----------- korea

North Korea Marks End of Decade

By The Associated Press New York Times December 25, 1999 Filed at 8:16 a.m. EST
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-NKorea-Goodbye-to-1990s.html

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea is marking the end of the decade with an unusually frank assessment of its plight in recent years, when the closed communist country suffered widespread starvation.

A statement by the Korean Central News Agency, the official foreign news agency, said Friday that recent economic difficulties were even worse than the period after the 1950-53 Korean War that reduced both South and North Korea to ashes. It compared the last decade to being ``at the crossroads of life and death.''

Still, the title of the statement was optimistic: ``The Democratic People's Republic of (North) Korea has stood test of the 1990s.''

Since the mid-1990s, 220,000 North Koreans have died of starvation, according to Pyongyang's own admission. U.S. officials put the death toll at 2 million.

``The production could not be kept going in every field of the economy due to the shortage of power, raw and other materials and equipment, making it impossible to meet even the needs for consumer goods,'' the commentary said.

It's highly unusual for the Stalinist regime to admit to its economic mistakes.

The northern economy began shrinking with the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, which had provided its Asian ally with vital materials, like fertilizer and tractor fuel, for barter.

Since then, a series of droughts, floods and tidal waves have sent the North's collective agricultural system into free fall, taking the tottering economy with it.

North Korea has used threats of secretive nuclear programs and long-range missiles as a key bargaining chip during negotiations to extract more economic aid from the United States, South Korea and Japan.

Thanks to such aid, North Korea's economy stopped shrinking and its food production began picking up in 1999 for the first time in several years, according to South Korean officials.

Friday's statement made no mention of the outside aid.

----------- russia

Putin Wants Duma To Ratify START-2

Russia Today Saturday, Dec 25 at Prague 07:50 pm, N.Y. 01:50 pm
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=120171

MOSCOW, Dec 21, 1999 -- (Reuters) Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday he hoped Russia's outgoing parliament would ratify a key arms treaty, as U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott arrived for talks likely to focus on arms control.

The START-2 nuclear arms pact, outlining big cuts in U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals, has not been ratified in Russia since it was signed in 1993, holding up progress on discussions of a projected START-3 envisaging further cuts.

Putin was quoted by Interfax news agency as telling heads of parties elected on Sunday to the next State Duma, or lower house of parliament, that the old legislature should sit until its successor takes over in 30 days.

"That means there is a chance to ratify START-2," he said.

A U.S. embassy spokesman in Moscow said Talbott would be in Moscow for a couple of days to talk to government officials about international security issues. He declined to elaborate.

The outgoing Duma, dominated by Communists and their allies, failed to ratify START-2 despite requests by the Russian government. The accord has been approved by the U.S. Senate.

Despite its support for START-2, the Russian government is at odds with Washington over U.S. plans to create a national missile defense, a shield against attacks from what the United States calls rogue states such as North Korea and Iran.

Russia says it would breach the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, which it sees as the keystone of all arms reduction.

The head of Russia's Strategic Rocket Forces, Colonel-General Vladimir Yakovlev, said earlier this month he had proposed setting up a joint commission with the United States to study the threat from so-called rogue states.

Yakovlev said the proposal had so far only been made in unofficial talks. Washington said it welcomed any sign that Moscow wanted to cooperate on the issue.

Relations between the two countries have been further strained by Russia's military campaign in the rebellious Chechnya region, where Washington accuses Moscow of an indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force.

The START-2 treaty, signed by presidents Boris Yeltsin and George Bush in January 1993, provides for reduction of U.S. and Russian deployed nuclear warheads by up to two thirds to no more than 3,500 each by 2007.

The missile defense issue, cost concerns, fears that the treaty could favour U.S. strategic forces, disputes over U.S. foreign policy and plain hostility to Yeltsin in the Duma have all contributed to the Russian failure to ratify the pact.

---

Russians Head To U.S. For Millennium Missile Watch

Russia Today Saturday, Dec 25 at Prague 08:03 pm, N.Y. 02:03 pm http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=120225

MOSCOW, Dec 22, 1999 -- (Reuters) Russian missile specialists left for the U.S. on Tuesday as part of a millennium operation to ensure none of the two countries' 4,400 nuclear missiles are fired in error at the end of the century.

Russian specialists will join U.S. experts at a staff center in Colorado to watch for any false warnings of missile attacks sparked by the Y2K computer bug, Itar-Tass news agency said.

Both nations have taken steps to ensure their forces are not hit by the millennium problem, which may cause some computers to mistake 2000 for 1900 and crash.

Tass reported that 18 specialists from Russia's central forces for rocket and space defense were heading to Peterson Air Force Base, head of the U.S. missile-tracking Space Command in Colorado where the teams will monitor the millennium bug.

"We really do not fear that in Russia there could be an accidental rocket launch, a fault with early-warning systems or any other problems," Tass quoted Anatoly Shishkin, top general staff rocket forces official, as saying.

Russia and the United States have expressed confidence their missiles will not accidentally launch when the clock ticks midnight on December 31.

"I fully trust Russia's military professionals who will be on duty and who will be prevent the dissemination of false information," Shishkin said.

The teams will start their joint watch on December 27, working shifts for three weeks around the clock as they make sure Russia's 2,000 nuclear-tipped missiles and the U.S.'s 2,440 which are on permanent alert, do not accidentally go off.

The joint monitoring was agreed on despite relations between the two countries being at a post-Cold War low.

Russia was angry with the United States for leading NATO's air strike campaign against fellow Slav state Yugoslavia during the Kosovo crisis and for Washington's plans to alter a key arms control treaty.

The United States has also criticized Moscow for its offensive against Moslem rebels in breakaway Chechnya.

