-------- NUCLEAR (by country)

Ivanov: G-8 likely to discuss US missile defense plans.

NewsEdge
July 13, 2000
http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=v0711563.0ts&level3=788&date=20000713

MIYAZAKI, July 12 (Itar-Tass) via NewsEdge Corporation - Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has said the G-8 is likely to discuss US plans to create a national missile defense system.

Ivanov stated it to Itar-Tass upon his arrival in the Miyazaki airport on Japan's island of Kyushu. He will be taking part in a conference between the foreign ministers from Britain, Italy, Canada, Russia, the United States, France, Germany and Japan, which opens on Wednesday.

"I believe, these issues will be considered within the framework of discussing problems of strategic stability on the whole," he said.

In his view, the Russian and US presidents may discuss the issue of national missile defense system as well, at their meeting during the G-8 summit, to be held on the Japanese island of Okinawa on July 21-23.

-------- china

China Assures Cohen on Taiwan

By John Pomfret
Washington Post
Thursday, July 13, 2000; Page A22
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-07/13/322l-071300-idx.html

BEIJING, July 12-China's defense chief told Defense Secretary William S. Cohen today that Chinese leaders "have no intent to use force against Taiwan" even though they reserve the right to attack the island if it declares independence, U.S. officials said.

Gen. Chi Haotian, the Chinese defense minister, made the statement during talks with Cohen and other senior U.S. officials in Cohen's first visit to Beijing since China cut military ties with Washington last year following the U.S. bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade during the NATO air war against Yugoslavia.

U.S. officials interpreted Chi's words as a sign that Beijing, which has rattled sabers at Taiwan for most of the past year, seems interested in softening its tone toward the island of 23 million people 100 miles off the Chinese coast.

The U.S. ambassador to China, Joseph W. Prueher, told reporters that the Chinese delegation appeared to be looking at the Taiwan issue, one of the most nettlesome subjects in Asia today, in a more positive manner than in the past. He said Chinese officials were willing to discuss more than just the core issue of reunification with Taiwan and portrayed this as "a shift in a willingness to resolve differences."

Chen Shui-bian, the new president of Taiwan, in the past supported independence for Taiwan. But since his election March 18, China and Taiwan have engaged in a complex, roundabout dialogue, mostly via the media, about whether or how they will resume unification talks scuttled last year when Lee Teng-hui, Chen's predecessor, broke a decades-old tradition and stated that Taiwan is a separate country.

Some analysts said Chi's comments fit into the sometimes incomprehensible dance between Taiwan and China as they try to return to the negotiating table. Others said it was unclear whether Chinese officials are actually presenting a new tone or whether the U.S. delegation is putting a positive interpretation on its meetings. Even while rattling sabers, China, which considers Taiwan a renegade province, has always stressed that it wants to resolve the Taiwan issue peacefully.

The only concrete agreement signed during Cohen's three-day stay has been an accord on sharing information about military-related environmental protection measures.

A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that in the talks about Taiwan, China did not "as a sovereign nation yield the right to use force."

"But they also indicated that they have no intent to use force, and that was an important point that was made during the course of the session," he said.

However, China's public rhetoric remained unchanged. "This is entirely China's own business," said Chi in response to a question on the buildup of short-range missiles in provinces along the Taiwan Strait. "On the Taiwan question, our policy is all too clear: It is a policy of peaceful reunification of one country, two systems. We have made it clear we do not undertake to give up the use of force."

Cohen declared that overall "the meeting was very positive, and there was a receptivity I think that has not been there as much in the past."

China, he said, has agreed to send a senior military officer to the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu. The center groups military and security experts from Asian nations in an informal forum to discuss security issues. China's past refusal to participate has troubled the United States.

Cohen acknowledged the meeting was not perfect, especially when it concerned U.S. plans to build a national missile defense system and U.S. statements that it would consider transferring missile-defense technology to Taiwan if China persists in ratcheting up pressure on the island.

Cohen said Chi expressed China's opposition to national missile defense, abbreviated as NMD. "I pointed out that NMD has become a reality by virtue of the proliferation of missile technologies and that of weapons of mass destruction, that this was not directed against China," Cohen said.

Chi, he added, appeared unmoved.

"I think they'll continue to be opposed to national missile defense and we will continue to do our research and development and make our decision," Cohen said.

An editorial in the official China Daily condemned the American plan, saying it would spark an arms race and accusing President Clinton of "greed and shortsightedness."

