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Digest 123, originally sent Sun Jul 18 04:15:39 1999 :
There are 19 messages in this issue.
Topics in today's digest:
1. NucNews-16 7/17/99 - Terrorism From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 2. NucNews-14 7/17/99 - Los Alamos; INEEL; Palol Verde AZ; Atlas (Moab) ; Entergy From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 3. NucNews-17 7/17/99 - US From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 4. NucNews-13 7/17/99 - Nuc Labs - Hanford, DOE From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 5. NucNews-15 7/17/99 - Arms Sales From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 6. NucNews-11 7/17/99 - Y2K From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 7. NucNews-18 7/17/99 - Kosovo; NATO/Balkans; Afghanistan From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 8. NucNews-12 7/17/99 - Nuc Workers Compensated; Nuc Biz From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 9. NucNews-0 Brief 7/17/99 - From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 10. NucNews-10 7/17/99 - Chernobyl; UK BNFL From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 11. NucNews-9 7/17/99 - Pakistan, India; Israel From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 12. NucNews-5 7/17/99 - Russia From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 13. NucNews-7 7/17/99 - Australia; Europe; CTBT From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 14. NucNews-8 7/17/99 - Turkey; Iraq From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 15. NucNews-6 7/17/99 - Canada; Iran From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 16. NucNews-3 7/17/99 - China - Neturon Bomb / Taiwan War Games From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 17. NucNews-4 7/17/99 - Greenpeace - Plutonium Ship Japan / Europe From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 18. NucNews-2 7/17/99 - Japan - Reactor Leak / China Neutron Bomb / Korea Missiles From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 19. NucNews-1 7/17/99 - Depleted Uranium - Kosovo / Iraq / Puerto Rico; Energy From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx
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Message: 1 Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 05:15:24 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-16 7/17/99 - Terrorism
72. Government commission urges reorganization of agencies to handle nuclear threats
July 16, 1999 Associated Press / Deseret News (Utah) http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1,1249,100011252,00.html?
WASHINGTON (AP) Concerned about a series of doomsday scenarios ranging from an anthrax release in Boston to an Iraqi nerve gas attack on U.S. troops, a government commission proposes a far-reaching reform of agencies now handling such threats.
President Clinton said the recommendations "deserve serious consideration." He directed his national security adviser, Sandy Berger, to coordinate an interagency assessment and to report back within 60 days.
The commission's report details a plan to give the vice president the lead role in preventing and dealing with the threat of weapons of mass destruction and calls for appointment of a high-profile national director for nonproliferation
In a separate report, a congressional study estimated it would cost a city of 500,000 about $1.3 million to acquire basic equipment to prepare for a hazardous material incident and $12 million to be "highly prepared" for a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear event.
The commission's main proposals and conclusions were disclosed last week in interviews, but former CIA Director John Deutch, who headed the panel, released details of its work Wednesday.
"We believe the country needs to be better protected," Deutch said, introducing his congressionally established 12-member panel at the Capitol.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the commission's vice chairman, was to introduce legislation that would tighten export controls on items that might be used to manufacture heavily destructive weapons, including requiring electronic registration of all sales of such products a practice he said should be adopted worldwide.
"We are woefully unprepared, and we would like to see something done before some incident occurs," Specter said.
The commission concludes that the top levels of government are "not effectively organized to combat proliferation" and recommends more presidential and vice presidential involvement in the issue, as well as a reorganization of the nearly 100 agencies now dealing with the issue.
One commission member, former Democratic Sen. James Exon of Nebraska, dissenting from the report's main recommendation, urged greater Cabinet-level involvement and a nonproliferation director who would report directly to the president.
"What has been crafted, in my opinion, is another lower-level 'working group,' " Exon said.
To underscore the motivation for its proposals, the commission listed four scenarios it said could occur:
Anthrax is released in a Boston subway station during rush hour, sending 6,000 people to hospital emergency rooms.
Analysts estimate that North Korean scientists have assembled 10 nuclear weapons, and intelligence reports say North Korea is planning to sell two.
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein orders Scud missiles carrying nerve agents fired upon U.S. troops in Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
A disgruntled Russian scientist at Ozersk acquires 44 pounds of highly enriched uranium and sells it to Iran.
"These events have not taken place," it said. "But they could."
In the separate General Accounting Office report, investigators compiled estimates of the resources it would take to meet a catastrophic attack on a U.S. city of 500,000.
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U.S. Terrorist Threats Detailed
By David Briscoe Associated Press Writer Thursday, July 15, 1999; 2:55 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990715/V000140-071599-idx.html http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Doomsday-Threat.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Concerned about a series of doomsday scenarios ranging from an anthrax release in Boston to an Iraqi nerve gas attack on U.S. troops, a government commission proposes a far-reaching reform of agencies now handling such threats.
President Clinton said the recommendations ``deserve serious consideration.'' He directed his national security adviser, Sandy Berger, to coordinate an interagency assessment and to report back within 60 days.
The commission's report released Wednesday details a plan to give the vice president the lead role in preventing and dealing with the threat of weapons of mass destruction and calls for appointment of a high-profile national director for nonproliferation
In a separate report, a congressional study estimated it would cost a city of 500,000 about $1.3 million to acquire basic equipment to prepare for a hazardous material incident and $12 million to be ``highly prepared'' for a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear event.
The commission's main proposals and conclusions were disclosed last week in interviews, but former CIA Director John Deutch, who headed the panel, released details of its work Wednesday.
``We believe the country needs to be better protected,'' Deutch said, introducing his congressionally-established 12-member panel at the Capitol.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the commission's vice chairman, announced plans to introduce legislation today that would tighten export controls on items that might be used to manufacture heavily destructive weapons, including requiring electronic registration of all sales of such products-- a practice he said should be adopted worldwide.
``We are woefully unprepared, and we would like to see something done before some incident occurs,'' Specter said.
The commission concludes that the top levels of government are ``not effectively organized to combat proliferation'' and recommends more presidential and vice presidential involvement in the issue, as well as a reorganization of the nearly 100 agencies now dealing with the issue.
One commission member, former Democratic Sen. James Exon of Nebraska, dissenting from the report's main recommendation, urged greater Cabinet-level involvement and a nonproliferation director who would report directly to the president.
``What has been crafted, in my opinion, is another lower-level 'working group,''' Exon said.
To underscore the motivation for its proposals, the commission listed four scenarios it said could occur:
--Anthrax is released in a Boston subway station during rush hour, sending 6,000 people to hospital emergency rooms.
--Analysts estimate that North Korean scientists have assembled 10 nuclear weapons, and intelligence reports say North Korea is planning to sell two.
--Iraqi President Saddam Hussein orders Scud missiles carrying nerve agents fired upon U.S. troops in Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
--A disgruntled Russian scientist at Ozersk acquires 44 pounds of highly enriched uranium and sells it to Iran.
``These events have not taken place,'' it said. ``But they could.''
In the separate General Accounting Office report, investigators compiled estimates of the resources it would take to meet a catastrophic attack on a U.S. city of 500,000. The report cautions that the estimates and accompanying list of needed supplies are meant only to be illustrative of possible needs.
For a typical hazardous materials incident, it estimated $1.3 million to procure materials ranging from duct tape to mobil comand posts and another $3.3 million to sustain the preparedness over 10 years.
For a high level of preparation, the estimates were $12.2 million for initial procurement and $42.9 million over a decade.
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Cohen Voices U.S. Nuclear Concern
By John Diamond Associated Press Writer Thursday, July 15, 1999; 4:27 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990715/V000667-071599-idx.html
SHANNON, Ireland (AP) -- Defense Secretary William Cohen said Thursday it makes little difference from a security standpoint whether China developed its own neutron bomb instead of stealing the technology from U.S. labs. The United States, he said, is more concerned about other nations gaining nuclear technology.
Cohen, returning from a European tour, said that until Congress completes its examination of a legislative report into losses of military technology to China it's premature to conclude how China gained its nuclear knowledge.
``I don't find it to be a particularly fruitful discussion as to whether they claim to have this capability internally or have acquired it elsewhere,'' Cohen said. ``The fact that's of concern to all of us is that there seems to be a proliferation of nuclear technology to a number of countries.''
``China has had a nuclear capability for some time,'' he added. ``Our concern has been that other countries not acquire it.''
In Beijing, China declared that it had invented its own neutron bomb, making an unprecedented disclosure about its nuclear arsenal to counter U.S. accusations of atomic spying. China is known to have exploded a neutron bomb in 1988, but never announced it.
The bombs are meant to produce a smaller blast than conventional nuclear weapons but more intense radiation, limiting physical damage while killing large numbers of people.
The Clinton administration took the news in stride.
White House press secretary Joe Lockhart said, ``We have some sense of ... their capabilities,'' which he would not describe. ``We have no doubt that our nuclear deterrent is strong enough to protect our national interests.''
On another matter, Lockhart said U.S. officials have been assured by Taiwanese leaders that there has been no fundamental change in policy despite President Lee Teng-hui's statement he wanted ``state-to-state'' relations with China. Lee maintains he still seeks Taiwan reunification with China, however.
Beijing responded by threatening to act militarily against Taiwan, which China considers a renegade province, if Taipei makes any independence moves.
``We believe that the rhetoric from both sides is not helpful,'' Lockhart said. ``But our policy toward China and Taiwan remains unchanged. And we have been assured in diplomatic conversations and there have been some public statements that the fundamental position of Taiwan has also not changed.''
On Tuesday, Taiwan declared its official policy toward China would be ``one nation, two states.'' The United States maintains a ``one China'' policy, recognizing Beijing as the official government since 1979.
Cohen said that tensions in the region had not yet escalated to the point where U.S. naval forces are moving to discourage conflict.
In 1996, when a Chinese missile exercise approached dangerously close to Taiwan, the United States moved two aircraft carriers to the area as a signal that the saber-rattling by Beijing should stop.
``There's been no such request to move any ships at this time,'' Cohen told reporters on his way home from a weeklong visit to NATO allies in Europe.
``If there's a shift on the part of Taiwan declaring its independence or its quest for independence, that could certainly cause a rather significant increase in tensions,'' he added. ``We have reiterated our own commitment to the one-China policy.''
The sudden new concern about Taiwan has added another complication to U.S.-Chinese relations, strained by possible Chinese espionage at U.S. nuclear weapons labs in the 1980s and by the May 7 accidental NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.
On another security issue, Cohen said U.S. intelligence is trying to determine where and when the next terrorist attack by exiled Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden is planned. Bin Laden is the suspected mastermind of the bombings last summer of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
``Based on information that I have been following, he remains dedicated to trying to conduct a terrorist operation,'' Cohen said. ``Whether it is in the final stages or intermediate stages, we are satisfied that he intends to continue his campaign of terror and we are just as determined to try and prevent it.''
Cohen visited European allies cloaked in security heightened in the wake of the 11-week Kosovo bombing campaign. In the middle of the trip, Cohen made a last-minute schedule switch, stopping in Tuzla, Bosnia, instead of Albania, where he intended to meet U.S. troops as well as several of Albania's top leaders. Cohen said he went to Bosnia to be able to meet with a larger number of troops, but did not entirely dismiss the idea that security was a factor.
``Wherever we go we anticipate and try and take into account that security is a concern,'' Cohen said.
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U.S. Preparedness Faulted Weapons of Mass Destruction Concern Panel
By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, July 9, 1999; Page A02 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/09/095l-070999-idx.html
Calling the U.S. government unprepared to prevent or cope with a chemical, biological or nuclear attack, a bipartisan commission headed by former CIA director John M. Deutch has recommended the appointment of a national director to coordinate the nation's defense against weapons of mass destruction.
At least a dozen terrorist groups have expressed an interest in or actively sought chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, and there is an "urgent need" for better intelligence about foreign plants that may produce such weapons, the commission's report says.
The 176-page report by Deutch's group, formally called the Commission to Assess the Organization of the Federal Government to Combat the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, is scheduled for release next week. It was made available yesterday to The Washington Post after a summary was published by the Baltimore Sun.
The report concludes that the government's current efforts both to prevent the spread of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and to cope with the possible use of such weapons in a terrorist attack are disorganized.
The new national director for combating proliferation would sit on the National Security Council and chair a group of senior officials who would coordinate policy. Such a structure might not "solve" the problem, the report says, but it would at least provide a comprehensive and thorough approach.
The report says research on foreign efforts to produce chemical and biological agents "is fragmented among the CIA, the Army and [Energy Department] laboratories."
At the same time, "despite the expenditure of several billion dollars" since the 1991 Gulf War, the vulnerability of U.S. troops to chemical and biological weapons has only increased, the report says.
The report cites other examples of "many separate government agencies that have overlapping jurisdiction" over aspects of the problem. It suggests that the vice president could be put in charge of nonproliferation efforts, a move that the panel's vice chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), said "would institutionalize the commitment from the White House."
The panel notes that in January the FBI placed proliferation on its list of national security threats and set up a special unit to investigate "the acquisition of U.S. technology for the development of weapons of mass destruction by foreign countries." In the face of allegations of Chinese espionage at the nation's nuclear weapons labs, the FBI contracted with the Energy Department to have the laboratories "identify technologies and industry sectors which might be targets" for those "bent on acquiring weapons of mass destruction."
One of the panel's unusual complaints is directed at Congress, which it says "must also put its house in order."
It calls on the House and Senate to reduce the number of committees with oversight and budgetary responsibility for nonproliferation programs, noting that there are 10 in the House alone. It also calls for a reduction in the number of reports on nuclear, chemical and biological weapons issues that Congress demands from the executive branch. It lists 112 separate reports in an appendix.
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US Not Ready for Nuclear Threat
By David Briscoe Associated Press Writer Friday, July 9, 1999; 4:40 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990709/V000440-070999-idx.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A government panel proposes yet another role for the vice president: stopping the threat of weapons of mass destruction.
Describing ``a chilling new reality'' for Americans, the commission set up by Congress to assess federal response to the threat of nuclear, chemical and biological attack concludes that the top levels of government are ``not effectively organized to combat proliferation.''
In a report to be issued next week, it proposes a ``special role'' for the vice president in overseeing federal response to the danger and appointment of a ``national director to combat proliferation.''
The director would coordinate diplomatic steps to stop the spread of such weapons and direct a high-level, heavily funded program to prevent the targeting of Americans and respond adequately to any attack.
Carefully avoiding criticism of the current or any other administration, the panel headed by former CIA Director John Deutch recommends strong presidential and vice presidential leadership, a single budget for the effort and changes in several federal agencies.
The Commission to Assess the Organization of the Federal Government to Combat the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction presents its 140-page report to Congress next Wednesday, but commission members discussed their findings in interviews Thursday after press reports on some of their conclusions.
``We think the threat is much more severe than commonly appreciated by the American people, and government is not well-organized to deal with it,'' Deutch said.
The most critical weakness is the lack of central direction in preparing federal agencies for such a major crisis, he said. ``We have to be prepared to deal with it, and we're not.''
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., commission vice chairman, said the report proposes a strong role for the vice president in redirecting funding and authority to combat proliferation. Other panel members suggested, however, the effectiveness of that idea might depend on how much authority future presidents give to their second in command.
``We are discoordinated and unprepared -- somewhere between anarchy and bedlam,'' said Specter. ``I think the report is tremendously important and has to be acted upon before we have to react to terrible situations.''
Daniel Poneman, former NSC proliferation expert, said the commission stressed the need to have a coordinated effort against proliferation -- an effort now divided among several federal agencies, each with separate budgets.
``We would like to see all the budget chunks put in one place, counted up and analyzed to see if they are optimally directed,'' Poneman said. The vice president would have the influence to do this by dealing directly with cabinet secretaries, he said.
The proposed national director would then coordinate efforts at diplomacy, export control and domestic preparedness with a new Combating Proliferation Council made up of deputy-level officials from various agencies.
A summary of the commission's conclusions calls for ``the most effective and efficient organization this country can muster.'' The law creating the commission, however, prevented it from assessing or recommending specific police and military response capabilities.
Henry F. Cooper, former head of the Strategic Defense Initiative and a panel member, said he wished the commission could have gone further.
``You can't separate prevention and response,'' he said. ``There's a real deterrent value associated with our ability to deal with these situations.''
The proposed national director would coordinate protection of Americans against any attack aimed at causing widespread disruption, destruction and death, as well as measures for dealing with the crisis should it occur at home or abroad.
The proposal got a cool response from one Pentagon official. Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre said the existing lines of authority are sufficiently clear and do not require the appointment of a special coordinator.
Threats analyzed in the report include terrorist use of weapons of mass destruction, possession of such weapons by rogue states, diversion of weapons materials from Russia and China and the ``destabilizing consequences of (nuclear and other) programs in the Middle East, South Asia and East Asia.''
The report does not rank the dangers to Americans but stresses the possibility of new threats emerging without notice, Deutch said.
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U.S. Nuke Agency Wants Terror Drills At Plants
03:54 p.m Jul 16, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Friday proposed requiring nuclear plant owners to conduct more frequent drills for dealing with a terrorist attack.
In a statement, the nuclear agency said it had begun writing a new rule to replace the agency's Operational Safeguards Response Evaluations (OSRE) program. NRC said drills would be more frequent under the new measure, and maintain OSRE requirements for field exercises using mock terrorists.
``NRC will likely continue to use private contractors to assist in its evaluation of the performance of its licensees during drills and exercises in which a mock terrorist force attempts to compromise the security of nuclear power plants by gaining access to vital equipment,'' the agency said.
Rep. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat and frequent critic of the NRC safety programs, has for months complained about efforts to cancel the OSRE program.
Last May, Markey released a letter to his office from then NRC Chairman Shirley Jackson in which she revealed that a nuclear power plant had been the recent target of a terrorist threat. Markey said the threat was proof of the need for increased vigilance.
NRC said the new security program will be incorporated into the agency's baseline inspection system when it is fully in place next year. A pilot program is currently underway evaluating nine nuclear plants throughout the country.
The U.S. has 103 operating nuclear power plants, generating some 20 percent of the nation's electricity supply.
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- Sixteenth message - _____________________
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Message: 2 Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 05:14:48 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-14 7/17/99 - Los Alamos; INEEL; Palol Verde AZ; Atlas (Moab) ; Entergy
62. Compromised: The Los Alamos Lab
Wednesday, July 7, 1999; Page A18 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/07/049l-070799-idx.html
Accountability exists more in rhetoric than in fact at Los Alamos National Laboratory [news story, June 20].
The U.S. Department of Energy, under the stewardship of Bill Richardson, seeks to blame everyone while at the same time pinning responsibility on no one. The secretary does not explain why significant problems at the lab go unresolved for years if not decades. He ignores the fact that for years the General Accounting Office and the Office of Inspector General audit reports have raised serious concerns regarding the stewardship of the lab. Public officials such as himself are the reason such reports are all but ignored.
When employees try to bring serious problems to the attention of management, they are no longer considered "team players." The internal audit and assessment process at the Los Alamos National Laboratory is tightly controlled, and practices that reflect badly on senior management rarely surface.
The Department of Energy is a paper tiger when it comes to providing meaningful oversight at the lab. Sen. Pete Domenici's influence over the Energy Department's budget is one reason why. His political base is strengthened by ensuring the contract for the lab's management oversight remains with the University of California; the contract has never been subject to competitive bidding in nearly 60 years.
Oversight provided by the University of California, an institution 1,000 miles distant from the lab, is marginal, and the political protection provided by the university is a major reason why the lab's corporate culture can ignore public mandates with impunity -- including those dealing with health, safety and security.
MANUEL TRUJILLO
CHUCK MONTANO
Los Alamos, N.M.
Mr. Trujillo works at the Los Alamos National Laboratory as an electrical engineer. Mr. Montano, an auditor, works in the lab director's office.
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Security Gaps Present at Nuke Lab
By The Associated Press, July 17, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-Nuclear-Labs.html
LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) -- A national laboratory insider determined to steal secrets still could copy files off the lab's classified computers onto a floppy disk and walk out, said the Energy Department's new security czar.
``Unfortunately, those problems won't be fixed for a year or so. That's what concerns me most,'' retired Air Force Gen. Eugene Habiger, the agency's new security chief, said Friday. ``Have they got more work to do? You bet.''
Habiger said it will take more than a year to close the computer security gaps that put the federal nuclear weapons lab in Los Alamos at the center of a political firestorm over secrets allegedly stolen by the Chinese.
Los Alamos is gradually tightening the security of its classified network of roughly 2,000 personal computers, workstations, and supercomputers. It will take until September 2000 to create a network where information cannot be copied to floppy disks, tapes or CDs, said lab spokesman Jim Danneskiold.
Habiger took over as the Energy Department's director of security and emergency operations on June 16. He inspected Los Alamos most of last week, drawing up lists of security problems.
Habiger faces a difficult task winning scientists and engineers over to mandatory polygraph testing, which Energy Secretary Bill Richardson ordered two months ago. Some lab workers view the lie-detector tests as an unscientific, politically driven insult to their trustworthiness.
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63. Nuclear incinerator gets OK from Wyoming Officials say INEEL project a small risk; hearing proposed
July 15, 1999 Spokane Net http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=071599&ID=s606765&cat=
CHEYENNE, Wyo. _ A proposed nuclear waste incinerator in eastern Idaho would not threaten air quality in Wyoming, state officials said.
Dan Olson, Air Quality Division administrator for the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, said his agency was satisfied with its review of an analysis from the Idaho Division of Environmental Quality.
"We didn't find anything that would cause us not to issue a permit or propose to offer a permit in the same conditions," he said.
Olson said environmental regulators from both states are trying to arrange a late-August date for a public meeting in Jackson to discuss the proposed waste incinerator at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory.
Some Jackson residents have questioned the effects of the nuclear waste incinerator's emissions on their town, which is downwind from the facility, and other areas in western Wyoming.
The Idaho Division of Environmental Quality is allowing Wyoming to review the air quality analysis on behalf of the Jackson residents, including renowned attorney Gerry Spence. But Idaho air quality engineer Mike Simon said his agency would continue the permitting process.
"Right now we are reviewing the comments received and making changes where appropriate in the permit," he said.
Idaho's proposed permit would allow British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. to begin building the $1.2 billion Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Facility in the fall. The permit sets limits on more than a dozen emissions, from carbon monoxide and radionuclides to lead and arsenic.
The incinerator that would reduce the volume of plutonium-contaminated waste destined for permanent storage in an underground New Mexico dump still requires another state permit and a federal permit.
Olson said his division briefly reviewed, among other things, Idaho's requirements, limitations on air pollution and the proposed filtering equipment on the incinerator stack.
While there will be radioactive emissions, Olson said, "How much of those might find their way to Jackson," or other parts of western Wyoming, "is a question that you have to answer through modeling."
He said the Idaho agency has found that the health risk of the predicted emissions is small, "but it's not nonexistent."
"I don't want to minimize anybody's concerns. Exposure to nuclear materials is a very serious thing," Olson said. "I think people have the right to be concerned that the people who are supposed to be taking care of those kinds of things are doing everything properly."
The landmark 1995 nuclear waste agreement struck by former Idaho Gov. Phil Batt requires the U.S. Department of Energy to start operating the treatment plant by March 2003. The facility would process about 65,000 cubic meters of waste now stored in decaying barrels and boxes above ground at the INEEL in its first 13 years of operation.
Most of the plutonium-contaminated waste stored at the INEEL must be treated in some fashion before being shipped to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Facility would do that, as well as handling up to another 120,000 cubic meters of waste from other federal sites.
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Panel to review safety issues at INEEL cleanup site
Associated Press - July 11, 1999 http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=071199&ID=s607021&cat= (Letters to Editor from same website)
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho -- The U.S. Department of Energy has received conflicting opinions about the dangers of proceeding with a plan to take samples from a one-acre patch of buried radioactive waste at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory.
Because of concerns from an anonymous employee, the agency has appointed a panel of five outside consultants to determine if drilling into Pit 9 could cause chemicals in the waste to explode or ignite.
Managers had originally hoped to begin drilling in Pit 9, which contains a mixture of barrels, boots, rags and debris contaminated with plutonium and hazardous chemicals, last September.
But delays, prompted by numerous safety concerns and mechanical problems with a drill rig, are the latest in a string of obstacles.
The original subcontractor on the job was fired last year after it became clear that its cleanup technology would not work. That company is now being sued to recover the $54 million that was spent on the job.
Radioactive debris in the pit, which was produced during nuclear weapons production at the Rocky Flats site in Colorado, was dumped in the late 1960s and has been decaying underground ever since.
Department of Energy-Idaho spokesman Brad Bugger said the agency realized from the beginning that some of the buried chemicals -- sodium nitrates, potassium and organic chemicals -- could possibly ignite or explode when drilling was done into the pit.
But contractor Lockheed Martin Idaho initially found that risk to be low and recommended moving forward with the project, Bugger said.
And another review by the Energy Department found that a fire involving a few barrels of waste was possible but that a larger fire or explosion was unlikely.
The independent panel, chaired by Hugh Thompson of Scientech Inc., will sort through conflicting opinions and issue a report in September.
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64. Nuclear Plant at Center of Cost Debate Regulators will help decide how much of Palo Verde's construction tab will be passed on to customers
By Walter Berry The Associated Press, Monday, July 12, 1999 http://www.abqjournal.com/biz/3bout07-12.htm
PHOENIX -- To some, it's a three-headed, billion-dollar dinosaur in the desert headed for ultimate extinction. Others call it a model of efficiency whose time finally has arrived.
Whatever the label, there are two sure things about the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station.
It has become one of the most efficient in the world, and its $9.3 billion construction cost will remain a center of debate in coming years as New Mexico, Arizona and Texas move to a competitive electric market.
Regulators will help decide how much customers pay of that remaining construction tab to open up the industry.
The three domed reactors at Palo Verde, the nation's largest nuclear power plant in terms of both size and output, produced 30.2 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in 1998, more than any other U.S. power plant, according to plant statistics. That ranked Palo Verde as the world's fifth-largest nuclear power producer.
The record output level is expected to be matched this year by the plant, which is running above 89 percent capacity for the fourth consecutive year while continuing to cut production, operation and maintenance costs, plant officials say.
And that's good news for its owners.
PNM's interest
Arizona Public Service Co. is Palo Verde's majority owner with a 29.1 percent share. It operates the plant for a consortium of six other utilities in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas.
Public Service Company of New Mexico owns 10.2 percent interest, and El Paso Electric Co., which serves several thousand customers in southern New Mexico, owns 15.8 percent of the plant.
When Palo Verde first entered commercial service 13 years ago, it was widely criticized for its decade-long construction, which resulted in a final price tag of $9.3 billion.
The cost helped push El Paso Electric into bankruptcy protection in 1992. The plant still supplies power to 4 million customers in Arizona and three neighboring states, including New Mexico. But for many years, Palo Verde generated as much negative news as it did electricity.
"We remember those days as lessons learned, and we hope we never go back to them," said Jim Levine, chief nuclear officer for Arizona Public Service Co.
"As far as a turnaround, it boils down to two key things -- setting a direction and making sure everybody understands what that direction is," added Levine, who was responsible for the day-to-day operations at Palo Verde from September 1989 until September 1996.
Palo Verde's first 243-foot-tall reactor -- located in remote Wintersburg, 55 miles west of downtown Phoenix -- went on line in February 1986. Unit 2 went into service in April of that year, and the third identical 1,270-megawatt unit started up in January 1988.
Inauspicious start
The complex, with its mini-city maze of buildings, cooling ponds and power lines spread out over 4,050 acres, was productive only 23 percent of the time in 1989 due to maintenance problems. Federal regulators called that record abysmal.
The level was up to 58 percent in 1990, still under the then-industry average of 66 percent. While crews struggled to keep the units running -- with some outages lasting months longer than expected -- Palo Verde officials were busy dealing with federal fines and disgruntled employees.
The National Regulatory Commission fined the plant nearly $1 million from 1989-96 for safety and security violations, problems relating to emergency shutdowns and retaliating against whistle-blowers.
Palo Verde also made national headlines with a leak from a reactor coolant system that caused up to 15,000 gallons of radioactive water to spill out the door of a turbine building in 1993. The plant made the news again in 1996 when a 1,500-pound uranium fuel bundle took days to get unstuck in Unit's 2 reactor core.
Since then, things have turned around for the plant.
Production costs dropped from 2.49 cents per kilowatt hour in 1990 to 1.33 cents in 1997, far below the national nuclear average of 2.18 cents. Meanwhile, operation and maintenance costs fell to $325 million from a high of $422 million in 1991.
NRC praise
Palo Verde also received some of the highest performance ratings available from the NRC and the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations in 1997 and 1998.
Even El Paso Electric seems to have forgotten about the $1 billion investment that helped push it to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
"That was a long time ago. We came out of bankruptcy in 1996," said El Paso Electric spokeswoman Teresa Souza. "We still have a large stake in Palo Verde, we get 50 percent of our energy from it, and it's been performing wonderfully for us the past few years."
But for how much longer?
Palo Verde is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2026, although Levine said the plant is aiming to apply for an operating life extension.
Half of the nation's 100-plus nuclear plants are scheduled to be decommissioned by 2020, and no new ones have been built in the last 20 years.
Experts say the public never embraced the idea of nuclear power, even though it's the second-cheapest source of energy next to coal. And many people are still haunted by the accidents at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island plant in 1979 and in the Soviet Union at Chernobyl in 1986.
"There's also the problem that the industry has yet to figure out what to do with the spent (radioactive) waste," said Dave Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer with the Washington-based Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit watchdog group. "But basically, nuclear power plants are fading out because of economics. They're simply not cost competitive in most cases.
"As deregulation sweeps the country, the key for plants like Palo Verde will be staying competitive with their electric costs," Lochbaum added. "Until the deregulation dust settles, it's hard to see who will be the winners and losers."
New Mexico debate
Some of that dust officially will rise in New Mexico next March when the Public Regulation Commission starts hearings to bring electric competition to the state beginning in 2001.
Palo Verde is the centerpiece of an ongoing battle over stranded costs -- investments that utilities say they won't be able to recoup in a competitive market.
A restructuring bill, approved by the New Mexico Legislature this year, guarantees utilities the right to collect at least 50 percent of stranded costs. The law left it up to the PRC to decide whether PNM and other utilities can collect more than 50 percent and up to 100 percent.
PNM's share of Palo Verde has been estimated as high as $750 million or more.
The company's position is that it should get 100 percent of its investment back. Years ago, regulators approved PNM's investment in the plant, according to PNM's argument. So consumers should continue to pay off the debt when competition results in the loss of some of the utility's customer base.
Consumer advocates, however, believe that making consumers liable for the remaining debt will deprive them of the lower prices that should come with competition. They say investment in Palo Verde was a poor business decision and that the debt should be swallowed by PNM and its investors.
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65. Worker finishing what he started in '55 When Atlas mill 'retires,' so will 44-year veteran
By Zack Van Eyck Deseret News July 10, 1999 http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1,1249,100010490,00.html?
MOAB He's the only guy with full run of the mill, but he's hardly a run-of-the-mill guy.
Dale Edwards, self-made and loyal to the core, is the last remaining full-time employee of the Atlas Corp.'s now-decommissioned uranium mill just north of Moab.
After 44 years during which he advanced from laborer to lab technician to analytical chemist to chief chemist to chief metallurgist and finally to radiation control coordinator the 62-year-old Edwards is about to retire.
But he will not leave until Atlas relinquishes control of the mill property and its 10.5 million tons of radioactive tailings. That is expected to take place at the end of the year when the federal Department of Energy assumes authority over the remnants of the once-thriving mill.
It's only fitting that one of the first four workers hired to build the mill back on June 17 of 1955 should be the last one to leave.
"He's a unique individual in that I don't know how many people have worked at the same location and the same facility for the duration of their career, start to finish," said Richard Blubaugh, a vice president of the Denver-based Atlas Corp. who has known Edwards since joining the company in 1981.
"He has exhibited all the ambition and drive that I think symbolizes a lot of Utahns and Westerners in general. He's honest and decent. He represents all the things that are good about people."
The mill was built by itinerant geologist Charlie Steen, whose strike of uranium three years earlier in '52 ignited a mining boom that brought thousands of fortune-hunters to the Moab area. The mill, sold to Atlas in 1962, was a leading supplier of "yellow cake" refined uranium ore to the U.S. defense industry and later to the nation's nuclear power plants.
Edwards, a farm boy from tiny Clawson in nearby Emery County, was fresh out of high school in '55. He and a cousin traveled to Price, Provo and then Scofield looking for work before landing in Moab on June 16. The next morning, after a brief visit to the local employment office, Edwards found himself on the ground floor of an operation that, at its peak, would employ 650 mill and mine workers.
While building the mill, Edwards camped on the banks of the Colorado River for three months before making enough money to buy a tent trailer.
"There were thousands of people here, and there was no place to stay," Edwards recalled recently. "This was a small town, too, about 1,200 people before the uranium boom."
When the building was complete in September, Edwards figured he'd be moving on. But his hard work earned him a top recommendation from the construction superintendent. Edwards was asked what skills he could bring to the operations side of the business.
"When I was in high school I took some courses, like physics and so forth, and I wanted to take chemistry but never did," Edwards remembered. "So I said, 'Well, I'd like to work in the lab' and they said, 'Well, everybody's got (college) degrees in the lab so your chances aren't too good in there."
But at the last minute, one of the new hires failed to show. Edwards was sent to Grand Junction, Colo., for a crash course in chemistry from the Atomic Energy Commission.
He took more chemistry courses through the mail from a correspondence school and became a certified analytical chemist. He worked his way up to chief chemist in 1969 and was promoted to chief metallurgist in 1975. That same year he took extensive courses at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and assumed the additional title of radiation safety supervisor.
As the price of uranium dropped and the mill downsized, Edwards survived numerous job cutbacks. When the mill was decommissioned in 1988 and ultimately torn down in 1992, he retained his role in radiation safety.
Today, Edwards' office is in the last remaining building on the mill property. His primary job is to monitor and record radiation and emission levels in the air, ground and water associated with the mill tailings.
"There's been good times and bad times with the layoffs and now the shutdown," said Rhonda Thompson, one of Edwards' four children, who lives in Tooele. "But he stayed with it. He's a good example of what happens when you stick to things."
There's one part of the routine that Edwards won't miss working on Mondays. He hasn't had a full week of vacation since 1984 because a series of weekly tests must be conducted each Monday.
"I want to do what I want to do and come home when I want to," Edwards said of his pending retirement.
Edwards said he's looking forward to fishing and hunting and riding all-terrain vehicles with his wife, Beulah.
The future of the toxic tailings is less certain. Atlas recently won approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to cap the tailings where they rest, 750 feet from the river. But the Department of Energy would have the resources to relocate them if desired.
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66. Entergy, Boston Edison Complete First U.S. Nuclear Plant Sale
10:58 a.m. Jul 13, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek
PLYMOUTH, Mass., July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Entergy Nuclear added Pilgrim Station to its nuclear fleet today in the first successful nuclear plant sale in the nation. Boston Edison and Entergy closed the historic deal less than eight months after the companies agreed to transfer ownership.
Pilgrim Station, a 670-megawatt boiling water reactor located in Plymouth, Mass., is also the first U.S. nuclear plant to be sold through a competitive bid in a process considered to be a model for the nuclear industry.
Entergy will pay Boston Edison $81 million for Pilgrim Station, the nuclear fuel, and the plant's 1600-acre site on Cape Cod Bay. In addition, credits of up to $31 million potentially available on future nuclear insurance premiums would be transferred from Entergy to Boston Edison. The sale includes power purchase agreements through 2004. BostonEdison will fully fund the decommissioning trust with $471 million. Entergy expects to realize a $0.05 earnings per share contribution to 1999 earnings from Pilgrim's operation.
"This marks the first completed sale in the history of the industry," said JerryYelverton, CEO of Entergy's nuclear companies. "It's a remarkable achievement that is due to the concerted effort by many groups -- Pilgrim employees, the state, local communities, legislators, regulators and other agencies as well as Boston Edison and Entergy. We're excited about owning Pilgrim and our expansion into the New England area."
"It's fitting that Plymouth, which is America's home town, is the setting for this groundbreaking event," said Tom May, chairman, president, and CEO of Boston Edison. "This first sale of a nuclear plant in the U.S. benefits Boston Edison customers and Pilgrim Station employees, as well as the Town of Plymouth and communities surrounding the plant. We are confident the new owners of Pilgrim Station will continue to be a good corporate neighbor as Boston Edison has been over the last 26 years. The sale of Pilgrim to a company that owns and operates a larger fleet of nuclear generating units helps ensure that safe, reliable, and economical electricity will continue to be provided to the northeast."
"We are very pleased the sale is complete," said Don Hintz, president of Entergy Corporation. "Pilgrim is the first of many plants we plan to acquire. We intend to be a major player in the new market with a large portfolio of well-run, competitive nuclear units. This sale is a good first step toward achieving that goal."
Prior to the plant's scheduled 12th refueling outage, which ended on July 7th, Pilgrim Station completed a 500-plus day continuous safe run, a new record for the unit. Pilgrim Station's Vice President of Operations TedSullivan said, "I am extremely proud of the employees at Pilgrim. They have shown they can focus on safe plant operations while managing the sale of the plant."
Entergy Nuclear is a non-regulated subsidiary of Entergy Corporation (NYSE: ETR), a New Orleans-based global energy company that distributes energy to 2.5 million customers. Entergy Nuclear is managing decommissioning activities at the Maine Yankee nuclear plant in Wiscasset, Maine, and the Millstone 1 nuclear plant in Waterford, Conn.
Entergy's on line web address is: www.entergy.com . SOURCE Entergy Nuclear
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Message: 3 Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 05:15:40 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-17 7/17/99 - US
73. Officer punished for refusing to work in isolation with women
By Rowan Scarborough THE WASHINGTON TIMES, July 14, 1999
The Air Force has punished a junior officer who objected to sex-integrated assignments in the intimate confines of a nuclear missile launch center because he believes it conflicts with Catholic teachings on temptation.
It is a clash between the Pentagon's push to sexually mix nearly every career field and an individual officer's belief that pairing a man and women alone in the underground capsule violates biblical teaching to avoid the appearance of sin.
The married officer, 1st Lt. Ryan C. Berry, a West Point graduate and devout Roman Catholic, has the backing of Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien, whose diocese is the U.S. armed forces.
Noting the Air Force's adherence to the motto "Integrity First," Archbishop O'Brien wrote to Lt. Berry's commanding general. "I hope Lt. Berry's moral stand can be seen to be a worthy response to the noble goal to which that motto challenges," he wrote in the June 23 letter.
But Maj. Gen. Thomas H. Neary, who commands the 20th Air Force missile arsenal, views the lieutenant's objections as a breach of duty. The general, who is Catholic, endorses a performance report that called Lt. Berry's objections' "unprofessional." Gen. Neary has written to Archbishop O'Brien defending the Air Force's action.
Commanders at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., home to Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles, at first honored Lt. Berry's request for a religious accommodation, under service regulations. From May 1997 to December 1998, he worked only with men on the around-the-clock, two-officer shifts in 60-to-90-foot-deep control centers.
But higher-ups revoked the exception in December, after some missile squadron officers, including at least one woman, started complaining.
The punishment to Lt. Berry came in the form of a blistering officer performance report that he believes will keep him from being promoted to the rank of captain. If not advanced, he would have to leave the service in 2002.
In the April performance report, two graders said of the 25-year-old Lt. Berry: a "highly capable officer . . . cool performer under pressure . . . flawlessly handles programs . . . keeps our mission on track. Heap it on him. He can handle it. Talented officer. Boundless potential."
But Col. Ronald Haeckel, his wing commander, in effect overruled them by penning the potentially career-ending language at the report's end, which he also put in a memo to Lt. Berry.
"I find your unwillingness to perform prescribed ICBM alert duties with full qualified female officers as unprofessional," Col. Haeckel wrote. "You have failed to accept the personal responsibilities of an ICBM missile combat crew member and that of an officer in the United States Air Force."
Col. Haeckel said Lt. Berry's stand "adversely impacted good order, discipline and morale of both male and female ICBM operators."
His supporters say Lt. Berry believes the Air Force overreached by punishing him for his religious convictions -- the sincerity of which is not questioned by his superiors.
They argue that the same regulations that permitted the since-revoked religious accommodation also permit the Air Force to retrain, reassign or release the person without punishing him through a poor officer evaluation.
Lt. Berry, whose father began his Air Force career as a missileer at Minot and now is defense attache in Ukraine, referred a reporter to his attorney for comment.
"What you have here is a clash between the feminist ideology and Catholic theology," said the attorney, Henry Hamilton. "The armed forces have again opted to come down on the side of the feminists and against traditional morality."
Noting that the Army permits soldiers to practice witchcraft at Fort Hood, Texas, and other bases, Mr. Hamilton added: "The military can accommodate whatever they want to accommodate. This is like a no-brainer, easy thing to do. The reason the Air Force is not accommodating Lt. Berry is because his views conflict with the feminist agenda, not because of any difficulty in implementing the accommodation."
Mr. Hamilton said Lt. Berry does not oppose women serving on missile crews, but believes the sexes should be kept separate in such close surroundings. He said the officer did not know men and women worked alone in the bunker until he arrived at Minot.
The attorney provided quotes from Scripture, such as "abstain from all appearances of evil," to explain Lt. Berry's objection.
Col. Haeckel, Lt. Berry's wing commander, said in an interview he could not discuss the case because of privacy rules that the lieutenant declined to waive.
Col. Haeckel, a 22-year veteran, said he knows of no other case in which a missileer requested a similar religious exception. Of 333 missile-manning officers, 83 are women.
Minuteman crews are sex-integrated, he said, because "the Air Force has a policy of equal opportunity treatment. If a women is in a career field, the Air Force considers her as just as important an asset as any other member in the unit. We treat each member as the same."
The two-person Minuteman crews normally stand 24-hour shifts in a command bunker about the size of a school bus. The aisles are narrow. While one officer sleeps in the bunker's only bed, the other stays on alert at the control panel. They share a bathroom.
"It's like a large room in a house with different racks of equipment on either side," Col. Haeckel said.
Lt. Berry also has won the backing of Monsignor William B. Smith, a prominent professor of moral theology at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y.
Monsignor Smith wrote to Lt. Berry: "It does seem to me that such intensely proximate bed and bath facilities is closer to the absolute occasion rather than a relative one. Such arrangements for 24 or 48 continuous hours seem to me to offend common sense, even basic Christian standards of scandal -- not only what is evil but has the appearance of evil and is likely to be a stumbling block for others.
"It seems to me that a serious and sober Catholic after thoughtful prayer and religious counsel, could reasonably and rightly claim that his/her well-formed conscience does not permit knowing participation in such unusual, if not, unique circumstances."
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74. House Split on Satellite Launches
By Tom Raum, Associated Press, July 9, 1999; 3:51 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990709/V000421-070999-idx.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Members of Congress concerned that China and other countries may be learning U.S. scientific secrets by rocketing civilian satellites into space want the United States to expand its launch capabilities.
There's one key problem with the plan: Upgrading Air Force launch pads at Cape Canaveral, Fla., and Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., could cost up to $600 million and, for now, there's little money in the federal budget to do the work.
``It is in the national security interest of the United States to increase U.S. domestic launch capacity,'' said Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., chairman of a select House committee that urged an increase in U.S. commercial launch capacity.
That key recommendation was part of the panel's far-reaching report in May on technology-transfers to China and alleged nuclear espionage by Beijing.
Cox, in an interview, conceded that his committee ``did not refine that recommendation'' in terms of financially achieving the goal, including how the costs would be shared between the private space industry and government.
Both chambers of Congress have passed defense spending legislation calling for a greater U.S. share in launching commercial satellites as part of a package to restrict satellite technology transfers. But those measures contain few specifics -- and no money.
``Who is going to pay for it?'' asks Rep. Dana Rorhbacher, R-Calif., chairman of the House Science subcommittee on space and aviation.
Rohrbacher's panel, along with other subcommittees from the Science and Armed Services committees, is holding a series of joint hearings on the subject. A government-industry roundtable is planned for the fall ``to see if we can come up with any kind of consensus'' on what to do, he added.
``There are vested interest groups who will thwart any restructuring and reform,'' he said. ``And we've also got to overcome the inertia of bureaucracy, which can be harder than overcoming the force of gravity.''
Meanwhile, funds for a program for the Air Force to modernize its launch operations has suffered from delays and cuts of some $100 million over the past four years, the Aerospace Industries Association estimates.
It recently called on Congress to increase spending in 2000 by $40 million to automate the radar, computer networks and communications equipment associated with launches.
The Air Force concedes improvements are needed. ``Much range equipment is aging and increasingly difficult and expensive to operate and maintain,'' said John Borky, vice chairman of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board.
Meanwhile, launching of private-sector satellites is steadily increasing, and since 1997 has accounted for more than half of all launch payloads. According to the Aerospace Industries Association, space launch activity in the United States has increased from 18 launches in 1988 to 36 launches in 1998. U.S. policy, meanwhile, allows former U.S. foes, China, Russia and Ukraine, to each launch up to 20 U.S. commercial geostationary satellites a year and an unlimited number of orbiting satellites through the end of the century.
Some 1,700 satellites are being prepared for launch over the next decade.
``The U.S. government, through the Air Force, provides a de facto subsidy to commercial launches,'' Borky said.
Critics say the government recovers 10 percent to 15 percent of these costs.
Robert Davis, former deputy undersecretary of defense for space and now a private consultant, said launch ranges should be operated like businesses. ``It is time to create private national U.S. spaceports,'' he said.
U.S. policy makers are divided on whether to upgrade Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg and keep them under U.S. government control or to privatize them.
Retired Lt. Gen. Richard Henry, who led a study for the Air Force space command into launch problems, said many aerospace companies use foreign launch sites instead of U.S. government ones because of a ``general frustration'' with scheduling delays, ``antiquated equipment and budget constraints.''
Among his panel's recommendations: spaceports established and operated like airports with launch complexes leased to the launch provider.
Citing a recent spate of launch failures, Henry said, ``One has to wonder whether the $3 billion lost in these mishaps could have been better spent on building launch vehicles that are more reliable.''
In May, President Clinton ordered an investigation into six rocket failures that occurred in fewer than nine months. The failed rockets were carrying three military satellites, two commercial communications satellites and a privately owned satellite capable of taking military-quality pictures of Earth.
Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., said there is another problem in keeping commercial launches in the United States -- some foreign countries require American companies to conduct work onsite in order to be involved in the local economy. ``Some of these launches are over there because the Chinese are demanding it for access to their markets. To some extent, that's also true of Russia.''
For now, Congress seems likely to shell out only $7.5 million for a short-term fix -- equipment upgrades and more manpower to increase commercial launches.
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75. NAACP Seeks Port Chicago Pardons
By The Associated Press, July 14, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-NAACP-Port-Chicago.html
NEW YORK (AP) -- The NAACP wants President Clinton to pardon surviving black sailors convicted in the so-called Port Chicago trial during World War II.
The trial centered on the Port Chicago Naval Ammunition base near San Francisco, where more than 300 sailors were killed in a July 1944 explosion.
The explosion caused the worst domestic loss of life during the war, but echoes of the subsequent trial, in which black sailors were court-martialed for mutiny, continue today.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, at the organization's convention here, passed a resolution Tuesday asking Clinton to ``pardon Port Chicago trial survivors, restore their benefits and make the survivor's benefits available to the widows of those convicted in the unfair trial of African American sailors in the aftermath of the Port Chicago explosion.''
The measure passed unanimously among the hundreds of NAACP delegates who held voting cards aloft to show their support.
In May, one of the survivors, Freddie Meeks, asked Clinton to clear his name and those of 49 other black sailors who were court-martialed for mutiny for refusing to return to the loading docks after the blast at the Port Chicago that killed 320 men.
Meeks, 79, is one of two known surviving members of the group of black sailors convicted and imprisoned three months after the explosion.
``We didn't really deserve what we got, but we got it and we had to put up with it,'' Meeks said in May from his home near Los Angeles.
Lawyers for Meeks argued the military prosecution was racist and the punishment too harsh.
The sailors defied white officers' orders to resume loading ships two weeks after the blast. Two-thirds of those killed were members of the all-black loading crews that stacked bombs and other explosives aboard Navy ships.
A 1994 Navy legal review concluded the black seamen faced racial prejudice but found no grounds to overturn their courts-martial. The review followed several years of congressional pressure aimed at clearing the sailors' names.
More than 250 black sailors initially refused to go back to the loading docks. Eventually, 208 were forced to return and were disciplined. The 50 who continued the boycott were court-martialed by an all-white jury.
Meeks served less than two years of a 15-year sentence, then returned to active duty in the Navy to serve out the term of his draft.
