* TV to go inside Rocky Flats (This Week)
* Is your nuclear missile Y2K-ready?
* An Arms Race In Asia --And No Missile Defense Here
* Beryllium exposure merits compensation, Kaptur says
* SECURITY SCHMOOZING: Young, ambitious and into nuclear weapons?
* In S.C., Rethinking an Atomic Waste Welcome Mat
Task Force Plan Worries a Town
* Workers unaware of memo on safety at Paducah plant
* Uranium Resources, Inc. Announces Third Quarter 1999 Results
* Nellis receives biggest piece of federal funds
$9 million, study of transmutation
* Iran Sells Scud Missiles To Democratic Republic Of Congo:
* Russia: U.S. Concerns May Be Met in Current ABM Pact
* Ukraine Sees No Y2K Problems With Nuclear Reactors
* Report: China Deploys New Missiles
* US firm on both Koreas' missile plans
* S. Korea Might Get Anthrax Vaccine
* Correction: * News from Kobe
* Uranium spill victims battle to stay alive
* Puerto Rico Bombing Decision Soon
* De-Alerting Event December 9th

-------------

TV to go inside Rocky Flats

Denver Rocky Mountain News 11/22/99
http://insidedenver.com/news/1122sbbrf.shtml

ARVADA -- The city's government access cable channel -- KATV-Channel 8, will present a rare look inside the security areas of Rocky Flats.

The 20-minute program, Rocky Flats Inside Out, takes viewers inside buildings at Rocky Flats, where plutonium weapons were manufactured from 1952 to 1989. The nuclear mission ended in 1992, and the site is undergoing cleanup and closure.

The program will air through November at 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. Sunday, at 10 a.m. Wednesday and at 1 and 8 p.m. Thursday.

-------- us nuc weapons

Is your nuclear missile Y2K-ready?

By John S. McCright, PC Week Updated 8:34 AM ET November 23, 1999
http://news.excite.com/news/zd/991123/08/is-your-nuclear

"Y2K," the made-for-TV movie that aired on NBC Sunday night, was a classic case of how television turns the most serious subjects into farce. For those of you who missed it (and I congratulate you), the plot revolves around a crack team of programmers set up in a Washington-area war room ready to tackle any situations that arise when computers fail as the clock ticks over to 2000.

Scenes include riots in which no one is injured, an airplane careening down a runway like a Tonka truck and coming to a stop on a dime, and a Y2K task force nerve center where the lights go out.

Although the story was thin, the writers did drop in references to lots of potential year 200-related calamities. Airplane tracking systems malfunction, a problem at one power plant cascades to others causing a massive blackout, an errant chip in a pumping system causes a nuclear power plant to overheat, and one character can't withdraw money from an ATM.

What the movie didn't seriously address was the potential for Y2K-related nuclear weapons disasters. The outlook in this area is particularly grave since, unlike the inconvenience of not having enough cash on hand or even the tragedy of an airplane falling out of the sky, a nuclear weapons accident could be devastating to whole countries and the human race at large.

U.S.-Russia cooperation

The U.S. Defense Department has played up its cooperation with Russian counterparts in preparing against any Y2K nuclear weapons accidents. It says it would put Russian military officers in the same bunker with U.S. officers during the weeks before and after Jan. 1.

But relations between the two sides have not been as cooperative as the high stakes would warrant. Russian officials froze talks with the Americans in March in protest of the NATO war in Kosovo, and dialogue did not get rolling again until August.

Imagine the outrage if the public discovered that banks or the FAA had suspended Y2K preparations for more than four months in 1999.

OK, I'm not saying that nuclear missiles are going to be volleying back and forth between Siberia and North Dakota unchecked as U.S. and Russian military programmers sit powerless in front of their frozen computer screens. This is not a made-for-TV movie. I'd be extremely surprised if even one nuclear missile or bomb-laden B-52 or submarine went berserk and launched on its own.

But could it happen? Even if I think it'is unlikely, I really don't know. And I don't think anyone else knows.

It's that uncertainty, and the refusal by the keepers of nuclear weapons to fully deal with it, that is really scary. I think it's a positive step that Russians and Americans will break bread together at the dawn of the new year, but what will they do if something does go wrong? What if early warning systems report, erroneously or not, that U.S. missiles are flying toward Moscow? Will Russia sit idly by, waiting to see if the computers are telling the truth? Perhaps they will. Perhaps they won't.

Trust me?

And that's the crux of the problem. We've created a situation that depends to a large degree on trust between the U.S. and Russia to avert a nuclear disaster. We tell them we didn't launch an ICBM; they have to decide whether to believe us.

And yet neither side has much reason to believe the other. After all, we held a nuclear gun pointed at each other's head for nearly 50 years.

Even in this extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime circumstance, when the world is holding its breath to see what will happen at the stroke of midnight Jan. 1, 2000, neither side is ready to completely stand down. True, neither side's land-based nuclear missiles are targeted at the other, but they're still in a state to be retargeted in a matter of minutes. Submarines equipped with nuclear weapons continue to prowl the seas 24 hours a day.

All this leads me to one conclusion -- we must scale back and, eventually, eliminate nuclear weapons. And Y2K is a prime opportunity for all nuclear-weapons states to take a first step in creating the atmosphere that will allow that to happen. If we can't agree to disarm our nuclear weapons, if only for a few days or weeks when the threat of a misunderstanding is greatest, when can we?

I'm not saying dismantle our nuclear capabilities forever (not yet, at least). Simply disarm the weapons for the months of December and January. After that, Americans and Russians would be free to rearm.

It would be a great confidence builder, one that would show each side that the other is serious about arms control. And it could be a first step on the road to true security.

Now that would make the Y2K bug a welcome visitor.

Are you lobbying your government to reduce nuclear weapons? Contact me at john_mccright@zd.com. Off the Cuff, an online exclusive, appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

---

Boeing Begins CALCM Cruise Missile Deliveries

PR Newswire, Updated 3:28 PM ET November 22, 1999
http://news.excite.com/news/pr/991122/wa-boeing-calcm-deliv

SEATTLE, Nov. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Boeing today delivered to the U.S. Air Force the first six Conventional Air Launched Cruise Missiles, or CALCMs, produced at the company's Weapons Programs facility in St. Charles, Mo.