----

Defense Secretary and Chinese Tread Gingerly in Beijing Talks

July 13, 2000
By ERIK ECKHOLM
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/late/13cnd-china.html

BEIJING, July 13 -- The American defense secretary and Chinese leaders made hopeful pledges of cooperation and friendship today despite evidence of deep rifts over key military policies and dark Chinese suspicions about American intentions in Asia.

Two days of high-level meetings began and ended with smiles and handshakes, a sign of how strongly both sides want to avoid open, dangerous antagonism.

But officials were also struggling with potentially explosive disputes including American plans for missile defenses and continued arms sales to Taiwan, and American charges that China recently helped Pakistan develop ballistic missiles.

Chinese officials endured a new humiliation after Israel said on Wednesday that it was reneging on a $250 million deal, five years in the making, to sell Beijing an advanced airborne radar system. Israel canceled the sale under heavy pressure from the United States, which fears the system could be used to track fighter planes in a battle over the Taiwan strait -- which is considered the most likely scene of any direct Chinese-American conflict.

In a 90-minute meeting this afternoon, President Jiang Zemin brought up the canceled sale, Mr. Cohen said. "It was certainly of concern to China," Mr. Cohen told reporters, but he said the tone of his meetings had been generally positive.

Mr. Cohen met nearly every top political and military leader and spoke to military officers at the National Defense University. As he greeted Mr. Cohen today, China's top soldier, Zhang Wannian, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, stressed "how important it is for China and the United States to have a healthy and stable relationship."

Officials from both sides said they were pleased that military visits and talks, suspended after the United States bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade last year, had been largely restored.

But Mr. Cohen could offer the Chinese no convincing answers to concerns about proposed missile defenses and arms sales to Taiwan.

And it was also clear that China has not effectively countered American charges that it has aided the development of ballistic missiles in Pakistan and Iran, possibly violating pledges.

In a separate news conference today, China's chief arms control official, Sha Zukang, said that his country had on three occasions, most recently in a joint statement by Presidents Jiang and Clinton in 1998, pledged not to help either India or Pakistan develop missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. He scoffed at reported American intelligence agency findings that China has provided just such technical aid to Pakistan, its strategic ally, within the last 18 months.

This afternoon Mr. Cohen would only say of the missile charges that "these issues are still under discussion."

Mr. Sha repeated China's vehement warnings that it sees the proposed American missile defense system as negating China's small nuclear forces.

China also opposes the American-Japanese program to develop regional missile defenses, which could be used to shield Taiwan. China considers Taiwan a part of the nation that must eventually return, if not by peace then by war.

In a speech to military officers this morning at the National Defense University north of Beijing, Mr. Cohen described the American military presence in Asia as a benign, stabilizing factor rather than, as many Chinese believe, intended to hem in an increasingly confident and powerful China.

Noting the American military's strong presence in South Korea and Japan, its close ties with Australia, Thailand and increasingly the Philippines and its pledge to help Taiwan defend itself, Mr. Cohen said: "The truth is that this region is safer, more secure, and more stable because of the United States.

And that peace and stability has benefited every nation, including China."

"I know there are calls in China for the United States to vacate Asia," Mr. Cohen added, departing from his prepared text. "But I ask you, who will fill the vacuum?"

Mr. Cohen complained that the Chinese press often unfairly characterizes the United States as out to dominate the world, and working against China.

His military audience listened intently and applauded.

During a brief, relaxed question period, in an apparently unscripted outburst, the wife of a Chinese officer won loud applause when she said the American press maligns China on human rights, and that the United States could promote peace by halting arms sales to Taiwan.

But the generally polite reception belied a growing suspicion here about American intentions.

The military journals and newspapers that are studied by these officers, the cream of the People's Liberation Army, describe American policy in ever more sinister terms.

A recent article in the Liberation Army Daily on the proposed national missile defense was headlined "Sixty Billion Dollars to Crush China." The American military is routinely described as encircling China and arming Taiwan to diminish China's power.

The visiting Americans saw an editorial in this morning's China Daily, the official English-language newspaper, titled "U.S. a Threat to World Peace."

The editorial, translated from the overseas edition of the People's Daily, said the United States is causing a global arms race by seeking military supremacy and that the American alliance with Japan -- the core of American Asia policy -- "constitutes a threat to regional stability."

The editorial charged that American military spending last year -- $276 billion -- was 2.5 times the total spending of Russia, Britain, France, Germany, Japan and China combined and that the United States is now seeking military control of outer space.

