* Iraqi child cancers link to Gulf War weapons
* Lack of records cost soldiers' lives, DND paper claims
* Study of Ill Gulf War Veterans Points to Chemical Damage
* US To Help Russia With Y2K Checks
* U.S.-Russia launch Y2K video hotline
* Russian General Sees U.S. Corporate Push on Star Wars
* Russian General Says U.S. Aims To Destroy ABM
* American Accused Of Spying
* Russians Detain U.S. Diplomat, Calling Her a Spy
* Ukrainian shot trying to penetrate nuclear plant
* China Official Cites Y2K Troubles
* NATO avoided nuclear plant
Bombing old facility would have been catastrophic for Balkans
* Mordechai Vanunu Remains a Mystery
* UK may be forced to close nuclear plants -report
* Nuclear Plant in Britain To Close
* Serco consortium gets 2.2 bln stg defence contract
* AWE Management Limited Awarded Contract for Atomic Weapons Establishment
* From a speech by former U.S. secretary of defense
* Former Japanese Premier in N. Korea
* Clinton Steps Between Navy, Puerto Rico
Agreement Outlined for Military to Resume Use of Firing Range and Then Decamp
* Navy to Train Off Puerto Rico With Live-Fire Issue Unsettled
* Brazil's second nuclear reactor Angra II
* Schroeder ready to extend nuclear exit talks
* Nuclear Rookies India, Pakistan Under Y2K Cloud
* Greenpeace Wins Court Case on Nuclear Waste
* Siemens Nuclear Medicine Group Captures Market Leadership in 1999;
* Matritech Issued Patent Extending U.S. Coverage of Its Fluid-Based
* USEC to Continue as U.S. Government Agent for the Megatons-to-
* U.S. Plant Will Handle Uranium
* Company to decide on uranium deal
Operator of enrichment plants weighs whether to stop handling material of former Russian nuclear warheads
* Uranium Plant URGENT BETHESDA, Md.: much aid.
* Shared Missile Defense Would Protect Everyone
* Proposals for a Limited Missile Defense Create a Political Minefield
* U.S. launches probe in Piketon
* DOE Halts NM Waste Shipments - (SANTA FE) --
* U.S. unprepared for biological attacks
* A 'Stealth Lab' Spin-Off
* Study Faults Launch Contractors
* Ginna Plant Hits Major Milestone
* Clinton's Plea: 'Open the Meetings' (WTO-9 links)
-------- depleted uranium
Iraqi child cancers link to Gulf War weapons
By Patsy McGarry November 30, 1999
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/1999/1130/hom37.htm
The journalist and author Robert Fisk last night said "an explosion of child cancers" in southern Iraq appeared to be intimately linked to weapons used by US-led forces in the Gulf War.
Similar weapons were used in the bombing of Kosovo and Serbia, he said, and he claimed that NATO bombed the Serbian television station on April 23rd this year when the Serbian Information Minister, Mr Aleksandar Vucic, was expected to be in the building for a CNN interview. Mr Vucic had cancelled the interview some hours earlier.
Mr Fisk was delivering the third Christina Murphy Memorial Lecture, "Cancer and Guns: reporting `Our' Wars", at the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin. It followed the awarding of the Christina Murphy Memorial Prize for student journalists to Mr James Dunne of Templeogue, Dublin.
The prize is sponsored by the National Council for Education Awards in honour of the late Ms Murphy, the Education Editor of The Irish Times who pioneered the paper's Education and Living supplement. It was presented by Mr Dermot Mullane, her widower.
Mr Fisk spoke of recent visits to Iraq and uncovering evidence of an unusually high incidence of cancer there since the Gulf War, particularly since in the south. In Basra, where the last tank battles of the war had been fought, people were reporting "footballsized tomatoes, carrots of a strange purple colour, water that no longer tasted normal".
In southern Iraq American forces had fired an estimated 14,000 depleted uranium shells (about 300 million tons), while their A-10 aircraft fired "tens of thousands of rounds tipped with depleted uranium, some say 940,000 rounds."
Depleted uranium, he said, "is now routinely used in the manufacture of an armour-piercing projectiles". These are used mainly in the destruction of tanks.
According to Britain's Ministry of Defence its forces used fewer than 100 depleted uranium shells, Mr Fisk said.
However, he thought "some of the thousands of western soldiers now suffering from what is know as Gulf War Syndrome think differently about the British estimate".
Mr Fisk illustrated visits he had made to a Baghdad children's hospital last year with photographs of young patients who had come from regions where there had been massive American bombing, all of whom had since died. He said that "a requested research survey by the World Health Organisation never took place", while Britain's then armed forces minister, Mr Doug Henderson, said that as no "peer reviewed epidemiological research data" on the claims had taken place, "it would therefore be premature to comment on this matter".
Mr Fisk said US forces also used uranium-depleted weaponry in Kosovo and central Serbia. "Their A-10 aircraft were using it across Kosovo," he said. One such aircraft took part in the NATO attack on a 12-mile long convoy of Albanian refugees on April 14th, killing 80 civilians.
He had spoken to one survivor recently who said one of her female relatives now had a kidney problem. "I didn't dare think, let alone suggest, what this might be," he said. And the promised NATO investigation into the massacre had not taken place.
--- canada
Lack of records cost soldiers' lives, DND paper claims
Deaths during foreign missions blamed on absence of accident files
Ottowa Citizen Wednesday December 01, 1999 Mike Blanchfield
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/national/991129/3218432.html
Deaths of Canadian Forces troops on foreign missions could have been prevented if the military had kept proper accident records, say internal Defence Department documents.
The military kept no accident statistics or accident reports involving troops posted abroad, says a draft of a July 9 Forces' discussion paper, one of several documents obtained by Ottawa researcher Ken Rubin under Access to Information.
"The only current record of statistics, I'm afraid to say, is the number of deaths while deployed outside Canada. It is felt that if accidents had been reported on a regular basis and corrective action taken, maybe some of the deaths could have been prevented," says the discussion paper. "In order to demonstrate 'due diligence' there is no doubt that corrective action has to be taken."
The paper noted that troop welfare was monitored under a "general safety program" before and after foreign deployments -- but not while troops were abroad.
"The program meets this need for our troops when in Canada; however, (it) does not when our troops are deployed outside the country," the document says. "Currently we are not performing very well when it comes to a key 'quality of life' issue, the safety of our military personnel when deployed outside Canada."
In the Balkans alone, 16 peacekeepers have died in the line of duty and more than 100 have been seriously injured in the past seven years. Some 108 Canadian peacekeepers have died since the UN assembled its first international force in 1948.
This past summer, controversy erupted over whether peacekeepers sent to Croatia between 1993-95 were placed in harm's way through exposure to toxic soil, and whether military officials tried to cover it up. The Forces created a board of inquiry to study possible exposure to toxic environmental contaminants, and a military police investigation was launched to determine why a key document in soldiers' medical files had been shredded.
These new documents show a heightened level of concern by military planners over the safety of troops sent on foreign assignments. They also show some of the steps the military took to correct past mistakes to ensure the well-being of troops recently sent to East Timor and Turkey. Military intelligence compiled a list of potential environmental hazards that peacekeepers might face on their current mission in East Timor, including "large quantities of hazardous waste" that were indiscriminantly dumped in its rivers.
And officers on the military's disaster assistance response team received an environmental awareness briefing before departing for Turkey in August where they provided assistance after the country's massive earthquake.
Currently, a record number of Canadian troops are posted on foreign assignments -- 4,400 in 23 countries, the most since the Korean War. The number will fall to about 3,000 this spring when peacekeepers return from Kosovo and East Timor.
The July 9 staff paper, "Safety for troops deployed outside Canada," identified foreign missions as an area "of great concern for a number of years."
It recommended the military adopt a "new simple Army Accident Report Form" to be given to military officials so that accident statistics could be compiled at the end of foreign postings. The documents don't indicate whether the idea was implemented.
It also recommended that a memorandum of understanding be drawn up between the chief of the land staff and the deputy chief of defence staff instructing the army's general safety officer to extend his duties to include monitoring the health of army units posted on foreign soil.
The memorandum says the safety officer should "conduct an in-depth safety inspection" of where foreign troops eat, sleep and work.
Meanwhile, the newly released documents show the military has begun to take seriously possible environmental threats on foreign missions.
A Sept. 30 military discussion paper recommends a nine-point plan, including the use of intelligence data and reconnaissance of foreign areas where troops are to be deployed. It recommends trying to identify 17 possible environmental threats, including; chemical plants or storage warehouses, nuclear power plants, uranium mines, old and still-active landfill sites and hazardous waste disposal sites, bulk fuel storage facilities and pipelines, infectious disease laboratories and pharmaceutical plants, industrial plants such as smelters, pulp and paper plants and water treatment plants that use chlorine and any sign of depleted uranium.
"Intelligence will have to be tasked with collecting data on potential toxic industrial materials hazards in the area of deployment," the paper says.
The discussion paper recommends detailed analysis of foreign topography, including analysis of surface water drainage and wind patterns.
It also recommends extra training and equipment to help military personnel better cope with possible environmental hazards.
And it recommends a detailed monitoring of troops' health, something found to have been lacking in the case of the Croatia peacekeepers.
"Monitoring should include baseline medical exams and regular follow-up based on perceived hazards (i.e. blood work, liver functions). Record keeping and documentation is critical in establishing the baseline and following the situation for historical purposes."
A Sept. 29 military intelligence report, marked "secret," assessed the threats from toxic industrial materials in East Timor. It concluded that peacekeepers faced a "high risk" from "large quantities of hazardous waste have been deposited in landfills and rivers."
The intelligence report states that hazardous waste disposal standards were established in 1994, but were not closely monitored in East Timor. It recommends further water testing and recommends "camps should not be set up near or downstream from any former or operating hazardous waste disposal site."
The report concluded that peacekeepers faced a "medium risk" from pesticides used in the production of coffee, the major crop grown in East Timor.
"Pesticides long banned in Canada due to health concerns could also still be in use in East Timor," says the report, which recommends further tests in the areas to further assess potential threats.
However, despite the best efforts of military planners, the documents show there are still some serious obstacles to protecting soldiers from environmental hazards. Another document on the "lessons learned" of East Timor says:
"There is not a lot of intelligence data available about the potential environmental hazards in East Timor. There was somewhat more information on countries with long established UN operations such as Kosovo and Croatia."
---
Study of Ill Gulf War Veterans Points to Chemical Damage
By STEVEN LEE MYERS New York Times December 1, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/health/120199hth-gulf-syndrome.html
http://www.tennessean.com/sii/99/12/01/gulf01.shtml
WASHINGTON -- Some veterans of the Persian Gulf war who have complained of chronic illnesses have signs of brain damage caused by exposure to toxic chemicals, the authors of a scientific study partly financed by the Pentagon reported on Tuesday.
Magnetic scans of sick veterans found lower-than-normal levels of a certain chemical, indicating damage in the parts of the brain that control reflexes, movement, memory and emotion, the study's authors said.
More than 100,000 American service members sent to the Persian Gulf in 1990 and 1991 have since reported experiencing a raft of maladies, including fatigue, muscle pain, memory loss and sleep disorders, which have collectively come to be known as gulf war syndrome.
The researchers stopped short of identifying the exact cause of the brain damage, saying that more medical research was needed. But coupled with a survey last month sponsored by the Pentagon, the findings showed that scientists were narrowing in on chemical exposure -- from pesticides, low levels of nerve gas or an experimental drug given to troops -- as the cause of the illnesses.
The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and presented today at the annual convention of the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago.
A Pentagon spokesman, Rear Adm. Craig R. Quigley, declined to discuss the findings in detail, saying they were preliminary and had not yet been subjected to peer review in an academic journal, which the authors said they expected soon.
The study's principal author, James L. Fleckenstein, a professor of radiology, said in an interview that the study was the first to show brain damage in sick veterans.
Dr. Fleckenstein and his colleagues examined 22 veterans complaining of illnesses. Using magnetic resonance spectroscopy, which measures chemical levels in the brain, they compared the results with those from 18 healthy veterans. The experiment was repeated in a sample of six more veterans.