Boeing is converting 322 nuclear Air-Launched Cruise Missiles to non-nuclear CALCM AGM-86C Block 1 and Block 1A configurations for the U.S. Air Force.

"Today's successful delivery is the result of outstanding teamwork between Boeing, its suppliers and the U.S. Air Force," said Chris Sales, Boeing CALCM program manager. "We restructured what was supposed to be a 17-month program into seven months, and today we're on the threshold of putting that first valuable round back into the warfighters' inventory right on schedule."

CALCM is an affordable, long-range standoff weapon that has been employed effectively in combat in Operation Desert Storm, Desert Strike, Desert Fox and most recently Operation Allied Force.

Conversions are being completed in St. Charles alongside production of the Navy's Harpoon and SLAM ER missiles and the multi-service JDAM precision weapon. Boeing personnel in Seattle, where the ALCMs and early CALCMs were produced, are providing engineering and logistics support work.

The last of the 322 CALCMs will be delivered to the Air Force by mid-2001.

Boeing is the world leader in cruise missiles, having produced nearly 11,000, including the Harpoon, SLAM and more than 1,700 ALCMs.

Contact: Chick Ramey of Boeing, 206-662-0949

---

An Arms Race In Asia --And No Missile Defense Here

New York Post 11/21/99http://www.nypostonline.com/112199/editorial/142.htm

So now it turns out that South Korea is hard at work developing an extended-range ballistic-missile capability of its own. No surprise there, given the Clinton administration's fecklessness regarding North Korea's relentless efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction.

Recent news reports claim that Seoul is embarked on a secretive missile-development program, and that the South Koreans are especially concerned that Washington will learn all the details.

The Clintonites reportedly are concerned that Seoul's efforts will help spur a regional arms race. But why shouldn't South Korea be looking out for its best interests? Nobody else is -- especially not Washington.

For those who need it, here's more evidence: According to the authoritative "Jane's Intelligence Review," there's reason to believe North Korea is secretly producing plutonium -- a critical component in the nuclear weapons that the Stalinist state is assuring everyone aren't being built.

For months, the White House has been falling all over itself trying to placate the north.

In September, Pyongyang agreed to forego -- for the moment, anyway -- tests of a long-range ballistic missile that has China, Japan and, it now seems, South Korea, bonkers. In return, Washington

lifted 50-year-old trade sanctions against the north.

A month later, Defense Secretary William Perry was bragging that the administration has "narrowly averted military conflict with North Korea over its nuclear program."

North Korea, said Perry, was "about to begin extracting weapons-grade plutonium from its [nuclear] reactor at Yongbyon," but agreed not to as part of a "diplomatic agreement, the Agreed Framework, which provided for a freeze and eventually dismantling of the nuclear facilities at Yongbyon."

Maybe. Maybe not.

Now Jane's cites South Korean sources to report that another plutonium-production plant has been pinpointed near Taechon -- 50 miles distant from Yongbyon. The basis is photographic and infrared satellite imagery which, according to Jane's, "does not provide conclusive evidence that plutonium production is taking place at this site, [but] the evidence ... would seem to corroborate the South Korean reports."

Given such provocation, it's no wonder that Seoul is building missiles of its own.

Is this potentially destabilizing? Yes. It's only a matter of time before Japan is in the game as well.

So, isn't it time that Washington got serious about anti-missile defense systems? Long past time, actually.

---

Beryllium exposure merits compensation, Kaptur says

Columbus Dispatch 11/21/99
http://www.dispatch.com/pan/localarchive/wawirenws.html

Kaptur says U.S. Department of Defense workers and contractors whose health has been harmed by beryllium should be compensated in the same way the Clinton administration has proposed aiding Department of Energy workers.

Kaptur introduced a bill last week to provide health benefits and lost wages, or up to $200,000 in a lump sum, to defense workers. The amount is double the $100,000 cap in a plan Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson proposes for energy workers.

Richardson's bill would offer benefits to several thousand Energy Department workers and contract employees across the country, including some in northeast Ohio.

But Kaptur said some employees at Brush Wellman Corp. spent years working for the Defense Department on nuclear weapons and airplane and missile components that used beryllium, and many of those workers have chronic lung disease caused by beryllium dust.

Kaptur isn't the only Ohio lawmaker who wants to add people to that bill. Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Lucasville, and GOP Sens. DeWine and George V. Voinovich are angry that the legislation would compensate workers at a Kentucky uranium enrichment plant for radiation exposure but would leave out workers at a sister plant in Piketon, Ohio.

Compiled by Roger K. Lowe and Jonathan Riskind of The Dispatch Washington Bureau.

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THE IDEAS INDUSTRY A Recipe for Handling Spam

By Richard Morin and Claudia Deane Washington Post, November 23, 1999; Page A25
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/23/073l-112399-idx.html

SECURITY SCHMOOZING: Young, ambitious and into nuclear weapons?

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has chartered New Analysts in International Security, an informal group formed to provide networking opportunities for younger analysts in the fields of nonproliferation and national and international security.

NAIS is being coordinated by Jon Wolfsthal, an associate at Carnegie's Non-Proliferation Project and former Department of Energy staff member. About 45 people turned up at the first meeting earlier this month at Carnegie. The next meeting is planned for January.

FOREIGN POLICY FRACAS: New York Times columnist William Safire isn't making many friends in the foreign policy tanks lately.

In a late September column, Safire, a onetime aide to Richard M. Nixon, chastised the international community for its lack of action against "another Asian autocrat"--Malaysia's Mahathir Mohamad. And he named names: "On the contrary, Mahathir will soon be welcomed to the U.S. by the U.S. business and foreign policy establishment. Stimulated by the likes of Maurice Greenberg, whose amoral insurance interests in Asia shape the mind set of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Asia Society and the Nixon Center, many of our ever-engaging friends of 'order' will kowtow."

