, and U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Ignacio, have expressed concerns about radioactive waste traveling on I-70. DeGette is flatly opposed. U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Boulder, is undecided. U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Loveland, supports the plan because he wants to rid Platteville of a truckload of spent fuel rods from the decommissioned Fort St. Vrain generating plant. "The events of 9/11 have made that site a security risk, which makes it more incumbent that we get that material out of there," said Allard press secretary Sean Conway. All contents Copyright 2002 The Denver Post ***************************************************************** 18 Federal study includes Piketon as possible nuclear-reactor site Saturday, The Columbus Dispatch February 16, 2002 Jonathan Riskind [jriskind@dispatch.com] Dispatch Washington Bureau Chief The site of southern Ohio's shuttered uranium-enrichment facility is being considered as a possible location for a commercial nuclear-power plant, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The agency launched the study as part of an initiative to build new nuclear- power plants in the United States before the end of the decade. Gov. Bob Taft would support building such a plant at the site of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, said Joe Andrews, Taft's spokesman. "We're encouraged by the fact that they're paying attention to the area,'' Andrews said. He said one reason the federal government is looking at the Piketon plant is because Taft has lobbied the Bush administration to find ways to create more jobs at the facility, which employed about 1,700 people when the privatized federal corporation that ran the plant, USEC, ceased operations at the plant last year. Federal officials have indicated they think communities near former government nuclear sites such as Piketon would be receptive to commercial reactors. Ohio has two such plants now, the Perry Nuclear Power Plant near Cleveland and the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Plant near Toledo. Both are owned by FirstEnergy of Akron and are located along Lake Erie. Though about 1,300 people still work at the Piketon site, many employed by government-funded cold-standby and cleanup projects, USEC announced this week that it will be eliminating 440 of those jobs by shifting shipping and transfer operations to its plant in Kentucky beginning in June. Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Lucasville, said he supports the idea of a nuclear plant at the site but urged caution because such a venture could be years away, if it happens at all. Strickland said he wants the Energy Department to move more quickly in building a promised depleted-uranium-recycling plant at Piketon and in trying to keep jobs at the site. Meanwhile, two nuclear utilities -- Exelon and Dominion Resources -- will be working with the department to analyze several government and private locations as possible power-plant sites. The Energy Department announced the venture in a release yesterday after a speech delivered Thursday night by Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham in Washington. The Piketon site will be evaluated along with two other government nuclear sites, the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. The possible private locations were not disclosed. "While there is no guarantee that any of the sites proposed for examination by industry will eventually host future nuclear-power plants, I believe that each of these sites has the right physical characteristics, experienced work forces and supportive local communities to make a nuclear-plant project a success,'' Abraham said. Copyright © 2002, The Columbus Dispatch ***************************************************************** 19 Russia: Nuclear Security System Comes Under Question By Francesca Mereu Liberal Russian lawmaker Sergei Mitrokhin, a lawmaker from the liberal Yabloko party, says he encountered no problems entering a secret nuclear waste dump in central Siberia -- despite having no authorization to be there. At a press conference on 15 February in Moscow, Mitrokhin said his action was aimed at demonstrating that Russia is not ready to begin its proposed plan to import nuclear waste for reprocessing. The lawmaker, who described the country's nuclear safety standards as "non-existent," said the situation has made Russia an easy target for nuclear terrorists. Moscow, 18 February 2002 (RFE/RL) -- Sergei Mitrokhin, a lawmaker from the liberal Yabloko party, last week warned that Russia's nuclear waste facilities lack proper security and could be an easy target for nuclear terrorists. On 9 February, Mitrokhin -- in broad daylight and accompanied by two Greenpeace activists and three NTV cameramen -- entered a high-security nuclear waste processing plant near the central Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk with no intervention by security personnel. At a press conference on 15 February, Mitrokhin described how easy it was to enter the facility. "We got close to the [nuclear waste] storage area of the Krasnoyarsk Mining and Chemical Complex, and we met with no opposition from either the security system or the security guards. After this expedition, if I were asked whether Russia's nuclear security system is good or not, I would answer that the system is neither good nor bad. It is simply non-existent." Mitrokhin says it took his team a little over an hour to walk to the plant's reservoir facility, which holds 3,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel. Mitrokhin, whose remarks came the day after NTV broadcast the Krasnoyarsk footage, said he was "shocked" to discover the apparent ease with which anyone can approach the reservoir -- which is scheduled to receive thousands of additional tons of spent nuclear fuel from abroad according to Russia's new waste-import program. Last July, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law the controversial plan allowing Russia to import and store some 20,000 tons of the world's spent nuclear fuel. The law has attracted widespread condemnation among environmentalists, who believe Russia will be transformed into a nuclear dustbin. Mitrokhin says the Krasnoyarsk complex -- also known as the Gorno-Chemical Plant -- is a crucial cog in the import program, a plan the Nuclear Power Ministry has said will bring in some $20 billion to the nation's coffers. "The Gorno-Chemical Plant is the place where [41 tons of] spent nuclear fuel from Bulgaria are today being stored. It is also the place where a new reservoir for spent nuclear fuel, intended to store nuclear waste from all over the world, is going to be built. [Moreover, authorities] want to build a so-called RT-2 nuclear-waste reprocessing plant there." Mitrokhin says such ambitions -- combined with the apparent disregard for safety he encountered during his trip to the plant -- make for a deeply perilous situation. If Russia continues to leave its nuclear facilities unguarded, the lawmaker says, the country will easily become "a potential target for acts of retaliation by terrorists." As a member of the international antiterror coalition, he adds, Russia is duty-bound to take responsibility for the safety of its nuclear facilities. Vladimir Chuprov, a nuclear expert with Greenpeace, says sites like the Gorno-Chemical Combine are extremely vulnerable to terrorist attacks. The results, he says, would be devastating. "In the instance of a terrorist act, it is possible that there would be an explosion like the one at Chornobyl. Experts say it would only take a few dozen kilograms of common explosives." Mitrokhin, a member of the presidential commission on controlling imports of spent nuclear fuel, says officials from the Nuclear Power Ministry, speaking before the Duma (lower house of parliament) earlier this month, said there were no security risks at any of Russia's 96 nuclear facilities. But Ivan Blokov, another Greenpeace activist (Blokov and Chuprov were not the two Greenpeace employees to travel to the Gorno-Chemical Plant with Mitrokhin. Greenpeace has refused to release the names of the individuals who did go), says greater transparency is needed regarding the activities of the Nuclear Power Ministry, which he described as operating "outside state control and doing what it likes." Moreover, Blokov says few of the country's nuclear plants and research centers receive enough money from the federal budget to maintain even modest security standards. "An interesting example is offered by the Krasnoyarsk Audit Court, which supervised what was going on at the Gorno-Chemical Plant. It turned out that the [plant] had financial problems. The money that the plant receives for spent fuel -- earlier it was $350 for a kilogram, now it's $620 a kilogram -- is enough to pay only part of the expenses. It's not enough money to pay for everything." RFE/RL was not able to reach officials from the Nuclear Power Ministry for comment. But Mitrokhin says he intends to send President Putin a copy of the footage shot by NTV at the Krasnoyarsk plant. © 1995-2001 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc., All Rights Reserved. http://www.rferl.org ***************************************************************** 20 LETTERS: NUCLEAR WASTE DECISION: The Yucca Mountain matter Tuesday, February 19, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Readers offer a variety of viewpoints on the president and the proposed repository To the editor: On Saturday and Sunday there were several articles and editorials on the nuclear waste issue. I cannot believe that Nevada's Republican politicians are "disappointed" with the president's decision. What every Nevada citizen should be feeling is "outrage." All Republicans should declare themselves independents. From this day on, it should be impossible for a Republican to get elected in the state of Nevada. Yucca Mountain is almost a done deal. The Republicans and the president are fairly certain they can get the votes to override the governor's veto. If you look closely, you will find there are many Democrats with either nuclear reactors in their states or thriving casinos or both. Nevadans should have listened more closely to John Sununu. Once the nuclear garbage starts coming our way, all those politicians will start telling people to stay home and gamble "safely" in their states. Besides dumping their garbage on us, they would love to have a bigger piece of the gaming pie. As gaming starts to dry up in Nevada, so will jobs. When that happens, real estate values will drop. Ask people who lived near Three Mile Island how much their houses are worth. We need the gaming industry to bankroll one heck of a fight. We need Sen. Harry Reid to make it clear to all of the politicians that their pet legislation goes nowhere as long as there is a Yucca Mountain project. We need our voters to stand up and say "no" to any and all Republicans. If Kenny Guinn, John Ensign, and Jon Porter want to get elected, they need to change their party affiliations. Yucca Mountain should be the only issue. CHARLES LONG HENDERSON To the editor: It is interesting that none of our politicians or journalists have complained about the sub-critical nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site. These tests deposit plutonium and probably other radioactive materials into cavities with potential subsurface water contamination. And what about the dangers of transporting these weapons to the test site? Could an accident or terrorist action during transport cause contamination? R.L. HUXTABLE LAS VEGAS To the editor: I have lived in the Vegas valley for 18 years and don't want to see Yucca Mountain become a reality. However, no one seems bothered by the continued nuclear testing. A nuclear warhead being detonated at the test site within the same week President Bush decided the fate of a storage facility sends mixed signals from our local politicians and makes the decision to move forward a lot easier for the administration. If storage of nuclear waste is unsafe, then surely detonation is extremely unsafe. So why are our politicians so silent on the latter? I am a big fan of President Bush, but would sure like to see the scientific data supporting Yucca Mountain. If Sen. Harry Reid really does have a video showing the storage canisters failing, then he shouldn't waste any more time showing it the public. What Sen. Reid isn't saying is that he doesn't have the votes needed in the Democrat-controlled Senate to support a Gov. Kenny Guinn veto. I don't think Mr. Bush is a liar, as Sen. Reid proclaims. He believes that Yucca Mountain is scientifically safe. Our Nevada politicians blew it by not proving to him, and to the public, that science does not support it and also by allowing further nuclear weapons testing. BRIAN WALSH LAS VEGAS To the editor: Serves you right. You voted for him -- in fact, Nevada's four electors would have been the difference had they gone the other way. Now you can live with the consequences. BRIAN CORNFORTH SAN DIEGO To the editor: As thousands of Nevadans prayed for President Bush's success in the war effort last weekend, our own Sen. Harry Reid chose to personally attack and vilify the president for his decision to approve Yucca Mountain as a repository for the nation's nuclear waste. In an outburst of partisan rhetoric, Sen. Reid told CNN that the president "lied" when he told Nevadans in the 2000 campaign he'd base his Yucca Mountain decision on "sound science, not politics." The White House was immediately forced to respond that, "Sen. Reid's disagreement on the science is a shameful excuse for a false personal attack against the president" (Review Journal, Feb. 16) I am with the White House on this one. Give us all a break, Sen. Reid. We all know that Yucca Mountain is controversial and complicated, with differing opinions both pro and con within our own state. We suspect the odds are stacked against us in this fight against the federal government. Yet you go out of your way to personally disrespect the president by calling him a liar. This fight is hard enough to win without your shooting off at the lip against a man who is supported by more than 70 percent of the American public (and that includes Nevadans). This fight is essentially a states' rights issue. Let's fight it in the courts on that basis, with both Republicans and Democrats fighting united, hand in hand, working for the good of all Nevadans. By continuing to make this "personal" against President Bush just so he can score a few political points in Nevada, Sen. Reid has only given cause to the White House and the rest of the nation to believe that Nevadans are a bunch of name-calling, unpatriotic, desert renegades. DOUGLAS M. BRYANT LAS VEGAS To the editor: So Nevada Democrats are frothing at the mouth because President Bush gave the go-ahead for nuke waste to come to Nevada. How convenient to overlook the fact that it was J. Bennett Johnston -- a Democrat from Louisiana -- who authored the so-called "Screw Nevada" bill that selected this state for this waste in the first place. State Sen. Dina Titus' statement that Mr. Bush should have at least waited awhile before he made his decision so as not to make it look like a "done deal" just shows how Democrats think. Everything should be done for appearance's sake and political considerations. I have news for you, Ms. Titus, ever since Democrat Johnston put his bill up for consideration this has been a "done deal" -- long before George Bush became president. Nevada's political delegation has known this from the beginning, but chose to play politics, knowing it could mean possible political suicide to admit it. And the Democrats phony finger pointing and crocodile tears are still politics designed to smear the Republicans and divert attention from their role in this issue. ROBERT H. GLANCY LAS VEGAS To the editor: Mayor Oscar Goodman needs to return to defending drug lords and hitmen, because I doubt he will be granted a license to fight the secretary of Energy in the state of Nevada. His honor would do well to cease from threatening physical harm to members of the Cabinet and instead concentrate on bringing three minor league hockey teams to Las Vegas, which not unlike his fantasies of the city's ultimate nuclear annihilation, are also doomed. To all the citizens who plan on moving out of the area when the repository goes online, I have only one thing to say: Bye. BRUCE SCHOWERS LAS VEGAS To the editor: The nuclear repository at Yucca Mountain will bring many jobs and we'll all be rich. But first, we have to move all our young people outside the state. Only those older than 60 can live here, because by the time they all get cancer they will be too old to care. They can work the newly created high-paying jobs and send their piles of money to support their unemployed families of young folks who left the state. As for the casinos, the electric bills will be reduced greatly because of the new desert glow. So, who needs Nevada Power? GAYLE PARKER HENDERSON To the editor: The approval of Yucca Mountain reminds me of situational ethics. I think most people remember the conundrum of the three people adrift in a raft in the middle of the ocean. One person is healthy, one is slightly handicapped, and the other is a senior citizen. The food and water supply is dwindling. The question is, who is the most disposable? Most people choose the senior. Instead of openly discussing the problem and giving it some thought, they toss the senior overboard. Why? Because the thought was that the senior couldn't hold his own and that because his life was close to over it was the only solution. Since Las Vegas is seen as "Sin City" and useless in the eyes of other states, we are being tossed overboard. Everybody has a reason to live and decisions should not be made according to what state is deemed "most useless." No state should be thrown overboard. Not Las Vegas, not New Hampshire, not any state. Nuclear waste should be stored in each and every state that uses nuclear power. PEGGY BUXTON LAS VEGAS To the editor: I have some questions about the nuclear dump: 1. Does anybody stay away from San Diego because of the nuclear reactors and weapons floating around the harbor on Navy ships? How about San Francisco harbor? Seattle? 2. Area Two at Nellis is used for the storage of nuclear weapons. Anybody fleeing? Anybody fretting on how the Air Force moves weapons grade plutonium in and out of Nellis? 