***************************************************************** 11/20/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.301 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 Syncor IDs 'Questionable' Payments 2 Inspector: Iraq Must Show Evidence 3 Iraq OKs Searches of 'Special' Sites 4 Warmer Ties Quell Fears Over NATO 5 Q: Why is Nato expanding? 6 Russia Needs an Alliance of Its Own 7 N Korea in crisis after nuclear revelation 8 Report Says US-Russia Threat Reduction Efforts Lack Coordination, 9 US: Critics say NRC fails to improve 10 UK: 'CERTAIN FUTURE FOR WORK FORCE' - 11 Al-Qaeda's quixotic quest to go nuclear 12 Inspectors ready, well equipped to check on Iraq 13 US: Corruption isn’t just Cheney’s fault 14 TXU collapse sends shockwaves through energy industry 15 US: Our right to know in jeopardy NUCLEAR REACTORS 16 Electricity: Where it comes from 17 N-plant checks need overhaul 18 US: Safety Lapse at Ohio Reactor Is Cited as Potential Peril for Oth 19 US: FirstEnergy reworks nuclear power unit* 20 US: NRC Draft Report Finds St. Lucie License Renewal Environmentally 21 Qinshan Heavy-water Nuclear Power Station Starts Operation 22 US: As water levels rise, Va. nuke exits unusual event 23 US: NRC Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards To Meet December 5 NUCLEAR SAFETY 24 UK: ATTACK FEARED ON NUCLEAR RAIL LOADS 25 US: Council will carry out uranium tests on Mayo water if asked 26 US: Lawsuit claims Piketon plant operators altered radiation records 27 UK: DRIVING SAFETY MESSAGE HOME A RENOWNED 28 UK: UKAEA RECRUITS CELEBRATE - 29 US: Brink Lindsey on Terrorism on National Review Online 30 US: I-40 truck weigh station getting radiation monitor 31 US: Congress Passes Legislation to Protect America's Homeland 32 Child at center of Vieques anti-bombing drive is buried 33 US: CDC: Radiation worker safety meeting NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 34 US: NRC: licnence amendment: spent fuel casts 35 US: NRC: Spent fuel Casts revisions 36 US: Stop spent nuclear rod shipment 37 US: JOA 3 million pound yellowcake reprocessing agreement 38 US: Nuclear waste transportation bill might be reintroduced 39 US: Plutonium Waste to be Shipped to WIPP* * 40 US: Surplus Plutonium Headed for WIPP* * 41 US: Oversight group draws much interest 42 US: The truth about tritium By Lester Haines 43 US: Utah: It's Not Worth It 44 SELLAFIELD NEEDS MORE POSITIVE SPIN ON SUCCESS - 45 US: Board Says Envirocare's Crisis Plan is OK -- for Now 46 US: Reid has concerns about nuke waste transport bill NUCLEAR WEAPONS 47 Rapporteur plans to meet Pasko 48 Moscow has no info indicating that North Korea has nuclear weapons - 49 US: Trying to find a nuke? Button up 50 Japan seeks solution to nuclear aid problems US DEPT. OF ENERGY 51 Critics Say LANL Conceals Security Problems* * 52 Two new disposal units opened at Fernald site - 53 Letter: Plant's 50-year operation short-term gain, long-term loss 54 Secretary Abraham Announces $290 Million Contract to Build Two 55 Energy Secretary Lauds Stanford University's New Global Climate 56 Y-12 machinists reunion Dec. 6 at Senior Center 57 DOE tests radiation detection device near Watt Road 58 Accelerated cleanup funds get boost from Congress 59 NNSA orders hiring freeze, says little local impact OTHER NUCLEAR 60 Plutonium is also a superconductor ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Syncor IDs 'Questionable' Payments Las Vegas SUN: November 19, 2002 ASSOCIATED PRESS LOS ANGELES- Syncor International Corp. said Tuesday it has identified $500,000 in "questionable payments" by company officials to customers in Taiwan and at least six other countries. The nuclear services company said it was in advanced stages of talks with the Securities and Exchange Commission and Justice Department to resolve the issues of illegal payments involving tax, competition and regulatory matters. The payments were uncovered earlier this month by Cardinal Health Inc. officials examining Syncor's operations. Cardinal Health has been mulling a $1.1 billion acquisition of Syncor since June. Syncor, based in Woodland Hills, Calif., outside Los Angeles, placed its chairman, Monty Fu, and the head of its Asian operations, Moses Fu, director of Syncor Overseas Ltd., on paid leave while it investigated whether subsidiaries made improper payments. A spokesman for Cardinal, a prescription-drug wholesaler based in Dublin, Ohio, told The Wall Street Journal no decision has been made on whether to proceed with the transaction. Syncor said it might have to pay Cardinal as much as $24 million if the deal is not completed. In an SEC filing, Syncor also said it has reserved $2.5 million for possible penalties related to the overseas payments. Also Tuesday, an Arkansas law firm filed a federal lawsuit against Syncor claiming the company filed false financial reports that manipulated the price of its stock. Syncor shareholders were scheduled to vote on the Cardinal Health acquisition on Dec. 6. Syncor is a provider of nuclear pharmacy services, also called radiopharmacy, that involve using radioactive compounds that are ingested or injected in organs or tissues. They can be used for diagnostic and therapeutic use and allow doctors to treat illnesses without surgery. On the Net: Cardinal Health: http://www.cardinal.com [http://www.cardinal.com] Syncor: http://www.syncor.com [http://www.syncor.com] All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 2 Inspector: Iraq Must Show Evidence Las Vegas SUN November 20, 2002 By CHARLES J. HANLEY ASSOCIATED PRESS BAGHDAD, Iraq- Iraq has yet to provide convincing evidence supporting its claim that all nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs have been dismantled, the chief U.N. inspector said as he wrapped up a critical two-day visit to get inspections started again after a four-year break. Hans Blix, head of the U.N. weapons-hunting team, said Tuesday night that he urged Iraqi officials to look again in their nuclear, chemical and biological "stocks and stores" to ensure they have no weapons-making to report. Iraq's position that it has no weapons of mass destruction "must be convincingly shown by documentation, by evidence," Blix said. "We don't think that has yet been convincingly done." Blix and chief U.N. nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei left Baghdad Wednesday, after leading advance teams of about two dozen U.N. officials here on Monday to resume the weapons inspection program that ended abruptly four years ago. Most of the team stayed behind Wednesday and additional inspectors arrive next Monday. The first field operations are expected by Nov. 27. Blix, speaking to reporters on arrival in Cyprus, called his time in Iraq "a constructive visit." He added that his team had reopened the U.N. inspectors' office in Baghdad. It had been closed since 1998. ElBaradei, also speaking in Cyprus, said that the work that begins Nov. 27 will be "the real test" of the Iraqis' pledges of cooperation. "We hope their words and commitments will translate on the ground into real, full cooperation," he said. Tuesday night, Blix and ElBaradei spoke with reporters after Iraqi officials confirmed they would meet a U.N. deadline and file by Dec. 8 a comprehensive list of nuclear, chemical and biological programs, including any meant to develop weapons. The two U.N. officials offered Iraq a powerful incentive, saying that if the Baghdad government cooperates fully, they might be able to report in about one year that it has complied with Security Council requirements and U.N. economic sanctions on Iraq should be suspended. The latest Security Council resolution calls the inspections a "final opportunity" for Iraq to meet its post-Gulf War obligations to give up any weapons of mass destruction. President Bush has threatened military action if the Iraqis fail to disarm. A seven-year inspection regime in the 1990s dismantled Iraq's nuclear program before it could build a bomb, and destroyed large amounts of chemical and biological weapons and longer-range missiles forbidden by postwar U.N. resolutions. But some chemical weapons, in particular, were believed never destroyed, and U.S. intelligence reports suggest the Iraqis may have rebuilt some weapons programs since the inspectors pulled out in 1998. The new Security Council resolution gives the U.N. teams greater power to inspect Iraqi sites anywhere at anytime. ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said, "I think we heard from the Iraqi side they will do everything humanly possible to cooperate." On a practical level, Blix said, the Iraqis had agreed in their discussions to the opening of a U.N. inspectors' office in the northern city of Mosul, and to an expansion of their Baghdad office to accommodate the hundreds of international weapons experts who will be coming and going in the coming months. The Swedish ex-diplomat, chairman of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, reaffirmed the importance of Iraq's upcoming Dec. 8 list - the standard by which the international community will judge whether President Saddam Hussein's government is telling the truth about its interest in the most advanced weapons. "We have tried to impress on them that they must look into their stocks and stores and see if there's something they should declare," Blix said. He then referred to Iraq's known production of deadly mustard gas in the 1980s. Although those weapons were believed largely destroyed by U.N. teams in the 1990s, some may remain hidden in Iraq. "The production of mustard gas is not like the production of marmalade," Blix said. "You must keep track of what you produced." In Cyprus Wednesday, ElBaradei said the Iraqis had assured his team "that they'd do everything possible to make sure that the declaration would cover all activities, both nuclear weapons as well as even activities in their civil sector ...." Tuesday, Iraqi presidential adviser Amir al-Saadi, asked by reporters if Iraq would meet the Dec. 8 deadline, replied: "Yes. Within 30 days (of passage of the U.N. resolution), as the resolution says, a report from Iraq will be submitted on all ... nuclear, chemical, biological and missile files." But he gave no indication of the likely character of that Iraqi declaration - that is, whether it will contain anything beyond an inventory of Iraqi work in peaceful uses of nuclear, chemical and biological materials. Al-Saadi also was asked whether Iraq would grant inspectors unfettered access. "Yes," he said, "as stipulated in the resolution and as we have agreed with them." All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 3 Iraq OKs Searches of 'Special' Sites Las Vegas SUN November 20, 2002 By CHARLES J. HANLEY ASSOCIATED PRESS BAGHDAD, Iraq- The Iraqi government has accepted without protest the right of U.N. weapons inspectors to make unannounced checks on "special" sites belonging to President Saddam Hussein, an issue that helped derail the inspections in the 1990s, U.N. officials said Wednesday. "That is settled by the resolution. It wasn't even discussed," chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said after departing Baghdad at the end of a two-day visit inaugurating a new U.N. oversight program, four years after the last inspections. The Swedish ex-diplomat was referring to the new U.N. Security Council resolution describing the inspections as a "final opportunity" for Iraq to meet its post-Gulf War obligations to give up any weapons of mass destruction. In accepting the resolution, Iraq accepted full and unfettered inspections. President Bush has threatened military action if the Iraqis don't disarm. In their Baghdad meetings, Blix and chief U.N. nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei urged Iraqi officials to look again in their nuclear, chemical and biological "stocks and stores" to ensure they have no weapons-making to report. Iraq's position that it has no weapons of mass destruction "must be convincingly shown by documentation, by evidence," Blix told reporters late Tuesday in Baghdad. "We don't think that has yet been convincingly done." Earlier Tuesday, Iraqi officials confirmed they would meet a U.N. deadline and file by Dec. 8 a comprehensive list of nuclear, chemical and biological programs. The Security Council resolution demands the Iraqis include any work in weapons development. The two U.N. officials said that if the Baghdad government cooperates fully with their inspections, they might be able to report in about one year that it has complied with Security Council requirements and U.N. economic sanctions on Iraq should be lifted. Blix and ElBaradei left Iraq on Wednesday as scheduled, leaving behind most of the two dozen inspectors and other U.N. staff who had accompanied them. Additional inspectors arrive next Monday, and the first field operations are expected by Nov. 27. ElBaradei, speaking to reporters on arrival in Cyprus hours after leaving Baghdad, said that the work that begins Nov. 27 will be "the real test" of the Iraqis' pledges of cooperation. "We hope their words and commitments will translate on the ground into real, full cooperation," he said. In the 1990s, the Iraqis had obstructed U.N. efforts to inspect a handful of sprawling sites designated as presidential compounds, until a compromise arrangement allowed inspections with advance notice and a diplomatic escort. The new council resolution ignores those arrangements and prescribes full, unfettered access to all sites. "They accept that," Blix said when in Cyprus asked whether the issue had arisen in his Baghdad talks. The seven-year inspection regime in the 1990s dismantled Iraq's nuclear program before it could build a bomb, and destroyed large amounts of chemical and biological weapons and longer-range missiles forbidden by postwar U.N. resolutions. But some chemical weapons in particular were believed never destroyed, and U.S. intelligence reports suggest the Iraqis may have rebuilt some weapons programs since the inspectors pulled out in 1998. The most senior official on the Blix-ElBaradei schedule of meetings here was Foreign Minister Naji Sabri. Blix said the Iraqis had agreed in their discussions to open a U.N. inspectors office in the northern city of Mosul, and to expand their Baghdad office to accommodate the hundreds of international weapons experts who will come and go in coming months. Blix, chairman of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, reaffirmed the importance of Iraq's upcoming Dec. 8 list. It is the standard by which the international community will judge whether President Saddam Hussein's government is telling the truth about its interest in the most advanced weapons. In Cyprus Wednesday, ElBaradei said the Iraqis had assured his team "that they'd do everything possible to make sure that the declaration would cover all activities, both nuclear weapons as well as even activities in their civil sector ...." ElBaradei and Blix will leave the day-to-day inspections to their teams, supervising from Vienna and New York respectively unless developments here require high-level intervention. "We hope we will not have to go next week," ElBaradei said in Cyprus. "We will obviously go if there is a crisis, but if things are moving smoothly we will go (only) periodically." Tuesday, Iraqi presidential adviser Amir al-Saadi told reporters Iraq would meet the Dec. 8 deadline. But he gave no indication whether it will contain anything beyond an inventory of Iraqi work in peaceful uses of nuclear, chemical and biological materials. Al-Saadi also was asked whether Iraq would grant inspectors unfettered access. "Yes," he said, "as stipulated in the resolution and as we have agreed with them." Monday, when Blix and ElBaradei arrived here to begin the historic new round of inspections, U.S. warplanes bombed Iraqi air defense systems in the northern "no-fly zone." The U.S. military said the attack was launched after Iraqi gunners fired on the jets during routine patrols. In Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the Iraqi anti-aircraft fire "appears to be a violation" of the latest U.N. Security Council resolution. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has disagreed with that interpretation. The 15-member council has never specifically approved the flights over northern and southern Iraq, which Baghdad considers violations of its sovereignty. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 4 Warmer Ties Quell Fears Over NATO By Vladimir Isachenkov The Associated Press In what was Russia's worst nightmare just a few years ago, NATO is set to expand into former Soviet turf this week, yet the Kremlin's reaction is remarkably calm, reflecting the new, friendly relationship with the alliance. With Russia and NATO mulling over joint steps to counter international terrorism and talking about a shared anti-missile shield, Moscow has tempered its criticism of the alliance's eastward move. At a two-day summit in Prague, which starts Thursday, NATO will invite seven East European countries to join the alliance in 2004. "We now have joint projects to do, and by working together we have come to understand each other better," said Vice Admiral Valentin Kuznetsov, Russia's senior military representative to NATO. "We are becoming more predictable for each other, and this is extremely important." For his part, U.S. President George W. Bush said he plans to reassure President Vladimir Putin that Russia "has nothing to fear" from an expanded NATO. Russia still opposes NATO's admission of the former Soviet republics of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, as well as Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Slovakia. However, its criticism of the alliance's move eastward is subdued compared to the loud anti-NATO rhetoric of the past. Many Russian politicians now describe the expansion as a political gesture that would hurt NATO rather than threaten Russia. "The more NATO expands, the more useless it becomes," scoffed Vladimir Lukin, a deputy speaker of the State Duma who served as Russia's ambassador to Washington in the early 1990s. While Russian jitters about NATO's thrust east are soothed by closer ties with its former Cold War foe, Russian officials continue to sternly warn NATO against any military buildup close to its borders. Putin said last week that Moscow expects the alliance to respect its security interests while embracing the new members. "In military terms, NATO's expansion damages our security, bringing the alliance's forces as close as some 100 kilometers from St. Petersburg," Kuznetsov said in an interview. "It's as if one's neighbor gets an entire arsenal just across the wall," Kuznetsov said. "It makes one feel uncomfortable and wonder why on earth he needs all that." He warned that any significant NATO efforts to modernize the military infrastructure of its new members would trigger an "adequate reaction." Russia expects new NATO members to join the existing arms control agreements that limit troop deployment in different regions of Europe, thus preventing any major weapons buildup near Russia's borders, Kuznetsov said. Putin's low-key reaction to NATO's expansion contrasts sharply with the broadsides Russia fired at NATO in a vain attempt to thwart its first wave of expansion, when it embraced Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic in 1999. Immediately after his election, Putin took steps to mend ties with the West. In May, Russia and NATO signed an agreement setting up a joint council for making decisions on counterterrorism, nonproliferation of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, peacekeeping and other issues. Kuznetsov said the agreement was a major breakthrough compared to a 1997 Russia-NATO agreement, known as the Founding Act, which stopped short of giving Moscow an equal say in the discussions. "Unlike the past, when NATO just presented its coordinated view to us, we are now making decisions together," Kuznetsov said. The Russian government's critics dismiss the new cooperation as more show than substance, and warn that NATO remains a potential enemy. "NATO is a big stick in the hands of the United States, aimed against any nation or regime that Washington dislikes," Communist lawmaker Viktor Ilyukhin said. "NATO's final goal toward Russia is to seize its resources." But, Kuznetsov said, "The more we work together with NATO, the better we get to know each other and the stronger our security will become." © Copyright 2002, The Moscow Times. All Rights Reserved. Visit ***************************************************************** 5 Q: Why is Nato expanding? BBC NEWS | Europe | Tuesday, 19 November, 2002 Nato is pressing ahead with expansion at its Prague summit, where it has invited a group of Baltic and Eastern European nations to join the alliance. BBC News Online World Affairs correspondent Paul Reynolds examines the issues. Which countries are going to join? Seven countries have been invited to join the alliance at the Prague summit: the three Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania; Slovenia; Slovakia; Bulgaria and Romania. Two other applicants - Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia - are likely to be told they have not met the criteria (economic, political and military reform) and will have to wait. Croatia applied only this year and has just started the process. Why is Nato expanding? For political and security reasons. The idea is to encourage the growth of democracy and market economies in the former Communist states of central and eastern Europe and to lock these in with Nato (and also European Union) membership. But the new members themselves also feel more secure by being within the Nato shield. Some of them are still fearful of Russia. Nato expanded from 16 to 19 when the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland joined in 1999. Has Russia dropped its objections to expansion? It is still not happy but it has had to accept the inevitable. Boris Yeltsin once tried to get Bill Clinton to give a "gentleman's agreement" that the Baltic republics would not be allowed to join but no such undertaking was given. President Putin has concentrated more on raising specific concerns than objecting in principle. These concerns include the forward deployment of Nato troops to the Russian border - which won't happen. Would the new members have to be defended, even with nuclear weapons? Yes, in theory, because Nato is an alliance. An attack on one is seen as an attack on all. But a decision has to be taken in practice if there is an attack. The likelihood of that happening is remote given the new relationship with Russia. What would the new countries contribute to Nato? Not much in the way of military muscle. But Nato is changing from a defensive alliance ready to repel invasion to a more flexible provider of forces for crises worldwide. Individual countries are being encouraged to specialise. The new members might be able to take part in that process. Their main value, however, is that they project Nato's political weight further east, up to the Russian border and down to the Black Sea. Isn't their kit old Soviet stuff - can their radios talk to ours? Yes, a lot of it is old stuff and no, their radios don't talk to ours and anyway what language would they use? But they are not really joining to add to Nato's armoury. They will modernise their forces over time. © MMII | News Sources | Privacy ***************************************************************** 6 Russia Needs an Alliance of Its Own Opinion / Editorial Thursday, Nov. 21, 2002. Page 8 Editorial Seven nations will be officially invited to join NATO on Thursday, expanding the world's most powerful military alliance, which was originally set up to counter the Soviet threat, to stretch hundreds of kilometers along Russia's borders. All but one of the prospective members (Slovenia) used to be Soviet turf. Three are former members of the now defunct Warsaw Pact, while another three used to be republics within the Soviet Union. "As a matter of fact, the Warsaw Pact is becoming part of NATO," U.S. President George W. Bush noted before departing for Prague. Of all former Warsaw Pact members, only Russia will remain outside NATO. Yet Moscow's reaction to the latest expansion has been low-key, especially when compared to the critical salvos fired during the previous wave of eastern expansion. The reason for such a phlegmatic reaction to the fact that NATO will now stand only 100 kilometers from St. Petersburg is clear. Never before have relations between post-Communist Russia and the West been better. But these relations are mostly based on the personal chemistry between President Vladimir Putin and his friends George and Tony. All three are popularly elected leaders and one can only hope that relations will remain as cozy and productive when their terms in office end. But rather than rely on the personal friendship of leaders who come and go, the United States and its allies should work to anchor Russia to the West on a sustainable institutionalized basis. One way to institutionalize this relationship would be to empower the Group of Eight, since it seems unlikely that Russia will either ask for an invitation to join NATO or be offered one. Russia has an equal voice in the G-8 and would welcome a transformation of this largely rhetorical club into a powerful alliance with rapid-reaction capabilities to battle terrorism, contain proliferation and mediate conflicts, such as the one between nuclear-capable India and Pakistan, before they evolve into a war. The establishment of a security alliance on the basis of the G-8 was first proposed in the wake of 9/11 by a trio of foreign policy experts: Graham Allison, director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University; Sergei Karaganov, chairman of the presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, in Moscow; and Karl Kaiser, director of the German Council on Foreign Relations, in Berlin. They also suggested that such an alliance could be used to bring China, whose economic ascent has sent nervous jitters across the world, into the fold. Perhaps it's time to give this idea some serious thought. © Copyright 2002, The Moscow Times. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 7 N Korea in crisis after nuclear revelation THE TIMES OF INDIA WORLD: ASIA-PACIFIC INDIATIMES HARVEY STOCKWIN TIMES NEWS NETWORK �[ WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2002 05:25:55 PM ] HONG KONG: North Korea is currently beset by several grave crises arising from its pursuit of nuclear weapons as it has appeared to backtrack on its apparent confirmation on November 17 that it does already possess nuclear weapons. First and foremost there is a crisis in food supply for the 20 million North Koreans. This emergency is talked about only by foreigners. It is never mentioned in the strictly controlled North Korea media. Right now the World Food Programme has had to cut back on its food aid to the North. Donor fatigue has set in, not least because of continuing doubts about whether or not aid reached the people who need it. The North prevents aid organisations from closely monitoring donations. The suspicion that food aid is diverted to the huge Korean military apparatus is thereby enhanced. The WFP has made another appeal for more donations, if a further massive increase in already pervasive malnutrition is to be averted. Much depends on what is decided by the Bush Administration. The fact that WFP food aid to North Korea has had to be cut reflects the fact that many countries, not just the Americans, have a hard time reconciling Pyongyang's pursuit of nuclear weapons with its inability to feed its people, or to talk about this problem openly. Secondly, there is crisis in fuel supplies as North Korea heads into the frigid Korean winter. This is the direct result of the United States, Japan, South Korea and the European Union agreeing last week to suspend monthly deliveries of 42,000 tons of heavy fuel oil from December. The deliveries are a part of the 1994 Agreed Framework under which North Korea received fuel while two water-cooled nuclear power stations were being built. The suspension follows North Korea's admission that it has developed a uranium-enrichment programme as part its pursuit of nuclear weapons -- a clear violation of the 1994 Agreement. Since the North Koreans admitted to the existence of the uranium programme on October 4th, two monthly deliveries have been made, despite the violation. Now the parties to the Agreed Framework are demanding that the North abides by its terms before deliveries are resumed. North Korea does not have the means to obtain fuel supplies from the open market. Whether old ally China will fill the shortfall in fuel supplies remains to be seen. Thirdly, while promised aid from Japan would do much to ease the North's critical shortages, it remains well over the horizon. Tokyo has stipulated that relations must be normalised before any aid-giving is considered. Now it appears that a further round of normalisation negotiations due later this month will not be held. This is because the abduction issue between Japan and North Korea remains unsolved. To the contrary North Korea has taken an intransigent posture which guarantees that the highly emotional issue will be further exacerbated. North Korea allowed the five surviving abductees to visit Japan for two weeks, while keeping their children as hostages. Japan insisted that the abductees must stay in Japan and that their children should be sent to join them. North Korea asserts that the abductees must return to the country which abducted them, thereby implicitly insisting that the initial crime of their abduction must continue. Naturally this has further aroused Japanese public opinion. The Japanese government has now made the return of the children a precondition for further normalisation negotiations. Instead of speedily acting to get this highly emotional issue out of the way, North Korea has instead further aroused Japanese public opinion by hinting that it may resume intermediate-range ballistic missile tests through Japanese airspace. These tests were suspended to placate the US and Japan after Pyongyang conducted one such test in 1998. Against this background, it is small comfort that North Korea has seemed to back away from its apparent insistence on Sunday that it already possessed nuclear weapons. A Pyongyang Radio said that North Korea "has come to have nuclear and other strong military weapons to deal with increased nuclear threats by the US imperialists". Those monitoring the broadcast stick by this translation. But some South Korean officials maintained that what was said was actually a reiteration of the North Korean current line that it "is entitled to have nuclear weapons". Another North Korean radio commentary on November 18 ended the linguistic controversy by returning to this verbal formula. The hard fact remains that North Korea will only be able to improve its increasingly dire position on food, fuel, and aid if it abandons its habitual intransigent postures and quickly shows a willingness to end its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Since this is unlikely, the increasingly complex Korean crisis seems certain to escalate. As if to emphasise this, on Wednesday there was the first firing between South and North Korean navy ships in four months on their disputed maritime border. Copyright 2002 Times Internet Limited. ***************************************************************** 8 Report Says US-Russia Threat Reduction Efforts Lack Coordination, Political Will and Cash MOSCOW - Vacillating political support, an uncoordinated approach to solving proliferation issues in Russia, and a chronic shortage of funding are throwing a wrench into the works of US-Russian bilateral efforts to secure and destroy the Cold War's legacy of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), a joint report released last week by two influential Washington-based think-tanks concluded. Charles Digges, 2002-11-19 00:02 The current approach threatens to leave vast WMD stockpiles in Russia prey to thieves and terrorists, says "Reshaping US-Russian Threat Reduction: New Approaches for the Second Decade," a joint report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Russian American Nuclear Security Advisory Council that was issued Wednesday. "The inability or refusal of the governments to correct these problems threatens to leave vast stockpiles of nuclear and chemical weapons and biological agents vulnerable to acquisition by terrorists, rogue states and black marketers," is the central finding of the report, said its authors in a statement. Particular focus