***************************************************************** 09/21/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.242 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POLICY 1 Holy See Encourages Peaceful Use of Nuclear Power 2 Japan: More cover-ups of nuclear plant faults revealed 3 Japan: Inspectors examine records at 5 nuclear plants 4 Japan: More utilities admit reactor coverups* 5 UK: Nuclear tax break 'would kill green levy' 6 Japan: More reactor cover-ups bared 7 Russia admits problems with Iran deal* 8 Japan: Authorities inspect 11 nuclear reactors amid growing cover-up NUCLEAR REACTORS 9 US: SEC OK for Exelon accounting NUCLEAR SAFETY 10 US: Radioactive test set for plant site 11 US: Gamma-ray monitors search incoming containers NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 12 US: Utah Waste: The winners and the losers* 13 US: Glassification project costs rising 14 US: Weapons-grade nuclear material coming to test site 15 US: Nevada alleges DOE, NRC holding'clandestine'Yucca meetings 16 US: EnSafe opens Kazakhstan office - 17 N-waste smuggling suspect arrested - 18 Fiji wants U-N to stop nuclear shipments through Pacific 19 US: NFS project discussed at hearing * 20 *Analysis: Uranium processing difficult* NUCLEAR WEAPONS 21 Russia Struggles with Post-Soviet Nuclear Legacy 22 The Kursk submarine fragments annihilated on the bottom of 23 US: No blank check for war 24 US may attack Iraq in Feb 25 US: Bush Has Received Pentagon Options on Attacking Iraq 26 Iraq Says Won't Accept New U.N. Resolution 27 IAEA demands N Korea, Iraq accept nuclear inspection US DEPT. OF ENERGY 28 Dismantling of FFTF starts today 29 Backers renew fight to save FFTF 30 Feds still mismanage Hanford, report finds 31 Groups want to stop DOE's reactor closure 32 DOE sides with fired Pantex employee OTHER NUCLEAR 33 U.S.'s Rape of the Indians Continues Still Today 34 Jesse Riley: A scientist driven by morals dies ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Holy See Encourages Peaceful Use of Nuclear Power Catholic World News CWNews DAILY NEWS BRIEF for SEPTEMBER 20, 2002 © Copyright 2002 Domus Enterprises VIENNA, Sep 20, 02 (CWNews.com) -- At the 46th meeting of the International Agency for Atomic Agency, a Vatican envoy called for the use of nuclear technology in peaceful endeavors to build up modern society. *This is the first paragraph of the story.* The complete story is available only to subscribers and to those who have registered for a free 30-day trial subscription. To read the story, please either log in above or *subscribe to Catholic World News* . Become a Member! ***************************************************************** 2 Japan: More cover-ups of nuclear plant faults revealed Saturday, September 21, 2002 at 10:00 JST TOKYO ? Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) on Friday revealed eight more cases of cover-ups of damage at nuclear power plants on top of the 29 it had earlier reported, and two other nuclear power plant operators also admitted failure to report crack indications. Officials at TEPCO, the nation's largest power supplier, said all of the newly discovered cases involve cracks in pipes that carry primary cooling water in reactors. Such cracks are potentially far more serious than the cracks in reactor shrouds at the center of many of the other cases in which reports were falsified. Tohoku Electric Power Co, which supplies power in the Tohoku region in northeastern Japan, reported one similar case Friday, and Chubu Electric Power Co, operating in Aichi, Nagano, Yamanashi and other prefectures in central Japan, revealed two such cases. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, part of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, said it will conduct on-site investigations Saturday on the eight newly found cases of TEPCO as well as the three cases reported by Tohoku and Chubu electric power companies. The agency also ordered the three utilities to present inspection records under the Electric Utility Law. Takeo Hiranuma, minister for economy, trade and industry, told reporters, "We will deal with this problem rigorously," when he heard of TEPCO's latest revelations. Both Chubu and Tohoku electric power officials denied any intention to cover up the findings of their checkups or to falsify reports to the authorities. "We thought the cases in question were not subject to reporting to the state as they were minor ones," one Chubu official said. A Tohoku official also defended the company, saying, "Our case is different from those of TEPCO." Following the new revelations, Masazumi Saikawa, the mayor of Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, where TEPCO's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant is located, questioned the company's slowness in reporting the newly revealed cases. "They made public an overall report on the matter just a few days ago. It's shameful," he said. Katsuya Endo, the mayor of Tomioka, Fukushima Prefecture, where TEPCO's Fukushima No. 2 nuclear plant is located, said the company did not mention the eight cases at all when it gave its explanation of the cover-up scandal to the town assembly just the previous day. "I cannot help but think that they use only deceitful words when they talk of making efforts to recover public trust," he said. Yoshika Shiratori, the leader of an antinuclear plant movement in Shizuoka Prefecture, where Chubu Electric's Hamaoka plant is located, said of the latest revelations, "I knew it." The town assembly of Tomioka on Friday unanimously approved a petition urging the government to freeze TEPCO's "pluthermal" project for burning a mixture of plutonium and uranium in nuclear reactors, and demanding there be no repeat of cover-ups. Prompted by the cover-up reports, Chugoku Electric Power Co, which operates in the southwestern part of Honshu, centering in Hiroshima Prefecture, and Hokkaido Electric Power Co, operating in Hokkaido, notified the nuclear safety agency they would conduct investigations of their own reactor checks in the past. Kansai, Shikoku and Kyushu electric power companies as well as Japan Atomic Power Co and the Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute followed suit. TEPCO officials said the newly discovered cases were at five of the six reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, one of the four reactors at the Fukushima No. 2 plant, and two of the seven reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant. During regular checks in 1993 and later, two to 12 indications of cracks were found in the pipes of those reactors. Employees of Hitachi Ltd. and Toshiba Corp carried out the checks. Both companies say the results of each check were correctly reported to TEPCO. TEPCO claims that workers at the plants considered the signs of cracks to pose no immediate safety threat and failed to report them to the authorities. Pipes were replaced in the five cases at the Fukushima No. 1 plant by 2001. But the one at the Fukushima No. 2 plant and the two at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant have yet to be attended to, the company said. The reactor at the Fukushima No. 2 plant and one of the two at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa are currently shut down but the second reactor at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa was running until early Friday afternoon. TEPCO officials said the company shut it down in the afternoon to conduct an emergency inspection. Tohoku Electric Power failed to report faults found at the No. 1 reactor at its Onagawa plant in Miyagi Prefecture during regular checks in September 1998 and between April and August of last year. The company said it kept checking the four spots where crack indications were found and testing the strength of the pipes, and as there were "few notable signs" of a worsening of the situation, it did not report the signs to the authorities. Chubu Electric Power failed to report crack indications found at the No. 1 and No. 3 reactors at its Hamaoka plant in Shizuoka Prefecture. The company said it found nine places where there were crack indications, five of which have been fixed, but the remaining four have not been attended to. The company said the No. 1 reactor has not been operating, and it shut down the No. 3 reactor Friday afternoon. (Kyodo News) Japan Today ***************************************************************** 3 Japan: Inspectors examine records at 5 nuclear plants Editorial comments: jteditor@japantoday.com Saturday, September 21, 2002 at 20:00 JST TOKYO ? Government inspectors began Saturday to examine the inspection records of 11 reactors at five nuclear power plants of three utilities embroiled in damage cover-up scandals, the government said. The inspectors of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency began on-the-spot investigations of the records submitted by Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), Chubu Electric Power Co and Tohoku Electric Power Co, it said. The agency is part of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. (Kyodo News) Japan Today ***************************************************************** 4 Japan: More utilities admit reactor coverups* Saturday, September 21, 2002 ** *Tohoku, Chubu quiet on cracked pipes* Tohoku Electric Power Co. and Chubu Electric Power Co. admitted Friday they failed to report structural faults in their nuclear plants to the government. News photo *Officials of Tokyo Electric Power Co. apologize at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry amid the emergence of further reactor coverup cases.* Four minor cracks in pipes carrying primary cooling water were found at Tohoku Electric's Onagawa No. 1 plant in Miyagi Prefecture during regular checks in 1998 and 2001, officials at the utility said. They failed to report the cracks because they thought they were not problematic, they said. The officials said they do not believe they violated the law but came forward at a time when public distrust in the nation's nuclear power policy has deepened following the widespread coverups involving Tokyo Electric Power Co. Similar cracks were found at Chubu Electric's Hamaoka No. 1 and No. 3 plants in Shizuoka Prefecture, a top official of the utility said. Chubu Electric Vice President Ko Terasawa offered an apology for raising concerns among residents in the town of Hamaoka. "We are very sorry, but we thought the cracks are minor ones that will not affect safety," Terasawa said, adding the firm had no intention of hiding the cracks. Officials of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, said later Friday they would look into the cases. Prompted by the coverup reports, Chugoku Electric Power Co., which operates in the southwestern region of Honshu, centering on Hiroshima Prefecture, and Hokkaido Electric Power Co., which operates in Hokkaido, told the nuclear safety agency it would investigate its own previous reactor checks. Kansai Electric Power, Shikoku Electric Power and Kyushu Electric Power, as well as Japan Atomic Power Co. and the Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute, followed suit. Tepco saga continues Tokyo Electric Power Co. has found eight more instances in which structural faults at its nuclear plants have been concealed, adding to the 29 coverups already reported, Tepco officials said Friday. All of the newly discovered cases involve cracks in pipes that carry primary cooling water in reactors. Such pipes are far more critical than the reactor shrouds at the center of many of the other coverups. The nation's largest power supplier has been carrying out an internal investigation into the coverups since the scandal broke in August. When releasing a report Tuesday on the probe, company investigators said they were searching for other cases. Officials of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, said they will look into the new cases, which may constitute violations of laws. "We will deal with this problem in a strict manner," METI chief Takeo Hiranuma said, indicating authorities will conduct on-site investigations. The Tepco officials said the newly discovered cases were at five of the six reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 plant in Fukushima Prefecture, one of the four reactors at the Fukushima No. 2 plant, and two of the seven reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture. During regular checks in 1993 and later, cracks were detected in two to 12 pipes in those reactors. Employees of Hitachi Ltd. and Toshiba Corp. carried out the checks. Both companies claimed the results of each check were correctly reported to Tepco. But Tepco workers at the plants apparently judged the cracks posed no immediate threat to safety and failed to report them to the authorities, as required. Pipes were replaced in the five cases at the Fukushima No. 1 plant by 2001. But the one at the Fukushima No. 2 plant and the two at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant have yet to be attended to. Currently, the reactor at the Fukushima No. 2 plant and one of the two