--------

Chernobyl remembered

April 26, 2000
Washington Times
Embassy Row, by James Morrison
http://www.washtimes.com/world/embassy-2000426214254.htm

Ukrainian Ambassador Kostyantyn Gryshchenko this evening will lead a commemoration on the 14th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident.

Mr. Gryshchenko will be joined by representatives of the Ukrainian-American community and clergymen from the Ukrainian Orthodox and Catholic churches at the 6:30 p.m. gathering in Lafayette Park.

-------- activists

APRIL 26, 2000
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact Nukewatch: (715) 472-4185 or nukewtch@win.bright.net
Or Joel at Loaves & Fishes Community, (218) 724-2054

PEACE ACTIVISTS TO CELEBRATE POLITICS OF MOTHERS' DAY,
PROTEST PROJECT ELF, DEMAND: "DON'T SHOCK YOUR MOTHER!"

DULUTH, MN--Peace activists will convene a weekend of Mothers' Day events focused on the nuclear Navy and its Trident and ELF nuclear weapons system. It is the 13th annual Mothers' Day gathering to stop Project ELF, the Navy's one-way communications trigger for the Navy submarine fleet.

The gathering is dubbed "Don't Shock Your Mother!" a reference to the Project ELF transmitter, which constantly jolts the bedrock of northern Wisconsin with 3,000 kilowatts (3 million watts) of electricity in order to send messages to submarines. The amount is roughly the amount used by the city of Wausau, according to researchers at the Lac Courte Oreilles reservation, part of which is impacted by ELF’s electromagnetic wave generator.

Except for the concert, all activities are free and open to the public.

The activities commence Friday, May 12, with a benefit concert by the singer/songwriter Dar Williams. The concert begins at 8:00 p.m. at Mitchell Auditorium of the College of St. Scholastica, 1200 Kenwood, Av., in Duluth, MN. Opening the benefit concert is Duluth's own Sara Thomsen. Both performances will be interpreted in ASL. Ticket information is available at (218) 724-2054. Or the Scholastica ticket office: (218) 723-7000.

Saturday, May 13, activists will conduct a day long nonviolence training beginning at 9:00 a.m. at Peace Church, 1015 east 11th St. in Duluth. A free dance and social begins at 8:00 p.m.

On Sunday, May 14, Mothers' Day, a caravan to the ELF site leaves from the Loaves & Fishes Community, 1712 E. Jefferson at 10:00 a.m. At the site, Food Not Bombs will provide a lunch at noon. A rally begins at 1:00 p.m. featuring speakers Mary Lou Ott of Minneapolis, Gail Vaughn of Ferryville, WI and Barb Kass of Luck, WI. Sunday's nonviolent action may include a protest walk into the ELF compound.

The ELF transmitters sends crude, secret messages to submerged Trident and Fast Attack submarines -- U.S. and British -- around the world. U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) has called ELF "a cold war relic."

The site has been the object of protest for 25 years. Just since 1991, Ashland County deputies have issued 539 trespass citation to demonstrators.

The Mothers’ Day events are sponsored by Nukewatch, Loaves and Fishes Community, Anathoth Community and Food Not Bombs.

----

Court decides on fired whistlebowers rights

04/26/00-
http://usatoday.com/news/court/nsco1268.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court Wednesday made it harder for fired whistleblowers to successfully invoke a federal anti-racketeering law in suing their former employers.

Voting 7-2 in a Florida case, the justices said people allegedly harmed by a racketeering conspiracy must prove that an ''overt act'' that helped the conspiracy was itself a racketeering act.

That means a fired whistleblower cannot cite an allegedly retaliatory firing to meet the ''overt act'' requirement. Federal appeals courts had been split on that issue.

The ruling potentially is significant because the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, unlike most other federal laws, offers successful plaintiffs tripled damages.

''A person may not bring suit under (RICO) for injuries caused by an overt act that is not an act of racketeering or otherwise unlawful under the statute,'' Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the court.

His opinion relied heavily on past rulings in common-law civil conspiracy cases he said ''support the notion that liability cannot be imposed unless the overt act that furthered the conspiracy and harmed the plaintiff was a particular kind of overt act.''

Justices John Paul Stevens and David H. Souter dissented.

Aimed primarily at fighting organized crime, the RICO law has both criminal and civil provisions. Past Supreme Court decisions - 13 of them in the past 14 years - have let plaintiffs invoke the law's civil provisions in a wide variety of disputes, by anyone allegedly harmed by a ''pattern'' of illegal activities.

The law has been invoked to accuse numerous huge corporations of racketeering.

Wednesday's decision in the Florida case was a defeat for Robert A. Beck II, who in 1983 was hired as president and a director of the Southeastern Insurance Group, a company whose subsidiaries wrote bonds for construction companies.

Beck's lawsuit, thrown out by lower courts, said he became aware in 1988 that other company officials were engaging in misconduct, such as creating false financial statements and diverting money to their personal use.

The lawsuit said that after reporting alleged improprieties to state insurance officials, his performance was criticized and he was fired. The company filed for bankruptcy in 1990.

Beck's lawsuit accused various company officials of violating the RICO law's conspiracy provisions. But a federal appeals court said he invoked the wrong law. ''A terminated whistleblower, although he may have a wrongful-termination claim, has not suffered an injury that was proximately caused by the defendant's racketeering activities,'' the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled.

The Supreme Court agreed. The overt act, Thomas wrote, cannot be ''merely the termination of employment.''

The case is Beck vs. Prupis, 98-1480.

-------- alternative energy

Minnesota's Operating and Planned Wind Farms

http://www.me3.org/issues/wind/

Clean Power Surge: Ranking the States - Union of Concerned Scientists, April 2000 This new report ranks Minnesota at the top in several categories of renewable energy development including: Strongest Commitment to Renewables Outside of Electricity Restructuring, Biggest Commitment to New Biomass, Biggest Commitment to New Wind, and Largest Wind Farm in the World

Clean Power Surge: Ranking the States
http://www.ucsusa.org/energy/surge.html

-------- britain

DIRTY WASTE DANGER AT N-BOMB PLANTS

April 26, 2000
UK Online Mirror
http://www.ic24.net/mgn/THE_MIRROR/NEWS/P14S3.html

NUCLEAR weapons factories are dangerously contaminated with radioactive and toxic waste, says a leaked report by British Nuclear Fuels.

An investigation revealed high levels of plutonium, asbestos, depleted uranium, beryllium and tritium. Defence chiefs handed over running of the atom plants at Aldermaston, Burghfield, Berks and Cardiff to BNFL - criticised for safety failings at Sellafield - on April 1.

BNFL say records of on-site waste are full of errors. And some low-level waste has disappeared.

A weapons official admitted: "Some radio- active waste is not properly accounted for."

----

UK investigates nuke fuel rod found in scrapyard

UK: April 26, 2000
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
Story by Matthew Jones
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=6461

LONDON - Britain's Environment Agency said on Tuesday it was investigating how a rod of the nuclear fuel uranium ended up in a scrapyard.

"We have taken the rod to a research site to analyse it," the agency's spokesman Oliver Blackburn told Reuters.

Blackburn said the rod was undergoing tests to determine where it had originated after workers at the scrapyard in Tamworth, in central England, discovered it earlier this month.

"We are treating this seriously. Rods like these should all be accounted for, they are not supposed to end up in scrapyards," he said.

Uranium rods are used to fuel nuclear power plants. Once used the radioactive spent rods are normally disposed of at designated sites under tight security.

Workers at the Tamworth scrapyard used a Geiger counter to confirm their suspicion about the yard-long (metre-long) rod but there was no radioactive contamination, Blackburn said.

"There was no hazard to the staff of the scrapyard or local residents," said Blackburn. He could not specify whether the rod had already been used in a power plant.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) one to three incidents of missing radioactive material are reported worldwide every year. Experts estimate that unreported disappearances in the former Soviet Union at least doubles that figure.

Last year a Peruvian man unwittingly carried radioactive material in his back trouser pocket for a day seriously contaminating both himself and those he came into contact with.

-------- china / taiwan / tibet

Tibetan Exiles Complain of Care

APRIL 25, 23:05 EDT
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=ASIA&STORYID=APIS7435Q180

NEW DELHI, India (AP) - The Dalai Lama's supporters are charging that China has damaged Tibet's environment through careless exploitation of oil, water and timber resources.

Water ``is now severely polluted by chemical nuclear and industrial waste,'' said the 160-page study of the impact of 41 years of Chinese rule in Tibet.

Based on reports from refugees, occasional Western visitors and Chinese news articles, the report was prepared by the Dalai Lama's exile government for presentation to the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development on Wednesday.

The report seeks international action to pressure China ``to ensure Tibet's ecology and culture are protected.''

Chinese troops occupied Tibet in 1950, claiming it needed to be liberated from feudalism. After a violent Tibetan uprising in 1959, the Dalai Lama fled into exile in India, from where he continues to fight for Tibetan autonomy as a political and spiritual leader.

``Many Tibetan refugees have been eye witnesses to the People's Liberation Army brigades venturing out in hunting parties to machine-gun down herds of wild animals,'' said the report. ``China's PLA soldiers stationed in Tibet often dynamite rivers and lakes to catch fish.''

The report quotes Chinese news articles through 1997 as referring to plans to dam the great bend in the Yarlung Tsangpao River, to produce exportable electricity.

The Chinese foreign ministry had no immediate comment on the report. In the past, china has defended its rule over Tibet, saying it freed serfs and slaves and brought economic development to a poor, remote region.

The exile administration's report says that China has dumped nuclear waste in Tibet, stores missiles underground near the capital, Lhasa, and tests anti-missile laser weapons in Tibet because of it's high altitude.

It also quotes a statement from the Chinese-controlled Tibetan government, published in the Tibetan Daily in 1997, as saying that 41.9 million tons of waste liquid had been discharged into the Lhasa River in 1996, more than half of it from industrial sources.

----

Official: China-Taiwan War Unlikely

APRIL 26, 06:34 EDT
By MARCOS CALO MEDINA
Associated Press Writer
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=ASIA&STORYID=APIS743CCJG0

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - China is engaging in a new round of psychological warfare with Taiwan, a Taiwanese official said today, one day after the island's military accused China of stepping up military exercises.

Lin Chong-pin, vice chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council that handles Taiwan's China policy, said that Beijing was trying to intimidate Taiwan into starting reunification talks.

Chinese leaders lack the confidence to act on their threats of an all-out war with the island, Lin said.

``Unlike Mao Tse-tung and Deng Xiaoping, China's current leaders lack the war experience and therefore the authority over the military to push themselves to the brink,'' Lin said.

The Taiwanese military's report Tuesday that China has stepped up drills for bombers and other warplanes on its eastern coast scared some investors in the Taiwanese stock market, which slid 4.3 percent today.

Chinese H-6 bombers and other aircraft have been flying long-range sorties off China's coasts in recent weeks as part of exercises involving naval vessels, the military said, citing its intelligence sources.

China said the exercises were normal and aimed at enhancing the capability of the Chinese military.

Sun Tao-yu, a vice minister of defense, also said there was ``nothing unusual'' about the drills, which are usually held during the spring.

Taiwanese defense officials, however, said the flights might be a possible warm-up for a new intimidation campaign as Taiwan's next president, Chen Shui-bian, prepares to take office May 20.

Lin agreed today that the sorties were part of China's psychological warfare.

China and Taiwan have been governed separately since the two sides split amid civil war in 1949, and Beijing has repeatedly threatened war if Taiwan refuses to reunify and seeks a permanent break.

But Lin said war would be unlikely because China's leaders are afraid of the social unrest, economic upheaval and the consequent threat to their hold on power that a protracted war with Taiwan would bring.

``If they go to war, they will set back their economy by 20 years,'' said Lin, an expert on China's People's Liberation Army.

Also today, the president-elect paid a courtesy call to former military chief Hau Pei-tsun, who brushed off the recent reports about China's military exercises.

``Of course I know nothing about their training plans, but it looks like normal air force exercises,'' said Hau, who once also served as premier. ``If communist China wanted to bomb Taiwan, it would not begin by using the bombers.''

China has been building up a large arsenal of missiles, and many defense experts say a Taiwan attack would begin with a missile barrage that would knock out the island's anti-aircraft defenses.

Chen urged China to use peaceful methods to improve ties between the two sides.

``We want peace, harmony, cooperation,'' Chen said.

---

To help Taiwan defend itself

James Hackett
April 26, 2000
Washington Times
http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/commentary-200042615393.htm

The chasm between the Clinton-Gore White House and congressional Republicans has never been greater than it is on the question of arms sales to Taiwan.

The administration's refusal to sell Taiwan the four Aegis destroyers it wants to buy has produced cries of outrage from Congress. Sen. Jesse Helms, North Carolina Republican, accused the White House and State Department of "knee-jerk appeasement" of China, while Sen. Trent Lott, Mississippi Republican, is trying to bring to a vote the Taiwan Security Enhancement Act to restore U.S. military ties with Taiwan.

Mr. Helms was angered by the Defense Department's quick retreat from its earlier position in support of the sale of Aegis ships to Taiwan. But that was only to be expected. Defense Secretary William Cohen took the destroyers off the table even before the showdown meeting in the White House. How could he, a former Republican senator, stand up to National Security Adviser Samuel Berger and Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, both longtime Friends of Bill and apologists for Beijing and Moscow?

After months of searching for a formula for arms sales to Taiwan that would not make Beijing mad, the administration found one. Taiwan wants to buy a Pave Paws long-range radar to monitor Chinese missile launches, but the administration agreed only to discuss a shorter-range radar, and will decide later how powerful it can be (wink, wink to Beijing). In addition, Taiwan can buy the air-to-air missiles it has long sought for its F-16 fighters provided by President Bush, but the missiles will be stored in the United States (more winks).

Taiwan also will be sold upgrades of air-launched anti-ship and anti-tank missiles it already has. But not the Aegis destroyers, submarines, anti-submarine patrol planes, and Patriot PAC-3 missile interceptors it needs to confront the mainland's rapidly improving naval, air and missile forces. Beijing played its part in the administration's charade and protested only mildly.

But the same day, Singapore's Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, completing a visit to China, was telling the press that China's leaders were complaining that ambiguity about "one China" had allowed Taiwan to slip toward independence. Beijing, he said, no longer will tolerate ambiguity and instead will "go all the way." If Taiwan declares independence, "military action will be taken immediately."

China's position is clear - it will go to war to gain control of Taiwan. But Washington's remains shrouded in ambiguity. The sale of Aegis destroyers would have made it clear the U.S. will help Taiwan defend itself. Now that remains in doubt, and the People's Liberation Army generals who have been urging "tough and immediate action against Taiwan" will be convinced the U.S. will not stand in their way.

Taiwan's fears are real. The mainland has supersonic cruise missiles and 200 ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan, and is building up to 800. New Russian destroyers with supersonic anti-ship missiles are joining the Chinese fleet. China's 66 submarines include four Russian Kilo-class subs, and just two weeks ago the Hong Kong press revealed that China now is producing its own Kilo-class submarines, with 75-mile range anti-ship cruise missiles. The first Chinese-built Kilo has joined the fleet and is "combat ready against Taiwan."

To face these modern Russian weapons Taiwan asked for submarines, long-range patrol planes, and four Aegis destroyers - and got none of them. The administration says they would upset the balance of power, which is ridiculous.These weapons are needed to maintain the balance of power. Besides, they cannot be delivered overnight.

It would take up to five years for Aegis destroyers to be built and delivered and the crews trained, and even longer to add sea-based ballistic missile defenses. That would come close to the 2007 deadline some Chinese leaders are proposing for the takeover of Taiwan. But just agreeing to sell Taiwan Aegis ships would send the message Beijing needs to hear.

There may still be time, but not much, for Congress and the next president to avoid war in Asia. Congress should tie the Taiwan Security Enhancement Act to the bill to establish normal trade relations with China and pass it as a package. Avoiding war is the main consideration. If there is war, there will be no trade with China.

It is time to show some spine and stop appeasing the mainland regime. The next president should be prepared to tell Beijing it must renounce the use of force if it wants normal relations, and back up those words by selling Taiwan the arms it needs for self-defense.

James T. Hackett is a contributing writer to The Washington Times based in San Diego.

-------- colombia

[Some reason at last!]

Colombia Sets Negotiations With a Second Rebel Group
Army Forces to Pull Out Of Guerrilla Stronghold

By Steven Dudley
The Washington Post
Wednesday, April 26, 2000; Page A28
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-04/26/099l-042600-idx.html

BOGOTA, Colombia, April 25-President Andres Pastrana has launched a new set of peace negotiations, this time with Colombia's second-largest guerrilla group, and vowed to pull the army out of parts of a central mountain range to foster the peace process and give the guerrillas free range.

The talks with the National Liberation Army--known by its Spanish initials as ELN--will run parallel to separate negotiations the government is conducting with the largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), in another demilitarized zone in the south that is controlled by the FARC without interference from the army.

"Today, everyone has to make compromises," Pastrana said in an impassioned speech on Monday in which he announced the new initiative. "We have to break the circle of violence." Over the last 10 years, more than 10,000 people have perished in Colombia's civil conflict.

To provide a positive atmosphere for the talks, the Colombian military will evacuate hundreds of soldiers from the municipalities of San Pablo, Cantagallo and Yondo at the base of the San Lucas mountain range in central Colombia. The area is a traditional ELN stronghold but has been under siege in the past several years by right-wing paramilitary groups formed by landowners and business interests to combat the guerrillas in concert with the army.

With 600 armed men operating in the zone, the paramilitary groups have gained control over much of the region, including the urban center of San Pablo and the three municipalities just north of it. The ELN guerrillas are fighting the militia units for control of an estimated 62,500 acres of coca, the raw material for cocaine, that is grown and processed in the area.

Paramilitary leaders said they would defy the government's plan to start talks in the zone. "Any region that is demilitarized for the ELN cannot be used to expand their terrorist acts," they said in a letter sent to the government's peace commissioner.

Such criticism has also plagued negotiations between government officials and leaders of the FARC rebel group, which has been accused of using the zone under its control in southern Colombia to launch offensives, stockpile weapons and expand its drug-trafficking activities.

Earlier this year, thousands of small farmers and their families blocked the main highway through the region Pastrana has proposed as a new demilitarized zone to protest violence there. Now many residents expressed disillusionment over the government's surprise announcement, fearing the ELN will take advantage of the absence of the military and seek revenge on those they consider paramilitary collaborators of the right-wing militia groups.

"Forget about it," one resident of San Pablo said on a local news broadcast. "Here we won't allow a demilitarized zone."

Many claim that the FARC is summarily executing people in the area under its control and will not allow international observers in the zone to verify such reports. FARC leaders told the government human rights ombudsman's office that the group has killed 11 people since early 1999 but that 10 were right-wing militiamen and one was committing "fraud."

In his speech, Pastrana emphasized that the ELN will allow civilian authorities to remain in the area where the talks will take place. Teams of national and international observers also will monitor the negotiations as they proceed. In addition, the accord calls for a "national convention" that would incorporate labor unions, nongovernmental groups and civilians into the process, he said.

The government's announcement came after more than a year of preliminary talks between the two sides and increased military action on the part of the ELN. In April of last year, the rebels hijacked an airliner on a local flight and took the 41 passengers and crew members hostage after forcing the plane to land in the San Lucas mountain range. The ELN released eight of the remaining 14 hostages from that flight last week in an attempt to facilitate the accord reached on Monday.

The Clinton administration, responding to Pastrana's initiative, said that "the government of Colombia must be free to make its own decisions on what will yield progress in the peace process."

---


-------- colombia

House Approves Massive Aid Package
Colombia Action Moves to Senate

Colombia section from the Latin America Working Group's April 2000 Legislative Update:
Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2000 14:03:44 -0400
From: Paul Wolf -paulwolf@icdc.com

HOUSE APPROVES MASSIVE AID PACKAGE FOR COLOMBIAN MILITARY-- But Great Debate Lays the Basis for Future Challenges to the Policy

The emergency supplemental appropriations bill including the Colombia aid package passed the House March 30th with a vote of 263-146. The package was not significantly improved, although some changes will be noted below, remaining a primarily military aid package without strong human rights conditions. While not unexpected, this marks the advancement of a US policy that returns us to the days of aid to brutal militaries in Central and South America.

However, the Colombia package, once considered unassailable, met considerable resistance in the House. The debate and votes on certain amendments reflect the concerted work by US civil society organizations and constituents concerned about growing US military involvement in Colombia. Led by David Obey (D-MI), the ranking democrat on the Appropriations Committee, critics of the package's militarized approach to the drug problem led a vigorous two-day debate, with Speaker Hastert (R-IL) weighing in passionately on the other side. The debate revolved

first around drug policy, with critics of the package arguing the need for domestic treatment on request, and demand reduction as a much more efficient and cost-effective way of combating drug abuse than supply-side strategies. Rep. Pelosi (D-CA), ranking democrat on the foreign operations subcommittee, repeatedly chastised Republican leadership for not allowing her amendment to add funding for domestic treatment programs to be brought to a vote. Rep. Kilpatrick (D-MI) spoke eloquently about the unmet needs for treatment in her district. It was quite an extraordinarily expansive debate on the what the best drug policy should be, ending with Gary Condit (D-CA) proclaiming that the United States was "in denial" and projecting our problems abroad. After meeting with coca growers in the Andes, he said, "I came to the conclusion that the drug problem is our problem, and for us to solely blame it on those folks is misplaced. Today, we have an opportunity, I think, to correct that. We could do a great service to this country by making sure that we fight the war on our terms and in this country and not in somebody else's country."

In the past, members have not spoken out nearly so strongly against the militarized drug strategy in Latin America, fearing that opponents would label them "soft on drugs." The emphasis on the need for domestic treatment programs gave members the opportunity to show their concern about the impact of drug abuse while opposing a strategy based on military might.

Some members argued strongly that this could be a military quagmire and that the House had not pursued a full debate on what could be a momentous step. Rep. Obey brought up the Vietnam analogy through a reference to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution where there was a similar lack of debate regarding US intervention. "I would urge Members not to make the same mistake that was made on this House floor in the Gulf of Tonkin." Rep. Skelton (D-MS), ranking democrat on the Armed Services committee, cited his concerns about getting entangled in a counterinsurgency war. The push into southern Colombia is a plan that "is one that is aimed at the guerillas and not one that is aimed primarily at eradicating the drug traffic.".. The strategy "is an erroneous one, is one that will last some 6 years and may cause us well to find ourselves involved in a guerilla warfare.. ... I doubt the American people would support a counterinsurgency campaign, and yet that is where we are headed."

Third, the human rights issues were raised repeatedly, in particular the ties between Colombia's army and the paramilitary forces. These were raised strongly by Reps. McGovern, Moakley, and McKinney, while Rep. Baldwin and others raised concerns about the impact of a military aid package on the peace process.

Supporters of the package stressed the need to fight drugs, the bravery of the Colombian police forces, the brutality of the guerrillas, and the good will of the Colombian government. The illusion that this is solely a war about drugs slipped a bit in Rep. Burton's (R-IN) speech: "...this is the time to send the money to Colombia to fight the guerillas and also to do the other things that need to be done as the time goes by, but fight the guerillas now, defeat them as they have in Peru and Bolivia and to make absolutely sure that we do not have to send our young people down there in the future."

Amendments: Mr. Obey's amendment to remove the "push into Southern Colombia" - the military side of the package - and provide for greater time to debate this issue lost, 186-239. The vote count is below. While the amendment lost, it fared much better than anticipated on this relatively new issue. Despite the fact this was a White House-sponsored foreign policy, most of the Democratic House leadership voted for this amendment (Obey, Pelosi, minority leader Gephardt, minority whip David Bonior, Armed Forces ranking member Skelton).

Trouble in Connecticut: It is interesting to note that the entire Connecticut delegation voted against the Obey amendment, despite their liberal voting records. Connecticut produces the Blackhawk helicopters, a large part of the military aid in the package. To see records of campaign contributions from United Technologies, owner of Blackhawk manufacturer Sikorsky, check the Center for Responsive Politics webpage. Only Rep. Shays (R-CT) had a slightly different vote record on the package, voting against the Obey amendment but also against the whole supplemental emergency bill. If you are from Connecticut, ask your member of Congress to explain his/her vote against the Obey amendment.

Other amendments: Mr. Sawyer (D-OH) with the support of Mr. Farr (D-CA) offered an amendment to ensure that at least $50 million in the package is used for humanitarian assistance for the displaced, which was accepted without opposition. He should be thanked for this effort.

Mr. Ramstad (R-MN) with Mr. Campbell (R-CA) offered an amendment to strike out the entire Colombia package. This lost 159 to 262 - but again a surprisingly strong showing. While this amendment contrasted with our goal to actively support a Colombia aid package without military assistance, the motivations behind this amendment were sound - to oppose a militarized, ineffective supply-side drug policy.

The most problematic amendment was the Gilman-Delahunt-Goss-Farr human rights conditionality, which won overwhelming support. Many members supported it because they wished to vote for human rights conditions, and it showed strong bipartisan concern about human rights in Colombia, including the army's record. However, the language is weak. It calls for aid to be conditioned on certain human rights and counternarcotics criteria, but it allows the President to waive this under "extraordinary circumstances," which is vague and will doubtless be invoked. Moreover, it does not specifically address the issue of military-paramilitary links. From our perspective the conditions allowed members to feel better about the package without the likelihood that they will be of much practical use. Reps. Obey and Pelosi strongly opposed the conditions on those grounds.

Throughout the course of the debate, the following members­and others--showed leadership on our issues by making speeches or offering or strongly supporting amendments: Obey, Pelosi, McGovern, Moakley, Kilpatrick, George Miller, Serrano, Schakowsky, Ramstad, Campbell, Sawyer, McKinney, Lowey, Skelton, Schakowsky, Baldwin, Taylor (MS), Paul, Olver, Woolsey, Condit. Reps. Obey, Pelosi, McGovern and Moakley in particular worked tremendously hard on the floor. See the debate at:

www.ciponline.org/colombia/aid.

The size of the total supplemental reached $13 billion with an amendment to add $4 billion in general defense spending receiving overwhelming support. The supplemental also included disaster relief for victims of Hurricane Floyd.

Action: It is very important to thank your member of Congress if he/she voted YES to the Obey amendment. You may also want to thank members who voted YES to the Ramstad/ Campbell amendments.

Yes to the Obey amendment: Abercrombie, Ackerman, Allen, Andrews, Archer, Bachus, Baird, Baldacci, Baldwin, Barrett (WI), Becerra, Bentsen, Bereuter, Berry, Blagojevich, Blumenauer, Bonior, Boucher, Boyd, Brady (TX), Brown (OH), Camp, Campbell, Capps, Capuano, Carson, Castle, Chabot, Clayton, Coburn, Collins, Combest, Conyers, Cook, Costello, Cox, Coyne, Crowley, Davis (IL), Deal, DeFazio, DeGette, Delahunt, Deutsch, Dickey, Dicks, Dingell, Dixon, Doggett, Duncan, Ehlers, Engel, Eshoo, Evans, Farr, Filner, Fossella, Frost, Ganske, Gephardt, Gutierrez, Gutknecht, Hall (OH), Hall (TX), Hastings (FL), Hefley, Hill (MT), Hilleary, Hilliard, Hinchey, Hoekstra, Holt, Hooley, Horn, Hoyer, Hulshof, Inslee, Istook, Jackson (IL), Jackson-Lee (TX), Jenkins, Johnson, E. B., Jones (OH), Kaptur, Kennedy, Kildee, Kilpatrick, Kind (WI), Kingston, Kleczka, LaFalce, Largent, Leach, Lee, Levin, Lewis (GA), Lipinski, Lofgren, Lowey, Luther, Manzullo, Markey, Matsui, McCarthy, (MO), McDermott, McGovern, McInnis, McKinney, McNulty, Meehan, Meek (FL), Metcalf, Millender-McDonald, George Miller, Minge, Mink, Moakley, Moran (KS), Morella, Nadler, Neal, Nethercutt, Oberstar, Obey, Olver, Owens, Pastor, Paul, Payne, Pelosi, Petri, Phelps, Pitts, Porter, Price (NC), Ramstad, Rivers, Rodriguez, Roemer, Rohrabacher, Roybal-Allard, Royce, Rush, Ryan (WI), Sabo, Sanchez, Sanders, Sanford, Schaffer, Schakowsky, Scott, Sensenbrenner, Serrano, Shadegg, Sherman, Skelton, Slaughter, Smith (MI), Spratt, Stark, Stearns, Stenholm, Stupak, Tancredo, Taylor (MS), Thompson (CA), Thornberry, Tiahrt, Tierney, Toomey, Towns, Udall (CO), Udall (NM), Upton, Velazquez, Vento, Visclosky, Watt (NC), Waxman, Weiner, Weldon (PA), Wexler, Wicker, Woolsey, Wu, Wynn.

Yes to Ramstad-Campbell amendment: Abercrombie (D-HI), Archer (R-TX), Baird (D-WA), Baldwin (D-WI), Barcia (D-MI), Barrett (D-WI), Bereuter (R-NE), Berry (D-AR), Blumenauer (D-OR), Bonior (D-MI), Boucher (D-VA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Corrine Brown (D-FL), Camp (R-M), Campbell (R-CA), Capuano (D-MA), Carson (D-IN), Castle (R-DE), Chabot (R-OH), Clay (D-MO), Clayton (D-NC), Coburn (R-OK), Collins (R-GA), Combest (R-TX), Condit (D-CA), Conyers (D-MI), Cook (R-UT), Costello (D-IL), Coyne (D-PA), Cox (R-CA), Danner (D-MO), Davis (D-IL), Deal (R-GA), DeFazio (D-OR), DeMint (R-SC), Dickey (R-AR), Doggett (D- TX), Duncan (R-TN), Ehlers (R-MI), Ehrlich (R-MD), Eshoo (D-CA), Evans (D-IL), Fattah (D-PA), Filner (D-CA), Foley (R-FL), Ford (D-TN), Fossella (R-NY), Ganske (R-IA), Gekas (R-PA), Goodling (R-PA), Graham (R-SC), Green (R-WI), Gutierrez (D-IL), Gutknecht (R-MN), Hall (D-OH), Hastings (D-FL), Hefley (R-CO), Hill (R-MT), Hilleary (R-TN), Hinchey (D-NY), Hoekstra (R-MI), Holt (D-NJ), Horn (R-CA), Hulshof (R-MO), Inslee (D-WA), Istook (R-OK), Jackson (D-IL), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), Jones (D-OH), Kaptur (D-OH), Kelly (R-NY), Kennedy (D-RI), Kilpatrick (D-MI), Kind (D-WI), Kleczka (D-WI), Kucinich (D-OH), Largent (R-OK), LaTourette (R-OH), Leach (R-IA), Lee (D-CA), Linder (R-GA), John Lewis (D-GA), Lipinski (D-IL), Lofgren (D-CA), Luther (D-MN), Manzullo (R-IL), Markey (D-MA), Matsui (D-CA), McCarthy (D-MO), McDermott (D-WA), McGinnis (R-CO), McGovern (D-MA), McKinney (D-GA), McNulty (D-NY), Meehan (D-MA), Carrie Meek (D-FL), Metcalf (R-WA), George Miller (D-CA), Minge (D-MN), Mink (D-HI), Moakley (D-MA), Moran (R-KS), Morella (R-MD), Nadler (D-NY), Neal (D- MA), Norwood (R-GA), Nussle (R-IA), Oberstar (D-MN), Obey (D-WI), Olver (D-MA), Owens (D-NY), Paul (R-TX), Payne (D-NJ), Pelosi (D-CA), Peterson (D-MN), Petri (R-WI), Phelps (D-IL), Pitts (R-PA), Porter (R-IL), Ramstad (R-MN), Rivers (D-MI), Roemer (D-IN), Rohrabacher (R-CA), Royce (R-CA), Ryan (R-WI), Sabo (D-MN), Salmon (R-AZ), Sanchez (D-CA), Sanders (I-VT), Sanford (R-SC), Scarborough (R-FL), Schaffer (R-CO), Schakowsky (D-IL), Scott (D-Newport News,VA), Sensenbrenner (R-WI), Serrano (D-NY), Simpson (R-ID), Nick Smith (R-MI), Stark (D-CA), Stearns (R-FL), Stupak (D-MI), Sununu (R-NH), Tancredo (R-CO), Terry (R-NE), Thompson (D-CA), Tiahrt (R-KS), Tierney (D-MA), Toomey (R-PA), Udall (D-CO), Udall (D-NM), Upton (R-MI),Visclosky (D-Gary, IN), Walden (R-OR), Waters (D-CA), Watt (D-NC), Waxman (D-CA), Wicker (R-MS), Woolsey (D-CA), Wu (D-OR)

Colombia Action Moves to Senate

Majority leader Trent Lott (R-MS) refuses to move the bill containing the Colombia package, defense spending and disaster relief as an emergency supplemental appropriations, citing budget concerns over its $13 billion size. This has slowed consideration of the bill in the Senate. However, the Colombia and Kosovo aid packages are likely to be attached as an amendment to the regular foreign operations appropriations bill, which will be "marked up" by the foreign operations subcommittee in early or mid-May.

Action: Call your senators and ask them to:

1) Oppose the military portion of the Colombia aid package.

2) Support positive amendments to the package that cut, shift or strongly condition military assistance to Colombia or add funding for drug treatment programs at home.

3) Express their concerns for human rights in Colombia during the Senate debate.

