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Digest 61, originally sent Sun Mar 28 02:39:54 1999 :
There are 5 messages in this issue.
Topics in today's digest:
1. NucNews-0 Brief 3/26-27/99
2. NucNews-2-Int'l. 3/26-27/99 - Korea; China/FBI; Australia Waste (2); Table-Top Fusion
3. NucNews-4 3/26-27/99 - WIPP (Different Slants on the same story)
4. NucNews-3 3/26-27/99 - TMI Sale; Waste Disposal - CO; UT; NM-WIPP
5. NucNews-1-Int'l. 3/26-27/99 - Russia/US - Uranium Deal; Missile Defense; Cameco/Nuc Weapons-Russia _______________________________________________________________________________
Message: 1 Date: Sat, 27 Mar 1999 09:13:13 -0500 Subject: NucNews-0 Brief 3/26-27/99
NucNews-1-Int'l. 3/26-27/99 - Russia/US - Uranium Deal; Missile Defense; Cameco/Nuc Weapons-Russia NucNews-2-Int'l. 3/26-27/99 - Korea; China/FBI; Australia Waste (2); Table-Top Fusion NucNews-3 3/26-27/99 - TMI Sale; Waste Disposal - CO; UT; NM-WIPP NucNews-4 3/26-27/99 - WIPP (Different Slants on the same story)
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1. U.S. And Russia Sign Uranium Sales Deal By JUDITH MILLER, New York Times, March 27, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/world/us-russia-uranium.html UNITED NATIONS -- Russia and the United States have quietly signed an agreement that salvages a $12 billion deal aimed at helping Russia convert uranium from its nuclear weapons into fuel for U.S. nuclear reactors, Clinton administration officials said Friday.
2. State Department cable argues of a loophole in missile defense bill By Bill Gertz, THE WASHINGTON TIMES, March 26, 1999 http://www.washtimes.com/news/news3.html#link The State Department is quietly informing overseas embassies that, despite Senate approval of a bill to establish a national missile defense, the administration does not have to deploy such a system.
3. Cameco Announces Deal for Uranium Derived from Russian Nuclear Weapons Business Wire, March 24 1999 http://nt.excite.com/news/bw/990324/dc-cameco
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4. Report: N. Korea has 10 missile sites USA Today, March 27, 1999 http://usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea has completed 10 missile launch sites and is churning out 100 Soviet-type Scud missiles a year in four factories, according to a report in a South Korean newspaper.... The report said North Korea operates 10 missile launch sites throughout its territory, including three around Pyongyang. U.S. officials plant to meet with North Korean leaders next week to try and persuade them to curb their missile development.
5. F.B.I. Interviews Chinese Man in Spy Case By JAMES RISEN, New York Times, March 27, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/world/us-china-spy.html WASHINGTON -- The F.B.I. has found and questioned a Chinese researcher in connection with the inquiry into China's suspected theft of American nuclear secrets from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Government officials said Friday.
6. Earlier link to nuclear waste storage plan Date: 26/03/99, Sydney Morning Herlad, By MURRAY HOGARTH, Environment Editor http://www.smh.com.au/news/9903/26/text/national13.html A $10 billion bid to store the world's nuclear waste in the outback is closely linked to an eight-year-old study by four Australian mining companies and the Federal Government's own nuclear agency, the Herald has learned. 7. Tuckey fails to mention N-dump talks
Date: 25/03/99 Sydney Morning Herald, By MURRAY HOGARTH and BEN POWER http://www.smh.com.au/news/9903/25/text/national11.html A Federal Government minister has taken almost four months to disclose that he allowed Parliament to be misled in regard to a controversial $16 billion plan for a nuclear waste repository.
8. Table-Top Fusion - Significant Physics on a Small Scale ABC News Science, March 24, 1999, By Kenneth Chang http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/tablefusion990324.html A T L A N T A - A decade to the day after two chemists in Utah made their dubious announcement of "cold fusion," Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists unveiled another incredible-sounding claim: table-top fusion.
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9. Sale of TMI Nuclear Plant Reflects Industry Shift By Martha M. Hamilton Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, March 27, 1999; Page E01 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-03/27/062l-032799-idx.html In the next few months a historic transaction is expected to be completed -- the sale of a nuclear power plant at Three Mile Island, a name made famous 20 years ago by the world's first major nuclear accident.
10. Plan to bury waste assailed March 25, 1999, By Bruce Finley, Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/news0325f.htm Ranchers around the prairie town of Last Chance cried foul Wednesday denouncing plans to bury potentially large amounts of radioactive Cold War leftovers in eastern Colorado.
11. Uranium mine may return to life By Reed L. Madsen Deseret News, March 25, 1999 http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,75000649,00.html? TICABOO, Garfield County - U.S. Energy Corp. officials are gearing up to revive uranium mining and milling near this small eastern Garfield County community 10 miles north of Lake Powell's Bullfrog Marina.
12. Nuclear waste arrives at N.M. repository Rig is met with cheers, jeers and blockade Photo: http://usatoday.com/news/photos/26nuke.jpg U.S. Says Nuclear Waste Arrives Safely In N.Mexico http://www.webcrawler.com/news/r/990327/00/news-environment-nuclear March 27, 1999 By Patrick Connole, Reuters CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) - A big rig loaded with radioactive waste arrived Friday at the nation's first nuclear waste dump after a historic 270-mile journey through cheers, jeers and an attempted blockade. ALSO: USA Today, March 27, 1999 http://usatoday.com/news/ndsfri01.htm Nuke Waste Reaches Dump Cheers and Jeers Mark Delivery to Storage Site http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/nuclearwaste990326.html AP Photo/ http://abcnews.go.com/media/Science/images/apr_carlsbad990322_h.jpg
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13. First Nuclear Dump Opens in N.M. Associated Press Saturday, March 27, 1999; Washington Post http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-03/27/161l-032799-idx.html CARLSBAD, N.M., March 26-After 25 years of lawsuits, studies and protests, the nation's first nuclear dump -- a network of chambers carved out of the salt beds deep beneath the New Mexico desert -- today received its first truckload of radioactive waste. A crowd of about 100 people who live in Carlsbad, 25 miles from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, cheered the truck and held up cardboard signs reading, "Welcome finally" and "It's about time!" as the rig rolled through before daybreak.
14. Deep Desert Grave Awaits First Load of Nuclear Waste By JAMES BROOKE, March 26, 1999 New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/nuclear-waste.html LOS ALAMOS, N.M. -- Putting a coda on the Cold War, a flatbed truck rumbled Thursday night from this ``atomic city,'' the birthplace of nuclear weapons, carrying an inaugural shipment for the world's first deep underground nuclear waste depository. ALSO: Desert dump set for inaugural load of nuclear waste $2 billion site ready in New Mexico after 25 years of studies BY JAMES BROOKE New York Times - March 26, 1999, in the San Jose Mercury News http://www7.mercurycenter.com/premium/nation/docs/nuclear26.htm
15. First Shipment Arrives at WIPP March 26, 1999 Albuquerque Journal, Chris Roberts Associated Press Writer http://www.abqjournal.com/news/1wipp03-26.htm CARLSBAD, N.M. -- The inaugural load of radioactive waste arrived Friday to herald the opening of the nation's first permanent nuclear waste repository -- a step toward what federal officials tout as one solution to the problem of where to put waste from decades of weapons work. ALSO: Nuke Waste Reaches Dump Cheers and Jeers Mark Delivery to Storage Site http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/nuclearwaste990326.html AP Photo/Thomas Herbert http://www.abqjournal.com/news/2wipp03-26.jpg AP Photo/ http://abcnews.go.com/media/Science/images/apr_carlsbad990322_h.jpg
16. On the road to N.M. Activists gather to protest planned shipping of nuclear wastes to WIPP By TERJE LANGELAND Colorado Daily, March 26, 1999 http://www.codaily.com/ROP/headlines1.htm Activists from Boulder to Santa Fe, N.M., prepared Thursday for a weekend of demonstrations to try stop the federal government from shipping radioactive waste to the nation's first underground nuclear waste dump.