at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa are shut down. But the second reactor at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa is running. Tepco officials said the utility will shut down that reactor Friday to conduct an emergency inspection. *The Japan Times: Sept. 21, 2002* (C) All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 5 UK: Nuclear tax break 'would kill green levy' Independent.co.uk © 2002 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd By Michael Harrison, Business Editor 21 September 2002 The Government has been warned that exempting the beleaguered nuclear electricity generator British Energy from the Climate Change Levy would, in effect, spell the end of the controversial tax. Rival electricity producers have told ministers that if British Energy is allowed to escape the levy then 85 per cent of all the industrial and commercial users who currently pay the tax at the full rate will be able to get their electricity from nuclear generating stations. British Energy says exemption from the levy would save it £100m a year, helping it survive the financial crisis which now threatens to force the company into administration. But rival producers say it would destroy the market for non-nuclear generators and hand British Energy a captive industrial customer base equivalent in volume terms to 18 million domestic consumers. It would also strike a blow at the environmental gains the levy is supposed to produce by disadvantaging renewable energy and combined heat and power producers, they say. Coal and gas-fired electricity producers would, in effect, be frozen out of much of the industrial market because they would still have to charge customers an additional 4p per unit to cover the levy on top of the 16p a unit market price. TXU Europe, one of the generators which would be hit by an exemption from the levy for nuclear, has written twice to Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, setting out its concerns. TXU is expected to meet the Government next week in advance of next Friday's deadline for pulling the plug on British Energy or rolling over an emergency £410m loan facility. Paul Marsh, the chief operating officer of TXU Europe, said all generators, not just British Energy, were suffering from low wholesale prices. "Anything which further destabilises the electricity industry by reducing one player's costs at the expense of everyone else is only going to exacerbate the situation," Mr Marsh said. Industrial and commercial customers paying the levy at the full rate account for about 120 terawatt hours of electricity output. Of this, about 100 terawatt hours could be met from nuclear ? 70 TWh from British Energy's eight stations and the remainder from British Nuclear Fuels' Magnox reactors and the cross-Channel interconnector which supplies French nuclear power. The Chancellor Gordon Brown is vigorously opposed to exempting British Energy from the levy and now the full ramifications of such a move are beginning to sink in too among DTI ministers. Brian Wilson, the Energy Minister, this week played down fears the Government had decided to push British Energy into insolvency stressing that no decisions had been made. MOSCOW, Sept. 20 (UPI) -- Russia has admitted for the first time that Iran has stalled the return of nuclear waste for Russian processing -- after Moscow informed the United States that all was in order. An official at Russia's atomic energy ministry told a Russian news agency that Iran had not yet signed an agreement outlining the transfer of nuclear fuel waste from the Bushehr nuclear power plant Russia is helping build in Iran. The unidentified official told the Interfax news agency that Moscow had asked Tehran to promptly sign the agreement on spent, low-grade radioactive material and had presented the Iranians with a document as part of a clause of the Bushehr construction contract. Earlier, ministry officials had told the United States that all the paperwork concerning transfer of nuclear fuel to and from Iran was in order. The ministry official said Russia "will not supply (nuclear) fuel to the Bushehr nuclear power plant until an agreement on its return to Russia is signed." Russia's continuing cooperation with Iran has strained relations with the United States and Israel, which are concerned that Tehran may gain access to sensitive technologies for its own nuclear arms program. Despite pressure from Washington, Moscow insists the Bushehr project is a lucrative commercial deal, and has indicated it may expand, rather than curtail, cooperation with Iran, which is seeking to build further nuclear reactors. Bushehr is due to be completed by 2004, with Russia earning approximately $800 million for its key role in installing the nuclear reactors. Copyright © 2002 United Press International ***************************************************************** 8 Japan: Authorities inspect 11 nuclear reactors amid growing cover-up AP World Politics scandal Sat Sep 21, 4:05 AM ET TOKYO - Authorities inspected nearly a dozen reactors operated by three major utility companies Saturday amid allegations that they covered up potential safety flaws. Investigators from the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency inspected 11 reactors at five nuclear power plants after revelations late August that Tokyo Electric Power Co. had been hiding structural problems. Saturday's inspections extended to two other utility companies, Chubu Electric Power Co. and Tohoku Electric Power Co., both of which face similar allegations of safety cover-ups. Investigators focused on possible cracks in pipes that conduct water into the reactors, the agency said in a statement. They were also looking for evidence of any attempts to hide problems. The reactors were shut down prior to the inspections, the agency said. All three utility companies have recently acknowledged failing to report known cracks in reactors to the government. TEPCO admitted last month it had misreported safety problems in the late 1980s and early 1990s after a trade ministry report revealed 29 cases of cracks or minor structural damage in eight of the company's 17 nuclear reactors. The company's top three officials resigned over the scandal, and authorities raided its Tokyo headquarters earlier this month. TEPCO contends the cracks never posed any serious danger. On Friday, both Chubu Electric and Tohoku Electric said they had several cracks in reactors that were never reported. The public has become increasingly wary of nuclear power since a 1999 radiation leak at a fuel-reprocessing plant killed two workers. Japan depends on nuclear power for about 30 percent of its electricity. TEPCO's plants supply nearly half of the country's nuclear energy. Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 9 SEC OK for Exelon accounting Chicago Sun-Times - Business September 21, 2002 BY MILES WEISS WASHINGTON--Exelon Corp. said the Securities and Exchange Commission blessed a $4.8 billion accounting move that has been disputed by energy regulators. Chicago-based Exelon, the nation's largest nuclear power generator, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission have been wrangling over the way the company accounted for a 2000 acquisition. Following the FERC position might lower earnings at Exelon's power-transmission business by forcing the company to share income with rate payers, the company said. The SEC Thursday told Exelon that the SEC's chief accounting office won't object to the company's method, according to a Form 8- K that Exelon filed with the SEC. ''This is important because it confirms our position that our accounting was consistent with generally accepted accounting principles,'' said John Hatfield, an Exelon spokesman. The SEC ''has notified us that there will be no further inquiries.'' Bryan Lee, a FERC spokesman, said the commission doesn't comment on pending cases. Exelon is parent company to Commonwealth Edison Co. and Peco Energy Co., which have about 5 million electricity customers in Illinois and Pennsylvania and 440,000 gas customers in the Philadelphia area. Companies record goodwill as an asset on their balance sheet to account for the premium they pay over book value when acquiring another business. Exelon has $4.8 billion of goodwill that was created through the October 2000 merger of its predecessor companies, Philadelphia-based Peco and Unicom Corp. of Chicago. Exelon in January 2001 divided its operations into two separate businesses, an energy distribution company called Exelon Energy Delivery and a nuclear power unit known as Exelon Generation. The company kept all of the goodwill on the balance sheet of Exelon Energy Delivery, which is regulated by the Illinois Commerce Commission as well as FERC. FERC said accounting rules require Exelon to transfer some of the goodwill to the financial statements of its unregulated power generation business. The energy agency has yet to specify how much goodwill should be transferred, Hatfield said. Such a move would lower Exelon Energy Delivery's equity, one component of a formula used to set an earnings cap for the regulated unit. Lowering its equity would also lower the earnings cap, according to Hatfield, potentially requiring the company to share some profits with rate payers. The SEC, which oversees the application of accounting principles by public companies, provided its position verbally rather than in a formal letter, Hatfield said. Bloomberg News Copyright 2002, Digital Chicago Inc. ***************************************************************** 10 Radioactive test set for plant site Omaha.com September 21, 2002 MIDDLETOWN, Iowa (AP) - A low-level flyover of the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant will begin next month to determine whether radioactive waste was left behind when the Atomic Energy Commission closed its operations in 1975. A helicopter equipped with special radiation-detection gear will fly 100 feet above the ground in 200-foot-wide swaths over the entire 19,000-acre compound, said Rodger Allison, plant environmental projects manager. The helicopter will also fly along Brush and Long Creeks to where they empty into the Skunk River and will keep its radiation-scanning equipment running while turning around over the Middletown areas, Allison said. Middletown is near Burlington in eastern Iowa. "If anything is detected, we will follow where it goes," Allison told the plant's Restoration Advisory Board. The flyover is to begin the week of Oct. 21 and take three to six days. The Atomic Energy Commission manufactured nuclear weapons at the plant for 25 years. A draft report on the findings is expected in March, with the final report due in June. The flyover is expected to cost the Army about $500,000. The Army, which initially balked at conducting the flyover, will be the lead agency on the project. State officials, including Gov. Tom Vilsack and Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, pressured the Defense Department to conduct the flyover over Army objections. Specific elements targeted will be depleted uranium, cesium 137, radium 226 and plutonium, Allison said. Declassified records from AEC operations suggested that workers handled those radioactive materials. Over the years, Army and plant officials had issued numerous assurances that the AEC had cleaned up after its IAAP operations ended in the mid-1970s. However, over the past couple of years, chunks of depleted uranium and radiation-contaminated soil were found at two AEC firing sites. Large deposits of the heavy metal barium, also used by the AEC, were also uncovered near munitions-burning zones. ©2002 Omaha World-Herald. All rights reserved. Copyright ***************************************************************** 11 Gamma-ray monitors search incoming containers New gatekeepers / David Armstrong, Chronicle Staff Writer [davidarmstrong@sfchronicle.com] Saturday, September 21, 2002 --> At dozens of U.S. seaports and border crossings, specially modified trucks with spidery metal arms are the newest high-tech weapon for U.S. customs inspectors in the war on terrorism. The $1.2 million VACIS devices use gamma-ray imaging mounted at the end of the truck arms to allow human inspectors to check the contents inside the sealed steel containers. This helps to speed up cargo inspections, keeps the vital flow of commerce moving and ramps up security in our age of anxiety. But some dockworkers fear that long-term exposure to gamma rays from the machines could endanger their health. At several ports along the West Coast, including the Port of Oakland, they are refusing to drive their trucks past stationary gamma-ray devices. As a result, the containers must be removed from the trucks and scanned later. The dockworkers' position adds another cloud of contention to West Coast waterfronts, where the International Longshore and Warehouse Union is entering the fifth month of stalled contract talks with shipping companies and marine terminal operators. About $300 billion of goods passes annually through the ports. Customs officials and the maker of the machines say the gamma-ray