***************************************************************** 02/24/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.48 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POLICY 1 Finnish media slams minister for nuke disloyalty 2 Canada: Becoming A Better Regulator: Progress To Date 3 Nuclear 'Bribery' Should Be Out In Open 4 USEC likely has Russian deal - NUCLEAR REACTORS 5 US: Nuclear plant's application is at Blair, Omaha libraries 6 Canada: Nuclear regulator fights licence 7 Irish school to twin with school in Chernobyl zone 8 US: Energy Northwest to focus on safety 9 US: PNNL plan aims to cut medical errors 10 Reactor at South-Ukrainian nuclear plant halted for repairs 11 Russian urges labs to back push for nuke power 12 US: UHM plans to receive $250-mln order for Indian nuclear plant NUCLEAR SAFETY 13 US: Army Corps report calls for more IAAP tests 14 US: Shaheen responded well on KI pills issue 15 US: Auditors: EPA Wrong on Radon Costs NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 16 US: Developers mixed on Yucca's impact 17 Kyrgyzstan seeks funding to tackle radioactive dumps 18 CNSC ANNOUNCES DECISION ON CAMECO'S URANIUM REFINING FACILITY IN BLI 19 CNSC ANNOUNCES DECISION ON CAMECO'S URANIUM CONVERSION FACILITY IN P 20 US: Spencer letter to NYT: Nevada Waste Site 21 CNSC ANNOUNCES DECISION ON ZIRCATEC'S FUEL FACILITY IN PORT HOPE, ON 22 Sampling at Seaway N-waste site under review 23 US: West Valley Panel continues to lobby on N-waste funding 24 US: Yucca Mountain decision 'no surprise' - Las Vegas View 25 US: Yucca call doesn't surprise Wynn 26 US: California measure would ban low-level waste shipments to landfi 27 US: Caliente mayor shows Nevada-style independence by siding with du 28 US: Senator has staked his career on blocking repository. Can he com 29 US: Nevada undertakes effort to kill Yucca project in Congress 30 US: Plan would let nuclear waste would roll through states 31 US: Academics: Nevada GOP candidates not hurt by Yucca decision 32 US: Griffin urges Bush to demand study on impact of transporting nuk 33 US: EDITORIAL: Turning back Yucca Mountain demands unity 34 US: FROM CARSON CITY: Yucca is not exactly a great debate 35 Scientist Slams 'Cavalier' Company 36 US: Move ahead on Yucca Mountain NUCLEAR WEAPONS 37 US: US denies change in nuke policy 38 Stolen n-weapons material 39 US: Physicians Denounce Administration Nuclear Weapons Decision 40 Russia's nuclear arms deemed vulnerable 41 U.S. Abandons pledge Not to Use Nuclear Weapons on Non-Nuclear State 42 Iran's N-capability: reality belies US rhetoric 43 U.S. should keep moratorium to avert new nuclear arms race US DEPT. OF ENERGY 44 INEEL to remain open, despite Bush budget cuts 45 Flats plan needs teeth 46 New Hanford manager comes to see site 47 Hanford river project receives federal award 48 SRS takes up 3rd disposal plan 49 Neth: It's time to dance with DOE OTHER NUCLEAR 50 Federal judge appoints manager for struggling technology firm ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Finnish media slams minister for nuke disloyalty FINLAND: February 22, 2002 HELSINKI - Finnish newspapers this week lashed out at Environment Minister Satu Hassi, labelling her disloyal to the cabinet after earlier this week she went against the government's stance in favour of more nuclear power. "Cabinet members left in the minority must, in the name of democracy, settle for the majority stance," tabloid Iltalehti said in its editorial. "It cannot be thought that they would, as ministers, continue working to overturn the endeavour." Finland's government last month bucked a general shift away from nuclear power in Western Europe by passing to parliament a proposal by energy group Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) to build a fifth nuclear reactor in Finland to meet future energy demand. Hassi, former head of the Green Party, voted against the proposal but her party has remained in the five-party coalition government despite some calls from members to leave. But Hassi on Monday sparked a cabinet rift by publishing a study she had commissioned which showed that boosting nuclear capacity meant energy taxes would rise, making it no cheaper an option than replacing coal-generated energy with natural gas. The study - which commentators said brought no substantial new information to the discussion - provoked criticism from government coalition partners. Several of the country's main papers said Hassi had acted against the rules of politics by commissioning a study after the issue had moved from government to parliament. "(Hassi) has decided to attempt to show that the government gave the wrong impression about things... Satu Hassi is acting in government in an altogether unloyal manner," Finland's largest daily Helsingin Sanomat said in its editorial. "Such maverick behaviour can be thought odd, especially when the government has already made its decision," business daily Kauppalehti added in an editorial. Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen strongly defended nuclear power on Tuesday, saying in the Financial Times that the option of nuclear power should be preserved if the European Union is not to become a "fossil monster". A parliamentary vote on the new reactor is expected this spring. Parties have given members free rein in what is expected to be a tight vote which some analysts have said could influence planned parliamentary elections for spring 2003. REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ***************************************************************** 2 Canada: Becoming A Better Regulator: Progress To Date CNSC: Media Centre - Speeches Notes for a Speech by Ken Pereira, Vice President, Operations, Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission On Behalf of Linda J. Keen, CNSC President and Chief Executive Officer to the Canadian Nuclear Association Winter Seminar February 19, 2002 Introduction Good morning to you all. It is my pleasure to be here in the place of Linda Keen, President and CEO of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, who unfortunately is unable to join you today. It is in my new role as Vice President of Operations that I represent the views of the CNSC today. Much has occurred in the past year since the President last spoke to you, not only here in Canada but especially in the United States and around the world. The events of last September certainly had a large effect on our staff's activities and resulted in some redirection of effort. I will return later to the events of September 11 and the effects they exerted on the Nuclear Safety Commission as well as the nuclear industry in Canada. But first, in her speech to you last year, Ms. Keen told you that the CNSC would report to you in the next year on our progress in becoming a better regulator. She has asked me to describe the progress we have made in pursuit of this goal. A Framework for Success As the President indicated to you a year ago, for the CNSC to become one of the best regulators in the world, we must first fulfill three strategic objectives. These objectives are: + to ensure that our regulatory regime is effective and efficient; + to ensure that we operate with a high level of transparency and openness; and + to attract and retain excellent staff. To guide us in fulfilling these objectives, the CNSC has developed a framework for excellence over the past 12 months. This framework was developed keeping in mind the recommendations of the Office of the Auditor General and those of an independent consulting firm hired to help us identify areas for improvement. The CNSC framework for excellence has four pillars - cornerstones of a foundation upon which we can build. These pillars are; + The Nuclear Safety and Control Act and our Management Charter; + A strong and coherent strategic planning process; + A well designed organizational structure to support our objectives, and lastly; + Effective information and knowledge management. And so, what progress have we made with our strategic objectives? How are we advancing our framework for excellence to become one of the best regulators in the world? Let me tell you where we are at. The Nuclear Safety and Control Act and our Management Structure After the enactment of the Nuclear Safety and Control Act in May 2000, the mandate of the CNSC changed. The Act provides the CNSC with the necessary mandate, tools and independence to regulate the nuclear industry effectively. We also developed a Management Charter that includes a clear definition of our mission, mandate, vision and values. Our new Office of Regulatory Affairs has responsibility for overall coordination of regulatory policy and direction. We are making changes in our regulatory processes to support the implementation of the Act and regulations. Our legislation and our management charter - together, these provide the focus and direction for all of our activities and serves as the basis for all of our planning and decision making. A Strong and Coherent Strategic Planning Process Our second pillar is a strong and coherent strategic planning process. To that end, our President and CEO, just before Christmas, endorsed the main components of the CNSC's Strategic Plan for 2002 to 2007 and a Corporate Plan for 2002-2004 which were developed over the last year by the CNSC staff. Our three strategic objectives mentioned earlier are part of this plan. The next step will be identifying performance indicators and benchmarking against best practices. A New Organizational Structure In spring 2001, the Office of Regulatory Affairs and the Office of International Affairs were created and we restructured our Corporate Services Directorate and the Secretariat. These changes delivered improvements in the management of the corporate functions, enhanced our safeguards business line, and improved the independence of the Secretariat for the Commission Tribunal. On January 10, 2002, there was a restructuring of the operational directorates. As a result, all regulatory functions have been consolidated under the umbrella of a single Operations Branch. The five new directorates that make up the new Operations Branch have specific accountabilities to either deliver all regulatory functions related to specific groups of licensees or to provide operational strategies or specialist assessments in support of these functions. These five directorates are: + The Directorate of Power Reactor Regulation; + The Directorate of Nuclear Cycle and Facilities Regulation; + The Directorate of Nuclear Substance Regulation; + The Directorate of Assessment and Analysis; and, + The Directorate of Operational Strategies. The objective of this restructuring is to help us do our work in a better way, to achieve our strategic objective of improving regulatory effectiveness and efficiency. I have been given the task to, over the next few weeks and months, finalize the restructuring process and make additional changes. We are committed to having the final CNSC structure by April 1 of this year. Information and Knowledge Management Our legislation, our Management Charter, our Strategic Plan and an effective organizational design, are essential prerequisites to the establishment of the fourth supporting pillar - information and knowledge management, a challenge that we must address for the future. We are all facing the possible loss of corporate memory due to our aging nuclear workforce. The CNSC is addressing this challenge with aggressive succession planning activities and by increasing our support for nuclear education programs to ensure we have a suitable pool of knowledgeable people to draw from in the future. We are also both challenged by, and can benefit from, our increasingly wired world. With an increasing demand for electronic services, the CNSC is piloting an on-line initiative. Specifically, later this year, over 300 licensees in the nuclear medicine community will be given the opportunity to start doing some of their business with the CNSC on-line. The experience and knowledge gained from this pilot program could lead to more on-line services for a wider base of licensees in the future. Of course, information and knowledge management goes beyond these two examples. We recognize that a sustainable organization must manage the knowledge it has. Effective information and knowledge management, including consultation and communication, will assist us in meeting our strategic objectives. Progress to Date Over the past year, in addition to the strategy, planning and organizational changes, we have made additional progress on the three objectives. When the President spoke to you last year, she told you about new initiatives intended to make us a better regulator - initiatives which would concretely affect the way we regulate and the way we do business with our licensees and other stakeholders. Progress has been made in a number of areas. In the area of increased effectiveness, for example, the CNSC is instituting an improved rating system for ranking the safety performance of power reactor licensees. Gone are the ratings of "acceptable", "conditionally acceptable" and "unacceptable." The new, improved, performance rating system, discussed with the CNA regulatory committee and tabled at the Commission in January, clarifies the CNSC's expectations and findings for licensees. We have also initiated our corporate compliance program. The CNSC Compliance Policy was published in May 2001. Our improved compliance approach is being implemented beginning in April, 2002. In parallel with the compliance program, we are moving to the application of risk-informed principles and employment of risk-based assessment throughout the regulatory regime. This approach was used successfully in our recent review of security. We have heard the requests for increased regulatory clarity. In response, we continue to accelerate the development of regulatory documents that set out the requirements by which licensees will be assessed. We have committed to having key regulatory policies and standards in place by March 2003. We will also be implementing a new process for the production of regulatory documents designed to reduce the time and cost of their development and to maximize their usefulness. Steps are underway to implement a mechanism to ensure appropriate consultation with licensees and stakeholders on the development of these documents. On the openness and transparency front, we are increasing the transparency of our cost-recovery program. Since the CNSC established its cost recovery program in 1990, fees have been revised on only two occasions, the last time being in 1996. We have instituted a comprehensive automated resource management process to understand where we are putting our time and effort. Increased regulatory oversight due to expanded regulatory responsibilities, increased costs in providing required services, public expectations in relation to security, and inflation have all raised the cost of regulating Canada's nuclear industry As a first step, we've established a Cost Recovery Advisory Group, which has been created to advise the CNSC on the program to make sure that changes are fair and equitable for all licensees. Over the next few months, we will consult with industry, licensees and other stakeholders in the development of the update to cost recovery. We have also, beginning in January 2001, published reasons for decisions for licensing decisions. These are only some of the developments intended to make the CNSC a better regulator. Earlier this month, we published an update on our progress in responding to the recommendations of the December 2000 Auditor General's report. This update is now available on the CNSC website. In keeping with our objective of attracting and retaining excellent staff, we have developed an intern program to ensure that we continue to have a suitable pool of talent from which to draw new employees. Our first eight interns began this program last June. We have also become involved in the Canadian Universities Network for Excellence in Nuclear Engineering. I believe some of the organizations represented here today are also taking part in this initiative. I also commend your proactive response to the human resource issues facing the nuclear industry. Before I finish, I mentioned earlier that I would return to the impact of September 11 on the CNSC and our licensees. I believe the quick and effective response by the CNSC and industry to the events of September 11 was achieved because the foundation for good regulatory performance was already in place. Our collective, and effective, response to September 11 illustrated that the regulatory regime is not only working, but also that there is a genuine pursuit of safety and security by both the regulator and industry. However, as the security measures are put in place, they represent a challenge for all to maintain. Conclusion So, have we made progress in the past year to become a better regulator? I believe so. That is not to say that we are finished with our task. More work needs to be done and the foundation has been laid for other improvements we will be instituting in the future. We will continue to look for new ways to improve the way we do business - to improve regulatory clarity, to increase effectiveness and efficiency, to be more open and transparent. However, it is important to note that the effectiveness of what we do - protecting health, safety, security and the environment - will always be our first priority and will not be compromised by other considerations Thank you and I am ready to answer any questions. -30- © Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission 2000 ***************************************************************** 3 Nuclear 'Bribery' Should Be Out In Open THE WHITEHAVEN NEWS Thursday, February 21, 2002 Financial compensation, or a shopping list of benefits for any community which might take a nuclear waste repository, should be discussed before any decisions are taken, says the new Nirex boss. Chris Murray, new managing director of Nirex, the company behind the failed Sellafield repository bid, said: "It should be agreed at a national level - that's the only legitimate way. It could involve substantial amounts, maybe not." "We shouldn't leave it to the developer, it should be decided, up front, what the whole picture is going to be." At a forum in Cleator Moor Civic Hall, the Nirex chief was addressing local community representatives and members of the public to get their views on the solution for dealing with the country's highly radioactive waste as part of a government consultation paper. Most of the waste produced and stored from reprocessing at Sellafield. Mr Murray said there should be some recognition of a "contract" as part of the consultations, unlike things which were felt, but unspoken, while Nirex was carrying out its investigations around Sellafield. It was important to know what a community, anywhere in the UK, might get. The Nirex chief asked: "Should they get blight money? - Yes, there is hardly any debate about that. "Planning gain? That is a different matter and needs to be discussed up front." Should that planning gain be toilets at Gosforth which was the level Nirex worked at, and which was ridiculous, or should it be something very substantial like regional development? If it's regional development or something like that isn't that a bribe? I don't have the answer but this should be debated and not left until the last second. Another issue is whether local communities should have a veto to say 'no' as they do in Sweden to any proposal. That is not a normal thing in this country but all these things should be discussed before anyone starts doing anything about sites. All the technical options need to be gone through with a fine tooth comb." Mr Murray, who admitted that huge lessons had been learned in the need for openness and transparency, said that it was crucial to have an open site selection process. "People simply said it was a fix last time. This time everybody has to be involved. Sellafield was one of the sites and Dounreay the second but there were another 10. Next time round names the sites. That's what's done in Sweden and Finland, so people can see it. The faster we went the more we annoyed everybody. We were not listening, when concerns were brought to us, we patted people on the head and said 'don't worry about it.' We published more information than anyone could believe but we did not involve the public." For Friends of the Earth in West Cumbria, Jill Perry said there was still an inevitable feeling that the waste would "end up here" although, if the consultation process was carried out fairly, all of it might not. She also warned that the public consultations could be a complete waste of time because of proposed government legislation to change the planning system for major infrastructure projects. It meant that the need, principle and location of a nuclear waste facility would be unchallengable at a public inquiry - "The kind of inquiry we had into the Nirex rock characterisation facility would not take place in the same way." She said that all that members of the public would be able to comment on would be things like how the actual site was laid out, mitigation measures and planning conditions; no issues of substance, "So that is a real concern to Friends of the Earth and lots of other people, a real threat to democracy civil rights and the real anxiety for the whole nuclear waste consultation process." After the events of September 11, FoE said it would be developing its policy over next few months on methods of disposal or storage, but Ms Perry said: "We don't want West Cumbria or Sellafield to become the world's nuclear dustbin" She said that de-commissioning of plants at Sellafield would add very high amounts of waste to the stockpile. Adam Scott, from DEFRA's Radioactive Substances Division, said that September 11 had concentrated people's minds on risks associated with nuclear reactors and waste. He thought the Nirex failure to get planning permission to build an underground rock laboratory at Longlands, near Gosforth, a good thing because the government had then to re-examine all options for dealing with radioactive waste. "We are desperately keen to get the public's views on the consultation paper. What we did not get right last time was the right way of dealing with this issue. Should we bury the waste deep underground or lying around on the surface in safe storage until future society knows about the perils of the material and what to do with it?" He said the trickiest question would be where a new disposal or storage facility might be, but he added: "There is no mad rush." Part of the consultation ends on March 12. Mr Scott said a recommendation to government was needed by 2004, by which time there may have been another public consultation. n Views from the forum will be used by Copeland Council as part of its response to the consultation. Brian White, head of development, said: "What came over strongly from the group discussions is that we have an expert community and, without it being taken as read that the waste should remain here, we need a strong voice in what happens to it." ***************************************************************** 4 USEC likely has Russian deal - By Joe Walker The Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky Saturday, February 23, 2002 Cheaper uranium will affect the future of the Paducah plant, although the company and the union have different expectations. By Joe Walker jwalker@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650 USEC Inc. has struck a deal to buy cheaper uranium from Russia, which has major implications for the future of the 1,500-employee Paducah uranium enrichment plant. Although company officials declined comment Friday, various Washington sources said USEC and Russia reached a tentative pact this week. "All I know for certain is that USEC and Tenex, the Russian agent, have initialed a new long-term agreement that both governments have to approve," said Phil Potter, Washington, D.C.