***************************************************************** 06/28/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.164 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POLICY 1 U.S., France in (nuclear) Cargo Deal 2 US: Science in the trenches 3 UK: Nuclear plant to axe 270 workers NUCLEAR REACTORS 4 Armenian nuclear power plant shuts down after malfunction * 5 US: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards To Meet in Rockville, 6 Armenian nuclear power plant shuts down after malfunction * 7 UK: Lightning closes nuclear plant NUCLEAR SAFETY 8 US: Direct Access to Profiles of Health Ingredients Suppliers 9 US: Radiation ruling puts focus back on health 10 Loads of Radioactive Berries Seized 11 US: Model shows nuclear accident 12 US: U.S. Senate Bill to Aid Nuclear Weapon Detection NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 13 US: America's Towns Would See Thousands Of Shipments Each Carrying 2 14 US: Alternative rail route sought for nuclear waste * 15 US: Freeport Mayor (Gitz) joins Yucca debate* 16 US: Nuclear waste could travel through area* 17 US: Goshute: Waste-tax backers seek suit dismissal 18 US: Group fights nuclear waste trek 19 US: NRC Announces Opportunity for Hearing on Proposed Spent Fuel 20 US: Money dwindling in dump fight fund 21 US: NUCLEAR WASTE FIGHT: Anti-Yucca site adds feature 22 US: Yucca Mountain Shipments Called Mobile Chernobyl 23 US: Ex-Penthouse Pet writes Yucca article 24 US: Senate recess means action on Yucca Mountain delayed 25 US: Defense spending bill includes Yucca funds 26 US: Letter: Anti-dump effort waste of money 27 US: Nuclear-materials truck disabled on highway 28 US: Nuclear waste site debate roils 29 US: Neutron scrutinized for mishandling radioactive material - 30 UK: debate "Managing Rad Waste Safely" 31 US: Citizen Alert Event: This Land Is Our Land - Not a Wasteland 32 UK: Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee (RWMAC) | DEFRA 33 UK: Debate on N-waste management 34 US: Radioactive Roads And Rails: Hauling Nuclear Waste Through Our 35 US: *Website Tracks Nuclear Waste Routes* NUCLEAR WEAPONS 36 US: U.S. Senate Bill to Aid Nuclear Weapon Detection* 37 US: Tiny Device Can Detect Hidden Nuclear Weapons, Materials 38 Russia has no plans to resume nuclear tests on remote Arctic island, 39 Russia has no plans to resume nuclear tests on remote Arctic 40 $10 Billion Pledged to Ex-Soviets to Dispose of Unconventional Arms 41 G8 OKs scrapping Russia's nuke stockpiles* US DEPT. OF ENERGY 42 Energy Secretary predicts progress on developing domestic oil 43 '98 letter opens Abraham to charges of hypocrisy 44 SRS still awaiting word on cleanup funds 45 Secret City scenic train will feature pre-Manhattan Project area 46 Nuclear security chief joins National Security Council 47 Two fires at DOE buildings Thursday 48 Department of Energy mulls uranium cleanup OTHER NUCLEAR ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 U.S., France in (nuclear) Cargo Deal Las Vegas SUN June 28, 2002 WASHINGTON- U.S. inspectors, trying to prevent smuggling of nuclear and other deadly weapons, will screen cargo containers destined for the United States before they leave Le Havre, France, the Customs Service said Friday. The agreement with the French government allows U.S. customs inspectors to be stationed at that port for the first time. Customs has entered into similar agreements - aimed at improving cargo security at the world's seaports - with Canada, Singapore, the Netherlands and Belgium. Last year, around 108,300 cargo containers entered the United States from Le Havre, Customs said. Customs hopes to place some officers at the Le Havre seaport in a few months. -- All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 2 Science in the trenches newsobserver.com : front : Editorials [newsobserver.com, Raleigh, NC] Friday, June 28, 2002 5:11AM EDT EDITORIAL State and federal governments are moving with dispatch to coordinate police and intelligence work in protecting Americans. But the federal government has overlooked a full-fledged marshalling of science in the effort, as a team from the National Research Council helpfully -- and in a timely way -- points out. In "Making the Nation Safer: The Role of Science and Technology in Countering Terrorism," the team of 130 scientists urges a thoughtful process for drawing in science on an array of fronts, from developing vaccines for airborne pathogens, to protecting the nation's food supplies, to detecting nuclear bomb-making material at the U.S. border. The National Research Council is made up of three private, nonprofit organizations of prominent scientists and engineers. Undoubtedly some matters are being studied already, such as defenses against anthrax. But "Making the Nation Safer" points out that the United States needs more emphasis on central, strategic thinking. What's feasible and what's not? Who's doing what and how far along are they? Which security challenges should we address first? To what extent should public money for research be rerouted to terror-related projects? So far, the war on terrorism has been largely a low-key affair in this country. Yet few Americans are so deluded as to believe that the conflict doesn't have war-like implications and potential consequences. Vigilance and foresight are at a premium. Science has played a central role in winning every modern war; now, scientific disciplines need to be enlisted in this 21st century conflict. The National Research Council makes the point that the invitation has to be extended. Congress should do so, promptly. © Copyright 2002, The News &Observer. All material found on newsobserver.com ***************************************************************** 3 UK: Nuclear plant to axe 270 workers Jun 27 2002 By Chris Brown Daily Post Staff NUCLEAR giant BNFL is to shed 270 jobs at its Capenhurst plant over the next four years. BNFL logo The fixed contract jobs in the south Wirral site will end between March, 2003 and 2006. There are currently 300 BNFL workers at the Capenhurst plant, meaning just 30 will remain. The 270 jobs are filled by environment experts, employed to rid the site of any traces of nuclear contamination. A spokesman for BNFL said they hoped the staff could be found work elsewhere within the company. The company said the contracts were not being renewed because the decommissioning work had been completed by the staff. Workers had been told that their contracts would be ended once the job was done. He said: "They are victims of their own success. They were brought in to do a job and now that job has been done. "This has been on the cards for some time and it will be no surprise for anybody. "All the staff are on fixedterm contracts and we are phasing out the work over a number of years. We are trying to make this as painless as possible." "BNFL employs people worldwide and these are highly-skilled workers so we are hopeful that many of them will be relocated. There is $500bn in decommissioning work and BNFL applies for as many contracts as it can." © owned by or licensed to Trinity Mirror Plc 2002 icLiverpool^TM is a trade mark of Trinity Mirror Plc. ***************************************************************** 4 Armenian nuclear power plant shuts down after malfunction * * AP World Politics* /Fri Jun 28, 8:41 AM ET/ YEREVAN, Armenia - Armenia's Medzamor nuclear power plant experienced an electrical malfunction and automatically shut down this week but did not leak any radiation, officials said Friday. The Medzamor plant shut down for several hours on Wednesday after registering the malfunction, but is now back to full power, according to the press service for Armenia's energy ministry. There was no radiation leakage and the shutdown posed no danger, the service said. The plant, 30 kilometers (20 miles) west of the Armenian capital Yerevan, has one working reactor that supplies about 45 percent of the small Caucasus Mountains nation's electricity needs. The reactor was closed in 1989 amid safety jitters following a devastating 1988 earthquake ( news - web sites ) in then-Soviet Armenia, but restarted in 1995 during an energy crisis in the impoverished country. It was closed for four months last year for maintenance and debt reasons. Armenia has been under pressure to shut down the plant for good because of worries about the safety of the Soviet-made reactor. Experts have estimated the required safety upgrades at about dlrs 1 billion over the next 15 years. (ad/ee/adc) Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 5 Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards To Meet in Rockville, Maryland, July 10 - 12 NRC: Press Release - 2002 - 78 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov [opa@nrc.gov] www.nrc.gov No. 02-078 June 27, 2002 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) has scheduled a meeting in Rockville, Maryland, July 10 -12. During one of the sessions, the ACRS will meet with NRC Commissioners. This session will focus on, among other items, risk-informing special treatment requirements of Part 50 of the Commission's regulations, advanced reactors, reactor core power uprates and nuclear power plant operating license renewals. The meeting, which is open to the public, will be held in Room T-2B3 of the agency's Two White Flint North building at 11545 Rockville Pike, beginning at 8:30 a.m. each day. However, the meeting with Commissioners will be held at 2 p.m. on July 10 in the Commissioners' Conference Room of the agency's One White Flint North building at 11555 Rockville Pike. The complete agenda is attached. Those who wish to make oral or written statements, or seek additional information on the meeting or changes to the agenda should contact Dr. Sher Badahur, at 301-415-0138. ACRS Agenda: WEDNESDAY JULY 10, 2002, CONFERENCE ROOM 2B3, TWO WHITE FLINT NORTH, ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND 8:30 - 8:35 A.M. Opening Remarks by the ACRS Chairman (Open) Opening statement (GEA/JTL/SD) Items of current interest (GEA/SD) 8:35 - 10:00 A.M. Pressurized Thermal Shock (PTS) Reevaluation Project: Risk Acceptance Criteria (Open) (TSK/FPF/MWW) Remarks by the Subcommittee Chairman Briefing by and discussions with representatives of the NRC staff regarding the risk metrics and associated criteria that can be used in reevaluating the technical basis of the PTS rule. Representatives of the nuclear industry may provide their views, as appropriate. 10:00 - 10:15 A.M. ***BREAK** 10:15 - 11:15 A.M. Draft Final Revision 1 to Regulatory Guide 1.174, "An Approach to Using Probabilistic Risk Assessment in Risk-Informed Decisions on Plant-Specific Changes to the Licensing Basis," and Associated Standard Review Plan Chapter 19 (Open)(GEA/AWC/PAB) Remarks by the Subcommittee Chairman Briefing by and discussions with representatives of the NRC staff regarding the draft final revision 1 to Regulatory Guide 1.174 and the associated Standard Review Plan Chapter 19, "Use of Probabilistic Risk Assessment in Plant-Specific, Risk-Informed Decisionmaking: General Guidance." 11:15 - 12:45 P.M. Discussion of Topics for Meeting with the NRC Commissioners (Open) (GEA, et al./JTL, et al.) Discussion of topics for meeting with the NRC Commissioners on July 10, 2002. 12:45 - 2:00 P.M. ***LUNCH*** 2:00 - 4:00P.M Meeting with the NRC Commissioners (Open) (GEA, et al/ JTL, et al.) : The Committee will meet with the NRC Commissioners, Commissioners' Conference Room, One White Flint North, to discuss the following + Overview (GEA) + Core Power Uprates and License Renewals + Future Committee Activities + Advanced Reactors (TSK) + Risk-Informing Special Treatment Requirements of 10 CFR Part 50 (GEA) + Pressurized Thermal Shock Technical Basis Reevaluation Project (FPF) 4:00 - 4:15 P.M. ***BREAK** 4:15 - 5:15 P.M. Risk-Informed Regulation Implementation Plan (Open) (GEA/AWC/HJL) Remarks by the Subcommittee Chairman Briefing by and discussions with representatives of the NRC staff regarding the updated version of the Risk-Informed Regulation Implementation Plan. 5:15 - 5:30 P.M. ***BREAK** 5:30 - 7:15 P.M. Proposed ACRS Reports (Open) Discussion of proposed ACRS reports on: PTS Reevaluation Project: Risk Acceptance Criteria (TSK/FPF/MWW) Draft Final Revision 1 to Regulatory Guide 1.174 and SRP Chapter 19 (GEA/AWC/PAB) Risk-Informed Regulation Implementation Plan (GEA/AWC/HJL) THURSDAY JULY 11, 2002, CONFERENCE ROOM 2B3, TWO WHITE FLINT NORTH, ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND 8:30 - 8:35 A.M. Opening Remarks by the ACRS Chairman (Open) (GEA/JTL/SD) 8:35 - 10:00 A.M. Advanced Reactors Research Plan (Open) (TSK/MME) Remarks by the Subcommittee Chairman Briefing by and discussions with representatives of the NRC staff regarding the modifications and updates to the Advanced Reactors Research Plan. 10:00 - 10:15 A.M. ***BREAK*** 10:15 - 12:00 Noon Overview of NRC Research Activities in the Seismic Area (Open) (DAP/TJK/SD) Remarks by the Subcommittee Chairman Briefing by and discussions with representatives of the NRC staff regarding ongoing and proposed research activities as well as new research needs in the seismic area. 12:00 - 1:00 P.M. ***LUNCH*** 1:00 - 2:30 P.M. Development of Review Standard for Reviewing Core Power Uprate Applications (Open) (GBW/JDS/PAB) Remarks by the Subcommittee Chairman Briefing by and discussions with representatives of the NRC staff regarding the development of a "Review Standard" for use in future reviews of core power uprate applications. 2:30 - 2:45 P.M. ***BREAK*** 2:45 - 6:00 P.M. Proposed ACRS Reports (Open) Discussion of proposed ACRS reports on: PTS Reevaluation Project: Risk Acceptance Criteria (TSK/FPF/MWW) Draft Final Revision 1 to Regulatory Guide 1.174 and SRP Chapter 19 (GEA/AWC/PAB) Risk-Informed Regulation Implementation Plan (GEA/AWC/HJL) Advanced Reactors Research Plan (TSK/MME) Development of Review Standard for Reviewing Core Power Uprate Applications (Tentative) (GBW/JDS/PAB) FRIDAY JULY 12, 2002, CONFERENCE ROOM 2B3, TWO WHITE FLINT NORTH, ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND 8:30 - 8:35 A.M. Opening Remarks by the ACRS Chairman (Open) (GEA/JTL/SD) 8:35 - 10:15 A.M. Application of the Probabilistic Fracture Mechanics Methodologies to Reactor Vessel Integrity Assessment (Open) (FPF/AWC/MME) Remarks by the Subcommittee Chairman Briefing by and discussions with representatives of the NRC staff regarding application of the probabilistic fracture mechanics methodologies (including the FAVOR computer code) to assess reactor pressure vessel integrity. 10:15 - 10:30 P.M. ***BREAK*** 10:30 - 2:30 P.M. Proposed ACRS Reports (Open) (12:00 - 1:00 P.M. LUNCH) Continue discussion of proposed ACRS reports listed under Item 12. 2:30 - 2:45 P.M. ***BREAK*** 2:45 - 3:30 P.M. Future ACRS Activities/Report of the Planning and Procedures Subcommittee (Open) (GEA/JTL/SD) Discussion of the recommendations of the Planning and Procedures Subcommittee regarding items proposed for consideration by the full Committee during future ACRS meetings. Report of the Planning and Procedures Subcommittee on matters related to the conduct of ACRS business, and organizational and personnel matters relating to the ACRS. 3:30- 3:45 P.M. Reconciliation of ACRS Comments and Recommendations (Open) (GEA, et al./SD, et al.) Discussion of the responses from the NRC Executive Director for Operations to comments and recommendations included in recent ACRS reports and letters. 