*****************************************************************
06/29/02 ****     RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL)       **** VOL 10.165
*****************************************************************
   RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE
*****************************************************************

                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 US: World competitors plan uranium enrichment plants 
2 Canada Trip Brings $20 Bln Nukes Deal 
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
3 China's Third Commercial Nuclear Power Plant to Operate
4 China: Nuclear Power Plant Insured
5 UK: Lightning strike shuts off reactors at nuclear station for five 
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
6 US: In a Sign of the Times, the City Begins Deploying Radiation Dete
7 Chernobyl kids find refuge: Local families reach out to Belarus 
8 US: How pills will be disbursed 
9 US: State health officials order 750,000 doses of potassium iodide p
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
10 Russian watchdog attacks plan to import nuclear waste
11 US: PSR: Sen. Jeffords Opposition to Yucca Mountain
12 US: Coalition calls for DOE to fund Sandia landfill study           
13 US: YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Missouri senator won't back project
14 US: Las Vegas man claims bias in Yucca lawsuit
15 US: Foes tote up radiation risk 
16 US: Navy truck has hot time on SR-304*
17 US: Carnahan to vote against Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site
18 US: Nuclear waste plan includes Florida ports
19 US: Hot-Waste Initiative May Not Make Ballot, Despite Most Signature
20 US: Mine company: Wyoming sale doesn’t affect Wisconsin project
21 US: UEA draws fire on toxic-waste tax
22 US: Group seeks safer nuke transport
 
                         NUCLEAR WEAPONS
 
23 brit Peace Fighter embarasses U$ and brit governments
24 Russian Justice - 2002 The Pasko Case
25 G-8 Pledges $20bn to Secure Russian Weapons of Mass Destruction
26 Defence Minister: Russia not About to Resume Nuclear Tests
27 Group: Radioactive Matter Poorly Tracked
28 $41b to target nuclear clean-up
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
29 Report says tritium plant may open late 
 
                          OTHER NUCLEAR
 
*****************************************************************
*****************************************************************
                         FULL NEWS STORIES
*****************************************************************
*****************************************************************
 1 World competitors plan uranium enrichment plants 

Elizabethton Star - Online Edition
   
By Kathy Helms-Hughes
 STAR STAFF
 khughes@starhq.com
 
Two major competitors on the international market for uranium 
enrichment services plan to submit license applications in 
December to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for gas centrifuge 
enrichment facilities.

    Last Tuesday, the Department of Energy announced that it had 
signed an agreement with U.S. Enrichment Corp. Inc., of Bethesda, 
Md., for the company to build a new gas centrifuge uranium 
enrichment plant within a decade at one of its gaseous diffusion 
plant sites in either Paducah, Ky., or Portsmouth, Ohio. 

   Under terms of the agreement, USEC would continue to operate 
the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant until the new plant is 
operational. USEC plans to demonstrate centrifuge performance in 
Oak Ridge and based on the success, a "lead cascade" testing 
facility will be built and operated at one of the gaseous 
diffusion plants, with construction of a commercial centrifuge 
plant to follow later.

    Another major competitor for enrichment services is Urenco, 
which operates enrichment facilities in the United Kingdom, the 
Netherlands and Germany. 

   Louisiana Energy Services -- a partnership made up of Urenco, 
Exelon, Duke Energy, Louisiana Light & Power, and Fluor Daniel -- 
also is in the midst of a site selection process and intends to 
submit a license application to the NRC in December for an 
enrichment facility. The partnership intends to use Urenco gas 
centrifuge technology currently operating at three plants in the 
Netherlands, United Kingdom and Germany, according to Tim Johnson 
of the NRC.

    "They haven't informed us of the sites they're evaluating, so 
I can't give you any more detailed information," Johnson said. 
"They probably are going to cut their site-selection list down to 
about three, probably in another month or so, but they have not 
officially announced any location that they are looking at."

    Johnson could not confirm whether LES is the same company 
which is considering a 100-acre site in Unicoi County for 
creation of a gas centrifuge enrichment facility.

    Last week, Unicoi County Executive Paul Monk and state Rep. 
Zane Whitson announced that the county was one of three locations 
being considered for a $1 billion uranium enrichment plant, 
dubbed "The Tinker Road Project," which would employ gas 
centrifuge technology used in "the United Kingdom, the 
Netherlands and elsewhere."

    The plant, touted as the cure to the county's economic ills, 
"is a once-in-a lifetime economic opportunity for Unicoi County, 
as well as the towns of Unicoi and Erwin," Monk said. Potential 
tax revenues created by the plant could reverse three years of 
budget cuts affecting Unicoi County's 2,480 public school 
students, according to a press release issued by Monk.

    "Gov. Don Sundquist and the state of Tennessee are solidly 
behind the plant project," said Monk. "We have already enlisted 
the support of county commissioners, the mayors and aldermen of 
the towns of Erwin and Unicoi, county school board members and 
other community leaders.

    "If we are successful in locating the plant in Unicoi County, 
it can have an extraordinarily positive impact on our schools, 
employment, retail sales, housing and much more," he said.

    Whitson estimated the plant could increase Unicoi County's 
property tax by $9 million.

    In 1995, Rep. Whitson and state Sen. Tommy Haun sponsored a 
bill in the Tennessee Legislature on behalf of Nuclear Fuel 
Services Inc. of Erwin to modify the definition of "commercial 
facility" under the hazardous waste law in order to help NFS land 
60 "high-paying jobs" through a contract to clean up mixed waste 
from the K-25 plant in Oak Ridge. Although the legislators were 
successful in getting the bill passed, the contract for NFS fell 
through.

    According to the NRC's Johnson, there has never been a 
full-scale operating commercial facility in the United States 
that uses gas centrifuge.

    "The Department of Energy has had a gas centrifuge testing 
program that went up until the 1980s," Johnson said. "In fact, 
they built a cascade at Portsmouth, Ohio, and they decided to 
close that operation down and focus their attention on another 
technique called Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation or AVLIS. 
The technology was transferred to USEC when it was privatized in 
1998, and about a year after the privatization, USEC decided not 
to continue to pursue that technology."

    USEC currently uses gaseous diffusion technology developed 
during the Manhattan Project at its facility in Paducah, which 
was built in the early 1960s, Johnson said. "It's not as 
economical to operate as gas centrifuge. It does what they need 
it to do, which is enrich uranium, but it's very power intensive, 
requires a lot of electricity, and the cost for doing that is 
projected to be substantially higher than for gas centrifuge, so 
that's why they're going to the modern technology."

    In January 2000, USEC signed a $725 million contract with 
Tennessee Valley Authority, agreeing to provide uranium 
enrichment services and uranium feed to fuel TVA's Sequoyah and 
Watts Bar reactors. Later in 2000, USEC and TVA signed a deal for 
TVA to supply 10 years of low-cost electricity to USEC's Paducah, 
Ky., plant. It also was agreed that TVA would become USEC's 
primary electricity provider as USEC's contracts expire.

    Johnson said the demand for uranium enrichment services 
worldwide is about 34 million Separative Work Units, or SWUs, 
annually. "Within the United States, it's about 10-11 million 
SWUs per year," he said.

    In March, Louisiana Energy Services presented information to 
the NRC indicating it wants to license and construct a 3 million 
SWU plant. The plant would consist of six 500,000 SWU cascades. 
Urenco currently has a capacity of about 5 million SWU, about 15 
percent of the world enrichment market, and provides enrichment 
services in Western Europe, the United States and Asia. LES staff 
indicated Urenco has a large future order book and in 2001 its 
revenues were approximately $423 million.

    LES staff told the NRC that in order to go forward with the 
project, it would need an "assured licensing process that is 
short and predictable." It would also need customer commitment, 
access to a U.S. depleted uranium tails disposition route, and a 
site on an existing nuclear facility site. It indicated the site 
would not be restricted to any specific facility type.

    When asked about the Tipton Road Project, which is located 
about 8 miles from Nuclear Fuel Services, Johnson said, "They 
haven't informed us exactly what their criteria is, but it would 
seem to me that at a location that has a nuclear facility doesn't 
necessarily mean immediately adjacent to or on the property of 
one, so it potentially could be several miles away."

    LES said its goal is to select the site in the second quarter 
of Calendar Year 2002 and to submit to the NRC a license 
application and an environmental report in the fourth quarter. 
The first 500,000 SWU cascade is planned to be online by 2006 
with full capacity projected in 2010 or 2011, depending on market 
demand.

    Centrifuges would be assembled onsite from kits received from 
Europe. For a 3 million SWU plant, LES estimated the gas 
centrifuge facility would require 8,600 tons of feed (uranium 
hexafluoride) per year. It also would produce 7,800 tons of 
depleted uranium, 800 tons of enriched product, and 12 tons of 
unprocessed low-level waste annually.

    This is not the first time LES has attempted to build a gas 
centrifuge enrichment facility. In 1989 it proposed a private 
uranium enrichment plant near Homer, La., called the Claiborne 
Enrichment Center, which was to be built in one of the state's 
poorest counties, where 30 percent of residents (population: 50 
percent black) were below the poverty line.

    When the company broke ground in 1992, LES said it would pay 
$10 million to the county school board as a one-time "use tax" on 
equipment. Later, the plant would pay $8 million a year in taxes 
and double the county's tax base. LES was going to provide about 
400 jobs during construction and an estimated 180 jobs when 
complete. (The Tipton Road Project also would provide about 400 
construction jobs and up to 250 permanent jobs.)

    A series of safety complaints by environmental groups and a 
directive from President Clinton on "environmental justice," 
aimed at protecting minorities from disproportionate exposure to 
pollution, delayed the LES licensing process seven years.

    "It got into a hearing process ... and I guess it was around 
1996, it was taking too long, so LES decided to drop the 
project," Johnson said. 
  
Copyright © 1996 - 2002 Elizabethton Newspapers, Inc. 
Elizabethton Newspapers, Inc., 300 Sycamore Street Elizabethton, 
Tennessee 37643 - 423.542.4151 
*****************************************************************
 2 Canada Trip Brings $20 Bln Nukes Deal 

- The St. Petersburg Times.

General news from St.Petersburg and Russia -
 
 [http://www.themoscowtimes.com] 
  
#781, Friday, June 28, 2002   

By Martin Crutsinger
 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
 
KANANASKIS, Alberta - The world's seven wealthiest countries 
agreed Thursday to spend $20 billion to help Russia dismantle 
stockpiled weapons.
 
President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush sealed 
the 10-year pact on Russia in one-on-one talks as an economic 
summit of the world's industrial powers drew to a close.
 
World leaders meeting at a remote Canadian Rockies resort had 
feared that Russia's old nuclear, biological and chemical weapons 
stockpiles could fall into terrorist hands.
 
Under the proposal, which was officially announced on Thursday at 
the leaders' isolated summit site, the United States would spend 
$1 billion per year for 10 years on the program. Its partners 
from Europe, Japan and Canada together would contribute a similar 
amount over the same time, a senior U.S. official said.
 
He spoke shortly after the Putin-Bush meeting ended. The leaders 
had reached tentative agreement Wednesday on the money issue, but 
their staffs negotiated late into the night and Thursday morning 
over Russia's obligations.
 