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Talbott To Visit Moscow For Missile Talks

Russia Today Saturday, Dec 25 at Prague 08:04 pm, N.Y. 02:04 pm
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=119942

MOSCOW, Dec 21, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott was expected in Moscow Tuesday for talks on the START nuclear disarmament and the anti-ballistic missile (ABM) treaties, according to diplomatic sources.

Talbott was due to meet with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Mamedov in a two-day visit which was planned in June.

Talbott's visit will follow elections to the State Duma which strengthened the Kremlin's hand domestically.

Russia and the United States signed the START II, Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, in 1993. Under its provisions, the United States would cut its total number of nuclear warheads to 3,500 and Russia to 3,000. The Kremlin would also be required to destroy its most powerful weapon -- the heavy multiple-warhead intercontinental missile.

On December 13 the then communist and nationalist-dominated Duma postponed a debate on the treaty despite an appeal from Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev that it be speedily ratified.

The official Russian news agency Interfax quoted the head of the parliamentary defense commission, Roman Popkovich, as saying discussion of the treaty would now probably begin in the first half of next year.

Talbott's visit comes at a time when relations between the United States and Russia are tense following US criticism of Russia's war in Chechnya and the expulsion by both countries of diplomats accused of spying. He is due to leave on Thursday. ((c) 1999 Agence France Presse)

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No Breakthrough In Russia-U.S. Missile Talks

Russia Today Saturday, Dec 25 at Prague 08:04 pm, N.Y. 02:04 pm
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=120565

MOSCOW, Dec 22, 1999 -- (Reuters) Russia and the United States failed to make headway in a row over U.S. plans to build an anti-missile defense shield, Interfax news agency said on Wednesday, citing unnamed diplomatic sources.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott was in Moscow to discuss arms control. But Interfax said the sides had failed to come closer over the issue of the U.S. defense shield, which would violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile pact unless Washington persuades Moscow to amend the treaty.

The 1972 Cold-War-era pact placed strict limits on defense systems designed to shoot down enemy missiles, under the logic that such shields would drive the Soviet Union and the United States to stockpile ever larger arsenals of nuclear warheads.

But the United States now wants to build a limited system to protect itself from nascent missile programs in countries it calls "rogue states", like Iran or North Korea.

Russia has said it would respond by increasing its offensive nuclear capability.

"If the basic foundations are changed as the Americans suggest, the treaty would lose its point," Interfax quoted its source as describing the Russian positi

---

Russia, U.S. Fail To Agree On Chechnya, Arms

Russia Today Saturday, Dec 25 at Prague 07:50 pm, N.Y. 01:50 pm
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=120928

MOSCOW, Dec 23, 1999 -- (Reuters) Russia and the United States failed to make any breakthrough on the thorny issues of arms control and Chechnya on Thursday in talks described by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott as difficult.

Talbott met Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during his three-day visit to Moscow for talks on Russia's offensive in breakaway Chechnya and arms control, which have put further pressure on already strained relations.

"We've got substantial differences, indeed disagreements," Talbott told reporters after meeting Ivanov in Moscow.

He slammed Russia for breaking international norms during the Chechen war and also said arms control talks would have to continue, suggesting little progress was made to close a gap between the two over the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

"We want very much to see Russia deal with what is a global problem...of extremism and terrorism, but to see that Russia deals with that problem in a fashion that meets international norms. And the feeling is that this standard has not been met," he said, adding talks would resume early next year.

"Personally, I continue to hope that the Russian authorities will find a way of dealing with this problem that maximizes the possibilities for a political dialogue."

Putin and other Russian officials have voiced confidence that the more than three-month war in Chechnya would soon be over. And a Russian commander in the rebel region promised to take full control of the separatist region within three weeks.

Russia has refused to be swayed by a mounting chorus of Western criticism, saying its campaign is legitimate in its aim to destroy Islamic fighters Moscow blames for a series of devastating bomb blasts in the capital and other cities.

Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev told Interfax news agency in Belgrade that Moscow's relations with NATO had plunged to a new low due to the criticism. ""The alliance is trying to talk to Russia over the problem of Chechnya from the position of force."

TALBOTT WANTS YELTSIN AND CLINTON TO STEP IN

Putin, his standing boosted by a general election and gains in Chechnya, has also expressed hopes that the State Duma lower house of parliament would ratify a key arms treaty soon.

A general election on Sunday reduced the opposition Communists' domination of the Duma and strengthened the hand of pro-government groups, making it more likely to pass the START-2 treaty, which outlines big cuts in nuclear arsenals.

Over the last few months, the outgoing Communist-dominated Duma has refused to ratify the START-2 treaty, which was signed in 1993, largely because of Washington's attempts to modify ABM. Russia considers it to be the cornerstone of military disarmament agreements.

In a last ditch attempt to persuade Moscow to accept changes to the ABM treaty allowing Washington to build a new missile defense, Talbott said presidents Boris Yeltsin and Bill Clinton, both leaving office next year, should intervene personally in the issue to secure a place in history.

"We now have reached the stage where high level experts, including military experts, are grappling with the problem," Talbott said.

"(This) is an important part of what I hope will get us to the point when President Clinton and President Yeltsin will be able to assure each other and the world as part of their legacies for their successors of a solid and enduring arms control regime."

The ABM treaty bans systems designed to shoot enemy missiles out of the sky, under the logic that allowing such defenses would have tempted Cold War-era foes to stockpile ever larger arsenals of nuclear missiles to pierce the enemy's umbrella.

The United States wants the treaty modified to allow it to build a limited defense, to protect itself and its allies from a possible missile launch by what it calls "rogue" states, such as North Korea and Iran.

