***************************************************************** 08/24/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.216 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POLICY 1 Archbishop Tutu Gives Greenpeace his Blessing Ahead of the Summit 2 Fiji: Qarase takes Britain to task over nuclear shipments 3 12 Greenpeace activists arrested after protest at nuclear power 4 Priority on Nuclear Materials Security 5 Greenpeace demo at Koeberg NUCLEAR REACTORS 6 AU: Fancy an afternoon at the reactor? Beauty, nuke! NUCLEAR SAFETY 7 24 sites eyed for uranium seizure 8 US: Uranium-Tainted Well Owners Still Waiting 9 US: Vapor halts cleanup in one area of Paducah plant 10 US: Chemist Whistleblower Wins $1.5 Million Judgment Against Army* 11 High concentrations of uranium, radioactive lead no cause for worry 12 Robert Strang: No immediate threat to children. NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 13 Official Notes Serbian Nuke Hazard 14 Russia opens spent nuclear fuel plant 15 USEC's foe nixes Paducah for plant 16 Russia Unveils Used Nuke Fuel Site 17 US: DOE Wants to Increase Disposal of Nuclear Wastes from Washington 18 *LES?s Uranium Plant Won?t Be In Unicoi* 19 Unicoi won?t see nuclear plant 20 Hartsville in running for nuclear fuel plant * 21 Sellafield faces huge cutback in permitted radioactive discharges NUCLEAR WEAPONS 22 Senior U.N. official signals Central Asian nuclear free zone 23 US seeks to remove weapons-grade uranium from 16 countries 24 Eeyore and the bomb 25 Ted Turner pays for nuclear swoop US DEPT. OF ENERGY 26 Transportation director kept bombs on track 27 A Rocky Flats chronology 28 A Rocky Flats chronology (a few details) OTHER NUCLEAR 29 World experts meet to save Earth Summit ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Archbishop Tutu Gives Greenpeace his Blessing Ahead of the Summit allAfrica.com: Greenpeace International (Amsterdam) PRESS RELEASE August 23, 2002 Posted to the web August 23, 2002 Archbishop Desmond Tutu visited the Greenpeace ship, the Esperanza to give his blessing to the vessel and crew and joined them in wishing for a clean, nuclear free future as they continue their work in the run up to the Earth Summit next week. The Archbishop made a private tour of the Esperanza, which has recently returned from a four-day voyage into the Southern Ocean to protest the passage of a deadly cargo of plutonium off South Africa. The Noble Peace prizewinner told the crew Thank you for your work for peace and for a nuclear free world, it is wonderful and we thank you. One of the key demands that Greenpeace will put to all Heads of State attending the Earth Summit in Johannesburg, is a requirement that they should reject climate changing and dirty energy policies the fossil fuel and nuclear industries. Governments at the Summit must make a commitment to divert the annual $250 million subsidies from dirty power and invest in sustainable energy systems such as solar, wind and wave technology, which could bring electricity to the 2 billion people one third of the planet - who currently have access to none. One day, down the line people will say, why did it happen? said the Archbishop on the deck of the Esperanza. It will be because of the contribution of you and you, he added pointing to the crewmembers. He then thanked them for the people of today and the people of tomorrow who are not yet born, but who, because of what you are doing, will be able to live in a world that is clean. The blessing from Archbishop Tutu was the first for the Esperanza, the newest ship in the Greenpeace fleet. His visit echoed a visit made to her sister ship, the Rainbow Warrior, by the Dali Lama during the first Earth Summit in Rio ten years ago. The Archbishop spent nearly an hour on board and was presented with a Greenpeace book documenting the 30-year history of the international environmental group’s protest in photos, and two Greenpeace T-shirts bearing the logo Choose Positive Energy and Stop Plutonium Terror. Copyright © 2002 Greenpeace International. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 2 Fiji: Qarase takes Britain to task over nuclear shipments Go Asia Pacific Breaking News Pacific - [http://www.abc.net.au/ra] Fiji's prime minister Laisenia Qarase has criticised the British government's stand on the question of compensation for nuclear shipment accidents. British foreign and commonwealth minister Ivor Caplin has said his government will not consider compensation, because it believes the chances of nuclear accidents in the Pacific are rare. Pacific island states are calling on the nuclear transporting countries to accept liability for accidents that occur with any shipment of radioactive waste in Pacific waters. Mr Qarase, who is also the chairman of the Pacific Islands Forum, says he will continue to voice the Pacific's concerns. "They seem to be taking the stand that they have taken in relation to our people who suffered as a result of the nuclear testing in Christmas Island," he says. "Hundreds of our people still suffer physically; their children are suffering physically as well, due to the effects of that experiment on Christmas Island. "Now the British continue to refuse to accept liability for compensation for those people. It is most disappointing. It is inhumane," Mr Qarase says. 23/08/2002 22:26:58 | ABC Radio Australia News News from Radio Australia [http://abc.net.au/ra/newsdaily/] ***************************************************************** 3 12 Greenpeace activists arrested after protest at nuclear power plant in South Africa Yahoo! News - Sat Aug 24, 8:09 AM ET CAPE TOWN, South Africa - Twelve Greenpeace activists were arrested Saturday after staging a peaceful protest at a nuclear power station on South Africa's west coast. The activists approached the Koeberg power station just north of Cape Town in two inflatable boats just after first light, said Sarah Holden, a Greenpeace spokeswoman. Three men and three women disembarked on a jetty in the power plant harbor, and used grappling hooks to scale a nearby building, where they unfurled a banner reading: "Nukes out of Africa." Police then arrived in their own inflatable boat, and boarded the Greenpeace vessels. The six crew — two women and four men — were arrested and escorted in their boats back to the Koeberg harbor. The six climbers were arrested after descending the building. Police confirmed the arrest of the 12 activists, who came from the Netherlands, Britain, Argentina, New Zealand, Canada, Spain, Mexico, Lebanon, and Australia. Eskom, the state electricity company that manages Koeberg, denied the plant's security had been breached or compromised. The activists had scaled a pump house building, which was located about 100 meters (yards) away from the well secured nuclear reactor, Eskom spokesman Tony Stott told the South African Press Association. The protest had not been violent, but the activists would be charged for breaching a restricted area, he said. The activists are expected to appear in court on Monday. The protest came two days ahead of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the world's largest ever environmental conference. Greenpeace said its actions were aimed at sending a message to governments that "dirty and unsafe technology such as nuclear power and fossil fuels" were not sustainable sources of energy." "Greenpeace calls on governments attending the Johannesburg Earth Summit to channel the dlrs 250 billion annual subsidies squandered on nuclear and fossil fuels into clean, renewable energy alternatives," the organization said in a statement "Governments from around the world are also urged to make a commitment to provide affordable renewable energy to the two billion people, a third of the planet, who live without electricity, and to ensure that renewable resources provide 10 percent of global energy by 2010." (mc) Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. ***************************************************************** 4 Priority on Nuclear Materials Security Las Vegas SUN: August 23, 2002 By MATT KELLEY ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON- The U.S.