The scans found that sick veterans had 10 percent to 25 percent lower levels of the chemical N-acetyl-aspartate, signaling a loss of neurons in the brain stem and basal ganglia. Veterans with more severe symptoms showed the lowest levels of the chemical.
-------- russia
US To Help Russia With Y2K Checks
Associated Press Wednesday December 1 7:38 PM ET By H. JOSEF http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/19991201/tc/us_russia_y2k_2.html
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-US-Russia-Y2K.html
WASHINGTON (AP) - Energy Secretary Bill Richardson unveiled a high-tech, long-distance telecommunications link Wednesday to help Russia monitor its nuclear power plants for Y2K computer problems.
Richardson invited reporters into the top-secret Situation Crisis Center at the Energy Department headquarters to witness an hourlong exchange with Yevgeniy Adamov, Russia's minister of atomic energy.
Richardson said he will be in the crisis center on New Year's Eve to monitor the Y2K rollover at American nuclear reactors, power plants and the U.S. electricity grid.
Two Russian experts also will be at the center in the basement of DOE headquarters, he said. And two U.S. nuclear experts along with senior Russian nuclear officials will be at the MinAtom Situation and Crisis Center in Moscow.
``While we don't expect any major problems, there may be glitches. We have to be ready on both sides,'' Richardson said, referring to both the U.S. and Russian nuclear programs.
Russian computer systems designed to shut down nuclear reactors in an emergency do not have the type of digital technology susceptible to the Y2K bug, said Richardson. But some other computer systems at the Russian plants could fail, he added.
The U.S. nuclear industry recently reported to the government that all 103 of America's commercial reactors are ready to deal with the Y2K bug.
Adamov, whose image came across a large television screen on one wall of the DOE crisis center, expressed confidence that Russia will have no problems with Y2K, the bug that could cause a computer to go haywire if it recognizes the year 2000 as 1900.
``All of the drills showed we are prepared for the year 2000 rollover,'' said Adamov through a translator sitting in Washington.
The video and telecommunications link, which provides communications not only with Moscow, but also all of the DOE facilities around the United States, will provide open lines of communications and monitoring during the Y2K rollover, said Richardson.
In the live demonstration Wednesday, it worked pretty well, despite some minor glitches. Shortly into the demonstration, Richardson's pin-on microphone stopped working and had to be fixed.
On the huge television screen - one of 14 monitors along one wall - one could see and hear Adamov at the Moscow center. At one point, the Russian minister demanded that the television camera pan the room so he could see who was with Richardson at the table.
Was there a Russian present? he asked. He was told a representative of the Russian Embassy was there. ``Speak to him in Russian so he knows you're russian,'' quipped Richardson.
At another time, Rose Gottemoeller, DOE's assistant secretary for nonproliferation and national security who deals extensively with the Russians, finished talking only to find out the translator in Moscow couldn't hear her.
``The communication is very poor,'' the Russian translator half way around the globe was heard to say. ``I practically didn't hear what Rose said.'' Just one of those pesky glitches that will have to be ironed out before New Year's Eve.
---
U.S.-Russia launch Y2K video hotline
ZD Net Wednesday December 01 07:30 PM EST Kevin Poulsen, ZDNet
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Vowing to respond jointly to any Y2K-bug related nuclear emergencies, U.S. Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson and his Russian counterpart Wednesday unveiled a $3 million video hotline between the Department of Energy's Emergency Operations Center in Washington, D.C., and the MinAtom Situation and Crisis Center in Russia.
Addressing Russia's Minister of Atomic Energy, Yevgeniy Adamov, through a translator and over a two-way video link, Richardson promised to spend New Years Eve in the windowless room.
"We will all be here Dec. 31 and Jan. 1," said Richardson, who hailed the new link-up as "the first example of Russian and American cooperation on the Y2K issue."
The Emergency Operations Center (EOC) was created after the Gulf War as a central site for responding to crises related to US energy infrastructures. A wall of monitors, a bank of telephones and a network of secure T1 lines links the center to electric, oil and natural gas facilities around the country.
Russian experts will also be stationed at the EOC, and Americans will help man the MinAtom center. Department of Energy technicians monitored two successful nuclear power plant Y2K tests in Russia last month, and plan to observe another test in Leningrad on Dec. 8.
Richardson expressed confidence that Russia's nuclear power plant safety systems were Y2K compliant.
Concerns over Ukraine nuclear plants Adamov sought to quell concerns over the readiness of the five Soviet-era nuclear power plants in the Ukraine -- the site of the catastrophic 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl atomic power station.
"We have a Deputy Secretary in the Ukraine now, to make sure we don't have a Y2K problem," Adamov said, while offering that the older plants are not heavily computer reliant. "Some of the plants in the Ukraine rely less on modern digital technologies then United States plants do."
Asked by a reporter what assurances he can offer that the Soviet-era power plants are ready for Y2K, Adamov replied, "What kind of assurances are given you in the United States in these circumstances? All of our drills showed that we are prepared for the Year-2000 rollover."
The Emergency Operations Center will be jointly manned on Dec. 31, beginning at 4:00 a.m. PT, when the Y2K rollover hits the easternmost regions of Russia and begins it's 10 hour crawl westward. After a break at 2:00 p.m PT, the center will reconvene at 8:00 p.m. PT -- one hour before the new millennium begins on the U.S. East Coast.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced last month that all 103 U.S. nuclear plants are Y2K compliant.
---
Russian General Sees U.S. Corporate Push on Star Wars
Space.com Dec 01 1999 11:25:44 ET By Martin Nesirky
http://www.space.com/news/international/russian_general_991201_wg.html
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=114896
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Big companies with an eye on fat profits rather than potential foes are the force behind U.S. plans to develop a Star Wars-style missile defense system, a Russian general said in an interview published on Wednesday.
Major-General Vladimir Dvorkin, who heads Russia's strategic missile research institute, also told the military Krasnaya Zvezda that U.S. arguments why Washington should breach the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty simply did not wash.
Dvorkin reiterated Russia would respond if the United States deployed a missile defense system against what Washington sees as a threat from so-called rogue states. But he said Moscow believed diplomacy could still rescue the ABM treaty, which Russia considers a cornerstone of arms control.
"One can only assume the main reason is not threats but satisfying the interests of military-industrial sectors connected to ABM and of financial groups,'' the general said, developing a line of attack heard during a Cold War battle of words with Washington in the 1980s over a Star Wars plan.
"Since there has been a considerable blockage in implementing the Star Wars program, it is necessary to clear the blockage and secure profits,'' Dvorkin said.
He said the United States advanced three main arguments to justify its anti-missile scheme. One was the threat from so-called rogue states such as North Korea, Iran and Iraq. The second was the limited scope of the existing U.S. anti-missile system. Finally, Washington argues the 1972 treaty is outmoded.
"Third countries are nearer to us than to the United States and so any instability in those places could be a more serious threat to us,'' Dvorkin said, adding Russia considered it impossible for rogue states to "surprise'' the world with a new ballistic missile.
"Even if a satellite broadcasting songs glorifying some great leader or other is successfully launched it does not mean an intercontinental ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead has been developed,'' the general said. He was referring to a North Korean launch last year.
He said the U.S. plan envisaged a twin system that could intercept several dozen defense-dodging missiles and that Washington could easily afford to expand the network.
"That makes the second argument completely unconvincing,'' Dvorkin said. He also denied the ABM treaty was outdated, saying the philosophy behind nuclear deterrence remained the same.
He said if the United States went ahead Russia would come with "asymmetrical'' responses such as placing treaty-busting multiple warheads on new Topol-M missiles. He also said Russia's economic crisis would not be eternal and Moscow would then build its own national missile defense if needed.
"Nonetheless I believe the reserves of political, diplomatic and other measures are far from exhausted,'' Dvorkin said
---
Russian General Says U.S. Aims To Destroy ABM
Russia Today Wednesday, Dec 1 at Prague 08:04 am, N.Y. 02:04 am
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=113655
MOSCOW, Nov 28, 1999 -- (Reuters) Russian Strategic Missile Forces' commander criticized on Saturday U.S. moves to change the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty, saying any modification would destroy the landmark treaty.
RIA news agency quoted Colonel-General Vladimir Yakovlev as saying relations between Russia and the United States would suffer if Washington succeeded in changing the treaty to allow deployment of a new anti-missile defense system.
Any modification "would completely abolish the basis of the 1972 ABM treaty", RIA quoted him as saying. "If a political solution cannot be found which does not destroy the balanced system of agreements, then there will be a serious step backwards in understanding and transparency between the two countries."
Russia has mounted fierce opposition to Washington's desire to change the treaty, which bans defense systems designed to shoot down enemy missiles. The Cold War-era treaty was made under the logic that such shields would only have tempted the two countries to build ever bigger arsenals of nuclear weapons.
Yakovlev said earlier this month that Russia had test-fired one of its short-range anti-missile rockets for the first time in six years because of Moscow's fears over the treaty.
Washington says it wants to amend the treaty to allow it to deploy a system to protect itself and its allies from an attack by states such as Iran and North Korea which it believes are developing missile technology.
But Russia says any weakening of ABM would undermine the entire arms control system, including subsequent historic pacts, such as the START strategic arms reduction deals which have already led to thousands of warheads being scrapped.
---
American Accused Of Spying
Russia Briefly Detains Diplomat
Washington Post, December 1, 1999; Page A36 By David Hoffman and Walter Pincus
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/01/205l-120199-idx.html
Russia briefly detained an American diplomat yesterday, accusing her of spying and saying she was "caught red-handed." The Russian foreign minister said the American would be leaving Moscow soon.
The temporary arrest of Cheri Leberknight, 33, a second secretary in the U.S. Embassy, came a day after the disclosure that a U.S. Navy petty officer was charged with espionage in the United States for passing information to Russia. However, both Russian and U.S. officials said there was no link between the cases, and American officials in Washington attributed Leberknight's detention to an ongoing tug of war between U.S. and Russian intelligence agencies.
In Moscow, Alexander Zdanovich, spokesman for the Federal Security Service, said Leberknight was "caught red-handed trying to get from a Russian citizen documents on military and strategic information classified as state secrets."
The embassy spokesman had no comment. Leberknight was later released and Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said she "will leave Moscow shortly," according to the Interfax news agency. Ivanov said there is "exhaustive evidence implicating her in activities incompatible with her official status."
Zdanovich said Leberknight was in possession of "certain spy paraphernalia," which he said included "a detailed map of the place where a meeting was supposed to take place," and "special equipment designed to detect communication between surveillance agents."
He said she was detained in Moscow's Izmailovo district while waiting for a Russian citizen.
Zdanovich denied the case was a reaction to the charges in the United States against Daniel King, 40, for passing secrets to the Russian Embassy there in 1994. King had been assigned to a decoding unit at the National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Md., at the time of the alleged espionage. He was arrested Oct. 28 and charged Nov. 5.
"We do not want to link these two cases if only for the sole reason that the eye-for-an-eye principle is alien to us," he said. "It's a Cold War principle."
In Washington, intelligence officials attributed the detention and expected departure of Leberknight to tensions between American and Russian intelligence agencies.
They also said it was not related to the arrest of King. According to a senior Pentagon official, King has admitted mailing a computer disk of data to the Russian Embassy in 1994. It included information on the use of U.S. submarines to eavesdrop on Russian undersea communications cables, the official said.
The tension between American and Russian intelligence services results, in part, from the Clinton administration's unsuccessful attempts to persuade Moscow to cut back espionage operations against the United States. Administration officials say Russia reduced the number of spies in America after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. But they say that in recent years Moscow has stepped up its espionage activity to near-Cold War levels.
One U.S. intelligence official said the expulsion of Leberknight may also be connected to Russian politics, noting that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin formerly served as director of the Federal Security Service, Russia's internal security force. "Anything anti-American is popular to their electorate," the official said.
The case against King developed this year when a polygraph test during a routine screening for continued access to classified information indicated deception by the 18-year Navy veteran. Pentagon sources refused to say exactly when the classified information allegedly was delivered, although one source said it was a single episode.