17. [Related Links ]
Nuclear waste found to move with groundwater November 13, 1998 Web posted at: 11:30 AM EST http://cnn.com/TECH/science/9811/13/nuke.groundwater.enn/
Bedrock linked to nitrate pollution in water http://www.enn.com/enn-news-archive/1998/10/102398/bedrock.asp
World panel set to address water issues http://www.enn.com/enn-news-archive/1998/08/081498/water13.asp
Stewardship urged for nuclear weapon sites http://www.enn.com/enn-news-archive/1998/06/060398/steward.asp
Hanford Reach tops endangered rivers list http://www.enn.com/enn-news-archive/1998/04/040698/rivers.asp
Microbes studied to predict mining's impact http://www.enn.com/enn-news-archive/1998/03/031198/mining.asp
Plutonium leakage prompts new look at waste storage site - January 6, 1999 http://cnn.com/US/9901/06/plutonium.groundwater/index.html
Radioactive tumbleweeds latest hazard at nuclear facility - December 30, 1998 http://cnn.com/TECH/science/9812/30/radioactive.tumbleweeds.ap/index.html
Nevada Waste Site Defeated In Election-Year Tussle Over Reid's Senate Seat http://cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/06/08/cq/nevada.html
Environmental Science & Technology http://pubs.acs.org/journals/esthag/index.html
American Chemical Society http://www.acs.org
EPA: Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water http://www.epa.gov/safewater/
Oak Ridge National Laboratory http://www.ornl.gov/ _____________________________
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_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________
Message: 2 Date: Sat, 27 Mar 1999 09:10:32 -0500 Subject: NucNews-2-Int'l. 3/26-27/99 - Korea; China/FBI; Australia Waste (2); Table-Top Fusion
4. Report: N. Korea has 10 missile sites
USA Today, March 27, 1999
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea has completed 10 missile launch sites and is churning out 100 Soviet-type Scud missiles a year in four factories, according to a report in a South Korean newspaper. The Korea Herald quoted an unidentified government source Friday as saying at least four other missile factories are suspected to exist. Concerns have mounted since last summer when North Korean launched a rocket over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean. While North Korea claimed it was a scientific satellite, Japan believes it was a missile that could hit any target in Japan. The report said North Korea operates 10 missile launch sites throughout its territory, including three around Pyongyang. U.S. officials plant to meet with North Korean leaders next week to try and persuade them to curb their missile development.
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5. F.B.I. Interviews Chinese Man in Spy Case
By JAMES RISEN, New York Times, March 27, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/world/us-china-spy.html
WASHINGTON -- The F.B.I. has found and questioned a Chinese researcher in connection with the inquiry into China's suspected theft of American nuclear secrets from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Government officials said Friday.
The researcher, a Chinese man who worked at Los Alamos for several months in 1997, was located by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Thursday at Pennsylvania State University, the officials said.
The researcher, who is not under arrest, is being questioned about his work with Wen Ho Lee, a Taiwan-born American computer scientist at Los Alamos who was dismissed this month for security violations. Law-enforcement and intelligence officials said Lee remained a suspect in the theft of data related to the design of America's most advanced nuclear warhead.
The Chinese man, whose name officials did not release, worked for Lee from May to September 1997 at Los Alamos as a postdoctoral researcher. After working with Lee, the researcher returned to the University of Pittsburgh.
The F.B.I. lost track of him in the later stages of its investigation into Lee.
Officials did not say how long the researcher had been at Penn State, which is at State College, Pa.
United States officials said they were not sure whether the researcher had played a role in Chinese atomic espionage at Los Alamos, near Santa Fe, N.M. But the F.B.I. wanted to question him to see whether his role needed further scrutiny. "They are taking what he says and seeing if it tracks with the facts," said one official.
The F.B.I. has had questions about the researcher's relationship to Lee since he arrived at Los Alamos.
Lee hired him in the spring of 1997, when Lee was given a sensitive new job even though he was already suspected of being a spy.
The F.B.I. opened its investigation in June 1996.
In the midst of the furor over the Clinton Administration's handling of evidence of Chinese atomic espionage, the decisions to appoint Lee to the new post in 1997 and to allow him to hire a Chinese citizen as an assistant have raised troubling questions about the procedures that lab officials and the F.B.I. followed.
The bureau approved Lee's new assignment, assuring the Energy Department, the lab owner, that it would seek a secret wiretap to monitor Lee's telephone conversations. But the Justice Department rejected the wiretap request, arguing that the evidence in the case was too old to justify it.
Government officials said they believed that secrets related to the W-88 miniaturized nuclear warhead were stolen in the 1980's.
Even though the F.B.I. was in the midst of its investigation, the bureau was not told in advance that Lee had been allowed to hire the Chinese man. After the bureau learned of the hiring, it investigated the assistant. The inquiry found no connection between him and Chinese intelligence, and the Los Alamos management gave assurances that the assistant would be restricted to work in unclassified areas.
Still, Lee had access to both classified and unclassified materials in his new job, officials now say. Lee still held a so-called "Q clearance," giving him access to American nuclear secrets.
Lee's new job was to improve historical nuclear codes to evaluate more reliably weapons performance. It was part of the "stockpile stewardship" initiative to insure that the weapons inventory could be safely maintained without further nuclear testing.
In September 1997, a few months after Lee had started in his new position, the F.B.I.
Director, Louis J. Freeh, told senior Energy Department officials that the bureau did not have enough evidence to arrest Lee but that he could be removed from his position without harming the investigation, officials said. Still, Lee was allowed to keep his job and retain his clearances for more than a year after the meeting with Freeh, according to officials.
Last December, Lee was finally polygraphed by the Energy Department in connection with the spy investigation.
Los Alamos officials nearly returned him to his job and reinstated his security clearances after they had been told that he had passed the test, officials said.
But after the results from the first lie-detector test were analyzed further by experts, the results appeared to show deceptive answers. The F.B.I. administered a second test last month, and Lee's answers were determined to be deceptive. --------------------------
6. Earlier link to nuclear waste storage plan
Date: 26/03/99, Sydney Morning Herlad, By MURRAY HOGARTH, Environment Editor
http://www.smh.com.au/news/9903/26/text/national13.html
A $10 billion bid to store the world's nuclear waste in the outback is closely linked to an eight-year-old study by four Australian mining companies and the Federal Government's own nuclear agency, the Herald has learned.
The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) also revealed yesterday that it has attended "scientific meetings" with Pangea Resources Inc, the United States-based company behind the controversial plan.
ANSTO attended the meetings in its capacity as technical adviser to the Government on radioactive waste management. This is despite ANSTO's political master, the Minister for Industry, Science and Resources, Senator Minchin, having repeatedly rejected Pangea's plans.
"ANSTO has participated in such meetings on the basis that it is not Government policy to accept the radioactive waste of other countries," according to a statement issued by the agency, in response to inquiries by the Herald.
The Pangea proposal for a huge underground nuclear waste repository in either the South Australian or Western Australian desert is remarkably similar to one of the key "development possibilities" identified by an ANSTO working party in 1991.
The Synroc Study Group was convened by ANSTO, which operates the Lucas Heights research reactor in Sydney. Its aim was to investigate commercial applications of ANSTO's Synroc technology to allow safer storage of high-level nuclear waste.
The group included Australia's two main uranium mining companies, Energy Resources of Australia Ltd (ERA) and Western Mining Corporation (WMC), as well as resources giants BHP and CRA (now Rio Tinto).
One of the five development possibilities put forward was: "Establish an integrated spent fuel management industry in Australia, with international participation, including disposal on an Australian (mainland or offshore) site."
Pangea's chairman, Mr David Pentz, has confirmed that the origins of his company's proposal to do that lies with the Synroc group.
"The Pangea concept has built on some components of the Synroc Study Group and [has been] modified by others, but the relevance of the Synroc technology to a global solution in partnership with Pangea remains intact," he told a nuclear waste convention in the US.
Question marks over the Government's knowledge of Pangea's plans have been growing, in the midst of a resurgence of the nuclear industry in Australia.
This includes:
The opening today by the Prime Minister, Mr Howard, of a $2 billion expansion of WMC's Roxby Downs mining operation in South Australia, which includes the biggest uranium ore deposit in the world.
The expected announcement early next week of Federal environmental approval for the planned $300 million nuclear reactor for Lucas Heights, to replace the existing research facility.
Last week's approval of the new Beverley uranium mine in South Australia, and the controversial construction of the Jabiluka mine, on a lease within the boundaries of the Kakadu World Heritage area.
This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited.
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7. Tuckey fails to mention N-dump talks
Date: 25/03/99 Sydney Morning Herald, By MURRAY HOGARTH and BEN POWER
http://www.smh.com.au/news/9903/25/text/national11.html
A Federal Government minister has taken almost four months to disclose that he allowed Parliament to be misled in regard to a controversial $16 billion plan for a nuclear waste repository.
It was revealed yesterday that the Minister for Conservation, Mr Tuckey, was given a private briefing on the bid to store 75,000 tonnes of the world's reactor waste in the Australian outback for 250,000 years.
The briefing, by the president of United States-based Pangea Resources Inc, Mr James Voss, occurred on November 5 last year.
