----------- activists
"The Tooth Fairy Project"
http://www.northernlight.com/nlquery.fcg?cb=0&qr=%22The+Tooth+Fairy+Project%22&search.x=37&search.y=14&orl=
1. WISE Women special: THE TOOTH FAIRY PROJECT
The Tooth Fairy project. Parents and teachers in the US are sending their children's baby teeth to the Tooth Fairy Project to be tested...
http://www.antenna.apc.org/~wise/509-10/5010.html
2. Keep Yellowstone Nuclear Free, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Tooth Fairy Project
The Baby Teeth Study-"Tooth Fairy Project" The Baby Teeth Study grew out of the work of Dr. Jay Gould, Director of the Radiation and...
http://www.yellowstonenuclearfree.com/ToothFairy.htm
3. The Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP)
The Radiation and Public Health Project(RPHP) will hold a community forum on "The Tooth Fairy Project" and Cancer Rates in South Florida.
http://southdade.org/news/issue3/features/radiation.htm
4. The Baby Teeth Study
The Baby Teeth Study "Tooth Fairy Project" The Baby Teeth Study grew out of the work of Dr. Jay Gould, Director of the Radiation and...
http://www.naturalyellowpages.com/Environmental/Tooth_Fairy_Project.htm
5. RPHP Teeth Project Seminar in Long Island
help the Tooth Fairy and find out how to donate teeth. Alec Baldwin E. Sternglass J. Sherman J. Schlichtmann R. Snell M...
http://www.rphp.org/seminaronteeth.html
6. Main page of the RPHP Radiation and Public Health Project and Teeth Project With...
help the Tooth Fairy by donating teeth. We're making the news. Announcement. A New Book Has Just Been Released By RPHP...
http:// www.radiation.org/index.html
7. Baby teeth tested for radioactivity
Mothers living near the Maine Yankee nuclear plant at Wiscasset are being asked to contribute their children's baby teeth to test for radioactivity.
08/27/1999 UPI (newswire): Available at Northern Light
8. Baldwin Speaks for Nonprofit Group
POMONA, N.J. (AP) -- Alec Baldwin doesn't mind using his star power for a cause. 11/10/1999 AP Online (newswire): Available at Northern Light
9. The Baby Teeth Study
The Baby Teeth Study "Tooth Fairy Project" The Baby Teeth Study grew out of the work of Dr. Jay Gould, Director of the Radiation and... 10/09/1999 Commercial site: http://innerself.com/Magazine/Environmental/Tooth_Fairy_Project.htm
10. Main page of the RPHP Radiation and Public Health Project and Teeth Project With...
help the Tooth Fairy by donating teeth. Read news coverage of our recent press conference Additional articles appeared at Reuters, ABC News...
http://www.oldbooks.net/rphp/index.html
----------- alternative energy
Earth Day turning 30, organizers push clean energy
Reuters
April 4, 2000
http://www.envirolink.org/environews/reuters/articles/Environment/04_04_2000.reute-story-bcenvironmentearthday.html
WASHINGTON () - Earth Day turns 30 on April 22 when thousands of people are expected to converge on the National Mall to hear exhortations from organizers and celebrities for a renewed effort to transform America into a clean energy nation.
Celebrations are also planned around the country and world, in addition to the Washington event, which is to be chaired and emceed by actor Leonardo DiCaprio, Hollywood's earth ambassador and box office darling.
To kick off the official countdown Tuesday, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, Environmental Protection Agency head Carol Browner, lawmakers and environmental interest groups laid out an ambitious agenda for Earth Day 2000.
Denis Hayes, an Earth Day founder and chief architect of this year's gala, said much progress had been made on environmental policies since 1970, but much needs to be done for fighting the gravest threat yet: global warming.
``Earth Day will not just be a call for clean energy, but a bold demonstration that we currently possess the technology necessary for responsible energy production and consumption,'' Hayes said.
The move to clean power encompasses a sweeping agenda, led by EPA efforts to force old, coal-burning power plants to meet stringent new clean air standards, to developing hydrogen-fueled vehicles, to Congress passing budgets with adequate funding for research and development, speakers said.
Browner said even now there were some in Congress who scoffed at the idea the globe was warming, despite international scientific evidence that temperatures were warming, threatening to unleash diseases once though eradicated and swell oceans and alter customary weather patterns across Earth.
``Climate change will really test our resolve as a people,'' Browner said. She also asked Congress to approve EPA's $237 million request for its Clean Air Partnership Fund.
Hayes said to demonstrate the viability of clean air energy -- wind, solar, biomass -- the event on the Mall will be the largest such gathering fueled totally by alternative energy.
``The stage, exhibits and audio and video systems will be powered by solar, wind, microturbine and bio-diesel generated energy,'' Hayes said.
Organizers said in addition to DiCaprio, other performers and notables scheduled to join the event are musicians Carole King and David Crosby, actors Chevy Chase, Tom Arnold and Melanie Griffith and scores of sympathetic legislators.
----------- australia
Traditional owners veto uranium mine proposal
Australian Broadcsting
4/4/00
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-4apr2000-115.htm
The Aboriginal traditional owners of the Koongarra uranium mine site in the Northern Territory have vetoed the development.
The Northern Land Council says a full council meeting today resolved to refuse consent for Koongarra.
The council says it met all people with traditional interests in the Warramal land, which includes the Koongarra site.
It says it is satisfied correct procedures have been followed, under the Northern Territory Land Rights Act.
The council says it will convene a meeting soon, to answer any questions raised recently about traditional ownership of the land.
At least two clans claim the council identified a new clan, that was given authority to speak for the land.
----------- belgium
Belgian nuclear shipments begin as court backs down
http://www.envirolink.org/environews/reuters/articles/Environment/04_04_2000.reulb-story-bcenvironmentnuclearbelgium.html
BRUSSELS, April 4 (Reuters) - A Belgian court has reversed its ban on a rail shipment of nuclear waste from France destined for storage in Belgium and the first load is already on its way, the Belgian interior ministry said on Tuesday.
Following a government appeal, the court in Dendermonde, northern Belgium, reversed a decision made two days earlier to block the shipment on the grounds that the Belgium government was not prepared for a possible accident.
``The decision this morning allows the shipment to be executed in the planned timeframe,'' read a ministry statement. ``The first shipment will leave therefore today around 2 p.m. (1200 GMT) from Valognes (France) to Dessel (Belgium).''
The train will bring reprocessed fuel from France's Cogema plant at La Hague, through a train station in Valognes, and on to a storage depot in Dessel, northern Belgium.
Synatom, the nuclear power division of Belgian power utility Electrabel, said the shipment would arrive at Mol train station, close to its final destination, at 0330 GMT on Wednesday.
Belgium plans to make 15 shipments, taking back 75 cubic metres (2,649 cu ft) of ``vitrified'' waste -- used reprocessed fuel stored in canisters -- for long-term storage. The fuel originates from Belgium's own nuclear power stations.
Environmental action group Greenpeace had petitioned the Dendermonde court claiming Belgium had failed to implement an appropriate emergency plan for a potential accident during transportation.
``(But) we said in our defence that all security measures were taken and there was no need to try to stop (the shipments),'' Interior Minister Antoine Duquesne's spokesman told Reuters.
The interior ministry said it had ordered additional security to protect the shipments.
----------- china
Envoy hosted satellite firms in China
April 4, 2000
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://208.246.212.80/national/default-2000442272.htm
The U.S. ambassador in Beijing recently hosted a meeting of Chinese and U.S. satellite companies, including two firms now under federal investigation on charges of illegally sharing missile data with China.
In addition, a spokesman for one of the companies and a U.S. Embassy spokesman gave conflicting accounts of what was discussed at the meeting.
The March 16 dinner meeting at the diplomatic residence of Ambassador Joseph Prueher included the Chinese government minister in charge of the China Aerospace Science & Technology Corp. (CASC). The state-owned company runs China's missile program and has been linked by congressional investigators to illegal contributions to President Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign.
A China Aerospace-related firm, China Great Wall Industries, is now a target of a federal probe, along with SpaceSystems Loral and Hughes Electronics Corp. on charges the two companies gave sensitive missile technology to the Chinese resulting from a launch failure investigation in 1996.
Loral spokesman Tom Ross, a former White House National Security Council official, said the company sought the Beijing meeting specifically to discuss the suspended export license for Loral's ChinaSat 8, an advanced civilian communications satellite.