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76. Obits James A. Barnes Jr. - U-2 Pilot
Thursday, July 15, 1999; Page B06 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/15/220l-071599-idx.html
James A. Barnes Jr., 70, a U-2 spy plane pilot whose photographs of Soviet missile sites in Cuba led to a superpower showdown, died June 6 in Mountain View, Calif., after a stroke. He was 70.
Mr. Barnes was a civilian pilot working for the Central Intelligence Agency in October 1962 when he took pictures of Soviet missile sites in Cuba. An Air Force U-2 pilot, Maj. Richard Heyser, also took photos of missile sites about the same time, and there is some debate over which pilot was the first to detect launching pads for missiles that could reach the United States.
Photos by both pilots landed on President Kennedy's desk as evidence of a Soviet threat, and Kennedy warned in a televised speech on Oct. 22, 1962, that the United States was on the brink of nuclear war.
Mr. Barnes was an Air Force fighter pilot during the Korean War. He flew a mission over the Soviet Union on the same day in 1960 that another U-2 pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was shot down and captured. Powers was eventually tried in Moscow, and the Eisenhower administration rescinded its denial of the U-2 program's existence.
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George E. Brown Jr., 79, Dies; a Congressman for 18 Terms
By DAVID STOUT July 17, 1999 New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/obit-george-brown.html
WASHINGTON -- Representative George E. Brown Jr., an 18-term California Democrat who used his seniority and influence to promote science in general and space exploration in particular, died early Friday in Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. He was 79 and lived in San Bernardino, Calif.
Brown had heart valve replacement surgery in early May and seemed to recover, returning to work part time only days afterward. But in mid-June he was re-admitted to the hospital with what his office described as a post-operative infection.
Brown, who represented California's 42nd Congressional District, which consists of most of San Bernardino and several other communities east of Los Angeles, was chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee from 1991 until the Republicans took control of the House in 1995. He then became the ranking minority member of the renamed Science Committee. He was also the second-ranking Democrat on the Agriculture Committee.
Brown was the oldest current member of the House and the longest-serving member of the House or Senate in California history, his office said. In the nearly 35 years that he served in Congress, Brown was generally liberal on domestic issues. He opposed American military involvement in Southeast Asia and consistently voted against military-spending bills in the last years of the Vietnam War....
Brown was a friend of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Although he leaned toward unmanned space exploration, he fought efforts to cut money for the space station.
But he strongly opposed military uses of space. In the early 1980's, he spoke out loudly and often against President Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" plan to build a space-based defense against nuclear weapons.
Brown supported creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and development of solar energy and alternative fuels.
A Quaker who served in the Army in World War II from 1944 to 1946 after initially objecting on religious grounds, Brown spoke out against the confinement of Japanese-Americans early in the war, when he worked in a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in Oregon.
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77. Joel, Brinkley in No-Nukes Protest
Sunday, July 11, 1999; 2:21 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990711/V000061-071199-idx.html
WATERFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley were back together again over the weekend, not as husband and wife, but for an anti-nuclear protest carrying warnings about radiation from the deck of boat.
The divorced singer and supermodel reunited Saturday for a protest cruise on Long Island Sound against against the Millstone nuclear power plants. At the same time, anti-nuclear advocates stood on shore calling for a shutdown of the reactors.
Both celebrities are members of STAR -- Standing for Truth About Radiation.
The protesters want the Millstone plants shut down permanently. Earlier this year, two of the reactors were allowed back into operation after three years of safety concerns.
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78. U.S.D.A. to Address Biotech Crop Concerns
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/science/hth-gm-food.html
(July 14) Mindful of the growing controversy over genetically engineered crops, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman announced plans Tuesday to study their long-term impact on the environment.
WASHINGTON -- Acknowledging the worsening trade tensions with Europe over genetically engineered foods, the Clinton administration said Tuesday for the first time that it would conduct long-term studies on the safety of altered farm products.
But in a speech Tuesday, Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman insisted that the Administration would use all its legal remedies to compel Europe to accept American farm products like soybeans and corn, even if that meant placing tariffs on European-made goods this summer.
Glickman also said the administration was considering asking the food industry to do voluntary information labeling, a practice strongly opposed by the biotech industry but one that has been demanded by the Europeans and some American consumers.
Glickman's speech came as American farmers complained of declining prices and as Europe refused to accept any new genetically altered products. But Glickman also warned companies that were leading the technological advances in genetic modification of crops that they must accept responsibility for environmentally safe products and disclosure of any problems.
The Agriculture Department has approved 50 varieties of crops that have been engineered to be resistant to insects, herbicides or plant viruses.
While Glickman stressed that most studies had indicated that there were no known health risks to consumers, he said no long-term studies had been conducted -- one of the central arguments made by Europeans. In the past few years members of the European Union have refused to import many products that contain genetically modified ingredients. But the United States has won a major case with the World Trade Organization to force Europe to accept its hormone-fed beef.
Environmental and consumer groups that have sued the government over labeling and the lack of safety testing said they were pleased that the administration had taken the first conciliatory steps toward consumers.
"The U.S. has realized it can't bully its way out of this problem," said Rebecca Goldberg, a senior scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund. "Just a year ago, I don't think there was anyone in the Agriculture Department that would have acknowledged the legitimate issues of risk."
Concerns about genetically modified foods in the United States have only recently begun to coalesce around the finding that the caterpillars of monarch butterflies were killed by pollen from a genetically engineered form of corn in a laboratory test. The corn was modified so that it would be resistant to the corn borer. Additional preliminary research confirms the findings, although Glickman said Tuesday that no tests in the field had found the same results.
In Europe, public opposition to genetically altered foods is so strong that the European Union requires the labeling of all newly manufactured genetically modified products imported from the United States. The approval of new genetically modified crops in the European Union has ground to a halt. No new varieties have been approved in the last 15 months.
There have been virtually no corn exports from the United States because the genetically modified corn cannot be separated from the rest of the crop, costing American farmers about $200 million a year. Some of the largest exporters, including Archer Daniels Midland, have said they will no longer accept altered corn for export and have let farmers know they want conventionally grown corn.
A consortium of major European retailers, including Sainsbury and Marks & Spencer from Britain, Migros from Switzerland, Carrefour from France and Esselunga from Italy, are shopping for sources of products that have not been genetically modified.
The impact of these actions on American farmers, who are already in deep financial trouble, can be devastating. In trying to keep a dialogue going with America's European trading partners, Glickman sought to tone down the administration's rhetoric, which has included calling Europeans "irrational" because of their opposition to genetically modified foods.
Glickman said he had spoken to "White House people" before he made his remarks at the National Press Club in Washington, but one other administration official said the speech had taken them by surprise.
Genetic modification is the insertion of genes from one species of animal or plant or from microbes into another, permanently altering its genetic code. It can confer resistance on plants to certain insects and diseases that would in some cases require the use of pesticides. Soybeans have been genetically altered so that they can tolerate applications of an herbicide that kills the weeds in the same field.
Those who oppose genetic modification of food do so on two grounds: The safety of these foods has never been tested and they are harmful to the environment.
The Food and Drug Administration does not require testing, just assurances from the company that manufactures the genetically modified food that it is safe. Glickman acknowledged that none of the agencies responsible for the safety of genetically modified foods -- USDA, FDA or Environmental Protection Agency had enough staff or resources to conduct such testing.
Environmental questions are more problematic. The Environmental Defense Fund, a public interest lobbying group, filed a petition with the EPA Tuesday asking it to require farmers to plant conventional corn around the fields of the genetically modified corn to prevent the escape of toxic pollens into areas where butterflies feed.
There is also concern that the pesticide resistance engineered into plants could transfer to weeds and insects, producing superweeds and superbugs.
Even Americans who do not necessarily oppose genetic engineering believe that such products should be labeled. In a survey conducted by the European company Novartis, more than 90 percent called for labeling.
In addition, more than 500,000 people signed a petition to the FDA demanding mandatory labeling of such foods. The Center for Food Safety, a nonprofit advocacy group, has filed a lawsuit against the FDA to reclassify genetic modification as an additive that would require labeling. When the Agriculture Department proposed organic food regulations, more than 280,000 people filed comments protesting the inclusion of genetically modified foods as organic.
Glickman, known as a strong supporter of biotechnology, said in his speech Tuesday that it was important to "encourage the development of these new food production systems."
But, he added, "We cannot blindly embrace their benefits. We have to ensure public confidence in general, consumer confidence in particular."
In a speech earlier this year at Purdue University, he said, "We also can't force these new genetically engineered food products down consumers' throats."
And he compared biotechnology today to nuclear power 20 years ago. "We have a way in this country of latching on to solutions, pursuing them to the exclusion of others, and then watching them sometimes backfire," he said. "We did that in the late '70s when we embraced nuclear power as the primary source of our energy needs. Then, Three Mile Island happened. Now nuclear power is still part of our energy grid, but it's not the only part.
"Let's not put all of our eggs in the biotech basket."
It is a comparison that the biotech industry considers invidious but opponents believe is valid.
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Lines Redrawn in International Food Fight By MARIAN BURROS, New York Times July 14, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/071499sci-food-altering.html
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79. Report: Much of ground water is tainted
By Traci Watson, USA TODAY, 7/14/99- Updated 10:38 PM ET http://usatoday.com/news/ndswed07.htm
A wide-ranging government report concludes that much of the nation's ground water and many of its streams are contaminated with pesticides and unhealthy levels of fertilizer chemicals.
In most cases, the tested waters pose a risk to aquatic life, but don't violate standards established to protect human health. At some sites, the shallow ground water - a layer of water 100 feet or less from the surface - has nitrate levels above federal health standards. Nitrate is a compound in fertilizer and manure that encourages plant growth but can be harmful to human infants. Shallow ground water is the source of drinking water for the 80%-90% of rural residents who rely on private wells.
Even more worrisome, say researchers, is that shallow ground water might seep into the USA's deep aquifers, which supply drinking water for millions of people in places such as Colorado, Kentucky and Florida. Although these deep aquifers meet safety standards now, they contain low levels of nitrates and, in some cases, pesticides, the study finds.
That's an indication, the study says, that human activity is tainting these pools deep in the Earth, and scientists fear that such contaminants eventually will leach into deep aquifers through irrigation wells or natural cracks found in some kinds of rock.
"(In) most aquifers we look at, we will find some form of contamination," says Tim Miller of the U.S. Geological Survey, the agency that did the study. "What's there now may be an early indicator." The population that eventually might be affected, he says, "can be substantial."
Released last month, the report, The Quality of Our Nation's Waters, examines 20 important river basins and geographic areas.
Many contaminants were found at levels that could hurt the reproductive ability of aquatic species, such as fish. That could lead to smaller populations, but the study didn't measure the pollutants' impact on species.
Other findings:
Some of the worst contamination by insecticides was in urban streams, to researchers' surprise. Many of the streams that are most heavily polluted with insecticides were in metropolitan areas such as those of Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Nev., Portland, Ore., Tallahassee, Fla., and Washington . The chemicals probably came from sources such as lawns, golf courses and cemeteries.
Though banned in 1972, DDT turned up in stream sediment and fish in both urban and rural areas across the USA. So did similar insecticides that were banned years ago.
Most of the test sites had more than one contaminant. No one knows how combinations of contaminants, at low levels, affect human health or wildlife.
Water-quality experts welcomed the report. Larry Jaworski, government affairs chair for the Water Environment Federation, an association of water-quality officials, says the report will help local governments decide how much pollution their waterways can bear. "It certainly is based on sound science," he says.
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Message: 4 Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 05:13:21 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-13 7/17/99 - Nuc Labs - Hanford, DOE
60. Hanford cleanup labeled unrealistic Energy Department report pessimistic about shoreline
Associated Press - July 9, 1999 http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=070999&ID=s606114&cat=
SEATTLE _ A state Ecology Department spokeswoman says she is "flabbergasted" by a recommendation from the U.S. Energy Department's inspector general to give up trying to make the Hanford shoreline a clean, safe place for people to live.
"I hope this report doesn't indicate a desire by the feds to walk away from their cleanup obligation, because it's an atrocious mess they have out there," Ecology's Sheryl Hutchinson said.
The inspector general's report says people are never going to live on the sage-and-sand riverfront of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, and the Energy Department could save money by acknowledging that now, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported in Thursday editions.
The suggestion isn't going over well in Washington state.
"They want to leave all the waste along the Columbia River, cover it with soil and leave it there for all time," said Doug Sherwood, Hanford project manager for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The riverfront should be clean enough for rural residential use, he said.
The 560-square-mile DOE site in south-central Washington produced plutonium for nuclear weapons from World War II until the 1980s.
It is expected to take 50 years and $100 billion to clean up the legacy of hazardous and radioactive waste at Hanford, the country's most-contaminated nuclear site.
Parts of Hanford will probably remain contaminated forever, but cleanup advocates have hoped that some of the shoreline in the 100 Area -- once used as farmland -- could be habitable or used for agriculture again.
Inspector General Gregory Friedman calls such a vision unrealistic.
All projected uses for the area are nonresidential, such as recreation opportunities and wildlife habitat, and the department would waste money trying to try to make the land suitable for homes, he said.
"Continuing to support cleanup objectives that are inconsistent with projected land uses unnecessarily increases restoration costs," Friedman wrote.
"Changing the cleanup objective from residential to industrial for just three waste sites within the 100 Area would reduce the cleanup cost from $85.5 million to $73.4 million, a 14.2 percent reduction."
While Friedman said the Energy Department concurred with his recommendation, others later said that was a mischaracterization.
"I don't see our cleanup changing," said Linda Bauer, DOE assistant manager for environmental restoration.
"In the near-term, we're doing the right kind of cleanup."
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Out There: A Lethal Dose of Salvation
Outside Magazine, July 1999, By Tim Cahill http://www.outsidemag.com/magazine/0799/9907outthere.html
Plutonium was born to kill at the Hanford Site, but its birthplace gave life to a perfect stretch of river
It was the greatest flood the planet has ever known: a cataclysm that literally shook the earth along a thousand-mile path. It happened this way: During the last Ice Age, a finger of glacier reached down into Montana and Idaho, blocking the Clark Fork River. The river backed up, filling the mountain valleys of Montana and forming a lake larger than Lake Ontario. It was nearly 2,000 feet deep, and when the ice dam failed, Lake Missoula drained in 48 hours. A wall of water moving at 65 miles an hour and carrying 200-ton boulders thundered through what is now Spokane and blasted down the path of the Columbia River.
Starting about 15,000 years ago, there were more than 40 such floods in a 2,500-year period. Human beings almost certainly occupied the Columbia River Basin in that era, and stories of the flood must have passed from one generation to the next. In the manner of humans confronted by deadly forces beyond their comprehension or control, they must have regarded the flood-scarred land as both terrible and sacred.
I thought about this as I stood in the path of the ancient flood and filled out form BC-3000-002 (Radiological Area Visitor Form) and handed it to an attractive young woman at the Department of Energy's Operation Office in Richland, Washington. She gave me a radiation-measuring device called a dosimeter, a visitor's name tag to be displayed on the outer layer of my clothing, and an orientation booklet outlining security requirements and safety protocol at the Hanford Site. It was my responsibility to "read and comply with all the information identified on radiological postings, signs and labels, and follow escort instructions." On page ten there was a series of schematic drawings illustrating the meaning of various emergency signals. In case of fire, for instance, a bell would ring. The bell was depicted as having eyes, a nose, a mouth, and a single stringy arm holding a hammer. The bell was banging itself on the head with the hammer, producing a sound written as "gong, gong, gong." In another illustration, a cross-eyed siren emitted a steady blast transcribed as "HEEEEEE," which meant "evacuation." A third illustration, labeled "howler" was a siren with worried eyes and a megaphone for a mouth. It's "Ah-OO-GAH" sound meant "criticality," and the required response was "RUN," though no particular destination was given. Just run.
So all those James Bond films were perfectly correct: When the evil scientist's lab is about to blow, the Ah-OO-GAH horn really does sound.
I followed my DOE escort, Erik Olds, out into the parking lot, along with a poor excuse for an evil scientist with whom I had been corresponding for over a year. Randy Brich was a physical scientist working for the DOE, and not much into world domination. He was, in fact, an obsessed boardsailor with a minor preoccupation in mountain biking.
Randy had offered to set up a raft trip down the Hanford Reach, inarguably the most pristine and unspoiled stretch of the Columbia River. It is, Randy said, very much as it was when Lewis and Clark passed nearby, in 1805. There were elk and salmon and sturgeon and egrets and herons and white pelicans and peregrine falcons and ferruginous hawks, along with pygmy rabbits and several species of rare wildflowers. In fact, because the area was restricted for 50 years, biologists have only recently begun an inventory of flora and fauna. In 1996, for instance, two plants unknown to science were discovered.
Before the float trip, however, Randy thought I might want to tour the Hanford Site, which contains the largest repository of radioactive waste in the hemisphere. The unspoiled stretch of river and the toxic waste dump are one and the same.
We piled into a DOE van. Erik drove us to the restricted site, where we presented our credentials to armed men at a gate and rolled out onto the flat arid landscape along the Columbia River.
The remains of a few dry orchards, untended for over 50 years, stood gnarled on the sage-littered steppe: arthritic shapes against a baleful gray sky. Apricot trees. Cherries. The farmers who planted the orchards early in the century believed that the basin of the Columbia River could rival or surpass California's Central Valley in food production. Yes, the land was a shrub steppe environmenta desert, most would saybut after the Grand Coulee Dam, just upriver, was completed in 1942, everyone knew that irrigation water would be plentiful. The future was bright.
But then, in February 1943in the midst of the Second World Warthe government claimed the cities of Hanford and White Bluffs and much of the surrounding land. More than 1,400 people were given weeks or a few months to evacuate, and the government confiscated 640 square miles along a 51-mile stretch of the Columbia River known as the Hanford Reach. Hordes of workersmore than 50,000 men and women hired to do "important war work"began breaking ground at the Hanford Site, erecting housing and 554 other mysterious buildings in only 29 months. The soil, laid bare in the frenzy of construction, was whipped by fierce desert winds into vicious swirling dust storms that dimmed the sun, snarled traffic, and sand-blasted exposed skin. Hundreds of workers typically quit and left after one of these "termination winds."
Only a very few top scientists and engineers knew the purpose of the project. Some workers joked that it had to be President Roosevelt's summer home. But no one talked about his or her job. FBI informants were everywhere. People were fired for injudicious comments. The secrecy was so complete that not even Vice-President Harry Truman was informed about the purpose of the Hanford Project until after Roosevelt died in April 1945. On July 16, the first atomic bomb, code-named Trinity, was detonated not far from Alamogordo, in south-central New Mexico. It was armed with plutonium produced at the Hanford Site.
On August 6, 1945, another atom bomb exploded over Hiroshima, Japan, killing some 80,000 people. The Hiroshima bomb was armed with uranium produced at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Three days later, a blast of blinding light mushroomed over Nagasaki; 39,000 people died. Human bodies instantly evaporated at ground zero, while at the periphery of the blast others briefly shivered and then collapsed into ashes before the nuclear termination wind.
The plutonium that fueled the Nagasaki bomb was produced at Hanford's B Reactor.
B Reactor was built over a period of 16 months and began producing plutonium in the fall of 1943. Today it's a pile of weathered gray cement blocks several stories high. Erik, Randy, and I were met at the door by a volunteer tour guide, Roger Rohrbacher, who had come to work at Hanford in the spring of 1944. "I thought I was coming to a chemical plant," he said.
We moved down a gray hallway, past water pipes stacked on water pipes. The Hanford Site was chosen partly because water from the Columbia could be used to cool the reactor. B Reactor required 105,000 gallons of water a minute. Red tags hanging from some of the valves read, "Deactivated System. Deactivation Complete 2/22/68."
The reactor, Roger said, was built on a 23-foot-thick slab of concrete. We passed through a doorway and stared up at the front face of the reactor. It loomed three stories over us, and looked like nothing so much as a giant punchboard. Except that the pins that fitted into the graphite holes were 28-foot-long rods. There were 2,004 of these "process tubes," which contained uranium that was converted to plutonium by the bombardment of neutrons.
In the dim light, the atomic pile"we called it 'the unit,'" Roger saidseemed vaguely unreal, like something designed for a Buck Rogers space opera. I glanced up into the darkness and saw a catwalk where two spectral figures in full yellow radiation suits stood looking down at us, silhouetted in the dim light from an open doorway.
"What are they doing?" I asked Roger.
"Completing the decontamination," he said. "Desks and file cabinets and stuff up there."
We moved around the back of the pile to the control room, where there was a chair for the reactor operator. It was positioned in front of a curving green wall in which there were nine gauges. It looked a bit like the cockpit of a commercial jetliner, only much less complex. A sign said, caution: bumping panel may cause scram. "Scram" is an obscure acronym for "safety control rod ax man."It means shut the reactor down. Or else.
In all, nine reactors were built at Hanford, Roger said. People of his generation are proud of the work they did here. In their view, it won the Second World War, and it won the Cold War. Players for the Richland High School football team, the Bombers, wear helmets emblazoned with a mushroom cloud.
All of Hanford's reactors are decommissioned now, and the civilian administrators of the nuclear-weapons establishment, after years of secrecy and downright lying, have initiated a policy of openness. There are 54 million gallons of radioactive waste stored in 177 underground tanks, most of them buried in what is called Area 200. The DOE says that it will take decades for a complete cleanup. The current unofficial target date is 2035.
Hanford encourages visitors to think of the deadly toxins festering there as "legacy wastes": a legacy of the Second World War, a legacy of the Cold War, a legacy of victory.
The Columbia River rises in the Rocky Mountains of Canada. The waters flow south into the United States, abruptly turn west, and empty into the Pacific north of Portland, Oregon. In between, in Washington State, there are seven dams along the Columbia, forming a series of lakes and reservoirs and "slackwater" sections of the river. The last stretch of the free-flowing Columbia is the Hanford Reach, 51 miles of bright-blue water flowing past gray blocky cement munitions plants and through a desert painted in dull sage-stippled pastels. The land, in its undeveloped and extravagant abundance, is another legacy of Hanford, and an entirely unintended one at that.
Less than 6 percent of the nuclear reservation was developed. Now that Hanford's plutonium mission is over, the DOE plans to hand over control of the land it confiscated to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. The strange and fortuitous irony is that the security zone created around the nuclear munitions plants protected populations of fish, bird, and insect life threatened with extinction elsewhere. Several species of salmon spawn in the waters below the reactors, and proponents of a Senate bill to designate the Hanford Reach a Wild and Scenic River argue that the designation could be the easiest and least expensive part of the salmon restoration programs mandated by federal courts.
Getting permission to camp along the river was a matter of some bureaucratic maneuvering, requiring several weeks of negotiations and a slew of letters. Randy Brich, who spearheaded the effort, described our excursion this way: "A float trip courtesy of the U.S. Department of Energy, sponsored by the Desert Kayak and Canoe Club, and underwritten by Battelle's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory." (Battelle Memorial Institute is one of the four major DOE contractors at the Hanford Site.)
The river was running at about five miles an hour, but the water was high, almost glassy, and deep blue, mirroring deep-blue sky. Pat Wright, a Battelle safety officer, and I took turns rowing his drift boat and drinking beer. We were flowing gently down the stream in company with a kayak, a couple of catarafts, and a canoe. Most everyone worked at Hanford. On our right, the pump houses and reactor buildings and pipes running into and out of blocky gray cement buildings looked odd and out of time, rather like the shell of an old cara Model T, for instance, rusting away in a field full of wildflowers. From a distance, the buildings were dwarfed by the overwhelming arc of sky.
As we floated by the last reactor to be decommissioned, N, there was the disconcerting sound of a cell phone ringing, and Rick Raymond, a Lockheed Martin project manager who was paddling one of the catarafts, peeled off from our flotilla. He caught a back eddy under an unmanned glassed-in guard tower. It was very quiet on the river. The only sounds were the whisper of the wind and the mad birdbrained screams of mud swallows building nests on the banks of the river. In this relative silence, Rick's voice carried well, and I could hear him speaking with some urgency.
Later, when he caught up with us, I accused Rick of committing business on a river trip.
"Sorry," he said. "One of our tanks is belching hydrogen." Some of the double-walled waste tanks contain a million gallons of waste: a horrifying goulash of plutonium syrup and cesium and strontium and other venomous toxins. The tanks produce hydrogen, which is a by-product of radiolytic decay. Hydrogen is highly flammable. The tanks are built to vent gases, but sometimes a thick crust forms on top of the waste, and the hydrogen collects underneath in an ominous growing bulge. In these cases, giant circulating pumps are used to vent the tank.
This was what was happening as I floated past the tank farm. An explosion in the enclosed underground tank could hurl radioactive waste sludge high into the atmosphere. "Technically," Rick said, "it's what we in waste management call 'a bad thing.'"
Randy Brich, who was paddling a canoe nearby, recited the Hanford mantra: "A nuclear waste is a terrible thing to mind."
A snowy egret rose from the banks across from the reactors and kept pace with us as we drifted along. Ferruginous hawks worked the hillsides, river left. Ahead, along a great ten-mile curve of river, the White Bluffs loomed 350 feet overhead. They were crumbly sandstone deposits containing the fossilized remains of mastodons, beavers the size of bears, camels, bisonthe whole Ice Age menagerie.
Just across from Locke Island, a part of the Bluffs had collapsed into the river. The geologists in our group blamed irrigation above the cliff face, in an area known as the Wahluke Slope. Further irrigation could cause more sloughing and thus damage the salmon-spawning grounds below. Happily, this April, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson announced the Department's desire to preserve 90,000 acres of the Wahluke Slope as a wildlife refuge.
We made camp at a cove set deep into the White Bluffs and then set off up a road previously used by security vehicles. The bladderpod, a species of mustard (and one of the plants new to science), grows here. We found several of them in early bloom, sporting yellow cruciform flowers, at the very top of the Bluffs, where they spread out and hunkered down low against the termination winds. I glanced back down the river toward the reactors, which lay along the path of the ancient cataclysmic floods. There were forces here beyond human comprehension, and I regarded the land and the river below as both terrible and sacred.
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61. Richardson Accepts Nuclear Agency Plan DOE Unit Would Be Semiautonomous
By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, July 8, 1999; Page A16 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/08/210l-070899-idx.html
After weeks of wrangling, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson agreed yesterday to a Republican proposal to create a semiautonomous agency to run the vast complex of laboratories and plants that research, assemble and maintain America's nuclear weapons.
The establishment of the Agency for Nuclear Stewardship (ANS) inside the Department of Energy would be the most significant change produced so far by more than a year of controversy over allegations of Chinese espionage and lax security at the weapons labs.
The new agency also would represent the first major reorganization of the nuclear weapons complex in more than two decades, since the Department of Energy was formed in 1976-77.
Until this week, Richardson had vigorously opposed the notion of a semiautonomous nuclear agency, calling it "a fiefdom within a fiefdom." He said yesterday that he would accept the Republican proposal as long as the ANS remained inside the Energy Department and clearly under his control.
"I'm ready to move on it," Richardson said, adding that he had directed his staff to "work with Congress on details to craft a bipartisan package." He noted that he already has a team looking for candidates with "a strong national security background" for the new position of undersecretary of energy for nuclear stewardship.
The reorganization was first proposed last month by three Republican senators -- Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Frank H. Murkowski (R-Alaska) -- as a way to tighten security in the wake of a bipartisan congressional report on Chinese espionage by a select committee headed by Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.).
The proposal subsequently was endorsed by a panel of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board headed by former senator Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.). Rudman's panel said that many of the Cox committee's conclusions about Chinese espionage were overblown, but it also excoriated the Energy Department as "a dysfunctional bureaucracy that has proven it is incapable of reforming itself."
Rudman predicted yesterday that Richardson's support would ensure quick Senate passage of the reorganization, since the White House already backs it. Rudman cautioned, however, that the reaction in the House of Representatives is uncertain. Some members of the House favor the Senate approach, but others want to create a fully autonomous nuclear agency or transfer authority over the nuclear complex to the Pentagon.
As Richardson and Congress have argued over ways to tighten security, morale has been slipping among the more than 30,000 employees within the nuclear weapons complex, and particularly at the nation's three main nuclear laboratories. Last weekend, Richardson created a storm when he said the GOP plan could result in the loss of 900 jobs in New Mexico, a claim Domenici quickly denied.
During sessions at Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories last month, Richardson was peppered with complaints about a new policy of administering polygraph tests to all employees with access to current nuclear secrets. When researchers at Los Alamos asked him whether he would take the so-called lie detector exam himself, he said he "might." Later that day, at Sandia, he said he had already volunteered.
Richardson also told the employees that he instituted the exams "to send a signal that we take security seriously." But, he added, "I don't see them as permanent."
Richardson went to the labs partly to offer support to Asian Americans working in the nuclear complex, since two Chinese American scientists have been identified as suspected spies and another has pleaded guilty to unauthorized passing of classified information.
"I sense that Asian Americans feel their patriotism is being questioned . . . and [worry that the] careers of Asian Americans will suffer," he told a gathering at Los Alamos. "The alleged actions of one doesn't reflect on the rest."
The proposed Agency for Nuclear Stewardship would run the Los Alamos, Sandia and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories as well as the Nevada nuclear test site, nuclear materials production facilities and weapons assembly plants. It would also manage the naval reactor program, which supplies nuclear propulsion systems to the Navy, and various programs promoting safe storage and nuclear nonproliferation.
As late as last week, Richardson argued that a new agency was unnecessary because he had already taken significant steps to tighten security, including the appointment of retired Gen. Eugene E. Habiger as the Energy Department's "security czar."
When Congress recessed for the Fourth of July holiday, there was fear of a deadlock. Rudman helped to resolve it by circulating a memo stating that even after the creation of the ANS, the energy secretary still would be "responsible for developing and promulgating Energy-wide policy" on security, counterintelligence and other "vital organization functions."
Republican senators also overcame some of Richardson's objections by writing into the legislation that the chiefs of counterintelligence and security in the new ANS shall "implement the . . . policies" set by the energy secretary and undersecretary.
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Plenty of Blame to Go Around on Spying, DOE's Ex-Arms Chief Says
By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, July 15, 1999; Page A14 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/15/146l-071599-idx.html
The former head of the Energy Department's nuclear weapons program told Congress yesterday that he accepts "some responsibility" for failing to take quick action over allegations of Chinese espionage at U.S. national laboratories.
But Victor H. Reis, the only senior official who has lost his job because of the alleged security breaches, told the House Armed Services Committee that plenty of others share the blame.
"You certainly will find people who didn't do their job as well as they might have," he said, listing "the directors of the laboratories, the head of intelligence, counterintelligence at [the Department of Energy], the people within the FBI -- you could go on forever."
Reis's testimony comes as Energy Secretary Bill Richardson is weighing disciplinary action against various officials based on the findings of a DOE inspector general's report on the handling of Wen Ho Lee, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory who has been under investigation since early 1996 for allegedly spying for China.
Lee continued to have access to classified information until he was fired in March for security violations. But as several House members noted yesterday, senior DOE officials could have changed his job and limited his access to secrets more than a year earlier, in mid-1997, when they were told by FBI Director Louis J. Freeh that the bureau no longer believed Lee should remain in his post.
Reis was assistant secretary of energy for defense programs from 1993 until late last month. He conceded that when he first became aware of the allegations of spying, "I could have pressed harder" for tightening security. But, he said, he thought the department's intelligence and counterintelligence officers, "who were basically in charge of that, were doing it well."
Later, he learned that the FBI was investigating an employee at Los Alamos, but "I was never told the name of the individual," he said.
Reis has said he resigned June 25 because of disagreements with Richardson over reorganization of the nuclear weapons complex. Some Energy Department officials believe he may have been on the secretary's list for disciplinary action.
Yesterday, Reis told the committee he did not support Richardson's naming of a "security czar" to solve the department's security problem.
Reis also warned that too much emphasis on security could end up harming national security. "I'm concerned, frankly, that if we spend all our time worrying about guards and gates and that sort of thing, we'll forget that what we're really talking about is maintaining the nuclear weapons and maintaining them indefinitely, hopefully without nuclear testing," he said.
Reis said the answer was to build concern about security into the minds of all DOE scientists and lab employees. "Security, like safety, then becomes part of the team that is focused on the mission, not entrusted to an external group that is looking to play 'gotcha,' " he said.
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Back Channels The Intelligence Community; A Key Panel Asks: Why Only One Spy Probe?
By Vernon Loeb Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, July 7, 1999; Page A17 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/07/153l-070799-idx.html
After months of leaks and partisan rhetoric about Chinese espionage at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board has finally spoken, trying to inject some semblance of balance into the superheated debate.
"Opinions expressed in the media and elsewhere have ranged from one extreme to the other," the little known but heavy-hitting panel said in its recent report on Department of Energy weapons labs, "Science at Its Best, Security at Its Worst."
"On one end of the spectrum is the view that the Chinese have acquired very little classified information and can do little with it. On the other end is the view that the Chinese have nearly duplicated the W-88 warhead. After reviewing the available intelligence and interviewing the major participants in many of these studies, we conclude that none of these extreme views holds water," the panel concluded.
The 14-member panel, PFIAB, chaired by former senator Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.), was created 43 years ago by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to advise the president on the quality--and legality--of foreign intelligence activities.
In its latest report, the PFIAB cut to the quick of the spy case at Los Alamos, asking why the FBI and the DOE's chief spy hunter, Notra Trulock, focused virtually all their energy on one nuclear physicist at the lab, Wen Ho Lee, without hard evidence that classified warhead data obtained by the Chinese came from Lee or anyone else at the fabled home of the atom bomb. "Despite the disclosure of information concerning seven warheads, despite the potential that the source or sources of these disclosures were other than the bomb designers at the national weapons labs, and despite the potential that the disclosures occurred as early as 1982, only one investigation was initiated," the PFIAB said.
The report was written by Rudman and three of the other PFIAB members: Ann Z. Caracristi, former deputy director of the National Security Agency; Stephen Friedman, chairman of the board of Columbia University; and Sidney D. Drell, deputy director of Stanford University's Linear Accelerator Center.
STAND-DOWN COSTS: Meanwhile, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson's June 21-22 security stand-down at Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore and Sandia national laboratories cost American taxpayers $15 million in lost labor, according to calculations by Chris Mechels, a retired Los Alamos computer security official who now serves as vice president of Citizens for Los Alamos National Laboratory Employee Rights.
Mechels passed on the following account he received via e-mail from a staff member at Livermore:
Day 1: "At 08:00, all were given notices at the gates as we came in. Mandatory 30 minute presentation at 08:30 from [lab director] Bruce Tarter. To be followed at 09:00 by a 3 hour mandatory counterintelligence viewing. Rest of the Day?????? Just notices of rebroadcasts."
Day 2: "At 08:00 this morning, I was given a one page counterintelligence memo to read. Mandatory reading . . . The rest of the day was a total loss. I had to cancel a meeting scheduled for today because of the stand down, but nothing was scheduled for the second day!!!!"
TO THE WOODSHED: The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence takes the National Security Agency to the woodshed in its report on the fiscal 2000 Intelligence Authorization Act, bluntly declaring: "The committee believes that NSA is in serious trouble."
While committing huge amounts of money to "recapitalize" the NSA's worldwide system for intercepting communications in the face of increased technological challenges, the committee noted that "money and priority alone will not revive NSA, nor the overall [signals intelligence] system."
"The committee believes that NSA management has not yet stepped up to the line," the panel said.
The NSA released a statement yesterday that it "respects the views of Congress and we look forward to working with the members and their staffs to address specific concerns. [NSA Director Michael V. Hayden] is dedicated to bringing about whatever changes are necessary so that the Agency workforce can meet the challenges of the 21st Century with the same success it has met challenges in the past."
Beyond heavy new investment in signals intelligence, the committee identified four other spending priorities, including "stronger and more extensive clandestine [human intelligence] capability" and "new tools in the covert action 'toolbox.' "
What kind of tools might those be?
Vernon Loeb's e-mail address is loebv@washpost.com
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Message: 5 Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 05:15:07 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-15 7/17/99 - Arms Sales
67. CIA: Export Controls Slow Weapons
By John Diamond Associated Press Writer Saturday, July 17, 1999; 4:35 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990717/V000057-071799-idx.htm l http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-CIA-Proliferation.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Syria, Libya and some other nations aggressively strive to make their own weapons of mass destruction, but their progress has been slowed by tight export controls and their own inability to fully develop chemical, nuclear or biological arms, according to a new CIA report.
While the Chinese theft of nuclear secrets from the United States and worries about proliferation from China have been the recent focus of such concerns, the CIA points to Russia as the primary supplier of mass destruction weapons and materials, because of unreliable export controls.
The CIA's twice-yearly report on developments in proliferation of weapons of mass destruction -- this one covering the second half of last year -- was submitted to Congress Thursday and made available Friday after it was declassified.
North Korea is also aggressively exporting missile technology as a key source of hard currency for its strapped economy. But North Korea's overall weapons capabilities are far less than those of Russia and China.
And Iraq appears to be providing some technical assistance, though no actual materials, to Sudan.
Countries ``of concern'' to the United States that are seeking these weapons include Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Libya, Syria and Sudan. Egypt is also seeking to buy technology for improved missiles. And India and Pakistan continue to try to improve their nuclear weapons programs.
But all of these countries, according to the CIA, depend heavily on outside suppliers.
``Outside assistance is critical to keeping (Libya's) ballistic missile development programs from becoming moribund,'' the CIA reported.
For Syria, ``Foreign equipment and assistance have been and will continue to be essential'' to a solid-fuel rocket program.
India and Pakistan were able to obtain ``only a limited amount'' of nuclear weapons-related assistance during the second half of 1998, just after the two longtime enemies rattled the world with a series of underground nuclear test explosions.
Throughout the report, the emphasis appeared to be on the difficulty these countries have had in getting around export controls being imposed in China and Russia, the countries the CIA identifies as the main sources of mass destruction weapons technology.
The CIA's overall assessment is that China is tightening control on export of weapons technology by a growing number of quasi-independent development and manufacturing ``entities'' that have been difficult to police in recent years. The report indicates China is sticking to its export control pledges.
``The effectiveness, however, of China's nascent nuclear export controls is not yet clear; restructuring among oversight entities and the defense industries may impede implementation in the near term,'' the CIA reported.
In Russia, the report cited some ``positive steps'' toward weapons export control taken by Moscow under ``intense and continuing engagement'' with the Clinton administration, including decrees broadening the list of items banned for export and increasing government control of Russian companies that make these items.
``Despite these decrees, the government's commitment, willingness and ability to curb proliferation-related transfers remain uncertain,'' the CIA reported. ``Moreover, economic conditions in Russia continued to deteriorate, putting more pressure on Russian entities to circumvent export controls.''
The report indicates that economics, rather than some grander ideological plan, lies behind much of the world's weapons proliferation, with Russia and North Korea grappling with troubled or failing economies and Iraq hemmed in by embargoes.
Because of the improvements being made in export controls, the CIA reports, would-be developers of mass destruction arsenals are focusing their efforts on buying so-called dual use equipment -- civilian nuclear reactors for Iran, chemical production equipment for Iraq -- that could be converted to weapons production.
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68. F-22 Jet Hits Another Snag in House Committee
By Bradley Graham Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, July 17, 1999; Page A09 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/17/057l-071799-idx.html http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/071799congress-f22.html http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Congress-F-22.html
Having driven Yugoslav forces out of Kosovo during an 11-week air campaign, the U.S. Air Force expected to receive a pat on the back in Washington.
Instead, it got a slap in the face this week from a House panel that voted to suspend the planned purchase of the F-22 jet fighter, the Air Force's top-priority new weapon.
The action, initiated early in the week by an Appropriations subcommittee and affirmed yesterday by the full committee, has thrown the Air Force into a panic. Senior officers argue that the supersonic, radar-evading plane is needed to maintain control of the skies against new generations of aircraft and surface-to-air missiles under development by the Russians and Europeans.
Led by Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.), who chairs the defense appropriations panel, critics of the F-22 contend that the Air Force would be better off upgrading and buying more existing models of jet fighters, bombers, aerial tankers and reconnaissance aircraft. Even at a time of surging defense spending, paying as much as $200 million each for hundreds of new fighters strikes opponents as an unaffordable luxury.
Stopping short of canceling the program, the committee removed $1.8 billion requested by the Air Force to buy the first six F-22s, but left $1.2 billion for research and development. The decision, according to Lewis, is intended to call a "pause" and allow for debate about the number and type of new aircraft the military really needs.
One of the central questions: Should the Pentagon be developing three new tactical combat aircraft? In addition to the F-22, military planners are pursuing an improved Navy carrier-based jet fighter, the F/A-18E/F, and a multipurpose Joint Strike Fighter for use by the Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy.
"The Air Force has been so focused on this [F-22] program since the early 1990s that it has paid attention to little else," said Lewis, a 20-year House veteran who is serving his first year as subcommittee chairman. "That's not how the Air Force ought to be operating."
But the Air Force contends that a pause in F-22 development would effectively kill the program because it would be prohibitively expensive to resume. If permitted to continue without interruption, service officials say, the F-22 can be financed without breaking the Air Force's budget.
"We have spent that kind of money on one weapons system before," Lt. Gen. Gregory Martin, who oversees Air Force acquisitions, told reporters Thursday.
In fact, though, the F-22 appears to be setting new cost records, aggravated by production delays. In fiscal 2000 dollars, the estimated $60 billion price tag for the F-22 program would exceed what the Pentagon spent on the B-1 bomber ($36 billion), B-2 bomber ($57 billion) and C-17 transport plane ($43 billion). It also would surpass the $49 billion expended for the F-15 fleet that the new jet fighter is designed to replace.
The Air Force says the F-22 is needed to counter Russia's new SAM-10 and SAM-12 antiaircraft missiles as well as the Russian Su-35 fighter under development and the Eurofighter 2000 being built by a consortium of European countries. But experts on the Russian military say it is in such dire financial straits that it cannot actually produce new weapons that would pose much of a threat.
Lewis said he decided a month ago to go after the F-22 program, but kept his plans secret from the Air Force until he could win the committee's vote and compel a congressional debate. Backing the surprise maneuver was the subcommittee's ranking Democrat, Rep. John P. Murtha (Pa.).
"Both these guys, Lewis and Murtha, are heavyweights; they know their stuff," said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who offered an amendment yesterday to restore the F-22 funds, then withdrew it in the face of insufficient support. "I think they're trying to make a serious change in American military policy."
The Senate's defense spending bill fully funds the Pentagon's request for the F-22s, so the issue is likely to go to a conference committee if the full House approves the Appropriations Committee's action.
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Air Force lobbying to save F-22
7/15/99- Updated 10:16 PM ET http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncsthu15.htm
WASHINGTON (AP) - Jolted by a congressional move that could kill a prized new fighter jet, the Air Force invoked its recent successes in Kosovo as it lobbied hard this week to save the plane.
''I think that we will be able to convice people we need it,'' Lt. Gen. Gary Martin said Thursday.
The House Appropriations defense subcommittee voted Monday to divert $1.8 billion from the F-22 program. The money was supposed to go to buy six of the jets with a new design. Instead, the key panel wants to use the money to buy more of the tried-and-true F-15 and F-16 models.
The panel's chairman, Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., also said he wants the Air Force to reconsider the F-22's Cold War roots, and decide whether the plane is really necessary now that the world has changed.
The Air Force flew most of the missions in NATO's 78-day air war to liberate Kosovo from the clutch of Serbian government troops. But the F-15s that Air Force pilots often used in the air war are getting outdated, Air Force Maj. Gen. Bruce Carlson said at a briefing for reporters at the Pentagon. The planes were developed in the 1970s.
''Asking a young fighter pilot to put his life on the line with a piece of equipment that is 26 years old does not make sense to us,'' said Carlson, director of the air service's operational requirements.
Congressional and other skeptics have also cited the Kosovo example - to say that the current force of pilots and planes is stretched too thin and may benefit little from a program timed to deliver large numbers of planes a decade from now.
Martin, a senior official in the Air Force acquisition office, said he was late to the Pentagon briefing because he was meeting with Lewis and others on Capitol Hill to press for the F-22.
The full Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to take up the fiscal 2000 defense authorization bill on Friday that includes the cut in F-22 funds. It will go to the House floor later this month.
The Senate has not moved to stall purchase of the ''stealthy'' plane, the first two of which are now going through test flights.
Lewis said this week the Air Force has become preoccupied with the F-22, to the point where ''they've been ignoring everything else.''
''This has gotten their attention,'' he said of Monday's vote.
Lewis said he does not rule out resuming the F-22 program, and noted that the legislation leaves $1.2 billion in the budget for continued research and development.
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69. Fact Sheet: Administration Record on Nonproliferation
U.S. Newswire 14 Jul 15:10 http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/Current_Releases/0714-132.htm
WASHINGTON, July 14 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Following is a fact sheet released today by the White House:
FACT SHEET Nonproliferation: The Clinton Administration Record
President Clinton has led the effort to reduce the threat to Americans from weapons of mass destruction. Over the past six years, the Administration has made unprecedented progress in curbing the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and the missiles that deliver them, in reducing the dangerous legacy of Cold War weapons' stockpiles and in promoting responsible conventional arms transfer policies.
Nuclear Weapons
Preventing Nuclear Proliferation in the Former Soviet Union: The U.S. worked with Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan to remove all nuclear weapons from their soil and to secure their agreement to forswear such weapons forever.
Ending Nuclear Testing: The U.S. led the international effort to conclude the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and was the first world leader to sign this historic agreement banning all nuclear explosions.
Freezing North Korea's Nuclear Program: Under the 1994 U.S.-DPRK Agreed Framework, North Korea's plutonium production has been frozen under international monitoring and its production facilities are to be dismantled.
Extending the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty: U.S. diplomacy played a critical role in 1995 in securing the unconditional and indefinite extension by consensus of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty -- the cornerstone of our efforts to control nuclear proliferation. Under U.S. leadership, 29 new countries, including Algeria, Argentina, Belarus, Brazil, Chile, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine, have joined the NPT.
Controlling Nuclear Materials: The U.S. has promoted broader international participation in both the Zangger Committee and the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the two informal groups which control equipment and materials that can be used to make nuclear weapons. Since 1993, Argentina, Bulgaria, China, the Czech Republic, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, the Slovak Republic, South Africa and Spain have joined the Zangger Committee. During the same period, the membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group has expanded to include Argentina, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Latvia, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, the Slovak Republic and Ukraine.
Strengthening Security of Nuclear Materials: The U.S. is engaged in unprecedented programs at 100 sites in Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Ukraine and other countries to strengthen the security and accounting of nuclear materials and protect them from theft or diversion.
Safeguarding Weapon-Grade Uranium: The U.S. purchased 500 metric tons of weapon-grade, highly-enriched uranium from Russia for dilution to safer, low-enriched uranium to be used in commercial power reactors. In Operation Sapphire, the U.S. airlifted nearly 600 kilograms of highly enriched uranium from Kazakhstan for safe disposition in the United States.
Securing Weapon-Free Zones: The U.S. signed the relevant Protocols to both the South Pacific and African Nuclear Weapon Free Zone Treaties in the spring of 1996.
Engaging China: Through U.S. efforts, China joined the Zangger Committee of nuclear suppliers, pledged to cease all assistance to unsafeguarded nuclear facilities and cut off nuclear cooperation with Iran.
Chemical and Biological Weapons
Banning Chemical Weapons: The U.S. was an original party to the Chemical Weapons Convention when it entered into force in 1997 and has led international efforts to secure universal adherence to and compliance with this ban on poison gas. Today, 126 countries are members of the CWC.
Strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention: The U.S. has been at the forefront of international efforts to conclude a legally binding protocol to strengthen compliance with the 1972 treaty outlawing biological weapons.
Eliminating Former CBW Facilities: Under the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, the U.S. is dismantling former Soviet chemical weapons production facilities in Russia and Uzbekistan and a former Soviet biological weapons production facility in Kazakhstan.
Controlling Chemical and Biological Weapon-Related Material: The U.S. successfully promoted the membership of Argentina, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Iceland, Slovakia, Romania, Poland and South Korea in the Australia Group, which controls chemical and biological weapon-related material.
Assisting Chemical Weapons Destruction in Russia: Under the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, the U.S. is designing and constructing Russia's first chemical weapons destruction facility.
Conventional Weapons and Missiles
Controlling Munitions and Dual-Use Technologies: The U.S. led international efforts to create the 33 member Wassenar Agreement, which seeks to promote the responsible transfers of arms and related technology and to increase transparency of such exports. Through U.S. leadership in Wassenaar, we have been able to stop the flow of arms and sensitive technologies to Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Libya and other countries.
Promoting Strong National Export Controls: The U.S. has provided legal and technical advice and support to countries in the former Soviet Union on the development and maintenance of effective dual-use and munitions export controls.