Talbott said it had been "a tough year" for U.S.-Russian relations but expressed hope the new millennium would signal a fresh start. "One of things that I sensed during my visit here was a commitment on the part of the Russian leadership to make next year a better year in Russian-U.S. relations."

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

Selected Responses to Topic: "Do you agree with the Senate's rejection of the Test Ban treaty?"

Los Angeles Times 12/25/99
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/comments/viewsres.htm

The treaty is 68 pages long, and written in a jargon that could only have been created by a committee of left wing lawyers. No nation in its right mind would surrender its sovereignty to the inspection procedures set forth. The true purpose of the treaty is to establish a central world government, with all that that implies. It was a calculated insult to the Senate to demand instant approval of such a document. (E.B., Chicago, Illinois)

It is ridiculous for anyone to try and justify the testing of Nuclear weapons in this day and age. We have two choices, lead the world away from weapons of mass destruction or towards our own demise. You decide what the future holds. (P.M., Chicago, Illinois)

All I can say is "God, please help this country." We are going downhill fast. There is no vision, just pure, unadulterated short-sighted tunnel vision. These Repugs have forgotten their mission of serving the people. I cannot wait until 2000 when the American people will speak, and LOUDLY. (C.S.R., Miami, Florida)

We have had the ability to detect nuclear testing for decades, so the assertion by Mr. Lott, Mr. Helms and the other assorted irresponsible idiots that voted against this treaty that testing is not verifiable is ridiculous. What this really amounts to is a fit of pique by a group of emotionally immature, overpaid, and underachieving legislators who have demonstrated, once again, that they are congenitally incapable of governing. What is more tragic is the manner in which they are applying their Cold War models to justify the rejection of the agreement. Brent Scowcroft and Henry Kissinger asserted rejection of this treaty was irresposible: what will Trent Lott do now, attack Scowcroft's patriotism while more defense money goes to keep Mississippi's miserable, defense contract-subsidized economy afloat? The hypocrisy of this Senate is beyond any one human being's capacity to adequately describe. (C.M., Rochester, New York)

The Senate has again become the whipping boy for the Administration. The President loves to depict anyone who disagrees with him as a fanatic. This technique has become predictable and has lost effectiveness. The Senate was right. We need to remember Reagan's motto: TRUST BUT VERIFY. (M.L., El Cajon, California)

We are appalled at the Senate's actions regarding the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. That the Republicans would vote-in a block-to not approve the treaty gives us yet another reason to never vote for a Republican again. Read our lips. (J.&S.B., Laguna Niguel, California)

Jumping demagogues! Is there no extent that the Lott/Helms coven will not go to ensure the humiliation of our current President? Why else would any sane man block the effort to limit nuclear arms? Oops, sorry. Sane and the Senate tend to be oxymoronic, don't they? (D.W., Los Angeles, California)

The Senate Republicians have really made me mad. They have embarassed all Americans with their childish vote. How can they ask us to face the rest of the world now that they have taken us out of the realm of world politics. In their effort to take control from the Presidency they are taking the USA to world nothingness. We now stand for nothing in the eyes of the world in regard to the dangers of nuclear testing. The Americans will not stand for this. We will vote them out asap! (C.L., Santa Ana, California)

Your headline should have read:SENATE REJECTS AMERICAN AND WORLD PEOPLES. Never have I seen a political party work so hard to be put out of office in the next election. I think they're going to make it. (R.B., Los Angeles, California)

Unfortunately, the Senate has trouble trading off the risks of not verifying our nuclear stockpile 100 percent (as with most things, isn't 99 percent good enough?) against the risk that continued testing abroad will hasten the developement of such weapons and fuel the desire to use them on someone. Forty years ago, the idea to limit our own nuclear testing would have been absurd. Today, considering our overwhelming nuclear dominance, we should be much more worried that nuclear beginners will get the message that we don't care if they become real players in the nuclear game. Let's get on with substantial debate on the treaty. Maybe I'll learn something that sounds reasonable from the treaty's opponents. (R.G., Orange, California)

I truely believe the Republicans shut down the treaty just because they could and because they wanted to hurt Clinton.

This is the Republican Senate's bid for immortality like the House's on impeachment. They don't have to worry. They will be remembered. I hope it is as obvious to the rest of the country as it is to me that Republicans just aren't cut out for governing. I think the tip-off should have been that they started bashing the very institution they're a part of. I don't understand how Americans could have allowed them to control 2/3 of a government that they don't believe in. Reagan stacked the Supreme Court and they've been consistantly turning out idiodic, conservative, reactionary opinions. This will be the first court in history where the members live to see most of their opinions overturned and annulled. The Republicans are going to lose their tenuous and illigitimate hold on both houses of congress as well as the Presidency. The next president will be Al Gove and he will appoint liberal judges that will overturn their predecessors attempts to reshape the nation in Reagan's image!

It is perhaps well that we are getting this over with now, because the stakes just keep going up. We might have a little time to rectify the horrible things the Republicans have done to our nation, but there won't be much room to spare. I urge you all, if you value the future of America, to get out and vote Democratic in the 2000 elections. We're on the verge of losing the whole ballgame. (E.L., Pasadena, California)

----------- us nuc weapons facilities

Judge to Hear Request to Release Nuclear Scientist Awaiting Trial

New York Times December 25, 1999 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/china-nuke.html

Related Article

Nuclear-Weapons Scientist Pleads Not Guilty; Held Without Bail (Dec. 14, 1999)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/early/121499china-nuke-spy.html

ALBUQUERQUE, Dec. 24 -- On Monday, a federal judge will reconsider a ruling that a former nuclear weapons scientist, Wen Ho Lee, be held without bail until his trial, which is not likely to start for more than a year.

