***************************************************************** 09/30/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.251 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POLICY 1 Leader: Britain needs a new energy strategy 2 US: NRC Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards To Meet October 10 3 US: Opinions: Rejects new pits for nuclear bombs 4 US: Selling Our Secrets NUCLEAR REACTORS 5 US: NRC Assigns New Resident Inspector to Indian Point 3 6 Japan: TEPCO faked inspection data on regular basis 7 Japan: Stunning nuke cover-up alleged at TEPCO plant NUCLEAR SAFETY 8 Refined uranium found in Turkey weighs grams, not kilograms 9 Media Mum on Turk Nuke Bombshell; GOP Divided on Danger* 10 US: NRC Staff Proposes $3,000 Fine Against Indiana Firm for Losing a 11 US: NRC Annual Nuclear Safety Research Conference to Be Held October 12 Some questioning whether tube holds uranium in Turkey 13 US: Risk not limited to IAAP workers 14 US: '88 Warning Was Rejected at Damaged Nuclear Plant NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 15 US: *Yucca Mountain battle not over* 16 US: NRC Proposes Changes to Regulations on Decommissioning Funding 17 US: NRC Amends Regulation on Unlikely Events at Potential Waste 18 US: Opponents of Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump rally in Reno 19 US: Utahns Favor Bingo Profits Over N-Waste for Goshutes 20 US: 'Warning' about U.S. Ecology draws scant attention* 21 Swedes to teach Russians to clean up army bases 22 US: Rio Tinto not giving up on uranium mining in Jabiluka. 23 PRO-LES: This company is committed to the good of Hartsville NUCLEAR WEAPONS 24 Addendum to Counter-Dossier Refutes Blair report] 25 [southnews] Thousands march in UK, Europe in anti-war protest 26 INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY DISAVOWS REPORT ON IRAQ ARMS 27 Headline: Pakistan obliged to support UN-backed Iraq action: 28 Focus / Russia's dangerous dealings with Iran go on 29 The Saddam menace -- The Washington Times 30 Gore on Bush 31 Turkey makes huge haul -- 32 India: Strategic nuclear command being put in place: Lt Gen Joshi US DEPT. OF ENERGY 33 NTS may be used to make plutonium triggers* 34 Hanford Tank crawler on cleanup duty 35 Energy NW moves 1st spent fuel 36 Yakima doctors urge FFTF perpetuity 37 ATG working on financial recovery formula 38 Taxpayers to foot bill for DOE damages 39 Isotopes group asked to clarify letter 40 Hanford's 2003 budget still in limbo 41 Hanford HAMMER safety program honored 42 Businesses, Bechtel clash over contracts 43 YMP space crunch an opportunity for Nye, Taguchi says* 44 Hanford's DR Reactor sealed 45 Briefing set Monday on FFTF 46 DOE official optimistic on cleanup plan OTHER NUCLEAR 47 At 40, accelerator center full of energy / Physicist pursued huge 48 Tilges takes Shundahai's reigns ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Leader: Britain needs a new energy strategy Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Power politics Leader Monday September 30, 2002 The Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk] The fallout from the government's £650m bailout of British Energy, Britain's privatised nuclear power generator, will contaminate the forthcoming white paper on energy. Until recently, energy policy had consisted of benign neglect. The indifference did not start with this government but the last. In the 1990s Britain had a surfeit of cheap gas and low electricity prices. After a decade of privatisation and liberalisation, the Tories concluded that energy was best dealt with by the market, not by politicians. The cabinet post of energy secretary was scrapped by John Major and responsibility for powering Britain was added to the trade brief. A decade on, this analysis is looking past its political sell-by date. Today Britain needs more, not less, government intervention in energy policy. The crisis at British Energy has, to some extent, mandated such action. The challenge now comes in three parts. The first is cost. The electricity market has seen prices fall so fast that companies such as British Energy cannot sell electricity profitably. True, domestic customers have seen prices come down - but not as quickly as the markets have. The second issue is security of supply. North Sea gas is running out - leaving Britain at first dependent on fuel from Norway but then increasingly on a potential new gas cartel, headed by Russia, Iran and Algeria, which could in the next two decades dictate prices to householders. The third challenge is the greatest - preventing climate change and promoting low-carbon fuel. Green energy, in the form of wind power stations or solar panels, is widely championed but has not yet become a major feature of the landscape. Even though Britain is an island buffeted by the elements and has the greatest potential for renewable sources, wind turbines here produce just a 20th of the electricity generated by those in Germany. The tension between the price of electricity, the security of its supply and the effect of increasing demand for power on the environment has to be resolved. The weakness of the performance and innovation unit report into energy earlier this year was that it did not suggest how these objectives might be traded off against each other. Policy needs objectives, and a plan to go with them. As a first step, the government ought to create an energy agency, under ministerial control, with a remit to act to head off crises rather than reacting to them. World Nuclear Transport Institute [http://www.wnti.co.uk] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 ***************************************************************** 2 NRC Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards To Meet October 10 - 12 in Rockville, Md. NRC: News Release - 2002-112 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov [opa@nrc.gov] www.nrc.gov No. 02-112 September 26, 2002 The Nuclear Regulatory Commissions Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) will hold a meeting on October 10 - 12 in Rockville, Md., to discuss, among other items, license renewal applications for the Catawba and McGuire nuclear power plants. The meeting, most of which will be open to the public, will be held in Room T-2B3 of the agencys Two White Flint North building, at 11545 Rockville Pike. It will begin at 8:30 a.m. each day. A complete agenda is attached. For additional information contact Dr. Sher Bahadur, at 301-415-0138, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. ACRS MEETING AGENDA THURSDAY 8:30 - 8:35 A.M. Opening Statement by the ACRS Chairman - The ACRS Chairman will make remarks regarding the conduct of the meeting. 8:35 - 10:00 A.M.: Confirmatory Research Program on High-Burnup Fuel (Open) - The Committee will hear presentations by and hold discussions with representatives of the NRC Staff and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) regarding the confirmatory research program on high-burnup fuel and the EPRI topical report on reactivity insertion accidents. 10:15 A.M. - 12:15 P.M.: Overview of European Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR), SWR 1000 (Boiling Water Reactor), Advanced CANDU Reactor (ACR 700) Pre-Application Review (Open) - The Committee will hear presentations by and hold discussions with representatives of the NRC Staff and industry on the ESBWR (General Electric 1380 MWe), SWR 1000 (Framatome ANP-Siemens 1000 Mwe) and ACR 700 (Advanced CANDU Reactor 700 Mwe) advanced reactor designs. 1:15 - 2:45 P.M.: Catawba and McGuire License Renewal Application (Open) - The Committee will hear presentations by and hold discussions with representatives of the NRC staff and Duke Energy Company regarding the license renewal application and draft Safety Evaluation Report for the Catawba Nuclear Station Units 1 and 2 and McGuire Nuclear Station Units 1 and 2. 2:45 P.M. - 4:00 P.M.: Policy Issues Related to Advanced Reactor Licensing (Open) - The Committee will hear presentations by and hold discussions with representatives of the NRC staff regarding changes to policy issues related to the licensing of advanced reactors resulting from the resolution of ACRS comments and recommendations included in its June 17, 2002 report. 4:15 - 7:00 P.M.: Proposed ACRS Reports (Open) - The Committee will discuss proposed ACRS reports on matters considered during this meeting. FRIDAY 8:30 - 8:35 A.M.: Opening Remarks by the ACRS Chairman (Open) - The ACRS Chairman will make remarks regarding the conduct of the meeting. 8:35 - 10:00 A.M.: Program Plan for Low-Power Shutdown (LPSD) Standardized Plant Analysis Risk (SPAR) Model Development and Cancellation of Revision 4i of SPAR Models (Open) - The Committee will hear presentations by and hold discussions with representatives of the NRC staff regarding the program plan for LPSD SPAR Model Development, the reasons for canceling plans for the development of revision 4i of the SPAR Models, and insights from the onsite review of the LPSD SPAR model for Surry Nuclear Plant Units 1 and 2. 10:15 - 11:30 A.M.: Guidance for Performance-Based Regulation (Open) - The Committee will hear presentations by and hold discussions with representatives of the NRC staff regarding the draft NUREG/BR Guidance for Performance-Based Regulation. 11:30 - 11:45 A.M.: Reconciliation of ACRS Comments and Recommendations (Open) - The Committee will discuss the responses from the NRC Executive Director for Operations (EDO) to comments and recommendations included in recent ACRS reports and letters. The EDO responses are expected to be made available to the Committee prior to the meeting. 1:15 - 2:15 P.M.: Future ACRS Activities/Report of the Planning and Procedures Subcommittee (Open) - The Committee will discuss the recommendations of the Planning and Procedures Subcommittee regarding items proposed for consideration by the full Committee during future meetings. Also, it will hear a report of the Planning and Procedures Subcommittee on matters related to the conduct of ACRS business, and organizational and personnel matters relating to the ACRS. 2:15 - 3:15 P.M.: Report Regarding Recent Operating Events (Open) - Report by the cognizant ACRS member regarding recent operating events of interest. 3:15 - 7:00 P.M.: Proposed ACRS Reports (Open/Closed) - The Committee will discuss proposed ACRS reports. Part of the session will be closed to the public. SATURDAY 8:30 A.M. - 1:00 P.M.: Proposed ACRS Reports (Open) - The Committee will discuss proposed ACRS reports. 1:00 - 1:30 P.M.: Miscellaneous (Open) - The Committee will discuss matters related to the conduct of Committee activities and matters and specific issues that were not completed during previous meetings, as time and availability of information permit. The Committee will also discuss its plans for preparing a "white paper" on the use of PRA in the regulatory decision making process. ACRS meeting agenda, meeting transcripts, and letter reports are available through the NRC Public Document Room at pdr@nrc.gov [pdr@nrc.gov] , or by calling the PDR at 1-800-397-4209, or from the Publicly Available Records System (PARS) component of NRC's document system (ADAMS) which is accessible from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html or http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/ (ACRS & ACNW Mtg schedules/agendas). Privacy Statement | Site Disclaimer Last revised Friday, September 27, 2002 ***************************************************************** 3 Opinions: Rejects new pits for nuclear bombs Augusta Georgia: Web posted Monday, September 30, 2002 Letter to the Editor The Feds want to start making new pits for nuclear bombs and is considering the Savannah River Site as the place to do it, according to the Sept. 13 edition of The Augusta Chronicle. The men at Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness have revealed their interest in the weapons side of nuclear energy by saying how great this would be for our area. Have we all gone mad? More pits are needed only if we want new designs, or if we aren't satisfied with the huge megatonnage of nukes we already have. I was under the impression that we recently struck a deal with Russia to reduce the number of our weapons by at least a half, releasing thousands of pits to replace those no longer reliable. If the past 57 years teaches us anything about the utility of our nuclear arsenal, it is that it serves only as a deterrent to their use by an enemy. President George W. Bush has apparently not learned this simple lesson, and wants the military brass to think about what uses they could make of newer designs. This is a variant of the old idea that a nuclear war is winnable, or is anything but the worst disaster man could wreak on the world. There is little that our area can do to convince the madmen in Washington of their error, but we at least can refuse to welcome a new pit facility to our area. I urge the citizens of the Central Savannah River Area, particularly those like me who participated in making pits when there was a good case for doing so, to express their revulsion at becoming a part of this sick idea. I also ask the local governments and the chambers of commerce to reject this plant. Perhaps our objection, if shared by other potential sites, would get the Feds to reconsider this. Victor Reilly, Aiken, S.C. The Augusta Chronicle. All rights reserved. Read our privacy ***************************************************************** 4 Selling Our Secrets The New York Times < *September 30, 2002* *By WILLIAM SAFIRE* WASHINGTON They never learn. Remember, a couple of years ago, the scandals about the way corporate giants like Hughes Electronics and Loral Space, led by big Democratic contributors, sold secret U.S. satellite technology to Chinese aerospace companies and semiconductor manufacturers? Remember how right-wingers like me got all worked up about our shortsighted government and venal executives placing the interests of international trade over the needs of national defense? I am ashamed to report that the Bush administration is getting ready to let our ever-hungry multinationals do the same thing. This time, however, it would all be legalized. If current legislation (Senate 149, the Export Administration Act) being urged by the White House passed, American executives would be encouraged to sell the fruits of their most advanced research to foreign nationals who may not wish us well. The arguments used by the merchants of American defense technology: (1) selling technology overseas that is "mass marketed" here helps bring down our unit cost at home, as well as benefits business; (2) we're only selling it for good uses, even though its "dual use" could help them penetrate our defenses; (3) "foreign availability" ? they could always buy something almost as good from the Germans or French. What's more, say the sell-anybody-anything advocates in the Clinton-Bush Commerce Department, because we have an embargo on sales to Iraq, relaxed export rules won't help Saddam. Last things first: Iraq buys dual-use nuclear components through cutouts who could easily buy them from us. Take high-strength aluminum tubes, for example, which can be used in bicycles ? but a thousand of them in easily hidden gas centrifuges can produce enough weapons-grade uranium for one nuclear bomb every year. Under the proposed law, a country like Russia or Jordan could buy ours and re-sell them to Saddam with no weapons inspectors the wiser. You like the composite glass fibers in your tennis racquet? A sinister use is to form the rotors of those centrifuges, and their export has been controlled for 20 years. No more, if those who would sell our technology to multifarious middlemen have their way. Nor would our embargo on shipments to Iraq stop our leakage of secrets. China's Huawei Technologies, which could not have been built for a decade without exported American technology, violated the U.N. embargo by selling fiber optic products to Saddam. He now uses them in his air defense system to jeopardize U.S. pilots. We should not fall for the "dual use" dodge. Germany's Siemens, reported Gary Milhollin of the watchdog Wisconsin Project, legally sold Saddam krytron electronic switches, which doctors now use to destroy kidney stones. When Iraq then sought 120 more as "spare parts," it dawned on Siemens that the switches are also used in setting off the chain reaction in nuclear weapons. Bush can say that in his 2000 campaign he promised business leaders to lift export controls. But that was before Sept. 11. Now those controls ? which worked well for decades against the Soviets ? need strengthening, not weakening. Perhaps our National Security Council has been getting pressure from India and Pakistan, each of which wants our missile technology. By accommodating these nuclear powers, we might gain two allies but would make the world more dangerous. America does not need this dirty business. It amounts to only a few billion dollars in sales, and its military misuse ? through copycat "reverse engineering," a Chinese specialty ? costs American taxpayers far more than that to defend against. A handful of hard-line senators (Jon Kyl, Jesse Helms, Richard Shelby, John McCain and Fred Thompson) wrote Bush this month to stop pushing this bill this year. They urged instead that he create a new bill "that strikes the right balance between national security and trade" lest it cause "public divisions among strong supporters of your administration at a time when cohesiveness is an absolute necessity." Some old hands remember the predations of yesteryear. Newcomers have to be reminded. /Bob Herbert is on vacation./ Copyright The New York Times Company ***************************************************************** 5 NRC Assigns New Resident Inspector to Indian Point 3 NRC: News Release - Region I - 2002-060 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region I 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406 www.nrc.gov No. I-02-060 September 30, 2002 CONTACT: Diane Screnci (610) 337-5330 Neil A. Sheehan (610) 337-5331 E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov [opa1@nrc.gov] NRC ASSIGNS NEW RESIDENT INSPECTOR TO INDIAN POINT 3 Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials in King of Prussia, Pa., have selected Mark R. Cox as the resident inspector at the Indian Point 3 nuclear power plant in Buchanan, N.Y. Entergy Northeast operates both Indian Point 2 and 3. The NRC has two inspectors assigned to each unit. Cox joins Senior Resident Inspector Peter Drysdale at unit 3. Peter Habighorst is the senior resident inspector at Unit 2. Resident Inspector Lois James is also assigned to Unit 2. Cox joined the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in May of this year. Previously, he served in the United States Navys nuclear program. He earned a bachelors of science degree in nuclear engineering and engineering physics from Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, N.Y., and is currently pursuing a masters of science in electric power engineering from RPI. Cox, his wife and three children reside in Plattekill, N.Y., where they are active in the community. Each U.S. commercial nuclear power plant has at least two NRC resident inspectors. They serve as the agency's eyes and ears at the facility, conducting regular inspections and monitoring significant work projects. The Indian Point 3 resident inspectors can be reached at 914/739-8565. Privacy Statement | Site Disclaimer Last revised Monday, September 30, 2002 ***************************************************************** 6 Japan: TEPCO faked inspection data on regular basis [Daily Yomiuri On-Line] Yomiuri Shimbun Tokyo Electric Power Co. manipulated data during inspections in the presence of state inspectors on a regular basis at both its Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 nuclear power plants in the latter half of the 1980s to the 1990s, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned Sunday. According to sources and investigations by Hitachi, Ltd., which was commissioned to conduct the regular inspections, TEPCO manipulated the air pressure controllers of the core shrouds of its Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 nuclear power plants reactors during regular inspections in the late 1980s to '90s, in addition to previously reported attempts to conceal cracks in equipment at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. In an attempt to solidify its cover-up, TEPCO prepared two versions of in-house inspection reports--an internal one with actual data and an official one with falsified data--for regular inspections at both of the nuclear power plants during those years, according to Hitachi's internal documents. During the regular inspections of both Fukushima nuclear power plants, TEPCO presented government inspectors with the doctored version of its in-house inspection reports. They then staged the inspection to result in matching data, the sources said. The core shroud of nuclear reactor is a steel structure encasing a reactor pressure vessel and is the final safeguard in preventing radioactive materials in the vessel from leaking out in the case of an accident. Because of the role it plays, the core shroud must be as airtight as possible. An airtight shroud is the foremost priority in regular on-the-spot inspections attended by state inspectors, which are usually conducted every 13 months. According to the sources and internal investigation records, TEPCO regularly manipulated data during the regular inspections at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant's No. 1 nuclear reactor and one or more of Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power plant's four nuclear reactors in the latter half of the 1980s to the 1990s. During those years, TEPCO's in-house inspections--conducted in time for the regular inspections, which were conducted by Hitachi in the presence of state inspectors--reportedly detected an average leakage rate at the Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power plant's reactors of about 0.1 percent. At the regular inspections held one or two days later, however, TEPCO officials apparently manipulated the air-pressure controllers of the reactors' core shrouds to halve the average rates to 0.06 percent, easily gaining government certification as a result. The maximum leakage rate allowed in the regular inspections is 0.45 