Stemming Missile Proliferation: The U.S. has strengthened the guidelines and expanded the membership of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), adding Argentina, Brazil, Hungary, Poland, Iceland, Turkey, the Czech Republic, South Africa, Russia and Ukraine to its rolls. We have also secured China's commitment not to transfer ground-to-ground MTCR-class missiles and to abide by the original MTCR guidelines.
Regional Security
Containing Iran and Iraq: The U.S. has pressed Russian and other potential suppliers not to assist Iranian and Iraqi efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles.
Redirecting FSU Weapon Scientists: The U.S. has employed over 30,000 former Soviet weapons scientists on over 1,000 peaceful research projects under the multinational Science Centers and other nonproliferation assistance programs.
Promoting Stability in South Asia: The U.S. is pressing both India and Pakistan to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and to forego destabilizing nuclear and missile activities.
-0- /U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/ 07/14 15:10
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70. Proposed Tax Cuts Worry Pentagon Officials Urge White House to Protect Military Modernization
By Bradley Graham and Eric Pianin, Washington Post, July 10, 1999; Page A04 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/10/089l-071099-idx.html
Worried that congressional proposals for huge tax cuts could jeopardize increases in defense spending, the Pentagon has appealed to the White House to hold the line against deep tax breaks or risk gutting military modernization programs.
The military brass appears to be nervous about the outcome of negotiations between President Clinton and leading Republican lawmakers over how to spend the federal budget surplus, now estimated at about $1 trillion over the coming decade.
But senior Republican aides yesterday dismissed the Pentagon's jitters as unfounded, asserting that the GOP remains strongly committed to higher defense spending. They said the Pentagon's decision to publicize its concern -- with apparent approval from the White House -- was little more than a ploy to strengthen Clinton's hand in the coming budget talks.
Republicans are pushing various tax cut proposals with totals ranging from $775 billion to $864 billion over 10 years. The administration favors a more modest $250 billion in tax reductions, with most of the surplus going for improvements in Social Security, Medicare and education programs as well as defense.
Clinton has invited Republican leaders to come to the White House on Monday to discuss their differences in the first such get-together since the White House substantially raised its budget surplus forecasts two weeks ago. Saying they fear the talks could produce a compromise shortchanging future military spending, two senior defense officials called in a reporter to make known that they had pressed top Clinton aides not to sell out the Pentagon.
"We're putting a marker down with the White House," one of the officials said. "We told them: Don't close out this deal and leave us behind."
Confronted by warnings from the military chiefs of a serious erosion in defense equipment and troop morale, Clinton promised late last year to dip into the projected federal surplus and give the Pentagon an extra $127 billion through 2009 -- the largest sustained rise in defense spending since Ronald Reagan was president.
A tax cut of the magnitude being proposed by the Republicans would effectively wipe out this increase -- and more, defense officials said. It would result in a loss of $198 billion in projected defense spending between 2005 and 2009, the officials said. That calculation is based on the difference between the administration's long-term spending plan and the latest congressional budget resolution.
The loss of so much funding, at a time when the Pentagon expects to be paying heavily for a new generation of fighter jets and ships, would compel either a sharp reduction in troop levels or the cancellation of some major modernization programs, the officials said.
But congressional Republicans contend that a big tax cut and higher defense spending are not mutually exclusive. And they intend to pursue both.
"We have a requirement to get the tax overpayments coming into this town out of town, but only after we address the national security issue," said John Czwartacki, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.).
In recent months, congressional Republicans have sought to outbid the administration's own military spending surge. Congressional committees added from $5 billion to $8 billion to the administration's proposed $281 billion defense budget for fiscal 2000, which itself represents an inflation-adjusted increase of about $12 billion over what the administration had planned just a year earlier.
Lawmakers also responded to NATO's air campaign against Yugoslavia with a nearly $11 billion emergency spending bill, almost double the $6 billion that Clinton requested.
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71. Losing the Battle on Arms Control Pakistan-India Nuclear Race Is Just Part of a Disturbing Trend
By Steven Mufson Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, July 17, 1999; Page A01 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/17/069l-071799-idx.html
On June 25, the frontier of arms control suddenly shifted to the Indian port of Kandla, where customs officials, acting on a tip, demanded to see what else was in the hold of a North Korean ship unloading a cargo of sugar.
They hit the jackpot inside the 9,600-ton steamer Ku Wol San: 148 containers listed on the cargo manifest as "water purification machinery" destined for Malta turned out to contain missile parts, machine tools, and blueprints of a Scud missile, all allegedly bound for Pakistan.
The seizure, disclosed this week, is just the latest example of a disturbing trend. Over the past 15 months, efforts to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction have suffered a series of deep setbacks, including the detonation of atomic bombs by India and Pakistan; long-range missile advances by North Korea, Pakistan and Iran; the end of the United Nations weapons inspections in Iraq; and the perverse political lesson some nations have drawn from the war in Kosovo, that nuclear weapons are the only protection against NATO intervention.
"All the trend lines are negative," says Michael Krepon, a disarmament expert at the Henry L. Stimson Center, a Washington-based think tank. "All the usual suspects are moving in the wrong direction."
This summer alone, Pakistan and India have smashed the Cold War theory cited by Pakistani leaders to justify their decision to match India's nuclear tests: that two countries with nuclear weapons would refrain from direct conflict with each other. In addition, U.S. officials say that North Korea, which American officials believe possesses a grapefruit-sized lump of material big enough to make one or two nuclear bombs, is preparing to test a long-range missile capable of hitting much of the western United States.
Reflecting a sense of gloom, one senior State Department official, Martin S. Indyk, recently told a foreign policy forum that the question is no longer whether Iran will obtain nuclear weapons, but rather how the United States will deal with Iran afterward.
Indeed, U.S. policymakers are increasingly turning from "nonproliferation," or preventive measures, to what in defense jargon is known as "counterproliferation": how to deal with countries that acquire nuclear weapons despite preventive efforts. The tools include economic sanctions, research on goo-emitting bombs that could smother chemical weapons and burrowing bombs that could reach buried targets, and "theater missile defense," a reincarnation of the Reagan era "Star Wars" program to intercept missiles in flight.
However, these alternatives raise as many foreign policy questions as they answer. Would the United States really launch a preemptive military strike on a suspected weapons facility? Could theater missile defense backfire and set off a new arms race? Should sanctions imposed on India or Pakistan as punishment after their nuclear tests last year be eased, as some U.S. lawmakers and U.N. diplomats suggest?
For 35 years, the world's small club of nuclear powers has largely kept intact its monopoly on weapons of mass destruction, defying President John F. Kennedy's 1963 prediction that 15 to 20 countries would possess nuclear weapons by the early 1970s.
Nations "of concern" to the United States that are seeking weapons of mass destruction include Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Libya, Syria and Sudan, according to a CIA report to Congress on the second half of 1998 that was declassified yesterday. The Associated Press said the CIA reported that Egypt is trying to buy technology for improved missiles and that India and Pakistan continue to try to improve their nuclear weapons programs.
Recent setbacks follow some major successes in arms control during the early 1990s. A nuclear test ban was signed. Brazil and Argentina scrapped their nuclear weapons programs. South Africa announced it had secretly built six nuclear bombs and then dismantled them. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, three newly independent, former Soviet republics gave up their nuclear weapons. That left the five major nuclear powers -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China -- as well as Israel, widely suspected of having dozens of nuclear bombs.
Now, however, the tide is turning. Iraq is importing material that could be used for biological weapons and seeking to buy nuclear bomb material, according to former weapons inspectors.
"We have destroyed the production" of nuclear weapons-grade material, says Rolf Ekeus, Sweden's ambassador to the United States and former head of the U.N. inspection effort. But he notes that Iraqi weapons makers "have done all the calibrations and calculations. Our concern is that they are buying [the material] and once they do that, the rest of the work is already done."
American officials believe that within five years Iran will have the ability to make a nuclear bomb, even though the United States persuaded Russia and China to curtail their nuclear cooperation with Tehran. Iran already possesses medium-range missiles and is working on long-range missiles with help from Russian firms and North Korea.
Economically strapped Pakistan recently let the Saudi Arabian defense minister and a delegation from the United Arab Emirates tour its nuclear bomb and missile development sites. Though Shahid Hamid, governor of the Punjab region, said in an interview that Pakistan's nuclear technology "is not for sale," he conceded that "there have been offers made to us by others" seeking to buy nuclear secrets.
NATO's war over Kosovo has also complicated efforts to persuade nations to forgo nuclear weapons. On May 13, European Union representatives met in New York with China's chief arms control negotiator to prepare for a new round of treaties aimed at limiting the spread of nuclear weapons. Because NATO had accidentally destroyed China's embassy in a bombing raid on Belgrade six days earlier, the Europeans were not sure the Chinese would even show up.
But they did -- and delivered a stern lecture. NATO countries were the ones destroying nonproliferation efforts with their war in Kosovo, China's representative, Sha Zukang, said, according to a German diplomat. Sha added that NATO showed it wouldn't respect any country unless that country had nuclear weapons.
On June 3, the European Union met with Russian arms negotiators, who delivered the same message.
In between, William J. Perry, acting as special envoy for President Clinton, took a U.S. delegation to North Korea for the highest-level talks between the two countries since the Korean War. Holding out the possibility of normal relations with the United States, Perry pressed North Korean leaders to scrap efforts to develop long-range missiles and stick to their commitment not to build the bomb. According to participants, the North Korean leaders replied, in essence: Why should North Korea give up those weapons? If it did, the United States might start complaining about human rights in North Korea and bomb it into oblivion like Serbia.
The Clinton administration is pursuing an ad hoc policy toward each proliferation threat around the world. Iraq has been bombed for seven months, the first war waged exclusively over the issue of weapons proliferation. North Korea has been both cajoled and threatened. The United States has waged a campaign to block international and commercial nuclear cooperation with Iran. Israel's nuclear weapons have been ignored; openly acknowledging their existence could increase the desire of Arab states to develop a countervailing threat. Pakistan and India have been hit with sanctions barring certain technology sales, economic aid and loans from the World Bank or International Monetary Fund.
Some diplomats feel the spread of nuclear weapons is inevitable. One former Defense Department official notes that all arms control efforts throughout history have failed, starting with a Vatican-sponsored conference in the 12th century to ban production of the crossbow, an import from China that could pierce the armor of European nobles. "There's a certain arrogance to say that you can stop the spread of technology," the official said.
But others believe negotiations still can contain the most lethal weapons, coax India and Pakistan into observing the nuclear test ban and international inspection regimes, and further reduce the stockpiles of the major powers.
"Calling it a regime gave it a sense of being an iron castle, which never existed," said Frank Wisner, a former ambassador to India and Egypt who tried to persuade Russia to cut off aid to Iran's nuclear power program. "But the nonproliferation regimes still establish norms of behavior. They are like traffic laws; people still speed."
Wisner says it is more urgent to defuse the problems that drive countries to seek such devices. Better to engage North Korea, mediate the Indian-Pakistani dispute over Kashmir, resolve the Israeli-Palestinian problem, or figure out what Iran sees as threats to its national security, he says.
"Ballistic missiles are the symptom, not the problem," says Krepon of the Stimson Center.
Staff writer Thomas W. Lippman contributed to this report.
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Message: 6 Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 05:12:34 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-11 7/17/99 - Y2K
51. FEATURE - Scared of Y2K? Head for a nuclear reactor
10:15 p.m. Jul 07, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek By Matthew Green
LONDON, July 8 (Reuters) - Deadly radiation, complex computers and the year 2000 bug sound like an apocalyptic mix, but watchdogs say nuclear power plants will be as safe a place as any to spend the new year.
In Western Europe, technicians have been combing bugs from reactor systems and making contingency plans to cope with malfunctions for years.
Eastern Europe is lagging behind, but the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says it sees only a remote chance of catastrophe.
``One can never rule out some difficulties, but what I expect is that there won't be problems of a nuclear safety nature,'' said Zig Domaratzki, head of the Department of Nuclear Safety at the IAEA in Vienna.
He said the bug might cause faults, but only as trivial as those you would tolerate in a new car.
``There may be little glitches that show up here and there, but I'll make sure the brakes work and I can turn off the ignition.''
Engineers say that even if computer systems freeze as the clock ticks midnight on New Year's Eve, reactor operators can simply throw a switch to shut them down.
PROBLEMS? JUST THROW A SWITCH
They say safety circuitry contains none of the software prone to the millennium bug, which can paralyse computers that have not been adapted to handle the change to 2000 and certain other dates.
``Our protection systems are not date sensitive, they don't know whether it's 1066 or the year 2000,'' said David Hunns, superintending inspector of the British government's Nuclear Safety Directorate.
But even if the big, red ``shutdown'' buttons are bug-proof, more mundane malfunctions could spring nasty surprises.
Plants should wedge doors open at new year to guard against errant security systems, said David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington D.C.
``We think that the emergency systems that these plants have are pretty much invulnerable,'' he said, ``it is the support systems that are more susceptible.''
Nuclear engineers admit that danger can also lurk beyond reactor walls.
A bug-induced failure in the electricity grid could cut a plant's outlet for the power it generates, forcing operators to turn it off to prevent overheating.
Unplanned shutdowns set controllers' adrenaline pumping, increasing the margin for error and piling stress on plants.
Reactors then depend on diesel to fuel coolers to prevent them melting down -- supplies of which could be disrupted if the bug hits transport networks.
Western European grids are working to ensure they do not fizzle out over New Year, updating computers that use only the last two digits of the year and could confuse 2000 with 1900.
``The focus is now turning to Eastern Europe,'' said Howard Ramsden, head of the Industry Observatory Unit at Unipede-Eurelectric, which groups international power producers and distributors.
ECHOES OF CHERNOBYL
Ever since the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine exploded in April 1986, wafting a radioactive cloud across Europe, millennium doomsayers have portrayed reactors in the former Eastern bloc as the most accident-prone.
A lack of year 2000 compliance data from more than 60 ageing plants across Russia and Eastern Europe makes risk assessment tricky.
``They think that they can get by without a problem, but we're not entirely convinced that that's the case,'' said IAEA spokesman David Kyd.
Chernobyl's operators have said the plant is too obsolete to suffer serious year 2000 problems and the IAEA said it agrees.
But former Chernobyl director Serhiy Parashin told reporters in March that Ukrainian officials misunderstood the bug and it could paralyse the country's five nuclear power plants.
To nuclear energy's opponents, the Chernobyl disaster showed that the consequences of a millennial meltdown make even the tiniest chance of an accident unacceptable.
``The very term ``risk'' implies some possibility of elimination, but when you look at Chernobyl you see that the worst can always happen,'' said Dominic Jenkins, nuclear campaigner for environmental group Friends of the Earth.
Meanwhile, in Britain as much of the nation prepares to party over the new year, government engineers plan to hunker down in an emergency room -- just in case.
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52. US Military Conducts Huge Y2K Test
By The Associated Press, July 14, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-Y2K-Pentagon.html
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) -- The Pentagon is finishing what is believed to be the largest-ever simultaneous test of computer systems to make sure Year 2000 problems won't prevent delivery to the troops of everything from bullets to toilet paper.
The Pentagon said Tuesday it had identified, and quickly fixed, three minor glitches in its enormously complex computerized logistics network. The weeklong test was expected to conclude today.
Technical experts built a duplicate network -- what they called a ``parallel processing environment'' -- then rolled those computer clocks forward to simulate the week following Feb. 28, 2000.
``What we're seeing is the ultimate in testing,'' said John Koskinen, chairman of President Clinton's Year 2000 commission.
The Defense Department needs to watch how its systems behaved during the date rollover from 1999 to 2000, and it needs to make sure computers will recognize the next leap year.
Zach Goldstein, the department's director of logistics information systems, said the test will prevent officers on the battlefield from neglecting to request extra ammunition ``because your computer systems have the wrong date.''
The test involved 44 military computer systems and more than 1,000 people in 22 locations, including five Navy ships. None of the computers being tested this week was closer than 50 miles to Washington.
``We couldn't take our systems offline to do a Y2K test,'' Goldstein said. He compared the test to those being run by private corporations but added, ``If we don't do our job, our customers can be killed.''
John Nyere, a consultant who coordinated the test, said it found only three minor problems. In two cases, the year on some supply requests incorrectly advanced from ``99'' to ``100'' instead of to ``00,'' and in another instance, a system failed to recognize Feb. 29, 2000.
Nyere called those problems ``easy to fix.''
The computer network being tested is a duplicate of the Pentagon's genuine supply system except for the volume of requests running across it, Goldstein said.
Software tools will simulate the enormous number of those requests -- roughly 2.5 billion annually -- to look for bottlenecks on the network that might have been caused inadvertently by Y2K repair efforts.
In addition to helping to identify potential problems, the test was also an important public-relations opportunity for the Defense Department, which invited reporters and TV camera crews to watch from the offices of a major defense contractor in northern Virginia.
Pentagon officials repeatedly stressed Tuesday that the test results show America's military will be prepared for battle even after Dec. 31.
The department has been sharply criticized over the pace of its computer repairs. A report last month from the Office of Management and Budget said 264 of the department's 2,096 most important computer systems still were not compliant -- more left to repair than any other federal agency.
And Congress' General Accounting Office said last week that Defense experts ``face significant problems'' and the department was ``far from successfully finishing its various Year 2000 end-to-end test activities.''
The OMB said the Defense Department alone will spend $3.65 billion on Y2K repairs, almost half the estimated $8 billion cost to the entire federal government.
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Pentagon 'Time Machine' Tests Positive For Y2K
July 14, 1999 By Jim Wolf http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990714/00/news-yk-military
FAIRFAX, Va. (Reuters) - Operators of the vast U.S. military supply network announced Tuesday largely glitch-free results from what they said was the biggest Year 2000 tests of linked computer systems.
Stepping from a virtual time machine in which the simulated date was already the 64th day of the new year, logistics officials said they were confident their "mission-critical" systems would support U.S. warfighters without any major hitches after the century rollover.
The U.S. military logistics network ties together 1,069 computer systems in what the Defense Department calls the world's largest electronic commerce enterprise.
To carry out their tests, logistics officers created a parallel computing environment to mimic the ways in which the armed services can order, receive, ship and account for supplies.
"We don't know what we don't know. So at some point in time we could have some surprises," said Roger Kallock, deputy under secretary of defense for logistics. "But I think we have reduced the possibility of that happening about as far as we can possibly do."
The so-called end-to-end tests, meant to track gear from outside suppliers to foxholes, turned up three date-related, interoperability problems in "mission-critical" systems that had already been individually certified as ready for 2000.
The joint logistics command defined "mission-critical" as involving anything U.S. warfighting commanders said they could not do without for more than 72 hours.
The three glitches, described by representatives of the U.S. Joint Interoperability Test Command as minor and being fixed, occurred in transferring data to outside systems from ones run by the Army, Navy and U.S. Transportation Command.
John Koskinen, President Clinton's top 2000 trouble-shooter, told a news briefing here that the results showed that the logistics services "were on their way to completion" of preparations.
In addition, the tests demonstrated that "no matter how complicated the system, it can be remediated for Y2K problems, in fact, function effectively in a year 2000 context," he said.
The tests were to wind up Thursday. Their final phase was meant to examine any glitches caused by Feb. 29, 2000, a special Leap Year that rolls around only once every 400 years.
At issue are fears that some computers may crash or scramble data by misreading 2000 as 1900, the legacy of an old programming shortcut that cut the date field to two digits.
All four armed services took part in the drill along with the Defense Logistics Agency; the Fort Huachuca, Arizona-based Interoperability Test Command and other joint units. TRW Inc., whose corporate facility here housed the headquarters of the "time machine," supported the drill.
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53. Some Nuke Plants Still Need Y2K Work
By Melissa B. Robinson Associated Press Writer Wednesday, July 7, 1999; 10:39 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990707/V000372-070799-idx.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A third of the nation's atomic power plants still have additional work to complete on non-safety computer systems to be fully ready to deal with the Y2K computer bug, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The commission said it has received reports from all 103 nuclear plants indicating ``that there are no Y2K-related problems which directly affect the performance of safety systems.''
Sixty-eight plants indicated that all their computer systems that support safe plant operation are ``Y2K ready,'' the agency said
The other 35 plants reported that they have additional work to complete on a few non-safety computer systems or devices to be fully ready, and provided schedules for completing the work, it said.
Of the 35, about a third have work remaining on systems needed for power generation, the NRC said. Other plants need to complete work related to plant monitoring and administrative systems.
``None of the remaining work affects the ability of a plant to shut down safely, if needed,'' according to a statement released by the agency.
But Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., a consistent critic of the NRC, said Wednesday that the report only ``confirmed my fears about the lack of preparation of nuclear plants for the Y2K bug.''
``If schedules slip, or if testing reveals problems that were not recognized, a number of plants may be dark on New Years,'' Markey said.
He said virtually any system that affects operators' ability to monitor and control nuclear plants could affect safety, even if it's not directly safety related.
The Y2K problem, or millennium bug, may occur in computers and microchips programmed to recognize only the last two digits of a year; they may malfunction if they misread the year 2000 as 1900.
Critics of the utility industry have said they fear the bug might cause the nation's power grids to crash when clocks strike midnight on Jan. 1, leading to blackouts.
Markey last week questioned whether power plants are ready to deal with possible Y2K-related blackouts after an NRC letter revealed that both emergency power generators at New Hampshire's Seabrook nuclear plant were simultaneously inoperable for about a week.
One of the generators was out for routine maintenance and testing. The other was functioning properly but technically considered inoperable because its automatic switches malfunctioned. Operators could have hooked up the generator manually, if needed.
Markey said Wednesday that the NRC should be prepared to shut down plants later this year that are not fully ready for possible Y2K problems.
He also questioned the claim that 68 plants are ``Y2K ready'' but not necessarily ``Y2K compliant.''
Markey interpreted that language as meaning that utilities may be able to keep the plants running, with methods such as setting clocks back, but not that all computer programs will necessarily work properly.
Another NRC report on Y2K readiness, based on on-site visits to all nuclear plants over the past three months, is due by the end of July.
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List of Nuclear Plants Not Y2K Ready
By The Associated Press Wednesday, July 7, 1999; 10:43 p.m. EDT
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990707/V000375-070799-idx.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Commercial nuclear power plants that have actions remaining to be completed to be fully Y2K ready and estimated dates of completion, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission:
Beaver Valley, Units 1 and 2; Shippingport, Pa., 9/30/99.
Browns Ferry, Units 2 and 3; Athens, Ala., 10/31/99.
Brunswick, Unit 1; Southport, N.C., 11/30/99.
Clinton; Clinton, Ill., 9/22/99.
Comanche Peak, Unit 1; Glen Rose, Texas, 11/30/99.
Comanche Peak, Unit 2; Glen Rose, Texas, 10/30/99.
D.C. Cook, Units 1 and 2; Bridgman, Mich., 12/15/99.
Davis-Besse; Port Clinton, Ohio, 8/1/99.
Diablo Canyon, Units 1 and 2; San Luis Obispo, Calif., 10/31/99.
Farley, Unit 2; Columbia, Ala., 12/16/99.
Hope Creek; Hancocks Bridge, N.J., 10/29/99.
Limerick, Unit 2; Limerick, Pa., 9/30/99.
Monticello; Monticello, Minn., 9/1/99.
North Anna, Unit 2; Mineral, Va., 10/29/99.
Oyster Creek; Toms River, N.J., 9/30/99.
Peach Bottom, Unit 2; Delta, Pa., 9/30/99.
Peach Bottom, Unit 3; Delta, Pa., 10/31/99.
Perry; Perry, Ohio, 8/1/99.
Salem, Unit 1; Wilmington, Del., 11/6/99.
Salem, Unit 2; Hancocks, N.J., 10/29/99.
Sequoyah, Units 1 and 2; Soddy-Daisy, Tenn., 10/31/99.
South Texas, Units 1 and 2; Bay City, Texas, 10/31/99.
St. Lucie, Units 1 and 2; Fort Pierce, Fla., 7/15/99.
Three Mile Island, Unit 1; Middletown, Pa., 10/21/99.
Turkey Point, Units 3 and 4; Florida City, Fla., 7/15/99.
Vermont Yankee; Vernon, Vt., 10/31/99.
Watts Bar; Spring City, Tenn., 10/31/99.
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54. Turkey Point plant declares itself Y2K ready
By CURTIS MORGAN July 15, 1999, in the Miami Herald http://www.herald.com/content/thu/news/dade/digdocs/041296.htm
Turkey Point showed up on a Nuclear Regulatory Commission list of atomic power plants that still need work on some computer systems -- none related to safety -- before the Y2K bug bites.
But Florida Power & Light completed the remaining, minor fixes before the list was even released this week by the federal agency, power company spokesman Bill Swank said. ``As it happens, our Turkey Point plant became Y2K ready this past weekend, several days ahead of the date we told the NRC we would be finished.''
In fact, because the plant is nearly 30 years old, the entire millennium bug upgrade at Florida's first nuclear plant was actually fairly uncomplicated. The safety and reliability systems required no changes at all. The first of Turkey Point's two uranium-fueled units went into commercial operation in 1972, and the plant was built without the digital equipment vulnerable to the glitch, Swank said.
The Y2K bug could cause some computers or microchips to malfunction or shut down after midnight Jan. 1 because they were programmed to read dates by only the last two digits and will misread the year as 1900 rather than 2000.
Companies are spending billions to fix the glitch nationwide, and FPL has budgeted $50 million for its program. The company announced June 30 that it had essentially completed its Y2K preparations, replacing or upgrading critical equipment and running tests, including one 430-megawatt unit in May in Fort Lauderdale.
The NRC list, released this week, showed all of the nation's 103 nuclear plants reporting Y2K readiness for critical safety systems. About a third of the plants, 35, reported they had some additional nonsafety systems or other devices left to upgrade.
``None of the remaining work affects the ability of a plant to shut down safety, if needed,'' the agency said in a statement.
The list included FPL's Turkey Point and St. Lucie plants, which both had set deadlines of today for fixes. St. Lucie, which started commercial operation in 1976, actually was ready July 4, Swank said. Turkey Point wrapped up fixes over the weekend.
The last item replaced was a computer system that tracked employee data and did not affect plant operations, Swank said. ``Even if this system didn't operate properly, we could do the record-keeping manually.''
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55. Happy nuclear year: Experts radiate confidence about plants' Y2K readiness
By Laura A. Bruce • bankrate.comSM, July 17, 1999 http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/y2k/19990716.asp#tmi
Twenty years later, Three Mile Island is what people remember as Y2K barrels toward us.
It didn't take much to start the nation's worst nuclear power plant incident, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
How TMI happened
A water pump failure caused pressure to build in the nuclear portion of the Middletown, Pa., plant. A relief valve that opened to decrease the pressure should have closed after doing its job; instead, it stuck open. Water that cooled the reactor drained out.
By coincidence, the water pump's emergency backup system had been tested two days earlier. Someone forgot to reopen the pump's valve after the test. The error was discovered and corrected eight minutes into the emergency -- water began flowing into the steam generators.
It was then that a plant worker monitoring the situation saw a gauge indicating the system was full of water, so he shut down the emergency water pump. In reality, the stuck valve was giving the indicator a false reading.
More than 100 alarms began screaming as nuclear fuel overheated and the reactor core began to cook.
Y2K not a likely factor There are people who worry that Y2K could cause a minor malfunction -- such as the water pump failure at Three Mile Island -- to balloon into a major "incident" at one of America's 103 nuclear reactors. How susceptible are aging U.S. power behemoths to a computer problem or a power blackout?
Not very, says David Lochbaum a nuclear safety engineer at the Washington, D.C., office of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Lochbaum, who worked in nuclear power plants for 17 years, says he isn't terribly concerned about a Y2K meltdown. When asked to rate from one to 10 the chance of a serious Y2K-related problem at a US nuclear plant, with 10 being the worst, he gives it a four.
"Most emergency systems aren't affected by Y2K or aren't likely to be affected," he says. "The other thing is, we've been operating over 100 plants for more than two decades -- I'm sure someone put in a wrong date at some time."
According to Dick Wessman, division director in the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation at the commission's Rockville, Md., headquarters, the commission isn't anticipating much in the way of Y2K problems.
"There's one very high expectation that all the power plants will operate satisfactorily through the Y2K transition. We don't expect any Y2K challenges. During the last three months, we've had inspections of every plant in the country to make sure they're implementing Y2K processes."
Y2K status reports on file Wessman says all of the nation's nuclear power plants filed Y2K status reports with the commission by July 1. Those reports are being evaluated. The commission says decisions will be made by September as to what, if any, additional remediation work needs to be done, and -- if necessary -- non-compliant plants will be shut down.
Lochbaum says most plants were built in the 1960s or 1970s and their safety systems don't have embedded chips or digital controls. But, he says, plant monitoring equipment is computerized and is susceptible to Y2K glitches. Lochbaum says he fears plant workers aren't getting the proper training on backup equipment.
"If the computer system fails and screens go blank, there are chart recorders in the control room that give operators information. While the information is still there, it's not in the form that operators usually obtain it," says Lochbaum.
"It might take operators a little longer to understand what's going on and a slower response time increases the chance they might misinterpret data -- that was a contributing factor at Three Mile Island."
Wessman says practicing on backup equipment is a legitimate concern but emergency drills are routine.
"They do exercises to deal with simulated failure of monitoring equipment. There's a lot of practice and exercises that go on routinely year after year and Y2K has no bearing on it," says Wessman.
Fallback plans in place Contingency plans call for commission headquarters to be staffed "with a whole bunch of people -- normally we have a small crew through the Y2K rollover," Wessman adds. "In the remote event a phone there doesn't work, we have a backup center in the region four office near Dallas/Fort Worth."
In the event wired phones don't work, Wessman says satellite-based phones will be available. This, he says, should enable nuclear plant operators to get quick answers to any problems they may be having.
But one proposal in the commission's Y2K rollover plan has critics riled: If there's an equipment failure at a nuclear power plant within the Y2K transition period that normally would require shutting down the plant, the commission is considering allowing the resident plant inspector to keep the plant on-line, as long as it doesn't jeopardize safety.
The idea is that letting plants with minor problems continue to provide power will help offset any other Y2K-related blackouts that might crop up at other power plants in the region.
Wessman says plant operators will be instructed to try to contact headquarters before making decisions on their own.
"They'll have to first assess what the issue is and figure if it's a relatively small safety issue -- that the risk is relatively small -- and make this assessment," he says. "The licensee also needs to make a determination that continued plant operation is warranted. If the licensee makes all these efforts to communicate and couldn't reach us ... they could make an independent decision to continue operations."
Critics call plan ludicrous Scott Portzline, a Harrisburg, Pa., resident and a member of "Three Mile Island Alert," a nuclear industry watchdog group, says the plan is ludicrous.
"The NRC will let licensees violate their license if it helps keep plants online. They're going to make these judgments at each plant. They're telling these inspectors to quit thinking like an inspector -- think like a manager and keep the plant online," says Portzline.
"They haven't decided how much emergency equipment can be shut down without having to shut down the plant. They need a fallback position so there's clear guidance when to give a thumbs up or a thumbs down," says Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
"We joke that there's a mentality that as long as the plant isn't killing anyone at the moment, it's OK to keep the plant running. Now, if a plant is running and loses a piece of emergency equipment, it's well defined how long the plant can keep running. Sometimes it's an hour, sometimes it's 60 days, depending on how important the emergency equipment is."
Wessman says he expects the commission to make a decision on the enforcement discretion issue within the next couple of months.
What about foreign plants? Foreign nuclear plants are, perhaps, a bigger safety concern. The Central Intelligence Agency has gone on record as saying some of the nuclear plants in the former Soviet Union are among the worst in terms of being ready for Y2K. A spokeswoman for the US Energy Department says the agency has personnel in Russia assisting them with their nuclear power plants.
By far, most of the world's 437 nuclear power plants are in Western Europe, Japan and the United States.
"Japan and France have large nuke programs," says Lochbaum. "They both have more cookie-cutter plants. France has only three reactor designs -- that gives them more money to spend researching problems. We have 103 nuclear plants in the United States -- they're like snowflakes -- they're all different, and like snowflakes they all can melt."
Probably no amount of assurances will quiet the fears of critics of nuclear power. They will have to wait for Y2K to come and go without incident before they believe the nuclear power industry is safer than it was 20 years ago when steam stopped drifting out of reactor unit 2 at Three Mile Island.
The reactor is now entombed in lead-lined bricks. It will be at least 15 years before the site really is cleaned up. The commission says unit two will be decommissioned when the operating license for its twin, reactor unit one, expires in 2014. _____________________
- Eleventh message - _____________________
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________
Message: 7 Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 05:16:01 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-18 7/17/99 - Kosovo; NATO/Balkans; Afghanistan
80. West Expects Lower Kosovo Rebuilding Bill
Updated 12:09 PM ET July 13, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990713/12/international-group-balka ns By Nick Antonovics
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Western governments and aid agencies voiced optimism Tuesday that the cost of rebuilding the Balkans after the Kosovo war may be lower than feared.
Finance ministers from the Group of Seven rich nations and the heads of international financial institutions met in Brussels to map out priorities for rebuilding the region and took heart from initial surveys showing damage in Kosovo was less severe than expected.
European Investment Bank President Sir Brian Unwin said it was very hard to estimate the cost but added, "I don't think the basic infrastructure damage in Kosovo itself is excessive."
The EIB's preliminary estimate was that the total cost over five years of rebuilding Yugoslavia, including Serbia, as well as neighboring Macedonia and Albania would be about $25 billion, he said.
"I suspect it may be a bit less than that," Unwin told reporters after the meeting, which prepared the ground for a G7 summit in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, on July 30.
James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, which with the European Commission is coordinating the aid effort, said problems in Kosovo in terms of the scale of the funding looked manageable.
But it was not just a question of money, he said. "It's reconstitution of the morale and spirit of people that have been brutalized," he told a news conference.
Hundreds of thousands of refugees fled Kosovo during NATO's 11-week air war to halt a Serbian offensive against the province's ethnic Albanian majority.
Acting European Monetary Affairs Commissioner Yves-Thibault de Silguy said initial surveys after the war suggested that the standard of living in Kosovo was "higher than the available statistics would indicate."
Damage was less severe than feared in some parts of Kosovo, and basic activities, such as farming, which occupies half of the labor force, were resuming. But a lot remained to be done, he said, urging Western donors to speed up their efforts.
Officials were worried about the need to make sure hundreds of thousands of refugees were resettled by winter.
One official from a G7 country said it appeared just 20 percent of Kosovo's housing had been destroyed, although for the time being most still believed the cost involved in rehousing refugees, rebuilding infrastructure and creating a functioning economy would be $2.03 billion to $3.05 billion.
The so-called High Level Steering Group agreed at Tuesday's inaugural meeting to give only urgent humanitarian aid to Yugoslavia until it implemented fundamental democratic reforms and put in place a democratically elected government.
Lawrence Summers, making his first overseas trip as U.S. treasury secretary, told reporters Serbia would not receive a penny in aid -- other than pure humanitarian assistance -- as long as President Slobodan Milosevic remained in power.
But Wolfensohn said the Western donors would "look for effective ways of mobilizing support for Montenegro," Serbia's junior partner in the Yugoslav federation.
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Night vs. Day in Kosovo U.S. Troops: From Warriors to Diplomats
By Karl Vick Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday, July 11, 1999; Page A01 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/11/237l-071199-idx.html
VITINA, Yugoslavia--The dogs of 82nd Airborne Alpha Company 2-505 meet the night with rifles in hand and boots dangling over the skids of a speeding UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. Peacekeepers patrolling southeastern Kosovo with the latest toys of war, the GIs have night vision goggles on their helmets, a pair of AH-64 Apache gunships on their flank and great big grins on their faces.
"Hanging out of a helicopter in the night, piling out and chasing bad guys is pretty much why you join the Army," said Capt. Matt McFarlane.
But come morning, McFarlane's troops go from being all they can be to being something they never imagined.
Pfc. Steven Hemmer marches into Vitina's town hall, takes off his armored vest, hangs his helmet on a hatrack and takes a seat behind a desk. He will spend the next six hours listening to ethnic Albanians complaining about Serbs, listening to Serbs complaining about ethnic Albanians, filling out reports and wondering how day can be so different from night.
"I mean, we're infantrymen," Hemmer said. "I'm 11 Charlie. My job's to drop mortar rounds down a tube and defend our country. This is . . . " He did not know quite what "this" was. "I guess when I came here I thought I'd be doing something more infantry-like."
Not in today's Army, and not in the current assignment in Kosovo, the latest mission in which U.S. armed forces confront the daunting task of keeping the peace. The world's policeman has to do paperwork, too. And if that means double duty as dogs of war and hounded bureaucrats, it comes with the territory the U.S. military has carved out for itself in the wake of the Cold War: walking the beat, projecting power and, when asked, restoring order in every sense of the word.
"We're involved in peace enforcement," said Brig. Gen. John Craddock, commander of the 7,000-member U.S. peacekeeping force here in eastern Kosovo. "If you look where we're engaged around the world, that's what we're doing."
"Maybe," he added, "if you do this right, you shape the future to avoid the big war."
Almost a month after entering Kosovo, NATO forces remain the only legitimate authority in the province, and Americans have been among the most active of the occupying armies to acknowledge that the situation will be on the long side of temporary.
Virtually abandoned by the Serbs who administered the overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian population like a colony, Kosovo remains perhaps six months away from the still-unformed United Nations administration assigned to run things under the peace agreement.
"I didn't have barracks filled with administrators, lawyers and engineers waiting in Macedonia to be deployed in Kosovo," said Sergio Vieira de Mello, interim head of the U.N. mission. "It's going to be an incremental process. But I agree we are very, very thin on the ground right now."
In the meantime, McFarlane's 82nd Airborne troops call him "the mayor of Vitina." It sounds like a nickname in the anticipatory ease of early evening at the Serbian special police office that Alpha Company has made its headquarters. On the steps outside, a puppy gnaws an epaulet on a blue camouflage Serbian special police uniform. Officers savor cigars; infantrymen, the prospect of the patrol ahead. Albanian phrases are practiced: "Shut up." "Shut up now." Then it's onto the back of a Humvee and into the summer night.
It might not be obvious from the overland patrol that follows, but the Americans are waging peace much as they waged the 78-day air war against Yugoslavia: with the highest possible technology.
Patrolling the sky above the U.S. sector in eastern Kosovo on any clear night is Hunter, a propeller-driven drone plane. It carries a video camera that once hunted Yugoslav armor and now feeds live images of a countryside still dotted with columns of smoke. Although shootings and other violence have abated in the past two weeks, arson remains at least an hourly occurrence.
When Hunter spots smoke, a commander in an Apache sends in the troops. The Apache gunships -- deployed to Albania with such fanfare during the war, but never allowed into combat -- provide cover plus two more cameras. On one occasion, an Apache gun-sight camera caught an ethnic Albanian man lugging a 50-pound gas tank from a Serbian home.
In Vitina, however, an 8:30 p.m. curfew has proved so effective that the GIs have not been shot at in more than 10 days. Alpha Company stops this night at a pair of homes. The elderly Serbs in both have been visited by young ethnic Albanians threatening to kill them if they did not leave within hours. Serbs, who during the war cast the Americans as villains, in peacetime view them as saviors. In Urosevac 11 miles west of Vitina, elderly Serbs are so frightened they're camping on the sidewalk beside a U.S. command post.
But here an ethnic Albanian neighbor had been staying over to protect the couple. McFarlane shook his hand. If he had to say "two wrongs don't make a right" one more time, he said, he might have screamed.
Back in the Humvee, Spec. Jason Sivells has a question. "Why can't all these people stop spending all their money on guns so they can off each other, just build a Disneyland and be happy?"
At 10:30 the next morning, McFarlane is seated at the head of a table in the town hall, chewing gum as if it is his enemy. On one side of the table sit officials of the Kosovo Liberation Army, the ethnic Albanian rebel group that fought for Kosovo's independence from Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic. Opposite them is Vesko Piric, whom the troops call "the man formerly known as the mayor," and other Serbs who until recently ran the town.
McFarlane has made his daily report on fires and robberies. He has thanked both sides for the baked goods sent to the Fourth of July celebration that only ethnic Albanian residents attended. Now it's time to listen, but not forever. Both sides will be timed.
"The Albanians went first last time. The Serbs go first this time," McFarlane said, and glanced at a sergeant. "You ready with that stopwatch? Ready. Go."
The former mayor read a list of Serbian houses burned, wells poisoned, people living in fear. "They will for sure stay there if you provide security," Piric said. "Otherwise they will flee."
"We can't be everywhere at once," McFarlane replied. He looked at the sergeant. "How much time?"
"Ten minutes."
A slender man in a leather vest spoke for the ethnic Albanians. Agron Hoxha, 24, is the KLA brigade commander. He has an office down the hall decorated with NATO and Albanian flags.
"We have problems," he told McFarlane, although he was looking across the table at Piric. "Tell him the roads are not Serb property. They are public property."
It's all a terrific headache. Downstairs, people lined up to rail at the receptionist, Spec. Brandt Gehrke, 20, a sweet-faced Washington state native wearing wraparound sunglasses and body armor and carrying a machine gun.
"There's not a nail that is left of my house!" shouts Arif Audi, an ethnic Albanian who recently returned from Macedonia. Audi, who was a post office employee until Serbs took all the good jobs -- including every one here in the town hall -- wants permission to move into the apartment his former Serbian boss fled. Gehrke sighs.
"In the worst case I can just come and bring my children here to live with you," Audi snapped, and stormed into the hallway, where he was asked: What did you expect?
"Nothing," the ethnic Albanian replied. But when Serbs occupied these offices, he said, he dared not even enter the building.
"I just wanted to come in and let them know," Audi said. "I feel a kind of relief coming and telling them what my issue is. Because they are after all the people who brought us liberty."
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Cohen Warns Yugoslav Troops
By John Diamond Associated Press Writer Saturday, July 10, 1999; 3:43 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990710/V000582-071099-idx.html
OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Acknowledging slow progress in deploying allied peacekeepers in Kosovo, Defense Secretary William Cohen said Saturday that NATO has plans to respond with force if Yugoslav troops resist.
Amid growing signs of tension between Serbia and Montenegro and daily outbreaks of violence in Kosovo, the arriving Kosovo peacekeeping force, or KFOR, is preparing for trouble.
``We have contingency plans in the event there were any action taken by Milosevic against KFOR,'' Cohen told reporters following talks with defense ministers from the Nordic and Baltic countries.
Rating that risk as unlikely, Cohen nevertheless is using a weeklong visit to several European allies to telegraph NATO's preparations. In Denmark on Friday, Cohen watched as a Danish armored brigade staged an assault on a make-believe enemy but used real ammunition.
The jarring boom of mortar fire and the thud of shells impacting mixed with machine-gun fire as Cohen, his entourage and his Danish hosts watched from atop a sand dune. It looked more like a scene from a World War II movie than a modern peacekeeping deployment.
Cohen has also used the trip to prod NATO allies and other KFOR contributors to speed up their troop deployments.
``More needs to be done sooner so there will be no significant gaps,'' Cohen said.
Norwegian Defense Minister Eldbjorg Lower said troops are training for deployment to Kosovo but will not be ready to take up their posts until late summer.
``We have to use these weeks'' to train, Lower said. ``That's the best we can do.''
Cohen did not describe in detail the contingency plans NATO has in place for dealing with an outbreak of violence, but he indicated it would not involve beefing up the planned force of nearly 60,000.
A key reason why the initial peacekeeping estimate of 30,000 troops was doubled stems from planning for possible resistance. To date, though, Cohen said Yugoslav forces have abided by all their withdrawal and cooperation agreements.
Ministers from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania briefed Cohen on their military modernization efforts, a key precursor to NATO membership. Cohen did not appear ready to set a timetable.
``It's too early to tell how this will unfold. We have to wait and see exactly what kinds of changes and reforms and modernization the Baltic states will undertake, whether they would qualify for membership in NATO,'' Cohen said at a joint news conference after the talks.
Estonia's defense minister, Juri Luik, said ``the Baltic states today are serious candidates to NATO membership. Their membership is on the political agenda.''
Russia is concerned about NATO's growing dominance in Europe. The deployment ahead of schedule of Russian troops to Kosovo for participation in the peacekeeping mission there upset relations with Washington. Baltic and Nordic states, meanwhile, seek the mutual security of NATO in part because of the threat of Russia's political instability and massive nuclear arsenal.
Cohen has made clear the administration's desire for improved relations with Russia, emphasizing cooperation and leaving aside recent disagreements over troop deployments to Kosovo.
``I think it's important that Russia be a part of the peacekeeping effort,'' the secretary said. ``We wanted very much for Russia to be involved as they are in Bosnia. They played an important role as far as the peace settlement (in Yugoslavia) was concerned and they should play an important role in the peacekeeping force.''
All the countries participating in the Oslo meeting are supporting the KFOR mission. None expects a quick or easy mission establishing security in the war-torn Yugoslav province.
``I think we'll have to be there for quite a long time, and we're prepared for that,'' said Denmark's defense minister, Hans Haekkerup.
Saturday's talks involved the defense ministers from the three Baltic states, the United States and Norway, Denmark, Finland and Sweden. Iceland sent an official observer.
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A War-Torn Reporter Reflects
By Michael Dobbs, Sunday, July 11, 1999; Page B01 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/11/105l-071199-idx.html
On my way out of Kosovo last month, I stopped off in the southern Serbian city of Nis. I wanted to find out what Serbs thought about the war that had been waged in their name, and how they felt about the atrocities committed by Serbian forces against ethnic Albanian civilians. My first call was on the mayor, Zoran Zivkovic, a leader of Yugoslavia's Democratic party and a longtime opponent of President Slobodan Milosevic.
While Zivkovic certainly did not condone the killings of ethnic Albanian civilians in Kosovo, he was more interested in talking about killings he had witnessed within sight of his own office. On two occasions during the war--on May 7 and May 12--NATO warplanes dropped cluster bombs on the center of Nis, killing a total of 15 civilians. (NATO maintains that both times it was trying to hit the airport, several miles away.) I asked Zivkovic which was worse: a NATO pilot unloading cluster bombs or a crazed Serbian paramilitary fighter gunning down fleeing refugees. As mayor of Nis, he said, his primary concern was "the suffering that NATO has caused to the people of my town."
Having spent much of the previous week examining mass grave sites in Kosovo, and finding incontrovertible evidence of Serbian war crimes, I was in no mood for lectures on "NATO atrocities." On reflection, however, I think Zivkovic raised a profound point about America's reliance on air power in waging war, and one we need to think about carefully. Over the past 50 years, America's increasing technological superiority has enabled us to engage in warfare without directly confronting our victims. In so doing, we have also placed extraordinary value on preserving the lives of our pilots, sometimes at the possible expense of civilians on the ground. Kosovo is a case in point. Unlike the Serbian paramilitary troops, American pilots did not set out intentionally to murder women and children, and could not see the faces of the people they killed. But from the point of view of the victims, the end result was much the same.
Justified outrage at Serbian atrocities in Kosovo does not exempt NATO--and the United States in particular--from carefully examining its actions during the 78-day bombing campaign of Yugoslavia. Quite the opposite. As a democracy committed to upholding international law, we have an obligation to hold our own side to even higher moral standards than those we impose on others. One does not have to be an apologist for Milosevic to be disturbed by some of the methods employed by NATO in order to win its war against Yugoslavia.
Take the use of cluster bombs--a weapon used with increasing frequency as the war progressed. Made up of more than 200 individual bomblets that float down on small parachutes, cluster bombs are often used against enemy troop concentrations and armored columns. They are not precision weapons. Apart from the fact that they are relatively inexpensive, their main advantage, from a military point of view, is that a single bomb can be used to hit targets over an area the size of several football fields. But this is also their main drawback: If a cluster bomb goes astray--a statistical inevitability in a large-scale bombing campaign--the results can be devastating.
Human Rights Watch, an independent human rights organization, condemned NATO's use of cluster bombs against Yugoslavia as a violation of internationally accepted rules of warfare. A protocol to the 1949 Geneva Convention--negotiated in 1977 but never ratified by the United States--prohibits "indiscriminate" methods of combat or attacks that cannot be "limited" to military objectives (Article 51, Protocol 1).
A further objection to cluster bombs is their high failure rate. According to NATO figures, 1,100 cluster bombs were dropped on Yugoslavia during the course of the campaign, approximately 40 percent on Kosovo and 60 percent on the rest of Serbia. Working from a conservatively estimated failure rate of around 5 percent, this means there are probably at least 11,000 unexploded bomblets scattered around Yugoslavia. The objects--each about the size of a soda can--constitute a continuing danger to soldiers, civilians and children, who are attracted to the brightly colored cans. Last month, two British Gurkha soldiers in Kosovo were killed as they were attempting to defuse the remnants of a cluster bomb that fell on a school.
