***************************************************************** 02/22/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.47 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POLICY 1 PP government publishes energy plan based on gas and keeping 2 Lithuanian scientists say country should not destroy nuclear 3 US: NRC to Hold Workshop March 12 on Alternate Dispute Resolution 4 Deal continues 'megatons to megawatts' program with Russia 5 US: NRC officials to meet with AmerenUE 6 Japan: Public hearing on Tsuruga nuclear project opens NUCLEAR REACTORS 7 Armenian paper wonders what nuclear plant closure would mean for 8 Belgian reactor law shows up EU divisions NUCLEAR POWER: 9 US: NRC to Meet with Ameren to Discuss Inspection Results 10 US: NRC, Entergy to Discuss Performance Issues at Indian Point 2 11 US: Buchanan politicians fight for Indian Point nuclear plants 12 US: Close Indian Point: Pol 13 US: Accident at TMI-2 tested the mettle of borough's leaders and NUCLEAR SAFETY 14 Mozambique: Radiation threat reported in Tete Province 15 US: NRC to Discuss Apparent Violations At High Mountain Inspection 16 US: Company to Discuss Cardiac Radiation Device with NRC Staff 17 US: VA report shows dramatic death rate numbers from Gulf War 18 US: Pills may help in nuclear spill NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 19 US: Is California gonna wake up on Yucca? 20 US: W. Valley contractor may get extension 21 US: Mike O'Callaghan: Waste, charges and lies (Yucca) 22 US: Utah to consider resolution on Yucca 23 US: : Letter: Bush initiates act of terrorism against U.S. 24 US: Poll cites nuclear waste as top concern 25 Russia: Activists Sue Over Nuclear-Waste Imports - 26 Kyrgyzstan seeks funding to tackle radioactive dumps NUCLEAR WEAPONS 27 Plutonium blast tests at UK site 28 Russia: Green World Activist Attacked - US DEPT. OF ENERGY 29 Fluorine remains inside K-25 building 30 Hall of Fame to honor Hanford managers 31 Jury gets time in bid (Doe Westinghouse) lawsuit OTHER NUCLEAR 32 Fusion pioneer Harold P. Furth dies at 72 33 Head, Neck Radiation Linked to Stroke Risk 34 Alvin Radkowsky, 86, Dies; Pioneer of Nuclear Energy ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 PP government publishes energy plan based on gas and keeping nuclear plants (El Gobierno del PP esboza un plan energetico basado en el gas y en mantener las nucleares) El Pais - Spain; Feb 22, 2002 The Spanish secretary of state for the economy, Jose Folgado, yesterday announced the draft plant that should ensure Spain's energy supply to 2010. The government is focusing heavily on gas as a source of energy, keeping the current nuclear energy structure and drastically reducing coal. The document has as its basic foundations a 3.4 per cent annual growth in end-user consumption, a rise in natural gas consumption from 18bn cubic metres to 49 in 10 years time and increasing its weighting in the energy sector from 12.2 to 22.5 per cent in the next 10 years. Abstracted from El Pais ***************************************************************** 2 Lithuanian scientists say country should not destroy nuclear industry BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Feb 22, 2002 Text of report by Lithuanian radio on 22 February [Presenter] One hundred and eighteen Lithuanian scientists have addressed the president, the prime minister and the speaker of the Seimas [parliament] and urged them to make efforts to ensure that Lithuania remains a nuclear state. The Liberal Democrat Faction of the Seimas [recently set up by the former prime minister, Rolandas Paksas] supported the scientists' statement. Leonora Abraityte has the details: [Correspondent] The president of the union of energy sector workers, [Prof] Leonas Asmontas, said research performed by Lithuanian and foreign scientists has demonstrated that after upgrading, the units of Ignalina nuclear power plant are as safe and reliable as Western units. The relatively new units of the plant can safely operate for another 15-20 years. The EU requires that other EU candidates - Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary - which are nuclear states, shut down some of their units and earmark funds for the upgrading of others. The professor has said that not a single state has given up nuclear energy. In this respect, Lithuania's situation is unique - it is forced to destroy all its nuclear energy. Therefore, the EU should not only compensate the costs of the plant's decommissioning, but also finance the construction of new nuclear units. The scientists think that if the EU is not able to commit such funds, Lithuania has a right not to announce the date of decommissioning power unit two and use it as long as it is in line with safety requirements. The specialists say that nuclear energy should become an economic pillar of the Lithuanian economy and ensure energy stability in the eastern part of NATO and the EU. Source: Lithuanian Radio, Vilnius, in Lithuanian 1200 gmt 22 Feb 02 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. ***************************************************************** 3 NRC to Hold Workshop March 12 on Alternate Dispute Resolution NRC: Press Release - 2002 - 24 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov [opa@nrc.gov] www.nrc.gov No. 02-024 February 21, 2002 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a public workshop on March 12 to discuss the possible use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in its enforcement policy. The workshop will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Kentlands Mansion, 320 Kent Square Road, Gaithersburg, Maryland. ADR involves the use of voluntary methods to resolve conflicts and disputes. ADR techniques normally make use of a neutral third-party to facilitate conflict or dispute resolutions. Techniques can include facilitated discussions, mediation, fact-finding, mini-trials, and arbitration. In considering the possible use of ADR, the agency has identified a number of issues that must be evaluated. These include the point at which it would be appropriate to use ADR in the enforcement process and the possible implications for the confidentiality of settlement discussions. The objectives of the workshop will be to develop a better understanding of ADR techniques, how they might apply to specific NRC enforcement scenarios, and the potential advantage and disadvantages of the use of ADR in various parts of the NRC enforcement process. The format of the workshop will be a facilitated discussion among invited participants representing the interests of stakeholders who may be affected by the use of ADR in the NRC enforcement process, as well as expert ADR practitioners from other agencies and private practice. The invited participants currently include people from the NRC Office of Enforcement, the Office of the General Counsel, the Nuclear Energy Institute, and the Union of Concerned Scientists. The workshop will be open to the public. Although the focus of the discussion will be among the invited participants and the expert ADR practitioners, the audience will be able to participate in the discussion at selected points during the workshop. Additional details will be available at: http://www.nrc.gov/what-we-do/regulatory/enforcement/public-involvement.html The NRC has also extended the period for public comment from January 28 to March 29 on a list of questions regarding ADR published in the December 14, 2001 edition of the Federal Register. ***************************************************************** 4 Deal continues 'megatons to megawatts' program with Russia The Nando Times: Updated: February 22, 2002 By NANCY ZUCKERBROD, Associated Press WASHINGTON (February 22, 2002 8:31 p.m. EST) - Russia will resume shipping nuclear fuel from old Soviet bombs under an agreement reached this week with an American company that buys the fuel to sell to U.S. utilities. U.S. and Russian government officials had expressed concern in recent months that the "megatons to megawatts" program might be in jeopardy because USEC Inc. of Bethesda, Md., and its Russian counterpart, Tenex, had been at loggerheads over the price of the fuel. The national security program is aimed at keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists. USEC is a former government entity privatized in 1998. It is the government-appointed middleman that buys the Russian nuclear fuel. The recycled fuel accounts for about half the low-enriched uranium used in the nation's nuclear plants. The deal, reached Thursday, was confirmed by a senior Bush administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist Thomas Neff, who conceived the program and has consulted with both governments. The agreement must be approved by both the U.S. and Russian governments. USEC spokesman Charles Yulish declined to comment but said the company would probably issue a public statement Monday. Under the deal, Russia would send its first shipment of fuel to the United States next month. Russia gets roughly $500 million annually from the program, which has destroyed 5,600 warheads. Neff said the price USEC would pay for the nuclear fuel would fluctuate with the markets annually and would be based on a three-year average. Based on that formula and current market conditions, USEC would pay about 15 percent less for the low-enriched uranium than it pays now, Neff said. USEC had argued that the old, fixed price, which will be in effect this year, was too high and too inflexible. Neff said some Russian officials are concerned the new price is too low and won't increase enough annually to keep up with future spikes in the market. "The U.S. has a strong interest in making sure that whatever is approved is not just a deal that Russia can be forced to accept now but one it could live with in the future," Neff said. The deal would last through 2013, and the price agreement could not be re-negotiated until 2007, Neff said. Setting a lower price is key for USEC, which has seen its stock price drop by about half in the last four years. The company made a $41 million profit in the fiscal year that ended in June, but that was down more than 60 percent from the previous year. USEC operates the nation's only uranium enrichment plant, in Paducah, Ky. Bush administration officials have said they want to ensure a domestic supplier of enriched uranium exists, so USEC's financial viability is considered important. the Nando Times staff? ***************************************************************** 5 NRC officials to meet with AmerenUE St. Louis Business Journal February 21, 2002 NRC officials to meet with AmerenUE Officials of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission plan to meet with AmerenUE officials Feb. 27 to discuss the results of a recent inspection of the Callaway nuclear plant in Callaway County, Mo. On Jan. 31, the NRC team inspected the nuclear plant, operated by AmerenUE, after an auxiliary feedwater pump malfunctioned. Ameren workers had found pieces of debris in a storage tank, which could have affected all three of the plant's auxiliary feedwater pumps, the NRC said. The Callaway nuclear plant produces about one-fourth of AmerenUE's power. The NRC will release a written report of its findings within 30 days of the meeting. St. Louis-based Ameren Corp. (NYSE: AEE), parent company of AmerenUE, provides electricity and natural gas to eastern Missouri and parts of Illinois. ***************************************************************** 6 Japan: Public hearing on Tsuruga nuclear project opens KYODO NEWS TSURUGA, Feb. 22, Kyodo - A government-sponsored public hearing opened in this Sea of Japan coastal city Friday morning to discuss the pros and cons of Japan Atomic Power Co.'s plan to build two more nuclear reactors at the Tsuruga nuclear power plant. Twenty Tsuruga residents, chosen through public lottery, are expected to speak at the one-day gathering to voice their concerns on the project, which faces stiff