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Russia, U.S. Open Nuclear Security Training Center
SERGIEV POSAD, Russia, Nov 2, 1999 -- (Reuters)
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=106172
The United States and Russia opened a U.S.-funded nuclear security center on Monday to train Russian officers to guard atomic weapons storage sites and use high-tech detection equipment.
Officials hailed the Security Assessment and Training Center in woods northeast of Moscow as a milestone in efforts to reduce the risk of nuclear weapons being stolen and a stark recognition Russia simply could not afford such a base alone.
"When we started (cooperating) seven years ago, we didn't think it would be possible to work in such areas as nuclear security, transporting nuclear warheads and guarding important military sites," Colonel-General Igor Valynkin told reporters after a ribbon-cutting ceremony. "Today, it is a reality."
Builders began work at the site in February 1998 and are close to completion. Freshly painted buildings stand in a stark compound surrounded by triple fences of the kind the United States has given to Russia to ring actual nuclear bases.
Russian and U.S. staff at the center will assess new security equipment and design packages of systems to deploy at Russian bases. Officers are already being trained on some of the equipment, including infra-red detection devices. The center will also house a drug-testing laboratory.
Retired U.S. Air Force General Thomas Kuenning, who heads the Defense Department's Cooperative Threat Reduction program, said the United States and Russia had common cause in keeping Russia's stored weapons safe, but Moscow was short of cash.
"We are doing with him the things he would do on his own if he had the resources," he said, referring to Valynkin.
The Russian general, who heads the Russian Defense Ministry's directorate in charge of nuclear security, echoed this, saying: "We really haven't got the funds to carry out such large-scale work on the problem of nuclear weapons security."
He reiterated Russian nuclear bases were safe despite threats from Chechen guerrillas to attack them.
"We have increased the number of guards. In addition to guard battalions we have mobile units which can react to any security system violation or attempted intrusion," he said. "We consider our system is reliable and will prevent terrorists entering our sites."
The center is part of an annual $400 million U.S. program to foster nuclear security and help dismantle atomic weapons in Russia, which is deep in an economic crisis that has sapped the armed forces of funds.
Kuenning was asked about differences with Russia over U.S. calls for a change in the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty. Russian officials have called for all cooperation to be halted if the United States violates the treaty.
"The (Russian) general and I are both servants of the political system and if the political system says we can't cooperate together for any particular reason then that's the way it'll be," he said. "But it is in our interest to cooperate fully for as long as that is possible."
He noted differences - such as those over NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia - had not even caused a hiccup in cooperation on building the center.
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Iran to complete missile testing
UPI Updated 1:42 PM ET November 2, 1999
http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/991102/13/international-maneuvers
TEHRAN, Iran, Nov. 2 (UPI) Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards forces will hold the final stage of military maneuvers next week, including the testing of a new missile.
Hussein Qaliki, commander of Iran's Air Defense forces, said the principal phase of the maneuvers will take place on Nov. 10 south of Tehran.
Qaliki said the military games were meant to boost "the combat capability and defensive readiness of the air defense forces, as well as to train them on using the latest air defense technologies."
He said the testing of the Iranian-made Sayyad-1 surface-to-air missile, will be completed during the exercises.
Last April, Iran announced it had successfully tested the new missile, which was named after Lt. Gen. Ali Sayyad Shirazi, who was assassinated days earlier by Iranian opposition followers in front of his house in Tehran.
Iran has been accused of receiving assistance from Russia and North Korea in developing its missiles, a charge denied by Tehran.
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Japan to allow flights to N.Korea
UPI Updated 5:23 AM ET November 2, 1999
http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/991102/05/international-norkor
TOKYO Nov. 2 (UPI) The Japanese government Tuesday lifted its ban on charter flights to North Korea as a first stage in easing sanctions against the country, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Soichiro Matsutani said.
The decision, intended to further dialogue between Japan and North Korea over its missile and nuclear development program, came despite a rift between senior Japanese defense and foreign ministry officials over whether to follow the direction of the Clinton administration in the United States in dealing with the Stalinist state.
The U.S. government partially lifted sanctions against North Korea after North Korean officials pledged in September not to test launch any missiles while bilateral talks continued.
The next round of talks between U.S. and North Korean officials is scheduled for Nov. 15 in Berlin.
Japan imposed the sanctions against North Korea after Pyongyang test- fired a three-stage ballistic missile on Aug. 31, 1998, part of which flew over Japanese territory.
Foreign Minister Yohei Kono said last month that rather than waiting to see further progress, Japan would consider resuming charter flights as a show of support for U.S. efforts concerning North Korea.
Japanese officials have cautioned, however, that they would not lift a suspension of food aid or resume negotiations for normalizing ties with Pyongyang unless they receive a stronger commitment from North Korea that it will not launch another missile.
The alleged abduction of Japanese by North Koreans also remains a sore spot for the Japanese government.
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Ukraine to Transfer 11 Bombers to Russia to Repay Part of Debt
David Hoffman, Washington Post Foreign Service, November 2, 1999; Page A22
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/02/065l-110299-idx.html
MOSCOW, Nov. 1-Russia is preparing to obtain three Soviet-era strategic bombers from Ukraine this week, the first of 11 planes left behind after the Soviet collapse that now are being traded by Ukraine for forgiveness of part of its natural gas debts to Moscow.
Russian air force commander Anatoly Kornukov was quoted by the Interfax news agency today as saying the two Tu-95 Bear bombers and one Tu-160 Blackjack are to be flown in the next two or three days to Russia's bomber base at Engels, 520 miles southeast of Moscow.
The flight marks the end of eight years of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine over the planes. Russia currently has only six of the Tu-160s and is to bring eight more from Ukraine, more than doubling its fleet. However, neither the condition of the planes in Russia nor the ones coming from Ukraine is known. Some are believed to be in need of major repairs.
Russia now has 57 of the slow-flying, propeller-driven Bear bombers and is to get three more, built in 1991, from Ukraine. In addition, Russia is to get 500 AS-15 Kent cruise missiles that also were left behind in Ukraine.