King is awaiting trial in the brig at the U.S. Marine base in Quantico, Va. If convicted, he could face the death penalty for espionage.
Hoffman reported from Moscow.
---
Russians Detain U.S. Diplomat, Calling Her a Spy
New York Times December 1, 1999 By MICHAEL R. GORDON
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/120199russia-us-spy.html
MOSCOW -- Russian officials said Tuesday that they had caught an American spy as she was preparing to meet with her Russian informant and that they had confiscated an array of sophisticated espionage equipment.
The Clinton administration acknowledged that an American diplomat was briefly detained in Moscow in an "incident," but declined to comment on Russian charges that the diplomat was a spy.
"Other than confirming that there was an incident involving an American working at the U.S. Embassy, I'm not going to comment on alleged intelligence matters," State Department spokesman James Rubin told reporters in Washington.
The episode came just as a U.S. Navy enlisted man was being charged with passing secrets about American decoding programs to Russia, officials said. Petty Officer 1st class Daniel King, 40, who had worked at a Navy decoding office at Fort Meade, Md., is being held in military custody in Quantico, Va., awaiting a hearing on espionage charges.
This week's renewal of Cold War-style spy skirmishes between Moscow and Washington has increased the strains between the two nations, which are already at odds over Russia's war in Chechnya, NATO's war with Yugoslavia and Washington's plan to erect a limited anti-missile defense.
It has also shown the renewed confidence of the FSB, Russia's internal security service, which summoned Russian reporters to boast about its success in unmasking American agents and displayed a photograph of the alleged spy: a low-level diplomat at the U.S. Embassy.
The CIA has long maintained an intelligence station in the American Embassy in Moscow, and its officers work under diplomatic cover, posing as State Department employees. CIA officials refused to comment on the latest flap in Moscow.
But despite the end to the Cold War, Russia and the United States have continued to spy on each other. Russian intelligence services have been so active, in fact, that the Clinton administration asked the Kremlin earlier this year to cut back on its spying as a goodwill gesture.
Vladimir Putin, Russia's prime minister and the leading candidate to succeed President Boris Yeltsin, is a former senior intelligence officer, as is his main political rival, Yevgeni Primakov.
The Russian Foreign Ministry took Tuesday's spy episode in stride, saying that it planned to issue an official protest but that it did not expect the incident to seriously hurt American-Russian relations.
"We hope and expect that this should not interfere with relations between the United States and Russia," Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said. "But certainly such episodes do not help improve the climate and atmosphere."
Still, the FSB was anxious to talk about its counterintelligence efforts for a prime-time Russian television audience.
The Russians identified the accused spy as Cheri Leberknight, and asserted that she was a CIA officer who was working under cover as a second secretary at the American Embassy.
They charged that she had been trying to obtain secret Russian military documents when she was detained Monday night in northern Moscow. Ms. Leberknight, who enjoys diplomatic immunity, was turned over to the American Embassy by Russian authorities and is expected to leave Moscow shortly.
According to the Russian account, Russian counterintelligence agents tracked Ms. Leberknight as she prepared to meet a Russian contact. Aleksandr Zdanovich, a spokesman for the FSB, said her goal was to obtain "state secrets about our military-strategic plans and military-strategic complex."
Russian officials did not say specifically what type of documents were being sought. Even with its economic woes, Russia retains a powerful nuclear arsenal and is building new long-range missiles.
Russian officials said that Ms. Leberknight carried a map showing her meeting point and was equipped with a variety of devices to determine if she was under surveillance.
CIA officers have traditionally used high-tech equipment to detect whether they are under surveillance. Their equipment could determine if nearby radio communications increase when the CIA officer is on the move, which would be a sign that the officer is being followed. It is unclear whether the diplomat actually was found to be carrying such equipment, however.
Zdanovich showed a photograph said to be of Ms. Leberknight.
Ms. Leberknight was brought to FSB headquarters in downtown Moscow, but refused to talk, Russian officials say. She was later turned over to the counsel at the American Embassy here.
There was no word Tuesday night if Russian officials had also arrested a Russian who might have been in contact with the United States as part of an alleged espionage operation. The FSB said, however, that its investigation was continuing.
Russian officials insisted that there was no connection between this case and the arrest of the Navy enlisted man.
"This is not a response," Zdanovich told a Russian television interviewer.
Russia's security service has been very active in recent months. It arrested a Russian researcher, who was later charged with revealing military secrets, and pursued investigations against Russian environmentalists who have investigated the dumping of nuclear waste at sea.
-------- ukraine
Ukrainian shot trying to penetrate nuclear plant
Reuters 12:25 p.m. Dec 01, 1999 Eastern
http://infoseek.go.com/Content?arn=a2458LBY915reulb-19991201&qt=%2Bnuclear&sv=IS&lk=noframes&col=NX&kt=A&ak=news1486
KIEV, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Security guards at a nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine shot and wounded a man they described as mentally ill who tried to break into the station's territory last night, an official said on Wednesday.
A spokesman for the national nuclear company Energoatom told Reuters the man had been wounded as he tried to ram the gate to the South Ukraine power station with his car.
Ukraine has tightened security around its five nuclear plants after a series of apartment blasts in neighbouring Russia in September which killed nearly 300 people.
-------- china
China Official Cites Y2K Troubles
New York Times December 1, 1999 Filed at 2:06 p.m. EDT By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-China-Y2K.html
BEIJING (AP) -- China's top troubleshooter for Year 2000 computer glitches says hospitals, businesses and parts of China's vast interior are not yet ready with less than one month to go.
The assessment given Wednesday by Zhang Qi, the Ministry of Information Industry official overseeing China's preparations, was the frankest admission by the government that troubles are certain to arise, even if they are scattered.
But Ms. Zhang said there should be few problems at banks, electric power plants and other vital sectors.
``China is a big country with more than 30 provinces and over 1.2 billion people. So it's hard to get a complete picture in resolving Year 2000 problems, and there are areas we do not understand,'' she added.
Zhang's evaluation underscores the difficulties in predicting whether and where the computer problems will crop up. It also matches the assessment of foreign monitoring firms who believe that China belatedly mobilized money and staffing, saving key sectors and major cities while sacrificing others.
The Y2K glitch is a product of older computer programs and processing chips in everything from automated bank tellers to hospital equipment that expressed years using only the last two digits. If not corrected, computers and machines could interpret 2000 as 1900 and crash or garble data in the new year.
Eighteen crucial state industries and sectors administered or supervised directly by the state have made ``good progress'' in correcting and testing for Y2K problems and setting up contingency plans, Zhang said at a news conference with senior officials from the banking, aviation, electric power and telecommunications sectors. ``No big losses will occur,'' she said.
``All regions pay great attention to the power supply, gas supply as well as transportation, with relatively good results,'' she said. ``However, the sectors such as business, commerce, trade, medicine and health care and public services lag far behind.''
Some regions and state enterprises and agencies have not even assessed the risks if their systems fail and thus have not drafted adequate emergency plans, Zhang said.
Nuclear power and defense industries have been declared free of Y2K problems following inspections at 92 key installations by the government commission that oversees military research and production, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
``There will be no explosions, no leaks'' at nuclear plants or armaments factories, Xinhua quoted the commission as saying.
Bank runs occurred in out-of-the-way parts of southern Hunan and Guangxi provinces after local credit cooperatives closed for one of the three series of tests by the central bank, said Chen Jing, the People's Bank of China computer problem troubleshooter.
That event in part has caused the People's Bank to increase loans to commercial banks for the three months in which Y2K could pose problems -- from year's until March, Chen said.
``The public can rest assured there will be an adequate supply of cash,'' Chen said.
In the less than one month left, Zhang ordered more testing and patching up of contingency plans. She warned that systems experts needed to be on guard for computer viruses and hacker attacks. And she said the government will set up a task force on Dec. 10 that will work round-the-clock from Dec. 30 to Jan. 2 in case of emergencies.
-------- nato
NATO avoided nuclear plant
Bombing old facility would have been catastrophic for Balkans
Ottowa Citizen Wednesday December 01, 1999 Mike Blanchfield
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/national/991130/3223425.html
One of the safest places in Serbia from falling NATO bombs during this spring's bombardment was a crumbling Cold War-era nuclear plant full of rusting barrels of toxic waste.
In the interests of avoiding a nuclear disaster, the Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences near Belgrade was left off the list of potential NATO targets during the recent bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, according to Canadian military documents.
Unlike numerous military installations, various army hardware, government offices, broadcast facilities, bridges and hydroelectric plants, the Vinca plant, 15 kilometres southwest of the Yugoslav capital, never found itself in the crosshairs of NATO bombers because of the threat of unleashing harmful radiation throughout the Balkans, says a declassified Canadian military intelligence report.
Had it been accidentally struck -- as was the Chinese embassy and at least one civilian passenger train -- the consequences could have been catastrophic.
"If the Vinca institute were to be damaged as a result of Allied activities, or Serbian actions, the unstable state of the reactor and storage pond could result in radioactive contamination of the surrounding areas," says the May 7 intelligence report.
The report was obtained by Ottawa researcher Ken Rubin under Access to Information.
The Canadian air force's 18 CF-18 jet fighters provided 10 per cent of NATO's firepower during the 78-day bombardment. Canadian officials have been reluctant to discuss specific CF-18 targets.
The report on the Vinca plant makes clear what they were not aiming at.
The plant is described as a poorly maintained, Cold War-era relic that is clearly unsafe even if not bombed.
Drums full of radioactive fuel are improperly stored under a large man-made pool, which requires repairs.
Because of Yugoslavia's growing isolation throughout the 1990s, including an international oil embargo, the report said it was "unlikely that any rectification work at the reactor or the storage pond has yet been carried out."
The used reactor fuel is stored in a pool of water that was to be kept cooled and filtered.
"At Vinca this is not the case," says the report. "Irradiated uranium fuel contained in fuel storage drums ... are stored under 200 cubic metres of dirty and contaminated water in the high level waste storage pool.
"The storage pool was originally intended to hold fuel for three years; however, the fuel has been there for up to four decades."
The Vinca plant was part of Yugoslavia's "extensive nuclear program and facilities including research reactors and a power reactor."
Vinca housed two reactors, supplied by the former Soviet Union in the late 1950s. One of the reactors was poorly maintained, the report says, and had to be shut down in 1984.
Another Canadian military intelligence report raised the possibility that industrial plants, such as the Vinca installation, could be used as weapons by the Serb military.
"Use of industrial and commercial chemical, biological and radiological materials by militia, irregulars and terrorists is of concern," says the heavily censored report, dated March 25, one day after the commencement of the bombing campaign.
"The threat of use of radiological materials by militant irregulars, terrorist groups and the FRY (Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) Army (VJ) is assessed as possible, but very low."
The report says that if deployed to Kosovo, Canadian Forces troops "could be exposed to CW (chemical warfare) agents or toxic industrial chemicals ... by the sabotage of commercial chemical production facilities, or by deliberate theft, transport and isolated release of such agents."
Throughout the NATO bombing campaign there were sporadic reports of Serb forces unleashing chemical weapons.
The accounts came from fleeing refugees, rebel fighters with the Kosovo Liberation Army, and unnamed Pentagon sources.
-------- israel
Mordechai Vanunu Remains a Mystery
New York Times December 1, 1999 Filed at 4:00 a.m. EDT By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Knowing-Vanunu.html
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Mordechai Vanunu was a loner with access to Israel's most guarded secrets, a cheap camera and a determination to tell the world what he knew about the country's nuclear arsenal.
A partial, heavily censored 1,200-page transcript of the whistleblower's closed-door trial, made available for the first time last week, reads like a Le Carre spy thriller where the mystery lies less in the facts than in the motives.
With the partial publication, apparently permitted to stave off demands for full disclosure, Israel took another step toward confirming what military experts and academics have long asserted: the country has a nuclear arsenal.
The testimony of a veteran engineer at the Dimona nuclear reactor settled the facts of the case easily and early in the 1987-88 trial.
The engineer, called ``Giora'' in the transcript, was asked to look at a set of photographs Vanunu, a low-level technician at Dimona, secretly took inside the reactor and passed on to The Sunday Times of London. Based on the photographs, the Times wrote in 1986 that Israel had the world's sixth largest nuclear arsenal.