"We did it unilaterally," Mr. Ross said. "We asked the ambassador to have a meeting to explain the status of ChinaSat 8, and the ambassador set up a meeting."
Embassy spokesman Bill Palmer said because Loral and Hughes are under investigation, the subject of launching ChinaSat 8 on a Chinese rocket was never discussed. Mr. Palmer, in Beijing, could not immediately offer an explanation for the discrepancy.
The meeting with Mr. Prueher, a former admiral in charge of all U.S. Pacific forces, included representatives of Loral, formerly Loral Space & Communications Ltd., Lockheed Martin, Hughes, CASC, and China Telecommunications Broadcast Satellite Corp., known as ChinaSat.
According to the Defense Intelligence Agency, ChinaSat in January launched the first in a series of military communications satellites for a new command, control, communications and intelligence system that will assist the People's Liberation Army in linking its armed forces in conflict.
The satellite dinner was organized by the ambassador at the request of Loral's chief representative in Asia, William Wright, to discuss the stalled U.S. export license for the Loral-made ChinaSat 8 satellite, according to Mr. Ross, the Loral spokesman.
However, Mr. Palmer said there was no discussion at the dinner of ChinaSat 8.
"The ambassador is well aware of the federal investigations of Hughes and Loral," Mr. Palmer said in a statement to The Washington Times. "As a result, there was no discussion of ChinaSat 8."
Mr. Ross said the meeting's purpose was to focus on the "status of ChinaSat 8" and that Mr. Prueher decided to have a "broader meeting" by inviting more people.
Mr. Palmer said the meeting was legal under the 1980 Foreign Service Act, which allows U.S. ambassadors to promote U.S. exports and trade, he said.
"The ambassador agreed to host the dinner at Loral's request to demonstrate the embassy's support for these three major exporters as well as the U.S. industry and its workers, and to learn more about the business plans of these Chinese companies," Mr. Palmer said, noting that satellite exports produce "millions" of dollars for U.S. companies and thousands of jobs.
Helen Sanders, a spokeswoman for Hughes, had no immediate comment. A Lockheed Martin spokesman also had no comment.
Sen. Robert C. Smith, who briefly held up Mr. Prueher's nomination in November over charges the retired admiral was soft on China, said the satellite meeting is "very disturbing."
"It certainly sounds inappropriate to me to be wining and dining two contractors under federal investigation for providing military secrets to an enemy nation," the New Hampshire Republican said in an interview.
"This is exactly the reason I held him up. . . . I thought he was a little too cozy with China," Mr. Smith said, noting that he will request a formal explanation from the ambassador about the meeting.
Larry Wortzel, a former military officer who served in China, also said it is inappropriate for the ambassador to be aiding Chinese companies in light of recent congressional reports on China's acquisition of U.S. missile technology.
"The Department of State and Department of Defense have concluded that the unauthorized release of technical information from satellite companies, specifically Hughes and Loral, raises serious national security concerns," Mr. Wortzel said.
As for the ambassador's role in promoting trade, Mr. Wortzel, now with the Heritage Foundation, said: "That's true. But there are national security aspects to trade that seem to have been ignored."
China Aerospace also surfaced during recent congressional investigations into illegal campaign contributions. A Hong Kong representative of China Aerospace, Chinese Lt. Col. Liu Chao-ying, provided $50,000 in cash from the Chinese military to a Clinton aide in exchange for "good things" from the president, according to congressional investigators.
President Clinton waived export restrictions for Loral in February 1998 and let ChinaSat 8 be launched on a Chinese rocket. The launch was suspended after Congress stripped Commerce of satellite licensing authority and placed restrictions on Chinese satellite launches.
Critics have said the presidential waiver undermined the Justice Department's probe. Approving a Loral satellite export while the company was under criminal investigation would have aided the firm in any court defense of the technology transfer charges.
The recent meeting set up by the top U.S. diplomat in China with representatives of two Chinese satellite firms and Loral, Hughes and Lockheed Martin also could be used by the companies in any future court battle, government officials said privately.
Both Loral and Hughes face criminal penalties and economic sanctions if found guilty of improperly providing China with technology that the Pentagon has said helped to improve the reliability of China's space boosters and nuclear missiles. Both companies have denied wrongdoing.
The Justice Department probe of Loral and Hughes Electronics and China Aerospace for the missile technology transfers has been under way for three years.
-----------
Bauer: Clinton-Gore Administration Courts China
U.S. Newswire
4 Apr 16:16
http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/Current_Releases/0404-143.html
Bauer: Clinton-Gore Administration Courts China Yet Rebukes Israel To: National Desk Contact: Tim Goeglein or Matt Smith, 202-479-9696, both of Campaign for Working Families
WASHINGTON, April 4 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Gary Bauer, former Republican presidential candidate and Campaign for Working Families founder, today issued the following statement regarding the continued Clinton-Gore administration's distortions produced from their trade-trumps-all policy toward China.
"The distortions produced by the trade-trumps-all policy toward China continue to mount," said Bauer. "This week Secretary of Defense William Cohen publicly rebuked Israel for selling an advanced airborne radar system to China. 'I have indicated before that the United States does not support the sale of this type of technology to China,' Secretary Cohen said in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak standing uncomfortably at his side.
"Meanwhile, The Washington Times' Bill Gertz reported today on a dinner hosted last month by U.S. Ambassador Joseph Prueher at his residence in Beijing for executives of Hughes Electronics, SpaceSystems Loral, ChinaSat and representatives of China's military space program. Prior to his appointment to Beijing, Ambassador Prueher was commander in chief of U.S. Navy forces in the Pacific. The dinner was held at the request of a Loral executive. Its purpose was to discuss the delayed launch of a Chinese civilian communications satellite. The launch was postponed when the two U.S. contractors had their export license suspended.
"Hughes and Loral are under investigation for illegally sharing missile data with the China. ChinaSat, a government-owned company, recently launched the first of a series of advanced military communications satellites giving China a new command, control and intelligence capability that will dramatically enhance the People's Liberation Army ability to manage its armed forces in combat. The Pentagon is keeping a close watch on China's rapidly improving command-and-control capability.
"It is mind-boggling that the Clinton administration would simultaneously rebuke Israel for selling advanced military technology to China, while throwing gala dinner parties in Beijing for Chinese military representatives and U.S. defense contractors under investigation for illegally providing secret missile data to China.
"In view of recent congressional reports detailing China's illegal acquisition of U.S. arms secrets, including nuclear weapons, it is inappropriate for the American ambassador to be aiding Chinese companies engaged in military activities," said Bauer.
-0- /U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/ 04/04 16:16
----------- imf
Brookings to Host Preview of IMF/World Bank Meetings
U.S. Newswire
4 Apr 12:00
http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/Current_Releases/0404-119.html
Brookings Institution to Host Preview of IMF/World Bank Meetings To: Assignment and International Desks, Daybook Editor, Trade Reporter Contact: Brookings Institution, Office of Communications, 202-797-6105; Web site: http://www.brookings.edu
News Advisory:
WHAT: Preview of the IMF/World Bank Meetings Trade, Labor & the Environment
WHEN: Tuesday, April 11 10 a.m. (Continental breakfast will be provided.)
WHERE: The Brookings Institution Falk Auditorium 1775 Massachusetts Ave., N.W. Washington, D.C.
DETAILS: As the protests at the WTO meeting in Seattle showed, two of the most controversial issues on the trade agenda relate to how, if at all, future trade negotiations should take account of differences in environmental and labor standards around the world. Some assert that both issues should be considered in trade negotiations. Others argue that labor and environmental standards are internal matters for individual countries, and should not be enforced in WTO negotiations.
