***************************************************************** 12/29/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.337 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 NKorea - US turns up heat 2 US bids to defuse N-scare 3 LDP bill could cut cash to North 4 US warns N Korea of economic squeeze 5 *N. Korea to feel heat on N-plant* 6 Intense secrecy surrounds North Korea's reactor 7 NK: INTO THE DARK AGES* 8 [NK EDITORIALS] Send an envoy now* 9 N Korea rejects US threats 10 North Korea defies UN nuclear order 11 North Korea Frustrates White House 12 FM spokesman: China hopes to ease tension on DPRK nuclear issue 13 IAEA Inspectors Starting to Interview Iraqi Scientists 14 IAEA Inspectors to leave North Korea - 15 How should the U.S. deal with the nasty North? 16 Gulf buildup on, no arms find - 17 U.S. Seeks to Pressure N. Korea on Nukes 18 Inspectors Hope Iraq List Aids Searches NUCLEAR REACTORS 19 US: Davis-Besse workers' repair job hardest yet 20 Russia, Iran to expand nuclear cooperation despite US pressure 21 US: Vermont Yankee emergency alert system to be reviewed 22 Intense secrecy surrounds North Korea's reactor NUCLEAR SAFETY 23 U.S. Navy to Renew Vieques Bombings 24 Taiwan: Doctor fears latent cases of radiation-related illness 25 NUKE PLANS STOLEN FROM UK* 26 BBC NEWS | Europe | Ukraine police seize radioactive trees 27 Authorities ban radioactive Christmas trees in Ukraine. 28 Mexico: Six ill after radioactive coffee NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 29 US: Goshute Nuclear Waste Repository: Un-American or Very American? 30 US: Critics: Utah neglecting radioactive waste site* NUCLEAR WEAPONS 31 US: MINOT AIR FORCE BASE: Pilots remember U-2 spy planes 32 Son of Pakistani scientist says bin Laden sought nuclear bomb 33 US: Weapon of the Week: The Burrowing Nuke 34 Secret nuclear cities of world's pariah state US DEPT. OF ENERGY 35 Repackaging, cleanup programs among top projects at Pantex 36 DOE will act on two front-burner issues OTHER NUCLEAR 37 2002 IN REVIEW ACCORDING TO DAVE BARRY 38 White House budget office thwarts EPA warning on asbestos-laced insu ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 NKorea - US turns up heat News24 South Africa 29/12/2002 15:36 - (SA) Judy Lee and Adam Entous Seoul/Crawford, Texas - North Korea vowed on Sunday it would not buckle under pressure as the United States threatened to impose sanctions and block missile shipments to force the communist state to abandon its nuclear arms programme. US officials said on Saturday that Washington would look to North Korea's neighbours and allies, and to the United Nations, to intensify pressure on Pyongyang. The US military and its allies could block North Korean missile shipments as part of a broader effort to curb weapons proliferation, and to deny cash-strapped Pyongyang revenues from its arm sales, they said. One official called it a "tailored containment" strategy. "The imperialist reactionaries are seriously mistaken if they think they would bring the Korean people to their knees with pressure," Pyongyang's state-owned KCNA news agency said on Sunday, quoting an editorial in the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper. But the editorial added that the government was keen to settle the crisis in a peaceful way. It did not elaborate. On Saturday, 10 000 people turned out in a state-sponsored protest in Pyongyang to denounce Washington over its hardline policy on the North's steps to revive a nuclear programme that might have already produced one or two atomic bombs. North Korea has ordered inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to leave, the latest escalation of a crisis analysts say is aimed at goading Washington and its allies into giving food and energy aid for the starving nation of 22 million. The United States, keen to keep its focus on Iraq, told North Korea it wanted a peaceful end to the crisis on the world's last Cold War frontier, but would not negotiate under duress. Pyongyang wants direct talks with Washington. "This is a country in defiance of its international obligations," said IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei in a statement, after the watchdog agency said its inspectors would quit North Korea on New Year's Eve. "It sets a dangerous precedent for the integrity of the non-proliferation regime." UN sanctions Besides the interdiction of shipments, the United Nations, with US backing, may threaten to impose sanctions if the secretive, army-backed regime takes further steps to re-start a nuclear power plant that could be used to produce weapons-grade plutonium, US officials said. "If they don't turn it around, this is where we're going to end up. Nobody wants this to happen. But the North Koreans aren't giving anybody much to work with," one official said. "Our strategy is to stick together and to step up pressure," the official added. "The North Koreans are isolating themselves." The Bush administration is pushing for the UN Security Council to take up the issue by January 12. South Korea, whose president and president-elect favour the "sunshine policy" of aid and dialogue in dealing with the North, said it would discuss strategy with the United States and Japan in January. A foreign ministry statement said Seoul would also "seek close co-operation with China, Russia and the European Union". North Korea announced last week it was firing up a reprocessing laboratory that could convert spent fuel into the plutonium needed for making nuclear bombs, and had begun moving fresh fuel rods to the five-megawatt research reactor in Yongbyon, about 88km north of Pyongyang. North Korea told the IAEA its inspectors must leave as a 1994 agreement, under which it was given fuel oil in exchange for compliance on non-proliferation, had broken down. The United States and its allies cut off the oil after North Korea told a visiting US official in October that it had a covert nuclear programme. The Bush administration has labelled North Korea a member of an "axis of evil" with Iran and Iraq. Isolated since the end of the Cold War, North Korea has suffered economic collapse and food shortages that have killed two million people and left about a third of its people dependent on foreign food aid. Force not an option In Crawford, Texas, where Bush is spending a 10-day New Year's vacation at his ranch, the White House said the use of force on the Korean Peninsula was not under consideration. In Pyongyang, KCNA said the official rally "called on all the Koreans to turn out in the sacred anti-US resistance to drive the US imperialist aggressors out of South Korea, and resolutely frustrate the nuclear racket of the US aimed to bring clouds of war to hang over the Korean nation". KCNA said the Pyongyang rally expressed "support and solidarity" with South Koreans who have escalated anti-US protests after a court martial acquitted two US soldiers after their military vehicle crushed to death two schoolgirls during a training exercise in June. In Seoul on Saturday, hundreds of South Koreans scuffled with police as they tried to hold a candlelight vigil for the girls near the US Embassy. Organisers of the anti-US protests say they plan to rally one million people in central Seoul on New Year's Eve to demand that President George W Bush make a direct apology to the country over the accident. Bush has issued several apologies, including a statement of sorrow to President Kim Dae-jung in a telephone call this month. About News24 - all rights reserved ***************************************************************** 2 US bids to defuse N-scare The Australian: [December 30, 2002] news.com.au network Source: AP By Jonathan D. Salant in Washington US Secretary of State Colin Powell has stressed America is still "looking for ways to communicate with the North Koreans" amid the growing nuclear crisis. But, even as he pushed for a diplomatic answer, he warned Washington would do nothing to help Pyongyang unless it changed its behavior. Making the rounds of US Sunday talk shows, Powell said the United States had emphasised the need to peacefully reverse North Korea's decision to restart its weapons program and expel UN inspectors monitoring its main nuclear complex. But he said: "We cannot suddenly say, 'Gee we're so scared. Let's have a negotiation because we want to appease your misbehaviour.' This kind of action cannot be rewarded." He told NBC's Meet the Press: "We are looking for ways to communicate with the North Koreans so some sense can prevail." Powell seemed to present a subtle change in the administration's tone by holding out the prospect for talks and stressing that military action was not being contemplated. "There are ways for them to talk to us. We know how to get in touch with them," he said on CNN's Late Edition. A senior White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Powell was not referring to face-to-face talks, but to diplomatic channels open to North Korea, such as South Korea and the United Nations. President George W. Bush has prohibited negotiations with Kim Jong Il's government while North Korea's nuclear program is active. Powell announced that Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly would go to South Korea next month to talk to US allies - but not North Korea "at this time". North Korean officials have, for their part, urged the United States to sit down with them to negotiate. "It is quite self-evident that dialogue is impossible without sitting face to face and a peaceful settlement of the issue would be unthinkable without dialogue," said a government spokesman quoted on KCNA, the North's state-run news agency. The problem, Powell said, was that North Korea was seeking concessions in exchange for ending its nuclear weapons program. "What they want is not a discussion," Powell said on ABC's This Week. "They want us to give them something for them to stop the bad behaviour. What we can't do is enter into a negotiation right away where we are appeasing them." Several lawmakers, though, urged the United States to open talks with the North Koreans. "We ought to be confident enough of our strength - and we are, after all, the strongest nation in the world - to go right back to direct negotiations with them," said Senate Armed Services Committee member Joseph Lieberman on CBS' Face the Nation. "And I'd put the military option on the table as part of those negotiations." Incoming Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Richard Lugar said there eventually would be discussions, although they may not be face-to-face talks between Washington and Pyongyang. "I suspect that there are going to be negotiations," Lugar said on NBC. "They may not be directly between the United States and North Korea. It could very well be through the Chinese, through the South Koreans, through the Japanese, through a combination of multilateral international community." Democrats argued that the Bush administration deserved part of the blame for the crisis. Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the president was wrong to have cut off talks with North Korea when he took office. "We should not be afraid to talk," Levin said on ABC. "We're not going to negotiate giving them anything for doing what they already promised to do, but they should hear from our lips how significant their missteps have been. We're not going to appease them but there's nothing wrong with talking to them." Powell, however, said North Korea had restarted its nuclear weapons program during the Clinton administration, and the United States learned about it last October. "This program was not started during the Bush administration; it was started during the previous administration," he said on ABC. "We inherited this problem." In all of his appearances, Powell argued against depicting the North Korean issue as a crisis, saying the United States was not gearing up for war and there was plenty of time to find a diplomatic solution. "We have no hostile intent toward North Korea, and we hope they will come to their senses," he said on ABC. On CBS he added: "Nobody is mobilising armies, nobody's threatening each other yet." One possible diplomatic route is through the United Nations. The International Atomic Energy Agency has scheduled a January 6 meeting where the board of governors and could refer the matter to the UN Security Council. In the meantime, Powell said, North Korea was only hurting itself. "This is a country that's in desperate condition," Powell said. "What are they going to do with another two or three more nuclear weapons when they're starving, when they have no energy, when they have no economy that's functioning?" © The Australian ***************************************************************** 3 LDP bill could cut cash to North Daily Yomiuri On-Line Yomiuri Shimbun The Liberal Democratic Party will likely submit to the next regular Diet session in January a bill designed to allow the government to impose economic sanctions, such as banning remittances, to North Korea at its discretion, it was learned Sunday. The planned LDP-sponsored bill would call for revisions to the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Control Law, LDP sources said. The pillar of the bill will be to authorize the government to restrict economic transactions, such as monetary exchanges and trade, between Japan and North Korea for reasons of national security, they said. The existing law stipulates strict conditions for the government to enact restrictions on international economic transactions, on the principle of free trade. Any restrictions on remittances overseas and capital transactions, trade and the provision of services to foreign businesses are permitted only when such restrictions are necessary for the government: -- To execute a treaty or international accord to which the nation is a signatory. -- To make contributions to international peace. The LDP-sponsored bill would impose a third condition: that there be cause for concern in terms of national security, the sources said. Under existing law, the government has to verify whether proposals for government-imposed restrictions on international economic transactions are in line with such international frameworks as a U.N. resolution. If the planned bill is enacted, the government will be able to plan and execute such economic sanctions against any nation at its discretion, regardless of the existence of such an international framework, the sources said. At present, the government apparently has no immediate intention of imposing economic sanctions on North Korea, such as banning remittances. However, the sources said, a growing number of government and ruling coalition members have recently called for legislative actions that would authorize the government to impose economic sanctions at its initiative. This is because they fear that North Korea, which has lately taken a hard-line stance toward the world over its nuclear development program, may threaten Japanese security. Copyright 2002 The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 4 US warns N Korea of economic squeeze BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Sunday, 29 December, 2002, [Anti-North Korea protesters in Seoul] Tensions are rising across the region The Bush administration is threatening North Korea with economic collapse if the communist state continues with its nuclear programme. In a process it defines as "tailored containment", the US says it will call on North Korea's neighbours and allies to cut economic ties with the country. It says it will also urge the UN to impose sanctions - calling for the organisation to discuss the matter on 12 January. The UN's nuclear watchdog on Saturday declared North Korea to be in "complete defiance" of its international obligations, after Pyongyang ordered the expulsion of its nuclear observers. Mohamed El Baradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told the BBC he was making arrangements for the two inspectors to leave by Tuesday. Arms sales intercepts North Korea is in the midst of an escalating dispute with the United States, sparked by its alleged admission that it was resuming a nuclear programme, and retaliatory fuel sanctions by Washington. CRISIS CHRONOLOGY [1992 photo of the Yongbyon reactor] 16 Oct: N Korea acknowledges secret nuclear programme, US announces 14 Nov: Fuel shipments to N Korea halted 12 Dec: N Korea threatens to reactivate Yongbyon plant 22 Dec: N Korea removes monitoring devices at Yongbyon reactor 26 Dec: UN says 1,000 fuel rods have been moved to the plant 27 Dec: N Korea says it will expel UN nuclear inspectors Timeline of tensions US officials say they will ask Japan, South Korea, China and Russia to isolate the North economically. The US has also raised the possibility of using its warships to intercept any North Korean arms shipments to reduce the country's income from arms sales. A senior envoy from the United States is expected in Seoul within the next two weeks to co-ordinate Washington's policy towards the North with South Korea and Japan. South Korea also plans to send envoys to two of the North's allies - Russia and China - "at the earliest possible date" in an attempt to persuade them to intervene. BBC correspondent Tom Carver says that the White House is anxious not to be viewed as trying to strong arm North Korea's neighbours, and is instead hoping that they might decide to take these kind of steps on their own if the situation deteriorates any further. He also says that putting economic and financial pressure on the country is the only real option the US has, as a military operation would not be a viable option at present. 'Complete defiance' On Friday, Pyongyang sent a letter to the IAEA demanding the withdrawal of observers, and announced it was reopening a nuclear reprocessing plant. "They are setting a very bad precedent," said Dr El Baradei. "They are now in complete defiance of their international obligations." "That will produce the plutonium that could be directly used in manufacturing nuclear weapons." Although North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1993, a year later it struck a deal with the US to freeze its nuclear programme and give access to IAEA monitors in exchange for fuel and aid. Pyongyang has now renounced this deal - possibly, observers suggest, to pressure the US into signing a non-aggression pact and into stumping up more aid. However, Washington has made clear that it will not start any negotiations until the new programme has been stopped. Pyongyang insists however it needs the Yongbyon plant to produce electricity after the US stopped aid shipments of fuel oil. NORTH KOREA NUCLEAR PROGRAMME Yongbyon: Five-megawatt experimental nuclear power reactor and partially completed plutonium extraction facility. Activities at site frozen under 1994 Agreed Framework Taechon: 200-MWt nuclear power reactor - construction halted under Agreed Framework Pyongyang: Laboratory-scale "hot cells" that may have been used to extract small quantities of plutonium Kumho: Two 1,000-MWt light water reactors being built under Agreed Framework Analysis: North Korea's nuclear progress © MMII | News Sources | Privacy ***************************************************************** 5 *N. Korea to feel heat on N-plant* deseretnews.com Sunday, December 29, 2002 *By Michael R. Gordon* New York Times News Service WASHINGTON ? The Bush administration has prepared a comprehensive plan to intensify financial and political pressure on North Korea if it does not abandon its effort to make nuclear weapons, with the ultimate aim of confronting the nation with the prospect of economic collapse, according to senior administration officials. Under the new policy, neighbors would be encouraged to reduce economic ties with North Korea; the U.N. Security Council could threaten economic sanctions, and the American military might intercept missile shipments to deprive the North of money from weapon sales. As the White House was deciding how to best deal with North Korea, the U.N. nuclear watchdog announced Saturday it was pulling its inspectors out of North Korea by New Year's Eve, a step demanded by the North that will leave the world without an eye into the secretive nation's nuclear program. Also Saturday, in an attempt to stave off the escalating tensions, South Korea said it would appeal to China and Russia ? North Korea's longtime allies ? to pressure the North to back down. Administration officials said the threat of growing isolation is the best way to force North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions and, if it refuses, to bring down the regime. Officials say that under their plan, which they call "tailored containment," they are willing to negotiate with Pyongyang, but only if it first dismantles its nuclear weapons program. To offer new incentives, officials say, would be giving in to blackmail and would reward the North Korean regime for failing to live up to earlier commitments. "It is called 'tailored containment' because this is an entirely different situation than Iraq or Iran," a senior administration official said. "It is a lot about political stress and putting economic stress. It also requires maximum multinational cooperation." In the meantime, the situation has worsened, and the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Saturday that it would withdraw two inspectors by Tuesday at the request of North Korea, which it said was acting in defiance of international obligations. Some experts say the Bush administration's tough stance may have prompted the North Koreans to expand their nuclear weapons program and that Washington's containment policy lacks a vital element: an open diplomatic channel with North Korea. "I think the Bush administration's tough rhetoric and tough policies toward North Korea have unnerved the North Koreans and perhaps led them to conclude that the only way for them to ensure security is to confront the world with a fait accompli by rapidly acquiring a substantial nuclear arsenal," said Robert Einhorn, a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who led negotiations with the North Koreans during the Clinton administration. The Bush administration's new containment policy, Einhorn asserted, "is a gamble that the North Korean regime will collapse before it acquires a substantial nuclear arsenal that threatens the stability of East Asia." He added: "It's also a gamble that our relationship with our South Korean ally can survive a lengthy period of isolating and pressuring North Korea. Engaging North Korea has its downsides, but those must be weighed against the risks of not engaging." There are