3. There are several nuclear power plants upwind from us with above-ground waste. Is that more secure from a terrorist airplane than the same waste stored thousands of feet inside a stone mountain that's downwind from us? 4. Some real estate professionals publicly predict plummeting property values from the nuclear accident which is "certain to happen." Shouldn't those anti-repository activists who also sell time-shares here reveal their knowledge to their buyers? About 10 years ago, Congress held an Energy Committee hearing at UNLV. After our local politicians fumed and fussed about the "careening trucks" and used the "Nevada is not a wasteland" rhetoric, the congressman who ran the committee said, "I'll tell you why Nevada is getting the nuclear repository. Because I'm from Philadelphia and our city alone has more votes in Congress than Nevada does." Still, our leaders have created a self-fulfilling prophecy of our getting the dump without a single benefit. The same leaders now ready themselves to stand in front of national television with a unified message: "Don't come here. Nevada is a dangerous place to be." San Diego, anybody? BOB GORE LAS VEGAS To the editor: Nevadans have known for a long time that the repository at Yucca Mountain is going to be built. After Gov. Kenny Guinn goes to court, and after all the politicians blow off their steam, the repository at Yucca Mountain will still be built. My vote will go to the politician who: a) makes sure the storage and transportation of nuclear materials is safe; and b) brings as many jobs into the state as possible. DALE L. LOWE LAS VEGAS To the editor: The U.S. government has always looked to the state of Nevada in order to help solve internal conflict -- from granting it statehood during the Civil War for financial support, to the development of and experimentation with nuclear weapons, to the development of the nation's nuclear waste dump. We Nevadans must have a glow of pride knowing that we not only lead the nation in teen pregnancy, smoking-related cancer deaths, and suicide rates, but that now we will become the host of the nation's radiated waste. I have a simple proposition to the nation that wishes to impose such a task upon the Silver State: Whereas: the state of Nevada is to be the dumping ground for nuclear waste, we Nevadans will, as always, help the U.S. government in its resolve to keep the status it has gained, but for one small price. For dumping its unwanted waste in our state, The U.S. government shall repay us by providing: 1. Complete comprehensive health care to all Nevada citizens free of charge. 2. All the state's K-12 educational costs, including the building of new schools to support the growth in population. 3. Full college tuition payments to all Nevada high school graduates. 4. The funds to pay every state worker. 5. Money to start and maintain programs that will educate the state's population on the hazards of smoking and teen pregnancy and on suicide prevention. Dear United States of America: It is time for you to help us as we have done for you. JOSE FLORES RENO webmaster@lvrj.com Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 21 Yucca: A merry-go-round of folly STEVE SEBELIUS MORE COLUMNS Tuesday, February 19, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal COLUMN: Steve Sebelius It was a day past Valentine's Day, and Nevada's Republicans still were having trouble saying that oh-so-difficult L-word. Lie, that is. Not love. You see, President Bush had told a little fib two years ago, something about wanting to decide the Yucca Mountain issue based on "sound science, not politics." And, with 293 outstanding scientific questions remaining to be answered according to the General Accounting Office, the president on Friday decided to go ahead with nuclear waste storage in Nevada anyway. He lied. Bush probably won Nevada on the basis of his 2000 promise. When he made it, Gov. Kenny Guinn, U.S. Sen. John Ensign, U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, state Sen. Jon Porter and a host of other Republicans praised Bush, and helped him sell his candidacy to Nevada. And Nevada put Bush over the top in the Electoral College. And it turns out it was a lie. So do Guinn, Ensign, Gibbons, Porter and all the other Republicans feel betrayed? Well, no. They're disappointed. Sad, even. But not betrayed. They're still loyal Republicans, so they don't want to accuse their president of lying through his teeth. That wouldn't do. Gibbons, in fact, went so far as to suggest that Bush was misled by the Energy Department, which has sought the dump for years. He must not realize that Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham is a Bush appointee -- the likelihood of Abraham doing something Bush opposes is the same as Gibbons getting invited to the White House for lunch if he calls the president a liar. Remember, this isn't a partisan issue, Republicans say. Democrats support the dump, too. Former Vice President Al Gore made exactly the same pledge that Bush did in 2000, and former President Bill Clinton had said the same thing before that. They're all the same. Yes, maybe Gore would have moved ahead with the dump, too. But it doesn't matter; he's not in office. What does matter is that Bush issued a statement and then went back on his word. In short, he lied. It's not like he went out of his way to lie, however. It was Nevada Republicans -- who were being beaten like an LAPD suspect on the nuclear waste issue in 2000 -- who begged, pleaded and ultimately prevailed upon the Bush campaign to issue the "sound science, not politics" statement. That helped them sell his candidacy in Nevada and win the presidency. So much for gratitude. Even some Democrats were reluctant to criticize Bush. Mayor Oscar Goodman, usually as cautious in his comments as a Tijuana prostitute is chaste, demurred, saying he would hold back out of respect for the office. U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, however, said on CNN that Bush had given Nevada the big lie, over and over. It's true, but Reid better watch what he says about lies. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, the South Dakota Democrat, once promised that Yucca Mountain is dead so long as the Democrats control the Senate. So if the Democrats in the upper house fail to sustain Guinn's expected veto of the dump idea, then Republicans will be able to say in complete honesty that Daschle broke his promise, too. On that occasion, we'll undoubtedly hear from Reid about how "disappointed" he is about the situation, but it's a sure bet he won't use the L-word, either. But that's all tomorrow's lies. Today, it's Bush who's failed to tell the truth. And our Republicans, whether they'll admit it or not, know it. Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist. His column runs Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at 383-0283 or by e-mail at Steve_Sebelius@lvrj.com. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 22 Resort association to escalate anti-Yucca effort Tuesday, February 19, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal By DAVE BERNS lasvegas.com GAMING WIRE and JAN MOLLER REVIEW-JOURNAL The casino industry's Carson City lobbying arm is set today to announce plans to significantly escalate its anti-Yucca Mountain political effort, four days after President Bush approved the opening of a nuclear waste repository at the isolated Southern Nevada site. Leaders of the Nevada Resort Association, which represents many of the state's largest gaming companies, say they will link up with a state-run effort to publicize the potentially negative effects of a burial ground for highly radioactive nuclear waste 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Bush and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham believe the radioactive material, which scientists estimate will remain deadly for more than 10,000 years, can be safely stored in vaults thousands of feet beneath the mountain's surface. "There was hope that before Friday the issue would be resolved within the (Bush) administration," said Bill Bible, the resort association's president. "Now that the president has made his determination it indicates the battleground is going to be in the U.S. Congress and the courts." Today's news conference is scheduled less than a week after Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman sent a Wednesday letter to the association's members, asking them to increase their efforts to prevent the burial of an estimated 77,000 tons of nuclear waste at the site. Goodman charged that Nevada casino bosses have shown an "eerie silence" toward the issue but said Monday he was pleased to learn of the association's lobbying push. "Let's put it this way: I'm very happy that whatever I said woke somebody up because for the first time in 20 years gaming appears to be getting involved, at least so far as the public is concerned," Goodman said. "We haven't heard a peep from them, with the exception of a few companies like the Fertittas," who operate Station Casinos. The group's membership includes Park Place Entertainment, MGM Mirage, Mandalay Resort Group, Harrah's Entertainment and Station Casinos. Bible declined Monday to discuss specifics of his organization's lobbying efforts, although he said the association will join with a state-managed campaign to defeat the plan to bury the waste at Yucca Mountain. State and local officials have raised $5.4 million for the campaign, which includes the hiring of lawyers in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco to file court challenges. "Over the years we've taken guidance from the governor or the congressional delegation on coordinating the efforts," Bible said. "That would still be the case." Bible and MGM Mirage Senior Vice President Alan Feldman have been critical of Goodman's comments, saying the mayor is unaware of past gaming efforts to defeat the project. Among them: regular closed-door meetings with members of the U.S. House and Senate to discuss Nevada's opposition to the repository. The trade association also passed a resolution opposing the project in 1991, four years after Congress selected Yucca Mountain as the only site to be studied for entombing the nation's nuclear waste. "He's professionally obscured the truth in his life, and he's doing it again now," Feldman said, referring to the mayor's former job as a high-profile criminal defense lawyer. "Furthermore, he's completely incapable of understanding that the political fight to be fought is outside of Nevada." Despite his verbal frustration, Feldman said the mayor's comments do not warrant a stop-Goodman effort in next year's mayoral election. "There's no reason to go after him. We have enough on our plate," Feldman said. Goodman declined to respond directly to Feldman's criticism, saying he would let Las Vegas voters decide if he's been an effective leader. "Why should I respond to him? Let the people decide whether I'm effective or not," Goodman said. "I don't know why they're so protective of themselves if they don't have something to hide." Scott Nielson, executive vice president and general counsel for Station Casinos, thinks Bush's decision to sign off on the repository, not Goodman's comments, was the catalyst behind the industry's decision to increase its involvement. "I think you're going to hear a louder voice from the gaming industry, and I think people are going to contribute some more funds to try to stop this thing," Nielson said. Station recently donated $50,000 to the state-managed anti-Yucca fund. Now that a Nevada nuclear repository is closer to becoming a reality, it also could affect how some companies parcel out political contributions. In recent years, gaming executives have generally hedged their bets by contributing generously to both parties. In the 1999-2000 election cycle, the gaming industry poured nearly $11 million into campaigns for federal office, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, with 52 percent of that going to Democrats. So far in the 2001-2002 election cycle, the industry has given nearly $2.7 million, 60 percent of which went to Republicans. Nielson said the industry will continue to support both parties. But some companies may look less favorably on individual candidates who support the Yucca Mountain project. "I don't know that this is going to necessarily dictate gaming's contributions to one party versus another," Nielson said. "There are a lot of other issues gaming is interested in (besides Yucca Mountain). But it may help the way gaming feels about certain candidates and certain elected officials." Gov. Kenny Guinn is expected to veto Bush's decision some time within the next two months in a move permitted by federal law. The U.S. House and Senate would then have 90 days to override a Guinn veto, with the Republican-controlled House likely to support the president's decision. It is uncertain whether the Democratic-controlled Senate will vote to approve or kill the president's recommendation amid what is expected to be heavy opposition from Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Assistant Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Either way, lawsuits are expected to follow any congressional action. At least three suits have been filed by Yucca opponents within the past nine months. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 23 Public Companies Tweak Accounting to Hide Environmental Debt Environment News Service: By Donald Sutherland WASHINGTON, DC, February 18, 2002 (ENS) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency launched a national campaign in January 2001 to get publicly traded companies to disclose their environmental debts to shareholders as required by regulation. Now, more than a year later, a majority of public companies that have violated federal environmental laws still do not make those disclosures. The EPA is attempting to stop the practices of some corporations that seek by accounting strategies to cover up financial losses and liabilities so these problems do not bring down share prices. [barrels] Leaking hazardous waste drums on an abandoned Superfund site in Texas (Photo courtesy [http://www.tnrcc.state.tx.us/] ) The findings are based on a 1998 EPA study of corporate compliance with Regulation S-K issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which mandates quarterly and annual financial reporting of corporate environmental liability and debt exposure as part of reporting legal proceedings on violation of environmental laws. Three of every four publicly traded U.S. corporations surveyed openly violated the Securities and Exchange Commission's environmental financial debt accounting regulations, the EPA disclosed. Congressional committees trying to unravel the Enron accounting scandal where hundreds of millions of dollars of debt was hidden illegally from shareholders do not appear to know about this concealment of environmental debt. None of the investigating House or Senate subcommittee personnel contacted by ENS were aware of the EPA's charge of gross financial environmental debt departures on the part of companies trading on the U.S. stock exchanges. The hiding of corporate environmental debt from shareholders is a significant issue in the stock market where corporate exposure to environmental financial costs involving compliance, cleanup, and legal fees is estimated by the insurance underwriting industry at over 100 billion dollars. A.M. Best Company, a global insurance service firm with corporate headquarters in Oldwick, New Jersey, reported in November 2001 they expect the property-casualty industry to ultimately incur upwards of $121 billion in net asbestos and environmental losses. Corporate noncompliance with U.S. environmental laws is being rewarded when the SEC does not vigorously enforce its environmental accounting filing regulation, a top EPA legal official says. "This departure from SEC mandated disclosure puts good companies at a disadvantage in the absence of reporting EPA legal proceedings," says Shirin Venus, attorney for the EPA's Office of Planning, Policy Analysis and Communications (OPPAC). "Enforcement would give assurance disclosures are being made correctly and provide incentives for better performance," she says. [dump] Dumping in a Pickaway County, Ohio landfill exposed one company to Superfund expenditures (Photo courtesy EPA) In January 2001, directors of OPPAC together with Office of Regulatory Enforcement directors sent the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance and Division of Enforcement directors notice of the EPA's national campaign to promote environmental SEC disclosure in a document entitled, "Notice of SEC Registrants' Duty to Disclose Environmental Legal Proceedings." It is the SEC's job to administer and enforce the federal securities laws to protect investors and to maintain fair, honest, and efficient markets. But in the past 20 years the SEC has only once enforced its Regulation S-K financial environmental accounting regulation, setting a precedent for other financial debt departures in the stock markets. Corporations often hide their financial environmental risks from their SEC filings by stating the costs and claims will not have a material adverse effect on operations and financial position. Executives argue that pending litigation cannot be qualified and the assessed financial risks are too small to spell out given the company's size. The U.S. accounting auditing bodies issuing opinions for those firms agree with that stance. Currently, all companies publicly traded on U.S. stock exchanges must file reports on their significant environmental material expenses both quarterly and annually to shareholders under SEC laws. The SEC threshold reporting requirements of Item 5 of SEC Regulation S-K mandates disclosure of: + all environmental proceedings, including governmental proceedings, which are material to the business or financial condition of the registrant + damage actions, or governmental proceedings involving potential fines, capital expenditures or other charges, in which the amount involved exceeds 10 percent of current assets + governmental proceedings, unless the registrant reasonably believes such proceedings will result in fines of less than $100,000 Critics say these definitions do not catch debts, fines and capital expenditures for smaller amounts which can pile up to the point where they make a real difference in the worth of a company that whould be reflected in its share price if disclosed. [Denver] Capping heavy metals contamination on a site in Denver (Photo courtesy EPA) Corporations are allowed too much leeway for interpretation of what is financially material when it comes to disclosure of environmental liability and cleanup costs to shareholders according to the Corporate Sunshine Working Group. The nationwide coalition of more than 60 organizations is spearheading an effort to have the Securities and Exchange Commission strictly enforce and improve securities law requiring corporate filing of environmental material expenses. The coalition includes from money management firms such as Kinder Lydenberg &Domini, to labor organizations such as the United Steelworkers of America, to environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth. The Corporate Sunshine Working Group cites a class action lawsuit filed by shareholders of U.S. Liquids against the firm for concealing material environmental information which resulted in an artificially inflated share price. "This company claimed that its liquid waste management