-Russian effort that whisked a cache of weapons-grade uranium out of Yugoslavia this week is part of a larger nuclear materials security program given new urgency after the Sept. 11 attacks. Experts worry that terrorists or hostile nations may get their hands on enough uranium or plutonium to build a nuclear bomb from one of hundreds of research reactors around the world. The United States is focusing on 24 reactors in 16 countries that, like the site in Yugoslavia, were built and fueled with help from the former Soviet Union, State Department officials said Friday. "We want to get at all of them. Some of them are more pernicious than others," said a top State Department official involved in the program, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We have plans to address every single one of these facilities." The reactors are designed to use highly enriched uranium - which can also be used to make nuclear bombs - to create nuclear isotopes used for medical treatments and other peaceful purposes. Now, given advances in technology and increased worries about terrorism, there's no need for those reactors to use bomb-grade uranium, U.S. officials say. The research reactors are a big worry because they would offer a ready source of precisely the material needed to create a nuclear bomb - and security at some of them is frighteningly lax. "In some cases security is provided by a single sleepy watchman and a chain link fence," said a report released in May by Harvard University's Project on Managing the Atom. The U.S. government is constantly tracking reports and rumors that terrorists and hostile nations are looking for enriched uranium and plutonium. Iraq, for example, had ties with former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic, though there's no evidence Milosevic ever gave any nuclear material to Iraq. "We're aware on a routine basis of certain countries that go shopping for this material," the State Department official said, adding, "We're going to stop them any place we can." The United States is working with Uzbekistan to get rid of the highly enriched uranium stockpile at a research reactor in the former Soviet republic, which borders Afghanistan. That reactor has been a worry because an Islamist group with ties to al-Qaida and the Taliban has been blamed for terrorist attacks in Uzbekistan. The Harvard report raises similar concerns about a research reactor in the former Soviet state of Belarus and a reactor in Ukraine, and the Energy Department has told Congress it hopes to help Romania get rid of bomb-grade uranium from a reactor there. U.S. officials declined to name other specific sites for fear of giving terrorists "a grocery list" of places to seek nuclear materials. It's unclear how long it will take to secure all the weapons material at the two dozen sites, since that depends on diplomacy and funding. The State Department's nonproliferation program fund has only about $15 million, for example, and the operation in Yugoslavia cost the U.S. government about $2.5 million. Last year, the Bush administration had proposed cutting $100 million from the government's $874 million nuclear nonproliferation budget, but Congress restored most of those cuts and added $226 million after the Sept. 11 attacks. This year's budget proposal calls for spending nearly $1.2 billion, which includes $3.1 million to upgrade the safety and security of research reactors and other civilian nuclear sites. Matthew Bunn, a Harvard researcher who co-authored the report on research reactors, said the United States should spend much more on the reactor problem. "I believe that with only $50 million a year or so for a few years, we could eliminate one of the biggest threats from these vulnerable civilian facilities," Bunn said. "That would be an excellent, cost-effective investment in national security." The operation in Yugoslavia Thursday involved more than 100 pounds of highly enriched uranium that had been stored at a mothballed research reactor outside Belgrade. More than 1,200 Yugoslav forces provided security for a dramatic nighttime transfer of the uranium to a jet that flew it to a Russian reprocessing center to be made into commercial nuclear reactor fuel. Records showed that none of the Yugoslav uranium - enough to make 2 nuclear bombs - was missing, State Department officials said. The United States paid about $2 million to move the uranium and more than $400,000 to help Russia convert it to reactor fuel. The Nuclear Threat Initiative, a private group founded by media magnate Ted Turner and former Sen. Sam Nunn, is providing $5 million to help the Yugoslav government deal with nuclear waste at the former reactor. U.S. officials praised Russia's cooperation with the Yugoslav operation, which took more than a year to plan. "There was a sense of urgency and determination to get this done on all sides," said another top State Department official involved in the program, who also spoke on condition of anonymity. On the Net: Harvard University Project on Managing the Atom: http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/bcsia/mta.nsf/www/home [http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/bcsia/mta.nsf/www/home] Nuclear Threat Initiative: http://www.nti.org [http://www.nti.org] All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 5 Greenpeace demo at Koeberg [http://www.news24.com] South Africa 24/08/2002 09:01 - (SA) Cape Town - Six Greenpeace anti-nuclear demonstrators landed on the jetty at the Koeberg nuclear reactor on Saturday morning, then climbed onto the plant's roof to unfurl a banner protesting against the use of nuclear power in Africa. Greenpeace spokesperson Sarah Holden, speaking by cellphone from outside the plant, said the three men and three women were holding up a banner reading: "Nukes out of Africa." Holden said the environmentalist organisation had phoned the manager of the Koeberg plant to inform him of the demonstration as the protesters arrived just before 08:00. Holden said their intentions were non-violent, and demonstrators planned to stay on the roof as long as they were allowed to. Holden said Koeberg was the only nuclear power plant in the country, and Greenpeace wanted it to be the last. They wanted to draw the public's attention to the dangers of nuclear power - which she described as "madness" - and to discourage the expansion of South Africa's nuclear energy programme. A police vehicle arrived on the scene later. About News24 - ***************************************************************** 6 AU: Fancy an afternoon at the reactor? Beauty, nuke! - smh.com.au By Fia Cumming August 25 2002 The Sun-Herald Forget the museum or the art gallery, the hottest destination for Sydneysiders seeking an educational outing is the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor. Perhaps influenced by The Simpsons, the reactor became the fastest-growing major tourist attraction in NSW in 2001, with a fourfold increase in visitor numbers. The surge in interest has continued this year, with tours booked out more than two months in advance. Local residents and conservation groups still view it with hatred, but many others are just curious. After years of protecting the reactor behind tight security, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) changed tack last year and opened the doors. ");document.write(" advertisement "); } } // --> The open days in August and September were expected to attract about 3,500 people, but more than 10,000 people poured through the steel doors. Tour groups from schools and community groups or people using nuclear medicine also rose by 40 per cent last year, to 4,600. The total figure for 2001 of about 15,000 was more than four times the 3,300 visitors to the reactor in 2000. ANSTO spokesman Peter Russell said interest had been fuelled by publicity about the plans for a new reactor. But with no plans for an open day this year, many will have to wait another year to see inside. Mr Russell said some visitors were surprised they did not have to wear a protective suit to guard against radiation in the reactor. "You go through a lock, close the door and then you go through another door and that's it," he said. "You have to remember that the actual reactor is about half the size of a dining table - in terms of research reactors it is the smallest in the world." While the average US nuclear power plant would use about 190 tonnes of nuclear fuel, Lucas Heights gets by with only 7kg. Construction of a replacement for the ageing reactor was put on hold last month to allow investigation of a geological fault line underneath the site. The project has also been dogged by doubts about the financial viability of the main contractor, INVAP of Argentina. Well-known scientist Ben Selinger supported the construction of the new reactor last week, saying it would be both safe and essential for the future of Australian science. Professor Selinger said nuclear technology had improved enormously in the past 30 years and Australia could not afford to be without its own research facility. He said the dangers of radiation from power plants had been greatly exaggerated. Copyright © 2002. The Sydney Morning Herald. ***************************************************************** 7 24 sites eyed for uranium seizure Boston Globe Online: Print it! By Robert Schlesinger , Globe Staff, 8/24/2002 WASHINGTON - The US government plans to remove weapons-grade uranium from another two dozen installations around the world in international operations similar to the dramatic extraction Thursday of more than 100 pounds of the nuclear material from Yugoslavia, officials said yesterday. They did not name the sites, saying they did not want to tip off terrorists. State Department officials described the first operation - involving 1,200 Yugoslav troops moving the uranium in the predawn hours Thursday - as an unprecedented instance of international cooperation to prevent nuclear proliferation. The officials expressed hope that the operation, which involved close US-Russian cooperation and was a byproduct of increased recognition of the threat of nuclear terrorism since Sept. 11, would set a standard for similar future efforts. Nonproliferation specialists said that it should become a precedent because more than 350 civilian nuclear research facilities around the world possess weapons-grade material, including the two dozen in 16 unidentified countries that the US government has targeted for future operations. While the Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences in Belgrade was among the most notoriously worrisome, it appears to be only a start. ''It's a small part of a larger problem,'' said Jamie Yassif, a research associate at the Federation of American Scientists, which has