3:35- 4:45 P.M. Format and Content of the 2003 ACRS Report on the NRC Safety Research Program(Open) (FPF/RPS) Remarks by the Subcommittee Chairman Discussion of the format, content, schedule, and assignments for the 2003 ACRS report to the Commission on the NRC Safety Research Program. 4:45 - 5:00 P.M. ***BREAK*** 5:00- 6:00 P.M. Proposed Papers for the Quadripartite Meeting(Open)(GEA, et al./ JTL, et al.) Safety Culture and Safety Management (MVB/DAP) Risk-Informed Regulation (GEA/TSK) Thermal-Hydraulic Analysis and Code Issues (GBW/VHR) Stress Corrosion Cracks in Pressure Retaining Components in Nuclear Power Plants (FPF/WJS) Risk Analysis of Spent Fuel Storage (TSK/DAP) 6:00- 6:30 P.M. Miscellaneous (Open) (GEA/JTL) Discussion of matters related to the conduct of Committee activities and matters and specific issues that were not completed during previous meetings, as time and availability of information permit. NOTE: + Presentation time should not exceed 50 percent of the total time allocated for a specific item. The remaining 50 percent of the time is reserved for discussion. + Thirty-Five (35) copies of the presentation materials should be provided to the ACRS. ***************************************************************** 6 Armenian nuclear power plant shuts down after malfunction * * AP World Politics* /Fri Jun 28, 8:41 AM ET/ YEREVAN, Armenia - Armenia's Medzamor nuclear power plant experienced an electrical malfunction and automatically shut down this week but did not leak any radiation, officials said Friday. The Medzamor plant shut down for several hours on Wednesday after registering the malfunction, but is now back to full power, according to the press service for Armenia's energy ministry. There was no radiation leakage and the shutdown posed no danger, the service said. The plant, 30 kilometers (20 miles) west of the Armenian capital Yerevan, has one working reactor that supplies about 45 percent of the small Caucasus Mountains nation's electricity needs. The reactor was closed in 1989 amid safety jitters following a devastating 1988 earthquake ( news - web sites ) in then-Soviet Armenia, but restarted in 1995 during an energy crisis in the impoverished country. It was closed for four months last year for maintenance and debt reasons. Armenia has been under pressure to shut down the plant for good because of worries about the safety of the Soviet-made reactor. Experts have estimated the required safety upgrades at about dlrs 1 billion over the next 15 years. (ad/ee/adc) Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 7 UK: Lightning closes nuclear plant BBC News | SCOTLAND | 28 June, 2002, [Torness nuclear power station] Torness is located on the coast Both reactors at a nuclear power plant in Scotland have been shut down after a lightning strike. The lightning caused a power surge which activated safety systems at the Torness station in East Lothian. A spokesman for British Energy said it was the first time such an incident had occurred at the plant and that it posed no risk to the public. The reactors shut down after lightning struck pylons near the plant on 2 May, causing a power surge which tripped the station's safety system. It shows everything is working as it should do. We don't have any safety concerns regarding this NII spokesman The spokesman said such events were "rare", although a similar incident had happened at Hunterston power station on the Clyde several years ago. He said: "The reactor safety mechanism did what it was designed to do by closing down both the units and that is exactly what happened on May 2. "There was a voltage pulse. It's like something happening in your house when your bulbs trip out. Boiler pressures "We quite often shut down the reactors for maintenance so it is not unusual for a reactor to shut down safely. "We just want to get this into perspective. It is not a major incident and people should not be unduly concerned." During the incident, boiler pressures were reduced and non-radioactive steam normally used to power the station's electricity-generating turbines was released. [Electricity pylon] The lightning hit a pylon The spokesman said the incident was reported to the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) "right away". He also confirmed that the number two reactor was shut down again on May 10 in a separate incident because of a mechanical fault with the cooling system. An NII spokesman said: "Shut down after a lightning strike is a designed-for response. "It shows everything is working as it should do. We don't have any safety concerns regarding this." Dr Richard Dixon, head of research at Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: "I think it is probably really too early to tell how serious this was until we have seen some details from any NII investigation. "But we suspect that because they had to shut the whole place for five days, it is probably a bit more serious." ***************************************************************** 8 Direct Access to Profiles of Health Ingredients Suppliers Potassium Iodide pills effective but hard to find, claims ConsumerLab.com 27/06/02 - The threat of terrorism in the wake of the 11 September attacks in the US has led to growing fears about what would happen if one such attack were targeted at a nuclear facility. The dietary supplement market has reacted quickly to this threat, and a raft of potassium iodide and iodate products designed to help protect against radioactivity. While some of these products have been censured by the FTC and FDA for offering little or no protection and simply cashing in the fears of the American public, many others are indeed effective in protecting the thyroid gland from the effects of radioactive iodine and thus reducing the risk of thyroid cancer. This was the conclusion of ConsumerLab.com, the independent tester of supplements and other products. However, the organisation also discovered that the availability of thee products was not good, even in areas close to nuclear facilities. Because radioprotective iodine products are only effective if taken before or very shortly after exposure, people would most likely turn to government agencies and local pharmacies to get them in the event of an emergency, ConsumerLab.com said. However, most neighbourhood pharmacies do not routinely stock these products, and while some will order them if asked, a prescription is required ? even though potassium iodide is not classified as a prescription drug. ConsumerLab.com purchased five tablet and one powder product over the Internet to carry out its tests, and discovered that all six of them passed. All of the products contained the labelled amounts of active ingredient and the tablet products were able to disintegrate properly in solution, necessary for absorption by the body. /"Despite there being good products on the market, in a real emergency, neither government agencies nor local pharmacies seem ready to rapidly get radioprotective iodine to those who will need it,"/ concluded Tod Cooperman, president of ConsumerLab.com. /"In light of terrorist threats and because radioactive iodine is carried by winds, individuals living within 50 miles of a nuclear facility should keep some pills on hand, particularly if they have children, who are most sensitive to the effects of radioactive iodine."/ Some municipalities are now making one or two tablets available to residents, although they must live within 10 miles of a reactor to qualify, he added. The US government is aware of the distribution problems facing potassium iodide ? President George W. Bush alluded to it recently when announcing the decision to establish a new government department to protect against terrorist threats on American soil ? and is clearly preparing to act on it, but US consumers are unlikely to be assured until they have the pills in their hands. © 2001/2002 ? NutraIngredients ? All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 9 Radiation ruling puts focus back on health Published June 27, 2002 An appeals court, in restoring the claims of thousands of downwinders seeking damages for radiation releases at Hanford, has put the emphasis where it should be - on compensating those who can prove they have suffered. The U.S. 9th District Court of Appeals' decision, issued last week, overruled a district judge's 1998 decision. District Judge Alan McDonald had decided that downwinders would have to show they received enough radiation to double their risk of illness when compared with the risk faced by the general population. His finding established an arbitrary standard that seemed to say the measure of whether one was hurt by releases at Hanford was a matter of where they lived, not their health. McDonald's decision "was an arbitrary bright line standard ... but there is variability in human response," said Tom Foulds, a Seattle attorney representing 2,000 plaintiffs. The appeals court said it is common sense that a person exposed to 10 rem of radiation is not significantly different from one exposed to 9.99 rem. That sounds fair enough, especially since the focus should be not whether a plaintiff was exposed to radiation, but whether that person suffered health affects from it. Despite the ruling, the downwinders' case is getting more difficult to prove by the day. Last week, a 13-year, $19.5 million study issued its final report that concluded people who lived downwind of Hanford when it was producing plutonium are not more likely to have thyroid disease than those who lived elsewhere. That said, those who still can prove they were hurt by radiation releases at Hanford are entitled to compensation. The 9th Circuit's ruling may set the stage for marathon litigation by restoring the plaintiffs' ranks to more than 3,000 claims, a number that the district court judge had winnowed to a few hundred with his ruling. Barring appeals of the 9th Circuit's ruling, the trial court would do well to start plowing through the thousands of claims - some as old as 12 years - as soon as possible so the Northwest can begin to put this chapter behind it. What's your opinon? Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 10 Loads of Radioactive Berries Seized Las Vegas SUN June 28, 2002 MOSCOW- Nearly 1,500 pounds of berries from an area heavily hit by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster were seized this month from Moscow markets because of radioactive contamination, an official announced on Friday. The bilberries, akin to blueberries, were found to have 14 times the acceptable levels cesium, said Yelena Ter-Markirosova, spokeswoman for Radon, the capital's radiation-monitoring agency. She said experts had confiscated 1,472 pounds of the berries - grown in western Belarus - since June 18. -- All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 11 Model shows nuclear accident [DesMoinesRegister.com] By [normanj@news.dmreg.com?Subject=Online: Model shows nuclear accident] Register Washington Bureau 06/28/2002 Washington, D.C. - A "moderately severe" nuclear waste accident in Des Moines could expose more than 5,400 Iowans to radiation and cause at least 11 cancer deaths, according to a study released Thursday by an environ- mental group. The Environmental Working Group used government data and computer models to project what could happen in major cities along the route from nuclear power plants to Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The U.S. Senate is expected to vote soon on a plan that would send at least 175 waste shipments a year across the nation via truck or rail over a 38-year period. The Department of Energy has developed computer models to show the general effects of accidents, and the group adapted them to show what would happen in Des Moines if a truck carrying waste on Interstate Highway 35/80 north of the city were involved in an accident and radiation escaped. The model shows a plume of cesium gas that would drift north toward Saylorville and Ankeny. The primary health risk, the group says, is an elevated long-term risk of cancer for those who are exposed, although "groundshine" - or longer-term radiation exposure - could extend far beyond the immediate exposure zone. Police and firefighters who respond in the minutes after the crash could be exposed to a radiation dose equal to 30,000 X-rays or more, the study said. The model contends that 11 people would eventually die of cancers caused by a year's exposure to residual radioactivity in the contaminated area. "I think we do need to be concerned about accidents with this material, no matter how rare they may be," said Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group. The group used a National Academy of Science analysis of atomic bomb survivors from World War II to assess cancer risk. The government projects a much lower risk of cancer using different assumptions, the group said. Television ads have been running in Iowa for and against the Yucca Mountain plan, in part because Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, has said he is undecided. On Thursday, Harkin was intensely critical of the plan and said his view has changed. "Sixty to 80 percent of all this material would go through Iowa, one way or another," he said. "What plans do they have to protect our people in Iowa?" Sen. Charles Grassley, a Republican, is in favor of the plan and said it is safer than leaving nuclear waste scattered at plants across the nation, vulnerable to terrorists. There have been no harmful releases of radiation in 2,700 shipments of nuclear waste in the past 30 years, according to the Department of Energy. "The established record of transportation of spent nuclear fuel overwhelmingly indicates that it is safe," an agency statement says. "The shipment of nuclear waste is highly regulated and subject to the utmost scrutiny." The Nuclear Energy Institute, a trade group for the nuclear power industry, says waste-transport containers are built to withstand severe accidents. They use multiple layers of lead and other shielding. Containers on trucks weigh 25 to 40 tons. But the Environmental Working Group says the government itself projects there will be 100 accidents over the life of the project. A call to the Department of Energy was not returned Thursday. Leaders of the nonprofit group said their models do not represent a worst-case scenario, but rather an accident of "moderate severity" in which a truck is traveling 30 to 60 mph in clear weather, and cesium escapes from a broken seal in the shipping cask. The model also assumes a subsequent small fire that does not damage the cask. Possible truck routes for the waste extend across large rural tracts of Iowa. Livestock or crops that might be exposed during an accident probably would have to be destroyed to keep contamination out of the food chain, Cook said. The risk of widespread exposure was much higher in cities where train accidents were projected because trains carry larger casks. [http://ads.desmoinesregister.com/RealMedia/ads/click_nx.ads/www.desmoinesregis ter.com/news/stories@Right1] Copyright © 2002, The Des Moines Register. Use ***************************************************************** 12 U.S. Senate Bill to Aid Nuclear Weapon Detection Yahoo! News - Thu Jun 27, 5:13 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Legislation aimed at preventing terrorists from smuggling a nuclear weapon into the United States was introduced in the Senate on Thursday by lawmakers who say current detection capability at ports and borders is virtually zero. The legislation would provide more than 100 new mobile X-ray scanning devices, $250 million to develop technology to detect nuclear materials, order more cargo inspections and stricter cargo reporting standards, and impose bigger penalties for unreported cargo, "Right now, our ability to detect nuclear weapons brought in through our ports, bridges and tunnels is virtually zero," said Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, a co-sponsor of the legislation. "Once terrorists can get that kind of weapon right into the heart of our cities, God only knows what could happen," he added. The United States handles over 2 billion tons a year of domestic and international freight, which is moved mostly in containers, but only about 2 percent is inspected. "Homeland security is the nation's top priority, and defending our nation's 361 ports is essential," said Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia, the bill's other co-sponsor. The legislation also calls for smart sensors that can track a cargo container to determine whether anything has been added or changed over the course of the trip. Since the Sept. 11 hijack attacks, fears have grown that radical groups could acquire nuclear materials to make dirty bombs, crude devices using conventional explosives to spread radioactive material. Two weeks ago, Attorney General John Ashcroft said U.S. authorities foiled a plot to explode a dirty bomb in the United States after arresting a suspected American al Qaeda operative in Chicago allegedly helping plan such an attack. Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 13 America's Towns Would See Thousands Of Shipments Each Carrying 240 Times The Radioactive Material Released At Hiroshima* *For Immediate Release: *June 25, 2002 *For More Information:* Pierre Sadik 202-546-9707 WASHINGTON, DC - Trucks and trains each carrying 240 times the radioactive material released at Hiroshima could rumble through hundreds of U.S. communities if the Senate votes in the next few weeks to allow the Yucca Mountain project to go ahead, according to a new report released today. The U.S. PIRG report, /Radioactive Roads and Rails: Hauling Nuclear Waste Through our Neighborhoods/ , details the Department of Energy's proposal for more than 100,000 truck shipments of highly radioactive waste from all across the country to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. In /Radioactive Roads and Rails/, U.S. PIRG shows that 44 states could see 105,985 truck shipments or 18,243 rail shipments of highly radioactive waste over the course of 38 years. Shipments of nuclear waste would travel on interstate and local highways as well as mainline rail routes. Other waste shipments could be carried by barge over waterways like Lake Michigan, the Mississippi River and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. "Commuters on our highways could find themselves stuck in traffic behind three and a half tons of nuclear waste," said U.S. PIRG staff attorney Pierre Sadik. "Tens of thousands of shipments of highly radioactive waste over four decades is going to put too many people in harm's way." Nuclear waste is recognized as the most dangerous substance known to humankind. When initially removed from the reactor core, it delivers a lethal dose of radiation within seconds. The Department of Energy (DOE) intends to ship the waste in transportation casks, but size and weight limitations make it impossible to build a transportation cask that does not "leak" some radiation. The DOE acknowledges that a truck carrying a nuclear waste cask will emit the equivalent of one chest x-ray per hour of radiation to those who are caught in traffic nearby. "In the best case scenario, these shipments are rolling x-ray machines," said Sadik. "In the worst case scenario, these shipments are mobile Chernobyls." According to one DOE estimate, there will be as many as 310 accidents in the course of transporting this highly radioactive waste across the country. There have been at least eight reported nuclear waste transportation accidents in the U.S. involving radioactive contamination of transport vehicles, roads and rails. Emergency Medical Services officials have stated repeatedly that they do not have the training or equipment to properly respond to a severe nuclear waste accident?which could involve thousands of deaths and billions of dollars in property damage. Because of the potential for such horrendous accidents, several studies show that property values will decline for the millions of Americans who will live in the vicinity of the transportation routes. The DOE currently has no plans to take into account the additional dangers of transporting nuclear waste post-Sept. 11. The Yucca Mountain project involves the movement of nuclear waste from 131 more securable locations, over thousands of miles of roadway and rail lines that cannot be secured from attacks, creating an opportunity for sabotage in communities across America. "At the end of the road, under this ill-conceived plan, the waste will be dumped at Yucca Mountain?a volcano on an aquifer in an earthquake zone," said Sadik. "It's time for the Senate to say no to this dangerous transportation scheme and to stop the Yucca Mountain project." /U.S. PIRG is the national lobby office of the state Public Interest Research Groups. State PIRGs are non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy groups./ / Radioactive Roads and Rails can be found online at www.uspirg.org . Americans can visit www.mapscience.org and see how closely nuclear waste shipments would pass by their home.// / U.S. PIRG 218 D St., SE Washington, D.C. 20003 202-546-9707 ph 202-546-2461 fax _uspirg@pirg.org_ Webmaster Privacy Policy © 2001-2002 Public Interest Research Groups ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ***************************************************************** 14 Alternative rail route sought for nuclear waste * Hillsborough Beacon By: Alec Moore , Staff Writer 06/27/2002 Local leaders cite security, safety concerns. * Manville Mayor Angelo Corradino hosted officials from other Central Jersey municipalities June 21, including Hillsborough Mayor Joseph Tricarico, to put the brakes on the U.S. Department of Energy's proposal to ship nuclear waste through Manville, Hillsborough and hundreds of other communities across the United States. "We're making this a coast-to-coast effort," said Mayor Corradino, who organized and led the roundtable discussion at the Manville Municipal Building. The meeting focused primarily on finding alternative rail routes for the waste material that would keep it as far away as possible from densely populated areas. "We have an opportunity now to address this rather than say 'we could have, should have, would have,'" Mayor Corradino added, noting that he hopes to garner additional support from leaders across the country whose respective communities also lie along the proposed rail route. The issue in question stems from a resolution before the U.S. Senate that, if approved, will designate Yucca Mountain, Nev., as a permanent storage location for the waste. The nuclear waste then could be shipped from the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in New Jersey to a storage facility in Yucca Mountain, Nev., by way of the Lehigh line of CFX Transportation. The proposed route would carry the waste through the center of Manville and within two miles of Hillsborough. By the conclusion of the discussion, officials agreed to make their opposition to the proposed rail route clear to the Senate through locally adopted resolutions and communications with federal officials. The officials will ask Senate leaders to oppose the legislation ? that otherwise will give the Department of Energy a green light to begin shipping the waste ? or delay the vote, pending a search for alternative transportation routes. "This isn't a (Not In My Backyard) issue, this is a public safety issue," said Mayor Corradino, who, along with the contingent of state and municipal officials, perceived security and rail safety as the two paramount issues before them. "We want to make sure that if this does come through our area that our rails are upgraded as a safety precaution," he said. Mayor Tricarico said the leaders in attendance were annoyed that none of them had received any notice from the federal government regarding the pending Senate legislation. "What upsets me is the lack of communication," he said. "There is an inherent responsibility to let people know what's going to be coming through our communities." Vote on the proposed legislation is expected to take place anytime between now and Aug. 12, Mayor Corradino noted. In addition to Mayor Corradino and Mayor Tricarico, state Assemblyman Christopher "Kip" Bateman and representatives for Sen. John Corzine (D-N.J.), Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.), Sen. Bob Smith (D-17th) and Somerset County Freeholder Bob Zaborowski attended the meeting. Officials from Bound Brook, Dunellen, Middlesex Borough, Millstone, North Plainfield, Plainfield and South Bound Brook also attended. ***************************************************************** 15 Freeport Mayor (Gitz) joins Yucca debate* By Tyler Vincent, The Journal-Standard June 28, 2002 *Freeport mayor joins local officials in lobbying Durbin to support nuclear waste site plan* FREEPORT - Yucca Mountain has recently become the center of a national controversy, and this week, Freeport Mayor Jim Gitz added his voice to the national debate. Gitz joined a group of local officials Tuesday in lobbying Sen. Dick Durbinto support the Bush administration's plan to construct a long-term storage site for the nation's nuclear waste at the remote mountain, located 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. If approved, the site would house waste from such facilities as the Byron Nuclear Power Plant. Those in the delegation included state Sen. Bill Shaw, D-Chicago, state Sen. Bill Mahar Jr., R-Orland Park, state Rep. Cynthia Soto, D-Chicago, State Chamber of Commerce President Doug Whitley and Dixon Mayor Jim Burke. The trip was paid for by Exelon, the parent company of ComEd. Gitz said he favored the storing of nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain, as opposed to having the waste spread throughout more than seventy nuclear power sites across the country. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist or an engineer to figure out that one location is better than 70 locations," Gitz said. "There is no alternative proposition by those who are critical of it." According to a press release, the Department of Energy is recommending the Yucca Mountain site after $7 billion of research. Congress originally passed legislation to study permanent solutions for the long-term storage of waste created by nuclear reactors. The U.S. House of Representative has approved the Yucca Mountain plan, while the Senate has yet to vote on the proposition. Nevada State officials and the state's congressional delegation does not support the legislation. "If the Senate doesn't act, its not like it would be available in the future," Gitz said. "It would be gone." Gitz said Durbin, who has says he is undecided on the issue, was receptive to the group's ideas but was still concerned about the issue involving how to transport the waste to Yucca Mountain. He added that he understood Durbin's concern but believed the issue could be addressed by providing a high level of security for the shipments. "All movements of waste are carefully monitored and tracked by a variety of security systems," Gitz said. Tyler Vincent can be reached at 232-0184 or via e-mail at tvincent@journalstandard.com /©The Journal-Standard 2002/ *Name: John Venable * *Date: Jun, 28 2002 * Ummmm...... Yea, thats all we need to be going up into space. Imagine if the challenger had been full of nuclear waste, it blew up from a faulty O-ring. Now imagine the containers the nuclear waste is stored in going through an explosion like that, and then falling 5-10-15-20 miles before hitting the earth/water somewhere. I would rather not. Add in all the idiot's and terrorists that are currently sitting on their thumbs, and I could see where a space flight loaded with nuclear waste would become a pretty popular target. Lets leave the waste on the ground (until we have a safe way of getting it into orbit) By the way, I dont disagree with you on sending it into the sun, thats the most surefire way of disposing it. *Name: Marianne L. Garvens * *Date: Jun, 28 2002 * I'm not so sure I want nuclear waste piled on top of a mountain. What goes up must come down; it would be far better to bury it surrounded by leaded sand after being sealed in appropriate containers. Of course politicians want to dump their waste in someone else's back yard. Here's another solution I have discussed with various sorts throughout the years. Send hazardous waste toward the sun, it will be vaporized before it ever reaches the sun; it should have no impact on the sun, and the vaporization should occur far enough from the earth we too should remain unaffected. As long as we are sending up rockets and such, why not add this to the list. It certainly makes more sense to spend tax dollars to deal with a REAL problem like hazardous waste. What good does all our money spent on research do building a space station that could never protect more than a select few. It is time the tax money BEING PAID BY the masses IS USED FOR the masses and the preservation of the world. Populations should not be starving or living in squalor while others get rich with tax dollars. Generally corporations don?t need welfare, people do! ***************************************************************** 16 Nuclear waste could travel through area* By BOB GROSS, Of The Oakland Press June 27, 2002 *June 27, 2002 FARMINGTON HILLS - Mary M. Johnston lives about nine miles from a railroad line that could carry high-level nuclear waste through Oakland County.