services, which generated more than 90 percent of the U.S. Liquids revenue, would result in 20 percent earnings per share growth," said Michelle Chan-Fishel, international policy analyst for Friends of the Earth. "Little did investors know that the company was concealing its illegal dumping activities," she says, "and when one of the company's most important facilities was heavily fined and temporarily shut down, share value fell by over 50 percent." The World Resources Institute (WRI), a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, DC, released reports in 2000 that support the contentions of the Corporate Sunshine Working Group showing pulp and paper companies reviewed are not disclosing environmental risks that may significantly affect their financial performance. "This lack of disclosure infringes Securities and Exchange Commission rules and directly threatens investors in pulp and paper companies," said WRI economists Robert Repetto and Duncan Autin in their reports, "Coming Clean: Corporate Disclosure of Financially Significant Environmental Risk, and "Pure Profit: The Financial Implications of Environmental Performance." In February 1997, three environmental groups - Friends of the Earth, the Sierra Club, and Citizen Action - sent a letter to the SEC, demanding an investigation of the entertainment giant Viacom Inc. for failing to report an alleged $300 million in Superfund clean up liabilities in their annual report to shareholders. Price Waterhouse LLP, whose personnel audited Viacom's annual report, issued a clean opinion for Viacom's financial report to shareholders without including the questionable Superfund liability figures. Viacom executives claim the EPA and environmental groups were overstating the cleanup costs. Martin Freedman, professor of accounting at the College of Business and Economics at Towson University in Maryland, believes Viacom's Superfund accounting departure is not unusual. "My 1996 study of the Environmental Protection Agency's list of 900 publicly traded potentially responsible parties listed on the National Priority [Superfund] List found most companies make little or no disclosure effort on environmental expense/liability reporting," he says, "and it's getting more and more overt." In 1998 the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a bulletin asking companies to abide more strictly by SEC rules requiring complete reporting of corporate material expenses. "The SEC sees a growing problem with a lot of companies just passing off required generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) as immaterial right in front of our faces," said Bob Burns, chief counsel in the SEC's Office of Chief Accountant. "It's an attitude which comes across as telling us keeping good books is immaterial, and right now our primary focus isn't the environment, but in preparing financial statements in general," said Burns in 1998. [sewer] Illegal storm sewer discharge to an unnamed tributary of the Cuyahoga River (Two photos courtesy Ohio EPA) Four years after release of the bulletin, SEC officials are still reluctant to review corporate failures to file 10-K form filings detailing significant environmental material expenses. "The Office of the Chief Accountant has not recently reviewed and is not in a position to comment on the Environmental Protection Agency study," says John Morrissey, deputy chief accountant for the SEC. "The Commission's Division of Corporation Finance selectively reviews filings with the Commission for compliance with the SEC's disclosure requirements, including disclosure related to environmental legal proceedings," says Morrissey. [discharge] Industrial waste discharge, Mahoning River, Ohio Under current federal securities law, "material" information is anything that an average investor ought reasonably to be informed of before buying a security. The definition of environmental materiality as anything affecting air, land, water or public health is considered an old fashioned definition in many corporations. Instead, many auditors and their business clients today define environmental materiality as any event or news which will affect a company's revenues by a 10 percent threshold level. Burns says, "Senior management in a lot of firms excuses departures from GAAP at three to 10 percent levels." The Corporate Sunshine Working Group claims that under these reporting conditions shareholders are often left out of the loop. They never learn of unreported controversies which can ultimately effect the company's financial position, and therefore its share price. Attorney Sanford Lewis, co-chair of the Corporate Sunshine Working Group, says, "Our objective is to have the SEC uniformly enforce their current environmental accounting regulations and create more clarification for existing rules." "Part of the problem with the current SEC regulations is there are inappropriate threshold reporting requirements in Regulation S-K which limits SEC 10-K annual and 10-Q quarterly reporting to shareholders of ongoing legal controversies and citizen actions," says Lewis. "These financial environmental accounting departures effect the EPA's operations," says Venus. "Market mechanisms which require full transparency are undermined by these departures, and it sets a disincentive for others to comply if competitors aren't," she says. © Environment News Service (ENS) 2001. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 24 Goshutes: Task Force Findings Do Little to Help Utah Tribes Salt Lake Tribune -- Tuesday, February 19, 2002 BY JUDY FAHYS An effort by the state to come up with economic development ideas that might entice the Skull Valley Goshute Indians to drop a proposal for a nuclear waste storage site on their Utah reservation has fizzled -- too little, too late, for its critics, and with no guarantee of needed funds. The result of a blue-ribbon study to look at the ways the state might help provide jobs on Utah 's economically depressed reservations, the report also was aimed at enticing the Goshute Indians away from the money that would come from turning 125 acres of their Tooele County reservation into a pad for storing spent nuclear-plant fuel. But when the task force published its report in December, one thing became clear: No one came up with anything to make the tiny Skull Valley band give up its $3.1 billion waste enterprise, no doubt the richest project ever proposed for a Utah reservation. The report, prepared for state lawmakers, is being attacked on several fronts, largely for failing to deliver a prescription for reservation blight and for its treatment of the tribes. Skull Valley Chairman Leon Bear, like other tribal leaders, complained that the task force worked on its own, without input from those who have dealt with the issues for generations -- Utah Indians themselves. "I have nothing against the state helping," he said. "But I do oppose the state coming in and trying to bully us into doing something they want us to do." Rep. Jim Gowans was one of those who pushed last winter to recast an economic development proposal originally advanced by Gov. Mike Leavitt: to give the Goshutes $2 million for economic development. When it was clear the Republican-controlled Legislature would not fund the initiative, the Tooele Democrat and other House lawmakers sought a broader study that would encompass all tribes. In the end, he said the task force's findings fell short of giving lawmakers concrete ideas for solutions. "They haven't got anything," he said. The 127-member band, in a partnership with Private Fuel Storage LLC, the out-of-state utility consortium behind the nuclear-waste plan, want to built a giant concrete pad to serve as a parking lot of sorts big enough to hold all the nuclear waste produced in the 40 years of the U.S. commercial power program. The site, which could be licensed by federal authorities as soon as next fall, would hold steel and concrete casks of the lethally dangerous waste for up to 40 years, until it could be moved into permanent disposal. President Bush last week approved a plan to make Yucca Mountain the nation's permanent storage dump. Under the Private Fuel Storage proposal, waste would be stored in Skull Valley until Yucca Mountain is ready to receive it, but its completion could be years away. While PFS has worked closely with the Skull Valley band on licensing, building and staffing the facility, the state has only promised development aid that never seems to materialize, Bear said. "If you want to make good relations with Skull Valley," he said, "then you can't target Skull Valley in the goals" to try to derail the nuclear waste proposal. Representatives of the Navajo and Shoshone tribes raised similar concerns at a meeting in January with task force leader Dianne Nielson, executive director of Utah's Department of Environmental Quality and longtime coordinator of the state's opposition to the Goshute plan. Clarence Rockwell, executive director of the Utah Navajo Commission, said the tribe asked to talk with the panel as soon as it learned about the task force. But, he said, it was given only a brief meeting with no time for dialogue or brainstorming with tribal leaders. "They know firsthand what problems are being experienced by the tribes," Rockwell said. "If there was more of a dialogue, there would be better recommendations." Rep. David Litvack, D-Salt Lake City, suggested the task force findings can do little to stop the Goshute proposal, although it may help in the long run. The task force report notes that up to one in three Utah Indian students drops out of high school and that just more than one in 100 Indian students in the state's higher education system earn a degree. Members of Utah tribes are more than twice as likely to have diabetes than other Utahns, nearly three times as likely to die in car crashes, nearly five times as likely to die in other accidents, and almost twice as likely to succumb to pneumonia or influenza. And the task force found successful projects already operating on the reservations, such as the Uinta River Technology Project on the Ute reservation in Duchesne County. Unfortunately, the infrastructure and seed money needed for projects like these is scant, and the state has little to offer. "Something does need to be done," Litvack concluded. No doubt the panel's job contained a built-in conflict from the start. On one hand, state government has a stake in promoting good relations with a neighboring government, whose borders are within the state's and whose citizenry relies on roads, business, schools and social services beyond reservation boundaries. On the other hand, the report's stated intent was "to prevent the siting of a nuclear waste facility within the state," a goal opposite the legal and moral principle that tribes are sovereign nations with a government-to-government relationship to states. The state actually has opposed the Goshutes' economic development idea on several fronts -- political, legal and in the media. "We are dealing with complex issues, complex problems here and we are not going to find any quick-fix solutions," said Forrest Cuch, executive director of the Utah Division of Indian Affairs, who sat in on the task force meeting but was not a member of the panel. Lawmakers received a copy of the task force report, and a few have read it. Neither Leavitt nor his legislative liaisons recalled plans to ask lawmakers for money to implement the ideas. When presenting the task force findings to Indian economic development officials last week, Nielson noted it included a disclaimer about promises: " This report [does not] come with any commitment of money for economic development." She urged the officials not be discouraged but to view the report as a starting point for finding solutions. She told them: "There is still much work to be done." Nielson has parceled out the report's objectives to members of the Native American Coordinating Board for further action. © Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune ***************************************************************** 25 Nuclear waste decision provokes storm of protest New Scientist The World's No.1 Science & Technology News Service 18:20 18 February 02 US President George W. Bush's decision to turn Yucca Mountain into one of the world's biggest underground radioactive waste dumps has provoked a storm of protest from politicians and environmentalists. The flat-topped ridge in the Nevada desert, 100 miles north west of Las Vegas, is now destined to become the final resting place for 77,000 tonnes of US nuclear waste. Waste from civil and military operations is currently stored above the ground in 131 facilities across 39 states. In endorsing a recommendation from his energy secretary, Spencer Abraham, on 15 February, Bush argued that proceeding with Yucca Mountain would protect public safety, health and national security. "Successful completion of this project would isolate in a geological repository at a remote location highly radioactive materials now scattered throughout the nation," he said. But opponents warn that transporting 100,000 truck-loads of radioactive waste to Nevada could tempt terrorists to attack and explode them. "President Bush has dropped the equivalent of 100,000 dirty bombs on America," said local Democratic senator, Harry Reid. Law suits The Republican governor of Nevada, Kenny Guinn, has filed the latest in a series of law suits in an attempt to force Bush to revoke his decision. He has also promised to veto the decision in Congress, which will trigger a full-scale congressional debate. Environmentalists are also worried that Bush has chosen the wrong site, because of mounting scientific evidence that it might not be safe. They cite a report from Congress's US Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board in January, 2002, which described the technical basis for predicting the performance of Yucca Mountain as "weak to moderate". The fear is that radioactivity could leak from the burial ground, and contaminate water supplies. "The site is crisscrossed with geologic faults, official computer models used to assess site suitability are riddled with uncertainties, and federal regulations have been changed or set aside several times to accommodate it," said Arjun Makhijani, president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, in Takoma Park, Maryland. "President Bush should reverse his decision." Last November, a report by the General Accounting Office urged Bush to indefinitely postpone his decision on Yucca Mountain, because of doubts over whether it could be built as planned. Makhijani believes that a deep repository could be the best long-term solution to the US's nuclear waste storage problem. But an ideal site has yet to be found, he says. Rob Edwards Correspondence about this story should be directed to latestnews@newscientist.com. ***************************************************************** 26 Lawmakers, lobbyists gear for a long battle Las Vegas SUN February 18, 2002 11 freshmen senators could be the key By Benjamin Grove < [grove@lasvegassun.com] > WASHINGTON -- Lobbyists and lawmakers on both sides of the Yucca Mountain issue already are looking ahead to the showdown in Congress. They figure they have roughly 150 days -- at most -- before legislative shootouts on the House and Senate floors. "Clearly, this is going to be a tough fight," said Anna Aurilio, legislative director for U.S. Public Interest Research Group, which opposes the Yucca project. "There's going to be a massive lobbying effort on this issue." The clock is ticking: Now that President Bush has endorsed the controversial nuclear waste plan, Gov. Kenny Guinn plans to file a formal objection within 60 days. The House and Senate would vote within 90 days on whether to override the objection. That gives Nevada lawmakers maybe five months to bend ears and twist arms. If they convince a majority of their colleagues to vote with them in either the House or Senate, the Yucca project would grind to a dramatic halt -- and America would essentially be back to the drawing board in a search for a solution to nuclear waste. "This is a high-stakes game," said Michael O'Donovan, spokesman for Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. Few predict the House will support the Nevadans. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said the vote likely will be about what it was in early 2000, the last time the House voted on a Yucca-related issue. Just 167 of 435 lawmakers voted with the Nevadans against the bill. "It think it is, and it always has been, an uphill battle for Nevada in Congress," Gibbons said. The Senate vote could be closer. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has said perhaps 40 senators are currently on his side. He needs a majority, 51. Generally -- not always -- senators vote on Yucca issues based less on party allegiances and more on whether senators have nuclear power plants with waste piling up in their states. In the coming months lobbyists will give extra attention to the Senate's 11 freshmen -- two Republicans, including Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., and nine Democrats -- who have not yet voted on Yucca-related legislation. Seven freshmen have nuclear plants in their states. Among the freshmen is Sen. Jean Carnahan, D-Mo., who likely will be heavily targeted. Missouri has no nuclear power plants. Waste bound for Nevada would be shipped across Missouri's midsection, through St. Louis and Kansas City. A Carnahan aide said she had not publicly announced her stance. "We'll see how the debate goes," Carnahan spokesman Tony Wyche said. "She's very much opposed to having waste shipped through the state. That's the prism through which we will be watching the debate." Unlike Yucca votes in the past decade, Nevada this year will have a Republican senator helping to round up votes. "Baseball great Yogi Berra said, 'It ain't over 'til it's over' and it ain't over," Ensign said. "Nevada has earned its name and reputation as the 'Battle Born' state. Now the real battle will begin." But the heavy lifting probably will fall to Reid, and close ally Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. Daschle vowed Friday to stand by Reid, his top lieutenant, calling Bush's decision "premature and irresponsible." A Daschle aide said he and Reid were mulling strategies together. "We're looking at our options, but we don't want to telegraph what we're going to do," Daschle spokeswoman Ranit Schmelzer said. Options are limited; filibusters will not be allowed on the Yucca vote. Meanwhile, Yucca proponents in the Senate are gearing up for the vote, too. Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, the top Republican on the Senate Energy Committee, will lobby undecided senators one-on-one as the vote approaches, said David Woodruff, Murkowski's committee spokesman. Murkowski will renew old arguments that Yucca Mountain is key to increasing nuclear power in America -- and to the nation's energy security, Woodruff said. Murkowski will argue that 20 years of intensive study have proved the Yucca site safe. "President Bush and Secretary Abraham reached their decision using the sound and objective science that must guide all policy-makers through each step of this project," Murkowski said Friday. Murkowski also will stress that Yucca Mountain is the best place to keep waste out of the reach of terrorists. Yucca foes argue that transporting waste from nuclear power plants and defense sites nationwide risks a terrorist strike. Nuclear industry lobbyists will join Murkowski. The industry's top lobby group, the Nuclear Energy Institute, is organizing its own lobbyists, plus hiring others. NEI spokesman Mitch Singer declined to disclose NEI's vote count. "It doesn't behoove us to do it, and it's very difficult to estimate at this time anyway," Singer said. A handful of national environmental groups in Washington will target lawmakers, too, and push the terrorism issue. The activists are fewer in number and most give no campaign contributions to lawmakers, they say. "We're up against millions of dollars in nuclear industry contributions," Aurilio said. Anti-Yucca forces will focus on several issues as they approach lawmakers, said Michael Marriote, of the Nuclear Energy and Resource Service, a Washington-based anti-nuclear group. They must convince the politicians that approving Yucca Mountain would not eradicate waste from their districts. As long as nuclear reactors produce electricity, the plants produce waste, Marriote said. There will always be some waste stored on-site at plants, he said. Marriote said the nuclear industry often stresses that 3,000 shipments of high-level radioactive waste have been made safely in the last 35 years. But most of those shipments were over very short distances -- not cross-country to Nevada, Marriote said. "And if this (Yucca) program is approved, there will be more shipments in the first year than they have made in the last 30," Marriote said. Marriote said anti-Yucca forces remain optimistic about the Senate vote. "This sounds naive and idealistic, but despite the money of the nuclear industry, the voice of the public can sway the day," Marriote said. "It has in the past and it can again. I don't think anyone here believes this is a lost cause." All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 27 Debate to focus on 'reasonable expectations' Las Vegas SUN February 18, 2002 By Mary Manning The key words in last week's choice of Yucca Mountain as a high-level nuclear waste repository -- uttered by both Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and President Bush -- were that the selection was "based on sound scientific principles." Scientific principles are the basis for an argument that will continue in Congress and the courts for years over what is probably the most complex public works project ever attempted, supporters and critics agree. Behind those principles is a concept that has become a focus of debate over Yucca Mountain: reasonable expectations. The Energy Department, in its 20 years of research, has concluded a repository at Yucca Mountain will work within "reasonable expectations" using multiple barriers -- the mountain's volcanic rock, steel alloy containers and titanium shields -- to keep nuclear waste from contaminating the environment. It bases those expectations on computer models that use information gleaned from an exploratory tunnel at Yucca Mountain and from decades of underground nuclear bomb tests at the Nevada Test Site. Scientists use the models to forecast various possible events, from how the mountain might react as the radioactive waste heats up the rock to the effect of groundwater on waste containers. DOE scientists say their exhaustive work leaves no reason not to believe that the nuclear waste will be safely contained for 10,000 years -- the federal government's benchmark for the repository. Energy Department scientists believe that's how long it will take for the radioactive waste to become non-poisonous. But even the Energy Department admits it cannot assure absolute performance from a repository, Peter Swift, manager of the department's performance assessment strategy, said. "I hope people are not asking the exact future of the mountain, because that is unachievable." That uncertainty is why some critics are calling for a delay in or the end of the Yucca Mountain project. Nevada officials, who oppose the repository, said the DOE should disqualify the site as a dump because it cannot prove its theories. Part of the problem is no one can predict what will happen in 10,000 years -- all of recorded history covers less than that time period. TRW Environmental Safety Systems Inc., the former contractor for Yucca Mountain, said in a 2001 report that studies provided "reasonable assurance" that a repository would work, but "uncertainties regarding repository performance over the next 10,000 years certainly do exist and may never be completely eliminated." Gov. Kenny Guinn, in a Jan. 24 letter to Abraham, noted that, "our slot machines have better odds than that." Another part of the problem is that the information the DOE used in its computer models consisted of estimates, not actual measurements, said John Bartlett, DOE director of the nuclear waste program from 1991 to 1993 and now a state consultant. That means the DOE is basing its future estimates on current estimates, which Bartlett said is not enough scientific evidence to make the case that a repository would meet reasonable expectations. The DOE doesn't expect its scientists to have all of the answers now. Officials say research will continue throughout the respository's construction and over the decades that will be required to fill it with nuclear waste. They argue that advances in science will be put to use to ensure the repository remains safe. In fact, the department has asked for a flexible design plan so that the size and shape of the repository can change as more is discovered. It also wants the nuclear tomb to remain open for up to 100 years so that future generations can retrieve the waste if it becomes a valuable resource for generating power in new reactors. "Not all of the questions are answered," Bill Boyle, senior policy adviser to the DOE's Yucca Mountain Project, said. "But the Department of Energy expects to meet reasonable expectations of performance." Whether those expectations are reasonable ultimately will be up to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is charged with licensing a repository before it can be built. The NRC already has expressed doubts about the DOE's scientific work and the assumptions it uses. It points out that 293 of 300 scientific and technical questions initially posed have yet to be answered. For example, the DOE does not know how fast water from the surface of the mountain would reach wastes buried 1,000 feet below -- a key question in terms of potential groundwater pollution. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission also has expressed concern about the possibility of a volcano erupting through the vaults where waste containers would be buried. The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, and the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, an independent panel set up by Congress in 1987, have expressed similar doubts about the quality of the science. But none has called for the end of the project. The NRC is waiting to weigh all of the evidence to determine what is reasonable, William Reamer, deputy director of the NRC's Division of Waste Management, said. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 28 Yucca: Legislature has few options in 2003 Las Vegas SUN February 18, 2002 By Erin Neff If the Nevada Legislature were in session right now, the 64 lawmakers could have a say in the Yucca Mountain fight. But meeting just 120 days every two years leaves the Legislature without a role in the current battle, and there are few options when it does convene next year. Short of resolutions condemning the federal government's decision to build a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, state lawmakers really can't do much. "I'd love to see us as a state invoke the 10th amendment and see how far we could get," Sen. Ann O'Connell, R-Las Vegas, said. But O'Connell doesn't know quite how Nevada can legally argue for state's rights when her own Legislature couldn't pass a bill seeking to study and limit federal mandates that come without funding. "We couldn't get that out of committee," O'Connell said. "It's hard." Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said that while the Legislature is committed to "doing anything we can," the reality, when it comes to disputes between state and federal governments, is a bit different. "We could pass some law governing the shipment or any other methods regulating the nuclear waste, but it would probably get shot down as a Commerce Clause violation or a federal government exemption," said Buckley, an attorney with Clark County Legal Services. The federal government has constitutional powers over states -- such as regulating interstate commerce -- that supersede the states' rights arguments of the 10th amendment. The state is already bracing for a lawsuit from the Energy Department stemming from the recent decision by the state engineer not to extend water permits to the DOE at the mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. "Certainly there are ways we can try to mess with them," said Assemblyman Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas. "But, most attempts have been pretty quickly shot down. "Can we do something? Yes. Will it work? I don't know. That's quite an opponent." Beers is even more skeptical of battling Washington, D.C. with a 10th amendment argument, "since they've lost that document back there." Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, said the Legislature must support the congressional delegation's efforts and pass resolutions. "Some people say it's just paper, but it shows we're unified in our opposition," Titus said. Titus also said she worries about moving beyond an anti-Yucca resolution by crafting bills regarding transportation routes or other related matters before the state exhausts its fight. "You have to be careful that you don't get into that implied consent problem," Titus said. During the 2001 Legislature, state Sen. Jon Porter, R-Boulder City, introduced a resolution urging Congress to find transportation routes outside of the Las Vegas Valley in the event Yucca Mountain was approved. Another resolution, sponsored by state Sen. Bill O'Donnell, R-Las Vegas, urged the Energy Department to transport waste on a rail line outside of the Las Vegas if the dump were approved. Critics said both issues could give the federal government the impression Nevada was willing to accept the waste. Most lawmakers also flinch at the mere mention of bargaining with the federal government for benefits, although O'Donnell and Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, have both proposed that in the past. Buckley said the best thing the Legislature can do to help in the Yucca Mountain fight is to appropriate money to the Nevada Protection Fund -- an account established by Gov. Kenny Guinn for the state fight's legal and public relations expenses. "It's an investment Nevada can't afford not to make," Buckley said. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 29 Casinos to launch Yucca blitz Las Vegas SUN Today: February 19, 2002 at 10:55:34 PST Gaming industry to step up lobbying efforts By Jeff German The casino industry is weighing in with money and political muscle in the state's fight against President Bush's decision to send the nation's high-level nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain. The industry's two political arms, the Nevada Resort Association and the American Gaming Association in Washington, are leading the charge in the stepped-up industrywide effort. NRA President Bill Bible said this morning that his organization, which represents the largest casino companies in the state, has set aside $100,000 for an anti-Yucca Mountain fund that is expected to grow with additional contributions from individual members. Bible said the money will be used in the state's legal and lobbying campaign against Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. "The fight now has moved to Congress and the courts, and it will require a different level of effort," Bible said. AGA President Frank Fahrenkopf, the industry's chief Washington lobbyist, said his group passed a $500,000 dues increase in December in anticipation of having to intensify lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill against Yucca Mountain. Fahrenkopf said most of that increase will go toward helping Nevada's congressional delegation persuade Congress to sustain Gov. Kenny Guinn's anticipated veto of the president's decision. "It's going to be tough," Fahrenkopf said. "The overwhelming number of members of Congress are supportive of Yucca Mountain." Bible and top casino industry executives were to announce the new campaign at a news conference this morning at the Thomas &Mack Center. Guinn, who has been the leading the state effort, and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who has been in charge of the fight in Washington, both planned to attend the news conference. "This has been in the making for some time," Guinn said. "We're getting down to the wire, and we're going to need more money. Everyone one of (the casino executives) I've talked to has told me they're willing to step up to the plate." Guinn said the industry's contributions will be an "immense help" in the fight. Reid echoed those words. "It's going to be a big help to us," he said. "It's too bad that Bush double-crossed us." Reid called Bush a "liar" Friday for breaking a Yucca Mountain promise to Nevadans during his 2000 campaign for president. Reid charged that Bush went against his pledge to base his nuclear waste decision on sound science. Guinn already has raised $5.4 million, primarily in public monies, to battle Bush and the Energy Department, which oversees Yucca Mountain, in the courts and win over allies along the nuclear waste shipping routes across the country. He said he was hoping the NRA ultimately would contribute $500,000 in private funds to the cause. Stations Casinos recently gave $50,000 to the state fund. Fahrenkopf said it became more urgent for the industry to step up its effort because of the pending timelines in the Yucca Mountain decision-making process. Guinn has 60 days to veto the president's decision, and Congress then has 90 days to override the governor's veto with a simple majority in both houses. Nevada's best chance of sustaining the veto lies in the Senate, where Reid, the majority whip, has persuaded Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota to help him kill any Yucca Mountain measures, Fahrenkopf said. The industry's new campaign, though in the making for months, comes after Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman blasted gaming executives last week for playing a greater role in the Yucca Mountain fight. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 30 On the Road to Yucca Mountain (washingtonpost.com) Tuesday, February 19, 2002; Page A14 It's easy to understand why Herbert Gilliland [letters, Feb. 5] is astonished at the number of shipments of lethal waste that could occur if Nevada's Yucca Mountain becomes the country's nuclear waste dump. Nuclear waste is perhaps the deadliest material created by humans. A person standing a few feet away from irradiated fuel taken from a reactor receives a lethal dose of radiation in seconds. Even after the waste has cooled for 10 years, it is still so radioactive that a person standing a few feet away would get a lethal dose in less than three minutes. Waste from commercial nuclear reactors is so radioactive that transport casks to shield us from the radiation would be too heavy to be economically transported. Current truck casks, designed to hold a ton or so of irradiated fuel, weigh a whopping 25 to 26 tons and still leak some radiation. The bottom line is that nuclear waste cannot be transported safely. The 50 million Americans living in 43 states within one mile of potential nuclear waste transport routes should urge their elected officials to oppose these risky shipments. ANNA AURILIO Legislative Director U.S. Public Interest Research Group Washington • Arjun Makhijani [op-ed, Feb. 13] said, "Yucca Mountain is a poor site. Federal Regulations have already been changed or set aside several times to accommodate it." This is a distortion. No changes in regulations have been made for this reason. The Yucca Mountain site is very promising. The geology is relatively uncomplicated, and stable tunnels can be readily excavated. The arid climate results in low infiltration of water to a repository, and only a small amount would seep into the tunnels, where it could readily drain downward through fractures. The extremely thick unsaturated zone allows the waste to be placed 500 feet below the surface and still be 500 feet above the water table. Because the tunnels do not have to be backfilled with clay or crushed rock as in repositories below the water table, they will remain accessible for monitoring and retrieval for centuries. Natural passive ventilation of the tunnels can help to remove heat and water. Earthquakes do occur but have only minor effects underground. Studies of the small volcanoes in the region indicate low risk of penetration of a repository, with limited consequences. Much of the debate is over mathematical models that predict risks for 10,000 years to inhabitants near the repository. Because Yucca Mountain lies in a closed basin near Death Valley, the lowest point in the United States, these are the only persons who could ever be at any risk. EUGENE H. ROSEBOOM Jr. Bethesda © 2002 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 31 Neighbors doubt safety of Yucca Mountain site sunspot.net - Nuclear tests blamed for cancer deaths By Mike Adams Sun National Staff Originally published February 19, 2002 AMARGOSA VALLEY, Nev. - Just mention the words radiation and Yucca Mountain, and many folks hereabouts will complain that the federal government has nuked them again. Yucca Mountain, which President Bush has just designated as the nation's nuclear waste depository, is just 20 miles away. It sits on the edge of the Nevada Test Site, where the government exploded 1,100 nuclear devices, including 14 atmospheric tests, during the Cold War. The blasts were said to be safe, but years later, civilians exposed to fallout and military personnel, some of whom marched into smoking bomb craters, became ill with cancer and blamed the government. Saloonkeeper Doris M. Jackson and other Amargosa Valley residents point to the nuclear testing program as proof that the government can't be trusted when it comes to Yucca Mountain. The government lied about the danger of fallout from the tests, they say, and is lying when it says