***************************************************************** 08/31/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.223 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POLICY 1 Tokyo nuclear firm hid reactor cracks 2 Panel clears DPP lawmakers in corruption probe 3 US: Feds Probe Ohio Nuclear Plant Owner 4 Japan: Paper-overing of N-cracks may disrupt power plan 5 Japan: TEPCO scandal blow to policy 6 Japan: GE engineer tipped govt to fake N-plant records 7 Japan's Korea move surprises media 8 UK OP: Labour's deep fear of pressing the nuclear button 9 NUCLEAR REACTION/ Scandal fallout:Leaders blast TEPCO and the 10 Japan ANALYSIS: In nuke industry, saving cash means losing public tr NUCLEAR REACTORS 11 US: Iowa Nuclear plant goes off-line for repairs 12 Korea: Nuclear Plant Blamed for Red Tide 13 China: Nuclear power chief in cheaper fuel claim NUCLEAR SAFETY 14 US: Iodide pill giveaway plan in place /* 15 US: *Cancer deaths query* 16 US: High price of bungles at mine-site fire 17 US: Company fined $15,000 for uranium oxide mistake 18 Iraq: Gulf War caused malignancies in children 19 US: Plan to aid sick nuclear workers may not compensate all NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 20 US: Waste returns to Idaho ... Activists want answers before shipmen 21 US: The Nuclear Fuel Services facility in Erwin 22 US: Chemicals from old nuclear plant are found in two more wells 23 US: One of state's lawsuits against Yucca project moves forward 24 US: Environmentalists Berate Feds for Decision on Waste 25 New nuclear scandal in Japan threatens viability of Sellafield 26 US: Actress Park Overall Says NFS ?Dodging Big Questions? * 27 US: Objections filed on NFS project NUCLEAR WEAPONS 28 AU: Fallout deaths 29 Chance of N-disaster increases in region 30 Another emergency on board a Russian nuclear submarine 31 Kursk Guest editorial: Torpedoed by incompetence 32 How dangerous is Iraq's arsenal? 33 AU: Cloud over atom bomb blast plans US DEPT. OF ENERGY 34 Duratek Announces Department of Energy Contract Award for Depleted 35 Tentative deadlines set for shutdown of FFTF 36 Lawmakers welcome contract for uranium conversion plants in Ohio, Ke 37 Justice asks 'last' delay in decision to join suit - OTHER NUCLEAR 38 WTO allows EU to impose $4 billion in sanctions against U.S. - ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Tokyo nuclear firm hid reactor cracks Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Jonathan Watts Saturday August 31, 2002 The Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk] Trust in Japan's nuclear industry has plummeted to new depths in the past two days after revelations that the country's biggest power company has covered up cracks in its reactors for over a decade. The Tokyo Electric Power Company admitted on Thursday that it had failed to accurately report up to 29 cracks found in safety checks over a 15-year period starting in the late 1980s. "I would like to sincerely apologise for the incident... which has damaged public trust," its president, Nobuya Minami, said after the cover-up was exposed by a whistleblower at a subcontractor, General Electric. The government's nuclear and industrial safety agency has warned that eight reactors may be operating with cracks. The domestic media has said that some of the unreported damage was in flasks surrounding the reactor cores, but the safety agency said they posed no immediate threat. However, the trustworthiness of the authorities has also been called into question. The whistleblower's report was sent to the industry ministry two years ago, but the scandal has only now been made public. Yesterday, the industry minister, Takeo Hiranuma, reacted with indignation, calling for a full investigation of this "unforgivable" irregularity. With the scandal growing by the day, British Nuclear Fuels is among the victims of the fallout, which has set back the attempts of its biggest customers to start using controversial mixed-oxide (Mox) fuel from its reprocessing facilities. Two of Tokyo Electric's plants in Fukushima prefecture and one in Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, Niigata prefecture, were supposed to have loaded the fuel, but with their safety now in question, the company said it could not proceed with the plan until public confidence had been restored. Japan's nuclear industry has been trying to rebuild public confidence since an accident in 1999 at a recycling plant in Tokaimura killed two workers and forced hundreds of thousands of residents in the area to stay indoors. [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 ***************************************************************** 2 Panel clears DPP lawmakers in corruption probe The Taipei Times Online: 2002-08-31 By Crystal Hsu STAFF REPORTER A cross-party legislative panel probing alleged corruption by DPP lawmakers said yesterday there is no evidence to prove their wrongdoing and recommended condemning their accusers. Wrapping up two months of investigation, the five-member task force said they found no evidence implicating DPP lawmakers Liang Mu-yang (±çªª¾i), Cheng Tsao-min (¾G´Â©ú) and Hsu Chih-ming (®}§Ó©ú) as being involved in sloppy construction work at the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant. The controversy surfaced in mid-June when TSU Legislator Su Ying-kwei (Ĭ¬Õ¶Q) claimed the three had pressured the state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, ¥x¹q) to award some of the project's contracts to favored firms. Su said he had evidence, provided by China Shipbuilding Corp (¤¤²î), to back up his charges. China Shipbuilding is in charge of building the plant's reactor pedestal, which experts have found to have serious construction flaws. The allegations were immediately corroborated by PFP Legislator Chiu Yi (ªô¼Ý), who said he had also received similar complaints from his constituents. The legislature set up an investigative committee days later at the behest of the trio, who insist they are innocent. To ensure fairness, the panel drew members from across party lines, including Huang Chao-shun (¶À¬L¶¶) of the KMT, Lin Kuo-hua (ªL°êµØ) of the DPP, Chou Hsi-wei (©P¿üÞ³) of the PFP, Huang Chung-yung (¶À©v·½) of the TSU and independent Sisy Chen (³¯¤åÓ}). Noting that false accusations are commonplace in the legislature, the committee recommended that Chiu be condemned, rather than be suspended, from the legislature as demanded by the accused. The panelists disagreed on what to do with Su, who some observed demonstrated no malice when making the charges. Chiu denied spreading rumors and stressed that he had given all of the evidence in his possession to law enforcement officers. The PFP lawmaker earlier turned down a request to testify before the committee on the grounds he did not want to appear on the same stage with Chen, who he said is fond of political stunts. This story has been viewed 105 times. URL=[http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2002/08/31/story/0000166256] Copyright © 1999-2002 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 3 Feds Probe Ohio Nuclear Plant Owner Las Vegas SUN August 30, 2002 ASSOCIATED PRESS CLEVELAND- Federal regulators are investigating whether the owner of a nuclear plant where acid nearly ate through a 6-inch-thick steel reactor cap had altered records about the damage, the company says. FirstEnergy Corp. spokesman Todd Schneider said Friday the utility was cooperating with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission but would not provide details of the investigation at the Davis-Besse plant near Toledo. "Allegations of altered documents and records are part of this investigation," Schneider said. The plant has been shut down since engineers discovered in March that boric acid had nearly eaten through the steel cap on the reactor vessel. It was the most extensive corrosion ever found on a U.S. nuclear reactor and led to a nationwide review of all 69 similar plants. A second, smaller hole was found later at Davis-Besse. The NRC has been investigating the corrosion and has said the leak that caused it should have been spotted as many as four years ago. Agency spokesman Jan Strasma would not say Friday whether officials were investigating whether FirstEnergy altered records. A coalition of 14 environmental and nuclear watchdog groups is urging the NRC to order an independent review of the plant. Coalition spokesman David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said he was told by investigators that the NRC is investigating whether FirstEnergy backdated videotapes, falsified documents and withheld a photograph to make damaged to the reactor lid seem less severe than it actually was. Workers removed the damaged reactor head Thursday and were to begin installing a replacement. The plant is expected to be operational by October, Schneider said. The coalition wants the NRC to delay the plant's restart until the agency finishes its investigation. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 4 Japan: Paper-overing of N-cracks may disrupt power plan Daily Yomiuri On-Line Akihiro Okada Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer The revelation that Tokyo Electric Power Co. falsified records at nuclear power plants to cover up structural damages will seriously impact the course of the nation's energy policies, which are seeking to secure a stable supply of energy while reducing emissions of carbon dioxide in line with the Kyoto Protocol. For example, the power industry had planned to bring plutonium-thermal power generation online at 16 to 18 nuclear plants by 2010. However, TEPCO President Nobuya Minami said Thursday at a press conference that the company would postpone its plan to begin power generation using uranium-plutonium mixed oxide fuel at the No. 1 Fukushima nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture and the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plants in Niigata Prefecture. In plutonium-thermal power generation, plutonium extracted from spent nuclear fuel is mixed with mixed with uranium to provide new fuel. The nuclear-fuel recycling project also is to be introduced at Kansai Electric Power Company's Takahama nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture. However, TEPCO's postponement of the project does not mean that nuclear power generation is in any danger of grinding to a halt in the near future. "The project itself is indispensable to us," Minami said at the conference, showing his hope to resume the project when the dust kicked up by the scandal has settled. However, the nation's long-term energy plan might not proceed as planned, according to industry observers. Japan, which has experienced two serious disruptions to its oil supply since World War II, has been developing new energy sources that will lessen its dependence on oil from the Middle East. This research has paid off, and the nation now only imports 50 percent of its oil needs from the Middle East. However, Japan's is still only 20 percent self-sufficient in terms of energy supply--markedly lower than other industrialized countries, such as Britain and the United States--and it needs to reduce its dependence on imported oil. Another argument against fossil fuels is that under the Kyoto Protocol, the nation will have to reduce its yearly emissions of greenhouse gases by 6 percent on average between 2008 and 2012 to curtail global warming. This will be a hard goal to achieve, and nuclear power was seen as the answer, industry observers said. The government initially planned to promote plutonium-thermal power generation in tandem with work on a project to increase the amount of plutonium to be recycled at fast breeder reactors. However, Monju, a prototype fast breeder reactor in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, has been closed down since a sodium leakage in 1995. After the incident, the government was forced to switch over to the idea of plutonium-thermal energy, but this idea too has now gone sour in the wake of TEPCO's deception. Copyright 2002 The Yomiuri Shimbun + ***************************************************************** 5 Japan: TEPCO scandal blow to policy Daily Yomiuri On-Line Hiroshi Masumitsu Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer Thursday's revelation that Tokyo Electric Power Co. falsified records relating to cracks at TEPCO nuclear plants over a period of years may adversely affect the nation's nuclear program and energy policies. Observers say the latest scandal involving TEPCO, one of the nation's leading electric power companies, may deal a heavy blow to a government-led project to begin pluthermal power generation in conventional nuclear power plants using plutonium extracted from spent nuclear fuel. The falsified records include some concerning cracks found in important sections of the nuclear reactors. The government, however, has said these defects do not immediately threaten the safety of the nuclear plants. But observers point out that both TEPCO and the government will now have to take drastic measures to protect against further instances of fraudulent record-keeping--otherwise, it will be impossible to restore public trust in nuclear power programs. Nuclear power station operators are obliged to conduct regular inspections of their facilities every 13 months. Government inspectors examine about 90 components of the nuclear reactors, and the operators themselves perform voluntary inspections of additional parts. Government and industry officials in the nuclear field have long prided themselves on conducting "the most careful inspections in the world," a claim apparently based on the tacit assumption that each operator performs voluntary inspections in good faith. Nonetheless, observers have noticed several aspects of the nuclear industry that contributed to the scandal. First of all, observers point to the reluctance among power plant operators to stop operating nuclear reactors when minor cracks thought not to pose a direct threat are discovered. Nuclear plant operators are estimated to lose tens of millions to hundreds of millions of yen if they suspend operations for one day. Therefore, there is increasing pressure within the industry for authorities to extend the period of operation after the regular inspections have been completed. In response to this pressure from within the nuclear industry, a panel of the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry's Advisory Committee for Natural Resources and Energy recently compiled a report on the possibility of establishing a more rational inspection system and ensuring power plant safety. In the report, the panel proposed decreasing the number of components directly examined by government inspectors and