important consequences. By reprocessing the spent fuel from the Yongbyon reactor, North Korea could acquire about five bombs' worth of plutonium in six months, or perhaps less, according to administration officials and experts outside government. Restarting the Yongbyon reactor, as the North Koreans also seem intent on doing, would enable the country to churn out enough plutonium to build a bomb a year. The eventual construction of a cascade network for enriching uranium would give North Korea yet another means of expanding its nuclear arsenal. The system could be finished about the middle of the decade and seems intended to produce enough fissile material for two bombs a year, according to the CIA. North Korea has long been one of the most vexing foreign policy problems. The Clinton administration was faced with a similar crisis in the early 1990s when the nation removed the fuel from its research reactor at Yongbyon and indicated it might reprocess the spent fuel to produce bomb-grade plutonium. The Clinton administration developed plans for a pre-emptive military strike on North Korea's reprocessing plant before it managed to reach an accommodation with Pyongyang. Under the deal, North Korea agreed to freeze and ultimately eliminate its nuclear program. In return, Washington promised a multinational effort to ship heavy fuel oil to North Korea and to build two light-water nuclear reactors, which could provide North Korea with electricity but which Clinton administration officials said would be less useful in producing bomb-grade material. In its final year, the Clinton administration tried to negotiate an agreement that would have required North Korea to give up its long-range missiles and end its missile exports, but Clinton's term ended before the agreement could be completed. Later, North Korean diplomats indicated that they wanted to continue the negotiations with the incoming Bush administration. But Bush administration officials were far more skeptical of North Korea's intentions. As the South Koreans expressed concern that Washington's approach would increase tensions on the Korean peninsula, the Bush administration insisted it was prepared to begin talks with Pyongyang anytime and anywhere. At the same time, President Bush declared that he considered North Korea to be part of an "axis of evil" that included Iraq and Iran, a stance that surprised the North Koreans and fueled worries in the South that Washington was taking a position that was confrontational. Earlier this year as administration officials prepared for their first diplomatic mission to North Korea, they fleshed out their negotiating strategy in a gesture they called the "bold approach." The long-term goal of the Bush strategy was the political and economic transformation of North Korea. Under that approach, the Bush administration would ask North Korea to forswear efforts to make weapons of mass destruction. The administration also wanted North Korea to reform its dismal record on human rights and to begin to withdrawing conventional forces that are deployed near the demilitarized zone with South Korea and which threatened Seoul. Washington never spelled out what it was prepared to give in return, but U.S. officials suggested it could have included economic investment and diplomatic recognition. "The notion was that they were headed toward a dead end, that the only way out was to forgo weapons of mass destruction, change their economy and improve human rights," a U.S. official said. "The point was to transform the process of transforming their country and the U.S. would respond at each step of the way." But before the political dialogue began American intelligence received fresh evidence that North Korea had begun a clandestine program to enrich uranium to make nuclear arms. In essence, North Korea had circumvented the agreement it made with the Clinton administration to freeze its plutonium production by moving to develop a new source of fissile material. In October, James Kelly, the senior State Department official for Asia, arrived in Pyongyang for what the North Koreans thought would be the first diplomatic opening. Kelly told the North Koreans that Washington had no intention of invading North Korea but had concerns about Pyongyang's record on human rights and its conventional military buildup. Kelly also indicated that North Korea would have to dismantle its uranium enrichment program before serious talks could continue. The two days of meetings did not go well. Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Kwan suggested that North Korea had no need for the "bold approach" and that the people and the army loved Kim Jong Il, North Korea's leader. First Deputy Foreign Minister Kang Sok Ju said that North Korea was entitled to have nuclear weapons. He said that the North Koreans needed a nonaggression pact with the United States and that critical issues should be settled at a summit meeting. Back in Washington, the Bush administration hammered out its newest policy. The delivery of fuel oil was halted. Officials said the plan to build light-water reactors could be scrapped. Other steps to increase the "stress" on North Korea's economy were planned, including having North Korea's actions referred to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose economic sanctions. But the North Koreans did not relent. Instead of agreeing to dismantle their nuclear program, they announced that they would restart the Yongbyon reactor, expel inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, remove monitoring equipment and reopen the factory that reprocesses plutonium. Experts have offered various theories about North Korea's motivations. Some say the North Koreans want to negotiate with Washington from a position of strength. Others speculate that Pyongyang has concluded that it is unlikely to extract substantial concessions from the Bush administration, has watched the United States make invasion plans for Iraq and has concluded that its security is best safeguarded by possessing a potent nuclear arsenal. There is also considerable debate about the wisdom of the Bush administration's strategy. "Tailored containment was constructed to enable us to move in a number of different directions," a senior administration official said. "The main objective at the moment is to get them to give up their nuclear weapons program. If they don't, we can work with allies to increase their isolation. No one anticipates that North Korea will collapse right away. But we won't do anything to prop them up and we let the internal forces continue to work away." Senior Bush administration officials also say they would be giving in to blackmail by offering new incentives and that North Korea's clandestine efforts to produce highly enriched uranium demonstrates that the Clinton negotiating approach does not work. China has not pressed the North Koreans as hard as Washington would like and is unlikely to support economic sanctions. South Korea's new president, for his part, has come to office on a platform that called for increased interaction with North Korea, not increased isolation. Critics say that there is no substitute for direct negotiations by the United States or at least the willingness to offer some incentives, such as a formal declaration that United States has no hostile intent toward North Korea. "The Bush administration is calculating that the North Koreans will eventually back down," said Joel Wit, a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former State Department specialist on North Korea. "The administration needs to come up with a coherent approach that combines tough measures with dialogue." /Contributing: Associated Press./ © 2002 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 6 Intense secrecy surrounds North Korea's reactor December 29, 2002 North Korea has declared that it will expel International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors from its Yeongbyeon nuclear site and reactivate its mothballed nuclear reprocessing facility there, putting the entire peninsula on emergency alert. Seoul called an emergency security meeting in preparation, it said, to exert all-out diplomatic pressure. And yet both Pyeongyang and Washington show no sign of wanting to resolve the situation through dialogue. North Korea says it will defend its independence and survival and the United States is making clear that it will not negotiate with Pyeongyang about broken promises. Furthermore, Washington is planning "tailored containment," a comprehensive strategy to increase the financial and political pressure on the North. If this situation continues, an armed clash could erupt. North Korea has already announced that it would reactivate its five-megawatt reactor and reprocess spent fuel rods. The United States' plan to isolate the North is probably based on the assumption that it will take at least months for the North to produce weapons-grade plutonium. South Koreans, who have paid little attention to the nuclear issue so far, now see a crisis loom. International financial markets are jittery over the possibility of a nuclear crisis on the peninsula. The impact on the Korean economy is growing as time goes by. Not only our national security but also our economy is hostage to the North's nuclear threat. Under this circumstance, South Korea must be able to convey its own and the international community's concerns directly to the North Korean leader. If it does not do so, it will make public the limits of its engagement policy. Seoul must take the initiative by dispatching a special envoy to Pyeongyang. North Korea must realize that calling the reopening of the reactor an attempt to generate electricity will not be accepted anywhere, least of all here. North Korea has pushed the situation too far for it to defend both its independence and its survival. Without giving up too much of its independence, it can ensure its survival; North Korean authorities must meet with a South Korean envoy to discuss future moves. That will save our sunshine policy and the North's regime. ¨Ï 2002 JoongAng Ilbo , Joins.com . All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 9 N Korea rejects US threats BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Sunday, 29 December, 2002 [Children pin notes to a mural of Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang ] The US hopes threats will bring Kim Jong-il back in line North Korea has declared it will not give in to threats from the Bush administration that it faces economic isolation unless it abandons its nuclear programme. It is the consistent stand of the government to settle the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula in a peaceful way Rodong Sinmum Official party newspaper In a process it defined as "tailored containment", the United States said it would call on North Korea's neighbours and allies to cut economic ties, and would urge the United Nations to impose sanctions. Bowing to US pressure would bring "humiliation, death, subordination and slavery", said Rodong Sinmum, the newspaper of North Korea's ruling party. The daily insisted Pyongyang wanted a peaceful solution to the crisis, but said confrontation with the US was "inevitable, as long as they do not abandon the aggressive and predatory nature". The dispute with the US was sparked by North Korea's alleged admission in October that it was resuming a nuclear programme, to which Washington responded with fuel sanctions. 'Complete defiance' Pyongyang has since announced that it is reactivating the controversial Yongbyon reactor and a nuclear reprocessing plant, and has ordered the expulsion of the UN's nuclear observers. CRISIS CHRONOLOGY [1992 photo of the Yongbyon reactor] 16 Oct: N Korea acknowledges secret nuclear programme, US announces 14 Nov: Fuel shipments to N Korea halted 12 Dec: N Korea threatens to reactivate Yongbyon plant 22 Dec: N Korea removes monitoring devices at Yongbyon reactor 26 Dec: UN says 1,000 fuel rods have been moved to the plant 27 Dec: N Korea says it will expel UN nuclear inspectors Timeline of tensions The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Saturday declared North Korea to be in "complete defiance" of its international obligations Its two monitors are to leave by Tuesday. Following Pyongyang's latest moves, US officials said they would ask Japan, South Korea, China and Russia to isolate the country economically, and called for the UN to discuss the matter on 12 January. A senior envoy from the United States is expected in Seoul within the next two weeks to co-ordinate Washington's policy towards the North with South Korea and Japan. South Korea also plans to send envoys to two of the North's allies - Russia and China - "at the earliest possible date" in an attempt to persuade them to intervene. The US has in addition raised the possibility of using its warships to intercept any North Korean weapons shipments to reduce the country's income from arms sales. The BBC's Washington correspondent Tom Carver says that exerting economic and financial pressure is the only option open to the US at present, as military action has been ruled out for the time being. He says the White House is hoping North Korea's neighbours will take similar steps if the situation deteriorates further. Deal rejected Pyongyang insists it has had to re-open the Yongbyon plant in order to meet its electricity needs after the US halted aid shipments of fuel oil. Although North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1993, a year later it struck a deal with the US to freeze its nuclear programme and give access to IAEA monitors in exchange for fuel and aid. Observers suggest that Pyongyang has abandoned this deal in order to put pressure on the US to sign a non-aggression pact and to increase aid. Washington has made it clear it will not open negotiations until the new programme has been stopped. © MMII | News Sources | Privacy ***************************************************************** 10 North Korea defies UN nuclear order Sunday Herald White House paralysed by twin crises By James Cusick Westminster Editor The United Nations and United States last night appeared to be incapable of deciding how to halt or even confront North Korea's push to add to its nuclear arsenal. As UN nuclear weapons inspectors prepare to leave North Korea on Tuesday, after Kim Jong-il's government ordered their expulsion, the International Atomic Energy Agency declared North Korea to be 'in complete defiance' of its international obligations. Washington, occupied by the continuing build-up to war with Iraq, is now facing up to the possibility of a conflict on two fronts. A White House spokesman said yesterday that the actions of the North Koreans 'were a challenge to all responsible nations'. Although US nuclear analysts have told President George Bush and his advisers that North Korea's decision to reactivate its nuclear reprocessing facilities will lead to the production of weapons-grade plutonium used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons -- possibly within two months -- Washington appears frozen on what course of action it should take against a nation named in Bush's 'axis of evil'. The expected diplomatic route for the crisis is for it to be taken immediately to the UN Security Council. However, US officials fear the Security Council is already a body uneasy with the way Washington has driven through its hard-line policy on dealing with Iraq. One Foreign Office source in London said: 'There is possibly the feeling that they will not be able to have their way with both crises. Therefore another route must be found.' An outbreak of shuttle diplomacy, expected to be carried out by the US assistant secretary of state, James Kelly, in the next few weeks will involve missions to South Korea, China, Japan and Russia. The aim is to persuade these and other nations that North Korea is a danger, not just to the USA, but to peace throughout the world. But the contradictions in the US administration's foreign policy are now glaring. Yesterday, while the White House was engaged in a war of words against North Korea -- calling on Jong-il to 'reverse' his current course, but dismissing any military solution -- Bush was using his new year message vowing to prosecute war on Iraq with 'patience, focus and determination'. Before the end of January the UN weapons inspectors' report to the Security Council is expected to trigger a formal declaration of war against Saddam Hussein. Bush said the US would confront the danger of 'catastrophic violence' posed by Iraq. He said Iraq, in almost the same tone as his officials are now using in regards to North Korea, was a danger to its neighbours and to world peace. But while the noises-off remain military, the UN's diplomatic strategy is being adhered to. Yesterday, as part of the complicated jigsaw of UN resolution 1441, Iraq delivered a list to UN officials, naming more than 500 scientists who have worked on nuclear, chemical, biological and missile programmes. The inspectors in Iraq can now identify and take scientists out of Iraq, with their consent, to interview them on the country's weapons regime. Technicians and engineers have already been questioned and key sites searched. One metallurgist, Kazem Mojbal, who works for the state-run al-Raya company, was supposed to have told UN officials details about an unidentified Iraqi military programme. But, Mojbal said yesterday that the UN's account of what he had said was nonsense. He said: 'I explained to them that I have nothing to do with the previous nuclear programme or any other prohibited projected.' The denial is a public relations disaster for the UN authorities, and yesterday the Iraqis tried to take full advantage of both the alleged misinformation and indeed the tough and threatening language of President Bush. An Iraqi newspaper, al-Qa'qaa, said: 'Whoever dares to strike Iraq and its people will pay a high price.' The high price, however, is likely to fall on the Iraqi people themselves regardless of the sophistication of the US and UK militaries. Yesterday the political unease about who will be paying the high price was expressed by the Cabinet minister Clare Short, who said war with Iraq cannot be justified if it causes 'devastating suffering'. Short, the international development secretary, has already expressed her concern over Britain joining in the now expected conflict. Inside senior Labour ranks Short, along with Robin Cook, has been a constant anti-war voice. She repeated her unease saying 'an all-out war that caused devastating suffering to the people of Iraq would be wrong'. Washington is now putting the finishing touches to the diplomatic map that will be the backdrop to war in Iraq. Yesterday it emerged that the US and its key ally Turkey had agreed an 'aid package', thought to be in the region of $28billion (£18bn) if Turkish news reports are accurate. Turkey's support is strategically crucial. It was used as a staging point for air raids during the 1991 Gulf war. Kuwait, another key US ally, tested its readiness to cope with a chemical weapons attack in the largest civil defence exercise ever staged in its capital, Kuwait City. ©2002 smg sunday newspapers ltd. no.176088. all rights ***************************************************************** 11 North Korea Frustrates White House Las Vegas SUN: December 28, 2002 By BARRY SCHWEID ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - Frustrated by North Korea's relentless march toward building new nuclear weapons, top Bush administration officials are pondering ways - short of force - to compel Pyongyang to change course. One would be to drive home the point to South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and other countries that North Korea is at odds with the world, not just the United States. That message is likely to be reinforced in a probable trip to the region by Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, who already had been considering a visit to Seoul for talks with the new South Korean government. The administration also is quietly encouraging the U.N. monitoring agency, whose inspectors were expelled by North Korea, to take the crisis to the Security Council. U.S. officials said they were not campaigning for the move overtly because they fear backlash from allies already dubious about Bush's use of the United Nations to pursue a tough line against Iraq's Saddam Hussein. Administration rhetoric is taking an increasingly higher pitch but has failed to deter North Korea from steps that U.S. analysts fear could result within months in production of new atomic weapons on top of the one or two weapons Pyongyang is believed to already have. While President Bush settled into a weeklong stay at his Texas ranch, Secretary of State Colin Powell and other top administration officials met Friday at the White House to consider how to fine-tune a U.S. policy that is mostly rhetorical. Meanwhile, North Korea expelled U.N. inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency and announced in a flash of renewed defiance that it would reopen a laboratory for the production of plutonium. Bush has ordered a no-compromise policy that would require North Korea to halt its nuclear weapons program before the administration would consider talking with Pyongyang or improving a shattered relationship. White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters in Crawford, Texas, where Bush was vacationing, "North Korea's actions are a challenge to all responsible nations." "We call on the regime in North Korea to reverse its current course," he said. There was no indication of that Saturday. The IAEA inspectors said even after the order to leave had come down that they were staying, but in Vienna, Austria, agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said Saturday the three inspectors would leave by Tuesday. Administration officials speaking privately had said Friday they were pleased that the U.N. inspectors were not leaving, and they were hoping for similar resolve from Asian leaders. At the same time, the White House was careful to say again that military action against North Korea was not being contemplated. "We seek a peaceful resolution," spokesman McClellan said. "I think for now we need to let the discussions happen with our friends and allies about the next steps that we take." Congressional doubts that the administration was dealing creatively with the nuclear threat, exacerbated by the expulsion of the inspectors, was voiced by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who plans to challenge Bush for re-election. "What happened in North Korea today is predictable and totally anticipated based on this administration's complete avoidance of a responsible approach to North Korea in over a year and a half," Kerry said. On taking office, Bush ordered a reassessment of the Clinton administration's policy that had produced a freeze on a North Korean nuclear program in exchange for energy supplies. In July 2001, Bush offered Pyongyang a comprehensive dialogue. But last summer, the administration concluded North Korea had started a uranium enrichment program. In October, Kelly went to Pyongyang with the message that North Korea must suspend its nuclear program before serious talks could start. The message was ignored, but North Korea acknowledged that it had a program. Normally, economic pressures are available to an administration seeking leverage against another country. But trade with North Korea is minuscule, and the reclusive regime in Pyongyang has been largely impervious to pressure so long as the United States refuses to sign a nonaggression pact. Powell said this month that signing such a pact would reward North Korea for bad behavior. He held out the prospect of better relations if the nuclear program were halted. On the Net: CIA's North Korea page: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/kn.html All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 12 FM spokesman: China hopes to ease tension on DPRK nuclear issue english.eastday.com China hoped the current tension related to the nuclear issue of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) could be eased through dialogue so as to maintain peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Saturday. Spokesman Liu Jianchao, when asked to comment on the current situation of the DPRK nuclear issue, said China was deeply concerned with the current development of the issue. China considered the 1994 Agreed Framework was conducive to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, he said, adding that all parties concerned shouldered the responsibility to maintain and abide by the agreement, Liu said. Xinhua News Copyright (C) 2000 www.eastday.com. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 13 IAEA Inspectors Starting to Interview Iraqi Scientists Media Advisory 2002/70 - 27 December 2002 [www.iaea.org] Update on Iraq Inspections UNMOVIC IAEA Press Statement on Inspection Activities in Iraq. 27 December 2002 -- An UNMOVIC biological team inspected the Modern Chemical Industries in Hay Babil, Baghdad. This is a private company that produces industrial alcohol, medicinal-grade alcohol, arak, whiskey and gin from dates. The company is a declared and previously monitored site due to the presence of dual-use equipment. The site was closed for Christmas holiday but access was granted to the offices, production areas and a laboratory where keys were available and the team wanted to inspect. An UNMOVIC chemical team inspected the Al Nasser Al Athim (Al Adheem) State Company, a facility for heavy engineering, located at Dawra district of Baghdad. The purpose of this inspection was to continue re-baselining. Although it was a Friday inspection, access to the facility as well as all the buildings designated for inspection was granted. An UNMOVIC team of missile inspectors also went to the Al Nasser Al Athim (Al Adheem) State Company for inspection. The company undertakes a wide range of metal working for both civilian and military purposes. Some members of the team held discussions with site personnel, while some others inspected buildings on the site. The IAEA continued its programme of interviewing key Iraqi scientists. Today's subject was a metallurgist from a high visibility state company. He provided technical details of a military programme. This programme has attracted considerable attention as a possible prelude to a clandestine nuclear programme. The answers will be of great use in completing the IAEA assessment. There will be a press briefing at the Canal Hotel tomorrow, Saturday, 28 December, at 6:00 p.m. Hiro Ueki, Spokesman for UNMOVIC and the IAEA in Baghdad ***************************************************************** 14 IAEA Inspectors to leave North Korea - IAEA Press Release 02/27 PR 2002/27 (28 December 2002) Vienna, 28 December, 2002 - IAEA inspectors in Nyongbyon, DPRK, are making arrangements to leave the country. This is in response to DPRK officials confirming directly to the inspectors that they should leave the country immediately and that the DPRK has decided not to respond to the IAEA Director General's letter urging them to allow inspectors to remain at the Nyongbyon nuclear site. The inspectors are scheduled to depart the DPRK on 31 December. "This is a country in defiance of its international obligations," Dr. ElBaradei said, "It sets a dangerous precedent for the integrity of the non-proliferation regime." Contact: Melissa Fleming, Tel: (+43 1) 2600-21275, e-mail: M.Fleming@iaea.org, Mobile: (+43 ) 664-325-7376. ***************************************************************** 15 How should the U.S. deal with the nasty North? Editorial: Korean conundrum / December 29, 2002 What passes for international dialogue with North Korea became more shrill in the past few days as that country's acts prickled with potential threats to peace. At least two questions present themselves. First, does something have to be done in response? Second, if so, what approach is right: talk to the North Koreans and give them something, or smack them? The question of what is the appropriate next step with North Korea depends in part on one's analysis of what the problem there is. When Albania's bizarre government expired in the late 1980s, North Korea climbed to the top of the heap in the contest for strangest and most incomprehensible government in the world. Unfortunately, North Korea is also heavily armed and its arsenal includes long-range missiles and a nascent nuclear capacity. Otherwise, South Korea and the world could deal with its conventional military capacity by putting in place the strongest possible defenses on the border, and the United States could deliver a quiet but credible hair-raising threat to make Pyongyang disappear if it fired off something serious at someone. The trouble is that no one -- probably even the South Koreans, though they have the best chance -- can make much sense of North Korea's leaders. America's ambivalent policy toward North Korea over the past eight years, although ostensibly in harmony with the South Koreans' own "they are depraved because they are deprived" approach, hasn't really helped the situation. In 1994, the United States promised to send oil to help North Korea meet its energy needs and to help it build tame nuclear reactors if it stopped running the reactor that produced the raw material for nuclear weapons. But construction on the promised, more socially acceptable reactors didn't start in fact until 2002, eight years after the agreement. Now the United States has cut off the oil because North Korea owned up to the fact that it hadn't put its nuclear weapons program on ice as it had promised. Bad faith rewarded by bad faith resulted in a potentially dangerous confrontation. No one should imagine that North Korea hasn't chosen its moment carefully. It knows full well that the Bush administration is currently busy preparing for a war with Iraq. Virtually everyone agrees that the United States is not and probably never was capable of waging two major regional wars at the same time, in spite of heavy Pentagon breathing on that subject over the years. North Korea is desperately poor. Dealing with that should, in principle, be its driving motivation. It probably is its driving motivation. And so, that is probably the most solid basis for proceeding in dealing with the country. That is certainly the approach of choice of South Korea's leadership. A new president was just elected on such a platform. Return evil with good. Look the other way when the North Koreans lie down on the floor, kick their legs and turn blue. That is difficult to do when they are waving nuclear weapons as they erupt. But figure that the South Koreans, Japanese, Chinese and Russians probably know more about the situation and dangers in that region than Washington does. The South Koreans live cheek by jowl with them, and the North Koreans could reach all four with their missiles. What the United States should do is send a serious emissary, with no publicity, to tell the North Koreans that the oil deliveries will resume, and construction of the safe nuclear reactors will resume in earnest, when they turn the bad reactor back off. And no one will say anything publicly. A senior American emissary will stay in Pyongyang to help keep the volume down. That approach makes sense in the Korean and Southwest Asian contexts. It also enables the United States to address the evolving Iraq question with nerves less jangled by North Korean threats of mayhem. Copyright ©1997-2002 PG Publishing Co., Inc. All Rights ***************************************************************** 16 Gulf buildup on, no arms find - theage.com.au Sunday 29 December 2002, 14:30PM As a massive US military buildup continued in the Gulf, UN weapons inspectors in their second month in Iraq conceded they had found no evidence of the weapons of mass destruction Washington and Britain claim exist. A spokesman for the inspectors said Baghdad, in keeping with a UN mandate, had turned over the names of some 500 scientists who had worked on military projects. There was meanwhile speculation that North Korea's escalation of its nuclear program was timed to coincide with the Iraqi crisis, to force a preoccupied United States back to the negotiating table. US President George W Bush is to send an envoy to Seoul for talks with South Korean president-elect Roh Moo-Hyun, a senior Roh aide said. The US and its allies suspended shipments to punish the energy-starved state for its perceived renewed drive to build nuclear arms. However, experts say Pyongyang is more interested in pushing ahead with nuclear brinkmanship to force the United States to negotiate at a time when it is preoccupied with Iraq. North Korea wants aid and recognition to guarantee the survival of its bankrupt communist regime, according to experts in Seoul. Paik Hak-Soon of the private Sejong Institute said Pyongyang was "cutting the salami very thinly" to ramp up pressure on Washington to force it to begin dialogue. "If the United States continues with its current game of chicken, the North would have no other choice but to go along the road to developing nuclear bombs," he said. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), also involved in Iraqi weapons inspections, was locked in a dispute with North Korea over Pyongyang's expulsion of IAEA monitors and reactivation of a nuclear program it had agreed to shelve. ©2002 AFP Copyright © 2002 The Age Company Ltd advertise| contact us ***************************************************************** 17 U.S. Seeks to Pressure N. Korea on Nukes Las Vegas SUN: December 29, 2002 By JONATHAN D. SALANT ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration is prepared to dramatically intensify economic pressure on North Korea through Asian allies and the United Nations unless Pyongyang stops its nuclear weapons programs, U.S. officials said. The strategy hinges on the belief of U.S. officials that North Korea's neighbors, thus far unwilling to crack down on the communist regime, will grow impatient and nervous if the situation worsens. After several days of escalating tensions, President Bush's advisers are pondering ways to confront North Korea with the prospect of economic collapse if it continues to seek new atomic weapons on top of the one or two Kim Jong Il's government is believed already to have. Neither that ultimate goal nor the tactics themselves are dramatically different from the administration's approach since the fall. But administration officials, eager to show they're responding to North Korea's defiance, are recasting their approach with an emphasis on the economic impact of U.S. actions. If North Korea does not change course, the administration could find it necessary to encourage neighboring countries to reduce economic ties with Pyongyang, officials said Saturday on condition of anonymity. They said the administration is even considering asking South Korea to break all ties to the North if the situation does not improve. After discussing the tentative plans Saturday, administration officials tried to soften the impact later in the day out of concern the Asian allies might feel they were being manipulated by the United States. They emphasized in the subsequent interviews that it may well be that if North Korea continues to defy the international community, U.S. pressure won't be needed to spur the allies into action because they will want to crack down on North Korea on their own. Officials said Secretary of State Colin Powell planned to announce Sunday that Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly will visit the region in early January to sound out the countries involved and encourage a united front. Lawmakers urged the administration Saturday to form a united front with North Korea's neighbors to pressure Pyongyang. The administration is also quietly encouraging the U.N. monitoring agency to take the crisis to the Security Council, where economic sanctions could be threatened. U.S. officials said they were not campaigning for the move overtly because they fear backlash from allies already dubious about Bush's use of the U.N. to pursue a tough line against Iraq's Saddam Hussein. Anyway, the officials said, some of the toughest talk on the situation already is coming from South Korea's new president, Roh Moo-hyun. The U.S. policy reassessment came after North Korea announced in a flash of defiance Friday that it would expel U.N. nuclear inspectors and reopen a laboratory for the production of plutonium. White House officials are trying to paint the dispute as North Korea versus the world, rather than Washington versus Pyongyang. Toward that end, the administration does not plan to respond to every development, declining comment Saturday when the U.N. agency said it would leave North Korea on Tuesday. As part of President Bush's policy, dubbed "tailored containment," the U.S. military might intercept missile shipments to deprive North Korea of money from weapons sales. The U.S. intercepted a shipment bound for Yemen recently, but let it continue after Yemen assured the administration it was a legitimate sale. Rep. Jim Leach, chairman of the House International Relations subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific, said in an interview Saturday that the United States needed to intensify talks with nations surrounding North Korea in formulating a response to Pyongyang's announcement Friday. "Part of the whole North Korean equation is keeping policy consistent with China, Russia and Mongolia, as well as with South Korea and Japan," said Leach, R-Iowa. "Any policy toward North Korea could have tremendous implications for South Korea." Leach's comments were echoed by another Republican on the House International Relations Committee, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. King said North Korea is surrounded by strong nations who could help isolate the regime. "Economic and diplomatic pressure can work," King said. "It's up to us diplomatically to put pressure on (North Korea) to convince them that they have more at stake than we do." Some Democrats have said the Bush administration deserves some blame for the current crisis. When he took office, Bush ordered a reassessment of Clinton administration policy that had traded energy supplies for a freeze on North Korea's nuclear program. AP White House Correspondent Ron Fournier contributed to this story from Crawford, Texas, where Bush is vacationing. On the Net: House International Relations Committee: http://www.house.gov/international(underscore)relations All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 18 Inspectors Hope Iraq List Aids Searches Las Vegas SUN: December 29, 2002 By NADIA ABOU EL MAGD ASSOCIATED PRESS BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.N. inspectors spent three hours at the Iraqi customs department Sunday, one of the more unusual stops in their hunt for signs Iraq has hidden nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. A day earlier, in response to a key U.N. demand, Iraq gave the inspectors a list of more than 500 scientists. U.N. weapons sleuths hope that the list, written in Arabic, will open more avenues to learning more about Iraq's suspected weapons of mass destruction programs. Since starting work in Iraq on Nov. 27, the inspectors have visited a variety of sites, from al-Tuwaitha, Iraq's major nuclear research center, to a factory Iraq says produces baby milk but that the United States claimed made biological weapons. The inspectors have even explored one of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's palaces. Experts say Iraq has gone to great lengths to hide its weapons of mass destruction, secreting programs in civilian areas and turning civilian materials to military uses. A search of customs department records could help inspectors determine what Iraq has imported that might help it develop banned weapons. As usual, the inspectors left the customs department without speaking to reporters. Also Sunday, the inspectors visited a state-owned electronics factory and an engineering firm. Meanwhile Sunday, an electrical short circuit meant Iraqis were allowed into a place usually off-limits - the inspectors' headquarters. An Iraqi civil defense official, who refused to give his name, said the short circuit was in the computer room and there was no fire. Three Iraqi fire engines and a police car raced to the hotel converted into offices and living quarters for the inspectors on the outskirts of Baghdad. Iraqi firefighters left the hotel carrying scorched papers and small pieces of twisted metal. Security has been tight at the three-story Canal Hotel. Cleaning and maintenance crews from Cyprus, where the inspectors have a rear base, were flown in to ensure Iraqi access to the building would be minimal. The building was swept for electronic listening devices before the inspectors moved in. While strenuously denying it possesses arms of mass destruction, Iraq has so far complied with most Security Council requirements, including allowing the inspectors in and giving them access to sites, delivering a declaration on the state of its weapons programs, and handing over Saturday's list of 500 scientists. Under the world body's tough new sanctions regime, U.N. inspectors are allowed to speak to Iraqi scientists in private and even take them outside the country for interviews - requirements Washington hopes will prompt scientists to reveal hidden arms programs. Inspectors have been speaking to engineers and experts at sites they have searched and have reported two formal interviews with Iraqi scientists, both on nuclear programs. Both scientists told reporters they wanted to be interviewed with Iraqi officials in attendance and were. Iraqi officials have said they don't think it's necessary for scientists to be taken out of the country but will allow it if a scientist consents. If Iraq convinces inspectors it is not hiding weapons of mass destruction, it might avoid a U.S. strike. But inspectors have said Iraq's weapons declaration is wanting, and America has dismissed it as a lie. Thousands of U.S. troops, two aircraft carrier battle groups and scores of combat aircraft have received orders since Christmas to ready themselves to head to the Gulf region in January and February in preparation for a possible war to rid Iraq of Saddam and any banned weapons, American defense officials said Friday. In Washington Saturday, Pentagon officials said Saudi Arabia has privately assured U.S. officials they could launch air support missions from Saudi bases in the event of a war with Iraq and could coordinate the air war from a central command post near the Saudi capital. Saudi Arabia is a long-standing American ally. Publicly, Saudi officials have been noncommittal about allowing their territory to be used as a staging area, apparently fearful of increasing anger among Arabs in the region who have portrayed a possible U.S. strike on Iraq as part of an anti-Arab and anti-Muslim campaign. Arab leaders are fearful a U.S.-Iraq war would ignite their volatile region. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 19 Davis-Besse workers' repair job hardest yet The Plain Dealer 12/29/02 John Mangels and John Funk Plain Dealer Reporters For more than two years, the radiation detectors at the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant insistently signaled that something was wrong inside the hulking gray bunker that houses the reactor. The plant's response to those repeated warnings signaled something as well. The twin monitors constantly sniff the muggy air inside the containment building, searching for signs that the reactor's vital coolant might be leaking. And from 1999 to 2001, the detectors' air filters - which normally require monthly changing - were clogging as often as every day with a fine yellow-brown dust. Consultants identified it as coolant residue and rusting metal, likely carried aloft by steam. Although they suspected a coolant leak somewhere, Davis-Besse personnel couldn't find one. Instead of pursuing its cause, they moved the monitors' intakes to a different spot. They even bypassed one of the devices' three sensors because it kept triggering alarms. To experts like Mario Bonaca, a top adviser to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Davis-Besse detectors weren't just registering a leaking, rusting reactor lid, but a corroded attitude toward safety, too. "Those were almost daily events," the nuclear industry veteran fumed at a recent meeting. "Didn't somebody scratch their head and say, Why are we overriding these indications?' " No one did, not the FirstEnergy Corp. managers of the Toledo-area reactor, not the NRC inspectors who were based there, not the analysts for the nuclear industry who gave the plant a clean bill of health. Despite years of obvious signs, the widespread breakdown at Davis-Besse of the "nuclear safety culture" escaped everyone's notice. "There clearly were some issues with safety culture at that plant that had not been recognized by us, and not recognized by the top-most management of FirstEnergy," said NRC Chairman Richard Meserve. As he told an industry group in November, "the Davis-Besse episode presents the fundamental question as to whether the NRC's approach to assuring an adequate safety culture is sufficient." Until now, the agency's inspections and rules have focused on hardware and procedures. The NRC has shied away from directly regulating the fuzzier concept of an appropriate safety mindset at the nation's 103 commercial nuclear plants - influenced, in part, by the industry's position that such attention would be meddling in management affairs. But the shock waves from Davis-Besse have given new urgency to the safety culture debate inside White Flint, the NRC's fortress-like Rockville, Md., headquarters. Some members of the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, an influential panel of scientists and engineers that counsels Meserve and the four other NRC commissioners, have recently voiced concerns about a possible gap in safety culture regulation. The group will make recommendations this spring. Meanwhile, the NRC must tackle the more immediate problem of making certain that something it does not yet know how to measure has been restored at Davis-Besse - before the idled plant is allowed to restart. High stakes Plumbing an organization's culture sounds better suited for a Harvard MBA thesis than for America's nuclear overseers. But the relative priority that workers and managers give to safety-mindedness is perhaps nowhere more important than at a nuclear plant, where an accident can affect millions of people. "If it's an industry with catastrophic potential, any lapses are magnified," said Yale University sociologist Charles Perrow, author of "Normal Accidents," a book examining technological risk. With their immense complexity and domino-chain processes, nuclear plants have a built-in propensity for accidents, Perrow argues. So the organizational sins that might only result in a bad burger or a burned finger at McDonald's - sloppy work, poor supervision, ignored warnings, unnecessary risk-taking - have profoundly greater consequences at a place like Davis-Besse. The nuclear industry's opposition to formal regulation of the safety culture doesn't mean it thinks the concept is unimportant - quite the opposite. A confidential report in September by the industry's research arm, the Institute for Nuclear Power Operations, analyzed the 20 most significant "near misses" in American nuclear history. (Davis-Besse made the list twice, for its reactor lid hole in 2002 and a 1985 incident in which coolant pump failures brought the reactor's radioactive fuel rods to within two hours of melting.) The study found that the most commonly reported cause - named in 14 of the 20 mishaps - was plant personnel lacking "an appreciation of the risks associated with their actions" and taking "a non-conservative approach toward reactor safety." The term nuclear safety culture was introduced after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. Pinning down exactly what it means has proved elusive. "I think if you were to talk with five different people about what safety culture is, you'd probably get five different answers," Meserve said in a recent interview with The Plain Dealer. George Apostolakis, a respected Massachusetts Institute of Technology nuclear engineering professor who chairs the NRC's safety advisory panel, goes further. "We really don't understand what an adequate safety culture is and how to measure it," Apostolakis said. "Some of my colleagues with long experience at nuclear plants tell me they walk into a facility, and 10 minutes later they know whether they have a good safety culture. But they can't tell me why." Safety before profit The general consensus is that the safety culture is a blend of attitude, behavior and values: a commitment to excellence; a questioning outlook; personal accountability; a willingness to raise or listen to safety concerns and fix them; a belief from the boardroom down to the broom-pushers that safety comes before everything, including profits. David Collins, an engineering analyst at Connecticut's Millstone nuclear power station who studies safety culture, likens it to the moral and ethical code that guides doctors: "An attitude that ensures the [nuclear] technology first does no harm." How do you measure an attitude, though? The NRC historically has avoided much work in the area, to the great frustration of people like Apostolakis, the agency's top safety adviser. "For the last 20 to 25 years," he said, "this agency has started research projects on organizational-managerial issues that were abruptly and rudely stopped because, if you do that, the argument goes, regulations follow. So we don't understand these issues because we never really studied them." Instead, the agency has staked its confidence on the ability of its routine equipment inspections and program reviews to act as an indirect barometer of safety culture. If its inspectors find a backlog of maintenance work, the NRC's thinking goes, or repeated failures by engineers to get to the bottom of a stuck valve, that should trigger alarms about an appropriate safety attitude and prompt greater agency scrutiny. Going any further to impose specific safety culture requirements, the nuclear industry has argued, would force a cookie-cutter approach on plants that are as different as the Southerners or Rust Belt natives who populate them, robbing managers of the flexibility to achieve safety in the way that works best for their employees. A government regulation might also undercut the notion that nuclear plants themselves have the primary responsibility for safety. Troubling events at the Millstone plant in the 1990s raised questions about utilities' commitment to safety culture and the NRC's capacity to catch its decline. Amidst equipment failures, internal warnings of a "cultural problem" and several dozen claims that workers were penalized for bringing up safety issues, the three-reactor complex landed on the NRC's "watch list" of problem plants in 1996. The plant's owner, Northeast Utilities, shut it down for repairs and other operations. After Time Magazine exposed Millstone's flaws, the agency ordered Northeast to prove it had a comprehensive plan to ensure that workers who aired safety concerns wouldn't face retaliation before it could restart the reactors. In essence, the NRC demanded that Millstone establish an aspect of safety culture, without saying how to do it. "Fortunately, Millstone was able to get the right people in there and work with management, with all the consultants we had, to come up with some kind of definition of safety culture," said Paul Blanch, an engineer and former Northeast whistleblower who was brought back to help address the problems. The two-year effort required replacing about 40 managers and developing programs to re-educate those who remained on how to handle safety complaints and employee concerns. Workers and bosses had to learn to communicate and rebuild shattered trust. "There were dramatic examples of people changing," but progress was halting and fragile, said MIT management professor John Carroll, who has studied the Millstone case. The lengthy shutdown cost Northeast more than $1 billion; in 1998 the utility decided for economic reasons that only two of Millstone's three reactors would return to service. The Davis-Besse shock The Millstone debacle was supposed to have heightened the nuclear industry's awareness of the safety culture issue. The NRC also believed that its new approach to monitoring the nuclear fleet, launched in 2000, would be a more sensitive, less subjective indicator of how well reactors were operating. While the revamped Reactor Oversight Program still didn't directly rate plants' safety culture - or workers' ability to report safety concerns - the refocused inspections were supposed to be able to detect problems in those areas in plenty of time to avert a crisis. Which is why Davis-Besse came as such a shock to regulators and the industry: Until the day the hole in the reactor lid was found in March, the plant got uniformly high marks from the NRC's inspections and, reportedly, the confidential ones done by the Institute for Nuclear Power Operations that deal even more directly with safety culture. "It's a major failure of the system, in my view," Apostolakis said. Even before the Davis-Besse event, the NRC was warming to the idea of requiring that all reactor operators put in place safety-conscious work environment programs to ensure employees' freedom to raise concerns. Senior agency officials have recommended such a rule, and the commissioners will take up the matter soon. But a broader regulation mandating that plants have - and that the NRC verify - an adequate safety culture is much less likely any time soon. NRC rulemaking is typically a years-long process. And the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's powerful lobbying arm, would oppose safety culture-related regulations because it believes that current rules are adequate, that new ones would be subjective and that Davis-Besse was a unique event, not a fleetwide problem. "The NRC is excellent at regulating hardware. It's very difficult to regulate mindset," said Ellen Ginsberg," the industry group's deputy general counsel. While that may be true, Meserve insists that the NRC is "not taking anything off the table" in its consideration of safety culture options. "I can't tell you that we should change the way we do things," he said. "If we were to find tools" to measure a plant's culture objectively, "I think a lot of concerns of regulation in that area would diminish." Do they care? One such tool may spring from the advice that a legendary football coach offers leaders. Lou Holtz suggests that whether a business succeeds depends on how the boss measures up to these employee questions: "Can I trust you? Do you care about me? Are you committed to excellence?" Collins, the Millstone analyst, realized from his experiences during the plant's recovery that workers' feelings about managers are a strong meter of the organization's culture. With input from MIT's Carroll, he fashioned a survey based on those themes. He and others believe that it can pinpoint trouble spots where leadership - and by extension, safety culture - have slipped. Collins, who already has done a test run of the survey at Millstone, suggests that the survey could be done at least yearly, with the NRC reviewing summary results. If employee confidence fell below a certain level, the agency and utility could discuss remedies, with a time period for improvement before the NRC stepped up enforcement. In short, a measuring tool. Davis-Besse has undertaken its own employee surveys since the shutdown. Though not based on Collins' model, they are one of the indicators that the NRC panel overseeing the plant's rehabilitation will use to judge its readiness to resume operating. Most are based on how well workers and managers perform while under the NRC's magnifying glass. "That's the only way the NRC can make a (safety culture) determination - looking at decisions and whether they're made conservatively," said Andrew Kadak, an MIT nuclear engineering professor and former nuclear CEO. "I don't know how to measure safety culture," said the NRC panel's chair, Jack Grobe, who's been through several restarts of troubled plants. Nonetheless, he is confident there are reliable proxies. An important one is the reports that workers file alerting their bosses to equipment problems or conditions needing attention. "That's the guy in the field, having an itch," Grobe said. "How he writes it down, how the company responds to that, how they identify corrective actions and follow through - that is one key indicator." Davis-Besse's response to the discovery several months ago of evidence that the bottom of the reactor - in addition to the lid - might also be leaking is another telling sign, Grobe said. Chemical tests of rust on the vessel's base couldn't rule out that it came from bottom leaks rather than from running down from the lid. Instead of waiting for the NRC to tell it what to do, FirstEnergy on its own proposed a much more extensive test. To Grobe, that was a watershed of sorts, a hint that Davis-Besse's wilted safety culture might be reviving. "It's very clear to me that the people in the plant (now) feel very comfortable raising difficult issues, in a very direct way." But the recovery, which has already cost FirstEnergy nearly $400 million, will be long and difficult, warns Millstone veteran Blanch. "We really objectively did not observe significant improvement for more than two years," he said. "And it was a monumental effort." For complete Davis-Besse coverage, go to www.cleveland.com/davisbesse/ To reach these Plain Dealer reporters: jmangels@plaind.com, 216-999-4842 jfunk@plaind.com, 216-999-4138 © 2002 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission. ***************************************************************** 20 Russia, Iran to expand nuclear cooperation despite US pressure Daily Times /By Vladimir Radyuhin / MOSCOW: Ignoring strong protests from Washington, Russia has moved to expand its nuclear cooperation with Iran, which could upgrade relations between Moscow and Teheran to the level of strategic partnership. During a high-profile four-day visit to Iran this week the Russian Atomic Energy Minister, Alexander Rumyantsev, agreed to speed up the construction of a $1,000-megawatt nuclear reactor in Bushehr, to supply nuclear fuel for the power plant and to consider building more reactors. Mr Rumyantsev said Russia was ?extremely keen? to take part in Iran?s programme of building six more 1,000-mw nuclear reactors. He also stated that Moscow had ?no differences? with Teheran over the latter?s nuclear energy programme, which the US said could help Iran acquire nuclear weapons. Russia?s decision to expand nuclear cooperation with Iran comes in the midst of a mounting US crusade against the ?axis of evil? countries, which include Iraq, Iran and North Korea. Earlier this month the US made a last-minute attempt to derail the Bushehr nuclear project by publishing satellite pictures of what Washington said were two facilities under construction in Iran to produce fissile material for nuclear weapons. The move was specifically aimed at stopping Russia from supplying uranium fuel for the Bushehr power plant, which theoretically can be reprocessed in weapon-grade uranium. ?Clearly a country that acquires 90 tons of nuclear fuel, even if this is peaceful material, far from the weapon-grade quality, dramatically increases its political weight,? the Izvestia daily said, commenting on the undercurrent motives of Washington?s concerns. The Russian Atomic Energy Minister, Mr Rumyantsev, described the US concerns as ?groundless.? For one thing, Iran?s nuclear programme is under close supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Secondly, Iran has agreed to return all spent fuel back to Russia. ?Nuclear fuel will be supplied in keeping with international accords and under IAEA control,? Mr Rumyantsev said. Russia has been steadily expanding ties with Iran since the milestone visit of the Iranian President, Mohammed Khatami, to Moscow in March 2001. The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, agreed to resume defence supplies to Iran that were suspended in 1995 due to American pressure and approved a 10-year plan to upgrade economic links with Iran in nuclear and conventional energy, hydrocarbons, aircraft building, communications and metal industry. If implemented these plans will make Iran Russia?s third strategic partner in Asia after India and China. An intriguing aspect of Russia?s growing nuclear cooperation with Iran is that it is unlikely to spoil Moscow?s new partnership with Washington in the global war on terror. In the post-11/9 dispensation Russia has proved to be a valuable enough ally of the US to feel free to pursue its strategic interests without provoking a crisis in relations with the world?s only superpower. ?The Hindu Daily Times - All Rights Reserved Site developed and hosted by WorldCALL Internet Solutions ***************************************************************** 21 Vermont Yankee emergency alert system to be reviewed The Times Argus Online - December 29, 2002 By SUSAN SMALLHEER Southern Vermont Bureau BRATTLEBORO — The state will review its emergency alert policy for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, including whether the National Weather Service should continue to broadcast that alert. Concerns about the procedure for alerting the public to safety problems at the site surfaced after a false alarm last week rattled residents. Vermont Yankee is believed to be the only nuclear plant in the country that uses weather radios to inform the public of plant emergencies, and is the only one that uses the National Weather Service to broadcast alarms. Howard Rice, director of Vermont Emergency Management, said Friday that his office would meet next week with officials from the National Weather Service in Albany, N.Y., to discuss Thursday’s false alarm. A forecaster for the National Weather Service mistakenly sent out a high-level alert Thursday to several thousand Windham County residents with weather alert radios, notifying them that there was an emergency at Vermont Yankee and urging them to tune in to their local radio station for directions. It was a false alarm. A forecaster had clicked on the wrong icon on his computer screen. Rice said he was expecting a full report from the National Weather Service in Albany in the near future. He said a member of his staff would travel to Albany next week to review the changes the Weather Service put in place after Thursday’s false alarm. “I want to make sure that it doesn’t have a chance of ever happening again,” Rice said with emphasis. “I want to be able to say, ‘We were there, we saw the fix.’” Rice, who has been emergency management director for only a few months, said he had talked with Gov. Howard Dean about the Yankee problem and that the governor was very concerned. Dean couldn’t be reached for comment. Vermont Yankee has used a combination of the weather alert radios and public sirens to notify residents in the 10-mile emergency planning zone of any problem at the Vernon nuclear reactor since the Three Mile Island accident. Most people in downtown Brattleboro, for instance, don’t have the weather alert radios because they are within earshot of the siren system. Rice said that as far as he knew, Vermont Emergency Management followed the correct protocol in responding to the emergency about the false alarm. William Sherman, the state nuclear engineer with the Public Service Department, said he, too, was concerned about the false alarm. “It’s not good when false signals go out, obviously,” he said. “I want to understand how it happened.” Sherman said he was on vacation Thursday when Yankee contacted him and notified him of the problem. A spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Friday that false alarms are not an unusual thing for nuclear reactors. Neil A. Sheehan said the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania had a false alarm from its emergency siren system two weeks ago. Sheehan also said that as far as he knew, Vermont Yankee was the only plant that had the weather alert radios as part of its emergency notification system. He said a nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania’s Beaver Valley uses personal home-alerting devices in addition to sirens. The plant got into trouble with the NRC earlier this year because the home alerting devices had not been adequately maintained and tested. Sheehan said the NRC determined the problem was of “white” or moderate safety significance, although at first it had been classified as “yellow,” the same finding Vermont Yankee received last year when it failed a mock terrorist drill. Sheehan said the NRC was concerned about Thursday’s false alarm, but noted that Vermont Yankee had notified the NRC of the problem. “We regulate the utility, not the National Weather Service,” he said. “We’ll keep on top of it.” Robert Williams, spokesman for Vermont Yankee, said the radios have been used for about 20 years, since the federal government reviewed emergency alert systems after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. He said that Yankee had purchased 4,500 of the weather alert radios over the years. The radios are free to the public at either the town clerk’s office or the office of emergency planning. The current model purchased by Yankee is made by Radio Shack and costs about $30, Williams said. But nuclear power critics said the alert system showed that there was inadequate planning for a real emergency. Ray Shadis of the New England Coalition said that Vermont Emergency Management was consistently downplaying the seriousness of potential problems at Yankee. “Every one seems to have a laid-back approach,” he said. He said the five-minute delay between the alert and the broadcast over local radio station WTSA, which is part of the emergency alert system, was a serious problem. “Five minutes can be precious,” he said. He called for testing of the radios, to determine whether they are effective for reaching people and telling them of a problem. Contact Susan Smallheer at susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com. Vermont Today and Vermont New Media are products of the and Barre-Montpelier . ***************************************************************** 22 Intense secrecy surrounds North Korea's reactor TheStar.com - Dec. 28, 2002. 