``Are the objects in the pictures objects that exist at the reactor?'' asked prosecutor Uzi Hasson. A succinct ``yes'' survived an otherwise censored answer. Would an expert understand what the objects mean? ``Of course,'' said Giora.
In a tense exchange with Giora, defense attorney Avigdor Feldman asked him if he understood Vanunu's contention that ``Israel must not hide the fact of its nuclear weapons from its citizens.''
Giora retorted that it was better for Israel ``that this topic remains where it is today, or should I say, where it was before the Vanunu affair.''
Probing Vanunu's motives has become the transcript's mystery.
Vanunu has not helped: he has refused to enter a plea. When a judge, swearing him in, asked him the year of his birth, he offered, ``My identity card says 1954.''
He became expansive only when asked to explain his attraction to a vague existentialism that he has said led him to reveal the operation of a nuclear weapons factory he found increasingly dangerous.
``What is `good' must be `good' for all of society,'' Vanunu said.
He revealed a troubled upbringing -- an estrangement from his religious parents, a solitary university existence.
Pressed as to why he became attracted to student politics -- a process that brought him into contact with peace activists and culminated in his decision to smuggle a camera into his workplace -- he retreated again into his wry, oblique humor: ``Corruption in the cafeteria.''
His prickliness was his undoing when it led him to ignore warnings against a planned tryst with an attractive American woman, Cindy, he met in London.
Peter Hounam, the Sunday Times journalist assigned to protect him, told the court that he was suspicious about Cindy and that he asked Vanunu not to go.
Hounam's suspicions were prescient: Cindy was the Mossad agent who lured him into abduction from Rome to Israel.
It was when Vanunu described his abduction -- ordered by then-Prime Minister Shimon Peres -- that he was at his most vulnerable. ``It was just awful. ... You're kidnapped, abducted, they could execute you,'' he said.
Yet, by the time he landed on an Israeli beach, he was relaxed and harangued his escorts with no-nukes evangelism -- and with his newly discovered belief in Christianity.
The repeated references to Jesus on the pre-dawn drive from the beach to Ashkelon prison annoyed one of his interrogators, called ``Yehuda.''
Yehuda did not buy Vanunu's altruism, and was convinced that the Sunday Times had promised him $100,000 -- Hounam's insistence to the contrary notwithstanding.
``I'm telling you, it was an act of treason by ... a person who is ready to sell everything, partly for money, partly for status, partly to ease frustrations and partly to decide that he is something,'' Yehuda said.
By contrast, another interrogator found himself drawn to Vanunu.
``Everyone who dealt with him, even the jailers, established a bond with him,'' ``Alon'' recalled, and described how he took an interest in Vanunu's continuing education, bringing him books.
Vanunu, sentenced to 18 years, disappeared into solitary confinement -- where he stayed until 1998. He is now 45 and has five years left in his sentence. But his country has been unable to shake him.
Peres testified that Norway temporarily suspended the sale to Israel of heavy water -- which can be used in nuclear weapons production -- and there was evidence that Arab states accelerated their nuclear programs. In Washington, members of Congress started asking hard questions.
Eventually, Vanunu's greatest ambition -- nuclear openness -- became the fodder of op-ed articles in the mainstream media.
``Publishing the transcripts is another step in the long road in a much-needed public debate on Israel's strategic policies,'' Reuben Padhotzer wrote in Haaretz on Sunday.
-------- britain
UK may be forced to close nuclear plants -report
Reuters 02:29 p.m Dec 01, 1999 Eastern
http://infoseek.go.com/Content?arn=a3083LBY001reulb-19991201&qt=%2Bnuclear&sv=IS&lk=noframes&col=NX&kt=A&ak=news1486
LONDON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Britain may be forced to close some of its nuclear power stations because of a backlog of high-level radioactive waste, New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday.
A report by the government's Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII), leaked to the weekly science magazine, called for state-owned British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) to empty 21 tanks containing 1300 cubic metres of waste from reactors by 2015 to avoid a serious accident.
``But BNFL is so badly behind schedule that the NII is unconvinced that it will meet the deadline,'' the magazine said.
NII is threatening legal action to get rid of the build-up which could lead to the closure of 10 old stations run by BNFL.
``The report, which is due to be published by the NII before Christmas, says that the 2015 deadline must be achieved as any shortfall will be unacceptable both publicly and politically,'' New Scientist added.
---
Nuclear Plant in Britain To Close
New York Times December 1, 1999 Filed at 8:42 a.m. EDT By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Britain-Nuclear.html
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/19991201/wl/britain_nuclear_1.html
LONDON (AP) -- One of the country's oldest nuclear power stations is scheduled to close in 2002 with the loss of several hundred jobs.
State-owned British Nuclear Fuels, owners of the Magnox station in Bradwell, northeast of London, said Wednesday that with falling electricity prices it cannot justify spending millions of dollars to keep the 37-year-old facility running.
``We have always said that it would be an economic decision which ultimately led to Bradwell's closure. That time has sadly been identified in just over two years' time,'' said the plant's manager, Peter Wright.
Bradwell, which employs 350 workers, has been in operation since 1962. It produces enough electricity to power several large towns.
British Nuclear Fuels said all staff will be kept on until March 2002. Up to 250 staff will be needed to defuel the station's two reactors, which is expected to take up to three years.
Unions, which have already been consulted, said they hoped staff could gradually be redeployed elsewhere.
``We recognize that a thorough investigation into Bradwell's future has been carried out,'' said Dougie Rooney, national officer for the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union.
``We are convinced that it would be uneconomic to keep the station open beyond 2002. However we do want to see extra investment in other Magnox power stations and hope that Bradwell's workforce can be redeployed.''
---
Serco consortium gets 2.2 bln stg defence contract
Reuters Wednesday December 1, 11:37 am Eastern Time
http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/991201/ue.html
LONDON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - The Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday it had awarded a 2.2 billion pound nuclear management and operation contract to a consortium made up of Serco Limited (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: SRP.L), Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT - news) of the U.S. and British Nuclear Fuels Plc.
Serco added in a separate statement that the deal could be extended to a 25-year term.
Serco said the contract regarded management of Atomic Weapons Establishment, the UK's nuclear weapons research and development centre, which is responsible for the nation's nuclear stockpile.
The consortium, called AWE Management Limited, would be responsible for providing all services related to facilities management, waste and environmental management, manufacture and associated site support.
``We are delighted to have been awarded this prestigious contract...The three companies have unrivalled expertise and resources from which to draw in managing the contract and have a common view that safety is paramount,'' Serco Group Executive Chairman Richard White said in a statement.
The Defence Ministry said three consortia had bid for the contract. In its own statement, Hunting Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: HTG.L) said that while its consortium had lost the nuclear deal it was pursuing other contracts.
---
AWE Management Limited Awarded Contract for Atomic Weapons Establishment
Wednesday December 1, 3:23 pm Eastern Time Company Press Release
SOURCE: Lockheed Martin
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/991201/nj_awe_awa_1.html
CHERRY HILL, N.J., Dec. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- AWE Management Limited, a consortium of Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT - news), Serco Limited and British Nuclear Fuels p1c, has been awarded a contract by the Minister of Defence for the management and operation of the Atomic Weapons Establishment. The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) is the United Kingdom Government's nuclear weapons research and development center, and has responsibility for the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile.
The initial contract period will be for 10 years at a value of approximately $3.7 billion, divided equally between the consortium partners. The contract will commence on April 1, 2000. A transition period will begin in December 1999.
Under the management and operation contract, the consortium will be the steward for the United Kingdom weapons stockpile. This includes design, production, refurbishment, breakdown and associated site support. The continual development of science and research programs also will be part of the contract requirements.
Executive Vice President Michael Camardo stated that ``We are extremely pleased to be part of the consortium supporting the United Kingdom Atomic Weapon's Establishment. We are committed to being a full partner with Serco and BNFL in the successful and safe implementation of this program. This program also expands and reinforces our commitment to the nuclear stewardship of the United States and its allies''
Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global enterprise principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture and integration of advanced-technology systems, products and services. The Corporation's core businesses are systems integration, space, aeronautics, and technology services. Employing more than 143,000 people worldwide, Lockheed Martin had 1998 sales surpassing $26 billion.
SOURCE: Lockheed Martin
More Quotes and News: Lockheed Martin Corp (NYSE:LMT - news) Related News Categories: aerospace/defense
http://biz.yahoo.com/n/y/y0001.html
-------- korea
From a speech by former U.S. secretary of defense
William Perry at the Woodrow Wilson Center Monday: For the Record
Washington Post Wednesday, December 1, 1999; Page A42
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/01/003l-120199-idx.html
In the last week of May 1999, I visited Pyongyang. We were received with great courtesy. In fact, the signal that we were going to be received with great courtesy was when we were given permission to land our military plane at Pyongyang. . . .
As a consequence of these meetings, we did nail down that there would be a continuation of the nuclear restraint. . . . We also laid out to them our two alternatives. And while they were clearly interested in normalization, they were also clearly conflicted on giving up their missile program. As a result, as we left Pyongyang, we did not have a decision on that point. . . .
Since then, we've had a number of follow-on meetings . . . which were inconclusive, and then finally one in Berlin just a few months ago. . . . And at that meeting, the first small, positive step was taken. . . . We agreed at that meeting to start talks on what it would take to move toward normalization, and we also agreed that a precondition for those talks . . . would be that the United States would ease sanctions, and particularly ease sanctions on consumer products for North Korea, and that the North Koreans would suspend missile testing while these talks were underway.
And to put that in context, I have to tell you that while we were in Pyongyang, a long-range missile was already being prepared for firing last summer. So from that time till this time, that launch has been suspended.
---
Former Japanese Premier in N. Korea
New York Times December 1, 1999 Filed at 6:52 a.m. EDT By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Japan-NKorea.html
TOKYO (AP) -- A former Japanese prime minister arrived today in North Korea to deliver a letter from the current premier to the leader of the reclusive communist state and to try resuming talks toward setting up diplomatic relations.
Frosty ties between the two nations chilled even further after North Korea fired a missile over Japan last year. The visit by Tomiichi Murayama had to be postponed several times this year.
Relations have begun to thaw gradually, however, after North Korea promised in September not to test any more missiles as long as dialogue continues between North Korea and the United States.
Washington lifted trade, banking and other sanctions that had been in place against North Korea for decades.
Japan, however, has not resumed food aid and only last month decided to resume the charter flights to North Korea that had been halted since the missile firing.
Kim Yong Sun, secretary of North Korea's ruling Korean Workers' Party, met with the delegation today, along with other North Korean officials, reported KCNA, North Korea's official overseas news outlet. Kim Yong Sun is also a confidant of leader Kim Jong Il.
Murayama is a legislator for the Social Democratic Party, which has historically had relatively good ties with the North Korean leadership.
He is leading a delegation that includes top leaders of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party as well as Foreign Ministry officials on a three-day visit. The Japanese Communist Party is taking part in the mission for the first time.
Murayama has a letter from Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi addressed to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, said Obuchi's spokesman Akitaka Saiki.
The letter, written in Obuchi's capacity as head of the ruling party, does not make specific proposals or promises but calls for better relations, he said.
``The main mission is to pave the way for resumption of government talks,'' Saiki said. ``We hope that the Murayama mission will achieve its goal of opening up a window of opportunities to resume government to government talks very soon.''
KCNA reported that Murayama's delegation was welcomed at the Pyongyang airport by Kim Yang Gon and Song Ho Gyong, a department director and deputy director of the Central Committee of the Workers Party.
Several years of normalization talks between Tokyo and Pyongyang have seen little progress because of disputes, including charges that North Korea kidnapped 10 Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s. North Korea has denied the charges.
History has soured ties as well. Pyongyang has repeatedly demanded that Tokyo atone for its 35-year colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula until its World War II defeat in 1945.