monitoring power firms more stringently to see if they are conducting complete inspections. In making these proposals, however, Tokyo University Prof. Haruki Madarame, who heads the panel, said, "I never anticipated that the employees performing the inspections would take underhanded actions themselves." The panel's proposed reforms will be implemented by the ministry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency after it incorporates a new system under which government inspectors will examine the segments of nuclear reactors already inspected by plant operators at irregular intervals. Madarame also stressed the need to introduce new measures that will enable government and industry officials to uncover scandals like the latest one. Some nuclear professionals, however, disagree, such as panel member and Tokyo Institute of Technology Prof. Hideo Kobayashi, who said, "It isn't always true that nuclear reactors should have no cracks." The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers is now discussing developing new standards that inspectors can use to judge scientifically whether "the (cracked) nuclear reactors are at a dangerous level or can be left for a while." Madarame also points to the importance of introducing objective evaluation systems to the inspection process. He said, "If the standards say there should be no cracks of any kind, voluntary inspectors might make arbitrary judgments during the course of their inspection, like neglecting to report cracks they've discovered." Copyright 2002 The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 6 Japan: GE engineer tipped govt to fake N-plant records Daily Yomiuri On-Line Yomiuri Shimbun A former General Electric Co. (GE) engineer was the whistle-blower who tipped off the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency about alleged false records kept by Tokyo Electric Power Company on cracks at its nuclear plants, a ministry source said Friday. TEPCO allegedly falsified reports on voluntary inspections of 13 nuclear reactors at three of its power plants in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and investigators suspect the false records were created at the power company's request. The source added the fraud was possibly the product of a coordinated effort within TEPCO. The agency began investigating the records two years ago based information from the former GE engineer, who now lives in the United States. The U.S. firm developed the type of nuclear reactor in question. The agency will inspect three power plants early next week, with an eye to filing a criminal complaint against the firm for violating a law that requires nuclear plant operators to report any problems or accidents to the central government, the sources said. The source said the engineer was sent to General Electric International Inc. (GEII), GE's Japan, to help TEPCO conduct voluntary inspections. In July 2000, the engineer sent an anonymous letter revealing the false reports to the then International Trade and Industry Ministry. According to the source, the letter said the engineer reported finding six cracks in a nuclear reactor, but TEPCO reported only three. In the letter, the engineer reportedly also claimed to have found a wrench that had had been left inside the nuclear reactor when he was changing core shrouds. The engineer revealed his identity after changing jobs. The agency contacted him several times, but the initial investigation was slow in confirming facts due to the engineer's incomplete memory of the events. The investigation started to make much faster progress after the engineer sent a more detailed letter in January 2001, enclosing copies of reports on TEPCO's voluntary inspections. The agency's investigation into GEII documents and interviews with TEPCO employees found that the false reports were made on orders from TEPCO, not GEII. === President considers resigning Meanwhile, TEPCO President Nobuya Minami said in an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun on Friday he would take responsibility for the false reports and would consider stepping down from his post. "Although I wasn't aware of the false reports, I'm definitely responsible for the matter as president," he said. Copyright 2002 The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 7 Japan's Korea move surprises media BBC NEWS | Monitoring | Media reports | Saturday, 31 August, 2002, 10:52 GMT 11:52 UK [Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi ] Koizumi will visit North Korea in September The announcement that Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will visit North Korea on 17 September has been received with surprise and a degree of optimism by the media in Japan and the Koreas. It was "more than anyone could have expected," South Korean daily Choson Ilbo remarks. North Korea's official state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) notes that "abnormal relations" have persisted between North Korea and Japan because of the failure to settle the historic issues between them. The visit "will mark an important occasion in settling the issues between the two countries and normalizing bilateral relations," it says. Hasty decision In Japan, the papers speak of mixed reactions to the announcement, and suggest that the decision was "hastily taken". "The abruptness of the announcement left many wondering why it is to be held now," Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun remarks. The daily, Mainichi Shimbun, reports that the ruling party is generally "unsettled" by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's "sudden decision to visit North Korea". Under the circumstances, Koizumi has apparently judged the summit with Kim as the only way to achieve a breakthrough Jiji Press news agency It quotes a senior official of the Liberal Democratic Party as saying: "It's fine if all goes well, but I think there will be more harm than benefits. Why is he doing it?" According to the paper, only a few senior officials who have worked for Japan-North Korea negotiations welcome the move wholeheartedly. The Japanese news agency Jiji Press is uncertain that any major breakthrough will be made at "this first ever summit between Japan and North Korea". "Koizumi himself acknowledges that he does not think... that it will easily bring about solutions to pending issues," the agency says. The agency points out that the two countries have held a series of meetings this year, but with no progress in solving core issues such as the alleged abductions of Japanese nationals by North Korean agents. Japan alleges that North Korea abducted at least 11 Japanese nationals between 1977 and 1983 to use them for espionage. North Korea is demanding an apology and compensation from Japan for its colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945. "Under the circumstances, Koizumi has apparently judged the summit with Kim as the only way to achieve a breakthrough," Jiji Press believes. [North Korean leader Kim Jong-il] Reclusive Kim Jong-il will host the Japanese prime minister The Japanese news agency Kyodosays that Mr Koizumi has "been compelled to take the chance and jump straight to a direct meeting" with the North Korean leader, because he is the "only individual in North Korea who is in a position to make major political decisions". "Diplomatic protocol, as we know it, does not apply to North Korea," the paper says, quoting a senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official. "Under the system in North Korea, its leader Kim Jong-il is virtually the only one who can make big political decisions," the paper quotes the unnamed official as saying. "Should Koizumi return to Japan empty-handed regarding the kidnap allegations, it could place him in a new and serious political crisis as his opponents are prepared to step up criticism of the premier in the fall amid the protracted economic slump," the paper says. Nuclear concerns Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun says Tokyo must also table the issue of nuclear weapons that North Korea is believed to possess. "Leaving those matters unclear and simply jumping to the question of relations and compensation will only preserve the current military dictatorship," it warns. South Korean newspaper agree that the North Korea's nuclear capability is not to be overlooked in the discussions. Koizumi should "clearly convey the common position of South Korea, the USA, and Japan" on North's nuclear and missile programs and the importance of easing tension on the Korean peninsula, Choson Ilbo says. Commenting on the "Koizumi-style surprise visit to the North" the paper sees this as an "opportunity" to persuade the North to "carry out reform and open up," It warns that North Korea should not use the Japan-DPRK summit as an opportunity to start minimizing international pressure on its programs. The South Korean Dong A Ilbo, urges the Seoul government to play its role in the North Korea-Japan talks saying the historic visit could "ease tension on the Korean peninsula" and help North Korea "to advance to the international arena." At least an epoch-making development between the two countries Taehan Maeil It also warns the Japanese premier against exploiting the visit to restore his popularity. His visit should be seen as a "practical contribution for peace on the Korean peninsula," the paper says. Joongang Ilbo, in South Korea, says it is worth noting that Kim Chong-il was gracious enough to accept Koizumi's proposal for talks. The editorial urges the North to further open up and implement agreements reached with the South so that efforts can be made to pull down the "Cold War wall" that has existed for a long time on the Korean peninsula. The South Korean Hangyore Shinmun believes that if DPRK-Japan relations are improved, the United States will have to "revise the basis of its policy" toward the North. The Seoul government-run daily Taehan Maeil says the visit will "at least be an epoch-making development between the two countries". BBC Monitoring [http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk] , based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. See also: © MMII | News Sources | Privacy ***************************************************************** 8 UK OP: Labour's deep fear of pressing the nuclear button money.telegraph.co.uk - (Filed: 31/08/2002) At the core of British Energy's problems is the failure to admit that we need nuclear energy. Malcolm Moore reports There's an episode in The Simpsons where the town's nuclear power plant is sold for a huge price to a German conglomerate. [Sellafield] Power politics: Sellafield, like the industry as a whole, is in limbo because of government indecision Sadly, the Germans soon find that even their legendary efficiency cannot turn a profit from the crumbling reactors, which are infested with raccoons and leaking radioactive waste. Eventually they are forced to sell the plant back for half the price that they paid for it. The show's scriptwriters might have been thinking of British Energy, our largest nuclear power producer. Sold off by the Government for £1.26 billion in 1996 - too cheap, according to the National Audit Office - the company is now valued by the stock market at just £487m. It may not have a raccoon problem, but two of its eight power stations are out of service. Even those still working are struggling: three years ago wholesale electricity cost 3p per kWh, but it's now below 2p. Unlike most electricity generators, nuclear stations cost much the same when running as when shut down, and the financial squeeze has thrown into sharp relief the high price British Energy has to pay the state to take away its spent fuel. Investors who pushed the share price to a high of 730p in 1998 would probably be only too eager, like the cartoon Germans, to sell the company back for half the price, if only the Government would consider renationalisation. Last week Brian Wilson, the energy minister, scoffed at suggestions that he is about to step in with Project Blue - Blue being the codename for British Energy in confidential government documents - and take control of the company. Bravely, British Energy itself has insisted it is "no Railtrack". For all the fine words, the Government cannot escape involvement. The company cannot be left to the mercy of the market, and this week it emerged that British Energy may take on the management of six state-owned Magnox plants. These reactors are the oldest in the country, kept running only because it's cheaper than shutting them down. A management fee would cheer up the company's cashflow, but it will not solve its problems, with two £100m bonds due for repayment by the end of next year. Nobody is rushing to refinance them, and it's not hard to see why. The real problems lie with the radioactively hot potato of Britain's energy policy. Every technical study shows that there is no realistic possibility of doing without nuclear power, but the anti-nuclear lobby is right in Labour's core support. A quarter of our electricity is generated this way - more if you count the juice imported through the cross-channel link, since France is heavily dependent on nuclear power. Number 10's Policy and Innovation Unit has admitted the advantages of "keeping the nuclear option open", and there are signs that the Government wants to push nuclear, if it could only find the courage. As environment minister Michael Meacher said, nuclear sometimes ends up "frightening people out of their wits". As energy minister, Wilson has British Energy's Hunterston B in his constituency of Cunninghame North. Yet even assuming the safety issues can be answered, the question remains of what to do with the waste and who pays for it. Wilson blames the low wholesale price of electricity for damaging British Energy, but the company has to pay an index-linked fee, currently £300m a year, to have its spent fuel reprocessed. When all the costs are added in, British Energy is losing 0.4p on every kWh it generates, but analysts reckon that, without reprocessing, it costs the company under 1.4p, leaving a small positive margin over the current wholesale price of about 1.6p. British Energy says it is further handicapped by its vertically integrated competitors, who can live with low margins because of the high returns from retailing. Some inside British Energy describe this as a form of market manipulation, artificially reducing the wholesale price of electricity. Wilson admits there is a problem: "We need to address the unfortunate reality that British Energy can't get a price for its product that is reasonable," he said last weekend. It's not obvious what he can do. It would be politically dangerous to be seen tinkering with the market to push