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04/25/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.105
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NUCLEAR POLICY
1 Japanese group files injunction to stop Hamaoka nuclear plant
2 Greenpeace protest leads to stoppage at Spanish nuclear plant
3 Spanish nuclear groups call for go-ahead for new stations in
4 France, Kazakhstan set up uranium-processing joint venture
5 Russia announces plans for nuclear power station in Siberian
6 US: Duke Power confirms plutonium-use plans
NUCLEAR REACTORS
7 Ukraine Remembers Chernobyl Victims
8 Japan: Hydrogen explosion at Hamaoka caused by structural flaws
9 UK: Landowner refuses Dounreay permission to monitor
10 US: WNP-1 future may be doomed
11 Ukraine commemorates Chernobyl victims, hopes to heal radioactive la
12 Chernobyl welcomes tourists to contaminated ghost towns
13 Second Chernobyl impossible - Russian nuclear official
14 US: Reactor's restart is further delayed
15 Ukraine commemorates Chernobyl victims, hopes to heal radioactive
NUCLEAR SAFETY
16 UK: Public can expect iodine pills in the post 'by June'
17 Russia to change method of assessing health in areas contaminated
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
18 US: Nevada fights nuclear dump, accepts mushroom cloud license tags
19 US: Committee OKs Nevada Waste Site
20 UK Letters: Shut down Sellafield
21 UK: 1.1 million anti-Sellafield postcards sent
22 Russia: Protesters against nuclear waste imports stage Red Square
23 US: Lawmakers question safety of nuclear waste shipments to Nevada
24 US: Today's topic: Nuclear waste.
25 US: Yucca Mountain testimony today
26 US: NEVADA OFFICIALS WATCHFUL: Nuclear waste panel to change
27 US: Sisters target Yucca Mountain Project
28 US: Routes to Yucca reconsidered
29 US: Nuclear waste to Nevada would pass through major cities
30 US: Train accidents up markedly last year, federal figures show
31 US: Brian Greenspun: Danger on the tracks
32 US: Letter: Nuke waste is all about politics
33 US: Study says politics override science in review of Yucca
34 US: Committee OKs Yucca site 41-6
35 US: PACRO spending to face greater scrutiny
36 UK: Sellafield'S Waste Solutions on Display
37 US: Yucca Mountain Opponents Call Transport Deadly Terror Risk
38 US: Letter: Yucca Mountain Ready for Nuclear Waste
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
39 US: FCNL LEGISLATIVE ACTION MESSAGE (4/25/02)
40 NZ: Envoy senses end to block on nuke ships
41 India needs N-arms: Kalam
42 Council of Europe should take action
43 US: Bill aims to terminate spread of nukes
44 US: 'Dirty Bomb' Could Come From Russia
45 US: Nuclear terrorism protection --
46 US: Ex-air chief predicts nuke hit
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
47 Disaster drill keys on SRS
48 Y-12 protesters found guilty
49 The DOE needs more money to defend America's nuclear facilities
OTHER NUCLEAR
50 WNA NEWS BRIEFING 02.17 | 17 - 23 April 2002
51 Reid Legislation to Promote Clean Energy Development Included in
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 Japanese group files injunction to stop Hamaoka nuclear plant
operation
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 25, 2002
Shizuoka, Japan, 25 April: A Shizuoka-based citizens group and
other supporters nationwide filed a temporary injunction Thursday
[25 April] with the Shizuoka District Court to suspend operations
of four reactors at a nuclear power plant in Hamaoka, Shizuoka
Prefecture, group members said.
The members said they are concerned about a possible massive
earthquake, with an estimated magnitude of over 8 on the Richter
scale, hitting the Tokai region in central Japan.
They are seeking to stop the resumption of operations of the No 1
and No 2 reactors and the suspension of operations of the No 3
and No 4 reactors.
According to the motion, the plant's design cannot withstand such
an earthquake and stated that the No 1 and No 2 reactors are
wearing out.
The group's move comes after two accidents - ruptured pipes and
leakage of radioactive water - involving the No 1 reactor,
operated by Chubu Electric Power Co., last November.
In addition to halting operations of the No 1 reactor, the
company had suspended operations of the No 2 reactor as a
precaution, but has not found any defects.
It is set to resume operations at an early date, the company
said.
Hiroyuki Kawai, a lawyer of the group, said they cannot just
abandon safety issues involving the plant due to possible
widespread damage stemming from a massive earthquake causing a
nuclear accident.
Kuniyoshi Ido, an official in charge of legal issues at Chubu
Electric, said sufficient measures have been taken against a
possible major earthquake in the Tokai region.
Source: Kyodo News Service, Tokyo, in English 0959 gmt 25 Apr 02
/© BBC Monitoring
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2 Greenpeace protest leads to stoppage at Spanish nuclear plant
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 25, 2002
[Presenter] We have news about what was happening in Guadalajara
[province in central Spain], at the Zorita nuclear power station:
a group of Greenpeace activists scaled the dome, and the
organization Greenpeace has apparently ended its protest. Let us
find out more details from our Guadalajara studio. Marta Fajardo
[phonetic] reports:
[Reporter] That's right: under pressure from the security forces,
the six [remaining] Greenpeace representatives who had scaled the
nuclear power station's dome have just climbed down - the same
ones who had been up there since 0700 hours [local time] this
morning and who were defying the hot sun and high temperatures
here in Almonacid de Zorita. The only confrontation so far has
been a shot fired in the air by a security guard on the arrival
of the environmentalist representatives, who had come from eight
different countries.
Greenpeace's head of nuclear safety, Carlos Bravo, explained that
the fact that they could enter the power station in this way
showed a worrying lack of security there:
[Bravo] This peaceful protest action shows that nuclear power
stations are installations whose security cannot be ensured...
[Presenter] In a press release we have just heard about, the
Nuclear Safety Council [CSN] says it asked the Zorita power
station to conduct an assessment of the situation and to explain
whether it can continue normal operations while guaranteeing the
plant's security.
The power station carried out an internal patrol, saying that
nobody from outside the power station entered vital areas of the
plant and that the operation parameters are absolutely normal.
Nevertheless, until physical security is restored, the company in
charge [Union Fenosa] has decided to carry out a controlled
stoppage...
Source: RNE Radio 1, Madrid, in Spanish 1000 gmt 25 Apr 02
/© BBC Monitoring
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3 Spanish nuclear groups call for go-ahead for new stations in
medium term
(Las nucleares piden que se autoricen nuevas centrales a medio
plazo)
El Pais - Spain; Apr 25, 2002
The Spanish nuclear forum, chaired by Eduardo Gonzalez, yesterday
called on the government to take decisions within the next three
to four years so that in 2012 there is at least one new nuclear
power station operating. In 2001, nuclear power stations produced
27 per cent of Spain's electricity, with a 2.4 per cent rise in
production.
The forum wants political parties to leave the issue of nuclear
power out of the election debate, to facilitate long term energy
planning and to guarantee investments in the sector. This comes
as an energy commission in the congress is working on a document
from the economy ministry which makes a commitment to gas as a
source of energy up to 2011, with a loss in the weighting of
nuclear power. The nuclear industry for its part wants the
weighting of nuclear power in Spain to at least be maintained
over the next few years.
Original article by S.C.
Abstracted from El Pais
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4 France, Kazakhstan set up uranium-processing joint venture
BBC Monitoring Service -
United Kingdom; Apr 25, 2002
Astana, 23 April: France and Kazakhstan have set up a joint
venture to process uranium.
France will invest 200m dollars in the project, the press service
of the Kazakh Foreign Ministry has told ITAR-TASS. The two
countries also develop cooperation in the oil and gas industry
and the oil transport industry of Kazakhstan.
TotalFinaElf international company is an active participant in
that process.
Source: ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in English 1340 gmt 23
Apr 02
/© BBC Monitoring
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5 Russia announces plans for nuclear power station in Siberian
region
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 25, 2002
Tomsk, 25 April:
Russian Atomic Energy Minister Aleksandr Rumyantsev told a news
conference in Tomsk today that the first nuclear power plant
would be built in Siberia in the next ten years.
Rumyantsev said that two power units would be built in Seversk,
which has been a "closed" town for the past 40 years because of
the Siberian chemical integrated works that produces nuclear
fuel. Only two out of its five huge atomic reactors are
operational at the moment. They generate electric and thermal
energy for the Tomsk Region.
A new nuclear power plant in Seversk will make it possible to
shut down the two operating reactors whose service life will be
over in the next ten years...
Source: ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in English 1516 gmt 25
Apr 02
/© BBC Monitoring
/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.
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6 Duke Power confirms plutonium-use plans
Published: April 24, 2002
Duke Power reaffirmed that it plans to use a blended plutonium
fuel in two Charlotte-area nuclear plants despite a promise by
South Carolina's governor to block shipments of former
bomb-making material to a reprocessing site
The Associated Press
CHARLOTTE -- Duke Power reaffirmed that it plans to use a
blended plutonium fuel in two Charlotte-area nuclear plants
despite a promise by South Carolina's governor to block shipments
of former bomb-making material to a reprocessing site.
Duke Power, an electric utility subsidiary of Duke Energy, won't
seek permission to test the mixed-oxide, or MOX, fuel for at
least two months, the company's MOX fuel program manager Steve
Nesbit said Tuesday. The company had planned to apply to the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission in March, but the Energy Department
hasn't decided who will make the test material.
A business consortium that includes a Duke Energy unit has
applied for permission to build a fuel plant at the Savannah
River Site near Aiken, S.C., to process 34 metric tons of
plutonium. Critics are trying to block the plant and have won a
formal hearing.
South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges has vowed to block a plutonium
shipment headed to Savannah River from Colorado. Hodges is
worried that if the project is abandoned, the plutonium will stay
in the state permanently. He wants an agreement from the Energy
Department on how the material will be removed.
The utility will use MOX fuel in four reactors at its McGuire
Nuclear Power Station near Huntersville and the Catawba Nuclear
Power Station near York.
Catawba and McGuire would become the first U.S. plants to burn
MOX fuel, which would contain a small percentage of weapons-grade
plutonium. MOX made from plutonium is used in Europe.
If approved, four fuel-rod assemblies would be installed at the
nuclear power plants in 2004 and be tested for 4 1/2 years.
Full-scale use would probably begin in 2008.
Three facilities in Europe -- the only place MOX is now made --
could make the test assemblies, Nesbit said. Energy Department
spokesman Lisa Cutler would say only that the agency hasn't
decided where they will be produced.
``The important thing, from our point of view and the
government's point of view, is to get started,'' Nesbit said.
Contact information Spartanburg Herald-Journal PO Box 1657
Spartanburg SC 29304-1657 864.582.4511 To subscribe: call
864.582.8558 All material ©2002 Spartanburg Herald-Journal and
GoUpstate.com
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7 Ukraine Remembers Chernobyl Victims
Las Vegas SUN
April 25, 2002
KOROSTEN, Ukraine- Ukrainian health officials expressed concern
Thursday about an ever-increasing number of Chernobyl-related
cancer cases, as the government pushed to start rebuilding on
land contaminated with radiation.
A nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl plant exploded in the world's
worst atomic accident on April 26, 1986, and sent a radioactive
cloud over much of Europe. The plant was closed permanently in
2000.
The Health Ministry said illnesses tied to the disaster,
especially thyroid cancer, have risen constantly. Last year,
3,022 thyroid cancer cases were registered, compared with only
119 in 1986. More than 2,100 people under 18 at the time of the
accident have undergone thyroid surgery over the past 16 years.
"Everybody has been definitely affected and the thyroid problem
can affect everyone," said Oleksiy Zaiats, chief doctor of
Korosten, a town of 65,000 about 62 miles west of Chernobyl.
Health concerns shadow the government's plans to start rebuilding
the territory around Chernobyl. All land within 18 miles of the
plant was evacuated soon after the accident and has been closed
to outsiders for years.
Redevelopment first was broached earlier this year when the
United Nations urged refocusing of international aid on
developing the Chernobyl infrastructure rather than on continued
humanitarian aid.
Volodymyr Kholosha, an official in charge of the Chernobyl zone,
said government plans include economic development and soil study
and management. He said the program should be approved by
parliament this year.
However, Chernobyl victims' groups have expressed skepticism
about redeveloping the isolated zone, stressing instead the
individual needs of those affected by the disaster.
The accident affected 3.3 million Ukrainians, including 1.5
million children, and the government is behind in payments to
victims by a total of $117 million. The Interfax news agency said
this year's budget calls for spending $396 million to help those
affected by the disaster 16 years ago.
"When a person is poor and has nothing to eat, it's much more
dangerous than a radiation overdose," Health Ministry official
Iliya Likhtariov told a news conference in Kiev.
In Paris, meanwhile, a 20 cancer patients filed 200 lawsuits
claiming the government failed to warn people about the risks of
the Chernobyl radiation cloud or recommend measures to protect
themselves, such as avoiding foods prone to contamination through
soil.
About 100 similar cases also are pending in France, where the
Independent Commission for Research and Information that found
contamination levels were higher than government estimates.
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
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8 Hydrogen explosion at Hamaoka caused by structural flaws
Japan Today Japan News - News -
Thursday, April 25, 2002 at 09:30 JST
TOKYO
A hydrogen explosion at a nuclear power plant in Hamaoka,
Shizuoka Prefecture last November was caused by structural
defects in a ruptured pipe, and a radioactive water leakage was
due to an accumulation of platinum in a separate tube, according
to findings released Wednesday by the plant operator.
Chubu Electric Power Co said the flawed structure of the pipe in
the No. 1 reactor allowed hydrogen and oxygen to accumulate,
which weakened the pipe, leading it to rupture and causing the
explosion.
(Kyodo News)
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9 Landowner refuses Dounreay permission to monitor
The Scotsman - Scotland -
25th April 2002
John Ross
A WAR of words has broken out again between an estate owner whose
land has been contaminated by radioactive particles and the
operators of the Dounreay nuclear plant.
Geoffrey Minter, who owns Sandside beach in Caithness, has
withdrawn his consent for the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA)
to access the land to carry out monitoring of the sand for
particles.
Mr Minter has previously denied UKAEA access to the beach, which
is partly open to the public, in protest at the level of
monitoring carried out, which he claims is unacceptable.
Last year he was threatened with legal action by the Scottish
Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), which said monitoring of
the beach is essential.
In a statement, Mr Minter says previously denying access to the
beach has secured proper reporting procedures and indemnity
against claims for injury from the public.
He added: "Suspending access again, following notice, is a
tangible protest, by Sandside Estate, at the cavalier manner in
which UKAEA treat us, the owners of the beach, and the public at
large, who have lost a wonderful amenity through the
irresponsible actions of UKAEA."
Routine checks of the beach have found 17 particles, but Mr
Minter says the once-a-month monitoring is not often enough, does
not cover a large enough area and goes only 10cm into the sand.
A UKAEA spokeswoman said the authority is not aware of any
suspension of monitoring consent: "We believe that monitoring to
a level that is set and regulated independently and scrutinised
openly by recognised, independent experts on behalf of the public
is the most responsible action UKAEA can take to safeguard the
interests of beach-users."
©2002 scotsman.com | contact
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10 WNP-1 future may be doomed
This story was published 4/25/2002
By Chris Mulick
Herald staff writer
An Energy Northwest consultant resoundingly slammed the door
Wednesday on ever finishing the 1,300-megawatt Plant No. 1 north
of Richland.
"WNP-1 will never be completed," Neil Goldschmidt said. "Not now
and, we think, not ever."
The future of the of the partially built nuclear power plant,
which is costing $2.8 million a year to preserve, is as cloudy as
ever. Northwest ratepayers paid $200,000 in 1999 to spur efforts
to redevelop the site as an industrial park, only to have the
site's tenants evicted earlier this year, and an additional $1.4
million to study the viability of finishing it.
Energy Northwest, a 16-member public power consortium, began
exploring the possibility of completion a year ago when wholesale
electricity prices were spiking. But it was clear by fall that
finishing the plant, one of four the utility began building in
the 1970s but never completed, wouldn't pencil out.
The consulting team consisted of Goldschmidt, the former governor
of Oregon and U.S. Transportation secretary, his wife Diana, a
former Pacific Power executive, and Tom Imeson, a former vice
president at PacifiCorp.
Its presentation to a joint meeting of Energy Northwest's
executive board, which governs the day-to-day operations of the
organization, and the utility's board of directors, which starts
and terminates construction projects, was unusually direct and
left "zero" hope the plant would be finished. The consulting team
based its conclusions on outrageous costs, political hazards and
widespread disinterest among potential customers it interviewed.
"You've made it very clear," said Beverly Cochrane, chairwoman of
the board of directors.
The study, in which more than 100 utility representatives,
politicians, investment bankers and other stakeholders were
interviewed, did reveal interest in the 1,150-megawatt Columbia
Generating Station, the only one of a five-plant nuclear campaign
to be finished.
Any sale to a private buyer would have to be approved by both
Energy Northwest boards. Though several members have sharply
spoken against such consideration, Cochrane and Executive Board
Chairman John Cockburn said Wednesday that they won't rule it
out.
Another development was the discovery of a coalition of Japanese
developers that has expressed interest in building what the
consultants believe to be two 1,350-megawatt nuclear plants on
the Plant No. 1 site if anyone wanted to buy the plants.
But that may be moot because the consultants found virtually no
interest from utilities for more nuclear power.
The consultants didn't even bother to put a price tag on it.
Earlier estimates had pegged the cost of finishing Plant No. 1 at
between $3.3 billion and $4.2 billion. But they said actual costs
would be far higher because of major transmission additions not
calculated in earlier estimates, overoptimistic plant performance
in its early years of operation and the need for a larger
contingency fund than had been assumed earlier, among other
factors.