Mr Tuckey claimed yesterday he had only learnt on Tuesday this week that the Senate had been categorically assured several weeks later, on December 1, that no Government ministers had ever met Pangea representatives.
Mr Tuckey had not read Hansard records, nor media reports of the assurance by the Minister for Industry, Resources and Science, Senator Minchin, and says he told no other ministers about the proposal.
"I did not correspond or speak with my ministerial colleagues after my interview with Mr Voss as I was not convinced to make recommendations on his behalf," said Mr Tuckey.
"I indicated to him my portfolio responsibilities did not cover this issue, that I was not in a position to judge the scientific and technical feasibility of such a proposal, and I believed such a proposal would be unlikely to receive community support."
Mr Tuckey's meeting with Mr Voss was only disclosed to the Senate yesterday by Senator Minchin, who was first questioned on Pangea's until-then secret plans by the Democrats on December 1.
At the time Senator Minchin said: "I can confirm that as far as this Government is concerned there have been absolutely no ministerial-level discussions with that company, Pangea Resources."
Yesterday he admitted this was wrong, although he reaffirmed the Government's opposition to the Pangea proposal.
"When I learned yesterday that Mr Tuckey had in fact met with Pangea back in November, I drew that to the attention of the Senate as soon as possible," Senator Minchin said. He also had checked that no other ministers had met company representatives.
Mr Tuckey is also the Minister assisting the Prime Minister, Mr Howard. His conduct was yesterday condemned by the Democrats as "extraordinary".
"No international commercial operator the size of Pangea Resources is going to embark on an expensive PR exercise in a foreign country without tacit go-ahead from the Government," said the Democrats Leader, Senator Lees.
"We now learn what we suspected all along. The Government had had discussions with Pangea via minister Tuckey."
The Opposition science and resources spokesman, Mr Martyn Evans, accused Mr Tuckey of having misled Parliament by his silence. The US-based Pangea has selected arid zone areas in either South Australia or Western Australia, Mr Tuckey's home State, as being the best place in the world to locate its repository.
The proposal is being heavily funded by the British Government's 100 per cent-owned company, British Nuclear Fuels Ltd, which faces a waste crisis.
The Senate voted 35-34 last night to censure the Minister for the Environment, Senator Hill.
The Democrats-led assault on Senator Hill, the Leader of Government Business in the Senate, was prompted by his failure to produce sensitive documents relating to the Jabiluka uranium mine.
Independent Senator Brian Harradine backed the censure.
This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited.
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8. Table-Top Fusion - Significant Physics on a Small Scale
ABC News Science, March 24, 1999, By Kenneth Chang
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/tablefusion990324.html
A T L A N T A - A decade to the day after two chemists in Utah made their dubious announcement of "cold fusion," Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists unveiled another incredible-sounding claim: table-top fusion.
Unlike cold fusion, this achievement neither is controversial nor hinges on undiscovered laws of physics. The Livermore researchers also don't claim that their little fusion machine will produce cheap, limitless energy.
At best, the device might produce a stream of neutrons useful for nuclear research.
"This is really a wonderful experiment," comments Martin Schmidt, a physicist at France's Commission of Atomic Energy.
Breakdown of the Fusion Process
The experiment spritzes a jet of deuterium gas - deuterium is a heavy form of hydrogen - into a vacuum chamber. The cold gas clumps into clusters of several hundred to several thousand atoms each.
A barrage of laser light, each pulse lasting a mere 35 millionths of billionth of a second, blows up the clusters and sends deuterium atoms flying apart.
"You might imagine that ions ejected from neighboring clusters might collide," says Livermore physicist Todd Ditmire, "and with some non-insignificant probability produce [deuterium-deuterium] fusion."
When two deuterium atoms fuse together, into helium they release a flash of energy - it's the same process that produces the light and heat coming from the sun.
"So we looked to see if we were producing fusion neutrons," Ditmire says, "and lo and behold, we were."
With each laser pulse, about 10,000 neutrons cascaded out. Fast-moving neutrons are the telltale sign that fusion is occurring.
Ditmire presented the findings March 23 at the centennial meeting of the American Physical Society.
How Fusion Works
Deuterium consists of a nucleus of one proton and one neutron.
In deuterium-deuterium fusion, two deuterium atoms collide.
The nuclei fuse together into helium-3 - two protons and one neutron - and eject a neutron. The neutron and helium-3 together weigh less than two deuterium atoms.
That difference in mass has been converted to energy (E=mc2).
Small-Scale Physics
Because the fusion reaction is not self-sustaining - turn off the laser and the fusion stops - the technique isn't practical for commercial energy production. But the experiment is remarkable given the modest power of the laser - you can stick your hand in the laser beam without getting hurt - and the experiment's simple setup.
"It's important to show you can do very interesting physics on a small scale, a tabletop experiment," Schmidt says. The tabletop apparatus cost about $1 million, a fraction of the $1.2 billion being spent on another laser facility at Livermore that will be the size of a football stadium.
That makes it easier for more researchers to conduct fundamental fusion research, and what's learned from the small experiments could eventually help make large fusion reactors practical.
Cold fusion faded under scientific scrutiny. But fusion on the tabletop, with its more modest possibilities, looks like a reality.
Fusion vs. Fission
Lasers do fission, too.
Unlike fusion, which produces energy by fusing two light atoms, fission creates energy by splitting large atoms such as uranium.
Another Lawrence Livermore experiment has shown for the first time that shining an ultrabright laser on a gold-encased pellet of uranium is strong enough to trigger fission.
With Livermore's petawatt laser - the most powerful laser in the world - researchers unleashed a laser burst one million millionths of a second long on the pellet. (The laser bursts used in this experiment are 4,000 times more energetic than the ones Todd Ditmire used to trigger fusion in the deuterium gas.)
The laser blast rips electrons away from the gold atoms. The high-speed electrons collide with other atoms, unleashing high-energy X-rays, which then create fission in the uranium.
"That brings a new tool kit to how you address these kinds of problems," says Thomas Cowen, a Livermore physicist and member of the research team that included scientists from several institutions around the world.
Currently, nuclear research is done in atomic reactors or by colliding particles in accelerators.
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Message: 3 Date: Sat, 27 Mar 1999 09:09:56 -0500 Subject: NucNews-4 3/26-27/99 - WIPP (Different Slants on the same story)
13. First Nuclear Dump Opens in N.M.
Associated Press Saturday, March 27, 1999; Page A06
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-03/27/161l-032799-idx.html
CARLSBAD, N.M., March 26-After 25 years of lawsuits, studies and protests, the nation's first nuclear dump -- a network of chambers carved out of the salt beds deep beneath the New Mexico desert -- today received its first truckload of radioactive waste.
A crowd of about 100 people who live in Carlsbad, 25 miles from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, cheered the truck and held up cardboard signs reading, "Welcome finally" and "It's about time!" as the rig rolled through before daybreak.
Earlier in the 270-mile, 7 1/2-hour trip, the truck faced a scattering of protesters yelling "Poison! Poison!" along with two young women who sat down in the road and a driver who tried to block the highway.
The first load of waste came from Los Alamos National Laboratory in the New Mexico city that was the birthplace of the atomic bomb.
Ultimately, up to 6.2 million cubic feet of waste generated since the dawn of the atomic age will be entombed over the next 30 years in the salt beds nearly a half-mile below ground. The waste consists of such items as clothing, tools and rags contaminated with plutonium.
Until now, the United States has had no permanent site for weapons-related plutonium waste. Waste has been piling up at 23 weapons installations around the country such as Rocky Flats near Denver and the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, where it is kept mostly in 55-gallon drums on above-ground concrete pads, underneath bubble structures or in earthen mounds.
These corroding drums must be periodically repackaged, and some fear the waste is vulnerable to hazards such as tornadoes or earthquakes.
The arrival of the first shipment of waste at WIPP marked more than two decades of effort to open the $1.8 billion repository, first proposed in 1974. The first truckload will be placed underground by Monday.
"I'm ecstatic -- this is just the culmination of everything I've worked for for 25 years," said Wendell Weart, a Sandia National Laboratories scientist who was instrumental in creating the repository.
WIPP is not designed for the thousands of tons of high-level waste stored at nuclear power plants across the country. Yucca Mountain in Nevada is being studied as a long-term burial place for that waste.
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14. Deep Desert Grave Awaits First Load of Nuclear Waste
By JAMES BROOKE, March 26, 1999 New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/nuclear-waste.html
ALSO: Desert dump set for inaugural load of nuclear waste $2 billion site ready in New Mexico after 25 years of studies March 26, 1999, in the San Jose Mercury News http://www7.mercurycenter.com/premium/nation/docs/nuclear26.htm
LOS ALAMOS, N.M. -- Putting a coda on the cold war, a flatbed truck was preparing tonight to rumble from this "atomic city," the birthplace of nuclear weapons, carrying an inaugural shipment for the world's first deep underground nuclear waste depository.
