Subject: NucNews 99/11/29 Briefs Please address replies to articles to the original publisher. Please send NucNews copies? Refuting false information appreciated! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [The full text can be found at http://prop1.org/nucnews/9911nn/991129nn.htm} * Tony Auth cartoon Happy New Year Chernobyl * Chernobyl plant to reach 100% of output * Chernobyl Plant To Reach Full Output * Mir Space Station Is Y2K Compliant * Greenpeace: Bhopal site still contaminated * Sweden Told To Shut Down Nuke Plant * Puerto Rico Nuke Museum Said Safe * Pakistan Not Ready for Y2K Bug * China deploys new missiles * U.S.: North Korea Fearful of West * Back Channels: The Intelligence Community Congress Restricts Support for Diplomats * Trump Talks Bluntly on Foreign Policy * Hanford burial sites scrutinized * Huge robot to cut up Rocky Flats gloveboxes * N.M. Nuke Waste Shipments Suspended * Cloak Over the CIA Budget * Special Report High-flying troubles for F-16s * Limited missions cited as reason other nations fare better * Israeli Warplanes Attack S. Lebanon * Trade meeting begins after security delay * Disruptive Trade Pact Temblors ----------- Tony Auth cartoon Happy New Year Chernobyl http://www2.uclick.com/feature/1999/11/28/ta.gif http://www2.uclick.com/client/nyt/ta/ http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/editorial/ --- Chernobyl plant to reach 100% of output USA Today 11/29/99 http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm#yeltsin KIEV Ukraine - Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power plant was set to reach its full operating output Monday three days after authorities restarted it.... Chernobyl officials insist the reactor is safe. But Western governments and environmental groups have urged the former Soviet republic to shut down the plant completely since reactor No. 4 exploded in 1986 sending a radioactive cloud over much of Europe. That reactor is now covered by a steel-and-concrete sarcophagus which itself is undergoing repairs. Chernobyl Plant To Reach Full Output New York Times November 29 1999 Associated Press http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Ukraine-Chernobyl.html Mir Space Station Is Y2K Compliant New York Times November 29 1999 Filed at 4:48 p.m. EDT By The Associated Press http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Russia-Mir-Y2K.html MOSCOW (AP) -- A Russian space official said that the 13-year-old Mir orbital station would not suffer any computer failures from the Y2K bug ITAR-Tass news agency reported Monday. Greenpeace: Bhopal site still contaminated USA Today 11/29/99 http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm BOMBAY India - Toxic chemicals are still poisoning soil and water near the site of the world's worst industrial disaster 15 years after it claimed at least 7 000 lives the environmental group Greenpeace said Monday. The former Union Carbide plant which manufactured pesticide was shut down after a gas leak Dec. 2 1984. The Greenpeace report says water samples collected from the Bhopal site contains carbon tetrachloride a chemical suspected to cause cancer which exceeded limits set by the World Health Organization by 1 705 times. Despite warning signs not to use wells near the site residents use the water for drinking and washing. Union Carbide paid $470 million as part of an out-of-court settlement in 1989. Sweden Told To Shut Down Nuke Plant New York Times November 29 1999 By The Associated Press http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Sweden-Nuclear-Power.html STOCKHOLM Sweden (AP) -- The Supreme Court ruled Monday that one of the country's oldest nuclear reactors must be shut down this week forcing Sweden to take the first step in its long-delayed move away from nuclear power. The Barsebaeck plant owned by Sydkraft AB was supposed to go off-line last July but years of legal battles have kept the reactor running. Puerto Rico Nuke Museum Said Safe New York Times November 29 1999 Filed at 2:25 a.m. EDT By The Associated Press http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Puerto-Rico-Nuke-Museum.html RINCON Puerto Rico (AP) -- Puerto Rico's first museum devoted to nuclear energy is too hot for some: It's inside an old reactor dome parts of which are still radioactive. For more than 30 years the pale green dome has stood off-limits to the public an incongruity nestled amid palm trees and surfing beaches. To residents the shuttered U.S. government-run plant was a perplexing symbol of the secrets of the nuclear age. Pakistan Not Ready for Y2K Bug New York Times November 29 1999 By The Associated Press http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Y2K-Pakistan.html ISLAMABAD Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan is not prepared for the millennium computer bug and could face a severe disruption of vital services the head of the country's Y2K team warned Monday. Ijaz Khawaja said none of Pakistan's airports have fully converted their equipment and computers to guarantee a smooth transition when computer clocks turn from 1999 to 2000. China deploys new missiles Washington Times November 29 - December 5 1999 By Bill Gertz http://www.americasnewspaper.com/stories/top.html China is expanding a missile base across from Taiwan where nearly 100 of Beijing's newest short-range missile systems will be deployed increasing the threat to the island. Construction at the People's Liberation Army (PLA) missile base at Yangang some 275 miles from Taiwan was photographed by U.S. spy satellites in mid-October according to Clinton administration officials familiar with intelligence reports on the activity.... U.S. intelligence agencies expect the missiles deployed at the base to be the new CSS-7 Mod 2 which can carry several different types of warheads up to about 300 miles. The new missile was shown publicly for the first time Oct. 1 at the Communist Party's celebration in Beijing of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The missiles can be armed with small nuclear warheads. China has obtained small-warhead technology from the United States through espionage.... U.S.: North Korea Fearful of West New York Times November 29 1999 Filed at 5:18 p.m. EDT By The Associated Press http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-US-North-Korea.html WASHINGTON (AP) -- North Korea fears that normalized relations with the United States would expose its people to Western ideas and threaten the communist government's control President Clinton's