The consultants quashed hopes that costs could be reduced through
tax-free financing available for projects built for public
utilities. And even if suitable interest among public utilities
had been found, they left no hope the project would survive the
public vote state law requires.
"It is not possible to get the Washington population to vote in
favor of a new nuclear plant," Diana Goldschmidt said.
Tri-City Herald
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11 Ukraine commemorates Chernobyl victims, hopes to heal radioactive lands
Thu Apr 25, 9:05 AM ET
By MARINA SYSOYEVA, Associated Press Writer
KIEV, Ukraine - Ukrainian officials and families of Chernobyl's
victims on Thursday mourned those killed and sickened by the
nuclear disaster 16 years ago, amid a government push to revive
lands it contaminated with radiation.
The Chernobyl nuclear power plant was the site of world's worst
atomic catastrophe on April 26, 1986, when its reactor No. 4
exploded and sent radioactive clouds over Europe. Vast areas of
Ukraine, Belarus and Russia suffered most. The plant was closed
down for good in 2000.
On the eve of the 16th anniversary of the accident, dozens of
lawmakers, officials, students and relatives of the victims laid
flowers under a heavy rain at a memorial to Chernobyl victims'
memorial in the capital Kiev, a soaring statue of five falling
metallic swans.
Tetiana Suprunova's husband was among first to help extinguish
the fire that broke out at the exploded reactor. "He was only 36
years old when he died of (radiation-related) diseases ... I
would not wish such a misfortune on anybody."
The requiem took place amid government plans to start rebuilding
territories around Chernobyl. All land within 30 kilometers (18
miles) of the nuclear plant was evacuated soon after the accident
and has been closed off to outsiders for years.
The first ideas came several months ago from a United Nations
(news - web sites)' report, which urged a refocusing of
international aid efforts on developing Chernobyl's
infrastructure rather than on humanitarian aid. Volodymyr
Kholosha, a government official in charge of the Chernobyl zone,
said the government's plans include economic development and soil
study and management. He said it's expected to be approved by the
parliament this year.
However, representatives of non-governmental Chernobyl victims'
groups expressed skepticism about redeveloping the isolated zone
earlier this week, stressing that victims' social needs should be
the government's first priority.
Emergency Situations Minister Vasyl Durdynets said Wednesday the
current social arrears to Chernobyl victims are 635 million
hryvna (dlrs 117 million), according to the Interfax news agency.
Budget spending for Chernobyl needs is 2.14 billion hryvna (dlrs
396 million) this year, which is 301 million hryvna (dlrs 55.5
million) more from spending in last year's budget.
Ukraine's post-Soviet government estimates that the accident
affected 3.3 million Ukrainians, including 1.5 million children.
They need special social support because of health problems or
because they were forced to evacuate their homes in the
contaminated zone.
Tens of thousands of people disabled by Chernobyl-related
illnesses suffer from insufficient health care, and 25,000
evacuated families are waiting for housing, according to
Durdynets.
(ms/adc)
Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The
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12 Chernobyl welcomes tourists to contaminated ghost towns
Swissinfo International News
By Elizabeth Piper
CHERNOBYL, Ukraine (Reuters) - Ghost towns, geiger counters,
white masks and rubber boots -- welcome to Ukraine's much-touted
new tourist hotspot, Chernobyl.
Equipped with a 13-room hotel, Soviet-style buses and a winding
pot-holed road, some tourist agencies in Ukraine hope to make a
buck or two out of the world's worst civil nuclear disaster by
offering tours around the contaminated area.
But those adventurous tourists who have fought their fears of
radiation sickness and want to see the highly patrolled area all
but deserted after reactor number four exploded on April 26,
1986, might find the staff less than welcoming.
"There cannot be family tourism here, we cannot allow walking
holidays. There can only be bus tours for about four to six
hours," said Mykola Dmytruk, deputy director of the agency which
coordinates visits by specialists.
"As for extreme tourism, I am not sure this place is extreme
enough. There is not much need for adrenaline on a bus
ride...This is a place of tragedy."
Sixteen years on, the tragedy of Chernobyl's exploded reactor
which spewed deadly clouds of radioactive dust over Russia,
neighbouring Belarus and much of Europe is still being lived out
by thousands.
Many areas still have dangerously high levels of radiation.
Stories of death, illness and poverty pepper conversations. Old
women and men have returned to contaminated ghost towns after
becoming unhappy with government efforts to resettle them.
The staff, who battle with the stigma of contamination for living
in the region and face months of unpaid wages, say the site is
best left in the hands of caring scientists who monitor
ever-changing levels of radioactivity and still strive to make
the area finally safe.
Beer-drinking, smoking tourists, hoping for an adrenaline-boosted
thrill by meandering around pinewoods and fields which bloom once
again around the encased reactor are not the order of the day,
they say.
"There are more interesting places in Ukraine where you can get a
trip on a boat, or get drunk," Dmytruk said.
TACKY CHERNOBYL T-SHIRTS
Agencies have been offering day-trips to Chernobyl for $250 (172
pounds) a couple, including lunch -- but make sure you are over
18, are not a hippie and do not want to make a tour of the
souvenir shops before you leave.
Six people have signed up so far -- teachers hoping photographs
and first-hand stories would educate their children.
For Dmytruk and colleague Rimma, long-standing workers for
Ukraine's Emergencies Ministry in Chernobyl, the idea of tourists
having a good time where people perished makes them shudder. They
advise a visit to a adventure park instead.
And T-shirts and caps with the Chernobyl name emblazoned on the
front seem a little tacky.
"The agencies say we should make T-shirts and caps with Chernobyl
written on them, but surely they would be bad luck," said Rimma,
a bubbly Russian woman dressed in a U.S. camouflage jacket.
"It's like buying a T-shirt with the name of the Buchenwald
concentration camp on it."
She is equally dismissive of an idea by the United Nations to
promote eco-tourism. The world body described much of the
so-called restricted area as an "extraordinary environmental
opportunity" in a report earlier this year.
"The natural environment has returned there," Kalman Mizsei, an
official of the U.N. Development Program (UNDP) told a news
conference in February.
"It is a huge area that is very natural, with lots of wildlife
and unique types of animals."
Rimma calls the idea "stupid" and launches into a joke with her
colleague, Dmytruk.
"Hippies are not going to be allowed in. They'll want to lie on
the grass and then smoke it," Dmytruk laughed, adding seriously
that walking in the grounds without permission could be dangerous
for those with a more adventurous spirit.
"The law does not stop adult people from visiting -- people who
are older than 18 years and who have some kind of interest in
this region...The most important thing for this region, is making
it safe."
VILLAGE VISITS
But there are those, in tiny hamlets, who would not mind seeing a
few new faces banging at their doors.
Seventy-eight-year-old Anastasiya Chikalovets, who was forced to
leave her khatta -- a small peasant house -- in 1986 returned to
the village a year later. Now 26 people live in the village, once
home to more than 1,000.
"This is the place where I was born," says Anastasiya, who is
known fondly by those patrolling the controlled area as Baba
Nastya or grandma Nastya.
"But it is sad no one comes here and people just leave, mainly
for their graves," she laughs heartily, scraping a pig's guts on
a wooden bench to make into sausages later.
"Tourists would be fun. Just come."
She says life is better in the village -- a ramshackle collection
of tiny cottages empty and often falling down -- than in the flat
her and her husband were re-settled to.
"Radiation? What radiation? It was a ploy to get money," says
Nastya, wearing a colourful scarf around her head, as she walks
off to bring some home-made moonshine.
"I took some meat to market and our pork registered a lower
radiation level than that meat which came from Kiev."
Baba Nastya would not be on the tour, Rimma says. Tourists would
have to stay on the bus at all times, although they would get the
chance to see the deserted town of Pripyat, where thousands will
never be allowed home.
Yellow water drips on to the broken tiles of what was the main
grocery shop in Pripyat, a town which stands almost in the shadow
of rector four. The toilets have been ripped out, the
refrigerators stripped bare. A small sign dangles over one of the
shelves, saying "Children's Food".
The town, now surrounded by barbed wire and watched by
checkpoints, was evacuated after the explosion. Many took what
they could, but later others have come and trashed rooms in the
search for something valuable.
Tower blocks stand empty. Apartment doors hang on hinges, the odd
boot or children's toy lie underneath shards of glass. Mattresses
with their springs showing sag in hallways and the wind screams
eerily through broken windows and bare lift shafts.
"Now tourists could come here and see the real Chernobyl...Every
person who has a child should come here and understand the
tragedy. I doubt they will," Rimma sighs.
25.04.2002 05:45, Reuters
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13 Second Chernobyl impossible - Russian nuclear official
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 25, 2002
[No dateline as received] "No human mistake can interrupt stable
and reliable work of Russian nuclear power units now," [Russian
state-run nuclear power company] Rosenergoatom president's chief
of staff and Chernobyl veteran rescuer Leonid Drach said in a
live interview with Ekho Moskvy radio. He reminded that the
Chernobyl disaster [on 26 April 1986] was mainly caused by human
mistakes.
All nuclear power units of Chernobyl type are still working,
Drach said. Owing to modernization and annual technical
maintenance, they cause no environmental damage and account for
just 0.6 per cent of environmental pollution in Russia, he said.
"As for the impact of radiation on the population, I must say
that radiation level at all Russian nuclear plants and around
them is under strict control and is within natural limits," Drach
said.
Source: Ekho Moskvy news agency, Moscow, in Russian 1115 gmt 25
Apr 02
/© BBC Monitoring
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14 Reactor's restart is further delayed
04/25/02
John Funk
Plain Dealer Reporter
FirstEnergy Corp.'s problems with the crippled Davis-Besse
Nuclear Power Station grew yesterday with a later restart date
and a formal petition to have the power plant inspected by
outside experts.
The company's top financial officers said that the rust
hole in the head of the reactor will not be repaired until at
least September and that they have arranged to buy replacement
power during the hottest days of the summer.
Previously, the company has said the reactor could be
restarted by the end of June.
The 925-megawatt reactor was shut down for refueling and
a safety inspection Feb. 16. The corrosion in the head, or lid,
of the reactor was discovered in early March.
Replacement power is costing $10 million to $15 million a
month through June and $20 million to $25 million a month in July
and August, the company said.
Because of a rate freeze, the costs cannot be passed on
to customers.
Richard Marsh, the company's chief financial officer,
said the Davis-Besse repairs are likely to cost more than the $16
million estimated earlier, but he declined to be more specific.
He said the extended shutdown and repairs could reduce earnings
for the year by as much as 11 cents per share, a penny more than
previous estimates.
Also yesterday, a coalition of 13 environmental groups
from Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania joined with the Union of
Concerned Scientists and Greenpeace to call for an independent
top-to-bottom inspection of the plant as well as a review of its
maintenance records and inspections.
In a formal petition to the NRC, the coalition asked that
the government keep the Davis-Besse reactor shut down until the
inspection is made and noted that the government had authorized
such an independent inspection in 1996 of a nuclear plant in
Connecticut.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich issued a statement in support of the
petition, saying that "missteps" at Davis-Besse led him to
conclude that an independent review was critical for the 6
million people living within 100 miles of the plant. An NRC
spokesman said the commission was aware of the petition and would
publish it in the Federal Register as required by law and attempt
to promptly address its concerns.
The NRC also late yesterday announced that FirstEnergy's
roving nuclear survey teams had found five additional radioactive
particles that got out of the plant in the clothing of
specialists assigned to the plant earlier in the month by a
contractor.
The new findings brought the number of radioactive
particles to 18, 16 of which were found in motel rooms near the
plant and in the homes of the workers in five states. Two other
particles were found in an area of the plant thought to have been
clean.
The NRC said the tiny particles did not pose a health
hazard but should not have gotten out of the plant. The agency
has a three-person team at Davis-Besse investigating how the
workers were able to leave without being detected.
The company must still submit its detailed repair plan to
the NRC. In an earlier public conference between the NRC and the
company, the government scientists and engineers made clear that
getting approval to weld a stainless steel plug into the 150-ton
lid will not be a cakewalk.
Speaking to analysts yesterday, Marsh said the repair
plan might be submitted to the NRC in the next several days.
Marsh referred to "alternatives" if the head cannot be
repaired. Previously the company has revealed it has looked at a
never-used head on a reactor in Michigan and a used head on a
shut-down reactor in California. A new head on order from Japan
will not arrive until 2004.
The purpose of the Internet conference with analysts was
to discuss the company's earnings for the first quarter.
FirstEnergy's net income for the quarter was $116
million, or 40 cents per share, compared with $98 million, or 45
cents per share, for the first quarter of 2001 - before the
company merged with New-Jersey-based GPU.
This quarter's earnings also reflected a number of
one-time charges as well as a warmer than usual winter, they
said. The per-share numbers also reflected an increase in shares
from 218 million to 293 million as a result of the GPU purchase.
Figured on a pro-forma basis - as if the GPU merger had
already been in place - last year's first-quarter earnings would
have been $111 million, or 51 cents per share, the company said.
FirstEnergy shares closed at $33.35, up 75 cents, in trading
yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange.
Contact John Funk at:
jfunk@plaind.com, 216-999-4138
© 2002 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission. © 2002
cleveland.com. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
15 Ukraine commemorates Chernobyl victims, hopes to heal radioactive
lands
AP
Related News Stories
· Chernobyl Victims Tell World: Don't Forget Us
[http://dailynews.yahoo.com/r/fcweb/World%2FUkraine/Related%20New
s%20Stories/Chernobyl%20Victims%20Tell%20World%3A%20Don%26%2339%3
Bt%20Forget%20Us/*http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid
=585&ncid=753&e=4&u=/nm/20020426/sc_nm/ukraine_chernobyl_dc_4] -
Reuters (Apr 26, 2002)
· Tourists Visit Chernobyl To Remember
[http://dailynews.yahoo.com/r/fcweb/World%2FUkraine/Related%20New
s%20Stories/Tourists%20Visit%20Chernobyl%20To%20Remember/*http://
mediaframe.yahoo.com/launch?&p=news&l=SAM&a=0,30&provider=reuters
&bw=http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/a/g/nm/%3Fu&.test=1&f=31042383&l
id=rnv-56-s.2913269,rnv-128-s.2913269,rnv-200-s.2913269,rnv-300-s
.2913269,wmv-28-s.2913264,wmv-56-s.2913265,wmv-100-s.2913268,wmv-
220-s.2913267,wmv-300-s.2913266,&t=Tourists%20Visit%20Chernobyl%2
0To%20Remember] - Reuters Video (Apr 26, 2002)
· Ukraine Appeals to World: Do Not Forget Chernobyl
[http://dailynews.yahoo.com/r/fcweb/World%2FUkraine/Related%20New
s%20Stories/Ukraine%20Appeals%20to%20World%3A%20Do%20Not%20Forget
%20Chernobyl/*http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/2
0020426/wl_nm/ukraine_chernobyl_dc_3] - Reuters (Apr 26, 2002)
· Chernobyl Survivors Mark Anniversary
[http://dailynews.yahoo.com/r/fcweb/World%2FUkraine/Related%20New
s%20Stories/Chernobyl%20Survivors%20Mark%20Anniversary/*http://st
ory.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=518&518&e=9&u=/ap/20020426
/ap_on_re_eu/chernobyl_anniversary_3] - Associated Press (Apr
26, 2002)
· Chernobyl radiation 'on the rise'
[http://dailynews.yahoo.com/r/fcweb/World%2FUkraine/Related%20New
s%20Stories/Chernobyl%20radiation%20%26%2339%3Bon%20the%20rise%26
%2339%3B/*http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_19
52000/1952437.stm] - BBC (Apr 26, 2002) More...
[http://dailynews.yahoo.com/fc/World/Ukraine/]
· A New Generation of Chernobyl Victims
[http://dailynews.yahoo.com/r/fcweb/World%2FUkraine/Feature%20Art
icles/A%20New%20Generation%20of%20Chernobyl%20Victims/*http://dw-
world.de/english/0,3367,1434_A_507120_1_A,00.html] - Deutsche
Welle (Apr 26, 2002)
Video
· Tourists Visit Chernobyl To Remember
[http://dailynews.yahoo.com/r/fcweb/World%2FUkraine/Video/Tourist
s%20Visit%20Chernobyl%20To%20Remember/*http://mediaframe.yahoo.co
m/launch?&p=news&l=SAM&a=0,30&provider=reuters&bw=http://dailynew
s.yahoo.com/h/a/g/nm/?u&.test=1&f=31042383&lid=rnv-56-s.2913269,r
nv-128-s.2913269,rnv-200-s.2913269,rnv-300-s.2913269,wmv-28-s.291
3264,wmv-56-s.2913265,wmv-100-s.2913268,wmv-220-s.2913267,wmv-300
-s.2913266,&t=Tourists%20Visit%20Chernobyl%20To%20Remember] -
Reuters Video (Apr 26, 2002) · A string of mining accidents
Thu Apr 25, 9:05 AM ET
By MARINA SYSOYEVA, Associated Press Writer KIEV, Ukraine -
Ukrainian officials and families of Chernobyl's victims on
Thursday mourned those killed and sickened by the nuclear
disaster 16 years ago, amid a government push to revive lands it
contaminated with radiation.
The Chernobyl nuclear power plant was the site of world's worst
atomic catastrophe on April 26, 1986, when its reactor No. 4
exploded and sent radioactive clouds over Europe. Vast areas of
Ukraine, Belarus and Russia suffered most. The plant was closed
down for good in 2000.
On the eve of the 16th anniversary of the accident, dozens of
lawmakers, officials, students and relatives of the victims laid
flowers under a heavy rain at a memorial to Chernobyl victims'
memorial in the capital Kiev, a soaring statue of five falling
metallic swans.