devices pose no health risks, but longshore workers aren't so sure. "Why take this risk?" asks ILWU spokesman Steve Stallone, who draws a historical analogy. "We were told in the past that asbestos was safe. We worked it for a long time. We had guys go home with asbestos in their hair, on their clothes. We were told, 'There's no harm in this stuff.' "Now, our old-timers are dying from asbestosis," he said. The Port of Oakland is one of about 70 seaports and border crossings in the nation that in the past few months have embraced the use of VACIS machines, which are manufactured by Science Applications International Corp., a major military contractor based in San Diego. The company makes an array of high-tech gear for the military and includes among its paid advisers former Central Intelligence Agency Director John Deutch. SAIC, a Fortune 500 firm that had $6.1 billion in revenue last year, maintains that "VACIS has been designed to be totally safe." The first VACIS (vehicle and cargo inspection system) unit arrived in Oakland in late June, and a second is due in a few months, said Thomas O'Brien, San Francisco director of field operations for the U.S. Customs Service, which operates the machines. The Customs Service, charged with intensified homeland security duties in the war on terrorism, in addition to its traditional mission of interdicting drugs and other contraband, is pleased with VACIS, which O'Brien characterized as safe and efficient. Customs officials say use of the mobile gamma-scanner at major seaports has helped speed up inspections in this era of stepped-up security, but they say inspections could go even faster. Although the VACIS device is sometimes mounted on a moving truck, it can also be used as a stationary tool; that is, other trucks carrying sealed containers can be driven by the gamma-ray arm, saving the need to unload the trucks. On Thursday morning, O'Brien pointed to a lineup of about a dozen sealed metal containers atop the tarmac at the water's edge. "Normally, that would take 15 or 20 inspectors a couple of days to open and inspect," he said. Using gamma-rays, it will take about 15 minutes to give all the containers a high-tech once-over. If there is anything suspicious, the units will be opened and inspected by hand, he said. Customs inspector Mark Taylor's truck, rolling at a steady 2 to 3 miles an hour, passed alongside the line of sealed containers, training a video camera on them. Taylor tweaked the gamma-ray images of the interior of the containers by adding bright, near-psychedelic colors with a desktop switch. He reverted to black and white before lightening and darkening the images, as he looked for changes in density and other anomalies that could indicate anything suspicious. One container held nothing but a single automobile. An image of another container, banded gray and black, was a shipment of wine from Italy. A third container held stacked rubber tires and metal discs. When Taylor came upon irregularities in another shipment, he decided to order a hand-search. "We're going to pop that one,' he said. Taylor and the National Guardsman at the wheel of the VACIS truck wore radiation-measuring devices on their belts to keep track of their exposure. "We were a little concerned (about radiation) before we had the training," said Taylor, as he worked a computer mouse and kept a watchful eye on video and computer screens inside the VACIS truck. "But after the training, we felt a lot better." According to Paul Lavely, the radiation safety officer at UC Berkeley, the only absolutely risk-free dose of radiation is no radiation at all. That said, Lavely believes the levels of single-dose gamma-ray radiation used on the docks is extremely low. "There is no study that says we can see any effects at those low doses." However, the accumulated dosage from repeated exposure over years, even decades, hasn't been measured in dockworkers who use VACIS machines. The devices have just arrived on the waterfront, though earlier versions have been used at a handful of land border crossings since 1997. "We'd like to see an independent third party conduct long-term studies," union spokesman Stallone said. Such caution is unnecessary, said Jim Windo, corporate vice president and operations manager at SAIC. "The radiation exposure level is a factor of 100 to 1,000 lower than X-rays and much lower than those commonly observed in industrial gauging and nuclear medicine," Windo said in a statement. But workers at the ILWU don't want to take the manufacturer's word for it. That's why they're asking for a long-term study. Short of that, the union itself or other entities could conduct a short- term, on-the-job study, UC Berkeley's Lavely said. Collecting and analyzing the radiation-detecting badges worn by inspectors and longshore workers could give an early indication of radiation levels, he said, though even that is not simple, because some cargo is itself radioactive, he said. Phosphates, for example, have naturally occurring radiation. In the meantime, VACIS scanners are becoming crucial tools in American ports, said the Customs Service's O'Brien. "What the technology allows us to do is reduce the size of the haystack," O'Brien said. "We want to make sure we use (VACIS) in combination with the 20 years' of data we have in our automated systems, to help us screen. And then we use our inspectors' expertise." E-mail David Armstrong at davidarmstrong@sfchronicle.com [davidarmstrong@sfchronicle.com] . ©2002 San Francisco Chronicle.   Page B - 1 ***************************************************************** 12 Utah Waste: The winners and the losers* deseretnews.com Opinion Saturday, September 21, 2002 *Deseret News editorial* *Winner: *Utah Rep. Jim Hansen may have the only viable solution for keeping shipments of high-level nuclear waste from finding their way onto Utah soil. It is, as a report in this paper noted, sneaky but brilliant. He would simply have Congress declare 500,000 acres around the site as federally protected wilderness, which would keep anyone from shipping nuclear waste through it. Environmentalists hate the idea, for a variety of reasons, but this week the Bush administration and the Defense Department threw their considerable weight behind the idea. It may not be a perfect solution, but so far no one else has come up with a better plan for keeping Utah from becoming a nuclear wasteland. *Loser:* After eight years of court-ordered supervision, the state's Division of Child and Family Services still needs to improve, a Legislative audit found this week. Case workers still are overworked, and policies are sometimes confusing. Each employee continues to handle about 12 to 15 cases, and they often don't have time to complete all the tasks at hand. The agency's director agreed with the audit and is looking for ways to improve without begging the cash-strapped state for more money. Given how important the welfare of children is, this ought to be one of the state's top priorities. *Loser:* State auditors this week also uncovered questionable hiring practices by Phil Windley, the state's chief information officer. Formerly employed by Excite@home , an Internet service provider that now is bankrupt, he hired nine other employees of that company, many at salaries higher than their qualifications would normally bring. Other irregularities were found, as well. Windley told auditors he simply was inexperienced and made mistakes. Gov. Mike Leavitt stands behind him in full support. Lawmakers, meanwhile, aren't inclined to do much more with the case ? except, we hope, make sure this kind of thing doesn't continue. *Loser:* Every now and then, police arrest another drunken driver who has multiple DUI convictions and yet remains free. This week they found Christopher Dee Duran passed out in his car, which was parked along the road. It was his 13th arrest for DUI, yet South Jordan allowed him to be released on a $15,000 bond, probably because they were unaware of the other arrests. Utah's justice courts have communications problems, to put it kindly. That's one reason someone a prosector called "a walking death sentence for someone" can keep driving again and again. © 2002 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 13 Glassification project costs rising This story was published Thu, Sep 19, 2002 By John Stang Herald staff writer An independent review panel believes it will cost $5.6 billion to $5.8 billion to build Hanford's radioactive waste glassification project. That's $300 million to $500 million more than the previous most expensive potential scenario of $5.3 billion. The same panel also noted problems with different approaches by the Department of Energy and lead contractor Bechtel National for building the glassification complex. Bechtel appears to want to build the Hanford complex as fast as possible with greater treatment capacity than DOE intends, the panel's July 17 report said. But the report said Bechtel's plans would cost more in the near future than DOE has budgeted. This all adds up to a complicated and contradictory budget picture for the effort to treat Hanford's tank farm wastes. Roy Schepens, manager of DOE's Office of River Protection, is sorting through the figures to develop a long-term budget for an accelerated glassification project to be presented to DOE's Washington, D.C., headquarters by early October. The plan would be to build and test the glassification complex through 2011. DOE's target is to build and test the complex for $3.965 billion. That figure does not include about $600 million to be set aside to handle possible cost overruns nor roughly $200 million that Bechtel hopes to collect in fees as its profit for managing the project. Bechtel believes the project's base cost should be about $4.5 billion, or possibly more. That figure also does not include the nearly $800 million in potential contingency money and fees. At DOE's request, Bechtel is trying to trim its estimate. Schepens' predecessor, Harry Boston, added Bechtel's estimates to some contingency and fee estimates to reach a high-end cost estimate of $5.3 billion in May. In June, DOE's cleanup czar, Jesse Roberson, wrote to Boston, saying the $5.3 billion estimate was unacceptable. In May and June, DOE gathered a team of independent experts to review the plans and cost estimates by DOE and Bechtel. In July, that team sent Roberson the $5.6 billion to $5.8 billion estimate, which includes the contingency and fees. Hanford is legally required to glassify 10 percent of its 53 million gallons of radioactive tank wastes by 2018. DOE wants to hit that 10 percent mark by 2014, while Bechtel's plans aim for the 10 percent mark by 2013. The Office of River Protection is seeking $1.132 billion for the glassification and tank farms work for fiscal 2003, which starts Oct. 1. But Hanford's current acceleration plans would require another $460 million on top of that figure for fiscal 2003, another $296 million for fiscal 2004, another $132 million for fiscal 2005 and another $62 million for fiscal 2006, the report said. The Hanford 2003 tank farms and glassification budget already has been submitted by DOE's Washington, D.C., headquarters to the federal Office of Management and Budget. DOE's actual 2003 tank farms and glassification budget won't be made public until the OMB sends revised figures to Congress sometime soon. Schepens said DOE can accelerate tank waste glassification without needing extra appropriations from Congress. However, he declined to say how the current local-level budget crunching is relying on sifting through all the various glassification cost estimates. He said those numbers will be made public soon, after he and his staff have reviewed and adopted solid figures. Bechtel declined to comment on the report, referring questions to DOE. The July 17 report also contended Bechtel is pushing completion of the complex earlier than planned with greater capacity than planned, creating a greater risk of significant cost overruns. The report said Bechtel is influenced by the fact that early completion would lead to greater fees -- meaning profits. The report recommended DOE renegotiate Bechtel's contract to address this issue. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 14 Weapons-grade nuclear material coming to test site Saturday, September 21, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- The federal government plans to begin moving more than two tons of weapons-grade nuclear material to the Nevada Test Site by 2007, and state officials say they can do nothing to stop it. Nevada leaders have fought for decades to halt the high-level nuclear waste repository planned for Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, stressing over the past year that transporting the dangerous materials is too great a security risk. But Friday's announcement by the National Nuclear Security Administration, which had been anticipated for months, means nuclear materials will be on Nevada highways within five years. "Everybody is somewhat concerned about this thing," said Joe Strolin, planning division head at the state Agency for Nuclear Projects. "The problem is we don't have a lever or a hook on it." Gov. Kenny Guinn has requested the NNSA avoid transporting the nuclear materials through the Las Vegas Valley, Strolin said. "We can rant and rave, but we've decided the best way to approach (NNSA) is behind-the-scenes contacts to assure ourselves they are going to do this in the safest way possible," he said. He noted South Carolina's governor lost in court earlier this year trying to stop the Energy Department from transporting nuclear materials from Colorado to the Savannah River complex. State officials have no concerns about the material once it is secured at the test site, Strolin said. "It will be a safe operation," he said. "It will be a passive thing." Saying the test site provides greater security than an aging sector of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, federal officials plan to ship plutonium metals and highly enriched uranium to the Device Assembly Facility, a 100,000-square-foot, earth-covered compound in central Nevada reputed to be the most secure location in the nation's nuclear complex. The test site then will conduct nuclear safety experiments that have been performed at Los Alamos Technical Area 18, officials said. About 11 tons of less-deadly depleted natural uranium and thorium also will be relocated to Nevada, according to a final environmental study of the project. Along with the nuclear material, four experimental nuclear reactors will be transferred, re-assembled at the Device Assembly Facility and used in programs that research nuclear reactions and train technicians in nuclear safeguards and emergency response. Except for a few kilograms of plutonium brought in for use in subcritical experiments, the test site currently does not store nuclear materials, according to spokesman Darwin Morgan. He does not believe the test site, which hosted atmospheric and underground nuclear weapons tests for decades, has ever housed the volumes of nuclear materials planned to be transferred from Los Alamos. The four experimental reactors would become the first to be employed at the test site since several were involved in nuclear rocket research in the 1970s and 1980s, Morgan said. While the reactors are reported to generate small amounts of low-level and mixed nuclear waste that would be disposed of at the Test Site, it could not be determined whether they would product any high-level waste. The transfer will take place over a four- to five-year period starting in 2006 or 2007, said NNSA officials, who manage the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile. The move will create 20 to 30 jobs at the test site and bring minor modifications to the Device Assembly Facility, the agency said. The state has filed several lawsuits to stop plans for shipments of commercial nuclear waste to a Yucca Mountain repository, but figures to have less of a voice influencing a national security program that operates under a thicker veil of secrecy. NNSA spokesman Bryan Wilkes said security surrounding weapons-potential nuclear shipments is "unbelievable," but would not comment on any government response to Guinn. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who has supported the nuclear material transfer as a boost to the test site mission, was unavailable Friday night. In a statement released by his spokeswoman, Reid said, "I plan to take a close look at the plans for transporting this material to make sure that every possible safety precaution has been taken." Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., "understands why DOE wants to make this move, is in consultation on the logistics and right now that's where we stand," said spokeswoman Amy Spanbauer. "Transportation is a concern to us, and if the state has concerns, they should be heard." The NNSA reportedly had been worried about security at Los Alamos Technical Area 18, which was built in the 1940s at the bottom of a steep canyon that experts believed would be difficult to defend from determined intruders. In October 2000, mock terrorists gained control of nuclear materials from the compound "which, if detonated would have endangered significant parts of New Mexico, Colorado and downwind areas," according to a 2001 study by the Project on Government Oversight. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 15 Nevada alleges DOE, NRC holding'clandestine'Yucca meetings Associated Press [online@rgj.com] 9/20/2002 02:50 pm Nevada Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa is accusing two federal agencies of holding"clandestine"meetings about building the nation's nuclear waste repository in Nevada. Del Papa complained in letters to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and Richard Meserve, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, of what she called"a growing and apparently unlawful trend"to exclude the public from decisions about the Yucca Mountain project. "We are insisting that the state of Nevada and the public are entitled to notice and the opportunity to participate at every level of decisions made about the Yucca project,"Del Papa said Friday. The state attorney general stopped short of accusing the Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of breaking the law or violating federal rules. The Energy Department would operate the high-level nuclear waste repository, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The NRC would license it. Del Papa pointed to comments by Energy Department officials at a Sept. 10 Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board meeting in Las Vegas about designs having been presented to the NRC and about meetings planned between Energy Department and Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials. Margaret Chu, director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, also submitted a document to board members stating that the Energy Department had made commitments to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about five elements of the Yucca Mountain plan, Del Papa said. "Why was Nevada not given notice of such meetings or interactions?"Del Papa wrote. An Energy Department spokesman said his agency has received Del Papa's letter and was reviewing it, but he declined to discuss specifics. "The DOE has fully complied with the relevant laws, rules and regulations and we will continue to do so,"spokesman Joe Davis said. Davis noted that until the Energy Department submits an application to the NRC, federal regulations allow the two agencies to"confer informally,"while posting notices of meetings and making public copies of correspondence and other materials. Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokeswoman Rosetta Virgilio said her agency had not received the letter. "We certainly have meetings with the DOE on technical issues,"Virgilio said,"and we do have meetings with the public. But we haven't seen this letter, so we can't really respond to it." Del Papa released a statement labeling the"secretive communications"as"further evidence that the NRC and DOE prefer to bypass public scrutiny of a dangerous, ill-conceived project." Congress in July approved the Yucca project, but the state has five lawsuits pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., against elements of the plan. The state is challenging the radiation standards set for Yucca Mountain by the Environmental Protection Agency; the licensing rule of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; the environmental impact statement for the site; and selection standards. Chu, the nation's nuclear waste chief, said at the Technical Review Board meeting that a license application for Yucca Mountain should be submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in December 2004. She said the Energy Department wants the first load of spent nuclear fuel to arrive in Nevada in December 2010. © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett ***************************************************************** 16 EnSafe opens Kazakhstan office - 2002-09-20 - Memphis Business Journal Memphis-based EnSafe, a leading environmental and safety consultancy, has opened its newest office in Almaty, Kazakhstan, from which it will serve environmental customers throughout Central Asia. This office complements EnSafe's Central European office in Bratislava, Slovakia, which was opened in 1999. EnSafe president and CEO Phillip Coop says Kazakhstan has one of the world's fastest-growing economies and a culture committed to environmental protection. He says EnSafe becomes the first American firm to bring Western environmental expertise to the region. With this newest location, EnSafe has grown to 18 offices and more than 225 employees providing services in the public and private sectors and specializing in engineering, environmental protection, and health and safety. The company's first assignments are mining-related, and are associated with waste management issues in the uranium, chromium, and gold industries. Dan Cowan, one of EnSafe's specialists in the environmental impact of mining operations, has transferred to Almaty to lead the new initiative. Cowan was project manager this year for an EcoLinks Challenge Grant in Kazakhstan, which has converted more than 20,000 tons of mining slag to usable product. This study was developed with a local partner, TNC Kazchrome, one of the world's largest processors of chromium ore. The study not only led to improved environmental conditions at the JSC Ferrochrome Aktyubinsk plant but also to further interest in American technologies in the region. Joining Cowan in the Almaty office will be Zhenish Ryssalyev, an environmental scientist and Kazakh citizen. Ryssalyev visited Memphis this summer to learn more about American environmental methods. © 2002 American City Business Journals Inc. ***************************************************************** 17 N-waste smuggling suspect arrested - CNN.com - Sep. 20, 2002 By CNN Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- A 26-year-old Russian man has been arrested attempting to sell a container of radioactive material, the Interfax news agency has reported. The material, Strontium-90, has a half life of 29 years, making it of potential interest to terrorists, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Nuclear expert Vladimir Kuznetsov told CNN that 20 to 30 such incidents are registered every year in Russia. Kuznetsov said Strontium-90 is commonly used in medical equipment and in equipment that measures the accuracy of welding for gas and oil pipes. The expert said Strontium-90 from such sources is not efficient for making a "dirty bomb" or for contaminating large areas, since the concentration of radiation within such equipment tends to be low. The isotope has, however, been used in several attempts to kill people. Most often, it is obtained from obsolete equipment that has been disposed of improperly, he said. Strontium-90 is a waste product of nuclear reactors and was widely dispersed over the Soviet republics during the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986. The man arrested was trying to sell the container to two residents of Pavlograd in the Dnepropetrovsk region of Ukraine, Interfax reported. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry told Interfax that the man took the substance from Zlatoust in the Russian region of Chelyabinsk. Officials would not reveal how much of the material the container held. -- CNN Producer Maxim Tkachenko contributed to this report. © 2002 Cable News Network LP, LLLP. ***************************************************************** 18 Fiji wants U-N to stop nuclear shipments through Pacific Radio Australia News - Fiji wants U-N to stop nuclear shipments through Pacific The Prime Minsiter of Fiji Laisenia Qarase has called on the United Nations to support a stop to the shipment of radio active materials through the region. As Mika Loga reports, Mr Qarase is also the Chairman of the Pacific Islands Forum. Mr Qarase has told the UN Assembly in New York that the pacific is still waiting for countries who carried out nuclear tests in the region to take full responsibility for their actions. Mr Qarase says affected islanders have continued to suffer from the nuclear fall out. Now, he says, countries which have continued to transport nuclear materials in pacific waters have rejected a Pacific islands proposal for compensation. Mr Qarase has also asked for UN co-operation and support in protecting the environment, as agreed under the Kyoto protocol, as well as help for the sustainable development of the Pacific tuna industry. 