***************************************************************** 04/23/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.103 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POLICY 1 UK: Postcards from the edge 2 US: Democrats Make Deal Over Energy Bill 3 North Korean Nukes 4 US: U.S. is all over the map on homeland defense 5 US: World Nuclear Receptor Community to Convene at Conference on 6 India: Harnessing nuclear energy - 7 Visiting Austrian chief urges Lithuania to stick to nuclear 8 New statute on the Russian State Nuclear Regulatory to come 9 US: Bush Environmental Legacy Condemned by Senate Democratic Whip 10 Russia studies N. Korea's invitation to build nuclear plant 11 Russia may build nuclear power plant near, not in, North Korea 12 US: National Nuclear Security Administration 13 US: Nuclear Plot - Or Just Hot Air? 14 Russia studies N. Korea's invitation to build nuclear plant 15 US: Strange Allies in Energy Policy Fight NUCLEAR REACTORS 16 US: NRC Staff to Meet with Nuclear Management Co. To Discuss Safety 17 Swiss government says nuclear plants safe as incidents rise 18 Chernobyl victims skeptical about radioactive zone's redevelopment 19 Belarus experts say radiation declining after Chernobyl disaster 20 Greenpeace takes Sydney reactor issue to court 21 Finnish nuclear reactor restarted after power supply glitch 22 US: Environmental group protests at TVA facility 23 US: NRC Approves Power Uprate for South Texas Project, Units 1 and 2 24 Chernobyl victims skeptical about radioactive zone's redevelopment NUCLEAR SAFETY 25 US: Justice for Cold War heroes 26 US: Dental labs get beryllium alert 27 US: Nuke sites at risk, warns Democrat congressman 28 US: N.J. stockpiles tablets to fight nuclear ills 29 US: Firefighters want portable radiation detectors 30 US: What Price Nuclear Security? 31 US: Markey, Energy Department anti-terror money is insufficient NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 32 US: South Carolina Troopers Practice Plutonium Blockade 33 US: Back to nature at Molycorp 34 US: Michigan utility may store nuclear casks awaiting Nevada dump 35 US: Guinn won't lie on highway to stop nuke waste 36 US: Nye's YMP position: Aggressive neutrality 37 US: Letter: Bush could save face on Yucca 38 US: Editorial: Gray Lady all wrong on Yucca 39 US: House Yucca vote likely to mirror panel's 40 US: Bankers exhorted to fight Yucca 41 No comment on Japan nuclear fuel return date -- BNFL 42 US: Lawmakers weigh vote on Yucca NUCLEAR WEAPONS 43 The case of Grigory Pasko 44 Russia, U.S. in Bid to Clinch Arms Pact for Summit 45 Russian expert advocates preservation of strategic nuclear forces 46 US: Funding Denied for Nuclear Security 47 Al Qaeda Aide: Radiation Bomb in Works 48 Russia, U.S. in Bid to Clinch Arms Pact for Summit 49 Australian shack to expose nuclear tests 50 Russian expert advocates preservation of strategic nuclear forces 51 'Dirty bomb' can be built, says member of al-Qaida US DEPT. OF ENERGY 52 SRS considered to help make nuclear weapons 53 Editorial: Credibility gap hits the DOE once again 54 City's 'big picture' looks promising, says ORNL chief 55 Seaborg is FORNL Lecture Series speaker 56 DOE security once again a 'headline' issue 57 Opinion: Durable (15 years) Carbide plant manager; union, local 58 Flats security fueling concern Some fear attack, seek more funds 59 Energy Department Says It's Not Getting Sufficient Anti-Terror OTHER NUCLEAR 60 U.S. ousts head of UN chemical weapons control body 61 Strange Allies in Energy Policy Fight 62 Reid's Earth Day address says Bush threatens environment gains 63 On Earth Day, Bush V. Gore ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 UK: Postcards from the edge Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian Ali Hewson's husband, Bono, is one of the most famous men on the planet, but she has always shied away from publicity. So how come she's breaking cover? Martin Wroe finds out Tuesday April 23, 2002 The Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk] On Friday morning the prime minister, Tony Blair, can expect an uncomfortable message from the people of Ireland. A million postcards are en route to Downing Street, each with the message: "Tony, look me in the eye and tell me I'm safe." The mail will arrive on the 16th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, when an explosion ripped away the roof of a nuclear reactor in the former Soviet republic of Ukraine, causing the world's worst nuclear accident. The postcards - several hundred thousand have also been sent to Prince Charles and Norman Askew, head of British Nuclear Fuels - are the boldest signal yet that the Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria is making our Irish neighbours feel increasingly unsafe. Fronting the campaign is a woman for whom celebrity is a way of life, but whose face will be almost entirely unfamiliar to most people on this side of the Irish Sea. Ali Hewson has been married to one of the most famous men on the planet, the U2 singer Bono, for almost 20 years, but has spent most of that time studiously avoiding the limelight. It is a measure of how strongly she feels about the Sellafield issue that she has chosen to come out of her husband's sizeable shadow, and mastermind what may be the first time the population of one country has lobbied en masse the government of another. "Sellafield has already made the Irish Sea the most radioactive in the world," says Hewson, "and if an accident happens or there is a terrorist attack, depending on which way the wind blows, Dublin, Dundalk, Drogheda, Belfast and vast parts of Ireland would be uninhabitable. For ever." That may sound a touch apocalyptic, but Hewson, 41, has seen the aftermath of a nuclear catastrophe close-up. For the past eight years, as patron of the Irish charity Chernobyl Children's Project, she has been visiting Belarus to work with children affected by Chernobyl. When the accident happened on April 26 1986, vast clouds were released into the atmosphere, exposing people to radioactivity 100 times greater than that from the Hiroshima bomb. Nearly three-quarters of people affected by fallout were not in Ukraine at all, but across the border in Belarus. "I have seen children born with deformities and dying in orphanages," says Hewson. "Children who have had their thyroid glands removed and will need to take medicine for the rest of their lives - if they can get it. And because radiation does not respect borders, in Ireland we are in the same position as Belarus. We did not ask for this nuclear power base to be built beside us, but we are just as vulnerable as the people of Britain." There is almost nothing about Ali Hewson that conforms to the stereotype of a rock star's wife. The discreet mother of four met her future husband at Mount Temple secondary in Dublin - the same school where, in 1976, U2's drummer Larry Mullen pinned up a hopeful notice to see if anybody was interested in forming a band. The teenage Bono saw two opportunities and applied for both. He married Alison Stewart a few years later. While U2 were finding their audience on the road in the first half of the 80s, Hewson had a hunch she would pursue "some kind of humanitarian work". When the Joshua Tree made U2 the most successful band in the world in 1987, she was reading political science at University College Dublin. She gave birth to their first child, a daughter called Jordan, two weeks before her finals. "My timing has never been that great," she says. A hundred million U2 album sales and another daughter and son later, she had their fourth child, John Abraham, last May; her husband flew back from several months' lobbying US politicians to cancel African debts - a campaign cleverly disguised as U2's latest US tour. But despite 24-hour access to the lifestyles of the rich and famous, Hewson has resolutely failed to inhabit the rock'n'roll cliche. Press cuttings yield up no celebrity trysts, penchants for exotic substances or even a Hello!-style photo-shoot in a vast farmhouse kitchen. Until the last couple of weeks you would have been hard-pressed to find an interview with her, and there is scant mention of her visits with relief agencies to Africa and Central America in the 80s, and to Belarus through the 90s. So why the change now? It was having children, she says, that compelled her to act on Sellafield. "I started to wonder how safe it was for them to play on the beach or to swim in the sea or even to eat fish." In 1992 she organised a successful publicity stunt at Sellafield in which U2 donned white anti- radiation suits and masks and stood on drums with contaminated mud from the Irish Sea. A decade on, with Sellafield expanding, she has mobilised an all-star cast, from Ronan Keating and Samantha Mumba to Roy Keane and the Irish World Cup squad, to increase pressure on the UK. She believes that Blair, another parent of four, might just understand. "Over here we respect him for his work with the peace process, but not for standing behind Sellafield. We know he wouldn't put his children at risk and we want him to stop putting ours at risk." But with her husband now almost as well known as a campaigner on poverty and debt as he is as a rock star, have there been sensitive negotiations in the Hewson household about confusing the message? "We're both aware of overkill, and with a baby of one year and three others, there could be a better time, to be honest. But this was the right time [for this campaign]. "Our relationship works because we have respect for each other and we are very fortunate in how things have worked out. We allow each other to pursue our goals. I wouldn't want to be married to someone who was not happy with what they were doing with their life and Bono wouldn't either - it works both ways." The eldest children do have reservations about seeing their mother break cover, she says - having one celebrity parent is complicated enough. "I've had a few notes under the pillow saying, 'I want my mummy back,' but the girls are sanguine and also pretty switched on about environmental issues. They would rather I was doing this than getting involved in the music business." As if to underline the timing of the campaign, last Thursday it emerged that radioactive contamination has been found leaking into the groundwater under Sellafield from 50-year-old tanks containing untreated nuclear waste. And a recent report claims that the two million gallons of mildly radioactive waste water discharged daily from Sellafield into the Irish Sea are equivalent to a nuclear accident each year. Hewson believes a person-to-person civil campaign by the people of Ireland can persuade their neighbours to shut their "nuclear dustbin". "The tobacco industry told people for decades there was no health risk," she says. "Britain is experimenting with our lives and we're not even allowed into the debate. I was in two minds about this role. I think our family probably has enough publicity as it is, and I would prefer to keep a more private life, but in the end I felt I couldn't turn round to my children in 20 years' time and say that I had had an opportunity to do something about Sellafield but didn't." British Nuclear Fuels Ltd [http://www.bnfl.co.uk/website.nsf/default.htm] Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament [http://www.cnduk.org/] HSE nuclear glossary [http://www.hse.gov.uk/nsd/ilrwglos.htm] UK atomic energy authority [http://www.ukaea.org.uk/] National Radiological Protection Board [http://www.nrpb.org.uk/] World Nuclear Association [http://www.uilondon.org/] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 ***************************************************************** 2 Democrats Make Deal Over Energy Bill Las Vegas SUN April 23, 2002 WASHINGTON- Senate Democrats on Tuesday offered to guarantee Republicans an eventual vote on permanent repeal of inheritance taxes if key GOP senators would drop objections to finishing a major energy bill. Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., said Republicans would be willing to accept the deal if $16 billion in energy tax incentives were also added to the measure. That, he said, could clear the way for Senate passage of the energy bill later this week. "We'll do the estate tax at a later date," said Nickles, the second-ranking Senate Republican. GOP insistence on using the energy measure as leverage to force a vote on the estate tax issue threatened to derail the energy bill after five weeks of debate. To give senators more time to sort things out, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., put off a planned morning vote that could bring the energy bill to a conclusion. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, pleaded with senators not to attempt to attach tax measures such as repeal of the estate tax. "This is not an omnibus tax bill. It's an energy bill," said Bingaman, D-N.M. Eliminating the estate tax is a priority of President Bush and could emerge as an issue in the fall congressional campaigns. Sens. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., object to finishing the energy bill unless a vote on estate tax repeal is guaranteed. The estate tax phaseout was part of the 10-year, $1.35 trillion tax cut passed last year under a Senate budget rule causing all its provisions to expire on Dec. 31, 2010 - meaning the estate tax would be resurrected in 2011. "Nine years from now, it is all going to spring back full blown," Gramm said Monday. The vote Tuesday also could determine the fate of $16 billion in energy tax breaks for such things as hybrid vehicles and energy-efficient buildings. Several senators said the bill would be hardly worth passing without them; a competing House version has $33 billion in tax incentives. Gramm said he had offered to drop his objections if Democratic leaders would guarantee a vote "at some point in the future" on making repeal of the estate tax permanent. Democrats had no immediate response. "I know there are many people who want to finish this (energy) bill," Gramm said. "But I don't know of anything that is more important than making repeal of the death tax permanent." Although lawmakers have years to rectify the situation, Kyl said the uncertainty confuses estate planning and could force people to spend thousands of dollars unnecessarily on insurance and lawyers. "People have to plan ahead to deal with the death tax," Kyl said. The issue also has political overtones. For Democrats who represent rural states where farmers and ranchers are ardent estate tax opponents, Republicans could contend that a vote against making repeal permanent amounts to support for a huge future tax increase. Democrats see their own political opportunities. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Republicans' fixation on the estate tax demonstrates that their sympathies "start at the top with people who are worth megamillions." The Senate's focus, he said, should be on such middle-class priorities as a prescription drug benefit for Medicare, health care insurance and an increase in the minimum wage. "It's the reason there are two different political parties," Durbin said. "There are other issues of equal moral heft that we ought to be considering." The Republican-led House last week passed a bill removing the 2010 "sunset" provision from the entire tax cut at a cost of $374 billion over the next decade. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said Democrats will not bring that measure to the Senate floor. Making only estate tax repeal permanent would cost just under $100 billion over the next 10 years, according to congressional estimates. The House also has passed its own energy bill, complete with $33 billion in tax breaks that are more generous to oil, electricity and other industries than those proposed in the Senate. That means an energy tax package could still survive negotiations later this year between the House and Senate on a final bill. On the Net: Congress: [http://thomas.loc.gov] All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 3 North Korean Nukes [NewsMax.com] Notra Trulock Monday, April 22, 2002 There is a new crisis looming for the Bush administration this summer and it is not Iraq. But it does feature a harshly repressive regime trying to hide its weapons of mass destruction from international inspection. The crisis is brewing on the Korean Peninsula and involves the end game of a deal made eight years ago by the Clinton administration. In 1994, in return for a freeze on its nuclear facilities, the U.S. promised to build Pyongyang "proliferation-resistant" nuclear reactors and supply North Korea with 500,000 tons of fuel oil annually. The North Koreans promised to open their facilities to international inspection and get out of the nuclear weapons business altogether. The Clinton administration managed to defuse the immediate crisis and keep North Korea off the front pages for most of its two terms. Its spokesmen gradually began to tout the deal as a major Clinton foreign policy success; Clinton himself claimed that he got the North Koreans out of the nuclear business. In truth, few of our negotiators thought there would still be a North Korea by the time the bill came due. But North Korea is still standing and, with regard to nuclear weapons, it has not been standing still, according to the Intelligence Community. It appears that instead of freezing its program, it used the time to develop nuclear warheads. This startling news was first revealed in the public version of a National Intelligence Estimate on "Foreign Missile Developments" published last December. It says, "The Intelligence Community judged in the mid-1990s that North Korea had produced one, possibly two, nuclear weapons." That is not what the Community said in the mid-1990s; the estimates then dealt only with plutonium production, not nuclear warheads. Presumably, this new assessment was not made lightly. It implies that North Korea has mastered the manufacture of nuclear warheads. The use of plutonium implies an implosion-type warhead, because it is unsuitable for simpler gun-assembly designs. Implosion designs require more sophisticated testing and manufacturing skills. Intelligence Community statements also indicate that the North Koreans have engineered a warhead small enough for delivery on a North Korean missile. More worrisome are new assessments that indicate those light-water reactors may not be so "proliferation resistant" after all. Henry Sokolski of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center has unearthed a Livermore National Lab assessment that concludes that one reactor alone could produce enough weapons-grade plutonium for 50 nuclear warheads. Former U.S. officials involved in the original negotiations admit that they did not seek such assessments at the time of the original deal, but they categorically reject Livermore's recent analysis. They cite technical reasons that would keep North Korea from producing plutonium from the spent fuel from these reactors, but North Korea has fooled international observers (read: the U.S. Intelligence Community) before. This spring the Bush administration refused to certify Pyongyang's compliance with the terms of the Agreed Framework, claiming that North Korea was resisting new inspection arrangements with international inspectors. But the Intelligence Community's new findings and continued suspicions about covert North Korean activities were more likely the reasons for the non-certification. North Korea, which had suspended reactor talks after being included by President Bush in the "axis of evil," has decided to begin talking again after all. It is probably betting that the U.S. will be preoccupied in the Middle East and that the Bush administration will have many incentives to compromise to avoid another crisis. Despite its refusal to certify North Korea, the administration granted it another year's worth of fuel oil. You can expect pressure from Senate Democrats like Joe Biden, and the mainstream media, to stick to the deal no matter what. North Korea is not going away soon, no matter how bad things get or how many predictions our Intelligence Community makes. Their predictions that the Communist regime would implode were obviously too optimistic. Some argue for coordinating reactor construction with the timetable for inspections. It would be better to stop the headlong rush to the end game and rethink our overall objectives. We should offer to convert the deal to non-nuclear power plants while upgrading the country's power grid, as Henry Sokolski recommends. If this is really about economic development and power generation, North Korea should accept that offer. Notra Trulock is the Associate Editor of Accuracy in Media's AIM Report. He is a former Director of Intelligence at the Department of Energy. All Rights Reserved © NewsMax.com ***************************************************************** 4 U.S. is all over the map on homeland defense Tue Apr 23, 6:25 AM ET Kevin Johnson USA TODAY OKLAHOMA CITY -- During the first big test of Oklahoma's new homeland defense plan, Gov. Frank Keating and other top state officials huddled in a Capitol ''war room'' here to confront a horrific terrorism scenario: a smallpox outbreak in Tulsa. •After brush with death, Sharon Stone says it's 'really nice to be alive' •All-USA students come from all over the world, all walks of life •Do you know how to respond to a tough interview question? •Dr. Funk ready for team groove The mock crisis was barely underway this month when the officials hit a roadblock. Before considering how to examine the spread of the highly contagious virus or whether to order a massive quarantine, officials spent 40 minutes debating colors. The Oklahomans weren't sure whether they should, or even could, have the U.S. government change the status of its new color-coded security alert system from yellow (which indicates there is a significant threat of a terrorist strike) to orange (which means there is a higher risk of attack). ''It seems pretty basic, but they didn't know where to go with it,'' says Michael Forgy, a manager in the Justice Department (news - web sites)'s Office of Domestic Preparedness. He says the officials should have dealt with life and death issues more quickly. Besides highlighting the widespread confusion over the federal alert system, the Oklahoma drill symbolizes some of the problems that are frustrating state officials as they tackle a formidable task: Piecing together homeland defense programs in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Across the USA, state officials involved in such efforts are concerned about what they view as a lack of guidance from Washington. Typically, they also have little money, small staffs and widely varying views about what should be done first. Seven months after President Bush (news - web sites) tapped former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge to head the new national Office of Homeland Security and encouraged states to follow the federal government's lead, every U.S. state and territory has appointed its own security chief. But beyond that, the nation's new homeland defense programs are mostly talk. And many state officials say privately that Ridge's office hasn't moved quickly enough to help them set priorities. Among the complications cited most often by state officials: * With a sluggish economy forcing most states to slash programs to balance their budgets, there isn't much money available for significant homeland security initiatives, or even to pay for office staff and equipment. In many cases, states have decided not to commit any of their own money until the U.S. government begins distributing the $3.5 billion it has promised to state and local security programs. The federal dollars won't start flowing until at least October. There are no guarantees that the federal money will address some of the states' most pressing needs. This month, Keating says, Oklahoma officials were shocked to learn that Congress had not allocated any money for a radio communications system they say is critical to their plans to link local, state and federal authorities during crises. Much of the federal money is aimed at training those who would respond to biological, chemical or nuclear attacks. * Several states are hesitant to create new layers of bureaucracy for homeland defense because of the tight budgets, while others are uncertain about what authority such departments should be given. In Texas, officials' resistance to form a new agency has put security planning in the hands of state Land Commissioner David Dewhurst, who doubles as the state's homeland security director. Dewhurst says he is running Texas' effort with five staff members he ''borrowed'' from the land office. The state has provided about $50,000 this year for the start-up effort. Dewhurst says that should be just enough to cover travel expenses for his staff to inspect a huge state that is rich in potential terrorism targets. High on the list of his concerns are the state's two nuclear power plants and the world's second-largest petro-chemical plant. Dewhurst says that protecting such critical resources in Texas will cost at least ''several hundred million'' dollars. He says he's counting on the U.S. government to pay most, if not all, of the tab. 'No budget, no staff' In Oklahoma, the Legislature has been debating whether to form a new homeland security agency. The state's experience in dealing with the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 put it ahead of most others in learning how to respond to major crises, but officials acknowledge that long-term planning is difficult without an established security office. ''I have no budget, no staff, no authority and complete responsibility,'' says Department of Public Safety Commissioner Bob Ricks, who also is the state's interim homeland security director. ''The Legislature hasn't given me anything.'' Ricks adds that he isn't certain whether state lawmakers will allow him to keep the security director's post permanently or whether they will appoint someone else. ''There is a lot of confusion out there about what kind of experience is suitable for this job,'' says state Sen. Dick Wilkerson, a Democrat from Atwood. ''It's just such a huge job. I don't believe any state or political apparatus has recognized how important this effort is.'' Wilkerson acknowledges that the state has provided Ricks ''with barely a penny to work with.'' ''We're cutting budgets at every level,'' Wilkerson says. ''It's going to be real hard to find several million dollars to make this work. In the end, do you take money from schools or roads?'' * Although Ridge has promised to release a federal homeland security strategy this summer, some state officials and security analysts fear that public support for expensive security initiatives could wane unless governments move more quickly to establish such plans. ''The mission of this national effort and how it will integrate the states isn't entirely clear to me at all,'' says Dennis Reimer, director of the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, a non-profit organization in Oklahoma City. ''I don't think we've come nearly as far as we need to,'' he says. ''There is a danger of losing the momentum to pull together a plan to protect our people. We need to get on with it.'' Forgy at the Justice Department agrees. ''There is a sense that (the states are) stepping off in different directions,'' he says. ''There is no standardization. Washington doesn't seem to have the best grip on it yet.'' Ridge opens a two-day meeting today in Washington with all state security directors as part of his continuing effort to form a national strategy. Ridge spokeswoman Susan Neely says it is premature for states to express ''anxiety'' over a lack of progress by the U.S. government. ''Time is against us to a certain degree,'' Neely says. ''But we have a long way to go. Every state has been asked to formulate plans of their own. Every state has different needs. There is no way for us to sit in Washington and know what is best in every state.'' State models vary widely For now, homeland security planning among the states is a patchwork process in which a few states seem to be marching toward a comprehensive anti-terrorism strategy, and many others appear to be marking time. The models vary widely. North Carolina has not created a homeland security office but has assigned anti-terrorism duties to various law enforcement agencies, set aside $30 million from a ''rainy day'' fund so that agencies can improve security and created a state registry for companies that deal in biological agents that could be used in attacks. In Louisiana, however, there is no new state money to support the start-up of a homeland security office. Training and emergency response planning is being done ''in-house and out of hide,'' says Michael Brown, assistant director of the state's Office of Emergency Preparedness. Brown says Louisiana officials delayed their security planning because ''we waited on the federal government to provide some direction. When we didn't get it, we pressed our own concept forward'' to form a statewide emergency response plan. What authorities have found since is that the need for manpower, equipment and money vastly outstrips the available resources. Asked how prepared Louisiana is to deal with a local crisis, Brown says, ''I won't even hazard a guess.'' In Georgia, which security officials say is one of the better-organized states, Gov. Roy Barnes has authorized $1 million to launch a new intelligence-gathering and analysis operation. But the state can't afford the centerpiece of its security plan: Recruiting and training regional crisis response teams to cover the state's 159 counties. State officials still are examining how much the program would cost. ''It all can be done,'' said Maj. Tommy Brown, executive officer to Georgia Homeland Security Director Richard Hightower, who also is the state's public safety commissioner. ''The biggest problem is getting some direction on when the money is going to come and what it will cover.'' There is little question that federal support will determine whether local homeland initiatives succeed. Less clear is whether the U.S. government's system for funding security efforts will be an improvement from similar initiatives that bogged down before federal money could reach the states. This month, several funding problems were highlighted in an internal Justice Department audit of domestic preparedness grants totaling $243 million. The audit found that the Justice grants program, separate from the Office of Homeland Defense, had failed to disburse more than half of its available money since 1998. In most cases, Justice officials said, states did not submit the correct applications for the funds. The money had been set aside to buy protective clothing for emergency workers, decontamination kits and equipment to detect materials used in biological assaults. 