------------
Two nightmares eased
Fall of communism and nuclear fears
The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 9, 1999 Page A14 Editorial
The fall of the Berlin Wall, 10 years ago today, marked the real end of the 20th century. The breech of communism's most symbolic barrier led directly to the collapse of the whole bankrupt communist system, and with it the end of the Cold War. That collapse was so total that the nuclear standoff which threatened the world for 45 years must seem like ancient history to the average American high school student.
Much has been written about the failures of many former communist countries to blossom into market democracies since the Wall fell. That reflects the legacy of communism, the pervasive wreckage of economies, environments and people that cannot be overcome in a decade. This unprecedented transition is still painful for those going through it, and some are nostalgic for the past. But those difficulties cannot dim the significance of this date. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev made a fateful decision in choosing not to use Soviet troops to restore the barrier between East Germans and freedom. The East German military had been prepared to act, and the Wall's demise might have led to bloodshed. This decision alone should earn Mr. Gorbachev an honored place in history.
The Kremlin leader did not understand the significance of the moment. He thought he could rejuvenate the communist system by making it less draconian; shedding shed blood in Germany would have undermined that goal. No one predicted how quickly the other communist dominoes would fall after Nov. 9, 1989. Neither Mr. Gorbachev nor Western leaders understood fully how deep was the internal rot of the communist system. (On Sunday, only 7,000 elderly Russians bothered to commemorate the 82d anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution.)
The mentality born of communism isn't yet dead, however. Those who never experienced democratic rule can be susceptible to strongmen or nationalist leaders. The end of the neat, bipolar world has made it simpler for ethnic wars to erupt on regional fronts, and for nuclear weapons to proliferate. But these threats do not approximate the danger that haunted the world for half a century, the threat of all-out nuclear warfare between two superpowers. That threat began to evaporate as the Wall fell, along with the danger posed by totalitarian communism.
Whatever dangers we face in the new century after the Wall, we have been freed from the nightmare vision of World War III.
---
"Wall of Denial" news conference and ceremony -- 11 a.m. --
Washington DaybookNovember 9,1999 http://www.washtimes.com/daybook/daybook.html
Project Abolition holds a news conference and a "Wall of Denial" tear-down ceremony to conclude its weeklong series of protests against nuclear weapons and "runaway" militarism and to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Location: The Mall. Contact: 202/393-5201.
---
Members of Congress to Help Tear Down Berlin Wall Replica at U.S. Capitol
U.S. Newswire 8 Nov 11:33 http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/Current_Releases/1108-112.htm
News Advisory:
Capping off a week-long vigil for nuclear disarmament to raise public awareness about ongoing threats posed by thousands of cold war nuclear weapons, members of congress and Project Abolition will tear down a 200-foot replica of the Berlin Wall on Tuesday, Nov. 9, at 11 a.m. on the National Mall near 3rd Street on the West of the U.S. Capitol. Today (Nov. 8), at the "Wall of Denial" a candlelight vigil sponsored by local religious leaders will be held at 6 p.m., followed by an ll night dance party expected to attract a very large crowd.
--
WHO:
-- Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
-- Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)
-- Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA)
-- Rep Cynthia McKinney (D-GA)(not confirmed)
-- Vice-President Albert Gore, Jr. (not confirmed)
-- Kai Bird, biographer and editor of "Hiroshima's Shadow: Writings in the Denial of History and the Smithsonian Controversy"
-- Gordon Clark, executive director of Peace Action
-- Local religious leaders
WHAT:
-- Candlelight vigil on eve of 10th Anniversary of fall of Berlin Wall
-- Anti-Nuke Dance Party
-- Tear-down ceremony
WHEN:
-- Today (Nov. 8) at 6 p.m., Candlelight vigil followed by all night dance party - Tuesday, Nov. 9 at 11:30 a.m., Tear-down ceremony
WHERE:
-- National Capitol Mall on 3rd St. between Constitution Ave. and Independence Ave., Washington, D.C.
(Note: Using ropes and drills, organizers plan to tear down the "Wall of Denial," in a dramatic visual display. CAMERA CREWS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO ARRIVE EARLY!)
DETAILS:
-- The "Wall of Denial," built last week has attracted thousands of visitors who have spray-painted it with personal expressions for nuclear disarmament and support for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty CTBT).
"The enthusiasm of children and teenagers, many of whom were born after the fall of the Berlin Wall fell ten years ago, has been eye-opening," said Alistair Millar, a spokesman for Project Abolition. "We see the mainstream public learning for the first time about squandered opportunities for nuclear arms reductions. With TV advertisements, toll free numbers and the Internet, we're taking names, e-mail addresses and phone numbers to rebuild the anti-nuclear movement."
On Tuesday, Nov. 2, Project Abolition began airing a 60-second TV commercial featuring actor Martin Sheen in Washington, D.C., Iowa, and New Hampshire. "Politicians are in denial about nuclear weapons," says Sheen.
"Its been ten years since the end of the Cold War yet thousands of American nuclear bombs are on hair trigger alert, poised to launch at a moments notice. It's insane and it's immoral," invokes the 59-year-old actor. FOR A COPY OF THE COMMERCIAL CONTACT Adam Eidinger at 202-547-3577.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) will speak in front of the "Wall of Denial" on Nov. 9 about a new Rapid Risk Reduction Resolution aimed at encouraging the United States and Russian legislatures to work together, outside the formal treaty process, to set the stage for dramatic reciprocal reductions in nuclear weapons. Kucinich joined other members of congress in a delegation to meet with the Russian Duma during the Kosovo war and intends to employ a similar process to build confidence between the two nations that possess more nuclear weapons than the rest of the world combined.
Throughout the week there has been educational programming by organizations such as the Hiroshima Nagasaki Peace Association, who showed videos and graphically detailed the human cost nuclear weapons have imposed on thousands of Japanese. Local activists working on a variety of issues ranging from East Timor and Colombian human rights to fair trade and environmental issues have met at the "Wall of Denial" to discuss strategies for building an invigorated youth movement centered on "moral principles rather than partisan politics," said Martin Thomas of D.C. Statehood Green Party.
Last week, construction of the "Wall of Denial" was hampered by high winds and rain that blew down the nearly completed structure. We lost a whole day's work," said James McGuinness, an anti-nuclear activist since 1986 working for Proposition 1. "We were devastated, but after reevaluating our design we reinforced the wall with additional supports and more ropes."
Since the Park Police does not permit camping on the national mall, scores of young people from local universities have manned the vigil night and day since last Tuesday. "Playing hip-hop and techno-music into the early the morning has been really a blast," said one student from the American University Movement. "We are exercising our rights and it feels great!"
Organizations working with Project Abolition on the "Wall of Denial" include: Physicians for Social Responsibility, Peace Action Education Fund, 20/20 Vision, The Disarmament Clearinghouse, the Fourth Freedom Forum, The Washington Action Group, War Resisters League, Peace Links, the Catholic University College Democrats, Women's Action for New Directions, NETWORK: National Catholic Social Justice Lobby, The D.C. Statehood Green Party, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Hiroshima Nagasaki Peace Association, The American University Movement, Proposition One, Veterans for Peace, and others.
Television reporters and print journalists are encouraged to visit the "Wall of Denial" in advance of the tear-down ceremony. Accommodations for live broadcast are available. Contact Adam Eidinger or Adina Schyman at 202-547-3577 for questions.
-0- /U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/ 11/08 11:33
-----------
Brookhaven Finds High Levels of Radioactive Contamination
November 9, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/regional/ny-brookhaven-radioactivity.html
UPTON, N.Y. -- In an unexpected finding, officials at Brookhaven National Laboratory said on Monday that they had detected tritium, a radioactive substance, in a monitoring well at levels twice the federal standard for drinking water in a monitoring well. But they said the contamination, found near a building housing a particle accelerator experiment, posed no health threat.
Officials at the Long Island laboratory said they believed the contamination in the sample, taken Oct. 14, came from an experiment in which tritium was produced in water used to cool superconducting magnets. A Nov. 2 sample showed the tritium level had decreased, but it was still higher than the federal standard.
Brookhaven's 5,300 acres were designated a federal Superfund site in 1989 because of radioactive and chemical contaminants in soil and ground water. The monitoring well is near the center of the site, about 1.8 miles from its southern border.
Thomas R. Sheridan, the laboratory's deputy director for operations, said the accelerator experiment, which began in 1997, has been shut down. A technical team has been searching for a leak in a containment system intended to prevent such discharges, he said.
Sheridan said the high reading was confined to a very small area. "There is absolutely no danger to the public," he said. "This is just barely higher than the drinking water standard, and these standards are set very low." He said no tritium was found in other nearby wells.
Tritium, a rdioactive form of hydrogen, is a byproduct of nuclear reactors and is also used in nuclear weapons. Experts say it can cause cancer in humans in high dosages.
Brookhaven's critics said on Monday that the new finding showed that the lab, which is owned by the United States Energy Department, was more widely contaminated than the government has said. "We are still at the beginning of an environmental nightmare," said William N. Smith, the executive director of Fish Unlimited of Shelter Island. "As time goes by, more and more contamination will be found, and the lab is going to continue to minimize it."
Laboratory officials said the Oct. 14 water sample contained 41,700 picocuries of tritium per liter. The federal standard is 20,000 picocuries per liter. The concentration had dropped to 27,100 picocuries per liter in the Nov. 2 sample, they said.
Sheridan said the concentrations were far lower than amounts found two years ago in monitoring wells outside the lab's High Flux Beam Reactor, where a leak went undetected for at least 12 years.
Energy Secretary Bill Richardson is expected to decide next year whether the research nuclear reactor should resume operating. Richardson said last month that an environmental review found no major obstacles to that.
The lab's critics said the latest tritium results supported their argument that the reactor should stay closed. But Sheridan said the finding had "nothing to do" with the reactor or the lab's new $600 million Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider.
"We are reporting this because we made a promise to the people of Long Island, and especially to the regulators and local politicians, that we will be as open as possible about these things," he said. "I would hope the public would see that this is not a very serious event."
-----------
Suffolk Executive Plans Talks to Settle Bill for Shoreham
By JOHN T. McQUISTON November 9, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/regional/ny-suffolk-shoreham.html
HAUPPAUGE -- Less than a week after easily winning re-election to a third term, County Executive Robert J. Gaffney has taken on a far more daunting task: negotiating a settlement in the bitter two-year battle between the Long Island Power Authority and the county Legislature over taxes on the Shoreham nuclear power plant.
"I think the timing is right for all sides to settle their differences," Gaffney said Monday. "Election time is over and the Suffolk County Legislature has agreed to let me work out a deal."
The power authority says the county owes it $1.4 billion for overassessment of the power plant, which never became fully operational and was decommissioned in 1989. But the Legislature has resisted any form of settlement in the courts, arguing that under the state law that led to the creation of the authority in 1987, the county is free of all its past tax claims.
The authority's chairman, Richard M. Kessel, offered two years ago to settle for $625 million, half the earlier claim, but the Legislature continued to resist, even though it lost a series of critical legal battles, including a ruling last month by the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court, barring further argument at that level.
"The members of the Legislature needed a way out, and I was available to take them off the hook," Gaffney said.
"If I arrange a settlement they don't like, they can blame me.
If the settlement is a success, I'll be a hero."