studied the issue. ''The need to secure highly enriched uranium should be a top priority for us, especially with our current concerns about nuclear terrorism.'' The sites of greatest concern are nuclear research facilities that have highly enriched uranium, relics of the 1970s and 1980s that are slowly being secured. These civilian facilities would make inviting targets for terrorists trying to acquire weapons-grade nuclear material because security arrangements at the facilities are in many cases substantially weaker than at military installations. At some research facilities, scientific advances and growing security concerns have caused a shift to low-enriched uranium, which cannot be used in a nuclear bomb, but many facilities have not made the conversion. While nonproliferation specialists estimate that roughly 350 sites in 58 countries have highly enriched uranium, they say that only a fraction of them - roughly two dozen - have enough material to make a nuclear bomb. The International Atomic Energy Agency estimates that 20 kilograms, or about 44 pounds, is required to build a nuclear weapon. A senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the 24 targeted sites are the ones of greatest concern. ''We want to get at all of them,'' the official said. ''And some of them are going to be a lot more pernicious than others.'' A senior department official who briefed reporters would not be more specific about the 24 locations, stating that ''because in a post-9/11 environment the last thing we want is to have a public blueprint for where fissile material [is] located so that someone might want to do some supermarket shopping for that material.'' Specialists said that while many of these sites are in Russia and the former Soviet states, they are not confined to that region: Some are located in the Middle East and other parts of the world. A State Department spokeswoman said the facilities were given priority because of their age and weak security. The officials would not give a timetable for how long it would take to clear out those sites, saying it would depend on the availability of resources and cooperation from the other countries. But, they said, the Sept. 11 attacks have given new impetus to other countries to cooperate. ''This is a new era of cooperation,'' the senior official said. ''It creates an excellent precedent.'' The US officials said that the operation in Belgrade was particularly noteworthy because it marked new cooperation with Russia and Yugoslavia. Russia has drawn fierce criticism for selling nuclear reactor components to Iran, Iraq and North Korea, and in the past has been far less cooperative in attempts to clear out similar stores of highly enriched uranium. With the United States, Russian and Yugoslav governments working along with the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a nonprofit group based in Washington, the operation was unprecedented in involving so many different governments and other entities. Negotiators pulled it together in roughly one year, sealing the deal with a $5 million pledge from the Nuclear Threat Initiative, which was cofounded by former senator Sam Nunn and media mogul Ted Turner. While the US government is spending $2.5 million from the State Department's nonproliferation fund on moving the uranium and having it ''blended down'' in Russia to low-enriched material, it is not allowed under US law to spend any of that money on cleaning up completely spent fuel, which was a crucial issue for the Yugoslavs. Turner's group contributed $5 million to the Atomic Energy Agency to perform that work. Senior State Department officials described the effort as the product of ''classic diplomacy,'' involving small teams of diplomats. But some nonproliferation specialists said they were worried that the operation depended too much on private funding. ''This was a success that almost wasn't,'' said Matthew Bunn of Harvard University's Project on Managing the Atom. ''What we need now is to put together a program within the government that has all the flexibility and the authority it needs to go out and try to clean up these caches wherever they might be.'' Bunn said that the Senate included such a provision in a defense authorization bill for next year, which it approved in June. The version the House adopted in May did not. The two chambers plan to work on reconciling differences in their versions of the legislation when Congress reconvenes next month. Robert Schlesinger can be reached a t "> schlesinger@globe.com This story ran on page A1 of the Boston Globe on 8/24/2002. © Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company. ***************************************************************** 8 Uranium-Tainted Well Owners Still Waiting TheCarolinaChannel.com - Water System Unwinding Red Tape Before Running Lines Posted: 9:03 a.m. EDT August 23, 2002 GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Some folks in Simpsonville and Fountain Inn have lived without safe drinking water for about 18 months. Greenville Water System officials said that government red tape is partly to blame. In 2001, state health department tests showed several wells in the area contain unsafe levels of uranium. The water system said that it would cost more than $2.5 million to bring city water to the 200 affected homes. Much of the money to build the 20 miles of needed water lines will come from the federal government. But before the money can be released the water system has to prove the construction project won't hurt the environment. "When federal money is used it comes with strings," Greenville Water System general manager Lynn Stovall. "We're going through that process now and we're nearly complete. Hopefully to the point of being able to go to construction in October, perhaps." Another stipulation, that local government match part of the federal funding, has been waived, U.S. Rep Jim DeMint told News 4. Copyright 2002 by TheCarolinaChannel. ***************************************************************** 9 Vapor halts cleanup in one area of Paducah plant The Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky Saturday, August 24, 2002 Safety procedures are being reviewed after a worker's alarm sounded during preliminary work at the C-400 building. By Bill Bartleman bbartleman@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650 A project to test a procedure for removing trichlorethylene from under the C-400 building at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant has been halted while officials review safety procedures. The work that began earlier this year was stopped Tuesday after a monitoring device worn by a worker sounded an alarm indicating a high level of vaporized TCE, according to Greg Cook, spokesman for Bechtel Jacobs, the firm overseeing cleanup for the U.S. Department of Energy. It is one of several incidents at the plant in recent weeks involving chemical releases and incidents in areas of the plant where the U.S. Department of Energy stores contaminated equipment and material. None of the incidents was considered serious or a threat to the public, according to Cook and Elizabeth Stuckle, spokeswoman for USEC Inc., which operates the plant. An unidentified worker for CDM Federal Services is being tested to determine if he inhaled any of the TCE vapor, Cook said. TCE is a potential cancer-causing chemical. For many years TCE was used to clean equipment in the C-400 building in the center of the plant complex. A damaged drain that went undetected for years caused thousands of gallons of TCE to leak into the ground. It is the leading source for groundwater contamination, one of the major pollution problems at the plant. The vaporized TCE was emitted while workers were drilling holes to bury electrodes as part of the pilot project. "We expected there to be some vaporized TCE as we did the drilling operations, but this is at a concentration higher than we've seen in the past," Cook said. Cook said the worker's chemical-detection monitor sounded an alarm indicating a level of TCE higher than the five-minute peak exposure level allowed under safety rules. "However, the level dropped quickly, and the worker wasn't exposed for five minutes," Cook said. Officials are reviewing the project and work procedures to determine if additional precautions are needed to protect workers, Cook said. "We are always very conservative with our safety procedures, and we want to make sure we are doing enough to ensure that workers aren't being harmed," Cook said. He said one concern is that mandating more protective equipment could create a risk of heat-related problems. Cook said he didn't know when work on the $3.2 million project would resume, but he didn't think it would be much longer. The electrodes will be buried to heat and vaporize the pools of TCE in the ground. The gases will then be vacuumed and disposed of properly, he said. Cook said the testing is expected to begin after Jan. 1 and last for 130 days. He didn't expect that this week's shutdown would delay the start of the testing. At the end of the testing period, officials will determine whether the procedure is working and efficient. "Then, we can either continue the process, make adjustments or stop if it isn't working and take another approach," Cook said. He said excavating the contaminated soil is not an alternative because much of the contamination is under the building. "The C-400 building is in active use and a key