'Frankenstein' syndrome Eileen Preisser, a professor of homeland and national security at the New Mexico Institute of Mines and Technology, warns that the varied progress among the states in establishing security plans has created a ''Frankenstein monster syndrome.'' ''The states are grabbing what they can and sewing it all together,'' she says. ''What happens, though, when you need it to work and it all collapses or spins out of control?'' Preisser, on loan to the U.S. government as an adviser on homeland security and technology matters, says federal authorities have provided states with few guidelines to ensure that officials are at least giving emergency workers similar levels of training. ''I have a lot of respect for Tom Ridge,'' Preisser says. ''But until his office blesses some kind of national strategy, we're going to have people going off in all different directions.'' As for the nation's overall preparedness to deal with a major terrorist incident, Preisser estimates a 50% chance of a successful response if the incident took place near where medical and emergency response teams are plentiful. Beyond ''those centers of excellence,'' Preisser says, the chances of overall success drop to about 10% in the event of a bioterrorist attack. ''I hate to say it,'' she says, ''but we're not prepared like we should be.'' Copyright © 2002 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. ***************************************************************** 5 World Nuclear Receptor Community to Convene at Conference on Emerging Nuclear Receptor Superfamily in Newark, NJ July 22-23 PR Newswire - USA; Apr 23, 2002 The world nuclear receptor research community will be convening in Newark on July 22-23 to attend, speak, and exhibit at "Nuclear Receptors in Drug Discovery," announces Strategic Research Institute. This meeting, comprised of world-class leaders in the field from the industry & academia -- will feature the newest approaches in nuclear receptor research -- an emerging target family with cross-therapeutic applications. This hot topic will be explored from a variety of perspectives over a two-day meeting. The meeting is discretely broken into 3 sections as follows: 1) Nuclear Receptor Signaling Mechanisms, 2) Methods for Measuring Nuclear Receptor Activities, & 3) Drug Discovery Approaches for Specific Nuclear Receptor Target Classes. Presenting papers at the meeting: Arqule Inc., Bayer Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Cornell University, Eli Lilly & Company, Gene Networks Inc., GlaxoSmithKline Research & Development, Karo Bio USA, Maxia Pharmaceuticals, National Cancer Institute, NICHD/NIH, NYU School of Medicine, Panvera Corporation, Pfizer Global R & D - La Jolla Labs, Structural GenomiX, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals & X-Ceptor Therapeutics. To request the agenda in PDF format, please contact Ed Drilon at edrilon@srinstitute.com or at 212-967-0095 x233 Include your fax number, affiliation and mailing address. To register for the exposition or inquire about sponsorship opportunities to augment your company's on-site exposure to prospective clients and collaborators (totebags, coffee mugs, luncheons, reception), please contact Mark Alexay at malexay@srinstitute.com. http://tbutton.prnewswire.com/prn/11690X55784655 Strategic Research Institute Contact: Ed Drilon, +1-212-967-0095, ext. 233, edrilon@srinstitute.com, or Mark Alexay, malexay@srinstitute.com, both of Strategic Research Institute Website: http://www.srinstitute.com/ ***************************************************************** 6 India: Harnessing nuclear energy - INDIATIMES SUROJIT MAHALANOBIS TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2002 11:31:59 PM ] NEW DELHI: ‘‘Jain philosophers have been speaking about non-violence in olden days when no- body knew about power from atoms. Mahatma Gandhi put non-violence into practice in modern times and its power was soon known to the world. The power derived from atoms is equally non-violent. Talking of non-violence today, therefore, sounds useless, it is very much in the system’’, observed Raja Ramanna, country’s eminent nuclear scientist who was the architect of Pokhran test. While delivering the sixth Anuvrat Trust Lecture 2002, under the aegis of IGNOU, here on Saturday, he echoed what his contemporary Homi J Bhabha had said in 1943, on a different occasion, ‘‘... when nuclear energy has been successfully applied for power production, in say about a couple of decades from now, India will not have to look abroad for its experts but will find them ready at hand.’’ Ramanna added, ‘‘Nuclear power is the only diversified unlimited energy source which is quasi-indigenous, does not emit greenhouse gases and has largely favourable and slightly unfavourable economics. Should the climate-change threat become a reality, the only available technology that can replace coal in base load is nuclear technology.’’ Indians get energy through conventional sources. The non-conventional sources are still untapped, thanks to the potential cost factors. Ramanna showed through slides that per capita electricity generated from biomass, wind, solar thermal, solar photo-voltaic and geothermal sources at current rate cost about 5 to 15 (for photo-voltaic sources 25 to 125) US cents per unit (one US cent costs Rs 48), approximately. The future cost would be about 5 to 25 US cents. For India, hence, tapping the non-conventional energy sources is an expensive proposition. With the depleting conventional coal, hydro and natural gas sources, surely, the nation will be exposed to energy crisis few decades from now, until it taps the nuclear energy sources. He said, atomic energy in India has various applications, both for wealth generation and ensuring quality of life. Yet, in India, per capita electricity consumption is very low at a level below 2,000 units in comparison to that in the United States (14,000 units). Nuclear energy is also enviro- friendly, he explained and as compared to total generation of ash and noxious gases, the waste product from it is much low. At the highest level it is 27 tonnes of spent fuel, at the lowest level it is 460 tonnes only, he said. Earlier, inaugurating the function, Jain saints Dharmesh Kumar and Lok Prakash referred to insight of Guru Acharya Tulsi to say that anu (atom) can only be used for mankind if it is empowered by vrata (mission), hence it is Anuvrata. ***************************************************************** 7 Visiting Austrian chief urges Lithuania to stick to nuclear closure timetable BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 23, 2002 [Presenter] Austrian President Thomas Klestil, who is visiting Lithuania, has said Austria backs the EU demand concerning the timetable for decommissioning the Ignalina nuclear power plant. During his meeting with Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus, the Austrian leader said the nuclear plant's No 1 power unit had to be closed by 2005 and the No 2 unit - by 2009. Leonora Abraityte has the details: [Correspondent] During a news conference held at the President's Office, Austrian President Thomas Klestil said that the EU requirement to decommission the No 1 power unit at the Ignalina nuclear power plant by 2005 and the No 2 unit - by 2009 had also to be noted during negotiations [with the EU]. Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus said that Lithuania should not assume the obligation to close down the power plant by 2009 specifically because we might be able to do so only in 2011. According to the country's leader, to enjoy the trust of the EU, Lithuania must undertake realistic commitments. Valdas Adamkus repeated that the issue of financing the closure of the Ignalina plant was most important and, according to him, only huge effort could solve it. Source: Lithuanian Radio, Vilnius, in Lithuanian 0900 gmt 23 Apr 02 /© BBC Monitoring ***************************************************************** 8 New statute on the Russian State Nuclear Regulatory to come shortly Nuclear Industry Section about reprocessing and spent nuclear fuel imports and Russian nuclear industry in general. New statute on the Russian State Nuclear Regulatory to come shortly (St Petersburg:) New statute on the State Nuclear Regulatory of Russia, or GAN, is being under preparation. Whether the authority of GAN is to be undermined further — remains to be seen. Minatom's vision of enviropolicy Fundamentals of Environmental Policy of Russia's Minatom (in Russian). Rashid Alimov, 2002-04-23 17:48 GAN's press spokesman confirmed to Bellona Web, that a draft statute was considered by the government at the session on April 11th. But they could not explain, why does the government need a new statute, and whether GAN's authorities would be extended or limited in the new version. Meanwhile, there are some causes for anxiety. Rumours about hearings Nuclear lobby has long wished to limit the authority of GAN. The reasoning of Ministry for Nuclear Energy, Minatom, in favour of the amendments is very simple: if the ministry is “the federal executive body, responsible for creating and functioning of the system”, a bulk of control functions must be transferred to the ministry. In other words, Minatom wants to control itself. And to “work out documents, regulating safe order of handling radioactive materials and wastes.” Such aspirations maybe easily seemed, for example, in the document Fundamentals of Environmental Policy of Russia's Minatom published last year. Another ground for concern is that last year four MPs — Nigmatulin, Klimov, Koretnikov and Lukyanov — presented a draft bill On Licensing of Nuclear Industry Sites. This bill stipulated that GAN's authority to licence sites of nuclear industry would be transferred to Minatom. Hearings in the State Duma, lower house of the Russian parliament, were under planning, but at the time present two of the MPs, who proposed the draft, called back their signatures. There is also a negative cabinet conclusion on the draft. Sergey Scherbakov, the head of the GAN's department responsible for State Duma contacts, said to Bellona Web, that no Duma hearings are to be held on this draft. This bill will be discussed in May only at the Energy Committee of the State Duma, and there the Nigmatulin-Klimov bill will likely be buried. At least, that is how GAN expects the events to happen. But will MP Nigmatulin abandon his fight to make nuclear industry uncontrolled? That is very unlikely. MP Nigmatulin is a brother of the deputy minister for nuclear energy and represents nuclear lobby in the Duma. The story of transferring functions of licensing to Minatom has been unfolding since 1999-2000. In the year 1999, a part of such functions was taken away from GAN by governmental decree no. 1007, signed by the then prime minister Vladimir Putin. This decree stripped GAN of licensing “the use of radioactive materials in application of nuclear energy in defence, including design, production, tests, transportation, exploitation, storage, destruction and decommissioning of nuclear weapon and military nuclear reactors.” In other words, this decree removed GAN from any involvement into the nuclear submarines decommissioning process, which presents the greatest problem to the Russian Northern and Pacific Fleets. This decree has also apparently taken GAN off the plutonium producing reactors in Seversk and Zheleznogorsk, western Siberia. Full transfer of licensing functions to Minatom would violate Russia's international obligations. All the nuclear safety assistance programs, in particular, carried out by the European Union (such as TACIS), stipulate involvement of GAN. Many EU programs support GAN directly. In march 2002, Norwegian parliament accepted Bellona's recommendations on the Norwegian nuclear safety assistance programs in Russia. These recommendations stipulate among other things that GAN's participation in such programs must be obligatory, and that GAN should have the right to evaluate all such programs before, under, and after their implementation. on 2001-03-20 Nuclear Industry Russia rejects G-7 concern over nuclear regulatory body 2000-11-27 Nuclear Industry Minatom launches NGO to fight envirogroups 2000-11-24 Nuclear Industry Duma to eliminate nuclear safety watchdog 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 ***************************************************************** 9 Bush Environmental Legacy Condemned by Senate Democratic Whip Monday, April 22, 2002 Statement of Senator Harry Reid on Earth Day 2002 WASHINGTON, DC - Earth Day provides us an opportunity both to celebrate the planet we call home and to renew our commitment to its protection. I am from Searchlight, Nevada, a small town in the heart of the Mojave Desert. The Mojave Desert is the driest and one of the most unforgiving regions in North America. Yet it is also one of the most beautiful and awe-inspiring places on earth. The Mojave Desert, because of its extreme climate, is fragile. Growing up there, I learned that the Earth heals very slowly from the impact people make on it. So I understand the value of conserving our land and its rich resources. It’s led me to be an advocate for protecting the environment for Nevadans, all Americans, and for our future generations. I wrote the recently enacted Brownfield Revitalization and Environmental Restoration Act of 2001 to clean up contaminated sites in our inner cities and rural areas. This important new law will help prevent urban sprawl into our nation’s open places and green spaces. In my 16 years of service on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee - twice serving as Chairman of that Committee - I have had the opportunity help to improve many of our bedrock environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Food Quality Protection Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. These bipartisan efforts have translated into real environmental gains. We have restored two-thirds of our nation’s waters - waters which once were set ablaze because of pollution. We have made progress toward cleaning up our skies, reducing air pollution that chokes our cities and sickens our elderly and our young. We’ve helped address real drinking water threats like arsenic and moved to limit toxic pesticide residues on the fruit and vegetables our children eat. Together, we’ve worked to protect our nation’s threatened and endangered species - bringing such American symbols as the bald eagle and peregrine falcon back from the brink of extinction. We’ve also taken important actions to protect and preserve special places in Nevada including Great Basin National Park, the Ruby Mountains, Red Rock National Conservation Area, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, and particularly, Lake Tahoe. While today we celebrate our environmental accomplishments, those accomplishments are not secure. This Administration has taken steps to erode those accomplishments on nearly every front. The Administration has: • denied the reality of global warming by walking away from the international negotiating table on the climate change, • threatened to undermine a Clean Air Act program which would cleanup pollution from our power plants, • proposed to cut funding for the enforcement of our landmark environmental laws, • opposed efforts to develop renewable energy and to make our vehicles more efficient, • tried to exploit the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge at the request of big oil companies. While this Administration’s environmental rollbacks are getting too numerous to count, the one that stands out the most is the President’s plan to transport nuclear waste across the country for storage at Yucca Mountain just outside Las Vegas. This plan is not just Nevada’s problem; it poses a danger to the safety, health and environment of all Americans. Moving radioactive waste from nuclear reactor sites to Yucca Mountain would require 100,000 shipments by truck, 20,000 by train and perhaps even additional ones by barge. All in all, over 100 million Americans in at least 43 states would have nuclear waste passing by their communities, homes, schools, parks, lakes and rivers. This is a deeply flawed plan that does not accomplish its stated goals of consolidating all nuclear waste at a single location and improving national security. Every operating reactor will continue to produce more waste that will have to remain on site for at least 5 years. And every single one of the 100,000 shipments provides terrorists with a target of opportunity. And there is no guarantee that nuclear waste can be transported safely. In fact, the containers that would be used to ship them are vulnerable. They could melt in a diesel fuel fire, or be penetrated by a terrorist’s missile, or rupture during an accident at a speed of 40 miles per hour. With 100,000 trucks hauling this waste, we know there would be at least 200 accidents – on the same highways you and your families use to drive to school, to work and to home. And it only takes one accident to cause a catastrophe – resulting in death, illness, and long-term, irreversible harm to the environment. So I will continue to fight against the Bush Administration’s dangerous plan for nuclear waste transportation, and I call on you to help me. Let’s work together to protect our environment from all these threats. Our children, their children and all future generations deserve clean water to drink, safe air to breathe, and communities free of dangerous chemicals. They deserve to see the natural wonder of the endangered salmon runs of the Pacific Northwest, the beauty of the Giant Sequoias and the natural treasure that is Lake Tahoe. We need to work together to protect this great legacy for them. ***************************************************************** 10 Russia studies N. Korea's invitation to build nuclear plant WN Tehran, April 23, 2002. (CNA). Russia will closely study North Korea's invitation to build a nuclear power plant in its territory, Russian presidential representative in the Far Eastern Federal District, Konstantin Pulikovsky told Tass in an exclusive interview. "There has been such a proposal from Pyongyang. North Korea hopes the power plant will provide electricity to North Korea and to Russia's Far Eastern regions, despite the US disappointment, and Pesident George W. Bush's labeling of North Korea as one of the three countries shaping the "axis of evil" together with Iran and Iraq. As Pulikovsky visited Russia late last month, North Korean Supreme People's Assembly speaker Choe Tae Bok met with the Russian Minister of Industry, Science and Technologies Ilya Klebanov to bring up the possibility of building a nuclear power plant in his country by Russian specialists. The Russian Atomic Energy Ministry believes it would be more feasible to build a nuclear power plant in Russian territory close to the North Korean border. Russian specialists say this would address a two-fold issue - prevent the proliferation of nuclear technologies and guarantee the plant's safe operation. © 2002 CNA/www.caspian.ru ***************************************************************** 11 Russia may build nuclear power plant near, not in, North Korea Tuesday April 23, 1:40 PM Russia may not build a nuclear power plant in North Korea, as Pyongyong had earlier suggested, but rather set up the facility near its border with the Stalinist state, according to an official with the Russian nuclear energy ministry. Building the plant on Russian soil would prevent the disseminating of "advanced nuclear technology on the territory of a foreign country" and allow Russia's energy-strapped fareast to benefit from the facility, the RIA Novosti news agency quoted the official as saying Tuesday. A decision may be made when President Vladimir Putin's envoy to the Russian far east makes a visit to neghbouring North Korea later this month. A top North Korean official on a visit to Russia last month urged Moscow to build a nuclear power plant in the hermit state. Russia said it would study the proposal made by North Korean parliament speaker Choe Tae Bok. North Korea along with Iraq and Iran has been branded by US President George W. Bush an "axis of evil" seeking to develop weapons of mass destruction. Russia is building a nuclear plant at Bushehr in southwestern Iran despite objections from the United States, which fears Tehran is using the project to develop nuclear weapons. North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il made a lengthy official visit to Russia last year, his first known trip abroad as leader apart from communist China. Under a 1994 accord with the United States, North Korea froze the suspected development of atomic weapons in exchange for receiving two nuclear energy reactors which produce less weapons-grade plutonium. The 4.6-billion-dollar project was due to be completed by 2003, but delays have pushed back completion until at least 2008. Copyright © 2002 AFP. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 12 National Nuclear Security Administration Approved as of May 3, 2001 Emergency Operations Mission Administer and direct the programs of DOE's and NNSA's emergency response capability to ensure availability and viability to respond to emergencies at DOE and NNSA facilities and field sites, and to nuclear and radiological emergencies within the United States and abroad. Functions EO serves as DOE's primary point of contact for all emergency management activities, developing and issuing all policy, procedures, and guidance and overseeing implementation of DOE's Emergency Management System. EO's key customers include the Secretary of Energy, the NNSA Administrator, DOE and NNSA facilities and field sites, and DOE and NNSA headquarters. Its core functions include the following: + Operate and develop policy for DOE's Emergency Management System for sites, facilities, and operations + Manage the development of implementing policies, plans, and procedures for emergency response activities worldwide associated with nuclear weapons programs and facilities, and all radiological and nuclear emergencies on behalf of the United States Government + Coordinate and concur on all emergency management activities, including intra- and interdepartmental and international activities, departmental commitments, and exercise and response activities + Oversee the evaluation and appraisal of all line and program integrity through integration of all programs, systems, assets, capabilities, training, and response + Ensure emergency management program integrity through integration of all programs, systems, assets, capabilities, training, and response EO comprises the Office of Emergency Management and the Office of Emergency Response: a. Office of Emergency Management (OEM) The Office of Emergency Management serves as the primary point of contact for DOE emergency management activities. OEM develops, issues, and oversees the implementation of DOE's Emergency Management System for NNSA and DOE sites, facilities, and transportation activities. The office also manages headquarters emergency response facilities and operations. The office has four core functions: + Operations and Training - operates and maintains headquarters emergency operations facilities and supports emergency management/emergency response preparedness through training at both headquarters and field elements + Exercises - manages a centrally controlled and decentrally executed program for all NNSA and DOE emergency response exercises + Policy - develops and maintains all emergency management policies + Site Response - supports NNSA and DOE site/facility emergency planning and response b. Office of Emergency Response (OER) The Office of Emergency Response (OER) manages seven departmental Radiological Emergency Response assets/capabilities that support both Crisis Response and Consequence Management. The office provides the overall program management and the organizational structure during both emergency and nonemergency conditions for the personnel, equipment, and activities that collectively make up the program. Other functions include the following: + Support federal programs as they relate to nuclear/radiological counterterrorism and consequence management + Assist program offices with the implementation of emergency management and response programs at their sites and facilities + Conduct staff assistance visits to assist program and DOE Operations Offices with the resolution of previously identified emergency management and response deficiencies Internal and External Relationships - Emergency Operations represents DOE, as appropriate, in activities in the United States with the Department of Defense to fulfill legally mandated multiagency responsibility for protecting public health and safety in response to radiological or nuclear emergencies. EO also serves as interagency liaison for all emergency management and counterterrorism activities. It establishes, charters, administers, and chairs the standing Emergency Management Coordinating Committee and the Emergency Management Advisory Committee. Changes in Structure and Staffing - Subject to approval by the Secretary of Energy, EO will be staffed primarily through the transfer of personnel from DOE-SO and from NNSA program office personnel currently performing EO functions. Approved as of May 3, 2001 ***************************************************************** 13 Nuclear Plot - Or Just Hot Air? CBS News | WASHINGTON, April 23, 2002 (AP / CBS) Officials don't know whether Zubaydah is telling the truth or bragging - or both. (CBS) CBS News has learned that a key lieutenant of Osama bin Laden arrested in Pakistan last month has provided interrogators with alarming information pertaining to al Qaeda's ability to build a radiological device and smuggle it into the United States. CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin reports Abu Zubaydah, who until his capture March 28 was bin Laden's chief of operations, has told interrogators al Qaeda knows how to build a so-called dirty bomb that would spew radiation into the atmosphere. He also said al Qaeda knows how it could be smuggled into the United States. On Friday, the FBI issued a public warning to 1,200 banks in 12 Northeastern states to be on heightened security based on a claim by Zubaydah that al Qaeda is planning attacks on financial institutions in the northeast. The FBI said Monday the warning remains in effect although the government has no new information that would substantiate reports of any specific threats or plots. The public alert was being "constantly evaluated" and FBI agents were investigating any potential leads before senior U.S. officials will decide whether to cancel the warning, FBI spokesman Bill Carter said. He could not say how long that might take. No warning was issued about a dirty bomb, apparently because Zubaydah did not say al Qaeda actually has one. But it is certainly possible. Such a weapon — also called a radiological dispersal device — would use conventional explosives to spread industrial or medical-grade radioactive material in a populated area to cause widespread fear of exposure. They are not thought to be difficult to build. Acquiring enough radioactive material to do harm is regarded as the greatest challenge for terrorists. A radiological device detonated by terrorists would require evacuation and decontamination of the immediate area and disrupt the local economy, officials from U.S. nuclear laboratories said at a recent Senate committee hearing. Hospitals would be overrun by worried people from the affected area. Depending on factors ranging from the bomb's construction to wind direction on the day such a weapon was used, a potent dirty bomb could kill a few people quickly if they were exposed to enough radiation, officials said. Others would face a greater likelihood of developing cancers later in life. Severe contamination could require that buildings be razed, and the economic fallout could reach billions of dollars in a big city, officials said. An orderly evacuation would limit the population's exposure to radioactive materials, and health effects would be minimal as long as victims avoided the contaminated area. Much of the U.S. government's thinking on the subject is theoretical, because no one has detonated a radiological weapon. They do exist. In 1995, separatists from Russia's