And it said the United States is most responsible for the global spread of missile technologies because by working with Japan to develop missile defenses it had provoked other countries to seek better missiles of their own.

China does not like to admit its dependence on foreign purchases for advanced weapons, and today, despite anger and dismay over the canceled Israeli sale, the public response was subdued.

At a regular foreign ministry news conference, spokesman Zhu Bangzao obliquely criticized the United States for its role, saying, "no country has the right to interfere with the bilateral cooperation between China and other countries." He also implicitly criticized Israel, saying that "agreements and understandings reached between states should be observed."

-------- depleted uranium

WILDFIRE THREATENS HANFORD RADIOACTIVE WASTE SITE IN WASHINGTON STATE: NUCLEAR DISASTER?

By Elijah Crane
July 13, 2000
Workers World newspaper
From: Winston Weeks wweeks@mail.aros.net

In the latest natural disaster to threaten nuclear waste dumps in the United States, a wildfire was ignited by an auto accident near the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state June 27 and raged for more than three days.

The blaze destroyed 70 buildings, including 25 homes. By June 29 the fire had seared 190,000 acres of land, burning more than 45 percent of Hanford's 560 square miles.

It was just this May that wildfires threatened the Los Alamos nuclear facility in New Mexico--the once-secret site of the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb--where 47,000 acres of forest burned to the ground. This included 9,000 acres of lab property where radioactive contaminants were buried.

In the case of Los Alamos, fires were set purposely to clear brush from the area, but the flames quickly grew out of control. As a result, more than 25,000 people had to evacuate the area as 200 homes were scorched to ashes.

Now the Los Alamos area is at further risk of exposure to toxic waste due to the impending rainy season. Contaminated radioactive materials are buried at the facility and are spread throughout the soil.

Emergency workers have sprayed the mountainsides with quick- growth seeds in hopes that the vegetation will sprout before the rains begin. If it blooms in time, the new brush will serve as a barrier or sponge for the contaminated dirt and help prevent probable mudslides that threaten to wipe out a critical bridge and destroy more homes, in addition to spreading the toxic waste into other areas and water supplies.

DEPLETED URANIUM THREAT

The Hanford Military Reservation--as it was formerly known--was developed in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project. Technicians there helped create the atomic bombs the United States dropped on Japan during World War II.

Plutonium was manufactured at the site until 1986. The facility contains the largest volume of radioactive waste from nuclear weapons in the U.S.

Like Los Alamos, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation also stores its radioactive waste within the earth. Tanks that hold more than 500,000 gallons of liquid waste are buried there.

In the midst of the recent wildfire, more than 1,500 barrels were discovered underground containing waste of "unknown origin," according to government officials. Nearly 350 of these barrels were unearthed, while the rest remain buried.

No one in any government agency seems to know where the barrels came from, let alone their contents. Initial tests reveal that toxins such as barium, lead, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and other contaminants are in the barrels.

An engineer currently at Oak Ridge says that the barrels at the Hanford site were burned in the past, sometimes intentionally, though he did not explain why. He suggests that uranium chip fires in the past--the type that would result if the barrels were burned--would spread throughout the soil.

"Should a fire occur," he stated, "other materials in the trench could create airborne particulates to carry DU away from the immediate area." DU is depleted uranium, a waste product of the uranium refinement process that is dangerous to humans, especially when present as airborne particles.

Government officials from the Department of Energy and the Health Department, as well as representatives from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, continue to assure the media and public that there is no risk of contamination as a result of the disaster. However, clean-up workers from the Environmental Protection Agency are not so quick to assert this.

When asked if there are any health threats as a result of the fire, EPA Project Manager Dave Einan replied, "I honestly don't know for sure. I don't want to experiment with it."

HISTORY OF LEAKY TANKS

According to a 1989 article about Hanford in Science for the People magazine, "high-level liquid wastes are known to have leaked from at least 58 underground tanks at the site, and much more leakage is expected in another 100 tanks."

Recent articles about the wildfire acknowledge that the most lethal waste is contained in 177 tanks buried six feet underground. These are obviously the same leaky tanks cited in the 1989 article. And while concerns during the blaze were focused on the possibility of the tanks igniting, which did not happen, there remain other causes for alarm.

U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson tried to reassure the public, saying, "There does not appear to be any contamination whatsoever. We are going to monitor this very carefully." He also said that the fire caused no known air or soil contamination.