21/09/2002 19:00:05 | ABC Radio Australia News MORE RADIO AUSTRALIA NEWS ***************************************************************** 19 NFS project discussed at hearing * Erwin Record 09/20/02 */By Jerry Hilliard -- Associate Editor /* Respond to this story Pros and cons of a request to renew the hazardous-waste storage permit of Nuclear Fuel Services Inc. were presented at a public hearing Sept. 10 at the Unicoi County Courthouse. The hearing was not in relation to the Erwin company?s planned venture called ?Project BLEU.? The permit is required of facilities with ?mixed waste? ? both hazardous and radioactive ? and NFS is seeking renewal of its permit for another 10 years. Last week?s hearing was conducted by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation under requirements of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Among those making presentations was Janice Greene, the NFS environmental safety manager, who said the firm is not seeking an increase in existing capacities for storage of hazardous waste. ?NFS will only store and treat wastes that are generated on the plant site,? Greene said. ?This is a renewal request with no changes to the existing permit.? Greene?s presentation included information on several cleanup projects under way at the plant. Those who attended the hearing to challenge the permit renewal included Todd Chapman, a Greeneville lawyer representing a group of area residents who have petitioned the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to conduct public hearings on a uranium-downblending project for which NFS also is seeking approval. At the Sept. 10 session, Chapman expressed concern that NFS operations pose a threat to Greeneville?s water supply, which is drawn from the Nolichucky River. Also speaking at the hearing was Gerald O?Connor, president of Impact Plastics Inc., which is located near the NFS plant in Erwin. O?Connor has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, Greeneville, charging that the water under his property has been contaminated by NFS. NFS spokesman Tony Treadway said Friday that renewal of the permit is needed ?to assure that continuing environmental cleanup activities continue on a fast pace.? At the time NFS received its initial 10-year permit, no place existed where mixed waste could be shipped for treatment and disposal. Since then, facilities in Utah and elsewhere have opened, and Treadway said NFS has cut in half the amount of waste stored at the plant. ***************************************************************** 20 *Analysis: Uranium processing difficult* United Press International By Scott R. Burnell UPI Science News Published 9/20/2002 7:45 PM Transforming uranium ores into fuel for nuclear power plants or the core of atomic bombs is an extensive process requiring a careful combination of chemistry and mechanical precision, a factor that should be considered in the current situation with Iraq. Uranium is a not-uncommon common element in the Earth's crust. It falls 48th on the list of abundance, placing it a little more than halfway down the list of the 92 naturally-occurring elements. It is far more prevalent than silver, for example, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. As it sits in the ground, uranium is made up of three isotopes, differentiated by the number of neutrons in each atom's nucleus. Nearly all naturally occurring uranium -- 99.3 percent -- is U-238. Most of the remaining seven-tenths of a percent is U-235, with U-234 comprising just a trace, the DOE says. The key factor in uranium's use in nuclear applications is its instability. Although U-238 is relatively stable, U-235 can be split apart into lighter elements. This process, called nuclear fission, can release huge amounts of energy -- either slowly within a reactor or nearly instantly in a bomb. Raw uranium ore contains combinations of uranium and oxygen, as well as many other elements that basically prevent fission from occurring in any usable fashion. The chemical mix also prevents uranium from being separated into its isotopes easily. The first step requires milling the ore to yield "yellow cake," a substance consisting of uranium oxides that gets its name from its resemblance to cooked cake mix. In order to isolate the U-235, uranium compounds must be stripped of their oxygen. This requires a series of chemical reactions involving acids, hydrogen and ammonium hydroxide that replace the oxygen with fluorine. The result is uranium hexafluoride, an easily-transported, water-soluble solid with a relatively low boiling point. UF6 still retains about the normal ratio of U-238 to U-235. The hexafluoride must undergo enrichment to boost its percentage of U-235. Standard methods include gaseous diffusion and gas centrifuge, the latter being quicker, cheaper and the center of controversy in Iraq's case. Either way, however, increasing amounts of the heavier U-238 are left behind with each enrichment cycle, raising the percentage of desired U-235. The question of whether or not Iraq is at work on a nuclear device is active because two shipments of high-grade aluminum tubes bound for Iraq have been intercepted in the past 14 months. The tubes are components associated with the enrichment process, although experts remain divided over whether the shipments were centrifuge parts or meant for somewhat less-threatening uses such as artillery rocket tubes. If the parts were destined for a centrifuge, the discovery still means Iraqi scientists would need an extended period to produce usable amounts of weapons-grade material. Starting at the "natural" level of seven-tenths of a percent, uranium is not considered even nuclear power plant fuel until it reaches about 3-to-5 percent U-235. Officials do not use the label "highly enriched" until material attains 20 percent U-235. Theoretically, it is possible to create a nuclear weapon with such material, but even higher enrichment levels are thought necessary for the simplest devices Iraq is thought to desire. Copyright © 2002 United Press International ***************************************************************** 21 Russia Struggles with Post-Soviet Nuclear Legacy By Sergei Blagov MOSCOW, Russia, September 19, 2002 (ENS) - Russian authorities have pledged to build new storage facilities to tackle the country’s nuclear waste mess and import waste from overseas. On Tuesday, Russia’s Nuclear Power Minister Alexander Rumyantsev was quoted by the official RIA news agency as saying that Russia has started construction of a new waste storage facility with capacity of 33,000 tons. [Rumyantsev] Russian Nuclear Power Minister Alexander Yurievich Rumyantsev(Photo courtesy Kurchatov Institute [http://www.kiae.ru/] ) Rumyantsev did not reveal the location of the new storage facility. There is speculation that it is in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia being built as an extension of existing major facilities. Rumyantsev only elaborated that it would be "dry" storage. Environmental activists have argued that Russia’s largest waste storage facility, Krasnoyarsk-26, has only about 3,000 tons of unused capacity, while Russia’s Atomic Power Ministry, Minatom, wants to permit other nations to pay to send more than 10,000 tons of their radioactive waste for reprocessing and storage in Russia. Apart from nuclear waste import plans, Russia now faces immense challenges in dealing with its post-Soviet nuclear legacy, notably rusting nuke submarines. Minatom has announced that the Russian navy had decommissioned a total of 189 nuclear submarines, but 126 were still waiting to be scrapped. Russia’s Far Eastern regions face particularly serious nuclear waste problems. The Pacific Fleet's 75 decommissioned nuclear submarines are still stranded in harbors, of which 45 are waiting for nuclear fuel to be unloaded from their reactors. It was environmental organizations such as the Norwegian Bellona Foundation who first warned the world in 1995 about these submarines, tied to their docks still loaded with nuclear fuel. At the time, the Bellona report prompted charges of treason against Bellona’s Aleksandr Nikitin, a former officer in the Russian Navy, who was finally acquitted of these charges in December 1999. [fuel] Nuclear submarines of the Victor, Alfa and Oscar classes are stationed at the base facility in Bolshaya Lopatka. This facility is located on the eastern side of the Litsa Fjord, directly across from Andreeva Bay. (Photo and front page photo courtesy Bellona [http://www.bellona.no] ) But recently, Minatom has declared that the problem of these submarines must be solved as a priority. The greatest source of danger has been reported from the submarine PM-32, located in a Kamchatka harbor. It is being used as a provisional storage facility for spent nuclear fuel from other submarines. This year, Navy experts are expected to unload spent nuclear fuel from 20 nuclear submarines and completely dismantle 17. On Tuesday, Russia’s Deputy Nuclear Power Minister Valery Lebedev announced at an international conference on nuclear security in Vladivostok that the Pacific Fleet's three decommissioned nuclear submarines are so dangerous that nuclear fuel cannot be unloaded from their reactors. In 2003, a sarcophagus is to be built for two of these subs in Razboinik Bay at an estimated cost of $18 million, Lebedev was quoted as saying by RIA. Last March, Russian media alleged that a decommissioned nuclear submarine had recently sank in Krasheninnikov Bay on Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s Far East. Russian naval officials dismissed claims of a nuclear incident in Krasheninnikov Bay, although they conceded that such incidents had taken place back in 1997 and 1999. Russia’s North also faces the challenge of dealing with decommissioned nuclear submarines. Earlier this week, Viktor Akhunov, head of the of ecology and decommissioning department at Minatom, conceded that the rusting hulls of 39 nuclear vessels pose the greatest danger to the environment in Arctic. Since 1994, a total of 29 trainloads of nuclear waste have been brought from emergency storage in Andreyev Guba on the Kola Peninsula to the Mayak reprocessing facility near Chelyabinsk. Waste from some 100 reactors is being temporarily stored in Andreyev Guba. All the waste is due to be removed from the Kola region by 2007. It is widely accepted that Russia now faces a longer term safety problem as its existing nuclear waste storage facilities are getting closer to being filled to capacity. Russia's scientists and officials agree the country urgently needs to monitor and control the post-Soviet nuclear waste legacy. Environmentalists, however, cast doubts on the effectiveness of the governmental programs to tackle the mess. Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2002. All Rights ***************************************************************** 22 The Kursk submarine fragments annihilated on the bottom of Barents Sea Pravda.RU ¹ Sep, 21 2002 The only question is: were that really the remains of the first compartment or ammunition? According to a source in the Russian Navy Main Staff, one of these days, a unique operation was carried out: after the Kursk submarine itself was lifted, the fragments of the submarine first compartment remaining on the sea bottom were blown up. This time, the Main Staff official preferred to remain anonymous. After several telephone conversations he finally called the reason of this “conspiracy” (which looked a bit odd after a long information cooperation): the Navy leadership still does not know how to react to the article published once by PRAVDA.Ru, which was devoted to the reasons of the Kursk submarine wreck: Russian scientists proposed their version of the tragedy. The conclusion made by them was: the reason of the Kursk wreck was the collision with a foreign submarine. It is curious that as this printed publication got to the Navy staffs, it was at once almost classified… So, I am glad to know that PRAVDA.Ru publications have such a great resonance among Navy specialists. So far, our source in the Main Staff reported that after the fragments of the first compartment had been blown up, from the rescue boat Altay, underwater TV equipment had been lowered to investigate the bottom. As the results of this investigation are ready, a decision about further activities of the fleet will be made. Repeated explosion is not excluded: something was not annihilated in the first explosion. Though, this piece of information of our source was not confirmed by other officials of the Main Staff, who say literally the following: “Information of some mass media about annihilation of the first compartment fragments as if remaining on sea bottom is not authentic.” This unexpected closeness of information after the last-year broadcasting to the whole world all the details of the Kursk lifting makes seriously think. So, from discrepant reports of the “official” Main Staff, journalists made their conclusion: instead of the first compartment fragments, a part of the foreign submarine ammunition was annihilated, which still remained on sea bottom. Was it really so? This question will be probably answered in some time… Vitaly Bratkov PRAVDA.Ru Translated by Vera Solovieva ***************************************************************** 23 No blank check for war [chronfeedback@sfchronicle.com] Saturday, September 21, 2002 --> PRESIDENT BUSH just won't stop. He's upping the ante on Iraq again by asking Congress for blank-check war powers only days after demanding United Nations support. The president is tapping into powerful