HOW TO CONTACT YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS: Call the U.S. Capitol switchboard: 202-224-3121, or look up your members of Congress on the Internet: www.house.gov or www.senate.gov

TALKING POINTS

This aid package will not only pour hundreds of millions of dollars into the most abusive military in the Western Hemisphere, but it will almost certainly destabilize fragile peace negotiations and undermine support of a negotiated settlement. To avoid getting the United States more deeply involved with Colombia’s infamous armed forces, I ask you to oppose aid to the Colombian army due to human rights concerns, especially army links at a regional and local level to brutal paramilitary forces. Instead, I urge you to support a substantial positive aid package for Colombia, including: humanitarian relief for people displaced by violence; crop substitution programs for small farmers to switch from coca to legal crops; economic assistance; programs to strengthen Colombian government investigations into human rights violations and drug trafficking; aid for civil society efforts for human rights and peace. Finally, because the United States "War on Drugs" is one that must be fought at home, I ask you to increase funding for drug treatment and prevention programs here in our own country.

For more information or to subscribe to the Update: contact Latin America Working Group, lawg@lawg.org, (202) 546-7010

-------- cuba

Culture Briefs
Useful idiots

Washington Times
April 26, 2000
http://www.washtimes.com/culture/default-2000426214536.htm

"Back in 1962, Fidel Castro was surely saddened when his Soviet overseers rejected his suggestion that they launch nuclear missiles from Cuba at the United States. . . .

"While Fidel never got to experience the joy of watching millions of Americans perish in a nuclear holocaust, he can find some satisfaction in the knowledge that a few of those spared that awful fate have gone on to serve him dutifully in Bill Clinton's White House.

"Take Janet Reno. The attorney general . . . is so 'preoccupied' with sending Elian back to Castro that she works 14-hour days at the Justice Department to make it possible. Or Greg Craig. The president's impeachment lawyer hustled the Cuban government for the opportunity to represent Elian's father, Juan Miguel, here in the United States.

"And then there's Irwin Redlener, the pediatrician and former member of Mrs. Clinton's White House Task Force on Health Care Reform. Dr. Redlener has diagnosed little Elian as a victim of psychological abuse at the hands of his American relatives. Never mind that Redlener has never actually met Elian. . . .

"On April 15, at the Cuban diplomatic mission in Washington, D.C., America got a glimpse of how Juan Miguel's hosts deal with dissent. Annoyed by a crowd of Cuban-American protesters, a group of 15 men inside the mission ran outside and pummeled the demonstrators so severely that several required treatment at a local hospital. . . .

"Not that Dr. Redlener will take note. Like Janet Reno and Greg Craig, he is a diligent minion of Castro's totalitarianism - a 'useful idiot,' as Lenin once called his Western accomplices."

- Chris Weinkopf, writing on "Useful Idiots Hard at Work," Monday in Front Page at www.frontpagemag.com

http://www.frontpagemag.com


-------- depleted uranium

DEPLETED URANIUM PROTESTERS CONVICTED OF TRESPASS

April 26, 2000
From: Dan Fahey - mtpdu@dclink.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: John LaForge at Nukewatch

Minnetonka, MN--Sixty-three human rights, peace and anti-war activists were convicted of trespass following a 2 1/2-hour bench trial in Hennepin County District Court here.

The group walked onto the property of Alliant Techsystems, Inc. Nov. 1, 1999 to protest the company's manufacture of depleted uranium-238 (DU) weapons.

The demonstrators, were all fined $25, except for ten who'd spent more than eight hours in custody after their arrest. They were sentenced to time served.

Char Madigan, a peace activist with Minnesota Alliant Action and the Midwest Institute for Social Transformation, said the defendants had "won the lowest fine ever," in the long series of protests at the company's gates.

Judge Gary Larson appeared to listen patiently as seven of the defendants testified as representatives of the larger group. Several testified to the international and U.S. Air Force laws that forbid the use of poison or poisoned weapons in war. The argument was presented as an affirmative defense known as a "claim of right." Trespass is permitted in Minnesota law if the defendant can show that some higher authority allows the intrusion.

In spite of testimony regarding the international treaties and U.S. military law that prohibit the government from employing weapons such as "poison gas and all analogous materials, liquids or devices," or weapons that "kill our wound treacherously" or that "cause serious or long-term damage to the natural environment," the Judge ruled that the claim of right had not been established.

The Constitution of the United States holds that treaty law is the "supreme law of the land" and that it binds "every judge in every state."

Alliant Techsystems assembled 15 million so-called PGU-14 rounds, a "depleted uranium penetrator" for the A-10 Warthog, the U.S./NATO plane used to shoot DU munitions into Kosovo in 1999, and into Iraq in 1991.

Depleted uranium is radioactive and toxic U-238, a nuclear waste material left over from the manufacture of nuclear weapons and nuclear reactor fuel. It is used by the US Air Force to pierce armor plate and destroy tanks. When it smashes a target, the DU burns and turns into a fine mist of toxic and radioactive uranium oxide, which can drift 25 miles and can lodge in the lungs and liver where it can cause cancer, birth defects and immune dysfunction.

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Congressman Hall's Remarks on Humanitarian Aid to Iraq
(Calls for more effective response to suffering of Iraqi people)

April 24, 2000
http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/nea/iraq/iraq0424.htm

Congressman Tony Hall, Democrat of Ohio, says Iraq's people are suffering terribly and he has called on the U.S. for a more effective response to their suffering. Hall visited Iraq April 16-20, touring hospitals, schools, clinics and water-treatment plants in Baghdad, Basra, Babylon, Samawah and Nasiriyah.

"I left Iraq convinced that a great deal more could be done to address its people's humanitarian needs, and I am determined to do all I can to persuade the U.S. Government to take these steps," he said April 24 at a press briefing on his trip.

Hall, who is chairman of the House Democratic Caucus Task Force on Hunger, co-founder on the steering committee of the Congressional Friends of Human Rights Monitors and is chairman of the Congressional Hunger Center, said delays in the delivery of humanitarian supplies and equipment to Iraq must stop. He also said he was troubled by Iraq's recent attempt to reject Canada's offer of a significant contribution to UNICEF's operations there.

Hall called upon the government of Iraq and other governments to allow more humanitarian workers to go to Iraq to deal with the health and economic crises there.

The Congressman said one in six children in Iraq shows signs of malnutrition and 10 percent of the children in the areas of the country controlled by Saddam Hussein are classified as "wastie" or those who have actually stopped growing. He noted that in Iraq, the "infant mortality rate is higher than any other place in the world."

Additionally, he said the Iraqi population has been exposed to the six major diseases that cause mortality as well as polio and cholera and he urged the surrounding countries to help because it is in their self-interest to protect themselves from these deadly diseases. Hall also called for the World Health Organization or some other independent scientific body to find out why there is high incidence of leukemia in southern Iraq.

Hall said "sanctions clearly have played a role in Iraqis' suffering," but "it would be irresponsible to lift the sanctions." He expressed concern that Iraq continues to pose a threat to its neighbors with its weapons of mass destruction and suggested that if Iraq eliminated its weapons of mass destruction and kept its promises made after the Gulf war to abide by the U.N. resolutions, "perhaps that would prompt good faith measures by the United Nations -- such as adding a sunset provision to some of the economic sanctions."

Hall, who is a long-time humanitarian activist, was in 1998 and 1999 nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his hunger legislation and for his proposal for a Humanitarian Summit in the Horn of Africa.

He has worked actively to improve human rights conditions around the world, especially in the Philippines, East Timor, Paraguay, South Korea, Romania, and the former Soviet Union. In 1983 he founded the Congressional Friends of Human Rights Monitors. He was the principal U.S. nominator of East Timor Bishop Carlos Belo, winner of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize.

Following is the text of Hall's remarks:

Congressman Tony P. Hall U.S. House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515 April 24, 2000

HALL CALLS FOR SMARTER U.N. SANCTIONS THAT SPARE INNOCENT IRAQIS

Suffering -- especially among children -- is real and severe, says first US official to examine Iraq's humanitarian situation since Gulf War

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Tony Hall, D-Ohio, today called for an end to efforts to demonize Iraq's people - and for a more effective response to their suffering from officials charged with supervising Iraq's purchase of humanitarian supplies. He also said that lifting sanctions at this point would be irresponsible.

Hall visited Iraq April 16-20, touring hospitals, schools, clinics and water-treatment plants in Baghdad, Basra, Babylon, Samawah and Nasiriyah. He was accompanied in Iraq by representatives of the Red Crescent, Red Cross, UNICEF, and others and met with aid workers, Western diplomats, and Iraq's Minister of Health. His statement on his trip to Iraq follows:

"Iraq's people are suffering terribly, and it was heartbreaking to see their pain firsthand. I left Iraq convinced that a great deal more could be done to address its people's humanitarian needs, and I am determined to do all I can to persuade the U.S. Government to take these steps.

"But, like the majority of American citizens, I remain concerned about the military threat Iraq continues to pose to its neighbors and the world -- and convinced that until progress is made on eliminating weapons of mass destruction, lifting sanctions would be irresponsible.

"I wish that I could support lifting sanctions: many religious leaders, aid workers, and other people I respect oppose them. I am troubled, though, that some opponents of sanctions don't focus as much attention on Iraq's government as I believe they should.

"While sanctions clearly have played a role in Iraqis' suffering, though, lifting them would not provide much comfort to citizens there. If Iraq's government would show it is serious about easing its people's suffering - instead of using their problems to support its bid to end sanctions - it would be easier for me to see sanctions as the primary culprit. Or, if Iraq would show good faith in keeping the promises it made at the end of the Gulf War, perhaps that would prompt good faith measures by the United Nations -- such as adding a sunset provision to some of the economic sanctions.

"I am hopeful that Iraq is realizing the long-term human cost of its strategies, and I will look for signs that it will set more humane priorities in the near future. For example, trying to mask dual-use or other prohibited items by inserting them into contracts for humanitarian goods is counterproductive. Iraq's government knows those efforts only result in the delay of needed food, medicine and other humanitarian items. I was also troubled by Iraq's recent attempt to reject Canada's offer of a significant contribution to UNICEF's operations there.

"That said, I also believe the U.N.'s Sanctions Committee, and particularly its U.S. representatives, ought to use much better judgment. For example, American officials tell me that only a small percentage of items raise security concerns -- but those concerns hold up entire shipments of humanitarian goods. Surely, the U.N. could employ a line-item veto approach -- allowing what is permitted under the sanctions, barring what is not, and paying only for what is sent to Iraq. If the U.N. Sanctions Committee's top priority were humanitarian, as I believe it should be, this would be a way to quickly resolve many of the causes of Iraqis' difficulties.

"I appreciate the high priority my country puts on security considerations. But there are humanitarian standards that are equally central to America's character. There also are political realities that should make us think twice about the wisdom of a crippled nation in this dangerous Middle East neighborhood. I hope that U.S. policymakers can better balance these competing concerns and redouble efforts to heal this festering sore.

"There are some confidence-building measures the United States could take, to demonstrate its concern for Iraqis' suffering. For example, I hope our government will support a scientific study by the World Health Organization of the effects of depleted uranium (DU) and other potential pollutants on Iraqi civilians -- who are suffering very high rates of leukemia. Not only could work like this engage representatives of the international community and Iraqis in constructive work together; it also could yield health benefits for American veterans of the Gulf War as well as Iraqi civilians.

"I fear that no matter how quickly sanctions are lifted, the future of most of the people I met in Iraq will be bleak. That is because its children are in bad shape, with a quarter of them underweight and one in 10 wasting away because of hunger and disease. The leading cause of childhood death, diarrhea, is 11 times more prevalent in Iraq than elsewhere - and while polio has been wiped out throughout the Mideast, it has returned to plague Iraq's people. Schools and water systems -- the infrastructure any nation's future depends upon -- are decrepit and hospitals lack basic medicine and equipment. Ordinary civilians have exhausted their resources and their health trying to survive on $2-6 per month.

"The country's isolation has made it easy for some to demonize its people, and for Iraq's government to denounce Westerners. Blocking Iraqis' access to outside information contributes nothing to positive change, and this policy's result is innocent people who seem angry and past hoping for a different life. A Christian minister working in Iraq summed up the situation this way: 'The children in Iraq no longer know how to dream,' he said.

"It will take Iraqi people a generation to recover from their present situation. Sanctions imposed by the United Nations are partly to blame, but it is the stalemate - and not the sanctions - that causes Iraqis to suffer. I want to see all concerned look harder for ways to rebuild the confidence needed to end this stalemate.

"Finally, I want to commend the superb work that UNICEF, Care, and other organizations are doing under difficult circumstances. I particularly appreciated the efforts of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Society in helping to make my trip a success."

Hall first became involved in humanitarian work when he served in the Peace Corps 30 years ago. In recent years, he has focused his legislative and other efforts on fighting hunger and the other problems that affect the poor of the United States and other nations and has recently visited North Korea, Sierra Leone, Laos, Burma, Cambodia and Sudan.

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Dep't of State. Web site: usinfo.state.gov)

----

Depleted Uranium is a low level radiation hazard
http://www.llrc.org/depleted_uranium.htm

This widely used waste product of the nuclear industry is causing cancer and monster births and is implicated in Gulf War Syndrome

Our calculations on a separate page on this site show that the radiological hazard of DU is seriously underestimated.

80,000 Gulf War personnel have been suffering from a mystery illness. The population of Iraq, in the years following the war have developed the same illnesses and in addition the rates of cancer and birth deformities have increased enormously.

Iraqi baby, a victim of DU, born with no nose, mouth, eyes, anus, or genitals and with flipper limbs, a common result of radiation exposure in utero. Photo by Karen Robinson

Various unpersuasive explanations have been advanced for 'Gulf-War Syndrome'; they range from side effects of vaccines against nerve and biological agents to pesticides or oil-well fires. It has, though, been fairly clear from quite early on that we are dealing with the usual spectrum ofdiseases related to radiation exposure. The question that is almost never asked is how Uranium-238, generally believed to be of little radiological significance, can have caused such profound effects.

The amount of Depleted Uranium scattered around the war zone is given as 350 tonnes. This figure is for anti-tank ammunition. But if we include the nose cones of Cruise missiles and helicopter rotors the figure is nearer 750 tonnes. This is 27 TeraBecquerels (TBq)of radioactivity, 1/50th of the total alpha releases from Sellafield over its entire operating history. Uranium is a very reactive metal, easily oxidising to U3O8 and UO2. A single 120mm Abrams tank DU shell contains 3kg of U-238 (111MBq of activity) and there is 275g (10.1MBq) in a 30mm GAU-8A A-10 Thunderbolt cannon shell. These 'penetrators' explode on impact, with up to 80% conversion to tiny long-lived glassy beads of Uranium Oxide from 1 micron to 5 microns diameter. These 'hot particles' can travel for very large distances, even hundreds of miles, under the influence of wind, fire and electrostatic action. The smaller particles can easily pass through the lung into the blood and lymphatic system.

There is also a gamma dose hazard to those handling shells. A Yugoslavian conference proceedings reports that DU shells fired in the Bosnian war by the 'Allies' gave '1.2 alpha and 35.9 beta particles per second leading to skin changes and necrosis inside 80 hours.' US army figures admit 2.5mGy/hr at the surface of a DU shell, a dose equivalent to 20 Chest X-rays/hr.

In Iraq, the population is slowly dying from radiation poisoning. From documents LLRC has obtained, the military were aware of the risk, though its magnitude was unclear.

On 30th July 1999 LLRC took part in a conference on DU in Iraq, organised by George Galloway MP and the Mariam Appeal. From 30th July onward the Guardian has carried reports, a rubbishing article by Duncan Campbell and correspondence. Here is LLRC's contribution.

The Low Level Radiation Campaign supports the Campaign Against Depleted Uranium. Contact CADU care of Greater Manchester and District CND, One World Centre, 6, Mount Street, Manchester M2 5NS tel: +44 (0)161 834 8301 fax +44 (0)161 834 8187 email: gmdcnd@gn.apc.org

There is a lot of information about the (ab)uses of DU on http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/nltrs/nltr0051.htm

The Laka Foundation has published an excellent book on military use of DU, and its true radiotoxic and chemotoxic properties. Contributions from Felicity Arbuthnot, Rosalie Bertell, Ray Bristow, Peter Diehl, Dan Fahey, Henk van der Keur, Daniel Robicheau. It is on http://www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium or contact Laka, Ketelhuisplein 43, 1054 RD Amsterdam, Netherlands. tel. +31 20 616 8294 email: laka@laka.antenna.nl

Send email to: bramhall@llrc.org with questions or comments about this web site.

Links to other pages on DU isotope concentrations
http://www.llrc.org/duhazard.htm

thoracic lymph node doses
http://www.llrc.org/duparticletable.htm#table

and Official ignorance of these doses
http://www.llrc.org/rat322.htm#simmonds

LLRC unbaffled by bullsh
http://www.llrc.org/medact.htm

Guardian letters
http://www.llrc.org/duncan.htm

Landmine in your lungs
http://www.llrc.org/landmine.htm

Radioactive Times 3/1
http://www.llrc.org/rat311.htm#holdstock

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Depleted uranium is always dangerous and should be banned

April 14, 2000
Representative Tony Hall,
Letters to the editor/
THE BALTIMORE SUN
http://www.sunspot.net/content/cover/story?section=cover&pagename=story&storyid=1150320202517

Thanks to Carl Schoettler for his informative article "Battle over depleted-uranium arms" (Sun Journal, April 4). The caption on the accompanying photograph of a tank, however, was incorrect.

The Abrams tank is plated with depleted uranium, not because it's denser than lead, but because it's harder than steel. Lead is denser than steel, but no one would use such a soft metal for armor plate. Hardness is the governing factor.

The heavy weight of a uranium projectile, as well as its great hardness, causes it to penetrate just about any armor. More important, Col. Eric G. Daxon's assertion that uranium is not dangerous after its dust settles is misleading, because the dust constantly blows around with the winds.

The lead poisoning of thousands of Baltimore children, for instance, has been attributed to the dust that blows off windowsills from worn sash paint. Depleted-uranium is not only radioactive, but is a chemically toxic heavy metal similar to lead. It is unconscionable that the U.S. Army injects it into the environment, where it remains dangerous for thousands of years.

Lead shot has been outlawed in Maryland for good reason. Depleted uranium should be banned as an indiscriminate weapon whose victims will mainly be children and civilians.

Instead of jail time, Philip Berrigan and other protesters should be given an award for bringing this to public attention.

Richard Ochs Baltimore The writer is president of the Aberdeen Proving Ground Superfund Citizens Coalition. "There are some confidence-building measures the United States could take, to demonstrate its concern for Iraqis' suffering. For example, I hope our government will support a scientific study by the World Health Organization of the effects of depleted uranium (DU) and other potential pollutants on Iraqi civilians -- who are suffering very high rates of leukemia. Not only could work like this engage representatives of the international community and Iraqis in constructive work together; it also could yield health benefits for American veterans of the Gulf War as well as Iraqi civilians."

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The first complete report on the consequences of the aggression on the environment

April 21, 2000
http://www.serbia-info.com/news/2000-04/21/18545.html

Belgrade, April 21 - The report of the Yugoslav Ministry of development, science and environment on the consequences of the NATO bombardment on the FR of Yugoslavia's environment, including a chapter on the use of Depleted Uranium 238 was presented today at the Yugoslav government.

Speaking about the use of that kind of ammunition in the aggression against the FRY, Assistant Yugoslav Minister of Defense General Slobodan Petkovic stressed that during the war, the Yugoslav Army units carried out radiological and chemical inspection of the field of the U.S. A-10A airplane activity. The remnants of the ammunition filled with Depleted Uranium were discovered in wider region of Bujanovac, Vranje and Lustica peninsula in Boka Kotorska gulf in Montenegro.

The analysis of the contaminated land, carried out by the Vinca Institute for nuclear science, the Institute for protection of workers in Nis and the Military-medical academy, show that the area is contaminated in high degree, with specific activity of Depleted Uranium 238, which ranges to 235,000 becquerel per 1 kg of land.

On the basis of the consultations with the Vinca Institute for nuclear science, it was estimated that the activity of Depleted Uranium 238 of 200 becquerel per 1 kg of land was an allowable level of contamination, Petkovic stressed, explaining that the criterion was adopted in keeping with the average levels of natural concentration of Uranium 238 in land.

Stressing that it was not possible to carry out more detailed radiological and chemical inspection of Kosovo and Metohija, Petkovic said that, regarding the Yugoslav Army data, NATO A-10A airplanes were active on some 100 locations in Kosovo and Metohija, especially in the regions of Prizren, Urosevac, Pec, Djakovica, Decani and Djurakovac.

According to the Yugoslav Minister for development, science and environment Prof. Dr Nada Sljapic, the report is the testimony of the negative consequences of the NATO bombardment on our country's environment.

Stressing that the consequences cannot be considered as catastrophic for the entire country, but that it could be spoken about the extremely negative influence of the bombardment for certain industrial zones and chemical plants with toxic materials, Dr Sljapic pointed out that those facts give the aggression the character of "a chemical war against population and living creatures".

The chemical industry plants were bombed deliberately, and thanks to urgent activities of our experts, the catastrophic consequences on the environment were avoided or reduced, Dr Sljapic underscored.

She stressed that the aggression against the FRY was "flagrant violation of numerous principles of the international treaties and conventions in the field of the environment protection".

Great part of the report was based on technical reports of home and foreign experts, which represented the document parallel to the UN Report on Environment Protection (UNEP), she added, saying that the UN Report was unacceptable, not only because it did not include certain documentary section which would be in agreement with our expert analysis, but also because of the "unacceptable political views".

----

NATO Accused of Using Uranium Rounds
Yogoslav government sites environmental study

Friday April 21 10:13 PM ET,
By KATARINA KRATOVAC,
Associated Press Writer

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - NATO warplanes used depleted uranium rounds on eight sites in Yugoslavia during the alliance's 78-day bombing campaign last year, a government report Friday said.

A team of Yugoslav experts made the study on the environmental effects of the NATO air strikes launched to stop President Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on ethnic Albanians in the province of Kosovo.

The report comes a few months after NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson confirmed that U.S. jets operating in Kosovo last year fired the armor-piercing depleted uranium rounds on numerous missions.

Robertson said the rounds were used when American A-10 ground attack aircraft engaged armored vehicles - on about 100 missions in Kosovo. The military says depleted uranium is a dense metal that provides enhanced armor-piercing capability.

------- environment

Today's Featured Stories:
April 26, 2000
http://www.envirolink.org/environews/

Agencies Join To Fight Environmental Crimes -- Officials from the U-S Coast Guard, the F-B-I, U-S customs, and the E-P-A have signed an agreement that would allow the agencies to more actively pursue and prosecute those who break Great Lakes environmental laws. (Great Lakes Radio Consortium)

Calif. probes Arco on fuel tank upgrades -- California environment officials are probing whether oil company Atlantic Richfield Co. falsified public records to conceal that it had not done required safety improvements to its underground fuel storage tanks. (Reuters)

Clinton vetoes bill on nuclear waste disposal site -- President Clinton vetoed on Tuesday a bill to build a Nevada storage site for hazardous nuclear waste from U.S. commercial power plants, probably killing the proposal for the year. (Reuters)

Disruption Is Activists' Business -- Radical environmental groups try to inflict financial harm on companies they feel damage the ecosystem. The only thing is, there's no one person to blame. (LA Times)

French deputies back creation of environment agency -- France's lower house of parliament approved on Tuesday the creation of an environmental protection agency with a remit to protect public health. Lawmakers in the National Assembly unanimously approved the proposal by Green Party deputy Andre Aschieri to create the agency. (Reuters)

Frigid Arctic Circle Flights Key To Ozone Processes -- As people use more fossil fuels, ozone plumes form in polluted cities and drift around the world, and background levels continue to rise in the lower atmosphere. Scientists are concerned that an overburdened atmosphere may lose its ability to adequately cleanse itself. The peculiar chemistry of the Arctic spring is key to understanding ozone and pollution processes across the northern latitudes. (UniSci)

Iran says peaceful nuclear technology not shared -- Iran charged on Tuesday that industrialised nations are denying peaceful nuclear technology to developing countries in order to secure dominance in the field. (Reuters)

N.Korea said closer to ICBM than U.S. is to defense -- North Korea is much closer to inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) capability than the United States is to deploying an anti-missile defence, a senior U.S. arms control official said on Tuesday. (Reuters)

Tap water toxic, Argentine city says -- The Argentine city of Bahia Blanca has warned its 420,000 residents to avoid using tap water because it says it is laced with toxic bacteria that cause skin irritation and possibly neurological damage. (Reuters)

Windfall to big U.S. farmers, skimpy for environment -- Big farmers are sopping up 61 percent of U.S. farm subsidies, a larger share than ever, environmentalists said on Tuesday in advocating an annual $25,000 limit on supports that would go only to working farmers who need help. (Reuters)

All stories on the web at: http://www.envirolink.org/environews

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-------- france

BORDEAUX : 300 French peace activists against tests in lab !

Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 17:29:47 +0200

300 activists rallyed on last Sunday on front of the gates of Laser Megajoule lab, near Bordeaux (France). Daniel Durand (French Peace Movement) and Dominique Lanne (Stop Essais)took the floor. They said NO to the nuclear tests in lab and demand a immediate moratorium to the French government. They said also that France,Uk and USA had a particular responsability, one week before the opening of the NPT review Conference.

DANIEL DURAND Le Mouvement de la Paix (French Peace Movement) 139 bd Victor Hugo F93400 ST-OUEN Tel 33 1 40 12 09 12 - Fax 33 1 40 11 57 87 Web : http://www.mvtpaix.org

-------- germany

German Nuclear Phase-out Battle Spins into High Gear

April 26, 2000 (ENS)
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/apr2000/2000L-04-26-03.html

BERLIN, Germany, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Saturday rebuffed a new attempt by three opposition-run state governments to derail the federal administration's nuclear phase-out policy.

It has simultaneously emerged that the European Commission has, for the first time, been drawn directly into the controversial German debate over nuclear power.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder addresses the delegates to the Fifth Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. (Photo courtesy Earth Negotiations Bulletin)

Schroeder's comments, in a newspaper interview, follow declarations by the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Socialist Union heads of the states of Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Hesse that they would unite to fight the Social Democratic Party/Green federal government's nuclear phase-out.

In response, the chancellor threatened that future legislation requiring closure of Germany's 19 nuclear power stations would be drafted in such a way as to bypass the upper parliamentary house, Bundesrat, where the states are represented.

As the battle escalated, it also emerged late last week that the pro-nuclear head of Bavaria, Edmund Stoiber, had complained to the head of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, over the federal government's plans. The Commission today released the text of Prodi's reply, sent on April 11.

In a letter to Prodi sent in February, Stoiber had claimed that, by forcing a phase-out of nuclear power, Germany would breach the 1957 Euratom treaty, which operates parallel to the European Union.

Stoiber also suggested that closing nuclear power stations would prevent Germany from reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and alleged that the proposed eventual ban on nuclear transports would be in breach of internal market rules in the Euratom treaty.

President of the European Commission Romano Prodi of Italy (Photo courtesy European Commission)

Prodi's reply offers Stoiber no immediate help. In particular, he stresses that, even though the Euratom treaty aims at "promoting" nuclear power, "it is up to each member state to decide to introduce or maintain nuclear power as an energy source." His letter sidesteps the issue of implications of nuclear phase-out for greenhouse gas emissions.

This latest flurry of debate over German nuclear phase-out follows nearly a month in which little news has emerged over the state of sensitive "consensus" talks between the government and the power industry. The parties are next due to meet in early May, after an earlier government deadline to finalise an agreement by the end of February passed without a resolution. Chancellor Schroeder is now pushing for an end to the talks by the summer.

In related developments, the opposition Christian Democratic Union has stepped up its federal level opposition to nuclear phase-out, holding its own meetings with the nuclear industry Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a coalition of four German environmental groups has marked today's 14th anniversary of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster by demanding that plans for nuclear phase-out be speeded up.

{Published in cooperation with ENDS Environment Daily, Europe's choice for environmental news. Environmental Data Services Ltd, London. Email: envdaily@ends.co.uk}

----

Stasi used radioactive material to track opponents' movements

APonline BERLIN
March 18, 2000 4:53 p.m. EST
http://www.nando.net:80/24hour/adn/global/story/0,1970,500181962-500240701-501197654-0,00.html

Former East Germany's secret police, the Stasi, used radioactive material for years to track its opponents' activities, the office in charge of the Stasi's files announced Friday.

Many here suspect that political opponents of the former communist regime fell victim to the technique, dying of rare cancers after exposure to radiation.

Among other methods, the Stasi marked opponents with contaminated pins, the Stasi office said. The Stasi secretly slipped the pins into opponents' clothing.

In some cases, Stasi operatives used radioactive material in fluids to mark papers and money. They could then trace whether the items were stolen or used in contacts with the regime's opponents. In addition, the Stasi attached contaminated magnets to vehicles to trace where people traveled, the office said.

There was no indication, however, that radioactivity was used against political prisoners, the office said.

The most prominent suspected victim of the technique was East German dissident and writer Rudolf Bahro, who died of leukemia. The office said his manuscripts were apparently soaked with a radioactive liquid to trace how widely they were distributed.

Joachim Gauck, who heads the office, said prosecutors are investigating further to determine if criminal charges should be filed against former Stasi officers involved in the program.

-------- india / pakistan

India: 'Talks About Talks' Possible

APRIL 26, 08:43 EDT
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=ASIA&STORYID=APIS743E8O80

NEW DELHI, India (AP) - India's foreign minister said Wednesday that the government would consider holding ``talks about talks'' with Pakistan to avoid increasing tension between the two neighbors.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said Tuesday that India would not resume official peace talks with Pakistan.

But on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh told Parliament: ``We will examine the possibility of talks about talks ... to create an atmosphere which would not aggravate the situation.''

He apparently referred to low-level informal contacts.

Pakistan's military ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has said he is willing to talk to India anytime and anywhere.

Both Pakistan and India demand full control over divided Kashmir. Official talks were disrupted last May when the two nuclear-armed states battled along the border and cease-fire line dividing Kashmir.

During his visit to South Asia in March, President Clinton urged both governments to talk over their differences.

Pakistan and India have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947 - two of them over Kashmir.

----

Bank Withholds Loans From Pakistan

APRIL 26, 12:28 EDT
By AMIR ZIA
Associated Press Writer
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=BUSINESS&STORYID=APIS743HI9O0

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - International sanctions to punish Pakistan for its nuclear program will likely cost Pakistan $1.68 billion in lost loans from the Asian Development Bank, a bank official said Wednesday.

Funds from a $2.8 billion four-year loan will begin to be disbursed this year, but Rinus Zijsvelt, the bank's resident representative said Pakistan won't see the entire loan unless sanctions are lifted.

The international community, led by the United States, imposed sanctions on Pakistan and India after the South Asian rivals conducted underground nuclear explosions in May 1998.

The Asian Development Bank is authorized to invest only in humanitarian projects, including health, water supply and rural development.

This year the bank will give $450 million to Pakistan for humanitarian projects. On average Pakistan gets about $650 million. Last year the bank gave Pakistan $13 million.

Sanctions prohibit investment in infrastructure and development projects, said Zijsvelt.

In January 1999, the United States partially lifted sanctions to help Pakistan avoid a default on its $32 billion of foreign debt.

The decision paved the way for the rescheduling of a $5 billion-plus loan from donor nations and commercial banks and also a $1.6 billion loan package from the International Monetary Fund.

But the IMF stopped payments on its loan to Pakistan in May 1999 after the ousted government of Nawaz Sharif failed to implement economic reforms.

Army Chief Gen. Pervez Musharraf overthrew Sharif's government on Oct. 12, accusing it of economic mismanagement and corruption.

Zijsvelt said Pakistan has to make good on its promises for economic reforms decentralization of power, boosting revenues, speedy privatization of state-run institutions and structural changes in financial, industrial and agriculture sectors.

-------- iran

Iranian Students Protest Crackdown on Newspapers

April 26, 2000
By SUSAN SACHS
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/042600iran-protest.html

TEHRAN, Iran, April 25 -- With the reformers they supported under siege by conservative judges and clerics, students at two Tehran universities held peaceful demonstrations today to denounce the widening crackdown on the nation's independent press.

As the students protested, a judge in the capital closed another liberal newspaper -- the 13th to fall silent on orders from hard-line judges in just two days. And another court issued an arrest warrant for a popular moderate cleric who was accused of insulting Islam because he attended a recent conference in Berlin on democracy.

Several reform-minded clerics are already in prison, convicted on similar charges, based on their open questioning of the Iranian religious establishment's political power.

With unease mounting here in the capital, the student rallies were watched with trepidation by reform leaders. They have repeatedly warned their supporters to avoid any disturbance that could bring even harsher retaliation from conservatives or delay the opening of a new reform-dominated Parliament next month.

The warnings appear to have been heeded, so far. But students at the Khajeh Naseer Technical University in the capital found a way to express themselves. "The people's silence," read one of their banners today, "is not a sign of their consent."

President Mohammad Khatami, whose pledges of wider political freedoms inspired the reform movement and an explosion of feisty newspapers, has also remained silent in the face of the recent assault on liberal newspapers, editors and clerics.

He has defended the notion of a free press in recent speeches but has not commented publicly on the closure of nearly every national newspaper that supports him.

