* Ukraine to restart Chernobyl reactor (3 stories)
* General: Russia Must Rely on Nukes
* WORLD In Brief - China to Ratify Test Ban, Official Says
* Taiwan's Lee hits China on missiles
* Taiwan stocks plummet on security fears
* India: More Military Spending Sought
* Iraq Prefers Sanctions to Inspectors' Return By Reuters
* Policy times five - Embassy Row
* Syrian gas practice
* Barak: Israel won't be first with nukes
* Nuclear secrets revealed to force truth (Vanunu)
* N. Korea Delegation Leaves for U.S.
* Utility Ousts 5 in Chicago After Failures Last Summer
* A Missile Shield Could Backfire
* Where $609 Billion in Federal Spending Will Go
* Spacecraft Galileo Overcomes Setback

-------- ukraine

Ukraine to restart Chernobyl reactor

USA Today 11/26/99- Updated 01:56 AM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/nwsthu01.htm

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Thirteen years after the world's worst nuclear accident, the Chernobyl power plant is re-emerging as a focus of environmental fears and a subject of negotiations over aid to cash-strapped Ukraine.

The reopening of the plant's only functioning reactor, scheduled for Friday following five months of repairs, comes after the U.S. State Department recently said Ukraine ''appears to be unprepared'' to confront the Y2K bug.

The department warned of ''a risk of potential disruption in all key sectors, especially the energy and electric services.''

''We're completely opposed to restarting Chernobyl,'' said Ben Pearson, an anti-nuclear campaigner in the Amsterdam office of the environmental group Greenpeace. ''Chernobyl is probably the most dangerous reactor in the world.''

Ukrainian authorities insist the troubled plant, site of the 1986 accident, is safe.

Under a 1995 agreement between Ukraine and the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations, Chernobyl was supposed to be closed once and for all before the year 2000.

But the former Soviet republic says it has not received the money it was promised to complete two new nuclear reactors, and therefore will keep Chernobyl running until an unspecified date next year.

Ukraine argues that it needs the electricity, and can't afford to risk running short during the harsh winter months.

But Pearson said that Ukrainian energy supplies exceed demand, and critics contend that Ukraine has for years been using Chernobyl as leverage to get money from the West.

''In six months' time, Ukraine may decide for political reasons that it wants to keep Chernobyl open,'' Pearson said.

Ever since the Chernobyl disaster 13 years ago, the Soviet Union and then Ukraine have come under pressure to close the plant.

The devastating explosion and fire at reactor No. 4 spewed radiation over much of Europe.

The Ukrainian government has blamed at least 8,000 deaths on the accident, including those killed immediately, workers who died in the massive cleanup operation, and people who subsequently died of cancer and other radiation-related illnesses.

Three of Chernobyl's four reactors are now permanently shut down.

The last functioning reactor, No. 3, was turned off July 1 for five months of planned repairs.

The reactor was to be brought back on-line earlier this month, but additional maintenance forced a delay.

Oleh Holoskokov, a spokesman for the plant, said tests were underway, and the plant should be back in operation ''in the early hours of Friday.''

''Every reactor that is prepared for a restart undergoes obligatory Y2K testings,'' Holoskokov added.

The millennium-bug issue has to do with the tendency of older computers to read only the last two digits in a year.

If not converted, they could mistake the year 2000, or ''00,'' for 1900, possibly leading to malfunctions and failures.

U.S. Ambassador Steven Pifer has discussed the issue with Ukrainian leaders, who promised to allow American officials to examine all vital energy facilities, including nuclear plants.

Meanwhile, about 500 workers have begun repairs on the concrete-and-steel sarcophagus that conceals the ruins of Chernobyl's exploded reactor No. 4, Holoskokov said Thursday.

The shelter was hastily built after the 1986 accident to prevent additional radiation leaks, but is riddled with cracks and needs reinforcing.

The workers will strengthen the sarcophagus' concrete beams, working through December from both inside and outside the huge structure.

Ukraine continues to operate 14 reactors at five power plants, which supply about 40% of the country's energy.

While some Ukrainians want to see Chernobyl and other Soviet-designed nuclear plants shut, Ukrainian authorities face much greater pressure from governments and environmental groups in the West.

Ukraine says it still needs - and was promised - $1.2 billion from the West to finish construction of two new reactors at the Khmelnitsky and Rivne nuclear plants in exchange for the lost Chernobyl output.

''We would not be able to survive economically without launching the (new) reactors,'' President Leonid Kuchma said recently.

''The world could help in solving this problem,'' Kuchma said. ''But the world only wants us to close down Chernobyl and not to complete the reactors.''

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which has played a leading role in the discussions on financing, was supposed to make a loan decision in September.

But it has taken no action, and other potential lenders are expected to wait for the EBRD before they commit any money.

Western nations are largely financing the sarcophagus repairs.

---

Ukraine Restarts Chernobyl After 5-Month Repairs

Reuters Updated 7:26 AM ET November 26, 1999 By Pavel Polityuk
http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/991126/07/news-energy-chernobyl

KIEV, Ukraine (Reuters) - Ukraine began warming up the only remaining nuclear reactor at Chernobyl Friday for what could be the last few months of operation of the troubled power plant, a top station official said.

Senior engineer Olexander Yelchishchev told Reuters by telephone from the plant that the reactor, which takes more than a day to reach full capacity, would be considered fully switched on by Sunday.

"We restarted the unit Friday at 5:22 a.m. after five months of repair work and expect to reach the reactor's full power of 1,000 megawatts late Sunday," he said. "The reactor is now working at about five percent of capacity."

The number three reactor is the last unit still in operation at Chernobyl, whose number four reactor exploded in April 1986, spewing a cloud of radioactive dust over Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and parts of Western Europe.

Thirty-one people were killed outright and thousands were affected by the blast, the world's worst civil nuclear disaster. Fire and old age have since forced the closure of the two other reactors at the plant.