in the report was trained on the Nunn-Lugar programme, the oldest, at 10 years, of the American non-proliferation efforts operating to destroy WMD on the territory of the former Soviet Union. The programme got its name from former senator Sam Nunn, a Georgia Democrat, and Indiana Republican Senator Richard Lugar, who together drafted the original bill in 1992. "The issues that the report addresses are a concise statement of the challenges that lay ahead of us, and the programme's need for political support and coordination," Mark Helmke, a policy advisor to Senator Lugar, told Bellona Web in a telephone interview from Washington "We have been focusing on these issues for a long time," Helmke added. Nunn spoke Thursday at the opening of a two-day Washington conference devoted to stopping the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, at which the RANSAC/Carnegie paper was presented and much discussed. He painted a terrifying picture of what nuclear terrorism could mean in the near future. In October 2001, Nunn told the conference, according to The Moscow Times, that U.S. government officials were informed that terrorists had acquired a 10-kiloton nuclear bomb and planned to smuggle it into Manhattan and detonate it. If they had succeeded, the intelligence reports said, they would have killed hundreds of thousands of people and destroy New York City. "This intelligence report, thank God, was later judged to be false. But it was never judged to be implausible or impossible," said Nunn, the newspaper reported. "This should focus our attention on two fundamental questions. First, if the [intelligence] report had been accurate, and the bomb had been real, and had gone off, what would we wish the day after, and the week after, and the months after — what would we wish that we had done to prevent it? Second, why aren't we doing that now?" Nunn added. The RANSAC/Carnegie report is an attempt to address some of these concerns and is based on several months of workshop sessions, which drew together the opinions and findings of several governmental and non-governmental experts from Russia, the United States, and Europe to illuminate the common hurdles and pitfalls that impede efforts to avert what is the most potent world security threat since the Cold War. "The meetings uncovered that threat reduction efforts in all of the WMD complexes were suffering from a very similar set of problems, but that compartmentalization of these efforts had impeded crosscutting analysis of these issues and the development of strategic responses to them," wrote RANSAC's Executive Director Kenneth Luongo and Deputy Director of Carnegie's Nonproliferation Project, Jon Wolfsthal, in the report's forward. "But this year, as the tenth anniversary of the threat reduction effort passed, it is clear that much of the agenda has lost its urgency and that many fundamental problems persist with no clear plan for resolving them." The programmes do work Despite that dark prognosis, the report begins with the assertion that sustained threat reduction efforts do, in fact, work, and says that the past decade of Nunn-Lugar and its US Department of Energy, or DOE's, partner programmes, and efforts from the G-8 and Europe, have shown "quantifiable results." Indeed, as Lugar advisor Helmke noted, Nunn-Lugar and its sister programmes at the DOE are accomplished for about $1 billion a year out of an annual US Defense Budget of $390 billion. According to the report, as well as the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency, roughly 6,000 nuclear warheads have been removed from deployment; more than 400 missile silos have been destroyed; nearly 1,400 ballistic missile, cruise missiles, submarines, and strategic bombers have been eliminated; some 40 percent storage and transportation of nuclear material and weapons have been made more secure; 150 tonnes of weapons-grade uranium has been eliminated; a major biological weapons plant has been destroyed; and some 40,000 chemical, biological, nuclear and missile weapons scientists have been provided with support to pursue peaceful research. But the report notes that these results are tarnished by the fact that roughly half the nuclear weapons-grade material in Russia remains poorly secured. That's enough material to build thousands of nuclear bombs. Moreover, previous US-funded security improvements focused on protecting plutonium or highly enriched uranium from theft by nuclear facilities' own employees. But there has been far less attention paid to the risk of these materials falling into the hands of Chechen guerrilla fighters, like the 50 heavily armed terrorists who stormed a Moscow theatre last month. Furthermore, the destruction of chemical weapons is only just beginning, said the report, and much about the Soviet Union's former biological weapons activities remains a mystery. "Reform of the agenda, and the acceleration of its implementation are required if key goals are to be met and the risk of proliferation successfully managed," the report said. "The recent G-8 pledge to provide up to $20 billion over the next decade has provided an opportunity to catalyse and accelerate progress […] and it should be seized upon." Funding crunches G8 Bellona's Position Paper The G8 Global Partnership against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction.  Read on » [http://www.bellona.no/en/international/russia/waste-mngment/ipwg /26340.html] The report's authors place heavy emphasis on the need for more money. "Over $1 billion a year is being made available for international threat reduction programmes," the report notes. "Still, there are a number of efforts that could accelerate progress if additional funding were made available." These include redirecting weapon scientists, eliminating additional quantities of highly enriched uranium, implementing plutonium disposition programmes, ending production of weapons-grade plutonium, converting research reactors that currently use highly enriched uranium, and improving border, export and customs controls, according to the report. "Additional funding could also allow for expanding the scope of threat reduction," the report says. "The paths forward for financing major activities are unclear and largely depend on a higher degree of political support than currently exists," the report says. Much of the hope for this additional funding seems to rely on the G-8 "10 plus 10 over 10" pledge made at the June 2002 Kananaskis Summit in Canada. But there has been little action on that pledge since, and it is unclear if or how the G-8 nations will follow up on it by the time they meet next June in France. Political commitment The publication of the report coincided with Congress' passage last Wednesday of the US National Defence Authorization bill, which was held up for — among other reasons — debates concerning a new draft of the Nunn-Lugar act's certification requirement. Last spring President George Bush had refused to re-certify Nunn-Lugar because elements of his administration said Russia was not being candid about its chemical weapons stockpiles. In August, he signed a temporary waiver that let the programme resume activities until Oct. 1, and meanwhile virtually begged Congress for a permanent waiver. Arguments surrounding this certification process — the US president is required by law to annually certify that Russia is fulfilling its Nunn-Lugar commitments — have stalled Nunn-Lugar work in Russia for nearly eight months this year. The 2003 Defense Authorization bill contains provisions that Nunn-Lugar be re-certified only every three years, which programme proponents hope will avoid deadlocks like this year's in the future. President Bush is expected to sign the new law sometime next week. But the re-certification debacle, and the waffling of the Bush administration's commitment to Nunn-Lugar are a vivid illustration of quasi-schizophrenic political attitudes toward US-Russian nonproliferation efforts — especially in the US — identified by the report. Such incidents serve to bolster the report's assertion that the necessary political support to sustain threat reduction efforts is absent in the current global setting. "Success in threat reduction requires sustained political support and the expenditure of political capital in support of the agenda by the United States, Russia, Europe and Japan," says the report. "However," it continues, "truly robust political support for threat reduction is very rarely demonstrated and is often more rhetorical than real." This inconstant support, says the report, has resulted in funding restrictions, bureaucratic squabbles, and dangerously long delays in implementing programmes. One embarrassing result of this was a backlog in weapons destruction contracts signed at the Moscow summit by Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin, reported on in May by Bellona. With Nunn-Lugar uncertified, it was illegal for the newly scrapped missiles to be dismantled through its funding. The report also calls for Russia, specifically, to improve the atmosphere of threat reduction by advancing in several areas, such as financial transparency, legal protections and facility access. "The technical nature of much of the threat reduction work, the complexity of its implementation, the intangibility of some of its objectives, its cost and intrusiveness, bureaucratic inertia, the stigma that much of threat reduction is still foreign aid and the still unsettled nature of Western-Russian relations all cut into political support," the report notes. Coordinating strategies Another rut for threat reduction, the report concluded, was the lack of a coordinated strategy in directing the various programmes that have sprung up on all fronts, from the dozens of US agencies involved, to European assistance, to nongovernmental organizations. Many of these entities, the report contends, run according to their own agendas, which often work at cross purposes with other nonproliferation agencies. "There is a need to develop a comprehensive strategy that integrates all of these efforts and provides some overall direction and prioritisation," the report says. "Such a strategy would go a long way in improving the effectiveness of threat reduction programmes and more quickly reduce proliferation risks." Evidence of the lack of strategy includes the absence of a central coordinator inside the U.S. administration to oversee all threat reduction activities — a so-called "nonproliferation czar." This idea was rejected by the Clinton administration. There is also the need, said the report, for streamlined congressional oversight over US nonproliferation programmes. There should, furthermore, be more discussion about how these programmes can be expanded outside the former Soviet Union and other countries considered proliferation risks, said the report. Something in this vein was recently accomplished in Belgrad, Yugoslavia, when weapons-ready uranium was transported by a joint Russian-US team to Russia for storage. However, because of restrictions under US threat reduction laws, much of the effort had to be underwritten by the privately financed Nuclear Threat Initiative, or NTI, an NGO founded by former senator and co-author of the Nunn-Lugar act, Sam Nunn, and US media mogul Ted Turner. Biological and chemical weapons The report notes that "there is a particular concern about the former Soviet biological weapons (BW) complex. The security of existing pathogen libraries, the past scope of work, the current whereabouts of [biological weapons stocks] and BW-related experts ... are all critical concerns." "The destruction of chemical weapons is just starting ... many [chemical weapons] bunkers sit above ground, vulnerable to attack." Russia has the world's largest chemical weapons arsenal — 40,000 metric tonnes of various warfare agents, from sarin and VX nerve gases to blister agents like mustard gas and lewisite. The United States has the second-largest arsenal, with about 31,000 metric tonnes of chemical weapons. Both Russia and America have pledged to destroy their arsenals, and the United States has offered Russia financial help to do so. But critics within the apparently divided Bush administration derailed that pledge for most of this year when the president refused to re-certify Nunn-Lugar. Other lingering threats In addition to merely 40 to 50 percent of Russia's fissile materials being under lock and key, and the ramshackle barn-like structures that house chemical and biological weapons, the report noted that there are some 40,000 nuclear weapons scientists in Russia who are looking for work. Some support has been offered to them through the Energy Department's Nuclear Cities Initiative, and Nunn-Lugar programmes. But the jobs these programmes provide are often short-lived, making higher wages in proliferation risk countries wishing to obtain nuclear programmes look all the more enticing. Another 7,000 biological weapons scientists are searching for work, too. Meanwhile, the thousands of chemical weapons in Russia provide their own proliferation challenge. "The key proliferation dangers in the chemical weapons (CW) complex are the security of the existing weapons, brain drain, and the inability to destroy the existing stockpile," the report says. In addition, the Russian missile complex is also a potential proliferation concern. Some scientists have reportedly been assisting other countries considered proliferation risks and comparatively little has been done to transition these scientists to other employment, according to the report. And recently, Russian news agencies carried reports that Iran, with the help of Russian technology, has developed a missile that could possibly reach Israel. The brighter side One proposal included in the report for strengthening threat reduction would be to more directly link these efforts with arms control treaties. "New agreements such as the Moscow Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty currently have no relation to threat reduction, but threat reduction could be instrumental in facilitating the implementation of these treaties in the future, and these linkages should be explored." Moreover, for supporters of Nunn-Lugar, there is a bright spot on the horizon: For the first time in 16 years, Lugar is again chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He regained the post after Republicans won the Senate this month, and his more senior colleague, Jesse Helms, retired. Lugar advisor Helmke said the senator's office would shortly submit new legislation and call congressional hearings to broaden the Nunn-Lugar mandate, which would include many of the suggestions put forth in the RANSAC/Carnegie report. 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 ***************************************************************** 9 Critics say NRC fails to improve Beacon Journal | 11/20/2002 | They'll air complaints about agency's handling of Davis-Besse plant problems at hearing tonight By Jim Mackinnon Beacon Journal business writer Not everyone is convinced the people who run the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have learned from the federal agency's mistakes that contributed to the unprecedented boric acid corrosion at FirstEnergy's Davis-Besse nuclear power plant. Those critics plan to make their feelings known at 7 tonight during a hearing at Oak Harbor High School designed to let the public question NRC representatives about lessons the agency learned. Davis-Besse is in Oak Harbor, along the Lake Erie shore about 25 miles east of Toledo. An NRC-created task force in October released a report in which the agency acknowledged mistakes, including lax oversight, at Davis-Besse. The plant has been shut down since the March discovery of boric acid corrosion on the reactor vessel head, a crucial safety device. The NRC report followed FirstEnergy's self-analysis that said the Akron utility put production above safety at the plant. The damage could cost First-Energy more than $300 million for repairs, maintenance and replacement power. The NRC report said the agency failed to properly inspect the power plant, a mistake that allowed the leaking boric acid to eat two holes into the massive steel head that covers the radioactive fuel core. Nuclear power opponent Paul Gunter, who heads the Reactor Watchdog Project for the Washington-based Nuclear Information &Resource Service, said the task force also failed at something fundamental: contacting groups such as his for added input and insight. The NRC task force report shows the agency's bias toward the nuclear power industry, he said. ``It stands to reason they would have contacted us and other groups. But they never bothered,'' Gunter said. He plans to attend tonight's hearing. Gunter said his organization this year has released thousands of pages of documents relating to Davis-Besse obtained through several Freedom of Information inquiries. Amy Ryder, Cleveland director for Ohio Citizen Action, said that in recent months people have made valid criticisms of the NRC ``and they seem to have fallen on deaf ears.'' While one of FirstEnergy's responses to the Davis-Besse damage was to change the plant's management, the NRC hasn't done anything similar within its own ranks, Ryder said. ``I think the NRC could learn from Davis-Besse in that respect,'' she said. The NRC will not present any new information at tonight's hearing, said NRC spokesman Jan Strasma. The task force's full report is available for reading at www.nrc.gov [http://www.nrc.gov] , under the Davis-Besse section. NRC managers reviewing the task force's 50-plus recommendations will use the report and comments from tonight's meeting to make changes to improve how the agency does its work, Strasma said. FirstEnergy has replaced the damaged vessel head and says it hopes to be able to restart the plant in early 2003. The NRC has final say on when the plant will be allowed to make electricity again. Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com [jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com] ***************************************************************** 10 UK: 'CERTAIN FUTURE FOR WORK FORCE' - The Whitehaven News 'CERTAIN FUTURE FOR WORK FORCE' - TOP TORY [ME AND MY SHADOW: Shadow energy minister, Crispin Blunt, meets Coun Mike Graham, at Sellafield] THE need for a final solution for nuclear waste makes the future of Sellafield and its work force more certain, says one of the country's top Tories. On his first visit to Sellafield, Crispin Blunt, the Conservative energy spokes-man, said: "The nation has to come to a decision about final disposal. "The fuel has to be re-processed somewhere and Sellafield is the only facility in the United Kingdom. The alternative proposal is to store it on site but at some stage you are going to have to decide what to do with the fuel. "I can't see how you can avoid reprocessing it to make it safe for final disposal. If someone can explain how you can get around that I'd be glad to hear from them. "This is why fundamentally, I think Sellafield has a very secure future. I have met the management and the trades union and I am very impressed." Only three months into his parliamentary post, Mr Blunt was keen to get a look at Sellafield, where he also met the site's director of operations, Brian Watson, and had a long discussion over various issues affecting the site. He took a tour of the old plants, such as B30, where there are problems, as well as Thorp. "My first impression is of efficiency on a site which faces a rather unusual set of challenges." One of the biggest is the setting up of a Liabilities Management Authority (LMA) which will effectively take over from BNFL and the UKAEA as owners of Sellafield armed with nearly £50 billion to spend in clearing up the country's legacy of nuclear waste. It means that despite being assured of key work initially, both BNFL and the Atomic Energy Authority will face competition, possibly from French nuclear companies, in running the site. RWMAC, the government's radioactive waste disposal advisers, has warned that contractors could be tempted to cut corners, pushing safety underground even to the extent of faking incident and accident reports. On the profit-before- safety fears, Mr Blunt, who backed calls for the powerful new authority to be located in Copeland, said: "The NII (Nuclear Installations Inspectorate) is here to make sure that doesn't happen. They are pretty vigorous inspectors. Nuclear safety is an area where it is not worth taking unnecessary and foolish risks. "At the end of the day, the LMA is going to be funded by the taxpayer, to deal with these nuclear liabilities which is why there needs to be some exercise of cost control. The industry consumes a great deal of taxpayers' money and it is quite proper there should be an element of competition, to make sure the taxpayer is getting value for money within the necessary safety safeguards. These will always remain the responsibility of the government, through its regulator." The LMA proposals are outlined in a White Paper for parliamentary approval but Crispin Blunt said that as they had not yet been included in the Queen's Speech, there may be delay and increased costs. "It is important that they give certainty to the workforce here, by getting legislation on the Statute Book as soon as possible." Of next year's early closure of Calder Hall and pressure to replace it, the Shadow Minister said: "At the moment there is an over-capacity of electricity generation but at some stage we are going to need new generating capacity. Nuclear has a very significant advantage in that it's carbon free and I think it can capitalise. "If BNFL and other companies, which want to design and build these new reactors, think they can compete effectively in the market place they will come forward with proposals, not just for Sellafield but in other parts of the country." Mr Blunt also met Copeland's Tory leader, Mike Graham, who was the first to start campaigning for a modern Sellafield nuclear power station. "With end dates in sight for reprocessing, it is imperative for the West Cumbrian economy that thousands of jobs are protected. "New build at Sellafield will create much-needed additional employment, as well as contributing to the UK's energy needs," said Mr Graham. ***************************************************************** 11 Al-Qaeda's quixotic quest to go nuclear Asia Times By David Albright (With permission from the Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainable Development.) Following the fall of the Taliban government in late 2001, intelligence agencies and the media scrambled to find documents and other information about al-Qaeda and its next potential targets. A priority was uncovering information about al-Qaeda's progress on acquiring weapons of mass destruction (WMD), including nuclear weapons. Al-Qaeda views the acquisition of WMD as a religious obligation. However, it could develop only limited technological capabilities in Afghanistan to produce WMD, and few believe al-Qaeda obtained nuclear weapons while it was entrenched there. On the other hand, al-Qaeda's determination to get nuclear weapons, along with its increased ability to obtain outside technical assistance, lead to the conclusion that if al-Qaeda had remained in Afghanistan, it would have likely acquired nuclear weapons eventually. Also, although al-Qaeda's WMD efforts are in disarray, it remains determined to get WMD. As a result, preventing al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups from getting nuclear weapons or other WMD must be an overarching goal of the United States and the international community. Searching Afghanistan General Tommy Franks, commander of American forces in Afghanistan, said last winter that detailed searches had been conducted at more than 100 sites in Afghanistan, including about 50 suspected of being involved in the production of weapons of mass destruction. Western and Northern Alliance intelligence officers scoured houses, caves and training camps for documents, booklets, personnel records, videos, equipment, materials and other evidence of WMD programs. Many members of the media who arrived in Kabul soon after the fall of the Taliban in mid-November 2001 uncovered many al-Qaeda and Taliban records. In Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan, they climbed over walls to get into al-Qaeda safe houses, gained access to offices, visited training camps and acquired hard drives from al-Qaeda computers. CNN, The Evening Standard, The Times of London, Associated Press, NBC, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USA Today, The New York Times and others reported on the information they found in videos, on computer hard drives, and in hundreds of thousands of pages of documents and other written records. This information provides a detailed snapshot of the terrorist group's activities in Afghanistan and abroad. The information includes: + Instruction manuals to train recruits to make and use a wide variety of conventional explosives; + Details about the daily lives of al-Qaeda personnel; + Pictures or schematics of intended targets, including nuclear power plants; + Training manuals for teaching recruits who speak many different languages to wage guerilla and conventional warfare; + Instructions on operating uncover overseas; and + Instructor and student notebooks describing techniques of kidnapping and assassination. Only a relatively small portion of the records found by the media, however, were about nuclear weapons or other WMD. Nor did the intelligence agencies find a significantly larger amount or vastly different types of nuclear documents in the records they collected. Al-Qaeda and the Taliban likely either destroyed or took many important WMD documents. The media uncovered partially burned documents and other evidence that documents had been burned or removed in advance of the forces of the Northern Alliance and its allies. As a result, any assessment based on the recovered records remains partial. Nuclear documents The captured documents reinforce assessments that al-Qaeda is highly determined to obtain nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said on January 16, 2001, at a Defense Department briefing: "We have found a number of things that show an appetite for WMD." To support his claim, he cited diagrams, materials, attempts to acquire items, and specific cases wherein such weapons were discussed at al-Qaeda meetings. David Ensor of CNN reported on December 4, 2002, that according to US officials, one hand-drawn diagram found either in a Taliban or al-Qaeda facility showed a design for a "dirty bomb". With regard to nuclear weapons, US officials also saw evidence that al-Qaeda was also seeking to acquire or develop a nuclear explosive device. CIA director George Tenet told Congress in late January 2001 that the United States had uncovered rudimentary diagrams of nuclear weapons in a suspected al-Qaeda house in Kabul. According to a CIA report released publicly on January 30, 2001, these "diagrams, while crude, describe the essential components - uranium and high explosives - common to nuclear weapons." Superbomb document In November 2001, CNN found an Arabic document titled "Superbomb" in the home of Abu Khabab, the code name of a senior al-Qaeda official. This document, which was assessed by this author in cooperation with CNN, has some sections that are relatively sophisticated and others that are remarkably inaccurate or naive. Over 25 neatly hand-written pages, the author discusses various types of nuclear weapons, the physics of nuclear explosions, properties of nuclear materials needed to make them, and the effects of nuclear weapons. It is not systematic in its coverage and the author sometimes covers some subjects in depth and others superficially or incorrectly. Nor is it a cookbook for making nuclear weapons, as many critical steps to make a nuclear weapon are missing from the document. Nonetheless, this documents shows that al-Qaeda was interested in developing a deeper understanding of nuclear weapons. Some of the information in the document suggests that the author understood shortcuts to making crude nuclear explosives. The document is missing its cover and first pages, so the author's name or background is unknown. The date of the document is also unknown. The first page begins "... since the latter is less stable and therefore more capable of nuclear fission. For this reason, anyone desiring to obtain a nuclear weapon must set up a plant for enriching uranium." The author advocates the use of laser enrichment, which he claims is "simple". In reality, however, laser enrichment is incredibly complex to master. This indicates that the author only possessed a rudimentary understanding of the knowledge to enrich uranium or was trying to convince the reader to pursue this enrichment technology for an unstated reason. The sections on plutonium and uranium are relatively detailed. Compared to the sections discussing nuclear weapons, these sections imply that the author was more comfortable writing about the nuclear fuel cycle than nuclear weapons. According to Ronald Wolfe, the Arab language specialist who translated this and other documents found by CNN, the author is most likely Egyptian. Moreover, the Superbomb document looks like the type used by professors and lecturers at Arab universities. To further support this, CNN found student notes in houses in Kabul, one containing a date of early 2000, that have crude drawings that appear to be based on the one in the Superbomb document. Thus, an instructor may have used the Superbomb document to give a course to al-Qaeda members about nuclear weapons. Some of the notes in the margins suggest that the instructor may have not been the author of the document. In that document and in student notebooks there are similar figures of atomic bomb designs using plutonium or uranium. However, these designs are not credible nuclear weapons designs. If someone obtained separated plutonium and built this design, it would not function as an atomic bomb. Rather, it would be a radiological dispersal device (RDD). These students, who thought they were learning about nuclear weapons, were in actuality learning about making radiological dispersal devices. The Superbomb document was found in conjunction with a wide variety of other documents regarding the manufacture and use of conventional explosives. An interpretation of this finding is that the students, who were taking an advanced course in building conventional explosives, also received instruction in the ultimate explosive, nuclear weapons. A student notebook found by The Washington Post in Kabul supports this view. A November 22, 2001, Washington Post article reports that while most of the notebook contains information written during a general course on using conventional explosives, the last page contains notes specifically about atomic explosions. Moreover, some of the information that appears in the notebook is similar to what is in the Superbomb document. Other records Other records imply that al-Qaeda had a more sophisticated understanding of atomic bombs than what is suggested by the Superbomb document. NBC reported that hard drives found by US intelligence agencies had more interesting information about nuclear weapons than those obtained by the media. A document found by a reporter of the London Times, who was one of the first to search al-Qaeda houses in Kabul, shows that the Arab readers were partially discerning about what they obtained. The reporter found a part of a page of a document that simplistically discussed hydrogen bombs and other nuclear weapon topics. The document was typed in English with Arabic notes handwritten on the page. The document contains several mistakes, some of which are outlandish. At one place, the writer of the document compares the chemical structure of plutonium to the fictitious elements Saturium, Jupiternium and Marrissum. The writer of the Arabic notes drew arrows from these three words, to an Arabic phrase, which translates to: "This is bullshit." A document found by The New York Times in Afghanistan discusses precautions for using chemical, biological and nuclear weapons written by Abul Khabad. In the preface, he identified himself as coming from Greece and as a "protector of mujahideen". It is unknown who this person is, or if it is another spelling or code name of Abu Khabbab. The New York Times, in an extensive report on al-Qaeda documents on March 18, 2002, cited officials who said that papers were found in Kabul explaining the use of radioactive isotopes in agriculture and medicine in the same rooms as notebooks on conventional explosives, further indicating research into RDDs. Several documents reportedly described the manufacture of nuclear weapons and their effects. In addition, other documents described defenses against a nuclear attack. Many documents contained detailed information about making and using conventional explosives, including one called RDX, a high explosive popular with militaries. It has also been used as an ingredient in "shaped charges" used to compress the nuclear core of an implosion-type nuclear design. However, none of the documents reviewed by this author contained any information about shaped charges. This finding supports the conclusion that al-Qaeda's capabilities were limited. However, it also fuels speculation that al-Qaeda may have favored a gun-type nuclear design, which is simpler to make and depends on the use of a propellant to fire a slug of highly enriched Uranium (HEU) down a barrel into another piece of HEU. Foreign assistance The documents support the view that al-Qaeda's leadership understood its limitations and was taking steps to improve its ability to create an industrial infrastructure to make WMD. Al-Qaeda realized that foreign assistance would allow it to overcome its weaknesses and be more efficient and economical in making WMD. A record obtained by The Wall Street Journal from a computer hard drive appears to be a 1999 al-Qaeda progress report on its efforts to make nerve gas.