The Brookings Institution and Resources For The Future have assembled a team of experts from both organizations to discuss these issues, in advance of the upcoming IMF/World Bank meetings in Washington and the announced plans for demonstrations related to them. Panelists will include:
Moderator: ZANNY MINTON-BEDDOES Correspondent, The Economist
GARY BURTLESS Senior Fellow, Economic Studies, The Brookings Institution; Co-author of Globaphobia: Confronting Fears About Open Trade
ROBERT E. LITAN Vice President and Director, Economic Studies, The Brookings Institution; Co-author of Globaphobia: Confronting Fears About Open Trade
WALLACE OATES University Fellow, Resources For The Future; Co-author of The Theory Of Environmental Policy
PAUL PORTNEY Senior Fellow and President, Resources For The Future; Editor of Public Policies For Environmental Protection
TO REGISTER: Contact the Brookings Office of Communications at 202-797-6105 or by e-mail at communications@brookings.edu. -0- /U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/ 04/04 12:00
-----
Uncle Sam's Not Rattled By Seattle--Not Yet
By Mike Causey
Tuesday, April 4, 2000; Page B07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-04/04/114l-040400-idx.html
Downtown federal agencies--anxious to be prudent, not panicky--are still deciding what, if anything, to do about Monday, April 17. That is scheduled to be the second day of what could be massive and messy demonstrations aimed at international organizations close to the White House.
Brass from agencies in the White House-Foggy Bottom area are holding a series of meetings to monitor the situation.
Environmentalists, trade unionists and other activists will start arriving Saturday, then hold demonstrations April 16 and 17 around the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, which have meetings scheduled for those two days. The two agencies face each other across 19th Street NW, between G and H streets. That area is often gridlocked on a good day.
Many agencies that aren't targets of the demonstrators are within walking--and traffic jam--range. Demonstrators hope to shut down stretches of Pennsylvania Avenue NW.
Their goals include blocking administration plans to give China normal trade status, and they are demanding that the debt of Third World nations be forgiven and more money spent on the AIDS epidemic in Africa.
You can track the demonstrators' official plans on the Web site www.a16.org.
Security experts don't want a repeat of the Nov. 30-Dec. 3 riots in Seattle. That city's image as a misty, laid-back city of coffee bars and "Frasier" was shattered by demonstrations that shut down a World Trade Organization conference there. TV news was filled with scenes of tear gas, looting and sometimes bloody battles between anti-WTO demonstrators and police. Younger TV viewers got a glimpse of what their parents went through during anti-war demonstrations in the 1960s and 1970s.
Parts of Seattle were overwhelmed and trashed. Many businesses were shut down, and many office workers--including thousands of Seattle-based federal employees--couldn't get to work or were told to stay home. Many of the same demonstrators are expected in Washington this month.
The official line on the April protests is that this will be just another demonstration, of the kind Washington is very good at handling and surviving. The idea is that we've seen bigger and worse.
But law enforcement personnel are taking extraordinary precautions and receiving crowd control training. There has been nothing like it since the recent NATO summit meeting here. That involved a few thousand visiting VIPs whose safety--not the visitors themselves--was the issue.
When the NATO meeting was first announced, federal officials said they wouldn't let the summit disrupt the city. But as the time for the meeting drew closer, concerns about security and traffic grew. Finally, federal agencies that had scoffed at the idea of a shutdown decided to close, even though some were miles from the NATO meetings in the Federal Triangle area.
So what about April 17?
"If you are asking me if there is any kind of panic or if there are plans to shut down federal agencies on April 17, the answer is no," a federal official who is involved in planning said yesterday. He said he knew of no plans to close any federal buildings, including those that are neighbors of the IMF and World Bank, or to encourage employees to take annual leave.
That is the official line. And there is no reason to believe it isn't true. For now.
But as April 17 gets closer, officials will be monitoring the situation--looking at both the size of the estimated crowd and its goals, and at least some agencies in the immediate area might rethink their position.
Five-Cent Piece
Several sharp-eyed readers spotted a glitch in yesterday's item debunking the myth that Congress is working in secret on a so-called Triple Nickel plan. It is so named because it supposedly would let feds add five years to their ages and five years to their service time to qualify for retirement--and throw in $5,000 as a bonus for retiring. There is no such plan. Nor, we are reminded, is "nickle" the way to spell "nickel."
Mike Causey's e-mail address is causeym@washpost.com.
Tuesday, April 4, 2000
-----
Protesters learn civil disobedience tactics for IMF, World Bank strategy
April 4, 2000
By Noelle Straub
Medill News Service/Y Vote 2000 Northwestern U.
http://news.excite.com/news/uw/000405/politics-245
(U-WIRE) MADISON, Wis -- A noisy protester trying to hand a pamphlet to a businessman hurrying down the street provoked an angry response that quickly escalated into an argument - and then the pair broke into laughter.
The two were actually acting out the type of confrontation they may face later this month when they travel halfway across the country to protest a meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington. Thousands of demonstrators are expected as early as April 8 to protest the organizations' policies that detractors claim perpetuate capitalist domination at the expense of workers and the environment.
More than 40 people gathered on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus Sunday afternoon to learn nonviolent civil disobedience techniques for their trip to the nation's capital April 16 and 17. The group will rent three or four passenger vans to join the protests, which they predicted will be more extensive than similar protests at the World Trade Organiozation's meeting in Seattle last fall that drew about 45,000 demonstrators.
John Peck, a UW graduate student a and one of the few at the meeting who had been at the Seattle protests, led much of the discussion. The three-hour training session focused on protesting effectively while maintaining personal safety.
In another role-playing session, a group of activists linked arms and attempted to block a doorway. Four others pretended to be police officers, complete with cardboard batons and helmets, and attempted to break up the group. They eventually pulled one woman away, but the rest managed to stay together.
Two UW-Madison students who took part in the exercise, Lisa Kenney and Lia Lindsey, said they had no idea how to deal with police before the session but now know what steps to take when they visit Washington. "I'm excited to put those into practice," Lindsey said.
Kenney, 20, said she expects some isolated incidents of police violence against the protesters, but predicted officers would be well trained on how to deal with the crowds after widespread criticism of the police reaction to protesters in Seattle.
The two young activists are not representative of their peers, according to a poll of 18- to 24-year-old Americans for the Medill News Service. In that survey, 88 percent of the young respondents said they had not participated in a march or demonstration for a political cause.
Lindsey, 19, said she comes from a politically active family, but she and Kenney both took their first steps toward activism after they attended rock concerts promoting political freedom for Tibet. "It came at a time in my life when I was looking for something I could devote myself to and make a big difference," Lindsey said.
Kris Swanson, 21, a student at Madison Area Technical College who attended the training session, said young people are more likely to become politically active in grass-roots causes rather than mainstream issues, with which young people feel less of a connection.
But Swanson does vote and said he was a supporter of Republican Sen. John McCain as a presidential candidate. Swanson said he will probably support Democrat Al Gore now that McCain has left the race, but wondered whether Gore would keep his campaign promises.
Peter Conroy, 24, said he will travel to Washington because of a long-standing interest in forgiving Third-World debt, an issue his mother worked on for years. But he, too, said American culture does not encourage young Americans to get interested in government.
"It's hard to believe in any of the candidates that the major parties put forward. It's really easy to get discouraged," Conroy said. Nolen Johnson, 20, said that as a Roman Catholic he felt compelled to work on the issue of Third-World debt because the pope has called for forgiveness of the debt and because many of the people in the countries affected by World Bank and IMF policies are Catholic.
Johnson has been active in protesting other issues on campus, but said he feels alienated from national politics. "I'll vote because it's my duty, but I might do a joke and vote for Mickey Mouse," he said.
But Johnson seemed slightly uneasy about how his activism might be viewed by others on campus, and insisted that despite his activities, he likes to have a good time just as all the other students on campus. "It's not like I'm just some wide-eyed activist," Johnson said.
(C) 2000 Medill News Service/Y Vote 2000 via U-WIRE
----------- iraq
Jordan Won't Let Italian Plane Land
By Waiel Faleh
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, April 5, 2000; 11:35 a.m. EDT
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20000405/aponline113534_001.htm
AMMAN, Jordan -- Jordanian authorities impounded a small Italian plane and detained its pilot Wednesday for violating U.N. sanctions by flying in and out of Baghdad. Two Europeans activists on board were allowed to leave Jordan.
Information Minister Saleh Qallab said the Italian-made P68 landed at an air force base in Azraq, 75 miles northeast of the Jordanian capital Amman. The Azraq base is off-limits to journalists.
"The crew and the plane were grounded" for violating U.N. sanctions that ban flights in and out of Iraq, Qallab told The Associated Press.
Later, Qallab said two passengers who were on board when the small plane reached Jordan left aboard a commercial Austrian airline bound for Vienna.