The deal--often delayed because of disagreements over the value of the planes--was set at $285 million and will be deducted from Ukraine's debt to Russia for natural gas, which exceeds $1 billion. Russia is expected to fly all 11 planes to Engels by the end of the year, officials said.
Aviation has always been the smallest leg in Russia's land-sea-air triad of nuclear forces, and the additional planes will bolster its long-range forces. However, the additional planes can carry only a limited number of nuclear warheads compared to those stationed on submarines and on land.
For example, if fully operational, the three Tu-95 bombers can carry 16 missiles each, and the eight Tu-160s can carry 12 each, for a total additional capacity of 144 warheads. Russia's current strategic nuclear arsenal is about 5,620 warheads, but it is shrinking because of arms control agreements as well as obsolescence.
However, the bombers and missiles may also carry conventional warheads and some of the Ukrainian planes may be also useful for spare parts. Russia also has some unfinished Tu-160s at the factory where they were manufactured in the Tatarstan region.
Russian newspapers said some criticized the deal as an unnecessary trade designed to help President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine win reelection. Not all the bombers left in Ukraine are being brought back to Russia, however; dozens that are considered unfit to fly and in need of major repairs are being left there
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U.S., Russia Open Nuclear Security Center
Washington Post Tuesday, November 2, 1999; Page A16
WORLD IN BRIEF, Compiled from news reports
SERGIYEV POSAD, Russia--The United States and Russia opened a U.S.-funded nuclear security center to train Russian officers to guard atomic weapons storage sites and use high-tech detection equipment.
Officials hailed the Security Assessment and Training Center in woods northeast of Moscow as a milestone in efforts to reduce the risk of nuclear weapons being stolen and a stark recognition that Russia simply could not afford such a base alone.
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Nuke Weapons Plant To Be Demolished
Filed at 4:00 a.m. EST, Associated Press November 2, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-Rocky-Flats-Demolition.html
GOLDEN, Colo. (AP) -- On the radioed command from U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, a huge shovel punched a hole in the wall of the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant, a Cold War relic now fading into history.
Beginning the final phase of demolition on the 34-year-old site, workers on Monday set upon Building 779, where methods of reprocessing and purifying plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons were developed. The plant west of Denver was shut down in 1989.
``Places like Rocky Flats helped us win the Cold War,'' Richardson said. ``But now we want these places for other uses.''
Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar said the state, federal and local government officials are working to ``develop a crown jewel of open space here.''
Demolition began two years ago, when workers emptied the buildings of hazardous chemicals and materials, said Dave Nickless, a Department of Energy project manager. All that was left to tear down on Monday was a shell of concrete bricks that he said had been stripped of all radioactivity.
The concrete waste will be stored at Rocky Flats and used as backfill when other buildings, some of which are below ground level, are demolished, he said. Waste contaminated with radioactivity or hazardous chemicals is to be shipped to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., for long-term storage.
Building 779 housed 134 glove boxes, where workers handled plutonium under protection of heavy gloves attached to metal enclosures. The boxes were ventilated with miles of pipes that pushed contaminated air through huge filters in nearby buildings.
During early stages of demolition, workers found about 14 pounds of plutonium spread throughout the building, along with the glove boxes, ductwork and filters.
Stabilized radioactive waste is shipped twice per week from Rocky Flats to New Mexico, Nickless said.
The work is expected to continue into 2006, when Rocky Flats will be closed completely, Richardson said.
Richardson noted that for thousands of years, humankind's legacy has involved building -- from the Great Wall of China to the pyramids of Egypt.
``Isn't it ironic that our longest strides in the past 10 years have had to do with tearing things down, like the Berlin Wall and monuments to Josef Stalin?'' he asked. ``I'm glad to deliver the eulogy ... for this building.''
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In Major Test, New Israeli Missile Destroys 'Incoming' Rocket
By WILLIAM A. ORME Jr. November 2, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/110299israel-us-missiles.html
JERUSALEM -- Passing its first major antiballistic missile test, the new Arrow II missile successfully intercepted and destroyed a dummy incoming rocket over the Mediterranean on Monday, the Israeli air force reported.
The exercise was a critical rite of passage for the joint Israeli-American Arrow II program, the only antiballistic-missile defense system under active development with the capacity to demolish warheads high in the stratosphere.
The first two $170 million batteries of the Arrow II are being installed here. Military officials here say they expect the system to become operational early next year. The U.S. Congress recently appropriated $42 million for the third battery, raising the total direct American contribution to $83 million in the current fiscal year. About two-thirds of the cost of the program is being covered by Israel's defense budget, although American military aid is underwriting much of the expense.
The destroyed missile, an earlier generation Arrow programmed to mimic the trajectory of an enemy scud, was launched from an Israeli warship and shot down by an Arrow II at 11:42 a.m. local time, the air force said.
Although the Israeli military did not provide details, the Arrow II is widely believed to have been launched from an air force base 20 miles south of Tel Aviv. The Arrow II was designed to knock out missiles up to 30 miles away at altitudes of up to 25 miles.
The exercise was intended to test not just the missile itself, but also the Israeli-designed Green Pine radar and Citron Tree "fire management." The radar and targeting systems had previously been tested only by their Israeli manufacturers, Elta Electronics and Tadiran Systems. "The Green Pine fire-control radar obtained the target, and the Citron Tree calculated the intercept, upon which the Arrow hit and destroyed the target," the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
In September 1998, an Arrow II was reported to have hit a "virtual" target in its first airborne test. This first live exercise with an incoming warhead was originally scheduled for a year ago, but was postponed because of undisclosed technical difficulties.
After further analysis of the test Monday, the Israeli military is generally expected to proceed almost immediately with deploying the system.
"We are doing everything to create an initial operational capability within the coming months," Ilan Biran, a manager of the Arrow program before stepping down last month as the Defense Ministry's director-general, told Israel Radio last weekend. "I want to assume that by 2000 we will have this basic capability and that we will build our forces to full capacity in the coming years, with up to three full batteries that will be able to shoot down ballistic missiles in the air."