The Nixon Center, along with the council and the Asia Society, penned a quick response defending Greenberg, an insurance tycoon who is the chair or vice chair of each organization's board, but the newspaper hasn't run it. So the center is now faxing it out to folks like us, and posting it on its Web site, along with comments that show the center is keeping count (this is Safire's "fifth attack on the Nixon Center in the pages of The New York Times"). The center said it played no role in bringing the Malaysian prime minister to the United States.

"In making such far-fetched attacks, we believe Mr. Safire seriously damages his own credibility and thus his authority to comment on the Nixon Center or other American institutions," the center wrote....

Have news about think tanks, policy-oriented foundations, or nonprofits? E-mail it to ideas@washpost.com

-------- us nuc dumps

In S.C., Rethinking an Atomic Waste Welcome Mat

Task Force Plan Worries a Town

By Sue Anne Pressley, Washington Post, November 23, 1999; Page A03
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/23/063l-112399-idx.html

SNELLING, S.C.-The mayor's house here in this rural crossroads town of 300 souls sits at the gateway to what critics call the nation's nuclear dumping ground. But Tim Moore is not concerned--not in the way one might think.

For Moore and many other residents of Barnwell County, Chem-Nuclear Systems Inc. has been a good neighbor for nearly 30 years. As the trucks rumble past each day, bearing low-level nuclear wastes from 38 states, these citizens have taken the opposite of the prevailing public view, Not in My Backyard.

But now, Gov. Jim Hodges (D) wants to end South Carolina's role as the final resting place for hundreds of thousands of cubic feet of radioactive debris--and the negative, some say laughable, image the state has incurred. A 13-member Nuclear Task Force he appointed in June is ready to take up the issue next month in a debate that is sure to have consequences that will be felt around the country.

As long as this 235-acre disposal facility about 40 miles southeast of Augusta, Ga.--generally known as "Barnwell"--is open and welcoming, other states have had little incentive to look for alternative places to dispose of their own nuclear wastes, including everything from materials used in radiation treatments for cancer to nuclear power plant pumps, said the governor's energy advisor, John Clark.

But if the task force recommends that South Carolina enter into a compact to serve only itself, Connecticut and New Jersey, as many of its members appear to favor, the other 35 states will have to scramble, likely setting off a domino effect of controversy over one of the most sensitive issues of modern-day technology. Critics say it is hard to imagine, given today's self-protective climate, that any other community would readily accept such a facility.

"The fact that we have not had the political progress in establishing [other] disposal sites does leave room for concern. There have been a number of different states in compacts that have endeavored to establish sites and have not had a breakthrough," said Steve Kerekes, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute in Washington, who also noted that because of technological advances, waste volumes been greatly reduced over the last 10 to 15 years.

Although Chem-Nuclear officials insist they operate one of the safest and most sophisticated nuclear-waste disposal facilities in the world, and that no one on or near the site has ever been exposed to harmful amounts of radiation, many outside Barnwell County believe the state's image was damaged long ago. The facility accepts Class B and Class C nuclear wastes, the so-called "hottest" of the low-level wastes--practically everything short of spent nuclear fuel.

The only other nuclear waste disposal facilities in the country are located in Hanford, Wash., which accepts materials from 11 western states only, and in Utah, which accepts only Class A debris, the least radioactive of the low-level wastes.

"It's not so much an environmental issue and whether people around it are comfortable with it. It's more an issue of whether the state is comfortable with it," said former Democratic congressman Butler Derrick, chairman of the task force. "It's the reputation it gives to the state and the effect that that reputation has on economic development and quality of life."

A task force member who favors the limited three-state compact, state Rep. Joel Lourie (D), agrees. "We're known as the state," he said, "that has the Confederate flag, video poker and low-level nuclear wastes."

Critics of South Carolina's role point out that the motto printed on state license tags--"Smiling Faces, Beautiful Places"--often is jokingly referred to as "Smiling Faces, Dumping Places." And in the task force draft report, reference is made to an old episode of the television show "Barney Miller" in which a police detective, trying to find a place to dispose of some nuclear waste "in the possession of an unstable citizen," slams down the telephone and mutters, "Even South Carolina won't take it."

Snelling and Barnwell, the county seat less than five miles away, do not look like what is often characterized as the nation's nuclear dumping ground. Barnwell, population 5,000, has a stately, old-fashioned courthouse square, tall trees shaking off their leaves and an enviable small-town pace. But the county also records one of the highest unemployment rates in the state, about 11 percent, according to the latest figures.

Snelling, which has a single blinking caution light, features large homes set far back from the road, cow pastures, several churches and hand-written signs advertising the sale of deer corn.

Mayor Moore and Chem-Nuclear officials say there is little reason for this review of the state's role other than politics.

"We're the football. We tell them we're tired of being kicked around. We've been punted enough. Every two years, we go through something like this," said Moore, who has served as mayor since 1969, as he sat in the kitchen of the pleasant farmhouse with the wraparound porch where he was born more than 70 years ago.

Moore said that he knows of no one who is really concerned about drinking their private well water or eating vegetables grown in their home gardens, and he adds that Chem-Nuclear always has been "upfront" with the townspeople. In turn, residents have been vocally supportive, turning up in vanloads at public hearings to defend the facility.

Snelling receives about $44,000 a year in taxes from Chem-Nuclear, about half the town's annual budget, while Barnwell County receives about $1.2 million a year in taxes and other fees from the company, a large portion of which goes to the county school district. On the walls of Chem-Nuclear's lobby are posted numerous awards for its contributions to local education and civic endeavors.

David Ebenhack, a vice president at Chem-Nuclear, said the company welcomes visitors, and school groups often take field trips there. What they see is nothing startling--an expanse of grassy meadow that covers the deep trenches in which steel containers of wastes placed in concrete vaults are buried. In an open trench, workers on cranes situate the latest vaults containing debris, all numbered and computer-logged. Visitors wear clip-on instruments that record the amount of radioactivity they are exposed to--none on a visit this week--and sign consent forms stating that, at most, they will be exposed to less radiation than one receives from an X-ray.