public opposition in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture. Japan Atomic Power, popularly known in Japan as Genden, plans to build two 1,538,000-kilowatt pressurized light-water reactors, the largest of their kind in the world, at the Tsuruga plant, which currently has two nuclear reactors in operation. The project has prompted an intense local opposition campaign, which has collected 210,000 signatures on petitions calling on the Fukui prefectural government to stop the plan, which aims at commercial operation around fiscal 2009-2010. The public can take part in the hearing Friday as observers, and organizers say 800 observer passes have been issued, the largest so far for similar nuclear project public hearings sponsored by the Agency of Natural Resources and Energy affiliated with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Genden has already completed environmental assessment procedures for the Tsuruga project but must await approval by the Fukui governor before it can apply for a government license to build the two reactors. Apart from public opposition, Fukui Prefecture -- home to 15 nuclear reactors, the highest concentration in Japan -- has decided to cap the number of reactors there at the current number. To keep the cap, two existing nuclear reactors must give way for Genden to press ahead with its Tsuruga project. The government-operated Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute has already decided to junk the trouble-prone Fugen advanced thermal reactor in Tsuruga by the end of fiscal 2002. A senior Fukui prefectural official says Genden has reached a tacit agreement with the prefectural assembly to scrap the No. 1 reactor -- more than 30 years old -- in the Tsuruga nuclear plant to make way for the new nuclear reactors. Genden, which hopes to keep the No. 1 reactor in operation as long as technically feasible, has not said what it plans to do. In face of intense local opposition, the fate of the Genden project apparently hangs on the extent of how badly the central government wants to promote nuclear power by showering the prefecture with public work projects. Fukui Gov. Yukio Kurita and prefectural assembly leaders want the government to link Tsuruga with an expressway, apparently using the highway demand as a chip for giving the go-ahead for the Tsuruga nuclear project. 2002 Kyodo News (c) Established 1945. ***************************************************************** 7 Armenian paper wonders what nuclear plant closure would mean for staff BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Feb 22, 2002 Text of Artem Egishyan of ADL Metsamor Club report by Armenian newspaper Azg on 22 February entitled "An alternative option not only for the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant but also for the town of Metsamor" The European Union insists that Armenia should close down its only nuclear power plant in Metsamor [west of Yerevan], which accounts for nearly 40 per cent of generated energy, but the government says that it is not yet ready for this. After protracted talks the two sides have agreed that the plant will be shut down only after securing power generating facilities of the same capacity. However, the human rights factor is ignored by all. As many others I too am concerned with one issue, which the people who are dealing with this issue seem to be overlooking. We know that around 3,000 people are working for the plant and its auxiliary facilities, the majority of them from the town of Metsamor. When the construction of the plant began in the 1960s, specialists from Armenia and the USSR arrived on the spot and became the first residents of the town. This was how the tradition began and generations grew. Some of those young men and women saw their future closely connected with the plant and received a relevant education. Armenia has always been notable by the high level of education of its population and skilled specialists. The scientific potential of the town is still great and every morning hundreds of students go to the capital from the town of a population of 12,000. A vocational college, established in the town by the Yerevan Engineering University and the Plant, prepares engineers. The plant's staff are also notable for their high level skills. There are many other factors. The question is what all these people would do if the plant were to close. If it is closed this will give a new impetus to the ongoing emigration and another ghost town will appear. We believe that the country that has announced high technology development as a priority cannot treat its citizens like this. I would like to ask our respected government officials if they are planning to open new jobs for the residents of Metsamor along with the search of alternative energy sources and imminent closure of the plant or is the practice of destroying everything still going on? Source: Azg, Yerevan, in Armenian 22 Feb 02 p2 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. ***************************************************************** 8 Belgian reactor law shows up EU divisions NUCLEAR POWER: Financial Times; Feb 22, 2002 By DANIEL DOMBEY The divisions on nuclear energy policy among European Union nations have been further exposed by Belgian ministers' endorsement of a timetable to decommission the country's nuclear reactors between 2014 and 2025. Although Belgium's coalition government came to power in 1999 promising to end nuclear power, it is only now putting together a law to decommission the country's seven reactors, which provide just under 60 per cent of the electricity supply. But the government's plans do not square with developments regarding nuclear power in some of the other seven EU countries. Although countries such as Germany, Italy and the Netherlands are phasing out reactors, France has kept nuclear capacity at theheart of its energy programme. In an interview with the FT this week, Paavo Lipponen, Finnish prime minister, said the EU had to preserve the option of nuclear power if it was not to become a "fossil monster". Loyola de Palacio, the EU's energy commissioner, has also called for the EU not to neglect the role of nuclear power as a source of energy supply and a means of meeting the commitments of the Kyoto protocol on climate change. Electrabel, Belgium's dominant electricity company, says that a decision to junk nuclear energy would "go 180 degrees against all the scientific, technical and ecological considerations." "As long as you don't find a way to replace nuclear you can't shut down nuclear," said a spokesman. The role of nuclear power in Belgium's energy mix has been declining in recent years although energy demand has increased. But despite endorsement of the 2014-2025 timetable by the country's inner cabinet on Wednesday the government still has to resolve the issue of alternative supply. A group of technical experts met yesterday to discuss the issue, without much progess. The full cabinet is due to vote on the draft law today. The government hopes that it will be approved before the second half of the year, but Belgium's legislative processes are often agonisingly slow. "The will is there to suppress nuclear energy," said a government spokesman. "The problem is what you do instead." Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 1995-2002 ***************************************************************** 9 NRC to Meet with Ameren to Discuss Inspection Results NRC: Press Release Region IV - 2002 - 4 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region IV 611 Ryan Plaza Drive, Suite 400, Arlington TX 76011 www.nrc.gov No. IV-02-004 February 20, 2002 CONTACT: Breck Henderson Phone: 817-860-8128 Cellular: 817-917-1227 e-mail: OPA4@nrc.gov [opa4@nrc.gov] The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will meet on Wednesday, February 27, with officials of AmerenUE, operator of the Callaway nuclear power plant near Fulton, Mo., to discuss the results of a recent fact-finding inspection. The meeting will begin at 12:30 p.m. in the Callaway Emergency Operations Facility, one mile south of the junction of highway CC and highway O, in Fulton. The meeting is open for public observation, and NRC officials will be available afterward to answer questions. On January 31 the NRC sent a four-person, fact-finding inspection team, called an augmented inspection team, to Callaway to look into circumstances surrounding the malfunction of an auxiliary feedwater pump. Ameren workers found pieces of debris from a degraded seal in the condensate storage tank, which could have affected all three of the plant's auxiliary feedwater pumps. Auxiliary feedwater pumps, which are required by NRC regulations to be available for operation while the plant is operating, are important components of the plant's safety system. A written report of the team's findings will be issued within 30 days of this meeting. ***************************************************************** 10 NRC, Entergy to Discuss Performance Issues at Indian Point 2 NRC: Press Release Region I - 2002 - 7 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region I 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406 www.nrc.gov No. I-02-007 February 22, 2002 CONTACT: Diane Screnci (610) 337-5330/ e-mail: OPA1@nrc.gov [opa1@nrc.gov] Neil A. Sheehan (610) 337-5331/ e-mail: OPA1@nrc.gov [opa1@nrc.gov] Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with representatives of Entergy Nuclear Operations on Wednesday, February 27, to discuss performance improvement efforts at the Indian Point 2 nuclear power plant. Entergy operates the facility, which is located in Westchester County, N.Y. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. in the Public Meeting Room at the NRC Region I office in King of Prussia, Pa. The session will be open to the public for observation, with NRC staff available afterwards to answer questions from interested members of the public. The specific topic to be discussed will be Entergy's "Fundamentals" Improvement Plan for the plant, including the facility's engineering performance indicators. Indian Point 2 is currently designated by the NRC as a plant with "multiple degraded cornerstones." (Cornerstones are measures of performance.) This designation is associated principally with underlying performance issues revealed during an August 1999 reactor trip with electrical distribution system complications and a February 2000 steam generator tube failure event. As a consequence of that designation, Indian Point 2 is the subject of additional NRC scrutiny. ***************************************************************** 11 Buchanan politicians fight for Indian Point nuclear plants By KEN VALENTI THE JOURNAL NEWS (Original publication: Feb. 21, 2002) BUCHANAN — While the din of politicians and activists shouting to close the Indian Point nuclear power plants rises, here in the plants' home community the mayor and his challenger are outdoing each other to show who can trumpet its benefits louder. Mayor Alfred J. Donahue, a 66-year-old Republican who boasts of his good relationship with labor unions, says he has lived in the area since long before the plants opened, first Indian Point 1 in the 1960s, then Indian Point 2 and 3 in the mid-1970s. Indian Point 1 is no longer active. "My five children went to school here; 12 of my grandchildren were born here," Donahue said. "If I didn't think the plant was safe, I'd be yelling." His challenger, Democrat Daniel O'Neill, wants the mayor of the small community to be the anti-nuke nemesis, aggressively going after the plants' detractors. "I would be more vocal about the benefits of Indian Point," said the 44-year-old attorney who lost to Donahue two years ago. "I would talk not only to people in Buchanan, but all around the county and all around the metropolitan area … I think the public outside the Buchanan area needs to be educated about the good things the Indian Point plants do." Fears