Russia agreed to provide the G-7 partners access to disposal 
sites, such as facilities where nuclear submarines are 
dismantled, the U.S. official said. Mos cow also has ensured 
adequate auditing and oversight authority to its partners.
 
The agreement, long sought by the United States, is part of a 
broader campaign to increase cooperation between the United 
States and Russia on international issues such as nuclear 
proliferation. Bush and Putin recently agreed to reduce their 
nuclear stockpiles.
 
The eight heads of state also turned their attention Thursday to 
Africa and a far-reaching program to provide billions of dollars 
of assistance to the world's poorest continent.
 
"This continent is too important to allow it to fall into 
obscurity again," German Chancellor Gerhard Schroe der told 
German television.
 
The G-8 leaders were being joined for the discussions by UN 
Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the presidents of four African 
countries - South Af rica, Algeria, Nigeria and Senegal.
 
The countries scored an initial victory on Wednesday when the G-8 
agreed to increase support by $1 billion for an initiative 
launched at the Cologne summit in 1999 to provide debt relief for 
the world's poorest nations.
 
The African countries were hoping for a commitment that 50 
percent of future aid increases would be devoted to their region, 
but the United States and Japan were raising objections to 
setting such a specific target.
 
On terrorism, the G-8 produced a new action plan to make airline 
travel safer and to close what is seen as a major opening for 
terrorists - inadequate surveillance of thousands of cargo 
containers that enter ports every day.
 
The G-8 leaders also pondered how to offer assurances to global 
financial markets, which were sent tumbling Wednesday with 
WorldCom Inc.'s announcement that it had disguised $3.8 billion 
of expenses.
 
In a challenge to Bush administration plans for a missile-defense 
shield, China and Russia on Thursday submitted a joint proposal 
to the Conference on Disarmament for a new international treaty 
to ban weapons in outer space - a plan rejected by the United 
States.
 
"Outer space is faced with the danger of weaponization and an 
arms race," said Chinese ambassador Hu Xiaodi, presenting the 
text to the 66-country body in Geneva.
 
It marked the first time Russia and China had made a joint 
initiative on the issue, which has long been a priority for 
Beijing because of its fears that U.S. development of a missile 
defense will inevitably involve outer space.
 
"We support the urgent adoption today of all measures possible in 
order to prevent the deployment of weapons in outer space, rather 
than waste subsequently huge efforts and resources to have it 
"de-weaponized," said Russian Ambassador Leonid Skotnikov.
 
 [letters@sptimesrussia.com?subject=Canada Trip Brings $20 Bln 
Nukes Deal] or online form:
 
[Copyright] copyright The St. Petersburg Times 2002
*****************************************************************
 3 China's Third Commercial Nuclear Power Plant to Operate
 
Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, June 29, 2002   
  
  The Ling'ao Nuclear Power Plant in Guangdong Province, south 
China, will soon become the third commercial nuclear power 
operating in China, as its owner the Guangdong Nuclear Power 
Group, has recently signed a contract to supply electricity to 
the Guangdong Power Group.   

  The Ling'ao Nuclear Power Plant in Guangdong Province, south 
China, will soon become the third commercial nuclear power 
operating in China, as its owner the Guangdong Nuclear Power 
Group, has recently signed a contract to supply electricity to 
the Guangdong Power Group. 

Under the contract, the Ling'ao nuclear power plant, situated at 
Daya Bay near Shenzhen, will supply 13 billion kilowatt hours of 
electricity a year to the provincial power grid, equivalent to 
one tenth of Guangdong's annual power consumption. 

The plant has two generating units, each with an installed 
capacity of one million kilowatts. 

The first generating unit is expected to be in operation in July, 
the second by March next year. 

Construction of the Ling'ao plant started in 1997. 

China currently has two nuclear power plants in operation, the 
Daya Bay plant only one kilometer away from Ling'ao, and the 
Qinshan plant in Zhejiang Province on the eastern coast. 

Other nuclear power projects under construction in China include 
the second and third phase of the Qinshan plant and the Tianwan 
plant in Jiangsu. 

Preliminary work has also begun on the Sanmen nuclear power plant 
in Sanmen County, Zhejiang Province, according to earlier media 
reports. 

China plans to increase its installed nuclear power generating 
capacity to 20 million kilowatts by 2010. 

  Copyright by People's Daily Online, all rights reserved   
*****************************************************************
 4 China: Nuclear Power Plant Insured
 
  Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, June 29, 2002   
  
Nuclear Power Plant Insured
   
  The Hangzhou branch of China's Ping'an Insurance Company issued 
a policy of more than 10 billion yuan (1.2 billion U.S. dollars) 
to the second-phase project of Qinshan Nuclear Power Station in 
east China's Zhejiang Province Friday.   

  The Hangzhou branch of China's Ping'an Insurance Company issued 
a policy of more than 10 billion yuan (1.2 billion U.S. dollars) 
to the second-phase project of Qinshan Nuclear Power Station in 
east China's Zhejiang Province Friday. 

Jiang Su, general manager of the Hangzhou branch, said that 
thepolicy covered material property damages to the station and 
harm to surrounding people and property. 

Located in Haiyan County, the second-phase project of Qinshan 
Nuclear Power Station officially started commercial operation in 
mid-April. 

Ping'an Insurance Company accounts for more than half of China's 
nuclear power insurance market, with its clients including 
nuclear power plants in Guangdong, Jiangsu and the first-phase 
project of Qinshan Nuclear Power Station. 

The company reported a total of 46.46 billion yuan (5.6 
billionU.S. dollars) in premium revenue in 2001, ranking second 
among China's insurance companies. 

  Copyright by People's Daily Online, all rights reserved   
*****************************************************************
 5 UK: Lightning strike shuts off reactors at nuclear station for five days

Scotsman.com <http://www.scotsman.com/>

 Back Issue:  *Saturday, 29th June 2002* 

/JOHN INNES/

A LIGHTNING strike shut down both reactors at a nuclear power 
station for five days, British Energy revealed yesterday.

A spokesman for the company said the strike, on 2 May, caused a 
power surge which triggered the automatic safety systems at the 
Torness plant, in East Lothian, closing down both reactors.

He said this was the first time such an incident had occurred at 
the plant and he insisted it posed no risk to the public.

The spokesman said such events were "rare", although he confirmed 
that a similar incident had happened at Hunterston power station 
on the Clyde several years ago.

The spokesman added: "The reactor safety mechanism did what it 
was designed to do by closing down both the units and that is 
exactly what happened on 2 May.

"There was a voltage pulse. It?s like something happening in your 
house when your bulbs trip out. We quite often shut down the 
reactors for maintenance so it is not unusual for a reactor to 
shut down safely."

During the incident, boiler pressures were reduced and 
non-radioactive steam, normally used to power the station?s 
electricity-generating turbines, was released. The spokesman said 
the incident was reported to the Nuclear Installations 
Inspectorate "right away", and stressed the industry was heavily 
regulated.

He also confirmed that the number two reactor was shut down again 
on 10 May in a separate incident because of a mechanical fault 
with the cooling system.

He said: "Right now we are replacing a gas circulator, which is 
part of the cooling system. We have teams of people working on 
that."

He said the reactor was still shut down and the plant was losing 
money as a result but he refused to say when the reactor would be 
back up and running.
*****************************************************************
 6 In a Sign of the Times, the City Begins Deploying Radiation Detectors

The New York Times 

June 29, 2002*  

*By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM*

As a part of the Police Department's new measures to guard 
against potential terrorism, radiation detectors will be 
installed outside several city buildings, Police Commissioner 
Raymond W. Kelly said yesterday. City Hall will probably be among 
the locations, he said.

The police department installed one of four of the new portable 
detectors outside police headquarters in Lower Manhattan on 
Thursday, and officials said another would be set up outside the 
building's garage. The department's bomb squad and its emergency 
services unit will use two others.

"There will be those sorts of devices in other city buildings, 
when and where I can't tell you specifically, but clearly that is 
the goal of the city administration," Mr. Kelly said, adding that 
City Hall would probably get one.

The devices, which cost about $11,000 each, could help spot a 
so-called dirty bomb, a conventional explosive wrapped in 
radioactive material.

Such detectors, according to one official familiar with their 
use, are already used in Washington, outside the White House and 
the Capitol.

Yesterday, at 1 Police Plaza, some police officers, officials and 
visitors passed through the unobtrusive detector unperturbed, but 
others took notice. "It's kind of scary ? it's a little too close 
for comfort," one officer said.

But Mr. Kelly said prudence demanded the use of the devices, each 
of which are anchored by a pair of black cylinders about 7 feet 
tall and 3 inches in diameter.

Several other officials in New York and Washington agreed with 
Mr. Kelly.

"I think the kind of vigilance the Police Department is using is 
right on target," Jerome M. Hauer, the director of the federal 
Office of Public Health Preparedness at the Department of Health 
and Human Services, said in a telephone interview. "As we 
continue to have heightened concerns about potential threats in 
this country, I think it's important to look at critical 
facilities like police headquarters and use the best available 
technology to protect them."

Mr. Hauer, who was the director of the city's Office of Emergency 
Management from 1996 to 2000 under Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, 
said, "We have to be concerned about unconventional weapons, 
particularly one that is not necessarily a weapon of mass 
destruction, but certainly a dirty bomb is a weapon of mass 
disruption because of the anxiety it creates."

He said such a bomb could sow panic by spewing radioactive 
material and contaminating an area of several square blocks.

Police officials have said that the radiation detectors were 
bought as a precautionary measure and that there had been no 
specific threats that prompted their installation.

The devices, manufactured by a Longmont, Colo., company called 
TSA Systems Ltd. and sold by Saint-Gobain Crystals and Detectors 
in Solon, Ohio, were originally designed for use at nuclear power 
plants and other nuclear facilities in case of accident, said 
Charlie Schnurr, vice president of TSA Systems. The federal 
Emergency Management Agency, in conjunction with the Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission, required the installations, Mr. Schnurr 
said.

The detectors can be set up in just minutes and weigh 90 pounds 
each, according to TSA's product information. They can be packed 
up into a storage bag about 6 1/2 feet long and 1 1/2 feet wide.

They will supplement about 250 belt-worn radiation detectors that 
the department also bought from Saint-Gobain, Mr. Kelly said. 
Those devices are designed to form a sort of moving detection 
curtain so that police officers can be on the street interacting 
with the public as they seek to detect radioactive material.

Saint-Gobain's regional sales manager, Jim Mondine, said the 
larger portable detectors could serve many purposes, not only for 
the city and the Police Department, but also for the private 
sector. "These would be ideal to set up, say, at Yankee Stadium 
at a baseball game," he said, "or in front of the New York Stock 
Exchange."

Ruby Washington/The New York Times
In a sign of the times, the city is deploying radiation detectors,
including one at police headquarters.
*****************************************************************
 7 Chernobyl kids find refuge: Local families reach out to Belarus 
children 

 eastsidejournal.com - 

[Eastside Journal Local News]         

2002-06-29

 by Wendy Giroux [wendy.giroux@eastsidejournal.com] 
Journal Reporter
 
SEATAC -- Julie Stepuro, 15, and her host mother Tracy Stine of 
Fall City hugged each other tightly, grinning and teary-eyed as 
they reunited at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport yesterday.
 
