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07/19/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.184
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RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE
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NUCLEAR POLICY
1 UK: The nuclear power debate
2 Lone Grassroots Activist Seeks to Magnify his Voice
3 WINDSCALE REACTORS TODAY... GREENFIELD SITE IN 40 YEARS
4 Russia suspends second stage of nuclear plant.
5 US: Requires conversion of uranium at sites in Ky., Ohio
6 YEMEN SEEKS NUCLEAR ENERGY PROGRAM
NUCLEAR REACTORS
7 US: Davis-Besse Nuclear plant's part arrives
8 US: TVA to replace newest nuke's steam generators
9 US: William Raymond Named NRC Senior Resident Inspector at Pilgrim
NUCLEAR SAFETY
10 Britain recognizes Gulf War syndrome is real
11 US: Uranium waste may pay off for Tristate
12 Russian nuclear theft alarms US
13 Potassium-iodide distribution both unsettling, reassuring
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
14 US: Yucca: What now, oh activists?
15 US: Yucca: A Mercury Handi-Chart (yech)
16 US: Strong suit
17 US: Basement Files: Yucky
18 US: Yucca: Comfort zone
19 US: Ain't Necessarily So: Last thoughts on Yucca
20 Japan: Move ahead on N-waste site
21 Poor nations attack nuclear waste movement, leaders flee Fiji strike
22 BNFL CHAIRMAN GETS WAGE RISE TO £165K A YEAR
23 IT'S RED FOR BNFL...
24 FARMERS RAGING OVER FOX FAMILY AT SELLAFIELD
25 US: EPA fails to find tritium in Berkeley
26 US: Utah's Christian values deserted us on nuke-waste issue
27 US: National Association of Counties passes resolution to address
28 US: Dump clean-up enters last phase
29 US: Judge Winmill to Hear Nuclear Waste Argument Monday
30 Pacific rejects nuclear waste
31 US: NRC asked to halt fuel-rod transfer
32 US: NRC: Press Release - 2002 - 83 - NRC Seeks Public Comment on Pro
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
33
34 Y-12 closer to getting security funds
35 Ex-Pantex workers await decisions
36 Wording of bill may bring DOE site to Paducah -
OTHER NUCLEAR
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 UK: The nuclear power debate
Times Online
July 19, 2002
Peter Trevitt, project director of Sparking Reaction, an
exhibition by the Science Museum at Sellafield, answers questions
Q. After Chernobyl, safety is a concern. Can we be sure there
will be no such disaster in the UK?
A. The Chernobyl accident is unlikely to be repeated in this
country due to differences in regulations and design between
British reactors and the old-style Russian reactors at Chernobyl.
The Soviet reactors were inherently unstable, especially at low
power levels, and were vulnerable to sudden escalations in
temperature. They also lacked the concrete and steel containment
structures that surround British reactors and help prevent the
release of radioactive materials in the event of an accident. In
addition, regulations surrounding the operation of reactors are
stricter in this country. The operators at Chernobyl tried to run
the reactor under conditions that would never be permitted in
Britain.
However, some experts believe that in this country an equally
serious accident could be caused in other ways. In particular
they have highlighted the potential risks surrounding the stores
of liquid high-level waste at Sellafield, which aren’t as well
protected as most modern reactors, and where an accident could
have more serious consequences than at any of the UK’s nuclear
reactors. An article in New Scientist last year suggested that a
terrorist attack on the waste stores could release 10 times more
radiation than the Chernobyl accident. But others disagree with
this estimate.
While much has been done since the Chernobyl accident to improve
reactor safety worldwide, we can never eliminate the possibility
of an accident altogether. We must decide whether the benefits
associated with the nuclear industry outweigh this risk.
Q. Will we ever find a safe way of disposing of nuclear waste?
A. There is 50-years-worth of accumulated radioactive waste in
Britain. While low-level radioactive waste is disposed of in
Drigg, in Cumbria, a decision still has to be reached about how
we are to dispose of intermediate- and high- level waste, some of
which remains potentially hazardous for many thousands of years.
Over the years, many different ways of disposing of radioactive
waste have been proposed, but most are now seen as unworkable or
unacceptable. Disposal of solid waste at sea is now illegal.
Exporting of radioactive waste to other, perhaps less well-off,
countries could be viewed as unethical. Proposals have even
included firing radioactive waste into space, but this was ruled
out because of the risk of a rocket exploding, showering
high-level waste over the entire Earth. Hopes that the waste
could be processed to reduce or remove its radioactivity have so
far proved over-optimistic.
Underground disposal is the favoured solution of the nuclear
industry. It would entail burying high- and intermediate- level
waste deep underground in solid rock.
However, there is still some uncertainty about how long-term
changes in environmental or geological conditions might affect
such sites. Plans to build an underground laboratory near
Sellafield to test whether the area would be suitable for a
repository were shelved in 1997.
Long-term storage above ground would mean the waste could be
monitored to make sure radioactive material is not escaping into
the environment. It would also allow future generations to
retrieve and unpack the waste if advances in scientific or
technical knowledge enable them to make it safer. However, it
would also be more vulnerable to terrorist attack. We have to ask
ourselves how much of the responsibility for dealing with
radioactive waste we are prepared to pass on to later
generations? Whether or not we continue generating electricity
using nuclear power, we will have to deal with the radioactive
waste we already have, and this is not just a scientific or
technical issue. Any proposed solution must find acceptance with
the public generally. To achieve this we need an open and public
debate about radioactive waste, how it is created, transported
and stored — and how it might be disposed of.
Q. In the absence of a viable commercial fusion reactor for
power generation, is the best way forward for nuclear power a
return to the abandoned fast breeder reactor programme?
A. Fast-breeder reactors were initially developed because they
can conserve uranium stocks by “breeding” their own plutonium
fuel. However, uranium is currently both plentiful and cheap so
the nuclear industry no longer sees this as a significant
advantage. The UK’s prototype fast-breeder reactor at Dounreay in
northern Scotland was shut down in 1994, partly because the
programme was proving too expensive.
If we restarted a fast-breeder programme, reprocessing plants
would be required to separate the potentially re-useable
plutonium from the reactor waste products.
These plants are strongly opposed by anti-nuclear groups and a
number of foreign governments because they release more radiation
into the environment than nuclear power stations. Many people
also believe that having more plutonium in the world is
undesirable due to its potential military uses (although fast
reactors can be designed to use up existing stocks of plutonium).
It would, therefore, be extremely difficult to achieve a climate
of public opinion in which a fast-breeder programme was
considered acceptable.
There are currently no plans to build new nuclear reactors in the
UK, but with climate change high on the agenda the government has
left the door open for new building, as long as it is fully
funded by the nuclear industry.
Within the nuclear industry, the most favoured designs for new
build are pressurised-water reactors and Candu reactors. These
would be cheaper to build than re-establishing a fast-breeder
programme and would probably meet less opposition. On a slightly
longer time-scale, developments such as the South African
pebble-bed reactor might prove viable.
Although a commercially viable fusion reactor programme may be
many decades off, it is still seen by most as more politically
acceptable than restarting the UK fast breeder programme. In the
meantime, other nuclear technologies would be cheaper and easier
to implement.
Q. Could alternative sources of power — such as wind, solar or
tidal — ever make more than a minor contribution to Britain’s
future energy needs?
A. Britain, with its long coast lines and windy weather, has
excellent opportunities for harnessing renewable energy sources
such as wind, wave and tidal power. Even solar power could play
more of a part in our electricity production — it doesn’t need to
be a bright, sunny day to make electricity using photovoltaic
cells.
Unfortunately many renewable energy sources are intermittent —
you don’t get electricity from a wind turbine when there’s no
wind (or for that matter when there’s too much wind) or from a
solar cell at night. However, some renewable sources such as
hydroelectric power and biofuels can provide a constant supply of
electricity. Biofuels include gases from landfill sites, refuse,
straw and specially grown trees. However, there is only so much
gas you can get from rubbish, and other biofuels require large
areas of land to be planted with trees or other energy crops. The
opportunities for expanding hydroelectric power are also limited
as there are not many more valleys that it would be
environmentally acceptable to flood.
We currently generate less than 3 per cent of our electricity
from renewable sources although the government aims to make this
10 per cent by 2010. To utilise renewable technologies on a large
scale will take investment time and money. We have already
invested billions of pounds in coal, gas and nuclear generation,
and some people argue that we should switch investment away from
technologies that they consider unsustainable and environmentally
unsound. If we do this now, we could have viable renewable
options to generate a considerable proportion of our electricity
in a decade or two.
Others argue that renewables will never be a cost-effective way
to generate more than a small proportion of our electricity and
we should concentrate on existing technologies in which we have
already invested heavily and which we know can meet our needs,
even if they cannot be sustained indefinitely.
Q. Is there a future for the nuclear power industry in Britain
or anywhere else for that matter? Doesn't wind power offer the
most obvious solution for the time being?
A. Most scientists accept that climate change is now a reality,
caused by the releases of greenhouse gases, in particular carbon
dioxide. This could mean rising sea levels worldwide and a
wetter, windier Britain, with serious environmental and financial
costs. Nuclear power and renewable technologies such as wind
power produce no carbon dioxide during operation and are both
touted (not usually by the same people) as ways to meet our
electricity needs while contributing less to climate change.
About a fifth of our electricity is generated by nuclear power
stations but that proportion will fall as older nuclear power
stations are decommissioned over the next few decades — unless we
build new ones.
Currently only a fraction of a per cent of our electricity is
generated using wind, but there are hopes that it will play a
significant role in future. The future for nuclear power depends
on how competitive it can be in the electricity market. It is
also dependent upon writing off historic wastes and sites (as the
establishment of the Liabilities Management Authority seeks to
do).
The Government's Energy Review estimated that by 2020 the cost of
generating electricity from new nuclear stations would be 3p to
4p per kWh, while offshore wind power would cost 2p to 3p per
kWh. This compares with a cost for gas generation of around 2p
per kWh.
While wind power might be cheaper than nuclear, it is not always
available (see earlier answer). Experts argue about how much of
our electricity we can generate from wind power without risking
power cuts in calm or stormy weather. Most experts agree that a
mix of generation methods is the best way to produce our
electricity, but they argue about what that mix should be and
whether any technologies should be completely excluded. And
whatever experts think, public opinion may still make nuclear
power an unacceptable option.
Q. What steps are being taken to replace ageing nuclear power
plants? What happens when the time comes to close them down —
just as our supply of other natural resources run out?
A. Over the next 20 years, all but one of Britain’s nuclear
power stations will reach the end of their operating lives and
close down. Currently they produce about one-fifth of our
electricity while about two-fifths is generated using natural
gas. A recent estimate put world gas reserves at around 60 years,
although estimates vary.
Coal reserves were estimated at more than 200 years, and oil at
40 years. We currently generate about one third of our
electricity using coal and around 1.5 per cent using oil.
The Energy Review already mentioned envisages greater use of
renewable sources such as wind, wave and tidal power and
exploring how viable these technologies might. The Government is
also likely to push for more energy efficiency measures to curb
the rise in our electricity demand.
The Energy Review also concluded that the government does not
need to make any firm decisions about whether to build new
nuclear plants for the next few years. During this time we might
be able to come to a public consensus on what to do with our
nuclear waste and decide whether we should generate any more.
Any new nuclear power stations would be entirely funded by
industry and they will have to compete on price with other
generation methods. However, the Energy Review is not the last
word on the subject and the Department of Trade and Industry is
publishing a white paper on energy policy at the end of this
year.
Copyright 2002
[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,549,00.html] Times
Newspapers Ltd.
*****************************************************************
2 Lone Grassroots Activist Seeks to Magnify his Voice
Reprocessing at Zheleznogorsk
The Mining and Chemical Combine in Zheleznogorsk still operates
one of its three plutonium-producing reactors. This section also
delivers information on spent nuclear fuel handling and the
incomplete reprocessing plant RT-2.
SOSNOVOBORSK, CENTRAL SIBERIA - Yevgeny Spirin, this Siberian
town’s single grassroots environmentalist, keeps a wardrobe on
hand for honored guests.
Charles Digges, 2002-07-19 14:41
As he pulls the garments off a special hangar, the smell of sweat
and dirt waft into the room. Measuring today’s guests with the
eye of a tailor, he selects a burlap, sweat stained worker’s
jacket for one, a soiled had and a set of coveralls that smell
like they may be stained by some sort of animal feces — he
doesn’t know — for a second, and another tattered, fetid
uniform-type jacket for a third. This third also gets a pair of
mud-strained work boots to replace her distinctly western
sandals.
“Now you look like locals,” says the 38-year-old Spirin,
obviously pleased with the transformation. It is not that his
fashion sense is skewed, but rather that he is an expert in local
camouflage, so that the occasional groups of environmentalists
and reporters that visit from Moscow and the west blend in as
they look around his town, which has essentially been drained dry
by its neighbour, the closed nuclear city of Zheleznogorsk, or
Krasnoyarsk-26.
Federal money, when it comes to the remote region some 35
kilometers from Krasnoyarsk, is earmarked for buttressing the
programmes at Zheleznogorsk, which is home to one of Russia’s
last three plutonium reactors. The closed city also holds 3,000
tonnes of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) at its RT-2 facility.
The reactor is scheduled — by a US Department of Energy plan — to
be shut down by 2005 or 2006, and an aged fossil fuel plant
refurbished to take on the burden of heating the region. But even
then, the reactor itself will have to stand for 50 years while
levels of radioactivity subside to levels making its
dismantlement possible.
Meanwhile, the Russian government, and many in the Krasnoyarsk
and Zheleznogorsk administration are lobbying to have a permanent
underground internment facility built in the region to store some
20 tonnes foreign and domestic SNF permanently — a proposal that
has met with widespread, though largely ignored, protest locally.
In Sosnovoborsk — a collection of ramshackle barracks-style
buildings initially erected for the workers that constructed
Zheleznogorsk — area doctors, speaking on the condition of
anonymity — say they are treating high levels of cancer related
to radiation sickness in middle aged patients, though no official
statistics were available.
“Many patients are former workers at the [Zheleznogorsk] Chemical
Combine, but there are other,” said one doctor. “More disturbing
and isolated cases are people who have nothing to do with the
combine are getting ill — it suggest contamination that
townspeople don’t know about.”