embattled Chechnya region announced they had placed Cesium-137 in a Moscow park; it was recovered by authorities. The Chechens, who are believed now to have links to al Qaeda, threatened to covertly release additional materials. Officials don't know whether Zubaydah is telling the truth or bragging -- or both. Although he was badly wounded during his apprehension and is now being subjected to hostile interrogation, one U.S. official says he is a very tough customer. The same can be said for most of the other al Qaeda terrorists now in U.S. custody, who have been well trained in how to resist interrogation, officials tell CBS News. An English translation of an al Qaeda training manual says "the brother should not disclose any information, no matter how insignificant he might think it is." His best hope, even under torture, the manual advises, lies in "executing the security plan -- or cover story -- that was agreed upon prior to ... the operation and not deviating from it." Most of the prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, seem to be going by the book. None of them has given up information that has allowed the U.S. to break up a terrorist cell or plot, and only 6 out of 300 have admitted to crimes which could be prosecuted by a military tribunal. ©MMII CBS Worldwide Inc., All Rights Reserved. • U.S. Targets Taliban Leaders • FBI, State Department Issue Warnings • The Fear Of Radiation • Big Win For 9/11 Training Suspect • Pearl Worried About Assignment • German Terror Sweep Nets 11 • WTC Police Dog Remembered • The Mechanics Of A 'Dirty Bomb' ***************************************************************** 14 Russia studies N. Korea's invitation to build nuclear plant WorldNews: Tehran, April 23, 2002. (CNA). Russia will closely study North Korea's invitation to build a nuclear power plant in its territory, Russian presidential representative in the Far Eastern Federal District, Konstantin Pulikovsky told Tass in an exclusive interview. "There has been such a proposal from Pyongyang. North Korea hopes the power plant will provide electricity to North Korea and to Russia's Far Eastern regions, despite the US disappointment, and Pesident George W. Bush's labeling of North Korea as one of the three countries shaping the "axis of evil" together with Iran and Iraq. As Pulikovsky visited Russia late last month, North Korean Supreme People's Assembly speaker Choe Tae Bok met with the Russian Minister of Industry, Science and Technologies Ilya Klebanov to bring up the possibility of building a nuclear power plant in his country by Russian specialists. The Russian Atomic Energy Ministry believes it would be more feasible to build a nuclear power plant in Russian territory close to the North Korean border. Russian specialists say this would address a two-fold issue - prevent the proliferation of nuclear technologies and guarantee the plant's safe operation. © 2002 [http://www.caspian.ru/cgi/eng/mainblock.cgi] ***************************************************************** 15 Strange Allies in Energy Policy Fight Tue Apr 23, 2:51 AM ET By JUDITH KOHLER, Associated Press Writer DENVER (AP) - Ranchers used to accuse Jim Baca of waging war on the West when he ran the Bureau of Land Management. These days, ranchers like Linn Blancett see him as a potential ally. The Bush administration's new energy plan has helped trigger this unlikely alliance between environmentalists and ranchers who both oppose increased mineral production. "I have never before seen such an assault on public lands and the quality of life in the western United States," said Baca, who resigned after a year as land management director in the first Clinton administration. Baca joined Blancett at a recent government-sponsored conference in Denver to update the public on plans to implement Bush's national energy policy. The irony of their joint appearance was not lost on either of them. "I'll be lucky if I don't get shot by my cowboy friends when I get home," joked Blancett. As land management chief, Baca infuriated ranchers when he proposed higher fees and conditions for grazing livestock on public lands. But farmers and ranchers from Montana to southern New Mexico have joined with environmentalists on the very issues that have long separated them: use of public lands, water and property rights. "We're realizing that on some issues we're not nearly as far apart as we thought we were," Blancett said. About 3,000 wells drilled by companies plumbing for natural gas dot the 48,000 acres he ranches in northwestern New Mexico. Many issues between the two camps overlap. Landowners complain of water waste, land damage and potential harm to their livelihoods. Environmentalists worry about pollution, effects on wildlife and loss of pristine lands. Much of the energy development in the West is on public land. The Bureau of Land Management oversees 262 million acres, primarily in 12 Western states, and 700 million acres of minerals. The federal government leases the rights to extract its minerals. That leads to clashes between energy producers and ranchers who lease public land for livestock grazing, or landowners who don't own the mineral rights and don't want oil and gas rigs on the property. The thrust of the Bush plan is to give petroleum and coal companies easier access to public lands, to speed up the review process for proposed refinery and power plant expansions and to renew the nation's long-term commitment to nuclear power. Such steps and a commitment to a mix of fuels, according to the Bush administration, are necessary to provide Americans with abundant energy and stable prices over the long term. The plan has inadvertently triggered a warming between former adversaries. Dale Ackels, who farms near Sheridan, Wyo., helped lobby Congress last fall on the federal energy bill as part of a coalition that included regional conservation, consumer and livestock groups. Companies leasing the minerals under Ackels' land want to drill, and he fears the fallout. "It boils down to a fundamental equity issue," Ackels said. "Do I own my own land or don't I? And if I don't, how does that happen in America?" Daniel Kemmis, director of the Center for the American West at the University of Montana, said the collaboration between traditional adversaries has grown in the past decade out of frustration with the federal government's management of public lands, which make up half or more of some Western states. "I believe they are forging a new way of dealing with public lands and natural resource issues and that it will go on no matter what policies come out of Washington, D.C.," Kemmis said. "Because no matter what policies come out of Washington, D.C., they will come out in a way that frustrates many Westerners." On the Net: BLM: [http://www.blm.gov/nhp/index.htm] Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. ***************************************************************** 16 NRC Staff to Meet with Nuclear Management Co. To Discuss Safety Significance of Cooling System Issue at Point Beach Plant NRC: Press Release Region III - 2002 - 22 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region III 801 Warrenville Road, Lisle IL 60532 www.nrc.gov No. III-02-022 April 23, 2002 CONTACT: Jan Strasma (630) 829-9663 E-mail: opa3@nrc.gov [opa3@nrc.gov] The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet April 29 in Lisle, Illinois, with representatives of Nuclear Management Company to discuss the safety significance of a potential failure in an auxiliary cooling system at the Point Beach Nuclear Power Station. The two-reactor facility is located near Two Rivers, Wisconsin. The NRC staff has completed a preliminary assessment of the problem and concluded that it is of "high safety significance." The meeting, called a Regulatory Conference, will seek the utility's evaluation of its significance. The NRC's preliminary assessment was previously announced in News Release III-02-17, issued April 8. The meeting will be held at 9 a.m. (CDT) in the NRC's Region III Office, 801 Warrenville Road, Lisle. Visitors should report first to the Second Floor reception area. The meeting is open to public observation; before the meeting is adjourned, members of the public may ask questions and provide comments. The meeting will also be available for viewing by video conference in Room O-3B4 of the NRC's Headquarters Office, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. NRC inspectors determined that the auxiliary cooling water system might fail to function under certain abnormal conditions. Normal plant operations were not affected by the problem, which was initially discovered by plant personnel in November of last year. The utility took prompt corrective actions to revise procedures and train reactor operators to address the immediate safety concerns. The auxiliary feedwater system was subsequently modified to further correct the problem. NRC inspection findings are evaluated using a four-level scale of safety significance, ranging from "green" for a finding of minor significance, through "white" and "yellow" to "red," for a finding of high safety significance. The NRC's preliminary evaluation determined the Point Beach cooling system problem to be a "red" finding. Information presented by the utility in the Regulatory Conference will be used by the NRC staff, along with its inspection findings, to determine the final safety significance of the problem. The final determination of the safety significance will be posted on the NRC's web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/POIN1/poin1_chart.html "Red" inspection findings can lead to additional NRC inspections and further meetings with the utility to review plant performance. The auxiliary feedwater system is used to safely shut down the reactor if problems occur during plant operations and to continue removing heat from the reactor after shutdown. The details of the NRC inspection findings are discussed in Inspection Report 2001-17 which is available online in the NRC's electronic reading room. This report -- with the accession number ML020950889 -- may be viewed in the NRC's ADAMS document system, accessible at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. ***************************************************************** 17 Swiss government says nuclear plants safe as incidents rise BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 22, 2002 The Swiss nuclear safety programme has reported one of the highest annual levels of incidents at its power plants in the last ten years. But Switzerland's nuclear power plants were well protected from the threat of terrorist air attacks, or a plane crash. In its 2001 report, released at a press conference in Bern on Monday [22 April], the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (HSK) said 18 incidents had been recorded in the industry during the past year, double the number for 2000. The most serious incident occurred at the nuclear power reactor in Leibstadt, in northern Switzerland. Investigators found a disparity between what two employees had reported verbally and what appeared in the written records. The irregularities came to light while the plant was closed for servicing. But Hans Pfeiffer, deputy director of HSK, said the incident had never threatened the security at the plant. He said inquiries carried out at other nuclear installations across the country had not revealed any similar discrepancies. The HSK report also stressed that the incident at Leibstadt was graded at level 1 on the international scale of safety within the industry (INES). All 15 of the remaining cases at nuclear power plants, were graded at 0 - the lowest level of danger. 11 September The report also focused on security issues in light of the 11 September attacks. The HSK director, Ulrich Schmocker, said no expense had been spared in ensuring the security of Switzerland's nuclear installations. HSK underlined that Swiss facilities were among the safest in the world, and every new plant since the 1970s had been designed with specific measures to withstand a plane crash. Plants built before the 1970s had been brought up to the same standards. The events of 11 September had made the industry question its vulnerability to terrorist attacks. Auguste Zurkinden, a department head at the HSK, said initial results carried out by a group of experts from the fields of aviation, construction and fire safety, rated the more modern plants very highly. But questions remained about some of the older plants and results from specifically designed tests would not be available until the end of the year... Source: Swissinfo web site, Bern, in English 1526 gmt 22 Apr 02 /© BBC Monitoring ***************************************************************** 18 Chernobyl victims skeptical about radioactive zone's redevelopment Tue Apr 23, 9:03 AM ET By MARINA SYSOYEVA, Associated Press Writer KIEV, Ukraine - Representatives of Chernobyl victims' groups in Ukraine expressed skepticism Tuesday about initiatives to redevelop infrastructure in the isolated zone around the now-defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant. "The proposals to make the zone self-sufficient are groundless," said Pavlo Pokutnyi, an activist with Ukraine's Chernobyl Union, a non-governmental organization. U.N. Undersecretary-General for humanitarian affairs Kenzo Oshima visited Ukraine in early April, advocating a shift from humanitarian measures to sustainable economic development for the Chernobyl region's residents and for more than 200,000 people who helped clean up the world's worst nuclear accident. Pokutnyi spoke at a news conference in the capital Kiev two days before the 16th anniversary of the explosion and fire at Chernobyl, which affected about 3.3 million Ukrainians, including 1.5 million children. Victims groups say they need special social support because of their health problems and because they were forced to evacuate their homes in the contaminated zone. All territory within 30 kilometers (18 miles) of the nuclear plant was evacuated and has been closed off to outsiders for years. The Head of the Chernobyl Invalids' Fund Anatoliy Vovk said the worst affected of the 95,500 disabled victims receive a monthly pension of about 219 hryvna (dlrs 41) while others get as little as 129 hryvna (dlrs 24). And many of those payouts are long overdue. The government's debt to Chernobyl victims is 543 million hryvna (dlrs 100 million), he said. Vovk and Pokutnyi praised U.N. projects being developed to provide direct aid to specific victims, but stressed that Chernobyl zone development measures — including efforts to boost tourism to the region — are not realistic. "We signed agreements with domestic tourism agencies five years ago, but none of them functions," Pokutnyi said. "We'll travel there in 100 years, not earlier." About 7,500 foreigners have visited the Chernobyl zone over the past 15 years, mostly journalists and scientists who receive special permissions, he said. Chernobyl's No. 4 reactor exploded April 26, 1986 and sent a radioactive cloud over vast parts of then-Soviet Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and parts of western Europe. The plant was closed for good in 2000, but many environmental problems persist. In Russia, President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) signed a decree released Tuesday granting state awards to 25 so-called Russian "liquidators" who helped cleanup the aftermath of the disaster. Three of those honored have already died. (ms/tv/adc) Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 19 Belarus experts say radiation declining after Chernobyl disaster BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 23, 2002 Minsk, 22 April, ITAR-TASS correspondents Larisa Klyuchnikova and Andrey Fomin: The results of a radiation check carried out by Belarusian medical services show that the amount of radionuclides in the staple foods is stabilizing further, Belarusian experts told a news conference devoted to the 16th anniversary of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. They have registered a decrease in the number of samples that contain radionuclides of caesium-137 and strontium-90 exceeding permitted amounts in milk and diary products, meat, potatoes, fruit, bread and baby food produced by state-owned enterprises. At the same time, samples of "contaminated" milk were found in 325 towns in Belarus last year, mainly in private farms. The chairman of the national commission for radiation protection under the Belarus Council of Ministers, Yakov Kenigsberg, has said that the norms for the amount of radionuclides in foodstuffs and drinking water have been toughened since 1990. At the moment, the 1999 norms are valid in Belarus and are identical to those accepted in Russia and Ukraine for staples... Source: ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in Russian 1540 gmt 22 Apr 02 /© BBC Monitoring ***************************************************************** 20 Greenpeace takes Sydney reactor issue to court Asia Times: [http://www.asiatimes-chinese.com] April 23, 2002 atimes.com SYDNEY - Greenpeace has been granted an expedited hearing to launch a Federal Court challenge next month to the planned nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights in Sydney. Federal government approval for a second reactor worth A$300 million (US$160 million) was given this month despite intense pressure from environmentalists and some sections of the local community. The replacement reactor project is the largest single investment in Australian science history. Patrick Larkin, barrister for Greenpeace, told the Federal Court in Sydney that an expedited hearing is necessary as construction has already begun on the foundations. If the project is later declared unlawful, all government money spent will have been wasted, he said. The application is not opposed by the defendants, Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (Arpansa) and Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization (ANSTO). In granting the application, Justice Catherine Branson said the hearing will likely be heard over two days in the second half of May on a date to be fixed. The environmental group will argue that the decision to go ahead with the project is illegal, Greenpeace campaigner James Courtney said. "We don't believe that Arpansa are protecting the interests of the Australian people," Courtney said. "This is the Australian regulatory body who are supposed to be protecting us from decisions that could be potentially dangerous. We don't believe they are doing their job properly. There's a huge hole in the ground into which the Australian federal government plans to pour millions and millions of dollars of taxpayers' money. The nuclear industry cannot manage radioactive waste. There is no way of making it safe." The facility will be built by Argentine company INVAP and is due to be up and running by 2005. Medical and scientific groups hailed the decision to build the reactor, with the chair of the New South Wales Cancer Council Radiation Oncology Working Group, Professor Michael Barton, saying major diagnostic and therapeutic benefits will follow. Australian Democrats leader Natasha Stott Despoja said the push for a second nuclear reactor in Sydney is irresponsible in the absence of plans to handle the radioactive waste. Senator Stott Despoja said INVAP is in a "precarious financial state" as Argentina's economy continues to melt down. She said the state of South Australia is strongly against a plan to site a nuclear waste dump in its outback lands. "Major issues such as these must be resolved as part of a stringent approval process, not deferred to some point in the future," Senator Stott Despoja said. "Science Minister [Peter McGauran]'s confidence that everything will be resolved at some stage is irresponsible complacency." Despoja said the federal government is hiding behind claims that it cannot release more information about the replacement reactor because of commercial reasons and national security. "The Australian Democrats will continue to oppose the reactor and to fight against a decision made without openness, without accountability and without the support of the Australian community," she said. Meanwhile, secret reports about the risk of a September 11-style terrorist strike on Sydney's new nuclear reactor should be released, the New South Wales Greens party said. Greens New South Wales member of parliament (MP) Lee Rhiannon said she was shocked that the approval of the replacement reactor has been so secretive. It failed to address the problem of nuclear-waste disposal, which she said is inadequate. "We are shocked that Arpansa would keep secret their analysis of the security and radioactive waste disposal shortcomings of the reactor proposal," Rhiannon said. "If the government was confident that the second reactor is safe then they would make public all the relevant information. Major nuclear regulatory authorities around the world are making major changes to security regimes to cope with the risks of a September 11-style attack on a reactor facility." The reactor is directly under the flight path to Sydney airport and is "within easy striking distance" of terrorists, Rhiannon said. "The state government is negligent to offer no opposition to the federal government's plan to endanger Sydney by building a new reactor," she said. (Asia Times Online/Asia Pulse) ©2001 Asia Times Online Co., Ltd. Room 6301, The Center, 99 Queen's Road, Central, Hong Kong ***************************************************************** 21 Finnish nuclear reactor restarted after power supply glitch Monday, 22-Apr-2002 9:40AM Story from AFP Copyright 2002 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) HELSINKI, April 22 (AFP) - An 850 megawatt nuclear reactor on Finland's western coast, near the town of Rauma some 250 kilometers (150 miles) northwest of Helsinki, was restarted Monday after being shut down due to power supply problems at the weekend, Finnish news agency FNB reported. Officials said Saturday's incident was insignificant, adding that it proved that the reactor's security systems worked as intended. Finland currently has two nuclear power plants with two reactors each, providing one-third of the country's electricity. Parliament is set to vote on building a fifth reactor in May after the government sanctioned a proposal on the matter earlier this year. ***************************************************************** 22 Environmental group protests at TVA facility Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 12:42 p.m. on Tuesday, April 23, 2002 CHATTANOOGA (AP) -- About two dozen environmental activists observed Earth Day outside Tennessee Valley Authority offices protesting the possible restart of an old nuclear reactor in Alabama. Katuah Earth First chapter spokesman John Johnson said TVA should be spending money on safer forms of energy generation, such as wind and solar power. "I think people have been hoodwinked" about nuclear power, Johnson said Monday. "TVA has been the butter on the bread for so long." Johnson said the projected $1.7 billion cost of restarting the Unit 1 reactor at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant near Athens, Ala., could instead pay for a lot of wind turbines and solar panels. "You don't get radioactive waste that lasts for 10,000 years," he said. TVA spokesman Gil Francis said in a telephone interview that the utility has made no decision about retstarting the Unit 1 reactor at Browns Ferry. He said TVA directors were "still doing their analysis." The TVA board could vote as early as next month on whether to begin the project. Plans call for creating enough capacity to serve more than 650,000 homes. Francis said the environmental considerations would be a factor in the decision. TVA employees smiled as the protesters handed them leaflets outside the downtown office complex, including a store where the utility's own Earth Day T-shirts were displayed. All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 23 NRC Approves Power Uprate for South Texas Project, Units 1 and 2 NRC: Press Release - 2002 - 51 - 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] No. 02-051 April 22, 2002 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved a request by South Texas Project (STP) Nuclear Operating Company to increase the generating capacity of the STP, Units 1 and 2, by 1.4 percent, or 18 megawatts. The power uprate at the plant, near Bay City, Texas, will increase the generating capacity of each reactor to about 1268 megawatts of electricity. The facility intends to implement the power uprate at Unit 1 this summer, and at Unit 2 this fall, following replacement of steam generators at Unit 2. The application for the power increase was submitted to the NRC on August 22, 2001. The NRC's evaluation of the requested power uprate for the plant focused on several areas, including nuclear steam supply systems, instrumentation and control systems, electrical systems, accident calculations, radiological consequences, operations and technical specification changes. The NRC staff determined that the licensee could safely increase the power output of the reactor by making certain plant instrumentation modifications. ***************************************************************** 24 Chernobyl victims skeptical about radioactive zone's redevelopment AP Tue Apr 23, 9:03 AM ET By MARINA SYSOYEVA, Associated Press Writer KIEV, Ukraine - Representatives of Chernobyl victims' groups in Ukraine expressed skepticism Tuesday about initiatives to redevelop infrastructure in the isolated zone around the now-defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant. "The proposals to make the zone self-sufficient are groundless," said Pavlo Pokutnyi, an activist with Ukraine's Chernobyl Union, a non-governmental organization. U.N. Undersecretary-General for humanitarian affairs Kenzo Oshima visited Ukraine in early April, advocating a shift from humanitarian measures to sustainable economic development for the Chernobyl region's residents and for more than 200,000 people who helped clean up the world's worst nuclear accident. Pokutnyi spoke at a news conference in the capital Kiev two days before the 16th anniversary of the explosion and fire at Chernobyl, which affected about 3.3 million Ukrainians, including 1.5 million children. Victims groups say they need special social support because of their health problems and because they were forced to evacuate their homes in the contaminated zone. All territory within 30 kilometers (18 miles) of the nuclear plant was evacuated and has been closed off to outsiders for years. The Head of the Chernobyl Invalids' Fund Anatoliy Vovk said the worst affected of the 95,500 disabled victims receive a monthly pension of about 219 hryvna (dlrs 41) while others get as little as 129 hryvna (dlrs 24). And many of those payouts are long overdue. The government's debt to Chernobyl victims is 543 million hryvna (dlrs 100 million), he said. Vovk and Pokutnyi praised U.N. projects being developed to provide direct aid to specific victims, but stressed that Chernobyl zone development measures — including efforts to boost tourism to the region — are not realistic. "We signed agreements with domestic tourism agencies five years ago, but none of them functions," Pokutnyi said. "We'll travel there in 100 years, not earlier." About 7,500 foreigners have visited the Chernobyl zone over the past 15 years, mostly journalists and scientists who receive special permissions, he said. Chernobyl's No. 4 reactor exploded April 26, 1986 and sent a radioactive cloud over vast parts of then-Soviet Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and parts of western Europe. The plant was closed for good in 2000, but many environmental problems persist. In Russia, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree released Tuesday granting state awards to 25 so-called Russian "liquidators" who helped cleanup the aftermath of the disaster. Three of those honored have already died. (ms/tv/adc) Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 25 Justice for Cold War heroes Albuquerque Tribune Online TAGS BETWEEN PARAGRAPHS AS SHOWN --> Instead of following Congress' intent to compensate Cold War workers for work-induced illnesses, the Energy Department is looking for excuses not to offer compensation, which ultimately could cut into nuclear weapons program and research budgets TODAY'S BYLINE Ortiz and Silver are with Los Alamos P.O.W.S., the Project on Worker Safety, based in Espanola. The Project's 26-page report, "Justice Delayed: New Mexico Lags Behind in Implementation of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act," was issued on March 18. That is the second anniversary of the landmark public meeting in Espa§ola on Los Alamos worker health concerns. By Ben Ortiz and Ken Silver "Promises and pie crusts," goes the adage, "are made to be broken." It was all mom-and-apple-pie when Congress passed the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act just before Election Day 2000. Help was on the way for "Cold War heroes" made ill in nuclear weapons plants. We campaigned for the legislation and cheered its passage. But the Department of Energy's (DOE) implementation plan is hard to swallow. Congress called for an "efficient, uniform and adequate compensation" system for all nuclear weapons workers. Families impacted by beryllium disease, silicosis, or radiation-related cancer are entitled to lump sum payments of $150,000 and medical benefits through claims administered by the U.S. Department of Labor. Unfortunately, Congress balked at including "other toxic substances" - like solvents, asbestos, acids and heavy metals - in the federal compensation program. For DOE workers made ill from toxic substances, DOE is supposed to provide "assistance" through a Physicians Panel to help workers obtain state workers' compensation. If these doctors determine an illness to be chemically related, then DOE is supposed to order the contractor to pay up. Most DOE contractors, including Los Alamos, are self-insured. The federal government can simply reimburse the claims as an operating cost. However, a year-and-a-half after the law was signed, DOE has yet to issue final regulations. DOE's proposed rule will likely violate all three Congressional intentions. It's inefficient. It's not uniform across the DOE weapons complex. And the compensation will not be adequate. Nine members of Congress recently wrote a letter to Energy Secretary Abraham questioning whether DOE's proposed system is workable. Inefficient DOE will require its Physicians Panels to apply the workers' compensation law of the state in which the illness occurred, when it comes to medical causation. These should be questions of medicine and science, not law. It's plainly inefficient to make Physicians Panels parse dozens of different state laws in figuring out whether an illness is work-related. Let doctors be doctors - not lawyers. Help might be on the way if qualified occupational medicine specialists are allowed to do their job. Not Uniform The lack of uniformity across the DOE complex is bad news for families in New Mexico. We know a carpenter at Johnson Controls, a main operations contractor in Los Alamos, who hasn't worked in over a year, due to worsening asbestosis, noncancerous scarring of the lungs. But he won't receive help under DOE's system unless he meets the criteria of New Mexico law for asbestosis. Here's the rub: Under state law you need to have been exposed to asbestos for at least 1,250 work shifts in New Mexico in the last ten years. This draconian requirement flies in the face of current medical science. Just a few months' exposure can cause asbestosis. The disease typically takes 15 to 30 years to show up. DOE knows all this. But it has decided not to implement a uniform federal system, one based on current medical science. If the DOE Physicians Panel Rule is allowed to stand, then a carpenter with asbestosis at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in California - where state law is more in step with medical science - is more likely to get compensated than a carpenter who was similarly exposed at Los Alamos. The Los Alamos carpenter might be just as ill, but he will have to jump over New Mexico's higher legal hurdle. This isn't an isolated case. According to doctors from Johns Hopkins University, 28 current LANL or JCI workers have asbestosis. Another 113 workers had x-ray evidence of pleural abnormalities, a sign of asbestos exposure. And other LANL workers have developed mesothelioma, a fatal cancer whose only known cause is asbestos. People affected by chemical solvents won't fare much better under the DOE Physicians Panel Rule. One of this article's authors, Ben Ortiz, contracted respiratory and neurological illnesses from chemicals at Los Alamos. After he was "medically terminated" in 1989, he filed a claim for New Mexico workers' compensation. At first, LANL denied that Ortiz's illnesses were work-related. So he was examined out-of-state by a nationally-recognized specialist. He made an occupational diagnosis. But then a crooked lawyer took his legal fees and went on the lam. The statute of limitations under state law ran out. He was denied compensation. He'll be out of luck if DOE's Physicians Panel Rule defers to the state statute of limitations. Moreover, the LANL contractor, the University of California, has asked DOE to allow it to opt out of the worker assistance program, leaving them free to continue their scorched earth policy of fighting valid compensation claims. This would completely unravel the assistance program passed by Congress. Not Adequate If anyone doubts that New Mexico workers' compensation is a nightmare, take the case of a security guard at LANL whom we know quite well. In December 1998 a carboy of nitric acid ruptured, filling his work area with fumes. He was overcome and taken to the hospital. He'd always been in good shape. But when he tried to return to work a few weeks later, he nearly fainted on the treadmill, due to breathing problems. Except for two checks around Christmas of 1998, the security guard has not been receiving New Mexico workers' compensation. An in-state doctor opined that his chronic cough might be due to pre-existing acid reflux (stomach) disease. Experts at the National Jewish Respiratory Medical Center in Denver laid that shill issue to rest. Their diagnosis: bronchiolitis obliterans, or life-threatening lung damage caused by nitric acid. The best New Mexico workers' compensation has been able to offer the security guard is a measly lump sum settlement, barely enough to cover his prescription medications for three years. What is a family man with severe respiratory problems supposed to do when the money runs out? "Government to National Security Guard: Drop Dead" would be an apt headline if this story were front page news. Officeholders and office seekers take note: The worst devastation to the security guard's livelihood and family has taken place after all of the proclamations about compensation for "Cold War heroes" began in early 1999. Congress: We need help The New Mexico Congressional delegation should hold an "all hands meeting" on the compensation program. DOE should have to answer to New Mexicans about why it has failed to adopt a uniform federal system for toxic substances that is based on current medical science. If the answers don't cut it, then our elected officials should co-sponsor legislation to strip DOE of its duties under the compensation law for toxic substances and transfer them to the U.S. Department of Labor. Under the Labor Department, there would be a uniform federal standard. Congress can specify that contractor workers receive adequate compensation. Bureaucracies are never perfect, but at least the Labor Department doesn't have an inherent conflict of interest. DOE's conflict is that it doesn't want federal funds earmarked for defense, science and environmental management to be redirected into a program to compensate workers made sick on the job. DOL is also free of a Cold War legacy of denial - that strange compulsion which causes the DOE to take citizens' highest hopes for decency and fairness, and turn them into dross. Print this [http://www.abqtrib.com/print/index.cfm] © The Albuquerque Tribune. ***************************************************************** 26 Dental labs get beryllium alert Chicago Tribune | OSHA warns that toxic metal poses threat to workers How beryllium can affect dental industry (Chicago Tribune) April 23, 2002 By Sam Roe Tribune staff reporter In a rare move, federal regulators are warning thousands of dental laboratories that they might be exposing workers to harmful levels of beryllium, a highly toxic metal used in the production of crowns and bridges. The warning, to be issued Tuesday in the form of a health hazard bulletin, states that several dental lab technicians have contracted a potentially fatal lung disease after inhaling tiny amounts of beryllium dust. America's dental labs "should certainly not be complacent," said John Henshaw, head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which is issuing the warning. "They should be very alert at how the material may be in the air and then take the precautions to avoid inhalation." The Tribune reported last year that dental labs across the nation were using materials containing beryllium without proper safeguards, such as respirators. OSHA said it would mail the nine-page warning to dental labs and post it on the agency's Web site. There are about 7,300 dental labs and 42,000 dental technicians nationwide, U.S. census statistics show. The number of labs using beryllium is not known, but a Tribune spot check of 31 in the Chicago area found that 16, or about half, use the metal. The warning applies only to dental laboratories and not to dental offices unless they cut or grind beryllium, OSHA said. And the risks to patients appear remote: Scientists said they did not know of anyone contracting the disease from having a beryllium crown or bridge in the mouth. Beryllium is usually associated with the defense industry as the strong, lightweight metal that has been used for decades in nuclear weapons, tanks and missiles. As the Cold War waned, beryllium producers increasingly searched for other markets, including the dental industry. Small amounts of beryllium are frequently mixed with other metals to improve the strength of crowns and bridges. These beryllium alloys are often cast, ground and polished in dental laboratories, which then sell the finished pieces to dentists. In solid form, beryllium appears to be safe. But when the metal is cut, polished or otherwise altered, the resulting dust can cause an incurable lung disease. Studies show that about 3 percent of those exposed develop the illness, sometimes decades after their last exposure. OSHA's hazard bulletin recommends that dental labs use ventilation, respirators and protective clothing to limit beryllium dust exposure. Employers should also regularly test the air and, where possible, use substitutes for beryllium. Workers with possible symptoms of beryllium disease--coughing, shortness of breath and fatigue--are urged to contact their physicians. Others who are concerned are urged to take a blood test to determine whether they have blood abnormalities linked to the disease. Though beryllium disease is incurable, scientists say early detection allows for treatments that can attempt to limit lung damage. OSHA cited several scientific reports since 1993 that detailed beryllium disease among dental technicians. One case involves a Florida woman who was diagnosed with the illness in 2000 after working at two dental labs. At one lab she wore only a surgical-type paper mask, which does not prevent beryllium inhalation. OSHA officials said the agency became concerned about beryllium disease in the dental industry in January 2001, when Dr. Lee Newman of the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver informed the agency of a recent case. "We are definitely seeing beryllium disease--sometimes severe forms of the disease--in dental laboratory technicians," Newman said. "It was time for OSHA to take some action." OSHA officials also credited the Tribune report and similar research by the environmental group Ohio Citizen Action for demonstrating the need for a hazard bulletin. The National Association of Dental Laboratories said it would share OSHA's warning with its 1,700 members. President Richard Harrell said the association "wants its members and the industry to have all available information related to potential health hazards." This is the first hazard bulletin OSHA has issued this year and the seventh in the last three years. In 1999, OSHA issued a bulletin warning workers that government safety standards might not be protecting them from beryllium dust. The legal limit is 2 micrograms per cubic meter of air, equivalent to the amount of dust the size of a pencil tip spread throughout a 6-foot-high box the size of a football field. But several studies have found that workers have contracted the disease at exposures under this amount. OSHA is studying whether to tighten the legal limit, but the rule-making process could take years. Copyright © 2002, Chicago Tribune ***************************************************************** 27 Nuke sites at risk, warns Democrat congressman WorldNetDaily: APRIL 23 2002 HOMELAND INSECURITY Nuke sites at risk, warns Democrat congressman Says Energy Department needs increased funding to improve safety Posted: April 23, 2002 By Jon Dougherty A Massachusetts Democrat is criticizing the Bush administration's decision to reject a funding increase request by the Department of Energy to upgrade emergency response capabilities and improve safety at its nuclear sites. Rep. Ed Markey, in letters sent to President George W. Bush and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, lambasted the Office of Management and Budget's rejection, saying now that DOE "finally admits that security is not what it should be," the White House is refusing to help. "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 Energy and Commerce Committee and co-chair of the Bipartisan Task Force on Nonproliferation. He said DOE requested supplemental funds from OMB March 14 "to improve safeguards and security at DOE facilities," but "that request was rejected." Then, on March 28, he said Bruce M. Carnes of DOE sent a letter to Marcus Peacock at OMB "expressing [Energy's] disappointment that OMB rejected its budget request" without giving the agency "the opportunity to discuss its concerns" prior to the rejection. OMB rejected the DOE request, Markey said, because the agency "has not completed … the revised Design Basis Threat," a document that outlines the basis for physical security measures. DOE's Carnes, in his letter, said the agency "was not operating, nor can it operate, under the pre-September 11 Design Basis Threat." "Until that is revised," DOE said, "we must operate under Interim Implementing Guidance, and you [OMB] have not provided resources to enable us to do so." Amy Call, a spokeswoman for OMB, said Bush has made security at the nation's nuclear facilities a top priority, and that Congress approved a $110 million supplemental to the fiscal 2002 budget to boost security at the labs. She also said Bush was seeking an extra $650 million to protect the facilities in his 2003 budget, adding that OMB was still reviewing Energy's funding request, and that the money could be provided following the completion of a "vulnerability assessment." "Obviously security is important and this is an issue we're working on," she told The Associated Press Monday. That exchange comes nearly three months after Markey sent a letter to Abraham Jan. 23 "regarding the inadequacy of security at DOE facilities." He said that letter had yet to be answered. DOE denies its facilities are at risk. "Allegations that the [department] has lax security at its nuclear weapons facilities are false and misleading," said Gen. John Gordon, USAF (Ret.), undersecretary of Energy and administration of the National Nuclear Security Administration. "I have assessed the security conditions at our sites many times and I personally reviewed our posture immediately following the terrorist attacks in September," he said in a Jan. 23 statement. "While we welcome serious inquiries into the Department's security practices, it is unfortunate that some try to create a climate of fear grossly disproportionate to the risks to the public." Nevertheless, in his current letter to Bush, Markey requested the president's "immediate assistance" to ensure "these funds are included in the supplemental budget request," and that Bush "ensures the security of DOE's nuclear weapons facilities becomes and remains a high priority for the administration." Markey has been an outspoken critic of alleged security gaps at the nation's nuclear sites. In a March 25 report, "Security Gap: A Hard Look At the Soft Spots in Our Civilian Nuclear Reactor Security" – which reportedly analyzed "more than 100 pages of Nuclear Regulatory Commission correspondence" sent to Markey – the congressman said "there is little comfort to be found in the agency's response to my questions." "Black hole after black hole" in security "is described and left unaddressed," Markey said. Post Sept. 11, "a nuclear safety agency that does not know – and seems little interested in finding out – the nationality of nuclear reactor workers or the level of resources being spent on security at these sensitive facilities is not doing its job." His report found: Twenty-one nuclear reactors in the U.S. are located within five miles of an airport, but 96 percent of all U.S. reactors were designed without regard for "the potential for impact from even a small aircraft"; The NRC "does not know what its licensees spend on security or how many security guards are employed at each reactor"; "Aircraft impact to the containment structure of a nuclear reactor is not the only way an aircraft could cause a full-scale core meltdown"; It took "the NRC almost six months after 9/11 to require enhanced security at nuclear reactors"; The agency has "historically failed to adjust the security regulations to meet the evolving threat[s], and has yet to begin a permanent revision of security regulations following the events of Sept. 11." Markey's report also found that the nuclear safety agency "does not know how many foreign nationals are employed at nuclear reactors," nor does it "require adequate background checks of nuclear reactor employees that would determine whether an employee was a member of a terrorist organization." Nuclear security has also been criticized by the Project on Government Oversight, a government watchdog agency that published a report critical of nuclear weapons security in October 2001. Gordon said POGO used "outdated data" to draw its conclusions. "In the mid-1990s, when budgets were severely cut and security was progressively degraded, there was a higher level of risk. Now we aggressively protect our people, facilities, and material, and we display a formidable security posture to potential attackers," he said. "Our forces are well-trained and well-equipped. They are tested by outside challengers, often to failure – so we know where weaknesses are. Then we fix the problem." Jon E. Dougherty is a staff reporter and columnist for WorldNetDaily, and author of the special report, "Election 2000: How the Military Vote Was Suppressed." © 2002 WorldNetDaily.com, Inc. ***************************************************************** 28 N.J. stockpiles tablets to fight nuclear ills Tuesday, April 23, 2002 TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey will stockpile 867,000 potassium iodide tablets — two for each person living within 10 miles of a nuclear plant — as part of the state's emergency preparedness program, officials announced. Potassium iodide can help prevent thyroid damage from a radiation release. New Jersey has three nuclear power plants, one in Ocean County and two in Salem County. © 2002 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 29 Firefighters want portable radiation detectors [enquirer.com] http://cincinnati.com Monday, April 22, 2002 The Associated Press COLUMBUS — The city's firefighters could become the first in Ohio to use pocket-size radiation detectors instead of bulkier Geiger counters to help determine whether they have encountered radioactive material. Fire officials have proposed buying about 55 radiation pagers manufactured by Sensor Technology Engineering of Santa Barbara, Calif. They cost $1,750 each. Although an encounter with dangerous radioactive material is unlikely, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 have made the possibility of encountering radiation less far-fetched. Without a detection device, “We have no idea if we or the citizens out there are being exposed,” fire Battalion Chief Mike Foote said. [http://enquirer.com] , a [http://www.gannett.com] newspaper. ***************************************************************** 30 What Price Nuclear Security? CBS News | WASHINGTON, April 23, 2002 (AP / CBS) "The White House refuses to deal with the consequences of September 11...That is very scary." Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. (CBS) The Energy Department warned the White House last month that it lacked the money to protect U.S. nuclear weapons research facilities against potential terrorist attacks, according to an internal letter released Monday. Rep. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, called on the White House to promptly respond to the March 28 letter from Bruce Carnes, the Energy Department's chief financial officer, to Marcus Peacock, an associate director at the White House Office of Management and Budget. "The Department of Energy is begging for the extra money," said Markey, a senior member of the House Energy Committee. "The money...should be released immediately." White House officials replied such funds could be provided within months, after a security review of the department. Markey released a copy of the letter, in which Carnes wrote "the department's remaining safeguards and security budgets are not sufficient to implement the security posture requirements that appropriately respond to the Sept. 11 attacks." "We are disconcerted that OMB (last month) refused our security supplemental request," Carnes wrote. The additional amount of money sought by the Energy Department has not been made public, but as Markey put it, "The department has made clear the amount they have is not enough." Markey criticized the White House for failing to provide the money, saying that 10 Energy Department sites around the country may contain enough weapons-grade plutonium and uranium to build a crude atomic bomb. "The White House refuses to deal with the consequences of September 11," he said. "That is very scary." He cited reports that members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network viewed U.S. nuclear sites as attractive targets. The United States accuses al Qaeda of masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. "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. "But when DOE finally admits that security is not what it should be, OMB refuses to help," he said. Office of Management and Budget spokeswoman Amy Call said Congress approved a $110 million supplement to the fiscal 2002 budget to boost security at the labs, and that President Bush was seeking an extra $650 million to protect the facilities in his 2003 budget. Call said OMB was still reviewing the department's funding request and could provide the extra money once a review assessing vulnerability of U.S. sites is completed. "Obviously security is important and this is an issue we're working on," Call said. A frequent critic of security at federal and commercial nuclear facilities, Markey said the White House and DOE have not "put security at the top of their list. Clearly they've decided that even security has to be compromised." Lisa Cutler, a spokeswoman for the DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration, said there is adequate money to meet security needs at weapons facilities and nuclear research labs. While declining to speak to Carnes' letter specifically, she said "there are always discussions within the administration on the best way to meet the security challenges." But Cutler said, "If we find that we have any funding shortfalls we will take steps. We will work with OMB or redirect funds from other programs to make sure security needs are met." ©MMII CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Reuters Limited and the Associated Press contributed to this report. • U.S. Targets Taliban Leaders • FBI, State Department Issue Warnings • The Fear Of Radiation • Big Win For 9/11 Training Suspect • Pearl Worried About Assignment • German Terror Sweep Nets 11 • WTC Police Dog Remembered • The Mechanics Of A 'Dirty Bomb' [http://www.cbsnews.com] Since the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, fears of a nuclear attack have been raised. Find out how a nuclear bomb can destroy, what effect radiation has on the human body, where nuclear sites are located in the U.S. and what you can do to protect yourself. ***************************************************************** 31 Markey, Energy Department anti-terror money is insufficient By H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press, 4/23/2002 06:13 WASHINGTON (AP) The Energy Department complained to the White House in recent weeks that it was not getting the money to protect against terrorists at its nuclear facilities, according to a letter made public Monday. In the letter, Bruce Carnes, a senior DOE budget director, complained that his department did not have enough money ''to implement the security ... requirements'' needed in response to last September's terrorist attacks. The letter, dated March 28, was sent to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) at a time when administration officials, including senior DOE officials, were saying security at the nuclear facilities was at a high level and adequate to meet the terrorist threat. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who released the letter Monday, said it shows ''the White House refuses to deal with the consequences of September 11. ... That is very scary.'' A frequent critic of security at federal and commercial nuclear facilities, Markey said the White House and DOE have not ''put security at the top of their list. Clearly they've decided that even security has to be compromised.'' Lisa Cutler, a spokeswoman for the DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration, said there is adequate money to meet security needs at weapons facilities and nuclear research labs. While declining to speak to Carnes' letter specifically, she said ''there are always discussions within the administration on the best way to meet the security challenges.'' But Cutler said, ''If we find that we have any funding shortfalls we will take steps. We will work with OMB or redirect funds from other programs to make sure security needs are met.'' In his letter, Carnes complained that the OMB had ''refused our security supplemental (budget) request'' because the government had not yet completed its revamping of a general security document that outlines what kinds of threats the government must be prepared to defend against. Carnes wrote to OMB that until the new so-called ''design basis threat'' document is completed the department must work under interim security guidelines reflecting conditions since Sept. 11 ''and you have not provided resources to enable us to do so.'' When Markey was critical of security at the federal research labs and other nuclear facilities in January, John Gordon, director of the DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration, strongly disputed suggestions that security was inadequate. Markey said that contrasts sharply from the tone of Carnes' letter. He said he wants to know why OMB ''rejected (the) request for additional funds'' to implement new security guidelines. Boston Globe ***************************************************************** 32 South Carolina Troopers Practice Plutonium Blockade Las Vegas SUN April 23, 2002 NEW ELLENTON, S.C.- State troopers got a taste of what might be in store next month during a mock exercise in which they practiced blocking a shipment of plutonium from Colorado. Gov. Jim Hodges, who is locked in a dispute with the Department of Energy over the shipments, ordered the practice drill Monday for about three dozen state troopers and transport police officers. As part of the drill, patrol cars blocked a four-lane road near the Savannah River Site, a nuclear facility about 10 miles from the Georgia state line. Officers declared the exercise a success after managing to convince the driver of an 18-wheel tractor-trailer - in reality, a vehicle borrowed from the state Department of Correction - 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. "I think they'll turn around," Hodges said. But, he added, "We'll take whatever steps are necessary to keep the plutonium out of here." The Energy Department plans to reprocess the plutonium into fuel to be used in commercial nuclear reactors. Hodges worries that the material might be stored in South Carolina permanently. "The department is extremely disappointed with Governor Hodges roadblock exercise," according to a prepared statement faxed by the agency. "Fortunately other South Carolina leaders are spending their time today working with the department toward finalizing our plutonium disposition program." A law professor said the state is likely to lose a standoff with the Energy Department. The actions of the federal government almost always take priority unless a court gets involved, said Eldon Wedlock, a constitutional law professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law. "The Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution establishes that the Constitution and the laws of the United States are the supreme law of the land," said Wedlock. Hodges, a Democrat who is up for re-election this year, has threatened to lie down in the road if necessary to block the shipments unless the Energy Department signs an agreement for the treatment and removal of the radioactive materials. The governor said state officials will have a good idea of when the plutonium will leave the Rocky Flats facility in Colorado and what route it will take. That will make it a little easier to guess which one of the 69 roads will be used to enter South Carolina, Public Safety Department spokesman Boykin Rose said. He refused to say Monday whether Georgia officials are offering any assistance to keep the material out of the state. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 33 Back to nature at Molycorp O-R Online Search Sunday, April 21, 2002 BY CHRISTIE CAMPBELL THE OBSERVER-REPORTER chriscam@observer-reporter.com Within a month, several buildings at the Molycorp plant in Canton Township will be razed as the second stage of radioactive waste removal gets under way. Under the watchful eye of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, a survey of the structures on the property is being taken to determine their level of contamination. In December 2001, Molycorp announced it would permanently shut down operations and raze all 24 of its buildings. The plant closing is due to depressed prices in the steel market. By 2004, all that will remain of the 22-acre site will be a grassy field. Molycorp produced molybdenum, a substance used to strengthen steel and make it less susceptible to rust or corrosion. Molybdenum is different from the ferrocolumbium produced at the plant between 1964 and 1970. A Brazilian ore was used in that process, producing low-level radioactive waste, which contained some uranium but mostly thorium. Much of the waste material was pulverized and used as backfill around the site and on the neighboring Findlay Refractories property. The Findlay material was excavated and shipped out of state. Now the material under several of Molycorp's own buildings must be removed. Molycorp made headlines several years ago when the company requested permission from the NRC to transfer similar material from its York County plant for permanent storage on its Canton property. A public hearing on the matter drew a large crowd opposed to the move and the plan eventually was scrapped. The most radioactive material on Molycorp's Caldwell Avenue site was buried in a slag pile. That pile and 194 roll-off boxes of material were shipped to Utah for burial at a cost of close to $10 million. In York, an estimated 3,000 cubic yards were expected to be removed. However, the company has removed more than 40,000 cubic yards of contaminated material, equal to 650 railroad cars. The cost for shipping and burial has exceeded $11 million. More material, about 130,000 cubic yards' worth, exists at the Washington plant. As part of the company's decommissioning, the property must be cleaned up and radioactive material removed before the NRC will terminate its license. MacTec Construction Inc. is in charge of overseeing the removal. The DEP will confirm whether contaminates are present in the soil. The NRC has contracted with Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education to survey the buildings for radioactive contamination. Portions of steel structures not contaminated will be sold for scrap. Molycorp, which once employed 140 people, now has a work force of two. George Dawes, its facility superintendent, said the demolition of about eight buildings could begin within three weeks. In addition to excavation, work at the site will include monitoring of ground water, surface water and sediment. Dawes said everything will be double checked by the NRC. "They have to agree that it's clean," he said. When the work is completed, the acceptable level of radioactivity there will be 25 millirams. A human is exposed to 360 millirams a year. Dawes said the company will have about a year between the completion of work and the termination of the license by the NRC. He expects a decision to be made sometime then on whether the property will be sold or if UNOCAL - Molycorp's parent company - wants to develop the property. The property is in a special district recently created by Canton Township to stimulate development near its Interstate 70 corridor. Copyright ©2002 Observer Publishing Co. ***************************************************************** 34 Michigan utility may store nuclear casks awaiting Nevada dump Las Vegas SUN April 23, 2002 MONROE, Mich. (AP) - Detroit Edison Co. may temporarily store radioactive spent fuel from its Fermi 2 nuclear plant in sealed casks outside the plant because of delays in approving a permanent nuclear waste storage center at Yucca Mountain, Nev., company officials said Tuesday. A storage pool at the plant already holds about 308 metric tons of the old fuel and won't be able to hold any more after 2010, unless Edison spends more money to enlarge its capacity, Douglas R. Gipson, Edison's executive vice president and chief nuclear officer, told The Monroe Evening News. Gipson said even if Congress moves ahead with designating Yucca Mountain as the permanent federal repository for nuclear fuel, the first shipment from Fermi probably couldn't be accepted at the site until 2023 because other plants that have been operating longer than Fermi will be given priority. Gipson told the Evening News that it's not clear that Yucca Mountain's capacity would last long enough to accept all of the Fermi fuel, but even storing it in casks above ground in Nevada would be preferable to keeping it at the Fermi site. The U.S. General Accounting Office concluded that the Department of Energy can't meet its planned 2010 date for opening a Yucca Mountain repository because of the additional data it needs to submit and the statutory timetables needed for approval and licensing of the site. The GAO acknowledged that the energy department is discussing accepting the waste and storing it above ground at the site until construction of the waste site is completed. "If they don't get over this federal repository hump, that stuff could be here for several hundred years," Gipson said. That also means the utility wouldn't be able to decommission the plant when its operating life ends. He said storing nuclear fuel in above-ground outside casks is safe, but shipping it to the remote area of Nevada is preferable. Gipson said about five people live within 50 miles of Yucca Mountain. About 5.5 million live within 50 miles of Fermi. "We're in the Great Lakes area. We should be the very last place anyone should be considering storing spent nuclear fuel," he said. --- On the Net: Detroit Edison Co., http://www.detroitedison.com/ [http://www.detroitedison.com/] All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 35 Guinn won't lie on highway to stop nuke waste Tuesday, April 23, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Although sympathetic, he doesn't intend to take same stance as South Carolina governor By ED VOGEL REVIEW-JOURNAL CAPITAL BUREAU CARSON CITY -- Unlike his counterpart in South Carolina, Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn has no plans to lie on a highway to prevent trucks hauling nuclear waste from entering the Silver State. South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges vowed Monday to do "whatever it takes" -- including lying down on the highway in an act of gubernatorial civil disobedience -- to block shipments of plutonium from entering his state. He even ordered about three dozen state troopers and transport police officers to conduct a blockade practice drill Monday. But Guinn has not mentioned to his staff that he would take a similar stance to prevent the federal government from filling a Yucca Mountain nuclear repository, even though he has been urged to do so. "We aren't close to that point," said Greg Bortolin, Guinn's press secretary. "Yucca Mountain would not open until 2010 or 2012 at the earliest, and he won't be governor then." South Carolina's crisis is much more urgent. Energy Department officials have said shipments of plutonium to a federal reprocessing facility in that state could begin by May 15. Bortolin said the Guinn administration is reluctant to make comments about what actions it may take to stop the repository since those comments might be used by Yucca Mountain supporters against Nevada. Although Nevada is sympathetic with South Carolina's plight, it has not offered any formal support or filed any friend-of-the-court legal briefs backing that state's fight against the federal government, he said. "It is safe to say Nevada is sympathetic and supportive of South Carolina," Bortolin said. Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman was far more candid Monday. He commended Hodges, and vowed to arrest any driver of a vehicle hauling nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain. "He is my kind of guy," said Goodman about Hodges. "If he wants me to come there to help, I will. If a truck comes through here, they have me to contend with." Bob Loux, the state's leading Yucca foe, said that although considering the actions that Nevada might take to stop actual nuclear waste shipments is premature, people have asked Guinn to send the National Guard to Yucca Mountain and stop the Energy Department from working. "I certainly sympathize with South Carolina having to deal with the federal government," added Loux, administrator of the Agency for Nuclear Projects. "Any governor faced with that prospect wold look at a similar scenario." Hodges, a Democrat up for re-election this year, ordered three dozen state troopers to practice blocking techniques to prevent weapons-grade plutonium from entering South Carolina. He's fighting the Energy Department, which plans to send the plutonium to his state and reprocess it into fuel for commercial nuclear reactors. Guinn, a Republican who also is up for re-election this year, is in a similar dispute with the Energy Department over its plan to ship 77,000 tons of nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. He vetoed President Bush's plan to make Yucca Mountain the nation's nuclear dump on April 8. Now Congress must decide whether to sustain or override Guinn's veto. Before Guinn thinks about civil disobedience, Bortolin said the state must exhaust its legal remedies. The Senate is not expected to vote on the veto before July. Even if Nevada loses in Congress, Bortolin said it has several lawsuits in progress challenging the nuclear repository. Furthermore, the Energy Department has not received a license yet to open Yucca Mountain. Monday's practice blockade in South Carolina drew swift condemnation by the Energy Department. "The department is extremely disappointed with Governor Hodges roadblock exercise," the DOE said in a statement. "Fortunately other South Carolina leaders are spending their time today working with the department toward finalizing our plutonium disposition program." Savannah River was one of the seven sites originally under consideration for the nation's first high-level nuclear repository. Congress later singled out Yucca Mountain as the only site under study. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 36 Nye's YMP position: Aggressive neutrality Pahrump Valley Times By RICH THURLOW, EditorApril 19, 2002 Resolution includes specific benefits, criteria county wants DOE, government to meet A position that might be called aggressive neutrality as it relates to the Yucca Mountain Project was officially adopted by the county commissioners during Tuesday's meeting in Pahrump. The commissioners adopted a neutral stance years ago, one that many believe has helped the county obtain about $65 million as compensation in the form of payments equal to taxes. Millions more has come to the county so it could hire its own scientists and conduct its own research into the suitability of the site for the storage of 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste. Yucca Mountain is located about 20 miles north of Amargosa and about 20 miles east of Beatty. Tuesday's unanimous vote supports a position that is most certainly at odds with almost every other governing body in Nevada, as well as the state's congressional delegation and top elected officials, including Gov. Kenny Guinn. All are bitterly opposed to the YMP, and the issue will take the national stage in the coming months as Congress debates the plan. Congress will determine the fate of the project sometime in late July. If the YMP survives, and many believe there are enough votes in the house and senate for that to happen, the commissioners have some specifics in mind about what they'd like to see - specifics that are spelled out in the resolution they passed Tuesday. Among them: o Nye will receive funding to continue conducting its own independent oversight and monitoring of Dept. of Energy activity though site characterization, licensing, construction, operations and performance confirmation at Yucca Mountain. The oversight funding will be permanent and not dependent on annual appropriations over the expected 50-300 years of repository operations. o Federal activities to confirm repository performance and to conduct research and development related to waste handling and potential reuse of the material will be headquartered in Nye County. The resolution notes Nye is "the only community in which repository performance, and the potential consequences of poor repository performance, would be an urgent daily concern" throughout the years of operations. o The commissioners also want the waste transportation in Nye County to be handled by a rail system that is not yet in place. o The resolution also calls for a DOE presence in the county comparable to those in other communities hosting DOE nuclear facilities, and for special federal actions to provide an opportunity to develop a viable economic and revenue base. The commissioners also intend to "vigorously communicate the perspective of the situs county perspectives, concerns and aspirations to officials in federal and state government and to other parties who have an interest in the Yucca Mountain decision, and to advocate its proposed protections in the event the federal government decides to transfer the nation's highly radioactive wastes to Yucca Mountain." The preamble focuses on the county's history as the home of the Nevada Test Site, Tonopah Test Range, and the Nellis Test and Training Range, activities that have resulted in little benefit to the county as a whole. It also notes roughly 98 percent of the county land mass, some 11 million acres, are under the jurisdiction of one or another federal agency. Along with the specifics - such as the demand that DOE and other YMP contractors have their major facilities in Nye rather than Las Vegas - there are some areas that are surprisingly nonspecific. For example, there is no mention of the continuation of PETT, though that is certainly a priority for the commissioners. Another high priority is assuring that emergency workers are appropriately trained and equipped to deal with any situation involving nuclear waste. ©Pahrump Valley Times 2002 ***************************************************************** 37 Letter: Bush could save face on Yucca Las Vegas SUN April 23, 2002 A president's legacy can be totally ruined by a single simple act that seems insignificant at the time. His approval of the transportation of high- level nuclear waste all across the United States is just such an act. Bush's war on terrorism could give him a very positive legacy. However , with each future attack on a load of this high-level nuclear waste he will be remembered as the president who provided these easy targets for terrorists. Any demented individual can derail a train or wreck a truck. It won't even take an organized band of terrorists. This is one reason that the Nevada governor has used his veto power by filing an "Official Notice of Disapproval of the Yucca Mountian Site" for the dumping of this most toxic waste. An easy face-saving move on his part would be for him to quietly let his many friends in Congress know that it will be all right with him if they do not override the Nevada governor's veto. BILL STAPP All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 38 Editorial: Gray Lady all wrong on Yucca Las Vegas SUN April 23, 2002 In a Sunday editorial the New York Times assured its readers that Nevada is just playing politics with its warning about the danger of transporting nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain. The newspaper dismissed the state's ads last week that described transportation threats, writing that they were "no reason for Congress to abort a promising plan before the issues can be analyzed." Despite the Times' implication that Nevada somehow is bringing up the issue belatedly, it is the Department of Energy that for more than a decade has stonewalled Nevada's efforts to get the federal government to own up to the dangers associated with shipping nuclear waste clear across the country. The federal government won't level with the public on the issue of transportation because to do so would increase opposition to the Yucca Mountain project. The New York Times, the same paper that broke the Pentagon Papers story that detailed 25 years of government deception in Southeast Asia, meanwhile is telling its readers to have full faith in the government's word that it can safely move nuclear waste through their cities and villages onward toward Nevada for at least the next 30 to 40 years. Particularly unnerving was the Times' argument about "two salient facts" that Nevada is "ignoring." First, the Times says, spent fuel rods "have been shipped in small quantities for decades now with no obvious harm to the public." The key words here might be "small quantities" -- as everyone knows, they would not apply to Yucca Mountain. Several paragraphs later the editorial acknowledges that in the transporting of these small quantities, there have "only" been four truck accidents and four rail accidents. While the Times should have been aware of last week's tragic Amtrak accident, and its implications for transporting by rail the world's most deadly substance, it must not have been aware of a 1996 Department of Energy report that also detailed 72 "incidents" -- four of which involved "accidental radioactive material contamination beyond the vehicle." Second, the Times says, "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." Well, that salient point isn't comforting. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which would have to sign off on Yucca Mountain, and whose decisions frequently reflect the nuclear power industry's point of view, has "found very little likelihood of an accident that would release enough radioactivity to harm the public." Surprise, surprise. But how little is very little? How little of a chance can we afford to take? That's what Nevada is asking. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 39 House Yucca vote likely to mirror panel's Las Vegas SUN April 23, 2002 Dump advocates hope lopsided result will sway senators By Benjamin Grove WASHINGTON -- The expected approval of a Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump by a House subcommittee today likely will set up an overwhelming vote of support for the project by the full House, congressional sources said. In a vote as early as next week, as many as 300 lawmakers in the 435-member House could support the proposal to dump the nation's nuclear waste in Nevada, several sources said. Not content with a mere majority, lobbyists who aggressively advocate the project are working to orchestrate a crushing victory. The House's vocal advocates for Yucca also are working to assure wide pro-Yucca margins today in the House Energy and Air Quality subcommittee; on Thursday in the full Energy and Commerce Committee; and then in the full House. They want to roll the measure into the Senate with impressive momentum, sources said. "I expect that this hearing will reaffirm my confidence in the suitability of Yucca Mountain, and the appropriateness of deciding once and for all that Yucca Mountain is the site that (Energy Department) should try to license," Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, subcommittee chairman, said during the first House hearing on the Yucca resolution last week. It has been widely known that a majority of the House favors the proposal to permanently bury 77,000 tons of the nation's most radioactive waste in tunnels under the Nevada desert ridge. But pro-Yucca lobbyists, including officials at the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's top trade and lobby group, are still pursuing House members. Lobbyists are trying to "get the best House vote we can," spokesman J. Scott Peterson said. "Anytime you look at legislation, you want the best vote possible in both the House and the Senate," Peterson said. "A strong House vote makes for a more compelling case in the Senate." The Senate is expected to vote by the end of July, and some insiders say its vote could be closer. To keep the pressure on, NEI launched an advertising campaign, with AM radio commercials in the Washington area and ads in the Washington Post, Newsweek and Time magazines. This week a NEI commercial that touts the clean-air benefits of nuclear power began running. The commercials, airing on CNN, Fox, MSNBC and the History and Discovery channels, will run through next month. The spot features children playing. The announcer begins: "Know a kid today? They're part of the most energy-intensive generation in history. They demand lots of electricity -- and clean air. Don't tell them you have to sacrifice the environment for technology." It concludes: "We need reliable electricity for the 21st century -- but we also need clean air. With nuclear energy, we can have both." If the House passes the Yucca measure by a staggering margin, it becomes more difficult for Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., to rally senators against it, Reid said. "It sure doesn't help," Reid said. He said he was counting on Nevada's two House members to corral as many of colleagues as possible to vote against Yucca. Reps. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., are scrambling this week, they said. Gibbons personally implored House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois, Majority Leader Richard Armey of Texas and Majority Whip Tom DeLay, also of Texas, to tone down their avid support for Yucca. The leaders are allowing Gibbons room to lobby some of fellow Republicans, Gibbons said. Nuclear industry lobbyists aren't as accommodating. Gibbons said he had a list of "20 to 30" GOP colleagues whom he is leaning on to vote against Yucca Mountain. The lawmakers do not have nuclear power plants in their states but represent districts on proposed waste transportation routes. "The problem I have is that every time I get someone to consider our position, they get hit with a (lobbying) steamroller from the nuclear energy industry," Gibbons said. "They are literally arm-twisting members into submission." Gibbons declined to comment on whether 300 lawmakers were prepared to support Yucca. "I'm not going to agree to that (number)," Gibbons said. "But we've got our work cut out for us." Berkley enlisted the help of House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri and Minority Whip Nancy Pelosi of California. Access to the whip operation will allow Berkley to get a rough count of pro- and anti-Yucca Democrats -- and those undecided -- just before the vote. "There are no guarantees in any of this," Berkley said. "The Democrats are a pretty independent bunch. They don't go in lockstep with anybody." It's not clear if the House vote will influence the Senate. "The Senate is a unique body that operates quite differently than the House," Greg Christ, spokesman for Armey, said. "Vote counts are important, but we don't see it as a final predictor of how the Senate is going to act." Anti-Yucca activist Anna Aurilio agreed the GOP-controlled House and Democratic-controlled Senate often act independently of one another. "Sometimes you'll see the House stand up to the Senate and vice versa," Aurilio, legislative director for U.S. Public Interest Research Group, said. "Occasionally you have a real showdown." Few senators are likely to be awed by the House vote on Yucca because strong House approval is so widely expected, several activists said. "They (the House) already had momentum," Aurilio said. "No one was expecting a real fight in the House, unfortunately. It's time for the Senate to be the real deliberative body, the body that is not influenced by campaign contributions." For an example of the House-Senate split, look no further than the recent controversy over oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The House supported it; the Senate shot it down last week. "The Senate is a completely different place," said Ed Rothschild, a principal at Podesta-Mattoon who is working with lobbyist John Podesta to help Nevada Democrats coordinate anti-Yucca lobbying. "The Senate makes its own decisions." Founding fathers created the Senate to give smaller states an equal voice with other states, even if their arguments are drowned out in the House, said congressional expert Christopher Deering, George Washington University political science professor. So a House vote can have little influence on the upper chamber, he said. Still, pro-Yucca lobbyists may believe an overwhelming House vote will grab them attention from senators, Deering said. "They want to send a message that we're an industry with considerable clout," Deering said. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 40 Bankers exhorted to fight Yucca Las Vegas SUN April 23, 2002 By David Strow Las Vegas real estate and media executive Brian Greenspun was asked this morning to give a sales pitch on U.S. savings bonds to a group of about 50 local bankers and business people. But Greenspun had a fight against a federal project on his mind -- the fight to block the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. And he exhorted the city's bankers to join that fight. "It is our lives, our businesses and our investments that will pay the price," Greenspun said at the U.S. Treasury Department's local annual Savings Bond promotion breakfast. "Why is the banking community among the largest non-contributors to the fight against the dump?" Despite calls from elected officials for donations to Nevada's anti-Yucca Nevada Protection Fund, financial support from the state's businesses has been sparse. One of the most silent groups on the subject has been Nevada's banking community. Beyond Nevada State Bank and Silver State Bank, there's been little appetite to back the fight with banking industry money. One banker, Valley Bank President Barry Hulin, has said devoting public funds to Yucca was little more than pouring money down a "rat hole." Greenspun argued such positions were foolish, given the loans Clark County banks had made to local businesses and residents. He cited a recent state-funded study, which claimed a Yucca-related accident would lead to a 10 percent to 40 percent decline in property values across the county. Bankers are well known for considering every possibility before making a loan, Greenspun said. Why weren't they considering this risk? "Put that in your calculators and figure out if you have the reserves to take that hit," Greenspun said. "Don't get involved because it's the right thing to do. Get involved because it's the prudent thing to do. Act like bankers, for God's sake." Greenspun heads the The Greenspun Corporation. His family's holdings include real estate development giant American Nevada Corp., half of the new Green Valley Ranch Station Casino, the Las Vegas Sun and other media holdings. He is president and editor of the Sun. After Greenspun's speech, Tod Little, chairman and chief executive of Silver State, echoed Greenspun's call for support from the banking community. Little said he would discuss the issue with other banking executives. "I personally happen to agree with him, and I think it's an issue we all need to be focused on, not only as bankers, but as residents," Little said. "I'm disappointed other banks have been silent on this issue when it's clearly in our interest to make sure property values in Clark County don't decline. This is in our economic self-interest." All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 41 No comment on Japan nuclear fuel return date -- BNFL (04/23/2002) (Agencies) The head of British Nuclear Fuels Plc (BNFL) said on Tuesday he could not yet comment on the schedule for a planned return of tainted nuclear fuel from Japan to Britain, though details would be released nearer the date. Environmental group Greenpeace last week warned the fuel was due to be returned in June, coinciding with the soccer World Cup. It said the shipment could become a terrorist target, posing a security threat to the event being held in Japan and South Korea. BNFL's chief executive Norman Askew, speaking at a news conference in Tokyo, said he could not say when the shipment would be returned because of security reasons. "Nearer the time...people will be informed, but we do not declare...too far ahead of time," Askew said. Kansai Electric Power Co Inc, Japan's second-largest power utility, is due to ship back MOX fuel, a blend of uranium and plutonium oxides, to Britain this year. The fuel was the centre of controversy in late 1999 when Kansai Electric discovered that BNFL had deliberately falsified data on a consignment of MOX fuel that it had received. State-owned BNFL in July 2000 agreed to take back the shipment and pay 40 million pounds ($58 million) in compensation. Askew said there were no issues that still needed to be resolved over the return of the fuel. "There are no open issues...everything has been decided," he said. He said BNFL's ties with Kansai Electric, which had become strained after the data falsification, had improved but were not at the level seen before 1999. "We've come a long way in two years...but we still have work to do," Askew said. "I don't want to give any impression that we believe we're now back where we were two-and-a-half years ago, because we are not," he added. He said no new contract had been concluded with any Japanese power firm since then, although BNFL still sees Japan as a major market despite the delay in the Japanese industry's plan to use MOX fuel. Askew said he did not think there was a credible alternative to nuclear energy from the viewpoint of security of supply and the need to achieve environmental targets to cut carbon dioxide. Copyright 2002 By