Ukraine has delayed the closing of the last reactor until sometime next year from the end of this year as agreed with Western governments, blaming foreign partners' failure to approve promised funds to complete replacement capacity.

The head of the former Soviet state's nuclear energy authority Energoatom said this week that running the 22-year-old plant, which requires almost six months of repairs every year, would not make economic sense after 2000.

Ukraine's five nuclear plants provide almost 50 percent of its electricity needs.

Yelchishchev said the start of cold weather had forced the station to bring forward the originally planned date for restarting the reactor, located 110 km (70 miles) north of Kiev, as fuel was lacking to keep the reactor's water pipes unfrozen.

But he said the early start presented no safety hazards.

"So far everything is going completely normally. We are carrying out the usual tests but we are sure that everything will be fine," he said.

"I am very happy we have already restarted the unit, because nobody knows what might have happened during the cold weather expected during the next few days. We have extremely small stocks of fuel for our boiler station."

---

Ukraine Restarts Chernobyl

New York Times November 26, 1999 Filed at 4:33 a.m. EST By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Ukraine-Chernobyl-Returns.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991126/aponline141526_000.htm

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- The Ukrainian authorities today restarted the last working nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl power plant, ignoring a strong international pressure to shut it down.

Reactor No. 3 was restarted at 5:30 a.m. today after almost five months of repairs, and was gradually increasing output, said a spokeswoman for the plant who declined to give her name. She would not say when the reactor was expected to reach full power.

Officials at Chernobyl insist that reactor No. 3 is safe and is free of any potential Y2K bugs, whereby a computer might misread the last two digits of a date and mistake the year 2000 for 1900.

Western governments and environmental groups have long urged the Ukrainian government to close the plant, but the Ukrainian government says it needs $1.2 billion from the West to finish construction of two new reactors to replace the output that will be lost by closing Chernobyl.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which has played a leading role in the discussions on financing, was supposed to make a loan decision in September. But it has taken no action, and other potential lenders are expected to wait for the EBRD before they commit any money.

Chernobyl's reactor No. 4 exploded in April in 1986, spewing radiation over much of Europe. The reactor has been encased in steel-and-concrete sarcophagus, and the two others have been permanently shut down. One was destroyed in the 1986 accident.

Meanwhile, workers have begun repairs on the sarcophagus, which was hastily constructed after the accident to prevent additional radiation leaks. The workers will strengthen the sarcophagus' concrete beams, working through December from both inside and outside the huge structure.

Ukraine continues to operate 14 reactors at five power plants, which supply about 40 percent of the country's energy. While some Ukrainians want to see Chernobyl and other Soviet-designed nuclear plants shut, Ukrainian authorities face much greater pressure from governments and environmental groups in the West.

-------- russia

General: Russia Must Rely on Nukes

Associated Press Friday, Nov. 26, 1999; 12:06 p.m. EST The Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991126/aponline120640_000.htm

MOSCOW -- Russia will have to rely on the threat of using its nuclear arsenal to ensure security for at least the next decade because its conventional forces are not sufficient, a top general said Friday.

"Strategic nuclear forces ... must not be regarded as a panacea for all threats to ground security, but they are capable of being a reliable deterrent guarantee," strategic missile force commander Col. Gen. Vladimir Yakovlev was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

Since the 1991 Soviet collapse, Russia's army has become an underfunded and demoralized force, plagued by severe hazing and miserable living conditions.

It suffered a humiliating defeat in the 1994-96 Chechnya war to a much smaller armed group of rebels.

Russia's conventional forces are likely to remain inadequate "for at least the next decade," Yakovlev said.

The government bitterly opposes U.S. plans to amend the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty that would allow the United States to build a limited missile defense system.

Washington insists that the system would not be able to protect against the kind of a massive nuclear attack that Russia is capable of launching and is only meant as a defense against possible strikes by "rogue" states such as Iran or North Korea.

But Russia fears that such a system would reduce the deterrent value of its own nuclear forces

-------- china

WORLD In Brief
China to Ratify Test Ban, Official Says From news services

Washington Post Friday, November 26, 1999; Page A3
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/26/160l-112699-idx.html

BEIJING--China still intends to ratify the global treaty banning nuclear tests, despite the U.S. Senate's rejection of the pact, China's top arms control official was quoted as saying.

Sha Zukang said the treaty had no hope of ever coming into effect without American approval, the state-run New China News Agency reported

---

Taiwan's Lee hits China on missiles

Washington Times November 26, 1999
http://www.washtimes.com/news/news1.htmlyip

TAIPEI, Taiwan aiwanese President Lee Teng-hui, in one of his most extensive statements on China in months, accused Beijing Thursday of threatening his nation with missiles.

Referring to recent reports that China plans to deploy 100 new ballistic missiles across from Taiwan, Mr. Lee said that such military buildups encourage some Taiwanese to support formal independence.

"We understand that raising tensions between the sides would create disorder in China and bring no advantage to either side or to any country in the region," he said.

The Washington Times first reported Tuesday that China is upgrading a missile base about 275 miles from Taiwan where U.S. officials expect it to aim up to 100 nuclear-capable missiles at the island of 22 million.

Mr. Lee made his remarks in a speech to business leaders amid expectations by some political observers that he will raise the issue of China's military menace before Taiwan's presidential election in March.

China, which considers Taiwan a rebel province, has repeatedly threatened to invade the island if it declares formal independence.

Taiwan, which separated from China in 1949, says it will rejoin the mainland once the government in Beijing becomes democratic and the mainland is economically developed.

Mr. Lee's Nationalist Party, which has ruled the island for more than five decades, is considered by many voters to be the most experienced in dealing with China.

A new focus on relations with Beijing might give the party's candidate, Vice President Lien Chan, a desperately needed boost in the polls. Most surveys show him lagging far behind in second or third place.

Mr. Lee also said Taiwan would be willing to negotiate removing more trade barriers with China after the two sides join the World Trade Organization, which could happen within the next year.