* That buffer doesn't keep the longtime anti-nuclear activist from worrying about the people who work and live close to the tracks that stretch from Ferndale northwest through Pontiac to Holly and beyond the county line. "It doesn't matter," she said. "I don't live within the 10-mile (danger) zone at Fermi II (a nuclear power plant near Monroe), but I'm concerned about the people who do. "And you really can't contain anything like this within a zone." The nuclear power industry and the U.S. Department of Energy are pressing Congress to approve a national nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert. A vote has been scheduled in the Senate for the second week of July. The rationale is that the repository would handle waste now stored at temporary sites in 39 states. Michigan, according to the Environmental Working Group in Washington, currently has 1,876 metric tons of radioactive material in temporary storage. If Yucca Mountain is approved, the state would see a reduction to 1,507 metric tons by 2036. Waste, however, would move through some of Oakland County's most densely populated cities such as Ferndale, Royal Oak, Birmingham and Pontiac - and along a railroad line that was closed in Birmingham by a derailment in August 1999. It's also the same line where a train crash in Springfield Township claimed the lives of two railroad workers in November 2001. But Johnston and other activists argue the plan will expose more people to risks from a leak of radioactive materials while not reducing the amount of nuclear waste stored at temporary sites. "It is not at all a solution," Johnston said. "It is a displacement. It is endangering people everywhere. "It's like taking a disease and spreading it all over instead of trying to contain it." According to Department of Energy figures available from the Environmental Working Group, there are about 45,662 metric tons of nuclear waste stored at sites across the country. The proposed Yucca Mountain site would be capped at 70,000 metric tons. Nuclear waste would still be generated while the repository was being filled to its capacity - estimated in 2036. At that time, according to the DOE figures, there would still be about 42,000 metric tons of nuclear waste in temporary storage. Jon Corsiglia, a spokesman for the Environmental Working Group, said the energy department's solution would result in radioactive materials being "mobile in transit sites for the next 36 years or so and when it's all said and done, you're still faced with the same rate of storage. "The simple solution that the energy department and the nuclear industry have been talking about for years isn't that simple." Corsiglia said an accident involving a truck or rail car carrying nuclear waste is bound to happen somewhere if the Yucca Mountain plan is approved. The energy department admits as much in its risk assessment and environmental impact statement, he said. "You're talking about this many shipments, and there are bound to be accidents," he said. "If a seal on one of these canisters was to break open, there would be a radiation leak." For Johnston, the answer to nuclear waste is simple. "First, we have to stop generating it," she said. Corsiglia said there shouldn't be a rush to approve Yucca Mountain and the energy department's nuclear waste transportation plan. "At the moment, the waste is perfectly safe on-site at storage sites around the country," he said. "I think the answer is vote 'no' for the moment until issues like the transportation issue are solved." /©The Oakland Press 2002/ ***************************************************************** 17 Goshute: Waste-tax backers seek suit dismissal [deseretnews.com] Thursday, June 27, 2002 By Donna Kemp Spangler Deseret News staff writer The hot debate over radioactive waste is bubbling to the surface. Proponents of a waste-tax initiative on Wednesday filed a motion in 3rd District Court to have dismissed a lawsuit brought by legislators and other opponents. Meanwhile, Envirocare of Utah employees are knocking on the doors of rural residents in an attempt to persuade them to take their names off a petition awaiting approval for statewide ballot this fall. "We're giving petition signers the other part of the story," said Hugh Matheson, chairman of Utahns Against Unfair Taxes. "The fact they are Envirocare workers just means they are people fighting to save their jobs." At issue is a petition that a group of civic leaders and lobbyists Doug Foxley and Frank Pignanelli sought to put on the November ballot. Proponents of the Radioactive Waste Restrictions Act collected more than 131,000 signatures. County clerks have until July 3 to verify that at least 76,180 of them are from registered Utah voters. The initiative seeks to hike the disposal tax on low-level radioactive waste, which is primarily contaminated dirt with traces of radioactivity. It also would ban the import of any hotter radioactive waste such as medical waste. Envirocare, the only Utah company that disposes of low-level radioactive waste, is fighting the proposal with the help of business leaders and legislators. Earlier this month, several lawmakers and Utahns Against Unfair Taxes sued the backers of the waste-tax initiative, claiming that some of the signatures were gathered illegally. State law requires that signature gatherers be Utah residents. The lawsuit challenges the residency of seven signature gathers and seeks to get those signatures they collected thrown out. It names as defendants waste-tax initiative organizers Pignanelli, Mickey Gallivan and Utah Education Association President Phyllis Sorensen. Gallivan has called the lawsuit "misguided" and "a desperate, ill-timed effort to prevent the people of Utah from voting on the Radioactive Waste Restrictions Act." "The signatures remain valid because they were gathered from Utah residents and registered voters who do not know or rely on the residency status of the signature gatherer," the motion for dismissal stated. Lisa Watts Baskin, an attorney representing the defendants, said the lawsuit has no merit. "We believe this court matter is before Judge Michael Burton for the plaintiff's sole purpose of distracting the initiative campaign," she said. "The real remedy in this unnecessary litigation is rather straightforward. The plaintiffs should stop these shenanigans and simply let the voters vote on whether they want more and hotter radioactive waste." Gallivan also has criticized his critics for using heavy-handed intimidation tactics to get people to remove their names from the petition. Persons who signed the petition can request their names be removed, accompanied by a notary. "Envirocare and its supporters are trying to bully the people's initiative process and distract attention from the real issue of limiting hotter waste and compensating Utah for what out-of-state waste generators already dump here," Gallivan said. But Matheson says the people who signed the petition were misguided into thinking it was all about stopping a consortium of nuclear power utilities from disposing of nuclear waste on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation. Instead it's really all about taxing the radioactive dirt being dumped at Envirocare's landfill in remote Tooele County. The money then would go to help pay for educational needs and the homeless. Matheson said opponents aren't using intimidation tactics to get people to remove their names from the petition. "Part of this is a grass-roots process," Matheson said. "The citizens themselves are the decision makers." E-MAIL: donna@desnews.com [donna@desnews.com] ***************************************************************** 18 Group fights nuclear waste trek [http://gainesvillesun.com Friday, June 28, 2002 By JESSE JAMIESON Special to The Sun Beginning in eight years, Florida residents might be seeing 5,223 casks of nuclear waste like the full-size fiberglass replica displayed by the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League at City Hall on Thursday. Shipments of the casks containing nuclear waste from the state's five nuclear power plants would be made along Florida's highways and railroads if the Senate approves a centralized nuclear storage facility in Yucca Mountain, Nev. [Cell phone fella] Gainesville Mayor Tom Bussing, third from right, speaksr during a press conference held by the Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice outside City Hall Thursday to bring attention to the possible transport of nuclear waste through Gainesville. Jon M. Fletcher/The Gainesville Sun A group of environmental organizations, including the North Carolina-based defense league, gathered to propose an ordinance to Mayor Tom Bussing and County Commission Chairman Hutch Hutchinson. The proposed ordinance would oppose the transport of nuclear waste through Gainesville and Alachua County. "I'm not in favor of throwing our waste problem into someone else's back yard," Hutchinson said. The County Commission could discuss the ordinance at its next meeting in July, Hutchinson said. He said the county's and state's reliance on nuclear energy has created a waste problem without an easy solution for its disposal. The waste is currently stored at each nuclear facility. "We are part of the problem until we make our own energy somewhat clean," Hutchinson said. The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a plan to begin storage of nuclear waste at the Yucca Mountain site in 2010. About 77,000 tons of waste would eventually be stored on the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The Senate is expected to vote on the proposal in early July. The defense league is on an 18-state tour to campaign against the transportation of nuclear waste. Its members claim the casks have not been properly tested by the Department of Energy to ensure they would not leak or rupture during a highway accident or terrorist attack. The casks pose a potential health risk to residents along the routes of passage because if ruptured they would leak significant amounts of radiation, league staff member Claude Ward said. "You know about these terrorists trying to detonate dirty bombs," Ward said. "That's the biggest dirty bomb they can grab. "And you penetrate that, and you will release more radiation than was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki." ***************************************************************** 19 NRC Announces Opportunity for Hearing on Proposed Spent Fuel Storage Installation in Idaho NRC: Press Release - 2002 - 79 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov [opa@nrc.gov] www.nrc.gov No. 02-079 June 27, 2002 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering an application from Foster Wheeler Environmental Corporation for a license to store spent nuclear fuel at an installation to be located on the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory site in Butte County, Idaho. The agency is announcing the opportunity for potentially affected persons to request a hearing on the application. The storage facility would contain spent fuel that is in the possession of the Department of Energy and that was used in the former Shippingport and Peach Bottom Unit 1 nuclear power plants -- early demonstration reactors located in Pennsylvania that produced commercial electricity. If granted, the license would authorize Foster Wheeler to store spent fuel in a dry storage system at the site for 20 years. The deadline for hearing requests is July 29 (30 days after the publication of a Federal Register notice on this subject on June 27). By that time, petitions must be filed by anyone whose interest might be affected by the facility and who wishes to participate as a party to the hearing. Petitions for a hearing must be filed with the Secretary of the Commission, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. 20555, Attention: Document Control Desk, or may be delivered to the Commission's Public Document Room, One White Flint North Building, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Md. Because of continuing disruptions in delivery of mail to U.S. Government offices, it is requested that hearing requests be transmitted to the Secretary of the Commission either by fax to 301/415-1101 or by e-mail to hearingdocket@nrc.gov [hearingdocket@nrc.gov] . The Federal Register notice contains details on other addressees and information that must be included in the petitions. ***************************************************************** 20 Money dwindling in dump fight fund Friday, June 28, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Vote in U.S. Senate expected July 9 or 10 By SEAN WHALEY REVIEW-JOURNAL CAPITAL BUREAU CARSON CITY -- Nevada's last-ditch push to convince the U.S. Senate to reject Yucca Mountain as a repository for the nation's nuclear waste will have less than $1 million to spend after television ads run in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Missouri, officials were told Thursday. Bob Loux, executive director of the state Agency for Nuclear Projects, said that between $750,000 and $900,000 should be left to sway members of the Senate before the vote comes, now expected on July 9 or 10. More money could become available if more donations from the public roll in, he told the Commission on Nuclear Projects. A few contributions have come into the office, including a recent $1,000 donation from Las Vegas restaurateur Wolfgang Puck, which can be matched with another $1,000 from money set aside by the Legislature, Loux said. But almost all of the nearly $9 million raised for the Yucca Mountain fight so far has either been spent or committed to the public relations and legal fights, he said. Loux told the seven-member commission, charged with representing Nevada's interests in the Yucca Mountain project, that the decisions on where the public relations money is spent come primarily from U.S. Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev. and John Ensign, R-Nev. The effort to sway votes in the Senate with television advertising in the home states of targeted senators has focused so far on Utah, Wyoming, Iowa and Vermont, Loux said. Former U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan, now a private attorney and member of the panel, said the two Nevada senators are in the best position to know where the money will do the most good. "They are the ones in the arena," he said. "I don't quarrel." Panel members did discuss where the remaining money could best be spent in the time remaining before the anticipated vote. Several members of the commission suggested contacting syndicated talk radio show hosts to drum up opposition to the project. The Yucca Mountain Project raises the issue of states' rights, a cause conservative talk radio listeners might support, panel members said. Mark Brown of Brown &Partners, the Las Vegas advertising agency that is coordinating the public relations campaign, said other efforts in addition to television, from Web sites to direct mailings to newspaper ads, are also seeking support to uphold Gov. Kenny Guinn's veto of the project. But even if the effort ends in failure, Brown said, Yucca Mountain opponents should be prepared to continue with some level of awareness campaign to make it clear to Nevada residents that the fight is far from over. If the Senate rejects Guinn's veto, Yucca Mountain supporters will likely try to convince Nevadans that they should give up their opposition and negotiate for benefits in exchange for the dump, Brown said. Bryan agreed, saying there may be an erroneous public perception that the Senate vote is the "last hurrah". But the state has a long battle ahead, and has retained several legal firms to continue the fight against Yucca Mountain, both through court challenges and with the licensing process that must be performed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "In many respects, the battle is just beginning," Brown said.--> Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 21 NUCLEAR WASTE FIGHT: Anti-Yucca site adds feature Friday, June 28, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Studies estimate how many would die in shipping accident By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- An environmental group trying to help Nevada leaders fight the Yucca Mountain Project unveiled a new lobbying tool on Thursday. Its Web site that allows users to learn whether nuclear waste might come near their homes on its way to a repository in Nevada added a feature: studies that estimate how many people might die if a nuclear shipping accident took place in key cities. The studies by the Environmental Working Group aim to give selected U.S. senators and their constituents more to think about as the Senate prepares to vote on the proposed Yucca Mountain burial site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Group president Ken Cook said the study focuses on 20 cities that were picked in part to draw notice from senators perceived to be undecided on the Yucca Mountain vote or whose support for Nevada's anti-Yucca position might need to be cemented. "We did try to go to places where we thought senators are still making up their minds," Cook said. Utah Republican senators Orrin Hatch and Robert Bennett, for instance, will learn an estimated 350 people in Salt Lake City might have an increased chance of dying from cancer after being exposed to radioactive cesium spreading from a leak on a rail line outside Sandy, Utah. Sen. Jean Carnahan, D-Mo., could see an accident on a rail line paralleling Interstate 64 in downtown St. Louis might lead to an additional 399 cancer fatalities. In Kansas City, Mo., a similar rail incident could tie to 250 latent cancer deaths. In Georgia, where anti-Yucca groups are targeting Democratic Sen. Zell Miller, 659 additional cancer deaths might result from a plume spreading from a rail crash outside Atlanta, the study concludes. Other cities studied include Wilmington, Del., where Democrat Sen. Tom Carper has said he is "anguishing" on his vote; Chicago, because Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., has come under industry pressure; and Charlotte, N.C., where anti-nuclear activists are working to persuade Democratic Sen. John Edwards. The Environmental Working Group earlier this month unveiled a Web site, www.mapscience.org, where users can generate maps showing possible nuclear waste routes near their homes, schools and hospitals. The accident studies were added to the site on Thursday. The Environmental Working Group study assumes a daytime accident takes place under average weather conditions while a truck or railcar carrying a spent fuel canister is traveling between 30 and 60 miles per hour. An executive with the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry group leading calls for a Yucca Mountain repository, challenged the study. John Vincent, senior project manager, said radioactive particles would not be released under the scenario envisioned by the environmental group because nuclear waste casks are designed to survive an impact of 120 mph without releasing contents. "The kinds of circumstances they are dictating here will not cause a release," Vincent said. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 22 Yucca Mountain Shipments Called Mobile Chernobyl ens WorldScan AmeriScan: June 27, 2002 WASHINGTON, DC, June 27, 2002 (ENS) - More than 100,000 shipments, each carrying 240 times the radioactive material released at Hiroshima, could rumble through hundreds of U.S. communities if the Senate gives final approval to the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, charges the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG). A report by U.S. PIRG, "Radioactive Roads and Rails: Hauling Nuclear Waste Through our Neighborhoods," details the Department of Energy's (DOE) proposal to ship more than 77,000 tons of radioactive waste from across the country to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The report shows that 44 states could see 105,985 truck shipments or 18,243 rail shipments of highly radioactive waste over the course of 38 years. Shipments of nuclear waste would travel on interstate and local highways as well as mainline rail routes. Other waste shipments could be carried by barge over waterways like Lake Michigan, the Mississippi River and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. "Commuters on our highways could find themselves stuck in traffic behind three and a half tons of nuclear waste," said U.S. PIRG staff attorney Pierre Sadik. "Tens of thousands of shipments of highly radioactive waste over four decades is going to put too many people in harm's way." The DOE intends to ship the waste in transportation casks, but size and weight limitations make it impossible to build a transportation cask that does not leak some radiation, U.S. PIRG charges. The DOE acknowledges that a truck carrying a nuclear waste cask will emit the equivalent of one chest x-ray per hour of radiation to those who are caught in traffic nearby, the group says. "In the best case scenario, these shipments are rolling x-ray machines," said Sadik. "In the worst case scenario, these shipments are mobile Chernobyls." One DOE estimate found that there could be as many as 310 accidents in the course of transporting the radioactive waste across the country. There have been at least eight reported nuclear waste transportation accidents in the U.S. involving radioactive contamination of transport vehicles, roads and rails. "The Bush Administration still doesn't know if the casks used to ship this waste are even safe," said Kevin Curtis, vice president of the National Environmental Trust. "Not one of these casks has been certified in a physical test, but only analyzed by computer simulation. The Bush Administration admits that there will be accidents in shipping this waste, and that those accidents could generate forces 'capable of damaging the cask'." Local emergency officials say they do not have the training or equipment to respond to a severe nuclear waste accident. The DOE has not adjusted its transportation plans to compensate for the potential of terrorist attacks after the September 11 attacks, U.S. PIRG says. The Yucca Mountain project involves the movement of nuclear waste from 131 locations, over thousands of miles of roadway and rail lines that cannot be secured from attacks, creating an opportunity for sabotage in communities across America. "At the end of the road, under this ill conceived plan, the waste will be dumped at Yucca Mountain - a volcano on an aquifer in an earthquake zone," said Sadik. "It's time for the Senate to say no to this dangerous transportation scheme and to stop the Yucca Mountain project." "Radioactive Roads and Rails" is available at: http://uspirg.org/ [http://uspirg.org/] Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2002. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 23 Ex-Penthouse Pet writes Yucca article Las Vegas SUN June 28, 2002 LAS VEGAS SUN This month's issue of Penthouse, the magazine of "sex, politics, and protest," will feature an article against Yucca Mountain by a model-turned-writer whose message she hopes will reach lawmakers and other men over the age of 18. Lori Wagner, a former Penthouse Pet who dances part-time at the Crazy Horse Too, said she decided to write the article after President Bush -- whom she voted for -- accepted Spencer Abraham's recommendation to move forward with Yucca. She admits that detailing the fight against the dump in the pages of Penthouse may be "a little backward," but said this morning, "I thought what better way to get the national issue out." "This is the only in I had," said Wagner, who attended this morning's "Coffee with the Mayor" for residents downtown. "I am hoping that as many people as possible can ready this article. This is a man's magazine." Wagner has been making the rounds on national radio programs about the article's contents, which contains facts about plans to send 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste across 43 states and through 109 U.S. cities to Yucca Mountain. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 24 Senate recess means action on Yucca Mountain delayed Las Vegas SUN June 28, 2002 By Benjamin Grove WASHINGTON -- The Senate was scheduled to recess for a weeklong holiday today, which means senators delayed action on Yucca Mountain until they return July 8. Senate advocates of the nuclear waste dump project have vowed to make Yucca a top priority that week. It's expected that a pro-Yucca Republican senator will call for up to 10 hours of debate and a prompt vote on the measure shortly after Congress returns to Washington. Most observers expect the Senate to muster at least the 51 votes needed to pass Yucca, with nearly every GOP member supporting it, and perhaps 10 or more Democrats. "It's time we make a decision and move forward with this repository," Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., a Yucca supporter, said this week. Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., intend to try to block a vote with a procedural maneuver. The plan to argue that only the Majority Leader -- Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., who opposes Yucca -- should be calling for votes on any matter. Usurping the will of the majority leader sets a "dangerous precedent" for the Senate, Ensign said. But Yucca advocates point to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, which specifically states that any senator can break with Senate tradition and call for a vote on the controversial Yucca issue, despite the will of the majority leader. "The law expressly permits someone else to act so Congress can work its will before a statutory deadline passes," Yucca advocate Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, said earlier this month. At issue is a simple resolution that asserts congressional support for constructing a national dump for high-level nuclear waste at the desert site, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. By approving the resolution, lawmakers would reject Gov. Kenny Guinn's veto of the project. President Bush approved the site in February. The House approved it 306-117 on May 8. Congress, by law, has 90 days to act on Yucca after Guinn's veto. When congressional holidays are considered, that gives lawmakers until July 27, Lott said. Meanwhile, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said he will fly to Washington, D.C. July 1 to help lobby key officials against approving Yucca Mountain, at the request of Reid's staff. Goodman said he will lobby senators about the dangers of transportation and let the senators deal with the procedural issue. The Senate is the final congressional hurdle for Yucca. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission would be responsible for approving and licensing the site, a process that could take several years. Nevada officials have filed lawsuits in federal court to kill the project. Yucca would not open until 2010 at the earliest. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 25 Defense spending bill includes Yucca funds Las Vegas SUN June 28, 2002 By Benjamin Grove WASHINGTON -- The Senate on Thursday approved a bill that maps out a defense spending policy for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 that includes money for Yucca Mountain. On a 97-2 vote, the Senate approved a $393 billion blueprint for military spending programs for the Pentagon and other agencies that deal with defense issues, including the Energy Department, which manages the Yucca nuclear waste dump project. Lawmakers must approve the legislation, called an authorization bill, before they act on a defense appropriations bill in which they vote to actually spend money on specific defense-related projects. The authorization bill contained $215 million for continued work on the Yucca project, a federal plan to permanently bury the nation's high-level nuclear waste underground at the Nevada site. President Bush approved the project earlier this year and the House followed suit. The Senate is likely to vote next month. The bill had contained $315 million for Yucca, but Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the No. 2 Senate Democrat, in his ongoing effort to slow and eventually kill the project, negotiated to slash that by $100 million. However, the Yucca budget will be the focus of further negotiation with House lawmakers, and much of the money likely will be restored. Congress budgets money for Yucca each year from two funds -- one set up by Congress that collects money from ratepayers who use nuclear-generated electricity. The other is the Defense Department budget, because nuclear waste from defense sources, such as naval submarines, would be buried at Yucca. The Senate bill also included a provision that would allow all disabled veterans to collect both full retirement pay and full disability pay. Reid has pushed for the legislation unsuccessfully for several years. Currently retirees with service-related disabilities have their retirement pay reduced to offset disability pay. The House bill would allow veterans to collect the full amount of both forms of income for veterans who are at least 60 percent disabled. The Senate bill covers all disabled veterans, so Senate and House negotiators will have to reach a compromise on the issue. In other action Thursday, the House passed a military construction spending bill, along with its version of the defense appropriations bill, which included a 4.1 percent military pay increase for the armed services. Included in the bills was money for Nevada, Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said: + More than $11 million for the Nevada National Guard for anti-drug actions; + $15 million for Nellis Air Force Base to buy land; + $12.3 million for a new dormitory at Nellis; + $9 million for Nellis to upgrade equipment for combat aircraft training; + $6.9 million for ordnance disposal at Nellis; + $3.2 million for an F-22 fighter jet maintenance hangar at Nellis; All the bills are subject to further negotiations between House and Senate conference committees, which meet to hammer out differences between the two chambers. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 26 Letter: Anti-dump effort waste of money Las Vegas SUN June 28, 2002 At the risk of going against the tide, I have to disagree with your newspaper's and the state's campaign against the Yucca Mountain project, not because I embrace the idea of nuclear waste stored so close to home, but because it appears to be a done deal. We all agree we don't want it, but you seem to ignore the expert prediction that there's almost no chance to block the project. In my opinion, the time to prevent it was during the last presidential election, when the state chose the wrong guy. I can't understand why our leaders think it's OK to waste millions of dollars on a grass-roots ad campaign against Yucca when we have so many more urgent needs. The level of service by our state government, while never outstanding during the 12 years I've lived here, is horrible. We don't pay our legislators anything. State workers have to wait three years or more for a raise. And try filing an unemployment compensation claim. Mine is taking seven or more weeks to be "adjudicated." This is an election year, and that's why Gov. Kenny Guinn is going through the motions on this issue. SUSAN STONE All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 27 Nuclear-materials truck disabled on highway A scare raises serious concerns about safety Thursday, June 27, 2002 By LARRY LANGE SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER A Navy truck carrying an empty tank used to haul radioactive liquid briefly closed one lane of a state highway in Bremerton yesterday when a rear brake overheated. The incident raised new questions about the movement of hazardous material across the state. [Nuclear-materials truck stuck] Trooper Scott Gordon, right, and enforcement officer Jeff Osberg check the truck whose brake problem raised an alarm in Bremerton yesterday. The tank it carries is used for radioactive waste but was empty at the time. Melina Mara / Seattle Post-Intelligencer The brakes overheated about 200 yards from the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard gate, sending smoke into the air from a rear wheel. The driver of the Navy truck cooled the brakes with an extinguisher. "There was no radioactive release, there were no injuries and there was no public hazard," State Patrol Trooper Glen Tyrrell said. But the incident was another reminder that radioactive material crisscrosses Puget Sound and the country every day, and some watchdog groups believe the risk of accidents releasing radiation could increase in coming years. There have been auto accidents in Eastern Washington caused by dust storms in the arid region, said Hyun Lee, an attorney with Heart of America Northwest, a group monitoring the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. "If that happened with a truck full of low level radioactive waste on a dusty, windy day, this stuff could get dispersed in the air," he said. Lee said the situation would worsen if hazardous materials, which can be flammable or corrosive, were added to the mix. In yesterday's incident, the truck was hauling the tank to the Naval shipyard from the Bangor submarine station shortly before 11:30 a.m. when the brakes overheated. A shipyard spokeswoman, Mary Anne Mascianica, said the tank was being taken to the shipyard for disposal. She could not say what radioactive liquids had been in it but said the tank had been recently cleaned. Radioactive material and other forms of hazardous waste are hauled around the Sound and the country in "vast numbers," said Jerry Amato, an administrator for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The material ranges from common household items such as drain cleaner to automotive fuel, up to high-radiation nuclear waste and explosives. [Overview of truck] The truck was hauling an empty tank to the Naval shipyard from the Bangor submarine station shortly before 11:30 a.m. when a brake overheated. Melina Mara / Seattle Post-Intelligencer Click for larger photo Most of the materials are well-packaged and carried in small amounts that don't require a permit, Amato said, so there's no easy way to estimate the amount moved. "The numbers are staggering," he said. "I don't know that anybody has that kind of (tracking) system." In response to the terrorist attacks in September, there was some talk about improving the tracking for the shipment of radioactive material, said Sheryl Hutchison, spokeswoman for the state Department of Ecology. "I think that's probably still under discussion," she said. "No proposal has come out of it." In the meantime, the amount of radioactive material being transported is expected to increase. The Hanford Nuclear Reservation in southeastern Washington is developing plans to increase the amount of radioactive waste it will receive from bomb-making facilities. There are also plans to accept radioactive waste mixed with hazardous chemicals, as well as material that is radioactive for thousands of years. Under the new plan, a minimum of 70,000 trucks over 40 years will rumble into Washington carrying the deadly material, according to Heart of America Northwest. And there are concerns about the shipment of waste from Hanford and the state's commercial reactor to a national waste repository. The U.S. Senate plans to decide soon whether to remove the last political hurdle to burying the waste in Nevada's Yucca Mountain, and opponents are using the transportation issue in an uphill effort to sway lawmakers to vote against the project. Waste could be packed in massive casks and transported on highways. Watchdog organizations are concerned about high levels of exposure, even if there are no accidents. In Washington, the waste would travel within a mile of 87 schools and five hospitals, according to an analysis of shipping routes by the Environmental Working Group, a D.C.-based national research group. They also found that there were 366 fatal tractor-trailer wrecks from 1994 to 2000. P-I reporters David Eggert and Lisa Stiffler and The Associated Press contributed to this story. P-I reporter Larry Lange can be reached at 206-448-8313 or larrylange@seattlepi.com Send comments to newmedia@seattlepi.com [newmedia@seattlepi.com] ©1999-2002 Seattle Post-Intelligencer ***************************************************************** 28 Nuclear waste site debate roils - 06/28/02 detnews.com] The Detroit News. [Image] Joe Cavaretta / Associated Press Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, center, in January visited Yucca Mountain, the proposed repository for nuclear waste in Nevada. A divided Senate is to vote on its future within a month. Nuclear waste site debate roils Critics: Minor mishaps are far more likely than worst-case scenarios By Lisa Zagaroli / Detroit News Washington Bureau WASHINGTON -- A moderately severe accident of a train carrying nuclear waste near downriver Detroit would kill 633 people within a year of exposure, according to an environmental group that says the public doesn't understand the dangers of moving waste to Nevada. The Environmental Working Group mapped out accident scenarios in several cities, including Detroit and Lansing, and determined how many residents would be in harm's way if a train crashed and damaged the seal of a nuclear waste cask it was carrying. In the scenario, the cask itself isn't punctured but smoke from a small fire would help carry the radiation plume released from the damaged seal downwind. The number of deaths assumes only that the people who live in the radiation path are exposed -- it doesn't take into account people who are working in the area or people who are away during the initial exposure period. Environmental Working Group director, Ken Cook, said the hypothetical is "much more plausible in the real world" than the worst-case scenarios the Department of Energy has downplayed. Joe Davis, a spokesman for Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, dismissed the report, noting the department's track record. "We have a safe and secure transportation record of moving waste for more than 30 years without an accident resulting in release of radiation ever," Davis said. "Our record of safely transporting waste is ensured because we work with state and local governments as well as other federal agencies and we will continue to do that." The debate over Yucca Mountain, the proposed repository for nuclear waste in Nevada, has heated up because the divided Senate is scheduled for a final vote on its future within a month. The environmental report says accidents are inevitable if nuclear waste is transported through 45 states for 38 years to the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. "Given the unanimous agreement that train or truck accidents are inevitable during the tens of thousands of radioactive waste shipments to Yucca Mountain, we believe people have a right to know what would happen if one of those accidents led to a release of radioactive materials to their town," the report said. The Detroit crash scenario occurs on a railroad in zip code 48209 near River Rouge, and has the radiation plume blowing toward Dearborn, downtown Detroit and the Grosse Pointes. In Lansing, a similar accident would kill about 170 people within a year from fatal cancers caused by radioactivity. A Chicago scenario would kill 1,228, the group said. The organization says their concerns that the public isn't getting enough information are underscored by a letter Abraham himself wrote in August 1998, when he was a Michigan senator, to then-Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, about the shipment of plutonium to Canada along Interstate-69 in Michigan. Abraham said in the letter that it would be "irresponsible and offensive to Michigan residents" if the Energy Department didn't hold public hearings about which route it planned to take through the state with the nuclear materials. Abraham said he was concerned that traffic near the Blue Water Bridge may subject the community to "extended exposure." "Given the unique nature of this proposed portion of the transportation route, it is essential that disaster response units within the local community be prepared to respond to an emergency situation, however unlikely," Abraham said. "Federal assistance will be required to ensure that local emergency response teams are fully prepared to deal safely and effectively with accidents involving these plutonium shipments. "Given the local population concentrations and geography, I am sure you will agree that the ramifications of an accident are too serious to consider anything less than the very best emergency response preparedness." Davis, Abraham's spokesman, said the letter is consistent with Abraham's current view. "The idea that eight years from now we would not have a transportation plan in place is ridiculous," he said. Davis said the Environmental Working Group's findings are questionable because the group is funded in part by folks in Nevada who oppose Yucca Mountain. "Their findings are all suspect when they've been bought and paid for by the anti-Yucca Mountain industry," he said. "I'm not surprised by their fantastic and wild conclusions that try to scare people." Mike Casey, a spokesman for the environmental group, noted that Abraham received significant financial support from the nuclear industry. "Secretary Abraham's career and (the Bush) administration has been partly bankrolled by the nuclear industry, so I guess that makes an industry lapdog like him -- and all of his findings -- suspect as well," Casey said. You can reach Lisa Zagaroli at (202) 662-7370 or lzagaroli@detnews.com. [lzagaroli@detnews.com] ***************************************************************** 29 Neutron scrutinized for mishandling radioactive material - 2002-06-27 - Washington Business Journal Mike Sunnucks Staff Reporter A minor radioactive scare occurred today in Montgomery County, and the company responsible for it is in some hot water. A dumpster taken to the county's trash transfer station in Shady Grove Thursday morning by Dickerson, Md.-based Neutron Products contained a small presence of the radioactive isotope cobalt-60 -- a nuclear power by-product used in cancer therapies and to sterilize medical supplies. The traces of cobalt-60 set off radioactive sensors at the county facility. The dumpster was taken back to Neutron's Dickerson facility, where company and state environmental officials are determining where the cobalt-60 traces originated. A spokesman for the Maryland Department of the Environment says the level of radiation in the dumpster was very low -- far less than that of a dental x-ray. "We don't think this was an intentional diversion of radioactive waste," the state spokesman says. But the incident is the last straw for Montgomery County Councilwoman Nancy Dacek, R-Germantown. Dacek -- who represents the area where Neutron is located -- wants the state to shut the facility down. "We have truly gone the extra mile with these people," say Dacek of her effort to preserve Neutron's 60 jobs while appeasing community concerns about safety. "I'm tired of it." Neutron is alreadly facing possible closure because of compliance and clean up disputes with the state environment department. The company moved to its present site in Dickerson in 1967 where it developed a facility for shipping and storing cobalt-60 sources. The company has had numerous legal and regulatory spats over the years with the state over environmental regulations, manufacturing of radioactive material at the site and clean-up assurances. Neutron founder and president Jack Ransohoff says today's incident was not a major "event." "It was a small screw up here," Ransohoff says. He says the company is still determining how it will approach state efforts to shut down his facility. 2002 American City Business Journals Inc. ***************************************************************** 30 UK: debate "Managing Rad Waste Safely" UK DEFRA | Environmental Protection Department for Environment, Food &Rural Affairs Managing Radioactive Waste Safely The consultation paper on "Managing Radioactive Waste Safely" aims to start a nationwide debate on how to manage solid radioactive waste. For the moment, it is safely stored, but the Government and the Devolved Administrations recognise that it is now time to work towards implementing a policy for its final management that gains widespread public support. Before this can be achieved, we must ensure that we involve people fully in the debate. Successful debate can only be accomplished if sufficient and accurate information is made available, and by employing various techniques that will encourage a wide range of people to take part. We are therefore seeking your views on how best we can engage you in discussions on this important issue. The results of this consultation will help map out the way forward, so that we can successfully implement a policy which people in the UK fully support. The consultation document has been made available in Adobe Acrobat format (390kb) for downloading. The Adobe Acrobat Reader can be freely downloaded [http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html] . Viewers with visual difficulties may find it useful to investigate services provided to improve the accessibility of Acrobat documents -- http://access.adobe.com [http://access.adobe.com] Responses Responses need to be received by 12 March 2002. You can either E-mail your comments to radwaste.consultation@defra.gsi.gov.uk [radwaste.consultation@defra.gsi.gov.uk] or to one of the addresses shown in the consultation paper. We are also hosting an online debate to enable people to exchange their views and thoughts on this issue. Comments that are expressed here will also be taken into account when we decide the next steps in the process. If you wish to take part, you can do so by going to: www.ukonline.gov.uk/online/citizenspace/default.asp?url=consultation/default.as p [http://www.ukonline.gov.uk/online/citizenspace/default.asp?url=consultation/de fault.asp] Enquiries If you have any queries regarding this consultation, you can telephone Claire Herdman of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Radioactive Substances Division on 020 7944 6366. DEFRA is not responsible for the contents or reliability of the linked web sites and does not necessarily endorse the views expressed within them. Listing should not be taken as endorsement of any kind. We cannot guarantee that these links will work all of the time and we have no control over the availability of the linked pages. Published 12 September 2001 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Radioactivity Index ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Environmental Protection Consultation Index ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Environmental Protection Index ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ***************************************************************** 31 Citizen