***************************************************************** 01/22/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.20 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POLICY 1 World News: Haider urges use of veto to close N-plant 2 Austrian, Czech Catholic officials to discuss disputed nuclear 3 Myanmar confirms nuclear plans - 4 Austrian antinuclear petition gets 15 percent [backing] SIGS 5 Chinese experts say industry of applicable nuclear technology 6 Burma to get nuclear reactor 7 Austrian vote blow for Haider 8 Canada: Request for public comment 9 Myanmar confirms nuclear plans - 10 US: Nuke power vital, Rep. Kelly says 11 US: Calls to shut down nuclear plant pile up 12 EU: Austria's anti-nuclear plant petition will not affect Czech 13 Austrian politicians comment on result of anti-nuclear plant 14 Czech fury at anti-nuclear campaign by Austrian Right 15 Slovene experts disagree with funds for Krsko nuclear plant NUCLEAR REACTORS 16 Power units stopped at two Russian nuclear power plants 17 US: 669 Days and Counting - CP&L's Brunswick Plant Sets New World 18 US: Consumers Energy's Palisades Nuclear Plant Returns to Service 19 US: Indian Point leak fixed in October NUCLEAR SAFETY 20 US: IAAP sign-up period begins NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 21 US: Funds Support Increased Nuclear Waste Shipments 22 US: W. Valley task force to discuss appeal to Congress 23 UK: All clear on cards for nuclear plant 24 JA: Reprocessed nuclear waste arrives at Rokkasho - 25 JA: Reprocessed nuclear waste arrives at Rokkasho from France 26 US: Congress transportation chief rethinking nuclear waste position 27 US: Editorial: Yucca Mountain / A very good place for nuclear waste 28 US: Moab: Scientists Won't Take Sides on Uranium Waste 29 UK: Dounreay receives safety 'all clear' 30 US: GOP congressman to rethink Yucca stance 31 US: Boxer: On Decision to Proceed with Yucca Mountain Project 32 US: Letter: Sununu strategy: Insult Nevadans 33 US: Editorial: We've heard that song before 34 US: Brian Greenspun - Yucca : State full of patriots 35 US: Letter: Bush needs to explain Yucca science to us 36 US: Letter: Nuclear waste could be target 37 US: Alaska GOP rep wary of nuclear traffic 38 US: Yucca tops lawmakers' agenda 39 US: Rep. Young rethinking Yucca vote 40 CAN: Proposed Operation of a Radioactive Waste Facility in the Ellio 41 US: Letter from Lt. Governor Lorraine T. Hunt to Energy Secretary 42 US: NUCLEAR WASTE: Central storage is the way to go NUCLEAR WEAPONS 43 Russia: No pardon plea to Putin 44 India signs international convention on protection of nuclear 45 Radioactive loot threat to thieves 46 US: BACKGROUNDER: 'DIRTY BOMBS': Simple devices could play havoc US DEPT. OF ENERGY 47 Editorial: End the delays - It's time for action on DOE recycling OTHER NUCLEAR 48 Nuclear Institute playing vital role in revolutionising farm ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 World News: Haider urges use of veto to close N-plant Irish Times; Jan 21, 2002 Berlin - The far-right politician, Mr Jorg Haider, says Austria could veto the EU accession of the Czech Republic unless it closes a controversial nuclear power plant near the Austrian border, reports Derek Scally. Mr Haider and Freedom Party politicians have organised a petition to force the Austrian Chancellor, Mr Wolfgang Schussel, to push for the closure of the Temelin plant at a new round of talks with the Czech government. The Czech Prime Minister Mr Milos Zeman has criticised the campaign, dismissing Mr Haider as 'a political Chernobyl'. ***************************************************************** 2 Austrian, Czech Catholic officials to discuss disputed nuclear plant BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jan 21, 2002 Prague, 21 January: Bishop Vaclav Maly will attend a meeting of Czech and Austrian Catholic representation on the Czech Temelin nuclear power plant in February, he told CTK today. H said it was necessary to talk about the plant's safety, its impact on the environment and the advantage of nuclear power in a matter-of-fact way. "The Austrian side has proposed to talk about Temelin without emotions because the reactions of some groups are too emotive and the reactions of some politicians exaggerated and aggressive," Maly said. Even though the participants in the planned meeting are not experts, it is necessary for them to join discussion on issues disturbing a considerable part of society, he said. The task of the council Iustitia et Pax, which exists at both countries' bishops' conference, is to explain the social teaching of the church, monitor the state of human rights and show solidarity with some prosecuted people abroad. "The Temelin issue belongs to the council's sphere of competence," Maly said. The Austrian organization Catholic Action (KAOe) has recently expressed its opposition to the current petition referendum in Austria aimed against Temelin and initiated by the Austrian coalition Freedom Party (FPOe). Temelin has already been the theme of talks between representatives of both countries' bishops' conference several times... Source: CTK news agency, Prague, in English 1800 gmt 21 Jan 02 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter ***************************************************************** 3 Myanmar confirms nuclear plans - CNN.com - January 22, 2002 YANGON, Myanmar -- The military government of Myanmar has confirmed that it is planning to build the country's first nuclear reactor with help from Russia. Confirming reports of the project, Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Muang Win said the reactor was to be used purely for peaceful purposes to meet demand for radio isotopes from the country's healthcare, agricultural and educational sectors. "We have been conducting feasibility studies for building a nuclear reactor for peaceful purposes," he told a news conference in the capital Yangon, formerly Rangoon. "I would like to stress that it is purely for peaceful purposes, purely for nuclear research, purely for training our scientists and also to meet our need for radio isotopes." Myanmar's often secret military rulers have previously declined to comment on reports of negotiations with Russia on the construction of the reactor. However announcing the project on Monday they denied that they had ever tried to hide the plans. "We have been carrying it out openly," said Khin Muang Win. "We officially informed the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Authority) Director General of our idea and asked for their advice in September 2000," he said. Sanctions According to Reuters IAEA officials have confirmed discussions with Myanmar and say the reactor is unlikely to be suitable for the production of nuclear weapons. However IAEA officials based in Vienna have raised concerns about Myanmar's ability to cope with such high-maintenance technology and the high safety standards needed for its upkeep. Myanmar is one of the poorest countries in the world and human rights groups have criticized reports of the planned reactor saying it is a frivolous expense designed only to bolster the egos of the country's ruling generals. Myanmar's military rulers have been subject to wide-ranging political and economic sanctions for several years as a result of the country's poor human rights record and alleged involvement in the illegal narcotics trade. According to Reuters nuclear experts believe the 10-megawatt reactor will cost in the region of $5 million to build, excluding maintenance costs. The initial construction costs could be met by bartering produce such as timber, fish and rice -- a system used by the government to fund other projects in the past. ***************************************************************** 4 Austrian antinuclear petition gets 15 percent [backing] SIGS - 1/22/2002 - ENN.com By Richard Murphy, Reuters VIENNA Nearly a sixth of Austrian voters signed a petition demanding that their country veto Czech membership of the European Union unless Prague shuts down a controversial nuclear plant. The petition was not legally binding and the result will do little more than force Austria's parliament to debate Temelin. Prague said its EU membership negotiations would not be affected. The Austrian interior ministry announced late on Monday that 915,220 out of 5.8 million eligible voters — 15.5 percent — had signed the petition, launched by Joerg Haider's Freedom Party, demanding the closure of the Temelin plant. The Freedom Party, half of a coalition government with Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel's conservatives, hailed the result as a resounding success and said it would try to have the veto threat enshrined in a law. But Schuessel's People's Party, which together with the opposition Social Democrats and Greens had opposed the petition, said there would be no parliamentary majority for this. "This is a huge success for Austria and for direct democracy," Freedom Party parliamentary leader Peter Westenthaler said on ORF television. His counterpart in the People's Party, Andreas Khol, said the result demonstrated the maturity of Austrian voters. "4.8 million Austrians did not sign," Khol said. Prague insists the plant, 60 km (40 miles) from the border with Austria, is safe and says the petition was really aimed at preventing it from joining the EU. The result fell short of the 1 million signatures which the Freedom Party had hoped for. It was enough to enable Haider to claim some success while Schuessel will feel vindicated by the fact that 85 percent of voters failed to sign the petition, despite near-universal opposition to nuclear power in Austria. But the issue is likely to provoke increased public squabbling within the two-year-old coalition and could, in time, trigger early elections. It will also ensure that EU enlargement, expected in 2004, remains a contentious political issue in Austria. Czech foreign ministry spokesman Ales Pospisil said the result would not affect his country's EU negotiations. "We firmly believe that the overwhelming majority of Austrian politicians and citizens want the Czech Republic to join the EU," he told Austria's APA news agency. "Czech EU membership is also in Austria's national interest." Support for the petition is likely to have been boosted by weekend comments by Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman describing Haider as a "populist pro-Nazi" and suggesting that only an idiot would sign it. Copyright 2002, Reuters All Rights ReservedMore ENN news Copyright © 2001 Environmental News Network Inc. ***************************************************************** 5 Chinese experts say industry of applicable nuclear technology reaches "maturity" BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jan 22, 2002 Text of report by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency) Reporters Chen Wenli and Xiong Jinchao learned from the currently on-going Annual Meeting of the Chinese Nuclear Society that the total annual value of production of China's nuclear technology and application industry has reached the level of 15bn yuan [1.812bn US dollars]. China's Research and Development and industrial system for nuclear technology has gained maturity. Statistical data show that China has about 300 companies engaged in nuclear technology Research and Development. Of the 15bn yuan of annual business in nuclear technology and application, four billion yuan was in nuclear agriculture, 2.5bn yuan was in radioactive chemical products, two billion yuan was in radioisotope equipment and gauges, 3.5bn yuan was in radioisotope products, and five billion yuan was in gamma radiation products. According to experts, there were three main areas for industrialization of nuclear technology: (1) nuclear medicine applications including radioactive drugs, radiation therapy and radiation diagnosis, (2) industrial application of synchrotron radiation, including manufacturing of cobalt sources with accelerator and ion beam, and nuclear instruments and gauges, and (3) environmental applications of synchrotron radiation, including scrubbing sulphur and nitrates from coal-burning smoke and treatment of waste water and slush. China has a 40-year history of nuclear technology application. Since the 1990s, China has entered the industrialization phase of nuclear technology application. Most of the advances were made in the areas of radioactive source manufacturing, nuclear medical diagnosis, and integrated modular measurement systems. Experts pointed out that China's overall nuclear technology has approached the world standard, with certain specific technologies already at the world standard. However, when compared to advanced countries, China's nuclear technology industrialization still has a distance to go, especially in the areas of nuclear medicine, radiation processing, sterilization by radiation, preservation of food stuff by radiation, and the treatment of coal smoke with electron beam. Predictions made by government departments showed that, by 2010, China's annual value of production in isotope products, smoke alarm products, radiation processing and nuclear agriculture will reach 140bn yuan. Source: Xinhua news agency domestic service, Beijing, in Chinese 0903 gmt 21 Nov 01 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter ***************************************************************** 6 Burma to get nuclear reactor BBC News | ASIA-PACIFIC | 21 January, 2002, Burma suffers chronic fuel shortages The Burmese military government has confirmed that it plans to build a nuclear reactor with help from Russia. In the first official statement on the issue, the Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win said it would be used for peaceful purposes. What we are doing is totally above board Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win He said it was imperative for developing countries like Burma to seek to narrow the development gap and avoid their being marginalised. He also pointed out that all Burma's neighbours, with the exception of Laos, were reaping the benefits of nuclear research reactors. He said there was nothing sinister about Burma's ambitions and that it had informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of its intention to acquire a research reactor. "What we are doing is totally above board and (there's) nothing clandestine as written in several media reports," Kin Maung Win told reporters. He dismissed reports that IAEA had last year raised concerns about safety standards in Burma. He also rejected reports that two nuclear scientists from Pakistan had been given sanctuary in Burma. Earlier this month Burma's Foreign Minister, Win Aung, told the BBC his country was committed to developing a nuclear research facility for medical purposes and possibly to generate nuclear power. Burma has a chronic energy shortage and faces various sanctions on investment and foreign aid, particularly from Western countries. Diplomats in Rangoon say authorities have trouble maintain existing electricity generators let alone a nuclear reactor. ***************************************************************** 7 Austrian vote blow for Haider By William Hall in Zurich Published: January 22 2002 04:16 | Last Updated: January 22 2002 Jörg Haider, the far-right Austrian politician, has failed to win a overwhelming backing in his bid to persuade Austrian voters to block the Czech Republic's entry into the European Union if it refuses to shut down Temelin, a nuclear power plant close to the Austrian border. A total of 915,220 Austrians - 15.5 per cent of the electorate - supported a nationwide petition to block Czech entry. Mr Haider had hoped to win more than 1m votes for his petition. His campaign has led to a head-on clash with Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel, who had agreed not to block the Czech entry into the EU after the Czechs pledged to tighten safety standards at Temelin. ***************************************************************** 8 CNSC - Request for public comment [Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission] Draft Environmental Assessment Report Elliot Lake The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) invites public comment on the draft environmental assessment report for the proposed operation of a Radioactive Waste Facility consisting of the Rio Algom Limited Spanish-American, Milliken, Lacnor, Nordic/Buckles and Pronto sites in the area of Elliot Lake, Ontario. The public comment period on the draft environmental assessment report closes on February 15, 2002. For information specific to this particular environmental assessment, please see the Project Description. Copies of the draft report and further information on the project are also