Taiwan has come under pressure to end its ban on shipping and air links with the mainland if both sides join the WTO, which sets world trade rules.

"If there was sufficient good will from communist China, and if they made a concrete response, then we would be willing within the framework of the World Trade Organization to revise our mainland policies," Mr. Lee said.

He said that as WTO members, China and Taiwan should deal with each other as equals. This has been a key demand for Mr. Lee, who has insisted the two sides have "special state-to-state relations."

"Only under this condition shall we move on to review our trade policy toward the mainland in compliance with the World Trade Organization's requirements," he said.

China has rejected Taiwan's demand for equality.

Mr. Lee defended his "no haste, be patient" China policy, which puts strict limits on how much Taiwanese can invest in the mainland. Taiwan has long worried that it could fall under Beijing's control if it becomes too economically dependent on China.

Opponents have long criticized Mr. Lee for being anti-China and creating obstacles for stronger political and economic ties between the two sides. Recently, presidential candidates have complained that his government has been too slow to increase economic links with China.

But Mr. Lee credited himself for opening China to 30,000 Taiwanese companies since the late 1980s, when he lifted many restrictions on investment in China.

---

Taiwan stocks plummet on security fears

UPI Updated 10:21 AM ET November 26, 1999 By WILLY MA
http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/991126/10/international-stocks

TAIPEI, Taiwan, Nov. 26 (UPI) Taiwan's stock market plunged Friday on fears that mainland China's naval fleet is conducting military exercises to intimidate it.

The leading stock index dropped 309.09 points to 7,595.44 on sluggish volume. Both the drop and the light trading were attributed by market observers to a report from Hong Kong early Friday that some Chinese naval ships were deployed to "combat positions" during the exercises.

The stock market here also was affected by China's apparent missile threat. On Wednesday, the Washington Times reported that China had installed short-range missiles at its Yangang base, some 275 miles from Taiwan.

Thursday, Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui accused China of threatening his nation with missiles, and the defense ministry called for more military spending.

Heightening concerns over China's military exercises were unconfirmed reports it is returning 50 "retired" submarines to combat readiness. Taiwan's defense ministry called that report a "fabrication."

-------- india/pakistan

INDIA: MORE MILITARY SPENDING SOUGHT

November 26, 1999 New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/99/11/26/news/world/world-briefing.html

The military budget should be increased from 2.3 percent of India's gross domestic product to 3 percent, the defense minister, George Fernandes, told a military conference in New Delhi, according to the Press Trust of India. The conflict with Pakistan in Kashmir this year demonstrated the need for more spending, he said. Barry Bearak (NYT)

-------- iraq

Iraq Prefers Sanctions to Inspectors' Return By Reuters

New York Times November 26, 1999 Filed at 3:54 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-iraq-un.html

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An influential Iraqi newspaper said on Friday Baghdad would tolerate crippling sanctions rather than accept the return of U.N. weapon inspectors.

``We prefer sanctions to continue with all their hardship...to the return of spies to our country,'' Al-Thawra, mouthpiece of the ruling Baath party, said.

``We say we cannot tolerate the impact of the sanctions and spies at the same time, but the unjust sanctions...are much easier to accept than the presence of spies and their recurrent and concocted crises aiming to prolong sanctions,'' Thawra added.

A resolution under discussion at the United Nations Security Council to suspend sanctions was abhorrent since it proposed to combine lifting sanctions with the return of the inspectors.

``This combination between the sanctions and spies is what the malicious British draft resolution aims at achieving,'' Thawra said.

It defended Iraq's decision to reject the draft resolution as natural and legal and called on ``friendly states'' at the Security Council to reject and resist it.

Iraq halted oil exports on Monday in protest at what it sees as a U.S. attempt to prolong crippling U.N. sanctions. Washington called Baghdad's action a cynical bid to avoid disarming.

The U.N. Security Council approved a 14-day extension to give the United States and Russia time to settle differences on the program that allows Iraq to sell $5.26 billion worth of oil every six months to buy food, medicine and other goods.

The U.N. oil-for-food program was established three years ago to help ease the impact on Iraqi civilians of the stringent sanctions imposed for Baghdad's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

The U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM), in charge of Iraq's disarmament under the terms of the 1991 Gulf War cease-fire, has not been allowed into Iraq since December 1998 when the United States and Britain launched extensive air and missile raids against Iraq.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said on Wednesday the United States could keep Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in check with air force patrols even if attempts to get arms inspectors back into Iraq fail.

-------- nato

Policy times five - Embassy Row

James Morrison, Washington Times November 26, 1999
http://www.washtimes.com/internatl/embassy.html

If the story had broken in a tabloid newspaper, the headline might have read: "New World Order Gives Birth to Quints."

But the news appeared in the staid London Daily Telegraph. "The 'Quint' Emerges as Seat of West's Political Power" -- not a gripping headline, but certainly intriguing.

The Telegraph's diplomatic editor, Christopher Lockwood, has noted something very chummy among Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and foreign ministers Hubert Vedrine of France, Joschka Fischer of Germany and Lamberto Dini of Italy.

This "informal grouping . . . has emerged as the West's primary means of dealing with Russia and of managing the Balkans," Mr. Lockwood wrote in a recent analytical piece.

"The Quint was born during the Kosovo war when the five ministers . . . saw the need to work together much more closely. And so, for the rest of the war, the five would speak by telephone conference call every evening.

"The work of the Quint was essential in keeping NATO together during the campaign, and in allowing it to present a united front toward Russia, which was trying to divide the Anglo-Americans from the continental Europeans.

"Now the Quint conference calls take place only about once every two weeks, usually to review progress in Kosovo and Bosnia, but they take place more often when a crisis is brewing or a key meeting is in the offing. Quint members also see each other regularly in European Union, NATO or United Nations meetings.