part of USEC's operations," Cook said. "Excavation would be impractical." Meanwhile, two USEC workers required hospital treatment last week when they suffered heat exhaustion while responding to the release of a small amount of UF6 in one of the process buildings, according to Stuckle. She said the workers were on their way to the C-333 building wearing protective suits and other equipment to protect them from chemical exposure when they were overcome by the intense heat and passed out. They were taken to a local hospital to be examined and were back at work in about an hour, she said. Although the release was very minor, Stuckle said, workers wearing protective clothing always are called to check contamination levels to make sure workers do not face health risks. The release did not interrupt production. In another incident last week involving DOE's portion of the complex, a storage trailer was struck by a utility vehicle about the size of a golf cart and knocked into the boundary of a contaminated material storage area, Cook said. He said the trailer struck a wire metal basket inside the boundary lines. After the incident was reviewed and officials determined there was no risk of nuclear criticality, and no risk to workers or the public, workers were allowed to move the trailer. ***************************************************************** 10 Chemist Whistleblower Wins $1.5 Million Judgment Against Army* *By DEBORAH FUNK * A whistleblower who raised safety and environmental concerns at the Army?s Dugway Proving Ground, the Utah facility that tests equipment to protect against chemical and biological warfare agents, has been awarded a $1.5 million judgment in the first round of a legal battle. A Labor Department administrative law judge ruled Aug. 8 in favor of David W. Hall, a civilian chemist who had raised safety concerns about the base, including charges of potential human exposure to toxins. Labor?s Office of Administrative Law Judges adjudicates cases involving airline, nuclear, environmental and commercial trucking whistleblowers. Hall, who worked at Dugway from 1987 to 1997, filed a complaint against the Army for harassment and for forcing him to retire after he made the allegations about improper handling and disposal of hazardous material. Among Hall?s allegations were that the Army could have contaminated drinking water by its practice of dumping chemicals down a drain and may have issued a gas mask that absorbed rather than blocked chemicals. The judge?s ruling, which is being appealed by the Army, only involves Hall?s complaints about having undue personnel action taken against him because he was a whistleblower. It has no direct bearing on his claims about the handling of chemicals. Hall said the finding ?cleared me of all the character assassination that the Army had done for years, and that really was important.? Dugway spokeswoman Paula Nicholson had a different view. ?Despite the judge?s ruling, we still believe that the actions taken by leadership at Dugway regarding Dr. Hall were lawful and appropriate,? she said. ?We have initiated a petition for review regarding the judgment.? Nicholson would not comment further because the case is still in litigation. Hall raised concerns with his superiors about safety issues and violation of environmental laws early in his employment. When that failed to produce results, he sought help from state agencies, the federal Environmental Protection Agency and members of Congress. But when he reported his concerns to either Dugway officials or those outside the Army, he suffered retaliation and reprisals, according to the court record. Although he raised a number of concerns, one of them, which he reported in 1990, involved M-40 silicone rubber gas masks that allowed a chemical warfare agent to penetrate through the mask. A protective covering or plate was added later, the court record shows. The M-40 masks were used in the Gulf War, but Hall said in an interview that their numbers may have been in the thousands, not hundreds of thousands, citing what an Army attorney told the court. Judge David Di Nardi, the Labor Department judge who heard Hall?s whistleblower complaint, said the Army acted improperly by lowering performance ratings, setting impossible standards, ordering a psychiatric evaluation, rescinding a security clearance and ordering Hall to have no contact with Congress or with environmental regulators without going through his chain of command, among other things. Hall, Di Nardi said in his finding, ?is a dedicated, conscientious and highly motivated public citizen who has manifested these qualities throughout his many years as a public servant, no matter the task assigned.? Di Nardi said whistleblower protections are important. Federal employees are encouraged to report waste, fraud and abuse, ?without fear of reprisals, retaliation, harassment and/or disparate treatment. This ?no fear? attitude is especially important today, given the events on 9/11,? Di Nardi wrote. Workers are encouraged to report the problems within their chains-of-command but may go to other officials when those actions produce no results. ***************************************************************** 11 High concentrations of uranium, radioactive lead no cause for worry - official Friday » August 23 » 2002 Twelve schools have bad water By BEVERLEY WARE The Daily News Twelve metro-area schools have elevated levels of radioactive lead in their drinking water, and two of those schools also have total uranium levels above federal standards, according to tests released by the province Thursday. But the Environment Department?s senior radiation health officer insists there?s no immediate danger to children or staff. ?Let me stress these are preliminary results, it?s naturally occurring radionuclides and there is no immediate danger,? said Pat Hall. ?Nobody should worry about drinking the water at these schools,? he said. ?There is no need for alarm; there is no immediate health risk.? The guidelines are based on drinking two litres of water every day of the year from the same source. Bottled water NDP environment critic Howard Epstein, however, said he believes the province is ?soft pedalling? a dangerous situation. He said it?s ?nonsense? to allow principals in these schools to decide whether to use bottled water. None of the schools should even consider allowing children to drink the water there, he said. East St. Margarets and Harrietsfield elementaries have higher than acceptable levels of total uranium as well as lead-210. The board has provided bottled water at Harrietsfield for more than 10 years because of high levels of arsenic, and will supply East St. Margarets when school opens. Hall said the board will offer to provide bottled water to all 12 affected schools. Provincial medical officer of health Robert Strang said officials still don?t know if there is a problem with the drinking water. It must test several times during the year, then get the average reading. That average, he said, could be below Health Canada?s guidelines. Because the immediate risk is ?so very, very small,? there is an ?almost immeasurably small increase in your lifetime of developing cancer? by drinking the schools? water, Strang said. Halifax Regional School Board spokes-man Doug Hadley said if it turns out there is a problem, the board may install water filtration systems in the schools. He doesn?t know how much that will cost, but said ?we don?t want to put a price on safety.? Most of the 12 schools are clustered in the Herring Cove, Harrietsfield, St. Margarets Bay areas, communities where Epstein said developers and politicians have been aware for years there are problems with the drinking water. Epstein said homes on wells in the area will likely also have elevated levels of these naturally occurring radioactive elements. ?These homes should not have been allowed either to be built there or should become a high priority of the local municipal government to extend the serviced areas so there?s piped drinking water to those areas.? Tests cost $250 People living in the area who want their water tested should call 1-877-936-8476. Residents are responsible for paying for their own tests. They cost about $250, and need to be done several time. While Liberal environment critic Jim Smith praised the province for its openness, he said it should cut the cost of these tests for area residents. ?If they?re concerned enough to be holding press conferences to inform the public, they have to facilitate testing at a very modest fee.? The province is meeting with the Cheb-ucto West Community Health Board in two weeks to address residents? concerns. More tests will be carried out in the schools in September, December, March and June. *Schools on the list* - Atlantic Memorial Elementary, lead-210 - Brookside Junior High, lead-210 - East St. Margarets Elementary, lead-210 and total uranium - Harrietsfield Elementary, lead-210 and total uranium - Herring Cove Junior High, lead-210 - Propsect Road Elementary, lead-210 - Sir John A. Macdonald High, lead-210 - St. Margarets Bay Elementary, lead-210 - Tantallon Junior High, lead-210 - Terence Bay Elementary, lead-210 - William King Elementary, lead-210 - Big Tancook Elementary, lead-210 bware@hfxnews.southam.ca © Copyright 2002 The Daily News ***************************************************************** 12 Robert Strang: No immediate threat to children. Saturday, August 24, 2002 The