A federal magistrate judge, Don Svet, ruled on Dec. 13 that releasing Mr. Lee on bail would pose a "clear and present danger to the national security of the United States."

Mr. Lee's lawyers appealed, and a hearing is scheduled on Monday before Judge James Parker of Federal District Court here to review the detention order, the United States attorney prosecuting the case, John Kelly, said today.

Prosecutors say a year's wait before trial is not unlikely and the complexities of studying a mountain of classified evidence could delay the trial for 10 to 12 months more.

Mr. Lee, 60, was fired by the Los Alamos National Laboratory in March and indicted on Dec. 10. He was charged with transferring nuclear secrets to his desktop computer and portable data tapes and could face life in prison if convicted. The indictment does not accuse him of espionage.

Mr. Lee has said he is not guilty.

Mr. Kelly and his top assistant, Robert Gorence, argued in court documents filed on Thursday that the Mr. Lee, who was born in Taiwan, is a risk to flee the United States with stolen secrets if released on bail.

"Lee stole America's nuclear secrets sufficient to build a functional thermonuclear weapon," they wrote. "Lee absconded with that information on computer tapes, seven of which are still missing. Those missing tapes, in the hands of an unauthorized possessor, pose a mortal danger to every American."

Mr. Lee's lawyers have said the tapes were destroyed, but prosecutors said there was no evidence to prove it.

Other Los Alamos scientists have said Mr. Lee's actions are comparable to what other researchers and government officials do -- transfer classified material from one work station to another, not always mindful of security.

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Citing Missing Tapes, U.S. Fights Bail for Lee

Washington Post Saturday, December 25, 1999; Page A06 By Walter Pincus
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/25/120l-122599-idx.html

Government prosecutors have told a federal judge that nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee should be kept in jail because he has never provided credible evidence that he destroyed seven missing computer tapes he made that contain "classified information sufficient to build a functional thermonuclear weapon."

"Absent credible evidence to the contrary," Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert J. Gorence wrote in a court filing late Thursday in New Mexico, it must be assumed that Lee "continues to exercise dominion and control over these seven tapes," posing "an unprecedented risk of danger to the United States."

The government was responding to a motion by Lee's lawyers asking a federal judge to overturn a Dec. 13 ruling by Magistrate Judge Don J. Svet, who ordered that the Taiwan-born U.S. citizen be held until trial on charges of mishandling classified information. The U.S. District Court will hear evidence on the motions Monday in Albuquerque.

In seeking their client's release, Lee's lawyers said he could end up incarcerated "for at least a year" before his trial.

Separating Lee from his family in pretrial detention "for such a prolonged period would vitiate the presumption of innocence and violate his right to due process," Lee's lawyer, Mark Holscher, asserted in a memo to the court.

Lee's lawyers argued that the government has provided no evidence to show that Lee ever made the material available to any third parties.

The veteran Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist was arrested Dec. 10 and indicted on 59 counts of mishandling secret nuclear information under the Atomic Energy and Espionage Acts. He has pleaded not guilty.

In the first hearing, the government emphasized the possibility that Lee, 59, with relatives in Taiwan, might flee this country. In the latest filing, the government made clear it now most fears that the seven missing tapes still exist and that if free, Lee could assist "an unauthorized possessor" in using them to gain design information about nuclear weapons.

"Given Lee's control of and access to the seven missing tapes, Lee poses an inconceivable risk to the U.S. national security," the prosecutors wrote.

In Thursday's filing, the government acknowledged for first time that 24-hour-a-day surveillance initiated on Lee last April "was done primarily in an attempt to locate the missing tapes." The FBI and the CIA have conducted an unsuccessful worldwide search for any signs of the tapes.

While Lee's lawyers have asserted that the tapes were destroyed, the government filing claims it was never offered "any specifics or corroboration . . . regarding when or how the downloaded classified tapes were allegedly destroyed."

In fact, despite a full-day session last June with the government and Lee's lawyers discussing what the scientist would say about what he had done, the government said Lee "steadfastly refused to be interviewed" as to why he downloaded the classified nuclear files to his unsecured office computer and later put the most secret of the nuclear codes on unsecured portable tapes that resemble videotapes.

The government in its filing says that Lee's lawyers initially claimed only unclassified information was put on the portable tapes. But at the Dec. 13 hearing, an FBI witness said investigators used two tapes recovered from Lee's office to show they had once contained classified information.

In Thursday's filing, the government recounted other misstatements Lee has made, going back more than 10 years to discuss the failure to report, as lab rules had required, that he had been approached by Chinese intelligence officers during 1986 and 1988 visits to China. Left out of the filing, however, was the information that Lee himself disclosed his failures during recent interviews.

The government also noted that Lee "failed a polygraph examination" last February on the question "of whether or not he ever passed or transmitted classified information to an unauthorized person."

Svet ruled against bail after a 4 1/2-hour hearing during which the government laid out the meticulous and secretive way Lee collected tapes relating to U.S. nuclear weapons in 1993, 1994 and 1997, not only transferring classified files to his unsecured computer but also downloading them to 10 portable tapes.

As part of the effort to gain release, Lee's lawyers have turned in their client's passport and said he would surrender his right to fight extradition from any country abroad.

The government argued, however, that the value of the information on the missing seven tapes is so great that those secrets would "provide the necessary incentive for such a country to provide safe haven for Lee."

----------- us nuc facilities

GPU, AmerGen announce completion of Three Mile Island sale

Boston Globe 12/25/1999 13:46 By Jim Strader, Associated Press
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/359/region/GPU_AmerGen_announce_completio:.shtml

MIDDLETOWN, Pa. (AP) The lone operating reactor at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant is now owned by a joint American and British company, which has completed its $100 million acquisition from GPU Inc.