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No Timetable to Restore Pakistani Democracy
By CELIA W. DUGGER November 2, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/110299pakistan-musharraf.html
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan's new military ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, refused Monday to be pinned down on when he would restore democracy as he faced more than an hour of questions at his first news conference since he seized power in a coup three weeks ago.
Though he fielded questions with the ease and finesse of an old political pro, the general left no doubt that he was running Pakistan, a nuclear power with a population of 150 million, and that he alone would decide when the people would be allowed to pick their own leaders again.
Will the return to democracy be achieved through elections or a revival of Parliament, he was asked. "Frankly, I haven't decided," he replied.
Will he allow voters to register their support or disapproval of the coup in a referendum? I'll talk it over with my council of advisers, he said.
Is it possible that he will stay in power for a decade or more? Musharraf ducked the question, saying only that he was determined to revive the country's economy, wipe out public corruption and disentangle the bureaucracy from politics before stepping aside -- an agenda that some political analysts say will take years, if not a lifetime.
"I will go according to the needs and requirements of Pakistan," he said. "That will be supreme in my mind, and not international demands."
He said the new regime would set up a National Accountability Bureau to go after corruption, starting from the top down. "N-A-B," he said, spelling out the new agency's initials. "We will nab everyone."
Musharraf has already indicated that Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister who was toppled on Oct. 12 when he tried to fire the general, was at the top of the list of high-level officials to be prosecuted on corruption charges. Sharif has been under house arrest at an undisclosed location since the coup.
Musharraf also suggested that Sharif may be charged with conspiring to destabilize the armed forces -- a crime of high treason in Pakistan. Whatever the charges, the general said Monday, Sharif will have a chance to tell his side of the story at his trial.
Perhaps more remarkable than any of the specific statements was the general's obvious relish for the spotlight on a set in the state-run television studio.
With more than a hundred reporters shouting sometimes difficult questions at him, he displayed an ability to evade unwanted queries, offering quotable maxims as substance and occasionally giving off a flash of steely, soldierly resolve. He spoke in a fluid mix of English and Urdu, often starting a sentence in one language and ending it in the other.
On Pakistan's relations with its bigger neighbor and archrival, India, Musharraf diplomatically insisted that he wanted peaceful coexistence, but also said the countries' rancorous dispute over the Himalayan territory of Kashmir -- a conflict that flared violently this summer -- was still the paramount issue for him.
He warned India: "Hostility will be met with hostility. Peace will be met with peace. I will defend the honor of this country. No one threatens us without getting a threatening response."
The general also made clear that he had no intention of spending any of his own political capital to sign the nuclear test ban treaty that American diplomats had been pressing for but that the U.S. Senate recently rejected.
He said he would encourage a national debate, but described the treaty as a contentious issue that could stir up anti-government feeling.
"For me to get involved in the CTBT would be unfair," he said of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. "I would not want to do that."
The general reserved his most scathing, wry comments for Sharif. The prime minister had announced that he was firing Musharraf as the army chief of staff while the general was flying back to Pakistan from Sri Lanka, and the coup was well under way by the time he landed.
Musharraf said the armed forces' "spontaneous" decision to move against the prime minister had not set a precedent that could be used to justify a military takeover whenever a civilian leader tried to fundamentally change the armed forces.
The Constitution, he said, did not give the prime minister "a right to remove a chief as if he is a peon outside his office." Of Sharif's decision to hire Musharraf a year earlier, the general remarked with an amused smile, "He may be repenting now."
After answering questions for more than an hour without so much as a sip of water, the general told the reporters that they were welcome to keep firing more at him -- but with deadlines rushing in, Pakistani reporters called it quits.
He concluded by asking them, in Urdu, to deliver this message: Tell the poor we will always stand by them. Tell the rich: "Stop bleeding this country. Stop your corruption.
"It is time for us to come together to rebuild Pakistan," he said.
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Russia, U.S. Open Nuclear Security Training Center
Filed at 11:39 a.m. EDT November 1, 1999 By Reuters
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-arms-ru.html
SERGIEV POSAD, Russia (Reuters) - The United States and Russia opened a U.S.-funded nuclear security center Monday to train Russian officers to guard atomic weapons storage sites and use high-tech detection equipment.
Officials hailed the Security Assessment and Training Center in woods northeast of Moscow as a milestone in efforts to reduce the risk of nuclear weapons being stolen and a stark recognition Russia simply could not afford such a base alone.
``When we started (cooperating) seven years ago, we didn't think it would be possible to work in such areas as nuclear security, transporting nuclear warheads and guarding important military sites,'' Colonel-General Igor Valynkin told reporters after a ribbon-cutting ceremony. ``Today, it is a reality.''
Builders began work at the site in February 1998 and are close to completion. Freshly painted buildings stand in a stark compound surrounded by triple fences of the kind the United States has given to Russia to ring actual nuclear bases.
Russian and U.S. staff at the center will assess new security equipment and design packages of systems to deploy at Russian bases. Officers are already being trained on some of the equipment, including infra-red detection devices. The center will also house a drug-testing laboratory.
Retired U.S. Air Force General Thomas Kuenning, who heads the Defense Department's Cooperative Threat Reduction program, said the United States and Russia had common cause in keeping Russia's stored weapons safe, but Moscow was short of cash.
``We are doing with him the things he would do on his own if he had the resources,'' he said, referring to Valynkin.
The Russian general, who heads the Russian Defense Ministry's directorate in charge of nuclear security, echoed this, saying: ``We really haven't got the funds to carry out such large-scale work on the problem of nuclear weapons security.''
He reiterated Russian nuclear bases were safe despite threats from Chechen guerrillas to attack them.
``We have increased the number of guards. In addition to guard battalions we have mobile units which can react to any security system violation or attempted intrusion,'' he said. ''We consider our system is reliable and will prevent terrorists entering our sites.''
The center is part of an annual $400 million U.S. program to foster nuclear security and help dismantle atomic weapons in Russia, which is deep in an economic crisis that has sapped the armed forces of funds.
Kuenning was asked about differences with Russia over U.S. calls for a change in the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty. Russian officials have called for all cooperation to be halted if the United States violates the treaty.