Alert Event: This Land Is Our Land - Not a Wasteland Citizen Alert Events This is a listing of our upcoming meetings, actions, protests, press conferences, and other events. If you have an event that is related to our causes, please contact us to let us know about it. Listed with the soonest items first. All times are US Pacific unless otherwise stated. Date: July 7, 2002 Time: 12:00 pm/noon Location: Las Vegas, Grand Central Parkway (just North of Charleston Blvd. at the on-ramp to I-15) Description: See details on the This Land Is Our Land page, as well as contact information for similar events in other areas. [--- Event Line ---] Event: Family Spirit Walk For Mother Earth Date: August 6 to October 14, 2002 Time: N/A Location: Los Alamos, New Mexico to Nevada Test Site Description: Walking in wellness so that our children will follow Commemorating the ten-year anniversary of the Walk Across America For Mother Earth and the U.S. moratorium on full-scale nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site. Leaving Los Alamos, New Mexico on the anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and arriving at the Nevada Test Site to participate in the Action for Nuclear Abolition Peace Camp over Columbus Day weekend. Please see [http://www.shundahai.org/family_spirit_walk.htm] for more details. [--- Event Line ---] Event: Nagasaki Remembrance Date: August 8, 9, and 10, 2002 Time: TBA Location: Las Vegas, NV, details TBA Description: A Nukewatch Peace Camp at Project ELF. Join activists from around the country at Project ELF in northern Wisconsin to show your opposition to expanded and widening U.S. preparations for nuclear war. Rustic camping in the beautiful Chequamegon National Forest. On Friday, August 9: Nonviolence workshop, speakers, music, and nonviolent direct action, the anniversary of the atomic attack on Nagasaki Japan. For directions, &info. Contact [http://www.nukewatch.com/] : (715) 472-4185; [nukewatch@lakeland.ws] [--- Event Line ---] Event: Peoples Nuclear Abolition Summit Date: October 5, 2002 Time: TBA Location: Las Vegas, NV, details TBA Description: TBA, in conjuction with Family Spirit Walk For Mother Earth [--- Event Line ---] Event: Family Spirit Walk - Las Vegas Section Date: October 6-10, 2002 Time: TBA Location: Las Vegas, NV, details TBA Description: TBA, in conjuction with Family Spirit Walk For Mother Earth (above) [--- Event Line ---] Event: Action for Nuclear Abolition, Wise Up! Rise Up! Date: October 11-14, 2002 Time: TBA Location: Peace Camp near Nevada Test Site Description: Nonviolent action and protest. For day-by-day details, see [http://www.shundahai.org/upcoming_events.htm] . [--- Event Line ---] Event: America Recycles Day Date: November 15, 2002 Time: day long Location: throughout the US Description: Details at [http://americarecyclesday.org/] . [--- Event Line ---] Find other events on [http://www.napf.org/new/aboutus/calendar/currentmonth.htm] . ***************************************************************** 32 UK: Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee (RWMAC) | DEFRA RWMAC's Response to the Government's Consultation Document: "Managing Radioactive Waste Safely" This report sets out the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee's response to the Government Consultation Document "Managing Radioactive Waste Safely" on the long term options for the management of UK radioactive waste. See also this News Release. Contents Foreword 1. Introduction 2. The policy formulation process 3. The Liabilities Management Authority 4. Policy for the interim period 5. Regulation of storage on licensed nuclear sites 6. Segregation of UK waste categories by half-life 7. RWMAC's proposals for the management of spent sealed radioactive sources 8. Waste substitution 9. The general approach to decommissioning 10. Plutonium and uranium Annex 1: Initial comments on the Liabilities Management Authority proposals References The document has also been made available in Adobe Acrobat format (100kb) for downloading. [Left - previous page] [Up - section index] [Right - next page] The Adobe Acrobat Reader can be freely [http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html] . Viewers with visual difficulties may find it useful to investigate services provided to improve the accessibility of Acrobat documents - [http://access.adobe.com] RWMAC Home Page Page published 27 June 2002/HTML version 1 July; last modified 1 July, 2002 ***************************************************************** 33 UK: Debate on N-waste management Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee (RWMAC) | DEFRA RADIOACTIVE WASTE - "CONSULTATION IS THE RIGHT WAY FORWARD BUT EARLY DECISIONS ARE STILL NEEDED" - SAY INDEPENDENT EXPERTS Press release 27 June 2002 Government advisors - the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee (RWMAC) - have published their response to Government proposals for developing a policy for the long-term management of the UK's solid radioactive waste. Previous attempts to develop a means of disposing of some of the more active waste deep underground have faltered. With its "Managing Radioactive Waste Safely" consultation document, to which RWMAC is responding, the Government has essentially gone back to saying that it will evaluate and decide upon the options for long-term management of this waste on the basis of a wide and informed public debate, involving as many people and groups as possible. Professor Charles Curtis, the RWMAC Chairman, said: "Radioactive waste is a national problem that needs to be solved. Total agreement on what to do with this waste will never be achieved, but an open and properly informed national debate, offers the best chance of arriving at a solution that is widely accepted. It will also give all groups the opportunity to have their say. We need to consider all the options for its long-term management, of all the waste, and to evaluate them on the basis of a set of agreed criteria that suitably reflect all the public's worries and concerns about radioactive waste issues. There will always be some uncertainty and risk whatever approach is taken. What we must do is to identify the best option, and be assured that the levels of uncertainty and risk associated with it are acceptable. Finally, we must focus on what we can do to solve the problem rather than difficulties that may or may not exist, if we are to be able to move forward so as to safeguard suitably the interests of future generations". The RWMAC response supports the Government's proposal for a strong, authoritative and independent body to help with the formulation of future policy. It calls for the early setting up of a well-resourced "overseeing body" to "to design and oversee the overall process of formulating policy up to the point at which a long-term management option can be recommended". The new body should be established at one step removed from Government if it is to be accepted as being capable of upholding the wider public interest. Its role would include managing the use of pubic engagement techniques to encourage public involvement in the policy formulation debate, drawing on expert inputs and research as necessary. It needs to be a body with a membership that is able to secure public trust. The report also makes the point, that while it may take several years to decide longer-term policy and many more to implement, there remain other policy decisions on shorter-term management of the waste that either need to be taken or updated. These need to cover the way in which waste is treated in the shorter-term to get it into a passively safer storable form, the standards to which radioactively contaminated land should be cleaned up and the way in which radioactive discharges are controlled. The Committee believes that existing policy statements are either out of date or have insufficient detail to explain how they will function in practice. Radioactive waste needs to be managed over the short, intermediate and long-term. RWMAC believes that policy guidance of this kind will be essential to guide the new Liabilities Management Authority (LMA), that the Government has said it will be setting up in a year's or two's time to take responsibility for most of the UK's public sector civil nuclear liabilities. Decisions on the long-term management of the UK's solid radioactive wastes, being considered under the "Managing Radioactive Waste Safely" initiative, will need to be suitably dovetailed with the more immediate decisions that the LMA will have to take in tidying up and processing the waste. Notes for editors RWMAC is an independent expert body established to advise the UK Government and the Devolved Administrations for Scotland and Wales on policy and practices for the management of civil radioactive waste. This report makes public RWMAC's formal response to the Government publication "Managing Radioactive Waste Safely" (November 2000), which is designed to initiate a debate leading to, and going beyond, a decision on policy for the management, over the long-term, of UK solid radioactive waste. The Government has also announced its intention to establish the LMA as a body to manage most of the UK's public sector nuclear liabilities. A White Paper setting out the proposals in greater detail is expected shortly. RWMAC's initial views on the proposals are included in its response. RWMAC takes the view that factors such as the collapse, in 1997, of the Nirex programme for the disposal of some solid radioactive wastes, the UK's obligations under internationally binding agreements for the protection of the marine environment, and the Managing Radioactive Waste Safely and LMA initiatives, mean that there is no longer any comprehensive statement of policy for radioactive waste. Copies of this RWMAC report are available from: DEFRA Publications, Admail 6000, London SW1A 2XX (e-mail defra@iforcegroup.com [defra@iforcegroup.com] , price £10). The full text of the report will be available on the RWMAC website at www.defra.gov.uk/rwmac/index.htm Press enquiries should be made (not before 27 June 2002) to the RWMAC Secretariat, 4E/4 Ashdown House, 123 Victoria Street, London SW1 6DE (telephone 0207 944 6260/6254). Page published 27 June 2002; last modified 1 July, 2002 ***************************************************************** 34 Radioactive Roads And Rails: Hauling Nuclear Waste Through Our Neighborhoods *U.S. PIRG Reports* June 25, 2002* ** Executive Summary <#summ> | *News Release * <#1> A report of the U.S. PIRG Education Fund and the state Public Interest Research Groups. Written by Pierre Sadik, Staff Attorney, U.S. PIRG Education Fund. ** *Download full report and appendices. *(89 KB) * **Download full report with all state maps and appendices.* (4.55 MB) * *Download a state map showing nuclear waste truck and rail shipment routes (each approximately 150 KB): Shaded areas on the map labeled MSA indicate U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas. * Executive Summary * The Bush administration has decided to press ahead with a plan to store much of the nation?s nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Yucca Mountain is located approximately 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The bulk of America?s nuclear waste is generated and located east of the Mississippi?at the opposite end of the country from Nevada. This means that highly radioactive waste would be hauled across the country?through towns, communities and neighborhoods?on the way to Yucca Mountain. The Senate will vote on whether to grant approval for proceeding with the Yucca Mountain project in late June or July of 2002. However, the Department of Energy (DOE), which has oversight of the project, has not yet prepared a transportation plan for the shipment of nuclear waste. This report examines DOE?s proposed program of transporting highly radioactive nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain over the course of 38 years. The key finding of this report is that the transportation component of the Yucca Mountain project poses serious risks to the health and safety of a large cross-section of Americans, as well as to the environment. Nuclear waste is recognized as the most dangerous substance known to humankind. The Yucca Mountain project is by far the largest proposal ever for the shipment of nuclear waste in America. More than 105,000 truckloads of nuclear waste could travel our roads and highways, throughout 44 states, over the course of four decades. Waste shipments would be so frequent that Atlanta, Cleveland and San Bernardino would see shipments traveling through their neighborhoods on a daily basis. Chicago would see one shipment every 15 hours; St. Louis, Kansas City and Denver, every 13 hours; Des Moines and Omaha, every 10 hours; Salt Lake City, one shipment every seven hours. DOE proposes to carry the thousands of shipments of nuclear waste in transportation casks. Some of the waste may be hauled by train, in high volume rail casks. Each rail cask will carry 240 times the long-lived radioactive material that was released at Hiroshima. As is the case with truck shipments, many of the rail line routes would take the nuclear waste through densely populated cities and towns on the way to Yucca Mountain. Other shipments, carrying the same amount of radioactive material as a large rail cask, may be shipped by barge over Lake Michigan, the Mississippi, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and other waterways. A wide cross-section of Americans will feel the impact of highly radioactive waste shipments, including those who commute from home to work or school on busy roadways. Because of size and weight limitations, it is not possible to build a transportation cask that does not ?leak? some radiation. The DOE acknowledges that a truck carrying a nuclear waste cask will emit the equivalent of one chest x-ray per hour of radiation to those who are stuck in traffic nearby. In fact, emissions from passing casks will deliver small doses of radiation to people living within one-half mile of road and rail routes. Estimates of the number of transportation accidents range from a DOE estimate of up to 310 accidents, to a state of Nevada estimate of up to 390 accidents over the full course of 38 years. The project could entail 2,789 waste shipments per year, a 30-fold increase over U.S. shipments in the past. Despite nuclear industry assertions to the contrary, even with a history of low shipment numbers there have been transportation accidents in the U.S. resulting in leaks of radioactive materials. Emergency Medical Services officials have stated repeatedly that a severe accident?which could involve thousands of deaths and billions of dollars in property damage?is not something for which they have the training or equipment to properly respond. Because of the potential for accidents, several studies show that property values will decline for the millions of Americans who live near the transportation routes. PIRG strongly opposes the Bush administration?s decision to press ahead with the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository in the face of all of the project?s shortcomings, as cited in this report and elsewhere. U.S. PIRG 218 D St., SE Washington, D.C. 20003 202-546-9707 ph 202-546-2461 fax _uspirg@pirg.org_ Webmaster Privacy Policy © 2001-2002 Public Interest Research Groups ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ***************************************************************** 35 *Website Tracks Nuclear Waste Routes* Renata Troiani, Reporter (June 11) -- The U.S. Senate could vote this summer to make Nevada's Yucca Mountain the site for the nation's nuclear waste. A group in Washington says trucking the waste here will affect more than Nevadans. And they're using a new Website to map it out. The Website, Mapscience.org , first went online Tuesday. It does more than just give people information; it shows them just how it will affect them if the Senate votes yes on Yucca Mountain. People in Nevada and across the country can see just how close nuclear waste will come to their front door. Miroslava Chavez is accustomed to getting useful information off the Internet. But what she found out on this Website shocked her. Trucks carrying nuclear waste could one day come closer to home than she ever imagined. Just by typing in her address and ZIP code, she found out how close her home in Spring Valley is to a proposed travel route from nuclear power plants across the United States to Yucca Mountain. For Chavez, it was about two miles. "It's really scary," she said. "It's really scary because you never know what could happen. An accident, and Spring Valley would be gone." But the Website, created by the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group is tailored more to educate people outside Nevada. "There will be about 40 million people within one mile of the route that we can tell from what the Department of Energy has published," said Richard Wiles of the EWG. Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman says getting others involved may be what Nevada needs to win the fight. "It's almost as though they have to be hit between the eyes before they become concerned," Goodman said. "I really believe that if, in fact, the American public knows how they can be affected by this, they'll make their voices heard, and politicians are going to act because those politicians are going to want to be reelected." In just the first few hours of the Website's operation, more than 20,000 people requested maps showing the proximity of the routes to their homes. "This is not an issue about Yucca Mountain," Wiles said. "This is an issue about every community along the route long the route for the next 35 years." A new report outlines the route nuclear waste could take as it winds its way to Yucca Mountain . Several environmental groups say the waste would pose serious health and safety risks as it makes its way to the proposed dump. KLAS-TV Home | KLAS-TV ***************************************************************** 36 U.S. Senate Bill to Aid Nuclear Weapon Detection* /Thu Jun 27, 5:13 PM ET/ WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Legislation aimed at preventing terrorists from smuggling a nuclear weapon into the United States was introduced in the Senate on Thursday by lawmakers who say current detection capability at ports and borders is virtually zero. The legislation would provide more than 100 new mobile X-ray scanning devices, $250 million to develop technology to detect nuclear materials, order more cargo inspections and stricter cargo reporting standards, and impose bigger penalties for unreported cargo, "Right now, our ability to detect nuclear weapons brought in through our ports, bridges and tunnels is virtually zero," said Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, a co-sponsor of the legislation. "Once terrorists can get that kind of weapon right into the heart of our cities, God only knows what could happen," he added. The United States handles over 2 billion tons a year of domestic and international freight, which is moved mostly in containers, but only about 2 percent is inspected. "Homeland security is the nation's top priority, and defending our nation's 361 ports is essential," said Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia, the bill's other co-sponsor. The legislation also calls for smart sensors that can track a cargo container to determine whether anything has been added or changed over the course of the trip. Since the Sept. 11 hijack attacks, fears have grown that radical groups could acquire nuclear materials to make dirty bombs, crude devices using conventional explosives to spread radioactive material. Two weeks ago, Attorney General John Ashcroft said U.S. authorities foiled a plot to explode a dirty bomb in the United States after arresting a suspected American al Qaeda operative in Chicago allegedly helping plan such an attack. Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 37 Tiny Device Can Detect Hidden Nuclear Weapons, Materials ScienceDaily Magazine -- Source: Argonne National Laboratory (http://www.anl.gov/) Date: Posted 6/28/2002 A small, portable detector for finding concealed nuclear weapons and materials has been developed by the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory. When fully developed, the device could assist international inspectors charged with preventing smuggling and unauthorized use of nuclear weapons and materials. The heart of the Argonne device is a small wafer of gallium arsenide (GaAs), a semiconducting material similar to silicon. When coated with boron or lithium, GaAs can detect neutrons, such as those emitted by the fissile materials that fuel nuclear weapons. Patents are pending on several detectors and their components. The wafers are small, require less than 50 volts of power and operate at room temperature. They also can withstand relatively high radiation fields and do not degrade over time. "The working portion of the wafer is about the diameter of a collar button, but thinner," said Raymond Klann, who leads the group from Argonne's Technology Development Division that developed the wafer and detector. "It is fairly straightforward to make full-sized detector systems the size of a deck of cards, or even smaller. Something that small can be used covertly, if necessary, by weapons inspectors to monitor nuclear facilities." The key to detection, he said, is to coat the gallium-arsenide with something like boron or lithium. When neutrons strike the coating, they produce a cascade of charged particles that is easy to detect. The wafers are made by inexpensive, conventional microchip-processing techniques, Klann said. They can be tailor-made for specific applications by varying the type and thickness of the coating. Compared to other neutron detectors, Klann's have a number of advantages. One common type of neutron detector is based on a tube of gas, which is ionized when neutrons pass through the tube. These detectors are larger in size and require more power than the GaAs detector. Another common neutron detector uses silicon semiconductors. Compared to the GaAs wafer, silicon-based detectors use more power, require cooling and degrade more quickly when exposed to radiation. Klann's team also found that detection is improved by etching the wafer with cylindrical holes, like the dimples on a golf ball. "We're testing various coating materials and thicknesses," he said, "as well as various combinations of hole sizes and spacings to find the best configurations for specific applications." Klann's group has built and successfully demonstrated prototype detectors. Argonne is now looking for commercial partners interested in developing the detectors for the commercial marketplace. Other possible uses for GaAs-based detectors include high-vacuum space applications or any other work requiring neutron detection. Development of the wafer and detector was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science and the Spallation Neutron Source project. The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory conducts basic and applied scientific research across a wide spectrum of disciplines, ranging from high-energy physics to climatology and biotechnology. Since 1990, Argonne has worked with more than 600 companies and numerous federal agencies and other organizations to help advance America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for the future. Argonne is operated by the University of Chicago as part of the U.S. Department of Energy's national laboratory system. Editor's Note: The original news release can be found at http://www.anl.gov/OPA/news02/news020621.htm Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Argonne National Laboratory for journalists and other members of the public. If you wish to quote from any part of this story, please credit Argonne National Laboratory as the original source. You may also wish to include the following link in any citation: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/06/020627010016.htm Copyright © 1995-2002 ScienceDaily Magazine | Email: editor@sciencedaily.com ***************************************************************** 38 Russia has no plans to resume nuclear tests on remote Arctic island, defense minister says * * AP World - General News* /Fri Jun 28, 4:02 AM ET/ MOSCOW - Russia's defense minister said Russia has no plans to resume nuclear testing on the remote Arctic archipelago of Novaya Zemlya, Russian news agencies reported Friday. Ivanov, who visited Novaya Zemlya on Thursday along with Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev, said Russia did not plan to resume nuclear tests on Novaya Zemlya, but would continue to use the site for other kinds of tests, the Interfax news agency reported. Russia uses Novaya Zemlya to conduct subcritical test blasts of nuclear weapons, in which plutonium is blasted with explosives too weak to set off an atomic explosion. Those tests are not prohibited under the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which Moscow signed in May 2000. Russia has observed a moratorium on full-scale nuclear testing since its last test explosion in October 1990, but Moscow says the subcritical tests are necessary to ensure the safety of its nuclear arsenal. Rumyantsev said after the visit that Russia had not yet made a final decision on whether to build a nuclear waste storage site on Novaya Zemlya, Interfax reported. He said the government is considering several alternatives, including a site on the Russian mainland. Russian officials have said Russia is considering Novaya Zemlya for a nuclear waste storage site, but they say it would only be used to store spent nuclear fuel from decommissioned Northern Fleet submarines, not for nuclear waste from abroad. Last summer, President Vladimir Putin ( news - web sites ) signed a law allowing Russia to import spent nuclear fuel from other countries for storage and reprocessing, a measure that environmental groups say could turn Russia into the world's nuclear dumping ground. (ee/ji) Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 39 Russia has no plans to resume nuclear tests on remote Arctic island, defense minister says AP World - General News Fri Jun 28, 4:02 AM ET MOSCOW - Russia's defense minister said Russia has no plans to resume nuclear testing on the remote Arctic archipelago of Novaya Zemlya, Russian news agencies reported Friday. Ivanov, who visited Novaya Zemlya on Thursday along with Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev, said Russia did not plan to resume nuclear tests on Novaya Zemlya, but would continue to use the site for other kinds of tests, the Interfax news agency reported. Russia uses Novaya Zemlya to conduct subcritical test blasts of nuclear weapons, in which plutonium is blasted with explosives too weak to set off an atomic explosion. Those tests are not prohibited under the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which Moscow signed in May 2000. Russia has observed a moratorium on full-scale nuclear testing since its last test explosion in October 1990, but Moscow says the subcritical tests are necessary to ensure the safety of its nuclear arsenal. Rumyantsev said after the visit that Russia had not yet made a final decision on whether to build a nuclear waste storage site on Novaya Zemlya, Interfax reported. He said the government is considering several alternatives, including a site on the Russian mainland. Russian officials have said Russia is considering Novaya Zemlya for a nuclear waste storage site, but they say it would only be used to store spent nuclear fuel from decommissioned Northern Fleet submarines, not for nuclear waste from abroad. Last summer, President Vladimir Putin ( news [http://rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_wo_en_ge/inlinks/*http://rd.yahoo.com/Dail yNews/manual/*http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news?p=%22Vladimir%20Putin%22 &c=&n=20&yn=c&c=news&cs=nw] - web sites [http://rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_wo_en_ge/inlinks/*http://rd.yahoo.com/Dail yNews/manual/*http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?cs=nw&p=Vladimir%20Putin] ) signed a law allowing Russia to import spent nuclear fuel from other countries for storage and reprocessing, a measure that environmental groups say could turn Russia into the world's nuclear dumping ground. (ee/ji) Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 40 $10 Billion Pledged to Ex-Soviets to Dispose of Unconventional Arms The New York Times *June 28, 2002* *By DAVID E. SANGER* CALGARY, Alberta, June 27 ? After months of negotiations, Japan, Canada and the European members of the Group of 8 agreed at the summit meeting today to spend $10 billion over the next decade to help Russia and other former Soviet states dispose of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, ending a long argument over how closely those countries could monitor the work. The figure will roughly match what the United States spends on similar programs, including the Congressional program to secure and dismantle nuclear weapons and keep former nuclear scientists employed. But the agreement today only begins the process of putting together the money at a time when many experts are worried that Russia's nuclear supplies could be a relatively unguarded target for terrorists. Some experts say that the $20 billion will be insufficient to solve the problem, and that the agreement today was vague enough to raise the question of whether the sum will ultimately be provided. Past efforts by Japan and the European nations ? Britain, France, Germany and Italy ? to help dismantle the nuclear material in aging Russian submarines, for instance, have fallen apart over disputes about how carefully Japan could monitor the process. "There is a lot of old enmity there, and a lot of suspicions about what everyone's real motives are," an American official said. Another official noted today that the Russians still have "40,000 tons of chemical weapons that they are required to destroy" under the chemical weapons convention. Other money will go to storing nuclear material, or blending it into fuel for power plants. Russia recently signed an accord with the United States to send highly enriched uranium to the United States for use in nuclear plants. The Democratic head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, has suggested that the United States forgive Russian debt in return for further efforts to destroy such weapons. They are now stockpiled at more than 300 sites around the country. *****************************************************************