The Geneva Convention and other international laws codify rules of warfare that have evolved over the centuries in an attempt to spare civilians. NATO strongly denies deliberately targeting civilians--and there is no evidence to suggest otherwise--but it is obvious to anyone who visited Serbia during the war that undermining civilian morale formed an essential part of the alliance's war-winning strategy. Milosevic was unlikely to raise the white flag as long as he had the political support of the Serbian population. To erode this support, NATO gradually expanded its campaign to go after factories, water supply systems, heating plants, television stations and electric power grids, which most people would regard as predominantly civilian targets. When I asked Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon to speculate on the reasons for Milosevic's surrender, the first factor he mentioned was "the increasing inconveniences that the bombing campaign was causing in Belgrade and other cities."
The key test for the Pentagon in selecting a civilian target was whether it could be described as "dual use." Hitting an electric power grid primarily benefiting civilians was legitimate as long as it could be said to contribute in some way to Milosevic's "command and control system." As the campaign wore on, NATO planners stretched the definition of dual use to the point where Serbs joked darkly that even bread shops had become a potential NATO target, "as soldiers also eat bread."
According to a strict interpretation of the Geneva Convention, many of these targets would be out of bounds. The 1977 protocol (Article 85) prohibits attacks that result in "an excessive loss of life or injury to civilians, or attacks on undefended or demilitarized areas"--a definition that would appear to preclude attacks on buildings in downtown Belgrade or other Serbian cities. "The general rule is that you do not jeopardize civilians if there is any way to avoid it," says Washington lawyer Walter J. Rockler, a former U.S. Marine who prosecuted Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg.
In some ways, NATO's campaign against predominantly civilian targets was more effective than its campaign against military targets. It was much easier for NATO to hit a fixed target such as a bridge or a factory than a movable--and often camouflaged--target like a tank. Having traveled extensively around Serbia and Kosovo, I am reasonably confident that the number of Serbian civilian casualties was significantly higher than the number of military casualties. The official Serbian figure for their military casualties--576--may be too low, but NATO estimates of between 5,000 and 10,000 Serb soldiers dead are almost certainly too high. The Pentagon has pointedly refused to endorse this estimate and has refrained from issuing its own figures. My estimate, based on extrapolations from independent sources, is perhaps 1,600 civilian and 1,000 military casualties. (NATO estimates of as many as 10,000 Kosovo Albanians killed by Serbian forces and buried in mass graves seem reasonable to me, if a little on the high side.)
Some of the civilians killed by NATO died in attacks on factories or television stations--targets that can reasonably be described as "civilian." Others were killed in a string of embarrassing errors, ranging from the bombing of an ethnic Albanian refugee column in Kosovo to the mistaken targeting of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. The Pentagon has acknowledged 20 cases in which bombs or missiles went astray and killed civilians and another 20 cases in which the missiles hit the correct target but caused "collateral damage" to civilians in the vicinity. These figures seem low to me, and are impossible to verify, as the Pentagon has so far not released a detailed list of NATO errors.
The explanation offered by Western governments goes something like this: "Unlike the Serbs, we never deliberately targeted civilians. When we killed civilians, it was by mistake, not by design. When we made mistakes, we owned up to them."
Unlike many Serbs, I accept that NATO did not deliberately set out to kill or terrorize civilians. But the way we chose to prosecute the war still troubles me. As depicted by NATO briefers, the air campaign was an almost clinical exercise, of "surgical hits" by "precision-guided weaponry." Seen from the ground, it was a much messier affair, in which real people died--people such as Ljiljana Spasic, a 27-year-old Serbian woman in her seventh month of pregnancy who was killed by a NATO cluster bomb on her way to the hospital in Nis. And from the point of view of ordinary Serbs, the distinction between Western behavior and Serbian behavior seems more one of degree than one of kind.
It is true that the United States has made a lot of progress over the years in using technology to limit the impact of warfare on civilians. When the United States and Britain destroyed Dresden in 1945, a third of a million people were killed. A million or so Vietnamese died as the result of the bombing of North Vietnam. Historically, however, the United States has resisted any restrictions on the use of air power, its single greatest technological advantage in waging war. This is the reason Washington refused to ratify the 1977 protocols to the Geneva Convention outlawing the "indiscriminate" use of air power, even though it accepts their spirit.
The point here is not that the Clinton administration had no business going to war over Kosovo or that NATO's supreme commander Gen. Wesley Clark deserves to be put in the dock alongside Milosevic. It is that war is messy and cruel and no side has a monopoly on virtue. In order to drum up public support for going to war, governments simplify the issues and present the conflict as good versus evil. Reality is more complicated. The United States fought what it thought was a just war, with essentially humanitarian motives, but also did things that we have the right and the obligation to subject to very searching examination.
Michael Dobbs, an investigative reporter for The Post, covered the war from Kosovo and Belgrade. He is the author of a recently published biography of Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright.
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81. Cohen Meets Baltic Leaders on NATO
By John Diamond Associated Press Writer Saturday, July 10, 1999; 8:34 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990710/V000401-071099-idx.html
OSLO, Norway (AP) -- The United States appears in no rush to welcome the Baltic states into NATO.
Talks today with ministers from Baltic and Scandinavian countries instead focused on a long-term peace mission in Kosovo and the need to smooth relations with Russia.
In a nine-country meeting of defense ministers, Defense Secretary William Cohen got an update on progress being made by Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in modernizing their defenses, a key precursor to NATO membership. While assuring the ministers that a negative reaction from Russia would not preclude them from joining the alliance, Cohen did not appear ready to set a time table.
``It's too early to tell how this will unfold. We have to wait and see exactly what kinds of changes and reforms and modernization the Baltic states will undertake, whether they would qualify for membership in NATO,'' Cohen said at a joint news conference after the talks.
The first priority, he said, is ``having a constructive relationship with Russia.'' And he said the ministers agreed that ``Russia's future really lies with the West.''
Estonia's defense minister, Juri Luik, said flatly that ``the Baltic states today are serious candidates to NATO membership. Their membership is on the political agenda.'' And Latvian Defense Minister Girts Valdis Kristovskis said good relations with Russia could survive Baltic ambitions to join NATO.
``There are no indications that our objectives to join NATO and our active support of Kosovo operations will harm our good relations with Russia,'' Kristovskis said.
Events of recent weeks, however, have shown that NATO expansion, Kosovo peacekeeping and relations with Russia are not necessarily mutually supportive.
Russia is concerned about NATO's growing dominance in Europe. The deployment ahead of schedule of Russian troops to Kosovo for participation in the peacekeeping mission there upset relations with Washington. Baltic and Nordic states, meanwhile, seek the mutual security of NATO in part because of the threat of Russia's political instability and massive nuclear arsenal.
The Nordic countries participating in today's meeting seek smoother relations with Russia, but most also support membership in the NATO alliance for the Baltic states -- Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania -- which Russia opposes.
``Russia currently poses no military threat,'' a white paper published by the Norwegian Defense Ministry stated. ``The political situation in Russia, however, remains uncertain.'' And the paper noted Russia maintains ``a concentration of forces armed with tactical and strategic nuclear weapons'' on the Kola Peninsula opposite the Nordic states.
Through the first three days of a weeklong visit to European allies, Cohen has made clear the administration's desire for improved relations with Russia, emphasizing cooperation and leaving aside recent disagreements over troop deployments to Kosovo.
``I think it's important that Russia be a part of the peacekeeping effort,'' the secretary said. ``We wanted very much for Russia to be involved as they are in Bosnia. They played an important role as far as the peace settlement (in Yugoslavia) was concerned and they should play an important role in the peacekeeping force.''
All the countries participating in today's talks are sending forces to Kosovo. None expect a quick or easy mission establishing security in the war-torn Yugoslav province.
``I think we'll have to be there for quite a long time, and we're prepared for that,'' said Denmark's defense minister, Hans Haekkerup.
Today's talks involved the defense ministers from the three Baltic states, the United States and Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Finland and Sweden.
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82. Sanctions Against Taliban Buck Trend
By George Gedda Associated Press Writer Friday, July 9, 1999; 4:39 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990709/V000893-070999-idx.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The argument seemed to be over. After U.S. sanctions were imposed against dozens of wayward countries in recent years, an emerging consensus in the administration and Congress concluded that such punishment rarely achieved the desired result while costing U.S. businesses billions of dollars.
But the administration bucked the trend this week by applying sanctions against the Taliban government in Afghanistan for harboring suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden.
U.S. officials acknowledge that a policy of economic denial against the Taliban is less controversial than it might be elsewhere because the economic stakes are so meager -- only $24 million in two-way trade last year.
Beyond that, the administration felt it was important to take an unambiguous stand against the Taliban, mindful of its links with the man held responsible for the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania last August. The bombings left more than 200 dead, including 12 Americans.
Politically, the sanctions rile few Americans. Known for its strict Islamist rule, the Taliban has banned girls from going to school and women from working.
With the economic stakes small, groups normally hostile to unilateral sanctions appear to be giving the administration the benefit of the doubt in the Taliban case -- but they worry about backsliding to the period of what some call ``sanctions overkill.''
Given the Taliban's perceived links to terrorism, that situation poses ``a very special case,'' says Frank Kittredge, who as president of the National Foreign Trade Council has been a leader in the fight against unilateral sanctions.
He notes that the anti-sanctions backlash in Congress is such that there are 23 pieces of legislation before Congress designed to discourage go-it-alone sanctions by the United States.
``Sanctions,'' Kittredge says, ``are rarely if ever successful.''
The administration has been responding to the anti-sanctions mood. In April, President Clinton announced that he would generally exempt food and medicines from unilateral sanctions in the future.
The administration also has said that unilateral sanctions will be a last resort -- coming even after military intervention. It also has expressed a strong preference for applying sanctions in concert with other countries.
Officials cite the recent experience with Libya as demonstrating the value of multilateral sanctions. Libya agreed this year to turn over two suspects wanted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 that killed 270 people. The United States had sought the suspects for seven years. After Libya surrendered them for trial in The Netherlands, the U.N. Security Council immediately suspended sanctions against Tripoli.
The momentum against sanctions seemed to pick up a year ago when President Clinton applied congressionally mandated sanctions against India and Pakistan after they conducted underground nuclear tests.
The legislation had been approved to deter such tests but failed to do so. Swift congressional action to roll back part of the sanctions enabled U.S. traders to secure a wheat purchase from Pakistan totaling $400 million.
Elliott Abrams, who heads the private Center for Ethics and Public Policy, speaks contemptuously of anti-sanctions business groups. In effect, they are saying, ``Get morality out of foreign policy,'' Abrams says.
He adds that no criticism is heard from the business community when the administration imposes sanctions to protect corporate interests. ``They only object to sanctions when somebody murders 30 priests,'' he says.
Abrams' position is shared by former Secretary of State George P. Shultz. William Mann, author of the book ``About Face,'' says that during a trip to China in 1983 Shultz reprimanded U.S. businessmen who complained about slow Reagan administration approval of export licenses for China compared with Japan or Western Europe.
``Why don't you move to Japan or Western Europe?'' Shultz asked.
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Message: 8 Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 05:12:58 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-12 7/17/99 - Nuc Workers Compensated; Nuc Biz
56. Aid to Atomic Weapons Workers Bill Would HelpThose Injured By Toxic Metal
By David Brown Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, July 16, 1999; Page A21 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/16/070l-071699-idx.html
The Clinton administration yesterday acknowledged the federal government has a responsibility to help private workers who were injured, some fatally, by exposure to the metal beryllium while laboring at nuclear weapons plants.
"We made a mistake in not recognizing that our nuclear weapons workers were injured in the course of their work," said Energy Secretary Bill Richardson. "That is stopping today."
Richardson made the admission at a news conference, where he announced the administration's support for a bill that would treat these ill "contract workers" as federal employees for purposes of medical benefits and disability claims.
Beryllium, a light and brittle metal, is a component in nuclear bombs, as well as in satellites, missiles and weapons guidance systems. Although the Department of Energy is the sole American manufacturer of atomic weapons, most of the work is actually done by private contractors.
The department estimates about 26,000 workers have been exposed to beryllium at federal sites, the most important of which are in Colorado, Washington, Tennessee, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Mexico. About 120 people have been diagnosed with berylliosis, although a senior Energy official said he expects the number to reach at least 500 in the next few years if the bill passes.
About 10 percent of the people exposed to beryllium dust develop something akin to a low-grade allergic reaction. However, in some cases, this can lead, decades later, to permanent scarring of the lungs. Sufferers are often breathless with mild exertion, and many die of respiratory failure.
Traditionally, workers with berylliosis found it hard to collect under state worker's compensation laws, which were created to handle workplace accidents, not diseases appearing decades after a toxic exposure. When they turned to the federal government for help, beryllium's victims were rebuffed with the argument that they were private, not public, employees.
"This is a new era in the Department of Energy in its treatment of workers," Richardson said. "Those who fell ill from occupational illnesses during the Cold War were as much casualties of war as those who fell in Europe, in the Pacific, in Korea, in Vietnam or in Desert Storm."
The proposed bill would provide the workers with the same benefits federal workers get. Those include tax-free recompense of up to 75 percent of lost wages; no-deductible medical treatment by doctors of the patients' choice; and a provision to "make whole" the wages of beryllium workers found to be sensitive to the metal and forced to take lower-paying jobs. Survivors of people who died from toxic exposure to beryllium are eligible for lump-sum payments.
The exact details of the bill haven't been worked out. It will be offered by Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski (D-Pa.), who described its genesis as a "classic, Civics 101 case" of representative democracy.
A year ago, a constituent, Alfred Matusick, of West Hazleton, contacted Kanjorski with a story of his illness and unsuccessful attempts to get compensation. He had worked at a beryllium processing plant for 24 years. Soon after he started work in 1957, he was severely poisoned in a beryllium dust accident that caused a temporary illness called pneumonitis.
Kanjorski said he was convinced Matusick was "an average American citizen who had been harmed by his government and his employer."
Now 67 and unable to walk up three stairs without getting winded, Matusick yesterday said he was "very grateful" for the government's change of attitude.
The proposed legislation apparently will have bipartisan support. Among those at yesterday's news conference was Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.), whose district includes the nuclear plant at Oak Ridge.
"That these people have been affected [by beryllium] there is no question," Wamp said. "We can't make it right, but we can make it economically just."
Richardson said the White House will convene officials from several agencies to decide whether the benefits proposed for contract beryllium workers should be also offered to workers exposed to radiation, asbestos and other toxic materials at defense plants.
Beryllium's hazards were recognized in the late 1940s. Massachusetts General Hospital kept a national registry of people with berylliosis between 1950 and the early 1970s. The list, now held by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, in Morgantown, W. Va., may help survivors of victims prove their cases.
Nuke Workers Can Seek Compensation Thursday, July 15, 1999; 1:46 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990715/V000105-071599-idx.html
U.S. OKs nuke worker claims By Peter Eisler, USA TODAY July 15, 1999 http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncswed17.htm
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Beryllium-afflicted Flats workers win benefits
By Mike McPhee Denver Post Staff Writer, July 16, 1999 http://www.denverpost.com/news/news0716b.htm
July 16 - For years, Pat Krzemien has been battling chronic beryllium disease, which she believes she contracted while working as a secretary at the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant between 1985 and 1990.
At 55, her lung capacity is about 50 percent of normal, and she has developed osteoporosis from the steroids she has been taking to treat her condition.
But like many other Rocky Flats workers, Krzemien couldn't collect worker's compensation for her illness.
Until now.
On Thursday, the Clinton administration announced that contract workers at all nuclear weapons plants who suffer from exposure to the highly dangerous beryllium will receive the same benefits as federal employees who were at the same plants.
"This is great,'' Krzemien said in an interview from her home in Seattle.
U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson and other administration officials have admitted that in the rush to produce nuclear weapons during the Cold War, safety standards that were developed in good faith nonetheless proved to be inadequate.
"This is a new era for the Department of Energy in the treatment of its workers,'' Richardson said at a news conference Thursday in Washington, D.C. "Our national policy sent many workers into harm's way. They deserve to be rewarded, not punished with bad health. We have a responsibility to those men and women who have borne this battle.''
Congress must approve the benefit package, which would be patterned after the Federal Employees' Compensation Act.
Arvada resident Mike Leming, 55, also suffers from chronic beryllium disease. He worked at Rocky Flats in 1968 and again in 1978 and retired last month from Coors Brewing Co.
"It would be very, very nice to be covered medically,'' he said when told about Thursday's announcement. "It would be a darned good idea if the government would take care of the Cold War warriors, the workers in the nuclear weapons plants. We were there because we were patriotic. It wasn't just a way to pay for the groceries.''
Rocky Flats, located in Jefferson County, operated from the 1950s until it shut down in 1989. A cleanup is now under way at the site, where the Energy Department said 40 tons of scrap beryllium remains.
Local officers of the United Steelworkers, one of the largest unions at Rocky Flats, applauded the announcement but said the process of getting there was bittersweet.
"It's a very positive step. I commend Secretary Richardson on this,'' said Dave Navarro, vice president of Local 8031. "But the Department of Energy had a much more expansive initiative planned, and that was sliced and diced by the Clinton administration. We are deeply disappointed by Clinton watering this thing down. It doesn't address asbestosis or any of the cancers caused by radionuclides.
"But it's an opening, a start.''
About 7,000 Rocky Flats workers have been tested for symptoms of beryllium disease, which affects the lungs much the same as pneumonia or bronchitis. It causes a slow deterioration and is treated primarily with the anti-inflammatory medicine Prednisone, a steroid.
The Energy Department says 52 former and current plant workers contracted the illness. Sixteen others probably have it, 40 have shown indications they may have it, and 156 have shown sensitivity to it, the agency says.
Dr. Lee Newman, who has become the national expert on chronic beryllium disease at National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, said there is only one known death caused by beryllium at Rocky Flats. The disease is no longer fatal, thanks to better treatments and a better ability to detect it earlier, in some cases before the symptoms even appear, he said.
The Rocky Flats workers, who were employed by private contractors such as Rockwell International and EG&G, have had a difficult time, financially and emotionally, in fighting the disease.
Denied benefits by the federal government, the workers were forced to turn to their employers for worker's compensation. Colorado, which has some of the most restrictive worker's comp laws, doesn't cover occupational illnesses, only injuries. So many patients have been forced to pay for treatments themselves.
Beryllium is a strong, brittle, lightweight metal that was used extensively in the manufacturing of nuclear weapons, primarily to encapsulate plutonium. It also is used in the manufacture of golf clubs, high-performance bicycles and computers.
Disturbing the surface of beryllium by sanding, polishing or even cleaning with a pad can send ultrafine particles into the air that can lodge deep in the lungs.
The metal was used in 32 buildings at Rocky Flats. One female worker diagnosed at the plant worked quite some distance from the machining areas yet still inhaled the dust, Newman said.
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Work on Weapons Affected Health, Government Admits
By MATTHEW L. WALD, July 15, 1999 New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/washpol/worker-health.html
WASHINGTON -- For the first time, the Federal Government is acknowledging that nuclear weapons production during the cold war may have caused illnesses in thousands of workers, and the Clinton Administration on Thursday will announce legislation that would compensate many of them for their medical care and lost wages.
Energy Secretary Bill Richardson detailed the legislation Wednesday in an interview, in which he depicted the workers as victims of the cold war and the rush to produce nuclear weapons. He said the safety standards, which had evolved since the 1940's, had been established in good faith but have since been deemed too weak to have protected workers.
The workers suffered from cancers and lung diseases after exposure to beryllium, asbestos, mercury, uranium and other materials, under safety standards set by the Energy Department and its predecessor, the Atomic Energy Commission.
"I am reversing a policy of denial of compensation," Richardson said.
He noted that the workers who had actually operated the Government factories were almost all employees of private contractors and thus were not eligible for the worker's compensation program that applies to Federal employees. And they were usually unable to collect under state programs because those were designed for injuries, not occupational illnesses.
A handful of Energy Department workers at the plants have fallen ill and have collected worker's compensation, said department officials, but that compensation program is run by the Department of Labor on a no-fault basis, requiring only a determination that the employee was exposed at work. The Energy Department has never acknowledged the cause of their illnesses.
The Clinton Administration will send legislation to Congress within weeks proposing compensation for victims of beryllium disease, a clear-cut case because the weapons program is almost the only user of beryllium.
Energy Department officials have estimated that compensation for those exposed to beryllium, some of whom suffer from a chronic, incurable, obstructive lung disease, will be about $15 million a year at its peak in a few years, when all those eligible are expected to have applied. Officials estimate that 500 to 1,000 people have beryllium disease or will develop it. Their compensation would depend on their lost wages and the extent of their disability.
An undetermined number of families would be eligible to collect benefits for deceased workers.
The Government will also study how to compensate people exposed to asbestos and radioactive materials. Radiation poses a particular challenge, because it causes diseases like leukemia and cancers that also have other causes, and the amount of radiation needed to cause a disease is in dispute.
Several people involved in the formation of the policy said that the Energy Department had originally favored including people exposed to radiation and other threats, but that the White House had demanded further study. President Clinton is expected to announce on Thursday that the National Economic Council will lead an inter-agency study, to be completed by April, on whether other illnesses should be included. Representative Paul E. Kanjorski, a Democrat who has been seeking help for men who live in his northeast Pennsylvania district who had worked for a company processing beryllium, said that including exposure to other hazards might double the cost, to about $30 million a year.
Kanjorski said the action represented a major shift in Energy Department policy. "It's unique in terms of the department's normal mode of operating; it wasn't a knee-jerk 'No, find ways to defend against it,'" said Kanjorski.
The workers are mostly men in their 50's or older who spent decades in skilled blue-collar employment, from the World War II Manhattan Project to the present.
About 9,000 workers have already been screened, and at least 5,000 more will be, according to department officials, with hundreds showing job-related health problems.
Some work or worked at plants that date from the World War II effort to build the bomb, like Oak Ridge in Tennessee; others worked or still work at the Nevada Test Site, near Las Vegas; the Hanford nuclear reservation, in Washington State; Rocky Flats, near Denver; the Idaho National Environmental Engineering Laboratory, near Idaho Springs; Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the Savannah River Site, near Aiken, S.C.
At the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical & Energy Workers International Union, which includes the former Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers union, Richard D. Miller, a policy analyst, said that "the Secretary has done an enormous public service by admitting the department has made people sick in the process of making nuclear weapons."
He said that the White House should have moved immediately to compensate those made ill by other agents besides beryllium.
Under the Administration proposal, people exposed to beryllium would apply for compensation as if they were Federal employees. As with the state programs, Federal worker's compensation limits payments to medical costs and lost wages; punitive damages are not allowed.
But unlike the state systems, the Federal system has no statute of limitations. Kanjorski, for example, said that the Pennsylvania program required filing within 300 weeks -- about 6 years -- but that some people had not developed symptoms in that period. Some states only allow for damages for people who have missed work, department officials said, while some victims have incurred medical costs but are still well enough to work. Other states do not allow people to file for greater levels of disability as their diseases progress. And most cap payments for lost wages at well below what the employees were paid.
Alfred F. Matusick, of West Hazleton, Pa., said he began having lung problems within two months of beginning work at the Beryllium Corporation, in Ashmore, where he worked from 1957 until it closed in 1981. Now, Matusick, 67, said, he gets up several times each night to take cough medicine, and cannot carry a grocery bag or walk more than a few yards without strain.
Matusick, who over the years operated furnaces, inspected beryllium products and did other jobs at the plant, thought of leaving. "But where else was I going to go?" he said. "Nobody else would hire you if they took X-rays of your lungs, or they found out that you worked for the Beryllium Corporation." He appealed to Kanjorski for help.
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57. Nurescell Inc. Announces High Radiation Resistance Testing Results --HRT--
09:04 a.m. Jul 12, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 12, 1999--Nurescell Inc. (OTC BB:NUSL - news) Monday announced preliminary results from the University of Missouri, where samples of Nurescell's proprietary material have been subjected to four levels of radiation resistance testing.
The first level of testing was conducted by bombarding the sample at a rate of 3.5 KRad (thousand Roentgen) per hour from a cobalt 60 source. At this stage, the sample reached 2.6 MRad of irradiation (million Roentgen) with no observed effects.
The second level of testing was conducted by subjecting the sample to extreme conditions of gamma ray radiation emitted from a nuclear reactor at a rate of 2.5 MRad per hour and elevated temperatures. At this stage, the sample had no observed effects.
The third level of testing was conducted by subjecting the sample to gamma rays emitted from a nuclear reactor at a rate of 2.5 MRad per hour for 24 hours, totaling 60 Mrad of irradiation. At this stage, the sample survived all conditions with no observed effects.
The fourth level of testing was conducted by subjecting the sample to gamma rays emitted from a nuclear reactor at a rate of 2.5 MRad per hour. At the completion of the test, this sample had been irradiated with 233 MRad of irradiation with no observed effects on the sample.
Nurescell had originally planned to stop the radiation tests at the fourth level. However, due to the success of the initial tests, Nurescell and the University of Missouri have jointly decided to extend the scope of testing by adding a fifth (previously unscheduled) level, which will consist of an additional two weeks in a reactor, aiming to achieve 1GRad of irradiation (billion Roetgen).
Nurescell views these results as a high level of confidence in its proprietary material as applied to the radiation shielding area and nuclear encapsulation industry.
Nurescell Inc., a development stage company based in Newport Beach, was formed for the purpose of developing and commercially exploiting a proprietary radiation shielding technology (the "Nurescell Technology") for use by the nuclear power industry and others producing, handling or storing radioactive materials. The Nurescell Technology is being designed for incorporation into the structural components of new and existing nuclear reactor facilities in order to provide a cost-effective safeguard from the lethal effect of radiation while achieving a minimal disruption to existing physical facilities.
It is also being designed as a containment material which will provide an attractive alternative to the conventional concrete/steel entombment and glassification technologies currently used to store ever-increasing amounts of spent nuclear fuel and other radioactive waste. In addition, it is expected to provide an innovative shielding material critical to advanced accelerator and defense research application.
The Nurescell Technology is based upon a proprietary formulation which was acquired from Adrian A. Joseph, Ph.D., the company's president and majority shareholder, in June 1998.
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58. World Wide Forms New Uranium Mining Unit
Updated 8:57 PM ET July 15, 1999 http://news.excite.com/news/bw/990715/co-world-wide-minerals
DENVER (BUSINESS WIRE) - World Wide Minerals Ltd. (TSE:WWS) announced today that it had formed a new mining and marketing unit for all of its uranium interests (other than World Wide's interest in Kazakhstan including its US$300 million lawsuit). In a joint statement issued today with WM Mining Company LLC of Denver, World Wide said that it had completed the formation of the new company, WM Mining International Ltd. (WMMI). The World Wide uranium-related assets were transferred to WMMI at approximately their book value of US$6.3 million. The purchase price was satisfied by the assumption by WMMI of about US$1.3 million of World Wide's existing debt, issue to World Wide of a US$1.7 million promissory note and 25 percent of the equity of WMMI. WM Mining Company LLC owns 74 percent of WMMI.
The transaction consolidates the World Wide uranium interests in the United States and Mongolia, including the "Dornod" uranium mine, and existing uranium sales agreements. In announcing the transaction, Paul A. Carroll, CEO of World Wide, said "this concludes the restructuring of World Wide's uranium interests. It substantially further de-leverages our balance sheet and frees World Wide to concentrate on its primary objective - recovery of our investment in Kazakhstan. Recovery of this investment will enable World Wide to redirect its activities in the minerals business or to pursue other business opportunities."
WMMI will be headed by Wallace M. Mays, the former President and COO of World Wide's uranium operations. Mr. Mays is one of the most qualified uranium industry executives, with more than 25 years experience in the industry. During his career he has been a senior executive of Uranium Resources Inc., Power Resources Inc., Everest Minerals Inc and other companies in the uranium industry. Mr. Mays said that "the new company also will permit the Dornod uranium mine in Mongolia to be financed without any recourse to World Wide and facilitate the open pit mine production being restarted. Uranium prices appear to be stabilizing and substantial improvements have been achieved in the economics of the Dornod project." Plans continue to be to produce up to 3 million pounds of uranium concentrates annually from the Dornod mine.
As a result of a June 11, 1999 agreement reached between the Mongolian and Russian Governments, over US$2.0 million of debts associated with the Mongolian project have been eliminated. Commenting on the inter-governmental agreement, Mr. Mays said "this will allow us to restructure the ownership of the Dornod project and to monetize trade and employee debt associated with the new company and the project. I would like personally to thank all of the individuals and organizations involved in this process for their patience and personal sacrifices. This allowed resolution of many problems which had plagued the project over the last year."
Mr. Mays also said "WMMI intends to continue the previous efforts of World Wide to develop uranium assets in the United States and to participate in the consolidation currently underway in the uranium industry."
Contact: World Wide Minerals Paul A. Carroll, 1-416/-369-7217 1-416/-369-6088 (FAX) wws@worldwideminerals.com or Wm Mining International Ltd. Wallace M. Mays, 1-303/-825-7271 1-303/-825-7289 (FAX) Email:wmmi@aol.com
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59. A History: When the State Uses People as Guinea Pigs
By PHILIP J. HILTS, July 13, 1999 New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/071399sci-experiments-risk.html
Scientific experiments in which human subjects are abused are not new. Examples are as old as arrogance and cruelty.
In the 13th century, according to historians, a Mongol commander laying siege to a port city experimented with heaving his diseased, dead soldiers over the walls of the besieged town. The result was victory for the command and the spread of black plague to its first seaport. The commander's action may indeed have been the major event in the great bubonic pandemic.
But something different has been produced in this century, according to John Moreno, director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics at the University of Virginia and the author of "Undue Risk," to be published this fall by W. H. Freeman & Company. Modern times have seen the growth of systematic, state-sponsored programs of unethical experimentation, and they have occurred in nations as diverse as the United States, Nazi Germany, China, Japan, Iraq and South Africa.
Dr. Moreno's book traces the history of secret, state-sponsored experiments in the fields of atomic, chemical and biological warfare studies from World War II to the present, including the possibility that governments are now experimenting with what he calls "genetic warfare."
Dr. Moreno, who has a Ph.D. in philosophy, was drawn into the subject when he was telephoned by Dr. Ruth Faden of Johns Hopkins University and the leader of the President's Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, and was asked to become a member.
The committee's task was to reconstruct the story of radiation experiments on humans carried out in the United States from 1944 to 1974. The investigation, believed to be the most thorough historical search of its kind ever done, took almost two years and plumbed millions of pages of documents.
The advisory committee found thousands of human experiments had been conducted with radiation and that many were unethical. About $5 million in compensation was awarded by the Federal Government to the survivors of a few of the worst experiments.
But the report was finished, Dr. Moreno found his curiosity had only been piqued. What, he asked himself, about the other new technologies in modern warfare and chemical and biological weapons? What experiments had been done with those? He decided to find out.
What made his and the radiation investigations possible was President Clinton's decision to declassify the military records of the secret experiments.
The book based in part on those records consists of a parade of horribles, but it reveals many common features in unethical experiments from nation to nation, experiment to experiment. And while it often chronicles familiar cases, it also describes a few unfamiliar cases, ones that may point to the abuses of the future.
And it finishes with a discussion of the positive consequences of unethical experiments: that ethical standards are being raised.
The committee found that from 1944 to 1974, there were thousands of experiments in the United States using radiation, in projects as diverse as injecting plutonium into the bodies of unsuspecting patients and marching soldiers onto the sites of atom bomb tests just after the blasts.
In Iraq in the 1980's, Dr. Moreno reports, prisoners and captured Kurds were tied to stakes and bombarded with chemical and bacteriological weapons to assess the weapons' effects. The number of victims is not known, but may be in the thousands.
Among the less familiar tales is that of the South African program called Operation Coast, which was unearthed by that nation's Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings.
Operation Coast consisted of a series of experiments in the 1980's in which biological and chemical weapons were tested, in one case on troops from Mozambique, for use against apartheid opponents.
The commission also found evidence that among the secret medical experiments was an effort to develop infertility drugs that would affect blacks but not whites, Dr. Moreno wrote.
Dr. Moreno says it was unclear whether such drugs were actually tried on humans, but the case raises the possibility of adding a fourth horseman to the atomic, biological and chemical weapons -- "genetic warfare."
"Several classes of weapons could result," Dr. Moreno wrote, "among them microbes genetically engineered to target certain human populations based on a virus's ability to 'recognize' the DNA variations in specific subgroups."
He added that the possibility was credible partly because "people from particular ethnic groups or certain geographic origins have long been noted to be associated with sensitivities to particular foods and drugs." For example, he wrote, since ancient Greek times it has been known that people of African and Middle Eastern origin often get sick after eating fava beans.
Dr. Moreno wrote that the Defense Department already had begun studies to design defenses against "genetic" attack.
Human experiments of some kind will always be necessary in government and military programs, Dr. Moreno wrote, but what is necessary for the future is to guard against abuse of humans.
And, he said, one of the things that surprised him most was that he found the best model for careful, ethical human experimentation in a United States Army chemical and biological warfare program.
He discovered a group of medics called 91 Bravo at Fort Detrick, Md., who are also known as the Medical Research Volunteers or Mervs whose job as soldiers is simply to serve as subjects in medical experiments. They give blood, take experimental vaccines and ingest suspect bacteria, and when they become sick they are treated on the spot. They receive special training in experimentation, detailed briefings on each experiment, and have the option of participating in some trials and not others.
In contrast to civilian research on humans, the experiments on "91 Bravo" must be reviewed by multiple boards and officials before proceeding. And the medics themselves sometimes join on the review committees.
Unethical experimentation will always be with us, Dr. Moreno wrote, but if secrecy is limited and good model experimental programs can be developed, the abuses may be limited.
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- Twelfth message - _____________________
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Message: 9 Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 05:16:35 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-0 Brief 7/17/99 -
Please address replies to articles to the original publisher. Please send NucNews <prop1@prop1.org> copies? Refuting false information appreciated! -------------------------------------------------
NucNews-1 7/17/99 - Depleted Uranium - Kosovo / Iraq / Puerto Rico; Energy NucNews-2 7/17/99 - Japan - Reactor Leak / China Neutron Bomb / Korea Missiles NucNews-3 7/17/99 - China - Neturon Bomb / Taiwan War Games NucNews-4 7/17/99 - Greenpeace - Plutonium Ship Japan / Europe NucNews-5 7/17/99 - Russia NucNews-6 7/17/99 - Canada; Iran NucNews-7 7/17/99 - Australia; Europe; CTBT NucNews-8 7/17/99 - Turkey; Iraq NucNews-9 7/17/99 - Pakistan, India; Israel NucNews-10 7/17/99 - Chernobyl; UK BNFL NucNews-11 7/17/99 - Y2K NucNews-12 7/17/99 - Nuc Workers Compensated; Nuc Biz NucNews-13 7/17/99 - Nuc Labs - Hanford, DOE NucNews-14 7/17/99 - Los Alamos; INEEL; Palol Verde AZ; Atlas (Moab); Entergy NucNews-15 7/17/99 - Arms Sales NucNews-16 7/17/99 - Terrorism NucNews-17 7/17/99 - US NucNews-18 7/17/99 - Kosovo; NATO/Balkans; Afghanistan
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1. UN environment team asks NATO about Kosovo targets 12:20 p.m. Jul 07, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek ... Haavisto said 20 to 30 scientists would ... visit a number of environmental hotspots and investigate reports of pollution caused by the bombing and possible impacts on water resources and the food chain as well as reports of depleted uranium dumps. Haavisto said he also planned to visit Moscow where he would seek environmental information from Russian authorities including ``if they have some military specialists who know these issues such as depleted uranium and whether they would like to inform us from their point of view.'' ... ``All the material provided by the Serbian and Yugoslav authorities has been very alarming,'' Haavisto said.
2. Yugoslavia says too early to determine war damage 08:33 a.m. Jul 06, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek BELGRADE, July 6 (Reuters) - Yugoslavia said on Tuesday it would need six months to obtain an initial estimate of war damage caused by 11 weeks of NATO air strikes and insisted all other assessments were ``inaccurate and malicious.'' ... `NATO has acknowledged that it has bombed Yugoslavia with bombs containing depleted uranium. It is well-known that it takes millions of years for the uranium particles to break up. That's how many years Yugoslavia will suffer damage from NATO bombing,'' {Yugoslav Minister for Environment and Development Jagos Zelenovic} said.
3. CIA Reassesses Nerve Gas Findings By The Associated Press, July 14, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Gulf-War-Illness.html http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990713/V000882-071399-idx.html http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990714/V000213-071499-idx.html WASHINGTON (AP) -- After eight years and more than $100 million, special Pentagon and CIA offices say they have done about all they can to find a cause for the mysterious Gulf War illnesses.... Former Sen. Warren Rudman, R-N.H., board chairman, said that even if major aspects of the investigation have concluded without finding a cause, case studies and investigation of war data bases could still be conducted, and the issue is far from closed. Rudman also proposed investigation by the National Institutes of Health to settle a the debate over the danger of depleted uranium used in U.S. munitions.
3. Puerto Rico, U.S. Ties Strained By Dan Perry Associated Press Writer Saturday, July 17, 1999; 2:36 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990717/V000018-071799-idx.htm l http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Free-Puerto-Rico.html ... In April, a bombing accident killed a civilian security guard. Then it was revealed that the Navy also accidentally -- and illegally -- rained hundreds of toxic, depleted uranium shells on Vieques. Rossello and President Clinton both set up inquiry commissions, and the former one last month demanded that the Navy leave Vieques. On Independence Day, thousands converged on Roosevelt Roads Naval Station, which administers Vieques, to demand the Navy's ouster. They waved a U.S. flag with skulls for stars and scrawled ``Long Live Free Puerto Rico'' on the sign to the base.... -- WASHINGTON IN BRIEF Compiled from reports by staff writer Charles Babington and the Associated Press Friday, July 16, 1999; Page A12 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/16/054l-071699-idx.html * The death of a civilian at a Navy missile range in Puerto Rico is "extremely regrettable," but live-fire training exercises there must continue, Navy Secretary Richard Danzig said at a Pentagon briefing. The target range on the island of Vieques is uniquely situated for the full gamut of Navy and Marine training operations -- far superior to 18 alternative sites studied by the Navy since the accident... -- Blast Shakes Puerto Rico Area Tuesday, July 6, 1999; 9:52 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990706/V000407-070699-idx.html COAMO, Puerto Rico (AP) -- A blast shook a rural neighborhood in southern Puerto Rico Tuesday, and police said they suspected it was an artillery shell that went astray. No one was hurt by the blast, which left a crater four feet deep and four feet across in a mountainside, police said.... -- Standing Watch on the Imperium In Puerto Rico, the legacy of the Spanish American War remains unresolved. By Stephen S. Rosenfeld, Friday, July 16, 1999; Page A23 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/16/014l-071699-idx.html
5. Big step toward hydrogen fuel stations Updated 1:01 PM ET July 15, 1999 By ERIC JOHNSON http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/990715/13/news-hydrogen DETROIT, July 15 (UPI) For the first time a major oil company has signed a deal that could pave the way for solid-hydrogen fueling stations to serve American drivers with fuel-cell vehicles starting in 2004....
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6. WORLD IN BRIEF - ASIA Reactor Leak More Serious Than Reported Compiled from staff reports and news services Friday, July 16, 1999; Page A16 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/16/163l-071699-idx.html TOKYO -- An accident at a Japanese nuclear reactor this week caused a radiation leak 11,500 times above the safety limit, the company operating the facility said.... -- Radiation From Japan N-Plant Leak Far Above Limit 01:43 a.m. Jul 17, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek TOKYO (Reuters) - The radiation level of cooling water which leaked from a commercial nuclear reactor on the Sea of Japan coast was up to 11,500 times the maximum allowable limit, operators of the reactor said Friday. In one of the worst-ever water coolant leaks in Japan, the No. 2 reactor at the Tsuruga nuclear station in Fukui Prefecture, 320 km (200 miles) west of Tokyo, leaked 51 tons of primary cooling water Monday before it could be plugged 14 hours later.... The company said Wednesday that the contamination level was 250 times the safety limit. No one was injured in the accident. High radiation levels were detected two days after the incident but workers failed to relay the finding promptly to senior company officials, the official said.... -- Crack in Pipe at Japan Nuke Plant Tuesday, July 13, 1999; 5:04 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990713/V000330-071399-idx.html -- Japanese Nuclear Reactor Shut Down Monday, July 12, 1999; 1:58 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990712/V000403-071299-idx.html -- Japan Nuke Plant Leak Said Serious Thursday, July 15, 1999; 3:11 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990715/V000147-071599-idx.html
7. In Japan's Eyes, the World Is Full of Kosovos By Nora Boustany, Friday, July 9, 1999; Page A22 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/09/057l-070999-idx.html Japan, a continent away from Europe, is committed to postwar efforts to stabilize the Balkans, and it backed the West in confronting the human tragedy of Kosovo. How are such expenditures explained to the Japanese people when the nation's constitution bans military action? ... -- In Japan, Mired in Recession, Suicides Soar By STEPHANIE STROM, July 15, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/071599japan-suicide.html TOKYO -- In their annual sweep of the Aokigahara woods at the end of last year, police officers found 73 bodies....
8. Japan To Boost China's WTO Bid By Michael Laris Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, July 9, 1999; Page E03 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/09/075l-070999-idx.html BEIJING, July 8--Japan and China are set to announce a bilateral agreement on China's bid to join the World Trade Organization after Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi meets with his counterpart, Zhu Rongji, here tomorrow, a Japanese official said....
9. Japan says to urge China to abandon neutron bombs 04:39 a.m. Jul 15, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek TOKYO, July 15 (Reuters) - Japan said on Thursday it would urge China to abandon neutron bomb technology. ``It does not infringe on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). But with regards to all nuclear weapons, our country hopes that efforts towards nuclear disarmament will be strengthened,'' top government spokesman Hiromu Nonaka said....
10. Japan May Freeze Aid to North Korea Tuesday, July 13, 1999; 1:47 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990713/V000254-071399-idx.html TOKYO (AP) -- Japan may freeze aid to North Korea if the communist nation goes ahead with plans to test launch another long-range missile, Japan's top government spokesman said today.... -- N.Korea ignores pressure from Japan Updated 2:13 AM ET July 10, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/990710/02/international-korea PYONGYANG, North Korea, July 10 (UPI) Just one day after Japan enlisted Beijing's help in preventing North Korea from launching another test missile, Pyongyang has asked Japan to stop "intervention" in North Korean domestic affairs....
11. India Says N.Korea Ship Had Missile Parts Updated 9:19 AM ET July 10, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990710/09/news-arms-korea NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India said Saturday that investigations into a North Korean ship detained last week at the port of Kandla showed it was carrying equipment for the production of missiles suspected to be intended for Pakistan....
12. N.Korea claims right to test missiles Updated 5:43 AM ET July 16, 1999, by CHARLES LEE http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/990716/05/international-missiles SEOUL, South Korea, July 16 (UPI) Ignoring international warnings against ballistic missile tests, North Korea says it will launch another rocket and insists that its missile tests are a sovereign right.... -- North Korea Building New Missile Site, South Says By Kevin Sullivan and Mary Jordan Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, July 8, 1999; Page A17 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/08/246l-070899-idx.html TOKYO, July 7- North Korea is building what appears to be an underground missile-launching base within a dozen miles of the Chinese border, a South Korean presidential spokesman said today.... -- N. Korea Said May Fire Test-Missile By Charles Hutzler Associated Press Writer Monday, July 12, 1999; 2:25 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990712/V000409-071299-idx.html BEIJING (AP) -- North Korea appears set to fire a test-missile in the next two months heedless of the damage the launch will bring to improving relations with the United States, a U.S. senator [Robert Torricelli] said today....
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13. China Says It Can Build Neutron Bomb Beijing Attempts to Discredit Cox Report on Theft of U.S. Secrets By Michael Laris Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, July 15, 1999; Page A01 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/15/272l-071599-idx.ht ml AP: http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990715/V000113-071599-idx.html BEIJING, July 15 (Thursday)The Chinese government announced today that it long ago mastered the technology for building a neutron bomb, emphasizing that Chinese scientists developed the weapon on their own, not through the theft of U.S. nuclear secrets, as has been alleged.... -- White House Plays Down Bomb Report By Kevin Galvin Associated Press Writer Thursday, July 15, 1999; 7:54 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990715/V000860-071599-idx.html WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Clinton administration sought to minimize the importance of China's announcement Thursday that it had built a neutron bomb, noting that intelligence reports for years have shown that Beijing has tested such a weapon....
14. China Plans War Games In Warning To Taiwan - Paper Updated 1:06 AM ET July 17, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990717/01/international-china-taiwan HONG KONG (Reuters) - China's army, navy and airforce plan joint exercises along its east coast in a warning to its rival, Taiwan, which lies about 100 miles offshore, a Hong Kong daily said Saturday.... -- Taiwan on alert for Chinese maneuvers By Paul Wiseman, USA TODAY July 13, 199 http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/nwstue04.htm HONG KONG - Taiwan put its military on alert Tuesday as China issued another rhetorical blast at the island 's insistence that it be treated as a sovereign state, not a wayward Chinese province. -- Chinese Military Threaten Taiwan By The Associated Press, July 15, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-China-Taiwan.html BEIJING (AP) -- Vowing to defend every inch of Chinese territory, China's military today threatened to use force against Taiwan if President Lee Teng-hui declares independence on the island. In a sharply worded commentary run in newspapers nationwide, the military's newspaper, the Liberation Army Daily, said the armed forces stood ready to enforce a long-standing government policy to attack Taiwan, if need be, to uphold China's claim to the island.... -- China, Taiwan Battle With Artful Threats Beijing Bomb Claim Vs. 'One China' Shift By John Pomfret Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, July 16, 1999; Page A15 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/16/175l-071699-idx.html -- ANALYSIS-Diverse Asian tensions give U.S. headache 09:30 a.m. Jul 15, 1999 Eastern, By Paul Taylor, Diplomatic Editor - Infoseek LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) - China's announcement that it has mastered neutron bomb technology fuels Asian tensions that will require deft troubleshooting by the United States, analysts say.... 15. Source: Chinese Chief Replaced By John Leicester Associated Press Writer Tuesday, July 6, 1999; 10:43 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990706/V000920-070699-idx.html BEIJING (AP) -- China has replaced its military intelligence chief in a shift that may be related to the official's alleged $300,000 contribution to President Clinton's re-election campaign....
16. Get beyond nuclear myths July 12, 1999 BY JAMES GOVER Detroit Free Press http://www.freep.com/voices/columnists/qenukes12.htm ... After 25 years in nuclear weapons work and five years in national policy research, I believe the United States is overreacting as a direct result of public and lawmaker misunderstanding of the realities of nuclear weapons technology.... The misunderstanding surrounding China's theft of U.S. nuclear secrets stems from myths about nuclear weapons spun by both the pro-nuclear weapons community, seeking to defend its annual budget of $4.5 billion, and the anti-nuclear weapons community, seeking to rid the world of nuclear weapons. Three of the many myths these polarized communities have conveyed to the American public need debunking.....