Indeed, Spirin’s own co-environmentalist, Taisia Panina has been
bedridden since contracting cancer doctors say is likely
radiation related cancer. ’The factory or the devil’
This is precisely this sort of hidden knowledge that Spirin
wants brought out in the open. But to bring the message to the
people, he has not been speaking from podiums, or lobbying the
government — that would require, at the very least, a tie,
something, by his own admission, that he doesn’t own. His chosen
method is a sort of word-of-mouth grassroots agitation.
Unlike his colleagues in the West, he has no banners to unfurl,
t-shirts to sell or pamphlets to pass out — the printing costs
are too high. But what he can tell you off the top of his head
won’t be found in such detail in a leaflet. If you want a view of
the monolithic closed nuclear structure that is destroying his
region, he won’t show you photos. Instead, he’ll dress you up
like a mushroom picker and take you to the legal edge of closed
city’s perimeter.
His means, to say the least, are modest — he is no
mini-Greenpeace. But he has an ardent passion that the people of
his area have to know what’s going on. So equipped with oratory
and years of self-study of the region, he tells them.
“There’s a saying, you might not concern yourself with politics,
but sometime, politics will concern itself with you,” said Spirin
in an interview with Bellona Web.
“It’s the same with ecology around here — you may not deal with
it yourself, but one of these days it’s going to deal with you.”
As a whole, Spirin says, the town has an inkling of what it is up
against ecologically but as long as the environmental corrosion
continues in relative silence, people are inclined look the other
direction.
“When nothing is wrong, ecology is the 35th item on your list,”
he said. “You’ve got other problems — with work, with feeding
your family, with school — but when the food is bad, when your
kids are getting sick, when the territory in which you grew up is
polluted, and its no longer your territory but the factory’s — or
the devil’s — that’s when ecology deals with you.”
An unlikely activist
A glance at Spirin’s resume shows he is no born environmentalist.
Throughout his adult life he has done mostly odd jobs like
loading trucks, working as an electrician and a plumber. But he
does have what could be called upper level experience in the
human rights field — which came about serendipitously — and it
was among this working-class milieu that Spirin found his most
abiding allies.
“Another electrician friend of mine and I decided to open a local
chapter of Amnesty International out here in Sosnovoborsk,”
Spirin said. “ We were among the first two registered groups in
Russia, the other at the time being in St Petersburg.”
But, as Spirin recounts it, the St Petersburg group ran into
registration problems meaning the Sosnovoborsk group briefly
became the primary group in Russia, and he was told while doing a
pick-up job loading a truck that he was the chief of the
all-Russia delegation for Amnesty International.
“For about two days, my colleagues and I were the big bosses for
Amnesty International,” he said.
“You’ve got to understand, throughout my working career I have
been pretty much working class, and here we are, all of a sudden,
my friends and I, who are out their rewiring flat-blocks,
unloading trucks, unclogging stopped up toilets, are running
Russia’s Amnesty International at the same time.”
Ecology deals with Spirin
Eventually, St Petersburg dealt with its red tape and the locus
of power shifted back. But Spirin’s taste for helping his local
community did not. This taste eventually found an outlet in the
local newspaper, in 1997 where he began putting together two
pages weekly for children under the rubric Ochkariki — meaning
literally children who wear glasses, but bearing the connotation
in Russia of “young scientists,” or “curious students.”
Part of the page was devoted to answering questions from young
readers, which became more and more ecologically advanced. “The
kids weren’t dumb,” said Spirin, “and they were less inhibited
than their parents about asking about out local ecology, what was
going on at Zheleznogorsk, what SNF was, how close SNF trains
came to Sosnovoborsk — they understood it was affecting their
lives.”
The pages quickly became a hit and Spirin began to make numerous
environmental contacts. The second version of Ochkariki was
published as a free-standing journal, basically run off on a copy
machine someone had access to, but nonetheless all the copies
were picked up a devoured.
A third, more professionally designed edition stands ready on a
computer owned by Spirin’s friend, another electrician, but
Spirin has run into prohibitive printing costs, as well as local
Mafiosi who want a cut of the proceeds of the magazine Spirin was
planning on distributing for free.
Nonetheless, Spirin expects it to see the light of day somehow,
even if he has to print and distribute it himself. .
“I don’t work as a professional in this — I receive no salary —
but I have this theory that you have to do it all yourself, and
for yourself, for your own people. And nourish them in the
process.”
Administrative Attention
Nevertheless, this process of nourishment entails no small risk
of harassment by local police and the Federal Security Service,
all of whom would rather he keep his mouth shut about the dangers
looming down the road. His own co-environmentalist, Panina, lost
her job for her actives and her son has been brutally treated by
local police.
Spirin, nonetheless, jauntily responds he has no job to take
away. “I’m unemployed, have no money, and they know I would fight
them in court for my right [to disseminate ecological
information] for the next few decades,” he said. “I am too
stubborn to stop and they seem to understand this.” Activism’s
Several hats
AS a result, the city administration, which — unlike the
security services — has an ambivalent, if abiding, interest in
find out what Spirin has to say, is on the brink of putting him
on the payroll in an advisory position. According Vladimir
Slivyak, co-chairman of Ecodefense!, which has been lobbying the
Sosnovoborsk administration to help Spirin create a local
environmental information centre, a recent meeting between
Slivyak, Spirin and Sosnovoborsk officials yielded encouraging
results. According to Slivyak, Spirin will likely be furnished
with one room, a small salary and a job title — his first in
years — through the Sosnovoborsk Administration’s Department of
Cultural affairs for the creation of the centre.
At present, the city is willing to go as far as giving Spirin the
room, and many of the basic materials that Spirin would need will
have to be donated by Ecodefense! and other organizations. So
far, one individual has committed to giving Spirin’s center a
computer. But the computer needs a modem, and Spirin by his own
admission needs training.
Unlike classical western conceptions of grassroots activity,
Slivyak said that activists in Russia have to be able to
coordinate community information meetings, climb smoke stacks to
hang banners, and then dust off, change clothes and go lobby the
authorities.
“The lobbying that gets done in the West is really what Russia is
lacking in,” said Slivyak in a recent interview. “There, you’ve
got people on the street, but also people in offices talking to
politicians who make the decisions — here I have to do both
things, coordinate actions, and then go talk to officials at the
Nuclear Power Ministry.”
Spirin, though, seemed unfazed by the new hats he will have to
wear should the deal for the environmental information centre
come through.
“I have wanted to engage the officials in this seriously for
years, and this shows they are willing to take it seriously too,”
he said. “Though, I suppose I’ll have to buy a tie.”
Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] , President:
Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no] Information: info@bellona.no
[info@bellona.no] , Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no
[webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22
38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway
*****************************************************************
3 WINDSCALE REACTORS TODAY... GREENFIELD SITE IN 40 YEARS
[The Whitehaven News]
[http://www.cumbria-online.co.uk]
[HERE TODAY: Windscale 2002-2007] By Alan Irving
DISMANTLING the two Windscale Reactor Piles, built in the early
1950s for military plutonium production during the Cold War arms
race, is a major part of the nuclear clean-up programme at
Sellafield.
These pictures are an artist's impression of the future state of
the Windscale site. One shows Windscale Pile One which caught
fire in 1957, releasing large amounts of radioactivity, and the
other depicts what the site it will look like in 40 or 50 years
time.
By then the intention of the UKAEA, present owners of the site,
is to return it to a virtual greenfield location.
All this and the complete dismantling of Sellafield's big golf
ball (the WAGR seen in the impression marked site boundary) will
form a big part of Britain's nuclear legacy clean-up programme.
For this, overall financial and legal responsibility will fall on
a new national body called the LMA - Liabilities Management
Authority.
Ownership of the Sellafield site will pass to the LMA but the
UKAEA and BNFL - the present joint owners - have been assured of
retaining the initial contracts to continue the work they are
doing.
For BNFL, this includes the contracts it has from the UKAEA to
dismantle the Windscale pile chimneys and also WAGR, an
experimental advanced gas-cooled reactor which pioneered the
second generation of nuclear power station reactors.
As seen in the picture, the Windscale Pile Two chimney has
already gone, but much of the fire-stricken Pile One chimney
remains intact.
This will eventually disappear but the job of decommissioning the
actual reactor core (housed in the big box-like building
alongside) is much trickier and it will take another 17 years to
fully decommission.
The core contains about 15 tons of fuel which was damaged in the
1957 fire and a technical review is currently under way to
decided the best method of dealing with it.
However, it is more of a priority task than the core of reactor
two where the material is in a safe, stable condition.
All the Windscale dismantling and decommissioning is due to be
completed by 2050.
All that will be left on the "greenfield" will be two
intermediate level waste stores, one for pile reactor radioactive
debris and the other for WAGA material.
What happens then is anyone's guess....until a final solution for
long-term disposal of the waste is found.
news@whitehaven-news.co.uk
*****************************************************************
4 Russia suspends second stage of nuclear plant.
[Australian Broadcasting Corporation Online]
Friday, July 19, 2002. Posted: 19:05:57 (AEDT)
Russia has suspended construction of the second stage of a
nuclear power station in its northern Kola region until 2010,
following a decision by Finland to build its own nuclear power
plant.
Regional officials at the plant near Murmansk, close to the
Norwegian border, said the region's needs for power were fully
met and noted that demand for energy among its neighbours.
Finland, Norway and the Russian Karelia region receive about 25
per cent of total output and were set to fall, Interfax reported.
"No sharp increases in local energy consumption are expected
until 2010 to 2015," experts said.
Officials also cited the Rosenergoatom company's "dire economic
situation."
The Kola peninsula's mining industry consumes around 70 per cent
of the plant's output.
Of the plant's four VVER-440 power generating units, only the
second, third and fourth are in operation, while the first is
under maintenance.
Russian ecologists have expressed concern at the decision to
discontinue work in progress and to prolong the life of the
existing reactors which date back to the 1970s, Interfax noted.
They believe the plant's security systems "may undergo only minor
improvements, leaving technological deficiencies intact," it
reported.
[http://www.abc.net.au]
© 2002 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
*****************************************************************
5 Requires conversion of uranium at sites in Ky., Ohio
The Oak Ridger Online -- State News --
Friday, July 19, 2002
by Nancy Zuckerbrod
Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- An anti-terrorism spending bill agreed to by House
and Senate negotiators Thursday requires the Department of Energy
to build two facilities to convert uranium waste into a safer
form -- one in Paducah, Ky., and one in Piketon, Ohio.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., added the measure to a version of
the bill approved by the Senate last month but House lawmakers
considered removing it from the final bill.
"There was some resistance, because the administration was not
keen on the language," McConnell said.
Congress passed similar legislation in 1998, but the Bush
administration maintained the language wasn't mandatory and that
it was inclined to build one facility to save money.
"I think it is a victory, but is a victory that should have been
unnecessary," said Democratic Rep. Ted Strickland, who represents
Piketon.
"The intent of Congress was absolutely indisputable."
The new measure states that the Energy Department must award a
contract for the project one month after the president signs the
bill. Construction of the facilities must begin by July 31, 2004.
"Hopefully there are no ways out of this language," McConnell
said.
Lawmakers say they do not have a firm figure as to how much it
would cost to build the two facilities but say one estimate is it
could cost $400 million. The plants are expected to operate for
up to 25 years.
Supporters of the two-plant approach say it will get the toxic
waste cleaned up faster than if just one plant were built. They
also say it would have been expensive, and potentially hazardous,
to ship all the waste to one facility.
About 60,000 cylinders of depleted uranium are stored at Energy
Department facilities in Paducah, Piketon and Oak Ridge.
Environmentalists say some of the cylinders are in poor condition
and could leak.
The hazardous waste is a byproduct of the uranium enrichment
process that the government used to manufacture nuclear weapons.
Today, only the Paducah facility enriches uranium, and it does so
for commercial purposes.
The two plants are expected to bring a total of about 400 new
jobs to Paducah and Piketon, according to lawmakers.
Protecting jobs is key in the minds of area lawmakers, said Rep.
Ed Whitfield, a Republican who represents Paducah
Both Paducah and Piketon are under consideration to get a new
uranium enrichment plant in the coming years. It would be a
significant boost to either community.
Whitfield said if only one site got the uranium conversion
facility, there could be political pressure to put the new
uranium enrichment facility at the other site.
Both the House and Senate plan to approve the $28.9 billion
compromise spending measure before leaving for their August
recess, lawmakers said. The president is expected to sign it.
[http://www.oakridger.com] All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger
*****************************************************************
6 YEMEN SEEKS NUCLEAR ENERGY PROGRAM
Middle East Newsline -
Email [menl@menewsline.com]
CAIRO [MENL] -- Yemen seeks international help to launch a
nuclear energy program.
Officials said the government in Sanaa wants to develop a program
that will eventually result in the construction of a nuclear
reactor. So far, Yemen, a signator to the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty, does not conduct any nuclear activity.
Yemeni officials are meeting a high-level delegation from the
International Atomic Energy Agency to discuss nuclear
cooperation. The IAEA delegation arrived Sunday for a four-day
visit and met with Yemeni leaders, including President Ali
Abdullah Saleh.
Saleh said Yemen wants to use nuclear facilities for peaceful
purposes. The president said the government plans to build four
units for the treatment of cancer with nuclear isotopes.
contact Middle East Newsline at:
editor@menewsline.com [editor@menewsline.com] for further details.
*****************************************************************
7 Davis-Besse Nuclear plant's part arrives
Beacon Journal | 07/19/2002 |
[http://www.ohio.com]
$55 million replacement vessel head at Davis-Besse after slow
journey from Mich. with armed escort
By Jim Mackinnon Beacon Journal business writer
[The replacement reactor vessel head for the Davis-Besse
nuclear power plant is lifted from the 187-foot-long tractor
trailer, which rides on 74 tires.] Lori King/The Toledo Blade via
AP
The replacement reactor vessel head for the Davis-Besse nuclear
power plant is lifted from the 187-foot-long tractor trailer,
which rides on 74 tires.
OAK HARBOR - When you need to move an 84-ton, 18-foot-wide steel
dome -- the critical part to rebuilding the damaged Davis-Besse
nuclear power plant in Oak Harbor -- you don't send it by FedEx,
UPS or load it in the back of a pickup truck.
Instead, you gingerly lift the $55 million-plus part, called a
reactor vessel head, onto the middle of a 187-foot-long tractor
trailer riding on 74 tires, cover it with a tarp, strap it down
with chains, throw another tarp on it and then crawl along for
250 miles at no more than 45 miles an hour.
With an armed escort.
With the arrival Thursday of the never-used, nonradioactive
replacement vessel head from Midland, Mich., FirstEnergy
completed a crucial phase in its quest to repair Davis-Besse by
year's end.