-based policy analyst for the plant energy workers' union. "There's no question they've initialed a deal, the State Department has received it and faxed it to various agencies in the U.S. government involved in this." Potter said he was uncertain of details and had heard various prices speculated, but couldn't confirm any of them. He said he expected governmental review to be fast because of the importance the deal has to America's uranium enrichment industry. The deal, reached Thursday, was confirmed by a senior Bush administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist Thomas Neff, who conceived the program and has consulted with both governments. Neff said some Russian officials are concerned the new price is too low and won’t increase enough annually to keep up with future spikes in the market. U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Southgate, said during a Paducah visit Wednesday that USEC was closer than ever to a new contract with Russia. He said the Department of Energy was pushing the deal as part of an overall agreement to protect the Paducah plant, the nation's sole remaining enrichment facility. USEC is middleman for sales of the Russian material, recycled from former Soviet warheads and accounting for about half the enriched uranium used by U.S. nuclear plants. About a third comes from the Paducah plant and the rest from European competitors. In the eighth year of a $12 billion, 20-year pact with Russia, USEC has pinned the future of the Paducah plant on lowering prices for the cheaper Russian uranium. It says lower prices help offset the plant’s high production costs from using massive amounts of electricity. USEC leases the plant from the Energy Department. Tentative terms between the two call for USEC to run the facility at guaranteed production levels or turn it back to government operation. The company would be removed as agent for the Russian uranium if it defaulted on any of various terms of the agreement. Union officials have expressed concern whether the cheaper Russian uranium will help or hurt plant jobs. They had hoped the Paducah plant agreement would precede the new Russian deal because too much Russian uranium could displace plant production. Bunning said Wednesday that DOE Deputy Secretary Francis Blake had replaced Undersecretary of Energy Robert Card as chief negotiator in the Paducah plant agreement. That came after Card and USEC President William Timbers exchanged heated criticism in letters about the talks. The Associated Press contributed to this report. ***************************************************************** 5 Nuclear plant's application is at Blair, Omaha libraries Omaha.com February 22, 2002 BY NANCY GAARDER WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER The Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant's application to renew its license is now available to the public. The application documents are at the library in Blair, Neb., and in the government documents division of the W. Dale Clark Library, 215 S. 15th St. in Omaha. They are also available online at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Web site. The plant, northwest of Omaha, is one of the smallest nuclear power plants in the country. It is owned by Omaha Public Power District and provides about a third of OPPD's power. Fort Calhoun's license is set to expire in 2013 and, if approved, the new license would last 20 additional years. The applications documents were compiled by OPPD and are addressed to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which will decide on the application. A public hearing probably will be held in the next six months, and the NRC expects to make a decision by early 2004. Two large white binders contain the bulk of the application information. The first is the application itself, which discusses how various mechanical systems at the plant work. The second is an assessment of the plant's impact on the human and natural environment. The human environment would be such things as housing and traffic. The natural environment includes a look at the plant's efforts to be sure water discharged into the Missouri River is not too warm for aquatic life. ©2002 Omaha World-Herald. ***************************************************************** 6 Canada: Nuclear regulator fights licence Feb. 22, 01:00 EDT Splits with board over refinery in Port Hope Peter Calamai SCIENCE REPORTER OTTAWA — A federal nuclear safety regulator has split with his colleagues over renewing the licence for Canada's only uranium fuel refinery at Port Hope. Geology professor Chris Barnes said the plant, 100 kilometres east of Toronto, should be licensed for only three years because of "significant" public concerns about potential health hazards and the legacy of radioactive contamination in Port Hope from the refinery. The other four board members of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission recently approved a five-year licence renewal for the refinery, run by French-controlled Cameco Corp. Barnes also expressed concern that no one has been looking for signs of harm to animals and insects in Port Hope harbour or in the ground around the plant, where there has been a build-up of uranium and other potentially harmful chemicals since the 1950s. The federal environment department scrapped environmental monitoring of sediments in Port Hope harbour in the early 1990s as part of budgetary cutbacks and Ontario did not pick up the slack. A spokeswoman said the dissent by Barnes was the first such public break in the history of the commission and of its predecessor, the Atomic Energy Control Board. The dissent was included in the commission's written licensing decision. Barnes contended a three-year period would put more pressure on Cameco to deal with public concerns about health hazards and launch studies to monitor environmental effects. Instead the commission opted for a mid-2004 status report on Cameco's progress. As a geologist at the University of Victoria, Barnes is the only commission member with relevant scientific expertise in how particles of radioactive uranium migrate through soil. Other commission members include an engineer, a lawyer and a one-time N.B. energy minister. President Linda Keen is a former federal bureaucrat with a masters degree in nutrition and food sciences. The disagreement is merely the latest twist in a long-running controversy over radioactive pollution by the uranium refinery, originally operated by Eldorado Nuclear, a federal crown corporation. Community activists have been battling Ottawa to finance a survey of illness among Port Hope residents past and present that might be linked to decades of uranium dust raining down on the community. They reject as flawed and untrustworthy a report by federal health researchers that found death rates for various cancers in Port Hope no higher than provincial averages. The nuclear safety commission initially tried to freeze out the activists by urging the town to establish its own advisory committee on health studies, with minimal representation for the activist group. But in a previously unpublicized November letter, the commission backtracked on even that compromise, saying the timing was not "appropriate" because all research programs were being reviewed. At the second day of licence hearings here last month, Cameco officials said their studies indicated between 0.3 and 2.4 milligrams of uranium dust per month was falling on every square metre of the community. Based on a computer model, the company said levels of uranium concentration in the soil should not rise appreciably. But actual measurements in soil test plots operated by the company and the Ontario environment ministry found uranium concentrations were actually increasing, although still well below levels considered potentially hazardous. Legal Notice:- Copyright 1996-2002. Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All ***************************************************************** 7 Irish school to twin with school in Chernobyl zone Drogheda Irish Newspapers By Caroline Kavanagh A SCHOOL in Drogheda is to enter an historic twinning with a school within the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Seamus Lynch, school principal of St Pauls NS, Rathmullen, made contact with the school in Gomel, Belarus, through local Chernobyl children activist Isobel Sanroma. ‘This is a very exciting development as in the past St Pauls has twinned with schools in Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, Spain and France. This is a further step abroad as we are moving into Eastern Europe. Mr Lynch went on to say that this is a great opportunity for the children to broaden their horizons and to meet children from different countries. He said that the issue of nuclear safety and the dangers of nuclear reactors are equally pressing for the people of Drogheda as those in Chernobyl. ‘Schools should provide the opportunities for students to learn the risks associated with them. Unfortunately Sellafield is on our own doorstep here. In the past children from Belarus have visited St Pauls through staff member Mary Stephenson. This further twinning will formalise the good feelings and relationship between the people of Drogheda and Belarus. ‘Visitors to our school are struck by the friendliness and cordiality of the children and I am confident that this venture will be a resounding success, he said. Language should not be a problem as the students will be learning enough Russian to exchange greetings with the students from Gomel. When twinned with other countries the students learned French, Spanish and some Scandinavian languages. ‘Multi-culturalism is the way forward and we must actively promote this. Twinning it creates a culture where the acquisition of language is encouraged through the concept that languages are good as they allow for communication and friendship. Teacher Mary Stephenson has hosted children from Chernobyl in her own home and they have visited St Pauls over the years. She hopes that her students will send over the school yearbook which is updated regularly and tells about school events such as sports, literacy through technology, photographs, educational school tours, school plays and concerts, food appeals, the Breakfast Club, Homework Club, summer camp and so much more. Ms Sanroma has visited the school which she said, is of a very high standard. ‘Belarus is not all humps and bumps and tumours! They actually have a very high standard of education in the schools here, she said. Both Mary Stephenson and Seamus Lynch plan to visit the school in Gomel shortly. In the Gomel school a wide range of health information and research is available to both students and the wider community. The schools hope to share education methods, crafts, culture, computer work and much more. A twinning ceremony will take place in Ireland in March, followed by a similar event in Belarus in May. © Copyright Unison ***************************************************************** 8 Energy Northwest to focus on safety This story was published Fri, Feb 22, 2002 By John Stang Herald staff writer Energy Northwest recently terminated the leases of its paying tenants at the Reactor No. 1 site so it can boost safety fix-it measures for the Columbia Generating Station's reactor. Meanwhile, Energy Northwest officials discussed other remedial measures with Nuclear Regulatory Commission representatives Thursday in Richland. All these actions stem from the NRC giving Energy Northwest a "yellow" rating in late 2001 after a two-month safety inspection. A yellow rating is the second-most serious of four color-code classifications. It means the violations require corrective actions and follow-up inspections. No fines accompany a yellow rating, which stays in place for one year. The yellow rating focused procedural problems in notifying and evacuating people at the Reactor No. 1 and No. 4 complexes in case of an emergency at the neighboring Columbia Generating Station. Although the NRC did not require this action, Energy Northwest recently told tenants renting space at Reactor No. 1 that their leases are terminated so the utility can better manage safety matters in that area. No tenants rent space at Reactor No. 4. Six tenants employing about 20 people are in buildings at Reactor No. 1, said Dave Fraley, Energy Northwest's manager for reactors No. 1 and No. 4. Construction of these two reactors stopped in the early 1980s when Energy Northwest, then known as the Washington Public Power Supply System, ran into massive financial trouble. Three paying tenants have to move, Fraley said. These are Durametal Brake Co., the Tri-Cities Asset Reinvestment Co. and Master-Lee Hanford. The biggest tenant, Durametal, with about 15 people, has six months to move. The other two have 60 days to move. None has pinned down a new location yet. However, three nonpaying tenants -- the Columbia River Exhibition of History, Science and Technology, the Eastern Washington Opera and the Children's Museum -- will be allowed to stay, Fraley said. That's because those corporations use Reactor No. 1's buildings just to store material. On Thursday, Energy Northwest officials told the NRC how the utility is addressing the yellow rating. These measures include putting emergency preparedness obligations in future procurement contracts, improving communications between Energy Northwest and its tenants, some personnel changes, adding a locked gate to the Reactor No. 1 area and upgrading the public address system. Other measures include changing some tenant evacuation procedures, improving security sweeps and increasing safety training for the tenants. The NRC plans to inspect those improvements May 13. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 9 PNNL plan aims to cut medical errors This story was published Fri, Feb 22, 2002 By Annette Cary Herald staff writer Safety experts at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are ready to try a new system to reduce one of the nation's leading causes of death and injury -- medical errors. More people die each year from medical mistakes than from highway accidents, breast cancer or AIDS, according to The National Academies of Science. One study the academies relied on for its report, "To Err is Human," found that medical errors kill 44,000 people in U.S. hospitals each year, and another study put the number at 98,000. Those statistics and a proposed solution -- applying principles of engineering to the problem -- caught the attention of Jonathan Young, program manager for safety and risk assessment at the national laboratory in Richland. "It calls for what we do, but in a new area," Young said. The laboratory for years has applied engineering analysis practices to systematically identify potential problems in the nuclear field and help the National Aeronautics and Space Administration prepare for launches and space missions. The lab is close to completing a similar analysis system for health care organizations and has a $10,000 contract to use the analysis method at the three Tri-City hospitals. "The three Tri-City hospitals and the lab are interested in kind of setting the standard for this kind of analysis," Young said. The results will be presented at conferences with the intent of having other health care organizations across the nation adopt the method. The system is intended to help hospitals predict where problems may occur and change practices to prevent them, rather than evaluating what went wrong after mistakes are made. Each of the Tri-City hospitals will pick some areas of concern to study under the system, then share results. The contract is through Tri-City Shared Services, which operates joint programs for Lourdes Medical Center in Pasco, Kadlec Medical Center in Richland and Kennewick General Hospital. The system will consider what could go wrong at the hospitals, how likely it is to go wrong and how serious that would be, Young said. Then it will assess what problems might be most serious or most likely to occur and determine what changes should be made to prevent the problem. Similar programs are more often used to evaluate mechanical systems, such as what would happen if a valve doesn't shut or is left open. But they have been used some for the more difficult tasks of evaluating processes, particularly in the chemical industry. Part of the push for adapting the system for health care comes from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, which requires hospitals to annually conduct an assessment on a high-risk process to maintain accreditation. It's encouraging hospitals it accredits to try engineering analysis practices used in other industries to evaluate failures and correct situations. The three Tri-City hospitals have good safety records, said David Strutz, administrator of Shared Services. But by working to predict and correct potential problems before they occur in complex processes, it could improve its record further. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 10 Reactor at South-Ukrainian nuclear plant halted for repairs BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Feb 23, 2002 Kiev, 23 February: The No 3 reactor of the South-Ukrainian nuclear plant was halted for repairs at 0131 today [2331 22 February gmt] for repairs on the reactor's transformer, the State Committee for Nuclear Regulation has reported. The reactor's disconnection from the electricity grid had been agreed with the country's energy control service. The generating set is expected to be back on line by the end of the day. In a separate incident, output of the No 1 reactor of the Rivne plant was cut by 20 per cent for repairs on an automatic regulation mechanism in the reactor's cooling system, the committee said. The repairs are expected to be completed by 1400 gmt, after which output will be restored to the previous level. [Passage omitted: reported information] Source: UNIAN news agency, Kiev, in Ukrainian 0754 gmt 23 Feb 02 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. ***************************************************************** 11 Russian urges labs to back push for nuke power 02/24/02 Augusta Georgia: Technology: Web posted Sunday, February 24, 2002 Scripps Howard News Service ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - U.S. and Russian nuclear scientists hope by June to submit a formal appeal to the presidents of both nations asking them to collaboratively jump-start nuclear power. An informal agreement to produce a joint Russian-American report on nuclear power to the two presidents followed the appeal late last week of prominent Russian physicist Evgeny Pavlovich Velikhov to his counterparts at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque. In a formal address, Velikhov specifically asked his Sandia colleagues to help prepare a joint report within two months for President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin stressing the urgency of revitalizing nuclear power research and development. One of three U.S. nuclear weapons labs, Sandia has played a major research role in nuclear energy, particularly in the realm of safety and testing. President of the prestigious Kurchatov Institute in Moscow, Velikhov said, "Nuclear energy has a very important role to stabilize things (economically) in Russia." Soon, he said, it will be crucial as well to the economy and security of the United States and could play a central role in enhancing global security and environmental integrity. In addition to references to energy insecurity fueling global conflict, Velikhov said that human health and the threat of global warming - both at risk because of traditional fossil fuels - should motivate the two nations to lead a resurgence of nuclear power that he noted does not pollute the atmosphere. Critics of nuclear power argue that radioactive waste is a big problem with nuclear energy. Sandia President C. Paul Robinson pledged his labs' support in the endeavor, saying his scientists hold similar views and concerns about the long-term energy supply for the United States and the world. Robinson in recent years has stressed that U.S. national security is fundamentally linked to the country's energy, environmental and economic security. Saying Sandia's own studies show there are national security, economic, environmental and geopolitical reasons supporting a resumption of nuclear energy development, Robinson said: "The time is ripe for that (a binational research effort)." While Sandia also has been a world leader in developing green energy alternatives, like solar and wind power, many scientists there believe that these sources remain immature and incapable of supplying the vast, growing and unlimited demand for instant energy at the flick of a switch. Sandia Vice President Joan Woodard, however, warned that scientists have a major task in convincing a fearful public that nuclear energy is safe and can be made even safer. Velikhov agreed but said the first hurdle is convincing government leaders, noting his scientists already