What happens next is sure to be a heated debate, as the decision of the task force is passed on to the state legislature for final approval. One option more favorable to Chem-Nuclear would be to allow the status quo for the next 10 years or so, until Barnwell reaches capacity. But Hodges and other state officials fear that this leaves no room for the state's future needs.

"There's a fairly high fixed cost to operating a site like this," said Chem-Nuclear's Ebenhack, "and if they limit our market, if we are not profitable, well, we are not a philanthropy, we will have to close the site. We are always such an easy target."

--------us nuc weapons plants

Workers unaware of memo on safety at Paducah plant

Associated Press Evansville Courier & Press 11/22/99
http://www.courierpress.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?199911/22+workers112299_news.html+19991122

A 1992 memo to employees of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant about a program to protect them from radioactive transuranic metals seemed to represent a new openness with workers about the potential dangers of the workplace.

However, several people who worked at the plant at that time said they never saw the memorandum, which came from the U.S. Department of Energy and its Paducah contractor, Martin Marietta Energy Systems Inc.

Uranium contaminated with transuranics - in used fuel rods from a weapons reactor at the Energy Department's installation in Hanford, Wash. - was reprocessed at Paducah from 1952 until the early 1970s.

These elements include plutonium and neptunium. Transuranic residues accumulated inside the equipment and eventually leaked out into the plant.

The Energy Department and Martin Marietta said in a Feb. 29, 1992, memorandum that they were "starting a formal program to control transuranic elements in the plant."

The new controls, described in memos that

The Courier-Journal of Louisville obtained from the Energy Department, limited the wearing of personal clothing at work and required that it be stored separately.

Warnings were posted, and urine tests were changed to include screening for transuranics.

Workers began being monitored for alpha radiation, which is emitted by transuranics, when leaving buildings.

The company also restricted visitor access to buildings where transuranics were present.

The February 1992 bulletin would appear to challenge the claim by workers who sued Martin Marietta and other former plant contractors this year that they had never been told about the plutonium in the plant.

A three-page attachment explained transuranics and their health effects, and identified the specific elements of concern.

-------- us nuc other

Uranium Resources, Inc. Announces Third Quarter 1999 Results

Business Wire Updated 8:54 AM ET November 22, 1999
http://news.excite.com/news/bw/991122/tx-uranium-resources

DALLAS (BUSINESS WIRE) - Uranium Resources, Inc. ("URI")(OTC BB:URIX) reported net income of $952,000 or $0.08 per share for the third quarter ended September 30, 1999, compared to a net loss of $14,916,000 or ($1.24) per share for the third quarter of 1998.

The results for the third quarter of 1998 included a pre-tax writedown of certain of the Company's uranium properties of approximately $18.0 million. Revenues in the third quarter of 1999 of $4,418,000 resulted from both uranium deliveries ($3,129,000) and the sale of a long-term uranium sales contract ($1,290,000). The Company delivered 235,000 pounds of uranium during the third quarter of 1999 (an average sales price of $13.29 per pound). Revenues for the same period of 1998 totaled $4,504,000 on 328,000 pounds of uranium deliveries (an average price of $13.73 per pound).

In July 1999 the Company sold its rights to deliver uranium in 2000 through 2002 to a third party in return for 124,000 pounds of uranium inventory. This sale of the final three years of deliveries under the contract reduced the Company's cash requirements in 1999 by approximately $1.3 million and was recorded in the third quarter of 1999.

Cost of uranium sales for the third quarter of 1999 was $3,063,000 and consisted of $2,500,000 for uranium sold and $563,000 of stand-by and other operating costs during the quarter. Cost of uranium sales for the third quarter of 1998 (excluding the property writedown) totaled $4,588,000 which included a reduction in the carrying value of the Company's uranium inventory of $463,000 to reflect a lower of cost or market adjustment. During the third quarter of 1998 the Company delivered 168,000 pounds of produced uranium at a cost of $14.35 per pound and 160,000 pounds of purchased uranium at a cost of $9.84 per pound.

Paul K. Willmott, Chairman and CEO commented, "The Company continues to evaluate additional alternatives regarding its assets, and continues with efforts to maximize cash flows from existing sales contracts, certain assets, and from ongoing reduction of overhead costs."

URANIUM RESOURCES, INC.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF OPERATIONS
(In 000's except per share data)
(U.S. dollars)

Three Months Ended Nine Months Ended
September 30, September 30,

1999 1998 1999 1998
----- ---- ---- ----

REVENUES FROM URANIUM SALES:
Produced revenue $ 2,092 $ 2,580 $ 3,128 $ 8,690
Purchased revenue 1,036 1,924 1,038 4,321
Uranium sales revenue 3,128 4,504 4,166 13,011
Other uranium revenues 1,290 -- 1,290 --
------ ------ ------ ------
Total revenues 4,418 4,504 5,456 13,011

COST OF URANIUM SALES:
Purchased uranium 2,500 1,575 2,500 3,591
Royalties 9 132 66 408
Produced uranium 553 2,881 2,746 8,899
Writedown of uranium
properties -- 18,035 -- 18,035
------ ------ ------ ------
Earnings (loss) from
operations before
corporate expenses 1,356 (18,119) 144 (17,922)
CORPORATE EXPENSES 504 536 1,511 1,821
------ ------ ------ ------

INCOME (LOSS) FROM OPERATIONS 852 (18,655) (1,367) (19,743)

OTHER INCOME (EXPENSE):
Interest expense, net (39) (38) (115) (114)
Interest and other income 159 47 263 144
------ ------ ------ ------
INCOME (LOSS) BEFORE INCOME
TAXES 972 (18,646) (1,219) (19,713)
FEDERAL INCOME TAX EXPENSE
(BENEFIT) 20 (3,730) (244) (3,942)
------ ------ ------ ------

NET INCOME (LOSS) $ 952 $(14,916) $ (975) $(15,771)
------ ------ ------ ------
------ ------ ------ ------
NET INCOME (LOSS) PER SHARE $0.08 $ (1.24) $(0.08) $ (1.31)
------ ------ ------ ------
------ ------ ------ ------

Revenues, earnings from operations and net income for the Company can fluctuate significantly on a quarter to quarter basis during the year because of the timing of deliveries requested by its utility customers. Accordingly, operating results for any quarter or year-to-date period are not necessarily comparable and may not be indicative of the result which may be expected for future quarters or the entire year.