chinadaily.com.cn. All rights ***************************************************************** 42 Lawmakers weigh vote on Yucca TheDay.com: April 23 By Paul Choiniere - More Articles Published on 04/23/2002 The state's congressional delegation will soon have to stand up and be counted as to whether it is time to start moving nuclear waste from plants across the country to Yucca Mountain in Nevada, despite that state's strong opposition to the plan. In Connecticut, where nuclear waste has been accumulating for three decades at plants in Waterford and Haddam, lawmakers face both political and scientific considerations in reaching a decision. U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2nd District, announced Monday he will not only vote for the project, but will take part in a bipartisan leadership group to lobby other legislators. The House, with a Republican majority, is expected to approve the Yucca Mountain proposal, with the real political fight waged in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Connecticut Sens. Christopher J. Dodd and Joseph Lieberman, both Democrats, have yet to take a position. The two senators face pressure from state political leaders to support the project and get the highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel out of Connecticut. In the Senate they face a different form of political pressure, where the Democratic leadership has cast the debate as an environmental issue, the nuclear waste equivalent of drilling for oil in federal Alaskan preserves. Vetoes by President Clinton blocked attempts to begin moving the nuclear waste to Nevada. President Bush, however, supports the project. The showdown was set in motion when the Department of Energy formally recommended Yucca as the depository and Bush officially accepted the choice. Nevada Gov. Kenny Guin then vetoed the selection on April 8, triggering a 90-day period during which Congress must override the veto if the project is to move forward. Dodd's office issued a brief statement that gave little indication what his ultimate decision may be. “This is an important issue both for our state and the country,” it stated. “As such, this is an issue that Sen. Dodd intends to study in great detail in the weeks ahead to examine it fully and thoroughly before deciding upon a course of action.” Dan Gerstein, communications director for Lieberman, said the senator is also undecided. “What makes this different is that this is a final decision,” Gerstein said. “Serious and complex questions have been raised in the scientific evaluations about the suitability of the site.” Many have argued that it is beyond the ability of scientists and engineers to provide any absolute answers about the safety of storing nuclear waste for the 10,000 years it will give off dangerous levels of radiation. The political reality is that Congress long ago passed laws promising to take the waste. Nuclear utilities, through rates passed on to consumers, have paid billions of dollars to pay for a permanent solution. Twenty years and $7 billion have been spent studying Yucca Mountain. Some of the study results have given opponents the ammunition to challenge the project. Water is passing through the mountain faster than anticipated when the desert site was selected. And some vulcanologists say Crater Flat, a volcano about 10 miles southwest of Yucca, can't be counted on to stay quiet for 10,000 years. Las Vegas is located about 90 miles from Yucca. Even if the measure is passed, the proposal will face a legal fight in the courts. Recently national security has been cited as a good reason to move most of the nuclear waste to a central location, rather than trying to protect sites across the country from terrorist attacks. Simmons sees no reason to hesitate. “This is a critical security and energy issue for America and, as the home of Millstone and Connecticut Yankee nuclear power plants, it is of great importance to eastern Connecticut,” he said. While Connecticut Yankee has closed, the nuclear waste it created remains. Millstone continues to generate nuclear power. “Storing this material underground, in the remote desert, is far superior to storing it in casks next to Connecticut Yankee — on the banks of the Connecticut River — or in the spent fuel pools at Millstone,” said Simmons. “I look forward to making this case to my colleagues.” © 1998-2002 The Day Publishing Co. ***************************************************************** 43 The case of Grigory Pasko 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. Bellona Web is finally able to present an unofficial English translation of the Pacific Fleet Court's conviction of journalist Grigory Pasko, as well as of his defence-attorneys' appeal against the verdict. Pasko verdict Read the Pacific Fleet court's verdict of December 25, 2001. Jon Gauslaa, 2002-04-23 12:33 Below follows an overview over the case against Grigory Pasko and the Pacific Fleet Court's conviction of him, as well as over some of the juridical weaknesses of the conviction and of the verdict's contradictions with basic human rights standards. The full text of the verdict and Pasko's appeal are available by way of the links given in the frames to the right and below. Background Grigory Pasko used to work as an investigative journalist for the newspaper of the Russian Pacific Fleet, "Boyevaya Vakhta" [Battle Watch]. His publications were focusing primarily on nuclear safety issues in the Russian Pacific Fleet. The Russian Security Police (the FSB - former KGB) arrested Pasko on November 20, 1997, accusing him of having committed treason through espionage when working with Japanese journalists from "NHK" TV and the newspaper "Asakhi Simbun". After several postponements the trial against Pasko started at the Court of the Russian Pacific Fleet in Vladivostok in January 1999. The closed trial was subject to a considerable amount of international attention because of its environmental and human rights aspects. On July 20, 1999 the Court acquitted Pasko of treason through espionage (Article 275 of the Russian Penal Code) because it did not find it proven that he had handed over secret information to the Japanese, or had had the intention to do so. Still, Pasko was sentenced to three years in prison for 'abuse of his official position' (Article 285 of the PC), although he was never charged with the said crime. He was however, released under a general amnesty. Pasko appealed the verdict demanding a full acquittal, while the prosecution appealed insisting that he was a spy. In an additional appeal the prosecution paid particular attention to the 'fact' that there still is an official state of war between Russia and Japan since no peace treaty have been signed between the two countries after the end of World War II. For unknown reasons the hearing of the appeal case in the Military Collegium of the Russian Supreme Court dragged out for months, before it took place in November 2000. The hearing ended with the Court cancelling the first verdict and sending the case back for a re-trail at the Pacific Fleet Court. The basis for the decision was that the Pacific Fleet Court had not carried out a full examination of the case, and that there were contradictions between the verdict and the facts that the Court had found established through the trial. The re-trial was first scheduled for March 22, 2001, but was postponed several times before it started on July 11. On Christmas Day 2001 Pasko was convicted to four years of forced labour for treason through espionage and taken into custody in the courtroom. Both sides have appealed. The defence demands a full acquittal, while the prosecution demands a more severe sentence than the four years that Pasko was convicted to, pointing out that this is eight years below the minimum penalty prescribed for in Article 275 of the PC. The appeal case has not yet been scheduled. Pasko is currently placed in a pre-trial detention centre in Vladivostok, and will be so until the determination of the appeal case. The verdict The indictment against Pasko accuses him for having handed over the following items of "secret" information to Japanese journalists representing "NHK" and "Asakhi Simbun": 1.) the time and place of the departure of a train with spent nuclear fuel in October 1997; 2.) a draft to an article Pasko was writing on the decommissioning of submarines, 3.) a report on the financial situation of the Pacific Fleet; 4.) the instruction manual for the rescuing of spacecrafts; 5.) a report on the decommissioning and handling of laid up submarines; 6.) a questionnaire regarding the decommissioning of liquid missile fuel; 7.) a list of submarine accidents; 8.) a report of the decommissioning of weapons and armament; 9.) a sketch of a base for storage of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste; 10.) hand-written notes taken at a meeting in the Pacific Fleet staff on September 11, 1997. Of these documents Pasko was acquitted of all ten episodes related to the "NHK" and of the nine first episodes related to "Asakhi Simbun". The Court did not consider the disputed information related to these episodes to be secret, and it did not find any proofs indicating that Pasko had transferred the documents or collected them with the intention to do so. The Court also acquitted Pasko for having transferred the notes from the staff meeting to the Japanese, but it convicted him to four years for having taken the notes and kept them at home, with the intention to transfer them to journalist Tadashi Okano of "Asakhi Simbun". Thus, Pasko was not convicted for having transferred any documents with a "secret" stamp or any other items of secret information to the Japanese, as Russian President Vladimir Putin said publicly at his visit to France in January 2002. He was simply convicted to four years of hard labour for having kept his own hand-written notes at his flat. A verdict full of flaws The Court's elaboration of the proofs that supposedly shows that Pasko's intention was to hand over the notes does not endure a critical light. Besides, the Court has not attached weight to the fact that the search of Pasko's flat that led to the confiscation of the notes was carried out illegally, a violation that according to Article 50 (2) of the Russian Constitution should lead to the disqualification of this 'evidence'. In addition, the Court has based its assumption that the notes contain secret information on secret legislation. · Untenable evidence evaluation According to the verdict Pasko took the notes at a meeting, which was held on September 11, 1997, and they were confiscated at his flat on November 20, 1997. In the period between September 11 and November 20, Pasko met Mr. Okano several times. Thus, if his intention was to hand them over, he had every chance to do so long before the search. The Court also points out that since Pasko did not use the notes as the basis for an article in "Boyevaya Vakhta", his intention must have been to hand them over. The possibility that he did not have the time to write the article or that he gave up the idea is ruled out. Besides, the Court's logic is slightly odd, as it seems to indicate that Pasko would not have run into trouble if he had published the allegedly "secret" information from the notes in an article. · Procedural violations No proper protocol was kept over what was confiscated at the search of Pasko's flat on November 21, 1997. Moreover, no persons representing him were present in the rooms that the investigators searched. The officers carrying out the search could thus, install whatever they wanted in the file of confiscated documents, and the notes were obtained in clear violation with the procedures described in the Russian Criminal Procedure Code. The Pacific Fleet Court acknowledged this at the first trial and issued a separate decision on the issue reprimanding the FSB-investigator in charge of the case. The Court did also at the second trial admit that the search was carried out illegally and that evidence had been confiscated in violation of the law. It did however not attach any weight to these violations, although Article 50 (2) of the Russian Constitution states unambiguously that any evidence obtained in violation with the law should be disqualified. · Use of secret, unregistered legislation The Pacific Fleet Court's assumption that the notes contain secret information is based on the secret decree 055:96 issued by the Ministry of Defence, although Article 15 (3) of the Russian Constitution prohibits use of secret legislation as basis for criminal charges. The Court has tried to disguise this by not referring to the decree in its verdict. Its assessment of whether the Pasko's notes contain state secrets or not, is however based on an expert evaluation from September 14. 2001. When being interrogated in court, the experts admitted that their evaluation was solely based on decree 055:96. Thus, the Court's conclusion that Pasko's notes include state secrets regarding the activity of 'radio-electronic warfare units during exercises'; on 'the real names of military units' and on 'the composition of forces taking part in exercises'; is not based on the law on state secrets or any other published legislation, but on Articles 129, 240 and 384 of decree 055. In addition to being a secret document, decree 055:96 has never been registered as a normative legal act in accordance with Russian law. On September 12, 2001 the Russian Military Supreme Court ruled that parts of decree 055 were "illegal and invalid" and cancelled these parts. The decision reached legal force on November 6, 2001, when the Supreme Court's Appeal Collegium confirmed it, but it has later been cancelled by the Presidium of the Russian Supreme Court, who has ordered a re-evaluation of the matter. Whatever the reason for this decision is, the fact remains that decree 055:96 was used as a normative legal act in the Pasko-case, and that the conviction is based on the decree. This contradicts Article 15 (3) of the Russian Constitution as it was interpreted by the Russian Constitutional Court in the Smirnov-verdict dated December 20, 1995, and by the St. Petersburg City Court in its acquittal of Aleksandr Nikitin on December 29, 1999. The latter verdict was confirmed without changes by the Supreme Court's Collegium of Criminal Cases on April 17, 2000 and by its Presidium on September 13, 2001. Human rights violations It follows from the above-mentioned that the conviction of Grigory Pasko raises several questions related to the development of the rule of law in Russia and the protection of human rights. Below follows a short overview over some of the issues. · Freedom of speech A common opinion among those who have followed the case, is that the charges that formally were brought against Pasko are an excuse for prosecuting him for his exposure of the Pacific Fleets untenable handling of nuclear waste. Amnesty International (AI) says for instance in its statement issued in connection with its adoption of Pasko as a prisoner of conscience on January 7, 2002, that the prosecution appears to be "motivated by political reprisal for exposing the practice of dumping nuclear waste". If this is the case, the case may well involve a violation of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (EConHR), which Russia ratified in May 1998. · The impartially and independence of the Court Both AI and the International Helsinki Federation (the IHF) have expressed serious concerns about the fairness of that trial, and the impartiality and independence of the Court. Both the way parts of the proceedings in the Court were carried out, and the fact that he was tried within the military court system gives reason to express such doubts. One of the main witnesses against Pasko was for instance the first deputy commander of the Russian Navy and former commander of the Pacific Fleet, admiral Zakharenko. Mr. Zakharenko, who was not on the original list of witnesses, focused particularly on Pasko's notes and the damage they had created. His testimony was thus, an important part of "the chain of evidence" against Pasko. As the deputy commander of the Navy, Mr. Zakharenko is the superior of the judge, which clearly has not helped the judge to evaluate the case independently and impartially. Therefore, also Pasko's right under EConHR Article 6 (1) to have his case tried by an independent and impartial tribunal may have been violated. · Determination within reasonable time At the of time writing the Pasko-case has been going on for almost four and a half year, and it is impossible to predict when it will be finally determined. Throughout the proceedings, there have been a number of unjustified postponements. Thus, based on the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, it is reason to believe that Pasko's right to have the charges against him determined within a reasonable time under Article 6 (1) of the EConHR has been - or at least will be - violated. · Presumption of innocence No proofs indicating that Pasko had the intention to hand over the notes to the Japanese has been established. On the contrary, the fact that he kept the notes for months without handing them over clearly indicates that he did not have this attention. In the verdict the Court is not even near giving a convincing elaboration for its evaluation of the evidence, and its ruling is based much more on loose suppositions than on concrete facts. Thus, Pasko was convicted despite the prosecution was not even close to fulfilling its burden of proof. This contradicts the presumption of innocence, which is a principle expressed both in Article 49 of the Russian Constitution and in EConHR Article 6 (2). · Use of secret and too vague criminal legislation The use of the secret decree 055:96 as the de facto legal foundation for the verdict is as a violation, not only of Article 15 (3) of the Constitution, but also of EConHR Article 7. The wording of Article 7 prohibits the use of criminal law retroactively, but through the jurisprudence of the European Court the provision has been given a broader range. The Court has established that Article 7 demands that only the law can prescribe the content of what is a criminal offence. Moreover it prohibits that criminal law is interpreted extensively to the disadvantage of the accused, and demands that the law-violations are clearly defined in the wording of the law. These principles have been developed through the Kokkinakis v. Greece case (A/260-A, 1993, para. 51-52), G. v. France (A/325-B, para. 24-27, 1995), S.W. and C.R. v. UK (A/335-B and -C, 1995), and clearly also prohibit basing criminal convictions on secret (and not-registered) legislation. The definitions of the various kinds of state secrets that are given in the provisions of decree 055:96 that are used in the Pasko-case are also very general and broad. Also this might imply a violation of Article 7. Moreover, even the officially published provisions of the Law on State Secrets, which the Court has referred to in its verdict, are so general that it is highly questionable whether or not it is in accordance with Article 7 to base a conviction on these provisions. Conclusive remarks It seems clear that the Pasko-case involves a number of possible violations of the principles of legal protection of the individual against encroachments from state bodies that are drawn up in the Russian Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. Throughout recent years these principles have been given increased attention and weight in Russia, which for instance was demonstrated through the acquittal of Aleksandr Nikitin. If the conviction of Grigory Pasko stands, we will however, face a considerable backlash for the development of the Russian rule of law and a step backwards towards arbitrariness. Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge Information: info@bellona.no, Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 44 Russia, U.S. in Bid to Clinch Arms Pact for Summit Yahoo! News - Tue Apr 23,10:29 AM ET By Ron Popeski MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian and U.S. negotiators embarked on Tuesday on what could be the last opportunity to narrow differences and clinch a deal to slash strategic nuclear arsenals ahead of a summit next month. The delegations opened two days of talks certain to focus on Russian objections to U.S. proposals to store, rather than destroy, nuclear warheads to be removed from missiles and other delivery systems. Both sides hope a deal can be completed before the May 23-26 summit in Moscow and St. Petersburg, designed to underpin the new relationship predicated on Russian President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites)'s support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism. Russia's Foreign Ministry, in a statement issued as the talks got under way, said Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) had spoken by telephone on Monday about progress in securing the accord. Itar-Tass news agency quoted a top Russian expert as saying that discussions were "entering a decisive phase." But it also quoted a military expert as saying that differences persisted on how to deal with warheads taken out of service. "The new agreement on strategic weapons must foresee not the storage of delivery systems as proposed by the United States, but their physical destruction subject to strict controls by the other side," the expert was quoted as saying. Destruction, the expert said, meant eliminating a threat to security as "warheads could not be delivered to their target." RIA news agency quoted analyst Vladimir Dvorkin, head of the Centre for Problems of Strategic of Nuclear Forces, as saying that differences also focused on the exact count of warheads held by each side. The delegations, led by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Mamedov and U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton, are holding their third set of talks this year. Both Putin and President Bush (news - web sites) are committed to reducing current strategic arsenals to between 1,500 and 2,200 warheads each from current levels of 6,000 to 7,000. FORMAL PACT AT RUSSIAN INSISTENCE At their last summit in November in Washington and Bush's Texas ranch, Bush initially pressed for an informal agreement on cutting warheads on missiles, bombers and submarines. At Russian insistence, he has since agreed to a formal and legally binding pact, though officials on both sides say the document is likely to be a short and general one. Russia has kept matters on an even keel by reducing to a minimum its objections to the U.S. decision last December to withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty -- enabling Washington to proceed with building an anti-missile shield. But talks have run up against U.S. calls to keep warheads in reserve so that they may be brought into service again to guard against the emergence of new security threats. U.S. officials refer to Iran, Iraq or North Korea (news - web sites), described by Bush as an "axis of evil" in his State of the Union speech earlier this year, and cited in connection with the need to build an anti-missile shield. Western analysts believe that the need to consolidate post-Cold War relations and rejuvenate disarmament, stalled since the early 1990s, will probably spur both sides to overcome their differences and sign the pact next month. "The forthcoming summit...could become a turning point in building a new strategic relationship between the two nations, but its failure would deal a serious blow to Russia-America relations," The Carnegie Endowment think tank and Russia's Centre for Political Studies said in a statement issued last week. Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 45 Russian expert advocates preservation of strategic nuclear forces BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 23, 2002 Moscow, 23 February: The preservation of the powerful potential of the Strategic Missile Troops will allow Russia to use a weighty argument at the forthcoming talks with the USA on the reduction of nuclear arsenals. The head of the Russian Academy of Military Sciences' centre for studying the problems of strategic nuclear forces, Vladimir Dvorkin, voiced this opinion at today's news conference on prospects for reaching an agreement on the reduction of strategic offensive weapons at the forthcoming meeting of the Russian and US presidents in May 2002. In his opinion, "we have the opportunity to formulate weighty arguments at these talks because the ceiling of 2,200 warheads, proposed by the Americans, is quite within our capabilities if we have a well thought-out programme for building nuclear forces." "We can maintain this level at the expense of ground and naval components of the strategic nuclear forces. As regards the air force component, we can mothball all airborne cruise missiles and keep them in reserve. These are many hundreds of nuclear warheads." Vladimir Dvorkin pointed out that "if we proceeded from these plans, we would have weighty arguments in favour of holding the talks on an equal footing". He believes that neither our relations with the USA nor the US stand will undergo any changes if Russia does not change it plans and continues to reduce unfoundedly the ground component of strategic nuclear forces, regardless of whether or not we agree to sign a treaty in May, the treaty which is mostly tied to the US position. Source: ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in Russian 1133 gmt 23 Apr 02 /© BBC Monitoring ***************************************************************** 46 Funding Denied for Nuclear Security Environment News Service: By Cat Lazaroff WASHINGTON, DC, April 22, 2002 (ENS) - The White House has not appropriated the funds needed to protect the nation's nuclear weapons plants and labs against terrorist attacks, charged a Energy Department official in a letter sent last month to the federal Office of Management and Budget. The letter was released today by Massachusetts Representative Edward Markey, a longtime critic of the nation's nuclear security. On March 28, Bruce Carnes, director of the Energy Department's (DOE) office of management, budget and evaluation, wrote a letter to Marcus Peacock, associate program director at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). [Lawrence Livermore] Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California is one of the DOE nuclear sites that watchdogs warn could become a terrorist target. (Photo courtesy Lawrence Livermore) Carnes noted that the DOE requested additional funds in March to increase security and emergency response capabilities at nuclear facilities "in order to adequately protect the public, our workers, and the environment." "We are very disappointed that we did not get your support for supplemental emergency funding," Carnes wrote. "The Department's remaining safeguards and security budgets are not sufficient to implement the security posture requirements that appropriately respond to the September 11th attacks." Carnes notes that the DOE had been told that the funding was not approved because a revised document outlining the basis for various departmental security measures has not been completed. "This isn't a tenable position for you to take, in my view," Carnes wrote to Peacock. "We are not operating, and cannot operate, under the pre-September 11" security plan, Carnes argued. Until revised security guidelines are issued, the DOE must operate under interim guidelines, "and you have not provided resources to enable us to do so," he added. [fuel pool] Used nuclear fuel storage pools, like this one at Calvert Cliffs, could be vulnerable to a meltdown if their water was boiled away or otherwise drained during a terrorist attack. (Photo courtesy Nuclear Regulatory Commission) "For months the agency has been publicly denying security weaknesses at nuclear weapons facilities," said Danielle Brian, executive director of the watchdog group Project on Government Oversight (POGO), which first obtained the Carnes letter. "In this document, the DOE acknowledges that they are not currently adequately protecting the public from a terrorist attack." Representative Markey, the Democrat who released Carnes' letter today, said he has been questioning the safety of nuclear sites since before last year's terrorist attacks. Since September 11, Markey has been seeking information from the DOE and other federal offices to support Bush administration contentions that nuclear facilities are secure. Nuclear sites face two kinds of major threats, Markey says: the theft of nuclear bomb materials, and attack by terrorists armed with bombs. But the biggest concern could be a combination attack in which an armed group could take over a nuclear laboratory, build a bomb, and blow up the facility. At least 10 DOE sites, including national laboratories in Denver, Colorado and the San Francisco Bay Area in California, may contain enough weapons grade plutonium or uranium to construct a "crude atomic bomb," Markey said. Those facilities might be vulnerable to infiltration by terrorists, who could then construct and detonate a nuclear device on site, he warned. Markey has sent letters to the DOE and to President George W. Bush demanding that the administration review and upgrade security measures at DOE nuclear sites. [Markey] Representative Edward Markey (Photo courtesy Office of the Representative) "I am concerned that a successful terrorist attack at one of these facilities could lead to the theft of nuclear weapons grade materials, the rapid construction and detonation of a radiological dispersion device or 'dirty bomb,' or the rapid construction