(1) The author of the memo complained that the use of non-specialists had "resulted in a waste of effort and money", urging the recruitment of experts as the "fastest, safest and cheapest" route. A June 1999 memo said the program should seek cover and talent in educational institutions, which it said were "more beneficial to us and would allow easy access to specialists, which will greatly benefit us in the first stage, God willing". Al-Qaeda's nuclear effort benefited from the help of two Pakistani nuclear scientists, Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood and Chaudari Abdul Majeed, who have admitted that they had had long discussions with al-Qaeda officials in August 2001 about nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.(2) Pakistani intelligence officials told The Washington Post that they believe that the scientists used a charity they had created as a cover to conduct secret talks with bin Laden. Pakistani officials told The Washington Post that the scientists reportedly admitted meeting with bin Laden, the Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri, and two other al-Qaeda officials over two or three days in August at a compound in Kabul. The scientists described bin Laden as intensely interested in nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.(3) Bin Laden indicated to them that he had obtained, or had access to, some type of radiological material that he said had been acquired by the radical Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.(4) Mahmood and Majeed reportedly told bin Laden that it would not be possible to manufacture a nuclear weapon from that material.(5) They claim they provided no material or specific plans to bin Laden, but rather engaged in wide ranging "academic" discussions, Pakistanis officials told The Washington Post. According to another Pakistani official, however, the scientists spoke extensively about weapons of mass destruction. He described the scientists as "very motivated" and "extremist in their views," but added that they were "discussing things that didn't materialize, but fall under the breaking secrets act".(6) Pakistani officials familiar with the interrogations told The Washington Post that the scientists provided detailed responses to bin Laden's technical questions about the manufacture of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons.(7) Documents describing the projects of these scientists' charity, which were found by CNN in Kabul, include plans to develop uranium mining in Afghanistan. It has been known for a long time that Afghanistan had uranium resources. But the fact that these nuclear scientists were planning to extract uranium is surprising. A nuclear weapons program may need uranium for components, or as a material for testing nuclear designs, or for learning to make highly enriched uranium metal. Such a capability would also make any weapons program more indigenous. In summation, these scientists are believed to have provided al-Qaeda a blueprint for making nuclear weapons. They are suspected of providing classified information about producing nuclear weapons to al-Qaeda or the Taliban or of facilitating access to others in the Pakistani nuclear program who had that knowledge. These two scientists, who had years of experience in Pakistan's nuclear program, could have provided important tips or direct assistance on managing and running a complex nuclear project. This type of assistance would have been critical to al-Qaeda, which had limited experience in technical projects or their management. What was not found The documents and other information did not provide any evidence that al-Qaeda had acquired nuclear weapons. Prior to the September 11 attacks, many media reports stated that al-Qaeda had acquired operational nuclear weapons from countries of the former Soviet Union. No evidence, however, has emerged that al-Qaeda obtained any nuclear weapons, despite bin Laden's statement to a Pakistani journalist published in Dawn on November 9, 2001, in which he claimed to have both nuclear and chemical weapons. He said that the weapons would be used as a deterrent against an US attack. In addition, no evidence showed that al-Qaeda had acquired nuclear explosive materials, although this result is less certain. US experts took "environmental samples" at about 100 sites in Afghanistan that were analyzed for traces of nuclear material, chemical weapons and biological agents. Environmental sampling did not reveal the presence of plutonium or highly enriched uranium at any of these sites. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld stated on January 15, 2001, at a roundtable with radio media, that in one case US experts detected a high radiation reading, but the radioactive material was depleted uranium contained in armor-piercing munitions.(8) Bin Laden is known to have sought highly enriched uranium and plutonium. At least two attempts are known to have been scams. Al-Qaeda may, however, have obtained natural or low-enriched uranium or other radiological material in these deals. The information revealed by these investigations leads to the question of whether al-Qaeda was completely thwarted in its quest for nuclear material or whether it just got smarter and more secretive in its efforts to get the material. Nuclear material used in nuclear weapons (or in many radiological dispersal devices) is relatively easy to hide or transport. Given that most of the al-Qaeda leadership escaped US capture, it would be foolhardy to assume that al-Qaeda would have left behind any valuable, transportable radioactive material. Reflecting that uncertainty, The Washington Post reported on March 3, 2002, that some US intelligence officials believe that al-Qaeda could already control a stolen Soviet-era tactical nuclear weapon or enough weapon-grade material to fashion a crude atomic bomb. The search of Afghanistan did not reveal a cadre of al-Qaeda's nuclear scientists and technicians, even though bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders are known to have taken a personal interest in acquiring nuclear weapons and other WMD. But information about the personnel that staffed such a program is scarce. A few names, such as Abu Khabab, surfaced in media reports, but these appear to be code names of individuals. The fate or current location of any technical or scientific al-Qaeda personnel remains unknown. Taking Stock Whatever al-Qaeda had accomplished towards a nuclear weapon capability, its effort in Afghanistan was ended with the fall of the Taliban government. The international community is fortunate that the war in Afghanistan set back al-Qaeda's effort to obtain nuclear weapons. Al-Qaeda was putting together a serious program to make nuclear weapons. But it is hard to judge how far the nuclear research went. Although al-Qaeda was unlikely to develop the capability to make separated plutonium or highly enriched uranium, it may have tried to do so or accelerated its efforts to acquire separated plutonium or highly enriched uranium overseas. In either case, al-Qaeda would have had to build the necessary infrastructure to make a nuclear explosive from plutonium or highly enriched uranium. The available information implies that al-Qaeda had only achieved a limited technical capability to make nuclear weapons, assuming it acquired plutonium or highly enriched uranium illicitly. Its effort would likely have needed to concentrate on the simpler gun-type design of a crude nuclear explosive, which also means it would have had to obtain at least about 50 kilograms of HEU. Plutonium does not work in a gun-type design. The documents strongly suggest that al-Qaeda was intensifying its long-term goal to acquire nuclear weapons and would have likely succeeded, if it had remained powerful in Afghanistan for several more years. The documents show that al-Qaeda was creating a quasi-state nuclear weapons program with the tacit or direct approval of the Taliban government. Moreover, this effort was largely invisible to the rest of the world prior to September 11. Although intelligence agencies were intensely scrutinizing al-Qaeda's activities, they had little success in penetrating al-Qaeda's secret WMD programs. The Taliban needed al-Qaeda's financial and military support and allowed its operatives to function relatively independent of Taliban control. A senior Pakistani official said in an interview that the annual budget of the Taliban was US$70 million per year while the budget of al-Qaeda was $200 million per year. Moreover, al-Qaeda personnel were far more skilled at running organizations than the relatively ineffectual Taliban government personnel. Al-Qaeda's relationship with the Taliban regime, which some have labeled "parasitic," was immensely beneficial to al-Qaeda. It needed Taliban support to hide any WMD programs from outsiders. Senior al-Qaeda officials appear to have realized that foreign assistance was critical to the success of its endeavors to obtain WMD. As a result, they would have also realized the importance of the cover provided by the Taliban regime in its efforts to obtain sensitive foreign supplies and the help of foreign experts. Such outside assistance would have been far harder to obtain without the Taliban regime legitimizing or fronting al-Qaeda's activities. A critical lesson of the documents found in Afghanistan is that groups like al-Qaeda see great value in the use of nuclear weapons. Al-Qaeda, its spin-offs and like-minded terrorist groups can be expected to struggle to enhance their chances of acquiring and using nuclear explosives, regardless of the costs to themselves. The risk remains Al-Qaeda's nuclear weapons program was seriously disrupted by the loss of its base of operations in Afghanistan. We are left to ponder many troubling questions. Will al-Qaeda reconstitute a nuclear weapons effort somewhere else? Will this program be more focused? What did al-Qaeda learn from the Pakistani nuclear scientists? Any effort by al-Qaeda or splinter groups to reconstitute a nuclear weapons effort will take time. That time permits actions to prevent a nuclear terrorist attack. Al-Qaeda will likely need another base and more assistance to master making a nuclear explosive. Although a nuclear weapon in the hands of al-Qaeda remains the greatest danger, many analysts believe that al-Qaeda will try to strike at a nuclear facility or attack with an RDD using stolen radioactive materials. Documents found in Afghanistan and other information suggest that al-Qaeda was considering attacks on nuclear power plants in Europe or the United States. Concern about RDDs intensified in May and June 2002 following revelations that senior al-Qaeda official Abu Zubaydah told his captors that al-Qaeda was interested in producing a RDD and knew how to do it. Adding to worries was the arrest of the al-Qaeda operative Jose Padilla in Chicago in May 2002. He was reportedly on a scouting mission for an al-Qaeda operation to attack the United States with a RDD. Profound consequences Although the overall chance of al-Qaeda detonating a nuclear explosive appears on reflection to be low, the consequences would be profound. A single nuclear explosion in a major metropolitan area would be catastrophic. Even a relatively low-yield nuclear explosion could cause tens or hundreds of thousands of casualties. A severe earthquake can provide some indication of the level of damage to be expected from the blast of nuclear explosion, but it cannot capture the immense number of burns and radiation injuries that would follow a nuclear detonation. Recovery from a nuclear explosion would be long and difficult. Financial impacts would be severe. Emotional consequences for both those most immediately and indirectly affected would be profound. No one would feel safe. The desire for revenge may lead the United States, or perhaps its allies, to respond with nuclear weapons, eliminating the perpetrators if they could be immediately identified, but likely causing untold suffering to civilian populations. US use of nuclear weapons could fundamentally alter world order and institutions. Preventing al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups from acquiring nuclear weapons must remain a fundamental goal of the international community. Many of the necessary steps have been identified and are being implemented. Several actions, however, remain undone. Steps of prevention The existing strategy of the international community to aggressively pursue global terrorists remains the most effective way to prevent nuclear terrorism. Although often stated, the best defense is a good offense. Governments must be prepared to target such groups through covert and overt military means in order to deny them the ability to conduct nuclear weapons research and development. The United States and allied governments are sharing intelligence about terrorist activities. They understand the importance of developing a strategy and method to detect attempts to acquire nuclear weapons or the wherewithal to make them. A well-accepted priority is placing agents in terrorist groups and providing financial and other incentives for members to defect. Many have pointed out the critical need to better protect nuclear material worldwide, particularly in states or regions in conflict or experiencing instability. Significantly more resources are needed to develop adequate accounting and protection of nuclear explosive material and other radiological materials. Similarly, it is accepted that technical and procedural capabilities to search for nuclear weapons or nuclear materials require improvement. Such improvements are occurring, although far more needs to be done worldwide. Often overlooked is the need to continue to tighten export controls worldwide, particularly in places like the former Soviet Union and Pakistan. The production of nuclear weapons requires material, know-how and manufacturing equipment. Countries need to improve export controls and be more vigilant to make it harder for terrorist groups to acquire needed items. In addition, more attention to the monitoring of certain exports may uncover terrorist group efforts to make nuclear weapons. Toward that end, countries should share more information about their nuclear dual-use exports. Information about making nuclear weapons was actively sought by al-Qaeda. This sobering fact means that governments need to continue trying to strengthen their own controls on sensitive know-how. In addition to national systems, there is a need for an international set of guidelines about what types of nuclear weapons information should remain classified. Nations have a responsibility to have more open and transparent nuclear programs and policies. Nonetheless, not all nuclear information should be released. The oldest information about nuclear weapons design may be the most useful to terrorist groups. In addition, declassification guidelines are not always consistent from state to state, allowing classified information to be assembled piecemeal from several countries. Many governments need to pay significantly more attention to the activities of scientists who work in classified nuclear programs and can "leak" important know-how, equipment, materials or components. No country can prevent all defections or leakage of sensitive items, but terrorist groups will likely depend on outside help to make nuclear weapons. Acquiring the services of a highly trained expert may be necessary, or at least could significantly decrease the time it would take, for a terrorist group to produce a crude nuclear weapon. Governments, therefore, need to develop responsible programs to ensure the reliability of the people in their nuclear programs. The safeguards system of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has a role to play in preventing terrorists acquiring nuclear weapons. One step is to continue improving the IAEA's ability to detect undeclared nuclear activities in states. The IAEA needs to pay more attention in states that have little declared nuclear activity, such as Afghanistan, but where terrorist groups may establish a nuclear weapons program in secret. There were many indicators that al-Qaeda and the Taliban regime were interested in nuclear activities prior to September 11. The IAEA should use its expertise to flag undeclared activities in these types of states. More resources are needed to improve the understanding of the capabilities of terrorist groups to make nuclear weapons. Some believe that a terrorist group could never build a nuclear weapon, even if it possesses large quantities of HEU. Others believe that a small group could easily build a nuclear explosive from HEU. Experience says that the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Knowing what terrorists can do is instrumental in developing an accurate and comprehensive plan of action to combat and prevent nuclear terrorism. One step is re-evaluating the type of nuclear explosives a terrorist may seek. The design may differ significantly from that sought by a nation. More needs to be learned about al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, particularly about who they recruit, and their potential approaches to building nuclear weapons. This information is critical to determining how terrorists may assemble the necessary materials, equipment, infrastructure, and expertise to obtain or build a nuclear explosive. Conclusion The documents found in Afghanistan show that al-Qaeda members are neither supermen nor morons. Their efforts in making nuclear weapons were far less sophisticated than known state programs, but their determination to get nuclear weapons is astounding and their apparent willingness to use them terrifying. Because many of these terrorist groups will never give up in their quest for nuclear weapons and other WMD, the world cannot let down its guard either. Notes (1) Alan Cullison and Andrew Higgins, "Forgotten Computer Reveals Thinking Behind Years of al-Qaeda Doings," The Wall Street Journal, December 31, 2001. (2) Kamran Khan and Molly Moore, "2 Nuclear Experts Briefed Bin Laden, Pakistanis Say," The Washington Post, December 12, 2001. (3) "2 Nuclear Scientists Briefed," op. cit. (4) The Washington Post reported on June 11, 2002, that the US government had concluded that al-Qaeda controls enough radioactive cesium, strontium, or cobalt to mount a radiological attack on the United States. (5) "2 Nuclear Scientists Briefed," op. cit. (6) "2 Nuclear Scientists Briefed," op. cit. (7) Kaman Khan, "Pakistan Releases Nuclear Scientists for Ramadan's End," The Washington Post, December 16, 2001. (8) Roundtable with radio media Associated Press, BBC, NPR and VOA "Secretary Rumsfield Roundtable with Radio Media, Defense Department News Transcript, January 15, 2002. See also Rumsfeld's comments at the Defense Department Press Briefing on January 16, 2002. (Originally published by the Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainable Development. Reposted with permission.) Copyright Asia Times Online, 6306 The Center, Queen’s Road, Central, Hong Kong. ***************************************************************** 12 Inspectors ready, well equipped to check on Iraq Experts from Oak Ridge will serve on weapons-inspection teams By Frank Munger, News-Sentinel senior writer November 19, 2002 OAK RIDGE - About a dozen experts at the government's Oak Ridge facilities have volunteered to serve on inspection teams in Iraq, although none is involved in the first round of weapons inspections. "We're just waiting to see what kind of assistance the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) is going to ask us for," said Michael Whitaker, manager of international safeguards at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge. The IAEA will head the searches related to nuclear weapons, nuclear materials and the tools needed to produce them. Whitaker said Oak Ridge authorities are working with the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. State Department and other federal agencies to support the effort. About 100 experts in various fields have volunteered from DOE facilities, including those in Oak Ridge, he said. The first round of inspections as sanctioned by the United Nations is due to start later this month. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been given a Dec. 8 deadline to declare what weapons of mass destruction are in his country's arsenal. Whitaker did not provide names of the Oak Ridge employees who have volunteered to serve in Iraq, but he said they have special expertise in uranium enrichment, machine tools used in production of nuclear weapons and analytical chemistry. Besides supporting nuclear inspections, Oak Ridge personnel may be able to provide special capabilities for detecting the production of chemical weapons, Whitaker said. Oak Ridge experts provided information a decade ago that helped U.N. inspectors confirm that Iraq was building equipment to enrich uranium for potential use in nuclear weapons. Frank Munger may be reached at 865-482-9213 or twig1@knoxnews.infi.net. The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 13 Corruption isn’t just Cheney’s fault Daily Trojan / November 20, 2002 November 20, 2002 vol. 147, no. 60 Carl Swanson | Daily Trojan President George W. Bush has gotten a lot of flak during the course of his presidency for an obvious sort of corporate favoritism. One of my favorite examples of this favoritism is Bush's crippling of the patient rights legislation in his 2000 campaign platform, when he threatened Congress' more effective version with a veto. Under Bush's new and improved version, you can only sue an HMO for malpractice if the HMO is the sole cause of harm. For example, a man comes into the hospital with a gunshot wound to the stomach and is turned away because his HMO won't cover the necessary treatment. When he dies, his HMO is not accountable  he had received the gunshot wound before he came to them. The only way the HMO could be held accountable in this example is if one of the doctors had shot the man himself. The Bush version does not establish guidelines for independent review of HMOs, and the findings of independent reviewers are not admissible in court unless they are in favor of the HMO being sued. Behold, the Bush administration working for you! Despite his flagrant and unscrupulous toadying to big corporations, Bush has thus far managed to avoid getting much criticism for selling out to energy interests. Absorbing the brunt of that flak, in place of Bush is Vice President Dick Cheney, who is responsible for devising nearly all of Bush's energy policies. Perhaps "devising" isn't the right word, since it implies that Cheney came up with Bush's energy policies himself. He didn't  energy companies like Enron did. The Los Angeles Times reported last week on energy documents finally made public by congressional investigators (they would have been made public sooner, except that the investigators had to sue the Bush administration to get access to them). What did the memos say, you ask? Only that Enron has pulled major weight in deciding our national policies  particularly our energy policies. An excerpt from one of the newly released documents reads, "Congratulations on the speed with which you, Dick and others have been able to place high-quality individuals in every cabinet post." This is a fax sent from Kenneth Lay, Enron Corp. chairman, to the Bush administration after Bush's cabinet picks had been approved. "Dick" is, of course, Dick Cheney, and the note was signed "Ken." It gets better. According to the Los Angeles Times article, the documents "show that in 2001 Enron lobbied the White House for the appointment of two top energy regulators and fretted that the Bush administration was losing the energy policy battle to Democratic critics." I'm sure all the Republicans are scoffing right now at the thought of Enron casting the Democrats as their enemies and the Republicans as their friends. Perhaps another quote from the Los Angeles Times article can clarify: "'The Democrats so far seem to be winning the political high ground,' said an Enron briefing paper for Kenneth L. Lay, the company's chairman, in advance of an April 17, 2001, meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney ... 'The White House must link the Democrats to 'blackouts, waste, Luddites, regulation, government ownership, stagnation' while positioning Bush as the agent of 'abundan(ce), efficiency, new economy, innovation, open markets,' the document said." It's surprising how corrupt and partisan this whole energy policy thing has been. No wonder Cheney has been so averse to releasing information about his meetings with Enron  once he called a request for information "a partisan waste of taxpayer money." Mind you, this was coming from the man who was receiving campaign advice from Lay. Now obviously it doesn't waste taxpayer money for Cheney to disclose his activities up front. What wastes money is forcing the General Accounting Office to sue the White House and launch extensive (and expensive) investigations just to find out who's really running the show in the White House. Now of course, Enron is far from the only corporation that has been meeting with Cheney and instructing him on what policies they'd like Bush to give them. Last year, Time magazine reported on "a key task force meeting" in May 2000 attended in part by two major lobbyists for electric utilities. "Two weeks later, Cheney's report gave the lobbyists much of what they wanted, including a re-evaluation of a costly clean-air rule, called the 'new-source review,' which requires new pollution controls when power plants are expanded," the article said. Bush got more funding from Enron during his 2000 election campaign than from any other source. In the year since Bush took office, Peabody Energy gave him and his party more than $200,000 in funds, and the nuclear energy industry donated $100,000 via "The Nuclear Energy Institute" to help put on a May fundraising gala. Big businesses also like to run ads for Republican candidates in order to curry favor. The pharmaceutical industry (whose corrupt relationship with Bush merits another editorial altogether) spent the period leading up to these past midterm elections running millions of dollars worth of pro-GOP ads in swing areas under the bogus pseudonym "The United Seniors Association" (they used to run these ads as "Citizens for Better Medicare" before their cover was blown). So the next time someone tells you that Bush is just misguided, and doesn't know any better than to do favors for big business, you can tell them, with confidence, to open their eyes and see what's going on in the world around them. Until they do, we're going to have to deal with systematic corruption of epic proportions. Craig Stern is a junior majoring in English. He may be reached at (213) 740-5665 or dtrojan@usc.edu. Copyright 2002 by the Daily Trojan. All rights reserved. This article was published in Vol. 147, No. 60 (Wednesday, November 20, 2002), beginning on page 4 and ending on page 6. ***************************************************************** 14 TXU collapse sends shockwaves through energy industry Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Mark Tran Wednesday November 20, 2002 The financial collapse of TXU Europe, a subsidiary of stricken US power group TXU, today began to hit to some of Britain's biggest power firms. After TXU Europe - previously one of Britain's biggest power suppliers - went into administration yesterday, administrators asked the company's suppliers in the British gas and power markets to stop delivering to the firm. Suppliers to TXU Europe include Scottish and Southern, International Power (IP) and UK Coal. Perth-based Scottish and Southern said the loss of business with TXU Europe could cost it around £175m. "It would have been advantageous for everybody if TXU Europe had been allowed to work through its problems rather than be rushed into administration," a Scottish and Southern official said. IP runs one of its plants - at Rugeley, Staffordshire - solely for TXU Energy, which takes all the output and pays a fee in return. IP has already warned it will suffer if the contract is terminated. Some analysts believe the net impact could be about £40m. The Drax power station in north Yorkshire is also in jeopardy from TXU Europe's collapse. Drax, owned by power company AES, supplied 60% of its output to TXU. The end of their contract could mean Drax defaulting on more than £1bn of debts. The Liberal Democrat trade and industry spokesman, Vince Cable, said TXU Europe's collapse threatened to force the closure of the Drax power station. "This news will cause great concern for the workforce at Drax, who could lose their livelihoods," he said. "The workers and shareholders of AES who own Drax will be furious that the government is trying to bail out the nuclear power generator British Energy (BE) while their own operation is going bust." TXU Europe's fate was sealed when its parent company in Dallas said in early October that it no longer planned to supply £448m in funding to its European arm. Powergen, owned by German utility giant E.on, has already brought TXU's UK operations for £1.3bn. This includes a retail arm that supplies 5.5 million customers and three coal-fired power stations; in High Marnham, Nottinghamshire, Drakelow in Hereford and Worcestershire and Ironbridge in Shropshire. "We are looking to achieve some stability after the recent uncertainty and to stabilise the position at TXU," said Alan Bloom of Ernst &Young - the joint administrator along with KPMG. "As with any administration our principal aim is then to ensure maximum recoveries for creditors to the companies in administration and to secure the best outcome for the remaining employees in London, Ipswich and Geneva." Power companies including BE say the introduction of new electricity trading arrangements has caused heavy losses in the industry. BE is seeking government support to avoid administration. But Ofgem, the energy regulator, says electricity companies only have themselves to blame, by investing heavily in new power stations and entering into expensive long-term electricity purchase agreements during the 1990s. The collapse of TXU Europe is unlikely to cause power shortages as the industry is suffering from huge overcapacity. [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 ***************************************************************** 15 Our right to know in jeopardy The Salina Journal | Opinion Posted at 10:04 AM on Wednesday, November 20, 2002 By TOM BELL [tbell@saljournal.com] The Salina Journal THE ISSUE Homeland security THE ARGUMENT This is for our own good? "It's for your own good." We get that line plenty from government. And it should ring alarm bells whenever we hear it. "Our own good" is reason to raise taxes, close courtrooms and withhold information that caretaker bureaucrats say is too sensitive for public consumption. It is a dangerous line, but it will get plenty of use in new legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security. The president is pushing a lame-duck session of Congress to pass the bill, giving birth to a new department that puts 22 federal agencies under one roof. The new department