Halifax Herald Limited Parents 'quite shocked' by uranium in school water Affected schools called on to switch immediately to bottled water By Chad Lucas Parents of students at a small elementary school in scenic Indian Harbour are disconcerted to learn their children have been drinking water with higher than acceptable levels of uranium and radioactive lead. The provincial government announced Thursday that East St. Margarets Elementary School is one of two schools with excessive levels of uranium in their wells and one of 12 with high levels of lead-210. "I was quite shocked," said Eleanor Humphries, a mother of four children in grades 1 to 6 at East St. Margarets, which had an enrolment of 99 last year. Dr. Robert Strang, medical officer for the Capital district health authority, has said the naturally occurring radiation levels found in the water are hundreds of times below anything that would pose an immediate health risk. But parents are still concerned for their children, some of whom have attended the school - and drunk the water - for years. "I don't know the health impact," Ms. Humphries said. "I can only assume the (maximum) levels are set for a reason." She wondered why the province is only now testing for radiation. "I don't think it's only in 2002 that we knew rocks can . . . cause a problem like this," she said. Marie Boutilier said the news confirmed her fears. "I have always told the kids, 'don't be drinking the water at school,' because I don't think it's safe," she said. Ms. Boutilier's daughter completed Grade 6 at East St. Margarets in June and is entering Tantallon Junior High, another school with excessive lead-210 levels. She also has a son entering Grade 9 at Tantallon. The fountains at the junior high school appear discoloured because of the water, she said. "It's gross." Education Department spokesman Dan Davis said Thursday that East St. Margarets will receive bottled water because of the high uranium levels. Harrietsfield Elementary, the other school with high uranium levels, has been using bottled water for years. At other schools with high lead levels, the decision to switch to bottled water will be up to school principals, Mr. Davis said. That didn't sit well with parents, who thought schools should automatically make the switch. "It's ridiculous," said Ms. Humphries. "Who's not going to ask for water?" Ms. Boutilier said she'll insist her children have bottled water. "I don't want my kids drinking unsafe water," she said. Halifax regional school board spokesman Doug Hadley said Friday that the board will work with schools to determine if water should be brought in. "We're not going to leave it just to principals," he said. "They're going to be facing concerns from parents." The board will give information to principals to show to parents and won't hesitate to put bottled water in any of the schools that request it, Mr. Hadley said. "We want them to feel comfortable that the water is safe," he said. About 4,100 metro students attend the affected schools, though 1,100 of those attend Sir John A. Macdonald High School, which will be on split shifts at Sackville High until January. Sir John A. closed last February because of environmental concerns. Water tests taken at the school in May showed higher than acceptable lead levels and prompted the testing of nearby schools. Dr. Strang reiterated Friday that the water is safe while the province conducts more tests. Drinking two litres a day for a year would give you the same dose of radiation as a round-trip flight to Vancouver, he said. "People do that every day and don't think twice about it." Even prolonged exposure to the water carries a minuscule risk, he said. "The increased risk of developing cancer sometime in your lifetime is not zero, but it is immeasurably small," he said. The province will test the water at the affected schools each season over the next year. If radiation levels remain above national standards, water treatments or other sources must be considered. As well, the school board will screen each of its 39 schools with wells for lead-210 and uranium, Mr. Hadley said. The board already checks wells four times a year for other chemicals. Ms. Humphries said she hopes the province doesn't wait for test results a year from now before they start thinking about how to solve a long-term problem. "Let's be proactive on this," she said. "Let's not show the apathy we've shown in the past on many things." Copyright © 2002 The Halifax Herald Limited ***************************************************************** 13 Official Notes Serbian Nuke Hazard Las Vegas SUN August 23, 2002 By DUSAN STOJANOVIC ASSOCIATED PRESS BELGRADE, Yugoslavia- Nuclear fuel and waste in Serbia still pose a hazard despite the recent shipping of a large amount to Russia, an official said Friday. Serbian police, fearing the shipment Thursday would become the target of a possible terrorist attack, sealed off nearly half of Belgrade for six hours as the 1,797 pounds of highly enriched fuel was trucked from the Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences, just outside Belgrade, to the airport. "This project is the start of an operation to clear out Vinca of used and unused nuclear fuel as well as hazardous radioactive waste," Dragan Domazet, Serbia's Minister for Technology, Science and Development, said Friday. The fuel shipped Thursday would have been enough to develop two and a half nuclear warheads, Russia's Atomic Energy Ministry said. Although not as potent, the remaining fuel and waste could also be used to develop weapons, a Vinca scientist speaking on condition of anonymity said Friday. The fuel rods transported to Russia on Thursday were given to the Vinca institute in 1976 for research work. After World War II, former Yugoslav Communist leader Josip Broz Tito hoped to develop nuclear weapons at Vinca. Later in the 1990s, dictator Slobodan Milosevic had the same idea, but because of sanctions against his country, he had no funds for such a project, Serbian scientists, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said. Russia's Atomic Energy Ministry on Friday hailed the operation to extract nuclear fuel from Yugoslavia as a "splendid example" of U.S.-Russian cooperation in the fight against terrorism. The uranium was brought to an Atomic Energy Ministry plant in Dimitrovgrad, a Volga River town about 470 miles east of Moscow. "Thus has yet another potential threat of terrorism or nuclear theft been eliminated," the ministry said. The U.S. State Department organized and paid $720,000 to finance the operation. The Yugoslav government cooperated, the ministry said. In Russia, the uranium would be processed into a low-enriched form. Following the ouster of Milosevic in 2000, the new Serbian government began a program to reduce environmental hazards. Removing toxic and nuclear materials is part of the program. Domazet said that the removal of nuclear fuel was organized with the help of international groups and the U.S. government, which donated $10 million to decommission Vinca. Bringing the rods to the airport took about six hours, a police officer said on condition of anonymity. "We were vigilant and ready to cope with any potential assailant, including bin Laden himself," the officer said. The cargo did not pose any environmental threat, Domazet said. The Vinca nuclear reactor was developed in early 1950s as a part of former Yugoslavia's national nuclear program. It was closed and partly decommissioned in early 1980s. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 14 Russia opens spent nuclear fuel plant BBC NEWS | Europe | Friday, 23 August, 2002, 20:45 GMT 21:45 UK [Russian nuclear submarine Novomoskovsk] Spent fuel will be removed from six submarines a year A US-funded facility for unloading spent nuclear fuel from decommissioned Russian submarines has opened at the Arctic port of Severodvinsk. Senator Richard Lugar attended the opening ceremony of the Zvyozdochka disposal plant. The plant will remove spent nuclear fuel from four Delta and two Typhoon submarines each year. The operation is part of a post Cold War programme to prevent nuclear material from falling into the hands of terrorists or hostile governments. Co-sponsors Senator Lugar also visited the Northern Machine-Building Shipyards in Severodvinsk to see facilities for the production of containers to transport the spent fuel. The first container will be ready this autumn. Senator Lugar and former senator Sam Nunn co-sponsored the programme to help Russia dismantle nuclear weapons, secure nuclear and chemical stockpiles and find civilian jobs for military scientists. Another plant - at Gorny on the Volga river - was unveiled this week that will help destroy chemical weapons and will come online in December. Senator Lugar will also visit the Atomflot Shipyard near Murmansk to see radiological monitoring and waste disposal programmes. He is also expected to lay a wreath at the site of the sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine, which claimed 118 lives in August 2000. See also: 22 Aug 02 | Europe Nuclear shipment alarms Belgrade 02 Aug 02 | Middle East Russia plays down Iran nuclear deal 10 Jul 02 | Politics Gorbachev warns of Cold War legacy 14 May 02 | In Depth Q&A: The death of the Cold War 29 Apr 02 | Europe US presses Russia on nuclear treaty 05 Jun 00 | Europe Analysis: The Soviet nuclear legacy Internet links: Senator Richard Lugar [http://lugar.senate.gov/press.htm] Russian