Stepuro, who lives in Minsk, Belarus, returned to the United 
States for her ninth visit, along with 49 other children who came 
for access to health care, food and experiences they don't get at 
home.
 
``I love them,'' Stepuro said, both of her arms wrapped around 
Stine. ``They're like my second family.''
 
Belarus is the Western European country where 70 percent of the 
radiation fell after the 1986 nuclear plant disaster near 
Chernobyl, Ukraine.
 
Because the children in Belarus are exposed to radiation and 
often are malnourished, their immune systems wear down and they 
often develop a noncontagious condition known as ``Chernobyl 
AIDS.''
 
The annual visits for Belarus children are organized by For the 
Children, a nonprofit group that helps these children become 
healthier and grow close to a family here.
 
Stepuro has traveled from Minsk, the capital of Belarus, every 
summer to visit the Stines.
 
She speaks English well and said she enjoys absolutely everything 
about her visits -- from boys, Disneyland and Wild Waves to 
playing piano at Nordstrom, which she has been invited to do 
several times.
 
It's well worth the 24 hours of travel each way, the teenager 
said.
 
``It's a great opportunity to meet new people and rest and have 
fun,'' she said.
 
For the Children provides medical care for the young people 
during their visit by finding doctors and dentists willing to 
donate their services. The kids get outfitted in everything from 
glasses to new clothes. 

``We're not just fixing their teeth and building up their immune 
systems, although those things are very important,'' said Tom 
Watson, president of the organization. ``We're building a bridge 
between two cultures.''
 
Yesterday, 7-year-old Ian Tobin and his parents, Anita and Paul, 
picked up Sasha Nikitsin at Sea-Tac Airport. They were surrounded 
by other host families -- from as far away as Eastern Washington 
and Montana -- meeting or reuniting with Belarus children.
 
The Tobins hosted Sasha last year on a scholarship from a donor, 
and they decided to bring him back this year.
 
``We fell in love with him,'' Anita Tobin said. ``The world is a 
smaller place now because we know he's on the other side of the 
globe.''
 
Last summer, Sasha grew about an inch and gained 5 pounds during 
his stay with the Tobins. He and Ian rode bikes together, played 
baseball on a team at the Covington Community Center and played 
Nintendo games.
 
Federal Way residents Don and Mary Richards, who are both deaf, 
waited eagerly to meet 10-year-old Artur Kazhamiakin, one of five 
deaf children who traveled here for the first time.
 
They worried a bit about how American Sign Language and Russian 
Sign Language would translate, but mostly they were excited.
 
``I wanted to serve other deaf people like us in our culture,'' 
Mary Richards said through interpreter Karen Macy.
 
Once they met Artur and got past the initial introductions, the 
trio conversed with fingers flying -- another family fulfilling 
Watson's wish to bridge two cultures.
 
Wendy Giroux can be reached at 
wendy.giroux@southcountyjournal.com or 253-872-6683.
 
HOW TO HELP
 
* Host a child for six weeks during the summer.
 
* Help pay for another family to host a child (it costs about 
$1,000 for a child younger than 12 and about $1,200 for a child 
over 12).
 
* To find out more, visit For the Children of the World on the 
Web at www.forworldschildren.org or call 1-866-203-4508. 
Contribution checks can be mailed to P.O. Box 718, Milton, WA 
98354. Photos By: Gary Kissel/Journal. FRONT PAGE: Julie Stepuro, 
right, is happy to see Tracy Stine of Fall City after arriving 
from Belarus. Stine and her husband, Gary, are hosting Stepuro 
for the ninth year. JUMP PAGE: Val, 10, left, and Illya, 9, 
arrive from Belarus yesterday to meet their host family, Mark and 
Robin Whitten of Des Moines. Robin Whitten was standing behind 
them, at left.   

Eastside Journal 1705 132nd Avenue N.E. 
Bellevue, WA 98005-2251 Phone: 425-455-2222 Fax: 425-635-0602 All 
materials Copyright © Horvitz Newspapers, Inc. Any questions? See 
*****************************************************************
 8 How pills will be disbursed 

Orange County Register - Top News
 
June 29, 2002

SACRAMENTO – Potassium iodide pills, which can provide limited 
protection against one of the harmful elements released in a 
nuclear disaster, will be made available to residents living near 
California's two active nuclear power plants.

Health authorities from Orange, San Diego and San Luis Obispo 
counties and the state Office of Emergency Services agreed at a 
daylong meeting Friday to provide the pills periodically at sites 
within the communities, and to maintain stockpiles of the pills 
near the emergency zone to be distributed in case of an accident. 
They also agreed to develop an outreach program to tell people 
how and where the pills can be obtained. 

Details and timing will be decided at a meeting late next month. 
One option, mailing pills directly to residents, was ruled out.

"It's safe to say we're not going to be using the mail. The 
logistics of identifying everybody that we would need to mail to 
were difficult," said Office of Emergency Services spokesman Eric 
Lamoureux.

Potassium iodide, although ineffective against all forms of 
radiation exposure, is believed to block the absorption of 
radioactive iodine released from a nuclear plant by saturating 
the thyroid with stable iodine.

About 200,000 people live within 10 miles of the San Onofre 
nuclear power plant, and about 10,000 people live within 10 miles 
of the Diablo Canyon plant in San Luis Obispo County. Concern 
about terrorist attacks has increased the demand for potassium 
iodide. 
				     
[http://www.ocregister.com] The Orange County Register
*****************************************************************
 9 State health officials order 750,000 doses of potassium iodide pills 

| The Winston Salem Journal - Journal Now
 
Sat, Jun 29, 2002

 Pills can reduce the risk of cancer from radiation 

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

RALEIGH
 
State health officials said yesterday that they have requested 
enough potassium iodide tablets for people living within the 
10-mile emergency zone of four nuclear-power plants.
 
Potassium iodide is a nonprescription compound, most commonly 
found in table salt to help maintain thyroid function. 

In the event of radiation exposure, the compound taken at the 
proper dosage and time can reduce the thyroid gland's uptake of 
radioactive iodine and reduce the risk of thyroid cancer.
 
The decision to request potassium iodide came after a review of 
the issue by a committee of experts from the N.C. Departments of 
Health and Human Services, Crime Control and Public Safety and 
Environment and Natural Resources.
 
A bioterrorism bill that President Bush signed this month 
requires potassium iodide to be available to all residents living 
near nuclear-power plants.
 
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission last month began offering the 
pills to the 33 states with nuclear reactors. The NRC has said 
that pills will be shipped to a state within 45 days of receiving 
a request.
 
"There are good data, especially from post-Chernobyl research, 
that provide sound scientific reasons for including potassium 
iodide as a preventive public-health measure" if radiation is 
released from a nuclear-power plant, said Dr. Greg Smith, a 
medical epidemiologist who led the committee.
 
Smith cautioned the public that the pill isn't magic and provides 
protection from only one type of radiation.
 
"It does not provide protection against whole-body irradiation or 
other radioactive elements that could result from a nuclear-power 
plant release."
 
Smith said that the best protection is orderly evacuation.
 
Jim Warren of the nuclear watchdog group NC WARN, said that the 
pills are a good step but he called on power plants to harden 
nuclear-waste pools to make them safer.
 
"It's a good move, but they're correct in saying it's not a 
cure-all," Warren said.
 
The state has asked for 750,000 doses of potassium iodide, which 
amounts to two pills a person. 

The pills will be distributed to people who live and work within 
10 miles of the Brunswick and Harris power plants owned by 
Carolina Power and Light Co., and Duke Power's McGuire and 
Catawba power stations.
 
Officials are still working on the details of distributing the 
pills.
 
Nine states - Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, 
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont - requested a 
total of 3.7 million tablets. 

Residents near power plants in New York and New Jersey will also 
be offered the pills.
 
The pills are available without a prescription at about $1 a 
pill.
 
One supplier of the pills is a North Carolina company, 
NukePills.com. 

The government bought pills from the company after threats of 
radiation- releasing "dirty bombs" were discovered.
   
*****************************************************************
 10 Russian watchdog attacks plan to import nuclear waste
 	 
  Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | 

President expected to ignore state agency's warnings on Urals plant
		
Ian Traynor in Moscow
Saturday June 29, 2002
The Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk]  		
 		
Russia's official nuclear watchdog has delivered an unprecedented 
demolition of the government's plans to become the world's 
leading importer of nuclear waste, denouncing the scheme as 
half-baked, misleading and "technologically impossible". 

In documents leaked to Greenpeace and passed to the Guardian, 
Gosatomnadzor, the state nuclear supervisory agency, described 
the plan to import and store or reprocess spent nuclear fuel as 
unacceptable. 

The atomic energy ministry, the key lobby pushing the scheme, 
which claims that nuclear waste imports could earn Russia $20bn 
over the next decade, has drafted a lengthy "analysis" of the 
plan for the Kremlin ahead of President Vladimir Putin's signing 
off on the imports project. 

The plan was prepared last year by three new laws, despite 2.5 
million signatures petitioning for a referendum on the 
controversial topic. 

In a letter to Alexander Rumyantsev, the atomic energy minister, 
Yuri Vishnevsky, the head of the watchdog, systematically 
criticised the government argument. 

The Mayak plant in the Urals, where the waste is to be stored, 
represented a big environmental threat and was unsuitable 
because: 

· the plant's operators were continuing, routinely and illegally, 
to dump liquid radioactive waste in nearby reservoirs; 

· laws governing nuclear energy, radioactive safety and 
environmental protection make the plant inappropriate for storing 
imported waste; 

· the projected income and profits from the business were 
"incorrectly calculated"; 

· problems of transporting the nuclear waste had been 
"incorrectly" assessed and claims that the transport containers 
had been tested and found to be fully up to international safety 
standards were flawed. 

The plethora of objections "confirmed the impossibility of 
receiving foreign spent nuclear fuel for reprocessing", given the 
current condition of the Russian facilities, the letter said. 

Anti-nuclear protesters are planning to set up a camp near the 
Urals storage centre, one of the most contaminated sites in the 
world, next week. Last year, when the enabling legislation was 
pushed through, the government refused to allow a referendum. 

Apart from Russia, only Britain and France are in the nuclear 
waste imports business, although the French trade is expected to 
suffer a big blow from 2005 when German exports are banned. 

Mr Rumyantsev is determined to compete with the west Europeans 
and complains bitterly about their attempts to keep Russia out of 
what he contends is a lucrative market, although the worldwide 
trend is for countries to store their own nuclear waste. 

Vladimir Chuprov, a representative of Greenpeace in Moscow, said 
the watchdog's condemnation of the ministry's plans "proves that 
there is at least one independent official watchdog in Russia". 

"The regulator's letter is a slap in the face for Rumyantsev and 
anyone else considering dumping radioactive waste on Russia," 
added Tobias Muenchmeyer, a Berlin-based Greenpeace nuclear 
expert. 

But Mr Putin is still expected to give the green light to the 
imports plan later this year, despite the watchdog's withering 
criticism. Regulatory bodies, although official, are notoriously 
weak in Russia, while the atomic energy ministry is a powerful 
lobby. 