The plant, along the Lake Erie shoreline about 25 miles east of
Toledo, has been shut down since mid-February for refueling and a
safety inspection that in March unexpectedly found that boric
acid ate two cavities nearly through the reactor's old vessel
head. While no radiation was released into the environment,
nuclear power critics say poor maintenance and mismanagement at
Davis-Besse could have created a catastrophic accident.
FirstEnergy had hoped to keep the new vessel head's arrival time
and date secret for security reasons.
But the Ohio Department of Transportation late Wednesday issued a
press release outlining the massive domed-shaped object's travel
itinerary through the state. Because the vessel head isn't
radioactive, it was classified as a super-wide commercial
shipment -- something ODOT issues traffic alerts about.
In any case, it would have been difficult hiding the fact that a
187-foot-long truck and its state highway patrol escorts were
moving slowly along major highways in Michigan and Ohio. It left
Midland about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The entourage arrived outside Davis-Besse along state Route 2
about 12:15 p.m. Thursday. The tractor-trailer finally worked its
way through the contractor entrance gates about 10 minutes later,
helped greatly by the fact the rear portion of the
tractor-trailer had its own steering mechanism.
As workers prepared the vessel head to be taken off the
tractor-trailer, guards armed with automatic weapons stood watch.
The entire operation went smoothly, FirstEnergy spokesman Todd
Schneider said. The vessel head was finally taken off of the
tractor-trailer about 3:40 p.m., and moved to another location on
the property.
FirstEnergy will have to cut a 20-foot by 20-foot hole in the
containment building, which houses the reactor, to get the vessel
head inside. While containment chambers have been cut open at
other nuclear plants around the country, this will be the first
time that a high-pressure water jet will be used to slice into
the thick concrete walls, Schneider said.
``That will give us a nice, clean cut,'' he said.
The radioactive fuel that powers the reactor has been removed
from the containment chamber and stored elsewhere.
Also, the damaged portions of the old vessel head have been cut
out and are being analyzed.
There is some doubt the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will allow
the plant to power up again this year. The NRC says FirstEnergy
first needs to prove that there's no other damage inside the
plant and that company management is up to the task of preventing
further damage.
The cost to repair Davis-Besse could be as high as $300 million,
based on the purchase price of the replacement head, other
repairs, maintenance and upgrades, and the need to buy
electricity during the peak usage months of July and August, when
air conditioners typically are used the most.
Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or
jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com [jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com]
*****************************************************************
8 TVA to replace newest nuke's steam generators
The Oak Ridger Online -- Feature: Business --
Friday, July 19, 2002
CHATTANOOGA (AP) -- The Tennessee Valley Authority is preparing
to spend $68.4 million to replace the steam generators at its
newest nuclear station, barely six years into the plant's 40- to
60-year operating life.
TVA directors are scheduled to vote during a board meeting
Tuesday in Hickory, Ky., on the Westinghouse Electric Co.
contract for the Watts Bar nuclear plant near Spring City, about
50 miles north of Chattanooga.
"There was an industry-identified vibration problem in these
steam generators that has caused some tube degradation," TVA
spokesman John Moulton said.
"By replacing the steam generators, we will reduce our future
maintenance costs and help assure more reliable operation of our
nuclear units."
The tubes carry heat from the reactor to boil water that drives
the turbines that generate electricity. The more tubes plugged by
vibration problems, the less power the plant generates.
The new steam generators, which will be installed in 2006, are
similar to generators being added next year to TVA's Sequoyah
nuclear plant near Soddy-Daisy.
In 1986, TVA settled a claim against Westinghouse over steam
generator problems and obtained an extended warranty on the
equipment until 1994. But Watts Bar, which took 24 years to build
and get licensed, didn't begin operation until 1996.
Both Sequoyah and Watts Bar are Westinghouse-designed
pressurized water reactors. TVA's other operating nuclear plant,
the Browns Ferry plant in Athens, Ala., is a boiling water
reactor and won't require the replacement of such steam
generators.
However, TVA directors are expected to vote Tuesday on a
six-year, $820 million contract to Stone &Webster Engineering
Corp. for maintenance and repairs at Browns Ferry. The contract
includes $450 million toward recovering the Unit 1 reactor, which
has been idle 22 years.
[http://www.oakridger.com] All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger
*****************************************************************
9 William Raymond Named NRC Senior Resident Inspector at Pilgrim
Nuclear Power Plant
NRC: Press Release Region I - 2002 - 48 -
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs,
Region I 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406
www.nrc.gov
No. I-02-048 July 18, 2002 CONTACT: Diane Screnci
(610) 337-5330 Neil A. Sheehan (610) 337-5331 E-mail:
opa1@nrc.gov [opa1@nrc.gov]
Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials in King of Prussia,
Pa., have appointed William J. Raymond as the new Senior Resident
Inspector at the Pilgrim nuclear power plant. He joins Resident
Inspector Russell Arrighi at the Plymouth, Mass., plant. Raymond
succeeds Richard Laura, who was selected for a position at NRC
headquarters in Rockville, Md.
Raymond began his NRC career as a reactor engineer in the NRC's
Region I office in King of Prussia in 1975. He was a member of
the NRC's Onsite Support Group following the accident at Three
Mile Island in 1979. He has been the Senior Resident Inspector at
the Haddam Neck nuclear plant in Haddam, Conn., Millstone Station
in Waterford, Conn., Vermont Yankee in Vernon, Vt., Yankee Rowe,
in Rowe, Mass., and most recently at Indian Point 2 in Buchanan,
N.Y. He also worked in the Regional Office as a Senior Reactor
engineer in the Division of Reactor Safety. In 1985 and in 2002,
Raymond was awarded the "NRC Meritorious Service Award" for his
performance as a resident inspector.
Prior to joining the NRC, Raymond worked for Babcock and Wilcox
Company as a lead startup engineer at Three Mile Island Unit 1;
and as a startup engineer at Oconee 1and 2 near Seneca, S.C. He
also worked as a reactor operator/research associate at Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and State University.
He earned a bachelor of science degree in physics from Fairfield
University (Fairfield, Conn.), and a masters in nuclear science
and engineering from Virginia Tech. He also attended the graduate
liberal studies program at Wesleyan College in Conn.
Raymond is married to the former Maureen Gannon of Hartford,
Conn. They have three sons. He volunteers his time with the Boy
Scouts of America.
The Pilgrim resident inspectors can be reached at 508/747-0565.
*****************************************************************
10 Britain recognizes Gulf War syndrome is real
VOLUME 38, NO. 27, July 16, 2002
[http://www.medicalpost.com]
By Karen Birchard
LONDON – A British appeal tribunal has ruled that Gulf War
syndrome is real and was caused by active service during the war.
Ministry of Defence doctors have maintained there was no such
sickness, meaning that thousands of soldiers were unable to
qualify for army pensions.
The case was taken by Gulf War veteran Shaun Rusling who
appealed the initial ruling to the pensions appeal tribunal nine
years ago. The ruling may have widespread and costly implications
for the British government. The Ministry of Defence said it is
studying the judgment.
The National Gulf Veterans and Families Association said this
ruling should help all Gulf War veterans who have been trying for
a pension for illness. James Moore, treasurer of the association
told BBC News: "This is very significant because the court has
now actually recognized there is a Gulf War illness, something we
have been saying for years."
In a statement, the association added: "It is now accepted in
legal terms that Gulf War syndrome exists and that the Ministry
of Defence has been actively trying to cover up the illness of
Gulf War syndrome and the serious health problems associated with
it.
"Veterans have been financially disadvantaged and had been
unable to work. Many families have been broken up and marriages
and health destroyed by further stress, and sadly many veterans
have committed suicide after being told by the Ministry of
Defence that Gulf War syndrome does not exist."
According to the association, many veterans had been diagnosed
by their own doctors as having Gulf War syndrome but when they
then applied for a pension they were turned down by the
government's war pensions agency.
*****************************************************************
11 Uranium waste may pay off for Tristate
[enquirer.com]
Friday, July 19, 2002
Conversion plants could be on the horizon
By Nancy Zuckerbrod
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - An anti-terrorism spending bill agreed to by
House and Senate negotiators Thursday requires the Department of
Energy to build two facilities to convert uranium waste into a
safer form - one in Paducah, Ky., and one in Piketon, Ohio.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., added the measure to a
version of the bill approved by the Senate last month but House
lawmakers considered removing it from the final bill.
“There was some resistance, because the administration
was not keen on the language,” Mr. McConnell said.
Congress passed similar legislation in 1998, but the Bush
administration maintained the language wasn't mandatory and that
it was inclined to build one facility to save money.
“I think it is a victory, but is a victory that should
have been unnecessary,” said Democratic Rep. Ted Strickland, who
represents Piketon. “The intent of Congress was absolutely
indisputable.”
The new measure states that the Energy Department must
award a contract for the project one month after the president
signs the bill. Construction of the facilities must begin by July
31, 2004.
“Hopefully there are no ways out of this language,” Mr.
McConnell said.
Lawmakers say they do not have a firm figure as to how
much it would cost to build the two facilities but say one
estimate is it could cost $400 million. The plants are expected
to operate for up to 25 years.
Supporters of the two-plant approach say it will get the
toxic waste cleaned up faster than if just one plant were built.
They also say it would have been expensive, and potentially
hazardous, to ship all the waste to one facility.
About 60,000 cylinders of depleted uranium are stored at
Energy Department facilities in Paducah, Piketon and Oak Ridge,
Tenn. Environmentalists say some of the cylinders are in poor
condition and could leak.
The hazardous waste is a byproduct of the uranium
enrichment process that the government used to manufacture
nuclear weapons. Today, only the Paducah facility enriches
uranium, and it does so for commercial purposes.
The two plants are expected to bring a total of about 400
new jobs to Paducah and Piketon, according to lawmakers.
Protecting jobs is key in the minds of area lawmakers,
said Rep. Ed Whitfield, a Republican who represents Paducah
Both Paducah and Piketon are under consideration to get a
new uranium enrichment plant in the coming years.
Mr. Whitfield said if only one site got the uranium
conversion facility, there could be political pressure to put the
new uranium enrichment facility at the other site.
Both the House and Senate plan to approve the $28.9
billion compromise spending measure before leaving for their
August recess, lawmakers said. The president is expected to sign
it.
ALT="Enquirer.com at Cincinnati.Com" border=0>
[http://cincinnati.com]
*****************************************************************
12 Russian nuclear theft alarms US
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian |
Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow
Friday July 19, 2002
[http://www.guardian.co.uk]
Chechen rebels have stolen radioactive metals, possibly including
plutonium, from a Russian nuclear power station in the southern
region of Rostov, according to US nuclear officials.
The theft, which took place within the last 12 months at the new
Volgodonskaya nuclear power station near the city of
Rostov-on-Don, has heightened US fears that weapons-grade
plutonium may have fallen into the hands of terrorists or
countries such as Iraq or Libya.
The precise details of the security breach remain unclear, but
one US official said there was the "possibility that a
significant amount of plutonium was removed", together with other
radioactive metals. These included caesium, strontium and
low-enriched uranium, which pose a threat to human health if
detonated with conventional explosives to create a "dirty bomb".
The US source said Chechen rebels were believed to be responsible
for the theft. "Chechen groups have relationships with countries
we do not find exceptionally desirable. The possibility that
these metals may have been given to another party is very
troubling," he said.
The nuclear plant - one of the newest atomic facilities in Russia
- went online last December, after a nine-month trial period. The
US official said the theft was reported by Russian officials to
the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA), which informed
the US department of energy about the incident.
The department has begun a massive operation in Russia to improve
the security of nuclear facilities. The G8 group of nations
pledged $20bn last month to help Russia protect its ageing
weapons arsenals.
Russia has an estimated 400 tonnes of weapons-grade plutonium
considered by western experts to be "at risk" from theft because
of poor security. US government experts are negotiating with
Russian officials to speed through urgently needed safety
upgrades.
Southern Russia, bordering sensitive nations in central Asia and
the Caucasus, is considered a flashpoint in non-proliferation.
The US source said there had been a "number of occasions" in
which Iranian agents tried to buy weapons-grade plutonium from
facilities in southern Russia.
"They seem to have been scammed a few times," he said.
The IAEA, the Russian civilian nuclear ministry, Minatom, and the
Rostov nuclear power station, deny the Rostov theft took place.
An IAEA spokeswoman said their code of conduct would not oblige
them to treat such an incident in confidence.
But the US official said: "This incident is tied to a broader
issue. There are a couple of other occasions when the Chechens
may have acquired nuclear or radioactive sources. Russia is
rightly very concerned about that. We should not just blame
Russia. The US does not protect its materials better than anyone
else."
Matthew Bunn, senior research assistant at the Managing the Atom
project at Harvard University, said: "It would not be too
surprising if nuclear fuel had been stolen from a power plant.
This has happened before in the former Soviet Union."
In 1996 Chechen rebels left a substantial quantity of caesium-137
wrapped in conventional explosive, in Izmailovo park in Moscow.
The device was not detonated.
[UP]
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002
*****************************************************************
13 Potassium-iodide distribution both unsettling, reassuring
Ocean County News: The Press of Atlantic City
July 18, 2002
By KATIA RAINA Staff Writer, (609) 978-2012
LITTLE EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP - People gathering in the Pinelands
Regional High School building Wednesday to get their free one-day
supply of potassium iodide were burdened with heavy thoughts.
As they listened to instructions on what to do in case of
radioactive fallout at a nearby nuclear plant, they were
confronted with a scary possibility - no matter how remote - of a
nuclear disaster in their neighborhood.
When they drove here south of their towns, and as they walked
with family and friends on a busy parking lot outside the school,
residents from all over Ocean County talked about their regular
lives - their children, vacations, church, work.
Many of them also talked about more weighty topics that day -
terrorism, nuclear disasters, thyroid cancer. They were here to
get the pills that they hoped they would never need.
"It's a little creepy to think about the possibilities," said
Nina Ditmak, of Manahawkin. "But I won't dwell on it too much."
"Getting the pills actually makes me a little more comfortable,"
said Kimberly Fahmie, of Toms River, who had been feeling uneasy
since the terrorist attack last September. "But also it makes you
think, what kind of a world do you live in that you have to get
tablets to protect yourself from radiation in case a nuclear
plant blows up?"
Susan Adams of Lacey told her young daughter, Christine, that
being here was just a precaution, nothing to worry about.
Christine worried, still.
"I am sort of nervous," the 9-year-old said. "I don't want to
die."