currents: Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's menacing record, memories of Sept. 11 freshened by the recent anniversary and public worry over future terrorist attacks. But there should be room for skepticism and doubt. Show us the evidence of Iraq's dangerous buildup of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. Try inspections and ride Iraq hard. Enroll other world powers, skittish and self- interested as they are, before unleashing the warplanes and missiles. Tell us the plans for what happens next, after a war devastates Iraq, and a new regime assumes power. In the move before Congress, Bush must spell out his administration's intentions more fully. His request is an overly broad mandate that allows the United States to dump Hussein and "restore international peace and security in the region." This loose-fit wording is troubling. It could lead to a wider war spilling into neighboring countries such as Iran or anywhere else in the Persian Gulf that a hawkish, cavalier White House chooses. The goals, timing and trigger points for an attack are left unclear. It's a license to go it alone in a region that demands consensus. Debating these points, unfortunately, may be limited by domestic politics. Bush's unilateral approach to world problems is a winner when it comes to targeting Hussein, a dictator without a shred of legitimate support. Democrats, virtually silent during the Iraq buildup, appear ready to sign a war powers resolution. Older Democratic pols regret earlier votes against the 1991 Persian Gulf War while new members sense a bellicose public mood on the eve of November elections. Agreement could come in days, not weeks. Few officeholders on the ballot six weeks away want to be labeled as soft on Iraq. The handful of committed doubters are left arguing over the phrasing of the war resolution as the only brake on the run-up to war. Bush clearly has the political momentum to smother opposition and obtain a sweeping authorization for war with Iraq. He has deftly put pressure on Congress as well as the U.N., but his goals must be better explained. One consolation may be that Bush's incessant beating of the war drum has led Hussein to second thoughts. He's agreed to admit inspectors after years of refusals. Yes, his word is suspect and inspectors may get nowhere. But it's a remarkable concession from the defiant dictator. Bush has given the U.N. inspectors a chance to do their work, with the first group due to arrive in Baghdad next month. The dimensions of the Iraqi threat, murky right now, may be better known later. ©2002 San Francisco Chronicle.   Page A - 16 ***************************************************************** 24 US may attack Iraq in Feb The Daily Star: International News Volume 3 Number 1081 Sat. September 21, 2002 [http://www.onirban.com] AFP, Washington US military planners are focusing on February as the best time to launch a war against Iraq and would count on defecting Iraqi units to topple President Saddam Hussein, The Washington Times reported yesterday. The newspaper, which quotes unnamed senior defense officials, said the planners would also seek to design a build-up of forces that would take weeks, rather than months, to assemble. It took the US six months to build up the required troops before the 1991 Gulf War. Troops would be more widely dispersed so as not to create large base camps that could be more easily targeted by mobile Scud missiles, The Times said out, adding that the Pentagon had not yet adopted a final blueprint. The paper said the US military also was looking at ways to hit as many targets from the air as possible in the opening days of the military campaign. Commanders would depend on Tomahawk cruise missiles and B-2 bombers. It would commit 10 to 16 of the stealth aircraft, each of which can drop more than a dozen heavy satellite-guided bombs on different targets, The Times said. Once Iraq's estimated 60-plus surface-to-air missile sites were destroyed, B-52 and B-1 bombers would join the war, also dropping precision-guided weapons on critical command centres and known headquarters, it said. The bombers would fly from the United States, the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia and an air base in Fairford, Britain. The daily said much of the debate centred on the size of the US force, which could range from 75,000 to 250,000 soldiers. General Tommy Franks, who heads the Central Command and would run the war, advocates a relatively large ground presence, the Time said. Vice President Richard Cheney and Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz are said to favour a smaller force, while Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld advocates a medium-strength force, it said. US President George W. Bush insists he has not yet decided whether to launch military action against Iraq. While the United States has relied heavily on anti-Taliban fighters in its war in Afghanistan, in Iraq, it would rely on defectors and dissidents within Saddam's army, the paper said, quoting two senior officials. AP, adds: US Congress is promising a quick vote on President Bush's request for authority to use military force against Iraq, moving toward a show of unity to back up the president's effort to gain support on Iraq from Russia and other wary nations. Leaders from both parties welcomed a draft proposal Bush offered Thursday in which Congress would authorize the president to ''use all means,'' including military force, to defend U.S. national security interests against the threat posed by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Senate Republican leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said both the House and Senate could vote on the resolution as early as the first week in October before lawmakers go home to campaign for the Nov. 5 election. He said lawmakers would review the president's proposal over the weekend, but ''I'm perfectly happy with the language.'' Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., agreed that there is absolutely no difference of opinion with regard to the threat that Saddam Hussein poses and the need to address that threat in a multitude of ways.'' He said Democrats wanted some changes in the wording of the proposal, but were confident a broad consensus could be reached. Bush originally said he didn't need the approval of Congress to take military action against Iraq. But a show of support from Capitol Hill would be a boost to the president as he presses for a UN Security Council resolution authorising force and tries to put together an international coalition to force Iraq to disarm. The Daily Star Internet Edition, is jointly published by the ***************************************************************** 25 Bush Has Received Pentagon Options on Attacking Iraq The New York Times September 21, 2002* *By ERIC SCHMITT and DAVID E. SANGER* WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 ? The Pentagon has completed and delivered to President Bush a highly detailed set of military options for attacking Iraq, Pentagon and White House officials said today. The commander of forces in the Persian Gulf region, Gen. Tommy R. Franks, presented the war-planning document to Mr. Bush in early September, just days before the president spoke to the United Nations on Sept. 12 and demanded that it authorize military action against Saddam Hussein. In his speech, Mr. Bush made clear that the United States was prepared to act unilaterally. The highly classified plans, which were presented to the Joint Chiefs of Staff shortly after the president was briefed, are the most specific plans the military has presented to Mr. Bush so far. "The president has options now, and he has not made any decisions," Ari Fleischer, the president's spokesman, said in an interview today. He noted that Mr. Bush had asked Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in August to send him options that were more concrete than earlier concepts. Senior administration officials declined to comment on the details of the war document, which will continue to be polished while Mr. Bush decides whether to order an offensive. In a brief interview this week, Mr. Rumsfeld said he would not discuss the war-planning process. Senior Pentagon officials said he had demanded more creative options from his field commanders. Officials said, however, that any attack would begin with a lengthy air campaign led by B-2 bombers armed with 2,000-pound satellite-guided bombs to knock out Iraqi command and control headquarters and air defenses. They said a principal goal of the aerial bombardment would be to sever most communications from Baghdad and isolate Saddam Hussein from his commanders in the rest of the country. At the same time, according to officials knowledgeable about the planning, tens of thousands of marines and soldiers would stage out of Kuwait and possibly other countries in the region, officials said. Officials familiar with the war-planning document say its contents include the number of ground troops, combat aircraft and aircraft carrier battle groups that would be needed. It also contains detailed sequencing for the use of air, land, naval and Special Operations forces to attack thousands of Iraqi targets, from air-defense sites to command-and-control headquarters to fielded forces. "We're very comfortable with the state of planning right now," a senior Pentagon official said. Until recently, the White House said Mr. Bush had "no war plan on his desk." But today, Mr. Fleischer said, "I am not saying there is no plan on his desk." Asked about how to suppress Iraq's capability to use chemical or biological weapons on American troops or Israel, Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday that "one of the things you'd think about doing would be attacking his delivery means or his weapons of mass destruction." It is an issue, General Myers said with some understatement, "that General Franks would pay a lot of attention to." The Pentagon regards January or February as the most suitable for any ground attack because the short winter days play to the American edge in night-fighting and the cooler temperatures ease discomfort for troops dressed in chemical warfare gear. Because of that, Mr. Bush's top national security advisers decided this summer that their diplomatic and military strategies must be worked out simultaneously. So since July, General Myers or his deputy, Gen. Peter Pace, have attended a series of classified meetings at the White House with Vice President Dick Cheney, Mr. Rumsfeld, and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. The themes of Mr. Bush's speech to the United Nations were first conceived in those sessions, and military options were also discussed. The meetings have been considered so sensitive that the word Iraq never appeared on the private schedules of those attending. Instead, the sessions have been listed under the phrase "Regional Strategies Meeting." They have usually been run by Condoleezza Rice, Mr. Bush's national security adviser and one of the principal architects of the doctrine of pre-emptive strikes against nations with weapons of mass destruction. A participant in the meetings said the goal was to "explore all the elements ? regime change, what military options there might be, how the diplomatic process fits in." The principals did not examine individual military strategies. "We would look at the question of how might you have regime change thought of as liberation rather than occupation?" the participant said. "That was a question put before the principals, and then there would be a paper done on it." But by August, from his ranch, Mr. Bush asked for specific military options. Those were settled on at the White House in early September, shortly after he had returned to Washington. Much planning remains both at the Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla., and at other military commands. That includes the Special Operations Command, whose highly specialized counterterrorism and counterproliferation troops, including the Army unit known as Delta Force, would have responsibility for hunting down storage and production sites for Iraq's suspected chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs. Special military assessment teams throughout the armed services have been assigned to study specific problems, ranging from tracking and destroying Iraq's mobile Scud missiles to assessing how to separate Iraq's security forces from the regular Iraqi army. The army may be more willing than the security forces to turn against the Iraqi leader after several days of punishing American airstrikes. But as the administration presses the United Nations and Congress for resolutions supporting the use of force against Iraq, Mr. Bush now has a highly refined set of options to topple Mr. Hussein and eliminate Baghdad's weapons of mass destruction, officials said. The plans represent weeks of discussions among Mr. Rumsfeld, General Myers, General Franks and other top military and national security officials. Mr. Rumsfeld and General Franks usually speak at least twice a day