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17. Japanese plutonium shipments stir safety fears 09:24 a.m. Jul 07, 1999 Eastern, By Lyndsay Griffiths - Infoseek LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) - Two lightly armed ships carrying enough plutonium to build 60 nuclear weapons will embark on a risky voyage to Japan this month, environmental campaigners said on Wednesday.... -- `Floating Chernobyl' risks sea attack By SIMON MANN EUROPE CORRESPONDENT LONDON, SATURDAY July 11, 1999 "THE AGE" http://www.theage.com.au/daily/990711/news/news19.html Two British ships carrying enough plutonium to make 60 nuclear bombs are expected to sail for Japan within days, prompting an outcry from green groups who claim the ``floating Chernobyl'' could be attacked by pirates.... -- Greenpeace calls upon the British French and Japanese Governments to ban the imminent shipment of weapons-usable plutonium fuel from Europe to Japan For immediate release: July 8th 1999 EcoNet http://www.econet.apc.org/igc/en/hl/99071225066/hl7.html http://www.greenpeace.org -- GREENPEACE REVEALS THAT FRENCH STATE OWNED PLUTONIUM FACTORY IS ILLEGAL; GROUP CALLS ON COURTS AND BELGIAN GOVERNMENT TO SHUT FACTORY From: "greenbase" <greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org> July 13, 1999 EcoNet http://www.econet.apc.org/igc/en/hl/99071518556/hl9.html Japanese, German, Swiss, and Belgian plutonium fuel produced illegally Cherbourg, July 13, Greenpeace today charged that a French plutonium fuel production facility located in Dessel, Belgium is operating in violation of Belgian law. The international environment group has charged that the plutonium fuel for the imminent France/Japan shipment has been produced under illegal circumstances. Greenpeace has today filed legal papers with the Belgian Supreme Court to request nullification of the operating license, and called on the new Belgium Government to immediately shut the FBFC International "5M" plant. FBFC is wholly owned by Cogema and Framatome.... -- Greenpeace activists removed in nuclear waste protest Monday 12 July, 1999 (12:26pm AEST) http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-12jul1999-37.htm French police in the north-western port of Cherbourg have removed from two cranes 11 Greenpeace activists who were bidding to keep two ships transporting recycled nuclear waste to Japan from setting sail. -- Greenpeace urges Ireland to oppose nuclear cargo 10:49 a.m. Jul 09, 1999 Eastern By Kevin Smith - Infoseek DUBLIN, July 9 (Reuters) - Greenpeace on Friday called on the Irish government to take a tougher stand against a consignment of weapons grade plutonium due to sail along the Irish coast next week en route from Britain to Japan.... -- Nuclear ships linked to new role for Sellafield By Kevin O'Sullivan, July 10, 1999 Irish Times http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/1999/0710/courts33.htm The environmental group Greenpeace has warned the Government to take much stronger action to prevent shipment of nuclear fuel from Britain if it does not want to see significant scalingup of BNFL's operations in Sellafield.... -- BNFL gives reassurance on nuclear fuel casks By Kevin O'Sullivan, July 16, 1999 Irish Times http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/1999/0716/hom5.htm The ships which will soon begin transporting 100-tonne casks containing nuclear fuel from Sellafield through the Irish Sea to Japan are designed to withstand all accidents, British Nuclear Fuels officials have insisted.... -- Greenpeace takes Belgian MOX plant to court 12:34 p.m. Jul 13, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek By Gillian Handyside BRUSSELS, July 13 (Reuters) - Environmental pressure group Greenpeace said on Tuesday it was taking legal action to halt nuclear fuel rod assembly at a French-run plant in Dessel, Belgium, which it accused of operating illegally.... -- Greenpeace banned from disrupting BNFL Japan trade 08:12 a.m. Jul 16, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek LONDON, July 16 (Reuters) - A British judge on Friday banned environmental group Greenpeace from interfering with British Nuclear Fuels' transport of nuclear material to Japan....
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18. Russian Journalist Pleads Innocent Friday, July 16, 1999; 11:43 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990716/V000398-071699-idx.html VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (AP) -- {Capt. Grigory Pasko} A military journalist accused of treason pleaded innocent Friday, saying the charges against him were fabricated in revenge for reports exposing environmental damage by Russia's navy....
19. Accused Russian nuclear ``spy'' faces new problems 12:04 p.m. Jul 15, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek ST PETERSBURG, Russia, July 15 (Reuters) - A former Russian naval captain accused of treason and espionage said on Thursday his lawyers were having problems preparing his case because of new secrecy restrictions. Alexander Nikitin, who accused the Russian navy of dumping nuclear waste in the Arctic Sea, and one of his lawyers said Russian authorities had re-issued charges against him and had complicated matters by saying they were covered by secrecy laws....
20. Russian Scientist Has Home Raided By Anatoly Medetsky Associated Press Writer Tuesday, July 13, 1999; 3:24 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990713/V000672-071399-idx.html VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (AP) -- Security agents raided the home and laboratory of a scientist who had been researching the dumping of radioactive waste in the Pacific Ocean by the Russian navy.... The Federal Security Service, or FSB, chief successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said in its search warrant that Vladimir Soifer was suspected of violating laws on handling classified documents and that his activity ``poses a threat to the Russian state and its military security,'' the Interfax news agency said....
21. Russia May Complain Over Radioactive Sand For Davis Cup 02:05 p.m Jul 15, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia may file an official complaint against a Swedish company which it says supplied radioactive sand for a court being laid for a Davis Cup quarter-final. The Swedish company, Lawnit Sport AB, was quoted as saying the sand was not dangerous and was the usual bedding for top-class Swedish tennis courts....
22. WORLD IN BRIEF - EUROPE Compiled from staff reports and news services Friday, July 16, 1999; Page A16 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/16/163l-071699-idx.html Newspaper: Russia Making Chemical Arms OSLO -- For the last 15 years, Russia has been operating a secret plant for producing and storing chemical weapons just east of Murmansk on the Kola peninsula, the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang said.... -- Russia Has Secret Chem Weapons Store- Norway Paper Updated 12:06 PM ET July 15, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990715/12/international-arms-russia
23. Russian physicists add a new element to the periodic table By David Kinney, Associated Press, 07/15/99 http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/196/nation/Russian_physicists_add_a_new_el ement_to_the_periodic_table+.shtml Russian physicists have created a super-heavy element that lasted 30 seconds before disintegrating, a long-sought proof, they say, of the existence of an ''island of stability.'' Using an atom smasher to bombard plutonium with calcium ions, the physicists created an element with an atomic weight of 114. The newest addition to the periodic table has yet to be named....
24. Analyst fears U.S. helps Iran develop missile via Moscow By Audrey Hudson THE WASHINGTON TIMES July 14, 1999 http://www.washtimes.com/investiga/investiga1.html A new Iranian missile that could reach the continental United States may have been subsidized by millions in U.S. tax dollars intended for a Russian space program, a defense analyst told a House panel yesterday...
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25. Canada Plutonium Debate Rages By David Crary Associated Press Writer Wednesday, July 14, 1999; 2:19 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990714/V000587-071499-idx.html http://cnn.com/WORLD/americas/9907/14/BC-Canada-Plutonium.ap/ TORONTO (AP) -- The Canadian government insists it wants to help eliminate nuclear weapons, yet its plan to burn plutonium from dismantled U.S. and Russian missiles is under fire from the country's most ardent anti-nuclear groups....
26. Canada's Fusion Lab to Be Dismantled Wednesday, July 7, 1999; 10:18 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990707/V000353-070799-idx.html OTTAWA (AP) -- Canada's only fusion laboratory, built with an estimated $110 million in public money, is for sale at a bargain price -- and Iran is the most likely buyer.... -- Canada Nuclear Fusion Reactor Might Go To Iran 01:02 a.m. Jul 08, 1999 Eastern, By Randall Palmer - Infoseek OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's fledgling nuclear fusion reactor program might be sold lock, stock and barrel to Iran, which U.S. officials have often accused of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.... -- Ottawa expected to block fusion sale By Edison Stewart and Peter Calamai Toronto Star Ottawa Bureau, July 16, 1999 http://www.thestar.com/thestar/editorial/news/990716NEW06c_NA-NUKE16.html OTTAWA - A plan to sell Canada's nuclear fusion research to Iran will likely be blocked by Ottawa, a federal source says....
27. U.S. Anxiety Imperils NATO Fighter-Pilot Training in Canada By ANTHONY DePALMA with RAYMOND BONNER, July 16, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/global/071699canada-china.html TORONTO -- Mounting concern in the United States over the export of military technology without adequate controls is threatening an ambitious new program to train fighter pilots from several NATO countries in the vast skies over Western Canada. United States regulators are refusing to issue an export license for 24 high-powered American-made training planes until they get iron-clad guarantees from the Canadian Government that the aircraft, and the technology that went into its development, will not fall into the hands of unfriendly nations....
28. Iran Preparing Bigger Missile Launch - U.S. Expert Updated 2:27 PM ET July 15, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990715/14/news-iran-missile WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran is preparing to test launch later this summer a medium-range multi-stage missile that could have a range of up to 2,650 miles (4,250 km), an independent U.S. specialist said Thursday....
29. Iranian police tear gas, beat protesters USA Today, July 13, 1999 http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwstue01.htm DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - In a flashback to the revolution that installed Iran's Islamic government 20 years ago, baton-wielding police fired tear gas to disperse 10,000 protesters on the streets of Tehran Tuesday, the sixth day of protests against hard-liners who have thwarted reform efforts.... -- Iran Says Unrest Over, Big Rally Backs State Updated 5:23 PM ET July 14, 1999,By Ali Raiss-Tousi http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990714/17/international-iran-leadall
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30. Protesters gather outside uranium company Monday 12 July, 1999 (9:53am AEST) Australian Broadcasting http://www.abc.net.au/news/state/vic/archive/metvic-12jul1999-6.htm About 24 anti-uranium protesters are again demonstrating in Saint Kilda Road, Melbourne. Yesterday the protesters tried to set up a tent embassy outside the uranium mining company North Limited....
31. FEATURE - Is Europe really going non-nuclear? 10:17 p.m. Jul 08, 1999 Eastern, By Mark John - Infoseek BONN, July 9 (Reuters) - Europe's 40-year love affair with nuclear power is on the rocks. But while more and more countries are either halting further growth of their atomic industries or seeking to phase them out altogether, energy experts are reluctant to declare the romance dead....
32. Trittin wants German nuke shutdown by 2014 - paper 05:13 p.m Jul 06, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek BONN, July 6 (Reuters) - German Environment Minister Juergen Trittin wants to phase out nuclear power a decade earlier than foreseen under a compromise deal between a fellow minister and the atomic energy industry, a newspaper said on Tuesday....
33. Nuclear phase-out row threatens Belgian coalition 11:51 a.m. Jul 06, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek, By Gillian Handyside BRUSSELS, July 6 (Reuters) - A plan to phase out nuclear power in Belgium has dismayed both supporters and opponents of atomic energy and may destroy the country's fledgling government before it takes office, a leading politician said on Tuesday....
34. Slovenia says Austria's nuclear concern unfounded 10:08 a.m. Jul 13, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek LJUBLJANA, July 13 (Reuters) - Slovenian Foreign Minister Boris Frlec said on Tuesday that Austrian concern over the safety of his country's only nuclear power plant was unfounded....
35. NATO may cut Bosnia peace force Updated 2:50 PM ET July 13, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/990713/14/international-nato TUZLA, Bosnia, July 13 (UPI) With peace slowly triumphing in Bosnia, NATO is considering slashing in half the size of the international peacekeeping force from 31,000 to 16,500 soldiers, says Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon....
36. Nations' Stance on Test Ban Treaty By The Associated Press Tuesday, July 6, 1999; 2:26 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990706/V000056-070699-idx.html All 44 nations with some nuclear capability must ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty for it to take effect.... - Senate Urged on Test Ban Treaty By Tom Raum Associated Press Writer Tuesday, July 6, 1999; 2:25 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990706/V000054-070699-idx.html WASHINGTON (AP) -- It's been nearly three years since President Clinton became the first world leader to sign a treaty calling for a global ban on nuclear test explosions. The Senate has yet to even hold a hearing on it....
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37. Greenpeace: Turks oppose nuclear plant Updated 5:23 PM ET July 13, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/990713/17/international-turkey TORONTO, July 13 (UPI) The environmental advocacy group Greenpeace says a poll it conducted in two villages near a proposed nuclear power site in Turkey showed that a majority of the local people opposed having the reactors there.... -- Turks cannot postpone nuclear bid decision-minister 12:04 p.m. Jul 14, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek ANKARA, July 14 (Reuters) - Turkey can no longer postpone a long-delayed decision on bids to build its first nuclear power plant on the Mediterranean coast, the energy minister warned on Wednesday. ``The option period for the participant companies will expire on October 15 and we have have to decide by then,'' minister Cumhur Ersumer told reporters in Ankara....
38. Cohen: U.S. not arbitor in Cyprus conflict USA Today, July 16, 1999 http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwsthu04.htm ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - The United States and Turkey agreed to disagree Thursday on the best way to proceed on resolving long-standing tension in Cyprus.... Defense Secretary William Cohen met with Turkey's prime minister and defense minister Thursday to discuss arms sales.... The prospect of major sales for U.S. arms makers appears to outweigh concern about further weapons diversions. ''To the extent that Turkey needs to modernize its forces, the United States will compete along with other major producers for weapons systems,'' Cohen said before his meetings. ''The same with respect to the Greek government.'' ...
39. U.S. Has No Proof of Iraqi Nukes Thursday, July 15, 1999; 5:26 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990715/V000716-071599-idx.html WASHINGTON (AP) -- There is no evidence Iraq is taking steps to build nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction, though inspections are still needed, the State Department said Thursday.... -- Baghdad Weapons Programs Dormant Iraq's Inactivity Puzzles U.S. Officials By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, July 15, 1999; Page A19 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/15/189l-071599-idx.html - Arms Experts Head For Baghdad To Close Lab Updated 5:37 AM ET July 14, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990714/05/international-arms-iraq
40. U.S. Jets Bomb Iraqi Defense Sites By The Associated Press, July 14, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-US-Iraq.html ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- U.S. warplanes bombed Iraqi defense sites in the northern no-fly zone Wednesday after being fired on by Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery, the U.S. military said.... -- US destroys 13 sites in Iraq Updated 3:23 PM ET July 14, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/990714/15/international-strike -- Iraqis Compare Clinton to Cockroach By The Associated Press July 14, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Iraq-Clinton.html BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraqis rarely lose an opportunity to hurl vitriolic jibes at the United States and President Clinton. This time Clinton is being compared to a cockroach....
41. Pentagon slowed Iraq mission for Kosovo Updated 4:12 PM ET July 14, 1999, By PAMELA HESS http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/990714/16/international-military INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey, July 14 (UPI) When airstrikes against Yugoslavia began March 24, things were quiet in northern Iraq, but if Saddam Hussein's forces had violated the northern no-fly zone, it is doubtful the international force based at Incirlik, Turkey, could have done much to stop it.
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42. 'U.S. warns Pak. against n-proliferation' By Sridhar Krishnaswami - The Hindu, July 11, 1999 http://www.indiaserver.com/thehindu/1999/07/11/stories/01110007.htm WASHINGTON, JULY 10. The visit of Saudi Arabia's Defence Minister to sensitive nuclear and missile facilities in Pakistan more than two months ago has raised more than just eyebrows in the administration here; and a senior official has suggested that the President, Mr. Bill Clinton, had again warned Islamabad against proliferation when he recently met the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mr. Nawaz Sharif, says a report in The New York Times.... -- Saudis show interest in Pakistani nukes July 10, 1999 Spokane Net http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=071099&ID=s606548&cat=
43. Pakistan Aims to 'Avoid Nuclear War' Sharif Says Troop Pullback a Step Toward Kashmir Solution By Pamela Constable Washington Post, July 13, 1999; Page A14 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/13/105l-071399-idx.html ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 12--A somber and visibly tense Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said tonight that he was "trying to avoid nuclear war" by asking Islamic militant groups to withdraw from the mountains of Indian Kashmir, where they have been battling Indian troops for seven weeks.... -- India, Pakistan Agree to End Fight By Neelesh Misra, Associated Press, July 11, 1999; 4:04 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990711/V000117-071199-idx.html -- Pakistan-Backed Force Leaves Indian Kashmir By CELIA W. DUGGER, July 15, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/071599india-pakistan.html
44. Israel Chooses Lockheed Martin By The Associated Press, July 16, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Israel-Fighter-Planes.html JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel has chosen Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-16 to dominate its new fleet of fighter planes in a deal estimated to be worth $2.5 billion, officials and news media said Friday....
45. Panel Refuses to Modify Israel Aid By Tom Raum Associated Press Writer Wednesday, July 14, 1999; 4:34 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990714/V000705-071499-idx.html WASHINGTON (AP) -- A House panel approved a $12.8 billion foreign aid bill Wednesday after rejecting a proposal by its chairman to end nearly two decades of preferential aid treatment for Israel....
46. Barak Wants U.S. To Scale Back Role By The Associated Press, July 14, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Israel-Barak.html JERUSALEM (AP) -- On the eve of his first visit to Washington as Israel's prime minister, Ehud Barak said the United States should scale back its role as ``policeman and judge'' in Mideast peacemaking....
47. Syrian-Israel Peace Concerns Turkey By The Associated Press, July 15, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Turkey-Israel.html ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- The prospect of talks between Israel and Syria is stoking Turkish fears that peace could lead Israel to cut its military ties with Ankara and leave Syria in a position to send more soldiers to its northern border....
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48. Chernobyl Nuclear Fuel Rod Damaged Thursday, July 15, 1999; 1:26 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990715/V000524-071599-idx.html KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- A nuclear fuel rod was damaged during repairs at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant today, but the incident caused no radiation leaks, a plant spokesman said. It was the second problem reported at reactor No. 3 since it was shut for repairs July 1.... -- Greenpeace Urges Chernobyl Changes Tuesday, July 6, 1999; 5:52 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990706/V000242-070699-idx.html KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- Greenpeace is urging Ukraine to build a natural-gas power plant to supply the former Soviet republic with energy when its Chernobyl nuclear plant shuts down.... -- French firms to build nuclear storage for Chernobyl 07:29 a.m. Jul 07, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek By Pavel Polityuk KIEV, July 7 (Reuters) - A group of three French nuclear firms will build an interim spent nuclear fuel facility at Ukraine's troubled Chernobyl nuclear plant in a bid to speed up the station's closure, industry officials said on Wednesday.... -- Schroeder to Discuss Chernobyl By Viktor Luhovyk Associated Press Writer Thursday, July 8, 1999; 5:40 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990708/V000054-070899-idx.html KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder arrived Thursday in Ukraine to ask that the country cease construction of two nuclear reactors and consider non-nuclear energy to replace its decrepit Chernobyl reactor. -- FOCUS-Schroeder hails Ukraine ties despite Chernobyl 10:30 a.m. Jul 09, 1999 Eastern By Gareth Jones - Infoseek KIEV, July 9 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Friday praised Ukraine's efforts to move closer to Europe, but failed to persuade Kiev to scrap two nuclear reactors which are due to replace the troubled Chernobyl plant.... -- Ukraine: Retain Nuclear Chernobyl By Viktor Luhovyk Associated Press Writer Friday, July 9, 1999; 1:39 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990709/V000763-070999-idx.html KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- President Leonid Kuchma today criticized Germany's proposal to scrap construction of two nuclear reactors and instead use non-nuclear sources to replace its failing Chernobyl plant....
49. IMF Delegation To Visit Ukraine By The Associated Press, July 15, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Ukraine-IMF.html KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- A team from the International Monetary Fund will visit Ukraine next week to discuss releasing the next installment of a $2.6 billion aid package, the fund said Thursday....
50. BNFL Welcomes UK Government's Decision to Pursue Public Private Partnership (PPP) for BNFL 04:53 p.m Jul 13, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek WARRINGTON, Cheshire, United Kingdom, July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- BNFL welcomes today's announcement by Stephen Byers, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, that PPP "would be good for the company, the employees, the taxpayer and the wider community." ...
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51. FEATURE - Scared of Y2K? Head for a nuclear reactor 10:15 p.m. Jul 07, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek By Matthew Green LONDON, July 8 (Reuters) - Deadly radiation, complex computers and the year 2000 bug sound like an apocalyptic mix, but watchdogs say nuclear power plants will be as safe a place as any to spend the new year....
52. US Military Conducts Huge Y2K Test By The Associated Press, July 14, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-Y2K-Pentagon.html FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) -- The Pentagon is finishing what is believed to be the largest-ever simultaneous test of computer systems to make sure Year 2000 problems won't prevent delivery to the troops of everything from bullets to toilet paper.... -- Pentagon 'Time Machine' Tests Positive For Y2K July 14, 1999 By Jim Wolf http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990714/00/news-yk-military FAIRFAX, Va. (Reuters) - Operators of the vast U.S. military supply network announced Tuesday largely glitch-free results from what they said was the biggest Year 2000 tests of linked computer systems....
53. Some Nuke Plants Still Need Y2K Work By Melissa B. Robinson Associated Press Writer Wednesday, July 7, 1999; 10:39 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990707/V000372-070799-idx.html WASHINGTON (AP) -- A third of the nation's atomic power plants still have additional work to complete on non-safety computer systems to be fully ready to deal with the Y2K computer bug, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. -- List of Nuclear Plants Not Y2K Ready By The Associated Press Wednesday, July 7, 1999; 10:43 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990707/V000375-070799-idx.html
54. Turkey Point plant declares itself Y2K ready By CURTIS MORGAN July 15, 1999, in the Miami Herald http://www.herald.com/content/thu/news/dade/digdocs/041296.htm Turkey Point showed up on a Nuclear Regulatory Commission list of atomic power plants that still need work on some computer systems -- none related to safety -- before the Y2K bug bites....
55. Happy nuclear year: Experts radiate confidence about plants' Y2K readiness By Laura A. Bruce • bankrate.comSM, July 17, 1999 http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/y2k/19990716.asp#tmi Twenty years later, Three Mile Island is what people remember as Y2K barrels toward us. It didn't take much to start the nation's worst nuclear power plant incident, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. How TMI happened....
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56. Aid to Atomic Weapons Workers Bill Would HelpThose Injured By Toxic Metal By David Brown Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, July 16, 1999; Page A21 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/16/070l-071699-idx.html The Clinton administration yesterday acknowledged the federal government has a responsibility to help private workers who were injured, some fatally, by exposure to the metal beryllium while laboring at nuclear weapons plants.... -- Nuke Workers Can Seek Compensation Thursday, July 15, 1999; 1:46 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990715/V000105-071599-idx.html -- U.S. OKs nuke worker claims By Peter Eisler, USA TODAY July 15, 1999 http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncswed17.htm -- Beryllium-afflicted Flats workers win benefits By Mike McPhee Denver Post Staff Writer, July 16, 1999 http://www.denverpost.com/news/news0716b.htm -- Work on Weapons Affected Health, Government Admits By MATTHEW L. WALD, July 15, 1999 New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/washpol/worker-health.html
57. Nurescell Inc. Announces High Radiation Resistance Testing Results --HRT-- 09:04 a.m. Jul 12, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 12, 1999--Nurescell Inc. (OTC BB:NUSL - news) Monday announced preliminary results from the University of Missouri, where samples of Nurescell's proprietary material have been subjected to four levels of radiation resistance testing....
58. World Wide Forms New Uranium Mining Unit Updated 8:57 PM ET July 15, 1999 http://news.excite.com/news/bw/990715/co-world-wide-minerals DENVER (BUSINESS WIRE) - World Wide Minerals Ltd. (TSE:WWS) announced today that it had formed a new mining and marketing unit for all of its uranium interests (other than World Wide's interest in Kazakhstan including its US$300 million lawsuit)....
59. A History: When the State Uses People as Guinea Pigs By PHILIP J. HILTS, July 13, 1999 New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/071399sci-experiments-risk.html Scientific experiments in which human subjects are abused are not new. Examples are as old as arrogance and cruelty....
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60. Hanford cleanup labeled unrealistic Energy Department report pessimistic about shoreline Associated Press - July 9, 1999 http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=070999&ID=s606114&cat= SEATTLE _ A state Ecology Department spokeswoman says she is "flabbergasted" by a recommendation from the U.S. Energy Department's inspector general to give up trying to make the Hanford shoreline a clean, safe place for people to live. -- Out There: A Lethal Dose of Salvation Outside Magazine, July 1999, By Tim Cahill http://www.outsidemag.com/magazine/0799/9907outthere.html Plutonium was born to kill at the Hanford Site, but its birthplace gave life to a perfect stretch of river....
61. Richardson Accepts Nuclear Agency Plan DOE Unit Would Be Semiautonomous By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, July 8, 1999; Page A16 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/08/210l-070899-idx.html After weeks of wrangling, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson agreed yesterday to a Republican proposal to create a semiautonomous agency to run the vast complex of laboratories and plants that research, assemble and maintain America's nuclear weapons.... -- Plenty of Blame to Go Around on Spying, DOE's Ex-Arms Chief Says By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, July 15, 1999; Page A14 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/15/146l-071599-idx.html The former head of the Energy Department's nuclear weapons program told Congress yesterday that he accepts "some responsibility" for failing to take quick action over allegations of Chinese espionage at U.S. national laboratories. But Victor H. Reis, the only senior official who has lost his job because of the alleged security breaches, told the House Armed Services Committee that plenty of others share the blame.... -- Back Channels The Intelligence Community; A Key Panel Asks: Why Only One Spy Probe? By Vernon Loeb Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, July 7, 1999; Page A17 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/07/153l-070799-idx.html After months of leaks and partisan rhetoric about Chinese espionage at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board has finally spoken, trying to inject some semblance of balance into the superheated debate....
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62. Compromised: The Los Alamos Lab Wednesday, July 7, 1999; Page A18 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/07/049l-070799-idx.html Accountability exists more in rhetoric than in fact at Los Alamos National Laboratory [news story, June 20].... MANUEL TRUJILLO, CHUCK MONTANO, Los Alamos, N.M. Mr. Trujillo works at the Los Alamos National Laboratory as an electrical engineer. Mr. Montano, an auditor, works in the lab director's office. -- Security Gaps Present at Nuke Lab By The Associated Press, July 17, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-Nuclear-Labs.html LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) -- A national laboratory insider determined to steal secrets still could copy files off the lab's classified computers onto a floppy disk and walk out, said the Energy Department's new security czar....
63. Nuclear incinerator gets OK from Wyoming Officials say INEEL project a small risk; hearing proposed July 15, 1999 Spokane Net http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=071599&ID=s606765&cat= CHEYENNE, Wyo. _ A proposed nuclear waste incinerator in eastern Idaho would not threaten air quality in Wyoming.... -- Panel to review safety issues at INEEL cleanup site Associated Press - July 11, 1999 http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=071199&ID=s607021&cat= (Letters to Editor from same website)
64. Nuclear Plant at Center of Cost Debate Regulators will help decide how much of Palo Verde's construction tab will be passed on to customers By Walter Berry The Associated Press, Monday, July 12, 1999 http://www.abqjournal.com/biz/3bout07-12.htm PHOENIX -- To some, it's a three-headed, billion-dollar dinosaur in the desert headed for ultimate extinction. Others call it a model of efficiency whose time finally has arrived. Whatever the label, there are two sure things about the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. It has become one of the most efficient in the world, and its $9.3 billion construction cost will remain a center of debate in coming years as New Mexico, Arizona and Texas move to a competitive electric market....
65. Worker finishing what he started in '55 When Atlas mill 'retires,' so will 44-year veteran By Zack Van Eyck Deseret News July 10, 1999 http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1,1249,100010490,00.html? MOAB He's the only guy with full run of the mill, but he's hardly a run-of-the-mill guy. Dale Edwards, self-made and loyal to the core, is the last remaining full-time employee of the Atlas Corp.'s now-decommissioned uranium mill just north of Moab....
66. Entergy, Boston Edison Complete First U.S. Nuclear Plant Sale 10:58 a.m. Jul 13, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek PLYMOUTH, Mass., July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Entergy Nuclear added Pilgrim Station to its nuclear fleet today in the first successful nuclear plant sale in the nation. Boston Edison and Entergy closed the historic deal less than eight months after the companies agreed to transfer ownership....
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67. CIA: Export Controls Slow Weapons By John Diamond Associated Press Writer Saturday, July 17, 1999; 4:35 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990717/V000057-071799-idx.htm l http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-CIA-Proliferation.html WASHINGTON (AP) -- Syria, Libya and some other nations aggressively strive to make their own weapons of mass destruction, but their progress has been slowed by tight export controls and their own inability to fully develop chemical, nuclear or biological arms, according to a new CIA report....
68. F-22 Jet Hits Another Snag in House Committee By Bradley Graham Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, July 17, 1999; Page A09 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/17/057l-071799-idx.html http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/071799congress-f22.html http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Congress-F-22.html Having driven Yugoslav forces out of Kosovo during an 11-week air campaign, the U.S. Air Force expected to receive a pat on the back in Washington. Instead, it got a slap in the face this week from a House panel that voted to suspend the planned purchase of the F-22 jet fighter, the Air Force's top-priority new weapon.... -- Air Force lobbying to save F-22 7/15/99- Updated 10:16 PM ET http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncsthu15.htm WASHINGTON (AP) - Jolted by a congressional move that could kill a prized new fighter jet, the Air Force invoked its recent successes in Kosovo as it lobbied hard this week to save the plane. ''I think that we will be able to convice people we need it,'' Lt. Gen. Gary Martin said Thursday. The House Appropriations defense subcommittee voted Monday to divert $1.8 billion from the F-22 program. The money was supposed to go to buy six of the jets with a new design. Instead, the key panel wants to use the money to buy more of the tried-and-true F-15 and F-16 models....
69. White House Fact Sheet: Administration Record on Nonproliferation U.S. Newswire 14 Jul 15:10 http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/Current_Releases/0714-132.htm WASHINGTON, July 14 /U.S. Newswire/ Issued today by White House -- President Clinton has led the effort to reduce the threat to Americans from weapons of mass destruction. Over the past six years, the Administration has made unprecedented progress in curbing the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and the missiles that deliver them, in reducing the dangerous legacy of Cold War weapons' stockpiles and in promoting responsible conventional arms transfer policies....
70. Proposed Tax Cuts Worry Pentagon Officials Urge White House to Protect Military Modernization By Bradley Graham and Eric Pianin, Washington Post, July 10, 1999; Page A04 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/10/089l-071099-idx.html Worried that congressional proposals for huge tax cuts could jeopardize increases in defense spending, the Pentagon has appealed to the White House to hold the line against deep tax breaks or risk gutting military modernization programs....
71. Losing the Battle on Arms Control Pakistan-India Nuclear Race Is Just Part of a Disturbing Trend By Steven Mufson Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, July 17, 1999; Page A01 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/17/069l-071799-idx.html On June 25, the frontier of arms control suddenly shifted to the Indian port of Kandla, where customs officials, acting on a tip, demanded to see what else was in the hold of a North Korean ship unloading a cargo of sugar....
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72. Government commission urges reorganization of agencies to handle nuclear threats July 16, 1999 Associated Press / Deseret News (Utah) http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1,1249,100011252,00.html? WASHINGTON (AP) Concerned about a series of doomsday scenarios ranging from an anthrax release in Boston to an Iraqi nerve gas attack on U.S. troops, a government commission proposes a far-reaching reform of agencies now handling such threats.... -- U.S. Terrorist Threats Detailed By David Briscoe Associated Press Writer Thursday, July 15, 1999; 2:55 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990715/V000140-071599-idx.html http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Doomsday-Threat.html WASHINGTON (AP) -- Concerned about a series of doomsday scenarios ranging from an anthrax release in Boston to an Iraqi nerve gas attack on U.S. troops, a government commission proposes a far-reaching reform of agencies now handling such threats.... -- Cohen Voices U.S. Nuclear Concern By John Diamond Associated Press Writer Thursday, July 15, 1999; 4:27 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990715/V000667-071599-idx.html SHANNON, Ireland (AP) -- Defense Secretary William Cohen said Thursday it makes little difference from a security standpoint whether China developed its own neutron bomb instead of stealing the technology from U.S. labs. The United States, he said, is more concerned about other nations gaining nuclear technology.... - U.S. Preparedness Faulted Weapons of Mass Destruction Concern Panel By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, July 9, 1999; Page A02 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/09/095l-070999-idx.html Calling the U.S. government unprepared to prevent or cope with a chemical, biological or nuclear attack, a bipartisan commission headed by former CIA director John M. Deutch has recommended the appointment of a national director to coordinate the nation's defense against weapons of mass destruction.... -- US Not Ready for Nuclear Threat By David Briscoe Associated Press Writer Friday, July 9, 1999; 4:40 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990709/V000440-070999-idx.html WASHINGTON (AP) -- A government panel proposes yet another role for the vice president: stopping the threat of weapons of mass destruction.... -- U.S. Nuke Agency Wants Terror Drills At Plants 03:54 p.m Jul 16, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Friday proposed requiring nuclear plant owners to conduct more frequent drills for dealing with a terrorist attack....
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73. Officer punished for refusing to work in isolation with women By Rowan Scarborough THE WASHINGTON TIMES, July 14, 1999 The Air Force has punished a junior officer who objected to sex-integrated assignments in the intimate confines of a nuclear missile launch center because he believes it conflicts with Catholic teachings on temptation.
74. House Split on Satellite Launches By Tom Raum, Associated Press, July 9, 1999; 3:51 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990709/V000421-070999-idx.html WASHINGTON (AP) -- Members of Congress concerned that China and other countries may be learning U.S. scientific secrets by rocketing civilian satellites into space want the United States to expand its launch capabilities....
75. NAACP Seeks Port Chicago Pardons By The Associated Press, July 14, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-NAACP-Port-Chicago.html NEW YORK (AP) -- The NAACP wants President Clinton to pardon surviving black sailors convicted in the so-called Port Chicago trial during World War II....
76. Obits James A. Barnes Jr. - U-2 Pilot Thursday, July 15, 1999; Page B06 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/15/220l-071599-idx.html James A. Barnes Jr., 70, a U-2 spy plane pilot whose photographs of Soviet missile sites in Cuba led to a superpower showdown, died June 6 in Mountain View, Calif., after a stroke. He was 70. -- George E. Brown Jr., 79, Dies; a Congressman for 18 Terms By DAVID STOUT July 17, 1999 New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/obit-george-brown.html WASHINGTON -- Representative George E. Brown Jr., an 18-term California Democrat who used his seniority and influence to promote science in general and space exploration in particular, died early Friday in Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. He was 79 and lived in San Bernardino, Calif.... he strongly opposed military uses of space. In the early 1980's, he spoke out loudly and often against President Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" plan to build a space-based defense against nuclear weapons. Brown supported creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and development of solar energy and alternative fuels....
77. [Billy] Joel, [Christie] Brinkley in No-Nukes Protest Sunday, July 11, 1999; 2:21 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990711/V000061-071199-idx.html WATERFORD, Conn. (AP) .... Both celebrities are members of STAR -- Standing for Truth About Radiation. The protesters want the Millstone plants shut down permanently. Earlier this year, two of the reactors were allowed back into operation after three years of safety concerns.
78. U.S.D.A. to Address Biotech Crop Concerns By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/science/hth-gm-food.html (July 14) Mindful of the growing controversy over genetically engineered crops, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman announced plans Tuesday to study their long-term impact on the environment.... And he compared biotechnology today to nuclear power 20 years ago. "We have a way in this country of latching on to solutions, pursuing them to the exclusion of others, and then watching them sometimes backfire," he said. "We did that in the late '70s when we embraced nuclear power as the primary source of our energy needs. Then, Three Mile Island happened. Now nuclear power is still part of our energy grid, but it's not the only part. "Let's not put all of our eggs in the biotech basket." ...
79. Report: Much of ground water is tainted By Traci Watson, USA TODAY, 7/14/99- Updated 10:38 PM ET http://usatoday.com/news/ndswed07.htm A wide-ranging government report concludes that much of the nation's ground water and many of its streams are contaminated with pesticides and unhealthy levels of fertilizer chemicals....
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80. West Expects Lower Kosovo Rebuilding Bill Updated 12:09 PM ET July 13, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990713/12/international-group-balka ns By Nick Antonovics BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Western governments and aid agencies voiced optimism Tuesday that the cost of rebuilding the Balkans after the Kosovo war may be lower than feared.... -- Night vs. Day in Kosovo U.S. Troops: From Warriors to Diplomats By Karl Vick Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday, July 11, 1999; Page A01 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/11/237l-071199-idx.html VITINA, Yugoslavia--The dogs of 82nd Airborne Alpha Company 2-505 meet the night with rifles in hand and boots dangling over the skids of a speeding UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. Peacekeepers patrolling southeastern Kosovo with the latest toys of war, the GIs have night vision goggles on their helmets, a pair of AH-64 Apache gunships on their flank and great big grins on their faces.... -- Cohen Warns Yugoslav Troops By John Diamond Associated Press Writer Saturday, July 10, 1999; 3:43 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990710/V000582-071099-idx.html OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Acknowledging slow progress in deploying allied peacekeepers in Kosovo, Defense Secretary William Cohen said Saturday that NATO has plans to respond with force if Yugoslav troops resist. -- A War-Torn Reporter Reflects By Michael Dobbs, Sunday, July 11, 1999; Page B01 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/11/105l-071199-idx.html ... The United States fought what it thought was a just war, with essentially humanitarian motives, but also did things that we have the right and the obligation to subject to very searching examination.
81. Cohen Meets Baltic Leaders on NATO By John Diamond Associated Press Writer Saturday, July 10, 1999; 8:34 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990710/V000401-071099-idx.html OSLO, Norway (AP) -- The United States appears in no rush to welcome the Baltic states into NATO. Talks today with ministers from Baltic and Scandinavian countries instead focused on a long-term peace mission in Kosovo and the need to smooth relations with Russia....
82. Sanctions Against Taliban Buck Trend By George Gedda Associated Press Writer Friday, July 9, 1999; 4:39 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990709/V000893-070999-idx.html WASHINGTON (AP) -- The argument seemed to be over. After U.S. sanctions were imposed against dozens of wayward countries in recent years, an emerging consensus in the administration and Congress concluded that such punishment rarely achieved the desired result while costing U.S. businesses billions of dollars. But the administration bucked the trend this week by applying sanctions against the Taliban government in Afghanistan for harboring suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden...
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Message: 10 Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 05:12:20 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-10 7/17/99 - Chernobyl; UK BNFL
48. Chernobyl Nuclear Fuel Rod Damaged
Thursday, July 15, 1999; 1:26 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990715/V000524-071599-idx.html
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- A nuclear fuel rod was damaged during repairs at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant today, but the incident caused no radiation leaks, a plant spokesman said.
It was the second problem reported at reactor No. 3 since it was shut for repairs July 1.
Workers were putting the rod back in place today when they accidentally bent a metal pipe that is attached to the rod and used to insert it into a proper channel in the reactor, said the spokesman, Oleh Holoskokov.
He said a worker who operated a special machine for inserting the fuel rod started to withdraw the machine when the rod was still joined to it and bent the pipe.
The incident did not affect the section of the rod containing nuclear fuel and didn't lead to any radiation leaks, Holoskokov told The Associated Press.
He said the incident corresponded to Level 1 on the 7-level International Nuclear Event Scale, which is used to assess the seriousness of events at nuclear plants worldwide. The International Atomic Energy Agency describes Level 1 incidents as ``functional or operational anomalies which do not pose a risk but which indicate a lack of safety provisions.''
Last week, repair workers damaged one of the reactor's safety rods used to regulate the intensity of nuclear reaction inside the reactor.
Holoskokov said Chernobyl officials were ordered to stop working with fuel rods until an investigation into Thursday's accident is completed.
Reactor No. 3 remains the only operational reactor at Chernobyl after the 1986 explosion in reactor No. 4, the world's worst nuclear accident. Reactor No. 3 is expected to stay idle until November.
Ukraine has promised to shut Chernobyl by 2000, but wants to secure international aid first to complete two other nuclear reactors to compensate for the energy loss the closure would cause.
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Greenpeace Urges Chernobyl Changes
Tuesday, July 6, 1999; 5:52 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990706/V000242-070699-idx.html
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- Greenpeace is urging Ukraine to build a natural-gas power plant to supply the former Soviet republic with energy when its Chernobyl nuclear plant shuts down.
The proposed $500 million natural gas plant would take the place of two nuclear reactors still under construction at other plants, Greenpeace energy expert Tobias Muenchmeyer said Tuesday.
Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma rejected Greenpeace's proposal immediately Tuesday, but did not say why.
Ukraine promised the West to shut down Chernobyl by 2000 after one of the plant's reactors blew up in 1986 and sent a radioactive cloud over much of Europe.
But the former Soviet republic said it can only bring Chernobyl off-line if it gets the funds needed to complete two replacement nuclear reactors, which were 80 percent done before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Leading Western nations have pledged to help cover the $1 billion cost of finishing the nuclear reactors in line with international safety standards.
But Muenchmeyer said the gas plant would be cheaper and less dangerous to the environment.
Muenchmeyer said his group would present its plan during a visit to Kiev by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder this week. Schroeder is expected to oppose on behalf of Germany the completion of the two nuclear reactors.
Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said that building the two reactors is the cheapest way to make up for the energy that will be lost when Chernobyl closes.
Nuclear plants account for nearly half of Ukraine's electricity production.
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French firms to build nuclear storage for Chernobyl
07:29 a.m. Jul 07, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek By Pavel Polityuk
KIEV, July 7 (Reuters) - A group of three French nuclear firms will build an interim spent nuclear fuel facility at Ukraine's troubled Chernobyl nuclear plant in a bid to speed up the station's closure, industry officials said on Wednesday.
``The construction of the storage facility for Chernobyl's nuclear waste is a step towards a timely closure of the station,'' Vissarion Kim, a director at Ukraine's state nuclear energy company Energoatom, told a news conference.
A consortium led by France's state company Framatome is due to implement a contract worth 69 million euros ($72 million) by 2003, constructing facilities for storage of around 3,000 tonnes of nuclear waste in dry and safe conditions.
``This contract is very important for all of us, and all of us will do our best to complete our work on time,'' said Jean-Daniel Levi, Framatome's vice-president.
``We are happy to work on this contract.''
The other two participants in the consortium are Campenon Bernard-SGE and Bouygues Travaux Publics S.A..
Chernobyl's reactor number four exploded in April 1986, spewing a poisonous cloud of radioactive dust over much of Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and parts of Western Europe, killing 31 people and affecting thousands more.
Levi said the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development would finance the construction. The Bank said last month the contract was being funded in line with the 1995 memorandum of understanding signed between Ukraine and the G7 group of the world's leading industrialised nations.
Ukraine promised the G7 states to close down Chernobyl by the year 2000 in exchange for financial aid to complete two replacement reactors at Rivne and Khmelnitska nuclear plants in the western part of the country.
But Ukrainian authorities say the West has not delivered on its promises and that Kiev now has the moral right to run the station after the expiry of the agreed deadline.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is due to begin a two-day visit to Ukraine on Thursday. He will discuss Western funding for new reactors in order to have Chernobyl shut down altogether.
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Schroeder to Discuss Chernobyl
By Viktor Luhovyk Associated Press Writer Thursday, July 8, 1999; 5:40 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990708/V000054-070899-idx.html
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder arrived Thursday in Ukraine to ask that the country cease construction of two nuclear reactors and consider non-nuclear energy to replace its decrepit Chernobyl reactor.
Germany said it would ask that Ukraine consider gas power and other energy sources to replace Chernobyl, which has chronically malfunctioned since 1986 when one of the plant's four reactors blew up and released a radioactive chemical cloud.
The cloud contaminated land and water sources in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, and wafted over many European countries.
Ukrainian officials promised the West they would shut Chernobyl down by 2000, but they have rejected non-nuclear proposals, saying that completion of the reactors is the cheapest way to replace the lost energy source.
Schroeder spoke briefly with Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma on Thursday behind closed doors, but no resolutions were announced, as most meetings between Ukrainian officials and Germany's 160-strong delegation were scheduled for Friday.
Just as the German delegation was about to leave for Kiev, workers repairing Chernobyl's idle reactor No. 3 accidentally damaged a rod in the reactor's safety system, nuclear officials said. Reactor No. 3 is the only one of Chernobyl's reactors still in operation.
The West has increased pressure to close Chernobyl as the plant continues regularly to report failures.
But the former Soviet republic said it can only bring Chernobyl off-line if it gets $1 billion in funds needed to complete the two replacement nuclear reactors, which were 80 percent done before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Western nations have pledged to cover the cost of the reactors' construction, but dragging negotiations never reached conclusion.
German Environment Minister Juergen Trittin, who accompanied Schroeder to Kiev, said before departing that Germany wanted to divert its part of the pledged Western aid to toward other types of energy, including the construction of a new gas power plant.
Nuclear plants account for nearly half of Ukraine's electricity production.
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FOCUS-Schroeder hails Ukraine ties despite Chernobyl
10:30 a.m. Jul 09, 1999 Eastern By Gareth Jones - Infoseek
KIEV, July 9 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Friday praised Ukraine's efforts to move closer to Europe, but failed to persuade Kiev to scrap two nuclear reactors which are due to replace the troubled Chernobyl plant.
The nuclear issue is politically sensitive for Schroeder, who is under pressure from his Green coalition partners in Bonn to withhold any German cash for the reactors, even though this could involve delaying the closure of Chernobyl.
``Ukraine belongs to Europe and in time will become fully part of Europe,'' Schroeder told a joint news conference with President Leonid Kuchma at the end of his two-day visit to Kiev.
``Relations between Germany and Ukraine are very good, and this is in no small part due to President Kuchma, who is a good friend of Germany,'' Schroeder said.
Speaking in Kiev's ornate, baroque Mariinsky palace, Schroeder said Germany was keen to share its technological expertise with Ukraine, notably in the agrarian sector. Ukraine was once the bread-basket of the Soviet Union.
Earlier Kuchma had urged German businessmen to increase their investments in his impoverished country of 50 million, but also heard calls to cut red tape and taxes.
``Ukraine wants more investment from Germany... We are still far from realising our potential,'' Kuchma said.
Germany is Ukraine's second trading partner after Russia but trade turnover between Bonn and Kiev totalled less than $2 billion in 1998.
Eight years into independence from Moscow, Ukraine remains dogged by poverty and snail-pace reforms. Total direct foreign investment in Ukraine since 1991 stands at just $2.8 billion.
Kuchma, who faces a strong leftist challenge in October's presidential election, said Ukraine was ready to cooperate with Germany on a wide range of projects, including the possible construction of gas-fired, steam-driven power stations.
But Kiev refused to budge on the key issue of halting work on the two nuclear reactors.
``We stuck by our position and the Germans stuck by theirs,'' Energy Minister Ivan Plachkov told Reuters after Friday's talks.
Schroeder himself has said he sees little way out of a 1995 agreement between Ukraine and the Group of Seven rich industrial powers, which says the G7 would fund two new nuclear power stations in return for Kiev closing the Chernobyl plant.
But his Green coalition partners wanted him to try to persuade Ukraine to drop the reactors in favour of a gas- or coal-fired alternative.
Kiev says considering new proposals would force it to miss the 2000 deadline for shutting Chernobyl, branded by Schroeder as a ``time-bomb.'' The West fears a repeat of the 1986 explosion, which sent clouds of radioactive dust across much of Europe.
The Group of Seven nations -- the United States, Japan, Britain, France, Italy and Canada -- agreed in 1995 to fund the two nuclear stations in return for Chernobyl's closure.
The G7 had been due at its Cologne summit last month to give final approval for $1.2 billion in credits to Ukraine but agreed to delay the decision until after Schroeder's visit to Kiev.
On Friday Schroeder said he expected a final decision on the financing of the two reactors in September, when the board of directors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) meets in London.
Schroeder said the German government would now consider what position to take at the meeting in September, indicating that it would be a ``difficult'' one for his red-green coalition.
The environmental lobby group Greenpeace reacted angrily to the lack of a breakthrough in Kiev on the nuclear problem.
``It is difficult to see how Germany's red-green coalition will be able to justify giving money to Ukraine for the reactors when they are phasing out nuclear power in their own country,'' Tobias Muenchmeyer of Greenpeace International told Reuters.
He also accused Ukraine of using ``moral blackmail'' to win credits to build what he called ``potential new Chernobyls.''
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Ukraine: Retain Nuclear Chernobyl
By Viktor Luhovyk Associated Press Writer Friday, July 9, 1999; 1:39 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990709/V000763-070999-idx.html
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- President Leonid Kuchma today criticized Germany's proposal to scrap construction of two nuclear reactors and instead use non-nuclear sources to replace its failing Chernobyl plant.
During a two-day visit by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Kuchma repeated his demand that the West provide the $1 billion needed to complete the two nuclear reactors, which Ukraine plans to use after it closes the Chernobyl nuclear power plant next year.
Ukraine promised to shut down Chernobyl after one of the plant's four reactors blew up in 1986 and emitted a radioactive chemical cloud over Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and much of Europe.
The plant continues to report chronic malfunctions, and Western leaders have urged Ukraine to make good on that promise.
``We confirm our obligation to close Chernobyl provided that the G-7 meets its obligations,'' Kuchma said Friday, referring to a pledge made by the world's leading industrial nations to help finish the reactors at the Rivne and Khmelnytsky nuclear plants.
The new reactors were 80 percent complete when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Ukraine has never been able to finance their completion.
Kuchma said at a joint news conference with Schroeder that he would listen to all proposals, but he said nuclear power was preferable for his poverty-stricken country because it is the least expensive. Nuclear power plants account for more than half of the country's energy production.
Schroeder said Germany would do everything possible to ensure Chernobyl is shut down, regardless of what Kuchma's government decides.
``Closing Chernobyl in 2000 is a top priority. This is an even bigger problem than completing the two reactors,'' he said.
German officials proposed Ukraine modernize coal extraction or build a new plant run on natural gas.
Schroeder's center-left government opposes lending the money to finish the nuclear reactors. Schroeder said Germany would decide on the issue before the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development meets in September to consider funding the reactors.