The New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, with
Environmental Protection officials and State Police distributed
5,606 pills that day to approximately 1,350 citizens who live,
work or are taking a vacation within 10 miles of Oyster Creek
Generating Station, a nuclear plant in Lacey Township.
The medication, also known as KI pills, inundates the body with
iodide, preventing a thyroid gland from soaking up harmful
radioactive iodine, if radiation is accidentally released from a
nuclear plant. Potassium iodide is an ingredient found in table
salt.
Officials warn that KI should not be taken barring a nuclear
emergency, but if it must be taken, it is safe for everyone,
including young children, babies and pregnant women. However, the
state will not give pills to those who say they are allergic to
iodine, officials said.
The government started this program as a preparedness measure
against future terrorism - or a nuclear accident.
New Jersey began the distribution last Saturday, giving out 4,225
pills in Salem County, which has three nuclear plants. This
Saturday, Ocean County residents picked up a total of 3,800 pills
in Manchester.
Residents, workers and vacationers in Barnegat, Beachwood,
Berkeley, Dover, Island Heights, Lacey, Pine Beach, Ocean, Ocean
Gate, Seaside Park, South Toms River and all of Long Beach Island
can get the free medication.
Volunteers from all over the state greeted residents at long
tables, illuminated by bright lights from television cameras
stationed nearby. The arrivals with proper proof of address
received packets of information, envelopes to store the
medication, and of course, a one-day supply of tiny tablets,
smaller than a hearing-aid battery or an aspirin pill.
Some approached a pharmacist and a nuclear engineer who were on
hand to answer questions.
"What about pets?" one man asked of Alan Aronovitz, a member of
NJ Pharmacists Association. "Do we just leave them behind?"
Aronovitz responded that a veterinarian would be of help in this
regard, adding, "The vet will treat them by weight and age." He
said pharmacists are trying to develop dosage guidelines for
animals.
Kent Tosch of the New Jersey Department of Environmental
Protection stood by informational posters, explaining how the
nuclear plant and the DEP test levels of radioactive emission.
"I basically tell them that we take about 1,400 samples per year
to test the level of radiation within five miles," Tosch later
explained. "We also have 18 direct radiation detectors in and
around the area."
Tosch said that years of testing have shown consistently low
levels of radiation in local air and water, as well as in local
shellfish, milk and vegetation.
While some people stopped by to talk to Tosch and read
informational posters, others wanted to get their KI and run out.
"I was just anxious to get what I need and get this out of my
mind," Susan Adams of Lacey said.
The whole exercise took Jim and Regina Dinan of Waretown five
minutes. But their minds were clear.
"The plant is right around the corner, really," Jim Dinan said.
"We figure that these people know what they are doing, and if
they think that it's a good idea for us to get these pills, we'll
get them."
"It's not fear, it's just a precaution," Regina Dinan added.
"Whatever is going to happen, we can't stop it."
Officials emphasized that potassium iodide is not the best
protection from radiation. Evacuation is the best defense, pill
or no pill, they said. And that's why, according to Jim Pasqualo,
project manager for the state Department of Health, people from
as far north as Dover and Toms River were asked to drive all the
way down to Little Egg Harbor Township.
"This high school is outside the 10-mile limit, and purposely
so," Pasqualo said. "It's designated as an evacuation point. So
when we invite people here, we are reinforcing the knowledge
about the location."
Some, though, chose to stay put.
J. Emerson, who has a summer residence in Ship Bottom, offered
his own philosophy.
"Why bother?" J. Emerson said.. "We are all going to die anyway."
To e-mail Katia Raina at The Press:
KRaina@pressofac.com
*****************************************************************
14 Yucca: What now, oh activists?
Las Vegas Mercury: Cover story:
Thursday, July 18, 2002
Anti-Yucca strategies change course after Senate vote
By Heidi Walters
The new, optimistic anti-Yucca nuke dump mantra goes like this:
Too bad about that stinky anti-Nevada U.S. Senate vote, but
hey--at least the battle's moved onto a more level playing field.
It's in the straight-backed courts now, and even if one of
Nevada's multiple lawsuits doesn't stop the nastiness in its
tracks, the repository licensing process puts it in the hands of
scientists committed to satisfying straightforward environmental
laws.
Ahem. Anyway, does it all mean that the activists can pack up
their protest signs, mock waste casks and exposés and retreat
to the sidelands to recuperate?
Not at all. They say the fight, as it has for 15 or so years
now, goes on into the hazy future. And that's because the playing
field really isn't all that level.
In terms of the court battles, Las Vegas Mayor and lawyer Oscar
Goodman says he is "very skeptical of success," because Yucca
cases won't be argued in local, Nevada-sensitive courts, but "in
the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, or back East." That means
a three-judge panel and no jury. And that means the potential for
political bias, Goodman says.
"I saw the money that was spent on senators," Goodman said
after returning from Washington, D.C., where he spent the days
before the Senate vote trying to sway opinion in Nevada's favor.
"I saw the cocktail parties, the social events. And these judges
are political appointees and, unfortunately, some of them are
good old boys."
Besides, says Bob Schaeffer with the Alliance for Nuclear
Accountability, "it is na•ve to believe there's any such thing as
a level playing field in a political system." The judges who will
look at Yucca, he says, will mostly "be hesitant to overturn an
openly debated congressional decision."
As for licensing, the watchdog group Public Citizen says the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which handles the licensing, is
conflicted from the get-go. Public Citizen is party to a lawsuit
challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's revision of
environmental regulations to allow more lenient radiation
protection standards at Yucca Mountain.
"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is going to cut corners,
ignore science and dismiss criticism," says Hugh Jackson, a Las
Vegas-based energy policy analyst for Public Citizen. "The NRC
can't be trusted and it's in their best interest to get this
thing done."
Before the DOE can build the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste
repository, it has to apply for a construction license from the
NRC. The license application will include design specifications,
a construction schedule and a safety analysis. The DOE has 90
days from the July 9 Senate vote to submit the application, but
has said it might take two years instead. Then there will be
hearings, presumably in Nevada and Washington, D.C. If the
construction license is denied, then the DOE doubles back to try
again. The D OE also must apply for a license to receive the
waste from nuclear reactors. And, finally, the DOE will need to
submit a license to close the dump, which could remain open for
about 300 years.
The reason the NRC, as overseer of this process, is conflicted is
it has licensed nuclear power reactors based on the presumption
that there will be an answer to the waste problem, says Lisa Gue,
also with Public Citizen.
"And right now Yucca Mountain is the answer," Gue says.
Jackson adds that the NRC is an increasingly public-unfriendly
agency.
"The nuclear power industry, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
the Department of Energy and all the apologists in the political
class are going to do their level best to do as much as they can
behind closed doors," Jackson says. "It's up to the activists to
expose as much of this to the light of day as they can, and to
keep people aware."
And so there are plenty of opportunities to continue the fight:
monitoring, demanding public access, filing lawsuits, raising
money to fund lawsuits and electing sympathetic politicans. Also,
activists will continue educating people in other states about
the transportation hazards so they will then pressure their
politicians to pass resolutions opposing nuclear waste transport
through their areas and to vote to pull the plug on Yucca by
cutting funding for it.
Gue says Public Citizen will try to harness the momentum gathered
in the last weeks leading to the Senate vote.
"There are more senators voting against Yucca Mountain than ever
before," she says. "And this at a time when the nuclear industry
has been lobbying more than ever before and the administration
was aggressively working against us. Momentum is building across
the country. The Senate vote is a call to action at the local
level."
She says the more people who learn about Yucca Mountain, the more
who oppose it. It can be used as campaign leverage: "People are
going to remember this vote."
Gue says there also might be a chance to intervene in the
"quasi-legal" licensing process and launch challenges along the
way. "We will be watching the NRC at every step of the game." The
EPA's weakened radiation standards for Yucca, for instance, are
the basis upon which the repository will be designed--and that
leads to all sorts of challenge possibilities.
Schaeffer, with the grassroots Alliance for Nuclear
Accountability, calls the licensing "an adversarial process."
"Groups will seek standing in licensing hearings," he says. "The
outcome of the process is always a legal crapshoot. But one thing
you can always count on is that the process almost always yields
a gold mine of documentation. And, the reality is, between now
and the time shipments [of waste are ready to begin]--and we
guess that won't be until 2015--there will be three presidential
elections. If a different administration were to come in, we
might find a different attitude" toward the project.
Closer to home, the Nevada grassroots group Citizen Alert plans
to try to abate the insidious shifting of public sentiment from
hating the project to a resigned determination to "get benefits."
Citizen Alert's executive director, Peggy Maze Johnson, says she
will be traveling around the state to public meetings "to let
people know that there's still a fight out there." She says
people need to stand behind the lawsuits against the Yucca
Mountain project and help find ways to fund th em. As for the
purported benefits, Johnson points to the Waste Isolation Pilot
Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico--a federal lower-level nuclear waste
site welcomed by that state in exchange for promised bundles of
cash to pay for better roads and such. Clark County commissioned
a study of the WIPP site, which resulted in a discouraging report
called "Lessons Learned from WIPP"--the overall general lesson
being, don't trust the DOE as far as you can toss a hot fuel rod.
"New Mexico is still in court fighting to get what they were
promised," Johnson says.
Beyond all that education and awareness stuff, there's always
civil disobedience. Reinard Knutsen, executive director of the
grassroots Shundahai Network, says his group is planning a series
of actions at the Nevada Test Site and Yucca Mountain in October
(for details, check out its website at www.shundahai.org).
"We're going to do the first nonviolent civil resistance at
Yucca Mountain since 1987," Knutsen says. "We're going to try to
stop the construction. We'd like to see an occupation of the site
and obstruction of the workers."
Shundahai often coordinates its actions with members of the
Western Shoshone Nation, on whose land the nuclear waste would be
buried. But for the Shoshone, these actions are not "civil
disobedience," says Ian Zabarte, secretary of state for the
Western Shoshone National Council.
"Civil disobedience is what Americans would do, against their
own government," Zabarte says. "In the Western Shoshone's case,
it's protest. We follow the general policy of the Western
Shsohone National Council, enacted in 1995: a declaration of the
Western Shoshone territory as a nuclear-free zone."
Zabarte says the dump is a violation of international law,
based on the Treaty of Ruby Valley. "It's also a violation of the
Western Shoshone's basic human rights," he says. "The site is
located on the lands of a vulnerable people who don't have the
wherewithal to restrain a government such as the United States,
which has unbridled power. The question is, does one people have
the moral and ethical sanction to burden another people that are
vulnerable socially, economically and politically, and have
already suffered from nuclear testing? We view this as
environmental racism, as trespass, and as violation of our Native
American rights."
Zabarte says the Western Shoshone have three options for
fighting the nuclear waste dump.
"The first is diplomacy, based on the Treaty of Ruby Valley
where we agreed to work with the Republic and help them save the
Union," he says.
In that treaty, the Western Shoshone's land right was formally
recognized. But Zabarte says previous attempts at diplomacy have
been rebuffed by the United States: The Western Shoshone
petitioned to be designated as an affected tribe in the dump
siting process, and were denied. It would have allowed the
Shoshone to conduct--and receive funding for--independent
oversight of the process. And it would have allowed them to
submit up to 10 vetoes (one per tribe and one from the council),
like Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn's, of the president's approval of
the site.
The second option is litigation.
"The disenchantment with that is you have winners and losers, and
it's protracted," Zabarte says. And, he says, they've not been
dealt with fairly in previous and ongoing legal cases with the
United States, so they expect the bias against them would
continue. "Right now," he says, "the courts are being used in a
punitive manner" against the Western Shoshone.
In order for litigation to be a successful route, he says, the
Western Shoshone legal infrastructure has to continue to grow, so
they "can provide an equitable forum that hopefully will educate
the United States." In 1997, the national council enacted a
resolution to organize itself as an appellate court.
Their third option is "application of Western Shoshone law and
custom through direct action," Zabarte says.
"For example, if the Shoshone marshalls are enforcing the
nuclear-free zone, and a nuclear waste truck is coming down the
highway, a Shoshone marshall could arrest that driver," he says.
"The concept is, we have the legal authority to take whatever
measures are necessary to protect our land and people and
culture. And nuclear waste is not part of our culture--it is a
threat to [us] and to everyone on the planet."
One option the Western Shoshone people don't have, Zabarte says,
is giving up. "Negotiate for benefits" means nothing to them, he
says, nor does "Oh, well, I'll just move away."
"We're here to live a certain way, an ancient way," he says. "Our
people, they go hunt and they go fish and they go gather. And
they do this in defiance of the United States government. For a
Shoshone, the only way out is through."
*****************************************************************
15 Yucca: A Mercury Handi-Chart (yech)
Las Vegas Mercury: A Mercury Handi-Chart
Thursday, July 18, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury
Although the U.S. Senate voted last week to place a high-level
nuclear waste dump in Nevada, activists say the battle is hardly
over. What can you do to fight the dump?
¥ Encourage friends and family in other states to write their
senators expressing their staunch opposition to the dump. Oh
wait, we already tried that bullshit
¥ Organize national boycott and refuse to buy Yucca Mountain
action figures, T-shirts and keychains
¥ Write wrenching epic poem that melts hearts of federal
government and awakens jaded world to new age of environmental
consciousness
¥ Remember that small gestures can make a big difference. For
instance, unleashing inhuman howls and pulling out clumps of your
hair every time someone says "Yucca" can be an effective way to
show your feelings about the dump
¥ Remind Congress that Nevada--a mercilessly hot sprawl of
desert, almost 90 percent of which is owned by the federal
government--is not a wasteland; it's our home
¥ Convince Bush administration there are vast reserves of oil
beneath Yucca Mountain
¥ Deploy army of local bands to play nonstop anti-Yucca
fund-raising concert until Congress abandons project
¥ Attend public hearings and point out project's technical
shortcomings, such as how the Department of Energy can safely
transport high-level nuclear waste with your foot up its ass
¥ Hide Yucca Mountain under couch until federal government leaves
*****************************************************************
16 Strong suit
Las Vegas Mercury: Strong suit
Yucca Mountain
Thursday, July 18, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury
Nevada has filed five lawsuits against the feds over Yucca
Mountain. Which is the best bet?
By Andrew Kiraly
If last Tuesday's Senate vote had one side effect in Nevada, it
inspired a whole new chorus of it-ain't-over-till-it's-overs and
the-battle's-lost-but-not-the-wars. In this round, however--in
which we're on a so-called "more level playing field" where
science will supposedly carry the day--it's the lawyers, not the
politicians, who are rallying the troops.
