***************************************************************** 05/31/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.138 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POLICY 1 Koizumi denies change in non-nuclear policy amid reports of official 2 Minatom Jumps the Gun on Reactor Cooperation Program With US DOE 3 Koizumi denies change in non-nuclear policy amid reports of NUCLEAR REACTORS 4 US: Energy NW weighs options for plant 5 Indian atomic power generation from thorium 6 Lab director reveals study on Chernobyl 7 Japan: Gov't OKs Rokkasho as candidate for nuclear reactor NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 8 US: Groundwater discussions touch on Yucca 9 US: YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Ads broadcast in Wyoming 10 US: Entertainer Lewis says he'll leave if Yucca OK'd 11 US: Loux believes Nevada 'can legally stop' Yucca 12 US: Hearing set on nuke water case 13 US: Letter: Don't count on NRC to stop nuclear waste 14 US: Goshute Tribe will get rich on nuclear waste 15 US: Nuclear Waste Roadshow kicked off in Wilmington, NC 16 US: Fremont officials want dirt on N.J. waste 17 US: Maine: Dome at center of nuclear site clean-up NUCLEAR WEAPONS 18 Nuclear deterrence not dependable 19 India's nuclear warheads '150' 20 US: Doctors, Experts Explore Nuke & Chemical Weapons in LA 21 Indian nuke arsenal dwarfs Pakistan's : Jane's 22 US Delegation Visits Embattled Shchuchye Chemical Weapons Storage 23 Scotland: Government staff joins antinuclear demo 24 US: Too casual about nuclear weapons US DEPT. OF ENERGY 25 Hastings confident on quicker cleanup 26 Locke visits PNNL lab, learns about latest projects 27 3 teams bid for river shore cleanup contract 28 DOE backs off on B Reactor museum 29 More money expected for test site cleanup 30 DOE to speed up Test Site cleanup 31 Rep. Wamp unveils worker program 32 Pension changes violate age law OTHER NUCLEAR 33 Antinuclear Events ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Koizumi denies change in non-nuclear policy amid reports of officials suggesting a switch /Fri May 31,10:50 AM ET/ /By ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press Writer/ SEOUL, South Korea - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday said Japan stands by its longstanding policy of not building or possessing nuclear weapons, despite reports in Tokyo that two senior members of his administration indicated otherwise. Koizumi, in Seoul to attend the opening of the World Cup, was responding to a report that his top government spokesman said Friday he sees no problem with the nation possessing nuclear weapons. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told reporters in Tokyo that Japan's war-renouncing Constitution should not prevent it from having nuclear arms for self-defense, Kyodo News reported. "According to my personal way of thinking, we should be able to have (nuclear weapons)," Fukuda was quoted as saying. The Cabinet's press office refused to confirm the remarks. But Koizumi's spokeswoman, Misako Kaji, denied the Kyodo report, saying Fukuda merely meant to say "there is no law that specifically prohibits Japan from owning nuclear weapons." Koizumi, while sating that he did not know the context around Fukuda's remarks, said he strongly stands by the non-nuclear principles that Japan has adhered to since the end of World War II. Though Japan has the capability and the technology to develop nuclear weapons, he said, the atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki have given Japan a strong aversion to them. "It is significant that although we could have them, we don't," he said. Fukuda's alleged comments were in response to a statement two weeks ago by Vice Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe that it might be acceptable for Japan to possess nuclear weapons "as long as they are small." Koizumi's administration is often seen as having a hawkish stance, and he has championed legislation that would allow Japan's military a wider role. In defending the bills to give the government new powers in case of foreign attack, Koizumi told Parliament this month that Japan has no choice but to prepare itself for possible foreign attack. "We don't know when or how an emergency situation affecting the state might occur," he said. Asian victims of Japanese wartime aggression are fiercely opposed to any efforts by Tokyo to beef up its military. Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 2 Minatom Jumps the Gun on Reactor Cooperation Program With US DOE MOSCOW - With an agreement between The Russian Nuclear Power Ministry and US Department of Energy to form two joint expert research teams to tackle the destruction of weapons-usable fissile material and examine the creation of a proliferation-proof nuclear power bloc, Russia Tuesday tabled its own suggestion for the reactor — the controversial BREST plutonium-burning fast neutron reactor. Beloyarsk NPP operates the only Russian commercial fast breeder reactor. photo: www.atomsafe.ru Charles Digges, 2002-05-30 17:00 The BREST "breeder" reactor — which both consumes reactor grade plutonium as fuel and produces it as raw material — is a long standing theoretical dream of Russia's Nuclear Power Ministry (Minatom), which has long billed the BREST's ability to consume its own waste for fuel as a kind of perpetual motion machine that could solve spent nuclear fuel (SNF) storage problems forever. "The most natural reactor for this project is the BREST reactor," Nikolai Shingaryov, an assistant to Minatom's deputy ministers told Bellona Web in a telephone interview Tuesday. "It is a project Minatom has long wanted to advance and this is what the US Department of Energy (DOE)-Russian joint working groups will be working to realize." But DOE and US Embassy officials where surprised to hear they had been signed on to the BEST project when the ink from the cooperation agreements signed at last week's summit between President's George Bush and Vladimir Putin had even dried. Minatom's self-assured announcement was even more jarring in the context of US concerns over Russia's nuclear cooperation with Iran, which are still smouldering post-summit, and analysts said it was unlikely the DOE would support a reactor program that — while operating on a closed fuel cycle — has the potential to increase the amount of plutonium in Russia. As for the reactor cooperation arrived at during the summit, US Embassy officials in interviews with Bellona Web Tuesday quickly pointed out that the selection of experts for the joint committees will not begin until next week, at the earliest, and that no particular reactor design has been discussed with Minatom. The summit-generated agreement for joint cooperation between the DOE and Minatom to study the further disposition of Russian fissile materials, improve security at Russian nuclear sites, and begin consideration of alternative reactor possibilities, was cemented in a telephone conversation last Friday between Russian Nuclear Minister Aleksander Rumyantsev and DOE chief Spencer Abraham, according to US Embassy officials in Moscow. But nothing in the declarations of cooperation signed at last week's summit between Presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin, specified that the expert groups would examine the possibility of building a BREST type reactor. In fact, the language in the agreement was limited to "cooperat[ing] in elaboration and development of new ecologically safer nuclear power technologies," and, somewhat later in the agreement, a proposal "to recommend collaborative research and development efforts on advanced, proliferation-resistant nuclear reactor and fuel cycle technologies." To Minatom, this obviously signalled that it was time to dust off the designs for the BREST. But when the head of the DOE's Defence Non-proliferation Office, Linton Brooks, was asked by Bellona Web on Tuesday if that language referred to the plutonium producing BREST reactor, he said: "This is a misunderstanding. No specific reactor has yet been discussed, be it a fast neutron reactor, or otherwise." "It will give me some idea of the kind of reactor they are going to be looking at when we sit down to discuss it," added Brooks, who was in Moscow this week for a non-proliferation conference hosted by the Ted Turner founded NGO, the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI). "I hadn't heard about the BREST — it was not something they even mentioned [during the conference]," Brooks said. But Minatom has an established history of reading agreements with foreign governments as absolute commitments to its own point of view, an assertion supported by US Embassy officials. Officials also suggested that such cooperation agreements often include provisions that are there strictly to mollify signatories who are insistent about mentioning programs that cannot possible be realized for years, and that may be the case with the proposed reactor studies, which, in all likelihood, will try to steer clear of plutonium based units. But the BREST reactor has existed in blueprint form for decades, and it is nearly certain that Minatom scientists will push the DOE for its funding in the context of the summit agreement. Perfecting the breeder program in the form of the BREST reactor "has been the philosophy [of Minatom] going back to the Soviet Union," said Adrian Collings, a nuclear industry expert with the London-based Uranium