-------- puerto rico
Clinton Steps Between Navy, Puerto Rico
Agreement Outlined for Military to Resume Use of Firing Range and Then Decamp
By Roberto Suro and David A. Vise, Washington Post, December 1, 1999; Page A02
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/01/099l-120199-idx.html
Even as the first ships of a carrier battle group steamed toward controversial training exercises, President Clinton yesterday hammered out the broad terms of an agreement to allow the Navy to resume use of its Puerto Rican firing range on a temporary and limited basis, senior officials said.
Although talks are still underway and the consensus is fragile, Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno also discussed the possibility of sending FBI agents to remove protesters who are occupying the firing range on the small island of Vieques, officials said.
Even if the White House can satisfy Gov. Pedro Rossello and other top Puerto Rican leaders, dozens or even hundreds of demonstrators may engage in civil disobedience to publicize their cause, according to participants in the anti-Navy protest.
To resolve the impasse it acknowledges helping to create, the Navy has agreed to end all exercises on the firing range by a specific date in the next three to five years, the officials said. But differences remain over whether live ammunition or only nonexplosive "inert" ordnance can be used in the interim, particularly during training exercises for the battle group led by the USS Eisenhower, which are scheduled to begin next week, officials said.
The administration has been on the brink of announcing a deal at least twice in the past few days, only to pull back because of the Navy's insistence on live ammunition and Puerto Rican leaders' insistence on dummy bombs, the officials said.
Vieques has served as a major training ground for the Atlantic Fleet since 1941, and the Navy contends that the 52-square-mile island is the only place that Marines can practice amphibious landings while surface ships and aircraft provide support with live ordnance. Such training has been suspended since April 19, when two stray bombs killed a civilian security guard at an observation post on the fringe of the firing range.
The accident last April galvanized public opinion in Puerto Rico against use of the firing range, and the island's usually fractious political leaders have stood together behind the demand that Vieques never again serve as a target for any kind of bombing. The Puerto Ricans argue that the Navy has broken written agreements regarding aid for the 9,300 residents of Vieques, violated limits on the use of the firing range and reneged on promises to reduce environmental and health hazards.
The Navy admits that it has not been an ideal neighbor and has promised better behavior in the future. But it drew a line in the sand by proclaiming publicly this fall that the lives of service members will be needlessly endangered if it is denied access to Vieques.
Clinton began maneuvering between these two antagonists on Veterans Day, and the pace of his efforts stepped up this week as the first few ships of the Eisenhower battle group left their home port of Norfolk for final training at Vieques before a six-month deployment to the Mediterranean.
Since Monday, Clinton has spoken to Rossello three times, and the governor has signaled his willingness to compromise on an agreement to allow training with inert ordnance if the Navy phases out its use of the firing range completely over the next few years.
At a briefing yesterday, Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, a Pentagon spokesman, reaffirmed the military's stance that live fire training is irreplaceable. "But there are ways that you can accomplish that, and there are other ways to do things that are all part of the ongoing discussions right now," he added.
A Pentagon official said the Navy could agree to inert ordnance exercises but only as a short-term solution and would insist on some live fire training at Vieques during the phase-out period.
If Clinton can work out a deal between the Navy and the Puerto Rican government, he will still have to deal with the protesters camped out at about a dozen sites on the firing range. "On Vieques there is a firm determination that the protesters will only leave if the Navy leaves first. Otherwise, they will have to be forcibly removed," said Manuel Mirabal, president of the National Puerto Rican Coalition, a Washington-based public policy group.
During a meeting at the beginning of this week, Clinton and Reno discussed how the protesters might be handled, and Reno told the president she was not in favor of sending FBI agents, administration officials said. However, Justice Department officials said they would dispatch the FBI if Clinton gave the order to do so.
While other options also are under consideration--such as sending members of the U.S. Marshals Service--the FBI has the necessary resources and training to do the job, officials said.
---
Navy to Train Off Puerto Rico With Live-Fire Issue Unsettled
New York Times December 1, 1999 By ELIZABETH BECKER
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/washpol/navy-puerto-rico.html
WASHINGTON -- An aircraft carrier and an amphibious battle group will begin training this week even though the White House has yet to decide if the ships will be able to use a Puerto Rican island for the final live bombing practice.
The training schedule for the carrier Eisenhower has been held hostage for months in a dispute between the governor of Puerto Rico and the Pentagon over the use of a firing range on the island of Vieques. Last month a presidential panel recommended that the range reopen for live firing exercises, but Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen has delayed making a recommendation to President Clinton until a compromise can be reached with Gov. Pedro J. Rosselló of Puerto Rico.
The range was closed in April after a Puerto Rican guard was accidentally killed in a bombing accident there. Protesters have occupied parts of the 900-acre range, which has been used for more than 30 years for exercises the Navy considers essential for combat readiness.
The demonstrators have vowed to stay on the range to prevent any further exercises regardless of what Clinton decides. Administration officials say the prospect of forcibly removing the protesters has been a concern in resolving the issue.
By going ahead with the original training schedule but staying away from the waters near Puerto Rico, the aircraft carrier will begin its final preparations for deployment to the Mediterranean Sea and the Arabian Gulf next February with routine carrier qualification tests.
The exercises will continue two more weeks. The Navy still expects the carrier and battle group to train with live fire at Vieques during that time, a spokesman said.
-------- brazil
Brazil's second nuclear reactor Angra II
Brazil Eletrobras to raise up to $400 mln globally
Reuters Wednesday December 1, 9:14 am Eastern Time
http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/991201/lz.html
SAO PAULO, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Brazil's federal power holding Eletrobras said Wednesday it was planning on raising between $300 million and $400 million from international markets in the first quarter of next year.
The funds would be used to finish up the construction of Brazil's second nuclear reactor Angra II and increase generation capacity at its hydroelectric energy plant Tucurui in northern Brazil, as well as pay shareholder dividends, Eletrobras' spokesman said.
The two projects will consume some 1.7 billion reais ($885 million) in investments.
Eletrobras wants to take advantage of improving market conditions for Brazilian companies following the country's currency devaluation earlier this year.
-------- germany
Schroeder ready to extend nuclear exit talks
Reuters 11:37 a.m. Dec 01, 1999 Eastern
http://infoseek.go.com/Content?arn=a2175LBY818reulb-19991201&qt=%2Bnuclear&sv=IS&lk=noframes&col=NX&kt=A&ak=news1486
BERLIN, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said on Wednesday he was ready to extend talks with the energy sector over his government's pledge to pull out of nuclear power if no compromise has been reached by the end of the year.
That was the deadline originally set for negotiations over the move. Schroeder's coalition partners the Greens insist that if no agreement is reached by then, the exit will be enforced by law -- despite industry threats to sue for compensation.
``I hope we'll get (an agreement) by the end of the year but if we don't then it's also okay at the start of next year,'' he told German ZDF television.
Germany's 19 nuclear reactors together supply around a third of the country's energy.
Talks between the government and Germany's four main nuclear providers -- Veba, Viag, RWE and EnBW -- have stalled on disagreement about how long the gradual closure of the reactors should take.
Industry is understood to be ready to consider a withdrawal period based on a reactor having completed 35 years working life -- meaning the last reactor would be closed in 2024 -- while many Greens insist it should happen at least 10 years sooner.
No date has been set for the resumption of talks.
-------- india/pakistan
Nuclear Rookies India, Pakistan Under Y2K Cloud
Reuters 06:27 p.m Nov 30, 1999 Eastern By Narayanan Madhavan
http://infoseek.go.com/Content?arn=a3641rittz-19991130&qt=%2Bnuclear&sv=IS&lk=noframes&col=NX&kt=A&ak=news1486
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The clock is ticking but the world's newest nuclear powers have not yet totally dispelled fears that the Y2K bug may accidentally set their war machines in motion.
Barely a month before the turn of the year, it is still unclear whether old enemies India and Pakistan, which came close to their fourth war this year, have unambiguously eliminated the possibility.
The two South Asian nations have in the past taken limited confidence-building measures such as installing a telephone hotline between their army headquarters aimed at preventing accidental wars or triggers. But there is no official confirmation they have taken extra steps to ensure the Y2K computer bug does not pose such problems in their nuclear age, which dawned in 1998 after tit-for-tat underground tests.
Security analysts are worried. Unlike the United States and Russia, India and Pakistan have not publicized or confirmed -- and probably have not made -- coordinated efforts to ensure that a Y2K fault does not trigger misunderstandings.
Tim McDonald of the British American Security Information Council notes that the United States and Russia agreed to swap personnel to avoid misunderstandings over the Y2K period.
``I'm worried about people who haven't committed so much close assessment and analysis, like India and Pakistan,'' he told Reuters in London. ``Their systems are much more fragile.''
The Y2K, or Year 2000, problem can occur in computers that denote years only by their last two digits. Unless rectified, this could cause malfunctions when the new year dawns.
McDonald said he was receiving mixed messages about Russia but thought it was not as vulnerable to Y2K as Western systems. He said he was not sure about China or Israel.
BAD BLOOD
``The real problem with Y2K is the uncertainty it creates, which could lead to increased chances of accidental launch,'' he said. ``India and Pakistan have very unsophisticated radar systems and they are such close neighbors they have much less time to respond to potential attacks.''
It is not easy for Pakistan and India to talk. They stood on the verge of war between May and July, when Indian troops fought off intruders from Pakistan's side of disputed Kashmir. Relations have soured even further after a military coup in Islamabad in October.
More significant, they have no publicized stock of nuclear warheads.
A key Indian official involved in Y2K compliance said there was no doubt Indian missiles, which can carry all types of warheads, are Y2K compliant. But he said he could not comment on nuclear warheads.
``There are three aspects of Y2K compliance: preparedness, when a missile does not fire because of the problem; defense response, when somebody else is not prepared; and accidental missile mishaps,'' said the official, asking for anonymity. ``In all three sectors they (defense authorities) have confirmed there is compliance,'' he said.
Other Indian officials were unavailable for comment on Y2K-related measures and nuclear warheads.
Pakistani officials could not be reached.
Kanti Bajpai, professor of international relations at New Delhi's Jawharlal Nehru University, said nuclear weapons in India were not in a ready state to create possible Y2K problems.
``I don't think nuclear warheads have been mated with delivery systems. There are a number of Prithvis (medium-range missiles) with the military, but these at best may have been loaded with conventional ordnance,'' he said.
He said the absence of a nuclear risk regime involving scientific contacts to prevent unauthorized launches was a matter of concern and confidence-building measures were necessary. ``But given the current no-business approach to Pakistan, all this seems way off.''
-------- netherlands
Greenpeace Wins Court Case on Nuclear Waste
Reuters 12:47 a.m. Nov 30, 1999 Eastern
http://infoseek.go.com/Content?arn=a0154romta-19991130&qt=%2Bnuclear&sv=IS&lk=noframes&col=NX&kt=A&ak=news1486
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (Reuters) - Environmental group Greenpeace won a long-running court battle with the Dutch government on Monday when the country's highest court upheld its request for a ban on transportation of nuclear waste.
The Council of State ruled there was insufficient justification for transporting radioactive waste from the nuclear plant in Dodewaard in southeastern Netherlands to the Sellafield reprocessing facility in Britain.
The government had not given a sufficiently detailed description of the route from Dodewaard to the port of Vlissingen, the court ruling added. Greenpeace had argued that residents along the route should be informed of transport plans in case they objected.
The environmental lobby, which was awarded costs in the case, also said that radioactivity was released into the environment during waste reprocessing.
The court also ruled that spent nuclear rods from a reactor at the Energy Test Center in the northern Dutch city of Petten could not be transported to a storage facility in the southwest.
Greenpeace had argued the site was suited only to mildly radioactive waste.
-------- nuc medicine
Siemens Nuclear Medicine Group Captures Market Leadership in 1999; Company Attributes Success to E.CAM and Continued Dominance in PET
BM Healthwire 03:24 p.m Nov 29, 1999 Eastern
http://infoseek.go.com/Content?arn=BW1514-19991129&qt=%2Bnuclear&sv=IS&lk=noframes&col=NX&kt=A&ak=news1486
CHICAGO--(BW HealthWire)--Nov. 29, 1999--Siemens Medical Systems, Inc., Nuclear Medicine Group, announced today that they achieved continuing growth in nuclear sales and market share during 1999. Ms. Franciose, group vice president of Siemens worldwide business unit, reported that Siemens Nuclear Medicine Group has recaptured the number one market position with 30% share worldwide in nuclear medicine and PET (orders - $M). Our growth has been fueled by strong demand for our E.CAM single photon emission tomography (SPECT) systems and by the rapid growth in demand for positron emission tomography (PET) and coincidence imaging systems. Recent reimbursement approvals and steady growth in conventional nuclear procedures are expected to continue to increase demand for nuclear products worldwide, and Siemens is uniquely positioned with the widest array of SPECT and PET products."