AmerGen Energy Co. has been buying nuclear generating plants in the United States for the past two years.

AmerGen last week completed the purchase of Illinois Power Co.'s Clinton power station. The company has three other acquisitions under way for Nine Mile Point in New York, Vermont Yankee in Vernon, Vt., and Oyster Creek in New Jersey.

The Three Mile Island purchase, which was effective Monday, was the second deal to become final.

For GPU, the sale of Three Mile Island allows the company to continue to shift its business focus from power generation to the transmission and distribution of electricity.

The sale, which was announced last year, does not include the Three Mile Island nuclear unit affected by the 1979 reactor accident, the worst commercial nuclear incident in the country. The damaged portion of the facility, known as Unit 2, has not operated since then and remains the property of GPU.

AmerGen's chief executive officer, Jerry Rainey, said the plant's Unit 1 has ''an excellent operating and safety record.''

''It has the potential to remain as one of the nation's top nuclear plants for many years to come,'' Rainey said Tuesday. ''We are pleased to add it to our growing portfolio of assets.''

AmerGen formed in 1997 by Philadelphia-based PECO Energy Co. and British Energy of Edinburgh, Scotland paid GPU $23 million for the facility, which is south of Harrisburg on the Susquehanna River. AmerGen will pay an additional $77 million for fuel over five years and will sell the plant's power to GPU for the next three years.

The deal was approved by federal regulators and officials in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The final approval came last month and the deal was formally completed Monday.

Rainey said an undefined number of the plant's 700 jobs will be cut as a result of the purchase. The lost jobs will come primarily in areas where work is duplicated at PECO's Peach Bottom and Limerick plants, he said.

''Over time, there is a reduction in jobs, but it's a slow, deliberative process,'' Rainey said.

Three Mile Island is licensed by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission through 2014. AmerGen likely would seek a renewal at that time, said the company president, Robin Jeffrey.

----------- us nuc waste

Top 10 News Stories of '99

Albuquerque Journal, December 25, 1999 By Richard Benke, Associated Press
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/1newsten12-25-99.htm

The governor's attempt to start a debate about legalizing drugs resonated with New Mexico news media more than any other story of 1999.

In a year-end survey, Associated Press newspaper and broadcast members voted Gov. Gary Johnson's drug debate as the year's top story. It received a third more points than the second-place story, New Mexico's prison problems, which included the deaths of six inmates and a guard in various incidents. The deaths of four inmates and the guard occurred in private prisons.

The long-awaited opening of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad tied for third with the investigation of security breaches at Los Alamos National Laboratory, which led to the arrest and indictment of fired scientist Wen Ho Lee.

Johnson's drug debate began last June at a meeting of New Mexico Republican leaders and spread nationwide at various conservative and Libertarian forums -- sparking talk of a Johnson Libertarian presidential campaign, which Johnson politely rejected.

"It's the top story for a reason," Johnson said. "People are talking about it because it needs to be talked about. It wouldn't be the top story if that wasn't what people wanted to talk about and believed needs to be talked about."

State GOP chief John Dendahl says Johnson's debate has been good for the state "on balance," but he emphasized that both Johnson and the state have paid a price for it.

"We recognized that there was going to be considerable hell to pay politically," Dendahl said. "It was considered unthinkable to decriminalize drugs."

The downside for the state was that the debate distracted from other issues, such as tax relief and school choice, Dendahl said. Johnson's proposal for school vouchers was ranked the No. 7 story of the year.

Johnson's re-election was voted the top news story in 1998.

Other runners-up this year were the Elephant Butte sex-torture case involving one murder and the alleged sexual torture of three other women; the shooting death of a 12-year-old girl at Deming Middle School by a classmate; Indian tribes withholding casino payments; and state Senate President Pro Tem Manny Aragon's now-terminated ties to Wackenhut Corrections Corp.

There was a tie for 10th place between the proposed federal acquisition of the Baca Ranch, a 95,000-acre expanse near Los Alamos, and the five-county chile crop disaster caused by high winds and a frigid, soggy spring that included hail damage.

WIPP opened March 26 after an all-night truck shipment from Los Alamos to WIPP, east of Carlsbad. Protesters lined the route, and one man was arrested for trying to block U.S. 285. The truck carried low- to mid-level plutonium-contaminated waste such as lab gloves and other garments and equipment used in nuclear research.

Since then, 43 other loads have arrived from Los Alamos, the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Colorado and the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, WIPP spokesman Dennis Hurtt said.

"By and large, the program is working very well," Hurtt said. "In no case has there been any situation that has been a jeopardy to the safety of the public or the environment."

The state alleged some mixed waste, containing hazardous chemicals as well as radioactive material, was improperly taken to WIPP, but the U.S. Department of Energy disputes that.

The story of Los Alamos security breaches initially was linked to suspicions of Chinese spying, but federal prosecutors now say the case against Lee involves no espionage allegations. Lee is charged with 59 counts, most accusing him of downloading nuclear secrets from secure computers to non-secure computers and onto computer tape cassettes.

In the Elephant Butte story, the only murder alleged so far is that of Marie Parker, 22, who disappeared from an Elephant Butte bar in July 1997. Dennis Roy Yancy, 28, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in her death. Prosecutors say Yancy told police he strangled her in a "torture chamber" on orders from David Parker Ray, who is charged with torturing three other women, but not with murder. Ray's live-in girlfriend, Cynthia Lea Hendy, and his daughter, Glenda "Jesse" Ray, are also charged in the kidnap-torture part of the case.