Institute, a non-profit, non-governmental nuclear forum. Defence analyst Pavel Felgenhauer told Bellona Web that the BREST project has been "Minatom's baby since the 60's," because of its theoretical capabilities to produce power and weapons grade plutonium at the same time. Breeder reactors of earlier vintage — of which Russia currently has one, a BN-600 at the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant — were built in the 60's and 70's in a variety of countries to answer the problem of what to do when supplies of uranium ran out. In short, they are designed to create more fuel than they consume by converting a non-fissile isotope of uranium into fissile plutonium, which can then be used as fuel. However, the idea never really worked because breeder reactors proved tricky and expensive to run, while the price of uranium steadily declined, making the reprocessing of spent fuel to extract plutonium uneconomical by comparison. In order to make the BREST program fly — and the closed plutonium fuel cycle it implies — Minatom needs money from the DOE to get the reactor off the drawing board. But if there is one thing that will keep the BREST reactor firmly in blueprint form, it is the as-yet unresolved dispute over the Russian-built Bushehr reactor in Iran, which the United States maintains is a cover for a nuclear weapons assistance program. Indeed, even as the summit was wrapping up, Iran had carried out a successful test of the Shahab-3 missile, which has a range adequate to reach Israel and US troops stationed in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and eastern Turkey, the Associate Press reported. The missile also has the capability of carrying a nuclear warhead, especially the lighter and higher yield warheads designed by Russia, Felgenhauer said. "Against this background, it would be highly unlikely that the United States would help Minatom realize a plutonium producing reactor," Andrei Pinotkovsky of the Moscow office of the Centre for Strategic Studies told Bellona Web. "The discussion of such a reactor would be a certain contradiction for the United States' foreign policy." Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] , President: Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no] Information: info@bellona.no [info@bellona.no] , Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no [webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 3 Koizumi denies change in non-nuclear policy amid reports of officials suggesting a switch Fri May 31,10:50 AM ET By ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press Writer SEOUL, South Korea - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday said Japan stands by its longstanding policy of not building or possessing nuclear weapons, despite reports in Tokyo that two senior members of his administration indicated otherwise. Koizumi, in Seoul to attend the opening of the World Cup, was responding to a report that his top government spokesman said Friday he sees no problem with the nation possessing nuclear weapons. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told reporters in Tokyo that Japan's war-renouncing Constitution should not prevent it from having nuclear arms for self-defense, Kyodo News reported. "According to my personal way of thinking, we should be able to have (nuclear weapons)," Fukuda was quoted as saying. The Cabinet's press office refused to confirm the remarks. But Koizumi's spokeswoman, Misako Kaji, denied the Kyodo report, saying Fukuda merely meant to say "there is no law that specifically prohibits Japan from owning nuclear weapons." Koizumi, while sating that he did not know the context around Fukuda's remarks, said he strongly stands by the non-nuclear principles that Japan has adhered to since the end of World War II. Though Japan has the capability and the technology to develop nuclear weapons, he said, the atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki have given Japan a strong aversion to them. "It is significant that although we could have them, we don't," he said. Fukuda's alleged comments were in response to a statement two weeks ago by Vice Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe that it might be acceptable for Japan to possess nuclear weapons "as long as they are small." Koizumi's administration is often seen as having a hawkish stance, and he has championed legislation that would allow Japan's military a wider role. In defending the bills to give the government new powers in case of foreign attack, Koizumi told Parliament this month that Japan has no choice but to prepare itself for possible foreign attack. "We don't know when or how an emergency situation affecting the state might occur," he said. Asian victims of Japanese wartime aggression are fiercely opposed to any efforts by Tokyo to beef up its military. Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 4 Energy NW weighs options for plant This story was published Wed, May 29, 2002 By Chris Mulick Herald staff writer SEATAC -- Whatever Energy Northwest decides about the future of the Columbia Generating Station, it better decide quickly, a committee exploring the issue concluded Tuesday. Uncertainty raised in recent weeks since a consultant suggested the utility consider selling the 1,150-megawatt nuclear plant has led some among its 1,100-person work force to begin looking for work elsewhere. "Resumes are flying out the door as we speak," Shirley Reese, an Energy Northwest communications and industry affairs manager, told the group. There already is a shortage of nuclear engineers industrywide and plenty of other jobs at Hanford as cleanup activities escalate. "There's a lot of competition out there," said Chief Executive Vic Parrish. Energy Northwest's executive board could decide as soon as next week whether to proceed with a formal study, which could take several months. The plant is expected to become exceedingly less competitive in future years as nuclear stations are sold and operations merged, cutting costs by spreading overhead and various services needed to run the plants. Energy Northwest is just one of nine nuclear operators in the country that operate only one plant. A recent study on the feasibility of finishing the never-completed Plant No. 1 at Energy Northwest's nuclear site north of Richland said other utilities believe they could run Columbia with 100 to 200 fewer employees. The three operations alternatives being discussed are reducing Energy Northwest's staff by contracting out more services, paying another nuclear operator to run the plant and selling it outright. The study envisioned Tuesday could include soliciting "expressions of interest" from potential buyers or third-party operators, getting input from other single-plant nuclear operators, considering smaller staffing structures at Columbia and outlining the interests of various stakeholders in the region. Representatives from Energy Northwest and the Bonneville Power Administration, which both would have to sign off on any deal, reiterated at what developed into a brainstorming session that selling the plant remains a remote possibility. They won't rule it out because they want to give other utilities a chance to turn our heads, said Steve Hickok, BPA's deputy administrator. Further, consultant Diana Goldschmidt said selling the plant would provide more value than hiring another operator. "You will find more financial benefits to the region," she said. "There is inherent value in it. It's worth a lot." Of course, any plan to sell or trade the plant figures to be highly controversial, not only in the region, but also with Energy Northwest's member utilities. The plant also could be exceedingly difficult to sell to a private buyer from a legal standpoint because it was built with tax-exempt bonds. Hiring an outside operator would create its own challenges, including ensuring the plant meets desired performance levels and is run by another company's best workers. The full board ultimately will speak for the consortium and is expected to decide whether to proceed with a study during a conference call next week. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 5 Indian atomic power generation from thorium ©The Frontier Publications (Pvt) Updated on 5/6/2002 9:34:55 AM NEW DELHI (NNI): Indian scientists are developing a new technology to generate cheaper atomic power from thorium, the Press Trust of India quoted Annil Kadodkar, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India as saying.Kadodkar told reporters at Rawatbhata, north India’s Rajasthan state that a project report for generating energy from thorium, instead of Uranium, has already been done. The report will be evaluated for two years to solute any possible problem in it. He said the first commercial unit generating 500 MW power using fast breeder technology will be set up at Tamil Nadu’s Kalpakkam, south of India. Under the technology, a new type of raw material for power generation is being created during production of energy from uranium. © Copyright 2001 The Frontier Post ***************************************************************** 6 Lab director reveals study on Chernobyl Augusta Georgia: Technology: 05/31/02 Olga Tsyusko, a University of Georgia graduate student from Russia, listens as Chernobyl scientist Mikhailo Bondarkov presents his findings at the Savannah River Ecology Lab. JONATHAN ERNST/STAFF Web posted Friday, May 31, 2002 By Matthew Boedy [matthew.boedy@augustachronicle.com] South Carolina Bureau NEW ELLENTON - The head of a research lab studying the effects of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster told American researchers Thursday that his colleagues can't find drastic genetic defects in animal and plant life that surround the site. But that doesn't mean there aren't discernible changes going on under the surface, said Mikhailo Bondarkov, the director of the International Chernobyl Center's radioecology lab in Slavutych, Ukraine. Mr. Bondarkov presented researchers at the Savannah River Ecology Lab with five years of research from studies on animals and plants that focused on an area around the failed reactor known as the "Red Forest" The area was off-limits to researchers until 1996 and was one of the last areas around the plant yet to be studied heavily. The forest got its name from red tint from the contamination on the trees and plant life. To gauge the genetic defects caused by long-term radiation, researchers trapped more than 500 animals from 12 species. Researchers found some animals lived just as long as their "clean" counterparts. Mammals in the Red Forest carry the most radioactivity of any mammals on earth. But researchers found that although subtle genetic changes are ongoing, they differ widely in the same species based on the amount of radiation and where the animals roam. Radiation is being passed down from mother to young and stays high in the young during the short feedings from the mother, researchers found. But radiation levels slowly drop as the young start to gather their own food. In regard to soil contamination, researchers found the level of contamination was more than previously thought after a 1992 aerial survey. Studies released earlier this year from Russia also show subtle DNA distortions are being passed to offspring from the adults who were evacuated from the area. Reach Matthew Boedy at (803) 648-1395 or matthew.boedy@augustachronicle.com [matthew.boedy@augustachronicle.com] . [http://augusta.com] . ***************************************************************** 7 Japan: Gov't OKs Rokkasho as candidate for nuclear reactor Friday, May 31, 2002 at 18:00 JST TOKYO ? The government approved plans Friday to propose the village of Rokkasho in Aomori Prefecture as a candidate for the construction of an international experimental thermonuclear reactor (ITER), government officials said. Japan will present the proposal, approved at a cabinet meeting in the morning, at an intergovernmental meeting in France which will take place starting Tuesday. The ITER is being jointly developed by Japan, Europe, Russia and Canada. It is designed to generate electricity through nuclear fusion. (Kyodo News) ***************************************************************** 8 Groundwater discussions touch on Yucca United Press International By Scott R. Burnell UPI Science News WASHINGTON, May 30 (UPI) -- The controversial proposed nuclear waste storage site at Nevada's Yucca Mountain made its way Thursday into discussions at the American Geophysical Union's spring meeting, as four out of 12 visual presentations in an AGU session on groundwater field testing touched on Yucca to some degree. Groundwater flow is perhaps the single most important issue in determining whether the site, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is capable of isolating nuclear waste for thousands of years. Hans Arlt, a hydrologist with the NRC's Division of Waste Management, displayed the results of detailed computer models for groundwater flow out of the site. The software took into account the different sizes and hydrologic qualities of the various geological layers in the area, and calculated how long it would take for radioactive particles to be carried to the site's planned southern boundary. The computer program's optimistic scenario projected the first particles would take about 3,000 years to reach the boundary, while the pessimistic scenario required slightly less than 2,000 years. The mean travel time for radioactive particles in both cases was comparable to the site's planned 10,000-year lifetime. At no point did the models suggest particles would approach a very deep aquifer that extends through much of the surrounding countryside, Arlt told United Press International. "In many of the formations, the groundflow pressure actually goes towards the surface," Arlt said. The relevance of these findings to the discussion is uncertain, said Robert Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, a strong opponent of Yucca. Both the Department of Energy and the state have studies suggesting water takes 200 years to reach the boundary, he told UPI via telephone. The real question is how the particle counts in the NRC models relate to Environmental Protection Agency health standards, he said. "(DOE's) analysis has to do exclusively with which radioactive elements are soluble and which are not," Loux said. "All of this is careful semantics ... we may be talking apples and oranges in many instances." Bret Leslie, a technical assistant with NRC's waste management division, made a separate presentation discussing the number of unresolved technical issues contained in a General Accounting Office report on Yucca. The "unresolved" label has been misused in some cases, Leslie told UPI, because more than half of the items merely require DOE to provide paperwork or supporting data for tests that already have been completed successfully. That assertion is probably correct, Loux said, but the length of time necessary to round up the paperwork is unsettling. "If it isn't already in hand, it suggests there's more work that needs to be done," Loux said. "It's the other (items) we're worried about. The one we're most concerned about is the waste (storage) package. If that's (undecided), we still have the whole repository question in front of us." Leslie countered some DOE statements concerning a possible barrier to the spread of any contamination. Below the level where waste would be stored, several sedimentary layers contain crystals called zeolites, which act as a natural filter for radioactive particles, DOE personnel have said. Some zeolites lie in fractured areas, Leslie explained, where groundwater might flow too fast to allow the filtering to occur. The zeolites have only limited effectiveness against the most hazardous isotopes, he said. Copyright © 2002 United Press International ***************************************************************** 9 YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Ads broadcast in Wyoming Friday, May 31, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Pro-dump, anti-dump factions battle for senators' votes By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Wyoming has become the latest battleground in the "air war" over the government's plan to ship nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Both pro-Yucca and anti-Yucca groups began running 30-second commercials on Monday promoting their views, with the campaigns to run several weeks, officials said. Wyoming is the third state where Nevada and its allies and the nuclear power industry have squared off on the airwaves, following campaigns in Vermont and Utah. And the fight is expanding further. The nuclear industry has paid for full-page newspaper ads to run on three days in major dailies in Rhode Island, Delaware, Oregon and Washington, a spokeswoman said. The print ads, which ran Tuesday and Thursday, and will run again Sunday, are aimed at swing senators and members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which is scheduled to vote on Yucca Mountain on Wednesday. The winner of the ad battles will be determined later this month or next month, when the Senate votes whether to authorize a repository at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, over the objections of Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn and most of the state's elected leaders. Physicians for Social Responsibility, an environmental health group, spent $99,200 for Wyoming spots to be shown regularly until June 15 on network stations and cable channels in Casper and Cheyenne, research director Jaya Tiwari said. The commercial was put together by Greer, Margolis, Mitchell, Burns and Associates, a Washington firm paid out of Nevada's Yucca Mountain Protection Fund, Tiwari said. The commercial raises questions about the safety of transporting highly radioactive spent fuel through Wyoming, and is similar to ones that have run in Vermont and Utah, Tiwari said. Also Monday, the pro-Yucca Alliance for Sound Nuclear Policy began running its own commercial in Wyoming touting the nuclear industry's 30-year transportation record. The ad was produced by Smith and Harroff, a Washington public affairs firm. Alliance director Sherry Reilly said the commercials would run for two weeks. She would not disclose how much the group was spending. The alliance is led by the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's lobbying arm in Washington. The alliance also bought the print ads, Reilly said. In Oregon, Washington and Delaware, the ads feature a mountain or seashore scene, and ask readers whether nuclear waste would be better stored locally "or in the remote Nevada desert." Sens. Tom Carper, D-Del., Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Gordon Smith, R-Ore., sit on the Senate Energy Committee and will be among the key senators first to cast a vote on the Yucca Mountain Project. Rhode Islanders are being shown an aerial view of the desert, with ad copy declaring "nuclear waste is stored at a dozen locations in New England. It belongs deep beneath Yucca Mountain, Nevada." Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., is among the few Republicans who Nevada leaders think they can persuade to vote against the repository. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., has declared he will vote to support Nevada's position. Tiwari said Wyoming was targeted by Physicians for Social Responsibility because nuclear waste will probably travel along Interstate 80 or on rail lines across the state. "This issue has not been raised in the political consciousness of the state," she said. "The medical infrastructure in Wyoming is not very strong and prepared" for possible accidents. Also, ads running on Cheyenne stations reach into portions of northern Colorado, she said. Reilly said the pro-nuclear coalition bought time in Wyoming to respond to the environmental group. Wyoming's senior senator, Republican Craig Thomas, is among the more vocal advocates of storing nuclear waste at the Nevada site. "I don't think ads will have much influence on his position," spokesman Dan Kunsman said. Wyoming Republican Sen. Mike Enzi voted for a nuclear waste bill in 2000, but has declared himself undecided. Spokesman Coy Knobel said the commercials have generated "a few" calls to the senator's office this week. In Colorado, Republican Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell plans to vote against the Yucca Mountain Project, while Republican Wayne Allard supports the nuclear waste project. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 10 Entertainer Lewis says he'll leave if Yucca OK'd Las Vegas SUN: May 30, 2002 Comedian Jerry Lewis, who has lived in Las Vegas for more than 20 years, says if nuclear waste is stored in Nevada he will move his family to San Diego. "We don't know all the damage that could come from storing it at Yucca Mountain," the 75-year-old Lewis said. He says not only is there danger in transporting the waste, but once it is placed in storage there may be dangers the public isn't aware of. "You don't think the government will tell us everything there is to know about the harmful effects of radiation, do you?" Lewis said. Lewis isn't leaving Nevada without a fight. "I will do everything in my power to see that the nuclear waste doesn't get here," he said. "I have some pretty good friends in Congress -- (Sen.) Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), (Sen.) Arlen Specter (R-Pa.)." Lewis says he already has talked to several political leaders about the issue and intends to speak with Gov. Kenny Guinn and Mayor Oscar Goodman. He expressed concern that local celebrities are not lending their name to protests against Yucca Mountain, and that hotels are not spending more money to fight bringing nuclear waste to the state. "Why aren't they vocal?" he said. "Maybe because it's not popular. "These casinos rake in three or four billion dollars a year, but they don't seem to care about the nuclear dump site. They are putting up a minimum amount of money to fight it, yet their whole future is at stake." Lewis says he is doing everything he is able to do at this time to fight the issue, but more people need to get involved. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 11 Loux believes Nevada 'can legally stop' Yucca Las Vegas SUN May 31, 2002 CARSON CITY -- A state official says there is a "real difference" between Nevada's fight against nuclear waste and the battle in South Carolina against plutonium. Robert Loux, director of the state Office on Nuclear Projects, said today South Carolina doesn't have a good legal case to stop plutonium being shipped to that state. He said, "We believe Nevada can legally stop" the building of the Yucca Mountain repository. Loux was asked to comment on a suit by a South Carolina lawyer that wants the federal government to give everybody in that state $10,000 if plutonium from a former nuclear weapons plant is sent there. Loux said if everything fails in Nevada that "might be an option." But he said, "That's a long way off -- decades." Nevada's position is it does not want to negotiate with the federal government while it seeks to sidetrack the efforts of the Energy Department to build the underground storage facility. The state has at least five suits already filed and more are expected. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 12 Hearing set on nuke water case Las Vegas SUN May 31, 2002 LAS VEGAS SUN CARSON CITY -- U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt has set June 11 for a hearing on the suits U.S. Department of Energy to gain temporary and permanent water rights for the proposed nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain. Senior Deputy state Attorney General Marta Adams said today she was pleased the judge set the hearing that will be held in Las Vegas. "Let's get going," she said. "We want to hear why the Energy Department needs this water." The state Engineer's Office refused to issue a permanent water right to the Energy Department on grounds it was against the public interest of Nevada. And the office refused to extend temporary water permits. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, said that without water the Energy Department will be unable to complete scientific studies to provide "a reasonable assurance that the public and the environment will be adequately protected from the hazards posed by high level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel." All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 13 Letter: Don't count on NRC to stop nuclear waste Las Vegas SUN May 31, 2002 I attended the two recent Nuclear Regulatory Commission public meetings held in Las Vegas. I was optimistic they might present meaningful comments on the Department of Energy's plan to use our Yucca Mountain as a high-level nuclear garbage dump. They had their "A" team ready for us. At least three attorneys, technical people, consultants and the chief of high-level nuclear waste. Their presentation was predictable; it showed them as competent government employees skilled in the art of being "technocrats." However, they struggled mightily with an audience question on how dangerous nuclear garbage would be if spilled on someone's front yard. They never did come up with a straight answer. However, they did acknowledge having no licensing experience with anything like Yucca Mountain. It also didn't seem to bother them that the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board found the scientific work at Yucca to be "weak to moderate." Nor did they voice concern about more than 200 scientific questions raised in an earlier study of Yucca, which have never been answered. The NRC did point out they are an "independent" agency of the U. S. government with no obligations to anyone, and are concerned only with the health and safety of the public. Based on the performance I witnessed from NRC, the courts seem Nevada's best option to stop the insanity of nuclear garbage in our Yucca Mountain. ANDY HERESZ All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 14 Goshute Tribe will get rich on nuclear waste news.telegraph.co.uk - By Oliver Poole in Los Angeles (Filed: 31/05/2002) An impoverished Indian tribe in Utah will become millionaires after agreeing to establish a nuclear waste dump on their barren territory. The 70 surviving adults of the Goshute tribe have signed a deal with eight power companies for 40,000 tons of highly radioactive waste to be stored on their reservation in the state's Skull Valley. Under a 19th century treaty the Utah authorities have no control over the land. They are infuriated at the move. The Goshute will earn about £33 million over the next 40 years while the material is be held in giant concrete bunkers before a permanent site is built in the Yucca Mountains, Nevada. The tribe said it had few choices because the territory it was given by the federal government after the Indian wars of the 19th century was so infertile it was impossible to farm or raise livestock on it. Mark Twain described the reservation as a rocky and repulsive wasteland. Leon Bear, the tribal leader and a former security guard, said the money would pay for health care, housing and social welfare. "We were given the land to use and this is how we want to use it." In a safety report the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the site met all requirements. It could be open by 2005. Previous story: Mexico and US heading for border water war Next story: Aer Lingus strike hits thousands © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2002. Terms &Conditions ***************************************************************** 15 Nuclear Waste Roadshow kicked off in Wilmington, NC GroupStone - Changing the world one community at a time From Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League Thursday, May 30, 2002 WILMINGTON, NC ? Today at a press conference in Wilmington, the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League launched a seven-day, ten-city Nuclear Waste Roadshow. The group opposes the U.S. Department of Energy's plans to transport hundreds of radioactive shipments across North Carolina and South Carolina highways and railways to a proposed dump in Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Hauling a full-sized replica of a highway nuclear waste transport cask, BREDL staff and volunteers will trace approved routes from Progress Energy's Brunswick Nuclear Station and other nuclear power plant sites in the two states. If the United States Senate approves the Yucca dump, more than 800 shipments would travel through North Carolina, most of them through population centers in the Triad, Triangle, and Charlotte. "The radiation levels in nuclear waste fuel rods is so great that no transport method can prevent radiation from escaping. Even without accidents, people will get irradiated," said BREDL's Lou Zeller. At today's press conference, BREDL released a report entitled "High Level Nuclear Waste Shipments: Radioactive and Deadly." BREDL spokespeople pointed out that no terrorism analysis has been conducted by DOE, that funding for emergency response will fall on state and local governments, and that U.S. taxpayers will bear the liability burden for Duke and Progress high-level nuclear waste. Tomorrow the Nuclear Waste Roadshow will travel to Raleigh and then on to Greensboro, Charlotte, Rock Hill, Hartsville, Columbia, Greenville, Asheville, and Marshall. In addition to press conferences, BREDL will host demonstrations and speak at public hearings. Early this year Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham recommended that 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste from 103 nuclear reactors be sent to a waste dump at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. President Bush approved the plan. The state of Nevada opposes the $58 billion project. This summer the U.S. Senate is expected to vote on the Yucca dump, perhaps as early as late June. For more information, contact: Janet Zeller Executive Director Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (336) 982-2691 bredl@skybest.com Web site: http://www.bredl.org ENN Toolbox ENN is a registered trademark of the Environmental News Network Inc. Copyright © 2001 Environmental News Network Inc. ***************************************************************** 16 Fremont officials want dirt on N.J. waste Welcome to The Pueblo Chieftain Online *Thursday May 30th, 2002* By TRACY HARMON *CANON CITY* - Officials here want the dirt on the waste possibly headed this way. Fremont County Commissioners have asked an independent consultant to review an environmental assessment relating to the proposed disposal of 470,000 tons of Maywood, N.J., Superfund site waste soils at the Cotter Corp. uranium mill here. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a contract for the cleanup of the radioactive soil to Stone & Webster, a company that will oversee the project. Cotter Corp. has been named the subcontractor responsible for disposal of the radioactive soil that was left by Maywood Chemical Co., which extracted thorium to make lantern mantles from 1916 to 1959. Due to strong opposition by local community members, House Majority Leader Lola Spradley, R-Beulah, introduced a house bill which was signed into law last month that requires Cotter get state approval and host public meetings before the waste can be accepted. The new law also allows county commissioners to request an independent review of an environmental assessment and spend up to $20,000 of the applicant's money to do so. "This assessment will cost about $8,000 of Cotter's money to do this," said Jim Schauer, Fremont County Commission chairman. "It just made sense to do it - it is an opportunity for someone, an independent party or disinterested party, to verify the numbers." The commission has selected Sandra Attebery and Tom Grethel of AG Engineering of Canon City to do the review. Grethel has had some experience with environmental review at Rocky Flats, "so he has a super background in what we are looking for," Schauer said. Schauer said opponents, including the group Colorado Citizens Against Toxic Waste, have pointed out that regularly employed Cotter Corp. consultants have conducted the environmental review so "Cotter wrote the book." The "book" is a report about 3 inches thick, Schauer said. "We think it is a good way to go because the county has not had a major role. It is up to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to decide," Schauer said. Cotter Corp. Vice President Rich Ziegler said he is not surprised the commission has requested the review. "It is the normal course of business. It is a routine request especially on material that is coming from out of state. They want to make sure (the assessment) is correct," Ziegler said. CCAT spokesperson Shirley Squier said opponents are "happy about the fact that at least they (commissioners) are doing something. We feel positive about it and if (independent consultants) look at the report and see how incomplete it is, at least they will substantiate what we feel we are concerned about." Ziegler said Cotter hopes to furnish its environmental assessment and transcripts of the May 9 and May 23 public meetings to the state within "the next few days." Once the independent review of the environmental assessment is complete, probably by mid-July, "I have no idea how long it will take the state to make a final decision," Ziegler said. ©1996-2002 Chieftain.com The Star-Journal Publishing Corp. Pueblo, Colorado U.S.A. ***************************************************************** 17 Maine: Dome at center of nuclear site clean-up BY KRIS FERRAZZA May 30, 2002 The demolition and dismantlement going on at the Maine Yankee nuclear power station in Wiscasset started at the outer perimeter of the facility and is moving in toward the dome and spent fuel storage pool. KRIS FERRAZZA * WISCASSET - Crews working on the demolition of the Maine Yankee nuclear power station are closing in on the dome.* Tons and tons of debris have been removed from the grounds, as contractors work their way toward the dome and spent fuel pool, which will be the last structures left standing. "When the last of the fuel is out of the pool, we go after the dome," Maine Yankee manager Bill Henries said May 23. Company officials took members of the Maine Yankee Community Advisory Panel (CAP) and media on a tour of the grounds and facility. Around the dome, a bulldozer and crane worked steadily with ground crews. The massive pipes that once circulated cooling water throughout the plant have been cut off and are exposed, as are tangles of iron rebar and concrete foundations. What remains of the former turbine building is largely just a skeleton, with most of the structure having been knocked down with explosives last fall. Small colorful flags mark areas that have been cleaned up and surveyed as part of the plant's "final status survey." Large amounts of fill have been moved around the site to backfill foundations, although some additional material has been hauled in from Crooker's pit in Whitefield, Henries explained. The fill must be tested, he said, noting some of the levels of naturally occurring radiation in the gravel pits exceeds the limit of what can be left behind at the Maine Yankee site. "That's nature's radiation, not ours," he said. However, the fill is not being used. CAP member Dan Thompson of Wiscasset eyed the foundation holes behind the plant and shook his head. "This is a sad sight," he said. "I wanted to see most of these buildings reused." Terry Peacock, manager of site restoration, joined the tour behind the dome near the shore. He explained the dikes in the forebay area of the facility are being cut down 10 feet in height and the material removed is being stockpiled on Foxbird Island. Condenser water was discharged into the forebay from the plant for years, and contamination has been found in the silt and rock in the area, he said. "We need to understand how far that penetrated into the rocks," Peacock told CAP members. Once the material is removed, technicians will drill into the rocks to take samples and test for contamination. After the area is remediated, the entire dike will be collapsed on itself. A causeway built to connect Bailey Point to the island will remain, he said. Henries pointed out a huge doorway that has been cut into the side of the dome, which required workers to carve through walls that are four and one-half feet thick. The resulting passageway will allow for the removal of large components, and creating it was not easy. "Getting some of those blocks out was the closest thing to the Egyptian pyramids we've seen in a while," Henries said. Participants on the tour also went inside the containment dome, which rises 155 feet above sea level. In this area, preparations are under way for the transfer of spent fuel. The high-level radioactive waste will be moved from an underwater pool to concrete casks, and moved to a storage area outside the dome. Details about the timing of the move were not revealed for security reasons, staffers said, and photography was prohibited in those areas. There are 430 workers presently taking part in the decommissioning at the site, according to spokesman Eric Howes. /©Lincoln County Weekly 2002/ ***************************************************************** 18 Nuclear deterrence not dependable United Press International By Anwar Iqbal UPI South Asian Affairs Analyst Published 5/30/2002 6:15 PM WASHINGTON, May 30 (UPI) -- Pakistan depends heavily on a nuclear deterrence to avoid a showdown with its larger neighbor India, but observers warned Thursday