``The (Russian) general and I are both servants of the political system and if the political system says we can't cooperate together for any particular reason then that's the way it'll be,'' he said. ``But it is in our interest to cooperate fully for as long as that is possible.''
He noted differences -- such as those over NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia -- had not even caused a hiccup in cooperation on building the center.
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Albright says U.S. bound by CTBT
By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES November 2, 1999
http://www.washtimes.com/news/news1.html
Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright has written foreign governments to say the United States is legally bound to observe the nuclear test-ban treaty, despite the Senate's rejection of the pact.
In a letter to selected foreign officials, Mrs. Albright said the Clinton administration does not regard the Senate's refusal to approve the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty as the death of the pact, despite the convincing vote against ratification.
The treaty was rejected 51-48 by the Senate on Oct. 13. Two-thirds approval was needed to pass the treaty before the president formally could ratify it.
The secretary's letter was the administration's formal diplomatic notice that it will abide by the unratified test-ban treaty, a position made clear by President Clinton a day after the Senate's historic treaty vote. Mr. Clinton told reporters, "We will not abandon the commitment inherent in the treaty and resume testing ourselves."
Mrs. Albright said in her letter that the Senate vote "was a major disappointment to the administration, as I know it was to your government."
"Despite this setback, I want to assure you that the United States will continue to act in accordance with its obligations as a signatory under international law, and will seek reconsideration of the treaty at a later date when conditions are better suited for ratification," Mrs. Albright stated. A copy of one letter dated Oct. 18 was obtained by The Washington Times from U.S. officials. Its authenticity was confirmed by an administration official.
The United States, she wrote, has no plans and no need to conduct nuclear tests and will maintain a self-imposed ban on testing.
"Second, the administration continues to support strongly the treaty and the associated international regime," she said. "The United States will continue to urge others to adhere to the CTBT and to refrain from all nuclear explosive tests."
James Rubin, Mrs. Albright's spokesman, confirmed that letters were sent to numerous foreign ministers outlining the U.S. policy.
The administration believes it is still bound to legally abide by the test-ban treaty because it has not given up on ratification in the future, Mr. Rubin said in an interview.
"We believe that so long as the president, in this case President Clinton, expresses his intention to seek advice and consent pending whatever time frame he chooses, customary international law applies," Mr. Rubin said.
Asked about Mrs. Albright's reference in the letter to "international law," Mr. Rubin said, "other countries actually care about international law, even if some in the United States don't."
The administration will continue adherence to the pact "so long as we have signed a treaty and not repudiated it," Mr. Rubin said.
The letter from the secretary of state is not the first time the administration contacted foreign governments regarding its differences with Congress.
Shortly after President Clinton signed a bill in March making it U.S. policy to deploy national missile defenses as soon as possible, the State Department quietly informed U.S. embassies abroad to notify foreign governments that the administration is not obligated to build anti-missile defenses.
The notice was made in a cable signed by Mrs. Albright. Its disclosure angered Senate Republicans, who said it "distorted" the law on missile defenses.
Mrs. Albright, in her letter to foreign officials, said some "voices in our domestic debate" questioned international support for the treaty and "our ability to verify compliance with it."
The fact that 51 other states ratified the treaty is a positive sign, she said.
"As more states ratify and as the treaty's monitoring system continues to improve, I believe that this will positively influence future Senate deliberations," Mrs. Albright said.
"We believe that the more senators understand about what the treaty does and why it is so important to U.S. national security and international stability, the more likely they are to support it," she said. "Meanwhile, we will be working to ensure that the merits of the CTBT are well understood, and to address concerns that senators may have about the treaty."
Several Republican Senate aides said they were upset by Mrs. Albright's refusal to accept that the test-ban treaty was defeated.
"The president is not Louis XIV," said one aide. "He cannot declare that he is the state. The Senate has made clear by its vote that the United States intends not to be a party to the [test-ban] treaty."
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms, North Carolina Republican, is expected to discuss the Albright letter during a hearing today. Mr. Helms was one of the Senate's most outspoken opponents of the test-ban accord.
Mrs. Albright stated that the treaty was not defeated. "Despite the delay in U.S. ratification, let me reaffirm America's commitment to reducing the dangers posed by nuclear weapons," she said.
John Bolton, a constitutional specialist with the American Enterprise Institute, said the secretary's letter appeared to be a diplomatic effort to resurrect the treaty.
Mr. Clinton and Mrs. Albright might have argued that the treaty could be continued under the president's executive powers under the Constitution, Mr. Bolton said.
"What is striking is that they are not asserting that but the airy fairy notion of international law," Mr. Bolton said. "If I were in the Senate, I would be treating this as an affront."
As for sending the treaty back to the Senate for another vote, Mr. Bolton said that is very unlikely. "In theory they can always resubmit it, but as a practical matter, it's as dead as the Versailles Treaty," he said.
The Senate rejected the Versailles Treaty in 1919, repudiating the League of Nations international security organization promoted by President Woodrow Wilson. He did not seek ratification again.
---
U.S.: We Won't Test Nuclear Weapons
Filed at 9:00 a.m. EST, November 2, 1999, By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-US-Test-Ban.html
OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has written Russia, China and other key governments to assure them the United States will observe the nuclear test ban treaty that the Senate declined to ratify.
In a letter sent last week, Albright said the United States would not test nuclear weapons and was determined to seek Senate approval of the accord, which the Senate rejected 51-48 on Oct. 13. A two-thirds vote is required for ratification.
``To test, we would have to first repudiate the treaty,'' State Department spokesman James P. Rubin told The Associated Press from Washington.
While the Senate did not affirm the landmark accord, he said, it is international practice to adhere to agreements that are signed, as the United States signed the test ban treaty.
President Clinton and Albright had already said that, despite rejection of the treaty, they would extend the moratorium on underground weapons tests first declared by former President George Bush.
Rubin said it is proper to adhere to the treaty's terms, since the intent still was to ``seek the advice and consent of the Senate'' on the pact, which 51 nations have ratified. Besides a ban on underground testing, the accord sets up a complex monitoring system to guard against any possible cheating.
Senate opponents of the treaty contended the system was inadequate, and that the United States should continue to set off nuclear explosions to make sure the American nuclear arsenal is up to date.