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49. IMF Delegation To Visit Ukraine
By The Associated Press, July 15, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Ukraine-IMF.html
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- A team from the International Monetary Fund will visit Ukraine next week to discuss releasing the next installment of a $2.6 billion aid package, the fund said Thursday.
The IMF approved the three-year loan to Ukraine in September 1998, but suspended disbursements in November because it said the government wasn't enacting necessary reforms.
The government persuaded the F in March to resume lending after warning that it might default on some of its foreign debt this year, and the fund even increased the loan package from $2.2 billion to $2.6 billion. It has disbursed $670 million so far.
The IMF team will be in Kiev from July 20 to Aug. 3 to monitor Ukraine's compliance with loan requirements, said a spokesman with the fund's Kiev office, who asked to remain unidentified.
The mission will recommend that the IMF's executive board release an installment of up to $115 million if the talks in Kiev are successful, the Interfax news agency said, citing Ukrainian government officials.
The government, whose own revenues have been far below target for years, badly needs help to pay foreign lenders nearly $1 billion this year and about $2.5 billion in 2000.
Ukraine's National Bank now has about $1.3 billion in hard currency reserves, and the government has acknowledged that it still needs to find money to cover much of the 2000 debt.
The government is currently trying to reschedule some of the payments on the IMF's urging as the fund has cautioned the government recently against using its loans to pay off debts to private lenders.
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50. BNFL Welcomes UK Government's Decision to Pursue Public Private Partnership (PPP) for BNFL
04:53 p.m Jul 13, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek
WARRINGTON, Cheshire, United Kingdom, July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- BNFL welcomes today's announcement by Stephen Byers, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, that PPP "would be good for the company, the employees, the taxpayer and the wider community."
BNFL Chief Executive, John Taylor, said:
"Our aim is to become the leading global nuclear company and I believe that a successful PPP will be a major milestone in our journey to achieve that goal. The acquisition of Westinghouse's global nuclear business, coupled with recent commercial successes in the USA, Europe and Asia, especially in the area of nuclear clean-up, have transformed our business over the last couple of years. PPP will provide us with even greater momentum as we move toward our aim of becoming a world-class company."
BNFL believes PPP to be a positive move for the following reasons:
-- BNFL's number one priority is safety, health and environmental care.
The specific safety and environment targets set by Government will
assist the company in future improving performance in this area.
-- BNFL has operated as a commercial business, paying a dividend to its
shareholder (the British Government) since the 1970s. PPP will help
the company to achieve its corporate strategy and business goals.
-- PPP is an extremely significant milestone in BNFL's aim of becoming the
leading global nuclear company.
Commenting on Mr. Byer's statement, John Taylor said: "I agree with Mr. Byer's analysis that a PPP for BNFL represents the most likely way to enhance the company's commercial prospects and long-term future, while ensuring liabilities are efficiently managed and standards of safety, security and environmental care are continuously improved. I look forward to working with the Government in the months ahead to make a PPP for BNFL into an outstanding success."
BNFL Background Information
BNFL was set up by the UK Government in 1971 from the northern production arm of the UK Atomic Energy Authority.
Since that time, the company has grown from a North West of England-based reprocessing company into an international nuclear business employing 20,000 people worldwide with a turnover of more than 2 billion pounds sterling, roughly half of which comes from overseas. A key step in this transformation was the 600 million pounds sterling ($900 million) acquisition of the Westinghouse nuclear business in March this year.
Today, roughly a third of BNFL's turnover comes from the Westinghouse Electric business which manufactures fuel and services nuclear reactors around the world; a quarter comes from the recycling of UK and overseas fuel at the Sellafield Thorp reprocessing plant in Cumbria; a further quarter of turnover comes from electricity generated in the UK's Magnox power stations. The remainder of BNFL's business is in the area of waste management and decommissioning which is expected to grow significantly in the years ahead, underpinned by a US order book which could be worth up to 6 billion pounds sterling ($9 billion) if all contract options are exercised. SOURCE Westinghouse Electric Company
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Message: 11 Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 05:12:04 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-9 7/17/99 - Pakistan, India; Israel
42. 'U.S. warns Pak. against n-proliferation'
By Sridhar Krishnaswami - The Hindu, July 11, 1999 http://www.indiaserver.com/thehindu/1999/07/11/stories/01110007.htm
WASHINGTON, JULY 10. The visit of Saudi Arabia's Defence Minister to sensitive nuclear and missile facilities in Pakistan more than two months ago has raised more than just eyebrows in the administration here; and a senior official has suggested that the President, Mr. Bill Clinton, had again warned Islamabad against proliferation when he recently met the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mr. Nawaz Sharif, says a report in The New York Times.
The trip of Prince Sultan bin Abdelaziz al-Saud to top secret sites in Pakistan, in the view one senior administration official, was considered ``definitely eyebrow arching'' as for the first time an outsider was known to have been in such sensitive facilities. Washington's fear was a result of a ``lack of clarity'' in the Saudi explanation as to why the Defence Minister had visited two plants, one for uranium enrichment and the other for missiles.
``The Saudis haven't told us the purpose of the visits and the Pakistanis have discounted them,'' an official has been quoted in the Times report; and another has said that when the U.S. pressed the Saudis on the issue the Government there ``obfuscated''. All the Clinton administration officials quoted in the report have not been identified.
The backdrop and context of the visit of the Saudi Minister to Pakistan is that Iran is seen as acquiring nuclear weapons; Iraq is no longer accepting international weapons inspectors and the Saudis feel that they needed to protect themselves. ``We are not looking at a Saudi event, but a sea change in the Gulf,'' said Mr. Anthony Cordesman, an expert on West Asia at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. The unease in the administration has apparently got to do with the fact that Saudi Arabia covertly acquired intercontinental ballistic missiles from China some 10 years ago and may be seeking to replace them. And the impression is that Saudi Arabia may be interested in getting a new generation of missiles in the range of 1,500 miles that is currently being tested by Pakistan. This new missile could hit cities in Iraq and Iran.
Saudi interest
United States officials have been quoted in the Times report as saying that the key purpose of Prince Sultan's trip to Pakistan was an interest in acquiring missiles and not nuclear weapons technology; and that Saudi Arabia has assured Washington that it is not seeking weapons of mass destruction or nuclear weapons. Prince Sultan is the brother of the King and a key decision-maker when it comes to defence purchases.
What is being pointed out is that aside from glowing reports in the media in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia of the Prince's visit, the suggestion in the Pakistani media had also been that Saudi Arabia was helping Islamabad to finance weapons production. Mr. Michael Krepon of the Stimson Centre has said that the Saudis are now interested in helping Pakistan with more than money. ``The clear inference is that he's (meaning Prince Sultan) interested in the material at the sites he visited'', Mr. Krepon has told The New York Times.
Military analysts are making the point that Prince Sultan's visit showed that the Clinton administration's efforts at stopping Pakistan from selling nuclear weapons was faltering. ``This visit reawakens fears that accepted standards of non- proliferation fears are not being adhered to. The fears are that people making missiles are selling them to non-proliferating countries like Saudi Arabia, a major ally of the United States'', Mr. Michael Henderson, a British expert on Pakistan and West Asia has been quoted as saying.
The Clinton administration, at least privately, has been extremely concerned about the faltering Pakistani economy, the prospects of its going under and on the implications this was going to have on nuclear proliferation.
The apprehension is that in a desperate attempt to keep afloat there could be renegade elements in the Pakistani nuclear establishment who might start peddling nuclear and missile technology. And Washington's concern has always been West Asia and the potential of these deadly wares reaching these shores.
This is why the administration here will not want to pressure Pakistan too much in its tensions with India although an argument has been made out that Washington will resort to punitive sanctions by way of blocking IMF funding to Pakistan if the latter did not show signs of letting up on its intransigence. The U.S. administration is really worried about this development, not merely in terms of regional instability but on the global non- proliferation front as well.
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Saudis show interest in Pakistani nukes
July 10, 1999 Spokane Net http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=071099&ID=s606548&cat=
Washington _ Two months ago, the Saudi Arabian defense minister, Prince Sultan, made an unusual visit to the Pakistani nuclear and missile production facilities near Islamabad, causing alarm in the Clinton administration.
The visit was considered "definitely eyebrow arching," one administration official said. It was the first time an outsider had been allowed to visit the top secret sites.
Adding to the administration's fears, officials said, was the vague answer by the Saudis when Washington asked the Saudi government why the defense minister visited the uranium enrichment plant and the Ghauri missile factory.
The administration, concerned about the proliferation of sophisticated weapons in the Middle East, has repeatedly warned Pakistan not to export its weapons technology.
Iran is developing nuclear weapons, and Iraq is no longer subject to international arms inspections. The Saudi move is seen by analysts as a reaction to that and their feeling that they need to protect themselves.
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43. Pakistan Aims to 'Avoid Nuclear War' Sharif Says Troop Pullback a Step Toward Kashmir Solution
By Pamela Constable Washington Post, July 13, 1999; Page A14 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/13/105l-071399-idx.html
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 12--A somber and visibly tense Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said tonight that he was "trying to avoid nuclear war" by asking Islamic militant groups to withdraw from the mountains of Indian Kashmir, where they have been battling Indian troops for seven weeks.
In a televised speech to the nation, Sharif invited Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to meet with him, saying it was "very sad we have not resolved the Kashmir issue," even after India and Pakistan have fought two wars over the disputed territory.
Because weapons tests last year established Pakistan and India as the world's newest nuclear powers, Kashmir has become a "nuclear flash point," Sharif added. "I am trying to avoid nuclear war," he said. "It is suicide. I don't believe in suicide, and I don't believe Prime Minister Vajpayee does either."
Sharif, who has been widely criticized at home for meeting with President Clinton this month and then pledging to ask the guerrillas fighting inside Indian Kashmir to back off, pointedly praised the insurgents for bringing international attention to the 50-year-old dispute. Warning that Kashmir is a "volcano" that can erupt again, Sharif sought to place the onus on the international community to press for a solution of the dispute and said he had told U.S. officials that ending the current phase of fighting was not enough.
Pakistani officials said today that the gradual "disengagement" of Pakistani-backed fighters was proceeding along the Line of Control that divides the Indian- and Pakistani-controlled parts of Kashmir. Indian and Pakistani military forces were observing an unofficial cease-fire in those areas, they said.
However, Pakistan unleashed a ferocious barrage of artillery fire tonight on a highway inside India's portion of Kashmir, the Associated Press reported. For at least half an hour, shells smashed into the road and a mountainside every 30 seconds.
Several major Islamic militant groups here continued to assert today they would not withdraw from the conflict along the Line of Control, and Pakistani officials continued to disavow any direct knowledge of their actions, insisting the groups are operating independently of Pakistani control.
In New Delhi, Indian officials acknowledged that the withdrawal of Pakistani-backed fighters--who the Indian government says include Pakistani troops--had begun, but they insisted it was "a mere formality" because Indian forces had succeeded in recapturing most of the terrain the militant groups occupied in April. Since his July 4 trip to Washington to meet with Clinton, Sharif has been accused here of caving in to American pressure to withdraw the Islamic fighters, whose cause of freeing southern Kashmir from Indian control has long been championed by Pakistan. Indian and American officials say most of the fighters are actually Pakistani army troops and that the cross-border operation was controlled and sustained by Pakistan.
Some informed sources have said Clinton privately confronted Sharif with this charge and Pakistani officials then agreed that they would threaten to cut off virtually all support for the Islamic fighters unless they backed off. In return, Clinton publicly promised to take a "personal interest" in the Kashmir problem.
"These so-called meetings with the mujaheddin [guerrillas] asking them to withdraw was nothing but a show," said Khalid Mahmud, a specialist on Indo-Pakistani relations at the Institute for Regional Studies. Pakistani officials, he said, "had already decided what to do and had informed the Indians" the forces would retreat.
Despite Sharif's efforts to portray himself as pursuing peace and security for the region, critics across the Pakistani political spectrum suggested his credibility and image have been tarnished and that resuming dialogue with India soon may be virtually impossible.
"No Indian prime minister will be able to muster any enthusiasm for talking with Nawaz," said Abida Hussain, a legislator from Sharif's party, the Pakistani Muslim League. "The prime minister has survived crises before, but this is the first one with external dimensions. He will face a very difficult situation now."
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India, Pakistan Agree to End Fight
By Neelesh Misra Associated Press Writer Sunday, July 11, 1999; 4:04 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990711/V000117-071199-idx.html
MUSHKOH VALLEY, India (AP) -- Top military commanders from India and Pakistan agreed Sunday on a plan to end the fighting in India-controlled Kashmir, easing concerns of a wider war between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.
The plan, worked out over the weekend at an Indian border post in Atari in the state of Punjab, calls for a withdrawal of Islamic guerillas from the region, and an end to Indian airstrikes, artillery fire and ground assaults in Kashmir's Himalayan peaks.
India said there was a complete cease-fire and that Indian infantry soldiers had made no movements in the Kargil region of Kashmir. Both countries claim control of Kashmir, which both countries border in the north.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz told a news conference in Pakistan Sunday night that guerrillas were pulling back as well. ``Gradually the disengagement will be complete in the entire area,'' he said.
In New Delhi, an aide to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said the withdrawal would be complete within a week.
Confirmation from guerrilla leaders that they would withdraw was not immediately available, but some had said as recently as Sunday morning that they would ``readjust'' their positions but not pull out.
The deal was apparently struck to allow the Pakistan-backed fighters to leave the Indian-governed mountains they seized several months ago.
Hundreds of people have died since then in the fighting, which had raised fears of a wider war between two nations that tested nuclear weapons last year.
India accuses Pakistan of orchestrating the occupation of Himalayan peaks on the Indian side of a 1972 cease-fire line, and charges that Pakistan has sent its own soldiers and Afghan mercenaries across the line.
But Islamabad denies that its soldiers have crossed over, and says it has no control over the Islamic militants, describing them as indigenous ``freedom fighters.''
Aziz said it was now the responsibility of the world community to settle the problem of Kashmir, the only Muslim-majority region in Hindu-dominated India.
The announcement of the withdrawal comes a week after Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif promised President Clinton in Washington to take ``concrete steps'' to end the fighting.
India says 679 Pakistani soldiers and 150 Islamic guerrillas have died since the fighting began in early May. Indian casualties stand at 333 killed, 520 wounded and 15 missing. There is no way to independently confirm these figures.
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Pakistan-Backed Force Leaves Indian Kashmir
By CELIA W. DUGGER, July 15, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/071599india-pakistan.html
NEW DELHI, India -- Indian officials said Wednesday that the withdrawal of Pakistani-backed forces from an Indian-controlled area of Kashmir was on schedule to be finished by the deadline on Friday, but they expressed outrage at what they described as a Pakistani-sponsored act of terrorism that took place on Tuesday in the Kashmir valley.
The Indian Air Force has conducted sorties over the Kargil sector of Kashmir, the scene of fierce fighting over the last two months, and found no sign of the men who had infiltrated from Pakistani-held Kashmir and occupied peaks overlooking a key highway, officials said.
India says the men were Pakistani soldiers on a carefully plotted misadventure, while Pakistan maintains that they were Islamic guerrillas who are pulling out because Pakistan's Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, asked them to do so.
President Clinton, who helped broker Sharif's call for a withdrawal, has called on India and Pakistan to resume talks once the pullout is complete, and both sides have reaffirmed the sanctity of the so-called Line of Control, which divides Indian- and Pakistani-held areas.
But Indian officials said Pakistan would have to stop fomenting violence against India by Islamic militants in Kashmir before talks could proceed. "It's obvious that for any composite dialogue to succeed, this kind of cross-border terrorism has to stop," said Raminder Singh Jassal, a spokesman for India's External Affairs Ministry.
India described a guerrilla attack on Tuesday on a paramilitary camp north of Srinagar, which left four people dead, as an example of "Pakistan's brazen and continuing sponsorship of terrorism."
Pakistan says it gives the militants, whom it describes as Kashmiri freedom fighters battling Indian rule, only moral and diplomatic support, nothing more.
After killing four people, the two or three militants who burst into the Border Security Force camp took a dozen hostages, including five children. Indian commandos rescued all the hostages this morning, said Mohammed Zia Ullah, a spokesman for the Border Security Force.
The commandos later fired a rocket into the building where militants were believed to be hiding.Searchers found one body, an AK-47 and eight grenades there, Zia Ullah added.
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44. Israel Chooses Lockheed Martin
By The Associated Press, July 16, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Israel-Fighter-Planes.html
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel has chosen Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-16 to dominate its new fleet of fighter planes in a deal estimated to be worth $2.5 billion, officials and news media said Friday.
Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who also holds the Defense Ministry post, was in the United States for talks with President Clinton and administration officials.
Reports on the sale were carried by Israel Army radio and Israel Television.
A member of Barak's staff, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that Barak had decided to purchase the Lockheed Martin fighter planes. ``I'm confirming that it's true, but I don't have any additional details,'' said the spokesman.
Lockheed competed for the order against Boeing Co.'s F-15 fighter plane. The Israeli Defense Ministry wanted to buy the F-16, but the decision was postponed until after Barak's government took office on July 6.
In Ft. Worth, Texas, where the F-16 is made, Lockheed Martin spokesman Joe Stout said the contract calls for the sale of 50 F-16s, with an option to buy 60 more. The option can be exercised anytime over the next two years.
``It's been a very long, very hard fought competition,'' Stout said.
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45. Panel Refuses to Modify Israel Aid
By Tom Raum Associated Press Writer Wednesday, July 14, 1999; 4:34 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990714/V000705-071499-idx.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A House panel approved a $12.8 billion foreign aid bill Wednesday after rejecting a proposal by its chairman to end nearly two decades of preferential aid treatment for Israel.
The formula for distributing U.S. aid allows Israel to get its money all at once in the beginning of each fiscal year while Egypt and other countries must wait for dollars to be doled out through the year. That allows Israel --the largest recipient of U.S. aid -- to put its money in an interest-bearing account.
Rep. Sonny Callahan, R-Ala., chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations, said the formula was ``stupid foreign policy.''
Supporters of keeping the status quo said this was no time to change the formula to Israel's disadvantage, particularly as the Mideast peace process seemed to be reviving and Israel's new prime minister, Ehud Barak, was on his way to Washington.
``We have an obligation in dealing with the Middle East to first do no harm,'' said Rep. David Obey, D-Wis.
The Clinton administration has threatened a veto on the overall foreign aid bill because it falls far short of the $14.6 billion requested by the administration.
The bill provides $960 million in economic assistance and $1.9 billion in military assistance for Israel in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. That compares with $1.1 billion in economic assistance and $1.9 billion in military assistance for Israel in the current year.
For Egypt, the bill provides $735 million in economic assistance, down from $775 million in the current year, and $1.3 billion in military assistance, the same as now.
Callahan said giving Israel preferential treatment did not make sense and reduced any leverage the United States had over how the money is spent. He blamed the ``Israel lobby'' for the existing formula, which has been in effect for nearly two decades.
In legislation Callahan presented to his subcommittee, he removed the advance-payment provision for Israel. But subcommittee members, by a voice vote, approved an amendment by Reps. Joe Knollenberg, R-Mich., and Nita M. Lowey, D-N.Y., that restored the existing aid formula.
A compromise by Rep. Bill Young, R-Fla., chairman of the Appropriations Committee, would have added $25 million to Egypt's accounts. But Callahan protested that ``two wrongs don't make a right'' and Young withdrew his proposal.
Israel and Egypt are, by far, the largest recipients of U.S. foreign aid, even though the Clinton administration and Congress have embarked on a program to scale it back over the next five years.
The foreign aid bill also provides $200 million in economic assistance and $125 million in military assistance for Jordan.
The legislation does not include any of the $500 million Clinton requested to carry out the 1998 Wye River peace accords, nor does it provide any funds for reconstruction in the Balkans.
The Senate's $12.7 billion foreign aid bill, passed June 30, contains roughly $500 million for reconstruction in the Balkans.
The House bill provides $725 million in aid to Russia and other former Soviet republics, some $307 million beneath Clinton's request.
Furthermore, it would withhold half the amount earmarked for Russia ``unless it ends nuclear and ballistic missile cooperation with Iran.''
Meanwhile, the State Department told a House hearing that it has no plans to attend a U.N. meeting, set for Thursday, to investigate whether Israel's settlements in disputed territory violate an international accord to protect civilians in wartime.
The conference, in Geneva, is ill-conceived and should be delayed or canceled, Martin Indyk, assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, told the House International Relations Committee.
The House this week overwhelmingly approved a resolution urging the State Department to boycott the meeting. But Indyk said the United States never intended to attend.
The committee chairman, Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., said that since Israel's admission to the United Nations in 1948, ``the General Assembly has regularly engaged in anti-Israel rhetoric and legislation.''
``Those attacks, led by such mutual foes as Iran, Iraq and Libya, continue today,'' Gilman said.
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46. Barak Wants U.S. To Scale Back Role
By The Associated Press, July 14, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Israel-Barak.html
JERUSALEM (AP) -- On the eve of his first visit to Washington as Israel's prime minister, Ehud Barak said the United States should scale back its role as ``policeman and judge'' in Mideast peacemaking.
Barak, who flew to Washington today, also said that while he would resume an Israeli troop pullback in the West Bank, he would not stick to the tight timetable stipulated by the U.S.-brokered Wye River land-for-security agreement.
The Palestinians disagreed with him on both points, suggesting that many difficulties lie ahead despite the improved atmosphere generated by Barak's meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat this week.
Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, secretary-general of the Palestinian Cabinet, said today that the interim Wye agreement must be implemented before Israel and the Palestinians can open negotiations on a final peace agreement.
He also said the United States should keep up its intense involvement in the negotiations, saying it was the only way to make progress.
Barak was to hold two working meetings with President Clinton and dine with him twice over a period of four days. Clinton said he was ``eager as a kid with a new toy for the meeting'' with Barak.
Under the Wye accord signed in October, the Palestinians were to assume full or partial control of 40 percent of the West Bank before the start of so-called final status negotiations.
Barak's hard-line predecessor Benjamin Netanyahu halted the three-stage troop withdrawal after the first phase, charging that the Palestinians were not keeping their promise to crack down on Islamic militants.
``Clearly implementation of Wye should begin so they (the Palestinians) will see that something has changed, and that we are determined to move and not just to speak,'' Barak told The New York Times. ``But full implementation now is too risky. It would reduce our chances of achieving permanent peace.''
Barak apparently wants to resume talks with the Palestinians on a permanent peace agreement after the second Wye troop pullback.
Arafat's reaction has been ambiguous. After meeting with Barak on Sunday, Arafat said at one point that he expected Wye to be implemented in full before final status talks could begin, but then seemed to leave open the possibility of partial implementation.
Barak said regardless of progress in the final status talks, he would eventually set a date for a third pullback. He told The Washington Post that he hoped to complete the withdrawal by the end of the year.
The Wye agreement gave the United States an unprecedented role in monitoring implementation -- a result of the deep distrust between the Palestinian Authority and the Netanyahu government. The Clinton administration only reluctantly stepped up its involvement.
Barak said while he considered the United States to be a major partner in peacemaking, it should stop acting as ``abitrator, policeman and judge.''
``I don't think the CIA should be involved in counting the number of policemen in the Gaza Strip to check up on the Palestinians,'' Barak, a former army chief, told the Times. He said redefining the U.S. role was one objective for his meetings with President Clinton.
On Tuesday evening, Barak met with Jordan's King Abdullah II as part of consultations with Arab leaders involved in the peace talks. Barak assured the king that he would keep Jordan close to the renewed peace process.
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47. Syrian-Israel Peace Concerns Turkey
By The Associated Press, July 15, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Turkey-Israel.html
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- The prospect of talks between Israel and Syria is stoking Turkish fears that peace could lead Israel to cut its military ties with Ankara and leave Syria in a position to send more soldiers to its northern border.
Turkish President Suleyman Demirel was in Israel Wednesday meeting with Israeli leaders. He was the first foreign leader to visit since Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak took office on July 6. His visit had been scheduled long before Barak took office.
Demirel was expected to tell Israeli leaders that ``Turkish-Israeli relations should not be sacrificed,'' the Star newspaper said.
Ties between Israel and Turkey, Syria's southern and northern neighbors, have grown sharply during the past few years, raising fears in Damascus.
Israeli pilots train in Turkish airspace, and Turkish warplanes fly over Israel during exercises. Warships of the two navies have held exercises together, and Israel is refurbishing 50 F-4 Phantom warplanes for the Turkish air force.
In October, Turkey hinted it was ready to take military action if Syria did not force Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan to leave the country. Many Turks say that the growing military ties between Syria's two neighbors were instrumental in convincing Damascus to give in to the Turkish demands.
Economic ties between Turkey and Israel have also blossomed.
Trade between the two countries reached $730 million last year and officials have spoken of the possibility of trade reaching $2 billion by next year. The trade is about evenly divided between Israel and Turkey.
Some top Turkish leaders believe ``Israeli-Syrian peace would be a big blow to Turkish-Israeli relations,'' the pro-Islamic Yeni Safak newspaper wrote.
``It is believed that by coming to an agreement with Israel, its biggest threat, Syria will secure its southern borders and concentrate on'' its border to the north, the newspaper wrote.
Syria and Turkey have disputes over sharing the waters of the Euphrates River and Syria's support for Kurdish rebels. Turkey is building dams along the river, which Syria claims could sharply slow the flow of water to northern Syria.
Syria also lays claim to Turkey's Hatay Province. Syrian maps still show the province as part of Syria.
Many analysts dismiss such Turkish fears.
``Syria feels extremely threatened by Israel,'' said Avraham Sela, a visiting Israeli professor at Ankara's Middle East Technical University. ``Syria would not be able to shift a meaningful part of its order of battle to the Turkish border.''
In Israel, Demirel was adamant that Turkey had nothing to fear.
``If Israel solves its conflicts with Syria, why should this disturb Turkey?'' the Anatolia news agency quoted him as saying. ``We want all-out peace in the region.''
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Message: 12 Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 05:10:41 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-5 7/17/99 - Russia
18. Russian Journalist Pleads Innocent
Friday, July 16, 1999; 11:43 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990716/V000398-071699-idx.html
VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (AP) -- A military journalist accused of treason pleaded innocent Friday, saying the charges against him were fabricated in revenge for reports exposing environmental damage by Russia's navy.
Capt. Grigory Pasko, a reporter for the Pacific Fleet newspaper Boyevaya Vakhta is accused of treason and espionage. Details of the charges have not been released, and prosecutors have only said Pasko divulged information about the combat readiness of the fleet.
In comments Friday, Pasko said Russia's Federal Security Service, the main heir to the Soviet-era KGB, made up the case to punish him for reports he filed to a Japanese television station on the fleet's nuclear-waste dumping. Some of the footage showed Russian sailors allegedly tossing radioactive waste into the Sea of Japan.
Pasko, who was arrested in 1997 after returning from a trip to Japan, said he never gave sensitive documents about the fleet to the station, NHK.
``My journalistic relations with Japanese colleagues did not inflict the slightest harm to Russia and could not have done so,'' Pasko said in a speech published by the defense on the Internet.
Defense lawyers said they believed the court would convict Pasko, although they insisted he was innocent.
``From what is happening, we are becoming less confident that an acquitting verdict will be handed down,'' said one of Pasko's lawyers, Anatoly Pyshkin. He did not elaborate.
The Pacific Fleet court is scheduled to announce its verdict on July 20. Pasko faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Meanwhile, the FSB has beefed up Pasko's security, fearing that he will try to escape, lawyers said. About 20 guards accompanied him to the court session Friday -- four times the usual number.
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19. Accused Russian nuclear ``spy'' faces new problems
12:04 p.m. Jul 15, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek
ST PETERSBURG, Russia, July 15 (Reuters) - A former Russian naval captain accused of treason and espionage said on Thursday his lawyers were having problems preparing his case because of new secrecy restrictions.
Alexander Nikitin, who accused the Russian navy of dumping nuclear waste in the Arctic Sea, and one of his lawyers said Russian authorities had re-issued charges against him and had complicated matters by saying they were covered by secrecy laws.
``For the first time in the nearly four years of the investigation we have been presented with a 'secret' charge,'' Nikitin told a news conference in his home city of St Petersburg.
``We do not have the right to lay hands on this charge, we do not have the right to take it out of the FSB (Federal Security Service) building and we do not have the right to work with it because it has 'secret' stamped on it. So everything that was not secret before is now secret.''
His lawyer, Yuri Schmidt, explained that the FSB had presented the same charges as earlier in the case -- treason and espionage -- but had based their case on evidence or documents covered by state secrecy laws.
Nikitin was arrested in February 1996 and accused of revealing state secrets when he wrote a report for Norwegian environmental group Bellona on radioactive pollution by Russia's Northern Fleet.
The Supreme Court last February rejected an appeal to drop the charges and gave the FSB more time to produce evidence. Human rights organisations and Nikitin's supporters say Russia is trying simply to hush up his embarrassing revelations.
Nikitin was initially held in jail but was released on condition that he remain in Russia. He is still awaiting trial.
The FSB said in a statement it saw no reason to drop the charges against Nikitin.
``Experts have again confirmed that the facts handed over to foreign organisations are a state secret and could not be obtained by them from open sources,'' the St Petersburg branch of the FSB said.
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20. Russian Scientist Has Home Raided
By Anatoly Medetsky Associated Press Writer Tuesday, July 13, 1999; 3:24 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990713/V000672-071399-idx.html
VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (AP) -- Security agents raided the home and laboratory of a scientist who had been researching the dumping of radioactive waste in the Pacific Ocean by the Russian navy, Russian news agencies said today.
The incident echoed cases against two other Russians who documented alleged environmental abuses by the navy and are now being prosecuted.
The Federal Security Service, or FSB, chief successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said in its search warrant that Vladimir Soifer was suspected of violating laws on handling classified documents and that his activity ``poses a threat to the Russian state and its military security,'' the Interfax news agency said.
On July 3, agents seized documents and letters in raids at Soifer's home and laboratory in the far eastern port of Vladivostok, the FSB said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.
Soifer, who is being treated for diabetes in Moscow, has not been arrested, Interfax said.
The 69-year-old Soifer has spent 40 years studying the extent of radioactive contamination of Russia's oceans, and was investigating the Pacific Fleet's practice several years ago of dumping nuclear waste in the Sea of Japan.
Soifer supporters said the FSB was once again trying to suppress damaging information about environmental abuses.
``Instead of protecting Russia from the import of radioactive and toxic wastes, the special services are persecuting those who care about Russia's ecological safety,'' said the Russian Social-Ecological Union, an environmental group.
In 1997, the FSB arrested navy Capt. Grigory Pasko, who, like Soifer, had documented the Pacific Fleet's nuclear-waste dumping practices. His trial on treason charges is expected to end this week.
Also on trial for treason is Alexander Nikitin, a former navy officer, who was arrested after he co-wrote a 1996 report in the journal Bellona about 52 abandoned nuclear submarines in a remote northern shipyard.
The chief of the military counterintelligence department of the Pacific Fleet, Rear Adm. Nikolai Sotskov, denied any link between the search of Soifer's home and the Pasko case.
``Neither the command of the Pacific Fleet nor the FSB ... prevents anyone from studying information and taking pictures to assess the condition of the environment, including aspects connected with its radioactive contamination,'' he said, according to ITAR-Tass.
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21. Russia May Complain Over Radioactive Sand For Davis Cup
02:05 p.m Jul 15, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia may file an official complaint against a Swedish company which it says supplied radioactive sand for a court being laid for a Davis Cup quarter-final.
The Swedish company, Lawnit Sport AB, was quoted as saying the sand was not dangerous and was the usual bedding for top-class Swedish tennis courts.
Custom officials last week barred entry to 45 tons of sand shipped from Sweden for a clay court at Moscow's Olympic Sports Complex, saying it had high levels of radioactivity. The court is to be used for Russia's Davis Cup tie against Slovakia.
``It was seven times higher than any allowed limits,'' Russia's Davis Cup captain, Shamil Tarpishchev, told Reuters.
``If we played on such a surface, it would not only ruin our chances, it could have seriously damaged the health of our players.''
Russia may now complain officially to the International Tennis Federation, the game's ruling body, he said.
The Swedish news agency TT quoted Conny Leijon, one of the owners of Lawnit Sport as saying the sand was not dangerous and was often used in Sweden.
Sweden's National Institute of Radiation Protection, which examined the sand, also said it represented no risk to health, even if it partly consisted of alum shale containing uranium.
Gustav Akerblom, the institute's expert on natural radioactivity, said Tarpischev's claim that it would be dangerous to play tennis on this sand was unfounded.
``This statement has no credibility,'' TT quoted him as saying.
Akerblom said he believed Russian customs had barred the sand from entering Russia because the authorities were now very sensitive about letting any material containing uranium into the country, after many years of lax controls on radiation.
Nevertheless, the hosts were forced hastily to lay a clay court of their own for the world group tie against Slovakia, costing the cash-strapped Russian Tennis Federation thousands of dollars.
The players came to the federation's rescue with their own cash. According to a federation source, former world number one Yevgeny Kafelnikov paid $5,000 out of his own pocket while the rest of the team chipped in $1,000 each.
``We lost a lot of money last year (during Russia's financial crisis),'' said RTF president Yaroslav Kalagursky. ''Honestly speaking, our financial situation is still a very bleak one.''
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22. WORLD IN BRIEF - EUROPE
Compiled from staff reports and news services Friday, July 16, 1999; Page A16 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/16/163l-071699-idx.html
Newspaper: Russia Making Chemical Arms
OSLO -- For the last 15 years, Russia has been operating a secret plant for producing and storing chemical weapons just east of Murmansk on the Kola peninsula, the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang said.
Verdens Gang said it had uncovered the site in a forest a mile from Murmansk in northeastern Russia after a two-year search.
Norway, which shares a 120-mile border with Russia at the Kola peninsula, said it had approached Russian authorities over the article.
"The Russians have told us today that there is no change in their position, which is that there is no storage, research or decommissioning of chemical weapons in the Kola region," said Sigvald Hauge, acting spokesman at Norway's Foreign Ministry....
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Russia Has Secret Chem Weapons Store- Norway Paper
Updated 12:06 PM ET July 15, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990715/12/international-arms-russia
OSLO (Reuters) - For the last 15 years Russia has been operating a secret plant for producing and storing deadly chemical weapons just east of Murmansk on the Kola peninsula, the Norwegian daily Verdens Gang said Thursday.
After a two-year search Verdens Gang said it had uncovered the site in a forest two km (just over a mile) from Murmansk in northeastern Russia.
It published a photograph showing hundreds of gray-white plastic barrels stacked in the open air in a military compound. Nearby lay rows of missiles piled high and mounds of explosives.
Another picture showed an aerial view of a cluster of barrack-type buildings which it said were stores for chemical weapons, arms and anti-toxins.
"An explosion at this plant could lead to an environmental catastrophe in the Nordic region. There would be damage up to 250 km (150 miles) away," Verdens Gang said.
The paper quoted unnamed "international experts" who had studied the pictures as saying that "without doubt" chemicals were being produced at the plant.
Norway, which shares a 180-km (120-mile) border with Russia at the Kola peninsula, said it had approached Russian authorities over the article.
"The Russians have told us today that there is no change in their position, which is that there is no storage, research or decommissioning of chemical weapons in the Kola region," Sigvald Hauge, acting spokesman at the Foreign Ministry, told Reuters.
"We are waiting for a more detailed reply but as of today we have no indication that there are chemical weapons on the Kola peninsula."
Norwegian environmental group Bellona, which has detailed radioactive pollution by Russia's Northern Fleet in the Kola area, said it had heard rumors of such stores in the area.
Bellona researcher Thomas Nilsen said Russia had about 40,000 tons of chemical weapons in seven stores around the country, none of which were in northwest. VG's article was logical because the site was close to the ammunition storage facilities for the Northern Fleet, he said.
"But it is difficult to imagine that such quantities of chemicals would be stored in open air. Many would degrade at the sort of temperatures normal to Murmansk in winter between minus 30 and 35 degrees (Celsius)," Nilsen said.
"At the same time the missiles, which are clearly visible, contain highly toxic fuel and this is a very unsuitable way to store them because of the dangers of corrosion and explosion."
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23. Russian physicists add a new element to the periodic table
By David Kinney, Associated Press, 07/15/99 http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/196/nation/Russian_physicists_add_a_new_el ement_to_the_periodic_table+.shtml
Russian physicists have created a super-heavy element that lasted 30 seconds before disintegrating, a long-sought proof, they say, of the existence of an ''island of stability.''
Using an atom smasher to bombard plutonium with calcium ions, the physicists created an element with an atomic weight of 114. The newest addition to the periodic table has yet to be named.
Ninety-four elements exist in nature. Scientists have spent 60 years creating elements in the lab, registering 21 so far. But some of the more recent elements were so unstable that they disintegrated in milliseconds.
For decades, physicists have theorized the existence of super-heavy manmade elements with a much longer life. These elements would make up an ''island of stability.''
In today's issue of the journal Nature, researchers at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, report creating two atoms of element 114 that lasted for as long as 30 seconds before flickering out. This, they say, is proof the island exists.
The discovery, and more recent creations of even heavier elements, have no practical applications as far as today's scientists know.
But for academics, it is thrilling. The study of super-heavies could shed light on supernovas and origins of the universe. And chemists are interested in how they bond with compounds.
The new manmade elements are numbered according to how many protons are in their nuclei, not by their order of discovery. Numbers 95 through 112 were created between 1944 and 1996. In the past year, scientists have created not only 114, but also 116 and 118.
For decades, scientists thought one isotope, or version, of element 114 - with 114 protons and 184 neutrons - would be stable because its nucleus would have a full complement of neutrons and protons.
L ast year, the Dubna scientists made an isotope of element 114 with 175 neutrons. In March, the lab created another 114 isotope, but it had only 173 neutrons and was therefore less stable than the first one.
This year, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California forged the heaviest element yet, 118, and when it decayed, it morphed into element 116, then an isotope of 114 with even fewer neutrons than Dubna's. It lasted for milliseconds.
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24. Analyst fears U.S. helps Iran develop missile via Moscow
By Audrey Hudson THE WASHINGTON TIMES July 14, 1999 http://www.washtimes.com/investiga/investiga1.html
A new Iranian missile that could reach the continental United States may have been subsidized by millions in U.S. tax dollars intended for a Russian space program, a defense analyst told a House panel yesterday.
The missile, code named Kosar, is being designed with direct assistance from Russian aerospace entities, including the Russian Space Agency (RSA), said Kenneth R. Timmerman, president of Middle East Data Project Inc., in testimony before the House Science subcommittee on space and aeronautics.
Since the Clinton administration's cooperative space program with Russia and other countries began in 1993, the United States has given the RSA $778 million in funding, and the administration wants to give them an additional $668 million over the next four years. In addition, NASA has spent $4.2 billion to help resupply the Russian Mir space station.
"We are talking about a massive hemorrhage of strategic technology," Mr. Timmerman said.
Iran has "always wanted to combat the great Satan and do us harm . . . and now they have this type of weapon," said subcommittee Chairman Dana Rohrabacher, California Republican.
The administration invited Russia to participate in the International Space Station to promote nonproliferation by helping Russia's aerospace industry shift from military to civilian work. Since Russia became a partner, however, House Republican leaders say they've seen reports that Russia is spreading weapons technologies to rogue states, raising concerns about U.S. payments to the RSA.
"Each new report of Russian proliferation activities raises the possibility that NASA is inadvertently subsidizing the very Russian industries that are helping Iran threaten close U.S. friends and allies in the Middle East and Europe," said Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Wisconsin Republican and chairman of the Science Committee.
If Russia were eliminated from the International Space Program, a NASA official testified it would cost as much as $5 billion to replace operational capabilities they provide to the program.
John D. Schumacher, NASA associate administrator for external relations, also said eliminating the funding would embolden Russia to send even more weapons to more countries.
Mr. Rohrabacher responded that the United States would not be "blackmailed" into funding the Russian space program.
"We have to get good faith in dealing with them, but we won't turn a blind eye towards them," added Rep. Bart Gordon of Tennessee, the subcommittee's ranking Democratic member.
A bill sponsored by Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman, New York Republican, would require the president to determine whether Russia is assisting Iran's programs to develop weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles.
If the president finds Russia is helping Iran, the bill would prohibit NASA from transferring U.S. tax dollars to the RSA or any enterprise under RSA jurisdiction.
Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, said the legislation is "critical to assure U.S. nonproliferation efforts are taken seriously in Russia."
"If our government continues to make payments to the Russian Space Agency while it and its subsidiary organizations proliferate missile technology to Iran . . . the U.S. taxpayer will be put in the absurd position of paying even more to help Russia create an intolerable security threat literally aimed against the U.S. and its friends," Mr. Sokolski said.
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Message: 13 Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 05:11:16 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-7 7/17/99 - Australia; Europe; CTBT
30. Protesters gather outside uranium company
Monday 12 July, 1999 (9:53am AEST) Australian Broadcasting http://www.abc.net.au/news/state/vic/archive/metvic-12jul1999-6.htm
About 24 anti-uranium protesters are again demonstrating in Saint Kilda Road, Melbourne.
Yesterday the protesters tried to set up a tent embassy outside the uranium mining company North Limited.
However, a large number of police confiscated camping equipment and they were moved on.
Dozens of police are still on duty at barricades outside the company's offices.
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31. FEATURE - Is Europe really going non-nuclear?
10:17 p.m. Jul 08, 1999 Eastern, By Mark John - Infoseek
BONN, July 9 (Reuters) - Europe's 40-year love affair with nuclear power is on the rocks.
But while more and more countries are either halting further growth of their atomic industries or seeking to phase them out altogether, energy experts are reluctant to declare the romance dead.
``I wouldn't bet my pension on it,'' said Jan Murray of the the World Energy Council, a London-based non-governmental organisation. ``Phasing out nuclear is a huge task, with significant obstacles along the way.''
Post-World War Two leaders turned Europe into the world's largest nuclear energy testbed, seeing the technology as vital to their reconstruction plans despite disquiet among small lobby groups who warned of potential dangers.
Utility firms poured billions into the power form, so that Europe as a whole is now home to half the world's 400-plus reactors and 35 percent of the European Union's power comes from nuclear energy.
But with Greens and pro-ecology left-wingers now holding unprecedented sway in governments from Rome to Stockholm, the political consensus has gradually tipped anti-nuclear.
Sweden's early decision to withdraw from the sector after a 1980 referendum -- six years before the Soviet Chernobyl disaster pushed the issue to the top of political agendas across the continent -- was followed last year by a similar pledge by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's new ``Red-Green'' coalition.
Belgium's fledgling Liberal-Socialist-Green alliance this week announced plans to do the same, while Spain has had a moratorium on the building of new plants since 1983.
ONLY FRANCE RESOLUTELY PRO-NUCLEAR
Elsewhere in western Europe, the building of new plants has ground to a halt. Only France -- which derives three-quarters of its power from nuclear energy -- is still resolutely pro-nuclear.
But despite the political about-turn, it has always been clear that nuclear power could not be scrapped overnight.
Warning of huge compensation claims for loss of business, Germany's four top nuclear providers have persuaded Schroeder to overrule demands by his Greens partners for a rapid pull-out and instead to negotiate a gradual withdrawal more on their terms.
Disagreements over the issue seem the biggest threat at present to the survival of the nine-month-old coalition.
In Sweden, similar resistance has meant that plans exist to close just two of the country's 12 nuclear reactors. The planned Belgian withdrawal is spread over 40 years.
Observers say the stage is being set for a waiting game that will be played out between politics and industry over the next two decades.
``We are still expecting steadiness in the use of nuclear for the next couple of decades. The crunch, if it happens, could occur after around 2020,'' said John Paffenberger, an expert at the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA).
That, analysts believe, is when power firms will have to decide if it is economically viable to invest in replacing today's reactors, many of which will be due for renewal by then.
COULD NUCLEAR POWER MAKE A COMEBACK?
If the current political climate persists, they are unlikely to countenance such substantial investments and could switch increasingly to fossil fuels like oil and gas, or even start taking wind, wave and other ``green'' power forms seriously.
But with Europe expected by then to be under pressure to meet commitments in the 1997 Kyoto protocol on global warming, many believe nuclear energy -- free of the fossil fuel-produced ``greenhouse gases'' blamed for the phenomenon -- could find itself back in favour.
``The climate change issue will get more important,'' noted Paffenberger, saying that possible future ecology levies on fossil fuels could make nuclear energy economically more attractive.
Not surprisingly, the nuclear industry, preparing to sit out what it acknowledges could be a difficult near future, sees global warming as its trump card.
``There is some short-term political risk for us but we are confident our message is getting through,'' said Gerald Clark, head of London-based atomic lobby The Uranium Institute.
``Provided the industry keeps its nerve, we can ride this one out.''
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32. Trittin wants German nuke shutdown by 2014 - paper
05:13 p.m Jul 06, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek
BONN, July 6 (Reuters) - German Environment Minister Juergen Trittin wants to phase out nuclear power a decade earlier than foreseen under a compromise deal between a fellow minister and the atomic energy industry, a newspaper said on Tuesday.
The Berliner Zeitung, citing an environment ministry position paper, said Trittin wanted to close seven of Germany's 19 nuclear power plants before the next general election due in 2002 and shut down the rest by 2014.
The final deadline called for by Trittin -- one of three ecologist Greens in Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's cabinet -- is a full 10 years earlier than a timetable agreed recently between Economics Minister Werner Mueller and nuclear operators.
The environment ministry confirmed the details in the newspaper report, but said the position paper was not new and had been drafted three weeks ago in response to the deal between Mueller and nuclear industry executives.
``Negotiations have been continuing since then. The paper cited by the Berliner Zeitung is not up to date. We will not comment on our current negotiating position,'' Trittin's ministry said in a statement.
It added: ``Our plan is to make the goal of phasing out nuclear power credible by shutting down nuclear power stations during the current parliament.''
Under the Mueller plan, the first German nuclear plant would go offline in 2003.
The publication of Trittin's demands appeared to dim hopes of closing the government's nuclear policy rift at crunch talks between coalition leaders to be chaired by Schroeder on Wednesday evening.
Schroeder's Social Democrats and Trittin's Greens party won power in last year's general election after making a campaign pledge to wind down Germany's nuclear industry, which generates about a third of the country's electricity.
But relations between the two parties have been dogged for months on how quickly the shutdown should take place: The Greens, keen to revive support among environmentalist activists, have sought an early exit.
Schroeder, meanwhile, has taken a cautious line, fearing that Germany's nuclear operators -- VEBA, RWE, VIAG and Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg -- might seek damages for losses they might sustain from curtailing the life of their nuclear plants.
Mueller, a former energy industry executive hired by Schroeder to broker the pullout, won a pledge last month from nuclear executives to refrain from legal action in return for limiting the operating life of nuclear plants to 35 years.
Trittin, however, wants atomic stations to have a maximum working life of 25 years imposed by law. The newest reactor in Germany, Neckarwestheim II, which came onstream in 1989, would thus be switched off in 2014.
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33. Nuclear phase-out row threatens Belgian coalition
11:51 a.m. Jul 06, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek, By Gillian Handyside
BRUSSELS, July 6 (Reuters) - A plan to phase out nuclear power in Belgium has dismayed both supporters and opponents of atomic energy and may destroy the country's fledgling government before it takes office, a leading politician said on Tuesday.
The draft plan was agreed by the Liberal, Socialist and Green parties expected this week to form the next government coalition -- the first such alliance Belgium has seen.
Paul Lannoye, a long-standing Belgian Green member of the European Parliament, told Reuters he believed the Greens' negotiators in the coalition talks would call for changes to the plan. If the Liberals and Socialists refused, the Greens might pull out of the new coalition, causing it to collapse.
The plan stipulates that Belgium's seven nuclear plants, which provide 55 percent of its power, will be decommissioned after 40 years of service, meaning that the first three would be shut in 2015 and the rest between in 2023 and 2025.
But while some Green politicians welcomed the fact that their future coalition partners had accepted the phase-out -- a condition for Green participation in the government -- other prominent Greens attacked the deal, as did environmentalists and the country's main electricity generator Electrabel.
``It's ridiculous to say nuclear plants can remain for 40 years without imposing any conditions,'' Lannoye said.
He said he would vote against the proposal when it was submitted to party members at the weekend, even if it meant ditching the Green's chances of taking power in Belgium for the first time in their history.
Environmental pressure group Greenpeace called the phase-out scheme ``a big blunder.''
``If it is accepted this plan will, for the first time, give Electrabel guarantees it can keep running its nuclear power plants for 40 years,'' Greenpeace Belgium's nuclear expert Jan Van De Putte told Reuters.
``So if a future government decides to phase nuclear power out earlier because there is new scientific evidence on the ageing of nuclear plants Electrabel can go to court and ask for compensation.''