But the soil was already contaminated from the leaky tanks filled with lethal radioactive contaminants. And if 45 percent of Hanford's land was burned, there is a high likelihood that some portion of the radioactive soil and vegetation went up in smoke, releasing radioactive elements into the air.

As it is, people in the area have a history of chronic health problems, linked by many local residents to radioactive contamination. And some environmental watchdog groups are blaming Hanford for the magnitude and repercussions of the wildfire based on inadequate emergency response preparation and procedures.

The fire also burned across an old radioactive trench and two dried-up radioactive ponds.

Federal and state officials still insist that surveys show no sign of increased radiation levels and no threat. Nonetheless, the authorities removed classified information from the site and the facility's 8,000 workers were asked to stay at home last weekinteresting move if there is nothing to worry about.

The U.S. government has a long history of exposing children, prisoners, service people and the general population to high levels of radiation through experiments and weapons construction and then denying the ill effects.

Nuclear weapons workers from Kentucky to Nevada and everywhere in between have been afflicted with cancer and radiation illness from overexposure. The U.S. government continues to deny this whenever possible. And as recently as 1990 the U.S. government conducted secret underground nuclear detonations in this country.

It took nearly 50 years for many of the secret government tests to be revealed and there are surely many more truths yet to be discovered. Likewise, it will probably take many, many years for the truth to be exposed about the levels of radioactive toxins released into the air from the Hanford fire. The health of area residents and workers at the site will be one sure indication of the severity of contamination.

The capitalist profit motive has been the driving force in the nuclear arms race, even though the projects themselves are under government control. As with the rest of the enormous U.S. military-industrial establishment, great private fortunes have been made in government contracts to develop nuclear weapons. But the biggest prize, and one that all capitalists share in--from makers of sneakers to agribusiness to Hollywood--is the world economic domination that comes with being the power able to annihilate all life on earth.

That domination has made it easy for U.S. corporations to super- exploit workers abroad. Workers in the U.S. are paying for this in lost jobs. In the Pacific Northwest, where Hanford is located, there is a growing consciousness that world domination for U.S. corporations translates into lower wages at home--and now the risk of nuclear contamination.

-------- france

FRANCE FLOATS IDEA OF SINGLE EUROPE NUCLEAR FORCE

ITALY :
July 13, 2000
From: Regina Hagen <regina.hagen@jugendstil.da.shuttle.de>

ROME - FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER HUBERT VEDRINE SAID IN AN INTERVIEW PUBLISHED YESTERDAY THAT EUROPE SOMEDAY MAY NEED A SINGLE NUCLEAR POWER TO SPEAK AS A DETERRENT FORCE FOR WHOLE CONTINENT.

But in the interview with Rome's La Repubblica newspaper, he said it was still too early to say what role France and Britain, the European Union's only nuclear powers, would have in it.

Vedrine, whose country just took over the rotating EU presidency, was asked if France would be willing to renounce its nuclear military power in the name of a united Europe.

"Nuclear weapons are an extreme guarantee of survival," he was quoted as saying.

"To assure the credibility of dissuasion, there is a need for a single dissuader who can affirm in a convincing way: 'If you threaten the vital interests of my country, you will in turn expose yourself to a vital risk'," he said.

"Peace is guaranteed by this mechanism. To transfer this position to a European level there is a need that the dissuader be credible and therefore speak in the name of a single European people,"he said.

"Maybe one day this question will formulate itself in these terms. Today it is not this way. Neither France or Great Britain have a place in this logic."

Vedrine also spoke of President Jacques Chirac's recent call for a "pioneer group" of states forging ahead with closer integration before other EU members.

Asked if Franco-German agreement on the proposal could alienate other countries, Vedrine said:

"(Chirac) has made proposals. Nonetheless it would not be up to France or Germany to decide by themselves. In the ongoing debate, there are proposals that regard the entire Union and others that aim at the idea of an engine group, a core group or a group of pioneers..."

Asked if he felt it was impossible for Britain to take part in this group, Vedrine said:

"I think in effect it would be impossible to exclude any country 'a priori' ... The debate must continue and we will need time before everything become clear."

-------- korea

North Korea Vows to Continue Missile Program

July 13, 2000
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/00/07/13/news/world/nkorea-missile-ap.html

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, July 12 -- North Korea refused today to stop developing missiles that it says are for self-defense, claiming that Washington has deployed "thousands of missiles" that threaten it.