that nuclear waste can be safely entombed in the mountain for 10,000 years. Jackson, whose State Line Saloon and Gambling Hall looks so much like the Old West that one could imagine bumping into Wyatt Earp's ghost at the bar, doubts that the technology exists to keep nuclear pollutants from seeping into ground water beneath Yucca Mountain. "Think of 10,000 years," she said. "Ten thousand years ago, we were nomads wandering the Earth. Five hundred years ago, Shakespeare was writing Romeo and Juliet. Three thousand years ago, Amargosa Valley was completely under water. We have no right to leave this nuclear legacy for future generations to deal with." Under the plan approved by Bush, 77,000 tons of nuclear waste and spent fuel would be transported by train and truck from 131 commercial, military and research reactors in 39 states to be entombed beneath Yucca Mountain. Nevada can veto Bush's approval, but that veto can be overridden by a majority vote by both houses of Congress. Jackson said the value of land in Amargosa Valley has tripled over the past 10 years, but that once nuclear waste begins arriving, prices will plummet. "Nobody is going to want to buy the crops that we grow out here," she said. "No one is going to want to live near Yucca Mountain." As Jackson speaks, some of her customers are playing one-armed bandits while others drink at the bar. The saloon sits along Route 373, a quarter-mile from the California border. If you drive south about 20 miles and hang a right, you'll wind up in Death Valley National Park. The saloon has the unpretentious air of a workingman's watering hole. Jackson said her clientele includes workers from the test site, and that allegiance to their jobs prevents them from speaking openly against Yucca Mountain. "They say, 'I work at the test site, and I'm OK,' and they never think of the people who worked there and died after being exposed to radiation," she said. Putting a national repository at Yucca Mountain will not end the nuclear waste problem, Jackson said - it will increase it. "When this tunnel gets full, they will simply build another one right beside it," she said. "We won't have one, we'll have two or three or maybe four. This will go on as long as we keep using nuclear power." A few miles north, an old Huey helicopter flanked by howitzers sits in front of VFW Post 6826. Inside, Gerald Happeny, a Korean War-era veteran, sips a drink. "It's a done deal," he said of the Yucca Mountain project. "I don't know why the government just don't buy out our whole damn valley - and they can buy me out first. They say the project will bring jobs, but the people around here don't need jobs. Most of us are retired or running from the law." Happeny said that in 1951, when he was in the Marine Corps, he volunteered for military maneuvers at the test site. He said he was eager to see a blast and to prepare for use of tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield. He was never chosen, and, in retrospect, he's glad, because of the cancer deaths among participants. "I was lucky. All them guys died," he said. Standing behind the counter of the Amargosa Valley Country Store, Kris Martin frowns when asked about Yucca Mountain. She said some people drink bottled water because they believe well water is contaminated by years of nuclear testing. "The waste dump would probably be good for our economy, but we already have a lot of radiation around here and I don't think it would be good to add any more," she said. "I think the price of our land is going to go down. I've been here three years, and they've done two studies on the ground water in our wells. According to the independent studies, there's a lot of radiation in it, and according to the government it's within parameters. A lot of us out here won't drink the water. "Nobody out here" wants the waste dump, Martin said. "What we say doesn't matter. It's a government thing, and what we say doesn't matter." Louise Records and her husband, Lyle, are devout Christians who see Yucca Mountain and other world events as indications that the world is spinning out of control and the end is coming. Lyle Records said he worked as a laborer at the test site in 1989. He said he could not discuss details for security reasons, but that he had worked in the tunnels where underground atomic tests were conducted. "The way I see it, we need jobs, and storing that stuff out there is going to create jobs," he said. "These people who are complaining about the nuclear waste going over the highways, let them complain about their refrigeration units, their electrical computers when there's no juice, and let's go back to the old icebox. I grew up in a time when we didn't have that kind of stuff, and if you take that away from Americans now, they would be saying, 'Bring on the nuclear waste, we need the stuff.'" Judgment Day is coming, Louise Records said. "I don't know whether you're a Christian or whether you read the Bible or not, but we're headed toward the end time faster and faster. It's inevitable," she said. Her husband blamed the American public for the problems stemming from nuclear waste. At the start of the Atomic Age, the public should have demanded that utilities take care of their nuclear waste, he said. But now that the federal government has agreed to take care of it, the government should live up to the agreement. "You have chemicals that go across the highways that's just as dangerous as this nuclear stuff," Lyle Records said. "Why aren't people complaining about the chemicals? These nuclear scientists have worked with this stuff and know pretty well how to control it. And if something happens, well, let's put it this way, you're not going to live forever anyway." Copyright © 2002, The Baltimore Sun ***************************************************************** 32 County Commission Chairman Dario Herrera Responds to Bush Clark County FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE President Bushs Approval of Yucca Mountain In response to President Bushs acceptance of Energy Secretary Spencer Abrahams recommendation to designate Yucca Mountain as the nations sole repository for high-level nuclear waste, Chairman Dario Herrera released the following statement: President Bush crushed the expectation that he had built up during his Presidential campaign that Nevadans would get a fair and square deal from his administration on nuclear waste. He has dashed those hopes, made a rush to judgment, and sided with the nuclear energy industry over the health and safety of our families. The President has been doing a great job on many issues important to our country, especially fighting the war against terrorism, but this decision to favor Big Energy over our families puts homeland security at risk. The transportation of this high-level radioactive waste will endanger the health and safety of the more than 50 million Americans who live along the transportation route and put the economy of every city through which waste will be transported in jeopardy. Experts have said the waste can be stored and protected where it is for another 100 years while the hundreds of questions about Yucca Mountain and the transportation of nuclear waste are answered. The speed and process in which the Department of Energy has moved on their recommendation appears to be a careless rush to judgment in support of Big Energy. I had hoped the President would be more prudent in his review of the facts, including the 293 unanswered scientific questions identified by the General Accounting Offices review of the Yucca Mountain Project and the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Boards description of the science at Yucca Mountain as weak to moderate. Nevadans have every right to feel betrayed as President Bush pledged to make his decision based on sound science, not politics. An economic impact assessment recently completed here in Clark County has concluded this decision will have an immediate and severe effect on our economy, lowering property values and costing jobs. Make no mistake, Nevadans will stand behind our Governor when he vetoes the Presidents decision, and we will take this fight to Congress. I urge all Americans to join us in this fight as this is not just Nevada versus the Federal Government, this is about protecting the safety and security of all our families. If this decision stands, thousands of mobile terrorist targets will be on the road within a decade, and they will be driving through our suburbs, a stones throw from schools, hospitals, and churches, for decades to come. We will be doing everything we can to prevent the House and Senate Republican leadership from winning their battle on behalf of Big Energy. Communications [mdw@co.clark.nv.us] ***************************************************************** 33 Bush breaks his campaign promise to Nevada - Guy W. Farmer [http://www.nevadaappeal.com] OPINION Sunday, February 17, 2002 When President Bush approved the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository on Friday, he broke a 2000 year election campaign promise to Nevada Republicans that his final decision on the project would be based on "sound science." His blatantly political decision means that Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and his deputy, Nevada's own Harry Reid, will soon have an opportunity to keep their promise to kill this radioactive project in Congress. "The President's decision to recommend Yucca Mountain is based on sound science," said White I louse Press Secretary Ari Fleischer in announcing the decision. "The president listened to the governor, the state's senators and representatives of the people of Nevada and gave careful consideration to their views." I have a one-word response: Baloney! Nevada's Republican governor, Kenny Guinn, wasted no time in blasting the presidents decision. "I am outraged, as are the citizens of Nevada. As a state, we are solidly united to continue our fight against Yucca Mountain." Guinn said he would veto the project, which will require Congress to override his veto with majority votes in both houses. The House is almost certain to overturn Guinn's veto, but the Senate vote is up for grabs. Early last year, in Las Vegas, Sen. Daschle promised that the Yucca Mountain project is dead as long as Democrats control the Senate. Well, maybe, but this will be a long, uphill battle for the state of Nevada against a popular president and a well financed lobbying campaign by the he nuclear power industry. The president's decision comes on the heels of a statement by former Nevada Gov. Bob List to the effect that since highly radioactive waste is good for us, we can forget about the health and safety of our children and grandchildren and go for the money, as List did. The former governor, who makes big bucks as a shill for the Nuclear Energy Institute -- a group of companies that will profit handsomely from the Yucca Mountain dump-has advised his fellow Nevadans to cash in on a unique "opportunity" "The amount being spent (on Yucca Mountain) over the years will go up and up," List told newsmen in Las Vegas two weeks ago. "Nevadans need to position themselves to catch that windfall." In other words, if we behave ourselves and give up our fight against the nuclear waste repository, the magnanimous Feds will shower us with expensive goodies including an environmental and energy research center at UNLV, federal income tax credits and annual "oversight payment's" starting at $100 million, which sounds like a good old fashioned political payoff. List's approach is clear: States' rights be damned; full speed ahead. "This is the largest public works project in the history of the planet," he enthused. "Huge amounts will be spent here." For List and his friends, it's all about money. So what else is new? It is apparent that President Bush had already decided the Yucca Mountain issue when the Nevada congressional delegation met with him earlier this month and declared that the president is a "good listener." If there was any doubt that the decision had already been made, just look at the Bush administration's budget proposal for fiscal 2002-03, which includes a $150 million (40 percent) increase for Yucca Mountain, where the government has already spent more than $7 billion on scientific, safety and feasibility studies. It will be interesting to see how President Bush rationalizes his "sound science" decision in view of a recent General Accounting Office report urging him to postpone his decision in order to complete necessary scientific research and to resolve nearly 300 outstanding technical issues. The GAO said the Energy Department "is unlikely to achieve its goal of opening a repository at Yucca Mountain by 2010 and has no reliable estimate of when, and at what cost, such a repository could be opened." But Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, a failed Republican politician from Michigan, brushed off the GAO report as "fatally flawed" and plunged ahead with his pre-cooked recommendation for approval, ignoring the science and overwhelming public opinion in Nevada, where more than 80 percent of registered voters oppose the project. If Abraham's recommendation had been based on sound science, he wouldn't have ignored the GAO report and the opinion of former Yucca Mountain project chief John Bartlett, who contends that the mountain's geology doesn't adequately protect Nevada's groundwater and air from potential radioactive pollution. Bartlett, who headed the project from 1990 to 1993, recently testified that the composition of the mountain's rock formations was found to be "far inferior to that originally expected" in terms of preventing nuclear contamination. DOE responded that man-made storage canisters would provide adequate protection against such contamination. And then there's the unresolved problem of hauling more than 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste through hundreds of cities and towns -- including Reno and Las Vegas -- across America. We can count on ex-Gov list and his wealthy nuclear industry patrons to keep offering big payoffs to state officials and Nevada voters in hopes of buying our support for this deeply flawed project. In an era in which virtually everyone and everything is for sale, they may succeed but I trust Nevadans to place the health and safety of their children and grandchildren above the almighty dollar. It's our decision. Guy W. Farmer, a semi-retired journalist and former US. diplomat, resides in Carson City. ***************************************************************** 34 MailBox: Yucca: Letters to the Editor Salute for Nevadans who voted for Bush A brief open letter to everyone who decided to vote for George W believing that he would not put a nuclear dump here. Way to glow! STEVE ZUELKE Carson City Abraham wrong from coast to coast By now, we know that President Bush has hastily rubber-stamped approved the Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham's politically motivated and paid for by the nuclear power industry site recommendation forYucca Mountain as the nation's repository for high level nuclear waste, putting dollars before the health, safety and protection of the American people. According to an article in the Las Vegas Review Journal, "Abraham previewed the DOE's response to Nevada charges that nuclear waste shipments might be vulnerable to attack or accident." "This department has a 30-year-plus track record as they do in other countries as far as moving waste safely," he said. "In Europe they've moved as much waste in the same kind of form as we're talking about without incident" He added that transportation routes and shipment schedules wouldn't be publicized. Terrorists, he said, would have a clearer shot at waste kept in immobile on-site storage. "The fact is the waste is already closer to the people every day of the week than it will be if it moves past a community for five or ten minutes," he said. We have a perfect track record." In any other country, Abraham, since he cannot calculate how far it is from Point A, East Coast, to Point B, West Coast, (3,000 miles), would be disqualified from office, certified incompetent. Any school child knows that when traveling via truck or rail passed any big city across this country, takes more than five or ten minutes. Perhaps Abraham is hoping the DOE is going to ship the waste in a special warp-speed flying machine, like on Star Trek. The DOE's so-called perfect track record for shipping waste is pure science fiction. Not to mention the fact that 6-7 shipments a day or 100,000 shipments for 30 years is unprecedented. And Yucca Mountain won't contain all of the waste already created, so another how many more shipments would be going to Utah, New Mexico and how many other states if we the people let the nuclear power industry have their way? Since Sept. 11, we should be eliminating terrorist targets not creating more of them, said Rep. Shelley Berkeley. CELIA S. HECHT Carson City Its not federal land to use for waste All law-making power is vested in the U.S. Congress, but the power to make laws is limited to the guidelines of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Those guidelines do not allow for making new states by legislative action. A compliance of statehood under the rules of Congress and under congressional rules, the U.S. government lays claim to much of each new state's lands. In Nevada's case, the federal government claims 87 percent, according to Sen. Harry Reid. If Senator Reid's claim is right, then the federal government can use Yucca Mountain for anything they want. But according to the constitution, when a state is admitted into the union, the only land or thing the federal government can own is spelled out. It must be purchased with the consent of the state legislature and only for the use of forts, arsenals, magazines, dockyards and other needful buildings. In plain English, the federal government claim to 87 percent of the state is a bogus, unconstitutional claim. BURNS H. ROPER Yerington Where To Write Address your correspondence to: Letters to the Editor Nevada Appeal PO Box 2288 Carson City NV 89702. Letters may also be faxed to: 775 887-2420 or sent to appeal@tahoe.com. ***************************************************************** 35 Nevada ups battle against nuclear-dump site | csmonitor.com from the February 19, 2002 edition DEEP BELOW: A work crew leaves a tunnel in the Yucca Mountain site that President Bush endorsed last week as the nation's central repository for nuclear waste. ROBERT HARBISON - STAFF By Cathy Scott | Special to The Christian Science Monitor LAS VEGAS - When it came to defending alleged mobsters, lawyer Oscar Goodman used to pursue every trick in his briefcase to keep clients from a jail cell. Now, as mayor of Las Vegas, he is vowing to do everything he can to put certain people behind bars - specifically, anyone who tries to haul nuclear waste through his city. Mr. Goodman says he will "personally arrest" anyone who ships plutonium through the streets of Las Vegas. His