Albright, testifying in favor of approval, argued that the Joint Chiefs of Staff had unanimously endorsed the treaty, and tests were not required to preserve U.S. nuclear superiority.
Defeat of the treaty was a serious setback to Clinton's foreign policy objectives. Congress also has sharply cut Clinton's request for funds for overseas programs.
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A CONVERSATION WITH / Robert Zubrin
A New Frontier Aboard the Mars Direct
By CLAUDIA DREIFUS November 2, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/110299sci-space-mars.html
Dr. Robert Zubrin, 47, an astronautical engineer and founder of the Mars Society, a group advocating space travel to the neighbor planet, was having coffee in Manhattan on a recent autumn morning.
Dr. Zubrin, who heads the Pioneer Astronautics engineering company, which develops ideas for NASA, had come to New York from his home in suburban Denver to talk about his latest book, "Entering Space: Creating a Space-Faring Civilization" (Tarcher-Putnam, $24.95).
His 1996 volume, "The Case for Mars," had made a sensation in astronautical circles with an interesting notion for a cut-rate program for Mars exploration known as the Mars Direct Plan.
The proposed program would use existing technology and would keep fuel weight at a minimum by having the astronauts manufacture propellant for the return trip from material on Mars. "Entering Space" elaborates on the concept.
Q. In both your books, you suggest that the United States will enjoy a kind of national rebirth once it sets up a Mars colonization program. Why do we need a national rebirth?
A. I think we need a challenge. Civilizations are like people. They grow when they are challenged and stagnate when they are not. I think this is especially important to youth, who need to go somewhere where no one has gone before.
A "human to Mars" program would be an invitation to adventure to every kid in the country: learn your science, develop your mind and you can be a part of pioneering this new world. In concrete terms, we would get millions of scientists, inventors, doctors and medical researchers. That's the real benefit we got from Apollo.
Q. In reading "Entering Space," I couldn't help but feel you were overromanticizing the nature of 19th century America. Yes, it was an era of expansion, but it was also a time of incredible violence, of destruction of the American wilderness and the slaughter of American Indians.
A. Well, I think people feel the need for a continued existence of an open frontier. They want a place where they can go where the rules haven't been written yet. The most profound kind of freedom that people can have is the freedom to be makers of their own world and not simply inhabitants of it. And that was a sort of freedom that people had during the creation of this country. If we open space, then people can have that freedom again, except there are no Indians on Mars.
Q. If there are life forms like microbes on Mars, do we have a right to interfere with their environment? You advocate all kinds of radical activities for your space colonists, like melting the Martian permafrost and mining the planet for minerals.
A. If there are microbes, even if we hydrogen-bombed the whole planet to our maximum capability, we could not bomb those microbes to extinction. What we are talking about here is bringing a dead planet to life. We're talking about taking a planetary surface which is, in fact, dead -- if there's life on Mars, it's only in the ground water -- and turning this into a viable arena for the development of life.
Q. In your books, you offer suggestions for the social life of a Mars colony. You have a list of possible rights. For instance, the right to bear arms. Why will Mars colonists need that?
A. These are rights that exist in contemporary American society.
Q. You suggest that Mars colonists will enjoy the right to bear children and the right to be free of extortionist lawsuits.
Where did you get those?
A. To be frank, I just sat down here and banged out a whole bunch of rights. In the United States, by the way, we do have the right to have children, but in certain other societies, China, they don't.
The point I'm trying to get at here, is what I'm advocating here is not a particular system of rights. These are more a list of suggestions.
Q. When you were an engineering student at the University of Washington in 1983, did you ever think your studies would take you into the nether world of politics?
A. Not to this extent. Although, I've always been aware that engineering projects had a significant political component. I studied nuclear engineering for a while, which basically failed on the political battleground. The industry has been aborted due to its inadequate performance on the political battleground.
It was unable to make its case adequately to the public.
Q. Did nuclear engineering face problems because of public relations failure or did Three Mile Island and Chernobyl frighten the public?
A. Three Mile Island, of course, was the failure of an American commercial nuclear power plant. No one was hurt. We have much more disastrous things in coal mines all the time in terms of loss of life.
Chernobyl wasn't an engineering failure of the American nuclear industry.
But, to return to your question, I did not imagine that I would be leading a crusade. I imagined I'd be participating in political dialogue. I think an engineer would have to put his head in the sand to think that a project could be built without that. The Brooklyn Bridge wouldn't have been built without a massive fight.
Q. How large is the Mars Society?
A. Right now, we have 2,000 dues-paying members and 8,000 on our mailing list. We get about 50,000 hits on our Web site daily. Also, we've recruited to our ranks some pretty heavy-hitting people.
We've also launched this project for an research station on Devon Island, in the Canadian Arctic.
Devon Island is a polar desert with a meteorite impact crater that has a geology very similar to Mars. You can explore Mars there by analogy.
We're going to build a human Mars exploration simulation base on Devon Island and use it as both an operational and engineering test base to learn how to conduct human exploration on Mars. We have the money required to build the first module from a lot of small donations and a major one from Steve Kirsch, the chairman of Infoseek.
He gave $100,000. At Devon Island, we're going to discover a lot of things that just don't occur to you when you are designing missions on paper.
Q. What is your basic take on the recent Mars Climate Orbiter mishap?
A. First of all, I think the Mars robotic program is underfunded. We used to send our robotic spacecraft out in pairs because they are high-risk. Now, to save money, we send only one out, and the recent mishap has set the science back four years. The cost of losing the Mars Climate Orbiter is low -- about 50 cents per American citizen, but the cost in time has been great.
So I feel that's why we should have sent two.
Q. The Mars mishap was attributed to human error.
Is that right?
A. I don't know who made what mistake when. But they have reduced the mission operation staff from the previous standard of about 200 to close to 80, as a cost-saving measure and I think they may have gone a bit too far.
Q. In the new book, you're rather critical of the nature of aerospace contracts. You suggest that the basic structure of the contracts leads to big clunky programs that take forever to be completed and impede space exploration.