envoy said Monday. ``I told the president I cannot predict a happy outcome from this '' William J. Perry said in a speech at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.... ``It's the threat of having Western businessmen in their country and destroying the insularity. They see that as a double-edged sword.'' Back Channels: The Intelligence Community Congress Restricts Support for Diplomats November 29 1999; Page A21 By Vernon Loeb and Walter Pincus Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/29/072l-112999-idx.html Is the CIA too focused these days on supporting the military? For those in diplomatic circles and on Capitol Hill who think the answer is yes a new legal restriction on intelligence support for State Department officials underscores a growing contention that military commanders do well and diplomats make do. The restriction inserted into the fiscal 2000 intelligence authorization act passed last week prohibits U.S. diplomats from creating Diplomatic Intelligence Support Centers (DISCs)--formed with personnel from the CIA National Security Agency and other intelligence organizations--without approval of the director of central intelligence.... Trump Talks Bluntly on Foreign Policy Washington Post Monday November 29 1999; Page A04 Associated Press http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/29/081l-112999-idx.html http://www.pioneerplanet.com/seven-days/2/news/docs/020572.htm Donald Trump said yesterday he would not rule out a U.S. military first strike to stem North Korea's missile production. The potential Reform Party presidential candidate also called Russian President Boris Yeltsin "a disaster." Hanford burial sites scrutinized Spokesman Review November 29 1999 Associated Press http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=112999&ID=s713368&cat= RICHLAND -- Two sites that contained buried radioactive wastes from nuclear fuel tests at Hanford's 300 Area are being studied as cleanup continues at the former nuclear weapons production site. The two major burial sites in the southeastern portion of the nuclear reservation will cost an estimated $362 million to clean up with work expected to begin in 2010. Plans for removing those wastes are about to go public beginning with a Department of Energy report due out any day that evaluates the situation and possible solutions. The report will go to the Environmental Protection Agency.... Huge robot to cut up Rocky Flats gloveboxes By Berny Morson Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff November 29 1999 http://insidedenver.com/news/1129robt7.shtml The company cleaning up Rocky Flats plans to feed the most contaminated tools and equipment to a robot the size of a small house. The $7 million robot -- or "remote operated tool" in engineering jargon -- will cut up large gloveboxes and heavy-machine tools with a torch and put the pieces in barrels. "The primary idea is to keep the worker away from the tooling and away from the hazardous environment said Randall Walker, a division manager for Kaiser-Hill Co., the firm hired to manage cleanup at the defunct nuclear weapons plant. Even wearing protective suits and respirators, cutting up contaminated equipment is hazardous. Twice in the past 18 months, workers have stuck themselves through the protective clothing with contaminated tools, in effect injecting plutonium into their blood.... N.M. Nuke Waste Shipments Suspended New York Times / Associated Press, November 29, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-WIPP-Permit.html ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- The federal government has suspended shipments of nuclear waste to the nation's first repository of such material until waste-generating weapons sites can prove what is in their barrels. The shipments were stopped because of a state permit for the waste that went into effect Friday. Environmentalists and the Department of Energy have challenged the permit. New Mexico has no authority over shipments of solely radioactive waste, but does have jurisdiction over waste that has both radioactive and chemical components. The long-awaited permit eventually would let the DOE's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad receive shipments of radioactive waste that also contain hazardous chemicals. All shipments to WIPP will stop for now, however.... Cloak Over the CIA Budget Washington Post Monday, November 29, 1999; Page A22 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/29/002l-112999-idx.html U.S. DISTRICT Judge Thomas Hogan has thrown out a lawsuit that sought to compel the government to tell the public how much it spent on intelligence in fiscal year 1999. The government had released the intelligence budgets for two previous years. Special Report High-flying troubles for F-16s Washington Times 5am - November 29, 1999, By Frank J. Murray Washington Times http://www.newslibrary.com/download.asp?DBLIST=wt99&DOCNUM=25963 f-16 The Air Force has spent more than $50 billion buying front-line F-16 jet fighters since 1975. But six million flying hours later, the service and the manufacturers still have not fixed all the myriad and deadly problems that plague the fighter. In the year that ended Sept. 30, for example, 15 F-16s crashed in noncombat operations. Ten of those crashes were blamed on engine failure, making it the worst year yet for engine problems on F-16s. Two pilots died, and the cost of each crash is calculated at $20 million. Limited missions cited as reason other nations fare better Washington Times 11/29/99 By Frank J. Murray THE WASHINGTON TIMES http://www.washtimes.com/nation/nation4.html The military's 20-year love affair with F-16 fighter planes - although beset by problems - is not just an American romance. But for unknown reasons, few of the 19 foreign air forces that fly them report the accident rate the U.S. Air Force endures. Lockheed Martin, maker of the single-engine aircraft, reports that in 1998, all foreign owners of F-16s combined lost three planes to crashes while the U.S. Air Force lost 17. The U.S. Air Force's attrition rate" was almost four times as high as other nations. -U.S. officials say other nations can expect fewer crashes because their operations are more limited. Israel, for instance, flies a lot of F-16s, but they do it in much more stable weather conditions and don't travel all over the world, said Col. Charles Bergman the Air Force's deputy chief of safety. "We probably have more risk because of the level of our training and pushing the envelope