"All the lawsuits we have are powerful," says Joe Egan, the lead
attorney for Nevada in its slew of lawsuits against the federal
government. "And the more you look at them, the more powerful
they get."
Which isn't to say Nevada's team of lawyers--more than a dozen,
including both D.C. specialists and attorney general vets--isn't
willing to play favorites with its cases. An informal,
unscientific poll of Nevada's anti-dump legal team suggests
they're resting much of their hopes on two lawsuits in
particular. One against the Department of Energy, filed in
December, charges that the agency played a ball-and-cup game with
the Yucca Mountain siting guidelines. The other, filed in June of
last year, challenges the Environmental Protection Agency's
radiation standards for the site, which Nevada says the EPA
gerrymandered to meet muster. If the battle is to be won in the
courts, the lawyers say, these two suits will comprise the
one-two punch that lays out the nuke dump for good.
The DOE, meanwhile, is quietly building its defense. "Normally we
don't speculate or outline our defense ahead of time," says DOE
spokesman Joseph Davis. "But with respect to any lawsuits against
the Department of Energy as they relate to Yucca Mountain, we
have a good case for moving forward with the project and we
believe the judges will agree with us."
The state's first lawsuit charges that the DOE, bound by 1982's
Nuclear Waste Policy Act to find a site that would contain waste
safely "primarily through deep geologic isolation," changed the
rules as the agency gradually discovered that Yucca Mountain
didn't meet the qualifications.
"The law said the DOE had to make clear that the geology has to
be the primary barrier for waste isolation," says Bob Loux,
executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects.
"The more they were out there, though, the more they saw the
mountain was not a good place. So they altered the regulations
that emanated from the statute."
In other words, the DOE found that Yucca Mountain didn't fit the
policy act guidelines, so they made some new guidelines to fit
Yucca Mountain. In the new guidelines, Nevada charges, the DOE
ignored the act's legal mandate for geologic isolation and wrote
up its own convenient set of rules that allow it to ignore
geology in favor of relying on "engineered waste packages" that
would compensate for Yucca's waste-unfriendly geology.
"They're relying on this engineered measure for 99.7 percent of
the waste's isolation," says Marta Adams, senior deputy attorney
general. "The geology of Yucca Mountain will essentially be doing
less than 1 percent of the work. This is one of the key lawsuits
that could kill this project."
The challenge against the EPA, meanwhile, is multi-pronged. On
one front, it challenges the agency's 10,000-year radiation
standard.
"We know that the DOE predicts peak doses out there in the
200,000-300,000-year range," says Egan. "The EPA arbitrarily cut
off the compliance time to 10,000 years." But it's not just how
long the radiation stays, but how far it goes, too; Nevada is
also challenging how the EPA has gerrymandered the site boundary
to be used to measure compliance with the radiation standard.
"They've got a five-kilometer ring around it like every other
repository in the world," Egan says. "Except for the south, where
the boundary stretches 18 kilometers along a hydrologic flow
path."
Adams clarifies: "Basically, it shows they're using Amargosa
Valley as a dilution mechanism."
Meanwhile, the team's optimism is anything but diluted. In
November, the government filed a motion to dismiss Nevada's
lawsuit against the EPA, and in January asked for a dismissal of
Nevada's petition challenging the DOE's site guidelines. In both
cases, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia did
not rule on the motion to dismiss, choosing to defer the motions
to the merits panel, where the government will file merit briefs
for the EPA case in August and DOE site guidelines case in
December.
And that means?
"In legalese, that's effectively a denial of motion to dismiss,"
says Egan. "It's clear that the D.C. Court of Appeals wants to
hear our cases."
But, says DOE spokesman Davis, "a deferral is not a defeat."
*****************************************************************
17 Basement Files: Yucky
Las Vegas Mercury: Basement Files: Yucky
Thursday, July 18, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury
Opponents of the Yucca Mountain project have hired the Las Vegas
public relations firm Core Concepts to spread the message of
Yucca's unsuitability as a waste storage facility. Recently, Core
Concepts held its first in a series of public "brainstorming
sessions" in which activists, politicians and everyday citizens
were invited to share their ideas for fighting the federal
government's plans for Yucca Mountain.
MODERATOR: Okay, let's try to get settled here. I want to thank
everybody for coming tonight. I know it looks pretty bleak right
now, but we're all united...
MAN 1: Hey, which one of these is decaf?
MODERATOR: Umm, I'm not sure. I think the one on the left is
French roast. Anyway, the reason we're all here tonight is to
take a very local fight and make it national. We have got to wake
up the rest of the country to the perils posed by Yucca Mountain.
WOMAN 1: Right on!
MODERATOR: We have to nationalize the opposition to this absurdly
dangerous plan. Right now, 98 percent of the country is just glad
this thing isn't in their state. And that's not good enough.
Every citizen, no matter where they live, should have the same
stake in shutting this thing down. So we've got to personalize
the threat and we've got to personalize the fear.
MAN 1: People just think this is Nevada saying "not in my back
yard," but the whole earth is your back yard, man. People need to
see that.
MODERATOR: Exactly. The question is how do we do it? What's the
most effective way to galvanize the whole nation in joining us in
this fight? I'm gonna open up the floor to your ideas. Let's just
get really free form here. There's no such thing as a bad idea.
MAN 2: Okay, maybe this is stupid, but what if we made a Yucca
Mountain snow globe and sent it to every member of Congress?
MODERATOR: Oh...kay...
MAN 2: And when you shook it, the whole mountain would be
enveloped in shimmering radioactive waste...
WOMAN 1: YES. The whole "myth of containment" shattered in one
perfect visual.
MAN 2: Right. But it's not just a visual. 'Cause shaking it would
actually tear tiny fissures in the plastic dome and flood the
congressional office with radioactive waste.
WOMAN 1: Oh, that's perfect. Let the bloated fascists choke on
their own...
MAN 3: Well, it's certainly dramatic, but there might be some
legal problems with the whole...I mean it's like mailing
anthrax...
WOMAN 1: Well thanks for shitting on it, Herr Ashcroft. I thought
there weren't any bad ideas here tonight?
MODERATOR: There aren't. But everybody's got a right to voice
their opinion, okay?
WOMAN 1: Even the assholes?
MODERATOR: Look, I want to caution people about ideas that target
Congress. That's old thinking. We've already lost the political
fight. Simple as that. The legal fight is just beginning, but
these politicians have been bought and sold, re-bought and
resold, by the nuclear industry. So until form letters trump
campaign contributions, we've got to carry our message directly
to the people.
WOMAN 1: What we need is some street theater.
MAN 4: Exactly. What about a national goodwill tour by Yucky, the
Yucca Mountain mascot? And he's this adorable bear who drives
around the country in this old panel truck with a huge
radioactive sign painted on the side.
MAN 2: That could work. Reach out to the children.
WOMAN 1: YES! Kids totally get it about the environment.
MAN 4: But here's what makes it perfect agitprop. Yucky's not
against Yucca Mountain. He's totally for it. He shows up in mall
parking lots to hug kids and pass out pamphlets about how safe
and wholesome the waste dump is...
MODERATOR: I guess I'm not following...
MAN 4: Well, hang on...as Yucky's rapping with the kids, this
horrible radiation alarm goes off on the truck. I mean, it's this
shrill klaxon like something out of a '50s movie.
MODERATOR: Right...
MAN 4: And Yucky looks back in horror at the truck. And his hands
fly up to the side of his head like "Ooooh Noooo." And as the
kids stare on in confusion and fear, Yucky's eyes immediately
liquify and his hair falls out in clumps and...
MODERATOR: Oh, man...
MAN 4: And then he starts convulsive vomiting, like all over the
kids and their parents, and then he falls down dead...killed by
corporate greed and man's hubristic tinkering with nature's
primal forces.
WOMAN 1: Bravo!
MODERATOR: I don't...
WOMAN 1: Don't you get it? It's theater of the absurd...it's this
total fuck you to all the
corporate...suburban...bourgeois...shitheadÉ
MAN 2: I don't like the idea of scaring kids.
WOMAN 1: Oh, Christ. Look, if you don't have the balls for
guerilla...
WOMAN 2: Hang on, why does it have to be a bear?
MAN 4: I don't know. I guess it doesn't have to be.
WOMAN 2: How about something less threatening? What about
Iso-Topo Gigio, the radioactive mouse?
MAN 4: Wait, he's already been exposed to radiation? How does
that...
WOMAN 2: Yes, that's why his ears are so big. And Iso-Topo's
message is, "I may survive the nuclear winter, but you kids
certainly won't."
WOMAN 1: No, it's not. His message is "turn off your fucking
Nintendo for a single goddamn second and get engaged in the
political..."
MAN 4: But if he's already been exposed...
MODERATOR: Okay, let me jump in here for a second. I think we're
getting off track a little with the kid thing...
WOMAN 1: Well, excuse us for having an idea, Mr. Business Suit
Talking Points Palm Pilot Puppet Man.
MODERATOR: Ma'am, I appreciate your passion, but passion alone
isn't...
WOMAN 1: No, you're right. I guess we should all just sit back
and let Mother Earth be gang-raped by the corporate Taliban.
MAN 5: Hey, Joan Baez, why don't you shut the fuck up for a
second.
WOMAN 2: Yeah, I thought Bonnie Raitt was gonna be here...
MODERATOR: Okay, why don't we just take a break.
*****************************************************************
18 Yucca: Comfort zone
Las Vegas Mercury: COVER STORY: Comfort zone
One entrance to Yucca Mountain is just 12 miles from the north
end of the Amargosa Valley.
Thursday, July 18, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury
Most rural supporters of Yucca Mountain don't expect to see
financial windfall
By Geoff Schumacher
Just to be clear, Nevadans aren't "united" against Yucca
Mountain. Yes, a good-sized majority opposes the high-level
nuclear waste dump. But somewhere around 30 percent of Nevadans
are either for it or resigned to its inevitability.
The highest concentrations of pro-Yucca folks live in rural
Nevada, especially in Nye County, where the dump would be built.
But there's a misconception about why the ruralites aren't
rallying against the Department of Energy project.
It's not really about money.
The common belief among city folk is that their country
counterparts believe Yucca Mountain will result in a windfall for
their struggling communities, that the construction and operation
of this large federal installation will bring hordes of customers
into their stores and thousands of new well-paid residents.
But the reality is that few people in Beatty and Amargosa
Valley--the two communities closest to Yucca--actually believe
this. They know from years of experience with the Nevada Test
Site that it's not going to happen.
"I don't see it being a great deal for Beatty per se," says Bert
Gray, owner of the Powderhorn Gun Shop in Beatty and a former
compliance officer in the state's radiological health division.
"There are lots of people working at Yucca Mountain now and not
even 10 of them live in Beatty. They ride the buses out from Las
Vegas."
Ken Garey, a retired test site engineer who operates a pecan
orchard in Amargosa Valley, says most scientists and other
professional types don't want to live in the sticks.
"They'll continue coming out of Vegas," Garey says. "People who
have children don't want to go out to these rural areas. These
scientists are used to better things and they aren't going to put
up with it."
Bob Revert, a longtime Beatty businessman and former test site
worker who served 14 years on the Nye County Commission, says the
construction of Yucca Mountain will be handled out of the union
halls in Las Vegas. And operation of the dump site will be
managed by a relatively small cadre of professionals, most of
whom will prefer city life.
"Men tend to adapt very well here," Revert says. "But their wives
want good schools, good doctors. They want malls. They're not
accustomed to living in rural towns. I've seen this with lawyers,
doctors. The professional people aren't going to live here.
They'd rather have a nice house in Las Vegas where they can go to
a nice dinner."
So, if rural economies aren't going to benefit much from Yucca
Mountain, why are they so supportive of the project? The answer
lies in the work experience of many residents.
Until fairly recently, the Nevada Test Site was the dominant
employer in Nye County. Thousands of people in Pahrump, Amargosa
Valley, Beatty and Tonopah worked there in jobs associated with
the testing of nuclear weapons. They were civilian cold warriors,
fighting the Soviet Union by building a better atomic arsenal. In
addition, until 1992, Beatty's best-known business was a
low-level nuclear waste dump.
Nuclear testing stopped in 1989. The test site's activity since
then has dwindled substantially, and the site is now being used
for other purposes. But many people who worked at the test site
in its heyday have retired and continue to live in those rural
towns. Their views--reflecting a particular knowingness about
nuclear matters, legitimate or not--carry a lot of weight with
family, friends and acquaintances.
And those viewpoints carry a common thread: They are comfortable
with the nuclear industry.
"I feel it's a safe industry," says Gray, who, in his state job,
inspected trucks bringing low-level radioactive waste into
Nevada. "I think a lot of research has been done. I feel with
proper supervision and oversight it will be a safe industry for
Nevada."
Gray says a "majority of people in Beatty are for it. Being so
close, people are more aware of and more comfortable with the
industry. They grew up with it on a day-to-day basis."
Revert calls himself "acclimated to the industry." "When I was a
little boy here, they set off nuclear weapons on top of the
ground," he says. "We've lived with the Nevada Test Site. We've
lived with US Ecology [operator of the nuclear waste dump near
Beatty]."
Having looked at all the studies while a county commissioner,
Revert believes the project is safe. "If I thought for a second
that my family would be harmed by it, I would oppose this thing
very strongly," he says.
Of the three, Garey has perhaps the closest connection to the
nuclear industry. In the 1960s, he was involved in the nuclear
rocket program at the test site. In the late '70s and early '80s,
as a Westinghouse employee, he was involved in a demonstration
project that aimed to prove the safety of various nuclear waste
storage techniques. Seventeen nuclear fuel assemblies were
trucked from Florida to the test site, unloaded, put in canisters
and stored underground. The project eventually was killed by Gov.
Richard Bryan, who demanded the government remove the nuclear
assemblies from Nevada soil.
In semi-retirement, Garey has followed the Yucca Mountain project
closely, attending numerous technical review board meetings. "I
think it's the best place in the United States," he says of the
volcanic mountain 15 miles from his Amargosa Valley ranch. "It's
remote. It's also away from waterways. Personally I think leaving
the fuel where it is is the most hazardous thing we could do.
Much of it is close to big rivers and lakes. The cleanup from a
flood would be disastrous."
But Garey remains open to the possibility that a "fatal flaw"
could be discovered that would keep Yucca Mountain from becoming
a reality. "The investigation has to continue," he says. "It's
not a done deal. There might be a fatal flaw, but it hasn't come
up so far."