"I've just been elected to a new four-year term, so I'll take my chances on the outcome of the settlement four years from now, if necessary."
Gaffney said he believed that the battle with the power authority had run its course.
"I had believed from the beginning that the LIPA proposal was a good one and that we should have settled," he said.
Kessel said Monday that he was encouraged by Gaffney's initiative. "Hopefully, we can meet shortly with the county executive so that we can resolve this matter to the benefit of LIPA's ratepayers in both Nassau and Suffolk Counties and Suffolk's taxpayers."
The way for Gaffney's search for a settlement was cleared late Friday when the members of the Legislature, after a series of caucuses and heated debate during an executive session, agreed to a resolution giving Gaffney the power to negotiate a settlement.
The resolution did insist, however, that any settlement be less than the $625 million offered by Kessel.
After the executive meeting, some legislators said that their colleagues' interest in the legal battle had dwindled, and that there was a desire to settle as soon as possible.
"The overwhelming sentiment by everybody is, 'Let's put this issue to bed,' " said Fred Towle, a member of the Republican majority.
Some members, however, continued to resist any talk of a deal.
"I think it's an abdication for our responsibility," said George Guldi, who served as chairman of the committee that resisted Kessel's settlement offer.
The dispute began in 1976, when overassessments on the Shoreham nuclear plant increased the amount of taxes paid by the Long Island Lighting Company not only to Suffolk but also to the Town of Brookhaven and the Shoreham-Wading River School District.
Lilco passed the cost on in the form of higher rates to its customers in both Suffolk and Nassau Counties. At the same time, the utility took the matter to court, sued and won.
The initial judgment, with interest, has since grown to $1.4 billion.
After the power authority's partial takeover of the utility a year ago, the authority offered to settle for $625 million.
It then cut rates in both counties but began collecting on the debt by adding a 2 percent surcharge on its bills in Suffolk.
"Much of the required agreement is already in place," Gaffney said.
"All we need to do is work out the final figures and settle our differences over the final wording." He and Kessel said they hoped to work out the final details before Thanksgiving.
-----------
Pentagon Cites Cyberwarfare Report
By Robert Burns AP Military Writer Tuesday, Nov. 9, 1999; 2:29 a.m. EST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991109/aponline022905_000.htm
WASHINGTON -- The United States and other nations capable of waging information warfare - the use of computer electronics to attack another state - are unlikely to be guided by a coherent body of international law anytime soon, the Defense Department's top lawyers argue in an internal report.
Because of these uncertainties, U.S. government officials should take a cautious approach to cyberwarfare, the lawyers concluded in a detailed assessment of the international legal implications.
The report, written in May by the Pentagon's Office of General Counsel and released to reporters Monday, concluded "there are no 'show-stoppers'" in international law for cyberwarfare operations now contemplated by the Pentagon. It did not mention any such operations, which would be closely guarded secrets.
Last month, Army Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged for the first time that the U.S. military conducted a form of computer warfare against Yugoslavia as part of NATO's air war last spring.
Asked broadly if U.S. information "weapons" were used against Yugoslavia during the Kosovo campaign, Shelton replied, "You can assume that we in fact employed some of our systems, yes." He said the "systems" were offensive in nature, but he would not be more specific about how they were used.
The Washington Post reported Monday that the Pentagon considered hacking into Serbian computer networks to disrupt military operations and basic civilian services, but officers decided not to because of legal uncertainties of the kind described in the general counsel's report of last May.
The Pentagon report concluded: "It is by no means clear what information operations techniques will end up being considered to be 'weapons.'"
The report said its compilers found "no particularly good reason" for the United States to support negotiations for new international treaty obligations on information warfare, except in a few instances. It said the United States might find it useful to negotiate a treaty to suppress "information terrorism," but it is hard to see how such an agreement would work.
The report's basic conclusion was that the laws of warfare as applied to traditional conflicts is a useful, but not comprehensive, guideline for determining what kinds of cyberwarfare would be legal.
The law of warfare prohibiting the use of indiscriminate weapons may apply to information warfare, the report said. One example would be the use of computer "logic bombs," or viruses, against a military information system that spreads to other information systems used to provide essential services to noncombatants.
This prohibition in traditional armed conflict might apply indirectly if the consequence of a computer network attack is to release dangerous forces such as opening the floodgates of a dam, causing an oil refinery in a populated area to explode in flames or instigating release of radioactivity, the report said.
Under traditional laws of warfare, an attack must pass the test of "military necessity." Thus purely civilian systems must not be attacked unless the attacking force can demonstrate that a definite military advantage is expected from the attack. "Stock exchanges, banking systems, universities and similar civilian infrastructure may not be attacked simply because a belligerent has the ability to do so," the report said.
Another example would be perfidy, or treachery. "It may seem attractive for a combatant vessel or aircraft to avoid being attacked by broadcasting the agreed identification signals for a medical vessel or aircraft, but such actions would be a war crime," the report said.
"Similarly, it might be possible to use computer 'morphing' techniques to crease an image of the enemy's chief of state informing his troops that an armistice or cease-fire agreement had been signed. If false, this would also be a war crime."
-----------
House Panel Wants Nuke Document
By Tom Raum Associated Press Writer Tuesday, Nov. 9, 1999; 3:24 a.m. EST http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991109/aponline032433_000.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Congress-China-Espionage.html
WASHINGTON -- Averting a subpoena battle, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson is promising a House Armed Services panel material it has been seeking for nearly eight months in an inquiry into alleged Chinese espionage at a U.S. nuclear weapons laboratory.
Just moments before the military procurement subcommittee met Monday to consider issuing a subpoena, Richardson made the offer in separate phone calls to Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., the panel's chairman, and Rep. Norman Sisisky, D-Va., the panel's senior Democrat, Hunter and Sisisky announced.
At issue is written testimony prepared for an Oct. 6, 1998, meeting of the committee by Notra Trulock, the Energy Department intelligence officer who triggered an investigation into alleged Chinese spying at the nation's nuclear weapons labs.
Trulock, who later resigned, has said he was prevented from sharing information with Congress about the Los Alamos investigation by superiors, including Elizabeth Moler, then deputy energy secretary.
The subcommittee demanded the original, unedited and classified copy of Trulock's testimony in a March 24 letter to Richardson. Hunter contends the testimony he actually gave the committee was heavily edited by the administration.
"I think we've been very patient on this matter," Hunter said.
"Dr. Trulock had prepared testimony for this committee. That testimony had been changed," Hunter said. "We don't know what Dr. Trulock was going to tell us."
Richardson offered to deliver the unrevised, classified version of Trulock's original testimony to the panel today, Hunter and Sisisky said. If the document isn't delivered, Hunter said, "then we will have another meeting ... and we will issue the subpoena."
Hunter asserted that Energy Department officials "didn't tell us the truth" in October 1998 when they said there were no recent thefts of nuclear missile technology secrets from the Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory in New Mexico.
A former Los Alamos computer scientist, Wen Ho Lee, was fired in March for violating security rules. Although not charged with a crime, he has been the FBI's prime target in the nearly four-year investigation of the alleged theft.
Lee, a Taiwan-born computer scientist who worked with the top-secret weapons design team at Los Alamos since the late 1970s, has denied giving any secrets to China and has accused the government of singling him out because he is Chinese-American.
China has repeatedly rejected any allegations of espionage.
Sisisky cautioned that "nothing has been proven that anything has been stolen."
Still, he said, the panel is entitled to the unrevised testimony. "Some of us might not agree on the need for the document, but that is another matter."
---
China Plans for a Stronger Air Force
Move Reflects Push to Expand Influence in Asia, Serve Notice to United States
By John Pomfret Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, November 9, 1999; Page A17
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/09/053l-110999-idx.html
BEIJING, Nov. 8-The commander of China's air force said today Beijing would begin transforming the service from a territorial defense force into a more aggressive one with greater capabilities to attack beyond China's borders, the New China News Agency reported.
Lt. Gen. Liu Shunyao said the air force would strive to "realize as soon as possible a change from territorial defense to a combination of defense and offense." In separate comments today, on the 50th anniversary of the air force, President Jiang Zemin echoed Liu's comments.
Liu's remarks were yet another indication of China's plans to use its military might to expand its influence in Asia. China has recently showcased in-flight refueling technology that will allow its fighter jets to patrol far into the South China Sea. China's navy has announced plans to transform itself slowly from a coastal force into a blue water navy, which would allow it to use its military power in faraway oceans. China's missile forces can strike almost anywhere in Asia and were given a boost over the summer with the successful testing of the Dongfeng-31, a ballistic missile with a range of 5,000 miles.
Much of China's military modernization is aimed at the United States. Western analysts say China hopes to make Washington think twice about backing Taiwan--which Beijing considers a breakaway province--in any potential conflict with Beijing. China is seeking a limited deterrence--through the purchase of Russian state-of-the-art anti-ship missiles, the development of its own missile systems and research into satellite and cyber warfare to challenge U.S. superiority in Asia.
China's air force has had a troubled history, especially since China began to modernize its military forces in 1978 as part of a plan to improve its economy. It has had difficulty developing aircraft that can match international standards.
One of the newest mainstays of its forces is the Russian Su-27 fighter. In 1996, China purchased a license to build 200 Su-27s in China. Earlier this year, China also signed contracts to purchase 40 of Russia's state-of-the-art Su-30 two-seater, multipurpose fighters. Delivery is expected next year. China buys about $1 billion of weapons from Russia each year.
---
Senator Delays Vote to Confirm Admiral as Envoy to China
By ELIZABETH BECKER November 9, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/washpol/senate-china-envoy.html
WASHINGTON -- A Republican senator has blocked the confirmation of Adm. Joseph W. Prueher to be the next ambassador to China, saying he is worried that the admiral is too friendly to China.
Sen. Robert C. Smith, R-N.H., last Thursday put a hold on a full Senate vote on the admiral's nomination until the Pentagon releases official documents detailing his relations with China and Taiwan when he commanded the combined American forces in the Pacific.
"I'm worried that he's been lax on planning for the defense of Taiwan," said Smith. "Number two, he's a bit naive on China at best, or at worst somewhat dangerous to the nation's national security."
In a letter to Secretary of Defense William Cohen, Smith and Sen. James M. Inhofe, R-Okla., asked for documents including those detailing the admiral's plans for defending Taiwan, his objections to arms sales requests by Taiwan and whether he received permission to allow Chinese officers to tour an American nuclear attack submarine in California.
Last week, the Senate Foreign Relations committee voted to confirm the admiral. But with Congress attempting to complete business this week and go into recess as early as Wednesday evening, Smith's hold could delay a vote by the full Senate and mean the death of the admiral's nomination. In that case, the president's only recourse would be to make Prueher an ambassador through a recess appointment.
"The president believes this nomination should be acted on expeditiously -- it's clear there is bipartisan support for the admiral," said David C. Leavy, the spokesman for the National Security Council.
The Defense Department plans to deliver the documents to Smith on Tuesday, a Pentagon spokesman said. Smith said that if he is not satisfied with those documents he may refuse to allow a vote.
The post in Beijing has been empty since July following the departure of the former ambassador, James Sasser.