Tetiana Suprunova's husband was among first to help extinguish
the fire that broke out at the exploded reactor. "He was only 36
years old when he died of (radiation-related) diseases ... I
would not wish such a misfortune on anybody."
The requiem took place amid government plans to start rebuilding
territories around Chernobyl. All land within 30 kilometers (18
miles) of the nuclear plant was evacuated soon after the accident
and has been closed off to outsiders for years.
The first ideas came several months ago from a United Nations
(news
[http://rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/*http://search.news.yahoo.c
om/search/news?p=%22United%20Nations%22&c=&n=20&yn=c&c=news&cs=nw
] - web sites
[http://rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/*http://search.yahoo.com/bi
n/search?cs=nw&p=United%20Nations] )' report, which urged a
refocusing of international aid efforts on developing Chernobyl's
infrastructure rather than on humanitarian aid.
Volodymyr Kholosha, a government official in charge of the
Chernobyl zone, said the government's plans include economic
development and soil study and management. He said it's expected
to be approved by the parliament this year.
However, representatives of non-governmental Chernobyl victims'
groups expressed skepticism about redeveloping the isolated zone
earlier this week, stressing that victims' social needs should be
the government's first priority.
Emergency Situations Minister Vasyl Durdynets said Wednesday the
current social arrears to Chernobyl victims are 635 million
hryvna (dlrs 117 million), according to the Interfax news agency.
Budget spending for Chernobyl needs is 2.14 billion hryvna (dlrs
396 million) this year, which is 301 million hryvna (dlrs 55.5
million) more from spending in last year's budget.
Ukraine's post-Soviet government estimates that the accident
affected 3.3 million Ukrainians, including 1.5 million children.
They need special social support because of health problems or
because they were forced to evacuate their homes in the
contaminated zone.
Tens of thousands of people disabled by Chernobyl-related
illnesses suffer from insufficient health care, and 25,000
evacuated families are waiting for housing, according to
Durdynets.
(ms/adc)
Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
16 Public can expect iodine pills in the post 'by June'
Irish Newspapers -
THE long-awaited iodine tablets, part of the preventative
measures in the event of a nuclear disaster, are to be
distributed by post to each household at the beginning of June,
the Dail heard yesterday.
Health Minister Micheal Martin said the contracts for cartons and
packaging for the tablets has been awarded to DC Kavanagh Ltd in
Dublin and SonoPress Ireland Ltd in Swords.
Kelkin Ltd in Dublin already has the contract to supply the
potassium iodate tablets and it has already delivered the first
consignment of 1.5 million tablets. Labour TD Liz McManus said
iodine tablets are a doorstep election issue in her Wicklow
constituency. She said it was difficult for people to understand
why they are still waiting for the tablets after the alarm
arising from September 11.
People will be advised on how to store the tablets and all
necessary precautions associated with them, said Mr Martin.
Meanwhile, anti-nuclear campaigners will picket the British and
Japanese embassies in Dublin tomorrow in protest over an expected
shipment of plutonium to Sellafield.
The protesters claim there has been a lot of activity in recent
days at UK ports which could be used to transport nuclear fuel.
Ships are due to travel to Japan to collect plutonium which will
be returned to Sellafield for reprocessing at the MOX plant.
Geraldine Collins, Dail Correspondent
© Copyright Unison
*****************************************************************
17 Russia to change method of assessing health in areas contaminated
by radiation
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 25, 2002
Moscow, 24 April: Russia is shifting to an exposure-based concept
of assessing the health of the population in radiation-affected
territories, Russia's chief public health official, Gennadiy
Onishchenko said on the eve of the 16th anniversary of the
Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster.
Before, the medical authorities assessed only the contamination
of territories affected by the Chernobyl disaster of 26 April
1986. Last year, the State Sanitary and Epidemic Supervision
Centre conducted research into the exposure rates of the
population in the 14 constituent territories of Russia affected.
The inquiry found that 430 communities remained in areas
deserving special radiation and health monitoring.
Onishchenko said Russia was keeping a register of Chernobyl
victims, including the population of the 30-km exclusion area
around the plant and those who participated in efforts to deal
with the effects of the disaster. According to the latest
estimates, the number of such people in Russia totals 150,000.
Bryansk Region was the hardest hit...
Source: ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in English 1335 gmt 24 Apr
02
/© BBC Monitoring
*****************************************************************
18 Nevada fights nuclear dump, accepts mushroom cloud license tags
Las Vegas SUN
April 24, 2002
LAS VEGAS (AP) - As Nevada officials fight against hosting the
nation's nuclear repository, the state is offering license plates
bearing the image of a nuclear blast.
The fund-raising license plate designed to honor Nevada's atomic
past has bombed with some as ill-timed and inappropriate. Others
don't have a problem with the idea of cars with optional mushroom
cloud license plates sharing roads with tractor-trailers hauling
radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain.
"Nevada being Nevada, this is a unique subject," said Rick
Bibbero, 55, a real estate agent in Minden who won $500 with his
design for the license tag.
"You wouldn't find California trying to memorialize something
like this, but this is our past," said Bibbero, who said he's
neither for nor against the federal government's plan to entomb
77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste beneath a volcanic ridge
90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Kalynda Tilges, of Citizen Alert, an outspoken opponent of
nuclear testing and the Yucca Mountain repository, had a word for
the new multicolor license plates that bear a mushroom cloud, a
nucleus-and-atom logo for atomic energy and Albert Einstein's
formula for the theory of relativity: "Abomination."
"I would have rather seen a "Fight Yucca Mountain" license plate
with proceeds to go to fighting the dump," she said.
Tom Jacobs, spokesman for the Nevada Department of Motor
Vehicles, acknowledged some residents have had what he called "an
emotional response" to the mushroom cloud license plate design.
But the DMV also has received 322 advance requests for the new
plates, which he said are due to begin rolling off the presses
this summer.
"It's a historical fact that they used to explode nuclear bombs
in the desert," Jacobs said.
State lawmakers approved the idea last year, earmarking $25 of
the $61 custom license plate registration fee for the Nevada
Atomic Testing History Institute, a Las Vegas museum and research
center due to open next year.
"This is an important part of Nevada history, and national and
international history," said state Senate Minority Leader Dina
Titus, D-Las Vegas. She sponsored the bill and recalled little
opposition.
"I think Nevadans think testing was patriotic," Titus said. "It
was done for the good of the country during the Cold War."
The institute is expected to store, catalog and study documents
and memorabilia from the Test Site - a vast federal reservation
north of Las Vegas where nuclear testing was conducted above and
below ground from 1952 to 1992. More than 100,000 workers helped
in the development of the nation's nuclear arsenal in Nevada, and
more than 800 fell ill for their efforts.
Tilges, of Las Vegas, recalled federal assurances 50 years ago
about the safety of nuclear testing that have evolved into
programs to help so-called "downwinders" affected by nuclear
fallout and to compensate Test Site workers sickened by radiation
exposure.
"If they're talking about the legacy of the Test Site, I don't
think they should use a mushroom cloud unless they show what it
did to the people who live here and worked out there," Tilges
said. "It's not a pretty thing."
Gov. Kenny Guinn was preparing to testify Thursday before a House
subcommittee against the Yucca Mountain nuclear project. A
spokesman called the timing of the mushroom cloud license plate a
coincidence.
"We have to separate these two (issues)," Bibbero said.
"This is about the history of Nevada. Yucca Mountain is the
present and future. Some people aren't getting past that."
Doris Jackson, a saloon owner and advisory board chairwoman in
Amargosa Valley, a desert farming town just west of Yucca
Mountain, saw the mushroom cloud license plate as a way to honor
neighbors who worked at the Test Site and as a billboard for the
fight against the dump.
"I look at it as a good reminder for people to pay attention to
what's happening now," she said.
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
19 Committee OKs Nevada Waste Site
Las Vegas SUN
April 25, 2002
WASHINGTON- The House moved closer Thursday to endorsing
President Bush's decision to put a nuclear waste site into Nevada
as a committee advanced the measure despite concern about
transporting the waste.
The congressional resolution, which would overrule Nevada's
protest of the waste site, was approved 41-6 by the Energy and
Commerce Committee, prompting supporters to predict overwhelming
approval' by the full House in the coming weeks.
"It will be an overwhelming vote of support" for the waste site,
predicted Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas.
Nevada, as it is allowed under federal law, has challenged the
decision to put 77,000 tons of radioactive waste under Yucca
Mountain 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The waste will be kept
out, unless Congress later this year upholds the Bush decision.
Nevada officials have acknowledged that the battle will be drawn
in the Senate where the Democratic leadership opposes going ahead
with the waste site at this time.
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham hailed the broad support in the
House committee and added, "We know there's going to be
opposition (in the Senate). The action in the House demonstrates
the broad bipartisan support we have to move ahead."
Abraham told reporters that he remains convinced that the
scientific studies conducted so far - and others still expected
to be completed - assure the safety of storing the waste, which
will remain dangerous for more than 10,000 years, at the Yucca
site.
He said it was "a preposterous assertion" that the waste would be
safer at more than sites in 39 states - including at 103
commercial reactors and federal waste sites - than buried at a
single location under tight security.
But some Democratic critics of Yucca Mountain expressed concerns
prior to voting Thursday that too many unanswered scientific
questions remain and that transporting the waste in thousands of
truck or rail shipments would post its own security and safety
risks.
"I think we're voting somewhat blindly today," said Rep. Anna
Eshoo, D-Calif. "Unfortunately the administration has rushed
ahead on the decision."
Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said that there were 293 outstanding
scientific issues not yet resolved about the Yucca site and that
the transportation of the wastes would create "a potential mobile
Chernobyl" with trucks full of waste "leaving sites every four
hours for 24 years."
"We will have a new national nightmare," argued Markey Supporters
of the site countered that there have been thousands of shipments
of nuclear material and no accidents involving radiation releases
and that Abraham has pledged that the remaining scientific issues
would be resolved before the licensing process for the site by
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or during it.
"Developing a safe, central repository for this waste is simply
critical for the future of nuclear power," said Rep. Billy
Tauzin, the committee chairman.
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
20 UK Letters: Shut down Sellafield
Sir
The British Government recently decided not to proceed with
legislation to investigate British Nuclear Fuel's nuclear
liabilities of over £60bn. This decision was taken to allow
Sellafield Nuclear Plant to remain open and continue to be
State-run at the UK taxpayers' cost.
By removing these liabilities it is also allowing BNFL to press
ahead with the flotation of its fuel manufacturing and
international clean-up and other engineering businesses. What the
British Government fails to understand is that, at present,
BNFL's liabilities for closing down old nuclear stations and
dealing with radioactive waste now stands at a staggering £35bn.
This amount is so large that it outweighs BNFL's assets making
the company technically bankrupt.
It would seem that, despite widespread European and international
pressure and legal action taken by the Irish Government under the
UN Convention Law of the Sea Act, the British Government is still
putting economic interests before environmental and human, even
though economic figures do not justify Sellafield remaining open.
With other Nordic countries such as Finland and Norway now
following Ireland's role by considering taking legal action
against BNFL due to increased amounts of radiation in their sea
waters, the time has now come for all other European countries to
join forces. They need to launch a legal challenge under the
OSPAR Treaty to make Britain realise that Sellafield has to stop
polluting sea waters, damaging the marine environment and wasting
the UK taxpayers' money on a facility that is long past its
sell-by date.
Patrick Clarke, Castlewellan, Co Down
© Copyright Unison
*****************************************************************
21 UK: 1.1 million anti-Sellafield postcards sent
Irish Times; Apr 25, 2002
An Post sent 1.1 million 'Shut Sellafield' postcards to the UK
last night.
The cards are addressed to Prince Charles, the British Prime
Minister Mr Blair and the head of British Nuclear Fuels, Mr
Norman Askew, and urge them to shut the nuclear facility.
All Material Subject to Copyright
*****************************************************************
22 Russia: Protesters against nuclear waste imports stage Red Square
lie-in
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 25, 2002
Moscow, 25 April: The import of nuclear waste is a dirty
business, say activists of the Ekozashchita [Environmental
Protection] nature conservation group and the Youth Human Rights
Movement, who are engaged in a protest action on Red Square.
About 25 young people sporting white clothes with the inscription
No to Nuclear Waste are lying on the pavement outside the
Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower, Interfax's man on the scene reports.
The Russian authorities have decided to import nuclear waste even
though 90 per cent of Russians oppose this, Ekozashchita leaders
said in the course of the protest.
Police officers are trying to oust the protesters from Red
Square.
Source: Interfax news agency, Moscow, in English 1118 gmt 25 Apr
02
/© BBC Monitoring
*****************************************************************
23 Lawmakers question safety of nuclear waste shipments to Nevada
Las Vegas SUN
April 25, 2002
WASHINGTON (AP) - Lawmakers whose constituents live near
potential shipping routes for Nevada-bound radioactive waste
raised concerns Thursday about the Yucca Mountain project. "I
don't know that we will have dealt with the problem of spent rods
... if we shove it in a mountain and hope nothing happens to it
on the way out," Rep. Sue Kelly, R-N.Y., said at a House
Transportation Committee hearing on Yucca Mountain.
Kelly's district includes the Indian Point nuclear plant north of
New York City. Truck shipments from other plants in the Northeast
also would pass through her district, according to preliminary
Energy Department analyses.
Opponents of the project got a warmer reception in Thursday's
hearing than they did at another committee hearing last week. But
Nevada officials opposed to the Yucca Mountain project conceded
there was little hope they could prevail in the House of
Representatives.
Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, Transportation Committee chairman,
agreed that House approval of the Nevada site was likely. But,
Young said, "It seems that we are rather hastily coming to that
conclusion before rethinking the serious issue of
transportation."
Among other concerns, Young said the containers that will hold
the spent fuel rods from nuclear power plants "haven't been
proved to the extent they should."
He also chastised committee members who want to rid their
districts of radioactive wastes.
"We have members who have nuclear waste in their backyard and
don't want it there," Young said at the start of a hearing on
transporting wastes to Yucca Mountain. "Wake up. If it's not safe
there, what makes it safe in Yucca Mountain?"
Young said the United States should explore recycling the spent
fuel rods instead of burying bury the nation's nuclear waste
beneath a desert mountain 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
But Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., a Transportation committee member
whose district includes the shuttered Zion plant north of
Chicago, said the continued presence of radioactive waste near
Lake Michigan threatens the environment and also leaves the area
susceptible to terrorist attack.
"Support for Yucca Mountain is the environmental and homeland
defense vote this year," Kirk said.
Wastes from Zion would be among the shipments that day after day
would pass through Salt Lake City, Cheyenne, Wyo., and other
cities large and small as it heads by truck or train for Nevada,
according to Nevada's transportation adviser.
The shipments - and the risk of accident or terrorist attack -
would continue for at least 24 years and as long as 38 years,
said Robert Halstead, the transportation adviser.
There is no way around it: Getting radioactive waste from nuclear
power plants around the country to Yucca Mountain requires
passing through major population centers on truck, rail or barge.
The Bush administration is looking at possible routes through as
many as 45 states. Opponents say everything under consideration
puts millions of people at risk.
Radioactive waste would cross the Tappan Zee Bridge in
Westchester County, north of New York City, or pass beneath it by
barge. Trucks or trains would go through suburbs of Chicago, St.
Louis and Kansas City. The burgeoning suburbs east of Los Angeles
sit astride major transportation routes that lead to Nevada.
Supporters of the plan to bury and seal the waste in Yucca
Mountain say highly dangerous materials already are transported
safely every day. They say opponents are trying to scare the
public.
Almost every time a rail accident occurs, Yucca opponents try to
broaden their base. Following Tuesday's deadly crash of a
commuter train and freight train in Southern California, Rep. Jim
Gibbons, R-Nev., said, "The death toll and environmental damage
that could result from an accident shipping high-level nuclear
waste could be much more devastating."
Opponents also have pointed to last year's fire in a Baltimore
train tunnel that burned hotter and for longer than radioactive
waste containers are designed to withstand.
The Energy Department says no routes have been selected.
The department's final environmental review of the Yucca Mountain
project has a detailed study of potential routes that uses the
interstate highway system and transcontinental rail lines. The
review also includes the possibility of using barges to ship
waste from plants with no rail access using such waterways as
Chesapeake Bay, the Hudson River and Lake Michigan.
The Energy Department would prefer to use rail for most shipments
to Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. It estimates
that sending 77,000 tons of radioactive waste to Nevada over 24
years would require 10,700 shipments if rail were the primary
means of travel. If trucks carried the load, five times as many
shipments would be needed.
On the Net: Yucca Mountain Project: http://www.ymp.gov
[http://www.ymp.gov] Nevada opposition:
http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste [http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste]
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
24 Today's topic: Nuclear waste.
Thursday, April 25, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
COLUMN: Steve Sebelius
The bipartisan big screw
Before you throw the newspaper to the floor in disgust, read on.
This isn't your typical nuclear waste column.
Many readers have written to ask why the Republicans get more of
the blame for foisting the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump on
Nevada than do the Democrats. After all, they note, a Democrat
wrote the original Screw Nevada bill, and a Democratic Congress
passed it.
And while we in the pundit class are usually quick to note that
Yucca Mountain has progressed at warp speed under President
George W. Bush, while it languished during former President
Clinton's eight years in office, the readers do have a point. As
proof, look no further than Tuesday's vote of the House Energy
and Air Quality Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce
Committee. There, a bipartisan majority of 22 representatives --
Democrats and Republicans alike -- voted to override Gov. Kenny
Guinn's veto of Bush's designation of the dump.
The pro-Yucca voters included Democrats Rick Boucher of Virginia,
Ralph Hall of Texas, Thomas Sawyer of Ohio, Henry Waxman of
California, Ted Strickland of Ohio, and Tom Barrett of Wisconsin.