The reform forces have been locked in a perilous war of nerves with their hard-line opponents for two months, since pro-Khatami candidates won a decisive majority in the first round of parliamentary elections on Feb. 18.

The reformist tide swept nearly every conservative incumbent out of office.

But since the first round, reformers have suffered a series of blows.

First, one of the president's closest allies, Saeed Hajjarian, was gunned down on a Tehran street, barely surviving a bullet fired into his face. The trial of eight men accused of the assassination attempt opened today in a Tehran court.

Although many of the reform newspapers speculated that the shooting was the work of anti-Khatami extremists in the security forces, one defendant told the court today that he fired the shot but did not act on behalf of any group.

The newspaper run by Mr. Hajjarian, which has the largest daily circulation in the country and is a constant irritant to the hard-liners, was ordered last night to shut down, although the order was rescinded.

The Khatami forces' preliminary election victory also has been chipped away by the ultra-conservative Council of Guardians, which has annulled the results of 11 provincial races won by pro-Khatami candidates, the latest one today.

What worries the reformers more than the voided races is the council's delay in certifying the election results and scheduling a final round of voting. The runoff will decide about 80 seats for which no candidate received 25 percent of the vote outright in the first round or for which the results have been nullified. Time is growing short: the new Parliament, which presumably will give Mr. Khatami his first working majority since his election in 1997, is supposed to begin work on May 28.

"What's important for us is the date," said Shahidi Shaban, the deputy minister for press in the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and a Khatami ally. "It must be respected."

He said that under the law, the Parliament can open with two-thirds of its 290 members, a possibility that would require certification of all the seats decided in Tehran in the first round of elections.

But the conservative council is still recounting ballots in Tehran, where reformers won 29 out of 30 seats outright in the first round. The council secretary, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, predicted today that the recount would lead to "different results," according to a report from the official Iranian news agency IRNA.

So far, Mr. Khatami has been able to maneuver between the expectations of his supporters and the barely hidden hostility of the conservatives, who risk losing their grip on judicial and political power under a reformist program.

In Iran's system of government, which divides authority between competing institutions that answer to different groups, the president holds relatively few cards. He appoints the ministers, who must be approved by Parliament. But the military, security and courts are in the hands of a Muslim cleric who is called the supreme leader.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the current leader, is widely considered a conservative but also a practical politician who recognizes Mr. Khatami's popularity.

Because he is the ultimate authority over the judiciary, though, many people have wondered what role he played in the recent ban on reformist newspapers and trials of reformist writers.

"Nothing is really clear," said one Western diplomat based in Tehran. "We are in a game that is going faster and faster. We all are waiting for the next play."

-------- israel

Israel Asked To Open Nuke Facilities

APRIL 26, 12:57 EDT
By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press Writer
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=MIDEAST&STORYID=APIS743HVU00

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Mideast countries denounced Israel's efforts to conceal its suspected nuclear arsenal and demanded it join 187 other countries in allowing international scrutiny of its nuclear facilities.

Egypt led the charge Tuesday at a conference reviewing progress and failures of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, saying Israel's secrecy threatened security in the Middle East.

Syria's U.N. ambassador, Mikhail Wehbe, picked up the sentiment today, saying Israel was defying the world by refusing to sign the treaty.

``Syria was the first to call from within these United Nations for the creation of an area free of all weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, with nuclear weapons at the forefront,'' Wehbe told the conference. ``Israel did not respond to that call. Indeed, Israel has failed to respond to any call.''

Western intelligence reports say Israel has a significant nuclear stockpile, making it the only nuclear power in the Middle East. Israel has maintained a policy of ``nuclear opacity'' - a refusal to confirm or deny the possession of nuclear weapons.

Egypt's U.N. ambassador, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, urged delegates to single out Israel for its failure to commit to the treaty - the only country in the region that hasn't done so.

``The message must be crystal clear in expressing the danger to the security of the Middle East inherent in the continuation of the status quo,'' Gheit said.

He was backed Tuesday by Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi and the ambassadors from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in demanding Israel agree to the treaty's terms and reveal its arsenal. Other countries made similar demands - but the Middle East states were the most vocal.

The nonproliferation treaty, which went into force in 1970, calls for nuclear weapons states to move toward disarmament and bars countries without nuclear arsenals from obtaining or developing them.

It requires its signatories to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to verify that their nuclear technologies are being used for peaceful means - not weapons.

Israel's deputy defense minister, Ephraim Sneh, told Israel army radio Tuesday that the country's policy would remain. ``We are not saying what we have or don't have, and the deterrence stems from the fact that others are kept guessing,'' he said.

Saudi Arabia's ambassador, Fawzi Shobokshi, denounced the strategy.

``Israel's position and all its justifications clearly contradict its calls for peace because true peace must be founded on trust and good intentions,'' he said.

The United States generally backs Israel, which is isolated and often criticized at the United Nations. It has tried to steer criticism from Israel's suspected nuclear arsenal while it works on peacemaking in the Middle East.

But the United States has agreed for the first time to allow the conference to create a subsidiary committee to deal with regional nuclear issues, including the Middle East, said Daniel Plesch, director of the British American Security Information Council, which is monitoring progress of the conference.

``The U.S. found it indefensible to not discuss Israel when it has India and Pakistan to talk about,'' said Plesch, referring to the nuclear weapons tests the two countries conducted in 1998.

It wasn't clear, however, if the United States would back calls by Mideast states to single Israel out by name in a resolution calling for a nuclear weapon-free zone in the Middle East. At the last review conference in 1995, a resolution adopted made no specific reference of Israel.

``We have had some discussions on this subject. We have had some elements of understanding, but there's still more to be done,'' said John Holum, a senior U.S. adviser on arms control.

Only four countries - Israel, India, Pakistan and Cuba - haven't signed the nonproliferation treaty.

----

Syria: Nuclear Powers Aid Israel

April 26, 2000
By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-UN-Nuclear-Treaty.html

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Syria accused nuclear weapons states Wednesday of denying the rest of the world access to peaceful nuclear technology while helping Israel build up its nuclear arsenal.

The comments by Syria's U.N. ambassador, Mikhail Wehbe, appeared to be a swipe at the United States, which maintains tight export controls on its nuclear technology but signed an agreement with Israel in February allowing it access to some types of ``nonsensitive'' U.S. nuclear technology.

Wehbe said Israel's nuclear capability threatened security in the whole Middle East, where Israel is the only country that hasn't committed itself to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

``Until when will nuclear states continue to defend Israel?'' Wehbe asked a conference reviewing implementation of the treaty.

``How long will they continue to support what Israel takes on in defense of its rights, while Israel uses nuclear power for aggression, for expansion, and for entrenching occupation?''

Israel has refused to confirm or deny it has nuclear weapons, arguing that the mystery helps deter attack by others. But Western intelligence reports say Israel has a significant nuclear stockpile, making it the only nuclear power in the Middle East.

Delegates from several countries have singled out Israel as one of only four countries -- with Cuba, India and Pakistan -- that haven't signed the treaty.

But ministers from the Mideast have been the most vocal in demanding Israel open its nuclear facilities to the International Atomic Energy Agency as called for by the treaty.

On Tuesday, Egypt led the charge that Israel's secrecy threatened stability in the Middle East, and hinted that it wanted to single out Israel in a resolution calling for a nuclear weapon-free zone in the region.

The Syrian ambassador, Wehbe, also accused nuclear powers Wednesday of failing to live up to the treaty's provision that countries without nuclear arms still be allowed to obtain nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

``At the same time, they covertly and overtly pour advanced technology in the direction of Israel,'' he told the conference.

Even more dangerous, he said, was the agreement ``between Israel and one nuclear state'' allowing Israeli scientists access to the nuclear establishments and tests.

When asked to comment about the Syrian accusations, U.S. officials referred to the comments made at the time of the February agreement. Then, assistant Energy Secretary Rose Gottemoeller said there was no risk of Israeli scientists obtaining access to U.S. nuclear weapons technology. The projects Israel would get access to will be ``strictly nonsensitive,'' she said at the time.

Israel cannot formally defend its position or comment on the criticism because the review conference is for the 187 countries that have signed onto the treaty.

----

U.N. to patrol Israel-Lebanon border

USA Today
April 26, 2000 - World
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanon on Wednesday welcomed Israel's planned withdrawal in July and said that the power vacuum created by the pullout will be filled by U.N. peacekeepers. Beirut has previously expressed fears that an Israeli withdrawal could lead to violence involving Lebanon and Syria, the main power broker in the country. It also had refused to say whether it will allow U.N. forces or its own army to fan out along the border region as it is evacuated by Israel. But Prime Minister Salim Hoss says the withdrawal, which will end two decades of occupation, is ''a radical turning point for Lebanon.''

----

Israeli Warplanes Attack South Lebanon

New York Times
April 26, 2000
By Reuters
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-lebanon.html

RASHAYA, Lebanon (Reuters) - Israeli planes carried out several raids on suspected guerrilla targets in the Western Bekaa in south Lebanon early on Wednesday, a security source and the Israeli army said.

There were no reports of casualties.

The Israeli army confirmed the raid in a statement released in Jerusalem.

The Hizbollah guerrilla group, backed by Syria and Iran, is leading a war of attrition to try to end Israel's 22-year-old occupation of a 15-km (nine-mile) deep zone in south Lebanon.

Israel, which set up the zone ostensibly to protect its northern border, has said it will withdraw its troops by July.

-------- japan

Japan Nuke Accident Claims 2d Victim

April 26, 2000
By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Japan-Nuclear-Accident.html

TOKYO (AP) -- A worker exposed to excessive radiation in Japan's worst nuclear accident died Thursday morning, officials said.

Masato Shinohara, 40, was the second plant worker to die since the accident on Sept. 30 at a uranium-processing facility in Tokaimura, 70 miles, northeast of Tokyo.

Hisashi Ouchi, 35, died of multiple organ failure on Dec. 21 after having been exposed to a massive amount of radiation.

A third worker, Yutaka Yokokawa, was also hospitalized for exposure to a lesser amount of radiation, but was discharged in December.

The accident was triggered when the three workers used too much uranium to make fuel and set off an uncontrolled atomic reaction.

A total of 439 people including nearby residents are believed to have been exposed to radiation in the accident.

----

Hiroshima survivors call for nuclear halt

USA Today
April 26, 2000 - World
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm

UNITED NATIONS - Hiroshima survivors gathered at a United Nations conference reviewing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Tuesday calling for an end to nuclear weapons. Bomb survivors, or hibakusha, as they are known in Japan, erected a display inside the U. N. with photographs of bodies strewn among the rubble and orphans scavenging for food. The atomic bomb dropped over southwestern Japan on Aug. 6, 1945, killed 140,000 people and leveled Hiroshima. Another bomb killed 70,000 people in Nagasaki three days later.

----

Hiroshima Survivors Protest at UN

APRIL 26, 01:19 EDT
By IAN JAMES
Associated Press Writer
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=ASIA&STORYID=APIS7437OJO0

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - At 8:15 a.m. on Aug. 6, 1945, Setsuko Nakamura looked out a window and saw a blinding flash of light. Instantly, the 13-year-old girl had the sensation of floating as the wooden building collapsed.

She awoke in darkness, unable to move. She heard the faint cries of other girls, saying ``Help me!'' Many of those voices would never cry again. But someone loosened the timbers over Setsuko, and she was able to crawl toward the light and live on.

Fifty-five years later, she stood outside the United Nations on Tuesday with a simple message from Hiroshima: Never again.

While representatives from around the world met across the street at a U.N. conference reviewing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Setsuko - who took the last name Thurlow after marrying a Canadian man - spoke to 50 people, urging them to look at the hundreds of Japanese names written on two yellow banners.

``They are 350 names of my schoolmates and teachers - only from my own school, just one school among many schools,'' she said, clenching a fist. ``They all perished, and most of them vaporized in the center of the city. The image of these girls and loved ones drive and compel me to speak out against the cruelty and inhumanity of nuclear weapons.''

The atomic bomb dropped by a U.S. plane over southwestern Japan killed 140,000 people and leveled Hiroshima. The bombing of Nagasaki three days later killed 70,000.

Thurlow recalled that when the blast struck, she was one mile from its center, working with 30 other girls from her school in a military office to aid the war effort. As she left the collapsed building for a nearby hillside, she saw the devastation.

``It was like twilight because of all the dust and dirt and the particles up in the air that were sucked up in the mushroom cloud,'' she said. ``It was like hell on earth. The streams and streams of injured people were just slowly shuffling from the central part of the city to the hillside.''

Their skin and flesh were hanging free, and some people were burned black, she said. The city burned all day and all night.

One of Thurlow's sisters, and the sister's 4-year-old son, were walking on a bridge at the time of the explosion. They were badly burned and only lived several days, Thurlow said.

``When they died, the soldiers just threw them in a ditch, poured gasoline, threw a lighted match,'' she said. ``But you know, I stood and watched it. I couldn't even shed tears. I was so emotionally overwhelmed.''

Her parents survived, and she went with them to live with an uncle outside the city. In the weeks and months after the blast, she searched her body for the purple spots that people said meant certain death. She bled internally and lost hair.

At 68, Thurlow said she is generally healthy, although she has a thyroid problem that worries her. She lives in Toronto with her husband, and they have two sons and two grandchildren.

A retired social worker, Thurlow is concerned about U.S. plans to build a national missile defense system that critics say would lead to a new arms race. It bothers her that even after so many years, some people don't seem to understand her message.

``Sometimes I feel angry, sometimes sad,'' she said. ``I think the majority of the people are sleepwalking in this nuclear age. They have to come out of the sleepwalking again.''

Bomb survivors, or hibakusha, as they are known in Japan, erected a display inside the United Nations with photographs of bodies strewn among the rubble and orphans scavenging for food.

Sunao Tsuboi, 75, said he was on his way to school in Hiroshima when the bomb fell. He was thrown 30 feet by the blast, and scars remain on his face and arms.

Speaking to the crowd outside the United Nations, he finished his speech with a shouted plea: ``No more Hiroshima! No more Nagasaki! No more hibakusha!''

----

Japan not to upgrade worst nuclear accident

JAPAN: April 26, 2000
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=6462

TOKYO - Japan has decided against upgrading its first fatal nuclear plant accident, sticking to a preliminary rating of "level four" rather than opting for the more serious level five.

A level five was assigned to the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island in the United States.

"We decided on level four for the final rating," a Science and Technology Agency official said on Tuesday.

The government had previously said the accident last September at a uranium processing plant plant in Tokai, 140 km (90 miles) northeast of Tokyo, might be upgraded to level five.

It occurred when workers put nearly eight times the proper amount of condensed uranium into a mixing tank, triggering a nuclear chain reaction.

Level four on the International Atomic Energy Agency's zero-to-seven International Nuclear Event Scale indicates the possibility of a fatal radiation leak at the accident site but no significant risk outside the plant, the official said.

The Soviet Union's Chernobyl accident in 1986, rated a level seven, was the worst nuclear power accident on record.

Tokyo University Hospital said on Monday that a 40-year-old worker exposed to heavy doses of radiation in the Tokai incident had slipped into serious condition.

"The patient's prognosis is uncertain after he suffered multiple organ failure," the hospital said in a statement. Another Tokai worker died as a result of the accident late last year, while a third who suffered heavy radiation exposure recovered and was released from hospital in December.

A total of 439 workers and residents were exposed to radiation as a result of the accident.

-------- korea

North Korea under fire at nuclear conference

Miami Herald
Wednesday, April 26, 2000
http://www.herald.com/content/wed/news/brknews/docs/011883.htm

UNITED NATIONS -- (AP) -- North Korea has been singled out for criticism at a conference on nuclear nonproliferation and named as the reason the United States wants to build a missile defense system.

North Korea is among the 187 countries that have committed themselves to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which allows the International Atomic Energy Agency to make sure a countries' nuclear technology is being used for peaceful purposes.

But North Korea has limited IAEA access to its facilities, prompting the head of the IAEA, Mohamed El Baradei, to tell a conference reviewing the treaty that the agency couldn't be sure North Korea hadn't diverted technology to non-peaceful uses.

A senior U.S. official, meanwhile, raised concern Tuesday that North Korea could launch an intercontinental ballistic missile within the next five years -- before the United States could mount a missile defense system against it.

North Korea launched a three-stage Taepondong missile in 1998, with a range of over 940 miles, and is ``very close'' to an even more advanced missile, said John Holum, a senior U.S. adviser on arms control.

That 1998 test spurred the United States to begin considering a missile defense system to guard against attack, he said.

Russia, which ratified the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty with the United States barring such systems, has rebuffed U.S. efforts to amend the treaty to allow a limited defense, arguing it would make Russian forces ineffective.

The United States says the missile defense system isn't intended to counter Russian missiles, but to eliminate the smaller threat a nation such as North Korea could pose.

Pyongyang has agreed for the time being not to conduct a flight test of the more advanced Taepondong-2 system, Holum said.

``Nevertheless, the intelligence analysis is that North Korea is very close to an ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) capability through that system, much closer to an ICBM capability than we are to deployment of a national missile defense,'' Holum said.

The U.S. consideration of a missile defense system has dominated the opening days of the conference, but North Korea's non-compliance with the treaty has figured prominently in several speeches as well.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer welcomed recent improvements in relations between Pyongyang and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, an apparent reference to plans by leaders of North and South Korea to hold an unprecedented summit in June.

``We hope this will be reflected in reduced tensions in the region and improved North Korean cooperation with the IAEA,'' he said.

But Downer stressed that North Korea had solid commitments with the IAEA regarding information about its nuclear facilities that needed to be turned over.

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Korean Firms Hit by Chernobyl Computer Virus

April 26, 2000
By Reuters
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/technology/tech-korea-virus.html

SEOUL (Reuters) - The so-called Chernobyl computer virus struck South Korea on Wednesday, wiping out hard disks at hundreds of companies, the Ministry of Information and Communication said on Wednesday.

The ministry reported it received almost 2,000 complaints about the virus, which struck on the 14th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident in the Ukraine.

A ministry official said far worse damage was caused last year.

``In 1999, the outbreak of the virus affected up to 300,000 computers and larger companies took the brunt of the damage,'' said the official. ``This time, it's likely to be five percent of that.''

He said individuals and small companies accounted for more than 70 percent of the complaints reported on Wednesday.

He gave no estimate of the value of the damage caused by the virus erasing data on hard disk drives and corrupting communications software.

-------- kosovo

Kosovo Albanians demand inmates' release

USA Today April 26, 2000 - World
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia - Some 10,000 ethnic Albanians jammed the center of the city on Wednesday to demand the release of thousands of Kosovo Albanians held in Serbian jails. Military helicopters hovered above and peacekeepers patrolled a two-mile route from the National Theater to the eastern edge of the Kosovo capital. More than 2,000 ethnic Albanians arrested in Kosovo during the 18-month Serb crackdown on the Kosovo Liberation Army were transferred to Serbia proper before NATO's 78-day bombing campaign forced Yugoslav troops and police to withdraw and hand the province over to U.N. administrators and international peacekeepers. Many others are believed to be held secretly by the Serbs.


-------- npt

Getting Down to Disarmament

Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2000 20:26:30 -0400
To: updates@reachingcriticalwill.org
From: Felicity Hill - flick@igc.org Subject: # 3 NPT Update

The General Debate continued at the NPT Review Conference this morning, hearing from Syria, Maldives, Luxembourg, Poland, Korea, Myanmar, Venezuela and Kuwait, Norway, Mongolia, Turkey, Macedonia, Indonesia, Qatar, Azerbaijan and Argentina. Two decisions were taken, one to allow Cuba to distribute documents and second to add another Vice Chair to the Credentials Committee. Indonesia's statement was particularly worth hearing, referring to the modernisation of weapons. (For copies of the speeches: www.basicint.org for detailed analysis: www.acronym.org.uk)

The first meeting of Main Committee I on nuclear disarmament opened today with statements by Japan, Mexico on behalf of the New Agenda Coalition, New Zealand, Portugal on behalf of the European Union, France and the Czech Republic. In terms of substance, the most promising and forward looking of statements was that of Mexico on behalf of the NAC. Ambassador Reyes of Colombia closed the meeting with almost an hour to spare because delegations were not ready to begin discussion. The Committee will meet again on Thursday afternoon, 3-6 and we hope the statement giving ends and the discussion begins.

Japan referred to "several avenues" that must be taken to arrive at the goal of nuclear disarmament, including "efforts at the unilateral, bilateral, plurilateral and multilateral levels." Noting that the first three of these involve only the nuclear weapon states, Japan stated that "no one in the disarmament community denies that they have done immensely important work" but that nuclear disarmament is "a more public affair, which involves and affects all the members of the NPT community." Japan referred to the question of pace as "particularly contentious" and stated that because concrete steps require the agreement of all, "the only way we can proceed is step by step." In this context, Japan referred to the working paper it had submitted together with the Australian delegation, relying extensively on the 1995 Principles and Objectives. Expressing a desire to see a reference to the South Asian nuclear tests in the final outcome, Japan concluded by saying that implementation of the 1995 measures can heal any "injury the NPT may have suffered."

The Japanese/Australian paper (NPT/.CONF.2000.WP.1) contains 8 paragraphs that call for:

1. the early entry into force of the CTBT; 2. immediate commencement of negotiations on a fissile material treaty; 3. immediate entry into force of START II and early commencement of START III; 4. further efforts by the nuclear-weapon states to reduce arsenals, and the commencement of negotiations involving the nuclear-weapon States for the reduction of nuclear weapons at an appropriate stage; 5. multilateral discussions in the CD on possilbe future steps on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation; 6. early completion of negotiations on a NWFZ in Central Asia; 7. universalisation of IAEA safeguards and establishment of Integrated Safeguards for strengthening the effectiveness of safeguards system; 8. placement of fissile materials no longer required for defence purposes under safeguards.

While many of these points are necessary steps in the path towards disarmament, this bland offering contains vague language such as "further efforts" (who defines efforts?) and "possible future steps" (why can't we identify some of these steps here and now in a more representative forum to help the frozen 66 member CD thaw a little?). The paper does not maximise the possibilities offered by this conference and nor does it address the lack of success experienced by this very programme over the past five year period.

Mexico's statement on behalf of the NAC introduced its working paper on nuclear disarmament "as the identification of areas in which and the means through which further progress should be sought in the future regarding the obligations under Articles I, II and VI" of the NPT. Stating that the NPT regime is at a crisis, Mexico allowed that following the hopes for nuclear disarmament in 1995 and the 1996 ICJ Advisory Opinion, events have not been encouraging, noting lack of progress on the CTBT and FMCT. Specifically, "We have not witnessed the necessary political will on the part of some States parties to fulfil their obligations" under the NPT and "indefinite extension of the Treaty does not legitimize the indefinite possession of nuclear weapons."

Mexico then reiterated points made in the Working Document for Nuclear Disarmament presented on April 24. Although this forward looking action plan does not go as far as many in the NGO community may when advocating abolition, the ideas contained in the New Agenda Coalitions Working Document are something that we can all agree are the obvious first steps to the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons. NGOs think of it as a platform of consensus rather than a compromise. NGOs are calling on all states to identify what specific points they could possibly object to in the doable, practical, reasonable and realistic platform put forward by the New Agenda Coalition.

New Zealand began with an expression of support for a "substantive outcome" noting that the "fundamental bargain of non-proliferation and disarmament" central to the NPT may be "discriminatory" but explicit in it "was the expectation that this discrimination would end with the elimination of nuclear weapons." In this context, New Zealand sees the RevCon as crucial and the achievements as "instrumental in determining that international confidence in the NPT can be sustained." New Zealand stressed accountability of states and the right and responsibility of non-nuclear weapon states to pursue nuclear disarmament. Moreover, the indefinite extension in 1995 "did not in any way sanction the indefinite possession of nuclear weaponsŠ. Enhanced accountability, yes; permanence in possession, no."

New Zealand further noted that "progress on nuclear disarmament is not contingent on progress with general and complete disarmament" and that "no one group of states can determine independently the pace with which the obligations of a treaty are implemented." New Zealand does not accept "that it is business as usual on nuclear disarmament" over the last five years, citing nuclear strategies that re-rationalise use and possession and protect nuclear monopolies. In this context, "nuclear weapons must not become an inevitable fact of life. The longer we retain them, the greater the temptation of others to acquire them." New Zealand also expressed concern about the South Asian tests and "another non-State party that operates unsafeguarded nuclear facilities." Listing a series of steps along the lines of the NAC working document, New Zealand called for "a determined and accelerated process of negotiations" stating that "we are not questioning anyone's commitment to Article VI" but seeking "a new undertaking, consistent with, but building upon, that given in the 1995 Principles and Objectives."

Portugal spoke on behalf of the European Union, expression strong commitment to nuclear non-proliferation, to the "ultimate goal" of complete elimination of nuclear weapons and to general and complete disarmament. Calling the 1995 RevCon a "milestone" in non-proliferation and disarmament, Portugal turned to an assessment of the current situation, expressing "deep concern" over the South Asian nuclear tests and calling for signature and ratification by all States of the CTBT (welcoming Russia's recent announcement of ratification) and suggesting that the RevCon consider "what more can be done by States Parties to accelerate ratifications, prevent a resumption of nuclear testing, and facilitate the Treaty's entry into force at the earliest possible time."

Portugal further expressed "deep regret" over lack of progress on concrete FMCT negotiations and "real concern" over "annual haggling" at the CD on the adoption of a work programme, where the "EU countries stand ready and eager to commence negotiations" on the basis of the Shannon mandate. In this context Portugal stated that NPT States Parties should reaffirm their commitment to the goal of negotiating a fissile material ban. Regarding the third part of the P&O Programme of Action dealing with "systematic and progressive efforts" towards nuclear disarmament Portugal welcomed progress on START and by the UK and France, progress on transparency, management and disposition of fissile materials, and placing excess material under safeguards, but went on to express deep EU regret over "negative developments" including lack of progress on entry into force of agreements that would fulfil Article VI obligations. The EU also "underlines the importance of addressing non-strategic nuclear weapons" and urges the RevCon to encourage the NWS, in particular the US and Russia, "to explore ways to bring these weapons within future nuclear reduction and disarmament arrangements." Support for the ABM Treaty was unequivocal: "The EU wishes that Treaty preserved." On nuclear disarmament, there was acknowledgement that "for the time being the primary responsibility rests with the five nuclear-weapons States" (emphasis added) but "it is also an obligation of all States Parties to further the implementation of Article VI" and therefore the EU supports an Ad Hoc Working Group in the CD on nuclear disarmament.

France stated that it has "committed itself unequivocally to nuclear disarmament" (using the language of the New Agenda Coalition), and reiterated support for the CTBT and fissile material treaty asking, "Should the 2000 NPT Review Conference not provide decisive momentum to this (FMCT) negotiation?" France stated the obvious in saying that the review conference should "arrive at a common assessment of the key elements of this review, or at least bring our views closer together." Choosing to focus strictly on the action plan outlined in 1995, NGOs fear that France will seek to limit the actions open to the 2000 Review Conference until the CTBT enters into force and the FMCT negotiation begins. While the 1995 decisions, principles and actions identified must be preserved, NGOs would not want that moment to be frozen in time, especially in this fast changing world.

Merav Datan Program Director, IPPNW

Felicity Hill, Director Women's International League for Peace and Freedom United Nations Office 777 UN Plaza, New York, NY 10017, USA

Ph: 1 212 682 1265 Fax: 1 212 286 8211 email: flick@igc.apc.org web: www.wilpf.int.ch www.reachingcriticalwill.org

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U.S., Russia Strike Conciliatory Poses on Arms Control

Wednesday April 26 8:19 PM ET
By Elaine Monaghan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and Russia on Wednesday struck conciliatory poses on President Clinton's plans for a missile defense system that requires changing a Soviet-era pact seen as the cornerstone of arms control.

But Washington said an overture by visiting Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov was insufficient, and Ivanov again opposed changing the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty.

Powerful Senator Jesse Helms threw another monkey wrench in the administration's works by saying any treaty changes agreed with Russia would be ``dead on arrival'' in Congress while Clinton was in office.

The conservative North Carolina Republican who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee declared it should be left to Clinton's successor to decide whether to build a National Missile Defense (NMD) at a cost of tens of billions of dollars.

``This administration's time for grand treaties is clearly at an end,'' he told the Senate, which has the authority to approve all major foreign treaties or changes to them.

Underlining NMD's complexities, U.S. officials said Clinton may not rule on whether to deploy the system until November after previously indicating he would decide by late summer.

They stressed however that this was not a delay on his part, merely a reflection of the time needed for the Pentagon to test the system and review the results.

A third, critical test has been pushed from April-May to June, when NMD planners will try to hit a mock warhead with a missile in a procedure compared to hitting a bullet with a bullet.

In a reminder of foreign opposition to the notion of the U.S. defense system, which one arms control group has said replaces ``Mutually Assured Destruction'' with ``You're Destroyed and We're Not,'' France renewed its assault on the project.

The gist of Ivanov's proposal was that Russia was happy to work with the United States to reduce the threat of missiles of a shorter range than the ones which would be shot down in NMD.

This approach did not address U.S. concerns motivating the project -- a new threat from ``rogue states'' far from U.S. soil such as communist North Korea or Iran.

State Department spokesman James Rubin told a news briefing that Ivanov's proposal was ``necessary but insufficient''.

But he added: ``We still believe that it is possible that as we and the Russians cooperate and work together in the coming days, that they will see the wisdom of proceeding down the course that we've set forth.''

Ivanov Visit Brings Intense Talks On Arms Control

Ivanov was in Washington after attending a review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) at the United Nations in New York where he reiterated Moscow's opposition to changing the ABM.

The former Cold War rivals used his visit, which is meant to prepare the ground for a U.S.-Russia summit in Moscow on June 4-5, to hold the most intense, high-level talks on arms control since President-elect Vladimir Putin was elected on March 26.

A day after meeting Clinton and half way through two days of talks with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Ivanov told a news conference on Wednesday that it would be premature to predict the outcome but the issue would be a centerpiece of the June summit.

He added: ``But I would like to tell you that we are holding sincere, constructive dialogue on the whole range of issues.''

If NMD won the day, Ivanov said, it would ``undermine the whole architecture'' of arms control built over 30 years.

He noted that talks on deeper arms cuts envisaged in the START III arms reduction pact would now be unfrozen by the Russian parliament's April 14 vote for its predecessor, START II -- a move which the United States welcomed but which it sees as only part of the strategic defense equation.

The U.S. official said talks in Washington between Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Mamedov this week had shown the Russians were serious about intensifying arms control talks. But Ivanov's suggestion did not open the door to an NMD as the United States saw it.

``It's interesting in that it does show some movement by the Russians but given some of the cranky letters we've been getting from the Senate, we would obviously have a hard time with a system that wasn't national in coverage,'' he added.

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U.S. Arms Policy Is Criticized at U.N.
Annan, Others Score Nuclear Powers

By Colum Lynch Special to
The Washington Post
Tuesday, April 25, 2000; Page A18
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-04/25/138l-042500-idx.html

UNITED NATIONS, April 24-After years of championing international attempts to halt the spread of nuclear weapons, the United States found itself on the defensive today as a broad alliance of arms control advocates, senior U.N. officials and diplomats from non-nuclear countries charged that Washington is blocking progress toward disarmament.

Delegates at a U.N. conference reviewing compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty said the United States and the four other declared nuclear powers--Russia, Britain, France and China--have not lived up to their obligation to reduce and eventually eliminate their nuclear arsenals.

Under the 30-year-old treaty, 182 countries that did not possess atomic weapons agreed to abandon any ambition to build them. In return, the five acknowledged nuclear powers agreed not to share nuclear weapons technology with non-nuclear states and promised to take steps toward disarmament.

Only four countries--India, Pakistan, Israel and Cuba--have not signed the treaty.

Nuclear opponents accused Washington of backsliding on its obligations by failing to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which the Senate defeated last year; refurbishing old nuclear weapons; keeping a "war reserve" of plutonium triggers from dismantled warheads; and recommitting itself to maintain a nuclear balance of terror.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan also warned that a U.S. effort to build a national missile defense system would jeopardize the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia and "could well lead to a new arms race."

"Some 30,000 nuclear weapons remain in the arsenals of the nuclear powers, with thousands still on hair-trigger alert," Annan said in an opening address to the conference, which is held every five years. "We have witnessed the reaffirmation of the nuclear weapons doctrines of all the nuclear-weapons states."

Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright defended the U.S. record, saying America has dismantled about 60 percent of its Cold War nuclear arsenal and will seek further reductions in so-called START III talks with Russia.

"There is concern that the United States is turning its back on arms control," Albright acknowledged. But she said the Clinton administration will continue to push for Senate ratification of the test ban treaty, and she presented the delegates with a booklet summarizing U.S. actions in support of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

"As we enter this new millennium, we should all commit ourselves anew to achieving a world free of nuclear weapons," President Clinton says in the booklet's introduction.

"The United States remains committed to this goal and will work tirelessly towards its ultimate achievement."

Albright also told delegates that Washington's effort to amend the ABM Treaty was not "intended to degrade Russia's deterrence." Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that if Washington goes ahead with a missile defense program, Moscow may sever its disarmament agreements with the United States.

"The [ABM] treaty has been amended before, and there is no good reason it cannot be amended again to reflect new threats from third countries outside the strategic deterrence regime," Albright said. "We are talking about a system capable of defending against a few tens of incoming missiles."

The U.N. conference is the first since the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was extended permanently in 1995. Delegates are expected to draft a document assessing progress over the past five years and charting an agenda for the next five.