--------
World Briefings -- ASIA... INDIA: TALKS CANCELED
November 9, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/world/world-briefing.html
The Government has forced the postponement of a seven-nation summit meeting planned for Nov. 26-28 in Nepal. India, the largest member of the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation, objected to taking part in the meeting because of the recent military takeover in neighboring Pakistan. No new date for the conference has been set. Barry Bearak (NYT)
PAKISTAN: NUCLEAR VOW In his first news conference since joining the new military government as foreign minister, Abdul Sattar promised that Pakistan would never be the first to conduct any further tests of nuclear weapons. He said the nation "cannot afford" an arms race "nor is it necessary." Meanwhile, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who now controls the country, has left on a trip to Qatar, Turkey and Kuwait. Barry Bearak (NYT)
---
India, U.S. To Discuss Nuclear Arms
The Associated Press Tuesday, Nov. 9, 1999; 10:00 a.m. EST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991109/aponline100044_000.htm
NEW DELHI, India -- U.S. and Indian officials will meet in London next week to discuss nuclear disarmament - the first such meeting since the Senate rejected ratification of a global test ban treaty the United States has been pressing India to sign.
Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh are also expected to prepare for President Clinton's visit to India early next year, the news agency Press Trust of India reported Tuesday.
The two men have met nine times for formal talks, but this will be their first session since Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee won elections early last month and since a military regime ousted the civilian government in neighboring Pakistan on Oct. 12.
Talbott has been urging India and Pakistan to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty since both countries detonated nuclear devices in May 1998.
But the U.S. position was undermined when the Senate refused to endorse the treaty.
The Vajpayee government says it is trying to build a consensus within the country in favor of the treaty, but has made no commitment.
India's reluctance to talk to Pakistan's new military ruler, Gen. Pervaiz Musharraf, also may figure in the dialogue. Washington is keen to see the two hostile neighbors ease border tensions by resuming the negotiations that were suspended in May.
American envoy Bruce Reidel had visited New Delhi in October, shortly after the Indian elections, to lay the groundwork for President Clinton's visit.
------
Clinton To Visit Greece and Turkey
By Sonya Ross Associated Press Writer Tuesday, Nov. 9, 1999; 4:29 a.m. EST http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991109/aponline042921_000.htm
WASHINGTON -- Days away from his visit to Greece and Turkey, President Clinton called "a true reconciliation" between the NATO allies one of the greatest challenges facing the world's leading democracies. "This is a problem that can be solved," he said.
In a speech Monday at Georgetown University, Clinton said the United States and its allies have three pressing priorities. Two of them, he said, were helping Russia maintain its democracy, and preventing the rise of dictators in the Balkans to reduce the threat of future wars.
"A third challenge is perhaps the oldest of them all, and in some ways, perhaps the hardest ... to achieve a true reconciliation between Greece and Turkey," Clinton said. "This is a problem that can be solved. Eventually, it will be solved. I intend to see that the United States does everything we possibly can to be of help."
The president's speech coincided with today's anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the barrier of barbed wire and cinder blocks between East and West that came to symbolize the Cold War. Clinton recalled that time for an audience of students who were hardly 10 years old when that wall tumbled, who grew up with no idea of the fears that the Cold War fomented in their parents' and grandparents' generations.
"It, therefore, may be hard to imagine the true sense of exuberance and pride that the free world felt a decade ago," Clinton said. "The students of our era will still grow to live in a world full of danger, but probably - and hopefully - they will not have to live in fear of a total war in which millions could be killed in a single, deadly exchange."
Clinton departs this week for an 11-day European trip that includes visits to Greece and Turkey, and he said he would urge the NATO allies to make progress in overcoming their differences, particularly over Cyprus, so that they can serve as unifying forces in Europe.
"I'm going to speak about the vital role Greece is playing and can play in Europe," Clinton said. "The one thing standing between Greece and its true potential is the tension in its relationship with Turkey."
The president noted that both Greece and Turkey have demonstrated, through peacekeeping in the Balkans and recovery from devastating earthquakes earlier this year, that they can work with each other. He said Greece, as the world's oldest democracy, can help stabilize emerging Balkan nations, while Turkey, "a country at the crossroad of Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia," could be a valuable bridge between Europe and Islamic countries.
Clinton also said maintaining American leadership is a priority, and he challenged U.S. lawmakers to decide whether to embrace or reject "the approach to the world that has brought us to this happy point in human history."
"That is the most important decision of all," Clinton said.
Clinton used Georgetown's annual Herbert Quandt Lecture to put an extra edge on a foreign policy debate already stirred by the Senate's rejection of a landmark nuclear test-ban treaty. The Republican-engineered defeat was a major embarrassment for Clinton and highlighted policy disputes about African debt relief, payment of $1.8 billion in late dues to the United Nations and money to dismantle Russia's nuclear arsenal.
The defeat aside, Clinton called for building "the right kind of partnership with Russia" so that the erstwhile Communist superpower is "stable, democratic and cooperatively engaged with the West" as a democracy.
"Russia's transformation has just begun. It is incomplete, it is awkward. Sometimes it is not pretty," Clinton said. "Years from now, I don't think we will be criticized, any of us, for doing too much to help. But we can certainly be criticized if we do too little."
Clinton also appealed for bringing stability to the Balkans so that "bitter ethnic problems can no longer be exploited by dictators and Americans do not have to cross the Atlantic again to fight in another war."
Particularly, Clinton called for a democratic transition in Serbia from the rule of Slobodan Milosevic, whom the president called "the last living relic of the age of European dictators of the communist era."
-----------
Russia To Dismantle 18 Nuclear Subs
The Associated Press Tuesday, Nov. 9, 1999; 10:00 a.m. EST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991109/aponline100047_000.htm
MOSCOW, Russia -- Russia will dismantle 18 nuclear submarines next year and is working on new technologies to speed up the process, the Interfax news agency reported today.
In all, Russia must scrap 107 nuclear submarines left over from the Cold War, according to Valery Lebedev, deputy minister of atomic energy.
The United States has pledged millions of dollars to help Russia in the task, and U.S. officials are following the dismantling work closely. The submarines were built to carry nuclear missiles targeted at the United States.
Many of the submarines are tied to piers in Russia's north and are in disrepair. Some are slowly leaking fluids into the surrounding water, causing environmental concerns.
Their safe dismantling has become a contentious issue as neighboring countries are offering aid money, but the Russian military is reluctant to provide foreigners access to their top-secret submarine bases in the Arctic.
Welders usually cut the vessels into circular slices but leave the reactor core intact and still floating in the water, tied to a pier.
Lebedev said the current techniques for cutting up the submarines "do not permit rapid disposal," and that researchers were working on a new concept for disposing of the boats.
In another safety enhancement, Lebedev said his ministry may order new containers for transporting nuclear waste from a St. Petersburg plant. Currently, Russia lacks the chunky steel containers, a key safety component.
Lebedev said the government had allotted $19.2 million in 1999 for decommissioning the submarines, but that his ministry had received only 80 percent of this sum.
---
Russian Navy Cleans Up Nuclear Subs
By Andrew Kramer Associated Press Writer Tuesday, Nov. 9, 1999; 2:19 p.m. EST http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991109/aponline141959_000.htm
ARKHANGELSK, Russia -- Nikolai Birillo was trained to end the world, not clean it up.
Birillo, a vice admiral in the Russian navy, ran patrols on nuclear submarines for 23 years, carrying missiles and torpedoes tipped with atomic warheads.
Now he sits on a cleanup committee that receives handouts from the United States and Norway to dismantle the subs in an environmentally friendly manner at Arkhangelsk, less than 200 miles south of the Arctic Circle. It's a role Birillo seems reluctant to play.
"We aren't technically backward," he said, bristling when asked about the foreign aid that's being provided because Russia is too poor to pay for the work itself. "You can't talk to us like some African tribe."
Since the 1991 Soviet breakup, the United States and other Western countries have provided several billion dollars to help Russia dismantle and destroy its weapons of mass destruction under arms control agreements.
The program is widely viewed as a success by both sides, although it has moved more slowly than anticipated in some cases.
A senior Russian official said Tuesday that 18 nuclear submarines will be dismantled next year and new techniques are being developed to speed up the process. Valery Lebedev, deputy minister of atomic energy, said existing methods "do not permit rapid disposal," according to the Interfax news agency, but gave no details.
The news will please environmental groups, which want to see the pace of work quicken, fearing that the risk of a nuclear accident grows the longer abandoned submarines are allowed to deteriorate. Current plans call for some 125 Russian nuclear submarines to be dismantled by 2010.
An accident would endanger not just Russian territory, but neighboring countries and the Barents Sea, the groups say.
With its severe financial problems, Russia generally welcomes the foreign help, but officials worried about security have grumbled about opening secret facilities to outsiders.
Years of negotiations were required before the dismantling of leaky and rusting nuclear submarines began last year. The program gained momentum in September with the opening of new facilities to handle nuclear waste.
U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen visited Arkhangelsk earlier this fall as work began on dismantling the first Typhoon-class ballistic missile submarine, one of the largest submarines ever built, and capable of carrying up to 200 nuclear warheads.
Much of the work will take place in the shipyards outside Arkhangelsk.
The region houses the largest concentration of nuclear reactors anywhere in the world. Crumbling concrete tenement houses and potholed streets look out on broken-down nuclear submarines.
In the bay, a huge, dark object wallows in white-capped waves. A closer look reveals it's a submarine almost two football fields long, the huge cylinder riding low in the water.
Foreign visitors are not allowed to get any closer, because the navy still wants to maintain some of the secrecy that shrouded the Soviet submarine program. The navy has also been reluctant to acknowledge the potential environmental dangers.
But environmental groups say that risks abound. The submarines contain radioactive waste and noxious gases that are both dangerous and costly to handle.
Dismantling a single submarine costs about $10 million, according to estimates by officials in the U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. The program, established in 1992, pays for decommissioning Russian weapons of mass destruction.
When taking apart a submarine, the biggest risk comes when a crane operator hoists the chunky steel lid off the nuclear reactor compartment.
"You've got to hope that everything is OK underneath," said Josh Handler, a former Greenpeace researcher living in Moscow. Often, radioactive gas gushes out.
Liquid missile fuel also poses a threat, giving off gases so toxic they can kill if inhaled, said Luke Kluchko, an American official with the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program in Moscow.
"Taking apart a nuclear-driven sub is tricky business," he said.
At the Arkhangelsk navy yard, Birillo, the vice admiral, accompanied visitors on a tour of a museum dedicated to nuclear submarines. He ran his hand over smooth, stainless-steal periscopes and intricate gyroscopes.
"I know this equipment well," he said, clearly proud of the technology.
But when asked about the waste problem, he replied angrily, "We don't have a problem."
-----------
Japan, S. Korea, U.S. Consult Before Berlin Talks
By Reuters November 9, 1999 Filed at 6:44 p.m. EDT
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-korea-n.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Japan, South Korea and the United States ended two days of consultations in Washington on Tuesday united in the hope that next week's talks between North Korea and the United States will led to gestures by Pyongyang.
The three allies would like the talks, which open in Berlin on Monday, to build on North Korea's decision to suspend test launches of a long-range missile, officials said.
North Korea agreed to the suspension during the last round of talks in Berlin in September after months of warnings of dire consequences if it tests another Taepodong missile.
The United States responded by easing some sanctions and Japan last week lifted a ban on direct charter flights to the secretive Marxist-ruled country.