After $2 billion and 25 years of environmental studies, political protests and legal challenges, the depository outside Carlsbad, 256 miles southeast of here, is to receive its first waste shipment on Friday morning. On Monday, a Federal judge in Washington allowed the plant to receive this first shipment of nuclear waste, although a state permit is still pending for later shipments of waste mixed with hazardous chemicals.
Transported in huge stainless steel containers, the barrels of plutonium waste are to be placed in chambers carved from an ancient salt bed, nearly half a mile below ground. Geologists say the deposit of salt has been stable for 250 million years.
"We won the cold war by building nuclear weapons, but we have not cleaned up the legacy of the cold war and its waste," Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, a former Congressman from northern New Mexico, said today. "The opening of this facility is a step to meeting this obligation."
The underground dump, which was ready to take shipments a decade ago, has been designed to receive nuclear waste and radioactively contaminated materials from 23 military sites from across the nation. Today, 61 million people, or about one quarter of the nation's population, live within 50 miles of a military nuclear waste storage site. By the time Carlsbad site, which is called the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, has been in operation for 10 years, the number of people living near sites with military nuclear waste would be reduced to four million.
"We have a cleanup job around the country that is being held up by an absence of a disposal site," Mary Anne Sullivan, the Energy Department's general counsel, said today from Washington. Defending the department's decision to move today, she said, "It costs us $300,000 a day to maintain that facility ready to operate."
Over the next 35 years, barring successful court challenges, almost 40,000 truckloads of waste will be taken to the plant from across the country.
The underground maze of 55 man-made storage chambers at Carlsbad has the capacity to store six million cubic feet of waste, roughly half of the military's projected needs.
So far, the Energy Department has authorized the plant to receive waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, from the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory and from the Rocky Flats, a former nuclear trigger factory near Denver. At Rocky Flats, the pace of cleanup so outstripped storage space, that the Energy Department proposed earlier this month erecting reinforced tents on Colorado's eastern plains to temporarily house waste barrels.
Ever since the Carlsbad nuclear storage site was proposed in 1974, New Mexico has been split between opponents and proponents.
Opponents say it is a folly to lock up dangerous waste simply because the technology does not exist today to render it harmless. They say that the $2 billion spent on the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, has become a justification for following through with it.
At a rally in Santa Fe today, protesters waved signs reading "WIPP = new waste" as they waited for the truck, which was expected travel under heavy police escort down a highway bypass especially constructed last year for nuclear waste removal. Opponents argue that the waste should not be trucked around the country, but stored in local, above-ground facilities that would allow for retrieval of nuclear waste at later dates.
"We may find in 50 years, if the technologies are developed, that this waste is a resource," said Joni Arends, a director of a Santa Fe group, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety. Referring to the salt caverns in Carlsbad, she said, "Once the barrels collapse, it is too hazardous for anyone to go down there and get it."
Largely contaminated with plutonium, the waste for the most part consists of protective clothing, laboratory tools and equipment, and soils and sludges from earlier disposal efforts.
Critics also say that accidents are bound to happen as nuclear convoys from as far away as California and Ohio converge on Carlsbad, a small city of 27,000 in the Chihuahua Desert.
Energy Department officials reply that the shipments will take place at night, when traffic is low, and will be tracked by satellite. Underscoring their promise to move waste only when weather permits, they said that fog on roads forced them to delay the first shipment, which had been planned for early this morning.
By moving the waste from surface storage sites around big cities, the Energy Department eases nuclear nightmare scenarios -- an earthquake in Los Angeles, or a plane crash in Denver. At Carlsbad, the waste will be stored almost half a mile below a site that has only 113,000 people living within 50 miles.
According to the Energy Department, the transport containers for the waste barrels have passed a series of grueling tests: dropping 30 feet onto a concrete pad, submitting it to jet fuel flames at temperatures greater than 1,475 degrees Fahrenheit, and falling on a steel spike to test puncture resistance.
But vowing to continue to fight the waste plant in court, plaintiffs have a hearing scheduled on May 3 before the Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, arguing that the state can only grant a permit to new disposal site if it is empty. Critics say that the Energy Department is jumping the gun this week because the New Mexico Environment Department is still evaluating their application for an operating permit.
"WIPP is a hazardous waste facility, and a hazardous waste facility cannot operate without a permit," said Don Hancock, a lawyer for one plaintiff, the Southwest Research and Information Center. "The D.O.E. is breaking the law. Because they are operating without a permit, we expect that the courts are going to require them to ship the waste from WIPP back to Los Alamos."
Officials at the State Environment Department, the major oversight agency for the waste plant, are angry that the Federal Government decided to go ahead with disposal without waiting for the final permit, which is expected to be issued this fall.
"We continue to caution D.O.E. that these pre-permit shipments are probably not in the best interest as they are risking years and probably hundreds of thousands of dollars in litigation," Nathan Wade, the department's spokesman, said today, referring to legal challenges by citizens groups.
Gov. Gary E. Johnson of New Mexico, a Republican and a political rival of Richardson, noted in a statement on Wednesday that "New Mexico has been under unbelievable pressure to simply step aside and let D.O.E. open WIPP."
Elsewhere in the "nuclear West," politicians are fighting to keep nuclear waste repositories out of their backyards.
Last week in Utah, Gov. Michael O. Leavitt signed legislation that stripped state liability protection from utilities that want to store high-level radioactive waste at a commercial disposal site on an Indian reservation 50 miles west of Salt Lake City. Earlier, Leavitt seized control of roads leading to the site.
In Nevada yesterday, Gov. Kenny Guinn joined other politicians from the state in opposing a repository for nuclear power plant waste at Yucca Mountain. In a statement before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee of the United States Senate, Governor Guinn said that, from 1976 to 1996, there had been more than 620 significant earthquakes within a 50-mile radius of the mountain.
In New Mexico, perhaps in recognition of the finality of the Energy Department's action, Governor Johnson tried to make the best of it.
"Never before has a deep geologic repository for the disposal of radioactive wastes commenced operations anywhere in the world," the Governor said. "Now that the court has ruled, the light is finally green to go."
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15. First Shipment Arrives at WIPP
March 26, 1999 Albuquerque Journal, Chris Roberts Associated Press Writer
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/1wipp03-26.htm
CARLSBAD, N.M. -- The inaugural load of radioactive waste arrived Friday to herald the opening of the nation's first permanent nuclear waste repository -- a step toward what federal officials tout as one solution to the problem of where to put waste from decades of weapons work.
Carlsbad residents, who live about 25 miles from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, cheered the truck and held up homemade cardboard signs reading, "Welcome finally" and "It's about time!" as the rig rolled through before dawn.
Earlier in the trip and further north the truck faced a scattering of protesters, including two young women who sat down in the road and a man who tried to block the highway with his car.
The load rolled out of Los Alamos National Laboratory shortly before 8 p.m. MDT Thursday, its original early-morning departure time delayed by heavy fog along the 270-mile route.
After a 7 1/2-hour trip, the truck passed through WIPP's white metal gates at 3:36 a.m. MDT to the cheers of about 500 employees and dignitaries and shouts of "It's about damn time!" The driver honked in response.
"I'm ecstatic -- this is just the culmination of everything I've worked for for 25 years," said Wendell Weart, a Sandia National Laboratories scientist who was instrumental in creating the repository.
"It's been one roadblock after another, and we finally got them behind us," Weart said, beaming at the 18-wheeler, carrying three huge steel containers bearing the black-and-yellow radiation symbol.
The arrival of the first shipment marked more than two decades of effort to open the $1.8 billion repository, first proposed in 1974. The first truckload is expected to be placed underground by Monday.
Up to now, the United States has had no permanent resting place for weapons-related plutonium waste.
As a result, waste has been piling up at 23 DOE installations around the country such as Rocky Flats near Denver. At many of those installations, waste is kept mostly in 55-gallon drums on above-ground concrete pads, underneath bubble structures or in berms. Eventually, about 37,000 shipments will fill WIPP's network of storage rooms and become entombed by salt over the next 30 years.
A crowd of about 100 people saw off the first WIPP shipment at Los Alamos, cheering at the driver's thumbs-up sign as he pulled out. But down the road in Santa Fe, a hub of anti-WIPP sentiment, dozens of protesters lined the route holding up placards that read, among other things, "Stop Nuke Trucks" and "Science or Science Fiction?"