The critical assessment of U.S. behavior deflected attention from countries typically cast as threats to global non-proliferation policy, including two newly declared nuclear powers, India and Pakistan; an undeclared nuclear power, Israel; and suspected nuclear aspirants such as North Korea, Iraq and Iran.

Russia, whose impoverished and loosely guarded nuclear facilities have been a source of concern, received a warm reception in light of recent votes by its parliament to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and START II.

A group of non-nuclear countries, calling themselves the "New Agenda" coalition, appealed to Washington and other nuclear powers to renew their commitment to disarm, to adopt a "no first use" posture in their nuclear doctrine, and to take all warheads off alert.

"Our experience clearly demonstrates that nuclear weapons are not the source of security that those who possess or aspire to possess them seem to believe," said Abdul S. Minty, a South African representative. "As long as these weapons exist in the arsenal of some, others will aspire to possess them."

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UN: U.S. Officials Stress Missile Threat Is Real

By Robert McMahon,
April 26 2000
Radio Free Europe
http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2000/04/F.RU.000426124436.html

A leading U.S. arms control official says developments since 1998 have convinced the Washington defense establishment of the need for a short-range missile defense shield. Meanwhile, one often-named "rogue" nation affirmed its status as a non-nuclear state. UN correspondent Robert McMahon reports.

United Nations, 26 April 2000 (RFE/RL) -- A senior U.S. presidential adviser on arms control and security issues has singled out North Korean missile tests as the main reason the United States is considering a missile defense system.

The threat of "rogue" nations has repeatedly been cited by U.S. officials as the impetus for considering a missile shield which would require modifications in the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty.

The senior advisor to the U.S. president on arms control and international security, John Holum, told reporters Tuesday that U.S. defense officials have North Korea in mind as they plan the missile system. U.S. President Bill Clinton is expected to make a decision on the missile defense plan this summer.

Holum said the plans were prompted by North Korea's 1998 launch of a three-stage Taepo Dong missile capable of reaching some parts of the western United States. A U.S. national intelligence estimate in September 1999 focused on North Korea as being the rogue state of most imminent concern. Holum said Iran and Iraq may pose concerns at a later time.

A number of states at the review conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) have urged the United States to pursue strengthening the International Missile Technology Regime to limit the threat of rogue states. But Holum says North Korea's progress in missile testing indicates a missile defense would now be more effective than preventive measures.

"The intelligence analysis is that North Korea is very close to an ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) capability through that system. Much closer to an ICBM capability than we are to the deployment of a national missile defense. We're five years away from having the missile defense. So we don't see prevention at this stage as necessarily a viable alternative to active defense."

Holum said the United States was still strongly supportive of preventive measures such as controls of missile technology transfers. He said these controls have limited the access of countries such as North Korea, Iran, and Iraq to more advanced missile technology.

Meanwhile, Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi used the second day session of the NPT review to reject allegations that his country is pursuing nuclear weapons technology.

"The Islamic republic of Iran's conviction to the cause of nuclear non-proliferation is rock solid. It has foregone the nuclear weapon option and will remain committed to its freely undertaken commitment to non-proliferation."

Kharrazi said Iran was eager to explore peaceful use of nuclear technology to help with its energy needs. But he said "certain regimes" were barring its access to such technology despite the provisions for peaceful use of nuclear technology in Article Four of the NPT.

"One cannot but express dismay over the systematic denial of the transfer of technology to developing non-nuclear states parties to the NPT and restrictive export control policies exercised by the nuclear suppliers."

Iran has repeatedly said its efforts at acquiring nuclear technology are devoted to peaceful uses. But U.S. officials are skeptical.

A report by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency earlier this year said Iran sought technology and equipment for weapons of mass destruction programs last year from suppliers in Russia, China, North Korea, and Western Europe. The report said entities in Russia and China supplied a considerable amount and a wide variety of ballistic missile-related goods and technology to Iran last year.

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OPINION
Plutonium at the summit

Matthew Bunn,
Christian Science Monitor,
April 26, 2000
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2000/04/26/fp8s1-csm.shtml

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. By muscling the START II arms pact through the Russian legislature, President Vladimir Putin showed his support for US-Russian cooperation on nuclear security and set the stage for a June summit.

President Clinton should use this opportunity to seek agreement on bold new steps to prevent theft of nuclear-bomb material.

The hard part of making a nuclear bomb is getting the plutonium or highly enriched uranium (HEU). The entire global structure for preventing the spread of nuclear weapons is built around controlling these materials. But in the former Soviet Union, these materials are being stolen. As recently as 1998, conspirators at one of Russia's largest nuclear-weapons facilities tried to steal 40 pounds of weapons-usable material - enough for a nuclear bomb. A nuclear-security system designed for a single state with a closed society, closed borders, and well-paid nuclear workers has been splintered among multiple states with open societies, open borders, unpaid nuclear workers, and rampant corruption.

US-Russian efforts to address this threat to international security are making significant headway. At a funding level of $500 million - less than a quarter of 1 percent of the US defense budget - they represent some of the most cost-effective investments in US security and deserve strong support. But the pace of progress doesn't match the scope and urgency of the threat. After six years of effort, security for less than a sixth of the material in the former Soviet Union has been fully upgraded, and less than a tenth of the Russian HEU stockpile has been blended to forms that cannot be used in weapons.

Now is the time to put dramatic new steps on the table. Putin seems ready. He has emphasized the critical threats that terrorism and nuclear proliferation pose to Russia, and called for new steps to eliminate "excess" nuclear weapons and improve the safety of Russia's nuclear complex. A comprehensive plan for addressing this security hazard is urgently needed, focused on six key steps:

1. Radically accelerate security and accounting improvements, upgrading security for all the plutonium and HEU in the former Soviet Union within a few years.

2. Pay Russia to blend down all of its excess HEU within a few years, permanently eliminating an enormous security hazard.

3. Finance the needed program to get rid of Russia's huge excess-plutonium stockpile.

4. Boost efforts to help Russia shrink its nuclear-weapons complex and re-employ excess weapons experts - in return for Russian agreement to measurable steps to reduce the complex's threat to the US.

5. Finance dismantlement of thousands of Russian warheads, with monitoring to confirm it is taking place (without revealing classified information) - and with substantial US dismantlement as well, under identical monitoring measures.

6. Create new revenue streams for nuclear security, through projects such as commercial spent-fuel storage, a "debt-for-security swap," and relaxing trade restraints on Russia's legitimate nuclear exports, with a substantial portion of the proceeds targeted for auditable financing of nuclear-security efforts.

Such a strategy would cost the US $1.5 billion a year for several years - a small price for a dramatically reduced US security threat. There's support in Congress for a well-thought-out, carefully coordinated plan to deal with this security threat. To succeed - and to gain support on Capitol Hill - the effort needs to be led by a full-time senior official with presidential access.

Clinton should seek a summit agreement to pursue such a bold new nuclear-security agenda, committing to work with Congress and his successor to make sure the US holds up its end of the bargain. The cost of action now is tiny compared with the costs of failing to seize this opportunity.

Matthew Bunn, a former White House adviser on nuclear proliferation, is assistant director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. This article is adapted from his new report 'The Next Wave: Urgently Needed New Steps to Control Warheads and Nuclear Material' (Harvard and the Carnegie Endowment).

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NPT Opens: And A Good START TOO

Diplomats and Foreign Ministers looked up to a packed public gallery in the General Assembly hall yesterday, the first day of the month-long NPT Review Conference. In addition to the opening speeches from Conference Chair Ambassador Baali, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Director-General of the IAEA Mohamed el-Baradei, the conference adopted a decision on establishing Subsidiary Bodies. Resolving the question of Subsidiary Bodies so early in the meeting bodes well for Ambassador Baali's chairmanship and helped start the meeting on a positive note. Baali went on to swiftly gavel through procedural decisions such as appointing most of the 34 Vice Presidents and 10 Vice Chairs of the Committees and confirming Hannelore Hoppe of the UN Department for Disarmament Affairs as the Secretary General of the Conference.

As promised, Baali started the afternoon session at 3pm sharp to hear twelve speeches. Ambassador Monteiro of Portugal spoke on behalf of the European Union followed by Foreign Minister of Mexico Roasario Green on behalf of the New Agenda Coalition (NAC). Green attached to her speech the anticipated Working Document on Nuclear Disarmament endorsed by the seven NAC countries. Represented at Minister or equivalent levels, statements were made by Algeria, Ireland, South Africa, USA, Germany, China, Colombia, Japan and New Zealand. (these texts will be available at http://www.basicint.org/)

Ambassador Baali predicted a long, painful and particularly delicate Review Conference because of the current 'uncertain international context.' He went on to list reasons for concern which were reiterated by the bulk of today's speakers: the non adherence of Cuba, Israel, India, and Pakistan to the non-proliferation regime; the refusal of the United States Senate to ratify the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT); the lack of progress on nuclear disarmament between the Russian Federation and the United States; the new nuclear strategies of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Russian Federation; the challenges to the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty and the intention of the United States to deploy an anti-missile defence system; the impasse in the Conference on Disarmament; and the fact that there were 30,000 nuclear weapons in the world capable of obliterating everything that humanity has accomplished.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said that, "Much of the established multilateral disarmament machinery has started to rust - a problem due not to the machinery itself but to the apparent lack of political will to use it." The most effective way of overcoming the challenges ahead, he said, would be to embark on a results-based Treaty review process that focused on specific benchmarks. One benchmark would be the entry into force of the CTBT. Another would be the deep, irreversible reduction in stocks of nuclear weapons, wherever they might be. A third would be the consolidation of existing nuclear-weapon-free zones and negotiation of new zones. A fourth would be binding security guarantees to non-nuclear-weapon States Parties. Yet another would be improvements in the transparency of nuclear weapon arsenals and nuclear materials.

The Decision on Subsidiary Bodies

The text of the decision reads as follows:

" The Conference of States parties to the NPT decides to establish for the duration of the 2000 Review Conference a subsidiary body under Main Committee 1 and Main Committee II, respectively. The Conference further decides that

(i) The subsidiary body established under Main Committee 1 as subsidiary body 1 will discuss and consider the practical steps for systematic and progressive efforts to implement article VI of the NPT and paragraphs 3 and 4(c) of the 1995 Decisions on "Principles and Objectives for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament". The subsidiary body will be chaired by Ambassador Clive Pearson of New Zealand. The subsidiary body will be open-ended. It will hold 4 meetings within the overall time allocated to the Main Committee. The meetings will be held in private.

(ii) The subsidiary body established under Main Committee II as subsidiary body 2 will examine the regional issues, including with respect to the Middle East and implementation of the 1995 Middle East resolution. The subsidiary body will be open-ended. It will hold 4 meetings within the overall times allocated to the Main Committee. The meetings will be held in private. The outcome of the work of the subsidiary body will be reflected in the report of the respective Main Committees to the Conference." The Chair for the subsidiary body of Main Committee II has yet to be chosen. Of the four meetings planned, two will be devoted to the Middle East.

The New Agenda Coalition Working Document on Nuclear Disarmament

Foreign Minister Green introduced this four-page paper as " a working document with measures and steps regarding the obligation under Article VI to achieve nuclear disarmament."

The text, drafted in the style of a final conference document, opens with preambular paragraphs affirming the treaty, the 1995 decisions, the legally binding nature of the NPT commitment by the nuclear-weapon states to the pursuit in good faith of nuclear disarmament and the ICJ Advisory Opinion. After listing concerns regarding stalled negotiations on arms reductions and the continued retention of the nuclear-weapon option by three states, the text goes on stress the ABM Treaty as a cornerstone of stability, stresses the need to lessen the role of nuclear weapons in security policies and affirms that "the maintenance of a nuclear-weapon-free world will require the underpinnings of a universal and multilaterally negotiated legally binding instrument or a framework encompassing a mutually reinforcing set of instruments."

The measures identified by the NAC for the implementation of the NPT are that: 1. the five nuclear-weapon States make an unequivocal undertaking to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals, and engage in an accelerated process of negotiation, taking steps leading to nuclear disarmament in the coming five year period;

2. the USA and the Russian Federation undertake to fully implement START II and begin negotiations on START III;

3. all five nuclear weapon-states are integrated into the process leading to the total elimination of their nuclear weapons.

Six interim steps were identified:

1. an adaptation of policy and posture to preclude the use of nuclear weapons;

2. de-alerting;

3. the reduction of tactical nuclear weapons towards their elimination;

4. a demonstration of greater transparency regarding arsenals and fissile materials;

5. further development of the Trilateral Initiative; and

6. the application of the principle of irreversibility in all nuclear disarmament, arms reduction and arms control measures.

The document then goes on to call for the ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, a treaty to ban the production of fissile materials and the establishment of a subsidiary body in the Conference on Disarmament to deal with nuclear disarmament. The benefits of Nuclear Weapon Free Zones and negative security assurances are outlined and the paper concludes by calling on those not party to the treaty to accede and to renounce the nuclear weapons option.

Tuesday's list of speakers includes Belgium, Australia, Brazil, Lithuania, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, France, Russia, Sweden, Canada and Costa Rica.

Felicity Hill, Director,
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
United Nations Office
777 UN Plaza,
New York, NY 10017, USA
Ph: 1 212 682 1265 Fax: 1 212 286 8211
email: flick@igc.apc.org - web: www.wilpf.int.ch - www.reachingcriticalwill.org

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US Condemned for NPT Failures and Star Wars Threats

From: Felicity Hill <flick@igc.org>
Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2000 21:48:08 -0400

On the second day of the month-long Review of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) the drum beat of criticism continued in the UN General Assembly against the nuclear weapons nations - particularly the United States.

Looking back on the five years since the last NPT Review, Sweden's Foreign Affairs Minister Anna Lindh asked, "What went wrong?" She pointed to "the near standstill in nuclear disarmament." She also expressed "deep concern" at US plans for a National Missile Defense (NMD) Russia also took up the theme of US plans for NMD, warning that "it would destroy the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty" and "inflict serious damage on the whole disarmament process."

Brazil was "disturbed by the fact that thousands of nuclear weapons continue to be placed on hair-trigger alert, with the risk of their being launched either by design, accident or yet by miscalculation." As a member of the New Agenda Coalition (NAC) Brazil endorsed the NAC's "comprehensive, balanced and achievable" program for "the total elimination of nuclear arsenals" and welcomed the "increasingly broad support that the NAC has been receiving from governments, parliaments, NGOs and the civil society.

NGOs took up the same themes. At a UN conference on weapons in space NGOs warned that BMD would open the door to an arms race in space. Writer and researcher Karl Grossman quoted from Pentagon documents describing elaborate plans to "dominate" space to "protect US military and commercial interests and investments."

At a rally outside the UN almost a thousand people gathered to support the NPTs call for an end to nuclear weapons. One speaker, anti-nuclear activist Jacqui Cabasso ridiculed President Clinton's recent claim that America was leading the world in disarmament saying it proved "he must have inhaled."

Tomorrow - the anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 - NGOs will challenge the NPT's support for the "inalienable right" of governments to develop nuclear power. At a lunch-time news conference for UN correspondents in the lounge of UNCA (UN Correspondent's Association) UN media representatives will hear from experts on Chernobyl, including a special message on the NPT and nuclear power by Ralph Nadar.

The NGO news conference will also screen a preview of a video tape recorded by actor Paul Newman to be featured next week to open the NGOs three-hour presentation to the member states of the UN on May 3rd.

For Daily News and Review http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org
Contact: Felicity Hill, Director, WILPF UN Office: 1 212 682 1265

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WHAT DOES NATIONAL MISSILE DEFENSE MEAN TO THE NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY?
A fact sheet prepared by the World Policy Institute

http://www.worldpolicy.org/projects/arms

... COSTS OF NATIONAL MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM AND MAINTAINING THE U.S. NUCLEAR ARSENAL

Pentagon's Projected Life Cycle Cost for NMD Program (1991 to 2026) $30.2 billion

Annual Costs of all Ballistic Missile Defense Programs $4 billion

Costs since 1950s on Missile Defense Programs $120 billion

Annual Cost of Nuclear Arsenal $35 billion

Costs since 1940 of Nuclear Arsenal (to build, deploy, maintain, cleanup) $5.6 trillion

CONSEQUENCES 1) Sparking a new nuclear arms race - Responses to U.S. NMD plans on the part of the other major nuclear powers have been overwhelmingly critical, if the U.S. chooses to deploy:

· Russia has promised to deploy more of its Topol-M missiles, which are designed to overcome an anti-missile system by employing decoys and multiple warheads on each missile.

· China, with only a handful of ballistic missiles capable of reaching the U.S., will feel its deterrent capability threatened and would accelerate its nuclear program.

2) Jeopardizing nuclear arms reductions - Russian officials have made it very clear that further reductions of Russia's nuclear arsenal via the START process are conditional upon continued U.S. compliance with the ABM Treaty. Both Russia and the U.S. maintain START I force levels (US: 7,200/Russia: 6,000). START II, which was just recently ratified by the Duma, would reduce the number of active strategic warheads in the U.S. and Russia to 3,500 each and START III would reduce the number of strategic warheads to between 2,000 and 2,500. Russia has indicated it would be willing to reduce their nuclear arsenals even further (to 1,000-1,500 each), but the U.S. has linked START III talks to changes in the ABM Treaty to allow deployment of NMD.

3) Hair-Trigger Nuclear Posture - Russia has revised its nuclear doctrine in response to NMD, substantially lowering the threshold at which Russia would resort to using nuclear weapons. The new document, decreed by acting president Vladimir Putin, states that the use of nuclear weapons would be deemed necessary "to repel armed aggression if all other means of resolving a crisis situation have been exhausted or turn out to be ineffective."

4) A Split within NATO - European and NATO allies fear a decoupling of U.S. and European security interests if the U.S. goes through with an NMD system. Many European allies have suggested that the U.S. get an agreement within NATO before proceeding with NMD.

5) NMD jeopardizes the national security of U.S. allies in Canada, Greenland, Denmark, and the United Kingdom - The system would require the upgrade and/or installation of components of the NMD system on foreign territory thereby putting those nations at risk of being attacked by a nation hostile to the U.S.

A BETTER DEFENSE: WHAT THE U.S. SHOULD BE FOCUSING ON 1) The Cooperative Threat Reduction Program - An immense amount of money has been spent in the U.S. on missile defenses which, at most, could defend against 20 to 100 ICBM's, and even that is questionable. On the other hand, the U.S. has spent $3.2 billion between FY 1992 to FY 2000 - a fraction of the cost for developing missile defense - on the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program (also known as the Nunn-Lugar program) which has helped Russia dismantle thousands of nuclear warheads. To date 3,300 nuclear warheads have been removed from Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan and more than 4,900 warheads have been deactivated.

2) Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties - The START process has been instrumental in reducing U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals. The Russian Duma approved START II, which lowers the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads to 3,000-3,500, and has stated its readiness to go to even lower levels.

WHAT DOES NMD MEAN TO THE NPT?

NMD represents the "weakest line of defense" against ballistic missiles with the greatest costs, both monetarily and politically. Cooperative initiatives such as START II/III and the Nunn-Lugar program reduce and eliminate the threat posed by nuclear weapons AND fall in line with the aims and goals of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. These agreements show that diplomacy is far more effective at reducing the threat of nuclear war than any missile defense scheme. The continued pursuit of NMD will have far reaching consequences for the future of arms control and the eventual goal of nuclear abolition. It will mean a false sense of security for Americans and an increased threat of nuclear war for the world. It is imperative that nations seize this opportunity to hold the U.S., and the world, accountable for its commitment signed 30 years ago "to pursue negotiations in good faith" towards a nuclear weapons-free world.

Frida Berrigan Research Associate Arms Trade Resource Center 65 Fifth Avenue, Suite 413 New York, New York 10003 212-229-5808 ext. 112 fax: 212-229-2279 email:berrigaf@newschool.edu

-------- russia

Russia expands 'nuclear umbrella'

USA Today
April 26, 2000 - World
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm

MOSCOW - A top military official said Russia's new military doctrine, which expands the conditions under which nuclear weapons could be used, also applies to protecting allies, the Interfax news agency reported Tuesday.

The doctrine had raised concerns among some observers because it says Russia could use nuclear weapons if other means to repel an aggressor fail. Previous policy said nuclear weapons could be used only if Russia's sovereignty was threatened. Col. Gen. Valery Manilov, first deputy chief of the Russian general staff, told a news conference that the policy also covers aggression against allies, the report said. Russian officials have previously said that the so-called ''nuclear umbrella'' applies to Belarus, which has signed a treaty with Russia.

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Russia: Ivanov Discusses Nuclear Arms Control

26 April 2000 (RFE/RL) -
http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2000/04/F.RU.000426111636.html

Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is due to confer in Washington today with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov on nuclear arms control, the Chechen conflict, and other issues. Ivanov met with President Bill Clinton at the White House yesterday. In addition to arms control and Chechnya, the two discussed the planned June 4-5 Moscow summit between Clinton and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Ivanov said he presented Clinton a letter from Putin in which the Russian president-elect expressed interest in furthering relations with the U.S.

"It is stressed in the address by President Putin that we have the intention to continue the dialogue on such areas as security, regional conflict, and of course, a dialogue on bilateral issues, primarily economic ones."

Ivanov told our correspondent Russia remains opposed to changing the strategic core of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. But, he said, it may be possible for Moscow to come to an understanding with the U.S. on the non-strategic, tactical aspects of the treaty. The U.S. has proposed amending the treaty to enable it to build a possible national missile defense system.

A new U.S. Congressional report says a proposed limited national missile defense system could cost the United States $60 billion through 2015.

The estimate was released by the Congressional Budget Office, whose job is to provide the Congress with objective analyses.

The report says a system costing that much would, if successfully deployed, guard the entire U.S. against an attack by several tens of ballistic missiles.

The report was questioned by the U.S. Defense Department, which said it covered a system more advanced than U.S. military leaders envision. The Defense Department has its own cost estimate of $30 billion.

Clinton is to decide whether to go forward with a missile defense system following a test this summer.

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At U.N., Russia Hardens Line on Changes to Missile Treaty

April 26, 2000
By BARBARA CROSSETTE
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/global/042600missile-un.html

UNITED NATIONS, April 25 -- Russia hardened its line today against any American attempts to modify a 1972 missile defense treaty and appealed for broad support from other nations, saying the United States was putting three decades of arms agreements in jeopardy.

Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov spoke here to representatives of more than 150 nations on the second day of four-week international conference called to assess another treaty, the 1968 pact barring the spread of nuclear weapons. He said that Russia is prepared to make deep cuts in its nuclear warheads, but not if the United States plans to construct a missile defense system that would "destroy" the 1972 pact, the Antiballistic Missile Treaty.

"The prevailing system of arms control agreements is a complex and quite fragile structure," Mr. Ivanov said. "Once one of its key elements has been weakened, the entire system is destabilized. The collapse of the ABM treaty would, therefore, undermine the entirety of disarmament agreements concluded over the last 30 years."

This prospect, he said, "affects national security interests of every state and of the international community as a whole." He said that energies would be better expended in strengthening global moves to limit missile technologies.

On Monday, Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, sought to play down concerns about changing the 1972 treaty in her speech to the conference, which was intended to focus on the 1968 Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons. She said the 1972 treaty had already been modified and that additional changes proposed by the United States would not threaten it.

The United States is on the defensive on this issue, however, because scores of nations and dozens of independent international arms control groups --some of them run by former American disarmament officials -- are virtually united in opposing the new missile defense system. They say that it is politically motivated, unworkable or unnecessary. Moreover, they say, it has the potential to start a new arms race, as other nations compete to match or overcome it.

In January, a majority of nations in the General Assembly voted for a nonbinding resolution saying that the ABM treaty -- officially called the Treaty on the Limitation of Antiballistic Missile Systems -- should be preserved and strengthened. The assembly also called on nations to resist pressures to build antimissile systems -- a clear message to Washington.

Today, John Holum, the State Department's highest-level disarmament expert, said at a news conference here that recent intelligence reviews indicated that the appearance of missile threats from countries like North Korea, Iran and Iraq had changed American defense needs. He said that renegotiating the ABM treaty should not be ruled out, as Russia appears to be doing.

But Mr. Ivanov said today that "compliance with the ABM treaty in its present form without any modifications is a prerequisite for further negotiations on nuclear disarmament."

Russia and the United States, with most of the world's nuclear weapons between them, are under pressure in the conference to move faster toward cutting their arsenals and ultimately eliminating them. Today, Mr. Ivanov repeated Russia's offer to cut remaining warheads to about 1,500.

Mr. Holum, who was director of the United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency before Dr. Albright agreed to Congressional demands to end its independence and fold it into the State Department, said that the United States still wants a target of about 2,000 to 2,500 weapons in the next round of reduction talks with Moscow. The United States has more than 8,000 such warheads, and Russia more than 10,000.

A resurgent nuclear disarmament movement, particularly in Europe and the United States, describes even those levels as outrageous.

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Russia issues terms for nuclear stockpiles

April 26, 2000
By Ben Barber
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/world/default-2000426221855.htm

Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov warned yesterday that Russia will not reduce its nuclear-weapons stockpiles if the United States deploys a missile-defense system.

His warning, delivered first at the United Nations in New York, and later to President Clinton in Washington, came as a U.N. human rights panel in Geneva called for an investigation of purported Russian war crimes in Chechnya.

Mr. Ivanov met with Mr. Clinton at the White House and was to meet today with Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright on the flap over nuclear disarmament and missile defenses. Russian President-elect Vladimir Putin recently won parliamentary approval of the START II arms-reduction treaty as well as the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

Russian approval of both arms-control accords is conditioned on there being no change in the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, which bans deployment of a missile shield to knock down incoming warheads.

"Our position is our security will be better protected if the treaty is kept intact," Mr. Ivanov told reporters after meeting Mr. Clinton for a half-hour in the Oval Office.

Mr. Ivanov said he gave Mr. Clinton a letter from Mr. Putin saying that he was interested in "constructive relations and dynamic relations in all areas of our interaction," and wanted a dialogue on security issues, regional conflicts and bilateral relations, primarily economic issues.

He said while the overall balance in U.S.-Russian relations has been positive in recent years, "it is quite natural" that the two countries will have disagreements, "sometimes of a major scale."

Mr. Clinton expressed interest in Mr. Putin's plans for economic reform and steps to deal with crime and corruption and strengthening the rule of law, said Mike Hammer, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council.

But he said the U.S. side would not give up trying to convince Russia that a national missile defense would not represent a threat to the strategic arms balance.

START II, ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1996, had languished in Russia under previous President Boris Yeltsin. The Senate recently rejected the test-ban treaty.

Facing strong Republican congressional backing for a limited missile defense against rogue states such as North Korea or Iraq, Mr. Clinton is expected to make a decision on deployment of a National Missile Defense (NMD) later this year.

While most early tests of anti-missile missiles have ended in failure, the program has aroused concern in China and Russia that the United States is seeking to become the sole nuclear superpower, immune to any retribution.

European allies of the United States are also concerned that they could be left outside any nuclear shield or that arms-control mechanisms will be undermined.

Mr. Ivanov's speech at the U.N. conference on the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) put Russia in clear opposition to the NMD, which would require amending the ABM Treaty.

"One has to be fully aware of the fact that the prevailing system of arms control agreements is a complex and quite fragile structure," Mr. Ivanov said. "Once one of its key elements has been weakened, the entire system is destabilized."

"The collapse of the ABM Treaty would, therefore, undermine the entirety of disarmament agreements concluded over the last 30 years," he concluded.

Baker Spring of the Heritage Foundation said that the United States should not give in to Russian pressure to defer the missile-defense system. "The Senate should not allow a missile system for America to be held hostage to false choices about arms control," wrote Mr. Spring in a Heritage policy paper last week.

However Spurgeon M. Keeny Jr., president of the Arms Control Association, a group favoring reducing weapons stockpiles, said that the United States should not build NMD and that fears of North Korea and other rogue states have been deliberately exaggerated.

"The world looks in disbelief at the spectacle of the only remaining superpower cringing in terror at the prospect that a weak, impoverished North Korea might develop a missile capable of reaching the United States, and wonders what the true U.S. motives are in seeking a NMD," wrote Mr. Keeny last week.

Also yesterday, the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva accused Russia of widespread violations in Chechnya and called on Moscow to investigate charges by human rights groups that Russian troops had murdered and raped Chechens during a bloody campaign to crush Muslim separatists.

U.S. officials welcomed the measure.

State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said the United States, like the commission, wanted a full Russian investigation that met international standards into reports of rights violations during its military campaign in the mostly Muslim region on Russia's southwestern flank.

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Russia's Ivanov Dashes 'Star Wars' Hopes

April 26, 2000
By Reuters
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-arms-nu.html
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=154634

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov dashed U.S. hopes again on Tuesday of amending the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty and instead asked the world to promote a curb on missile technology.

In a speech to a conference on the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), Ivanov opposed any changes to the ABM treaty Washington might propose so it can develop a missile defense system to protect itself against rockets from ``rogue'' states.

And he said Russia would only consider further reductions in strategic offensive weapons if the ABM treaty is preserved without modifications.

``One has to be fully aware of the fact that the prevailing system of arms control agreements is a complex and quite fragile structure,'' Ivanov said. ``Once one of its key elements has been weakened, the entire system is destabilized.''

``The collapse of the ABM Treaty would, therefore, undermine the entirety of disarmament agreements concluded over the last 30 years,'' he concluded.

The one-month NPT conference, held every five years, is to review progress on the treaty that went into force in 1970 and has been signed by 187 countries. The five nuclear weapons powers -- the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China -- are obligated to move toward disarmament while all other signatories vow to give up atomic warheads for good.

Ivanov said Russia was prepared ``to engage in the broadest consultation'' with the United States and with other nations.

Specifically, he referred to a Russian plan to limit ''rogue'' states' access to missile technology, called the Global Missile and Missile Technologies Nonproliferation Control System, proposed by Moscow in March.

Impatient with the slow implementation of nuclear arms reduction treaties by Washington and Moscow, dozens of countries this year used the conference to tell the United States its proposed anti-missile shield would escalate the arms race and be a step in the wrong direction.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Monday defended the policy, dubbed ``Star Wars,'' arguing that Washington was not threatening 30 years of arms control progress by developing an anti-missile defense system. President Clinton will decide this summer whether to go ahead.

At a news conference, a senior advisor to Clinton said the type of threat the United States had in mind might come first from North Korea.

North Korea is ``much closer to an ICBM capability than we are to deployment of a national missile defense,'' said John Holum, an advisor on arms control and international security. ''We are five years away from having a missile defense.''

Ivanov also provided a new progress report on Russia's destruction of thousands of so-called non-strategic tactical nuclear weapons, which are not included in the START II strategic arms reduction treaty.

This pact would cut the number of nuclear warheads from 6,000 to no more than 3,500 on each side by 2007.

Ivanov said one-third of all nuclear munitions for sea-based tactical systems and naval aircraft had been scrapped. He said Russia was ``about to complete the destruction of nuclear warheads from tactical missiles, artillery shells and nuclear mines'' and had destroyed half its nuclear warheads for anti-aircraft missiles and air-dropped atomic bombs

Russia had been harshly criticized for storing rather than destroying some 20,000 non-strategic or tactical nuclear weapons. The United States plans to refurbish its reserve of 2,500-3,000 warheads after Start II's limit of 3,500 deployed warheads for each side is activated.

``The possibilities of redeploying nuclear weapons that are currently in nonoperational status has not been fully discarded,'' said Brazil's envoy, Celso Amorim.

Reminding the world his country had renounced nuclear weapons, Amorim said ``we believe ... a single nuclear weapon is a nuclear weapon too many.''

Brazil, Mexico, Sweden, Ireland, Egypt, South Africa and New Zealand have formed a ``New Agenda Coalition'' with a series of proposals for the conference that most countries support.

Canada, which benefits from the U.S. defense umbrella, said it was concerned about whether the U.S. missile defense program would work, whether it would enhance or diminish security or whether it would reinforce or damage the NPT regime.

``One real worry is the tendency of some to justify retaining nuclear arsenals as a defense against other weapons of mass destruction or as political status symbols,'' Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy said.

France, which in the past has called the U.S. missile defense program an idea whose time had not come yet, on Tuesday nearly ignored the controversy entirely as well as any commitments to reduce further its own nuclear capacity.

Instead Hubert de la Fortelle, its ambassador to the U.N. disarmament conference in Geneva, stressed parts of the NPT treaty that promotes nuclear energy and safeguards for exporting materials. The country's large state-owned Electricite de France runs a chain of nuclear reactors and exports its expertise.

-------- spying

Lee Defense To Show New Evidence

APRIL 26, 06:16 EDT
By RICHARD BENKE
Associated Press Writer
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=NATIONAL&STORYID=APIS743C41O0

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Lawyers for a fired nuclear scientist have asked for permission to show jurors the secrets he's accused of mishandling don't amount to much and are readily available to the public.

The attorneys told U.S. District Judge John Conway on Monday that the materials at Los Alamos National Laboratory were not classified secret until after Wen Ho Lee was fired last year.

Lee, 60, allegedly breached lab security by downloading material from secured to unsecured computers and computer tapes. Prosecutors have called the materials the ``crown jewels'' of American science.

The attorneys said they need to present the files and tape as evidence because it will show ``virtually all the information at issue was either available in the open literature or could be readily derived.''