that any major escalation in Kashmir could lead to a nuclear war with devastating consequences for both sides. "A nuclear strike by either country could ... turn out to be a pyrrhic victory since, due to the close proximity of several cities ... to the border, the resulting fallout could easily be blown back over the attacking country," said Duncan Lennox, editor of Jane's Strategic Weapon Systems. Pervez Hoodbhoy, one of the leaders of the anti-nuclear lobby in Pakistan, believes that the absence of free debate in India and Pakistan on the nuclear issue further increases the possibility of a nuclear conflict. "With free debate on sensitive issues largely proscribed in both countries ... the only voices to be heard are those of militarists and establishment strategic analysts. Not surprisingly, nuclear affairs are now being guided by wishful, delusional, thinking," he warned. Hoodbhoy, who has a doctorate in nuclear physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is particularly concerned about what he calls, "the trivialization of Pakistan's nuclear capability," which he believes could lead to miscalculations and ultimately to a nuclear conflict. On the Pakistani side, he says, achieving nuclear capability has "created euphoric hyper-confidence and a spirit of machismo that led to breath-taking adventurism in Kashmir" in the past. The lack of communication between India and Pakistan, Hoodbhoy believes, could lead to mistakes and also to the ultimate disaster if not prevented. Vastly outnumbered and outgunned by India in conventional warfare, Islamabad almost welcomed the nuclear tests conducted by New Delhi in May 1998 as they allowed Pakistan to carry out its own tests the same month. As tensions rose following the Dec. 13 terrorist attack on the Indian parliament, Pakistan was once again placed in a difficult situation. Aware of its 3-1 superiority in conventional weapons, India sent hundreds of thousands to the border in an effort to force Pakistan to give up its traditional stance on the Kashmir dispute. Disputed with Pakistan since independence in 1947, India describes the problems in Kashmir as an internal issue and refuses to discuss it with Pakistan. Pakistan rejects the Indian claim, saying that half a century old U.N. resolutions recognize it as a party to the dispute. India blames Pakistan for arming and training Kashmiri separatists. Pakistan denies doing so but says the same U.N. resolutions allow it to provide political and diplomatic support to the militants. Encouraged by a general resentment against armed struggles, India had started to push Pakistan to settle the Kashmir issue on New Delhi's terms soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. India also enjoyed the sympathy, if not support, of major world powers who wanted Pakistan to stop supporting Kashmiri militants because of fear "they could take the region towards a war" and a possible nuclear conflict, as U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher warned on Wednesday. Isolated, outnumbered and outmaneuvered by India, to play the only card it had Pakistan raised the possibility of a nuclear war if attacked. From Saturday through Tuesday, it tested three missiles. The first, Hatf-V, has a range of 900 miles to 1,200 miles. The second, Ghaznavi, has a range of 180 miles. And the third, Abdali, has a range of 112 miles. Pakistan said that all three missiles are capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear warheads. Briefing journalists in Islamabad after the first test, Pakistani scientists said they were planning to test two more missiles. One called Shaheen-II, they said, is a solid-fuel guided missile with a range of 1,400 miles. They also claimed having MIRVs, multiple-independent re-entry vehicles. Their inability to test the last two systems raised doubts about the accuracy of their claim but Pakistani officials said they were ready for the tests and abandoned their plan only because they feared a strong international reaction. But even the three tests that Pakistan claims to have successfully tested amply demonstrate its defense strategy in case a war breaks out. A narrow strip of land from the Arabian Sea to the Himalayas and the Karakorum mountains, the country lacks strategic depth. In the north, the Indian border is only 60 miles from Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. If India captures the Pakistani Kashmir, it will not only be able to target Islamabad from the surrounding hills, it can also easily destroy Pakistan's nuclear reactor in nearby Kahuta. In the center, the second largest Pakistani city and its cultural and political capital, Lahore, sits right on the border. A combined artillery and cavalry move can bring the Indians right into Lahore. In the south, there is a narrow corridor -- euphemistically called Pakistan's soft belly -- that allows India to practically cut Pakistan into two halves. It will sever Pakistan's links with its largest city and commercial capital, Karachi, and cause the economy to collapse. Faced with any of these scenarios, Pakistan will rather go for the nuclear option than wait for India to destroy it piece by piece. By testing the three missiles, Pakistan demonstrated: first, the medium-range missiles are for targeting major Indian cities -- such as Bombay and New Delhi; second, the short-range missiles are for targeting places like Amritsar, the largest city in the Indian Punjab which also sits on the border, and; third, the one with the shortest-range is for use against Indian forces on the border. And international weapon experts say that Pakistan has the capability of making the war too a costly option for India, although ultimately India would also win the nuclear war. Pakistan claims that yields from the six nuclear devices it tested in May 1998 were of 12 kT, 30-35 kT, although independent reports suggest that no blast in double-figure kilotons was achieved. It also conducted four low-yield, below 1 kT, tests. Lennox says that Pakistan's planned yield for its larger nuclear weapon design was 20-25 kT, providing a warhead that would probably fitted to Shaheen and Ghauri ballistic missiles. The low-yield weapons would probably provide nuclear bombs to be carried by F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft and warheads to be fitted to Pakistan's short-range ballistic missiles, he says. The Pakistani missiles, Lennox says, would probably carry a mixture of warhead types. It is estimated that Pakistan probably has between 25 and 50 nuclear warheads available, although some sources have suggested an even higher figure. India's first nuclear test in May 1974 had a reported yield of around 10-12KT. India conducted five more tests in May 1998, claiming yields of 15 kT, 45 kT, 0.2 kT, 0.5 kT and 0.3 kT. Lennox says that from these tests India may have produced a first-generation nuclear bomb with a yield of 20 kT for carriage on MiG-27M, Jaguar or Mirage 2000 aircraft. "It is reported that trials were made on a Mirage 2000 aircraft in 1994," Lennox said. According to him India's second-generation nuclear warheads have been developed for fitting to its Prithvi, Dhanush and Agni ballistic missiles. These warheads are expected to have yields of 20 kT for the Prithvi and Dhanush missiles and of 150-200 kT for the Agni missiles. It is estimated that India probably has between 50 and 150 nuclear warheads available. Analysis from some sources suggests that there is sufficient weapons grade uranium and plutonium available to India to build more warheads. A U.S. Office of Technology assessment in 1993 quoted the dead and injured from a 20 kT warhead dropped on a city to be between 40,000 and 90,000, and for a 1 MT warhead to be between 60,000 and 2,000,000. "Considering the population densities in the major Indian and Pakistani cities, it could be expected that the numbers of killed and injured, along with the degree of damage to facilities, would be high and that around 10 to 20 warheads could inflict devastating damage on both countries," says Lennox. The radiation fallout after an attack could spread several hundred miles. Copyright © 2002 United Press International ***************************************************************** 19 India's nuclear warheads '150' [31may02] news.com.au - INDIA has up to 150 nuclear warheads while Pakistan could only call upon a third of that total at most, Jane's defence publications said today, as fears persisted the two rivals were slipping towards a disastrous war. Although both sides have declined to give details of the size or capability of their arsenals since shocking the world with rival nuclear weapons tests in 1998, a survey by Jane's Strategic Weapons Systems has estimated their destructive potential. India may be able to deploy a 20 kiloton device from a MiG, Jaguar or Mirage aircraft, and could be able to deliver a bomb of a similar size on Prithvi, Dhanush and Agni ballistic missiles, the article said. "It is estimated that India probably has between 50 and 150 nuclear warheads available," the survey, released by the London-based group in Washington today, said. "Analysis from some sources suggests that there is sufficient weapons grade uranium and plutonium available to India to build more warheads." Pakistan's program is less advanced, but it probably has between 25 and 50 nuclear warheads available, the report said. "Pakistan's planned yield for its larger nuclear weapons