prices up, especially if it gave voters bigger electricity bills. The biggest contribution would be a clear decision on how radioactive waste is to be managed. In north America, where British Energy owns a profitable business, waste is buried. Over here, it is all reprocessed by BNFL at its Thorpe plant, a procedure that some now believe may be more environmentally harmful in the long run than burying the stuff. The recent energy review from the Policy and Innovation Unit does not envisage any new nuclear build until the waste issue has been resolved and it accepts the Government's seven-year timescale. Seven years is a short time in this industry, but with all our nuclear plants due to expire by 2023, the decision may have to come sooner. The contract with BNFL was the key to the successful privatisation of British Energy, but it now looks more like the chains on the door of the financial dungeon. The company says that burying its waste would only cost about a quarter of the £300m annual reprocessing charge. Even if public opinion could stomach the prospect, ministers would still have BNFL to worry about. The British Energy contract sustains the Thorpe plant, and millions of taxpayers' pounds have been spent on consultation over possible privatisation. Saving British Energy may end up mortally wounding BNFL. A short-term solution would be to exempt nuclear power from the climate change levy, saving British Energy enough to break even in the UK. It would also be logical, since nuclear energy produces no CO2. In the long term, when the politicians have the courage to admit that we need nuclear power, a decision will have to be taken on how to deal with the waste. Given this Government's preference for muddling along, substituting task forces for decisions, the outlook for British Energy is not bright. © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2002. Terms &Conditions of reading. ***************************************************************** 9 NUCLEAR REACTION/ Scandal fallout:Leaders blast TEPCO and the government over the latest lies in the nuclear industry. Asahi Shimbun www.asahi.com [http://www.asahi.com/] The Asahi Shimbun ``Are they putting on a comedy?'' EISAKU SATO Fukushima prefectural governor Outrage over the false repair reports at Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) spilled over to the central government Friday, as local leaders ridiculed safety officials and threatened to close down TEPCO's unrepaired nuclear power plants. The criticism over the long-time cover-up of problem spots in three nuclear plants was particularly sharp from Fukushima Prefecture, home of two of the plants. ``After concealing the problems for two years, officials of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Thursday they would seek `to maintain and improve the safety culture,''' said Eisaku Sato, Fukushima prefectural governor. ``Are they putting on a comedy? What do they think about the people of the prefecture who will be most affected by the safety (of the nuclear plants)?'' The two nuclear plants in Fukushima Prefecture contain cracks in parts close to the reactors' cores and other problems that were not included in inspection reports compiled by TEPCO. Sato has never been enthusiastic about nuclear power. In February 2001, the governor expressed strong doubts about the central government's plutonium thermal (pluthermal) program, which recycles plutonium from used nuclear fuels by mixing it with uranium. Soon after, Fukushima Prefecture began considering its own energy policy by inviting scientists to study sessions. The revelations of the fake repair reports have heightened Sato's reservations about nuclear energy. ``For more than a year, we have been conducting serious discussion on nuclear power policy,'' Sato said. ``It is incredible to believe that during that time, there was such a cover-up of problems. (The central government) could have reconsidered its nuclear fuel recycling program when accidents occurred at the Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor and at Tokaimura, but they did not. ``Now is the time to raise the level of consciousness about the safety culture to the level of other advanced industrial nations.'' The concept of a safety culture in Japan developed and spread following the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster in 1986. Behind the concept is the need to place priority on safety at every aspect of nuclear power generation, from plant design to operations and inspections. In Kariwa, Niigata Prefecture, site of TEPCO's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, anti-nuclear opponents urged Mayor Hiroo Shinada on Friday morning to shut down the plant because TEPCO could no longer be trusted. ``You have to retract your approval because the safety and reliability that were the preconditions for that approval have been negated,'' an opponent told the mayor. Kariwa gave preliminary approval to the pluthermal project in 1999. But Shinada told the group he felt the relationship of trust with TEPCO had been hurt. He later told reporters he would not oppose debate on retracting its approval. With the central government's pluthermal program set back by the latest revelations at TEPCO, the leaders of the company could be forced to take responsibility. TEPCO President Nobuya Minami and Chairman Hiroshi Araki face the question of why they failed to act more quickly after receiving word about the false repair reports. Minami, who also serves as chairman of the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan, said Thursday he would decide on his future after the truth of the cover-ups was revealed and preventive measures were in place. He said more efforts are needed to improve the corporate culture of TEPCO. ``We were in the process of improving our culture and we were at a point where we thought we had made good progress,'' Minami said. ``However, we now recognize that there were shortcomings in that effort.'' In particular, it appears TEPCO was slow in acting on the insider leak about the false reports that was submitted to the then Ministry of International Trade and Industry in July 2000. Minami was TEPCO president at that time, but no moves were made to set up a joint study team until a proposal was made by the visiting president of General Electric, whose subsidiary was subcontracted to handle the inspection and repairs of the nuclear plants. Still, an investigative committee within TEPCO was not established until May, close to two years after the insider leak. A former employee of General Electric International Inc. (GEII), which handled the inspection and maintenance work for TEPCO, submitted a signed document that pointed out problems involved in the inspections. MITI officials talked to the individual and asked TEPCO to pursue the matter. TEPCO officials talked to the GEII employee, who had already left the company. But no detailed report was compiled because much of the discussion concerned matters that had occurred about a decade ago.(IHT/Asahi: August 31,2002) (08/31) [Copyright Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. No reproduction or ***************************************************************** 10 Japan ANALYSIS: In nuke industry, saving cash means losing public trust Asahi Shimbun www.asahi.com [http://www.asahi.com/] A cost-saving atmosphere prevails at TEPCO. In pursuit of economic efficiency, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) apparently cut corners where it counted most. A major factor behind the cover-up of problem spots at three nuclear plants operated by TEPCO appears to be the atmosphere created by company executives. They have repeatedly stated that higher operating rates of nuclear plants are crucial in reducing costs. So when confronted with the possibility of shutting down nuclear plants for repair and replacement work, TEPCO seems to have opted for an easier solution: faking the repair records to keep the reactors up and running. Although TEPCO officials said Thursday that repairs and inspections at the nuclear plants were handled by a subcontractor, General Electric International Inc., they admitted that TEPCO employees were also on hand. Even if the falsifications were not reported to top TEPCO executives, the corporate culture emphasizing economic efficiency was certainly one element in efforts to save time and money. In other words, fake repair reports were more cost efficient than proper reports that would have required repairs. Electric power and government officials have often cited economics in persuading municipalities to approve the construction of nuclear plants in their neighborhoods. In December 1999, the then Ministry of International Trade and Industry calculated the costs for generating a kilowatt-hour of electricity. The ministry estimated nuclear generation costs at 5.9 yen, while the expenses were 6.4 yen at coal-burning thermal power plants and 10.2 yen at oil-burning thermal power plants. However, even electric power industry officials say the estimates do not reflect reality. MITI's calculations were based on certain assumptions that lowered the estimated costs at nuclear plants. One was to increase the amortization period from 16 to 40 years to offset the heavy initial investment costs for nuclear plants. Facility and repair expenses were also not included in the calculations. Another factor in the TEPCO scandal is, ironically, public anxiety over nuclear power plant safety. Industry officials were probably concerned that disclosure of problem spots would heighten fears of nuclear plants and increase the difficulty in finding other locations willing to accept such plants. The nuclear industry has a history of covering up or delaying reports of problems at nuclear plants. For example, after the serious coolant leak at the Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor in Fukui Prefecture in 1995, a number of false reports and cover-ups surfaced. Last November, when damaged pipes were reported at the Hamaoka nuclear plant operated by Chubu Electric Power Co., it took close to 20 hours before an announcement was made of water leaking from the pipes. But such efforts ultimately backfire and increase public distrust of the nuclear power industry. A Chubu Electric Power official said his company did not have any problems similar to those of TEPCO. But he is concerned that the fallout from the TEPCO cover-up will heighten opposition among local residents who do not want to see the company's Hamaoka nuclear plant reactors go back online. Other electric power firms are trying to downplay the effects from the TEPCO cover-up. A Kansai Electric Power Co. official simply said it was a very disappointing development.(IHT/Asahi: August 31,2002) (08/31) [Copyright Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. No reproduction or ***************************************************************** 11 Iowa Nuclear plant goes off-line for repairs Omaha.com August 31, 2002 PALO, Iowa - Iowa's only nuclear power plant was taken off-line early Friday to repair cooling systems that support plant ventilation, plant officials said. The Duane Arnold Energy Center in Palo outside Cedar Rapids generates 580 megawatts of electricity, enough to serve an estimated 432,000 homes. "We are doing this precautionary repair now to utilize the reduced energy demand during the long holiday weekend," Mark Peifer, site vice president, said in a statement. The plant is owned by Alliant Energy-Interstate Power and Light Co., Central Iowa Power Cooperative and Corn Belt Power Cooperative. The plant is managed by Nuclear Management Co., based in Hudson, Wis., which operates eight nuclear units in four Upper Midwest states. Spokesman John Lohman said he couldn't comment on how long the plant would be off-line, but said he didn't expect a long outage. ©2002 Omaha World-Herald. All rights reserved. Copyright ***************************************************************** 12 Korea: Nuclear Plant Blamed for Red Tide Digital Chosunilbo (English Edition) : Daily News in English About Korea Updated Aug.30,2002 17:58 KST by Kim Min-gu (roadrunner@chosun.com) Amid the Red Tide Warning issued in the southwest coast of North Gyeongsang Province, some 50 fish farmers demonstrated outside the Wolsong Nuclear Power Plant Friday, demanding compensation for aggravating the algae bloom by discharging heated water. Two grouper farms on the coast of Gampo, Gyeongju City, were hit by concentrated red tide Wednesday, which killed hundreds of thousands of fish. The fishermen claimed that the surroundings of the plant¡¯s drainage system had high-concentration of red tide when the phenomenon is not seriously damaging other waters, and the heated water is directly related to the red tide. Wolsong Plant uses some 17.5 tons of seawater a day as coolant, and discharge the water some 5 degrees Celsius higher. The Wolsong Plant officials responded that they couldn¡¯t accept the demand for compensation as the causes of red tide and the mass death of groupers were not yet identified, and it will wait for the results of an investigation by the authorities. Fishermen left the dead fishes in front of the power plant in protest. The red tide warning issued on August 22 on the east coast from Gyeongju to Pohang had been upgraded on Thursday afternoon, and the red tide on the coastline of North Gyeongsang Province marked highest concentration since its occurrence was detected. ***************************************************************** 13 China: Nuclear power chief in cheaper fuel claim August 30, 2002 8:52pm Olivia Chung in Shenzhen 08/31/2002 Electricity generated by mainland nuclear power plants is cheaper than power generated by coal-fired plants in Hong Kong, according to Lin Guiqin, general manager of Guangdong Nuclear Power Joint Venture Company. Lin yesterday urged the Central Government to give the go-ahead as soon as possible for his company to expand capacity of the Ling'ao nuclear plant and to begin construction of Guangdong's third nuclear plant in Yangjiang. Production costs of the Daya Bay nuclear power plant and Ling'ao nuclear power plant had dropped 40 per cent and 10 per cent respectively, Lin said. "The reduction of production costs will have a positive impact on electricity prices," he said, but declined to say how much prices would drop. However, Lin did say that nuclear-generated electricity was much cheaper than the output of coal-fired plants in Hong Kong. Hong Kong-listed China Light and Power (CLP) Holdings has a 25 per cent stake in the Daya Bay plant and takes 70 per cent of the output from the plant. The first nuclear power generator in the Ling'ao plant, a kilometre from the Daya Bay plant, had generated 2.1 