"That is why the United States has no right to make such unjust claims for the freeze of our missile capabilities," said Jang Chang Chon, head of North Korea's bureau on United States affairs.

He spoke as talks on North Korea's missile program ended in a stalemate here, with the United States refusing to pay North Korea to curb exports of missile technology.

Mr. Jang said the North regards its missile program as part of its right to self-defense. But he said it will discuss curbing exports of missile technology if paid enough.

"We clarified that we will continue our discussions," he said, "on the condition that the U.S. gives compensation for our economic and political losses in case of suspension."

After three days of talks, the North Koreans restated their offer: $1 billion a year in exchange for a halt to missile-technology exports.

The talks were the first in 16 months, and the chief American negotiator, Robert Einhorn, assistant secretary of state for proliferation, said no breakthrough had been expected.

"The North Koreans should not be compensated for conducting activities they should not be conducting in the first place," he said.

Mr. Einhorn said North Korea, long-reclusive and impoverished, stood to gain far more politically and economically from a better security environment and normalized relations with Washington.

The United States claims North Korea is the world's top exporter of missile equipment and technology, to customers including Pakistan and Iran.

Though North Korea has said it will not negotiate its right to develop defensive missiles, there are hopes that it may be flexible on exports.

The talks come amid increasing North Korean willingness to discuss defense issues, marked by the historic June summit meeting between Kim Dae Jung of South Korea and Kim Jong Il of North Korea.

This week's negotiations took on fresh importance in American eyes after last weekend's failed test for the proposed American missile defense shield. Proponents of such tests say the United States needs to develop a way to defend itself from states like North Korea.

--------

U.S., S. Korea To Discuss Missiles

July 13, 2000
By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-SKorea-US-Missiles.html

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- A senior U.S. State Department official plans to meet with South Korean officials Friday to try to complete a deal that would let Seoul build missiles capable of reaching most of North Korea, officials said Thursday.

Robert Einhorn, U.S. assistant secretary of state for nonproliferation, flew into Seoul on Thursday. He came from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where talks on curbing communist North Korea's missile exports ended in a stalemate.

Last month, during the first North Korean-South Korean summit, the leaders of the two nations agreed to avoid confrontation, especially along their border, the world's most heavily armed. But the South wants to improve the deterrent capabilities of its military by extending the range of its missile.

Under a 1979 agreement with Washington, South Korea cannot develop a missile with a range longer than 112 miles. Washington has agreed in principle to lift that ban and let the South build missiles capable of traveling up to 187 miles, but it is concerned that the change could trigger a regional arms race and make its talks with North Korea more complicated.

Einhorn will meet Friday with South Korean Defense Ministry policy coordinator Maj. Gen. Cha Young-koo and Song Min-soon, director-general of the ministry's North American affairs bureau, to narrow remaining differences, according to Shin Myong-ho, a Foreign Ministry official.

North Korea rattled East Asia in mid-1998 by test-firing a missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean.

-------- pacific

Johnston isle radiation is called tolerable

Thursday, July 13, 2000
By Harold Morse Honolulu Star-Bulletin
http://starbulletin.com/2000/07/13/news/story12.html

A Defense Threat Reduction Agency team has downplayed possible radiation dangers to people or wildlife on Johnston Atoll, site of two nuclear-armed missile mishaps that left some residual weapons-grade plutonium in the immediate environment.

It also minimized or ruled out danger of this radioactive material reaching Hawaii or other Pacific islands on winds or ocean currents.

Its low levels on Johnston Atoll itself would not pose a danger to any other populated areas, and since the material is three times as heavy as lead, ocean currents could never carry it, said John Esterl, senior health physicist, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Albuquerque, N.M.

The team told an audience of about 45 at Farrington High School that the proposed final soil cleanup level, technically termed "40 picocuries per gram of transuranic alpha-emitting isotopes (plutonium)," poses no real danger to people or wildlife.

The agency provided this information and a justification to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; the U.S. Air Force, present custodians of Johnston Atoll; and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, responsible for the Johnston Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is scheduled to take over the atoll in 2005.

The next step is final disposition of the material, on which another public meeting will be held here at a time and place to be announced.

Harry Stumpf, Defense Threat Reduction Agency senior environmental engineer, said last night there are eight to 10 options for disposition, including leaving it where it is in the 24-acre radiological control area on the north side of Johnston Island, one of the four islands of Johnston Atoll. Other options would include the more expensive one of removing the contaminated soil and transporting it to a U.S. mainland dump.