available at the following locations: Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission Library 280 Slater Street, 4th Floor Ottawa, ON K1P 5S9 Elliot Lake Public Library Algo Centre Mall - 151 Ontario Ave. Elliot Lake, Ontario P5A 2T2 Interested parties should forward their written comments to Christopher Clement of the CNSC by February 15, 2002, at the coordinates listed below: Christopher Clement Elliot Lake Project Project Officer Wastes and Decommissioning Division Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission P.O. Box 1046, Station B Ottawa, ON K1P 5S9 Phone : 1-800-668-5284 Fax : (613) 995-5086 E-mail : ceaainfo@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca [ceaainfo@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca] CNSC staff will review comments and then finalize the report before sending it to the Commission for approval. All comments received regarding the draft report are considered public. © Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission 2000 ***************************************************************** 9 Myanmar confirms nuclear plans - January 22, 2002 CNN.com - YANGON, Myanmar -- The military government of Myanmar has confirmed that it is planning to build the country's first nuclear reactor with help from Russia. Confirming reports of the project, Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Muang Win said the reactor was to be used purely for peaceful purposes to meet demand for radio isotopes from the country's healthcare, agricultural and educational sectors. "We have been conducting feasibility studies for building a nuclear reactor for peaceful purposes," he told a news conference in the capital Yangon, formerly Rangoon. "I would like to stress that it is purely for peaceful purposes, purely for nuclear research, purely for training our scientists and also to meet our need for radio isotopes." Myanmar's often secret military rulers have previously declined to comment on reports of negotiations with Russia on the construction of the reactor. However announcing the project on Monday they denied that they had ever tried to hide the plans. "We have been carrying it out openly," said Khin Muang Win. "We officially informed the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Authority) Director General of our idea and asked for their advice in September 2000," he said. Sanctions According to Reuters IAEA officials have confirmed discussions with Myanmar and say the reactor is unlikely to be suitable for the production of nuclear weapons. However IAEA officials based in Vienna have raised concerns about Myanmar's ability to cope with such high-maintenance technology and the high safety standards needed for its upkeep. Myanmar is one of the poorest countries in the world and human rights groups have criticized reports of the planned reactor saying it is a frivolous expense designed only to bolster the egos of the country's ruling generals. Myanmar's military rulers have been subject to wide-ranging political and economic sanctions for several years as a result of the country's poor human rights record and alleged involvement in the illegal narcotics trade. According to Reuters nuclear experts believe the 10-megawatt reactor will cost in the region of $5 million to build, excluding maintenance costs. The initial construction costs could be met by bartering produce such as timber, fish and rice -- a system used by the government to fund other projects in the past. © 2002 Cable News Network LP, LLLP. ***************************************************************** 10 Nuke power vital, Rep. Kelly says By Michael Randall Times Herald-Record mrandall@th-record.com [mrandall@th-record.com] Rep. Sue Kelly yesterday said closing the Indian Point nuclear power plant is not an option. "We need the electricity," Kelly, R-Katonah, said during an appearance before the Times Herald-Record editorial board. "There's an increasing demand for electricity." Kelly believes the public has not been properly educated about the plant and what would happen if there is a major radiation leak. Kelly expressed confidence that the evacuation plans devised by the five counties in the plant's vicinity have taken all factors into consideration. Another reason Kelly is confident is that Entergy, the firm that now owns the plant, has guaranteed it will use only new parts to replace those that break down, rather than rebuilt parts as was done under previous owner Consolidated Edison. Kelly conceded that "nothing is 100 percent," but she pointed out that members of her immediate family live less than three miles from the plant, "and I'm confident they're safe." During an hour-long interview that touched on a number of topics, Kelly defended her refusal to sign a so-called "discharge petition" that would bring the Shays-Meehan campaign finance reform bill to the floor of the House for a vote. Kelly said the petition would cut off further debate on the bill. Kelly said there are too many problems with the bill – for one thing, it doesn't address political action committees – and stopping debate now would be a mistake. Regarding the collapse of Enron Corp., Kelly said Congress must look into how to reform existing laws that clearly "didn't protect the Enron employees," whose 401(k) plans were tied up in Enron stock. Kelly said Congress also might look into accounting firm practices. Kelly also said she'll press President George W. Bush for the balance of the $20 billion in aid New York was promised after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Only about half has been delivered so far, she said. "We need that money here, and we need it now." Copyright [http://www.recordonline.com/services/copyright.html] 2002 Orange County Publications, a division of Ottaway [http://www.ottaway.com] Inc., all rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 11 Calls to shut down nuclear plant pile up By Wayne A. Hall and John-Henry Doucette The Times Herald-Record whall@th-record.com [whall@th-record.com] Highland Falls – A public opinion firestorm is raging over the twin Indian Point nuclear power plants. But is it a passing shower or a deluge that will shut down the Buchanan-based plants? The latest call to close the plants came Tuesday night from the Rockland County Legislature, which asked Washington to close the plants, saying they're vulnerable to terrorism and are saddled with an unworkable evacuation plan. That echoed a similar resolution by the Town of Highlands Town Board last month, and a formal petition to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission from the Garrison-based Riverkeeper environmental organization. Underscoring divided public opinion, county executives in Orange, Rockland, Putnam, and Westchester counties Tuesday signed or were about to approve Indian Point's evacuation plans. Orange County Executive Edward Diana said, "We feel very confident we can evacuate our people." Highlands Supervisor Thomas Murphy countered: "How could they possibly think we could evacuate the town?" Diana hasn't signed off on Orange County's plan, which is still being prepared by his staff, according to spokesman Steve Gross. "This is something they certify every year," Gross said. "It's basically just saying we've met the requirements of the federal government. Orange County's fully confident in the entire radiological response plan." About 16,000 county residents live within 10 miles of the plants, including parts of the towns of Cornwall, Woodbury, Tuxedo and all of Highlands. "The worst-case scenario for Orange County would be if you look at Michie Stadium when West Point is in a football game," said Diana, adding that he's confident the stadium and the surrounding population could be evacuated in a reasonable amount of time. If public opinion was united and was all that counted, shutting down the twin nuclear power plants might happen. But the only plant in the country to shut down recently was the Waterford, Conn., Millstone complex, buffeted by gales of public opposition. In 1996, the troubled plant made Time magazine's front cover. Months later, it shut down, but reopened in 1998 after two years of intensive repairs and a billion-dollar investment by a new owner. Shuttering multi-million-dollar nuclear power plants is no simple task and would include the loss to the New York power grid of Indian Point's net electricity production of 1,992 megawatts. 2002 Orange County Publications, a division of Ottaway Newspapers [http://www.ottaway.com] Inc., all rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 12 EU: Austria's anti-nuclear plant petition will not affect Czech entry talks BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jan 22, 2002 The petition launched by the Freedom Party of Austria [FPOe] against the Czech nuclear power plant of Temelin will not delay the Czech Republic's membership talks with the EU, a spokesman for EU Expansion Commissioner Guenter Verheugen stated in Brussels on Monday [21 January]. He noted that the referendum was an Austrian domestic affair. Moreover, there was "no reason whatsoever" to believe that the "verbal niceties" exchanged between Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman and Carinthian Governor Joerg Haider should affect the Czech Republic's entry talks... Source: Der Standard, Vienna, in German 22 Jan 02 p 3 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter ***************************************************************** 13 Austrian politicians comment on result of anti-nuclear plant petition BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jan 22, 2002 Text of report "A total of 915,220 people against Temelin: Coalition in a bind" by Austrian newspaper Die Presse on 22 January; subheading as published Vienna: The petition for an anti-Temelin referendum, which was concluded on Monday evening [21 January] provides dynamite to domestic politics even now its over. The FPOe [Freedom Party of Austria] is celebrating the 915,220 signatures (15.53 of the electorate) as a clear success. The goal of coming among the 10 most successful petitions, which it had set for itself, has been exceeded by far: the FPOe managed to reach third place among all 27 petitions for a referendum to date. However, it failed to reach the one million threshold, which had repeatedly been mentioned. It did not catch up with the two most successful petitions (against the construction of the conference centre in Vienna, genetic engineering) with clearly more than one million signatures each. In addition, participation was rather different in the provinces. In Upper Austria support was strongest: 23.5 per cent (236,000 citizens) signed the petition there. In Vienna it was 15.4 per cent (169,000 persons). Participation was lowest in Vorarlberg with only 6.7 per cent. The FPOe sees itself confirmed in its position of insisting on the closing down of Temelin. Vice Chancellor and FPOe Chairwoman Susanne Riess-Passer spoke of a "success of the citizens" and a "victory of reason." For the coalition the result does "not mean anything; if anything, it means something for the OeVP [Austrian People's Party]." OeVP Secretary General Maria Rauch-Kallat does "not" see "any danger to the coalition." Asked about the future of the coalition, Carinthian Governor Joerg Haider said: "It will not be easy for the coalition. But both parts are well advised to take the result seriously." Controversy over veto escalating However, the question of a potential veto against the Czech Republic's EU membership gives rise to confrontations. The OeVP government team rejects such a veto. Regarding a veto by Austria against the Czech Republic's accession to the EU, Rauch-Kallat said on Monday evening: "I cannot imagine that the FPOe will insist on this demand." The OeVP will not change its mind, she pointed out. However, FPOe representatives stressed promptly that they will not give in on this matter: FPOe floor leader Peter Westenthaler affirmed the demand for new negotiations. However, doing everything possible in the end also means the possibility of a veto against the Czech Republic's EU membership. Former FPOe Chairman Joerg Haider stated that, without closing down the nuclear power plant, the Czech Republic's accession to the EU will "be very difficult". The threat with a veto was also repeated by the three FPOe organizations in Vienna, Lower Austria and Upper Austria, which had initiated the petition for a referendum. Specifically, Westenthaler wants a joint motion by all Austrian parties in the EU parliament for a conference on closing down Temelin; new negotiations must not be held with Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman but with the new government after the Czech election. OeVP floor leader Andreas Khol stressed that he respects the result but "I also take those people seriously who did not sign the petition". At the same time, the FPOe came under increasing pressure by industry. Lorenz Fritz, secretary-general of the Industrialists' Association, called the discussion about Temelin a disturbance for economic policy. And: if the FPOe now escalates the controversy with the Czech Republic, one must ask whether this party is still able to participate in the government. "Then this coalition must be ended," Fritz said. Upper Austrian Governor Josef Puehringer (OeVP) interpreted the result of the petition as meaning: "Do everything possible against Temelin." New negotiations are to be held after the election in the Czech Republic in spring. Then the "zero version" will still be an issue, the Upper Austrian governor stated. For the Social Democratic Party of Austria the result is an "expression of distrust" against the government. The Greens see a chance of doing something against the Temelin nuclear power plant only if the Czech Republic joins the EU. Source: Die Presse, Vienna, in German 22 Jan 02 p 1 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter All Material Subject to Copyright ***************************************************************** 14 Czech fury at anti-nuclear campaign by Austrian Right The Scotsman - United Kingdom; Jan 21, 2002 BY BARBARA MILLER IN VIENNA AUSTRIA'S fiery right-winger, Jorg Haider, has found a new vehicle to inflame public opinion: a populist drive against a Czech nuclear power plant near Austria's border. A petition has been drawn up by Mr Haider calling for Austria to block the Czech Republic's accession to the European Union unless the plant at Temelin is shut down. The campaign has boosted the profile of Austria's far-right Freedom Party (FPO) and its former leader, even as it has sent tensions soaring. The petition has infuriated the Czech government. Prague sees as final a deal on Temelin it negotiated last year with Austria's chancellor, Wolfgang Schussel, of the centre-right People's Party (OVP), the FPO's partner in government. In an interview with Czech radio, the Czech prime minister, Milos Zeman, said "the sooner Austria is rid of Mr Haider and his post-fascist party, the better". Mr Haider officially withdrew from national politics two years ago amid international outcry over his party's entry into government. But the charismatic populist continues to pull the Freedom Party strings from the southern province of Carinthia, where he is governor. Susanne Riess-Passer, his successor as party leader and Austria's vice-chancellor, was quick to hit back at Mr Zeman, accusing the Czech leader of "democratic immaturity". Swift reaction came also from Austria's foreign minister. Benita Ferrero-Waldner, of the OVP, instructed her ambassador in Prague to protest formally against the Czechs' "interference in internal affairs". The mudslinging looks set to continue. Mr Haider has told Austrian television that Mr Zeman's comments are indicative of the same mindset that led to the crushing by Soviet tanks of the Prague Spring in 1968. Mr Zeman countered with fresh attacks, describing Mr Haider as a "political Chernobyl" and "an expert in nothing but populism". Those comments are being condemned across the political spectrum in Austria and are likely to boost the anti-Temelin petition. Indeed, Mr Haider has described Mr Zeman as an "involuntary helper" in the campaign. Two years have passed since the FPO entered government and its supporters face economic slowdown, rising unemployment and a series of austerity measures. The party looks set to milk this latest cause for all it is worth. To force debate in parliament, 100,000 signatures are required on the petition by today, but a poll predicts up to 900,000 people in the nation of eight million could sign it. The country's widest-circulation daily, the Kronen-Zeitung, is rallying support with a front-page campaign. In addition, reports of technical glitches