of a post-Sept. 11 terrorist attack have turned up calls to close Indian Point to what may be their highest pitch in its three-decade history. But the battle for the March 19 village election also comes as plant employees and their supporters have awakened politically, staging rallies to demand that the plants keep operating. The tiny village of Buchanan has the most to lose if the plants are shuttered — and the most to fear if an accident occurs. None of the 2,200 residents in this 1.5-square-mile village live more than a mile from the plants. At the same time, the plants supply the village with 90 percent of the money it raises in taxes — including more than $2.6 million this year. That keeps homeowners' taxes low — the average tax bill is $235, and the tax rate has not increased in seven years — while the village has services it otherwise might not afford, including a full-time police department. What's more, the plants' new corporate owners have given gifts to the village, including $250,000 that Entergy Nuclear Northeast gave last year for a new recreation center. But supporters say the plants' benefits reach farther than the village's border. The 239-acre energy complex also pays school and county taxes. If the plants shut down, energy rates could jump 25 percent, an official of the state energy system has said. It is not difficult to find friends of the plants in Buchanan. "These crybabies who come from upcounty, downcounty, they don't live here. What do they know?" said Dave Cross, 60, who lives across the street and one door up Bleakley Avenue from the plants. His father-in-law worked as a carpenter at Indian Point. It did not surprise him that, in fact, all of the Buchanan candidates are in favor of keeping the plants open. "Of course they are," he said. "They know where their bread is buttered." For Donahue, who has served four consecutive two-year terms as mayor and one earlier term, O'Neill's criticism was baffling. Donahue, a retired state trooper, has appeared at pro-Indian Point rallies wearing an American flag tie. He gives reports on it at the twice-monthly village Board of Trustees meetings. "I stay on top of everything, and everybody knows when they talk to me, I talk about the benefits," he said. Running with O'Neill are Fran Surak and incumbent Trustee Joseph Tropiano, a registered Republican running on the Democratic line. Donahue's running mates are Robert Lupica and Richard Fay, husband of Trustee Deborah Fay, who is not seeking re-election. Surak proposed setting up a task force including police, county officials and emergency-service experts to keep tabs on plant safety. Opponents say Buchanan is fooling itself if people do not believe there is a danger. "I think they're pretty complacent," said Georgianna Grant, a village trustee in Croton-on-Hudson, just down Route 9. "September 11th hadn't happened before either." The Croton Board of Trustees in November called for the plant to be shut at least until its evacuation plan — viewed by critics as unworkable — is redone. Indian Point's hometown backers say they are more aware than others of the nuclear complex and that knowing the people who work there, and seeing its operation up close, assure them that it is safe. O'Neill wasted no time showing how he thinks village leaders should counter-attack as he blasted key opponents of Indian Point, including Mark Jacobs, co-founder of the Westchester Citizens Awareness Network. "Mark Jacobs uses junk science and misrepresentations to gain media attention," he said. He noted, for example, Jacobs' comment at a rally that "two or three guards" at the plant would not stop someone from crashing the front gate with explosives. O'Neill said there are many National Guard officers at the plant. Jacobs said he was referring to the guards he had seen stationed at the front, not to the undisclosed number of additional guards inside. He listed the sources of his scientific facts, including the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "You picked the wrong guy to say I don't justify what I say," he said. Donahue is more passive about the opponents. "I'm not going to knock them or attack them," he said. "I just disagree with them." Send e-mail to Ken Valenti [kvalenti@thejournalnew.com] Copyright 2002 The Journal News, a Gannett Co [http://www.gannett.com/] . Inc. newspaper serving Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties in New York. ***************************************************************** 12 Close Indian Point: Pol Says nuclear plant's not safe from terror attacks New York Daily News Online Friday, February 22, 2002 By JIM FITZGERALD Associated Press Writer Westchester County lawmaker proposed a resolution yesterday calling for the closing of the Indian Point nuclear power plant because of the fear of a terrorist attack. If passed by the 17-member County Legislature, the measure would add the plant's home county to the growing list of governmental, environmental and school groups demanding the plant be shut down. The Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center raised fears of an airborne terrorist assault on the plant, which is on a site near the Hudson River 35 miles north of Manhattan. A terrorist attack "could have devastating consequences to lives and property," said Legislator Michael Kaplowitz, a Democrat from Somers who proposed a shutdown and orderly decommissioning of Indian Point. Kaplowitz previously proposed converting the nuclear station into gas-fired power plants. Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano aggressively defended the Indian Point nuclear plant's evacuation plan on Wednesday after a state assemblyman said officials were only "pretending" that it would work. Calling the plan a "living document," Spano said it was being continuously revised and that Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, who issued his sharply critical report earlier in the day, was looking at the plan "as it was, not as it is." "We are updating and improving the plan based on a new scenario — Sept. 11," Spano said. Brodsky, who presented his report to a panel of the county Legislature, criticized what he said was the plan's assumption that any evacuation would be the result of an accident rather than a terrorist attack. He said the plan also wrongly assumed that bus drivers and emergency workers would be willing to enter a contaminated zone, that no one outside a 10-mile radius would try to leave the area and that there would be no release of radiation from the spent fuel stored on the two nuclear plants. New Ideas But Spano said the version of the plan in Brodsky's fat black binder was out of date. A few hours after Brodsky's presentation, Spano answered most of the assemblyman's points by saying things had changed. "We never considered the fuel rod pool," he acknowledged. "We never considered a 767 [airplane] loaded with fuel coming into the plant. Those are things we're looking at now." Spano said the area beyond 10 miles was now being taken into account, and Metro-North trains and ferries might be used in evacuations. Brodsky said Spano, his neighboring county executives and Gov. Pataki should not have signed off on letters of certification about the plan for the federal government. He said the plan "will not protect our families and our communities and we should stop pretending that it does." And while he insisted that he was not attacking the evacuation plan in hopes of forcing the plants to close, he said, "That debate should now begin." ***************************************************************** 13 Accident at TMI-2 tested the mettle of borough's leaders and volunteers Elizabethtown Chronicle By: Stephanie Fleet, Staff WriterFebruary 21, 2002 Second in a three-part series... It's just before 4 a.m. on Wednesday, March 28, 1979. The incidents that led to worst nuclear accident to take place on American soil at Three Mile Island Unit 2 are about to begin. TMI-2, opened on Dec. 30, 1978, is not yet three months old. TMI-1, the older of the nucler power reactors on Three Mile Island, is shut down for routine maintenance. The whole process begins, according to a text compiled by the Science and Technology Department of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, as a water pump in the secondary cooling system, part of the unit's pressurized water reactor, fails. A pressure relief valve jams open and the containment vessel floods with radioactive water. At the time, a backup system for pumping water is down for maintenance. Temperatures inside the reactor core begin to rise, fuel rods rupture and a partial meltdown occurs. This is because the radioactive uranium core is almost entirely uncovered by coolant for about 40 minutes. The thick walls of the reactor containment building keep almost all of the radiation from escaping into the atmosphere. It doesn't take long for radiation alarms to sound and a site emergency to be declared. By two hours, 45 minutes into the accident, half the core is uncovered and the radioactivity of the water in the primary loop is 350 times its normal level. At the time, Metropolitan Edison Co., whose parent holding company is General Public Utilities Corp., operates TMI-2. A new scare comes along on Friday, March 30, two days after the initial events. Workers at TMI-2 believe there is a hydrogen bubble inside of the reactor which could burst and potentially blow the top off of the reactor. People in the surrounding areas fear a total meltdown of the plant. A transcript of an interview with then-Governor Dick Thornburgh, found on www.pbs.org, tells of his experiences on March 28, 1979. The republican governor says he is first notified of any accident at TMI-2 at 7:50 a.m., as he is set to meet with a group of republicans and democrats for breakfast to discuss debt and budget issues. Throughout the potential disaster, Thornburgh is faced with the possibility of evacuating areas surrounding Three Mile Island from anywhere between a five-mile radius to a 25-mile radius. While there is no well-planned evacuation route in place in 1979, the governor is faced with the possibility of herding nearly 200,000 people away from the potential of harm. A Washington Post story notes how shortly after 9 a.m. on Friday, March 30, 1979, radio stations in the Harrisburg area are broadcasting how there was an "uncontrolled release of radiation" coming from TMI-2. The story goes on to say the radiation is detected by a small plane that has flown over the plant. The radiation, the story goes on to say, is part of deliberate venting by Metropolitan Edison aimed at relieving pressure that is building in a holding tank. Since the company did not give the necessary warnings, according to the Washington Post, state and federal officials are surprised by the situation facing them. By 10 a.m., Thornburgh urges everyone in a 10-mile radius of the plant to stay indoors until further notice. By noon, at a press conference in Harrisburg, Thornburgh suggests that pregnant women and preschool-aged children within a five-mile radius of the plant leave the area. Many people loaded their cars and left the area during the tense days of the accident. Ken Reighard, currently a member of Elizabethtown Borough Council, is the mayor at the time. Between 9-10 a.m. on the morning of March 28, Reighard learns something is wrong from the Lancaster County Emergency Management Authority. After hearing the news, he goes immediately to the borough building. In those first few hours, the main goal is to find out more information since nobody seems to know exactly what is going on. Many in Elizabethtown are panicking, according to Reighard, especially with the news of the meltdown or the potential explosion. A meeting is called with fellow mayors from Middletown, Lebanon, York and Lancaster, and they meet in Elizabethtown to pool their information. Still, it remains hard for all of the mayors to get information about what specifically