Stumpf and others said there is little evidence low dosages or radiation at Johnston Atoll cause any health effects. The level or radiation dosage is about what an airline passenger would be exposed to on two round-trip flights coast to coast, the agency team said.

Radiological material was dispersed over the atoll from two aborted missile launches during high-altitude nuclear weapons testing in 1962. Cleanup efforts have been ongoing since then.

An "acceptable level of concentration" of weapons-grade plutonium remains, said Kathryn Higley, associate professor of radiation health physics, Oregon State University, under a research contract for Johnston Atoll assessment.

The atoll, located 825 miles southwest of Honolulu, became a national wildlife refuge in 1926 and came under Navy jurisdiction in 1941. More recently, it has been the site of chemical weapons incineration.

The Army's Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System is scheduled to phase out with closing procedures beginning in January. Over the past 10 years, more than 3.8 million pounds of chemical weapons have been destroyed.

-------- russia

Russian Military Argues Over Nukes

By ANNA DOLGOV,
Associated Press Writer
Thursday July 13 1:45 PM ET
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000713/wl/russia_military_1.html

MOSCOW (AP) - A proposed reform of Russia's nuclear forces has exploded into a major conflict among the military's top brass, causing what the Russian media described Thursday as an unprecedented ``coup attempt'' against Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev. A former chief of Russia's Strategic Missile Forces, Sergeyev insists Russia must develop its nuclear weapons to deter potential aggressors, at a time when its conventional forces are in disarray.

But as Russia's offensive against rebels in Chechnya drags on, commanders of conventional forces are demanding more money for tanks and artillery, and some suggest that nuclear weapons programs are taking up too much of the military funding.

The conflict blew up on Wednesday, when the military's top brass gathered to discuss how to restructure the armed forces to preserve their combat capability in the face of severe financial shortages.

Sergeyev was advocating his longtime plan to beef up Russia's Strategic Missile Forces, making them the core of a new deterrent force into which the nuclear capabilities of the Navy and the Air Force would be incorporated.

But Anatoly Kvashnin, the chief of the General Staff, came out against Sergeyev, addressing the meeting with his own reform plan that envisages significant cuts in the Strategic Missile Forces and calls for incorporating them into the Air Force - significantly reducing their status.

Kvashnin also proposed boosting the number of conventional units that Russia can deploy in the turbulent southwest, where Chechnya is located, and in Central Asia, where Russia is trying to fight a growing drug trade from Afghanistan. ``For the first time in the history of the Russian army, the General Staff chief openly went against the defense minister,'' the daily Kommersant said Thursday. ``What happened ... can only be described as a coup attempt in the military,'' it said.

The daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta called Kvashnin's expression of dissent ``an unprecedented step.''

Independent military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer said Thursday that the military had hoped for increased funding when President Vladimir Putin came to power earlier this year, but had seen its hopes dashed.

``This is the start of a very serious ... crisis within the armed forces, and between the armed forces and the government,'' he said. But Gen. Leonid Ivashov, chief of the Defense Ministry's international cooperation department, played down the conflict.

``When a reform of the armed forces is under way, there are always a lot of discussions,'' Ivashov told reporters Thursday. ``It's a normal procedure.''

----

Russian Military Argies Over Nukes

July 13, 2000
By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Russia-Military.html

MOSCOW (AP) -- A proposed reform of Russia's nuclear forces has exploded into a major conflict among the military's top brass, causing what the Russian media described Thursday as an unprecedented ``coup attempt'' against Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev.

A former chief of Russia's Strategic Missile Forces, Sergeyev insists Russia must develop its nuclear weapons to deter potential aggressors, at a time when its conventional forces are in disarray.

But as Russia's offensive against rebels in Chechnya drags on, commanders of conventional forces are demanding more money for tanks and artillery, and some suggest that nuclear weapons programs are taking up too much of the military funding.

The conflict blew up on Wednesday, when the military's top brass gathered to discuss how to restructure the armed forces to preserve their combat capability in the face of severe financial shortages.

Sergeyev was advocating his longtime plan to beef up Russia's Strategic Missile Forces, making them the core of a new deterrent force into which the nuclear capabilities of the Navy and the Air Force would be incorporated.

But Anatoly Kvashnin, the chief of the General Staff, came out against Sergeyev, addressing the meeting with his own reform plan that envisages significant cuts in the Strategic Missile Forces and calls for incorporating them into the Air Force -- significantly reducing their status.