"The Quint was in fine form . . . during the Istanbul summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The night before the summit opened, the five dined together to coordinate their stance toward Russia. They agreed that [Russia] would not be directly condemned for its excesses in Chechnya but would be required to signal its acceptance of an international monitoring mission there and to agree that a civil war in one country is a matter of concern to the rest of Europe."

The five ministers work well together because they represent "center-left governments and are committed to the trans-Atlantic link," Mr. Lockwood wrote.

However, "the Quint is so powerful a unit that it has to take precautions against appearing to threaten other European nations with marginalization or fueling Russian conspiracy theories. After each telephone meeting, Quint members must explain the outcome to the rest of the EU and Moscow," Mr. Lockwood wrote.

He quoted a diplomatic source who offered an additional rationale for their cooperation.

"Another part of the reason it works so well," the source said, "is that everyone spoke in English."

--------

Inside the Ring
Notes from the Pentagon

By Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough, Washington Times November 26 1999
http://www.washtimes.com/nation/ring.html

Syrian gas practice

Syrian military forces late last month conducted a live chemical weapons bombing test. It bolstered Pentagon officials' fears that any future Middle East war will be dirty.

The test was carried out by a Syrian Air Force M-23 jet that dropped a chemical weapons-laden bomb on a practice range in the Middle East nation. The bombing was detected by U.S. spy satellites.

It left a distinct coloration on the impact area that U.S. intelligence agencies believe was due to an explosion containing chemical weapons, the Defense Intelligence Agency reported secretly to senior officials. Pentagon officials said the agent type is not known. But Syria is known to have several types of poison gas, including the nerve agent sarin.

Syria can use the chemical munitions in both aircraft bombs and short-range missiles. The Syrians have been developing a missile production facility with Chinese assistance in recent years and already have Scud C, Scud B and SS-21 missiles.

The Syrian chemical weapons test, Pentagon officials tell us, is a reminder of the Clinton administration's overreliance on arms control pacts, namely the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, which bans the production and stockpiling of the deadly arms. Syria is not a signatory to the treaty and has developed the weapons as a counter to Israel's arsenal of nuclear missiles.

Suspicious cargo

Early in the investigation of EgyptAir Flight 990, the FBI discovered there had been suspicious materials in the jet's cargo bay. It had a similar profile to plastics used in explosives and was shipped as unaccompanied cargo.

But agents traced the recipient and determined the suspicious material was a legitimate commercial product. We are not identifying it to avoid giving terrorists an idea for how to conceal a bomb.

Anyway, the cargo issue became moot. Investigators are virtually certain that co-pilot Gameel Batouty deliberately drove the Boeing 767 into the Atlantic Ocean on Oct. 31.

Close encounters

Saddam Hussein continues to heat up the low-level war against the United States and Britain over the skies of Iraq. His goal: down a U.S. or British warplane involved in patrols over large areas of southern and northern parts of the country. Two recent encounters almost succeeded.

While the Iraqis are paying a toll in retaliatory missile attacks on air defense sites that fire at the jets, Pentagon officials said two Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery strikes came dangerously close to hitting their target.

In one encounter, a British Tornado flew within 100 yards of a triple-A burst, and a U.S. F-16 came even closer to being hit: 50 yards. A British pilot also suffered a temporary "flash blinding" from one burst outside his cockpit.

The danger from flak is obvious: shrapnel from the high-altitude bursts can damage engines or other vital aircraft systems, possibly causing a crash.

Some officials think it is only a matter of time before the Iraqis succeed in downing a jet. Morale among pilots in the stealth war is said by some officials to be less than high.

News this week that Saddam Hussein rejected a two-week extension of an oil-for-food program is a sign Baghdad has no intention of allowing U.N. weapons inspectors to return. The inspectors were forced to leave before the December attack, and have been banned by Saddam.

A spokesman for the U.S. Central Command in Florida said there have been numerous reports of Iraqi firings on patrolling jets. A British military spokesman also said Tornados have come under fire in recent weeks.

Pentagon officials said the Iraqis are aggressive in the shoot-down effort. They offered a large bounty for anti-aircraft personnel that succeed in shooting down a jet, a move Saddam calculates will increase international pressure for lifting U.N. sanctions placed on Baghdad since the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

The patrolling warplanes have been under almost daily fire from Iraqi air defense sites since President Clinton's suspect military strike in December, known as Operation Desert Fox. The U.S.-led missile and air attack took place on the eve of the historic House impeachment vote. Mr. Clinton told the American people in his address announcing the operation that all his advisers backed him.

New-look Marines

Gen. James Jones, Marine Corps commandant, is bringing back the MEB -- the Marine Expeditionary Brigade -- after a seven-year absence. Part of the reasoning is that when people hear "brigade" they have a better idea of what is being sent into battle.

"The term MEF" -- Marine Expeditionary Force -- "is not normally familiar or understood -- it provides no real indication as to force size or composition," a Marine tells us. "Consequently, the capability a MEF brought to the fight was not clearly understood. Joint and combined forces commonly understand the term 'brigade,' although a MEB is much more powerful and sustainable than traditional brigades composed of ground forces only. The Marine Corps is reintroducing the use of the term 'MEB' to reduce ambiguity."

Each of three brigades will be a total combat package of 16,000 Marines, traveling with artillery, tanks and attack helicopters. A MEB will be "embedded" into larger MEFs at Camp Lejeune, N.C., Camp Pendleton, Calif., and Okinawa, Japan.

"The MEB is a complete fighting force -- a Marine Air-Ground Task Force that has been task-organized for the mission and is capable of 30 days sustainment," the Marine said. "It can either function alone, as part of a joint task force, or as the lead element of a MEF."

Missile terror update

The Russian missile onslaught against Chechnya continues indiscriminately to target Chechen civilians. As of midweek, Russian forces had fired 107 short-range ballistic missiles into the Chechen capital of Grozny, not only from Mozdok, but from two other nearby missile firing locations as well. The last missile attack took place Sunday when three SS-21s Scarabs were fired from Mozdok, located about 60 miles from Grozny. Other missiles used include Scuds. "The slaughter is continuing," said one Pentagon official. "It's an ugly picture out there."

Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright said on Wednesday that the administration's soft line will continue. The administration will not pressure Moscow to stop the war by threatening to cut off Western aid and cash. "The last thing I think that we should be doing is trying to turn Russia back into an enemy. . . . We should do everything we can to develop a relationship that is rational, that serves both our countries' national interests," she said.

Bill Gertz can be reached at 202/636-3274 or by e-mail at gertz@twtmail.com. Rowan Scarborough can be reached at 202/636-3208 or by e-mail at scarbo@twtmail.com.

-------- israel

Barak: Israel won't be first with nukes

UPI Updated 8:11 PM ET November 25, 1999
http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/991125/20/international-nuclear

TEL AVIV, Israel, Nov. 25 (UPI) Israel will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons to the region, Prime Minister Ehud Barak told Israel TV on Thursday.

Reiterating the line that previous Israeli government have taken, Barak said, "Israel will not be the first state to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East."

The prime minister promptly added, however, "Israel's existence as an isolated Jewish state in a sea or an ocean of Arab states, with the threats it had already experienced, requires it to (exercise) supreme responsibility on matters connected with Israel's security."

The matter came up after the government released some 1,200 pages of transcript of the trial of Merdechai Vanunu, a former employee at the Dimona nuclear reactor.

Vanunu told the Sunday Times that Israel has produced nuclear weapons. He claimed he was kidnapped in Rome and brought to Israel, where he is serving an 18-year jail term for treason and espionage.

The released excerpts shed no new light on the case, nor on how he was brought to Israel. However, they include the testimony of General Security Service agents who said he arrived by sea.

---

Nuclear secrets revealed to force truth

USA Today 11/26/99
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm#yeltsin

JERUSALEM - In his closed-door treason trial, a former nuclear technician told judges he exposed Israel's nuclear arms program to force the government to tell the truth and bring the bombs under supervision, according to court records released for the first time Wednesday. Mordechai Vanunu has been kept away from the public since his 1986 arrest by Israeli security forces. The partial transcript of his trial, published in the Yediot Ahronot daily, provided the most detailed glimpse yet of the case. Vanunu was sentenced to 18 years in prison after telling what he knew about Israel's nuclear weapons to The Sunday Times newspaper, which printed its story on Oct. 6, 1986, saying that Israel had stockpiled roughly 100 nuclear weapons.

-------- korea

N. Korea Delegation Leaves for U.S.

Associated Press Friday, Nov. 26, 1999; 1:05 p.m. EST The Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991126/aponline130513_000.htm

SEOUL, South Korea -- A North Korean delegation has left for a visit to the United States, the communist country's media said Friday.

A U.S. State Department official confirmed a North Korean group was coming to the United States, and said they would arrive at the University of Georgia's Center for the Study of Global Issues.

The official, who spoke Friday on condition of anonymity, said the North Koreans are advisers and said the visit is unofficial.

The North Korean report offered few details, but the visit comes as the two countries are trying to explore ways of improving ties.

The one-sentence report by the North's Korean Central News Agency said the delegation is led by Kim Hyong U, former chief of North Korea's U.N. missions in New York and vice chairman of the Asia-Pacific Peace Committee. The committee, under the control of the North's ruling Workers' Party, is headed by Kim Yong Sun, a close confidant of leader Kim Jong Il.

It was not immediately clear with whom the delegation would meet.

Under a 1994 agreement with the United States, North Korea has frozen its suspected nuclear program in return for economic benefits. The U.S. is now urging North Korea to curb its missile program.

The North rattled the region by firing a multistage missile that flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific Ocean in August 1998. The North reportedly was on the verge of test-firing a more powerful missile last year. It shelved the plan after talks with the United States.

The United States and South Korea fought against North Korea in the 1950-53 Korean War.

----------- US nuc power

Utility Ousts 5 in Chicago After Failures Last Summer

November 26, 1999 By DAVID BARBOZA
http://www.nytimes.com/99/11/26/news/national/commonwealth-edison.html

CHICAGO -- Trying to restore confidence after a series of embarrassing power failures here last summer, Commonwealth Edison asked for the resignations of five more executives and middle managers this week.

The company said on Thursday that the resignations were part of a continuing restructuring effort that is trying to address many of the reliability problems at the giant utility, which was sharply criticized last summer by Mayor Richard M. Daley, who accused Commonwealth Edison of neglecting its equipment and repairs.

The problems in Chicago were among the most embarrassing in a summer that saw several of the nation's largest utilities struggle with soaring energy demands, the new challenges brought about by deregulation, and outdated and faulty equipment.

Last July, more than 100,000 customers were without power for up to three days during a heat wave here. And on one day in August about 2,300 businesses in downtown Chicago lost power for up to 11 hours, a situation that closed even the Chicago Board of Trade.

Commonwealth Edison, which serves 3.4 million customers in northern Illinois, made repeated apologies to the mayor and the city, but the power failures revealed some deep-seated problems at some of the nation's oldest and biggest utilities.

Since then, John W. Rowe, the chief executive of Commonwealth Edison, has vowed to put better managers in place at the utility and to overhaul its transmission and distribution system.

Not long after the power failures, two high-level executives with more than 20 years of experience in the division were dismissed. And just two months ago, the utility released an 850-page report to the City of Chicago that detailed the causes of the summer power failures, which in large part had to do with faulty equipment and poor repair records.

On Thursday the company said that another vice president and four middle managers were asked to resign last Monday after a review by Carl Croskey, the newly appointed president of the transmission and distribution unit. The executive and four managers -- who had titles like substation manager and transmission and distribution planning manager -- agreed to resign.