Congress reached an agreement this year to set aside $101 million to buy the Baca Ranch, which includes trout streams, an elk herd, a wide swath of the Jemez Mountains and the remains of an ancient volcano, the Valles Caldera.

The chile crop problems were most acutely felt in Chaves, Dona Ana, Eddy, Luna and Sierra counties, which U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman declared federal disaster areas.

Nine other counties -- Catron, DeBaca, Grant, Hidalgo, Lea, Lincoln, Otero, Socorro and Roosevelt -- were named contiguous disaster areas.

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Community will miss Flats boss

Denver Rocky Mountain News 12/25/99 By Berny Morson
http://insidedenver.com/news/1220jess7.shtml

Rocky Flats manager Jessie Roberson sometimes felt like a pariah when she began representing the defunct nuclear weapons plant before community groups three years ago.

"It really hurt me personally that people viewed me as untrustworthy, underhanded, sneaky," she said.

One day, longtime anti-nuclear activist LeRoy Moore of Boulder advised Roberson not to take it personally. It's just that Rocky Flats symbolizes everything people distrust about the weapons program, he said.

As Roberson prepares to leave to take a position on the Defense Nuclear Safety Board in the next few weeks, no one questions her integrity. Community leaders describe her as accessible and direct in expressing her views.

But whether the plant continues to overcome deep community distrust depends on the person who replaces her, they say.

"It's still the Department of Energy, and the Department of Energy is a problematic animal," said Moore, who is active with the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, a group that has criticized Rocky Flats for decades.

Roberson has held the top DOE job at Rocky Flats since 1996. She was appointed to the prestigious safety board position by President Clinton in September.

Enshrouded in secrecy and patrolled by machine-gun-toting guards, the weapons plant was widely distrusted in surrounding communities during the Cold War. Health officials and the public feared the effects on surrounding communities from radioactive materials released during two fires.

The plant has not made a bomb since 1989, and cleanup was well under way when Roberson became manager. Independent studies have largely dispelled concerns about health effects.

But Roberson said the next plant manager will have to continue to work at chipping away "decades of mistrust and cynicism."

Roberson said she spent a lot of time meeting with people. She visited the Peace and Justice Center, long viewed by Rocky Flats officials as the Kremlin West.

"I'd go again," she said of her reception.

"I'm going to miss her," Moore said. "She was as good as we had out there."

Hank Stovall, a Broomfield city councilman, agreed that Roberson was accessible.

Stovall is among local leaders who want Rocky Flats cleaned to a higher level than called for in energy department plans. He credits her with moving the cleanup forward after years of study.

"She brought a higher sense of urgency," he said.

Stovall says the danger is that a new manager will fall back into the old bureaucratic pattern of interminable study or that the manager will press ahead without Roberson's oft-repeated concern for safety.

Roberson said the nation must press ahead with cleanup at Rocky Flats and other weapons plants or the opportunity will be lost. New Mexico is balking at accepting waste for burial, as is Nevada.

So far, South Carolina, which will get the highly radioactive weapons-grade plutonium, has not objected. But that could change, Roberson said.

Roberson said it's easy for government agencies to fall back into the pattern of endless studying unless leaders continue to demand work.

"You have to pick a place and, bite by bite, deal with it," she said.

Roberson will continue to work with Rocky Flats in her new job, which makes safety recommendations to the energy secretary. The board made news in 1996 when it warned that hydrogen was building up in barrels of radioactive waste at Rocky Flats and could explode. The problem was corrected.

Contact Berny Morson at (303) 892-5072 or morsonb@RockyMountainNews.com
December 20, 1999

-----------

DOE worker testing set to begin

State Briefs December 25, 1999
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/3335.shtml

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A reshuffling of money by the U.S. Department of Energy has made $3 million available to begin testing current and former uranium-enrichment plant workers in Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky, federal officials said.

Workers have sought the tests since it was revealed last summer that they unwittingly were exposed to high radiation levels from the 1950s to the 1970s.

The expanded health screenings for workers at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Ohio and facilities in Oak Ridge and Kentucky were threatened when Congress cut a $7 million request for worker testing. Congress contended that the Energy Department should pay for the efforts from its regular budget.

Energy department officials said the $3 million will allow testing to begin in February. The department probably will request another $4 million from Congress in February or March. Most of that money would be used to track the flow of radioactive materials into and out of the plants.

Most workers are expected to be screened by May, but the program is scheduled to run through October 2001. Test results will be available to workers as they are finished rather than at the end of the program, officials said.

Workers of the Ohio plant near the Piketon area, at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Paducah, Ky., and the Y-12 former uranium-enrichment facility in Oak Ridge will be tested.

----------- chemicals

Plant Operator Indicted In Cyanide Leak

New York Times December 25, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/regional/ny-metro-briefs.html

NEW JERSEY

A Philadelphia man has been indicted in Camden on charges of operating a cyanide-leaking chemical plant there, near a day care center and an elementary school, the state announced.

The state attorney general, John J. Farmer, said on Thursday that in March, state environmental inspectors at the Evergreen Products plant found rusted drums leaking cyanide into floor drains connected to city sewers. He said that pools of liquid containing cyanide had also accumulated on the property, at 948 North Front Street in a largely residential neighborhood.

The plant operator, James T. McCann, 61, faces up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $150,000 if convicted of charges that he released toxic pollutants and created a risk of widespread injury, the state said. Mr. McCann and the plant, which produces detergents, are not listed in phone directories. Calls to an Evergreen Products site in Philadelphia were not returned.