Siemens and its joint-venture company CTI PET Systems, Inc. (CPS) captured nearly 70% market share worldwide in PET during 1999, considerably outpacing all competitors. CPS continues to push the technological edge with major advancements in image quality, throughput and with proprietary detector technologies that further extend system performance for dedicated PET and combination systems. CPS received special recognition by capturing `Image of the Year Award' for the company's work in PET/CT at the 1999 Society of Nuclear Medicine Meeting in Los Angeles.
"Sales revenue and profits exceeded our targets by a significant margin in fiscal 1999," reported Barbara Franciose. "We have made considerable gains in our product and service businesses, which further contribute to our profitability and leadership position. When one adds our strategic OEM sales agreements to our increase in new orders, it is clear that Siemens' nuclear medicine business is not only thriving, but will continue to be a formidable competitor and a significant contributor to Siemens world-wide medical business."
According to Franciose, Siemens' sales and market position has been steadily improving since the introduction of the E.CAM family of nuclear medicine cameras approximately three years ago. With the success of the E.CAM and our world-class PET products, it is clear we are providing our customers the clinical value, functionality and patient-handling features they need to manage this important segment of patient care. The disease-management strategy of Siemens Medical Systems has amplified the value of nuclear medicine within our business development activities. With this new integrated focus and our favorable business results, we expect to further grow and strengthen our market leadership position in the future."
Siemens Medical Systems, Inc., Nuclear Medicine Group, based in Hoffman Estates, IL, develops and markets a wide range of nuclear medicine products. It is the U.S. affiliate of the Medical Engineering Group of Siemens AG, a leading supplier to healthcare providers worldwide. Siemens Medical Engineering, Erlangen, Germany, employs about 19,000 worldwide and reported sales of $4.2 billion (DM 8 billion) and orders of $4.3 billion (DM 8.1 billion) in fiscal 1998/99.
---
Matritech Issued Patent Extending U.S. Coverage of Its Fluid-Based Nuclear Matrix Protein Cancer Detection Technology Until 2011
Wednesday December 1, 8:59 am Eastern Time Company Press Release
SOURCE: Matritech, Inc.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/991201/ma_matrite_1.html
NEWTON, Mass., Dec. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Matritech, Inc. (Nasdaq: NMPS - news), a company specializing in products designed to detect, manage and screen cancer, announced today that it has been awarded U.S. Patent No. 5,989,826 for its proprietary fluid-based nuclear matrix protein (NMP) technology to detect cancer in body fluid samples including blood, urine, spinal fluid and sputum. The patent provides protection in the United States until 2011 for all of Matritech's fluid-based assays currently being sold or under development, including the NMP22(r) Bladder Cancer Test Kit, the NuMA(TM) Colon Cancer Test Kit, the breast and prostate cancer tests under development and future tests for other cancer types.
``The significance of this patent is that it extends protection for the clinical use of fluid-based nuclear matrix proteins for the detection and management of cancer patients until 2011,'' said David L. Corbet, President and Chief Operating Officer of Matritech. ``This issuance is the twelfth U.S. patent Matritech has secured covering nuclear matrix protein technology, and strengthens our patent position in all NMPs for the detection and management of cancer. Matritech has additional applications pending with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for other NMP inventions.''
Matritech's NMP core technology correlates levels of NMPs in body fluids to the presence of cancer. Multiple published clinical studies have validated this ability of NMPs to detect early-stage cancerous abnormalities. Matritech has a deep pipeline of NMP-based products in pre-clinical and clinical development for the detection of major cancers including bladder, cervical, colon, breast and prostate cancers. The NMP22 Test Kit is cleared for marketing in the United States for the management of patients with transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary tract. It is also sold in Europe and Japan, where it is the only approved kit for bladder cancer screening.
Matritech, Inc., based in Newton, Mass., is using its proprietary nuclear matrix protein technology, discovered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and licensed exclusively to Matritech, to develop and commercialize innovative serum-, cell- and urine-based NMP diagnostics that enable physicians to reliably detect and monitor the presence of bladder, colon, cervical, breast and prostate cancers.
Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
Any forward-looking statements related to the Company's expectations regarding the Company's existing and future projects are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control. These include, but are not limited to, risks related to the Company's reliance on distribution partners, limited capital resources, unforeseen delays in product development or denials of FDA and other regulatory approvals, future product demand and pricing, competitive products and technical developments and general business and economic conditions. There can be no assurance that the Company's expectation for its products will be achieved.
SOURCE: Matritech, Inc.
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-------- us nuc uranium
USEC to Continue as U.S. Government Agent for the Megatons-to-megawatts Program
Wednesday December 1, 8:00 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
BETHESDA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 1, 1999--USEC Inc. (NYSE:USU - news) announced today the decision by the Board of Directors that the Company will continue to serve under existing terms as the U.S government's Executive Agent for the purchase of Russian enriched uranium fuel derived from Russian nuclear warheads.
In making the announcement, William H. Timbers, President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, ``The Board has extensively considered many factors, including near-term enrichment pricing, opportunities for improving the balance of supply in the market, and the potential for positive change in these factors. The Board of Directors and management have determined that it is in the long-term interests of the Company to remain as the Executive Agent.
``While there are quantifiable costs to USEC and its shareholders associated with the Executive Agent activities, the company would incur greater economic costs in the long run from not being the manager of this program. As the Executive Agent, USEC is the best equipped, best financed and most experienced entity to purchase this material and integrate it into the market in a manner that minimizes market disruption and ensures the reliability and continuity of economic supply to electric utility customers.
``This decision also takes into account recent statements by Russia that they are prepared to engage in market-based pricing contract negotiations for the post-2001 period,'' Timbers added. ``For the next two years, USEC must pay $88 to $91 per unit for Russian material, while the market price for sales is only in the low $80 range.''
The Company has been in discussions with the U.S. government since March, seeking financial support that would restore the commercial economics of the contract for the remainder of the current contract period, which expires at the end of 2001. Those discussions have not yet led to a mutually acceptable solution.
Taking these developments into consideration, management now believes that the Company's fiscal year 2000 earnings will be in the $110-$115 million range, compared to the $120 million earned last year. This difference is due to increased costs associated with the Russian contract, partly offset by increased sales and cost reductions. The absence of government financial support for the Russian contract will continue to have a negative impact on earnings until market-based pricing is established under the contract.
``USEC management is committed to enhancing shareholder value,'' Timbers stated. ``To meet the expectations of our shareholders, the relationship between our cost structure, including the purchase price of enriched uranium from Russia, and the market price of our products must come into better alignment. We will decisively pursue this objective,'' Timbers asserted.
This news release includes certain forward-looking information (within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) that involves risks and uncertainty, including certain assumptions regarding the future performance of the Company. Actual results and trends may differ materially depending upon a variety of factors, including, without limitation, market demand for the Company's services, pricing trends in the uranium and the enrichment markets, deliveries and costs under the Russian contract, the availability and cost of electric power, the Company's ability to successfully execute its internal performance plans, the refueling cycles of the Company's customers, and the impact of any government regulation. Additional information regarding the foregoing factors is contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
USEC Inc. is the world leader in the sale of uranium fuel enrichment services for commercial nuclear power plants. A global energy company, USEC has its headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, and operates production plants in Kentucky and Ohio.
Contact:
USEC Charles Yulish, 301/564-3391 Elizabeth Stuckle, 301/564-3399 USEC Internet site: www.usec.com
---
U.S. Plant Will Handle Uranium
New York Times December 1, 1999 Filed at 10:28 a.m. EDT By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Uranium-Plant.html
BETHESDA, Md. (AP) -- The U.S. Enrichment Corp. said today it will continue handling uranium from Russia's dismantled nuclear warheads despite concerns about costs.
The company, which operates U.S. uranium enrichment plants, will continue negotiating with Russia for lower uranium prices in the next contract and will look for ways to cut costs, William H. Timbers, president and chief executive officer, said in a news release.
The company's board voted in a conference call to continue handling the recaptured uranium from Russia's dismantled nuclear warheads.
``While there are quantifiable costs to USEC and its shareholders ... the company would incur greater economic costs in the long run from not being the manager of this program,'' Timbers said.
The decision has implications for both global security and the economy of southern Ohio, where the company runs the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon.
The company spent the last several weeks making a case for as much as $200 million in federal aid to make up for a drop in worldwide prices for low-enriched uranium, the grade used as fuel by nuclear power plants. The Clinton administration showed no inclination to offer that much aid.
On Capitol Hill, where the privatization of USEC is the focus of an investigation, Rep. Tom Bliley, R-Va., chairman of the House Commerce Committee, said ``the Clinton administration dodged a bullet today'' but USEC's problems will not go away.
Bliley has been critical of many aspects of the privatization, and of what he views as the administration's failure to foresee the problems that led to the request for a subsidy.
U.S. Enrichment is under contract to pay Russia to convert highly enriched uranium from its nuclear warheads into low-enriched uranium. The company is the U.S. government's agent in the transaction, which was devised to keep warhead uranium away from rogue nations and terrorists.
The board's decision also takes into account Russia's willingness to negotiate prices after the current contract expires at the end of 2001, Timbers said. In the current contract, USEC is paying $88 to $91 per unit for the uranium, while the market price is around $80, he said.
More than a year ago, when USEC was being transformed from a government entity into a private corporation, Russia's minister of atomic energy said he was worried about whether USEC would want to continue handling the uranium.
Minister E.O. Adamov said opposition to nuclear nonproliferation agreements would increase in Russia's legislature if problems emerged with the USEC arrangements.
USEC has maintained that it wants to continue doing business with Russia, but does not want its shareholders to subsidize national security.
USEC's plants in Piketon and in Paducah, Ky., also are dealing with the issue of whether current and former employees unknowingly handled plutonium-laced uranium during the Cold War and developed cancers and other illnesses as a result.
The Energy Department on Tuesday sent to Piketon the first wave of what will eventually become a 20-member investigative team to examine past operating practices and contamination.
The investigation could lead to compensating workers for health problems.
---
Company to decide on uranium deal
Operator of enrichment plants weighs whether to stop handling material of former Russian nuclear warheads
Akron Beacon Journal, December 1, 1999 BY KATHERINE RIZZO Associated Press
http://www.ohio.com/bj/news/ohio/docs/015318.htm
WASHINGTON: The operator of the nation's uranium enrichment plants was set to decide today whether to stop handling recaptured uranium from Russia's dismantled nuclear warheads.
The decision by U.S. Enrichment Corp. has implications for international peace and security and the economy of southern Ohio, where the company runs the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon.
The company wants the government to make up for a drop in worldwide prices that has made it unprofitable to continue to be the agent that buys diluted warhead uranium from Russia. Under the deal, USEC pays Russia to convert highly enriched uranium from Soviet nuclear warheads into low-enriched uranium, the grade that is usable by nuclear power plants.
Goals include keeping Soviet-era warhead uranium away from rogue nations and terrorists and helping maintain political and economic stability in Russia.
The company had asked for about $200 million in relief, but the Clinton administration showed no inclination to offer that much aid, and there was considerable congressional opposition.
Today is a contractual deadline for USEC to notify the government if it wants to back out of the deal at the end of next year. Delaying a decision would obligate the company to remain part of the deal through 2001.
More than a year ago, when USEC was being transformed from a government entity into a private corporation, Russia's minister of atomic energy said he was worried about whether USEC would want to continue handling the Soviet uranium after the company's privatization.
Minister E.O. Adamov warned that opposition to nuclear nonproliferation agreements would increase in Russia's legislature if problems emerged with the USEC arrangements.