A. I think the free market would work better. I think it would be better if the government said to Lockheed/ Martin, "We'll pay you $200 million dollars per launch instead of 10 percent over your documented costs.
If you can do it for $30 million, you can take the rest as profit."
Q. When you were a kid, did you have science heroes?
A. Einstein was kind of an icon. I actually had an engineering hero as a kid: Admiral Rickover. He said something I tried to take to heart: the most important quality that an engineer needed to have is courage. By that, he didn't mean physical courage, but the courage of one's convictions. That made an impression.
---------
CIA Budget Disclosure Considered
By The Associated Press November 2, 1999 Filed at 2:10 a.m. EST
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-CIA-Budget.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge is weighing whether to require the Clinton administration to disclose how much it spends on intelligence activities. The CIA wants to keep the number secret.
The government disclosed the figures for 1997 and 1998 -- $26.6 billion and $26.7 billion, respectively -- but has balked at having to do so again.
President Clinton said in 1996 that the total spending level should be public information.
But Justice Department lawyer Andrea Cohen said Monday that CIA Director George Tenet had convinced the president there should be no further disclosure of the figure and Tenet's judgment ``should carry the day.''
``The world is very different today than what it was in 1997,'' Cohen argued at a hearing before U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan.
Hogan promised a ruling on a Justice Department bid to block a lawsuit seeking the overall intelligence budget number for fiscal 1999. He did not say when he would make it.
Kate Martin, a lawyer for the Federation of American Scientists, which brought the suit, told Hogan that little could be gleaned from the total spending figure ``other than how U.S. tax dollars are being spent.''
Steven Aftergood, senior research analyst for the federation, told The Associated Press that his organization estimates the intelligence budget increased sharply in 1999, to about $29 billion.
Cohen, the Justice Department attorney, said having specific information on changes in spending levels could reveal much to a sophisticated adversary.
The intelligence budget, sometimes called ``black'' spending by Congress, is scattered and fragmented through dozens of defense and other programs in the federal budget to hide them from public scrutiny.
The Federation of American Scientists went to court to obtain the figures after the administration denied a Freedom of Information Act request seeking the spending figure -- on national security grounds.
---------
Suit could delay shipments from Flats
Feds to sue New Mexico over proposed restrictions in permit to bury waste
By Berny Morson Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer, November 2, 1999
http://insidedenver.com/news/1102wipp2.shtml
Waste shipments from Rocky Flats could be delayed for months as the federal government sues New Mexico over terms of a permit to bury the stuff under the desert near Carlsbad.
Energy Secretary Bill Richardson on Monday termed restrictions proposed last week by New Mexico "an unfriendly act." He said the federal suit will be filed this week.
The draft permit requires Rocky Flats to reopen some barrels of radioactive waste to verify the contents, a process Richardson said endangers workers.
Richardson also threatened to cut Energy Department aid to New Mexico if the state goes through with a plan to require $110 million in financial assurance before burial may begin.
But Richardson vowed to meet the 2006 target date to close the defunct nuclear weapons plant in Jefferson County.
The legal wrangling could delay shipments "a short time to several months," said Bob Card, president of Kaiser-Hill, which is coordinating the cleanup.
A spokesman for the New Mexico Environment Department declined to comment.
Spokesman Nathan Wade said earlier the requirements are no more stringent than rules the state imposes on other industries, such as mining, that could affect the environment.
At issue are terms of the permit New Mexico proposes for burial of waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP. The material, including building rubble and contaminated clothing, will be entombed in a salt bed a half-mile below the ground.
The permit covers radioactive waste mixed with other contaminants, primarily chemicals that cause cancer. Shipments of material contaminated only with uranium and plutonium are already moving to New Mexico at the rate of two truckloads a week.
More than 16,000 barrels of waste are stacked up at Rocky Flats awaiting shipment to New Mexico. An estimated 57,000 more barrels will be filled before the plant closes.
Also Monday, Richardson was on hand as a back hoe began demolishing a Rocky Flats building used to conduct research on bomb parts during the Cold War.
The demolition is a milestone because Building 779 is the first structure to come down in which plutonium was used. Other buildings torn down so far processed only less-deadly uranium.
---
Wiping out the past at Rocky Flats
By Mark Eddy Denver Post Environment Writer, November2, 1999
http://www.denverpost.com/news/news1102g.htm
Nov. 2 - Set in motion by events in Germany 10 years ago, the walls of a former plutonium research laboratory at Rocky Flats came crashing down Monday in what was hailed a major step in the cleanup of the nuclear weapons plant.
"This is probably one of the biggest milestones in the 1990s for Rocky Flats. This is huge,'' said Paul Golan, the Department of Energy's manager for closure projects. The event will go down in history as a momentous day for Rocky Flats and Colorado, Broomfield Mayor Bill Berens said.
"It's a momentous day, a great day for the metropolitan area,'' Berens said. "If we hadn't made as many strides in the world being a safer place we wouldn't be tearing this building down.''
The former nuclear weapons plant existed solely to feed the Cold War machine, but when the Berlin Wall fell a decade ago, the need for Rocky Flats also came to an end.
"I'm very pleased to be here to present the eulogy for a legacy the Department of Energy will be happy to leave behind,'' U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said just before a backhoe cranked up. As the machine tore at the walls of Building 779, it worked to complete the largest and most complicated demolition of a plutonium facility ever undertaken in the Department of Energy's weapons complex.
"The milestone we are witnessing here today, the largest demolition of a major plutonium facility anywhere in the United States, can be directly credited to the hard work and dedication of the workers at Rocky Flats,'' Richardson said as he praised the workers who turned their energies from making plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons to cleaning up and closing down the plant. DOE's goal is to decontaminate the plant and move out by 2006, and the lessons learned in Building 779 will help meet that time line, officials said.
The research lab was the smallest of the six plutonium buildings at Rocky Flats. Only 6.2 kilograms of plutonium were housed within its walls, while other buildings contain 100 kilos.
