***************************************************************** 4/22/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.102 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POLICY 1 US: The energy policy dilemma 2 Japan: Nuclear energy conference opens - 3 North Korea, energy body to resume reactor talks 30 April 4 Japan: 1,000 sue nuclear utility 5 US: Opinion - Energy policy politics 6 US: White House Hasn't Sought Money to Guard Atomic Plants, Energy O NUCLEAR REACTORS 7 South African Government appointed expert panel fails to 8 US: NRC Announces Opportunity for Hearing on Diablo Canyon 9 Swiss Nuclear Pwr Watchdog Registered 18 Incidents in '01 10 Young Chernobyl victims regain some hope at beachside hospital 11 Ukrainian reactor unit reconnected after repairs 12 SA: PBMR feasability in doubt 13 AU: Lucas Heights reactor must face plane truth 14 US: FirstEnergy submits Ohio reactor report to NRC NUCLEAR SAFETY 15 US: Markey warns of nuke terror 16 Swiss Nuclear Pwr Watchdog Registered 18 Incidents in '01 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 17 US: Times’ editorial undermines Nevada case against Yuc 18 German nuclear waste leaves for Sellafield 19 Bush and Putin likely to discuss spent fuel import to Russia 20 S.C. governor again refuses Rocky Flats' nuclear waste Issue 21 US: Questions mounting on N-fuel repository 22 US: Yucca Hearing schedule in the House of reps 23 US: Ferraro Lobbies For Waste Site 24 US: Las Vegas SUN: Letter: Cash for Yucca is a terrible t 25 US: Greenspun, List debate Yucca 26 US: Meeting on Yucca turns into GOP bashing session 27 US: Yucca lobby group pushes TV ads 28 US: Utah Fears Waste Plan Is Shoo-In 29 US: Lasee sees Yucca as a safe site for nuke waste 30 US: Troopers Prepare to Block Plutonium NUCLEAR WEAPONS 31 School chiefs sorry for telling pupils about 'UK nuclear blast' 32 US: Nuclear weapon fears are revived 33 Appoints Rapporteur on Pasko-case 34 Magal Receives Orders to Protect Sensitive Installations in 35 Letter: Israel's nuclear capability Our MPs should work as per oath 36 US: Congress prepares for own absence US DEPT. OF ENERGY 37 Energy official: Nuke plant security lacking 38 Debate Over Nuclear Lab Security Heats Up 39 Energy Dept.'s Nuclear Security Fears Told 40 Energy official: Nuke plant security lacking OTHER NUCLEAR 41 UK: British Energy to split top jobs ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 The energy policy dilemma Monday, April 22, 2002 Deseret News editorial Senate Democrats dealt President Bush's energy policy a blow Thursday by scuttling plans to open an Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling. While Democrats and environmentalists are understandably pleased that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is off limits — at least for now — it doesn't alter the fact that the United States is far too dependent on foreign oil. According to the Interior Department, the United States uses 19 million barrels of oil a day, 57 percent from imports. It is estimated that at peak production ANWR would provide close to 2 million barrels a day. The Bush administration is wise to look for other ways to increase domestic oil production. The same day the ANWR proposal was stymied, the Bush administration announced it was trying to speed up drilling in the Rockies. U.S. Bureau of Land Management Director Kathleen Clarke, a native Utahn, told Congress that the BLM should have a study completed by the end of the year about how much oil and gas is available in the lower 48 states. Environmentalists are fearful that the BLM will overestimate how much oil may be available. That, they say, could inappropriately lead to exploration in sensitive areas. Environmentalists charge the government overestimates oil and gas site potentials while the government says environmentalists underestimate them. Until production occurs, it's difficult to determine who's right. The chairwoman of the House Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., said the U.S. Geological Survey estimated in 1995 that 1.11 trillion cubic feet of recoverable coal-bed methane existed in Wyoming's Powder River Basin. But after production began, it raised its estimates substantially to 14 trillion cubic feet. Increasing domestic oil production is only part of a sensible energy policy. Conservation, the development of renewable energy sources, creative urban planning, mass transit and even nuclear power need to be part of the energy equation. Democrats and Republicans need to be open-minded and realistic as they debate the nation's energy needs for the 21st century. © 2002 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 2 Japan: Nuclear energy conference opens - Japan Today Japan News - News - Monday, April 22, 2002 at 17:30 JST SAITAMA A three-day annual conference gathering groups and firms connected with the nuclear energy industry began Monday in the city of Saitama, north of Tokyo. The 35th Japan Atomic Industrial Forum (JAIF) Annual Conference is titled "Nuclear Power in the Changing Socio-Political Environment — Challenges for the Future." It is aimed at reconfirming the importance of nuclear power in the nation's energy policy, said organizers of the forum, which promotes the peaceful use of nuclear energy. (Kyodo News) ***************************************************************** 3 North Korea, energy body to resume reactor talks 30 April BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 22, 2002 Seoul, 22 April: North Korea and the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) will resume their high-level negotiations at the North Korean city of Hyangsan, North Pyongan Province, on 30 April, a government official said Monday [22 April]. "The negotiations will touch on overall pending issues, ranging from the setup of a communications network in the reactor construction site in the North's city of Sinpo to the replacement of the workforce and training of North Korean nuclear experts," the official said. Apart from that, the two sides will also start the first round of negotiations early next month to draw up a "protocol on the reparation of nuclear accidents," the official said. To prepare for the negotiations, the US-led international consortium will hold a meeting of its executive board members in New York Tuesday and Wednesday. Attendants at the meeting will include KEDO Executive Director Charles Kartman and Jang Seon-sop from the South, Jack Pritchard from the United States and Kojiro Takano from Japan. The North expressed an intention to reopen negotiations with KEDO via its Foreign Ministry spokesman on 3 April. KEDO is financing and building two light-water reactors in the socialist country in return for the latter's nuclear freeze under the 1994 Agreed Framework between Pyongyang and Washington. Source: Yonhap news agency, Seoul, in English 0812 gmt 22 Apr 02 /© BBC Monitoring ***************************************************************** 4 Japan: 1,000 sue nuclear utility NZOOM - ONE News - World More than 1,000 people are set to sue one of Japan's major utility firms, demanding it shut several accident-hit nuclear reactors they say pose a danger to local residents, one plaintiff said on Monday. One of the four reactors at Hamaoka, some 150km west of Tokyo, was the site of several accidents last year and in addition the reactors are in an earthquake-prone region that some scientists say could be hit by a major tremor within a few years. A total of 1,012 plaintiffs will sue Chubu Electric Power Company, Japan's third-largest power firm in terms of electricity sales, on Thursday to demand that all the reactors be shut down, said group representative Jun Ohtsuki. "There were two accidents last year, and we are greatly worried about what could happen if a major earthquake hit," he said. "We expect the number of plaintiffs to rise." The Hamaoka plant's No 1 reactor was shut down temporarily last November after two leaks were discovered, one of steam containing a small amount of radiation and another of water that also contained radiation. Officials at Chubu Electric later said the steam leak may have been caused by a hydrogen explosion in a pipe. The plant's No 2 reactor, of similar design, was shut down shortly after the accidents as a precautionary measure. The plaintiffs say the accidents are of concern but a far greater worry is what could happen if a major earthquake struck the Tokai region of central Japan. Japanese scientists have long been predicting that a catastrophic earthquake could hit the area, a place where two tectonic plates meet. "There are also concerns relating to the ageing of the plants," said the plaintiffs' statement. Both the Hamaoka No 1 and No 2 plants were built in the 1970s. Japan, reliant on nuclear energy for one-third of its power needs, has seen a number of accidents over the past decade that have undermined public support for its nuclear programme. The worst took place in 1999 at a uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, north of Tokyo, in which two workers were killed. An advanced thermal reactor was shut down after indications that iodine continued to leak into the cooling water, a problem detected last week, Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute (JNC) said on Monday. Spokesmen at JNC said the state-run operator stopped the 165,000-kilowatt Fugen reactor in Fukui Prefecture, central Japan, on Sunday after a monitor measuring the concentration of radiation in steam showed a rise in reading. No radiation had leaked into the outside environment, they said. The latest incident comes after the government said in a White Paper released this month that Japan's nuclear safety record had improved for 2001. © REUTERS Published on Apr 22, 2002 ONE News sourced from TVNZ, RNZ, Reuters and ['Bridge'] ***************************************************************** 5 Opinion - Energy policy politics Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 1:22 p.m. on Monday, April 22, 2002 Washington Post Writers Group WASHINGTON -- Developments involving two desolate places and one lush one -- the fertile Midwest -- demonstrate how Congress plays with energy policy. Herewith a story of sexually ardent caribou, a governor vetoing a presidential decision in order to defend the sweetness of rural Nevada, and the political imperatives behind putting corn in your gas tank. Although there is drilling for oil and gas in 29 wildlife refuges, the most fiercely contested question about the energy bill was about drilling on one-hundredth of 1 percent of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which is described, by people more passionately devoted to preserving it than visiting it, as "pristine." Yes, and the moon's surface is pristine. Except ANWR is less so, because the moon does not have -- as ANWR's coastal plain, where the drilling would have occurred, does -- roads, military installations, an airstrip, a school, houses, stores. ANWR could produce at least 1.3 million barrels a day for 25 years, almost what we import from Saudi Arabia. The House of Representatives voted for drilling, but it lost in the Senate, which is the habitat of Democratic presidential candidates who burnish their environmental credentials by jumping through the hoop of opposition to ANWR drilling. Some senators said that drilling would interfere with the reproduction of caribou. However, the herds have tripled in the three decades since opponents of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline said it would interfere with the caribou's reproduction. Many caribou even cluster around the heated pipeline, perhaps just for warmth, perhaps to do things from which a gentleman would avert his gaze. Many opponents of ANWR drilling favor mandating higher fuel-efficiency for cars and trucks, which means lighter and less-safe vehicles. The National Academy of Sciences says existing standards contribute to 1,300 to 2,600 deaths -- and 10 times that many serious injuries -- every year. Nevertheless, stricter standards are favored by many people who were scandalized when President Bush temporarily suspended implementation of new regulations requiring even more reduction of arsenic in water. The Environmental Protection Agency estimated the regulations might save 28 lives a year. Saving Nevada for the next Democratic presidential candidate (Bush carried it by 21,597 out of 608,970 votes cast), and perhaps winning two House seats this year are the Democrats' goals in opposing the use of Nevada's Yucca Mountain facility for storing nuclear waste. Nevadans are opposed to this use. A lot more Americans are not: 160 million of them live within 75 miles of one of the 131 locations in 39 states where nuclear waste is stored. For 50 years the government has studied what to do with nuclear waste, which now amounts to 77,000 tons. For 15 years it has studied Yucca Mountain, which is 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, which fears that President Bush's decision to use Yucca Mountain will ... what? That city's business is the satiation of various cravings of visitors who are not apt to avoid the city because nuclear waste is buried 90 miles away, 1,000 feet underground and resting on 1,000 feet of rock. However, 20 years ago Congress provided a mechanism by which governors of states to which a president directs nuclear waste can conduct a minuet of defiance by vetoing a presidential directive. Majorities in both houses of Congress can then override the veto. Among Nevada's allies are Democrats interested in making Nevada feel put-upon by Bush. Also, people phobic about things nuclear, who stress putative dangers of transporting nuclear waste to Nevada, understand that the failure to solve the problem of waste disposal is one reason why no nuclear power generating plant has been built in a quarter of a century. In the autumn of 2000 the price of gasoline went up a bit, an inconvenience for candidate Al Gore, so the Clinton administration, which felt the pain of a nation that has a low pain threshold when in the proximity of gasoline pumps, pumped oil out of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which exists to protect the nation against major interruptions of supply, not to knock a few nickels off the price of gasoline during a presidential election. For this election season, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of corn-producing South Dakota proposes substantially increasing requirements for putting corn-based ethanol, for spurious clean-air reasons, in gasoline sold in various parts of the country. Democrats are trying to hold hotly contested Senate seats in South Dakota, Minnesota, Missouri and Iowa. And a regularly recurring mental illness, Iowa Caucuses Dementia, which caused candidate Bush to become an ethanol subsidy enthusiast, afflicts the herd of Democratic presidential aspirants, which probably includes Daschle. Absent an energy crisis, this is how energy policy is made. And this is how an energy crisis is made more likely. (c) 2002, Washington Post Writers Group All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 6 White House Hasn't Sought Money to Guard Atomic Plants, Energy Official Says April 22, 2002 By MATTHEW L. WALD WASHINGTON, April 21 — The White House has not asked Congress for the money that the Energy Department needs to harden nuclear weapons plants against terrorist attack, a high-ranking Energy Department official complained in a letter to the Office of Management and Budget. The Energy Department's budget for security and safeguards, meaning protection against theft of nuclear material or information, is "not sufficient to implement the security posture requirements that appropriately respond to the September 11th attacks," the letter said. Representative Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who has long been critical of nuclear security arrangements, plans to release the letter on Monday. The letter, dated March 28, was sent by Bruce M. Carnes, director of the Energy Department's Office of Management, Budget and Evaluation, to Marcus Peacock, an associate program director at the Office of Management and Budget, a White House agency. Mr. Carnes wrote that he had been told that the department's request had been turned down because the government was still rewriting the "design basis threat," the document that describes how many attackers the plants must be prepared to repulse and what information and equipment they will have available. "This isn't a tenable position for you to take, in my view," Mr. Carnes wrote. "We are not operating, and cannot operate, under the pre-September 11 Design Basis Threat. Until that is revised, we must operate under Interim Implementing Guidance, and you have not provided resources to enable us to do so." Mr. Markey said he feared that terrorists could break into a weapons plant and use conventional explosives to disperse radioactive material, or even assemble a nuclear bomb and explode it. One of the plants is in the San Francisco Bay area and another is in a Denver suburb. "The administration has requested almost $8 billion for missile defense, which won't do anything to prevent suicidal terrorists from attacking nuclear facilities and blowing up dirty bombs or homemade nuclear weapons," he said in a statement. "But when the Department of Energy finally admits that security is not what it should be, the Office of Management and Budget refuses to help." A spokeswoman for the Energy Department, Lisa Cutler, asked about the letter, said on Friday: "The weapons complex is among the most secure facilities in the world, and would present a very formidable challenge to any terrorist organization. "We took immediate steps in the week of Sept. 11 to improve site security and define our priorities for long-term improvement." Ms. Cutler said a first request for a budget supplement had been approved, allowing the department to meet its highest priorities. "If we find we need additional funds to meet our security needs this year, we'll make funds available to meet those needs," she said. The department could do that by redirecting money, or by having the White House ask Congress for an additional appropriation, she said. "We are going to meet our security needs, period," Ms. Cutler said. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company | Privacy Information ***************************************************************** 7 South African Government appointed expert panel fails to Date: Mon, 22 Apr 2002 20:38:16 -0700 Apr 22 2002 Robyn Chalmers (Associate Editor) Business Day Lack of clarity prevails on technical and financial aspects of the scheme' THE international task team studying SA's experimental pebble bed nuclear technology has handed its report to government, saying that it could not come to a conclusion on the feasibility of the project. Gordon Sibiya, chairman of the team, said yesterday that there was a lack of clarity on several issues concerning the pebble bed modular reactor. These included financial and economic feasibility as well as the technical design of the scheme. The task team's report has been anxiously awaited by the PBMR company, which is driving the project. The fact that the report is inconclusive will be a further disappointment to the company in light of expectations that its recommendations were largely favourable. The news also comes in the wake of the withdrawal of US investor Exelon, which owns 12,5% of the project. The firm said last week that it would pull out of the venture at year-end, when the feasibility studies were expected to be completed. Exelon said its decision to withdraw followed a review of its investments, with nuclear energy no longer a focus. PBMR head Dave Nicholls has said that, while Exelon's decision was regrettable, it was not based on any concern about the feasibility of the pebble bed reactor. "In terms of the process, (Exelon's decision) has not affected us at all and we are moving ahead swiftly," he said. Sibiya said the reason the team could not reach a conclusion on the technical design of the project was because the PBMR company had not come up with a final design. When they had done so, Minerals and Energy Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka might decide to recall the team to study the technology. Sibiya said he believed it was necessary for the team to study the pebble bed concept at this stage so that government could get a feel of how much work still had to be done. If not, there would have been considerable confusion about the way forward, he said. Other shareholders in the project are Eskom with 30%, the Industrial Development Corporation with 25% and British Nuclear Fuels from the UK with 22,5%. The remaining 10% has been earmarked for a local empowerment consortium. Eskom executive director Steven Lennon said at the weekend that the findings of the report had not yet been outlined to Eskom or the PBMR. The review by the international task team was one of the phases of developing the pebble bed reactor. "We have identified clear areas within the project which still need further work, and these issues are in the process of being addressed," he said. Eskom and the other shareholders expressed their support for the scheme in the wake of Exelon's withdrawal, but they were expected to make a final decision in the coming months on future involvements in the project. ***************************************************************** 8 NRC Announces Opportunity for Hearing on Diablo Canyon Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation NRC: Press Release - 2002 - 50 - 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. 02-050 April 22, 2002 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has announced an opportunity to request a hearing on an application for a proposed independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant . The NRC staff has completed a preliminary review of an application for a specific license from Pacific Gas and Electric Company to store spent fuel from its Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in an ISFSI at the plant site in San Luis Obispo County, California. The staff has determined that PG&E has submitted sufficient information for the NRC to formally "docket," or file, the December 21 application and conduct a detailed review. A license will not be approved until the NRC has thoroughly reviewed the application and determined that issuing a license will not constitute an unreasonable risk to public health and safety nor pose a threat to the common defense and security. If a license is granted, it would authorize the spent fuel, which is presently stored in a special storage pool at the site, to be placed in dry casks on concrete storage pads for a term of up to 20 years. The deadline for hearing requests is May 22, 30 days after publication of a Federal Register Notice on this subject, on April 22. By that time, requests must be filed by anyone whose interest might be affected by the license and who wishes to participate as a party to the proceeding. Requests for a hearing must be filed with the Secretary of the Commission, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff. They may also be delivered to the NRC Public Document Room at 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. Because of continuing disruptions in mail delivery service to U.S. Government offices, petitions for leave to intervene and requests for hearing should be sent to the Secretary of the Commission either by fax to 301-415-1101 or by email to hearingdocket@nrc.gov [hearingdocket@nrc.gov] . A copy of the request should also be sent by mail to the Office of the General Counsel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, and by email to OGCMailCenter@nrc.gov [OGCMailCenter@nrc.gov] or fax to 301-415-3725. Additionally, a copy should be sent to Lawrence F. Womack, Vice President, Nuclear Services, Diablo Canyon Power Plant, P.O. Box 56, Avila Beach, California 93424. Additional information about the opportunity for hearing may be found in the Federal Register notice. A copy of the December 21 ISFSI application is available through the NRC's Agency-wide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS). Help in using ADAMS is available by contacting the NRC Public Document Room staff at 301-415-4737 or 1-800-397-4209, or by sending an email message to pdr@nrc.gov [pdr@nrc.gov] . The application is also available for public inspection at the NRC's Public Document Room in Rockville, MD. ***************************************************************** 9 Swiss Nuclear Pwr Watchdog Registered 18 Incidents in '01 Mon Apr 22, 8:38 AM ET ZURICH -(Dow Jones)- Switzerland 's nuclear power watchdog, Hauptabteilung fuer die Sicherheit der Kernanlagen, Monday said it registered 18 incidents at Swiss nuclear power facilities in 2001. HSK said the number of incidents in 2001 - including low-level nuclear leakage - doubled on the year, but none of them posed a threat to Switzerland 's population or staff at the facilities. The gravest incident, HSK said, was the falsification of protocol documents during the annual inspection of the Leibstadt nuclear power plant. The incident was already made public last year. HSK also said preliminary results of its investigation into Switzerland 's five nuclear power facilities showed security standards to be high. However, tests at the country's oldest plants, the facilities in Beznau and Muehleberg, need to be extended. Results are expected to be published by the end of 2002. HSK started its probe in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. Web Site:http://www.hsk.psi.ch -By Goran Mijuk, Dow Jones Newswires; +41 1 211 70 14; goran.mijuk@ dowjones.com ***************************************************************** 10 Young Chernobyl victims regain some hope at beachside hospital OrlandoSentinel.com: El Sentinel By Vanessa Bauzá | Sentinel Staff Writer Posted April 22, 2002 HAVANA -- Vladimir Zaslavsky's convulsions began three years after Chernobyl's nuclear reactor exploded, sending a radioactive plume across his Ukrainian hometown. Within two years, his muscles began to atrophy. Vladimir's doctors offered 15 different diagnoses before finally recommending he spend six months at a beachside treatment center east of Havana for victims of the disaster. That was eight years ago. Today 18-year-old Vladimir uses a wheelchair, his legs curled around themselves, his arms folded like wings. He is the patient who has lived at the Tarará Pediatric Hospital. With his mother, Svetlana Zaslavskaya, Vladimir makes daily trips to the beach, where he splashes in the water and briefly reclaims some freedom. Vladimir and his "Chernobyl family" -- Yulia Panasiuk, a soft-spoken 21-year-old recovering from brain cancer, and Viera Dub, a gregarious 16-year-old battling kidney problems -- share a sparsely furnished home between the beach and the hospital. "Ask these people what is to blame for all their problems, and they will say Chernobyl," said Dr. Julio Medina, Tarará's director. "Really, it's very difficult to say conclusively something was caused by the accident. The important thing is to diagnose, to treat, to help." Patients here feel like casualties of both the April 26, 1986, explosion and their country's economic meltdown since the fall of the Soviet Union. Many families of the 200 children under treatment are on public assistance. They see this program, which has outlived almost all other cooperation agreements between Cuba and its former allies, as their only hope. "The social situation in our country has changed so much," said Zaslavskaya, 40, speaking through a Cuban translator. "Despite these difficult years Cuba has endured, the children of Tarará are still treated. Food, excursions, medications -- it's all guaranteed, like in the beginning." Since the first planeload of children arrived in September 1990, the Tarará hospital has treated about 16,000 young patients. Medina boasts of the program's accomplishments: heart surgeries, bone-marrow transplants, orthopedic surgeries, psychiatric treatment and kidney transplants -- all for free. Of course, the island's hard economic times have taken their toll on Cuba's medical system. Hospitals across the island lack basics such as antibiotics, disposable gloves and X-ray film. Equipment is outdated, and many doctors say they are underpaid and disenchanted. Tarará has not been immune to the shortages. Much of the diagnostic equipment is often in the repair shop. Some leukemia patients are no longer brought here because their medication is too expensive. Though this week marks the 16th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, Cuba will continue to house, feed and treat Chernobyl victims as long as the Ukrainian government flies them here, Medina said. One of the substances released after the explosion, celsium-137, remains active for 30 years and can affect the liver, spleen and muscles. Medina said the most common disease related to Chernobyl is thyroid cancer. Illnesses born from post-traumatic stress, such as hair loss and psoriasis, are second. Natasha Borotniuk, who lives about 200 miles from Chernobyl, remembers her town was preparing for May Day celebrations when they learned the reactor had exploded four days earlier. Soviet media downplayed the risks. When Borotniuk became pregnant with her daughter, Julia, four years after the explosion, she never anticipated a problem. This is Julia and Borotniuk's third trip to Tarará since 1998. Here, Julia, who is 13 but looks as if she's 6, receives physical therapy for her contracted muscles caused by a neurological disorder. Watching Julia laugh and splash in Cuba's warm waters makes it clear this beach therapy is just as important. Vanessa Bauzá is a correspondent in Cuba for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, a Tribune Publishing newspaper, and can be reached at vmbauza1@yahoo.com. Copyright © 2002, Orlando Sentinel ***************************************************************** 11 Ukrainian reactor unit reconnected after repairs BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 22, 2002 Kiev, 22 April: The first unit of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant (a VVER-1000) has been connected to the power network after repairs. The connection was made at 1139 local time on 19 April, the Enerhoatom national atomic energy company told Interfax. The unit's output reached its nominal rating on 20 April... Ten out of 13 units of Ukraine's nuclear power plants are now at work. Repairs are under way at the fifth and sixth units of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant and the first unit of the Rivne nuclear power plant. Source: Interfax news agency, Moscow, in English 0723 gmt 22 Apr 02 /© BBC Monitoring ***************************************************************** 12 SA: PBMR feasability in doubt Lack of clarity prevails on technical and financial aspects of the scheme' Business Day Associate Editor THE international task team studying SA's experimental pebble bed nuclear technology has handed its report to government, saying that it could not come to a conclusion on the feasibility of the project. Gordon Sibiya, chairman of the team, said yesterday that there was a lack of clarity on several issues concerning the pebble bed modular reactor. These included financial and economic feasibility as well as the technical design of the scheme. The task team's report has been anxiously awaited by the PBMR company, which is driving the project. The fact that the report is inconclusive will be a further disappointment to the company in light of expectations that its recommendations were largely favourable. The news also comes in the wake of the withdrawal of US investor Exelon, which owns 12,5% of the project. The firm said last week that it would pull out of the venture at year-end, when the feasibility studies were expected to be completed. Exelon said its decision to withdraw followed a review of its investments, with nuclear energy no longer a focus. PBMR head Dave Nicholls has said that, while Exelon's decision was regrettable, it was not based on any concern about the feasibility of the pebble bed reactor. "In terms of the process, (Exelon's decision) has not affected us at all and we are moving ahead swiftly," he said. Sibiya said the reason the team could not reach a conclusion on the technical design of the project was because the PBMR company had not come up with a final design. When they had done so, Minerals and Energy Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka might decide to recall the team to study the technology. Sibiya said he believed it was necessary for the team to study the pebble bed concept at this stage so that government could get a feel of how much work still had to be done. If not, there would have been considerable confusion about the way forward, he said. Other shareholders in the project are Eskom with 30%, the Industrial Development Corporation with 25% and British Nuclear Fuels from the UK with 22,5%. The remaining 10% has been earmarked for a local empowerment consortium. Eskom executive director Steven Lennon said at the weekend that the findings of the report had not yet been outlined to Eskom or the PBMR. The review by the international task team was one of the phases of developing the pebble bed reactor. "We have identified clear areas within the project which still need further work, and these issues are in the process of being addressed," he said. Eskom and the other shareholders expressed their support for the scheme in the wake of Exelon's withdrawal, but they were expected to make a final decision in the coming months on future involvements in the project. Apr 22 2002 12:00:00:000AM Robyn Chalmers Business Day 1st Edition BDFM Publishers 2002 ***************************************************************** 13 AU: Lucas Heights reactor must face plane truth - smh.com.au Monday April 22, 2002 By Andrew Stevenson April 22 2002 The operator of the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor has been ordered to significantly upgrade its emergency response plans for its planned new reactor to include the consequences of a successful terrorist attack. The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation's application for the replacement reactor had argued off-site emergency arrangements would not be necessary because the facility would be so safe. But John Loy, the head of the Federal Government's nuclear watchdog, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Authority, has confirmed that an independent review of emergency responses must be undertaken before the reactor can begin operation. The new reactor, near the aging Hifar reactor, is expected to be operational in 2005. While he does not believe the terrorist threat to be credible, Dr Loy wants the scenario, plus the impact of a commercial aircraft crash, to be considered in emergency response plans. ");document.write(" advertisement "); } } // --> The strictures - contained in the safety authority's approval documents - come as the existing emergency plans have been strongly criticised by the chair of the Sutherland Emergency Management Committee, Genevieve Rankin, and Tony Wood, a former ANSTO controller of reactors. Both say there are no logical plans in place to give residents around Lucas Heights access to iodine tablets if there is a significant radiation leak. Mr Wood says existing emergency plans are a shambles. He says ANSTO must review its plans for the existing reactor at Lucas Heights in light of a possible terrorist attack. "There is no recognition this could be a problem; this is the problem," he said. "The emergency planning is inadequate because they have made assumptions which understate the potential consequences about the worst-case accident." Mr Wood said saturating the thyroid gland with potassium iodide tablets would dramatically lower the risk, especially among children, of contracting thyroid cancer. "It's like a magic pill, but you've got to take it within hours, and I'm not at all confident the people who are going to make the decisions realise how important the time element is." Councillor Rankin says the emergency framework is a "disaster plan based on the idea you'll never have a disaster". "It's very much beset by internal contradictions and these should be sorted out and they should have been sorted out before ARPANSA signed a licence for ANSTO," Cr Rankin said. "Fundamentally, the plan calls for shelter and for people to seal off any air source coming into the house. But to get the iodine tablets they'll have to leave." The tablets, stored at Sutherland district ambulance stations, would be made available at potential evacuation points, such as Waratah Park, a fact which is not advertised because the plan is based on taking shelter. "The emergency management committee, which includes the local chiefs of the fire brigades, ambulance, police and a representative of NSW Health, was unanimous in saying [to ANSTO] that the plans ought to be reassessed," Cr Rankin said. ANSTO has rejected a meeting with Cr Rankin and the Sutherland Police Superintendent, Henry Karpic, to discuss the issue, preferring to work through an ANSTO-chaired local liaison group. Dr Loy said he saw no fundamental problem with the plans. "Maybe we need to work out in a bit more detail about who does what to whom on the day, but I don't have any sense of concern from the NSW agencies that, provided they have the right information, they can do what they need to do." Copyright © 2002. The Sydney Morning Herald. ***************************************************************** 14 FirstEnergy submits Ohio reactor report to NRC USA: April 22, 2002 WASHINGTON - FirstEnergy Corp. has submitted a report to U.S. nuclear regulators acknowledging it made missteps which led to deep corrosion at an Ohio nuclear power plant. The report reiterates findings the firm provided to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on March 22. Regulators have yet to approve a first-of-a-kind repair plan, in which the company offered to spend $16 million to patch the damage near the reactor. NRC officials were not immediately available for comment. The report found that boric acid - used in the coolant surrounding radioactive uranium rods in the reactor core - had seeped out around several of the control rod nozzles that penetrate the carbon steel reactor head. The worst leakage ate a hole through the six-inch (15-cm) thick carbon steel reactor head. After being harshly criticized by NRC officials in recent weeks, FirstEnergy