USEC has maintained that it wants to continue doing business with Russia, but does not want its shareholders to subsidize national security.
Company spokeswoman Elizabeth Stuckle said negotiations with the Clinton administration over USEC's request for help had been continuing but there was no resolution to announce yesterday.
The Energy Department and members of Congress who have been monitoring the talks also had no word of any breakthrough.
Bob Schaeffer of Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, a coalition of watchdog groups, said critics who opposed the privatization found their predictions had come true: ``It's hard to survive if someone else is selling product at a lower price than your marginal cost of production.''
``This whole venture was not well thought out,'' he said.
USEC's plants in Piketon and in Paducah, Ky., also are dealing with the issue of whether current and former employees unknowingly handled plutonium-laced uranium during the Cold War and developed cancers and other illnesses as a result.
The Energy Department sent to Piketon the first wave of what will eventually become a 20-person investigative team to examine past operating practices and contamination.
The investigation could lead to compensating workers for health problems.
---
Uranium Plant URGENT BETHESDA, Md.: news release.
Akron Beacon Journal Posted at 9:14 a.m. EST Wednesday, December 1, 1999
http://www.ohio.com/bj/news/ohio/docs/024566.htm
The U.S. Enrichment board voted in a teleconference to continue handling the recaptured uranium from Russia's dismantled nuclear warheads.
``While there are quantifiable costs to USEC and its shareholders ... the company would incur greater economic costs in the long run from not being the manager of this program,'' Timbers said.
The decision has implications for both global security and the economy of southern Ohio, where the company runs the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon.
USEC spent the last several weeks making a case for as much as $200 million in federal aid to make up for a drop in worldwide prices for low-enriched uranium, the grade used as fuel by nuclear power plants. The Clinton administration has showed no inclination to offer that much aid.
---
Uranium Plant BETHESDA, Md.: about costs.
Akron Beacon Journal Posted at 9:14 a.m. EST Wednesday, December 1, 1999
The company, which operates the nation's uranium enrichment plants, will continue negotiating with Russia for lower prices of uranium in the next contract and will look for ways to cut costs, William H. Timbers, president and chief executive officer, said in a news release.
---
Uranium Plant URGENT BETHESDA, Md.: much aid.
Akron Beacon Journal Posted at 9:14 a.m. EST Wednesday, December 1, 1999
http://www.ohio.com/bj/news/ohio/docs/013846.htm
USEC is under contract to pay Russia to convert highly enriched uranium from Soviet nuclear warheads into low-enriched uranium. USEC is the federal government's agent for the transaction, which was set up to keep Soviet-era warhead uranium away from rogue nations and terrorists.
The board's decision also takes into account Russia's willingness to negotiate prices after the current contract expires at the end of 2001, Timbers said. In the current contract, USEC is paying $88 to $91 per unit for the uranium, while the market price is around $80, he said.
More than a year ago, when USEC was being transformed from a government entity into a private corporation, Russia's minister of atomic energy said he was worried about whether USEC would want to continue handling the Soviet uranium after the company's privatization.
Minister E.O. Adamov warned that opposition to nuclear nonproliferation agreements would increase in Russia's legislature if problems emerged with the USEC arrangements.
USEC has maintained that it wants to continue doing business with Russia, but does not want its shareholders to subsidize national security.
USEC's plants in Piketon and in Paducah, Ky., also are dealing with the issue of whether current and former employees unknowingly handled plutonium-laced uranium during the Cold War and developed cancers and other illnesses as a result.
The Energy Department on Tuesday sent to Piketon the first wave of what will eventually become a 20-person investigative team to examine past operating practices and contamination.
The investigation could lead to compensating workers for health problems.
-------- us nuc weapons
Shared Missile Defense Would Protect Everyone
New York Times December 1, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/99/12/01/letters/l01mis.html
Related Articles
A Missile Shield Could Backfire (Nov. 26, 1999)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/early/11269926ohan.html
U.S. Missile Shield Will Set Off a New Arms Race, China Warns (Nov. 25, 1999)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/112599china-us-missiles.html
Letters Index
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/letters/indext.html
To the Editor:
China has now warned us, as Russia long has, that the development of an American missile shield would set off a new arms race (news article, Nov. 25; Op-Ed, Nov. 26).
Whatever the wisdom or feasibility of any missile shield, the United States can begin to address the legitimate concerns of other countries by offering to share with them the development of such technology now and, later on, the installation.
Should we not want people everywhere to be confident that they, too, have access to whatever reliable defenses might become available against missile attacks, especially if -- a big "if" -- truly effective missile shields should really make most nuclear weapons obsolete?
GEORGE ANASTAPLO Chicago, Nov. 29, 1999
The writer is a professor of law at Loyola University of Chicago.
---
Proposals for a Limited Missile Defense Create a Political Minefield
Diplomacy: Russia, China and even U.S. allies need to be sold on Washington's new, more modest plans.
Los Angeles Times Wednesday, December 1, 1999 By ROBERT E. HUNTER
http://www.latimes.com/news/comment/19991201/t000109587.html
Twice in the past 30 years, the United States has debated whether to build defenses against ballistic missile attack. The first led to the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviet Union; the second--centering on President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative--was swallowed up in the end-game of Soviet collapse. The issue is coming around for a third time, though for different purposes in a different world.
However, the U.S. proposal to build a limited national missile defense system is also controversial, even with Washington's allies. And that spells trouble ahead.
As before, the experts disagree about whether missile defenses can work. This is true even though the U.S. goal this time is not to try blunting a major Soviet missile attack--in Reagan's catch-phrase, to make nuclear weapons "impotent and obsolete"--but solely to intercept a handful of missiles that could be launched by North Korea in the near future or by countries like Iraq and Iran later on.
The theory is that our being able to intercept "tens" of missiles would lead any potential small-time aggressor to doubt the effectiveness and hence the value of an offensive arsenal. Some homeland defense also would make more credible U.S. threats of retaliation, using either nuclear or conventional weapons.
These arguments for a limited system bear little resemblance to the flawed case once made for defending against Soviet missile attack, and they are plausible, provided that missile defense is not seen as substituting for efforts to forestall threats from emerging in the first place.
However, many countries are not buying the U.S. logic. In part, this is because positions and concerns from old Cold War debates are being carried over into tomorrow's world.
The Russians were the first to complain about U.S. limited missile defense plans. For them, the end of nuclear confrontation with the U.S. means that the ABM Treaty has lost much of its former significance. Yet it does remain as a political symbol that, in some unclear way, Russia still must be reckoned with among the great powers. Thus Moscow is stoutly resisting U.S. efforts to revise the treaty, which must be done to accommodate limited missile defense deployments. The Russians see this issue in the same guise as their humiliation over the Kosovo war: further evidence that the United States is shunting them aside.
China opposes U.S. limited missile defense proposals for more practical reasons. Its scientists may be telling the politicians that what the U.S. proposes to do would not, in fact, provide an effective defense against a determined Chinese nuclear attack. However, the politicians worry that the U.S. might not stop there and would instead try to build a robust missile defense system that would attempt to negate tomorrow's Chinese nuclear arsenal. They also confuse U.S. limited defense of its homeland with possible efforts to defend Taiwan against short-range Chinese rockets. However, scientific logic rarely trumps political suspicion, and in the absence of a serious Washington-Beijing strategic dialogue, the U.S. accent on the word "limited" does not carry conviction in China.
Doubts about U.S. proposals for limited national missile defense also are coming from an unexpected and more serious quarter: most of the European allies.
Many are skeptical about U.S. arguments that Iraq and Iran will be able to deliver weapons of mass destruction against Europe in the next decade or so, and they fault the U.S. for not seeking nonmilitary ways of forestalling such threats. Their doubts about U.S. plans for a limited missile defense also contain an echo of the concerns they expressed about the Reagan administration's Strategic Defense Initiative: that for the U.S. to seek shelter behind a technological curtain implies an unwillingness to expose itself to risks shared by the Western alliance as a whole.
Clinton administration officials counter that the allies have it wrong on two counts. First, they should be joining the U.S. in building their own homeland missile defenses rather than pretending that no missile threat could emerge in the Middle East. Second, deploying a limited U.S. homeland defense is not an act of isolation but rather would strengthen Washington's ability to project military power abroad in defense of American and allied interests, with reduced risk of being deterred by some adversary nation's tiny missile arsenal.
As eventually happened during the Cold War, in time the strategists and politicians are likely to sort out the solid arguments from the bogus, and limited missile defense will stand or fall on its merits.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has a serious problem. Both political parties have endorsed the goal of deploying a homeland missile defense system when it is technologically ready, and President Clinton must make some key decisions next summer.
Yet the U.S. so far has not clearly placed this issue in a broad, coherent and consistent strategic framework, widely discussed here and abroad. Nor has it yet done the painstaking political spadework, either with allies or with countries like Russia and China that it would prefer not to see become adversaries. - - -
Robert E. Hunter, a Senior Advisor at Rand Corp. in Washington, Was U.s. Ambassador to Nato From 1993-98
-------- us nuc weapons facilities
USA Today 12/01/99 - Ohio
Columbus - The Department of Energy will begin investigating whether workers should be compensated for illnesses they say are linked to radiation exposure. Current and former employees of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon say they unknowingly handled plutonium-laced uranium and developed cancers and other illnesses.
---
U.S. launches probe in Piketon
Inquiry to determine if plant workers should be compensated for illnesses
By Jonathan Riskind Columbus Dispatch Washington Bureau November 30, 1999
http://www.dispatch.com/pan/localarchive/pikexnws.html
Federal officials will arrive at southern Ohio's uranium-enrichment plant today to begin investigating whether Cold War-era workers were exposed to deadly plutonium and other dangerous materials.
The three-day visit by a team from the U.S. Department of Energy will mark the start of an inquiry to determine whether employees at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio, should be compensated for cancers and other illnesses possibly linked to previous radiation exposures.
The investigation is expected to be completed by April.
"I know that current and former workers at Portsmouth and their families have questions about past exposures and practices at the Portsmouth site and how these may have affected their health,'' said David Michaels, the department's assistant secretary for environment, safety and health. "This investigation will help us answer those questions.''
Energy Secretary Bill Richardson already has proposed giving workers at a sister plant in Paducah, Ky., as much as $100,000 each for illnesses caused by plutonium-laced uranium that contaminated the plant when the government tried to recycle the uranium in spent nuclear-reactor fuel.
Michaels, who visited the Piketon plant Oct. 29-30 to hear the concerns of current and former workers, said a number think that their jobs caused their health problems.
"People report both serious illnesses and some very significant exposures, and we need more information on both of those,'' Michaels said. "My impression . . . is people worked very hard in some pretty difficult conditions making material to keep America safe. Obviously, what we have to do is make sure that if we were the cause of any of their illnesses, we take care of them.''
During the Cold War, the plant produced weapons-grade uranium, a key component in the nation's nuclear-defense program.
More plutonium and related elements apparently went to Paducah than to Piketon, but a Dispatch investigation revealed that southern Ohio workers also were exposed to plutonium, which is thousands of times more radioactive than uranium. Exposure in quantities as small as a millionth of an ounce can cause cancers.
Plant employees also were subjected to dangerous working conditions, including exposure to other dangerous radioactive and chemical elements.
During its initial visit, the oversight team will track down documents, tour the facility and try to locate people who worked at the plant between 1954 and 1993, the year the plant operations were turned over to a federal corporation. Investigators will return in mid-January to conduct interviews; they hope to submit a final report to Richardson in April.
The initial team will number five or six but grow to 20 by early next year, department officials said.
In addition, the investigators will scrutinize current cleanup operations at the plant.
The 45-year-old facility, now operated by the privatized corporation known as USEC, enriches uranium for use as commercial nuclear-power fuel. No-longer-used sites on the 3,700-acre grounds, however, are being decontaminated under the auspices of the federal government.
As part of that examination, department officials said, investigators will take soil, water and sediment samples around the plant site the week of Jan. 10.