07:14 PM Yongbyon complex forms the heart of regime's nuclear weapons development SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - The site has hundreds of buildings clustered around a bend of North Korea's meandering Nine Dragons River. No foreign media have visited the area, and the two lone U.N. nuclear inspectors who have monitored it are about to be expelled. The Yongbyon Nuclear Center, the focus of an escalating confrontation between North Korea and the United States, is one of the most guarded places in one of the world's most isolated countries. North Korea says the complex 50 miles north of Pyongyang was built to generate badly needed electricity. U.S. officials say the site is a nuclear weapons facility with a peaceful cover, and a tool of nuclear blackmail. On Friday, North Korea ordered the inspectors from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency to leave the country immediately, after saying it will reactivate its nuclear program that was mothballed under a 1994 deal with the United States. It removed United Nations seals and disrupted surveillance cameras at Yongbyon earlier this week. After its protest was ignored by North Korea, the IAEA decided Saturday to pull out the inspectors by New Year's Eve. "These recent actions by North Korea are designed not to produce electricity, but to advance North Korea's weapons - nuclear weapons capability," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. Nuclear activity began at Yongbyon in 1965 when the former Soviet Union helped build a tiny research reactor there. Russian and U.S. satellite photographs show the site since has grown steadily into a 10-square-mile complex. Besides the first reactor, the site now includes a 5-megawatt reactor and an unfinished 50-megawatt reactor, facilities for fuel manufacture and waste storage, and a radiochemical laboratory that can reprocess spent fuel rods to extract plutonium, a material used to build bombs. U.S. intelligence officials say the site is crisscrossed by underground passages and dotted with waste sites and concealed facilities. Under the 1994 deal, North Korea promised to open its undeclared facilities at Yongbyon to inspectors - but not until Washington and its allies deliver key components of two 1,000-megawatt light-water reactors they promised under the deal. Washington also promised to provide fuel oil. North Korea says it reprocessed only 86 spent uranium-alloy fuel rods to produce 62 grams of plutonium. It also took out 8,000 spent fuel rods from its 5-megawatt reactor and kept them in a cooling pond to prevent corrosion. If North Korea expels the two U.N. inspectors, it would deprive the IAEA of its last way to monitor activities at Yongbyon. Those 8,000 spent fuel rods could yield enough plutonium for several bombs within months. North Korea says it will restart the 192-yard-long laboratory to store spent fuel rods from reactors. It plans to resume construction on the unfinished 50-megawatt reactor and a 200-megawatt reactor west of Yongbyon. About 300 yards from the lab is a facility called Building 500. U.N. experts believe the basement of the building is connected to the reprocessing lab through pipes and tunnels, and stores uranium sludge and other waste, whose inspection is key to determine how much plutonium North Korea is hiding. When U.N. inspectors visited Yongbyon in 1992, they were told the building under military control had no basement and was "a workshop for military vehicles.'' Then-North Korean Minister of Atomic Energy Choe Han Gun said opening a military object to outsiders "might jeopardize the supreme interests" of North Korea. Legal Notice:- Copyright 1996-2002. Toronto Star Newspapers ***************************************************************** 23 U.S. Navy to Renew Vieques Bombings Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2002 03:56:48 -0600 (CST) U.S. Navy to Renew Vieques Bombings Published on Saturday, December 28, 2002 by the Associated Press by Katy Daigle SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- The U.S. Navy informed Puerto Rico's government Friday that a new round of bombing exercises could start as soon as Jan. 13 on the outlying island of Vieques. The Navy said in its letter to the U.S. territory's government that it would conduct the maneuvers for up to one month. Previous military exercises involved ship-to-shore shelling and aerial bombing. Gov. Sila Calderon, who opposes the training, sent a letter to President Bush on Friday calling the plan "patently offensive." Demonstrators routinely break onto Navy lands to thwart the exercises, saying the maneuvers harm the environment and health of Vieques' 9,100 residents. The Navy denies that claim. Bush has pledged the Navy will leave Vieques by May 2003. Calderon and dozens of U.S. congressional representatives have urged Bush to put his promise in writing, as concerns mount that the United States could need the island as it prepares for a possible war with Iraq. The U.S. Navy, which owns about one-third of the outlying Puerto Rican island, has used the bombing range for six decades. A security guard was killed on the range in 1999 by errant Navy bombs, and the military has used only dummy bombs in the maneuvers ever since. The last round of training was held on the Caribbean island in September. ***************************************************************** 24 Taiwan: Doctor fears latent cases of radiation-related illness eTaiwanNews.com/ Three cancer cases reported among students from contaminated school 2002-12-29 / Taiwan News, Staff Reporter / By Hung-fu Hsueh Vice President Annette Lu delivers the opening speech at a seminar discussing women's participation in international affairs. (CNA) A doctor who has been monitoring the health of persons exposed to radiation in contaminated buildings has expressed concern that there may be many unknown victims of radiation illnesses, as symptoms could take between 5-10 years to develop. Doctor Chen Chien-chih of the Taipei Municipal Jen-ai Hospital has been working on a medical taskforce commissioned by the Cabinet-level Atomic Energy Council to take care of people who have been exposed to excessive radiation. Doctor Chen said many of the radiation victims have developed thyroid problems. There have been three cases of cancer among the victims so far - one case of thyroid cancer and two cases of leukemia, one of which was fatal. All three patients were under 20 years of age, Chen said. In the early 80s, a local steel company produced around 20,000 tons of radiation-contaminated steel, which was used mainly as beams in building construction in Taiwan. It was not until 1992 that it became known that several buildings, mostly residential, were contaminated by radiation. It was reported that the Atomic Energy Council was aware of the problem as early as 1984, but failed to make the information public. It was estimated that 183 buildings, comprised of 1555 apartments, had been built with the radioactive steel and as a result around 15,000 people nationwide had been exposed to excessive radiation. However, the steel in the buildings identified as posing a health risk amounted to 7,000 tons, which meant that only one third of the contaminated material was found. The Yung-chun Primary School, now demolished, was one the buildings constructed in the 1980's with the contaminated steel. A former teacher there, Chen Pin-shih (³¯?quot;¹ê), said that one his female colleagues who was affected by radiation is worried that that the problem may not have ended with her. "That female teacher was one of the persons exposed to excessive radiation; now she is complaining that her newborn baby is very weak physically and often gets ill. She suspects that her baby's condition may have resulted from the radiation problem," Chen Pin-shih said. According to standards devised by the International Commission on Radiological Protection, the acceptable level of radiation per person is 1 milli-Sievert (mSv) over a one-year period. Students and teachers of the Yung-chun Primary School, at which the three cancer patients studied, were found to have been exposed to 5 mSv over a one-year period. Some 1,500 students, who once attended the Yung-chun Primary School, comprise the major group under observation, among the estimated 2,230 radiation victims in Taipei. "Though it is not conclusive that the three persons developed cancer as result of exposure to radiation, I hope there will be no other cases of cancer among this group," Doctor Chen said. He went on to say that he was worried that "these three cases are just the tip of the iceberg." "If in the next few years there are no more cases of cancer among this group, then we might view these three as exceptional cases. However, as symptoms of radiation diseases could take from 5-10 years to develop, I am still afraid that more cases will turn up in the future," added Chen. © 2001-2002 Taiwan News. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 25 NUKE PLANS STOLEN FROM UK* sunday mirror THE nuclear reactor at the centre of the looming showdown between North Korea and the US was built with plans stolen from Britain. They were snatched by Soviet spies during the Cold War and passed to the North Koreans, who then used them to build the Yongbyon Magnox plant. Confidential Whitehall documents reveal that years later UN inspectors asked Britain for copies of the Magnox blueprint so they could do their jobs properly. The reactor near Pyongyang is now being used in a dangerous game of nuclear brinkmanship by North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il. Under a 1994 pact, North Korea agreed to dismantle the plant and accept monitoring by weapons inspectors in return for free oil. The new crisis flared last month after the US discovered North Korea was experimenting with production of weapons-grade uranium and cut off oil supplies. The Pentagon fears the hard-line Stalinist state has at least two nuclear missiles and could produce more in months. And yesterday Kim Jong-Il raised the stakes further by announcing that UN weapons inspectors will be kicked out on Tuesday. Amid clear signs of alarm in Washington at the mounting crisis, Tony Blair prepared to interrupt his Christmas break in Egypt to hold urgent phone talks with Russia's President Putin. A Whitehall official warned: "It is a very delicate situation - North Korea could so easily miscalculate." ***************************************************************** 26 BBC NEWS | Europe | Ukraine police seize radioactive trees + [/] BBCi NEWS SPORT WEATHER WORLD SERVICE WHERE I LIVE --> A-Z INDEX [/] SEARCH [ /] [ /] [ /] [ /] [ /] [/] [/] [/] [/] [/] [/] [/] --> [/] [/] [/] [/] [/] [/] [/] [BBC News World Edition] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] You are in: Europe [ ] [ ] [ ] News Front Page [ ] [ ] Africa [ ] Americas [ ] Asia-Pacific [ ] Europe [ ] Middle East [ ] South Asia [ ] UK [ ] Business [ ] Entertainment [ ] Science/Nature [ ] Technology [ ] Health [ ] ------------- Talking Point [ ] ------------- Country Profiles [ ] In Depth [ ] ------------- Programmes [ ] ------------- [ ] [BBC Sport] BBC Weather SERVICES Daily E-mail News Ticker Mobile/PDAs ------------- [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Text Only [ ] [ ] Feedback Help LANGUAGES [ usemap=] EDITIONS Change to UK [ ] Sunday, 29 December, 2002, 13:59 GMT Ukraine police seize radioactive trees [A specialist measures the level of radioactive contamination near Chernobyl] The effects of Chernobyl are still being felt 16 years on Police in Ukraine have impounded a number of radioactive Christmas trees, reports say. XXXXX The trees were said to have been cut down in an area contaminated by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. XXXXX Officials seized the fir trees at local markets in the southern town of Rovno, where they were being sold for the upcoming Orthodox Christmas, Itar-Tass agency reported. XXXXX [Chernobyl nuclear plant] The nuclear disaster at Chernobyl was the world's worst After the region was covered by a radioactive cloud, a complete ban on the felling of trees in the contaminated forests surrounding Chernobyl was imposed. XXXXX Police said the local businessmen knew the trees from the Zhytomyr region were contaminated, and used forged documents to sell them. XXXXX The authorities are now trying to trace people who have already bought the trees. XXXXX The explosion and fire at the Chernobyl plant was the world's worst nuclear accident. XXXXX It contaminated vast areas of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia and sent a radioactive cloud across Europe. XXXXX Thousands of people are believed to have died from the effects of radiation. XXXXX And, according to a UN report, 16 years after disaster, thousands of people are still living in contaminated areas. XXXXX [ ] See also: 26 Apr 02 | Europe Chernobyl radiation 'on the rise' 07 Feb 02 | Europe Millions of Chernobyl victims still suffering 12 Dec 01 | Europe Chernobyl head sacked over misused funds 23 Oct 01 | Health Chernobyl's cancer world record Internet links: Earth ReportUN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic RadiationInternational Atomic Energy AgencyChernobyl Children Life Line The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Top Europe stories now: Paris suspect 'had bomb ready to use' Rosetta comet mission delayed Schroeder softens line on Iraq Serb president's extradition begins Shanghai supertrain makes first journey Italian volcano flexes its muscles Chechnya mourns as death toll rises Hotel raid ringleader jailed for 12 years Links to more Europe stories are at the foot of the page. [ src=] [ src=] E-mail this story to a friend [ src=] Links to more Europe stories In This Section Paris suspect 'had bomb ready to use' Rosetta comet mission delayed Schroeder softens line on Iraq Serb president's extradition begins Shanghai supertrain makes first journey Italian volcano flexes its muscles Chechnya mourns as death toll rises Hotel raid ringleader jailed for 12 years Russia warns over North Korea Schroeder in media marriage battle [ src=] [ src=] [ src=] [ src=] [© BBC] [ src=] ^^ Back to top XXXXX [ src=] News Front Page | Africa | Americas | Asia-Pacific | Europe | Middle East | South Asia | UK | Business | Entertainment | Science/Nature | Technology | Health | Talking Point | Country Profiles | In Depth | Programmes ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------- To BBC Sport>> | To BBC Weather>> | To BBC World Service>> ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------- © MMII | News Sources | Privacy + ***************************************************************** 27 Authorities ban radioactive Christmas trees in Ukraine. 30/12/2002. ABC News Online "Australian Broadcasting Corporation Online"> Monday, December 30, 2002. Posted: 23:52:34 (AEDT) Ukrainian police at Rovno, southern Ukraine, have seized a batch of radioactive Christmas trees that businessmen were selling at local markets for the upcoming Orthodox festive season, media reported. The fir trees were cut in a forest in the neighbouring Zhitomir region contaminated by radioactive fallout following the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster, the ITAR-TASS news agency said. The businessmen had used forged documents to sell the trees at the markets, a Rovno police official said. Tree felling in the contaminated forest has been banned for the past 15 years. Police are attempting to trace people who may have bought the irradiated trees, ITAR-TASS added. © 2002 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ***************************************************************** 28 Mexico: Six ill after radioactive coffee The Australian: [December 29, 2002] news.com.au network Source: AFP SIX workers at a Mexico City hospital fell ill after drinking coffee laced with radioactive iodine at the facility's cafeteria. The isotope is routinely used in hospitals to treat thyroid conditions and is not considered lethal, although its ingestion in small amounts can cause ill effects. Hospital officials said the spiking of the coffee pot with the isotope could have been a case of a personal vendetta by a hospital staffer. The wing, which receives 200 patients weekly will be closed until the end of an investigation by the attorney general's office. The attorney general said up to 18 staff had access to the radioactive iodine. © The Australian ***************************************************************** 29 Goshute Nuclear Waste Repository: Un-American or Very American? The Salt Lake Tribune -- December 29, 2002 BY DAVID R. KELLER Like most Utahns, I had not heard of the Skull Valley Band of the Goshute until Tribal Chairman Leon Bear, who is part of a legal-savvy generation of leaders known for asserting the rights of American Indians more forcefully than their forebears, announced plans to store 40,000 metric tons of high-level radioactive waste on their reservation. And, like most Utahns, I am opposed to storing out-of-state nuclear waste within close proximity to a million people. But the Goshute are not entirely to blame for the disconcerting plan. Rather, Bear's motivations must be seen through the lens of Goshute history. Roaming the Great Basin, the Goshute once numbered 20,000. But by the mid-1900s the tribe had been decimated by disease, violent clashes with settlers and encroachment of habitable land by immigrants of European ancestry. In 1863, Goshute leaders signed a treaty with the federal government granting sovereignty of arid and desolate Skull Valley, making it one of 554 autonomous "nations" within the borders of the United States. Presently, only 125 Skull Valley Goshute remain, and the 30 living on the reservation have virtually no economic opportunities. Thus it is no surprise that Bear would be interested in reaping the benefits of the proposed $3 billion nuclear repository project. The federal government initiated the proposal. Realizing that sovereignty meant fewer legal complications, the Atomic Energy Commission issued a grant to the Goshute for a feasibility study in the early 1990s. In 1997, the tribe agreed to lease 40 acres to Private Fuel Storage (PFS), a private consortium of electric utility companies, to store the waste for 20 years, with an additional 20-year option. Constitutionally, federal law trumps state law, making the Goshute-PFS plan legal. This has irked Utah politicians, who have described American Indian sovereignty as "un-American." Taken in context, however, the plan appears to be very American: The Goshute are simply beating capitalists at our own game. Consider the fact that Utah state and local leaders have welcomed other nearby hazardous waste sites with open arms: Tooele Army Depot, home to the nation's largest stockpile of chemical weapons; Dugway Proving Ground, a biological warfare testing site; Envirocare, a low-level radioactive waste dump; Grassy Mountain hazardous waste site; several toxic waste incinerators; and Magcorp, which emits enough chlorine and sulfur dioxide to make Tooele County one of the 10 most polluted areas in the nation. The incoherence of Utah state leadership over the Goshute-PFS plan comes to the fore with a rumored countermeasure that surfaced in September to instead store the waste on remote state lands -- for a price. According to Utah Republican Chairman Joe Cannon, "It would be a great shame for Utah to be stuck with this and not get a benefit." And last month, Rep. Jim Hansen, a reliable foe of wilderness who has endorsed hazardous-waste sites, proposed half a million acres of wilderness in the West Desert for the purpose of blocking shipments to Skull Valley. Obviously, opposition to the plan is more than environmental. There is a simple solution to this complex problem, which has been suggested within the pages of The Salt Lake Tribune and elsewhere: provide the Goshute with long-overdue economic development programs to mitigate their desire for the repository. Since there is dissension within the tribe, perhaps Bear would reconsider the repository if viable alternatives existed. In short, attempts by Utah political leaders to derail the Goshute-PFS plan are simply the latest chapter in a long story of injustices to American Indians. Unless taxpayers are willing to provide economic support, the Goshute are legally and morally justified in pursuing the right to self-determination in overcoming the marginalization they have long suffered. ----- David R. Keller is a philosophy professor and the director of the Center for the Study of Ethics at Utah Valley State College. © Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune. ***************************************************************** 30 Critics: Utah neglecting radioactive waste site* HarkTheHerald.com The Associated Press on Sunday, December 29 SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The state's budget constraints have left holes in the oversight at Utah's sole radioactive-waste disposal site, say critics of the state's radiation control program. The Utah Legislative Watch, a government watchdog group, is urging lawmakers to step up scrutiny of the Tooele County disposal facility, Envirocare of Utah. The group's leader, Claire Geddes, said few Utah residents know how little Utah monitors Envirocare compared with similar sites in two other states. "I want to know who's out there protecting the public and the water quality," Geddes said. Envirocare of Utah did not respond to requests for comment. In the past, the company has resisted more scrutiny by arguing that state and federal environmental regulators already watch its work carefully. State legislators allow the state Department of Environmental Quality to set regulatory fees just high enough to cover oversight. For 2002, Envirocare has said it expects state regulatory fees to total nearly $1 million. Dane Finerfrock of the state Division of Radiation Control said both state scrutiny and Envirocare's monitoring are adequate. "We are doing a good job protecting the public health and safety," he said. But Geddes' group and other critics say the state should be doing more. They cite as an example the state's reliance on twice-yearly groundwater tests Envirocare conducts on 60 wells scattered around its 640-acre site. Four times since 1991, the state spent the $10,000 to $20,000 needed to have a laboratory double check the results proffered by Envirocare's testing lab. Last year's "split sample" tests were scrapped because of tight budgets. This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A3. # News by The Associated Press ***************************************************************** 31 MINOT AIR FORCE BASE: Pilots remember U-2 spy planes Grand Forks Herald | 12/29/2002 | By Eloise Ogden Minot Daily News MINOT - U-2s, the now famous spy planes, flew out of Minot Air Force Base during the late 1950s, but the specifics of their mission were top secret. A former member of the unit recently provided insight into "Operation Crowflight." Retired Air Force Tech Sgt. Glenn R. Chapman, of Tucson, Ariz., was at Minot Air Force Base with the U-2 unit from January to March 1960, as a camera repairman. "Our mission, although highly top secret at that time, was to sample for upper air radioactivity," Chapman said. Samples were collected to determine how much radioactive fallout was in the atmosphere, he said. "Besides Minot, we had operating locations in Puerto Rico, Argentina, Australia, Alaska, Panama and other places," he said. "The idea was to sample air at altitudes of 70,000 feet plus from the North Pole to the South Pole. "Therefore, we would be gathering air samples longitudinally of air that was traveling latitudinally around the earth. Think of the old statement 'as the crow flies' and it is easier to