***************************************************************** 04/26/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.106 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POLICY 1 Lithuania casts doubt on proposals to sell nuclear plant to 2 China: Russia to provide nuclear power station turbine 3 Opponents of nuclear energy to march in Helsinki Friday 4 Environmental groups protests Finland's plans to build fifth nuclear 5 Croatian Assembly backs nuclear deal with Slovenia in first 6 Spanish nuclear groups call for go-ahead for new stations in NUCLEAR REACTORS 7 EC proposes Temelin for EU's model nuclear safety criterion 8 Armenian nuclear plant workers fed up with unpaid wages - paper 9 Austrian court rejects case against Czech Republic over nuclear 10 Croatian MPs dissatisfied with accord on Krsko nuclear power 11 Deputy minister addresses Croatian Assembly debate on Krsko 12 Ukraine Nuclear scare on Chernobyl date 13 Ukraine mourns Chernobyl victims 14 Ukraine Appeals to World: Do Not Forget Chernobyl News 15 Chernobyl residents remember disaster, but worry about jobs 16 Russian rights ombudsman calls for more help for Chernobyl 17 Russian region campaigns for reinstatement of Chernobyl 18 US: FirstEnergy Submits Reactor Head Repair Plan To NRC 19 US: Independent look sought into woes at Ohio nuke plant 20 US: Newest Nuclear Reactors Seen as Viable Alternative to Fossil Fue 21 Chernobyl remembered 22 Chernobyl radiation 'on the rise' 23 Under the Chernobyl sarcophagus the radiation is more than 2 24 The Chernobyl accident: What happened 25 Chernobyl residents remember disaster, but worry about jobs 26 Nuclear reactor malfunctions in Ukraine 27 Ukraine Appeals to World: Do Not Forget Chernobyl NUCLEAR SAFETY 28 'N-medicine units are violating safety norms' 29 Work to improve nuclear safety progresses, U.N. group says 30 US: New York on nuclear alert after blast 31 US: Ohio Nuke Workers May Face Danger 32 US: 54 Browns Ferry workers exposed to radioactive gas 33 US: Radiation Sends Volusia Workers To Hospital 34 Work to improve nuclear safety progresses, U.N. group says NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 35 US: Science magazine: politics has pre-empted science in assessing 36 US: Guinn says better reaction from Congress this time 37 UK: 1.3 million Sellafield postcards are on their way to Blair 38 UK - Million Irish send Sellafield protests 39 US: Development of Radioactive Waste Repository Approved 40 US: Yucca veto override reaches full House 41 US: House Panel Backs Nevada as Site to Bury Atomic Waste 42 US: Rail Crashes Fuel Nuke Waste Transport Criticism News 43 US: Energy chief wants to send all nuclear waste to Yucca 44 US: Nevada Offers Nuclear License Plates 45 UK: Sellafield Closure Demands 46 Russia: Police Cart Away Nuclear Protesters 47 US: Gibbons holds more town hall meetings 48 US: Pro-nuclear researchers urge delay on Yucca Mountain 49 US: YUCCA MOUNTAIN: House committee endorses project 50 US: Nuclear dump foes cite danger in hauling waste cross-country 51 Russian protest against the import of nuclear waste 52 US: MOX fuel plan not relevant to renewals, NRC says 53 US: Nevada lauds article on Yucca science 54 US: Editorial: Policies are more than platitudes 55 US: Utahns Asked to Speak Against N-Waste Storage 56 US: House Panel Endorses Yucca Nuke-Waste Site 57 BNFL moves to repair relations with Japan 58 US: Rail Crashes Fuel Nuke Waste Transport Criticism 59 USEC's net income drops by $62 million 60 US: Opinions:Hodges ripped for grandstanding over plutonium shipment 61 US: Opinions: Opposes N-waste coming to SRS 62 US: Yucca Mountain is a perilous storage place NUCLEAR WEAPONS 63 Cold-war report outlined plans for military rule 64 New N-sub could replace Kursk: Official 65 Police Haul Off Red Square Nuclear Protestors 66 Russia commissions Ukrainian-built floating dock for nuclear subs 67 Russian and United States arms negotiators having trouble 68 Britain faced military rule after Russian N-strike 69 US: OP: Preparing for an unknowable threat 70 India Planning Nuclear Weapons Command Structure 71 US: Limiting foreign students US DEPT. OF ENERGY 72 Gibbons: DOE ignored research reactors 73 Trailers unlock Hanford history 74 Judge to decide merits of radiation exposure in PFP suit 75 FFTF petition signed by 3,670 76 Lab director: Nuke tests not expected 77 ORNL makes 'strategic planning' changes 78 'Bubble fusion' third test to get under way OTHER NUCLEAR 79 Environmentalists Lament Energy Bill 80 Bill would relax environmental rules 81 Statement by the President on Energy Policy 82 CDC proposal is extreme 83 Senate Approves Energy Measure ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Lithuania casts doubt on proposals to sell nuclear plant to Belarus BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 25, 2002 Vilnius/Minsk, 25 April: Belarusian deliberations on the possible purchase of the nuclear power plant Lithuania is planning to close down cannot be taken seriously, the Lithuanian foreign minister says. "I don't believe someone might be seriously considering this," the Lithuanian foreign minister, Antanas Valionis, told BNS, commenting on reports in the Russian and Belarusian press for several days running that Minsk intends to buy Lithuania's Ignalina nuclear power plant and thus solve its domestic energy supply needs. "We are reading these reports, but I must say very clearly that our energy strategy programme calls for closing down Ignalina nuclear power plant's power unit one in 2005, and discussions on the date for the closure of power unit two and possible EU financing for that work are currently ongoing," minister Valionis said. He said Lithuania had not received any official proposal from Belarus on the sale of the Ignalina nuclear power plant. The news agency Interfax has been reporting in recent days that Belarusian president Alyaksandr Lukashenka was presented recommendations by experts on how to better provide for domestic energy needs, and that one proposal made was to buy the Ignalina nuclear facility from Lithuania. The news agency quoted deputy the Belarusian foreign minister, Alyaksandr Sychow, who said Belarus could consider the acquisition of Lithuania's sole nuclear energy facility if the Lithuanian government decided to sell it. Last week Lithuanian officials called similar deliberations in Belarus "a prank, having nothing in common with reality". "Nobody is forbidding our neighbours from philosophizing. The idea is kind of original, but a long way off from reality," the Lithuanian economics minister, Petras Cesna, told BNS. The Ignalina [plant's] director, Viktoras Sevaldinas, compared the news from Belarus with an April Fools' Day trick... Source: BNS news agency, Tallinn, in English 1409 gmt 25 Apr 02 /© BBC Monitoring ***************************************************************** 2 China: Russia to provide nuclear power station turbine BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 26, 2002 Moscow, 26 April: The Leningradskiy Metallicheskiy Zavod incorporated in the Silovyye Mashiny (Power Machinery) concern has manufactured basic parts for the 1,000 MW turbine to be installed in the Bushehr nuclear power station in Iran. The turbine will be tested soon, the plant's press service reports. A turbine of the same capacity has been shipped to China. The weight of the 2,000-tonne turbine is just two-thirds that of similar slow-pace turbines. Its length is 51 meters. The turbine is the first one of this power to be exported. A second turbine of this kind is being manufactured while talks are underway on supply equipment for the third and fourth power unit in the Tianwan nuclear power station. Source: Interfax news agency, Moscow, in English 0513 gmt 26 Apr 02 /© BBC Monitoring ***************************************************************** 3 Opponents of nuclear energy to march in Helsinki Friday HS Home 26.4.2002 - A demonstration against the construction of a fifth commercial nuclear reactor in Finland is expected to bring thousands of people from around the Finland to the centre of Helsinki Friday afternoon. The protesters are scheduled to gather at Helsinki's Senate Square at 5:00 PM and march from there to the House of Parliament. "Last year's demonstration attracted about 3,000 people, and now we are trying to break that record", says one of the organisers, Harri Lampi of Greenpeace. Demonstrations against nuclear energy have been held regularly on the anniversary of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. Today is the 16th anniversary of the event. The march is scheduled to arrive at the Parliamentary building shortly before 6:00 PM for a rally, where a number of speakers, including Social Democratic Party MP Liisa Jaakonsaari, Centre Party deputy chairman Matti Vanhanen, and Left Alliance Parliamentary Group chairwoman Outi Ojala are to address the crowd. Previously in HS International Edition: Study shows supporters of nuclear energy outnumber opponents in Finnish Parliament (19.4.2002) Parliament's Environment Committee votes against new nuclear installation (5.4.2002) Parliamentary vote on fifth nuclear reactor likely in May (3.4.2002) Helsingin Sanomat ***************************************************************** 4 Environmental groups protests Finland's plans to build fifth nuclear reactor Fri Apr 26, 6:40 AM ET VIENNA, Austria - Two environmental groups protested outside the Finnish Embassy Friday, demanding that the Nordic country scraps plans to build a fifth nuclear reactor. The groups, Global 2000 and a the Vienna organization Nuclear Power-free Future, handed a petition with 1,800 signatures protesting the plans to embassy officials, the Austria Press Agency reported. Embassy official Timo Heino discussed the issue with the protesters and said he planned to continue a dialogue with the groups. The protest, held on the 16th anniversary of the disastrous nuclear power plant accident in Chernobyl, was the first of its kind, Heino said. The plan to build a fifth nuclear reactor is controversial also in Finland, where lawmakers in 1993 rejected a similar measure by a vote of 107-90. A poll released earlier this month indicate that a narrow majority of lawmakers now may approve of the plan. A parliamentary vote set for May. Finland has two atomic power stations, each with two reactors, which produce about a third of the country's electricity. Austria has no nuclear power plants, and the country is involved in a dispute about a nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic, just 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Austria's northern border. Austrian politicians want the Temelin plant closed, saying it is unsafe, something Czech officials have denied. More than 900,000 Austrians in January signed a petition that called for a veto of the Czech Republic's admission to the European Union (news - web sites) unless the plant is shut down. (sl) Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 5 Croatian Assembly backs nuclear deal with Slovenia in first reading BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 26, 2002 [Announcer] The Croatian Assembly voted in the first reading in favour of the agreement between Slovenia and Croatia on the Krsko nuclear power plant. The vote was carried out despite disapproval by the opposition, but also objections from the ruling coalition, since certain parties believe that this is against the interests of the Croatian people. Krunoslav Vidic reports: [Reporter] Although it supported the agreement, the HSS [Croatian Peasants' Party] floor group asked the government to consider the deputies' objections by the second reading. The HDZ [Croatian Democratic Union] said that this was impossible as the matter concerns an international agreement on the take it or leave it principle. The debate on Krsko was held late last night when the opposition, but also several ruling coalition parties, concluded that the agreement was against the interests of Croatian citizens. The opposition called for the rejection of the agreement, while the HSS and HSLS [Croatian Social Liberal Party] proposed that the government reconsider the decision in order to take into account all consequences and benefits of such an agreement for Croatia, including an economic and security assessment... Source: Croatian Radio, Zagreb, in Serbo-Croat 1100 gmt 26 Apr 02 /© BBC Monitoring ***************************************************************** 6 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. ***************************************************************** 7 EC proposes Temelin for EU's model nuclear safety criterion Hoover's Online UK April 25, 2002 10:15pm Source: Czech News Agency, April 25, 2002 BRUSSELS, April 25 (CTK) - The EC, which wants joint civilian nuclear safety regulations to be introduced in the EU before the admission of new members, views the safety level and checks of the Czech nuclear power plant Temelin as a criterion for the envisaged joint legislation, Gilles Gantelet said today. Gantelet, spokesman for EC deputy chairwoman Loyola de Palacio, told CTK that the current legislation did not enable the EC to force nuclear safety checks and measures on member countries, similarly to what has been practiced in relation to candidate countries. This amounts to certain discrimination, and it is in the interest of the candidates, mainly the Czech Republic, which has faced criticism over Temelin, that joint norms be developed and all EU countries be approached equally, Gantelet said. Situated in south Bohemia, 60km from the borders of Austria and Bavaria, Temelin is sharply criticised by Austria, Bavaria as well as environmentalists who say it is not safe because it combines Soviet design and western fuel and safety technology. Some forces in Austria even set the closure of Temelin as a condition for Prague's entry into the EU. Gantelet said the EC would submit the relevant draft legislation before the summer recess or early in the autumn. The EC has been telling the Czechs that they have to improve nuclear safety and that the EC will monitor and check their steps in this respect. This supervision is useful and in the interest of all, he continued. However, if the monitoring focuses on Temelin, it must focus on civilian nuclear facilities in countries such as Britain and France as well. Many countries want this, for example the Netherlands, Gantelet said. He recalled that Palacio, the EU deputy head in charge of relations with the EP, of transport and energy issues, had reiterated that Temelin raised no apprehensions any more. She made the statement in spite of hostile reactions to it in Austria. She clearly said that Temelin was a nuclear power plant in a good condition and that all necessary works on it had already been completed, Gantelet said. He said it would be difficult for the EC to urge new member countries to stick to nuclear safety standards in a situation where no standards exist on the level of the EU's Western countries. Gantelet conceded that it was not sure whether the EC proposal would win the necessary support in the EU Council. The EC has promoted joint nuclear safety norms for a long time now, but it has not yet succeeded, he said. An unnamed source from the EC told CTK that the main opponents of the joint standards was Britain, and also France, a country strongly dependent on nuclear energy. rtj/mr/ms Copyright © 2002 Financial Times Limited, All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 8 Armenian nuclear plant workers fed up with unpaid wages - paper BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 26, 2002 Text of Ayk Gevorkyan report by Armenian newspaper Aykakan Zhamanak on 26 April entitled "Give us our money" The Armenian Nuclear Power Plant [ANPP] workers will probably soon be considered forces disrupting the stability of the country. The reason is the nonpayment of their wages. The Energy Ministry in a certain sense kept its promise till February of the current year. The workers were paid their current salaries and even two months' arrears. But today the situation is again aggravated. The ANPP workers are owed four months' arrears, not counting April. The aggravation of the situation is caused not so much by months with no salary, but by the psychological atmosphere prevalent today in the ANPP and around it. Workers of the ANPP say that the issue of their wages was earlier linked to the fact that "the minister was replaced, wait a little, and the problem of wages will be regulated". This strategy worked for a while, but today it has exhausted itself, with the resignation of ANPP director Suren Azatyan. Today, the ANPP workers say, they are told: "wait until a new director is appointed and the wages problem will be settled". This strategy will also be exhausted soon. They are already convinced in the ANPP that after the appointment of a new director, they will invent something new in order to justify the nonpayment of wages. In any case, according to our information, soon a statement will be put into circulation at the plant with about two thousand workers, which will be like an ultimatum. It is note ruled out that this ultimatum-statement will have contain elements of political demands. In brief, the workers' patience has run out. Source: Aykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan, in Armenian 26 Apr 02 p2 /© BBC Monitoring ***************************************************************** 9 Austrian court rejects case against Czech Republic over nuclear plant BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 26, 2002 Linz, Austria, 26 April: The Land court in the Upper Austrian town of Linz today rejected Upper Austria's lawsuit against operators of the Czech nuclear power station Temelin, saying that it was not entitled to make a decision on the plant, Upper Austrian official Radko Pavlovec has told CTK... To explain the ruling, the court said that a similar lawsuit was inadmissible on the basis of the international agreement on state immunity. If court proceedings were launched in reaction to the lawsuit, it would inevitably lead to interference in the sovereignty of the Czech Republic and to the violation (by the court) of (the Czech Republic's) right not to be accountable for activities pursued on its own territory, the Linz court judge said... Pavlovec, the Upper Austrian government commissioner for nuclear facilities in border areas, told CTK that the Upper Austrian Land government wanted to appeal [against] the verdict to the High Court in Linz which might decide on the possible returning of the case to the Land Court in two months... The Land Court in Linz started to deal with Upper Austria's lawsuit against Temelin's operators on 5 April 5. Up to now, the court has only considered whether it is authorized to handle the case. It responded the question in the negative in its ruling today... Source: CTK news agency, Prague, in English 1422 gmt 26 Apr 02 /© BBC Monitoring ***************************************************************** 10 Croatian MPs dissatisfied with accord on Krsko nuclear power plant BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 26, 2002 Zagreb, 25 April: MPs and party benches of the opposition's HDZ [Croatian Democratic Union], HSP [Croatian Party of Rights] and the IDS [Istrian Democratic Assembly], as well as those from the ruling coalition (HSLS, HSS [Croatian Social Liberal Party, Croatian Peasants' Party]) on Thursday evening [25 April] said that the agreement [with Slovenia] on the nuclear power plant Krsko was contrary to the interests of Croatian citizens and that Croatia did not need it. Last night the parliament discussed a bill on the ratification of an agreement on the Krsko power plant, which is to be voted on today. The HSP/HKDU (Croatian Party of Rights/Croatian Christian Democratic Union) bench claims that the government has signed a contract which is contrary to laws prohibiting the import of nuclear materials and which binds Croatia to manage half the nuclear waste from the plant. Tonci Tadic of the HSP/HKDU bench said that the dismantling of the plant would cost Croatia at least half a billion dollars, and added that those who supported the agreement were either incompetent or were lobbying for somebody's interests. The HDZ bench believes Slovenia should take over the whole plant after compensating Croatia for its share. The HSS bench urged the government to consider the consequences of the agreement. Dorica Nikolic of the Social Liberals (HSLS) reminded that Sabor's [Assembly's] primary task was to protect the interests of Croatian citizens. Croatia should say that it does not want the plant, give its share away, but demand that the plant be closed down, she said. Although they attended the session, the Social Democrats (SDP) did not voice their stand on the agreement. The parliament last night also concluded a debate on a draft on approving a decision on the dynamics of privatization of the INA oil company. Source: HINA news agency, Zagreb, in English 0910 gmt 26 Apr 02 /© BBC Monitoring ***************************************************************** 11 Deputy minister addresses Croatian Assembly debate on Krsko accord bill BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 26, 2002 Zagreb, 26 April: Croatian parliament on Thursday evening [25 April] started a discussion on a bill on the ratification of a Croatian-Slovene agreement regulating the status and other legal relations concerning the nuclear power plant Krsko, and a joint statement on the agreement. The agreement, which was signed last year, should regulate the long-term provision of significant amounts of power to Croatia thus postponing the need for new investments. Each country should obtain equal amounts of power produced at Krsko, totalling around 2.5 billion kilowatt-hours per year. Croatia should start receiving the power as of 1 July this year. Production costs would be covered equally by both countries. The most important fact is that Croatia can control production costs, said Deputy Economy Minister Maja Brinar. By being able to co-manage the plant, Croatia will make efforts to make the power as cheap as possible, without jeopardizing the safety of the plant, she said. Brinar added that the plant contained some radioactive parts and that they would remain there at least by [until] 2023, when the plant is to be closed down. By that time, the two countries will have to decide what to do with the waste. The bill on the ratification of the agreement on Krsko is in the first reading. Source: HINA news agency, Zagreb, in English 0846 gmt 26 Apr 02 /© BBC Monitoring ***************************************************************** 12 Ukraine Nuclear scare on Chernobyl date CNN.com - - April 26, 2002 The Chernobyl nuclear disaster is marked with a candle ceremony each year KIEV, Ukraine -- Europe's largest atomic power station has partially closed down over safety fears on the anniversary of the world's worst nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. The Zaporizhia plant in the Ukraine was forced to close one of its reactors on Thursday after a major electricity cable in the safety system was damaged, the state nuclear company Energoatom said in a statement. The incident at Reactor 3 comes on the 16th anniversary of another Ukrainian nuclear incident, Chernobyl, in which 28 workers died in the immediate aftermath of the plant's explosion and fire. No radiation leaks were reported in the latest incident and the reactor is expected to reopen on Saturday. Three of Zaporizhia's six reactors are already shut down for repairs. An 18-mile exclusion zone was set up around Chernobyl by the then Soviet regime and outsiders have been barred from the area although some locals still remain in the area. The plant exploded on April 26, 1986, sending a radioactive cloud over much of Europe. It was closed permanently in December 2000. Health officials are alarmed at government plans to build on the site despite it still being contaminated with radiation. Millions affected Incidents of Chernobyl cancer-related illnesses are on the increase with thyroid cancer cases increasing from 119 in 1986 to 3,022 last year. Those worst affected appear to be the young, with more than 2,100 people under 18 at the time of the accident having undergone thyroid surgery over the past 16 years. Redevelopment was first broached earlier this year when the United Nations urged the 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 programme should be approved by parliament this year. However, Chernobyl victims' groups have expressed scepticism 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. Hundreds of people gathered in the nearby town of Slavutych at 1:23 a.m. on Thursday with candles and flowers for their annual memorial to the Chernobyl victims. The portraits of the 26 men and two women who died are etched into the low, grey granite wall in the square commemorating workers who were killed. Back to the top© 2002 Cable News Network LP, LLLP. ***************************************************************** 13 Ukraine mourns Chernobyl victims online.ie : News The Irish Examiner 26 Apr 2002 By Marina Sysoyeva, Kiev 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 contaminated with radiation. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant was the site of world's worst atomic catastrophe on April 26, 1986, when its fourth reactor 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' in the capital Kiev. Tetiana Suprunova's husband was among the 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 30km of the nuclear plant was evacuated soon after the accident and has been closed off for years. A recent UN report has 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. However, representatives of non-governmental Chernobyl victims' groups expressed scepticism about redeveloping the isolated zone stressing victims' social needs should be the first priority. Emergency Situations Minister Vasyl Durdynets said on Wednesday the current social arrears to Chernobyl victims are 130m, according to the Interfax news agency. Ukraine's post-Soviet government estimates the accident affected 3.3 million Ukrainians, including 1.5 million children. Tens of thousands of people disabled by Chernobyl-related illnesses have insufficient health care, and 25,000 evacuated families are waiting for housing. Victims groups say they need special social support because of their health problems and because they were forced to evacuate their homes in the contaminated zone. The head of the Chernobyl Invalids' Fund Anatoliy Vovk said the worst affected of the 95,500 disabled victims receive a monthly pension of about €45. The government's debt to Chernobyl victims is €110m, he said. ***************************************************************** 14 Ukraine Appeals to World: Do Not Forget Chernobyl News Fri Apr 26,10:14 AM ET By Elizabeth Piper KIEV, Ukraine (Reuters) - Ukraine appealed to the world on Friday not to forget Chernobyl and its victims who still need help 16 years after the world's worst nuclear disaster spewed clouds of radioactivity across much of Europe. President Leonid Kuchma, Prime Minister Anatoly Kinakh and other officials laid flowers at a symbolic burial mound in Ukraine's capital Kiev, paying tribute to those who died after Chernobyl's reactor four exploded on April 26, 1986. Carrying flowers, officials lit candles for the dead at a church built to commemorate the accident. Hours earlier hundreds of Ukrainians had gathered there with their heads bowed as bells tolled shortly after one in the morning -- the time of the explosion. "The Chernobyl catastrophe should never be wiped from human memory," the government said in a state newspaper. It urged human and financial support for the people involved in the clean-up -- so-called liquidators -- and other victims. "We call upon voluntary organizations, funds, every concerned citizen to show understanding and help heal the painful problems of the liquidators...those who were evacuated from their birthplaces, invalids and families who lost breadwinners as a result of the accident at Chernobyl." Dozens of women laid red carnations at the burial mound, silent and thoughtful as yet another year passes with Ukraine, neighboring Belarus and Russia unable to overcome the consequences of the accident. SCARS HAVE NOT HEALED Thousands of miles of land bear the scars of the fall-out, with meat, water and milk showing dangerously high levels of radiation. Struck by poverty, many Ukrainian pick mushrooms and berries from contaminated fields and forests. The Chernobyl explosion, which killed just over 30 firefighters at the time, has been blamed for thousands of deaths due to radiation-linked illness and for a huge increase in thyroid cancer. Health specialists have warned that genetic mutations and contaminated food could lead to a new generation of Chernobyl victims and prolong the tragedy for years to come. One academic, Dmitry Hrodzinsky, also said he believed the concrete tomb now encasing the ruined reactor was unsafe, allowing radioactive dust to seep into the environment -- a statement officials denied. Officials at the plant agree the reactor needs another covering, dubbed a second shelter, but say radiation levels are decreasing and the ruined reactor poses little threat. "Today the situation at the station is stable," Volodymyr Kholoshcha, head of the Chernobyl zone's administration, said. Ukraine's government said it would strive to make the reactor safe, improve the lives of the accident's victims and revive the contaminated lands but that it needed funds, which officials say the West promised when Chernobyl was shut down in 2000. "We hope that the 16th anniversary of this dreadful event ... will attract the attention of the world community to the global problem of ... protecting the world from future (industrial and ecological) disasters," the government said. "We believe our appeal will reach the hearts of those who understand others' sorrow." Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 15 Chernobyl residents remember disaster, but worry about jobs Fri Apr 26, 5:23 AM ET By TIM VICKERY, Associated Press Writer SLAVUTYCH, Ukraine - many of whom still work at the Chernobyl power station — braved a biting cold to light candles, lay flowers and offer prayers in a memorial service to colleagues, friends and loved ones who died in the world's worst nuclear accident 16 years ago Friday. "We're proud people, I come every year," said Lyubov Rasovova, who was fortunate to have the day off from her job at Chernobyl on April 26, 1986. Every year survivors mark the anniversary in the nearby town of Slavutych at 1:23 a.m., the moment when the explosion hit, spewing radiation across Europe. Rasovova manages a storage facility at Chernobyl and knew many of the 26 men and two women whose portraits are etched into the low, gray granite wall in the square commemorating workers who were killed within days of the explosion. Thousands more people in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia have died from radiation-related illnesses since. While remorse for the past was foremost in people's minds Friday, the insecurity of job losses and the prospect of having to move because of Chernobyl's closure in December 2000 come up quickly in conversations here. About 1,500 people have left Slavutych since 2000 and more flight is expected. The city was built in the aftermath of the accident to house Chernobyl workers forcibly evacuated from homes in the plant's shadow. "The main priority of the city today is survival," said Slavutych Mayor Vladimir Odovichenko. With efforts now focused on disassembling the nuclear plant, Odovichenko is reliant on international assistance for a large portion of his budget. "We are a donor city," he says. For the next two years, Odovichenko expects closure operations to provide many jobs for Slavutych residents, but he dreads future losses of skilled workers who seek jobs elsewhere. Thousands of Slavutych's 25,000 residents still work in "the zone" — a 30-kilometer-radius (18-mile) swath of land that was evacuated soon after the accident and closed off to outsiders for years. However, the mayor is confident that his town — which is just outside the zone — is safe. Despite a lack of work and questionable ecological safety, the decision to move is not an easy one for Slavutych residents as economic conditions have deteriorated throughout Ukraine in recent years. "Before, the Soviet Union helped us, now we don't know what will happen," said Oleksandr Korolov, 50, who has worked at Chernobyl since 1978. Emotional ties also contribute to Slavutych residents' decision to stay put. "What's one to do?" said Rasovova. "I feel comfortable here_ it's my city, my job, my life. I'm used to it not being safe." (tv/adc) Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 16 Russian rights ombudsman calls for more help for Chernobyl victims BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 26, 2002 Moscow, 26 April: Russian Human Rights Commissioner Oleg Mironov has urged the federal authorities to channel more help to the victims of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. "Tens of thousands of people continue living in radioactively contaminated areas due to lack of funding for housing in 'clean' areas," Mironov said in a statement on the 16th anniversary of the tragedy. "Over the past few years, the state has implemented several measures to ensure social protection of the people who participated in the cleanup effort after the accident and those who live in the territories subjected to the radioactive fallout," the statement reads. However, for several years, benefits envisioned by the "Chernobyl Law" have been suspended, the statement reads. Members of the cleanup team are entitled to free cars, interest-free loans to purchase and build housing, and payments from the state mandatory insurance system, the statement reads. "Between 1998 and the end of 2001, court rulings related to the people handicapped in the accident were not carried out due to lack of funding. The funds earmarked by the 2002 budget are unlikely to reimburse the overdue payments, according to reports from constituent parts of the federation," the statement reads. "The Constitutional Court should acknowledge the inconsistency with the constitution of the 'Chernobyl Law', which restricts citizens' rights to the full reimbursement of damage to health caused by the Chernobyl accident," the statement says. Source: Interfax news agency, Moscow, in English 0817 gmt 26 Apr 02 /© BBC Monitoring ***************************************************************** 17 Russian region campaigns for reinstatement of Chernobyl allowances BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 26, 2002 Penza Region was one of those parts of Russia which suffered from the Chernobyl disaster. Olga Loyko has more details. [Correspondent] Ten years ago radioactive contamination by caesium-137 was discovered in six Districts of Penza Region. Two hundred localities with a population of 131,000 people were granted entitlement to Chernobyl allowances. Five years later, in accordance with the Russian government's decision of 18 December 1997, 166 populated localities were excluded from the list of those affected by the disaster. The places which were removed from the list included 22 populated localities where, according to the Penza hydrometeorological centre, the level of radiation exceeded 1 curie per sq.km. The local authorities have repeatedly asked the government of the Russian Federation to amend its decision, so that people living in these parts can again receive Chernobyl money. After all, the consequences of the disaster could have been still more terrible if it were not for the efforts and courage of those who worked at that time outside the walls of the wrecked reactor... Source: Radio Russia, Moscow, in Russian 1300 gmt 26 Apr 02 /© BBC Monitoring ***************************************************************** 18 FirstEnergy Submits Reactor Head Repair Plan To NRC Fri Apr 26,10:36 AM ET NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FE) announced Friday that it has submitted its plan to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission regarding repair of the reactor pressure vessel head at the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station, near Toledo , Ohio . The company's latest plan calls for cutting out the corroded area of the reactor head and welding in a 6-inch thick, corrosion-resistant nickel alloy plate. The plate will be about 17-1/2 inches in diameter and cover the Control Rod Drive Mechanism nozzle opening adjacent to the corroded area, as well as another nozzle opening near the corrosion. An earlier plan called for covering a smaller area of he reactor head. As a result, the total cost of repair is now expected to be approximately $25 million. In earlier estimates the company said repairs would cost $16 million. Net replacement power costs, FirstEnergy said, are expected to be between $10 and $15 million per month through June, and between $20 and $25 million per month for July and August. Copyright (c) 2002 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. ***************************************************************** 19 Independent look sought into woes at Ohio nuke plant By TOM HENRY April 25, 2002 Fifteen citizens groups have jointly petitioned government regulators for an independent, third-party review of unprecedented corrosion problems at Davis-Besse nuclear plant. The review, if granted, could further complicate FirstEnergy Corp.'s effort to restart its beleaguered plant along the Lake Erie shoreline. Even if the request is denied, FirstEnergy said the plant likely will not resume operation until at least September, and it will cost investors $80 million to buy replacement power elsewhere this summer to meet consumer demand. The petition seeking an independent review as allowed by federal law was submitted Wednesday to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's headquarters in Rockville, Md., by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a Washington-based anti-nuclear group. Other groups known for their anti-nuclear views signed on, including the Washington-based Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Greenpeace, and numerous Ohio and Michigan groups. The NRC can reject the request or order the review. FirstEnergy would be required to pick up all costs if a review is ordered, but the government agency would establish parameters of the study and decide who would serve on that panel, NRC officials said. "A neutral team of experts is the very least the people of northern Ohio deserve to ensure the credibility of what FirstEnergy and the NRC are saying," said a statement issued by one of the petitioners, Christine Patronik-Holder of the Safe Energy Communication Council in Ohio. "For too long we've taken their word that the facility was a safe, clean neighbor. It was not. ... It's a violation of our trust," she said. FirstEnergy acknowledged on March 7 that it had found corrosion on Davis-Besse's reactor head. The NRC later said rust - the most extensive found on top of a U.S. nuclear reactor head - was so thick in some places it had to be pried away with crowbars. Leaking boric acid from the reactor is believed to have eaten through the top six inches of carbon steel over a number of years, leaving only a 3/8-inch barrier of stainless steel to hold back the reactor's operating pressure of 2,200 pounds per square inch - something the NRC has said it was not designed to do. NRC inspectors issued a critical report earlier this month, saying the utility had no excuse for letting the reactor head fall into such a condition. The agency said the company failed to pick up on a number of warning signs. Petitioners said they are seeking a review of all equipment that might have been damaged by leaking boric acid, not just the reactor head. (Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.shns.com.) The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 20 Newest Nuclear Reactors Seen as Viable Alternative to Fossil Fuels EarthVision Environmental News COLLEGE PARK, MD, April 26, 2002 - Writing in the April 2002 issue of Physics Today (New Designs for the Nuclear Renaissance, pp. 54-60), researchers say nuclear power plants are increasingly seen as an alternative to fossil fuel power plants for a number of reasons. According to researchers Gail H. Marcus, of the Department of Energy, and Alan E. Levin, of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the shift from fossil fuels to new generation nuclear plants stems from environmental concerns and an interest in enhancing national self sufficiency. When it comes to greenhouse gases, only hydroelectric and nuclear power can generate large amounts of electricity without high emissions say Marcus and Levin, but hydroelectric is impractical for any areas that lack enough flowing water. Nuclear power however, is not dependent on geography they say. In addition, nuclear power got a boost from President George Bush's National Energy Policy, which explicitly supports expansion of nuclear power. The authors point to the newest reactors, called Generation IV machines, which provide a dramatic improvement in design and safety. These types have higher efficiencies, are mechanically simpler than their predecessors, and could process their own waste. The heat generated from the nuclear plant's operations could also be used to provide hot water to local communities and the plants could provide fuel for hydrogen powered cars say the researchers. "We have an initiative called Nuclear Power 2010," explains Marcus, "The goal is to have one or more new plants operating by the end of the decade. That means the commitment has to be made in the next couple of years." ***************************************************************** 21 Chernobyl remembered BBC News | EUROPE | Thursday, 26 April, 2001, 09:19 GMT 10:19 UK In the early hours of 26 April 1986, reactor four at Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power plant began to fail. The following sequence of events resulted in the world's largest ever nuclear disaster, with the fallout from the reactor travelling far beyond the borders of the Soviet Union. Fifteen years on, BBC News Online looks back at the disaster itself and examines the fate of the people and the countryside closest to it. April 1986 The Soviet authorities imposed a danger zone around Chernobyl In the first of two reports from the time, the BBC's Brian Hanrahan talks over pictures released by the Soviet Union from inside the danger zone. At this time the government were saying that a catastrophe was "no longer possible". First pictures of the explosion site The Soviet authorities release the first footage of the plant after the accident. They are reported as blaming the western media for blowing the accident out of proportion. Click here to watch December 2000 Pollution still contaminates land as far away as Scotland 14 years after the catastrophic events of April 1986, Ukraine's government finally bows to international pressure, closing Chernobyl's nuclear power station for good. However, the closure brings little comfort to the victims of the disaster, as the BBC's Rob Parsons reports. April 2001 The suffering continues for the people of Belarus, Russia and the Ukraine On the 15th anniversary of the nuclear explosion, the United Nations appeals for funds to help the victims. While billions of dollars have been pledged to make the reactor safe, the UN says not enough is being done for those who live with the legacy of the disaster, as the BBC's Mike Donkin reports. Click here to watch The forgotten fallout - Eyewitnesses Russian nuclear expert at the scene of the explosion The BBC's Robin Aitken travelled to Chernobyl to meet some of the surviving so called 'liquidators' - those who helped in the immediate aftermath of the disaster and were exposed to the worst effects of the radiation. Click here to watch The forgotten fallout - Health Babies' health has been affected It is estimated that five million people were exposed to radiation from Chernobyl. The health consequences of the disaster are still with us - especially long term problems. Robin Aitken reports on a slow motion health catastrophe. Click here to watch The forgotten fallout - Environment Exclusion zone around Chernobyl Huge swathes of the Ukraine, Belarus and Russia were contaminated by radioactive fallout from Chernobyl. The consequences have been disastrous. Robin Aitken examines the plant's legacy for the countryside that surrounds it. Click here to watch The forgotten fallout - Fears Worker in reactor number three Closure of the plant is hugely symbolic for the west, but for the people who still work in and around the plant, the end of Chernobyl will bring yet more upheaval and change. The BBC's Robin Aitken reports. Click here to watch ***************************************************************** 22 Chernobyl radiation 'on the rise' BBC News | EUROPE | Friday, 26 April, 2002 [Women at the grave of a victim of the Chernobyl disaster] A minute's silence marked the time of the explosion A Ukrainian scientist monitoring the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster has warned that levels of radiation around the destroyed reactor are rising. Dmytro Hrodzynskyy said the concrete sarcophagus placed over the remains of the damaged reactor was failing. Radioactive dust is escaping Professor Dmytro Hrodzynskyy In an interview published to coincide with the 16th anniversary of the world's worst civil nuclear disaster, the respected scientist said the remaining fuel inside the reactor was heating up. But other experts said there was no need to worry about further explosions at the site in the Ukraine. Professor Hrodzynskyy, who heads the Ukrainian Government's commission on radiation security, told the Izvestia newspaper that 24% of babies now born near Chernobyl have birth defects. Thyroid cancer in local children is now 1,000 times more likely than before the disaster, he said. [File photograph showing the devastation after the explosion] Concrete poured over the ruins to seal them is cracking, Professor Hrodzynskyy says The situation could get worse because increasing levels of radiation have been detected leaking from the site's unreliable casing, he claimed. "There is more than one kilometre [0.6 mile] of holes and cracks there," he said. "Fuel is starting to heat up inside the ruined reactor... and radioactive dust is escaping." The concrete sarcophagus - designed to encase the ruins and hundreds of tonnes of nuclear fuel remaining from the 1986 disaster - was built too hastily and is now failing, the professor said. Ukraine is dependent on Western financial aid to maintain the sarcophagus and has complained that is does not have enough to do the job properly, a BBC correspondent says. A spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna said the agency was aware of the general problems of Chernobyl but could only register official reports filed by national agencies. There is no chance of a chain reaction inside the reactor Volodymyr Kholosha, exclusion zone official The head of the Chernobyl exclusion zone, Volodymyr Kholosha, said there was no reason to talk of new dangers. "The Ukrainian and foreign experts who permanently monitor the shelter facility see no cause for concern," he said in response to Professor Hrodzynskyy's interview. "The same has been confirmed by the data received from monitoring equipment." He denied that fuel was heating up inside the crippled reactor. He said the sarcophagus had been designed to allow air in and would be replaced as planned in 2007. "There is no chance of a chain reaction inside the reactor," he said. About 250 people gathered near the ruins on Friday to observe a minute's silence at 0123 (2223 GMT Thursday), the exact time when Chernobyl's nuclear reactor number four blew up 16 years ago. Continuing contamination The explosion spewed clouds of radioactive smoke that spread over much of Europe. Between 15,000 and 30,000 have since died and the United Nations estimates that nearly six million people continue to live in contaminated areas. A 30 km (18-mile) exclusion zone around the site is still maintained though there is some talk of trying to generate tourism opportunities in the area. Chernobyl's other three reactors continued to be used after the accident but the plant was closed down for good in 2000. ***************************************************************** 23 Under the Chernobyl sarcophagus the radiation is more than 2 million curie Pravda.RU Apr, 26 2002 1,800 million people are still occupying the territories that were contaminated with radiation 16 years ago as a result of the explosion of the Chernobyl atomic power station. 52000 people were resettled. The press service of the Emergencies Ministry told about this. In April 1996 19 federation members were contaminated where 3 million people lived. 2.9 million Ga of the farm land were contaminated. After the catastrophe partial replacement of plants and animals was taken place. The forest use was limited. All the people who took part in the elimination of the consequences (about 200000 people)and those who lived in the contaminated areas were granted benefits. In 2000 the legislation was amended to improve the process of benefit granting and it enhanced the material condition of 80 percent of disabled people who suffered from the Chernobyl consequences. The Ministry reported that 27 percent of the people who liquidated the consequences are disabled now. The Ministry stressed that the state views it as a priority to develop the medical treatment of the people on the suffered territories. On April, 26, 1986 the fourth energy block of the Chernobyl atomic power station saw the catastrophe that the history of the atomic energy had never known. The active zone of the reactor was destroyed. For ten days radioactive elements were discharged. The process was stopped when the sarcophagus was set up in November, 1986. The total radiation of the under substances is more than 2 million curie. The catastrophe contaminated 150 000 sq.km. of the territories of the former USSR where 7 million people lived. bbs.newsfromrussia.com ***************************************************************** 24 The Chernobyl accident: What happened BBC News | EUROPE | Chernobyl in 1999: Human error was a major factor Reactor Four at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant began to fail in the early hours of 26 April, 1986. Seven seconds after the operators activated the 20-second shut down system, there was a power surge. The chemical explosions that followed were so powerful that they blew the 1,000 ton cover off the top of the reactor. Design flaws in the power plant's cooling system probably caused the uncontrollable power surge that led to Chernobyl's destruction. An accident has occurred at Chernobyl nuclear power station. One of the atomic reactors has been damaged. Measures are being taken to eliminate the consequences of the accident. Aid is being given to the victims. A government commission has been set up Moscow Radio's first report of the accident, 28 April 1986 Serious mistakes had also been made by the plant operators, who had disengaged several safety and cooling systems and taken other unauthorised actions during tests of electrical equipment. With procedures intended to ensure safe operation of the plant operating less than effectively, the Chernobyl unit was even more vulnerable to unforeseen power discharges. The Chernobyl plant did not have an effective containment structure, and without that protection, radioactive material escaped into the wider environment. The crippled reactor is still encased in a hurriedly constructed concrete sarcophagus, which is growing weaker over time. Contamination The accident that destroyed the reactor in Unit Four killed 31 people almost immediately. [Chernobyl] The plant is sealed now by a concrete and steel sarcophagus Soviet scientists estimate that about 4% of the 190 tons of uranium dioxide products escaped and began to spread unevenly across the surrounding countryside, affected by the vagaries of the weather. Both Soviet and Western scientists agree that most of the contaminating material affected Belarus, but that 40% spread to other nearby areas, including Ukraine. Immediately after the accident, the main health concern involved levels of radio-iodine radiation. Although the 600,000 workers involved in the recovery and clean-up after the accident were exposed to high doses of radiation, the exact amount cannot be accurately measured. The workers, many of them volunteers, were not equipped with measuring instruments to monitor the dosages they were receiving, but estimates of about 165 millisieverts have been made. Doses of radiation above 10 millisieverts pose significant threats to the human body. The first Russian media report of the accident came two days after it occurred, and was the fourth item in Moscow Radio's evening news bulletin. The initial media cover-up of the scale of the accident, which happened a year after Mikhail Gorbachev came to power, helped give rise to the programme of Glasnost (Openness) and Perestroika (Reconstruction) which led ultimately to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Evacuation Soviet authorities started evacuating people from the area around Chernobyl within 36 hours of the accident. It is estimated that five million people were exposed to radiation A month later, all those living within a 30 kilometre (18 mile) radius of the plant - about 116,000 people - had been relocated. Several international organisations have studied the environmental and health impacts of the Chernobyl accident. The World Health Organisation says that, so far, there has been a large increase in thyroid cancer among children in the affected areas. It is estimated that five million people were exposed to radiation in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. ***************************************************************** 25 Chernobyl residents remember disaster, but worry about jobs AP Fri Apr 26, 5:23 AM ET By TIM VICKERY, Associated Press Writer SLAVUTYCH, Ukraine - many of whom still work at the Chernobyl power station — braved a biting cold to light candles, lay flowers and offer prayers in a memorial service to colleagues, friends and loved ones who died in the world's worst nuclear accident 16 years ago Friday. "We're proud people, I come every year," said Lyubov Rasovova, who was fortunate to have the day off from her job at Chernobyl on April 26, 1986. Every year survivors mark the anniversary in the nearby town of Slavutych at 1:23 a.m., the moment when the explosion hit, spewing radiation across Europe. Rasovova manages a storage facility at Chernobyl and knew many of the 26 men and two women whose portraits are etched into the low, gray granite wall in the square commemorating workers who were killed within days of the explosion. Thousands more people in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia have died from radiation-related illnesses since. While remorse for the past was foremost in people's minds Friday, the insecurity of job losses and the prospect of having to move because of Chernobyl's closure in December 2000 come up quickly in conversations here. About 1,500 people have left Slavutych since 2000 and more flight is expected. The city was built in the aftermath of the accident to house Chernobyl workers forcibly evacuated from homes in the plant's shadow. "The main priority of the city today is survival," said Slavutych Mayor Vladimir Odovichenko. With efforts now focused on disassembling the nuclear plant, Odovichenko is reliant on international assistance for a large portion of his budget. "We are a donor city," he says. For the next two years, Odovichenko expects closure operations to provide many jobs for Slavutych residents, but he dreads future losses of skilled workers who seek jobs elsewhere. Thousands of Slavutych's 25,000 residents still work in "the zone" — a 30-kilometer-radius (18-mile) swath of land that was evacuated soon after the accident and closed off to outsiders for years. However, the mayor is confident that his town — which is just outside the zone — is safe. Despite a lack of work and questionable ecological safety, the decision to move is not an easy one for Slavutych residents as economic conditions have deteriorated throughout Ukraine in recent years. "Before, the Soviet Union helped us, now we don't know what will happen," said Oleksandr Korolov, 50, who has worked at Chernobyl since 1978. Emotional ties also contribute to Slavutych residents' decision to stay put. "What's one to do?" said Rasovova. "I feel comfortable here_ it's my city, my job, my life. I'm used to it not being safe." (tv/adc) Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 26 Nuclear reactor malfunctions in Ukraine AP Fri Apr 26, 4:20 AM ET KIEV, Ukraine - A reactor at Ukraine's Zaporizhia nuclear power plant was shut down after a malfunction in the safety system, officials said Friday. The plant's No. 3 reactor was shut down late Thursday after a major electricity cable of the safety system was damaged, the state nuclear company Energoatom said in a statement. No radiation leaks were reported and the reactor was expected to restart its work Saturday. The Zaporizhia plant, which operates six reactors, is Europe's largest atomic power facility. Currently, three of its reactors are undergoing repairs. The news of the latest malfunction came as Ukraine marked the 16th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear catastrophe, the April 26, 1986 explosion and fire at the Chernobyl power plant. The accident spewed radiation over then-Soviet Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and parts of Europe. Ukraine shut Chernobyl down for good in 2000. (ms/adc) Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 27 Ukraine Appeals to World: Do Not Forget Chernobyl Fri Apr 26,10:14 AM ET By Elizabeth Piper KIEV, Ukraine (Reuters) - Ukraine appealed to the world on Friday not to forget Chernobyl and its victims who still need help 16 years after the world's worst nuclear disaster spewed clouds of radioactivity across much of Europe. President Leonid Kuchma, Prime Minister Anatoly Kinakh and other officials laid flowers at a symbolic burial mound in Ukraine's capital Kiev, paying tribute to those who died after Chernobyl's reactor four exploded on April 26, 1986. Carrying flowers, officials lit candles for the dead at a church built to commemorate the accident. Hours earlier hundreds of Ukrainians had gathered there with their heads bowed as bells tolled shortly after one in the morning -- the time of the explosion. "The Chernobyl catastrophe should never be wiped from human memory," the government said in a state newspaper. It urged human and financial support for the people involved in the clean-up -- so-called liquidators -- and other victims. "We call upon voluntary organizations, funds, every concerned citizen to show understanding and help heal the painful problems of the liquidators...those who were evacuated from their birthplaces, invalids and families who lost breadwinners as a result of the accident at Chernobyl." Dozens of women laid red carnations at the burial mound, silent and thoughtful as yet another year passes with Ukraine, neighboring Belarus and Russia unable to overcome the consequences of the accident. SCARS HAVE NOT HEALED Thousands of miles of land bear the scars of the fall-out, with meat, water and milk showing dangerously high levels of radiation. Struck by poverty, many Ukrainian pick mushrooms and berries from contaminated fields and forests. The Chernobyl explosion, which killed just over 30 firefighters at the time, has been blamed for thousands of deaths due to radiation-linked illness and for a huge increase in thyroid cancer. Health specialists have warned that genetic mutations and contaminated food could lead to a new generation of Chernobyl victims and prolong the tragedy for years to come. One academic, Dmitry Hrodzinsky, also said he believed the concrete tomb now encasing the ruined reactor was unsafe, allowing radioactive dust to seep into the environment -- a statement officials denied. Officials at the plant agree the reactor needs another covering, dubbed a second shelter, but say radiation levels are decreasing and the ruined reactor poses little threat. "Today the situation at the station is stable," Volodymyr Kholoshcha, head of the Chernobyl zone's administration, said. Ukraine's government said it would strive to make the reactor safe, improve the lives of the accident's victims and revive the contaminated lands but that it needed funds, which officials say the West promised when Chernobyl was shut down in 2000. "We hope that the 16th anniversary of this dreadful event ... will attract the attention of the world community to the global problem of ... protecting the world from future (industrial and ecological) disasters," the government said. "We believe our appeal will reach the hearts of those who understand others' sorrow." Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. ***************************************************************** 28 'N-medicine units are violating safety norms' The Times of India; Apr 26, 2002 MUMBAI: The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has noted cases of negligence in nuclear medicine establishments around the country. Though the transgressions are not major, the AERB is taking them seriously. The AERB has inspected 28 nuclear medicine units over the past two years. ''The overall safety status of the nuclear medicine laboratories is satisfactory,'' chairperson of the AERB Dr K.S. Parthasarthy told TNN. But the violations cause concern because ``though the dose is low and within limits, it's not as low as reasonably achievable__called the ALARA principle.'' The AERB has indefinitely stopped nuclear medicine procedures in one hospital because it lacks facilities for high-dose therapy. In three instances, the licences were suspended for three months. The AERB has uncovered indiscretions in each of the 28 units. India has 117 nuclear medicine units. Radio isotopes are increasingly being used as a key diagnostic tool in problems related to the heart, liver, kidney and brain, and to treat thyroid cancers. Among the most commonly used radio isotopes used are iodine 131, technetium 99m, thallium 201 and gallium. India has adopted the safety provisions recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection. The material to be used by the units is sold by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre or imported. But, while handling it, many norms are flouted by the units, the AERB says. Among the transgressions observed by the AERB's inspection team were unsafe work practices, improper storage of radioactive wastes and submission of false information. ``There is an overall absence of a safety culture,'' Dr Parthasarathy said. While one unit had shifted from its approved place without intimating the AERB, the radiation measuring equipment at another unit was not up to the mark. The equipment measures ambient radiation level. In two instances, the AERB team found that the patients were not isolated after treatment as required. ``It is important to isolate the patient for a few days until he reaches the permitted radiation level at which he can be released. The patient releases excess radiation by discharging it through his stools and body fluids. But we found patients were being walked through crowded corridors in one case, and in another, the patient was being sent to the isolation room in an autorickshaw,'' Dr Parthasarathy said. A few workers were found to be not using their personal dosemeters, which measure the radiation levels they are exposed to. Many worked without gloves, contaminating their hands, while in several instances, employees were smoking and eating freely in these facilities. One unit disposed of waste in a cardboard box instead of a foot-operated waste bin as recommended, and another did not have a table with an impervious surface. While these transgressions are not alarming, the tendency to ignore precautions could lead to serious violations like spillage__as happened in a hospital some time ago where a worker's badge caught the radiation__or carelessness, or overdose to a patient. ''There is definitely a case for augmented inspections on the basis of what we have seen,'' said Dr Parthasarathy. To put the issue in perspective, the application of nuclear medicine in India is modest compared to developed countries like the U.S. While India has only 160 nuclear medicine physicians and 220 technologists in the field, the U.S. has over 2,700 physicians and 14,000 technologists. ''Compared to other countries, we certainly have fewer applications. But in terms of hazards, we must maintain radiation standards as high as those in the developed countries,'' Dr Parthasarathy said. Moreover, given the growth of this field__the number of nuclear medicine units has doubled over the past two decades__the AERB feels it is high time safety rated high on their priority list. ***************************************************************** 29 Work to improve nuclear safety progresses, U.N. group says Fri Apr 26,12:01 PM ET VIENNA, Austria - Work to improve nuclear safety is progressing, the U.N. nuclear watchdog group said Friday. "The commitment of states to all aspects of nuclear safety is higher than ever," said Miroslav Gregoric, president of a meeting hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The meeting in Vienna was the second review meeting for the Convention on Nuclear Safety, which requires signatories to follow U.N. rules in areas such as design, construction and operation of nuclear plants. The convention, signed by 65 countries and ratified by 54 national legislatures, went into force in 1996. "There is a real dedication to international information sharing, learning from the lessons of others and to constant vigilance and improvement, focusing more on human and organizational aspects and safety management — the key ingredients of nuclear safety culture," Gregoric said in a statement issued at the end of the meeting. In the statement, Gregoric said participants had noted that signatories now are more open and file better reports. "We also identified certain trends which require our special attention, particularly with regard to safety management and safety culture, plant aging, and upgrading and effectiveness of regulatory practices, as well as maintaining competence and knowledge in the industry, regulatory bodies and research institutions," he said. Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 30 New York on nuclear alert after blast Times Online April 26, 2002 From James Bone in New York NEW YORK was seized by fears of a “dirty bomb” terrorist attack yesterday after an apparently accidental explosion ripped through a commercial building, injuring dozens, at least six critically. Manhattan hospitals were put on full disaster alert and prepared to decontaminate incoming victims from radiation, with at least one scanning them with a Geiger counter. Fearing a new terrorist attack, the FBI and the New York bomb squad swooped on the ten-storey building on West 19th Street in response to the blast shortly before noon. The surrounding streets were cordoned off and emergency crews and more than 100 firefighters set up a triage centre on the pavement for dozens of walking wounded. St Vincent’s Hospital, which treated the injured from the World Trade Centre on September 11, declared its top “Code Three” disaster alert as its safety officer monitored arriving victims for radiation in a decontamination area. Federal officials gave warning recently that al-Qaeda may be trying to develop a radiological device, or “dirty bomb”, for attacks in the United States. Six people were admitted to the hospital in “very critical condition” with head wounds and burns, after the blast which injured up to 50. Windows along the block were blown out by the force of the explosion and several of the injured were hit by flying glass. More than 100 firefighters were called to the scene. But Dr Richard Westfal, the associate director of St Vincent Hospital’s emergency room, said: “There was no evidence of any weapons of mass destruction or anything like that. It looked like just an explosion.” The blast rattled nearby buildings and was initially thought to have occurred in the Apex Technical School on the corner of West 19th Street and 6th Ave. The school was not damaged. Bill Beek, who lives a half-block away, said: “It was a real giant boom, It sounded like an airplane crashing.” One eyewitness, Alan Awol, said: “I heard a big explosion. The whole third floor had collapsed. People were stuck on the third floor. They looked like they were hysterical, like they wanted to jump out.” Scott Bonilla, a student at the technical school, said he was inside the building when it began shaking. “They told us to rush out of the building,” he said. Stuart Markowitz, who runs the school’s education department, said: “It was just a really loud noise. Some of our windows did get blown out.” Michael Bloomberg, the New York Mayor, said: “At the moment I want to assure that there is absolutely no reason to think this is anything other than a tragic accident, and we hope there is no loss of life.” Like the jet crash near John F. Kennedy airport late last year, the blast rattled New Yorkers’ nerves and offered another test of the city’s revamped emergency response system. Nicholas Scoppetta, the New York Fire Commissioner, said that the explosion occurred in the basement of the building, which houses a company that makes signs. He said the company received shipments of volatile materials in 50-gallon drums on Wednesday but could not say if those were the cause of the explosion. According to earlier reports, the New York City building department had received a complaint about unauthorised construction at the site and inspectors had issued a “stop-work” order on Tuesday. Despite the ban, work apparently continued. www.thetimes.co.uk ***************************************************************** 31 Ohio Nuke Workers May Face Danger Las Vegas SUN April 25, 2002 TOLEDO, Ohio- A nuclear power plant's radiation detection equipment was improperly set and may have allowed workers to carry tiny radioactive particles outside on their clothing, federal regulators said. Five workers left the Davis-Besse nuclear plant about a month ago with the particles, said FirstEnergy Corp., which operates the plant near Toledo. The particles don't pose a health risk because they generate radioactivity at a low level, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said. While the situation is unusual, particles have been carried out of other plants before, NRC spokeswoman Viktoria Mitlyng said Thursday. "It's only in past five to 10 years that equipment has been able to pick up the particles," she said. Workers typically wear protective clothing in nuclear plants, then remove their suits in a safe area where they are screened to make sure radioactive particles do not escape. One of three devices used to screen Davis-Besse employees was set to detect whole body counts of radiation instead of the type of particles that stuck to the clothing, the NRC found in a report issued this week. The detection equipment was set to find radiation inside the body, FirstEnergy said. "For what we were using it for, we thought it was adequately calibrated," FirstEnergy spokesman Richard Wilkins said. The plant has been shut down for refueling since February and during that time inspectors found leaks allowed boric acid to eat a hole in the 6-inch thick steel cap that covers the plant's reactor vessel. It will remain shut down until at least September. The contract workers who carried out the particles had been in a highly radioactive area of the plant and were working on a steam generator. On the Net: Nuclear Regulatory Commission: www.nrc.gov http://www.firstenergycorp.com [http://www.firstenergycorp.com] All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 32 54 Browns Ferry workers exposed to radioactive gas Tennessee Valley Authority officials say an accident at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant Wednesday that exposed 54 workers to radioactive gas posed no threat to anyone outside the facility near Athens. "None of the gas left the building or escaped into the environment. There was no danger to the public or other TVA employees," said Craig Beasley, a spokesman for Browns Ferry. The accident occurred around midnight Wednesday as workers removed parts from the Unit 2 reactor, which had been shut down Tuesday for refueling, Beasley said. The workers had removed the top of the reactor to provide access to internal parts. As they removed a part known as a moisture separator, low-level radioactive gas was released, he said. Water inside the reactors absorbs radioactive gas produced during the nuclear reaction that produces the steam used to power the electricity generators at the plant, he said. "The workers who were exposed to the gas apparently received less than 50 millirems of exposure. That is far below the annual allowable limit of 5,000 millirems for nuclear workers," Beasley said. A millirem is a measurement of radiation exposure. Most Americans receive 250 to 300 millirems per year of radiation exposure from natural sources such as the sun, soil and air, according to Beasley. A dental X-ray exposes the recipient to about 9 millirems, he added. Beasley said the workers exposed to the radioactivity were back at work Thursday. The accident occurred less than a month after four workers at Browns Ferry were burned by a high-voltage electrical arc during a refueling outage of the Unit 3 reactor. The March 26 accident was blamed on a worker placing a copper grounding cable to near an energized portion of a 4,160-volt circuit breaker. The burned workers are recovering from their injuries at home after being treated at UAB Hospital in Birmingham, Beasley said. The electrical accident occurred in the turbine room and posed no threat for radioactive material to be released, Beasley said. Although the low-level radiation released during Wednesday's accident did not require TVA to file a report with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency was notified of the accident, Beasley said. Ken Clark, spokesman for the NRC's Atlanta office, said the accident appears to have been minor. "We do not expect any of the workers who were exposed to have any adverse health effects," Clark said. "The workers can continue working in the area where the accident occurred." Clark said the workers included employees of TVA and contractors called in to help with the refueling and maintenance outage. The workers exposed to the radiation were decontaminated before being allowed to leave the plant, he said. Beasley said TVA will monitor the health of the exposed workers for about two weeks. Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said Wednesday's accident is a reminder of the dangers of nuclear power. "TVA is trying to convince everyone that everything is peachy at Browns Ferry and it should be given permission to run the reactors longer and harder than they were designed for and to recover an idled reactor," Smith said. "But this is the second serious accident there in less than a month, and it shows that things aren't so peachy there." Smith, of Knoxville, Tenn., is an outspoken critic of nuclear power. TVA is considering restarting the Unit 1 reactor at Browns Ferry, which was shut down in 1985 because of safety concerns. A decision on the restart is expected by late June. TVA leaders have said restarting the reactor could help the utility meet future power needs of the Valley. The federal utility is also considering asking the NRC to extend the operating licenses for all three reactors at the plant. The original licenses are for 40 years. The Unit 1 license is schedule to expire in 2013 with Units 2 and 3 ending in 2014 and 2016 respectively. TVA contends it can safely operate the reactors beyond their original life expectancy. Smith said workers rushing to complete the refueling outages might be a factor in the Browns Ferry accidents. TVA set a record for the shortest refueling outage at a nuclear plant in the United States when it returned the Unit 3 reactor to service in 14 days, 16 hours on April 10. It broke a record of 15 days, 15 hours that was held by Florida Power and Light. "It appears that in the rush for outage shortness, TVA is compromising the safety of its workers and the health of people in the community," Smith said. Beasley said TVA would never risk the safety of its employees or Valley residents to reduce the time of a refueling or maintenance outage. He said neither accident was a result of employees trying to do their job too fast. Dennis Sherer can be reached at 740-5746 or dennis.sherer@-timesdaily.com [dennis.sherer@-timesdaily.com] . Copyright © 2002 TimesDaily ***************************************************************** 33 Radiation Sends Volusia Workers To Hospital NewsChannel2000 Hazmat Team Will Decontaminate Workers Updated: 12:55 p.m. EDT April 25, 2002 DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Three workers at a New Smyrna Beach Utilities site on U.S. Highway 1 in New Smyrna Beach were tested for radiation exposure Thursday. As many as six workers discovered the exposure after they took some materials to a salvage yard in Holly Hill and ran a Geiger counter over them, according to Volusia County public information officer Dave Byron. The workers learned they may have been exposed and drove to Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach for treatment, where they are quarantined, Byron said. The Environmental Protection Agency was called to the New Smyrna Beach site and confirmed radioactive contamination in the soil, officials said. Hospital officials said at least three of the workers tested negative for radiation, and officials determined further tests were not needed. A hazmat team was called to the hospital to perform a decontamination treatment, according to EVAC ambulance representative Mark O'Keefe. Stay with WESH NewsChannel 2 and NewsChannel2000.com for further details. To comment on this story, send an e-mail to Dave McDaniel [Dave.McDaniel@wesh.com] . Copyright 2002 by NewsChannel2000 [orlnews@ibsys.com] ***************************************************************** 34 Work to improve nuclear safety progresses, U.N. group says AP Fri Apr 26,12:01 PM ET VIENNA, Austria - Work to improve nuclear safety is progressing, the U.N. nuclear watchdog group said Friday. "The commitment of states to all aspects of nuclear safety is higher than ever," said Miroslav Gregoric, president of a meeting hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The meeting in Vienna was the second review meeting for the Convention on Nuclear Safety, which requires signatories to follow U.N. rules in areas such as design, construction and operation of nuclear plants. The convention, signed by 65 countries and ratified by 54 national legislatures, went into force in 1996. "There is a real dedication to international information sharing, learning from the lessons of others and to constant vigilance and improvement, focusing more on human and organizational aspects and safety management — the key ingredients of nuclear safety culture," Gregoric said in a statement issued at the end of the meeting. In the statement, Gregoric said participants had noted that signatories now are more open and file better reports. "We also identified certain trends which require our special attention, particularly with regard to safety management and safety culture, plant aging, and upgrading and effectiveness of regulatory practices, as well as maintaining competence and knowledge in the industry, regulatory bodies and research institutions," he said. Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 35 Science magazine: politics has pre-empted science in assessing Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2002 09:46:19 -0500 (CDT) Independent study says politics has pre-empted science in assessing risks of Yucca Mountain Friday, April 26, 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 human-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." Copyright 2002, Associated Press ***************************************************************** 36 Guinn says better reaction from Congress this time Nevada Appeal April 26, 2002 Geoff Dornan Gov. Kenny Guinn says he was much happier with the reaction from members of Congress this time than the last time he testified against Yucca Mountain. Guinn made the comments after speaking before the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee subcommittees on railroads, transportation and hazardous materials about the dangers of moving high level nuclear waste across the U.S. "It was entirely the opposite of the energy commission," he said. "Only one person came out and said we want it out of Michigan and taken to Yucca Mountain," he said. "Nine or 10 to one were saying, 'We're concerned about Yucca Mountain and maybe it shouldn't be moved along as fast.'" He said he doesn't believe the members who attended Thursday's hearing were under nearly as much influence from the nuclear power industry. And he credited Nevada congressional members Jim Gibbons and Shelley Berkley for helping get Nevada's arguments to those subcommittee members about the dangers of transporting the waste. Guinn repeated Nevada's complaints that Yucca Mountain is "the product of extremely bad science, extremely bad law and extremely bad public policy." He told members of those subcommittees moving tons of nuclear waste across the country to Nevada "will expose tens of millions of Americans to unnecessary nuclear transport risks." He repeated Nevada's claims that the conclusions used to support selection of Yucca Mountain by the Energy Department and President George Bush are not based on sound science. Copyright Nevada Appeal. Materials contained within this site may ***************************************************************** 37 UK: 1.3 million Sellafield postcards are on their way to Blair Irish Newspapers - MORE than a million postcards will be delivered to British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Prince of Wales tomorrow as part of the country's bid to have the Sellafield nuclear installation closed down for good. People throughout the Republic posted the cards after weeks of campaigning against the plant backed by celebrities such as soccer international Roy Keane and pop stars Ronan Keating and Samantha Mumba. The 1.3m postcards were set to reach their final destinations in London tomorrow on the 16th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster which devastated the USSR and sent toxic clouds throughout Europe. The Shut Sellafield campaign, spearheaded by Ali Hewson, wife of U2 star Bono, urged people to express fears that the Cumbrian nuclear power and reprocessing plant threatened Ireland's environment and offered an easy potential target for terrorists to attack following the September 11 attacks in the United States. The cards will be delivered to 10 Downing Street and St James's Palace by the Royal Mail this morning. Others were heading for Norman Askew, head of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd which operates Sellafield. Hewson was delighted with the response, which came despite celebrity-led television commercials being cancelled under an Irish law which bans political advertising outside of election times. She said: "I am very proud to be Irish. The response from the Irish nation to the Shut Sellafield campaign has been overwhelming. "Over 1.3 million people in this country have expressed their desire to close the reprocessing plant, which is a very strong message to the British Government," she added. The postcards being sent to Mr Blair show an eye and carry the message: "Tony, look me in the eye and tell me I am safe." The card sent to the Prince at St James's Palace shows an image of the country suffering the fallout of a nuclear disaster at the Sellafield plant. A third shows human lips calling on Mr Askew to "tell us the truth" about the plant. Sellafield has been a contentious issue between Dublin and Westminster for many years. The commissioning of a new mixed oxide (MOX) reprocessing facility at the end of last year provoked outrage in the throughout the country. The country has already taken two international legal actions against the Sellafield. The first was under the Ospar Convention on nuclear emissions and the second was to the Hamburg-based United Nations International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea. Although Ireland failed to win an injunction banning the opening of the MOX plant, it claimed a partial victory after the Hamburg panel ordered Britain not to exacerbate Irish fears. Mark Sage © Copyright Unison ***************************************************************** 38 UK - Million Irish send Sellafield protests NEWS.scotsman.com - Fri 26 Apr 2002 MORE than a million postcards were being delivered to Tony Blair and the Prince of Wales today as part of an Irish bid to have the Sellafield nuclear installation closed down. People throughout the Republic posted the cards after weeks of campaigning backed by celebrities such as soccer international Roy Keane and pop stars Ronan Keating and Samantha Mumba. The 1.3 million postcards were set to reach their final destinations in London today, on the 16th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. The Shut Sellafield campaign, spearheaded by Ali Hewson, wife of U2 star Bono, urged people to express fears that the Cumbrian power and reprocessing plant threatened the Irish environment and offered a target for terrorists. The cards were being delivered to 10 Downing Street and St James’s Palace. Others were heading for Norman Askew, head of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd which operates Sellafield. Ms Hewson said she was delighted with the response, which came despite celebrity-led TV commercials being cancelled under an Irish law which bans political advertising. She said: "The response from the Irish nation to the Shut Sellafield campaign has been overwhelming. "Over 1.3 million people in this country have expressed their desire to close the reprocessing plant." The postcards being sent to Mr Blair show an eye and carry the message: "Tony, look me in the eye and tell me I am safe." ©2002 scotsman.com | contact ***************************************************************** 39 Development of Radioactive Waste Repository Approved EarthVision Environmental News WASHINGTON, April 26, 2002 - The Committee on Energy and Commerce met in an Open Markup Session yesterday and approved the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada for the development of a repository for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel. US Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham, whose Department has been working on a solution for permanently storing radioactive waste for the past two decades, praised the House Energy Committee for its support of the President's recommendation to seek a license for Yucca Mountain, the nation's first nuclear waste repository. DOE plans to use Yucca Mountain for the disposal of 77,000 tons of high-level radioactive waste. "Proceeding with the repository program is necessary to protect public safety, health, and the Nation's security because successful completion of this project would isolate in a geologic repository at a remote location highly radioactive materials now scattered throughout the Nation," said President Bush in a letter to Congress recommending approval of the Yucca Mountain site for development as a nuclear waste facility. "In addition, the geologic repository would support our national security through disposal of nuclear waste from our defense facilities." With this approval in hand, the next step in the process is for Congress to consider the objections of the State of Nevada to using Yucca Mountain for nuclear waste disposal. Then, a scientific and technical review of the repository program would be undertaken through formal licensing proceedings before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). "Congress must now decide whether or not to reject the state of Nevada's disapproval. I believe they should," said Secretary Abraham. "By doing so, the independent experts at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would be allowed to make the final determination on whether or not Yucca Mountain meets the stringent regulatory requirements to serve as the nation's first nuclear waste repository. I believe it does and I believe the NRC will approve Yucca Mountain. "Nothing that the opponents of Yucca Mountain have presented rises to the burden of proof that would not allow the licensing and full review of the science by the NRC to move forward," Abraham said. Earlier this month, after President Bush supported moving ahead with the Yucca Mountain project, Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn filed with both houses of Congress his "Notice of Disapproval," or Veto, of President Bush's recommendation on the project. The power to veto a Presidential decision has never before been given to a state but in 1982, when the idea of using Nevada land to house a nuclear waste repository was firming up, Congress gave Nevada the right to be an active voice in the selection of a location for the permanent storage of this waste. Governor Guinn declared that the Department of Energy's Yucca Mountain project is based on bad science, law, and public policy. In 1987, Congress selected Yucca Mountain as the only site it would study for disposal of this dangerous waste. The Governor contends however that Yucca Mountain lies thousands of miles away from 90 percent of the nation's 110 nuclear power plants from which the waste will come. ***************************************************************** 40 Yucca veto override reaches full House United Press International: By Scott R. Burnell UPI Science News From the Science & Technology Desk Published 4/25/2002 3:23 PM WASHINGTON, April 25 (UPI) -- The full House will have the chance to override Nevada's objections to the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository following Thursday's 41-6 vote by the House Energy and Commerce Committee approving such action. Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., the committee chairman, said he intends to report the bill, House Joint Resolution 87, to the full chamber on May 1. The House is expected to take up the measure the week of May 6, he said. Nevada's veto of the Yucca project must be overruled by Congress within 90 legislative business days of April 8 in order for the site licensing phase to begin. Yucca is vital to continuing the nation's use of nuclear power, which provides about 20 percent of U.S.-generated electricity, Tauzin said. "Whether we like nuclear power or not, we can't do without it," Tauzin told a news conference following the vote. "If we didn't have this 20 percent, we'd all be in the situation California found itself in last year." Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, who originally submitted the bill to the Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee he chairs, said the Yucca debate is not about technical issues. "I'm a registered professional engineer, and I can assure you we can build the repository and manage it safely," Barton told reporters. "What we need to do is convince the undecided out in the public that it is safe; (the vote shows) we're beginning to win that political issue." When he introduced the bill, Barton said he was aiming for 300 "aye" votes on the House floor. The only prediction he would make Thursday was that the measure will easily garner more than the 218 votes needed for passage. Continuing the project is in the nation's best interests, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said at the news conference. If the House passes the resolution, the ball then lands in the Senate's court, where the same measure must pass by a simple majority. "We know there's going to be opposition (in the Senate), but I think the actions here in the House demonstrate the broad bipartisan support we have to move ahead with this process," Abraham said. "At the end of the day, the Senate will follow the House's lead." Yucca's opponents are not conceding the issue, however. During the committee's discussion before the vote, Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., said more than 200 technical issues would remain unresolved when DOE submits a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "Can you imagine the preposterousness of us being given a degree in that subject, with an 'A' for a grade, subject to handing in the final answers over the next four years?" Markey said. "But for the state of Nevada to raise questions about this ... they're being recalcitrant? I don't think so." Representatives Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., Diana DeGette, D-Colo., William Luther, D-Minn., Lois Capps, D-Calif., and Jane Harman, D-Calif., joined Markey in voting against the resolution. Copyright © 2002 United Press International ***************************************************************** 41 House Panel Backs Nevada as Site to Bury Atomic Waste April 26, 2002 By MATTHEW L. WALD Paul Hosefros/The New York Times Representative Billy Tauzin, left, and Representative John D. Dingell, talked yesterday after a vote on burying nuclear waste in Nevada. WASHINGTON, April 25 — A House committee approved today a resolution to move ahead with the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. Another House panel took up the issue that opponents of the Yucca site contend is the weak spot and the issue that most interests people outside Nevada: transportation risks. The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 41 to 6 in favor of a resolution that endorses President Bush's plan to bury nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, which is about 90 miles northwest of the outskirts of Las Vegas. The resolution, which would overrule Nevada's objection to the plan, now goes to the full House, where approval is expected. But the Senate would also have to agree for the site to become a reality, and the fate of the resolution there is uncertain. At the same time, two subcommittees of the House Transportation Committee held a joint hearing at which they took contradictory testimony on whether it would be riskier to ship waste to Nevada or leave it at 131 power reactors, research reactors, laboratories and weapons sites around the country. Edward R. Hamberger, president and chief executive of the Association of American Railroads, the industry's main trade group, said that his industry's safety record for hazardous materials shipments in 2000 was very good, with material accidentally released just once for every 48,000 carloads shipped. In contrast, filling Yucca Mountain to its legal limit would take only about 9,600 car loads, over 24 years, Mr. Hamberger said, and the waste could be moved on special trains with advanced braking and suspension systems that would further reduce the risk. Advocates of the repository said that casks in which the waste would be shipped would very strong and were supposed to withstand temperatures of up to 1,475 degrees fahrenheit for 30 minutes. But Representative Shelley Berkley, Democrat of Nevada, a member of the Transportation Committee, noted that in July 2000 a train carrying hazardous waste caught fire in a tunnel beneath downtown Baltimore. The fire burned for four days at temperatures up to 1,500 degrees. The tunnel is a possible route for wastes coming from the Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant in southern Maryland, Ms. Berkley, said. Another member of the committee, Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of Manhattan, said: "It can be characterized as a class of accidents that occur very rarely, but when they occur, have a potential to be of incredibly catastrophic nature. We shouldn't be tempting them." Sue W. Kelly, a Westchester Democrat whose district includes the Indian Point reactors, was skeptical of the Yucca waste plan. "I'm uncomfortable with the idea of putting the rods on a railroad, shipping them across the United States, and putting them in a mountain," she said, adding that she was interested in storing wastes on the site, in casks that would last for decades or longer. While hundreds of shipments of nuclear waste have been made safely in this country, opponents of the Yucca site said, terrorism is a new risk. "How hard is it to imagine a nuclear U.S.S. Cole incident?" asked Ms. Berkley. James D. Ballard, a consultant for the State of Nevada, submitted testimony that said the shipments would provide terrorists with "a target-rich environment." Opponents and supporters said that to some extent, the transportation argument was only a stalking horse for the question of whether the repository itself would be safe. Mr. Nadler went further, saying that even that issue was simply a debating point in a larger argument about whether nuclear power itself was a good idea. The deputy director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, Lake Barrett, agreed with Mr. Nadler, in a way. Mr. Barrett said that the issue facing Congress was whether to let his agency, part of the Energy Department, proceed as recommended by Mr. Bush to try to win a license for the waste site from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Opponents, he said, had failed to make the case that the Department of Energy should not be allowed to apply for a license. "Instead of addressing the merits of the recommendation," Mr. Barrett said, "these critics have sought to create fear about transportation of spent fuel as a substitute for any real argument." Like the repository plan itself, the transportation concept is difficult for opponents to fight because the Energy Department has not decided on crucial details yet, including whether to ship by trains or trucks. The department has not specified routes, and it is not clear whether rail transport is feasible because it would require a new line, either 99 or 340 miles, depending on the route taken, according to Nevada. Nevada might oppose the tracks. Robert J. Halstead, a transportation specialist at the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, said it would take 108,500 truck trips without a rail line to move the waste to Yucca. With such a rail line, it would take nearly 19,000 rail shipments and 3,100 truck shipments, he said, plus 3,000 barge shipments. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company | Privacy Information ***************************************************************** 42 Rail Crashes Fuel Nuke Waste Transport Criticism News Thu Apr 25, 5:42 PM ET By John Crawley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two deadly rail accidents in the past week and last year's devastating train tunnel fire in Baltimore fueled opposition on Thursday to Bush administration plans to transport the nation's nuclear waste to a permanent storage facility planned for the Nevada desert. "This ill-conceived project will expose tens of millions of Americans to unnecessary nuclear transport risks," Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn told two House transportation subcommittees at a hearing on plans for the $58 billion Yucca Mountain site. As Guinn appealed to lawmakers, the House Energy Committee overwhelmingly approved a resolution to override the governor's veto of the project. The full House is expected to follow suit next month, but Guinn hopes the project will die in the Democratic-led Senate. "According to the Department of Energy (news - web sites)'s own analysis, a single accident scenario could produce thousands of latent cancer fatalities and lead to many billions of dollars in cleanup costs," Guinn said. Under 1982 federal law on nuclear waste disposal, a governor may veto a president's plans to put a depository in his or her state. But the veto can be overridden if both the House and Senate agree to do so on majority votes. But the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, an independent government agency that will have to approve the license to operate Yucca Mountain, assured lawmakers that nuclear waste from commercial power plants could be safely transported by freight rail. "Spent fuel has been safely and securely shipped within the U.S. and around the world for more than 25 years," Carl Paperiello, deputy director of NRC operations, said in a statement. Rep. Vernon Ehelers, a Michigan Republican and physicist, expressed similar confidence, saying the government also ships nuclear weapons without incident. "I think the dangers are overstated," he said. ADMINISTRATION FAVORS FREIGHT RAIL While no final transportation plan has emerged, the Bush administration favors freight rail to haul 3,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel annually to Yucca Mountain from 131 reactor sites in 39 states. It will take roughly 25 years to fill the underground site, according to Energy Department estimates. Because train tracks do not reach all of the nation's nuclear waste storage sites, trucks, barges or both could be used to ship some of the material to rail depots. The nearest set of tracks to Yucca Mountain are 100 miles away. If approved, it will be eight years at least before the first shipments occur, but opposition to the plan is fierce and a large part of it has coalesced around rail safety and, to another degree, potential threats from terrorists seeking to seize radioactive material or detonate it to kill Americans. Several lawmakers pointed to last week's Amtrak derailment in Florida that killed four people and this week's collision between a freight train and a commuter train in Los Angeles that killed two others as proof the U.S. rail system -- where freight and passenger trains share thousands of miles of track -- is not suited to nuclear waste transport on a large scale. Many of the nation's nuclear power plants are in the East, and waste from them would have to be shipped across the country on lines that pass through populated cities and towns. "This never-before-attempted radioactive materials transportation effort would bring with it a constellation of hazards and risks, including potentially serious economic damage and property value losses in cities and communities along shipping routes," said Rep. Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat and former Cleveland mayor. WAKE-UP CALL Other opponents, like Maryland Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings, also said last July's train tunnel fire in Baltimore was a "real wake-up" call to the potential dangers of transporting hazardous waste of any kind by rail. That fire, caused by a freight train derailment, burned for three days and shut down downtown Baltimore for three days. Heat from the fire reached as high as 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. Experts for the state of Nevada said containers holding nuclear waste could be damaged at that temperature. Federal Railroad Administration chief Allan Rutter told the committee that the nation's freight rail system was ideally suited and safe for transporting radioactive waste, which he said would increase sharply in coming years even without Yucca Mountain. But Rutter said the post-Sept. 11 threat from terrorists prompted new security challenges. "Ultimately, the safe movement of (these materials) depends on the application of sound safety regulations, policies and procedures. This requires extensive planning and coordination among federal agencies, state and local governments and commercial transportation companies," he said. Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. ***************************************************************** 43 Energy chief wants to send all nuclear waste to Yucca Friday, April 26, 2002 By Lee Davidson Deseret News Washington correspondent WASHINGTON — Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham says the nation should store all its nuclear waste underground at Nevada's Yucca Mountain because, in part, that would be safer than storing it above ground at Utah's Goshute Indian Reservation. He also says the proposed Goshute facility likely makes moot another argument against Yucca Mountain: that stopping it would prevent unwanted shipments of nuclear waste nationwide and force continued storage on-site at power plants that generate it. "It isn't going to happen that way," he said. "You're going to have the shipping and the transportation to sites like the one being proposed on the Goshute Indian Reservation in Utah. "And we're going to rejoin all of these same issues (of transportation and safety), but not in a coordinated national way." That came at a press conference just after the House Energy and Commerce Committee gave him a big victory — approving use of Yucca Mountain on a lopsided 41-6 vote. Abraham then outlined reasons the full House should do the same. "Where we spent $4 billion determining that we can over a 10,000-year period safely store waste under Yucca Mountain, opponents would have us believe that with no such research . . . we can just leave the waste where it is" or safely have above-ground storage such as that proposed for Utah, he said. Abraham said, "We're being told that you can just go ahead and leave it (nuclear waste) where it is above ground near major population centers and waterways forever. . . . I think that's a preposterous assertion on its face." House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin, R-La., added, for example, that Yucca Mountain was required to study what would happen if an ice age struck in the next 10,000 years — and whether it might allow water to seep into storage. "Imagine what an ice age would do above ground" to storage areas there, Tauzin said, noting that is not being studied. "It's a pretty preposterous question." But such arguments didn't sway at least one opponent of Yucca Mountain — Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah. Matheson asked federal officials in House Science Committee hearings Thursday about plans for emergencies if accidents occur while transporting nuclear waste. "They didn't have good answers. . . . They didn't know who would be in charge," he said. Matheson says it may be wiser to hold off approving Yucca and any transport of waste until such questions are answered. "You never know what new technology may bring," he said, adding that an entirely new and safer storage system could be developed. "I am also just tired of the eastern half of the country dumping on us in the West," he said. "I don't want that waste in Utah, or driving through Utah." Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, also seemed to inch closer to possibly opposing Yucca Mountain. He issued a statement saying, "Until more is known about transportation, long-term safety and a final plan for Yucca Mountain, I think we as Utahns should stand in opposition to nuclear waste carried to or through Utah." Others in the Utah delegation have at times voted in support of Yucca Mountain. All, however, oppose the Goshute proposal. Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of nuclear power plants, has contracted with the Goshute tribe to store spent fuel rods on the reservation for up to 40 years until a permanent facility is built. Its application for a federal license is under review. Its critics say such storage would likely become permanent. President Bush formally approved in February plans for Yucca Mountain as a permanent federal storage site. However, Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn "vetoed" that as allowed under federal law. That law allows a simple majority vote of both Houses of Congress to overturn Guinn's action. The measure is expected to reach the full House within two weeks, and go later to the Senate. E-MAIL: lee@desnews.com © 2002 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 44 Nevada Offers Nuclear License Plates April 26, 2002 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 5:52 a.m. ET LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Even as Nevada officials fight against their state becoming the nation's nuclear waste dump, authorities are offering license plates depicting a nuclear blast. The fund-raising plate, which honors Nevada's atomic past, has been criticized as ill-timed and inappropriate. Others don't mind the idea of cars with mushroom-cloud license plates sharing roads with tractor-trailers hauling radioactive waste. ``Nevada being Nevada, this is a unique subject,'' said Rick Bibbero, 55, a real estate agent who won $500 with his design for the license tag. Besides the mushroom cloud, the brown and purple plates show the nucleus-and-atom logo for atomic energy and Albert Einstein's formula for the theory of relativity. Nuclear testing was conducted above and below ground from 1952 to 1992 at the Nevada Test Site, the federal reservation north of Las Vegas that, at 1,375 square miles, is larger than Rhode Island. More than 100,000 workers helped develop the nation's nuclear arsenal in Nevada, and more than 800 fell ill for their efforts. ``You wouldn't find California trying to memorialize something like this, but this is our past,'' said Bibbero, who said he is neutral on the Yucca Mountain project. Under the Yucca Mountain plan, the federal government will 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 license plates: ``Abomination.'' ``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.'' State lawmakers approved the plates last year, and the bill's sponsor, Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, said she recalled little opposition. ``This is an important part of Nevada history, and national and international history,'' said Titus. ``I think Nevadans think testing was patriotic. It was done for the good of the country during the Cold War.'' On the Net: Nevada Test Site: http://www.nv.doe.gov/nts/default.htm Yucca Mountain: http://www.ymp.gov Copyright 2002 The Associated Press | Privacy Information ***************************************************************** 45 UK: Sellafield Closure Demands Sky News More than a million postcards have been delivered to the Prime Minister and the Prince of Wales calling for the Sellafield nuclear plant to be shut down. Irish celebrities, including soccer international Roy Keane and pop stars Ronan Keating and Samantha Mumba, are backing the campaign. The 1.3 million postcards were also sent to the plant's operators to commemorate the 16th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. Public response The Shut Sellafield campaign, spearheaded by Ali Hewson, wife of U2 star Bono, expressed fears of an environmental disaster. Hewson said the public response made her "proud to be Irish". "The response from the nation to the campaign has been overwhelming, a very strong message to the British Government," she said. Legal actions The postcards sent to Mr Blair show an eye and carry the message: "Tony, look me in the eye and tell me I am safe". Sellafield has been a contentious issue between Dublin and Westminster for years. Two legal actions have so far failed to have the Cumbrian plant closed. ***************************************************************** 46 Russia: Police Cart Away Nuclear Protesters Friday, Apr. 26, 2002. Page 1 By Robin Munro Staff Writer Alisa Nikulina / For MT Protesters crawling toward the Kremlin on Thursday. The police later detained them. Police, Kremlin security officers and plainclothes officers forcefully broke up a peaceful demonstration against nuclear waste imports on Red Square on Thursday, cuffing young protesters in the face before hauling them by their collars to waiting police cars and roughly slamming them in. Twenty-four activists and about half a dozen journalists, including camera crews from Reuters and the new Ekho television company, were detained by police at the demonstration, held on the eve of the 16th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. Police yanked the film from the cameras and video cameras of many of those who photographed the event; journalists loudly complained that their equipment had been damaged. The journalists were released almost immediately, while the protesters were still being held late Thursday evening. The protesters were supposed to appear in court Friday on charges of participating in an unauthorized meeting, Interfax reported. "Everything went well because we managed to draw attention to our concerns about importing nuclear waste," said Alisa Nikulina, a member of the Ecodefense group and one of the organizers of the demonstration. "We brought it to the Kremlin and they wouldn't let it in." The protest was against a law that President Vladimir Putin signed in July allowing spent nuclear fuel to be imported for reprocessing. Environmentalists say Russia has enough problems with its own nuclear waste that it can ill deal with any other countries' waste. Supporters of the law say the imports could earn the country $20 billion over 10 years. The demonstration started when 30 or so protesters in their late teens and early twenties who had been mingling with tourists on Red Square converged in front of Spassky Gate and donned white overalls, resembling radiation suits and bearing signs saying "OYaT," the Russian acronym for spent nuclear fuel. They dropped onto the ground in front of a low chain some 25 meters from the gate that leads into the Kremlin and began to crawl slowly and silently forward. Other protesters distributed leaflets. Nadezhda Kutepova, from the Planet of Hopes organization in the Chelyabinsk region, said before she was detained that the Chernobyl disaster should be a warning to those who handle nuclear materials. An explosion and fire at Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 26, 1986, sent radiation across Europe and contaminated large parts of the Soviet Union. The disaster has led to thousands of deaths, especially among those who took part in the cleanup, and 7 million people in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine are estimated to suffer physical or psychological effects of radiation related to the Chernobyl catastrophe. A series of commemorations and protests are planned across the nation Friday. Thursday's protest at first had an element of farce to it, with a group of astonished American tourists stopping to take snapshots. The lone policeman in front of the gate blocked individual protesters with his legs and turned some back, but the group kept creeping forward. One reached within five meters of the gate. Then a senior police officer and a half dozen other policemen arrived in cars. A dozen members of the Federal Guard Service emerged from the Kremlin with a plainclothesman bearing a truncheon. The officers began driving the young people back, and they quickly retreated behind the chain. One flashed a "V" for victory. But this was not enough for the officers, and they began cuffing people and throwing them to the ground. They dragged the protesters over the cobblestones and shoved them into cars. One officer referred to the protesters as hooligans and asked them why they could not have protested somewhere else. Having snuffed the protest, the law enforcement officers began rounding up those who had taken photographs or filmed the scuffle, demanding to see IDs and pulling film from cameras. "It's a breach of freedom of speech," said Sergei Alexashkin, 20, a law student and member of Molodyozhnoye Pravozashchitnoye Dvizheniye, or Young Civil Rights Movement, who had traveled about 200 kilometers from the city of Tula for the event. "It was a protest addressed to the president," he added. Ecodefense's Nikulina also said the protest was aimed at the president. "These imports are opposed by 90 percent of the population," she said. "It is understandable that the Nuclear Power Ministry supports the imports, but in the face of public opposition the government, including the president, should not." President Vladimir Putin once said in an interview to the Toronto Globe and Mail and Canadian television that he harbors a secret admiration for environmental activists and was thinking of joining their ranks after he quits the Kremlin. "To be honest," he said, "I've always admired people who devote their lives to environmental problems. I've watched with astonishment as a group of people on a little boat tries to oppose a huge military or industrial ship. I must say this inspires only sympathy." However, his admiration was not shared by the officers who dealt with the protesters Thursday. The police could not be immediately reached for comment, but a spokeswoman for the Federal Guard Service, or FSO, said the demonstration had been properly broken up. "In this case the law was correctly observed," said the spokeswoman, who asked not to be identified. "The territory of the Kremlin and Red Square is a special zone and photos can only be taken there with permission." Asked why tourists were allowed to take photos freely on Red Square, she said they were not professionals and "there is a big difference." She denied that the officers' actions amounted to censorship. "There are rules on how you should behave on the Kremlin proper, and these rules are well known to all journalists. You need to get permission to take photos," she said, adding that most people who apply get permission. Oleg Panfilov of the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations, said the officers had no right to destroy the journalists' film. "According to the media law, journalists have complete freedom to do their work covering meetings and demonstrations, even if the protest is an illegal one. No one should stop them from doing their work," he said. "Unfortunately, the authorities are using force more and more against journalists. In my opinion, the Russian authorities have completely lost their sense of respect toward journalists," he said. Nikulina said organizers did not even consider applying for a permit "because they wouldn't have given it to us." "We consider that the only forms of protest that the authorities allow are those that don't trouble them," she said. She said the Yabloko party had wanted to hold a public meeting on nuclear waste imports Friday and had been refused a permit. ***************************************************************** 47 Gibbons holds more town hall meetings Staff Reports [online@rgj.com] RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL 4/25/2002 10:39 pm Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., has scheduled town hall meetings next weekend in four western Nevada communities for residents to discuss key concerns and issues. Gibbons is scheduled to be in Gardnerville on Friday, May 3, and Yerington, Hawthorne and Fallon May 4. In addition to fielding questions about federal agencies and legislative matters, Gibbons plans to discuss the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage controversy and his recent trip to Afghanistan. Issues relating to the Bureau of Land Management and other federal agencies deeply involved in the lives of Nevadans within the Second Congressional District are also expected to be key topics of discussion. The schedule is as follows: o Gardnerville: Senior Citizens Center, 2300 Meadow Lane, Friday, 6 p.m. o Yerington: Lyon County Library, 20 Nevin Way, Saturday, 9 a.m. o Hawthorne: El Capitan Resort and Casino, Trophy Room, 540 F St., Saturday, 12:30 p.m. o Fallon: Western Nevada Community College, Stillwater Hall, Room 302, 160 Campus Way, Saturday, 4 p.m. © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett ***************************************************************** 48 Pro-nuclear researchers urge delay on Yucca Mountain Friday, April 26, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal By H. JOSEF HEBERT THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON -- A decision to make Yucca Mountain the nation's nuclear waste repository 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 today in Science magazine. The study maintains that politics has overtaken science as the Bush administration has approved the site, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, for the storage of 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel and other highly radioactive 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 a Yucca Mountain project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Both Ewing and Macfarlane in interviews described themselves as generally pro-nuclear. 