Qallab identified the two as Italian businessman Nicola Grauso and European Parliament member Vittori Sgarbi. He said a third person, French Catholic priest Jean-Marie Benjamin, remained in Baghdad.
He said the pilot, Claudio Castonia, was taken in for interrogation and may be tried in Jordan for violating aviation regulations.
International flights to and from Iraq are banned under U.N. sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, which led to the Persian Gulf War.
Qallab earlier had said Jordan would refuse the plane stopover permission because its crew had "cheated" Jordanian aviation authorities on Monday by asking permission to fly to Syria but changing course in Syrian airspace and flying to Iraq.
In Italy, Grauso's spokesman, Mario Cardona, said Jordanian air force jets had forced the plane to land at Azraq.
Iraqi officials saw off the plane at Rasheed air base earlier Wednesday, the official Iraqi News Agency reported. It had arrived at the base Monday.
While in the capital, Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and other officials received the visitors, who had said their journey was meant to highlight Iraqi suffering caused by the sanctions. They also visited Baghdad hospitals.
Sanctions can be lifted only once U.N. inspectors verify Iraq no longer has weapons of mass destruction and long-range missiles or the ability to produce them.
----------- israel
Israeli plane sale to China remains in effect
By Sari Bashi
ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 4, 2000
http://208.246.212.80/world/default-2000442232.htm
JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak resisted pressure from U.S. Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen yesterday to cancel a deal that would supply China with a sophisticated airborne-surveillance system.
However, Mr. Barak implied that Israel would be more sensitive to U.S. concerns about supplying China with arms in light of recent escalating tensions between China and U.S.-backed Taiwan.
Mr. Barak, who also serves as defense minister, said Israel was aware of the need to coordinate such arms deals with the United States but that it had already signed a contract with China for one such plane.
"We are aware of the need to coordinate . . . with the United States on every issue that might risk American interests," Mr. Barak said during a joint news conference with Mr. Cohen.
The United States has on several occasions expressed its displeasure over Israel's $250 million plan, announced in November, to sell China the Airborne Warning and Control System, which allows aircraft to conduct long-range radar surveillance and coordinate forces during battle. A plane outfitted with the system is to be delivered to China soon, and the sale of two more planes is being negotiated.
Mr. Cohen said he expressed his opposition to the sale in a meeting with Mr. Barak yesterday. "The United States does not support the sale of this kind of technology to . . . China because of the potential of changing the strategic balance in that region," he said. "With tensions running as high as they are in China and Taiwan, we see this as being counterproductive."
"I have expressed that to the prime minister," Mr. Cohen added.
Israeli media reports said the United States has linked some of its annual $3 billion in foreign aid to Israel to cancellation of the deal. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said no such cut was being considered.
However, in Washington, State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said that as far as he knew, there were no contingencies to cut Israel's foreign aid.
"On the other hand, it's fair to say that if Israel were not to respond to our concerns . . . it would have some effect; precisely what, I'm not prepared to speculate," Mr. Rubin told reporters at a briefing.
Mr. Barak left open the possibility, however, of taking U.S. interests into consideration in future deals, like the proposal to provide two additional planes to China.
Meanwhile, Mr. Cohen said proposals for a U.S.-Israeli defense pact had been put on the back burner since an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights as part of a peace deal with Syria did not appear likely.
"Any discussion about this enhanced relationship was in fact in the context of the requirements that might be necessary in order to ensure Israel's security should there be a pact, an agreement with Syria," Mr. Cohen said. One version of a defense pact would declare that an attack against Israel be considered an attack against the United States.
Mr. Barak said any upgrade of the relationship would have to be done gradually, to avoid straining the United States' relationship with moderate Arab governments.
Mr. Cohen left Israel later yesterday for a trip to Cairo, Jordan and Persian Gulf states.
---
President Johnson Pressured Israel
APRIL 04, 14:59 EST
By BARRY SCHWEID AP Diplomatic Correspondent
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=MIDEAST&STORYID=APIS73L3N080
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Johnson and Secretary of State Dean Rusk, worried about a threat of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, pressured Israel in the mid-1960s to promise not to develop nuclear weapons.
The strategy failed. A White House emissary sent to Tel Aviv reported back to Washington that Israel was a tougher bargainer even then the Soviet Union.
Israel refused to make a commitment it considered dangerous to its national security, classified documents released by the State Department said.
At stake was a drive by Israel to acquire U.S. weapons. It had received Hawk missiles from the Kennedy administration in 1962 in a sale that was a departure from U.S. policy.
The United States was worried about ``the likely Arab reaction and the impact of a sale on U.S. interests in the Near East and influence in the Arab world,'' according to a lengthy summary of the documents released Monday by the department historian's office.
Johnson and his advisers had agreed to sell U.S. tanks to Jordan while advising Israel that it should buy tanks it wanted from Germany or Britain. The United States, Israel was told, would not even consider a weapons sale unless Israel accepted four conditions:
-Tell its supporters in the United States that it accepted sale of tanks to Jordan.
-Promise not to develop nuclear weapons.
-Agree to Atomic Energy Agency inspection of its facilities.
-Agree not to take pre-emptive action against Arab projects to divert Jordan River water.
In February 1965, Rusk cabled the chief U.S. emissary, Undersecretary of State W. Averell Harriman, that Rusk and Johnson thought it was time for Israel to make hard decisions, the newly published documents said.
``There are limits beyond which we cannot go in support of Israel,'' Rusk told Harriman, while informing him the cable reflected Johnson's feelings.
When Israel would not budge, despite what Harriman described as a Rusk presentation that was ``to the point of rudeness,'' Johnson decided to sell Israel military equipment comparable to what the United States was providing Jordan.
The sale to Israel was to have been an exception to U.S. policy and not a precedent. In return, Israel promised in March 1965 not to be the first nation to introduce nuclear weapons in the Middle East, and the United States promised to sell Israel military equipment comparable to what Jordan was receiving if the buckling German deal fell through.
The Johnson administration also promised to provide Israel with up to 24 combat aircraft if Prime Minister Levi Eshkol's government could not buy them from Western Europe.
Jordan received its tanks, and in 1966 the Arab kingdom received 36 F-104 jet fights. Israel was sold 48 F-4s.
The documents portray the Johnson administration as trying to maintain an evenhanded approach to the Arab-Israeli dispute and to prevent a buildup of weapons in the area.
Johnson also was trying to maintain the good relations his predecessor, John F. Kennedy, had with Gamal Abdel Nasser's Egypt even as it received arms from the Soviet Union.
American officials had begun worrying about Israel's nuclear program in 1960, when a secret Israeli facility at Dimona became ``public knowledge,'' the documents said.
Israel refused to permit international inspection of the facility, but Kennedy obtained Israeli acceptance of periodic visits by American scientists.
The Johnson administration insisted the visits be continued. While the scientists found no evidence of an Israeli nuclear weapons program, U.S. suspicions about Israel's intentions continued, the documents said.
Countries known to possess nuclear weapons are the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France, India and Pakistan. Israel never has declared it has nuclear weapons, but many experts consider it a ``silent'' member of the nuclear club.
In 1986 Mordechai Vanunu, a self-described former technician at Dimona, reported what he said were details of an Israeli nuclear weapons program. He was arrested after his account appeared in London's Sunday Times and remains in prison.
----------- japan
Japan, N. Korea Discuss Relations
APRIL 04, 10:26 EST
By JOJI SAKURAI Associated Press Writer
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=ASIA&STORYID=APIS73KVN080
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) - North Korean and Japanese negotiators expressed confidence today that they will be able to bridge differences in their first talks in eight years on establishing diplomatic relations.
Kojiro Takano, Japan's chief negotiator, and his North Korean counterpart, Jong Thae-kwa, exchanged remarks at a banquet held at the Foreign Ministry guest house in the countryside outside Pyongyang.
``We must strive hard to build trust and work toward establishing diplomatic ties,'' said Jong. ``Nothing is impossible.''
Takano expressed Japan's ``eagerness'' to build closer ties and lavished praise on his counterpart.
``I believe these will be long negotiations, but I am glad because I have no doubt we will have a good personal relationship,'' he said.
Similar normalization talks broke down in 1992, and swift progress now is not expected. A second round of negotiations is to be held in Tokyo and a third in Beijing or another country.
In reviving the negotiations, Tokyo hopes that engaging the North will help draw the Stalinist state out of its isolation and boost stability in Asia.