are making strides in the Russian Duma, or congress. He suggested Americans should have a much easier task because the problem in Russia, since the Chernobyl nuclear reactor incident, "is five orders of magnitude" worse than here. "We must have a very comprehensive program of public education," he said. Velikhov warned that the task must be undertaken soon because both countries are rapidly losing their nuclear expertise, as nuclear physicists and engineers age and die. 1996 - 2002 The Augusta Chronicle. ***************************************************************** 12 UHM plans to receive $250-mln order for Indian nuclear plant Hoover's Online February 24, 2002 12:05am Source: Interfax, February 22, 2002 MOSCOW. Feb 22 (Interfax) - Russia's United Heavy Machinery (UHM) corporation hopes to win a $250-million equipment supply order for the Kudan Kulam nuclear power plant construction in India. The contract may be signed with Russia's Atomstroiexport soon, Sergei Nikolayev, UHM's financial analysis manager, told Interfax. Nikolayev recalled that last year, UHM signed a $15-million deal to install units at the Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran. [RU EUROPE EEU EMRG IN IR ELG POWR ENQ CON] pr <> Copyright © 2002 Financial Times Limited - All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 13 Army Corps report calls for more IAAP tests The Hawk Eye Special: IAAP Friday, February 22, 2002 [Unknown dangers at IAAP] n Recommendation must receive Pentagon OK, federal funds. By Dennis J. Carroll The Hawk Eye Citing possible long–term dangers to people and the environment, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report recommends the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant be surveyed further for possible radioactive contamination left over from its days as a nuclear weapons plant. "We think it's better to error on the side of being extra cautious," said Sharon Cotner, manager of a special corps program that provides funding and other resources for detection and cleanup of radioactive contamination. "We don't believe there is an immediate (health) risk, but we need to ensure there is no long–term risk," Cotner said from her office in St. Louis. Pending approval from the Pentagon and funding from Congress, scientists and researchers from Cotner's office could resume their work at the Middletown plant in the spring of 2003, Cotner said. Cotner is IAAP project manager for a program awkwardly entitled the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program, which previously had been administered by the Department of Energy. FUSRAP scientists have conducted preliminary testing of buildings and other sites at the plant once used by the Atomic Energy Commission to assemble, break down and test components of nuclear weapons for about 25 years. Cotner's report, released this week by the office of Sen. Tom Harkin, D–Iowa, lists numerous areas of concern — sites that are still contaminated by radioactive wastes left behind by the AEC when it moved its nuclear operations to its Pantex plant near Amarillo, Texas, in 1975. Cotner's team based its report on their on–site findings, declassified documents relating to AEC operations at IAAP and interviews with officials and former workers. Among the findings, some of which have been known before, are: Contamination by depleted uranium was found in several buildings on Line 1, the nuclear production line. But there was no evidence of more dangerous fissionable materials. "There is a potential that DU (depleted uranium) was released into the environment by AEC machining, storage and transfer activities at Line 1," the report said. Depleted uranium may also still exist at the explosives disposal area. "The quantity would be expected to be small," the report said, "but burned DU corrodes in the environment over time" and may have leached from the soil into surface or groundwater. "In sufficient quantities oxidized uranium may present a hazard to both surface waters and ground water through leaching," the FUSRAP report said. Further analysis is needed of the chemical and radiological contaminants in the soils, surface and ground waters at the disposal sites, the study said. The report noted that depleted uranium is still used by the Army in construction of some ammunition. Several storage yards used by both the Army and the AEC should undergo further testing for radioactive contamination. Firing Site 12, where the AEC test–fired components of nuclear weapons — called hydroshots — should be examined for further evidence of depleted uranium. In addition, the report said, "although none have been detected, there is a potential, albeit low, for plutonium, enriched uranium or other radionuclides" to be discovered at Firing Site 12. Other sites the report said should be studied further include a deactivation furnace and warehouse 301 on Line 1; and the north burn pads landfill. In comments on possible public exposure to contaminants, the report said that because on–site wells never supplied drinking water, exposure to on–site contaminated groundwater never occurred. However, past exposures to on– and off–site surface water could pose "an indeterminate public health hazard," Cotner's report said. It noted that the Skunk River south of IAAP is used for many types of public recreation including boating, water skiing, swimming and fishing. The report said AEC–produced contaminants may have been carried from the plant in Brush Creek and the tributaries of the Skunk River. However, "public exposure to surface water in Brush Creek and Skunk River tributaries is likely to occur infrequently and for short durations of time," the report said. It also said that hunters may have been exposed to contaminated soils, but that it is "extremely unlikely" that Boy Scout campers would have been exposed to contaminants at their camp at Mathes Lake. Harkin said in a statement that he was pleased that the Corps of Engineers has "finally recognized that there is a potential risk to the health of area residents and the environment, from contamination at this site." He said he would push for an immediate release of funds to survey and clean up the sites mentioned in the report. "This is only one more part in a long struggle, but I am confident that the folks in the Burlington area will see their community made safe for its residents.," Harkin said. The Hawk Eye 800 S. Main St., Burlington Iowa 52601 319-754-8461 Front Desk · 319-754-6824 FAX · 1-800-397-1708 Toll Free ***************************************************************** 14 Shaheen responded well on KI pills issue Editorial Response - Friday, February 22, 2002 By Peter Crane Seattle, Wash. Your editorial of Feb. 6 questions whether Gov. Shaheen’s decision to accept the federal government’s offer of the radiation protection drug potassium iodide ("KI") is science or politics. In the months since Sept. 11, a number of developments have taken place at the federal level regarding KI. The Department of Health and Human Services announced that it was buying millions of pills to upgrade preparedness against terrorism. The Food and Drug Administration issued new guidelines, calling for more rapid administration of the drug, explaining that is decision was driven by what Chernobyl has revealed about children’s susceptibility to radiation-caused thyroid cancer. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has offered supplies of the drug to any state that wants it, paid for by the NRC. New York, Massachusetts, Maryland and Vermont have already asked the NRC for the drug; Maine has been stockpiling for years. Your editorial implies that New Hampshire children should go unprotected, even as their parents are helping to pay for the protection of children in neighboring states. Rather than being criticized for inconsistency, Gov. Shaheen should be commended for recognizing that changed circumstances demanded a change in policy. ©2002 Geo. J. Foster Co. ***************************************************************** 15 Auditors: EPA Wrong on Radon Costs Sources: Reuters | AP | ABCNEWS.com Friday February 22 8:24 PM ET By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The Environmental Protection Agency underestimated by 20 percent the annual costs of reducing radon in drinking water, congressional investigators said Friday. The low estimate for meeting proposed new limits on radon ``hampered the ability of interested parties and the public to provide informed comments to EPA,'' the General Accounting Office said in a report. GAO auditors said EPA's cost estimate of $121 million a year to upgrade public water systems should be $145 million. They said the agency underestimated the cost of treatment and testing, overestimated states' administrative costs and failed to include costs for improving mixed water systems, which tap both ground and surface water sources. ``The smaller systems are going to have a problem because they don't have the resources,'' said Rick Harmon, a technical programs manager for the American Water Works Association, whose members include more than 4,000 utilities. ``The larger utilities have the resources, but they may have to ask the water users to pick up the costs.'' The EPA proposed the new standards in November 1999 but missed a November 2000 congressional deadline for issuing them. They remain in limbo. Ephraim King, director of the EPA's drinking water standards and risk management division, said Friday the agency is trying to improve the way it figures costs. ``We've just emerged from a fairly intense focus on the arsenic rule and its costing and the benefits, and we're proceeding to apply those recommendations to the radon rule,'' he said. The GAO concurred with EPA estimates on the benefits of proposed radon standards, reductions in cancer deaths that translate into $362 million a year. The National Academy of Sciences has estimated that exposure to radon, a naturally occurring radioactive gas found in soil, rock formations and water, kills about 20,000 people a year from lung cancer. Most cases are caused by inhaling radon released to indoor air from soil and rocks beneath homes. The academy attributed about 160 of those deaths annually to inhaling radon evaporated from drinking water. The breakdown of uranium and radium-containing rock deposits releases radon into soil and rocks that get picked up by ground water. Ground water levels of radon are highest in New England, some Mid-Atlantic states and parts of the Rocky Mountains; they are lowest in the Mississippi Valley and upper Midwest. Once a new rule for radon takes effect, utilities would have three years to comply but could apply for a two-year extension if they must make major capital improvements. Small water systems serving fewer than 3,300 people could get up to 14 years to comply, King said. - On the Net: EPA Office of Water: http://www.epa.gov/safewater GAO reports: http://www.gao.gov/reports.htm American Water Works Association: http://www.awwa.org Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights ***************************************************************** 16 Developers mixed on Yucca's impact Las Vegas Business Press By David Hare, Staff Writer Charles Blenkhorn is back in Las Vegas after returning from a marketing tour in California where he met with about 40 office brokers. Since Yucca Mountain was finding its way into national headlines, he was prepared to address the issue of nuclear waste in Nevada. But a funny thing happened between San Diego and Los Angeles. "In the four days we spent talking to Califor nia brokers about Las Vegas, we didn't h ave one conversation about Yucca Mountain," said Blenkhorn, development director for The Rouse Company. "I think there's a strong local interest, but regionally, I don't think Yucca Mountain has an affect on how people view Las Vegas. There's still a compelling interest to do business here." Blenkhorn and other real estate experts are hoping things stay that way. Since President Bu sh signed off on pl ans for a nuclear waste repository about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, media outlets such as CNN and The New York Times have made Yucca Mountain national news. "I'm optimistic that whatever happens with Yucca Mountain, Las Vegas will still attract developers," Blenkhorn said. Marc Paul is president of Secured California Investments Inc., a Los Angeles-based real estate investment firm developing projects in Las Vegas. "Your perception of Yucca Mountain depends on how you feel about nuclear power. I tend to be not against it," he said. "I don't feel as bad about Yucca Mountain as others do. It does bring jobs into Nevada." Still, Paul made it clear he understands the ramifications of a nuclear waste repository so close to Las Vegas. "The perception in the real estate market is neg ative. (Yucca Mountain) is not good for real estate , but it's not a killer," he said. "Everything in Las Vegas is based on jobs, and that's what drives the real estate market." According to Paul, SCI is closing escrow on its second shopping center in Las Vegas at Pecos Road and Sunset Avenue, a $6 million purchase. Rod Martin, vice president of the Majestic Realty Co. in Las Vegas, said he doesn't see how a Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository could help property values, but it's not the end of the world, considering it will take at least another 10 years before the first shipments of nuclear waste would begin arriving in Nevada. "Could (Yucca Mountain) discourage developers from coming here in the future? Yes, it could," he said. "But will it be devastating for the real estate market? I tend to doubt it." Paul said there's confidence among developers in the longevity of the Las V egas market. "In the next 10 to 15 years, Las Vegas will double in size," he said. Less concerned about Yucca Mountain than the rising cost of land prices is Michael Townsend, president of Plise Development & Construction (PD&C). "Land prices in Las Vegas continue escalate 10 to 15 percent per year. There's a lot of land out there that's getting so expensive you can't devel op on it," he said. "That's more important to me than Yucca Mou ntain." Not that Townsend is indifferent to the nuclear waste issue. About three weeks ago he took a tour of Yucca Mountain to see what all the fuss was about. "I think there's a lot of rhetoric going on," he said. "All of us sit here and express our preference of not having nuclear waste in Las Vegas. But nobody else wants it either. "As a country, we generated and produced this waste, and it has to be dealt with in some form or another." Townsend thinks enough developers are drawing attention to Yucca Mountain and creating a problem that didn't exist before. "I'm concerned with people who cry wolf and say it has a negative impact on the economy. If they keep doing this, they'll bring the problems on themselves," he said. "We've lived with the Nevada Test Site for 50 years, w ith images of mushroo m clouds as backdrops for downtown Las Vegas. We need to be realistic in our approach to Yucca Mountain. Instead of fighting it, we should be taking advantage of it." Copyright 2002 Las Vegas Business ***************************************************************** 17 Kyrgyzstan seeks funding to tackle radioactive dumps BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Feb 22, 2002 Text of report "The `waste dumps' are retreating" by Kyrgyz newspaper Vecherniy Bishkek web site on 19 February Russian experts have prepared a feasibility study for tackling the problems of some Kyrgyz radioactive dumps and submitted it to the Kyrgyz Ministry of Ecology and Emergencies. Such is the result of the studies carried out last year by representatives of the All-Russia Research Institute of Industrial Technology of the Russian Federation Ministry of Atomic Energy at the Min-Kush [northern Kyrgyzstan], Kadzhi-Say [northeast] and Mayli-Say [southeast] waste dumps. The question of necessary investment in the reclamation of such sites was discussed, amongst other things. According to the documents by the Russian atomic scientists, the estimated total cost of the work to be done is 8.8m dollars. Reclamation of the Kadzhi-Say area, consisting of a tailing dump and a tip will take 657,000 dollars, eight such dumps in Min-Kush will cost 3.6m and the two the most dangerous tailings dumps in Mayli-Say will cost 4.5m to tackle. Now the problem is to find an investor. Source: Vecherniy Bishkek web site, Bishkek, in Russian 19 Feb 02 /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. ***************************************************************** 18 CNSC ANNOUNCES DECISION ON CAMECO'S URANIUM REFINING FACILITY IN BLIND RIVER, ONTARIO CNSC: Media Centre - News Release 2002-03 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 18, 2002 Following a hearing on November 15, 2001 and January 17, 2002, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) today announced its decision to renew the Nuclear Fuel Facility Operating Licence for Cameco Corporation, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, for its uranium refining facility located in Blind River, Ontario. The licence is valid until February 28, 2007. With that decision, the Commission requires CNSC staff to prepare a status report at the mid-point in the five-year licence period for presentation at a public proceeding of the Commission. Public comments on the status report will be sought at that time. CNSC staff is also required to inform the Commission in one year about the design and implementation of an environmental effects monitoring program for Cameco's Blind River facility. Cameco's Blind River facility is used to refine natural uranium concentrates (U3O8) into natural uranium trioxide (UO3) to be used as feed material for the production of uranium dioxide and uranium hexafluoride at Cameco's uranium conversion facility located in Port Hope, Ontario. During the public hearing, the Commission considered written material and presentations from Cameco Corporation, CNSC staff, and intervenors. It concluded that Cameco Corporation is qualified to operate this facility and will make adequate provision for the protection of the environment, the health and safety of persons, and the maintenance of national security and measures required to implement Canada's international obligations. Record of Proceedings, including the Reasons for Decision, and transcript of the hearing are available on the CNSC web-site at www.nuclearsafety.gc.ca or by contacting the CNSC. The CNSC regulates the use of nuclear energy and materials to protect health, safety, security and the environment and to respect Canada's international commitments on the peaceful use of nuclear energy. -30- Contact: Sunni Locatelli Commission Secretariat (613) 995-0360 1-800-668-5894 media@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca [media@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca] © Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission 2000 ***************************************************************** 19 CNSC ANNOUNCES DECISION ON CAMECO'S URANIUM CONVERSION FACILITY IN PORT HOPE, ONTARIO 2002-04 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 18, 2002 Following a hearing on November 15, 2001 and January 17, 2002, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) today announced its decision to renew the Nuclear Fuel Facility Operating Licence for Cameco Corporation, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, for its uranium conversion facility located in Port Hope, Ontario. The licence is valid until February 28, 2007. With that decision, the Commission requires CNSC staff to prepare a status report at the mid-point in the five-year licence period for presentation at a public proceeding of the Commission. Public comments on the status report will be sought at that time. CNSC staff is also required to inform the Commission in one year about the design and implementation of an environmental effects monitoring program for Cameco's Port Hope facility Cameco's Port Hope facility is used primarily to convert uranium trioxide (UO3) powder, produced at Cameco's uranium refining facility located in Blind River, Ontario, to uranium dioxide (UO2) and uranium hexafluoride (UF6). UO2 is used in the manufacture of CANDU reactor fuel while UF6 is exported for further processing into light water reactor fuel. During the public hearing, the Commission considered written material and presentations from Cameco Corporation, CNSC staff, and intervenors. It concluded that Cameco Corporation is qualified to operate this facility and will make adequate provision for the protection of the environment, the health and safety of persons, and the maintenance of national security and measures required to implement Canada's international obligations. Record of Proceedings, including the Reasons for Decision, and transcript of the hearing are available on the CNSC web-site at www.nuclearsafety.gc.ca or by contacting the CNSC. The CNSC regulates the use of nuclear energy and materials to protect health, safety, security and the environment and to respect Canada's international commitments on the peaceful use of nuclear energy. -30- Contact: Sunni Locatelli Commission Secretariat (613) 995-0360 1-800-668-5894 media@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca [media@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca] © Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission 2000 ***************************************************************** 20 Spencer letter to NYT: Nevada Waste Site February 23, 2002 To the Editor: Re "A Refusal to Take Nuclear Waste," by Kenny Guinn (Op-Ed, Feb. 16): The technical grounds for the Yucca Mountain project for secure, safe and long-term storage of nuclear waste in the Nevada desert are unassailable. Governor Guinn cites various groups, saying additional studies are needed. But no scientific study doubts that Yucca will meet all Environmental Protection Agency and other safety requirements over the next 50 to 300 years. Governor Guinn calls it "absurd" to suggest that Yucca will enhance homeland security by consolidating dangerous nuclear material from more than 130 mostly above-ground sites to one deep underground, secure storage facility in the desert. He says that no matter what we do we will have to live with our current nuclear waste system for decades because Yucca will not be ready to receive the waste. Either today's storage system is good for the long term or it is not. If Governor Guinn wants to work