percent, far higher than the 0.1 percent yielded in the in-house inspections held at the Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power plant. TEPCO would have passed the regular inspections without manipulating the data, but if the data from a regular inspection on the core shroud of reactor differed from previous inspections, TEPCO would have been required to make a thorough inspection to locate the exact source of air leakage and test to see if any of the related gauges were malfunctioning, causing the company to suspend reactor operations for some time. Copyright 2002 The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 7 Japan: Stunning nuke cover-up alleged at TEPCO plant Asahi Shimbun www.asahi.com [http://www.asahi.com/] The Asahi Shimbun The utility apparently faked a safety check on equipment that prevents radiation leaks. Documents indicate that Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) cheated on a safety test concerning a nuclear reactor containment vessel in 1992 in what could be the utility's most dangerous cover-up, sources said over the weekend. Steel containment vessels, usually more than 30 meters tall, cover reactor pressure vessels that surround the reactor core. The containment vessel's chief purpose is to prevent radioactivity from leaking if an accident occurs in the reactor. To function properly, the containment vessel requires an extremely high airtight level. Examinations on the so-called leak rate are a crucial part of inspections of nuclear power plants, industry sources said. But the importance of a properly functioning containment vessel was apparently ignored by officials at the No. 1 reactor of TEPCO's Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant in Fukushima Prefecture, sources said. According to TEPCO's in-house probe, the company conducted a leak-rate test on the container before the government's regular examination in June 1992. TEPCO officials discovered the leak rate was too large to pass the regular inspection, so they devised a scheme to prevent the plant from being shut down, the sources said. When the government inspectors were checking the leak rate, TEPCO officials secretly pumped extra air into the vessel from the main steam isolation valve, the sources said. The extra air lowered the leak rate enough so that the containment vessel passed the inspection, they said. TEPCO's team discovered documents at Hitachi Ltd. describing the process of how to send in air from the isolation valve. Hitachi was contracted to check TEPCO equipment. TEPCO's investigative team suspects a group of officials at the Fukushima plant faked the test because it would have been difficult for Hitachi to commit the act on its own. TEPCO is gathering more details on the case and will submit a report the case to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. A TEPCO official, acknowledging the severity of the allegations, said: ``We have explained to the public that nuclear plants are still safe even if there were accidents in the reactor because radioactivity can be sealed in the containment vessel. If the faked test is true, it would bring us far more serious repercussions than the other cover-up cases.'' Strict safety standards are required for leak rates. Any violation could result in suspended operations at the offending nuclear power plant. (09/30) [Copyright Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 8 Refined uranium found in Turkey weighs grams, not kilograms , Ha'aretz Correspondent, and Agencies The captured weapons-grade uranium. (Photo: AP) The refined uranium caught by Turkish police Saturday weighed far less than originally thought, an official source in southwestern Turkey said Sunday. It was originally believed that the Turkish paramilitary police had seized over 15 kg of weapons-grade uranium in the operation that also resulted in the detention of two men accused of smuggling the substance. The actual weight of the uranium turned out to be hundreds of grams, a fraction of the initial estimate. The uranium is to be sent for tests to the local Atomic Energy Agency. The two suspects were brought before a judge Saturday night charged with the illegal sale of the material. Officers in the southern province of Sanliurfa, bordering Syria and 250 km from the Iraqi border, were acting on a tip-off when they stopped a taxi cab and discovered the uranium in a lead container hidden beneath the vehicle's seat, the Anatolian news agency said Saturday. The incident came at a time of mounting speculation the U.S. could attack neighboring Iraq for its alleged program of weapons of mass destruction. Officials at Ankara's Atomic Energy Institute would not confirm they had been notified about the material. "Our investigation on whether the uranium was destined for a neighboring country is continuing," a Sanliurfa police official was quoted as saying by Anatolian. Authorities believe the uranium came from an east European country and has a value of about $5 million, Anatolian said. It was not immediately clear when the operation was carried out. Anatolian only gave the first names of the suspects, which appeared to be Turkish. Smugglers use Turkey's porous eastern border to import drugs, and hundreds of thousands of migrants each year illegally cross the rugged frontier on their way to more affluent European Union nations. Police in Istanbul seized more than one kg of weapons-grade uranium last November that had been smuggled into Turkey from an east European state. The smugglers were detained after attempting to sell the material to undercover police officers. © Copyright 2002 Ha`aretz. All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 9 Media Mum on Turk Nuke Bombshell; GOP Divided on Danger* NewsMax.com *With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff* *Sunday, Sept. 29, 2002 11:30 a.m. EDT* Twenty-four hours after the Reuters news agency first reported that Turkish police seized what they believe is a record quantity of weapons grade uranium just 155 miles from the Iraqi border most U.S. news outlets have declined to cover the story. Even as a top Senate Republican called the development potentially "dangerous" Sunday morning, none of the three major New York Sunday newspapers, including the New York Times, decided to carry the report in their print editions. (The Times did have the Reuters report available on its Web site.) Likewise in Washington, the Washington Post decided to embargo the news for now, in both its Web and online editions, leaving the Turkish nuke bombshell for the Washington Times to report. In Boston, the New York Times' sister paper, the Boston Globe, did carry the Reuters report, but again only on its Web site. The Los Angeles Times covered the news in its print edition, but relegated the story to the last paragraph of a lengthy report on Iraqi weapons inspections. Though the U.S. press has been virtually mum on the bombshell uranium seizure - a development suggesting that Iraq came perilously close to obtaining the fissile material that weapons experts say could give Saddam Hussein a workable nuclear bomb within months - the report came up almost immediately on two of the Sunday talk shows. "It is a serious problem," Sen. Don Nickles, R-Ok., told ABC's "This Week." "To think that there might have been 35 pounds [of enriched uranium] that's on the market by somebody trying to sell it to Iran or Iraq or whoever else - possible terrorists, that a very serious charge." Nickles, the number two Republican in the Senate, hinted the development could force fast action against states that sponsor terrorism. "It shows you how dangerous it is," he told TW's George Stephanopoulos. "Particularly in that region of the world it means that we have to be very aggressive against potential terrorists and regimes that might support terrorism." But appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Nickles' colleague, Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., sounded less concerned that the deadly nuke material might fall into the wrong hands. Asked about the uranium seizure in conjunction with Iraq's rejection over the weekend of unfettered weapons inspections, the Nebraska Republican said he still saw no justification for unilateral action. "The question is, whether there's sufficient urgency to go after Saddam," he told FNS host Tony Snow. "If we are to deal with Saddam, and we must, that requires a coalition of common interests, just as we did in 1990 and 1991." Hagel said the Turkish uranium seizure report "once again shows the importance of working with our allies; law enforcement and intelligence. The military option is one. But we surely in the United States don't want to invade Iraq with just one other nation, or alone." Asked whether the U.S. should wait for a coalition even after Iraq gets the fissile material it needs to build the bomb, Hagel responded, "Well, the intelligence doesn't show that and I don't think we should get into what ifs. "We can't just unilaterally move on these issues," he added. Contacted Saturday night about the Turkish nuclear seizure, the White House declined to comment, the Los Angeles Times said. All Rights Reserved © NewsMax.com ***************************************************************** 10 NRC Staff Proposes $3,000 Fine Against Indiana Firm for Losing a Fixed Gauge with Radioactive Material NRC: News Release - Region III - 2002-052 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region III 801 Warrenville Road, Lisle IL 60532 www.nrc.gov No. III-02-052 September 30, 2002 CONTACT: Jan Strasma (630) 829-9663 Viktoria Mitlyng (630) 829-9662 E-mail: opa3@nrc.gov [opa3@nrc.gov] The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has proposed a $3,000 fine against Alt & Witzig Engineering, Inc., Carmel, Indiana, for losing control of a portable moisture density gauge containing a sealed radiation source and not reporting the loss to the NRC immediately. On May 2, a portable gauge fell from a pickup truck while being transported from a residence in Niles, Michigan, where it was stored overnight, to a temporary job site in LaPorte, Indiana. The worker had failed to adequately block and brace the gauge in the open bed of the truck and failed to close the tailgate on the truck properly. The gauge contained sealed radiation sources of cesium-137 and americium-241/beryllium. A member of the public found the gauge along public highway Route 51 locked in its case with the radiation sources locked in the shielded positions and notified the local police department. As such, the gauge did not represent a safety hazard. The NRC was not notified until almost eight hours after the loss was identified. The NRC conducted an inspection into the circumstances of the incident in May-June and identified three violations of federal regulations: (1) failure to block and brace the gauge during transportation; (2) failure to immediately notify the NRC of the lost gauge; and (3) failure to store the gauge in an authorized location. The company has until October 28 to either pay the fine or to protest it. If the fine is protested and subsequently imposed by the NRC staff, the company may request a hearing. The letter notifying Alt & Witzig Engineering, Inc. of the proposed fine will be posted to the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/enforcement/actions/. Privacy Statement | Site Disclaimer Last revised Monday, September 30, 2002 ***************************************************************** 11 NRC Annual Nuclear Safety Research Conference to Be Held October 28 - 30 in Washington, D.C. NRC: News Release - 2002-114 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: [opa@nrc.gov] www.nrc.gov No. 02-114 September 30, 2002 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will hold its Nuclear Safety Research Conference on October 28 - 30 at the Marriott Metro Center in Washington, D.C. The conference, which is open to public participation, will run from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday, and from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday. The Marriott Metro Center is located at 775 Twelfth Street N.W., Washington, D.C., adjacent to the Metro Center subway station. Guest speakers and panelists will include NRC Chairman Richard A. Meserve, as well as Commissioners Greta J. Dicus, Edward McGaffigan, Jr., Jeffrey S. Merrifield and NRC Executive Director for Operations, William D. Travers. Also participating will be representatives from foreign organizations, industry, government and the research community. The annual conference, which will feature three panel discussions, will focus on major issues of interest to the nuclear community. Participants include researchers, regulators, and utility representatives from the United States and more than 20 other countries. It is a leading forum for attendees and participants to interact with NRC staff and colleagues to discuss the results and insights obtained from the agencys research program, as well as take a look at planned research activities. This years agenda includes technical sessions on research relating to the degradation of reactor coolant pressure boundary materials, advanced nuclear reactors, nuclear fuels, dry cask storage and transportation of spent nuclear fuel. It also includes sessions on the control of slightly radioactively contaminated materials, and probabilistic risk assessment methods, analyses and operational experience. Those who wish to attend the conference are encouraged to review this years agenda in detail, as well as register in advance, at [http://www.bnl.gov/NSRC] , or by contacting Sandra Nesmith at [srn@nrc.gov] . Privacy Statement | Site Disclaimer Last revised Monday, September 30, 2002 ***************************************************************** 12 Some questioning whether tube holds uranium in Turkey The Seattle Times: Monday, September 30, 2002, 12:00 a.m. Pacific By Karl Vick The Washington Post ISTANBUL, Turkey — Turkish police arrested two men near the Syrian border with a lead tube reportedly containing uranium, but international monitors said they were evaluating the incident with skepticism. An initial report Saturday said the tube contained up to 35 pounds of refined fissionable material, about half as many as in the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, Japan. But an anonymous official discounted the report last night, saying police mistakenly included the weight of the lead container in the estimate, according to the Agence France-Presse news service. The undetermined radioactive material actually weighed 3 ounces, the official said. The later report reinforced skepticism being voiced at the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. body that monitors nuclear proliferation. A spokeswoman said specialists at the agency "laughed" when they saw news photos of the container stamped with misspelled words and the phrase "Made in W. Germany." The agency nonetheless takes the incident seriously, the spokeswoman, Melissa Fleming, said. "What's significant is intent — if there's a buyer," Fleming said. "We'll have to rely on Turkey to tell us that." Turkish officials were not available for comment. However, suspicion immediately focused on Iraq, 150 miles from Sanliurfa, the city in southeastern Turkey where the two men were arrested. The Bush administration and independent analysts say Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is trying to acquire weapons-grade uranium or other fissionable material for nuclear weapons. The International Institute for Strategic Studies, a research organization based in London, issued a report this month saying Iraq could produce an atomic bomb within months after acquiring such material. British officials said in a report last week that Iraq had tried to obtain nuclear material from unnamed countries in Africa. The container was discovered in a taxi hired by the two suspects, identified in news reports as Mehmet Demir and Saliah Yasar. The men were arraigned late Saturday on charges of trafficking. The contents of the container awaited testing at the Turkish atomic-energy department, which was closed yesterday. Copyright © 2002 The Seattle Times Company ***************************************************************** 13 Risk not limited to IAAP workers The Hawk Eye Newspaper [http://www.thehawkeye.com] Main Page · [http://archive.thehawkeye.com] Sunday, September 29, 2002 Family, contractors may have come into contact with toxins. By Dennis J. Carroll The Hawk Eye Independent contract workers such as plumbers, carpenters, electricians and other trades workers who have performed work at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant should be evaluated for exposure to the toxic metal beryllium, a health researcher said Friday. In addition, Dr. Lar Fuortes, an epidemiologist at the University of Iowa's College of Public Health, said some people who have never even been inside the Middletown plant could have been exposed to beryllium though the open–air burning of hazardous wastes and metals that continued at the plant into the 1980s or from contact with family members who worked there. Fuortes, director of the University of Iowa's health survey team, said that over the decades such workers and area residents may have come into contact with beryllium dust, which can cause chronic beryllium disease, an ailment that causes scarring of the lungs. Beryllium apparently was machined by plant workers who were involved in the production of nuclear weapons on the Atomic Energy Commission's production Line 1 from the late 1940s until the mid–1970s. Recently discovered and declassified plant records show that beryllium dust had been found in numerous plant buildings. Fuortes cited an example of a man at IAAP who worked with beryllium, but has not tested positive for it. However, his wife, who was never in the building her husband worked in, has tested positive. Fuortes also said anyone who worked in commercial laundries or family members who cleaned IAAP work clothes may have come in contact with beryllium dust. "If they are suspicious that they might have some lung disease, they should be evaluated," Fuortes said. Symptoms could include weight loss, coughing, chest symptoms or abnormalities in chest X–rays, he said. University researchers say 15 former plant workers have tested positive for sensitivity to beryllium. That represents about 3 percent of the 473 former nuclear weapons workers who have been given blood tests so far. Fuortes said the percentage of positive results is about the same as that reported at other Department of Energy sites were workers manufacture nuclear weapons. The Atomic Energy Commission, a precursor to the DOE, assembled and test fired components of nuclear weapons at IAAP from the late 1940s until the mid–1970s. Fuortes said a positive test result indicates that a person was exposed to the beryllium and that their immune system is reacting to it, but not necessarily that the person has chronic beryllium disease. To conclusively diagnose the disease, workers should be given the blood test numerous times, Fuortes said. Unfortunately, he said, a single negative blood test does not rule out the disease. "That's worrisome," Fuortes said. A bronchoscopy, in which fluids are taken directly from the lung, also can be used to diagnose chronic beryllium disease, but the procedure is invasive and has risks. Because most of the former IAAP workers tend to be older, Fuortes said, he has been less inclined to order bronchoscopies. According to the Department of Energy's beryllium disease prevention program, beryllium has been produced for various industrial uses since the late 1950s. The metal can be used in its pure form, mixed with other metals to form alloys, or processed to soluble salts, oxides or ceramic materials. The brittle metal often is used in the aerospace and defense industries, including the production of nuclear weapons. Beryllium dust was common in various buildings at the IAAP, according to IAAP records. The DOE beryllium prevention Web site notes that the biggest disadvantage of beryllium is the toxicity of its dust, fumes and salts. Small particles and chips of beryllium–containing materials can break off during machining and other processes and spread through the air in the work area. Inhaling the particles can lead to chronic beryllium disease in those who are sensitive to the metal. The disease produces an irreversible and sometimes fatal scarring of the lungs. The DOE Web site states that about 1 percent to 3 percent of those exposed to beryllium develop the disease, but the numbers can rise to 14 percent in areas where exposure to beryllium dust is high, such as the machining of the metal that apparently occurred at IAAP. Former nuclear weapons workers who have tested positive for beryllium exposure may be eligible for benefits under the Energy Department's compensation program for nuclear weapons workers, or their survivors, who developed illnesses or died as a result of their exposure to radiation, silica or beryllium. Fuortes said a study of medical records and X–rays of former IAAP nuclear weapons workers shows a high rate of lung scarring. He said of the 350 former workers interviewed and/or screened so far by his researchers, either in Middletown or at the Henry County Health Center in Mount Pleasant, three have been diagnosed with lung cancer and the diagnosis on a fourth is pending. The health team also soon will begin testing workers who manufactured conventional weapons on the Army's production lines prior to 1992. Fuortes also is hoping to be able to conduct a large–scale screening of the independent contract and trade workers. The Hawk Eye 800 S. Main St., Burlington Iowa 52601 319-754-8461 Front Desk · 319-754-6824 FAX · 1-800-397-1708 ***************************************************************** 14 '88 Warning Was Rejected at Damaged Nuclear Plant The New York Times *September 30, 2002* *By MATTHEW L. WALD* WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 ? The discovery in February that a reactor vessel in a nuclear power plant had corroded to the brink of rupturing may have shocked the plant's operators and federal safety regulators, but years ago, Howard C. Whitcomb saw it coming, or something like it. Mr. Whitcomb, a former Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspector who was hired by the owners of the Davis-Besse