Electrabel said the deal was a reaction based on ``political considerations, taken without any detailed analysis of technical reality or economic and environmental consequences.''
Writing in Le Soir daily newspaper, Electrabel spokesman Philippe Massart said it was debateable whether Belgium could find clean sources of power to replace nuclear energy.
``Renewable energy sources can at best cover 10 to 15 percent of our needs. That leaves us with cogeneration and gas-steam turbines. In both cases this means burning fossil fuels which, unlike nuclear power plants, creates emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2),'' Massart wrote.
CO2 is a powerful greenhouse gas blamed for global warming.
Van De Putte said Greenpeace had talked to negotiators from all parties in the coalition negotiations and was confident they would take the legal implications of the deal seriously.
``The absolute minimum is that they should not commit future governments. I'm confident they will find a compromise,'' he said.
Electrabel shares closed down 2.63 percent at 296.00 euros on the Belgian Bel-20 index of blue chip stocks on Tuesday. The index ended off 1.0 percent at 3,147.69 points.
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34. Slovenia says Austria's nuclear concern unfounded
10:08 a.m. Jul 13, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek
LJUBLJANA, July 13 (Reuters) - Slovenian Foreign Minister Boris Frlec said on Tuesday that Austrian concern over the safety of his country's only nuclear power plant was unfounded.
He was referring to concern expressed by Austrian Chancellor Viktor Klima in a conversation with Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek in Salzburg last Friday.
``From the conversation it was obvious that Chancellor Klima is not well informed about the technology and safety of the Krsko nuclear power plant,'' Frlec told reporters.
``The chancellor made an unintentional lapse.''
Austria has been pushing for early closure of all nuclear power stations in its eastern neighbours. Krsko is situated some 70 km (43 miles) from Slovenia's border with Austria.
Klima wants tough nuclear safety standards to be one of the conditions EU candidate states like Slovenia have to meet before being allowed to join the 15-member bloc.
Frlec pointed out that Krsko was safer than most nuclear power plants in eastern Europe and even safer than some plants in the European Union.
``It is interesting that Austria is only bothered by nuclear power plants in its south-eastern and eastern neighbourhood.''
Krsko, jointly owned by Slovenia and Croatia, is scheduled to close in 2023. Frlec said international experts have so far issued very positive reports about the safety of Krsko.
The plant started operating in 1983 and was built in cooperation with Westinghouse Electric Corporation.
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35. NATO may cut Bosnia peace force
Updated 2:50 PM ET July 13, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/990713/14/international-nato
TUZLA, Bosnia, July 13 (UPI) With peace slowly triumphing in Bosnia, NATO is considering slashing in half the size of the international peacekeeping force from 31,000 to 16,500 soldiers, says Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon.
The cut is dependent on the approval of the North Atlantic Council, NATO's political arm, and could come as soon as this fall.
If accepted, the U.S. contribution to the peace force in Bosnia could drop from 6,200 to about 4,000 soldiers, Bacon said.
"This is truly a success story," U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen said today at Eagle Base, home of the multinational defense force headquarters. "If progress continues to be made at the current pace we can look forward to some reductions in the future."
He cautioned, however, that nations shouldn't look on the new peacekeeping mission in Kosovo as an excuse to drop their commitment to Bosnia.
"Each nation should be required to maintain its presence in Bosnia," Cohen declared after talking with Maj. Gen. Kevin Byrnes, commanding general of the First Calvary Division of Ft. Hood, Tex., who is just completing a nine-month tour in Bosnia with about 5,000 of his troops. NATO commander Gen. Wesley Clark sat in on the briefing, as did Gen. Montgomery Meigs, commander of the entire stabilization force in Bosnia.
Byrnes' experience in Bosnia could be a peephole into the future of Kosovo, where a peacekeeping effort of similar scope and intent is just getting under way. At its height, Bosnia hosted 60,000 peacekeepers; Kosovo, about one-quarter its size, will have a force of about 58,000.
Peacekeepers have been in Bosnia for more than three years, and Byrnes said it is vital for military aircraft and heavy armor remain in the area to deter problems even if troop levels are cut.
Bosnian refugees are just now beginning to return to their homes, albeit in a trickle, Byrnes reported. To date, just 3,800 of the tens of thousands cleared out of the northern part of Bosnia have returned, but Byrnes said he expects 10,000 to come home this year. Cleaning houses buried under the rubble of years of war and neglect is one of his troop's primary tasks, he told Cohen. House cleanings are underway at 43 locations and occupy 3,350 of his soldiers. "People still want to return home after five, six, seven years," Clark added. "These people really do want to go home."
SFOR and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees are just beginning to identify Bosnian-Serbs who want to return to Sarajevo, the epicenter of the war that rocked Yugoslavia.
But there remain obstacles to SFOR, Byrnes said. The Communist party still casts a long shadow over local politics, which affects security, jobs, and education. The local judicial system is rife with graft and corruption and the population remains heavily armed, he said.
One of Byrnes' toughest jobs is public relations, made especially difficult when NATO began bombing Serbs in Yugoslavia in March. Bosnian- Serb hard-liners tried hard to link SFOR to the crisis in Kosovo, and Byrnes worked equally as hard to keep them separate in the minds of civilians in Bosnia. To allow SFOR to be seen as an arm of the war effort put his soldiers in physical danger. Indeed, a rocket propelled grenade was launched at a helicopter, and an Apache drew small arms fire, he said.
Byrnes troops make sporadic, unarmed forays into the area surrounding Eagle Base to build confidence with civilians, but absent the rule of law, he wasn't comfortable with a more vigorous outreach program.
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36. Nations' Stance on Test Ban Treaty
By The Associated Press Tuesday, July 6, 1999; 2:26 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990706/V000056-070699-idx.html
All 44 nations with some nuclear capability must ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty for it to take effect.
The 18 nations that have ratified the treaty so far: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden.
The 26 nations with nuclear capability that have not ratified the treaty: Algeria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Colombia, North Korea, Congo, Egypt, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Mexico, Norway, Pakistan, South Korea, Romania, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United States, Vietnam.
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Senate Urged on Test Ban Treaty
By Tom Raum Associated Press Writer Tuesday, July 6, 1999; 2:25 p.m. EDT
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990706/V000054-070699-idx.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- It's been nearly three years since President Clinton became the first world leader to sign a treaty calling for a global ban on nuclear test explosions. The Senate has yet to even hold a hearing on it.
The Senate is not alone: So far, only 18 of the 44 nations with nuclear capabilities that must ratify the wide-ranging Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty have taken action. Now, with a September ratification deadline approaching, treaty activists are stepping up their campaign to bring the measure to the Senate floor.
In Washington, the treaty remains bottled up in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, whose chairman, Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., is locked in a dispute with the Clinton administration over two other treaties.
``The Senate is dragging its feet on this issue and it's unforgivable,'' said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., a leader in the effort bring the treaty to a vote. He said he and other test-ban supporters will get ``more aggressive'' in the coming weeks.
Dorgan declined to say what that meant, but there's no question that a handful of determined senators can bring havoc to the Senate's schedule.
``Russia is waiting for us, China is waiting for Russia,'' said Thomas Graham, president of the Lawyers Alliance for World Security and a former director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. ``The delay in ratification is exclusively that there haven't been hearings. There is no other reason.''
The 1996 pact includes a pledge against all testing of nuclear devices and sets up a global system of sensors to monitor compliance. It was signed by 152 nations, but ratification is moving slowly.
The approaching deadline is Sept. 23, the third anniversary of the treaty's opening for signature. After that, a conference will be held to convene to consider what measures might be taken to get non-ratifying members to join, including possibly economic steps. Only nations that ratified the treaty could participate in the conference -- leaving the United States without direct influence.
Under the treaty, all 44 states with some nuclear capacity must sign for it to take effect. Even one holdout -- by, say, North Korea -- could keep the treaty from taking effect.
Supporters of the test-ban treaty say it would lock in U.S. superiority gained in over 1,000 nuclear tests during the Cold War, while failing to ratify the pact could open the door to additional nuclear tests by India and Pakistan -- now caught up in another military dustup over Kashmir -- or other nations.
Opponents argue it could threaten America's ability to deliver an effective nuclear strike, if one is ever needed.
Supporters are encouraged by Russian President Boris Yeltsin's expressed willingness last month to renegotiate a landmark 1972 arms-reduction treaty and signs that the Russian parliament may soon take up the START II treaty, a later nuclear-reduction pact.
Politically, the test-ban treaty has become linked with Russian action on those earlier treaties.
At the core of the dispute: the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty. Conservatives don't like it because it prohibits development of a national missile defense system. Some consider the ABM treaty defunct since the Soviet Union no longer exists.
Last week, Congress sent President Clinton a bill to commit the United States to such an anti-missile system, regardless of the ABM treaty.
In another concession, the administration's top arms-control official, John Holum, told a Senate hearing the United States should go ahead with plans to build the system despite ABM prohibitions, suggesting it was in the national interest.
But Helms has shown little interest in such overtures, at least publicly.
Before moving on the test-ban treaty, Helms wants the administration to first submit to the Senate modifications in the ABM treaty agreed to three years ago by Clinton and Yeltsin.
The administration says it will submit the modifications, but only after Russia ratifies START II.
Helms also wants the administration to submit the climate treaty negotiated in Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997, even though it would likely be defeated.
Helms hasn't changed his mind, spokesman Marc Theissen said.
``They've got to submit the ABM treaty (modifications) and Kyoto,'' he said.
With Helms refusing to schedule hearings, the only way the treaty could be pried from the committee would be for Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., to bring it directly to the floor.
But Republican Senate sources said Lott was not inclined to do so, particularly after criticism from conservatives two years ago for helping to win ratification of an also-controversial chemical weapons ban treaty.
Dorgan conceded that getting Helms to change his mind, or persuading Lott to put the treaty on the Senate agenda, is no easy task. Furthermore, there's no guarantee the treaty -- which requires 67 votes -- will be ratified. But it's still worth the effort, he said.
The United States has not conducted a full-fledged nuclear test since 1992, although it conducted tests on two nuclear devices in 1997 using chemical, rather than nuclear, explosions.
India and Pakistan conducted tests last year, China in 1996 and France in 1995-1996.
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Message: 14 Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 05:11:41 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-8 7/17/99 - Turkey; Iraq
37. Greenpeace: Turks oppose nuclear plant
Updated 5:23 PM ET July 13, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/990713/17/international-turkey
TORONTO, July 13 (UPI) The environmental advocacy group Greenpeace says a poll it conducted in two villages near a proposed nuclear power site in Turkey showed that a majority of the local people opposed having the reactors there.
Greenpeace spokesman Mark Calzavara said today the poll was held on Sunday in the villages of Buyukeceli and Yepilovacyk, near the proposed site of a nuclear power plant in the Akkuyu Bay area.
He told United Press International that 84 percent of the 450 adults contacted in Buyukeceli told Greenpeace pollsters they did not want the reactors near their homes.
In Yepilovacyk, the pollsters, who were going door to door, had managed to talk to 150 adults before the local gendarmerie, or paramilitary rural police, stopped them and confiscated the polling papers.
Greenpeace quotes Yepilovacyk's Mayor Halil Ybrahim as saying, "We need long-term sustainable jobs, not short-term polluting ones."
Turkey is planning to buy 10 reactors for a nuclear power plant in the Akkuyu Bay area, on the Mediterranean shore in the south of the country.
Greenpeace is opposing the plan, saying Turkey lies within an earthquake belt stretching from Yugoslavia to Afghanistan, and that damage to a nuclear plant in any future quake could be disastrous for Europe and the Middle East.
The Turkish government recently narrowed down the contenders for its purchase of the nuclear reactors to Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., or AECL, and Siemens of Germany.
The overall plan calls for the production of a total of 10,000 megawatts of power at the plant.
In November 1998, reports in Canada said AECL was hoping to land a contract worth $2.7 billion ($4 billion Canadian) to build two CANDU reactors, designed to produce 650 MW of power.
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Turks cannot postpone nuclear bid decision-minister
12:04 p.m. Jul 14, 1999 Eastern - Infoseek
ANKARA, July 14 (Reuters) - Turkey can no longer postpone a long-delayed decision on bids to build its first nuclear power plant on the Mediterranean coast, the energy minister warned on Wednesday.
``The option period for the participant companies will expire on October 15 and we have have to decide by then,'' minister Cumhur Ersumer told reporters in Ankara.
Tenders for the construction of a nuclear plant at Akkuyu on the southern coast were collected in late 1997. It was the third time Turkey had tendered for a nuclear plant.
Ersumer warned that another failure to conclude a deal would damage confidence in Turkey.
``If we cannot (reach a decision) it will be interpreted that Turkey has given up on nuclear power plants forever,'' he said.
He said Turkey's new coalition government would address the issue. The government emerged after April elections and has a strong parliamentary majority, in contrast with a series of weak coalitions that ruled before the elections.
``We will bring the matter to the coalition partners and try to make a decision by the 15th,'' he said.
The project, to be carried out on a turnkey basis under an investment programme from Turkey's power production authority TEAS, envisages construction to begin this month and be completed in 2006.
The three bidding consortia are led by U.S. Westinghouse , Canada's AECL and French-German NPI (Nuclear Power International.
The project, to be fully financed by the builder, has drawn severe criticism frrom local residents, environmentalists and some politicians as being too risky for its site, which the critics say lies on an earthquake fault line.
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38. Cohen: U.S. not arbitor in Cyprus conflict
USA Today, July 16, 1999 http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwsthu04.htm
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - The United States and Turkey agreed to disagree Thursday on the best way to proceed on resolving long-standing tension in Cyprus, but said there is no disagreement that peaceful negotiations between Greek and Turkish Cypriots are essential to a solution.
Defense Secretary William Cohen met with Turkey's prime minister and defense minister Thursday to discuss arms sales, participation in the Kosovo peace mission and finding an end to the tension on Cyprus, a Mediterranean island disputed by resident Greek and Turkish populations for decades.
''We agreed on resolving the problem in Cyprus,'' said Turkish Defense Minister Sabahattin Cakmakoglu. ''The only difference was on the method.''
The Turks seek full recognition for the ethic Turkish protectorate in northern Cyprus, recognition the United States has been unwilling to extend.
Turkey is considering purchasing up to $4 billion worth of attack helicopters, possibly from a U.S. manufacturer, and Cohen discussed with his counterpart concerns among some members of Congress about human rights in Turkey.
Cohen said the Clinton administration believes human rights legislation being pursued by Turkey's newly installed Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit will adequately address these concerns.
In a separate meeting with Ecevit, he raised the concern about Turkey's economic losses due to the international embargo on Iraq. The United States is eager to maintain Turkey's support for the U.S. and British patrol missions over northern Iraq, being run out of Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey.
Referring to the missions, Cohen said, ''Operation Northern Watch will continue as long as (Iraqi leader) Saddam Hussein refuses to abide by the United Nations resolutions.''
Ecevit called his conversation with Cohen ''friendly and warm.''
''There are no real issues between the two countries, there are common interests,'' Ecevit said. Cohen called Turkey ''a reliable ally and a strong contributor to European security.''
Visits to Turkey by senior U.S. officials have been relatively rare during the Clinton administration. President Clinton is to make his first visit to Turkey this fall for a multinational meeting on regional issues.
Cohen reiterated that the United States does not intend to directly pressure Greece or Turkey on the Cyprus question.
''The United States does not intend to pressure anybody,'' Cohen said in advance of his meetings with the Turkish leaders. ''We would leave it up to the Greek government and the Turkish government to resolve their differences. The United States does not seek in any way to become an arbiter.''
''We believe the Turkish and Greek Cypriots must look for a solution based on equality.'' said Cakmakoglu after meeting with Cohen.
Greece and Turkey have been conducting ministerial talks about Aegean Sea issues in general, including Cyprus, which erupted into crisis 25 years ago when Turkey dispatched troops to protect a Turkish minority from Greek Cypriots. That sparked fighting that led to Turkish occupation of a section of the island and to one of the longest-running United Nations peacekeeping missions.
The continuing tension over Cyprus has not prevented the United States from coming to the region prepared to sell both Greece and Turkey billions of dollars worth of weapons. Pentagon officials detailed about $4.1 billion in pending military sales to Greece and similarly large arms deals with Turkey could be in the offing.
The Clinton administration is expected to back these deals despite an investigation by the State Department that disclosed last month that Greece and Turkey illegally transferred U.S.-supplied weaponry to their respective allies on Cyprus. In the face of subsequent demands from Washington, both countries agreed to withdraw some U.S.-origin military equipment from Cyprus.
The prospect of major sales for U.S. arms makers appears to outweigh concern about further weapons diversions.
''To the extent that Turkey needs to modernize its forces, the United States will compete along with other major producers for weapons systems,'' Cohen said before his meetings. ''The same with respect to the Greek government.''
Other key issues U.S.-Turkish issues include development of energy alternatives for Turkey, including pipelines for gas export to Central Asia and oil shipments from the Caspian Basin to the Mediterranean Sea.
Greece opposed the airstrikes on Yugoslavia, owing to a historic ethnic and religious affinity for the Yugoslav Serbs. But Greece is strongly behind rebuilding efforts being organized for Kosovo and Yugoslavia and will have troops serving alongside Americans in the peacekeeping mission. Turkey, with its overwhelmingly Muslim population, came to the aid of the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, who are mostly Muslim. Turkey is also sending peacekeepers.
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39. U.S. Has No Proof of Iraqi Nukes
Thursday, July 15, 1999; 5:26 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990715/V000716-071599-idx.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- There is no evidence Iraq is taking steps to build nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction, though inspections are still needed, the State Department said Thursday.
Spokesman James P. Rubin said the only effective way to know whether Iraq is trying to reconstitute its weapons programs would be to have inspectors in the country.
But he added, ``I think it's fair to say that we have no reason to believe there have been significant efforts to reconstitute their weapons of mass destruction programs.''
No inspectors have been in Iraq since last December, when the United States and Britain started a bombing campaign against Iraq for its refusal to allow open inspections.
Earlier Thursday, however, a team of international experts began work in Baghdad to assess chemicals that weapons inspectors left behind in their laboratories when they evacuated Iraq. The multinational team, accompanied by French, Russian and Chinese diplomats, worked in the U.N. Special Commission's headquarters at the Canal Hotel.
Iraq allowed the experts into the country because they were not affiliated with the United Nations, although they will report on their work to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. They were sent to help safely dispose of the chemicals and to close the labs used by the inspectors.
``We need expert U.N. weapons inspectors on the ground with full Iraqi cooperation, as required under Security Council resolutions, for us to have high confidence that there is credible arms control in Iraq,'' Rubin said.
He said the ability to monitor Iraqi activities without inspectors in the country is limited.
The U.N. Security Council is divided over proposals to lift sanctions and restart relations with Iraq. The United States insists that Iraq must answer questions about its weapons programs and adhere to strict controls on its oil revenue in any new U.N. plan.
---
Baghdad Weapons Programs Dormant Iraq's Inactivity Puzzles U.S. Officials
By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, July 15, 1999; Page A19 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/15/189l-071599-idx.html
In the seven months since U.N. weapons inspectors left Iraq, the United States has seen no indication that Baghdad has resumed its chemical and biological weapons programs, according to administration officials.
After inspectors withdrew on Dec. 16, hours before the United States and Britain began a three-day bombing campaign to punish Iraq for failure to cooperate with them, President Clinton said he had "no doubt" that President Saddam Hussein would begin work anew on the weapons programs. National security adviser Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger said Washington would be using its "formidable intelligence capabilities" to "know what [Iraq] is trying to build and buy."
But so far, said an administration official who closely monitors intelligence on Iraq, "we have seen no evidence of reconstruction of weapons of mass destruction." Others watching closely have drawn similar blanks. "We continue to hear things, but nothing you can take to the bank," said a source inside the U.N. Special Commission, or UNSCOM, the disarmament and inspection agency.
Administration officials and others say they are uncertain why Iraq has not done as expected, or how long it will last. Officials insist that the Operation Desert Fox bombing knocked Iraq off balance and cite scattered indications of increased opposition inside the country. But no one is claiming to have seen any serious threat to the government.
In the meantime, the once-urgent U.S. insistence on inspections appears to have diminished. The United States and Britain have been unable to convince Russia, China and France--the other three veto-wielding permanent members of the U.N. Security Council--that strict economic sanctions against Iraq should continue even if Iraq agrees to new inspections.
"We would obviously like to see the inspectors go back in," said the administration official, who spoke on condition that he not be named. "But what's not acceptable is a sham inspection process."
As the impasse continues, two dozen U.S. ships and about 200 aircraft remain in the region, enforcing economic sanctions and patrolling "no-fly" zones in northern and southern Iraq.
Iraq challenged the patrols with radar and ground fire daily in the months following the bombing, and there are still occasional spikes of high activity. But days frequently go by with no challenge, and once-frequent incursions by Iraqi aircraft are rare, officials said.
Many in Congress have continued to demand that the administration provide dissident Iraqi exiles with supplies, weapons and training. But while organizational meetings have been held and more are planned, none of the $97 million in Pentagon supplies authorized last year for the opposition has been spent, and a major opposition assembly originally planned for this month has been postponed.
The relative quiet appears to suit an Iraq policy that administration officials label "containment." It includes continued sanctions and international isolation, along with efforts to alleviate hardships that the restrictions have brought on the Iraqi people. The policy also pledges a nonspecific U.S. commitment to replacing Saddam Hussein, and readiness to move militarily at any sign Iraq is threatening its neighbors or rebuilding its weapons programs.
The policy has frustrated those who would like to loosen the international restraints against Iraq, as well as those who would like to move more aggressively to promote Saddam Hussein's collapse.
At the Security Council, Russia, China and France back a resolution that would lift sanctions once Iraq agreed to new inspections. A competing, U.S.-supported draft sponsored by Britain and the Netherlands proposes an UNSCOM-replacement agency, to be called the United Nations Commission on Inspection and Monitoring, or UNCIM. Iraq would have to comply over several months with a series of benchmarks set by inspectors before any easing of sanctions would be considered.
Months of largely fruitless debate have exacerbated long-standing suspicions and bad feelings on both sides. Those governments advocating the lifting of sanctions suspect the United States has no intention ever to reward Iraq, no matter how much it might cooperate with inspectors, according to diplomats in New York. Washington, they believe, would be just as happy with no resolution--even if it meant no inspections.
Russia and France, along with Canada, which has tried to broker a compromise, are also irritated that Washington has imputed a profit motive--the desire to move their own oil companies into Iraq--to their efforts.
Administration officials agreed that no inspections is better than any compromise. "The status quo has the virtue of keeping the sanctions in place," an administration official said. Arguments from the other side that Iraqis are suffering increasing deprivation as a result of the sanctions are exaggerated, the official said.
For its part, Iraq has given no indication it finds the relatively friendly Russian draft acceptable, and has firmly rejected the British proposal. The creation of UNCIM is "unacceptable," the Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations, Saeed Hassan, said in an interview. "It gives Iraq nothing, and it won't be implemented."
Even without weapons inspectors on the ground, small-scale skirmishes continue between the United Nations and Iraq. Last week, Baghdad expelled a New Zealand employee of a U.N. mine disposal program, contending that he buried crop-damaging locust eggs in a field in an effort to undermine Iraqi agriculture. U.N. headquarters in New York, which had denied an earlier, similar accusation, said it would investigate.
As the administration tries gingerly to promote dissent inside Iraq, it has continued to try to stave off congressional insistence that it provide lethal aid to dissidents on the outside.
Under the Iraq Liberation Act passed last year and reluctantly signed by Clinton, Congress authorized $97 million in unspecified Pentagon supplies to be given to a designated group of Iraqi opposition leaders who pledged to overthrow the government. But what Congress had in mind--weapons and military training--has clashed with the administration's belief that the opposition leaders are far from coalescing into a political movement with some resonance inside Iraq, and farther still from launching an armed insurgency there.
Special correspondent Colum Lynch at the United Nations contributed to this report.
---
Arms Experts Head For Baghdad To Close Lab
Updated 5:37 AM ET July 14, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990714/05/international-arms-iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - An international team of disarmament experts entered Iraq from Jordan Wednesday to remove deadly mustard gas samples from an abandoned United Nations laboratory in Baghdad, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.
U.N. officials in Baghdad said the team would reach the city at around 2:30 p.m. (6:30 a.m. EDT) after an overland journey of more than eight hours.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's representative in Iraq, Prakash Shah, was expected to brief reporters on the team's work shortly afterwards. U.N. sources said they expected the team to spend about five days in the Iraqi capital.
The laboratory was hurriedly abandoned by U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) inspectors who left Baghdad hours before the United States and Britain launched a four-day bombing campaign against Iraq last December.
Under a deal between Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz and Shah, the team will evaluate, remove and destroy mustard gas samples from Iraqi munitions as well as standard laboratory chemicals stored in the laboratory.
Experts fear that high summer temperatures and power cuts could make the chemicals unstable. The laboratory has been unused since December when UNSCOM left Iraq.
The team, which has received guarantees of full cooperation from Iraq, includes three chemists, a microbiologist, a medical doctor and the former acting director of UNSCOM in Baghdad, Jaakko Ylitalo.
The three chemical specialists are from South Africa, China and Russia, and work for the Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The biologist is a German who works at a university in Stuttgart and the doctor is Polish.
The team, which is going to Iraq in response to a request from Annan, will be joined in Baghdad by diplomats from Russia, China and France, three countries sympathetic to Iraq.
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40. U.S. Jets Bomb Iraqi Defense Sites
By The Associated Press, July 14, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-US-Iraq.html
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- U.S. warplanes bombed Iraqi defense sites in the northern no-fly zone Wednesday after being fired on by Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery, the U.S. military said.
Air Force F-16s and F-15s dropped laser-guided bombs on command and control sites west of Mosul, a city 250 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. European Command said in a statement. The command is based in Stuttgart, Germany.
The statement did not say how many sites were bombed and added that damage was being assessed.
All the planes, which are based at Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, left the area safely.
The no-fly zone in northern Iraq, patrolled by U.S. and British planes, was set up after the 1991 Gulf War to protect Kurdish rebels from the forces of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Another no-fly zone in the south protects the Shiite Muslim minority.
Baghdad does not recognize the zones and has been challenging the allied planes regularly since Dec. 28.
The attack was the 60th time that the U.S. planes struck Iraqi defense installations in the northern no-fly zone in response to Iraqi threats.
---
US destroys 13 sites in Iraq
Updated 3:23 PM ET July 14, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/990714/15/international-strike
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey, July 14 (UPI) U.S. warplanes have destroyed 13 targets within one square mile at an Iraqi military communications site in the northern "no-fly" zone, said pilot Lt. Col. Bruce Butter.
Butters, who today spoke to reporters shortly after returning from the latest bombing run said F-15s and F-16s aircraft flew multiple passes over the area after being targeted by Iraqi radar and anti- aircraft.
The attack began almost immediately after British and U.S. aircraft flew into Iraq, according to Butters.
A British reconnaissance plane, a Jaguar, was quickly targeted so an armada of aircraft sent out with the Jag swung into action. A total of nine aircraft dropped 500- and 2,000-pound bombs on an Iraqi communications site in the area, striking five of 13 targets in the first three passes.
Again a Jaguar made a reconnaissance run and again it was targeted, triggering the rules of engagement that allow the forces to strike. They destroyed eight more points within the square mile target area.
---
Iraqis Compare Clinton to Cockroach
By The Associated Press July 14, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Iraq-Clinton.html
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraqis rarely lose an opportunity to hurl vitriolic jibes at the United States and President Clinton. This time Clinton is being compared to a cockroach.
``They have the color of Clinton and they invaded Basra,'' the Al-Ittehad weekly newspaper said Tuesday in a banner headline on a report about a species of pink roaches that have recently infested the southern port city of Basra.
Basra, 310 miles south of Baghdad, was heavily bombed by the U.S.-led allied forces during the 1991 Gulf War.
Al-Ittehad quoted Dr. Alem Abdel Hamid, dean of the Medical College in Basra, as saying that the roaches that have appeared in Basra's homes, hotels, restaurants and drains, are bigger than normal and are ``almost red in color.''
``Their Latin name is periplaneta americana and their going name is American cockroaches,'' he was quoted as saying, adding that the bugs are becoming a public health menace.
Iraqis apparently feel that Clinton is -- or should be -- red-faced about his sex scandal with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
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41. Pentagon slowed Iraq mission for Kosovo
Updated 4:12 PM ET July 14, 1999, By PAMELA HESS http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/990714/16/international-military
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey, July 14 (UPI) When airstrikes against Yugoslavia began March 24, things were quiet in northern Iraq, but if Saddam Hussein's forces had violated the northern no-fly zone, it is doubtful the international force based at Incirlik, Turkey, could have done much to stop it.
According to a senior military official, almost all the U.S. aircraft normally assigned to patrol Iraq and shoot when necessary were sent to the Kosovo conflict, calling into question the military's ability to carry out two simultaneous wars.
"They took all our assets to generate a force for Kosovo," said Lt. Col. Chuck Patillo, director of operations and plans at Incirlik Air Base. "We immediately tried to source folks in the States so as not to have too big a gap."
The warplanes from Incirlik stayed in the Balkans fight for nearly a month. Senior military officers confirmed the diversion of the assets and said it showed the Air Force is stretched too thin across too many missions.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Ryan has even made a pitch _ unsuccessfully to Defense Secretary William Cohen to give the service six months off from fighting so it can rest and regroup.
The Pentagon is supposed to maintain a force large enough to carry out two major theater wars at the same time, according to its national strategy. These two operations qualified: In May, Cohen told a congressional committee that the military was engaged in two air wars (Yugoslavia and Iraq) and would be hard pressed to do more as long as they continued.
Whether the military is appropriately manned and equipped to fulfill that strategy continues to be a point of contention between Republicans on Capitol Hill and President Clinton. News that Incirlik's operations were curtailed to free up pilots for another operation is certain to be taken as evidence the White House is giving short shrift to national security.
Patillo, a command-and-control officer who helps plan targets and attacks and watches over daily operations, said it will be another month before the operation in Turkey gets back to its normal cycle.
Publicly, however, the Pentagon has maintained that the 79-day operation in Kosovo did not affect enforcement of the United Nations- declared no-fly zone. Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said in April that there had been no strikes on Iraqi military sites because no aircraft were challenged by his forces.
The truth is something less than that: There were no challenges in the northern-no fly zone from mid-March until mid-April because few, if any, coalition aircraft flew over the area to draw Iraqi fire, according to an official with United States Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East.
Incirlik is technically in the European theater, but it coordinates its work with CENTCOM. "If you're not flying, (Iraqi President) Saddam (Hussein) has a mighty hard time targeting you," the CENTCOM official said.
Patillo said that during those four weeks, Iraqi movements were monitored to make sure no violations occurred. The military can use ground-based radar, space systems and aircraft to monitor airspace, but without warplanes, it would have been hard pressed to respond to Iraqi movements in the zone.
Since last December, when coalition forces carried out a concentrated four-day campaign against Iraq known as Desert Fox, coalition forces have been engaged in a cat-and-mouse game with Saddam, a senior official at Incirlik said. Coalition aircraft patrol the skies to keep Iraqi military planes from taking off a measure intended to protect Kurdish civilians in the north and are targeted by Iraqi radar or artillery almost daily.
Under the military's rules of engagement, this is sufficient to merit bombing of pre-established targets, some of which are not necessarily involved in the incident at hand, said Lt. Col. Bruce Butters, of Tulsa, Okla., who spoke to reporters today, shortly after returning from the latest bombing run.
Today, U.S. pilots in F-15s and F-16s destroyed 13 targets within one square mile in a wave of attacks after being fired on by Iraqi anti- aircraft artillery, said Butters.
These limited strikes over the last seven months in the forgotten war against Iraq have done more damage than Desert Fox. According to a senior military official, the forces at Incirlik have destroyed well over 100 anti-aircraft artillery pieces and 15 strategic surface-to-air missile sites and shut down Iraq's once-formidable integrated air defense system north of the 36th parallel, the southern border of the U. N.-enforced area.
But Iraq has learned its lessons and pulled back a significant number of its assets south of the 36th parallel, having figured out that coalition forces are prohibited from bombing south of that line. Targeting information is collected there and passed to artillery sites closer to the aircraft, but in eight years, Iraq has not yet shot down an allied warplane.
Iraqi forces have also figured out that Operation Northern Watch aircraft won't bomb targets in populated areas, so they regularly hide equipment around civilian areas. On Tuesday, an anti-aircraft artillery piece was fired from the middle of Tal Afar, the second largest city in Iraq, the official said.
Most of these details are never publicly released, because the government of Turkey doesn't want to call attention to the operation, say officials at Incirlik. Turkish officials no longer allow the base even to issue press releases announcing strikes with an Incirlik marking on them; they must all come from U.S. European Command.
"It's done in deference to host nation sensibilities," an official said. "Turkey is walking a fine line here. They've lost a lot of trade by supporting us."
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- Eighth message - _____________________
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Message: 15 Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 05:11:02 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-6 7/17/99 - Canada; Iran
25. Canada Plutonium Debate Rages
By David Crary Associated Press Writer Wednesday, July 14, 1999; 2:19 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990714/V000587-071499-idx.html http://cnn.com/WORLD/americas/9907/14/BC-Canada-Plutonium.ap/
TORONTO (AP) -- The Canadian government insists it wants to help eliminate nuclear weapons, yet its plan to burn plutonium from dismantled U.S. and Russian missiles is under fire from the country's most ardent anti-nuclear groups.
A small quantity of weapons-grade plutonium is scheduled to be driven into Canada from the United States this summer for a test burn at a nuclear research facility in Chalk River, Ontario, 100 miles west of Ottawa.
Scientists will seek to determine if the plutonium can be used on a regular basis as fuel in Canada's nuclear reactors. If the test goes well, and if promised environmental and safety reviews result in approval, Canada has offered to burn up to 100 tons of weapons-grade plutonium fuel at reactors in Ontario over a 25-year period.
Opponents of the project express deep concerns about safety and are skeptical about the fact that Canada's troubled nuclear power industry is promoting the plan when several of its aging reactors are experiencing problems.
``This nuclear industry-driven project is presented by the prime minister and other supporters as a disarmament initiative,'' said Kristen Ostling of the Ottawa-based Campaign for Nuclear Phaseout. ``In fact, the project will contribute to proliferation by commercializing the use of plutonium.''
Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy, who helped lead the global campaign to ban land mines and is a strong advocate of disarmament, says Canada hasn't made a final commitment to the long-term project.
``The only commitment we have made is to undertake certain tests of very small, minute portions to determine the feasibility,'' Axworthy told Parliament recently. ``We live in a dangerous nuclear world. We have some responsibilities to help in the denuclearizing of that world ... We are simply testing to see if we can make a contribution to that issue.''
Parliament members from several opposition parties, and even from the governing Liberal Party, have opposed the project.
``Canadians do not want our country to become a dumping ground for the world's Cold War plutonium,'' said Svend Robinson of the left-wing New Democratic Party.
The plutonium shipments will originate at a U.S. government facility in Los Alamos, N.M., and be driven overland, possibly through North Dakota or New York. The date and exact route are not being disclosed for security reasons.
Under heavy pressure from congressmen and local officials in Michigan, U.S. authorities agreed to abandon a third possible route that crossed into Ontario north of Detroit. Michigan officials said they feared disaster from road accidents and fire.
Greenpeace, part of the coalition of groups opposing the project, says the plutonium shipments could be targeted by terrorists.
The U.S. and Canadian governments say the risk of an accident or terrorism is very small. According to Axworthy, the plutonium involved is no larger than a double-A battery.
``I do not think it represents a real threat to Canada,'' he said. ``But nuclear proliferation represents a threat to all mankind.''
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26. Canada's Fusion Lab to Be Dismantled
Wednesday, July 7, 1999; 10:18 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990707/V000353-070799-idx.html
OTTAWA (AP) -- Canada's only fusion laboratory, built with an estimated $110 million in public money, is for sale at a bargain price -- and Iran is the most likely buyer.
The dismantling of the Canadian Center for Fusion Magnetics at Varennes, Quebec, marks the end of Canada's participation in the international quest for fusion, which many scientists see as the energy source of the future.
``We have lost our foothold in fusion research,'' said Real Decoste, director of the center, who confirmed Wednesday that negotiations with the Iranians are nearing the final stages.
Decoste said the laboratory was effectively doomed in 1996 when the federal government pulled out of the project, leaving its partners, including several agencies of the Quebec government, in disarray.
Most of the staff, including about 40 researchers and 60 engineers, have already dispersed.
The amount obtained from the sale -- if it goes through -- will be only a fraction of what was originally invested, Decoste said.
Sean Rowan, a Foreign Affairs Department spokesman, said the sale requires several types of federal approval, and no export of militarily sensitive equipment to Iran will be permitted. He said consideration of the export application is in the early stages.
Murray Stewart, president of the Canadian Nuclear Association, said the fusion equipment is incapable of being diverted to military purposes. Most of the processes involved have been in the public domain for years, he added.
Stewart said Iran has a long-standing, non-military, commercial nuclear program and its interest in the project was not surprising. ---
Canada Nuclear Fusion Reactor Might Go To Iran
01:02 a.m. Jul 08, 1999 Eastern, By Randall Palmer - Infoseek
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's fledgling nuclear fusion reactor program might be sold lock, stock and barrel to Iran, which U.S. officials have often accused of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.
The director of the program, physicist Real Decoste, said Wednesday that negotiations were advanced with Iran on the sale of the experimental reactor and its technology, since the federal government cut off funding in 1997.
``We are dismantling everything and trying to sell the equipment along with the technology and the knowledge,'' said Decoste, whose runs the Canadian Center for Fusion Magnetics.
He insisted that fusion -- as distinguished from fission technology used in commercial nuclear power plants -- would in no way be useful to military planners.
``Fusion is very peaceful development. It's the most peaceful use of the atom you could think of,'' he told Reuters from the group's offices outside Montreal. ``There is no possibility of a military application for this development.''
Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade as well as the Atomic Energy Control Board were nonetheless vetting the proposed transaction to be sure it did not contribute to nuclear proliferation.
``That is an overarching concern,'' foreign affairs spokesman Sean Rowan said.
And, because Canada applies what it calls a ``controlled engagement policy'' toward Iran, it will also require specific approval from Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy.
Fission harnesses the energy released from splitting atoms, which powers atomic bombs and nuclear plants.
Fusion tries to generate power by joining the nuclei of atoms together, but scientists have yet to come up with a commercially viable, controlled process that produces more energy than it consumes -- which is why Ottawa stopped paying.
But the fusion process, which powers the sun, also is what is used in the hydrogen bomb.
University of Waterloo physicist Robert Mann, who has no connection to the project, said he did not believe the Tokamak technology used in the Canadian project had ever been militarized.
``The kind of technology in Tokamak has never been used in weaponry to my knowledge,'' he said.
Rowan said the question of possible military uses is exactly what the federal government experts would look into.
Member of Parliament Bob Mills, foreign affairs spokesman for the opposition Reform Party, urged caution: ``(On) fusion technology, I'm not sure you'd get agreement among scientists as to whether it could be used for military purposes.''
``The real world out there is one of terrorism, one of a greater instability than ever before,'' he added.
``It seems before you hand over this technology you should be sure that whoever you're handing it over to is a very stable, reliable country.''
Decoste said about C$150 million -- more than $100 million U.S. at current exchange rates -- had been spent on the center, which started up in 1981 and installed its reactor in 1987.
Besides Ottawa, the other main contributors to the project were Quebec universities and the electricity company Hydro Quebec, now the sole owner.
Decoste said the current negotiation was to sell it for less than C$10 million. Some of the scientists still left with the center could work on it in Iran if it goes through.
He said Iran was simply forward-looking, trying to build an economic future for when their oil eventually runs out.
($1-$1.47 Canadian)
---
Ottawa expected to block fusion sale
By Edison Stewart and Peter Calamai Toronto Star Ottawa Bureau, July 16, 1999 http://www.thestar.com/thestar/editorial/news/990716NEW06c_NA-NUKE16.html
OTTAWA - A plan to sell Canada's nuclear fusion research to Iran will likely be blocked by Ottawa, a federal source says.
``Frankly, there are a lot of hoops to jump through and (approval) is not likely,'' the insider said.
The Canadian Centre for Magnetic Fusion in Varennes, Que., is negotiating with Iran to transfer its equipment and nuclear fusion technology after funding from Ottawa and Quebec dried up.
Foreign affairs spokesperson Sean Rowan said a formal decision is not expected for some time. The foreign affairs department and the Atomic Energy Control Board are studying the proposed sale but ``Canada's nuclear non-proliferation policy is . . . an over-arching concern.''
Iran's `pursuit of weapons of mass destruction' cited
If the sale concerned atom-splitting fission, which is used both for power generation and bomb-making, it would be rejected out of hand, he said.
But this research uses fusion technology, which Rowan said is experimental and has not proved capable ``of producing either commercially viable energy or nuclear-explosive devices, and so therefore (is) generally . . . not controlled under the Canadian export control laws.''
The plan could also be rejected because Ottawa has imposed limits on trade with Iran to reflect Canadians' concerns about Iranian policy on human rights, terrorism, the Middle East and ``pursuit of weapons of mass destruction,'' he said. The next step will be a preliminary report from the Atomic Energy Control Board, whose approval is also required, he said.
Board inspectors are studying whether some components of the research apparatus might still aid production of plutonium or enriched uranium. The export of such so-called ``dual-use'' components is barred by Canada's non-proliferation policy.
A key part of the fusion research installation is the massive power supply, which accounted for half the initial $50 million cost and would be valuable in other operations with high-power requirements, which might include uranium enrichment facilities, one scientist said.
The Nuclear Control Institute, a Washington-based lobby group, warns Ottawa that Iran is suspected of developing nuclear weapons behind the cover of a peaceful program. ``They could take that technology and develop it for the purpose of breeding plutonium in natural uranium and that would be used for nuclear weapons,'' said president Paul Leventhal.
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27. U.S. Anxiety Imperils NATO Fighter-Pilot Training in Canada
By ANTHONY DePALMA with RAYMOND BONNER, July 16, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/global/071699canada-china.html
TORONTO -- Mounting concern in the United States over the export of military technology without adequate controls is threatening an ambitious new program to train fighter pilots from several NATO countries in the vast skies over Western Canada.
United States regulators are refusing to issue an export license for 24 high-powered American-made training planes until they get iron-clad guarantees from the Canadian Government that the aircraft, and the technology that went into its development, will not fall into the hands of unfriendly nations.
Regulators are worried because the planes are being purchased not by the Canadian Government, but by a private company in Canada that in 1997 was awarded a $2.8 billion contract to run the NATO training program.
At the time, no one expected problems.
Since then, though, the unauthorized transfer of classified military technology to China and examples of restricted military hardware finding its way to third countries from Canada have heightened concerns about this program.
Congress could try to hold up the $82 million sale to Canada until it gets assurances that the planes will not be resold to countries that otherwise would not be allowed to have them.
Weapons smugglers have used Canada to circumvent American export restrictions so often that the Clinton Administration recently imposed tough new controls on sales of weapons and military technology to Canada.
The sale to Bombardier of Montreal of 24 T-6A-1 Raytheon Aircraft turboprop trainers, the basic training plane for the United States Navy and Air Force, would be the first transfer of American military technology to the private sector, United States officials said.
In a drive to balance its budget, the Canadian Government gave the contract to Bombardier, and also leased it a base -- Moose Jaw in Saskatchewan -- thereby saving the base from what would have been an unpopular closure.
Officials in Washington are concerned that selling planes to Bombardier could set a precedent that powerful foreign corporations would cite in other purchases.
"We sell airplanes to governments, not to private companies," said a senior American official opposed to the sale.
"If the contract goes bust, where do the assets go?"
Delivery of the planes is scheduled to begin in October but the United States' demands could force delays. "We have advised our customer -- the Ministry of National Defense -- that there may be a schedule impact," said Zev Rosenzweig, vice president for aviation training in the defense division of Bombardier Aerospace. "But this situation is so different from what happened with China that I have faith that even Congresspeople will appreciate the difference."
But James P. Richardson, manager of the NATO Flying Training in Canada program for Canada's Department of National Defense, said maintenance and operating schedules for the sophisticated trainers were not ready because the State Department had not allowed Raytheon to provide the necessary specifications to Canada.
"As Raytheon got to the point of providing that information, things slowed down in a hurry," Richardson said.
Raytheon officials are uneasy. James Gregory, a Raytheon spokesman, said that if the sale was not approved expeditiously, the multimillion-dollar order "could go to an international competitor."
Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, where Raytheon Aircraft is located, has written to the State Department to object to the way regulators have jeopardized the sale. Senator Brownback's staff refused to discuss his objections.
Originally, Canada had planned to buy the trainers from the Embraer company of Brazil, but switched to Raytheon when Embraer could not guarantee delivery in time.
Washington officials say they are not unduly suspicious of Canada or Bombardier, a diversified corporation best known for manufacturing snowmobiles but now a major aerospace producer. But they are concerned about Canada's ability to control the re-export of American military technology.
For decades, Canada enjoyed special exemption from most military export controls, reflecting its decision after World War II to forgo developing its own defense industry and instead supply components to American weapons contractors from whom it has made most purchases.
But in April, severe restrictions were put on Canada after what senior American officials involved in defense trade described as recent incidents in which Canada was intended to be a conduit for supplying helicopters, missile parts and other military items to countries forbidden to buy them.
Under the new rules, military exports to Canada will become much more cumbersome.
What is at risk, said Daniel Verreault, vice president of the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada, is $5 billion a year in military goods and services that has developed out of the special relationship between the two countries.
Bombardier officials say that they need to recruit pilots from several NATO and non-NATO countries to recoup their costs over the projected 20-year life of its $2.8 billion contract for pilot training programs.
So far, Denmark has signed a $250 million contract to train six of its pilots every year for the next 20 years in Canada. Negotiations are close to being complete with Britain, company officials said. Bombardier also is talking to Italy, and to one non-NATO country.
Rosenzweig of Bombardier said that additional aircraft would have to be purchased as the other nations signed up their pilots, but he said that the bonds sold to purchase the Raytheon planes are backed completely by the tuition for training Canadian pilots, and therefore there is "zero chance of default.".
The initial purchase of 24 aircraft is being undertaken by a paper company called Milit-Air Inc., which was set up by Bombardier and will then lease the planes for 20 years to Bombardier Aerospace.
Bombardier is also spending $400 million to purchase 18 British Aerospace Mark 115 Hawks, modified to simulate the flight of F-18 fighter jets.
Rosenzweig said the first student pilots were supposed to begin training next February, starting on the T-6A trainer, then on the Hawk.
The unusual private sector arrangement is raising concerns in Canada, as well.
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28. Iran Preparing Bigger Missile Launch - U.S. Expert
Updated 2:27 PM ET July 15, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990715/14/news-iran-missile
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran is preparing to test launch later this summer a medium-range multi-stage missile that could have a range of up to 2,650 miles (4,250 km), an independent U.S. specialist said Thursday.
The missile, code-named Kosar, would carry a version of Russia's RD-216 liquid-fuel rocket booster, the same engine which powered the Soviet Union's SS-5 missile, said Kenneth Timmerman, director of the Middle East Data Project.
"The Iranians as we speak are in the process of stacking and unstacking missile stages for a test launch later on this summer at the Shahroud missile test center," he told Reuters.
Timmerman, who gave testimony on Iran's missile program to a House of Representatives subcommittee Tuesday, said he expected the Iranians would present the launch as a test for putting a satellite into orbit, just as North Korea did when it fired a Taepodong missile over Japan in August.
Iran has already announced plans to commission a communications satellite to be launched within two years. In February it said it was building a missile to launch satellites but Western defense analysts said the missile, named Shehab-4, was more likely to be a surface-to-surface weapon.
The analysts said the Shehab-4 was largely derived from the obsolete Soviet-era SS-4 ballistic missile, which had a range of 1,250 miles (2,000 km).
Timmerman said he had his information on the more powerful Kosar missile from U.S. and Israeli intelligence sources. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had no immediate comment.
"It is the U.S. side which is tracking the activities at the launch site right now. They are analyzing what they actually see (from satellite photographs). That's where they see the multiple stages and they see them put one on top of another," he said.
The most powerful missile so far launched by Iran was the Shehab-3 in July 1998, with a range of 800 miles (1,300 km).
Timmerman said there was "concrete evidence" that Russia had transferred the RD-216 booster to Iran as part of what the United States says has been extensive cooperation between the two countries on ballistic missiles.
"A transfer of this nature cannot take place without the highest levels of the Russian government being aware. The Russians simply do not share our concerns about the Iranian missile program," he added.