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity since it began commercial operations at the end of May, almost 50 days ahead of schedule, Lin said. After test runs, the second generator of the Ling'ao plant would begin commercial operations by the end of this year. The two generators at the Daya Bay plant, which is 50 kilometres from Hong Kong, generated 8.4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity from January to August 30 this year, Lin said. The Daya Bay plant generated 14.37 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2001. Lin called on Beijing to approve two additional generators an the Ling'ao plant and construction of a nuclear plant with six generators at Yangjiang, 150km from Hong Kong. Financial Times Information Limited - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire Copyright © 2002 Financial Times Limited, All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 14 Iodide pill giveaway plan in place /* August 31, 2002* *From Staff and Wire Reports* *CONCORD* ? The state has completed its plan to distribute free radiation pills to people living within 10 miles of the Seabrook and Vermont Yankee nuclear plants. The potassium iodide pills also are available to people who work or go to school within the 10-mile zone. The pills would protect the thyroid from absorbing radioactive iodine that could be released in the unlikely event of an accident at either plant, said State Medical Director Dr. William Kassler. Officials at a news conference yesterday clarified the use of the pills, which came to public attention after the terrorist attacks last Sept. 11 in New York and Washington. Officials became fearful of a terrorist attack on the nuclear plant. ?Contrary to popular belief, potassium iodide is not an anti-radiation pill,? said Kathleen Dunn, director of the Office of Community and Public Health. ?It protects only the thyroid gland in a person?s throat from only one form of radiation, I-131. People are still susceptible to possible exposure to other forms of radiation.? She said the best protection is evacuation, and that people should take the pills only when emergency officials direct them to. People can request a single 130-milligram pill for each person in a household by submitting a one-page application form that can be obtained from selectmen, the Portsmouth or Keene health and human services district offices, or by logging onto the health department Web site at www.dhhs.state.nh.us. Public health officials cautioned people against using the pills if they have a thyroid condition or they are allergic to iodine or shellfish. The state has a supply of 355,000 tablets, with a shelf life of five years. They also can be bought from some local pharmacies. Vermont implemented its program in April, but had relatively few takers under a federal plan to distribute the protective pills. Massachusetts began distributing its pills late last month. Seabrook zone communities are: Brentwood, East Kingston, Exeter, Greenland, Hampton, Hampton Falls, Kensington, Kingston, Newcastle, Newfields, Newton, North Hampton, Portsmouth, Rye, Seabrook, South Hampton and Stratham. The Vermont Yankee zone includes: Chesterfield, Hinsdale, Richmond, Swanzey and Winchester. HOME Copyright © 2002 Union Leader Corp. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 15 *Cancer deaths query* Weekend Edition Fri-Sun 30th Aug-01st, September, 2002 MANY people may have died as a result of believing they had been properly treated for cancer when they were not. Health Minister Melchior Pep said yesterday he did not have any figures but he believes people died because the machine they were being treated with at the Cancer Unit at Angau hospital in Lae was faulty and leaking radioactive material. Mr Pep told Parliament that the machine was found to be malfunctioning when patients treated with the machine showed no sign of improvement. Mr Pep said the machine was manufactured in Canada in 1963 and was installed during the colonial days. He was responding to a series of questions from Kabwum MP Bob Dadae as to what the Minister and his department was doing about the Cancer Unit at Lae?s Angau hospital. Mr Dadae asked if Mr Pep was aware of the problem and if the Government was taking any action to remedy the problem. The machine, the only one in the country, ?deals with the fifth largest killer in the country??. Mr Pep said since the dismantling of the machine, a specialist hired to operate it had left the country and that a new machine would cost about K2 million. He said he would have the item as one of the priorities in the Government?s next budget. Meanwhile, Mr Pep told Parliament that he would attend a World Health Organisation meeting next month and that he would seek the assistance of donor countries to assist in the purchase of new cancer equipment. Mr Pep also said the country was short of doctors and his department was doing all it can to recruit more. Mr Pep said doctors trained by the Government were going into private practise, leaving the government-run health institutions high and dry. He was responding to claims by Ijivitari MP Cecilking Doruba that his province was taken as a training ground for doctors and nurses and those sent to Oro were unqualified. Mr Doruba said the death toll in the province was high. He attributed the deaths to poor performance by medical workers. Mr Pep said doctors were sent to provincial hospitals on merit after they completing their two-year residencies. Copyright, 2001, Post-Courier Online. Use of this site is governed by our Legal Notice. ***************************************************************** 16 High price of bungles at mine-site fire NEWS.com.au | (August 31, 2002) By VIVIENNE OAKLEY August 31, 2002 A BURNT-out motor on firefighting equipment and a lack of an isolating mound worsened a $20 million fire last year at the Olympic Dam mine, a Metropolitan Fire Service investigation has found. A report into the October fire – a copy of which was obtained by The Advertiser yesterday – says the cause of the blaze could not be conclusively determined. However, the most likely picture was that static electricity caused a spark which ignited crud – a combination of impurities – inside a polyethylene pipe. The investigation discounted arson because of high security at the WMC-owned mine, 540km north of Adelaide. A series of investigations has been carried out since 90 firefighters battled the fire which burned for eight hours in a 200,000-litre kerosene pond next to a uranium and copper extraction area. The fire occurred in an area rebuilt after a nine-hour inferno in December, 1999, which cost $15 million in damage and lost production. WMC chief executive Hugh Morgan said in January the October fire cost the company as much as $170 million in damage and lost production. Three recommendations are made in the new 40-page report by District Officer Brendan Walker of the MFS Fire Cause Investigation Section. Mr Walker's report says when the first fire appliance arrived it could not get through a locked gate and had to drive to another entrance. He also found none of the foam or deluge systems was activated by the fire and it was later discovered the electric motor to the foam pump had burnt out. "This fire was very difficult to combat for a number of reasons," he wrote. "One of the recommendations following the fire of 23/12/99 was to build a bund (an isolating mound) around the holding tank. "There is no question that had this been done it would not only have saved the tank, but minimised damage and aided fire fighting." WMC spokesman Richard Yeeles said the company would comply with the recommendations. He said if the damaged section was simply rebuilt it would cost about $50 million. However, the company was spending up to $200 million to make improvements, he said. Rebuilding should be completed by the end of March. The Advertiser NEWS.COM.AU ***************************************************************** 17 Company fined $15,000 for uranium oxide mistake The News Tribune - Tacoma, WA [Tribnet.com] Linda Ashton; The Associated Press YAKIMA - Framatome ANP Inc. will pay a $15,000 civil penalty imposed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday for violating safety rules designed to prevent uncontrolled nuclear reactions. The NRC levied the fine in response to an April incident at the company's Richland plant, which makes fuel assemblies for commercial nuclear reactors. In that case, an employee poured radioactive uranium oxide powder into a 45-gallon barrel that was missing a safety barrier to prevent a criticality, an uncontrolled nuclear reaction with bursts of potentially fatal radiation. No radiation accident occurred as a result of the mistake, which was reported by the employee. "At this time, we plan to pay the fine and move on to implement our corrective action," said Chris Powers, director of quality assurance for Framatome. "We don't intend to challenge the imposition of the civil penalty." The standard industry practice is to have two or three barriers in place to prevent a criticality from occurring. Barriers can take a variety of forms. Some are chemical, such as the removal of all moisture from the material in use, or the addition of an element that would prevent a nuclear reaction. A barrier can also be physical, such as a wall that would keep materials separate, or a container that keeps them a specified distance apart. The idea is that even if one barrier fails, the others would prevent a criticality. In this case, there was one barrier: The uranium oxide was in a dry, powder form. But a second one, an assembly containing boron, which absorbs neutrons to prevent a criticality, was missing. The NRC has ordered a number of safety changes, or corrective actions, which are being phased in at the 650-worker plant. Framatome will improve training and testing for operators, while working to make instructions and rules simpler and easier to understand, Powers said. (Published 12:30AM, August 31st, 2002) Tacoma News, Inc. 1950 South State Street, Tacoma, Washington 98405 253-597-8742 Fax Machines: Newsroom, 253-597-8274 Advertising, 253-597-8764 Send comments to the Webmaster [webmaster@tribnet.com] at ***************************************************************** 18 Iraq: Gulf War caused malignancies in children Pravda.RU + Statistics released by experts leave no doubts Aug, 30 2002 Under the Geneva Convention, it is illegal to leave harmful materials on a battlefield after the conflict has ceased. The aggression against Iraq during the Gulf War with Depleted Uranium weapons did exactly this, making the deployment illegal under international law. Chapter IX, Article 50 of the Geneva Convention stipulates clearly that “wilful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments, wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, and extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly” are prohibited and violate the Convention. The College of Medicine at Basra University has produced a report which shows quite clearly that DU weaponry has greatly increased the incidence of malignant cancers among children in southern Iraq. Figures comparing 1999 with 1990 show a 100% increase in leukaemia in children under 15 years of age, up from 1997 when the incidence was 60% higher. Not only were civilian areas contaminated, but this contamination has had a lasting and increasingly harmful effect. Overall malignancies in children under 15 during the 1990s was 242% more at the end of the decade compared with before the Gulf War, an incidence of 10.1 per 100,000 compared with 3.98 per 100,000 in 1990 and 7.22 in 1997. The children affected by these malignancies are all from southern Iraq, an area where the US Armed Forces deployed DU weaponry in 1991. Medical experts have concluded that there is strong evidence to link the deployment of this weaponry with the increase in cancers; there is an alarming increase in cases of leukaemia in both male and female patients in southern Iraq during the 1990s and many of these are young children. It is estimated that some 500 tonnes of DU weapons were deployed in southern Iraq by the US Armed Forces during the Gulf War, releasing unacceptable levels of radiation into the atmosphere, and polluting the soil and water. From a sample group of 17 families living in Basra at the time of the Gulf War, prospective analysis shows that 5 families have since been affected by cancers: 24.4% with breast cancer, 15.5% with lymphomas, 10.6% with acute leukaemia and 8.5% with chronic leukaemia. Regarding the soil contamination, readings from the Basra municipal authorities show very high concentrations of Th-234, Pa-234 and Ra-226, Thorium being the first decay product in the Uranium-238 series. These findings show that the population in southern Iraq was exposed to unacceptably high levels of radiation by the US Armed Forces during the Gulf War. The cases of leukaemia and the short latency period are classic symptoms of massive exposure to radiation. War crimes were committed in the Gulf in 1991 and the US Armed Forces were responsible for the murders of thousands of innocent civilians. Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru ***************************************************************** 19 Plan to aid sick nuclear workers may not compensate all ALT="The Enquirer" BORDER="0"> [http://enquirer.com] Saturday, August 31, 2002 By Nancy Zuckerbrod The Associated Press WASHINGTON - Sick nuclear weapons workers say a new federal program aimed at compensating them for on-the-job exposure to toxic substances will leave many without the help they need, and they want Congress to do something about it. Under the program, the Energy Department will reverse a decades-old policy and help people who worked for contractors at government weapons plants file for assistance under the nation's state worker compensation programs. Energy Department plants are located in Ohio, Nevada and Washington. Workers exposed to toxic substances, such as asbestos and harsh chemicals, were not included in a year-old program in which the government agreed to compensate nuclear workers sickened by cancer-causing radiation or silica and beryllium, which cause lung problems. Circumstances at roughly half the nation's nuclear facilities could still make it extremely difficult for the Cold-War-era workers to get help. The Energy Department has no authority to pay the claims outright, because the workers were not technically federal employees. Enquirer.com [http://cincinnati.com] ***************************************************************** 20 Waste returns to Idaho ... Activists want answers before shipments resume* Twin Falls, Idaho* By Jennifer Sandmann Times-News writer TWIN FALLS -- U.S. Department of Energy officials say they have yet to determine how a container of nuclear waste shipped to New Mexico became contaminated and how they will handle it now that it has been returned to Idaho for decontamination. The nuclear watchdog group Snake River Alliance has asked the Energy Department to suspend shipments from Idaho to a permanent repository in New Mexico until the questions are resolved. The federal agency said it won't. "There is no reason to suspend waste shipments to WIPP," Energy Department spokesman Tim Jackson said Friday. The shipment was involved in a collision Sunday, but officials say they can't determine whether the contamination resulted from the collision or another source. No radiation was released into the environment, the Energy Department said. After a nearly 1,400-mile trip from the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory near Idaho Falls, the shipment was just 23 miles from its destination -- the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. A pickup truck driven by a drunken driver struck the trailer carrying the shipping containers, the Energy Department reported. "This shipment did not pose hazards. The great thing is that the shipping container functioned as designed," Jackson said. The Energy Department has made more than 1,500 shipments to WIPP without problems, he said. But the Snake River Alliance wants shipping stopped until more information is available. "We need to know the source of the problem so that it doesn't get repeated," said Gary Richardson, the group's executive director. The Snake River Alliance is urging the Energy Department to fully inform Idahoans about the returned shipment. A WIPP report said that New Mexico state police and the New Mexico Motor Transportation Division found no evidence of radioactive release from the accident into the environment and that the two stainless steel casks containing the waste were not damaged. But once the shipment began to be unpacked at WIPP, standard unpacking safety measures detected contamination within one of the casks. The outer vessels of the container surveyed clean, but an air sample drawn from the innermost vessel by vacuum before the lid was removed confirmed the presence of levels of airborne radioactivity, WIPP reported. The shipment had to be sent back to INEEL for decontamination. There is no way to ascertain at this time whether the contamination resulted from the collision, Jackson said. It is the first collision involving nuclear waste, said Michael Verranault, operations manager for CAST Transportation. CAST has doubled the number of its drivers to meet the shipment demand by the end of the year, he said. The Energy Department is working around the clock seven days a week to prepare the waste for shipment to WIPP to meet a Dec. 31 deadline. The nuclear waste agreement brokered by former Gov. Phil Batt with the Energy Department requires 15,000 drums of Cold War-era lab coats, tools, equipment and other materials contaminated with plutonium to be removed from Idaho by the end of the year. The Energy Department is more than three-quarters of the way done. It would be a milestone to have all of that type of waste shipped by 2018 to WIPP for permanent repository in a room 2,150 feet below the ground, carved out of a 2,000-foot-thick bed of salt 225 million years old. Times-News writer Jennifer Sandmann can be reached at 733-0931, Ext. 237, or jsandmann@magicvalley.com. Copyright © 2002, Magic Valley Newspapers ***************************************************************** 21 The Nuclear Fuel Services facility in Erwin (Staff Photo by John Palmer Gregg) Story published in the Johnson City Press: 8/28/2002. NFS: Objections to project without merit By Chris Garland Erwin Bureau ERWIN ? Nuclear Fuel Services responded Tuesday to petitions filed with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission asking for additional environmental reviews of a proposed project at the plant. Individuals and organizations filed the petitions earlier this month after the NRC posted a public notice announcing licensing requirements for a Tennessee Valley Authority project at NFS. NFS will convert surplus highly enriched uranium into fuel if the project is approved. NFS officials said none of the petitioners have met the requirements to contest the project and the NRC should dismiss the petitions. NFS officials said petitioners must show they are directly affected by the decisions to move forward with the project, and are directly impacted. ?There have been thousands of hours spent on the review of this project,? Marie Moore, NFS vice-president of safety and regulatory, said. ?Numerous reviews by different government agencies responsible for regulation of the nuclear industry and protecting the environment have all come to the same conclusion ? the project does not present a risk to the environment or the public.? The petitioners said the Nolichucky River will be negatively impacted by the project. However, data from the Tennessee Department of Conservation and Environment?s Division of Radiological Health proves the river will not be not adversely effected by NFS, officials said. ?TDEC samples the Nolichucky River upstream and downstream of the plant on a monthly basis,? Tony Treadway, NFS spokesman, said. ?TDEC is a reliable, unbiased source of information. The results of their sampling indicates that NFS operations do not adversely impact the river,? NFS has a permit to discharge liquid effluents from its operations into the Nolichucky. Officials said the permits on radioactivity limits are controlled by the Environmental Protection Agency, TDEC and NRC. All agencies review any possible impact by NFS to the river. ?NFS would have to increase its effluents to the river by about 30,000 times to achieve a hypothetical dose at the nearest drinking water source approaching the permissible federal limit,? Treadway said. ?Municipal water intakes further downstream are not adversely impacted by NFS.? NFS believes the new operations at the plant will not require modifications to its existing effluent permit. /(Contact Chris Garland at cgarland@johnsoncitypress.com )./ © 2001-02 Johnson City Press and Associated Press All Rights ***************************************************************** 22 Chemicals from old nuclear plant are found in two more wells stltoday BY TIM ROWDEN Of the Post-Dispatch 08/30/2002 09:20 PM Two more drinking wells in Jefferson County are contaminated with chemicals from a closed nuclear fuel plant owned by Westinghouse Electric Co. The plant, in Hematite in central Jefferson County, was used to fill military contracts and later manuactured nuclear fuel rod assemblies for commercial power plants. Westinghouse stopped production at the facility last year. Kevin Hayes, director of environmental health and safety for Westinghouse, said Friday the wells were found to contain trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene and their byproducts. The chemicals were used as cleaning agents at the plant in the 1950s and 1960s and have been linked to cancer and other health problems. The discovery brings to eight the number of wells near the plant found to contain nonradiological contaminants. Seven of those wells are in the River's Bends subdivision southeast of the plant. Westinghouse has paid to install filters on the contaminated wells and has been providing bottled water to families in the area. Three families in the subdivision have sued Westinghouse and the previous owners of the plant. The suits seek unspecified damages and name Westinghouse, its parent company, British Nuclear Fuels Ltd., ABB C-E Nuclear Power, Inc., and the plant's founder, Mallinckrodt chemical company, as defendants. "The scary part is they can't make any predictions," said Clariss Eaton, whose family is among those suing. "Who is the next person who is going to be bathing in this water, or breathing it in the steam in their showers?" The discovery also has raised the ire of Jefferson County Presiding Commissioner Sam Rauls, who wants Westinghouse to pay to bring public water to the area. Hayes said the company was considering the possibility but wanted to be sure that its predecessors would share in the cost. He said Westinghouse hoped to have a plan to address the well contamination completed by next spring. Westinghouse will discuss the findings at a public meeting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 5, at the First Christian Church of Hematite on Highway P. *Reporter Tim Rowden: E-mail: trowden@post-dispatch.com Phone: 636-931-1017 * By Steve Connor Science Editor 31 August 2002 A nuclear scandal in Japan has threatened the viability of a £350m plant reprocessing plutonium run by British Nuclear Fuels ? a company still reeling from its own scandal involving falsified data. Japan's biggest nuclear utility, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), admitted that it has found cracks in the pipes of two reactors that were destined to burn mixed oxide (Mox) fuel made at BNFL's Sellafield Mox Plant in Cumbria. Details of the cracks have been kept secret for more than two years. Tepco has shut down the two reactors at Fukushima Daiichi and Kashiwazaki Kariwa and has delayed restarting them until hundreds of pipes are checked. Both reactors were scheduled to be test sites for the burning of new Mox fuel shipped from either BNFL or the Belgian-French reprocessing company, Cogema. Tepco has now delayed the tests indefinitely. The discovery has led to bitter recriminations, with local governments in Japan vowing not to allow Mox fuel to be loaded into any reactors as part of the central government's ambitious plutonium-burning "pluthermal" programme. Yesterday a spokesman for BNFL accepted that the cracks and the way they were covered up by Tepco could damage Britain's attempt to sell Mox fuel to Japan, potentially the biggest customer of the new Sellafield Mox Plant. "We understand that Tepco will be fully investigating this matter and it would not be appropriate for BNFL to comment on the situation. We recognise that this could delay the start of the Japanese pluthermal programme but it is too early to assess any overall effect," the spokesman said. Officials from Tepco found that more than half of the 61 pipes it had inspected in its Fukushima plant's number three reactor showed signs of damage. Corrosion was so severe in six of the stainless steel pipes that they measured less than half their original thickness. Akira Kawate, vice-governor of the Fukushima prefecture, said Tepco and the national government had covered up details of the inspections since at least 2000. "We absolutely cannot co-operate with the national government's nuclear programme," Mr Kawate said. Another senior Japanese official, Ikuo Hirayama, the governor of Niigata prefecture, said the incident and the way that news emerged was nothing short of scandalous. "For the foreseeable future going forward with the pluthermal programme is impossible. It is unthinkable," Mr Hirayama said. Local governments in Japan need to give their permission for Mox fuel to be loaded into reactors within their prefectures. This means that it will be even more difficult for BNFL to secure the Mox contracts it so desperately needs to justify the opening earlier this year of its Sellafield Mox plant. The company said that about 40 per cent of the capacity of the plant had already been secured, but refused to say how much of this was tied up in written contracts rather than verbal assurances. Shaun Bernie, an anti- nuclear campaigner with Greenpeace International, said that the latest developments in Japan would delay any future Mox contracts with Japan by several years. This could critically affect the future viability of the Mox plant, which was only opened on the basis of business with the Japanese nuclear industry. *125 West Summer Street - Greeneville, TN - (423) 798-0545* By: /By BILL JONES/Staff Writer / Source:/ The Greeneville Sun / 08-30-2002 Environmental activist and actress Park Overall says she feels that Nuclear Fuel Services, Inc. (NFS) is not being responsive to the public?s concern of a proposed new project at the Erwin-based plant. Overall, a Greeneville native, responded Wednesday to The Greeneville Sun concerning a press release issued Tuesday by NFS, a company located just up the Nolichucky River from Greeneville that supplies nuclear fuel to the U.S. Navy. The NFS release announced that the company had filed responses with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to petitions filed earlier by Overall and others, which voiced their environmental concerns about a new project being considered there. Overall?s petitions asked the NRC to hold a local hearing about a request from NFS for an amendment of its nuclear materials license, so that a project, in which highly enriched uranium can be ?down-blended? for conversion into fuel for Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) nuclear power reactors, can be implemented. The NFS release stated that the petitioners, including Overall who filed a petition on behalf of herself and several environmental groups, had ?not shown sufficient standing, nor sufficient physical harm,? to warrant additional review of the NFS license amendment request by the NRC. However, Overall wrote in reply, ?If NFS and the NRC are so concerned about our safety, why are they dodging a bona fide Environmental Impact Statement?? ?I would like to alert NFS that we are not new to environmental justice. We are experienced, educated, and concerned individuals who make up respected groups that have funding and experienced legal counsel. ?Such a press release from NFS is impotent and either uninformed or dodging the big questions,? Overall said. ?Let us have an honest and open dialogue.? Overall also said that ?East Tennessee should note that NFS?s attorneys in Washington, D.C., have asked the NRC to deny standing to those with: ? ?cancer; ? ?with children in the school near NFS; ? ?bikers and kayakers; ? ?anyone who takes their water from the Nolichucky (River); ? ?anyone who lives on the river; and ? ?in fact, to everyone who asked for a fair and open hearing. ?They have claimed that absolutely none of us have standing and have asked the NRC to deny us all. We are confident they will not be successful.? Contamination Claimed Overall?s response also claims that an Environmental Assessment of the proposed uranium down-blending project (Project BLEU) prepared by the NRC, ?based on information prepared for them by NFS,? indicates that environmental monitoring stations on the NFS property are inadequate for monitoring the new project. ?Current environmental monitoring stations do not provide adequate coverage of the expanded site area for the BLEU complex,? Overall quotes the Environmental Assessment. ?In addition, the current monitoring program lacks adequate coverage for ground water in the vicinity of the BLEU complex. Further, it states, that elevated localized uranium contamination levels up to 308 pCi/l (picocuries per liter) have been measured near buildings adjacent to Building 333.? The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency limit is 80 picocuries per liter, according to Overall?s response. ?Due to the predominant ground water flow, any breach of containment from Building 333 would add to the ground water contamination in the area,? Overall?s response states. Her response also alleges that the NRC?s Environmental Assessment goes on to say (that ) under the proposed action, both uranium and thorium air emissions are expected to increase by a factor of 4 to 5 times current levels ... . Overall said, ?Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this whole NFS expansion is a July 11 letter (from to NFS, which states that during an on-site review of the, proposed uranyl nitrate storage building at the BLEU complex that, NRC identified a number of omissions and technical deficiencies in the integrated safety assessment summary. ?We would like to advise the NRC that we are looking forward to NFS? revised ?dose assessment methods,? for the general public since NFS will have to comply with a more stringent public dose constraint. We hope they will be as particular with upgrading their safety assessments.? Overall?s response also questioned the level of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation?s involvement in the evaluating the impact of the NFS uranium down-blending project. Nuclear Fuels? Position In its Aug. 27 press release, NFS said that the NRC had ruled earlier this year that operation tied to a new project to convert highly enriched uranium into fuel for TVA commercial nuclear reactors ?posed no significant impact to to the public or the environment.? The NFS release said that a review process had been begun in 1996 with public hearings and the completion of an Environmental Impact Statement by the U.S. Department of Energy. The environmental study, according to the release, had included the NFS plant in Erwin. ?TVA performed a second evaluation of the project in 2001,? the NFS release stated. ?There have been thousands of hours spent on the review of this project,? the NFS release quoted Marie Moore, the company?s safety and regulatory vice president, as saying. ?Numerous reviews by different government agencies responsible for the regulation of the nuclear industry and protecting the environment have all come to the same conclusion ? the project does not present a risk to the environment or the pubic,? Moore said. The NFS release argued that under NRC rules, petitioners, such as Overall, had to show that they were ?directly affected by the decision to move forward with the project and that they will be directly impacted.? None of the petitions who have asked the NRC to hold a hearing on the project have met those requirements, according to the NFS. NFS also maintains that Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) data ?proves that the (Nolichucky) River is not adversely impacted by NFS.? Comments about our site © 2002 East Tennessee Network - R.A.I.D. (Regionalized Access Internet Database). All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 27 Objections filed on NFS project Story published in the Johnson City Press: 8/13/2002. By Chris Garland Erwin Bureau ERWIN ? Objections to Nuclear Fuel Services Inc.?s amendment requests of its nuclear licenses for a Tennessee Valley Authority project have been filed recently with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Attorney Todd Chapman, with the Greeneville law firm, King, King & Chapman, filed (15) declarations Thursday from concerned citizens of Northeast Tennessee. A second known filing has surfaced from actress Park Overall, who is a Greeneville native and owns 15 acres of farm property in Greene County along the Nolichucky River. According to NRC Public Relations in Washington, D.C., several documents have been filed. However, the number of documents and the intentions expressed are being reviewed before any further action is taken. The filings are in response to a notice of opportunity for hearing on the license amendment for the NFS project. NFS Vice President of Safety and Regularity Marie Moore said, ?The determination by the NRC that project posed no significant impact, was a decision based on years of research and a thorough review by federal and state regulatory agencies. This was a decision that has involved multiple reviews by federal and state agencies for the past six years. ?The petitions are an effort by environmentalist groups to derail a project that is at the very essence of environmental protection. It is surprising that organizations that claim to have peace and environmental preservation as their mission are attempting to intervene in a project that will eliminate an environmental liability and turn it into clan, useful electrical power,? Moore said. The project, nicknamed project (BLEU), for Blended Low Enriched Uranium, would reduce stockpiles of defense-related highly enriched uranium into low enriched uranium for the Tennessee Valley Authority. NFS officials say rather than disposing of the HEU, the project would convert the material into LEU to power TVA commercial nuclear reactors to generate electricity. NFS said the U.S. Department of Energy performed an extensive Environmental Impact Statement for the TVA project in 1997. Public hearings on the project were held in 1996. Since that time, the EIS has been reviewed by the TVA, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. Moore said, ?I consider everyone on my staff as environmentalists. NFS has aggressively addressed environmental issues with positive result that reduce or eliminate the company?s impact of the environment.? The NRC said currently there is no way to determine how long processing the request will take. An Atomic Safety Licensing review will come first, and a decision will then be made on any intervention. The NRC also said NFS was filing a notice of intent and has not formally filed a license application for the proposed licensing changes. A copy of the filed declaration being handled by attorney Chapman lists the following people as participants in separate ?declarations". They are Julia Beach, Greeneville; Tamara Davis Chapman, Greeneville; David Byrd, Erwin; William Cooper, Erwin; Brandon Davis, Washington County; Julia B. Evans, Greeneville; Denne E. Evans, Greeneville; Toni L. Foreman, Greene County; Linnea Gilmer, Johnson City; JoAnna Hammonds, Gray; Whitney Johnson, Gray; Gerald M. O?Connor Jr., Kingsport; James Smith, Unicoi; Drew Walsh, Johnson City, and Peter H. Zars, Erwin. /(Contact Chris Garland at cgarland@johnsoncitypress.com )./ © 2001-02 Johnson City Press and Associated Press All Rights Johnson City Press 204 W.Main St. ? Johnson City, Tennessee 37605 ***************************************************************** 28 AU: Fallout deaths Herald Sun: [31aug02] RADIOACTIVE fallout from the British nuclear tests in the 1950s might be linked to an alarming rise in infant deaths in some Victorian towns. Approaching the 50th anniversary of the first nuclear explosion on October 3, 1952, at the Monte Bello Islands off the West Australian coast, research reveals several towns in Victoria, NSW and Queensland recorded higher-than-usual infant death rates in the late 1950s. Each of the 12 tests conducted in and around Australia from 1952-57 generated a nuclear cloud. In some areas, the nuclear plume met rain clouds, forming a potentially lethal solution. According to official radioactivity monitoring stations at the time, Sale, Echuca, Hamilton, Mildura, Nhill, Swan Hill and Warrnambool were exposed to some radiation - especially after the final bomb at Maralinga in October 1957. Australian and British authorities maintained at the time the exposure was minimal and there was no threat. But in the past 50 years, evidence has emerged there is no safe level of radiation exposure. A survey of infant mortality rates in the Victorian towns reveals a circumstantial link between the nuclear rain and a rise in deaths. Sixteen children aged up to two died in Mildura in 1958. In 1959, the number was 20, before dropping to 13 the next year. Warrnambool had a similar pattern. The number of infant deaths in 1958 was 27. It increased to 34 in 1959, then dropped to 16 in 1960. Mt Isa in Queensland and Tamworth and Armidale in New South Wales mirror the Victorian results. The initial alarm about fallout was raised by Australian scientist Hedley Marston in 1957. Mr Marston found a radioactive cloud from the third nuclear test passed over Adelaide and left debris in the city's northern suburbs. His research on sheep and cattle, which had eaten fallout-tainted pasture, indicated the presence of a lethal nuclear by-product, strontium 90. © Herald and Weekly Times ***************************************************************** 29 Chance of N-disaster increases in region [http://www.paknews.com [editor@frontierpost.com.pk] ©The Frontier Publications (Pvt) Pakistan. Indian Army Chief gets hold of nuclear button Updated on 8/31/2002 6:26:46 PM ISLAMABAD (NNI): The Indian Army Chief has assumed the authority to move and deploy nuclear missiles.According to informed sources, this decision has reduced the rungs on the nuclear escalation ladder. The sources further revealed that the chance of nuclear holocaust further increases with no declared Indian nuclear policy, especially when the current deployment of Indian missiles brings up the possibility of early use of nuclear capable missiles even if in conventional role. It may be recalled that India and Pakistan have generally remained hostile in the past with the history of three wars. Fundamental cause of conflict has been the Kashmir issue, which unfortunately still remains unresolved. World is now witnessing another dimension of this conflict in shape of the present stand off between India and Pakistan, which is potentially very dangerous to escalate to an all out war. Thanks to international community and restraint exercised by Pakistan that did not allow this sparking situation to ignite. After September 11 incident, Pakistan joined the coalition for fight against terrorism. India considered this change in geo-strategic environment as an opportunity to pursue her agenda of Kashmir, portraying Kashmir Freedom Movement as part of terrorism. India created a war phobia by building up her offensive formations to force Pakistan to stop its alleged support for Kashmir. The positive aspect in the current episode of Indo-Pakistan conflict is the role of international community, particularly the USA. Pursuing both countries for peaceful resolution of Kashmir issue and a need for negotiations instead of military solution is appreciable because military conflict in our region now has the potential to escalate to a horrendous nuclear exchange. Pakistan though ready for peaceful negotiations and de-escalation (if India does so) is keeping its safe guards. India on the contrary, instead of showing any positive response to such efforts has made the already existing tense situation more dangerous by not only deploying nuclear capable missiles but also authorising the India Army Chief the movement and use of these weapons. This has certainly reduced the rungs on the nuclear escalation ladder and takes the countries closer to nuclear exchange. The chance of nuclear holocaust further increases with no declared Indian nuclear policy especially when the current deployment of Indian missiles brings up the possibility of early use of nuclear capable missiles even if in conventional role. This certainly seems strange for Pakistan as it looks forward to some de-escalatory measures for the political process to commence at all levels. Such steps by India have only increased the chances of a nuclear conflagration in the region especially taking into account the recent desperate attacks by Indian military against Pakistani posts in Kashmir in the recent past. The responsibility for a nuclear conflict thus, will have to be borne by the Indian government if this most unfortunate event of history occurs, especially when Pakistan has not deployed any missiles. It is only fair for the international community to compel India to remove their missiles to their silos and not risk the lives of millions in the subcontinent, the sources concluded. Views Expressed and published here are not a property of The FrontierPost; © Copyright 2001 The Frontier Post ***************************************************************** 30 Another emergency on board a Russian nuclear submarine Pravda.RU A technical malfunction was not categorized as a breakdown As it became known, a nuclear submarine of 667BDRM project changed its course and was going back to the base. This happened during the tests after the capital repairs at the Severodvinsk docking enterprise Zvyozdochka"> Aug, 30 2002 As it became known, a nuclear submarine of 667BDRM project changed its course and was going back to the base. This happened during the tests after the capital repairs at the Severodvinsk docking enterprise Zvyozdochka. Officials of the headquarters of the Russian Navy said that there was nothing frightening about the incident. Navy men categorized the event as an “emergency incident,” not as a “breakdown.” As it was reported, there was a rupture in one of the spring-loaded valve of the high-pressured air system. The compressed air is meant for conditioning the tanks of the driving ballast. The pressure of this air is 400 kilos on a square centimeter. This is a little less than the pressure in a barrel of a gun during a moment of shooting. These incidents are presumably registered as technical malfunctions. However, the rupture of the valve injured one of the specialists of the docking enterprise Artika. Most likely, the man was there repairing electric network or appliances. So, there was nothing but a little incident on board the nuclear submarine. According to statistics, technical malfunctions and other incidents take place on board US submarines more often in comparison with Russian ones. Specialists believe that it can be explained with projection and construction peculiarities of Soviet and Russian submarines. Alexander Agafonov PRAVDA.Ru Translated by Dmitry Sudakov ***************************************************************** 31 Kursk Guest editorial: Torpedoed by incompetence [Perspective | Naples Daily News] Saturday, August 