Navy [http://www.navy.ru] The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Top Europe stories now: Schroeder meets rival in TV debate Spain tightens noose on Batasuna Milosevic due back in the dock Georgian troops enter rebel refuge 'Poisoning' of Slovak leader probed Britons held over injured woman Azerbaijan claims 97% support in poll UK flight delays 'worst in Europe' Links to more Europe stories are at the foot of the page. --- © MMII | News Sources | Privacy ***************************************************************** 15 USEC's foe nixes Paducah for plant The Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky Saturday, August 24, 2002 Recruiters still hope USEC will build a gas centrifuge facility at Paducah. LES is now looking at two other states. By Joe Walker jwalker@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650 Although USEC's chief competitor has ruled out Paducah as a potential site for a new uranium enrichment plant, local recruiters say that doesn't change their plans to persuade USEC to build a similar facility here. Louisiana Energy Services told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday morning that it has narrowed the search to Hartsville, Tenn., and Bellefonte, Ala. LES spokeswoman Nan Kilkeary said the firm will announce before Sept. 15 where it will build a gas centrifuge facility to enrich uranium for use in nuclear fuel. USEC is racing with LES — a consortium headed by European competitor Urenco — to deploy the technology, which is far cheaper and more efficient than the outdated process used by the 1,500-employee Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. USEC spokeswoman Elizabeth Stuckle said the firm will decide by year's end whether to build a test plant in Paducah or Piketon, Ohio, where it has a closed diffusion plant. "We will submit an application to the NRC no later than April 2003," she said. LES wants to add competition to the domestic enrichment market to keep USEC from controlling prices. It has targeted December for an application, seeking to be in commercial operation by 2008, about two years earlier than USEC. Earlier this year, USEC signed an agreement with the Department of Energy to have a commercial centrifuge plant running at Piketon by 2009 or Paducah by 2010. Ken Wheeler, chairman of a local nuclear-energy recruitment task force, said the LES decision has no bearing on his group's work. "Clearly, if I were in LES' shoes, I wouldn't be thinking about building my plant right next door to my competition, so I don't feel bad that they didn't see fit to keep us on their list," he said. "It was no surprise to us. I didn't think we were a likely candidate for LES." Wheeler said USEC is legally bound to build a centrifuge plant or turn the Paducah diffusion plant back to the Energy Department, which owns it. LES' rationale is purely financial, but it is questionable whether the market can support two centrifuge plants, he said. "I think LES is moving ahead to get a license to site a plant," Wheeler said. "Whether they actually ante up the billion-dollar investment remains to be seen." According to NRC records, LES told the commission it would build the plant on an existing nuclear site and that the selection would "address low seismic hazard, no previous contamination, moderate climate and redundant high-quality electrical supplies." While Kentucky’s climate is moderate and it has some of the lowest power costs in the nation, the Paducah diffusion plant is heavily contaminated and sits over the New Madrid Fault. LES officials said earlier that the threat of an earthquake was a serious consideration for any site because it increases the design and construction costs of a centrifuge facility. Forty-foot-tall centrifuge cylinders spin at high speed to produce nuclear fuel material by separating the useful and non-useful isotopes of uranium hexafluoride, or UF6. They use about a third of the electricity of gaseous diffusion, which does the work via miles of pressurized piping. Wheeler said he doesn't know why Paducah was rejected from about 12 sites that LES initially scouted. But he said his task force is working with the state to clarify considerable "misinformation" about Paducah's earthquake situation. "We spent time with them (state officials) this week and will do so again next week to try to firm up exactly what issues will be raised," Wheeler said, referring to USEC's decision whether to put the centrifuge plant in Paducah or Piketon. USEC's agreement with the Energy Department gives the company first rights to non-leased DOE land at Piketon or Paducah for use in developing centrifuge. Asked whether that issue, or the seismic concern, played a significant role in eliminating Paducah, Kilkeary said she was not really sure. "We had a whole lot of evaluation criteria, and we ranked every site on the list numerically," she said. "These two sites (Tennessee and Alabama) came out considerably ahead of the others." She said the criteria included environmental and seismic concerns, water, power, and land size. ***************************************************************** 16 Russia Unveils Used Nuke Fuel Site Las Vegas SUN August 23, 2002 ASSOCIATED PRESS MOSCOW- Russia on Friday unveiled a U.S.-funded facility in the Arctic port of Severodvinsk for unloading spent nuclear fuel from decommissioned submarines. U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar attended the ceremony. He is visiting Russia to oversee Washington's efforts to help Russia secure and eliminate weapons of mass destruction, the U.S. Embassy said. The facility will enable the Zvyozdochka disposal plant to unload spent nuclear fuel from the reactors of four Delta and two Typhoon submarines each year, the Interfax news agency reported. "Unloading spent nuclear fuel is the most complex issue in the disposal of nuclear submarines," plant spokeswoman Nadezhda Shcherbinina told Interfax. Officials did not say where the nuclear waste would end up, but in the past Russian officials have said they plan to build a dumpsite on an Arctic archipelago to store spent nuclear fuel from decommissioned submarines. Lugar, a Republican from Indiana, co-authored a decade-long U.S. program to help contain the threat of weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union. The Nunn-Lugar program, also named after former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn, has helped Russia in costly efforts to dismantle its nuclear weapons, secure nuclear and chemical stockpiles and find civilian jobs for military scientists. Earlier Friday, Lugar visited the Northern Machine-Building Shipyards, also in Severodvinsk, where he was shown facilities that make special containers to transport spent nuclear fuel, Interfax said. The unveiling of the Severodvinsk facility followed a presentation for foreign diplomats earlier this week of a chemical weapons destruction plant in the Volga River town of Gorny. On Friday, Lugar is scheduled to visit the Atomflot Shipyard near the Arctic city of Murmansk to view radiological monitoring and waste disposal programs. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 17 DOE Wants to Increase Disposal of Nuclear Wastes from Washington State Plant August 23, 2002 8:09pm Aug. 23--Hanford plans to ship out the equivalent of two barrels of transuranic wastes within 18 months of every barrel of the same wastes it accepts from other Department of Energy sites, said Keith Klein, DOE Hanford manager. The statement came in a Thursday letter that Klein sent to Hanford's numerous constituencies. The three-page letter outlined how DOE wants to speed up disposal of Hanford's transuranic, mixed radioactive and chemical and low-level radioactive wastes. All are essentially different types of contaminated junk stored in barrels. Klein's letter also pleaded for Hanford's various constituencies -- regulators, tribes, environmentalists, local governments and economic groups -- to accept that Hanford will take in some outside wastes as part of DOE's nationwide "collaborative" approach of moving wastes among sites to tackle nuclear cleanup more efficiently. The letter responds to several Hanford interests and regulators voicing concerns about plans to ship wastes from other DOE sites to Hanford for temporary or permanent storage. In the past six weeks, DOE unveiled two documents on the matter. One is Hanford's final draft on how to accelerate its cleanup efforts overall as part of a massive DOE nationwide approach. The plan and the fiscal 2003 budget figures to start it up are in various stages of behind-the-scenes limbo in Washington, D.C. The other document is a draft environmental impact study report on how Hanford should deal with transuranic, mixed and low-level wastes. Hanford regulators and the Hanford Advisory Board criticized that draft report as being too skimpy to be useful. Also, some Hanford interests oppose DOE moving outside wastes permanently or temporarily to the site. Klein's letter said DOE will provide more detailed environmental impact information to the public by Oct. 1. DOE hopes to make final decisions on the environmental impact study recommendations by February. Klein's letter noted that DOE's proposed master plan calls for Hanford eventually to ship large amounts of plutonium, glassified high-level radioactive tank wastes, spent nuclear fuel and transuranic wastes to other DOE sites. Meanwhile, the draft environmental study report said