Vladimir Slivyak, of the Eco-defence anti-nuclear organisation, 
said the watchdog's criticisms would have little impact on 
Kremlin thinking and that the decision to proceed or halt the 
plan would be political. 

President Putin ordered the atomic energy ministry "analysis" in 
February after parliament passed three laws last summer on the 
scheme that critics say will turn Russia into the world's nuclear 
dump. 

The plan envisages importing 20,000 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel over 10
years, more than doubling the amount of nuclear waste currently stored in
Russia. 

But, ultimately, the plan's go-ahead hinges on American approval. The US does
not import or reprocess foreign nuclear waste but controls, legally and
contractually, more than 80% of world nuclear waste and would need to approve
exports to Russia from client states. 
	
Useful links
Itar-Tass news agency [http://www.itar-tass.com/news.htm] 
Moscow Times [http://www.moscowtimes.ru] 
Russia Today [http://www.russiatoday.com] 
St Petersburg Times [http://www.times.spb.ru/index.htm] 

[UP] 

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002
*****************************************************************
 11 PSR: Sen. Jeffords Opposition to Yucca Mountain
   
U.S. Newswire 
28 Jun 17:29 

PSR: Sen. Jeffords Heeds Sound Evidence Standing In Opposition To 
Yucca Mountain; Environmental, Health Effects Come to Light 

To: National Desk Contact: Bob Musil of Physicians for Social 
Responsibility (PSR), 202-667-4260 or 301-493-4571; Web site: 
http://www.psr.org [http://www.psr.org] 

WASHINGTON, June 28 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Today, Sen. Jim Jeffords 
(I-Vt.) expressed his concerns and opposition to the proposed 
Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository in Nevada. After 
carefully reviewing the facts and associated environmental and 
health risks, Jeffords acted on the concerns of PSR and other 
anti-Yucca organizations by committing his vote against Yucca 
legislation. 

"Once again, Senator Jeffords has proven himself a champion of 
environmental and public health struggles that serves to protect 
the safety of all Americans," said Robert K. Musil, Ph.D., 
M.P.H., executive director and CEO of Physicians for Social 
Responsibility. "A thorough presentation of the facts provided 
Senator Jeffords with abundant evidence to take an independent 
stance in opposition to Yucca Mountain, seeing that it is clearly 
an unsatisfactory solution to the nation's nuclear waste 
problem." 

Physicians for Social Responsibility and a broad coalition of 
public health, environmental, and civic organizations oppose the 
Yucca Mountain project and its transportation scheme. The plan to 
store 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 
100 miles Northwest of Las Vegas would bring the waste through 44 
states and the District of Columbia. 

The support by Sen. Jeffords is more evidence of growing public 
concern over the viability of the proposed repository. The Senate 
vote on Yucca will occur during the week of July 8, 2002. 

http://www.usnewswire.com 
*****************************************************************
 12 Coalition calls for DOE to fund Sandia landfill study                         

Albuquerque Tribune Online

By Nina Lanza
 [0.5PTnlanza@abqtrib.com] 
Tribune Reporter

 Albuquerque environmental watchdog groups are demanding that the 
Department of Energy pay for an independent study of a landfill 
for hazardous materials at Sandia National Laboratories.

 The analysis, called a Corrective Measures Study (CMS), has 
already been ordered by the New Mexico Environment Department. 
But it is not clear who is to conduct the study and pay for it, 
and the groups expressed concern that the study will reflect "DOE 
policy rather than sound science."

 The group leading the campaign, Citizen Action, which is 
representing 13 community organizations, said the Department of 
Energy's current plan to cap and monitor the landfill, delaying 
cleaning it, is unsafe and poses a threat to local groundwater.

 However, the DOE maintains that digging up the landfill, located 
five miles southwest of Albuquerque, will create more problems 
and be more dangerous.

 The site, known as the Mixed Waste Landfill, is located on a 
remote section of Kirtland Air Force Base and is maintained by 
Sandia Labs.

 The waste includes radioactive materials and toxic chemicals in 
seven trenches and 36 pits across 2.6 acres of land.

 Citizen Action is in support of the corrective measures study, 
which would examine various closure options for the landfill, but 
says the study should be carried out by an independent research 
group, not the DOE.

 The DOE has funded a similar project at Los Alamos National 
Laboratory. In 1994, a group called the Concerned Citizens for 
Nuclear Safety sued the DOE for violation of the Clean Air Act at 
the lab. As a result of the lawsuit, the DOE now pays - through 
the Department of Justice - for an independent auditor to examine 
parts of the lab's air-quality monitoring, says Joni Arends, 
director of the citizens group. The audit, done by the Risk 
Assessment Corporation, is still ongoing, she says.

 Arends says the laboratory has been working with the New Mexico 
Environment Department to form a focus group made up of community 
members. This focus group will offer the lab recommendations on 
how to deal with another waste site, she said, this one located 
at the lab and known as Material Disposal Area H.

 In addition, Arends says the DOE has agreed to fund an expert of 
the group's choosing to advise the focus group on technical 
matters.

 The director of Citizen Action, Susan Dayton, said opponents of 
the DOE's Sandia waste-site plans believe "communities in 
Albuquerque should be given the same consideration" as was given 
to the Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety.

 She sent a letter Tuesday to City Councilor Eric Griego asking 
for help.

 "The impetus behind the DOE's plan is to save money and set a 
precedent for managing waste that does not involve permanent 
removal," Dayton wrote.

 In the letter, which sought to warn the council of "the 
potential health and economic consequences" of delaying cleanup 
of the 30-year-old landfill, Dayton said "there are other 
indications that the plan selected (by the DOE) for the landfill 
has been predetermined and based on agency policy rather than 
sound science."

 In response to the group's letter, Councilor Griego said: "Their 
concern is reasonable."

 He said he has not made a formal reply, but that he might 
encourage the council to issue a memorial in favor of the 
proposed study.

 "I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other (about what 
should be done with the landfill)," Griego explained, "because I 
don't think anyone really knows." He said he advocates further 
study in general to determine how the site should be handled.

 Dayton said the groups believe the study is the only way to 
ensure an objective analysis of the landfill.

 In a press release issued June 17, the groups said they had sent 
their proposal to John Arthur, manager for the DOE Albuquerque 
Operations Office.

 The DOE is reviewing the proposal and will come to a decision in 
about a week, said Tracy Loughead, a DOE public affairs 
representative.

© The Albuquerque Tribune. 
*****************************************************************
 13 YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Missouri senator won't back project


Saturday, June 29, 2002
 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal 
 
Jeffords has announced he is now 'neutral' on the issue 

By STEVE TETREAULT 
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU 

WASHINGTON -- Democratic U.S. Sen. Jean Carnahan of Missouri 
announced Friday she will vote against the Yucca Mountain 
Project, citing concerns about shipments of nuclear waste 
traveling through her heartland state. 

"I don't want Missouri to become the nation's nuclear waste 
superhighway," Carnahan said, noting that Energy Department plans 
make it likely that waste would pass through St. Louis and Kansas 
City on its way to Nevada. 

Carnahan has been viewed as a key corridor-state Democrat that 
Nevada's senators need to have in their corner if they have any 
hopes of killing the proposed nuclear waste repository when it 
comes up for a vote in early July. 

Published vote counts have suggested that pro-Yucca senators 
backed by the Bush administration, nuclear power interests and 
the business community have more than the 51 votes needed to pass 
a resolution finalizing the site selection. 

It is less clear how senators line up on a key procedural vote 
that will come first. 

If pro-Yucca senators prevail on procedure, it's expected the 
Nevada repository would subsequently be approved. If Yucca 
critics prevail on that vote, the Senate could take further 
action to kill the nuclear waste project outright. 

Carnahan's announcement came among several developments in the 
past few days that have encouraged Yucca Mountain critics as 
Congress heads into a week-long Fourth of July break. 

On Wednesday, Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont, an independent, 
told a radio interviewer he now considers himself "neutral" on 
Yucca Mountain, after previously saying he planned to vote for 
the repository. 

In the same piece broadcast on Vermont public radio, Democratic 
Sen. Patrick Leahy, who has not publicly declared a position, 
continued to criticize the Bush administration for its plan to 
move radioactive materials across the country to Nevada. 

Also, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Friday another swing senator, 
Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., "said she will help me." He did not 
elaborate, although Stabenow, who represents a state that draws a 
substantial 18.2 percent of its electricity from nuclear power, 
has said she is reconsidering her support for the Yucca Mountain 
Project. 

Reid said President Bush is clamping down on GOP senators who 
might have second thoughts about Yucca Mountain after being 
lobbied by Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev. 

"Ensign is having trouble," Reid said. "Every time he gets 
someone interested, the president's people put the full press 
on." 

A spokeswoman said Ensign was not available to comment. "He's 
going to continue to talk to other senators and lobby them 
between now and the vote," aide Traci Scott said. 

Carnahan's discomfort with nuclear waste shipping stems in part 
from Missouri's bad experience last year with a shipment 
traveling from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to 
Idaho, aide Tony Wyche said. 

Gov. Bob Holden stalled the shipment at the Illinois border so it 
would not pass through St. Louis during rush hour, Wyche said. 

Jeffords said he was considering points raised by Nevada leaders 
and their environmental allies that some nuclear waste will 
remain at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant even after a Yucca 
Mountain repository is filled. 

"I have kind of moved to a position of neutral on the Yucca 
Mountain situation until I learn as to what will happen to the 
rest of the waste," he said.
 
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002
*****************************************************************
 14 Las Vegas man claims bias in Yucca lawsuit

Saturday, June 29, 2002
 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal 

REVIEW-JOURNAL 

Plenty of Southern Nevadans oppose the Yucca Mountain Project, 
but one in particular has found a new venue to criticize the 
nuclear waste storage plan. 

On Friday, Jonathan Galaviz of Las Vegas filed a lawsuit in U.S. 
District Court, alleging that the plan to ship nuclear waste to 
Yucca Mountain is discriminatory toward minorities. Specifically, 
Galaviz said, the routes the Energy Department will use to ship 
the waste will take the waste primarily through minority 
communities. 

"(It will) be routed through communities predominantly populated 
by African-Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and 
Hispanic-American minorities throughout the U.S. in order to 
minimize political opposition," Galaviz wrote. 

The Energy Department has said that if the Yucca site is built, 
transportation routes will be classified and developed in 
conjunction with state and local officials. 

Galaviz, who represents himself, is suing President Bush, the 
Energy Department, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and the 
United States of America.
 
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002
*****************************************************************
 15 Foes tote up radiation risk 

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Health, Science and Environment
 
Friday, June 28, 2002

By Ann McFeatters, Post-Gazette National Bureau 

WASHINGTON -- With the Senate scheduled to vote after the July 
4th recess on whether to deposit a portion of the nation's 
nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, an environmental group 
contends that government data show that 132,591 people in 
Pittsburgh would be exposed to radiation if a rail car had an 
accident in the city and broke the seal on casks of spent fuel.

 Using Department of Energy data -- based on models of radiation 
leaks done by the Lawrence Livermore, Sandia and Argonne national 
laboratories -- the Environmental Working Group said a "Category 
5" accident would cause fatal cancers in 494 people in 
Pittsburgh, and that a 25-mile radiation plume would expose more 
than 100,000 others to excessive radiation. It said children 
would be more at risk than adults.