Japan had imposed the ban last year after the North Koreans fired a Taepodong missile over Japan into the Pacific. Washington is worried that the next version of the missile could hit the continental United States.
A U.S. statement on Tuesday said: ``They (Japan, South Korea and the United States) expressed the shared hope that the DPRK (North Korea) would also continue to take positive steps to improve the atmosphere, and that further improvements would be made in their respective relationships with the DPRK.''
The three countries, which regularly consult before and after negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang, reaffirmed their commitment to the landmark 1994 Agreed Framework, which averted a showdown over North Korea's nuclear programs.
North Korea agreed to mothball its nuclear reactors in exchange for two light-water nuclear power plants and fuel oil to tide it over till the plants are built.
``The Framework continues to be essential to the peace and security of the Korean peninsula,'' the U.S. statement said.
In Berlin the United States is expected to seek better relations with North Korea along the lines outlined in a policy review by former Defense Secretary William Perry.
Perry recommended that the United States gradually eliminate sanctions and reduce pressures which North Korea sees as threatening, in exchange for assurances that North Korea does not have a nuclear weapons program and will not test, deploy, produce or export long-range missiles.
John Holum, U.S. Under Secretary of State for arms control and international security, said on Tuesday that Washington wanted a firmer commitment on missiles testing.
``There's not a permanent policy. it's a decision not to conduct further tests ... while these discussions are under way. I hope that will ripen into a legal firm commitment against further tests,'' he told reporters.
``That would be a very important step forward but I don't want to prejudge efforts,'' he added.
The Washington talks were between State Department counselor Wendy Sherman, South Korean deputy foreign minister Jang Jai-ryong and Yukio Takeuchi, director general for foreign policy in the Japanese Foreign Ministry.
The delegations' leaders in Berlin will be U.S. special envoy Charles Kartman and North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan.
---
Japanese Nuclear Worry: Quakes
September Accident Renews Doubts About Safety of Atomic Sites
By Valerie Reitman Los Angeles Times Service November 9, 1999
http://www.iht.com/IHT/TODAY/TUE/IN/tokyo.2.html
TOKYO - The Sept. 30 accident at a Japanese uranium-processing plant, which exposed safety flaws in the government's aggressive nuclear energy program, has renewed concerns that an earthquake could trigger another crisis if it were to strike close to reactors or nuclear-related facilities.
Japanese activists and some seismologists point out that some of this earthquake-prone archipelago's 51 nuclear reactors are built in areas where quakes are likely to occur. They also contend that four dozen nuclear-related treatment and processing facilities could also be prone to radiation leaks in the event of a major quake.
''I think the situation right now is very scary,'' said Katsuhiko Ishibashi, a seismologist at Kobe University.
Mr. Ishibashi argues that the government's prime criteria for judging whether nuclear power plants are safe are ''absolutely wrong'' from a seismological standpoint. Among the factors used to decide where to locate plants are past earthquake data and proximity to known fault lines and to the ocean, which is used to cool reactors.
Mr. Ishibashi predicts that the area of a nuclear plant in Shizuoka Prefecture in central Japan - while not considered part of an active seismic region - will be the site of the next big quake. A fifth reactor is under construction at the plant.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, an arm of the United Nations based in Vienna, says none of the world's 434 nuclear power plants have experienced major problems because of earthquakes. That fact illustrates the ''strength of construction which is rightly part of their basic design,'' said David Kyd, a spokesman for the agency.
Mr. Kyd says nuclear power plants are built with ''tremendously strengthened foundations and structural features to ensure that they can withstand the biggest conceivable earthquake.''
''This is why nuclear power plants in both Japan and California, for example, and more recently in Taiwan, have ridden out fairly major earthquakes without damage,'' Mr. Kyd said.
Earthquakes often occur in areas where faults have not been found, which was the case in the 1995 temblor in Kobe, Japan.
''It is wrong to give too much weight to active fault research for measuring earthquake possibilities at nuclear power plant sites,'' Mr. Ishibashi said. ''Active faults reflect only a part of the whole earthquake state, just like a tail of an animal.''
Japanese and international regulators, as well as the Japanese companies building the reactors, note that earthquake data are taken into consideration in the placement of reactors, which they say can withstand earthquakes as great as magnitude 8.5 on the Richter scale.
If an earthquake hits a nuclear power plant, safety devices will function even if other facilities are damaged, and the reactor automatically will stop, cool down and then prevent leakage, said Yuji Kurotani, senior examiner in Japan's Nuclear Power Safety Examination Division.
An earthquake larger than 8.5 could spell trouble, however.
''Then it will be the same as Chernobyl,'' Mr. Kurotani said, referring to the world's worst nuclear accident, the reactor meltdown in Ukraine in 1986. ''But that kind of case will never happen.''
In contrast with the situation in Japan, which is lacking in natural resources and aggressively beefing up its nuclear power program to supplant reliance on imported fuels, the issue of vulnerability to earthquakes has not come up much in the United States in recent years. No nuclear reactors have been built there since the late 1970s, after cost overruns and the Three Mile Island nuclear accident all but ended nuclear-energy expansion.
Mr. Ishibashi contends that even if new faults are found - as in the case of the Shimane nuclear plant in western Japan - the government does not disclose details or revise plans.
A group of about 300 local activists has been suing to block the construction of a planned third reactor at the power plant.
''There were supposed to be no faults, which is why the plant was approved in the first place under the government's safety guidelines,'' says Yasue Ashihara, who is spearheading the opposition group. ''Since now we know that the active fault exists around the reactors, the facts indicate that they no longer meet the safety guidelines.''
---
Japan Inspecting Nuclear Facilities
By The Associated Press November 9, 1999 Filed at 6:06 a.m. EST http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991109/aponline060624_000.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Japan-Nuclear-Inspections.html
TOKYO (AP) -- Government inspectors checking 17 nuclear facilities in Japan found violations of health and safety laws at more than half of them, though none of the violations were serious enough to endanger workers, the Labor Ministry said.
The ministry inspected the plants -- which did not include nuclear reactors -- to strengthen administration of the nuclear industry following the country's worst-ever nuclear accident in September. The inspections during the first three weeks of October turned up 25 violations of the Industrial Safety and Health Law at nine facilities, the ministry said in a report released Monday.
The problems included lack of health and safety control systems and failure to hold regular inspections by industrial doctors. Some of the plants also failed to take radiation measurements in some work areas.
The Labor Ministry inspections did not uncover the types of dangerous violations involved in the September accident. The violations did not present any danger to workers and the ministry did not expect to press charges, said Takuya Nabeoka of the Labor Standards Bureau's inspection division.
The ministry issued recommendations to 14 of the facilities inspected, urging them to take steps such as keeping records of individual workers' radiation levels on file permanently and developing emergency procedures in case of an accident.
Japanese nuclear regulators were ordered to crack down on violators following the Sept. 30 accident at a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Tokaimura, 70 miles northeast of Tokyo.
The accident, in which workers skipped crucial safety steps while mixing nuclear fuel, was apparently caused by disregard for safety procedures. It exposed at least 69 people to radiation. The area around the plant was evacuated and town residents were ordered to stay inside.
-----------
Troops to be given experimental drugs only rarely
November 9, 1999 Web posted at: 7:54 PM EST (0054 GMT)
http://www.cnn.com/US/9911/09/military.vaccines.ap/index.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Only in rare instances will U.S. forces be required to take drugs not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the Clinton administration told Congress Tuesday. A Pentagon official said these could include exposure to lethal biological-chemical weapons for which there are no approved vaccines.
But members of a congressional panel suggested the authority could be abused. "I happen to believe such requests will not be rare," said Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Connecticut, chairman of a House Government Reform subcommittee looking into Defense Department vaccination programs.
On September 30, President Clinton signed an executive order setting forth the process under which a mandatory vaccination program could be administered under terms of a 1998 law. Essentially, the defense secretary would have to request such a program. It would then have to be approved by the president.
"The United States faces the monumental challenge of establishing a credible medical defense against chemical and biological weapons in contexts of both military operations and civilian terrorist response," said Dr. Sue Bailey, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, told the subcommittee on national security, veterans affairs and international relations.
She said it will take many years for some new drugs to be developed and approved by the FDA. In the meantime, Bailey testified, it may become necessary to use "investigational" new drugs, those not yet approved by the FDA, to protect troops who might be exposed to certain chemical or biological substances.
"We will make every effort to obtain appropriate informed consent" from troops. There might be times, however, when the Pentagon would want to make the program mandatory.
By contrast, the current vaccine program designed to eventually protect all 2.4 million members of the military is a product already approved by the FDA, Bailey said. Some 300,000 servicemen and women have received it already, she said.
John Spotila, an official with the Office of Management and Budget, told the panel the Pentagon would generally only administer products approved by the FDA. "Under certain circumstances, however, and with strict controls, it may need to administer such products without obtaining an individual's consent in order to preserve military capability ... and to protect the health and well-being of our deployed troops."
During the Persian Gulf War, the Pentagon was given approval to use two investigational products -- pyridostigmine bromide, a drug believe to protect against certain nerve gases, and botulinum toxoid, a vaccine to protect against botulism. Only the pyridostigmine was used.
Charles R. McCarthy, a senior research fellow at Georgetown University, told the panel that more safeguards need to be imposed to ensure that mandatory vaccination programs are used only in the most rare and serious instances.
"Military personnel do not surrender all of their rights," he said. They must "not be ordered to participate in biomedical or behavioral research."
-----------
Dead Sea fake quakes bolster nuclear ban
Many tourists visit the Dead Sea
Sci/Tech By BBC News Online's Damian Carrington November 10, 1999 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_514000/514414.stm
Geophysicists in Israel are setting off tonnes of explosives under the Dead Sea to create artificial earthquakes. The results will improve seismic monitoring equipment which detects nuclear weapon tests and earthquakes.
Blasts using 500 kg and 2,000 kg explosive charges have already been detonated to test for environmental damage before the main test.
This involves a 5,000 kg explosive charge set 100 metres below the surface and is planned for Thursday. It will create tremors equivalent to a magnitude 4.0 earthquake.
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
"These tests are to calibrate two stations which are part of an international monitoring network, set up to support the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CBTB)," said Dr Aoife O'Mongain, at the British Geological Survey, which is helping with the tests.
The timing of the tests is controlled with millisecond accuracy and the location to five metres. This means the source of the artificial earthquake is known and so the effect of the rocks in the region on the signal can be worked out.
Dr O'Mongain told BBC News Online that this will "help a lot" in precisely identifying the force and epicentre of future nuclear tests and earthquakes, and distinguishing between the two.
The tests are part of a project called "Improvements in Monitoring the CTBT in the Middle East by the Israel Seismic Network " which is funded by the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
Environmental criticism
Avi Shapira of Israel's Seismology Department in the Geophysical Institute said two studies carried out by the Institute and the Geological Survey of Israel had "addressed all the problems" of environmental safety. An Institute statement stated there is: "no hazard to the people, property and the environment".
They add that the lack of fish in the hyper-saline Dead Sea makes it an ideal test bed.
However, environmentalists have criticised the tests, saying they could damage the sea's fragile ecosystem.
"You have to be very careful in such a delicate area and I'm not sure they have taken all the necessary precautions," said Ofer Ben-Dov of Greenpeace Israel.