is going on at TMI-2. A 9 p.m., a curfew is put in place for residents in Elizabethtown. The main reason, Reighard says, is to prevent burglaries at dozens of now-empty homes. There is also a run on banks as people withdraw their money with the threat of a mandatory evacuation looming over them. Eventually, the superintendent of the Elizabethtown Area School District closes its schools and Elizabethtown College also agreed to close. For the rest of this story, see the Feb. 21 edition of The Elizabethtown Chronicle. ©Elizabethtown Chronicle 2002 ***************************************************************** 14 Mozambique: Radiation threat reported in Tete Province BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Feb 20, 2002 There is an imminent danger of radiation in Matema, Tete Province. Quantities of radioactive material have been left in the open after unknown assailants forced open an apartment on the outskirts of the city of Tete last month. The radioactive material belongs to the Directorate of Mineral Resources and Energy in the province of Tete and was to be used in the prospecting of ore. The director of environmental coordination says suitable companies have been contacted with a view to collecting the radioactive material stored in Matema and in other areas of the city of Tete... Source: Radio Mozambique Antena Nacional, Maputo, in Portuguese 1030 gmt 18 Feb 02 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. ***************************************************************** 15 NRC to Discuss Apparent Violations At High Mountain Inspection Services, Inc. NRC: Press Release Region IV - 2002 - 5 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region IV 611 Ryan Plaza Drive, Suite 400, Arlington TX 76011 www.nrc.gov No. IV-02-005 February 20, 2002 CONTACT: Breck Henderson Phone: 817-860-8128 Cellular: 817-917-1227 e-mail: OPA4@nrc.gov [opa4@nrc.gov] The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will hold a predecisional enforcement conference Wednesday, February 27, with officials of High Mountain Inspection Services, Inc., of Casper, Wyomng, to discuss several apparent violations of NRC requirements. The conference will begin at 2 p.m. (MST) at the Radisson Hotel, 300 North Poplar St., Casper. The meeting will be open to public observation; NRC officials will be available afterward for questions. The violations involve the apparent failure of High Mountain to properly manage and limit radiation doses to its employees. These problems were reviewed by NRC inspectors during an inspection completed on October 2 last year. The decision to hold a predecisional enforcement conference does not mean that NRC has made a final determination that violations did occur or that enforcement action, such as a monetary fine, will be taken. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the apparent violations, their causes and safety significance. The meeting will also provide High Mountain officials with an opportunity to point out any errors that may have been made in the NRC inspection report and to present its corrective actions. No decision on the apparent violations or any contemplated enforcement action will be made at this conference. Those decisions will be made by senior NRC officials at a later time. ***************************************************************** 16 Company to Discuss Cardiac Radiation Device with NRC Staff NRC: Press Release Region I - 2002 - 6 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region I 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406 www.nrc.gov No. I-02-006 February 21, 2002 CONTACT: Diane Screnci (610) 337-5330/ e-mail: OPA1@nrc.gov [opa1@nrc.gov] Neil A. Sheehan (610) 337-5331/ e-mail: OPA1@nrc.gov [opa1@nrc.gov] A company that has developed a device that uses radiation to treat patients who experience the regrowth of coronary plaque following a cardiac procedure will discuss the device with Nuclear Regulatory Commission Region I staff at an information-only meeting on Tuesday, February 26. Specifically, representatives of the Guidant Corporation will address technical issues associated with the safe use of the company's Galileo intravascular brachytherapy high-dose afterloader device. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. in the Public Meeting Room at the NRC Region I office. It will be open to the public, with NRC staff members available afterwards to answer questions from interested members of the public. It has been estimated that hundreds of thousands of Americans undergo coronary angioplasty procedures each year to remove plaque on artery walls. Many of these patients require the placement of stents to maintain proper blood flow. However, some of these patients will develop the regrowth of coronary plaque, known as restenosis, leading to a recurrence of symptoms. One method of treating this condition is intravascular brachytherapy, in which a device like that developed by Guidant uses a wire to deliver beta radiation to specific sections of an artery in an effort to prevent restenosis. ***************************************************************** 17 VA report shows dramatic death rate numbers from Gulf War Evans Says Recent VA Report Shows Dramatic Differences in Death Rates for Certain Gulf War Veterans Urges DoD and VA Investigation of Troubling Gulf War Data CONGRESSMAN LANE EVANS RANKING DEMOCRATIC MEMBER COMMITTEE ON VETERANS AFFAIRS U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Room 333 Cannon HOB For More Information Contact: Washington, DC 20515 Mary Ellen McCarthy @ 202-225-9756 FOR RELEASE: February 22, 2002 WASHINGTON, DC – Saying recently reported dramatic differences in Gulf War veteran death rates must be immediately examined, Lane Evans (D-IL), the senior Democratic member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, today urged the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and the Secretary of Defense to launch an immediate investigation of the death rate differences. Data contained in reports issued by the Data Management Office of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Veterans’ Benefits Administration show dramatic differences in the death rates for certain Gulf War veterans. According to Evans, the reported death rate for servicemembers who were not deployed to Southwest Asia is 1,141 per 100,000. The death rate for deployed veterans is somewhat lower at 885 per 100,000. However, the death rate for servicemembers reportedly exposed to the Khamisiyah plume was much lower at 341 per 100,000 and the rate for a group of veterans previously characterized as having been exposed to the plume, but now re-characterized as not exposed was dramatically higher at 2,937 per 100,000. Evans said, “this latest data is extremely puzzling and warrants further investigation.” Evans has long urged the VA to conduct research analyzing data concerning the location of veterans during the Gulf War and claims for VA compensation and pension benefits. In 1998, an Evans report found that veterans then characterized as having been exposed to the Khamisiyah plume were 20 times more likely to be service-connected by the VA for an undiagnosed illness than those who served in Southwest Asia after the conflict period ended on July 31, 1991. A 1999 Evans analysis indicated that the then Khamisiyah cohort was twice as likely to be granted a VA non-service-connected pension for permanent and total disability as veterans who served during the conflict, but were not near Khamisiyah. The earlier Evans reports indicated significant differences in service-connected disabilities among servicemembers who served in Southwest Asia near Khamisiyah, Al Jubal, in other locations during the conflict and in Southwest Asia after July 31, 1991. The recent VA data is inconsistent with earlier findings. While the troubling differences in death rates must be fully examined, Evans urged caution in speculating about causes of the data contained in VA’s recent reports until a fuller analysis can be undertaken. “I expect Secretary Principi and Secretary Rumsfeld to take prompt action to clarify the current reports and to provide further follow-up research concerning veterans who served in the Gulf during and after the conflict.” -30- ***************************************************************** 18 Pills may help in nuclear spill Beacon Journal | 02/21/2002 | Medicine designed to prevent thyroid disease and cancer, and Ohio might provide it for residents living near power plants By Bob Downing Beacon Journal staff writer LISBON - The Ohio Department of Health wants to issue two potentially life-saving pills to 200,000 Ohioans living within 10 miles of three nuclear power plants. The potassium iodide pills, designed to prevent thyroid disease and thyroid cancer, especially in children, only would be taken if radiation escaped from the plants. That proposal, resulting from the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, attracted a handful of questions but no concern yesterday in Columbiana County at the first of three public meetings around the state. The areas where the free pills would be distributed are 10-mile circles around the Perry nuclear plant in Lake County, the Davis-Besse plant west of Port Clinton and the Beaver Valley plant just outside East Liverpool across the state line in western Pennsylvania. Involved are parts of Lake, Ashtabula, Geauga, Ottawa, Lucas and Columbiana counties. The state hopes to make a final decision on proceeding with the plan in the coming months, said Roger Suppes of the Ohio Department of Health. He will make a recommendation to Ohio Health Department Director J. Nick Baird and Gov. Bob Taft. But state and local officials stressed that evacuation, not pills, will be the best and safest way for local residents to respond in the unlikely event of radiation escaping from the plants. The state would tell people when to take the pills, depending on radiation levels, in the event of a nuclear accident, officials said. Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp., which operates the three nuclear plants, says the plants are safe and that the neighboring communities are not at risk, said spokesman Todd Schneider. He said the company was supportive of the plan, if Ohio wants to distribute the pills as an added precaution. ``It's not a cure-all... and we hope the pills don't provide a false sense of security,'' he said. West Virginia, also affected by the Beaver Valley plant, has decided against distributing pills to its residents and Pennsylvania is undecided, officials said. The pills, to be provided by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, can prevent one type of cancer caused by radiation, if taken shortly before exposure or within a few hours of exposure, said Suppes, chief of the Bureau of Radiation Protection. Because of that short time frame, officials want to pass the pills out in affected areas before a radioactive leak or spill occurs, he said. The pills are only effective against iodine-131, a radioactive gas that can threaten the thyroid. Though the state would offer the pills to the public, each family in the affected areas could decide whether or not to accept and store them. ``It's a free choice... a family choice,'' Suppes said. How the pills would be distributed is among the details that must still be worked out between the state and local health departments, he said. Each pill provides protection for up to 24 hours. It fills the thyroid gland with non-radioactive iodine and blocks the gland's ability to absorb radioactive iodine from the environment. The pills offer no protection against any other forms of radiation that could be released from a nuclear plant mishap, officials said. The pills can be stored for up to five years. The federal government has not said that it would continue to offer the pills beyond this first round, said Roland Lickus, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. To date, nine states -- New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, Vermont, New Hampshire, Florida, Connecticut, Alabama and Arizona -- have accepted the federal offer. They will get half of the federal government's stockpile of 7 million pills. The estimated cost is about $1.2 million. New York state requested the pills for people living around its nuclear plants in the wake of reports that nuclear power plants might become terrorist targets. There are 32 states in the United States with nuclear power plants. Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or [bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com] ***************************************************************** 19 Is California gonna wake up on Yucca? - who tell a lie - By Heidi Walters It's been a week since President George W. Bush sent Congress his thumbs-up for the Yucca Mountain high-level nuclear waste dump. Nevermind those pesky campaign promises about a decision based on "sound science. And, rightly so, Nevada continues to lunge and snarl like a half-loyal cur kicked one too many times by its master (who also offers the conflicted state su ch patriotic morsels as resumed full nuclear weapons testing, not to mention loads of DOE cash for UNLV researchers). The tooth-gnashing is to be applauded and full-on attack mode - in the form of more political and legal maneuvers - encouraged. And how's about nudging awake that sleeping giant just next door? California, that is, with its massive population, reputation for green politics, and as much or even more to lose fr om a Yucca dump than host state Nevada. Of course, California might also stand to gain from Yucca Mountain: While not the heaviest nuclear power user in the nation, California does have four reactors (two are closed), with accompanying waste. And it hasn't shied in the past from trying to appease the nuclear power industry, through deregulation. It also has a state law that prohibits construction of new nuclear reactors until there is a permanent solution for the waste. But because waste from Cali fornia's reactors would still be hauled through the state, and would settle rather close by, perhaps there's not much to gain from Yucca. And, again, there's much to lose. California's central-eastern border lies closer to the offended mountain than Las Vegas. That region - Inyo County - contains Death Valley National Park (visited by 1.25 million tourists each year), Timbisha Shoshone tribal lands, the Amargosa River system, geothermal springs and freshwater springs, a m yriad of endemic plant and animal species, plus the towns of Tecopa, Shoshone, Death Valley Junction and Furnace Creek. Jennifer Viereck, who lives in Tecopa, says all that makes California a significant Yucca player. "People keep talking about it being a Nevada problem, when in fact, California is just 17 miles away from Yucca Mountain," she says. "And it's an important 17 m iles, because both the wind and the water flow south." Andrew Remus, of Inyo County's Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository Assessment Office, says the county wants the Department of Energy to give absolute assurance that the repository won't leak. The DOE admits it will leak, eventually, when the casks break down. "They're arguing over how quickly Amargosa Valley can be contaminated - that is, how fast will the containers break down and leak," Remus says. "And we're saying, they just shouldn't leak." The county also worries about the transportation routes, and wants ungraded, dangerous State Route 127 to be eliminated from the scheme. "Emergency response is minimal in that area," Remus says, adding that the tiny Southern Inyo Volunteer Fire Protection District has to rely on Nevada to help out, both in personnel and funding. Waste transportation routes l ikely are what will rally the mass es in the rest of California, especially major cities, says Lisa Gue, a policy analyst with the watchdog group Public Citizen. "We see highways going up through the San Bernardino area," she says. "They're none too excited about nuclear waste coming through their towns. There's also some concern that Southern California might be a spot for intermodal transfer of waste - from barge to truck, or truck to barge, or t rain to truck. And the more you handle the waste, the more you're risking. It would make San Bernardino a parking lot for nuclear waste. So, definitely, we need California to be active on this issue, to be a voice." John Hadder, the Northern Nevada coordinator for Citizen Alert, says it's a voice that really should have been heard earlier. California counties have had to fight for hearings, and in the end, only three were held - none in big population centers. "We think that the Department of Energy deliberately tried to avoid California because of what might happen," Hadder says. "If they'd held a hearing in Sacramento, that would have been huge. It would really have gotten a lot of attention in the California press. It's a large population, and one that tends to be concerned about the environment." California citizens succeeded in stopping a nuclear waste dump in Ward Valley, and also shut down the Rancho Seco nuclear power plant in Sacramento. So, then, what is California doing about Yucca? Well, California Gov. Gray Davis is pretty quiet. But, Sen. Barbara Boxer is decidedly against the dump, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, while less clear, has in the past voted with Nevada on the issue, says Nathan Naylor with Nevada Sen. Harry Reid's office. If Nevada Reps. Jim Gibbons and Shelley Berkley can garner House support, including that of California's 52 reps, that'd be ideal. But Naylor says the real value of California as an ally will probably come in the public relations department. From Hollywood to Silicon Valley, Yucca awareness already is spreading into the general populace. "I think there's a slow awakening across America," he adds. And Bush's Valentine's Day decision to forward the dump to Congress might be the green light needed for California activism to really take off. Philip Klasky, with the Bay Area Nuclear Waste Coalition, thinks so. BAN-Waste helped more than 100 other groups in the successful Ward Valley fight. "The anti-nuclear groups, indigenous rights groups and environmental groups are going to play a big role in this," Klasky says. "Our organization also is considering joining other organizations in a [Nevada-initiated] lawsuit. And we've decided to make Yucca Mountain an election issue. In the anti-nukes war, beside Star Wars and the proliferation of nuclear weapons, this is the big issue." Meanwhile, Viereck, in Tecopa, has decided that the fact that California has reactors is an asset in the fight against Yucca. Last weekend, she sponsored a meeting in Fresno of groups who traditionally have been pitted against each other. "The vision was to bring people in reactor communities, who live w ith nuclear waste everyday, together wi th people at potential dump sites, so that we're not continually being used by the government against each other," Viereck says. "It was an enormous success." They found common ground: Deal with the waste more safely on site; and stop making it. Viereck's next step is to take a mobile "nuclear chain" museum on the road across California, educating the masses about uranium mining, reactors and proposed waste d umps like Yucca Mountain. "I think people are pretty smart, and concerned about their kids," she says. "And once they're informed, I think they're going to say, 'What?! How come I didn't know about this?'" Copyright 2002 Las Vegas City Life ***************************************************************** 20 W. Valley contractor may get extension Buffalo News - The Department of Energy wants to retain West Valley Nuclear Services as the contractor at the West Valley Demonstration Project through 2004. In a document filed Wednesday, the DOE told potential bidders for the work that West Valley Nuclear Services, which has been the only contractor at the site since its inception, "possesses unique qualifications" to continue in the role. The planned extension, which has not been finalized, would run from Oct. 1 of this year through Dec. 31, 2004. "It's good news for our company," said West Valley Nuclear Services President Jim Little. "It demonstrates that we're responding to DOE's requests for results sooner." West Valley Nuclear Services is a division of Washington Group's government operating unit. Copyright © 1999 - 2002 The Buffalo NewsTM ***************************************************************** 21 Mike O'Callaghan: Waste, charges and lies (Yucca) Las Vegas SUN February 22, 2002 Mike O'Callaghan is the Las Vegas Sun executive editor. GOV. KENNY GUINN joined Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign in the White House to relay their fears of nuke waste being dumped on the Silver State. The governor, always a gentleman, said he wanted the opportunity to express his feelings "face-to-face." Following the meeting, the Nevadans came away believing they had the president's attention. Guinn told Ben Grove, the Sun's reporter in D.C., that "after today I believe he's going to give some serious thought to this. I feel much better." Reid said the president was "engaged" and Guinn said he was very "intent" during the meeting. Ensign added, "I truly believe that the decision he makes, he will feel that it's made on sound science." Guinn had stressed the importance of 293 scientific questions still to be answered before action should be taken. Eight days later the president must have had all the answers to the obvious scientific and transportation problems. He had a staff member call Nevada's chief executive to tell him he wants to use his state as a dumping ground. Unlike Guinn, who wanted to express his concerns in a face-to-face meeting, Bush didn't show the courtesy of personally giving him the bad news. I didn't think that's the way it's done in Texas -- maybe a year in D.C. and 80 percent approval ratings in the polls have changed him. I called a Bush supporter and GOP strategist and asked why the president treated Guinn this way. "He was getting ready for an important trip to Asia and probably didn't have time," was the reply. The nuke waste-dumping announcement couldn't wait until he returned home next week? A former fellow governor who has also been a supporter and friend couldn't be given a few minutes for a personal phone call? It's obvious that all the time our president was "engaged" and "intent" when talking to Guinn, Ensign and Reid, his mind had been made up. + Who says history doesn't repeat itself? I don't know the answer, but Dewain Steadman sure has repeated what he did back in 1992. Recently he grabbed headlines in both daily newspapers for lodging a complaint with the FBI because of what he considers irregularities in the Las Vegas Housing Authority. He serves as a board member overseeing the authority and is displeased about how a public relations contract was awarded. Ten years ago, also an election year, he held a press conference in front of the FBI building to announce he had filed a formal complaint against then County Commission candidate Yvonne Atkinson-Gates. Although he wasn't a candidate for the office, Atkinson-Gates had defeated him in a school board race four years earlier. The charges against Atkinson-Gates were specious and it took her but a matter of hours to send the charges back down the road to Steadman. We heard no more about those charges. County Commissioner Dario Herrera, a candidate for Congress, was dragged into the Housing Authority mess because he had a piece of the contested public relations contract. This week he offered to sever his ties with the contract because apparently he doesn't want or need the headache. + During coming weeks there will be much discussion about the Pentagon's new Office of Strategic Influence. One of the jobs of the new outfit will include planting "news" items with foreign media organizations. These items could include disinformation, better known as lies, as well as some legitimate news. How will U.S. organizations that use news operations like Reuters or other foreign agencies as sources, know that it's our own lies coming home? Also how long will it take for foreign agencies to no longer believe anything coming from our country? Over the years most of us have learned to trust news from the Pentagon. There is a vast difference between lying and not telling us everything we want to know. Most Americans know when they are being given incomplete or bad information. Will this new office eventually get involved in influencing foreign elections? That makes me wonder how long it will take the office, headed by a general, to get involved in U.S. elections. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 22 Utah to consider resolution on Yucca Las Vegas SUN February 22, 2002 LAS VEGAS SUN The Utah Legislature will consider a joint resolution Monday opposing a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. The resolution was introduced Feb. 4, before Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and President Bush approved the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas for the burial of 77,000 tons of commercial spent fuel and defense wastes. The resolution makes it clear that Congress should reject the president's recommendation. The Utah resolution will be considered before the Legislature's Senate Health and Environment Committee, which chaired by Sen. Peter Knudson, a Republican. While Yucca Mountain would be a permanent repository for radioactive waste, the Goshute Indian tribe near Salt Lake City has negotiated for temporary waste storage on the reservation. Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt and other state officials oppose the interim storage proposal. The Utah resolution argues against storing nuclear waste on the Goshute reservation because of a threat to public health and safety. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 23 : Letter: Bush initiates act of terrorism against U.S. Las Vegas SUN February 22, 2002 This is simply a response to Bush's decision to go forward with the transportation and disposal of highly radioactive waste in Yucca Mountain: Bush declared a war on terrorism and is now speculating to advance possible military action against Iraq, a known supplier and supporter of terrorist activities worldwide. Bush has said that national security, which is the equivalent to public safety, is a priority on items of his present agenda, and yet Bush knows very well that the transportation of highly radioactive material across the United States poses a serious security risk. Now, I ask, if a person or persons places a nuclear device on a train or truck that was to enter areas of population and then suddenly the nuclear device went off, causing radioactivity to discharge in a populated area causing death and injury, then this act would be correctly described as an act of terrorism. Bush has knowingly and willingly initiated the sending off of these deadly canisters into the populated areas. If Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden initiated nuclear devices in populated areas, we would call them terrorists. It is then quite obvious that Bush has initiated an act of terrorism against the United States. And it looks like the axis of terrorism has spread into the White House. And I agree with Bush that there is certainly evil in the world, and but there is certainly evil in the White House ... God save America. ANDREW FEDER All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 24 Poll cites nuclear waste as top concern Las Vegas SUN February 22, 2002 Voters rate economy second most crucial issue By Erin Neff Clark County voters cite nuclear waste as the most critical issue facing them, according to a new poll tied to the launch of a subscription news service. The poll of 550 registered voters was conducted by Downey Research for political strategist Terry Murphy's new endeavor, The Insighter. The Insighter is a twice-a-month newsletter and website aimed at the business community. When asked to rank the top issue, 26.8 percent selected nuclear waste. The economy was picked by 16 percent, growth by 14 percent and education by 10 percent. A sizable 63 percent felt Nevada Power's requested rate hike was unjustified, with 23 percent saying the utility should be turned over to the government. Murphy said neither of those results surprised her, but she did find interesting responses to an education question. The question reads: "According to Education Week, Nevada spends an average of $5,911 per pupil, which is about $1,000 below the national average." Respondents were then asked what Nevada should do, with 43 percent selecting "increase to meet" and 32 percent saying "increase to exceed." Then, when asked if increasing education funding would mean either a reduction of services or a tax increase, 58 percent opted for the tax. When asked if they would support a $50-a-year property tax increase, 88 percent said yes. If the tax were increased to $100 a year, 61 percent said they would approve. "What was surprising to me is people are willing to pay," Murphy said. "Because we only surveyed voters, the average age is 52 years and 31 percent of the sample is retired." The results of the poll were released Thursday to help drum up interest in the new service. Subscriptions to the newsletter run $500 a year and the newsletter and access to the website runs $1200 a year. Murphy and a staff of six cover local government meetings to report on decisions and policy discussions of interest to the business community. "It may sound like a lot of money for the subscription, but it's saving them enormous time," Murphy said. "They know they won't have to sit through a lengthy meeting to get the information they need." Murphy said she did not know how many subscribers her service has. She said she has added about four or five a day since launching the information service about a month ago. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 25 Russia: Activists Sue Over Nuclear-Waste Imports - The St. Petersburg Times. General news from St.Petersburg and Russia #747, Friday, February 22, 2002 By Nabi Abdullaev STAFF WRITER FOR SPT MOSCOW - The controversy surrounding a consignment of spent nuclear fuel imported from Bulgaria last year is set to hit the courts, with environmentalists accusing the company that imported the fuel of exploiting a loophole in the law to bypass new safety requirements. Greenpeace Russia has filed suit in a Moscow district court saying that the import of some 41 tons of spent nuclear fuel in November from the Kozlodui nuclear plant in Bulgaria is illegal and demanding that it be sent back. The consignment is currently being stored at the Krasnoyarsk Mining and Chemical Plant in western Siberia. Greenpeace said the state-owned Tekhsnabexport company, which was responsible for the deal, did not submit its plans to ecological experts, as is required under a new law on importing spent nuclear fuel. The law, signed by President Vladimir Putin in July, allows the import of spent nuclear fuel for reprocessing and storage, but stipulates that nuclear importers must present their plans for examination by the ecological department of the Natural Resources Ministry. "The federal law demands that such industrial and business ventures undergo ecological examination before being implemented," said Vladimir Chuprov, a Greenpeace campaigner and one of the plaintiffs in the case. "Neither the contract nor the project were examined by ecologists, although Gosatomnadzor [the state nuclear safety watchdog] demanded this in November." The Natural Resources Ministry's ecological department confirmed that Tekhsnabexport had not submitted its import plan. "Nothing of that kind ever appeared here," said the department's deputy head, Marianna Novikova. "Well, there was a call from the Nuclear Power Ministry a month ago asking us to conduct an examination of the project, but nobody came and brought it to us." But Alexei Lebedev, the head of Tekhsnabexport's project department, said that because the import deal was cut between Tekhsnabexport and the Kozlodui power station in 2000, the new law did not apply to the project. At the time that the deal was struck, the import of spent nuclear fuel was illegal in Russia, but Tekhsnabexport went ahead with it in the expectation that a law allowing nuclear imports would be pushed through in 2001. So now to claim that the law does not apply seems a bit strange. Lebedev said the Kozlodui deal falls under an inter-governmental treaty on nuclear imports that Russia signed with Bulgaria in 1995. This treaty cannot be overruled by subsequent legal innovations, he said. "We cannot tell the Bulgarians to pay for the ecological examination because there wasn't anything about it in the original agreement," he said this week. "And the import contract for Kozlodui was signed in 2000, when legislation didn't demand the ecological examination of the venture." Lebedev added that, according to the Civil Code, if the newly adopted law doesn't provide for changes to earlier signed contracts, the contracts retain their legal validity. And the new legislation on the nuclear imports does not demand such changes, he said. The Nuclear Power Ministry also insisted that the spent nuclear fuel was imported legally. The Kozlodui contract was signed before the new law was introduced, and because the new law is not retroactive, it does not block old contracts, said Nikolai Shingaryov, the ministry's spokesperson. "There was a special procedure for the import of spent nuclear fuel to Russia that was worked out in 1995," Shingaryov said. "Until the new procedure is introduced, we will follow the older one in our work." The delay in updating safety procedures for importing nuclear fuel has left the new law in limbo, critics say. Gosatomnadzor, which ordered Tekhsnabexport to undergo an ecological examination of the Kozlodui project, said that the temporary legal loophole allows nuclear importers not to follow its orders. When Putin signed the new law in July, he ordered a committee to be formed to make recommendations on updating nuclear-safety procedures. However, this committee is yet to be set up, said Sergei Shcherbakov, the adviser to the head of Gosatomnadzor. Sergei Mitrokhin, a State Duma deputy from the liberal Yabloko faction who is to serve on the presidential committee, said last week that the committee cannot start its work because the Federation Council is late in appointing representatives to it. Shingaryov said the committee is expected to start working in March and will submit its recommendations to the government in April. Lebedev said he expected the new procedures to be worked out by October. In the meantime, Tekhsnabexport would apply to the Justice Ministry with a request to clarify nuclear import procedures, he said. The issue of nuclear safety was put back in the spotlight last week when Yabloko's Mitrokhin, together with two Greenpeace activists and three NTV cameramen, broke into the Krasnoyarsk plant where the spent nuclear fuel from Bulgaria is being stored. The break-in, which was broadcast in an NTV special report, was designed to show that the country's system of nuclear safety is not just poor but "nonexistent," Mitrokhin said. Advocates of spent nuclear fuel imports argue that Russia could earn $20 billion over the next decade by importing some 20,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel. But opponents, spearheaded by Greenpeace, have protested the plan, saying that the environmental damage caused by the imports will outweigh the financial benefits. ***************************************************************** 26 Kyrgyzstan seeks funding to tackle radioactive dumps BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Feb 