The protesters chanted, wailed, drummed and yelled: "Poison! Poison!" The chant grew to a crescendo as the motorcade passed. Artist Nomi Green, holding her 4-year-old son Isaac, said: "I believe this is wrong, but a person's just got to stand up and say what they believe. . . . I feel very sad."
After Santa Fe, the truck headed east on Interstate 25, then south on U.S. 285. William Beems, 42, of Albuquerque was arrested just south of I-25 on charges of obstructing roadways and resisting arrest, officers said.
An advance team of officers spotted his white Yugo parked across the middle of the road with lighted flares around it, said Department of Public Safety Secretary Darren White. Officers removed the car and flares before the WIPP cargo arrived, but then Beems got back into the car and tried to block the truck's path, White said.
Beems paid a $1,500 bond and was released from jail after about three hours. "I feel that it never should have started here and we need to work to stop it here," he said after his release. The rig had to slow down to 2 mph when two young women sat down on the interstate near Lamy, south of Santa Fe. State police Lt. Greg Richardson said that when an officer asked them to move, they did.
"We understand they have a right to protest just as we have a right to bring the waste," said one of the truck's two drivers, Michael Verranault. An appellate court in Washington, D.C., and a federal judge in Santa Fe on Wednesday rejected last-ditch appeals from environmentalists who sought to scuttle the transfer. But environmentalists said two lawsuits remain pending -- challenges they hope will result in loads of nuclear waste heading back out of WIPP late this year.
Jubilant WIPP employees waved American flags and jumped up and down as the truck pulled in. "I never had a doubt it would happen -- I just didn't know when," said Shari Cullum, who works in the WIPP accounting department. "I had a big lump in my throat. This is cool."
AP Photo/Thomas Herbert http://www.abqjournal.com/news/2wipp03-26.jpg
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16. On the road to N.M. Activists gather to protest planned shipping of nuclear wastes to WIPP
By TERJE LANGELAND Colorado Daily, March 26, 1999
http://www.codaily.com/ROP/headlines1.htm
Activists from Boulder to Santa Fe, N.M., prepared Thursday for a weekend of demonstrations to try stop the federal government from shipping radioactive waste to the nation's first underground nuclear waste dump.
The Department of Energy was originally scheduled to ship its first batch of transuranic waste early Thursday from Los Alamos, N.M., to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, an excavated repository 2,150 feet beneath the desert near Carlsbad, N.M. The waste consists mainly of radioactively contaminated clothing, tools and dirt.
However, the shipment was delayed by fog, said Anne Elliott, a DOE spokeswoman in Carlsbad. Elliott said the DOE would try again Thursday evening and that the shipment should arrive at the WIPP facility at 4 a.m. today.
A federal judge on Tuesday dropped a 1992 injunction that had prevented WIPP from opening, and the DOE - which has tried to open the facility for more than 20 years - promptly announced it would start shipping waste this week.
While the ruling only applied to a specific batch of waste at Los Alamos, government officials hope - and environmentalists fear - that it could open the gates for subsequent shipments of thousands of truckloads of waste from all over the country, including Rocky Flats, the former nuclear bomb factory south of Boulder.
Environmental groups, which argue that WIPP will leak and that transportation of waste to the facility would put millions of people at risk, have descended on New Mexico pledging to halt the shipments.
"There are people who are waiting and willing to do what they can, non-violently, to stop the trucks," said Tom Marshall of Boulder's Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, in a telephone interview Thursday from Santa Fe. "Our hope is that there will be more (people) coming down over the weekend."
Those who were unable to travel to New Mexico gathered Thursday at noon for a demonstration in front of the Boulder County courthouse. Protesters collected signatures from people opposing WIPP, handed out flyers and painted banners in preparation of a "die-in" demonstration planned for Saturday at Rocky Flats.
"They want to contaminate another spot in the earth with tons and tons and tons of radioactive waste," said Betty Ball of the Peace and Justice Center, speaking to the Pearl Street Mall lunch crowd. "We're not gonna let this happen."
If WIPP opens, trucks loaded with nuclear waste could start rolling later this month from Idaho, straight down Interstate Highway 25 through the heart of Denver, Ball warned.
According to the DOE's own figures, close to 26,000 truckloads of transuranic waste would come through Colorado from nuclear-complex sites in Washington state and Idaho. Only 2,500 shipments would originate from Rocky Flats. An average of two to three truckloads would pass through Denver every day for the next 30 years.
WIPP opponents say this would put millions of people along the highways at risk of accidents, and they argue that it would be safer to store the waste where it is until scientists find a way to make it safe.
Politicians who support WIPP - including Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., and Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo. - argued that the opening of the facility is essential in order to meet the goal of cleaning up Rocky Flats by the year 2006.
"If Rocky Flats is to stay on schedule, we must find locations for the disposal of wastes," Udall said in a news release.
But environmentalists have pointed out that only about 10 percent of the waste at Rocky Flats is scheduled to go to WIPP, and much of what remains has nowhere to go.
"Rocky Flats is still going to be contaminated," Ball said.
LeRoy Moore of the Peace and Justice Center said that once the waste is buried at WIPP, it cannot be retrieved if it starts leaking or if scientists develop a way to neutralize it. Plutonium in the waste will remain radioactive for 240,000 years.
Moore blasted Udall for his support of the facility.
"Mark Udall ran as an environmental candidate," but now he appears to have abandoned his platform, Moore said.
Moore said Udall, who was elected by an extremely narrow margin, may be repaying the Democratic National Committee for its heavy campaign support, which included a visit by Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson.
"Perhaps this is why he has - sadly, I would say - forgotten his environmental platform," Moore said, urging people to call Udall and ask him to reverse his position.
Ball questioned why the DOE was rushing to ship waste to WIPP, considering that the waste is safe, for the time being, where it is.
Marshall speculated that the DOE might be trying to score a symbolic victory after decades of frustration trying to open WIPP, but he predicted the strategy might backfire.
"Their feeling is probably that a symbolic opening will break the back of the opposition," Marshall said. "I think it's gonna galvanize the opposition."
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17. [Related Links ]
Nuclear waste found to move with groundwater November 13, 1998 Web posted at: 11:30 AM EST http://cnn.com/TECH/science/9811/13/nuke.groundwater.enn/
Bedrock linked to nitrate pollution in water http://www.enn.com/enn-news-archive/1998/10/102398/bedrock.asp
World panel set to address water issues http://www.enn.com/enn-news-archive/1998/08/081498/water13.asp
Stewardship urged for nuclear weapon sites http://www.enn.com/enn-news-archive/1998/06/060398/steward.asp
Hanford Reach tops endangered rivers list http://www.enn.com/enn-news-archive/1998/04/040698/rivers.asp
Microbes studied to predict mining's impact http://www.enn.com/enn-news-archive/1998/03/031198/mining.asp
Plutonium leakage prompts new look at waste storage site - January 6, 1999 http://cnn.com/US/9901/06/plutonium.groundwater/index.html
Radioactive tumbleweeds latest hazard at nuclear facility - December 30, 1998 http://cnn.com/TECH/science/9812/30/radioactive.tumbleweeds.ap/index.html
Nevada Waste Site Defeated In Election-Year Tussle Over Reid's Senate Seat http://cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/06/08/cq/nevada.html
Environmental Science & Technology http://pubs.acs.org/journals/esthag/index.html
American Chemical Society http://www.acs.org
EPA: Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water http://www.epa.gov/safewater/
Oak Ridge National Laboratory http://www.ornl.gov/
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Message: 4 Date: Sat, 27 Mar 1999 09:09:26 -0500 Subject: NucNews-3 3/26-27/99 - TMI Sale; Waste Disposal - CO; UT; NM-WIPP
9. Sale of TMI Nuclear Plant Reflects Industry Shift
By Martha M. Hamilton Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, March 27, 1999; Page E01
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-03/27/062l-032799-idx.html
In the next few months a historic transaction is expected to be completed -- the sale of a nuclear power plant at Three Mile Island, a name made famous 20 years ago by the world's first major nuclear accident.
It also is a transaction that underscores the changes underway in the nearly $300 billion electric utility industry.
State by state, the rules are being written that will transform the industry from a network of nearly 200 regional monopolies into a handful of national competitors that will vie for customers the way long-distance phone companies do. One of the most visible changes underway so far has been the sale of power plants by utility companies.
In July, AmerGen Energy Inc. (a joint venture of the Philadelphia-based utility company PECO Energy Co. and British Energy PLC) agreed to buy the nuclear facility at Three Mile Island for $100 million from GPU Inc., an electric-utility holding company that operates in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. It was the first time a nuclear power plant in the United States has changed hands, but industry analysts say it won't be the last.