would include 170,000 federal employees dealing with immigration, transportation security, customs, energy security and the Coast Guard. And it all will be done for our own good. But there's more "good" in this bill than meets the eye. It calls for extensive exemptions to the federal Freedom of Information Act, a tool that allows the media and private citizens to pry information from the hands of bureaucrats. The act has been used to uncover corruption and other illegal activity. It exposes waste and abuse of power. It is one of the most important wedges we have to open closed doors and locked file cabinets. And the Homeland Security bill would water it down. "For our own good" in this case means the military won't tell us when magnificent (and expensive) weapons systems fail to deliver as promised. That information poses a security risk. "Our own good" means the government can keep the public from learning about compromised blood supplies, safety issues at nuclear power plants and failures in airport security. "Our own good" will be used to hide information that would reflect badly on government rather than put it at risk. No one asks that every security-related issue be made open to the public and watching terrorists. The Homeland Security bill rightly protects information that, if released, would pose a legitimate security risk. However, in the quest for security this bill tips too far in favor of closed government, secret hearings and silence. Let's protect the Freedom of Information Act in this bill. Let's not allow fear to take away even more rights in this war on terrorism. -- Tom Bell Editor &Publisher ***************************************************************** 16 Electricity: Where it comes from By Douglas Hullander November 19, 2001 Around 104 nuclear power plants supply roughly 20 percent of America's electricity needs. That has remained rather constant since 1979, the year of the Three Mile Island accident. Other countries, however, have continued building nuclear power plants. France and Belgium lead the way, each generating around 75 percent of their electricity from nuclear reactors. In terms of the number of plants in operation, France (58), Japan (54) and the United Kingdom (35) follow the U.S. Canada operates 14 plants, which generate about 12 percent of its electricity. With energy shortages becoming increasingly commonplace; with blackouts/brownouts affecting many areas, most notably California; and with increased awareness of the damage coal-fired plants may be inflicting on the environment, many experts in this country are taking another long, hard look at nuclear power. Both nuclear reactors and fossil fuel plants, those that burn coal and oil, generate electricity by first producing heat. In both cases, the heat is used to boil water and make steam. The steam turns a generator, which converts the mechanical energy into electricity. That's where the similarity ends. Conventional fossil fuel plants produce heat via a chemical/oxidative process - good, old-fashioned burning. A typical coal-fired plant, for instance, may burn between five and seven tons of coal each minute to produce the steam to drive its generators. Nuclear power produce their heat through nuclear fission, the splitting of uranium atoms. Each time a single uranium atom breaks apart, a specific amount of energy is released. The energy comes from the destruction or conversion of matter into energy. If you were to compare the weight of the uranium atom to the total weight of the pieces into which it breaks, you'd find that the pieces weigh less than the atom did at the start. Some of the atom's mass has been converted into energy according to Einstein's famous equation, E equals MC squared. E is the energy you get, M is the amount of mass converted and C is the speed of light multiplied by itself. Because the speed of light squared is such a huge number, it's easy to see why it's possible to get an enormous amount of energy from a tiny amount of mass. When a uranium atom breaks up, it releases more than just energy and fragments of its former self. The fission process also sets free two to three particles called neutrons. They shoot out of the uranium atom's center, the nucleus. Neutrons are very important to the continuation of the fission process, for it is the impact of neutrons with other uranium atoms that causes the splitting to continue. That's why it's necessary that uranium atoms be close together and positioned properly. If they are, the escaping neutrons will strike nearby uranium atoms, causing them to split as well. If the splitting proceeds on its own, we say a "chain reaction" has occurred, and the concentration and arrangement of uranium that sustains it is called the "critical mass." The following analogy is often used to illustrate a chain reaction: On each of 10,000 mousetraps, you gingerly place two pingpong balls. All the traps are cocked and lying inches apart on the floor. Toss a ball onto one of them. When the ball lands, the spring trips and the mousetrap sends its two balls into the air. They land on two other loaded traps, causing them to propel two more balls into the fray. The process continues until all the traps have released their "neutrons" in a cacophony of bouncing pingpong balls - hundreds of them flying in all directions. The "explosion" releases a lot of energy; mostly noise in this analogy. In an actual nuclear chain reaction process, neutrons serve as the trigger. They cause uranium atoms to release more neutrons and a lot of heat energy. NEXT MONDAY: How is the heat energy from these split atoms turned into electricity? Knoxville writer Douglas Hullander writes "Science in Your World" weekly for the News-Sentinel. He can be reached by e-mail at doughullander1@home.com, or you may write to him in care of the News-Sentinel, P.O. Box 59038, Knoxville, TN 37950-9038 The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 17 N-plant checks need overhaul Daily Yomiuri On-Line Yomiuri Shimbun Following a series of cover-up scandals in connection with inspections at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s nuclear power plants, the country's largest power utility shut down more than 15 reactors around the country. More nuclear reactors are expected to be temporarily shut down in the future. Considering that winter will bring increased demand for electricity, this is an extraordinary situation. The series of irregularities uncovered at the plants can be linked to the authorities' failure to revise existing inspection criteria. The criteria are flawed because they fail to take into account important technical factors concerning the operation of the plants. The Diet currently is debating bills to revise the inspection standards. We urge lawmakers to enact the bills as soon as possible so that the inspection criteria can be revised and this extraordinary situation normalized. Two bills currently are being debated in the Diet, including a bill to revise the Electricity Utilities Industry Law. The bills are designed to clarify rules on voluntary inspections by nuclear power operators and to introduce a new system that will allow nuclear plants with minor defects to continue to operate under close observation as long as the defects do not compromise the plants' safety. The bills also are intended to strengthen punitive clauses concerning malicious violations of laws and ordinances and to pave the way for the establishment of an independent administrative institution to make up for a shortage of inspectors at the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. We believe these efforts are a good first step toward making inspections of nuclear plants in this country conform to global standards. N-plants should resume operations Some opposition parties are strongly opposed to the introduction of a new system that would allow the operation of nuclear plants with minor defects. However, the system already has been introduced in many countries, including the United States. Those opposed to the plan should be aware of the irrationality of expecting nuclear plants in operation to remain in mint condition indefinitely. At the same time, lawmakers should remember that the expected revision to the law will only be a makeshift measure to improve the existing inspection system. The United States and European countries already have a sensible inspection system based on the so-called risk assessment method. The system adopted by the Western countries is designed to encourage electric power companies to take creative measures by reducing inspection burdens when their efforts to enhance safety are acknowledged by the state. We regret to say, however, that the existing system in Japan is nowhere near as flexible. From mid- and long-term perspectives, issues including what would constitute an ideal regulatory system for the nuclear industry and improvement of the inspection system are tasks that need to be examined closely. But from a short-term perspective, nuclear plants that have been shut down should resume operations as soon as possible. Electricity shortage must be avoided TEPCO and others concerned voluntarily decided to shut down some reactors and are conducting inspections of their defects despite an assessment by the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency that there was no need to close the reactors down. The agency and the Nuclear Safety Commission are planning to reevaluate the safety of these reactors from a technical standpoint and to issue advice concerning the resumption of their operations. In the end, it is up to local governments to decide whether to permit the shut-down nuclear plants to resume operations. When it comes to making that decision, we urge them to think calmly, placing top priority on guaranteeing safety. Meanwhile, to restore the public trust, electric power companies should urgently review their inspection systems and abandon their corrupt habit of flouting rules. But keeping nuclear plants shut down as a "punitive measure" is unconnected with efforts to enhance their safety. Every effort should be made to avoid an electricity shortage, which could hit the country if the existing problem continues to be addressed in an inappropriate manner. (From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Nov. 21) Copyright 2002 The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 18 Safety Lapse at Ohio Reactor Is Cited as Potential Peril for Others The New York Times *November 20, 2002* *By MATTHEW L. WALD* WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 ? In a confidential report, the nuclear industry's internal oversight group has warned utilities that a focus on production over safety had endangered an Ohio reactor and could be a broader problem around the nation. Corrosion at the Ohio reactor, discovered in March, ate away 70 pounds of steel and left the reactor vessel vulnerable to rupturing. But while the physical degradation of the reactor was unique, the internal report suggested that the causes might not be. The report, not intended for distribution outside the nuclear industry, said the the First Energy Nuclear Operating Company, operators of the reactor, Davis-Besse, near Toledo, had fallen prey to "excessive focus on meeting short-term production goals" and "a lack of sensitivity to nuclear safety." "The lessons learned from the Davis-Besse event are universal in nature and should be reviewed by all nuclear stations," said the report, by the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, a group formed by the industry after the March 1979 accident at Three Mile Island, Pa., to share expertise and reduce the chance of further meltdowns. The report is marked "limited distribution" and is coded "Red: Immediate Attention." For several years, outside critics have raised alarms about a deregulated power market, saying managers would cut corners to keep reactors operating when they should have been shut for maintenance. Even the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission raised that concern, in 1994. At Davis-Besse, in Oak Harbor, about 25 miles east of Toledo, managers postponed taking the time to inspect an area on the vessel head that turned out to be corroding, and ignored warning signs that this was happening, the report said. The industry has not publicly admitted to any worry, nor seized the Davis-Besse incident as a warning. The new report, however, recommended that each nuclear company "conduct a self-assessment to determine to what degree your organization has a healthy respect for nuclear safety and that nuclear safety is not compromised by production priorities." The institute has a quasiregulatory function, bringing lagging reactor operators up to the industry standard as a way to head off tighter rules from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. After the meltdown of the reactor at Three Mile Island, in March 1979, the industry created the institute to investigate problems at each plant and to issue confidential reports to the others, so they all could benefit from lessons learned. Operators of all the nation's power reactors are members of the institute, and on the intermittent occasions when its internal assessments become public, they have all been written in blunt terms. Industry executives say its pronouncements are carefully read. This one, nine pages plus footnotes, was made available by a nuclear industry expert who is seeking to have the industry take it to heart. A spokesman for the institute, Terry Young, said its personnel could get access to the plants, and state their findings plainly, only if everyone agreed that the findings should be kept within the industry. "We cherish that sense of trust," he said. Mr. Young said the reports did, in fact, discuss management issues when that was relevant. The report, dated Nov. 11, cites one failing that seems to show that Davis-Besse's operators had not learned to benefit from other failures. In a July 2001 report to members, the institute emphasized the importance of inspecting for corrosion after a less severe problem was found at a similar plant in South Carolina, Oconee. The institute said managers suffered from "isolationism." The Oconee report was "reviewed and accepted" by management at Davis-Besse, the institute said, but managers did not perform the inspection on their own plant. A year ago, even as the steel was being eaten away, the plant's operator was seeking permission to raise its power output by 12.9 percent above what it was licensed for when it opened in 1978. Experts not involved in the preparation of the report said that it touched on a difficult area, determining when priorities have been put in the wrong order and people's attitudes have shifted away from safety and toward production, and that this report differed from most written by the institute because it focused on upper-level management. "Talking about management is very sensitive for them," said Andrew C. Kadak, the former president of the Yankee Atomic Electric Company, an umbrella company for three reactors, and a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At the Union of Concerned Scientists, a watchdog group that is generally critical of the industry, David Lochbaum, a nuclear expert, said measuring attitudes toward safety was hard for people in the industry. "Most of the nuclear industry's people are engineers," Mr. Lochbaum said. "They love equations, things they can measure. But safety culture isn't something you can do that on; you can't see how many feet of safety culture you have and whether you've come up shy or not." Paul Blanch, a nuclear safety consultant, said that for "merchant" plants, the ones selling their production in deregulated markets, "their only concern is making money." Mr. Blanch said the institute's report "hit the nail on the head." "Production does come before safety," he said. "They've got to strike the proper balance." An engineer at a nuclear plant that was shut for safety reasons for a time in the 1990's, who would not allow his name to be used, said the report was a shift for the institute, which began by trying to share best practices around the industry, and later on human performance, but which is now focused on leadership performance. Copyright The New York Times Company ***************************************************************** 19 FirstEnergy reworks nuclear power unit* Local Companies | Article published November 20, 2002 NEW YORK - FirstEnergy Corp.'s nuclear power operating unit said yesterday it has reorganized to improve its performance and prevent another nuclear mishap that has kept its Davis-Besse reactor near Oak Harbor shut down for most of the year. FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. said it will run Davis-Besse, Perry, and Beaver Valley nuclear plants from a tightly staffed headquarters in Akron. The parent company, which is based in Akron, owns Toledo Edison. Streamlining the operations will cut costs and strengthen senior supervision, particularly in engineering, and improve safety, reliability, and efficiency, the company said. The reorganization, to take effect this month, is part of an effort to deal with issues that led to the hole found in the reactor vessel head early this year after Davis-Besse was shut down for routine maintenance. The company hopes to have the plant operating by early next year. The new unit will be led by Gary Leidich, the nuclear power unit's executive vice president, and will have a staff of 55 to 65 people. Cost estimates haven't been developed, but no layoffs are planned, a company official said. The Toledo Blade Company, 541 N. Superior St., Toledo, OH 43660, (419) 724-6000 ***************************************************************** 20 NRC Draft Report Finds St. Lucie License Renewal Environmentally Acceptable; Public Input Sought at December Meetings NRC: News Release - Region II - 2002-050 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region II 61 Forsyth Street SW, Atlanta, GA 30303 www.nrc.gov No. II-02-050 November 20, 2002 CONTACT: Ken Clark (404) 562-4416 Roger D. Hannah (404) 562-4417 E-mail: opa2@nrc.gov [opa2@nrc.gov] The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff is seeking public comment on its preliminary conclusion that there are no environmental impacts that would preclude renewal of the operating licenses for the two reactors at the St. Lucie nuclear plant on Hutchinson Island near Port St. Lucie, Florida. The information is contained in a draft environmental impact statement on the proposed license renewal. That document is open for public comment until January 15, 2003. The draft impact statement findings will also be the subject of public meetings on Tuesday, December 3. Two similar meetings will be held in the Council Chambers at the Port St. Lucie City Hall, located at 121 SW Port St. Lucie Boulevard in Port St. Lucie. There will be one session in the afternoon at 1:30 and one in the evening at 7:00. In addition, the NRC staff will host informal discussions one hour prior to each meeting. NRC staff members will be available to answer questions and provide additional information about the process during those informal sessions, but no comments on environmental issues will be accepted then. The two sessions will begin with identical overviews, including a presentation by NRC staff and its contractors of the contents of the draft supplement to the Generic Environmental Impact Statement for license renewal. The meeting will then be opened for public comment. For planning purposes, interested parties are encouraged to pre-register by contacting Michael Masnik of the NRC by telephone at (800) 368-5642, extension 1191, or by e-mail at StLucieDSEIS@nrc.gov [StLucieDSEIS@nrc.gov] . Interested persons may also register to speak before the start of each session. Time for individual comments at the meetings may be limited to accommodate all speakers. Written comments on the draft supplement to the GEIS will also be considered by NRC staff. Comments should be submitted either by mail to the Chief, Rules and Directives Branch, Division of Administrative Services, Mail Stop T-6 D 59, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, or by Internet to StLucieDSEIS@nrc.gov [StLucieDSEIS@nrc.gov] The NRC has been reviewing the application for extension of the St. Lucie licenses since Florida Power & Light, which operates the plant, filed it in November 2001. Under NRC regulations, the original operating license for a nuclear power plant is issued for up to 40 years. The license may be renewed for up to an additional 20 years if NRC requirements are met. The current licenses for St. Lucie will expire on March 1, 2016, for Unit 1 and April 6, 2023, for Unit 2. The possible environmental effects of an additional 20 years of nuclear plant operation are described in the NRCs Generic Environmental Impact Statement, or GEIS (NUREG-1437). The NRC issues a site-specific supplement to the GEIS on each plant requesting license renewal to address the potential environmental impacts. Issues specific to St. Lucie are addressed in Supplement 11. The NRC staffs preliminary recommendation is that the adverse environmental impacts of license renewal for the two units at St. Lucie are not so great that preserving the option of license renewal for energy-planning decision makers would be unreasonable. The draft supplement to the GEIS and other related documents are available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room at NRC headquarters, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland; or electronically on the Internet at www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr1437/supple ment11. In addition, the Indian River Community College Library, 3209 Virginia Avenue, Ft. Pierce, has agreed to make the draft supplement to the GEIS available for public inspection. At the conclusion of the public comment period the NRC staff will consider and address the comments provided and issue a final supplement to the GEIS. That supplement will contain a recommendation regarding the environmental acceptability for license renewal. Wednesday, November 20, 2002 ***************************************************************** 21 Qinshan Heavy-water Nuclear Power Station Starts Operation Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, November 20, 2002 China's first heavy-water nuclear power station for commercial use---Qinshan stage III generator set---was successfully incorporated with the power network and began to provide electricity to the East China Power Grid, at 10:21 am, November 19. The Qingshan III station is a key project of the nation, as well as the biggest trade cooperation project between China and Canada. The CANDU reactor, with two 728MW-capacity generation units imported from Canada, is designed with an expected life span of 40 years. It only takes 53 months to complete the No 1 generation set and put it into operation, being the shortest construction period in China. Through the Qinshan III station China has set up five complete systems regarding agreement negotiation, construction, testing, operation and nuclear fuel manufacture, as well as fostered a professional team who is familiar with international management, nuclear power technology and project administration. Besides, the No 2 generation set is under adjustment and expected to put into operation in next August. The two sets, after put into full commercial operation, will generate nearly 10 billion kw/h electricity each year to effectively ease the power shortage of eastern China areas. Although Qinshan is the fifth nuclear power station in China, the latest phase serves as an alternative to pressurized water reactors that are used in all other nuclear power stations. There are three nuclear power stations in Qinshan, 125 kilometres south of Shanghai. With the others in South China's Guangdong Province, China hopes the plants will help satisfy the electricity demand of the booming coastal regions. The project will greatly ease the electricity shortage of the East China Power Grid, which covers Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui provinces and Shanghai. The electricity demand of the area is expected to increase by 1 million kilowatts annually over the next three years. Even with the operation of the third phase, electricity will still need to be bought from elsewhere, like the Three Gorges Dam. By PD Online Staff Li Heng Copyright by People's Daily Online, all rights reserved ***************************************************************** 22 As water levels rise, Va. nuke exits unusual event Planet Ark : USA: November 21, 2002 NEW YORK - Dominion told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) the water level in the lake used to cool the North Anna nuclear power station in Virginia rose, reducing the likelihood the plant will need to shut. The Southeast has been stuck in a drought that could result in tight power supplies this winter as the capacity of the region's hydropower, fossil and nuclear power plants decline. "We're still in a drought and are looking for ways to pump water from other sources to keep the lake level up. For now, we're out of danger, but we need more rain," said a spokesman at Dominion. In two reports posted on the NRC web site on Monday, Dominion said the water level in the North Anna lake is dangerously low, which could result in the shutdown of the plant. In the first report dated Aug. 9, Dominion declared an unusual event because the water level in the lake fell below 246 feet due to a lack of rainfall and may continue to drop if the drought continues. In an update to the Aug. 9 report issued on Monday, Dominion said the water levels rose to 246.9 feet. If the level reaches 244 feet, the company said it is required to shut the plant until the water level returns to 246.4 feet. The North Anna station in Mineral, Virginia consists of two units rated at 921 megawatts each capable of lighting almost two million homes. REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ***************************************************************** 23 NRC Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards To Meet December 5 - 7 in Rockville, Maryland NRC: News Release - 2002-134 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov [opa@nrc.gov] www.nrc.gov No. 02-134 November 20, 2002 The Nuclear Regulatory Commissions Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) has scheduled a meeting December 5 - 7 in Rockville, Maryland, to discuss among other items, the agencys Davis-Besse Lessons Learned Task Force Report and the status of its oversight panels investigation of the reactor vessel head degradation at the Ohio plant. The meeting, most of which is open to the public, will be held in Room T-2B3 of the agencys Two White Flint North building, at 11545 Rockville Pike. It will begin at 8:30 a.m. each day. A complete agenda is attached. For additional information on the meeting or schedule changes, please contact Dr. Sher Bahadur at 301-415-0138. ACRS Meeting Agenda THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5 8:30 A.M. - 8:35 A.M.: Opening Statement by the ACRS Chairman (Open) - The ACRS Chairman will make opening remarks regarding the conduct of the meeting. 8:35 A.M. - 10:15 A.M.: Davis-Besse Lessons Learned Task Force Report and Status of NRC Oversight (0350) Panels Investigation of the Davis-Besse Event (Open) - The Committee will hear a presentation by and hold discussions with the Chairman of the NRC Oversight (0350) Panel regarding the status of investigation of the Panel on the Davis-Besse reactor vessel head degradation. The Committee will also hear presentations by and hold discussions with representatives of the NRC staff and industry regarding the findings, conclusions, and recommendations of the Davis-Besse Task Force on the reactor vessel head degradation event at the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station. 10:30 A.M. - 12:00 Noon: Framatome ANP, INC., S-RELAP5 Realistic Large-Break (LB) LOCA Code (Open/Closed) - The Committee will hear presentations by and hold discussions with representatives of Framatome ANP, Inc., and the NRC staff regarding the S-RELAP5 Realistic Large-Break LOCA Code and the NRC staffs associated draft Safe uation Report. [NOTE: A portion of this session may be closed to discuss Framatome ANP, Inc. proprietary information.] 1:30 P.M. - 2:15 P.M.: Meeting with Mr. Lawrence Williams, NII, United Kingdom (Open) - The Committee will hold discussions with Mr. Williams, NII, United Kingdom on items of mutual interest. 2:15 P.M. - 3:45 P.M.: North Anna and Surry License Renewal Application (Open) - The Committee will hear presentations by and hold discussions with representatives of the NRC staff and Dominion regarding the license renewal application for the North Anna and Surry Nuclear Power Stations and the NRC staffs associated final Safety Evaluation Report. 4:00 P.M. - 5:15 P.M.: Status of the Development of the Review Standard for Power Uprates (Open) - The Committee will hear presentations by and hold discussions with representatives of the NRC staff regarding the status of the development of the review standard for core power uprates. 5:15 P.M. - 5:30 P.M.: Subcommittee Report (Open) - The Chairman of the Thermal-Hydraulic Phenomena Subcommittee will provide a report to the Committee regarding the Rod Bundle Heat Transfer Experimental Program. 5:45 P.M. - 7:15 P.M.: Proposed ACRS Reports (Open) - The Committee w cuss proposed ACRS reports on matters considered during this meeting. In addition, the Committee will discuss a draft annual ACRS report to the Commission on the NRC Safety Research Program. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6 8:30 A.M. - 8:35 A.M.: Opening Remarks by the ACRS Chairman (Open) - The ACRS Chairman will make opening remarks regarding the conduct of the meeting. 8:35 A.M. - 9:00 A.M.: Safeguards and Security Activities (Open) - The Committee will discuss a proposed ACRS plan for reviewing safeguards and security matters. 9:00 A.M. - 9:45 A.M.: Future ACRS Activities/Report of the Planning and Procedures Subcommittee (Open) - The Committee will discuss the recommendations of the Planning and Procedures Subcommittee regarding items proposed for consideration by the full Committee during future meetings. Also, it will hear a report of the Planning and Procedures Subcommittee on matters related to the conduct of ACRS business, including anticipated workload and member assignments. 9:45 A.M. - 10:00 A.M.: Reconciliation of ACRS Comments and Recommendations (Open) - The Committee will discuss the responses from the NRC Executive Director for Operations (EDO) to comments and recommendations included in recent ACRS reports and letters. The EDO responses are expected to be made available to the Committee prior to the meeting. 10:15 A.M. - 12:30 P.M.: Proposed Options for Resolving Policy Issues for Future Non-Light Water Reactors (Open) - The Committee will hear presentations by and hold discussions with representatives of the NRC staff regarding the proposed options for resolving policy issues related to future non-light water reactors. 1:30 P.M. - 3:15 P.M.: Draft Final ANS External Events Methodology Standard (Open) - The Committee will hear presentations by and hold discussions with representatives of the NRC staff and the American Nuclear Society (ANS) regarding the draft final ANS Standard on External Events Methodology. 3:30 P.M. - 4:00 P.M.: Election of ACRS Officers (Open) - The Committee will elect Chairman and Vice Chairman for the ACRS and Member-at-Large for the Planning and Procedures Subcommittee for CY 2003. 4:00 P.M. - 7:00 P.M.: Proposed ACRS Reports (Open) - The Committee will discuss proposed ACRS reports. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7 8:30 A.M. - 12:00 Noon.: Proposed ACRS Reports (Open) - The Committee will continue to discuss proposed ACRS reports. 