22, 2002 Text of report "The `waste dumps' are retreating" by Kyrgyz newspaper Vecherniy Bishkek web site on 19 February Russian experts have prepared a feasibility study for tackling the problems of some Kyrgyz radioactive dumps and submitted it to the Kyrgyz Ministry of Ecology and Emergencies. Such is the result of the studies carried out last year by representatives of the All-Russia Research Institute of Industrial Technology of the Russian Federation Ministry of Atomic Energy at the Min-Kush [northern Kyrgyzstan], Kadzhi-Say [northeast] and Mayli-Say [southeast] waste dumps. The question of necessary investment in the reclamation of such sites was discussed, amongst other things. According to the documents by the Russian atomic scientists, the estimated total cost of the work to be done is 8.8m dollars. Reclamation of the Kadzhi-Say area, consisting of a tailing dump and a tip will take 657,000 dollars, eight such dumps in Min-Kush will cost 3.6m and the two the most dangerous tailings dumps in Mayli-Say will cost 4.5m to tackle. Now the problem is to find an investor. Source: Vecherniy Bishkek web site, Bishkek, in Russian 19 Feb 02 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. ***************************************************************** 27 Plutonium blast tests at UK site Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Aldermaston laboratory to get new facilities to ensure Britain's Trident nuclear warheads remain operational during test ban era James Meek, science correspondent Friday February 22, 2002 The Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk] Facilities to carry out explosive tests on nuclear weapons components, including plutonium, are to be built in Berkshire as part of a programme to keep Britain's Trident nuclear warheads operational in the test ban era. Details of the programme, which will also include installation of a powerful computer and continued reliance on US help, are published in Nature yesterday. The aim is not only to maintain the safety of Britain's nuclear arsenal, carried on submarines, but to ensure it would work if used, and to keep the door open for the design and construction of a new generation of nuclear weapons. The experiments will be done at the atomic weapons establishment's laboratory in Aldermaston, Berkshire. The AWE already has a number of armour-plated chambers with 1,000 cubic metres of space for explosions, with additional metre-diameter spheres made of submarine steel to enclose explosions involving plutonium. These are described as "massively robust". "Most experiments use non-fissile materials such as tantalum, lead or depleted uranium to simulate plutonium, but a small number of experiments have necessarily used plutonium itself," the paper says. The facility, long rumoured but only now officially approved, will be similar to the old ones, but will have a new set of x-ray devices to capture, from many different angles, the indescribably brief moments of deformation and expansion when an explosion takes place. AWE scientists are also lobbying for a facility to fire lasers at nuclear warhead materials to test their toughness. Nuclear materials decay over time. Plutonium, the artificially fixed element which gives nuclear weapons their terrible destructive power, develops helium bubbles and becomes brittle. Before Britain and the US signed up to the nuclear test ban treaty, it was possible to carry out regular underground detonations of nuclear warheads to see how this decay affected them. Publication of details of the secret programme in a freely available journal is a rare event. Keith O'Nions, the Ministry of Defence's chief scientific adviser, said yesterday that ministers had given permission a year ago; the paper had taken him and two colleagues nine months to write. "The department wished to be as open as possible on this issue," he said. "This is about stockpile stewardship: assurance of the safety and reliability of warheads, specifically Trident warheads. "There's no risk at all of any of our nuclear weapons going off. However, plutonium, as a metal, wasn't known to mankind until 50-odd years ago. So we only have 50 years of data." The 1998 strategic defence review said that the Trident nuclear weapons system would be maintained and that Britain would "maintain a capability to design a future weapon, should one be needed." Dr O'Nions said: "If you are a nuclear weapons state - and that is a political decision which has been made in this country - it's imperative from the scientific point of view, and I think an ethical point of view, to treat the matter with the utmost seriousness and responsibility." William Peden, disarmament spokesman for Greenpeace, described the Nature publication as "totally unprecedented", but argued that the new openness signified nothing good. "The UK government is trying to hide behind phrases like 'maintaining safety' and 'stockpile stewardship'. But, as the Nature article shows, it's about developing new nuclear weapons," he said. "It will be viewed by the international community as a breach of all nuclear non-proliferation norms, and exposes all past UK disarmament commitments as nothing more than a sham." Useful links British Nuclear Fuels Ltd [http://www.bnfl.co.uk/website.nsf/default.htm] Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament [http://www.cnduk.org/] HSE nuclear glossary [http://www.hse.gov.uk/nsd/ilrwglos.htm] UK atomic energy authority [http://www.ukaea.org.uk/] National Radiological Protection Board [http://www.nrpb.org.uk/] World Nuclear Association [http://www.uilondon.org/] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 ***************************************************************** 28 Russia: Green World Activist Attacked - The St. Petersburg Times. General news from St.Petersburg and Russia #747, Friday, February 22, 2002 By Irina Titova STAFF WRITER Environmental activist Oleg Bodrov, head of the Green World ecological organization in the Leningrad Oblast town of Sosnovy Bor, was attacked and seriously injured this week by unknown assailants. Bodrov was attacked from behind with a blow from a heavy object while on his way home from the Green World office at about 8 p.m. on Feb. 18. He suffered a concussion and remains in a local hospital. Although no motive for the attack has been determined, Green World officials believe that it was connected to Bodrov's activism. The attackers did not attempt to steal Bodrov's money, mobile phone or other belongings. "We believe that the attack was connected to Green World's public activities," said Sergei Kharitonov, a member of the organization. Green World was founded in 1988 in Sosnovy Bor, the city where the Leningrad Nuclear Power Station (LAES) is located. The group's main purpose is to monitor the environmental impact of LAES. It also monitors the St. Petersburg Port, the Baltic Pipeline System, a Leningrad Oblast plant that processes radioactive metals and other environmentally sensitive sites. "At various times, we have had conflicts will all of those institutions," Kharitonov said. "So any of them could be dissatisfied with our activities." Police have launched a criminal investigation into the incident. Alexei Pavlov, a lawyer for the St. Petersburg Ecological Human Rights Center who in providing legal assistance to Bodrov, also said that the incident does not appear to be a random attack. "When people are attacked by drug addicts or alcoholics, they are normally robbed. Bodrov wasn't," Pavlov said. Alexander Nikitin, a former naval officer who was tried and acquitted in a celebrated case concerning his environmental activities, said that the also considers the incident suspicious. "Judging from the blow Bodrov received, the attacker was a professional. He didn't intend to kill, but knew how to inflict a serious wound," Nikitin said. He added that he did not think that the culprits would ever be caught, but that he was encouraged by the public attention to the case. E-mail [letters@sptimesrussia.com?subject=Green World Activist ***************************************************************** 29 Fluorine remains inside K-25 building By Frank Munger, News-Sentinel senior writer OAK RIDGE - More than a year after a fluorine leak forced the evacuation of workers at the government's K-25 Site and spawned a week-long emergency response, the problem still hasn't been resolved. Officials confirmed Thursday that an estimated 67 pounds of fluorine remain inside old storage tanks in Building K-1302, a facility that once supported the plant's uranium-enrichment operations. "The fluorine has not been removed yet," said Dennis Hill, a spokesman for Bechtel Jacobs Co., the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge cleanup contractor. Hill said authorities believe conditions in the old storage facility are stable but continue to monitor the air for evidence of new leaks. The area around K-1302 is roped off, and access is limited to monitoring personnel. An Atlanta firm, Integrated Environmental Services, was awarded a $146,000 contract to remove the fluorine and steam-clean the tanks and pipes, Hill said. But that work is on hold, pending completion of safety reviews, he said. DOE and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board have criticized K-25 contractors for inadequate safety documentation, and Hill said the ongoing probes have been "a contributing factor" in delays on the fluorine-removal project. K-25's uranium-enrichment operation was shut down in 1985, and the storage tanks in K-1302 were supposed to have been emptied during a 1992 project. But the incident in December 2000 revealed the lingering presence of hazardous materials. The fluorine leak drew attention after security guards and other workers complained of an odor coming from the World War II-era building. At least five people were treated for nausea and headaches apparently associated with the exposures. Fluorine gas can be hazardous at even relatively low _concentrations. DOE and its contractors declared an emergency situation because of potential for airborne releases and took a number of precautions. People who worked in buildings near K-1302 were instructed to stay home for a couple of days while the situation was assessed. Over the past 15 months, there have been multiple studies to locate and plug the leaks, evaluate the condition of the storage tanks and estimate the amount of toxic gas inside. The fluorine situation has been a source of frustration for Oak Ridge cleanup officials because it delayed demolition of K-1302 - a project already a year behind schedule. MACTEC Inc. of Golden, Colo., has a contract to tear down and remove 10 buildings at the site. Six of those buildings have been razed so far, but the K-1302 work can't begin until the fluorine is gone. Copyright 2002 The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 30 Hall of Fame to honor Hanford managers This story was published Thu, Feb 21, 2002 By the Herald staff The Hanford Chapter of the National Management Association plans to celebrate its 25th anniversary by creating a hall of fame for outstanding past and present members. The chapter plans to induct about 10 charter Hall of Fame members in May, said Terry Winward, president-elect of the National Management Association's Columbia Basin Area Council. Right now Hanford's chapter is hunting for potential hall of fame applicants. The National Management Association provides mentoring for upper, middle and lower level managers. Also, the Hanford chapter has been extremely active in the Tri-Cities, developing the Junior Achievement program and numerous other youth and civic programs. The Hanford chapter has been named the National Management Association's top chapter nationwide for community service six times in the past 15 years. Hanford's chapter has about 300 members. That number does not include past members who have retired. The Tri-Cities has two other chapters -- one for Energy Northwest and one for the Tri-Cities' public employees. Nominees for the Hall of Fame can be any member or retired member who has spent at least 10 years in the chapter. The selection will be strictly on a scoring system, with points given for holding offices, developing programs and participating in some activities. People seeking applications should call 372-2433. The application deadline is April 10. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 31 Jury gets time in bid (Doe Westinghouse) lawsuit Augusta Georgia: Metro: 02/22/02 Web posted Friday, February 22, 2002 By [matthew.boedy@augustachronicle.com] South Carolina Bureau AIKEN - Jurors deciding whether Westinghouse Savannah River Co. stunted competition on a bid to train those who handle nuclear waste will continue deliberations this morning. The federal court panel of six women and six men, many of whom are from the Charleston area, debated for more than four hours Thursday before asking U.S. District Court Judge Cameron Currie whether they could come back for another day. Judge Currie gave some preliminary indication Thursday of the penalties Westinghouse would have to pay if the verdict went against it. A verdict is expected today in the lawsuit against Westinghouse. In the seven-day trial, Westinghouse was accused of conspiring with Aiken-based General Physics to award the company the training contract in 1992 on an experimental in-tank precipitation facility. The facility was to be part of the process in which nuclear waste eventually would be turned into glass. Former General Physics Vice President Edwin "Skip" Harrison filed the lawsuit on behalf of the federal government under the False Claims Act. Mr. Harrison was fired from General Physics in 1992 and later won $1 million in a wrongful-termination lawsuit filed in Aiken County. Mr. Harrison said General Physics was given access to classified monetary and manpower figures, which gave the business an unfair advantage over other companies that bid on the project. He could have received a percentage of the total training cost, which eventually was stopped after $9 million was spent. But Judge Currie ruled that Mr. Harrison could not prove actual damages and denied his bid for that money. That leaves Westinghouse, if the verdict favors Mr. Harrison, having to pay only the fines described in the law. Judge Currie said she would be inclined to fine Westinghouse about $175,000 if the verdict goes against the company. Lawyers spent Thursday morning giving their closing arguments to the jury. Mr. Harrison's lead attorney, Dick Miley, said Westinghouse did not play by the rules and covered the truth with a "sham" investigation. He compared the company to a teacher allowing General Physics access to tests before they were given to the class. Dan Westbrook, a lawyer for Westinghouse, said Westinghouse employees had no motive to lie. "I would submit Mr. Harrison's incentive is that he is still trying to get even," Mr. Westbrook said. Reach Matthew Boedy at (803) 648-1395 or [matthew.boedy@augustachronicle.com] . 1996 - 2002 The Augusta Chronicle. ***************************************************************** 32 Fusion pioneer Harold P. Furth dies at 72 Tri-Valley Herald Friday, February 22, 2002 - 3:27:29 AM MST By FROM STAFF REPORTS Friday, February 22, 2002 - -->Harold P. Furth, 72, a pioneer of fusion research who worked for a time at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, died Thursday in Princeton, N.J. Furth, who graduated from University of California, Berkeley, worked as a physicist at Livermore Lab in the 1950s and 1960s, leaving for Princeton University in 1967. In the early 1970s, Furth began the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor project at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, which was at that time the most advanced fusion research device ever built in the United States. A tokamak is a magnetic fusion research machine that creates and suspends super-hot plasmas in a powerful magnetic field. Fusion is the energy source that powers the sun and thermonuclear explosions. He published over 200 scientific papers and holds about 20 patents. He was an active researcher until his death, said Stephen O. Dean of Fusion Power Associates, a research association that advocates fusion energy research. ***************************************************************** 33 Head, Neck Radiation Linked to Stroke Risk Yahoo! News - Thu Feb 21, 1:23 PM ET NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Radiation to treat head and neck cancer may increase the risk of stroke, according to the results of a recent study. Based on the findings, researchers recommend that people treated with radiation for head and neck cancer take steps to reduce their risk factors for stroke. Radiation therapy is often used to treat head and neck cancer. Despite its benefits in battling cancer, radiation can cause long-lasting damage to blood vessels. Whether radiation to the neck increases the risk of stroke by damaging blood vessels that deliver blood to the brain is uncertain. An increased risk of stroke in radiation-treated patients has been reported, but one study failed to detect such a link. Dr. Willem Boogerd and colleagues at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam studied 367 patients with head and neck cancer who had received radiation before age 60. Relying on medical records, the researchers determined that 14 of the patients had an ischemic stroke an average of nearly 11 years after radiation therapy. Ischemic strokes, which occur when a clot or narrowed artery cuts off the brain's blood supply, account for about 80% of all strokes. Patients who underwent radiation were almost six times more likely to have a stroke than people of the same age and sex in the general population, according to the findings published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. In five of six stroke patients who had a type of cancer called a parotid tumor, the stroke occurred on the side of the brain that had been treated with radiation. Age at the time of radiation seemed to affect the risk of stroke. The risk of stroke was increased nearly 10 times in patients who were younger than 50. In contrast, the risk was less than five times greater in patients treated while in their 50s. This difference, however, was not statistically significant. Other risk factors for stroke included high blood pressure and diabetes. "Our study is the first to show a significant increased risk of ischemic stroke in an irradiated patient population with head and neck tumors," Boogerd and his colleagues report. The authors point out that as treatment for head and neck cancer improves, more and more people will survive for years after radiation. So even after cancer is cured, these patients should be closely followed, the researchers note. Besides reducing risk factors for stroke, survivors of head and neck cancer may benefit from noninvasive tests such as ultrasound that examine the arteries that deliver blood to the brain, they suggest. SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Oncology 2002;20:282-288. Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. ***************************************************************** 34 Alvin Radkowsky, 86, Dies; Pioneer of Nuclear Energy washingtonpost.com: By Adam Bernstein Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, February 22, 2002; Page B07 Alvin Radkowsky, 86, a former chief scientist of the joint Navy Department-Atomic Energy Commission nuclear propulsion program whose work in the 1950s led to major advances in nuclear-ship technology and civilian use of nuclear power, died Feb. 17 at a hospital in Israel. He had pneumonia. Dr. Radkowsky was a civilian Navy Department nuclear physicist from 1938 to 1972 and worked closely with Adm. Hyman G. Rickover, regarded as the "father of the nuclear Navy." In the 1950s, Dr. Radkowsky became chief scientist of the Bureau of Ships' nuclear propulsion division and conducted key work on the world's first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus, launched in 1954. Among his accomplishments was inventing and refining a method to fuel a nuclear reactor that limited expensive reactor replacements. In a process he called "burnable poison" -- which he likened to adding lead compounds to gasoline -- he used boron to control and prolong chain-reaction explosions of radioactive uranium in naval reactor cores. In the 1950s, Dr. Radkowsky also headed a design team that built at Shippingport, Pa., the first full-scale civilian nuclear power plant. The electricity-generating plant, based on much of the technology used on nuclear ships, spent about 20 years in operation. In 1964, his burnable-poison research earned him the highest government cash award, $25,000. Earlier, he was a recipient of the Navy Department's Distinguished Civilian Service Award, its highest non-monetary honor, as well as its Meritorious Civilian Service Award. He moved from Silver Spring to Israel in 1972 and at his death lived in Ramat Chen. He was an Orthodox Jew, and his wife had family in Israel. There, he taught nuclear engineering at Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion universities and spent decades working on the technology to develop a nuclear reactor predominantly fueled by thorium, an element more plentiful and less radioactive than uranium. He started what is now Thorium Power Inc. and at his death was a board member. The Washington-based organization relies on private grants and some Energy Department funding to promote the thorium reactor as a cheaper, cleaner and safer alternative to the common uranium-fueled type. Dr. Radkowsky marketed his thorium method as a way to give nations the capability to generate energy while preventing them from using spent fuels to produce nuclear weapons. He pointed out that only minuscule amounts of plutonium, a byproduct of the uranium reactors, are needed to make a nuclear weapon. "If we don't put a stop to conventional uranium cores now, nuclear terror will ensue, and the use of legitimate nuclear energy will be barred worldwide," he once said. The small amount of plutonium produced with the thorium method is "in an isotopic mix that is not weapons-suitable," said Thorium Power President Seth Grae. There is also half as much spent fuel, he added. Small-scale testing of the thorium process is now in effect at the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow. Grae said the earliest commercial usage in the United States would not occur until 2006. Dr. Radkowsky was elected in 1991 to the National Academy of Engineering. He was a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Nuclear Society, which presented him in January with its Alvin M. Weinberg Medal for outstanding international technical and policy leadership in nuclear science and technology. The medal recognized his "seminal contributions and innovations in the engineering development of nuclear power." Dr. Radkowsky was a native of Elizabeth, N.J., and was a 1935 electrical engineering graduate of the City College of New York. He received a master's degree in physics from George Washington University in 1941 and a doctorate in physics from Catholic University in 1947. Before going to work for the Navy, he was a troubleshooter for the Singer sewing machine firm. He joined the Navy's Bureau of Ships in 1938 as an electrical engineer. He told The Washington Post he believed that nuclear physics was "too impractical" a field at the time. He changed his mind in the 1940s, after receiving his advanced degrees and doing work on nuclear reactors at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. Survivors include his wife of 51 years, Annette Eisenberg Radkowsky, and a daughter, Gilah Chukat, both of Israel; a brother, Lawrence Radkowsky of Silver Spring; and six grandchildren. © 2002 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************