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 across the nation without posing safety risks. Even if Yucca Mountain were opened, thousands of tons would still be at reactors awaiting shipment, noted Ewing. Macfarlane 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." Ewing, a member of the American Nuclear Society, said, "Some of the important issues haven't been addressed." The society is on record supporting the Yucca Mountain site. But Macfarlane and Ewing noted that three government agencies have raised serious questions about the science behind the Department of Energy project, including a nuclear waste advisory panel that stated the project's scientific basis was "weak to moderate." "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. "To move ahead without first addressing the outstanding scientific issues will only continue to marginalize the role of science." Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 49 YUCCA MOUNTAIN: House committee endorses project Gov. Kenny Guinn, center, watches Thursday as Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., left, shakes hands with state Sen. Jon Porter, R-Henderson, on Capitol Hill in Washington before a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on Yucca Mountain. AP Photo Friday, April 26, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal State leaders level new accusation against DOE By STEVE TETREAULT and TONY BATT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- The House of Representatives on Thursday moved closer to approving the Yucca Mountain Project, while Nevada leaders again sought to discredit the work of the Energy Department. The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 41-6 to override Gov. Kenny Guinn's veto of President Bush's recommendation to bury the nation's nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Voting for the resolution were 24 Republicans and 17 Democrats. All six opposing votes were cast by Democrats. Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin, R-La., said the full House will vote on the resolution in two weeks. The lopsided committee vote was expected, and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham made an appearance on Capitol Hill afterward to give the resolution a bigger push. "The actions here in the House demonstrate the broad, bipartisan support we have to move ahead in this process," Abraham said. But at roughly the same time Abraham was touting the Nevada site as a suitable destination for 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel, just doors away Guinn and other Nevada leaders were leveling a new accusation against his department. At a separate hearing, the Nevadans said the DOE's final environmental impact statement for Yucca Mountain failed to examine 54 sites around the country that generate nuclear waste. "It is clear that DOE has altogether ignored a vast and critical component of the Yucca Mountain Project," said Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev. Nevada's nuclear waste attorneys are preparing a new lawsuit that will include charges that the DOE did not analyze disposal of spent nuclear fuel produced by research reactors at Ohio State University, the University of Texas, North Carolina State University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While Abraham's official Yucca Mountain site recommendation mentions that nuclear waste will be removed from "131 aging surface sites in 39 states," the environmental study details only 77 sites, Gibbons said. "I am told the omission appears to be a blatant violation of the National Environmental Policy Act," he told members of two House subcommittees who had gathered to discuss nuclear waste transportation. Outside the hearing, Yucca Mountain Project deputy director Lake Barrett said nuclear waste produced by research reactors was covered by a generic environmental impact study the DOE performed in the mid-1990s of "routine transportation of those types of materials." DOE officials could not say Thursday how much nuclear waste the reactors have generated. Barrett said it was a "small amount." Barrett said research reactor waste is transported to DOE facilities in South Carolina and Idaho for processing, packaging and interim storage, and from there will be sent to Yucca Mountain. The South Carolina and Idaho sites were included in the Yucca Mountain environmental study, he added. "In my opinion, it's not much of an issue," he said. Nevada attorney Joe Egan disagreed. "They've got a problem here," Egan said. "They either have to retract this nonsense of 131 sites or admit they weren't all analyzed." Making his second trip to Washington this month, Guinn led Nevada witnesses at the transportation hearing. Other witnesses included Gibbons, Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., state Sen. Jon Porter, R-Henderson, and Clark County Commission Chairman Dario Herrera. They argued the Yucca Mountain designation should be set aside while Congress gathers more information about possible road and rail routes to Nevada and the durability of giant casks that will be used to ship nuclear waste. With the House seemingly poised to vote against Nevada no matter what, Guinn said his appearance was aimed instead at drawing national media attention to the state's case and to influence the Senate, where a vote anticipated this summer is expected to be closer. Both the House and Senate need to override the governor's veto for the Yucca site to become final and for the DOE to begin preparing a repository license application. Failure to override in either body kills the program. "Everything we say here today is to be heard nationally and over on the Senate floor," Guinn said. "Everything we're doing is to strengthen our case in the courts." The Nevadans got a mixed reception from the 25 committee members who attended. Some agreed with them, while others, like Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., said canceling the repository project will just force utilities to rack up expenses to store waste on-site. "Yucca Mountain is the environmental and homeland defense vote in Congress this year," Kirk said, prompting Ensign to suggest that Kirk might like a repository in his district. "Transporting nuclear waste is not the thing to do at this time," Ensign said. Federal agency witnesses testified they believed nuclear waste can be moved effectively "Spent nuclear fuel can be safely and securely transported from its current locations to a permanent geologic repository," said Carl Paperiello, a deputy executive director at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Allan Rutter, head of the Federal Railroad Administration, said, "I can assure you that movement of nuclear waste by rail will be safe." Berkley, who sits on the Transportation Committee, challenged whether Barrett or the Energy Department could guarantee that "each and every" nuclear waste shipment would arrive in Nevada without accident or attack. "I can give you the best technical evaluation of what the risks are, and they are very, very low," Barrett said. Herrera and Porter, political foes running for Congress in Nevada's new 3rd Congressional District, sat politely beside each other at the witness table as they waited to speak. They chatted and Porter offered to pour Herrera a glass of water. Their joint appearance drew only one remark, from a smiling Rep. Jack Quinn of New York, a senior Republican. "I'm so happy to see the two of you together at the table," he said. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 50 Nuclear dump foes cite danger in hauling waste cross-country SignOnSanDiego.com > News > State/The West -- By Dana Wilkie COPLEY NEWS SERVICE April 25, 2002 WASHINGTON  This month, as Congress takes up the two-decades-old question of whether to store high-level nuclear waste in the Nevada desert, there is one issue that may be just as pressing as whether the dump is safe: How secure will that waste be on its trip to Nevada? In hopes they can generate support for their cause outside Nevada's borders, foes of the dump at Yucca Mountain are prepared to argue there will be "unprecedented" shipments of radioactive debris along the country's roads and railways, which could result in a catastrophic spill should a truck jackknife or a train derail. But, in fact, the federal government and private companies have been transporting the same kind of nuclear waste throughout the country for more than 50 years. In that time, there have been only 13 accidents  none of which resulted in injuries, death or environmental damage because of radioactive releases. "I hear opponents saying the amount we'll be transporting is unprecedented, and it's not," said Eileen Supko, a nuclear engineer who gives transportation advice to nuclear power companies. "Loading containers, transporting them along our highways and rail lines is something that has been done in the past, and the (equipment) and regulations have always been in place. They're not starting something new." In February, President Bush chose Yucca as the final resting spot for 77,000 tons of used nuclear fuel. Earlier this month, Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn vetoed Bush's decision, which sent the issue to Congress to resolve. On the pro-Yucca side with the president is the nuclear power industry, which gives generously to congressional campaigns. Yucca foes include environmentalists and Nevada's gambling industry, which gives almost as much to congressional campaigns as does the nuclear industry. Congress plans to dive into the transportation issue todaywith a hearing before two House subcommittees. Several more hearings are planned, but even Yucca's foes expect the GOP-controlled House to override Nevada's veto. Most lawmakers would rather please voters by getting waste out of their districts than oppose the dump on party principle, one source said. "I don't think anybody in their right mind would say (lawmakers) are going to vote on this politically," said one person working on the issue in Congress. "They have to weigh what's in the best interests of their area." The vote will be closer in the Democratic-controlled Senate, where Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota has pledged to fight the dump. Hoping to generate concern about the dump beyond Nevada borders, Yucca foes will raise the specter of road and rail accidents as nuclear waste is shipped to the dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Spent nuclear fuel  metal-encased ceramic pellets about the size of your little finger  can be dangerous because it remains radioactive for many thousands of years. Exposure to high levels of radioactivity can cause ills from nausea to ulcerous burns to cancer. Since 1949, the government and private companies have transported nearly 4,000 shipments of spent nuclear fuel from the nation's 103 reactors, closed plants, nuclear-powered Navy vessels and research labs overseas. Those shipments traveled a collective 1.7 million miles of highways and railroads  sometimes from one nuclear plant to another, sometimes to federal dumps in Georgia and Idaho. Most were transported in the 1970s and 1980s when power plants sent fuel to recycling centers, and when the centers returned the fuel because President Carter banned recycling. The Department of Energy reports that in those 53 years, there have been only 13 accidents, none resulting in radioactivity being released from the multi-ton containers of steel and lead that carry the fuel. The most severe accident happened in 1971, when the driver of a tractor-trailer carrying 25 tons of nuclear fuel lost control and it turned over. The trailer separated from the truck and skidded into a muddy ditch. The container was damaged, but no radioactivity was released. "There has been an ample amount of evidence compiled about our capabilities to transport waste . . . over a lengthy period of time . . . without any harmful radiation effects or releases," said Bush's energy secretary, Spencer Abraham. Yucca opponents argue that most of those shipments made short trips, not the long treks that will happen when East Coast plants send waste cross-country to Nevada. And they claim that the thousands of shipments made in previous years come nowhere near the number expected to travel to Yucca. "At this point we've been lucky," said Lisa Gue, spokeswoman for Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group that opposes the dump and nuclear power. "But the kinds of conditions that could result in a catastrophic release of radiation have not occurred." Federal figures indicate that Yucca would take about 9,600 shipments of fuel over its 24-year life, or about 400 shipments each year. Should Yucca remain open 14 more years, which would require a new review of the site, it would take 9,300 more shipments. Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, a Democrat, has complained that the containers that carry the fuel have been crash-tested using only computer models, not the actual containers. But at the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico  which contracts with the Energy Department  scientists do conduct tests using full-size containers. They produce videos demonstrating those tests, which include trucks colliding at 80 mph, and containers being dropped from 2,000 feet and being hit by a train at 80 mph, engulfed by flames for half an hour and submerged in water for eight hours. © Copyright 2002 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. ***************************************************************** 51 Russian protest against the import of nuclear waste Pravda.RU Apr, 26 2002 A meeting of protest against importing nuclear waste in Russia was held on Friday at the railway station in Vladivostok, the centre of Russia's Primorye region in the Far East. The demonstration coincided with the 16th anniversary of the Chernobyl tragedy. The speakers and the participants of the protest called on the country's government to turn down the project of importing nuclear waste from foreign countries to Russia. This project is ecologically dangerous and, besides, the depositories can become a target for terrorists, they said. The participants also doubted that the money earned by processing foreign nuclear waste would help to solve the country's serious ecological problems. Russia should pay more attention to its own issues of nuclear safety, such as the dismantling, utilization and processing of nuclear waste from nuclear submarines of the Navy, they said. bbs.newsfromrussia.com ***************************************************************** 52 MOX fuel plan not relevant to renewals, NRC says Charlotte Observer | 04/25/2002 | DUKE POWER The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Duke Power's proposed use of plutonium at two Charlotte-area nuclear plants is not relevant to the plants' license renewals. The April 12 order reverses a ruling by the NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board. That board, which hears arguments on which issues should be considered in the 20-year license extensions, had agreed to a July hearing on Duke's planned use of mixed-oxide or MOX fuel.The Nuclear Information and Resource Service, which opposes the license extensions, says MOX is dangerous and could accelerate aging of Duke's Catawba and McGuire nuclear plants. Duke and NRC staff argued the MOX issue was not relevant to license renewal for the plants. Duke would have to apply to the NRC for permission to use MOX fuel, they said, providing opportunities for further analysis and public comment. The commission agreed. -- BRUCE HENDERSON Charlotte.com | ***************************************************************** 53 Nevada lauds article on Yucca science Las Vegas SUN April 26, 2002 By Erin Neff < [erin@lasvegassun.com] > State leaders found surprising allies in their fight against Yucca Mountain in two pro-nuclear scientists who wrote in an article published today that the decision to put the dump in Nevada is being pushed by policy concerns, not science. The scientific basis for Yucca is "only a marginal consideration," the scientists, who have both studied the site for several years, wrote in Science magazine. Allison Macfarlane, who directs the Yucca Mountain Project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Rodney Ewing, a geologist at the University of Michigan, wrote that a Yucca nuclear waste repository may be feasible after further study, but they said to make a decision "without first addressing the outstanding scientific issues will only continue to marginalize the role of science and detract from the credibility of the (Energy Department) effort." They say the Energy Department's plan is "based on an unsound engineering strategy and poor use of present understanding of the properties of spent nuclear fuel." Nevada politicians cheered the article as another weapon in the state's lobbying efforts. The article backs up their claims that the proposed repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas hasn't been fully studied and found to be scientifically feasible. That's an argument the Energy Department has disputed, claiming that 20 years of study and more than $2 billion have proven its case that it is safe to bury 77,000 tons of nuclear waste in Nevada. The effect that the article will have on the debate remains uncertain. The state suffered a major blow Thursday with a House committee's passage, 41-6, of Yucca legislation. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., lauded the article as "another arrow in Nevada's quiver." "This is the kind of material, from independent voices, independent sources, that gives us an opportunity to go to people and ask for their support," he said. The scientists, who say they are generally pro-nuclear, wrote that pressure from the nuclear industry has made politics the driving force of what should be a scientific decision. "It would be nice for this to work properly and for science to play the main role," Macfarlane told the Sun. "They really don't have enough data." Ewing led the assessment of Yucca's viability five years ago, a process he said raised critical concerns about the methodology and "gaps in the science." In the years since, Ewing said he hasn't seen much progress. "I am very disappointed that we arrive at this point," Ewing told the Sun. "There are no alternatives, and this is before the highest decision-makers in the country -- the Congress -- and there is spin on both sides of the issue." Gov. Kenny Guinn said he first heard Macfarlane's concerns when she followed him on a CNBC program during his trip to Washington to veto President Bush's decision. "She was representing the other side and she started talking about the science and she turned out to be on our side," Guinn said. Guinn said the article confirms Nevada's argument that the science is questionable. But Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis dismissed both the article and its authors. "I don't think that they've ever worked on Yucca Mountain," Davis said. "We are confident in our 24 years of scientific studies by Ph.D.s." Both Macfarlane and Ewing have doctorate degrees. Davis said that if Macfarlane and Ewing are confident in their scientific ideas, they should forward them to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for consideration. Otherwise, he said, they are simply advocating delay and if Congress puts the issue aside, NRC scientists won't get to consider the idea. "The NRC's going to have the final say on the licensing and approval of Yucca Mountain," Davis said. "We are confident that Yucca Mountain will meet the requirements and be licensed." Ewing and Macfarlane said they are editing scientists' articles on a variety of issues about Yucca Mountain for a book. Both said they decided to write article because the current congressional debate appears to be based solely on nuclear policy and politics. Ewing, a member of the American Nuclear Society -- a group that supports a Yucca repository -- said the Energy Department's reports are "highly nuanced" and difficult for policymakers or the public to understand. The full House is expected to consider Yucca legislation next week, with the Senate expected to act sometime in the coming two months. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 54 Editorial: Policies are more than platitudes Las Vegas SUN April 26, 2002 Western governors and members of the Bush administration gathered in Salt Lake City this week to talk about ways to find common-ground solutions to divisive environmental issues. Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt has dubbed this cooperative approach to the environment as "Enlibra," which roughly means "in balance." This view holds that all Westerners want better jobs, an excellent quality of life and a cleaner environment -- qualities that don't have to be mutually exclusive. "Federal agencies should be participants, not taskmasters, and the people most involved -- those who live, work and play on the lands involved -- should play a more enhanced role," Leavitt, a Republican governor, said at the time the concept was unveiled in 1998. Despite Leavitt's enthusiasm, environmentalists are leery of "Enlibra," believing that the Bush administration will wrap the term around its policies that actually will favor the timber, mining and energy industries. The concern is justified. "Enlibra" is a nice-sounding theory, but the problem is that President Bush hasn't adopted the kind of cooperation needed to forge a consensus on environmental issues -- especially as they affect national energy policies. Environmental concerns often are ignored by this White House. For instance, not only has Bush eschewed conservation as a way to lessen our dependence on foreign oil, but he also wants to drill for oil and gas on environmentally sensitive lands in Alaska, a plan opposed by the public and recently rejected by the Senate. And Bush, doing the bidding of the nuclear power industry, also wants to force a nuclear waste dump on Nevadans despite the fact that we overwhelmingly oppose becoming the burial ground for 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste. "Enlibra" doesn't promise to be a meaningful word in the Bush vocabulary. His energy policy should be a two-way street, but instead it has become a one-way freeway that runs over the concerns voiced by people who worry that his policies will harm the environment and possibly endanger the public's health, too. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 55 Utahns Asked to Speak Against N-Waste Storage The Salt Lake Tribune -- Friday, April 26, 2002 BY JUDY FAHYS Community leaders rallied Utahns on Thursday to protest plans to store the nation's entire inventory of depleted nuclear-plant waste on a concrete slab about 45 miles from Salt Lake City, at the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation. The dozen-strong gathering of real estate agents, doctors, financiers, lawyers and local government leaders joined Gov. Mike Leavitt for a news conference to urge citizens to discourage federal regulators from licensing the facility during a hearing today at Tooele High School, 240 W. 100 South. The hearing is from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. It will be the last opportunity the public has to address the U.S. Atomic Safety and Licensing Commission before it issues its decision on the license next fall, they noted. "It's just a bad idea all the way around," said Chris Dallin of the Davis Chamber of Commerce, who called the facility a threat to jobs and money generated by Hill Air Force Base, whose fighter-jet pilots fly over the proposed storage site on their way to the Utah Test and Training Range. Leavitt pointed out the opposition represented a broad cross-section of the state that included hundreds of businesses and more than 14,000 Utahns. "They have one thing in common," Leavitt said. "They don't want nuclear waste stored here." Project proponents also urged citizens to speak out. Embattled Goshute Chairman Leon Bear, whose tribe is leasing land for the project to a consortium of out-of-state utilities, issued a news release Thursday that suggested supporters and opponents should share their views during the public-comment meeting. "We understand our project to be an economic development in line with the current status of the industrial waste zone commissioned by the state of Utah," he said. Skull Valley Goshutes opposed to the facility are also expected to attend. So are U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett and former state Rep. Beverly White. © Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune ***************************************************************** 56 House Panel Endorses Yucca Nuke-Waste Site The Salt Lake Tribune -- Friday, April 26, 2002 BY NICK ANDERSON LOS ANGELES TIMES WASHINGTON -- A plan to bury the United States' nuclear waste in southern Nevada won lopsided endorsement Thursday from a congressional committee, signaling easy passage by the full House to override the state's objections. While approval from the House Energy and Commerce Committee had been expected, the breadth of the margin gave a bipartisan stamp to the Bush administration's effort to make Yucca Mountain a permanent site for tens of thousands of tons of radioactive waste now stored in many states. In the panel's 41-6 vote, 17 Democrats joined 24 Republicans to back a bill that would allow the federal government to move ahead with opening Yucca Mountain to receive waste as early as 2010. The vote came amid continuing scientific debate about the Yucca Mountain plan. The site is about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas and 215 miles northeast of Los Angeles. In an article to be published tod ay in Science magazine, two researchers who describe themselves as "pro-nuclear" contend that the government should postpone decisions on Yucca Mountain until more is known about its geology and the durability of storage devices. "A project of this importance . . . should not go forward until the relevant scientific issues have been thoughtfully addressed," 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. Ewing and Macfarlane wrote that politics, rather than science, is driving the Yucca Mountain decisions. Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, R-La., chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, called Thursday's vote "an enormous show of support" for an administration plan backed by the nuclear energy industry. "Whether you like nuclear energy or not," Tauzin said, "this country can't do without it." President Bush signed off on the Yucca Mountain plan in February, but Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn, a Republican, reversed that decision earlier this month. Under federal law, a simple majority vote in both houses of Congress is required to overrule Guinn. Tauzin said a vote on the House floor could come within two weeks. In its last vote on Yucca Mountain in early 2000, the full House approved a waste-storage plan, 253 to 167. Most of the opponents at that time were Democrats. But some foes of the earlier plan have now switched, including Rep. John D. Dingell of Michigan, top Democrat on the Commerce Committee. Barring a surprise in the House, the focus of the battle would then move to the Senate, where foes hope to make a last stand against the Yucca Mountain plan. A Senate vote is projected for June or July. At first glance, the Senate would seem a formidable obstacle for the plan's advocates. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the assistant majority leader, and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., are vehemently opposed to it. So is Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. But in this case, federal law bars most parliamentary maneuvers against the legislation. Opponents have said their only hope to kill the plan is to amass a 51-vote majority; so far, they appear to be well short. In a Senate vote in May 2000, 35 senators opposed nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain. That vote upheld President Clinton's veto. © Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune ***************************************************************** 57 BNFL moves to repair relations with Japan By Matthew Jones Published: April 26 2002 16:50 | Last Updated: April 26 2002 18:06 British Nuclear Fuels on Friday began the process of returning an unwanted consignment of plutonium mixed oxide (mox) fuel from Japan back to Britain. The move aims to repair relations between BNFL and Japanese customers after the fuel was delivered with falsified quality records in 1999. But it met strong protests from environmental campaigners, who claimed the shipment posed an unacceptable security risk and breached international and UK law. Two armed nuclear transport ships left Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria on Friday to collect the fuel from Kansai Electric Power Company's Takahama reactor. They are expected to arrive in Japan in June, in the middle of the World Cup football competition. Japan is the largest potential customer for BNFL's new Ł470m ($684m) mox plant at Sellafield, but had refused to sign contracts until the unwanted consignment was returned to Britain. The exercise is expected to cost tax payers Ł113m, including Ł40m of compensation paid to Kansai Electric. Greenpeace, the environmental campaign group, said it had written to the UK government calling for the transport to be abandoned on security grounds. Irish campaigners separately delivered 1.3m postcards to UK prime minister Tony Blair in a protest against Sellafield, designed to mark the 16th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine. FT.com ***************************************************************** 58 Rail Crashes Fuel Nuke Waste Transport Criticism Thu Apr 25, 5:42 PM ET By John Crawley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two deadly rail accidents in the past week and last year's devastating train tunnel fire in Baltimore fueled opposition on Thursday to Bush administration plans to transport the nation's nuclear waste to a permanent storage facility planned for the Nevada desert. "This ill-conceived project will expose tens of millions of Americans to unnecessary nuclear transport risks," Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn told two House transportation subcommittees at a hearing on plans for the $58 billion Yucca Mountain site. As Guinn appealed to lawmakers, the House Energy Committee overwhelmingly approved a resolution to override the governor's veto of the project. The full House is expected to follow suit next month, but Guinn hopes the project will die in the Democratic-led Senate. "According to the Department of Energy's own analysis, a single accident scenario could produce thousands of latent cancer fatalities and lead to many billions of dollars in cleanup costs," Guinn said. Under 1982 federal law on nuclear waste disposal, a governor may veto a president's plans to put a depository in his or her state. But the veto can be overridden if both the House and Senate agree to do so on majority votes. But the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, an independent government agency that will have to approve the license to operate Yucca Mountain, assured lawmakers that nuclear waste from commercial power plants could be safely transported by freight rail. "Spent fuel has been safely and securely shipped within the U.S. and around the world for more than 25 years," Carl Paperiello, deputy director of NRC operations, said in a statement. Rep. Vernon Ehelers, a Michigan Republican and physicist, expressed similar confidence, saying the government also ships nuclear weapons without incident. "I think the dangers are overstated," he said. ADMINISTRATION FAVORS FREIGHT RAIL While no final transportation plan has emerged, the Bush administration favors freight rail to haul 3,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel annually to Yucca Mountain from 131 reactor sites in 39 states. It will take roughly 25 years to fill the underground site, according to Energy Department estimates. Because train tracks do not reach all of the nation's nuclear waste storage sites, trucks, barges or both could be used to ship some of the material to rail depots. The nearest set of tracks to Yucca Mountain are 100 miles away. If approved, it will be eight years at least before the first shipments occur, but opposition to the plan is fierce and a large part of it has coalesced around rail safety and, to another degree, potential threats from terrorists seeking to seize radioactive material or detonate it to kill Americans. Several lawmakers pointed to last week's Amtrak derailment in Florida that killed four people and this week's collision between a freight train and a commuter train in Los Angeles that killed two others as proof the U.S. rail system -- where freight and passenger trains share thousands of miles of track -- is not suited to nuclear waste transport on a large scale. Many of the nation's nuclear power plants are in the East, and waste from them would have to be shipped across the country on lines that pass through populated cities and towns. "This never-before-attempted radioactive materials transportation effort would bring with it a constellation of hazards and risks, including potentially serious economic damage and property value losses in cities and communities along shipping routes," said Rep. Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat and former Cleveland mayor. WAKE-UP CALL Other opponents, like Maryland Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings, also said last July's train tunnel fire in Baltimore was a "real wake-up" call to the potential dangers of transporting hazardous waste of any kind by rail. That fire, caused by a freight train derailment, burned for three days and shut down downtown Baltimore for three days. Heat from the fire reached as high as 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. Experts for the state of Nevada said containers holding nuclear waste could be damaged at that temperature. Federal Railroad Administration chief Allan Rutter told the committee that the nation's freight rail system was ideally suited and safe for transporting radioactive waste, which he said would increase sharply in coming years even without Yucca Mountain. But Rutter said the post-Sept. 11 threat from terrorists prompted new security challenges. "Ultimately, the safe movement of (these materials) depends on the application of sound safety regulations, policies and procedures. This requires extensive planning and coordination among federal agencies, state and local governments and commercial transportation companies," he said. Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. ***************************************************************** 59 USEC's net income drops by $62 million The Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky Friday, April 26, 2002 Although sales rose, profits dropped because of high inventory costs and disappointing purchases of enriched uranium. By Joe Walker jwalker@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650 Despite more revenue, net income for USEC Inc. dropped by nearly $62 million over the past nine months, but the firm expects gradual improvements because of cheaper enriched uranium from Russia. USEC, which operates the 1,500-employee Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, reported $4.3 million, or 5 cents a share, in net income during the third quarter, ending March 31. That compares with $45.4 million during the same period last year. Net income during the past nine months was $9.1 million, or 11 cents per share, compared with $70.9 million, or 88 cents per share, during the same period a year ago. Third-quarter revenue rose 3 percent from $243.1 million to $249.4 million, and nine-month revenue increased 30 percent from $857 million to $1.11 billion. USEC said the rise was related mainly to timing and movement of orders for uranium enriched for use in nuclear fuel, and was partly offset by a 2 percent decline in average prices billed to customers. Although sales rose, profits dropped because of high average inventory costs and lower-than-planned purchases of enriched uranium derived from dismantled Russian nuclear warheads, USEC said. Sale costs rose by $292 million during the comparative nine-month periods because of more enriched uranium sold, less Russian uranium purchased and higher production costs. USEC's cost of producing units of enriched uranium rose because it closed Paducah's sister plant near Portsmouth, Ohio, in June and merged the work with Paducah. In February, the company reached a new agreement to lower Russian uranium prices through 2013, but the deal has still not been approved by American and Russian governments. USEC has repeatedly said lower Russian uranium costs help preserve the Paducah plant, where production expenses are higher. As a result of the new pact, "USEC has put into place the most critical building block for a stronger financial future and the transition over the next decade to a new, more efficient technology," said William Timbers, president and chief executive officer. USEC expects to phase out power-intensive gaseous diffusion over the next decade and replace it with more efficient gas centrifuge technology. Paducah, which is competing with Portsmouth for the new process, is expected to offer an aggressive state-local incentive package later this year. USEC expects to earn $9 million to $12 million this fiscal year. Those results, lower than initially forecast, are attributable to delays in implementing the cheaper Russian contract and the costs of winning a trade case barring governmentally subsidized foreign competitors from undercutting USEC's prices in the United States. Because USEC has agreed to keep paying higher prices for Russian uranium through this year, better results from cheaper prices will not be seen until early next year, the company said. ***************************************************************** 60 Opinions:Hodges ripped for grandstanding over plutonium shipments Augusta Georgia: Web posted Friday, April 26, 2002 Letter to the Editor South Carolina Democrat Gov. Jim Hodges' plan to stop plutonium shipments by force from entering the Savannah River Site is by far the most blatant case of political grandstanding seen in these parts in many years. Mr. Hodges' determination not to let his state become a nuclear waste dumping ground not only jeopardizes thousands of jobs in our area but also risks national security. The shipments, which have been planned for many years, are much safer to people and the environment than are the hazardous materials traveling across our public highways at this moment. Due to the integrity of the containers, there's less than a one percent chance of contamination escaping due to any accident or natural occurrence. Mr. Hodges knows this; it's been explained to him numerous times. He waits, however, until an election year to flex his muscles and try his best to impersonate the environmental king Al Gore. No other site in the United States is more prepared to handle these shipments than SRS and no other Department of Energy site has the facilities or the personnel qualified to handle the nuclear waste. Does the governor want to send these shipments to another state where the facilities are not as capable? What topped the governor's self-gratifying political grandstanding was the exercise Monday in Aiken when he personally observed State Troopers blocking the road in felony take-down fashion which, by the way, was a little late in happening. According to sources, the governor didn't feel he had enough media coverage to properly make his statement... Bill Elliott, Aiken, S.C. The Augusta Chronicle. ***************************************************************** 61 Opinions: Opposes N-waste coming to SRS Augusta Georgia: 04/26/02 Web posted Friday, April 26, 2002 Letter to the Editor Thanks to Chronicle staff writer Brandon Haddock's excellent reporting, residents of our two-state region are kept informed about what's happening at the Savannah River Site. Perhaps, however, we also need to look as well to Colorado where Republican U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard is campaigning to rid his state of plutonium by cleaning up the heavily radioactive Rocky Flats nuclear site near Denver. So where are those 34 tons of weapons-grade plutonium going to be transferred and stored? At SRS, of course, where the material may or may not be converted into power plant fuel some four years into the future. Colorado voters are not so secure in the Republican camp and need to be wooed by the Bush administration while, according to South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian, "The administration has decided it can dump radioactive junk into our backyard and we'll still vote for Bush." All two-state residents need to support Palmetto State Gov. Jim Hodges' resistance to the Department of Energy's plan to turn SRS into a nuclear waste dumping ground. Anne Brotherton, Augusta [http://augusta.com] ***************************************************************** 62 Yucca Mountain is a perilous storage place Projo.com | Providence | Opinion | Letters to the Editor Providence, R.I. 04/20/2002 The March 30 Journal editorial, "Put nuclear waste at Yucca," asserts that "The earth's crust in the region has been geologically stable for millions of years." Apparently volcanos do not figure into The Journal's thinking. According to the Department of Energy's own published analysis in the "Yucca Mountain Preliminary Site Suitability Evaluation," 75,000 to 80,000 years ago a volcano erupted just 10 miles to the south of the proposed repository. There are a dozen volcanos within 15 miles of the repository. As the nuclear waste to be stored at Yucca will remain dangerous for longer than 100,000 years, a future volcanic eruption or other seismic event that disrupts the repository could release massive amounts of radiation. It is ironic that The Journal is satisfied with scientific predictions that extrapolate forward tens of thousands of years into the future. The Journal regularly dismisses the broad scientific consensus regarding the threat of climate change over the course of the next hundred years, a much shorter period. Evidently neither logic, nor the facts, play much of a role in Journal editorials about U.S. energy policies. BRAD MARSTON Providence projo@projo.com [projo@projo.com] ***************************************************************** 63 Cold-war report outlined plans for military rule Independent Independent © 2002 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd How Churchill's advisers envisaged the devastating aftermath of a Soviet nuclear attack on Britain By Chris Gray 26 April 2002 A secret Whitehall committee drew up plans for military government in the event of a Soviet hydrogen bomb attack it feared would mean the loss of nearly a third of the population. The committee, chaired by Sir William Strath, head of the War Plans Secretariat, was ordered by Winston Churchill to assess the implications of a hydrogen bomb assault. It reported back that Britain would be left in a state "beyond imagination". The full 1955 report was made public for the first time yesterday, and was described as one of the most chilling documents given to post-war British governments. Detailed recommendations were made for the aftermath of an attack that would destroy more than half the nation's industry and leave survivors fighting against starvation, disease and "unimaginable psychological effects". The report envisaged a night-time attack of ten 10-mega-ton hydrogen bombs directed at major cities and unleashing an explosive force the equivalent of 10 million tons of TNT – 45 times greater than the allied bombs dropped on Italy, Germany and France in World War Two. "If no preparation of any kind had been made in advance a successful night attack on the main centres of population with 10 hydrogen bombs would, we estimate, kill about 12 million people and seriously injure or disable four million others – a total of about 16 million," the report said. "Casualties on such a scale would be intolerable; they would mean the loss of nearly one-third of the population." Each bomb would start up to 100,000 fires in built-up areas, far beyond the capacity of the country's fire brigades. Medical services would be unable to cope, and food and water supplies would run out. "Those who survive the attack would have to live under siege conditions and the risk of starvation would be very real unless a substantial reserve of food had been accumulated," it warned. The report acknowledged it would be impossible to predict how the population would react. "The effect of this on dense populations would remain beyond the imagination until it happened. Whether the country could withstand an all-out attack and still be in any state to carry on hostilities must be very doubtful. "In some parts of the country, particularly if several bombs fell in the same area, there might be complete chaos for a time and civil control would collapse," it said. In that event a military commander would have to take over civil authorities to "maintain law and order and the administration of government". "He would, if called upon, exercise his existing common law powers to take whatever steps, however drastic, he considered necessary to restore order. He would have to direct the operation of the various civil agencies, including the police, the civil defence services and the fire services." The committee recommended research into building a nationwide network of shelters after finding evacuation would be impractical. Evacuation plans could only be put into action once an attack was launched, otherwise the USSR would use the threat of an attack to disrupt the country. It would take a week to carry out the evacuation plans but there might be only three minutes' warning of an attack. The report drew up detailed lists of essential items for a nationwide food stockpile. Tobacco was not included, the report said, because "however important (it is) for morale, it is not essential for survival". Tea was, however, considered vital. "Experience makes it clear that, for the British people, tea is a necessity for survival," the report said. The historian Peter Hennessey said the release of the Strath Report by the Public Record Office in Kew is the first time that the plans for military government in Britain have been officially confirmed. "It tells us in detail what a dreadful picture was presented to those who had to peer into the abyss at that time. "It is one of the most chilling documents they will ever had read," he said. ***************************************************************** 64 New N-sub could replace Kursk: Official - The Times of India AFP [ FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2002 9:01:35 AM ] MOSCOW: A new Russian nuclear submarine belonging to the same class as the Kursk could replace the doomed sub that sank to the seabed in August 2000 causing the death of its 118 crew members, a military construction official said. The Belgorod, which belongs to the same Antey class -- known as Oscar-2 in NATO classification -- is 70 percent ready, the Interfax AVN news agency quoted a spokesman for Russia's main submarine factory Severnoye Mashinostroitelnoye Predpiyatye as saying. However, the plant is in need of extra funding to complete its construction, the spokesman conceded. Severnoye also built the Kursk, once the pride of Russia's Northern Fleet and one of its most modern subs. Most of the 18,000-tonne Kursk, which is to be dismantled shortly, was raised from the bottom of the Barents Sea last October, although the nose was cut off prior to the raising for safety reasons and is to be brought to the surface in a separate operation. No definitive explanation has yet been given for the explosions that sent the submarine to the bottom, but a preliminary report said a defective torpedo filled with a cheap but very volatile fuel that has not been used in Western navies in over four decades was probably responsible. The last of the 118 seamen whose bodies were recovered from the wreck were buried in Saint Petersburg last month. Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. | ***************************************************************** 65 Police Haul Off Red Square Nuclear Protestors The Russian Ministry of Nuclear Energy (Minatom) is actively promoting plans for large scale imports of spent nuclear fuel to Russia for storage or reprocessing. (Moscow:) Police, Kremlin security officers and plainclothes cops with clubs forcefully broke up a peaceful demonstration against nuclear waste imports on Red Square Thursday, punching young protesters in the face before dragging them to waiting police cars and slamming them in, environmentalists said Friday. photo: SEU (www.seu.ru) Charles Digges, 2002-04-26 13:49 Twenty-four activists and about half a dozen journalists, including camera crews from Reuters and the new Echo-Moscow television company, were detained by police at the demonstration, held on the eve of the 16th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. Police jerked film from the cameras and video equipment of the majority of journalists who photographed the event. Of all networks in attendance, only NTV escaped the police's film round-up. The journalists were released almost immediately, but the protestors were held longer and released late Thursday evening. The protesters were supposed to appear in court Friday on charges of participating in an unauthorized meeting, Interfax reported. "Everything went well because we managed to draw attention to our concerns about importing nuclear waste," said Alisa Nikulina, co-chairwoman of the Ecodefense! group and one of the organizers of the demonstration in a telephone interview with Bellona. "We brought it to the Kremlin and they wouldn't let it in." The protest was against the law President Vladimir Putin signed in July allowing spent nuclear fuel to be imported for reprocessing and storage and the protest was timed to take place on the eve of the 16th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. An explosion and fire at Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 26, 1986, sent radiation across Europe and contaminated large parts of the Soviet Union, particularly Belarus, and constituted the world's worst nuclear accident to date. The disaster has led to thousands of deaths, especially among those who took part in the cleanup, and seven million people in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine are estimated to suffer physical or psychological effects of radiation related to the Chernobyl catastrophe. A series of commemorations and demonstration were to take place across the nation Friday. Environmentalists at Thursday's protest say Russia has enough problems with its own nuclear waste to be importing more of the same from abroad. But the Nuclear Power Ministry has repeatedly said the country could reap billions of dollars in importing fuel for reprocessing or by simply keeping it and charging the countries that sent it. The demonstration started when 30 or so protesters in their late teens and early twenties who had been mingling with tourists on Red Square converged in front of Spassky Gate and put overall, resembling radiation suits and bearing signs saying "OYaT," the Russian acronym for spent nuclear fuel, Nikulina said. They dropped onto the ground in front of a low chain some 25 meters from the gate that leads into the Kremlin and began to crawl slowly forward, she said. As shown on NTV, the protest at first resembled a comedy of errors. A lone policeman in front of the gate blocked individual protesters with his legs and turned some back, but the group kept creeping forward. One reached within five meters of the gate. Then a senior police officer and a half dozen other policemen arrived in cars. A dozen members of the Federal Guard Service emerged from the Kremlin with a plainclothesman, armed with a club, Nikulina said. The officers began driving the young people back, and they quickly retreated behind the chain. At this point, according to Nikulina, officers began cuffing people and throwing them to the ground. They then dragged them over cobblestones and shoved them into cars. Having stamped out the protest, the law enforcement officers began rounding up those who had taken photographs or filmed the scuffle, demanding to see IDs and pulling film from cameras. Ecodefense's Nikulina said the protest was aimed at the president. "These imports are opposed by 90 percent of the population," she said. "It is understandable that the Nuclear Power Ministry supports the imports, but in the face of public opposition the government, including the president, should not." A Moscow police spokesman reached Friday, who declined to be identified, said the police had acted "appropriately", and that the officers' actions had not amounted to censorship. "The territory of the Kremlin and Red Square is a special area and photos can only be taken there with permission," he said. "There are rules on how you should behave on the Kremlin proper, and these rules are well known to all journalists. You need to get permission to take photos." Oleg Panfilov of the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations, said the police were out of line in destroying the reports' film. "According to the media law, journalists have complete freedom to do their work covering meetings and demonstrations, even if the protest is an illegal one. No one should stop them from doing their work," he said in telephone interview Friday. "Unfortunately, the authorities are using force more and more against journalists. In my opinion, the Russian authorities have completely lost their sense of respect toward journalists," he said. Ecodenfese's Nikulina said organizers did not even consider applying for a permit "because they wouldn't have given it to us." She said the Yabloko party had wanted to hold a public meeting on nuclear waste imports Friday and had been refused a permit. "We consider that the only forms of protest that the authorities allow are those that don't trouble them," she said. 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 ***************************************************************** 66 Russia commissions Ukrainian-built floating dock for nuclear subs BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 25, 2002 Sevastopol, 25 April: Russia hoisted its tricolour on Thursday [25 April] on a floating dock built by Ukraine's Pallada shipyard for the Russian navy as part of its programme to repair and utilize nuclear submarines. "Today's event can be regarded as a showcase of the strategic partnership between Russia and Ukraine," Russia's deputy Black Sea Fleet commander Rear Admiral Aleksandr Kovshar emphasized at the commissioning ceremony. The facility, whose construction began in 1993, has passed the acceptance and delivery trials and is due to go in service with Russia's Pacific Fleet. The dock will considerably expand the Pacific Fleet's repair capabilities and help resolve one of its pressing problems related to the utilization of decommissioned submarines, Kovshar said. Source: ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in English 1133 gmt 25 Apr 02 /© BBC Monitoring ***************************************************************** 67 Russian and United States arms negotiators having trouble NZOOM - ONE News - World Russian and United States arms negotiators have failed to bridge differences over an accord on strategic nuclear arms cuts, wrapping up talks a day early with a presidential summit only a month away. The senior Russian negotiator says the main stumbling blocks to an agreement were the possibility of verifying cuts and the methods of making cuts to nuclear arsenals currently standing at 6,000 to 7,000 deployed warheads each. He said several rounds of talks would be needed if an agreement was to be struck in time for a May 23 summit between presidents Vladimir Putin and George W Bush. Both men are committed to reducing current strategic arsenals to between 1,500 and 2,200 warheads each. Apr 25, 2002 ONE News ***************************************************************** 68 Britain faced military rule after Russian N-strike [Guardian Unlimited] Secret papers warned cold war governments of 12 million deaths from Soviet attack Alan Travis, home affairs editor Friday April 26, 2002 The Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk] Britain would have been placed under the control of local military commanders with powers to take "whatever steps, however drastic" were necessary in the aftermath of a Soviet nuclear attack during the cold war according to newly-released official war plans. The top secret official assessment of whether Britain could survive a Soviet thermonuclear attack was drawn up for the cabinet by Sir William Strath in March 1955 and formed the basis of civil defence planning throughout the late 1950s and 1960s. It was considered so sensitive that it was kept secret until yesterday, when it was released at the public record office. It estimated that a successful Soviet night attack on main population centres using 10 hydrogen bombs, each of 10 megatons, would kill 12 million people and seriously injure or disable 4 million others. "This would mean the loss of nearly one-third of the population. Blast and heat would be the dominant hazard, accounting for more than 9 million fatal casualties, against less than 3 million from radiation. Four of the 16 million casualties would be caused by a single bomb on London," concluded the report. "Even allowing for a degree of aiming error, the direct local effects of a hydrogen explosion in the most probable target areas would be of such magnitude that deaths from blast and fire would heavily outweigh fatal casualties from fallout elsewhere." Strath was the head of the cabinet office central war plans secretariat. He said that the initial phase of attack would be followed by a critical period during which the surviving population would be struggling "against disease, starvation and the unimaginable pyschological effects of nuclear bombardment". The report confirms defence estimates that a Soviet nuclear strike on that scale would be a "knock-out blow" to Britain as a major military power and says that in parts of the country civil control would collapse. "The local military commander would have to be prepared to take over from the civil authority responsible for the maintenance of law and order and for the administration of government. He would, if called upon, exercise his existing common law powers to take whatever steps, however drastic, he considered necessary to restore order." Emergency plans were drawn up to allow the military authorities to take over from regional or local authorities and to dispense justice through special military war zone courts. Peter Hennessy, author of The Secret State, a study of Whitehall and the bomb, said last night: "This is the first direct confirmation that post-nuclear attack there would have to be military government for a time." But the Strath report did conclude that if what was left of the population could get through this initial critical period then it would be possible for Britain to make a slow recovery despite the destruction of half its industrial capacity. "The standard of living of the reduced population, although substantially lower than at present, would still be well above that of the greater part of the world. The country would be left with sufficient resources for a slow recovery." Strath believed some of the impact of a nuclear attack could be minimised by mass evacuation