(In fairness, the only two no votes were Democrats, Edward Markey
of Massachusetts and Bill Luther of Minnesota.)
Today, perhaps even as you read this, the full House Energy and
Commerce Committee will take up the Guinn veto, and a similar
bipartisan majority is expected to handily vote to override.
Republican politicians such as Guinn, U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons and
state Sen. Jon Porter make the point that the Yucca Mountain
issue pits Nevada against the majority of the rest of the states,
whether their delegations be Republican, Democrat or both. And
they're right, as Tuesday's vote clearly shows. Before this
battle is over, we're apt to see a great many Democrats eagerly
join with the screw Nevada crowd.
• While we're on the subject of Yucca Mountain, the movement
against the dump is experiencing some infighting. It's probably
to be expected in a multi-front war, where lobbyists, admen and
politicians collide. After the first flight of anti-Yucca
Mountain ads began airing in Vermont, at least one Capitol Hill
insider was heard to wonder what Brown &Partners, the Las Vegas
ad firm hired to press Nevada's case, was contributing to the
fight. After all, the Vermont ad was produced by Greer &Margolis,
targeted by U.S. Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign, and paid for
by the Nevada Protection Fund.
Mark Brown, the president of Brown &Partners, says his company
subcontracted the work to Greer, just as they have used other
companies to generate grass-roots opposition to the dump in other
states. "Where we can, we're doing the work ourselves," Brown
says. "We're not foolish enough to feel we can go into these
other states and have the contacts that we have in Nevada."
What they are doing, Brown says, is designing and placing
print-media ads in newspapers, as well as making contact with
reporters and columnists in targeted states, producing press kits
and serving as a central clearinghouse. They buy TV time, place
letters to the editor in newspapers that have come out in favor
of Yucca, and the like.
But, Brown admits, the efforts can be chaotic, since they're
being directed by Guinn, Reid and Ensign based on their
perceptions of which senators can be persuaded to take Nevada's
side of the fight. So far, no one can point to a success story in
the form of a previously pro-Yucca lawmaker converting to oppose
the dump. "You've got a lot of people going in a lot of different
directions," he says.
Still, Brown adds, he's coordinating with Guinn's staff daily, as
well as Nuclear Projects Agency chief Bob Loux, who is the
paymaster for the ad and legal campaigns against the dump. He
talks to chiefs of staff for Reid and Ensign several times each
week, he says, to make sure everyone is on the same page. "It's a
pretty coordinated effort," he says.
• Finally, the Public Utilities Commission is trying to dismiss a
lawsuit Nevada Power filed in Carson City, contesting the PUC's
decision to cut in half the deferred energy rate hike the utility
is seeking. The company should have returned to the PUC to ask
for a re-hearing before heading to court to challenge the
commission's ruling, attorneys argued.
But even if that's customary, what are the chances that the PUC
would reverse itself and grant the utility what it's seeking?
Perhaps a unanimous mea culpa: "Gee, we're sorry. We were
confused. Of course you can have the whole $922 million." That's
about as likely as Sierra Pacific Chairman Mark Ruelle throwing a
surprise birthday party for Consumer Advocate Tim Hay.
Whether Nevada Power was justified in running up the charges --
the key issue in the rate increase fight -- was destined to end
up before a judge. The company shouldn't be slammed for taking it
there. Now, the court should rule once and for all.
Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist. His
column runs Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at 383-0283
or by e-mail at ssebelius@reviewjournal.com.
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002
*****************************************************************
25 Yucca Mountain testimony today
"I'm pleased that Senator Ensign and Mr. Porter have recognized
my active leadership on this issue." DARIO HERRERA, CLARK COUNTY
COMMISSIONER, ON BEING ADDED TO WITNESS LIST
Thursday, April 25, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Herrera added to witness list for hearing
By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- A congressional hearing today on nuclear waste
transportation will feature a political sideshow: competing
candidates for Southern Nevada's newest seat in the House of
Representatives.
An 11th-hour change to the witness list places Democrat Dario
Herrera with Republican Jon Porter to present Nevada's case: that
spent nuclear fuel is too dangerous to be shipped safely to a
planned repository at Yucca Mountain.
Herrera, the chairman of the Clark County Commission, scrambled
this week to be included on a list that included rival Porter, a
state senator from Henderson.
Gov. Kenny Guinn, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., and Reps. Shelley
Berkley, D-Nev., and Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., will testify in what is
likely the state's final chance to persuade House members to put
the brakes on the Yucca Mountain Project.
As the Transportation Committee meets, the House Energy and
Commerce Committee is scheduled to vote on a resolution to
override Guinn's nuclear waste veto and approve Yucca Mountain,
100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, for a repository.
If the Energy and Commerce Committee approves the measure, the
full House could vote to override Guinn's veto next week.
Gibbons, a Porter ally, said late Wednesday he hoped the politics
would not distract from Nevada's message against Yucca Mountain.
"I hope Mr. Herrera can bring in new and informative information
that is going to be helpful," Gibbons said. "If it's just
another, 'Oh, me too,' that is not going to be helpful."
To get himself added, Herrera appealed to House Minority Leader
Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., who in turn asked the ranking Democrat
on the House Transportation Committee, Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., to
have the Nevadan put on the witness list.
"Gephardt's people called the Democratic staff and said, 'Get
Herrera in there,' " a committee staff member said on condition
of anonymity. The aide said Transportation Committee Chairman Don
Young, R-Alaska, could have refused to seat Herrera, "but it
would have raised a big stink, and it's not something he wanted
to get into."
Some Republicans privately fumed at Herrera's move, while
Democrats said the County Commission chairman had as much right
to speak as Porter.
Young invited Porter to give a boost to his campaign.
At a news event with Ensign, Porter said he encouraged Young to
allow Herrera to speak. "It's important we send the message that
we're working together," he said.
"I know Jon and Dario are in the middle of a heated campaign
right now, but it's time to show unity in the state, and not time
to bicker," Ensign said.
"I'm pleased that Senator Ensign and Mr. Porter have recognized
my active leadership on this issue and realize it would be better
for our fight to hear what Clark County has done to study this
important issue," Herrera said.
The maneuvering by Clark County politicians became too much to
bear for a leader of Nye County, where Yucca Mountain is located.
Nye County Commission Chairman Jeff Taguchi said he went through
channels to present his county's story at the hearing but could
not gain an invitation to testify.
He said he was unhappy when Porter was invited. When he heard
that Herrera had been added, he exploded.
"This is literally a slap in the face," Taguchi said. "I know
that Senator Porter and Herrera will run against each other, but
this is politicizing a significant issue to Nye County. This is
offensive."
Taguchi said 40,000 people who live in Nye County often are
overlooked though they will be most directly affected by the
nuclear waste repository.
"We are left with limited opportunity not just to testify but to
get national recognition for the plight we have," he said.
Taguchi planned to attend the hearing. "But I will be sitting in
the back," he said.
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002
*****************************************************************
26 NEVADA OFFICIALS WATCHFUL: Nuclear waste panel to change
Thursday, April 25, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
State hopes new members will continue critical approach to Yucca
repository
By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- President Bush is weighing nominees to fill five
seats on the prestigious science board that watchdogs nuclear
waste repository efforts at Yucca Mountain.
Terms expired Friday for five members of the Nuclear Waste
Technical Review Board, including its chairman, Jared Cohon,
president of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
One of the panelists, chemical engineer John W. Arendt, 80, died
last weekend at home in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The remaining board
members whose terms have ended will continue to serve until
successors are named, board spokeswoman Karyn Severson said.
Appointees to the 11-person panel, who serve part time, do not
need to be confirmed by the Senate.
Nevada leaders are watching the appointment process closely for
possible changes in the board's focus as Bush puts his stamp on
it.
Up to now, state officials have found themselves in sync with the
board's tough assessments of the Energy Department's work at
Yucca Mountain, where Bush wants to establish a repository for
77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.
"In our view the review board has been one of the few objective
(bodies) looking at the site. We find ourselves aligned with
almost all their criticisms of it," said Bob Loux, director of
Nevada's nuclear waste project office.
The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board is the body that
reported in January it had "limited confidence" in DOE's
estimates of how a repository would perform because the
department's technical work is "weak to moderate at this time."
That report has been widely quoted by critics of the Yucca
Mountain program.
The board also is propelling the Energy Department to examine a
"low-temperature" repository design to reduce intense heat that
will be generated by decaying nuclear waste over thousands of
years. The heat could speed corrosion of waste containers and
speed the escape of radioactive materials into the mountain, the
board believes.
Gov. Kenny Guinn urged Bush in a letter last October to reappoint
board members rather than name new ones.
"It is critical these members be retained so their knowledge and
experience can be relied upon for independent and unbiased review
of the project," Guinn wrote.
Likewise, Clark County Commissioners Dario Herrera and Myrna
Williams said they feared possible bias among new members and a
lag in the board's ability to inform Congress "until new members
are brought up to speed on the issue."
In a letter to Bush in March, they called for board members to be
reappointed at least until the Energy Department files a
repository license application with the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, expected near the end of 2004.
Besides Cohon and Arendt, the board members whose terms have
expired are:
--Donald D. Runnels, a geochemist and hydrochemist who is a
professor emeritus at the University of Colorado.
--Alberto A. Sagues, a corrosion and materials engineering expert
who is a professor at the University of South Florida.
--Jeffrey Wong, a deputy director at the California Environmental
Protection Agency whose expertise includes risk assessments.
All board members whose terms are expiring were appointed by
President Clinton. Cohon is not seeking reappointment, but
Runnels, Sagues and Wong have expressed interest in continuing,
officials said.
Board members earn $500 a day to a maximum $60,000 a year.
The White House is reviewing a list of possible nominees
developed by the National Academy of Sciences. The list, which
has not been made public, contains 20 names including those of
current board members, said Kevin Crowley, director of the
academy's Board of Radioactive Waste Management.
The academy forwarded nominations on March 15 to John Marburger,
director of the White House Office of Science and Technology
Policy.
Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board appointees can't be
affiliated with the Energy Department, any of the national
laboratories, or DOE contractors working on high-level
radioactive waste or spent nuclear fuel.
Nominees are to be selected "solely on the basis of established
records of distinguished service" in a science or engineering
field, according to the 1987 law that created the panel.
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002
*****************************************************************
27 Sisters target Yucca Mountain Project
Sisters Lilina Lucchese, 11, and Analise Lucchese, 10, sit in
front of the Las Vegas home where they sold lemonade April 13 to
raise money for the Nevada Protection Fund. Photo by Amy Beth
Bennett.
Thursday, April 25, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Preteen girls join the fight against high-level nuclear waste
dump
By LORA HINES
SPECIAL TO THE REVIEW-JOURNAL
Lilina and Analise Lucchese heard Gov. Kenny Guinn's call for
help to fight the Yucca Mountain Project and acted.
Lilina, 11, and Analise, 10, sold lemonade on April 13 to
neighbors and passers-by to raise money for the Nevada Protection
Fund during a neighborhood garage sale in the Peccole Ranch area.
They raised $92, which includes $20 each sister donated.
With the help of their parents, Lisa and Dave Lucchese, the girls
sold more than five gallons of lemonade.
"One guy came up and said, 'I don't want any lemonade. Here's the
money,' and gave me $5," Analise said.
Lilina said Yucca Mountain news reports inspired the sisters to
raise money for the fund, which was established to pay for the
legal and public relations battle against the federal
government's effort to ship high-level nuclear waste to Nevada.
The girls kept track of donations to the fund and decided they
could contribute, too, Lisa Lucchese said.
She challenged her daughters, who are home-schooled, to come up
with an idea.
Lilina and Analise spent hours researching Yucca Mountain,
located 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The more they learned
about nuclear waste disposal plans, the more they became
concerned for their lives and those of relatives living thousands
of miles away.
"We were worried that something could happen as (nuclear waste)
was being transported here from other states," Lilina said. "We
have family members in Indiana and anything could happen to
them."
The sisters wanted to educate others about possible health
hazards. They created an exhibit, which they displayed on their
lemonade stand, and designed handouts with names and addresses of
the state's congressional delegation to push for a write-in
campaign.
After the lemonade sale, the pair sent their donation to the
Nevada Protection Fund and wrote to U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley,
D-Nev., in support of her fight against the Yucca Mountain
Project. Berkley recently called the girls, expressing her thanks
on the family's answering machine.
"This is one of the more terrific, more heartwarming stories to
come out of Yucca Mountain," said Michael O'Donovan, Berkley's
spokes- man.
Amy Spanbauer, spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev.,
also congratulated the girls, saying: "We welcome all the efforts
every Nevadan, young and old, has made to this cause," she said.
"They should be commended for their commitment."
Guinn's spokesman, Greg Bortolin, said the girls' fund-raising
effort was wonderful.
"Everybody is thrilled," he said. "What this is all about is for
our children."
Lilina said she and her sister know that they have a tough fight
ahead and that support for the project is strong. "You try to
help as much as you can," she said.
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002
*****************************************************************
28 Routes to Yucca reconsidered
-- The Washington Times
April 24, 2002
By Tom Ramstack
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Federal officials are re-examining their plan to ship nuclear
waste to the new Yucca Mountain storage site through major
cities, including Washington and Baltimore.
The shipments to the storage facility in the Nevada desert would
include 312 rail cars that could pass along the CSX Corp. tracks
that run beside Washington's L'Enfant Plaza, only blocks from the
Capitol. Other shipments could run through a main rail yard on
the east side of Baltimore.
When loaded, each of the casks that contain waste from nuclear
power plants at Calvert Cliffs in Maryland and North Anna in
Virginia would carry up to 12 tons of highly radioactive
material.
A map of "preliminary routes" chosen by the Energy Department
shows that the nuclear waste would travel by rail through the
Washington and Baltimore areas and by truck near Baltimore and
Richmond.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials said their plans for
transporting the nuclear waste were prepared before the September
11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
"We are doing a top-to-bottom review of all of our security
requirements, which includes a review of transportation cask
vulnerabilities to terrorism," spokeswoman Sue Gagner said. "The
whole top-to-bottom review we are doing is a result of the
September 11 attack."
A hearing on the safety of the nuclear-waste shipments is
scheduled for tomorrow before the House Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee. Congress is trying to decide whether to
override Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn's April 8 veto of a federal plan
to store the waste in his home state. The Republican governor
says the risks of transporting the radioactive material are too
great. President Bush has approved the shipments.
The U.S. Conference of Mayors expressed concern about the
shipments passing through cities in a Feb. 22 letter to Mr. Bush.
The shipments are scheduled to begin in 2010 and continue for the
next 24 years, according to an environmental-impact statement
released by the Department of Energy in February. Among the
approximately 175 shipments per year, about 45 would be made by
truck and 130 by rail.
A major concern of critics is that terrorists could use the casks
containing the radioactive material as ready-made "dirty bombs."
Explosives planted along track beds or armor-piercing missiles
could rupture the casks in populated areas, spreading deadly
radiation over a wide area, they say.
The casks are made primarily of steel and lead with mixtures of
other compounds intended to reinforce their durability.
Among the problems is maintaining the secrecy of schedules and
routes.
The truck shipments can be kept secret more easily than rail
shipments because of the many roads they can follow. But they
carry greater risk of accidents because of other vehicles on the
roads.
"Our preferred shipping alternative is by rail," said Joe Davis,
Department of Energy spokesman. "We would like to ship 90 percent
of all the waste that can go to Yucca Mountain by rail."
Trains, however, must follow routes set by the alignment of
tracks, which include trips through large cities such as
Washington.
Mr. Davis downplayed concerns the casks would rupture.
Even if terrorists could determine which of many unmarked trucks
or rail cars carried the nuclear wastes, they would have to elude
armed escorts and would need to penetrate the reinforced casks
designed to be impenetrable, he said.
Mr. Davis called the risks of a successful terrorist attack
"remote at best."
"The casks we ship the wastes in have been tested extensively,"
he said.
During the tests, scale-model versions of the casks were hit by
trains at 80 mph, rammed into concrete walls at 80 mph, dropped
onto hard surfaces, dropped onto a spike, submerged in water and
exposed to fire of more than 2,000 degrees.
"In every instance, they have survived without the breach of a
cask," Mr. Davis said.
But critics of the federal transportation plan say the tests have
failed to consider terrorism realistically.
Bob Halstead, transportation adviser to the Nevada Agency for
Nuclear Projects, said he will testify tomorrow that a 1998 test
at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland shows that an
armor-piercing anti-tank TOW missile could blast a hole in even
the strongest of nuclear-waste transportation casks.
The missile cut a 4- to 6-inch diameter hole in a rail cask, he
said. The smaller truck casks are even more vulnerable.
A TOW missile penetrating a nuclear-waste storage cask "could
cause 3,000 to 18,000 latent cancer fatalities" in an average
urban area, Mr. Halstead said in testimony submitted to the House
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. "Cleanup and
recovery costs would exceed $10 billion."
Nathan Naylor, spokesman for Sen. Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat
who opposes the Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste shipment plan, calls
the armor-piercing TOW missiles "a very sophisticated weapon but
one that is very commonly available on the black market."
He also said any tests conducted on the casks used only computer
simulations or scale models that were no more than half the
actual size of the casks.
A consultant's report prepared for Nevada said the casks would
have failed if they were exposed to the 1,500-degree heat of the
fire caused by a derailment of chemical-carrying rail cars in a
Baltimore tunnel last summer.
The transportation casks will vary in size from about 24 tons for
the kinds carried by trucks to up to 140 tons for the largest
casks carried by rail.
The protective casks will take up most of the weight to be
transported. A 24-ton cask, for example, may carry less than 2
tons of radioactive material. A 120-ton rail cask would carry
about 10 tons of spent radioactive fuel.