Three Mile Island Unit 1 was sold by GPU as part of a strategic decision to get out of the power generating business. Instead of manufacturing power, the company hopes to seize opportunities elsewhere in a business that also includes transmission, sales and services.
The nuclear power plant that was sold shares the site 10 miles southeast of Harrisburg, Pa., with the nonfunctioning Three Mile Island Unit 2. It was at Unit 2 on March 28, 1979, that a series of errors resulted in escaping radiation, a relatively small hydrogen explosion and radioactive contamination of the Susquehanna River.
The accident marked the end of nuclear power plant construction in the United States. But it didn't mark the end of nuclear power. Even with no new plants built since then, there are 103 operating nuclear power plants producing about 20 percent of the nation's electricity.
Now some companies hope to make money in the evolving electric power industry by using expertise to operate the best of the remaining power plants more efficiently.
AmerGen believes it can pull together a cluster of nuclear power plants, including Three Mile Island and PECO's nuclear plants and others it may acquire, so "we can gain operating efficiencies," said PECO spokesman Michael O. Wood.
One reason that more nuclear power plants are likely to change hands is that buyers can acquire them at bargain prices, said Lester P. Silverman, head of McKinsey & Co.'s electric utility practice. For instance, AmerGen paid $29 per kilowatt, compared with the costs that have ranged from approximately $400 to $900 per kilowatt for fossil fuel plants. "I'll be amazed if we don't see another 20 to 40 acquisitions like it over the next few years," Silverman said.
At the time of the accident the Three Mile Island Unit 1 had been shut down for routine maintenance and fueling. Despite a solid safety record, in the wake of the accident it remained closed until 1985 "because of its Zip code," said GPU Chairman Fred D. Hafer.
The combination of the accident and the shutdown forced GPU to buy power from other utilities, which added $25 million to the firm's costs and sent rates for its customers skyrocketing, Hafer said. Rates for customers of Metropolitan Edison Co., one of its subsidiaries, doubled.
Shareholders suffered, too. There were no dividends for seven or eight years, and the stock dropped from about $18 a share to $3.50.
Once Unit 1 was allowed to resume operating, rates began to decline and the stock price improved. The stock, which closed yesterday at $38.50, has since split two-for-one.
Despite the market for existing nuclear power plants, it's unlikely that any new ones will be built in the United States. However, at least some of the existing plants may have their lives extended. For instance, Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. already has filed for permission to extend the license for its Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant beyond 2014 when it is scheduled to expire.
One of the arguments in favor of extending the lives of nuclear power plants is that they produce cleaner energy than plants powered by fossil fuel. The existing plants also have a cost advantage over most fossil fuel plants -- nationwide nuclear plant costs average 1.9 cents per kilowatt hour, compared with 4.1 cents for oil. But because of the cost of capital, new plants wouldn't have that edge. "There are none under order, and in my mind, there won't be," said analyst Silverman.
Washingtonpost.com will host two online discussions about Three Mile Island next week. Former Pennsylvania governor Richard Thornburgh will answer questions on Monday at 11 a.m. Staff writer Martha M. Hamilton will discuss the nuclear power industry on Tuesday at 11 a.m. To submit questions and read Post coverage from 1979, click on "Nation."
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10. Plan to bury waste assailed
March 25, 1999, By Bruce Finley, Denver Post
http://www.denverpost.com/news/news0325f.htm
Ranchers around the prairie town of Last Chance cried foul Wednesday denouncing plans to bury potentially large amounts of radioactive Cold War leftovers in eastern Colorado.
The ranchers pressed their case on the Capitol steps - encouraged by a powerful Denver political consultant - reminding state officials of promises made in 1983 when the Last Chance dump was established: No radioactive waste will be allowed.
Exporting America's worst garbage from cities to agricultural areas "is always the solution,'' said Pam Whelde, whose family runs cattle just north of the landfill, about 70 miles east of Denver. "Well, that doesn't sit well with citizens out there.''
Gov. Bill Owens backs the ranchers and dug in his heels Wednesday. Owens wants the low-level waste moved to Utah - to an Envirocare landfill represented by consultant Jim Monaghan, whose assistant helped organize Wednesday's rally.
But Rep. Mark Udall, R-Colo., and other Denver-area leaders prefer the Last Chance option for what they believe will be quick and efficient disposal of large amounts of low-level radioactive waste.
The cleanup of the Rocky Flats site, west of Denver, depends on the emerging battle.
This low-level waste - including contaminated clothing, building materials and dirt - is dangerous enough that it must be encased in metal. While a new nuclear dump in New Mexico is supposed to start accepting midlevel radioactive waste today, Rocky Flats officials say their cleanup will generate at least 10 times as much low-level waste.
"There is no disposal site anywhere in the nation for a portion of that waste,'' said Pat Etchart, the U.S. Department of Energy spokesman at Rocky Flats.
Current projections from Rocky Flats engineers for waste to be generated from their cleanup are as follows: They'll need to dispose of 180,000 cubic meters of low-level radioactive waste - a volume roughly equivalent to a football field more than 100 feet high. About 15,000 cubic meters of midlevel waste is slated for disposal at the nuclear dump in New Mexico. All this is in addition to some 13 tons of weapons- grade plutonium at Rocky Flats.
The battle began last year when Kaiser-Hill, the company running the Rocky Flats cleanup for the federal government, requested bids from subcontractors for disposal of low-level radioactive waste. Metro-area leaders on a cleanup task force approached Udall, then a freshman representative in the Boulder area.
"We must find a way to store those "orphan' wastes safely, because otherwise they are going to pile up at Rocky Flats,'' Udall said Wednesday. "My key goal is to keep this cleanup on schedule. ... I asked the governor to at least consider Last Chance as one of the options so we can stay on schedule.''
To move this so-called "orphan waste'' to Last Chance, or Utah, or anywhere else, government permits would have to be issued. Insiders expect that would take at least a year. The Utah facility currently accepts small amounts of low-risk waste from Colorado, but can't legally accept all of the low-level waste.
Owens remains strongly opposed to moving nuclear waste to eastern Colorado, said spokesman Dick Wadhams.
"A solemn promise was made to the people of eastern Colorado when that site was opened that it would not take nuclear waste. It would be a breach of faith to do so.''
No decisions have been made, said Etchart of the Energy Department. "Hopefully we will be able to continue our accelerated cleanup schedule.''
Meantime, landfill operators are eagerly vying for new business.
"I think, when the governor takes a step back and analyzes the whole situation, he'll change his position,'' said Jim Spaanstra, attorney for Safety-Kleen, which owns the Last Chance landfill.
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11. Uranium mine may return to life
By Reed L. Madsen Deseret News, March 25, 1999
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,75000649,00.html?
TICABOO, Garfield County - U.S. Energy Corp. officials are gearing up to revive uranium mining and milling near this small eastern Garfield County community 10 miles north of Lake Powell's Bullfrog Marina.
But one legal hurdle remains, and company officials also need to see a better price for their product.
"We're trying to get our ducks in order for when the market turns," said Hal Herron, vice president of the small, publicly traded company in Riverton, Wyo.
He believes "the market is coming." But, taking issue with that is Preston Truman, head of the citizen/watchdog group the Downwinders, claiming "the market just plain isn't there for another uranium mill in Utah or anyplace else."
Truman, a former member of the Utah Board of Radiation Control, believes Russia and other countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union have stockpiled huge supplies of uranium. He predicts that "if prices go up, they will flood the market."
The Downwinder says he fears the mill would shift its operation to process certain radioactive wastes that can be processed to extract uranium, noting this is less expensive than sending it to a disposal facility. A uranium mill in San Juan County has remained in operation by this type of process, and environmentalists have voiced concern that the Blanding mill may become transformed into a waste disposal facility rather that a uranium mill.
But owners of the Shoot-A-Ring Canyon Uranium Mill are still optimistic that it will ultimately reopen. They are awaiting the final authorization hurdle of obtaining a permit from the Utah Department of Environmental Quality. And Herron expects that to be forthcoming within several weeks.
The mill was the last to be built in the United States and operated for only two months before the price of uranium plummeted in 1982. It has been maintained on a "stand by" condition since that time, however. About 80 people crowded into the small Ticaboo High School in mid-February to attend a public hearing relative to ground water protection, which is necessary in order to get a permit. Nearly all favored the mill getting into operation again.
State Rep. Tom Hatch, R-Panguitch, said it could save the local economy, and Garfield County Commissioner Louise Listen said "it will revitalize our economy." The basis for a permit is the Utah Water Quality Act, designed to prevent, abate and control the pollution of state waters, according to Rob Herbert, hydro geologist with the state's Division of Radiation Control. He said a siting study was completed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to determine the best location for a water impoundment.