Building 779 was chosen so workers could perfect methods for the complicated cleanup and demolition of plutonium buildings before moving to larger facilities, Golan said. The project was supposed to take five years, but because workers found safer and quicker methods to decontaminate the building, the work took only two years, he said. The plutonium was handled in gloveboxes, which were boxes with windows and holes with attached gloves that workers used to work with the radioactive metal. Three years ago, workers in other buildings could decontaminate and remove only two gloveboxes a year. But with what they learned on 779, workers were taking out three to four a week, Golan said.
"This served as a good entree to get into the nuclear decontamination and demolition here at Rocky Flats,'' he said.
Work already has begun on demolishing another plutonium building, and decontamination of a third will begin soon. The day was bittersweet for some who spent years working the lab.
"I'm not sad to see the building go, I'm sad that portion of my life is gone,'' said Angelo Hodges, who worked in 779 for 17 years and has spent 32 years at Rocky Flats. "You have a lot of fond memories.''
The lab was a place for creativity, he said. "It was research. You had a lot of leeway to be inventive. It was fun,'' Hodges said. "I hate to see the plant close.''
But just as the fall of the Berlin Wall meant the end of the Cold War, the rubble of Building 779 foreshadows the future of Rocky Flats.
"This is the beginning of the end for all facilities here at Rocky Flats,'' said DOE project manager Dave Nickless.
-----------
Plutonium to burn
The Gazette, 1 November 1999
http://www.montrealgazette.com/editorial/pages/991101/3078520.html
Ontario is showing a disappointing lack of leadership on a global environmental issue of extreme importance. The province is dragging its feet in co-operating with Ottawa's generous proposal to try to dispose of a frightening Cold War legacy - vast amounts of deadly plutonium once used in Russia's nuclear warheads.
The Ontario nuclear authority that Ottawa may eventually call upon to burn the radioactive material is not anxious to do so. Ontario Power Generation has told the federal government it has other priorities.
In an internal memo written last March, the authority's chief nuclear engineer describes Ottawa's plan as a "distraction," a "nuisance" and "a political football."
What precisely is this plan that the memo so dismissively calls a "distraction?" It merely happens to be a scheme with the potential to save millions of lives.
Crisis-racked Russia lacks the ability to dispose of this radioactive headache. If even a few kilos of plutonium were to waft into the environment or fall into the hands of terrorists or a rogue state, the consequences could be catastrophic.
We in Canada can turn our backs to this problem. Or we can offer, for a fee, to help get rid of it. That's what the Chretien government is doing in a spirit of civic citizenship, global-style.
In the Not in My Back Yard department, Ontario's nuclear authority has plenty of company. Mayors of several Ontario cities, including Cornwall, don't want plutonium shipments passing through their towns. Nor do leaders of the Kahnawake and
Akwesasne reserves, who have threatened to resist passage of plutonium-toting ships through the Seaway.
These are understandable concerns. But if Canada goes ahead with the plan, it is reasonable to insist on a very high level of security shielding the plutonium shipments - far superior to that which Russia provides. Considering the alternative, whatever risk Canadians face is very acceptable.
The fact is that few if any countries are better placed than Canada for reducing this nuclear menace. The new stress on safety at Ontario's reactors makes them logical places for burning the stuff.
At a time when environmental disasters can be global, defusing such a problem is a matter of self-interest.
-----------
China's Jiang Holds Talks With Algerian Leaders
ALGIERS, Oct 31, 1999 -- (Reuters)
http://www.insidechina.com/news.php3?id=105646
China's President Jiang Zemin had one-on-one talks with Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and they were later joined by other officials at the start of Jiang's 48-hour visit to Algeria on Saturday.
Officials said the talks would give impetus to bilateral trade and diplomatic cooperation.
The official Algerian news agency APS said the two sides would sign unspecified cooperation accords.
The two countries already cooperate in the use of nuclear technology and have military links. China has also helped Algeria in the building of infrastructure projects.
Jiang's visit to the North African country is part of a six-nation 17-day tour that has already taken him to Britain, France, Portugal and Morocco.
Algeria and China signed an accord pledging cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear technology in 1996. Beijing assisted Algeria in building a nuclear plant in the Birine area, 130 km (80 miles) south of Algiers, early in the 1990s.
Algeria has said the plant is for peaceful use, strongly denying Western reports that the Birine complex had a heavy-water reactor in operation capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium.
Algerian army chief-of-staff Lieutenant-General Mohammed Lamari went to China recently for a seven-day visit during which he held talks with military leaders in Beijing.
The value of trade between the two countries is estimated at more than $200 million annually, Algerian government data show.
Algeria imports Chinese food, including tea, and textile products, and exports petroleum products to China.
-----------
Washington Post Tuesday, November 2, 1999; Page A19
Y2K Airports Cleared for Takeoff on Jan. 1 By Stephen Barr Washington Post Staff Writer
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/02/040l-110299-idx.html
None of the nation's 565 airports regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration have reported Year 2000 computer problems that would pose safety or security risks on Jan. 1, according to a Transportation Department announcement prepared for today.
The FAA has visited or interviewed officials at each of the airports to determine if they have adequate Y2K plans for computerized operations, such as airfield lighting, radio communications, fire dispatch and locks on doors to restricted areas.
FAA officials did not verify if Y2K fixes actually had been made but looked at whether the airports' plans were appropriate for their operations. About half the airports, for example, do not rely on computerized systems to control access to airliner ramps and other sensitive parts of airports.
On Wednesday, the FAA will publish a rule requiring airports to conduct a "readiness check" of their computer systems shortly after beginning operations in the new year, Louise Maillet, the FAA's acting associate administrator for airports, said yesterday. For busy airports, the Y2K doublecheck will likely come in the early hours of Jan. 1, shortly after computers should be interpreting "00" as the year 2000.
Federal officials and computer specialists fear that some governmental, commercial and private computers, as well as some embedded computer chips, may interpret "00" as 1900 instead, and shut down or otherwise malfunction.
The Transportation Department plans to post information on airport readiness today at its Web site (www.fly2k.dot.gov). On or about Nov. 16, the FAA also plans to post Y2K information for more than 3,000 U.S. air carriers offering passenger service.