``The defense ... will demonstrate that the files are mere lead; that Dr. Lee protected them adequately in light of their limited significance,'' attorneys Mark Holscher and John Cline said in court documents.

Some of the files contained flaws that would reduce their usefulness to outsiders, and the material ``cannot be readily interpreted or understood without the proper user manuals or similar documents,'' they said.

A message left for Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Gorence seeking comment was not returned Tuesday.

Lee, 60, could face life in prison if convicted of all 59 counts of breaching security. He is not accused of espionage. Trial is tentatively set for Nov. 6.

-------- toxics

EPA Decides Against Regulating Coal-Burning Plants' Waste

Associated Press
Wednesday, April 26, 2000; Page A07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-04/26/103l-042600-idx.html

The Environmental Protection Agency yesterday decided against regulating tons of ash and sludge from coal-burning power plants as a toxic hazardous waste, a victory for utilities and a setback for environmental groups that have argued the waste is contaminating water supplies.

Instead, the EPA said it will issue federal standards for the waste that will urge states to require liners at disposal sites and regular monitoring of water sources near such sites, agency officials said. Under this approach, the EPA could not require state action, however.

Environmentalists have complained that more than 100 million tons of coal waste, laced with arsenic, mercury and other toxic metals, is contaminating water supplies because of lax controls by many states and no regulation from Washington. The utility industry said the waste has not been shown to be a health or environmental threat.

The issue could figure in the presidential race. States at the center of the controversy, including Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan, also are important in the presidential campaign. The four states are among the leaders in creating power plant waste, and environmentalists have singled out Texas for poor enforcement of coal waste disposal.

A senior EPA official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that while the agency has decided against regulating the coal waste as a hazardous substance, such action has not been ruled out altogether.

"We remain very concerned about the effects of these wastes on public health and particularly ground water contamination," the official said. He said if states are found not to follow the federal guidelines "it would be grounds for us to reconsider our decision."

But Jeff Stant of the Hoosier Environmental Coalition, an Indiana-based group that has been active in the national movement for tighter controls on coal ash, called the EPA decision "a horrendous mistake" and said it affords little additional protection because states can ignore the federal guidelines.

"It's outrageous to even suggest that coal waste that's full of mercury and arsenic isn't hazardous," said Conrad Schneider, an activist with the Clean Air Task Force, a coalition of groups that have focused on pollution from coal-burning power plants.

Environmental groups accused the EPA of "backpedaling" under pressure from the business groups and utility industry that had lobbied the White House and Congress against stricter regulations.

The electric utility industry maintains that coal ash--often dumped with no more safeguards than normal trash--poses no threat because of the low concentration of toxic metals. It also says there is no clear evidence it is responsible for contaminating waterways or underground aquifers.

-------- turkey

More News regarding Akkuyu

Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2000 18:15:12 -0000
From: "Jim Karygiannis" krygnsmp@yesic.com

AKKUYU TENDER POSTPONED FOR ANOTHER THREE MONTHS The tender for Akkuyu nuclear power plant has been postponed for another three months. Turkey Electricity Production Transmission Inc. (TEAS) asked the three consortiums which are participating in the tender to extend the validity period of the bids until July 24.

-------- ukraine

Chernobyl remembered

Washington Times
April 26, 2000
Embassy Row James Morrison
http://www.washtimes.com/world/embassy-2000426214254.htm

Ukrainian Ambassador Kostyantyn Gryshchenko this evening will lead a commemoration on the 14th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident.

Mr. Gryshchenko will be joined by representatives of the Ukrainian-American community and clergymen from the Ukrainian Orthodox and Catholic churches at the 6:30 p.m. gathering in Lafayette Park.

---

50,000 More Chernobyl Cancers Cases Predicted

by Paul Brown- Environment Correspondent
April 26, 2000
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,214128,00.html

Here's the text :
"The Chernobyl disaster will cause 50,000 new cases of thyroid cancer among young people living in the worst affected region, World Health Organization researchers say. The figures show that in Gomel, Belarus, 36.4% of children aged under four on April 26, 1986- the day of the disaster- can expect to develop thyroid cancer.

This percentage is much higher than was originally expected, as well as being well above rates following previous exposures to nuclear fallout- for example among Pacific islanders exposed to American atmospheric tests.

Researchers believe that one explanation is that people in the region suffer from a deficiency of iodine, which is essential to the working of the thyroid gland. Young children exposed to radioactive iodine from Chernonbyl fallout would have absorbed large quantities to make up the deficiency and as a result got a large concentrated dose in their thyroids. A second, more general,report on the effects of Chernobyl released by the UN yesterday, predicted that the worst was still to come for more than 7m[million]people affected by the disaster.

"Chernobyl is a word we would all like to erase from our memory," said the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, in a foreword to the report. But he added that "more than 7m[million] of our fellow human beings do not have the luxury of forgetting. They are still suffering, every day, as a result of what happened."

Mr. Annan said the exact number of victims may never be known, but that 3m [million]children require treatment and "many will die prematurely."

The thyroid paper by Dr Elisabth Cardis from the Lyon-based International Agency for Research on Cancer- part of the WHO- clearly shocked the 12 researchers involved. It is "very much hoped" they say, that their calculations are wrong, but add that the figures provide the best estimate at present.

The study says that whichever way the calculations are done, "if the current trends of risk continue,a considerable number of cases is to be expected among those exposed as very young children."

Based on a comparison with the number of thyroid cases among British children, the researchers found a dramatic rise in cancers among infants living in Gomel at the time of the accident.

In a population of 141,068 children under four, less than six cases would have been expected- in fact in the first 10 years there were 131. Over their lifetimes another 50,200 can expect to develop thyroid cancer, the researchers say. They also predict that neighboring areas can expect high figures. In Mogilev region 5% of the same age group can expect to suffer from the cancer- a total of 5,023 people. In the three regions of Russia most affected- Kaluga, Tula and Oryel- around 1% of children will be affected, causing 3,699 more cases.

The high numbers in the Gomel region need some extra explanation in addition to the one provided by the severity of the fallout from the accident, the researchers believe. One possible cause is a genetic susceptibility of the ethnic group in the area, along with the moderate iodine deficiency.

The paper suggests further work to try to isolate the cause, but in the meantime suggests widespread screening of young people to try to catch the cancers early. The researchers also suggest iodine supplements be given to all children in the region, to prevent a further health catastrophe in the event of a second Chernobyl.

Tobias Munchmeyer,a Greenpeace nuclear expert, said that Britain should reconsider its financial support for further nuclear reactors in Ukraine. Last week Robin Cook, the foreign secretary, pledged money to help Ukraine complete reactors unfinished since the break-up of the Soviet Union. Mr. Munchmeyer said: "These are absolutely shocking figures, the result of very careful analysis by world experts, and they come out far worse than we could have believed. 'The remaining operating Chernobyl reactor, number 3, is acknoweldged to be dangerous and we call on Ukraine to shut it immediately. We also call on the G7 countries not to fund new nuclear reactors in Ukraine, but instead spend the money on sustainable energy solutions."

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Chernobyl may have claimed One million Indian infants.

BY DR. SUMIT GHOSHAL
Date: Sat, 6 May 2000 03:15:29 -0400
From: "Mary Ellen Marucci" marucci@mindspring.com

APRIL 26, 2000: FOURTEEN YEARS AFTER THE CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR DISASTER, THE BAD NEWS IS STILL COMING IN. AS A NEW ESTIMATE SHOWS, IT MAY HAVE CLAIMED THE LIVES OF A STAGGERING ONE MILLION INFANTS IN INDIA ALONE!

This shocking announcement came today at a meeting organised in Mumbai to observe the 14th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. R Ashok Kumar, a well known activist of the Bombay Sarvodaya Mandal, explained that the Chernobyl meltdown was of such gargantuan proportions that it affected even far away countries like India.

He noted that prior to 1986, the infant mortality rate in India was coming down by a compounded rate of 3.0 per cent. However, it was observed that the IMR fell by only about 1.1 per cent during the years of 1986, 1987 and 1988, precisely when the Chernobyl catastrophe occurred. This marks a relative increase in infant deaths. Even more interesting was the fact that from 1989 onwards, the rate of reduction in IMR again became 3.0 per cent, that is, it returned to the pre-Chernobyl figures. These statistics are obtained from demography department of the International Institute of Population Studies in Mumbai and may thus be corroborated by anybody who wishes to do so.

Along with this, Mr Ashok Kumar said, were a number of independent studies indicating that the maximum effect of sudden exposure of radiation in human beings lasts for about three years. This is a likely explanation of the relative increase in death of innocent babies less than one year old. Besides, it is widely understood that even low levels of radiation inflicts maximum damage during stages of rapid cell division and tissue growth, which takes place in ante-natal life and the first few months after birth of the infant.

More evidence to support this hypothesis comes from Salem County, New Jersey, USA, where members of the Radiation Health Group studied the impact of the Nuclear Power Plant in that area. Mr Joseph Mangano, a research associate with the Group noted recently that there was a clear statistical connection between the nuclear plants in Salem and the infant mortality in that county.

Ever since the atomic power plant in Salem went on stream in 1977, infant mortality rates went up steadily in 13 of the subsequent 16 years. In the rest of New Jersey state, infant death rates were going down. However, in the years 1994 to 1996, during which the nuclear power plants were largely or completely shut down, the infant death rates dropped below the 1977 levels! Anyone can see the striking similarity to the Indian situation.

More details can be expected on this later this year, when their Tooth Fairy Project results are published. Participants in the Project are going around Salem county collecting the milk teeth of small babies when they fall off. The idea is that radiation tends to accumulate in the teeth, which can be thoroughly studied over a long period.

----

Chernobyl Tram Displays Grim Past

April 26, 2000
By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Ukraine-Chernobyl-Tram.html

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- Among the hundreds of trams that crisscross Kiev's streets, only one offers passengers a journey inside a mobile museum of the world's worst nuclear accident.

The Chernobyl tram has rolled through the streets of the Ukrainian capital for five years. After being out of service for several months for repairs, it returned on the eve of Wednesday's 14th anniversary of the accident, taking the memory of the disaster back to the streets.

Inside hang 50 photographs of ``liquidators,'' the workers who were exposed to radiation while cleaning up after a reactor at the power plant exploded and caught fire.

Songs for those who died from the accident play over the loudspeaker, and driver Valentyn Maltsev tells the tram's history between announcing stops.

The grim ride leaves passengers with a mix of emotions.

``It is a terrifying impression,'' said one, a hotel porter who gave her name only as Halya. ``It is the right thing to do, but those photos ...'' She broke off to wipe away swelling tears.

``We feel odd here,'' said Harkusha Yana, a schoolgirl who was born the year of the accident. Her friend Olena, 12, said that although she hadn't been born when the accident occurred, she was still saddened by the images in the tram.

``Chernobyl is our pain'' reads a sign on the side of the tram, and for many of the passengers, part of that pain comes with the memory of having been deceived after the accident.

Authorities tried to mask the accident for several days, and many people were exposed to radiation by ignorance. Ukraine was at that time part of the Soviet Union, where officials routinely tried to cover up problems.

``Nobody said anything,'' said passenger Avhust Skrypin, who was working near his country house in the open air just days after the accident, unaware that the fire had released a cloud of radiation over Ukraine.

He said he hoped the tram would ``make people's character more humane.''

Onboard boxes mounted with Orthodox Christian icons invite donations to a fund for Chernobyl victims. The driver gets a wage, but the vehicle's upkeep is contributed by volunteers.

But the tram is in desperate need of financial support so that it can be refurbished, Maltsev complained.

People pay as much as they can afford for the trip. But even though many pay more than the fare of about 9 cents, the tram collects only $8 to $12 a day.

----

Ukraine Promises To Close Chernobyl

APRIL 26, 01:31 EDT
By MARINA SYSOYEVA
Associated Press Writer
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=EUROPE&STORYID=APIS7437U780

CHERNOBYL, Ukraine (AP) - For 14 years, Ukraine has coped with the legacy of the world's worst nuclear disaster at Chernobyl - and the path to recovery is still long. Now the government is again promising to shut the ill-fated plant, but refuses to give a date.

``Chernobyl will be closed down,'' Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko pledged Tuesday night, the eve of the accident's anniversary. He spoke after laying a wreath at a memorial to firefighters who were among the first to combat radioactive flames from the disaster - and among the first to die.

The pre-dawn accident on April 26, 1986 sent a cloud that rained radiation over much of Europe and contaminated large areas in then-Soviet Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.

According to Ukrainian government figures, more than 4,000 of those who took part in the hasty and poorly organized Soviet cleanup effort have died, and more than 70,000 Ukrainians were fully disabled by the disaster.

Overall, about 3.4 million of Ukraine's 50 million people, including about 1.26 million children, are considered affected by Chernobyl. Of them, 400,000 adults and nearly 1.1 million children are entitled to state aid for Chernobyl-linked health problems.

But despite the terrible legacy, Chernobyl's closure - long urged by Western nations and environmentalists the world over - remains uncertain.

The plant now has just one working reactor, No. 3. The 1986 calamity ruined its reactor No. 4. Another of Chernobyl's RBMK reactors has been inactive since a 1991 fire and a third was stopped in 1996.

Ukraine had promised to fully close down Chernobyl by the end of 1999, but delayed the closure until an unspecified date this year, saying it is too strapped for energy and needs financial aid to build two new reactors as compensation.

Meanwhile, pressure is mounting on Ukraine to give a definite closure date for what many see as the embodiment of the evils of the atomic era.

``It is essential to have a date fixed,'' Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said during a visit to Kiev this month.

Yushchenko, touring the plant 80 miles north of the capital, was noncommittal Tuesday, saying only that the date might be released by the summer meeting of international donors for Chernobyl.

The Group of Seven richest nations promised aid in 1995 to help Ukraine close Chernobyl, but Kiev complains the money has been slow in coming. Yushchenko reiterated that, asking for more support.

``Despite the world's good political understanding of the Chernobyl problem, Ukraine is left alone to deal with practical liquidation of the danger that Chernobyl represents,'' he said.

The government says Ukraine spent $5.7 billion to battle the effects of the disaster during Soviet times and $5 billion since independence in 1991.

Over the past year, Western money has helped Ukraine conduct repairs on the leaky concrete and steel sarcophagus over the exploded reactor, and workers have started to build a nuclear waste storage facility.

Still, much remains to be done.

With the economy declining badly since the Soviet collapse, state funding covered only an average of 51.6 percent of Chernobyl relief needs from 1996-98. Financial constraints forced the Cabinet to actually finance just 85 percent of Chernobyl-linked social programs in 1999.

The 2000 budget allocated only $290 million of at least $830 million needed a year for social and health programs to help Chernobyl victims, Emergency Situations Minister Vasyl Durdynets said recently.

Officials say the health of affected populace is steadily deteriorating.

The number of diseases among affected children is 17 percent higher on average than among their ordinary counterparts, and the incidence of some illnesses twice exceeds the norm.

A Health Ministry report released last week said thyroid cancer among Ukrainian children has risen dramatically since the accident. About 1,400 people who were children or adolescents at the time of the disaster have been operated on for thyroid cancer so far.

Chernobyl-related troubles are not limited to health issues.

The working reactor has suffered repeated shutdowns this winter over failures at its safety valves. The government is far from clear on what to do with about 6,000 plant workers and their families once Chernobyl is closed. Vast areas of Ukraine remain contaminated. Tons of nuclear fuel apparently are still inside the sarcophagus.

``The Ukrainian people have performed a heroic deed during those 14 years as they fought to contain this tragedy,'' Yushchenko said. ``Ukraine must not be left alone.''

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Chernobyl After 14 Years: Medicines Donated Online

April 26, 2000 (ENS)
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/apr2000/2000L-04-26-01.html

KIEV, Ukraine, A unique website, Chernobyl Charity Online was launched in Kiev, Ukraine prior to today's 14th anniversary of Chernobyl nuclear explosion - the largest ever radiation accident involving a nuclear reactor.

By clicking on the links, website visitors can donate medicines to be paid for by sponsors to Ukrainian Chernobyl hospitals. The website project has been developed by a team of young Ukrainians aiming to create a charitable act for Chernobyl victims while using a wide range of online technologies and know-how.

"Chernobyl.com.ua introduces an absolutely new for Ukraine and the whole CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States] concept of electronic charity, or "click charity," Denis Oleinikov, Chernobyl.com.ua founder, said today.

The destroyed 4th reactor at Chernobyl (Photo courtesy Chernobyl Charity Online)

The explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor near Kiev on April 26, 1986 has killed 15,000 members of the clean-up teams, while another 30,000 people have become disabled during the 14 year aftermath, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Shoigu said in Moscow today.

Addressing a memorial ceremony at a Moscow cemetery, Shoigu said that the government is doing its best to ensure safety at nuclear power plants and prevent such tragedies from happening again.

The heavy radioactive contamination that spread over large areas of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine exposed what new United Nations figures now show are seven million people to ionizing radiation caused by fallout of radioactive nuclides.

This has led so far to a large increase in thyroid cancer among children in affected areas.

Child sickened by Chernobyl radiation at Children's Hospital number 14, Kiev, Ukraine (Photo courtesy Greenpeace/Spasokukotskiy)

A report on the effects of Chernobyl released by the United Nations this week, forecast even worse health problems ahead for more than seven million people affected by the accident.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan acknowledged in a foreword to the report that the exact number of victims may never be known, but that three million children need treatment and "many will die prematurely."

In an effort to medicines to Chernobyl victims, Chernobyl Charity Online uses the new Internet pattern of website visitor donations made with the click of a mouse. The donations are paid for by sponsors, not by the visitors.

Anybody in the world can contribute to donating medicines for Ukrainian Chernobyl hospitals by just clicking on the links from Chernobyl Charity Online.

Child exposed to radiation from Chernobyl in the cancer clinic at the Ukranian National Center for Radiation Medicine (Photo courtesy Greenpeace/Shirley)

The site also has a unique Chernobyl photo gallery and online charity shops, where U.S. residents can buy electronics, books, and toys.

There are links to environmental news of the world including daily Environment News Service reports.

At present, the site is fully in English, but there are plans to introduce multilingual options.

During the testing period, a total of over 2,000 charity donations have been made from over 15 countries, enough to buy medicine for rural Chernobyl hospitals in Ukraine worth US$250.

"We plan to attract three to four thousand visitors every day in two to three months, which would enable us to buy medicine worth over US$7,000," said Oleinikov. One hundred percent of commissions received from the site's sponsors, will go directly to charity, Oleinikov said.

----

Ukraine Chernobyl survivors mark 14th anniversary

UKRAINE: April 26, 2000
Story by Christina Ling
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=6464

KIEV - About 1,500 Ukrainian survivors of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and their families marched through Kiev on Sunday to mark the 14th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear accident.

Umbrellas bobbed in drizzling rain among the orange and blue flags of activist groups, as marchers protesting against diminishing government compensation payments waved black banners, one of which read "Revising Chernobyl laws is genocide of the people".

"This year's budget is offensive to the invalids, widows and orphans of Chernobyl," the head of the Chernobyl Union Yuri Andreyev told Reuters, referrring to the cash-strapped government's tight fiscal plan for 2000.

"We all know it will finish with a complete end to the Chernobyl programme of social security."

Health officials said this week the April 26, 1986 fire and explosion at the plant's fourth reactor was still blighting the lives and health of Ukrainians, with some 3.5 million people sickened by radioactive contamination.

Over a third of that number were children. United Nations data show millions of people still live on contaminated land in Belarus, which bore the brunt of the disaster, and in Russia. Some parts of Western Europe were also polluted.

The U.N. has called for the international community, whose efforts so far have concentrated on trying to close the last remaining reactor at Chernobyl, to raise $9.5 million for health and ecological projects in the impoverished region.

"The health of people affected by the Chernobyl accident is getting worse and worse every year," Deputy Ukrainian Health Minister Olha Bobyleva told a news conference this week.

UKRAINE PROMISES CHERNOBYL CLOSURE THIS YEAR

Ukraine has promised the international community, fearing a repeat disaster if the Soviet-era station keeps working, to close Chernobyl by the end of this year but has set no date.

It says foreign partners have not stumped up promised funds to help close the station - a complex and lengthy process - and complete new reactors at other atomic stations to replace capacity lost at Chernobyl.

Ukraine's five nuclear power plants produce about half the nation's supply of electricity, which is in any case erratic across most of the country due to payment arrears and ageing infrastructure.

The Group of Seven leading industrial nations says Ukraine must make good on its closure promises first.

Closure also puts a large question mark over the fate of roughly 6,000 workers who keep the station running.

"Of course I am for closing Chernobyl but it should have been done long ago. It's not so simple, and God forbid there should be any accident when they shut it down," said Nadezhda Matyash, head of a group of mothers of children with cancer.

"Closing it takes a lot of money which we don't have, and our foreign partners promise and promise but don't give funds."

----

Ukraine, Neighbors Honor Chernobyl Victims

By Reuters
April 26, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-environ.html

SLAVUTYCH, Ukraine (Reuters) - Thousands gathered Wednesday to mark the 14th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which killed thousands and poisoned huge tracts of land in the former Soviet Union.

Commemorations of the 1986 fire and explosion in Chernobyl's fourth reactor were perhaps most poignant in the small Ukrainian town of Slavutych, built especially for plant workers after the disaster.

Residents passed through the town's main streets after midnight, pausing at 1.26 a.m. when bells tolled to mark the time when the world's worst civil nuclear disaster occurred.

In Belarus, which was downwind from the catastrophe and sustained some of the worst damage, President Alexander Lukashenko visited contaminated regions in battle fatigues.

Tens of thousands of his liberal and nationalist opponents used the horror of the occasion to stage a procession against Lukashenko's policies and to demand proper conditions for general elections later this year.

Russian leaders led ceremonies honoring ``liquidators'' -- firefighters and pilots who died dumping sand and chemicals on the blazing reactor.

In Slavutych, 90 miles north of Ukraine's capital, Kiev, mourners remembered 30 firefighters who were the first of thousands to die from radiation-related diseases.

``Unfortunately, I never fully realized what happened in April 1986, but I know that the people killed by the reactor 14 years ago saved thousands of lives,'' said schoolboy Vasyl after putting his candle at the base of photos of dead rescuers.

Every year thousands of people stream to a black column in the town 20 miles from the power plant and outside the danger zone from which all residents have been banished.

``I knew all of these people,'' said Oleg Orlov, who was Chernobyl station commander after the disaster. ``They were just ordinary people who became heroes within a minute, when they sacrificed their lives, saving millions of people.''

Soviet authorities initially remained silent about the tragedy and then tried to play down its consequences before admitting to the scale of the tragedy and seeking outside help.

Data now show that thousands died in the aftermath and millions suffered medical problems as a result of the blast, which spewed radioactive clouds over most of Europe. Tens of thousands were evacuated from contaminated areas.

In Kiev, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma laid flowers at a church honoring victims and stood in front of a monument depicting three storks in flight.

RUSSIA'S PUTIN, KIEV RESIDENTS JOIN IN MOURNING

Vladimir Putin, president-elect of neighboring Russia, said in a message to people suffering from the effects of the explosion that Chernobyl ``still casts a shadow over millions of Russians. It is government's sacred duty to ensure safety from radiation and rule out any repeat of the Chernobyl nightmare.''

Kiev residents joined the mourning, with somber posters hung across Khreshchatyk Street, the main thoroughfare. But unlike on previous anniversaries, there was no procession.

Ukraine relies on nuclear power for about half its electricity, but Kuchma promised to honor a pledge to close Chernobyl's last operating reactor by the end of this year.

``We have already taken a political decision that we are ready to close Chernobyl,'' said Kuchma while visiting a bone marrow transplant center. ``But there are some conditions to be met.''

In 1995, Ukraine promised the G7 club of leading industrial nations to close the station in 2000 in exchange for aid to finish two reactors at other plants. But officials in Ukraine, which owes more than $1 billion for gas supplies to Russia, have complained that Western assistance remains insufficient.

``To close the station having no nuclear waste storage facilities?'' an irritated Kuchma said. ``We cannot take such a decision only for the sake of political gains.''

----

Ukraine Mourns Chernobyl Anniversary

April 26, 2000
By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Chernobyl-Anniversary.html

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- In public gatherings, official statements and televised reports, Ukrainians on Wednesday marked the Chernobyl nuclear disaster with a degree of openness that contrasted sharply with the secrecy that once surrounded it.

When a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded and caught fire April 26, 1986, in the world's worst nuclear accident, it was at first a nearly invisible tragedy. Soviet authorities tried to keep the accident under wraps and its deadly consequences -- radiation -- could not be seen with the eye.

But the aftereffects are grimly visible: an estimated 4,000 deaths among those who took part in the hasty and poorly organized cleanup; 70,000 people disabled by radiation, according to government figures.

Overall, about 3.4 million of Ukraine's 50 million people, including some 1.26 million children, are considered affected by Chernobyl, and many may not show the affects for years.

Television and newspapers dedicated much of their reporting Wednesday to the accident. Governmental officials organized news conferences, mass meetings, wreath-layings.

A religious service near St. Michael's Church in Kiev, which is dedicated to Chernobyl victims, attracted hundreds who prayed for the souls of the dead. The service was held in the middle of the night, a reminder that the Chernobyl explosion occurred before dawn.

In a special tribute, the mourners presented flowers and lit candles for the cleanup workers known as ``liquidators'' -- some of whom died as they battled the fire at the reactor and evacuated people.

At a memorial service in Slavutich, 90 miles from the capital, where Chernobyl workers and their families live, mourners carried flowers to the memorial for the firefighters.

Although the exploded reactor is now covered in a steel-and-concrete sarcophagus, one reactor at the Chernobyl plant still runs, suffering repeated shutdowns this winter due to safety valve failures. Officials have repeatedly promised to close the plant, but say they cannot do so until the economically strapped country gets aid to help build a plant to replace the power that would be lost.

``To close down Chernobyl without proper works and financing will be very difficult,'' Ecology Protection Minister Ivan Zaiats said Wednesday.

Areas of Russia also were heavily affected by the disaster, and Russian President Vladimir Putin marked the day with a telegram sent to the head of the Russian organization for Chernobyl victims.

``Years have passed, but the black landmark of the Chernobyl tragedy still casts a shadow on the fate of millions of Russian people,'' the ITAR-Tass news agency quoted the telegram as saying.

Thousands also gathered for a Chernobyl commemoration in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, which borders Ukraine.

The consequences of the accident are likely to become more visible in coming years. The number of various diseases among affected children is 17 percent higher on average than among their counterparts, and the incidence of some illnesses twice exceeds the norm, officials say.

A Ukrainian Health Ministry report released last week said thyroid cancer among Ukrainian children has risen dramatically since the accident. While no cases were registered in 1981-85, some 1,400 people who were children or adolescents at the time of the disaster have been operated on for thyroid cancer so far.

The government is far from clear on what to do with about 6,000 plant workers and their families once Chernobyl is closed. Vast areas of Ukraine remain contaminated by radiation. Tons of nuclear fuel apparently are still hidden inside the sarcophagus.

``The Ukrainian people have performed a heroic deed during those 14 years as they fought to contain this tragedy,'' said Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko. ``Ukraine must not be left alone.''

---

Daybook
Washington Times
April 26, 2000
http://www.washtimes.com/national/daybook-2000426213611.htm

Chernobyl briefing - 4 p.m. - Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty holds a briefing, "Chernobyl's Continuing Political Fallout in Belarus." Stanislau Shushkevich, Social Democratic Assembly chairman, and former Belarus president, participates. Location: Fourth-floor conference room, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW. Contact: 202/457-6949.

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Secretary of State Madeleine Albright speaks in the General Assembly on Monday. U.S. isolated at nuclear meeting Russia attacks American plan to revise ABM treaty MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

http://www.msnbc.com/news/399588.asp?cp1=1

UNITED NATIONS, April 25 - The planet poured scorn on the United States for a second day Tuesday, accusing Washington of turning its back on nuclear arms control and seeking to undermine the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the basis of all modern nuclear agreements. Russia's foreign minister said U.S. plans to revise the ABM treaty could spark a new arms race.



'The collapse of the ABM Treaty would, therefore, undermine the entirety of disarmament agreements concluded over the last 30 years.' - IGOR IVANOV Russian foreign minister SECRETARY OF STATE Madeleine Albright on Monday defended American policy and pointed out that the Clinton administration had hoped to win ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. That effort was defeated by the Republican-led Congress last year, which rejected the treaty as an infringement on U.S. military preparedness. The treaty went into force in 1970 and has been signed by 187 countries, including the Untied States. It commits nuclear nations to pursue disarmament while the non-nuclear states agreed not to develop or acquire nuclear weapons. Only Pakistan, India, Cuba and Israel have refused to sign.

"We share the frustration many feel about the pace of progress toward a world free of nuclear weapons," Albright said. "But we also know that if countries demand unrealistic and premature measures, they will harm the NPT and set back everyone's cause."

RUSSIANS UNHAPPY Russia, which in the past two weeks has ratified both the START II nuclear arms reduction treaty and the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, has been particularly critical of the Clinton administration's failings on this count. Moscow is particularly angry at U.S. efforts to amend the ABM treaty so that Washington can build a limited missile-defense system. President Clinton is expected to make a decision on Pentagon proposals this summer. Many in Moscow reject the idea that such a system would be aimed solely at preventing "rogue states" from launching missiles.

Russian experts fear such a missile shield would make its own forces ineffective and trigger a new arms race. "One has to be fully aware of the fact that the prevailing system of arms control agreements is a complex and quite fragile structure," Ivanov said Tuesday. "Once one of its key elements has been weakened, the entire system is destabilized." "The collapse of the ABM Treaty would, therefore, undermine the entirety of disarmament agreements concluded over the last 30 years," he said. Advertisement

"The threat of the erosion of the nonproliferation regimes related to nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction and their delivery means would, therefore grow," he said.

U.S. WANTS MODIFICATIONS He also provided a new progress report on Russia's destruction of thousands of so-called non-strategic tactical nuclear weapons that are not included in the START treaty. Ivanov said that one-third of the all nuclear munitions for sea-based tactical systems and naval aircraft had been eliminated.

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Russia Rebuffs U.S. on Altering ABM Pact

Wednesday, April 26, 2000
http://www.iht.com/IHT/TODAY/WED/IN/pact.2.html

UNITED NATIONS, New York - Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov of Russia dashed U.S. hopes Tuesday of amending the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and, instead, promoted a global program on curbing missile technology.

He also warned that the United States risked undermining 30 years of disarmament agreements if it insisted on amending the landmark missile treaty.

Washington wants to modify the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty limiting missile defense systems to allow it to develop a national system to guard against missile threats from ''rogue'' countries such as North Korea or Iran.

In a speech to a review conference of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Mr. Ivanov insisted that the ABM treaty barring such national defenses remain intact, saying the entire system of arms control was based on its fragile structure.

He opposed any changes to the treaty that Washington might propose so it can develop a missile defense system to protect the United States.

''One has to be fully aware of the fact that the prevailing system of arms control agreements is a complex and quite fragile structure,'' Mr. Ivanov said. ''Once one of its key elements has been weakened, the entire system is destabilized.

''The collapse of the ABM Treaty would, therefore, undermine the entirety of disarmament agreements concluded over the last 30 years.

''The threat of the erosion of the nonproliferation regimes related to nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction and their delivery means would, therefore grow,'' he said.

Mr. Ivanov spoke a day after Secretary of State Madeleine Albright defended the new National Missile Defense policy, criticized by nearly every nonnuclear state as a threat to the ABM Treaty.

President Bill Clinton is to decide this summer whether to go ahead and build the anti-missile shield.

Mr. Clinton is expected to urge President-elect Vladimir Putin at a June summit meeting in Moscow to cooperate in changing the ABM Treaty. Many conservative Republicans in the Congress would go further by scrapping the pact and proceeding with a spaced-based weapons program.

John Holum, a special adviser on arms control to Mr. Clinton and Mrs. Albright, noted that no final decision had been made to develop the system.

But he stressed that there was no reason to reject talks on amending the treaty to deal with threats that didn't exist when it was negotiated 30 years ago.

''This isn't designed against China,'' Mr. Holum said at a news conference. ''It isn't designed against Russia.''

Moscow has vehemently opposed the plan, which it says would make its forces ineffective and trigger a new arms race. China, too, has objected.

Mr. Ivanov said Russia was prepared ''to engage in the broadest consultation'' with the United States and with other nations.

Specifically, he referred to a Russian plan to prevent to limit ''rogue'' states' access to missile technology, and he called attention to the Global Missile and Missile Technologies Nonproliferation Control System that Moscow proposed in March.

Mr. Ivanov also noted to Russia's recent ratification of the START-2 strategic arms reduction treaty with the United States as well as its approval of the global nuclear test ban treaty, which the U.S. Senate has rejected.

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UN chief issues warning on nuclear war threat

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-25apr2000-36.htm

Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, says the threat of nuclear war is still a real possibility.

He says pressure to allow the deployment of new missile defences is jeopardising the new anti-ballistic missile treaty.

Mr Annan made the remarks at an international conference on halting the spread of nuclear weapons.

The UN is urging Washington to weigh the dangers carefully before giving in to the growing pressure to create a national anti-ballistic missible defence system.

United States President Bill Clinton is expected to take a decision about the development of a national defensive system later this year.

US military planners argue that a Star Wars-type shield will only be used to protect them against any future missile attack from rogue states, such as North Korea.