The impoundment is in a natural basin which captures a very small watershed of only 220 acres. Herbert noted that the area has an arid climate with very low precipitation and very high evaporation. The impoundment will contain three main cells with seven sub cells. A double-liner system with leak detection is included in the design.
The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission is the lead agency for radiologic issues for the mill, but Utah has authority over its ground water. The NRC therefore deferred the design and review of the tailings impoundment liner system to the state to avoid dual regulation.
The mill's owner will be required to submit semi-annual ground water monitoring reports and semi-annual liner performance reports. An annual hydro geologic update will also be required and the state will be notified regarding future construction.
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12. Nuclear waste arrives at N.M. repository Rig is met with cheers, jeers and blockade Photo: http://usatoday.com/news/photos/26nuke.jpg
ALSO: USA Today, March 27, 1999 http://usatoday.com/news/ndsfri01.htm Nuke Waste Reaches Dump Cheers and Jeers Mark Delivery to Storage Site http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/nuclearwaste990326.html AP Photo/ http://abcnews.go.com/media/Science/images/apr_carlsbad990322_h.jpg U.S. Says Nuclear Waste Arrives Safely In N.Mexico http://www.webcrawler.com/news/r/990327/00/news-environment-nuclear March 27, 1999 By Patrick Connole, Reuters
CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) - A big rig loaded with radioactive waste arrived Friday at the nation's first nuclear waste dump after a historic 270-mile journey through cheers, jeers and an attempted blockade.
The truck left Los Alamos National Laboratory in northern New Mexico and traveled south to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, a 7 1/2-hour trip that followed a quarter-century of studies, protests and lawsuits.
''I'm ecstatic - this is just the culmination of everything I've worked for 25 years,'' said Wendell Weart, a Sandia National Laboratories scientist who was instrumental in creating WIPP.
The nuclear waste is expected to be buried early next week after arriving at the plant this morning.
The $1.8 billion facility is designed to gather contaminated material from 23 sites spread across 16 states into a single depository carved out of ancient salt caverns nearly half a mile below ground. The sites are mainly Department of Energy installations and institutions that have DOE research contracts.
An appellate court in Washington, D.C., and a federal judge in Santa Fe on Wednesday rejected last-ditch appeals from environmentalists who sought to scuttle the transfer.
The driver gave a thumbs-up as he left Los Alamos on Thursday evening, and a crowd of about 100 people cheered in response.
But down the road in Santa Fe, a hub of anti-WIPP sentiment, dozens of protesters lined the route holding up placards that read ''Stop Nuke Trucks'' and ''Science or Science Fiction?''
William Beems, 42, of Albuquerque, was arrested after he tried to block the truck's path by parking his car across the roadway, said state Public Safety Secretary Darren White. An advance team of officers cleared the way.
The truck carried about 600 pounds of waste - plutonium-contaminated clothing, gloves, booties, filters, coveralls, plastic covers and metal cans. The waste was packed in boxes loaded in three specially designed stainless steel containers, each about 8 feet wide and 10 feet high.
Most of the material was from the lab's manufacture of nuclear batteries used in NASA deep space probes, such as the Voyager missions.
Eventually, such shipments will become ''highly routine,'' lab spokesman Kevin Roark said.
''WIPP shipments will go out every week and no one will even notice,'' he said. ''There was more fanfare for the first shipment because of its historical significance.''
Eventually, about 37,000 shipments will fill WIPP's underground storage rooms and become entombed by salt over the next 30 years.
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Message: 5 Date: Sat, 27 Mar 1999 09:10:12 -0500 From: et in dc <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-1-Int'l. 3/26-27/99 - Russia/US - Uranium Deal; Missile Defense; Cameco/Nuc Weapons-Russia
1. U.S. And Russia Sign Uranium Sales Deal
By JUDITH MILLER, New York Times, March 27, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/world/us-russia-uranium.html
UNITED NATIONS -- Russia and the United States have quietly signed an agreement that salvages a $12 billion deal aimed at helping Russia convert uranium from its nuclear weapons into fuel for U.S. nuclear reactors, Clinton administration officials said Friday.
The program to convert highly enriched uranium into low-enrichment fuel is the key component of a three-part package and part of the administration's effort to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, administration officials said. The United States and Russia have already taken steps to safeguard Russia's nuclear-weapons material and contain damage from a nuclear accident should one occur.
The latest agreement was signed without publicity at a ceremony at the Energy Department on Wednesday night, just hours after cruise missiles began hitting targets in Yugoslavia. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson and Russian Atomic Energy Minister Yevgeny Adamov toasted each other with champagne.
The accord was supposed to have been announced at the end of the planned visit by Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, but he aborted his visit en route to Washington on Tuesday after NATO authorized the attacks on Yugoslavia.
Richardson said Friday that the new agreement put the uranium-conversion deal, which was originally signed in 1993 but quickly ran into trouble, "on solid ground for years to come."
"Russia benefits and America benefits," he added, "and that, more than anything, symbolizes our new relationship. We seek mutual security, not separate advantage."
Deeply in debt and in desperate need of billions of dollars in Western loans, Russia will now be able to sell 500 metric tons of uranium from its nuclear warheads, worth an estimated $12 billion, to the United States government and energy companies over the next 20 years.
An administration official said that under the 1993 agreement, Russia diluted about 30 tons of weapons-grade uranium that was supposed to be sold to the West. But the deal snagged over disputes about the terms of the sale after uranium prices plunged, and Russia stopped diluting the uranium last year.
Last fall Congress and the administration agreed to spend $325 million to buy the natural uranium that had accumulated at market prices. The administration then helped Russia conclude deals with three energy companies -- Cameco of Canada, Cogema of France, and Nukem of Germany. The contacts were signed two days ago, the administration official said.
The second part of the new agreement sets up two centers for enhancing nuclear safety in Russia and the United States. The centers, which will cost Washington about $1 million to open and up to $2 million a year when fully operating, are supposed to enable Russian and U.S. nuclear experts to cooperate in resolving environmental issues associated with managing radioactive waste and decontaminating plants that are taken out of commission.
The U.S. center will be located at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory in Idaho Falls, the historical home of research reactors and advanced test reactors. A site for the Russian center has not been determined, but it will be in Moscow.
The third part provides U.S. assistance to help the Russian Atomic Energy Ministry establish a nuclear crisis center similar to the Department of Energy's Emergency Operations Center in Washington. The goal is to assemble experts and resources quickly to help protect people in the event of an accident at a nuclear plant.
Discussing Adamov's decision to stay in Washington despite disagreements over the Yugoslavia bombing, the senior administration who described the new accord said: "We've had a lot of ups and downs, politically and economically in our relationship. But we've both kept our eyes on the importance of the shared goal of helping Russia control its nuclear material and know-how."
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2. State Department cable argues of a loophole in missile defense bill
By Bill Gertz, THE WASHINGTON TIMES, March 26, 1999
http://www.washtimes.com/news/news3.html#link
he State Department is quietly informing overseas embassies that, despite Senate approval of a bill to establish a national missile defense, the administration does not have to deploy such a system.
Two amendments added to the Senate bill last week prompted President Clinton to drop his veto threat and offer the administration a loophole to avoid deployment, according to an internal State Department cable obtained by The Washington Times. The cable, sent March 19 to U.S. embassies in Moscow, Beijing and other capitals in Europe and Asia, directs U.S. officials there to "draw upon the materials contained herein in addressing this matter" with concerned foreign governments.
Many Republicans were surprised by last week's abrupt decision by Mr. Clinton and Senate Democrats to support the missile defense bill after years of opposition. Democrats fear deployment of a national missile defense system might upset arms-control efforts.
"The administration is purposely distorting the actions taken by the Senate on this vital legislation," Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott told The Washington Times. "What's worse, this cable seems to encourage our embassies around the world to launch a disinformation campaign about the bill."
The cable states the Clinton administration has set up four roadblocks to deploying a national missile defense (NMD) that remain unaffected by the Senate bill. However, Mr. Clinton is willing to sign the legislation anyway.
The National Missile Defense Act states simply that a limited and effective defense of U.S. territory will be built as soon as "technologically possible."
"I think it's a blatant effort to distort the true meaning of the bill," said Sen. Thad Cochran, Mississippi Republican and a sponsor of the legislation.
The missile defense bill was approved by the Senate on a 97-3 vote last week. The House passed a similar version, also last week, and a conference to work out differences will be held after Congress returns from its Easter recess.