threat is part of the latest gambit by Nevada officials to keep the state from being used as a nuclear-waste dump for the rest of the nation. With the decision last week by President Bush to endorse Yucca Mountain, a remote area 95 miles northwest of here, as the nation's official high-level nuclear-waste dump, Nevada is turning up the volume of protest. The state is especially trumpeting what it thinks is one of its most persuasive arguments: that transporting radioactive material across the country is loaded with significant safety risks. Not only would Nevada residents be vulnerable to a spill, state officials say, but also an untold number of other Americans, since more than 100 cities with populations of at least 100,000 are located along the proposed transportation routes in 43 states. Of course, the actual degree of danger - like so many other aspects of Yucca - is a matter of dispute. The site was first selected by Congress in 1987 because of the mountain's hard volcanic nature and its dry, remote location. Concerns have been raised about seismic activity and possible contamination of nearby ground-water supplies, but the Department of Energy (DOE) has concluded - after at least $4 billion in studies - that Yucca would be sufficiently safe. Now, Nevada officials, along with environmentalists and even casino executives, hope to gain momentum in a post-Sept. 11 world of safety jitters. They liken the waste's transport on public roads and rails to a ticking time bomb. One thing, however, is certain: It's still a long, hard road to opening a national nuclear-waste dump. True, Mr. Bush's action was a major step forward in the process, and a major blow to Nevada. But many steps remain, including congressional approval and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's issuance of a license to build the repository. The federal government's own timetable puts the opening a decade away, and stiff opposition from Nevada officials - including Goodman, Gov. Kenny Guinn (R), and the state's entire congressional delegation - could prolong the process further. "They were supposed to start shipments in 1998," says Robert Loux, executive director of the Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency. "We've been successful in keeping it out." During the US Conference of Mayors last month in Washington, Goodman filed a complaint on behalf of Las Vegas and Clark County with the Circuit Court of Appeals there, asking it to intervene on grounds that federal law has been ignored in the approval of Yucca Mountain. The state of Nevada has also filed several lawsuits. Also at the mayors' conference, Goodman solicited support from leaders. "Americans need to be aware of the vulnerability of their communities as a moving target traverses their neighborhoods," Goodman says. Yet Nevada officials face an uphill battle in making such concerns predominant - and for having Congress see things their way. Leaders in other states, it turns out, are much more worried about what could happen if the waste stays put. "Some mayors have this in their backyards, and they want to get rid of it," says Erik Pappa, an aide to Goodman. The DOE proposal calls for the shipment of 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste from more than 100 power plants and defense sites to Yucca. The waste - a solid, ceramic-like material - is to be enclosed in metal tubes and shipped in what are called dry casks, which are made of concrete and steel and weigh several hundred thousand pounds each. According to the DOE, the shipping containers will travel under strict physical security requirements. Pro-Yucca officials say tests conducted at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico prove the casks can survive high-impact crashes, free falls, fires, punctures, and water submersions. The DOE, as well as the nuclear industry, points out that since 1962, no radioactive releases have occurred as a result of transportation accidents. But the amount of waste shipped to a repository like Yucca in just the first year of operations would exceed the total amount of low-level radioactive waste shipped in the United States in the past 30 years, according to a Nevada study. Another report, by the Nevada Department of Transportation, found that safety assessments from the 1970s and '80s by the DOE and Nuclear Regulatory Commission have not taken into consideration a post-Sept. 11 world. "[T]he potential risks associated with terrorism or sabotage" has been underestimated, the study says. But others cite careful safety preparations. "I've seen the test films," says Richard Hughes, a radiation physicist who has consulted for the federal government as well as the private sector. "They've literally crashed trucks into walls for the sole purpose of causing damage. It's inconceivable to me how any radioactive material could be dispersed." That's little comfort for Nevadans. A poll conducted last month for the Las Vegas Review-Journal found that 83 percent oppose the Yucca project - although 68 percent think it's inevitable. Indeed, some experts question the usefulness of anti-Yucca efforts such as Goodman's lawsuit. Richard Epstein, a law professor at the University of Chicago, notes that it will be up to the mayor to prove something is wrong with the DOE's safety tests. "The court will say, 'Prove to us that there is a safer [transportation] route,' " says Mr. Epstein. "The burden is on the attacker, in this case, the mayor. No matter what you do with nuclear waste, it's a risk." TOM BROWN - STAFF Copyright © 2002 The Christian Science Monitor. ***************************************************************** 36 Bush OKs nuke trash shipments Posted on Sat, Feb. 16, 2002 Tons of deadly material to cross Ohio for Yucca From staff and wire reports President Bush approved a nuclear waste disposal plan yesterday that would send thousands of tons of radioactive material across Ohio every week on its way to Yucca Mountain in Nevada. About 40 percent of the nation's shipments of radioactive waste could go through Northeast Ohio within eight years, according to federal estimates. In the worst case, Northeast Ohio could get as much as 18,900 trucks -- that's 1.3 trucks a day -- over 39 years. Or the region could get 4,200 rail shipments -- that's twice a week. The shipping routes have not been finalized, but Interstate 90 and the Ohio Turnpike are included. Three rail lines across northern Ohio -- including CSX and Conrail lines through the Akron area -- are under consideration. Much of the waste crossing Ohio would come from nuclear facilities in New England and the Middle Atlantic states. An additional 30 percent of the country's nuclear waste would be shipped west through central Ohio on Interstate 70. The waste -- potentially lethal with two to three minutes of exposure -- would be transported in large, metal, cylindrical casks, with spent fuel rods in an inner cavity. The casks, nearly 20 feet long and 6 feet in diameter, weigh between 25 and 120 tons. Experts say such casks are safe and not a threat to human health or the environment, but environmental groups are still concerned. ``What it means for Northeast Ohio is thousands of more terrorist targets and nuclear accidents waiting to happen,'' said Chris Trepal of the Cleveland-based Earth Day Coalition. ``It's a really bad plan, and moving everything to Yucca Mountain is going to create a health, safety and security threat in Northeast Ohio. Any kind of accident would affect Ohioans within a 50-mile radius.... It's time to stop nuclear waste because we don't have a safe way to deal with it,'' she said. In Washington, Bush's chief of staff, Andrew Card, notified key members of Congress about the decision yesterday. Nevada officials plan to file a formal objection, turning the matter over to Congress. Congress will then have to decide, by a majority vote in both houses, whether to uphold Bush's decision or side with Nevada and find another site for the more than 40,000 tons of waste now kept at commercial reactors in 34 states. Bush, following the recommendation of his energy secretary, concluded that the Yucca Mountain site, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is scientifically sound. Administration officials have cited security reasons for consolidating the waste underground at a single location. The president's action marks a major step in the decades-long dispute over what to do with the radioactive waste generated by commercial nuclear power plants and by government nuclear weapons programs. The waste at commercial reactors is growing by 2,000 tons a year. Unless Congress sides with Nevada, the Energy Department's next step will be to get a license for the Yucca facility from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a process that could take several years. No waste is expected to be shipped to the site before 2010 and even that target is likely to slip. If it is built, the Yucca Mountain facility would hold up to 77,000 tons of used reactor fuel rods from 73 operating and mothballed nuclear power plants in 34 states, as well as waste from federal weapons facilities. Beacon Journal staff writer Bob Downing contributed to this © 2001 ohio and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.ohio.com ***************************************************************** 37 Science at heart of Yucca struggle United Press International: By Scott R. Burnell UPI Science News Published 2/18/2002 6:44 PM WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- The proposed nuclear waste repository in Nevada's Yucca Mountain has generated a great deal of competing scientific conclusions, and both sides of the debate likely will double their output now that President George W. Bush has endorsed the proposal. The brouhaha has been brewing ever since 1982, when Congress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. That law codified scientific opinions that the best way to store nuclear waste, which remains dangerously radioactive for thousands of years, would be to bury it deep underground, away from aquifers and other groundwater sources. In theory, the action would pose a public health risk no greater than an unmined area of uranium ore. The NWPA directed the Department of Energy to consider several possible storage sites around the nation. A 1987 amendment focused all DOE attention on the 1,200-foot high, flat-topped volcanic ridge that lies about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The department concluded last month the site could support a repository and last week formally recommended it to Bush. The president's endorsement sent the plan to the Nevada state government. Gov. Kenny Guinn has promised to disapprove, which would send the plan to Congress, where a simple majority of both houses can override the state's objections. If current timelines are met, the repository would open by 2010, but a General Accounting Office report said the deadline most likely will be missed. High expectations for congressional approval of the plan have both sides reviewing their current arsenals of scientific evidence for use in the battles to come. The DOE, the nuclear power industry and their supporters point to reports from the National Academy of Sciences in saying there are no scientific showstoppers to the Yucca Mountain idea. Nevada officials, environmentalists and anti-nuclear activists say a rigorous look at geology, transportation and other factors, combined with advances in other storage technologies, rule out the site. Scientific discussions have listed several factors for the best possible storage site, including high stability, lack of ground water, and a very low possibility of severe earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. Proponents say Nevada's dry climate and 1,000 feet of volcanic rock cover would prevent rainfall from seeping into the repository. Combining those factors with the area's very deep water table -- estimated to be 800 feet below the storage level -- would make an extremely safe storage site, they say. Once the site received about 77,000 tons of waste, current DOE plans call for it to be monitored for at least 50 years, then sealed and guarded. The Environmental Protection Agency says longer-term measures for safeguarding the repository could include warning markers and widespread dissemination of information about the site's boundaries. But science also points out several drawbacks to Yucca, according to Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects. The mountain was formed by volcanic action and sits in an earthquake zone. Several faults cross the potential site, the agency said. The faults and other fractures in the rock formation might transport groundwater to and from the site, contaminating the environment if waste leaks occurred. DOE has countered with estimates that, even if possible, fractures do not lead directly to an aquifer, 10,000 years might pass before leaked material reached groundwater, at which point the waste's radioactivity would have fallen below dangerous levels. The department also said proper engineering would limit the possibility of leaks, but opponents say the original requirements were based strictly on geological isolation of any spills. Opponents also say the department's considerations have ignored the issue of how the waste would travel to Yucca Mountain. Close to 100,000 truck and rail shipments would cross almost every state during the repository's expected 30-year lifespan. Despite the waste being contained in heavily shielded casks that must withstand extreme accidents and exposure to fire and water, it would present a radiation threat to a large percentage of the American public, anti-nuclear groups said. About 3,000 shipments of high-level waste have traveled safely throughout the nation since 1964, said the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's lobbying group. The Yucca project would exceed that total in its first year, Nevada's ANP said in a report to the Energy Department. Even within the protective cases, halting a shipment in a traffic jam could expose motorists to nearly double the radiation levels allowed by federal standards, the ANP said. Currently, the nation's nuclear reactors store spent fuel in special cooling pools on the plants' premises. The project's proponents have produced studies showing the pools and other on-site storage are running out of room, increasing the need to approve Yucca. Opponents say advances in dry waste storage technology give the government plenty of time to reconsider the project and its alternatives. Copyright © 2002 United Press International ***************************************************************** 38 US to develop enhanced nukes for 'hardened targets' Expressindia.com > Top stories > Press Trust of India Washington, February 19: The Bush administration has ordered the development of a new generation of nuclear weapons and strategic delivery systems including a nuclear-tipped earth-penetrating weapon that can destroy hardened targets. "The Defence and Energy departments have ordered a three-year study by the three national nuclear laboratories for developing a nuclear-tipped, earth-penetrating weapon," John A. Gordon, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration told Congress recently. The study would also look into developing a new land-based Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) to be operational in 2020, a new submarine-launched ballistic missile by 2030, and a new heavy bomber by 2040. These will proceed simultaneously with plans to reduce deployed strategic nuclear weapons from the current level of 6,000 to between 1,700-2,200 within 10 years, with the surplus warheads not destroyed but put in storage where they could be reactivated at short notice. These studies, said Gordon, "would proceed beyond the paper stage and include a combination of component and subassembly tests and simulations". © 2002: Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd. All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 39 US army turns to Lloyd's for cover against terrorist attacks The Independent - United Kingdom; Feb 19, 2002 BY KATHERINE GRIFFITHS THE AMERICAN army has been forced into the unusual move of insuring its international bases against terrorist attack through Lloyd's of London in Britain because US companies have refused to take on the risk. The multi-million pound contract covers terrorist attacks on the property of more than 10 US military bases around the world and was placed with a number of specialist syndicates in Lloyd's last month. The contract covers buildings but not military equipment or loss of life and will pay out for any kind of terrorist onslaught apart from chemical or nuclear bombs. This is the first time the US has insured its military property with companies which are not American. The high-risk contract has been passed to Lloyd's because many of the country's own insurers refused to cover terrorist risks as part of general property cover after 11 September and want the US government to step into the breach. In the meantime a group of Lloyd's political risk specialists have formulated the first ever policy for US companies or state bodies to buy insurance specifically for terrorist attacks. One underwriter close to the US military bases deal said the project was not so risky it could not be covered. "There are people at Lloyd's who have decades of experience of writing political risk and we apply complex models to the situation - it is not guesswork," he said. The specialist terrorist policy was written by Simon Koe, of the Lloyd's broker Humphreys Haggas Sutton, and Ben Garston, a partner of MAP syndicate. Mr Koe said: "This shows that Lloyd's is not just a load of old duffers. It is what Lloyd's does best - spreading the risk of writing specialist cover and respond quickly to demand in the market." The US government has used the new Lloyd's terrorist cover policy to insure a number of its embassies. The policy has also been taken up by companies with property deals in high-risk areas such as Times Square in New York, which were put on hold when US insurers withdrew terrorist cover. Until 11 September, terrorist cover was included in US property policies practically free because insurers thought the risk on US soil so low. ***************************************************************** 40 Torpedo Eyed in Kursk Disaster Las Vegas SUN February 18, 2002 MOSCOW- A practice torpedo powered by an unstable fuel may have sent the nuclear submarine Kursk to the bottom of the Barents Sea, the Russian navy chief said Monday, adding that he had ordered the weapon taken out of service. Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov stopped short of saying that sinking of the Kursk in August 2000 was caused by a flaw in the torpedo. He said investigators still were considering a collision with another vessel or a World War II mine as possible reasons for the disaster, which killed all 118 men aboard the submarine. Yet Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov, who flanked Kuroyedov at a news conference in the northern port of Murmansk to announce results of months of examination of the wrecked submarine, said investigators had found no evidence of another vessel's presence near the Kursk at the time it sank, the Interfax and ITAR-Tass news agencies reported. Russian officials have long said the explosion of a practice torpedo triggered a larger blast that roared through the Kursk. But they have yet to determine what prompted the initial explosion, despite an extensive inquiry since the Kursk was raised to the surface last fall. Immediately after the disaster, Russian admirals claimed the explosions could have been triggered by a collision with a Western submarine shadowing the Kursk. Both the United States and Britain, which had submarines in the Barents Sea at the time, have denied involvement, and most independent specialists dismissed the collision theory and pointed at a torpedo malfunction as the most plausible cause of the disaster. Kuroyedov admitted the navy had "placed unfounded trust" in the weapon propelled by highly volatile hydrogen peroxide, which in case of a leak could have caused a powerful explosion. "It's highly unstable and its contact with certain metals may cause unpredictable consequences," Kuroyedov said. "The torpedoes have already been removed from submarines. We are now considering a replacement." He mentioned a leak of hydrogen peroxide that caused the 1955 sinking of the British submarine HMS Sidon, in which 13 men died. The accident prompted Britain and other nations to stop using the chemical, but the Soviet and later Russian navy has used such torpedoes since 1957. Russian officials said the Kursk's practice torpedo had an experimental battery, but was otherwise standard. They denied the claim by some Kursk sailors' relatives and Russian media that the submarine crew had previously reported trouble with the torpedo to their superiors. Ustinov told President Vladimir Putin last fall that the investigation had revealed that the naval maneuvers during which the Kursk sank were poorly organized. In December, Putin fired Northern Fleet chief Adm. Vyacheslav Popov and demoted other admirals, though naval officials insisted then that the changes weren't linked to the Kursk. Ustinov said Monday that the probe had revealed "serious violations by both Northern Fleet chiefs and the Kursk crew." The Kursk had gone to sea with both its emergency antenna and buoy incapacitated. On Monday, Putin demoted Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, who was in charge of the Kursk's rescue operation and probe, to industry and technology minister. Klebanov oversaw industry in his previous capacity, and the Kremlin said the move was intended to help him concentrate on this sector. The Kursk's fore section, which is thought to contain additional clues to the disaster, was sawed off and left on the sea bottom when the rest was lifted. The navy is planning to raise parts of the bow in May. Investigators have retrieved the remains of 94 of the Kursk's 118 crewmen, 91 of which have been identified. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 41 French go virtual with nuclear testing vnunet.com Wednesday 20 February 2002 | 7.14 AM By Nick Farrell [19-02-2002] The French government is investing in Europe's largest supercomputer so that it does not have to keep testing nuclear weapons in the Pacific. The Compaq computer is part of a plan by the French to avoid courting negative publicity. Pacific governments have been angered by the country blowing up nuclear weapons on their doorstep. Compaq claims that the machine is seven times more powerful than any other European supercomputer, and is capable of five trillion calculations per second. It is based on 2,560 of the company's Alpha processors and was constructed in just one year. The French Atomic Energy Commission explained that it liked the scalability and manageability of the computer and the fact that Compaq had delivered ahead of schedule. Dubbed the Tera, because of its ability to deliver five teraflops of power rather than its function of calculating death and destruction, the computer uses 640 Alpha servers clustered using a purpose built high-performance switch. The system has 50 terabytes of Ram, arranged on a storage area network. Compaq announced that it will replace the machine with a 12 teraflop version within the next five years. © 1995-2002 VNU Business Publications Ltd. All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 42 Saddam's Bombmaker: Iraq Working on 'Hiroshima size' Nuke NewsMax.com Feb. 18, 2002 9:33 p.m. EST Iraqi madman Saddam Hussein will likely have a "Hiroshima size" nuclear bomb within the next 24 months, the physicist who headed up Iraq's nuclear weapons research program said Monday. Citing U.S. intelligence estimates, Dr. Khidir Hamza told nationally syndicated radio taker Sean Hannity, "I don't think he has [nuclear weapons] right now but it may not take long for him to have it - a year or two probably. "U.S. intelligence estimates at least a year. Germany estimates by 2005, three nuclear weapons," the top Iraqi nuke scientist said. Dr. Hamza, who defected to the U.S. in 1994, warned about Hussein's nuclear weapons program in his autobiography, "Saddam's Bombmaker," three years ago. More recently he has been working closely with U.S. intelligence agencies. He declined to describe the precise nature of his cooperation with those agencies, telling Hannity, "I cannot talk about that. You know that." Hamza did reveal that the 1991 Gulf War interrupted Iraq's A-bomb program in its final stage, just as he and the rest of Saddam's nuke team were in the process of acquiring materials for the bomb's nuclear core. HAMZA: We [scientists] dragged our feet. We really had enough material to make the bomb then. We delivered it now back to the French but we claimed that we could not extract enough uranium to put in a nuclear core. ... HANNITY: So you're saying you did have enough - you could have built nuclear weapons but you dragged your feet? HAMZA: We could have, yes. Actually, everybody [dragged their feet], including the chemists who were in the process of extracting the uranium from the French bureau. Nobody wanted to give Saddam a bomb because we know he would use it recklessly and finish Iraq with it. (End of Excerpt) German intelligence now believes Hussein once again has all the bombmaking materials he needs except for the enriched uranium necessary for the nuclear core. "According to the Germans he, more or less, has 30 to 35 percent of the technology needed to enrich uranium for bomb grade," said Hamza, adding, "so he will have enough uranium, and he already has a stockpile of uranium to use." The top Iraqi nuke scientist said that, based on what he witnessed, Hussein is working on "Hiroshima size" weapons of "12 to 20 kilotons." But he cautioned: "There was some enhancement to the bomb that could raise it to 40 kilotons. So you are looking at [a] realistic nuclear weapons stockpile equivalent to that of, say, at least India and Pakistan - and if it continues, probably larger." Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics: Saddam Hussein/Iraq NewsMax.com Privacy Statement ***************************************************************** 43 Russian navy says torpedo explosion caused Kursk sub disaster The News - The Kursk nuclear submarine moves through the Barents Sea near Severomorsk in this 1999 file photo. File photo, AP Sergei Larin, AFP - 2/19/2002 MURMANSK, Russia - Russia's navy chief gave the firmest indication to date Monday that an explosion of a torpedo destroyed the Kursk nuclear submarine, killing all 118 men on board. But Vladimir Kuroyedov was cautious not to pronounce a torpedo explosion as the sole, definitive cause of the undersea tragedy. He said preliminary findings showed the fuel used for the torpedoes on the Kursk was too volatile. The fuel somehow caught fire, causing the deadly series of ammunition explosions that sank Russia's most modern nuclear-powered submarine on August 12, 2000, he said. "We no longer have secrets about what happened on board the Kursk," said Kuroyedov, who was in Murmansk to receive the official report on the disaster from navy investigators. "The confidence of scientists, constructors and the navy leadership in the fuel which was used in the torpedoes was not justified," he told a joint news conference with Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov. In a separate announcement, the Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin had stripped Ilya Klebanov, who led a chorus of officials arguing the Kursk sank after being hit by a NATO spy boat, from his post as deputy prime minister. Analysts interpreted the moved as a sign that Putin was assigning Klebanov public blame for his handling of the disaster and the ensuing inquiry. Certain independent investigators from the Russian parliament have long believed the Kursk sank because the navy was using a cheap fuel alternative that had been ruled as too dangerous by Western navies years earlier. However that explanation was wrought with political dangers since it would have assigned blame for the accident directly on the military command. Kuroyedov revealed that the torpedoes on board the Kursk had been developed in 1957 and had been due for an imminent replacement when the disaster occurred during naval exercises in the Barents Sea. "This type of torpedo was already decommissioned. We were planning to get rid of them and looking to get them replaced," he said. Ustinov, for his part, confirmed that no Western vessels had been spotted near the Kursk when it sank, thus formally dismissing initial government suggestions that the Russian craft had crashed into a NATO spy submarine. "There are no facts that can point to the presence near the Kursk of foreign ships or submarines," Ustinov said. "We have no information on the presence of foreign vessels in the zone of the disaster." The Russian government has yet to report its definitive findings on the sinking, which highlighted the state of disrepair of the country's once mighty military force. Putin last year sacked a dozen navy commanders for failing to secure the safety of the crew amid contradictory government statements over the catastrophe and accusations that state authorities were trying to cover it up. Ustinov confirmed "serious violations" had been recorded both on the part of the Kursk commander as well as navy chiefs, which may have contributed to the sinking of the vessel. He did not give details. The bodies of 94 sailors have been recovered from the sub so far in an arduous operation that began when the Kursk was raised from the sea floor in October and transferred to dry dock in Rolyakovo near Murmansk. The unprecedented operation cost the Russian government an estimated 70 million dollars (80 million euros), fulfilling Putin's promise to grieving relatives that the lost crew would be given a burial on land. ©Copyright 2001 TheNewsMexico.com ***************************************************************** 44 Nude protesters arrested news.com.au - [19feb02] AAP TWO nude anti-nuclear protesters have been arrested outside Prime Minister John Howard's Sydney office for offensive behaviour. Both were bundled into a police van during a small protest against a proposed new nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights, in Sydney's south. A police spokesman said the pair would be taken to a nearby police station and arrested for offensive behaviour. Five protesters marched outside Mr Howard's Phillip Street offices, chanting "No waste, no reactor". The demonstrators were from Greenpeace and Sydney People Against a New Nuclear Reactor (SPANNR). ELSEWHERE ON NEWS.COM.AU ***************************************************************** 45 Iran, uranium, and Uncle Sam Pravda.RU ¹ Feb, 18 2002 The dispute between Russia and the USA about to the so-called axis of evil periodically happens on the pages of the newspapers and magazines. Exchanging ironic phrases has already become the daily practice in the relations between the two countries. PRAVDA.Ru has already published material on the subject before, saying that White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer claimed that George Bush was not excluding any variants of the actions against Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. If there are certain contradictions with Putin, then Washington will address its other partners and not to Russia. Fleischer said that the president was focused on the protection of the American people, Bush was not going to waste his time. Cooperation with Russia is surely important for America, but the establishment of the coalition with different countries and for different goals is also possible. The Kremlin was not silent for long. On Friday, Vladimir Putin warned certain figures against groundless accusations of whole nations and people of their connection and assistance to terrorism. Putin specified in his speech in front of the business and political circles of Russia and Canada that it was requisite to coordinate the approaches of the state policy towards terrorism as well as towards the states, which were on the list of the axis of evil. This should really be made clear, because Iran, Iraq, and North Korea are Russia’s business partners, and it is not correct to give them away to America and, secondly, it is not profitable. Kamal Kharrazi, Iran's foreign minister is expected to arrive in Moscow soon. Kharrazi and the Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov will discuss the situation in Afghanistan and the region as well as issues pertaining to the struggle with the international terrorism, non-proliferation, and actual problems of bilateral collaboration. This may seem to be a very common, routine undertaking, but it only appears to be so. The part of the conversation that will take place beyond the framework of the official protocol is a lot more interesting. The question about the prolongation of the Russian-Iranian contract will most likely be discussed. The contract is for the construction of one power generating unit of the nuclear power station. The cost of the contract exceeds $800 million. There is also the agreement between Russia and Iran that the Russian Federation will deliver fuel for the Busher nuclear power plant. Furthermore, the Ministry for Nuclear Power is intended to organize the training of the Russian nuclear specialists in Russia. The construction of the nuclear power plant in Busher is very irritating for the American government, which does its best to make this contract appear to be military in basis. Washington believes that Iran is using the nuclear station for military needs. Washington’s wish to push Russia aside from this perspective market brings up indignation in respond. That is why the visit of the Iranian foreign minister can be considered as a challenge to America. Dmitry Chirkin PRAVDA.Ru Translated by Dmitry Sudakov BBC : Iran and Iraq exchange war dead Reuters : Cheney Says Iran Active Supporter of Terror Washington Post : Reform Faction In Iran Is Hurt By Evil Label CNN : Report: Iran arrests al Qaeda, Taliban suspects BBC : Afghan radical says will leave Iran USA Today : Axis of evil remark stalls reform in Iran Read the original in Russian: http://pravda.ru/main/2002/02/18/37212.html [http://pravda.ru/main/2002/02/18/37212.html] Pravda.RU:World Copyright ©1999 by "Pravda.RU [http://www.pravda.ru/] " ***************************************************************** 46 Admiral: Kursk Had Unstable Torpedoes (washingtonpost.com) Russian Suggests Fire Doomed Sub By Sharon LaFraniere Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, February 19, 2002; Page A12 MOSCOW, Feb. 18 -- The head of the Russian navy said today that the ill-fated Kursk submarine was loaded with obsolete torpedoes containing a highly unstable fuel when it sank 18 months ago, killing all 118 crew members. Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov, the navy's commander-in-chief, suggested the fuel somehow caught fire and caused a torpedo to explode, ripping out the ship's bow and sending Russia's most modern nuclear submarine to the bottom of the Barents Sea. He stopped short of identifying a torpedo malfunction as the definite cause of the disaster, and investigators said they are still looking into what happened. But Kuroyedov said the fuel was an overly volatile mix including hydrogen peroxide. Moreover, he said, the torpedoes, first designed in 1957, should not have been in service and have since been decommissioned. The commander's comments -- the most specific yet by the Russian government about the possible cause of the accident -- were accompanied by a Kremlin announcement that Ilya Klebanov, a deputy prime minister in charge of the Russia's military industrial complex, has been demoted. No reason was given for President Vladimir Putin's decision, other than a statement that Klebanov needed to concentrate on his secondary duties as minister of industry, science and technology. Some political analysts said Klebanov, who oversaw the failed rescue effort and subsequent investigation into the disaster, lost credibility by repeatedly suggesting the Kursk sank because of a collision with a foreign vessel. U.S., British and Norwegian vessels monitoring the Russian naval exercise were in the Barents Sea at the time, but officials of the three countries denied any involvement in the sinking. Russia's chief prosecutor, Vladimir Ustinov, firmly ruled out the collision theory today, saying "there is no information whatsoever about another vessel being around." "You will ask me: What about the buoy of that alleged foreign submarine seen approaching by eyewitnesses? That could be big jellyfish, which colonize the Barents Sea at that time of year," Ustinov said. Ustinov said the final verdict on the cause of the sinking would come in mid-year when the sub's mangled torpedo bay is brought to the surface. Putin has already punished 14 admirals and other high-ranking navy officers for failing to protect the Kursk's crew. In December, after an interim report, he replaced the head of the Northern Fleet and dismissed or demoted other top officers. Some commanders grumbled then that Putin had mistaken lack of leadership for the navy's true problem: lack of money. The Kursk, the pride of Russia's Northern Fleet, was lifted 365 feet from the ocean floor last fall and hauled to a port near the city of Murmansk in Russia's far northwest; the operation cost $65 million. The bodies of 94 sailors were recovered, along with log books, recordings and blueprints that investigators hoped would show why the sub sank on Aug. 12, 2000. At today's news conference in Murmansk, Ustinov, the prosecutor, said the inquiry showed serious procedural breaches by the Northern Fleet's command and by the Kursk's crew that reflected a lack of discipline. "There was this sense of sloppiness, that many things were not done properly," he said. He cited the failure