12:00 - 12:30 P.M.: Miscellaneous (Open) - The Committee will discuss matters related to the conduct of Committee activities and matters and specific issues that were not completed during previous meetings, as time and availability of information permit. Wednesday, November 20, 2002 ***************************************************************** 24 UK: ATTACK FEARED ON NUCLEAR RAIL LOADS thisisGloucestershire 10:30 - 19 November 2002 Terrorists could be planning a "dirty bomb" attack on nuclear trains as they pass through Gloucestershire, with the potential for a national disaster on a similar scale to Chernobyl. Trains with nuclear cargoes run through the county via Gloucester and Cheltenham on the West Coast Main Line on their way to Sellafield in Cumbria. Now British Transport Police have announced they recognise the trains as a "potential target" and have stepped up security on the route. And Barnwood-based British Energy says it has taken precautions to ensure its nuclear products on trains are safe. But Gloucestershire Green Party claims that is not good enough and spokesman Phillip Booth has called for all nuclear services to be suspended. "British Transport Police, who have recognised that the trains carrying nuclear waste are a 'potential target', have stepped up security along the nuke route," he said. "Even without a terrorist threat, our recent history of rail safety is hardly reassuring. "An incident involving trains which carry hundreds of radioactive nuclear rods could lead to meltdown and mass evacuation. These trains are inherently dangerous. "We demand an end to transporting nuclear waste on trains through Gloucestershire, an end to the nuclear industry's high costs and dangers and an end to the hazardous waste piling up for generations to come. "Renewable energy and conservation measures are the way forward." The threat of an attack on nuclear trains comes as staff at Cheltenham-based GCHQ say its security has been stepped up with the threat of an attack rising. The agency is also believed to have increased its monitoring of e-mails and telephone calls in a bid to foil any attack. David Wallace, a spokesman for British Energy, said: "Rest assured, stringent security measures have been taken by the company because we recognise the threat of a possible terrorist attack. But, for obvious reasons, we are unable to specify what exactly these are." A spokesman for British Transport Police confirmed it did consider trains a possible target. "There are movements of nuclear waste not just by train but also by road, but clearly the trains are a potential target and it's taken into account," he said. "There is tight security governing the movement of nuclear flasks by rail and elsewhere for which we and others are responsible for policing. After September 11 and at the time of the first anniversary, security was heightened. "Now in response to Tony Blair's speech, we have increased the number of patrols in train stations. "We are hooked into the anti-terrorism branch and the intelligence service and we rely on them to pass on to us any relevant information about a security threat to our transport system." A spokesman for British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) said: "Direct Rail Services operates within extremely stringent safety and security regulations that are continuously monitored, ensuring the risk of any incident is minimised at all times." Fears over train terrorism rose when six North African men were arrested in London eight days ago in connection with a plot to kill commuters on the London Underground. ***************************************************************** 25 Council will carry out uranium tests on Mayo water if asked Wednesday, November 20, 2002 By: Denis Daly Mayo County Council will carry out special tests on public water supplies in the county to determine if any of them are contaminated with toxic uranium if they are asked to do so by the Environmental Protection Agency. A Council spokesman said yesterday (Mon.)that they had not received any request from the EPA to test supplies in Mayo but if they did receive one the tests would be carried out without delay. The spokesman added that if tests are carried out on Mayo supplies the results will be published. Questions about the possible contamination of water supplies follows a scare in County Wicklow where it was discovered that uranium levels in water were 65 times above the World Health Organisation safety limits of 2mg per litre. In Wicklow they were on average 130mg per litre. Uranium metal contamination has been linked to health problems such as kidney damage. Radon is a by-product of uranium and County Mayo has been identified as a high-risk area for this naturally occurring gas. Main Topics ***************************************************************** 26 Lawsuit claims Piketon plant operators altered radiation records AP Wire | 11/20/2002 | [ohio.com - The ohio home page] BEACON JOURNAL Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio - A lawsuit accuses the operators of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon of altering the records of workers' exposure to radiation to qualify for federal government safety bonuses. The lawsuit was filed in 2000 in U.S. District Court here under the false-claim act, but a judge unsealed it just last week, The Columbus Dispatch reported in a story Wednesday. Plant security guard Jeff Walburn contends in the lawsuit that Lockheed Martin, Lockheed Martin Utility Services and U.S. Enrichment Corp. used false and unreliable exposure readings to receive incentive payments for operating a safe work environment. The false-claim act allows a civilian to sue on behalf of the federal government when it overpays a supplier because of alleged fraud. Both USEC and Lockheed Martin said Wednesday they did not have an immediate comment. If Walburn wins, he could receive a cut of damages awarded to the U.S government. Walburn's attorney, Steve Edwards, said he has depositions from two employees who said they altered 400 to 600 records per year for a variety of workers and visitors. "We have evidence in Jeff's case that his records were changed twice," Edwards said. The Piketon plant helped produce weapons-grade uranium and handled plutonium during the Cold War. The plant was closed last year but operations to decontaminate it are continuing. U.S. Enrichment is considering establishing an advanced-technology enrichment plant at the facility. Congress two years ago approved payments to workers exposed to radiation at the plant who have been diagnosed with cancer. Piketon is 64 miles south of Columbus. ***************************************************************** 27 UK: DRIVING SAFETY MESSAGE HOME A RENOWNED The Whitehaven News motivational speaker is driving home the need for stringent safety standards at Sellafield. Ken Woodward, who lost his sight in an industrial accident, is making a series of presentations to BNFL construction staff. Sellafield bosses hope the talks, the first of which was made in October, will help the plant build on its good safety record. Project sponsor Grant Gilmour, head of engineering delivery, Sellafield M Services, said: "Our safety performance is good, but it is not good enough; we are still having accidents. We want to drive the safety message home through Ken's presentations and we are grateful to him for sharing with us an experience that we can all learn from." Mr Woodward was the victim of a chemical explosion in 1990, while working as a production operative with Coca Cola-Schweppes. He lost sight in both eyes, his senses of smell and taste, and contracted diabetes during his subsequent life-saving treatment. He said: "Challenging people who are working unsafely is the fastest growing safety procedure in the country. It costs you nothing, and could well save a life. "The most important thing to remember is that in safety, we are all equal." ***************************************************************** 28 UK: UKAEA RECRUITS CELEBRATE - The Whitehaven News [PASSING OUT: Newly-qualified police officers on parade at the passing out of Police Constables' Foundation Course 165 at the UKAEA Constabulary training centre at Summergrove, Whitehaven] THE latest recruits joining the nuclear industry's police force were celebrating with their passing-out parade last week. The 20 new officers, including around half-a-dozen from West Cumbria, have completed a tough training schedule with the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority Constabulary. The applicants have had to undergo a series of law tests and learn how to handle firearms as part of their intensive 13-week residential course. The probationers, who will now be employed at any of the country's seven nuclear establishments, including Sellafield, also had to organise and take part in a fundraising event for local charities. They raised about £1,000, which will be shared equally between the Mayfield School in Whitehaven and West Cumbria's Macmillan Cancer Relief appeal. ***************************************************************** 29 Brink Lindsey on Terrorism on National Review Online November 20, 2002 9:35 a.m. Terrorism &Trust At the gates, again (Part II). By Brink Lindsey EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second part of a three-part series. Part I can be viewed [http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-lindsey111902.asp] The civilized world's exposure to barbarian assault arises today, as it did in the past, out of the very sources of our prosperity and power. Most obviously, Western technological prowess can now be turned and used against us. The logic of technological progress is that it democratizes power over the elements. As we continue to innovate and grow richer, more and more people have ever-greater access to increasingly potent capabilities. Since the capabilities themselves are morally neutral, the consequence is this dark irony: The more technological dynamism unleashes the creative energies of the best among us, the more widely available are destructive energies to the worst among us. We now know the horrific purposes to which commercial aircraft can be put. Many other humdrum, taken-for-granted aspects of our technology-intensive lives can likewise be used to stock the armory of terror. Remember, after all, what Timothy McVeigh did with fertilizer, fuel oil, and a van. And more exotic technologies raise even more terrifying possibilities. Tons upon tons of enriched uranium and weapons-grade plutonium have been produced and stockpiled; if only a few pounds of this vast amount were to fall into the wrong hands, millions could die. Large and growing stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons pose similar threats. And terrorists need not restrict themselves to scavenging military production: Many commercial labs have the capacity to weaponize chemical and biological agents. Our vulnerability goes deeper than the physical damage that can be inflicted. The root of our vulnerability is the same as the root of our technological virtuosity: our fantastically elaborate social organization and the institutions that make it possible. To put the matter as simply as possible, all the wonderful material blessings that we in the West enjoy rest ultimately on the amazing extent to which we are able to trust each other. Terrorism strives to shatter that trust. The West is rich because its people participate in a globe-spanning, mind-bogglingly complex division of labor. Every moment of our lives is supported and enhanced by the anonymous creativity and hard work of untold millions of people. In the words of F. A. Hayek, the 20th century's greatest theorist of this "extended order": The more civilized we become, the more relatively ignorant must each individual be of the facts on which the working of his civilization depends. The very division of knowledge increases the necessary ignorance of the individual of most of this knowledge. Which raises the question: How is this possible? How do we come to trust each other so implicitly that we are able to put our lives routinely into the hands of strangers? To bring the matter down to concrete detail, how is it possible to fly to another city, or even another country, hand a complete stranger a piece of plastic, and get a $20,000 car, which you then promise to return to another stranger in another city? The answer, in a word, is institutions. First of all, formal legal and political institutions define and enforce property and contract rights, thereby facilitating the ability of people without personal connections to do business with each other. In the parlance of economists, those institutions reduce the "transaction costs" associated with potential market exchanges. In other words, they make it possible for strangers to trust each other — which in turn makes possible the highly evolved division of labor on which our affluence depends. But formal institutions are not enough. They must be buttressed by intangible cultural institutions — invisible bonds of reciprocity that restrain members of society from taking advantage of each other to the maximum extent the law allows. If the terms of every economic transaction had to be reduced to writing, and every ambiguity in that writing then led to litigation, the transaction costs of dealing with strangers would be staggering. Consequently, the potential for open-ended specialization, and for the kind of large-scale, long-term investments that produce Western-style prosperity, would be fatally compromised. Large-scale divisions of labor thus require that participants in that order share, to some minimum extent, a kind of Golden Rule ethos that inhibits opportunistic behavior. "How effectively agreements are enforced is the single most important determinant of economic informance," states Douglass North, a pioneer in the fast-growing field of institutional economics. The rich countries of the West thrive because their institutions — both the "hard" institutions of police, courts, and bureaucracies, and the "soft" institutions of cultural values — allow agreements to be enforced between total strangers across the span of years and continents. Terrorism strikes at the foundation of the distinctive, Western form of civilization — namely, our unprecedented ability to trust one another. Just as the new barbarians turn our technology against us, so do they "weaponize" the institutions that make advanced technology possible. Terrorism's random acts of destruction, because they are targeted at nobody in particular, make everybody feel unsafe. Consequently, they make us apprehensive, wary — distrustful. Every Arab-looking passenger on your flight sets off personal alarm bells. So did every piece of mail from a stranger during the anthrax attacks. So did every white van in the D.C. area just recently. Terrorism thus leverages its acts of physical destruction into larger contagions of economic and social disruption. Air travel plunged after September 11, and has yet to recover. Not just the airlines but the tourism industries as well have been dealt a heavy blow. Mail delivery more or less ground to a halt in the cities affected by the anthrax scare. All outdoor activities, including trips to shopping centers, were victims of the Washington-area sniper attacks. The disruptions we have suffered to date, however burdensome they were or are, pale into insignificance when compared to what is possible. Imagine that a "suitcase nuke" is detonated in downtown Seattle or Atlanta — and that the group claiming responsibility announces that a second device has already been planted in another city. The massive casualties, the economic devastation that would befall the shattered, contaminated target city — those would be only the first dominoes to fall. What would happen in the rest of the country? What would be the consequences — economic, political, and cultural — of the mass evacuation from cities that followed the first blast? Here is the grim truth: We are only one act of madness away from a social cataclysm unlike anything our country has ever known. After a handful of such acts, who knows what kind of civilizational breakdown might be in store? Terrorism, of course, is nothing new: Its modern history dates back at least to 19th-century Russia. But the march of economic development and technological progress has, perversely, led to a qualitative increase in terrorism's virulence. The power to inflict physical damage has grown by orders of magnitude, while the escalating intricacy of the division of labor means a similar, exponential increase in the economic and social costs associated with any particular act of physical destruction. As a result, the leading edges of civilization are now prone to outside attack for the first time in half a millennium. If we do not now take the full measure of this threat, and bend our considerable energies towards countering and neutralizing it, we are likely to pay a grievous price for our complacency. — Brink Lindsey is a senior fellow at the [http://www.cato.org] [http://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/fullsize11-25-02.html] ***************************************************************** 30 I-40 truck weigh station getting radiation monitor By Frank Munger, News-Sentinel senior writer November 20, 2002 A $100,000 radiation-detection system is being installed at an Interstate 40 weigh station in West Knox County to see if it can detect radioactive materials in trucks passing through the scales. The U.S. Department of Energy is sponsoring the two-year project to evaluate the effectiveness of the monitors, which could be used to stem terrorist threats or to regulate trucks carrying radioactive materials without proper permits. The Knox County system will be the first to monitor truck traffic on an interstate, according to Rich Meehan of DOE's Oak Ridge office. It is expected to be operable by Dec. 15. "We hope to have some preliminary results by July," Meehan said. The radiation monitor is at the weigh station on I-40 East near the Campbell Station Road exit. Officials want to see if the system can pick up relatively faint signals from gamma radiation in a truck's nuclear cargo. The information is fed into a computer and can be matched up with real-time video to help track vehicles carrying radioactive materials. The system was purchased from Exploranium Radiation Detection Systems. The government reportedly is using a similar system to test incoming ship cargo at Norfolk, Va. Frank Munger can be reached at 865-482-9213 or twig1@knoxnews.infi.net. The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 31 Congress Passes Legislation to Protect America's Homeland Statement Issued by Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham energy.gov - Headquarters' Press Release RELEASE DATE: November 20, 2002 [Print Friendly Version] WASHINGTON, DC – "I am pleased that Congress has passed legislation to protect America's homeland. The Department of Homeland Security, under the leadership of Governor Tom Ridge, will be instrumental in protecting the American people from senseless acts of terrorism. Creating a new department has not been an easy task over the last 14 months. However, President Bush has been unequivocal in his commitment to putting the safety of the American people first and yesterday is a true testament to his leadership." "Both at home and abroad, the Department of Energy is doing everything we can to remain at the forefront of cutting-edge security technology. Working closely with Governor Ridge and the Department of Homeland Security team will further our goals to make this great country safe again." Media Contact: Jill Schroeder Vieth, 202/586-4940 Release No. ***************************************************************** 32 Child at center of Vieques anti-bombing drive is buried Reuters AlertNet - 20 Nov 2002 20:53 By John Marino SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Nov 20 (Reuters) - The father of a 5-year-old girl who became a symbol for the drive to get the U.S. Navy to quit its Vieques bombing range in Puerto Rico vowed at her funeral on Wednesday to continue battling against the range. Milivy Adams Calderon, who had cancerous tumors in her brain and other parts of her body, died on Sunday at the Philadelphia Children's Hospital where she was receiving treatment. Her body was flown to San Juan for viewing at a "peace" chapel erected near the Capitol building and was then taken to the island of Vieques on Tuesday evening, where hundreds of people, including Mayor Damaso Serrano, paid their respects. "Milivy became a symbol for the high incidence of cancer that indiscriminately affects this population," said the town's Catholic priest, the Rev. Nelson Lopez. "My daughter is an angel of God and now she's gone," the girl's father, Jose Adams, told reporters. "We are going to continue the struggle to get the Navy out of Vieques." The image of the bald young girl, battling the cancer with chemotherapy and other treatments, became a symbol for protesters who began calling for an end to U.S. Navy war games on Vieques after the death of a civilian security guard during a botched bombing run in April 1999. One of the protest camps set up in front of the Navy's Camp Garcia on Vieques is named after her. Protesters say the Navy exercises, which have taken place in the U.S. Caribbean territory for more than 60 years, are responsible for health problems in Vieques, including its high cancer rate. They also blame Navy war games for damaging the island's environment and hampering its economic development. Navy officials say no evidence exists that its exercises harm the health of Vieques residents or the environment. Puerto Rican Health Department statistics indicate Vieques's cancer rate was about 26 percent above Puerto Rico's average through much of the 1980s and into the early 1990s. Health Secretary Johnny Rullan said his agency began a study last month to examine a variety of potential causes, including diet and limited health care services as well as the Navy exercises. U.S. President George W. Bush pledged to withdraw the Navy from Vieques by May 1, and activists are now focusing their battle on potential contamination that could be left behind. The recent Pentagon admission that chemical weapon simulants were used on Vieques during the 1960s has increased their concerns. So has the revelation that a Navy destroyer that was sunk off Vieques, the USS Killen, had taken part in nuclear explosion tests in the 1950s in the Pacific. The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry is expected to release shortly a study focusing on potential pathways of contamination between the Navy bombing range and the civilian area about 10 miles (16 km) away. ***************************************************************** 33 CDC: Radiation worker safety meeting FR Doc 02-29412 [Federal Register: November 20, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 224)] [Notices] [Page 70087-70088] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr20no02-78] DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health: Meeting In accordance with section 10(a)(2) of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announces the following committee meeting. Name: Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health (ABRWH). Time and Date: 1 p.m.-4 p.m., December 12, 2002. Place: Teleconference call will originate at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes for Occupational Safety and Health, Atlanta, Georgia. Please see Supplementary Information for details on accessing the teleconference. Status: Open to the public, teleconference access limited only by ports available. Background The Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health (``the Board'') was established under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 to advise the President on a variety of policy and technical functions required to implement and effectively manage the new compensation program. Key functions of the Board include providing advice on the development of probability of causation guidelines which have been promulgated by Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as Final Rule: Guidelines for Determining Probability of Causation--42 CFR part 81; advice on methods of dose reconstruction which have been promulgated as Final Rule: Methods for Radiation Dose Reconstruction Under the Act--42 CFR part 82; evaluation of the scientific validity and quality of dose reconstructions conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) for qualified cancer claimants; and, advice on the addition of classes of workers to the Special Exposure Cohort. [[Page 70088]] In December, 2000, the President delegated responsibility for funding, staffing, and operating the Board to HHS, which subsequently delegated this authority to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). NIOSH implements this responsibility for CDC. The charter was signed on August 3, 2001 and in November, 2001, the President completed the appointment of an initial roster of 10 Board members. The initial tasks of the Board have been to review and provide advice on the proposed, interim, and final rules of HHS. Purpose This board is charged with (a) providing advice to the Secretary, HHS, on the development of guidelines under Executive Order 13179; (b) providing advice to the Secretary, HHS, on the scientific validity and quality of dose reconstruction efforts performed for this Program; and (c) upon request by the Secretary, HHS, advise the Secretary on whether there is a class of employees at any Department of Energy facility who were exposed to radiation but for whom it is not feasible to estimate their radiation dose, and on whether there is reasonable likelihood that such radiation doses may have endangered the health of members of this class. Matters To Be Discussed: Agenda for this meeting will focus on the Scope of Work and the Evaluation Plan for the procurement of technical consultation to the Board regarding the scientific validity and quality of completed dose reconstructions. Agenda items are subject to change as priorities dictate. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This conference call is scheduled for 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. To access the teleconference you must dial 1- 800-311-3437. To be automatically connected to the call, you will need to provide the operator with the participant code ``278909'' and you will be connected to the call. FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Larry Elliott, Executive Secretary, ABRWH, NIOSH, CDC, 4676 Columbia Parkway, Cincinnati, Ohio 45226, telephone 513/841-4498, fax 513/458-7125. The Director, Management Analysis and Services Office, has been delegated the authority to sign Federal Register notices pertaining to announcements of meetings and other committee management activities for both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Dated: November 14, 2002. John C. Burckhardt, Acting Director, Management Analysis and Services Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [FR Doc. 02-29412 Filed 11-19-02; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4163-19-P ***************************************************************** 34 NRC: licnence amendment: spent fuel casts FR Doc 02-29485 [Federal Register: November 20, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 224)] [Rules and Regulations] [Page 69987-69990] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr20no02-1] Rules and Regulations Federal Register This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains regulatory documents having general applicability and legal effect, most of which are keyed to and codified in the Code of Federal Regulations, which is published under 50 titles pursuant to 44 U.S.C. 1510. The Code of Federal Regulations is sold by the Superintendent of Documents. Prices of new books are listed in the first FEDERAL REGISTER issue of each week. [[Page 69987]] NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 10 CFR Part 72 RIN 3150-AH05 List of Approved Spent Fuel Storage Casks: VSC-24 Revision AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Direct final rule. SUMMARY: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is amending its regulations revising the Pacific Sierra Nuclear Associates VSC-24 system listing within the ``List of Approved Spent Fuel Storage Casks'' to include Amendment No. 4 to Certificate of Compliance No. 1007. Amendment No. 4 will modify the present cask system design to permit the storage of different specific fuel control elements as integral components to fuel assemblies under a general license. Technical Specification (TS) 1.1.1 will be amended to change the flood condition velocity from 7.62 meters per second (m/s) [25 feet per second (ft/s)] to 5.39 m/s (17.7 ft/s); TS 1.2.1, 1.2.4, and 1.2.6 will be amended to address the additional fuel control elements approved for storage, and TS 1.2.10 will be deleted to eliminate redundant requirements for controlling moderator density. DATES: The final rule is effective February 3, 2002, unless significant adverse comments are received by December 20, 2002. A significant adverse comment is a comment where the commenter explains why the rule would be inappropriate, including challenges to the rule's underlying premise or approach, or would be ineffective or unacceptable without a change. If the rule is withdrawn, timely notice will be published in the Federal Register. ADDRESSES: Submit comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attn: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff. Deliver comments to 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. on Federal workdays. Certain documents related to this rulemaking, as well as all public comments received on this rulemaking, may be viewed and downloaded electronically via the NRC's rulemaking website at http:// ruleforum.llnl.gov [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://ruleforum.llnl.gov] . You may also provide comments via this website by uploading comments as files (any format) if your web browser supports that function. For information about the interactive rulemaking site, contact Ms. Carol Gallagher, (301) 415-5905; e-mail CAG@nrc.gov [CAG@nrc.gov] . Certain documents related to this rule, including comments received by the NRC, may be examined at the NRC Public Document Room, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD. For more information, contact the NRC Public Document Room (PDR) Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415- 4737 or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov [pdr@nrc.gov] . Documents created or received at the NRC after November 1, 1999, are also available electronically at the NRC's Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/ adams.html [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html] . From this site, the public can gain entry into the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and image files of NRC's public documents. An electronic copy of the proposed Certificate of Compliance (CoC) and preliminary Safety Evaluation Report (SER) can be found under ADAMS Accession No. ML 022490171. If you do not have access to ADAMS or if there are problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, contact the NRC PDR Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov [pdr@nrc.gov] . CoC No. 1007, the revised Technical Specifications (TS), the underlying SER for Amendment No. 4, and the Environmental Assessment, are available for inspection at the NRC Public Document Room, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD. Single copies of these documents may be obtained from Jayne M. McCausland, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, telephone (301) 415-6219, e-mail jmm2@nrc.gov [jmm2@nrc.gov] . FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jayne M. McCausland, telephone (301) 415-6219, e-mail jmm2@nrc.gov [jmm2@nrc.gov] , of the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Background Section 218(a) of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended (NWPA), requires that ``[t]he Secretary [of the Department of Energy (DOE)] shall establish a demonstration program, in cooperation with the private sector, for the dry storage of spent nuclear fuel at civilian nuclear power reactor sites, with the objective of establishing one or more technologies that the [Nuclear Regulatory] Commission may, by rule, approve for use at the sites of civilian nuclear power reactors without, to the maximum extent practicable, the need for additional site-specific approvals by the Commission.''' Section 133 of the NWPA states, in part, that ``[t]he Commission shall, by rule, establish procedures for the licensing of any technology approved by the Commission under Section 218(a) for use at the site of any civilian nuclear power reactor.''' To implement this mandate, the NRC approved dry storage of spent nuclear fuel in NRC-approved casks under a general license by publishing a final rule in 10 CFR part 72 entitled, ``General License for Storage of Spent Fuel at Power Reactor Sites'' (55 FR 29181; July 18, 1990). This rule also established a new Subpart L within 10 CFR part 72, entitled ``Approval of Spent Fuel Storage Casks'' containing procedures and criteria for obtaining NRC approval of spent fuel storage cask designs. The NRC subsequently