*****************************************************************
29 Nuclear waste to Nevada would pass through major cities
Las Vegas SUN
April 24, 2002
WASHINGTON (AP) - There is no way around it: Getting radioactive
waste from nuclear power plants around the country to a Nevada
repository requires passing through major population centers on
truck, rail or barge.
The Bush administration is looking at possible routes through as
many as 45 states. Opponents say everything under consideration
puts millions of people at risk in case of accidents or terrorist
attack.
Radioactive waste would cross the Tappan Zee Bridge in
Westchester County, north of New York City, or pass beneath it by
barge. Trucks or trains would go through the suburbs of Chicago,
St. Louis and Kansas City. The burgeoning suburbs east of Los
Angeles sit astride major transportation routes that lead to
Nevada.
Supporters of the plan to bury and seal the waste in Yucca
Mountain say highly dangerous materials already are transported
safely every day. They say opponents are trying to scare the
public.
Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn and other foes plan to testify at a House
Transportation subcommittee hearing Thursday. They want to
highlight what they see as disasters-in-waiting if Congress gives
the go-ahead to transport nuclear waste to Nevada.
"A terrorist attack or accident would release radioactive
materials from the cask that would prove disastrous to the
environment and human health and cost billions of dollars to try
to clean up," said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev.
Almost every time a rail accident occurs, Yucca opponents try to
broaden their base. After Tuesday's deadly crash of a commuter
train and freight train in Southern California, Rep. Jim Gibbons,
R-Nev., said, "The death toll and environmental damage that could
result from an accident shipping high-level nuclear waste could
be much more devastating."
Opponents also have pointed to last year's fire in a Baltimore
train tunnel that burned hotter and for longer than radioactive
waste containers are designed to withstand.
The Energy Department says no routes have been selected.
The department's final environmental review of the Yucca Mountain
project has a detailed study of potential routes that uses the
interstate highway system and transcontinental rail lines. In
addition, the review includes the possibility of using barges to
ship waste from plants with no rail access using such waterways
as Chesapeake Bay, the Hudson River and Lake Michigan.
The Energy Department would prefer to use rail for most shipments
to Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. It estimates
that sending 77,000 tons of radioactive waste to Nevada over 24
years would require 10,700 shipments if rail were the primary
means of travel. If trucks carried most of the load, there would
be five times as many shipments.
Robert Halstead, Nevada's transportation adviser, said the truck
scenario is the only feasible transportation plan because there
is no rail access to Yucca Mountain. Building a new line would
cost more than $1 billion, he said.
Nevada officials also question the number of shipments. Yucca
Mountain could accept no more than 77,000 tons of waste under
current law. But there will be 42,000 more tons of waste at
nuclear plants by 2034, when shipments are scheduled to end. The
Energy Department's environmental review of Yucca Mountain
includes an analysis of thousands more shipments ending in 2048.
Congress would have to authorize those.
In testimony to lawmakers last week, Energy Secretary Spencer
Abraham said Yucca opponents were mounting a desperate campaign.
"I believe that simply by incanting the words 'transportation of
nuclear waste,' opponents are hoping they can incite public fear,
without any basis in fact," Abraham said.
Nuclear waste shipments would make up just a tiny fraction of
annual radioactive material shipments and an even smaller share
of all the hazardous waste shipments in the United States,
Abraham said.
And he cited another reason why he thinks the public will reject
opponents' transportation concerns: The more than 161 million
people who live within 75 miles of a nuclear plant would rather
have the waste stored elsewhere.
No routes will be chosen until Congress approves the plan, and
then the government will have at least eight years to complete
its plan as well as test the safety of the containers that will
hold the radioactive waste, Abraham said.
Abraham's department already has had disputes with states through
which radioactive shipments have passed. In Missouri last year,
through which officials expect 40 percent of Nevada-bound
shipments will travel, Gov. Bob Holden complained that the Energy
Department scheduled a shipment of spent nuclear fuel from
Germany to pass through St. Louis during rush hour and just
outside the baseball stadium in Kansas City during a Royals game.
Department officials also had said the shipment would go through
Iowa, not Missouri, Rep. Karen McCarthy, D-Mo., said.
"I remain concerned about the movement of materials," said
McCarthy, who voted in a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee
Tuesday to proceed with the project.
On the Net: Yucca Mountain Project: http://www.ymp.gov
[http://www.ymp.gov] Nevada opposition:
http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste [http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste]
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
30 Train accidents up markedly last year, federal figures show
KRT Wire | 04/24/ 2002 |
Knight Ridder Washington Bureau
Washington Bureau [http://www.krwashington.com]
Posted on Wed, Apr. 24, 2002
By SETH BORENSTEIN
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Train accidents jumped 15 percent in the past three
years, troubling federal rail safety experts who suspect lax
maintenance may be a factor.
Derailments caused by faulty tracks - suspected in last
Thursday's Amtrak Auto Train derailment in Florida - are up
especially sharply. That accident, coupled with the head-on fatal
collision of two trains in California on Tuesday, and pending
plans to ship by rail most of the nation's nuclear waste to Yucca
Mountain, Nev., are focusing attention on rail safety.
According to federal figures analyzed by Knight Ridder
Newspapers, the number of train derailments in 2001 was the
highest since 1985.
Overall, 2001 was the worst safety year in at least a decade in
14 categories, including rear-end collisions, accidents caused by
faulty equipment and crashes with cars. The year 2000 was the
worst in five categories.
"Is it a concern to this industry? Of course it is," said Charles
E. Dettmann, executive vice president for safety of the
Association of American Railroads, the industry's Washington
lobby.
Dettmann described the recent accident increases as "small," when
compared to dramatic declines in rail accidents over the longer
haul of the past 25 years.
"Yes, we have inched up (in accidents and derailments) albeit
from the lowest point in history from 1996 to 1997," Dettmann
said. "Three or four innings doesn't make a game."
Dramatic increases in rail traffic help explain the recent rise
in accidents, especially derailments, which are up 32 percent
since 1998. But after adjusting for added traffic, derailments
are still up sharply. Accidents - a category that includes
collisions, explosions, car crashes and other mishaps - are up,
too.
To explain the increases, Warren Flatau, a spokesman for the
Federal Railroad Administration in Washington, and others
suggested maintenance problems.
"We've seen evidence in some cases that some railroads have done
exactly that, that they have deferred maintenance," Flatau told
Knight Ridder Newspapers. He concurred with the railroad
association's Dettmann that "on balance, year-to-year, there has
been improvement" in rail safety since the 1970s.
Bob Halstead, a transportation consultant for Nevada, which is
fighting the nuclear waste shipments, also noted economic
squeezes.
"The railroads have tried to put the pressure on their unions,
they've cut back personnel, they've basically overloaded people,"
he said.
Unions say the number of union rail maintenance workers is half
what it was 20 years ago.
"The reality is that our forces are stretched pretty thin," said
Rick Inclima, director of safety for the Brotherhood of
Maintenance Way Employees, a national union based in Southfield,
Mich.
Dettmann said workers are being replaced by high-tech sensors and
equipment that do the job better.
He said most accidents are minor, occurring in side yards and at
slow speeds. Statistics show, however, that accidents on main
lines and at higher speeds in 2001 were the worst in a decade.
The big safety improvements in the 1980s followed deregulations
that made owning railroads more profitable. That freed up the
industry to invest more money in new track, training, equipment
and technology, Dettmann said.
Now, there are no easy safety improvements left, he said, no
"low-hanging fruit."
ACCIDENT STATISTICS
States with most train accidents (not including highway grade
crossings), 1995-2001:
Texas: 1805
Illinois: 1694
California: 992
New York: 787
Pennsylvania: 710
Iowa: 604
Ohio: 601
Nebraska: 589
Kansas: 556
Minnesota: 545
Source: Federal Railroad Administration
*****************************************************************
31 Brian Greenspun: Danger on the tracks
Las Vegas SUN
April 25, 2002
Brian Greenspun is editor of the Las Vegas Sun.
I AM NOT GOING to talk about Yucca Mountain.
Not that I have said all there is to say on the subject. On the
contrary, there is so much more to say and do before we wake up
the rest of America to this madness being perpetrated by the
nuclear power companies and their accomplices in the Bush
administration. But all that will have to wait for another day
because right now we have to talk about train safety.
I don't know how many Las Vegans ride passenger trains anymore,
but it is still a preferred method of travel on the East Coast,
where literally millions of people ride the rails between Boston
and Washington annually. As an aside, if there were passenger
service with the speed and comfort of the Metroliner between Las
Vegas and Los Angeles, we would not be in quite the fix we find
ourselves trying to get the bulk of our visitors to and fro with
a minimum of aggravation.
Here's the question of the day for the National Transportation
and Safety Board: Why was a regional commuter train carrying 300
passengers going one way on the very same track upon which a
mile-long freight train was traveling in the opposite direction?
When they figure that one out, they will have at least one
explanation to tell the families of the two people who died and
the 265 who were injured, some very badly. I suppose when the
government uncovers the reasons for the mishap it will also
discover how tracks could become misaligned in Florida enough so
that an Amtrak Auto Train would fly off the rails, killing four
people. That's two deadly accidents in less than a week.
What is particularly unnerving about the Metrolink accident is
that both trains were on the same track and nobody -- other than
the engineer of the passenger train who saw disaster coming and
stopped his train to warn the passengers -- knew it was
happening. Answering the question of a reporter the other day,
one of the federal government's spokesmen said that we have known
about the need to know what is on the tracks and in which
direction it is going for a long time. In fact, we were told that
a decision had been made to fix the problem close to 15 years ago
but that the plan had not yet been implemented. We are, however,
testing a program that should be able to give us an early warning
system.
Does that sound as preposterous to you as it does to the rest of
us who tried to comprehend the meaning of what we had just heard?
We have known about the problem for 15 years and nothing has yet
been done? Who's in charge of this train business anyway? The
government, you say.
Let me make sure I understand this. Trains have been around for
going on two centuries. The experts and everyone else understand
the basics of physics that suggest that there is only so much
room in a given space -- the train tracks -- and when two objects
occupy that same space traveling at high rates of speed toward
each other, the result can only be disaster. How many times does
this type of calamity have to happen before the responsible
authority fixes the problem?
I said I wasn't going to talk about Yucca Mountain but I never
said anything about nuclear waste traveling across this country
on trains. For those of you who saw my mini-debate with Bob List
on Channel 3 last Sunday, you will remember his insistence that
almost all of the high-level nuke waste would travel to Nevada on
trains which, he emphasized, had a superior safety record.
That's what the nuclear industry is saying, too. What a
coincidence!
Anyway, List had no sooner said that accidents did not happen on
trains when this head-on collision outside of Los Angeles made a
fibber out of him. Of course, no one believed what he said anyway
because we all know that accidents do happen and they always
happen when they are least expected.
Train safety was List's only good argument and that died along
with those passengers less than two days after our former
governor-turned turncoat spoke those words.
Can you imagine if it hadn't been people but plutonium that was
traveling on that train? In one of the unbreakable casks that the
government hasn't yet made and which we all know will break as
soon as they have the chance? What do you think the headlines
would have been on that one?
"Los Angeles evacuated because of 'impossible' train crash."
"Hundreds dead, thousands feared poisoned by nuke spill?"
"Federal government says 'too bad' to families of dead; cites
national interest and patriotism as reasons for needless deaths."
Take your choice, they are all bad. And they are all unnecessary.
I know the House of Representatives is hellbent on making
President George W. Bush's decision to make Nevada the fall guy
look like an overwhelming national choice, but this fight ain't
over quite yet. A few more "impossible" accidents and maybe an
earthquake or two and all bets will be off.
Until then, let Harry Reid and John Ensign know that you are
pulling for them. And support Gov. Kenny Guinn's efforts to raise
the needed dollars to make this a winnable fight. And one more
thing.
Stay off the trains until we get a government that can guarantee
our safety every time we step aboard. Sounds like an argument
against Yucca Mountain, doesn't it?
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
32 Letter: Nuke waste is all about politics
Las Vegas SUN
April 25, 2002
I think the Sun's April 23 editorial, "Gray Lady all wrong on
Yucca," was very good. It is easy for the New York Times to be
judgmental about Nevada's concerns about Yucca Mountain ... it is
not in their back yard and they don't have to deal with it.
New York has 31 House members and two senators. Nevada is about
to get its third House seat in November. It's about power
politics, plain and simple. We had this rammed down our throat
from the beginning and there might be little to be done about it.
I appreciate the Sun's efforts to comment about this -- at least
they will know that some people are aware about this and aren't
really very happy about it.
MARK BRADSHAW
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
33 Study says politics override science in review of Yucca
Las Vegas SUN
April 25, 2002
By H. Josef Hebert
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- A decision on Yucca Mountain as the nation's
nuclear waste dump should be postponed until more is known about
its geology and how man-made barriers will perform over thousands
of years, an independent study of the proposed site says.
"A project of this importance ... should not go forward until
the relevant scientific issues have been thoughtfully addressed,"
two researchers argue in an article to be published Friday in
Science magazine.
The study maintains that politics has overtaken science as the
Bush administration has approved the Nevada site for the storage
of 77,000 tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste without, they
argue, a final decision on its design, nor certainty as to the
long-term performance of the mountain or the devices being used
to contain the waste.
"In the face of the scientific uncertainties about the site
there is a surprising sense of urgency to move forward," wrote
Rodney Ewing, a geologist at the University of Michigan, and
Allison Macfarlane, director of the Yucca Mountain Project at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
When President Bush announced in February he would go ahead with
the waste site, he called the decision a "culmination of two
decades of intense scientific scrutiny." His energy secretary,
Spencer Abraham, has said repeatedly he is convinced the science
shows the waste can be stored at Yucca Mountain safely.
Nevada, invoking a provision of a federal nuclear waste law, has
blocked Bush's decision. But Congress will vote later this year
on whether to override the Nevada objection.
Both Ewing and Macfarlane in interviews described themselves as
generally pro-nuclear and said they would support the Yucca
Mountain site for waste storage if it is shown to be suitable
scientifically for holding material that will remain highly
radioactive for more than 10,000 years.
But they wrote that under pressure from the nuclear industry,
politics has become the primary driver of the decision and the
science "continues to be only a marginal consideration."
"The present sense of urgency is driven not by an understanding
of the properties of the Yucca Mountain site, but rather by
larger scale policy decisions concerning nuclear power and
national security," they wrote.
They maintained in the interviews that wastes for the short term
could remain at reactor sites in 31 states without posing safety
risks. Even if Yucca Mountain were opened, thousands of tons
would still be at reactors awaiting shipment, noted Ewing.
Today there is about 40,000 tons of used reactor fuel kept at
commercial power plants in 31 states, with the amount growing by
2,000 tons a year.
Macfarlane, who along with Ewing, is editing a book of articles
by scientists on various technical issues involving Yucca
Mountain, said she decided to weigh in on the issue now because
in the debate in Congress lawmakers appear that "they don't care
about the science."
"Some of the important issues haven't been addressed," said
Ewing, a member of the American Nuclear Society. The society,
whose members are nuclear professionals, is on record supporting
the Yucca Mountain site, concluding that its features will
protect public health and safety.
But Macfarlane and Ewing said that in the past eight months
three government agencies have raised serious questions about the
scientific review of Yucca Mountain. Among them were a nuclear
waste advisory panel that concluded the technical basis for
approving the site was "weak to moderate" and another advisory
group that questioned the reliability of computer models in
evaluating risks posed by the long-term waste storage at the
Yucca site.
"The current understanding of the performance of the engineered
barriers and the geological processes of the mountain falls far
short of that required to make a substantive evaluation of the
safety of the repository," they wrote in Science.
"With further study," they concluded, "Yucca Mountain may be
judged to be an adequate site for the disposal of nuclear waste
(but) ... to move ahead without first addressing the outstanding
scientific issues will only continue to marginalize the role of
science."
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
34 Committee OKs Yucca site 41-6
Las Vegas SUN
April 25, 2002
Full House vote is expected in 2 weeks
By Benjamin Grove
WASHINGTON -- The Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository
cleared another hurdle today when the House Energy and Commerce
Committee approved the site on a 41-6 vote. The next step: a full
House vote.
The proposed repository continued its march through the House
with the overwhelming vote and several lawmakers spoke highly of
the plan to ship 77,000 tons of high-level waste to Nevada.
Despite arguments that science hasn't proven that the repository
can safely hold the waste, Chairman Billy Tauzin, R-La., said
both man-made and geological barriers will isolate the waste.
"The physical attributes of Yucca Mountain sound very safe, but
more importantly, the best available science also supports the
development of Yucca Mountain," he said.
Tauzin said the future of nuclear power is tied to the
repository.
"Whether you like nuclear energy or not, we can't do without it
in this country," he said.
The vote today was on a simple resolution approving Yucca
Mountain as the nation's waste repository. Both the House and
Senate must approve it for the project to continue. The House has
moved quickly to get the resolution to the floor, while the
Senate is expected to take longer. Under law, Congress must
decide within the next three months.
At a news conference with Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, Tauzin said he expected the full House
to vote the week after next.
Barton, chairman of a subcommittee that heard testimony on Yucca
last week, predicted easy passage by the House.
"It will be a lot more than 218" votes, the number needed for a
majority, Barton said.
Abraham, a former senator, said he's looking forward to the
debate in Senate, where Nevada leaders have pledged a fight.
"We know there's going to be opposition," Abraham said, "but
with the action the House has demonstrated there is broad
bipartisan support. I believe ... the Senate will follow the
House lead here."
Nevada leaders were disappointed by today's vote.
"It's disappointing any vote that is that lopsided," Gov. Kenny
Guinn said. "But we knew where we stood in the House."