Russia is also showing concern with Moscow's Foreign Minister, Igor Ivanov, warning that the development of such a system could create a destructive domino effect for the existing disarmament system.

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UN: Nuclear Powers Face Challenge At Review Conference

By Robert McMahon
http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2000/04/F.RU.000425131435.html

Nearly all the world's states are parties to the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons (NPT), but only a handful possess such weapons. At the NPT review conference, which started yesterday, non-nuclear states and non-governmental organizations are expected to raise questions about whether the nuclear powers are complying with the treaty. Officials from the leading nuclear states, for their part, have reiterated their support for the treaty. UN correspondent Robert McMahon looks at the issues to be discussed in the four-week review conference.

United Nations, 25 April 2000 (RFE/RL) -- The five-year review of the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons got underway at UN headquarters yesterday amid great unease about the nuclear powers' commitment to the process.

The 1995 conference ended with states agreeing on the indefinite extension of the treaty and the need for strengthening the review process. But several developments since then have prompted concern in many quarters, from treaty members, non-governmental organizations to the media.

Non-proliferation suffered a major setback in 1998 when India and Pakistan -- longtime adversaries -- conducted nuclear tests. India and Pakistan as well as Israel and Cuba are the only states that have not signed the NPT.

Also causing concern by non-nuclear states was the U.S. announcement of plans to set up a national missile defense system. Such a system, which could be approved this summer, would require amendments to the anti-ballistic missile treaty. The non-nuclear states are also worried by the reiteration of military doctrines by NATO and Russia that stress the importance of nuclear weapons in defense.

The UN's undersecretary-general for disarmament affairs, Jayantha Dhanapala, told reporters last week that a number of treaty states are questioning whether the pledge to follow a strengthened review process has really been kept.

"There is a widespread feeling amongst non-nuclear weapons states that the record as far as nuclear disarmament is concerned required much more progress than has in fact been recorded."

Dhanapala says there will be special attention paid during this review conference to the issue of nuclear weapons and NATO. He says the non-aligned movement is expected to raise concern about NATO's policy that allows for the stationing of nuclear weapons owned by one member of the alliance on the territory of an ally that is a non-nuclear weapons state. Dhanapala says this practice is regarded as contrary to the spirit, if not the letter, of the NPT.

Article One of the treaty states the nuclear powers shall not transfer nuclear weapons or control of such weapons to non-nuclear weapons states.

Dhanapala says he also expects debate about NATO's 30-year-old policy of "flexible response," which allows the alliance to be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into a conflict, including in reply to an attack with conventional weapons. Russia, too, has also reasserted the importance of nuclear weapons in national defense. The Russian Security Council on Friday approved a military doctrine which states that Russia can no longer ward off a mass conventional attack without using nuclear weapons.

Non-governmental organizations are reacting with alarm to such developments and plan to be active during the NPT review conference. One NGO that will be raising consciousness about nuclear proliferation is the British-American Security Information Council (BASIC).

At a briefing for UN correspondents last week, BASIC Director Daniel Plesch said Washington and Moscow have failed to take the lead on nuclear non-proliferation.

Plesch: "There has been an enormous opportunity to rid the world of the nuclear threat since the end of the Cold War and that opportunity has been squandered by President (Boris) Yeltsin and by President (Bill) Clinton."

Plesch noted the importance of the Russian Duma's recent ratification of the START-II Treaty, but said the world's two nuclear superpowers were still moving too slowly on arms reduction. START-II will reduce nuclear warheads from 6,000 to no more than 3,500 on each side by 2007.

The two sides have begun discussions over a START-III round of negotiations that would lead to deeper cuts. The United States has proposed cutting arsenals to 2,000 to 2,500 warheads and Russia has proposed going as low as 1,500 warheads.

Russia also does not want the United States to deploy a national missile defense system, which it sees as upsetting the strategic balance.

Plesch, from the group BASIC, is critical of the United States for initiating plans for a missile defense system. He says the United States has exaggerated the threat of nuclear attack from rogue states and is needlessly fueling nuclear tensions in both Russia and China.

Plesch: "If we do not see sense in this area and we press ahead with this missile defense, anti-missile missile program, then we can easily see a new arms race in East Asia because the Chinese regard this as a direct threat to their security.

U.S. officials acknowledge the deep concerns of China about the proposed missile defense system. But they say it is unrealistic to expect the superpowers to rapidly dispose of their nuclear weapons. And they say there has been progress. President Clinton's Senior Advisor for Arms Control, Non-Proliferation and Security Affairs, John Holum, said earlier this month that more than 13,000 U.S. warheads have been destroyed and that both the United States and Russia are ahead of their timetable under the first Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START-I).

U.S. State Department spokesman James Rubin told reporters last week that the United States remains committed to NPT and views it as an "indispensable tool" in preventing the spread of nuclear weapons. He anticipated that this week's conference would lead to further calls for the United States to disarm.

Rubin: "Every time there is a review conference, there are some countries who have the quite unrealistic notion that disarmament is something that happens overnight and that the United States and Russia have too many nuclear weapons, and they regularly make those points. And I don't expect their points to be much different than they usually are."

But the non-nuclear states and NGOs are expected to make the case that the treaty is threatened and that its Article Six -- which calls for complete disarmament -- remains a remote prospect 30 years after the NPT went into force.

UN Undersecretary-General Dhanapala said there was more at stake at the 1995 NPT conference because the extension of the treaty was up for debate. But he says the integrity of the treaty is now under great scrutiny.

"The strengthened review process is going to be put to the test. And so there is an interest in the conference and I have seen that the extensive consultations that are going on indicates there is a strong interest."

U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov are among the ministers due to speak at the opening of the conference this week. In all, foreign ministers from 20 countries are due to speak, including those from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Lithuania, Slovakia, Macedonia, and Uzbekistan.

25-04-00

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U.N. chief warns against missile defense efforts
But Washington defends the idea, suggesting it may build a limited system and risk scrapping of ABM treaty.

Barry Schweid -
Associated Press
Tuesday, April 25, 2000
http://www.accessatlanta.com/partners/ajc/epaper/editions/tuesday/news_9350d3c1704b42150006.html
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0004/26/text/world09.html

United Nations -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday warned that growing pressure to deploy national missile defenses ''could well lead to a new arms race.''

But Secretary of State Madeleine Albright countered that a way should be found to mount a limited defense against new threats.

Speaking at a conference of dozens of non-nuclear nations as well as the handful of nuclear-armed states, Annan was responding to those who argue a 1972 treaty signed by the United States and the Soviet Union to ban anti-missile defenses should be overhauled or even scuttled.

Annan referred to the treaty as a cornerstone of strategic stability and called for ''great care'' before taking steps that ''may well reduce, rather than enhance, global security.''

The secretary-general made no direct reference to President Clinton's consideration of limited anti-missile defenses against what administration officials say is a threat of attack by North Korea and other so-called ''rogue states.''

But Albright stoutly defended amending the treaty to defend against ''at most a few tens of incoming missiles.''

''The treaty has been amended before and there is no good reason it cannot be amended again to reflect new threats from third countries,'' she said.

Clinton is expected to urge Russian President Vladimir Putin at their summit in Moscow June 4-5 to cooperate in modifying the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Many conservative Republicans in Congress would go further by scrapping the pact and proceeding with a spaced-based weapons program.

Putin has denounced tinkering with the treaty.

American and Russian negotiators opened talks last week in Geneva, Switzerland, on reducing nuclear stockpiles and defending against nuclear attack.

The U.N. conference was called to review a 1968 treaty signed by 187 countries in which non-nuclear states agreed not to try to develop or acquire nuclear weapons on condition the nuclear nations pursue disarmament. The treaty was extended indefinitely in 1995 with the Clinton administration's strong support.

Nuclear testing by India and Pakistan in 1998 has fueled complaints that the United States, Russia and the others have not taken steps toward a world free of nuclear weapons. Those complaints are expected to be aired during the four-week conference.

A group of seven nations considered politically moderate called for negotiations ''without delay'' to achieve nuclear disarmament.

Foreign Minister Rosario Green of Mexico, presenting the group's ''new agenda,'' proposed that nuclear states pledge not to use nuclear weapons first, as well as speed up the removal of warheads from missile launchers, end the deployment of battlefield nuclear weapons and expand nuclear-free zones.

''Failure to move now or to signal new determination to will make these weapons accepted currency,'' Green said.

Fifty-three nations endorsed the agenda advocated by Mexico, New Zealand, Egypt, South Africa, Sweden, Brazil and Ireland.

New Zealand's minister for disarmament and arms control, Matt Robson, backed Annan on anti-missile defenses as a setback to arms control.

''We do think there clearly is a domino effect -- that if the U.S. is going to develop such a system, that other countries that have that capacity would look towards that as well,'' he said.

Albright replied: ''We share the frustration many feel about the pace of progress toward a world free of nuclear weapons. But we also know that if countries demand unrealistic and premature measures, they will harm the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) and set back everyone's cause.''

She said India and Pakistan posed ''a serious challenge'' to the treaty with nuclear tests in 1998, but she said the treaty was accomplishing its goal of limiting the spread of nuclear weapons.

---------

Nuclear war terrifyingly possible, says Annan

Tuesday, April 25, 2000
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/2000/0425/wor10.htm

UN Secretary General Mr Kofi Annan said yesterday the threat of nuclear war "remains a very real, and very terrifying possibility" at the beginning of the 21st century.

Without mentioning Washington by name, he also cautioned against plans to develop a "star wars"-type National Missile Defence (NMD), saying this could lead to a new arms race.

Mr Annan was welcoming delegates at the start of a month-long conference to review implementation of the key nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Under the treaty, which entered into force in 1970, the five original nuclear powers - the United States, Russia, Britain, China and France - are permitted to retain their nuclear weapons in exchange for a pledge to move towards nuclear disarmament.

The other 182 parties to the treaty have renounced any ambitions to acquire nuclear weapons, while being assured access to the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

But their resentment at what they regard as the big powers' foot-dragging on disarmament will be highlighted during the conference.

Another focus is likely to be the four countries that have so far refused to sign the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. They are India and Pakistan, which carried out tit-for-tat underground tests in 1998, Cuba and Israel, certain to be accused by Arab states as possessing nuclear weapons.

Mr Annan said the tests carried out by India and Pakistan were "a serious setback against the global norms against nuclear testing and nuclear proliferation".

Welcoming what he called "an unmistakable record of achievement and hard-won progress" in the disarmament field, Mr Annan said this was "no time for complacency when it comes to the threat of nuclear war".

"Nuclear conflict remains a very real, and very terrifying possibility at the beginning of the 21st century. This is the stark reality confronting you today," Mr Annan said.

Mr Annan said the most recent challenge was "the growing pressure to deploy national missile defences". - (Reuters)


-------- us military

Chemical Sensitivity More Common in Gulf Vets

By Amy Norton
Wednesday April 26 3:00 PM ET
Reuters 4/26/00,

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Gulf War veterans are more likely than non-deployed troops to report symptoms suggestive of multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) syndrome, a controversial diagnosis given to some people who appear to be sensitive to usually benign environmental exposures.

In the current issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers report that among almost 3,700 soldiers surveyed in 1995, Gulf War veterans were twice as likely as others to report MCS symptoms. More than 5% said they were sensitive to chemicals such as pesticides, car exhaust, cosmetics, and cigarette smoke; about 2.5% of non-veterans reported such symptoms. In addition, soldiers with MCS symptoms were far more likely to have a history of psychological problems such as depression, report Dr. Donald W. Black of the University of Iowa College of Medicine in Iowa City and colleagues.

In an interview with Reuters Health, Black said that some researchers have suggested that the range of health problems known as Gulf War syndrome is a form of MCS. However, he added, this study was not intended to validate the existence of MCS, nor link it to Gulf War syndrome.

``The most important finding is that Persian Gulf veterans have more physical and emotional health complaints, and we need to figure out why,'' Black said.

Mainstream medicine, Black noted, generally does not recognize MCS because it has never been reliably linked to any physical abnormality in patients. People diagnosed with MCS commonly complain of weakness, fatigue, memory loss, depression, and joint pain -- symptoms that mirror many of those reported by Gulf War veterans. A diagnosis of MCS assumes that the symptoms are set off by environmental irritants.

Black's team found that soldiers who reported MCS-like symptoms were also 10 times more likely to have a history of major depression than soldiers without such symptoms. The researchers also discovered that these troops commonly had medical problems before they were sent to the Gulf -- including high rates of respiratory conditions, muscle pain, and problems with learning and memory.

What all of this means is unclear. However, Black said, the study does ``once again show that these veterans have more health problems.''

``We still have our homework to do,'' he said. ``These people are suffering and need to have it investigated.''

Black and his colleagues are currently studying Gulf War veterans with multiple health complaints to weed out which risk factors they have in common.

SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine 2000;160:1169-1176.

-------- us nuc facilities

Daybook
Washington Times
April 26, 2000
http://www.washtimes.com/national/daybook-2000426213611.htm

Nuclear-power study news conference - 9:30 a.m. - Public Citizen, the Star Foundation, and the Radiation and Public Health Project hold a news conference to discuss a new study, which contends that infant mortality rates around five nuclear-power reactors dropped after the reactors closed. Location: First Amendment Room, National Press Club, 14th and F streets NW. Contact: 202/588-7742.

-------- california

Trustees stay with warning on radiation

Wednesday, April 26, 2000
Contra Costa Times
By Elizabeth Zach, Times Staff Writer
http://www.hotcoco.com/news/stories_news/edict_20000426.htm

HAYWARD -- The Alameda County Board of Education reasserted its decision Tuesday night to warn its school districts about possible radioactive exposure to children visiting the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley.

----

VICTORY IS AT HAND!!
Ward Valley No Longer Considered for Waste

FINAL ISSUE
SAVE WARD VALLEY-FORT MOJAVE INDIAN TRIBE-BAN WASTE COALITION-GREENACTION APR 2000

Our united struggle, after 12 long years, to keep a radioactive waste facility out of Ward Valley has succeeded beyond our wildest dreams! However, even though Governor Gray Davis said that Ward Valley is a "dead issue", his statement was not an official declaration. Neither he nor the State of California has made the demise of the Ward Valley project "official".

The latest "nail in the coffin" of the proposed Ward Valley Radioactive Waste dump was the dismissal of the lawsuit brought by US Ecology against the Department of Interior in the Court of Federal Claims. (see pg. 2) This was a decision long awaited by all and according to Jonathan Parfrey, executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility, "Before this, Ward Valley was 95-percent dead, and now it's 98-percent dead."

The details of the dump's demise may take years to be worked out, and of course we can't let down our guard even a minute, because dump proponents US Ecology, the Cal-Rad Forum and others will continue their attempts to revive the project. Remember that they have boasted that "Ward Valley is the best location in the world for disposal of radioactive waste." At the same time, these folks are advocates of dumping anywhere, anytime and as a result, are not necessarily attached to Ward Valley.

"Son of Ward Valley" Proposed

The Advisory Group established by Governor Davis to review alternatives to Ward Valley continues as imbalanced as before, dominated by waste generators (especially by members of the Cal-Rad Forum) (see pgs. 4 & 5). The Scientific Panel that is to report to the Advisory Group, even more imbalanced in terms of nuclear interests, has proposed four alternative approaches.

These options are all unsatisfactory since they either call for continued dumping of long-lived nuclear waste in out-of state landfills, or promote a landfill or isolation facility in California. Two of the four options involve starting a whole new Ward Valley process, albeit at a different location, for a new dump in California. Unless successfully opposed, we are faced with another ten-year struggle over "Son of Ward Valley." We need to prevent that from happening.

A fifth option, prohibiting the use of shallow land burial within California and proposing interim storage at nuclear power plants is being promoted by Scientific Panelist Dr. Robert Gould and panel consultants Ward Young and Phil Klasky of the BAN Waste Coalition. (see pg. 3)

We Still Need To Put the Pressure On

Here is what you can do--

1) Attend the final two meetings of the Advisory Group on April 26 and May 10. (For further information and to put your name on the list to speak, call Amy Jones of the PMR Group, Inc. at 310/473-7704 or visit their website at www.llrw.org.)

2) Contact Governor Davis - State Capitol Building, Sacramento, CA 95814 PH: 916/445-2841 FAX: 916/445-4633. Ask him to: a) Officially remove Ward Valley from any consideration as any kind of nuclear facility either now or in the future. b) Outlaw any burial of any kind of radioactive waste in California. c) Make it the policy of California to store long-lived nuclear waste at nuclear power plants on an interim basis and regularly review improvements in technology to isolate waste from the biosphere.

". . .Ward Valley as a site is a dead issue. . ." ---Governor Gray Davis (see pg. 6)

Save Ward Valley Office to Close

In light of recent events the Save Ward Valley office will be closing April 30,2000. Should any attempt be made to revive the proposed Ward Valley nuclear waste dump, the Colorado River Native Nations Alliance (CRNNA) and Ward Valley Coalition are prepared to take immediate action. Keep in touch with the following organizations for all of the latest news.

BAN Waste Coaliton POB 894, Bolinas, CA 94924 PH: 415/752-8678 FAX: 415/221-4267 Website: banwaste.envirolink.org

Greenaction 1095 Market St., Suite 608, San Francisco, CA 94103 PH: 415/252-0822 FAX: 415/252-0823 Website: greenaction.org

We would like to give a great big "Thank You!" to everyone

----

Silicon hell

April 26, 2000
San Francisco Bay Guardian
By Christopher D. Cook and A. Clay Thompson
http://www.sfbayguardian.com/News/34/30/siliconhell.html

The computer industry prides itself on a "clean" image - but it's actually doing horrible damage to its workers and the environment.

ON APRIL 16, in Building Three of MMC Technology's CD-ROM plant in San Jose, the lid exploded off a 55-gallon drum, sending up a cloud of toxic chemicals and a splash of nitric acid. The San Jose Fire Department's Hazardous Incident Team evacuated the building and cordoned off the area. Workers, dressed like surgeons in head-to-toe sterile suits, filed out of the plant as the ambulances arrived.

It was a surreal scene. The suits looked like safety equipment, but they are designed primarily to protect the products at the plant from contamination by the workers, not to protect the workers from contamination by the industrial chemicals to which they are regularly exposed.

Nitric acid, one of the most heavily used chemicals in the electronics industry, is very nasty stuff. Inhaling even small amounts can kill a person, filling the lungs with suffocating fluid.

"There were a few people who took a good couple of breaths," fire captain Greg Spence told us. "They were the ones we were worried about."

Seventeen MMC employees ended up in the emergency rooms of three nearby hospitals. Company officials had no comment for this story. The April 16 explosion likely occurred because the acid was mixed with an incompatible chemical, according to the fire department, which is still investigating.

The employees were monitored overnight and released, apparently unharmed, the next day. But it could have been much worse, Spence said. If the acid had splashed on an unprotected worker, it would have been the stuff horror films are made of.

If nitric acid gets in your eyes, they sizzle and shrink. Where it touches your flesh, the skin dies and eventually becomes black and shrunken, a process called "coagulation necrosis." If it splashes down your throat, you might literally vomit your guts out.

That's not the kind of image most people get when they think about the high-tech industry.

The MMC plant lies on Fortune Drive in northeast San Jose, shadowed by the verdant hills of the Coast range and surrounded by miles and miles of other tech firms. In these parts, where the assembly lines churn out digital hardware 24-7, it's hard to find a commercial building inhabited by a nontech company. But smokestacks, turbines, and the other emblems of heavy industry are rare.

In the public consciousness, high tech is the antithesis of that old-fashioned, fossil fuel-driven industry. The news media normally discuss the new technologies as digitally clean, trafficking in information rather than goods, thriving on creativity rather than muscle.

But that's a mirage. We've spent several months looking into the dark side of Silicon Valley, reviewing hundreds of public documents, visiting dump sites, and interviewing plant workers, lawyers, and activists. What we've found is a very different story.

Behind the well-paid geeks in cubicles and the sharp-dressed entrepreneurs is an industry that consumes as many resources, uses as many lethal chemicals, and generates as much toxic waste as some of the worst culprits of the pre-Internet age. And both industry workers and the people who live near the plants are feeling the effects: the toxins damage aquatic life in the bay, poison drinking water, and, increasing evidence suggests, kill high-tech industry workers.

The picture is eerily reminiscent of the hype that accompanied the birth of the plastics and petrochemical industries, when the press was so occupied with the consumer wonders of the new technologies that almost nobody paid any attention to the deadly downside. The major Bay Area news media, for example, devote hundreds of pages to stories about the booming tech-driven stock market, the millionaires created in Silicon Valley, and the wonders of the digital age. But there's very little coverage of the human and environmental costs of the waste the computer industry produces.

Toxics are used heavily in all sectors of the e-hardware business. A traditional TV-style monitor comes equipped with several pounds of lead. Flat-screen monitors, the kind you find on laptops, Palm Pilots, and cell phones, replace the lead with greenhouse gases. Makers of circuits and chips guzzle huge quantities of solvents, most of them known health hazards. And hundreds of thousands of tons of those toxic chemicals are released every year into the Bay Area water, air, and ground.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's most recent figures, in 1997 the circuit and chip industries - which provide the brain and nervous system of every computer - released, recycled, or dumped 117,545,550 pounds of hazardous chemicals nationwide. And it's safe to say that about 15 percent of the plants that generate that waste are in northern California, mainly in Silicon Valley.

And those 117.5 million pounds are just the tip of the iceberg. The U.S. Department of Commerce reports 2,500 chip, circuit, and monitor plants in operation in the United States that year; only 406 reported their toxic output to the EPA. (See "Garbage In,")

Tumors the size of grapefruit

On his 50th birthday, in March 1999, Sherron Loanzan had a lot to celebrate. After years of grueling, toxic work making disk drives and electronic components in the "clean room" at IBM's San Jose computer-manufacturing plant, Loanzan had scraped his way up to a job in exports, shipping the company's computer-assembly machinery overseas. He had a beautiful home high in the hills above east San Jose, and his two children were excelling in high school and college. But as Loanzan tried to eat his lunch in the company parking lot that day, he knew something was wrong.

"I was eating my lunch and trying to scrape my food together, and in my mind I was scraping the food with my fork," Loanzan, a soft-spoken immigrant from the Philippines, told us in his home last November. But when he looked down into his lap, he realized, "I wasn't even holding my fork."

He had already been dropping things that week, and his wife was trying to convince him to go to the hospital. The day after the lunch incident, an MRI revealed that Loanzan had brain tumors. By then his hands were shaking uncontrollably.

Doctors scheduled surgery for later that week. But after two operations to remove malignant tissue the size of a grapefruit, the tumors grew back, leaving him numb and barely mobile. In January, after celebrating Christmas with his family, Loanzan stopped eating. On Jan. 21, two months after our interview, the tumors killed him, adding one more to the long and growing list of computer-industry workers dead from cancer at an early age.

There had been no warning of cancer risk from IBM, where he toiled in a poisonous and possibly carcinogenic stew for decades, Loanzan told us. The company's legally required material-safety data sheets warned of possible nausea and dizziness from the chemical-filled tubs over which he worked, Loanzan said, "but they didn't say anything about tumors. They never talked about the place being dangerous."

Yet scientific studies and a potentially path-breaking lawsuit filed against IBM and its many chemical suppliers suggest that Loanzan's fatal disease may have been caused by his work. "His exposures led to the illness that caused his death," argues San Jose-based attorney Amanda Hawes, who is representing Loanzan's family and 10 other semiconductor workers in the lawsuit.

According to the February 1998 suit filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court, IBM maintained an internal "corporate mortality file," a database detailing the deaths of more than 25,000 IBM workers nationwide. Of 10,331 employees who died between 1975 and 1989, 149 died of primary brain cancer, the lawsuit states, citing a 1995 study sponsored in part by the company. That's 10 brain cancer deaths a year at IBM, a startlingly high number for such a rare disease.

The file now shows that 8,000 of the 25,000 deaths were due to some form of cancer, Hawes said.

"Even though IBM knew that more and more IBM 'clean room' employees were being stricken with cancer as a result of exposure to toxic chemicals in clean rooms," the lawsuit states, "as a matter of company policy, IBM engaged in a concerted program of fraudulent denial, cover-up, concealment and corporate falsehood" designed to keep Loanzan and others ignorant of the life-threatening risks of their work.

'Clean room' dirt

Despite their name, clean rooms are awash in toxic solvents and acids that, even at low and legally permissible exposures, may be deadly when used for many years.

Loanzan's clean room career brought him in close, frequent contact with methylene chloride, Freon, kerosene, and acetone. In the grinding department Loanzan ground wafers to create a flat, even surface on which layers of circuitry could be placed. To ensure a smooth, clean cut, he used cutting fluids to cool down the machinery gears. One of the main ingredients in the cutting fluid, according to Hawes, has been linked in studies to brain cancer.

IBM officials would not comment on the lawsuit, but spokesperson Michelle McIntyre told us, "Our clean rooms are extremely safe. We follow the strictest guidelines, and the care of our workers is the most important thing to us." In a written statement the corporation added, "We employ rigorous health and safety standards at all facilities, meeting or exceeding government standards in all cases. We constantly monitor and routinely survey the workplace environment for compliance to these standards."

Another plaintiff, who we'll call Alicia, asked that we not print her real name: she hasn't told many of her relatives, including her grandchildren, about her cancer. After logging 30 years in a dried-fruit cannery, Alicia, now 69, started washing hard-drive disks for IBM in 1977.

"We actually never knew what was in the washer; all we knew is it was some kind of soap with another chemical," said Alicia, who worked in every part of the clean room, including buffing, lube, testing, and coating. "You could smell the coating the minute you walked into the building. The smell was so bad you tasted it. Sometimes when you go into the plant in the morning, you feel light-headed when the fumes hit you."

One of Alicia's jobs was to place disks in coating and drying machines, a task that brought her into close contact with extremely noxious resins such as epoxy and solvents such as methyl isobutyl ketone, acetone, and xylene. The disk-drying machines, which run at 5,300 rpm, spewed mists filled with acetone and resins, she said. After a disk hurtled through the air and nearly struck a worker, IBM put up a Plexiglas safety shield. The shield, Alicia recalled, "would get covered with spray. We were breathing that."

She claims the company showed no concern for worker health. "We had protective clothes that covered your whole body, but that was not a protection for us, it was a protection for the product so that if we sneezed or coughed, we would not spit on the product," Alicia said. "We had a shower, and if we had a chemical spill on us, all we would do is strip and get under the shower." Chemicals soaked through the felt fire-retardant clothing she wore, sometimes leaving her street clothes underneath saturated with toxic resins and solvents. "If chemicals splashed on my arms, they would go clear through to my skin," she said.

The company seemed to be aware that its workers were facing health risks. Alicia was regularly required to undergo highly secretive physical exams. "They would draw blood and take X rays," she said. "If you asked them about the results, they would say, 'If we find a problem, we will let your manager know.' "

After one such test IBM moved Alicia from the coating area for six weeks - but, she said, they never told her about any health problem. "Now I suspect that they suspected that something was wrong," she said. "If there was nothing wrong, why did I have to go through all these specialists? I don't think anybody ever saw their test results."

There were other cryptic exams. Every few months, Alicia said, "they would put a badge on you that would read how much radiation you were exposed to. When I asked what would happen if we received an overdose of radiation, they said, 'If you don't hear from us, you're all right.' "

In November 1993, two years after she left IBM, Alicia was diagnosed as having breast cancer. There were no warning signs. After having undergone a mastectomy and chemotherapy treatment, Alicia has been in remission for six years, but she still suffers severe swelling and lumps, and her hands are numb from the surgery. Meanwhile, she said, IBM cut off her pension (the corporation reduced thousands of workers' pensions in 1999) and stopped paying most of her medical bills.

Alicia said coworkers have developed skin and breast cancers. Women have suffered miscarriages. One engineer she knows developed a muscular disability and can no longer walk.

Spinning studies

In the late 1980s, after studies showed increased spontaneous abortion rates among women drinking water contaminated by semiconductor facilities, investigators began looking at reproductive health problems among semiconductor workers. A 1988 study published in the Journal of Occupational Medicine revealed that up to 38 percent of pregnant women in high-exposure clean room processes suffered spontaneous abortions.

As bad publicity mounted, the industry began sponsoring its own studies. It confirmed that there were serious reproductive health risks, particularly for spontaneous abortions, in clean rooms. One study funded by Digital Equipment Corporation found that fabrication workers in semiconductor facilities suffered spontaneous abortions at double the rate of nonfabrication staff. A subsequent 1992 UC Davis study funded by the Semiconductor Industry Association produced similar results and fingered ethylene-based glycol ethers as the culprit.

The industry began calling for a phaseout of glycol ethers, and over the past several years most major manufacturers have quit using the chemicals.

But a scientific review of the UC-industry study suggested that exposure to glycol ethers alone, separate from xylene and n-butyl acetate (also common in fabrication rooms), did little to increase spontaneous abortion risks. Meanwhile, researchers isolated other chemicals such as fluorine that raised spontaneous abortion rates. Likewise, other solvents, such as acetone and isopropyl alcohol, "appeared to increase spontaneous abortion risk," researchers reported in a 1995 article for the American Journal of Industrial Medicine. In fact, glycol ethers were just one of seven chemical agents the research team linked to spontaneous abortion risks.

Nonetheless, the Semiconductor Industry Association used the earlier research to target glycol ethers as the primary cause of spontaneous abortions. It's a stance that exasperates Dr. Joseph Ladou, chief of occupational and environmental medicine for UC San Francisco. Ladou has conducted extensive investigations of chip-plant toxins and health hazards and written numerous medical journal reports calling for greater scrutiny and tougher standards for the business. "The industry did a narrow study on just one issue: abortion," he told us. "They never proved that one chemical caused the problem, and they never went back to prove that the problem was corrected when they removed the chemical. The issue is much bigger than they would like you to believe."

Despite the hoopla surrounding the voluntary glycol ether phaseout - which the industry association has touted as a major success - there has been little follow-up to evaluate how many companies are still using the chemical, or how many women are losing their babies. "I don't know that anybody has done a postsurvey to see what current use level is," said Dr. Jim Cone, director of the Occupational Health Branch of California's Department of Health Services. "That remains to be done."

The industry admits there has been little follow-through. "There have been no [follow-up] studies that I know of," Daven Oswalt, spokesperson for the Semiconductor Industry Association, told us.

Oswalt acknowledged that the semiconductor business is a "very high-intensive, chemical-laden industry because of the cleaning of the chips. There's no other way." But he said the business has been "very proactive" in reducing worker health risks, touting its occupational injury and illness rates as being some of the lowest among all manufacturing sectors. Clean rooms are "cleaner than hospital rooms," Oswalt said. "I'd rather live there than be on the street."

No time for safety

Evidence of semiconductor health and safety hazards is more subtle than the usual indicators, such as high injury rates and huge government penalties. The computer industry registers barely a blip on the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration's radar screen. In 1999 federal and state health and safety agencies recorded just 148 violations totaling $173,153 against companies manufacturing semiconductors, printed circuit boards, electronic computers, and peripheral equipment, OSHA records show.

The industry often cites such statistics in an effort to show that it has few workplace problems. But even OSHA officials say that's misleading; it's difficult for regulators to prove the connections between chemical exposure and worker illness.

"OSHA tends to be more active on the heavy-manufacturing side," said Dave Schmidt of the agency's office of statistics in Washington, D.C. "If you chop off a finger, we're there."

Less visible, yet equally worrisome, are occupational illnesses involving lost work time. While occupational illnesses represented just 14.3 percent of all manufacturing workers' ailments, they made up 30 percent of semiconductor employees' maladies, according to Ladou's analysis of 1997 government data.

His statistics show that semiconductor workers - who are largely Asian American and Latino and almost entirely nonunionized - are twice as likely as the average manufacturing worker to lose work time owing to occupational illness. Even more revealing, Ladou found that while just 2.6 percent of manufacturing workers' injuries and illnesses come from toxic exposures, the rate is 9.3 percent for semiconductor workers.

Even those figures may underestimate clean room health risks, Ladou told us, because they count semiconductor worker illnesses as a whole, while most of the health problems occur in the clean rooms. For instance, many semiconductor worker health studies use clean room workers as the test group and other employees as the control group, which is less likely to show symptoms.

Cone of California DHS worries most about semiconductor workers' "long-term exposures to carcinogens and cancer," he said. "There is still a question about labor statistics data showing a relatively higher percentage of reports of acute illnesses."

Intense economic competition, rapid technological change, and corporate secrecy about proprietary chemical mixes all contribute to the health and safety barriers. In a 1992 essay titled "Semiconductor Manufacturing Hazards," Dr. Myron Harrison, a former IBM physician, noted that chip manufacturers had by the early 1990s compressed their product-development schedules from six to eight years down to two to three years, leaving little room for health and safety concerns. "The opportunities for these [health and safety] professionals to be involved before new processes arrive at the manufacturing floor are being diminished by the quickening pace of technologic change," he wrote.

The dead cancer study

The answer to the cancer question has been elusive and the search volatile. Despite epidemiology studies showing that more than 20 percent of all cancers are caused by workplace exposures, proving direct causal relationships between specific exposures and cancers is a "statistical nightmare," Ladou said. Still, anecdotal evidence, IBM's alleged internal corporate mortality file, and other computer-worker cancer clusters documented in medical journals suggest the industry may have a widespread cancer problem. But when activists and federal and state agencies were ready to launch a major study of semiconductor worker cancers early in 1998, the industry scuttled the project.