-------- us nuc waste
DOE Halts NM Waste Shipments - (SANTA FE) --
Yahoo Wednesday December 1 6:39 AM ET
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/local/state/new_mexico/story.html?s=v/rs/19991201/nm/index_1.html#3
No more shipments to a New Mexico underground nuclear waste site, at least for now. The Department of Energy has suspended the transports while measures are being taken to set up more precise methods for sorting the incoming waste. The suspension comes after a state permit for the site's operation took effect Friday, requiring a detailed listing of which waste is radioactive and which consists of hazardous chemicals. Under the government's new rules, the waste-producing site must now produce audits of what is in the barrels shipped to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad.
-------- us military
U.S. unprepared for biological attacks
USA Today 12/01/99- Updated 05:03 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/nc1.htm#wto
WASHINGTON - The government's medical stockpiles for dealing with chemical or biological terrorism are poorly managed, often lacking vital drugs and adequate security, congressional auditors said Tuesday. The General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress, criticized the Departments of Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs, as well as a special Marine Corps unit, for failing to manage their supplies for treating civilian victims of a chemical or biological terrorist attack. ''The poor management controls and lack of required items in their stockpiles lead us to conclude that they cannot provide reasonable assurance that the required medical supplies will be available if needed,'' the GAO said. The report said the agencies failed to keep good records, conduct regular inventories, maintain their own policies or ensure security.
---
A 'Stealth Lab' Spin-Off
Johns Hopkins Facility Launches For-Profit Business
Washington Post Wednesday, December 1, 1999; Page E01 By Sarah Schafer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/01/189l-120199-idx.html
When entrepreneur Bruce G. Montgomery decided he wanted to build a new company, he went idea shopping at one of the hottest idea factories in the world, the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory.
Lucky for Montgomery, the lab was looking for an entrepreneur.
The result is Syntonics LLC, the first for-profit company ever spun out of the super-secret Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), a university-owned research and development center that since World War II has labored over complex technological challenges, primarily at the behest of the Department of Defense.
Today's official announcement of the Syntonics venture is a milestone in the life of APL, which until recently had often been referred to as the "Stealth Lab," because of the quiet work it performs on its 365-acre campus in Laurel.
APL has been slow to turn commercial, a process most defense research labs began in the 1980s, transferring technology to the private sector and spinning off companies into their surrounding communities. The main impetus for this was a change in the law that allowed such university labs to own their intellectual property.
Because APL was even more heavily entrenched in government-sponsored work, primarily for the Navy, it took a long time--and some new blood--for the lab to start focusing on opportunities outside of the government.
"Before, if you came here with anything other than government money, they sent it away," said Montgomery, a career technology executive who is chief executive of Syntonics.
APL has licensed technology to the private sector, but it hasn't been proactive in making money from it, said Wayne E. Swann, the head of APL's new technology transfer office and the man charged with leading the lab's new commercialization efforts.
Swann had previously worked at the University of Maryland, running its office of technology liaison, which he created 13 years ago. Johns Hopkins will hold a minority ownership stake in Syntonics, which will sell highly specialized quartz oscillators--ultra-precise timekeepers used in spacecraft. However, the university will not put any money into the company. Montgomery will fund the venture using his own money and money raised privately. He would not specify the exact amount of start-up, or seed, money, but said it is several hundred thousand dollars.
Syntonics is the most visible example of APL's push into the commercial world.
"We're changing the culture here," Swann said. Just a couple of weeks ago, for example, the lab held the first ever "Pizza and Patents" seminar, an informal gathering where 100 of the lab's tinkerers gathered to receive kudos on their breakthrough inventions. Several were presented with plaques bearing a reproduction of the first page of their patent registration.
Of course, fancy plaques are one thing, cash is another. APL has also restructured its agreement with its inventors, allowing them to share more of the revenue derived from their patents.
"That change has helped generate a renewed interest," Swann said. Indeed, the number of developments "disclosed"--the step before patenting--is now double what it was before Swann's arrival. In the first three months of his tenure, there were 21 new inventions disclosed. A typical three-month period would generate about 10.
The lab has also started offering other support to its scientists and engineers, such as a new program that offers them small grants should they need a new piece of equipment to perfect a product for the commercial market, or should they need more money to build a prototype. In addition, the lab will offer help as scientists discover commercial viability for their inventions. Scientists, Swann said, "are not always the best people to write a business plan."
To be sure, the lab's primary focus will be on work for its government sponsors, and 90 percent of the lab's research will never be considered for commercial applications, Swann said.
In the early 1980s, APL was one of Montgomery's clients when he worked for Fairchild Space and Defense (now part of Orbital Sciences Corp.). Montgomery considered the APL space department "the entrepreneurs of the lab," scrappier because they did not have the steady stream of revenue from the Navy that the rest of the lab had, forcing them to work a bit harder to secure funding from other places.
Montgomery was familiar with the work being done on oscillators and thought he could build a business out of it, serving what he calls a "niche of a niche of a niche." The market for the oscillators is made up of about 500 commercial space companies and government entities such as the Naval Research Laboratory.
When Montgomery approached APL early this year, there was already a mental shift taking place within the lab, driven in part by the university's president, William R. Brody, who took that post in 1996 and formerly helped start three medical device companies. In January the lab gets a new director, Richard T. Roca, a vice president of AT&T Labs, the telecom giant's research and development arm.
Montgomery first discussed his plan to market the oscillator with Larry J. Crawford, who helps runs the business side of APL's space department, who liked the idea and set the negotiations in motion. When Swann arrived, the final planning sessions began. In fact, during his interviewing process at APL, people he talked to picked Swann's brain about the new venture, asking for his advice.
Syntonics's relationship with APL will give it an edge over most start-ups. It will be able to use APL's labs for testing, and can tap into the engineering brains at the lab who have been perfecting the oscillators--making them smaller, lighter and more tolerant of extreme temperatures--for 40 years.
Montgomery is hoping to locate his new baby in what will be the first technology business incubator in Howard County. Chances are good he will be accepted, said Richard W. Story, head of the Howard County Economic Development Authority.
The authority has worked closely with APL, the county's largest private employer, since the lab's inception, and Story said the lab's latest push to spin off new companies will make a significant impact on the area's economy. Swann, who is on the technology incubator's advisory committee, said he hopes to see spin-off companies locate in the community.
APL has suffered one casualty as the result of its new spin-off. Recently, one of the lab's top experts in radio frequency electronics approached Montgomery, asking to serve as the head technologist for Syntonics.
"I simultaneously got really excited, and really horrified," Montgomery said. But after talking to Swann, Montgomery hired the scientist.
Swann diplomatically played down the loss, but added, "certainly it is not our goal to start up technology [companies] and spin off people."
Time Factor
Syntonics will sell highly specialized quartz oscillators:
What an oscillator is:
A device used in spacecraft that keeps highly accurate timing, which is critical to determining position in navigation.
How the oscillator works: A quartz crystal, stimulated by an electrical current, creates another current that is amplified. That current is channeled into the command and control electronics of the spacecraft to provide a very stable reference signal so the spacecraft can "listen" to faint radio signals carrying commands to the spacecraft. The current also serves as a very accurate clock, similar to a quartz wristwatch, so that the spacecraft knows when to execute preprogrammed commands.
Number of oscillators to be built: In first year, about 24; in subsequent years, 50 to 100 annually.
Price: Ranges from $25,000 for a simple model to $500,000 for a complex one.
SOURCE: APL Space Department
---
Study Faults Launch Contractors
New York Times December 1, 1999 Filed at 6:09 p.m. EDT By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Space-Failures.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A recent string of multibillion-dollar U.S. space launch failures can be traced to flawed workmanship and engineering by the contractors who built the Titan IV and Delta III rockets, a Pentagon study concludes.
The report released Wednesday also cited fragmented lines of authority within the government for overseeing the space launch program.
``There is an urgent need to clearly identify authority and responsibility'' for putting satellites into proper orbit, the report said. It also said the Air Force has allowed its in-plant engineering support to erode in recent years.
The study was ordered by the Air Force after the malfunctioning of a Delta III rocket in May left a commercial communication satellite in a useless lopsided orbit -- the fifth failed space launch since August 1998. The May failure was the second botched flight in a row for the Delta III built by Boeing Co.
The trouble dates to Aug. 12, 1998, when an Air Force Titan IV rocket carrying a spy satellite blew up less than a minute into flight. An Air Force investigation uncovered faulty wiring as well as questionable quality control by Lockheed Martin Corp., the manufacturer. A Titan IV carrying a missile launch detection satellite failed on April 9 and a few weeks later another Titan IV put a military communication satellite in a wrong orbit.
In a letter to Defense Secretary William Cohen, President Clinton said he was pleased that the Air Force study had identified the root causes behind each of the recent launch failures and that corrective actions are being taken.
``Now and in the next century, our national security, civil and commercial space sectors will continue to depend on reliable access to space to achieve our broader national goals,'' Clinton wrote in the letter released by the White House on Wednesday.
Clinton said his science and technology adviser, Neal Lane, and his national security adviser, Sandy Berger, will review the Air Force report.
The report concluded that the main causes of the rocket failures were related to engineering and workmanship flaws in the factory. The shortcomings seem to arise from a premature shifting of attention -- by both the contractors and their government overseers -- away from the task of executing successful launches with existing rockets to the future task of using a new generation of launch vehicles, the study said.
It cited a ``premature `going out of business' mind-set,'' particularly in the Titan IV program. That program is ``chronically understaffed,'' it said.
The report also raised concern about the risk of failure in flying the fleet of 39 existing Titan, Delta and Atlas rockets, which are valued at $20 billion and include critical systems with no spares.
-------- us nuc power plants
Ginna Plant Hits Major Milestone
Wednesday December 1, 12:00 pm Eastern Time Company Press Release
SOURCE: Rochester Gas & Electric Corp.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/991201/ny_ginna_p_1.html
ROCHESTER, N.Y., Dec. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Rochester Gas and Electric Corp.'s (NYSE: RGS - news) Ginna nuclear plant recently passed a major service milestone by generating its 100 billionth kilowatt-hour of electricity.
That's enough energy to supply every residence in New York State for about four years.
Ginna went into commercial operation in 1970. It reached the 100 billion kilowatt-hour mark on Nov. 26. A kilowatt-hour is the amount of electricity it takesto power a 100-watt lightbulb for 10 hours.
Ginna was built in three years in the late 1960s for $88 million.
The plant meets about 50 percent of RG&E's customer demand. It is located in the Town of Ontario, Wayne County, about 20 miles east of Rochester.
RG&E serves 344,000 electric and 289,000 gas customers in nine-county region of Upstate New York. It is a division of RGS Energy Group, Inc.
SOURCE: Rochester Gas & Electric Corp.
-------- wto
Clinton's Plea: 'Open the Meetings'
New York Times December 1, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/global/120299wto-clinton-text.html
National Guard Is Called to Quell Trade-Talk Protests
New York Times December 1, 1999
By SAM HOWE VERHOVEK and STEVEN GREENHOUSE
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/global/120199wto-protest.html
Session Disrupted, Trade Ministers Insist They Will Continue
New York Times December 1, 1999 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/late/01trade.html
Acknowledging Protesters' Complaints, Clinton Defends Global Trade
New York Times December 1, 1999 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/late/01clinton.html
Seattle Officials Promise Crackdown on W.T.O. Demonstrators
New York Times December 1, 1999 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/late/01protest.html
Protesters say goal achieved
USA Today 12/01/99- Updated 08:49 AM ET By Patrick McMahon and James Cox
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncswed02.htm
WTO delegates battle protesters
USA Today 12/01/99- Updated 08:48 AM ET by James Cox
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncswed04.htm
Clinton enters fray over WTO talks
USA Today 12/01/99- Updated 04:22 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncswed01.htm
Clinton welcomes nonviolent protests
USA Today 12/01/99- Updated 04:28 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncswed07.htm
Protests Delay WTO Opening
Seattle Police Use Tear Gas; Mayor Declares a Curfew
Washington Post, December 1, 1999; Page A01, John Burgess and Steven Pearlstein
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/01/181l-120199-idx.html
Lessons From Seattle
Washington Post Wednesday, December 1, 1999; Page A42
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/01/000l-120199-idx.html