with us to accelerate storage at Yucca, we are ready to listen. SPENCER ABRAHAM Secretary of Energy Washington, Feb. 21, 2002 Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company | Privacy Information ***************************************************************** 21 CNSC ANNOUNCES DECISION ON ZIRCATEC'S FUEL FACILITY IN PORT HOPE, ONTARIO 2002-05 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 18, 2002 Following a hearing on November 15, 2001 and January 17, 2002, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) today announced its decision to renew the Nuclear Fuel Facility Operating Licence for Zircatec Precision Industries Inc, located in Port Hope, Ontario. The licence is valid until February 28, 2007. With that decision, the Commission requires CNSC staff to prepare a status report at the mid-point in the five-year licence period for presentation to the Commission. Zircatec Precision Industries Port Hope Fuel Facility is primarily used for the manufacturing of nuclear reactor fuel from natural uranium dioxide (UO2). During the public hearing, the Commission considered written material and presentations from Zircatec Precision Industries Inc., CNSC staff, and intervenors. It concluded that Zircatec Precision Industries Inc. is qualified to operate this facility and will make adequate provision for the protection of the environment, the health and safety of persons, and the maintenance of national security and measures required to implement Canada's international obligations. Record of Proceedings, including the Reasons for Decision, and transcript of the hearing are available on the CNSC web-site at www.nuclearsafety.gc.ca or by contacting the CNSC. The CNSC regulates the use of nuclear energy and materials to protect health, safety, security and the environment and to respect Canada's international commitments on the peaceful use of nuclear energy. -30- Contact: Sunni Locatelli Commission Secretariat (613) 995-0360 1-800-668-5894 media@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca [media@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca] © Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission 2000 ***************************************************************** 22 Sampling at Seaway N-waste site under review Buffalo News - TOWN OF TONAWANDA News Northtowns Bureau 2/22/2002 The sampling of the Town of Tonawanda's Seaway landfill site has been completed and the results are under review by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, Department of Health and federal Environmental Protection Agency, according to officials from the Army Corps of Engineers. Sampling of the site began last August "to gain additional information about the nature and extent of contamination in the landfill that resulted from the nation's early atomic energy program," according to the Corps of Engineers. Results are expected to be made public late next month. The Seaway site is a former sanitary landfill located along the River Road industrial corridor. Seaway was contaminated when low-level radioactive residues from uranium processing at the former Linde Air Products Division of Union Carbide were transported there and to the nearby Ashland 1 site. About 6,000 cubic yards of low-grade uranium tailings were relocated and disposed of in other areas of the Seaway site in 1974. The site was contaminated when soil containing low-level radioactive residue was relocated from Ashland 1 between 1974 and 1982. In all, contamination was identified in four areas of the 100-acre Seaway site. Three of those - Areas A, B and C - were specifically targeted by the Corps for sampling last summer. Area A is about 9 acres, and Areas B and C cover a total of about 3 acres. "We took about 20 to 30 percent more samples than we anticipated when we started," said Tim Byrnes, project manager of the federal Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program, or FUSRAP, at Seaway. Because of the increased number of samples, the laboratory validation and results process required additional time, he said. Byrnes was unable to disclose preliminary findings of the sampling, pending review by state and federal authorities, but did indicate that uranium, radium and thorium were among the radioactive materials that were found at Seaway. The sampling determined the location and volume estimate of Manhattan Project residues, the impact surrounding landfill materials have on the mobility of the residues, and whether any chemicals near the waste would require that special disposal options be considered. "This information will be useful when we begin to look at alternatives (for the site)," Byrnes said. Options range from leaving the residues where they are to remediating the site and transporting them off-site, he said. Decisions about what should be done with the materials and the future land use of the property will be established later in the process. Meanwhile, Byrnes said the recent sampling project and residues at Seaway do not pose an immediate human health risk. "Seaway is a pretty isolated site with very little activity of human content," Byrnes said. "This is of a lesser priority than the other sites. We're going to slow down this particular site to pick up on the other sites." The proximity of the contaminated Linde site and the Town of Tonawanda landfill to human activity makes those two sites "higher priority" for the Corps, he said. Copyright © 1999 - 2002 The Buffalo NewsTM ***************************************************************** 23 West Valley Panel continues to lobby on N-waste funding Buffalo News - WEST VALLEY Cattaraugus Correspondent 2/22/2002 WEST VALLEY - The West Valley Citizens Task Force is continuing to press Congress to maintain demonstration project funding at $92.2 million a year so decontamination activities are not compromised before state and federal agencies come to terms on responsibility for radioactive waste-disposal fees and long-term site stewardship. The specter of possible drastic funding cuts if the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) can't settle their differences by a September deadline prompted the group to seek support from Western New York's congressional delegation in Washington last week. The appeal comes as operations to solidify more than 600 gallons of high-level liquid radioactive waste drew to a close. Glass rods, the byproduct of that process, along with 125 spent nuclear fuel assemblies, are stored at the rural site in Ashford awaiting additional processing and removal, and other tasks remain before work is completed under the 1980 Demonstration Project Act. Members of the task force met Wednesday night to discuss their meeting in Washington with Sens. Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton, both D-N.Y., and Reps. Amory Houghton, R-Corning, Jack Quinn, R-Hamburg, and Thomas Reynolds, R-Clarence. The task force made their point again in a thank-you note being sent to the Western New York delegation. Most in the group agreed that the meeting accomplished the goal of convincing the lawmakers that an impasse between the two agencies does exist. While acknowledging that the delegation agreed with the group on the funding matter, the task force letter also pointed out that, failing an agreement between NYSERDA and DOE within the next four months, an amendment to the act may be the only solution. According to task force member Bill King, also the Ashford town supervisor, Clinton agreed to look into the amendment. But the members agreed this option could take months or years. King and the others then complained about the absence of DOE undersecretary Robert G. Card at the meeting. King said the stalemate is caused by the agency's rules and regulations. "When we were negotiating with the past administration, there was a matter of will (to come to an agreement) at the end of 2000, and its not there now," said Paul Piciulo of the NYSERDA negotiating team. Alice Williams of DOE said her department's general counsel has interpreted the act and Congress may be the only entity that can change the situation. She pointed out that DOE staffers cannot lobby Congress and cautioned that the Office of Management and Budget is taking a lead role in the funding question. In other business, the group discussed possible future economic development initiatives at the site and made plans to meet again March 5. After the meeting, King expressed concern about the possibility of West Valley Nuclear Services terminating its lease for the Ashford office complex, built in 1995 with assistance from local municipalities and the Cattaraugus County Industrial Development Agency as office space for about 330 demonstration project workers. No formal decision has been made about the lease. Copyright © 1999 - 2002 The Buffalo NewsTM ***************************************************************** 24 Yucca Mountain decision 'no surprise' - Las Vegas View Neighborhood Newspapers Friday, February 22, 2002 - Residents and leaders speak out By MARK WAITE VIEW STAFF WRITER The decision by President Bush to select Yucca Mountain as the nation's repository for 70,000 tons of nuclear waste came as no surprise to Pahrump leaders, but many emphasized the federal government should take into account the human resources of the area in addition to the suitability of the geologic repository. Mary Wilson, Pahrump Town Board chairwoman and a member of the Pahrump Nuclear Waste and Environmental Advisory Board, said the panel has been making recommendations to the town board for years about nuclear waste, anticipating the president's decision. Wilson said that's why the town voted not to support a request by Gov. Kenny Guinn to contribute to a $5 million public relations campaign to combat Yucca Mountain, a move Wilson called "too little, too late." "My concern is, now it's crammed down our throats, which we knew it was going to be crammed down our throats, what are they going to do to mitigate that to the people of Nevada, specifically the people of Nye County? So far the bulk of the benefits of this have been elsewhere in the state and not to Nye County itself," Wilson said. "Now we've got to figure out how we can make this work for Nye County." Ed Hanson, chairman of the nuclear waste and environmental advisory board, who was an engineer involved in the design and manufacture of nuclear devices for Lawrence Livermore Laboratories from 1956-80, said, "I feel that scientifically it is a safe decision. I think the county needs to keep up its oversight, I think that the DOE (Department of Energy) needs to deal with the county at the county level, not at the state level. I guess the biggest things are some of the perks that will go along with this. "The biggest thing I've always said is, if I was afraid of it, I wouldn't have made my home here," said Hanson, who worked on the Nevada Test Site as part of a 45-year career in the nuclear program. "The biggest hazard that I'm concerned about is the transportation but it isn't a nuclear accident or a nuclear spill, it's just the additional number of trucks and vehicles on the road. I don't think that solid waste as it is in fuel rods, falling off a truck, even if a cask breaks, is going to spread contaminated waste enough to be a hazard," Hanson said. Nye County Commissioner Henry Neth, a 40-year resident of Pahrump Valley, is also a former Nevada Test Site worker and now is co-owner of a Pahrump real estate business. Neth said for 55 years the U.S. government has been exploding nuclear weapons on the same ground they want to establish a radioactive waste repository. "To think there would be a radioactive plume because they put that stuff in that mountain, to me, is ridiculous," Neth said. "I don't think there's a better place in the United States to put it. They've been exploding nuclear weapons out there for how many years? To start getting aggravated about storing nuclear waste out there is ridiculous." But while he wasn't concerned with the safety of the project, Neth was upset U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham never publicly acknowledged Nye County's role in national security, out of 3,144 counties in the country. "Nye County has never, ever benefited from the Nevada Test Site nor the Nellis Bombing Range, which are two of the most valuable assets in the defense of our nation over the years, and Nye County has not benefited from having those two entities in our county. So by results I would say that the federal government is committed to putting Yucca Mountain here and they're basing that on national defense, part of that is health, safety and welfare, national defense. I believe that Nye County as a whole, it's time for us to stand up and say you're not doing this again, let's benefit from it," Neth said. "Fifty-five years ago, there was less than 2,500 people in all of Nye County," the commissioner said, "they could get away with saying it was an unpopulated wasteland. Not now, they can't do that. "We've done all these services for the United States for the last 55 years and I think it's ludicrous. It's time for Nye County to be recognized for its services to the United States and its defense all these years. If they're going to do this they need to make sure the host county has all it needs for its economic future," Neth said. Nye County Health Officer Maureen Budahl reiterated a position she took during a recent public hearing on Yucca Mountain. Her comments were similar to Neth's. "The federal government needs to pay attention to not just the geology but the resources and the human population about this, if they're going to proceed with Yucca Mountain and put it in Nye County's back yard," Budahl said. "They need to be taking a look at health issues and infrastructure issues and helping us prepare." Budahl, a member of a Nye County hazardous material response team, said gasoline trucks and propane trucks are more of a transportation hazard than nuclear waste. Once they get the waste in the mountain the likelihood of anyone touching it is slim, she said. "We certainly have an appropriate hazardous materials response, our team is totally capable to respond," Budahl said. But she added, "the nearest hospital is in Las Vegas and that's a concern. So our emergency responders are totally prepared but what do you do when you get past that emergency response and you actually need hospital care? That's where the lack of resources comes in." Amargosa Valley resident Ed Goedhart, manager of the Ponderosa Dairy, which is downstream from Yucca Mountain, is a leading critic of the project. "As quick as he made the decision I'd have to believe he just rubber stamped a decision that was already made by others in the administration and others in the Energy Department," Goedhart said. " I'm disappointed, obviously I don't think that they've done a good job according to NEPA (the National Environmental Policy Act), they're supposed to go ahead and take into account not only the birds and the plants and the dust situation, they're supposed to take into account the people and the businesses in the community affected by Yucca Mountain. I don't believe the EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) has done that. "I've entered a bunch of comments into the public record and I've never had an answer to one of the questions I've posed. I, being one of the largest employers in Amargosa Valley, they never asked me, 'What would be your concerns about Yucca Mountain?' " Goedhart said. "In the valley itself, I haven't seen them offer any greater assistance to the Amargosa Valley Fire Department, we don't even have a haz-mat response vehicle here." "I haven't seen them come to the window and try to be proactively accommodating people's concerns and people's needs. The only time the DOE does something is if they're forced to do something in a court of law. Basically I feel they're going to look at us in Amargosa Valley and Nye County in terms of collateral casualty, friendly fire, the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people," he said. "Even though we're not great in number, our needs should be adequately addressed." Goedhart said the environmental impact statement issued last year claimed there were only 100 people in Nye County involved in fishing, ranching or farming, while the dairy alone employs more than 100 people. He charged the DOE deliberately underestimated people working in agriculture to underestimate the impacts of the project. Pahrump resident Sally Devlin, another leading critic of the project, said it's too early for panicked residents to start talking about selling their homes, like a woman quoted in a Las Vegas television newscast. "It has to go through 10 years of licensing and everything else. It is everything but tomorrow. This is going to go through the law and then it has to go through the licensing. Five people, cinco, are the ones that make the (licensing) decision and they are members of the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) and are appointed by the president, and that's the end of it if they decide to license it," Devlin said. "I think he (Bush) is owned by the nuclear power industry; remember the nuclear power, the ratepayers who have been paying everything, the $11 billion to explore Yucca Mountain, are in litigation with the federal government." Devlin said the important point to remember is one of the transportation scenarios for hauling the nuclear waste calls for a rail route from Jean on Interstate 15, north along the Von Schmidt line on the west side of Pahrump, near the California state line, then going east to Lathrop Wells at the entrance to Yucca Mountain. She said that would be a more desirable rail route to the DOE since it would be a lower elevation than some transportation routes and a more direct route than the Caliente route, which would have to travel around Nellis Air Force Base. During a conference call Feb. 7, Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nevada, said they were optimistic after they and Nevada Democratic Sen. Harry Reid met with Bush for a half-hour in the Oval Office, sandwiched between Bush's meeting with the joint chiefs of staff and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Ensign said they tag-teamed the president in lobbying against the Yucca Mountain project -- Ensign talked about alternatives to Yucca Mountain like leaving the dry casks where they are. Reid talked about transportation problems and the Office of Inspector General report criticizing the cost, while the governor threatened to veto the project and complained about not seeing the final EIS on Yucca Mountain. "All three of us considered it a good meeting today. The president was very gracious with the time he allotted, 30 minutes, we got right down to business," Guinn said the day of the meeting. "He was very intent in his listening, made it very clear to us he didn't just want us there as a photo op (opportunity) he wanted to listen. "What is disturbing to people in Nevada is when we build a single-family subdivision for any community that's going to disturb any dirt we have to have an environmental impact statement," he said. Speaking of Bush, the governor said, "he has a difficult job, no doubt about it and we have one, but we're going to exercise all authority we have in that law passed by Congress." After the meeting with the president, Ensign said, "The important part of the meeting today, I think to all of us, the Department of the Energy and some of the president's advisers have been giving him one side of the story. Nevada's side of the story hasn't been getting to the president's ears in any degree." At the time, Ensign said optimistically, "I truly believe the decision he makes, when he makes it, will be based on sound science." [http://www.lasvegas.com] ***************************************************************** 25 Yucca call doesn't surprise Wynn Sunday, February 24, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Strip developer Steve Wynn said recently that he wasn't surprised by President Bush's decision to approve storing the nation's high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. "The idea that this would be derailed politically was unrealistic," Wynn said. "When Bill Clinton was president, he gave us a false sense of security because of relationship with (former Gov.) Bob Miller and (Las Vegas Sun Editor) Brian Greenspun. Science is the most realistic way to challenge this." Wynn doesn't think Bush's decision will deter tourists from visiting Las Vegas. "If something catastrophic happens, obviously with our tourist economy it's the kiss of death," Wynn said. "Here we all take the worst-case approach. But the public won't. They just aren't aware of Yucca Mountain. Unless something happens, they'll come." ¥ ¥ ¥ TRIVIA TIME: What gambling manufacturer used its products to aid escape attempts by American prisoners of war during World War II? ¥ ¥ ¥ BIG SPENDERS: The Nevada Resort Association's $250,000 contribution to a lobbying effort targeting nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain was surprisingly small, University of Nevada, Las Vegas professor and casino industry expert Bill Thompson said. "I thought they'd at least give $2 million or $3 million," Thompson said last week. "(A contribution of) $250,000 is minimal. The Nevada gaming industry won almost $10 billion last year, so the donation is relatively insignificant. I think the pressure will build on them to contribute more." ¥ ¥ ¥ AIR DECLINE: McCarran International Airport reported a 4.5 percent passenger count drop in 2001, with 36.9 million arriving and departing passengers. Southwest Airlines, the Las Vegas airport's busiest carrier, reported a 6.2 percent jump in passenger count, while America West, United Airlines and Delta Airlines, the next three biggest Las Vegas airlines, recorded passenger count declines of 4.5 percent, 13.5 percent and 14 percent, respectively. ¥ ¥ ¥ TRIVIA ANSWER: On its Web site, the United States Playing Card Co. said it secretly worked with the U.S. government to fabricate special decks to send as gifts for American prisoners of war in German camps. When the cards were moistened, they peeled apart to reveal sections of a map indicating precise escape routes. ¥ ¥ ¥ QUOTABLE: "Let's put it this way: I'm very happy that whatever I said woke somebody up because for the first time in 20 years gaming appears to be getting involved, at least so far as the public is concerned," -- Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, after the Nevada Resort Association announced plans to contribute to an anti-Yucca Mountain lobbying effort days after he criticized the gaming industry's commitment to defeating the waste site placement. Gaming Chips is compiled by the staff of lasvegas.com Gaming Wire. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 26 California measure would ban low-level waste shipments to landfills Saturday, February 23, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Bill targets radioactive debris THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Radioactive debris from decommissioned nuclear sites would be banned from going to regular landfills under a bill introduced Thursday by a state senator who wants to reverse a recent administrative rule. The Department of Health Services regulation, adopted in November, allows soil and other waste with residual radioactivity to be dumped at landfills, said state Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles. "This is a major, major public policy and public health change," Romero said. "There's no way the people of California should accept a law that could impact every single neighborhood, without a public hearing." Health Services spokeswoman Lea Brooks said the department held a public hearing on the matter in October 2000 and discussed the state's adoption of federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulations. The guidelines have been in place since 1998, and lower the allowed exposure from 100 millirem per year to 25 millirem per year for a site to be released from Health Services regulation, she said. High-level nuclear waste from reactor cores, and items that are toxic or highly radioactive are sent to licensed facilities out of state, Brooks said. "What's left behind that's under the 25 millirem per year level, it's no longer considered radioactive waste, and therefore it can go to a landfill after it's decommissioned because it's no longer under regulatory control," Brooks said. Daniel Hirsch, president of the Committee to Bridge the Gap, said the physics of radioactivity aren't governed by the Health Services Department. "If it was radioactive on one day, it's radioactive the next," he said. Landfill operators probably won't know if they are receiving shipments with residual radioactivity because the regulations do not require notification, said David Roberti, a member of the state Integrated Waste Management Board. Health Services didn't tell the board about the regulation and, since it went into effect, hasn't offered advice to landfill operators about how to safely deal with the incoming debris, Roberti said. That's not necessary, said Robert Greger, chief of the inspection and enforcement section of Health Services' radiologic health branch, because the residual radioactivity is too low to be considered harmful. Romero plans to hold hearings on the matter in March. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 27 Caliente mayor shows Nevada-style independence by siding with dump Sunday, February 24, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal COLUMN: John L. Smith Some will argue that Kevin Phillips has been standing in the sun too long without a hat. Others will say that his brand of straight talk and good sense is all too uncommon in an era of endless political spin. Nevada is known for its independent characters, folks who by nature cut against the conventional grain. Phillips is one of those. Most days you'll find him working down at the Mountain Mercantile hardware store in downtown Caliente. But what makes Phillips a truly different duck is not that he doubles as the town's mayor, but that he's one of the handful of elected officials in Nevada to support vocally and unabashedly the Department of Energy's plan to place 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. Surveys suggest that 80 percent of Nevadans oppose the dump. It's also noteworthy that more than half of those surveyed believe it will come whether they like it or not. To hear Phillips speak, one would think he's a paid lobbyist for the project. The fourth-generation Nevadan, whose Great Basin roots reach back to the 1860s, actively campaigns for the dump. Can you imagine the painful fate Mayor Oscar Goodman, Gov. Kenny Guinn or Sen. Harry Reid might suffer if they began advocating the repository? No, you can't. Because it would never happen. Is there something in the water in Caliente? No, Phillips says, the water's fine. It's the extended economic forecast that stinks like July roadkill. Newcomers are welcome in Caliente, but if they want work, they'd better bring a job with them. "We've been in a recession so long, we wouldn't know what a good depression felt like," Phillips says. "It's really a great place to have a family if you can find a way to feed them and keep them warm." Phillips says he believes that, because much of the nuclear waste would be transported by rail to Yucca Mountain, Caliente would be used as a transfer point. That would mean jobs, at least a few, for the local economy. And that's good enough for Phillips, a father of 10 who jokes easily about a future job opening at the hardware store for one of his children after he dies. He believes so much in the project that he endorsed a rejected plan to use Lincoln County as an interim storage site. He's testified before Congress on behalf of the dump, and he challenges anyone who's studied the health and safety issues associated with Yucca to prove he's wrong. Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa failed to silence him with litigation. Although he acknowledges he's in the minority, consider him a vocal member of that minority. Phillips says the railroad that gave birth to Caliente transports tons of deadly toxic waste through town each day without a peep of protest from those hand-wringers in Las Vegas. Poisons beyond common comprehension slide by Southern Nevada every day in Union Pacific tankers, and nobody notices. Then again, that deadly ooze isn't being dumped in Nevada against the people's will. "We'd be dead in a millisecond in that canyon if one of those train cars leaked," Phillips acknowledges. But, hey, look on the bright side. As long as there's no leak -- and his research leads him to believe the possibility of a leak is minuscule -- there's a chance to improve the poleaxed economy in Caliente, where the biggest employer is the youth reformatory. Caliente is a place where juvenile delinquents are good for the economy. Although he espouses the rhetoric of the anti-federal government "Sagebrush Rebellion" movement, Phillips obviously isn't afraid to embrace Uncle Sam when necessary. Politics aside, people have to eat. A politician who'll gladly accept the remote possibility of ruining his town in exchange for a few jobs? Is this insanity? More likely, it's the reality of living in the other Nevada, the one outside the economic glow of Las Vegas. "In my opinion, it would be the best transportation route for the state," Phillips says. "My regret is that more Nevadans don't know the real truth." When it comes to Yucca Mountain, the real truth is harder to come by than a job in Caliente. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 28 Senator has staked his career on blocking repository. Can he come through? Sunday, February 24, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal EDITORIAL: Sen. Reid and Yucca Mountain In the category "Be Careful What You Wish For," Nevada's U.S. Sen. Harry Reid now finds himself in a radioactive hot seat. Though he's also a canny politician who knows about "bringing home the bacon," Sen. Reid has to a large extent staked his political career on his vow to block the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain. In fact, Sen. Reid was one of the chief architects of Nevada's political strategy on blocking Yucca. That strategy, simply stated, was to never, ever negotiate -- instead dragging out the political end-game, hoping to prevail through lawsuits or through a scientific conclusion that proved Yucca unsuitable or rendered storage unnecessary. It was a go-for-broke, all-or-nothing strategy, since it threw away the chance of an annual paycheck for every Nevadan -- or any benefits that might have been negotiated -- for the promise of the big prize: No dump at all. Four years ago, Sen. Reid boldly told Nevadans they needed to send him back to the Senate because his accrued seniority would give Nevada the power it needed to stop Yucca Mountain. Nevadans bought the deal: they sent Sen. Reid back to Washington, where he has indeed become the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate. Nor can Sen. Reid even complain that the national electorate left him in the minority -- his party is in the majority; it has the votes to block Yucca Mountain. All the dominoes are lined up properly for the senator to keep his promise. Partisan finger-pointing is now largely moot. Yes, Nevadans also delivered the White House to Republican George Bush with their electoral votes, in part based on his promise to let "science" decide the Yucca issue -- virtually the same promise made by Democrat Al Gore. But boycotting Republicans to punish them for the president's green-lighting of Yucca last week would be an oddly selective (not to mention ineffective) strategy, given that portions of the national AFL-CIO actively support the waste dump -- and Sen. Reid and his Democrats have shown no reluctance to continue accepting the union bosses' support ... or their cash. No, Nevada's last hope to stop Yucca Mountain in the political arena now rests squarely on the ability of Sen. Reid to keep his promise, using his leadership clout to muster his Senate majority Democrats to shoot down Yucca Mountain. Nevadans have forgone any negotiated benefits to embrace Sen. Reid's strategy. Nevadans put him where he said he needed to be. Now it's "go for broke" time. Either Sen. Reid will deliver ... or he will have put all Nevada's chips on the wrong square. The stakes are high for Nevada ... and for Harry Reid. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 29 Nevada undertakes effort to kill Yucca project in Congress Sunday, February 24, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Reid, Ensign analyze law, Senate rules for any advantage they can find in uphill battle By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Nevada officials are scouring federal law and House and Senate rules, looking for cards to play in their efforts to kill the Yucca Mountain program when it reaches Congress later this year. Months before President Bush decided on Feb. 15 to designate Nevada for nuclear waste burial, Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., and their aides began parsing the 32 paragraphs that make up Section 115 of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act -- a key section of the 1982 federal law that will guide Congress when it considers Gov. Kenny Guinn's expected nuclear waste repository veto. The aides have met regularly to compare notes and strategize. Reid and Ensign have attended some of the meetings. At least one other meeting has included assistants to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., an expected ally. Robert Dove, a former Senate parliamentarian hired by Nevada to find chinks in the law, also has taken part, according to people familiar with the effort. Reid and Ensign have acknowledged they face an uphill battle to persuade a majority of senators to back Nevada in the upcoming Yucca Mountain fight. While they lobby for more support, they also are turning to the law and the rule book for any advantage that Senate procedures might give them. Dove, who is being paid $3,000 a month, said, "I certainly think Nevada has a chance" to prevail by utilizing the Senate's rules. Not wanting to tip Nevada's hand, nobody in the state's delegation would discuss what they may be finding. Others, however, identify several possible openings for the state. At the same time, the nuclear industry and the Bush administration are working to identify loopholes and ways to close them as they try to push Yucca Mountain through Congress. A Nevadan with contacts in the Bush administration reported the White House and its allies are preparing for whatever the state might throw at them. "They're going over every sort of stall tactic the Nevadans could devise," this official said. "They'll have 10 remedies for every tactic Nevada can come up with." After months of debate, Congress in the final days of a 1982 lame duck session passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act that set the government on a course to find and develop a burial place for tens of thousands of tons of radioactive waste and nuclear spent fuel. Even then, no state wanted to be targeted for a repository, and so there was much debate over how much power a governor would have to veto a nuclear waste designation and what Congress would do in response. Sen. Howard Cannon, D-Nev., and Rep. Jim Santini, D-Nev., fresh from fighting plans to base the MX missile in Nevada, were among lawmakers who pushed but failed to pass amendments to strengthen state veto rights. Finally, as the legislation neared final approval days before Christmas, Sen. William Proxmire, D-Wis., threatened a filibuster that would have killed the bill if a state selected for a repository were not given a stronger voice. The result was the present process -- Nevada's veto of Yucca Mountain will prevail unless both the House and Senate vote by simple majority to override it within 90 "calendar days of continuous session," which counts weekends but not recesses of more than three days. At the same time, though, a process was constructed to fast-track Congress to final votes, removing the potential that a Yucca Mountain resolution could be delayed by conventional means like a filibuster. More specifically, the law calls for an override resolution to be introduced in the House and Senate the day after Guinn relays his veto. In each congressional body, the resolution would be referred to a single committee or several committees claiming jurisdiction over nuclear matters. Committees would have no more than 60 days to pass out a recommendation on the Yucca Mountain bill. It can't be killed in committee; after 60 days, it would be automatically discharged from committee and put on the Senate calendar for expected floor action. On the Senate floor, the procedure would be further streamlined to lead to a vote on the legislation. "The procedures are so tightly drawn, that as far as I can see, there is no real opportunity to delay and kill it," said Barbara Sinclair, a political science professor at UCLA who has written books on the Senate and the legislative process. But Dove, a 35-year Senate veteran who served as parliamentarian from 1980-86 and then from 1994 until last year, said: "Frankly, there are ways to avoid that vote. "There are a lot of counterstrategies in the Senate," he said. "It's a place where playing defense is honored. "I know there are very able people working the other side," he said. "I don't know how they feel about their prospects right now. It is just that the Senate is such an unusual legislative body that counting on getting something through can be problematic even if you have a majority." The Senate is regarded by most as the key battleground. In the House, Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., has signaled he will bring up the Yucca Mountain resolution as soon as possible, and the rules appear to give him clear rein, according to officials. As Yucca Mountain bills have in the past, the legislation is expected to pass the House by a wide margin. One pro-Yucca group, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, has estimated at least 46 senators support the repository. Only a handful more would need to be persuaded. But if Nevada is able to run out the 90-day clock, the state's veto would stand and the Yucca Mountain project would be derailed. With stakes so high, however, pro-Yucca interests, including the nuclear power industry, are working the procedures hard to keep Congress on a steady track to final votes. "They've done their homework on this, and for us to think they haven't would be careless," said one Nevada official. But several people interviewed last week, including a nuclear industry consultant who has studied the law, said there appear to be several points where things could get complicated for pro-Yucca forces. "Nobody is assuming this is a slam dunk by any measure," said the consultant, who asked not to be identified. In one instance cited by the consultant and others, after the Yucca resolution is discharged from committee, the nuclear waste law permits any senator to bring it up on the Senate floor for consideration. Yet by Senate custom and practice the majority leader --- Daschle -- is the only person who calls up bills. An expected Nevada ally, Daschle could decide not to call it up. And if someone else were to try, there could be a floor fight and a vote where Democrats might be rallied to stick by their leader. "Then you're in a situation where you're voting on principle rather than content," the consultant said. "It would be a very dangerous thing to do, maybe without precedent." A source said Dove has told the Nevadans that Daschle could technically hold up the bill for an extended time, but would face increasing pressure from other senators. Reminiscing about 1982, Santini, now a travel industry consultant, recalled the state veto "was essentially perceived as a condescending bone to be tossed in the direction of the repository state, with the expectation that all the rest of the states would urge their federal representatives to oppose the gubernatorial veto and it could be railroaded." "What they may have failed to anticipate is that we would have a Senate majority whip who of all things emanates from the state where they want to put the stuff," Santini said, referring to Reid. webmaster@lvrj.com Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 30 Plan would let nuclear waste would roll through states Mercury News | 02/22/2002 | [http://www.bayarea.com] [Bay Area Photos] Posted on Fri, Feb. 22, 2002 CONGRESS TO CONSIDER USE OF NEVADA MOUNTAIN AS DUMP By Tracey Kaplan Mercury News Trucks and trains carrying deadly radioactive material would rumble through communities in 45 states, including California, if Congress decides this summer to allow the nation's high-level nuclear waste to be buried deep inside a Nevada mountain. And opponents are lobbying those communities, hoping they will rise up and help kill the proposal. One scenario calls for up to 300 loads of waste from the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant to be hauled by train through San Jose to the proposed Yucca Mountain dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Under another plan, up to 5,900 trucks would haul it from Southern California and Arizona up Interstate 5 and over Interstate 80. Another possibility is that 168 trucks would pass through Northern California on I-5 if the entry point to Nevada were through San Bernardino. The shipments, encased in hardened steel, lead-lined casks, could begin as early as 2010 and continue for the next 38 years. Nevada officials and casino owners are spending more than $5 million on a national lobbying campaign focusing on the risks of radiation poisoning and cancer from hauling the casks, which they say could rupture during a major fire or terrorist attack. Clean record Supporters say the campaign amounts to fear-mongering. They note that a cask has not cracked in more than 40 years of nuclear waste shipments. The casks also have held up during tests, including being engulfed in a 1,475-degree fire, dropped from a crane onto metal spikes, submerged under 650 feet of water and struck by a 120-ton locomotive traveling 80 miles per hour. Despite the clean record, Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, said it would be foolhardy to ship radioactive cargo through urban regions such as the Bay Area. The number of shipments nationwide would increase about 16-fold, from the current total of about 3,000 in the past five decades to as many as 49,800 more during the next four decades, according to estimates by the U.S. Department of Energy. Honda said he has not decided how he will vote on the dump, though he expressed sympathy with Nevada's tiny delegation, which opposes it. ``I would be very concerned if the waste passed through urban areas like ours,'' Honda said. ``When something is moving like that, it's vulnerable to terrorists.'' After nearly 20 years of debate, Bush approved the Yucca Mountain site last week. A press officer for Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn said the state intends to object by the April 16 deadline. Congress then has 90 days to consider the issue. Finding a repository for the nation's radioactive waste is the biggest piece of unfinished business in the nearly 50-year history of nuclear power in the United States. The eventual establishment of a national repository has been a key element in the country's nuclear power policy for decades, and the lack of one has been a key factor in the dwindling approval of new licenses to operate nuclear plants and renewal of licenses to operate existing facilities. Nuclear energy now accounts for 20 percent of the nation's power production. For now, spent fuel rods -- which can emit radiation for tens of thousands of years -- are stored mostly at 103 power plants around the country. If Yucca Mountain is approved -- and opposition has been immediate and loud -- those rods would be transported by train or truck to Nevada. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not chosen the exact routes, leading a group of 13 California state agencies, ranging from the Highway Patrol to the Environmental Protection Agency, to question the suitability of the Yucca Mountain site. The group also is concerned about the dump's effect on groundwater in Death Valley. As part of the organized campaign against Yucca Mountain's approval, Nevada hired advisers and public relations firms to lobby lawmakers, the media and local officials in communities along the proposed routes. The state also has sued Bush and the U.S. Department of Energy. In their lobbying, opponents say moving the waste through or near heavily populated areas not only increase the likelihood of accidents, but makes the shipments more attractive to terrorist attack. Supporters counter that leaving the waste at 131 sites around the country, including laboratories and research facilities, is less secure from terrorists than burying it 1,000 feet below ground in a network of tunnels inside Yucca Mountain. About 170 million people live in counties with highways that could be used as shipping routes, compared to about 161 million who now live within 75 miles of the scattered sites. 