"It's part of the reorganization," said Steven Solomon, a spokesman for Commonwealth Edison. "It's difficult to say this was related only to the summer outages, but we were looking at this area and we decided these people didn't fit in."

No other executives are expected to lose their jobs, Solomon said.

The changes come as the Unicom Corporation, which is based in Chicago and is the parent of Commonwealth Edison, is seeking regulatory approval for a proposed $16 billion merger with the Peco Energy Company in Philadelphia as part of a plan to create a more national utility that could someday sell and distribute power across a larger region.

In an interview last month, Rowe said the summer power failures were among the most embarrassing events of his career.

"It was miserable because we made ourselves a standard of incompetence," he said.

Rowe said other big utilities faced many of the problems that Commonwealth Edison faced: the companies must determine how much to spend and must prepare for worst-case scenarios and events like heat waves.

"It's all a matter of how far you go out on the probability curve," Rowe said. "Our review shows we weren't far enough out. But everything costs money."

Because of the power failures, however, the utility has faced litigation and threats from the City of Chicago, which could go elsewhere to meet its energy needs.

Though energy experts say the problems in Chicago appear more severe than those in the rest of the nation, they have said that the nation's utilities face major changes because of new power demands and new rules that allow utilities to sell and distribute power across regions.

In the interview, Rowe said the challenges facing electric utilities were unique.

"More than any other industry, utilities deal in long-term consequences," he said. "You can't come into a utility with $10 billion in nuclear plants and decide overnight you'll go solar." ----

USA Today

11/26/99

Minneapolis - Northern States Power Co. will pay $15 million for the right to put its name on the Minneapolis Convention Center's new business center. The agreement, approved by the Minneapolis City Council, gives NSP freedom to name the center anything it likes.


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A Missile Shield Could Backfire

New York Times November 26, 1999 By JAMES LINDSAY AND MICHAEL O'HANLON
http://www.nytimes.com/99/11/26/oped/26ohan.html

WASHINGTON -- The presidential campaign may be heating up, but Republicans and Democrats are sounding remarkably alike on at least one important issue. Candidates on both sides want to build a national defense against missile attack.

The idea is sound, but a politically motivated rush to carry it out could do more harm than good. The technology for a missile shield isn't ready, and there's another, larger problem: Building it too fast risks damaging our relationship with Russia and could fuel nationalist fervor just as a Russian presidential election approaches.

A missile defense was once a Republican idea, and, predictably, Gov. George W. Bush of Texas has pledged to begin deploying a system soon after taking office.

But the Clinton administration has also announced plans for a limited version capable of intercepting a few warheads and set to be ready in Alaska by 2005.

Vice President Al Gore has not strayed from that position.

The administration hopes to reach a formal decision on its plan by the spring and to begin work before the Alaskan soil freezes in the fall, with official groundbreaking in the spring of 2001. Somewhere along that time line, the United States would violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which prohibits a nationwide missile defense.

Despite its political appeal, a spring 2000 decision to build such a shield makes little sense technologically. Earlier this fall, the Pentagon successfully maneuvered a missile to strike and destroy a target warhead.

But only 3 of a planned 19 tests are to be complete by next spring. Some technology for the system has yet to be developed, requiring tests to use jury-rigged rockets, and the program is short of parts. In 1998, a panel of defense experts headed by Larry D. Welch, a former Air Force chief of staff, described the compressed development schedule as a technological "rush to failure." It reiterated that conclusion several weeks ago.

The diplomatic dangers are even more compelling. Deciding to break the ABM Treaty would fan anti-Americanism in Russia just as the furor there over NATO's war against Serbia could be expected to be ebbing -- and just as Russian voters get ready to choose a new president next summer. That atmosphere could easily help elect a hard-line candidate, and the new government might retaliate by suspending work on bilateral programs intended to secure Russian nuclear materials and by refusing to take further steps to reduce the size of Russia's decrepit yet dangerous nuclear force.

The prospects for Russian economic reform might also suffer if the country's leaders decided to increase military spending.

Finally, an embittered Russia might retaliate by selling nuclear and ballistic-missile technologies to rogue countries.

The United States does have good reasons to build a missile defense eventually. The ABM Treaty was intended to curb the superpower arms race of the cold war, and much of its basic logic no longer applies. The number of countries capable of attacking the United States with long-range missiles is growing; North Korea may soon be in this club.

Russia's concerns about missile defense, while partially understandable, are exaggerated. The small system that the administration is considering would not threaten Russia's nuclear deterrent. If Russia rejects reasonable efforts to reach an accommodation, the United States should eventually withdraw from the ABM Treaty.

But for now, we shouldn't have to choose between building a missile defense and maintaining good relations and cooperation on nuclear security with Russia.

Before deploying any such system, we should work with the new Russian president to try to modify the treaty.

We may have to consider steps like reducing American nuclear forces, suspending the steps toward eastward NATO expansion and otherwise demonstrating to leaders in Moscow that the proposed system is a response not to their missiles, but to weapons from countries like Iraq and North Korea.

Rushing a decision on missile defense during a presidential year, when tempers are short in both countries and the necessary technology is not even ready, is nothing short of foolhardy.

James Lindsay and Michael O'Hanlon are senior fellows at the Brookings Institution.

---

Where $609 Billion in Federal Spending Will Go

Washington Post Friday, November 26, 1999; Page A43
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/26/131l-112699-idx.html

After an odyssey that began with President Clinton delivering his fiscal 2000 budget plan to Congress on Feb. 1, Congress finished its work for the year late last week, completing action on a $385 billion spending package that finances seven Cabinet departments and the District of Columbia government (which got $435.8 million).

Eight other appropriations bills were passed earlier.

In all, the 13 spending bills covering all defense and domestic spending other than entitlements total $609 billion. This figure, however, doesn't account for the 0.38 percent across-the-board cut agreed to by Congress and Clinton to help offset new spending.