It's that lingering uncertainty that fuels the Nye County
Commission's famous stance of "aggressive neutrality" regarding
Yucca Mountain. While Las Vegas activists have long derided the
rural county as pro-Yucca, the commission's proclamations have
maintained a middle road.
But commission Chairman Jeff Taguchi, a pastor and photo shop
owner in Beatty, says last week's Senate vote triggers a new
phase in county strategy that includes obtaining a permanent seat
at the scientific table, sufficient emergency facilities and
training to accompany the dump, and economic development
opportunities.
"We want to continue to our independent oversight to validate
that what the science is is what the science is," Taguchi says.
"We also want to be involved in the transportation route
selection process. We get all of the waste, whether it comes by
truck or by rail. We should be able to participate in the
selection."
As for economic development, Taguchi says the county should
benefit through the locating of ancillary programs and scientific
centers near Yucca Mountain. He points to Carlsbad, N.M., host of
the DOE's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, as an example of a
community that has benefited from a nuclear waste project.
Carlsbad is now home to a cask manufacturing facility and a DOE
science center.
"You are never going to get everything you ask for," Taguchi
says. "But if you don't ask for anything, you're going to get
nothing. We have to be out there asking for things. We want to
make sure Nye County's issues are dealt with."
*****************************************************************
19 Ain't Necessarily So: Last thoughts on Yucca
Las Vegas Mercury:
[Las Vegas Mercury]
Thursday, July 18, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury
By Dayvid Figler
I can't believe the Senate approved Yucca Mountain, especially
after we had a protest a week before where almost 75 people
showed up.
Amid the new chorus of let's try to get compensation for storing
nuclear waste (which to me still sounds eerily similar to you're
gonna get it one way or the other, you might as well lie back and
enjoy it), let me renew my pitch for Nevada's salvation. If any
of you think this is just about nuclear waste, you are sorely
mistaken. Las Vegas is currently paying for its sins like a
college dropout with a bad credit record plagued by outrageous
student loans and wage garnishments for an education misspent on
keggers and one too many nights in the border towns of Mexico.
And the Screw Nevada crescendo of Tuesday, July 9, was just one
note in what could be the swan song of our prosperity. I adore
Las Vegas--that goes without question. I also think it's
necessary to criticize some of our shortcomings. Sometimes people
tell me that "I should just leave if I don't like the way things
are." Oh, that is so non-Las Vegas. Las Vegas is about the
compulsive attempt to rectify all past failures with one big hit.
I'm not abandoning ship so long as I have action on my thoughts
and ideas. That said, haven't you been noticing how things have
been getting really sloppy lately? Yes, we still don't pay state
income taxes, and yes, our quality of life on many levels is
unrivaled. Affordable housing for most, good-paying jobs, ample
diversion, natural beauty in the surrounding mountains and
desert...but how about the health care issues? Doctors are
bailing. Education issues? Teachers are fleeing; test scores are
pitiful. Water issues? 10.4 billion gallons of needed H-2-O not
conserved last year. New houses falling apart. Casinos run by
corporations with competing gambling interests far away from our
state. Payday loan places proliferating. Murder up. Meth labs up.
Charo's back on the Strip (okay, it's nice to see Charo back),
but really, why is Vegas getting splat upon by the pigeon of
fate?
I say we aren't using our heads or our incredible wads of cash.
I went out to the alleged protest on the Sunday before the
nuclear waste vote, and it was, in a word, pathetic. I'm not
describing most of the crowd that showed to try to start, or do,
something on the real grassroots level, but pathetic that the
leaders of the "movement" had nothing up their sleeves but some
inconsequential blathering to the mini-choir about how nuke waste
is bad...oh, really? The last hurrah turned into a political
sound-bite op for some political candidates. Not that this was
supposed to be the make-it-or-break-it event, but it was an easy
opportunity to show that reversing the path of Vegas apathy
toward our own destruction is possible.
For the first time in recent memory, regular citizens (if only a
handful) were there at the ready to put their bodies where their
minds were in the name of principle. They were going to block off
an on-ramp to the waste transportation highway if only for a
fleeting gesture of activism. The head of Nevada's "official
activism group" alerted the gathered group early, saying "I spoke
with Gov. Guinn and he thought it was too dangerous to put our
bodies near the asphalt, that it would dilute our message that we
care about the safety of Nevada residents if someone got hurt."
Au contraire, if someone unfortunately got hurt, it would send
the message that Nevadans are just nuts enough to defend their
wacky lifestyles. Do you think it's coincidence that Idaho was
never even considered for nuclear waste? Really, the feds know
that if they go into Idaho...they're gonna get shot.
Personally, I think shutting down the on-ramp was a foolish
decision, anyway. Made much more sense to partner with the
casinos and hold a vigil on the Strip that would have made
international news. Parade out the downwinder victims, the
leukemia children of Fallon, junket in the tragic and real faces
of Love Canal and Chernobyl to hit toxic waste advocates where
they live. But no one knows how to effectively tap into money and
power of our prosperous town. We've essentially become the Sgt.
Schultz of great cities...we know nothing, nothing...and the
snotty little LeBeaus of the rest of the world are laughing at
how easily we can be trampled.
Seriously, we need to stop worrying about the party, and start
thinking about the cleanup. Otherwise, like a protest group that
consults with the government to decide what to do, we become mere
token members of the country club of power, and when the wrecking
ball comes for us, no one will be left to complain.
*****************************************************************
20 Japan: Move ahead on N-waste site
Daily Yomiuri On-Line
Yomiuri Shimbun
High-level radioactive waste is a constant by-product of nuclear power
generation.
Major industrialized countries are planning to store this hazardous waste
hundreds of meters underground but they still face serious problems.
The United States, the world's largest producer of nuclear energy, has
formally decided on its first nuclear waste burial site, clearing a massive
hurdle toward resolving its own problems in this respect.
In Japan, where a similar project has been seriously delayed, there have been
new developments. The Nuclear Safety Commission released a report Thursday on
geological conditions that are not suited for the burial of nuclear waste.
Nuclear power generates about one-third of the electricity used in Japan. As
long as the country reaps the benefits of nuclear energy, it is necessary to
move ahead steadily with a nuclear waste storage plan.
Protect human environment
Spent nuclear fuel, generated after the fuel was burned at nuclear power
plants, contains high-level radioactive waste.
As it takes thousands of years for the radioactivity in nuclear waste to
decline to safe levels, it is necessary to isolate the hazardous waste to
protect the human environment.
The plan to store the waste underground has been contrived so that the burden
of waste-management would not be left for future generations to deal with.
While some countries dispose of spent nuclear waste, other nations attempt to
reprocess waste into depleted uranium and plutonium and then dispose of the
residue in a "vitrified form." The United States exemplifies the former group,
and Japan the latter group.
The U.S. government, which launched its nuclear waste storage plan 20 years
ago, decided on Nevada's Yucca Mountain as the waste burial site after many
twists and turns. U.S. President George W. Bush endorsed this plan in
February.
Local residents in Nevada fiercely opposed the plan and Gov. Kenny Guinn,
R-Nev., invoked his veto power. However, Bush's decision was supported by the
U.S. House of Representatives in May and the Senate this month, so the plan
will go ahead.
The United States is the second country to have decided on an ultimate waste
storage site after Finland, which reached its decision last year. The United
States plans to make the Yucca Mountain site operational in 2010.
Earmarking funds for disposal
In Japan, a law stipulating the basic policy on nuclear waste disposal was
enacted two years ago, while the Nuclear Waste Management Organization of
Japan (NUMO) was established to operate the disposal project.
In preparation for future needs, the nation's power-generating companies began
earmarking funds for future disposal costs.
The biggest challenge for Japan lies in the selection of the disposal site.
Thanks to thorough research carried out by such organizations as the Japan
Nuclear Cycle Development Institute (JNC), a number of geological formations
have been discovered that are expected to remain stable for 100,000 years.
Starting in autumn, NUMO plans to launch a selection process for a nuclear
waste site by inviting local governments to offer a candidate site in their
areas.
Meantime, the JNC has begun construction of a research facility in Gifu
Prefecture in which rock in deep strata and the flow of underground water will
be studied so as to help find a safe burial site for nuclear waste.
We must be prepared to wait a long time for the relevant studies and safety
assessments to be made, as well as to win understanding from the general
public.
We should go ahead step by step and avoid putting off problems to a later
date.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, July 19)
Copyright 2002 The Yomiuri Shimbun
*****************************************************************
21 Poor nations attack nuclear waste movement, leaders flee Fiji strike
[Yahoo! Singapore - News] Home - Yahoo! - Help - My Yahoo!
Friday July 19, 4:02 PM
- A summit of poor nations on trade and aid ventured into stormy
political waters by condemning nuclear waste shipments across the
Pacific.
The 78-nation African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) summit was
primarily meant to discuss trade and aid ties with the European
Union (EU) and until now had steered away from political issues.
British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. is shipping low-level radioactive
waste from Japan to Britain on two ships, currently believed to
be in the exclusive economic zone of Vanuatu, west of here.
The shipments, part of regular traffic between Britain, France
and Japan, have for several years outraged Pacific nations who
fear they are an environmental and security risk.
The summit participants issued a communique that included
unexpectedly tough language after objections from African nations
were overcome.
"We express our strong objection to the transport of nuclear and
other hazardous materials through the waters around ACP states,"
the communique said.
"We call for the immediate cessation of such practice, in order
to prevent any occurrence of accidents that could seriously
threaten their sustainable development and the health of their
peoples."
One government leader told AFP at the summit that nuclear
shipments were a delicate issue with African nations unwilling to
condemn EU members.
"But we told them that this is an issue which affects everybody,
and they (the nuclear powers) will take their wastes through
their waters some day," the leader said.
A diplomatic source, however, criticised the way in which Pacific
nations pressed for the strong statement.
"It is holding everything up," the source said.
Delegates were also confronting a more immediate problem Friday:
widening trade union action by Fijian aviation workers was
causing flight cancellations for the national carrier Air
Pacific.
EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy bailed out of the conference to
catch a rival carrier out of the country.
"I am very disappointed because I had wanted to meet Fiji sugar
officials," he said as he left.
Flights out of Fiji have been disrupted with delays of as long as
24 hours after 80 percent of workers from the Fiji Aviation
Workers' Association (FAWA) reported sick Friday.
"We cannot believe that 80 percent of workers could all report
sick; this is a calculated move by (FAWA national secretary)
Attar Singh and it is very disappointing," Labour Minister
Kenneth Zinck told AFP.
FAWA has been trying to negotiate a settlement of several issues
with the airline for the past four years.
The summit is also expected to produce the "Nadi Declaration"
defining the way in which the ACP will go into five years of
negotiations over trade and preferential access agreements.
Copyright © 2002 AFP. All rights reserved. All information
*****************************************************************
22 BNFL CHAIRMAN GETS WAGE RISE TO £165K A YEAR
[The Whitehaven News]
[http://www.cumbria-online.co.uk]
SECRETARY of State for Trade and Industry, Patricia Hewitt,
confirmed the reappointment of Hugh Collum as chairman of British
Nuclear Fuels PLC.
Mr Collum's current term of appointment expires on September 30,
this year and he is to be appointed for a further term of two
years, the Department of Trade and Industry said.
Under the new contract, Mr Collum will earn £165,000 a year,
which is a rise of £15,000.
He has been with BNFL since 1999 and also holds non-executive
directorships on the boards of Safeway plc, Whitehead Mann Group
and Celltech Group.
[http://www.whitehaven-news.co.uk/onyx/passport.htm]
*****************************************************************
23 IT'S RED FOR BNFL...
[The Whitehaven News]
[http://www.cumbria-online.co.uk]
BNFL has ended another turbulent year by finishing in the red to
the tune of more than £2 billion.
It was a case of the state-owned company jumping from the black
into the red and recording what is a record loss after many years
of profitable operation.
But it is not all doom and gloom for the operators of Sellafield.
BNFL is looking to a rosier future once it is relived of the huge
cost of cleaning up the West Cumbrian site's nuclear waste legacy
through the creation of the LMA which is expected to take away
about £20 billion of the company's liabilities, pave the way for
part privatisation and investment. New business opportunities are
also on the horizon.
BNFL found itself heading for a £22 million profit after an
operating improvement of £232 million. Then, what the company
calls "exceptional items before tax," had to be accounted for.
These included a massive £1.9 billion cost which BNFL has to bear
(pre LMA formation) for its strategy in dealing with Sellafield's
old waste backlog, largely because there is no long-term disposal
solution in place. The early closures of Calder Hall and
Chapelcross power stations will cost another £375 million but
once losses and liabilities have been removed profitability is
likely to improve.
The overall loss amounts to £2.3 billion compared to £66 million
last year. "At operating level we did very well, turning last
year's £210 million deficit into an underlying profit of £22
million, but wheeling in these whacking great 'exceptionals'
wipes everything out," said a BNFL spokesman.
A five per cent rise in group turnover to £2.2 billion was
largely the result of Sellafield's record reprocessing outputs.
BNFL says it also has "robust contracts" for the Thorp plant as
well as being well placed to become a major player in the
international Mox fuel supply market.
An upbeat chief executive, Norman Askew, said: "This is a time of
major opportunity for BNFL, one which we are determined to seize.
It is very pleasing to see that the Congress of the United States
has agreed to proceed towards the commissioning of Yucca Mountain
as a long-term storage facility for spent fuel. This and other
initiatives being taken in the USA are paving the way for new
nuclear build. Our most important goal continues to be to run our
operations to the highest safety and environmental standards."
Chairman Hugh Collum added: "With nuclear power firmly on the
energy agenda, the future looks increasingly bright . We look to
the government to enact the legislation necessary for the
creation of the Liabilities Management Authority as soon as
possible so momentum is not lost."
http://www.whitehaven-news.co.uk
*****************************************************************
24 FARMERS RAGING OVER FOX FAMILY AT SELLAFIELD
[The Whitehaven News]
[http://www.cumbria-online.co.uk]
FARMERS adjoining the Sellafield complex are raging as BNFL's
Sellafield appears to be home to a family of foxes rearing fox
cubs within the safety of the vast nuclear complex.
Workers regard the foxes as "cute and interesting" and have
allowed them to rear their young inside compounds on the site.
But one Seascale farm lost seven hens last week in a night raid
and another farm lost seven ducks.
A farmer's wife, who did not wish to be named, told The
Whitehaven News: "We have shot one fox and another farmer got
another, but allowing them to breed away in there is no joke for
us.''