Under the EPA's Common Sense Initiative, the computer and electronics sector was among six industry groups meeting with government agencies and activists to discuss ways to simultaneously lessen industries' ecological impacts and environmental-law compliance costs. When the conversation turned to worker health, the industry - including representatives from IBM, Intel, and National Semiconductor - bristled, Jolani Hironaka, executive director of the Santa Clara Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, who was active in the discussions, told us.

Hironaka's working group developed a preliminary study plan to measure cancer and birth defect rates among California semiconductor workers, using the state's cancer and birth-defect registries and then cross-referencing that with a semiconductor worker database to be created by the industry, Hironaka said. "We reached consensus that we would do this, and the EPA put $100,000 on the table," she said. Meanwhile, California DHS agreed to provide the industry an "umbrella of confidentiality" to avoid identifying specific workers or companies.

But in January 1998 "the industry abruptly pulled out," Hironaka said.

Intel spokesperson Howard High contends that the study was flawed - and that it might have cost the industry more than it was willing to pay. "There wasn't a clear scientific approach, nor was there a structure on how it was to be funded," he told us.

But there may have been other reasons for the withdrawal. In a widely publicized remark replayed on the evening news, an Intel representative told the group that "to participate in this project would be like giving discovery to plaintiffs. I might as well take a gun to my head and shoot myself."

Without industry cooperation, the study and its funding were put on indefinite hold, a serious setback to understanding and preventing cancer among chip workers. "We would know the cancer rates right now for 100,000 semiconductor workers in California if we hadn't been stonewalled," Ladou said.

Cone of California DHS is also frustrated, citing a "difficulty in both obtaining funding and getting cooperation with industry to actually do these studies" on cancers and acute illnesses in the semiconductor industry. "It's the biggest industry in the world, and it needs to be looked at. Every other major industry like this has cooperated [with extensive health investigations]," he noted. "So why is there this reluctance to cooperate?"

Cone said the cancer study also has "implications for plants in other parts of the world. We have a longer history with this industry here, and that information would be valuable not just for people here but around the world."

"There's no scientific evidence that suggests that fabrication workers have an elevated risk of cancers," industry spokesperson Oswalt responded. Despite the denials, in November 1999 the Semiconductor Industry Association announced plans to appoint an independent scientific advisory committee to review existing data about the industry. The committee intends to examine worker health data, injury and illness rates, and potential causes of cancer and, according to Oswalt, "then decide if further study is needed."

Burned alive

Recognizing the potentially explosive nature of e-component manufacturing, several Silicon Valley cities drafted stricter fire and hazardous chemical codes in the early 1980s. Municipal fire departments in the region now maintain special units to inspect businesses that keep large quantities of toxics on hand - and respond to accidents. A look at the records of the Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, and Mountain View fire departments found tech companies regularly breaking local laws - most fairly petty, but some serious.

Inspectors last year cited Hybrid Circuits' Sunnyvale plant for mishandling toxic detritus. Hybrid needed to "properly label the waste and dispose of it within the legal time frames. Also, provide records from the last two hazardous waste shipments," inspectors wrote March 9. In July 1999 the department also slapped electronics behemoth TRW Inc. for keeping four drums of toxic waste on-site longer than the 90 days allowed by law.

At Ion Implant Services' facility, which does early chip-preparation work, "approximately 30 gallons of flammable liquid waste was improperly stored" when Sunnyvale inspectors visited the semiconductor company in October of last year, according to a fire department report. "The material was in unlabeled one gallon bottles and was being stored on the floor without any secondary containment. Since the liquid is flammable it must be stored in a flammable liquid cabinet. Also, the material is hazardous wastes and was not labeled," the report reads.

Hybrid Circuits did not return Bay Guardian calls. TRW had no comment for this story. And Ion Implant recently went belly-up.

While many of the e-companies fail an inspection from time to time, a couple of manufacturers in the city of Santa Clara seem to have an especially hard time staying out of trouble.

Applied Materials - the world's largest manufacturer of semiconductor-making equipment - may rank number one in the valley for fire and safety code violations. Over the past seven years the company, based in an outwardly pristine, futuristic campus, has racked up at least 170 code violations. Fire inspectors cite recurring problems - some of them going back more than 10 years - like relying on extension cords in lieu of permanent wiring and having missing or badly placed fire extinguishers, improper sprinkler and fire alarm systems, and obstructed fire exits. This from a company that has up to 1,200 gallons of arsine gas - the superlethal gas form of arsenic - on hand at any one time.

Fire inspectors have demanded that the company "update [emergency] contingency plan. Current plan lists emergency coordinators who are no longer employed with Applied Materials," one admonition from a 1999 inspection states.

"Take steps to prevent future releases of hazardous wastes to the environment from any location at this site," ordered another, from a 1998 review.

The corporation has had problems with spilling verboten substances into storm drains. In one case, tubing to a pump failed and the plant sent 20 to 30 gallons of sodium hydroxide into the sewers. "Sodium hydroxide is like lye," said Doug Hansen, a hazardous materials specialist with the Santa Clara County Fire Department. "It's pretty caustic stuff."

Hansen, however, downplayed the volume of violations, chalking them up to the size of the operation, which is spread across five campuses and larger than most of the plants he checks up on. "We have noticed [the violations], and we are currently working with the company to come up with a compliance plan. The company is cooperative and meeting with us regularly," he said.

Safety is Applied Materials' number one priority, according to spokesperson Jeff Lettes. "We're working with the city of Santa Clara to make sure we have a world-class system in all respects," he told us.

Last year chip maker LG Epitaxy folded, but not before getting very well acquainted with the Santa Clara fire department. In 1993 the city ordered the company to hire an "approved independent safety consultant" as a result of "a toxic gas alarm and the inappropriate response by your employees," according to letters sent by the department to the corporation. Between 1995 and 1999 the department responded to three dozen emergency calls from the plant - several for accidental gas releases - and cited the company 96 times for code violations.

On April 26, 1997, answering a 911 call, the department's hazardous materials unit showed up to find 30-year-old Jeffrey Saurman in critical condition. In an accident that seems similar to the recent blunder at MMC Technologies, Saurman had inadvertently mixed alcohol with nitric and hydrofluoric acids while working over a chemical bath. The combustible mixture exploded, creating a caustic red-yellow cloud and burning his arms, legs, and face.

According to investigators with the state OSHA, coworkers in another part of the building noticed something was wrong when the acid scent wafted their way. Coming upon Saurman frantically rinsing his charred body in an emergency shower, they dragged him outside, away from the fumes, and rang for an ambulance. The man died of multi-organ failure two weeks later. He hadn't been wearing protective clothing.

The state slapped LG Epitaxy with seven charges, notably failing to develop safety guidelines for employees and failing to properly label chemical containers, but fined the corporation just $1,000. Fire department investigators said the death was largely Saurman's fault, but it blamed the company for a "lackadaisical approach to training and fire safety."

Death in the bay

The tech industry's toxic problems don't stay on the factory floor. The biggest spewers of heavy metals into the bay have long been the South Bay circuit companies. A 1988 study by Citizens for a Better Environment (now Communities for a Better Environment) found that 9 of the top 12 dumpers of toxic heavy metals into the local environment were tech companies. Two years later, bowing to pressure from greens, the EPA officially listed the southern end of the San Francisco Bay as "impaired" due to excessive amounts of copper and nickel. The federal government fingered local industry as partially responsible for the pollution.

"Copper is a biocide," Mike Lozeau of Baykeeper, an environmental group devoted to protecting the local watershed, told us. "It's very bad for the bay. A lot of aquatic animals are sensitive to copper at low levels." Specifically, copper and nickel kill phytoplankton, a microscopic plant that constitutes a crucial part of the marine food chain.

In recent years local authorities have lowered the amount of metal the factories can discharge, and most electronics plants have tempered their water-polluting tendencies. But a Bay Guardian review of San Jose's sewage-treatment records - going back to 1995 - found a few tech firms regularly violating local and federal clean-water laws. In addition to metals, the effluents coming from these factories include an unhealthy dose of volatile chemicals.

Simply put, the manufacturers are sending toxic effluent to the public sewer system, which attempts to treat it, but a significant amount still ends up in the bay with the discharged wastewater.

Our findings include the following:

• In 36 inspections, Spectra Diode Labs Inc., which builds lasers for computer systems, failed seven times. The company has a problem with discharging illegally high levels of arsenic. Last year the company was twice caught dumping arsenic at double the legal limit; one time it clocked in at three times the limit. (SDL officials declined to comment for this story.)

• Santa Clara's Pyramid Circuits bombed 8 of 49 inspections, emitting illegally large amounts of cyanide, copper, lead, and ethylbenzene and toluene. (Pyramid officials declined to comment for this story.)

• Sun Circuits' Plant Number One in Santa Clara racked up 13 violations for releases of copper and lead. On at least three days in 1998 and 1999 Sun Circuits discharged water tainted with triple the legal limit for copper; in 1995 the company violated lead limits twice. Sun Circuits president Mark Shebby told us the company has had only one violation since 1998.

• Kion Technology, in San Jose, was inspected 29 times and flunked on 12 occasions. In 1998 and 1999 the company flushed high doses of chloroform with its water, dumping more than six times the legal limit in one instance. Kion also spewed illegal levels of methylene chloride, silver, chromium, nickel, and lead. (Kion has since gone under.)

• San Jose's Data Circuit Systems had similar problems, piling up 17 violations for toluene, copper, chloroform, and lead. "The sample was black in color," one inspector's field notes read. (Data Circuit Systems would not comment for this story.)

The Superfund capital

At the busy intersection of El Camino Real and Page Mill Road in Palo Alto lies what looks like an utterly average vacant lot, a grassy, weedy tract with a few trees scattered about. But closer inspection reveals some other - not so normal - features.

Yellow-painted pipes in clusters of four jut up through the grass. Embedded in the earth throughout the 10-acre site are circular steel disks bearing the words "monitoring well." And behind a 10-foot-tall wooden fence lies a strange industrial contraption equipped with dozens of pipes, lights, switches, and a rusting metal smokestack.

The land is owned by Hewlett-Packard, and it's an EPA National Priorities List - or Superfund - site, meaning it ranks as one of the most polluted pieces of land in America. Actually, it's not the earth here that's poisoned; at the direction of the feds, the company removed 910 cubic yards of contaminated soil from the lot and shipped it to a hazardous waste dump. The major problem is the groundwater; it's laden with solvents dichloroethane, trichloroethane, and trichlorethlylene. In 1995 the regional water board estimated the contaminated plume at 2,000 feet long and 80 feet deep.

The yellow pipes mark subterranean pumping stations where tainted water is squeezed from the earth. The monitoring wells are in place to keep tabs on aquatic toxicity. The smokestack and attendant machinery filter the contaminated water, pushing the pollutants out the top end of the stack and forcing the purified water back into the shallow aquifer from whence it came. In industrial disaster parlance it's called a "pump and treat" operation.

From the 1960s to the mid 1980s a Hewlett-Packard plant on the lot cranked out electronic equipment. In 1981 the tech giant discovered that a seeping underground solvent tank had spilled at least 300 gallons of chemicals into the soil.

Hewlett-Packard says its enviro-mistakes are just a bad memory. "This site is from the early eighties - if you look amongst the major companies, we were using the best [storage tank] technology available at that time," said Dean Elsie, a spokesperson for the company. "It turned out that technology didn't safeguard the environment long-term. As soon as we found out there were some issues with the Page Mill road site, we voluntarily excavated the tank and began [decontaminating the lot]."

Today, Elsie said, the electronics giant is striving to make its manufacturing processes more eco-friendly. "The processes that were used at that time have been radically changed to ensure the processes become more environmentally safe," he said. "We've eliminated our use of tons of chemicals." His comments are borne out by EPA stats.

Hewlett-Packard wasn't the only company to find itself spewing solvents. During the early '80s dozens of Silicon Valley e-manufacturers discovered they had leaking chemical tanks. The roll call included IBM, Intel, National Semiconductor, Advanced Micro Devices, Fairchild Semiconductor, Applied Materials, and numerous others. Eventually 29 industrial contamination areas would be added to the National Priorities List. Digital-hardware plants were directly responsible for 21 of them, while 4 more were created by businesses serving the industry. Intel and Advanced Micro clocked in with three Superfund sites each; Fairchild and Hewlett-Packard managed to create two sites.

The contamination level was - and is - massive, making Santa Clara County home to more National Priorities List tracts than any other county in the country.

In many cases the chemicals dripped into shallow groundwater pools and began spreading toward drinking-water sources deeper down. IBM managed to give birth to an underground chemical ooze that spread at a rate of 5 to 30 feet a day and eventually covered an area three miles across and 180 feet deep. Intel started one toxic plume that mingled with other nearby contamination sites to reach 6,000 feet in length and 500 feet in depth. Water samples taken from the sites have hit up to 4,000 times the safe levels for cancer-causing and mutation-inducing chemicals. Thousands of gallons of drinking water have been poisoned or permanently lost.

At most sites cleanup is expected to continue for years or decades. Environmentalists say 100,000 people may have been exposed to hazardous chemicals.

"I actually think that one of the most important things the EPA did in this valley is list those sites," said Ted Smith, a founder of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. "It punctured the myth of the clean industry. It sent a very strong message around the world that this was a very toxic industry. It sent a message to the corporations that pollution doesn't pay. Some of the people in the boardroom have gotten the message that pollution prevention is cheaper than pollution cleanup."

But the problem according to Smith - and EPA stats that show an overall increase in chemical use by the electronics business - is nowhere near being solved. "What's happened is, there's been some progress made with individual plants [and classes of chemicals], but the growth of the industry is so fast and so strong that overall pollution is growing. If you get [toxic release] numbers for the rest of the world - which you can't because most countries don't keep them - you'd see pollution increasing massively."

In Silicon Valley you're rarely more than a few miles from a contamination cluster. Pull off Highway 101 at the Bowers Avenue exit and head into the city of Santa Clara. Go west into the heart of the town's digi-zone. Within three blocks you've passed USWeb, Advanced Micro, Applied Materials, and Intel. You've also passed five polluted tracts the state is remediating - including the oh-so-picturesque former home of Magnetics Peripherals, now a fenced-off dirt lot with Freon-laden groundwater - and Intel's Superfund site. Drive a few more blocks and you've gone past two more areas rated "worst of the worst" by the EPA.

To the tech firms' credit, the EPA says the industry has worked hard to handle the mess it has created, and in the past few years some of the tech-caused Superfund sites have been removed from the Superfund file thanks to thorough cleanup efforts paid for by the companies.

But across the EPA's Region Nine - covering California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, and America's Pacific colonies - are scattered 119 active National Priorities List sites, and e-businesses are to thank for 21 of them, more than one-sixth. Then there are the eight active partially tech-caused sites, like the south San Jose lot where Lorenz Barrel and Drum once operated. For 40 years the company got rid of hazardous detritus for businesses of all sorts, including electronic component makers. Proprietor Ernest Lorenz's disposal technique of choice consisted of burying the lethal compounds on his 5.5 acres of land - surrounded by San Jose State University, working-class homes, and a children's petting zoo.

In 1986 federal authorities shut the business down, slapped Lorenz with criminal charges, and began seeking damages from the companies that had sent their refuse to Lorenz. A decade later the EPA billed 11 "responsible parties" - including IBM and Romic, a company specializing in solvent removal for the computer industry - $5.2 million to clean up the plot. Today the entire tract has been covered with an asphalt cap, and cleanup is ongoing, with water being pumped out of the soil and heavily treated. "Nothing will ever grow there again," the EPA manager for the site said.

While the federal government, local agencies, and hundreds of thousands of Bay Area residents and company workers are dealing with the computer industry's mess here in America, the same (or worse) problems are spreading worldwide. As jobs on the digital assembly line become ubiquitous in the developing world and the entire globe gets wired, the same companies that despoiled the valley are busy opening plants in such countries as Mexico, Costa Rica, Malaysia, Taiwan, and India - countries not renowned for strong labor or environmental laws.

Millions of computers churned out worldwide equals millions of pounds of poisons. "We're undergoing the largest, fastest industrial expansion in history," Smith said. "What happens here [in Silicon Valley] can be a bellwether for the rest of the world - where companies learn from their errors before they go overseas. Too often we're seeing the other - where the problems get exported."

-- Lucia Hwang, Randall Lyman, Stephen Bender, and the DataCenter conducted additional research for this story.

ILLUSTRATION: ALEX MUNN
http://www.sfbayguardian.com/News/34/30/images/30newslead.jpg


-------- connecticut

Conn. hires J.P. Morgan to auction Millstone nuke

April 26, 2000 (Reuters)
http://news.excite.com:80/news/r/000426/13/utilities-northeast

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control (DPUC) said Wednesday it hired J.P. Morgan to conduct an auction of the Millstone nuclear power station in Waterford, Conn., New England's largest electrical generating plant. Earlier this month, the DPUC approved a plan proposed by Northeast Utilities' Connecticut Light and Power Co. (CL&P) unit and United Illuminating Co. to sell the 2,029-megawatt (MW) Millstone station through an auction.

The auction will include 100 percent of Millstone Unit 2 and over 92 percent of Millstone Unit 3. The DPUC said in a statement it expects the auction will take "the better part of 2000" with regulatory approval expected in mid-2001. Connecticut state law gives the owners until 2004 to complete the divestiture.

Officials at J.P. Morgan would not disclose which owners of Unit 3 other than CL&P and United Illuminating would be participating in the auction.

Millstone includes three units. Unit 1 is being decommissioned. Units 2 and 3 are operating pressurized water reactors with capacities of 875-MW (Unit 2) and 1,154-MW (Unit 3).

Officials at J.P. Morgan would also not comment on the value of Millstone. In nearby New York State, the New York Power Authority recently agreed to sell its two reactors totaling 1,790-MW of capacity to Entergy Nuclear for $967 million.

The sellers said they hope to have an agreement signed by the end of 2000.

Northeast Nuclear Energy Co., a unit of Northeast Utilities, operates Millstone.

Unit 2 is wholly owned by CL&P.

Unit 3 is owned by a consortium of New England utilities, including CMP Group Inc.'s Central Maine Power Co. unit (3 percent), the City of Chicopee (1), the Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Co-operative (1), National Grid Group Plc's Eastern Utilities Association unit (4), Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Co. (5), National Grid's New England Power Co. unit (12), United Illuminating (4), Vermont Group (2), CL&P (68), and others.

Nuclear operators who in the past have expressed an interest in increasing their nuclear capacity, include AmerGen Energy Co., Entergy Nuclear of Jackson, Miss., Dominion Resources Inc. of Richmond, Va., Constellation Energy Group Inc. (CEG.N) of Baltimore, Duke Energy Corp. of Charlotte, N.C. and Southern Co. of Atlanta.

AmerGen is a joint venture of PECO Energy Co. of Philadelphia and British Energy Plc of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Entergy Nuclear is a subsidiary of Entergy Corp. of New Orleans.

-------- idaho

BLUE RIBBON PANEL CHECKS ALTERNATIVES TO BURNING RADIOACTIVE WASTE

April 25, 2000 (ENS) -
http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/news2000/nn10607.htm

WASHINGTON, DC, A panel of top level scientists has been named to evaluate and recommend new technology initiatives to establish alternatives to radioactive mixed waste incineration. The panel is a critical component of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson's decision earlier this year not to proceed with the construction of an incinerator at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL). The task force will assess technologies that could treat low-level, alpha low-level and transuranic wastes contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other hazardous materials. This includes up to 14,000 cubic meters of wastes that the DOE was going to burn at INEEL.

The seven member panel includes Nobel Prize winning chemist Dr. Mario Molina, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The panel will be chaired by Ralph Cavanagh, senior staff attorney at the San Francisco office of the conservation organization the Natural Resources Defense Council. Other panel members are: Dr. Carl Anderson, manager of the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality's hazardous waste permitting and corrective action program; Andrew Athy, Jr. a Washington, DC attorney; Gretchen Long-Glickman, chair of the Board of Trustees of the Institute of Ecosystem Studies based in Millbrook, New York; Paul Bardacke, a New Mexico attorney; Robert Budnitz, president of Future Resources Associates, an expert in the field of nuclear materials hazards who served on the National Research Council Committee on Technical Bases for Yucca Mountain Standards.


-------- massachusetts

MIT Team Probes Aging Concrete That May Hold Nuclear Waste

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts,
April 26, 2000 (ENS)
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/apr2000/2000L-04-26-04.html

Cylinders of cement rolling around in a rocking ammonium nitrate bath are key to work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that could aid efforts to safely contain nuclear waste.

Temporary measures for storing nuclear waste already use cement, a material that binds together small particles to make concrete. Concrete, in turn, is used to encase steel containers holding the radioactive waste.

For permanent storage, researchers would like to be able to predict how the cement that makes concrete strong will weather over hundreds of years. Just as in human bones, the calcium is what gives concrete its strength. In a process like aging bones leaching calcium to subject humans to the disease osteoporosis, concrete can weaken over time when water leaches calcium from the material.

MIT engineers led by Franz-Josef Ulm, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, have created a lab test that allows them to observe changes in concrete in one day that naturally take 300 days.

Professor Franz-Josef Ulm (right) shows off the table the team designed to test stability of concrete over long periods of time. (Photo courtesy MIT)

To accelerate the process, the MIT researchers replaced the water that leaches calcium from concrete with a highly concentrated solution of ammonium nitrate. The chemical process of calcium leaching is the same, but is three times faster than other researchers have achieved.

The team subjected the weathered materials to stress - pressures from all sides, a situation closer to what could be expected in real life when concrete containers are buried underground. Other teams have just considered one dimensional loading conditions.

The MIT tests "show the importance of 'Thinking 3D' when monitoring the durability performance of concrete in nuclear waste containment," write Professor Ulm and colleagues in a paper to be presented in May at a meeting of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The current lab test can comfortably predict aging up to about 300 years. Professor Ulm is confident that his work can be extrapolated to over 1,000 years.

At Yucca Mountain, Nevada, the only site for a permanent nuclear waste repository being considered, this scientist installs moisture sensing instruments in the rock. They will monitor how much moisture is in the rock and how and where water vapor travels when the rock heats up. (Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Energy)

"When, and if, spent nuclear fuel from the U.S. is buried in the Department of Energy proposed repository at Yucca Mountain, it will be placed in concrete casks that are supposed to maintain integrity at least 300 to 1,000 years," said Mujid Kazimi, an MIT professor of nuclear engineering who Professor Ulm has consulted about the work.

The team is currently merging the experimental results with a theoretical model of concrete leaching being developed by Dr. Mainguy.

"Our goal is to go back to real-life structures, monitor the environment around them, and predict by model-based simulation what the concrete will do over extended periods of time," Professor Ulm said. And if a parameter changes, say groundwater begins to seep around the structure, "we'll be able to predict its eventual effect, and intervene in time to slow down or reverse the aging," Professor Ulm said.

His coauthors are Franz Heukamp, a graduate student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), and Dr. John Germaine, a CEE principal research associate. Two other key members of the team are Dr. Marc Mainguy, a CEE postdoctoral associate, and Jennifer Burtz, a CEE junior working on the project through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program.

The research was sponsored by the Nuclear Energy Research Initiative Program of the Department of Energy. Professor Ulm also notes his collaboration with the Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique in France through Dr. Jerome Sercombe.

-------- tennessee

Alliance decries call to spend more on N-power
Environmental groups argue Sessions' idea is 'financially reckless'

04/25/2000,
By CHRISTOPHER BELL,
Huntsville Times Staff Writer
http://www.al.com:80/news/huntsville/Apr2000/25-e2507.html

ATHENS - A watchdog group says U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions' call for TVA to spend more on nuclear power is ''both financially and environmental reckless.''

Stephen Smith, executive director of the Nashville-based Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said that although the nuclear industry at one time claimed nuclear power would become ''too cheap to meter, the fact is that it has become too costly to continue.''

The alliance is a coalition of about two dozen environmental groups.

Sessions, R-Mobile, called for a national nuclear power revival when he toured Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant near Athens on April 17.

He urged TVA to complete two reactors at Belle fonte Nuclear Plant near Scottsboro and restart the long-idle unit at the three-reactor Browns Ferry plant. Sessions said it is time to re-evaluate a national policy "that basically blocks nuclear power.''

''It has been opposed mainly by extreme environmentalists, but I think a lot of them are re-evaluating their position,'' Sessions said.

Not so, said Smith. ''Nuclear power is a technology that is unforgiving, (and) mistakes can be catastrophic.''

Smith said TVA's debt is almost $25 billion and that about 75 percent of that is from a failed nuclear power program.

TVA at one point had 17 reactors under construction, but 11 were abandoned, he said.

TVA has about $4.5 billion invested in Bellefonte.

Smith estimated it would cost between $2 billion and $5 billion to complete its two reactors.

TVA and other regional power companies will likely face increased competition as the electric industry is deregulated, he said, but TVA can't afford to pile on any more debt to restart the reactors.

''TVA needs to shed as much debt as possible before they can compete with other, leaner power companies,'' he said.

Smith also took issue with Sessions' view that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission needs to focus on ''real safety questions instead of being nit-picky.''

Smith said the statement is reckless and the NRC "is in the business to assure safety.''

''Safety requires paying attention to detail,'' Smith said. ''There are already pressures on the NRC to reduce oversight to help nuclear utilities as markets become more competitive.''

-------- wisconsin

NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROTESTERS CONVICTED OF ELF-SITE TRESPASS

Contact Nukewatch: (715) 472-4185; nukewtch@win.bright.net

Ashland, WI, April 4, Four nuclear weapons opponents were convicted of trespass and fined $212 in Ashland County Circuit Court after a non-jury trial. The four were part of a group of 15 demonstrators who Jan. 23 crossed into the Navy's ELF submarine transmitter site near Clam Lake, WI. The Jan. demonstration was done in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. The 10 other protesters who were arrested Jan. 23 were convicted Feb. 15 and given similar penalties.

The protest was against the ongoing U.S. threat to launch nuclear weapons posed by Project ELF and the Trident submarine fleet. The ELF transmitter sends one-way orders to submerged U.S. and British submarines around the world. The U.S.'s 18 Tridents3/4 armed with a total of more than 3,000 nuclear warheads3/4 carry the equivalent of 70,000 Hiroshima blasts.

The defendants were SCOTT GRIFFITHS, 26, of Cornucopia, WI; SCOTT MATHERN-JABOBSON, 29, of Loaves & Fishes in Duluth, MN; LINCOLN RICE, 23, of Milwaukee, WI; MATTHEW SCHAAF, 23, of Winnipeg, Manitoba. [A fifth defendant, JOEL KILGOUR, 24, also of Loaves & Fishes, was granted a continuance and will be tried Tues. May 2, 2000.]

All four men had prepared for jail, and promised they would not pay the fine. Still, Ashland County Judge Robert Eaton gave the anti-war activists 60 days to pay and said they face nine days of county jail time after the fine goes to warrant.

During the 90-minute trial, the four defendants represented themselves with the assistance of Eau Claire attorney John Bachman. All the activists testified about their motives and intentions in crossing the line into the often-protested facility.

Scott Griffiths opened for the defense saying, "We acted to uphold the law, not to break it. We committed no crime. We do not dispute the facts alleged, only the law as it's applied." Judge Eaton had earlier denied a defense motion to dismiss the charges, claiming that "federal law preempts international law in this case." On the witness stand Griffiths reminded the court and the standing-room-only gallery that, "Dr. King was assassinated 32 years ago today. It is my hope that no one else will die at the hands of nuclear weapons. ELF is a first-strike nuclear weapon system and it is illegal."

Griffiths drew a parallel between anti-nuclear activists and the civil rights workers who were arrested in the South for acts that were later found to be legal. "Without the Birmingham student activists, we'd still be eating at segregated lunch counters."

Scott Mathern-Jacobson testified that he's been a Catholic Worker and homeless shelter provider for six years. "I live with the poor and the forgotten, the homeless and the abandoned," he said. "As the nuclear war machine's local outpost, ELF is where I must protest to demand justice for the poor."

Lincoln Rice, also a Catholic Worker at the shelter in Milwaukee, testified to the religious teachings that brought him to oppose nuclear war planning. "We do the works of mercy, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless. This is the Catholic social teaching I learned as a child." As to the trespass charge, Rice asked the court to consider the spirit of the law as well as the letter. "In the case of a burning building trespassed upon by someone trying to save a child, no charge would be brought. With ELF, its non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation effects people living nearby right now. To operate ELF, an EMR emitter, about which we know very little, is a crime against creation."

Matthew Schaaf took the witness stand to say that participants in the nonviolent action were acting to uphold the law. He went on to say, "The purpose of the trespass ordinance is to protect persons and land, to respect space. But ELF is the ultimate insult and threat to persons, land and public space. ELF's presence is a monstrous trespass against the natural world. We acted to expose this discrepancy."

The assistant district attorney argued in her closing that no legitimate defense of necessity had been presented, or any other affirmative defense for that matter. She recommended that the fine be imposed.

In closing Matthew Schaaf argued that Judge Eaton had the power to "bless our efforts to build peace by finding us innocent.

In his summation, Lincoln Rice recited Article Six of the U.S. Constitution, which says "All treaties made shall be the Supreme Law of the Land, and every judge in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or the laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding." Rice reminded the Judge that the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the highest judicial body in the world, generally outlawed the threat to use and the use of nuclear weapons on July 8, 1996. He concluded, "Accordingly, we are innocent."

For his part Scott Griffiths pre-empted the Judge's later complaint about the "effectiveness" of protesting at the ELF site. He argued that "What we did is right. You've heard all the arguments we have. We've tried letters, lobbying, a federal law suite and Congressional legislation3/4 all to no avail. The courts are the only forums left to confront illegal actions of the government."

Scott Mathern-Jacobson summed up his case saying, "My act was justified by international law, the U.S. Constitution and U.S. treaty law. The Roman Catholic Church and its teachings on war influenced my decision to confront the illegal ELF/Trident system. The Second Vatican Council declared, 'Every act of war directed to indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and humanity which merits firm and unequivocal condemnation.' "

Ultimately, argued Scott, "In the end ELF/Trident is about indiscriminate killing. Therefore, existence of the ELF/Trident system is without a doubt opposed to the moral order."

Judge Eaton used the sentencing phase of the trial to make a speech about "effectiveness," although he said he understood that the defendants would not pay his fine. Leaving no opening for dialogue, he asked, "How effective is it [trespassing]? You've said contacting Congress and circulating petitions doesn't work. Trespassing doesn't work either. If you want to see ELF closed, don't come here, go to a federal court ."

Since 1991, 517 trespass citations have been issued to disarmament activists at Project ELF, and federal legislation that would cancel funding for the program has been introduced four times never successfully.

by John LaForge


-------- us nuc waste

http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/I2R?urn:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/2000/4/27/4.text.1

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Vice President
For Immediate Release April 25, 2000

STATEMENT BY THE VICE PRESIDENT ON YUCCA MOUNTAIN VETO

Today's veto of the nuclear waste bill is an important step to protect health, safety and the environment. This legislation was rejected because it does nothing to assist in conducting the best scientific research into the propriety of the Yucca Mountain site, as a long-term geologic repository for high level nuclear waste. Rather, the legislation limits the ability of the Environmental Protection Agency to set appropriate radiation emissions standards for the site. I believe that we need to find a permanent solution for the disposal of high-level nuclear waste, but one that is based on the best available science, in order to protect public health and the environment. I wish to commend Senator Reid, Senator Bryan and Representative Berkley for their tireless work to help us defeat the ill-advised approach in this bill.

----

http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/I2R?urn:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/2000/4/27/1.text.1

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release April 25, 2000

TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES:

I am returning herewith without my approval S. 1287, the "Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2000."

The overriding goal of the Federal Government's high-level radioactive waste management policy is the establishment of a permanent, geologic repository. This policy not only addresses commercial spent nuclear fuel but also advances our non-proliferation efforts by providing an option for disposal of surplus plutonium from nuclear weapons stockpiles and an alternative to reprocessing. It supports our national defense by allowing continuing operation of our nuclear navy, and it is essential for the cleanup of the Department of Energy's nuclear weapons complex.

Since 1993, my Administration has been conducting a rigorous world-class scientific and technical program to evaluate the suitability of the Yucca Mountain, Nevada, site for use as a repository. The work being done at Yucca Mountain represents a significant scientific and technical undertaking, and public confidence in this first-of-a-kind effort is essential.

Unfortunately, the bill passed by the Congress will do nothing to advance the scientific program at Yucca Mountain or promote public confidence in the decision of whether or not to recommend the site for a repository in 2001. Instead, this bill could be a step backward in both respects. The bill would limit the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) authority to issue radiation standards that protect human health and the environment and would prohibit the issuance of EPA's final standards until June 2001. EPA's current intent is to issue final radiation standards this summer so that they will be in place well in advance of the Department of Energy's recommendation in 2001 on the suitability of the Yucca Mountain site.

There is no scientific reason to delay issuance of these final radiation standards beyond the last year of this Administration; in fact, waiting until next year to issue these standards could have the unintended effect of delaying a recommendation on whether or not to go forward with Yucca Mountain. The process for further review of the EPA standards laid out in the bill passed by the Congress would simply create duplicative and unnecessary layers of bureaucracy by requiring additional review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the National Academy of Sciences, even though both have already provided detailed comments to the EPA. This burdensome process would add time, but would do nothing to advance the state of scientific knowledge about the Yucca Mountain site.