Except for historical information contained in this press release, the matters discussed herein contain forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain, and investors must recognize that actual results may differ from management's expectations. Key factors impacting current and future operations of the Company are discussed in detail in the Company's reports filed under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and include, without limitation, the spot price of uranium, weather conditions, operating conditions at the Company's mining projects, government regulation of the mining industry and the nuclear power industry, the world-wide supply and demand of uranium, availability of capital, timely receipt of mining and other permits from regulatory agencies.

Uranium Resources, Inc. is a Dallas-based uranium mining company, whose shares trade on the OTC Bulletin Board under the symbol URIX. The Company specializes in in-situ solution mining and holds substantial uranium reserves in South Texas and New Mexico.

---

Nellis receives biggest piece of federal funds

LAS VEGAS SUN November 21, 1999
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/text/1999/nov/21/509382714.html

Congress this session approved money for a number of projects in Nevada. Among them:

$18.6 million, three buildings at Nellis Air Force Base to house F-22 fighter jets; $11.6 million, land acquisition for a buffer zone around live ammunition areas at Nellis.

$13 million, grant for Veterans Home in Boulder City.

$9 million, study of transmutation, the process that converts high-level radioactive waste to a less dangerous substance.

$5 million, start-up of Nevada's new science initiatives at the Nevada Test Site and the High Pressure Science Center at UNLV.

$4.7 million, Hawthorne munitions depot projects; $12.3 million, Reno defense contractor Sierra-Nevada Corp., for high-tech military research and development; $1.49 million, helicopter taxiway repair at Stead airport; $7 million, purchase Eagle Vision 3-D terrain imagery satellite system for the Nevada Air National Guard.

$2.6 million, Nevada Risk Assessment and Management Program at the Harry Reid Center for Energy and the Environment.

$3.5 million, Fixed Guideway Elevated Rail project for Las Vegas.

$2.79 million, "smart" street signs that warn motorists about upcoming traffic.

$2.5 million, Clark County Regional Transportation Commission buses and bus facilities.

$2.3 million, North Las Vegas air traffic control tower.

$900,000, water infrastructure improvements in Henderson; $250,000, downtown Henderson redevelopment.

$600,000, Boys & Girls Club of Las Vegas renovation and expansion; $300,000, University of Nevada, Reno, range land wildfire restoration programs.

$267,000, eradicate tamarisk trees on the Walker River, which suck up water and leave saline residue

$1.5 million, purchase water claims as part of a negotiated solution to water disputes between California and Northern Nevada.

$3 million, purchase sensitive lands in Lake Tahoe Basin; $750,000 for Lake Tahoe watershed restoration; $1,000,000, erosion control projects in Lake Tahoe Basin; $750,000, road work, including tearing out roads, in Lake Tahoe Basin.

$325,000, Weber Dam study; $325,000, study of a proposed trout fish hatchery on the Walker River Paiute Indian Reservation.

$3.8 million, replace water treatment plant at Lake Mead.

$100,000, complete Lake Mead endocrine study.

$1.15 million Nevada biodiversity initiative, includes $150,000 for a migratory loon study.

-------- iran

Iran Sells Scud Missiles To Democratic Republic Of Congo: Report Washington

African National Congress Daily News November 22 1999 Sapa-AFP US-DRCONGO
http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/briefing/nw19991123/34.html

Iran has sold Scud missiles to the Democratic Republic of Congo, increasing the risk of a wider regional war in central Africa, the Washington Times reported Monday.

"I can't comment on it because we don't comment on intelligence matters," Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said when asked about the report.

However, a US official who asked not to be identified disputed the report's contention of a missile sale, saying that the United States had no information to back it up.

"The notion of an actual missile system sale we cannot substantiate," said the official. "To say there are Scud missiles involved here is nothing we can substantiate."

The Times said US spy agencies detected the Scud B and Scud C missile systems over the past several weeks, and that Iranian military officials were in Kinshasa as part of a delegation of technicians that arrived last month to assemble them.

The newspaper said it is the first time that Iran has exported the short-range missiles.

The sales would give the government of Congolese President Laurent Kabila, who is fighting rebel groups backed by Rwanda and Uganda, a ballistic missile capability that in Africa is currently possessed only by South Africa, it said.

The Scub B is a Russian designed missile with a range of about 187 kilometers (300 kilometers), while the Scud C has a range of about 300 miles (480 kilometers).

The unnamed officials cited by the Times did not say how many missiles were sold, but one said it was a small number.

The Times also said North Korea is providing training to Kabila's forces, which has raised fears in US intelligence circles that Kinshasa may be paying Pyongyang with uranium ore.

The US official played down possible transfers of uranium ore as payment for the training, noting that the Congo's uranium mines have been defunct for years and it is unclear what could be extracted from them. _____________________________________________________________

Prepared by: ANC Information Services Dept Information & Publicity PO Box 16469 Tel: (+27 21) 426 2740 Vlaeberg 8018 Fax: (+27 21) 426 2774 Cape Town Internet: info@anc.org.za South Africa

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TEHRAN SOLD SCUD MISSILES TO CONGOLESE U.S. SPIES DISCOVER SYSTEMS

WASHINGTON TIMES Published on 11/22/99
http://www.newslibrary.com/download.asp?DBLIST=wt99&DOCNUM=25543

Iran sold Scud missiles to the Democratic Republic of Congo last month in the first export of its homemade versions of the widely used short-range missile, The Washington Times has learned.

Iranian Scud B and Scud C missile systems were detected by U.S. spy agencies over the past several weeks.

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Russia: U.S. Concerns May Be Met in Current ABM Pact

New York Times November 23, 1999 Filed at 3:55 a.m. ET By Reuters
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-arms-ru.html

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Russia's U.N. ambassador suggested that U.S. misgivings about the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty could be addressed within the existing pact and without the amendments sought by Washington.

Russia has been alarmed by U.S. plans to set up a national anti-missile shield against potential attacks by ``rogue states'' and has so far rejected American offers to amend the ABM treaty, which bans the creation of such systems.