Damage assessment
The Israeli Environment Ministry, which had tried to stop the test blasts, is meeting representatives from the Geophysical Institute on Wednesday to assess whether the first two explosions had caused any damage.
"We have to be sure there is no damage to the environment, to the rivers that flow to the sea, to the caves and nature reserves around there," said ministry spokesman Yiftah Kramer.
Scientists last released a controlled explosion in the Dead Sea in 1977 but this type of test occurs around the world more frequently. The last was in Kazhakstan in 1998.
-----------
Sandia To Cover, Not Clean, Waste
By John Fleck Journal Staff Writer November 10, 1999
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/11news11-10-99.htm
Sandia National Laboratories plans to put a permanent cover over a landfill containing its most radioactive waste rather than digging it up and potentially exposing workers and the public to it.
The issue has raised concern among some members of a citizen advisory group that advises Sandia on its cleanup program. Members will meet Thursday to talk about the project.
Miles Nelson, a physician who raised the concerns, believes the landfill doesn't pose any immediate hazards.
But he fears in a hundred or a thousand years, society could lose track of where the stuff is buried, and the problem could come back to haunt future generations.
"I'm worried about covering it up and forgetting about it," Nelson said.
Sandia officials say it's safer to leave the waste in the ground than to dig it up and dispose of it, said cleanup manager Dick Fate. If technology becomes available that could change that, Sandia could return and clean it up, he said.
The fate of Sandia's Mixed Waste Landfill, as the site is called, highlights a problem being faced at nuclear-weapons research labs and production plants around the country -- some sites contaminated by years of weapons work will never be cleaned up.
Nelson is chairman of the Radioactive Waste Task Group of Sandia's Citizens Advisory Board, a group of citizens organized and supported with Energy Department funding to monitor Sandia's environmental efforts.
Nelson's group will meet Thursday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. to talk about the landfill at the University of New Mexico's Student Union Building, Room 231-A.
Sandia used the landfill from 1959 to 1988, dumping waste in unlined pits. It's located on brush-covered open land at Kirtland Air Force Base. The nearest residential areas, base housing at Kirtland Air Force Base and the Four Hills neighborhood, are five miles away.
Some of the waste, Fate said, is dangerously radioactive.
"Some of this stuff's pretty hot," he said.
But Fate added that it's not going anywhere. None has been found in ground water or in any significant amounts off the site.
"I do not think it's a hazard at this time," Nelson said.
Waste in the pit includes plutonium and beryllium, two substances that could be hazardous if inhaled.
Neither has escaped the landfill in dangerous amounts, Fate and Nelson agreed.
Sandia's planned cover would use a thick layer of native soil, which Sandia scientists have found prevents water from seeping into the landfill.
The main problem, as Nelson sees it, is that the decision to cover the waste and leave it has been made without enough public discussion, which is why Thursday's meeting was called.
-----------
Russians reluctantly dismantle nuclear subs
Handouts from U.S., Norway aiding effort
By ANDREW KRAMER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Wednesday, November 10, 1999 http://www.seattlep-i.com/national/nuke101.shtml
ARKHANGELSK, Russia -- Nikolai Birillo was trained to end the world, not clean it up.
Birillo, a vice admiral in the Russian navy, ran patrols on nuclear submarines for 23 years, carrying missiles and torpedoes tipped with atomic warheads.
Now he sits on a cleanup committee that receives handouts from the United States and Norway to dismantle the subs in an environmentally friendly manner at Arkhangelsk, less than 200 miles south of the Arctic Circle. It's a role Birillo seems reluctant to play.
"We aren't technically backward," he said, bristling when asked about the foreign aid that's being provided because Russia is too poor to pay for the work itself.
Since the 1991 Soviet breakup, the United States and other Western countries have provided several billion dollars to help Russia dismantle and destroy its weapons of mass destruction under arms control agreements.
The program is widely viewed as a success by both sides, although it has moved more slowly than anticipated in some cases. Environmentalists have long pointed to the derelict subs moored at this region's shipyards, many of which are little more than weed-overgrown derelicts themselves.
A senior Russian official said yesterday that 18 nuclear submarines will be dismantled next year and new techniques are being developed to speed up the process. Valery Lebedev, deputy minister of atomic energy, said existing methods "do not permit rapid disposal," according to the Interfax news agency, but gave no details.
The news will please environmental groups, which want to see the pace of work quicken, fearing that the risk of a nuclear accident grows the longer abandoned submarines are allowed to deteriorate. Current plans call for some 125 Russian nuclear submarines to be dismantled by 2010.
An accident would endanger not just Russian territory, but neighboring countries and the Barents Sea, the groups say.
With its severe financial problems, Russia generally welcomes the foreign help, but officials worried about security have grumbled about opening secret facilities to outsiders.
Years of negotiations were required before the dismantling of leaky and rusting nuclear submarines began last year. The program gained momentum in September with the opening of new facilities to handle nuclear waste.
U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen visited Arkhangelsk earlier this fall as work began on dismantling the first Typhoon-class ballistic missile submarine, one of the largest submarines ever built, and capable of carrying up to 200 nuclear warheads.
Much of the work will take place in the shipyards outside Arkhangelsk.
The region houses the largest concentration of nuclear reactors anywhere in the world. Crumbling concrete tenement houses and potholed streets look out on broken-down nuclear submarines.
In the bay, a huge, dark object wallows in white-capped waves. A closer look reveals it's a submarine almost two football fields long, the huge cylinder riding low in the water.
Foreign visitors are not allowed to get any closer, because the navy still wants to maintain some of the secrecy that shrouded the Soviet submarine program. The navy has also been reluctant to acknowledge the potential environmental dangers.
But environmental groups say that risks abound. The submarines contain radioactive waste and noxious gases that are both dangerous and costly to handle.
Dismantling a single submarine costs about $10 million, according to estimates by officials in the U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. The program, established in 1992, pays for decommissioning Russian weapons of mass destruction.
When taking apart a submarine, the biggest risk comes when a crane operator hoists the chunky steel lid off the nuclear reactor compartment.
"You've got to hope that everything is OK underneath," said Josh Handler, a former Greenpeace researcher living in Moscow. Often, radioactive gas gushes out.
Liquid missile fuel also poses a threat, giving off gases so toxic they can kill if inhaled, said Luke Kluchko, an American official with the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program in Moscow.
At the Arkhangelsk navy yard, Birillo, the vice admiral, accompanied visitors on a tour of a museum dedicated to nuclear submarines.
"I know this equipment well," he said, clearly proud of the technology.
But when asked about the waste problem, he replied angrily, "We don't have a problem."
-----------
Blanding Worried About Contamination
Tuesday, November 9, 1999, THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
http://www.sltrib.com/1999/nov/11091999/utah/45531.htm
Editors Note: Because of an editing error, Friday's story about White Mesa uranium processing plant and Atlas Tailings mill was seriously distorted. The following is a corrected version:
BLANDING -- Gov. Mike Leavitt took on residents concerned about the White Mesa uranium processing plant during a town hall meeting Friday.
Yolanda Badbach, who lives downwind of the plant, had concerns about how the uranium tailings are affecting area residents.
The White Mesa mill, south of Blanding, was built to process uranium ores mined in southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado. It is owned by Denver-based International Uranium Corporation (IUC) and operated under a license issued by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
Badbach told Leavitt the plant needed to close because "our elders are dying" and the young are getting sick.
"The mill needs to do it [process uranium] safely," Leavitt responded, adding: "They say they are doing it safely. I believe the state should check to make sure they are doing it safely."
Plant owners said the company wants the NRC to continue enforcing their regulations to enforce safety.
"If Utah becomes an agreement state and changes our abilities to process alternate feeds, White Mesa will shut down," an official said.
Also on Friday, the state and NRC named PricewaterhouseCooper to manage the capping of the 10.5 million tons of uranium tailings at the old Altas uranium mill near Moab and oversee cleanup of the site..
Residents near the Atlas tailings are concerned that contaminants forming the piles are seeping into the Colorado River and threaten three endangered fish species.
-----------
DOE Uses WIPP for Warning
Analysis by Barry Massey The Associated Press
November 9, 1999 http://www.abqjournal.com/news/16news11-09-99.htm
The federal government is sending a warning to other states by threatening to withhold a share of New Mexico's highway money because of a regulatory dispute involving the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.
The message is simple: You could be next.
The U.S. Energy Department wants to make certain that other states don't try to follow in New Mexico's footprints in imposing what the agency considers overly strict regulations on private contractors operating federal facilities.
At the center of the dispute are questions of federal money and regulatory precedent.
The latest fight began when the state Environment Department issued a permit regulating the storage of radioactive waste mixed with hazardous chemicals and solvents at WIPP -- the nation's first permanent dump for plutonium-contaminated wastes.
Drawing the ire of DOE and Congress was a provision requiring WIPP's contractor, Westinghouse, to provide a $110 million "financial assurance" to cover estimated costs of the eventual closing of the underground waste storage site.
DOE officials objected, saying the requirement would unnecessarily increase costs of operating WIPP. It's also the first time a state has tried to impose such a financial obligation on a DOE contractor.
"You can't separate the precedent from the cost. The reason we're worried about the precedent is because it has a cost," said Mary Anne Sullivan, general counsel of the Department of Energy.
Even New Mexicans in Congress objected to what the state was doing.
Sens. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., contended that a financial assurance requirement on WIPP's contractor was unnecessary because the facility is owned by the federal government.
"It's just unbelievable to almost everybody up here that a state would impose a bond on the United States regarding a facility of the U.S. government for its closure and maintenance," Domenici said.
The "full faith and credit" of the federal government serves as a financial assurance that money will be available in the future to cover costs of closing, cleaning up and maintaining WIPP, according to Domenici.
Just to make certain New Mexico got the message, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson -- once a Democratic congressman representing northern New Mexico -- took out the equivalent of a political two-by-four and threatened to use it against the state.
Richardson said the department would withhold $20 million a year in federal highway money from New Mexico if the WIPP financial assurance wasn't dropped.
The state was supposed to get $20 million a year for 15 years from the federal government for roads used to transport the radioactive wastes to WIPP from federal nuclear weapons sites across the country, such as Los Alamos National Laboratory.
State officials contended that Westinghouse could provide the financial assurance without incurring any costs, such as obtaining a letter of credit.
But DOE officials say even a letter of credit has a cost to a corporation and that it would eventually cause the federal government to pay more for its private contractors. And if a state can impose such financial obligations on a DOE facility, then it could spread to all federal agencies -- potentially tying up billions of dollars.
But state officials say it makes perfect sense to require some financial protection for New Mexico for potential environmental contamination and problems at WIPP in the future. Such requirements are routine for privately operated waste landfills.
In addition, state officials say there's already a precedent for a federal contractor to provide financial assurance in environmental cleanups: Oregon imposed such an obligation on a contractor hired by the Army for the disposal of chemical weapons at the Umatilla Ordnance Depot.
"It would be irresponsible for us to not make sure there isn't a mechanism to clean it up. Nobody is going to do it for us. Nobody in Congress today can obligate a future Congress 35 or 100 years from now to pay for cleanup," said Nathan Wade, a spokesman for the Environment Department.
-----------
HOLGER JENSEN: Priorities for U.S. foreign policy
Nando Media Copyright / Scripps Howard News Service http://www2.nando.net/noframes/story/0,2107,500055303-500090952-500332127-0,00.html
(November 9, 1999 12:20 p.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - President Clinton celebrated the 10th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Monday by pleading for a bipartisan foreign policy and more U.S. involvement abroad.