design was 20 to 25 kilotons providing a warhead that would probably be fitted to Shaheen and Ghauri ballistic missiles. Pakistan last weekend triggered international condemnation when it test fired Abdali, Ghauri and Ghaznavi nuclear capable missiles. It could also probably deploy a smaller device by aircraft, the report added. The report warned that even 10 to 20 warheads could inflict devastating death tolls on any of India and Pakistan's teeming cities, following other assessments this week that reached a potential of millions of deaths in any nuclear conflict in South Asia. It also warned that for both sides any nuclear conflict would be essentially self-defeating, as bombs would inflict terrible casualties on home populations as well as targeted cities. "A nuclear strike by either country could turn out to be a pyrrhic victory since, due to the close proximity of several cities on either side of the Indo-Pakistani border, the resulting fallout could easily be blown over the attacking country." Agence France-Presse ***************************************************************** 20 Doctors, Experts Explore Nuke & Chemical Weapons in LA U.S. Newswire 28 May 12:43 To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor Contact: Paul Kawika Martin, 213-386-3901; cell: 909-217-7285; E-mail: paulm@igc.org News Advisory: After the horror of September 11, there is no longer any doubt that weapons of mass destruction threaten America today: -- Documents gathered in Afghanistan tell of Al Qaeda plans to use radiological weapons on U.S. soil -- Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, announced May 21, that terrorists "inevitably will get their hands on weapons of mass destruction and they will not hesitate to use them." -- Secretary of State Powell added, "terrorists are trying every way they can to get their hands on weapons of mass destruction, whether radiological, chemical, biological or nuclear." "Public Health Summit on Weapons of Mass Destruction," a symposium organized by the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Physicians for Social Responsibility on Sunday, June 2, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., at UCLA Ackerman Hall will pose five scenarios of attack: 1) chemical weapon, 2) nuclear weapon, 3) radiological "dirty bomb," 4) biological agents and 5) on a commercial nuclear reactor, and discuss the public health and policy implications. What might have been unthinkable this time last year is now all too real. And it's about to be dramatized on thousands of movie screens across the country. Paramount's "Sum of All Fears," to be released May 31, starring Ben Affleck and Morgan Freeman, in which terrorists detonate a nuclear bomb outside Baltimore during the Super Bowl, will generate more discussion on the possibility of such an attack than any other public policy study ever could. Substantive information on weapons of mass destruction will be featured at the PSR symposium. Many of these speakers are available for interview: -- Jonathan Parfrey, executive director, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Los Angeles. -- James R. Greenwood, Ph.D., M.P.H., director, Office of Environment, Health and Safety, trains the FBI, LAPD and L.A. County Sheriff's department on responses and evidence collection during radioactive materials incidents. -- Daniel Hirsch, president, Committee to Bridge the Gap, a public policy organization addressing nuclear matters, with special focus on preventing nuclear terrorism. -- Edwin Stuart Lyman, Ph.D., president, Nuclear Control Institute, is an active member of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management. -- Paul F. Walker, Ph.D., legacy program director, Global Green USA, former staff member of the House Armed Services Committee. The symposium is cosponsored by UCLA School of Public Health, UCLA Extension, UCLA's Burkle Center for International Relations, L.A. County Dept. of Health Services-Public Health, Southern Calif. Public Health Assoc., Global Green and Southern Calif. Assoc. of Governments. For more information, visit http://www.psrla.org [http://www.psrla.org] . http://www.usnewswire.com -0- /U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/ ***************************************************************** 21 Indian nuke arsenal dwarfs Pakistan's : Jane's MONDAY, JUNE 03, 2002 THE TIMES OF INDIA WORLD: AMERICAS POWERED BY INDIATIMES AFP [ FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2002 4:25:50 AM ] WASHINGTON: India has up to 150 nuclear warheads while Pakistan could only call upon a third of that total at most, Jane's defense publications said Thursday, as fears persisted the two rivals were slipping towards a disastrous war. Although both sides have declined to give details of the size or capability of their arsenals since shocking the world with rival nuclear weapons tests in 1998, a survey by Jane's Strategic Weapons Systems has estimated their destructive potential. India may be able to deploy a 20 kilotonne device from a MiG, Jaguar or Mirage aircraft, and could be able to deliver a bomb of a similar size on Prithvi, Dhanush and Agni ballistic missiles, the article said. "It is estimated that India probably has between 50 and 150 nuclear warheads available," the survey, released by the London-based group here Thursday, said. "Analysis from some sources suggests that there is sufficient weapons grade uranium and plutonium available to India to build more warheads." Pakistan's program is less advanced, but it probably has between 25 and 50 nuclear warheads available, the report said. "Pakistan's planned yield for its larger nuclear weapons design was 20 to 25 kilotonnes providing a warhead that would probably be fitted to Shaheen and Ghauri ballistic missiles. Pakistan last weekend triggered international condemnation when it test fired Abdali, Ghauri and Ghaznavi nuclear capable missiles. It could also probably deploy a smaller device by aircraft, the report added. The report warned that even 10 to 20 warheads could inflict devastating death tolls on any of India and Pakistan's teeming cities, following other assessments this week that reached a potential of millions of deaths in any nuclear conflict in South Asia. It also warned that for both sides any nuclear conflict would be essentially self defeating, as bombs would inflict terrible casualties on home populations as well as targeted cities. "A nuclear strike by either country could turn out to be a pyrrhic victory since, due to the close proximity of several cities on either side of the Indo-Pakistani border, the resulting fallout could easily be blown over the attacking country." Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham announced plans on Thursday to clean up contamination 10 years sooner than expected at the Nevada Test Site, where the federal government conducted nuclear weapons experiments for 41 years. The department has requested an extra $33 million for the 2003 budget, Abraham said. If Congress approves the cleanup budget, the Test Site would receive $94 million next year. "This agreement provides the framework necessary to accelerate cleanup, and it is a major step to effectively reduce health risks and expedite the environmental cleanup of the Nevada Test Site," Abraham said. The National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Operations Office and Nevada officials signed a letter pushing to accelerate the cleanup of the site, which is bigger than the state of Rhode Island and 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Instead of finishing cleanup work in 2020, the Energy Department promises to complete it by 2010, Assistant Environmental Manager Carl Gertz said. "Keep in mind that the funds still have to be appropriated by Congress," Gertz said. Gov. Kenny Guinn hailed the extra funds, pointing out that the Bush administration's proposed budget had slashed Test Site cleanup funds from $85 million in 2001 to $61 million. "Included in this $94 million program is continuation of the ground-water monitoring program at the Nevada Test Site, which is critical for the health and safety of Nevadans living in proximity to the Test Site," Guinn said. Under the speedier cleanup plan, about 1,500 industrial sites contaminated during the above- and below-ground nuclear testing will be cleaned up two years sooner, the groundwater monitoring program will move ahead and soils contaminated with plutonium will be removed by 2010, Gertz said. The Energy Department and state environmental officials have been at odds over the ground-water program. Independent scientists in 1998 said the department's proposed monitoring plan would fail to track contaminated water leaving the site. Two years ago Guinn sought an additional $40 million for the ground-water tracking program alone. Congress did not approve the additional funds. Nevada's agreement is the fourth reached under the Energy Department's accelerated cleanup program. The department has signed agreements at the Hanford nuclear site in Washington, Oak Ridge, Tenn., and the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 31 Rep. Wamp unveils worker program The Oak Ridger Online -- Area News -- 05/31/02 from staff and wire reports The announcement by U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-3rd District, of a new program that addresses the problem of the "graying workforce" was just one of the highlights of the ninth annual