 Such a calculation, the group said, is based on census figures 
for the number of people living in the path of prevailing winds. 
It assumes that everybody in the path of the cloud would be 
evacuated within one day and that radiation would be cleaned up 
within a year, but does not account for suburbanites working 
Downtown. "This is nowhere near a worst-case scenario," the group 
said.

 The Department of Energy classifies a Category 5 accident 
involving nuclear waste as one in which the casks bearing the 
radioactive material are struck but not penetrated. The force of 
the blow is enough to loosen the seal, releasing cesium into the 
atmosphere. A fire is ignited that does not burn the casks but is 
strong enough to propel the cesium 100 feet into the atmosphere, 
where prevailing winds take it into Downtown Pittsburgh.

 The number of actual spent fuel shipments across the country 
after the Yucca Mountain disposal site's projected 2010 opening, 
if approved, is still unclear. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham 
has told Congress, however, that he anticipates 175 shipments a 
year, "not the 2,800 [annually] that foes allege."

 Still, Energy Department officials concede that some sort of 
road or rail accident is inevitable in transporting the spent 
fuel to Nevada, but they insist that they don't expect any spill 
of radioactive fuel. Transporting spent fuel can be safe, the 
department maintains, because its guidelines and those of the 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission are stringent, and shipping 
containers for the material "are the most robust in the 
transportation industry."

 Ken Cook, the environmental group's president, says it neither 
opposes nor endorses the Yucca Mountain project for storing spent 
nuclear fuel in Nevada but contends that the government has been 
lax in telling Americans all the ramifications of shipping 
radioactive waste across the country. "We're trying to fill in an 
important gap, one of many the government has left, as we go into 
the final debate over Yucca," he said.

 The House already has approved the disposal at Yucca Mountain; 
the Senate is now facing lobbyists' pressures on both sides of 
the issue. The government has spent $8 billion in studying and 
planning the Nevada project.

 The Nuclear Energy Institute disputes the likelihood of 
accidents. "The nuclear energy industry has completed more than 
3,000 shipments of used nuclear fuel with no injuries, fatalities 
or environmental damage because of the radioactivity of the 
cargo," the institute has reported. It noted that new government 
rules require security plans to be in place before shipments 
begin, probably in 2010.

 Nonetheless, the environmental group's new analysis is likely to 
raise the temperature of the debate. It picked 20 major cities, 
including Pittsburgh, and argued that thousands of people all 
along the routes -- either of truck or rail shipments --could be 
subject to cancer if a moderate accident occurred, according to 
National Academy of Sciences projections, using Hiroshima data.

 Their projection does not assume an incident as serious as a 
terrorist attack or an accident exploding the casks or causing a 
high-intensity, long-burning fire, such as the recent Baltimore 
Tunnel blaze, which would disperse far more radiation.

 The model for the Pittsburgh area assumes a rail accident that 
occurs at 30 to 60 mph near the Point, Downtown, under average 
weather conditions. The radioactive material released in such an 
accident would be cesium, present in the fuel-clad gap between 
the fuel pellets and the inside wall of the metal tube that 
contains the spent fuel.

 Cesium in the atmosphere would be inhaled by those downwind and 
also would settle on the earth -- called groundshine -- and could 
expose many people to radioactivity for years, although a 
one-year cleanup period is assumed.

 The group said that within two minutes of such an accident, a 
cloud of radioactive cesium averaging the equivalent of 5,500 
X-rays, or 3,667 times the government's annual exposure limit, 
would travel a quarter-mile, or about four blocks.

 In less than 10 minutes, contamination equal to exposure to 300 
to 750 X-rays would extend one mile from the accident site. A 
zone of exposure equal to about 55 X-rays would extend to 4.6 
miles; a zone of exposure of 5 X-rays would extend to 25 miles.

 Based on population, the group says, four people in Pittsburgh 
closest to the accident site would suffer severe radiation 
exposure equal to 30,000 X-rays, 41 more would be exposed to 
radiation the equivalent of 5,500 X-rays within two minutes, 52 
more would be exposed to 750 X-rays in five minutes, and 512 
people would receive a dose equivalent to about 300 X-rays in 10 
minutes.

Copyright ©1997-2002 PG Publishing Co., Inc. All Rights Reserved.       
*****************************************************************
 16 Navy truck has hot time on SR-304*

06/28/2002

*By Tracey Cooper*

A truck equipped to carry radioactive materials blocked one lane 
of State Route 304 in Bremerton after one of its brakes 
overheated on Wednesday.

The Navy-owned vehicle did not have radioactive liquid in it when 
the incident occurred at 11:26 a.m. June 26, said Navy and 
Washington State Patrol information officers.

?The cargo was an empty liquid collection tank with low level 
radio activity inside,? said Puget Sound Naval Shipyard 
spokesperson Mary Anne Mascianica in a written statement. ?The 
tank did not have any contents that could result in a reaction or 
explosion.?

The truck, bound for PSNS from Submarine Base Bangor, stopped 
just outside the shipyard when the driver noticed smoke and heat 
waves rising from the back of the truck.

Apparently its rear brake overheated. Although the original call 
came in as a fire call, there were no flames said Washington 
State Patrol information officer Trooper Glen Tyrrell.

The driver cooled the brake with a fire extinguisher and called 
for help. Bremerton, South Kitsap and PSNS firefighters responded 
to the call. No one was injured, traffic was not interrupted and 
no radioactive material was released.

The tank, although empty, contained residual low-level 
radioactivity Mascianicia said.

?A person standing three feet away from the tank for three hours 
would receive less exposure than they would receive from a 
cross-country airline flight,? she stated.

© Copyright - << Central Kitsap Reporter >> <http://www.bcnewsgroup.com>
*****************************************************************
 17 Carnahan to vote against Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site

Kansas City Star | 06/28/2002 | 

Posted on Fri, Jun. 28, 2002     [story:PUB_DESC]       
    
 By DAVID GOLDSTEIN

WASHINGTON - Democratic Sen. Jean Carnahan of Missouri said 
Friday that she would oppose the choice of Nevada's Yucca 
Mountain as the national storage site for nuclear waste.
 
Carnahan said that she was concerned about the frequency of 
shipments of nuclear material that would have to pass through 
Missouri's most populated areas -- Kansas City, St. Louis and 
Columbia -- on roads that are already crowded and in disrepair.
 
"I don't want Missouri to become the nation's nuclear waste 
superhighway," she said.
 
The Senate is expected to vote on Yucca Mountain after it returns 
from its July 4th recess. The House has already approved the site 
and the White House also supports the choice. The government has 
spent $8 billion on the project.
 
The administration projects that if approved, Yucca Mountain 
would open in 2010. The plans call for the burial of 77,000 tons 
of the waste over 24 years. The Energy Department has stated that 
waste shipments would go through 43 states, at a rate of about 
175 a year.
 
Opponents have expressed concerns about the routes across the 
country, the safety of the materials and the potential hazards to 
the area around the proposed site.
 
Carnahan sponsored legislation this year to require a study of 
how the Energy Department selected routes to transport the spent 
nuclear fuel. The bill passed and is being considered by a 
Senate-House conference committee.
 
To reach David Goldstein, Washington correspondent, call (202) 
383-6105, or send e-mail to dgoldstein@krwashington.com 
[dgoldstein@krwashington.com] 
  
*****************************************************************
 18 Nuclear waste plan includes Florida ports

   Bradenton Herald | 06/29/2002 | 

 DAVID FLESHLER
 Knight Ridder Tribune News Service
 
FORT LAUDERDALE - Dozens of barges of radioactive waste could 
arrive at Port Everglades and the Port of Miami under a plan to 
store the nation's nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, Nev.
 
Encased in lead-lined canisters, used fuel rods from South 
Florida's two nuclear power plants would be collected at the 
ports and placed on railcars for the trip through Miami-Dade, 
Broward and Palm Beach counties on their way west, according to 
an environmental impact statement by the U.S. Department of 
Energy.
 
The Yucca Mountain plan, supported by the Bush administration and 
approved by the House, is expected to come up for a vote in the 
U.S. Senate in the next few weeks. If it wins approval, it would 
go to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for further study and the 
preparation of a final plan. The repository, which would be 90 
miles from Las Vegas, would open in 2010.
 
Environmental groups, fearing an accident along the route or a 
leak at Yucca Mountain, are trying to drum up opposition by 
publicizing the likely routes the radioactive waste would take.
 
"We do not need these shipments on roads, rails and barges with 
these terrorists out there," said Claude Ward, community 
organizer with the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, a 
North Carolina group that held a news conference in Miami to 
denounce the plan. "Talk about dirty bombs. We don't need to 
furnish them with one."
 
But Joe Davis, spokesman for the Department of Energy, said the 
canisters would be impossible to crack. The timing of the 
shipments would be secret. They would be accompanied by armed 
guards. The rods would be encased in canisters that had been 
subjected to puncture tests, immersion in water, a 30-foot 
free-fall and a 1,475-degree fire.
   
*****************************************************************
 19 Hot-Waste Initiative May Not Make Ballot, Despite Most Signatures 
Ever 

The Salt Lake Tribune -- 

Saturday, June 29, 2002   

BY JUDY FAHYS AND JIM WOOLF

    The statewide hot-waste voter initiative -- signed by more 
Utahns than any other in the state's history -- may be dropped 
from the November ballot. 

    Opponents of the proposed Radioactive Waste Restrictions Act 
attacked it so hard on so many fronts this month that, by 
Friday's deadline for signature certification, its fate looked 
uncertain. 

    If the attacks succeed, the initiative will be tossed out 
even before voters see it on their ballots. 

    The state Elections Office has until July 8 to decide if 
Utahns will get to vote on the proposed law. If enacted, the 
Radioactive Waste Restrictions Act would ban nuclear waste that 
is more potent than what already is allowed in Utah. It also 
would raise taxes on the low-radioactivity waste that is already 
permitted, and direct a portion of tax revenues from hot waste to 
public school and homeless programs. 

    Proponents, including the Utah Education Association, were 
anxious and angry late Friday as the Elections Office waited to 
hear from nine more counties before determining whether the 
measure had survived. 

    Initiative opponent Hugh Matheson said dropping the 
initiative would "be a victory for the democratic process." 

    "Initiative petitions are a form of direct democracy in which 
the signers are the decision makers, [and] they need to hear both 
sides of the story before deciding whether to let their 
signatures remain on the petition," said Matheson, the lawyer 
spearheading the opposition as director of Utahns Against Unfair 
Taxes. 

    Initiative proponent Mickey Gallivan complained the measure 
appeared to have become a victim of voter and political 
intimidation, and said opponents had undermined the democratic 
process. 

    "It's just outlandish, what they are doing," he said. It is 
"Gestapo tactics of the worst order." 

    "The whole thing has been unusual right from the start," said 
State Election Director Amy Nacarrato. 

    The opposition campaign's toughest backer was Envirocare of 
Utah, a Tooele County radioactive waste landfill that would have 
felt the biggest impact from the measure. It said passage would 
put the company's 400 employees out of work. Its small army of 
lawyers and lobbyists began fighting the initiative even before 
proponents announced more than 131,000 had signed their 
petitions. 