He politely refrained from blasting congressional "isolationists," as he did after the Senate refused to ratify the nuclear test ban treaty, and instead praised his Republican predecessors - among them, Ronald Reagan and George Bush - for having foreign policies that crossed party lines.
It was a very diplomatic speech, perhaps because Congress agreed to compromise on a $15.3 billion foreign aid bill that would restore $2.7 billion in cuts from a bill Clinton had vetoed.
But our legislature remains split between internationalists and isolationists, free traders and protectionists, and those who favor the carrot or the stick in our foreign affairs. Clinton, often accused of having no foreign policy at all except that which is thrust upon him, is unlikely to win consensus in his last year in office.
As potential successors jockey for advantage, it is often hard to discern real foreign issues from political footballs. But there are three priorities:
--A stable Russia and China, on friendly terms with the United States, are vital to the peace and security of the post-Cold War world. Relations with both powers soured during the Clinton years for a variety of reasons, but primarily because of NATO expansion and what they see as an interventionist U.S. military doctrine that appears to be turning its back on arms control.
The next president will have to repair the damage. Russia and China are more important than Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milosevic, Fidel Castro, Manuel Noriega, Kim Jong-il and all the other bogeymen we've conjured up as threats to freedom and the American way of life.
--Like it or not, we're members of the global economy and there's no use trying to make it local again. An increasing number of American jobs depend on exports, more and more Americans rely on imports and those who shout loudest about "buying American" should check the label in their ski jackets, sneakers or Barbie dolls.
We cannot preach free trade to others while subsidizing grain exports, reimbursing farmers for low commodity prices, slapping quotas on steel imports and protecting American textiles from cheaper Caribbean clothing.
The first thing the next president should do is ask Congress for "fast-track" negotiating authority, and get it.
--Congress and the White House must stop bickering about defense: how much should we spend on it, what to defend against, where to commit American force and how those overseas commitments affect military readiness.
In the past decade, defense spending has dropped and active-duty troops have been cut from 2.1 million to less than 1.4 million. But overseas commitments have multiplied in such unlikely places as East Timor and the Balkans.
In essence, our conventional forces are doing more with less. But while their numbers are down their technology is up and Defense Secretary William Cohen says they can fight two major regional conflicts simultaneously.
Also, while defense spending has dropped from 23 percent to 15 percent of the national budget, maintaining and upgrading our nuclear arsenal still costs American taxpayers $35 billion a year. These costs will go up significantly once Washington gives the go-ahead for deployment of a national missile defense system, which Congress has decreed should be in place by 2005.
William Hartung of the World Policy Institute attributes Senate refusal to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and our lawmakers' desire to alter, or ignore, the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty to massive campaign contributions from defense contractors led by Lockheed Martin, the nation's largest.
"The weapons industry has given twice as much money to Capitol Hill Republicans, who united to kill the test ban and are now avidly advocating a National Missile Defense system," he said. "For now at least, the industry's investment appears to be paying off."
Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Raytheon stand to make $30 billion off the deployment of even a modest missile defense shield. So where's that peace dividend we've all been hearing about?
Holger Jensen is international editor of the Denver Rocky Mountain News.
-----------
Pelindaba radiates goodwill
Small businesses flock in to make money not war as nuclear plant opens its doors.
MICHAEL SCHMIDT, Sunday Times, South Africa
http://www.suntimes.co.za/1999/11/07/news/news05.htm
WHEN up-and-coming kwaito band Cream shot their new music video recently, they wanted a really hot location - and what could possibly be hotter than Pelindaba, once the apartheid state's secret nuclear plant?
Only a few years ago, the massive concrete complex of labs and warehouses half-hidden in the hills of Broederstroom near Hartbeestpoort Dam had the tightest security in South Africa. It was forbidden for the public to photograph or go anywhere near the key to the National Party's covert R680-million nuclear weapons programme - which built six bombs, each the size of the one that destroyed Hiroshima.
But the facility's swords have been beaten into ploughshares: the enriched uranium from the bombs, which were dismantled by 1991, is being used to create medical isotopes, which help diagnose more than a million patients a year across the world.
And, while Pelindaba is busy with the medical isotopes, it has opened the rest of the complex to fashion shoots and ordinary business tenants who wouldn't know a nuke from a naartjie.
Atomic Energy Corporation spokesman Eugéne du Plessis said Cream had chosen the facility to shoot the video for Fly High because "they really liked the textured concrete walls of the reactor plant. But we didn't allow them inside because we couldn't have these people jumping around and singing near the control room."
Cream's keyboardist, Ezee Dogg, said: "We wanted something different to other music videos, where there's usually a party around a pool. We wanted a futuristic look, something for the millennium."
But, he said, it was weird shooting at Pelindaba. "We even asked where to go to the toilet because we didn't want to pee in the wrong place and maybe blow up."
Du Plessis said a major carmanufacturing company had considered shooting a commercial at the site of the decommissioned Y-Plant, where uranium used to be enriched to make fuel for the nuclear bombs.
He said: "I'd like to start a club in one of the old cooling towers - it's huge inside and would be just amazing."
Elle magazine's fashion editor, Dion Chang, arranged a fashion shoot at the plant for the April issue of Elle Man.
"We just liked the machinery," Chang said. "We shot right inside one of the control rooms where the reactor was. It started out very normal, but then we found this old '50s Hoover around the corner and so we had our model vacuuming the control room."
Lit by the eerie violet glow of radiation from inside the reactor room, the corporation's chief executive, Dr Walter Stumpf, the man tasked in 1990 by then-State President F W de Klerk with dismantling the bomb programme, explained Pelindaba's serious work.
He said: "When I took over, this place had a troubled history and legally we had to clean it up. In the past five years, we have changed our market profile completely - from being a strategic research facility to a commercial enterprise. Soon, nuclear fuel will almost completely disappear in favour of industrial products, which earned us R200-million in exports last year."
Today, the reactor is used primarily for producing fastdecaying isotopes, which can be injected into patients with cancer and other diseases to highlight problem areas.
It is also used to irradiate silicone for microchip production.
But working with radiation is still dangerous. Stumpf said that, on one occasion, a pair of spectacles fell into the pool of ultra-pure water which surrounds and cools the reactor - the glasses dissolved in about 20 minutes.
Outside on the manicured lawn, the man stalking about with a butterfly net is not a mad scientist. He is collecting insect samples to test them for the remote possibility of a radiation leak.
A poster on a wall where technicians work on isotopes in "hot cells" - behind more than half a metre of protective lead glass - shows the grievous black-and-white burns suffered by an unsuspecting worker who picked up a radioactive device used to check for cracks in pipelines.
But, said Stumpf, the reactor is "one of the safest and bestrun in the world".
Neighbours of the plant are about to receive a 2000 calendar, complete with emergency procedures. Du Plessis said that, in the worst-case scenario - "say, a jumbo jet hitting the reactor building and leaving the reactor exposed" - a radius of 15km around the plant would have to be evacuated.
The neighbours are not concerned - in fact, some have moved in as tenants.
Green Glass, which makes glass goblets out of old bottles, started out as a Broederstroom backyard business but moved its operation to Pelindaba in 1995 - simply because "the rent was reasonable and the services were great", according to book-keeper Helen Maré.
Pelindaba has a fire-fighting and ambulance service, which also serves the Hartbeestpoort-Broederstroom area. It also boasts great security, stores of goods and spares and a stable telephone and power supply system.
Yolan Friedmann, deputy director of the Endangered Wildlife Trust's Wildlife Breeding Resource Centre, said the centre had moved to Pelindaba in 1996 because of its "ideal" location close to zoos and game reserves and because the plant agreed to supply Friedmann with the liquid nitrogen she needs to freeze animal sperm and other biological samples.
Many of Pelindaba's 30-plus private tenants work in hi-tech fields and their paranoia about possible industrial espionage is even greater than that surrounding the nuclear programme.
But then there's Doug's Locks & Keys, located in the former security rest room. The owner of the small business, Douglas Mellish, worked for 14 years as a security officer protecting Pelindaba.
"It's a nice area for nature - you've got the animals running around freely. It's quite open now and people come from all over Broederstroom to have their keys cut," he said.
---------
Kosovo, E. Timor casualties inflated
By Ben Barber THE WASHINGTON TIMES November 9, 1999
http://www.washtimes.com/news/news3.html
U.S. and other estimates that 100,000 or more people were slaughtered in Kosovo and in East Timor have turned out to be grossly inflated -- by as much as 900 percent -- according to humanitarian and government officials.
The inflated death estimates were issued in the fog of war, when access to battlefields and killing grounds was impossible and refugee accounts could not be verified.
So estimates of the numbers killed were made by multiplying a small number of convincing accounts or verifiable killings, said experts and government officials.
Some suggest that the inflated body counts were politically motivated -- intended to drum up public support for NATO's bombing campaign in Yugoslavia and to win approval by the United Nations and Indonesian acceptance of an international intervention force in East Timor.
The large body counts may well have solidified backing for NATO in April and May and spurred approval of an Australian-led force, which ended massacres in Timor in September.
But cuts in the estimated death toll in each crisis zone -- from 100,000 to 10,000 -- once peacekeepers moved in have undercut the credibility of NATO and the supporters of humanitarian intervention, said a medical observer.
"Those numbers [of deaths] are politicized in times of conflict and contrived at times to support a particular point of view," said Dr. Vincent Iacopino, an investigator of war crimes in Kosovo with Physicians for Human Rights.
"Most people acknowledge that."
He warned that exaggerations or inflated body counts could backfire by destroying the credibility of humanitarian organizations.
"Any time you use inaccurate numbers there's a chance people's needs will not be served," he said.
In a report issued in August, based on interviews of Kosovo refugees in Macedonia and Albania, Physicians for Human Rights estimated about 10,000 people had been killed by Serbian forces in Kosovo as they expelled about 800,000 Kosovars.
But April 19, in the midst of NATO air strikes against Serbia, the State Department reported that 100,000 Kosovar Albanian men were missing and feared to be victims of Serbian genocide.
"It is chilling to think where the 100,000 men are," said State Department spokesman James P. Rubin.
And on May 16, Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen repeated that figure.
"We've now seen about 100,000 military-aged men missing," Mr. Cohen told CBS. "They may have been murdered."
Since Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic agreed June 9 to NATO's ultimatum and withdrew his army from Kosovo, peacekeeping troops from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia have discovered many mass graves and killing sites.
However, no evidence has been found of massive killings on the scale that Mr. Cohen and Mr. Rubin suggested.
Investigators of war crimes from Physicians for Human Rights say there are still many bodies that have not been found and many people missing. But they said that 9,269 Kosovar Albanians were killed -- less than a tenth the estimate offered by Mr. Cohen and the State Department in April and May.
"In April, we had no access to Kosovo," said a State Department official in explanation of the discrepancy.
Dr. Iacopino told a reporter that "there was no plan for systematic extermination of the entire population. By no means."
But the words "ethnic cleansing" and "genocide" were used to justify the bombing campaign against Yugoslavia -- a campaign that set off the expulsion of 800,000 people and the internal displacement of another 500,000.