acknowledged that the problem should have been evident as early as 1999. "The cracks in the stainless steel nozzles probably occurred over a period of four years, or more," the Akron, Ohio-based firm said in a statement. The company acknowledged that it "missed opportunities for earlier detection of the problem." FirstEnergy presented a preliminary plan for repairs to regulators earlier this month, proposing to patch the 150-ton reactor vessel head capping the 925-megawatt Davis-Besse plant. FirstEnergy officials said at an April hearing that the repair work would take three to four weeks. The company will submit a more detailed plan to the NRC within the next few weeks. Davis-Besse engineers discovered the problem during a routine refueling and maintenance outage that began Feb. 16 at the 25-year-old plant in Oak Harbor, Ohio. The NRC stepped up its investigation after finding that workers at the plant had carried microscopic radioactive particles on their clothing to outside locations. FirstEnergy said the particles found on four workers are unlikely to cause adverse health effects. The company has estimated that while Davis-Besse is shut, it would have to spend $10 million to $15 million a month buying replacement power for the 4.3 million customers served by its seven subsidiary utilities. The Davis-Besse plant provides about 7 percent of FirstEnergy's overall electricity supply. The United States has 103 operating nuclear power plants, providing about a fifth of the nation's electricity supply. Story by Chris Baltimore REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ***************************************************************** 15 Markey warns of nuke terror by Andrew Miga Monday, April 22, 2002 WASHINGTON - U.S. nuclear weapons facilities are vulnerable to terrorist attacks after the White House last month rejected new funds to upgrade security, U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey charged in a report released today. Markey (D-Malden) warned that suicidal terrorists bent on detonating their own crude nuclear device, or ``dirty bomb,'' could try to take over a federal nuke weapons site near a major city unless security is tightened. ``The administration has requested almost $8 billion for missile defense which won't do anything to prevent suicidal terrorists from attacking nuclear facilities and blowing up dirty bombs or homemade nuclear weapons,'' Markey said. Bush administration officials flatly denied the allegations by Markey, who has led the fight in Congress for nuclear safety and is one of the industry's most passionate critics. ``After 9/11, we took immediate steps to ensure the security of our nuclear facilities,'' said Department of Energy spokeswoman Lisa Cutler. ``The nuclear weapons complex is among the most secure facilities in the world.'' Citing a series of intragovernmental letters his office obtained, Markey said the White House late last month spurned a request by the Department of Energy for new funds to safeguard its nuclear weapons facilities. In one of the letters, the DOE complained that it lacked the funds to ensure nuclear site security, Markey said. Markey cited a March 28 letter from the DOE's Bruce M. Carnes to the White House Office of Management and Budget that complained: ``You have not provided resources to enable us'' to protect nuclear weapons materials. Markey said he was stunned by the DOE's admission it could not adequately safeguard its nuke weapons sites - particularly given its recent public declarations to the contrary. But DOE officials flatly denied Markey's charge, asserting they had both adequate funding and security. Cutler noted that additional funds requested by the Bush administration were already given to the DOE earlier this year. She said more money could be forthcoming. ``We evaluate our funding needs on an ongoing basis,'' Cutler said, declining to comment specifically on the internal government correspondence cited by Markey. More than six months after the Sept. 11 attacks, Markey alleged the Bush administration has dragged its feet on safeguarding the nation's nuclear weapons sites. ``I am concerned that a successful terrorist attack at one of these facilities could lead to the theft of nuclear weapons-grade material (and) the rapid construction and detonation of an improvised nuclear device,'' Markey wrote in a letter to President Bush dated today. Ten DOE facilities, including ones near Denver and San Francisco's Bay Area, contain enough weapons-grade plutonium and highly enriched uranium to build a crude atomic bomb, Markey alleged. Markey warned the results of such an attack could prove catastrophic. ``Such a device could be constructed quickly once terrorists gained access to the nuclear materials, and could result in deaths, cancer and widespread contamination of the surrounding community.'' The DOE routinely transports nuclear weapons material from its various sites across the country, Markey noted, increasing the risk of a terrorist strike. Markey branded as ``inexplicable'' the decision by the White House to turn down the DOE's request. ``I was shocked to hear that the White House . . . chose not to approve DOE's supplemental funding request to upgrade security at DOE facilities,'' Markey wrote to Bush. The congressman said it is well known that al-Qaeda considers U.S. nuclear sites as attractive terror targets. Markey is a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and co-chairman of the House Bipartisan Task Force on Nonproliferation. In January, Markey wrote DOE officials to complain about security problems at federal facilities, but he never received a reply. Last month Markey raised concerns about the nation's nuclear power plants, alleging they failed to screen workers for terrorist ties. His report drew sharp denials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. © Copyright by the Boston Herald ***************************************************************** 16 Swiss Nuclear Pwr Watchdog Registered 18 Incidents in '01 Mon Apr 22, 8:38 AM ET ZURICH -(Dow Jones)- Switzerland 's nuclear power watchdog, Hauptabteilung fuer die Sicherheit der Kernanlagen, Monday said it registered 18 incidents at Swiss nuclear power facilities in 2001. HSK said the number of incidents in 2001 - including low-level nuclear leakage - doubled on the year, but none of them posed a threat to Switzerland 's population or staff at the facilities. The gravest incident, HSK said, was the falsification of protocol documents during the annual inspection of the Leibstadt nuclear power plant. The incident was already made public last year. HSK also said preliminary results of its investigation into Switzerland 's five nuclear power facilities showed security standards to be high. However, tests at the country's oldest plants, the facilities in Beznau and Muehleberg, need to be extended. Results are expected to be published by the end of 2002. HSK started its probe in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. Web Site:http://www.hsk.psi.ch [http://www.hsk.psi.ch] -By Goran Mijuk, Dow Jones Newswires; +41 1 211 70 14; goran.mijuk@ dowjones.com [http://dowjones.com] ***************************************************************** 17 Times’ editorial undermines Nevada case against Yucca April 22, 2002 Jon Ralston [online@rgj.com] Two weeks after Gov. Kenny Guinn’s historic veto of a president and the 90-day clock is ticking, so here’s a progress report: Unless Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign have something up their sleeves that would surprise David Copperfield, the magic is about to go out of that relationship. Indeed, all of the signs since Guinn’s version of the Bush family’s “This will not stand” speech on April 8 are ominous, as the blame game is revving up and partisan fingers are being pointed. To wit: The state ran ads in Vermont, and Sen. Jim Jeffords said he’s still for the dump. Now this is the guy who became a committee chairman because Reid gave it up to get him to switch parties. What does it say if this guy won’t vote with Nevada? The House held a sham of a hearing last week and will hold another one this week. This is the same body that is poised to vote next week overwhelmingly in favor of Yucca Mountain. Other than a chance for Nevada politicians to beam their visages to their constituents, showing they are fighting the good fight, is there really a reason for these hearings? Even The New York Times, which has seemed sympathetic to the state’s plight, weighed in Sunday with a devastating editorial. First this: “Spent fuel rods have been shipped in small quantities for decades now with no obvious harm to the public, and whatever new risks may emerge with more numerous shipments in an age of terrorism will have to be addressed in detail by federal regulators before they approve the burial plan. Nevada’s hyperbole provides no reason for Congress to abort a promising plan before the issues can be closely analyzed.” Then this: “(The NRC) found very little likelihood of an accident that would release enough radioactivity to harm the public. So far, in some 2,600 shipments of spent fuel rods since the mid-60’s, there have been only four truck accidents and four rail accidents, with no release of radioactive material.” I think those folks on Capitol Hill who will be deciding Yucca Mountain’s fate read the Times once in awhile. Ultimately, why do I still have a feeling this conversation will take place soon on Capitol Hill: Ensign: “Mr. Leader, I know we’re dead. But my credibility is on the line at home. You have to help me.” Trent Lott: “How many of the guys do you need to vote with you to save face in Nevada?” Ensign: “Just give me six, Trent, please?” Lott: “All right, John. Let me look at my nuclear plant location/who’s up this year matrix, and I’ll free up half a dozen votes for you.” Unfortunately, unless Harry Ensign can produce a magical parliamentary miracle, this is all about the terms of surrender and assigning the blame as the clock ticks down toward a midsummer vote that is looking more and more inevitable. © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett ***************************************************************** 18 German nuclear waste leaves for Sellafield BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 22, 2002 Oldenburg: A nuclear waste shipment has departed this morning. Shortly before 0530 hours, the train loaded with two nuclear waste containers departed from the Unterweser nuclear power plant in Lower Saxony, a spokesman for the Federal Border Police (BGS) announced. Only a small group of young antinuclear activists carrying banners demonstrated peacefully against the transport. The nuclear waste is to be taken to the Sellafield reprocessing plant in Great Britain. Source: ddp news agency, Berlin, in German 0356 gmt 22 Apr 02 /© BBC Monitoring /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. ***************************************************************** 19 Bush and Putin likely to discuss spent fuel import to Russia Nor Spent fuel imports The Russian Ministry of Nuclear Energy (Minatom) is actively promoting plans for large scale imports of spent nuclear fuel to Russia for storage or reprocessing. Bush and Putin likely to discuss spent fuel import to Russia (Moscow:) Of the bilateral nuclear waste disposal plans that are likely to end up on next month's summit agenda, one has struck a special chord of controversy among Duma deputies, the Bush administration, the Russian Nuclear Ministry, and environmental groups alike. All have their particular objections to the plan, but all, too — say the purveyors of the plan — have reasons to support it. President Putin and President Bush may shake their hands over spent nuclear fuel import deal during US-Russian summit in May. photo: me-online.com Charles Digges, 2002-04-22 20:55 This plan was developed by an American corporation called the Non Proliferation Trust, Inc. (NPT), whose associates include former CIA chief William Webster. In broad terms it calls for the 40-year storage in Russia of 10,000 tonnes of fissile waste from a number of countries. At the end of those 40 years — or during this period — the waste would be resettled in a geologic repository, also in Russia, where it would remain permanently, never to be reprocessed. In return, Russia would receive $11 billions dollars not only to build the repository and clean up and enhance the security of its nuclear infrastructure, but also to employ nuclear workers in the closed cities in civilian and ecological capacities. It also provides tidy sums toward social relief for the elderly and orphans. Likewise, there would be significant funds allocated to the region in which the permanent waste repository would be eventually located. It would also have to adhere to a bilateral 30-year moratorium between the Kremlin and Washington on commercial reprocessing. Environmentalists have dumped cold water on the idea, saying that NPT offers only a short-term benefit for Russia, which will have to live with the consequences of the permanently interned waste for thousands of years. But it has received a warm reception from members of the government of President Vladimir Putin — particularly Ilya Khlebanov, who met last November with members of the NPT board. It also was greeting approvingly — but with more reservation — by US National Security Advisor Condolezza Rice, US Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell. Indeed, according to NPT representative Thomas Cochran, as well as the US White House press office, NPT was on the agenda at the first summit between Putin and George Bush last November in Crawford, Texas, but was scotched when events related to Sept. 11 took precedence. All of this ratchets up the likelihood that it will be included on the docket at the May summit in Moscow, where — in the shadow of the Bush administration's reconsideration of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Act (CTR) — a number of issues regarding the safety of Russia's nuclear waste are expected to be discussed. But many environmentalists in Russia and abroad are still smarting over last year's dubious passage of legislation that allows the Russian government to turn a profit by importing and reprocessing spent nuclear fuel (SNF). The legislation had no direct link to the NPT proposal and set no limit on the amount of spent nuclear fuel, allowed to be imported into Russia. At the time the legislation was passed, environmental lobbies across Russia had collected 2.5 million signatures — 500,000 more than were needed to force the question to a nation-wide referendum — only to see 800,000 of those signatures disqualified by the Central Election Commission (CEC) on minor technicalities, some as minor as "incorrect" abbreviations for street names. Former Nuclear Minister Yevgeny Adamov's aggressive lobbying of the Duma also brought about speculation the deputies had been cajoled with promises and, in some cases, bribes, to pass the bills. Though Russia's Nuclear Ministry, or Minatom, has yet to sign any significant import contracts — because from 70 to 90 percent of the world's SNF is controlled by the United States — environmentalists are anxious to hand billions of dollars, even with contractual strings attached, plus tonnes of fissile material over to a Minatom. But NPT and its opponents agree on one thing: Russia desperately needs money to keep nuclear materials safe and to clean up the radioactive pollution left by more than 50 years of nuclear power generation and weapons production. Joint Russia-US projects that address this, like CTR, have been criticized by many for moving at glacial pace. NPT's strategy Bellona' Position Paper on NPT The transfer of spent nuclear fuel to the Russian Federation for intermediate storage The $11 billion on offer from NPT would be divided as follows: $1.8 billion to site and build a geological repository; $3 billion for ecological clean up in Russia; $1.5 billion to increase the physical security of fissile materials in Russia; $2 billion to reemploy nuclear workers in Russia's closed cities with jobs related to ecological clean up and other civilian sector employment; $2 billion in aid for Russian pensioners and $250 million for Russian orphans. An additional $500 million would be held in escrow to collect interest during the 40-year temporary storage phase in order to cover the waste's removal to the permanent geological site. If no geological site is licensed and built within that time, the waste can, at NPT's discretion, be removed to another country or another 40-year lease can be signed with Russia to allow more time for a geologic repository to be realized. The reason for the waiting period, as opposed to simply financing a permanent repository from the outset, Cochran said, is that NPT could not attract customers or begin to finance clean up, fissile material control and alternative jobs for nuclear workers. Customers to foot the bill would be selected on the basis of their ability to pay the minimum prices for the project to go forward, and on the non-proliferation benefits associated with their selection. According to Cochran, ideal customers would include countries like Taiwan, South Korea, Armenia and Iran, which either lack the necessary land resources for permanent storage facilities of their own, or pose a non-proliferation risk to the United States. Two of these countries — Armenia and Iran — already receive fuel from Russia. But built into the NPT contract is a clause preventing Minatom from competing with NPT while NPT assembles its customer base. As unpalatable as that might seem from Minatom's perspective, Cochran and Minatom officials said in recent interviews that Russia has already started rudimentary work in scooping out a geologic repository. According to Cochran, "[t]he Krasnoyarsk site looks the most promising," but he added that "Russia is a long way from characterizing a site and demonstrating its adequacy. Russia does not even have any site selection criteria or licensing regulations." Aleksandr Dmitriev, deputy director of Russia's nuclear regulatory body Gosatomnadzor (GAN), confirmed this in a telephone interview with Bellona. Until the site is located and licensed by GAN and the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA), the waste would be likely be stored in the Primorsk region at or near a site used by the Russian navy to store fresh and spent fuel, Cochran said. Implementing the plan Bills approved by State Duma The Russian State Duma, the lower chamber of the Russian parliament, endorsed the spent nuclear fuel import bills in third reading on June 6th. The first bill legalises spent nuclear fuel import from other countries by amending art. 50 in the Russia's Environmental Protection Law in favour of spent fuel imports. The second bill sets frames for leasing of Russia's manufactured nuclear fuel abroad. While the third functioned more as an incentive for the Duma members and public in general, stipulating the remediation programs for radioactively contaminated areas. For such a far reaching long term plan to be put into play, however, would require the heft of the Russian government and series of agreements with the US government, including the participation of US Congress, to form a formal "Agreement of Cooperation on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy," as it is spelled out in the US Atomic Energy Act, Cochran said. By US law, once an agreement for cooperation is negotiated, it is sent to the president for 30 days. During that time, the president checks with other departments, including the Department of Energy (DoE) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) before determining in writing that the agreement poses no risks to US security. It is then sent to congress were it sits for 30 days of continuous session. If congress does nothing, the agreement is approved. If, however, the agreement is overridden by a simple majority, the president can force it to a vote by vetoing congress, where a two thirds majority would be required to override him. According to a spokesman for the US State Department, the Agreement for Cooperation proposed by NPT "could have an easy time in congress, especially in the wake of protests surrounding the Yucca Mountain proposal in this country." Yucca mountain in Nevada has been proposed as a geologic repository for thousands of tonnes of radioactive waste in the United States, and has drawn the outrage of the environmental community there. It is likely that the Russian public would react in a similar fashion — from residents of the prospective permanent storage site to people who live along the route the radioactive waste would be shipped. For this reason, Cochran noted that NPT would not oppose that the question be put to a regional or even national referendum in Russia. "I believe there has to be a meaningful site selection process for both the temporary dry cask storage facility and the geologic repository and these processes have to include meaningful public participation," Cochran said. American support Spokesmen for high-ranking members of the Bush administration interviewed for this article said that they fundamentally agree with the plan. The State Department spokesman said NPT "offered a direct route to a geologic repository, which is something that the world needs." "The State Department also supports the notion of a cash infusion to help Russia clean up its nuclear infrastructure and to make it safer," he added. But spokesmen for Vice President Cheney and National Security Advisor Rice — while agreeing with the State Department on that point — emphasised that Russia's current support for the Iranian nuclear industry could derail discussions. "A final solution for tonnes of fissile material is surely needed," wrote a spokesman for Rice in an email interview. "But the notion of turning that material over to a Russia that is still providing materials and support for the growth of the Iranian nuclear industry is against the interests of [US] national defence. This would have to be discussed in a summit setting." These arguments do not surprise local businessman Dr Vitaly Keonjian, who heads the Non-Proliferation and Ecological Improvement (NP&I) association in Moscow, which is NPT's Russian counterpart. "I have met with Cheney, Rice Powell, and they all see the fundamental benefit [of the NPT proposal], but they always come back to ‘what is Russia going to do about Iran?'" said Keonjian in a recent interview. "But Iran is a separate question altogether, and the NPT option is the only way to guarantee that fissile material gets locked up for good and doesn't fall into the wrong hands." What the Kremlin thinks The Russian government's support for the NPT project is more ambiguous than America's, not for reasons of US national security or potential environmental hazards in Russia, but because the built-in moratorium on reprocessing may cramp its style. On the level of Putin's cabinet, a spokesman for Khlebanov said the deputy prime minister "supports the idea and has fully briefed the president, who supports it, too." Khlebanov's office nonetheless farmed out questions about the reprocessing moratorium to Minatom. Deputy Nuclear Energy Minister Bulat Nigmatulin said in a telephone interview last week that "questions about reprocessing — and the project as a whole — would have to be discussed at the summit [between Bush and Putin] in May." "Of course there is a desire at Minatom to reprocess. It would make the project more profitable," he added. Nigmatulin early last week announced that negotiations were underway to build a raft of new reactors in China, India and the hotly contested Bushehr facility in Iran. Speaking with Bellona, he said he "wouldn't be surprised if [the new reactors] lead to eventual reprocessing contracts." This is precisely the kind of thinking that NPT — as well as members of the American government — hoped to avoid, but it is a mindset many environmentalists say would be foisted on the NPT plan if it is approved. It is also a clear indication that Russia does not intend to abandon subsidizing the Iranian nuclear industry any time soon. Environmental opposition in Russia Bellona Position Paper Import of spent nuclear fuel to Russia — Implications for security and environment read the Position Paper » Yabloko party Duma Deputy Sergei Mitrokhin — who recently made headlines by marching past security with a camera crew into a Siberian nuclear waste storage facility — voiced a familiar concern about NPT in a recent interview with Bellona. "It's not feasible from the point of view of national prestige," he said. "It is a terrible political precedent to set when we say Russia is open for paid waste storage to richer nations." He was also "convinced" that the money — spread out over such a long period of time and administered by successive groups of hands — would not be spent where it is supposed to be. "Minatom is ready to move on this because they want the money. It's the American side getting in the way," he said. "But once [Minatom] gets the cash, what they spend it on will be anyone's guess." Bellona Director Fredric Hauge agreed with Mitrokhin, adding "there is enough waste in Russia right now that has to be taken care of before we add another 10,000 tonnes of it." "[The NPT plan] also shows little respect for the principles of democracy — even if the question were proposed for a referendum, experience shows that referendums on such questions in Russia simply get derailed." NP&I's Keonjian, however, pointed to what he called "the responsibility that the nuclear nations [Russia, the United States, England and France] have toward the rest of the world" to solve waste problems as a group. "This is a question of practical ecology," he said. "These countries are primarily responsible for the waste problem the world has and they should work together to figure it out." But why Russia and not the United States? Because at present, Keonjian said, the United States has 70,000 tonnes of waste on its hands were Russia only has 14,000 tonnes. Also, he said, Russia needs the funds for clean up and for its nuclear workers more than America. "Choosing Russia is not political, it's practical," he said. But according to Vladimir Slivyak, co-chairman of the Moscow office of Ecodefence!, the NPT choice is also "utopian." "NPT is naive to assume it can not only change the politics of Minatom toward reprocessing but also the politics of the Russian government, which gave Minatom a green light to realise its reprocessing dreams by singing the law permitting imports of radioactive waste." He added that Minatom would not sign any agreement that forbade reprocessing, or that they may sign it and slowly begin to bend the rules. As an example of this, he cited a Bellona publication about how Minatom managed to foist reprocessing on CTR, despite US policy against it. CTR, which has spent $3.1 billion in Russia over the last ten years, granted Minatom a waiver from reprocessing once the Russian side began stalling on the project. "That took only ten years to happen. Think of how far Russia could bend the NPT plan away from its original form in 40 years," Slivyak said in an interview with Bellona. "Even government to government plans get distorted. I can only imagine what they'd manage to do to an agreement with a private corporation." But both Keonjian and Cochran remain unmoved by such an objection, pointing to the fact that breaching an agreement with NPT would mean breaching an agreement for cooperation with the American government. If the contract is breached, Russia gets no further funds and the waste, presumably, would be taken elsewhere. "Certainly, this is something that would have to be discussed by the presidents in a summit setting," said Keonjian. "That is the only place it can be discussed with any finality." Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge Information: info@bellona.no, Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway Menu ***************************************************************** 20 S.C. governor again refuses Rocky Flats' nuclear waste Issue called campaign fodder Denver Post.com By Mike Soraghan [msoraghan@denverpost.com] Denver Post Washington Bureau Monday, April 22, 2002 - WASHINGTON - Orval Faubus blocked the schoolhouse door in Little Rock, Ark. George Wallace blocked the doors of the University of Alabama. Now another Southern governor, South Carolina's Jim Hodges, is talking about lying down in the middle of the road to block federal plutonium shipments from Colorado, or sending the highway patrol to block the trucks. The comparison makes some South Carolinians wince.But Hodges' nuclear maneuvers are getting more dramatic by the day. Today, the state patrol will practice its plan to block the shipment at the state line on the governor's instruction. For the 2.5 million people within 50 miles of the old Rocky Flats nuclear bomb plant near Broomfield, the possible standoff is more than a far-off southern sideshow. It could affect whether the $7 billion decontamination of the plant stays on track for 2006. And some Colorado officials fear if the 2006 deadline slips, the whole house of cards could crumble. Striving to meet that enshrined 2006 deadline, Energy Secretary Spence Abraham last week ordered shipments to begin May 15. Rocky Flats' 6 tons of plutonium left over from years of making triggers for nuclear bombs are to be hauled to the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., where they'll be turned into mixed-oxide nuclear fuel. But Hodges worries that the federal government will change plans or cut funding and leave those 6 tons, and 28 tons from other bomb plants, at Savannah River, turning South Carolina into the nation's nuclear dumping ground. Abraham and Hodges have agreed on terms that would ensure that the waste would leave South Carolina, but Abraham balked at putting the agreement before a federal judge as Hodges suggested. So the governor restarted his plans to resist, rescheduling a roadblock training he'd scuttled last year. The Bush administration and nuclear activists figure he's drafting a lawsuit seeking to block the shipments. South Carolina Democrats are charging that the Bush administration's decision to ship the waste shows that it has picked Colorado voters over South Carolina voters in order to help U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Loveland, win re-election. "This is a calculated political move on part of Sen. Allard and the Bush administration to gain advantage in a close Senate race," said S.C. Democratic Party chairman Dick Harpootlian. "If it's still there in November, it will be an issue." Getting Rocky Flats cleaned up quickly and turned into a wildlife refuge is a key part of the environmental record Allard hopes to use to fight off Democrat Tom Strickland. But Hodges is running for re-election, too, and some South Carolina Republicans gripe that he doesn't want to solve the plutonium issue so much as use it as campaign fodder. The Bush administration says getting the waste moving isn't politics, it's national security. And Republicans note Rocky Flats is in the district of U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Boulder, who also wants the site cleaned up quickly. "Ask Mark Udall if he thinks this is a partisan thing," Allard said. For his part, Udall's staff says he looks at 2006 more as a goal than a deadline. "Slippage of 2006 isn't great," said Doug Young, Udall's key staffer on Rocky Flats. "But it's not devastating if we can reach the goals we want even if it takes a little longer." But Allard says if the 2006 plan falls apart, it may be harder to persuade Congress to keep shelling out huge amounts of money to speed up the process at Rocky Flats. Others question whether the current delays would even affect the 2006 closure date. Alan Parker, president of Kaiser-Hill, the company cleaning up the site, told the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists last year: "I'm not particularly interested about when the first shipment goes, just the last one." The New York Times reported that company spokesman John Coursi confirmed the company believed it would meet the 2006 deadline regardless of when the plutonium began the move. Coursi referred questions to DOE, which provided a letter from Coursi calling the Times story "false." At the U.S. Justice Department, lawyers are looking at whether to send federal marshals along with the shipments, and studying the law about whether a state can block the shipments. Tom Sansonetti, assistant attorney general for environment and natural resources, said Friday he expects South Carolina to file suit before the shipments start. "The question will be whether a judge's decision delays the shipments," said Sansonetti, a lawyer from Cheyenne. "If the judge says yes, the trucks stop right there. If he says no, the trucks keep going. If he (Hodges) sends out the troopers, we'll have to see about that." For now, Hodges' spokeswoman, Cortney Owings will say only that such a suit "is definitely being considered." But a lawsuit isn't the only threat to Rocky Flats meeting the cleanup deadline. There's already a lawsuit pending that could delay cleanup down the road. A group in the California Bay area has sued DOE to stop shipments of surplus bombs from Rocky Flats to the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, saying the containers they plan to ship them in aren't safe. The lawyer leading the case, Trent Orr of Earthjustice, says that if the group gets what it wants -- an in-depth study lasting a year to 18 months -- the cleanup could be delayed. But DOE and the office of U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Boulder, say the amount of plutonium involved is relatively tiny and aren't worried that the suit would hold up shipments. And DOE has never said what it plans to do with two metric tons of "very impure" nuclear waste. One ton is from Rocky Flats. When the government changed its disposal plans earlier this year, DOE told lawmakers and the press that the material would be "Shipped directly to waste," but has never said what that means. Nuclear activists said the waste, generally plutonium residue on filters and equipment, was headed for New Mexico until U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., stepped in to block the plan. DOE spokespeople have said that if a site isn't found by the middle of next year, it could delay the clean-up. All contents Copyright 2002 The Denver Post ***************************************************************** 21 Questions mounting on N-fuel repository Cumberland County News: The Press of Atlantic City April 21, 2002 By JACK KASKEY Staff Writer, (609) 272-7213, E-Mail [jkaskey@pressofac.com] LOWER ALLOWAYS CREEK TOWNSHIP - The used fuel stored at PSEG Nuclear's three atomic plants might not be here much longer. If the industry and President Bush get their way, the highly radioactive waste soon will be en route to a permanent repository beneath Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The waste stored at this Salem County site might start its journey by truck to Cumberland County, where it would connect with a train, rolling past Philadelphia and across the country to Nevada, according to Department of Energy plans. From the Oyster Creek plant in Ocean County, nuclear waste would be trucked north, likely up the Garden State Parkway, turning west on I-195 to Trenton and beyond. Although the final routes are not known, one thing is - Congress will decide in the coming months whether to let nuclear waste continue piling up at the nation's 103 nuclear power plants or whether to ship it to a proposed underground repository in Nevada. The Department of Energy and Bush this year approved the repository at Yucca Mountain, a rugged 5,000-foot ridge 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, making good on a decades-old commitment to the nuclear industry. For operators of the state's four nuclear plants, the Yucca Mountain repository cannot open soon enough. They are running out of room to store nuclear waste inside the plants and gearing up to store it outdoors. But opponents of Yucca are raising questions about the wisdom of putting thousands of shipments of highly radioactive material on the nation's roads and rails, particularly in light of Sept. 11. And the Government Accounting Office, or GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, recently detailed nearly 300 unanswered questions about the project's ability to shield the public from radiation for 10,000 years, as required by law. Congressional showdown Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn this month set the stage for a national showdown over Yucca Mountain when he vetoed Bush's selection of the site. Guinn questioned the long-term safety of permanently storing spent fuel at Yucca, as well as the safety of shipping nuclear waste through as many as 44 states. Congress has until the end of July to override Guinn, a vote that is expected to be closest in the Senate. U.S. Sens. Jon Corzine and Robert Torricelli, both D-N.J., said last week that they have not decided how they will vote, although Torricelli has a history of opposing Yucca Mountain. Supporting Yucca in the House will be U.S. Reps. Rob Andrews, D-1st; Frank Lobiondo, R-2nd, and Jim Saxton, R-3rd, their spokespeople said. "If Congress does not approve the Yucca Mountain site, the likely outcome is that spent fuel rods will continue to be stored at power plants close to populated areas around the country," said Saxton, whose district includes the Oyster Creek plant. "In my view, that's a poor long-term alternative." Andrews, whose district includes the Salem and Hope Creek plants, said he supports Yucca Mountain for national security reasons. "The tragedy of Sept. 11 has taught us to assume the worst and to prepare for it," Andrews said. "We must protect these highly volatile materials from falling into the hands of individuals seeking to harm innocent people." But U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-4th, the only southern New Jersey congressman opposed to Yucca Mountain, believes transporting nuclear waste to Nevada "is a huge concern" because each train or truck is a potential terrorist target, said his spokesman, Nick Manetto. Indeed, the threat of terrorism has added a new twist to the decades-long debate over the safety of used nuclear fuel, which consists largely of plutonium that remains radioactive for tens of thousands of years. By road and rail Opponents