Pyongyang needs help from richer industrialized countries to feed its impoverished people and modernize decaying infrastructure. It also demands compensation and an apology for suffering caused by Japan during its 1910-1945 colonial rule over Korea.
Takano said the political turmoil in Japan caused by Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's stroke would have no impact on the talks.
The 1992 talks collapsed over Tokyo's demands that the North provide information on Japanese citizens it allegedly abducted to train spies. The two countries have never had diplomatic relations.
They agreed to reopen normalization talks after a December visit to North Korea by a Japanese delegation led by former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama.
Tokyo has since promised to resume food aid frozen since the North stunned the region by launching a ballistic missile that flew over Japan in 1998. Although Pyongyang denies kidnapping Japanese, it has promised to investigate whether there are any ``missing'' Japanese citizens within its borders.
Japan says it intends to raise the question of kidnapped citizens in this round of talks. It is reportedly refusing further food aid to the North unless progress is made on the issue.
It also plans to pressure Pyongyang to halt its suspected missile program.
----
Japanese Crisis Management Flawed
APRIL 04, 06:15 EST
By JOSEPH COLEMAN Associated Press Writer
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=ASIA&STORYID=APIS73KS1D80
TOKYO (AP) - The Japanese government has long been criticized for clumsy handling of emergencies - and the official response to Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's sudden illness has been no exception.
Critics say the leadership crisis erupting in the government has shown all the warning signs: a coverup of crucial information, slow response to changing circumstances, a leader whose authority is unclear.
``The sense of crisis management is lacking,'' said Masao Horibe, professor of law at Tokyo's Chuo University. ``But this case is not the only one. Japan has never learned lessons from the past.''
There have been plenty of examples to study.
In the devastating 1995 earthquake in Kobe, then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama was eventually forced to acknowledge that the laggard government response led to some of the more than 6,000 deaths.
Obuchi's government itself faced criticism for overreacting to a nuclear accident outside Tokyo last September by issuing unnecessary evacuation orders, risking a public panic.
The reasons are varied.
One possibility is the Japanese penchant for bureaucratic protocol. In the Kobe earthquake, red tape held up vital emergency rescue operations in the crucial first hours after the disaster.
Another is the way responsibility is distributed among government agencies. That means no one figure can take control and issue quick orders, though there have been moves in recent years to change this.
In addition, a strong preference for following precedent also appears to have hurt responses to the unexpected. Murayama, for example, explained the handling of the Kobe quake by saying the government had never dealt with such a disaster before.
The response to Obuchi's illness was criticized from the start.
The government waited 22 hours before announcing that Obuchi had been hospitalized, and even then Chief Cabinet Secretary Mikio Aoki held back the real news: that Obuchi had suffered a stroke and was in a coma. That was not released until the next day.
In the hours before the initial announcement was made, an official at the prime minister's office told a reporter that Obuchi was at home when he was actually at the hospital.
Aoki apologized today for the false reports. He said the official who released the incorrect information did so because he was so shocked by Obuchi's illness that he was ``not thinking straight.''
Critics said keeping Obuchi's incapacitated state a secret seriously compromised national security.
``If any emergency such as a major disaster occurred in such circumstances, what steps could the government take?'' the Yomiuri newspaper asked in an editorial today.
Others criticized the fact that Japan was without a functioning head of government for some 12 hours. While Obuchi apparently slipped into a coma Sunday evening, Aoki was not chosen as acting prime minister until the following morning.
Questions have also emerged about provisions in Japanese law for succession. Some experts say it is unclear whether Aoki has the power to dissolve Parliament or dismiss the Cabinet as a prelude to forming a new government.
For others, however, the dilemma is not the laws.
``The problem is not the constitution,'' said Horibe, the law professor. ``The government did not act in the way it should act in an emergency.''
----------- russia
Russia To Seek Nuclear Weapons Cuts
By Barry Schweid AP Diplomatic Correspondent
Tuesday, April 4, 2000; 5:35 p.m. EDT
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20000404/aponline173551_000.htm
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=EUROPE&STORYID=APIS73L601O0
WASHINGTON -- Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov will discuss reopening negotiations to reduce U.S. and Russian long-range nuclear weapons on a visit here April 26-27.
But the Clinton administration is holding back until the Russian parliament approves a 1993 treaty to cut the two countries' stockpiles.
For years, the Dumas has shelved the START II arms control accord, stalling cutbacks in U.S. and Russian long-range weapons under that treaty.
Last week, Stephen Sestanovich, the State Department official in charge of the bureau that deals with Russia, said the parliament appeared close to approving the long-delayed pact.
He also said President Vladimir Putin's government was coming around to the U.S. view that a space-based weapons program should be considered by both countries.
Ivanov, in his talks here, will make the point the 1972 U.S.-Soviet treaty that banned missile defenses was untouchable, the Russian Embassy said in an announcement of his planned visit.
Clinton administration officials hope to persuade Russia to agree to amend the treaty.
Putin last Friday reiterated his desire to see the START II ratified. However, the pact is still before a committee and hearings have not been scheduled.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson agreed Monday the alliance should have good relations with Russia.
Robertson told reporters "NATO-Russia relations are of enormous importance."
The former British defense minister called Russia a "strategic partner" with whom the alliance could discuss "common security threats."
Ivanov will stop first in New York for a review April 24-25 of the treaty to curb the spread of nuclear weapons technology. In his talks in Washington "close attention will be devoted to expansion of Russian-American ties," the Embassy statement said.
Ivanov also is expected to attend NATO's annual Spring meeting in Florence in May.
---
Head of Russian College Suspended
APRIL 04, 09:55 EST
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=EUROPE&STORYID=APIS73KV8I80
MOSCOW (AP) - The head of a Russian engineering university has been suspended following allegations that the school helped Iran develop missiles by teaching Iranian students, a newspaper said Tuesday.
Yuri Savelyev, the rector of Baltic State Technical University in St. Petersburg, was suspended by an Education Ministry decree in early March but was still receiving his pay, the daily Moscow Times reported, citing a ministry spokeswoman.
The suspension came two weeks after the Russian Hard-Currency and Export Control service advised the school to stop training postgraduate students from Iran, the report said.
Baltic State, also known as Voenmekh, is an engineering school that specializes in rocket science and has close ties to the Russian military. Its professors helped design the Soviet Union's nuclear missile fleet in the 1960s and 70s.
The school's curriculum includes classes on secret military technologies, but university officials denied that the Iranians had access to any of that information, the Moscow Times said.
The United States had repeatedly accused the university of selling missile technology to Iran, and in 1998 the U.S. State Department introduced sanctions against the school.
Savelyev claimed his suspension was the result of political maneuvering, and said he and the university were unfairly victimized.
In a letter to President Vladimir Putin, Savelyev called his suspension the ``butchery of Voenmekh by bureaucratic authorities in the name of political ambitions and the interests of the United States,'' the Moscow Times reported.
Savelyev is known for his less-than-amicable attitude to the U.S. administration. Last spring, when NATO launched airstrikes against Yugoslavia, he fired four American professors teaching business at an institute affiliated with Baltic State.
He hired them back several days later, after they signed a letter saying they did not approve of NATO bombings, the Moscow Times reported.
----------- spying
Questions About Another Chinese Spy Case
BACK CHANNELS: The Intelligence Community
By Vernon Loeb Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 4, 2000; Page A27
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-04/04/065l-040400-idx.html
Having relentlessly pursued Attorney General Janet Reno and other Justice Department officials for their handling of the Wen Ho Lee spy case, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) is now hot on their trail in the other Chinese spy case, involving Peter H. Lee.
Specter asked last week at a hearing why prosecutors hadn't used a death penalty section of the espionage statute in prosecuting Lee, a laser scientist at TRW Inc. who has admitted passing nuclear secrets to Beijing but spent only 12 months in a halfway house.
Tomorrow, Specter will hear from two senior attorneys from the criminal division who supervised the prosecution, John Dion and Michael Liebman, and the lead prosecutor in Los Angeles, former assistant U.S. attorney Jonathan Shapiro. Sparks should fly.