East Timor is another place where inflated body counts were bandied about just as diplomats and nongovernmental groups sought U.N. approval for a peacekeeping mission.
Violence had exploded in the former Portuguese colony of about 800,000 after 80 percent of its people voted for independence from Indonesia in an Aug. 30 referendum.
Militias backed by Indonesian troops burned and looted homes and other buildings and drove most of the people into refugee camps in West Timor or into the hills.
Without journalists or other independent monitors present, unverified reports surfaced that East Timorese men were being drowned at sea or buried in mass graves.
The East Timor International Support Center said as many as 100,000 people had died since the referendum result was published in early September.
Some newspapers reporting on the violence simply said 200,000 people had died during Indonesian repression -- failing to specify that those figures included all who had died since when resistance and repression began in 1975.
These huge numbers -- 100,000 and 200,000 dead -- were repeated by journalists and editorial writers and in letters to the editors of major newspapers.
The issue of inflated death counts remains highly sensitive, said a U.N. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
"I have no idea of how many died -- I don't want to use any of these figures. The United Nations is not in the business of making up figures," he said.
"Figures that usually come out are given by governments or would-be governments in opposition and usually they have a political reason to inflate figures. You have to take them at face value until some kind of verification. It's a conundrum," he said.
"With their agenda it would be very much in their interest to make it as dramatic a story as possible. The nongovermental organizations have their own agendas -- the CNN factor -- seeking media coverage or interest.
"It's a dangerous game."
Joe Saunders of Human Rights Watch said, "It's clear numbers were exaggerated. How it happened, I don't know, and the extent to which it was exaggerated, I don't know."
Mr. Saunders and other humanitarian experts said that no matter what the actual or estimated body counts, Kosovo and Timor were extremely violent, dangerous places where human rights were violated and international intervention restored security.
"No one could say the policy in East Timor was off base," said Mr. Saunders, deputy director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch.
However he warned: "Sometimes inflated numbers can undermine credibility in what is a serious issue."
-----------
Technology Falls Short in Clinton Chat, Viewers Say
By REBECCA FAIRLEY RANEY November 9, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/11/cyber/articles/09chat.html
[If you successfully tuned in to President Clinton's "Townhall On-Line" we'd sure like to hear wheher nukes of any sort were mentioned.]
For those who overcame technological obstacles Monday to view President Clinton's online chat, the event, with its jerky video and scratchy sound, provoked some comical comparisons.
The participants' faces looked like the digitally blurred-out faces of suspects on police shows, one viewer said. The audio gave voices a honking sound like the adults in the "Charlie Brown" cartoons. And the written transcripts -- produced in real time by nine typists -- were sometimes silly.
"When they went to introduce the president, they wrote, 'We'd like to introduce the resident,' and I'm wondering who the resident is," said Kim Alexander, president of the nonprofit California Voter Foundation.
The eerie quality of the video drew a comparison to Ron Headrest, a character in the comic strip Doonesbury that merged the qualities of Ronald Reagan and the computerized Max Headroom. It showed "a digitized president that's tenuously connected to reality," said Gideon Brower, who writes a column for the Online Journalism Review at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California.
The president, who participated in the chat from George Washington University in Washington, answered questions from the online audience about issues like Medicare, health care reform and school violence.
Many people who tried to watch the event expressed frustration, because the instructions for downloading special software and entering the chat room were so unclear that even skilled computer users had trouble.
Robert Arena, president of Presage Internet Campaigns, a Republican political firm, said two of his friends with top-of-the-line T1 Internet connections could not see the video.
"In the end, it didn't work," he said. "The medium got in the way of the message."
"Bad theater," said Paul M.A. Baker, an assistant professor at Georgia Tech's school of public policy. When he tried to pose questions, he said, the messages bounced back.
Because of the stringent system requirements, the event was generally restricted to the elite -- computer users with fast machines and the know-how to configure them.
"The President probably assumes he's using a democratic tool, but he's not," said Nolan Bowie, senior fellow and adjunct lecturer in public policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
But Matthew Frankel, spokesman for the Democratic Leadership Council, which sponsored the forum, said the event was "a start."
"What we're trying to do is pioneer the Web," he said. "This is a pioneering event which will get better and better, and will become more accessible over the years."
President Clinton said the event showed "a real commitment to bold experimentation."
Excite@Home, the Internet company that hosted the event, spent months increasing server capacity to make it possible for 50,000 individuals to log on. In the end, company officials estimated that 30,000 people participated. Despite the complaints about glitches, Kristi Dyer, a spokeswoman for Excite@Home, said there had been no technical problems.
"We're taking extra precautions to make sure the event runs smoothly," said Yolanda Rivas, the executive producer. "We're running on very fast connections at very high speeds." On a normal night, she said, 20,000 to 30,000 people use Excite's chat rooms. The largest broadcast event the company had hosted previously was a rock concert in June that attracted 11,000 people.
Francoise Baramdyka, a journalism student at the University of Southern California, expressed disappointment after sitting in on the event at a computer lab at the Annenberg School for Communication.
"A lot of people say this makes politics more accessible," she said. "I can't do this on my home computer, because I don't have a sound card. I don't see it becoming a means to get people geared up."
Related Sites These sites are not part of The New York Times on the Web, and The Times has no control over their content or availability.
Excite: President Clinton Town Hall Chat
Democratic Leadership Council
Online Journalism Review
California Voter Foundation
--------
Giant Hopes for Tiny Satellites
By WARREN E. LEARY November 9, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/110999sci-small-satellites.html
WASHINGTON -- The concept of less being more will take on new meaning in space next month when the Air Force launches a fleet of tiny experimental satellites made of miniature components -- diminutive machines that could one day work together in groups to replace or supplement larger spacecraft.
Driven by economics and the desire to approach working in space in a different way, researchers are exploring methods to make and use midget spacecraft -- some weighing less than a pound and hardly larger than a pack of playing cards -- that could be used alone to perform simple tasks or flown in formations to execute more complex ones.
Interest in tiny satellites that can distribute the duties and risks of working in space has grown with advances in microtechnology that are reducing the size of machines and components. For example, rapid improvements in microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS, are allowing researchers to produce switches, valves, levers, gears and other machine components that are too small to be seen by the human eye. Space engineers say they are harnessing such elements to make bantam satellites with techniques similar to those used to produce computer chips.
"The goal is to one day build a satellite on a chip," said Dr. Siegfried W. Janson, a senior scientist with The Aerospace Corp., a private research organization in El Segundo, Calif. "We're talking about fully integrated satellites that could be mass produced cheaply by the hundreds and sent into space in groups to perform a variety of tasks."
Satellites are generally classified by weight, with standard ones weighing a ton or more, small satellites coming in between 200 pounds and a ton, and microsats considered those that fall between 20 pounds and 200 pounds. The new wave of smaller satellites that engineers see for the future are so-called nanosatellites ranging from 20 pounds down to 2 pounds, and picosatellites that weigh in at less than 2 pounds.
Janson said he envisioned producing satellites weighing as little as half a pound that are assembled from layered silicon wafers containing sensors, computing power, communications systems, mechanical devices and even micro rocket thrusters. Swarms of such satellites, launched together on single, inexpensive rockets, could replace more expensive single satellites for some tasks, he said, or spread out to take on entirely new roles in space.
In addition to low cost, networks composed of dozens, if not hundreds, of inexpensive tiny satellites could offer a new standard of reliability, proponents say. If one or several of the machines in a formation fails, others in the group could redistribute themselves and continue performing the assigned task, they say, something not possible with a single-satellite mission.
Peter V. Panetta of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., agrees, saying there is growing interest in increasingly smaller satellites and other spacecraft. "This isn't just a fad," he said. "A lot of people see this as the future and are working toward the technical breakthroughs to make these things possible."
Panetta, manager of NASA's Nanosat Technology Development Program, said the agency hoped to have a constellation of 100 nanosatellites, weighing as little as 2 pounds each, launched by one rocket on a single mission in 2008. This approach would be ideal for science missions requiring measurements to be taken simultaneously from many locations, he said, such as monitoring the amount of solar radiation absorbed by, and then reflected from, the Earth.
As a step toward the goal of flying formations of nanosats, NASA announced in August that it would sponsor the Nanosat Constellation Trailblazer mission. This flight of three, 40-pound microsats, scheduled for 2003, will test MEMS technology, formation flying and methods of operating several spacecraft as a system to pave the way for future nanosat clusters, Panetta said.
Formations of nanosats could be the only way to study certain phenomenon, he said, such as the dynamics of the magnetosphere, the area around the Earth that traps high-energy particles from the sun in the planetary magnetic field. This moving, tear-shaped region extends more than 150,000 miles from the Earth in the direction away from the sun, he said, and only a network of satellites could constantly monitor its changes.
Dr. Mark E. Campbell of the University of Washington in Seattle recently completed a NASA-sponsored study of possible deep space missions for clusters of pico or nano-sized spacecraft. Among the possibilities, he said, are teams of semi-autonomous craft that could swarm around asteroids or comets to make measurements and then assemble themselves into a communications array to send the results back to Earth. Another possibility is to send a mother ship to a planet that would release orbiting picosats that would slowly drift down through its atmosphere and send data back to Earth via the mother craft.
"My guess is that it will take 15 to 20 years to put together a system like this, but this is where the technology is heading," Campbell said.
Engineers also envision jobs for single midget satellites, like launching one along with each expensive, large spacecraft. If a problem arose with the main spacecraft, the tiny satellite buddy could detach and examine the larger ship to help ground controllers diagnose and fix the difficulty.
To test the concept of midget satellites in space, several picosats are scheduled to be launched into Earth orbit early next month on the inaugural launching of a new Air Force booster rocket. The rocket, formally called the Orbital/Suborbital Program Space Launch Vehicle but nicknamed Minotaur, uses the first two stages of decommissioned Minuteman II intercontinental ballistic missiles and upper stages from Orbital Sciences Corporation's commercial Pegasus rocket. The Air Force hopes to use surplus ICBM's as a cheap way to launch small government payloads.
Among Air Force and university payloads offered a free ride on the first flight is the Orbiting Picosat Automated Launcher, or OPAL, built by students from Stanford University. The OPAL mother ship is to fire off a half dozen pico-sized daughter satellites, including a pair built by the Aerospace Corp. and the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
The two battery-powered satellites in this pair, each weighing about a half-pound and slightly larger than a pack of playing cards, are to be connected by a 100-foot tether to keep them from drifting too far apart to communicate with one another. The satellites will spend several days communicating with one another and with a third picosat at a ground station to see how they operate as a system, and testing an array of experimental MEMS radio switches.
The tether between the craft contains a gold wire to help Earth-based radar track the tiny objects, which raises the issue of old picosats becoming space debris that could damage other craft through space collisions.
Panetta of NASA said designers were aware of the potential problem with the tiny, hard-to-follow spacecraft and see it as an issue to address in mission design. One approach, he said, is to put nano-thrusters on Earth-orbiting satellites that could be fired at the end of a mission to slow the craft enough to fall out of orbit and burn up in the atmosphere. "You don't want the solution to one problem to create another," he said.