of officers to insist on repairs to the submarine's emergency buoy, and of the crew failing to turn on the emergency intercom during the exercises. But he said those errors did not cause the calamity. Kuroyedov's comments seemed to lend support for the theory advanced by some independent experts soon after the sinking -- that the navy command, desperate to shave costs, unwisely relied on a cheap torpedo fuel that Western navies had long rejected as too dangerous. "The confidence of scientists, designers and the navy leadership in the fuel which was used was not justified," Kuroyedov said. The fuel "is highly unstable and its contact with certain metals may cause unpredictable consequences," he added. "The torpedoes have already been removed from submarines. We are now considering a replacement." © 2002 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 47 Nuclear Plans Go Beyond Cuts (washingtonpost.com) Bush Seeks a New Generation Of Weapons, Delivery Systems By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, February 19, 2002; Page A13 The Bush administration is studying the development of a new generation of nuclear weapons and strategic delivery systems at the same time it has announced its intention to sharply reduce the number of operationally deployed U.S. nuclear warheads. The Nuclear Weapons Council, made up of officials from the Defense and Energy departments, has ordered a three-year study into developing a nuclear-tipped, earth-penetrating weapon that can destroy hardened underground targets. The administration has also established "advanced warhead concept teams" at the nation's three nuclear weapons laboratories to work on new warheads or warhead modifications. Both initiatives were proposed in a year-long study, the Nuclear Posture Review, conducted under the direction of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and approved by President Bush last month. But they were only made public Thursday in congressional testimony by retired Gen. John A. Gordon, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, which manages the country's nuclear weapons complex. Some groups are criticizing the Bush administration's plans. "Not since the resurgence of the Cold War in Ronald Reagan's first term has there been such an emphasis on nuclear weapons in U.S. defense strategy," said the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group that specializes in analyzing U.S. nuclear weapons programs. At the time the Nuclear Posture Review was released, officials focused attention on its proposals for large-scale reductions in the number of nuclear warheads. Bush announced in November that the United States will reduce the number of deployed warheads from its current level of 6,000 to between 1,700 and 2,200 within 10 years. But instead of destroying most of the warheads, the administration plans to put them in storage where they could be reactivated. In an appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gordon said the Nuclear Weapons Council study on a bunker-penetrating warhead is examining two possible designs, one by the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the other by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Gordon also said the studies "would proceed beyond the 'paper' stage and include a combination of component and subassembly tests and simulations." The National Nuclear Security Administration workload, at least for the next 10 years, is overwhelmingly devoted to refurbishing nuclear warheads for the land-based Minuteman III ICBM, the sub-launched Trident SLBM, the air-launched cruise missile and versions of the B-61 nuclear bomb. The one new warhead planned for dismantlement is the W-62, the original warhead on the first 500 Minuteman III missiles, but disassembly of those warheads is not expected to begin until late in this decade, Gordon said. To support this workload, the Nuclear Posture Review calls for almost doubling the capacity of the Nuclear Security Administration's Pantex plant outside Amarillo, Tex., to handle 600 warheads a year, up from today's 350, according to a report issued last week by the Natural Resources Defense Council. According to the council's report, the posture review also calls for a new land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) to be operational in 2020, a new sub-launched ballistic missile and new strategic submarine by 2030 and a new heavy bomber by 2040. Gordon said the review calls for accelerating work on development of a new plant to produce plutonium pits, the part of a thermonuclear weapon whose atomic explosion acts as a trigger mechanism. In addition, Gordon said, there would be an expansion and modernization of the Y-12 plant at Oak Ridge, Tenn., which handles highly enriched uranium as well as the other radioactive materials for thermonuclear weapons. An additional $15 million has been allocated to prepare the Nevada Test Site to resume testing within a year's time, although Gordon said the Bush administration still supports the moratorium on underground testing. © 2002 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 48 DOE supports conversion of plutonium Tri-Valley Herald Tuesday, February 19, 2002 - 3:12:11 AM MST By Glenn Roberts Jr. STAFF WRITER Tuesday, February 19, 2002 - -->LIVERMORE -- An audit conducted by U.S. Energy Department investigators found that a plan to use 37.5 tons of bomb-grade plutonium in nuclear power plant fuel -- preventing its use in weapons -- would save about $1.7 billion over a previous plan. The findings, released to the public this month in an Energy Department Office of Inspector General report, roughly correlate an Energy Department announcement last month that the conversion of all of this surplus plutonium into fuel would save about $2 billion. Under the original plan for the surplus plutonium, Energy Department officials would have converted about 28.2 tons of plutonium for use in nuclear reactors and converted another 9.3 tons into an immobilized form that would prevent its use in weapons. American and Russian officials, through a nuclear nonproliferation agreement, had planned to eliminate the use of the plutonium in nuclear weapons through this "dual-track" strategy. But on Jan. 23, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said the department is no longer planning to immobilize any of the plutonium. The Inspector General's review, conducted from August 2001 to January 2002, states that this dual approach to plutonium conversion would cost about $6.3 billion, while converting all of this material for use is reactor fuel would cost about $4.6 billion. Energy Department researchers have "resolved technical feasibility issues" related to the use of plutonium as a fuel ingredient, investigators said. There were, however, technical problems with the immobilization method, department officials said last month. The process to immobilize plutonium by combining it with a ceramic mixture was developed by researchers at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. Livermore Lab research related to the immobilization technique was suspended in 2001, and the suspension led to the reassignment of about 50 lab workers to other projects. If Energy Department officials chose to immobilize all 37.5 tons of plutonium it would cost an estimated $4.3 billion, the Inspector General report states. Inspector General investigators said the immobilization plan would have required the potentially costly extraction of cesium, a highly radioactive element that reacts violently with water and air. "The department had a preliminary estimate of these costs, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, but management did not consider the estimate to be reliable." The extraction technique also posed potential health and safety risks, "which would have to be carefully considered in any evaluation of this approach," the report states. A plan to immobilize all of the plutonium might have been rejected by Russian officials, the report also states. Investigators acknowledge in their report that they "did not specifically review the department's calculation" that estimated a $2 billion cost savings for the fuel-conversion plan. "Because or review was limited, it would not necessarily have disclosed all internal control deficiencies that may have existed at the time of our audit," the report states. ©1999-2001 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers ***************************************************************** 49 Paul Parson: Axing water study at Oak Ridge bad move Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:34 p.m. on Tuesday, February 19, 2002 Alas, I am back from vacation. The Mardi Gras parades are over. No more spending time with my best friend Shelby. And I will really miss walking up and down New Orleans' Bourbon Street, which oozed with large, loud crowds consuming mass amounts of alcohol and displaying skin for a string of beads. Strangely though, people's actions on Bourbon Street seem quite rational when comparing them with some of the decisions made by the Department of Energy. For one thing, the federal agency announced last week it was ending its investigation into historic water contaminations at the Oak Ridge K-25 site. News reports have DOE claiming its investigation has accomplished all that's reasonably achievable and that it was doubtful any significant information would arise from continuing the project. The whole K-25 effort has been marred with controversy from the get-go, with threats of legal investigations because computer hard drives turned up missing and no information was saved following the demolition of Building K-1001, a facility several sick workers say they worked in. So, DOE's decision is no real surprise, especially since I reported last November that the federal agency had no interest in continuing funding for the project. At the time, a DOE official told me the K-25 study was no longer considered a "high priority." It's such a shame. A bad move by DOE. The investigation into K-25's water systems began after employees voiced concern in July 2000 that cross-connecting water lines could have resulted in exposure to hazardous materials at the plant, which formerly enriched uranium through a gaseous diffusion process. Soon afterward, DOE launched an inspection of the current drinking water systems at K-25, also known as the East Tennessee Technology Park. Tests concluded the water was safe to consume and that no levels of contaminants were present that exceed Environmental Protection Agency- and state-regulated levels. The investigation into historic water contaminations began in late 2000, and a draft progress report was released last August indicating the following: + Storm sewers were known to be used for discharge of laboratory wastes, water used in fire drills and washdown of spills. + Firefighting and recirculating cooling water systems were used as backup to each other and at times these systems were cross-connected with the sanitary system. + Cross-connections with the firefighting and recirculating cooling water systems were identified and corrected, but it is not known how long these existed or what the associated hazard might have been. * SPENCER'S PLAN: In a column published last Tuesday in The Oak Ridger, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham boasted that his new expedited cleanup plan for DOE sites will stress accountability. He also said meaningful and attainable deadlines will be set, and cleanup will be closely monitored to ensure that those deadlines are met. Time will tell if Abraham keeps his word or whether his inevitable replacement will do the same. Remember, an energy secretary doesn't stay in office forever. * REPEAT PERFORMANCE: Looks like Blaine Construction Corp. of Knoxville is continuing its lucky streak as far as Spallation Neutron Source contracts are concerned. The company was recently awarded a $12.9 million deal for work on the SNS' proton accumulator ring buildings. It is the fourth SNS contract received by Blaine over the past couple of years. Paul Parson is the science and technology reporter for The Oak Ridger. He can be contacted at (865) 220-5533 or pparson@oakridger.com [pparson@oakridger.com] . All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 50 GLOBAL WARMING COULD PERSIST FOR CENTURIES Environment News Service: AmeriScan: February 18, 2002 AmeriScan: February 18, 2002 BOSTON, Massachusetts, February 18, 2002 (ENS) - Even if emissions of greenhouse gases are curbed now, global warming will persist for at least a century, argues new research. Though uncertainty remains regarding the amount of global warming that will occur over the next century or two, scientists agree that the trend will continue for the next hundred years even if fossil fuel consumption is slashed. Professor Robert Dickinson of the Georgia Institute of Technology's School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences presented the evidence behind this assessment at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Boston on Sunday. Dickinson's presentation, titled "Predicting Climate Change," was part of the symposium "Climate Change: Integrating Science, Economics and Policy." the next 100 to 200 years," Dickinson said. "But the effects of carbon dioxide (CO2) that have been released into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels last for at least 100 years. That means that any reductions in CO2 that are expected to be possible over this period will not result in a cleaner atmosphere and less global warming than we see today for at least a century." The burning of fossil fuels emits greenhouse gases, such as CO2, into the atmosphere. These gases contribute to global warming, and the temperature increase expands the oceans and causes ice sheets to melt, in turn increasing sea level. Climate models predict temperature increases of three to more than 10 degrees Fahrenheit this century and a sea level rise of six inches to almost three feet. Despite differences in climate model projections and the limitations of the models themselves, scientists agree that significant consequences from global warming will occur in this century, Dickinson said. "Given enough time, there may be as many winners as losers. However, many of the losers will be very unhappy, such as people who live on islands that will be put under water," Dickinson said. "It will take a lot of time for humans to adjust their systems to these changes. The biggest problem is the speed at which global warming is occurring." The world can also expect large shifts in agricultural productivity, Dickinson added. Some regions will become more productive, and others will become less so because of changing patterns in temperature and rainfall. Overall, there will be more rainfall, but also more evaporation leading to more floods and more droughts. "If it were happening over 1,000 years, rather than 100 years, it would hardly be noticed. But we're talking about fairly large changes within the next generation," said Dickinson. "The only way to stop the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is to reduce CO2 emissions to 20 to 30 percent of today's levels," Dickinson concluded. "I believe we will eventually achieve that goal, but it will probably take 100 years." ***************************************************************** 51 Fusion reactors remain decades off, experts say Augusta Georgia: Technology: Web posted Tuesday, February 19, 2002 By Michael Woods Scripps Howard News Service BOSTON - Don't count on nuclear fusion - the much ballyhooed "energy of the sun and the stars" - to rescue the United States from tomorrow's energy crunch. It's going to be 50 years before the first commercial fusion reactors start producing electricity. That was the consensus of a panel of experts, who said fusion is more difficult to harness than anyone dreamed. "With enough federal funding, a prototype nuclear fusion reactor could be tested within 30 to 40 years," said Miklos Porkolab, an international authority. He directs the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Plasma Science and Fusion Laboratory. "A commercial reactor could be deployed by the middle of the century," he said. Porkolab and a group of other experts gathered Sunday to discuss the so-called "renaissance" of nuclear power in the United States. It was part of the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. So far, the renaissance involves mainly renewed interest in conventional nuclear power among electric utility companies and politicians, according to Gail H. Marcus of the Department of Energy. America's 103 nuclear power plants use nuclear fission, which releases energy by splitting atoms of uranium. Fusion would release enormous energy by squeezing together, or fusing, atoms of other material - a process which occurs in the sun. The public has developed a more positive view of nuclear energy, Ms. Marcus said, citing concerns about global climate change and reliance on foreign sources of oil. Recent polls show that 50 percent of people support nuclear power, up from 45 percent two years ago. Unlike coal, oil, and natural gas, nuclear energy produces electricity without releasing carbon dioxide, the gas implicated in global warming through the greenhouse effect. There are secure sources of nuclear fuel. Marcus cited those as reasons why nuclear power got a prominent spot in President Bush's energy policy. It includes initiatives to introduce a generation of nuclear power plants that are safer and more reliable than the 103 plants in operation. Those plants produce about 20 percent of America's electricity. Porkolab essentially ruled out chances that fusion - the nuclear power industry's fondest hope - soon will be available. Fusion is attractive because it could use inexhaustible supplies of fuel obtained from seawater. And fusion reactors probably would be cleaner and safer than today's fission reactors. Scientists have been predicting fusion's imminent debut since the 1950s, Porkolab pointed out. He described "mind-boggling" advances toward commercial fusion reactors that have occurred in the last 10 years. But commercial fusion reactors remain a distant dream, he said. John P. Holdren of Harvard University said a true American renaissance in nuclear power would require difficult, costly, time-consuming steps in addition to development of next-generation power plants. The public, for instance, would have to be convinced that the new generation of plants really are safe from catastrophic accidents. Utility companies would have to be convinced that the plants can be built and operated at prices competitive with coal-fired generating stations. Everyone would have to agree on a method for disposing of radioactive waste produced by the plants. Finally, concerns about diversion of nuclear fuel for terrorist use would have to be resolved. "All four of those conditions need to be met," Holdren emphasized. 1996 - 2002 The Augusta Chronicle. ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************