understand," he said. Air samples The air samples were sent to a company in New Jersey to analyze. "Remember, this was during the days of all the A-bomb testing in the open air," Chapman said. "By analyzing these particles, they could estimate how much fallout would end up where and how it would affect worldwide population. "We were the first reliable operation that would be able to discover when an atomic weapon was exploded by a foreign nation, what the yield was, how much fallout was developed, and even where and when the weapon was destructed," he said. The Minot Crowflight unit was based out of the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Laughlin Air Force Base near Del Rio, Texas. Newspaper files Files from the Minot Daily News show the U-2s were at the base from September 1958 to May 1960 and were working out of the Minot base before any other aircraft were permanently assigned there. Maj. Mel Braaten was the first commander of Minot's Crowflight unit, Chapman said. Each Crowflight detachment, including the one at the Minot Air Force Base, consisted of 38 people and three U-2 aircraft. "We were an extremely tight group of people, all of us who knew each other very well, although there was a very wide distinction between the officials and enlisted corps, and we respected that deeply," Chapman said. Book written He has written a book about being with the elite and highly secretive group. The U-2 operations were top secret until 1960, after Francis Gary Powers went down in his U-2 over the Soviet Union, Chapman said. In 1994, the CIA and the Air Force finally lifted all security restrictions from the U-2 operations, Chapman said. Crowflight went on from 1957 until late in the 1990s, eventually becoming Operation Olympic Race, with the new updated version of the U-2 known as the U2R, now the U-2S, which is still flying, Chapman said. Beale Air Force Base in California now is the home of the Air Force U-2s, he said. Today, Chapman's son, Joseph, works on U-2s. His father retired from the Air Force in 1977. Buddy Brown and Tony Bevacqua remember those days of being among the first Air Force pilots to fly the top-secret U-2 "spy" plane for Operation Crowflight, though neither was assigned to the Minot Air Force Base. "They could tell if you collected some radioactivity debris up at that altitude, they could tell the date it was set off - or plus or minus a few days, what area that was set off - if it was a ground burst or air burst - they could tell the types of metals that were involved, the triggering device ... It was very, reconnaissance accurate," Brown said. Prevented war Glenn Chapman said he still believes the U-2 "was the one thing that kept us from going to war." The 38 men assigned to Operation Crowflight were not well liked at the Minot base, he said. Access to the Crow- flight hangar was restricted and even the base wing commander was not allowed inside, Chapman said. "We were not well liked at all by the Minot personnel, probably because of all the stencils of crows that we painted all over the base," he said. In one incident, he said, "another guy and I painted a bunch of black crows on the boom operator's window of about six KC-135 tankers," he said. "And we got away with it and never got caught." ***************************************************************** 32 Son of Pakistani scientist says bin Laden sought nuclear bomb CNEWS World - Sun, December 29, 2002 By KATHY GANNON ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - A leading Pakistani nuclear scientist, barred by his government from talking to reporters, has made it known through his son that Osama bin Laden approached him before the Sept. 11 attacks for help in making nuclear weapons. The al-Qaida leader was rebuffed, the son, Azim Mahmood, said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. "Basically Osama asked my father, 'How can a nuclear bomb be made and can you help us make one?' " he said. "My father said, 'No, and secondly you must understand it is not child's play for you to build a nuclear bomb.' " The scientist, Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, is under a gag order from Pakistani intelligence officials, but his conversations with bin Laden in meetings in 2000 and as late as July 2001 were reconstructed for The Associated Press by his son. The conversations as described by the son, Azim Mahmood, clearly show bin Laden was interested in developing nuclear weapons. They don't, however, shed any light on whether the al-Qaida leader had taken even the first steps along that complex technological road. The U.S. Embassy declined to discuss Mahmood's story. American officials in Washington also would not comment. There has been previous evidence of al-Qaida's interest in nuclear weapons. Computers found by journalists and U.S. troops at a variety of facilities in Afghanistan indicated al-Qaida had sought to obtain and develop nuclear and other potent weapons. An AP reporter saw anthrax and other chemical concoctions at an al-Qaida laboratory outside Kabul. During a New York trial two years ago stemming from bombings at two U.S. embassies in Africa, a former bin Laden aide testified he was ordered in 1993 to try to buy uranium on the black market for an effort to develop a nuclear weapon. Jamal Ahmed Al-Fadl said al-Qaida was prepared to spend $1.5 million US, but he didn't know if a purchase was ever made. In addition, U.S. officials have said captured al-Qaida lieutenant Abu Zubaydah told American interrogators the terrorist network was working on a "dirty bomb," a conventional bomb that would scatter radioactive material. Such a radiological weapon would be far less deadly and damaging than a nuclear explosion. A United Nations report issued by experts monitoring al-Qaida movements warned that al-Qaida had the potential to obtain nuclear material and build "some kind of dirty bomb." "Our concern is you can actually get the stuff," said Michael Chandler, the British expert who heads the monitoring group. The conversations related by Azim Mahmood confirm bin Laden's nuclear ambitions. They also offer a glimpse at the nexus of science and conservative Islam at a high level in Pakistan, one of the world's newest nuclear powers along with neighbouring India, whose own leaders follow a Hindu fundamentalist philosophy. The elder Mahmood, who has been questioned by the FBI and is under close Pakistani surveillance, is a deeply conservative Muslim who espouses the same puritanical brand of Islam as Afghanistan's former Taliban rulers. Enraged over Pakistan's plans in 1998 to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, he resigned from the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission and devoted his time to his charity, the Holy Qur'an Research Foundation. Last December, U.S. President George W. Bush labelled the charity a terrorist group and Mahmood a terrorist. His assets and those of his charity were frozen. "Even my father's pension is blocked; at the moment he has nothing," said Azim Mahmood, a physician in his 30s who also adheres to a strict Islam. For years, Pakistani peace activists and liberal academics have fretted about Islamic hardliners in Pakistan's nuclear organization. "We have always expressed our fear that a large number of people in the nuclear establishment would be ideologically motivated to share Pakistan's nuclear weapons technology," said Dr. A. H. Nayyar, a nuclear physicist and research fellow at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, an independent Pakistani group. Azim Mahmood said his father met with bin Laden in Afghanistan several times, "and definitely this question of building a nuclear bomb came up." The father was detained in November 2001, questioned and freed in February, but has to carry a mobile phone at all times so Pakistani intelligence can track his movements, the son said. He said his father's American interrogators were particularly intrigued by one of his books, Doomsday and Life After Death, and wanted to know whether it meant he had some kind of inside knowledge of what al-Qaida was planning. Mahmood first met bin Laden in 2000 while visiting Afghanistan to build a school, the son said. He wanted to help the Taliban, because he was angry at the international criticism of the regime's brand of Islam, the son recalled. "My father shared the Taliban thinking. He liked their system of government. He wanted to help them." When bin Laden learned a nuclear scientist was in Kabul, he sent an al-Qaida operative, Abu Bilal, to the Pakistani's hotel to arrange a meeting, the son said. "My father went to meet him and he said, 'Why don't you come and help us build these things?' " Azim Mahmood said, adding that the two men met several times in the Afghan capital and the discussion invariably returned to nuclear weapons. The al-Qaida leader wanted a nuclear device, Azim Mahmood said. "Al-Qaida also wanted a person who could train their people, and who could get them enriched material for their weapons." Experts say, however, that making a nuclear bomb requires a cadre of highly trained, experienced scientists and technicians. In a separate interview, a former senior Taliban official said bin Laden was trying to obtain nuclear materials, but he could not say whether the al-Qaida leader succeeded. Mullah Mohammed Khaksar, who renounced the Taliban last year but had made contact with U.S. officials in 1999, said he knew of several mysterious shipments that entered Afghanistan and were stored at a warehouse in Kandahar, a Taliban stronghold. One was a balloon-like container covered in aluminum and others were TAB Capsules the length of a man's hand, he said. Azim Mahmood said his father was uncertain what nuclear material, if any, al-Qaida possessed. "At one meeting they brought a box, a thing that someone had sold to them for a huge amount of money, but my father laughed and said it was nothing," he said. >Copyright© 2002, CANOE, a division of Netgraphe Inc. All ***************************************************************** 33 Weapon of the Week: The Burrowing Nuke The Village Voice: by George Smith December 25 - 31, 2002 B-61: a supplement for the nuclear family (photo: Department of Energy) Six out of 10 Americans think it would be OK to nuke Iraq. And the president wants the option to use H-bombs preemptively in the war on terror. So what would be the Armageddon punch of choice for the Butcher of Baghdad and a million or so people standing too close to him? Since The Washington Post spoke for the people on deployment of nukes, it would be good for some people to know that the go-to bomb would be the B-61—one of the nightmare weapons of the thermonuclear armory. Also affectionately known as the "burrowing bomb," the newest edition of the B-61, called the Mk-11, was developed just for use against non-nuclear third-world patsy-tyrants who have heard the call of "Dig we must," and buried themselves and their alleged caches of biological and chemical weapons deep underground. Built ram tough with a heavy metal casing for smashing through earth and concrete, the B-61 explodes with the force of an estimated 340,000 tons of TNT. It is lots of bang for the buck, literally two apocalypse bombs in one—a boosted plutonium firecracker called the primary, and a heavy hydrogen secondary for that good old-fashioned H-bomb fireball. The B-61 also features a detonation option called the Dial-a-Yield for those times when 340 kilotons is just a little too much. To get a handle on the full power of the B-61, consider that the WW II A-bombs produced fireballs about 800 yards across. Seventeen times more powerful, a B-61 over the tip of Manhattan would probably provide decent annihilation, engulfing most of the borough while extending the same courtesy to Brooklyn, Queens, and a good chunk of Staten Island. Saddam has dug but he won't be able to hide. One B-61 will bring on a calamity of biblical proportions between Tigris and Euphrates. The sky will turn the color of sackcloth, the Arab world will supernova, our European allies will try our leaders in absentia as war criminals in the Hague—but, hey, anyone who contemplates using the thing plans on America's hair getting a little mussed. Strangeloves in the administration and the weapons labs believe future B-61 blasts will be contained below ground, making this a great war-fighter, not a doomsday device. But the only people who believe that get paid by the government to do so. This story is part of the Voice's ongoing coverage of the war on terror. ***************************************************************** 34 Secret nuclear cities of world's pariah state Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Control of the Korean peninsula or a peace treaty to ensure survival? Experts are split over Kim's aims Peter Beaumont in London and John Gittings in Shanghai Sunday December 29, 2002 The mountains of North Korea are largely deserted places, limestone and basalt massifs that are covered in snow in winter and humid in summer. There are a handful of barely used official guest-houses that cater for the tiny handful of tourists allowed into the country who make it as far as ranges like the Fragrant Mountains from the capital of Pyongyang. But it is what is happening beneath these mountains that caught the attention of the world this Christmas: the allegation that they hide vast factories and plants excavated secretly by night by armies of workers, thousands strong, and dedicated to North Korea's nuclear ambitions. It is an enterprise that was described in detail for the first time in August of 2001 in the South Korean magazine, Shin Dong-A. According to the magazine, it had managed to lay its hands on a Chinese intelligence report, which had in turn been acquired by South Korea's own CIA, then leaked to journalists. That report told the chilling story of one Choon Sun Lee, a senior official in North Korea's giant military infrastructure who had defected to China in 1999. According to the magazine, Choon had claimed that North Korea was operating a secret uranium-processing site underneath Mount Chun-Ma, which it had opened in 1989. The account seemed the stuff of Bond movies. In his uncheckable testimony, Choon - apparently repatriated by the Chinese to North Korea and almost certain execution - described a massive tunnel extending more than a mile into the heart of the mountain. That tunnel opened into vast underground facilities housed in chambers carved out of the rock. Included in those facilities, say analysts, is a process line for turning uranium ore into yellowcake, the first step in the process towards enriching it into weapons-grade material. From there, said Choon, the ore was taken by truck and helicopter to an underground facility in a hidden valley. And it is not just Mount Chun-Ma that allegedly has been hollowed out. Other intelligence agencies, both in Asia and the US, have pointed for years to the existence of other vast excavations to build facilities for North Korea's nuclear empire - 22 of them at the latest estimate. Among them was the 'confession' by a senior North Korean official published in January 2002 which suggested that Kwanmo-bong, the second-highest mountain in the North, had also been 'hollowed out at night, sandbag by sandbag, for a secret nuclear plant'. Outlandish as they sound, the new reports have given credence to claims already in circulation. Indeed, the Clinton administration first briefed selected members of Congress on intelligence reports that large-scale digging had begun in spring of 1998, although other sources denied that these were related to North Korea's nuclear programme. A blunt admission came from North Korea itself last October: it conceded it had constructed a secret programme to build nuclear weapons, hidden away from the nuclear weapons inspectors it had agreed to admit under military pressure from the US in 1994. Under pressure from the US, which had discovered that North Korea was trying secretly to procure tonnes of high-grade aluminium tubing suitable for a gas centrifuge enrichment process, American diplomats confronted the North Koreans. It is that admission by the North Koreans that has accelerated a stand-off on the Korean peninsula into the newest crisis facing the Bush administration. The North Korean crisis is one the Bush administration could do without. That, perhaps, is North Korea's calculation: to defy Washington at the moment it is most preoccupied with both the war on terrorism and Iraq. Whether it is calculated shrewdness or insanity is the question at the heart of the nuclear stand-off. In a sign of the strains on the Bush administration, on Friday it opted to take a more multilateral path, perhaps against its more bullish instincts. Senior Bush advisers have told the New York Times that the administration would back an effort by the International Atomic Energy Agency to have the United Nations Security Council declare that North Korea is violating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and other agreements to keep nuclear weapons out of the Korean peninsula. In doing so, they concede, they are trying to cast the issue as North Korea's international defiance, rather than a confrontation between Pyongyang and Washington, by implication slowing down the escalation towards a more dangerous confrontation. It is a pace that may suit North Korea and the man at the very centre of this crisis, a man regarded by some as tactically inept, naive, deluded and a borderline psychotic, and by others as an increasingly cunning and intelligent player in his relations with his neighbours and the West. That man is Kim Jong-il - the son of the late dictator Kim il-Sung - who officially took over control of all the nation's affairs four years after his father's death eight years ago. Bouffant-haired, tiny and rarely seen, the 'peerless leader' has extended the cult of personality assiduously developed by his father. On the intellectual front, he has been credited with having extended Kim il-Sung's personal philosophy of Juche, or self-reliance, which has been the guiding light for North Korea's development - or lack of it. A film aficionado, who ordered the kidnapping of a South Korean film director and his wife to 'assist' the north's film development, other claimed feats include the writing of six operas in two years and designing the huge Juche tower in Pyongyang. For all the spin, the truth is more nastily prosaic: a regime that is authoritarian in the extreme, whose people are kept from yearly lethal famine in their millions only by foreign aid, and whose senior officials enrich themselves through the massive processing and fabrication of illegal drugs for the South Asian market. Freedom of speech is viciously suppressed while the family of Kim and his late father have achieved godlike status. The 'Dear Leader' presides over a country that has been described as 'a Stalinist theme park', a place bereft of Coke adverts, or even mobile telephones. Visitors describe wide, shabby boulevards devoid of traffic save for the shiny new black Mercedes of the elite class, and where every facet of life is controlled by the government, restricting travel, allocating jobs, housing, food and imposing censorship. Last week the 'Dear Leader' was out of town visiting a unit of the army, of which he is Supreme Commander, and giving it some 'guidance'. But what no one knows, however, is what sort of 'guidance' he has been giving to the nuclear scientists and technicians who have moved in to restart the Yongbyon reactor in a complex sealed by UN inspectors under an agreement - now repudiated by Pyongyang - in 1994. What is clear is that they have been ordered to start moving thousands of fresh fuel rods towards the reactor to prepare for it to be restarted, and that Kim has told UN inspectors to leave. The billion-dollar question is what is really driving Kim Jong-il towards a clash with the US which he could scarcely hope to survive. Most analysts agree North Korea sees its nuclear and missile programmes as 'a useful and effective bargaining chip to be used against the US and Japan'. Indeed, Pyongyang itself has made this abundantly clear: insisting that the 'nuclear issue' could be easily solved if only the US would agree to sign a treaty of non-aggression - and by implication withdraw its troops from South Korea. And while the actual detail of what Kim has been up to recently may be a little sketchy, the broad picture of North Korea's nuclear ambitions has been well documented since the 1950s and the end of the Korean War, as it has proceeded with its nuclear development programme and then in the 1980s began to concentrate on building weapons. By 1985 US officials announced for the first time that they had intelligence data proving that a secret nuclear reactor was being built 60 miles north of Pyongyang near the small town of Yongbyon with the purpose of making fissile material. By the mid-1990s the US presented evidence that North Korea was building two new reactors that could produce fissile material for bombs as a by-product, forcing a stand-off between North Korea and the Clinton administration, that led ultimately to a 1994 agreement to shut down the controversial reactors under a monitoring programme by inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency in exchange for an oil and food deal. It is that agreement which North Korea has gradually shredded in the past few months, first as the US discovered that North Korea was attempting to acquire large quantities of high-strength aluminium which could be used in centrifuges to enrich uranium, and then following North Korea's admission in response in October and its announcement that the 1994 agreement was dead. As well as the issue of Washington's perceived distraction, analysts believe that Kim may have been swayed by events closer to home, including the recent anti-US demonstrations in South Korea and the election last week of President-to-be Roh Moo Hyun on a platform of reconciliation with the North. Playing the nuclear card, many in Seoul believe, is an attempt to drive a wedge between Roh and the US. The most popular interpretation, however, is that Kim Jung-il is attempting what some observers have called 'diplomacy by extortion' - building atomic weapons precisely to secure the kind of economic aid and special trade agreements with its neighbours and the West that it won in 1994 in exchange for curtailing its then declared nuclear weapons programme. And it is precisely the accuracy of this interpretation that is dividing the spooks in Washington and Seoul. For a decade, doves on the North Korean issue have long been arguing for a policy of engagement and support for South Korea's policy of 'sunshine' diplomacy with the North, arguing that the foremost goal of North Korea's leaders is national survival, not the forceful domination of South Korea. Pyongyang, these optimists believe, is trying to end its isolation and engage the outside world. As evidence, they point to North Korea's increasing trade with non-socialist nations, its opening of the country to foreigners, and the signing of agreements with South Korea and the United States. The hawks on North Korea - bolstered by recent defections that revealed North Korea's plans to target US bases first in event of a new Korean war - remain convinced that North Korea's goal is the domination of the entire Korean peninsula. One thing is certain - the attention suits the 'Dear Leader'. As he once commented: 'I am the object of criticism around the world. But I think that, since I am being discussed, then I am on the right track.' Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 ***************************************************************** 35 Repackaging, cleanup programs among top projects at Pantex Amarillo Globe-News: Local News: in 2002.-->Web posted Friday, December 27, 2002 By JIM McBRIDE jmcbride@amarillonet.com A plan to acquire 6,200 acres of private land for a security buffer zone, a proposal to study Pantex as a possible plutonium processing site, progress in plutonium repackaging and cleanup projects topped Pantex news in 2002. In June, Pantex officials met with plant neighbors to discuss an Energy Department proposal to buy property of adjacent landowners for a security buffer. The proposal came after neighbors cited concerns about groundwater contamination and asked whether the DOE would buy their land. In July, plant officials announced that Pantex had repackaged 5,000 plutonium pits into specialized containers designed to provide safer storage. The plant now stores about 12,000 plutonium pits, nuclear components that form the core of a nuclear warhead. The repackaging program is expected to wrap up at the end of fiscal year 2005. "It's been a very good year for BWXT Pantex. We reached important operational milestones, improved safety and were recognized by our customer for excellence in a number of key national defense projects. We were able to accomplish this through the dedication and hard work of our employees," BWXT Pantex President and General Manger Dennis Ruddy said. Dan Glenn, director of the Pantex Site Office, cited the pit repackaging project as a key accomplishment and said Pantex is making excellent progress in updating the plant's safety documentation. "This is a complexwide effort requiring cooperation among sites and labs," Glenn said. "It is a massive undertaking that will enhance safety for our employees and the public." Pantex has continued its investigations needed to clean up the site, Glenn said, and employment should remain stable. Pantex's work to extend the life of warheads in the nation's nuclear arsenal will continue, Glenn said, and dismantlement will remain a key component of Pantex's mission. "Finally, as we perform our mission in 2003, we will continue to strive to build positive relationships with neighbors, stakeholders and the community," Glenn said. Ruddy cited a new behavior-based safety process that improved accident rates 46 percent and improved lost-time injury rates 59 percent. BWXT Pantex received positive recognition from the National Nuclear Security Administration and earned 17 Defense Programs Awards of Excellence for a variety of national defense projects. In October, former Pantex contractor Mason &Hanger Silas-Mason Co. reached an out of court settlement in a groundwater contamination lawsuit filed by Pantex neighbors. The lawsuit claimed that Pantex groundwater contamination devalued the plaintiffs property values. In September, supporters and opponents of a proposed plutonium pit production facility at the Pantex Plant aired their views during a public hearing. Mike Mitchell, the project manager for the proposed pit facility, said the $2 billion to $4 billion facility would produce 125 or more plutonium pits a year. The facility's operating costs are estimated at $200 million to $300 million a year with a total employment of more than 1,000, he said. Besides Pantex, other possible sites include the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M.; Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico; Nevada Test Site and Savannah River Site in South Carolina. A decision on whether to proceed with the facility is expected in April 2004. 1996-2002 Amarillo Globe-News ***************************************************************** 36 DOE will act on two front-burner issues By BOB FOWLER, bfowler@infi.net December 29, 2002 Two front-burner issues for local governments are about to be resolved, U.S. Department of Energy officials broadly hinted during a ceremony to convey a conservation easement of 3,000 mountainous acres in Oak Ridge to the state. DOE is on the verge of giving the 953-acre Horizon Center to the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee, said U.S. Assistant Secretary of Energy Jessie Roberson. And DOE also is about to take action on a request for an increased annual payment in lieu of property taxes for local governments, said James Turi, acting manager of DOE's Oak Ridge Operations. Mention of the two initiatives came during one of Gov. Don Sundquist's last public appearances while in office. "It's been a grand ride,'' Sundquist said of his eight years as governor. Sundquist signed documents leading toward designating as a conservation easement more than 3,000 acres of the Oak Ridge Reservation north of Horizon Center and along the flank of Black Oak Ridge. The land will remain as an undeveloped buffer for both Horizon Center and the nearby old K-25 uranium enrichment facility, Sundquist said. Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency Manager Jim Evans said the land will remain available for managed hunts and will fall under typical TWRA management guidelines. With the easement, TWRA will study enhancing a greenway that runs along Black Oak Ridge, Evans said. Efforts to get rid of exotic species that have invaded the area may be stepped up, he said. "The citizens of Oak Ridge deserve to see this land protected and available for use,'' the governor said. The property includes mature forests, wetlands, river bluffs, limestone cliffs and caves and is home to several rare species, including the Tennessee dace and spreading false-glove. The easement is a response to damages at the lower Watts Bar Reservation caused by DOE activities on the Oak Ridge Reservation, officials said. DOE will keep ownership of the land and will provide Tennessee with funding to manage it. Local officials listened closely as DOE officials outlined future plans for Horizon Center and a much-anticipated increase in the amount of in-lieu-of-property-tax funds paid by DOE to Roane and Anderson counties and Oak Ridge. Once Horizon Center is given to CROET, it will enable the property to be sold to industrial prospects. That land transfer also will clear the way for an Oak Ridge firm, R Enterprises, to embark on a program to build speculative industrial buildings in the high-tech park. More than four years old, Horizon Center was developed with DOE grants but has thus far attracted only one company, Theragenics Corp., which has yet to go into full production of radioactive "seeds'' that are surgically implanted to fight prostate cancer. Once the increased payment in lieu of property tax agreement is approved, DOE will make annual payments based on its land being valued at $7,000 an acre. Current payments are based on a valuation of $5,327 an acre. Bob Fowler, News-Sentinel Anderson County editor, may be reached at 865-481-3625. The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 37 2002 IN REVIEW ACCORDING TO DAVE BARRY The Salt Lake Tribune -- December 29, 2002 BY DAVE BARRY If you had to pick one word to describe our national mood in 2002, that word would be "wary." We went to sleep wary, and we woke up wary. We wallowed in wariness. We were wabbits. This was partly because bad things kept happening. But it was also because government officials kept issuing alarming, yet vague, warnings. "We have received reliable information," an official would say, "that something bad might happen. We don't know what, or when, or where. But it is very, very bad. Also we are seeing the letter 'E.' So we urge all citizens to continue leading normal lives, while remaining in a state of stark, butt-puckering terror. Tune in tomorrow and we'll see if we can't ratchet this thing up a notch or two." We were also wary of the stock market. One day it was up; the next day it was down; the next day it was WAY down. And as we watched our 401(k) plans decline from a retirement villa in France to a refrigerator carton in an alley, we heard the unceasing babble of the financial "experts," the ones who have never yet failed to be wrong, speculating endlessly on whether the market had bottomed out. We became even warier when we found out that some large corporations had essentially the same business ethics as Bonnie and Clyde. It got so bad that we even became wary of Martha Stewart, who hit her own personal bottom (we are speaking figuratively) during a June appearance on the CBS early-morning show. Martha was trying to chop some cabbage for a salad, and the show's host, Jane Clayson, kept pestering her about her alleged insider trading, and finally Martha emitted what was probably the most poignant quote from all of 2002: "I want to focus on my salad." But, somehow, one wary day at a time, we got through 2002. Now we are poised to enter a new year, which according to Wall Street analysts will be 2003, so we would not bet on it. But before we move ahead to wherever we're going, let us take one last, wary look back at the year just completed, starting with . . . JANUARY . . . which begins on a hopeful note in Europe, as the nations of the European Union replace their individual currencies with the new "euro," which is expected to boost the European economy by tricking clueless American tourists into leaving unintentionally gigantic tips. But the economic news is not so good in the United States, where President George W. Bush and the Congress discover that the federal budget surplus, which only moments earlier had been trillions of dollars, is now . . . missing! Everybody looks high and low for it, but the darned thing is just GONE. Iraq is suspected. But the big domestic issue is Homeland Insecurity, which is most noticeable at airports, where the Department of Transportation, having determined that every single Sept. 11 hijacker was a young male from a Middle Eastern country, has implemented a shrewd policy of hassling randomly selected elderly women. Dave Thomas flips his last burger. In sports, Mike Tyson, appearing before the Nevada Athletic Commission to plead for a boxing license, expresses deep remorse for his past misbehavior, and informs the commissioners that if they turn him down, he will have no option but to eat their children. The Department of Homeland Insecurity responds by placing the nation on a Code Fuchsia Alert ("Relatively High"). Speaking of effective tactics, the month of . . . FEBRUARY . . . opens with a World Economic Forum meeting in New York City, where angry protesters, determined to rid the world of poverty, hunger, disease and pollution, attack the obvious root cause of all these problems: The Gap. In the War on Terrorism, security personnel at Chicago's O'Hare airport wrestle would-be passenger Merline A. Grelpner, 91, to the ground after an alert screener notices that she is carrying an object that is later confirmed by the FBI, using spectrographic analysis, to be a pretzel. The Department of Homeland Insecurity places the nation on a Code Magenta Alert ("A Tad Higher Than Relatively High, But Not Totally High.") In sports, the New England Patriots win the Super Bowl, thus using up all the sports luck that New England has been accumulating for decades, and thereby guaranteeing that the Red Sox will not win the World Series for another 150 years. But the big sporting event is the Winter Olympics, which bring thousands of athletes and spectators from around the world to Salt Lake City to celebrate the official Olympic theme: "A Salute To Metal Detectors." The big scandal occurs in pairs figure skating, where the Canadian team clearly outskates the competition, only to see the gold medal awarded, in a judging decision that creates an international uproar, to . . . Iraq. And speaking of international tension, in . . . MARCH . . . the situation worsens in the Middle East as Israeli tanks, following a series of Palestinian attacks, surround Yasser Arafat's headquarters, cutting off the electricity, telephone service, water and pizza delivery. This is roughly the 25th time the Israelis have had Arafat surrounded, but the crafty leader persuades them to let him go by promising to take a shower, a pledge he immediately violates. In business news, investigators probing the Enron scandal finally track down the accounting firm of Arthur Andersen, which had sought to evade prosecution by changing its name to "Arthur Smith" and disguising its corporate headquarters with a gigantic red wig and sunglasses. Troops are sent to capture the firm, only to discover that the top auditors have escaped to . . . Iraq. The Department of Homeland Insecurity responds by ratcheting the nation up to a Code Ochre Alert Status ("Deeply Concerned"). In the Academy Awards, the Oscar for best picture goes to "A Beautiful Mind," the uplifting story of legendary mathematical genius John Nash, who received a Nobel Prize decades after his descent into insanity, caused by attempting to do his own income taxes. On a sadder note, two beloved public figures pass away: Milton "Mister Television" Berle, who was 93, and Britain's Queen Mother Elizabeth, who was 247. They are laid to rest in identical dresses. But there is little rest to be had in . . . APRIL . . . when Secretary of State Colin Powell travels to the Middle East to (a) restore peace to the troubled region, and (b) receive a plaque from the Association of Troubled Middle East Travel Agencies honoring him for making the 5,000th official U.S. peacekeeping trip. At the awards ceremony, Powell jokes: "We expect to get this thing resolved any day now," which gets a big laugh, punctuated by mortar fire. On the domestic terrorism front, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, tightening up its procedures, quietly reverses its decision to grant a student visa to Osama bin Laden. This decisive action enables the Department of Homeland Insecurity to ratchet the nation's Color Code Security Status all the way down to Mauve ("Calm, But Tense"). Things are not so peaceful, however, in professional baseball, where a dispute between players and owners threatens to ruin the season, and with it the social lives of thousands of fantasy-baseball dweebs. At issue is what the players and owners can do to restore the good will and trust of pro baseball's increasingly alienated fans. Ha, ha! No, really, the issue is how each side can snag the most possible money before the game goes completely into the toilet. The talks open on a tense note, as the owners' charges of steroid abuse are met with vehement denials by players' union representatives, who quickly reduce a large oak conference table to kindling. Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes hip-hops off the big stage. And speaking of the entertainment industry, in . . . MAY . . . the big news is the release of the fifth installment in the Star Wars series, "Star Wars II," which continues to express creator/director George Lucas' artistic vision, summed up by the statement: "I don't understand Roman numerals." The movie seems to be an effort by Lucas to connect with younger audiences, as evidenced by the exciting action scene in which Anakin Skywalker battles the evil Count Dooku in a deadly high-stakes game of quidditch. In other film news, al-Qaida, apparently seeking to disprove reports that its leader is dead, releases its latest video, "The Osama bin Laden Fugitive Workout." The Department of Homeland Insecurity decides to ratchet the nation's Color Code Security Status up a notch to Key Lime ("Partly Cloudy"). In sports action, the World Cup gets under way with defending champion France playing Senegal in an exciting match that ends in a stunning upset win by . . . Iraq. Sam Snead finally reaches the 19th hole. And speaking of icons, in . . . JUNE . . . Britain's Queen Elizabeth II celebrates the 50th year of her reign at a star-studded gala concert featuring performances by Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton and Ozzy Osbourne, who, in the dramatic highlight of the evening, bites the head off one of the Queen's Welsh corgis. But the mood is not so jubilant in the Middle East, where, following a series of Palestinian attacks, Israeli tanks again surround the headquarters of Yasser Arafat and slowly press against it until it is the size of a twin bed. The crafty Arafat escapes again by claiming he has a dental appointment. In another alarming story, wildfires rage out of control in Colorado and several other western states, burning thousands of acres and destroying dozens of homes. Investigators searching an area where one of the largest blazes originated find a Zippo lighter bearing a thumbprint belonging to . . . Iraq. The nation's Color Code Security Status is quickly raised to Maroon ("Dark Brownish Red"). On Wall Street, the bad news continues. First, WorldCom announces that it has improperly accounted for $3.9 billion and has "at least six" movies seriously overdue for return to Blockbuster. Next Martha Stewart is linked to a string of bank robberies. And speaking of legal trouble, in . . . JULY . . . two pilots scheduled to fly an America West plane from Miami to Phoenix are ordered from the cockpit at Miami International Airport and found to be drunk. The pilots aroused suspicions when they made a preflight announcement asking if any passenger "happens to have a corkscrew." In sports, baseball immortal Ted Williams dies. His son says the body will be frozen, so it can be revived in the future. A court approves this plan, on the condition that the son be frozen at the same time, so he can be revived in the future to explain everything to his dad. We wish. In political news, the U.S. House of Representatives votes to expel Rep. James Traficant, D-Sopranos, after a House Ethics Committee investigation shows that the thing on his head is a diseased weasel that has eaten nearly 80 percent of his brain. The vote to expel him is 420-1, with the lone dissenting vote coming from . . . Iraq. But a month of bad news ends on an upbeat note when rescuers break through to a collapsed Pennsylvania mine shaft and free nine miners who have been trapped 240 feet underground for more than three days. Also rescued are 157 lawyers who have burrowed down there to offer their services in the filing of lawsuits. Speaking of money, in . . . AUGUST . . . financially strapped Brazil, in a cash-raising move considered by some experts in international law to be of questionable legality, announces that it has sold Uruguay to Paraguay for $200 million. On a brighter note, the owners and players of Major League Baseball agree, in a heartwarming display of cooperation and concern for the National Pastime, to continue raking in money. Commissioner Bud Selig announces that, in an effort to win back the trust of disillusioned fans, "we're going to fix it so Anaheim wins the Series." On the history front, divers seeking to recover the gun turret of the USS Monitor on the ocean floor off the coast of North Carolina discover surprising evidence that the Civil War gunship was sunk by . . . Iraq. The nation's Color Code Security Status is raised to Peach ("Viewer Discretion Advised"). And speaking of fugitives: Martha Stewart, pursued by the Securities and Exchange Commission, flees to a remote area of Westport, Conn., and barricades herself inside a primitive cabin with only nine bathrooms. SEC agents surround the structure but are reluctant to attack, as Stewart is known to possess a set of very sharp paring knives and a military-grade glue gun. "She can't hold out forever," states one agent. "We believe she has only a three-day supply of fennel." But things get even scarier in . . . SEPTEMBER . . . when Florida, having learned nothing from history, attempts to hold another election. Everything goes smoothly, with virtually no problems reported, until the polls open. Election officials begin to suspect that new computerized voting machines might have been programmed incorrectly when, instead of reporting the vote totals, the machines connect to the Internet and send out 126 million e-mails offering discount Viagra. Robert Torricelli announces that he is dropping out of the New Jersey Senate race because he is a good man who has done nothing wrong. The state Democratic Party, looking for a "name" to replace him on the ballot, decides, in a move of questionable legality, to go with "John F. Kennedy." U.S. news organizations observe the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks with investigative reports about the nation's continued vulnerability to terrorism. First, the New York Daily News reports that two of its reporters carried box cutters, razor knives and pepper spray on 14 commercial flights without getting caught. Then, Fox News reports that it flew Osama bin Laden to Washington, D.C., and videotaped him touring the White House. The nation's Color Code Security Status is ratcheted up to its third-highest level, Burnt Umber ("Medium Rare"). On the medical front, an outbreak of the deadly West Nile virus prompts six states to enact strict laws requiring the registration of mosquitoes. It does not go unnoticed by the Bush administration that the West Nile is probably in the same general area as . . . Iraq. But the bad news only gets worse in . . . OCTOBER . . . when the Washington, D.C., area is terrorized by a string of deadly sniper attacks. After weeks of escalating fear and tension, police are finally able to break the case by identifying, then arresting, the only two males in the United States who have not appeared on CNN or Fox as sniper experts. But the scariest news comes from North Korea, which announces that, in violation of a 1994 agreement with the United States, it is developing nuclear weapons. An angry President Bush responds by pointing out that "if you spell Korea backward, you get Aerok, which sounds a heck of a lot like . . . Iraq." Reacting quickly, the Department of Homeland Insecurity produces, in mere hours, a new National Security Color Code: Tangerine ("UH-oh"). In politics, a tragic plane crash claims the life of Sen. Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, whose loss is mourned at a memorial service featuring rousing eulogies and music by Limp Bizkit. The state's Democratic Party, looking for a replacement with name recognition, taps Walter Mondale, who, after some prompting, is, indeed, able to recognize his name. In the feel-good sports story of the year, the plucky and spunky Anaheim Angels, in what almost seems like a scripted outcome, defeat the San Francisco Barry Bonds in a nail-biter of a World Series that captivates millions of viewers, including several dozen living outside of California. And speaking of contests, in . . . NOVEMBER . . . the Republicans win big in the mid-term elections, giving President Bush a clear mandate to push forward with his foreign and domestic agendas, as soon as he thinks a domestic agenda up. In Florida, the computerized voting goes surprisingly smoothly, with election officials reporting no major "glitches," and a strong turnout of 87 trillion voters. World tension eases when Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, under intense international pressure, announces that he will allow UN weapons inspectors "full access to Ahvaz, Hamedan, Mashad, Rasht, Urmiya and Zahedan." World tension increases again when the UN inspectors, having visited these sites, report that they are located in Iran. In an ominous development, SEC agents confirm reports that Martha Stewart recently contracted with a leading New York architectural firm to design her a cave. The National Security Color Code is quickly bumped up to Jalapeno ("Everyone DOWN!"). Speaking of scary situations, in . . . DECEMBER . . . hopes for peace soar when Saddam Hussein, as ordered by the UN, finally turns over a list of materials that could be used to make weapons of mass destruction. These hopes are dashed when UN inspectors begin translating the list from Arabic and find that the first item is "a partridge in a pear tree." But the news is not so good from a remote, forbidding mountain region near Westport, Conn., where SEC agents prepare to attack a 24,500-square-foot, centrally heated, country-French-style cave containing Martha Stewart, only to discover that their worst-case nightmare scenario has become a reality: The fugitive taste goddess has gotten hold of a nuclear food processor. "If she presses the power button," states one official, "New England is radioactive cole slaw." In response, the National Security Color Code is ratcheted up to its highest level, Traffic Cone Orange ("Yipes"). And thus the year ends on a somewhat disturbing note. But this does not prevent the nation from pausing, on the eve of 2003, to gather with friends, to drink champagne, to blow into cardboard horns, to sing "Auld Lang Syne," to reflect on the year gone past, and above all to realize, a little too late, that those cardboard horns are manufactured abroad and would make a perfect vehicle for spreading chemical or biological warfare agents. But happy New Year anyway. © Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune. ***************************************************************** 38 White House budget office thwarts EPA warning on asbestos-laced insulation stltoday.com BY ANDREW SCHNEIDER Of the Post-Dispatch © 2002 St. Louis Post-Dispatch 12/27/2002 01:18 PM Paul Peronard, right, who lead EPA's emergency cleanup of Libby, Mont., shows the asbestos-tainted vermiculite to the EPA team charged with cleaning up apartments near the World Trade Center site. (Andrew Schneider /P-D) WASHINGTON ? The Environmental Protection Agency was on the verge of warning millions of Americans that their attics and walls might contain asbestos-contaminated insulation. But, at the last minute, the White House intervened, and the warning has never been issued. The agency's refusal to share its knowledge of what is believed to be a widespread health risk has been criticized by a former EPA administrator under two Republican presidents, a Democratic U.S. senator and physicians and scientists who have treated victims of the contamination. The announcement to warn the public was expected in April. It was to accompany a declaration by the EPA of a public health emergency in Libby, Mont. In that town near the Canadian border, ore from a vermiculite mine was contaminated with an extremely lethal asbestos fiber called tremolite that has killed or sickened thousands of miners and their families. Ore from the Libby mine was shipped across the nation and around the world, ending up in insulation called Zonolite that was used in millions of homes, businesses and schools across America. A public health emergency declaration had never been issued by any agency. It would have authorized the removal of the disease-causing insulation from homes in Libby and also provided long-term medical care for those made sick. Additionally, it would have triggered notification of property owners elsewhere who might be exposed to the contaminated insulation. Zonolite insulation was sold throughout North America from the 1940s through the 1990s. Almost all of the vermiculite used in the insulation came from the Libby mine, last owned by W.R. Grace & Co. In a meeting in mid-March, EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman and Marianne Horinko, head of the Superfund program, met with Paul Peronard, the EPA coordinator of the Libby cleanup and his team of health specialists. Whitman and Horinko asked tough questions, and apparently got the answers they needed. They agreed they had to move ahead on a declaration, said a participant in the meeting. By early April, the declaration was ready to go. News releases had been written and rewritten. Lists of governors to call and politicians to notify had been compiled. Internal e-mail shows that discussions had even been held on whether Whitman would go to Libby for the announcement. But the declaration was never made. *Derailed by White House * Interviews and documents show that just days before the EPA was set to make the declaration, the plan was thwarted by the White House Office of Management and Budget, which had been told of the proposal months earlier. Both the budget office and the EPA acknowledge that the White House agency was actively involved, but neither agency would discuss how or why. The EPA's chief spokesman Joe Martyak said, "Contact OMB for the details." Budget office spokesperson Amy Call said, "These questions will have to be addressed to the EPA." Call said the budget office provided wording for the EPA to use, but she declined to say why the White House opposed the declaration and the public notification. "These are part of our internal discussions with EPA, and we don't discuss predecisional deliberations," Call said. Both agencies refused Freedom of Information Act requests for documents to and from the White House Office of Management and Budget. The budget office was created in 1970 to evaluate all budget, policy, legislative, regulatory, procurement and management issues on behalf of the president. *Office interfered before * Former EPA administrator William Ruckelshaus, who worked for Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, called the decision not to notify homeowners of the dangers posed by Zonolite insulation "the wrong thing to do." "When the government comes across this kind of information and doesn't tell people about it, I just think it's wrong, unconscionable, not to do that," he said. "Your first obligation is to tell the people living in these homes of the possible danger. They need the information so they can decide what actions are best for their family. What right does the government have to conceal these dangers? It just doesn't make sense." But, he added, pressure on the EPA from the budget office or the White House is not unprecedented. Ruckelshaus, who became the EPA's first administrator when the agency was created by Nixon in 1970, said he never was called by the president directly to discuss agency decisions. He said the same held true when he was called back to lead the EPA by Reagan after Anne Gorsuch Burford's scandal-plagued tenure. Calls from a White House staff member or the Office of Management and Budget were another matter. "The pressure could come from industry pressuring OMB or if someone could find a friendly ear in the White House to get them to intervene," Ruckelshaus said. "These issues like asbestos are so technical, often so convoluted, that industry's best chance to stop us or modify what we wanted to do would come from OMB." The question about what to do about Zonolite insulation was not the only asbestos-related issue in which the White House intervened. In January, in an internal EPA report on problems with the agency's much-criticized response to the terrorist attacks in New York City, a section on "lessons learned" said there was a need to release public health and emergency information without having it reviewed and delayed by the White House. "We cannot delay releasing important public health information," said the report. "The political consequences of delaying information are greater than the benefit of centralized information management." It was the White House budget office's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs that derailed the Libby declaration. The regulatory affairs office is headed by John Graham, who formerly ran the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis. His appointment last year was denounced by environmental, health and public advocacy groups, who claimed his ties to industry were too strong. Graham passes judgment over all major national health, safety and environmental standards. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., urged colleagues to vote against Graham's appointment, saying Graham would have to recuse himself from reviewing many rules because affected industries donated to the Harvard University Center. Thirty physicians, 10 of them from Harvard, according to The Washington Post, wrote the committee asking that Graham not be confirmed because of "a persistent pattern of conflict of interest, of obscuring and minimizing dangers to human health with questionable cost-benefit analyses, and of hostility to governmental regulation in general." Repeated requests for interviews with Graham or anyone else involved in the White House budget office decision were denied. *"It was like a gut shot"* Whitman, Horinko and some members of their top staff were said to have been outraged at the White House intervention. "It was like a gut shot," said one of those senior staffers involved in the decision. "It wasn't that they ordered us not to make the declaration, they just really, really strongly suggested against it. Really strongly. There was no choice left." She and other staff members said Whitman was personally interested in Libby and the national problems spawned by its asbestos-tainted ore. The EPA's inspector general had reported that the agency hadn't taken action more than two decades earlier when it had proof that the people of Libby and those using asbestos-tainted Zonolite products were in danger. Whitman went to Libby in early September 2001 and promised the people it would never happen again. "We want everyone who comes in contact with vermiculite ? from homeowners to handymen ? to have the information to protect themselves and their families," Whitman promised. *Suits, bankruptcies grow * Political pragmatists in the agency knew the administration was angered that a flood of lawsuits had caused more than a dozen major corporations ? including W.R. Grace ? to file for bankruptcy protection. The suits sought billions of dollars on behalf of people injured or killed from exposure to asbestos in their products or workplaces. Republicans on Capitol Hill crafted legislation ? expected to be introduced next month ? to stem the flow of these suits. Nevertheless, Whitman told her people to move forward with the emergency declaration. Those in the EPA who respect their boss fear that Whitman may quit. She has taken heat for other White House decisions such as a controversial decision on levels of arsenic in drinking water, easing regulations to allow 50-year-old power plants to operate without implementing modern pollution controls and a dozen other actions which environmentalists say favor industry over health. Newspapers in her home state of New Jersey ran front page stories this month saying Whitman had told Bush she wanted to leave the agency. Spokesman Martyak said his boss is staying on the job. *EPA was poised to act * In October, the EPA complied with a Freedom of Information Act request and gave the Post-Dispatch access to thousands of documents ? in nine large file boxes. There were hundreds of e-mails, scores of "action memos" describing the declaration and piles of "communication strategies" for how the announcement would be made. The documents illustrated the internal and external battle over getting the declaration and announcement released. One of the most contentious concerns was the anticipated national backlash from the Libby declaration. EPA officials knew that if the agency announced that the insulation in Montana was so dangerous that an emergency had to be declared, people elsewhere whose homes contained the same contaminated Zonolite would want answers or perhaps demand to have their homes cleaned. The language of the declaration was molded to stress how unique Libby was and to play down the national problem. But many in the agency's headquarters and regional offices didn't buy it. In a Feb. 22 memo, the EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics said "the national ramifications are enormous" and estimated that if only 1 million homes have Zonolite "(are) we not put in a position to remove their (insulation) at a national cost of over $10 billion?" The memo also questioned the agency's claim that the age of Libby's homes and severe winter conditions in Montana required a higher level of maintenance, which in turn meant increased disturbance of the insulation in the homes there. It's "a shallow argument," the memo said. "There are older homes which exist in harsh or harsher conditions across the country. Residents in Maine and Michigan might find this argument flawed." No one knows precisely how many dwellings are insulated with Zonolite. Memos from the EPA and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry repeatedly cite an estimate of between 15 million and 35 million homes. A government analysis of shipping records from W.R. Grace show that at least 15.6 billion pounds of vermiculite ore was shipped from Libby to 750 plants and factories throughout North America. Between a third and half of that ore was popped into insulation and usually sold in 3-foot-high kraft paper bags. Government extrapolations and interviews with former W.R. Grace Zonolite salesmen indicate that Illinois may have as many as 800,000 homes with Zonolite, Michigan as many as 700,000. Missouri is likely to have Zonolite in 380,000 homes. With four processing plants in St. Louis, it is estimated that more than 60,000 homes, offices and schools were insulated with Zonolite in the St. Louis area alone. Eventually, the internal documents show, acceptance grew that the agency should declare a public health emergency. In a confidential memo dated March 28, an EPA official said the declaration was tentatively set for April 5. But the declaration never came. Instead, Superfund boss Horinko on May 9 quietly ordered that asbestos be removed from contaminated homes in Libby. There was no national warning of potential dangers from Zonolite. And there was no promise of long-term medical care for Libby's ill and dying. The presence of the White House budget office is noted throughout the documents. The press announcement of the watered-down decision was rewritten five times the day before it was released to accommodate budget office wording changes that played down the dangers. *Dangers of Zonolite* The asbestos in Zonolite, like all asbestos products, is believed to be either a minimal risk or no risk if it is not disturbed. The asbestos fibers must be airborne to be inhaled. The fibers then become trapped in the lungs, where they may cause asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma, a fast-moving cancer of the lung's lining. The EPA's files are filled with studies documenting the toxicity of tremolite, how even minor disruptions of the material by moving boxes, sweeping the floor or doing repairs in attics can generate asbestos fibers. This also has been confirmed by simulations W.R. Grace ran in Weedsport, N.Y., in July 1977; by 1997 studies by the Canadian Department of National Defense; and by the U.S. Public Health Service, which reported in 2000, that "even minimal handling by workers or residents poses a substantial health risk." Last December, a study by Christopher Weis, the EPA's senior toxicologist supporting the Libby project, reported that "the concentrations of asbestos fibers that occur in air following disturbance of (insulation) may reach levels of potential human health concerns." Most of those who have studied the needle-sharp tremolite fibers in the Libby ore consider them far more dangerous than other asbestos fibers. In October, the EPA team leading the cleanup of lower Manhattan after the attacks of Sept. 11 went to Libby to meet with Peronard and his crew. The EPA had reversed an early decision and announced that it would be cleaning asbestos from city apartments. Libby has been a laboratory for doing just that. Peronard told the visitors from New York just how dangerous tremolite is. He talked about the hands-on research in Libby of Dr. Alan Whitehouse, a pulmonologist who had worked for NASA and the Air Force on earlier projects before moving to Spokane, Wash. "Whitehouse's research on the people here gave us our first solid lead of how bad this tremolite is," Peronard said. Whitehouse has not only treated 500 people from Libby who are sick and dying from exposure to tremolite. The chest specialist also has almost 300 patients from Washington shipyards and the Hanford, Wash., nuclear facility who are suffering health effects from exposure to the more prevalent chrysotile asbestos. Comparing the two groups, Whitehouse has demonstrated that the tremolite from Libby is 10 times as carcinogenic as chrysotile and probably 100 times more likely to produce mesothelioma than chrysotile. W.R. Grace has maintained that its insulation is safe. On April 3 of this year, the company wrote a letter to Whitman again insisting its product was safe and that no public health declaration or nationwide warning was warranted. Dr. Brad Black, who runs the asbestos clinic in Libby and acts as health officer for Montana's Lincoln County, says "people have a right to be warned of the potential danger they may face if they disturb that stuff." Martyak, chief EPA spokesman, argues that the agency has informed the public of the potential dangers. "It's on our Web site," he said. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is sponsoring legislation to ban asbestos in the United States. She said the Web site warning is a joke. "EPA's answer that people have been warned because it's on their Web site is ridiculous," she said. "If you have a computer, and you just happened to think about what's in your attic, and you happen to be on EPA's Web page, then you get to know. This is not the way the safety of the public is handled. "We, the government, the EPA, the administration have a responsibility to at least let people know the information so they can protect themselves if they go into those attics," she said. *What you should know about asbestos dangers * * * Zonolite insulation has been produced and sold for home and business use for more than half a century. The featherweight, silverish-brown pieces of popcornlike vermiculite are usually the size of a nickel or dime, but some firms have sold pea-size vermiculite. Here's what government experts say you should do: If you're a homeowner: Stay away from Zonolite insulation, and leave it alone. Asbestos is dangerous only when the material is disturbed and the fibers become airborne and can be drawn into the lungs. If you must work in the attic: "If you're a do-it-yourselfer or someone who's in attics every day ? like electricians, telephone people, cable installers, the heating and cooling people ? get and wear the proper respirator and change your clothes before you go home," says Paul Peronard of the Environmental Protection Agency. If you don't know whether you have Zonolite but think you might: Do not let children play in the area. Do not sweep the Zonolite or use a normal vacuum cleaner. This will just recirculate the dangerous fibers, which could linger in the air for days. There are vacuum cleaners on the market that come with highly sensitive HEPA filters that will capture the fibers. If you want to find out about the material in your attic: There are asbestos testing laboratories in or near most communities. If you want Zonolite removed: For do-it-yourselfers, the EPA and many state and local health departments can tell you the safest way to get rid of the insulation. Professional cleanup help is available, but hiring a professional asbestos remover can be costly. To avoid potential conflicts of interest, have the insulation tested by one firm and removed by another. State and local agencies have the names and numbers of people trained, equipped and licensed to do this work. Carefully check out the credentials of those you hire. An untrained or sloppy crew can spread asbestos throughout your house or office. *For more information: * U.S. EPA ? National Asbestos Hot Line: 1-800-368-5888 U.S. EPA Region 7 (Missouri): 1-800-223-0425 U.S. EPA Region 5 (Illinois): 1-800-621-8431 EPA Web site: www.epa.gov (search for vermiculite) Missouri ? Office of Environmental Health and Air Pollution Control: 1-800-392-7245 St. Louis County Health Department, Air Pollution Control: 314-615-8923 or 8924 St. Louis, Division of Air Pollution Control: 314-613-7300 Illinois: The health departments in Madison, St. Clair, Monroe and Clinton counties say they refer all calls involving asbestos to the Illinois Department of Public Health: 1-217-782-5830 *Reporter Andrew Schneider:* *E-mail: aschneider@post-dispatch.com * *Phone: 314-340-8101* ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************