Ambassador Sergei Lavrov told a news conference on Monday that American concerns could be addressed in the context of adjustments to the ABM treaty signed in New York in September 1997. These included deployment of low-speed theater missile defense systems.

``We are ready to address their concerns about the increased threats of missile proliferation,'' he said. ``But this could be perfectly done at this stage in the context of 1997 New York agreement about so-called non-strategic ABM defenses.''

But Lavrov , in rejecting the amendments proposed by Washington, said: ``I want to make very clear that amendments to the ABM treaty, which would allow limited national anti-missile defense, would be against the core of the treaty, which prohibits such a defense and which also prohibits the creation of a basis for such defense.''

His comments followed those of Russian Col.-Gen. Vladimir Yakovlev, commander of Moscow's Strategic Missile Forces, who said on Friday a joint commission could examine the threat from rogue states.

In response, State Department spokesman James Rubin said ''the idea that they would want to work closely with us on defining the threat and then dealing with the threat would be welcome.''

Lavrov again appealed to the United States and its allies to keep the ABM treaty intact or other strategic nuclear pacts would crumble, including the nuclear non-proliferation treaty or the nuclear test ban treaty.

``Those (U.S.) amendments would ruin the treaty, and if the treaty is ruined, you can safely forget about not only continuation of strategic arms reduction negotiations, but you can well witness the burial of the existing strategic arms limitation agreements,'' he said.

At the United Nations, Lavrov, along with the ambassadors of China and Belarus sponsored a resolution that calls for continued efforts to strengthen and preserve the 1972 treaty. It was adopted by a General Assembly committee on November 5, which assures its passage by full Assembly on December 1.

Lavrov said he was gratified that NATO nations did not join the United States in voting against the resolution, which he said indicated disapproval of American actions on the ABM.

The Nov. 5 vote was 54 to 4 with 73 abstentions. Voting against the resolutions, together with the United States, were Israel, Latvia and Micronesia. Thirteen of the 15 members of the European Union abstained while France and Ireland, voted for the resolution.

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Russia: ABM Addresses U.S. Concerns

New York Times November 22, 1999 Filed at 11:13 p.m. EST
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-UN-Russia-US-Missiles.html

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Russia suggested Monday that U.S. concerns about rogue states firing missiles at the United States could be addressed within the existing amendments to the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty.

Russia has been highly critical of a U.S. proposal to alter the 1972 pact, which prevents both countries from building nationwide systems to defend against ballistic missile attacks.

The United States is considering building a limited nationwide system to protect against a small number of nuclear missiles that could conceivably be launched by nations such as North Korea or Iran.

At a news conference Monday, Russia's U.N. Ambassador Sergey Lavrov warned that the proposed U.S. changes would ruin the treaty, bury existing arms control agreements, and destroy ``the cornerstone of international stability.''

But in an indication that Russia is interested in finding a solution, he said Moscow is ready to address U.S. concerns about the increased threats of missile proliferation.

Lavrov suggested that U.S. concerns could be discussed in the context of amendments to the treaty that were signed by both sides two years ago, that define the limits on the development of anti-missile missile defenses.

Spurgeon Keeny, president of the Washington-based Arms Control Association, who helped negotiate the ABM treaty, said he had never heard the Russians publicly suggest that the two countries work out a solution using those amendments.

``I think frankly it's a very interesting proposal,'' he said. ``What these amendments would do is let the United States defend Alaska and Hawaii, which might some day be threatened by a North Korean missile, without building a national missile defense which would violate the ABM treaty,'' Keeny said.

One of the two-year-old amendment permits the United States and Russia to develop shorter-range missile defense systems, where interceptors travel less than 2 miles per second. A second amendment provides for both countries to deal with interceptor missiles that go faster.

While the amendments have been signed by both countries, they have never been submitted to the U.S. Senate or the Russian Duma for ratification.

Keeny said both countries have abided by the amendments, and the U.S. Army and Navy are both developing anti-missile missile systems that adhere to the provisions

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Ukraine Sees No Y2K Problems With Nuclear Reactors

New York Times November 23, 1999 Filed at 9:18 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/technology/tech-yk-ukraine.html

KIEV (Reuters) - The head of Ukraine's nuclear energy authority Energoatom said on Tuesday the Y2K computer bug posed no threat to the country's Soviet-era nuclear reactors.

``We have checked and tested all equipment at all reactors,'' Mykola Dudchenko told a news conference. ``These checks showed that there is no equipment at our stations susceptible to the year 2000 problem in management, defense or security systems.''

Officials in Ukraine, site of the catastrophic 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl atomic power station, have said there can be no repeat of the disaster in the former Soviet republic on January 1, 2000.

Computer experts fear the change of date could wreak havoc in any country with older computer systems which could fail to recognize the last two digits of the year and malfunction.

A U.S. government report earlier this year said Ukraine's electricity, transport, defense and other systems could be vulnerable to possible problems and said checks had been slow.

But a later report said less use of computers made problems due to the millennium bug unlikely -- a position which Dudchenko reiterated on Tuesday, adding that contingency plans had been worked out just in case.

``We have worked out measures and emergency plans of how to act at the atomic reactors in case something does happen after all at the station itself or, as is more likely, if there is a communications problem -- although we've checked that, too,'' Dudchenko said.

Ukraine's five nuclear power stations provide almost half of the country's electricity needs.

The Chernobyl station has just one remaining functioning reactor, Number Three. The 1986 explosion, which sent radioactive dust billowing over neighboring Belarus, Russia and parts of western Europe, destroyed reactor Number Four.

Another reactor was destroyed in a fire in 1992 and another was shut in 1997 after it reached the end of its safe lifespan.

Ukraine had promised the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations to shut reactor Number Three by 2000. But it has delayed the decision due to a lack of Western funds to help complete two new reactors to replace lost capacity.

Officials said it was still unclear if and when the money would be forthcoming, but said technical considerations would force Chernobyl to shut in the second half of 2000 regardless of whether new capacity was available or not by then.