Last month, about 1,300 carriers had not responded to FAA requests for Y2K information, prompting Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), who was concerned about the lack of disclosure, to publish their names in the Congressional Record. He also attached a provision to a pending FAA authorization bill that would give the government the authority to withdraw aviation licenses if carriers did not respond to Y2K queries.
The number of non-responsive carriers has since dropped by more than half, to 650. The carriers are mostly charter or on-demand services providing transportation to about 2 percent of the flying public, the FAA said.
In addition to its Web site postings on U.S. airports and airlines, the FAA also plans to provide updates on the year 2000 status of foreign travel destinations. Within weeks, data on 135 nations will be available, covering about 99 percent of global passenger boardings, said Mary Powers-King, the FAA's Y2K program office director.
Postal Service Ready to Carry Heavy Load
The Y2K bug could give a boost to the U.S. Postal Service. Norman E. Lorentz, the service's chief technology officer, said at a House hearing last week that he expects more people to mail letters and documents as the calendar moves from 1999 to 2000 because of worries that e-mail might not be reliable.
Lorentz said he also hopes the Postal Service can serve as an "early warning beacon" for any Y2K problems, since it has letter carriers on almost every street in America. From Dec. 30 through Jan. 4, the Postal Service plans to operate a National Operations Center to gather and coordinate Y2K information for executives at postal headquarters.
Agencies Planning 'Day One' Strategies
The Postal Service is not alone in drafting "Day One" strategies for dealing with unexpected Y2K glitches. The Pentagon, for example, has decided the "date transition period" runs from Sept. 1, 1999, to March 31, 2000, a time frame that takes in any leap year problems that might cause computers to stumble.
Marvin J. Langston, the Pentagon's top Y2K official, expects the Defense Department will have an extra 5 to 10 percent of personnel on duty over the new year. Russian military personnel also are scheduled to arrive Dec. 22 in Colorado Springs to help staff a center aimed at making sure early-warning systems do not go haywire and set off alarms that nuclear missiles are being launched by either side.
But the General Accounting Office's Y2K specialist, Joel C. Willemssen, said the government faces considerable work in developing plans that will allow agencies to stay in business and cope with emergencies in the event of computer breakdowns.
Only nine of 23 large agencies have addressed all the "Day One" planning elements--such as staff on duty, contractor availability and a schedule of activities--identified as necessary by the Office of Management and Budget, Willemssen said.
Fifteen agencies have created a Y2K checklist for employees to follow and 17 have figured out what staff should be on duty during the New Year's weekend, he said.
Without advance planning, Willemssen testified at a joint hearing of two House subcommittees, agencies run the risk of ad hoc decisions or untrained, chaotic responses if confronted with a Y2K computer failure.
OMB official John T. Spotila said the government would have "core staff" on duty where needed during the Y2K weekend. He also acknowledged, "We are all learning as we go."
-----------
----- Original Message -----
From: D. S. Cvijovic <pecina@cg.yu>
To: <du-list@egroups.com>
Sent: Monday, November 01, 1999 2:52 PM
Subject: [du-list] am I stuffed with DU?
> Dear DU list members,
> I am very glad I found you! I am from Belgrade, so since the bombing of
> Serbia started, I kept searching the web for DU articles, but I would have
> never found this list without having seen one of the messages that
> circulated further...
>
> I have just subscribed, but I spent some time today reading DU list
> archives at eGroups site... I saw that the issue I am mostly interested in
> (potential DU contamination in Belgrade) has been raised several times,
but
> I couldn't find the conclusion, so I apologize to those who are tired of
> that subject!
>
> By this I would like to ask you for some help; my most wanted answers are
> to the following:
>
> 1. Is there now any final proof that at least any cruising or other
missile
> (laser lead bomb, etc.) which was fired at Serbia contained DU?!
> (Naturally, anti-tank ammos don't count!)
>
> 2. What has happened to sour cherries and other plants all over Serbia and
> Montenegro, so that they lost their leaves and had another blossom, and
> lost the new leaves again?!
>
> 3. Is there any easy way to detect any (even low) concentration of DU
that
> could be significantly harmful?! (There is no MUCH elevated Geiger
> detectable radiation at any of the missile impact sites in Serbia that I
> was able to access.)
>
> 4. What are the symptoms that could help us distinguish between low level
> DU poisoning and other similar illnesses, including reactions to stress
and
> other psycho somatic manifestations?
>
> I would appreciate any answer, or question, or anything, either through
the
> list, or directly to my address pecina@cg.yu .
> With respect,
>
> Drasko Cvijovic
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Looking for the latest consumer electronic gadgets or computer
> equipment? eBay has thousands of audio equipment, computer
> games & accessories. You never know what you might find at eBay!
> http://clickhere.egroups.com/click/1142
>
> -- Create a poll/survey for your eGroup!
> -- http://www.egroups.com/vote?listname=du-list&m=1
Reply from ???? du-list@egroups.com
1. The best information that we have at the moment is that cruise missiles
fired in live actions do not contain depleted uranium; those fired in tests
do. This information comes from several people who have been researching
the issue, including those near one of the plants where they are
manufactured.
2. There were also chemical releases, so it is difficult to know exactly
what happened to the cherry trees. I shouldn't have thought that DU
residues would have acted so quickly.
3. You need a device capable of detecting very low level alpha particle
releases. I know the reporter from the Christian Science Monitor used a
handheld geiger counter near some DU bullets and picked up significant
readings. I know you can buy handheld geiger counters capable of detecting
alpha particles, but they vary in the level of sensitivity. Look at
http://www.medcom.com and http://www.antirad.com - I know Mag has also
given some good advice. I don't know how the devices on these web sites
compare to PEARLS, nor do I know how easy it is for ordinary citizens to
access devices like PEARLS.
4. The best way of finding out if people have been contaminated by DU is
through 24-hour urine tests.
Dusan at Green Table, an environmental group which is also in Belgrade, has
several 'Precautionary Measures' leaflets which have been jointly developed
by a number of people on this list and by others involved in the DU issue in
Europe. They are working on translations. You might want to contact them
for more information and to see if you can be of assitance in disseminating
some of the protective information elsewhere in FRY. Contact is:
greentbl@EUnet.yu