during Temelin tests are fuelling already strong anti-nuclear sentiments. Two decades ago Austrians voted against activating what would have been the country's first nuclear power plant . One Temelin opponent, a 76-year-old who gave her name as Getrude, smiled as she stepped out into a frosty morning in Vienna after signing the petition. She said she did not really believe the nuclear power plant would be shut down, "but we have to give it a go". The dispute between Prague and Vienna over Mr Zeman's outburst is overshadowing Austria's domestic conflict over the initiative that provoked it. Three of the four parties represented in parliament oppose the anti-Temelin petition. The opposition Social Democrats and Greens are denouncing it as a populist attempt to hinder EU enlargement. Leading OVP ministers have described the petition as a "veto trap" and Mr Schussel is urging functionaries not to sign it. He says the only way to guarantee international safety standards at Temelin is to support the Czech Republic's EU accession. ***************************************************************** 15 Slovene experts disagree with funds for Krsko nuclear plant decommissioning BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jan 21, 2002 [Announcer] This morning, the management board of the fund for the Krsko nuclear power plant's decommissioning presented the fund's role before and after the supposed ratification of a Slovene-Croatian contract on the nuclear power plant. The board called upon Slovene experts to give their opinion on the contract. A commission for the establishment of a new nuclear power plant company will meet tomorrow. Irena Majce reports: [Reporter] ...The fund's management board believes that the Slovene-Croatian contract is not acceptable for Slovenia due to articles on decommissioning and nuclear waste. Slovenia should insist on internationally approved measures according to which funds are raised where the decommissioning is to take place [in Slovenia] and not also in Croatia. The new contract proposes that Slovene funds are raised within the state budget. The management board is afraid of losing [funds] within the state budget because such funding would depend on the government. Branko Janc, the head of the fund's management board, suggests that those who are using the nuclear power should pay for the decommissioning [of the nuclear power plant]. [Janc] These are Slovene and Croatian buyers. These [funds] should be raised today, not tomorrow, not after 2023. The generation which is using this nuclear power, not future generations, should pay for it. [Reporter] The responsibility for the nuclear waste should be clearly divided between Slovenia and Croatia. According to recent evaluations, the nuclear power plant's decommissioning will cost more than 1bn euros... Source: Radio Slovenia, Ljubljana, in Slovene 1430 gmt 21 Jan 02 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter All Material Subject to ***************************************************************** 16 Power units stopped at two Russian nuclear power plants BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jan 22, 2002 Text of report by Russian news agency RIA Moscow, 22 January: The third power unit of the Novovoronezhskaya power plant has been stopped as a result of the activation of the [automatic] protection system. The press service of the Emergencies Ministry told RIA that this happened at 1737 [1437 gmt on 21 January]. There is no threat to the population or the environment. The radiation level is normal. At 2017 [1717 gmt] on the same day the first power unit of the Leningradskaya power plant was stopped as a result of the activation of the [automatic] rapid protection system. The reactor was stopped without any hitches. The radiation level is normal. Power supplies to the population have not been interrupted. In both cases, commissions are investigating why protection system have been activated. Source: RIA news agency, Moscow, in Russian 0713 gmt 22 Jan 02 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter ***************************************************************** 17 669 Days and Counting - CP&L's Brunswick Plant Sets New World Record For Continuous Operations SOUTHPORT, N.C., Jan. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- CP&L's Brunswick Nuclear Plant has set a new world record for the continuous operation of a light water reactor nuclear power plant. At 4:36 p.m., January 21, Brunswick Plant Unit 1 surpassed the 668-day continuous run record that had been set by the Three Mile Island Plant in 1999. Breaking this record means that the Brunswick Plant now holds the world record for operating a light water reactor without a shutdown. "Brunswick employees are committed to constantly improving our plant performance," said Brunswick Plant Vice President Jack Keenan. "I applaud their pursuit of excellence and high level of ownership in making the Brunswick Plant one of the top performers in the electricity generating industry." "Our long-term goal is to maintain the plant's two generating units so that we can operate them 100 percent of the time between refueling outages," added Keenan. "However, if a unit needs to be shut down to ensure its safety and reliability, we will not hesitate to do so." The Brunswick Plant operates on a two-year fuel cycle. Each spring, one of the plant's reactors is taken out of service for about one month to refuel approximately one third of the reactor's fuel assemblies and to perform a variety of maintenance activities. Unit 1, which is adding to the world record every day it continues to operate, is scheduled to begin a refueling and maintenance upgrade outage in early March 2002. "The Brunswick Plant is coming off its best ever performance year since it began commercial operation in 1975," said Keenan. "Our plant's personnel safety record was the best in plant history and is among the top in any industry, and both units operated throughout the year without any unplanned shutdowns." The facility generated more electricity in 2001 than ever before -- 13,843,547 megawatt-hours -- producing 25 percent of CP&L's electricity. Its best ever capacity factor (the measure of a plant's actual electrical output vs. its potential output) was 96.9 percent, exceeding the average capacity factor for the U.S. nuclear industry of 89.6 percent (2000 figure). Worldwide, there are 431 nuclear power plants located in 31 countries. Light water reactors are in operation in nearly 350 of these plants. (In 10 countries, 29 new nuclear plants are under construction.) Nuclear energy provided 16 percent of the world's electricity in 2000. Currently, there are 103 commercial nuclear power plants producing electricity in the United States, located at 64 sites in 31 states. Today, nuclear power plants-the second largest source of electricity in the United States-supply about 20 percent of the nation's electricity each year. The Brunswick Nuclear Plant is located near Southport, N.C. CP&L, a subsidiary of Progress Energy (NYSE: PGN), provides electricity and related services to more than 1.2 million customers in North Carolina and South Carolina. The company is headquartered in Raleigh, N.C., and serves a territory encompassing over 33,000 miles including the cities of Raleigh, Wilmington, Fayetteville, and Asheville in North Carolina and Florence and Sumter in South Carolina. For more information about CP&L, visit the company's Web site at: http://www.cpl.com. SOURCE CP&L Web Site: http://www.cpl.com Copyright © 1996-2002 PR Newswire Association Inc. All Rights ***************************************************************** 18 Consumers Energy's Palisades Nuclear Plant Returns to Service Yahoo - [PR Newswire] January 22, 10:45 am Eastern Time Press Release SOURCE: Consumers Energy JACKSON, Mich., Jan. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Consumers Energy's Palisades nuclear plant has been returned to service, ending a shutdown that began in June 2001. Palisades was reconnected to Consumers Energy's electric transmission system on Monday, January 21 and is currently at 35 percent power. The unit is expected to reach full power later this week. Palisades is rated at 789 megawatts. Consumers Energy is the principal subsidiary of CMS Energy Corporation (NYSE: The Palisades plant is operated by the Nuclear Management Company of Hudson, Wisconsin. Extensive maintenance, inspection, and testing work was performed during the outage, including a major maintenance program that involved replacement of 45 control rod drive upper housings. ``Palisades' return to service is a credit to the work of Nuclear Management Company staff and other outage personnel. The replacement of the control rod drive upper housings was a unique project in the plant's 30-year history,'' said Robert A. Fenech, senior vice president of nuclear, fossil and hydro operations for Consumers Energy. ``Palisades is one of our lowest-cost power plants. Its return to service is good news for customers, employees and CMS investors.'' Consumers Energy, the principal subsidiary of CMS Energy, is Michigan's largest utility providing natural gas and electricity to more than six million of the state's nearly 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties. For more information about Consumers Energy, visit the Website at [http://www.consumersenergy.com] SOURCE: Consumers Energy Copyright © 2002 PR Newswire. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 19 Indian Point leak fixed in October By Wayne A. Hall Times Herald-Record whall@th-record.com [whall@th-record.com] Indian Point – A water leak inside the Indian Point 2 reactor, similar to one that brought Consolidated Edison a $210,000 fine 20 years ago, has been found and fixed by the new owner, Entergy. In a Dec. 21 "licensee event report" to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Entergy says "defects discovered within this piping may adversely affect containment integrity, and the ability to control the accidental release of radioactive materials." The report provided by the watchdog group Union of Concerned Scientists didn't surface until yesterday because the NRC shut down most of its public Web site as a terrorism precaution after Sept. 11. Hudson River water gets sent inside the concrete domed containment vessel to cool five fan units to prevent too much heat from building up. (This is not coolant used in making steam). A small hole was found Oct. 29 – about one-eighth to three-sixteenths of an inch – in a water service line inside the containment building but was fixed while the plant was already down for routine maintenance, Entergy spokesman James Steets said yesterday. There was no release of radiation. He said the tiny leak was routine and "doesn't hold great significance" because the cooling water flow rate to the five fans inside the dome wasn't seriously diminished. Steets said his company's estimate of "event safety significance" was simply a statement "of potential." But Union of Concerned Scientists spokesman David Lochbaum said yesterday it's "incomprehensible" that Entergy was downplaying the safety implications when a similar problem led to the $210,000 fine against ConEd in 1980. That 100,000-gallon leak led the NRC to issue a warning to all the nation's reactors saying the ConEd-run plant at the time suffered "damage to reactor instrumentation and potential damage to the reactor pressure vessel." Steets said the amount of water leaked in October was "insignificant," and had the backup of a cooling spray system. This is the latest criticism of Indian Point 2, flagged by the NRC as a plant with a history of problems. 2002 Orange County Publications, a division of Ottaway Newspapers [http://www.ottaway.com] Inc., all rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 20 IAAP sign-up period begins The Hawk Eye Newspaper January 22, 2002 The Hawk Eye Representatives of the U.S. Labor Department will help former IAAP nuclear-weapons workers apply for compensation today through Thursday at Pzazz Best Western. The department's traveling resource center will set up operations there from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on all three days. Workers and survivors who want help filling out claim forms can make an appointment by calling toll-free (866) 540-4977, or just stop at Pzazz during those hours. The Atomic Energy Commission assembled and in later years test-fired components of nuclear weapons in at the Iowa Ammunition Plant in Middletown from the late 1940s until the mid-1970s, when the AEC was shuttered and the nuclear operations were moved to the Department of Energy's Pantex plant near Amarillo, Texas. Congress last year approved and President Bush signed legislation to compensate former nuclear weapons workers or their survivors with lump-sum payments of $150,000. To qualify, workers must show they were exposed to radiation, beryllium or silica. Department officials have noted that the law now allows adult children to receive compensation benefits if there is no surviving spouse. Originally, children were eligible only if they were under 18, full-time students under 23 or incapable of self-support when their parent died. The Hawk Eye 800 S. Main St., Burlington Iowa 52601 319-754-8461 Front Desk · 319-754-6824 FAX · 1-800-397-1708 Toll Free ***************************************************************** 21 Funds Support Increased Nuclear Waste Shipments EarthVision Environmental News WASHINGTON, January 21, 2002 - With an eye on increasing shipments of transuranic waste to its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) by 50 percent, the US Department of Energy has earmarked an additional $12 million to the effort. According to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, the increased shipments to WIPP will help clean DOE facilities of this waste more quickly than under current plans. The increase in shipments supports the Department's plan to ship 3,100 cubic meters of transuranic (TRU) waste out of the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory by Dec. 31, 2002, as required by the Idaho Settlement Agreement. Transuranic waste consists of clothing, tools, rags, debris, residues, and other disposable items contaminated with radioactive elements, primarily plutonium. The $12 million will also allow for an increase in the number of shipments necessary to meet the 2006 closure goal for the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site in Colorado and to accelerate removal of transuranic waste from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The increase is a first step in the Department's goal of safely disposing of 100,000 drums of TRU at WIPP over its operating life of 35 years. DOE said the new funds will be used to hire more waste management operators at WIPP, to purchase necessary materials and equipment for handling the extra waste, and to pay the additional transportation costs. Since opening WIPP in 1999, the Department has made 500 shipments of waste and permanently disposed of more than 13,900 55-gallon drums of defense-generated transuranic radioactive waste left from the research and production of nuclear weapons. ***************************************************************** 22 W. Valley task force to discuss appeal to Congress Buffalo News - By KATHY KELLOGG Cattaraugus Correspondent 1/21/2002 ASHFORD - The West Valley Citizen Task Force will meet Tuesday to discuss its recent request for congressional hearings into unresolved cleanup and closing issues at the former commercial nuclear fuel-reprocessing site in the Town of Ashford. The task force, troubled about stalled negotiations between two government agencies responsible for resolving those issues, will assess the potential for getting Congress' help in jump-starting efforts that have failed to determine the future of the West Valley Demonstration Project and the surrounding 3,000-acre site. Fearing drastic federal funding cuts that would halt the cleanup and cut staff as early as fall, the group appealed in a letter Jan. 14 to three U.S. senators and six members of the House to take the lead in setting timelines that would keep the project on track. The two-page letter is addressed to Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Reps. Sonny Callahan, R-Ala., Amo Houghton, R-Corning, John J. LaFalce, D-Town of Tonawanda, Jack F. Quinn, R-Hamburg, Louise M. Slaughter, D-Fairport, and Thomas M. Reynolds, R-Clarence. Copies were also sent to Gov. George E. Pataki, key state and federal agency officials, and state legislators. The senators and House members were asked to contact task force member and Town of Ashford Supervisor William King before Feb. 1 to set up meetings with a delegation from the task force. "We therefore request that you, with other Western New York congressional representatives, consider scheduling and conducting hearings (with representatives of the U.S. Department of Energy, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission) to provide information on the causes of the delays," the letter stated. The task force has met regularly since 1997, when its members were asked by government officials to make recommendations on a draft environmental-impact study of site cleanup and long-term management options. The group is made up of a cross-section of representatives from the local school, business community, an employees' union, the Seneca Nation of Indians, the Coalition on West Valley Nuclear Wastes and the county Environmental Health Department. A critical loss of on-site expertise has already begun, the task force's letter notes, adding that any significant displacement of the current work force would also have an immediate and debilitating effect on Western New York's safety and economy. The task force will decide on its agenda for the coming year and review a summary of surveys handed in by members at the group's last meeting Jan. 8. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. in the Ashford Office Complex on Route 219 in Ashford Hollow. Copyright © 1999 - 2002 The Buffalo NewsTM ***************************************************************** 23 All clear on cards for nuclear plant Ananova - The operators of a nuclear plant are expected to receive a largely clean bill of health following a safety review. The operators of the Dounreay plant at Caithness, northern Scotland, say they have met 89 of the 143 recommendations made in the report. The review of safety was triggered after a number of significant breaches at the plant, which culminated in a contractor's digger cutting through the main power supply in 1998. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is expected to announce that work necessary to meet the bulk of the recommendations has been carried out at the plant. Nuclear safety inspectors made the 143 recommendations in the critical report on Dounreay following the incident with the digger. However, more than 50 of the recommendations are considered strategic with lengthy time scales for their successful completion, Dounreay confirmed today. Dounreay spokesman Colin Punler says 1998 had seen some of the "darkest days" at the site, but insisted that every effort had been made to address the report's recommendations. He said: "Three and a half years on we have now managed to deliver on a lot of these recommendations. "What we are saying to staff effectively is that some of the biggest challenges have still to come. "It is a milestone in the history of the site, but there's still a lot of work to be done. "There's certainly no room for complacency." Peter Welsh, the site director, is expected to give his reaction to the report. Last July the Government ruled out the possibility of nuclear reprocessing at the site. Story filed: 11:49 Tuesday 22nd January 2002 Copyright © 2002 Ananova Ltd ***************************************************************** 24 Reprocessed nuclear waste arrives at Rokkasho - Japan Today Japan News - News - Tuesday, January 22, 2002 at 18:00 JST ROKKASHO — A cargo of reprocessed highly radioactive nuclear waste arrived Tuesday on board a British freighter at Mutsu-Ogawara port in Rokkasho village, Aomori Prefecture. The waste, reprocessed by France's state-owned nuclear fuel firm COGEMA from spent nuclear fuel removed from nuclear reactors in Japan, will be stored at the Rokkasho nuclear waste storage facility for 30 to 50 years. The 152 blocks of vitrified nuclear waste will be delivered Wednesday to the storage facility owned by Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. (Kyodo News) ***************************************************************** 25 Reprocessed nuclear waste arrives at Rokkasho from France KYODO NEWS ROKKASHO, Jan. 22, Kyodo - A cargo of reprocessed highly radioactive nuclear waste arrived Tuesday on board a British freighter at Mutsu-Ogawara port in Rokkasho village, Aomori Prefecture. The waste, reprocessed by France's state-owned nuclear fuel firm COGEMA from spent nuclear fuel removed from nuclear reactors in Japan, will be stored at the Rokkasho nuclear waste storage facility for 30 to 50 years. The 152 blocks of vitrified nuclear waste will be delivered Wednesday to the storage facility owned by Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. The reprocessed waste owned by the Tokyo, Chubu, Kansai, Chugoku, Shikoku and Kyushu Electric Power companies is the seventh such shipment. In the previous shipments, 464 units of reprocessed nuclear waste were delivered to Japan. The British freighter, the 5,000-ton Pacific Sandpiper, left Cherbourg port in northern France for Japan on Dec. 5 and traveled through the Panama Canal after COGEMA completed the reprocessing work. 2001 Kyodo News (c) Established 1945. ***************************************************************** 26 Congress transportation chief rethinking nuclear waste position Las Vegas SUN January 21, 2002 LAS VEGAS (AP) - The chairman of the House Transportation Committee said Monday he's rethinking his 1987 vote supporting a proposal to bury the nation's nuclear waste in Nevada. U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, said at a meeting with Nevada transportation officials, Gov. Kenny Guinn and the state's two House members that it might be more practical to leave radioactive waste where it is than to ship it by train or truck to Yucca Mountain. "I'm getting closer to saying this shouldn't happen," Young said. Young's comments came 11 days after Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said that he'll recommend the volcanic ridge 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas is suitable for the nation's permanent nuclear waste repository. The congressman met with transportation administrators who gave up their Martin Luther King Jr. holiday to make pitches for hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding. Southern Nevada officials cited the need to complete an interstate highway loop around Las Vegas; a desire to build a high-speed train from Las Vegas to Anaheim, Calif.; and a hope to buy a hybrid people mover that follows a painted line on pavement, but makes train station-like stops. Jacob Snow, general manager of the Southern Nevada Regional Transportation Commission, pointed to fiscal year 1998 figures showing Nevada paid $30.4 million into federal Highway Trust Fund mass transit funds and got back $10.5 million. U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said Interstate 80 in northern Nevada needs to be widened and rebuilt to accommodate trucks using it as a main route to Oakland, Calif., shipping points. Young cut short a presentation on a plan to build a bridge over the Colorado River near Hoover Dam, saying the project already has his full support. Since Sept. 11, tractor-trailers have been banned from crossing the dam and must take a longer, alternate route between Las Vegas and Phoenix. Young cited estimates that the trucking industry will lose $30 million a year because of the detour and called the bridge important for both commerce and safety. Administration officials have set 2007 as a completion date for the bridge, but have said since Sept. 11 that with more funding, the bridge could open in 2005. Gibbons, who convened Monday's meeting, called Young's comments about Yucca Mountain "tremendously good news for Nevada." The next decision, after Abraham submits his recommendation, will be up to President Bush. He has said he favors a single, central repository for the nation's nuclear waste. Guinn has vowed that if Bush gives the go-ahead, he'll use a state veto to send the matter to the floor of Congress for a vote. Nevada's congressional delegation, including U.S. Sens. John Ensign, a Republican, and Harry Reid, the No. 2 ranking Democrat in the Senate, have pledged an all-out fight on political, legal and public relations fronts. But Gibbons, a Republican, and Shelley Berkley, a Democrat, concede they haven't got the votes to block passage in the House. Guinn and Gibbons said that Young's support as Transportation Committee chairman could prove crucial in a floor fight. Young, a Congressional veteran first elected in 1973, said that after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he has questions about the safety and security of transporting nuclear materials from more than 100 sites around the country through 43 states to Nevada. The Energy Department wants to begin shipments in 2010. Opponents have called transportation the project's Achilles heel. Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman left Monday for a U.S. Conference of Mayors conference in Washington, D.C., pledging to raise the specter of radioactive accident or sabotage in 110 cities along intestates and train lines to Nevada. The Energy Department didn't fully address transportation routes and safety in preliminary and draft environmental studies of the Yucca Mountain plan. Officials called it premature to study routes to a site that hadn't been designated as suitable. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 27 Editorial: Yucca Mountain / A very good place for nuclear waste Published Jan 21 2002 Residents of Nevada, always aggrieved over their treatment by the federal government, are up in arms at Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham's recommendation that 70,000 tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste be stored at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles north of Las Vegas. In this case, however, the Nevadans have it wrong, and Abraham is right: Yucca Mountain is the proper place for nuclear waste and should pose no hazard to either Nevada's human population or its jack rabbits. Abraham is a political appointee, but there is nothing political about the rigorous and exhaustive science that informed his recommendation. Many of the nation's finest minds, including those marshaled by the government at Scandia and Los Alamos national laboratories, have subjected Yucca Mountain to exhaustive seismic, hydrological, thermohydrological, geophysical and half a dozen other analyses. Their conclusion: This is perhaps the safest available place on the planet to store highly radioactive nuclear waste. Risks from that storage are infinitesimally small, although scientists are loath to say nothing ever could happen. In Nevada, and perhaps elsewhere as well, a common belief is that Yucca Mountain was picked somewhat arbitrarily -- because it was next to the already contaminated nuclear testing facility, and because this is, after all, Nevada, land of much sagebrush and little clout. But that's not how it came about. It's true that being located next to the test facility will help security at the site, but what led scientists to Yucca Mountain were its remarkably stable geology, its very deep water table, its lack of seismic activity, its arid environment, its distance from population centers and its location in the Great Basin, from which water does not flow out. Even if the test facility weren't there, Yucca Mountain would be the best bet for nuclear-waste storage. The next step is up to President Bush, who must accept or reject Abraham's recommendation. If Bush accepts it, as he should, the Nevada governor will formally object, and the issue will go to Congress, where the Nevada delegation will do its utmost to derail the program. That's to be expected. But their objections need to be overridden. This program is not a punishment for Nevada, which is a great state, but a national effort to relocate highly radioactive nuclear waste from temporary storage sites that are far less secure and protected than a repository at Yucca Mountain. It is past time to get on with that relocation. Return to top© Copyright 2002 Star Tribune. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 28 Moab: Scientists Won't Take Sides on Uranium Waste The Salt Lake Tribune -- Tuesday, January 22, 2002 BY JUDY FAHYS MOAB -- The alternatives appear simple: Haul away the poisonous uranium-waste heap at Moab's north gateway that spits pollution into the Colorado River, blights this red-rock playground between two national parks and spooks more than 25 million people who get drinking water downstream. Or, swath it in boulders and leave it where it is. To locals and water users downstream, the correct choice is indisputable: Move the 130-acre pile of radioactive red dirt that keeps them on the losing side of the Cold War legacy. Such hot-blooded convictions collided head-on with the cool rationale of science last week, when a panel of respected scientists came to town to explore the tailings problem for Congress. Eight years of agonizing over what to do has made nearly everyone weary and suspicious, Moabite Mary Moran told the scientists. Still, she said, "You bring us great hope that you will be balanced in your judgment and the science will be good this time." But after two days of gathering information, the scientists concluded that a solution is far from obvious. They predict many people -- decision-makers and locals included -- will be disappointed with their final suggestions. That's because the report, expected by summer, will not say whether the tailings should go. "We can only be of limited help," said Kai Lee, chairman of the National Academy of Sciences panel and a professor at Williams College in Massachusetts. "After spending two days here it seems like a far more complicated problem than I realized when I came." "We recognize at the heart, these are not scientific decisions," said Kevin D. Crowley, a member of the panel and director of Radioactive Waste programs for the National Research Council. "These are public policy decisions, political decisions." Why Washington lawmakers put the issue to scientists might seem puzzling, considering the issue's sensitivity. The pile is a relic of Cold War efforts to build atomic weapons and create nuclear power. About half of the uranium produced at the site between 1956 and 1984 was sold to the government for national defense. Beginning in 1988, the Atlas Corp. worked with the U.S. Nuclear Energy Corp. on plans to cap the tailings on site, but the company declared bankruptcy in 1998. Congress directed the U.S. Energy Department to take over the site under pressure from environmentalists, California water users and government officials determined to stop the contamination, which also was killing endangered fish. Congress asked the scientists panel to help DOE decide what to do with the tailings. Congress uses panels such as the tailings group -- through the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council -- to "double-check" agency work on important, expensive issues. The Atlas panel includes two Utahns. Thure E. Cerling, an expert on groundwater contamination, is professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Utah. Michele Straube is co-founder of a Salt Lake City mediation and environmental-policy consulting firm and adjunct professor at the U.'s College of Law. Utah Republican Rep. Chris Cannon said their work will be used to bolster a final decision. Ultimately, the U.S. Department of Energy, owner of the pile since September, must decide what to do with the tailings, and Congress, which made DOE take over the site, must justify any taxpayer dollars spent to solve the problem. Cannon said the panel will elevate discussions about the tailings. "By providing a scientific report, one not based on political or public bias," Cannon said, "the NAS report will help bring objectivity and credibility to the debate." "What they [in Congress] are trying to do is get some independent verification," added Rep. Jim Matheson, the Utah Democratic congressman who attended parts of the science panel's Moab meetings. "What we are talking about is a lot of money." DOE estimates it will cost $137 million to contain the pile or $387 million to move it. "What we cannot afford is, 20 years from now, saying we made the wrong decisions," said Utah Department of Environmental Quality Director Dianne Nielson, who calls moving the tailings the least costly option. One question at last week's meetings was how to stop the stream of ammonia leaching into the riverbank "nursery" of two endangered fish species. Is there a place to dispose of the tailings where they won't cause a new pollution problem? Is the groundwater in nearby wetlands getting polluted too? What toxic wastes might be buried in the pile? Can a contained pile hold up for 200 years? One thousand? Against a huge flood? But it was the human factor that became most vivid during