DOE would consider importing low-level radioactive wastes and mixed wastes from other sites to Hanford for burial. And, DOE is considering sending transuranic wastes from its small sites to Hanford to be checked, repacked and temporarily stored for eventual shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Project, an underground permanent storage site in New Mexico. The idea is that Hanford already has a facility to process transuranic wastes, while the small sites don't. Transuranic wastes are items contaminated with highly radioactive substances with extremely slow decay rates. DOE plans to send two mobile transuranic waste analysis units to Hanford in the next six to nine months. Hanford's existing transuranic waste facility can process 2,000 barrels a year for shipment to New Mexico. Adding the two mobile units will triple that capacity to 6,000 barrels annually, Klein said. DOE plans to move a 2027 deadline to ship 35,000 barrels of Hanford's transuranic wastes up to 2015. Right now, Hanford is fourth in line behind DOE's Rocky Flats, Idaho Falls and Los Alamos sites in getting top priority to ship transuranic wastes to New Mexico. Klein speculated Hanford will move to the front of the line in about 18 months. Hanford trucked its first transuranic wastes to WIPP in July 2000. On Thursday, Hanford sent its 11th truckload -- 42 barrels in three huge containers on a flatbed truck -- to New Mexico. That was the first truckload sent in 2002, with another expected to go next month. Rocky Flats is shipping about a truckload of 42 barrels a week. Klein's letter also mentioned DOE's proposal to accelerate the treatment and disposal of 70,000 barrels of mixed wastes from 2012 to 2008. Mixed wastes, radioactive items laced with dangerous chemicals, are a very tricky problem for DOE. Different mixed wastes have different procedures to prepare them for safe burial at Hanford, but the details of those plans have not been mapped out. Also, some types of mixed waste must be treated with extreme heat or glassification. But there is little, if any, technology in the United States that has been perfected to properly accomplish that task with Hanford's mixed wastes. On low-level wastes, Klein wrote that DOE will discontinue the current practice of burying those barrels in unlined trenches, Instead, Hanford will bury them in trenches with special linings to prevent contaminated water from seeping out. DOE is willing to put all these accelerated goals in the Tri-Party Agreement, the legal pact that governs Hanford's cleanup, Klein wrote. Klein's letter ended with asking that regulators and Hanford's constituencies "recognize there are many sides to every issue and that rarely are people, or even agencies, acting in bad faith." That is apparently a response to several Hanford interests voicing suspicions that DOE might try to cut corners in its acceleration proposals. Klein then addressed Hanford's proposed role in accepting some wastes and exporting other wastes in DOE's proposed master plan. He wrote: "I urge you to consider that there is a role for Hanford to play in the DOE complex, and Hanford has to step up to that role to gain the benefits than can only come through this complex-wide strategy." © 2002, Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. ***************************************************************** 18 *LES?s Uranium Plant Won?t Be In Unicoi* *125 West Summer Street - Greeneville, TN - (423) 798-0545* * By: /By BILL JONES/Staff Writer / Source:/ The Greeneville Sun / 08-23-2002 Louisiana Energy Services (LES), an international consortium that plans to build a uranium enrichment plant in the United States, this morning disclosed a short list of two possible sites for the facility. Unicoi County is not one of the finalists. The news came as a blow to Unicoi County economic development officials, but was met with relief by members of a citizens group that had been formed to oppose location of the plant on a 100-acre site in the town of Unicoi. Johnny Lynch, a town of Unicoi alderman who was a leader of ?Citizens for the Preservation of the Valley Beautiful,? the citizens? opposition group, said he was ?elated? when informed of the LES announcement. ?We?ve got a bunch of happy people running around here,? Lynch said from his Farmhouse Gallery & Gardens business in Unicoi. In a statement sent to The Greeneville Sun late this morning, Lynch said, ?The announcement today that Unicoi County is not on the short list for LES uranium enrichment plant is a great relief to the citizens. We now look forward to working with the Erwin-Unicoi County County Economic Development Board toward more sustainable economic development for Unicoi County.? The citizens group had been meeting weekly for the past two months and held a protest outside Unicoi Town Hall in July when the Board of Mayor and Aldermen there canceled its meeting rather than hold a public forum on the uranium enrichment plant issue. Opponents of the proposed plant also packed the Unicoi Town Hall for the August meeting of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen. In a press release issued this morning, LES confirmed that it notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission today that the finalists for the $1.1 billion plant are Hartsville, in Trousdale County, and Bellafonte, in Montgomery County, Ala. Hartsville is located northeast of Nashville in Middle Tennessee. Both properties have been released to the local economic development authorities by the Tennessee Valley Authority, according to the news release. ?We are aggressively pursuing our project schedule to find the right site for the new facility, and expect completion of the process by Sept. 15,? LES Chairman Dr. Pat Upson was quoted as saying in the release. LES is a partnership of Urenco Ltd., Fluor-Daniel, Exelon, Entergy, and Duke Energy. Discussions are under way for Westinghouse and Cameco to join the partnership, according to the news release. On Thursday, an NRC official told the Sun that LES was working against a September deadline to choose a site for the proposed uranium-enrichment plant if the consortium is to file a licensing application with the NRC in December. The $1.1 billion facility at the finalist site will use the world?s lowest-cost, most-advanced centrifuge technology, which was developed by Urenco, according to the LES press release. If all project milestones are met, the facility will come on line in 2007, Upson said. The site will employ more than 400 workers during construction, and up to 250 permanent employees. © 2002 East Tennessee Network - R.A.I.D. (Regionalized Access Internet ***************************************************************** 19 Unicoi won?t see nuclear plant Story published in the Johnson City Press: 8/24/2002. The valley that was being considered for the enrichment plant in Unicoi County is shown (Staff Photo by Lee Talbert) By Chris Garland Erwin Bureau UNICOI ? After several weeks of debate among local citizens and officials, tensions were eased Friday when Louisiana Energy Services announced that a proposed 100-acre nuclear plant will not be located in Unicoi County. LES officials said the two uranium enrichment plant finalists on the company?s ?short list? are properties released by Tennessee Valley Authority to local economic development boards in Hartsville and Bellafonte, Ala. The final site decision is expected by Sept. 15. ?We are very disappointed that Unicoi County was not named to the short list of possible sites for the facility,? said Sam Keesecker, chairman of the Erwin-Unicoi County Economic Development Board. ?The economic development board believed that the county would be one of the sites to be selected for the short list.? EDB members first spoke with landowners in the proposed site area, called the ?Tinker Road Project,? in early July. After news about the possible $1.1 billion site surfaced, local citizens and officials began taking sides. ?The announcement (Friday) that Unicoi County is not on the short list for the LES uranium enrichment plant is a great relief to the citizens,? said Johnny Lynch, spokesman for Citizens for the Preservation of the Valley Beautiful. ?We now look forward to working with the Erwin-Unicoi County Economic Development Board toward more sustainable economic development for Unicoi County.? Citizens from the group have met at Lynch?s Farmhouse Gallery and Gardens weekly since mid-July to discuss ways to keep the nuclear plant from locating here. They formed committees, collected signatures on petitions and held public demonstrations at Town Hall. ?The two sites named ? one in Tennessee and one in Alabama ? really had the best criteria for the site,? said LES spokeswoman Nan Kildeary. The Unicoi site was on the initial site list with about 30 others across the United States, she said, but was never seriously in the running. ?We believe an important factor in Unicoi County not being selected was the large available tracts of land in the two semifinalist sites and the existing infrastructure the two sites have for the construction of the facility,? said County Executive Paul Monk. ?Today?s decision puts to rest the concerns of some county residents about the uranium enrichment facility possibly coming to Unicoi County.? LES is a partnership of Urenco Ltd., Fluor-Daniel, Exelon, Entergy and Duke. Discussions are under way for Westinghouse and Cameco to join the partnership, according to LES Chairman