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said the vote was what he expected,
but dismissed the belief that the House vote will add momentum
for the debate in the Senate.
"As I've said before, the Senate doesn't look that much at what
the House does," Ensign said.
If Congress approves the resolution, the Energy Department,
which manages Yucca, would seek to license the site as a
permanent burial ground for the nation's nuclear waste. The
Nuclear Regulatory Commission would have to approve the license,
which would take several years.
During the Energy Committee hearing, Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., an
outspoken critic of the nuclear industry, argued that there are
just too many unanswered scientific questions to make a decision
now, referring to a government report criticizing the science
behind the project.
The Energy Department has said that the nearly 300 questions
raised by the General Accounting Office could be answered in the
licensing process.
Markey, a committee member who led the opposition in a hearing
last week, criticized the panel for rushing ahead with a
political decision rather than waiting on a scientific decision.
"We are doing a disservice to the people of Nevada and to our
institution itself," Markey said.
Waste would be shipped to Yucca Mountain starting in 2010 at the
earliest.
Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., picked up on the argument Nevada
leaders have made about the potential dangers of transporting
nuclear waste across country.
Capps, a committee member who represents an area of the
California coast that includes a nuclear power plant, said she is
worried about barge shipments of nuclear waste steaming off the
coast through the Santa Barbara Channel as part of the proposed
transportation route.
"I don't think we should subject communities across the nation
to the dangers this plan presents," Capps said.
But Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., said that as much as 80 percent of
the rail and 60 percent of the truck shipments could come through
Nebraska, but he said he is not concerned.
"I am confident this will be accomplished without incident," he
said.
Meanwhile today, the House Transportation Committee held a
hearing on issues related to shipping nuclear waste to Yucca. The
resolution had already moved to the House floor before that
hearing began. The Transportation Committee has no direct role in
passing the resolution, other than members will eventually vote
as part of the full House.
Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, agreed to hold the hearing at the
request of panel member Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Young's
party ally Rep. Jim Gibbons of Nevada.
In a prepared statement, Ensign called the plan to ship waste to
Yucca a "disastrous scheme." He invoked the image of recent rail
accidents, including a Baltimore tunnel accident and subsequent
freight train fire that burned for several days.
"Imagine a similar incident, only the waste is radioactive,"
Ensign said.
Guinn, who testified in front of the committee, said he was
pleased to hear several members of the Transportation Committee
express concern over transporting nuclear waste. The hearing may
help Nevada make its main argument against Yucca Mountain. State
leaders have tried to rally support by questioning the safety of
transporting nuclear waste.
The hearing also served as a political forum for Nevada's
congressional candidates, Republican Jon Porter and Democrat
Dario Herrera.
As a favor, Young allowed Porter to testify; House Democratic
leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., leaned on panel leaders to
include Herrera, who was hastily added on Wednesday.
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
35 PACRO spending to face greater scrutiny
The Paducah Sun
Paducah, Kentucky
Thursday, April 25, 2002
Under the new guidelines, money not spent by the group trying to
help offset lost jobs will be trimmed from the next year's
budget.
By Joe Walker jwalker@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650
Greater scrutiny is ahead for federal money used by an economic
development group to help offset jobs lost at the Paducah uranium
enrichment plant.
Under new Department of Energy guidelines, money not spent by the
Paducah Area Community Reuse Organization will be trimmed from
the next year's budget. Although PACRO has not received any money
for the past two years, it has more than $1.2 million remaining
from the $8.4 million committed in its first three years.
PACRO Director John Anderson said he hopes to move the leftover
money — and any new money from spending shortfalls — into a
low-interest loan fund to help develop industrial parks and start
small businesses. Some of the existing money is already in the
fund.
The Energy Department has the final say, but "we've been told
unofficially that won't be a problem," he said.
Ric Ladt, PACRO chairman, said the guideline changes are supposed
to give the Paducah group and 14 other counterparts nationwide
equal access to shrinking federal dollars. A few years ago, there
was $40 million available to help lessen the economic impact of
DOE plant closures and layoffs across the nation; now there is
$20 million, he said.
"Congress wants to sever this program," Ladt said. "We're one of
the last organizations to come in."
Stricter rules also take into account economic development
groups' performance, including their history of spending and
results, and the rules require new money for many services to be
matched locally.
"They want to see jobs per dollars spent," Ladt said. "There are
some major changes coming about, and we have to be prepared for
them."
At its monthly meeting Wednesday, the PACRO executive committee
reviewed the Paducah group's performance since its 1997
inception. The nearly $7.2 million spent during the past five
years is credited with retaining 371 jobs at a cost of $19,307
per job.
Of the total:
--215 jobs were retained because of PACRO-funded spec buildings
and improvements in industrial parks in Graves County and Massac
County, Ill. PACRO loans and grants also have paid for similar
upgrades in industrial parks in McCracken, Ballard and Marshall
counties.
PACRO also has given about $263,000 in grants toward a proposed
regional industrial park in northern Graves County. The money has
helped put 1,110 acres under three-year purchase options. There
are verbal commitments with landowners for another 500 acres.
--111 jobs were kept via PACRO-funded projects, allowing energy
workers' union employees to switch from plant operator USEC Inc.
to Bechtel Jacobs, the Energy Department's lead environmental
contractor.
--45 jobs were preserved through low-interest loans helping
displaced USEC workers with small business ventures.
*****************************************************************
36 UK: Sellafield'S Waste Solutions on Display
THE WHITEHAVEN NEWS
Thursday, April 25, 2002
Innovative solutions to some of Sellafield's nuclear waste legacy
problems will be on display on Tuesday, April 30, when the
Technology 2002 exhibitions opens its doors at the nuclear site
to hundreds of Cumbrian visitors.
The range of new and pioneering technology on view from more than
40 high-tech companies has the potential to reduce the scale of
nuclear waste management and decommissioning problems experienced
not only at Sellafield but throughout the UK.
"The aim of the event is to ensure that companies which have the
expertise or products to help the nuclear industry are given a
platform in which they can demonstrate their abilities," said
Nu-Tech Associates organiser Lisa Jones-Taylor.
"Some have new and exciting applications in the nuclear
industry," she said.
Technology 2002, in the off-site Sellafield Training Centre, will
be open to the public from 9.30am until 3.30pm
*****************************************************************
37 Yucca Mountain Opponents Call Transport Deadly Terror Risk
FOXNews.com
AP
A worker walks through Yucca nuclear waste storage facility
Wednesday, April 24, 2002
By Kelley Beaucar Vlahos
WASHINGTON — A House subcommittee approved legislation Tuesday
that would allow for the first time the storage of nuclear waste
in the bowels of Nevada's Yucca Mountain, but opponents to the
massive project are still scrambling to make sure that never
happens.
There were little fireworks during the 24-2 passage of the bill
in the Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee of the House Commerce
and Energy Committee. Outside of the hearing room, however,
opponents are shifting the focus to the dangers of transporting
the waste, in hope of alerting residents and leaders in other
states to the risks of moving the spent fuel.
"We have to convince everyone that this isn't just Nevada's
problem," said Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman recently. "We have
to alert, not alarm, senators' constituents about the potential
disaster happening in their backyards."
President Bush approved the use of Yucca Mountain last month
after declaring it a scientifically sound location for nuclear
waste. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham made a formal
recommendation of the site in February after 20 years and $4
billion in environmental impact studies.
Transporting the existing 70,000 metric tons of spent fuel now
scattered among the various sites will take care of an
overcrowding problem as well as centralize storage more safely —
1,000 feet below the surface, in the desert and near an Air Force
base, supporters say.
But efforts to raise concerns about moving the waste to the
desert mountain could prove critical in getting congressional
members to oppose the use of Yucca. Members in the House are
widely expected to support opening Yucca. Senate support is
harder to predict.
Opponents argue that moving the spent fuel from the nation's
reactors to Nevada poses a grave danger, even though the waste is
currently being stored at 131 different sites in varying degrees
of above-ground containment.
"We don't advocate leaving it where it is forever, but the
question at hand is whether to go forward with Yucca Mountain
right now," said Kevin Camps, a nuclear waste specialist with the
Nuclear Information Research Service.
While his group doesn't buy all of the fail-safe arguments in
support of the Nevada site, he said the transport alone is "one
of the deadliest terror targets imaginable."
A fact sheet on the NIRS Web site contends that "assuming the
same accident rates as for past [nuclear] shipments, there would
be at least 400 accidents involving spent fuel and high-level
waste shipments during the 38-year shipping campaign."
On the contrary, the Department of Energy says there have been
3,000 transports of nuclear waste between facilities since 1964
and only eight have resulted in accidents. None of them resulted
in leakage or injury due to radioactivity.
"It is just another attempt to scare people and to get members of
Congress on board against it," Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., said of
the NIRS claims. Shimkus said that his state has overseen the
safe transport of spent nuclear fuel between its 12 reactor sites
for years.
"The record has been stellar," said Mitch Singer, a researcher
with the Nuclear Energy Institute, which supports the Yucca
Mountain project.
While numbers vary, NIRS says the project will require more than
96,000 truck shipments impacting 44 states and a combined
population of 123,000 in major cities including St. Louis,
Atlanta, Omaha, Chicago, and Indianapolis.
"They are going to ship as much waste in the first year as they
have shipped since the dawn of the nuclear age," charged Camps.
"This is unprecedented."
While the Energy Department has acknowledged that those cities
are along highway routes to the storage facility, Abraham argued
that the bigger interest is getting the waste away from
communities.
"More than 161 million people live within 75 miles of one or more
nuclear waste sites, all of which were intended to be temporary,"
Abraham told the subcommittee during a hearing last week. "We
believe that today these sites are safe, but prudence demands we
consolidate this waste from widely dispersed, above-ground sites
into a deep underground location that can be better protected."
Singer said that NRIS has exaggerated how many shipments there
will be, saying the numbers are closer to 200 shipments annually,
about one and a half a day — not the five per day that opponents
are talking about. He also said the opponents can't possibly know
what the transport routes will be.
"[I]t is so many years off — the routes will be established by
federal agencies with input from the states," said Singer. "At
the most it will be three to eight years from now before they
even talk about the routes."
Singer said the most strident naysayers are anti-nuclear, period,
and won't be satisfied until the use of nuclear energy in this
country is abolished completely.
"Their ultimate mission is getting rid of all nuclear power in
this country — nothing is good," he said.
Camps responded: "Our organization is openly for the phase-out of
all nuclear power," but, "as far as Yucca Mountain goes, it is
the industry that has twisted the arguments in their favor."
*****************************************************************
38 Letter: Yucca Mountain Ready for Nuclear Waste
April 24, 2002 Talk about itE-mail storyPrint
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
If we let the politicians of Nevada have their way we will
never solve the problem of nuclear waste (April 19). They
criticize the president's sensible decision to declare the Yucca
Mountain site as appropriate for disposal of used nuclear fuel
because the final bits of science are not complete.
Yucca Mountain has been studied extensively, and it appears
we do know enough now to move forward. The waste will be
removable for up to 50 years, should there be a problem or we
have a better idea. And this is the same locale where we
detonated nuclear weapons above and below ground for decades. An
engineered and monitored underground facility cannot be a bigger
problem than a bunch of radioactive holes blown in the ground.
Yes, more study for Yucca Mountain is in the schedule. The
president, however, did the right thing by stating that the site
is suitable and that we need to acknowledge we are solving the
waste problem. Dennis Keith
Costa Mesa
Copyright 2002 Los Angeles Times
*****************************************************************
39 FCNL LEGISLATIVE ACTION MESSAGE (4/25/02)
Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 12:32:51 -0500 (CDT)
FCNL LEGISLATIVE ACTION MESSAGE - April 25, 2002
The following action items from the Friends Committee on National
Legislation (FCNL) focus on federal policy issues currently before Congress
or the Administration.
TOPICS: CUT FUNDING FOR DEVELOPMENT OF A ROBUST NUCLEAR EARTH PENETRATOR and
CONTINUE TO OPPOSE FY2002 "WAR ON TERROR" SUPPLEMENTAL
CUT FUNDING FOR DEVELOPMENT OF A ROBUST NUCLEAR EARTH PENETRATOR: In its
FY2003 budget request, the Bush administration is asking for $15.5 million
for a study of the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP). The RNEP would
be designed to destroy hardened and deeply buried targets such as bunkers
containing chemical and biological weapons.
Because of its lower yield and earth penetrating capability, the RNEP is
considered to be a more "useable" nuclear weapon than large yield,
"strategic" nuclear weapons. However, reports by scientists indicate that
the RNEP is far from being a "clean" weapon. If detonated in an urban
setting, 10,000 to 50,000 people would receive a fatal dose of radiation
within the first 24 hrs. This does not take into account traumatic injuries
arising from the extreme pressures of the blast or thermal injuries arising
from the heat of the explosion. Nor does the casualty estimate consider the
consequences of fires and the collapse of buildings from the seismic shock
that the explosion would produce.
Moreover, proceeding with the production of RNEPs would significantly
undermine the global non-proliferation regime because the obvious targets
for these weapons are non-nuclear weapon states. The Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) prohibits the use of nuclear weapons against
such states.
Rep. Edward Markey (MA) has drafted a "Dear Colleague" letter to the chairs
of the House Armed Services Committee and the House Energy and Water
Appropriations Subcommittee, urging them to eliminate funding for this
weapon. He is soliciting signatures from his fellow representatives.
ACTION: Contact your representative. Ask her or him to sign Rep. Markey's
"Dear Colleague" letter.
USE FCNL'S WEB SITE TO MAKE LETTER-WRITING EASIER: Start with the sample
letter posted in our Legislative Action Center, personalize the language,
then send your message as an email or fax directly from our site. You can
also print it out and mail it. To view a sample letter to your
representative, click on the link below, then enter your zip code and click
in the box. Here is the link:
BACKGROUND: The U.S. introduced an earth-penetrating nuclear weapon in 1997,
the B61, modification 11. The B61-11 modified a nuclear explosive from an
earlier bomb by putting it into a hardened steel casing with a new nose cone
to provide ground penetration capability. The deployment was controversial
because of official U.S. policy not to develop new nuclear weapons. The
Department of Energy and the national weapons labs have consistently argued,
however, that the B61-11 was merely a "modification" of an older delivery
system because it used an existing warhead.
According to Rob Nelson of the Federation of American Scientists, "The
earth-penetrating capability of the B61-11 is fairly limited...Tests show it
penetrates only 20 feet or so into dry earth when dropped from an altitude
of 40,000 feet. Even so, by burying itself into the ground before
detonation, a much higher proportion of the explosion energy is transferred
to ground shock compared to a surface bursts. Any attempt to use it in an
urban environment, however, would result in massive civilian casualties.
Even at the low end of its 0.3-300 kiloton yield range, the nuclear blast
would simply blow out a huge crater of radioactive material, creating a
lethal gamma-radiation field over a large area." (For more information,
visit http://www.fas.org/faspir/2001/v54n1/weapons.htm)
The development of a Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator would also have
disastrous consequences for the international arms control regime. A
nuclear weapon designed for battlefield use would increase the perception
that nuclear weapons were as usable as any other part of the U.S.
conventional weapons arsenal and that the U.S. was preparing to use them.
If the U.S. proceeds with these weapons, other nations with far less
conventional capability will seek to deter a U.S. attack by developing their
own weapons of mass destruction, most likely chemical or biological weapons.
The U.S. and other nuclear weapon states pledged in 1995, not to use nuclear
weapons against non-nuclear weapons states (with certain exceptions), as an
inducement for those non-nuclear weapon states to agree to extend,
indefinitely, the NPT. Therefore, the development or testing of these
weapons would be a de facto repudiation of these assurances. To quote Rep.
Markey in his letter, "the RNEPs may offer marginal military benefits at
best while imposing major costs and risks."
CONTINUE TO OPPOSE FY2002 "WAR ON TERROR" SUPPLEMENTAL: President Bush is
asking Congress for an additional $27.1 billion for this year (FY2002) to
expand the ongoing war on terrorism in Afghanistan, the U.S., and elsewhere
around the globe. The supplemental spending request includes $14 billion in
additional spending for the Pentagon, $1.6 billion for State Department
activities related to the war on terrorism, $5.2 billion for homeland
security, and a little over $6 billion for rebuilding New York City and for
other purposes. In addition to his request for additional funds, and just
as troubling, the President is seeking to change a number of laws governing
the administration and use of U.S. foreign aid.
The full House Appropriations Committee is expected to take up this bill by
the end of April, with the full House acting the week of May 6. The Senate
Appropriations Committee may take up the bill as early as May 1.
ACTION: Please contact your representative, especially if he or she is a
member of the appropriations committee. Please see FCNL's April 18
Legislative Action Message
for more details and a
sample letter to your representative
.
For more information, please visit our web site to read FCNL's letter to the
House opposing the President's request
and a letter sent
by 48 national organizations to the House opposing a number of provisions in
the bill .
CONTACTING LEGISLATORS
Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121
Sen. ________
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Rep. ________
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Information on your members is available on FCNL's web site:
http://capwiz.com/fconl/dbq/officials/directory/directory.dbq?command=congdi
r
CONTACTING THE ADMINISTRATION
White House Comment Desk: 202-456-1111
FAX: 202-456-2461
E-MAIL: president@whitehouse.gov
WEB PAGE: http://www.whitehouse.gov
President George W. Bush
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
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We seek a world free of war and the threat of war
We seek a society with equity and justice for all
We seek a community where every person's potential may be fulfilled
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*****************************************************************
40 Envoy senses end to block on nuke ships
New Zealand News - NZ -
25.04.2002
By JOHN ARMSTRONG
United States Ambassador Charles Swindells believes there is a
"possibility" of resolving the longstanding impasse with New
Zealand over the ban on port visits by American nuclear-powered
warships. But he is not hinting how that major obstacle in
Washington-Wellington relations might be removed.