by telephone or secure videoconference. Mr. Bush had received at least three briefings from General Franks on the broad outlines, or "concept of operations," for a possible attack against Iraq. The most recent of these briefings was on Aug. 5, according to the White House. In these meetings, General Franks reviewed options including one in which a military operation using about 250,000 troops, with an initial invasion force of fewer than 100,000 troops and a larger force in reserve. In early July, Mr. Rumsfeld and General Myers sent General Franks a classified written directive about five pages long, spelling out in detail what the war plan should contain: the role of allies, how to address Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, how to stabilize the country after a war; all issues underlying the primary goal: deposing Mr. Hussein. Pentagon officials said the written planning order helped crystalize the work of planners at Central Command, and other commands that were working on elements of the war effort. But the document also raised new questions and issues, and officials said General Franks asked for an extension until early September to work through the detailed underpinnings of the detailed options, Pentagon officials said. "Up to then, Franks was going on verbal guidance," said one senior officer who reviewed the planning order. "This was a well-written directive that would drive detailed planning." ***************************************************************** 26 Iraq Says Won't Accept New U.N. Resolution The New York Times September 21, 2002* *By REUTERS* BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq said on Saturday it would not accept any new U.N. Security Council resolution that runs contrary to an agreement reached with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. ``Iraq announces that it will not cooperate with a new resolution which is different from what has been agreed upon with the (U.N.) Secretary-General,'' said a statement issued following a meeting of top Iraqi leaders chaired by President Saddam Hussein. The statement carried by state-run Baghdad radio gave no details of the agreement Iraq had reached with Annan. The United States and Britain have stepped up pressure on the Security Council to adopt a tough new Iraq resolution before any resumption of U.N. arms inspections to search for weapons of mass destruction. British U.N. Ambassador Sir Jeremy Greenstock met the 10 non-permanent members of the 15-nation Security Council on Friday to lobby for a new resolution demanding unfettered access for the arms experts and spelling out the consequences if Baghdad failed to cooperate with the inspection teams. Washington has threatened Baghdad with military action if it does not allow the unconditional return of the inspectors. The Iraqi statement said the Iraqi move was in reaction to attempts by ``American officials who are trying to issue bad resolutions through the U.N. Security Council.'' Iraq agreed this week to the unconditional return of the U.N. arms inspectors, who left in December 1998, just before a U.S.-British bombing blitz to punish Baghdad for its alleged failure to cooperate with them. Russia and France, both permanent members of the U.N. Security Council with veto powers, have expressed doubt about the need for a new resolution, complicating President Bush's desire for quick action against Baghdad. U.N. weapons inspectors and Iraq's top arms experts met briefly this week in New York to discuss logistics on offices, flights, escorts and other planning. Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said on Thursday his first teams could be on the ground by October 15 and begin some test inspections soon afterwards. Baghdad radio said Saturday's meeting was attended by Iraqi officials including Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz, Revolutionary Command Council member Ali Hassan al-Majeed and Foreign Minister Naji Sabri. It said Sabri briefed the others on his participation at the U.N. General Assembly meetings. Sabri delivered a speech by Saddam to the assembly in which he declared Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and accused the United States of fabricating excuses to attack his country. Copyright 2002 Reuters Ltd. | ***************************************************************** 27 IAEA demands N Korea, Iraq accept nuclear inspection Saturday, September 21, 2002 at 10:00 JST VIENNA ? The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Friday demanded that North Korea accepts a special IAEA inspection of its nuclear facilities and urged Iraq to comply with the U.N. Security Council resolutions in full and without further delay. An IAEA resolution adopted on the final day of the IAEA general conference said North Korea must abide by its obligations as a signatory state of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and urged Pyongyang to accept the inspection of its nuclear facilities. Under a 1994 agreement with the U.S., North Korea agreed to scrap its nuclear program in return for a U.S. commitment to build two nuclear reactors Washington say would be less prone to be diverted for the development of nuclear weapons. The IAEA is "unable to conclude that there has been no diversion of nuclear material (in North Korea,)" the resolution said in calling Pyongyang to comply with its agreements with the IAEA. The resolution also urged North Korea to rejoin the IAEA. North Korea withdrew from the IAEA in 1994. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi at the summit meeting in Pyongyang on Tuesday that North Korea was willing to accept IAEA inspection. IAEA officials said the agency was in the process of confirming North Korean plans for nuclear inspection. On Iraq, the IAEA demanded that the Iraqi government implement U.N. Security Council resolutions that Iraq provides immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access to IAEA inspectors. More than 20 states, about a fourth of the countries represented at the IAEA session, abstained in the voting for the Iraq resolution, saying a separate resolution is not necessary now that Iraq had agreed to accept the U.N. weapons inspectors. The IAEA conference also adopted a resolution calling for greater security measures in the transportation and storage of nuclear materials in an effort to prevent nuclear terrorism. (Kyodo News) Japan Today ***************************************************************** 28 Dismantling of FFTF starts today This story was published Thu, Sep 19, 2002 By Annette Cary Herald staff writer The Department of Energy office responsible for environmental cleanup will begin dismantling Hanford's Fast Flux Test Facility today. Responsibility for the reactor has been transferred from the Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology to the Office of Environmental Management, which will begin decommissioning immediately, DOE announced Wednesday. "This is deeply disappointing," said Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash. "I strongly disagree with this decision." Work to shut down FFTF permanently began this year when the Bush administration concluded DOE had no use for the research reactor. Earlier, the Clinton administration made the same decision. "Our orders have been to shut down the reactor," said Andrea Powell, a DOE spokeswoman in Richland. "We have been since February. This is another piece of that." DOE already has stopped some maintenance work, including turning off the fan that cooled the nuclear instrumentation and another that cooled the control-rod mechanism. Today, piping will be cut to four insulated containers that once held liquid nitrogen or argon used with the reactor's liquid sodium system. Cranes then will be used to remove the containers. Supporters of restarting the reactor want it declared surplus and its operation turned over to private industry to produce isotopes for new medical uses and other industrial uses. Although DOE has not cooperated with that proposal, supporters are looking to support from other government agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services. But as dismantling proceeds, pulling together a plan to restart the reactor privately becomes more difficult. "What they appear to be doing is taking a Lincoln Continental in the carport and sawing off the wheels and taking out the windows and turning it into a junker without giving us a chance," said Claude Oliver, chairman of Citizens for Medical Isotopes, or CMI, and the Benton County Commission. The reactor has not been used in a decade, but it's been maintained in standby condition at a cost of as much as $40 million a year included in the Office of Nuclear Energy budget. Once sodium is drained from its cooling system, starting it again could be dangerous. "The transfer of FFTF (to the cleanup office) will not be to the detriment of cleanup money," said Todd Young, a spokesman for Hastings. Under an understanding reached with DOE, extra money will be included in Hanford's cleanup budget for the decommissioning so other site cleanup work is not affected, Young said. However, supporters of restarting the reactor question whether DOE will continue to add extra money to the Hanford cleanup budget in future years to cover the cost of decommissioning FFTF, or whether that money would have to be siphoned from other cleanup work more vital to protecting the environment. DOE is expecting a plan from contractor Fluor Hanford at the end of the month to accelerate decommissioning, but CMI members said the acceleration seems to be starting without an approved plan. "It appears to be politically motivated out of Washington, D.C.," Oliver said. Wednesday night, supporters were checking to see if the reactor could be switched to the cleanup office without violating the Tri-Party Agreement, the legal pact that governs Hanford cleanup. At one point DOE was considering keeping the reactor under the Office of Nuclear Energy until decommissioning was finished, but that language doesn't appear to have been made official. The work scheduled for today is on three insulated containers that held nitrogen. Nitrogen surrounds the sodium piping as a fire prevention measure. The fourth container held argon. If sodium comes into contact with oxygen, it can ignite. Other containers that still hold nitrogen and argon are not included in today's work plan. "All those in the Tri-Cities community who fought this fight have every reason to be proud," Hastings said. "This is a battle we should have won, but we certainly didn't lose for lack of trying." He still believes FFTF is a one-of-a-kind reactor that could have advanced medical and nuclear science, he said. Supporters of the reactor fear that if it's shut down, America will lose the opportunity to move forward quickly to develop and manufacture new medicines that show promise to treat cancer more effectively and with fewer side effects than conventional treatments. Now the United States imports most radioisotopes used in medicine, and many of them are of lower quality than could be produced at FFTF. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 29 Backers renew fight to save FFTF This story was published Fri, Sep 20, 2002 By Annette Cary Herald staff writer As pipes were cut and chemical containers were hoisted out of Hanford's Fast Flux Test Facility by crane Thursday, supporters of the reactor were launching a renewed campaign to save it. Citizens for Medical Isotopes was readying 7,000 letters to mail across the nation and beyond urging people to ask state and federal officials to spare the reactor. The mailing list was culled mostly from an online petition to save the reactor that drew electronic signatures from far beyond the Mid-Columbia. Supporters want the reactor saved to make isotopes used in new medicines to treat cancer and other diseases. Without FFTF, use and development of the treatments in the United States will lag and the nation will continue to be dependent on imported medical isotopes, they believe. "We need the isotopes and we have the facility to make them," said Claude Oliver, chairman of CMI and the Benton County Commission. But the Department of Energy ordered the reactor shut down and started negotiating how quickly it must decommission the reactor. Proposed Tri-Party Agreement deadlines call for DOE to begin draining its sodium coolant in June 2003. Once the sodium is drained, the reactor, which has been kept in standby condition for a decade, cannot be restarted. CMI is asking supporters of the reactor to attend public meetings on proposed deadlines for shutting down FFTF, including one in Richland at 7 p.m. on Oct. 10 at the Hanford House. But those proposed regulations don't stop DOE from beating deadlines to dismantle the reactor, and DOE has started that work. It transferred the reactor from its nuclear energy and science office to its cleanup office, which started its work Thursday. It removed four of the containers that once held nitrogen and argon needed to protect the reactor's sodium system. CMI also is preparing 300 videos about its fight to save FFTF to send to media, doctors and political leaders. The video recommends supporters call the White House, which has refused to overrule DOE, or the Department of Health and Human Services, which FFTF supporters have tried to interest in FFTF. DOE refused to allow the inside of the reactor building to be filmed for the video, citing security concerns. Instead, it offered four minutes of file footage and charged supporters $300, according to CMI. CMI has expected dismantling of the reactor to begin in the next few months, but was caught by surprise when it started this week. CMI has worked on a proposal with some Mid-Columbia governments to get the reactor declared surplus and allow private industry to use it to produce isotopes for medicine and other uses. "They're just going to wreck a reactor -- the only one of its kind," Oliver said. "This is moving our business people away from having serious discussions with us." CMI is studying legal ways to block the shutdown, focusing on environmental regulation compliance. Organized labor also continues to fight to save the reactor. On Thursday, Keith Smith, a delegate to the aerospace machinist district council, gave CMI a $1,000 check from the Eastern Washington Building Trades Association. "This is the largest economic development story since Boeing came to town," said Marlene Oliver, a West Richland consultant for new medical and environmental technology and a consumer advocate for the National Cancer Institute. She frequently recommends that critically ill cancer patients who have exhausted their options in the United States travel to Europe for advanced medical isotope treatments not available here, she said. CMI can be reached at 737-8463 and has information posted at www.fftf.info on the Internet, including links to file public comments on FFTF. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 30 Feds still mismanage Hanford, report finds The News Tribune - Tacoma, WA [Tribnet.com] The Associated Press RICHLAND - The private contractors conducting Hanford's $2 billion-a-year nuclear waste cleanup are still receiving large bonuses, despite delays and cost overruns, congressional investigators have found. Eight years after the U.S. Department of Energy started overhauling its supervision of private contractors, half the projects nationwide are still behind schedule, according to a report from the General Accounting Office. A GAO audit released this week also found that DOE relaxed its performance standards for contractors and that private businesses were paid bonuses that were hard to justify. But Energy Department financial officials contend the audit ignored the complexity of cleaning up some of the most contaminated sites on the planet. At Hanford, government auditors in the mid-1990s estimated one out of every three dollars was wasted. In 1994, the Energy Department began to reform its contracting, and since has nearly doubled the number of contracts it awards through competitive bidding. More payments are based on how well contractors do their work. But the GAO report concluded, "We found no indication of improved performance." Some at Hanford say cleanup at the sprawling reservation is more efficient and substantial progress is being made. By year's end, officials project nearly half of the 2,300 tons of corroding nuclear-fuel rods stored 400 yards from the Columbia River will have been removed from cooling pools already 30 years past their life span. Waste contaminated with plutonium is being shipped off the site. Construction of a multibillion dollar plant to turn the 54 million tons of toxic, contaminated liquid in Hanford's tanks into glass is under way. But even the agency's top czar on cleanup issues has acknowledged the depth of problems nationwide. Jessie Roberson, the Energy Department's assistant secretary for Environmental Management, pointed out that while the agency has spent $60 billion since 1989 to clean up radioactive and hazardous waste across the country, little progress has been made. Still, contractors at cleanup sites earned 90 percent of their available performance bonuses in 2000 and 2001, leading her to conclude contracting guidelines "measured process, not progress; opinions, not results." In 1999, a GAO auditor criticized a Hanford contractor for spending $1.5 million a year on thousands of new telephone lines, paying outside companies to produce 850,000 photocopies and hiring commercial photographers when phone lines, copying machines and photography services already were available and unused on site. (Published 12:30AM, September 21st, 2002) © 2002 Tacoma News, Inc. 1950 South State Street, Tacoma, Washington 98405 253-597-8742 ***************************************************************** 31 Groups want to stop DOE's reactor closure The News Tribune - Tacoma, WA [Tribnet.com] The Associated Press RICHLAND - As the U.S Department of Energy began dismantling a defunct Hanford nuclear reservation reactor, groups that want to make isotopes for medicine began a last-ditch effort to save it. Workers on Thursday removed four containers that once held gases needed to protect the Fast Flux Test Facility reactor's sodium cooling system. Work to permanently shut down FFTF started this year when the Bush administration concluded the Energy Department had no use for the research reactor, a prototype of a breeder reactor program that was abandoned by Congress in the 1980s. The reactor has not been used in a decade but has been maintained in standby condition at a cost of as much as $40 million a year. Proposed deadlines call for DOE to begin draining the reactor's sodium coolant in June 2003. Once the sodium is drained, the reactor cannot be restarted. Citizens for Medical Isotopes, a Tri-Cities group that wants to use the reactor for commercial purposes, is sending 7,000 letters urging people to ask state and federal officials to spare the reactor. Supporters want the reactor saved to make isotopes used in medicines to treat cancer and other diseases. CMI also is preparing 300 videos to send to media, doctors and political leaders, arguing the country's supplies of isotopes used in nuclear medicine programs largely come from other countries. (Published 12:30AM, September 21st, 2002) © 2002 Tacoma News, Inc. 1950 South State Street, Tacoma, Washington 98405 253-597-8742 ***************************************************************** 32 DOE sides with fired Pantex employee Amarillo Globe-News: Local News: 09/21/02 By JIM McBRIDE jmcbride@amarillonet.com An Energy Department official has ordered BWXT Pantex to pay a former radiation technician more than $33,900 in back wages and expenses after he was fired for reporting nuclear safety concerns. But BXWT Pantex is considering a final appeal to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. The dispute centers on a complaint that former Pantex radiation technician Robert Burd filed nearly two years ago against former Pantex contractor Mason &Hanger Silas-Mason Co. BWXT Pantex agreed to handle the complaint after it took over Pantex management last year. Burd worked in Pantex's radiation safety division from January 1998 until he was terminated in September 2000 after a confrontation with his supervisor. On Nov. 16, BWXT Pantex appealed an earlier decision issued by DOE's Office of Hearings and Appeals that found Mason &Hanger retaliated against Burd by firing him. A DOE official ruled that Burd made a protected disclosure under federal whistle-blower law when he complained that another radiation technician had worked in a weapons facility for nearly 24 hours in a row. The initial decision ordered BWXT to reinstate Burd, pay him back pay and reimburse him for reasonable costs and expenses linked to his complaint against Mason &Hanger. During a DOE hearing on the case, another supervisor testified that Burd raised a valid safety issue. The supervisor testified that employees who work more than 16 hours are not alert and represent an increased risk to themselves or a nuclear warhead. Another worker testified that the risk of radioactive contamination increases when a worker is tired, according to hearing transcripts. After reviewing BWXT's appeal, another DOE official ruled Aug. 5 that Mason &Hanger retaliated against Burd. That ruling said BWXT should pay Burd various costs, expenses, attorney fees, back pay and other reasonable damages linked to his firing. But the second hearing official did not order the contractor to reinstate Burd. Michael Warner, Burd's attorney, said he is negotiating with BWXT Pantex over how much BWXT will pay Burd. "We're arguing over dollars and cents and whether or not they can deduct his overtime earnings at his new job," he said. "If we can't decide, then (a hearing officer) is going to decide for us, and that is probably where we're headed. There are seven points of contention. Three are agreed upon, and the other four we can't agree upon." Alan Jones, chief counsel for BWXT Pantex, said in a statement that the contractor is pondering another appeal of this latest DOE ruling: "To the extent that it did not order the reinstatement of Mr. Burd to his position at the Pantex Plant, BWXT Pantex was pleased with the decision and order. However, the portions that attempt to justify and order that restitution be made to Mr. Burd are being considered for forwarding to the Secretary of Energy for review, which is the final appeal in the administrative phase of this complaint." 1996-2002 Amarillo Globe-News ***************************************************************** 33 U.S.'s Rape of the Indians Continues Still Today Copyright © 2002, Newsday, Inc. ***************************************************************** 34 Jesse Riley: A scientist driven by morals dies Charlotte Observer | 09/21/2002 | He led the charge against nuclear power plants in Charlotte area BRUCE HENDERSON Staff Writer Jesse Louis Riley, who led a dogged charge against construction of the two nuclear power plants near Charlotte, died Friday in Black Mountain. He was 87. Riley, a chemist, was by avocation a citizen-scientist. He used his intellect and training to oppose nuclear power, the Vietnam War and social injustice. "He thought, in many ways, his place in the world was to ask some really tough questions and raise some hell," said his youngest son, Mike Riley, editor of The Roanoke (Va.) Times. Months before he died, the lanky, white-haired Riley was still at it, arguing against license extensions for the nuclear plants he'd fought 30 years earlier. His death followed a battle against a rare blood disease. Although Duke Power built its Catawba and McGuire nuclear plants, Riley and his Carolina Environmental Study Group believed they slowed the licensing process. In the late 1970s, the group took a landmark legal case to the U.S. Supreme Court, challenging a federal law that limited the liability of utilities from nuclear accidents. A federal judge in Charlotte ruled the law unconstitutional, but the Supreme Court upheld the law. In later years, Riley fought the transport of nuclear waste and for safe ways to dispose of radioactive material. His roots in science ran deep. As a boy in Chicago, he held an indoor flight record for rubber-band-powered model airplanes and wanted to study aeronautical engineering. But scholarships available during the Depression led him to double-major in chemistry and physics at Northwestern University, where he was Phi Beta Kappa. He earned a master's degree from the University of Chicago. In nearly 40 years as a research scientist for fiber maker Celanese Corp., he earned almost 20 patents for his work. Away from hearing rooms and the stacks of documents in his "nuke room," Riley enjoyed tinkering on cars. His left arm had been weakened by polio, but his right offered a firm handshake strengthened by years of turning a wrench. In his last decade, Riley wrestled intellectual questions of a different sort. A lifelong agnostic, he concluded that life is so complex that it could not have developed by chance. With typical precision, he summarized his ideas in a 30-page essay. "What is most admirable about Jesse Riley is his absolutely unswerving search for truth, religiously, politically, socially," said longtime friend Henry Presler of Monroe who hopes to publish the essay. "It's as if his whole life was motivated by this quest for truth in all matters." Riley, in an Observer interview last December, said reconciling God and science finally made the meaning of life intelligible. "I feel great," he said. "It's not only that I answered a question that I couldn't answer, but I liked the answer." He's survived by his wife, Sue Spayth Riley of Black Mountain; daughter Chloe of Dearborn Heights, Mich.; sons Peter of Windsor, Ontario, and Michael of Roanoke; stepsons Tom Wolpert of Wynnewood, Pa., and Jeremiah Wolpert of Pulaski, Tenn.; and three grandchildren. Memorial donations may be made to the Unitarian Universalist Church of Charlotte, 234 N. Sharon Amity Rd., Charlotte, NC 28211. A memorial will be scheduled at the church. ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************