reactor, near Toledo, Ohio, to write a report on what was wrong with maintenance there, concluded in 1988 that management so disdained its craft workers that it had lost touch with the condition of the plant. Top executives responded swiftly and decisively, he said: They ordered him to change his report. He quit instead. Now, the owners are saying they need to get in better touch with their employees, who according to company surveys are still reluctant to raise safety concerns. In a meeting with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in mid-September, company officials explained that they were meeting with all 800 plant employees in small groups with a facilitator to improve communication. The plant, built for Toledo Edison, is now run by First Energy Nuclear Operating Company, after a merger. The simple problem at Davis-Besse, a 24-year-old reactor, was that water was leaking from two nozzles on top of the vessel. The water contained boron, a chemical used to regulate the nuclear reaction, and the boron accumulated in a hidden spot and ate away about 70 pounds of steel. The commission staff has said that the company's reports on the condition of the vessel head were misleading. Now the reactor head must be replaced, a task that has required cutting a big hole through a containment dome several feet thick. But there are broader questions. Why did the company delay making a change to the reactor head that would have made inspection possible? Why did not the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which wanted all plants of Davis-Besse's type to inspect for the problem, push for earlier action? As is common after severe problems at a reactor, the commission has been examining the structure of management and what it calls the plant's culture, meaning the attitudes of the people who work there, the willingness of operators to raise safety questions and management's willingness to consider them. While the corrosion at the vessel head was not obvious, the boron had spread elsewhere, and the commission is particularly interested in why no one did anything about corrosion on a ventilation duct that was in plain sight of workers entering the containment. "People generally accepted that condition," said Todd M. Schneider, a spokesman for First Energy. Since the discovery of the corrosion in the vessel head, management has worked to change attitudes so "those conditions are no longer acceptable," Mr. Schneider said. In his 1988 report, Mr. Whitcomb mentioned the culture problems that are now recognized. "Many craft personnel hold strong negative perceptions of engineering and management personnel," he wrote. "In general, the labor forces feel that management exhibits a general lack of concern or respect for their abilities, efforts or problems." Mr. Whitcomb was hardly an industry rebel. A veteran of the nuclear Navy, he was a resident inspector for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission at the H.B. Robinson reactor in South Carolina, and then went to a plant under construction in Ohio before being hired by Toledo Edison. After he gave two weeks' notice at Davis-Besse, he went to work at the Fermi reactor, near Detroit. Now he is a lawyer in general practice in Oak Harbor, Ohio, the location of the Davis-Besse reactor. In a report on June 20, 1988, to the company's vice president for nuclear power and the plant manager, he said that closing to refuel took too long; that preventive maintenance was slow and not fully effective because managers did not pay enough attention to the workers' needs; and that the workers were embittered. "Maintenance has traditionally been regarded in a subservient role at Davis-Besse," Mr. Whitcomb wrote. To be successful, management must recognize "the contribution that craft personnel may provide in the development of plant-specific maintenance actions." Managers must take a more serious attitude toward maintenance, he wrote. That finding in the report, a copy of which was provided to The New York Times by Ohio Citizen Action, a nonprofit group that has raised many safety questions about the reactor, seems prescient. "If they followed the advice of 20 years ago, we wouldn't be here now," said Amy K. Ryder, the group's program director in the Cleveland area. In an interview, Mr. Whitcomb said, "They just didn't want to hear it." Mr. Schneider, the spokesman for First Energy, said that the two executives to whom Mr. Whitcomb had made his report 14 years ago were no longer with the company. The report "was not up to our requirements," he said, but he would not confirm that Mr. Whitcomb had been told to rewrite it. Mr. Whitcomb left Toledo Edison voluntarily, he said. The company says it hopes to restart the plant this year. Work is progressing well on the head replacement, Mr. Schneider said. First Energy bought the head of a similar reactor in Michigan on which construction has been abandoned. It is still working on the culture, he said. ***************************************************************** 15 *Yucca Mountain battle not over* Sandi Wright RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL 9/29/2002 11:48 pm Jauquetta Irvine, 17, helps hang a sign her environmental Junior Achievement class made at a Nevada is Not a Wasteland Coalition event. - Candice Towell/RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL */ RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL Jauquetta Irvine,17, helps hang a sign her environmental Junior Achievement class made at a Nevada is Not a Wasteland Coalition event. The Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository is not a done deal as legal challenges are being waged on a number of fronts, a spokesman for the activist group Citizen Alert said Sunday. ?The legal battle is just getting under way and the landscape of the issue changes dramatically in the courts,? said John Hadder, the northern Nevada coordinator for Citizen Alert. ?The Department of Energy has never had to answer questions about this issue under oath, and some very interesting information may come to light.? Hadder spoke at the ?Nevada Is Not a Wasteland? rally held at Wingfield Park in downtown Reno. It was organized by Citizen Alert, the Sierra Club and Friends of Nevada Wilderness. More than 100 people attended the rally to hear speakers, poetry and music. Among the speakers during the afternoon was state Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa, who spoke about the legal wrangling between Nevada and the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Del Papa told the crowd that the state has a good chance of stopping the Yucca project, even though it was approved by Congress in July. The state has filed five lawsuits seeking to halt it. Nuclear industry lobbyists ?say Nevada is ready to negotiate a deal for benefits from the federal government, but I disagree,? Del Papa said. ?It?s far too soon to give up. I think we have a good shot of winning it.? Kim Elise, a folk singer and songwriter for social justice and environmental activism, said she was a little disappointed with the turnout. ?I always wonder how you can get 10,000 to a football game and only 10 to oppose nuclear waste being dumped in your backyard,? Elise said. ?Everybody has a good spirit here, though,? she said, ?and every person?s efforts matter.? Danielle Barcia, a volunteer manning the Citizen Alert information booth, said she was pleased with the response. ?I think it went real well for the first year. It (the program) was very informative, and I think a lot of people learned a lot,? Barcia said. The next Yucca Mountain opposition rally will be held in the southern part of the state from Oct. 5-15. ?Stop the Madness ? Breaking the Nuclear Chain? will kick off with a nuclear abolition summit in Las Vegas and continue during the following days with a family spirit walk from Las Vegas to a peace camp 60 miles northwest of Las Vegas. A Celebration of Life will be held at the gates of the Nevada Test Site and the 10-day event will conclude with peaceful demonstrations and blockades at Yucca Mountain and the Test Site. For more information about Stop the Madness, call (800) 471-4737. ?Everything we do, every event, is important,? Hadder said. ?Peoples? reasons for opposing it (nuclear waste storage) today are just as valid as they were yesterday.? ***************************************************************** 16 NRC Proposes Changes to Regulations on Decommissioning Funding NRC: News Release - 2002-113 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov [opa@nrc.gov] www.nrc.gov No. 02-113 September 27, 2002 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is proposing to amend its regulations to require certain licensees using substantial quantities of nuclear materials to increase funding for decommissioning costs after their facility shuts down permanently. The changes would bring the amount of money that would be available more in line with current decommissioning costs and provide adequate assurance that timely decommissioning can be carried out following shutdown of a licensed facility. The changes would affect materials licensees, but not nuclear power plants, which are covered by separate regulations. The NRC estimates that this additional financial assurance for decommissioning would cost all affected licensees approximately $1.2 million per year, and would provide approximately $80 million in total additional funds for decommissioning. The amount of financial assurance that nuclear materials licensees must provide can be based on either a facility-specific decommissioning cost estimate provided by the licensee in a decommissioning funding plan or on dollar amounts specified in the regulations. The current amounts specified in the regulations are based on decommissioning cost estimates that are about 15 years old. Studies done for the NRC show that decommissioning costs have increased substantially. The agency is therefore proposing to raise all specified amounts by 50 percent. Other changes in the proposed rule include: + All nuclear waste broker licensees would have to provide financial assurance. (There is no established definition of a waste broker, but it generally refers to any licensee that engages in waste collection and consolidation; waste storage; waste processing, repackaging or other treatment; or transfer to another waste broker or to a licensed low-level radioactive waste disposal facility.) Currently, only about half of the 15 NRC waste broker licensees are required to have financial assurance. + Large irradiator licensees (who primarily use nuclear materials for the sterilization of medical equipment and food products) and nuclear waste brokers would not be allowed to use the specific amounts in the regulations as a basis for financial assurance for decommissioning, and would have to base their funding on site-specific decommissioning cost estimates. + Decommissioning cost estimates would have to be updated at least every three years. Under the current rules, with no change in the proposed rule, the financial assurance may be provided by prepayment; a surety (in the form of a bond, letter of credit or line of credit), insurance or other guarantee method (such as a parent company guarantee if that company meets certain financial tests); an external sinking fund in which deposits are made at least annually, coupled with a surety method or insurance; or, for federal, state or local government licensees, a statement of intent indicating that funds will be obtained when necessary. Interested persons are invited to submit comments on the proposed rule within 75 days of a Federal Register notice on this subject, expected shortly. They should be submitted to the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. 20555-0001, Attention: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff. They may also be submitted electronically via the NRCs interactive rulemaking website at http://ruleforum.llnl.gov [http://ruleforum.llnl.gov] . Privacy Statement | Site Disclaimer Last revised Monday, September 30, 2002 ***************************************************************** 17 NRC Amends Regulation on Unlikely Events at Potential Waste Repository NRC: News Release - 2002-115 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov [opa@nrc.gov] www.nrc.gov No. 02-115 September 30, 2002 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is amending its regulations regarding a potential nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, to set out numerical values for deciding when a geological, hydrological or climatological feature, event or process is unlikely and therefore need not be considered in determining whether the repository would meet radiation dose standards for groundwater protection and human intrusion in NRCs regulations. Unlikely events would still have to be considered in determining whether the repository would meet the overall 15-millirem radiation dose limit for protection of individuals. Environmental Protection Agency standards, adopted by the NRC, require naturally occurring unlikely features, events, and processes or sequences of processes (such as volcanoes) to be excluded from determining compliance with radiation dose standards for groundwater protection and human intrusion (for example, if someone drills into the repository). The new NRC regulation defines unlikely as having less than a 10 percent chance of occurring within 10,000 years of waste disposal. A proposed rule on this subject was published in the Federal Register for public comment on January 25. No changes were made as a result of the comments received, and the Commission decided to finalize the rule as originally proposed. Privacy Statement | Site Disclaimer Last revised Monday, September 30, 2002 ***************************************************************** 18 Opponents of Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump rally in Reno Associated Press [online@rgj.com] 9/29/2002 05:30 pm Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa and others rallied Sunday against current plans for a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain and urged Nevadans to step up the fight against the project. About 100 people attended the"Nevada Is Not a Wasteland"gathering at Wingfield Park. The event was sponsored by a coalition of environmental groups, including Citizen Alert, the Sierra Club and Friends of Nevada Wilderness. It featured speeches, poetry readings, a reggae concert, booths and a"Discover the Beauty Within"art contest. Del Papa told the crowd that the state has a good chance of stopping the Yucca project, even though it was approved by Congress in July. The state has filed five lawsuits seeking to halt it. Nuclear industry lobbyists"say Nevada is ready to negotiate a deal for benefits from the federal government but I disagree,"Del Papa said."It's far too soon to give up. I think we have a good shot of winning it." She cited the state's high-powered legal team and contention that many scientific questions remain unanswered about the Yucca Mountain site, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. She also noted Nevada's congressional delegation is united against the dump, and polls show most Nevadans continue to oppose the repository. A Las Vegas Review-Journal poll of 625 registered Nevada voters conducted in July found 43 percent of respondents favored making a deal for benefits while 49 percent said they want to continue to fight the project in court. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. John Hadder, northern Nevada coordinator for Citizen Alert, said the fight has reached a critical stage and it's important for Nevadans to speak out against the project. He and other opponents urged citizens to write letters to the editor, contact their representatives and contribute to a special state fund. "We really want to make it clear that the fight is not over,"Hadder said."I think with unified opposition it (project) has a long way to go. If we support cash for trash, it defeats our purpose." © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett ***************************************************************** 19 Utahns Favor Bingo Profits Over N-Waste for Goshutes The Salt Lake Tribune -- Monday, September 30, 2002 More than half of Utahns would support allowing either bingo casinos or nuclear waste storage as a means of economic development for the Skull Valley Goshute Indian reservation in Tooele County, according to a new Salt Lake Tribune poll. By more than 2-to-1, Utahns said they would rather see bingo than nuclear waste, but fully 43 percent of residents would prefer the impoverished tribe to forget both ideas, the survey found. The statewide poll of 1,358 registered voters was conducted Sept. 3-5 by the independent opinion-polling firm Valley Research and sponsored by The Tribune. Responding to a separate question, more than half indicated they think nuclear waste cannot be transported safely. Women stood out in both polls as being especially uncomfortable about nuclear waste. Just one of every 10 women said they support a plan to store nuclear waste by the Goshutes as a means of economic development. The tribe has applied for a federal license to store up to 44,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel on a 100-acre pad in the Skull Valley desert, about 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. Women also proved more skeptical about transporting waste. By 2 to 1, they said they were not comfortable with nuclear-waste transportation. Both surveys have a margin of error of 2.7 percentage points. © Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on ***************************************************************** 20 'Warning' about U.S. Ecology draws scant attention* By: September 27, 2002 *Interim manager of facility near Beatty attributes paper to disgruntled former employee* The single sheet of paper tucked under a number of windshields at Terrible's Lakeside over the weekend apparently didn't carry a message strong enough to warrant much concern. The message in large type read: "Don't worry about Yucca Mountain when US Ecology in Beatty, Nevada is dumping illegal waste in Nye County. Contact your commissioner Jeff Taguchi." As of Wednesday Taguchi said he had received one call regarding the flier. That's probably a good thing, too, because if people were calling Taguchi for information he wouldn't have had much of anything, to share. He said he was unaware of any illegal dumping at the licensed hazardous waste landfill 10 miles south of Beatty, but that he would look into it. "As far as the county commissioners are concerned, we have a responsibility to protect the people, but when you get involved in a private company you walk carefully," he said. That being the case, if something was amiss at the landfill the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection would be the agency to deal with it. "That's what agencies that regulate those businesses are for," he said. "If people believe there is something going on they should call NDEP." Chad Hyslop, the interim general manager for the U.S. Ecology site near Beatty, thinks he know what's going on. "I think it's a disgruntled former employee," he said. "He's upset and he's putting those out. I can't name names, but I think he's the genesis of that." Hyslop did say without reservation that the site is meeting requirements. A team from the state conducted an audit of operations earlier this month and found the U.S. Ecology site was completely within compliance. The same inspectors found one of two problems earlier this year while conducting an audit. U.S. Ecology "immediately complied" with what was being requested and the audit team was satisfied with the action taken. The landfill was not shut down at any time, Hyslop added. /©Pahrump Valley Times 2002/ ***************************************************************** 21 Swedes to teach Russians to clean up army bases [http://www.ptd.net] Sunday, 29-Sep-2002 8:20AM Story from AFP Copyright 2002 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) STOCKHOLM, Sept 29 (AFP) - Sweden will teach the Russian army how to close and clean polluted bases, the conservative Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet said on Sunday. "It shows enormous trust", Jan Sjoestroem of the FOI, (Swedish Defence Research Agency) told the newspaper. "It is the first time that westerners have helped the Russians with environmental problems on military bases." Russia intends to close a number of military bases and release some to civilian use. The first two-day seminar for 50 Russian officers takes place next week at Ostrov, a military base formerly housing nuclear weapons, 45 kilometres (28 miles) from Russia's borders with Estonia and Latvia. "Environmental problems don't stop at borders," said the base's commanding officer, Vladimir Vakulenko, welcoming the seminar. Topics at the seminar will include how to tackling leaks of oil and radioactive substances into earth and water. In 2000 Sweden helped Ostrov clean up 1,100 tonnes of oil that seeped from the base into the Peipus Canal towards the Gulf of Finland. "We cannot use biological products against these pollutants," Sjoestroem said. "We have to use the simple tools the Russians possess -- tractors, pumps and mechanical diggers." "We want the Russians to be able to calculate for themselves what risks they can take, so they can avoid a regional ecological disaster", he continued. A second environmental seminar is to be organised by the Swedes in Moscow at a later date, the newspaper said. ***************************************************************** 22 Rio Tinto not giving up on uranium mining in Jabiluka. 