    It looked like the measure handily met the state's two main 
requirements: having the signatures of at least 76,180 registered 
voters and sufficient signature numbers in at least 20 of the 
state's 29 counties. 

    Utah's largest counties -- Salt Lake, Davis, Summit and Weber 
-- easily had the signatures they needed. 

    Then, opponents attacked the legality of whole petitions. 
According to state election law, such petitions only can be 
circulated by Utah residents. Initiative proponents had 
contracted with a California company to hire and train more than 
100 people to gather signatures. 

    Opponents warned county clerks in a letter to verify the 
residency of anyone who gathered signatures in their counties 
and, joined by state legislators, they filed suit against the 
state and initiative proponents earlier this month in 3rd 
District Court. 

    Next, Envirocare employees and other opponents went to the 
homes of rural-county Utahns who had signed the petitions and 
asked them to demand to have their names removed. Thousands of 
Utahns agreed, even though removal of their names from the 
petitions requires getting a notary's signature. 

    Emery County in southeastern Utah is one place where 
signature withdrawals made the difference between success and 
failure for the anti-nuclear waste petitions. The county early in 
the process received 22 petitions and certified 113 signatures as 
registered voters. These were quickly forwarded to the state. 

    A second batch of petitions with 638 signatures was submitted 
several days prior to the June 25 primary election, said Emery 
County Clerk Bruce Funk. 

    Funk said he didn't rush to certify the second batch because 
he was busy, and knew that many people were having their names 
removed. 

    "If the public had an interest in getting their names off, 
that was all right with me," said Funk. "I felt it was a very 
good process." 

    In the end, 517 of the 638 signatures were certified as 
registered voters. But, after subtracting those who changed their 
minds, the county sent just 258 additional names. 

    Emery County's 371 certified signatures (113 from the first 
round and 258 from the second) fell short of the 445 needed to 
have that county help qualify the initiative for the ballot. 

    Pamela Brand in the Carbon County community of Wellington 
signed the petition to prevent radioactive waste from moving 
through Utah -- not to create problems for an existing business. 
Brand later agreed to have her name removed. 

    "This guy came in and handed me these papers real quickly," 
she said. "He said the people who started the petition just 
wanted to push another person out of the business so that it 
could take it over." 

    The door-to-door campaign probably also killed the initiative 
in Beaver County, despite responses from people such as Ruby 
Bowers of Beaver. When someone knocked on her door in mid-June 
and tried to convince her to remove her name from the 
anti-nuclear petition, she wouldn't budge. 

    "He got a little belligerent," arguing the petition would 
ruin a Utah business and put people out of work, Bowers recalled. 

    "I said I signed it because I'm against any of this waste 
coming through the state, so why should I take my name off the 
petition?" she said. "That's what I told him, so he left." 

    Besides the door-to-door effort, a campaign was started by 
members of Utah's largest union -- the Utah Education Association 
-- to raise a formal objection to the UEA's support of the 
initiative. 

    The UEA campaign also said signers wanted leaders of the 
19,000-member union to "refocus their agenda to excellence in 
education" and not use "dues paid by hardworking members to 
[support] initiatives that do not directly benefit education." 

    Late Friday, opponents distributed photocopies of voter 
certifications suggesting that, if one more county had too few 
registered-voter signatures, the State Elections Office will have 
to toss out the initiative. 

    fahys@sltrib.com, jwoolf@sltrib.com 
    
    
  © Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on 
*****************************************************************
 20 Mine company: Wyoming sale doesn’t affect Wisconsin project

 Green Bay Press-Gazette - 

  Posted June 29, 2002 

The Associated Press
 
A company’s proposed sale of a Wyoming mine does not mean it also wants to
sell thousands of acres in northern Wisconsin where it plans to put a zinc and
copper mine, a company executive said Friday.

 BHP Billiton has agreed to sell its Smith Ranch uranium mine in Wyoming to
Cameco Corp. of Canada. 

The sale awaits regulatory approval.

 A week ago, Wisconsin Gov. Scott McCallum said he will consider a proposal
from a coalition of conservation groups and tribal governments for the state
to buy about 5,000 acres near Crandon owned by Nicolet Minerals Co., a
subsidiary of BHP Billiton.

 No sale prices have been mentioned. 

The mining company has described the site as the largest undeveloped zinc
deposit in North America.

 Francis McAllister, vice president of investor relations for BHP Billiton in
Houston, said Friday the sale of the Wyoming uranium mine does not mean the
company is trying to divest itself of its U.S. assets, which also include two
Arizona copper mines.

 “We do not view uranium as a core asset,” McAllister said. “I would say, if
anything, the operation in Wisconsin actually fits into our base metals
portfolio much better than any type of uranium operation would.”

 BHP Billiton, which acquired the Crandon site in a merger with Rio Algom Ltd.
of Toronto, is simply willing to listen to any “economically viable” offer to
buy the Wisconsin property, he said.

 “We are not sitting here today and telling you that just because these groups
have come together and have lobbied the state to potentially buy this asset
that we are going to sell it to them,” McAllister said. 
“We are not looking at coming up with a price.”

 Most of the company’s metallic mines similar to the Crandon proposal are in
Canada or Latin America, he said.

 BHP Billiton does not see the proposed Crandon mine as one its “major
top-tier assets,” McAllister said. “Would it be something that would
contribute to earnings and cash flow? Yes. Otherwise, we would not be pursuing
it.”

 About seven years ago, the mining company applied for state and federal
permits that would allow it to mine about 55 million tons of ore at the
Crandon site.

 BHP Billiton, a merger of mining companies headquartered in the United
Kingdom and Australia, has only had the mining project for two years so
executives are not getting restless with the regulatory process, McAllister
said.

 “I wouldn’t say they are getting frustrated in any way,” he said.

 State Administration Secretary George Lightbourn said last week his agency
won’t talk to the mining company about buying the property until it gets two
independent appraisals of the land, as it does with every purchase using the
state’s stewardship fund. 

Discuss this topic in our forums [http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/forums/] 
  
 [http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com

*****************************************************************
 21 UEA draws fire on toxic-waste tax
 
[deseretnews.com] 
 	
Friday, June 28, 2002
 	   	 
Tooele association attacks the union's backing of initiative

By Jennifer Toomer-Cook
Deseret News staff writer

Leaders of the Tooele Education Association are at odds with the 
statewide teachers union.

       The issue: a citizen's initiative to tax a toxic waste 
disposal facility in their school district.

       TEA president and vice president Jeff Wyatt and Bob Gowans 
are circulating a petition urging the Utah Education Association 
to stop committing union dues to "initiatives that do not 
directly benefit education" and to "refocus their agenda to 
excellence in education."

       They e-mailed the petition midweek to 20,000 Utah teachers 
via the Utah Education Network.

       "We just feel like taxation by initiative is wrong, plus 
it is targeting a major employer in our county," Wyatt said 
Thursday. "A lot of our members have asked us to do something, or 
at least jump in the fight and make our (feelings) known."

       UEA President Phyllis Sorensen said state union leaders 
would look at the petition, but at this point they stand behind 
the waste tax initiative, which would funnel a share of the tax 
money toward education statewide.

       "If Utah is taking this waste, there ought to be an 
appropriate tax on it," Sorensen told the Deseret News during a 
break from a national conference in Dallas. "It certainly will 
impact the classroom by providing more money for lower class 
sizes, textbooks and supplies, and that's exactly what our 
teachers want."

       At issue is the Radioactive Waste Restrictions Act, which 
the UEA backs as a way to collect more money for schools and the 
homeless.

       The act, proposed in a citizens' initiative, would raise 
the taxes on low-level radioactive waste from the current level 
of about 35 cents per cubic foot to up to $150 per cubic foot.

       Envirocare of Utah, located in Tooele County, is the only 
radioactive waste company in the state.

       The initiative has received more than 131,000 signatures, 
far surpassing the 77,000-signature requirement to have the issue 
placed on the November ballot. Signature tallies must equal at 
least 10 percent of registered voters in each of at least 20 
counties. In Tooele County, petitioners gathered twice that 
requirement, Sorensen said.

       But some residents have called county clerks to remove 
their names from the petition, claiming they believed they were 
opposing disposal of nuclear waste on the Skull Valley Goshute 
Indian Reservation. Envirocare employees are attempting to 
persuade more to step forward.

       Also, a bipartisan group of state legislators and the 
organization Utahns Against Unfair Taxes are suing initiative 
sponsors, including Sorensen. They claim some signatures were 
gathered illegally by non-Utah residents.

       Envirocare has said it cannot financially handle the 
proposed tax. And if it goes out of business, Tooele County 
schools would lose a chunk of money from property taxes.

       Wyatt and Gowans expressed that fear to the UEA board of 
directors before circulating the petition.

       "I hope (the UEA) will seriously look at where we're 
coming from . . . and use the dues and influence they have in 
other areas," such as working with legislators to find other 
school funding possibilities, Wyatt said. "We need to work on 
this in cooperation . . . because this (proposed act) is going to 
hurt people."

       But Sorensen said businesses in Washington and South 
Carolina also said new taxes would force them to close, and 
they're still operating. She said the new tax would have brought 
$14 million to Tooele County for economic development rather than 
the $5 million to $6 million it usually collects.

       "I understand the pressure (Wyatt and Gowans) are under 
from some members and community, but we are where we are and we 
will continue" supporting the initiative.
       
E-MAIL: jtcook@desnews.com [jtcook@desnews.com] 
	 
 © 2002 Deseret News Publishing Company 
*****************************************************************
 22 Group seeks safer nuke transport

Rocky Mountain News: Local
 		 		
By Kevin Flynn, News Staff Writer
June 28, 2002

Congress shouldn't approve storage of nuclear waste at Nevada's 
Yucca Mountain until it comes up with a safer method of 
transporting it, an environmental group said Thursday. 

The Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C., 
organization, used government models to project the effects of 
potential accidents in 20 different cities through which waste is 
to be shipped, including Denver. 

A moderately severe train accident in Denver under typical 
weather and wind conditions, the group estimated, could lead to 
620 fatal cancers for people exposed for up to a year to the 
radioactive cesium that would be dispersed across the area. 

The government anticipates 100 or more accidents over the 38 
years of shipping waste to Nevada from throughout the country. 

But a nuclear expert disputed the scenario, saying the cesium is 
contained in ceramic material and it would be impossible for it 
to disperse in a plume as sketched out in the environmental 
group's scenario. 

The U.S. Senate is to vote next month on whether to authorize use 
of the Yucca Mountain site. 

The scenario used by the environmental group involved a train 
accident on the Denver &Rio Grande Western rail corridor at West 
Bayaud Avenue. 

If the seal on the shipping cask cracks, the group claimed, "the 
isotopes of cesium would create a plume of radioactive 
particulates that would be inhaled and ingested by those downwind 
from the accident site." 

With average winds out of the south, cesium contamination would 
go as far north as Frederick in Weld County, nearly 27 miles 
north, the group estimated. Within two minutes, 50 people within 
a two-block area would be exposed to the equivalent radiation of 
more than 1,000 X-rays -- the closest people would receive a 
dosage equivalent to 50,000 X-rays. Exposure to 1.5 X-rays per 
year is considered the safe level. 