conversations with local residents Jan. 15. Every speaker urged the panel to make a case for removing the tailings. Mark D. Beuhler of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California told the panel he expected millions of his 17 million customers to revolt once they learn half of their drinking water comes from a river that scours a uranium plant's shoreline. Uranium at any level is considered unsafe by consumers, he said. "For whatever reason, the public has an intense dread of radioactive material," Beuhler told the panel. "It does not matter what we tell them the actual risk is." River guide Dave Bodner echoed that view, adding that tourists would be repulsed by the pollution. He pointed to the reaction of rafting clients when he tells them they are floating past the remnants of the inundated Hite uranium mill at Lake Powell. " Many visitors would be shocked if they knew they were playing in contaminated water." Writer Terry Tempest Williams told the panel Atlas is about more than engineering or social science. It is, she suggested, a moral and ethical issue. She mentioned how Utahns contributed to the war effort by mining and processing nuclear material and how they became its unwitting victims as downwinders. That legacy lives on, she said, recalling the day she was teaching middle-schoolers in the spring, when gusts blowing off the tailings pile coated the children with red dust. "We are downwinders again." The panel asked the local speakers to look for ways to translate their sentiments into numbers -- consumer studies, park tourists, rafting trends and the like. "We get that message," said Lee, the panel chairman. "And we will try to reflect upon it." © Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on ***************************************************************** 29 UK: Dounreay receives safety 'all clear' BBC News | SCOTLAND | 22 January, 2002, Safety at the Dounreay site has been in the spotlight The Dounreay nuclear plant has been given a clean bill of health by inspectors following a safety review. The Health and Safety Executive audit followed a number of major breaches at the site in the late 1990s. In a statement, Her Majesty's Inspector of Nuclear Installations, Laurence Williams, has praised the implementation of most of the 143 improvements which had been recommended at the Caithness plant. I have seen considerable progress at Dounreay over the past three years and this is a credit to everyone concerned, particularly the staff Laurence Williams, HM Inspector of Nuclear Installations But he said the ability to fully decommission the site would critically depend on Dounreay's ability to recruit sufficient numbers of qualified staff. The audit was ordered after a number of safety lapses at the nuclear plant, culminating in a contractor's digger cutting through the main power supply in 1998. Nuclear safety inspectors made 143 recommendations in a damning report on the Dounreay plant following this incident. The HSE report said the site had fulfilled 89 of those - while the remaining 54 were either medium or long-term matters. Mr Williams said: "I have seen considerable progress at Dounreay over the past three years and this is a credit to everyone concerned, particularly the staff. "The consents we have granted over the last few months to allow the restart of a number of plants are an indication of our growing confidence that safety at Dounreay is improving." The plant has begun decommissioning The report was welcomed by Dounreay plant director Peter Welsh, who agreed that a lot had been achieved in the last three years. "We have worked very hard to eliminate the weaknesses identified by the regulators," he said. "We've spent the last three years addressing all those concerns that the regulators have and I think the fact that they have decided to close out, or issue the final report on that audit, is an achievement. "The publication of the final report on the safety audit is a tribute to the way staff responded to the 1998 recommendations." Dounreay spokesman Colin Punler said that staff still had to face some of the greatest challenges. There's still a lot of work to be done. There's certainly no room for complacency Dounreay spokesman Colin Punler He said the report was "a milestone in the history of the site". But he added: "There's still a lot of work to be done. There's certainly no room for complacency." In July last year, the UK Government ruled out the plant's future role as a nuclear reprocessing site. Three options had been considered for dealing with 24 tonnes of radioactive fuel from Dounreay's Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR). The government decided to store the fuel on-site, rather than reprocess it at Dounreay or Sellafield. Since 1998, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) workforce at Dounreay has risen from 817 to 1,158. ***************************************************************** 30 GOP congressman to rethink Yucca stance Don Young Lawmaker heads key House committee with regard to transport of nuclear waste Tuesday, January 22, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal By MICHAEL SQUIRES REVIEW-JOURNAL The chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure told state officials Monday he will reconsider his support of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, voted in favor of the so-called "Screw Nevada" bill in 1987, which left Yucca Mountain as the only site under consideration for the nation's first high-level nuclear waste repository. But he may change his position because of concerns about whether 77,000 tons of waste can be safely transported to a permanent storage facility, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Nevada congressional and state officials agree, that as committee chairman, Young has authority to hold up a Bush administration decision on the project until transportation issues are resolved through hearings. "Is it possible to go through 43 states safely? ... It may be more viable to leave the rods in place," Young said after meeting with Nevada officials. He was referring to spent fuel rods currently stored at commercial power reactor sites across the country. He stopped short of saying he would change his previous stance. "I'm saying I'm closer to opposing it than ever before," Young said. "I'm getting closer than I've ever been to saying I'm against it." Moving the nation's high-level nuclear waste from about 100 temporary storage sites in 39 states to a permanent storage facility at Yucca Mountain would require as many as 100,000 truck shipments. Truck and rail shipments combined would pass through 43 states in order to deliver nuclear waste to the mountain. Young was in Las Vegas to meet with state and local officials on transportation issues and attend a $1,000-a-plate fund-raiser at the Bellagio for his re-election campaign. He met privately to discuss the nuclear waste issue with Gov. Kenny Guinn, Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., and state Sen. Jon Porter, R-Henderson. In the meeting, the three Nevada Republicans voiced their concerns over Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham's plans to recommend the Yucca Mountain proposal move forward and asked for his support, Guinn said. "He was very receptive," Guinn said. The governor and other state officials believe Young could become a powerful ally in Nevada's fight against location of the dump at Yucca Mountain. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., who serves with Young on the Transportation Committee, said Young's support could open the door to hearings on nuclear waste transportation issues related to Yucca Mountain. "We could hold extensive hearings throughout the country in congressional districts along the proposed train route," Berkley said. "They're going to be horrified when they find out that 77,000 tons of toxic nuclear material is going to be shipped where they live." Young could lend credibility to concerns over the of transporting nuclear waste on the nation's highway and rail systems, according to Joe Strolin, planning division administrator for the Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency. "The risks of transportation are poorly understood, and the Department of Energy has basically ignored those issues," Strolin said. "Having someone of Young's stature would help to drive home the message that this is a risky proposition." There is also a possibility that additional legislation related to transporting the waste would go through Young's committee, Strolin said. While rail and highway transportation routes have not yet been designated, state officials say that the general routes are well known and established. The current philosophy is to use the most direct interstate routes to Yucca Mountain with some exceptions for bypasses and alternate routes, according to Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency chief Bob Loux. Concerns over safeguarding waste in transit against potential terrorist attacks also may lead to additional regulations, Loux and Strolin said. "It's very possible there would be a call for increased regulation," Strolin said. Loux said the issue of terrorism and transportation could be the subject of congressional hearings and any legislation that would need approval by the House, Senate and the president in order to take effect. Young said he recognizes transportation of high-level nuclear waste is a potentially contentious aspect of the Yucca plan, not just for Nevadans, but for residents of all the states it will travel through. "When it's brought to their attention that, yes, it's going through their back yard, they'll be concerned," Young said. "We've got to make sure the transportation is safe." But Young said he may end up advocating the waste not be moved to Yucca Mountain at all. "The science is what I'm interesting in looking at, to see if we can do something else other than Yucca Mountain," he said. Review-Journal writer Keith Rogers contributed to this report. webmaster@lvrj.com Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 31 Boxer: On Decision to Proceed with Yucca Mountain Project U.S. SENATOR BARBARA BOXER | CALIFORNIA January 10, 2002 The Secretary of Energy's decision to recommend proceeding with the Yucca Mountain site as a final depository for nuclear waste could be a terrible and costly mistake. I have yet to be convinced that this project can be implemented without posing a health and safety threat to Californians. Yucca Mountain is only 17 miles from the California border. Scientific studies show that a significant part of the regional groundwater aquifer discharges into Death Valley. Fish, wildlife and human populations in the area are largely dependent on the water from this aquifer. There is evidence to suggest that groundwater contamination is a real possibility. Further, potential transportation problems have not been resolved, raising additional concerns for residents of Inyo and San Bernardino counties. I call on President Bush to look carefully at the scientific information, put public health and safety first and halt what may otherwise be a $50 billion dollar disaster. ***************************************************************** 32 Letter: Sununu strategy: Insult Nevadans Las Vegas SUN January 21, 2002 Once again Samuel Johnson is right -- "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." John Sununu, pimp for the nuclear industry, has the audacity to doubt our patriotism because we don't embrace the dumping of the nation's nuclear trash in our back yard. His fallacious assertion insults all Nevadans. Then he further threatens us with a veiled threat of a tourist boycott to punish us for opposing the dump. What fools we suffer on this issue. STEVE ESTERLING All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 33 Editorial: We've heard that song before Las Vegas SUN Today: January 22, 2002 at 8:25:16 PST When members of Congress visit Nevada, usually for political fund-raisers, we hear the usual ditty about how "sound science" should decide the fate of the Yucca Mountain project. Of course, once they've collected their money from Nevadans and are safely back in Washington, these same members of Congress -- who also rake in cash from the nuclear power industry -- don't miss a beat when voting for legislation that would send nuclear waste to Nevada. Why, Nevada Republican politicians even have gotten in on the game of making empty promises, telling us during the 2000 presidential election that a George W. Bush administration would treat Nevadans fairly. That assurance evaporated this month after Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham recommended that President Bush select Yucca Mountain as the nation's nuclear waste garbage dump. But sometimes politicians say thin gs about Yucca Mountain that surprise even us jaded Nevadans. One of those nuclear-waste doozies happened last Friday when ! House Majority Leader Dick Armey was in Las Vegas for a fund-raiser. Armey, in an interview with Sun political reporter Erin Neff, said if Nevadans wanted better odds at defeating Yucca Mountain, they should elect Republicans to Congress, not Democrats like Rep. Shelley Berkley. "Let's say next year, John Ensign comes to me, Jim Gibbons comes to me, Lynette Boggs McDonald comes to me and Jon Porter comes to me. I'll listen to them," Armey said. "If Shelley Berkley comes up and says, 'Dick, I really want you to save me from some grief,' I'm not interested." Leaving aside the fact that Dick Armey won't be there next year because he is retiring, who does he think he is fooling? Sure, the Republican congressional leadership will listen, but it doesn't mean a thing. Time and time again the GOP has pushed for Yucca Mountain's selection. Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert was effusive in his praise for Abraham's recommendation of Yucca Mountain, citing what he called Abraham's "exhaustive deliberation, wise study." He also saw fit to take a cheap shot at opposition to Yucca Mountain, referring to it as "left-wing political grandstanding." The top Democrat in the House, Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, had just the opposite take on Abraham's decision, saying it was "regrettable." He even mentioned that Democrats Berkley and Senate Assistant Majority Leader Harry Reid have "rightly pointed out that the science is far from conclusive -- and that such an important decision should be delayed until all the facts are in. The administration's decision is contrary to sound public policy and contrary to current scientific knowledge. The country -- and Nevada residents most of all -- deserve a fair assessment of this issue based on scientific fact rather than the political leverage of the corporate energy interests." It is evident that Gephardt and Hastert are worlds apart on Yucca Mountain, a demonstration of how the Democrats and Republicans differ nationally on this issue. It also was laughable to read Armey's revisionist history regarding past efforts in Congress to send nuclear waste to Nevada. Armey suggested that it was Republican House leaders who previously stopped nuclear waste from coming here, dismissing Reid's contribution. But the fact is that it was the Republicans in Congress who ensured passage of legislation in 2000 that would have put nuclear waste on a fast track to Nevada. It was President Clinton's veto, and Reid and Sen. Richard Bryan's work to sustain the veto in the Senate, that stopped the legislation. It also was intriguing that Armey doesn't believe Republicans, who hold just a six-vote edge in the 435-member House, need to pick up one of the two congressional seats in Southern Nevada. "We're just looking to increase our margin," a confident Armey said. In light of the Republican leaders' track record on nuclear waste, it's easy to see why they think so little of Nevada -- and why their arrogance could end up costing them this time. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 34 Brian Greenspun - Yucca : State full of patriots Las Vegas SUN Today: January 22, 2002 at 8:25:16 PST Where I Stand -- Brian Greenspun: State full of patriots Brian Greenspun is editor of the Las Vegas Sun. I'VE NEVER had my patriotism questioned before. For sure, there have been inquiries into my lineage. And there have been some who are certain that my IQ is somewhat limiting. And, still others, seriously consider me a menace to polite and civilized society, especially the way they would like that society to be. But never, I don't think, has my love and dedication to country been called into question. I remember in the really ugly years -- those that marked the early days of Las Vegas' growth toward maturity -- there was a small but very vocal and overly obnoxious crowd of people who questioned my father's loyalty to country. Here was a man who served his country proudly and bravely in World War II, earned a chestful of decorations while doing it and spent the last months of the war in a hospital not knowing whether he'd ever walk again let alone have the feet upon which to accomplish that task. It was a rough and tumble time in America, and it was marked bad by numerous fringe elements questioning the loyalty of many Americans. Fortunately for my father, he not only had the record to refute the charges but the willingness to defend himself against those who liked to bully and browbeat those who were practically voiceless or powerless to act in their own defense. He also had two items that always shut off the debate and put a lie to the scandals the attackers tried to create. He had a picture of himself and Gen. Dwight David Eisenhower -- both dressed in combat gear -- inspecting some bombed-out convoys in the middle of France after D-day. And if that weren't enough, he had a letter from then-Director of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover, calling Hank Greenspun a great American. In those days an approval from Hoover was the equivalent to a nod from God. In Hoover's mind it could have carried even greater weight! All my dad had to do was trot the picture and letter out of mothballs, put a story around them and the rest took care of itself. The doubters and name callers quickly subsided and life got back to normal -- until the next time. I thought about those tactics the other day when John Sununu questioned not only mine but the entire state of Nevada's patriotism for disagreeing with his position that the high-level nuclear waste dump was not only good for our state but that it was our duty as Americans to accept it with barely a whimper of protest. He followed his foolish comment with a statement that threatened the livelihood of every man and woman in this state. He said that if we did exercise our rights as citizens under the First, Tenth, Fourteenth and any other Amendment to the Constitution of these United States that gives us the right to speak our mind against what we believe is an oppressive government action, then the rest of the country could very easily decide to vacation someplace other than Las Vegas. In short, he gave us a choice: Either accept this dirty, deadly destructive waste that nobody else wants in their back yard without a fight, or be prepared for a backlash against Nevada that will not quit. Now I have never been one to believe that the former chief of staff for President George H. W. Bush was the be-all and end-all of public opinion and veritable thought. As far as I know he still maintains the fiction in his own mind that global warming does not exist and that all of those glaciers at the north and south poles that aren't there any more are just part of nature's grand plan to drown us before we choke ourselves to death on the dirty air we aren't creating. So now he shows up as the highly paid lobbyist for the nuclear power industry telling not only Congress and President Bush what to do but Nevadans what they shouldn't do -- especially if that means anything we can do to protect the health and safety of our children and grandchildren. At least Nevada's own Benedict Arnold, Bob List, hasn't gone that far! Well, I've got a little news for Mr. Sunnunu. I don't have any pictures with President Eisenhower and I certainly don't have the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval from J. Edgar Hoover to prove my case, although, I admit, they would be helpful. But I don't think I will need them to prove my loyalty to country on this one. That's because every mother, father and grandparent I know who lives in Nevada or has children or grandchildren living here believes just as I do. We have not only the right but the duty and responsibility as patriotic Americans to defend the people we love and the home we love from any oppressive actions -- regardless of their source. American history has been replete with examples of government overreaching being stopped only when citizens rose up to cry, "Enough!" Slavery did not end because the elite in Washington and the wealthy Southern landowners determined it was wrong. It ended because the people knew it was wrong and spread the word house to house and state to state. Voting rights were not afforded to all citizens, regardless of race or color, because those who were vested in the status quo woke up one morning and said, "What we are doing is wrong." It ended only after a small but vocal minority of people determined to fix the inequality and, in the end, were willing to die to make it happen. The nuclear waste issue is not any different. It is an affront to the Constitution. It is a trampling upon the rights of one group of citizens by a majority of others who are doing it just because they can. It is bad science, bad law and bad enough in the eyes of any decent American that once they hear the issue they are forced to agree that Nevada should not be put upon just because we lack political clout and the other side lacks for nothing -- especially the money to get its way. So, Mr. Sununu, when you call Nevadans unpatriotic -- especially in these most trying of national times -- you remind us not of the true patriot Patrick Henry, who wanted death if he could not have liberty, but more of the demagogue Sen. Joe McCarthy, who wanted a political career at the expense of American freedom. Whatever it is you want, Mr. Sununu, don't come looking in Nevada for it. All we have here are a bunch of patriots. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 35 Letter: Bush needs to explain Yucca science to us Las Vegas SUN Today: January 22, 2002 at 8:25:16 PST President Bush has said that his decision on the Yucca Mountain repository will be based upon "sound science" (hopefully not political science). If he accepts Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham's recommendation, the president should be invited to come to Las Vegas for an open forum, with questions and answers, to explain that science. The citizens of Las Vegas deserve no less than a demonstration that someone who makes such a decision, with potentially adverse effects on their welfare, fully understands the "sound science." It would also afford the president an opportunity to educate those of us who are not knowledgeable about the radiation physics and geology involved. ALVIN LANGER All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 36 Letter: Nuclear waste could be target Las Vegas SUN Today: January 22, 2002 at 8:25:16 PST So, now the government has decided to bury all that nuclear crap here at Yucca Mountain. Let's think back to Sept. 11. The most tragic thing that has happened to us in my life time ... and to most of us. Now I rather imagine that Osama bin Laden chose that particular place so that he could kill as many of us as he could in as short a time as possible. Now, let's stop and think if Yucca Mountain has all of our atomic waste buried under it, just where do you think they (or anyone else) are going to aim at the next time? I can't imagine that anyone would actually believe that sooner or later another bin Laden-type wouldn't try to do better than the World Trade Center ... and go after Yucca Mountain. And if they manage to get better bombs or whatever they use, somebody had better start thinking just what the death toll would be on that. Can you imagine just how far and deadly that radiation would be? It wouldn't just be us in Nevada, it would go farther than your imagination could ever take you. For God's sake, and all of ours, they had better start thinking about not burying all of that in one place. PAT KELLY All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 37 Alaska GOP rep wary of nuclear traffic Las Vegas SUN Today: January 22, 2002 at 9:57:40 PST By Launce Rake LAS VEGAS SUN The nuclear energy industry may have to clear yet another hurdle before radioactive waste can be shipped to Nevada. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, said Monday that he is concerned about using the rails and roads to bring the waste to the proposed high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. "I am closer to opposing it than ever before," said Young, who voted for the 1987 bill that proposed the site as the permanent repository for 77,000 tons of the nation's high-level radioactive waste. Young, in Las Vegas for a presentation on transportation priorities from local officials, said he may hold hearings to gather information and alert people that the nuclear waste could travel through their states, towns and cities. He predicted that as people become aware of transportation issues, they will oppose using Yucca Mountain. "People are unaware in other states," Young said. "When they find out this is coming through their back yards, they're going to be a little more concerned." His turnaround on the issue comes because of the increasing population in Southern Nevada, which has doubled since the early 1980s, and the danger posed in transporting the waste through 43 states. Young also pointed out that Nevada has no nuclear power reactors. "I have got sympathy for Nevada," he said. In 1987, "I think you got the short end of the stick." Young said he has spoken with Gov. Kenny Guinn, a fellow Republican, on the issue. Democrats have suggested that Bush administration support for Yucca Mountain could hurt the Republican in Nevada in next year's elections, but Guinn and other Republicans who attended Monday's transportation summit were quick to say that the issue is bipartisan. State Sen. Jon Porter, R-Henderson, asked for help in identifying routes that would be used to bring nuclear waste to the Silver State. "The federal government is not eager to talk about transportation routes," said Porter, who is running for the new 3rd Congressional District seat. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 38 Yucca tops lawmakers' agenda Las Vegas SUN Today: January 22, 2002 at 9:48:34 PST By Benjamin Grove WASHINGTON -- Perhaps no single issue has dominated the attention of Nevada lawmakers in Congress in the past 20 years more than Yucca Mountain. This year promises no different. Nevada's four-member delegation this week joins lawmakers from around the nation returning to Capitol Hill to launch this year's session. In addition to election-year politicking, lawmakers pledge to focus on a wide range of issues, from stimulating the economy and investigating Enron to tracking the war on terrorism and reworking President Bush's budget. For the Nevada members, battling the Yucca Mountain plan will again dominate their schedules. This year the federal proposal to bury 77,000 tons of the nation's high-level radioactive material at Yucca Mountain has new momentum. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham next month is expected to recommend Yucca Mountain as a suitable site to bury the nation's nuclear waste to President Bush. If Bush gives the project a green light, as expected, Gov. Kenny Guinn will file an official objection. Congress then would vote on whether to overrule the objection. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., will "be with him" in a vote to override Nevada's objection. But Daschle will have no procedural power to block a vote because of the way federal nuclear waste laws are written, Reid said. The Nevadans face an uphill battle -- both the House and Senate are likely to override any Nevada objection to the Yucca plan in a vote that could come as early as midyear, according to some observers. Nevada lawmakers plan to meet again shortly after they return this week to discuss anti-Yucca strategy. For now they are leaning on Bush in a long-shot effort to convince the president to reject Abraham's recommendation. "The Yucca Mountain Plan is a Band-Aid that does nothing to fix our nuclear waste problems, while at the same time endangering the well being of the people of Nevada, and of the 43 states that will be subject to nuclear waste transports," Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., wrote to Bush in a letter last week. Nevada lawmakers also promise a "frontal assault" in Congress in an effort to convince their colleagues that not enough scientific data has been collected yet to proceed with the Yucca Mountain plan. They will tote around a recent General Accounting Office report that faulted the Yucca project and recommended delaying it. Their strongest argument: Transporting waste across the nation is dangerous in terms of accidents and terrorist threats, Reid said. "My message (to lawmakers) will be that this is not just a Nevada problem," Reid said. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said he was already talking to fellow House Republicans such as Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, whom he spoke to Monday. Gibbons said the risks of terrorist attacks on waste transports already were "raising eyebrows" among lawmakers. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 39 Rep. Young rethinking Yucca vote [RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL] January 22, 2002 Ken Ritter [] ASSOCIATED PRESS The chairman of the House Transportation Committee said Monday he’s rethinking his 1987 vote supporting a proposal to bury the nation’s nuclear waste in Nevada. U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, who a week ago pledged to push for $15 million for Reno to cover its proposed downtown railroad trench, said at a meeting with Nevada transportation officials, Gov. Kenny Guinn and the state’s two House members that it might be more practical to leave radioactive waste where it is than to ship it by train or truck to Yucca Mountain. “I’m getting closer to saying this shouldn’t happen,” Young said. Young’s comments came 11 days after Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said he’ll recommend the volcanic ridge 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas is suitable for the nation’s permanent nuclear waste repository. The congressman, the first from the West Coast to chair this committee in 50 years, met with transportation administrators who gave up their Martin Luther King Jr. holiday to make pitches for hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding. Southern Nevada officials cited the need to complete an interstate highway loop around Las Vegas; a desire to build a high-speed train from Las Vegas to Anaheim, Calif.; and a hope to buy a hybrid people mover that follows a painted line on pavement, but makes train station-like stops. Jacob Snow, general manager of the Southern Nevada Regional Transportation Commission, pointed to fiscal year 1998 figures showing Nevada paid $30.4 million into federal Highway Trust Fund mass transit funds and got back $10.5 million. U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Reno, said Interstate 80 in northern Nevada needs to be widened and rebuilt to accommodate trucks using it as a main route to Oakland, Calif., shipping points. Young also promised in a Jan. 14 news conference in Reno to help obtain money to improve I-80 over Donner Pass. Young cut short a presentation on a plan to build a bridge over the Colorado River near Hoover Dam, saying the project already has his full support. Since Sept. 11, tractor-trailers have been banned from crossing the dam and must take a longer, alternate route between Las Vegas and Phoenix. Young cited estimates that the trucking industry will lose $30 million a year because of the detour and called the bridge important for both commerce and safety. Administration officials have set 2007 as a completion date for the bridge, but have said since Sept. 11 that with more funding, the bridge could open in 2005. Gibbons, who convened Monday’s meeting, called Young’s comments about Yucca Mountain “tremendously good news for Nevada.” The next decision, after Abraham submits his recommendation, will be up to President Bush. He has said he favors a single, central repository for the nation’s nuclear waste. Guinn has vowed that if Bush gives the go-ahead, he’ll use a state veto to send the matter to the floor of Congress for a vote. Nevada’s congressional delegation, including U.S. Sens. John Ensign, a Republican, and Harry Reid, the No. 2 ranking Democrat in the Senate, have pledged an all-out fight on political, legal and public relations fronts. But Gibbons, a Republican, and Shelley Berkley, a Democrat, concede they haven’t got the votes to block passage in the House. Guinn and Gibbons said that Young’s support as Transportation Committee chairman could prove crucial in a floor fight. Young, a Congressional veteran first elected in 1973, said that after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he has questions about the safety and security of transporting nuclear materials from more than 100 sites around the country through 43 states to Nevada. The Energy Department wants to begin shipments in 2010. Opponents have called transportation the project’s Achilles heel. Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman left Monday for a U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C., pledging to raise the specter of radioactive accident or sabotage in 110 cities along intestates and train lines to Nevada. The Energy Department didn’t fully address transportation routes and safety in preliminary and draft environmental studies of the Yucca Mountain plan. Officials called it premature to study routes to a site that hadn’t been designated as suitable. Goodman, Reno Mayor Jeff Griffin and Sparks Mayor Tony Armstrong will host a reception Wednesday to explain transportation dangers to other mayors. ***************************************************************** 40 CAN: Proposed Operation of a Radioactive Waste Facility in the Elliot Lake Area CNSC - Background Environmental Assessment Environmental assessment start date: February 27, 1998 Type: Screening FEAI reference number: 16615 [http://www.ceaa.gc.ca/cgi-bin/prs/report.cfm?FeaiNo=16615] Proponent: Rio Algom Limited Location: Elliot Lake, Ontario Latest Update + January 18, 2002 – Request for public comment on the draft environmental assessment report for the proposed operation of a Radioactive Waste Facility in the Elliot Lake area + April 27, 1998 – Project Description (see below) Project Description The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) has received notice from Rio Algom Limited of its intent to apply for a licence to operate a Radioactive Waste Facility. This project involves the possession and ongoing safe containment and management of prescribed substances in the form of process wastes produced at historic uranium mine sites in the Elliot Lake area. Before the Commission makes its decision on Rio Algom Limited's application for a Radioactive Waste Facility Operating License, an environmental assessment must be completed in compliance with the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act [http://www.ceaa-acee.gc.ca] . The purpose of an environmental assessment is to identify the possible environmental effects of a proposed project, and to determine whether these effects can be mitigated before the project is allowed to proceed. Further Information For questions or information directly related to the environmental assessment on the Proposed Operation of a Radioactive Waste Facility in the Elliot Lake area, please contact: Christopher Clement Elliot Lake Project Project Officer Wastes and Decommissioning Division Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission P.O. Box 1046, Station B Ottawa, ON K1P 5S9 Phone : 1-800-668-5284 Fax : (613) 995-5086 E-mail : ceaainfo@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca [ceaainfo@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca] The CNSC maintains a public registry of documents related to its environmental assessments. Lists and copies of documents may be obtained upon request from the contact listed above. © Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission 2000 ***************************************************************** 41 Letter from Lt. Governor Lorraine T. Hunt to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, re: Approval of Yucca Mountain PRESIDENT Nevada State Senate CHAIR Nevada Commission on Economic Development CHAIR Nevada Commission on Tourism VICE CHAIR Board of Directors Nevada Department of Transportation STATE OF NEVADA [Great Seal of the The State of Nevada] OFFICE OF THE LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR LORRAINE T. HUNT CARSON CITY: Capitol Building 101 N. Carson Street, Suite 2 Carson City, NV 89701 (775) 684-5637 Fax (775) 684-5782 LAS VEGAS: Grant Sawyer Building 555 E. Washington, Suite 5500 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 (702) 486-2400 Fax (702) 486-2404 January 10, 2002 U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham U.S. Department of Energy 1000 Independence Ave. SW Washington , DC 20585 Dear Mr. Secretary; It is with great sadness that I write this letter to you in response to your January 10, 2002 correspondence informing me that you have made the decision to recommend approval of the Yucca Mountain Site as a nuclear waste repository. Truly this is a dark day for Nevada, and it has become so with your blessing. I will not waste any more time revisiting all of the scientific data that has been debated ad nauseum by politicians, government officials and the news media. Scientific data, which both supports and refutes your "belief that the science behind this project is sound and the site is technically suitable..." I would ask at what time did the people of the state of Nevada cease to be important to the federal government? Exactly when did state's rights -- recognized as critical to our existence and guaranteed by our forefathers -- cease to exist? Las Vegas is no longer a dusty and isolated small community. It is now a valley of almost two million people with 36 million annual visitors. Las Vegas is an international tourism destination and we are well on our way to being a global hub of business. With Yucca Mountain only 100 miles from the Las Vegas Valley the potential for a disastrous incident is profound. There are two critical points. which I must raise in regard to your letter: First, why should Nevada take the rest of the nation's nuclear waste when we do not produce any waste in our state? Nevada has no nuclear power plants, and thus produces no nuclear waste. We have worked hard to avoid the use of nuclear energy by developing alternative energy sources using wind, solar, geothermal and biomass technologies. Nevada has instead chosen the aggressive path of alternative energy research and development to meet the needs of our citizens and protect our environment. This dynamic, cutting-edge, 21st century technology could someday benefit Nevada, the nation and the world. Is our reward for this unprecedented effort to be forced to become the nation's nuclear waste dump? I believe this is truly unfathomable. Second, you express a desire to protect the nation's environment and ensure national safety by centralizing all nuclear waste in Nevada. How is that possible when the waste will travel through 43 states to reach Nevada? Residents in Main Street, U.S.A., Texas, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and many more states will sit in diners having breakfast each day somewhere in the heartland and watch a train or truckload of nuclear waste rumble by them. In light of the September 11 attacks on our nation, is the American public willing to accept high-level radioactive waste rolling through our cities and across our plains? Our world has changed since September 11. It would be irresponsible and literally criminal to subject our citizens to the potential threat of a high-level nuclear waste incident anywhere in the United States. We must proceed with a new understanding of security in America. And finally, as Lieutenant Governor of the State of Nevada, I am the lead official for economic development and tourism in our state. For the past three years my staff and I have worked diligently to increase tourism, to bring new business to Nevada to diversity our economy and to make Nevada a viable location for the film and television industry. With one pronouncement you have placed doubt, fear. and trepidation on our accomplishments and the future of our state. In closing, I pledge to you that I join with Governor Kenny Guinn, the Nevada Congressional Delegation, and my fellow Nevadans to continue this fight until the last option is exhausted. We will not and should not go quietly into the night without a fight. Respectfully yours, --signed-- LORRAINE T. HUNT Lieutenant Governor cc: President George W. Bush Governor Kenny C. Guinn U.S. Senator Harry Reid U.S. Senator John Ensign U.S. Congressman James Gibbons U.S. Congresswoman Shelley Berkley ***************************************************************** 42 NUCLEAR WASTE: Central storage is the way to go Jacksonville.com It is regrettable that the excellent editorial on central nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain, Nev., wasn't seen nationwide. --> Tuesday, January 22, 2002 Last modified at 8:25 p.m. on Monday, January 21, 2002 It is regrettable that the excellent editorial on central nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain, Nev., wasn't seen nationwide. The editorial was correct: Allowing this waste to be located all over the land is costly and dangerous. Also, the consumer has already paid a considerable part of the cost of centralization, with a statutory fee in his monthly electric bill. When television shows our nuclear Navy extending the nation's power into the Indian Ocean, the ship's power plants are creating nuclear waste, which will add to the amounts remaining from earlier defense and nuclear weapon's programs. These wastes would all go to Yucca Mountain. Civilian nuclear-electric generation deserves relief from its serious waste storage problems. It follows the rules and powers our electronic society with economy and efficiency. (Some plants even use fuel once destined for the cores of Russian atomic weapons.) The opponents of central storage, and the affluent organizations they finance, are trying to interfere with a carefully designed legal process. In the Nuclear Waste Protection Act, Congress set out the many steps that must be taken before nuclear waste can be stored at Yucca Mountain, and the associated licensing procedure was designed to protect everyone. The secretary of energy has decided to proceed and, by all accounts, the president will agree with him. The Environmental Protection Agency set the standards for the site, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will address the Department of Energy's license application. NRC will hold open and public hearings, and everyone will have ample opportunity to be heard before a license is granted or denied. This is our world-famous and admired regulatory process at work. When it ends, our courts are open to complaints. And, in this case, they will be busy with them. It's a long and difficult process, but it will work. Central storage is not a question of whether, it is when. FRANCIS COTTER Ponte Vedra Beach © The Florida Times-Union ***************************************************************** 43 No pardon plea to Putin The Pasko Case Gregory Pasko, an investigative journalist who worked for the Pacific Fleet's newspaper, was arrested on 20 November 1997 by the FSB and charged with high treason for his writing about the nuclear safety issues in the Russian Pacific Fleet. Journalist Grigory Pasko, whose bogus treason conviction has created considerable international protest, will not request President Vladimir Putin for pardon. Jon Gauslaa, 2002-01-22 07:54 At a one-day visit to France last week President Vladimir Putin offered Pasko to submit a request for pardon so that he could consider it. Pasko has however, rejected Putin's offer and thus, according to the January 16 edition of pravda.ru "ruined the President's plan". Fighting for acquittal -- To ask pardon would mean to admit guilt and agree with the verdict, but I am not guilty and will continue the struggle for my honest name and a full acquittal, Pasko said in a statement from the prison cell, released through his lawyer Anatoly Pyshkin. The imprisoned journalist did however, thank Putin for saying that he would consider an appeal for pardon. -- I thank everyone who believes in my innocence, including Putin and [Sergei] Mironov, the speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament, who has called the conviction unfair, for their encouraging words, Pasko said. The Court of the Russian Pacific Fleet in Vladivostok sentenced Pasko to four years in prison on Christmas Day 2001, for attending a meeting of the Pacific Fleet on September 11, 1997 and possessing the notes he made there. The Court ruled that Pasko could have passed the notes containing an analysis of naval maneuvers carried out in August-September 1997 to the Japanese journalist Tadashi Okano, with whom he had worked. Pasko maintains that the navy prosecuted him in retaliation for his reports uncovering alleged environmental abuses. Amnesty International adopted Pasko as a prisoner of conscience on January 7, 2002, saying that the prosecution of Pasko seems "motivated by political reprisal for exposing the practice of dumping nuclear waste". Influential media watchdogs have warned that the conviction could threaten free speech in Russia. Strained relations The Pasko-case has strained relations with Russia and the West, although Putin, when responding to French President Jacques Chirac in Paris last week, insisted he had no authority over the Court's decision. According to the RIA Novosti news agency, the Russian Foreign Ministry submitted to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow a protest note about two American diplomats who attended a public rally in Vladivostok in support of Pasko on January 10. Quoting sources close to Russian diplomatic circles, RIA Novosti reports that the note denotes the actions of the diplomats as "a serious violation of generally accepted international norms, which can result in the use of relevant sanctions against those responsible." The US Consulate General in Vladivostok, in its turn, has stated that the US Consul General, James Shumaker, and his colleague Alexander Hamilton, were "observers" and did not participate in the rally in support of Pasko. Participants in the rally picketed the buildings of the Maritime Territorial Department of the Russian Federal Security Service, the Court of the Russian Pacific Fleet and the Military Prosecutor's office in Vladivostok. Improved conditions Pasko's defence team has spent the last week going through the protocol of the trial, and believes that the verdict may well be overturned by the Military Supreme Court. Pasko, who also spent 20 months in custody from his arrest in November 1997 to July 1999, has however, started to serve his time in prison. He spent the first winter weeks in a cell without a windowpane while Vladivostok experienced its worst snowstorm since 1959 with temperatures hovering at 15 below zero, told Pyshkin. -- Inside the cell it was as cold as outside. Russian prisons do not usually have windowpanes, to allow more fresh air into overcrowded cells and to avoid use of broken glass as weapons, Pyshkin added. The prison administration has however, recently installed a pane into Pasko's four-person cell, where he serves his time alone - another courtesy from the prison officials. * Grigory Pasko was arrested on November 20, 1997. He was acquitted by the Pacific Fleet Court in Vladivostok of treason through espionage on July 20, 1999, but sentenced to a three-year imprisonment for misusing his position and released on a general amnesty. Both sides appealed the verdict. In November 2000 the Military Supreme Court cancelled the verdict, and sent the case back for a new trial at the Pacific Fleet Court. The re-trial started on July 11, 2001 and ended on December 25, with Pasko being convicted to four years of hard labour for treason and taken into custody. Also the latest decision has been appealed by both sides. In an interview published in the Russian daily "Komersant" today, Anatoly Pyshkin said that he expected the appeal case to be scheduled for April-May 2002. Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge Information: info@bellona.no, Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 44 India signs international convention on protection of nuclear material BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jan 22, 2002 Text of report by Indian news agency PTI New Delhi, 22 January: As part of the fight against global terror, the federal cabinet Tuesday [22 January] approved India's accession to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material, reinforcing New Delhi's commitment to international legal instruments against terrorism, particularly of the nuclear variety. With this, India will complete adherence to all the 12 universal instruments which are accepted as benchmarks for a state's commitments in the fight against international terrorism and are referred to in the UN Security Council resolution 1373, an official spokesperson said after the meeting of the federal cabinet chaired by the prime minister. The 1980 convention provides a legal basis to physical protection measures for nuclear material that have been evolved over time by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). It provides a framework for cooperation in protection against theft or unauthorized diversion of nuclear materials and obliges state parties to ensure physical protection of nuclear material during international transport. India has already put in place the measures necessary to implement the provisions of the convention. The convention, signed in Vienna and New York in 1980, came into force in February 1987 and till date 70 states are party Source: PTI news agency, New Delhi, in English 1238 gmt 22 Jan 02 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. World Reporter All Material Subject to ***************************************************************** 45 Radioactive loot threat to thieves MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2002 Unidentified thieves who stole a radiographic device containing a highly radioactive isotope of iridium from a gas pipe-laying work crew in Larissa on Friday have been warned that opening the box containing the isotope will place at risk their lives and those near them. The National Commission for Nuclear Energy said on Saturday that the device posed a major health risk to whoever had taken it. The device - which uses radiography to create images for engineers laying down natural gas pipelines in subterranean darkness - was stolen at 6.50 p.m. on Friday from the junction of Farsalon and Theofrastou roads in the north-central city of Larissa, the commission said. The isotope -Êencased in a steel-plated case bearing a radioactive warning sign - must not be tampered with, the commission said on Saturday, appealing to whoever has the device not to touch or open it but to contact either the Thessaly Police Headquarters on 0410. 683.103 or the commission on 010.650.3540. No questions will be asked, officials said. 1999-2000 IHT-KATHIMERINI English Edition. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 46 BACKGROUNDER: 'DIRTY BOMBS': Simple devices could play havoc Atlanta Journal-Constitution: ajc.com: TODAY • January 22, 2002 Material, expertise at risk, U.S. fears Jane O. Hansen - Staff Tuesday, January 22, 2002 It is a weapon of mass disruption rather than a weapon of mass destruction, but it is a terrorist's dream nevertheless. Although no new terrorist attacks have hit the United States since Sept. 11, experts consider radiological dispersal devices called "dirty bombs" a true threat. "This is not a dream. It's not fiction you see in a James Bond movie," said Yonah Alexander, a terrorism expert at the Potomac Institute of Policy Studies in Virginia. "The genie is out of the bottle. The radioactive material is there. And if you mix it with conventional explosives, clearly you can cause a great deal of damage." A dirty bomb --- or the "poor man's nuclear weapon" --- is an easy-to-make device that wraps radioactive material around a conventional explosive, such as dynamite or hand grenades. The explosion then disperses the radioactive, or "dirty," material. Unlike a true nuclear or atomic bomb, a dirty bomb would not trigger a nuclear reaction, creating the fire, devastation and telltale mushroom cloud of the Hiroshima bomb. A dirty bomb might not kill the hundreds of thousands or even millions that a true nuclear device could. But if the radioactive material were plutonium or weapons-grade uranium, many could get sick or die from radiation poisoning, and some areas could be rendered uninhabitable for decades or longer. At the very least, a dirty bomb explosion would wreak havoc and fear on the American psyche. "As soon as a bomb goes off with radioactive material, the terrorists achieve what they wanted," said Charles Dawson, field operations manager for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency. "People would be scared to death." But how real a threat is the dirty bomb? "It's certainly a bigger threat than a clean nuclear bomb," said Dr. Tom Bevan, director of Georgia Tech's Center for Emergency Response Technology, Instruction and Policy. "Technically, it's a piece of cake. It's all a matter of getting the materials." The best place to get the materials is from Russia, where a sizable nuclear arsenal left over from the Cold War remains a huge concern for American officials. Security weakened with the collapse of the Soviet Union, making plutonium and weapons-grade uranium vulnerable for sale on the black market. Expertise also is for sale, officials fear, from unemployed Russian scientists desperate to feed their families. Under the 10-year-old Nunn-Lugar program, sponsored by former Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) and Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), the United States has spent more than $400 million a year to dismantle and safeguard Russia's nuclear missiles and warheads. But no one knows how much already might have been acquired by terrorists or rogue nations bent on developing nuclear weapons. "There is a real threat that nuclear and other dangerous materials and technologies are getting into the hands of the wrong people," said Gary Bertsch, director of the Center for International Trade and Security at the University of Georgia. For more than a decade, the center has studied how well Russia and other countries have guarded against nuclear materials getting into the wrong hands. Late last year, Russian police arrested six men who were attempting to sell highly enriched uranium. In a separate incident, two Turkish men were found with weapons-grade uranium, presumably planning to sell it. In abandoned al-Qaida hideouts, American forces recently found instructions for building a nuclear device. Osama bin Laden told a Pakistani newspaper that al-Qaida was prepared to use nuclear weapons against the United States "as a deterrent." And one of the organizations whose assets were frozen by President Bush in December was a charity suspected of giving bin Laden information on nuclear technology. "They have the mind-set to go nuclear, to use whatever force they have to attack the enemy," Alexander said. "We know they've attempted to obtain it in the past." Radioactive materials might be smuggled into the United States. But they also could be obtained here through a number of sources, including medical facilities. Hospitals that treat cancer patients with radiation, and doctors' and dentists' offices that have X-ray machines, have lower-level radioactive materials. "If a dirty bomb were released in the Atlanta metropolitan area, you're talking about thousands of people being very ill or killed," Bertsch said. Experts say the most dangerous dirty bomb would be constructed from spent nuclear reactor fuel. But security is so tight around power plants that that scenario is unlikely. And terrorists would face the challenge of transporting the material without dying in the process. That same Catch-22 is why many experts say it is even more unlikely that bin Laden or others have created or obtained "suitcase bombs," true nuclear devices the size of a suitcase. If detonated in a city the size of Atlanta, such a device could annihilate everything inside the Perimeter. "You would not want to be in downtown Atlanta if anybody had one of those," said William Hoehn, visiting professor at Georgia Tech's Sam Nunn School of International Affairs. "I think the likelihood is very small." SPREADING RADIATION, AND WITH IT TERROR An explosion of TNT could be used to spread radioactive materials. Beyond the damage done by the blast, the effects of such a crude nuclear attack would probably be more psychological than physical. But so-called "dirty bombs" are a real threat, experts say. Every year, 200 sources of radioactive material for industrial or medical use are listed as stolen or missing in the United States. Deadly, but less likely 100 pounds of conventional explosives bundled with spent fuel rods from a nuclear reactor. Intense gamma rays make this material extremely lethal. Without proper protection, handlers would soon die of overexposure. Gamma rays would permeate a 300-foot area, exposing victims to about 3,000 rem -- six times the lethal dosage. One rem equals 100 medical X-rays. Outside the blast area, dosages would drop. But prevailing winds could carry a lethal plume up to two-thirds of a mile. This type of powerful radiation would be capable of penetrating the body. Powerful, in terms of terror 100 pounds of conventional explosives bundled with cobalt-60, which is regularly used in cancer therapy. The radioactive material would be ground, then further pulverized and dispersed by the blast. Ingested particles could cause cancer. A maximum dosage of 12 rem would not result in any radiation-related deaths. Weather conditions dictate the spread of fallout. Winds could loft and carry particles small enough to be inhaled. Adverse health effects would be long-term, with risks of sickness rising with the amount of particles ingested. Sources: Center for Defense Information; Institute for National Strategic Studies; Los Alamos National Laboratory / Associated Press © 2002 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ***************************************************************** 47 Editorial: End the delays - It's time for action on DOE recycling The Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky Tuesday, January 22, 2002 What is it going to take to persuade the federal government to build conversion plants for radioactive waste it generated for nearly 50 years in Paducah and Portsmouth, Ohio? An act of Congress? No, wait a minute — Congress passed legislation four years ago requiring the government to do just that. So why are the people of this community and the people of Portsmouth still waiting for the promised jobs and relief from the hazards associated with the storage of the mildly contaminated uranium waste? The U.S. Department of Energy was set last week to announce that a contractor had been selected for the projects, which involve converting billions of pounds of depleted uranium hexafluoride into safer form for disposal or commercial reuse. More than 40,000 canisters of depleted uranium are stored on the grounds of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. At least 20,000 more are stored at the closed uranium enrichment plants in Portsmouth and Oak Ridge, Tenn. U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell and First District U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield led the fight in Congress for the conversion legislation. The purpose of the proposed plants is to eliminate the safety and environmental risks of storing the materials, to create jobs for workers whose jobs were eliminated as a result of the privatization of the enrichment industry and to open up economic development opportunities related to the commercial reuse of the depleted uranium. Clearly these objectives are worthy of federal funding, especially considering the federal government's role in creating the environmental problems in Paducah and Portsmouth. Nevertheless, supporters of the project, including community leaders in Paducah, have been repeatedly frustrated in their efforts to move the conversion plants through the labyrinthine federal bureaucracy. When DOE was under the leadership of Clinton administration appointee Bill Richardson, administrators in that agency stubbornly resisted taking action on the congressionally mandated conversion facilities. But now that DOE answers to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, who was appointed by President Bush, the agency has given its blessing to the conversion projects. With the DOE hurdle cleared, conversion supporters were poised last week to celebrate the selection of a contractor and what appeared to be the inevitable beginning of construction. Then, literally at the last minute, someone in the federal bureaucracy, playing the comic-strip Lucy to the conversion backers' Charlie Brown, snatched the "football" away again, leaving the communities to wonder when, if ever, the promised facilities will be built. The culprit this time apparently is the Office of Management and Budget and its director, Mitch Daniels. According to reports, Daniels isn't happy with the cost of the conversion plants and is looking for a cheaper waste-disposal alternative. We don't believe he'll find it — at least not in the next 25 years. In all likelihood it will take that long for the government to fend off lawsuits stemming from a renewed attempt to use the Yucca Mountain, Nev., site as a burial ground for nuclear waste. The conversion plants offer a timely and proven method for the disposal of low-level radioactive waste. Conversion facilities already are in operation in Europe. It's past time for this country to begin recycling the waste by-products of nuclear plants. Recycling is the only way for the government to change low-level nuclear waste from an environmental negative into an economic plus. Thousands of new jobs could be created if researchers find safe commercial uses for the recycled waste. Conversely, the possibility of productive innovation will be lost if Bush administration budget crunchers succeed in killing the conversion projects. A hope is that Sen. McConnell will be able to use his considerable influence in Washington to finally free the conversion plants from the clutches of the federal bureaucracy. These plants make good economic and environmental sense. And, in a crucial congressional election year, they make sense politically too. In any event, the people of Paducah and Portsmouth have waited long enough to see the results of this "act of Congress." ***************************************************************** 48 Nuclear Institute playing vital role in revolutionising farm sector Business Recorder; Jan 22, 2002 FAISALABAD : The Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology (Niab), Faisalabad, has played an important role for the national economy by developing 19 high-yield varieties of various crops, Niab sources said. They said the further research continues, and the Institute, a subsidiary of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (Paec), will have a greater contribution in the future, adding that efforts are being made to improve the quality as well as enhance the production of all crops. The sources said Niab has developed three varieties of rice named the Kashmir basmati, the Niab-Irri-9 and DM-25, adding the Kashmir Basmati is an early maturing variety which is also tolerant of cold water, and the Niab-Irri-9 is a high-yield, non-aromatic and relatively salt-tolerant variety, which also has a very fine grain, and is now cultivated over 20 percent of the rice area in the Punjab. The research is still going on DM-25, a dwarf, aromatic, lodging resistant and high-yield variety, they added. The Naib-78, a high-yield, heat tolerant and early maturing cotton variety, had almost revolutionised the agriculture sector when it was first released, they said, and added it also has a better plant structure. Last year, it was sown on vast areas of Sindh and the Punjab. The farmers are estimated to have earned Rs 6.9 billion in Punjab and Rs 23 billion in Sindh from the improved crop, said the sources. Niab Karishma, they said, was cultivated on more than 25 percent of the cotton area in Punjab last year, and enabled farmers to earn Rs 13 billion, and added that Niab-86, another cotton variety developed by the Institute, is nectariless and hairy which requires less fertiliser and irrigation. The sources said the Niab-26N is also a high-yield, nectariless and short duration variety, which is, however, susceptible to cotton leaf curl virus, adding that the Institute is in the process of developing two more high-yield varieties, Niab-98 and Niab-999, which will be resistant to cotton leaf curl virus. They said Niab has also developed four varieties of chickpea. They are: CM-72, CM-88, CM-98 and CM-2000. These varieties are now sown on 35 percent of the chickpea area in the country with production estimated at 300,00 tonnes. The sources said the work on chickpea pathology has helped contain the blight epidemic, and added the blight resistant varieties could increase the yield by about 50 percent. The Institute has also developed nine improved varieties of Moong. Five of them have smaller seed. Three of them, NM-51, NM-54 and NM-92, are bold seeded. All nine are short statured, resistant to yellow mosaic virus and leaf spot diseases, they added. The sources said the seedless kinno, evolved through gamma irradiation, is in great demand by the juice industry as it takes care of the bitterness attributed to large number of seeds.-PPI World Reporter ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************