In the past BNFL has suffered major embarrassment as radioactive
pigeons roosting in derelict fuel storage areas carried
contamination to a Seascale garden.
In the end BNFL had to dig up the garden to remove the
radioactive contaminated droppings.
A BNFL spokesman said they were not aware of the fox family and
"they certainly are not in any radioactive area, but it is
feasible they could be in other parts of the site"
*****************************************************************
25 EPA fails to find tritium in Berkeley
Tri-Valley Herald
Friday, July 19, 2002 - 2:59:21 AM MST
No need for lab
By Ian Hoffman,STAFF WRITER
The eldest of the nation's government labs won't join the
Superfund list, despite a multiyear campaign by local activists.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory still is releasing minute
quantities of radioactive hydrogen known as tritium into the
environment. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said
Thursday that tests of air, soil and water showed, with one
exception, such vanishingly little contamination that the agency
will take "no further federal response" under Superfund.
EPA Regional Administrator Wayne Nastri said the tests show that
"people living and working in and around the lab are not being
exposed to harmful levels of tritium. We have studied this issue
extensively, and will continue to work with the Department of
Energy and the state to monitor tritium-related activities at the
lab under the Clean Air Act."
Berkeley lab spokesman Ron Kolb called EPA's decision "great news
for the lab."
"We've been saying this for years," he said.
The EPA's decision hardly fazed activists with the Committee to
Minimize Toxic Waste, who worked for years to have the EPA
declare the lab a Superfund cleanup site. The group's Gene
Bernardi said it's apparent that the EPA was swayed to keep the
Superfund stigma off the Berkeley lab -- by limiting its
assessment of the lab's environmental hazards to tritium and
allowing the lab itself to measure the tritium.
"I feel they have succumbed to pressure. Maybe they should be
called the University of California Protection Agency," Bernardi
said.
The Berkeley lab's tritium predominantly came from its defunct
National Tritium Labeling Facility, which tacked the radioactive
substance onto organic molecules as a tracer for use in
experiments by private industry, chiefly in the area of drug
development, according tolab officials. The National Institutes
of Health ended its funding for the program last year and the
facility, housed in two rooms of a double-wide trailer, went
inactive in December, ceasing its emissions, Kolb said.
Some Berkeley city officials credited the Committee to Minimize
Toxic Waste with having some influence in the NIH decision to
withdraw funding, which effectively closed off the introduction
of new tritium.
Air samples showed tritium at levels at least 10 times below
federal standards for human health, and soil more than 100 times
below health standards. A single groundwater well, located close
to the defunct facility, reflected tritium at 31,000 picocuries
per liter -- roughly 50 percent above the federal drinking water
standard. The standard is premised on assuring the health of an
individual drinking two liters of the tainted water daily for the
majority of a lifetime.
The EPA is recommending that Berkeley and Alameda County
officials disallow any drinking water wells in the area. Berkeley
city officials said none are located in the area, nor are any
planned.
Neither lab nor Berkeley city officials figure the EPA's decision
means resolution of the debate over the lab's safety, principally
because committee members seem to believe, as city toxics
supervisor Nabil Al-Hadithy put it, "that no risk from a man-made
source is acceptable no matter how low it is."
It is unacceptable even if it is less than the risk of crossing
the street, filling up your gas tank or sitting in your dentist's
chair to get an X-ray." Said Berkeley lab's Kolb: "They have a
belief system, and we have to respect their belief system. But we
wish they act based more on fact than on fear."
©1999-2002 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers
*****************************************************************
26 Utah's Christian values deserted us on nuke-waste issue
Las Vegas Weekly: SPIN
SPIN: Getting dumped on
By Joe Schoenmann ( [schoenmann@vegas.com] )
“Love thy neighbor.”
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Those are two of the most well-known Christian tenets relating to
neighborliness. And Mormons practically swear by them. You know
the Mormons: That powerful little group that founded Nevada’s
first permanent settlement in Genoa (Carson City) in 1849, and
set up a little fort in Las Vegas in the 1850s.
They are not only Christians, as the book “Mormon America” points
out, but Mormons believe “they are the only true Christians, and
their church is the only true church of Jesus Christ.” In the
2000 U.S. Census, 79 percent of all Utah citizens polled
indicated that they were Christians—more than any other state.
Mormons believe in “doing good to all men”—that’s how Stan Green
put it earlier this year on “The Osgood Files” as he and fellow
Mormons helped build a new temple for Hare Krishnas near Provo.
So who better to follow the Golden Rule than the people of a
state that so fervently believes in it? A state founded by
Mormons. And who better to administer and practice that rule than
two massively popular elected politicians, the two Mormon
senators from Utah, Orrin Hatch and Robert Bennett? Men who,
without any sense of hypocrisy, openly scoffed at a recent
federal court ruling that deemed the words “under God” in the
Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional.
“Foolish” was Bennett’s response to the court ruling.
“Disappointed” was Hatch’s.
God-fearers, both of them. Righteous men. Men who know that
taking what’s good for them now might not necessarily be the
quickest path to a heavenly afterlife, because the right path is
paved not with selfishness, but neighborliness.
And what better place to practice doing the right thing than with
Nevada, if not simply because a fairly large segment of our
population is Mormon? Hell, our most powerful U.S. senator, Harry
Reid, is Mormon. There’s also the inescapable fact that we’re
richer than Utah: Census 2000 figures show Nevada’s per capita
income at about $36,000 vs. $11,000 for Utah. That’s not a bad
thing: I know plenty of people with weekend cabins near Zion or
weekend trekkers who spend their hard-earned cash in Southern
Utah.
On the flip side, I can’t think of a more neighborly state than
Nevada. What have we ever done but provide a clean place to visit
when you’re experiencing a momentary lapse of biblicality, when
you’re itching to throw away some quarters or just want to gaze
upon the sheer shimmer of the place as it lights up the summer
night sky?
Well, there was that unfortunate time when they blew A-bombs off
above ground at the Nevada Test Site, exposing Utah “downwinders”
to dangerous radiation. Then again, there was Reid last November
co-sponsoring Hatch’s legislation to provide an additional $4
million to screen possible downwind radiation victims.
That’s what neighbors are for, they stick with you in tough
times, when you need a boost, when the only thing between you and
perdition is 11 meager votes in the U.S. Senate. Neighbors
definitely live by the Golden Rule, especially Christian ones.
This was Bennett before the vote on nuclear waste repository
Yucca Mountain, demonstrating his Christianity, his “good
neighbor” virtues: “I would rather have nuclear waste come
through Utah than come to Utah,” said this mensch, who stood next
to Hatch and the devil himself, U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer
Abraham, looking every bit the religious sell-out he is.
Hatch used more jargon, but he basically said the same thing. If
not Yucca Mountain, then the two feared that nuclear waste would
instead be shipped to a site at Skull Valley, Utah. Yeah, it was
a bit of blackmail by our president and his energy secretary. But
Bennett and Hatch could have fought back, because they had the
No. 2 man in the Senate behind them—Reid.
They’ll probably still be able to rely on Reid for reasoned votes
in the future. There’s one thing about Reid: He knows how to
treat neighbors. Back to homepage
All contents © 1998 - 2002 Radiant City Publications,
*****************************************************************
27 National Association of Counties passes resolution to address
transporting waste to Yucca Mountain
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 17, 2002
Clark County Commissioner Chairman Dario Herrera, Commissioner
Yvonne Atkinson Gates, along with representatives from the State
of Nevada as well as former U.S. Senator Richard Bryan, discussed
transportation issues pertaining to the Yucca Mountain project
during the annual National Association of Counties conference in
New Orleans this past weekend.
Former Senator Bryan led the panel and discussed how transporting
nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain is not a local problem, but a
national problem. "What the Congress has done, by approving Yucca
Mountain, is approve the largest unfunded mandate in history,"
Bryan explained.
Following the panel discussion, and committee meeting, county
administrators from across the nation adopted a resolution to
urge the Department of Energy to address a variety of impacts to
be shared by each county along the proposed transportation routes
to Yucca Mountain. The adoption of the resolution came in the
wake of the derailment of a freight train in Wisconsin that was
carrying hazardous materials.
" We require the U.S. Department of Energy to provide safe and
secure transport of spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear
radioactive waste through our cities and counties," said Clark
County Commissioner Chairman Dario Herrera. " A freight train
carrying nuclear waste could very well derail, and cause severe
damages to American families".
"Communities located along the proposed nuclear waste routes may
receive radiation emissions that will impact the natural habitat,
wildlife species, air and water quality. Discharge of radioactive
and toxic effluent poses a significant threat." said Commissioner
Yvonne Atkinson Gates.
[mdw@co.clark.nv.us]
*****************************************************************
28 Dump clean-up enters last phase
[Sonoma News]
Sonoma Index-Tribune, California,
By Andrew Adams, Index-Tribune Intern
07/19/02 -- With local, state and federal funding paying the way,
the project to clean up the old dump near Mountain Cemetery has
begun its final stage.
A crew has been at the site this past week doing preliminary work
to determine exactly what still needs to be hauled out from the
110-year-old dump.
Because studies found high levels of lead and detectable amounts
of radioactive material last year, the city decided to remove all
the
material from the dump. The work began last summer and was put on
hold through the rainy season.
Now that sunshine has returned, so have the tractor trailers
hauling tons of dirt from the landfill. The work is being
performed by the Santa Maria-based A.J. Diani construction
company, which specializes in environmental clean up.
Todd Thalhamer, a waste management engineer with the California
Integrated Waste Management Board, said all the material from the
dump is headed to a special landfill in the city of Kettleman, a
few miles east of Lodi.
He said there are no serious risks, but if his crew of a dozen
workers in hazardous material suits and respirators find anything
dangerous, they're equipped to handle it.
Thalhamer added that while the relative risks are low to
residents in the area, he said it's still too dangerous for
people to scavenge in the dump for artifacts.
"Not only is it hazardous because of the lead, we also have the
issue of radioactive material," he said.
Last year workers had trouble with people sneaking onto the site
at night and vandalizing or stealing equipment, and trying to
access the site by day to search for buried antiques.
Thalhamer said trucks will be taking about 25 to 30 loads from
the dump per day, and he expects the job to be done in about six
weeks. The crew is working in conjunction with city staff to
ensure that the work doesn't interfere with any funerals at
Mountain Cemetery.
"We're working hand-in-hand with the city," Thalhamer said.
Sonoma Fire Chief Mike Cahill, who organized the project, said
the site had been used as Sonoma's burn dump for decades. He said
because people used to burn their old tin cans and other metals
the lead accumulated over the years to hazardous levels.
"Back then they didn't think anything of it," he said.
Today, however, that lead and other materials can seep into the
water supply, and the site is near public lands.
"It's a dangerous place for people to be," he said.
The total cost of the job is about $1.8 million. Cahill said the
city paid $200,000, the state's waste board put in $750,000 and
the Environmental Protection Agency gave $850,000.
City planner David Goodison said once the job is done the land
will essentially remain the same. He said a hiking trail goes
near the dump, but there aren't any plans to put trails through
the dump site.
"We'll have to probably take some steps to restore it - erosion
control, maybe doing some plantings - but that's maybe going to
be the extent of it," he said.
*****************************************************************
29 Judge Winmill to Hear Nuclear Waste Argument Monday
Snake River Alliance -
July 18, 2002
For immediate release
Lawyers for Idaho’s nuclear watchdog, the Snake River Alliance,
the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Yakama Indian
tribes will be in Federal District Court in Boise on Monday to
argue against a U.S. Department of Energy motion to dismiss a
lawsuit claiming the DOE is violating the Nuclear Waste Policy
Act by trying to leave highly radioactive waste in the ground in
Idaho, Washington, and South Carolina.
Oral argument in NRDC, Yakama Nation, and Snake River Alliance
vs. Spencer Abraham (Case No. 01-CV-413) will begin in the
courtroom of Judge Lynn Winmill at 9 a.m., Monday, July 22, in
the Federal District Court, 6th and Fort Streets, Boise. In the
past week both the Washington and Idaho attorneys general have
petitioned to join the case as friends of the court. The
Shoshone-Bannock Tribes have petitioned to intervene.
"At issue in the case is whether the Department of Energy can use
its own rules to avoid proper disposal of highly radioactive
waste—some of the most dangerous material ever created by man,”
said Gary Richardson, executive director of the Snake River
Alliance, Idaho’s nuclear watchdog. "In essence, the DOE wants to
reclassify the high-level waste in tanks at the Idaho National
Engineering and Environmental Lab, Hanford and Savannah River.
They want to call it something else and leave it in the ground
above the Snake River aquiver in Idaho, next to the Columbia
River in Washington, and actually in the groundwater at South
Carolina.”
Court documents in the case are available at www.id.uscourts.gov
--"Case files/Queries”—"district”—"Remote access to court
electronic records”— "01-413”
Contact: Gary Richardson (208) 344-9161 (days) (208) 336-2128
(eves)
*****************************************************************
30 Pacific rejects nuclear waste
Radio Australia News -
[http://abc.net.au/ra/]
The 78 nation African, Caribbean and Pacific summit meeting in
Fiji has strongly condemned nuclear waste shipments across the
Pacific.
The summit - on trade and aid and involving the world's poorer
nations - traditionally steers away from political issues.
However two ships carrying low-level radioactive waste from Japan
to Britain are currently believed to be in the exclusive economic
zone of Vanuatu.
Strong lobbying After strong lobbying from Pacific nations, a
final communique has called for an immediate end to the shipping
of nuclear waste through the region.
Diplomats indicated African nations were unwilling to condemn
European Union countries, but Pacific nations pointed out that
one day, nuclear powers might well take their waste through
African waters.
Leaving early Meanwhile, EU trade commissioner Pascal Lamy has
left the conference early, because of an airport workers strike.
He said he was disappointed not to meet with Fiji sugar
officials.
19/07/2002 21:25:48 | ABC Radio Australia News
*****************************************************************
31 NRC asked to halt fuel-rod transfer
Activists say the storage of spent nuclear fuel at Maine Yankee
fails to take in account possible terrorist threats. -->
[http://www.mainetoday.com]
Thursday, July 18, 2002
By , Associated Press
WISCASSET — An activist group is asking the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission to halt the planned transfer of Maine Yankee's spent
fuel rods, saying that the agency did not consider the
possibility of terrorist attacks when it approved the move.
Friends of the Coast Opposing Nuclear Pollution claims regulators
are violating safety standards in the Atomic Energy Act by
permitting spent nuclear fuel to be stored in airtight canisters
in a facility on the site.