"Our concern is this material is going to move on the highways 
and railroads for 38 years, and you'd better have a good plan for 
moving it," said Richard Wiles of the Environmental Working 
Group. "It's vulnerable to accident as well as terrorist attack." 

John Graham of Denver, a former president of the American Nuclear 
Society who has worked with nuclear waste issues, said the 
group's calculations are based on assumptions that won't happen. 

Nuclear waste can be shipped safely -- it's done every day in 
Europe and is currently being shipped from the former Rocky Flats 
plant in Jefferson County to New Mexico, he said. 
  
2002 © The E.W. Scripps Co.
*****************************************************************
 23 brit Peace Fighter embarasses U$ and brit governments
 
Date: Sat, 29 Jun 2002 17:05:21 -0500 (CDT)

 
GUARDIAN (London), June 29, 2002 

Embarrassed US Blocks Case Against Peace Fighter

by Richard Norton-Taylor

Criminal charges against Britain's most dogged peace campaigner who was
accused of illegally entering a secret US base have been dropped because
the Americans did not want embarrassing evidence to emerge.

Lindis Percy, a 60-year-old health visitor, was held in custody for 11
days in March after spending over an hour inside RAF Croughton, near
Northampton. Despite its official name, it is a US air force base used for
receiving and transmitting communications from US aircraft, including
nuclear bombers. Over 300 US personnel are located at the base, according
to the Ministry of Defense.

After she was arrested by MoD police, Ms Percy was charged with aggravated
trespass. Her case was due to be heard at Northampton magistrates court
this week.

She said yesterday she was furious about the decision. She wanted to seize
the opportunity to question US witnesses about activities at the base
where a new radome "golf ball" - satellite ground relay station - is being
built. She said she also wanted to expose security lapses there.

She said she entered the base to undertake "research". She had no
intention of committing any damage.

The crown prosecution service says the charges were dropped because US
personnel refused to assert that Ms Percy had caused alarm or distress.

The case raises serious questions about the relations between US personnel
and the MoD police at what are nominally RAF, but in reality American,
bases in Britain.

The US and the MoD are increasingly embarrassed by the activities of Ms
Percy. She is prevented by injunctions from entering five US bases here,
including the large eavesdropping station at Menwith Hill, near Harrogate,
North Yorkshire, which will be used in the Bush "son of star wars" missile
Defense program.

She is threatened by the MoD with bankruptcy proceedings for failing to
pay legal costs of nearly 50,000pounds

======================

*** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material
is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest
in receiving the included information for research and educational
purposes. Feel free to distribute widely but PLEASE acknowledge the
original source. ***
*****************************************************************
 24 Russian Justice - 2002 The Pasko Case

 Gregory Pasko, an investigative journalist who worked for the 
Pacific Fleet's newspaper, was arrested on 20 November 1997 by 
the FSB and charged with high treason for his writing about the 
nuclear safety issues in the Russian Pacific Fleet.

Commentary:

-- The main thing bringing the Courts and the KGB together is the 
identity of our tasks, said the chairman of the Russian Supreme 
Court in 1967. The Pasko conviction shows that this still is very 
much the truth. 

Jon Gauslaa, 2002-06-28 14:36

June 25, 2002 was a bad day for justice and legal reforms in 
Russia. On this day the Military Collegium of the Russian Supreme 
Court confirmed the outrageous espionage conviction of journalist 
Grigory Pasko and thus, acted as the obedient servant of a 
repressive system that may have appeared to be dead, but who has 
refused to lie down. 

Alleged intention

 The Military Collegium changed the verdict of the Pacific Fleet 
Court from December 25, 2001 on some points. These changes make 
the conviction even more incomprehensible than before. While the 
verdict of the Pacific Fleet Court at least was based on a 
logical (but deceptive) description of the events, the Supreme 
Court verdict contains no such logic. 

If one believes the picture painted by the Pacific Fleet Court, 
Pasko illegally penetrated a meeting of the staff of the Pacific 
Fleet held at September 12, 1997. Here he collected secret 
information, which he intended to hand over to the Japanese 
journalist Tadashi Okano with whom he had illegal contact. This 
is a twisted version of the events, but if one looks away from 
the reality, it could describe the activity of a spy. 

The Supreme Court has, however, further deprived the conviction 
its basis by declaring that Pasko's contacts with Okano, as well 
as his presence at the staff meeting on September 12, 1997 were 
legal. In fact, his only illegal "act" was that he had the 
alleged intention to transfer the notes to Mr. Okano. 

The thoughts police

 Pasko was thus, not convicted for having accomplished a crime or 
for having attempted to do so, but only for allegedly having had 
a certain thought in his head. 

In a country ruled by law one does not enter the stage of 
committing a crime before one's thoughts have materialises 
themselves in concrete actions, for instance through an attempt 
of handing over secret information to a foreign citizen or 
through an accomplished transferral. In Russia a thought is, 
however, enough to be convicted by "the thoughts police" to serve 
four years under appalling conditions. 

This is a remnant of the repressive system that once imprisoned 
and executed millions of Russians for their "criminal" thoughts. 
In those days the Courts served the system well. Unfortunately 
this still seems to be the case. 

The days of '67

 The Court convicted Pasko on the basis of loose allegations of 
what he could have done. Its elaborations regarding Pasko's 
intentions are speculative and not based on facts, but solely on 
assumptions and on the FSB's wish to get a conviction. 

This wish was fulfilled and thus, it seems like little has 
changed since the days of 1967 when the then chairman of the 
Russian Supreme Court. Mr. A. F. Gorkhin, in a speech to the 
chairman of the KGB, Yury Andropov, honouring the KGB's 50th 
anniversary said: 

"The Soviet Courts and the KGB are of the same age. But this is 
not the main thing which brings us together; the main thing is 
the identity of our tasks …" (Quoted from Christopher Andrew and 
Vasili Mitrokhin, "The Mitrokhin Archive", Penguin Books 2000, p. 
9). 

The struggle continues

 The conviction has now reached legal force. Pasko will shortly 
be moved from his cell in Vladivostok to a labour camp somewhere 
in the Russian Far East where he will serve the rest of his 
sentence chopping wood together with some of Russia's worst 
criminals. 

Pasko's legal team will file a petition to the chairman of the 
Russian Supreme Court, Mr. Vyacheslav Lebedev, urging him to use 
his right to bring the case before the Supreme Court Presidium 
for a possible re-evaluation. There is, however, reason to 
believe that the outcome of the Military Collegium's hearing on 
June 25 was predestined. The petition to Mr. Lebedev may 
therefore well be a shot in the dark. 

Moreover, an application will be filed to the European Court on 
Human Rights in Strasbourg. But Pasko will most likely have 
served his time before the European Court will be able to hear 
his case. 

*

 Grigory Pasko was arrested on November 20, 1997 and charged with 
treason through espionage. He was acquitted of these charges by 
the Pacific Fleet Court in Vladivostok of on July 20, 1999, but 
sentenced to a three-year imprisonment for 'abuse of his official 
position although he was not charged with that crime, and 
released on a general amnesty. 

After both sides had appealed, the Military Supreme Court 
cancelled the verdict in November 2000 and sent the case back for 
a new trial at the Pacific Fleet Court. The re-trial started on 
July 11, 2001 and ended on December 25, with Pasko being 
convicted to four years of hard labour and taken into custody. 

The verdict was again appealed by both sides. On June 25, 2002 
the Military Supreme Court confirmed Pasko's four-year sentence. 
Unless the defence's petition to Mr. Lebedev should lead 
somewhere, Pasko will be released on April 25, 2004. 
  
  Publisher:  [bellona@bellona.no] , President:  
[frederic@bellona.no] Information:  [info@bellona.no] , Technical 
contact:  [webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 
Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62  * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, 
Norway
*****************************************************************
 25 G-8 Pledges $20bn to Secure Russian Weapons of Mass Destruction
 
MOSCOW - The United States and six other industrial powers 
Thursday agreed to spend up to $20 billion over the next 10 years 
to help Russia secure its enormous stockpiles of weapons of mass 
destruction in an effort to prevent dangerous materials from 
falling into the hands of terrorists.

Charles Digges, 2002-06-28 22:00

The deal announced at the Group of Eight summit in the Canadian 
resort of Kananaskis, and dubbed by leaders as "the G8 Global 
Partnership," was made possible by Russia's pledge to provide 
sweeping access to its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons 
sites — a policy coup facilitated during closed door talks 
Thursday between President Bush and Russian President Vladimir 
Putin. 

''The attacks of Sept. 11 demonstrated the terrorists are 
prepared to use any means to cause terror and inflict appalling 
casualties on innocent people,'' the G-8 leaders said in a joint 
statement. 

The leaders announced ''a new G-8 global partnership against the 
spread of weapons and materials of mass destruction.'' 

The statement also called for observance of principles of 
non-proliferation and pledged support for "specific cooperation 
projects, initially in Russia, to address non-proliferation, 
disarmament, counter-terrorism and nuclear safety issues." 

US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice described the deal, 
struck at the G8 summit in the Canadian Rockies as "a very 
important initiative, and we're delighted to get it done," 
according to Reuters. 

"So, in the area of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, 
the president's agenda was moved forward substantially," she told 
a news conference, adding that the total expenditure from the G-8 
nations would be "up to" $20 billion. How the money will be spent

 Under the non-proliferation agreement — if the full $20 billion 
is to be realized — the United States will provide $1 billion a 
year for 10 years and other industrialized nations — such as 
France, Germany, Italy, Britain, Japan and Canada - would match 
that sum in an effort to buttress Russia's crumbling weapons 
storage facilities and eliminate thousands of deadly weapons. 

These weapons include, but are not limited to: 150-200 tonnes of 
weapons-grade plutonium; 7-800 tonnes of weapons-grade uranium; 
an estimated 16,000 stored nuclear weapons, including nuclear 
land mines and shells, and some portion of Russia?s 40,000 to 
44,000 tonnes of chemical weapons — which include sarin and VX 
gas and constitute the world?s largest stockpile of chemical 
weapons. 

Russia has already asked to extend its deadline for destroying 
40,000 tons of chemical weapons from 2007 to 2012. Moscow says it 
does not have the funding to complete the job on time. 

The G-8 programme would also help dismantle aging reactors aboard 
decommissioned nuclear-powered submarines— a problem called by 
the Bellona Foundation and numerous other environmental groups "a 
Chernobyl in slow motion. The programme will also dispose of 
fissile materials and would also find work for arms scientists 
frequently cast into post-Soviet poverty. 

''Among our priority concerns are the destruction of chemical 
weapons, the dismantlement of decommissioned nuclear submarines, 
the disposition of fissile materials, and the employment of 
former weapons scientists,'' theG-8 statement said. 

The United States has spent $4 billion since 1992 helping to 
dismantle and secure nuclear and other weapons of mass 
destruction in the former Soviet Union under the Nunn-Lugar 
program, named for the senators who authored the bill, which 
later became officially known as the Pentagon-run Cooperative 
Threat Reduction Act, or CTR. . Access to nuclear sites

 The issue of access has been a crucial sticking point in ongoing 
projects under CTR. 