FBI agents confronted Lee in 1997, after he failed to report a trip that year to China, as required under the terms of his government security clearance. After failing an FBI polygraph examination, Lee confessed to passing nuclear secrets to Beijing in 1985, while working as a physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The Justice Department ultimately accepted a plea agreement from Lee on two felony charges that fell far short of a full espionage conviction punishable by death--one for passing classified nuclear secrets in 1985 and one for lying to the government about the purpose of his 1997 trip, when he also revealed classified information to Chinese scientists about his work at TRW involving space radar imaging of submarines.
Department officials have previously explained that they accepted the plea agreement because the information Lee had given China had by then been declassified.
They say they decided against prosecuting Lee for passing classified information during his 1997 trip, because much of what Lee had divulged had already been revealed in press accounts.
But John G. Schuster Jr., a Navy branch chief in submarine security and technology, testified last week that Lee had revealed information classified "confidential . . . that was not in the public domain" during the 1997 trip.
Daniel Sayner, an FBI official, testified that Lee failed another FBI polygraph in February 1998, after having negotiated his plea agreement, leading investigators to conclude he had not revealed all of the secrets that he had passed to China.
Given that failed polygraph, Specter may ask Justice Department lawyers tomorrow why they didn't immediately back out of the deal.
NUMBER 2: Several weeks ago, the White House was backing Army Lt. Gen. Donald Kerrick to replace Air Force Gen. John A. Gordon as deputy director of central intelligence (DDCI), once Gordon is confirmed by the Senate to run the Department of Energy's new National Nuclear Security Administration.
But Kerrick fervor has cooled, given the judgment that he had become too closely identified with President Clinton's Kosovo policy in the minds of Senate Republicans. He served as deputy national security adviser at the White House before his current post as special assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Since the intelligence community's No. 2 job is by tradition a four-star billet when filled by a military officer, two logical three-stars available for promotion would be Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, director of the National Security Agency, and Navy Vice Adm. Thomas R. Wilson, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. But Hayden is untouchable for the moment, given his boffo performance at NSA, and Wilson is just settling in at DIA.
SUCCEEDING TENET: The ultimate succession in the world of intelligence, of course, involves who will be the director of central intelligence next year under the new president. George J. Tenet, the incumbent, is thought to have at least a chance of remaining in place under either Democrat Al Gore or Republican George W. Bush, though the odds are considered far better under the Democrat.
Names mentioned around town as possible replacements, in the event of a GOP victory: Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.), a former CIA operations officer and chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence; Paul Wolfowitz, former undersecretary of defense for policy during George Bush's administration and now dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies; and Richard Armitage, assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration and an international consultant.
Vernon Loeb's e-mail address is loebv@washpost.com
---
Communist files provoke questions
04/04/00- Updated 08:17 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwstue01.htm
BERLIN (AP) - Eastern Germans came to dread revelations from the files of the former communist secret police after the Berlin Wall fell.
Now they're asking why westerners - even former Chancellor Helmut Kohl - should be treated differently.
Kohl stood accused Tuesday of setting a double standard with his vow to block any release of former East German files that could help investigators track shady campaign money used by the conservative party he led for 25 years.
The controversy over the files has exposed the lingering east-west gap in the nation that Kohl himself united in 1990.
Eastern politicians were upset that the same records used to weed out one-time collaborators with the communist secret police from public jobs in united Germany should be off-limits now that revelations could affect prominent western Germans.
That would have a ''catastrophic'' effect on eastern Germans' respect for democracy and could widen the east-west gap, Reinhard Hoeppner, governor of the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, told the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung newspaper.
Files kept by the former East German secret police, the Stasi, were used as evidence in the past against leading eastern politicians accused of acting as informers for the communist regime. Several withdrew from politics amid the allegations.
But whereas they were caught having helped the Stasi spy on others, at issue now are some of those who were spied upon: Stasi wiretaps and other snooping against Kohl and other West German leaders during the Cold War.
Recent revelations on Stasi records have shown former Kohl aides talking about flows of secret campaign money for the Christian Democratic party he led until his 1998 election defeat.
A newspaper reported last week that the Stasi followed the party's financial dealings as far back as 1976.
With parliament examining whether political decisions were bought during Kohl's 16 years in power, the former leader has said he will go to Germany's highest court to keep Stasi files out of investigators' hands.
He maintains there is no way of knowing if or how the information was doctored to suit the Stasi's goal of undermining the West.
He got support from the parliamentary investigating committee, whose leaders reiterated Tuesday that they don't intend to ask for Stasi wiretap records because the information was obtained illegally.
Kohl even phoned the official overseeing the Stasi archive, Joachim Gauck, apparently to urge him not to release records. But Gauck, a former East German pastor, said in a newspaper interview Tuesday that he brushed Kohl off.
The need for public disclosure outweighs Kohl's privacy rights in this case, he told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
Former East German spymaster Markus Wolf said Tuesday that the Stasi decided in the 1980s not to try to discredit Kohl with its data on his party's finances, partly because of a thaw in east-west relations.
But as far as he knows the material remains in the former Stasi archives, Wolf said in a radio interview.
Kohl's Christian Democrats, meanwhile, named a little-known legislator, Ruprecht Polenz, as the new party secretary-general Tuesday.
He replaces Angela Merkel, who is due to take the top chairman spot, abandoned by Wolfgang Schaeuble in the wake of the Kohl scandal.
----------- ukraine
Ukraine restarts nuclear reactor after glitch
UKRAINE: April 4, 2000
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=6237
KIEV - Ukraine's Rivne nuclear power plant restarted one of its reactors on Monday after a short circuit shut down the unit on Saturday, a nuclear energy official said.
Rivne's safety system shut down reactor number two after a short circuit caused a minor fire in power cables running under the reactor. No increase in radiation levels was recorded.
It was the third nuclear accident at the station in the past two months.
Fourteen years after the world's worst civil nuclear accident at Chernobyl, where a reactor explosion sent clouds of radioactive dust to Russia, Belarus and Europe, Ukraine relies on nuclear power for 45 percent of its electricity.
----------- us nuc facilities
----- kentucky
FIGHTING BACK Patton must take off the gloves
April 4, 2000
Paducah Sun Editorial
http://www.paducahsun.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?/200004/04+008B_editorial.html+20000404+editorial
It's time for Gov. Paul Patton to demand that the Clinton administration stop stalling and get on with the promised cleanup of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. The governor should use all of the power at his disposal, including enforcing an agreement requiring the federal government to handle contaminated materials at the site as hazardous waste. Last year Patton threatened to take the Department of Energy to court if the agency didn't make significant progress on the cleanup. Now that it's clear the agency can't be trusted to deliver on its promises, he should follow through on that threat.
Also, if necessary, the governor should hold a news conference in front of the infamous "drum mountain" or the 38,000 cylinders of depleted uranium stacked on the plant grounds and ask President Clinton and Vice President Gore to explain why the administration has allowed this environmental nightmare to drag on in Paducah.
We're pretty sure that, in an election year, the president and the vice president would pay attention if the Democratic governor of a swing state accused the administration of dragging its feet on cleaning up a nuclear waste dump â€" a dump that was created by the federal government.
Al "Earth in the Balance" Gore might even be persuaded to pay a visit to Paducah to see firsthand why people here literally are sick of being dumped on by the government. The Paducah plant site contains 65,000 tons of contaminated scrap and 14 billion pounds of hazardous waste stored in rusting metal containers.
If a private industry had committed an offense of this magnitude against the environment â€" and then offered a grossly inadequate plan to clean up the mess â€" the vice president would be leading federal bureaucrats and lawyers in an all-out charge against the polluters.
Last year Gov. Patton drily noted he was sure "the Clinton administration is sensitive to the environment because of its strict enforcement of air quality standards, surface coal mine regulations and in pushing strong tobacco legislation. ... They are very strong and adamant in requiring private industry and business to absorb the cost of these environmental measures."
The words "strong" and "adamant" do not come to mind in describing the DOE's commitment to dealing with the government's own unregulated waste dump in Paducah. A preliminary report from the General Accounting Office, the nonpartisan auditing arm of Congress, shows that DOE has underestimated the cost of the cleanup by excluding huge areas of contamination.
Also, the agency doesn't plan to meet Kentucky's standards for cleaning up toxic PCBs, the Courier-Journal of Louisville reported.
During a congressional hearing Friday, U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning demanded answers from DOE officials. "Don't tell me that we don't have enough money," Bunning said. "We do have enough money. It's a question of the administration's requesting what is needed."