The United States has been trying to stop Russia helping Iran with its weapons programs, apparently with mixed success. It has imposed sanctions on Russian scientific bodies alleged to have provided Iran with missile and nuclear technology.
Russia says it will fulfill all its international obligations but also continue to help Iran with its plans to build nuclear power stations, seen in Washington as a possible channel for leaks of nuclear expertise and material.
Timmerman said he thought Iran's ultimate aim was to develop a missile capable of reaching the United States, as a deterrent against any U.S. attack on Iran. "This missile test is one step along the way," he said.
A more immediate goal is to assert its military strength in the Gulf, "to show their neighbors that they are a power to be reckoned with," he added.
He said that as far as he was aware the U.S. intelligence community has not briefed members of Congress on Iran's latest missile preparations, possibly because the Clinton administration still had hopes that Iranian President Mohammad Khatami would bring about a political transition in Iran.
The chairman of the House Science Committee, James Sensenbrenner, said Timmerman's account of the Kosar program was a good reason to pass the proposed Iran Nonproliferation Act, which would restrict extraordinary payments by the United States to the Russian Space Agency in connection with the International Space Station project.
The Russian Space Agency controls Energomash, the company which manufactured the RD-216 rocker booster.
To qualify for such payments, Russia would have to take steps to prevent the transfer to Iran of goods and technologies for use in programs to develop weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles.
"If the information on the Kosar missile is true, Iran's progress ... represents a sea change in the threat facing the U.S. mainland," Sensenbrenner said in a statement.
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29. Iranian police tear gas, beat protesters
USA Today, July 13, 1999 http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwstue01.htm
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - In a flashback to the revolution that installed Iran's Islamic government 20 years ago, baton-wielding police fired tear gas to disperse 10,000 protesters on the streets of Tehran Tuesday, the sixth day of protests against hard-liners who have thwarted reform efforts.
Demonstrators quickly regrouped in nearby streets where they burned buses and hurled abuse at hard-line clerics.
The unrest that started Thursday has left two people dead and scores injured. It is the first time students and ordinary Iranians have taken to streets in such big numbers to confront the powerful hard-liners opposing the political and social reforms of moderate President Mohammad Khatami, a hero of the protesters.
The protests have spread to at least 10 other towns during the past days, highlighting the widespread frustration with the clerics. Iran has not witnessed such serious public protests - up to 25,000 took part in one rally in Tehran - since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Tuesday's violence began after police in helicopters, speaking through loudspeakers, asked demonstrators to vacate the area, warning them of arrest, witnesses contacted by telephone from Dubai said.
When the students did not leave, police in riot gear fired tear gas, moved into the crowd and pulled away men and women by the hair while beating others with batons. Scores were hauled away in police trucks, the witnesses said, requesting anonymity.
The area was cleared within minutes, but a few hundred people fled south of the sprawling campus and set several empty buses in the commercial district ablaze, the witnesses said.
Another group of about 1,000 gathered on a nearby street north of the university. Some lit small fires in the road.
Students shouted ''unity, unity,'' and slogans against Ansar, a vigilante group whose thugs are controlled by the hard-liners.
Shops and banks closed and pedestrians fled, the witnesses said.
Three Iranian journalists - two cameramen working for a German TV network and a reporter with another foreign news agency - were beaten by demonstrators. The TV journalists said the protesters smashed their car and attacked them, presuming they worked for Iranian television, which is controlled by the hard-liners and has been criticized for its biased coverage of the protests.
The reporters, who didn't wish to be identified further, said the protesters hurled abuse and chanted slogans against hard-liners.
Official Tehran radio called the protesters ''rioters'' who had gone on the rampage and smashed shop windows. It said ''security forces dealt with them firmly.''
''One moment everything was fine, and the next moment everything went crazy,'' said one witness who was in the middle of the crowd.
Life in other parts of the sprawling city of 10 million was normal, residents said.
On Monday police also attacked at least two groups of demonstrators with tear gas and batons and fired gunshots in the air. Scores were arrested.
Late Monday, the Tehran governor's office said that ''no form of gathering'' would be allowed Tuesday.
Khatami and moderate newspapers also have urged people to break up the protests, fearing the demonstrations would spin out of control and lead to a brutal police crackdown that would further set back Khatami's reforms.
Since Khatami's May 1997 election, ordinary citizens had hoped the strict social and political restrictions they have lived under since the revolution would be loosened.
But they have been frustrated by the hard-liners' unyielding hold on power because of the support of the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and their total control of the armed forces, the police, the judiciary, the Intelligence Ministry and the media.
The demonstrations were triggered by the unauthorized police raid on a Tehran University hostel early Friday after the students rallied Thursday against the banning of a liberal newspaper. The attack apparently was carried out with the backing of hard-line clerics.
One person was killed and 20 injured in the assault. On Sunday, a theology student was shot dead in the northwestern city of Tabriz, where students smashed shop windows and set a vehicle on fire. A large but peaceful funeral was held for him Tuesday, IRNA reported.
Iran fired two security chiefs and reprimanded a third after the raid, but the steps have failed to appease the protesters.
-- Iran Says Unrest Over, Big Rally Backs State Updated 5:23 PM ET July 14, 1999,By Ali Raiss-Tousi http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990714/17/international-iran-leadall
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Message: 16 Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 05:10:06 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-3 7/17/99 - China - Neturon Bomb / Taiwan War Games
13. China Says It Can Build Neutron Bomb Beijing Attempts to Discredit Cox Report on Theft of U.S. Secrets
By Michael Laris Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, July 15, 1999; Page A01 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/15/272l-071599-idx.ht ml AP: http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990715/V000113-071599-idx.html
BEIJING, July 15 (Thursday)The Chinese government announced today that it long ago mastered the technology for building a neutron bomb, emphasizing that Chinese scientists developed the weapon on their own, not through the theft of U.S. nuclear secrets, as has been alleged.
The announcement comes about six weeks after the release of a report written by Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.) that said China has stolen many secrets from U.S. nuclear laboratories over the last 20 years -- including information on the neutron bomb.
China made its proclamation in a report titled "Facts Speak Louder Than Words, and Lies Will Collapse by Themselves -- Further Refutation of the Cox Report." The report, which was released by the Information Office of the State Council, China's cabinet, did not say whether China has in fact conducted tests, begun mass production or deployed the weapon. The Cox report said China tested a neutron bomb in 1988, but China has never confirmed that.
"The neutron bomb seems quite mysterious to ordinary people. In fact, it is a kind of hydrogen bomb," the Chinese report said. "Since China has already possessed atom bomb and H-bomb technologies, it is quite logical and natural for it to master the neutron bomb technology through its own efforts over a reasonable period of time."
Neutron bombs are designed to kill humans with a lethal burst of neutrons but to leave buildings intact. They leave little radioactive fallout.
Today's announcement was a departure from usual Chinese government practice over the last several decades of releasing almost no information about its nuclear program. It was unclear why the government would release such information voluntarily now, but it did say the announcement was designed to counter the "groundless, vicious slander" against China and its scientists made in the Cox report.
Weeks before today's announcement, China made a thorough attack on the Cox report weeks ago, leading to speculation today's move could be designed to send a broader message about China's own power. The announcement comes amid heated new tensions with Taiwan and in the wake of the U.S. bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the NATO campaign in Yugoslavia. The Chinese government continues to assert the attack was intentional, despite the U.S. explanation that it was a mistake.
David Shambaugh, an expert on Chinese security policy at George Washington University, called today's announcement "strange" and said he "wouldn't link it necessarily" to either the Taiwan crisis or the embassy bombing. "We knew they had it, now they've confirmed it. That was just one of the allegations in the Cox report, and not one of the more worrying ones. It's 20-year-old technology."
The Cox report concluded that China is preparing to target Taiwan with neutron warheads, but that idea was rejected by the larger U.S. intelligence community, which expressed doubt that the Chinese would ever use a nuclear weapon on what they consider their own territory.
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White House Plays Down Bomb Report
By Kevin Galvin Associated Press Writer Thursday, July 15, 1999; 7:54 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990715/V000860-071599-idx.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Clinton administration sought to minimize the importance of China's announcement Thursday that it had built a neutron bomb, noting that intelligence reports for years have shown that Beijing has tested such a weapon.
But in light of heightened tensions between China and Taiwan and the West, officials took care to note that the U.S. nuclear arsenal is vastly superior to China's.
``China, we know, has less than two dozen long-range nuclear weapons. The United States has over 6,000,'' said White House press secretary Joe Lockhart. ``We have no doubt that our nuclear deterrent is strong enough to protect our national interests.''
Through a spokeswoman, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said, ``The timing of China's announcement could be perceived as saber rattling.''
Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., senior Democrat on the committee, called China's announcement ``quite serious.''
``It is an escalation of the proliferation problem,'' Kerrey said. ``They were starting to move in the right direction. It means they are now moving in the wrong direction. This is not in the world's best interests.''
The Clinton administration declined to draw connections between the rare public announcement of China's weapons capabilities and Beijing's recent threat to attack Taiwan over indications that the island might be moving toward independence.
``We don't see the connection on Taiwan,'' said State Department spokesman James Rubin, who said U.S. officials ``haven't regarded ... as helpful'' the recent exchange between Beijing and Taipei over the status of Taiwan.
``I don't think it's been as dramatic as other rhetorical episodes in the past, but it is significant,'' Rubin said. ``We don't think it's beneficial for these kind of statements to be made or the reactions to them.''
The announcement about the neutron bomb came in reaction to a congressional investigation led by Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., into allegations the Chinese stole sensitive nuclear secrets from U.S. research labs.
Defense Secretary William Cohen said that from a security standpoint, whether China developed its own neutron bomb instead of stealing the technology from U.S. labs was a minor issue. He said the United States is more concerned about other nations gaining nuclear technology.
Cohen, returning from a European tour, said that until Congress completes its examination of a legislative report into losses of military technology to China it is premature to conclude how China gained its nuclear knowledge.
``I don't find it to be a particularly fruitful discussion as to whether they claim to have this capability internally or have acquired it elsewhere,'' Cohen said. ``The fact that's of concern to all of us is that there seems to be a proliferation of nuclear technology to a number of countries.''
``China has had a nuclear capability for some time,'' he added. ``Our concern has been that other countries not acquire it.''
Neutron bombs are meant to produce a smaller blast than conventional nuclear weapons but more intense radiation, limiting physical damage while killing large numbers of people.
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U.S. Tries to Play Down China's Announcement on Bomb By ERIC SCHMITT, July 16, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/071699china-nuke.html
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14. China Plans War Games In Warning To Taiwan - Paper
Updated 1:06 AM ET July 17, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990717/01/international-china-taiwan
HONG KONG (Reuters) - China's army, navy and airforce plan joint exercises along its east coast in a warning to its rival, Taiwan, which lies about 100 miles offshore, a Hong Kong daily said Saturday.
Quoting unnamed sources, the independent Chinese-language Ming Pao Daily said the timing of the exercises and other details had yet to be decided by the military and Chinese President Jiang Zemin.
The newspaper said military exercises would be staged as a warning to Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui for his decision to scrap Taiwan's "one China" policy this month. They would also be held to mark the 50th anniversary of communist rule, it added.
"According to the sources, the purpose of the large-scale military exercises would be, in addition to warning Lee Teng-hui and his supporters to 'stop the horse before the cliff', to demonstrate the strength of China's military before the 50th anniversary," the daily said.
China sees Taiwan as a renegade province and views its decision as a possible step toward independence. Beijing has not ruled out using force to stamp out moves toward independence.
China Friday sought clarification on Taiwan's new policy for "state-to-state" relations with the mainland in a hint that Beijing was softening its hard-line reaction to Taipei's move.
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Taiwan on alert for Chinese maneuvers
By Paul Wiseman, USA TODAY July 13, 1999 http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/nwstue04.htm
HONG KONG - Taiwan put its military on alert Tuesday as China issued another rhetorical blast at the island 's insistence that it be treated as a sovereign state, not a wayward Chinese province.
Taiwan called the alert to be on the lookout for any sign that China plans military maneuvers.
Meanwhile, Taiwan's stock market tumbled more than 3% on fears of a confrontation with China.
The trouble started over the weekend when Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui said Taiwan wants to be treated as a sovereign state in international affairs.
In the past, it has settled for being considered a distinct "political entity" within one China. That semantic formulation kept the peace with the Communist Chinese government in Beijing.
China considers Taiwan a renegade province and is determined to reclaim it. China has threatened to attack if Taiwan declares independence. The United States recognizes Beijing as the sole legitimate government of China, but has pledged to protect Taiwan.
U.S. officials planned to meet with Taiwanese officials in Taipei Wednesday to discuss the situation.
Lee's comments, confirmed Monday by Taiwan's government, stopped short of calling for independence. Taiwan also says it remains open to eventual reunification with China.
But China's government is furious anyway. "This will bring monumental disaster to the people of Taiwan," China's official Xinhua News Agency editorialized Tuesday. "It is very dangerous to use the interests, happiness and future of Taiwan compatriots as a stake to engage in political adventures."
The controversy has raised doubts about whether China will go ahead with plans to send an envoy to Taiwan for talks this fall.
To many, the semantic change Lee wants simply reflects reality. Taiwan has its own democratically elected government.
Most Taiwanese, though, are happy with the status quo: de facto but undeclared independence.
"It is simply calling a spade a spade," says Byron Weng, political scientist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. "Taiwan has been forbidden from calling a spade a spade for so long that when they actually do, it feels like a big departure."
Taiwanese government officials say that China uses the "one China" label to reduce Taiwan's clout in international affairs.
They also say that Taiwan should be able to deal with China as an equal in the talks scheduled for this fall.
"They put a 'oneChina' blanket on us," Taiwan's foreign minister, Jason Hu, told CNBC Asia.
"The reality is that we need a diplomatic status," he said.
The United States has said it won't change its policy of recognizing Beijing as the sole government of China.
China has used the threat of military force before.
In 1996, it fired missiles off the coast of Taiwan on the eve of the presidential election to intimidate voters into voting against Lee.
The scheme backfired: Lee's support soared, and he won with 54% of the vote.
In addition, the United States sent aircraft carriers to the waters off Taiwan to show support for the island democracy.
Political scientist Weng doesn't rule out a similar show of force by China.
But last time, he says, "It didn't produce, so why repeat the same thing? It wouldn't seem to make sense."
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Chinese Military Threaten Taiwan
By The Associated Press, July 15, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-China-Taiwan.html
BEIJING (AP) -- Vowing to defend every inch of Chinese territory, China's military today threatened to use force against Taiwan if President Lee Teng-hui declares independence on the island.
In a sharply worded commentary run in newspapers nationwide, the military's newspaper, the Liberation Army Daily, said the armed forces stood ready to enforce a long-standing government policy to attack Taiwan, if need be, to uphold China's claim to the island.
The commentary echoed warnings delivered Wednesday and carried in newspapers today by Defense Minister Chi Haotian. Chi, a career political commissar in the military, said the People's Liberation Army would ``smash any attempts to separate the country.''
The rhetoric is the most aggressive used by China's leaders since Lee provoked Chinese outrage Saturday by suggesting that China and Taiwan are separate, equal countries. The tone also underscored the military's strengthened hand over policy-making since NATO bombed the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia two months ago.
Separated during a civil war 50 years ago, Beijing and Taipei have for years claimed to be part of ``one China'' -- a concept that has kept Beijing from declaring war to retake the island. Although Lee maintains he still supports eventual reunification, his government this week declared the ``one China'' policy a hindrance to Taiwan.
``Every warrior in the entire army is furiously indignant over Lee Teng-hui's evil plot to separate the motherland,'' the Liberation Army Daily said in the front-page commentary.
``In the struggle between upholding unification and opposing separatism, we ... will not tolerate separatist conspiracies nor sit idly by to let even one inch of territory go,'' the newspaper said.
The newspaper, which is run by the political office of the 2.8 million-member PLA, heaped scorn on Lee, accusing him of exposing ``his ugly face of separatism.''
In a sign of the military's influence, the Liberation Army Daily commentary was reprinted on the front-pages of all major national newspapers, including People's Daily, the authoritative voice of the ruling Communist Party.
After NATO bombed the Chinese Embassy on May 7, conservatives in the party and the military accused reformist members of the leadership for being pro-American and not taking seriously U.S. attempts to contain China. Leaders have promised the military more funding to upgrade weaponry and protect China from foreign bullying.
The Liberation Army said that the ``modernizing'' PLA has sufficient military strength and resolve to defend the nation's territorial integrity.
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China, Taiwan Battle With Artful Threats Beijing Bomb Claim Vs. 'One China' Shift
By John Pomfret Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, July 16, 1999; Page A15 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/16/175l-071699-idx.html
BEIJING, July 15--Last weekend, Taiwan dropped a symbolic bomb on China by abandoning a policy that has underpinned its relations with its prickly Communist neighbor. Today, China countered with a bombshell of its own--the first public acknowledgment that it possesses neutron bomb technology.
China's announcement marks a significant escalation in the war of words raging across the Strait of Taiwan. While no one believes China is close to deploying such a weapon near the self-ruled island of 21 million people, analysts noted that China's announcement referred to a tactical nuclear device that could be used in a relatively small area--such as the region around Taiwan. Neutron bombs are designed to kill people but spare property, making them potentially useful offensive weapons.
"This is a stern warning to Taiwan and the United States," said Chien Chung, a nuclear expert at Taiwan's Armed Forces University.
The battle began over the weekend, when Taiwan's democratically elected president, Lee Teng-hui, told a German radio station that Taiwan wants to forge "special state-to-state" relations with China, instead of accepting the notion that Taiwan is a renegade province of China, as Beijing asserts. Taiwanese officials later expanded on Lee's comments, saying Taiwan wants to abandon the "one China" concept--which has been the bedrock of Taiwan-China relations since dialogue between the two began in the late 1980s.
On the surface, China's announcement today had nothing to do with Taiwan, but was ostensibly made to discredit a congressional report that accused Beijing of stealing neutron bomb technology from the United States.
But in the complex interplay between China, Taiwan and the United States, both Beijing and Taipei are performing on three stages at once--at home, across the Taiwan Strait and in Washington--and China's announcement is a key plot element in the unfolding drama.
Western intelligence officials suspect that China has had neutron bomb technology as far back as 1988, when it detonated a nuclear device with a profile similar to a neutron bomb. But, analysts say, China acknowledged its development program only today to shock Taiwan into realizing the depth of its opposition to Lee's shift on the "one China" formula.
In 1996, China responded to a controversial trip by Lee to the United States by lobbing tactical missiles over Taiwanese territory and conducting a massive military exercise opposite the island. This time, analysts say they believe that China--lacking the time to muster a significant demonstration of military force--decided to respond to Lee's changes by spotlighting its nuclear capability.
Hard-liners within the Beijing government comprise yet another audience to the China-Taiwan byplay.
Ever since U.S. warplanes mistakenly bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade during the Kosovo war, Chinese President Jiang Zemin has faced accusations that his foreign policy is too soft. Those accusations have grown louder since Lee's reversal on "one China."
Finally, with a wary eye on the United States, China also put U.S. forces in the region on notice that it possesses the technology to construct and deliver a tactical neutron device. China has long wanted the United States to stop selling weapons to Taiwan, and it is upgrading its own navy and modernizing its missile program as a challenge to U.S. domination of the seas around Taiwan.
Lee's motivations are also complex, even though his policy shift seemed on the surface to be aimed at China. China's negotiator on Taiwan, Wang Daohan, is to visit the island in October and would thus become the highest-ranking Chinese official to do so since 1949. Now that visit is in doubt.
Lin Bi-chaw, a top Taiwanese official who led the team that formulated the new "state-to-state" policy, said that the main reason for the switch was to inform China that Taiwan would no longer tolerate China's efforts to strangle Taiwan diplomatically and that it wants to be treated as China's equal in subsequent negotiations.
But, analysts argue, other factors may be just as important. For one, Lee's party is facing a political crisis at home.
Polls show that his anointed successor in elections next March, Lien Chan, is unpopular.
At the same time, Lien is facing a challenge within Lee's Nationalist Party from James Soong, a popular and powerful political veteran. Soong is perceived to be a master of domestic issues, and, until last weekend, domestic concerns were uppermost in voters' minds.
So, by initiating an international crisis, Lee hopes to shift attention away from his party's troubles and force people to rally around him and Lien, said Lin Yu-tang, a Taiwanese political scientist who strongly opposes Lee's policy change. "The more tension for Lee the better in this situation," Lin said.
Lee also is playing to his supporters in the United States, analysts say. Early next month, Congress is to open hearings on a bill aimed at strengthening U.S. defense ties with Taiwan; Lee wants both closer defense ties and a reevaluation of the Clinton administration's "one China" policy.
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ANALYSIS-Diverse Asian tensions give U.S. headache
09:30 a.m. Jul 15, 1999 Eastern, By Paul Taylor, Diplomatic Editor - Infoseek
LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) - China's announcement that it has mastered neutron bomb technology fuels Asian tensions that will require deft troubleshooting by the United States, analysts say.
The Chinese statement, intended to counter U.S. charges that Beijing stole American nuclear secrets, compounded strains with Taiwan, whose president this week abruptly repudiated its ``one China'' policy, angering the Communist mainland authorities.
Meanwhile, the United States has said secretive North Korea is planning another long-range missile test soon, a twist in the Asian arms race which has united China and Japan in alarm.
``These tensions have all arisen for different reasons...but they all pose challenges to the United States. U.S.-China relations are going to be much more difficult as a result,'' said Terence Taylor, assistant director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
China's carefully prepared neutron bomb announcement was not a technical surprise, since Beijing was known to have tested an enhanced radiation nuclear device as far back as 1988, he said.
Neutron weapons are low-yield bombs designed to kill large concentrations of people by radiation without inflicting massive material damage.
The United States developed the technology in the 1970s but renounced production partly due to big anti-nuclear protests at home and in Western Europe, but also because its nuclear doctrine was based on destroying enemy infrastructure or missile forces rather than killing masses of civilians.
``The neutron bomb has a place in Chinese doctrine because it is a weapon with which a second-rank power can threaten and terrify,'' Taylor said, noting that France too had developed the technology in the 1980s but later renounced the weapons.
Analysts said China may have timed its announcement as a reaction to Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui's statement that bilateral talks could continue only if they were considered ``state-to-state'' rather than between ``political entities.''
Taipei said the idea of one, indivisible China that included Taiwan -- a mutually accepted formula that has prevented war between them -- had to be scrapped because Beijing was using it to undermine the legitimacy of Taiwan.
``Issuing the statement at this point was obviously designed to have some impact on the Taiwan issue, but it is an accidental bonus. What it does is to signify that China is an all-round nuclear power, which the United States must take even more seriously,'' said Professor Michael Yahuda, an Asian expert at the London School of Economics.
Both analysts said Lee's repudiation of the ``one China'' principle was chiefly a domestic political gambit aimed at weakening opposition contenders when Taiwan elects his successor next March.
But statements made for internal reasons can trigger crises, or even wars, so the United States has been quick to try to defuse the issue.
Yahuda said it was significant that Washington had sent its envoy to Taiwan to seek an explanation, suggested Lee was backing away from abandoning the ``one China'' principle and urged the two sides to talk rather than provoke each other.
``By speaking to Taipei only, this was an implicit criticism of what the Taiwanese president did,'' he said. China has long threatened war if Taiwan declared independence.
Tensions seem likely to increase in the run-up to the 50th anniversary of the People's Republic of China and the Taiwanese elections next March.
But both Western experts said they did not expect a repeat of the 1996 Taiwan Strait crisis, in which the United States sent a naval task force to protect Taiwan and assert deterrence after China staged missile tests near the island.
The Chinese neutron bomb statement may be counter-productive for Beijing's effort to deter Japan and the United States from developing missile defence systems, some experts say.
Japan is the only country ever to have been hit by an atom bomb and is sensitive to any nuclear risk from its neighbours.
Last August's shock North Korean launch of a three-stage rocket that crossed Japanese airspace prompted intensive discussion of missile defences between Washington and Tokyo, upsetting China which sees the idea as an attempt to contain it and neutralise its nuclear deterrent in Asia.
Another missile test by Pyongyang, which U.S. experts believe may occur on or around August 10, would add new urgency to attempts to agree on developing interceptors.
``That would have serious implications for relations between China and the United States, which are already difficult,'' Taylor said.
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15. Source: Chinese Chief Replaced
By John Leicester Associated Press Writer Tuesday, July 6, 1999; 10:43 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990706/V000920-070699-idx.html
BEIJING (AP) -- China has replaced its military intelligence chief in a shift that may be related to the official's alleged $300,000 contribution to President Clinton's re-election campaign, a Western source said today.
Gen. Ji Shengde's transfer to the Academy of Military Science is believed to have taken place last month, the source said on condition of anonymity. His replacement as head of military intelligence is unknown
The source described it as a sideways move for Ji, and said Ji may have come under criticism over both the election fund allegations and U.S. accusations that China stole U.S. nuclear weapons secrets.
Campaign fund-raiser Johnny Chung alleged that Ji gave him $300,000 to help Clinton win the 1996 presidential race. Beijing has denied that it sought to influence the election with campaign contributions.
China's Defense Ministry and Foreign Ministry declined to comment on Ji's status.
Little is known about Ji, although he is believed to be the son of a revolutionary veteran, a one-time foreign minister. Ji is not listed in official Chinese government directories or biographical reference books.
According to The Los Angeles Times, Chung said that Ji told him: ``We like your president. I will give you 300,000 U.S. dollars. You can give it to the president and the Democratic Party. We hope he will be re-elected.''
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16. Get beyond nuclear myths
July 12, 1999 BY JAMES GOVER Detroit Free Press http://www.freep.com/voices/columnists/qenukes12.htm
THE relationship between the United States, the world's only superpower, and China, the world's most populated nation, has been damaged by allegations that China gained access to U.S. nuclear weapon designs. Because the economic consequences of strained U.S.-China relations could be grave, any reaction should be proportionate to the military consequences.
After 25 years in nuclear weapons work and five years in national policy research, I believe the United States is overreacting as a direct result of public and lawmaker misunderstanding of the realities of nuclear weapons technology.
Since President Jimmy Carter left Washington, there has been no high-level government official with any real expertise in technology or science. Consequently, the federal government's science and technology policies are almost entirely based on myths spun by those who benefit most from federal science and technology policy.
The misunderstanding surrounding China's theft of U.S. nuclear secrets stems from myths about nuclear weapons spun by both the pro-nuclear weapons community, seeking to defend its annual budget of $4.5 billion, and the anti-nuclear weapons community, seeking to rid the world of nuclear weapons. Three of the many myths these polarized communities have conveyed to the American public need debunking.
Shortly after German chemists discovered nuclear fission, nuclear scientists concluded that it would be possible to build a nuclear weapon. The question was never, "Who can build it," but, "Who will be the first to build it?"
The United States built the first three nuclear weapons, tested one in New Mexico, and dropped two on Japan -- including one that wasn't tested. With that act, the United States refuted a myth prevalent today: Stopping the testing of nuclear weapons will stop their development.
The second myth says that unless nations steal U.S. nuclear secrets, they will not be able to build nuclear weapons. A corollary myth assumes that by withholding secrets from other nuclear weapon powers, while simultaneously outspending them by a wide margin, this country retains a lead in nuclear weapons technology. A few years after the United States dropped nuclear weapons in Japan, the Soviet Union tested a nuclear weapon.
The American press made it seem that if not for Soviet spies (Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Klaus Fuchs, etc.), the Soviet Union would never have been able to develop a nuclear weapon. Thefts of U.S. secrets may have accelerated Soviet access to nuclear weapons by two or three years, but the Soviet Union would have developed nuclear weapons with or without the help of spies.
Nuclear weapons are accessible to any nation that has access to Plutonium 239 or Uranium 235. That has led to nuclear proliferation. Countries with technical and economic resources far, far less than those of China (for example, South Africa and Pakistan) have successfully built and tested nuclear weapons.
It's very difficult for an engineer to believe that major powers such as China haven't figured out how to design so-called miniature nuclear weapons or neutron bombs. And the political utility of nuclear weapons to deter someone else from using them on you may not be worth the $4.5 billion maintenance price tag.
The third myth assumes that nuclear weapons collaboration between the United States and China must be contrary to U.S. interests. Above all, nuclear weapons must be extremely safe against accidental operation and they must be highly safe against theft. It serves U.S. and Chinese interests for China's nuclear weapons to be safe. This is one area where U.S. nuclear weapons technology may be well ahead of China's.
While those who violate U.S. security laws must be prosecuted, it is doubtful that China's access to U.S. nuclear secrets has damaged our military security as much as it and U.S. reaction are damaging economic security, here and in China.
JAMES GOVER of Grand Blanc is head of the Kettering University Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Write to him at the Detroit Free Press Editorial Page, 600 W. Fort St., Detroit MI 48226.
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Message: 17 Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 05:10:24 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-4 7/17/99 - Greenpeace - Plutonium Ship Japan / Europe
17. Japanese plutonium shipments stir safety fears
09:24 a.m. Jul 07, 1999 Eastern, By Lyndsay Griffiths - Infoseek
LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) - Two lightly armed ships carrying enough plutonium to build 60 nuclear weapons will embark on a risky voyage to Japan this month, environmental campaigners said on Wednesday.
The shipment, whose departure they believe is imminent, has sparked fears of nuclear proliferation, environmental fallout, and the possible hijacking of the plutonium on the high seas.
``It marks the start of a dangerous new phase in the nuclear industry,'' said Greenpeace environmental group.
The vessels, due to sail from Britain, will carry MOX fuel, a mixture of uranium and plutonium recycled from spent nuclear fuel. Anti-nuclear campaigners say MOX allows plutonium to be easily converted for use in nuclear weapons.
It is the first shipment of direct use nuclear weapons material since 1992, but at least 80 plutonium shipments are planned over the next decade.
``The blunt and simple concern is the issue of non-proliferation,'' Mike Townsley of Greenpeace told Reuters.
``At a time when the world is struggling to cope with vast quantities of plutonium from dismantled warheads, it is absurd to be embarking on an international trade in weapons-usable plutonium,'' he said. ``It undermines the significant steps taken in recent years to step out of the shadow of the Cold War.''
Greenpeace plans a news conference on board ``Rainbow Warrior'' on Thursday, prompting speculation the group may use the vessel in direct action against the plutonium shipments.
``Greenpeace has a long history of such protest and the boat will certainly be around,'' said one environmental activist.
In 1998, Greenpeace campaigners boarded a ship in the Panama Canal that was carrying reprocessed nuclear waste to Japan and such direct action has become one of the group's hallmarks.
The freighters due to sail from Britain are bound for two Japanese nuclear power plants, Takahama in Fukui Prefecture and Fukushima on the northeast coast of Japan.
The ``Pacific Pintail'' and ``Pacific Teal'' have undergone extensive refurbishment for the 25,000 km (15,625 mile) voyage in Barrow-in-Furness, northwest England, where they remain in dock.
``Preparations are well under way. It will certainly have left by the end of this month and our impression is that it will be sooner rather than later. This is imminent,'' said Townsley.
South Korean environmental groups are alarmed by the possibility the vessels could pass through the Korea Straits and as close as 50 km (30 miles) from the city of Pusan.
The Oxford Research Group, a think tank, is also concerned about security on board, since the last such shipment, from France in 1992, was escorted by a 6,500-ton protection vessel.
``The security provided is totally inadequate for transporting about half a tonne of plutonium halfway round the world,'' said Frank Barnaby of the research group.
He said each vessel would carry three cannons and a high-speed armed boat. British officers assigned to the vessels will be armed with assault rifles, shotguns and side-arms.
``The nuclear material could be stolen by terrorists, to fabricate a primitive nuclear explosion, or by a rogue state to make more sophisticated nuclear weapons,'' he said.
No vessel will accompany the freighters, which belong to a part-owned subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL).
BNFL says security fully satisfies a U.S.-Japan nuclear pact, under which Tokyo needs U.S. consent to ship plutonium.
``The U.K., French and Japanese authorities are also satisfied that the measures provide fully effective protection for the cargo,'' said the company.
A BNFL spokesman said the company would not release the departure date, route or time of arrival until one or two days before the vessels set sail. The sailing is just the first of at least 80 planned over the next decade.
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`Floating Chernobyl' risks sea attack
By SIMON MANN EUROPE CORRESPONDENT LONDON, SATURDAY July 11, 1999 "THE AGE" http://www.theage.com.au/daily/990711/news/news19.html
Two British ships carrying enough plutonium to make 60 nuclear bombs are expected to sail for Japan within days, prompting an outcry from green groups who claim the ``floating Chernobyl'' could be attacked by pirates.
The two ships have been fitted with 30-millimetre naval cannons and the crew have reportedly demanded danger money for the voyage.
The estimated 446-kilogram cargo is greater than that contained in India's nuclear weapons program, and is expected to be the first of at least 80 shipments of plutonium being sent back to Japan from Britain over the next decade.
Greenpeace said it believed one of the ships would leave Barrow-in-Furness, on England's north-west coast, early next week. A second vessel would collect its cargo near the Hague, before the two ships meet off the French Atlantic coast for their 25,000-kilometre journey to Japan. The exact route of the convoy remains a secret.
``In the right conditions it could be potentially devastating,'' said a Greenpeace spokesman, Mr Mike Townsley. ``It is a very risky way to transport it. We have seen quite an increase in piracy in Asia.''
The British Government has rejected safety concerns. A spokesman for the state-owned power generators British Nuclear Fuels, who recycled the radioactive material under contract from Japan, said thieves would need to process the material in a nuclear plant before it could be used in weapons.
``It can't be directly used to make nuclear weapons in the form it is in,'' BNF's Mr John Barbour said. ``And there will be significant security measures in place.''
But Dr Frank Barnaby, of the Oxford Research Group, said the security was ``totally inadequate'' and hijackers with a well-equipped laboratory would have little trouble removing nuclear weapons-grade plutonium from the compound.
However, he added that the environmental risks of the journey were minimal. The recycled mixed oxide fuel was sealed in lead and steel containers and would only be released into the air in the event of a ship fire.
BNF refused to discuss security measures for the journey, although it confirmed that the cannons had been specially fitted.
But Greenpeace reported that instead of a military escort the two ships were expected to protect each other from attack and would have on board a security force of 26 officers from the UK Atomic Energy Agency Constabulary, who usually patrol British nuclear installations.
It is the first time that British merchant ships have been armed since World War II and it will be the first shipment of direct-use nuclear weapons material since 1992.
Greenpeace said the arrangements had been approved by the US Government because most of the original uranium fuel had come from America. The cargo is earmarked for Japanese nuclear power reactors at Takahama and Fukushima. Greenpeace also claimed that these facilities were not designed to take this type of fuel and in doing so officials were risking a decline in operating safety margins.
with REUTERS
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Greenpeace calls upon the British French and Japanese Governments to ban the imminent shipment of weapons-usable plutonium fuel from Europe to Japan
For immediate release: July 8th 1999 EcoNet http://www.econet.apc.org/igc/en/hl/99071225066/hl7.html
LONDON, July 8, 1999:- Greenpeace today called on the British, French and Japanese governments to ban the first shipment of plutonium fuel due to depart imminently from Europe to Japan. The international environmental organisation announced that it is sending its flag ship the "RV Rainbow Warrior" to Cherbourg, France, where part of the deadly cargo is to be loaded.
The plutonium fuel will be carried by two British flagged ships, the "Pacific Pintail" and the "Pacific Teal", owned by Pacific Nuclear Transport Limited (PNTL) but operated "on government service" to the UK. It is expected one of the ships will leave Barrow docks, near Sellafield, with a cargo of eight MOX fuel elements containing some 225 kgs of plutonium. The other will leave Cherbourg, near La Hague, with 32 MOX fuel elements containing 221 kgs of plutonium. They will then rendezvous at sea, off the French Atlantic coast, and continue together on the 20,000 mile voyage to Japan without naval escort along a still secret route.
Greenpeace revealed that the secret Japan-bound transport could leave as early as next week (July 12-19). The combined plutonium cargo of some 446kg is greater than that contained in India's nuclear weapons programme and is sufficient to build some 60 nuclear weapons.
The shipment and the plutonium programme behind it threaten to undermine international nuclear non-proliferation efforts, environment protection and public health and safety. "Japan's drive to amass weapons-usable plutonium not only threatens regional stability in East Asia but fatally undercuts international efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons," said Mike Townsley of Greenpeace International.
The plutonium has been produced in the nuclear reprocessing factories at Sellafield in Britain and La Hague in France. These plants take burnt reactor fuel from nuclear power plants and, through a highly polluting process, isolate the plutonium from the other radioactive elements. It is later combined with uranium to form mixed oxide (MOX) or plutonium fuel. The French and British nuclear industries are currently seeking government approval to massively expand the capacity of their MOX production facilities.
"The British Government claims to have an ethical foreign policy. If this cargo is allowed to leave, that policy will be in tatters. It is not ethical to annually pump millions of litres of radioactive waste into the sea. It is not ethical to impose this dangerous transport on the enroute states, threatening the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. It is not ethical to be a world leader in the sale of weapons usable nuclear material," said Townsley.
"If it really wants its claims of an ethical foreign policy to be more than just rhetoric, then it must: immediately ban this transport; reject British Nuclear Fuels' (BNFL) application to begin operating a massive new MOX production line; and end the separation of plutonium from spent nuclear fuel at Sellafield."
Instead of a military escort the two vessels, recently fitted with three 30mm cannon each, are expected to protect each other against potential attack. A security force, consisting of 26 officers from the UK Atomic Energy Agency Constabulary, who normally patrol British nuclear facilities, will also be onboard the ships. This has been approved by the US government, a requirement because most of the original uranium fuel came from the U.S.
In Japan the plutonium fuel will be loaded into conventional nuclear power reactors operated by Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO) at Takahama and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) at Fukushima. These reactors were never designed to use this type of fuel and it will reduce their operating safety margins.
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT OUR WEB SITE: http://www.greenpeace.org
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GREENPEACE REVEALS THAT FRENCH STATE OWNED PLUTONIUM FACTORY IS ILLEGAL; GROUP CALLS ON COURTS AND BELGIAN GOVERNMENT TO SHUT FACTORY
From: "greenbase" <greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org> July 13, 1999 EcoNet http://www.econet.apc.org/igc/en/hl/99071518556/hl9.html
Japanese, German, Swiss, and Belgian plutonium fuel produced illegally
Cherbourg, July 13, Greenpeace today charged that a French plutonium fuel production facility located in Dessel, Belgium is operating in violation of Belgian law. The international environment group has charged that the plutonium fuel for the imminent France/Japan shipment has been produced under illegal circumstances. Greenpeace has today filed legal papers with the Belgian Supreme Court to request nullification of the operating license, and called on the new Belgium Government to immediately shut the FBFC International "5M" plant. FBFC is wholly owned by Cogema and Framatome.
The Greenpeace charges pertain to the plutonium MOX assembly plant operated by Franco Belge de Fabrication de Combustible (FBFC) International. The plant, known as "5M", has been operated since 1997, and is owned by the French companies COGEMA and Framatome. The specific charges are that the operators, FBFC, constructed a new plutonium fuel assembly plant, in "manifest violation" of Article's 12 of Belgium law (Royal Decree), and a misuse of Article 13. These articles, which regulate the construction of `new' facilities, required that FBFC conduct a public enquiry prior to constructing the plutonium fuel assembly plant (1)
FBFC has not only not conducted such an enquiry but they have brazenly operated their plant for some two years in violation of the Belgian law.
"This French owned company has clearly violated Belgian law," said Shaun Burnie of Greenpeace International. "They have deliberately sought to deny the Belgian people the right to be consulted on a nuclear facility which poses significant risks to the environment, public health and the cause of nuclear non-proliferation. We believe that this was a dirty deal done by the then Belgian government and the French nuclear industry, led by Cogema and we demand that the new Belgian government should immediately shut this illegal plant down," said Burnie.
"5M' is the final assembly plant for plutonium MOX fuel rods. At the plant, fuel rods supplied from a nearby facility operated by Belgonucleaire in Dessel, and the Cadarache plant in the south of France, are bundled together into fabricated MOX fuel assemblies for Belgian, German, Japanese, and Swiss nuclear reactors.
The charges call into question the current, first-time shipment of MOX fuel which has been shipped to France and is currently awaiting transport to Japan from the French port of Cherbourg. The ruling demanded by Greenpeace by the Belgian courts and new government would call into question the status of the fuel currently stored at the la Hague reprocessing plant near Cherbourg as well as fuel which has yet to be fabricated and/or shipped to Japan from Belgium. The controversial plutonium shipment is part of a 1997 contract signed with Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) of Japan
This will be the second major court action taken by Greenpeace against illegal MOX activities in Dessel. In 1991, Greenpeace filed legal papers against Belgonucleaire charging that they had violated the licensing process for a planned plutonium MOX production plant. Greenpeace charged that the company hady, they had failed to consult one of the districts in which the plant was due to be located. Greenpeace's case was accepted by the courts, with the Supreme Court ruling in late 1998 against Belgonucleaire. The plutonium MOX plant was never built.
"We have stopped one illegal MOX plant at Dessel and we will close this one," said Burnie.
Further information on plutonium production at Dessel, including the operations of FBFC, are available on the Greenpeace International website : www.greenpeace.org
(1) only for minor modifications, the public inquiry can be cancelled. The completely new MOX facility of 1000 m2 can hardly be classified as a minor modification.
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Greenpeace activists removed in nuclear waste protest
Monday 12 July, 1999 (12:26pm AEST) http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-12jul1999-37.htm
French police in the north-western port of Cherbourg have removed from two cranes 11 Greenpeace activists who were bidding to keep two ships transporting recycled nuclear waste to Japan from setting sail.
A French nuclear fuel company was using the cranes to load shipments of recycled plutonium and uranium onto a container ship that will head for Japan before the end of the month.
Another ship is to leave for Japan from north-west England.
Greenpeace says the ships will contain enough nuclear fuel to make 60 nuclear bombs, and has vowed to prevent the shipment.
Greenpeace also claims security measures are inadequate as the two freighters are to rendezvous on the high seas and travel in convoy, but without military escort.
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Greenpeace urges Ireland to oppose nuclear cargo
10:49 a.m. Jul 09, 1999 Eastern By Kevin Smith - Infoseek
DUBLIN, July 9 (Reuters) - Greenpeace on Friday called on the Irish government to take a tougher stand against a consignment of weapons grade plutonium due to sail along the Irish coast next week en route from Britain to Japan.
The environmental pressure group said there were a number of serious security concerns about the planned transportation of recycled mixed oxide (MOX) fuel in two ships, one leaving from northwestern England and a second from France.
``We urge the Irish government, which has a long history of taking a stand on nuclear issues, to seek urgent high-level talks with the U.S., British and Japanese authorities,'' spokesman Mike Townsley said at a news conference aboard the group's ship Greenpeace moored in Dublin's River Liffey.
The government said on Friday it was ``vehemently opposed'' to the MOX shipment and that the Department of the Marine would be monitoring the progress of the ship leaving from England as it passed through the Irish Sea towards the French coast.
Joe Jacob, minister of state with responsibility for nuclear issues, told Reuters the government had continually voiced its opposition to operations at Britain's Sellafield nuclear plant just over the Irish Sea.
``We are very seriously concerned. We have expressed that repeatedly to the British government -- most recently in the past couple of months -- and we will continue to do so,'' Jacob said.
Townsley said the government should ``put flesh on the bones of its opposition.''
One part of next week's consignment is due to leave from Barrow-in-Furness, near Sellafield, to rendezvous with a second ship leaving the French port of Cherbourg.
The shipments will not have a military escort and Greenpeace said it was concerned they would be routed through areas known for piracy and hijacking, particularly in some Asian waters.
Townsley said the combined 446 kg (983 lb) cargo, travelling the 20,000 km (12,500 mile) voyage to Japan, was sufficient to build 60 nuclear bombs.
``Quite simply, we question the wisdom of sending 60 bombs' worth of nuclear weapon-grade plutonium in this way to Japan,'' Townsley said.
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Nuclear ships linked to new role for Sellafield
By Kevin O'Sullivan, July 10, 1999 Irish Times http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/1999/0710/courts33.htm
The environmental group Greenpeace has warned the Government to take much stronger action to prevent shipment of nuclear fuel from Britain if it does not want to see significant scalingup of BNFL's operations in Sellafield.
The call came as the MV Greenpeace vessel docked in Dublin prior to travelling to Barrow in Cumbria, where the first shipment of mixed oxide fuel (MOX) to Japan is likely to take place within days, according to Mr Mike Townsley of Greenpeace International. It will coincide with another ship leaving Cherbourg in France with fuel from the Cogema reprocessing facility at La Hague.
Separate to the considerable issues of security and risk of accident, the shipments were the first steps towards the French and British nuclear industries getting government approval for massive expansion of their MOX production facilities, he added.
A Greenpeace campaigner, Mr John Bowler, said he feared a perception among Irish people that Sellafield had somehow gone away; "that we're winning". Yet there was a risk of losing the gains achieved with the help of governments since the 1950s.
If the first shipment was successful, it would lead to commissioning the MOX plant at Sellafield which uses separated plutonium (generated by reprocessing) and combines it with mixed oxide or plutonium fuel for use in conventional nuclear reactors. Some 80 shipments were likely over the following decade. "If that plant is allowed to open, then it will not only mean further shipments of plutonium MOX through the Irish Sea, but it will be used to justify the continued operation of the Thorp plant, leading to further massive contamination of the marine environment."
Meanwhile, BNFL held a briefing on the transport arrangements for the shipments at Barrow and insisted the protection measures "meet or exceed all relevant international recommendations and requirements".
The arrangements matched the key US-Japan agreement on peaceful use of nuclear energy, a spokeswoman said. In particular, there would be an armed escort vessel to accompany the transport ship from departure to arrival. Armed officers from the UK Atomic Energy Authority would provide on-board protection, while the two transport ships would sail in convoy.
The safety features of the vessels would include double hulls to withstand collision damage; dual navigation, tracking and communications systems and twin engines. Departure times and details of the cargo and route would not be indicated until "one or two days before departure".
Green TD Mr Trevor Sargent said the Government position needed clarification immediately, as the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Woods, had expressed concern about the shipments, yet BNFL had claimed the Government accepted the safety precautions put in place.
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BNFL gives reassurance on nuclear fuel casks
By Kevin O'Sullivan, July 16, 1999 Irish Times http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/1999/0716/hom5.htm
The ships which will soon begin transporting 100-tonne casks containing nuclear fuel from Sellafield through the Irish Sea to Japan are designed to withstand all accidents, British Nuclear Fuels officials have insisted.
It has been confirmed an Irish Government official has been to the port of Barrow, Cumbria, England, to examine safety and security arrangements for the shipments of mixed oxide fuel (MOX).
The Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Woods, has expressed concerns about the shipments - which are believed to be imminent - though the State is party to international agreements allowing nuclear transport.
Capt Malcolm Miller, BNFL's head of transport, accepted the highest risk was of an accident involving a collision or sinking due to a storm but the purposelydesigned vessels were built of collision-resistant material, had numerous safety features and would be very difficult to sink, even if they were badly flooded.
If a ship sank, the risk to human health and the environment was "practically negligible". The casks containing the MOX fuel had been subjected to drop, fire and immersion tests, he said at a briefing in Dublin. BNFL, nonetheless, had contracts with salvage companies and the casks were "salvageable in any ocean". The cost of recovery would become more an issue the deeper the ocean. Who would pay would be a matter of "politics and finance".
The threat of piracy was "low to negligible", particularly as the MOX fuel was not readily usable for sinister purposes (it contains 5 per cent plutonium, which can be used in nuclear weapons). The ships would not travel known piracy routes in south Asia.
He said given BNFL's record of 160 round trips carrying nuclear material since 1969 without a single accident, the shipments could be considered routine.
Armed officers of the UK Atomic Energy Authority Constabulary would nonetheless be on board, while the vessels were outfitted with three 30 millimetre naval guns and other protection systems. US authorities, who oversee security arrangements for such shipments, had found there was "equivalent security" compared to plutonium shipments to Japan from Sellafield carried out from 1992-93, though a separate armed vessel accompanied all shipments then.
BNFL media affairs manager Mr Alan Hughes said two days' notice of a vessel sailing would be given, followed by details of the route. The Irish Government would get special notice.
Mr Rupert Wilcox Baker, BNFL's public affairs manager, said the UK Environment Agency, not BNFL, had concluded that if the MOX facility at Sellafield was fully commissioned the impact in terms of discharges into the Irish Sea would be "negligible" (contrary to Greenpeace claims it will lead to an escalation).
On Britain's commitment to reduce Sellafield discharges to "close to zero" by 2020, Mr Hughes said the UK government would have to show next year how this would be done. BNFL was confident this would be technically feasible.
He accepted it was impossible at present