CTR has also been hobbled by lack of funding and limited access 
to sites that the Russian military considers too sensitive for 
foreigners. Yesterday's deal appeared to achieve two Bush 
administration goals: improved access, and greater participation 
for Russia participation among other G-8 nations. 

In April, the Bush administration said it would halt funding on 
Russian disarmament projects because of questions over Moscow's 
compliance with chemical and biological weapons treaties that 
were raised when Russia refused to provide information about its 
secretive biological research programs. According to senior 
government officials, the funding halt may have been a gambit to 
broaden access privileges to sensitive Russian sites. 

"If the results of this summit are any indication, the gamble may 
have paid off," said a US Government official in an interview 
with Bellona Web Friday. 


 Raising the funding

 Although it remained unclear exactly how the G-8 nations would 
raise their share of the money, the statement said the members 
would consider cancelling some of the old Soviet government 
debts, which the current Russian administration inherited. 

The allies had previously withered from spending such a large 
amount on Russian disarmament, citing the difficulties of 
oversight and the potential for corruption. After overnight 
negotiations, however, Russia agreed to provide its G-8 partners 
access to sites where weapons of mass destruction would be 
eliminated, such as facilities where nuclear submarines are 
dismantled, a senior US official told The Associated Press. 

Moscow also promised to provide the donor nations authority to 
audit and oversee the way the money is spent. Unconfirmed reports 
from US and European officials, speaking anonymously, have 
suggested that NATO would dole out the funding. 

But Jon Wolfsthal of the Carnegie Endowment for International 
Peace in Washington, said in an interview with Bellona Web, that 
"it?s a little too early to tell how important [programme] is." 

"The Bush administration has done a good job getting the 
Europeans, the Japanese and the Canadians to publicly commit to 
fund a program at a high level, which is something that hasn?t 
happened before," Wolfsthal said. 

He added that the Bush administration had "done its homework" to 
assure contributing G-8 nations the same kind of access and tax 
exemptions that CTR is supposed to enjoy. 

What remains to be seen, said Wolfsthal, is whether the G-8 
commitment, especially from the Europeans, will amount to "fuzzy 
math." After all, each of these countries, he said, will have to 
take this programme back to their own parliaments. 

"Are the Europeans going to count everything they?re already 
spending in terms of debt relief and environmental assistance [as 
part of their billion dollar contributions]," asked Wolfsthal, 
"or is this $1 billion in new money — and at this point it is too 
early to tell." 

Bush sought to trim CTR

 The Bush administration had sought to trim CTR programs early 
last year. But since Sept. 11, Bush has sought to keep weapons of 
mass destruction away from terrorists, as well as from Iran, Iraq 
and North Korea, which he has called an ''axis of evil'' for 
their efforts to acquire those weapons and alleged links with 
terrorist groups. 

The CTR programmes have provided security upgrades for only about 
40 percent of Russia's nuclear weapons facilities and a smaller 
percentage of biological and chemical sites, Senator Richard 
Lugar said in Moscow last month. At the present rate of funding 
it would take 27 more years before Russian weapons facilities are 
completely secure, said Lugar, an Indiana Republican, who 
launched the program with then US Senator Sam Nunn, a Democrat 
from the state of Georgia.
   
  Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] , President: 
Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no] 

Information: info@bellona.no [info@bellona.no] , Technical 
contact: webmaster@bellona.no [webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: 
+47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62  * P.O.Box 2141 
Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway
*****************************************************************
 26 Defence Minister: Russia not About to Resume Nuclear Tests

Pravda.RU 

  ¹     Jun, 29 2002   

 Having inspected nuclear testing grounds on the island of Novaya 
Zemlya, Sergei Ivanov, Russia's Defence Minister, said, 'The 
Russian Federation is not about to resume full-scale nuclear 
tests, her President and government firmly adhering to the 
country's international obligations'. 

According to the press service of the administration of the 
Arkhangelsk Region, yesterday, Russia's governmental delegation 
lead by the Defence Minister visited the country's only central 
nuclear testing grounds in Novaya Zemlya to look into the 
progress of the work done to assure the safety of storing and 
transporting nuclear weapons and to check on the degree of their 
battle readiness. 

Nuclear tests at the grounds were stopped in 1990. However, 
so-called hydrodynamic or sub-critical tests continue. These 
tests do not involve any release of atomic energy and serve to 
assure the safety and battle readiness of the arsenal. 

The Defence Minister said, at this time, there were four 
alternative projects concerning placing a nuclear waste storage 
in Novaya Zemlya. Anatoly Efremov, the Governor of the 
Arkhangelsk Region, said, 'Nothing is done in this way unless 
approved by our administration. In its turn, the administration 
does care about the living conditions of the residents of Novaya 
Zemlya'. 

© RosBalt
  
  Copyright ©1999 by "Pravda.RU [http://www.pravda.ru/] ". When 
*****************************************************************
 27 Group: Radioactive Matter Poorly Tracked

ABCNEWS.com : 

June 28, 2002   

[Radiation Scanning] 

A Georgian soldier scans for radioactive debris. (ABCNEWS.com)     

Radiation at Large? Group: Radioactive Matter Poorly Tracked; 
Thefts May Not Be Detected 

By Ned Potter

[http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/WorldNewsTonight/potter_ned_bio.html]
 
[ABCNEWS.com] 

June 29 — In the former Soviet republic of Georgia, soldiers are 
being trained to scan the countryside for radioactive debris.   

Officials say this kind of exercise is all too rare.

 The International Atomic Energy Agency says there's radioactive 
material in almost every country on earth — and nobody is keeping 
track of most of it. The agency, which was set up by the United 
Nations, said this past week that more than 100 countries have 
inadequate programs to monitor such material.

 "Ultimately it's a global problem, wherever an accident, or act 
of terrorism takes place," said Marc Gwozdecky, an IAEA 
spokesman. "We all have a stake in this problem."

 Radioactive material is used in everything from medicine to 
heavy industry. Not until Sept. 11 did a lot of people think of 
it as a potential target for terrorists.

 "We now have a wakeup call," Gwozdecky said. "And we're asking 
all countries to take a fresh look at this situation." Limited 
Resources

 Most of those countries, though, don't have the resources to 
keep track of scattered material.

 Take the example of Goiania, Brazil. In 1987, four people were 
killed and 240 were contaminated by blue powder from an abandoned 
cancer clinic. It turned out to be cesium 137. 

"There are not inspectors to look after these things," said 
Santana Fabiano, a contamination victim there, through a 
translator. "They put our lives at risk."

 But inspectors cost a lot of money, which the U.N.'s IAEA does 
not have.

 "Currently, their entire budget for safeguarding all of the 
nuclear material in the world is about the same as the budget of 
the Pittsburgh Police Department," said Matthew Bunn of Harvard 
University's Kennedy School of Government.

 The job of tracing those materials is so vast that officials 
concede some could be stolen — and they'd never know. 

 Copyright © 2002 ABCNEWS Internet Ventures. 
*****************************************************************
 28 $41b to target nuclear clean-up

<http://www.nzherald.co.nz/>

29.06.2002

CALGARY - Ironing out final wrinkles in a $41 billion deal, rich 
countries yesterday announced a plan to stop extremist groups 
acquiring nuclear arms.

The plan, agreed at the summit of the Group of Eight 
industrialised nations in the Canadian Rockies, will pay Russia 
to decommission nuclear facilities and weapons of mass 
destruction in the former Soviet Union.

Officials hope this will ease concerns that groups such as al 
Qaeda might get their hands on radioactive material.

Meeting in a secluded luxury resort, the leaders of Britain, 
Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United 
States also focused on Africa, where much of the continent is 
mired in poverty and debt and struggling to cope with an epidemic 
of HIV/Aids.

The G8 said half or more of new development assistance could go 
to Africa, provided the continent adopted strong policies and 
ensured that money did not go to waste.

"We have a deal that represents a new beginning and fresh hope 
for the African continent," said Canadian Prime Minister Jean 
Chretien, host of the meeting.

Aid groups have blasted the initiative, saying it will fall far 
short of what is needed. "They're offering peanuts to Africa, and 
repackaged peanuts at that," said Phil Twyford, Oxfam's 
international advocacy director.

On the economic front, accounting scandals at US firms such as 
WorldCom have cast a shadow over an otherwise improving world 
economy.

WorldCom, the second-largest US long-distance telecommunications 
carrier, has admitted it booked expenses improperly to boost 
profits - a $US3.9 billion ($8 billion) accounting scandal. The 
company said it would restate results for the last five quarters, 
erasing all profits from the beginning of 2001.

President George W. Bush reiterated his concern about the 
economic implications of the scandal.

"If you are a responsible citizen and you run a corporation in 
America, you must fully disclose all assets and liabilities, and 
you must treat your shareholders and employees with respect."

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Bush had shared his 
concerns about US accounting practices and the stock market at 
the summit.

"Under the circumstances of the globalised community and world, a 
lot depends on the state of the US economy these days," he said.

"And therefore, the willingness of the President to secure the 
stock market and market of the securities is very important as 
well as the notion of transparency in US business. It is a very 
good signal."

Protest outside the heavily fortified Kananaskis valley venue has 
been small and decidedly non-violent.

But noisy demonstrations have been going on all week in Calgary, 
the nearest major city about 1 1/2 hours' drive east of 
Kananaskis. The closest demonstrators got to the G8 retreat was 
to block a road about 20km away.

- REUTERS
 
©Copyright 2002, New Zealand Herald       
*****************************************************************
 29 Report says tritium plant may open late 

Augusta Georgia: Metro:

Web posted Saturday, June 29, 2002
 
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A new tritium extraction facility at the 
Savannah River Site may open later than expected and end up about 
$100 million over budget, the U.S. Energy Department's inspector 
general says.

 Gregory Friedman said in a report this week that the project's 
shortcomings "highlighted many recurring problems with the 
department's approach to major projects."

 Gov. Jim Hodges' spokesman Morton Brilliant said the report 
reinforces the governor's concerns about Energy Department 
promises to build and operate a plant to process surplus 
plutonium and ship it out of South Carolina.

 The Energy Department plans to ship 34 metric tons of surplus 
weapons-grade plutonium to SRS for storage until the agency can 
build a $3.8 billion plant to convert the plutonium into 
commercial reactor fuel.

 In a report released to the National Nuclear Security 
Administration, Friedman said an audit revealed shortcomings in 
the tritium project that could add $100 million in costs and push 
completion 10 months past the February 2006 target date.

 The report also says the facility may not contain all the 
original specifications.

 Tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen gas, is a critical 
component of thermonuclear bombs. No tritium has been made by the 
United States since 1988. The gas is currently being replenished 
in active nuclear weapons by recycling tritium from dismantled 
bombs.

 The new $401 million facility would restore the nation's ability 
to make tritium.

 The inspector general said "preconstruction planning was often 
inadequate and ineffective, and project baselines were 
established too early in the design stage to be reliable."

 Individual cost overruns included $17 million for modifications 
from construction issues and $7 million for a furnace design that 
didn't work, the report said.
 
[http://augusta.com] . 			
    
*****************************************************************

NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this 
material is distributed without profit or payment to those who 
have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for 
non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more 
information go to: 
<http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml> 
    
*****************************************************************