issued a final rule on April 7, 1993 (58 FR 17948), that approved the VSC-24 design and added it to the list of NRC-approved cask designs in Sec. 72.214 as CoC No. 1007. Discussion On March 30, 2001, and as supplemented on July 26, 2001, and April 29, May 16, and August 8, 2002, BNFL Fuel Solutions Corporation submitted an application to the NRC to amend CoC No. 1007 to permit a part 72 licensee to store different specific fuel [[Page 69988]] control elements as integral components to fuel assemblies. The certificate holder for the VSC-24 system is Pacific Sierra Nuclear Associates, which is a partnership between BNFL Fuel Solutions Corporation and Sierra Nuclear Corporation. Specifically, TS 1.1.1 will be amended to change the flood condition velocity from 7.62 meters per second (m/s) [25 feet per second (ft/s)] to 5.39 m/s (17.7 ft/s); TS 1.2.1, 1.2.4, and 1.2.6 will be amended to address the additional fuel control elements approved for storage; and TS 1.2.10 will be deleted to eliminate redundant requirements for controlling moderator density. The NRC staff revised TS 1.2.1 to limit the allowable fuel burnup to specifically 45 gwd/mtu, which clarified the previous ambiguous terminology. No other changes to the VSC-24 system design were requested in this application. The NRC staff performed a detailed safety evaluation of the proposed CoC amendment request and found that an acceptable safety margin is maintained. In addition, the NRC staff has determined that there is still reasonable assurance that public health and safety and the environment will be adequately protected. This direct final rule revises the VSC-24 design listing in Sec. 72.214 by adding Amendment No. 4 to CoC No. 1007. The amendment consists of revisions to TS 1.1.1 to change the flood condition velocity from 7.62 meters per second (m/s) [25 feet per second (ft/s)] to 5.39 m/s (17.7 ft/s) and TS 1.2.1, 1.2.4, and 1.2.6 to address the additional fuel control elements approved for storage. In addition, TS 1.2.10 is deleted to eliminate redundant requirements for controlling moderator density. The particular TS which are changed are identified in the NRC Staff's SER for Amendment No. 4. The amended VSC-24 system, when used in accordance with the conditions specified in the CoC, the TS, and NRC regulations, will meet the requirements of part 72; thus, adequate protection of public health and safety will continue to be ensured. Discussion of Amendments by Section Section 72.214 List of Approved Spent Fuel Storage Casks Certificate No. 1007 is revised indicating the addition of Amendment No. 4 and its effective date. Procedural Background This rule is limited to the changes contained in Amendment 4 to CoC No. 1007 and does not include other aspects of the VSC-24 system design. The NRC is using the ``direct final rule procedure'' to issue this amendment because it represents a limited and routine change to an existing CoC that is expected to be noncontroversial. Adequate protection of public health and safety continues to be ensured. The amendment to the rule will become effective on February 3, 2003. However, if the NRC receives significant adverse comments by December 20, 2002, then the NRC will publish a document that withdraws this action and will address the comments received in response to the proposed amendments published elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register. A significant adverse comment is a comment where the commenter explains why the rule would be inappropriate, including challenges to the rule's underlying premise or approach, or would be ineffective or unacceptable without a change. A comment is adverse and significant if: (1) The comment opposes the rule and provides a reason sufficient to require a substantive response in a notice-and-comment process. For example, in a substantive response: (a) The comment causes the NRC staff to reevaluate (or reconsider) its position or conduct additional analysis; (b) The comment raises an issue serious enough to warrant a substantive response to clarify or complete the record; or (c) The comment raises a relevant issue that was not previously addressed or considered by the NRC staff. (2) The comment proposes a change or an addition to the rule, and it is apparent that the rule would be ineffective or unacceptable without incorporation of the change or addition. (3) The comment causes the NRC staff to make a change (other than editorial) to the CoC or TS. These comments will be addressed in a subsequent final rule. The NRC will not initiate a second comment period on this action. However, if the NRC receives significant adverse comments by December 20, 2002, then the NRC will publish a document that withdraws this action and will address the comments received in response to the proposed amendments published elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register. Agreement State Compatibility Under the ``Policy Statement on Adequacy and Compatibility of Agreement State Programs'' approved by the Commission on June 30, 1997, and published in the Federal Register on September 3, 1997 (62 FR 46517), this rule is classified as compatibility Category ``NRC.'' Compatibility is not required for Category ``NRC'' regulations. The NRC program elements in this category are those that relate directly to areas of regulation reserved to the NRC by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (AEA) or the provisions of the Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Although an Agreement State may not adopt program elements reserved to NRC, it may wish to inform its licensees of certain requirements via a mechanism that is consistent with the particular State's administrative procedure laws, but does not confer regulatory authority on the State. Plain Language The Presidential Memorandum dated June 1, 1998, entitled ``Plain Language in Government Writing,'' directed that the Government's writing be in plain language. The NRC requests comments on this direct final rule specifically with respect to the clarity and effectiveness of the language used. Comments should be sent to the address listed under the heading ADDRESSES above. Voluntary Consensus Standards The National Technology Transfer Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-113) requires that Federal agencies use technical standards that are developed or adopted by voluntary consensus standards bodies unless the use of such a standard is inconsistent with applicable law or otherwise impractical. In this direct final rule, the NRC would revise the VSC-24 system design listed in Sec. 72.214 (List of NRC-approved spent fuel storage cask designs). This action does not constitute the establishment of a standard that establishes generally applicable requirements. Finding of No Significant Environmental Impact: Availability Under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended, and the NRC regulations in Subpart A of 10 CFR part 51, the NRC has determined that this rule, if adopted, would not be a major Federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment and, therefore, an environmental impact statement is not required. The rule would amend the CoC for the VSC-24 system within the list of approved spent fuel storage casks that power reactor licensees can use to store spent fuel at reactor sites under a general license. The amendment will modify the present cask system design to permit a Part 72 licensee to store different specific fuel control elements as integral components to fuel assemblies. TS 1.1.1 will be amended to change the flood condition velocity from 7.62 meters per second (m/s) [25 feet per second (ft/s)] to 5.39 m/s (17.7 [[Page 69989]] ft/s); TS 1.2.1, 1.2.4, and 1.2.6 will be amended to address the additional fuel control elements approved for storage; and TS 1.2.10 will be deleted to eliminate redundant requirements for controlling moderator density. The environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact on which this determination is based are available for inspection at the NRC Public Document Room, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD. Single copies of the environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact are available from Jayne M. McCausland, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, telephone (301) 415-6219, email jmm2@nrc.gov [jmm2@nrc.gov] . Paperwork Reduction Act Statement This direct final rule does not contain a new or amended information collection requirement subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.). Existing requirements were approved by the Office of Management and Budget, Approval Number 3150- 0132. Public Protection Notification The NRC may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a request for information or an information collection requirement unless the requesting document displays a currently valid OMB control number. Regulatory Analysis On July 18, 1990 (55 FR 29181), the NRC issued an amendment to 10 CFR part 72 to provide for the storage of spent nuclear fuel under a general license in cask designs approved by the NRC. Any nuclear power reactor licensee can use NRC-approved cask designs to store spent nuclear fuel if it notifies the NRC in advance, spent fuel is stored under the conditions specified in the cask's CoC, and the conditions of the general license are met. A list of NRC-approved cask designs is contained in Sec. 72.214. On April 7, 1993 (58 FR 17948), the NRC issued an amendment to Part 72 that approved the VSC-24 design by adding it to the list of NRC-approved cask designs in Sec. 72.214. On March 30, 2001, and as supplemented on July 26, 2001, and April 29, May 16, and August 8, 2002, BNFL Fuel Solutions Corporation submitted an application to the NRC to amend CoC No. 1007 to permit a part 72 licensee to store different specific fuel control elements as integral components to fuel assemblies. TS 1.1.1 will be amended to change the flood condition velocity from 7.62 meters per second (m/s) [25 feet per second (ft/s)] to 5.39 m/s (17.7 ft/s); TS 1.2.1, 1.2.4, and 1.2.6 will be amended to address the additional fuel control elements approved for storage; and TS 1.2.10 will be deleted to eliminate redundant requirements for controlling moderator density. The alternative to this action is to withhold approval of this amended cask system design and issue an exemption to each general license. This alternative would cost both the NRC and the utilities more time and money because each utility would have to pursue an exemption. Approval of the direct final rule will eliminate this problem and is consistent with previous NRC actions. Further, the direct final rule will have no adverse effect on public health and safety. This direct final rule has no significant identifiable impact or benefit on other Government agencies. Based on this discussion of the benefits and impacts of the alternatives, the NRC concludes that the requirements of the direct final rule are commensurate with the NRC's responsibilities for public health and safety and the common defense and security. No other available alternative is believed to be as satisfactory, and thus, this action is recommended. Regulatory Flexibility Certification In accordance with the Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980 (5 U.S.C. 605(b)), the NRC certifies that this rule will not, if issued, have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. This direct final rule affects only the licensing and operation of nuclear power plants, independent spent fuel storage facilities, and BNFL Fuel Solutions Corporation. The companies that own these plants do not fall within the scope of the definition of ``small entities'' set forth in the Regulatory Flexibility Act or the Small Business Size Standards set out in regulations issued by the Small Business Administration at 13 CFR part 121. Backfit Analysis The NRC has determined that the backfit rule (10 CFR 50.109 or 10 CFR 72.62) does not apply to this direct final rule because this amendment does not involve any provisions that would impose backfits as defined. Therefore, a backfit analysis is not required. Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act In accordance with the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996, the NRC has determined that this action is not a major rule and has verified this determination with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget. List of Subjects In 10 CFR Part 72 Administrative practice and procedure, Criminal penalties, Manpower training programs, Nuclear materials, Occupational safety and health, Penalties, Radiation protection, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, Security measures, Spent fuel, Whistleblowing. For the reasons set out in the preamble and under the authority of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended; the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, as amended; and 5 U.S.C. 552 and 553, the NRC is adopting the following amendments to 10 CFR part 72. PART 72--LICENSING REQUIREMENTS FOR THE INDEPENDENT STORAGE OF SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL AND HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE 1. The authority citation for Part 72 continues to read as follows: Authority: Secs. 51, 53, 57, 62, 63, 65, 69, 81, 161, 182, 183, 184, 186, 187, 189, 68 Stat. 929, 930, 932, 933, 934, 935, 948, 953, 954, 955, as amended, sec. 234, 83 Stat. 444, as amended (42 U.S.C. 2071, 2073, 2077, 2092, 2093, 2095, 2099, 2111, 2201, 2232, 2233, 2234, 2236, 2237, 2238, 2282); sec. 274, Pub. L. 86-373, 73 Stat. 688, as amended (42 U.S.C. 2021); sec. 201, as amended, 202, 206, 88 Stat. 1242, as amended, 1244, 1246 (42 U.S.C. 5841, 5842, 5846); Pub. L. 95-601, sec. 10, 92 Stat. 2951 as amended by Pub. L. 102- 486, sec. 7902, 106 Stat. 3123 (42 U.S.C. 5851); sec. 102, Pub. L. 91-190, 83 Stat. 853 (42 U.S.C. 4332); secs. 131, 132, 133, 135, 137, 141, Pub. L. 97-425, 96 Stat. 2229, 2230, 2232, 2241, sec. 148, Pub. L. 100-203, 101 Stat. 1330-235 (42 U.S.C. 10151, 10152, 10153, 10155, 10157, 10161, 10168). Section 72.44(g) also issued under secs. 142(b) and 148(c), (d), Pub. L. 100-203, 101 Stat. 1330-232, 1330-236 (42 U.S.C. 10162(b), 10168(c), (d)). Section 72.46 also issued under sec. 189, 68 Stat. 955 (42 U.S.C. 2239); sec. 134, Pub. L. 97-425, 96 Stat. 2230 (42 U.S.C. 10154). Section 72.96(d) also issued under sec. 145(g), Pub. L. 100-203, 101 Stat. 1330-235 (42 U.S.C. 10165(g)). Subpart J also issued under secs. 2(2), 2(15), 2(19), 117(a), 141(h), Pub. L. 97- 425, 96 Stat. 2202, 2203, 2204, 2222, 2224, (42 U.S.C. 10101, 10137(a), 10161(h)). Subparts K and L are also issued under sec. 133, 98 Stat. 2230 (42 U.S.C. 10153) and sec. 218(a), 96 Stat. 2252 (42 U.S.C. 10198). 2. In Sec. 72.214, Certificate of Compliance 1007 is revised to read as follows: Sec. 72.214 List of approved spent fuel storage casks. * * * * * Certificate Number: 1007. [[Page 69990]] Initial Certificate Effective Date: May 7, 1993. Amendment Number 1 Effective Date: May 30, 2000. Amendment Number 2 Effective Date: September 5, 2000. Amendment Number 3 Effective Date: May 21, 2001. Amendment Number 4 Effective Date: February 3, 2003. SAR Submitted by: Pacific Sierra Nuclear Associates. SAR Title: Final Safety Analysis Report for the Ventilated Storage Cask System. Docket Number: 72-1007. Certificate Expiration Date: May 7, 2013. Model Number: VSC-24. * * * * * For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 1st day of Nov., 2002. William D. Travers, Executive Director for Operations. [FR Doc. 02-29485 Filed 11-19-02; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 35 NRC: Spent fuel Casts revisions FR Doc 02-29486 [Federal Register: November 20, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 224)] [Proposed Rules] [Page 70029-70031] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr20no02-19] NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 10 CFR Part 72 RIN 3150-AH-05 List of Approved Spent Fuel Storage Casks: VSC-24 Revision AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Proposed rule. SUMMARY: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is proposing to amend its regulations revising the Pacific Sierra Nuclear Associates VSC-24 system listing within the ``List of Approved Spent Fuel Storage Casks'' to include Amendment No. 4 to the Certificate of Compliance. Amendment No. 4 would modify the present cask system design to permit the storage of different specific fuel control elements as integral components to fuel assemblies under a general license. Also, Technical Specification (TS) 1.1.1 would be amended to change the flood condition velocity from 7.62 meters per [[Page 70030]] second (m/s) [25 feet per second (ft/s)] to 5.39 m/s (17.7 ft/s); TS 1.2.1, 1.2.4., and 1.2.6 would be amended to address the additional fuel control elements approved for storage; and TS 1.2.10 would de deleted to eliminate redundant requirements for controlling moderator density. DATES: Comments on the proposed rule must be received on or before December 20, 2002. ADDRESSES: Submit comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington DC 20555-0001, Attn: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff. Deliver comments to 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. on Federal workdays. Certain documents related to this rulemaking, as well as all public comments received on this rulemaking, may be viewed and downloaded electronically via the NRC's rulemaking website at http:// ruleforum.llnl.gov [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://ruleforum.llnl.gov] . You may also provide comments via this website by uploading comments as files (any format) if your web browser supports that function. For information about the interactive rulemaking site, contact Ms. Carol Gallagher (301) 415-5905; e-mail CAG@nrc.gov [CAG@nrc.gov] . Certain documents related to this rule, including comments received by the NRC, may be examined at the NRC Public Document Room 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD. For more information, contact the NRC Public Document Room (PDR) Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415- 4737 or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov [pdr@nrc.gov] . Documents created or received at the NRC after November 1, 1999, are also available electronically at the NRC's Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/ adams.html [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html] . From this site, the public can gain entry into the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and image files of NRC's public documents. An electronic copy of the proposed Certificate of Compliance (CoC) and preliminary Safety Evaluation Report (SER) can be found under ADAMS Accession No. ML 022490171. If you do not have access to ADAMS or if there are problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, contact the NRC PDR Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737 or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov [pdr@nrc.gov] . FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jayne M. McCausland, telephone (301) 415-6219, e-mail, jmm2@nrc.gov [jmm2@nrc.gov] of the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: For additional information see the direct final rule published in the final rules section of this Federal Register. Procedural Background This rule is limited to the changes contained in Amendment 4 to CoC No. 1007 and does not include other aspects of the VSC-24 system design. The NRC is using the ``direct final rule procedure'' to issue this amendment because it represents a limited and routine change to an existing CoC that is expected to be noncontroversial. Adequate protection of public health and safety continues to be ensured. Because NRC considers this action noncontroversial and routine, the proposed rule is being published concurrently as a direct final rule. The direct final rule will become effective on February 3, 2003. However, if the NRC receives significant adverse comments by December 20, 2002, then the NRC will publish a document that withdraws this action and will address the comments received in response to the proposed amendments published elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register. A significant adverse comment is a comment where the commenter explains why the rule would inappropriate, including challenges to the rule's underlying premise or approach, or would be ineffective or unacceptable without a change. A comment is adverse and significant if: (1) The comment opposes the rule and provides a reason sufficient to require a substantive response in a notice-and-comment process. For example, in a substantive response: (a) The comment causes the NRC staff to reevaluate (or reconsider) its position or conduct additional analysis; (b) The comment raises an issue serious enough to warrant a substantive response to clarify or complete the record; or (c) The comment raises a relevant issue that was not previously addressed or considered by the NRC staff. (2) The comment proposes a change or an addition to the rule, and it is apparent that the rule would be ineffective or unacceptable without incorporation of the change or addition. (3) The comment causes the NRC staff to make a change (other than editorial) to the CoC or TS. These comments will be addressed in a subsequent final rule. The NRC will not initiate a second comment period on this action. List of Subjects In 10 CFR Part 72 Administrative practice and procedure, Criminal penalties, Manpower training programs, Nuclear materials, Occupational safety and health, Penalties, Radiation protection, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, Security measures, Spent fuel, Whistleblowing. For the reasons set out in the preamble and under the authority of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended; the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, as amended; and 5 U.S.C. 553, the NRC is proposing to adopt the following amendments to 10 CFR part 72. PART 72--LICENSING REQUIREMENTS FOR THE INDEPENDENT STORAGE OF SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL AND HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE 1. The authority citation for part 72 continues to read as follows: Authority: Secs. 51, 53, 57, 62, 63, 65, 69, 81, 161, 182, 183, 184, 186, 187, 189, 68 Stat. 929, 930, 932, 933, 934, 935, 948, 953, 954, 955, as amended, sec. 234, 83 Stat. 444, as amended (42 U.S.C. 2071, 2073, 2077, 2092, 2093, 2095, 2099, 2111, 2201, 2232, 2233, 2234, 2236, 2237, 2238, 2282); sec. 274, Pub. L. 86-373, 73 Stat. 688, as amended (42 U.S.C. 2021); sec. 201, as amended, 202, 206, 88 Stat. 1242, as amended, 1244, 1246 (42 U.S.C. 5841, 5842, 5846); Pub. L. 95-601, sec. 10, 92 Stat. 2951 as amended by Pub. L. 102- 486, sec. 7902, 106 Stat. 3123 (42 U.S.C. 5851); sec. 102, Pub. L. 91-190, 83 Stat. 853 (42 U.S.C. 4332); secs. 131, 132, 133, 135, 137, 141, Pub. L. 97-425, 96 Stat. 2229, 2230, 2232, 2241, sec. 148, Pub. L. 100-203, 101 Stat. 1330-235 (42 U.S.C. 10151, 10152, 10153, 10155, 10157, 10161, 10168). Section 72.44(g) also issued under secs. 142(b) and 148(c), (d), Pub. L. 100-203, 101 Stat. 1330-232, 1330-236 (42 U.S.C. 10162(b), 10168(c), (d)). Section 72.46 also issued under sec. 189, 68 Stat. 955 (42 U.S.C. 2239); sec. 134, Pub. L. 97-425, 96 Stat. 2230 (42 U.S.C. 10154). Section 72.96(d) also issued under sec. 145(g), Pub. L. 100- 203, 101 Stat. 1330-235 (42 U.S.C. 10165(g)). Subpart J also issued under secs. 2(20, 2(15), 2(19), 117(a), 141(h), Pub. L. 97-425, 96 Stat. 2202, 2203, 2204, 2222, 2224, (42 U.S.C. 10101, 10137(a), 10161(h)). Subparts K and L are also issued under sec. 133, 98 Stat. 2230 (42 U.S.C. 10153) and sec. 218(a), 96 Stat. 2252 (42 U.S.C. 10198). 2. In Sec. 72.214, Certificate of Compliance 1007 is revised to read as follows: Sec. 72.214 List of approved spent fuel storage casks. * * * * * Certificate Number: 1007. [[Page 70031]] Initial Certificate Effective Date: May 7, 1993. Amendment Number 1 Effective Date: May 30, 2000. Amendment Number 2 Effective Date: September 5, 2000. Amendment Number 3 Effective Date: May 21, 2001. Amendment Number 4 Effective Date: February 3, 2003. SAR Submitted by: Pacific Sierra Nuclear Associates. SAR Title: Final Safety Analysis Report for the Ventilated Storage Cask System. Docket Number: 72-1007. Certificate Expiration Date: May 7, 2013. Model Number: VSC-24. * * * * * Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 1st day of November, 2002. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. William D. Travers, Executive Director for Operations. [FR Doc. 02-29486 Filed 11-19-02; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-M ***************************************************************** 36 Stop spent nuclear rod shipment heraldsun.com: Chatham: Nuclear plants' safety in N.C. still in question (September 11, 2002) How secure is nuclear waste?: Industry says storage is safe, but some activists disagree (August 20, 2002) NUCLEAR SHIPMENTS: Waste suspension premature (June 1, 2002) Chatham official sends warning letter: Givens says the movement of spent fuel rods by train an easy target for terrorists (May 26, 2002) Terror forum no-shows stand out: Although event not held to bash CP, fuel rod storage came up (May 3, 2002) Forum set on 'Nuclear Terrorism in Triangle': Thursday night session at the Friday Center will focus on safety at CP's Shearon Harris plant (May 1, 2002) By Geoffrey Graybeal : The Herald-Sun ggraybeal@heraldsun.com [ggraybeal@heraldsun.com] Nov 19, 2002 : 7:05 pm ET PITTSBORO -- Chatham County has asked state Attorney General Roy Cooper to halt shipments of spent nuclear fuel rods into the region until revised federal security measures are in place. After heated debate, the County Commissioners voted 3-2 Monday night for a resolution drafted by Commissioner Bob Atwater. The vote came after a resolution prepared by the N.C. Waste Awareness & Reduction Network (WARN), an anti-nuclear advocacy group, was tabled. "We request this action in order to potentially reduce the risk of a tragic event that may compromise the lives, health and property of North Carolinians," the resolution reads. About half of the 125 residents at the meeting in the packed Superior Court room rose in ovation after the vote. "These trains cannot be protected from terrorist attacks," said Moncure resident Judy Hogan, who gave a five-minute presentation to the board. "They are easily derailed." WARN Executive Director Jim Warren called the commissioners’ action a "very important move." "Despite all the pressure that CP&L obviously put on these local government officials ... the local government has gone beyond that and called on the attorney general to do what’s right," Warren said. "It’s just huge that they were able to break from that corporate influence and speak beyond it to really press the state to do what’s right." Carolina Power & Light and its parent company, Progress Energy, own the nearby Shearon Harris nuclear plant, where plans call for the spent fuel rods to be stored. Spokesman Kathy Hawkins said the company continues to strengthen its safeguards and security efforts. "We have been shipping spent fuel with no problems for 14 years," she said. When Hawkins asked that the two commissioners about to leave the board as a result of this month’s election, Chairman Gary Phillips and Rick Givens, not vote on the item, Phillips lost his temper. In a brief outburst, Phillips asked Hawkins to justify her request. Hawkins said Phillips was a known advocate for WARN. Phillips asked Hawkins if she thought that, because he had an opinion, he could not vote. He then called her out of order and asked her to sit down. Commissioner Carl Outz said CP&L has done all it can. "They’ve tripled their security at the plant and railroad," Outz said. He said more research was needed and that CP&L, the largest taxpayer in Chatham County, has been a good corporate neighbor. Commissioner Rick Givens said he saw "hidden agendas" in the WARN resolution with which he disagreed, but said the fuel rod shipments should be halted. In May, Givens wrote a letter to U.S. Sen. John Edwards, Rep. David Price, Gov. Mike Easley and Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Richard Meserve seeking a temporary suspension of hauling spent fuel rods to and from nuclear power plants. Last December, Givens spent a day with Shearon Harris’ security chief discussing processes and procedures at the plant. Commissioner Margaret Pollard, who cast the swing vote to pass the resolution, said we are living in a "brand new world" since Sept. 11, 2001. "How to assure the safety of the citizenry is a very complex issue, and I have struggled over this resolution and like others I find some problems with it but I understand the concerns of those who developed the resolution," Pollard said. Atwater said he would not abandon his responsibility to the next board or a board 10 years from now. Anticipating problems with the WARN resolution, Atwater prepared a revised resolution. He said CP&L is taking "unnecessary risks" by hauling the waste and said shipping spent fuel rods is an "issue worth us giving voice to." The resolution reads that "a significant number of Chatham County citizens feel that an unnecessary risk accompanies the transportation of nuclear fuel rods from other nuclear facilities to our region of North Carolina." Phillips said he is "very, very concerned" about hazardous waste being shipped across North Carolina and that the concerns are legitimate. "This is not my resolution," Phillips said. "I did not write it. I did not advocate it to anyone on this board." He said he has respect for CP&L, but has criticized the utility for having "a certain kind of arrogance" and for refusing to participate in an open process. He said he finds that "offensive." Givens said the two incoming commissioners, Bunkey Morgan and Tommy Emerson, should take a tour of Shearon Harris and get security briefings. Givens made a motion to table the WARN resolution and request briefings for the new commissioners, which Outz seconded. That motion passed 3-2 with Phillips and Atwater opposed. Seconds later, Atwater made a motion to pass his revised resolution, which Phillips seconded. That motion passed 3-2 with Givens and Outz opposed. WARN has been calling on Cooper to stop the waste shipments at the Harris plant. Cooper has authority under the state constitution to "amend or modify" the operations of corporations that "exceed or abuse" their state granted charter. In October, a military security expert now working with WARN delivered a confidential vulnerability assessment to Cooper, concluding that CP&L’s shipments can’t be protected from attacks that could cause injuries, deaths and economic losses from radiation damage. ***************************************************************** 37 JOA 3 million pound yellowcake reprocessing agreement The Salt Lake Tribune -- BUSINESS BRIEFS Tuesday, November 19, 2002 International Uranium Corp., which operates the White Mesa reprocessing mill in southeastern Utah, has entered into a joint venture with Tennessee-based Nuclear Fuel Services Inc. to process as much as 3 million pounds of yellowcake annually for at least six years. The new Urizon Recovery Systems LLC hopes to use new methods to recycle uranium-laced materials from U.S. Energy Department sites for use as nuclear-plant fuel. The idea must first be approved by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and other agencies. Rubicon Medical of Salt Lake City reports a net loss of $367,000 for its third quarter, up sharply from a net loss of $34,000 the same time a year ago. The quarter ending Sept. 30 also saw the biotech company's revenues shrink to $65,000 compared with $356,000 for 2001's third quarter. Salt Lake City's Cimetrix Inc. reports net sales were $636,000 for its third quarter, down 3 percent from the $654,000 posted in the same quarter of 2001. The company posted a net loss of $785,000. © Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on ***************************************************************** 38 Nuclear waste transportation bill might be reintroduced Wednesday, November 20, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- An Illinois senator is behind the first attempt to regulate planned shipments of nuclear waste to Nevada since Congress approved Yucca Mountain for a high-level repository this summer. Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin wants the Department of Transportation to lead a comprehensive safety program that considers terrorist threats, truck and railroad routes, and the durability of casks that would hold spent fuel assemblies during transport. Durbin's proposals were set forth in a bill he introduced Nov. 14 as the Senate concentrated on homeland security issues. A spokesman said he plans to reintroduce the bill early next year. Some of his initiatives are new, but officials said others reflect ideas already in the works. An estimated 4,300 waste shipments from commercial power plants and government facilities in 39 states would go to a planned repository at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Durbin said he intends his bill to be a starting point for Congress to debate nuclear waste transportation, but some Capitol Hill experts said it is not clear how much appetite lawmakers will have for the issue in the wake of bruising Yucca Mountain fights this year. Some called the effort well-intentioned but premature considering legal and budget challenges also facing the Yucca Mountain Project. "There's no scoping, no transportation plan, no provisions for forcing the Energy Department to go out and listen to communities," said Bob Loux, director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects. "It's well-intended, but it's premature and very simplified and very duplicative of things in statute already." Among its requirements, the bill prohibits nuclear waste barge transports on the Great Lakes and inland waterways. Barge shipments were suggested by the Department of Energy for power plants not accessible to rail spurs. To the extent nuclear waste travels by rail, shippers would have to dedicate trains solely for that purpose, rather than mix radioactive material cars with other cargo cars. The legislation leaves it up to the Department of Transportation to set the number of trained escorts to accompany shipments by rail and by truck. Trucks and trains would need to equipped with the best available technology for communications and radiation health monitoring. It directs the Transportation and Energy departments to consult with governors on preferred routes and alternatives, and requires governors be given seven days notice before nuclear waste travels through their states. The bill would authorize training grants for hazardous materials handlers, starting with a $3 million total fund next year, and "such sums as may be necessary" from 2004 to 2012. It also directs the Federal Emergency Management Agency to launch campaigns teaching how citizens should respond to shipping accidents or other emergencies. It calls for new studies on the public health effects of spent fuel accidents and potential terrorist threats to waste shipment casks. "I am convinced a safe and reliable transportation plan can be developed, and we must start that process now," Durbin said. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans to oppose the legislation in its current form, spokeswoman Shannon Eagan said. It contains a number of problems, she said, including moving responsibilities to the Transportation Department that Reid believes should remain with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. lasvegas.com [http://www.lasvegas.com] ***************************************************************** 39 Plutonium Waste to be Shipped to WIPP* * November 20, 2002 Associated Press 11/20/2002 * CARLSBAD, N.M.?The U.S. Department of Energy plans to ship 45 truckloads of plutonium waste from a former nuclear weapons factory near Denver to a federal underground dump in southern New Mexico. * The announcement, published Monday in the Federal Register, reverses a position the department took in February. At the time, officials said two troublesome tons of plutonium waste now sitting at the old Rocky Flats factory would not be sent to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad. The department's notice says that nearly half of the waste is now destined for WIPP. Assistant Energy Secretary Jessie Roberson said Tuesday the department reconsidered after realizing a portion of the two tons had a low-enough plutonium concentration to meet WIPP's disposal criteria. That explanation did not sit well with DOE critics, who said the department misled them when it announced in February that it had no plans to send any of the plutonium to WIPP. "It looks to me like once again we've been lied to," said Don Hancock of the Southwest Research and Information Center. Hancock's fear is that the agency will follow up its current decision with other small shipments that gradually add up to the two tons. "They just seem to want to piecemeal this whole thing so that people don't get excited," he said. "But when you put lots of little together, it ends up being lots of plutonium, none of which was supposed to go to WIPP." The problem plutonium stands in the way of a DOE commitment to finish cleaning up Rocky Flats so it can be permanently closed. To do that, the plutonium must be sent elsewhere. The department's plan satisfies New Mexico's two senators, who had complained in January when it looked like the entire two tons were headed to WIPP. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said that by only sending the lower-concentration portion, the department is adhering to existing rules about WIPP disposal. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said he has been assured that the waste is comparable in all relevant respects to the waste already being shipped to WIPP. The portion to be sent to WIPP is 18 percent plutonium mixed with other chemicals, which Roberson said meets WIPP disposal criteria. Roberson said the department still does not have a plan for the remaining ton, which has a plutonium concentration higher than the 20 percent permitted at WIPP. *On the Net:* Waste Isolation Pilot Plant: http://www.wipp.carlsbad.nm.us/ Rocky Flats: http://www.rfets.gov /©Santa Fe New Mexican 2002/ ***************************************************************** 40 Surplus Plutonium Headed for WIPP* * November 20, 2002 By JEFF TOLLEFSON | The New Mexican 11/20/2002 * The U.S. Department of Energy announced plans to ship almost 400 pounds of surplus plutonium from Rocky Flats in Colorado to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad. * DOE's decision appeared in Monday's Federal Register, indicating the agency plans to ship more than a ton of material containing the 400 pounds of surplus plutonium to WIPP. These shipments would represent less than 10 percent of an estimated 2.2 tons of plutonium that is too impure for conversion into fuel for nuclear reactors - the chosen future for some 37 tons of plutonium left over from decades of weapons development. WIPP watchdog Don Hancock of the Southwest Information and Research Center pounced on the decision as evidence that the DOE is going back on the promises it made in February, when the agency said it did not plan to ship the 2.2 tons of waste to WIPP. "I'm sure their take is that they are changing their plans, but it was obvious all along that their plans were going to change, so it seems to me that they were lying back in February," Hancock said Tuesday. "The curiosity of the timing of it is they are doing it right after the election." DOE spokesman Joe Davis said the decision is in accordance with previous promises and meets all legal requirements for nuclear-waste disposal at WIPP. In particular, Davis cited legislation authored by U.S. Sen. Pete Domenci, R-N.M., to ensure that WIPP would not receive waste with concentrations of plutonium higher than 20 percent. Earlier this year, Domenici wrote a letter to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham seeking assurance that the agency would not try to dilute the 2.2 tons of excess plutonium in order to dispose of it at WIPP. Domenici's office said Tuesday that the senator is satisfied that DOE has met its obligations and can properly dispose of the 400 pounds of plutonium at WIPP. "I am pleased the DOE retreated from its original proposal to send higher-concentration wastes to WIPP," Domenici said. If the metric ton in question is almost uniform in composition, it would be about 18.5 percent plutonium - just below the legal requirement. Hancock remained skeptical, calling for documentation. "What they said yesterday is some of this waste could be around 50 percent plutonium by waste," Hancock said. "As is usually the case, DOE is trickling out information and only puts out information that they have to and then only usually reluctantly." The plutonium in question stems from a pact with Russia, in which the United States agreed to dispose nearly 40 tons of weapons-grade plutonium. Earlier this year, the Bush administration decided to convert 37 tons of plutonium into mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel for nuclear reactors, but an additional 2.2 tons of "very impure plutonium was slated to go 'directly to waste,' " according to an internal memo widely circulated at the time. For Hancock, the problems began in January, when the Bush administration decided to convert the plutonium into MOX fuel. Hancock believes the federal government should immobilize all of the plutonium, instead of subsidizing the nuclear industry and creating a commercial market for bomb material. As a result of the decision to go to MOX, he said, DOE has 2.2 tons of spare plutonium to get rid of somehow, and all eyes are on WIPP. Hancock's fear is that the agency will follow up its current decision with other small shipments that gradually add up to the 2.2 tons. "They just seem to want to piecemeal this whole thing so that people don't get excited," he said. "But when you put lots of little together, it ends up being lots of plutonium, none of which was supposed to go to WIPP." Santa Fe New Mexican ***************************************************************** 41 Oversight group draws much interest stltoday.com STLtoday.com By Kevin Carbery Of the Suburban Journals News Democrat Journal 11/17/2002 06:00 AM If a meeting Monday was any indication, there is plenty of interest in a group that will oversee environmental problems in Hematite. The Joachim Watershed Community Advisory Group (CAG) held its first official meeting at the Hematite First Christian Church and the event drew dozens of people. The gathering brought together residents concerned about contamination of water wells, as well as former employees of the nuclear fuel plant in Hematite who have concerns about their health. The plant opened in 1956, when it was built by Mallinckrodt Chemical Works, and was closed in 2001 by its current owner, Westinghouse Electric Co. Among the other owners of the plant was ABB (Asea Brown Boven) Combustion Engineering from 1989 to 2000, when it was sold to Westinghouse. At the meeting, the group's organizer, Clarissa Eaton, spoke on what information about the nuclear fuel plant is available to the public and discussed the concerns of the group. Eaton's home was one of those found to have a contaminated water well over the past year. "This is just, kind of, an awareness meeting," Eaton said. "It's also an attempt to extend the CAG, get more involvement from the community." Among the matters members of the group say they want to see investigated are: > If there has been an excessive number of cancer cases of people living near the plant. > How long the contamination cleaning period will take. > If residents of the area who have private wells can be placed on a public water system. > If former employees of the plant were exposed to contaminants in their drinking water. > The long-term impacts of contaminants that have come from the plant. Water well contamination was discovered in the area near the plant in December 2001, when tests administered by the state Department of Health and Senior Services found contaminants during a routine check of a private well on private property owned by Westinghouse near the plant. The department found traces of trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene and their byproducts, which were used as cleaning agents at the plant. Additional testing of 23 private wells in March 2002 turned up six wells contaminated with the chemicals. Westinghouse reported Aug. 30 that two more home water wells had been found to be contaminated through a quarterly monitoring program. Residents are also concerned about the possibility of technitium-99, a radioactive substance, having spread to the wells. Also at the meeting were representatives of the Paducah, Ky., office of the Energy Employees Compensation Resource Center, a government-affiliated organization. They discussed how former employees of the plant could seek compensation from the government for radiation exposure. Stewart Tolar, the center's site manager, explained that those who have suffered certain illnesses caused by exposure to radiation, beryllium or silica are eligible to receive a lump sum payment of $150,000 and payment for medical expenses incurred. "If they have cancer, sure, they might get this money," Tolar said. "If they want to file a claim, we will help them file a claim." For further information about the program, call 1-866-534-0599 or e-mail the office at paducah.center@eh.doe.gov. Eaton encouraged members of the audience to pursue information and answers about the plant as a group. "We have to work together," she said. "We have to share notes. It's so important that we share everything we know." The next meeting of the local group is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 19, at Hematite First Christian Church on Highway P, next to the Hematite Post Office. "We're going to meet on the third Thursday of every month here," Eaton said. For further information about the group, call Eaton at 937-7922. ***************************************************************** 42 The truth about tritium By Lester Haines The Register 20 November 2002 [lester.haines@theregister.co.uk] Posted: 20/11/2002 at 13:15 GMT There has been a veritable explosion of correspondence over the last two weeks concerning the marvellous Traser GlowRing [http://www.clickandbuild.com/cnb/shop/cashncarrion?listPos=&op=c atalogue-products-null&prodCategoryID=19] . Many have expressed outrage that we are not able to ship the GlowRing overseas, demanding an explanation. Well, the facts are these: the GlowRing contains radioactive tritium gas. It's this which excites the phosphorescent coating inside the tube to produce the light. What it doesn't excite much are the US authorities, who forbid the civilian use of radioactive material. Hence the embargo. However, before Cash'n'Carrion customers who've bought one of these beauties run screaming for the lead shielding, it's worth absorbing some background info, courtesy of the US Environmental Protection Agency [http://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclides/tritium.htm] : Tritium was discovered by physicists Ernest Rutherford, M.L. Oliphant, and Paul Harteck, in 1934, when they bombarded deuterium (a hydrogen isotope with mass number 2) with high-energy deuterons (nuclei of deuterium atoms). Where does tritium come from? Tritium is produced naturally in the upper atmosphere when cosmic rays strike air molecules. Tritium is also produced during nuclear weapons explosions, as a byproduct in reactors producing electricity, and in special production reactors, where the isotope lithium-6 is bombarded to produce tritium. What are the properties of tritium? Tritium is a hydrogen atom that has 2 neutrons in the nucleus, in addition to its single proton, giving it an atomic weight near 3. Although tritium can be a gas, its most common form is in water, because, like non-radioactive hydrogen, radioactive tritium reacts with oxygen to form water. Tritium replaces one of the stable hydrogens in the water molecule, H2O, and is called tritiated water. Like H2O, tritiated water is colorless and odorless. Tritium has a half-life of 12.3 years and emits a very weak beta particle. The key words here are "very weak" - the beta particles are unable to penetrate even thin layers of solid material and are easily stopped by human skin. A report by the Public Health Division [http://www.dhs.vic.gov.au/phb/hprot/rsu/pubs/tritium.html] of the Department of Human Services in Victoria, Australia on the effects of wearing a plastic watch containing tritium concluded that the health implications were negligible. Rather more prejudicial to physical well-being is the other common use of tritium, as outlined by the Federation of American Scientists [http://www.fas.org/nuke/intro/nuke/tritium.htm] : Tritium is essential to the construction of boosted-fission nuclear weapons. A boosted weapon contains a mixture of deuterium and tritium, the gases being heated and compressed by the detonation of a plutonium or uranium device. The D-T mixture is heated to a temperature and pressure such that thermonuclear fusion occurs. This process releases a flood of 14 MeV neutrons which cause additional fissions in the device, greatly increasing its efficiency. Nice one - it's good to see science getting the most bangs for the taxpayers' bucks. There is, however, one drawback to the use of tritium in nukes - that 12.3 year half-life. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission [http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/tritiu m.html] explains: Tritium must be replenished in nuclear weapons routinely. The United States has not produced tritium since 1988, when the Department of Energy's (DOE's) production facility at the Savannah River site in South Carolina closed. Immediate tritium needs are being met by recycling tritium from dismantled U.S. nuclear weapons. According to DOE, resumption of tritium production is essential for maintaining the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. Indeed. The US is currently looking at various options for the domestic production of tritium. It's a political hot potato, as this 1998 letter [http://www.psr.org/tritium.htm] to Bill Clinton from Physicians for Social Responsibility, urging him not to use civilian facilities for the production of military tritium, proves. We Brits, on the other hand, have been producing tritium at a civilian power station for years. Chapelcross in Scotland features four dual-purpose reactors which have produced some weapons-grade plutonium and still supply tritium to the UK's nuclear weapons programme. Not for much longer, though - the plant will close in 2005. In conclusion, we here at the Reg are satisfied that the GlowRing presents no risk to health. It is conceivable, however, that were the Iraqis to get their hands on 1,000,000 GlowRings and carefully extract the tritium, they'd probably be only as matter of hours away from detonating their own nuke. It's a chilling thought. Our Cash'n'Carrion operatives have been placed on the highest state of alert and have been advised to get on the red telephone immediately should such an order come through from Baghdad. ***************************************************************** 43 Utah: It's Not Worth It The Salt Lake Tribune -- It's Not Worth It Wednesday, November 20, 2002 Something has been nagging at me during the recent debate concerning radioactive waste, Initiative 1, and its subsequent defeat. Dozens of well-known, Envirocare-funded public officials hammered us hourly about its real meaning. They told us that this was a confusing issue. Now I wonder just how well they understand the true scientific nature of radioactivity and whether this defeat signals the beginning of more waste and even a state of Utah waste facility. During a radio debate Nov. 4 on KPCW in Park City, Rep. David Ure confirmed that the state of Utah is considering its own waste facility. This received brief play in the press a few months ago as "Plan B". Ure said that the waste would be "stored in abandoned mines and caves in the Utah, Colorado, Wyoming border area." He added that this would fund education to the tune of $21 billion (previously he had estimated around $40 billion). He later told me personally that he "didn't care where it went as long as it was on state land (School and Institutional Trust Lands or SITLA)" and that "what do we care, it's not in Summit County or anywhere near the Wasatch Front." He also told me that they would proceed in this direction the next day if Initiative 1 was defeated. I do care, however. This admission came as a shock to me, and makes me think that the opponents to Initiative 1 were merely trying to make sure the door would not be closed for new licenses, namely to the state of Utah in exchange for revenue. Scientific review will maintain that radioactive waste should not be stored long-term near any major river drainages, faults or mountain-building, especially the Green/Colorado River system which supplies tens of millions of western Americans with water. As a member of the National Association of Counties (NACO) Energy and Environment Steering Committee, we have made it absolutely clear that we must find permanent storage for the waste, but that it must be a scientific process for site selection, not political. This site selection seems purely political, is bad science, no matter how many pieces of silver we receive. It's not worth it. PATRICK CONE Commissioner Summit County Oakley © Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on ***************************************************************** 44 SELLAFIELD NEEDS MORE POSITIVE SPIN ON SUCCESS - The Whitehaven News SELLAFIELD NEEDS MORE POSITIVE SPIN ON SUCCESS SELLAFIELD must follow the lead of top American nuclear firms and put a more positive spin on its achievements, union officials claimed after a visit to the States. Groups of BNFL employees recently made a number of fact-finding trips to key US sites, including Rocky Flats, Idaho Falls and Savannah River. And the most significant lesson to be learned is one of presentation, according to Peter Kane, GMB union convenor at Sellafield. He said: "The most striking thing about the Americans is the way they sell themselves. They make a point of letting everyone know how good they are, and they do it very well. "For example, Savannah River's safety record is no better than ours, but we don't sell ourselves as well as they do. "In the 26 years I've been here, we have made significant improvements on discharges, dose uptake and clean-up on the site. But this doesn't seem to have been publicised enough. "Support for the American sites and workforces seems to extend beyond the local communities. Sellafield is well supported locally, but outside West Cumbria the outlook is more negative than positive." Senior managers from Sellafield Management and Operations Services held discussions with representatives of BNFL Inc, US clean-up contractors Kaiser Hill and the US Department of Energy. Brian Watson, BNFL's director of operations, said: "This was a very important visit to the USA. Our customers of the future, the Liabilities Management Unit, undertook a similar visit earlier this year and we are now much better placed to understand their perceptions of the strengths and weaknesses of the work going on in the USA and match them with our own perceptions." A further transatlantic trip, made by members of the Sellafield Site Partnership Forum, investigated what it would mean to employees to work under a site Management and Operations contract. Steve Carter, from BNFL Human Resources, said: "It was an eye-opener for all of us and has given us a lot to think about and learn from." One of the four companies responsible for the running of Georgia's Savannah River site is Bechtel, the construction giants recently brought in as preferred consultants by the Department of Trade and Industry's Liabilities Management Authority, which manages the Sellafield site. Mr Kane anticipates Bechtel's role to increase in the near future. "I can't see them coming here to simply do consultancy work," he said. "They are a worldwide player. They may, in time, tender for construction work here. But that is pure speculation at the moment. "We won't find out their role, beyond consultation, until the White Paper goes through Parliament. "It's in our favour, as the DTI don't want our site broken up - they don't want different contractors working on it." ***************************************************************** 45 Board Says Envirocare's Crisis Plan is OK -- for Now The Salt Lake Tribune -- Wednesday, November 20, 2002 BY JUDY FAHYS THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE A state panel certified Tuesday that an adequate crisis plan exists -- for the time being -- at Utah's only radioactive waste facility, Envirocare of Utah. The board's decision came after a daylong hearing over a request by public-interest groups to toss out a license approved last year by the state's top radiation regulator. The board asked to have a look at any final coordinated plan produced by Envirocare and agreed to study emergency-response capabilities along roads and railroad tracks likely to be used for waste headed to the Tooele County landfill. The groups, led by Families Against Incinerator Risk (FAIR), insisted that state Radiation Control Director Bill Sinclair had failed to ensure emergency-response plans are in place in case of accidents involving the hotter "B" waste that Envirocare wants to accept at its facility, about 60 miles west of Salt Lake City. Activist Claire Geddes suggested that the public repeatedly voiced concerns about safety at Envirocare during this year's debate on the Radioactive Waste Restrictions Act, a citizens initiative defeated in the election this month. "When these people find out we don't have a coordinated emergency response plan, they are going to be horrified," said Geddes, whose Legislative Watch was one of the groups appealing the license decision. The hearing revealed that the detailed, coordinated emergency-response plans Envirocare must have for the hotter waste are not yet in place. It also resolved that draft plans regulators relied on in their licensing decision do not need to be finalized until and unless the company begins taking B waste shipments. B waste is hundreds and sometimes thousands of times more radioactive than the "Class A" radioactive waste now permitted in Utah. For a year, Envirocare froze its B license, which still needs approval by the Legislature and the governor. In fighting Sinclair's first-step approval, FAIR cited state license regulations that say the emergency plan "shall demonstrate the availability and adequacy of emergency services . . . and shall provide evidence that the applicant has coordinated emergency response plans with local and regional emergency response resources." "We have [coordination] agreements," said Envirocare's regulatory affairs vice president Ken Alkema following the hearing. "They are just not written agreements for B" waste. Envirocare witness Harry Shinton, a Tooele County sheriff's deputy, bolstered that view, saying emergency responders, locally and statewide, are ready to deal with materials far riskier than B waste, such as nerve gas. FAIR witnesses undercut that opinion. For instance, Kathy Diehl, president of the Utah Emergency Management Association, said she had never heard of Envirocare's license to accept hotter waste or any special training to address radiological accidents. fahys@sltrib.com © Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on ***************************************************************** 46 Reid has concerns about nuke waste transport bill Las Vegas SUN: November 20, 2002 By Benjamin Grove < [grove@lasvegassun.com] > WASHINGTON -- Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., next year plans to push a bill aimed at making nuclear waste transportation to Nevada safer. At issue is the Energy Department's plan to ship the nation's most dangerous radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, for permanent burial. The project, to be completed by 2010 at the earliest, has been approved by President Bush and Congress but not the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Energy Department is in the initial stages of working out a waste transportation plan, and has asked Congress for more money for the planning. Durbin's bill, introduced last week as Congress continued to meet in a lame-duck session directs the Department of Transportation to establish a transportation safety program that considers terrorist threats and other dangers. It requires a department progress report for Congress one year later. Reid has called on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to bolster its regulations of waste shipments to make them more secure, in coordination with -- not in place of -- the DOT. But today he said he had "no objection" to Durbin's bill, which takes a different strategy, effectively transferring responsibility for the waste transportation plan from the NRC to the DOT. "I'm glad he's interested," Reid said. Reid said he had no plans to introduce his own bill calling for waste transportation measures, pending Nevada's legal challenges to the Yucca project in general. The best way to prevent nuclear waste shipment accidents is to not ship waste to Yucca at all, he said. Reid over the years has supported other goals of the Durbin bill, which requires: + DOT consultation with states on route selection. + No inland waterway shipments by barge. + Seven-day notice of shipments given to governors. + Trains dedicated to waste shipments only. + Tighter security with more guards on trains. Durbin's bill specifically requires guards at the front and rear of each train. Energy Department proposals require a guard only on trains traveling through urban areas. Durbin introduced the bill last week, signaling willingness to make changes and calling it a "work in progress." The Chicago Tribune has called Illinois a waste transportation "crossroads" with up to 69,000 shipments across the state in the first 38 years of Yucca's operation. It's possible some waste could be shipped on barges on the Great Lakes, which Durbin opposes. Durbin voted in favor of moving forward with Yucca when the Senate approved the project earlier this year. An Energy Department spokesman was not available today for comment on the Durbin bill. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 47 Rapporteur plans to meet Pasko The Pasko Case Gregory Pasko, an investigative journalist who worked for the Pacific Fleet's newspaper, was arrested on 20 November 1997 by the FSB and charged with high treason for his writing about the nuclear safety issues in the Russian Pacific Fleet. Jump to section [Yellow Report no.3:2001] The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has decided that its Rapporteur on the Pasko-case, Rudolf Bindig, should visit the convicted journalist in the labour camp. Council of Europe Rapporteur on the Pasko-case, Rudolf Bindig, and Bellona Europa director Soizick Martin. Vlad Nikiforov/Bellona Jon Gauslaa, 2002-11-18 16:59 Members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) have on several occasions expressed their concerns regarding the conviction of Grigory Pasko. In April 2002 PACE’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights appointed the German parliamentarian Rudolf Bindig as its Rapporteur on the case. Meeting the Chairman Mr. Bindig has followed the case closely since then. On October 28, the PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights once more considered the conviction of Mr. Pasko, and decided that Mr. Bindig should meet the President of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, Vyacheslav Lebedev, in order to discuss the case. The Rapporteur has asked to meet Mr. Lebedev in Moscow on November 27 or 28. He also plans to meet representatives of the prosecution and Mr. Pasko’s defence team, while working on his preliminary report on the case. Hopes to visit Pasko The PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights has also decided that Mr. Bindig if possible should visit Grigory Pasko in the labour camp in Ussuriysk, 100 km Northwest of Vladivostok in the Russian Far East, where he currently is serving time. The visit to Ussuriysk will be organised at a later stage. Also several other groups have expressed their intention to visit Pasko in the camp, including the Green Group of the European Parliament. In September the Group nominated Mr. Pasko as its candidate for the Parliament’s yearly Sakharov Prize for the Freedom of Thought. The prize was awarded to the Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya Sardinas. Yet, Pasko’s nomination was a moral boost both for himself and for his numerous supporters. Grigory Pasko was arrested on November 20, 1997 and accused with treason through espionage. He was acquitted by the Pacific Fleet Court in Vladivostok on these charges on July 20, 1999, but sentenced to a three-year imprisonment for misusing his position and released on a general amnesty. Both sides appealed the verdict. In November 2000 the Russian Military Supreme Court cancelled the verdict, and sent the case back for a new trial at the Pacific Fleet Court. The re-trial started on July 11, 2001 and ended on December 25, with Pasko being convicted to four years of hard labour for treason and taken into custody. The verdict led to huge protests inside of as well as outside Russia, but still the Military Collegium of the Russian Supreme Court confirmed Mr. Pasko’s four-year sentence on June 25, 2002. Pasko will be released on April 25, 2004, unless he gets a conditional release. 