"There is a possibility to get that issue resolved," he told the
Wellington branch of the New Zealand Institute of International
Affairs last night.
"But I'm not going to predict ... what the prospects are, what
the give and take is going to be."
Mr Swindells emphasised he was speaking personally in saying the
issue could be resolved, rather than expressing a US Government
view.
The ambassador described last month's White House meeting between
Prime Minister Helen Clark and President George W. Bush as
historic because every aspect of US-New Zealand relations had
been on the table.
"It should be perfectly clear now that we continue to 'agree to
disagree' on the subject of New Zealand's anti-nuclear
legislation. Because that legislation restricts entry into New
Zealand of our nuclear-powered ships, we can no longer have a
full-fledged allied relationship," the ambassador said.
In normal times, surface ships in the US Navy did not carry
nuclear weapons. That remained US policy and, therefore, New
Zealand's legislative restrictions pertaining to nuclear weapons
posed no difficulty.
"What remains a problem is the prohibition on nuclear propulsion.
And for the US, access by all our ships - not just the
conventionally powered ones - is a matter of practical
operational necessity.
"Our Navy is essentially structured around aircraft carrier
battle groups. And with one exception - an older ship scheduled
for retirement soon - every carrier has a nuclear propulsion
system. The bottom line is that we can't divide our Navy into two
forces, one nuclear-powered and another conventionally powered."
New Zealand News
©Copyright 2002, New Zealand Herald
*****************************************************************
41 India needs N-arms: Kalam
The Times of India; Apr 25, 2002
KOLKATA: India needs nuclear weapons because it is surrounded by
nuclear neighbours, feels former scientific adviser to the Centre
APJ Abdul Kalam.
He was speaking at a ‘meet the scientist' programme here on
Tuesday organised jointly by the Jagadis Bose National Science
Talent Search, Birla Industrial and Technical Museum and
Ballygunj Government High School Parivar.
Kalam said the percentage of the budget spent by India on defence
was not high."With two neighbours armed with nuclear power, you
have to match them strength to strength."
Commenting on India's energy scenario, Kalam said solar and
nuclear power will emerge as the two main sources of energy as
fossil fuel reserves decline."At present India produces 3,000 MW
of power from nuclear energy. In 20 years' time, this figure will
reach 20,000 MW."
However, the veteran scientist seemed more concerned with
development issues than with nuclear arsenal or space technology.
"I am travelling throughout the country to meet young people to
ignite their minds. The ignited soul is the most powerful
resource and when a nation lacks vision, it is taken over by
small minds," he said.
*****************************************************************
42 Council of Europe should take action
The Pasko Case
Gregory Pasko, an investigative journalist who worked for the
Pacific Fleet's newspaper, was arrested on 20 November 1997 by
the FSB and charged with high treason for his writing about the
nuclear safety issues in the Russian Pacific Fleet.
(Strasbourg:) The Council of Europe should take action in the
Pasko-case. That was the conclusion of today's session of its
Sub-Committee of Human Rights. Grigory Pasko.
Jon Gauslaa, 2002-04-25 16:44
Ivan Pavlov, lawyer of Grigory Pasko, gave an overview over the
conviction of his client in the Human Rights Committee of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (CoE PA) today.
Judged from the questions and comments that followed, he used the
oportunity well.
Spirit of stalinism
Pavlov focused particularly on the lack of evidence against his
client, and that Pasko had been convicted for being in the
possession of personal notes that allegedly contained 'state
secrets'. Pavlov also underlined that the basis for the
conviction was secret military decrees, forbidding Russian
military servicemen to have off-duty relations with foreign
citizens.
The Pasko-case illustrates how strong and alive the spirit of
stalinism is within the Russian and Ukrainian legal systems, said
Ukrainian parlamentarian Sergei Holovaty, after having listened
to Pavlov's speech. He added that one of the major problem within
both systems is the role of the state prosecutor. — The
prosecutor does not only act as a prosecutor, but also as a
judge, he said.
Vitaulas Landsbergis, former president of Lithuania and one of
the major architects of the downfall of the iron curtain in the
early 1990'ies, said that the Russian system of secret laws is a
trap that any thinking individual can be caught in. — If
Pasko's notes were so important, what then with the thoughts in
peoples' heads, he asked.
Has appointed Rapporteur
Sergei Kovaliev, the former 'Human Rights Ombudsmann' in Russia,
said that the conviction of Pasko shows that Russian Courts are
still obiedient servants of the system. He added that Pasko was
arrested at a time when Vladimir Putin was still the head of the
Russian security police, and that the Council of Europe should
take action in this case.
Mr. Kovalev's urge has to a certain extent already been followed
up by the CoE PA. On Monday it appointed the German
parliamentarian Rudolf Binding as its Rapporteur on the case.
Mr. Binding plans to visit both Pasko's lawyers, representatives
of the prosecution and if possible also Mr. Pasko himself. He is
expected to present a preliminary report on the case on a later
stage.
It is also likely that the CoE PA's Sub-Committee on Human Rights
will forward a request to the Russian authorities urging them to
release Pasko from the pre-trial detention centre where he
currently is being kept.
*
Grigory Pasko was arrested on November 20, 1997 and accused with
treason through espionage. He was acquitted by the Pacific Fleet
Court in Vladivostok on these charges on July 20, 1999, but
sentenced to a three-year imprisonment for misusing his position
and released on a general amnesty. Both sides appealed the
verdict. In November 2000 the Russian Military Supreme Court
cancelled the verdict, and sent the case back for a new trial at
the Pacific Fleet Court. The re-trial started on July 11, 2001
and ended on December 25, with Pasko being convicted to four
years of hard labour for treason and taken into custody. The
verdict has led to huge protests inside of as well as outside
Russia. Both sides have appealed against it, but the appeal case
has not yet been scheduled.
Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge
Information: info@bellona.no, Technical contact:
webmaster@bellona.no Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22
38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway
*****************************************************************
43 Bill aims to terminate spread of nukes
Tri-Valley Herald
Valley residents on voyage of relief
Thursday, April 25, 2002 - 7:40:39 AM MST
Livermore Lab stands to benefit from Tauscher's plan
By Lisa Friedman
WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- The government would pour millions of dollars into
programs that stem the spread of nuclear weapons under a bill
introduced Wednesday by Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo, and Rep.
John Spratt, D-South Carolina.
The bill would specifically beef up programs that are central to
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, including a "nuclear
cities" initiative that pairs the Department of Energy sites
inside the U.S. with Russia in order to employ dislocated Russian
nuclear weapons scientists.
"I know from talking to people in this administration that they
scoff at these programs. I wonder if they scoff at these programs
because they were Clinton creations," said Spratt, the leading
Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.
President Bush will be meeting next week with Russian President
Vladimir Putin, and lawmakers said they expect the leaders will
address nuclear non-proliferation issues. One item that many
believe will be on that agenda is the agreement between the
nations last year to drastically reduce the U.S. nuclear
stockpile.
In recent months the Bush administration has acknowledged defense
leaders have no plans to actually destroy nuclear warheads.
Rather they intend to warehouse them.
That and other elements of a recent White House nuclear policy
overview need clarification, Tauscher said.
"This administration needs to be much more up front and more
specific about its arms control plans," she said.
It also would extend a decade-long U.S. moratorium on nuclear
testing for at least one more year.
While the Bush administration has maintained it has no plans to
break the moratorium, it also wants to reduce the time it will
take to resume nuclear tests just in case they are needed again.
Tauscher has supported the administration's position. Lately,
however, she has objected to recent Pentagon requests that more
money be directed to ramping up the ability to test.
The White House has proposed $1.1 billion next year for the
Department of Energy's nuclear nonproliferation programs. It's an
$87 million increase over 2002, but still far short of the level
recommended by nuclear threat experts.
The budget proposes cuts by $16 million to programs that help
safeguard Russian nuclear material -- much of which is poorly
protected. It also slashes other arms elimination initiatives in
the Ukraine.
The Tauscher/Spratt legislation would restore funding to those
programs. It also requires that the White House explain exactly
how many nuclear warheads will be deployed, the number of active
and inactive weapons in the reserve force, and how many weapons
will be slated for dismantlement.
"What we're asking for is not glamorous. It's the kind of
nitty-gritty that really does enhance our security," said Spratt.
©1999-2001 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers
*****************************************************************
44 'Dirty Bomb' Could Come From Russia
Cohen:
[NewsMax.com]
Russian Gen. Lebed, Warned of Suitcase Nukes, Dies in Crash
Wednesday, April 24, 2002 WASHINGTON – Terrorists intent on
harming the United States are most likely to get the ingredients
for weapons of mass destruction from Russia, former Clinton
Defense Secretary William Cohen told a Senate panel Tuesday.
Cohen told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee "the clock is
ticking" for the United States to prevent "the Armageddon we all
want to avoid."
Cohen's testimony, his first in front of this committee since
leaving his post at the Pentagon, comes amid news reports that a
top al-Qaeda lieutenant captured in Pakistan, Abu Zubaida, told
U.S. intelligence officials that the terror network worked on
creating a "dirty" nuclear bomb.
Such a bomb would use conventional explosives to spread
radiation and terror.
Committee Chairman Joseph Biden, D-Del., said the United States
must send money to Russia and give the administration more
authority to work with the Russians and prevent nuclear materials
from reaching terrorists' hands. Safety measures to stop
terrorists from obtaining such materials are in serious disarray
in Russia, he said.
According to Biden, Russia still has:
+ Around 1,000 metric tons of excess highly enriched uranium,
enough to produce 20,000 nuclear weapons.
+ 160 metric tons of excess weapons-grade plutonium.
+ 40,000 metric tons of declared chemical weapons.
Russian experts in weapons of mass destruction face economic
hardships that Cohen and senators of both major parties said
could lead them to sell their expertise to terrorists.
"There are many sources for weapons of mass destruction," Biden
said. "But there is one place that has it all. That place is
Russia."
Cohen said the reports about Zubaida show the United States must
act aggressively to make sure terrorists do not get more potent
tools, particularly from Russia. "I think it is, perhaps, the
premier issue we have to address today," Cohen told the
committee.
Senators said they would rush money to 10-year-old programs set
up between the United States and Russia to reduce such threats
and would try to give the Bush administration more flexibility to
spend it.
Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said terrorists would use such
weapons if they could. "There is little doubt that Osama bin
Laden and al-Qaeda would have used weapons of mass destruction on
Sept. 11 if they had possessed them."
Copyright 2002 by United Press International.
*****************************************************************
45 Nuclear terrorism protection --
The Washington Times
April 25, 2002
Brett Wagner
The events of September 11 sent an urgent wake up call that the
United States should take very seriously the continuing efforts
by terrorist groups to acquire nuclear weapons. Fortunately, Sen.
Pete V. Domenici, New Mexico Republican, has heard that call and
introduced a bill that could help prevent a nuclear September 11.
The State Department currently lists more than a dozen rogue
states and terrorist organizations, including Osama bin Laden's
al Qaeda, that are actively seeking nuclear weapons.
Russia's vast and undersecured stockpiles of excess fissile
materials represent the most likely potential source of terrorist
nuclear capability. According to U.S. intelligence agencies,
Russian criminal groups are already supplying al Qaeda with
components for nuclear weapons. All that's missing is the nuclear
material itself.
In the days following the September 11 attacks, Russia's Federal
Security Service reportedly thwarted an attempt by one of these
criminal groups to sell stolen or diverted nuclear weapon-grade
material to an unidentified buyer.
For several years, Russia has been hinting that it would be
interested in selling these same nuclear materials to the United
States for peaceful uses. Unfortunately, these hints have usually
fallen on deaf ears.
Now, thanks to Mr. Domenici's leadership, we stand at the
threshold of just such an agreement, and the timing could not be
more critical.
Russia's Cold War-era nuclear stockpiles, which include 700 to
800 tons of highly enriched uranium and 150 to 200 tons of
weapon-grade plutonium, pose a growing risk because of serious
gaps in Moscow's nuclear security. Many of these scattered
stockpiles are stored in makeshift warehouses, protected only by
$5 combination locks or the equivalent. Small amounts of these
materials have already been confiscated by European law
enforcement officials from sellers looking for buyers.
It would take only 15 to 20 pounds of this uranium, or an even
smaller amount of plutonium, to arm a device capable of leveling
downtown Washington or lower Manhattan. Iraq and the terrorist
group Islamic Jihad have each reportedly offered Russian workers
enormous sums of money for enough nuclear material to produce a
single weapon.
The blueprints and non-nuclear components necessary to build
crude but highly effective nuclear weapons are readily available.
The only component prohibitively difficult to develop or acquire
is the nuclear material.
There is no reliable way of keeping a nuclear weapon or
contraband from being smuggled into U.S. territory if it ever
does fall into the wrong hands. Fortunately, Moscow appears
willing to sell these same materials to the United States, or to
a U.S.-led group of international investors, for just a few
thousand dollars per pound.
Mr. Domenici has introduced a bill that establishes a framework
for how such a transaction might take place. Under the bill's
provisions, the U.S. government would guarantee loans to Russia
in increments of $20 million, up to $1 billion at any one time,
accepting Moscow's fissile materials as collateral. For each $20
million loan, Russia would place 1 metric ton of uranium and 1
metric ton of plutonium under International Atomic Energy Agency
safeguards at a secure facility in Russia that is mutually
acceptable to both Russia and the IAEA.
As part of the deal, Russia would guarantee that the fissile
materials placed under IAEA safeguards would remain there
indefinitely, meaning until they are used as nuclear fuel or
otherwise permanently disposed. This entire process could be
completed within just a few years.
The opportunity has never been greater to resolve the tremendous
risk to U.S. and international security posed by Russia's
enormous stockpiles of undersecured nuclear materials.
Rep. Lois Capps, California Democrat, has introduced a companion
bill in the House. Congress should move quickly to consider these
two bills, make any necessary revisions and deliver legislation
to the president as soon as possible for his signature.
The only problem is, the bill has been introduced in each
chamber of Congress by a member of the minority party in that
chamber. Consequently, the House version of the bill is tied up
in the International Relations Committee, while the Senate
version languishes in the Foreign Relations Committee.
One possible solution to breaking the current impasse would be
for Mr. Domenici to call up his Republican colleagues in the
House, remind them that H.R. 3290 is the House version of his
bill and ask them to put it on the fast track. Correspondingly,
Ms. Capps should call up her Democratic colleagues in the Senate,
remind them that S.1277 is the Senate version of her bill and ask
them to free it up as soon as possible.
Otherwise, the next "act of war" against the United States might
very well turn out to be an act of nuclear war.
Brett Wagner is president of the California Center for Strategic
Studies, a non-profit non-partisan policy think tank based in
Santa Barbara, and executive director of the Swords Into
Plowshares Project.
*****************************************************************
46 Ex-air chief predicts nuke hit
MySanAntonio : Public Safety
By Sig Christenson
Express-News Military Writer
Web Posted : 04/25/2002 12:00 AM
A one-time chief of the Strategic Air Command said Wednesday that
a terrorist attack on the United States with a small nuclear bomb
is inevitable.
But the view of retired Gen. Eugene E. Habiger, who spoke at an
information technology conference on Wednesday, isn't shared by
everyone.
His grim assessment drew surprise from a Bush administration
official, who said: "I don't know why he would say it."
Habiger, now president of the San Antonio Water System, outlined
a chilling scenario in which terrorists detonate a small nuclear
device that kills and injures thousands, cripples the federal
government and sows panic across America.
Such a bomb "is easy to make, is easy to detonate and can cause a
lot of damage," he said at a luncheon at Fiesta TechNet 2002 at
the Convention Center.
"I think it's not a matter of if, it's when," he told the San
Antonio Express-News. "It could be any place."
The White House Office of Homeland Security wouldn't say if the
government could prevent the detonation of a suitcase nuke or a
"dirty" bomb — one in which conventional explosives
distribute radioactive material.
"We are working to prevent that from happening," spokesman Gordon
Johndroe said.
Security experts across the country have said the small-scale
nuclear device scenario is worrisome and a real concern,
especially considering Osama bin Laden's efforts to obtain
nuclear weapons.
In Habiger's vision, a suitcase nuke in the trunk of a car kills
tens of thousands in the Washington area. Fallout likely spreads
south from the District of Columbia.
All six of the district's Potomac River bridges would be damaged,
cutting the city off from Virginia, preventing emergency vehicles
from reaching the dead and injured.
Power outages, gas line explosions, water cutoffs, disruption of
public transit and the federal government itself —
including the Pentagon and White House — would ensue, as
well as mass panic around the United States.
"The thing that you didn't see in the World Trade Center tower
event were thousands of people lying dead in the streets, and
with a nuclear device of some kind you're going to see that," he
said in an interview. "It's going to become much more personal."
Charles R. Luther and Fabian J. Palitza were among those in the
audience convinced Habiger has seen the future.
"There's a real probability that could happen," Luther, a retired
Air Force Reserve brigadier general from San Antonio, said of a
dirty bomb.
"I think it was an excellent wake-up call," Palitza, an
Amarillo-based IBM marketing manager, said of Habiger's speech.
"To me, the public needs to hear more of this kind of stuff."
Retired Marine Lt. Gen. Bernard Trainor, an MSNBC analyst, said
he didn't think the suitcase nuke scenario "is inevitable at
all."
"I would say it's a possibility, but I certainly wouldn't say it
was inevitable," said Trainor, a former New York Times military
writer, adding that an impact of a dirty bomb would be limited,
even if it were used.