``Each year the reactor undergoes lengthy repairs. Its idle periods last up to half a year and in theory keeping it in use is becoming loss-making,'' Dudchenko said, adding that the reactor was due to be switched on this week after repair work.

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Report: China Deploys New Missiles

New York Times November 23, 1999 Filed at 4:48 p.m. EST
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-US-China.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Amid reports of a planned expansion of Chinese short-range missile systems across from Taiwan, the State Department said Tuesday it has made clear to China its concerns regarding missile deployments and their influence on the situation in the Taiwan Strait.

Spokesman James P. Rubin refused to confirm or deny a report in The Washington Times that China is deploying nearly 100 of its newest short-range missiles, capable of carrying nuclear warheads, at a base about 275 miles from Taiwan.

Rubin said he could not comment because the report was based on intelligence information.

``We will continue to monitor the military balance in the Taiwan Strait closely and meet our obligation to provide Taiwan the arms it needs for an adequate defense,'' Rubin said.

``We have made very clear that no decisions on theater missile defense systems have been made, other than for the protection of American forces.''

While not precluding the possible sale of such systems to Taiwan, Rubin said the U.S. goal is to preserve peace and stability in the area.

``Any final decision will be made on that basis,'' Rubin said.

The Times said construction in China is being carried out for the planned deployment of a brigade of advanced CSS-7 missiles -- also known as advanced M-11s. It said a Chinese missile brigade is estimated to have 16 launchers and up to 96 missiles.

The report added that the missiles can be armed with small nuclear warheads.

The administration has been uneasy about moves in Congress to increase training operations and exchanges between the two militaries and establish lines of communications during crises.

Rubin said the legislation, which has broad backing in Congress, ``could have harmful effects, both in giving Taiwan a false impression of what would happen and/or giving China unnecessary advantage or knowledge.''

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US firm on both Koreas' missile plans

UPI 11:09 AM ET November 22, 1999 By CHARLES LEE
http://news.excite.com/news/u/991122/11/other-missiles

SEOUL, South Korea, Nov. 22 (UPI) The difficult task of restraining missile development on the Korean peninsula requires the United States to stand firm against communist North Korea, but sometimes Washington must also make tough decisions involving its close ally in the South.

Fearful of sparking an East Asian arms race, last week the Clinton administration had to turn down South Korea's request to build a new long-range missile.

Robert Einhorn, U.S. assistant secretary of state for non- proliferation, flew to Seoul Thursday to meet with South Korean officials and relay U.S. concerns over their country's missile program. Einhorn said that while the United States was prepared to consider Seoul's request, South Korea must conform to American non-proliferation goals.

A signatory to the 1979 Missile Technology Control Regime agreement, South Korea is forbidden to produce missiles with a range longer than 112 miles (180 km). That restriction was eased last year when Washington agreed in principle to allow Seoul to produce missiles with a range up to 187 miles (300), the maximum allowed under the treaty.

But South Korean officials maintain their missiles fall short of reaching most of neighboring communist North Korea, which has reportedly is on the verge of producing missiles that can strike the United States. Seoul officials said the United States also requested South Korea provide full disclosure of its missile development program.

Amid fears that North Korea had stepped up its missile program, Seoul had pressed for development of a weapon with a larger striking capability. During a visit to Washington last June, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung told U.S. President Bill Clinton Seoul needs to have a missile arsenal with a range of 312 miles (500 km), enough to strike almost anywhere in the North.

Last week's talks came amid reports that South Korea in fact had already violated the control agreement. A recent New York Times report stated U.S. spy photos revealed that South Korea had already built a rocket motor test station without notifying Washington, a violation of the agreement. The Seoul government denied the report, calling it groundless.

Meanwhile, communist North Korea has vowed to continue its own missile development program and reacted angrily to Seoul's bid to extend its missile range. North Korea's state-run press said over the weekend the country would never give up production of its defense missiles, and it blasted Washington's National Missile Defense system as a "brigandish move to seize the whole Korean peninsula by force of arms."

North Korea termed Seoul's purported new missile, "an unpardonable provocation against us, and a grave threat to peace and security" on the Korean peninsula.

"If the South Korean hawks persist in developing long-range ballistic missiles, we will take a strong countermeasures," said the North Korean Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland.

U.S. Special Envoy Charles Kartman met with North Korean officials in Berlin last week in an attempt to negotiate a missile test ban. Kartman pressed North Koreans to set high-level talks where Pyongyang could make firmer commitments about limiting its missile and nuclear development programs.

But Kartman's efforts failed, mainly because of Pyongyang's demand that the United States lift all sanctions against North Korea and remove it from its list of nations supporting terrorism. Reports said that North Korea has sought a U.S. pledge not to launch a surprise attack against the communist country. But Washington has denied it is offering a "no-first-strike" pledge to the North.

A proposed visit by a senior North Korean official to the United States is expected to smooth diplomatic tensions and help Washington address North Korean missile threats, analysts here said. North Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok-ju was invited to visit the United States by U.S. North Korea policy coordinator William Perry when he visited Pyongyang in May. Kang's visit would herald the first thaw in U. S.-North Korean relations and take significant steps to end Pyongyang's missile ambition, they said.

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S. Korea Might Get Anthrax Vaccine

Associated Press November 23, 1999 Filed at 6:25 p.m. EST
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-US-Korea.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In view of fears that North Korea is developing chemical weapons, the United States might be willing to share its anthrax vaccine with ally South Korea, Secretary of Defense William Cohen said Tuesday.

``We do believe that the North Koreans and others have been in the process of developing both chemical and biological weapons, and that we ought not to take any chances that that assumption or information is in error,'' Cohen said at a Pentagon news conference with South Korea's defense minister, Cho Song-tae.

The Pentagon undertook a program in 1997 to vaccinate all active duty and reserve military personnel against anthrax, an infectious bacterium it fears could be used by Iraq, North Korea or terrorists as a biological weapon.

The program has been troubled with delays, and a few service members have disobeyed orders to receive the vaccine because they fear it is unsafe.

Cohen was asked by a South Korean journalist Tuesday if the United States would be willing to see that South Korean soldiers are vaccinated, since if hostilities erupted between the Koreas, they would fight side by side with the 37,000 U.S. troops stationed on the divided peninsula.