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 ***************************************************************** 48 Moscow has no info indicating that North Korea has nuclear weapons - defense minister* 20.11.2002 13:47:02 MOSCOW. Nov 20 (Interfax) - Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said that Moscow does not have any information indicating that Pyongyang is holding nuclear weapons. "We have no official information [that North Korea has nuclear weapons]," Ivanov told journalists in Moscow on Wednesday. "We know about the statement that was made during talks between the U.S. and North Korean authorities. I think that it is difficult to see something certain in this statement," the defense minister said. He said that "the Foreign Minister has sent a request to North Korea asking to clarify where things stand." "As far as I know, there has been no response so far. Therefore, I would not make final conclusions [about North Korea having nuclear weapons]," the defense minister said. [RU EUROPE EEU EMRG KR] tm mg <> © 1991-2002 *Interfax, All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 49 Trying to find a nuke? Button up The Manhattan Mercury @themercury.com Posted: Nov 19, 2002, 22:33:00 By Livi Regenbaum Nov 19, 2002 A new neutron detector being developed by a K-State professor may make it easier in the future to detect nuclear weapons. Currently being tested in national labs and sparking the interest of governmental agencies, the neutron detector is designed to aid international weapons inspectors — such as those now beginning work in Iraq — in detecting the presence of unauthorized nuclear weapons. Douglas McGregor, associate professor of mechanical and nuclear engineering, has been working on producing neutron detectors for the past nine years. Since April, McGregor has been at KSU. He moved his laboratory from the University of Michigan. Douglas McGregor displays his neutron detector. The size of a collar button, it can be used to detect nuclear weapons. The detectors are small wafers about the size of a collar button made from semi conductor material similar to silicon. McGregor said the wafers give off voltage pulses when they detect neutrons. “It is a semi conductor coated with a combination of chemicals boron and lithium which give of charged particles when neutrons are absorbed in those films,” said McGregor. “It then causes the detector to create small voltage pulses.” McGregor said once the voltage pulses are detected, they are measured on a multi-channel analyzer to determine the height of the neutron activity in one specific area. McGregor acknowledged that the wafers are not as efficient as the gas tubes now used to detect neutron emissions. “Although some of the designs are getting up to the same level of the efficiency of gas tubes, they only detect 13.6 percent of neutrons,” he said. But they do have advantages. Compared to the gas tube, the detectors require only a small amount of voltage to detect neutrons. The gas tubes require 1,700 volts. Cost is another advantage. The detectors can be made for as little as $40 apiece and can be tailored according to the need of the user. McGregor said there has been suggestions from some agencies to implement detectors on name badges so that they can detect radioactive materials more easily. “I hope the detectors are useful to some degree whether as a badge or as a device to look for nuclear materials,” McGregor said. “I hope to make useful items that help people.” Story Search: [http://www.themercury.com/archive] © 1996 - 2002 The Manhattan Mercury ***************************************************************** 50 Japan seeks solution to nuclear aid problems Vladivostok News :: November 19, 2002 By Anatoly Medetsky A senior Japanese foreign affairs official criticised Russia as too slow in accepting $120 million in Japanese aid towards scrapping old nuclear submarines. Yoshitaka Shindo, Japan's foreign minister's secretary in the parliament, made the comment in Vladivostok on November 16. The official, the third in command at Japan's Foreign Ministry, had been on a fact-finding trip to eastern Russia to determine the reason for the delay in spending the money. "There are no problems locally, but problems remain on the inter-governmental level," said Shindo after visiting Zvezda, the plant that currently dismantles submarines using U.S. money. This funding is supposed to run out next year, leaving the plant unable to continue its work. The U.S. money helped destroy the submarines that once threatened the United States with ballistic missiles, but were taken off duty under disarmament agreements. But Russia also has more than a hundred attack submarines, about half of them stationed off the Pacific coast, that were decommissioned due to old age, and now rust dockside. They pose an environmental risk through possible leaks of radiation from their hulls. "It is over this issue that Japan has expressed readiness to help," Shindo said. "We share the Sea of Japan, it is our common garden and we would like to start joint projects as soon as possible." In 1999 Japan pledged $200 million for the destruction of nuclear weapons in Russia, but only $80 million has been used. Most of the money was spent on Suzuran, a barge-mounted facility to treat low-level radioactive waste at Zvezda. Cooperation came to a halt following completion of Suzuran, the Japanese for lily of the valley, in 2001. Shindo said that the halt happened because the Inter-Governmental Committee on Cooperation for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons set up by Russia and Japan to govern the Japanese aid had failed to agree on spending the money. Speaking through a translator, he said that in order to remove the stumbling block, the governments might want to decide the matter in a different way, rather than through the committee. "The problem is the style and the methods of consultation," he said. Shindo's trip comes ahead of Japanese prime minister's visit to Russia in January. Write us a letter [ engl@vladnews.ru] 13 Narodny Prospect Vladivostok, 690014 Russia Phone: 7 (4232) 415-590, Fax: 7 (4232) 415-615 Published by Vladivostok Novosti, Ltd. ***************************************************************** 51 Critics Say LANL Conceals Security Problems* * November 20, 2002 By JEFF TOLLEFSON | The New Mexican 11/20/2002 * As new allegations of theft and fraud continue to mount at Los Alamos National Laboratory, one former lab employee says the lab's response to security problems since the Wen Ho Lee affair amounts to concealment: Keep security breaches out of the public eye, and they will go away. * "We don't know about security problems at Los Alamos anymore," said Chris Mechels, former technical staff member and computer engineer at the laboratory. "And the reason we don't know is they shut off public access to security problems in October of 1999." Pressured by people like Mechels, the lab began posting its security violations on the Internet in 1998. That year, six violations were reported, mostly minor. In 1999, at the height of the Wen Ho Lee scandal, the lab reported 26 violations. In nine of those, the lab confirmed that classified information was compromised; in seven others, the lab identified "potential compromise of classified information." Others involved confidential information. In the heightened awareness that followed Lee's arrest, Mechels believes, people began reporting security violations that used to be commonplace. "If you look at 1999, it's a horror show. They got 26 violations in nine months, and then they made the problem go away by turning off the reporting," Mechels said. "Did they ever fix the problems at Los Alamos? No. You don't fix problems by turning off the reporting." Citing changes in DOE security rules and reporting requirements, Los Alamos lab released the following response: "The laboratory continues to report security incidents to all appropriate management, University of California and National Nuclear Security Administration channels. In the period of 1999-2000, DOE made major changes in operational security rules and in reporting requirements." Mechels isn't surprised by this week's news of a security officer taking home security-response plans and reportedly upgrading them on a home computer (the lab released a three-sentence statement saying the individual was disciplined). Nor is Mechels surprised by reports of missing lab materials and abuses of the lab's purchase-card program. Spurred by internal documents sent to news organizations recently, the DOE Office of Inspector General says it is investigating charges that "the management of the laboratory is attempting to cover up security breaches and hide illegal activities from the public, the Department of Energy, federal law-enforcement agencies and political oversight groups." Lab and DOE officials say both lab Director John Browne and National Nuclear Security Administration Acting Administrator Linton Brooks called for the investigation after anonymous sources claiming to occupy "high-level positions" at the lab sent out the memo along with a host of other internal documents. Among other allegations, the Inspector General's investigation will focus on an internal memo indicating that upward of $3 million in equipment was classified as "lost" at the laboratory from 1999 to 2001. The author of the document, whose name has been blacked out, indicates that thefts of equipment valued at less than $5,000 are not even reported, while the lab's Office of Security Inquiries seldom follows up on those that are. The memo authorizes changes to address the problems, including the hiring of three additional employees. Lab spokeswoman Linn Tytler said she cannot address the veracity of the $3 million figure. "I am still awaiting the lab's reconciliation of the document," she said. "I can't address the context of that document without input from the laboratory. I simply do not know what those numbers reflect." At the same time, the U.S. attorney's office and the FBI are investigating alleged abuses of the lab's purchase-card program, said Bryan Wilkes of the National Nuclear Security Administration. The FBI has received warrants to search the homes of two lab employees - Peter Bussolini, a team leader within Facility Management at the laboratory, and Scott Alexander, "who acts as purchaser for the unit" - who allegedly used the purchase cards to make at least $50,000 in private purchases in 2001 and 2002. In making the allegations, the FBI cites evidence provided by other laboratory employees. Neither the U.S. attorney's office nor the FBI will comment on the investigation. The lab announced in August that it had suspended two employees for "apparent irregularities" in the use of purchase cards, "triggering a more comprehensive investigation of all purchase-card transactions for the past two years." Tytler indicates that the lab has tightened the restrictions on purchases, now requiring all purchasers to have approval from a supervisor when they use the cards; self-approval is no longer allowed for any purchases, she said. Approximately 750 lab employees currently carry such purchase cards, "down 140 cardholders from the early-August timeframe," according to Tytler. She said the spending limit is $2,500 per transaction for most cardholders, with no more than $25,000 in purchases each month; average purchases range from $300 to $400. Critics of purchase-card programs wonder why federal agencies haven't either learned to control the programs or cancelled them altogether. "For relatively smaller purchases, it's supposedly faster and more efficient, but the abuse of these cards is outrageous," said Peter Stockton, a consultant for the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog organization, as well as special assistant to Bill Richardson when the New Mexico governor-elect served as Energy secretary. What has Stockton more concerned at present is the $3 million in missing equipment, including computers that might contain sensitive information. Ultimately, such reports represent a security threat at a nuclear-weapons laboratory such as Los Alamos, he said. When the initial e-mail message detailing fraud, abuse of purchase cards and efforts to cover up the problems at the laboratory went out to news organizations, authors of the anonymous report keyed on exactly that notion: "criminal activity, administrative mismanagement and high-level corruption" are "having a critical effect on national/homeland security." Although laboratory officials tend to question the hidden agendas behind such anonymous reports, Stockton calls the whistleblowers "extraordinarily credible," saying all of their allegations have been correct so far. Moreover, Stockton said, the whistleblowers believe they have gone through proper channels but feel upper management in the laboratory is trying to cover up the problems. He says it's the laboratory's harsh treatment of whistleblowers that forces people to put out information anonymously. "There are horror stories all over the place where whistleblowers have all kinds of protections, allegedly, but man do they get creamed," Stockton said. "Very, very few come out the other end half together, and that's why these guys are hiding their identity." Santa Fe New Mexican ***************************************************************** 52 Two new disposal units opened at Fernald site - 2002-11-20 - Cincinnati Business Courier The Department of Energy and Fluor Fernald have finished construction on two more disposal cells to hold contaminated material from the former Fernald uranium processing plant. The cells are part of a seven-cell, three-quarter-mile-long on-site disposal facility that will eventually hold 2.5 million cubic yards of waste from the cleanup at Fernald. So far, the first cell in the facility is completely full and covered, the second is full and waiting to be covered and a third is more than 50 percent full. Each cell is 800 feet wide by 400 feet long. Fernald is located on 1,050 acres in Crosby Township, about 18 miles northwest of Cincinnati. During the Cold War, Fernald produced about 500 million pounds of uranium products for the U.S. weapons program, and the facility later created uranium fuel elements for nuclear reactors in Washington and South Carolina. According to a news release, heavy equipment operators began placing contaminated material from the site in one of the new cells on Nov. 8. The other new cell has been opened for placement, but has not yet received any material. The disposal facility encompasses 70 acres and has its own wastewater collection system a 5-foot-thick synthetic and earthen liner and a 8.75-foot-thick cover. The construction and loading of the facility is 40 percent complete, and it will be one of the last projects to be finished before the site is totally remediated in December 2006. About 920 acres of the site are expected to be returned to their natural state with an undeveloped park. © 2002 American City Business Journals Inc. ***************************************************************** 53 Letter: Plant's 50-year operation short-term gain, long-term loss - Kristi Hanson [http://www.paducahsun.com/] The Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky Wednesday, November 20, 2002 EDITOR: On Oct. 24, the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, the U.S. Department of Energy and USEC observed the 50-year anniversary of the operation of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. It is important that this observance include an acknowledgement of the serious personal and environmental injustices that have resulted from the 50-year (history) of the plant. These include deaths and serious health problems caused by misleading and failing to properly protect workers, plant neighbors, and the public; significant, long-term environmental damage to the water, land, and air, including one of the most severe groundwater contamination plumes in the world; and, millions of tax dollars spent on cleanup with little progress to show. This commemoration should have been a time for commitment to taking care of all the victims of the facility, and to a real cleanup of the plant grounds and neighborhoods outside the plant fence. The 50-year operation of this plant is short-term gain traded for long-term loss. The human and environmental costs caused by this plant will last for centuries. This is not the time to paint another false, rosy picture of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant as nothing but a benefit to the community without acknowledging the serious problems it has caused and without recommitting to correct all of those problems and compensate the victims. KRISTI HANSON Brookport, Ill. ***************************************************************** 54 Secretary Abraham Announces $290 Million Contract to Build Two World-Leading Supercomputers energy.gov - Headquarters' Press Release RELEASE DATE: November 19, 2002 [Print Friendly Version] WASHINGTON, DC - Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham today announced that International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) has been awarded a $290 million, multi-year contract to build the two fastest supercomputers in the world. Named "Purple" and "BlueGene/L," IBM plans to deliver both systems in Fiscal Year 2005 to the department's National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASCI) program for the science-based Stockpile Stewardship Program. Purple and BlueGene/L will be housed at the department's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif. "ASCI Purple and BlueGene/L promise to deliver cost-effective, tremendous capability to the Stockpile Stewardship Program's critical mission to assess and certify the safety, security and reliability of our nation's nuclear deterrent without underground nuclear testing," Secretary Abraham said. "With our world-class scientists at the national defense laboratories teaming with leading U.S. industrial and academic partners, we assure continued confidence in our nuclear stockpile." "The continued success of the Stockpile Stewardship Program requires advanced computing and experimental capabilities to gain unprecedented understanding of the health of the U.S. nuclear deterrent and the effects of aging and parts replacement over time," Abraham noted. "This program partners the U.S. government and the U.S. industry to bring advanced computer technology to the marketplace and help solve pressing national issues, not only involving nuclear weapons, but also in areas of homeland defense, global diseases and weather prediction." Acting NNSA Administrator Linton Brooks said, "This is a vital step in providing the resources to develop high-fidelity, three-dimensional simulations to predict the behavior of aging nuclear weapons for our national security. The combination of meeting nuclear stewardship demands and enabling scientific and computational research at unprecedented scales is truly significant." Both Purple and BlueGene/L will be a shared resource for all three national defense laboratories: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories. ASCI Purple will have a peak performance of 100 trillion calculations per second, equivalent to 25,000 high-end personal computers. Once on-line, Purple will be the primary supercomputer for the ASCI program and a production resource to stockpile stewardship. BlueGene/L, using low-cost, low-power processors and a radically different architecture, will have a peak performance of 360 trillion calculations per second. As a computational sciences research and evaluation computer, BlueGene/L will significantly enhance ASCI simulations in specific areas and determine this novel architecture's applicability to future production stewardship computing. Media Contact: Jeanne Lopatto, 202/586-4940 Bryan Wilkes, 202/586-7371 Release No. PR-02-242 ***************************************************************** 55 Energy Secretary Lauds Stanford University's New Global Climate and Energy R&D Program energy.gov - Headquarters' Press Release RELEASE DATE: November 20, 2002 [Print Friendly Version] WASHINGTON, DC -- Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham today hailed Stanford University's announcement of a new program to research and develop promising energy technologies that will reduce or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. With commitments amounting to $275 million over 10 years from companies such as ExxonMobil, General Electric, Schlumberger and others, the university's work will be aimed at developing advanced technologies in the areas of transportation, electric power, fuels, carbon sequestration and end use. "The Stanford initiative will serve as an important national resource in helping to address the serious issue of climate change," Secretary Abraham said, congratulating Stanford University and its corporate sponsors. "This effort will play an important role in President Bush's climate change strategy, which focuses on directing R&D investments into high-priority areas where breakthrough technologies can make the difference in reducing greenhouse gas intensity while maintaining economic growth." "The Department of Energy looks forward to working with the Stanford team and sharing information and expertise in order to further strengthen and focus our climate change research efforts, build public-private partnerships in applied research, and expand international collaborative activities," Abraham added. Media Contact: Release No. PR-02-244 Back to Previous Page> ***************************************************************** 56 Y-12 machinists reunion Dec. 6 at Senior Center The Oak Ridger Online - Community - 1:19 p.m. on Wednesday, November 20, 2002 A reunion of the Y-12 Machinist Retirees is slated for noon to 3 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6, at the Oak Ridge Senior Center at 728 Emory Valley Road, off Lafayette Drive. "This will be the ninth year for the annual reunion, and the sixth year it will be held at the Senior Center," said Janice Thomas, recreation supervisor at the Senior Center. "Charles Hooper, a retired Y-12 machinist, started the reunion because he wanted to see his old friends and coworkers." More than 100 attended last year's event. The Center will serve hot dogs, chips, pretzels and soft drinks. Tables and chairs will be available, and there will be plenty of parking. "Enjoy some refreshments, and plan to stay and talk," Thomas said. "Tell all the other Y-12 Machinist retirees you know to mark their calendars for Dec. 6th, and come to the reunion." For more information, call the Senior Center at 425-9927 or Charles Hooper at 483-0177. [http://www.oakridger.com/dailydouble] [http://www.oakridger.com] All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 57 DOE tests radiation detection device near Watt Road The Oak Ridger Online -- Area News -- p.m. on Wednesday, November 20, 2002 R. Cathey Daniels Oak Ridger staff Add another terrorist detection device has been slated for the weigh station near the Watt Road exit on Interstate 40. A $100,000 Exploranium Radiation Detection Systems device was installed Tuesday at the site for the Department of Energy Oak Ridge Operations office, with support from the Tennessee Department of Public Health. Installation was completed by the Tennessee Department of Transportation with assistance from the National Transportation Research Center located on Pellissippi Parkway. The technology joins the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's SensorNet, a small device designed to reside atop cell phone towers and developed to detect chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats and to provide public warnings of those threats. The radiation monitoring system was purchased by DOE to augment its survey and release programs, but with the advent of the terrorists attacks of Sept. 11, a new idea was hatched. "We decided to expand the functionality of this technology and deploy it in a commerce setting to scan trucks as they come through to be weighed," said Richard Meehan, team leader with the facilities and materials reuse division for ORO. "We hope to determine through this study whether this system is of use in vehicle applications," said Meehan." At the same time we'll evaluate what's the least amount of radiation we can detect. It's very much a study -- we'll deploy and see the performance in this rigorous commercial environment." Meehan noted that the weigh station near the Watt Rd. exit has one of the highest volumes of truck traffic in the nation. R. Cathey Daniels can be contacted at (865) 220-5515 or danielsrcd@oakridger.com. [http://www.oakridger.com] All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 58 Accelerated cleanup funds get boost from Congress The Oak Ridger Online -- Area News -- p.m. on Wednesday, November 20, 2002 R. Cathey Daniels Oak Ridger staff The budget trip is not over yet, but fiscal year 2003 funds continue to rise in the new accelerated cleanup world. Congress has sent its defense authorization bill to the White House about $182 million richer in the accelerated account, a new Department of Energy program which grants funds to DOE sites based on agreements to complete high risk remediation on a fast track. Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management Jesse Roberson had requested $800 million for the accelerated program, but the Congress boosted that allotment to $982 million. Oak Ridge agreements for the accelerated program were signed in the 2002 fiscal year and the reservation expects about $105 million in new funding to close cleanup by 2008, almost a decade ahead of schedule. The authorization bill must later be matched by an appropriations bill to complete the budget process. However, the authorization bill is considered a solid first step, and is lauded as a good sign for local initiatives. "The support for the DOE accelerated clean-up plan is great news for environmental management, not only in Oak Ridge, but across the entire country," U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-3rd District, said this morning. He noted that funding for the program will likely be passed in January through an "omnibus bill" which combines several appropriations bills into one. Joe Davis, DOE spokesman in Washington, said Tuesday: "We appreciate Congress's belief that the reform of the Environmental Management program to focus on accelerated cleanup is the right approach." While Congress didn't ask for as much in overall cleanup funds as its appropriations committees requested, it upped President Bush's fiscal year 2003 request by $151.8 million. The bill contains about $6.8 billion for environmental cleanup activities across the DOE complex. Last year (FY 02) funding levels for environmental cleanup stood at $5.9 billion. Currently the cleanup program is running on continuing resolution steam, which leaves operations at FY 02 levels until the new Congress passes the budget. R. Cathey Daniels can be contacted at (865) 220-5515 or danielsrcd@oakridger.com. All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 59 NNSA orders hiring freeze, says little local impact The Oak Ridger Online -- Area News -- p.m. on Wednesday, November 20, 2002 R. Cathey Daniels Oak Ridger staff A hiring freeze imposed by the National Nuclear Security Administration will have little direct impact locally, according to Bryan Wilkes, senior manager for NNSA headquarters in Washington D.C. The NNSA, a quasi-independent agency within the Department of Energy, oversees the Y-12 National Security Complex. Wilkes said this morning that the freeze is aimed at administrative and middle management positions. Frank Juan, a DOE Oak Ridge Operations office spokesman, said this morning that the freeze would have minimal impact at this time locally. "It's strictly for federal positions," said Juan. "It doesn't affect the contractors." He noted that no current federal positions would be impacted, but "there will be no new hires until the freeze is lifted." There are about 30 to 40 federal positions at the local site. The NNSA has been steadily growing its work force since its organization came under the DOE umbrella in 2001. The freeze comes just after Congress sent the defense authorization bill to the White House. That bill, House Resolution 4546, calls for about $8 billion for the NNSA for fiscal year 2003. Last year's (FY 2002) funding levels stood at $7.6 billion for the NNSA. The fiscal year 2003 budget calls for $1.1 billion for nuclear nonproliferation activities and about $5.9 billion for weapons activities across the complex, according to the conference report on the bill. BWXT Y-12 operates the National Security Complex in Oak Ridge for the NNSA. In a Nov. 15 memorandum to agency chiefs and Congress, the acting administrator of the NNSA, Linton F. Brooks, ordered "an immediate freeze on most categories of personnel actions, as well as a freeze on interim organization changes." "I am compelled to freeze personnel actions and organizational changes as much for re-engineering reasons as for budgetary reasons," wrote Brooks. "I do not want to compound the difficulty of successfully standing up NNSA's new operating model by hiring new employees and promoting others into new assignments." R. Cathey Daniels can be contacted at (865) 220-5515 or danielsrcd@oakridger.com. All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 60 Plutonium is also a superconductor PhysicsWeb - 20 November 2002 Superconductivity has been observed in a plutonium-based material for the first time. John Sarrao and colleagues at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and co-workers at the University of Florida and the Institute for Transuranium Elements in Germany, discovered that an alloy of plutonium, cobalt and gallium exhibits superconductivity at temperatures below 18.5 K. This is an unusually high transition temperature and may mean that plutonium-based compounds are a new class of superconductor, in addition to the so-called heavy-fermion systems, high-temperature copper oxides and traditional superconducting materials (JL Sarrao et al. 2002 Nature 420 297) Sarrao and co-workers found that the transition temperature (Tc) in the plutonium compound - the temperature at which the electrical resistance of a superconducting material drops to zero - is an order of magnitude higher than the highest seen in the heavy fermion systems (compounds based on uranium and cerium). The material also has a large critical current, which would be of technological importance if it were not for the hazardous radioactive properties of plutonium. This critical current comes from pinning centres due to defects in the material, created by radiation induced "self-damage". The team observed the superconductivity in measurements of magnetic susceptibility and specific heat. Further measurements on temperature-dependent magnetic susceptibility and electrical resistivity over a wide range of temperatures suggest that the degree of localization of the 5f electrons lies between that of compounds based on cerium and those based on uranium. Plutonium is an actinide element located at the transition where the 5f electrons go from being delocalized to localized, which makes it one of the most complex materials known. The researchers believe that the superconductivity in plutonium comes directly from its anomalous electronic properties and that it is an intermediate addition, in terms of Tc, to the two other new classes of "magnetically mediated" superconductors - the heavy- fermion materials, which have Tcs of about 1 K and the copper oxides, which have a Tcs of about 100 K. The team hope that future research will unearth superconductivity in other transuranic compounds with lower toxicity. "Experience tells us that where one superconductor is found, others are usually nearby, so there are many other related compounds to explore," Sarrao told PhysicsWeb. 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