Lacking strength and adamancy, the agency complains about the cost of technology designed to convert contaminated soil on the plant grounds into glass. The Courier-Journal reported recently that DOE officials are considering abandoning the Vortec technology because it is, in their estimation, too costly.
It would be cheaper, the DOE report says, to use alternative disposal methods, including an on-site landfill.
If DOE has the audacity to propose burying more contaminated waste in Paducah â€" this, after the federal government spent decades shipping dangerous materials here for disposal â€" the governor should immediately take off the gloves and go after the Clinton administration and its double-talking hired hands.
For months we've heard from DOE officials about how sorry they are about the way Paducah was treated in the past and how they intend to make amends for the government's betrayal of plant workers and the community.
These promises have amounted to little more than political spin. The agency is standing in the way of the construction of plants to convert the depleted uranium to safer materials; it's seeking to junk the promising Vortec technology in favor of burying more nuclear waste; and it simply refuses to fund the plant cleanup at adequate levels.
Kentucky's congressional delegation is trying to hold DOE officials' feet to the fire, but Gov. Patton is in the best position to pressure the Clinton administration into moving on the cleanup.
Word that the governor is planning legal action against the feds and a press conference in front of drum mountain to announce it just might be enough to concentrate the minds of the Clinton administration on the environmental disaster in Paducah.
------ tennessee
Says workers got the shaft
4/4/2000
Letter to the Editor,
Oak Ridger
To The Oak Ridger:
When 1,500 Lockheed Martin employees transitioned to the Bechtel Jacobs Co., they were told they would receive an "equivalent balance" of pay and benefits. If pay went up, benefits would go down, and vice versa.
Instead, their pay remained the same, but their benefits went down. A few examples of how transitioning exempt employees "got the shaft":
* Under Bechtel Jacobs, there is no such thing as "personal leave," the Lockheed Martin term for time off with pay -- separate from vacation -- that could be taken for necessary activities (such as doctor's appointments).
With Bechtel Jacobs, almost all time off comes out of one "pot" of accrued "paid time off." When I transitioned to Bechtel Jacobs, I lost at least one week per year of available time off with pay.
* Bechtel Jacobs has placed a cap of $2,500 annually on educational benefits. Also, Bechtel Jacobs does not pay graduation fees.
* Management fees are much higher for the Bechtel Jacobs 401K plan than they were for the Lockheed Martin plan.
* Bechtel Jacobs' health insurance plan does not have nearly as many participating physicians. The insurance company is also slow to pay, refuses coverage more often, has fewer common and/or desirable drugs on the formulary (this means you will more often pay a "deluxe" co-pay for a drug), etc.
Bechtel Jacobs has had so many complaints about the medical insurance that an insurance company representative visits the site every month just to deal with complaints.
No wonder the attrition rate for Bechtel Jacobs employees is higher than expected, as their workforce transition manager stated recently in The Oak Ridger. Yet Bechtel Jacobs apparently views the high attrition rate as a good thing, since it means they won't have to lay off as many people as they would have otherwise.
Another of my theories is that Bechtel Jacobs is happy about the exodus of experienced grandfathered employees, because now they can bring in less qualified, less experienced, but cheaper subcontract workers and "job endangered" or laid off workers from Bechtel and Jacobs.
It will be interesting to see how this exodus affects the quality and safety of work being done in the DOE-ORO Environmental Management program.
In a future letter, I will discuss the many ways that Bechtel Jacobs and their subcontractors are reneging on their promise to give grandfathered employees "first right of refusal" for Environmental Management jobs.
Pam Watson 134 Jarrett Lane
----- utah
Geological Survey says ammonia from uranium tailings endangers fish
April 04, 2000
LAS VEGAS SUN
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - As legislation to deal with uranium tailings adjacent to the Colorado River was being readied for introduction in Congress, the U.S. Geological Survey issued a report indicating ammonia from the tailings is potentially lethal to fish.
The 10.5 million ton pile of uranium tailings sits 750 feet from the Colorado River outside Moab in southeastern Utah. The last owner was the now-bankrupt Denver-based Atlas Corp., which posted a $6.5 million cleanup bond, a small fraction of the expected cost.
Officials of various government agencies and environmentalists have debated for years whether the tailings pile should be capped to halt the leaching of toxic and radioactive minerals into the groundwater or the tailings should be moved and who should pay the costs.
Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, has been preparing legislation, which could be introduced as early as today, to shift the cleanup responsibility from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to the Department of Energy. The legislation also would provide money for moving the tailings, which is expected to cost more than $300 million.
Some of the money is to come from a deal announced in January in which 80,000 acres of oil- and gas-rich land would be returned to the Ute Indian Tribe. The Utes agreed to return a portion of the royalties to help pay for the tailings cleanup.
Environmentalists have contended that contaminants from the tailings could threaten three species of endangered fish: the southwestern willow flycatcher, the razorback sucker and the Colorado squawfish.
A report by the U.S. Geological Survey was released Monday which summarized its research since 1998 on the tailings risk. The studies are continuing.
It said ammonia levels have been routinely measured in surface water exceeding 20 milligrams per liter and some samples have been as high as 1,500 milligrams per liter.
James F. Richfield, research ecologist for the Geological Survey, said tests in the laboratory and onsite tests show the levels are high enough to kill the fish. The onsite tests involved putting caged fish in contaminated backwaters. In some cases, minnows died within an hour.
---
Fish Poisoned By Uranium Mine Waste
The Salt Lake Tribune--
TUESDAY, April 4, 2000 BY BRENT ISRAELSEN
A new U.S. Geological Survey report proves that ammonia leaking into the Colorado River from the Atlas tailings, a huge pile of uranium-processing waste near Moab, is lethal to fish.
The report on studies conducted between August 1998 and February 2000 shows ammonia levels as high as 1,500 milligrams per liter--far above the 12 milligrams per liter at which the fish are known to survive.
When researchers placed caged experimental fish in the river below the tailings pile, the fish died, usually within an hour. In some situations, they died immediately.
"This study confirms what we originally thought: There is a 'take' occurring in the Colorado River," said Reed Harris, who heads the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Utah.
A "take" is the killing of an endangered species.
In this case, the endangered species are the Colorado pikeAminnow (formerly known as the Colorado squawfish) and the humpback chub, though their mortality rate from the contamination cannot be measured.
The killer is the 10.5 million-ton pile of radioactive tailings left over from decades of uranium processing on the banks of the Colorado about three miles north of Moab.
Last owned by the now-bankrupt Atlas Corp., the uranium mill site has been the center of a heated national debate over what to do with the tailings. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has proposed leaving the toxic tailings in place, with a cap that would prevent further water penetration into the pile.
Environmentalists and local leaders argued in favor of moving the pile away from the river. Their position has attracted numerous supporters downstream, including politically powerful water officials in Los Angeles.
Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, is expected to introduce a bill soon that would shift Atlas cleanup decisions from the NRC to the U.S. Department of Energy, which has a program for such projects. The bill also would seek several hundred million dollars for moving the Atlas tailings and cleaning up the groundwater.
Though the new findings by the U.S. Geological Survey do not directly address the merits of the capping vs. removal options, they should increase the urgency for a remedy and give impetus to a more immediate need to treat the already-contaminated groundwater inside and beneath the tailings, Harris said.
A team of state, federal and local leaders, along with representatives of the Atlas bankruptcy receiver, is exploring ways to treat the water.
"One of our biggest concerns is we get a groundwater treatment project," Harris said.
Even if the tailings were capped or removed, an estimated 1.9 billion gallons of groundwater contaminated with ammonia, uranium, molybdenum, nitrates and sulfates would drain into the river for the next 270 years.
---
Fish 'carnage' is blamed on Moab tailings
Tuesday, April 04, 2000
Deseret News staff writer
Scientists have always suspected that ammonia leaking from the Atlas mill tailings pile in Moab was harming fish in the Colorado River. They just didn't know how lethal it was.
A study indicates that ammonia leaking from the Atlas mill tailings near Moab is killing fish in the Colorado River. Ravell Call, Deseret News
Preliminary results of a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service indicate that ammonia in the water around the mill tailings is several hundred times higher than standards set by the Utah Division of Water Quality.
One test revealed 1,500 milligrams of ammonia per one liter of water. The state had determined that anything above 1.3 milligrams of ammonia was lethal to fish.