``Should Minister Cho believe it is important for South Korean forces ... to have vaccinations, we certainly would entertain such a request,'' Cohen responded.

The news conference followed the annual U.S.-South Korean security meeting, at which Cohen and Cho discussed joint defense against communist North Korea and a range of problems, the South Korean minister said.

Among those were allegations that South Korea is attempting secretly to increase the range of its battlefield ballistic missiles in violation of U.S.-South Korean agreements.

Asked at the news conference if this was true, Cho sidestepped the question. He said only: ``Transparency is the one most important factor that we take into consideration in developing our missile program.''

Also discussed at the meeting were press revelations this month that South Korean soldiers -- unaware of the possible health dangers -- sprayed the toxic defoliant Agent Orange in their country in 1968-69 at the suggestion of the U.S. Army.

Cohen noted that the United States has provided medical care for U.S. veterans exposed to the herbicide when U.S. forces sprayed it in the Vietnam War. But he said the Defense Department doesn't ``recognize any legal liability'' beyond that, because it has taken the position there's no conclusive link between Agent Orange and health problems.

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Correction: * News from Kobe

From: Japan Press Service <jpspress@twics.com>
Re: NucNews 99/11/21-22 Briefs "http://www.iijnet.or.jp/c.pro/shinfujin/"

Dear friends,

The above-mentioned URL does not carry our daily news. Please show correct URL as follows http://www.twics.com/~jpspress

Regards,

SEYA, Minoru for Japan Press Service

jpspress@twics.com

---

Uranium spill victims battle to stay alive

Sydney Morning Herald Date: 23/11/99 JAPAN By MICHAEL MILLETT, Herald Correspondent in Tokyo

http://www.smh.com.au/news/9911/23/text/world5.html

The three workers exposed to dangerous levels of radiation in Japan's worst nuclear accident are continuing their fight for survival more than 50 days after the accident.

But the prognosis is not good for 35-year-old Hisashi Ouchi, the man who suffered the highest dose of radiation bombardment at the JCO uranium processing plant.

The three hospitalised workers have become the forgotten men of the accident, disappearing from public view as the media focus on the national Government's attempts to draft new public safety laws and to deal with the flood of compensation claims stemming from the disaster.

Mr Ouchi, lying comatose in the Tokyo University Hospital and attached to a respirator, has slipped into an extremely critical condition.

While his blood pressure and pulse remain stable, he is passing blood and continuing to lose body fluids through his skin, which was badly burnt in the accident.

Doctors say they have transplanted cultured skin on to the patient's abdomen and right leg in an attempt to halt the fluid loss. It will take at least a week before they can determine whether the grafts have taken.

Because of Mr Ouchi's low blood-cell count, he is prone to even the slightest infection.

Mr Ouchi was exposed to about 17 sieverts of radiation in the September 30 accident, about three times the generally recognised lethal exposure rate.

If radical blood-cell transfusions and skin grafts carried out on co-worker Masato Shinohara take, then he may survive.

Mr Shinohara, exposed to about 10 sieverts, is also suffering from the effects of radiation burn.

He is listed in a stable condition in another hospital, as is supervisor Yutaka Yokokawa, 54, who suffered exposure of about three sieverts.

The Government estimates that 69 people suffered varying degrees of radiation exposure in the nuclear reaction, which was triggered when workers poured too much uranium solution into a sedimentation tank.

This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited.

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Puerto Rico Bombing Decision Soon

Associated Press November 23, 1999 Filed at 4:50 p.m. EST
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Pentagon-Puerto-Rico.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Defense Secretary William Cohen said Tuesday he's close to making a recommendation to President Clinton on whether the Navy should abandon its use of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques as a live bombing range.

``I can't specify the exact time, but there is some need to resolve the issue in the near future,'' Cohen told a Pentagon news conference. ``And once the president receives my recommendations, he will make a decision. But I can't at this point specify what that recommendation will be.''

The Puerto Rican government is demanding that the Navy abandon its bombing range on the outlying island, but the Navy has said it deems it essential to its training needs.

Relations between the Navy and the Puerto Rican government have been deteriorating since a jet practicing over Vieques in April dropped a bomb off target and killed a civilian security guard at the training ground.

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De-Alerting

Tue, 23 Nov 1999 13:35:41 -0500

... On December 9, 1999, a major national effort to de-alert nuclear weapons, the "Back from the Brink Campaign," will be launched. That morning, a new video made by the Center for Defense Information, discussing nuclear dangers and how de-alerting can reduce them, will be released at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Speakers will include: Bruce Blair, one of the world's foremost authorities on the subject and a MacArthur Fellow; former Senator Dale Bumpers, now head of the Center for Defense Information; Beatrice Brailsford, Program Director of the Snake River Alliance, a statewide peace and environmental group in Idaho, and Arjun Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Takoma Park, Maryland.

The heart of the campaign will be outside Washington, DC. That's where the pressure to persuade President Clinton as well as the House and Senate to de-alert nuclear weapons must come from.

You can participate in the launch of the Back from the Brink Campaign by showing the video at a house party or on your local cable access channel. Free copies of the Back from the Brink Campaign video are available. To get one, send an e-mail to srabb@earthlink.net or write the temporary campaign office at 310 E. Center, Suite 205, Pocatello, Idaho 83201. After December 1, 1999, you can call our toll free number at 1-877-55BESAFE.

You can also arrange a news briefing in your community around the showing of the video. The campaign can send you sample press materials and other information in a packet that you can use and distribute to local media.

The website of the campaign is at http://www.dealert.com

Arjun Makhijani
President, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research
6935 Laurel Ave., Suite 204, Takoma Park, Maryland 20912, U.S.A.
Phone 301-270-5500 - Fax: 301-270-3029
e-mail: arjun@ieer.org - web page: http://www.ieer.org

Susan Gordon, Director, Alliance for Nuclear Accountability
http://www.ananuclear.org
1914 N 34th, Suite #407, Seattle, WA 98103
ph 206-547-3175 fax 206-547-7158

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