4 California sites In California, there are four nuclear reactor sites where waste would be removed: Diablo Canyon near San Luis Obispo, San Onofre near San Clemente, and two shut-down locations -- Humboldt Bay near Eureka and Rancho Seco near Sacramento. Mitch Singer, speaking for the industry-sponsored Nuclear Energy Institute, said opponents who call the shipments ``mobile Chernobyls'' are preying on people's fears. ``There's a certain amount of fear-mongering going on for political reasons,'' Singer said. ``Once people are appraised of the facts, they'll decide it's really OK.'' But Ken Hirsch of the anti-nuclear group Committee to Bridge the Gap said that even if Yucca Mountain is approved and waste is sent there, the scattered sites would continue to be vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Under federal law, the facilities must store spent fuel rods on site in cooling ponds for at least five years before moving them. Also, approval of the Yucca Mountain site would pave the way for building the first new nuclear reactors in the United States since the 1970s. In California, for instance, no new reactors can be licensed until there is a federal program for the long-term storage of spent fuel. ``They're using the terrorist issue in a shameless fashion because they want to expand,'' Hirsch said. Regardless of how California's delegation votes on the issue, California ratepayers are charged a few cents a month on their utility bills to help fund the $60 billion dump, including transportation costs. Contact Tracey Kaplan at tkaplan@sjmercury.com [tkaplan@sjmercury.com] or (408) 278-3482. ***************************************************************** 31 Academics: Nevada GOP candidates not hurt by Yucca decision [RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL] February 24, 2002 By Brendan Riley [online@rgj.com] ASSOCIATED PRESS Democrats won’t benefit much this election year from Nevadans’ anger over the GOP president’s decision to send nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, political scientists say. Ted Jelen, chairman of the political science department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said Friday that President Bush’s decision a week ago might be a factor in the 2004 elections — but not now. University of Nevada, Reno political scientist Erik Herzik agrees, saying the only possible impact this year would be on two U.S. House races in southern Nevada. “I don’t see it having much of an effect this year because all the candidates are on the same side of the issue,” said Jelen. There could be a bigger impact if activists got an anti-dump ballot question on the November ballot and attracted more voters to the polls, said Jelen. Without that, he added, “This is adding up to be a really boring election.” A boring election means low voter turnout, and that in turn usually helps Republicans, Jelen said. Herzik sees some “marginal” benefit from Bush’s decision for Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., in her House race, and possible help for Democrat Dario Herrera in his race for the state’s new, southern Nevada-based House seat. Republicans in those races include Jon Porter against Herrera and Lynette Boggs McDonald against Berkley. But Herzik is skeptical, saying, “If Nevadans really care that much (about Yucca Mountain), it might sway voters. But I’m not convinced it will.” “There are many more issues that are important to undecided voters,” Herzik said, mentioning the economy, national security, gambling and other issues linked to economic development. There’s a third House race, but Herzik said incumbent Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., has long been opposed to the dump and has an “incredibly safe” GOP district. The Yucca Mountain dump could be a factor in the race for governor, but both Herzik and Jelen note that there’s no major Democrat in the running against GOP Gov. Kenny Guinn — and Guinn is a leader in the anti-dump effort. There are several other statewide elective races plus scores of legislative contests, “but the only one that would have any type of remote linkage (to the dump) would be the attorney general’s race,” said Herzik. Jelen also said the nuclear dump will affect some candidates’ funding. “They’ll be more circumspect about who they take money from,” he said, adding that it’ll be politically hazardous to accept donations from pro-Yucca Mountain groups. Terry Care, the Nevada Democrats’ state party chairman, has said Bush’s decision will be fair game as a campaign issue this year. He also thinks Bush has written off Nevada for 2004, and questions whether any Nevada Republicans would want Bush to visit on their behalf. But Guinn says those who try to make Bush’s decision an election-year issue are “small thinkers.” And GOP consultant Pete Ernaut says the negative political fallout for Republicans will be short-term and “very minimal.” © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett ***************************************************************** 32 Griffin urges Bush to demand study on impact of transporting nuke waste [RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL] February 24, 2002 Staff Reports [online@rgj.com] RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL 2/22/2002 10:41 pm Reno Mayor Jeff Griffin is asking President George W. Bush to demand a new study on the impacts of transporting nuclear waste to the proposed Yucca Mountain repository site. Griffin sent the request to Bush this week in a letter and then flew to Key West, Fla., Friday to lobby the nation’s mayors to send similar letters to the president. The U.S. Conference of Mayor’s holds its annual leadership conference at the island every winter. “The Department of Energy knows where the waste is and where they want to put it,” Griffin said. “But they have no plan as to how they might get it from point A to point B.” About 77,000 tons of nuclear waste is proposed for storage at Yucca Mountain, about 110 miles northwest of Las Vegas. An environmental impact report on the project says railroad shipments would be preferred over trucking. Of five possible railroad routes to the dump, one would involve a new railroad spur at Carlin. Trains carrying waste from the West Coast would be routed over Donner Pass and through downtown Reno and Sparks to near Carlin, according to the new report. From there, a new spur would have to be built to the site. Shipping would occur over 38 years and is not expected to begin until 2010 or 2020. In a 1996 resolution, the Conference of Mayors opposed new radioactive waste shipments until a series of strong safety precautions are taken. Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett Co. Inc. ***************************************************************** 33 EDITORIAL: Turning back Yucca Mountain demands unity Las Vegas Business Press Sunday, February 24, 2002 With presidential approval, Yucca Mountain has taken a significant step toward becoming reality. Most Nevadans knew it was coming, but it was still a blow to see President Bush sign off on the nuclear waste dump, bad science and all. The promise of a political-free decisions has long been forgotten, and nuclear waste may, at this point, be inevitable. Gov. Kenny Guinn will now go through the motions and veto the president. Then it will fall on the Nevada congressional delegation to drum up enough support to foil a possible Congressional override of the governor's veto. It will be a tough sell for Nevada's Washington operatives. The trick will be convincing a host of political animals that keeping nuclear waste in their states is a better idea than burying it in the Nevada desert. Muddying the waters is the national image of Nevada - Southern Nevada in particular - not as a place where economic vitality is blossoming but that of an outpost where the brightest beacon is that of Sin City. To paint the proper picture and preserve a nuclear-free future, Nevada's leaders must work in concert to emphasize what stands to be lost if Yucca Mountain opens for business. Political representatives must stand together with community, business and education leaders, challenging the supporters of the Yucca Mountain project to discount our future for the sake of powering an army or lighting far-away cities. We took a huge step in the right direction last week when Las Vegas' major casino operators grabbed a high-profile role in the debate. The task will be a difficult one, but it is a battle worth fighting. Local News EDITORIAL: Turning back Yucca Mountain demands unity 2 CENTS: Education takes a hit FROM CARSON CITY: Yucca is not exactly a great debate GUEST OPINION: Enron debacle will change Las Vegas Small businesses give golden effort Copyright 2002 Las Vegas Business Press ***************************************************************** 34 FROM CARSON CITY: Yucca is not exactly a great debate Las Vegas Business Press Sunday, February 24, 2002 By Dennis Myers There's something about the Yucca Mountain project that brings out the worst in everyone. From the sordid 1987 legislation terminating the scientific research for the best site to the ethical transgressions that of the U.S. Department of Energy in administering the project, sleaze is so far the only definite product mined from the mountain. After George Bush designated Yucca Mountain as the site of the federal nuclear waste dump U.S. Sen. Harry Reid said in a news release that Bush "lied to me (and) the people of Nevada ..." That release quoted these sentences from Bush's Sept. 28, 2000, presidential campaign letter to Gov. Kenny Guinn: "I believe sound science, not politics, must prevail in the designation of any high level nuclear waste repository. As president, I would not sign legislation that would send nuclear waste to any proposed site unless it's been deemed scientifically safe." Reid failed to include two other sentences in Bush's short letter: "The Department of Energy has not completed its impact study of Yucca Mountain and important questions of environmental protection and safety have not been answered. Therefore, I would veto legislation that would provide for the temporary storage of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain." Of course, the conditions Bush specified in in the Guinn letter for approving the dump have been met - the energy department has reported on the suitability for Yucca Mountain and recommended its designation. Nevadans may argue with the conclusions of that report, but that's a subjective judgment. Bush is entirely within the terms of his 2000 letter: He did not approve legislation that would send nuclear waste to a temporary Nevada site before Yucca Mountain was deemed scientifically safe by DOE, and he did not designate a site before the energy department completed its report to him. At a White House press briefing on Feb. 15, Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer smugly cited "more than 17,000 documents ... more than 100 public hearings ... over a 20-year period" as proof that DOE had done its job. Indeed, Bush is behaving just as Reid, during the presidential campaign, predicted he would. After Bush's letter to Guinn was released, Sen. Reid said it was full of "weasly words." It certainly was - Bush left himself plenty of outs in that letter by parsing his words in Cintonesque fashion, and he included those ambiguities in order to enable himself to approve Yucca when the time came. U.S. Rep. James Gibbons says George Bush approved Yucca Mountain because "clearly he the president has been misled by the Department of Energy." Bush cannot be the strong and dynamic leader Gibbons has described on other issues, like Afghanistan and then be "misled" on Yucca Mountain. There is, of course, no shame in being misled by DOE - most U.S. citizens have been. At one time or another since the department and its predecessors (Atomic Energy Department, Energy Research and Development Authority) began operating, DOE has engaged in a lot of mendacity. This is the agency that told us fallout is benign, after all. But Gibbons is describing to us a leader so undiscerning that he can be "misled" like any other citizen. Gibbons' defense of Bush is reminiscent of George Romney's claim that he was "brainwashed" by U.S. officials on Vietnam. Then there is DOE itself. Perhaps, after decades of its shady behavior, nothing should surprise us in its conduct. A few days before Bush designated Yucca, the Washington Post ran a story about former Yucca project director John Bartlett's assertions in an affidavit that DOE had long since abandoned relying on the mountain itself as a shield and was instead relying entirely on human-made technology (such as the waste canisters) to prevent escape of the waste. This was not particularly news in technical circles. It has been known among scientists for a long time and was once the subject of a story in the New York Times. Which raises the question of why DOE denied Bartlett's claims in the Feb. 6 Post. Is the agency so accustomed to misleading the public that it does it even when there is no reason? One might hope for a higher level of dialogue on Yucca Mountain than we saw this month. Local News EDITORIAL: Turning back Yucca Mountain demands unity 2 CENTS: Education takes a hit FROM CARSON CITY: Yucca is not exactly a great debate GUEST OPINION: Enron debacle will change Las Vegas Small businesses give golden effort Copyright 2002 Las Vegas Business Press ***************************************************************** 35 Scientist Slams 'Cavalier' Company THE WHITEHAVEN NEWS Thursday, February 21, 2002 A nuclear physicist who looked after radioactive materials at Sellafield quit his job in disgust after a breakdown of trust, an employment tribunal was told. Ronald Hanas, 47, left BNFL Instruments (BI) in November 2000 after eight months working there in a monitoring role earning around £30,000 a year. At a tribunal in Carlisle on Tuesday, Mr Hanas claimed that the company presented information in a "distorted manner". And Mr Hanas, who was responsible for controlling plutonium and uranium, also claimed that the company : nKnowingly sold faulty equipment which was badly designed and not fit for its purpose. nHad a questionably flexible attitude to the law and BNFL requirements. nPenny-pinched at the expense of safety and legal requirements. nAllowed commercial pressures to influence its procedures for handling weapons' grade nuclear materials. nSuffered from an institutional cavalier attitude. Mr Hanas, was involved in the control of radioactive materials at BNFL Instruments, which is an independent business arm of BNFL, at the Windscale nuclear licensed site in West Cumbria. A BNFL spokesman today said the qualified physicist had been a "relatively junior member of staff". He was said to be at the level where employees would begin having line-management responsibilities. Mr Hanas told the tribunal that he resigned "in disgust" after months of difficulties in his role as source administrator. Mr Hanas, who comes from the Whitehaven area, is bringing a claim for constructive dismissal and a further claim under the Public Interest Disclosure Act. He said: "It was impossible to continue my employment with BNFL Instruments due to a lack of management support and serious concerns over the actions of BNFL. "BI are a poor employer, in fact, the worst I have encountered in 30 years of work. "I also believe the company is expert in presenting information in a distorted manner. This is done in order to deceive the public and employees." Mr Hanas said there had been a steady progression of incidents which led to the breakdown of trust between him and BI. Immediately when he joined the company as a nuclear physicist in 1998, he became concerned about the sale of equipment used for measuring and locating radioactive material. "My earliest concerns were with the general attitude I observed in BI to employees and to ethics with regard to customers," he said. "It rapidly became apparent that BI were selling equipment...which they knew did not work properly...was poorly designed and not fit for its purpose." He said some instruments were built using poor quality components and they were being supplied for use in areas which were beyond their design capability. But when he tried to raise his concerns, he found senior management at BNFL were reluctant to discuss matters. Mr Hanas said: "I found that speaking openly and frankly about such matters was frowned upon and there was a general lack of willingness to confront such issues." Later, when Mr Hanas became a source administrator, he discovered more worrying anomalies, the first of which was the proper description of his role. Although described in Environment Agency documentation as the person responsible for the control of registered materials, including plutonium and uranium, Mr Hanas's position and duties were never outlined in writing for other employees. Soon after taking on the job in April 2000, however, his discovery that the company was in breach of statutory regulations - and was therefore operating illegally - led to a quarantining of 328 radioactive materials and an Environment Agency (EA) investigation. But when Mr Hanas tried to brief other employees about the probe, he was dismayed to find one man in charge of radioactive substances who allegedly treated the investigation as a "bit of a joke". When he raised his concerns about the employee's attitude, he was told: "We can't let these people (the EA) push us around." Mr Hanas said: "I felt this attitude was wholly inappropriate, given that BI were clearly in the wrong. "This was not what I expected given my own efforts to rectify matters in order to avert prosecution." The further failure of management to act when the same employee refused the EA entry to a store where radioactive substances were being kept - in effect, obstructing a criminal investigation - again contributed to Mr Hanas's feeling that his position was impossible. He was allegedly faced with the same obstructive attitude when it came to providing the EA with the necessary documentation for its investigation. "Again the statement was, repeatedly, made that we (BI) should not let the EA push us around," said Mr Hanas. "I found this a desperate view given the situation BI were in. It was a battle against a mind set which can only be believed if encountered face to face. "Experience has shown that this seems to be prevalent in a significant proportion of BNFL employees." Mr Hanas later raised concerns about the possession by BI of "a very significant quantity" of plutonium, uranium and tritium, all of which are used as components of nuclear weapons, but which had been listed in public records to help the company qualify for EA registration. "It is doubtful if most nation states would be allowed to possess materials of these types in the quantities held by BI," said Mr Hanas. "I believe that the decision to allow this information on to the public register was made due to the tremendous commercial pressures placed on those involved...ie in order to re-start waste reprocessing operations, BNFL were prepared to gamble with information relating to the security of fissile materials." The hearing continues. ***************************************************************** 36 Move ahead on Yucca Mountain Chicago Tribune | February 24, 2002 President Bush has endorsed the recommendation by the Department of Energy that a national nuclear waste repository be built at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles from Las Vegas. According to the prescribed protocol, Nevada officials can object--they have vowed to do so--and Congress can override Nevada's veto. Congress ought to do just that and nudge ahead this vitally needed project. Given that Illinois has the largest number of nuclear power plants and the most nuclear waste, the congressional delegation ought to get solidly behind Yucca Mountain. Even after congressional approval, there will be an estimated 10 more years of technical reviews and scientific studies--on top of the 20 years and $7 billion the federal government has already spent searching for a repository. Thirty years of study. How much can one issue be dissected and reassembled before a decision is finally made? Opponents of the Yucca Mountain project seem to want the government to study the issue ad infinitum--a tactic known as death by a million what-ifs. No matter how many questions scientists answer, another round of what-ifs pops up, far-fetched as they may be. That is bad science and worse public policy. Scientists can only study what scenarios are likely or probable, and how to guard against them. For their part, elected officials have to weigh relative scenarios: Is the public interest better served by storing nuclear waste at a custom-made, central and heavily guarded repository or at nearly a hundred temporary storage facilities scattered all over the country? The storage caverns at Yucca Mountain would be 1,000 feet below the surface and 1,000 feet above the water table. The area is one of the most geologically stable in the country and its possible seismicity has been factored into the design by Department of Energy scientists. Water seepage from the surface is equally minimal in a desert area that receives only 7 inches of rain a year. Is Yucca Mountain absolutely guaranteed to be impregnable forever? No. But of the nine sites studied exhaustively by the government, this was found to be the most stable and safest for the foreseeable future. Transportation of thousands of casks from all over the country to Nevada poses some challenges, but none insurmountable or posing unacceptable risks. Each cask, containing one ton of nuclear waste, weighs about 5 tons, giving an idea of the amount of shielding involved. Test casks have been dropped, rammed by locomotives and exposed to every conceivable mishap. Since 1964, the federal government has made about 3,000 shipments of nuclear waste, over 1.7 million miles, and has had eight accidents--none resulting in release of radiation. For Illinois, the transportation issue is important. Much of the nation's nuclear waste will travel through Chicago on its way to Yucca Mountain. Balance that with the option of leaving Illinois waste in temporary storage, in water pools and