"We kind of knew what was going on, but we didn't realize it had reached a level where every single fish that swims into that part of the river dies," said Bill Hedden of the Grand Canyon Trust. "We did not realize it was complete carnage."
The tests were conducted in August 1998, February, June and September 1999 and February 2000.
The study gives impetus to efforts by local environmental activists, Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson and Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, to have the 10.5 million tons of uranium tailings moved to a site well away from the Colorado River.
Cannon was expected to introduce legislation this week that would ratify a deal worked out by Richardson to move the tailings. The removal could cost as much as $300 million, some of which will come from royalties to be paid on oil production from lands being transferred to the Ute Indians as part of the deal.
The legislation also transfers authority over the site from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to the Department of Energy.
"(The study) certainly raises the stakes for cleanup of the site," Hedden said.
In the past, the state has measured contaminates in the river and found ammonia levels up to 15 milligrams per liter or about eight times what the state had decided was lethal to fish. The federal scientists repeatedly found areas that exceeded 500 milligrams per liter. The problem becomes more acute when wave action stirred up river sediments along that stretch of river, the study found.
According to a letter from the Geological Survey to U.S. Fish and Wildlife, toxic sediments are stirred up by waterfowl feeding along the shores, winds and wakes from sightseeing boats, all of which "can be expected to increase exposures of fishes to ammonia from the site."
The study included tests of Colorado pikeminnow (formerly known as the Colorado squawfish) and flathead minnow.
Protecting endangered and threatened fish species is only one aspect of efforts to remove the mill tailings. Down-river water users in Nevada, Arizona and California have been lobbying hard to have the tailings pile removed.
The cleanup, if approved and funded by Congress, would take about six or seven years.
----- washington
Power boost at Hanford plant studied
Tuesday, April 4, 2000
By LINDA ASHTON THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.seattlep-i.com:80/local/nuke04.shtml
YAKIMA -- Energy Northwest is looking at the possibility of boosting electricity production capacity at the state's only commercial nuclear power plant, a project manager said yesterday.
The 150-megawatt increase would be enough to power two cities roughly the size of Port Angeles.
The feasibility studies come at a time when the energy industry is faced with the potential for electricity supply problems if the hydropower-dependent Pacific Northwest were to suffer a dry, cold winter.
General Electric, which designed the plant's reactor, has told Energy Northwest that the system could be "uprated" from 1,150 net megawatts to 1,300 megawatts.
The key now is to determine whether the plant's secondary system -- its steam generator, turbine and transformers -- could handle the increase or if they would have to be modified or replaced.
Energy Northwest is also looking at whether the change would be cost effective, said Steve Scammon, project manager at the utility, formerly known as the Washington Public Power Supply System, or WPPSS.
"Those are three really big-ticket items," Scammon said.
The plant, which went on steam in 1984, is located on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, north of Richland. It currently generates enough electricity to power three cities the size of Seattle. All of its electricity is sold by the federal Bonneville Power Administration.
"The information they're looking at is really preliminary right now," said Perry Gruber, a BPA spokesman. "We don't have anything to say about a proposal that's not formalized."
In 1994, the plant was licensed for a 50-megawatt uprate, which required few modifications.
"We've identified a potential deficit in generation in the region, so any additional generation is good news," said John Harrison, a spokesman for the Northwest Power Planning Council, a congressionally created, four-state energy issues board.
"We also recognize incremental increases are probably not going to be the long-term solution. We need either a lot of new generation or a lot of new conservation."
In December, the power council warned of a nearly 1-in-4 chance that Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana could face a power deficit over the next four winters. The problem would occur if all the power demand for the region could not be met -- even with purchases of electricity from outside sources.
Analyses so far suggest an Energy Northwest plant uprate would cost about $75 million, which would be competitive, or about $500 per kilowatt of capacity, Scammon said.
The increase would require very little in terms of operating or maintenance expenses -- "that's one of the real positive points of this," Scammon said.
An uprate would pose no increased nuclear risks, he said.
If Energy Northwest decides to boost capacity, the work would probably be done during a planned outage in 2003 with additional modifications made during the 2005 outage.
GE has already provided the technical assistance necessary to help four nuclear plants -- two in Germany and two in Georgia -- make significant uprates by tapping into the margin of the design. Another three or four uprates are under way and proposals have been for a half-dozen others, Scammon said.
"It's about to become a common thing," he said. "The whole industry is looking at it and going, 'Wow, what a great idea.'"
-------- us nuc weapons
Anti-missile plan costs at least $30.2 billion-Pentagon
Tuesday April 4, 6:32 pm Eastern Time
By Charles Aldinger
WASHINGTON, April 4 (Reuters) - The Pentagon estimated on Tuesday that it would cost at least $30.2 billion to build a proposed anti-missile base, upgrade radars and deploy 100 interceptors to protect U.S. cities from long-range missiles.
The new figure, far higher than previous estimates, would cover the cost of the limited National Missile Defense program from 1991 to 2026 when all 100 proposed interceptors could be mounted at a base likely to be built in Alaska.
``The total life-cycle cost of the program from 1991 to 2026, is projected to be $30.2 billion,'' Navy Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, a Defense Department spokesman, told reporters.
``I'm talking about maintenance, I'm talking about everything to do with that program,'' Quigley said of a plan, bitterly opposed by Russia, to protect the United States from limited missile attack by ``rogue states'' such as North Korea, Iran or Iraq.
``Bear with me here. The further you go into the future, the less certainty you have for your figures. But that is our best estimate of life-cycle cost today looking 26 years into the future,'' he said in response to questions.
President Bill Clinton is expected to make a decision later this year -- based on technology, cost and international diplomacy -- on whether to begin soon building a base in Alaska and deploying 20 interceptors there by 2005.
Russia opposes the plan and NATO allies are worried about Moscow's threat to scrap nuclear arms cuts if Washington violates the 1972 anti-ballistic missile treaty (ABM) to deploy a modest version of former President Ronald Reagan's space-based ``Starwars'' missile defense program.
Previous estimates of the cost for the boned-down plan have ranged as low as $12.7 billion, but Quigley said that covered only expenses between 1999 and 2005 for construction and deployment of 20 interceptors.
The United States will conduct its third test of the missile defense system in late June when it attempts to shoot down a dummy warhead high over the Pacific Ocean. The first such test was successful last October, but a second test failed earlier this year.
Defense Secretary William Cohen will make a recommendation to Clinton on whether or not to go ahead with early deployment of the base after results of the third test are analyzed.
Quigley said on Tuesday that the Pentagon assessment would be sent to the White House ``by late summer.''
------ us military
GAO says military needs to be better trained for exposure to uranium
Nando Media
Associated Press
April 4, 2000
http://www2.nando.net/noframes/story/0,2107,500189004-500253998-501292777-0,00.html
From Time to Time: Nando's in-depth look at the 20th century
WASHINGTON (http://www.nandotimes.com) - Congressional investigators say the Pentagon should ensure better training for soldiers who may be exposed to depleted uranium, a toxin blamed by some for Gulf War ailments.
As an example of the state of the training program, the General Accounting Office said Monday it was unable to determine whether Marine and Army troops were instructed on how to deal with the contaminant before the deployment to Kosovo, where there is a possibility of exposure.
Bernard Rostker, undersecretary of defense for personnel, acknowledged in a letter to the GAO, Congress' investigative arm, that training "continues to fall short of the department's requirements and expectations" and said he was pointing out the problems to the heads of the services.
The GAO report released Monday was to assess what is known about the health effects of exposure to depleted uranium, whether veterans were having problems with a Pentagon medical screening program related to it and how training was progressing.
The Persian Gulf War marked the first battlefield use of armor-piercing munitions using depleted uranium-coated shells and bombs. On impact, the shells create airborne dust.
----------- uzbekistan
Uzbeks seize truck carrying radioactive material
UZBEKISTAN:
April 4, 2000
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=6246
TASHKENT - Uzbek customs officials have seized 10 containers of radioactive material from a truck travelling to Pakistan from Kazakhstan, the state customs committee said on Monday.
It said the truck, which had Iranian license plates and was driven by an Iranian national, was stopped near the Kazakh border outside Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent and the material was found in containers hidden among a cargo of scrap metal.
It did not specify the nature of the substance. "It has been established that gamma rays emanating from the load had radiation levels which exceeded the safety level by over 100 times," the committee said in a statement.