Finally, the bill passed by the Congress does little to minimize the potential for continued claims against the Federal Government for damages as a result of the delay in accepting spent fuel from utilities. In particular, the bill does not include authority to take title to spent fuel at reactor sites, which my Administration believes would have offered a practical near-term solution to address the contractual obligation to utilities and minimize the potential for lengthy and costly proceedings against the Federal Government. Instead, the bill would impose substantial new requirements on the Department of Energy without establishing sufficient funding mechanisms to meet those obligations. In effect, these requirements would create new unfunded liabilities for the Department.

My Administration remains committed to resolving the complex and important issue of nuclear waste disposal in a timely and sensible manner consistent with sound science and protection of public health, safety, and the environment. We have made considerable progress in the scientific evaluation of the Yucca Mountain site and the Department of Energy is close to completing the work needed for a decision. It is critical that we develop the capability to permanently dispose of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, and I believe we are on a path to do that. Unfortunately, the bill passed by the Congress does not advance these basic goals.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON
THE WHITE HOUSE, April 25, 2000.

----

Clinton Vetoes Bill on Storing Nuclear Waste in Nevada Mountain

WASHINGTON IN BRIEF
Compiled from reports by staff writers
Charles Babington and Stephen Barr and the Associated Press
Wednesday, April 26, 2000; Page A09
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-04/26/152l-042600-idx.html

President Clinton yesterday vetoed a bill that would have allowed tons of nuclear waste to be stored in a Nevada mountain, again leaving the nation at an impasse on how to deal with spent fuel rods that will remain radioactive for thousands of years.

Under a 1982 law, the federal government was supposed to have assumed control of spent fuel from nuclear power plants by January 1998. But elected officials have yet to reach a consensus on how to handle the material, and the waste continues to rest in temporary storage sites at nuclear plants throughout the nation.

The House last month approved a bill that would have created a permanent storage site at Nevada's Yucca Mountain, a remote area 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Clinton vetoed it largely because it would limit the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to regulate the site.

Some Republicans have accused the president of trying to help Democratic friends who strongly oppose the Yucca Mountain plan, such as Sen. Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.).

White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said yesterday: "It's not just Sen. Harry Reid, it's a number of senators who have raised scientific questions that haven't been answered. This issue seems to come up now every year and we don't make any progress on it because those questions are still unanswered."

----

Waste Management to Sell Some U.S. Assets

April 25, 2000
By Reuters
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-transport-wa.html

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Waste Management Inc. (WMI.N) said on Tuesday it will sell some of its North American assets for $110 million as part of a continuing plan to refocus the world's largest trash hauler on its core North American solid waste operations.

Waste Management said it will sell the assets -- which include 10 waste collection businesses, 12 landfills and seven transfer stations -- to privately held Waste Corp. of America.

The transaction, which is expected to be completed in the third quarter, is subject to approvals from various state and federal agencies as well as other routine and customary closing conditions.

The company said it intends to use the proceeds of these divestitures primarily to reduce debt and to make selective acquisitions of solid waste businesses in North America.

Waste Management shares were up 1/4 at 15-1/16 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Waste Management embarked on the divestiture program late last year, focused principally on shedding international assets to concentrate on core domestic operations.

The divestiture plan was devised by Chief Executive Officer Maurice Myers, a corporate turnaround specialist brought on board last November from trucking firm Yellow Corp. (YELL.O) to return the company to a sounder financial footing.

Waste Management had fired its previous CEO, John Drury, and his top lieutenant, Rodney Proto, in August after an accounting scandal that emerged from its previous strategy of rapid expansion through acquisitions.

So far this month, Waste Management has struck deals to sell operations in Australia and Italy, completed a spinoff of its New Zealand unit, and closed the sale of operations in the Netherlands.

Late last month it also agreed to sell its nuclear waste services unit to GTS Duratek Inc. (DRTK.O).

In reporting its fourth quarter results last month, the company said it expected to generate $3 billion in proceeds from asset sales, about $2 billion of which would be used to pay down debt.

The assets and businesses covered by Tuesday's action are located in Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas.

----

President Vetoes Measure to Send Nuclear Waste to Site in Nevada

April 26, 2000
By MATTHEW L. WALD
http://www.nytimes.com/00/04/26/news/washpol/nev-nuke.html

WASHINGTON, April 25 -- President Clinton this evening vetoed a bill that would have required the Energy Department to move nuclear waste to Nevada before a repository it plans to build there had been completed.

Under commercial contracts between the electric utilities and the government, the department was supposed to begin accepting nuclear waste for disposal in January 1998. Its current plan is to begin accepting waste in 2010 at the earliest. But its plan for developing a repository at Yucca Mountain, about 90 miles from Las Vegas, has a highly uncertain schedule and cost.

"The bill passed by the Congress will do nothing to advance the scientific program at Yucca Mountain or promote public confidence in the decision of whether or not to recommend the site for a repository," the president said regarding his veto.

The bill would have blocked the Environmental Protection Agency from issuing radiation standards for the repository until the next president takes office. It would also have stripped the energy secretary of his ability to unilaterally increase fees charged to the utilities for development of the repository.

Neither the House nor the Senate passed the bill with enough votes to override a veto, although the industry remained hopeful that would happen. Supporters said it would have helped the government fulfill its obligation to begin accepting waste for disposal near Yucca Mountain, but officials at the Energy Department said it would do nothing of the kind.

The bill would have required the department to take waste to Nevada within 18 months of the time that Yucca Mountain is licensed, and set deadlines for other steps that the energy secretary, Bill Richardson, said today were "unachievable."

But Joe F. Colvin, president of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry trade group, said Mr. Clinton had rejected a compromise shaped by large, bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress and had "failed to connect the dots of a reasoned energy policy that advances the national interest."

Experts differ on whether moving the waste early makes any difference to nuclear power or to safety. In the 80's electricity experts said that new reactors were not likely until the waste issue was solved but more recently they have said that because of deregulation of the industry and other factors, new reactors are unlikely anyway. So far at least, waste has not been a factor in closing any reactors, although several have closed for cost reasons.

And a senior Energy Department official said today: "There's nothing that says it can't stay where it is. It's safe."

Some reactor owners, though, have run into opposition from state public service commissions when they have sought to expand storage at their reactor sites. And the problem has dragged on so long that several reactors have shut down, and their owners would like to clean up the sites to free them for other use, but there is nowhere to send the spent fuel.

----

UPDATE - Clinton vetoes bill on nuclear waste disposal site

USA: April 26, 2000
Story by Steve Holland
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=6458

WASHINGTON - President Bill Clinton vetoed on Tuesday a bill to build a Nevada storage site for hazardous nuclear waste from U.S. commercial power plants, probably killing the proposal for the year.

The plan to construct a waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, for use as early as 2007 was designed to solve the problem of how to dispose of 400,000 tonnes of spent fuel from 80 reactors in 40 states, much of it held at sites not intended for long-term storage.

The nuclear industry had backed the legislation, while environmentalists believe that Yucca Mountain is unsafe and the measure would mean trucks and trains would be hauling nuclear waste past the homes and workplaces of 50 million Americans.

"It is critical that we develop the capability to permanently dispose of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, and I believe we are on a path to do that," Clinton said in a veto statement. "Unfortunately, the bill passed by the Congress does not advance these basic goals."

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, said he was disappointed by the veto.

"Utility rate-payers have paid more than $14 billion over the years for a safe and sound single storage site, and President Clinton is now standing in the way of it becoming reality," Hastert said.

"By today's action, the president is clearly choosing partisan politics over environmental enrichment, safety and progress." Clinton objected to several portions of the bill.

NO SCIENTIFIC BENEFIT SEEN

He said the bill would do nothing to advance the scientific programme at Yucca Mountain or promote public confidence in the outcome of a decision on whether to recommend the site for a repository in 2001.

"Instead, this bill could be a step backward in both respects," he said.

It would limit the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to issue radiation standards that protect human health and the environment, and it would block the agency from issuing its final standards until June 2001, rather than letting it decide this summer, Clinton said.

And the bill does little to minimise the potential for continued claims against the federal government for damages as a result of the delay in accepting spent fuel from utilities, Clinton added.

The Senate vote to pass the bill was three votes short of a veto-proof majority, and lawmakers have said a veto would mean the issue probably would not be resolved until after the November election.

The nuclear industry criticised Clinton for the veto. Joe Colvin, president of the Nuclear Energy Institute, a Washington lobby group, said the president had "missed a tremendous opportunity to maximize the benefits that emission-free nuclear energy provides to U.S. society, the environment and the economy."

But environmentalists were pleased.

Amy Shollenberger, senior policy analyst for Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy Project, said the legislation would have allowed for "temporary storage of nuclear waste as early as 2006 - launching the largest nuclear waste shipping campaign in the history of the world."

"This industry promised us energy that was too cheap to meter, but instead it has produced a mountain of waste that is too expensive to clean up.... We must insist that the nuclear industry take responsibility for the legacy of toxic garbage that it has produced," she said.

----

Clinton Vetoes Nuclear Waste Bill

APRIL 26, 01:49 EDT
By BART JANSEN
Associated Press Writer
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=NATIONAL&STORYID=APIS743871O0

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senators are trying to round up votes to override or defend President Clinton's veto of legislation that would have allowed thousands of tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste to be shipped to Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the assistant minority whip, said he has the votes to block an override. Republicans say the narrow margin could be tipped in their favor.

``We're very close,'' said Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho.

Nevada lawmakers and national environmental groups hailed the veto Tuesday, which blocked transportation of 40,000 tons of the lethal material that has piled up at commercial reactors in 31 states. Ultimately, more than 77,000 metric tons would have been stored at the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

``This legislation that the Republican majority in Congress has been trying to force down the throats of the American people not only jeopardizes the health and safety of every Nevadan, but puts millions of other Americans at risk,'' said Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev.

But Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, who heads the Energy and Resources Committee, blasted the president for leaving unresolved where the country will permanently store the waste that remains lethal for 10,000 years.

``It is wrong for the environment, it is wrong for our energy policy, it is wrong for the economy, and it is wrong for national security,'' Murkowski said of the veto. ``It is irresponsible to let this situation continue; it is a crime against our future.''

He and other supporters of the legislation vowed to try to override the veto, beginning in the Senate. The vote won't be easy for either side. The difference is so close, the vote probably won't occur this week because two Republicans are traveling, Craig said.

Neither the House nor Senate approved the measure by the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto. The House approved it 252-167 and the Senate 64-34.

Craig said if the override efforts failed, federal officials would have to work with states to decide how to store the accumulating waste from plants that generate 21 percent of the country's power.

Clinton had promised to veto the bill, but his accompanying message didn't criticize the Yucca Mountain site. He instead criticized the bill for postponing the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to set radiation standards at the site for a year, until June 2001, which would delay the Energy Department's recommendation about the site's suitability.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson deflected questions about where the administration would store the waste without a central repository. The administration will focus first on sustaining the veto, he said.

The legislation would have required shipments of used nuclear fuel begin to be shipped to Nevada in 2007, once the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approves a license for a permanent waste site in the state.

The NRC is expected to decide as early as 2006 on whether the Yucca Mountain underground nuclear waste repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas should be licensed. Now under scientific review, the site is proposed for opening in 2010.

----

Statement of Amy Shollenberger, Senior Policy Analyst, Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy Project, on the President's Veto of Nuclear Waste Bill: President Clinton Keeps His Promise

April 25, 2000
From: "Noel Petrie" npetrie@citizen.org

Good afternoon. My name is Amy Shollenberger, and I am a policy analyst for the Critical Mass Energy Project of Public Citizen, a non-profit research, lobbying and litigation organization founded in 1971 by Ralph Nader. Public Citizen advocates for consumer protection and for government and corporate accountability, and is supported by more than 150,000 members throughout the United States.

I am thrilled to be here today to celebrate the president's imminent veto of S. 1287, the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2000, which is scheduled to happen later this evening. This legislation is irresponsible and unnecessary, and we thank President Clinton for his decision to stand strong against the nuclear industry's attempts to push this bill through the legislative process.

Of course, we also want to recognize the hard work and dedication of Nevada's congressional delegation: Senators Reid and Bryan, and Representatives Berkeley and Gibbons. Their work behind the scenes and on the Senate and House floors helped to secure the 34 Senate and 167 House votes that will guarantee that President Clinton's veto will be sustained. Finally, we would like to thank each and every member of Congress who voted against this bill, and who plan to vote against it again if it returns to the legislative floors.

This irresponsible legislation would allow for temporary storage of nuclear waste as early as 2006 - launching the largest nuclear waste shipping campaign in the history of the world - with waste traveling through 43 states for 25 years, past the homes and workplaces of 50 million Americans. We must not allow this needless endangerment of so many Americans, and we must not allow the nuclear industry to continue to produce its deadly waste. This industry promised us energy that was too cheap to meter, but instead, it has produced a mountain of waste that is too expensive to clean up. Now the industry is expecting consumers and taxpayers to pay the price of cleaning up this nuclear nightmare by jeopardizing the health of their children and grandchildren.

We must insist that the nuclear industry take responsibility for the legacy of toxic garbage that it has produced. We must insist that our lawmakers reexamine our energy policy and recalculate the true cost of nuclear power. Finally, we must ensure that this all-important veto is sustained when the legislation goes back to the Senate.

Thank you once again to President Clinton, to the Nevada delegation and to all of you who have fought so hard to stop radioactive waste from rolling along our roads and rails.

----

[Can you help? If so, write prop1@prop1.org and theroyprocess@home.com.]

Appeal for Copy of Yucca Mt. DOE EIS testimony

From: "Dennis F. Nester" theroyprocess@home.com
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 08:10:36 -0700

I read some of today's workers testimony about their ill health from radioactive contamination. I am wondering if you could find and post the DOE Yucca Mountain EIS public hearings testimony, especially the D.C. & Las Vegas testimony where I testified about the Roy Process. This is a precious opportunity to inform the public about the Roy Process which is the most cost effective method to neutralize & eliminate radioactive elements. With Earth Day 2000 coming up...I think the public should hear some good news for a change.

Regards, Dennis F. Nester

-------- us nuc weapons

New US radar site threatens ABM treaty

GUARDIAN (London)
Tuesday April 25, 2000
Julian Borger in Miami

The United States was thrown on to the defensive as the UN nuclear disarmament talks began yesterday by allegations that it had installed a new anti-missile radar in northern Norway, a few miles from the Russian border.

Moscow has denounced the installation, believed to be the world's most advanced tracking and imaging radar, as a covert step towards the controversial US plan to develop a shield against incoming missiles, and therefore a potential breach of the 1972 anti-ballistic-missile (ABM) treaty.

"Everyone should be aware that the collapse of the ABM treaty would have a destructive domino effect for the existing system of disarmament agreements," the Russian foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, argued in yesterday's New York Times. "We would be back in an era of suspicion and confrontation."

The Norwegian government said the radar, in the border village of Vardo, was designed to keep an eye on potentially dangerous space debris, but that explanation was derided as implausible by several independent scientists.

The revelations emerged as talks began at the conference on the 1968 nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) at the UN's New York headquarters, and US-Russian talks on a new disarmament treaty, Start III, entered their second week in Geneva.

The US and the Russia have both been under fire from disarmament watchdogs for negotiating in bad faith. Both have opted to stockpile and upgrade - rather than destroy - the warheads they have removed from missile silos.

The Vardo radar could have an even more damaging impact on the already precarious east-west nuclear balance. It was built in 1995 and moved to Norway in 1998, according to the latest issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a US journal which monitors nuclear proliferation issues.

When a Norwegian journalist, Inge Sellevag, asked the Norwegian government the purpose of the new installation, he was told it was to be used by Nasa to monitor "space junk". But Nasa knew nothing about Vardo. John Pike, director of the Space Policy Project at the Federation of American Scientists, said yesterday: "One of the standard parts of creating a cover story for an intelligence operation is that the story is plausible and this cover story was not.

"This is a type of radar that was developed as part of the national missile defence [NMD] network, and I assume the reason they put it up there is to monitor Russian missile-testing."

The proposed NMD system is a successor to Ronald Reagan's Star Wars scheme. It is intended to create a nuclear umbrella over the US by coordinating an array of satellites, radars and missiles which would track and intercept any incoming missiles. Such a system is banned by the ABM treaty.

Tests on NMD technology are still under way and President Clinton has yet to give the system a green light, but the Vardo radar - along with the proposed upgrading of the early-warning radars at Fylingsdales in Yorkshire and Thule in Greenland - suggest that the Pentagon is already committed to the strategy.

Critics of the system believe the placing of the radars confirms that its main target is Russia, not rogue states like Iran, Iraq and North Korea as US officials have assured their counterparts in Moscow.

The Ministry of Defence's claim that the Fylingsdales radar was aimed at monitoring North Korea were dismissed by Mr Pike, who said: "Last time I checked England was on the other side of planet from North Korea. It might be a good place to hide from North Korea but not to watch it."

Meanwhile, US plans to upgrade its nuclear stockpile and develop "new nuclear options for emergent threats" were revealed in energy department documents made available to a court after a legal challenge by disarmament and environmental groups.

Greg Mello, director of one of the groups, the Los Alamos Study Group, said they revealed "a shocking disregard for US commitments, especially those enshrined in the NPT, to end the nuclear arms race."

"It's imperative that these plans be stopped. If we don't abide by the treaties we've signed, how can we get other countries to do so," he said.

----

Report warns of high cost of national missile defense

Miami Herald
Wednesday, April 26, 2000
http://www.herald.com/content/wed/news/brknews/docs/073737.htm

WASHINGTON -- (AP) -- A national missile shield that would offer limited protection from attack by smaller, newly armed countries would cost almost $60 billion through 2015, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says.

A CBO report released Tuesday said that's how much would be needed to defend the country from attack by a relatively small number of incoming ballistic missiles. It said those missiles could contain nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, capable of killing millions of people.

The report cautioned that many still believe hostile countries just developing long-range missiles, such as North Korea or Iran, could find easy ways to outmaneuver the proposed defense system.

Of the $60 billion price tag, Defense Secretary William Cohen told a Senate hearing today ``I have no way of knowing whether those numbers are accurate, or what they've included.''

He said many items that would make up such a system were ``open to resolution,'' including decisions on such items as how many satellites would be included.

Cohen said that he is prepared to make a recommendation to President Clinton this summer -- the schedule the administration has set -- on whether to commit toward deployment of a specific system.

``Do we have the technology? We have not resolved that issue yet,'' Cohen said. ``We're close, but I think that the tests that are forthcoming will give us the ability to make that determination.''

Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, who requested the report with Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., said it made clear that the criteria of cost, operability, effect on national security and impact on arms reduction efforts can't be ignored in deciding whether to proceed.

``It is far too soon to evaluate the overall feasibility or advisability of the missile defense project,'' he said.

But Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., a chief proponent of a missile defense system, said the CBO estimate was far too high and has ``no basis in reality.'' ``You can't put a price on protecting American cities,'' Weldon said, but $60 billion was ``totally out of line, out of synch with anything I've seen.''

Congress last year passed by large majorities, and President Clinton signed, a bill stating it is the policy of the United States to deploy, as soon as technologically possible, a system capable of defending U.S. territory against limited ballistic missile attack.

The program has had problems with test failures and has met strong opposition from nuclear powers such as Russia and China. Russia says it would violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and threatened to pull out of other arms-reduction pacts if the United States builds the system.

Clinton is to decide this fall, after another Pentagon test of the system in June, whether to continue with plans to have it operating by a target date of 2005.

The CBO said the first phase of a national missile defense would cost $29.5 billion through 2015, $3.9 billion more than the administration has estimated.

It would include locating 100 interceptors in central Alaska, constructing a high-resolution X-band radar and upgrading several existing early-warning radars.

The second phase, to be deployed by 2010 under current plans, would use satellites that could track not only powered-flight missiles but also missiles gliding through space. The third phase would add 150 interceptors, some at a second site currently planned for Grand Forks, N. D.

The administration has not yet estimated the cost of the last two phases. The CBO said the second phase would cost another $6.1 billion and the third phase $13.3 billion through 2015. It said another $10.6 billion would be needed for space-based sensors, satellites that share have other missions with support of missile defense.

---

Cost of Missile Shield Is Double Pentagon Estimate, CBO Says

By Eric Pianin and Roberto Suro
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 26, 2000; Page A10
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-04/26/116l-042600-idx.html

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said yesterday that building a national missile defense system would cost $50 billion to $60 billion over the next 15 years, roughly twice as much as Pentagon and congressional supporters of the program have estimated.

President Clinton is scheduled to decide by November whether to proceed with construction of the limited antimissile system, which is designed to shoot down a few dozen warheads launched by "rogue" states such as North Korea or Iran. The Pentagon has steadily raised its estimates and most recently put the price tag at nearly $26 billion.

Until recently, cost was less of a concern to Congress and the Clinton administration than how to deal with Russian objections to the system, which would violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. But cost now is surfacing as a significant factor, particularly because some scientists believe the system could easily be overwhelmed by simple decoys, such as Mylar balloons in space. To build a system capable of dealing with such countermeasures, they say, would raise the price enormously, with no assurance yet that it would work.

The CBO report issued yesterday said the first stage of the system--consisting of 100 interceptor missiles based in Alaska, plus a new X-band radar and upgrading of early warning radars--would cost $4 billion more than the Pentagon's $26 billion forecast.

Two other stages now on the drawing board, which would add 150 interceptors in the continental United States, would boost the system's cost to $49 billion, the study said.

Moreover, according to the CBO, an additional $10.6 billion would have to be spent to construct and operate 24 low-orbit infrared satellites to enable the system to differentiate between warheads and decoys. That would increase the bottom line to nearly $60 billion by 2015, according to the study.

Without directly challenging the figures, Pentagon spokesman Kenneth H. Bacon said yesterday the CBO was assuming a "much more robust system than we have costed out at this stage."

"In the broadest sense, the CBO report and our estimates are a comparison between apples and golden apples," he said.

Clinton is expected to discuss national missile defense with Russia's newly elected president, Vladimir Putin, at a Moscow summit meeting in early June. While the administration is trying to persuade Russia to amend the ABM Treaty to allow for a limited antimissile system, some congressional Republicans argue that the treaty is a vestige of the Cold War and should be scrapped. Putin has warned that if the United States acts unilaterally, Russia may stop adhering to other arms control agreements.

The current missile defense system proposal is a distant cousin of the Reagan administration's Strategic Defense Initiative. Unlike that "Star Wars" program, the current plan does not involve lasers or interceptors based in space. Instead, it would use radars and satellites to guide a ground-launched U.S. missile to collide with an incoming enemy warhead, a feat scientists liken to hitting a bullet with a bullet.

The administration originally envisioned 20 interceptor missiles to be based in Alaska by 2005. But last year, in response to congressional pressure and intelligence reports indicating that North Korea was quickly developing long-range missiles, the administration expanded its plan to include 100 interceptors by 2007.

Reaction to the CBO report was mixed. The Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers, a group that opposes the missile defense plan, said it would not only be costly but also would "diminish overall U.S. and international security, increasing rather than reducing nuclear dangers" by pushing other countries to beef up their arsenals.

But a leading proponent of missile defense, Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), called the CBO figures "totally out of line" and said it is impossible to put a price tag on protecting American cities.

"We have always been concerned about price tags," said Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho). "We're also concerned that our country have an adequate defense system. So we'll take a very close look at this report and assess it in the context of, is it a legitimate report? Are these legitimate figures? And are there alternatives . . . to the ones that we've studied?"

The Pentagon itself has characterized the development effort as extremely hurried. Last January, in the most recent test of the technology, an interceptor narrowly missed a target warhead over the Pacific. One more flight test is planned in June before Clinton's decision on whether to proceed with construction.

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Missile Shield Could Cost $60B

APRIL 26, 12:57 EDT
By JIM ABRAMS
Associated Press Writer
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=NATIONAL&STORYID=APIS743HVRG0

WASHINGTON (AP) - A national missile shield that would offer limited protection from attack by smaller, newly armed countries would cost almost $60 billion through 2015, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says.

A CBO report released Tuesday said that's how much would be needed to defend the country from attack by a relatively small number of incoming ballistic missiles. It said those missiles could contain nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, capable of killing millions of people.

The report cautioned that many still believe hostile countries just developing long-range missiles, such as North Korea or Iran, could find easy ways to outmaneuver the proposed defense system.

Of the $60 billion price tag, Defense Secretary William Cohen told a Senate hearing today ``I have no way of knowing whether those numbers are accurate, or what they've included.''

He said many items that would make up such a system were ``open to resolution,'' including decisions on such items as how many satellites would be included.

Cohen said that he is prepared to make a recommendation to President Clinton this summer - the schedule the administration has set - on whether to commit toward deployment of a specific system.

``Do we have the technology? We have not resolved that issue yet,'' Cohen said. ``We're close, but I think that the tests that are forthcoming will give us the ability to make that determination.''

Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, who requested the report with Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., said it made clear that the criteria of cost, operability, effect on national security and impact on arms reduction efforts can't be ignored in deciding whether to proceed.

``It is far too soon to evaluate the overall feasibility or advisability of the missile defense project,'' he said.

But Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., a chief proponent of a missile defense system, said the CBO estimate was far too high and has ``no basis in reality.'' ``You can't put a price on protecting American cities,'' Weldon said, but $60 billion was ``totally out of line, out of synch with anything I've seen.''

Congress last year passed by large majorities, and President Clinton signed, a bill stating it is the policy of the United States to deploy, as soon as technologically possible, a system capable of defending U.S. territory against limited ballistic missile attack.

The program has had problems with test failures and has met strong opposition from nuclear powers such as Russia and China. Russia says it would violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and threatened to pull out of other arms-reduction pacts if the United States builds the system.

Clinton is to decide this fall, after another Pentagon test of the system in June, whether to continue with plans to have it operating by a target date of 2005.

The CBO said the first phase of a national missile defense would cost $29.5 billion through 2015, $3.9 billion more than the administration has estimated.

It would include locating 100 interceptors in central Alaska, constructing a high-resolution X-band radar and upgrading several existing early-warning radars.

The second phase, to be deployed by 2010 under current plans, would use satellites that could track not only powered-flight missiles but also missiles gliding through space. The third phase would add 150 interceptors, some at a second site currently planned for Grand Forks, N. D.

The administration has not yet estimated the cost of the last two phases. The CBO said the second phase would cost another $6.1 billion and the third phase $13.3 billion through 2015. It said another $10.6 billion would be needed for space-based sensors, satellites that share have other missions with support of missile defense.

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DEATHS ELSEWHERE
Charles B. Stewart
Air Force General

Wednesday, April 26, 2000; Page B05
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-04/26/082l-042600-idx.html

Charles Barnard Stewart, 85, a World War II fighter pilot and retired Air Force brigadier general who became a nuclear physicist and high official of the old Atomic Energy Commission, died April 20 in Seattle after a heart attack.

Gen. Stewart, one of the few Army Air Forces pilots to get airborne in search of Japanese vessels during the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, later joined the Saipan invasion task force and became deputy commander of the Air Defense Command of the Mariana Islands during World War II.

After the war, he earned a doctorate in nuclear physics at Ohio State University, worked in weapons development in New Mexico and was deputy director of the Division of Military Applications for the Atomic Energy Commission. From 1960 until retiring in 1966, he was Air Force director of nuclear safety in Albuquerque.

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U.S. dismisses ``unrealistic'' nuclear proposals

April 25, 2000
http://www.envirolink.org/environews/

The United States, accused of dragging its feet on giving up nuclear weapons, dismissed on Monday what it called ``unrealistic and premature'' steps toward nuclear disarmament. (Reuters)

-------- us politics

Duma on the Hill

April 26, 2000
Washington Times
Inside the Beltway, John McCaslin
http://www.washtimes.com/national/inbeltway-2000426213133.htm

Never before has such a high-level delegation of Russian Duma officials come to huddle with U.S. lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

The Hart Senate Office Building is the site next Tuesday of a foreign policy forum examining the prospects of "reintegrating Russia into the West." The Duma's recent ratification of START II and the nuclear test ban treaty, and President Clinton's June meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, are up for discussion.

The Russian delegation will include Vladimir Lukin, vice speaker of the Duma; Konstantin Kosachev and Alexander Shabanov, both deputy chairmen of the Duma's Foreign Relations Committee; and Vladimir Ryzhkov, coordinator of Russian-American parliamentary ties.

More than a dozen U.S. lawmakers will participate, including House Majority Whip Tom DeLay of Texas and Republican Sens. Fred Thompson of Tennessee and Jon Kyl of Arizona.

"We have largely blown the strategic opportunity given the West when the Soviet Union collapsed a decade ago. It is not clear if we will get a second chance," says Free Congress President Paul M. Weyrich, forum co-host with the American University of Moscow. "It has been our contention that, played correctly, Russia can become a strategic ally of the West. Right now she is anything but that."

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Helms To Block Arms-Control Deals

APRIL 26, 12:18 EDT
By TOM RAUM
Associated Press Writer
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=NATIONAL&STORYID=APIS743HDG00

WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. Jesse Helms pledged today to block any arms-control agreement that President Clinton might negotiate with Russia in the closing months of his term.

``Not on my watch, Mr. President. It's not going to happen,'' Helms, R-N.C., who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a Senate speech.

Helms said that he is fearful Clinton wants to conclude an arms-reduction agreement with Moscow as part of his legacy as president.

``In a few months the American people will go to the polls to elect a new president - a president who must have a clean break from the failed policies of this administration,'' Helms said. ``He must have the freedom and the flexibility to establish his own security policies.''

The Clinton administration wants to amend the landmark 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty to build a limited missile-defense system. Moscow has vehemently opposed the plan.

However, the recent approval by Russian legislators of two arms-control accords helped fuel optimism in the administration for a new round of talks.

But, Helms told the Senate, ``It is my intent to do everything in my power to ensure that nothing is done in the next few months by this administration to tie the hands of the next administration in pursuing a new national security policy.''

In particular, Helms said his panel would not hold hearings or consider in any way any renegotiated ABM treaty.

``Let's be clear to avoid any misunderstanding down the line. Any modified ABM treaty negotiated by this administration will be DOA, dead on arrival, at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,'' Helms said.

Helms has long considered the ABM treaty null and void, anyway, on grounds that it was negotiated with the Soviet Union, which no longer exists. It is a view shared by many conservatives, but not by the administration or most arms-control analysts.

Helms has tied up treaties before. He bottled up the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty for years before the Senate finally took it up last fall - and rejected it.

Separately, Defense Secretary William Cohen told the Senate Appropriations Committee that he still intends to make a recommendation this summer to Clinton on whether to proceed with deployment of a national missile defense.

As for the ABM treaty, Cohen said the administration still intends to negotiate with the Russians ``and see whether or not we can amend the ABM treaty to take into account a national missile defense if the president should choose to go forward.''

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Bush Meets Russian Foreign Minister

APRIL 26, 12:37 EDT
By GLEN JOHNSON
Associated Press Writer
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=ELECTION&STORYID=APIS743HM6O0

WASHINGTON (AP) - George W. Bush met today with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, talking of peace and progress though still disagreeing over U.S. proposals to build a national missile defense system.

Bush, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said the two men discussed boosting U.S. investment in Russia and spoke of ``our dreams and aspirations for our respective countries.''

``It's time to redefine relations. It's time to think differently,'' Bush said, noting that he and Ivanov were among the oldest people in the meeting room and suggesting the future of the next generations is at stake.

Aides later said Bush told Ivanov: ``I don't view you as the enemy and you shouldn't view us as the enemy. That's the old way of thinking.''

Ivanov, in town to meet with Clinton administration officials, came to Bush's hotel for the hour-long meeting. The foreign minister has repeatedly requested a meeting with Bush through the Russian ambassador.

Bush also was meeting today with members of Congress and headlining a record $18 million fund-raiser for the Republican Party tonight.

Joining Bush in the meeting were his chief foreign policy adviser, Condoleeza Rice, and nuclear weapons expert Paul Wolfowitz, who was an undersecretary of defense in the administration of Bush's father.

Ivanov was joined by a bevy of aides. He didn't comment after the meeting, which one aide described as ``excellent.''

Bush favors rewriting the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty so that the United States can develop a national anti-missile system. Russia opposes such a move, fearing such a system could undercut its nuclear defenses. Just this week, Ivanov wrote an article in The New York Times arguing in favor of the existing arrangement.

``There is a disagreement over that and I explained to him my position as to why we need to develop a system to protect ourselves and our allies against a rogue missile launch, against any missile launch,'' Bush said. ``It's part of redefining a post-Cold War era.

``I made it very clear that I was going to think in the best interests of the United States. First and foremost, and the best interest of our country is to figure out how to keep the peace,'' Bush added.

Bush said Ivanov told him that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to create a Russian economy that attracts more U.S. investment.

``I would hope that takes place,'' Bush said. ``I think it's in our best interest for your nation to have a strong economy. It is also in our best interest to talk about nuclear security.''

Rice said Bush made it clear to Ivanov that he was speaking as a private citizen and not as a representative of the United States government. She also said the two discussed Chechnya. Bush has criticized Russia's use of force in the breakaway republic.

-------- biological weapons

Daybook

Washington Times
April 26, 2000
http://www.washtimes.com/national/daybook-2000426213611.htm

Biological-weapons discussion - 3 p.m. - Georgetown University holds a discussion, "Biological Weapons: The Peril, the Prospects, the Policy." Location: Riggs Library, Healy Hall, Georgetown University, 37th and O streets NW. Contact: 202/687-1639.