and detonation of an improvised nuclear device or 'homemade nuclear bomb' which could kill numerous people and devastate the nearby communities," Markey wrote to President Bush. While the Bush administration is actively seeking funds for a missile defense system to protect the nation from warheads launched by other nations, it has done little to protect domestic nuclear facilities from homemade bombs made from the nation's own nuclear materials, Markey says. "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 in a statement today. "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." In January, the DOE responded to criticisms by Representative Markey, POGO and other groups by calling their allegations "false and misleading." [Gordon] General John Gordon (Photo courtesy National Nuclear Security Administration) General John Gordon, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration and DOE's Under Secretary of Energy Security at Nuclear Weapons Facilities, said tests have demonstrated that the DOE's nuclear facilities are secure. "Nuclear material is not at risk at Department of Energy facilities," Gordon concluded. But a study released by POGO last fall found that exercises in which federal agents posing as terrorists attacked DOE facilities found that the "terrorists" were able to breach security more than half the time. © Environment News Service (ENS) 2002. ***************************************************************** 47 Al Qaeda Aide: Radiation Bomb in Works (washingtonpost.com) By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, April 23, 2002; Page A04 The top al Qaeda lieutenant captured in Pakistan told U.S. interrogators Sunday that Osama bin Laden's terrorist network has worked on developing a radiation bomb, a senior administration official said yesterday. Abu Zubaida, 31, who before his capture last month served since November as military field director for bin Laden's terrorist network, also told CIA and FBI interrogators over the weekend that al Qaeda personnel "know how to do it," the official said. Because the Palestinian had been serving as a contact point with terrorist network members in Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East, his information "is being taken seriously," the official said. Such a radiation weapon would involve using radioactive material with a chemical explosive. Although the weapon would not create a nuclear explosion, it could spread radioactive materials over a wide area, causing panic rather than mass fatalities. Zubaida, who was seriously wounded when captured, is being questioned at an undisclosed location, said to be inside Pakistan. Last Friday, financial institutions in the northeastern and mid-Atlantic states were put on alert by the FBI after Zubaida told interrogators that al Qaeda had been planning terrorist attacks against them. One senior intelligence analyst described Zubaida yesterday as "hard core" and said it was "extremely important to realize that he may be trying to deceive and cause confusion." But another senior administration official aware of Zubaida's statements, which were first reported last night by CBS News, cautioned, "We should not overreact, but also not discount it as disinformation." © 2002 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 48 Russia, U.S. in Bid to Clinch Arms Pact for Summit Tue Apr 23,10:29 AM ET By Ron Popeski MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian and U.S. negotiators embarked on Tuesday on what could be the last opportunity to narrow differences and clinch a deal to slash strategic nuclear arsenals ahead of a summit next month. The delegations opened two days of talks certain to focus on Russian objections to U.S. proposals to store, rather than destroy, nuclear warheads to be removed from missiles and other delivery systems. Both sides hope a deal can be completed before the May 23-26 summit in Moscow and St. Petersburg, designed to underpin the new relationship predicated on Russian President Vladimir Putin's support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism. Russia's Foreign Ministry, in a statement issued as the talks got under way, said Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and Secretary of State Colin Powell had spoken by telephone on Monday about progress in securing the accord. Itar-Tass news agency quoted a top Russian expert as saying that discussions were "entering a decisive phase." But it also quoted a military expert as saying that differences persisted on how to deal with warheads taken out of service. "The new agreement on strategic weapons must foresee not the storage of delivery systems as proposed by the United States, but their physical destruction subject to strict controls by the other side," the expert was quoted as saying. Destruction, the expert said, meant eliminating a threat to security as "warheads could not be delivered to their target." RIA news agency quoted analyst Vladimir Dvorkin, head of the Centre for Problems of Strategic of Nuclear Forces, as saying that differences also focused on the exact count of warheads held by each side. The delegations, led by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Mamedov and U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton, are holding their third set of talks this year. Both Putin and President Bush are committed to reducing current strategic arsenals to between 1,500 and 2,200 warheads each from current levels of 6,000 to 7,000. FORMAL PACT AT RUSSIAN INSISTENCE At their last summit in November in Washington and Bush's Texas ranch, Bush initially pressed for an informal agreement on cutting warheads on missiles, bombers and submarines. At Russian insistence, he has since agreed to a formal and legally binding pact, though officials on both sides say the document is likely to be a short and general one. Russia has kept matters on an even keel by reducing to a minimum its objections to the U.S. decision last December to withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty -- enabling Washington to proceed with building an anti-missile shield. But talks have run up against U.S. calls to keep warheads in reserve so that they may be brought into service again to guard against the emergence of new security threats. U.S. officials refer to Iran, Iraq or North Korea, described by Bush as an "axis of evil" in his State of the Union speech earlier this year, and cited in connection with the need to build an anti-missile shield. Western analysts believe that the need to consolidate post-Cold War relations and rejuvenate disarmament, stalled since the early 1990s, will probably spur both sides to overcome their differences and sign the pact next month. "The forthcoming summit...could become a turning point in building a new strategic relationship between the two nations, but its failure would deal a serious blow to Russia-America relations," The Carnegie Endowment think tank and Russia's Centre for Political Studies said in a statement issued last week. Thu Apr 25,12:27 AM ET - (Reuters) ***************************************************************** 49 Australian shack to expose nuclear tests Asia Times: [http://www.asiatimes-chinese.com] April 23, 2002 atimes.com CAPE LEEUWIN, Australia - An unpretentious shack in the southwest corner of Australia is set to will play a vital role in detecting clandestine nuclear explosions throughout the world. The hydro-acoustic monitoring station contains equipment capable of detecting explosions 117 kilometers out to sea at Cape Leeuwin, where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet. Any covert explosion in the Indian, Southern or South Pacific oceans would be detected by three microphones suspended one kilometer below the ocean's surface, and one kilometer apart in a triangle formation. The microphones are attached to a cable that runs along the ocean floor to the shore at Granny Pool at Cape Leeuwin, 330km south of Perth. The cable then runs along the ground to the monitoring station - a small shed next to the ranger's hut at Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park. The A$10 million (US$5.4 million) automatic facility, operating since September, is part of a global network of 321 stations being planned to monitor compliance with the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the station is evidence of Australia's ongoing commitment to the CTBT. "Thirteen of our eventual 20 stations are already operating as part of the international monitoring system," Downer said. "Data from them is already being received in Vienna in preparation for the Test Ban Treaty's entry into force." Signed by Australia in 1996, the CTBT aims to advance the cause of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation by banning all explosive nuclear tests. It has particular significance for countries in the Asia-Pacific - the only region to be subjected to nuclear tests by all five official nuclear states. Australia has agreed to host 20 listening stations and a laboratory under its treaty obligations, the third-highest number after the United States and Russia. Foreign Affairs spokesman Malcolm Coxhead said the worldwide network would make it impossible for explosive nuclear tests to be carried out undetected. "The most exciting thing about this is it's all about nuclear disarmament, because if you can't test a nuclear weapon it's going to be too risky to use it," Coxhead said. Data from Cape Leeuwin - just south of the famous Margaret River wine region - are monitored by Geoscience Australia and transmitted to a CTBT office in Vienna. They may also be used for monitoring earthquakes and global warming. All CTBT signatories share the station's costs, although Australia will retain ownership. The CTBT has been signed by 165 countries and ratified by 90, but cannot come into force until ratified by all 44 nations with either nuclear power or reactors. The United States, which has signed but not ratified the treaty, has indicated it is unlikely to do so under the George W Bush administration. (Asia Pulse) ©2001 Asia Times Online Co., Ltd. Room 6301, The Center, 99 Queen's Road, Central, Hong Kong ***************************************************************** 50 Russian expert advocates preservation of strategic nuclear forces BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 23, 2002 Moscow, 23 February: The preservation of the powerful potential of the Strategic Missile Troops will allow Russia to use a weighty argument at the forthcoming talks with the USA on the reduction of nuclear arsenals. The head of the Russian Academy of Military Sciences' centre for studying the problems of strategic nuclear forces, Vladimir Dvorkin, voiced this opinion at today's news conference on prospects for reaching an agreement on the reduction of strategic offensive weapons at the forthcoming meeting of the Russian and US presidents in May 2002. In his opinion, "we have the opportunity to formulate weighty arguments at these talks because the ceiling of 2,200 warheads, proposed by the Americans, is quite within our capabilities if we have a well thought-out programme for building nuclear forces." "We can maintain this level at the expense of ground and naval components of the strategic nuclear forces. As regards the air force component, we can mothball all airborne cruise missiles and keep them in reserve. These are many hundreds of nuclear warheads." Vladimir Dvorkin pointed out that "if we proceeded from these plans, we would have weighty arguments in favour of holding the talks on an equal footing". He believes that neither our relations with the USA nor the US stand will undergo any changes if Russia does not change it plans and continues to reduce unfoundedly the ground component of strategic nuclear forces, regardless of whether or not we agree to sign a treaty in May, the treaty which is mostly tied to the US position. Source: ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in Russian 1133 gmt 23 Apr 02 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. ***************************************************************** 51 'Dirty bomb' can be built, says member of al-Qaida Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 11:45 a.m. on Tuesday, April 23, 2002 by John J. Lumpkin Associated Press WASHINGTON -- A senior al-Qaida member has told interrogators that the terrorist organization knows how to build a "dirty bomb" capable of dispersing radioactivity over a wide area, a U.S. official said. Officials don't know whether to believe Abu Zubaydah, who also recently claimed al-Qaida was targeting banks in the northeastern United States. That report was the basis of an FBI alert last week. "It could be he's not being truthful," the official said Monday, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "It could be that he's boasting." Abu Zubaydah's statements further confirmed al-Qaida's interest in acquiring weapons of mass destruction, but they don't suggest the group has any unknown capabilities, the official said. Captured in Pakistan and turned over to U.S. authorities last month, Abu Zubaydah, the senior al-Qaida in U.S. custody, did not claim that the group had built any of the weapons. Such a weapon -- also called a radiological dispersal device -- would use conventional explosives to spread industrial or medical-grade radioactive material in a populated area to cause widespread fear of exposure. They are not thought to be difficult to build. Acquiring enough radioactive material to do harm is regarded as the greatest challenge for terrorists. A radiological device detonated by terrorists would require evacuation and decontamination of the immediate area and disrupt the local economy, officials from U.S. nuclear laboratories said at a recent Senate committee hearing. Hospitals would be overrun by worried people from the affected area. Depending on factors ranging from the bomb's construction to wind direction on the day such a weapon was used, a potent dirty bomb could kill a few people quickly if they were exposed to enough radiation, officials said. Others would face a greater likelihood of developing cancers later in life. Much of the U.S. government's thinking on the subject is theoretical, because no one has detonated a radiological weapon. All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 52 SRS considered to help make nuclear weapons The State | 04/23/2002 | U.S. plan for new mission is only on drawing board, and depends on change in world situation By SAMMY FRETWELL Staff Writer The Savannah River Site is under consideration by the federal government for a factory to make key components of atomic weapons, records show. SRS would be part of a "large-scale" plutonium pit production system that would begin work by 2018, according to a 2001 high-level waste system plan. The federal document says SRS would assemble nuclear components for plutonium pits certified for use in war. The plutonium pit manufacturing mission would create up to 33,600 gallons of high-level nuclear waste annually, the report said. Several details about the proposal were unavailable Monday, including who must approve the factory and what would happen to the nuclear waste. If the factory is built, it would mark a new era in production of atomic weapons grade materials at SRS. The site formerly produced plutonium during the Cold War. Department of Energy spokesman Joe Davis and U.S. Rep. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the production plant would only be built if the U.S. needed to begin large-scale production of nuclear weapons. At this point, Graham said that is unlikely. The U.S. is reducing the number of nuclear warheads, and the federal government already is committed to a pit production facility at Los Alamos, N.M, he said. That plant could produce smaller amounts of plutonium pits, said Graham, whose district includes SRS. Plutonium pits are spherical, metallic objects needed for atomic weapons. "In case there is a need to ramp up in a major way, a place like Savannah River would be more capable" of producing large-scale weapons components than Los Alamos, Graham said. "But for this to happen, the whole world situation would have to change. The world situation now is we are reducing the number of warheads." Still, anti-nuclear activist Tom Clements said the Department of Energy's interest in SRS for plutonium pit production shows it wants to concentrate much of the government's future plutonium work in South Carolina. The DOE is embroiled in a debate with Gov. Jim Hodges over federal plans to store and process excess plutonium so that some of it can't be used for nuclear bombs. Hodges wants a court-approved, federal guarantee the material will be shipped out of South Carolina if a processing plant doesn't get built, as planned by the DOE. But the fuel processing plant would take only about 34 metric tons of excess plutonium out of a national stockpile of about 100 metric tons, Clements and DOE officials acknowledged. That leaves plenty of material available for use in building new nuclear weapons, said Clements, a senior campaigner with the Greenpeace environmental group. "There is the risk that once Savannah River Site becomes the plutonium storage site, then the possibility of it becoming the site for the new bomb factory is going to be much easier for DOE to carry out," Clements said. Without mentioning SRS specifically, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham told the House Armed Services Committee last month that the country needs a contingency plan for a modern plutonium pit production facility. Plans for the facility "will provide the nation with the means to respond to new, unexpected or emerging threats in a timely manner," he said. Plutonium pits were formerly made at the Rocky Flats nuclear facility in Colorado with plutonium that came from SRS. Rocky Flats stopped producing pits in 1989 and environmental crews are cleaning up the site. Excess plutonium left at Rocky Flats is destined for use in mixed oxide fuel (MOX) to be made at SRS. If a new pit production plant were built at SRS, it would replace the process that occurred at Rocky Flats during the Cold War, according to plans. Jay Reiff, a spokesman for Hodges, said the governor isn't necessarily opposed to a new plutonium pit production factory at SRS. But the governor wants to make sure any of the toxic metal that comes here also leaves the state in some form. The governor's office is "familiar with the proposed plans, but that is all speculative at this point," Reiff said of the plutonium pit proposal. "The governor just wants to ensure this state is not a permanent storage area for weapons grade plutonium." A small-scale plutonium pit production plant at the Los Alamos nuclear site in New Mexico wouldn't be enough to handle the load if the nation needed to build up its nuclear arsenal substantially, records show. A 1997 DOE report stamped "not for public dissemination" said the Savannah River Site and a nuclear site at Oak Ridge, Tenn., provided the best options for a modern pit production system. The two facilities would work in combination to make the plutonium pits, according to the document obtained by The State. The report said intact plutonium pits would be shipped to SRS from the Pantex nuclear site in Texas. Once in South Carolina, SRS would disassemble the pits and recast them. Pit castings would then be shipped to Oak Ridge for finishing before being shipped back to Pantex. Leftover residues from Oak Ridge would be sent to SRS, the document said. The report said SRS officials aggressively pursued the new mission. "SRS takes the position that, given enough money, anything can be accomplished in five years," the report said. A second, less desirable proposal would be to have SRS do all the work, rather than doing so in combination with Oak Ridge, records show. "SRS is the only technically feasible single-site option," the report said. ***************************************************************** 53 Editorial: Credibility gap hits the DOE once again Las Vegas SUN April 23, 2002 John Gordon, administrator of the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, said publicly in January that security is strong at federal nuclear research labs and along routes used to transport radioactive material. The Washington Posted reported Monday, however, that the DOE's chief financial officer, Bruce Carnes, privately delivered different news to the White House. In a March letter, Carnes asked for more money because the agency's current security budget is insufficient in light of potential terrorist threats. Isn't this the same agency that is publicly stating that Yucca Mountain is safe and that transportation routes will be protected against accidents and terrorist attacks? We can't help but wonder what it's saying privately on this issue. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 54 City's 'big picture' looks promising, says ORNL chief Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 11:44 a.m. on Tuesday, April 23, 2002 Bill Madia: April 1 marked the second anniversary of UT-Battelle's management contract at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Ordinarily, such a milestone would be an opportunity to reflect on our goals and accomplishments at the lab. This year, however, a number of recent events in Oak Ridge make it seem more appropriate to look at the bigger picture of the community as a whole. As someone who has lived in Oak Ridge for just a little over two years, my perspective admittedly is limited. On the other hand, I have lived in enough communities across the country to recognize that something special is taking place in Oak Ridge. In the last few weeks, four of the community's major employers have won new contracts or undertaken major new initiatives that point to a bright future for the Oak Ridge economy. At ORNL, while the Spallation Neutron Source construction continued on time and on budget, we broke ground on three new research facilities that are the first of six that will be constructed this year. Across the ridge, a ceremony at Y-12 National Security Complex marked the official start of a three billion dollar modernization plan that will secure the facility's role in the nation's defense program. Officials at Science Applications International Corp. announced a new multi-million dollar contract for the Oak Ridge based company. Equally significant, Bechtel Jacobs moved forward with a bold proposal to accelerate the remediation of the region's environmental legacies. The progress of the city's leading employers is matched by equally promising efforts to renew other aspects of the Oak Ridge community. The announcement of isotope production by the Theragenics is a major victory for the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee. Our Chamber of Commerce has adopted a strategic plan that includes a pathway to expand new housing and attract new industries to the area. The Department of Energy has completed a similar plan that defines future land use for the Oak Ridge Reservation. Our City Council is taking steps to secure the future of the American Museum of Science and Energy. An energetic young principal is raising the bar for science education at Oak Ridge High School. Perhaps most important, broad public participation may have turned the tide in attempts to revitalize the city's mall and strengthen the area's retail base. Viewed separately, these events may not seem cause for excitement. But taken together, they are evidence of a new momentum in Oak Ridge that holds great promise for the next decade. The events are proof that the community, after several years of disappointing news, has gained traction and is turning the corner toward a future of growth and stability. I realize that a host of challenges remain to test our creativity and resolve. But after two years as a resident of Oak Ridge, I also realize that the best may be yet to come. Bill Madia is the director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 55 Seaborg is FORNL Lecture Series speaker Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 11:45 a.m. on Tuesday, April 23, 2002 The third in the Year 2002 Friends of Oak Ridge National Laboratory Community Lecture Series will feature Eric Seaborg, son of Nobel Prize-winning Glenn T. Seaborg, well-known in Oak Ridge since its origins. The younger Seaborg will speak at 7 p.m. Thursday at the American Museum of Science and Energy. His lecture is titled "Glenn Seaborg's Adventures in the Atomic Age." Eric Seaborg, a free-lancer specializing in outdoor and scientific writing, will also discuss "Adventures in the Atomic Age: From Watts to Washington," which he and his late father co-authored. Glenn Seaborg, for decades a professor at the University of California at Berkeley and a key scientist for the Manhattan Project in World War II, visited Oak Ridge numerous times as a scientist and also as chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission for 10 years. He is the only scientist to have an element, seaborgium 106, named for him. In a review of the Seaborg-Seaborg book for Physics Today, Alvin M. Weinberg, former director of ORNL, wrote, "The book has great historical value. It is especially interesting to old-timers like me who knew and liked Glenn. Besides bringing Glenn the person into focus, the book clarifies many puzzling aspects of the nuclear enterprise." There will be a reception and book signing by Eric Seaborg after his talk. FORNL's Community Lectures, now in their fourth year, are open to the public without charge. All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 56 DOE security once again a 'headline' issue Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 11:46 a.m. on Tuesday, April 23, 2002 by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff The Department of Energy is making headlines nationally because the federal agency has informed White House officials that it lacks the funds to adequately protect its nuclear weapons facilities. U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., is using this as ammunition in his continuing quest to get DOE to remedy what he's calling "lax" security measures at nuclear facilities. He has said that studies show a terrorist could enter one of the plants and detonate a "dirty bomb" or a homemade nuclear device. However, U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-3rd District, says he has a problem with this latest "anti-nuclear" attack on DOE. Although the congressman admits that DOE could use more security funding, he stressed that the facilities are safe. "They are safer than ever," Wamp said. "The public needs to know that the Department of Energy has taken precautions. There is no reason to scare people. It's unfortunate. It's irresponsible. It's reckless." Immediately after Sept. 11, DOE went into a different mode of security, says Wamp, who cited barricades, road closings and new weapons-detection devices as some of the significant changes. "There's no way to completely eliminate any threat, but I believe they (DOE) have addressed the threats adequately," Wamp said. Steven Wyatt, a spokesman for DOE's Oak Ridge Operations office, declined to comment on Oak Ridge security measures. Officials with the National Nuclear Security Administration -- the quasi-independent agency within DOE that oversees the nuclear weapons complex -- did not return calls for comment. Markey's public battle with DOE over security has been going on for several months. His criticisms are based on a study by the Project On Government Oversight, a federal watchdog agency. In January, John Gordon, administrator of the NNSA, went on the defensive saying that allegations of lax security at the nuclear weapons facilities were false and misleading. However, on March 14, DOE requested supplemental funds from the White House budget office to improve safeguards and security at its facilities. That request was rejected reportedly because DOE had not revised its Design Basis Threat -- a document that outlines the basis for physical security measures --to meet issues raised after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. A March 28 letter from Bruce M. Carnes, DOE's chief financial officer, to White House officials warned that the federal agency's security budget was not sufficient to meet the potential terrorism challenge. The Oak Ridger was unable to obtain the level of funding requested for Oak Ridge for fiscal year 2003. However, Wamp said DOE's Oak Ridge Operations office has requested an extra $36 million for security. Paul Parson can be contacted at (865) 220-5533 or pparson@oakridger.com [pparson@oakridger.com] . All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 57 Opinion: Durable (15 years) Carbide plant manager; union, local government pioneer The Oak Ridger Online - 04/23/02 Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 11:45 a.m. on Tuesday, April 23, 2002 Roger Hibbs at July 1973 press conferrence called to explain a major layoff at the Y-12 plant. For 15 years -- 1969 to 1984 -- Roger F. Hibbs oversaw operations of all three major Oak Ridge nuclear facilities -- Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Y-12 and Oak Ridge National Labratory -- the Paducah, Ky, gaseous diffusion plant as well. Only Clark Center, pioneer plant overseer, held that position of immense responsibility longer (from Oak Ridge's earliest years until 1967). Hibbs took over when Clarence Larson, who had succeeded Center, was named to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. By then, Union Cabide Corporation, which had operated the plants for the federal government under a succession of subsidiary