30/9/2002. ABC News alt="Australian Broadcasting Corporation Online"> [http://abc.net.au/] Local Aboriginal owners say they will never agree to uranium mining at Jabiluka but mining company ERA says never say never. Earlier this month, ERA's parent company, Rio Tinto, said it would only mine Jabiluka if it got the consent of local Aborigines. The Mirrar people say forget it but ERA's Robert Cleary sees an opportunity for more talk. "It's worth spending a lot of time and carefully working through each of the issues to see whether there's a way forward or not," Mr Cleary said. Mr Cleary today made a submission to the Senate inquiry into the environmental regulations for the uranium mining industry. But he says the inquiry is not an indirect way of saying companies like ERA have made mistakes. "We see it as an opportunity to get the facts sorted out from the myth here and we have protected the park for 20 years," Mr Cleary said. © 2002 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ***************************************************************** 23 PRO-LES: This company is committed to the good of Hartsville By GEORGE E. DIALS Every business is dependent on its community, just as every community is dependent on the businesses that make up its economic base. Such is the case with Louisiana Energy Services and Hartsville, where LES plans to locate its new state-of-the-art $1.1 billion uranium enrichment plant. LES must be a good corporate citizen in Hartsville. It will benefit the community by hiring locally, by contributing substantially to the tax base, by supporting the educational system, by helping the area grow to meet its economic and civic potential. A major part of the responsibility of any business today is to make sure that the resources and people of the community are protected. We will do that, in every way possible, and we will be accountable to the community for our ability to protect its rich natural resources. We no longer live in a world where a business can take resources from a community without concern for the community's long-term sustainability. Thank goodness. Our business lives and the life of the community are deeply intertwined. This is not a we-they situation. We know that, appreciate it and will live by it. Given our site selection in mid-2002, we cannot begin construction on the plant until late 2004 at the earliest. It will be another two years before the plant begins production. If the residents of Hartsville and the five-county area are not ready for the jobs at the LES plant now, there's no reason why they can't be ready by the time the plant opens. We will help. We will set up training programs at local educational institutions and will train staff in Europe, as well. At the appropriate time, we will begin screening for applicants who can see their long-term success tied to ours. These are good jobs with good pay. We want them to go to the local community. While 80% of the jobs at the plant will require two years of technical training, we will make sure future employees get the training they need. Our success and theirs are irrevocably linked. We will be in Hartsville for a long time. Our plant will operate non-stop 365 days a year for up to 30 years. That means we have to live with the environment, too. Many of the senior positions at the plant will be filled by people whose only function will be monitoring safety, security, and the environment. We'll support their efforts with the most advanced technology possible to ensure the safety of the workplace, the security of the plant and its products, and the sanctity of the environment. Uranium enrichment is an essentially benign process. No one touches the ore. The centrifuges run non-stop. No one touches the product. Tails ? the byproduct ? are lower in Uranium 235 than the naturally occurring raw material that comes in the door at the front end of the process. They will either be reused, used in another application, or removed from the state and disposed of. Our preference would be to make money from them rather than pay to have them taken away. We are accountable to the community by choice and by law. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission sets the standards and imposes strict regulations and monitoring. Our operations will be assessed by NRC inspectors on a frequent basis, in addition to our own monitors. Each year, we will publish a report to the community on environmental issues, reporting what we have done and how the environment is being maintained. We feel comfortable doing this because we know that our standards are impeccable and that we will meet them. While we think this plant will be a real benefit to both Hartsville and to our business, there is another even more important reason to build the plant. There is an important national strategic need for a modern, state-of-the-art uranium enrichment plant in the United States. We are building our plant to help ensure that America's nuclear utilities ? which produce over 20% of our electricity ? can be assured of the enriched uranium supplies they need to keep operating, even if resources from abroad are cut off, as they could well be in today's turbulent world. We can, and will, do all of these. Recently, LES has been the subject of much media/news coverage, some of it prompted by letters and commentary from concerned citizens. Regrettably, much of the information reported has been in error. For example, BNFL is not Urenco's corporate parent. Urenco, which supplies our technology, has never been cited or fined for any environmental or safety violation at any of its three operating plants in Europe. All three plants have stellar environmental and safety performance records. To see that more factual, accurate information about our technology, plant and operations gets out, LES will open a project information center in Hartsville in the next few weeks. We have hired an interim manager for this office who has in-depth knowledge of the Hartsville region and who will have ready access to all our technical, environmental and operational information. Only by getting factual, informative materials out to all interested citizens can we meet our obligation to enable informed decision making. We will be willing to answer all of your questions and address all your concerns in the weeks ahead. / George E. Dials is president and CEO of Louisiana Energy Services. / Associated Press content is Copyrighted by The Associated Press. ***************************************************************** 24 Addendum to Counter-Dossier Refutes Blair report] Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 21:56:55 -0500 (CDT) Our friends at Traprock Peace Center have made an addendum to the Simpson/Rangwala counter-dossier to Blair's lie available. Please spread the word. Regards, Norm (http://www.greenleft.org.au FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SEPTEMBER 29, 2002 CONTACT: Traprock Peace Center - Sunny Miller - 413-773-7427 or Charlie Jenks 413-773-1633 - charles@mtdata.com Addendum to Counter-Dossier Responds to Claims Raised in Blair Dossier September 29, 2002 - Dr. Glen Rangwala, Lecturer in politics at Cambridge University, has written an Addendum to the "Counter-Dossier." The Counter-Dossier, released by Labour Against War on September 17 in the UK and published by Traprock Peace Center in the US on September 18, anticipated the release by Prime Minister Blair's dossier. Blair released his dossier on September 24, a few hours before debate started in the Commons that morning on war with Iraq. Dr. Rangwala has written an Addendum to the Counter-Dossier. The Addendum is a more detailed reference on the weapons and inspections issues, which serves to counter claims in the Blair dossier. This Addendum will play an important role in countering the arguments of the Bush and Blair administrations. Traprock Peace Center hand delivered The Counter-Dossier to the offices of 31 Senators on September 24 and met with foreign policy aides. The next day, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom hand delivered it to co-sponsors of Barbara Lee's resolution. The Education for Peace in Iraq Center will distribute the Counter-Dossier and its Addendum, with other materials, to every Senator on Monday, September 30 during its Lobby Day against going to war with Iraq. The Addendum, like the Counter-Dossier, is an important document that may prove to be of historical significance. It contains technical details that relate specifically to this debate and serves to respond to claims made in the Blair dossier. Whereas the Counter-Dossier was released a full week before the debate in the Commons, the Blair government released its dossier only a few hours before the debate, making it impossible for Labour MP's against the war to fully consider its claims before the debate. Whereas the Counter-Dossier has been widely admired for its brilliant argument, it could not anticipate every claim raised the Blair dossier. The Addendum serves to rectify the unfairness caused by Blair's late release of his dossier. This Addendum may prove to be an important factor in this historic debate. The Addendum is published at http://middleeast.reference.users.btopenworld.com/iraqncbfurther.html and at the Traprock Peace Center website at http://traprockpeace.org. Traprock Peace Center http://traprockpeace.org ***************************************************************** 25 [southnews] Thousands march in UK, Europe in anti-war protest Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 09:48:19 -0500 (CDT) Sell a Home with Ease! http://us.click.yahoo.com/SrPZMC/kTmEAA/MVfIAA/7gSolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Thousands march in UK, Europe in anti-war protest over Iraq Hundreds of thousands have demonstrated in London and Rome to protest the drumbeat of conflict in Iraq, with speakers claiming Washington was only on the warpath because it wanted Iraqi oil. Several hundred thousand people thronged London to protest a looming war in Iraq, many whistling derisively as they marched past Prime Minister Tony Blair's Downing Street residence, a key US ally in the effort to strike against President Saddam Hussein. Organisers from the Stop the War Coalition said 400,000 people took part, calling it the biggest peace demonstration ever in Britain. The marchers, including many public figures and legislators, trekked past British Parliament to Hyde Park where speaker after speaker derided US President George W. Bush and Blair for trying to wage war on behalf of oil interests. "This is a war for oil," London mayor and veteran left-winger Ken Livingstone said. "It's not a war about human rights, it's certainly not about weapons of mass destruction." John Pilger, a radical journalist whose latest film on the Palestinians has just been telecast in Britain, told the Hyde Park crowd that "Bush and Blair must be stopped". "Other countries may be next - Iran, North Korea, perhaps China," he said. Meanwhile, organisers say in Rome some 100,000 demonstrators protested Washington's Iraq policy, challenging Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's support for belligerent US threats against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. As tens of thousands of Italian peace activists thronged the streets of Rome, Communist Renewal party Secretary General Fausto Bertinotti said their ambition was to help build a new peace movement. "This is the first big demonstration organized in Italy against war and for peace," Mr Bertinotti said. "A mounting peace wave is sweeping Europe and it can counter that in favor of war," communist deputy Titti de Simone said. ---------- Protesters stage anti-war rally BBC Saturday, 28 September, 2002, 18:29 GMT 19:29 UK http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2285861.stm Organisers estimate 400,000 took part Tens of thousands of people have taken part in a protest against military action in Iraq which organisers say was one of Europe's biggest anti-war rallies. Organisers said 400,000 people joined in the march from the Embankment to a rally in Hyde Park on Saturday. Police said they had counted more than 150,000 people and there had been two arrests for minor public order offences. Ministers have said threatening force is the only way to resolve the Iraqi crisis peacefully after the government published its dossier of evidence on Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons programme. But the rally's organisers, the Stop the War Coalition and Muslim Association of Britain, said this dossier has increased public opposition to war. Bloodshed warning Among the rally speakers were London Mayor Ken Livingstone and ex-MP Tony Benn. The demonstration came as Iraq rejected a proposed new draft resolution which the United States and Britain wanted passed by the United Nations Security Council. Diplomats at the UN say the resolution would give Iraq seven days to accept unlimited weapons inspections. Mayor Livingstone told the BBC more than 400,000 people had taken part in the rally on the eve of the Labour Party conference. "This is the largest march for peace I have seen in 30 years. "This will have an electrifying effect on the Labour Party conference and on those MPs opposed to war." Former Labour MP Mr Benn told the crowds: "Nothing can take the British people into a war that they do not accept and do not want. He said it would be "wholly immoral" for the US and Britain to attack Iraq. "Although when the bloodshed begins, if it does, criminal responsibility for what has happened will rest with those who have taken that decision, there is a share of responsibility with us as well." 'Clear and present danger' Anas Altikriti, of the Muslim Association of Britain, told BBC News Online that the demonstration had got its message across peacefully - that campaigners wanted justice for Palestine and no military strike on Iraq. "Our government is acting in an unethical manner. This has to change," he said. He said: "We can't get involved in this war we can't consider murdering another 100,000 Iraqis simply to pursue America's interest in oil and their dominance in the region." But Yasser Alaskary, of the Iraqi Prospect Organisation, a national group which represents Iraqi youth, said that they did not support the anti-war demonstration. Instead he said: "We support the removal of Saddam Hussein and are realistic in that this requires external help and a targeted war". But Labour MP George Galloway, said the message was clear. "Mr Blair is not going to be speaking in our name if he brings our country into a war. "That is no way to send our young men and women into a war that might be a fatal confrontation." He said there was a "clear and present danger" that there might be a war in a few weeks. And the Labour Party Conference delegates had a duty to take the "ignition keys" away from Mr Blair. BBC political correspondent Nicholas Jones predicted that the repercussions of the march in London would be felt at the Labour Party's annual conference. He predicted that there would be a lot of opposition from delegates to "Britain going it alone" with America in a war against Iraq. _______ Historic Anti-War March in London On-the-spot report by Bob Wing *Bob Wing is the editor of War Times. He is currently in London in transit to Palestine. London, Sept. 28 Tony Blair may be President Bush's only European ally in his drive for war on Iraq. But the people of the UK today forcibly demonstrated their opposition to forcible regime change. This afternoon, at least 350,000 people from all over the United Kingdom descended upon the corridors of power for a massive and peaceful "Don't Attack Iraq/Freedom for Palestine" march and rally. As I file this report at 4 p.m., less than half the march, which commenced at 12:30 p.m., has arrived at the Hyde Park Rally. The action was the largest of its kind in the UK in 30 years. It was dramatic, and so large that it was truly impossible to guage its size. Certainly it numbered in the hundreds of thousands of people of every ethnicity, age and class. Recent polls show that 70 percent opposed Britain joining a U.S.-led military action. "There is not just opposition to the prospect of war--there is boiling anger," asserts Andrew Murray, chair of the Stop the War Coalition. The turnout was a shot across the bow of Prime Minister Tony Blair and a preview of next weeks Labor Party Conference. The demonstration was jointly sponsored by the Stop the War Coalition and the Muslim Association of Britain. It was endorsed by 12 national trade unions, numerous Muslim and anti-racist organizations, Members of Parliament and the Mayor of London. Organizers have called for another massive "Don't Attack Iraq Day" for Oct. 31. "Opposition to this war in this country is the most incredible coalition I have ever seen," says Jeremy Corbyn, a Labor MP. "Since Sept. 11, Islamophobia has spread across the UK and activated the Muslim and South Asian populations," said Asad Rehman, national organizer for the Stop the War Coalition and chairman of the Newham Monitoring Project. South Asians are the largest group of color in the UK, numbering about 15 percent in London alone. "I didn't go on earlier demonstrations but I am now because the countdown to war has started and I find it terrifying," explained march Jemma Redgrave. Robert "3-D" Del Naja of the pop group Massive Attack says "I am marching because I feel very disheartened about our government and the way it reacts to America and American foreign policy." Meanwhile, in Parliament, Labor Party members are staging a revolt against Blair's Iraq policy. They warn that the 56-strong rebellion of this week is just a warm up. Blair also faces powerful opposition at next week's national Labor Party conference. Charles Kennedy, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, the third largest in the UK, declared his opposition to what he called the U.S.'s "imperialist" policy. ________________ The view from the march By Ryan Dilley BBC News Online Saturday, 28 September, 2002, 17:32 GMT 18:32 UK http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2280386.stm As many as 250,000 people have flooded into central London to protest against military action to remove Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from power. Brain Haw remains unimpressed as tens of thousands of people descend on central London to join a march protesting against any attack on Iraq. The father of seven has spent the past 486 days and nights proving his passionate disapproval of sanctions against Iraq and the Anglo-American bombings by camping outside Parliament. "The marchers shouldn't have just one day out in the sunshine. They should stay until what's happening to Iraq stops and not just go back to their families and comfortable homes." Those seeking the march's marshalling point stop at Mr Haw's camp for directions. One woman asks if she can stand with him for a while. "I can't go to the march," she says, "I have to be somewhere else at 1.30." Others more willing to give up a full afternoon for the demonstration are streaming out of the nearby Tube station, along with tourists eager to see Big Ben. American visitor Nels Hefty is having a heated conversation with one of the many people selling the Socialist Worker paper. "I have a hard time understanding why these people oppose removing Saddam Hussein. They all just admitted he was a nut, so to argue that he should stay in power is absurd." A native of the liberal San Francisco Bay Area, Mr Hefty is used to dissenting voices, but he is sure "people are in denial" over the threat posed by the Iraqi leader. "There's no doubt in my mind that once he has nuclear weapons to strike at the US or Israel - even smuggled there in a suitcase - he'd use them." Mr Hefty's views are quite literally drowned out. A marcher fires up his loud hailer to chastise the laggards in his contingent: "CND keep up! You at the back, CATCH UP!" The hectoring over, he begins a chant to the tune of pop hit Who Let the Dogs Out? "Who let the bombs drop? BUSH, BUSH and BLAIR!" At the demo's starting point by the Thames, such words of condemnation must compete with commerce, as traders noisily hawk anti-war merchandise. Buy the T-shirt T-shirts showing President Bush in cowboy garb and Tony Blair as a loyal poodle are going for #10. Whistles can be had two for #1.50. The screech of whistles adds to the problems of those trying to meet up with friends in the unexpectedly dense throng. "We can see the banner," a woman bellows into her mobile phone. "Are you near the banner?" While it is clear the march has attracted seasoned demonstrators - with their practised chants and well made banners - many of those present are new to public protest. "I've never demonstrated before," says distinguished actor David Warner, "that shows how important I think this issue is." Accompanied by his American daughter, Melissa, Mr Warner says he doesn't "want to see Iraqi civilians killed or our young people sent there to get killed. My quarrel is not with the American people". American allies American marcher Erin Berquist says there is just as much disquiet about military action against Iraq on the other side of the Atlantic. "People here don't understand that a lot of Americans don't want a war either." Despite their serious message, many marchers are in high spirits. William Wynter and Rowyda Amin blow out an enthusiastic tune on pipes, their faces painted with peace slogans. "I'm from Saudi Arabia," says Ms Amin, "and I'm really worried about the stability of the whole Middle East if Iraq is attacked. I don't think people have thought about the consequences." Adrian May has dressed up as Darth Vader. "It's not democracy to say a country with lots of weapons and money can decide who rules another country," he says through his mask, "That's not to say I like Saddam or that I particularly dislike Bush." As the marchers file along the Thames, beside Parliament and Mr Haw's camp and towards Trafalgar Square - it becomes clear that many of Mr May's fellow marchers do dislike the US president. Peaceful protest Chants and placards dubbing Mr Bush a terrorist and a Nazi fill Whitehall. However, few taking part in the demonstration seem filled with rage. Had there been angry scenes, central London contains many relics of past military campaigns which have proved tempting targets for vandals during previous protests. The statues and war memorials remain untouched. An Army open day at Horse Guards Parade was shut because of the march - though a police officer guarding the armoured vehicles, trucks and jeeps on show thinks that was just a precaution. "The marchers want peace, not war," he jokes. As the procession moves to it final destination in Hyde Park even the novice marchers are getting the hang of the chants. "What do we want?" shouts a man with a loud hailer. "Justice!" the crowd replies almost in unison. "I just want to get to work," says a man grumpily battling against the flow of the march. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: southnews-unsubscribe@egroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 26 INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY DISAVOWS REPORT ON IRAQ ARMS Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 21:16:20 -0500 (CDT) Thanks BD, "There is no evidence in our view that can be substantiated on Iraq's nuclear-weapons program. If anybody tells you they know the nuclear situation in Iraq right now, in the absence of four years of inspections, I would say that they're misleading you because there isn't solid evidence out there ..." I'm loth to grant the Washington Times credibility for any news it publishes - but they don't normally print accusations like this about Blair-Bush lies. MichaelP ================== http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020927-500715.htm THE WASHINGTON TIMES September 27, 2002 By Joseph Curl The International Atomic Energy Agency says that a report cited by President Bush as evidence that Iraq in 1998 was "six months away" from developing a nuclear weapon does not exist. "There's never been a report like that issued from this agency," Mark Gwozdecky, the IAEA's chief spokesman, said yesterday in a telephone interview from the agency's headquarters in Vienna, Austria. "We've never put a time frame on how long it might take Iraq to construct a nuclear weapon in 1998," said the spokesman of the agency charged with assessing Iraq's nuclear capability for the United Nations. In a Sept. 7 news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Mr. Bush said: "I would remind you that when the inspectors first went into Iraq and were denied finally denied access [in 1998], a report came out of the Atomic the IAEA that they were six months away from developing a weapon. "I don't know what more evidence we need," said the president, defending his administration's case that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was building weapons of mass destruction. The White House says Mr. Bush was referring to an earlier IAEA report. "He's referring to 1991 there," said Deputy Press Secretary Scott McClellan. "In '91, there was a report saying that after the war they found out they were about six months away." Mr. Gwozdecky said no such report was ever issued by the IAEA in 1991. Many news agencies including The Washington Times reported Mr. Bush's Sept. 7 comments as referring to a 1998 IAEA report. The White House did not ask for a correction from The Times. To clear up the confusion, Mr. McClellan cited two news articles from 1991 a July 16 story in the London Times by Michael Evans and a July 18 story in the New York Times by Paul Lewis. But neither article cites an IAEA report on Iraq's nuclear-weapons program or states that Saddam was only six months away from "developing a weapon" as claimed by Mr. Bush. The article by Mr. Evans says: "Jay Davis, an American expert working for the U.N. special commission charged with removing Iraq's nuclear capability, said Iraq was only six months away from the large-scale production of enriched uranium at two plants inspected by UN officials." The Lewis article said Iraq in 1991 had a uranium "enrichment plant using electromagnetic technology [that] was about six months from becoming operational." In October 1998, just before Saddam kicked U.N. weapons inspectors out of Iraq, the IAEA laid out a case opposite of Mr. Bush's Sept. 7 declaration. "There are no indications that there remains in Iraq any physical capability for the production of weapon-usable nuclear material of any practical significance," IAEA Director-General Mohammed Elbaradei wrote in a report to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair on Sept. 7 cited an agency "report" declaring that satellite photography revealed the Iraqis had undertaken new construction at several nuclear-related sites. This week, the IAEA said no such report existed. The IAEA also took issue with a Sept. 9 report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies cited by the Bush administration that concludes Saddam "could build a nuclear bomb within months if he were able to obtain fissile material." "There is no evidence in our view that can be substantiated on Iraq's nuclear-weapons program. If anybody tells you they know the nuclear situation in Iraq right now, in the absence of four years of inspections, I would say that they're misleading you because there isn't solid evidence out there," Mr. Gwozdecky said. "I don't know where they have determined that Iraq has retained this much weaponization capability because when we left in December '98 we had concluded that we had neutralized their nuclear-weapons program. We had confiscated their fissile material. We had destroyed all their key buildings and equipment," he said. Mr. Gwozdecky said there is no evidence about Saddam's nuclear capability right now either through his organization, other agencies or any government. ====================== *** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Feel free to distribute widely but PLEASE acknowledge the original source. *** ***************************************************************** 27 Headline: Pakistan obliged to support UN-backed Iraq action: Musharraf -- Detail Story* *LONDON:* The general made no attempt to conceal his impatience with suggestions that Pakistan should crack down harder on terrorists. ?When there are bullets flying around, I can assure you we will be the ones to be in front,? declared President Pervez Musharraf. Musharraf is facing demands in the West for tougher action to eliminate terrorists from Karachi, where a senior Al-Qaeda leader, Ramzi bin al Shibh, was captured earlier this month; and from tribal areas where Osama bin Laden was reported to have sought refuge after America bombed his mountain stronghold of Tora Bora in Afghanistan last year, writes Humayun Gauhar in The Sunday Times. ?I can assure you, too, that we are going to rid not just Karachi but the whole of Pakistan of this menace,? he said in an interview last week. ?That is my promise.? Musharraf is a very powerful man: supreme commander of the armed forces, President of Pakistan and Chief Executive of the government. In short, he is a dictator, but with a difference. He rules without martial law and with a free press, and is generally regarded as affable. He is angered, however, by claims that Pakistan?s intelligence service (ISI) might be colluding with al-Qaeda leaders to give them shelter in Karachi. ?Look, it?s a porous border, inhospitable, treacherous terrain. Anyone can trickle in (from Afghanistan) despite the fact that our army and civil armed forces are operating in the tribal areas.? He acknowledged some weakness in law enforcement, but insisted: ?We can?t cover the whole of Pakistan. It?s a huge country of 140 million people and big cities. We have limited resources. Instead of finding refuge in Pakistan they are actually being caught in Pakistan.? Bin Laden himself could still be alive, hidden in Pakistan?s tribal belt or in Iran, Somalia or even Chechnya, the President said in a late-night conversation at his Rawalpindi home. He has previously said he believes Bin Laden is probably dead, either from kidney problems or in the bombing of Tora Bora. ?There are hundreds of caves there. Each one of these caves has been bombed, that I know. General Tommy Franks (the American commander) told me what kind of bombs they used and these caves have caved in. I am also sure that none of these caves has been searched. So he may be dead in one of those caves.? But Musharraf said it was also possible that Bin Laden had escaped into Pakistan with a group too small to be detected by satellite. ?In the tribal areas, small groups of (not more than) a dozen people hiding somewhere is a possibility . . .It?s possible that a few sympathetic individuals may be hiding them.? In an indication of how little appears to be known about Bin Laden?s fate, the general raised other possibilities. ?Here you?ve got the army deployed. Would he risk coming here? Maybe he would like to escape to Chechnya or Somalia, but not to Pakistan. Or he may be in Afghanistan.? Musharraf surmised that Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban leader, had remained in Afghanistan. The general, who has a sense of humour, was amused that Omar had escaped from Kandahar on a Japanese motorcycle, and said he had raised this with Junichiro Koizumi, Japan?s Prime Minister. ?I told Koizumi he escaped on one of your motorcycles, a Honda, and I ask you to tell Honda that this is a very good advertisement for Honda.? We were sitting in the historic drawing room of the President?s British-built Army House, with its tall ceilings, floral patterns and a wood-panelled floor that Musharraf is proud to have discovered under piles of carpeting. Two presidents and two Prime Ministers have resided here. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the former Prime Minister, was arrested here by another general, Ziaul Haq, and subsequently hanged. There is history, intrigue, infamy and blood in the house. Contemplating the prospect of conflict in the Gulf, Musharraf warned that if Iraq were attacked by America and Britain without United Nations backing, there would be a negative reaction in Pakistan and throughout the Muslim world. But if the UN sanctioned action Pakistan would be obliged to support it. He believes Pakistan?s status as a nuclear Muslim state will protect it from any pre-emptive strike of the kind America envisages against Iraq. ?We are recognised as a nuclear state. It?s not at all possible to remove our capability that easily. We know how to protect ourselves.? The American doctrine of pre-emptive action was irrelevant to Pakistan?s tensions with India over Kashmir, he emphasised. ?If India ever thinks it applies, it is sadly mistaken. It must never undertake this adventure.? Musharraf said he intended to allow the Prime Minister who emerges from elections to become Pakistan?s chief executive. He believes that if the new Parliament can complete its term it will mean a break from the past after the turbulent regimes of the former Prime Ministers, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif. Interestingly, Musharraf spoke of his style of governing partly in the past tense. ?I was certainly not autocratic. I had a cabinet of my own. I used to discuss everything in cabinet. In fact, not just in cabinet - I discuss with my corps commanders and then take decisions. Let me also tell you that no Prime Minister used to discuss in cabinet previously.? The Prime Minister can now have all the powers ?as long as there is a check?, he said. Benazir Bhutto, who lives in London and Dubai, may return but ?will be proceeded against and have to go to jail because she is a convict?. She has been convicted in absentia for persistent non-appearance in one of many corruption cases against her, and has appealed. The general is exasperated at the notion that since Bhutto has a bank of support in Pakistan, she should be allowed to contest elections. ?That?s ridiculous! Who allows a convict to contest elections?? he said. Does he lose sleep over fear of assassination by one of the many enemies he has made in politics and the war on terror since he led a coup in 1999? ?I sleep less than most because I think sleep is a waste of time. You?re dead to the world and the world is so wonderful . . . Yes, there was this attempt on my life in Karachi but the car bomb didn?t detonate. I don?t regret taking power but regret the loss of my and my family?s civil liberties.? Musharraf, 59, was full of energy despite the lateness of the hour. He has built a small music and musing room with a view of beautifully manicured lawns. He loves exercise but has had temporarily to give up squash and tennis because of a frozen shoulder. Had he tried cortisone injections? ?I don?t like injections,? he said firmly but sheepishly. He does not mind bullets but runs a mile from needles. Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved. No part ***************************************************************** 28 Focus / Russia's dangerous dealings with Iran go on At his meeting today with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will go through the ritual performed by all Israeli and American leaders during talks in Moscow: He will demand that Russia stop assisting Iran's nuclear program, and he will be answered, as always, with smiles and understanding. And the flow of Russian nuclear technology to Iran will continue. Earlier this month, an American delegation visited Moscow with a detailed list of all the technologies and raw materials supplied by Russia that could help Iran develop atomic, biological or chemical weapons or long-range missiles. It returned empty-handed, saying no progress would be made until U.S. President George Bush's summit with Putin. But Bush is currently focused on mustering support for his war on Iraq, and Iran has been pushed to the sidelines. The United States has been trying for more than seven years to get Russia to end its dangerous dealings with Iran, but without success. The Russians did pledge to "tighten controls" on technology exports - but meanwhile, Iran's nuclear project and its long-range ground-to-ground missile project have both advanced. Russian nuclear aid to Iran flows through two channels. The open one is its assistance in construction of the nuclear power plant in Bushehr, due to be completed by the end of next year. The secret one consists of Russian companies that supply know-how and parts that could aid in the production of nuclear weapons. Time after time the Russians have denied that such deals exist. Neither the U.S. nor Israel believes them. Robert Einhorn and Gary Samore, who handled America's talks with Russia on this issue for the Clinton administration, analyzed this ongoing failure in an article published in the bulletin of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. In it, they noted that America does not believe Russia's claim that these transfers of nuclear technology are a "private enterprise;" it believes that all such deals take place with the knowledge and consent of government agencies. Had the Russian government really wanted to, the writers said, it could have turned off the tap - or at least reduced the flow substantially. Russia, they said, actually shares America's reluctance to see Iran join the nuclear club, and privately, Russian officials even admit that they share America's assessement of Tehran's intentions. But two considerations have caused Russia to prefer a partnership with Iran to strategic and technological cooperation with the United States. The first, they said, is economic: The Russian nuclear industry needs the Iranian market. The second is strategic: Russia views Iran as a key player in the Middle East, and also as one with influence on Russia's large Muslim minority. For both reasons, good relations with Tehran are important to it. Samore and Einhorn wrote that in late 2000 - just before Clinton's presidency ended - the Americans were close to a deal with Moscow: Russia's then energy minister, Yevgeny Adamov, had agreed in principle to halt Russian cooperation with Iran in sensitive areas such as uranium enrichment and plutonium production in exchange for American acquiescence to Russia's role in the Bushehr project. The two sides almost concluded a written agreement, the article said, but the talks eventually foundered over Washington's fears that Adamov would not keep his word. Samore and Einhorn also criticized the Bush administration for neglecting this issue, thereby making Russia think that the U.S. no longer cared about it. Recently, Bush's team has begun taking a more active stance. But Russia's position has not moved a millimeter. © Copyright 2002 Ha`aretz. All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 29 The Saddam menace -- The Washington Times September 30, 2002 Jed Babbin Monarchies and dictatorships often go to war to conquer, but democracies do so in self-defense. When President Bush said we would strike pre-emptively at terrorist nations, he adapted the way America chooses between peace and war to the new threat posed by enemies who refuse to be bound by the law of war. The cause for war in Afghanistan was simple. We retaliated for the September 11 attacks by striking al Qaeda's home base. Iraq, however, falls squarely into the president's new preemption paradigm. Mr. Bush placed his conclusions, but not all the evidence, before the world. His opponents have demanded what he could not share — the detailed intelligence information showing why Iraq was a threat, why action was needed and why it should be done now, not after more U.N. inspections and attempts to contain Saddam's regime.      Tuesday's release of the British government dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs is a summation of both the intelligence and analysis of it that defines the threat. This dossier is the first attempt by Western democracies to justify pre-emptive war. It is the first casus belli file. The president's opponents argue that Saddam can be contained. That Saddam has chemical and biological weapons, and may soon get nuclear weapons is not, they argue, proof that he will use them offensively. But, as the British dossier says, Saddam regards weapons of mass destruction as "the basis for regional Iraqi power." Saddam's expansionist ambitions led him to attack Iran and Kuwait. Those ambitions have not been dulled by defeat. Containment cannot work, because in Saddam's mind, and in the minds of his neighbors, his power depends upon the possession and ability to use these weapons. Without them, he's just another thug firing a rifle into the air.       Containment also won't work because of Saddam's relationship with Islamist terrorists. Khidir Hamza, who headed the Iraqi nuclear weapons program, told me that Saddam will share his chemical and biological weapons with terrorists in two circumstances. When Saddam believes those weapons cannot be traced to him, he will sell or give them to terrorists to attack American targets. Even where he believes the weapons can be traced back to him, he will give them to terrorists if he believes the retaliation will be insufficient to remove him from power. The threat to the United States is both direct and immediate. But the casus belli arises from capability, not just intent. Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter insists that Saddam is no danger, and that the weapons inspections rid Iraq of more than 90 percent of its weapons. While that was manifestly untrue — Mr. Ritter and the other U.N. inspectors were never allowed access to the most important weapons sites — the British have filled in the details. For example, the British dossier says that when the U.N. inspectors left Iraq in 1998, they had not accounted for more than 30,000 chemical and biological munitions, and 360 tons of chemical weapons, including more than a ton of the nerve agent VX. Much more chemical and biological weaponry is being produced. Iraq can deliver these weapons by artillery, by aircraft and by ballistic missile. U.N. resolutions limit Iraq to missiles of a range of 150 kilometers or less but the British report says that Iraq has about 20 al-Hussein missiles with a range of 650 kilometers, enough to reach Turkey, Israel and Saudi Arabia.       Analysis of new intelligence reveals that Iraq's military has extensive operational plans to use the chemical and biological weapons, and keeps them at a level of combat readiness that allows them to be used on 45 minutes notice. This high state of readiness proves Saddam's intent to use the weapons. Saddam's nuclear weapons program is — so far — less successful. The dossier says that, since at least mid-2001, Iraq has continued its nuclear weapons program aggressively, scouring Africa for sources of forbidden materials. Saddam wants nuclear weapons to intimidate his neighbors and deter us from interfering in his actions. If Iraq gets the materials it needs, it could produce nuclear weapons in only one or two years. Tony Blair's speech to a special session of the British Parliament was met with support, catcalls and one very thoughtful statement. Barry Gardiner is a junior member of Parliament, but is someone worth watching. After Mr. Blair's speech, Mr. Gardiner rose to demand that those who believe military action would be justified if taken collectively — with U.N. sanction — explain why it is unjust if we — meaning America and the U.K. — take the same action unilaterally. Mr. Gardiner was booed by members of his own party. But his question should be asked over and over again in Congress, and in the U.N.       