--------
Nuclear Power Plants' Y2K Readiness Questioned
By Cat Lazaroff, Environment News Service, November 9, 1999
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/nov99/1999L-11-09-06.html
WASHINGTON, DC, November 9, 1999 (ENS) - Two federal agencies are at odds over how ready U.S. nuclear power plants are to handle the Year 2000 (Y2K) computer bug.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) says all 103 operating U.S. nuclear power plants are now ready for Y2K. But the U.S. General Accounting Office testified before Congress October 26 that the steps the nuclear industry has taken might not be enough to prevent problems at power plants.
Some activists fear that Y2K could cause a nuclear crisis like the 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island plant, the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history (Three photos courtesy NRC)
The Y2K problem refers to a computer's potential inability to recognize two digit dates after January 1, 2000. A computer system could read "00" as 1900, rather than 2000, causing a computer system to malfunction. "Y2K ready" means that the computer will function as designed after the Year 2000 date rollover.
Nuclear reactors provide about 20 percent of the power supply in the U.S., serving more than 65 million homes.
All U.S. nuclear plants have notified the NRC that they have completed remediation efforts on all plant systems involved with safety, power generation and plant support.
The Peach Bottom Unit 3 nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania was one of the last to become Y2K ready at the end of October
The NRC says safety related systems at all 103 plants have been Y2K ready since July 1. At that time, 68 of the plants were declared fully Y2K ready while 35 had remaining work on power generation and plant support systems. During the past four months, NRC has confirmed completion of the remaining work.
Based on a review of responses from the nuclear power industry concerning Y2K readiness, the NRC's independent inspection efforts at all 103 plants, and ongoing regulatory oversight activities, "we conclude that the Y2K problem will not adversely affect the continued safe operation of U.S. nuclear power plants, and should contribute to grid stability during the transition period," the NRC says.
On October 26, representatives of the federal General Accounting Office's Y2K Computing Challenge office offered testimony before Congress that casts doubt on the NRC assurances.
The General Accounting Office is the investigative arm of Congress. Charged with examining matters relating to the receipt and disbursement of public funds, GAO performs audits and evaluations of government programs and activities.
Joel Willemssen and Keith Rhodes, directors of the accounting and information management division of the GAO, detailed weaknesses in the NRC reporting process to subcommittees of the House Committee on Science and the House Committee on Government Reform.
The GAO spokesmen pointed out that the NRC has not required that its licensees perform an independent verification and validation (IV&V) of their Y2K remediation programs.
"Although we were told by NRC that some licensees obtained independent technical reviews of each facility's Y2K system test plans and results, NRC did not have specific, current information identifying the types of Y2K IV&V reviews performed at nuclear power facilities," Willemssen and Rhodes said.
Last month, the Nuclear Energy Institute reported that the Farley Unit 2 nuclear power plant in Alabama would not be Y2K ready until December 16
"NRC noted that the industry had reported in April 1999 that multiple audits were completed. ... However, neither NRC nor the industry issued guidelines establishing criteria to ensure consistency of reviews," they testified.
Without an IV&V, the NRC cannot know which plants might need additional work, due to inadequate Y2K testing and preparation programs, the GAO testimony concluded.
All NRC licensees, including nuclear power plants, are required to have contingency plans in place in case unforeseen problems do arise from the Y2K bug. The GAO says these plans, like the actual Y2K remediation, have not been adequately verified.
"While the nuclear power plants have reportedly completed Y2K contingency plans, it is unclear as to whether these facilities have validated their plans," Willemssen and Rhodes testified. "While NRC's assessment ... included questions on whether the facility validated contingency plans, NRC has not summarized the results of each question from all plants and therefore does not know how many plants responded affirmatively that they had indeed tested their plans. Further, NRC did not assess how the plans were being validated."
In December 1998, the Washington, DC based nuclear watchdog group Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) petitioned the NRC to perform emergency planning exercises to confirm that nuclear plants are prepared for the possible failure of their computer systems due to Y2K. The NRC denied this petition, saying that nuclear power plants are already required to conduct exercises covering scenarios like a Y2K related computer failure.
The GAO acknowledged the NRC's position, but noted, "It is unknown whether or not each plant has recently tested, through normal emergency exercises, scenarios addressing potential Y2K induced failures. Therefore, given the known Y2K threat to nuclear facilities, we believe that NRC should obtain information on the scope and extent of nuclear power plants' emergency exercises, and whether these exercises have incorporated Y2K scenarios."
Rail cars delivering enriched uranium hexafluoride to the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Ohio (Photo courtesy Portsmouth GDP)
In addition, Willemssen and Rhodes pointed out that the NRC has not required nuclear fuel facilities or decommissioned nuclear power plants to develop specific Y2K contingency plans. Eight of 10 fuel facilities plan to be in safe shutdown mode during the Y2K changeover. The remaining two facilities - the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Paducah, Kentucky, and the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio - have contingency plans that are acceptable to the NRC.
"NRC could not say how many of the decommissioned plants completed contingency plans," noted the GAO experts, "as the agency had not reviewed them because NRC staff concluded that Y2K issues were highly unlikely to cause a potential threat to public health and safety at such plants."
In early 1999, some of the nation's 14 decommissioned nuclear power plants that store spent fuel onsite reported they were not yet Y2K ready. Willemssen and Rhodes observed that the NRC has not reviewed their status since. "Because of the risk posed by the spent fuel facilities at these sites, we believe that NRC should evaluate and report on the current Y2K status of these plants," they recommend.
Finally, the GAO questioned whether nuclear facilities are adequately prepared for potential power outages, supply shortages, and other external problems that could occur on or after January 1, 2000.
According to Willemssen and Rhodes' testimony, "Probably the most serious external risks faced by a nuclear power plant are the potential instability of the electric power grid and the loss of offsite electric power. ... NRC studies show that a major contributor to reactor core damage is a station blackout event."
The NIRS also petitioned the NRC last year to require that all nuclear power plants keep at least 60 day supply of diesel fuel for backup generators, needed to power reactor coolant systems and other critical areas in case of a power outage. The NIRS requested that plants also provide alternate means of backup power, such as solar panels or wind turbines.
The NRC denied the petition. "Why did the NRC deny what were relatively simple, straightforward, and, we believed, rather noncontroversial petitions?," asked Michael Mariotte, NIRS executive director, in a September speech. "Because the NRC is completely beholden to the nuclear industry, which, especially with electricity deregulation here or looming, doesn't want to spend an extra dime on public safety matters if it doesn't absolutely have to. And these days, the NRC is far more interested in saving utilities money than it is in doing its job of protecting the public health and safety."
"NRC officials told us that nuclear power plants have taken certain actions to be ready for the Y2K rollover," Willemssen and Rhodes said, "such as requiring additional staffing and stockpiling consumables (i.e., diesel fuel for emergency diesel generators). However, these do not entail a comprehensive set of actions to be carried out systematically by every operational nuclear power plant."
Trucks deliver cylinders full of natural assay uranium hexafluoride to the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky (Photo courtesy Paducah GDP)
"The actions that the nuclear power plants and fuel facilities take during this time will be just as critical as actions taken already to become Y2K ready," the GAO spokesmen concluded.
At the same October 26 hearing a nuclear industry association spokesman assured the lawmakers the safety systems are all Y2K ready. "Safety is our top priority. As a result of the tremendous efforts of industry professionals, I am proud to report that all nuclear power plants have demonstrated that their safety systems are Y2K-ready," said Ralph Beedle, senior vice president and chief nuclear officer of the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI).
"Detailed contingency plans are in place and are ready should they be needed during the transition to the Year 2000," Beedle said.
"Additional personnel will be at nuclear power plants, back-up communications systems are available, and response strategies have been developed. This advance preparation will reduce the likelihood that even a minor problem will disrupt power generation," he explained. "Consistent with the industry's commitment to safety, be assured that any problem that could affect safety would result in operators safely shutting down the plant," Beedle said.
Willemssen and Rhodes recommended to Congress that the NRC further evaluate Y2K preparations that have already been made, and ensure that plant emergency plans include Y2K scenarios.
The NIRS and other nuclear activists are calling for a Y2K World Atomic Safety Holiday. Activists want all nuclear facilities to be off line for New Years 2000, be subject to strict criteria of Y2K compliance and be given robust backup power systems.
Detailed information on NRC's Y2K activities is available online at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/NEWS/year2000.html.
------------
Peek at Black Hole
By John Fleck Journal Staff Writer November 9, 1999
http://www.abqjournal.com/scitech/1scitech11-09-99.htm
Sandia National Laboratories scientists last month created a tiny piece of a black hole's maelstrom in their lab to help astronomers understand what they're seeing in the far reaches of space.
Inside a heavy steel chamber, the researchers blasted a small piece of iron with enough energy to tear its atoms apart, flinging pieces in a way that mimics the fires of a black hole.
Studying the resulting radiation will provide clues for scientists using a new NASA satellite to study real black holes, said Sandia scientist Jim Bailey.
The work was done at Sandia's "Z" nuclear fusion research machine, where massive bursts of electricity are marshaled to shatter tiny targets, creating small blasts of intense heat and radiation.
Much of Z's work centers on nuclear weapon physics, but for this project, the scientists are trying to understand the physical processes in the intense heat surrounding black holes and other massive objects in space.
In July, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration launched a satellite called the Chandra X-ray Observatory, which is bringing back a flood of new images of the heavens.
The goal of the Sandia project is to help the astronomers understand what they're seeing by recreating some of the same processes on a small scale here on Earth.
A black hole is an object so massive not even light can escape its gravity.
That makes it invisible to scientists, but it does leave clues to its presence.
The most noticeable is a sea of matter being sucked down in a whirlpool toward the black hole, and being heated to tremendous temperatures in the process.
That's the fire the Z scientists are trying to duplicate, explained Bob Heeter of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
The Z machine, located on Kirtland Air Force Base south of Albuquerque, fills most of a building the size of a high school gym. It's shaped like a giant bicycle wheel, with large electrical storage devices around the outer edges.
On a precise cue, all the electricity is discharged in an instant down the wheel's spokes at a small target in a steel chamber at the hub of the wheel.
The tiny target being blasted experiences, for an instant, radiation and temperature similar to those found in stars or nuclear weapons.
For this project, scientists from Sandia and Lawrence Livermore picked iron, a common element in the cosmos, and heated it to temperatures similar to those found in the superheated whirlpool swirling in toward the black hole.
"People have studied iron for a long time," Bailey said.
At 1.8 million degrees Celsius, the thin film of iron in the Z machine ceases to exist.
"It vaporizes," Bailey said.
The effect on the iron atoms is dramatic.
An atom of iron lives most of its life with 26 electrons tightly bound in orbit around its nucleus -- the atom's basic building blocks.
The radiation from Z's fire is so intense, Bailey said, that it strips 16 of those electrons away.
The resulting interplay of subatomic physics results in a distinctive spectrum of X-rays, not unlike the characteristic spectrum of light that allows you to easily distinguish a green tomato from a red one.
By studying that distinctive spectrum under the carefully controlled conditions at Z, the scientists hope to be able to better interpret the spectrum of X-rays seen by Chandra and other orbiting telescopes.
Data from the Z experiments will be fed into computer programs used to simulate what's going on around a black hole.
There's no other Earth-bound way to generate the black hole-scale energy necessary for the experiments, short of a nuclear explosion, Bailey said. "We're not doing any of those these days," Bailey said.
The scientists proved that their technique could generate the X-ray spectrum they need during two Z "shots" conducted in October, Heeter said.