names, had settled in as Union Carbide, Nuclear Division, of which Hibbs was president. In 1983 Martin Marietta Energy Systems won the plant operating contract. Carbide had not sought renewal of its then almost 40 years as principal federal contractor here. The Hibbs management years brought major new programs, like Toll Enriching at ORGDP and significant new thermonuclear (fusion) research devices at ORNL. Notable also were Hibbs' moves to draw the three facilities -- ORGDP, Y-12 and ORNL -- closer and into an era of greater communication and cooperation. Emblematic of this was the adoption of a universal security badge that would admit all properly certified personnel to all three major plant areas. It was during the Hibbs years also that Union Carbide became truly a citizen of not just the City of Oak Ridge, but of the state and region. Hibbs ultimately acepted a number of important civic appointments in Knoxville, including on the board for the 1982 Knoxvillle World's Fair. He also served on boards and committees with University of Tennessee, Maryville College and Vanderbilt. His major responsibility, however, was always Oak Ridge Operations and especially Y-12, where he had made major contributions in the use of mass spectroscopy to gauge the effectiveness of the electromagnetic process of separating out the coveted U-235 needed to fuel the first atomic bomb. A manager who related personally to his work force at all levels, his long tenure at the helm here also included labor disputes and layoffs. At a specially-called press conference in July 1973, he acknowledged that close to 1000 would be terminated at Y-12 within the next year. However, he assured that every effort would be made to place those laid off in new jobs expected to open up at ORGDP and ORNL, his policy of maximum linkage among the three facilities in action. In November 1982, Union Carbide's president, Alec Flamm, personally presented Hibbs a citatiion noting 16 million employe hours without a lost workday incident. The Hibbs were Oak Ridge residents -- Michigan Avenue and West Outer Drive -- for most of his years as plant manager, moving later to their beloved home on Watts Bar Lake where he indulged his fondness for farm life, riding his tractor regularly. In January 1974, retiring as president of the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce, Hibbs admonished the Chamber and, by indirection, seemingly his plant operating staff and the community as well, "to do for ourselves instead of expecting someone else to do for us." * Jerry A. George was a pioneer union organizer and then union officer at Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant. In Oak Ridge's first years, there was a tacit agreement between the Manhattan Engineer District and top national union officials -- CIO and AFL. They would not attempt to organize workers at the then top secret nuclear plants lest security and workplace efficiency be compromised. After the war ended, however, union organizers moved in and, ultimately, workers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 chose the AFL Atomic Trades and Labor Council while the CIO United Gas Coke and Chemical Workers of America successfully organized workers at what then was still called K-25, later to be known as ORGDP. George was an early union president. An aggressive union leader, he later was recruited by management and became an equally effective labor negotiator for Union Carbide, simultaneously pioneering in city and county public office. He was elected to multiple terms on what then was known as Anderson County Court, now Anderson County Commission. This was a time when Oak Ridge held only two seats on the court, this making George's service especially important as Oak Ridge struggled to find its proper political place in the county and state. George had been elected with the support of a reform group within the county Democratc party and he did not disappoint. His disappoint. His reputation as a conscientious public official had been establsihed earlier as he served on the Town Council, the citizen body elected prior to the city's incorporation in 1959. The Council, though without legal powers, served as an effective public sounding board. In December 1953 George was one of four of seven Town Council members voting to send a letter to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission urging immediate racial integration of Oak Ridge Schools. The action divided the community sharply and led to a recall election for the Council chairman, Waldo Cohn. The recall failed barely and the whole matter became moot later that spring when the U.S Supreme Court rendered its historic Brown vs. Board of Education desegregation decisiion. George continued prominent in local Democratic politics for years. He served as a Tennessee delegate to the 1956 Democratic Convention in Chicago and played a pivotal role in gaining the vice presidential nomination for Tennessee U.S. Sen. Estes Kefauver. This was the last time that convention balloting for a candidate for either party went beyond a single roll call. Jerry bowed out of public life in more recent years but was always a pleasure to meet and chat about his earlier activism as he regularly walked his small dog on the Civic Center trail. -- RDS Richard D. Smyser is founding editor of The Oak Ridger. He can be reached by email at rdsandmps@aol.com [rdsandmps@aol.com] . All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 58 Flats security fueling concern Some fear attack, seek more funds Denver Post.com By Mike Soraghan [msoraghan@denverpost.com] Denver Post Washington Bureau Tuesday, April 23, 2002 - WASHINGTON - The Department of Energy has warned White House officials that it doesn't have the money to properly protect nuclear weapons sites such as Rocky Flats, according to an internal document released Monday. And the Democratic congressman who released it says there's a growing threat of terrorists storming places such as the Cold War nuclear bomb plant, killing the guards, and setting off a radioactive "dirty bomb" upwind of Denver. "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 Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. "But when DOE finally admits that security is not what it should be, (the White House) refuses to help." Markey released a March 14 letter from the chief financial officer of DOE, which runs Rocky Flats, to the Office of Management and Budget, which writes the Bush administration's budget. The letter complains OMB didn't ask Congress for extra money for security in a supplemental budget bill. "The department's remaining safeguards and security budgets are not sufficient" to meet new security requirements imposed after the Sept. 11 attacks, Energy's Bruce Carnes wrote to Marcus Peacock of OMB. DOE was told the request was denied because an analysis of security risks is incomplete. DOE is operating under interim security guidelines and, Carnes said, "you have not provided the resources to enable us to do so." Administration spokespeople described the complaint as a routine disagreement. And they stressed that Rocky Flats and other nuclear sites are well-defended. "The DOE complex is one of the most secure sets of facilities in the world," said Lisa Cutler of DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration. "We took a number of steps to increase security after Sept. 11, including increased funding." That included increased staffing at DOE facilities, closing roads and "strengthening perimeters," she said.OMB spokeswoman Amy Call said DOE still has $50 million at its discretion from the $40 billion for counterterrorism approved after the Sept. 11 attacks. The explosion of a "dirty bomb" is not a nuclear explosion. It involves setting off conventional explosives laced with nuclear material, spewing the radioactive material into the air. Experts say such explosions would cause more terror than destruction. But the radiation would cause cancer in many of those exposed. Rocky Flats, 13 miles northwest of Denver, made plutonium detonators with the power of a Hiroshima bomb for 40 years before the plant closed in 1989. About 6 tons of plutonium remain. The federal government is spending $7 billion to decontaminate the site by 2006 and turn it into a wildlife refuge. But that deadline could be jeopardized by South Carolina's resistance to storing Rocky Flats plutonium. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., said DOE's security worries show the importance of getting the material shipped to South Carolina and getting the plant closed. Last year, Markey joined with a nonprofit whistle-blower group, the Project on Government Oversight, in releasing a report saying military special operations teams testing security at federal nuclear sites were able to overcome the private security teams at the plants more than half the time. All contents Copyright 2002 The Denver Post ***************************************************************** 59 Energy Department Says It's Not Getting Sufficient Anti-Terror Money FOXNews.com Tuesday, April 23, 2002 WASHINGTON — The Energy Department complained to the White House in recent weeks that it was not getting the money to protect against terrorists at its nuclear facilities, according to a letter made public Monday. In the letter, Bruce Carnes, a senior DOE budget director, complained that his department did not have enough money "to implement the security ... requirements" needed in response to last September's terrorist attacks. The letter, dated March 28, was sent to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) at a time when administration officials, including senior DOE officials, were saying security at the nuclear facilities was at a high level and adequate to meet the terrorist threat. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who released the letter Monday, said it shows "the White House refuses to deal with the consequences of Sept. 11. ... That is very scary." A frequent critic of security at federal and commercial nuclear facilities, Markey said the White House and DOE have not "put security at the top of their list. Clearly they've decided that even security has to be compromised." Lisa Cutler, a spokeswoman for the DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration, said there is adequate money to meet security needs at weapons facilities and nuclear research labs. While declining to speak to Carnes' letter specifically, she said "there are always discussions within the administration on the best way to meet the security challenges." But Cutler said, "If we find that we have any funding shortfalls we will take steps. We will work with OMB or redirect funds from other programs to make sure security needs are met." In his letter, Carnes complained that the OMB had "refused our security supplemental [budget] request" because the government had not yet completed its revamping of a general security document that outlines what kinds of threats the government must be prepared to defend against. Carnes wrote to OMB that until the new so-called "design basis threat" document is completed the department must work under interim security guidelines reflecting conditions since Sept. 11 "and you have not provided resources to enable us to do so." When Markey was critical of security at the federal research labs and other nuclear facilities in January, John Gordon, director of the DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration, strongly disputed suggestions that security was inadequate. Markey said that contrasts sharply from the tone of Carnes' letter. He said he wants to know why OMB "rejected [the] request for additional funds" to implement new security guidelines. Fox News Channel. ***************************************************************** 60 U.S. ousts head of UN chemical weapons control body NZOOM - ONE News - World http://onenews.nzoom.com The head of a global chemical weapons control body has been ousted by a United States-sponsored vote provoked by a rift over his diplomatic overtures to secure Iraq's compliance on arms inspection. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which has 145 member states, voted to remove Brazilian Director General Jose Bustani at a crisis meeting after the US forced a vote challenging his leadership, the second such ballot in as many months. Bustani had urged Iraq to join the OPCW but Washington accused him of "ill-considered initiatives" and criticised his management. The resulting showdown ended with a US victory over the leadership of a key international body. Washington has signalled it wants to get rid of President Saddam Hussein's government in Baghdad, but it could find it difficult to win backing for military action if Iraq agreed to join the OPCW and admit arms inspectors, analysts say. The US drive to oust Bustani is its second such campaign - last week it secured the removal of Robert Watson as chairman of a United Nations climate control body. Watson had advocated a shift away from fossil fuels. Domestic and foreign critics say the campaigns are evidence of mounting US unilateralism under Republican President George W Bush on key international issues ranging from human rights to the environment. "The conference of the states parties has supported the proposal calling for immediate dismissal of the director general," OPCW spokesman Peter Kaiser said after a late night vote at the organisation's headquarters in The Hague. Big spenders Britain, Germany, Japan and Italy - which along with the US contribute the lion's share of the OPCW's 60 million euro (NZ$119 million) annual budget - had indicated support for the US move earlier this month. The US proposal to oust Bustani, who served as Brazil's ambassador to Moscow, Vienna and the United Nations, secured 48 votes, while 43 countries abstained and six of the 115 members at the meeting opposed it. Not all countries voted. Delegates were set to discuss plans to select Bustani's successor on Tuesday. Observers said it could take weeks to choose a replacement. Mexico and Argentina have been floated as potential candidate countries to take over the post. Bustani, who was unanimously re-elected for a second four-year term last May, had accused Washington of riding roughshod over the independence of a global organisation to secure its national interests. "The choices that you make during this session...will determine whether genuine multilateralism will survive or whether it will be replaced by unilateralism in a multilateral disguise," Bustani told delegates in a speech on Sunday. "He is no longer director general and he does not consider it necessary or appropriate to comment. I will assume he will go back to the diplomatic service in Brazil," a spokeswoman for Bustani said after he was ousted. US doubts The United States has voiced doubts that United Nations inspections in Iraq for chemical, biological and nuclear arms would reassure people that Saddam Hussein was not stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. The OPCW works closely with the United Nations. "It would have to be an enormously intrusive inspection regime that could give the rest of the world reasonable confidence that in fact Saddam Hussein was not doing that which everyone knows he has been trying to do," U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said earlier this month. US officials said that Deputy US Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz earlier this year asked the Central Intelligence Agency to report on two international watchdogs involved in arms control inspections. One of the bodies, the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission in charge of verifying that Iraq no longer has weapons of mass destruction, is headed by Swedish diplomat Hans Blix. A US official denied a press report last week that Wolfowitz had asked the CIA to investigate Blix's performance. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair vowed earlier this month to tackle Saddam Hussein over the threat they say he poses with weapons of mass destruction. Iraq was subjected to UN arms inspections after the 1991 Gulf War ended its occupation of Kuwait, but the inspectors left in 1998. The United States and its allies say Baghdad has since pursued chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programmes. The OPCW special session was the first in the body's five-year history. The OPCW is a product of the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. Member states must provide data on their chemical weapons programmes and are subject to challenges and inspections from other members. Bustani, 59, told a Brazilian newspaper on April 9 it was "very probable" he would not survive the meeting because of U.S. influence but he was determined not to resign. © Reuters Published on Apr 23, 2002 ***************************************************************** 61 Strange Allies in Energy Policy Fight Yahoo! News - Tue Apr 23, 2:51 AM ET By JUDITH KOHLER, Associated Press Writer DENVER (AP) - Ranchers used to accuse Jim Baca of waging war on the West when he ran the Bureau of Land Management (news - web sites). These days, ranchers like Linn Blancett see him as a potential ally. The Bush administration's new energy plan has helped trigger this unlikely alliance between environmentalists and ranchers who both oppose increased mineral production. "I have never before seen such an assault on public lands and the quality of life in the western United States," said Baca, who resigned after a year as land management director in the first Clinton administration. Baca joined Blancett at a recent government-sponsored conference in Denver to update the public on plans to implement Bush's national energy policy. The irony of their joint appearance was not lost on either of them. "I'll be lucky if I don't get shot by my cowboy friends when I get home," joked Blancett. As land management chief, Baca infuriated ranchers when he proposed higher fees and conditions for grazing livestock on public lands. But farmers and ranchers from Montana to southern New Mexico have joined with environmentalists on the very issues that have long separated them: use of public lands, water and property rights. "We're realizing that on some issues we're not nearly as far apart as we thought we were," Blancett said. About 3,000 wells drilled by companies plumbing for natural gas dot the 48,000 acres he ranches in northwestern New Mexico. Many issues between the two camps overlap. Landowners complain of water waste, land damage and potential harm to their livelihoods. Environmentalists worry about pollution, effects on wildlife and loss of pristine lands. Much of the energy development in the West is on public land. The Bureau of Land Management oversees 262 million acres, primarily in 12 Western states, and 700 million acres of minerals. The federal government leases the rights to extract its minerals. That leads to clashes between energy producers and ranchers who lease public land for livestock grazing, or landowners who don't own the mineral rights and don't want oil and gas rigs on the property. The thrust of the Bush plan is to give petroleum and coal companies easier access to public lands, to speed up the review process for proposed refinery and power plant expansions and to renew the nation's long-term commitment to nuclear power. Such steps and a commitment to a mix of fuels, according to the Bush administration, are necessary to provide Americans with abundant energy and stable prices over the long term. The plan has inadvertently triggered a warming between former adversaries. Dale Ackels, who farms near Sheridan, Wyo., helped lobby Congress last fall on the federal energy bill as part of a coalition that included regional conservation, consumer and livestock groups. Companies leasing the minerals under Ackels' land want to drill, and he fears the fallout. "It boils down to a fundamental equity issue," Ackels said. "Do I own my own land or don't I? And if I don't, how does that happen in America?" Daniel Kemmis, director of the Center for the American West at the University of Montana, said the collaboration between traditional adversaries has grown in the past decade out of frustration with the federal government's management of public lands, which make up half or more of some Western states. "I believe they are forging a new way of dealing with public lands and natural resource issues and that it will go on no matter what policies come out of Washington, D.C.," Kemmis said. "Because no matter what policies come out of Washington, D.C., they will come out in a way that frustrates many Westerners." ___ BLM: http://www.blm.gov/nhp/index.htm Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 62 Reid's Earth Day address says Bush threatens environment gains Associated Press [online@rgj.com] 4/22/2002 12:10 pm Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., accused the Bush administration Monday of undermining countless environmental gains he helped usher through Congress with bipartisan support the past two decades. "While today we celebrate our environmental accomplishments, those accomplishments are not secure,"Reid said in a statement commemorating Earth Day. "This administration has taken steps to erode those accomplishments on nearly every front,"the Senate majority whip said. In his 16 years on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee _ twice as chairman, Reid said he had an opportunity to help improve many of the nation's key environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Food Quality Protection Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. "These bipartisan efforts have translated into real environmental gains,"he said, including restoring two-thirds of the nation's polluted waters, addressing arsenic and other threats to drinking water and moving to limit toxic pesticide residues on fruit and vegetables. "Together, we've worked to protect our nation's threatened and endangered species, bringing such American symbols as the bald eagle and peregrine falcon back from the brink of exinction,"Reid said. President Bush, on the other hand, has opposed efforts to develop renewable energy and to make motor vehicles more efficient"while trying to"exploit the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge at the request of big oil companies,"the senator said in the statement from Washington. The administration has proposed to cut funding for enforcement of landmark environmental laws and"denied the reality of global warming"by walking away from the international negotiating table on climate change, he said. "While this administration's environmental rollbacks are getting too numerous to count, the one that stands out the most is the president's plan to transport nuclear waste across the country for storage at Yucca Mountain,"he said. Reid said there is no guarantee that nuclear waste can be transported safely to Nevada. "All in all, over 100 million Americans in at least 43 states would have nuclear waste passing by their communities, homes, schools, parks, lakes and rivers,"he said. Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett Co. Inc. ***************************************************************** 63 On Earth Day, Bush V. Gore (washingtonpost.com) Clash on Environmental Policy Evokes 2000 Battle Former vice president Al Gore attacked the environmental policies of the Bush administration in a speech Monday at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. (AP Photo) By Dan Balz and Dana Milbank Washington Post Staff Writers Tuesday, April 23, 2002; Page A01 On the 32nd anniversary of Earth Day, President Bush said yesterday that his environmental initiatives would reduce power plant emissions more than those of any previous administration. But he faced a barrage of criticism from environmental groups and former rival Al Gore, who charged that Bush has broken his word and sold out to polluters and special interests. In an echo of the 2000 presidential campaign, Bush and Gore staged dueling events to mark Earth Day. The president traveled to the snowy Adirondack Mountains in Upstate New York and Gore addressed a largely student audience at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. With Bush's overall approval rating still near 80 percent, Democrats see his handling of the environment as one area of potential weakness as they look for issues in this fall's midterm elections. Although Democrats enjoy an advantage with the public on the environment, the issue ranks below education, the economy and health care in terms of importance to voters. Gore, no longer hesitating to challenge the president on domestic issues, leveled an across-the-board critique of the administration's environmental policies, saying the administration has chosen "to serve the special interests" and to "subsidize the obsolete, failed approaches of the past." Pointing to last week's Senate vote rejecting Bush's proposal to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration, Gore predicted that the administration will keep trying. "That's why, in my opinion, it is so important to elect pro-environment Democrats to the House and Senate in this critical election year," he said. The president, on a cold and muddy walk through the snow, was asked about Gore's criticisms. "Haven't paid attention to them," he called out. Told that Gore said Bush had no environmental record, Bush replied: "That's why I haven't paid attention to him." But the president's advisers did respond, prompting a squabble over the disputed 2000 election. White House aides said the American people had rejected Gore's environmental views in 2000. "The vice president, in an era of peace and prosperity, made the same charges in the campaign and the voters elected President Bush," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters. "Refresh my memory a little bit," Gore responded, saying he had not intended to bring up the election. "Did a majority of the American people endorse his policies in the election? He won the election and he is our president, but he ought to be a little bit more careful about claiming that a majority of the voters endorsed his policy payoffs to polluters who pressured him to break his promises to the public." Gore won a majority of the popular vote in 2000, but lost the electoral college vote and therefore the election to Bush. In his 27-minute Earth Day address in New York, Bush made no mention of counterterrorism efforts, as he has done in virtually every speech since Sept. 11. "I firmly believe that the 32 years after Earth Day, America understands our obligation much more so than in the years past," he told a hastily assembled crowd in the Whiteface Mountain ski lodge after an outdoor event was canceled because of snow. The White House selected the location, in the Adirondacks, to emphasize the area's balance between parkland and private land, and cooperation between government and the private sector. In its environmental policies, the administration has emphasized voluntary compliance over federal regulation of industry. Bush mentioned various environmental policies his administration has pursued, emphasizing the "Clear Skies" legislation to set air pollution limits from power plants. "With Clear Skies legislation, America will do more to reduce power plant emissions than ever before in our nation's history," he vowed. Gore scoffed at that remark. "The Bush administration's so-called 'Clean Skies' initiative actually allows more toxic mercury, nitrogen oxide and sulfur pollution than if we enforced the laws on the books today," he said. "It ought to be called the 'dirty skies' initiative." Bush favors mandatory limits on nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxides and mercury, but soon after taking office backed away from a pledge to put limits on carbon dioxide as well. Yesterday Gore criticized the president for that reversal. "The day after he took his oath of 'honor and integrity' he made that his very first broken promise," Gore said. Asked about Gore's charge, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman, traveling on Air Force One, said: "He didn't do much about it when he was vice president, so I don't know what's the point of the discussion." Gore also accused the administration of promoting an energy policy that favors oil and gas exploration instead of pushing aggressively for alternative energy sources, which he said could free the United States from dependence on foreign oil. Meanwhile, major environmental groups launched a new media campaign echoing criticism from Gore and the Democrats. "It is now painfully clear that this is the most anti-environmental presidential administration ever," said Gregory Wetstone of the Natural Resources Defense Council. "On issue after issue, federal agencies have been promoting the agenda of corporate polluters at the expense of our clean air, clean water, protected lands and forest, and even our planet's climate." Leaders of a dozen environmental groups and singer-activist Bonnie Raitt staged an Earth Day event in Washington with the theme: "Tell the Bush administration not to let big business trample our environmental laws." Raitt criticized the administration's approval of a plan to ship nuclear waste cross-country to a proposed repository beneath Nevada's Yucca Mountain. She called it a risky "mobile Chernobyl" that could result in serious accidents involving deadly waste near heavily populated areas. Balz reported from Nashville, Milbank from New York. Staff writer Eric Pianin in Washington contributed to this report. © 2002 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************