Tennessee Valley Corridor Summit held this week in Nashville. The "WAMP initiative," which is short for the Tennessee Valley Workforce Aging Management Program Initiative, links the Valley Corridor's 18 community colleges and seven technology centers with businesses and large institutions in the Valley that employ thousands of highly skilled workers. The program focuses on providing retraining especially in the areas of information, engineering, transportation, construction and industrial technologies as well as targeting recruitment efforts and technology transfer. Wamp said the program will help "accelerate the development of workforce skills that are so necessary for the 21st century and the future of the Valley Corridor. "As the work force that won the Cold War and launched us into space reaches retirement age, this program will help replace professionals at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Arnold Engineering Development Center, NASA Marshall Flight Center and Redstone Arsenal, making the transition as seamless as possible by providing a trained and capable work force for the future." This year's summit, themed "National Leadership through Regional Cooperation," focused on the leadership role the Tennessee Valley Corridor plays in regional and national issues including homeland security, transportation, reindustrialization, high-tech workforce development and aviation, space and defense. The Tennessee Valley Corridor strategically links Southwest Virginia, Tennessee and Northern Alabama. Speakers included U.S. Reps. Van Hilleary, Bob Clement, Bart Gordon and Ed Bryant, U.S. Sen. Bill Frist and NASA chief of staff and White House liaison Courtney Stadd. Local officials speaking at the summit include Robin White, Center for International Threat Reduction; Bill Madia, director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory; and Tom Jensen with the National Safe Skies Alliance. A variety of initiatives have emerged from past conferences, Wamp said, including a modernization plan for the Y-12 National Security Complex. "The summit identified those great needs in a facility built 50 years ago and in need of modernization," he said. Y-12's primary mission is manufacturing parts for the MX missile system and storing highly enriched uranium used in warheads. The modernization plan includes a new uranium storage facility; a storage unit for other radioactive materials, including beryllium; and a new uranium manufacturing facility. Backers from the private sector -- which are necessary for the manufacturing and marketing of ORNL projects -- have also been found through the summit, according to Michael A. Kuliasha, ORNL program director for homeland security. For example, Kuliasha says he was approached Wednesday by a water company chief executive interested in protecting his water supply from contamination. "He asked 'How do I monitor my water?"' Kuliasha said. "And I said, 'Do I have an idea for you.' That's how partnerships are developed." Giving state leaders a chance to see the projects for themselves is also a plus, according to Kuliasha. "It gives them an opportunity to kick the tires, lets them know exactly what we're doing." During this week's event at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Nashville, ORNL researcher Gary Van Berkel showcased a mass spectrometry-based instrument that can detect the smallest trace of explosives on items such as airplane boarding passes. The instrument works by sampling air that passes over a ticket as the paper is fed through a scanner and then identifying the chemical composition of the substances in the air. The procedure takes just a few seconds. All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 32 Pension changes violate age law The Oak Ridger Online -- Area News -- 05/31/02 by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff By making changes in a retirement system for Oak Ridge workers, BWXT Y-12's action constitutes an "unlawful discrimination against older workers," according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The commission's determination this month is based on workers' claims that changes made to the retirement system in July 2001 violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. The workers maintain that under the new pension formula, the more years of company service acquired, the smaller the pension increase is after 30 years. "We disagree with the finding," said Bill Wilburn, a spokesman for BWXT. "We carefully researched this issue before making changes in the pension plan." BWXT, which administers the pension fund under its contract to manage the Y-12 National Security Complex, has formally requested that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reconsider its determination. Covered under the pension fund are retired employees from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12, in addition to those who retired from the Oak Ridge K-25 site prior to April 1, 1998. "We believe the changes that were made to the pension plan are legal according to the United States Supreme Court and the lower courts that have interpreted the age discrimination laws," said Wilburn. "We also believe these changes are legal according to EEOC's (the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's) own compliance manual." Wilburn said BWXT's goal is to have a pension plan that is fair to all employees. "We will continue to do right by our employees, offering them the best benefits package possible and doing so in the most cost effective way for the Department of Energy," he said. Paul Parson can be contacted at (865) 220-5533 or pparson@oakridger.com [pparson@oakridger.com] . All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 33 Antinuclear Events Hollywood's rendition of what a nuclear explosion would do to an American city will soon be available in The Sum of All Fears, but an upcoming symposium offers a more sober account of what would really happen in the case of nuclear catastrophe. Organized by the Los Angeles branch of Physicians for Social Responsibility, the summit's speakers include Drs. Herb Abrams, Mary-Wynne Ashford and Helen Caldicott, among many others. The summit will also cover the politics of biological and chemical warfare. When: June 2 Where: Ackerman Grand Ballroom University of California, Los Angeles [http://www.nyhistory.org/exhibitsExt.html] The exhibit takes its name from an image that hung 40 feet high over New York City's Columbus Circle on June 12, 1982, and became an icon for an era of antinuclear political activism. The New-York Historical Society looks back at that day's event--the largest peace demonstration in history--through a collection of photographs, videos and ephemera. When: June 4-September 2 Where: The New York Historical Society 2 West 77th Street, New York, NY 10024 [http://www.ceip.org/files/events/events.asp?EventID=491] At this live online event, experts from the Carnegie Endowment and the Stanley Foundation will weigh in on the role Washington can play in cooling the political temperature between India and Pakistan--two nuclear powers on the verge of war. The discussion will also cover the two country's current border skirmishing and the aftershocks of September 11 throughout the region. When: 9:00-10:30 AM, June 6 [http://www.richtervideos.com] When nearly one million demonstrators gathered in Central Park on June 12, 1982 to call for a freeze in the nuclear arms race, Robert Richter and Stan Warnow were there to film it. This meticulous ninety-minute documentary captured the historic day as it unfolded twenty years ago. It features footage of demonstrators, counter-demonstrators and the numerous musical performances that took place that day. Date: June 12 Where: New York Area, 10:00 PM on WNET Channel Thirteen (There'll be multiple viewings so please check local listings) Rally to Protest the New Face of Nuclear War One part commemoration, two parts political revival: On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the 1982 June 12 demonstration in Central Park, long-time disarmament activists Randall Forsberg, David Cortright and Cora Weiss join other former SANE/Freeze organizers to spark a new movement to abolish nuclear weapons. Guests include Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich and The Nation's Jonathan Schell, among others. When: 7:00 PM, June 12 Where: Ethical Culture, Central Park West and 64th Street, (212) 870-2304 [http://www.peace-action.org/home/natlcongress/natlcong.html] The Boeing Company is one of the world's largest aerospace corporations, and a contractor for the Bush Administration's controversial missile defense system. This summer, the company will also be a target for Peace Action, which will hold a demonstration before Boeing's world headquarters in Chicago to protest the President's global war and those who are profiting from it. When: July 26 Where: Boeing World Headquarters, 100 North Riverside, Chicago, Illinois [http://www.peace-action.org/home/natlcongress/natlcong.html] Learn about the inner workings of the nation's largest peace network, brush up on your activist skills, and hear speeches from US Representative Dennis Kucinich and September 11 widow and peace activist Amber Amundsen. When: July 27-July 28 Where: John Marshall Law School, 315 S. Plymouth Court, Chicago, Illinois © 2002 The Nation Company, L.P. ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************