Jed Babbin was a deputy undersecretary of defense in the first Bush administration. All site contents copyright © 2002 News World Communications, ***************************************************************** 30 Gore on Bush Washington Merry-Go-Round The Salt Lake Tribune -- Monday, September 30, 2002 BY JACK ANDERSON and DOUGLAS COHN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON -- Former Vice President and one-time presidential nominee Al Gore was one of only 10 Democrats to vote for the authorization of force against Iraq in 1991. He was also the only presidential nominee to have served in Vietnam. But today, he is standing in open opposition to the Bush administration's call for force against Saddam Hussein. His background makes his opposition credible, and therefore damaging to the call for a regime change in Iraq. As vice president, he presumably had access to the daily intelligence briefings until he left office in January 2001. Up until then he must have been kept abreast of Saddam's ongoing efforts to build an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear, chemical and biological programs. He must have been aware of Iraq's improvements in its missile program. And it will be remembered that their Scud missiles caused the most casualties during Desert Storm. Further, ex-presidents are regularly briefed by current administrations. And though the same does not hold true for former vice presidents, it is reasonable to assume that Gore could receive intelligence information if he requests it. He has been joined in his concerns by former NATO commander Gen. Wesley Clark and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff John Shalikashvili and other high-ranking military officers, all of whom have had -- and undoubtedly continue to have -- access to high-level intelligence briefings. Gore went public recently, stating "the policy we are presently following with respect to Iraq has the potential to seriously damage our ability to win the war against terrorism and to weaken our ability to lead the world in this new century." Arrayed against him and his like-minded allies are the Bush administration, a large pool of active-duty officers who cannot engage in political rhetoric, and -- most importantly -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has been the most articulate and credible proponent of action to oust Saddam Hussein. How can such distinguished and intelligent individuals draw such diametrically different conclusions from the same information? The answer is that virtually all parties in the know acknowledge the danger posed by Saddam, but differ on the timing and the response. Clearly, none of them favors the status quo, but whereas the Bush administration says there is a clear and present danger that can only be remedied by near-term action, Gore's side is saying that the threat is clear, but not so present. They believe there is time to invoke other actions, including diplomatic, political and economic pressure. And on the surface, their claim is rational. The problem is that their argument lacks a fallback position. If they are wrong, and Saddam strikes, the devastation will be unimaginable. If they are wrong, and Saddam merely announces that Iraq has become a nuclear power, the Middle East balance of power will be irrevocably altered. If they are wrong, and Saddam feeds chemical and biological weapons along with financial resources to al-Qaida operatives, attacks on American cities would be a certainty. It is the last of these that is the most probable, because unlike a nuclear attack, chemical and biological attacks funneled through terrorist operatives do not come with what the Pentagon calls "return addresses." On the other hand, Bush and Blair do have a fallback position. They can commence limited operations, beginning with a stepped-up air campaign, and call them off at any time. Prediction: Gore and company may be right about the lack of immediacy in the Iraq problem. But they may be wrong, and it is a gamble we cannot -- and will not -- take. © Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on ***************************************************************** 31 Turkey makes huge haul -- The Washington Times September 29, 2002 By Seva Ulman UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish police seized about 33 pounds of weapons-grade uranium, valued at $5 million, and detained two men, Turkey's Anatolian news agency reported yesterday. If further tests uphold the preliminary police findings, the quantity would be by far the largest yet captured from illegal hands anywhere in the world. The previous record was set in July 2001, when security forces in Georgia arrested several men trying to sell less than 4 pounds of weapons-grade — also called enriched — uranium to Turkish buyers. Smaller amounts have been captured on several other occasions in the region.      It is not yet clear whether the source of the seizure reported yesterday came from the former Soviet republic of Georgia, but Anatolian described it as coming from an Eastern European country. It was also unclear when the seizure took place. The Anatolian report said two men were arrested on smuggling charges after authorities acted on a tip-off and stopped a taxicab in the southern province of Sanliurfa, which borders Syria and is about 155 miles from the Iraqi border. The uranium was in a lead container hidden under a seat.      Anatolian gave only the first names of the suspects, which appeared to be Turkish. Officials at Ankara's Atomic Energy Institute, when contacted by Reuters news agency, would not confirm they had been notified about the material seized from the taxi. "Our investigation on whether the uranium was destined for a neighboring country is continuing," Anatolian quoted a Sanliurfa police official as saying. Police officials in Sanliurfa and Ankara declined to comment on the case. Smugglers use Turkey's porous eastern border to import drugs, and hundreds of thousands of migrants illegally cross the rugged border each year on their way to more affluent European Union nations.      Police in Istanbul seized more than 2.2 pounds of weapons-grade uranium in November that had been smuggled into Turkey from an East European nation. The smugglers were detained after attempting to sell the material to undercover police officers.      Though substantial, the 33 pounds of enriched uranium reported seized yesterday is not quite enough to make a "proper" nuclear bomb, according to U.S. government information. About 55 pounds is considered the standard threshold to ignite such a device's searing force. Nuclear bombs also require at least 17.6 pounds of plutonium. However, the seized amount is likely to work as a crude nuclear bomb, combined with conventional explosives to form a "dirty bomb," or — in the worst case — blended with previously smuggled and as yet undiscovered amounts of enriched material to form an actual bomb. ***************************************************************** 32 India: Strategic nuclear command being put in place: Lt Gen Joshi Monday, September 30, 2002 * New Delhi, September 30: * Declaring that the setting up of the country's Strategic Nuclear Command was on the anvil, the Chief of the newly-set up Integrated Defence Staff, Lt Gen P.C. Joshi said all nuclear and missile assets including Air, Land and Sea launched weapons, would be under its operational control. "All the country's nuclear weapons and delivery system whether a nuclear bomb carrying Aircraft or land-based as well as sea-based missiles, when developed, would come under the umbrella of the new command", he told newsmen on the completion of the first-year of the Integrated Defence Staff set up. While saying that a proposal for appointing a Chief of the Defence Staff as an operational head of the three services was beyond his purview, the Chief of the Integrated Defence staff, whose set up was supposed to be a forerunner for the naming of a full time CDS, said he was not aware of the progress on the front. Disclosing that the country's first ever Tri-service, command set up recently on the Andaman island, was being treated by the Government as "Laboratory experience", Joshi said that the authorities would review the working of the idea by year 2005 and then formulate whether or not to go ahead with replicating the experiment. Gen Joshi said a high level Tri-Service committee on revamping defence training institutions had submitted its report and this would be considerded by the Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee, Gen S Padmanabhan. Asserting that the concept of joint training of officers and personnel was catching on, Joshi said the Chairman of the Chiefs of staff committee would look into how many of the services' training commands and institutions should be merged under the new CIDS set up. While saying that he wes not aware of the proposals submitted by the Tri-Service committee, he said that he felt that in a large number of training institutions staff could be reduced and some done away entirely. On repeated queries on when the CDS appointment could come about or whether the proposal had been shelved, Joshi said though the Group of Ministers who had gone into Kargil committee findings had opted for setting up of such a unified command, it was for the Government to take a final decision on this. As far as his Integrated Defence Staff set up was concerned, he made it clear that the newly raised organisation was more or less set up to be a single-window think tank of the defence policy makers tasked to provide strategic inputs on operations, intelligence, organisational matters, training and strategic vision. Joshi said the tasks that the integrated Defence staff was occupied with were to form the long term strategic perespective planning for the services, chalk out short five year plans and pursue the acqusition plans of the three services. "CIDS is tasked to ensure that acquisition plans of the three services follow and integrated plan rather than indiviual strategy and present this report to the Defence acqusition council headed by the Defence Minister", he said. The Indian Express Columnists © 2002: Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd. All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 33 NTS may be used to make plutonium triggers* By HENRY BREAN, Managing Editor September 27, 2002 *DOE considering four locations if production resumes for key component of nuclear weapons* The United States has not made plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons since its production facility at Rocky Flats, Colo., shut down in 1989. Now federal officials are considering whether to resume trigger production and if so, whether Nye County should be the place to do it. The Nevada Test Site is one of five locations being considered for a Modern Plutonium Pit Facility. In October, the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will hold public meetings at the five sites and at DOE headquarters in Washington, D.C., to help shape the scope of its environmental impact assessment for the project. The Environmental Impact Statement that DOE plans to draft will examine whether to build the facility and weigh the five sites under consideration, which include the NTS and other existing federal facilities in Amarillo, Texas; Carlsbad, N.M.; Los Alamos, N.M.; and North Augusta, S.C. The public meeting for the Nevada Test Site is scheduled for 7-10 p.m. Oct. 17 at DOE's Nevada Operations Office in Las Vegas. The Los Alamos site already has some "plutonium pit capabilities," and DOE's assessment will look at the possibility of maintaining those capabilities or upgrading the existing facilities there. According to a press release from the NNSA, the United States is the only nuclear power without the ability to manufacture a plutonium pit, which serves as a trigger in modern nuclear weapons. The lack of such a production facility has been identified as "a critical defense readiness gap" by the Bush Administration, Congress, the Department of Defense and several outside experts, the release states. "A new facility would re-establish the capability to manufacture all pit types in the nation's current nuclear stockpile and meet any future requirements in an environmentally compliant manner." A massive environmental cleanup program was required at the Rocky Flats site following its closure. If the Modern Pit Facility is approved, the plan is to have it in production by 2020. "We will undoubtedly encourage that to happen," said Les Bradshaw, manager of Nye County's Department of Natural Resources and Federal Facilities. "Any little bit of industrial development at the test site should be good for Nye County." At least that's the usual position of the county commission, which supports "any and all projects" that would bring new industry to the test site, Bradshaw said. He added that as far as he knows, that standard county position does not discriminate against projects involving nuclear material. The one notable exception to that is the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. For years, the county maintained a neutral stance on that project, though usually with one caveat: If the repository was to be built, Nye County wanted compensation and for some of the related industries to be placed here. The 1,350-square-mile Nevada Test Site is located almost entirely in Nye County. Bradshaw said he and his staff would research plutonium pit production and the possible ramifications of the proposed facility. From what he understands, federal officials are considering the use of existing buildings at the test site. But if nothing else, he said, placing the production facility at the test site would mean some additional possessory use tax money for the county. /©Pahrump Valley Times 2002/ ***************************************************************** 34 Hanford Tank crawler on cleanup duty This story was published Mon, Sep 23, 2002 By John Stang Herald staff writer Think of it as an atomic-age broom and dustpan. CH2M Hill Hanford Group is testing a miniature "tank crawler" as a way to get semi-solid radioactive wastes out of the bottoms of about 60 Hanford tanks. The company has begun testing a tank crawler -- a miniature bulldozer teamed up with a huge quasi-vacuum cleaner -- at Hanford's tank mockup site next to the HAMMER facility. CH2M Hill expects to use this system to first clean out a tank -- the single-shell C-104 -- in 2005, said Joel Eacker, CH2M Hill Hanford Group's vice president for projects. Hanford has 53 million gallons of highly radioactive wastes in 149 old single-shell tanks and 28 newer and safer double-shell tanks. CH2M Hill has pumped most of the liquid wastes from the single-shell tanks to the double-shell tanks to await eventual glassification. It is supposed to finish that job by 2004. But even after the liquids are pumped out, about 31 million gallons of thick sludges, salt cakes and solid wastes will remain in the bottoms of the single-shell tanks. Hanford is researching ways to remove those final materials so the tanks can be permanently closed. The tank crawler and its sister equipment are one of the methods being developed to remove solids from some tanks. Actually, most of this technology is borrowed from the oil industry, which uses it in underground petroleum tanks. A vacuum pump will be inserted into a Hanford waste tank through one of its narrow pipes -- which are the only avenues through which someone on the surface can put something in an underground waste tank. Then a small bulldozer -- the tank crawler -- is inserted through another tank pipe opening, hanging by a cable perpendicular to the tank's bottom. This tank crawler is 6 feet long, 2 feet high, and has a blade that can unfold to expand from 24 inches to 40 inches wide. The bottom line: The tank crawler has to fit through a narrow vertical pipe, then unfold its blade to become a bulldozer. The tank crawler has a pump-and-spray mechanism to enable it to burrow through peanut butterlike wastes in order to get to the bottom of the tank, dig itself a hole, set itself right-side-up and begin work. Then the tank crawler just pushes wastes to the vacuum pump, which sucks the materials out of the tank. One tricky part is that the crawler won't have any cameras on it. Instead, cameras will have to be inserted through another pipe opening in the tank's ceiling. That means the crawler's human operator on the surface must cope with odd angles and perspectives to guide the crawler by remote control. "It's going to take a little bit of art to get our operators trained," Eacker said. The combined pump, crawler and auxiliary equipment cost about $2 million. CH2M Hill believes a crawler will last through cleaning maybe six tanks before the radioactivity and wear-and-tear make it unusable. Consequently, CH2M Hill believes that ultimately 10 tank crawlers may have to be built. Its immediate plan is to have one primary crawler and one backup crawler in place. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 35 Energy NW moves 1st spent fuel This story was published Tue, Sep 24, 2002 By Chris Mulick Herald staff writer Energy Northwest has moved its first batch of spent nuclear fuel from inside the Columbia Generating Station to its new outdoor storage pad. The 17-member public power consortium that operates the 1,150-megawatt reactor north of Richland moved the first of five giant casks on Friday. "It went pretty much without incident," said assistant project manager Curtis Moore. The remaining four, each holding 68 fuel assemblies, are expected to be moved by Christmas. Until this month, the plant's spent fuel pool has been home to the approximately 2,200 fuel bundles used in the reactor since it commenced operation in 1984. The 340 spent assemblies being removed this fall will create more than enough room for the new ones scheduled to be pulled from the reactor during next spring's refueling outage. Plans to store the highly radioactive assemblies in giant outdoor casks have been in the works for more than three years. While Energy Northwest waits for a permanent repository to be finished at Nevada's Yucca Mountain -- for which Northwest ratepayers already have contributed about $100 million -- the utility has run out of room in its spent fuel pool. The plant's oldest spent assemblies are being pulled from the pool first and put into steel containers, which are then drained, vacuum-dried and backfilled with inert helium gas to aid in the cooling process. Those containers are then lowered into 20-foot-tall casks which encase the containers in 2 feet of steel and concrete. The massive cylinders, which look like pop cans, then are hoisted 11 inches off the ground and slowly inched down a half-mile-long gravel road by a giant crawler, whose top speed is one-third of a mph. It takes a week to load the casks and a day to transport them to a 2-foot-thick slab of concrete, which is cushioned by another 3 feet of sand. The casks are expected to remain there until a permanent federal repository can be finished. Though Energy Northwest officials initially thought storing the waste outdoors several hundred yards from the Columbia River might make some uneasy there's been no local protest of any kind, said spokesman Don McManman. "If people could just come out and see how heavy these things look," he said. The fully-loaded casks, each weighing about 180 tons, were designed to withstand the impact of a 4,000-pound vehicle hurled by a tornado at 126 mph. And as a part of new upgrades recently completed at the nuclear site, the storage pad has been surrounded by its own layer of fences, motion-detecting cameras and other security measures. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 36 Yakima doctors urge FFTF perpetuity This story was published Wed, Sep 25, 2002 By Annette Cary Herald staff writer YAKIMA -- Any business that depends on one supplier is foolhardy, but that's what's happening in his business, Yakima Dr. James Dodge said at a Tuesday hearing on how soon the Department of Energy must dismantle Hanford's Fast Flux Test Facility. Most of the medical isotopes used in the 20 to 40 procedures his practice performs daily are imported from a single reactor in Canada, he said. But just those isotopes already used primarily for diagnostic procedures could be produced at FFTF in high enough volume to help pay the cost of operating the reactor, he said. "We're talking about the future of our region, the future of our nation," he said. "I didn't expect to be put in the position of trying to save such an obvious national resource." About 43 Yakima doctors feel the same, he said, presenting Tri-Party Agreement officials a letter with their signatures asking that the reactor be saved. About 50 people attended the Yakima hearing, the first of four to discuss deadlines for permanent shutdown being considered for the legal pact that governs Hanford cleanup. Most of those who spoke asked that the reactor be saved. "I don't understand speeding up the process for destruction of this facility," said George Brown of Yakima. "It's a tremendous resource the taxpayers invested millions of dollars in." The federal government should give those working to save the reactor more time, he said. A coalition of Mid-Columbia governments is asking that the reactor be declared surplus and used commercially to make isotopes for medicine, including promising new cancer treatments. As more treatments move from clinical trials to mainstream medicine, treating some largely incurable cancers and others with fewer side effects than conventional treatments, supporters of the reactor expect demand for the isotopes to explode. "I would like to sue DOE for depraved indifference to the people," said Laurel Piippo of Richland. DOE has concluded that it has no mission for the reactor and has dismissed some proposals to restart it as too financially risky. The Tri-Party Agreement hearings only address deadlines for dismantling the reactor, including steps such as draining the sodium. Once that's done, the reactor cannot be safely restarted. But work already has started toward a permanent shutdown. Irreparable damage to the reactor may occur before the hearings are completed next month, said John Boland of Kennewick. "These are merely milestones" that give the latest date work may be done, said Al Farabee of DOE. "By hell or high water, we are going to do it earlier." The milestones call for work to drain the sodium to begin no later than June 2003. "If the decision to be shut down has already been made, then let's get on with it," said Gene Rupel of Yakima. But government studies of restarting the reactor have found there is a need for it, said many supporters. The decision to shut it down permanently was based on politics, they said. "Who has the money and the political clout to generate the money again for this kind of reactor?" asked Joyce Miller of Yakima, who said her fantasy had been to work at FFTF. Part of the reason to shut it down is financial, countered representatives of Heart of America Northwest. "It costs a lot to run," said Dave Johnson of Enumclaw, a former FFTF worker representing Heart of America. "DOE has always known it has to have another mission to support isotope (production)." If the proposed changes to the Tri-Party Agreement are not approved by a negotiating deadline, previous deadlines suspended while new uses for the reactor were considered will take effect, said Gerry Pollet of Heart of America. If those deadlines had not been suspended, the reactor would have been mothballed a year ago, he said. If suspended deadlines are reinstated now, sodium would still have to be completely drained by 2005, the same as in proposed changes being considered, he said. His concern is that the new proposal stretches out the final phase of shutdown from 2007 to 2011, adding millions to the cost. Additional hearings are planned Thursday in Seattle, Oct. 9 in Portland and at 7 p.m. Oct. 10 at the Hanford House in Richland. The proposed changes are available at www.hanford.gov/tpa/changelist.htm on the Internet. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 37 ATG working on financial recovery formula This story was published Wed, Sep 25, 2002 By John Stang Herald staff writer Financially troubled Allied Technology Group hopes to submit its recovery plan to a federal bankruptcy court judge by mid-November. That plan might involve selling part or all of ATG's nationwide operations, including its Richland plant. However, it is hard to tell what ATG will try to do at this point, said Bob Hanfling, the company's trustee appointed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Northern California. A Seattle-based group is approaching potential partners and is studying whether it wants to buy ATG's entire nationwide operations, said Phil Jordan, the group's leader and a former financial consultant to the company's owners, Doreen and Frank Chiu of San Francisco. Jordan declined to elaborate about the group other than to say it hopes to have a plan in place when Hanfling approaches the bankruptcy court with a recovery plan. ATG's business is to take federal and commercial chemical and low-level radioactive wastes and convert them into smaller and safer forms. Its key operation is its plant in northern Richland. Hanford has hopes to send some wastes, especially mixed chemical and radioactive wastes, to ATG for processing. Few, if any, processes exist to convert Hanford's mixed wastes into safer forms. A stalled project at ATG's Richland plant had been the best bet to tackle that task. In the late 1980s and in the 1990s, ATG had steadily expanded. It grew from the Richland plant to include a similar plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn., a fledgling plant site in South Carolina and some smaller nuclear-related ventures. It also bought technology and contracts from bankrupt Molten Metals Technology to process wastes from numerous East Coast commercial reactors. Meanwhile, ATG sunk at least $40 million into a process at Richland to convert mixed wastes into glass, which also was supposed to handle Hanford's mixed wastes. But the emissions purification equipment kept shutting down on its own and no one could fix that problem. That led to cost overruns, massive loans and missed payments on repaying those loans. Meanwhile, the Oak Ridge venture and Molten Metals Technology turned out to be much less profitable than expected. All that led to ATG terminating most of its employees last November, including almost 120 at Richland. ATG declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy last December. ATG is in the red with about $60 million in secured debt and an undetermined amount of unsecured debt. So far, it has not paid off any of that debt, Hanfling said. While the Chius still own ATG, they no longer manage it. A federal bankruptcy judge put Hanfling in charge last February. Last spring, ATG began rehiring people at the Richland plant. Today, it employs 68. The plant has tackled processing an 8 million-pound backlog of wastes and reduced that to about 5 million pounds today without suffering any lost-time work accidents, Hanfling said. "That's a credit to the people working there," he said. However, the plant has not resumed work on trying to fix its stalled mixed-waste glassification equipment. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 38 Taxpayers to foot bill for DOE damages This story was published Thu, Sep 26, 2002 By The New York Times News Service and the Herald staff WASHINGTON -- A federal appeals court has ruled that billions of dollars in damages the Department of Energy is likely to owe to nuclear reactor owners for its failure to store nuclear waste will have to come from taxpayers, not electricity consumers. DOE signed contracts with reactor owners in the early 1980s promising to accept their wastes for burial beginning in January 1998, in exchange for payments based on electricity production. To date, reactor owners have paid more than $10.5 billion. Energy Northwest, operator of the reactor north of Richland, has paid $100 million into the federal pool. The agency is in the process of moving tons of its spent fuel into new temporary storage that cost about $30 million. But the department currently says it cannot take waste until 2010, and the operators of the reactors are suing because they have been forced to build storage facilities on their reactor sites. Energy Northwest is not a party to the suit seeking damages from the government for failing to complete a permanent storage facility when it said it would. Many experts say federal storage cannot start for many years because of uncertainties about Yucca Mountain, the site near Las Vegas chosen as the waste repository. Estimates of the damages run from $2 billion to $60 billion, and the decision, from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, twice used the word "nebulous" to describe them. At the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, which is made up of state officials, Brian O'Connell, the director of the Nuclear Waste Program office, said the number would run "in the billions." Asked if it would reach tens of billions, O'Connell said, "It gets fuzzy." He said that one utility, Northern States Power of Minnesota, put its costs at $1 billion because it might be forced to shut three reactors prematurely, for want of storage space for the radioactive waste. The only settlement so far is much smaller. The department and the owners of the three-reactor Peach Bottom plant, in the Pennsylvania town of the same name, agreed on $80 million, to pay extra costs for storing the wastes on site, in giant steel and concrete casks. But 13 other reactor owners sued to block the deal, because the money would have come from the Nuclear Waste Fund, money from power customers that they said was supposed to be used only to open a permanent repository. In a decision dated Tuesday, the appeals court ruled that money in the fund can only be used for permanent disposal. The court said that the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the law that allowed the contracts, called for a quid pro quo "in which each utility roughly pays the costs of disposing of its waste and no more." The plan, the court said, was for a system in which the burden of the government's breach of contract would "fall on the government, not other utilities." A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Jay Silberg, said if DOE could use the money collected from utilities to pay damages to the utilities, the department would be "robbing Peter to pay Peter." "The lesson learned from the court's ruling is that we need to move forward with the Yucca Mountain project," said Joseph Davis, a DOE spokesman. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 39 Isotopes group asked to clarify letter This story was published Thu, Sep 26, 2002 By Annette Cary Herald staff writer The Washington State Department of Ecology has asked Citizens for Medical Isotopes to send a clarification to thousands of people it notified about hearings on the shutdown schedule for Hanford's Fast Flux Test Facility. CMI, which wants the reactor restarted to make medical isotopes, used a fact sheet distributed by the Tri-Party Agreement agencies as part of its mailer but altered the second page. The first page kept a letterhead and logo of the Tri-Party Agreement organization, but on the second page CMI included its Web site address and added a headline calling the destruction timeline unacceptable. Group Chairman Claude Oliver, also a Benton County commissioner, said CMI did not intend to mislead people and questions whether it did. The altered page includes the CMI logo and address, he pointed out. CMI has declined to send letters of clarification, saying the state would have to pay the postage costs. The group would not have had to alter the fact sheet if dates for public hearings had been included, Oliver said. CMI added that information in a space that said dates would be announced because they were not available when the state put out the fact sheet for the Tri-Party Agreement agencies. "They should be thankful we got the word out to thousands of people," Oliver said. In fact, the state does agree that if there is a way to save the reactor it should be done. Its concern was that readers might construe the letter as a government document, said Sheryl Hutchinson, spokeswoman for the Department of Ecology. The Department of Ecology, Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy all are parties to the agreement, the legal pact that governs Hanford cleanup. Public hearings on setting deadlines for when FFTF must be permanently shut down will continue today in Seattle. Among those expected are representatives of Heart of America Northwest, who want the reactor permanently shut down, in part so it generates no more nuclear waste. Organized labor officials and workers also are expected to be among the speakers, arguing that the reactor could be used to save lives by producing isotopes for medicine. It also would create long-term jobs for the region. Other hearings will be held Oct. 9 in Portland and at 7 p.m. Oct. 10 at the Richland Red Lion Hanford House. For more information, call 800-321-2008. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 40 Hanford's 2003 budget still in limbo This story was published Fri, Sep 27, 2002 By John Stang Herald staff writer Hanford's new fiscal year begins next Tuesday with the site's budget still in limbo in Washington, D.C. And the fiscal 2003 budget could remain in limbo for a few more weeks. Right now, Hanford appears likely to receive the requested $1.893 billion. But that won't be certain until Congress approves a 2003 nationwide cleanup budget for the Department of Energy and the money up is divided among its sites. Until then, it is difficult to map out and prioritize individual projects at Hanford and elsewhere, said Todd Martin, chairman of the Hanford Advisory Board. In the short term, that's not expected to influence plans to speed up Hanford cleanup. But if the budget delay lingers, it could lock up $117 million for Hanford work indefinitely. The budget process is stalled in three places. U.S. House The House Energy and Water Appropriations Committee has approved a $7 billion nationwide cleanup budget, including $1.1 billion DOE has earmarked solely for sites ready to speed up nuclear cleanup. But the Bush administration and Congress have not agreed on the nation's overall budget. And the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Bill will be the first to go to the full House when the overall budget is resolved. DOE's budget is in the Water and Energy Appropriations Bill, one of 12 in line behind the labor bill. U.S. Senate Again, DOE's budget request of $7 billion has passed out of committee to await a full Senate vote. But the Senate traditionally holds off voting until the full House has passed its version of an appropriations bill. The main difference between the House and Senate bills is that the Senate has already allocated how its wants the $1.1 billion in acceleration money spent, while the House version defers to a still-pending DOE plan. Both versions call for $1.893 billion, including acceleration money, to go to Hanford cleanup in 2003. Office of Management and Budget DOE has already gotten Office of Management and Budget, the president's budget-writing office, to sign off on $5.9 billion of its 2003 request. But OMB is still asking questions on DOE's proposed $1.1 billion in acceleration money. The administration has promised the $1.1 billion request will go to Congress. Consequently, the House, Senate and DOE are all seeking $7 billion for nationwide nuclear cleanup. The differences could lie within how the $1.1 billion is allocated. DOE cleanup czar Jesse Roberson told Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., on Thursday that Hanford's $1.893 billion should remain intact, said Murray aide Todd Webster. Environmental Protection Agency and Washington Department of Ecology officials also said DOE appears intent on sticking to that amount. But the big unknown is whether OMB will approve how DOE has coordinated its sites' individual acceleration plans. If OMB disagrees, that could affect Hanford's acceleration money. Meanwhile, state Ecology Department spokeswoman Sheryl Hutchison noted Congress often goes beyond Oct. 1 to nail down DOE appropriations. "Unfortunately, it's become almost routine," she said. In the past, when federal budgets are in limbo on Oct. 1, Congress traditionally passes a resolution to keep funding federal programs at the same levels as the previous year. If this occurs, it means DOE will begin fiscal 2003 with the assumption it will have 2002's cleanup appropriation of $6.7 billion until the probable 2003 appropriation of $7 billion is approved. That means Hanford would function after Tuesday with 2002's total of $1.776 billion until 2003's proposed $1.893 billion materializes. Hanford would be missing $117 million temporarily. DOE's Washington, D.C., headquarters and Richland office declined to comment on what would happen to the acceleration plans if the budget limbo lasts beyond a few weeks. DOE's Office of River Protection said it should not affect tank farms and glassification plant operations in the short term. The office has not crunched numbers yet on what happens if the delay extends to December or beyond. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 41 Hanford HAMMER safety program honored This story was published Fri, Sep 27, 2002 By John Stang Herald staff writer The Volpentest HAMMER facility is now the seventh Hanford operation to receive a top ranking in a nationwide worker safety program. The training center received "star status" in the federal Voluntary Protection Program. The program was conceived by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration and was later adopted by the Department of Energy. About 100 people watched as the award was presented to the HAMMER training complex Thursday. "It is the only training center in the DOE complex to receive this award. I'm not surprised," said Sam Volpentest, executive vice president of the Tri-City Industrial Development Council and one of HAMMER's founders. The HAMMER site in southern Hanford is a regional training center for Hanford and emergency response workers. The Voluntary Protection Program emphasizes cooperation between managers and workers to improve safety habits and programs. A "star" rating means DOE has examined and approved dozens of HAMMER's procedures and activities to improve safety. Star status also reduces the number of safety inspections a facility is required to go through. The award went to the 53 people employed by HAMMER and the Hanford Training Organization, both managed by Fluor Hanford. "To achieve this took dedication and hard work from the whole HAMMER staff," said Jill Molnaa, a Teamsters Union safety representative. Dave Van Leuven, Fluor Hanford's executive vice president, said HAMMER's training staff "has been a pioneer in workers' involvement." Nationwide, 20 DOE operations have achieved star status in this program. The other six Hanford operations obtaining star status are Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Fluor Federal Services, DynCorp Tri-Cities Services which has been since absorbed by Fluor Hanford, Fluor Hanford's river corridor program, the Fast Flux Test Facility managed by Fluor Hanford and Protection Technology Hanford. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 42 Businesses, Bechtel clash over contracts This story was published Fri, Sep 27, 2002 By Wendy Culverwell Herald staff writer A group of Tri-City business heavyweights has broken out the heavy artillery to charge that the Department of Energy and its prime contractors aren't giving enough consideration to the area's long-term economic health as they develop the Hanford waste glassification plant. The Tri-Cities Local Business Association had been quietly negotiating with DOE, Bechtel National Inc., CH2M Hill Hanford Group and Fluor Hanford since it formed nearly a year ago. But the rhetoric heated up this week when the association released copies of a letter it sent to Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. The letter, written by the group's chairman, Sid Morrison, seeks to enlist Cantwell in pressuring one contractor, Bechtel National Inc., to steer more meaningful work to local businesses. Morrison is an Eastern Washington farmer, former congressman and former head of the Washington Department of Transportation. He peppered the letter with multiple references to "predatory" business practices, as well as "secret bid openings" and claims that Bechtel requires its smaller subcontractors to assume risk without offering commensurate reward. The local Bechtel National and DOE offices, which received faxed copies of the letter Thursday, bristled at the suggestion their practices are predatory or unfair. Greg Jones, executive officer for the DOE Office of River Protection, defended Bechtel Hanford, noting it has spent more than $80 million with Tri-City businesses this year alone and about $92 million since the project started in 2001. "They are, in fact, in our opinion doing business locally," he said. And local businesses that sell supplies and services to Bechtel stepped forward to say that by doing so they're developing skills and systems that will make them stronger when the project is complete. That's exactly the kind of thing the Local Business Association says it wants to see. The Local Business Association was formed by Dick French and Bob Ferguson, both former DOE officials who now lead private companies, as well as leaders from Informatics Corp., Lampson International, Meier Enterprises, Morrison Construction Services, Nuvotec, Thompson Mechanical Construction and Wastren. The Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council and the Central Washington Building and Construction Trades Council, together representing more than 16,000 local workers also belong to the association. Morrison said Fluor and CH2M Hill have been receptive to the pitch, but he claimed Bechtel officials consistently act receptive, then fail to follow through on pledges of cooperation. So even though the sides previously announced their intent to cooperate, Morrison's group decided to step up the pressure before time runs out for awarding all the contracts associated with the treatment plant. "We think we're being stonewalled. The clock is ticking. We want to get results," Morrison said. Morrison said Washington's congressional delegation is generally supportive of the idea the project should not only address the radioactive waste issue but also promote long-term economic vitality. It sought Cantwell's assistance because she is on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Jennifer Crider, spokeswoman for Cantwell, said the letter hasn't surfaced in Washington, D.C., where politicians are reeling under a flood of mail because of the debate over engaging Iraq. That, coupled with extensive decontamination procedures, means Cantwell's staff hadn't had a chance to review it. As a general rule, Crider said, the senator agrees DOE contracting processes should promote community economic stability. Morrison acknowledged Bechtel has spent many millions with businesses in the Tri-Cities and the region. The issue, he said, is not how much Bechtel spends but rather what it buys. Businesses don't develop expertise and talent selling commodities such as sand, gravel and lightbulbs, he said. One Bechtel supplier disputes that characterization. Mike Mahan, an outside sales representative for H.D. Fowler Co. in Pasco, said his company provides materials for all the underground utilities at the construction site. It's no run of the mill account, he said. "It's a challenge. It makes us more knowledgeable," he said, saying the expertise gleaned from the contract will make his company more qualified for non-Hanford work in the future. Morrison said that's the kind of work that's missing on a large scale. The Local Business Association wants Bechtel to step up its efforts to use local companies for technical and professional expertise and to participate in construction. For example, businesses and workers employed in nuclear construction have to be certified for quality and process. Such certifications are expensive to maintain and companies that don't work on such projects tend to let them lapse. Morrison said there are many local companies that have done that, but which would get recertified if they had some assurance it would pay off in the form of work on the treatment plant. Then, when the plant construction is over, they would be in a position to sell their high-tech expertise to other companies in the region. Hanford's post-vitrification legacy would be a "plateau of capability" that would extend to any number of future endeavors. French, who formed Federal Engineers and Constructors in Richland in 2001, said the tenor of Morrison's letter reflects his personal frustration. His company hasn't been qualified to bid for work, although he has done work for its sister company, Bechtel Hanford. Like Morrison, he believes work builds businesses and makes them more viable in the future. If political figures engage in the debate, French said, "I think it will build an industrial base that will assure the future of the Tri-Cities after Hanford." Mahan of H.D. Fowler said it takes some effort to meet Bechtel's criteria for subcontractors, but it's worth it. "If the small local business takes on the challenge, Bechtel is more than willing to help you through it," he said. Mike Jewell, procurement and property manager for Bechtel National, outlined an extensive program for recruiting and working with small businesses, including offering monthly forums to help vendors better understand what they need to do. So far, 231 small Tri-City businesses have been validated, meaning Bechtel has verified they are what they say they are. And Sue Kuntz, a Bechtel spokeswoman, said the company is committed to the area's future. Its apprenticeship program alone will train 400 craftspeople, making it one of the largest worker training programs in the area. The two sides have tentative plans to meet in October. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 43 YMP space crunch an opportunity for Nye, Taguchi says* By RICH THURLOW, Editor September 27, 2002 *09-27-02* Ongoing rumblings that there just wouldn't be enough room in Yucca Mountain to store all that high-level nuclear waste were confirmed by a Dept. of Energy spokesman last week. DOE estimates Yucca Mountain, located north of Lathrop Wells and east of Beatty in southern Nye County, will be able to hold about two-thirds of the proposed 77,000 metric tons when it begins accepting shipments in eight or so years. Not surprisingly, Nye County Commission Chairman Jeff Taguchi sees this as more of an opportunity rather than a negative, particularly since the county has been pushing for reprocessing the waste rather than permanently storing it on the site. He also points out that while work continues to get Yucca Mountain ready to receive the waste, more of it is being generated all the time at over 100 nuclear power plants throughout the United States. In other words, if Yucca Mountain, located on the Nevada Test Site, can accept all 77,000 tons over a matter of years, there will still be another 77,000 or so tons of new waste to dispose of. It creates an ideal opportunity to establish a significant scientific and industrial community in the area, both near Yucca Mountain and along Lathrop Wells, Taguchi said, one geared to continuing using the waste to produce energy. It's not a new concept, he added, since nuclear waste is already being processed in Japan, France and Russia. Congressman Jim Gibbons recently toured a reprocessing plant in Russia. "The technology can advance if we allow it to," Taguchi said. "It's just a matter of not looking at it from a waste disposal perspective and redirecting it into an energy producing commodity." Gibbons, as well as the rest of Nevada's congressional delegation, oppose Yucca Mountain as a permanent storage site. But Gibbons "has the foresight to see that reprocessing" can help meet future electricity demands. "I think we need to move in that direction; we need to look carefully at reprocessing," Taguchi said. There are nuclear power plants in almost 40 states, and the waste those plants generate still has 85 percent of it viability remaining. Taguchi said he took his first tour of Yucca Mountain in 1996, and was accompanied by French scientists who repeatedly asked why the waste wasn't being reused. The answer then, and now, from Taguchi's perspective, is that the federal government is "behind in its thinking. We need to produce more energy for a country that's going to demand it." And since there are already plans to store the waste in Yucca Mountain, it might as well be done in a way so that the storage isn't considered permanent. That opens the door for the development the commissioners have touted, one that will diversify the county's economy while creating any number of jobs. And asking for it from the federal government, as Nye has been aggressively doing recently, only makes sense, Taguchi said. "What has thinking small gotten us in the last 55 years?" Taguchi said, a reference to large chunks of land in the county that are utilized as the test site. "It got us nothing." "We might as well ask for the whole enchilada and see if we can get a few tacos. I believe we can if we're aggressive enough and move quickly." Speed is a necessity, Taguchi said, because he believes the "political climate" in Nevada toward the Yucca Mountain Project might shift after the November election, "to the point where people will be coming on board with the idea of getting protection and benefits. If we don't get set up now we'll lose out. We need to set ourselves up with people with decision-making power in Washington. "We won't get everything we want, but we'll be that much further ahead rather than just sitting on our hands waiting for the state to come in and pull the rug out from under our feet." Taguchi said growth in the southern end of Nye since Yucca Mountain was designated as the only site to be studied for the permanent storage of waste works in the county's favor. "I don't think anyone ever assumed southern Nye would grow so much in 10 years," he said. "People didn't realize a population of 35,000 in Pahrump is just around the corner, and that by 2010 there could be 75,000 to 100,000 people in the valley." A community that size would be large enough to offer amenities to people who might move here to work on reprocessing nuclear waste. Taguchi also said Pahrump is also being considered as a site for the construction of a device that simulates removing radioactive rods from the storage casks. /©Pahrump Valley Times 2002/ ***************************************************************** 44 Hanford's DR Reactor sealed This story was published Sat, Sep 28, 2002 By John Stang Herald staff writer Bechtel Hanford finished "cocooning" DR Reactor late Thursday afternoon -- four days ahead of schedule. That means Hanford has completed cleaning out and sealing two old plutonium-production reactors and has likely six more to go. All that remains to be done at DR Reactor is some minor mopping up work and welding the entrance shut, said Bechtel spokesman Todd Nelson. DR Reactor was on line from 1950 to 1964 when it became Hanford's first reactor to shut down. Cocooning DR Reactor cost about $14.5 million. Hanford has nine defunct plutonium reactors. B Reactor is earmarked tentatively as a future museum because it is the world's first full-sized plutonium production reactor. The others are to be cocooned. That means all the outlying buildings are demolished with the contaminated rubble trucked to a central Hanford landfill. All the old pits and pools are filled in. The main chamber with a 12,000- to 16,000-ton reactor remains, but with a new roof to prevent rain water from seeping in. Then the last remaining entrance is welded shut. A crew will cut it open once every five years to check for leaks and other problems. In 1998, C Reactor was the first to be cocooned. About 80 Bechtel employees are still cocooning three other reactors. D and F reactors are supposed to be done sometime in 2003. H Reactor is supposed to be finished in 2004. Work on N, K East and K West reactors will have to be scheduled around the removal of spent nuclear fuel, water and sludge from the K Basins. Those reactors will likely be tackled in the second half of this decade. Cocooning has been the most visible work at Hanford, especially when viewed from the Columbia River. Each sprawling reactor complex is being converted into a huge concrete box with a slanted roof covering one-fifth of the complex's original space. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 45 Briefing set Monday on FFTF This story was published Sat, Sep 28, 2002 By the Herald staff Claude Oliver and the Citizens for Medical Isotopes plan on Monday to brief Oliver's peers on the Benton County Commission and other municipal leaders on plans to keep open Hanford's Fast Flux Test Facility. Those plans include a half-hour closed-door session to discuss legal options for forcing the government to relent on the issue. Supporters want the reactor saved to make isotopes used in new medicines to treat cancer and other diseases. Besides the proposed medical benefits, some groups want FFTF to continue because of the economiceffects, such as jobs and possible tax revenue. The Benton County Commission, Port of Benton and Richland are limited partners in trying to persuade the federal government to transfer FFTF to private hands and therefore keep it running. However, the government already is moving forward with plans to shut down the reactor. Benton Commission Chairman Oliver said the citizen group will make a public presentation Monday on its efforts during a 9 a.m. workshop at the Benton County Courthouse in Prosser. Then commissioners plan a closed session at 9:30 a.m. to meet with the citizens group. Officials from Richland and the Port of Benton also are invited to sit in on the session. Oliver said the session was to be brief on the possible litigation by the citizen group against the federal government. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 46 DOE official optimistic on cleanup plan The Oak Ridger Online -- Area News -- p.m. on Monday, September 30, 2002 by R. Cathey Daniels Oak Ridger staff The community wants more economic growth than just that which can be found through cleaning up the local environment. That's according to one Department of Energy official who is optimistic that the cleanup program slated to shave $2 billion from a $6 billion expenditure and years off cleanup deadlines can be completed on time and on budget. "We think we can do this with the plan we have laid out," said Gerald Boyd, Oak Ridge Operations assistant manager for environmental management. "We're challenging the contractor not to think they're going to drag this out. We won't pay unless we get those dates," Boyd said. "I think this is what the community wants Š . There are opportunities for growth besides cleanup in Oak Ridge." Bechtel Jacobs holds the environmental management contract for DOE's Oak Ridge Operations, and is awaiting word whether that contact will be extended, rebid, or awarded in another form of contract. Boyd addressed a group of citizens at a public meeting on the local cleanup schedule at the DOE Information Center Thursday. The public has until Oct. 31 to comment on the so-called "life cycle baseline," or schedule, for the accelerated cleanup program. The final schedule should be approved in January. The program, which places high priority on cleaning up high-risk contamination problems, was agreed to in June by the DOE, the Environmental Protection Agency and the state. Oak Ridge is scheduled to add to its environmental management budget $105 million out of approximately $800 million nationally allotted to those sites which promised to push the accelerator on local cleanup. But the program has raised concerns that those cleanup projects not on the accelerated schedule would leave communities with high-cost legacy wastes to deal with over the longer term. And indeed, the $4 billion price tag does not include long-term stewardship or cleanup of those other projects, said Boyd. "Quite frankly that is a concern, because we still have to deal with that," said Boyd. "The other (cleanup projects) will still have to be done." The accelerated cleanup program would close the K-25 site, or East Tennessee Technology Park, by fiscal year 2008; complete Melton Valley cleanup by fiscal year 2006, and complete the balance of the program by FY 2015. Under citizen questioning Boyd noted that the price tag could come down should another DOE program, reindustrialization at the K-25 site, be successful. Some in the community have expressed concern that the accelerated cleanup program, which is scheduled to demolish every facility at the site, runs counter to the reindustrialization program, which is supposed to reuse many of those facilities. "We are not in any way in the cleanup program saying we don't want reindustrialization," said Boyd, who noted that should some of the buildings slated for take-down be transferred instead, the price of cleanup would drop. He acknowledged, though, that one unanswered question remains as to how the cleanup would be complete once the building is transferred out of DOE hands. One citizen questioned why support buildings, such as the cafeteria and a chemical laboratory, were scheduled to be removed prior to other buildings. Boyd said that DOE is working with the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee, an organization charged with finding tenants for the K-25 site, to set priorities according to which buildings they can lease. CROET has a list of about 25 buildings that can be transferred. With all facilities scheduled to come down, the waste generation forecast has more than tripled at the K-25 site in the last three years, with about 3.8 million cubic yards of soil now projected to be transported to waste disposal sites. Cleanup is already under way at the Melton Valley burial grounds at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which contain areas of high inventories of radioactive wastes that DOE says pose a risk to human health and the environment. Melton Valley was used by ORNL for disposal of solid and liquid radioactive wastes and for the development of research reactors. DOE expects its Melton Valley plan would result in improvements to water quality in the Clinch River, the restoration of seven acres of wetlands and the removal of 204 casks of transuranic waste, which are considered some of the most dangerous wastes in Oak Ridge. The balance of the accelerated cleanup proposal includes the following projects: Installation of water treatment systems to mitigate off-site mercury releases from the Y-12 National Security Complex; excavation of uranium-contaminated soil from the burn-yard area at Y-12; treatment and disposal of mixed low-level waste and transuranic waste; remediation of the Bear Creek Valley burial grounds, and other projects. R. Cathey Daniels can be contacted at (865) 220-5515 or danielsrcd@oakridger.com. [http://www.oakridger.com/contact/index.html] [http://www.oakridger.com] All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 47 At 40, accelerator center full of energy / Physicist pursued huge lab despite huge obstacles [http://sfgate.com] Today's Chronicle David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor [dperlman@sfchronicle.com] Monday, September 30, 2002 --> When drivers on Interstate 280 cross the roof of a low-slung tunnel near Palo Alto, most are unaware they're passing above one of the world's great high-energy physics laboratories -- a 2-mile-long structure where electrons whiz at nearly the speed of light. It's the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, whose beginning 40 years ago owe much to a diminutive, stubborn hustler of a physicist named Wolfgang K.H. Panofsky. Arguably the only large-scale project in American science that was ever completed both precisely on time and within budget, the center had to beat out hostility in Congress, fears of earthquakes, stormy opposition from its affluent Woodside neighbors and competition from rival nuclear projects. But the $114 million venture had two formidable advantages: First, three similar but relatively tiny atom-smashers on the Stanford campus had already shown how powerfully such high-speed electron beams could probe the innermost secrets of atoms. And second, there was Panofsky, or Pief as he's known to scientists around the world, who was ready to take on the demanding job of leading the mammoth project's design and getting it built. Panofsky had made a name for himself during World War II when he worked on the Manhattan Project building the atom bomb at Los Alamos, N.M., and then as a researcher at UC Berkeley. He had quit Berkeley in 1951 -- during the McCarthy era -- when UC demanded that its professors sign a loyalty oath. Already recruited by Stanford as a full professor, Panofsky helped design and build a small accelerator on the campus there, and within five years, he and his colleagues began planning to astonish the world and the government with what they first dubbed "Project M" -- the M for Monster. His physics friends met evenings at Panofsky's home and at the old Rosotti's Beer Garden in Portola Valley -- now the Alpine Inn -- and by April 1957, they had completed a detailed proposal for their 2-mile-long accelerator to submit to the Atomic Energy Commission. Nothing so huge and powerful had ever been seen before. There had been many great atom smashers -- Berkeley had pioneered them with Ernest O. Lawrence's first large cyclotron in the 1940s, but SLAC would break all precedents. Only with the highest possible energies, Panofsky and others argued, could scientists probe the hearts of atoms and learn what matter is made of and how the matter that makes up the universe behaves at the most fundamental levels. But troubles soon began: It was the Cold War, and congressional allies of the Atomic Energy Commission wanted a pledge that the unborn SLAC would commit to secret military research. Panofsky, the center's first director, refused. He found support from fellow scientists, and to this day, the center conducts only unclassified research. Then came competition for money: Scientists at Hanford, the Washington state site where huge production reactors had churned out plutonium for atom bombs during the war, sought SLAC's money to convert their reactors to make electricity. "It was good social policy but bad physics," Panofsky recalled. The SLAC project won. Then came the power line problem: SLAC would inevitably consume huge amounts of electricity for its experiments and would have to bring its own 220, 000-volt transmission line down from the main Pacific Gas and Electric line high on Skyline Drive west of the campus. Envisioning an eyesore marring their verdant neighborhood, wealthy Woodside residents objected. They threatened lawsuits and appealed all the way to the Eisenhower White House to place the new power line underground at a cost of almost $3 million. For a time, it seemed that Congress might force SLAC to move as far off as Nevada until Panofsky and the Atomic Energy Commission pointed out that 500 similarly ugly power lines already cluttered Woodside's environs and that slender power poles of tubular steel painted green could carry the lines and be gently lowered into place down the hillside by helicopter. If Woodside and neighboring towns would put their own power lines underground, Panofsky offered, SLAC would do the same. The controversy was over. Then there was the Atomic Energy Commission, a powerful federal agency that wanted to oversee all construction, while Stanford and Panofsky argued they had the know-how and the sophisticated physics knowledge to oversee every ticklish detail. They won. With President Dwight Eisenhower approving and Congress and the Atomic Energy Commission in line, SLAC's financing and final designs were a done deal. By 1962 ground was broken for the center, and in exactly four years, SLAC's underground electron beam began smashing atoms apart and revealing hosts of undiscovered subnuclear particles that have vastly increased human knowledge of how nature works at the infinitely smallest level. In all, researchers working at SLAC have won five Nobel Prizes. The first went to Burton Richter in 1976, who shared it with Samuel C.C. Ting of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for their independent and unexpected discovery of a new fundamental subnuclear particle called the "fourth quark" whose mass forced scientists to rethink how matter is built. In 1990, another Nobel went to Richard E. Taylor of SLAC, and to Jerome Friedman and Henry W. Kendall, both of MIT, who had all worked together at SLAC for six years to prove that in fact quarks are fundamental particles bound inside the protons and neutrons within the nuclei of all atoms. In 1995, another Nobel went to Martin Perl of SLAC, who 20 years earlier had discovered an extremely rare particle called the tau lepton, a heavyweight cousin of the electron, which scientists believe were most abundant at the moment of the Big Bang, when the universe began. Perl shared the award with Frederick Reines, who had detected the neutrino 40 years earlier in South Carolina research reactor. Much of the responsibility for SLAC, scientists agree, goes to Berlin-born Panofsky, the 5-foot-2, merry genius, now 83, who also has managed to devote almost every spare minute of his life at SLAC to work on crucial issues of nuclear arms control and national defense. Sixty years ago, Panofsky married Adele Dumond, the 18-year-old daughter of his physics professor. She is a self-taught paleontologist who excavated and mounted the fossil skeleton of an aquatic mammal called Paleoparadoxia that was discovered while the SLAC tunnel was being dug and is now on exhibit at the center's visitor site off Sand Hill road on the Stanford campus. The Panofskys live in Los Altos and have five grown children, none of them physicists. "But there is at least one aspiring physicist among my 11 grandchildren," Wolfgang Panofsky said. E-mail David Perlman at dperlman@sfchronicle.com [dperlman@sfchronicle.com] . ©2002 San Francisco Chronicle.   Page A - 4 ***************************************************************** 48 Tilges takes Shundahai's reigns Las Vegas City Life By David Hare As a political activist, Kalynda Tilges is used to working at the grass-roots level, but that doesn't make her new job any easier. On Sept. 4, Tilges was hired as executive director of the Shundahai Network. Prior to that, she'd worked more than two years as a nuclear issues coordinator in Las Vegas at Citizen Alert before getting let go by the group in late July. Since 1988, she's protested against nuclear waste issues, including the government's decision to convert Yucca Mountain into a storage facility. She knows an activist's life is not easy. That's one reason why Tilges should serve as a competent and compassionate leader of the Shundahai Network. "My job is making sure we have enough good people and money to do projects," she said from her home, where her office is located. "I get in trouble if anything goes wrong." It's good to know that Tilges calls herself an incurable optimist. Going up against the deranged logic of the nuclear power industry takes no small amount of moxie to face each day with hope. Transporting 77,000 tons of nuclear waste across the country is bad? Naaah, say the nuke industry whores. We have to put it somewhere! Tilges is gearing up for a nuke waste protest being organized by the Shundahai Network. "Action For Nuclear Abolition" is being touted as a non-violent resistance to American nuclear polices. From Oct. 5-15, thousands of demonstrators from around the world are expected to converge upon Southern Nevada in a peaceful march that will end at the Nevada Test Site. A good time is guaranteed to all, and arrests should be a-plenty, said Tilges, who has the stripes to prove it. She has been arrested several times for demonstrating at the test site. It's all part of Shundahai's dedication to environmental justice, a mission statement that includes fighting for the rights of indigenous peoples, opposing all nuclear weapons research and educating the masses on these and other issues. Oh, yes, and they also seek to close down the Nevada Test Site. David Hare is CityLife's staff writer. He can be reached at 702-871-6780 ext. 396 or dhare@lvpress.com. Copyright 2002 Las Vegas City Life ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************