Pat Upson. EDB officials said the largest property owner of the proposed site is expected to market the Tinker Road location for other purposes. The state Department of Transportation will soon construct an access ramp from U.S. Highway 23 to Tinker Road, officials said. ?Unicoi County is at an important point in its history,? Monk said. ?The uranium enrichment plant project is a good example of how our county will have new opportunities for growth because of our central location.? /(Contact Chris Garland at cgarland@johnsoncitypress.com )./ HOME PAGE | LOCAL NEWS <../LocalNews.asp> | OBITUARIES <../Obituaries.asp> | SPORTS <../Sports.asp> | BUSINESS <../Business.asp> | LIFESTYLES <../Lifestyles.asp> | ENTERTAINMENT <../Entertainment.asp> OUTDOORS <../Outdoors.asp> | LETTERS TO EDITOR <../LettersToEditor.asp> | CLASSIFIEDS <../Classifieds.asp> | SUBSCRIPTIONS | LOCAL INFORMATION <../LocalInfo.asp> © 2001-02 Johnson City Press and Associated Press All Rights Reserved This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Johnson City Press 204 W.Main St. ? Johnson City, Tennessee 37605 423.929.3111 webmaster@johnsoncitypress.com ***************************************************************** 20 Hartsville in running for nuclear fuel plant * Saturday, 08/24/02* | Middle Tennessee News & Information* /LARRY MCCORMACK / STAFF A cooling tower sits at the site of the TVA Hartsville Nuclear Plant. The power plant was never completed. * / By KATHY CARLSON /Staff Writer and Tennessean News Services/ */2 sites considered for $1 billon plant to enrich uranium/* Trousdale County has emerged as one of two contenders for a $1.1 billion nuclear fuel plant being proposed by a consortium of American and foreign companies. The consortium, Louisiana Energy Services, has narrowed an extensive search to the site of the Tennessee Valley Authority's never-built Hartsville Nuclear Plant. The federal utility abandoned the project in 1982 when it found it had overestimated demand for nuclear-generated electricity. The other contender, near Hollywood, Ala., is adjacent to TVA's unfinished Bellefonte Nuclear Plant. The proposed facility would enrich uranium, or make it suitable for use as a nuclear fuel for power plants. Nuclear power supplies about one-fifth of the nation's electricity. The project would bring 400 construction jobs and up to 250 permanent jobs to Metropolitan Hartsville-Trousdale County, about 40 miles northeast of Nashville. County Executive Pat Fergusson was optimistic but low key when asked about the project, saying the proposal was in its infancy. The plant would be a real asset for economic development, he said. ''We feel like we do want to show interest,'' but he said they want more information. The size of the consortium's proposal dwarfs the $12 million to $13 million budget of Hartsville-Trousdale, as well as the $76 million to $80 million assessed value of all its property. Just over 7,200 people live in the county. Louisiana Energy Services, which plans to make its final site decision by Sept. 15, has told federal energy regulators it wants to submit a license application by the end of this year and have the plant operating in 2007. It's not the first time LES has tried to build an enrichment facility in the United States. In the 1990s, it proposed a fuel plant for Louisiana, but opponents accused it of ''environmental racism'' for picking a site populated by minorities. The consortium dropped the plan. Spokeswoman Nan Kilkeary said the consortium had looked at more than 30 sites before settling on the two finalists. A July /New York Times/ article said the group was looking at potential sites in Wilmington, N.C., Lynchburg, Va., and Erwin, Tenn. Opposition from environmentalists became an obstacle to locating in Erwin, consultant John Longenecker told The Associated Press. Kilkeary said LES never looked ''seriously'' at Erwin, in Unicoi County in East Tennessee. A uranium processing plant in Erwin makes fuel for U.S. Navy submarines and aircraft carriers. Dr. Stephen Smith, a veterinarian and executive director of the Knoxville-based Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said he opposes the Louisiana Energy Services project, adding that residents of Tennessee and Alabama should be concerned for a variety of economic and environmental reasons. Enrichment increases the percentage of the most usable type of uranium that's contained in uranium ore. The process to be used in the LES plants uses a centrifuge, which spins the uranium to separate the usable material through centrifugal force. The concentration of uranium in fuel-grade material is much less than that found in weapons-grade material. The Hartsville plant would create the power-plant-grade uranium and would not pose a threat of nuclear reaction, said Dale Enson, a professor of chemistry at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville. He said there's no chance of explosion, adding that the uranium coming in and going out of such a facility would be safer to ship than liquid petroleum. Kilkeary said the centrifuge technology Louisiana Energy Services plans to use is more advanced than a different process used by a competitor at the sole U.S. enrichment facility, in Paducah, Ky. If the consortium builds the plant in Tennessee, it would take up about 300 of 2,000 acres on which TVA wanted to build the Hartsville nuclear reactor in 1976. The plant was never completed, and the project was halted in 1982 at a cost of $2 billion. Earlier this year, TVA sold 500 of the 2,000 acres to the Four Lakes Regional Industrial Development Authority so it could attract industry to the area, Trousdale County's Fergusson said. A few fledgling businesses have moved there. Fergusson said yesterday that he and others from the Four Lakes authority first met directly with LES officials about 10 days ago. Smith cautioned against putting a nuclear facility on land that's never been used for that purpose. It's a ''poor use of real estate to take a clean green site over a brownfield with some contamination,'' he said, adding that he knows of no uncontaminated sites on which radioactive materials were handled on a large scale. ''I think people in Middle Tennessee ought to be up in arms.'' Kilkeary said the process LES will use has been improved over the past 30 years and has been ''proven'' by consortium member Urenco Ltd. in sites in Europe. Other LES partners are Fluor-Daniel, Exelon, Entergy and Duke Power. Discussions are under way for Westinghouse and Cameco to join the partnership. Tim Johnson, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission project manager assigned to the LES project, said the consortium came to the NRC earlier this year with its plans to build a uranium enrichment plant in the United States. LES has held preliminary meetings to discuss the application process, he said. After LES picks its site and submits a licensing application, the NRC will perform environmental and safety studies that would take at least 18 months, Johnson said. Environmental meetings would be held, and a formal hearing is mandatory before the NRC makes any licensing decision, he said. / Correspondent Warren Duzak contributed to this report. / © Copyright 2002 The Tennessean ***************************************************************** 21 Sellafield faces huge cutback in permitted radioactive discharges Independent.co.uk © 2002 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd By Paul Waugh Deputy Political Editor 24 August 2002 Radioactive discharges from the Sellafield nuclear plant are to be cut by up to 35 per cent under a new safety crackdown by the Environment Agency. After nearly a decade of promises by the Government, the safety watchdog has finally announced its plans to tighten regulations on air and sea pollution from the British Nuclear Fuels site in Cumbria. Under the proposals, due to be sent to ministers for approval, BNFL will face much lower limits on discharges of waste into the Irish Sea. Hailed by the agency as a "major milestone" in the clean-up of Sellafield, the move will mean that three-quarters of the aerial limits and half of the liquid- discharge limits at the plant will be reduced. The changes will see potential radiation doses to members of the public in Cumbria cut by between 25 and 35 per cent, the agency claims. A single safety certificate for all air, sea and land waste disposals by Sellafield will be introduced, along with stricter site monitoring and analysis. BNFL said last night that it accepted it was now virtually inevitable that the new restrictions would be introduced, but warned that it could cost the company an extra £40m to enforce. It claimed that the additional monitoring would impose a significant "burden" on operations and suggested that its frontline staff could face greater radiation exposure to comply with the checks. The Irish government, Scandinavian countries and green groups have long called for action to be taken against the company. Among the changes proposed, tritium limits will be cut by 20 per cent, cobalt-60 by 72 per cent and caesium-134 by 76 per cent. New controls will also be imposed on discharges from individual plants as well as from the site as a whole. A spokesman for BNFL said: "The overall benefits of what the agency is proposing are difficult to quantify and it is our view that the overall environmental benefit will be minimal." *****************************************************************