Outlays are the amount of money the government proposes to spend in the fiscal year, which began Oct. 1. The agencies generally discuss their funding in terms of budget authority, the amount of money the law allows the government to commit to spend in either the current or future fiscal years. Highlights of how each agency would be affected:

AGRICULTURE

A tumultuous year in which American farmers were parched by drought, soaked by floods and buffeted by low commodity prices led to an 11 percent increase in the Department of Agriculture's budget to $68 billion, up from $61 billion for fiscal 1999.

The budget includes a farm bailout package worth $8.7 billion, up from the $6 billion emergency package passed last year.

Clinton accepted the $8.7 billion figure in order to get aid to farmers as quickly as possible but criticized it as poorly targeted, with payments possibly going to farmers who had not planted crops.

Clinton and Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman also complained that the back-to-back bailouts were a direct result of the 1996 Freedom to Farm Act, passed by Republicans intent on phasing out federal subsidies for farmers. Glickman has promised to offer legislation next year to revamp the Freedom to Farm law.

The largest chunk of the agriculture budget, $35 billion, is devoted to food and nutrition programs, including food stamps, school lunches and the Women, Infants and Children program.

The second-biggest piece, $17.6 billion, is intended to aid farmers through operational loans, crop insurance and price supports.

--Ben White

COMMERCE

The Commerce Department came away with $8.7 billion, $3.5 billion more than its fiscal 1999 funding. The reason for the huge jump: the 2000 census. Despite the overall gain, the department's budget is still $370 million below the White House's request.

About $4.48 billion of the department's outlays is emergency funding for the census. Lawmakers gave the White House almost all the funding it wanted for the census, falling just $11 million short.

The National Weather Service got $604 million, a $43 million increase. But the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the weather service, took a major hit: It was funded at $2.35 billion, $176 million above the previous year's level but $164 million below Clinton's request.

Also taking a big hit was the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Advanced Technology Program, which has helped companies develop infant technologies since fiscal 1990. It got $142 million, $61 million less than in the previous year, but the program has roughly that amount of carry-over money from past budgets.

--John Burgess

DEFENSE

The defense appropriations bill delivered $267.8 billion in outlays for the Pentagon, $4.5 billion more than Clinton had requested. To meet spending caps, Congress built a number of bookkeeping maneuvers into the legislation, such as counting some military pay costs as emergency spending and stretching out funding on some programs.

The $73.9 billion appropriated for personnel costs includes a 4.8 percent across-the-board pay increase for service members--the biggest raise given to the armed forces in 18 years--plus a number of targeted raises for individuals with selected skills or experience that make them especially valuable or hard to retain.

Perhaps the most controversial procurement item in the current budget is the $1 billion for the Air Force's F-22 Raptor, the newest stealth fighter.

--Roberto Suro

EDUCATION

At the Education Department, which has prospered during the Clinton years, the budget rose to $35.6 billion, up $2.1 billion or 6.3 percent. Most of the increase will be used for the department's traditional mission of helping disadvantaged students.

The largest single increase, $700 million, is devoted to special education services that school districts must provide under federal law to learning-disabled children. An additional $254 million is intended for after-school programs in inner-city and rural areas. An extra $210 million is to be spent on the Title 1 remedial program for disadvantaged students, which remains the agency's biggest discretionary program. A Clinton initiative to hire more teachers to reduce class sizes in the earliest grades received a $100 million funding increase.

The maximum benefit under the Pell Grant program for low-income college students is up $175, to $3,300.

--Kenneth J. Cooper

ENERGY

Not counting the 0.38 percent across-the-board spending cut, the Department of Energy ended up with $17.432 billion in budget authority--up from $17.308 billion the previous year.

The biggest increase was for DOE's cleanup of environmental hot spots such as Hanford, the former nuclear weapons manufacturing site in Washington state. DOE received a $93 million increase for that type of environmental management. Other increases were $46 million for defense programs, such as DOE's atomic weapons stockpile stewardship, and $55 million for work on energy efficiency and renewable energy.

DOE programs on environmental safety and health as well as nonproliferation and national security sustained small cuts.

--Martha M. Hamilton

EPA

The Environmental Protection Agency, a major target of GOP budget-cutting after the Republicans took over Congress in 1995, held its own. The $7.59 billion total for the agency was the same as in the previous year, and funds for environmental programs and management grew by $50 million--less than what Clinton had requested.

Congress generally avoided "riders" restricting EPA's environmental enforcement, although the final budget exempts scrap metal dealers from liability for cleanup costs at "Superfund" toxic-waste sites.

However, Congress cut the president's request for the Climate Change Technology Initiative by more than $111 million, bringing its 2000 funding to $115 million, the same as in 1999. State-level revolving funds for safe drinking water amounted to $820 million, $20 million above the president's request, while the revolving funds for clean water were boosted $500 million above the request, to $1.35 billion.

--Dan Morgan

HHS

Congress provided $4.65 billion for the Health and Human Services Department this year, up from $4.3 billion last year.

As part of an ongoing effort to double biomedical research over the next five years, the bill boosts the National Institutes of Health's budget by 15 percent, to $17.9 billion, $2 billion above the president's request. However, the legislation delays $3 billion of that spending to avoid dipping into the Social Security surplus. NIH does not expect the delay to affect research activities, unlike the original plan to postpone $7.5 billion in spending.

The measure includes $1.6 billion for Ryan White AIDS programs--$184 million more than last year's level--and $3 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a $264 million boost.

--Juliet Eilperin

HUD

Republicans had threatened severe cuts in the Department of Housing and Urban Development budget but, in the end, they agreed to modest increases in most major HUD programs. All told, the department got $26.3 billion, up $2.2 billion from the year before--but $1.7 billion below what Clinton had requested.

The most striking compromise brought 60,000 new rental vouchers for low-income families, after the Clinton administration had requested 100,000 and Republicans had countered with zero.