31, 2002 Scripps Howard News Service When its nuclear sub Kursk exploded and sank, the Russian navy was quick with an explanation: It was our fault. The Kursk must have collided with a U.S. spy sub. Now, two years later, the government's official report is out on the disaster that killed 118, and its findings are what Western analysts quickly concluded: the detonation of a defective torpedo. When its nuclear sub Kursk exploded and sank, the Russian navy was quick with an explanation: It was our fault. The Kursk must have collided with a U.S. spy sub. Now, two years later, the government's official report is out on the disaster that killed 118, and its findings are what Western analysts quickly concluded: the detonation of a defective torpedo. Given Moscow's long tradition of covering up mishaps, this report is remarkably unflinching and, one hopes, foretells greater candor from the Russian government. The torpedo leaked explosive propellant because of faulty, leaking seals. Even though the problem was known, no regular maintenance was done on the torpedo, and it contained outdated parts, some of them six years beyond their service life. The crew had not been trained in the use of the torpedo, and the officers who authorized the training exercise had no authority to do so. The fleet commander, on a nearby cruiser, ignored acoustic evidence of an underwater explosion and it was nine hours before it was realized the Kursk was missing. It took another 31 hours to locate the sub, in part because the crew failed to correctly launch an emergency locator buoy, which might not have worked anyway because the buoy was defective. The navy turned down international offers of assistance and insisted on attempting the rescue and recovery itself. The crews of the submersibles turned out to be untrained in rescue and lacked the proper gear to conduct the operations. After a week, Norwegian divers were called in; they found that 23 members of the Kursk crew may have survived in the sunken sub as long as three days. It remains to be seen what reforms these findings lead to, but in retrospect they make one thing perfectly clear: If we had been the Russian navy, we would have blamed the United States too. [http://www.naplesnews.com/ Copyright © 2002 Naples Daily News. All rights reserved. Published in Naples, Florida. A Scripps [http://www.scripps.com] newspaper. ***************************************************************** 32 How dangerous is Iraq's arsenal? | csmonitor.com for 08/30/2002 The White House this week urged a preemptive attack on Iraq, but experts differ on the threat Baghdad poses. By Scott Peterson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor MOSCOW – The smashed Iraqi laboratory may once have produced a million veterinary vaccines a year, as Saddam Hussein's regime claimed. But in 1998 this site outside Baghdad was ground zero in United Nations efforts to erase Iraq's biological weapons program. Armed with the most intrusive arms-control mandate in history, the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) destroyed whatever it could find of Iraq's chemical, biological, nuclear, and long-range missile programs. By some estimates, the seven-year mission disarmed the regime by up to 95 percent. But what is left? What weapons has Iraq been able to reassemble since UNSCOM departed in late 1998? Those uncertainties lie at the heart of the current debate over possible US military action against Iraq. The key question is this: Could renewed, unfettered weapons inspections contain Iraq and avert war, as many weapons experts say? Or, as the White House argues, is military action the only course that remains? In the Bush administration's most forceful statement on Iraq yet, Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday argued for a pre-emptive US strike, saying that Baghdad was "very busy enhancing" its capabilities for weapons of mass destruction; that Iraq will acquire nuclear weapons "fairly soon;" and that a return of weapons inspectors "would provide no assurance whatsoever." "The risks of inaction," Mr. Cheney said, "are far greater than the risk of action." But many analysts – including some ranking congressmen who receive classified intelligence briefings – say they have seen no new evidence to confirm those claims. And even key former UNSCOM officials disagree on what danger Iraq may pose today. In a search for answers, officials are drawing on the lessons of UNSCOM. In 1991, Iraq declared only a fraction of missile and chemical capabilities, denied any significant nuclear capability – and denied the existence of its entire biological program, which 1998 US figures show created 22,457 gallons of anthrax and 100,393 gallons of botulinum toxin alone. UNSCOM records show that by 1998 it had accounted for or destroyed 817 of 819 Scud missiles, but could not trace seven Iraqi-made missiles that had been listed as operational at the end of the Gulf War. Nearly 39,000 chemical munitions and more than 3,000 tons of agents and precursors were destroyed. But never found were 500 mustard-gas shells, 25 "special warheads," 150 aerial bombs, and several hundred tons of chemicals for the nerve agent VX. Expert committees in 1998 found Iraq's so-called "final" disclosures to be "flawed." While such leftovers are a "marginal" amount of material, says Rolf Ekeus, the Swedish former director of UNSCOM, "there is considerable risk they can produce chemical weapons. "I have very serious concerns about missiles," says Mr. Ekeus, now head of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. "We don't know how much they smuggled in there. My theory is that they have built production lines." Just hours before a three-day American bombing assault in late 1998, the UN withdrew its inspectors. Mr. Hussein has never allowed them to return. Getting weapons inspectors back into Iraq, says Ekeus, is the only effective solution – a view echoed by Scott Ritter, a former US marine who worked for UNSCOM from 1991 to 1998, leading the team that unraveled Iraqi concealment efforts. Iraq was 90 to 95 percent disarmed in 1998, Mr. Ritter says, and little has changed since then. "Where is the evidence? All we hear from the administration is that, because Saddam gassed the Kurds in 1988, he has weapons of mass destruction," Ritter says. "But we destroyed those chemical factories, and we destroyed the biological facilities. Even if he hid some warheads, they would have degenerated by now." Ritter estimates that by 1998, Iraq could have reconstituted small mustard-chemical agents in eight weeks to two months. It could also produce "small-scale" Sarin nerve agent within four months and have lab-scale VX nerve agent in six to eight months – all undetectable at that scale. On the biological side, weaponizing to kill many people was out of reach. "What Iraq had in 1991 wasn't a [biological] weapon, it was a large chunk of metal with some sludge in it," Ritter says. "The only way it was going to kill you was if it landed on your head." Iraq is capable of breaking out of the 93-mile missile range – the limit imposed by the Gulf War cease-fire agreement – but would not be able to test without detection. As for nuclear capabilities, Ritter says: "Forget it. That was where Iraq was most thoroughly disarmed." Some former UNSCOM officials are alarmed, however. Terry Taylor, a British senior UNSCOM inspector from 1993 to 1997, says the figure of 95 percent disarmament is "complete nonsense because inspectors never learned what 100 percent was. UNSCOM found a great deal and destroyed a great deal, but we knew [Iraq's] work was continuing while we were there, and I'm sure it continues," says Mr. Taylor, now head of the Washington office of the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies. In 1995, Iraq was caught importing missile parts via Jordan, for example, and hiding them on the bottom of the Tigris River. Though the nuclear file is usually the first to be dismissed as virtually "closed," Taylor says dismantlement efforts were incomplete. Iraq was working to master simultaneous timing of explosions, "and even at its most intrusive, UNSCOM could never have found that." The nuclear program was Iraq's "most prized, and given the nature of the regime, I don't think they have given up on that objective ... I think they could have nuclear weapons very, very quickly, if they got hold of fissile material – it could be a matter of a few months." The Iraqis "are the greatest [people] in the world at hiding these things from inspectors," he adds. "My view is, we don't need any more evidence [before taking action]." But Toby Dodge, an Iraq specialist at the Royal Institute for Strategic Studies in London, says little solid evidence has emerged that Iraq had been on any recent "shopping spree" such as the one that took place in the 1980s, when the US and UK helped arm Iraq against Ayatollah Khomeini's Iran. Underlining the dearth of current evidence on Iraq, a dossier of alleged Iraqi violations, collated by British Prime Minister Tony Blair's office last spring, has not been made public. Sources familiar with its charges, Mr. Dodge says, indicate that it was "not convincing at the time" and was based largely on unreliable accounts from defectors. Iraq's main procurement network, Dodge adds, has also been "rolled up." "Nobody has shown a red flag to us yet," says Amin Tarzi, an Iraq specialist at the Center for Non-Proliferation Studies in Monterey, Calif., which runs a project to chart all public information about Iraq's illicit programs. "The scariest thing about Iraq is that they have the know-how. But the point is: We don't know what is happening." New weapons inspection teams to replace UNSCOM, led by former UN atomic energy agency chief Hans Blix, have yet to set foot in Iraq. Ensuring that those inspectors are effective would "require that the US put all its effort into it, and line up Russia, France, and China" on the UN Security Council, Ekeus says. "Saddam Hussein is married to these weapons, which will make him a major player of regional and even global significance," Ekeus says. "Without them, he is, at most, a local thug." Copyright © 2002 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 33 AU: Cloud over atom bomb blast plans The West Australian + August 31, 2002 By Yonnene Pearce ALMOST 50 years on, long-time Onslow residents Dawn McAullay and Margie Sweeting remember the first atomic cloud rising off the North-West coast. But residents of the town, which has survived three atomic tests and countless cyclones, are disappointed that a lack of financial support has hampered their plans to commemorate the historic nuclear event. WA's Montebello Islands, 80km off Onslow, gained international notoriety at 8am on Friday, October 3, 1952, when Britain carried out its first nuclear test. The British carried out two further atomic tests in 1956. These days Mrs McAullay and Mrs Sweeting are among only a handful of locals who remember the day the town was shaken into the nuclear age. As 14-year-olds they felt the blast rattle their homes and were among the throngs to make for the beach for a better view. "Everyone ran to the beach. We were looking for the plume. It didn't seem much at first but then it grew," Mrs McAullay said. Reports at the time said the cloud rose 3000m within three minutes to be 1.6km wide. Mrs McAullay said she did not remember anyone being concerned at the time but that a hoax announcement that the wind direction had changed and the radioactive residue was heading towards the town sent some packing. "We've seen all the bombs and all the cyclones, and the cyclones are worse," Mrs McAullay said. Onslow locals have struggled since November to organise activities to mark the event, including a Montebello tour, a wreath-laying service and the unveiling of a plaque. The local council has budgeted $5000, but no other funding has been offered. Official invitations, including to the Prime Minister, have been declined or, in the case of the British Consul, left unanswered. After the tests the Commonwealth Government controlled public access to the island group until 1992. © 2002 West Australian Newspapers Limited ***************************************************************** 34 Duratek Announces Department of Energy Contract Award for Depleted Uranium Disposition* www.duratekinc.com August 30, 2002 COLUMBIA, Md., Aug 30, 2002 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Duratek, Inc. (NASDAQ:DRTK) today announced that it along with its joint venture partners was awarded a $558 million contract by the Department of Energy (DOE) for two conversion facilities for depleted uranium disposition. Duratek formed a joint venture with Framatome ANP and Burns and Roe for this contract. Duratek's share of the joint venture profit will be approximately 26%. This contract is a cost plus contract with duration from August 29, 2002 to August 2010. The scope of this contract is to design, build, and operate facilities in Paducah Kentucky and Portsmouth, Ohio to convert the government inventory of depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) for disposal. The team will also be responsible for maintaining the depleted uranium and product inventories and transporting depleted uranium from the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP) at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. As a Partner of the joint venture, Duratek will provide executive management of the joint venture, nuclear facility management and waste management. Framatome ANP will provide the conversion technology and Burns and Roe will provide architect-engineering services. Robert E. Prince, President and CEO said, "Duratek is pleased to have been selected to manage the design, construction, and future operations of these important nuclear facilities. Being chosen among a competitive field of bidders, we believe recognizes the depth of the capabilities and experience Duratek has built for managing large projects and operating nuclear facilities for the DOE. This is a key long-term project and we are very committed to making it a success." Duratek provides services and offers technologies for safely managing nuclear facility operations, radioactive material, and radiological protection. Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 21E(i)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company's actual results to be materially different from any future results expressed or implied by these statements. Such factors include the following: the Company's ability to manage its commercial waste processing operations, including obtaining commercial waste processing contracts and processing waste under such contracts in a timely and cost-effective manner; the Company's ability to implement new waste processing strategies in a timely and cost-effective manner; the Company's ability to control its commercial waste processing operating costs; the timing and award of contracts by the U.S. Department of Energy for the cleanup of waste sites administered by it; the Company's ability to integrate acquired companies; and the acceptance and implementation of the Company's waste treatment technologies in the government and commercial sectors. All forward-looking statements are also expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements included in the Company's SEC filings, including its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and its annual report on Form 10-K. /©The Pawtucket Times 2002/ ***************************************************************** 35 Tentative deadlines set for shutdown of FFTF This story was published Fri, Aug 30, 2002 By John Stang Herald staff writer The proposed legal deadline to start draining liquid sodium from Hanford's Fast Flux Test Facility is June 2003. And Hanford officials have tentatively set June 2005 to finish draining the reactor of its coolant. Those are two of the tentative Tri-Party Agreement deadlines offered for public comment through Oct. 14. The Department of Energy, the Washington Department of Ecology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently finished negotiating a timetable to shut down the experimental reactor. The talks had been on hold for several years while DOE decided whether to resurrect the FFTF. Last December, DOE ordered the reactor shutdown. Although the Tri-Party Agreement negotiations are complete, the state and federal agencies won't sign the final agreement until the public comment period is over and any changes made. The FFTF holds 260,000 gallons of super-hot liquid sodium used to cool the reactor. The sodium is mostly found in the core and in two systems pipes. Once the systems are drained it's believed the reactor can no longer be restarted because piping would be damaged. The tentative agreement calls for the sodium draining to begin by June 2003 on a one heat transfer system. Removal of sodium from the core and both heat transfer systems is supposed to be done by June 2005. The tentative agreement sets a March 2009 deadline to finish removing 352 irradiated and 24 never-irradiated nuclear fuel assemblies, washing liquid sodium off of them and storing them until final disposition is determined. The tentative agreement calls for "complete shutdown" by February 2011. But information was unavailable Thursday on what "complete shutdown" means. Fluor Hanford is in charge of shutting down the reactor. In late July, an independent panel recommended Fluor speed up the shutdown -- including demolishing the buildings and tearing apart or entombing the reactor by 2011. Fluor is scheduled to submit its shutdown plan to DOE by Sept. 30. One major loose end is the budget. Prior to unveiling the new proposed schedule, DOE planned to allocate $36.1 million to FFTF in 2003 and then $46.1 million annually for the next few years. If Fluor and DOE adopt the panel's recommendations the annual cost through 2011 would be $74.4 million. People wanting to comment on the proposed deadlines can contact: n Al Farabee at DOE's Richland office, P.O. Box 550 (N2-36), Richland, 99352. His phone is 376-8089. His e-mail address is Oliver_A_Al_Farabee@rl.gov. n Laura Cusack at the state ecology department's nuclear waste program, at 1315 W. Fourth Ave., Kennewick, 99336. Her phone is 736-3038. Her e-mail address is lcus461@ecy.wa.gov. Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 36 Lawmakers welcome contract for uranium conversion plants in Ohio, Kentucky - 8/31/2002 - ENN.com Saturday, August 31, 2002 By Malia Rulon, Associated Press WASHINGTON — The Energy Department awarded a $558 million contract Thursday to build a pair of plants that will convert vast amounts of uranium waste into a safer form, ending years of speculation over whether it would build one or two facilities. "This has been a tough battle, but today we can finally say that we're on our way to cleaning up the hazardous waste," said Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Uranium Disposition Services, a consortium of energy companies based in Oak Ridge, Tenn., will build the plants in Ohio and Kentucky and operate them for five years, the Energy Department announced. Five companies had bid for the contract, which runs until 2010. McConnell and others had argued that legislation passed in 1998 required the government to build two facilities — one at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion plant in Piketon, Ohio, and one at its sister plant in Paducah, Ky. The Bush administration maintained the language wasn't mandatory and that it was inclined to build one facility to save money. An antiterrorism spending bill passed by Congress last month again required the government to build two facilities. "It's unfortunate that it literally took a second act of Congress to get it done, but I'm happy that it's finally happening," said Democratic Rep. Ted Strickland, whose southern Ohio district includes the Ohio plant. Hundreds of workers at the Piketon plant lost their jobs last year when USEC Inc. stopped uranium enrichment operations there, scaling back to just one enrichment facility in Paducah. The new legislation required the Energy Department to award a contract for the project one month after the president signed the spending bill. It also required construction of the facilities to begin by July 31, 2004. About 60,000 cylinders of depleted uranium are stored at Energy Department facilities in Paducah, Piketon, and Oak Ridge. The conversion plants will convert it into a more stable form for either long-term storage, use or disposal. The hazardous waste is a byproduct of the uranium enrichment process that the government used to manufacture nuclear weapons. Only the Paducah facility now enriches uranium and it does so for commercial purposes. Lawmakers say they do not have a firm figure on how much it would cost to build the two facilities but one estimate shows it could cost $400 million. The plants are expected to operate for up to 25 years. Uranium Disposition Services is made up of Framatome ANP, Inc., Duratek Federal Services, Inc., and Burns and Roe Enterprises, Inc. Copyright 2002, Associated Press Copyright © 2001 Environmental News Network Inc. ***************************************************************** 37 Justice asks 'last' delay in decision to join suit - The Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky Saturday, August 31, 2002 The Paducah whistle-blower suit on Lockheed Martin has been delayed by 11 such extensions so far. By Bill Bartleman bbartleman@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650 The U.S. Department of Justice is asking for what appears to be the final extension for deciding whether it will join a whistle-blower suit that claims Lockheed Martin Co. filed false environmental reports when it managed the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. The motion filed late Friday in Louisville is the 12th such request by the U.S. attorney's office since the suit was filed in June 1999 by three plant employees and an environmental watchdog group, the Natural Resources Defense Council. Under an extension approved in July by U.S. District Judge Joseph McKinley Jr., the government was to have made its decision by Sunday. The latest extension would expire Nov. 1. The suit claims that false statements made by Lockheed involved illegal storage and disposal of radioactive waste, unlawful exposure of workers to lethal contaminants, and contamination of groundwater and soil with plutonium, neptunium and other radioactive materials. The suit seeks refunds of hundreds of millions of dollars. Revelations made in the suit gained nationwide attention and prompted then-DOE Secretary Bill Richardson to visit Paducah and admit that some management practices at the plant resulted in workers’ being exposed to hazardous materials and widespread pollution. Lockheed, which operated the Paducah site for the Department of Energy from 1982 to 1992, has strongly denied the allegations. In Friday's motion asking for the extension, Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Campbell said representatives of the government "are continuing to have internal discussions" about the allegations that have been investigated by the government. Earlier reports indicate that Campbell has recommended the government join the suit, but a final decision by his superiors in Washington has been delayed for more than a year because of opposition by DOE. Campbell said more meetings are scheduled with those who filed the suit and with Lockheed. "The government at the present time believes that following the further round of discussions, the government will be in a position to make its final decision on whether to intervene in the matter or not." He added that the decision will be made on or before Nov. 1. Joe Egan, the Washington, D.C., attorney who filed the suit, was not available for comment Friday. However, Campbell said those who filed the suit do not oppose the extension. Campbell said in an earlier interview that talks with Lockheed were aimed at reaching an out-of-court settlement. Lockheed, however, has denied that it has been involved in settlement negotiations. The Justice Department has spent more than $1 million and reviewed thousands of pages of documents to investigate the claims. If the federal government joins as a plaintiff, it would be significant because with it comes almost unlimited resources to investigate and prosecute the suit. However, Egan has said the suit will continue even without participation by the federal government. ***************************************************************** 38 WTO allows EU to impose $4 billion in sanctions against U.S. - 08/31/02 detnews.com] The Detroit News. By Naomi Koppel / Associated Press GENEVA -- The World Trade Organization said Friday that the European Union can impose $4 billion in sanctions against the United States -- a figure 20 times bigger than any sanction allowed in the past -- because of tax breaks given to U.S. corporations operating abroad. Delighted by the verdict, the EU vowed to go ahead with plans to impose the sanctions by working on lists of targeted products, including everything from textiles, foodstuffs and automotive parts to nuclear reactors, unless Washington ends the tax policy. "The cost of noncompliance with WTO is crystal clear," said EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy in a statement. "The path is now clear for the EU to adopt sanctions if the United States does not repeal the ... scheme expeditiously." The Bush administration said it was disappointed in the decision, which it said would be irrelevant once it and Congress work out a new tax policy. President Bush has said that "the Executive Branch will work with Congress to fully comply with our WTO obligations," said U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick. "I believe that today's findings will ultimately be rendered moot by U.S. compliance with the WTO's recommendations and rulings in this dispute." Aside from the rhetoric, however, the amount was so huge -- and the stakes for U.S.-European trade relations so high -- that there seemed little chance of Brussels actually implementing its threat. Instead, experts said that the EU would likely use the figure as a yard stick in bargaining to force Washington to amend its law quickly. Kimberly Pinter, director of corporate finance and tax for the Washington-based National Association of Manufacturers, said the EU may have been given too much to use. "They're like the little dog that caught the bus," she said. "They've gotten something larger than they can use." As for any change to the U.S. law, a repeal would happen if an "adequate replacement" was on hand, she said. The "foreign sales corporations" system lets companies with a foreign presence, such as Boeing Co. and Microsoft Corp., to exempt between 15 percent and 30 percent of their export income from U.S. taxes. By doing that, the price of their goods are lowered and more competitive than foreign rivals. Last year, the WTO ruled that it constituted an illegal subsidy. The tax break, coupled with a second benefit not challenged by the EU, is expected to save U.S. companies an estimated $4.8 billion this year. A WTO arbitrator ruled that the European Union was entitled to impose as much as $4 billion a year in trade sanctions to make up for European business lost because of the U.S. law. Washington had claimed the figure should be less than $1 billion. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said he was disappointed, but confident that the sanctions would never be put in place because Congress is considering legislation that would change its tax regime while at the same time improving the competitiveness of U.S. companies in overseas markets. "One of the ironies of this case is that when the dust has settled, we hope to find that the competitiveness of U.S. firms has been strengthened, rather than diminished," Zoellick said. WTO Director-General Mike Moore -- who leaves office this week after three years -- issued a statement calling on both sides to try to resolve the dispute "in an amicable and constructive fashion." "The European Union and the United States are among the most important members of this organization and both hold a special responsibility to ensure the continued health and soundness of the WTO and global trading system," Moore said. Lamy said the EU would start consultations with member nations and industry groups on which products should be hit with the sanctions -- which come in the form of import tariff hikes that effectively price the U.S. products out of the European market. The ruling had been postponed several times since April, officially because of problems with the translation of documents and the complexity of determining an exact figure for fines. But both sides have been happy with the delays, not wanting to inflame trans-Atlantic trade tensions. The United States and EU also have been trying to defuse a battle over steel tariffs. In the past, the United States has imposed WTO-approved trade sanctions on the European Union, including in disputes over banana imports and hormone-treated beef, but the sums of money involved were much smaller. On the Net:    http://www.wto.com [http://www.wto.com]    http://www.nam.org/ [http://www.nam.org/] ***************************************************************** 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. 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