----------- y2k

In New York, Y2K Yawn and Order City Confident, But Preparing For the Worst

Washington Post Saturday, December 25, 1999; Page A03 By Lynne Duke
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/25/107l-122599-idx.html

NEW YORK-The Millennium's coming! Run for the hills!

That would be the New York parody of the American hinterlands preparing for the new year, a jab at those places where people fear the potential for Y2K mayhem or religious doom. But not here, not New York. New Yorkers are too cool, too worldly wise--so says Brian Cohen, head of New York's Y2K project, with a common East Coast bias.

"I don't want to say New Yorkers are more educated, but New Yorkers don't react that way," he says. "New York City people are more the people, like, 'Okay. We got a problem? We'll deal with it.' They're not as reactionary as some people out West may be."

Really? Then just who's buying up all the gas masks down at the Trader survival store on Canal Street? Morris Kumar, a store manager, said some customers are talking about Y2K fears. And what about those MREs--meals ready to eat--that are selling briskly at Kaufman's Army & Navy on 42nd Street? And there's that very large Wall Street investment firm that took delivery a few days ago of 110 survival kits with emergency blankets, flashlights, water and pocket knives. Stocking stuffers? The person who placed the order won't say and didn't appreciate being asked.

If none of that suggests the obvious--that some folks here in New York are getting anxious about Y2K--then there's this: The New York Police Department is preparing for Y2K as if it were getting ready for a siege, laying in 30-day stores of MREs, fuel and mobile generators.

The fact is that in New York--more than in any other city--with its mega-population, centrality to global commerce and trendsetting status, no one really knows what 12:01 a.m. Jan. 1 will bring. Officials have prepared for any eventuality, from perfect calm and joyousness to Y2K-triggered blackouts, fear-induced riots or terrorist attacks.

The stakes are high, for city safety and city image, but also because of the cascading impact that New York mayhem would have on other cities still awaiting the millennium.

"Well, obviously, if we go dark, it's going to set the tone," said Jerome Hauer, director of the city's Office of Emergency Management.

Hauer and other officials already are disturbed by reports about what they view as overreaction to the potential for a crisis.

"I've heard of people leaving town," Hauer said. "I've heard of people going up to the mountains, getting out of the city. I've heard of people stocking up on food, on gas masks. Last week in the [New York] Post, they had a two-page ad for apartment port-a-potties."

Hauer also believes that trouble, if it comes, is more likely to stem from human fear than technological failures.

"I think if anything happens it'll be very localized, and the potential for being a man-made problem is greater," he said.

For instance, he said, if there is trouble abroad--like a blackout in such places as Sydney or London or a shutdown of automated teller machine services there--local people will no doubt fear that it will happen here as well.

Another man-made scenario Hauer has dealt with is what happens if the city's commercial property owners power down a cluster of skyscrapers, then try to re-power them simultaneously.

"If three or four of these power up all at once and put a drain on a transformer and a transformer blows, we have a localized problem," Hauer said.

Even a manhole fire could spark panic. Though they happen all the time during the winter, a manhole fire around the new year could be construed as something sinister.

"If it happens New Year's Eve, it'll be [perceived as] either terrorists or Y2K," Hauer said.

On the technological side, New York officials speak with confidence about their readiness. The city has spent $300 million to correct the problems that could occur if computers read "00" as "1900" instead of "2000." Cohen's preparedness team has identified nearly 700 critical computer systems in all 43 city agencies and inspected 65 million lines of computer code to correct glitches that were likely to occur. Officials believe the city's critical systems--power, telephones and the like--will not fail.

If computer problems do occur, the city has a 60-member "swat team" of Y2K technology experts poised to pursue and fix them. It also has elevator rescue teams for people who get stuck.

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (R) will preside over his domain from a Mission Control-like emergency management command center on the 23rd floor of the World Trade Center, where every city agency will be represented and monitored on 80 computer screens and 32 television monitors. The center was finished earlier this year at a cost of $13 million.

Aside from the technological threat, there is also the threat of terrorism of various kinds, by apocalyptic doomsday cults or political groups, heretofore unknown terror cells or a deranged individual or two. Police Commissioner Howard Safir, who co-chairs a terrorist task force with the FBI here, said the police have no intelligence suggesting a terrorist threat is imminent in New York.

The only odd group of which police are aware is the Concerned Christians doomsday sect from Denver, whose members recently were deported from Israel for fear they would cause millennial violence. They were then deported from Greece for the same reason. Some of their members arrived in New York earlier this month, Safir said.

"We track these people. We make sure we know who they are and what they're doing," Safir said. "But if they're not breaking the law, there's nothing we can do about it."

Except be ready. Nearly 20,000 police will be on the streets New Year's Eve, with about 7,000 of them concentrated in the Times Square area, where the largest millennial event will be held: the dropping of the giant ball signaling the dawn of a new year.

Each cop will have hand-held, chemically illuminated lights, should a power failure occur. A blackout also would be fought by the hundreds of light packs to be mounted atop police cruisers, each able to light up a city block. There also will be 20 mobile light trucks and 15 generator trucks, with each generator strong enough to power critical functions at a hospital.

Crowd control will be the most important aspect of policing that night. The Times Square event will attract as many as 2 million people, and events at Flushing Meadow in Queens and Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn together will draw more than a million people.

"We're doing everything from gathering a lot of intelligence for potential terrorist threats with the FBI and CIA, right down to making sure that in every event there are emergency [traffic] lanes so that emergency vehicles can get through," Safir said.

Kathleen Tierney, a sociologist and co-director of the University of Delaware's Disaster Research Center, said it is the job of police and emergency management officials to prepare for the worst, but that does not mean the worst will happen.