One Senate amendment being cited by the administration cable states that a missile defense system will be subject to congressional authorizing and appropriating processes, as with any other weapons program.
The cable said the administration views that amendment as "underscoring that no deployment decision has been made." The second amendment urges continuing arms talks with the Russians and "confirms that U.S. policy with regard to the possible deployment of a limited NMD must take into account our objectives with regard to arms control."
Mr. Cochran angrily disagreed. The amendments are "superficial" and do not affect the bill's central statement of the need to deploy defenses as soon as technologically possible, he said.
"The administration is trying to make it appear that deployment of an NMD system is based upon agreement with the Russians," Mr. Cochran said. "The bill does say that we should continue to pursue arms reductions, but it doesn't say anything about whether they have to be successful."
Robert Bell, the White House National Security Council arms-control specialist, said the cable lays out the administration's view that the amendments fundamentally altered the main policy statement concerning deployment.
Mr. Bell said the bill includes language that links congressional authorization, funding and arms control directly to any deployment decision.
"By making it clear that deployment policy is subject to authorization and appropriation and making the president co-equal in the process, we believe the bill amendments made clear that there is no deployment decision," he said.
"We have our view, the Congress has its view, and we're entitled to our view," Mr. Bell said in an interview.
A Republican Senate aide said the administration's interpretation of the legislation "is about as credible as Al Gore's claim that he is a backwoodsman who invented the Internet." The aide said the language on funding merely states that, like all discretionary programs, missile defense will be funded annually.
"This bill makes a deployment decision. It does not make a production decision," the aide said. "With passage of the bill, there no longer is a question of whether a system will be deployed, only a question of when the technology is ready."
Regarding the cable's statement on "possible" deployment of a system, the aide said "there is nothing 'possible' about the deployment."
"It is a complete falsehood that the language of the second amendment forces consideration of U.S. 'objectives with regard to arms control' before deployment," he said. "This is pure administration spin."
The cable was signed by Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and included a statement by Mr. Clinton issued after the bill was passed. Under a section labeled "White House points," the cable said one amendment means the "the president has not proposed that any funds be authorized or appropriated in fiscal year 2000 defense budget for NMD deployment."
According to the cable, the president will not request deployment funds unless the missile threat has "materialized as quickly as we now expect it will," if the technology works and is affordable, and if such a defense does not conflict with arms control considerations.
Regarding the latter, the White House will only deploy a missile defense after determining how deploying a missile defense system affects "our objectives with regard to achieving further reductions in strategic nuclear arms under START two and START three" --strategic arms reduction talks agreements with Russia.
The START II arms treaty has not been ratified by Russia's parliament and START III negotiations are planned if Moscow approves the earlier treaty.
The cable states that the White House views the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which outlaws defending the entire United States from missile attack, is "of fundamental significance" to reaching START arms agreements.
According to the cable, "If asked 'Does this mean the administration will hold NMD hostage to the ABM Treaty?', embassy officials should respond that the treaty is viewed as 'the cornerstone of strategic stability.'"
"At the same time, the administration has also made clear that it will not give Russia -- or any other state -- a veto over any missile defense deployment decision that it believes is vital to our national security interests," the cable said.
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3. Cameco Announces Deal for Uranium Derived from Russian Nuclear Weapons
Business Wire, March 24 1999
http://nt.excite.com/news/bw/990324/dc-cameco
SASKATOON, Saskatchewan and WASHINGTON (BUSINESS WIRE) - March 24, 1999--Cameco Corporation of Canada (TSE:CCO) (ME:CCO) (NYSE:CCJ), along with COGEMA of France and Nukem of the United States and Germany, (collectively, the companies), today announced they have signed a commercial agreement with Techsnabexport (Tenex), the commercial arm of the Russian Federation Ministry of Atomic Energy (MINATOM), for the purchase of natural uranium derived from highly enriched uranium (HEU) contained in Russian nuclear weapons.
The weapons-derived uranium is the result of a 20-year agreement signed in 1993 between the United States and the Russian Federation (the HEU agreement). Under the HEU agreement, 500 metric tons of HEU are to be diluted in Russia and delivered to the United States as low-enriched uranium (LEU), suitable for use in nuclear energy plants. The LEU being delivered during the 20-year period represents approximately 400 million pounds of natural uranium and purchased by the United States.
Under the terms of the commercial agreement, of the approximately 360 million pounds U3O8 scheduled for delivery from Russia to the United States over the 15-year term remaining in the HEU agreement, the companies have exclusive options to purchase about 260 million pounds. The balance of about 100 million pounds U3O8 is available to Tenex.
As required by the HEU agreement, the conclusion of the commercial agreement has been approved by the governments of the United States and the Russian Federation.
The commercial agreement is structured to strictly comply with the HEU agreement and various implementing agreements between the United States and Russia, as well as US and Russian legal requirements. These bilateral agreements and legal requirements, among other things, provide for the creation of stockpiles of uranium in both the United States and Russia, establish the rules governing the disposition of the uranium held therein, and govern the level of sales in the United States market.
The uranium in the US stockpile is comprised of 28 million pounds U3O8 of Russian weapons-derived uranium resulting from the 1997 and 1998 deliveries purchased by the Department of Energy (DOE), plus another 30 million pounds of DOE uranium, all of which is to be held in inventory for a period of 10 years, after which it may be used or sold in accordance with US legislation.
The Russian stockpile will be comprised of all weapons-derived uranium which is not purchased by the companies or by Tenex or a Tenex affiliate, and therefore, returned to Russia pursuant to Russian/US bilateral agreements. From the Russian stockpile, approximately 6.7 million pounds U3O8 per year may be withdrawn by Tenex for blending HEU to produce LEU for delivery to the United States in accordance with the HEU agreement. In accordance with the terms of the bilateral agreements, the remainder of the weapons-derived uranium returned to Russia will be held in the Russian stockpile until it equals in size the US stockpile of 58 million pounds. Uranium in excess of this quantity can be sold by Russia into contracts existing on the date of the closing of the commercial agreement. Disposition of uranium to and from the Russian stockpile will be monitored by the United States government.
Under the terms of the commercial agreement, the companies are able, at their respective options, to purchase a majority of the weapons-derived uranium upon delivery in the United States or, under certain circumstances, from the Russian stockpile referenced above, subject to conditions imposed by the government of the Russian Federation in terms of minimum prices and US quota allocation. The portion of the uranium that may be purchased by Tenex or its authorized affiliate is subject to similar conditions. Assuming the companies fully exercise their options, allocation of the material available to the companies is Cameco 45 percent, COGEMA 45 percent and Nukem 10 percent until 2002 when the split will become 42.5 percent, 42.5 percent and 15 percent, respectively. Cameco's potential share of the material represents more than 100 million pounds U3O8 over the 15-year period and provides an additional source of supply to its customers. Quantities purchased by the companies will be resold by them in international markets. (The current market value of the uranium which the companies are entitled to buy is $2.8 billion US based on today's spot market price of $10.75 US per pound U3O8.)
"The commercial agreement has taken many years to negotiate," commented Bernard Michel, Cameco's chair, president and chief executive officer. "The considerable efforts of the two governments to agree upon an appropriate framework will now allow the commercial implementation of the HEU agreement as first envisaged in 1993 when it was signed. It should permit the Russian Federation to receive maximum value for its weapons-derived uranium, thereby encouraging the process of disarmament. At the same time, the commercial agreement will provide Cameco with additional business opportunities using an alternate source of uranium."
"Equally important," said Michel, "the actions of the two governments and the signing of the commercial agreement remove some major uncertainties that have influenced the market for many years. And, by purchasing this uranium, the industry will be able to contribute in a meaningful way to the destruction of nuclear weapons."
Already, since the signing of the 1993 HEU agreement, some 2,300 Russian nuclear warheads have been dismantled.
Cameco is the world's largest publicly traded uranium producer. The company operates underground uranium mines in Saskatchewan, Canada, in situ leach uranium facilities in Wyoming and Nebraska in the United States, uranium refining and conversion facilities in Ontario, Canada and a gold mine in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia. The company's uranium products are used to generate electricity in nuclear energy plants around the world, providing one of the cleanest sources of energy available today.
Certain statements in this news release constitute forward-looking statements as defined in the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Cameco or of the uranium or gold business to be materially different from future results, performance or achievements express or implied by those forward-looking statements. These factors are discussed in greater detail in Cameco's most recent Annual Information Form and Management Discussion and Analysis on file with the Canadian provincial securities regulatory authorities and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. A backgrounder on this subject is available on Cameco's web site at www.cameco.com or it can be obtained by calling Cameco's fax service at 877/556-1566 or contact the investor and corporate relations department at 306/956-6400.