Johndroe and Trainor, a senior fellow for national security
studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the United
States is working to uncover plots to obtain nuclear weapons.
sigc@express-news.net 04/25/2002
2001 KENS 5 and the San Antonio Express-News. © 2001
*****************************************************************
47 Disaster drill keys on SRS
Augusta Georgia: Metro:
Web posted Thursday, April 25, 2002
By [bhaddock@augustachronicle.com]
Staff Writer
GRANITEVILLE - The South Carolina National Guard Armory in
Graniteville is teeming with people.
Monitoring team coordinator Chuck Radford (from left) gives a
team assignment to Jeffrey Joyner, Donald Dye and George Leroy at
the SRS exercise headquarters in Graniteville. ANDREW DAVIS
TUCKER/STAFF
More than 100 are gathered, ready for action. Some cluster
around maps spread on folding tables. Others sit bathed in the
glow of computer monitors, pecking away at keyboards. A few scarf
down ham sandwiches from bag lunches as they prepare for their
next assignment.
These are not soldiers, but scientists. Their maps depict not
plans of attack, but plans for responding to a make-believe
emergency at Savannah River Site.
The team from the Federal Radiological Monitoring and Assessment
Center is supposed to give emergency workers the information they
need to respond to nuclear accidents.
This week, the team and several other federal, state and local
agencies are testing their mettle in a drill simulating an
emergency at SRS.
"We're a resource for developing data," said Don Daigler, a
director for the assessment center. "The ultimate goal is to get
a very clear understanding of what the impacts are to the
environment."
The drill, which began Tuesday and will end at noon today, is
designed to test emergency crews' response to the possibility of
a radioactive release that affects livestock, crops and drinking
water, SRS officials said.
Assessment officials Norris Johnson (from left), Steve
Musolina and Clifford Blackman discuss the exercise at the
National Guard Armory in Graniteville.
ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER/STAFF
Under the drill's scenario, a 6.9-magnitude earthquake occurred
near the federal nuclear-weapons site's F-Area. The mock quake
damaged an SRS plant and ruptured a pipe that transfers
radioactive waste, spilling cesium and plutonium into the
environment.
Within 24 hours, dozens of team members had departed for SRS
from the team's base in Las Vegas, filling two planes with people
and equipment, said Kevin Rohrer, a team spokesman.
The team has spent two days charting the path of the mock
radioactive releases from SRS, he said.
A jet from Andrews Air Force Base performed an initial survey,
flying back and forth over the region with sophisticated
monitoring equipment to detect radioactive "hot spots," Mr.
Rohrer said.
Data gathered from that survey, along with smaller, more
detailed analyses performed by helicopters or ground-based crews,
are plotted onto maps using computers, Mr. Rohrer said.
By analyzing that information, weather patterns and other
factors, the team can determine where polluted areas are and
where the plume might travel, Mr. Rohrer said.
State and local emergency workers then use that prediction to
decide how to respond to a release, he said.
"We don't make decisions," Mr. Rohrer said. "We just take data,
crunch numbers, make plots and provide information so that the
decision-makers can make the decisions they need to make.
"We can do things on a larger scale. As fast as we can get
information in, we're trying to get it plotted and cleared for
release."
Reach Brandon Haddock at (706) 823-3409 or
[bhaddock@augustachronicle.com] .
*****************************************************************
48 Y-12 protesters found guilty
Oak Ridger Online -->
Story last updated at 12:20 p.m. on Thursday, April 25, 2002
by Paul Parson and Beverly Majors
Oak Ridger staff
Thirteen people arrested on April 14 after protesting at the Y-12
National Security Complex were found guilty Wednesday for
obstructing a highway.
All 13 people pleaded not guilty to the charge Wednesday
afternoon in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Clinton
before Judge Don Layton made his decision.
They were given a 30-day suspended sentence and their choice of
a $50 fine plus court costs or 25 hours in community service. All
but two took community service over the fine and court costs.
Initially, the protesters formed human chains on April 14 to
completely block off both directions of Scarboro Road, which runs
in front of Y-12. Despite sitting in the road for a couple of
hours, protesters were not arrested until they decided to march
into the busy intersection of Scarboro Road and Illinois Avenue.
Six other protesters pleaded no contest on April 15 to the
charge of obstructing a highway. They received a 30-day suspended
sentence and a $50 fine plus court costs.
Paul Parson and Beverly Majors can be contacted at (865) 482-1021
or oakridge@oakridger.com [oakridge@oakridger.com] .
All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger
*****************************************************************
49 The DOE needs more money to defend America's nuclear facilities
The Harvard Crimson Online :: Opinion
Published on Thursday, April 25, 2002
Nuclear Responsibility
By THE CRIMSON STAFF
After Sept. 11, nothing is safe from the terrorist menace—least
of all America’s nuclear storage facilities.
Yet the Bush administration has not yet drawn up a plan to
protect these facilities in the long term, nor has it allocated
enough money to safeguard them in the short run.
The Office of Management and Budget recently appropriated a mere
$26.4 million to the Energy Department for the defense of nuclear
waste storage areas and nuclear weapons facilites combined. This
is only 7 percent of the $379.7 million that the Energy
Department originally requested.
Ensuring the security of America’s nuclear facilities is far
more essential to national security than developing a missile
defense shield or deploying a new Joint Strike Fighter. Not only
is a missile strike from a rogue state or an attack from a
foreign military highly unlikely, but the devastation caused by
an attack on a nuclear facility—or, even worse, if terrorists
were able to steal fissile material—could dwarf the effect of
any conventional bomb. Yet a completed missile defense project
may cost hundreds of billions before its completion, and the
Department of Defense will spend over $7.8 billion just this
year. Though securing nuclear facilities requires only a fraction
of this money, it has still not been fully funded.
The administration says that it is developing a new plan to
defend America’s nuclear storage facilities, and that it does
not want to throw money away in the meantime. But this plan has
been in the making since last September, and there are no signs
that it will be completed any time soon. Although the
administration should be actively trying to speed up the
completion and implementation of its new plan, bureaucratic
inertia and inter-departmental bickering should not jeopardize
America’s security. Before it is finalized, the Energy
Department must be given the money it needs to protect nuclear
material.
Homeland security should be one of President Bush’s top
priorities, and this cannot be done without safeguarding
America’s nuclear stores immediately.
Copyright © 2002, The Harvard Crimson Inc. | Privacy Policy |
Terms and
*****************************************************************
50 WNA NEWS BRIEFING 02.17 | 17 - 23 April 2002
A weekly summary of international news relevant to the nuclear
energy industry.
[NB02.17-1] UK: The government will launch a new round of energy
consultations into 'key' energy issues facing the country -
including the prospects for nuclear power. Speaking at the annual
conference of the Korea Atomic Industrial Forum (KAIF) and Korean
Nuclear Society (KNS) in Seoul, Sue Ion, BNFL's director of
technology, said the UK government is 'going for a second
consultation on key issues - including nuclear - in the next two
or three months'. Dr Ion said that the Westinghouse AP1000
advanced reactor design was a 'realistic prospect for the next
decade' as far as the UK was concerned. (NucNet News, 144/02, 19
April; see also News Briefings 99.33-6 and 02.11-1)
[NB02.17-2] US: Exelon announced that it will not proceed with
the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) project 'beyond the
completion of the current feasibility study phase'. The decision
follows a 'broad-based review of Exelon's investments that was
conducted to ensure a disciplined strategy focused on the
fundamentals of generation, power marketing and distribution'.
The company said that 'becoming a reactor supplier is no longer
consistent with Exelon's strategy'. Despite Exelon's decision to
discontinue the project, it still believes that the PBMR
technology 'has the potential to be viable and successful'.
(Exelon Generation, 16 April; see also News Briefing 01.51-12)
[NB02.17-3] Australia: A report by the Office of the Supervising
Scientist (OSS) into the mismanagement of a low-grade ore
stockpile at the Ranger uranium mine and the delayed reporting of
environmental monitoring data at Jabiluka has been released by
the Federal Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Dr David
Kemp. The report said mine operator Energy Resources Australia
Ltd's (ERA's) internal management processes had failed but had
not breached the commonwealth's environmental requirements. The
report showed that the highest concentration of uranium measured
downstream of Ranger and Jabiluka was 0.25 parts per billion
(ppb) and 0.05 ppb, respectively - much lower than the legal
standard. ERA has agreed to upgrade its environmental management
systems at Ranger and Jabiluka. (Environment Australia, 23 April)
[NB02.17-4] US: FirstEnergy has submitted a detailed root cause
analysis report to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
regarding corrosion problem affecting the reactor pressure vessel
head at the Davis Besse nuclear power plant. The conclusions of
the root cause report are consistent with those of the probable
cause summary report submitted to the NRC on 22 March. The damage
is said to have resulted from boric acid leaking through cracks
in two of the control rod drive mechanism nozzles and corroding
carbon steel of the reactor pressure vessel head. Several other
factors are said to have contributed to the corrosion, including
missed opportunities to detect the problem earlier. Corrective
actions are listed in the report, including some already
implemented. (NucNet News, 147/02, 22 April; see also News
Briefings 02.14-4 and 02.16-5)
[NB02.17-5] US: Exelon is set to become the third utility to
participate in the early site permit (ESP) process. The company
is 'expected to make its plans public shortly', according to Joe
Colvin, president and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI).
(NucNet Business News, 26/02, 23 April; see also News Briefing
02.16-6)
[NB02.17-6] The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) has
approved guidelines to apply to the environmental assessment
screening process to the licensing applications for the restart
of the Bruce-3 and -4 nuclear power reactors, as well as the
international thermonuclear experimental fusion reactor (ITER)
proposed to be sited next to the Darlington Candu plant. Bruce
Power hopes to restart the two reactors in 2003. (Nucleonics
Week, 11 April, p16; see also News Briefing 01.41-10)
[NB02.17-7] China: The Qinshan-2 nuclear power reactor has
entered commercial operation after passing final tests on 17
April. The 610 MWe PWR is the third to be designed and built at
the Qinshan site without foreign assistance. (Nuclear Market
Review, 19 April, p2; see also News Briefing 02.07-2)
[NB02.17-8] India: The government is seeking investors for its
nuclear power projects, but only for joint ventures in which
state-owned Nuclear Power Corp of India Ltd (NPCIL) retains
control over nuclear material. The country's Atomic Energy Act of
1962 would need to be amended to permit such joint venture
projects. The government thinks it unlikely that it will be able
to meet the funding level necessary to achieve its aim of 20 000
MWe of nuclear capacity by 2020 without additional investment
from other parties. The 220 MWe Kaiga-3 and -4 are being
considered for joint venture ownership. NPCIL is also said to be
discussing the possibility of a joint venture arrangement with
the state government of Rajasthan for the 220 MWe Rajasthan-5 and
-6 reactors. (Nucleonics Week, 11 April, p9; see also News
Briefing 00.49-16)
[NB02.17-9] Finland: A survey of 200 members of parliament found
that 94 MPs support the government's plan to build a fifth
nuclear power reactor in the country, while 88 oppose the plan
and 18 remain undecided. A majority in parliament must approve
the plan for the project to proceed. (Ux Weekly, 22 April, p3;
see also News Briefing 02.09-13)
[NB02.17-10] Romanian president Ion Iliescu announced his
personal commitment to the completion of Cernavoda-2. After
visiting the Cernavoda plant, he said that 'four precious years
have been wasted and works resumption means an important
achievement for Romanian nuclear power'. Mr Iliescu reportedly
wants Cernavoda-2 to be commissioned by 2004. (NucNet News,
145/02, 19 April; see also News Briefing 02.02-10)
[NB02.17-11] Estonia must build a nuclear power plant in order to
meet European Union (EU) environmental regulations and continue
to maintain power supplies, according to politicians, industry
leaders and scientists in the country. EU environmental
regulations will make it difficult for Estonia's fossil fuel
burning plants to operate after 2008. Planning for a nuclear
power plant could start as early as this year. (Ux Weekly, 22
April, p3)
[NB02.17-12] Japan: Kansai Electric Power will send a team of
staff to the Melox plant in France to monitor production of mixed
oxide (MOX) fuel. Kansai suspended an order for MOX fuel from the
Melox plant in 2001 after Japan's ministry of economy, trade and
industry (METI) said it would not allow the fuel to be used.
Kansai has maintained that it is 'completely satisfied' with
existing quality assurance procedures at the plant. However, METI
said that Kansai had not 'taken the necessary steps in auditing
the fuel or having employees from Kansai stationed (at Melox)
during the manufacturing process'. Kansai has yet to place
another order for MOX. (NucNet Business News, 26/02, 23 April;
see also News Briefing 02.01-13)
[NB02.17-13] Japan's mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel programme 'must
happen and the government will continue its efforts in this
regard', parliamentary secretary for economy, trade and industry
Akira Matsu told the opening session of the annual conference of
the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum (JAIF). She said that since the
referendum in 2001 in Kariwa village, in which residents rejected
the possible use of MOX at Tokyo Electric Power's (TEPCO's)
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, a 'plu-thermal
consultative board' has been established. The aim of this board
is to ensure that 'each and every Japanese citizen thinks about
nuclear energy'. Also speaking at the conference, Japan's science
and technology minister Atsuko Toyama stressed the need for
Japanese nuclear officials to do more to demonstrate their
commitment to safety. She warned that even a minor incident
risked causing 'major fear' among the general public. The
government, she said, would initiate educational and information
programmes to win wider acceptance of nuclear energy in Japan.
(NucNet News, 149/02, 22 April; see also News Briefing 02.16-11)
[NB02.17-14] Germany: Plans to use the decommissioned Konrad iron
mine as a repository for low- and intermediate-level waste
(LLW/ILW) are expected to be approved by the state of Lower
Saxony this summer, the state government confirmed. The first
waste could be brought to the site in 2006. Sources said that
although Lower Saxony politically opposes the project, it has
concluded that it would face massive damage claims, mainly from
nuclear utility companies, unless it approves the project soon.
The cost of establishing an underground geological waste
repository is estimated at DM1.6 billion (US$730 million).
(Nucleonics Week, 11 April, p4; see also News Briefing 00.06-14)
[NB02.17-15] US Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham has authorised
shipments of plutonium from Rocky Flats to the Savannah River
Site (SRS) beginning 15 May, without the consent of South
Carolina governor Jim Hodges. Negotiations over an agreement to
prevent long-term plutonium storage collapsed following the
governor's rejection of a proposed Department of Energy (DOE)
settlement. Abraham said the shipments are 'essential' to meet
DOE's goal of closing the Rocky Flats facility in 2006 and US
commitments under the September 2000 plutonium agreement with
Russia. Abraham offered to work with Hodges to 'seek passage of
legislation designed to address (his) remaining concerns'.
(SpentFUEL, 22 April, p1; Nuclear Fuel, 15 April, p1; see also
News Briefing 00.02-9)
[NB02.17-16] France: The AREVA group reported declining financial
performance for 2001, although its nuclear businesses showed
solid returns. Sales revenues fell 1.6% in 2001 to 8.90 billion
(US$7.92 billion), compared with 9.04 billion (US$8.05 billion)
in 2000. Group net income dropped from 462 million (US$411.2
million) in 2000 to a loss of 587 million (US$522.4 million) in
2001. Total sales revenue for the nuclear sector increased 9.8%
to 6.83 billion (US$6.08 billion), primarily due to the
consolidation of the nuclear business of Siemens at the start of
2001. Operating income in the nuclear sector increased 76%, from
341 million (US$303.5 million) in 2000 to 601 million (US$534.9
million) in 2001. AREVA's uranium enrichment business recorded a
12.8% drop in revenues. (AREVA, 17 April; see also News Briefing
01.37-2) Previous News Briefing NB02.16
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51 Reid Legislation to Promote Clean Energy Development Included in
Senate Energy Bill
Senator Harry Reid
Thursday, April 25, 2002
Washington, D.C. - The United States Senate today passed a
massive energy tax incentive package including Senator Harry
Reid’s legislation to expand the wind energy production tax
credit to other renewable energy resources. Reid’s tax provisions
signal a significant and meaningful step forward in diversifying
the nation’s energy supply.
“Developing renewable energy sources is the only way we will meet
the long-term energy needs of this country without polluting our
air and water,” Senator Reid said. “Using renewable energy
sources will create jobs, reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil,
and help consumers who are faced with soaring power bills. These
tax credits will promote the development of alternative energy
sources and with this legislation we have made great progress in
building America’s energy future.”
Currently, the U.S. provides ample tax breaks for oil, coal and
natural gas companies, but offers little for alternative energy
development. Under Reid’s provisions, the currently limited wind
production tax credit, which has fueled a boom in new wind
energy, will now include geothermal, solar, open-loop biomass,
and animal waste. The credit has been extended for 5 years for
geothermal and solar, and animal waste, and 3 years for biomass.
“Our nation possesses only 3% of the world’s oil reserves - but
we are blessed with tremendous geothermal resources, and a
climate ripe for the development of solar and wind power,
especially in Nevada. In fact, in Nevada alone, the development
of geothermal energy could meet one-third of the state’s
electricity needs,” Reid added. “This production tax credit will
help provide needed business certainty to ensure the growth of
renewable energy development.”
The Senate voted today to include the tax provisions as part of a
national energy reform bill currently under debate. A vote is
expected on the final energy bill later this week.
Senator Reid has long been a proponent of clean, sustainable
energy alternatives such as solar, geothermal, wind and hydrogen.
Reid was instrumental in establishing one of the largest
wind-energy farms in America at the Nevada Test Site, which will
provide 260 megawatts to meet the needs of 260,000 people -- more
than 10% of Nevada’s population within 5 years.
“No state has more potential than Nevada to harness the
brilliance of the sun, the strength of the wind, and the heat of
the earth to provide clean, renewable energy for our nation,”
said Reid.
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