And contrary to the portrait of easily panicked people that is often put forward in disaster movies, real-life behavior as well as studies show that people behave very differently and often rise to the occasion in disaster situations.

"Good people don't become bad people, reasonable people don't become unreasonable," she said. "Everything we know about the way people behave in situations like that indicates that people react very well."

Safir cited the recent summertime blackout in the city's Washington Heights section of Manhattan, which affected 800,000 people. Despite its potential for looting and other mayhem, the blackout produced neither. Instead, he recalled, the community pulled together with emergency services to assist those in need.

"Quite honestly, I shouldn't say this, but it was actually a fun night," he said.

Such crises have made New York--like many big cities--skilled in emergency preparedness. Noting New York's record of handling huge events and huge problems ranging from blackouts to terrorist attacks to global heads of state gathered at the United Nations, Safir said, "The reality is we've done a lot of this. If there's any place that should be prepared for it, it's us."

Why Worry?

New York has spent $300 million fixing potential Y2K glitches, but if computers go down, public safety systems will still operate.

911: Backup manual operation system in place if computerized system fails.

Fire engines: Water pumping system is gravity-fed and shouldn't be affected.

Heart defibrillators: All are manual or semi-automatic and won't be affected.

Fire alarm boxes: The system was installed before the Fire Department installed computers and shouldn't be affected.

Police: About 20,000 police will be on the streets on New Year's Eve.

Each local precinct, police headquarters and the Metro Tech Center will have backup generators.

All officers will carry hand-held chemical-powered lights.

Twenty mobile light trucks and 15 generator trucks will be on hand.

SOURCE: New York City Mayor's Office

---

Your coffee maker won't brew.

ABC News 12/25/99
http://abcnews.go.com/ABC2000/y2k/y2k_intro.html

Your car won't start. The ATM swallows your bank card. Widespread power outages darken your state. Nuclear reactors go haywire, air traffic control systems fail, satellites tumble to earth, and worst of all, you can't watch Seinfeld reruns.

Those are just some of the calamities predicted for Jan. 1, 2000.

Although the United States is working hard to avoid these disasters, the Congressional General Accounting Office is still not convinced the country's most critical systems are ready yet.

And fixing the bug is not cheap. Estimates range as high as $600 billion worldwide - which ranks the millennium bug among the most expensive disasters in modern history.

What exactly is the Y2K bug? Well, back in the 1960s and 1970s, the people who built and programmed computers - huge mainframes back then - didn't have a lot of computer memory to work with.

In order to save space, programmers decided to abbreviate the date. Thus, June 12, 1972 became 61272.

The problem with this solution is that computers can't distinguish 1900 from 2000. So when Dec. 31, 1999 segues into Jan. 1, 2000, some computers will misread the date as 1900 and either malfunction or shut down entirely.

Y2K fixes are fairly simple. Making sure that every computer system in the world gets fixed is not.

Don't panic. There's no need to purchase firearms, stockpile food or convert your cash to gold bullion. But there are certain precautions you should take.

Being informed is the best pesticide for the millennium bug. So, ask your bank, your doctor, your credit card company, local utility, government officials, etc. if they're Y2K-compliant and, if not, what you can do to protect yourself.

Make hard copies of all important documents such as bank statements and medical records, and download testing software for your own personal computer.

And remember, there's no one answer; each state, city, bank, PC, credit card provider, etc. requires an individual solution. That's why informing yourself is critical; and this guide is here to help.

You'll find Y2K status reports on major institutions in this country and around the world, a compendium of Y2K Web links, live chats with Y2K answer man Mitch Ratcliffe, and much more.

If you act now, the only thing you'll have to worry about on Jan. 1, 2000 is your hangover.

Calamities and Costs

EVENT ESTIMATED COST

World War II $4.2 trillion
Millennium Bug $600 billion
Vietnam War $500 billion
Kobe Earthquake, 1995 $100 billion
Los Angeles Earthquake, 1994 $60 billion

Sources: Gartner Group and Congressional Research Service

------- xmas carol

[Couldn't resist including this Christmas carol that came out of Seattle....]

A Song in Honor of the Cops

From: "Coalition on Homelessness, SF" - coh@sfo.com http://homunculus.dragonfire.net/xmas/

Come and gather round you people now and listen to me yak,
All you doctors and you lawyers and you folks who push the crack,
And you folks who push the buttons and you folks who push the mops,
Come listen while I tell you how I really like the cops!

Oh I really like the cops, I think they're pretty cool,
I like them in my neighborhood, I like them in my school,
I think the cops are wonderful. I think the cops are nice.
And I like to have a broken jaw and carry a pack of ice.

I really like the cops. I think they're pretty neat.
I like it when they take my face and smash it in the street,
And then they drag me to the station, and they lock me in a room,
And then I like it when they rape me up the anus with a broom.

I really like the cops. They make me want to sing.
You know my favorite movie is that tape of Rodney King,
And so I really get pissed off whenever somebody like you
Suggests we should subject them to a citizen's review.

I really like the cops. I am so glad that they're around.
To hassle me and ticket me for sitting on the ground.
I really love the cops, I'd be so sad if they were gone.
There's something about a uniform that always turns me on.

I really like the cops. Just to see them gets me high;
I hope that I get taken into custody and die.
And then I hope that every fact that's in the coroner's report
Gets chucked into a dumpster so it won't be heard in court

And when I hear you making statements that you know are quite obscene,
Like how the cops are nasty, and how the cops are mean,
It makes me want to tell you that you ought to get some class
And help your local officers by kicking your own ass!

So gather round you people now and listen to me yak,
All you doctors and you lawyers and you folks who push the crack,
And you folks who push the buttons and you folks who push the mops,
Come listen while I tell you how I really like the cops!