Margaret Mlynczak Stern, the attorney representing Friends of the
Coast, wrote that the movement of spent fuel to the dry casks
will result "in an immediate hazard to the health and safety of
the public" because the NRC did not evaluate the possibility of
terrorism.
Maine Yankee spokeswoman Catherine Ferdinand said plant owners
are working closely with the NRC, which has issued interim
regulations for casks and is evaluating security at plants like
Maine Yankee.
Maine Yankee, which is in the process of being decommissioned,
expects to begin moving the fuel rods later this summer, she
said. The rods are now kept in a pool in the reactor's
containment building.
The stainless steel and concrete canisters will be stored on a
concrete pad outdoors on the property. They were designed to be
transported on trains to a yet-to-be-built federal repository for
high-level radioactive waste.
The Friends of the Coast's letter to the NRC suggests two
possible alternatives to the current storage plan.
One is to store the casks inside the empty reactor dome, which is
made of 4-foot reinforced concrete and can be sealed to contain
any radioactivity. The other is to store the casks at a military
installation.
"Parking 900 tons of nuclear waste in an open field and
predicting terrorists can't blow it up just doesn't cut it," said
Ray Shadis, spokesman for Friends of the Coast.
Copyright [http://www.mainetoday.com/copyright.shtml] © Blethen
Maine Newspapers Inc.
*****************************************************************
32 NRC: Press Release - 2002 - 83 - NRC Seeks Public Comment on Proposed Rule For
Spent Fuel Storage
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02-083
[NRC Seal]
NRC NEWS
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200
Washington, DC 20555-001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov [opa@nrc.gov]
www.nrc.gov
No. 02-083 July 18, 2002
NRC SEEKS PUBLIC COMMENT ON PROPOSED RULE FOR
SPENT FUEL STORAGE
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is requesting public comment on
proposed regulations regarding licensing requirements for dry storage of spent
nuclear fuel in an independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) or in a
Department of Energy monitored retrievable storage installation (MRS).
The proposed changes would make the siting and design criteria for dry storage
more risk informed and would require that uncertainties be considered in
seismic hazard evaluations. Reflected in these proposed changes are over 10
years of agency experience in licensing dry cask storage facilities and rapid
advancements in the earth sciences and earthquake engineering.
Specifically, the proposed regulation would (1) require certain specific
license applicants for a dry storage facility to account for uncertainties in
their seismic evaluations by using probabilistic seismic hazard analysis
methods or other suitable sensitivity analyses; (2) allow the ISFSI or MRS
applicants to use a design earthquake ground motion appropriate for and
commensurate with the risk associated with an ISFSI or MRS; and (3) require
general licensees to conduct analyses to determine whether the designs of cask
storage pads and areas adequately account for dynamic loads, in addition to
static loads.
Detailed guidance on the procedures acceptable to the NRC for meeting the
requirements is contained in a draft regulatory guide to be issued in parallel
for public comment as Draft Regulatory Guide, DG-3021, "Site Evaluations and
Determination of Design Earthquake Ground Motion for Seismic Design of
Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installations and DOE Monitored Retrievable
Storage Installations."
Interested persons may submit comments within 75 days of publication of a
Federal Register notice on this subject, expected shortly. The proposed rule
will be available on the NRC web site at http://ruleforum.llnl.gov
[http://ruleforum.llnl.gov] . Comments may be submitted electronically at the
web site or by mail to the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention: Rulemaking and Adjudications Staff.
*****************************************************************
33
U.S. agency seeks input on Hanford Reach monument
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U.S. agency seeks input on Hanford Reach monument
07/19/02
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is developing a long-range management plan
for the Hanford Reach National Monument in Eastern Washington and is seeking
public comment.
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Then-President Clinton created the Hanford Reach monument in June 2000. The
declaration sought to protect the shrub-steppe ecosystem bordering the
Department of Energy's central Hanford nuclear site. The monument includes a
free-flowing, 46-mile stretch of river where 80 percent of the fall chinook in
the Columbia River spawn.
Fish and Wildlife Service officials plan an open house and a series of public
meetings to collect comments. The open house will be from 5 to 8 p.m.
Wednesday, Aug. 14, at the Hanford Reach National Monument office, 3250 Port
of Benton Blvd. in Richland.
Public meetings will follow in late August and September in various Washington
state locations.
Comments also can be sent to project leader Greg Hughes, Hanford Reach
National Monument/Saddle Mountain National Wildlife Refuge, 3250 Port of
Benton Blvd., Richland, WA 99352.
To learn more about the monument, check the Web at:
http://pacific.fws.gov/Hanford/monument.htm. -- Michelle Cole
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34 Y-12 closer to getting security funds
The Oak Ridger Online -- Area News --
Friday, July 19, 2002
by Paul Parson
Oak Ridger staff
Oak Ridge's nuclear weapons facility is a step closer to
receiving funding for security improvements.
Around $25 million in funding for the Y-12 National Security
Complex is included in the fiscal year 2002 terrorism
supplemental conference report, which was approved by a Senate
conference committee Thursday. The report is expected to be
considered by the full House and Senate in the near future.
"Strengthening security at our nuclear weapons facilities is a
critical element of our homeland security," said U.S. Sen. Fred
Thompson, R-Tenn., in a press statement. "These sites are well
protected, but we must be sure that they are fully equipped to
deal with all of the threats we face."
U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-3rd District, said this morning: "The
emergency funding approved by a joint House and Senate
Appropriations Conference committee for the Oak Ridge Y-12 plant
will greatly offset the high cost of dealing with the dramatic
increase in security after Sept. 11."
The recently passed House version of the funding bill did
include a specific earmark of around $30 million for Y-12.
However, Wamp said members of the conference committee had to
make reductions to the amount "to stay within the
Administration's guidelines. The figure was reduced but the
outcome is still very favorable."
According to Thompson, the funding will cover improvements that
Y-12 has already made in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks. In addition, the funding can be used for security
upgrades such as additional physical barriers, increased security
force protection, and the consolidation of nuclear materials,
among other things.
Following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, security at all of the
Department of Energy's facilities, including the Y-12 weapons
plant, has been tight. Security measures have ranged from random
searches to the closing of a portion of Bethel Valley Road to the
public.
However, these preventative actions haven't stopped critics.
U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., has said that a report from
the Project On Government Oversight -- a federal watchdog agency
-- shows that a terrorist could essentially enter a federal plant
and detonate some type of explosive device.
Officials with the National Nuclear Security Administration have
countered by saying that the security problems identified in the
October 2001 report were from the mid-1990s or earlier and that
the majority of them have been resolved. The NNSA is the
quasi-independent agency within DOE that oversees the nuclear
weapons complex.
Paul Parson can be contacted at (865) 220-5533 or
pparson@oakridger.com [pparson@oakridger.com] .
[http://www.oakridger.com] All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger
*****************************************************************
35 Ex-Pantex workers await decisions
Amarillo Globe-News: Local News:
07/19/02
071902 news 2 Amarillo Globe-News One by one, Ted Shutt has
watched as his friends and former Pantex co-workers died, hoping
for a government check that never came.-->Web posted Friday, July
19, 2002
B>The Waiting Game: Retired Pantex worker Ted Shutt pores
through his medical records and badges showing the nuclear
weapons programs he worked on. Shutt and other Pantex workers
wait to see whether the federal government will pay their medical
compensation claims.
Robert Mulherin / [rmulherin@amarillonet.com]
By JIM McBRIDE jmcbride@amarillonet.com
One by one, Ted Shutt has watched as his friends and former
Pantex co-workers died, hoping for a government check that never
came.
Two years ago, Shutt, a retired Pantex Plant weapons worker,
joined dozens of former workers and their survivors at an
Amarillo hearing on compensation programs for sick nuclear
workers.
Shutt, 66, lost part of a lung to cancer and is one of thousands
of former U.S. nuclear weapons workers waiting to see whether
they qualify for government compensation.
"There's been just so many of them. Everybody I worked with in
those days has died," Shutt said. "There's been three or four
guys that I know that all have claims that have died."
Shelby Hallmark, director of the Labor Department's Office of
Workers Compensation Programs, said five checks have been issued
to Pantex workers suffering from exposure to beryllium, a toxic
metal that can cause a debilitating lung disease.
The department also is working with the National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health to process cancer claims quickly,
Hallmark said.
"We're working as hard and as fast at the Labor Department as we
possibly can. Certainly, we will be doing everything we can to
work with NIOSH as they go ahead with their part of the process,"
he said.
In 2000, Congress approved legislation to compensate weapons
workers sickened by exposure to radiation, silica or beryllium.
Eligible workers can receive $150,000 and medical expenses. Some
survivors also are eligible for compensation.
Shutt questions why the government compensation program is
taking so long to review cases and determine whether workers will
get a check.
"They have put everything on the back burner. They are going
backward instead of forward," he said.
Hallmark said Pantex workers with cancer claims must wait for
NIOSH to complete a radiation dose reconstruction - an estimate
of a worker's radiation exposure. NIOSH officials will review
Pantex radiation exposure records, interview the claimant and use
other pertinent information to review cancer claims, Hallmark
said.
"It will be an individual review of the record, not just, 'OK
this is what Pantex has, therefore this is your dose,"' Hallmark
said. "It is a much more complete process."
The Labor Department, he said, has received 452 Pantex claims,
most of which are cancer claims that require dose
reconstructions.
Nationwide, about 6,000 worker claims have been sent for dose
reconstructions, and 31,000 workers or their survivors have filed
claims. So far, the government has issued about 3,600 lump-sum
payments of $150,000 to workers or their families, Hallmark said.
Fred Blosser, a NIOSH spokesman, said completed radiation dose
reconstructions will be sent to the Labor Department, which
decides whether or not a worker receives money for their claim.
"These are scientific methods that are really aimed at giving
the claimant a fair shake given that, in a lot of cases, there
may be little or no historical information about the exposures
the worker received," Blosser said. "Those are methods for
assessing whether it was at least as likely as not that the
claimant's cancer was caused by occupational exposure."
Shutt said he and other workers were constantly exposed to
radiation hazards and depleted uranium - a black, low-level
radioactive dust - while working on warheads. Protective clothing
and worker radiation monitoring, he said, were largely
non-existent in those days.
"I know the reason I had that mass in my lung is from that work
out there," Shutt said. "It felt like you worked in a coal mine.
You had black in your nostrils. You would eat it, breathe it and
everything else."
Shutt recalled Robert Malone, a Pantex worker for more than 30
years who died in December. Friends jokingly nicknamed him after
mythical lumberjack Paul Bunyan's friendly blue ox.
"He used to be real big and real gentle. We called him Babe,
after the oxen," Shutt said.
During Pantex hearings two summers ago, Malone told Labor
Department officials he had been diagnosed with cancer and
asbestosis - a disease related to asbestos exposure.
"Talk about something that takes the energy out of you. It takes
the energy out," he testified.
Thomas E. Pate, another longtime Pantex worker, died June 22.
His career at Pantex also spanned more than 30 years, assembling
and dismantling nuclear warheads and bombs. Two years before he
died, Pate told Labor Department officials he had been diagnosed
with Hodgkin's disease.
Pate acknowledged then that working conditions improved since
the Cold War's heyday, but he said former workers often handled
weapons parts with their bare hands and radiation record-keeping
was lax.
"Like I said, in '66, we were very young and inexperienced and,
you know, you did things," Pate testified. "And you could feel
the heat coming off these parts. That's how bad it was."
Pate asked federal government officials to help sick workers
cover the burdensome costs they paid for medical expenses.
"I'm saying, if the government and the DOE wants to help, give
us the good stuff. Give us the good insurance," Pate said.
Shutt remains skeptical about the government's compensation
program but is glad his health has improved.
"I haven't heard anything. I don't look to ever get anything but
grief," he said. "Everybody who has filed a claim will probably
be dead before they ever hear they've been denied."
[http://www.amarillonet.com/cgi-bin/printme.pl] |
*****************************************************************
36 Wording of bill may bring DOE site to Paducah -
The Paducah Sun
Paducah, Kentucky
Friday, July 19, 2002
An anti-terrorism spending bill going to President Bush calls for
the construction of nuclear plants here and in Piketon, Ohio.
By Joe Walker jwalker@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650
An anti-terrorism spending bill headed to President Bush's desk
has stronger wording to force construction of plants at Paducah
and Piketon, Ohio, to convert tons of hazardous waste into safer
material.
The bill was approved Thursday by the House-Senate Conference
Committee. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Louisville, who drafted the
waste component, said he expects both houses to easily pass the
legislation and send it to Bush within a week.
McConnell's language requires the Bush administration, through
the Department of Energy, to:
Build facilities in both communities to convert spent uranium
hexafluoride (UF6) into safer material that might be used
commercially. Some DOE officials have argued that initial
legislation passed in 1998 does not require construction of even
one plant. McConnell has criticized the Energy Department and
Office of Management and Budget for repeated delays during the
past four years.
"I think it will be difficult for OMB's lawyers to argue that
this isn't a mandate," he said of Thursday's action.
Award a contract, within 30 days of Bush's signature, to any of
the firms whose bids were under review when the department
stopped the process Jan. 15. Start construction by July 31, 2004
— six months after the date set in the original law.
Seek adequate annual funding to ensure completion of the project,
estimated at $1 billion to build two plants and run them about 20
years. The Bush administration says it could save $100 million by
building just one facility. Funding has been uncertain even
though Congress set aside about $373 million for the work.
McConnell, a senior member of the Committee on Appropriations,
had the language included last month in the Senate version of the
bill. Although the House version excluded the provision, the
language survived in the reconciled version, thanks to the
efforts of Reps. Ed Whitfield and Hal Rogers of Kentucky,
McConnell said.
Each plant is expected to create hundreds of construction jobs
and about 150 long-term jobs while converting billions of pounds
of hazardous, corrosive material. The UF6 is stored in about
60,000 steel cylinders, some of which are rusting. Most are at
the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
After months reviewing bids for a two-plant project, the Energy
Department abruptly stopped the contract-letting in January. The
three finalists were told Feb. 28 that DOE was changing the
process to seek costs for one plant, as well as two. The
department said it hoped by January 2003 to decide the number and
location of plants to be procured.
After the decision, and once DOE decided on any changes to
requirements, the agency planned to again amend the bid requests
to "firms in the competitive range," the letters continued.
Bidders would then be allowed to submit revised proposals.
The letters marked the latest of recurring DOE delays since the
1998 legislation.
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