of Yucca Mountain concede that transportation accidents would be rare, and that shipping casks are robust. But with as many as 100,000 shipments expected, it is quite possible that we would see an accident severe enough to release nuclear material in a metropolitan area, said Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects. If a spent-fuel truck, rather than a chemical truck, were caught in last fall's Baltimore Tunnel fire, radiation would have closed downtown Baltimore for a year and a half, Loux said. The industry already has made 3,000 shipments of nuclear waste with a handful of accidents, but none that caused any injury, according to the GAO. If Yucca opens, 3,000 additional shipments are expected each year. For shipping, spent fuel is encased in double casks of concrete and lead, like a Russian doll within a doll, although one that might weigh as much as 125 tons. Motorists encountering a spent-fuel truck on the road, or even stuck behind one in traffic, would be exposed to negligible levels of radiation, according to a congressional report. And while the Department of Energy says the casks are essentially unbreakable, Loux says the most extreme scenarios are based on computer models, not field tests. Thelma Wiggins, a spokeswoman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry group, said the shipments will receive police escorts through urban areas, and the routes themselves will be developed with local input. Yucca safety If all goes as planned, nuclear waste from 131 defense and commercial sites around the country will begin arriving at Yucca in 2010. It would be permanently stored in a series of tunnels dug 950 feet beneath the mountain of volcanic rock. Government scientists initially thought the geology of the mountain is all that would be needed to contain radioactivity from the 77,000 tons of waste that ultimately would be stored there. They now have concluded that millennia-long radiation protection will depend on the durability of man-made containers. A GAO report issued in December found nearly 300 questions about the safety of the proposed repository, including whether the combined effects of heat, water and chemical processes could cause the casks to corrode. The longevity of the containers' welded seals was questioned last month by the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, an independent panel established by Congress to study Yucca Mountain. Although the casks could be subject to temperatures of 248 to 320 degrees for 1,000 years, the Department of Energy has no corrosion data for the casks above 248 degrees, according to the board. Industry spokeswoman Wiggins conceded there are many unanswered questions about Yucca Mountain, but they will be answered before the facility can get a permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. More than $6 billion already has been spent studying the Yucca repository, she said. If it isn't built, electricity users will have to pay for storage at the nation's 103 nuclear plants as well as investigation and construction of an alternate repository. The nation's used fuel program is funded by nuclear energy customers who pay $1 for every 100 kilowatt hours they use. New Jersey, which gets 49 percent of its energy from nuclear power, so far has contributed more than $680 million to the nuclear waste fund. Leaving it be Nuclear-plant operators say the waste has got to go. On the cavernous top floor of PSEG Nuclear's Hope Creek plant, Brian Gustems stands near the lip of a steel-gray pool that contains all the fuel that ever passed through the reactor core. "We want it out of here," said Gustems, project manager for a site that also includes Salem Units 1 and 2, the nation's second largest commercial nuclear complex. "We think Yucca Mountain is the best solution." He points to the last available spaces in the 40-foot-deep Olympic-size pool, noting that preparations are under way to begin moving the highly radioactive waste to an outdoor bunker in 2006. The Oyster Creek nuclear plant already is out of room and operators plan to begin storing nuclear waste in a bunker near Route 9 in the next month or so. "We're not terribly happy to have to pay for dry cask storage," Gustems said. "People are paying twice. Once for Yucca and now for dry cask storage." Still, some say leaving the waste at power plants is the best alternative, given the many questions about transporting and storing a substance that remains radioactive for longer than most people can conceive. There is no simple solution for the nation's nuclear-waste problem, but there has to be a better one than storing it under Yucca Mountain, said Jeff Tittel, director of the Sierra Club's New Jersey chapter. "When you think about a facility that has to be maintained for 10,000 years, where were we 10,000 years ago?" Tittel said. "There is nothing built by man that is 10,000 years old. Even 200, 300 years is a long time." Bush has said consolidating the waste at Yucca Mountain will reduce the threat of terrorism at nuclear plants. But Nevada's Loux points out that nuclear plants always will have a significant amount of waste on site, because it will be decades until current wastes are shipped away, and plants that continue operating generate more waste that must cool five years before leaving the plant. "By opening Yucca, we actually increase the targets and potential for terrorism," Loux said. Weighing the arguments is now in the hands of Congress. The House could vote on Yucca in the coming weeks, while the key Senate vote is expected in a month or two. ***************************************************************** 22 Yucca Hearing schedule in the House of reps The Committee on Energy and Commerce News: Markup: April 25, 2002 Committee Markup The Committee on Energy and Commerce W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, Chairman Full Committee Markup Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality Full Committee on Energy and Commerce W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, Chairman April 25, 2002 The Committee on Energy and Commerce will meet in an OPEN MARKUP SESSION on Thursday, April 25, 2002, and subsequent days if necessary, at 9:30 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn House Office Building to consider H.J.RES.87, Approving the site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, for the development of a repository for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel, pursuant to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982. [http://www.house.gov] The Committee on Energy and Commerce 2125 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 (202) 225-2927 [http://energycommerce.house.gov/107/feedback.htm] ***************************************************************** 23 Ferraro Lobbies For Waste Site Newsday.com - By Thomas Frank WASHINGTON BUREAU April 21, 2002 Washington - In her six years representing Queens in Congress, Geraldine Ferraro won high ratings from environmental groups and broad acclaim from fellow Democrats. But now, 18 years after ceding her seat to run for vice president, Ferraro is returning to Capitol Hill, making green advocates see red and former colleagues accuse her of selling out. The reason: Ferraro is lobbying for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce - which gave her abysmal ratings in Congress - in favor of a plan to store the country's nuclear-reactor waste in an underground site in Nevada. Recruited by chamber lobbyist John Sununu, the former chief of staff to the first President George Bush, Ferraro conceded that her first venture into lobbying has put her in unusual company. When Sununu solicited his former counterpart on CNN's "Crossfire" earlier this year, Ferraro told him, "Now, John, you know I'm not going to do that, because I've never been with the chamber." But Ferraro said her opinion changed after she studied the plan to bury nuclear waste now stored at 131 sites in 39 states in a single repository 1,000 feet below the surface of Nevada's Yucca Mountain. Critics say it wasn't the facts that swayed Ferraro. "I'm sure she studied it with her checking account," quipped Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), a leading opponent of the repository plan. He was in the House with Ferraroin the early 1980s when the federal government began looking for a single waste-storage site. "It's too bad that she took money to join forces with the devil," Reid told reporters after an anti-Yucca Mountain rally Tuesday. Daniel Becker, director of global warming and energy for the Sierra Club, an environmental group, said Ferraro's lobbying was "disappointing" but also reflected the chamber's inability to find a more influential Democrat to team with Sununu. Declining to disclose the amount of her one-year retainer with the chamber, Ferraro, 66, said lobbying for the Yucca Mountain site reflects her performance in Congress: "I wasn't knee-jerk in any direction." "I took on this one issue because I feel strongly it's the right thing to do," added Ferraro, who runs G&L, a Manhattan consulting business that helps corporations devise strategies for dealing with Congress. Ferraro described the Yucca Mountain site, which she visited in February, with a tourist's awe. "You go down into this mountain that's not very wide, and you get down to the place where they're going to put this [nuclear waste] and going to put these casks, it's solid rock. It's solid rock! You say to yourself, Where else could it be better?" Ferraro has started lobbying former Democratic colleagues in Congress, which will have the final say on the plan in upcoming votes. Two weeks ago, Nevada Gov. Kenny Quinn, a Republican, vetoed the Bush administration's approval of Yucca Mountain in February. Reversing the veto will require a majority vote of both houses of Congress. The Republican-controlled House is expected to easily override Quinn's veto, but prospects are less certain in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) said last month she was "very troubled" by the Yucca Mountain plan because it would require the transport of approximately 40,000 tons of spent commercial fuel now being held at reactor sites in water pools and dry casks designed to be temporary. The site eventually would receive up to 77,000 tons of waste from commercial power reactors, research reactors and the nuclear weapons program. Clinton's concerns about a shipping accident reflects the endgame strategy of anti-Yucca Mountain groups trying to sway 50 senators to uphold Quinn's veto. At a recent rally outside the Capitol, activists waved placards showcasing interstate highways on which they say nuclear waste would be trucked. Ferraro conceded "some legitimacy" to fears about a transportation mishap but said, "They're not anywhere near the doomsday proportions that the anti-Yucca Mountain folks are passing along." The state of Nevada has hired its own high-powered lobbying team of John Podesta and Kenneth Duberstein, the former chiefs of staff to Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan. But even Yucca Mountain opponents acknowledge a difficult campaign because Republicans in Congress are unlikely to oppose President George W. Bush and, as Ferraro observed, "there are a number of Democratic senators who want this stuff out of their state." Copyright © 2002, Newsday, Inc. ***************************************************************** 24 Las Vegas SUN: Letter: Cash for Yucca is a terrible trade -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Las Vegas SUN -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today: April 22, 2002 at 8:52:24 PDT Letter: Cash for Yucca is a terrible trade It is most amazing what a powerful and quite often dangerous icon that dollar sign can be. How it makes many people self-centered and forget that they are not the only ones around. I speak of the ones who want to see the nuclear repository set up at Yucca Mountain. They see all the big bucks coming their way when it happens. There have been some of these people who tell about friends and relatives who work, or had worked, at the Test Site for years without any adverse affects. They seem to forget that thanks to the good Lord there have not been any accidents. I pray that there never will be. These people seem to forget the military personnel who had at the inception of testing been ordered to be at the testing ground to witness the above-ground testing. They forget the horror stories of veterans who died of cancer and those still alive but barely with cancer eating them up. All attributed to the nuclear effects on their bodies. You also can rest assured that there are terrorist suicide bombers who will be most ready to strike at such a target as Yucca Mountain if it becomes a nuclear repository. One leak at the proposed repository and you have a potential "Armageddon" for the Western states. JOSEPH MENDELSON -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Las Vegas SUN main page -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Questions or problems? Click here. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 25 Greenspun, List debate Yucca Las Vegas SUN Today: April 22, 2002 at 9:26:58 PDT By Mary Manning President Bush's motives behind approving Yucca Mountain for a nuclear waste dump were questioned Sunday night during a televised debate between former Nevada Gov. Bob List, who now works for the nuclear industry, and Las Vegas Sun President and Editor Brian Greenspun. The debate aired Sunday night on KVBC-TV Channel 3's "This Week in Las Vegas," hosted by former Las Vegas Mayor Jan Jones and John Daly. Bush on Feb. 15 recommended Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, become a permanent dump for 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste. Gov. Kenny Guinn vetoed the choice, and now the decision lies in Congress. "Why did George Bush lie to the people of Nevada?" Jones asked, referring to a campaign pledge that Bush would base his decision on sound scientific research. "Because he wanted to become president," replied Greenspun, noting that former President Bill Clinton had vetoed legislation during his eight years in office that would have sent nuclear waste to Nevada sooner for temporary storage. "That is an attack on his integrity," List responded, defending Bush. "He believed there was sound science. No honest president would have come to another conclusion." Greenspun noted that a General Accounting Office report released in December found that 293 technical and scientific issues remain unresolved and that other independent scientists considered the DOE's case "weak to moderate." At times the debate became a political dogfight. Noting that many people had respected List's former service as governor, Greenspun said his work for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the lobbying arm of the nuclear industry, "is a far greater disservice than any service you did as governor." "Why are you trying to soften us up?" Greenspun asked. "I'm not trying to soften anybody up," List said. List said he believed the Energy Department could build a safe repository after studying the area for 20 years. "I trust not only the Department of Energy, but the private contractors," he said. "I don't trust the Department of Energy," Greenspun said. "They told us that nuclear testing was safe. I don't trust the private contractors. They cut every corner they can cut." Transportation security, the cornerstone of the state's multimillion-dollar nationwide lobbying effort against Yucca Mountain, also drew a sharp volley between the two men. "Isn't that (transporting wastes) dangerous and what does it do to a state that relies on tourism for its economy?" Jones asked. List said that putting containers full of the waste underground at 1,000 feet -- the estimated depth of a proposed repository -- was safer than keeping it on the surface at 103 reactor sites. "That's a recommendation that has been given by every security expert in this administration," List said. "Any little terrorist with a hand-held missile can take a train or truck out," Greenspun said. "That's not true," List shot back, responding that a repository could bring high-paying jobs to the community and diversify the economy. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 26 Meeting on Yucca turns into GOP bashing session Las Vegas SUN Today: April 22, 2002 at 11:14:14 PDT By Erin Neff and Jace Radke Billed as a show of unity against the Yucca Mountain project, a press conference Friday turned out to be little more than a Republican bash session. Sure there was unity, but it was the seven Democrats -- led by congressional candidate Dario Herrera -- who united in their opposition of the GOP on the Yucca issue. Herrera challenged his Republican opponent in the race for Nevada's third congressional seat to return money he has received from those who lobby for the nuclear repository or who lead support for the project in the House of Representatives. "It's put up or shut up time for Jon Porter," Herrera said Friday on the steps of the George Federal Building. "It's time for him to take a long look in the mirror and decide whose side he's on, the pro-Yucca team or the pro-Nevada team. "It's time for Jon Porter to stop lying down for Nevada's enemies and stand up for Nevada's families," Herrera said. Herrera was joined at the rally by former Gov. Bob Miller, former U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, Clark County Commissioner Myrna Williams, Assemblyman David Parks, D-Las Vegas, and Assemblywoman Vonne Chowning, D-North Las Vegas. Porter has received $62,000 from House Republican leaders for both the current race and his bid for Congress in 2000. He has received donations from the political action committees of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., House Majority Whip Tom Delay, R-Tex., and House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Tex. Porter has also received $1,000 from former Nevada Gov. Robert List, who is now lobbying on behalf of the Nuclear Energy Institute. Herrera said Porter should return the money from the Yucca proponents or donate it to the Nevada Protection Fund -- an account established by the state to pay for the legal and advertising expenses related to fighting Yucca Mountain. "When the crucial time comes, we're supposed to believe that he won't roll over when his money man is Denny Hastert," Herrera said. "His campaign money men are the same ones fighting to put Nevada in harm's way." Porter said Friday on "Face to Face with Jon Ralston" that he would not return money he has received from Hastert and the other GOP leaders, because he said, if elected to Congress he will need the support from those leaders on issues like education. Porter also said he has been an ardent dump opponent, signing the resolution against the project back in 1985, when Herrera, now 28, was 10 years old. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 27 Yucca lobby group pushes TV ads Las Vegas SUN Today: April 22, 2002 at 11:04:01 PDT By Benjamin Grove WASHINGTON -- As America celebrates Earth Day -- and as Congress prepares to vote on a Yucca Mountain repository -- the nuclear power industry has launched a national campaign to tout the clean-air benefits of nuclear-generated electricity. The Nuclear Energy Institute, the top industry lobbyist and a leading advocate of the proposed Yucca dump, began airing an advertisement this week that trumpets nuclear power as a safe and reliable energy source. The ad will run through May during CNN's "Headline News," "Larry King Live" and "Crossfire;" MSNBC's "Hardball With Chris Matthews" and headline news; and on the Fox News, Discovery and History channels, NEI spokesman Mitch Singer said. The ad began airing during Sunday morning talk shows, popular among the nation's lawmakers. The spots do not specifically mention Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas that has been recommended as the repository for 77,000 tons of nuclear waste. But the commercials air against the backdrop of a high-stakes lobbying effort in Congress about whether lawmakers should approve Yucca. President Bush OK'd the project in February, but Gov. Kenny Guinn vetoed that as allowed by law. Congress is poised to vote on whether to approve Yucca and effectively override Guinn's veto. The House could vote as early as next week. A Senate vote is expected by the end of July. While anti-Yucca groups are touting the potential dangers of transporting nuclear waste across the country, the NEI is trying to build support for nuclear power. The dump is critical for the industry because power plants need to store spent fuel. Nuclear power generates about 20 percent of the nation's electricity. Industry officials often stress that nuclear plants emit no greenhouse gases as do coal plants. Environmental groups counter that nuclear plants generate a deadly byproduct: highly radioactive spent uranium fuel rods that are piling up in waste areas at the nation's 103 operating nuclear reactors. "We have been around this a number of times before," said Lisa Gue, an analyst with Public Citizen, an environment and consumer group. In past years, Public Citizen has goaded the Better Business Bureau and Federal Trade Commission to stop NEI advertisements that argue nuclear power is good for the environment. The bureau's request that NEI cease such advertising was never enforced, Gue said. "NEI faces an uphill battle trying to convince consumers that nuclear power is not dangerous and dirty," Gue said. "But if you throw enough money at a national advertising campaign, you stand a chance of swaying public opinion." NEI officials would not disclose how much their ad blitz cost. "They've got a lot of money, and they will be able to outspend the coalition against Yucca Mountain 10 to 1 if not more," said Nathan Naylor, spokesman for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. "The reason they are talking about nuclear being clean for the environment is because they know they can't win on the transportation and terrorism angle." NEI's commercials contrast with a much smaller, more targeted campaign waged by Nevada officials and environmental groups. So far they have launched just one 30-second, anti-Yucca commercial on NBC and ABC network affiliates in Burlington, Vt. The ads began airing last Tuesday and are expected to run through this week. In response, the pro-Yucca group Alliance for Sound Nuclear Policy plans to run a television ad of its own that stresses that nuclear waste transportation is safe. That ad will run in Vermont beginning late this week, Director Sherry Reilly said. The Washington-based alliance, which represents pro-nuclear groups that include the NEI, also paid for an ad in four Vermont newspapers Friday and today that makes a reference to Nevada's television spot. It runs under the heading: "Safe used nuclear fuel transportation, Fact vs. Fear." "It's an old trick: when you can't win a policy argument on the merits, try scare tactics," it says. The ad goes on to argue that shipping nuclear waste has a 30-year record of safety and is conducted under state and federal oversight. "The general message (of the TV ads) is the same as the newspaper ads, that transporting nuclear fuel is safe," Reilly said. Nevada's anti-Yucca TV commercial, narrated by actor Ed Begley Jr., urges Vermonters to call their senators, independent James Jeffords and Democrat Patrick Leahy, and tell them to oppose Yucca Mountain. That ad is designed to spark concern about the dangers of shipping nuclear waste through Vermont on its way to Nevada, including the risk of a terrorist attack. Leahy and Jeffords support a Yucca repository. The state relies on the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant to produce two-thirds of its energy, according to NEI. Nevada officials are planning to buy television time for an anti-Yucca ads in another state, possibly this week, but details were not available today. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 28 Utah Fears Waste Plan Is Shoo-In The Salt Lake Tribune -- Monday, April 22, 2002 BY JUDY FAHYS Holladay resident Cherry Wong is one of many Utahns who believe they can do little or nothing to stop federal regulators from signing off on a massive $3.1 billion parking lot for nuclear-plant waste on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation, an hour's drive from their homes. By the time Wong stepped up to address the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board at hearings that began two weeks ago, the panel's chairman had already advised citizens their comments would have no place in its technical assessment of the project. "I do feel offended," said Wong, red-faced, at the microphone, "that although we are given an opportunity to speak, we are not really going to be a part of the decision." That frustration is shared by Utahns convinced federal licensing rules are, in effect, rigged against the state. In their eyes, federal regulators have ignored their protests about being stuck with nuclear waste they do not produce, and their many fears about the proposal's security and safety. The board is due in September to decide whether to give a consortium of eight out-of-state utilities, called Private Fuel Storage, a license to store steel-and-concrete casks filled with 44,000 tons -- the nation's entire inventory of depleted nuclear plant fuel -- on a 100-acre concrete pad on the Goshute reservation. Even Gov. Mike Leavitt complains about feeling irrelevant in the federal regulatory process. "I would like to believe that objectivity would carry the day," said Leavitt, leader of bipartisan opposition to the waste-storage proposal. "But I cannot make that statement with complete confidence because history shows they are on a mission to find something to do with that waste." Because opponents have so little faith in the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing process, their strategy is to fight the proposal on many fronts -- through legislation, in the courts, at the White House, on Washington's Capitol Hill and in the federal agencies. "We are not a fair match with the federal government and utilities with billions of dollars in resources paid for by the ratepayers of their states," Leavitt said in an interview. Staff members of the NRC, the agency in charge of commercial nuclear facilities and parent agency of the licensing board, have already recommended approval of the facility, after four years of reviewing its safety and technical suitability. The commission itself will have a final say. But the licensing board, a multidisciplinary panel of administrative judges, is double-checking the staff's evaluation before affirming or rejecting the license recommendation. In the licensing board hearings, where some of that review is taking place, anyone can see the state-federal rift upon walking into the room. Utah's lawyers typically sit alone, opposite the tables for attorneys representing project supporters, including the consortium, the Goshute tribal government and the NRC staff. The state's attorneys sometimes grumble about information-swapping going on between the supporters' lawyers. In fact, a jab by Assistant Attorney General Jim Soper triggered an open complaint by the commission's lead attorney, Sherwin Turk. "The state has repeatedly tried to attack the staff's neutrality," he told the licensing board judges testily. "And I object." Sparring is expected to continue during technical hearings that resume today and continue through at least May 13. NRC spokeswoman Sue Gagner insisted the licensing process has been open and fair from the start. She noted that the public can submit letters and that the commission has provided 10 hours for public statements during the current round of hearings in Salt Lake City and coming up in Tooele on Friday. "The people of Utah," she added, "are represented through their elected representatives in the hearings." Sue Martin, spokeswoman for the utilities consortium, also defended the process, saying the licensing board makes its own decisions. "We do not consider this a fait accompli," said Martin. "We have a lot of work to do to convince the licensing board." In more than four years of review, the licensing board has indeed clashed with the NRC staff. In February, the panel asked Goshute leaders for financial records. It wanted to investigate claims by dissident tribal members who allege that disputed Chairman Leon Bear is funneling funds to supporters while his opponents are being left out. But in a rare move, the NRC staff persuaded the commission to pluck the issue from the licensing board's hands. The board also set up the current round of hearings to question why the staff eased its standards for earthquake safety and aircraft accidents in approving the Private Fuel Storage license application. Even if the licensing board is neutral, opponents claim the process itself leaves them handicapped -- the state included. Since Utah has no nuclear plants, the state's lawyers have no experience with the quirky NRC bureaucracy or the chore of regulating a high-level nuclear facility. And since the facility is proposed for land controlled by a sovereign Indian nation, the state lacks regulatory clout and often is treated as a mere meddler in a deal between two businesses and their regulator, the federal government. In fact, the state had to petition to take part in the license review. The state's lawyers filed "contentions," or objections, on 55 parts of the application -- from the safety of the transporting the waste casks by rail, to who will foot the bill for the storage. The board dismissed most of those on technicalities, such as being too soon, too late or not germane to the license. For instance, the board decided not to examine the hazards of transporting the waste on grounds that transportation issues are out of its jurisdiction. Rulings have yet to be made on two of the state's concerns, and just three have survived for the hearings now under way -- on aircraft crashes, earthquake risks and possible groundwater contamination. Utah also has to contend with the fact that states where nuclear waste is being stored want to get rid of a huge problem, and they see the Goshute facility as a way to do that quickly. Minnesota Deputy Commissioner of Energy Linda Taylor said that while she may sympathize with Utahns who don't want to store the nuclear waste, she also worries about the future of nuclear plants in her state owned by Xcel Energy, a member of the PFS consortium. If spent fuel rods are not moved from those plant sites in seven years, the state faces losing a major power source, she said. The federal government, which has sole authority over nuclear waste, had promised the nuclear industry it would provide permanent storage for waste by 1998. But its controversial plan to dispose it at Yucca Mountain, Nev., has progressed at glacial speed. If the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approves Skull Valley, the industry can solve its storage problems for up to 40 years so that some of the nation's 103 reactors can continue producing electricity. "We don't think it's a slam-dunk," said Taylor, who has been watching the licensing process. "But, when Xcel talks to us, it sounds like a done deal, of course." Anti-nuclear activist Jason Groenewold, comparing the Goshute facility to the proposed national repository at Yucca Mountain, noted that the Utah public has not had many opportunities to voice opposition. The federal government has provided Yucca's critics more than a decade and numerous forums to fight the proposal. "They [at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission] have taken great steps to limit our ability to influence that decision" for storing waste above-ground in Utah, Groenewold said. "It's frustrating." "This is the cynic in me, but I almost hope the NRC does grant the license. It would prove with an exclamation point that this agency has no integrity and no credibility." © Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune ***************************************************************** 29 Lasee sees Yucca as a safe site for nuke waste Green Bay Press-Gazette - John Dipko column: Posted Apr. 22, 2002 MADISON — If you want to see where used nuclear fuel in Wisconsin could wind up for thousands of years, fly to Las Vegas, drive about 90 miles outside the city to Yucca Mountain and take a train 2 miles into the earth and go down another 1,000 feet. That’s what state Rep. Frank Lasee, R-Bellevue, did April 11. Lasee, whose district includes the Point Beach Nuclear Plant in the northern Manitowoc County community of Two Creeks, toured the Yucca site as a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a bipartisan organization of conservative state lawmakers. President Bush has deemed Yucca Mountain the long-term disposal site for nuclear waste from more than 130 sites in 39 states. That includes three sites in Wisconsin: Point Beach, Kewaunee Nuclear Plant and a plant in western Wisconsin that has closed, Lasee said. Congress must decide whether to accept or reject the Yucca site. Nevada opposes it. Lasee said a final decision could be made this summer. A protest rally last week in Washington, D.C., drew environmentalists from about 40 states, showing Nevada isn’t alone. Transport a concern Some in Wisconsin also have raised concerns about the proposed routes to transport the waste out of state, and concern will likely grow. Spent fuel from the Kewaunee and Point Beach plants could be taken by barge to the Port of Milwaukee, and then by rail to Nevada, according to recent news reports. Another possibility is along Interstate 43 or 94 and Wisconsin 57. The U.S. Department of Energy says it would meet with state governments before it finalizes the transportation plan. An interest in the destination of the waste prompted Lasee to make the pilgrimage to Yucca Mountain. The tour he took was a fascinating one, he said. A main concern with long-term storage of nuclear waste deals with the containers that store the waste, which can reach 1,100 degrees, Lasee said. If moisture comes through rocks and attaches to the tanks, they could corrode the containers over time, he said. “It may not happen immediately, but we need to look at the impact over 10,000 years,” he said. Earthquakes are another concern. Facility in desert After seeing the location and facility, Lasee understands why Yucca Mountain is considered a top site for nuclear waste storage. The Yucca facility is in the middle of the desert, it has dry stones and rock, and there’s little movement of the water table there, he said. “They wanted to ensure the movement of water wouldn’t help create the moisture,” he said. It was determined the heat would chase the water away from the tank, the lawmaker said. Lasee wasn’t the only Wisconsin delegate among the estimated 50 council members who piled in a bus in Las Vegas and traveled to the Yucca site for the tour. State Rep. Daniel Vrakas, R-Delafield, member of the Assembly Energy and Utilities Committee, also went along, he said. “I came away feeling this is a very safe site,” Lasee said. John Dipko can be reached by calling (608) 255-9254. Discuss this topic in our forums [http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/forums/] ***************************************************************** 30 Troopers Prepare to Block Plutonium Las Vegas SUN Today: April 22, 2002 at 10:50:28 PDT NEW ELLENTON, S.C.- State law enforcement officers practiced blocking weapons-grade plutonium from entering South Carolina, and Gov. Jim Hodges said Monday he would do "whatever it takes" to stop the shipments. Hodges, who is locked in a dispute with the Department of Energy over the shipments from Colorado, ordered the practice drill for about three dozen state troopers and transport police officers. Hodges has threatened to lie down in the road if necessary to block the shipments. As part of the drill, patrol cars blocked a four-lane road near the Savannah River Site, about 10 miles from the Georgia state line. Officers convinced the driver of the vehicle escorting a state-owned tractor-trailer to turn around. Officials said they didn't know whether it would be that easy when trucks carrying plutonium and escorted by armed federal officers make the same attempted entrance. Energy officials have said shipments could begin by May 15. Hodges, a Democrat up for re-election this year, said the state will do "whatever it takes" to keep the plutonium shipments out unless the Energy Department signs an agreement that the plutonium won't stay in the state. The Energy Department plans to reprocess the plutonium into fuel to be used in commercial nuclear reactors. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 31 School chiefs sorry for telling pupils about 'UK nuclear blast' Ananova - Education chiefs have apologised on behalf of a school where teachers told pupils in a drama class that Osama bin Laden had fired a nuclear bomb at Britain. The 15 and 16-year-olds at Bushfield Community College in Peterborough were told the end of the world was a few minutes away. The children were even encouraged to ring their parents to say goodbye. Although the school insisted pupils were told in advance that whatever took place was not supposed to be real, some "took it out of context", panicked and fled the classroom in tears, The Sun reports. Teachers pretended to cry and told the teenagers that bin Laden had escaped from Afghanistan before detonating the device. Peterborough Council, the local education authority, said in a statement: "The scenario given earlier this week was set in the context of a 'drama lesson'. "Students were as usual informed that anything that occurred within the lesson would be fictitious but would be aimed to evoke a mixture of emotional reactions, as would be expected from a drama lesson. "It is extremely unfortunate and regrettable that this exercise was taken out of context by a few of our pupils and we apologise for any distress and alarm caused." Story filed: 11:28 Monday 22nd April 2002 Copyright © 2002 Ananova Ltd ***************************************************************** 32 Nuclear weapon fears are revived Times Online April 22, 2002 From Mrs Elizabeth Young Sir, Here we are, God help us, back with talk of using nuclear weapons. The United States, facing others’ weapons of mass destruction, might “pre-emptively” use nuclear weapons; and once again, facing the impossibility of developing non-nuclear missile defences, the US mentions nuclear-tipped anti-missile missiles (report, April l2). Others remark that Japan could well, within quite a short time, develop nuclear weapons. Pakistan reminds India that it has nuclear weapons, and presumably India reminds back (or vice versa). And today a news analysis from The New York Times, reprinted in the International Herald Tribune, mentions that “its small, undeclared nuclear arsenal” is Israel’s “ultimate deterrent”. All of this is so dangerous as to be demented. What has happened to us that our leaders can be so ignorant or so forgetful? In the late 1950s we realised that we were feeding our babies strontium-90 in our milk. We made it clear to our leaders that this would not do, and the consequent 1963 Partial Test Ban was effectively a clean air Bill. After the 1962 Cuba crisis, when we had understood that nuclear war, once started, would be uncontrollable, we achieved the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty, together with some interdependent arms control treaties. By 1972, with the Strategic Arms Limitation Agreements on the way, and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, a world unthreatened by nuclear war appeared within reach. Today, does Mr Sharon think nuclear weapons can protect Israel from the enemies he is making? Does Mr Bush think that they can restore invulnerability to the United States? Yours etc, ELIZABETH YOUNG, 100 Bayswater Road, W2 3HJ. lizyoung@gn.apc.org [lizyoung@gn.apc.org] April 15. Copyright 2002 [http://www.thetimes.co.uk/section/0,,549,00.html] Times ***************************************************************** 33 Appoints Rapporteur on Pasko-case The Pasko Case Gregory Pasko, an investigative journalist who worked for the Pacific Fleet's newspaper, was arrested on 20 November 1997 by the FSB and charged with high treason for his writing about the nuclear safety issues in the Russian Pacific Fleet. Council of Europe: Appoints Rapporteur on Pasko-case The international attention surrounding the conviction of Grigory Pasko continues. This week the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe will appoint a Rapporteur on the case. Jon Gauslaa, 2002-04-22 16:47 The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (CoE PA) is the oldest international parliamentary assembly with a pluralistic composition of democratically elected members of parliament established on the basis of an intergovernmental treaty in the world. This week the CoE PA meets at the 'Palais de l'Europe' in Strasbourg for its second plenary session of 2002. One of the cases on its agenda will be the conviction of Grigory Pasko. Appoints Rapporteur The conviction of the environmental journalist has caused uproar both inside Russia and internationally. The CoE PA's sub-committee on Human Rights has been designated to write a report on the Pasko-case, and will on April 22, 2002 appoint its Rapporteur. The Rapporteur will make a fact-finding visit to Russia. He plans to meet with Pasko's defence attorneys Ivan Pavlov and Anatoly Pyshkin, Aleksandr Nikitin, who was acquitted on similar charges as Mr. Pasko in September 2000, and also representatives of Bellona Oslo, who has taken part in the defence of both Mr. Nikitin and Mr. Pasko. If circumstances permit it, the Rapporteur hopes to be able to visit Mr. Pasko himself in Vladivostok, and meet with various Russian officials engaged in the case. In order to increase its knowledge on the Pasko-case, the sub-committee has invited Ivan Pavlov and representatives of Bellona to a hearing in Strasbourg on April 25. Pasko resolution At its session the CoE PA will also have a motion for a resolution on the conviction of Grigory Pasko on its table. The motion is presented by Mr. Aleksandr Shishlov and around fifteen other parliamentarians from Russia, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Hungary, Ukraine, Estonia and Lithuania, belonging to respectively the Socialist Group (SOC) and the Liberal, Democratic and Reformers' Group (LDR) within the CoE PA. The resolution points out that the conviction of Pasko seems to involve a number of possible violations of the standards of the European Convention on Human Rights. It also refers to the fact that Amnesty International has expressed serious concerns about the fairness of the trial, adopted Pasko as a prisoner of conscience, and stated that the prosecution of him appears to be "motivated by a political reprisal for exposing the practice of dumping nuclear waste". In its conclusion, the resolution urges Russian authorities to ensure that Pasko's appeal case is heard shortly, and handled in accordance with the standards of the Russian Constitution as well as the European Convention. FSB increases pressure The Pasko-conviction is also looked at in a broader perspective. It is connected to an alarming increase of the power of the Russian secret police, the Federal Security Service (a.k.a. the FSB), on the expense of other sectors of the society. In the report 'Honouring of obligations and commitments by the Russian Federation' issued on March 26, 2002, by the CoE PA's monitoring Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe, the role and power of the FSB are discussed in paragraphs 59 and 60. The authors of the report points to the "increasing pressure of the Federal Security Service on society, especially on the media", and states that it in recent years has been a "series of arrests and court trials that smack of lawlessness" and continues: "The persecution of Russian citizens afflicts mainly environmental activists. The cases of navy captain Aleksandr Nikitin who was finally cleared of espionage charges after a long legal battle, journalist Grigory Pasko and scientists (for instance Mr Igor Sutyagin or the Krasnoyarsk physicist Valentin Danyilov) are symptomatic. All of them have been prosecuted for spying, treason and disclosure of state secrets. According to Amnesty International, the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights and other human rights organisations, all of them peacefully exercised their fundamental right to freedom of expression and the charges against them are completely groundless." The report from where this statement is quoted will be discussed in the CoE PA's plenary session on Tuesday April 23, at 10 AM. * Grigory Pasko was arrested on November 20, 1997 and accused with treason through espionage. He was acquitted by the Pacific Fleet Court in Vladivostok on these charges on July 20, 1999, but sentenced to a three-year imprisonment for misusing his position and released on a general amnesty. Both sides appealed the verdict. In November 2000 the Russian Military Supreme Court cancelled the verdict, and sent the case back for a new trial at the Pacific Fleet Court. The re-trial started on July 11, 2001 and ended on December 25, with Pasko being convicted to four years of hard labour for treason and taken into custody. The verdict has led to huge protests inside of as well as outside Russia. Both sides have appealed against it, but the appeal case has not yet been scheduled. Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge Information: info@bellona.no, Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 34 Magal Receives Orders to Protect Sensitive Installations in Israel Business Wire; Apr 22, 2002 Business and Technology Editors YAHUD, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 22, 2002 --Magal Security Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq NM:MAGS; TASE: MAGS) today announced that it has received orders of approximately US$ 750,000 to protect major sensitive installations in Israel. The majority of these orders will be reflected in the 2002 financial results. The orders will include Magal's security systems, such as Vibration Intrusion Detection System, Video Motion Detection System, CCTV cameras and other security systems, all controlled by MagNet, Magal's Security Management System (SMS). Mr. Jacob Even-Ezra, Chairman of Magal, said: "Unfortunately, the war taking place in our region, forces the Israelis to put more efforts in protecting its facilities and installations from unauthorized intrusions. We are proud that once again our products were chosen for this crucial mission." Mr. Even-Ezra added: "I would also like to take this opportunity to inform our shareholders that the Company is using all available measures, including its own products, to protect its facility in Israel. Nevertheless, we wish that the time will come when we and our Palestinians neighbors will be able to live peacefully side by-side in this region." "Also, I would like to emphasize the fact that we have multiple facilities outside of Israel, that are responsible for approximately 60% of our total production," Mr. Even-Ezra concluded. About Magal Security Systems, Ltd.: Magal Security Systems Ltd. (Magal) is engaged in the development, manufacturing and marketing of computerized security systems, which automatically detect, locate and identify the nature of unauthorized intrusions. Magal also supplies Video Monitoring Services through Smart Interactive Systems, Inc., a subsidiary established in the U.S. in June 2001. The Company's products are currently used in more than 70 countries worldwide to protect national borders, airports, correctional facilities, nuclear power stations and other sensitive facilities from terrorism, theft and other threats. Israeli-based Magal has subsidiaries in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Germany, Mexico and an office in China. Revenues for fiscal year 2001 were US$41 million, with net income of US$3.2 million. Magal trades in the U.S. on the NASDAQ National Market since 1993 and in Israel on the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) since July 2001, in both under the symbol MAGS. This press release contains forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Such statements are based on assumptions and expectations which may not be realized and are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, many of which cannot be predicted with accuracy and some of which might not even be anticipated. Future events and actual results, financial and otherwise, may differ from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. A number of these risks and other factors that might cause differences, some of which could be material, along with additional discussion of forward-looking statements, are set forth in the Company's Report on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. --30--rc/ny* CONTACT: Magal Security Systems Ltd. Raya Asher, CFO Tel: 972-3-5391444 Fax: 972-3-5366245 e-mail: magalssl@trendline.co.il or Breakstone & Ruth International Susan Borinelli, Investor Relations Jessica Anderson, Media Tel: 646-536 7018/7002 Fax: 646-536 7100 e-mail: sborinelli@breakstoneruth.com janderson@breakstoneruth.com ***************************************************************** 35 Letter: Israel's nuclear capability Our MPs should work as per oath Sir, Israel is now the only state in the world with nuclear weapons that does not admit to having such weapons. It has consistently refused to allow international inspection of its arsenal and facilities and is among the very few states in the world that have refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The country is today probably the most dangerous and most lethal "rogue" nation on Earth- a "live-wire" that could most likely trigger or ignite a nuclear World War III in the Middle East and throughout the world, particularly in the light of the current tensions between Palestine and the surrounding Arab nations in the immediate region. Nuclear disarmament must begin with Israel. The State of Israel is the 4th largest military power in the world. The State is believed to possess the largest and most sophisticated nuclear arsenal outside of the 5 declared nuclear powers- the USA, Russia, France, China and the UK. A nuclear reactor and plutonium production facility was built by France back in the late 1950's and early 60's in the southern desert of Israel called the Negev Nuclear Research Centre, which was also known as "Dimona". Since that time, the state has subsequently developed an extensive array of tactical nuclear weapons, nuclear artillery shells and nuclear-tipped medium range ballistic missiles (the Jericho 1 and 2). Arsenal estimates range in the order of between 200-2000 warheads- many of them FIRST STRIKE weapons, most of them nuetron bombs, designed to maximize human kill ratio and minimize physical damage, since Israel is such a small nation. The United States provides the State of Israel with an annual US$4 billion in financial and military aid- by far the largest recipient of US foreign aid of any country in the world. Extensive nuclear and military collaboration has occurred between the two nations since Israel's birth as a nation in 1948. The race to develop the world's first atomic bomb began at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the USA in the 1940's. J. Robert Oppenheimer, who headed the Project, succeeded in developing the world's first atomic bomb with the 'Trinity' blast in New Mexico at that time. Edward Teller soon afterwards developed the Hydrogen bomb, followed by Sam Cohen who, in years following, invented Nuetron Bomb. All 3 were Jewish. Connect the dots and you have the nuclear founded and bred nation of Israel- the ties couldn't be stronger. Until that time, Arab states in the region have an inalienable "right" and "obligation" to develop similar weapons (of mass destruction) to counter this overwhelming threat to their nations and peoples. The escalation of this particular conflict will end in disaster for all parties if it is not mitigated soon and is instead allowed to evolve further, recognizing the sacred land and religious dimensions that so implicitly define this specific conflict and area of the world.Steve Jones, Boulder, Colorado, USA. ***************************************************************** 36 Congress prepares for own absence The Miami Herald | 04/22/2002 | BY FRANK DAVIES fdavies@herald.com [fdavies@herald.com] WASHINGTON - Members of Congress rarely grapple with issues of life and death, especially their own. For the last seven months, they have talked about ways to ensure continuity of government if they are wiped out, but have done little. In part a response to the Bush administration's plans for a shadow government and in part a response to calls from their former leaders, House leaders this spring are taking the issue seriously. In an age of ''suitcase'' nuclear devices, the ''doomsday scenario'' poses horrific questions: How would government function if Congress were destroyed or decimated? What if many members were incapacitated, perhaps in a bioterror attack, and could not do their job? ''This is an issue no one likes to deal with,'' said former Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has joined ex-Speaker Tom Foley in urging Congress to do just that. ``There's a growing realization that we have to have some system in case of a true catastrophe.'' Last week, GOP House leaders said they plan to add $100 million in anti-terrorism spending to prepare a site for Congress to meet if the Capitol were attacked. The House and Senate have already designated secret locations in the Washington area where they could meet if the Capitol were destroyed or badly damaged. Last year, such a calamity seemed like an absurd Tom Clancy plot. Then came the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington and the potent anthrax-laden mail that shut down Capitol Hill buildings for weeks. For months, congressional leaders largely ignored ideas for reconstituting the legislative branch after a disastrous attack, citing more pressing issues. But that changed when news leaked that the Bush administration was maintaining a ''shadow government,'' rotating dozens of officials to secure sites outside the city because of the threat of nuclear terrorism. 'Congress was shaken by that, because it was clear there was genuine concern that a `suitcase nuke' could wipe out much of official Washington,'' said Norman Ornstein, an American Enterprise Institute scholar and longtime expert on Congress. A majority of the House -- 218 members -- have signed a letter to Speaker Dennis Hastert and Minority Leader Dick Gephardt urging them to appoint a panel of members to examine the issue and make recommendations in three months. ''Few things that come before us will have been more important,'' the letter states. The potential for crisis after a devastating attack lies mainly in the House. Governors could quickly reconstitute the Senate by appointments to fill vacancies, as they do now. But the Constitution requires direct election to the ''people's House,'' as its members like to call it. It takes on average of 117 days to fill a vacancy, a recent study showed, and even an accelerated process in a crisis could take weeks. SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS Contemplating such a vacuum when the nation may need emergency laws and expenditures, House members and advocates are suggesting different solutions: • A constitutional amendment offered by Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., would allow governors to appoint House members from their states until special elections are held if 25 percent of the House were killed or incapacitated. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., has introduced a similar amendment, setting the threshold at 50 percent. ''Congress was like the person who puts off making a will, but we can't avoid this issue any longer,'' said Baird, a psychologist. ``Not to deal with it would be the height of irresponsibility.'' • Republican Gingrich and Democrat Foley, antagonists while in Congress, said that an amendment may be necessary but that it's a time-consuming process. One quick fix they favor is a change in House rules, allowing each member to designate an ''interim successor'' who could serve until a special election. ''It's a jury-rigged solution until something long-term can be worked out,'' Gingrich said. He said House members 'embody the latest expression of the voters' will'' in each district and would be better than the governor, often from a different party, in appointing a temporary successor. ''The fact that Tom Foley and I are working on this says to the country that this transcends politics,'' Gingrich said. • The line of presidential succession, last changed in 1947, is getting another look. If the president and vice president died, the House speaker and the senior member of the majority party in the Senate would be next in line. That senator is Democrat Robert Byrd, 84. Last year, it was Republican Strom Thurmond, now 99. Critics warn that could make an elderly member of Congress, or a member from a party different from the president's, the next commander in chief. Several proposals would let the president designate top congressional leaders from his or her party as potential successors. Legislators are also examining provisions for teleconferencing or electronic meetings if convening Congress becomes impossible, and various ways to find a member incapacitated and declare a vacancy. ''Congress is finally moving toward a critical mass to do something, after an initial period of denial and dismissal,'' said Ornstein, who helped put together a group of scholars and constitutional experts on the issue. DISAGREEMENTS There is plenty of disagreement about solutions. Foley and Gingrich said their plan would pass constitutional muster because the House can make its own rules for membership and qualifications. Others doubt that. Don Wolfensburger, a former House Rules Committee staffer at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said the constitutional requirement of direct election is overriding. ''I have difficulty believing the Supreme Court would support even temporary appointments,'' said Wolfensburger, who heads the Congress project at the center. He supports a federal law mandating states to hold special elections within 60 days when more than half the House seats are vacant. During the nation's gravest crisis, the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln took on emergency powers that some regarded as extraconstitutional. When Congress returned, both houses largely ratified what he had done. During the Cold War, the Senate three times passed an amendment giving governors the power to make temporary appointments to the House. The proposal never got far in the House. NO GREAT URGENCY Not all House members see a great urgency in preparing for doomsday. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said it's impossible to predict or prepare for every possibility. ''It's something other people have to worry about after I'm dead,'' he told The Kansas City Star. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Miami Republican, sees no need for an emergency plan, except for ``maybe speeding up special elections. ''These apocalyptic scenarios might make good Hollywood movies, but I don't think they will ever occur,'' Ros-Lehtinen said. 'It's certainly not worth changing the founders' very specific plan -- representatives are elected, not appointed.'' Baird and other advocates of an emergency plan say they are flexible and mainly want Congress to come to grips with the issue this year. ''Congress literally dodged a supersonic bullet on Sept. 11,'' said Ornstein, recalling that the fourth airliner taken over by terrorists that morning was heading for Washington before passengers fought back and forced the plane to crash. Baird said: ``It's far better to deal with this deliberately in a time of calm, and resolve it with clarity, rather than when it's too late.'' ***************************************************************** 37 Energy official: Nuke plant security lacking Mon Apr 22, 8:04 AM ET Paul Leavitt with staff and wire reports [http://www.usatoday.com:80/] The Department of Energy says the Bush administration's budget office is not providing enough money for security upgrades at nuclear weapons plants and labs following Sept. 11, according to material to be released today. The Energy Department's budget director, Bruce Carnes, wrote the White House Office of Management and Budget that ''remaining safeguards and security budgets are not sufficient to implement the security posture requirements that appropriately respond to the Sept. 11 attacks.'' The March 28 letter says the Energy Department was rebuffed in its request to the administration to seek more funding from Congress to improve security at weapons facilities. ''We are disconcerted that OMB refused,'' Carnes wrote. OMB had no comment Sunday. The letter is being released by Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., who wants President Bush ( [http://rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/*http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news? p=%22President%20Bush%22&c=&n=20&yn=c&c=news&cs=nw] - [http://rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/*http://search.yahoo.com/search/search?p=G eorge+W.+Bush] ) to support the funding request. Without the funds, Markey says, ''nuclear weapons facilities, the security of which has come under fire by countless congressional, presidential and non-governmental experts for years, will remain vulnerable to a terrorist threat.'' -- Peter Eisler GOP rivals in N.C. criticize Elizabeth Dole Republican candidates for a Senate seat from North Carolina criticized Elizabeth Dole's run for the office and the backing she has gotten from President Bush. ''I didn't just come back home to run for Senate,'' said candidate Ada Fisher, a doctor from Salisbury. Dole has lived most of her life outside North Carolina. Fisher's remarks came at a candidate forum that Dole did not attend because she was at an event organized by opponents of abortion. Some criticized Bush for endorsing Dole. Candidate Jim Snyder said the president ''had no right to come in to our sovereign society and dare tell us for whom to vote.'' The seat is being vacated by Republican Jesse Helms. Afghan detainees in brig at Guantanamo Ten Afghan war detainees at the Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are being held in the brig, a separate guardhouse that is air-conditioned. They are there because it is better suited for intense interrogations and they may give valuable information, authorities said. About 300 men are being held in 8-by-8-foot cells at the temporary detention facility made of tin and plywood. Navy Seabees are building a $20 million facility that could eventually house 2,040 detainees and is designed to last for years. A lone captive arrived Saturday, but military officials wouldn't say whether he was Abu Zubaydah, the most senior al-Qaeda figure in U.S. custody. None of the other detainees arrived here alone. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said Zubaydah, captured in Pakistan with about 50 other terrorism suspects April 1, has received medical attention for three bullet wounds he sustained in Pakistan. Slain sailor's relatives get $21.4 million The family of Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem, who was killed in 1985 by hijackers backed by Iran, can collect $21.4 million in compensatory damages from the U.S. Treasury, a federal judge in Washington ruled. The Treasury will pay the money under a 1996 law that allows victims' relatives to sue nations responsible for terrorist acts; the Treasury will then file a claim against frozen assets of Iran in the USA. But the Treasury won't pay $300 million in punitive damages the judge also awarded the family, and that money will be difficult for Stethem's parents and their three surviving children to collect from Iran. Stethem, 23, was returning home from Greece when he was shot to death by Lebanese hijackers aboard TWA Flight 847 in 1985. His body was thrown on the tarmac. Justice loses battle to keep material secret The Justice Department has released more than 1,000 pages of material concerning its detention of Rabih Haddad, co-founder of an Islamic charity investigated for suspected links to terrorism. The government released the documents Friday after the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted its order that had kept the material secret while it considered the case. The files show that Haddad is alleged to have met abroad with leaders of terrorist groups linked to al-Qaeda. Justice had said only that Haddad founded a charity accused of funding terrorists. Haddad has been detained since Dec. 14 on immigration charges. Copyright © 2002 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. ***************************************************************** 38 Debate Over Nuclear Lab Security Heats Up (washingtonpost.com) By Eric Pianin and Bill Miller Washington Post Staff Writers Monday, April 22, 2002; Page A02 The Department of Energy privately warned White House officials in late March that it lacked the funds to adequately protect the nation's nuclear weapons research facilities shortly after the administration had offered public assurances that security was more than adequate. Since the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, concerns have mounted among lawmakers and terrorism experts about lax security at some of these weapons facilities, prompting congressional review. The Energy Department's chief financial officer complained in a March 28 letter that the White House budget office had rejected a request for increased funding in the current fiscal year to provide for beefed up security at government research laboratories. The letter from Bruce M. Carnes warned that DOE was at "a critical juncture" and that its safeguards and security budget were not sufficient to meet the potential terrorism challenge. "We are disconcerted that OMB refused our security supplemental request," Carnes said in a letter to Marcus Peacock, a senior official for the Office of Management and Budget. "This isn't a tenable position for you to take, in my view." The letter was written two months after John A. Gordon, an undersecretary of energy and the administrator of the department's National Nuclear Security Administration, publicly declared that security precautions are strong at the nuclear research laboratories and along the network used to transport nuclear materials. He said allegations that the Energy Department had lax security at its nuclear weapons facilities "are false and misleading." Gordon was responding to warnings from Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and a watchdog group that terrorist commandos could gain access to weapons-grade nuclear material and rapidly construct and detonate nuclear weapons because of grossly inadequate security at many of the nation's nuclear weapons research sites. According to a study last year by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), federal agents posing as "commandos" in mock exercises were able to breach security at nuclear laboratories more than half the time. Yesterday, Markey released copies of the Carnes letter and called on President Bush and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham to address the security problem and explain Gordon's statements playing down security problems. "The Administration has requested almost $8 billion for missile defense, which won't do anything to prevent suicidal terrorists from attacking nuclear facilities and blowing up dirty bombs or homemade nuclear weapons," said Markey, a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "But when DOE finally admits that security is not what it should be, OMB refuses to help." Amy Call, an OMB spokeswoman, said that after the Sept. 11 attacks, Congress approved a $111 million supplement to the fiscal 2002 budget to enhance security at nuclear weapons laboratories. The White House is seeking an additional $665 million for lab security and related expenses in the fiscal 2003 budget, she said. The Energy Department's recent request for more money remains under review, she said, while officials conduct a comprehensive assessment of the vulnerabilities of the facilities. At the Energy Department, spokeswoman Lisa Cutler said that the letter from Carnes does not contradict Gordon because security at the facilities remains strong. If the funding request continues to be denied, security needs will be met, "even if we have to shift priorities from another program in the department," Cutler said. "We believe our security is adequate and strong, and that our nuclear facilities are among the most secure facilities in the world and present a formidable challenge to any terrorist organization." The U.S. nuclear weapons facilities managed by the Energy Department hold weapons-grade plutonium and highly enriched uranium in sufficient quantities to create nuclear devices. Many are near major metropolitan areas, such as Denver and San Francisco. "I am concerned that a group of suicidal terrorists would not bother to attempt to steal nuclear weapons materials from these sites," Markey said in his letter to Bush. "Instead they would gain access to the nuclear materials located within them by killing the security guard forces, and, once inside the facility, would construct and detonate dirty bombs or homemade nuclear bombs." The internal administration dispute over security at the research laboratories stems from Abraham's March 14 request to OMB Director Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. for supplemental funding to cover both emergency responses to potential terrorist attacks and enhanced security at the facilities. Neither OMB nor DOE officials would reveal how much additional money the Energy Department is seeking in fiscal 2002. OMB agreed to ask Congress for additional funds for emergency responses, but it rejected the request for more money for security at the laboratories pending completion of a revision of the Design Basis Threat, a document that outlines the basis for physical security measures. "We are not operating, and cannot operate under the pre-Sept. 11 Design Basis Threat," Carnes wrote to the OMB in March. "Until that is revised, we must operate under interim Implementing Guidance, and you have not provided resources to enable us to do so." Earlier this month, Gordon again told reporters that government officials took a "hard look" at the safety of nuclear weapons facilities after Sept. 11 and that he was "pretty satisfied with where we are." He also reiterated his view that the sites would be difficult to strike and not highly attractive to terrorists. © 2002 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 39 Energy Dept.'s Nuclear Security Fears Told April 22, 2002 THE NATION Terrorism: Amid public assurances, an official warned that facilities need more funding to thwart possible attacks. By MEGAN GARVEY, TIMES STAFF WRITER WASHINGTON -- The Department of Energy in late March warned the White House in writing that its facilities, which include sites containing nuclear materials, remain vulnerable to terrorist attack because of the administration's refusal to fund critical security needs. The letter, dated March 28, was released Sunday by Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who has been a frequent and vocal critic of the current levels of security at the nation's nuclear sites. Concerns about safeguarding nuclear facilities have been high since intelligence reports indicated that Al Qaeda operatives, interested in exploiting U.S. security weaknesses, consider such sites desirable targets for attack or infiltration. The private correspondence, from the Energy Department's chief financial officer to a top official at the White House Office of Management and Budget, marks the first indication of alarm about security at such facilities by Bush administration officials, who have repeatedly offered public assurances that security is sufficient to meet heightened demands. "The Department's remaining safeguards and security budgets are not sufficient to implement security posture requirements that appropriately respond to the September 11th attacks," said the Energy Department's Bruce M. Carnes, who cautioned that his agency was at a "crucial juncture." In the letter addressed to Marcus Peacock, a senior OMB official, Carnes said he was "disconcerted" by the OMB's decision not to provide additional funds. He was told, he added, that the OMB decided not to support the request because a revised threat analysis required of the Energy Department had not been completed. "This isn't a tenable position for you to take, in my view," Carnes said. "We are not operating, and cannot operate under the pre-September 11 Design Basis Threat . . . and you have not provided us the resources to do so." Carnes, who did not specify how much additional money was being sought, also expressed dismay that he was not given the chance to argue the department's position personally. Congress approved $111 million in supplemental funding for security at nuclear weapon laboratories after the terrorist attacks, and the White House is seeking nearly $700 million more for lab security in the 2003 budget. Markey on Sunday requested President Bush's "immediate assistance" in ensuring the protection of the nation's nuclear facilities. The congressman told Bush in a letter dated today that his concerns lie not only in the potential of nuclear materials to be stolen, but also in the likelihood that nuclear sites could be targeted for attack. "I am stunned by the apparent failure of the White House to provide sufficient resources to adequately protect this country's nuclear weapons facilities from terrorist attack," Markey said. Markey emphasized that 10 Energy Department sites--including facilities near urban locations such as California's Bay Area and Denver--reportedly contain sufficient amounts of weapon-grade plutonium and uranium to make a crude atomic bomb. "The administration has requested almost $8 billion for missile defense, which won't do anything to prevent suicidal terrorists from attacking nuclear facilities and blowing up dirty bombs or homemade nuclear weapons," Markey said Sunday. "But when DOE finally admits security is not what it should be, OMB refuses to help." Copyright 2002 Los Angeles Times ***************************************************************** 40 Energy official: Nuke plant security lacking Mon Apr 22, 8:04 AM ET Paul Leavitt with staff and wire reports USA TODAY The Department of Energy (news - web sites) says the Bush administration's budget office is not providing enough money for security upgrades at nuclear weapons plants and labs following Sept. 11, according to material to be released today. The Energy Department's budget director, Bruce Carnes, wrote the White House Office of Management and Budget that ''remaining safeguards and security budgets are not sufficient to implement the security posture requirements that appropriately respond to the Sept. 11 attacks.'' The March 28 letter says the Energy Department was rebuffed in its request to the administration to seek more funding from Congress to improve security at weapons facilities. ''We are disconcerted that OMB refused,'' Carnes wrote. OMB had no comment Sunday. The letter is being released by Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., who wants President Bush (news - web sites) to support the funding request. Without the funds, Markey says, ''nuclear weapons facilities, the security of which has come under fire by countless congressional, presidential and non-governmental experts for years, will remain vulnerable to a terrorist threat.'' -- Peter Eisler Copyright © 2002 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. ***************************************************************** 41 UK: British Energy to split top jobs The Scotsman - Business - 22nd April 2002 SCOTTISH-BASED British Energy, the privatised nuclear energy group, is poised to again split the roles of chairman and chief executive, with Robin Jeffrey, who has filled both positions since last June, becoming non-executive chairman. Industry sources said British Energy told head-hunters to step up their search at home and abroad for a permanent successor to Peter Hollins, who quit abruptly last June amid adverse publicity about falling profits and poor performance. Jeffrey, who was then the group’s deputy chairman took over until a new chief executive could be found. A month later he also succeeded John Robb as chairman after the latter stepped down at the company’s AGM. ©2002 scotsman.com | contact ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************