The budget also includes more money for public housing renovation projects, homelessness initiatives and anti-discrimination programs. And it will fund a bipartisan plan to help protect hundreds of thousands of subsidized-housing residents from the conversion of their subsidized apartments to market-rate housing.

--Michael Grunwald

INTERIOR

Interior Department officials say they are pleased with their fiscal 2000 appropriation of about $8.35 billion, a 5.5 percent increase over fiscal 1999. "We've always been one of the best-loved departments, but we haven't always been one of the best funded," said John M. Berry, assistant secretary for policy, management and budget. "We're glad to see Congress start to turn that around a little bit."

Interior got almost $330 million in budget authority for the administration's "Land Legacy" program for land conservation and acquisition, a little more than half the administration's original request. The Bureau of Indian Affairs received a 7.2 percent increase in funding, including $95 million to improve the agency's management of tribal members' trust assets.

Interior also got $2.86 billion for the land management operations of the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service--just $25 million shy of the administration's original request.

--Tom Kenworthy

JUSTICE

The Justice Department's budget for fiscal 2000 is $21.2 billion, slightly more than the $20.8 billion in fiscal 1999 and reflecting a leveling off after years of growth, officials said.

While there was a modest increase to account for inflation and the federal pay raise, there was a significant decrease of about $850 million in funding for the Community Oriented Policing Services program (COPS), which is aimed at putting more police officers on the streets. The Bureau of Prisons got the biggest chunk of the budget, with $3.1 billion for salary and expenses and $557 million for new prison construction.

While the Justice Department did not receive the $20 million it wanted for a massive lawsuit against the tobacco industry, the agency is permitted to reprogram funds within its budget to carry the lawsuit forward. Justice did get $10 million for a new "community prosecution" program led by Deputy Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.

And the budget includes money for the Immigration and Naturalization Service to hire 1,000 border patrol officers.

The department's civil rights division, which handles hate crimes, got a funding boost of more than $10 million, to $82.2 million.

--David A. Vise

LABOR

In the end, the budget for fiscal 2000 turned out to be a pleasant surprise for the Labor Department. After months of seeing the House trim one program after another, budget negotiators restored almost all of the cuts during the final days of negotiations.

The department ended up with about $11.22 billion in budget authority--a 3 percent increase over the fiscal 1999 level, or half of the increase the White House had requested. The final amount was 11 percent higher than the spending authority approved by the House.

In the final budget negotiations, spending authority was restored for a wide variety of departmental programs, from worker protection and employment training to occupational safety and health, although almost all of the funding was below the president's original budget request. The final spending bill restored $143 million that had been cut in the bill vetoed on Oct. 27 by Clinton.

--Frank Swoboda

STATE

Congress appropriated $22.3 billion for international affairs, $200 million more than the amount the president had requested but less than the $23.4 billion spending level reached during fiscal 1999.

The fiscal 1999 amount had swelled from an initial appropriation of $19.7 billion after supplemental bills were passed for humanitarian aid for Kosovo, anti-narcotics operations and heightened embassy security after the bombings in Tanzania and Kenya. The fiscal 2000 budget continues to stress embassy security, with $314 million for building new and secure embassies and $254 million for increased operational security spending, such as hiring more guards and diplomatic security agents. It also doubles support for international peacekeeping operations, to $500 million.

In the final international affairs appropriations, Congress put in $1.8 billion to fund the Wye accords--which provide additional aid to Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. An extra $25 million was inserted for Egypt. Separately, Congress finally authorized $926 million--appropriated over three years--to cover U.S. arrears owed to the United Nations. The administration, however, got only $123 million of the $370 million it sought to ease the burden borne by poor, heavily indebted developing countries. The Peace Corps failed to get the money needed to expand, but got enough to maintain its current level of volunteers.

--Steven Mufson

TRANSPORTATION

Congress approved a total of $50.17 billion in mandatory and discretionary spending for transportation in fiscal 2000, a $2.9 billion increase over the previous year.

The bill includes $27.7 billion for highway spending, a $2.2 billion increase, and $5.79 billion for mass transit, a $407 million increase. The measure also provides $1.95 billion for airport improvements, a $350 million increase, and full funding of $571 million for Amtrak, the financially troubled railroad.

--Eric Pianin

TREASURY

The Treasury Department spending bill generally kept its programs at about the same funding levels as the previous year. The bill met Clinton's request for the Internal Revenue Service, providing $8.2 billion, which will allow the agency to continue its modernization and reorganization initiatives.

The Customs Service received $1.94 billion, including $4 million to target international child pornography trafficking and child exploitation via the Internet.

Overall, the bill contains $12.3 billion for Treasury, up from $12 billion in fiscal 1999.

The bill also doubles the presidential salary to $400,000, effective in January 2001, and allows a pay raise for members of Congress, who will receive a $4,600 cost-of-living increase in January 2000, increasing their salaries to $141,300.

--Stephen Barr

VETERANS AFFAIRS

The Department of Veterans Affairs received about $19 billion for veterans' medical care in fiscal 2000, a $1.7 billion increase and far more than Congress has ever provided for VA health care in a single year. The VA said the extra money will help improve the quality of its medical care and cut down on waiting times for health services.

There is also more than $23 billion for entitlement programs. To expedite claims processing, Congress provided an extra $51 million over last year's level, which the VA said would allow the department to move 440 additional employees into claims work.

--Stephen Barr

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Spacecraft Galileo Overcomes Setback

Associated Press 11/26/99
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991126/aponline060127_000.htm

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - Continuing to explore the solar system nearly two years after the end of its primary mission, NASA's Galileo spacecraft made its closest-ever pass above the fiery moon of Io after surviving a crippling computer malfunction induced by Jupiter's intense radiation. Four hours before Galileo was scheduled to pass 186 miles above Io on yesterday, radiation triggered a fault in the onboard computer's memory, shutting down all nonessential operations aboard the craft, said Jane Platt, a spokeswoman for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. A team of engineers managed to salvage most of the mission by quickly transmitting new commands.