above ground, at a dozen or so sites throughout this state. Judging from the data available, and the government's record of safely transporting nuclear material, shipping to a central repository is a more acceptable risk than leaving the waste at temporary storage facilities. Yucca Mountain is the best solution to the growing national problem of nuclear waste. Torpedoing this project will not make the existing piles of nuclear waste less dangerous or cheaper to safeguard. It will leave that waste right where it is--much of it in Illinois' backyard. It's imperative, particularly for Illinois, that the federal government move ahead on this. Copyright © 2002, Chicago Tribune ***************************************************************** 37 US denies change in nuke policy - The Times of India THE TIMES OF INDIA WORLD: AMERICAS POWERED BY AFP [ SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2002 5:00:36 AM ] WASHINGTON: The State Department on Friday denied there had been any change in US policy on the use of nuclear weapons against states without nuclear weapons. Spokesman Richard Boucher said a report that Washington had decided it was no longer bound to a 1978 pledge not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear nations except under specific circumstances was incorrect. "This has been a very consistent policy for 20 or 30 years," he told reporters when asked about the report in the Washington Times that sourced its story to an interview it did with Under Secretary of State for Arms Control John Bolton. "That's what Secretary Bolton was talking about and there's no change," he said, after reviewing the 1978 policy. "Everything I said has been said consistently for 20 or 30 years and that remains the situation." The pledge made by former president Jimmy Carter's administration which came to be known as the "negative security assurances," reflects "an unrealistic view of the international situation," the Times quoted Bolton as saying. "The idea that fine theories of deterrence work against everybody, which is implicit in the negative security assurances, has just been disproven by September 11," he said. "What we are attempting to do is create a situation where nobody uses weapons of mass destruction of any kind," he added. In case of an attack against the United States "we would have to do what is appropriate under the circumstances, and the classic formulation of that is, we are not ruling anything in and we are not ruling anything out," Bolton said. The promise made in 1978 by Carter's secretary of state Cyrus Vance justified nuclear attacks on non-nuclear states only if such countries attacked the United States in alliance or association with nuclear-weapons states. Boucher would not elaborate on Bolton's interview or say why or how the Times got the idea that the old policy had been changed but insisted that Bolton had only restated the existing policy to the newspaper. "What Undersecretary Bolton was reiterating was a policy that the United States government has had since the 1970s," he said. Copyright © 2001 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. | ***************************************************************** 38 Stolen n-weapons material Nuclear material nicked 24/02/2002 09:27 - (SA) Washington - An undetermined amount of weapons-grade nuclear material has been stolen in post-Communist Russia, heightening concerns that some of it could have ended up in the wrong hands, the US intelligence community has concluded. The announcement comes amid warnings by top US officials that Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda terrorist network have been making a concerted effort to obtain the know-how and materials to manufacture a crude nuclear or radiological device. "We also believe that bin Laden was seeking to acquire or develop a nuclear device," Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet told congress earlier this month. "Al-Qaeda may be pursuing a radioactive dispersal device - what some call a 'dirty bomb'." In his testimony, the CIA director refrained from disclosing where al-Qaeda operatives could be shopping for such technology. But the National Intelligence Council, in its annual report to congress made public late on Friday, gave a strong warning that despite foreign assistance and its own efforts to heighten security, Russia still represented a serious nuclear proliferation risk. 'Undetected smuggling has occurred' "Weapons-grade and weapons-usable nuclear materials have been stolen from some Russian institutes," said the council, the collective analytical think tank for the 13 agencies that make up the US intelligence community. "We assess that undetected smuggling has occurred, although we do not know the extent or magnitude of such thefts," the report said. "Nevertheless, we are concerned about the total amount of material that could have been diverted over the last 10 years." A total of 23 attempts to steal fissile materials have been uncovered and thwarted in Russia between 1991 and 1999, according to the document. The problem remains how many smugglers made off with particles of plutonium or enriched uranium - a hot commodity on the black market - without being detected. "Russian facilities housing nuclear materials typically receive low funding, lack trained security personnel, and do not have sufficient equipment for securely storing nuclear materials," the council said. - Sapa-AFP ***************************************************************** 39 Physicians Denounce Administration Nuclear Weapons Decision U.S. Newswire 22 Feb 16:10 No Responsibility: Physicians Denounce Administration Decision to Abandon Nuclear Weapons Commitment To: National Desk Contact: Tarek Rizk of Physicians for Social Responsibility, 202-667-4260 ext. 215 WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Physicians for Social Responsibility denounced a change in US policy announced this week by Undersecretary of State for Arms Control John Bolton that the United States would no longer respect a long-standing agreement to limit consideration of a nuclear response only to attacks from a nuclear-armed foe. President Carter made the no-nuclear-use pledge in 1978 as germane to U.S. commitment to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). It has been honored implicitly by all subsequent administrations, and was explicitly re-affirmed by then Secretary of State Warren Christopher in 1995. "Breaking such a serious commitment will compromise the United States in all its relationships with other nations," said Robert K. Musil, Ph.D., M.P.H., Executive Director and CEO of PSR. "This international insult brings the United States to a new low, where we function as a loaded nuclear weapon pointed at the head of our allies and enemies alike." The pledge not to use our nuclear forces against countries without nuclear weapons was reiterated by Christopher as the United States continued negotiations on the Non Proliferation Treaty. The four other permanent members of the United Nations Security Council similarly embraced pledges on nuclear weapons use. The pledge has been included as part of a resolution adopted by the Security Council in April 1995. "Morally, no nation can claim the right to use the supremely destructive force of a nuclear weapon against an enemy who doesn't possess such a weapon," said Musil. "This careless statement -- combined with our growing bellicose rhetoric and treaty-bashing unilateralism -- voids our ability to counsel our colleagues on averting war and other calamities." Undersecretary Bolton claimed the long-standing agreement to avoid using nuclear weapons reflected "an unrealistic view of the international situation." However, PSR believes that the agreement makes the world a safer place by ensuring that international pacts like the Non-Proliferation Treaty are honored and enforced. The alternative -- a lawless world with a few dozen nuclear states with no qualms about using these weapons indiscriminately -- would be a dangerous place. "Now we've committed to using nuclear weapons whenever -- and on whomever -- we wish," Musil said. "What's to stop Russia from using nuclear weapons in its war in Chechnya? How can we urge India and Pakistan to step back from the nuclear brink? Why would Iraq or North Korea slow their nuclear weapons development programs?" Physicians for Social Responsibility, founded in 1961, is an organization of over 20,000 physicians and health professionals opposing the development, testing and use of nuclear weapons. Copyright 2002, U.S. Newswire ***************************************************************** 40 Russia's nuclear arms deemed vulnerable -- The Washington Times February 23, 2002 By Bill Gertz The system used to protect Russian nuclear weapons is "stressed" by military funding shortfalls and is vulnerable to an "insider" who could circumvent nuclear-missile launch controls, according to a U.S. intelligence report. The report to Congress also said thieves have stolen an unknown amount of weapons-grade nuclear fuel over the past decade. "Russia employs physical, procedural, and technical measures to secure its weapons against an external threat," the unclassified report says. "But many of these measures date from the Soviet era and are not designed to counter the pre-eminent threat faced today — an insider who attempts unauthorized actions." An unauthorized or accidental missile launch is "highly unlikely" as long as the current safeguards are enforced and the central political authority exists, said the report by the National Intelligence Council, an analysis arm under CIA Director George J. Tenet. Yesterday's release of the 12-page report comes as the Bush administration has warned that terrorists are seeking to develop nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, possibly using stolen nuclear material. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that since September 11 security has been increased at nuclear-weapons storage sites and that "terrorists have not acquired Russian nuclear weapons," the report said. It also said security at Russia's nuclear-power plants has been increased as a result of Moscow's war against Chechnya. The report said that, "we are concerned about the total amount of material that could have been diverted over the last 10 years." There have been published reports indicating that al Qaeda terrorists have attempted to purchase stolen Russian nuclear arms on the black market. Among the incidents identified in the report are: •Theft in 1992 of 1.5 kilograms of enriched uranium from the Luch Production Association. Theft of 3 kilograms of enriched uranium from Moscow. The 1998 theft from Chelyabinsk province of an amount of nuclear material to produce a nuclear device, according to a Russian nuclear official. Current warhead-security efforts are aimed at preventing threats "from outside the country," the report said, and "may not be sufficient to meet today's challenge of a knowledgeable insider collaborating with a criminal or terrorist group." Col. Gen. Igor Valynkin, the Defense Ministry official in charge of warhead storage, stated in August 2000 that "there have been no incidents of attempted theft, seizure, or unauthorized actions involving nuclear weapons." "Even with the enhancements, security problems may still exist at the nuclear-weapons storage sites," the report said. One Russian military officer told a Russian television station in August that security at warhead-storage facilities was lax, including personnel shortages and broken alarm systems. The report said the United States is working with the Russian government to increase the safety and security of nuclear-related facilities, infrastructures and personnel. According to the report, Moscow currently has fewer than 5,000 strategic nuclear warheads, but will reduce its strategic forces to around 2,000 warheads because of funding problems and aging systems. All site contents copyright © 2002 News World Communications, Inc. ***************************************************************** 41 U.S. Abandons pledge Not to Use Nuclear Weapons on Non-Nuclear States Xinhuanet 2002-02-23 01:51:30 WASHINGTON, February 22 (Xinhuanet) -- The Bush administration is no longer standing by a 24-year-old U.S. pledge not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states under a new security environment emerging after the September 11 terror attacks, a senior administration official has said. Washington is not looking for occasions to use its nuclear arsenal, but "would do whatever is necessary to defend America's innocent civilian population," said John Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, in an interview published by The Washington Times Friday. "We are just not into theoretical assertions that other administrations have made," he said in reference to a 1978 commitment by the Carter administration not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states unless they attack the United States or its allies in alliance with nuclear-armed countries. After the Clinton administration reaffirmed that commitment, the United Nations Security Council adopted in April 11, 1995, a resolution providing safety guarantee to non-nuclear states. But Bolton said such promises reflect "an unrealistic view of the international situation." "The idea that fine theories of deterrence work against everybody, which is implicit in the negative security assurances, has just been disproven by September 11," he said. "What we are attempting to do is create a situation where nobody uses weapons of mass destruction of any kind." Bolton's remarks drew criticism from arms-control analysts, who said that such a significant U.S. government commitment should not be dropped. "These assurances are important in order to maintain the integrity and credibility of the nonproliferation regime. Repudiation can have a negative effect on international security," said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, in the report. John Holum, Mr. Bolton's predecessor at the State Department under former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, said that the Bush administration's position to ignore the 1978 commitment would not affect the strategic balance of power but might send a wrong message overseas, according to the report. "It doesn't make the use of weapons of mass destruction more or less likely, but it's reflective of the administration's negative view of international treaties," he said. Enditem Copyright © 2000 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 42 Iran's N-capability: reality belies US rhetoric -DAWN - International; 23 February, 2002 By Scott Peterson TEHRAN: Surrounded by hostile neighbours, Iran is a nation under constant diplomatic - and military - pressure. But while its quest for regional security may have led it to quietly explore weapons of mass destruction , that exploration has led it into the jaws of US criticism. Now that the US has declared 'war on terrorism' and pronounced Iran, Iraq, and North Korea an "axis of evil," such a threat perception in Washington could yield serious consequences. Iran is stuck in a strategic Catch 22, Western and Iranian analysts say. On one hand, it wants to portray itself as an indomitable regional power. On the other, it wants to avoid the wrath of Pentagon planners. But incur the wrath of the US it has. Washington, backed by Israel, charges that Tehran is "aggressively" pursuing weapons of mass destruction and the long- range missiles to deliver them. Of all Washington's concerns, those of Iran's possible nuclear ambitions top the list. Having already declared its interest in effecting "regime change" in Iraq, a negative US assessment about Iranian intentions could pave the way for powerful US action. President Mohammad Khatami says Iran is interested only in civilian nuclear power, and has repeatedly called for the Mideast to be turned into a zone free of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. "It's better for the American administration to decide among themselves if they want to raise the flag of war, or of dialogue," Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said this week. "America believes it is the only source of right and wrong." Indeed, independent assessments of Iran's abilities are often at odds with official US rhetoric. But the country may have reasons entirely separate from its rivalry with the US and Israel to research weapons of mass destruction. "Iran has 15 neighbours and no friends, and these neighbours are not the most charming," says a Western diplomat in Tehran. The easiest way to create such a deterrent, the diplomat says, is to "build up a rocket programme that flies,... and then leave in doubt that what you put in it is not TNT." "There are doubts about what Iran is doing," says a Western diplomat, who asked not to be identified. "But at the same time, they are years behind entering the nuclear club, and their ballistic missile programme is in difficult shape. The problem is the US and Israel say Iran is building ICBMs (inter-continental ballistic missiles). This is questionable." Iran's nuclear programme is also far weaker than many of its already weaponized neighbours, including Pakistan and Israel. Against the wishes of the US, Russia plans to complete two civilian power reactors in Iran by September 2003. "Iran's (nuclear) programme is in shambles, and the people who read all the intelligence know that," says Amin Tarzi, an Iran specialist at the Center for Non-proliferation Studies at the Monterrey Institute in California. "Pakistan showed that having nuclear weapons can change the policy of great nations," Tarzi says. Unlike its nuclear neighbours Israel, Pakistan, and India, Iran has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and allows the UN International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect its nuclear material. "From our point of view, Iran has been playing by the rules," says Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the IAEA in Vienna. "However, these rules, under the safeguard system that we have now, are limited."-Dawn/The Christian Science Monitor News Service. The DAWN Group of Newspapers, 2002 ***************************************************************** 43 U.S. should keep moratorium to avert new nuclear arms race asahi.com : ENGLISH There is a recently disclosed proposal recommending the United States pursue a new generation of nuclear weapons that can penetrate deep into the earth to destroy underground strongholds built by dictators and terrorist groups. This proposal was part of the Nuclear Posture Review, the Pentagon's blueprint to revamp U.S. nuclear policy. But it was not included in the published outline of the review, and was only recently made public in testimony in Congress by retired Gen. John A. Gordon, who heads the National Nuclear Security Administration. President George W. Bush's administration has decided to begin studying an earth-penetrating nuclear weapon to support the battle against such post-Cold War threats as terrorist organizations and countries that support terrorism, according to the testimony. But development of a nuclear weapon that could destroy targets deep underground could trigger a new round in the arms race. The U.S. effort to develop a new generation of nuclear weapons could lead to resumption of nuclear testing, since subcritical experiments, which do not involve nuclear explosions, are believed to be insufficient for the purpose. This may explain why the Department of Defense proposed in its review to shorten the lead time for a nuclear test as it recommended keeping the decade-old moratorium on underground tests. The Bush administration asserts that safety management of nuclear warheads is difficult without nuclear tests. It also contends that verification of nuclear testing is unreliable, supporting the Senate's refusal to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). In the new weapons initiative, the Bush administration has advanced one more step toward resumption of nuclear tests. The administration plans to make all the preparations so it could resume nuclear tests whenever the need arises, although it would not actually start detonating bombs right away. If the United States ends its freeze on testing, China and Russia are likely to follow. That would return the world to a global competition of nuclear tests. The world's only superpower has an obligation to do all it can to avoid such a dark scenario. The Bush administration should keep the nuclear test moratorium and abandon the plan to shorten test-preparation procedures. Members of Congress who oppose nuclear tests should try to block the administration's move during debates on the budget and in related debate. Pentagon review of nuclear strategy emphasizes the importance of building up a national missile defense in the face of a proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. If the United States really deploys a missile shield, Russia and China would most likely respond with weapons that could break the shield, such as multiple warheads, which enable a single missile to strike many targets. Combination of missile defense and nuclear tests would almost certainly renew the vicious nuclear arms race cycle. Putting the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty into effect requires ratification of nations suspected of having their own nuclear arms programs, among them the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and Israel, and India and Pakistan, which have performed nuclear tests, as well as the five acknowledged nuclear powers. There is practically no chance of the treaty taking effect any time soon; the only hope for progress is the possibility that all nuclear powers maintain the moratorium and more nations will ratify the treaty over time. Such is the shared view of most representatives attending an international conference last autumn on promoting the campaign to initiate the test ban treaty. If Washington resumes nuclear tests, the whole CTBT campaign will go down the drain. The United States should not trample upon the sentiments of those who long for a world free of nuclear arms. (The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 21) [Copyright Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. No reproduction ***************************************************************** 44 INEEL to remain open, despite Bush budget cuts The Independent Online - News Vol. 13 No. 8 Issue Date 2/21/02 by Dan Laidman Reports of the demise of