plans, a national network of nuclear fallout shelters and emergency stockpiles of food. Some of his recommendations were acted upon but cabinet papers show that a proposal to build basement shelters in all new buildings was rejected on cost grounds. Instead, a top secret underground bunker was built in the Cotswolds to shelter the cabinet and selected military, civil service and intelligence figures. Detailed plans were drawn up to evacuate more than 15 million people from the target areas, but they would have taken at least nine days to implement. Britain's war planners worked on the assumption that it would be known seven days in advance that a nuclear attack was inevitable. But they could only count on a very short tactical alert of up to one hour that the bombers were on their way. If the Russians risked a low-level approach to avoid radar the warning could be as short as three minutes, Strath said. [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 ***************************************************************** 69 OP: Preparing for an unknowable threat Lawrence Journal-World: Opinion David Shribman Friday, April 26, 2002 Washington — Last fall, with anthrax in the mail and fear in the air, Tommy G. Thompson was under fire. Since then, he's lighted a fire under the Department of Health and Human Services. The former Republican governor of Wisconsin was facing criticism that his agency did too little, acted too slowly and responded too awkwardly to a grave health crisis. In truth, the response inspired little confidence that the nation could react to a major biological or chemical attack. Even the disclosures meant to calm Americans' fears — the assurance, for example, that the federal government could have 40 million doses of smallpox vaccine delivered in three years' time — only heightened anxieties and confirmed the worst fears. Since then, Thompson has stared down the limits of political philosophy and made substantial progress. An advocate of small government, he has assured that Washington will have more than 286 million doses of smallpox vaccine on hand by October. A skeptic of centralized authority, he has assembled what he calls a "bioterrorism dream team." As a renowned skinflint, he has assured that the Bush administration budget calls for a 45 percent increase in funding to fight these threats, the largest onetime investment in public health in American history. That's the good news. The bad news is that Thompson is involved in a race to accomplish what is doable as he prepares the nation against a threat that is unknowable. "Realistically," said Margaret A. Hamburg, vice president of biological programs for the Nuclear Threat Initiative, "it is not possible to fully prepare for every potential, imaginable threat." The threat grows daily, with new means of manufacturing influenza strains that haven't been seen before, with new techniques for making the Ebola virus from fragments of genetic material, with new ways to assure that anthrax and plague are resistant to antibiotics, and with new technologies that can make toxic biological agents more persistent in the atmosphere and thus more likely to be inhaled by humans and animals. "The long-term threat," says Thomas V. Inglesby, deputy director of the Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies at Johns Hopkins University, who outlined the dangers before a Senate committee last month, "is certainly grave." All of which has forced Thompson, one of the leaders in the 1990s generation of innovative Republican governors, to make subtle adjustments in his own philosophy. Thompson thrived in Wisconsin by being perhaps the governors' leading advocate of devolution, the passing of power from Washington to the states. As president of the Council of State Governments, he repeatedly attacked what he called the "Washington-knows-best attitude." Indeed, it is instructive to compare Thompson's testimony before a Senate committee in the spring of 1999, when he spoke glowingly of "a return of power and control to the state level," with his testimony before a Senate committee this spring, when he spoke of emergency command centers, federal coordination of anti-terror preparedness and Washington management of bioterror response. His prepared testimony this month said that terrorism was "both a national and local issue," and while his department is allocating substantial money to the states, the emphasis today is on command and coordination. There's need for both. "Only the federal government can ensure that the necessary programs are in place to protect the American people," argues Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, the Connecticut Democrat who heads the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, which has oversight responsibility for the fight against biological and chemical terrorism. Thompson knows this. He's working to assure that state and local authorities develop what is known in the hospital industry as "surge capacity" — the ability to take care of large numbers of sick or dying people swiftly after the onset of a biological, chemical or nuclear attack. He's working to have the power to move large mobile military hospitals into affected areas at rapid speed. He's arranging for "push packages" with as much as 600 tons of antibiotics to distribute within hours of an attack. He's worrying about the threats that food pathogens pose to a nation that has 175 ports of entry for food and only 125 food inspectors. It sounds as though Thompson has concluded that a big threat is requiring a big response from big government. But some of his old instincts may serve him well. He needs to slay the sort of bureaucratic drift that permits one department to have five incompatible bookkeeping systems and more than 200 different computer systems, some with 20-year-old software. He needs to succeed in his pledge to respond within 30 days to the 38 states that have submitted terrorism response proposals (the remaining dozen states have asked for extensions). He needs to let the states revert to their roles as laboratories of experimentation, for if Illinois can come up with a response plan that Connecticut can use, the nation as a whole will be better prepared. In a time of peril, politicians have discovered they need to be flexible — and so do their political theories. Copyright © 2002, the Lawrence Journal-World. ***************************************************************** 70 India Planning Nuclear Weapons Command Structure Fri Apr 26,10:29 AM ET By Sanjeev Miglani NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India, which has been in a tense military standoff with Pakistan for months, plans to set up a nuclear command structure, a move seen as a demonstration of its resolve to build a "minimum credible nuclear deterrent." A Defense Ministry official told Reuters the government had given "in principle" clearance for such a command, but it was not linked with the dangerous stand-off with Pakistan. "The government is working at it," he said. "It can take several months. But we have reached a general agreement that the command will be headed by the air force for the time being." Close to a million troops have been assembled on both sides of the India-Pakistan border for nearly four months now in a crisis provoked by an attack on the Indian parliament, blamed on Pakistan-based rebel groups operating in disputed Kashmir. The plans for the command structure come four years after India conducted nuclear tests and follow comments by Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf that his country could use nuclear weapons against India if its security was threatened. MISCALCULATION OR ACCIDENT The military confrontation at the border shows no signs of abating, deepening concerns of a miscalculation or an accident that could escalate into the world's first nuclear exchange. "Setting up of the strategic command is a step in the direction of greater transparency," nuclear affairs expert P.R. Chari said Friday. It demonstrated the Indian government's resolve in pressing ahead with plans to build a "minimum credible nuclear deterrent," he said The composition, size and chain of command of Indian and Pakistani nuclear weaponry is so far unclear, though India has said its command will be headed by an air force officer. The only other thing known about India's highly secretive nuclear weapons program is that the button lies in the hands of the prime minister. A cabinet committee on security, which includes the defense and foreign ministers, would also presumably be consulted before a doomsday weapon is fired. "There has to be somebody to implement the decision, the strategic command will fill that gap," Chari said. TURF WARS Analysts say that turf wars among the army, air force and the civilian bureaucracy that runs the defense ministry, and overall ignorance of nuclear issues, had prevented the establishment of a fail-safe nuclear chain of command . Military-ruled Pakistan has been a shade quicker off the block, by announcing a Nuclear Command and Control Authority consisting of military, political and scientific officials. But the Indian defense official said Pakistan had been faster in setting up its nuclear structure because its program has always been controlled by the military, giving it greater cohesion. The decision to head up the Indian nuclear force with an air force officer suggests the nuclear deterrent will be based on fighter planes, rather than at sea, defense experts said. The Indian air force has Russian and French-made warplanes capable of delivering nuclear bombs. A draft nuclear doctrine released by the government-appointed National Security Advisory Board in August 1999 had recommended an ambitious nuclear arsenal based on a triad of aircrafts, ships and missiles. Since the nuclear test explosions, India has carried out tests of its nuclear-capable ballistic missile Agni in different versions, including a shorter range one, which analysts said was aimed at countering Pakistan's missile development program. (Sanjeev Miglani New Delhi Newsroom 91-11-301-2024;fax Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. ***************************************************************** 71 Limiting foreign students Projo.com | Providence | Local News Providence, R.I. 04/22/2002 BY LINDA BORG Journal Staff Writer When Arun Shukla came to the United States from India to study engineering, he was given a graduate fellowship to work on a project for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "I came here and produced a lot of work which was useful to the NRC," said Shukla, now the interim dean of engineering at the University of Rhode Island. "I have contributed not only to various academic missions but to industry." If Shukla was applying to a U.S. university today, he might not be as fortunate. Since November, a committee that includes officials from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has been meeting in private to discuss whether foreign students should be excluded from studying certain sensitive subjects, such as nuclear engineering. President Bush formed the panel in October when he issued a directive on homeland security, Combating Terrorism Through Immigration Policies, that says in part: "The government shall implement measures to end the abuse of student visas and prohibit certain international students from receiving education and training in sensitive areas, including areas with direct application to the development and use of weapons of mass destruction." Mr. Bush did not specify what fields would be considered off-limits to international students; instead, he created an interagency panel to spell out the details. The directive has alarmed many college officials, who worry that campuses may have to exclude certain classes of students from studying biochemistry or chemical engineering. This discussion, combined with the recent crackdown on student visas, has some colleges questioning whether the Bush administration is trying to undermine the free flow of ideas. In an April 16 letter to Tom Ridge, director of homeland security, the country's three major college associations said: "We are concerned that the fundamentally open character of our higher education system may make it impossible to construct a workable system for restricting certain students already present in the country from gaining access to information that is made available to other students." The letter was signed by the American Council on Education, the Association of American Universities and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges. They said their primary concern is that the panel has not asked them to comment on the proposal, as was suggested in the president's directive. "Our concern is the imprecision of the charge to the committee and the fact they they have been meeting in secret," said Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education. "We don't have a way to know what direction they're going in." Potentially dangerous students should be stopped before they set foot in this country, colleges said. But the government should not expect colleges to monitor whether a particular student takes a chemistry class, or whether a student changes majors from English to biochemistry. "Our suggestion is that they concentrate on keeping these people out of the U.S. in the first place," said George Leventhal, a policy analyst with the Association of American Universities. "Once students are here, it's mighty difficult to keep students away from certain classes." SOME COLLEGES are already concerned about the chilling effect this directive might have on the willingness of foreign students to attend college in the United States. "We know that other countries are actively recruiting foreign students, particularly students from the Middle East and Asia," said John W. Fuller, a spokesman for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. Foreign students contribute between $11 billion and $13 billion to the U.S. economy, according to the American Council on Education. Christoph Frank, a German student studying for his master's degree in business administration at URI, said one of the reasons he chose the United States is because he believed that an American university would be less restrictive than colleges elsewhere. "This change in policy would strongly discourage me from coming to the U.S. to study," Frank wrote in an e-mail message to The Providence Journal. "A country which is known and admired for the individual right to freedom should think twice before reducing this for any of its supporters, citizens or guests." Nowhere is the impact of foreign students felt more profoundly than in the fields of science and engineering, where half of the students earning doctorate degrees come from abroad. "It would be almost impossible to run the higher education system without these graduate students because they not only participate in research programs, they are are future leaders," said URI's Shukla. "Most of our faculty positions in engineering are occupied by students who came here as foreign students." In his department, Shukla estimates that 80 percent of his students hail from foreign countries, while the faculty come from almost a dozen different countries, including India, Iran and Egypt. The bulk of his department's research monies come from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense. Depending on how many foreign nationals are prohibited from working on defense-related projects, this proposal could have a crippling effect on the ability to conduct research, Shukla said. "We don't have enough of our own students going into graduate studies," Shukla said. "Our undergraduates leave because they can earn good salaries right out of college." While college officials said they understand the government's need to protect the United States from terrorism, they don't want to see the tradition of academic freedom sacrificed at the altar of national security. "The tradition of the American university is there should be free and open access to the research we do," said John Eng-Wong, the director of foreign students, faculty and staff at Brown University, where one-fourth of all graduate students come from outside the United States. BESIDES THE considerable contribution that foreign graduate students make to both teaching and research at Brown, international researchers are constantly flowing in and out of the university's labs. Scientific research is clearly a global enterprise today, Eng-Wong said, one that transcends national borders. In its letter to Ridge, the college associations have questioned why the Bush administration is considering additional restrictions on foreign students when a procedure is already in place. The State Department screens applicants for visas who seek to study, or do business with, any field involving weapons-related technology, including nuclear technology, chemical and biotechnology engineering, robotics and advanced computer technology. "We believe the system works," Hartle said. "It is very difficult for a student from India or Pakistan to pursue a degree in nuclear technology in the U.S." Some college officials wonder why students are being singled out for scrutiny when student visas represent less than 2 percent of the 30 million visas issued each year. And, of the 1.6 million deportable aliens in the United States in 1998, only 599 -- less than 1 percent -- entered the country on a student visa. Fuller, who represents the National Association of Independent Colleges, pointed out that only one of the 19 suspects involved in the Sept. 11 attacks came here on a student visa. "There does seem to be a certain demonization of foreign students," he said, "that is not justified by the record." Previous articles? Search Journal Archives [http://archives.projo.com/] More... 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Burnell UPI Science News From the Science & Technology Desk Published 4/25/2002 6:57 PM WASHINGTON, April 25 (UPI) -- The Department of Energy understated the potential impact of transporting nuclear waste to the proposed Yucca Mountain storage site by failing to include the nation's research reactors in its environmental impact statement, Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said Thursday. The DOE said the assertion was mistaken. Gibbons appeared as a witness before a House Transportation Committee hearing on issues related to transporting spent nuclear fuel. The DOE's Yucca Mountain Project EIS ignored at least 54 sites whose waste would end up at the Nevada site, Gibbons said. "This means hundreds or thousands of critical waste shipments and tens of thousands of transport miles were completely left out of DOE's evaluation," Gibbons told the committee. "DOE would apparently have you believe this is no big deal." Most of the sites Gibbons referred to are facilities at major universities, which use small reactors to research nuclear medicine and provide examination tools for studying several areas of basic science. The 54 sites, however, have been researched in other DOE filings, said Joe Davis, a DOE spokesman. "It's fair to say that we've looked at all the sites that are producing nuclear waste," Davis told United Press International. "We know where they are, and we know what the transportation impacts would be, from years of study, if the waste eventually ended up at Yucca Mountain. It would be incorrect for anyone to imply that our final EIS is not thorough and complete." Amy Spanbauer, Gibbons' spokeswoman, told UPI the congressman stands by his assertion that DOE has not met its statutory requirements in reviewing Yucca's environmental impact. "That's always going to be a point of contention, based on so many scientific questions that remain unanswered," Spanbauer said. Research reactors have been shipping their spent fuel to sites such as the DOE's Savannah River, S.C., complex for years, said John Bernard, director of the Nuclear Reactor Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Research reactors rarely have any spent fuel on their premises, he said. "DOE owns the fuel, so it's not like the utilities that own their own fuel and are looking for a place to put it," Bernard told UPI. "(We deal with) a very small amount of fuel, perhaps six or eight elements a year ... far less than a commercial reactor." In his testimony, Gibbons also said research reactor spent fuel is more vulnerable to terrorism or theft because of a high percentage of highly enriched or "weapons-grade" uranium. Uranium has two natural isotopes, U-235 and U-238, the first of which occurs rarely in nature. It is less stable and therefore is what fuels a nuclear fission reaction. Reactor fuel has only a few percent of U-235, while enriched nuclear weapons material is primarily U-235. Research reactor fuel has more of the volatile isotope than commercial fuel but a far smaller percentage than what is found in weapons material, Bernard said. During nuclear fission in a reactor, the U-238 can transform to plutonium, another weapons-grade material, Bernard said. The lower percentage of U-238 in research reactor fuel, however, would keep plutonium production levels below that of commercial fuel, he said. And spent research reactor fuel would not be very valuable to groups looking to make a bomb, he said. "Once you've 'burned' fuel for more than a month or so, it isn't really feasible to make a weapon out of it," Bernard said. "There are enough isotopes in there that (prevent fission) so that making a weapon wouldn't be practical ... it's far easier to start from scratch with raw material." Research reactors were not the only concerns raised at the hearing. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., a committee member and staunch opponent of placing a waste repository in her state at Yucca, said antitank missiles could puncture a waste transport container. "This type of terrorist attack, essentially causing a dirty bomb effect, would be disastrous to the environment and to human life," Berkley said. Comments from experts interviewed earlier by UPI said such a scenario, while serious, is nowhere near as likely as Yucca opponents imply. Even if an antitank warhead penetrated a waste container, studies indicate the radiation release would consist mostly of gases that would rapidly disperse in the atmosphere. Copyright © 2002 United Press International. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 73 Trailers unlock Hanford history This story was published Fri, Apr 26, 2002 By John Trumbo Herald staff writer The 25-foot aluminum travel trailer is a time capsule, a visage from the early days of Hanford's atomic era. Its original occupants moved on long ago, happy to leave confined quarters that had yellow-orangish interior wood paneling, art deco light fixtures and seamless sky blue linoleum floors. There were more than 3,000 of the silver domiciles set up at what was called trailer city during Hanford's boom years in the mid-1940s and early 1950s to accommodate construction workers who at the peak numbered about 51,000. "This is what people brought to the construction camps," said Connie Estep, curator at the Columbia River Exhibition of History, Science and Technology museum in Richland. A 1946 Vagabond travel trailer that once occupied a space at the Hanford site is now set up next to the CREHST museum and is open for public tours. Virtually unaltered from its original design, the trailer has a living room, a small kitchen with gas stove and refrigerator and a bedroom big enough for a dresser and a bed for two. Built-in storage abounds, but floor space is a measly 150 square feet. The typical trailer was home for an average of 3.7 people at Hanford, Estep said. Bathrooms and laundry services were available at central bath houses that served about 20 trailers each. Museum staff and volunteers held a grand opening, of sorts, Thursday for the trailer, which is now officially part of the museum show-and-tell collection. About 40 people wandered in to peek into the interior and thumb through a pile of 50-year-old photos depicting what life was like at Hanford's work camp when atomic energy was in its infancy. The first camp existed only from May 1943 to February 1945, but a second was built in north Richland in the early 1950s, said Dan Ostergaard, who researched the photos at Lockheed Martin archives. Construction workers who brought their families to the Hanford area and didn't have a trailer to live in were given bunks in barracks. Husbands went to the men's area and wives went to the women's area. "It didn't matter if you were married, they split you up," Ostergaard said. The CREHST trailer was donated by the family of Zane Mayberry in Richland who acquired it from a Mr. Hill. Estep said Ron and Sandy Mayberry of Bothell decided to contribute the trailer instead of trying to keep it as a camping rig. The original cabinets and art deco light fixtures survive, as do the appliances and the bed. Manufactured by the Vagabond company, the aluminum clad trailer, has a hobo bearing a bundle on a stick as its logo. Estep said a 1940s-circa lunch box and a water cooler were purchased from an antique store to add to the interior. She even found some orange Fiesta ware, which is particularly appropriate for the trailer because it was made using uranium to obtain the special orange glaze. Grace Rowan, 86, of Richland, came to take a look at the old trailer. Rowan never lived in one, however, even though her husband was stationed in the barracks. Rowan opted to go to Yakima to find an apartment for herself and her preschool daughter. "No one would rent to me because I was connected to that thing in the desert," she recalled. The thing was a reference to the secret nuclear project that had created much suspicion and fear in people's minds. Rowan eventually found a home in Richland and got a job as a citizen liaison for the Air Force adjutant at Hanford. Richland old-timers will remember the trailer as a connection to a cartoon character named Dupus Boomer, who appeared weekly in the Richland Villager from 1945 until 1950. Dupus, created by Dick Donnell, gave trailer city residents a humorous look at their life in a desert constantly on the move with relentless wind, blasting summer heat and finger-numbing cold winters. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 74 Judge to decide merits of radiation exposure in PFP suit This story was published Fri, Apr 26, 2002 By John Stang Herald staff writer A federal judge will decide soon if radiation exposure will be debated during the lawsuits filed by 11 former Plutonium Finishing Plant workers against Fluor Hanford. U.S. District Judge Ed Shea said Thursday that he will take at least two weeks to make his decision. At stake is whether this trial will take place in U.S. District Court in Richland or in Benton County Superior Court. Also at stake is how wide of a range of legal issues will be tackled in the unscheduled trial. Eleven current and former Hanford employees are suing Fluor, several subcontractors, the Hanford Environmental Health Foundation and some doctors over numerous mistakes made before and after a PFP chemical tank exploded in 1997. The explosion exposed the 11 workers to chemical fumes. They filed lawsuits in spring 2000, alleging Fluor and the others negligently allowed the explosion to occur, botched the emergency responses, including exposing them to the fumes, falsely said a key check for radiation exposure was completed when it wasn't and delayed follow-up medical checks. Most of these charges fall under state law. But potential exposure to a certain amount of radiation pushes the trial to federal court. On Thursday, Shea heard arguments whether the plaintiffs have enough evidence to claim that each absorbed 5 rem of radiation. Five rem is Hanford's annual absorption limit for a person, and it is also the threshold that kicks in the federal Price-Anderson Act. Attorney William Squires III of Seattle, representing Fluor, argued the plaintiffs cannot prove they were exposed to radioactive particles from the explosion. He said post-explosion checks of the room where the tank blew up showed no increased levels of radioactivity. "This was not a radioactive explosion. It was not a plutonium explosion. ... It was a chemical explosion," Squires said. Plaintiff attorney J. Michael Schwartz of Minneapolis acknowledged no one can definitely tell the extent of radioactive particles knocked into a gas plume that the workers were told to walk through. But he said that was because Fluor did not conduct the appropriate radiation and medical checks that night that could have provided the information. Schwartz cited a Hanford report that estimated that at least six pounds of plutonium dust could be found in the air ducts that the explosion could have shook or blew through. He also argued the chemicals that exploded might have been used in radioactive processes. If Fluor wins the argument, the case will be dismissed from federal court and switched to Benton County Superior Court. And the plaintiffs won't be allowed to argue they were exposed to dangerous levels of radioactivity. Schwartz and co-counsel Todd Johnson said part of their case is that radioactivity boosts the ill effects of chemical exposure, which is why they want to keep this factor in the litigation. Squires said the defense wants to trim the issues it will have to contest. The plaintiffs' court filing alleges the fumes caused most of the exposed workers to suffer chronic lung and throat problems, plus recurring skin blisters. Seven show blood abnormalities, mostly anemia. Some have recurring tingling in their fingers and toes. Six suffer some form of post-traumatic stress disorder. And one has almost continual numbness in his hands and arms and cannot hold tools. The May 14, 1997 chemical tank explosion was Hanford's biggest accident in the 1990s. A volatile chemical mixture sat semi-forgotten for years in the tank in a fourth floor room of the PFP complex. That mixture exploded, blowing out doors, breaking water pipes and knocking a hole in the roof. A plume of chemical gas escaped. Confusion and chaos reigned as Hanford workers reacted. Eight Fluor Daniel Northwest electricians were in a trailer just outside of the main PFP building. They received conflicting orders on where to go, and those orders ultimately sent them through the fumes. Three other workers also were exposed. State and Department of Energy investigations found numerous problems that caused the explosion, created the resulting confusion, and botched medical checks and follow-up work on the exposed workers. Ultimately, the state fined DOE, Fluor and a subcontractor $110,000 for safety violations that caused the explosion. And DOE fined Fluor $28,500 for the botched emergency response. The explosion led to a massive overhaul of Hanford's chemical management and emergency procedures. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 75 FFTF petition signed by 3,670 This story was published Fri, Apr 26, 2002 By the Herald staff A petition to save Hanford's Fast Flux Test Facility has gathered about 2,500 signatures on the Internet and 1,170 on paper petitions passed around the Mid-Columbia. The effort was started by two Columbia Basin College students earlier this month with a goal of gathering 5,000 signatures by April 30 to present to President Bush. The Internet signers include people from all 50 states and countries around the world, including Greece, Ireland, Australia and New Brunswick. Supporters of restarting the reactor want it used to produce medicine for treating cancer and to make isotopes for other uses, such as irradiating food. However, the federal government has decided to dismantle the reactor. The petition is at www.petitionoline.com/ansewbc/petition.html [http://www.petitionoline.com/ansewbc/petition.html] . Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 76 Lab director: Nuke tests not expected Friday, April 26, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Lawrence Livermore executive to retire By MARTHA MENDOZA THE ASSOCIATED PRESS LIVERMORE, Calif. -- The United States likely will not resume nuclear testing despite Bush administration questions about what it would take to end the nine-year moratorium, the retiring director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory says. C. Bruce Tarter, who was asked by President Bush a year ago to find out how quickly scientists could restart nuclear test explosions under the Nevada desert, said that at this point, it would take one to three years. Although the research has begun, he doesn't expect Bush to start the testing. The only reasons Tarter sees for more nuclear explosions would be either a dramatic change in leadership in Russia, China or other nuclear powers, or a technical surprise in the current stockpile. The final report about the logistics of resuming tests is not expected to be ready for a few more months, said Tarter, whose replacement as lab leader is expected to be named today. In January, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the president planned to continue adhering to the no-testing policy, but that he would never rule out tests to make certain that the stockpile, particularly as it's reduced to about 2,000 weapons, is reliable and safe. Full-scale U.S. nuclear weapons tests were put on hold indefinitely after the Divider test on Sept. 23, 1992, at the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Resuming full-scale nuclear blasts would have a large effect on the test site, where underground tests typically have taken two years to prepare, from digging the hole to detonation. In rare instances, preparations were finished in less than a year. In 1992, President George H.W. Bush signed an executive order halting nuclear testing. President Clinton upheld the moratorium and encouraged other countries to do so. Directors at the nation's three nuclear weapons labs agreed they could maintain nuclear weapons through stockpile stewardship, a program that is building the world's fastest computers and the largest laser, the National Ignition Facility, at the Livermore lab. The program relies in part on so-called subcritical nuclear experiments, in which small amounts of plutonium are detonated with high explosives in underground chambers at the test site to give scientists an understanding of how plutonium changes as it ages in the stockpile. The experiments are not designed to cause nuclear chain reactions. Interviewed on the roof of his highly secure office overlooking the Livermore campus and the browning East Bay hills, Tarter said he's enjoyed his tenure at the head of the lab. But he said Livermore is at a turning point now, and at 62, he said he simply lacks the energy to put in another four or five years to carry it into its new era. During his past seven years as director, Tarter led the lab's transition from Cold War-era nuclear weapons development to a wide range of research, both for military uses and such non-defense technologies as the world's most accurate lathe, built to form large, irregularly shaped mirrors for experimental lasers, and a mechanical truck stopping device designed to stop a stolen or hijacked truck. During his tenure, Tarter took his biggest hits for time and cost overruns in the construction of the huge laser that will be used to help monitor and maintain nuclear weapons without actual bomb tests. That $3.48 billion project has suffered delays and spiraling costs since the Department of Energy first set its budget at $1.1 billion nearly five years ago. The project, which Tarter said is "back on track," is now scheduled to be fully operational by 2008. Tarter said he hopes to remain at the lab after stepping down, both to assist the new director and take on several smaller projects, including preparing for the lab's 50th anniversary this fall. But he laughed when asked if he had another three decades left to go, like his colleague down the hall, renowned physicist Edward Teller, or "E.T." as they call him, who at 95 is still coming in to the office two days a week. "He's an amazing man," said Tarter. "I'll just be glad to be around." Review-Journal writer Keith Rogers contributed to this report Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 77 ORNL makes 'strategic planning' changes Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 1:42 p.m. on Friday, April 26, 2002 by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff A "critical" department at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is getting a new manager and possibly an expanded role in the research facility's operations. Lee L. Riedinger, ORNL's deputy director for science and technology, confirmed Thursday that Erik W. Pearson, formerly of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, has been named as the new director of ORNL's Office of Strategic Planning. He replaces Johnnie Cannon, who will assume a new role as manager of Business and Institutional Planning in the office. The Office of Strategic Planning produces an "institutional plan" each year to convey information about ORNL to the Department of Energy. The institutional planning process provides a means for DOE to consider ORNL as an institution rather than as a collection of programs. DOE's approval of the institutional plan indicates that the laboratory's mission, vision and strategic plan are aligned with DOE's needs and plans. In addition, the Office of Strategic Planning helps administer a "laboratory directed research and development" program aimed at initiating research programs in hopes they lead to new funding sources. "We see growth coming in various areas in science and technology," Riedinger said. "Some areas are obvious such as neutron scattering with the Spallation Neutron Source. "This office will play a bigger role in working with line management -- in other words, the associate lab directors -- to make specific plans of how we will go and capture new programs and bring together the resources we need to achieve that." Riedinger suggested that Pearson would play an integral part in the expansion of the Office of Strategic Planning. "He really has a reputation in the DOE system of being a top-flight thinker and a strategic planner," Riedinger said. According to Riedinger, Pearson comes from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., where he has worked for 19 years in research and research management, most recently strategic planning director. Pacific Northwest is managed by Battelle, which also runs ORNL through a partnership with the University of Tennessee called UT-Battelle. The hiring of Pearson is the second management-type change at ORNL in a couple of weeks, following the announcement that Alex Fischer would join the lab later this year as director of Technology Transfer and Economic Development. However, Riedinger stressed they are not on the same level since Fischer's position is part of the lab's "leadership team" and Pearson's isn't. Paul Parson can be contacted at (865) 220-5533 or pparson@oakridger.com [pparson@oakridger.com] . All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 78 'Bubble fusion' third test to get under way Oak Ridger Online --> Story last updated at 10:48 a.m. on Friday, April 26, 2002 by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff They say the third time's a charm, but will that be the case for the controversial issue of "bubble fusion?" Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are expected to begin meeting next week to map out a third experiment in hopes of determining whether or not nuclear fusion can be achieved by collapsing bubbles. Work done by Rusi Taleyarkhan, a senior scientist in ORNL's Engineering Science and Technology Division, suggested so. However, Dan Shapira and Michael Saltmarsh, both nuclear physicists at ORNL, failed to achieve the same results when they attempted to replicate his experiment. The inevitable question: Does ORNL have a lot riding on the upcoming third experiment? "To me, it's a physics question riding on the experiment," said Lee L. Riedinger, ORNL's deputy director for science and technology. "We as a laboratory have to measure again and demonstrate the agreement or disagreement. The neutron measurements of the past two experiments are in disagreement and that's not good. So, the only way to resolve that is to do another measurement to be sure as a laboratory -- is there nuclear fusion there or not?" Riedinger said Thursday afternoon that several ORNL researchers, including Taleyarkhan and Shapira, will be involved in the third experiment. The tentative plan, according to Riedinger, is to spend the month of May gathering the equipment needed, get started on the experiment in June and possibly have some findings from the test by the end of the summer. "Bubble fusion" garnered a wealth of media attention and was brought to the public's attention after Taleyarkhan's findings were published in the March 8 edition of Science magazine, a leading scientific journal. Almost instantly, people began comparing it to the notorious scientific experiment known as "cold fusion." That late 1980s project involved two University of Utah researchers -- Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann -- prematurely announcing that they had achieved a fusion reaction at room temperature through chemical means. However, researchers failed to reproduce the Utah researchers' findings. Taleyarkhan's research effort suggested possible evidence of nuclear fusion in a tabletop experiment that involved collapsing bubbles in a beaker filled with deuterated acetone (acetone with its normal hydrogen atoms replaced by deuterium, a heavy hydrogen isotope that can undergo fusion reactions). Normal acetone is a colorless, volatile liquid often used as a paint remover or chemical solvent. Shapira and Saltmarsh were asked by ORNL managers to replicate the experiment last year after Taleyarkhan reported his findings. Upon completing their task, the two physicists argued the neutron emission they detected was too small to support evidence of nuclear fusion reported by Taleyarkhan. Paul Parson can be contacted at (865) 220-5533 or pparson@oakridger.com [pparson@oakridger.com] . All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 79 Environmentalists Lament Energy Bill Las Vegas SUN April 26, 2002 WASHINGTON- Motorists can rest assured that their gas-guzzling SUVs won't be threatened by new energy legislation moving through Congress. And there's good news there too for farmers and wind turbine operators. But environmentalists are in an uproar, and California lawmakers predict gasoline shortages and price spikes. The impact of a broad energy bill passed by the Senate on Thursday can be expected to touch a wide array of people, industries and businesses - that is if it ever gets out of Congress. Although passed by a wide margin, 88-11, it must still be merged with a starkly different bill that the House passed last year. After the Senate vote, President Bush appeared confident a compromise could be reached. Between the two bills, he said, there were "the elements of a comprehensive energy policy" that include "the major conservation and environmentally responsible production measures needed to reduce our reliance on foreign sources of energy." This legislation "should increase our energy independence," said Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., although he made clear there were differences with the House. He call the Senate-passed bill "a far more responsible, progressive, consumer-friendly energy policy" than the House bill, which largely mirrored the president's priorities. The Senate rejected Bush's top energy priority: oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. That is expected to trigger a fight with the House, which approved such drilling and whose Republican leaders have shown no signs of backing down. The Senate bill calls for $14.1 billion in energy tax subsidies ranging from help to refiners to meet sulfur-control regulations and reduce the cost of power from wind turbines to a credit for homeowners who want to buy a solar panel or put more insulation into their attic. Overall, the tax benefits were about evenly divided between production and conservation and support for renewable energy sources, its supporters said. The Senate's refusal to open the Alaska wildlife refuge to oil companies was one of the few victories for environmentalists over the six weeks that senators deliberated energy policy. The disappointments ranged from rejection of even modest steps to improve automobile fuel efficiency to - in the final hours - stripping the bill of a requirement that the Energy Department impose the more aggressive efficiency standards for air conditioners that had been proposed by the Clinton administration. "Finding environmentally friendly provisions in this bill is like looking for a needle in a haystack," complained Elizabeth Thompson, legislative director of Environmental Defense. In rejecting a proposal to require automakers to meet a fleet average of 35 miles per gallon over the next dozen years, opponents of the measure argued that it would force manufactures to stop making large cars and threatened suburban soccer moms with the loss of their sport utility vehicles. The claims were rebutted by supporters of the fuel economy improvements, who argued the technology exists for cars to be more fuel efficient and still save the SUV. In any case, neither the House nor Senate bills address the issue in any significant way, so the SUVs are safe no matter who's right. The bill also would require more ethanol use in gasoline, resulting in a tripling of ethanol production to 5 billion gallons a year by 2012, a boon to farmers. The ethanol mandate survived despite repeated attempts by senators from California and New York to have it removed, or at least phased in more slowly. When the Senate refused even to postpone its implementation for a year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., accused farm-state senators of ignoring the harm that might come to California, where she said a lack of ethanol could produce gasoline shortages and price spikes. "We're being told it's good for corn farmers, so just take it," Feinstein said. Other major provisions in the bill, covering more than 580 pages, included: -A ban on use of the gasoline additive MTBE, which has been found to contaminate waterways in many states. -Federal loan guarantees to spur private interest in building a $20 billion pipeline to carry natural gas from Alaska's North Slope into the continental United States. -A requirement for utilities to produce 10 percent of their electricity by 2019 from renewable fuels such as wind, solar energy and forest and agricultural wastes. -Repeal of a Depression-era law that limits the operations of electricity holding companies. -Wider authority for federal energy regulators to regulate wholesale electricity markets and transmission lines. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 80 Bill would relax environmental rules Friday, April 26, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Species protections hurt military training, supporters say By CHRISTINE DORSEY STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- The Defense Department might get a reprieve from two environmental laws that military leaders have said hamper their ability to train troops. Legislation approved by a House Armed Services panel Thursday would bar the Interior Department from designating military land as critical habitat for endangered species. The legislation would forbid the department from penalizing the military when aircraft kill protected birds during training. The proposal could affect Nevada, where the military conducts combat training. Provisions relaxing the Endangered Species Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act were added to a 2003 defense authorization bill by Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colo., chairman of the readiness subcommittee. Hefley said troops should take priority over birds and animals. "The ability of the Department of Defense to fulfill its primary mission to safeguard national security has been dramatically challenged, and in some instances diminished, due to its obligations to satisfy several important federal environmental laws," Hefley said. Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., said the changes are narrow in scope and do not give the Pentagon a ticket to pollute. He said at Camp Pendleton, Calif., Marines landing on the beach must board buses to avoid disturbing endangered species. Weldon said their training is unrealistic and could lead to fatal mistakes. "Are their lives less important than a gnat-catcher?" Weldon said. Military leaders have been seeking exemptions from environmental codes such as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Federal Water Pollution Act. Hefley said he wants to explore changes to other environmental laws but said that would spark controversy. Environmentalists have said the Pentagon is trying to rush the changes through Congress. Panel member Rep. James Maloney, D-Conn., said the Pentagon recommendations are so broad, they could include all Army Corps of Engineers projects. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., sits on the readiness panel but did not attend Thursday's meeting. He later said he supports Hefley's waivers. "We have so very little area left for training," said Gibbons, a former Air Force pilot. Gibbons said he is concerned that soldiers are being put at risk when environmental regulations prevent them from training the way they would fight. Nevada is home to the Navy's Fighter Weapons School at Fallon Naval Air Station. And about 75 percent of the Air Force's live munitions training occurs at Nellis Air Force Base and the Nevada Test and Training Range. Both Fallon and Nellis face encroachment from a growing population and must observe protections of desert bighorn sheep, desert tortoises and wild horses that roam inside their borders. A coalition of 23 national environmental groups sent a letter to lawmakers Thursday condemning the plan. "The American people have long supported these important environmental and public health laws that already include exemptions to address national security interests," wrote the leaders of Sierra Club, Earthjustice, Defenders of Wildlife and other environmental groups. Environmentalists in Nevada generally were not familiar with the Pentagon proposal, but expressed concern that it could lead the way for more underground nuclear testing in the state. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 81 Statement by the President on Energy Policy For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary April 25, 2002 The Senate today passed legislation that includes many of the provisions called for in my Administration's National Energy Policy. Together, the House and Senate energy bills include the major conservation and environmentally responsible production measures needed to reduce our reliance on foreign sources of energy. I am pleased that the House-Senate Conference Committee will have before it the elements of a comprehensive energy policy. The two bills reflect my Administration's call to provide tax incentives for alternative and renewable fuels and technology; modernize our electricity laws; open a small portion of ANWR to responsible exploration; increase automotive fuel efficiency while protecting American lives and jobs; and ensure continued safe operation of our nuclear facilities. It is imperative that America increase its energy independence and I look forward to working with the conferees to ensure that we enact a balanced and comprehensive energy policy this year. ***************************************************************** 82 CDC proposal is extreme Fri Apr 26, 6:15 AM ET Duane Parde State legislators are making vigilant provisions just in case Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s next cowardly shoe to drop is a biological, chemical or nuclear attack. Thirty-three states are considering legislation to prepare for such attacks. For this they should be heartily applauded. But such legislation must also stand scrutiny in respect to civil liberties. One controversial proposal, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites)'s Model Emergency Health Powers Act, is rightfully viewed as an unprecedented legislative assault upon civil liberties. The CDC proposal allows governors to unilaterally declare a public health emergency, stripping individuals and families of their rights and liberties for 60 days. Only then is a state legislature allowed to intervene by a majority vote. Following a governor's emergency declaration, unelected state health officials immediately assume broad powers to seize property, share your private health information, quarantine individuals suspected of being infected, ration goods and services, compel mass vaccinations and even assume control over state and local police. The potential for blunder borne out of incompetence is enormous, not to mention the potential for willful abuse. The medical community and business owners have the most to fear. Under a declared state of emergency, hospitals could be procured, through ''condemnation or otherwise,'' by anyone who meets whatever constitutes a public health authority. The owner of a fleet of school buses, for example, could have his property expropriated without compensation to transport infected people, animals or waste. Private homes, businesses or our schools could be walled off as quarantine locations. And there is not one thing anyone could do about it for 60 days. If one set out to intentionally legislate extremism, the CDC model would be it. Unlike Illinois, Pennsylvania and Maryland, not every state has introduced the most extreme version of the bill. At the very least, each state and its citizens should scrutinize every word of legislation being considered. If states go too far, they hand the terrorists of the world a belated victory. Duane Parde is executive director of the American Legislative Exchange Copyright © 2002 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. ***************************************************************** 83 Senate Approves Energy Measure (washingtonpost.com) Scaled-Back Bill Pushes Conservation [Dueling Energy Bills] By Helen Dewar Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, April 26, 2002; Page A01 The Senate yesterday overwhelmingly approved a scaled-back energy bill aimed at increasing conservation and the use of renewable fuels, dismaying both the White House and its environmentalist critics by excluding some of their main proposals. The bill calls for a wide array of incentives and tax breaks to encourage conservation, increase the use of corn-based ethanol and other alterative fuels, and encourage the buying of energy-saving appliances. The bill also supports more domestic production from coal and other traditional energy sources. The 88 to 11 vote sends the bill to an uncertain fate in negotiations with the House, which last year approved an approach reflecting President Bush's emphasis on incentives for more production of oil, gas, coal and nuclear power. The Senate bill was designed by Democratic leaders as an alternative to Bush's more traditional approach to energy production. But some of their most ambitious proposals were scrapped or watered down during six weeks of grueling action on the legislation. As it wound up, the Senate bill is probably notable more for its omissions than for its relatively modest provisions. It underscores the difficulty of enacting far-reaching measures in a narrowly divided chamber when so many powerful forces -- from the oil industry to the environmental lobby -- pull in opposite directions. The Senate rejected the centerpiece of Bush's energy plan, a controversial proposal approved earlier by the House to allow drilling for oil and gas in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Under pressure from the auto industry, many Democrats joined Republicans in scuttling a Democratic plan to increase fuel efficiency standards for motor vehicles by 50 percent over 13 years. Instead, the Senate bill gives the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration two years to set new standards. The Arctic drilling and fuel efficiency proposals had been framed as important steps to help reduce dependence on foreign oil. In final action on amendments yesterday, the Senate voted 52 to 47 to drop a provision requiring a 30 percent increase in minimum efficiency standards for air conditioners. By 57 to 42, it rejected a proposal -- designed as a compromise on the gasoline consumption issue -- to require the government to issue regulations aimed at reducing anticipated usage by 1 million barrels per day by 2015. The vote to pass the bill was unusually bipartisan, despite partisan fights over many of its provisions. Voting in favor were 42 Democrats and 45 Republicans; eight Democrats and three Republicans opposed it. All Washington area senators voted for the bill. The White House, which clearly prefers the House bill, supported the Senate measure only as a ticket to a House-Senate conference. Bush tried to put the best face on the situation, noting in a statement that the Senate bill includes "many of the provisions" he had sought. "It is imperative that America increase its energy independence and I look forward to working with the conferees to ensure that we enact a balanced and comprehensive energy policy," Bush said. Environmentalists denounced both bills and called the Senate version a missed opportunity. "While clearly superior to the House version, the Senate bill offers no coherent view of how to fuel our economy in a cleaner way," said Friends of the Earth President Brent Blackwelder. It would have reflected "forward-thinking when Grover Cleveland was president," he added. But Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) said the bill "recognizes that we can't be content to pursue an energy policy based on the old philosophy of dig, drill and burn and begins the process of moving towards more innovative approaches. . . . It doesn't get us all the way there, but it gets us moving in the right direction." There will almost certainly be an effort by GOP conferees to allow at least some drilling in the Alaska refuge, but the Senate is likely to remain strongly opposed. Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said yesterday that Senate conferees will not agree to Arctic drilling. Bush has not said whether he would veto a bill without the drilling provision. The Senate bill includes scores of proposals spread over 580 pages, including tax breaks and other incentives to construct a pipeline to carry natural gas from Alaska's already-developed Prudhoe Bay as well as smaller initiatives such as tax credits for the purchase of energy-saving appliances. It includes $14 billion in tax cuts, which sponsors say are evenly divided between production and incentives to encourage both conservation and development of solar, wind, geothermal, corn-based and other sources of renewable energy. Among other things, there would be tax breaks for insulating houses, buying hybrid (gas and electric) and other fuel-saving vehicles, producing power from animal waste and rewarding electricity producers who use "clean coal" technologies. There would also be incentives for expanded fossil fuel and nuclear power production. The House approved roughly $33 billion in tax cuts, or more than twice the Senate total, most of which would go toward increasing the production of oil, gas, coal and nuclear energy. Its proposals reflected priorities laid out last year by Vice President Cheney's task force, which critics accused of listening only to energy producers. The House bill includes some, but fewer, incentives for conservation and renewable fuels. Another controversial provision in the Senate plan would triple the amount of ethanol, which is produced largely from corn, that must be mixed with gasoline over the next decade. The provision was included at the insistence of Daschle and other Farm Belt senators, including Democrats in critical reelection contests this fall. © 2002 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************