the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) have been greatly exaggerated. When the Bush Administration's 2003 budget recommended closing the controversial government laboratory, even the facility's critics were concerned. While Idaho politicians seized on the economic boon INEEL provides the state, environmentalists wondered what would become of all the nuclear waste that still needs to be cleaned up. As it turns out, the lab will not close. The Bush Administration retracted the language that made it sound like the lab should close, and is now calling the whole thing a misunderstanding. "What we were told was that the implication was not to close the entire lab," says Idaho-based Department of Energy (DOE) spokesman Brad Bugger. Rather, he says, the administration wants the lab to speed up its waste cleanup and then move over to a different manager within the DOE. Nonetheless, it took the intervention of Idaho's governor and congressional delegation to get the language changed. Located near Idaho Falls, INEEL began in the 1950s and at one time housed the largest concentration of nuclear reactors in the world. The laboratory began branching out in the 1970s into other areas of research like conservation, renewable energy, and biotechnology. Today those environmental and research functions co-exist alongside a massive waste cleanup effort. A controversial aspect of the new budget is a plan that cuts cleanup funds at INEEL and several other sites, directing the money into a new program that holds out funds for sites that significantly speed up their efforts. According to Brad Bugger, that's consistent with INEEL's own goals. "It's always been our goal to finish the environmental work and then devote our time and energy to national security, energy security, these sorts of things," he says. Transferring control of INEEL to a different DOE official will have a negligible effect on workings at the lab, he says. As for the cleanup, he says the original target date for finishing the work was 2050, but officials at the lab are setting a new goal of 2012. "What's really our biggest concern is how the major cuts in funding are going to affect what cleanup gets done at INEEL," says Chuck Broscious, director of the Troy, Idaho-based Environmental Defense Institute (EDI). Last fall EDI joined with other environmental groups calling on the U.S. environmental Protection Agency to take over regulation of INEEL from Idaho's state Department of Environmental Quality. The issue is still under review. "They're trying to sound like they're really moving forward on a fast track," Broscious says. "But if you look at the fine print all they want to do is get out from under all these financial obligations to deal with the waste they've left behind." ***************************************************************** 45 Flats plan needs teeth Denver Post.com --> Friday, February 22, 2002 - Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham yesterday took a tiny step toward resolving the latest plutonium flap, but left major questions unanswered. Chief among them: how the federal government can fulfill promises to Colorado to clean up Rocky Flats, the mothballed nuclear bomb factory near Golden, by 2006. In January, the U.S. Department of Energy significantly changed U.S. policies on plutonium disposal by abandoning a sensible plan to combine excess plutonium with other materials (so the nuclear elements aren't vulnerable to theft or terrorism), and instead focusing only on re-using the plutonium as reactor fuel. But a sizeable percentage of Rocky Flats plutonium is too impure to use as reactor fuel. Since the new Bush administration plan doesn't offer any alternative method for disposing of such material, the new policy could strand tons of plutonium in Colorado. Abraham was supposed to report to Congress on the matter by Feb. 1, but didn't do so until now - and his report still doesn't really say what DOE will do with the impure plutonium. Unless DOE comes up with answers soon, it cannot realistically keep promises Abraham made last week to U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, a Colorado Republican, and U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, a Boulder Democrat whose district includes Rocky Flats. DOE insists it will meet the 2006 deadline for cleaning up Rocky Flats, and Abraham said he'll assign a top deputy to the project. However, Abraham must back up his brave words with an action plan and a clear, workable time table. Since he hasn't done so, it looks as though DOE hasn't a clue about how to fix the problem. Yet neither Allard nor Gov. Bill Owens, another Republican, seems to want to play hardball. They should. Any state that tries to play nice just gets steamrolled when it comes to deciding where nuclear wastes will go. That's been the harsh truth for decades, regardless of which party occupied the White House. And it's largely why last year South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges stopped DOE from bringing more plutonium into his state until the agency gave him a specific plan for eventually removing the material. Indeed, Abraham's recent report brags about solving the South Carolina standoff but barely mentions Rocky Flats and largely remains silent on how DOE will deal with Colorado's concerns. In this regard, Udall suggested a potentially useful tactic. The cleanup agreement between DOE and Colorado says the state can require the federal government to finish certain projects by certain dates or face serious penalties. Colorado should invoke such enforceable milestones to ensure that DOE fulfills its promises. Allard and Owens shunned the suggestion, preferring to wait and watch DOE's performance. But if Abraham is truly confident DOE can keep its word, he should have no qualms about agreeing to enforceable milestones that guarantee Rocky Flats gets closed by 2006. All contents Copyright 2002 The Denver Post ***************************************************************** 46 New Hanford manager comes to see site This story was published Fri, Feb 22, 2002 By the Herald staff Roy Schepens, the incoming manager of the Department of Energy's Office of River Protection, visited Hanford on Thursday for the first time. Schepens will replace Harry Boston as the lead DOE manager of Hanford's tank farms and waste glassification project. Boston is being transferred to Washington, D.C., for a yet-to-be-determined post at DOE's national headquarters. No date has been set for Schepens' and Boston's transfers. Schepens is expected to visit Hanford again before his transfer. Schepens, 49, is DOE's assistant manager for materials and facility stabilization at its Savannah River, S.C., site. He's spent much of his 12 years in Savannah River in charge of construction and operation of a waste glassification plant and tank farms. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 47 Hanford river project receives federal award This story was published Fri, Feb 22, 2002 By the Herald staff Fluor Hanford's River Corridor Project recently became the sixth Hanford organization to receive the federal government's highest safety recognition -- Star status under the Voluntary Protection. The award comes after inspectors looked at the project's safety training, procedures and track record. Other Hanford organizations to obtain Star status are Protection Technologies Hanford, Fluor Federal Services, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory andthe former DynCorp Tri-Cities Services that has been absorbed by Fluor and the Fast Flux Test Facility. About 900 businesses have achieved this level of federal recognition, as well as 18 Department of Energy companies and organizations. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 48 SRS takes up 3rd disposal plan 02/24/02 Augusta Georgia: Technology: Program Manager Ray Hannah visits the Saltstone plant's holding tanks, where waste would be stored under the new proposal. ANNETTE M. DROWLETTE/STAFF Newest proposal expected to be faster, less expensive Web posted Sunday, February 24, 2002 By Brandon Haddock [bhaddock@augustachronicle.com] Staff Writer Plan A took 15 years to build, cost $489 million - and failed. Plan B would have taken until 2010 and cost up to $1 billion to complete. Now, Savannah River Site officials have moved to Plan C in their efforts to treat 34 million gallons of radioactive waste. The new plan will use an existing SRS plant to treat and store the waste for decades. Site officials say the method will be cheaper and quicker than previous proposals. "We are dissecting the problem," Greg Rudy, the U.S. Department of Energy's manager at SRS, said during a recent public meeting. "We want a multipronged approach to start the treatment programs earlier and reduce the risks earlier." But some observers say the site is merely choosing a new path to the same result. "They have not changed their approach of simply going from one failure to another," said Arjun Makhijani, the president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Tacoma Park, Md. "The Energy Department has done this before. They've gone cheap, with shortsighted solutions that turned into long-term cleanup problems." The agency's proposal might be new, but it is an attempt to solve an old conundrum: how to treat 34 million gallons of "salt waste" at SRS. The salt waste makes up the bulk of the highly radioactive liquid wastes in the site's 49 underground waste tanks. It contains high levels of cesium and smaller amounts of other radioactive elements such as plutonium. Site officials have sought to remove those highly radioactive constituents from the rest of the waste, allowing the waste to be treated in separate "streams." The cesium would go to the site's Defense Waste Processing Facility to be turned into a solid, radioactive glass suitable for long-term burial. The remaining waste, much less radioactive, would go to the site's Saltstone plant, where it would be mixed with sand, slag, fly ash and concrete and solidified into blocks of a cementlike grout. The radioactive blocks would remain in vaults at Saltstone for hundreds of years. Separating the waste into two streams, however, has proved problematic. The Energy Department first built the in-tank precipitation facility to do the work. Scientists and engineers spent 15 years and $489 million building the plant. But in January 1998, shortly after it opened, the plant was declared inoperable because operators could not prevent flammable, carcinogenic benzene from building up inside its tanks. In the years since, the Energy Department has searched for other ways to strip cesium from the salt waste. After an extensive search, the agency selected a technology called "solvent extraction" as the basis for another new plant to replace the in-tank facility. The new plant, which was to use a liquid solvent to remove the cesium, was expected to cost up to $1 billion. The sticker price was one reason, Energy Department officials said, that they have chosen to pursue a third option. "We want to make sure our strategy is a cost-effective one," said Terrel Spears, the director of salt processing for the Energy Department's high-level waste division at SRS. "We're confident we can save substantial sums of money." THE NEW PLAN would send some of the salt waste to Saltstone as is, to be turned into grout, Mr. Spears said. More waste would go to Saltstone after chemicals were used to remove plutonium, Mr. Spears said. Although the waste would contain more cesium than normally is sent to Saltstone, the plant would be able to handle it, officials say. "Saltstone is not going to accept any waste that would not meet its waste-acceptance criteria," said Soni Blanco, a program engineer for the Energy Department's salt-processing division at SRS. If much of the waste could be sent directly to Saltstone, Mr. Spears said, it would reduce the size of the solvent-extraction plant needed to handle the most troublesome salt waste. A warning sign marks the fence at Savannah River Site's Saltstone facility. The site's newest proposal calls for sending blocks of radioactive waste to Saltstone's vaults. ANNETTE M. DROWLETTE/STAFF Under the new plan, the plant could be built at 10 to 20 percent of the size that was originally planned, he said. Some hurdles remain. Tests must be completed to determine whether Saltstone can handle the waste as expected, Mr. Spears said. "We hope to walk before we run," he said. "We're challenging our contractor during the next couple of years to develop and mature the low-curie salt capability." Site officials also must resolve regulatory issues. The salt waste is classified as high-level waste but must be reclassified if it is to be sent directly to Saltstone. That issue is one reason the site's Citizens Advisory Board raised concerns about the proposal in January. The board expressed concern that the high-level-waste determination would hold up the project. If salt-waste treatment is delayed further, it could hinder efforts to treat SRS waste and close the site's waste tanks before deadlines agreed on with the site's environmental regulators, the board said. "The SRS Citizens Advisory Board again confirms its position that the closure schedule must be met, including start-up of a full-scale salt-processing facility by 2010 and the closures of the high-level waste tanks as scheduled," the board wrote. EVEN IF SRS officials can treat and store salt waste at Saltstone, it doesn't mean they should, Dr. Makhijani said. "This will turn South Carolina into a de facto nuclear-waste dump, in the worst way," he said. But a site supporter said he had no qualms about using Saltstone to treat the waste. "We were well-aware that when this study was made public that there would be some resistance to it, because we've always said that we were going to treat all of our high-level waste and remove it from the site," said Mal McKibben, the executive director of the Aiken-based pro-nuclear group Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness. "That resistance is the bad news. The good news is that Greg Rudy is 100 percent correct when he says that this approach would allow us to save a lot of money and get it done a lot faster. "That's the pluses and minuses right there." "We want to make sure our strategy is a cost-effective one. We're confident we can save substantial sums of money." - Terrel Spears, director of salt processing for the Energy Department's high-level waste division at SRS Reach Brandon Haddock at (706) 823-3409 or bhaddock@augustachronicle.com [bhaddock@augustachronicle.com] . 1996 - 2002 The Augusta Chronicle. ***************************************************************** 49 Neth: It's time to dance with DOE Pahrump Valley Times By RICH THURLOW, EditorFebruary 22, 2002 Commissioner says Nye should endorse YMP in exchange for big bucks It might be time for Nye County to slow dance with the Dept. of Energy, whispering "I love the Yucca Mountain Project" into the ear of federal bureaucrats while simultaneously lifting the wallets out of their back pockets. That was, essentially, Commissioner Henry Neth's suggestion during Tuesday's meeting in Pahrump. To do otherwise, he said, could result in the county being seriously shortchanged if it ultimately becomes the home of a high-level nuclear waste repository buried inside Yucca Mountain. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham has endorsed Yucca Mountain and President George W. Bush has given the project the go-ahead. If ultimately approved, Yucca Mountain will serve as the storage site for 77,000 metric tons of high-level nuclear waste, much of it coming from power plants scattered across the county. Neth, a long-time Pahrump resident, pointed out Nye County is the home of the Nevada Test Site as well as the Nellis bombing range, yet receives virtually nothing in compensation. Yucca Mountain has been a different story, however, with the county receiving about $70 million over the past decade in the form of payments equal to taxes (PETT) for continuing site characterization work. With the approval process now in a slightly higher gear, Neth said it might be time for the commissioners to abandon their official position of neutrality regarding the YMP and aggressively pursue benefits. That includes money (lots of it) that could be used to augment county operations as they relate to health and safety issues, for paved roads, for education and for medical care, such as a Pahrump hospital. The county could also use the YMP as leverage to free up more land for private ownership. Of Nye County's 18,500 square miles, only 360 are privately owned. Nye's swing from neutrality to an embrace of the YMP, he said, would be contingent on those demands being met. Neth acknowledged Nye's shift in position would generate howls of outrage throughout the state from any number of elected officials. But, he asked, what has Nevada done for Nye County, and referred specifically to the creation of Bullfrog County, the recent certificate of need process for a Pahrump hospital, and oil tax revenue generated in Nye County that the state keeps. The Legislature created Bullfrog County, located on the Nevada Test Site, during the 1980s in an effort to get PETT money for Clark and Washoe counties. The Nevada Supreme Court ultimately ruled Bullfrog County could not exist. When Neth concluded his comments, which he made from the podium facing the commissioners, some members of the audience applauded. Commissioner Cameron McRae said Neth's proposal might be appropriate, but that it also might be premature. He also said Nye's position of neutrality has served the residents well in terms of getting millions of dollars in funding to conduct studies related to the YMP. That money is in addition to PETT. The results of those studies, including the geology of Yucca Mountain, has "had a positive impact" on the process, McRae said. As for the residents of the county, McRae said he was not convinced a majority would vote to support the YMP, regardless of what benefits might be derived by doing so. McRae also noted the "antagonistic" approach by others in the state to the YMP "has left them out in the cold." The county's position of being neutral while also saying "no one really wants this, but treat us like you would want us to treat you," has paid off. Neth agreed that the county's position has "worked extremely well, but I believe it's time for the position to change," particularly in light of recent national events relating to the YMP. "If we remain neutral and don't ally ourselves with the people who will make it happen we'll end up with exactly what we got in the last 50 years" for being the home of the test site, he said. "That's my position." Neth's point, McRae said, was "well-taken." Joni Eastley offered another perspective, saying national coverage never mentions Yucca Mountain is in Nye County. Most people probably believe Yucca Mountain is in Clark County, she said. ©Pahrump Valley Times 2002 ***************************************************************** 50 Federal judge appoints manager for struggling technology firm This story was published Fri, Feb 22, 2002 By John Stang Herald staff writer A federal bankruptcy judge recently appointed a Washington, D.C., energy consultant as the trustee to manage the struggling Allied Technology Group. Trustee Robert Hanfling is essentially ATG's president as it reorganizes under Chapter 11 protection under the supervision of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Northern California. Meanwhile, ATG's founders, President Doreen Chiu and Frank Chiu, chief financial officer, resigned their posts, according to the company's Feb. 15 filing with the federal Securities Exchange Commission. The Chius keep their stock and still are ATG's majority owners, said Vik Mani, executive adviser to the Chius. Feb. 18's issue of the Weapons Complex Monitor, a Washington, D.C., inside-the-Beltway newsletter, quoted Hanfling talking about reviving ATG's dormant Richland and Oak Ridge, Tenn., facilities. Those plants need to get running again to generate cash to get a new Richland facility on line to convert mixed radioactive and chemical wastes into a safer glass form, Hanfling told the newsletter. The new glassification equipment's problems in getting started contributed to ATG's financial woes. Hanfling could not be reached for comment Thursday. Meanwhile, the company is shutting down its Hayward, Calif., headquarters, terminating most of its employees there, ATG's SEC filing said. As trustee, Hanfling's job is to revive and reorganize ATG while paying off its creditors. He has about 40 years of experience in the energy industry. He worked for the Department of Energy during the administrations of presidents Ford and Carter. He also assisted past Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary as she took over DOE in 1993 and helped her overhaul that agency. Hanfling previously served as a Chapter 11 trustee for the Colorado-Ute Electric Association. ATG filed for bankruptcy Dec. 3 because of major debt and cash flow problems. That happened two weeks after ATG terminated about 120 workers at its north Richland plant and more at Oak Ridge. "The terminated employees filed claims for unpaid severance pay, vacation and sick days, plus insurance payment reimbursements," said Debbie Hendrick, business representative for Operating Engineers Local 280. The union represents most of ATG's Richland employees. An ATG skeleton crew is looking after 4,155 tons of low-level chemical and mixed wastes stored at the Richland site. ATG's business is to take federal and commercial wastes and convert them into smaller and safer forms. The material is then shipped back to its owners or to final disposal sites. In the late 1990s, ATG expanded rapidly. But the purchase of an Oak Ridge waste processing operation turned out much less profitable than expected. And the mixed waste glassification facility in Richland became more expensive to build than predicted. Plus that equipment has technical problems that ATG could not fix before it had to close the Richland plant. ATG owes at least $23 million to creditor banks, including at least $9 million that is overdue. That prompted the banks to freeze ATG's cash, forcing it to close the Richland and Oak Ridge plants. ATG also owes $2.8 million to 10 Northwest and Tri-City contractors. And it owes about $200,000 in unpaid personal property taxes to Benton County. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. 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