Kvashnin also proposed boosting the number of conventional units that Russia can deploy in the turbulent southwest, where Chechnya is located, and in Central Asia, where Russia is trying to fight a growing drug trade from Afghanistan.

``For the first time in the history of the Russian army, the General Staff chief openly went against the defense minister,'' the daily Kommersant said Thursday. ``What happened ... can only be described as a coup attempt in the military,'' it said.

The daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta called Kvashnin's expression of dissent ``an unprecedented step.''

Independent military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer said Thursday that the military had hoped for increased funding when President Vladimir Putin came to power earlier this year, but had seen its hopes dashed.

``This is the start of a very serious ... crisis within the armed forces, and between the armed forces and the government,'' he said.

But Gen. Leonid Ivashov, chief of the Defense Ministry's international cooperation department, played down the conflict.

``When a reform of the armed forces is under way, there are always a lot of discussions,'' Ivashov told reporters Thursday. ``It's a normal procedure.''

----

Split Atop Russian Military Reflects Contest for Power

By David Hoffman
Washington Post
Thursday, July 13, 2000; Page A23
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-07/13/235l-071300-idx.html

MOSCOW, July 12-A festering split in the highest levels of the Russian military broke into the open again today in a dispute over strategic missile troops. The fight reflects a contest for power and influence over the Russian armed forces.

The schism pits Gen. Anatoly Kvashnin, chief of the general staff, a leader of the Chechen military offensive and champion of the conventional forces, against Marshal Igor Sergeyev, the defense minister and a former head of the missile troops who has long been associated with strategic nuclear forces.

Its outcome could determine who is going to control Russia's nuclear missiles in the era of President Vladimir Putin.

The latest sign of the rift came in reports from a high-level meeting today of the Defense Ministry board, attended by an array of commanders as well as civilian policymakers and lawmakers. Kvashnin outlined a plan to reduce the rocket forces and put them under the command of the general staff, the Interfax news service reported.

The strategic rocket forces are now a separate branch headed by Gen. Vladimir Yakovlev, a protege of Sergeyev. The navy and air force handle nuclear forces in submarines and on airplanes.

Although Yakovlev's reaction to Kvashnin's proposal was not known, he has hinted in recent interviews that downsizing the rocket forces would be a mistake. He told the newspaper Izvestia last week that "only ignorant people can think like this" and that "changes in the strength" of the missile forces could "trigger another round of the nuclear arms race."

Last year, Yakovlev and Sergeyev floated a different plan that would have given them more control over all nuclear forces. They proposed creating a new unified command structure for all land, sea and air strategic nuclear forces.

The new command structure would have reduced the role of the general staff in nuclear deterrence, taking away the air and navy nuclear components. However, the plan was shelved, in part because of the onset of the second Chechen war, and also because it appeared to be costly and difficult to implement.

Now, Kvashnin has come back with a plan that would go in the other direction, effectively putting the missile troops completely under the control of the general staff within three years, and reducing the number of land-based troops as missiles are dismantled under arms control treaties. While full details were not clear, Interfax said Kvashnin presented the plan today.

Col. Gen. Valery Manilov, deputy chief of the general staff, said later that the plans were sent back for more work. He said the ultimate decision would be made by Putin.

Analysts said the jockeying was not likely to have an immediate impact on the structure of the armed forces, but it grows from a contest for power and influence over the military. Sergeyev was chosen by former president Boris Yeltsin and military analysts have speculated that he will retire once Putin chooses his own defense minister.

Kvashnin is clearly a leading candidate for the post. His emphasis has been on building up the conventional forces, while Sergeyev and the missile troops want to lobby for strengthening the strategic forces.

-------- u.s. nuc facilities

-------- colorado

ENERGY DEPARTMENT LEVIES FINES AGAINST ROCKY FLATS CONTRACTOR

ENS AmeriScan:
July 13, 2000
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2000/2000L-07-13-09.html

GOLDEN, Colorado, July 13, 2000 - The Department of Energy this week levied $160,000 in safety related penalties against the Kaiser-Hill Company, the private contractor carrying out the $4 billion contract to clean up and shut down the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant near Denver, Colorado. The fines stemmed from two separate sets of incidents that occurred at the former bomb factory, both of which Department of Energy (DOE) officials said illustrated Kaiser-Hill's "lack of focus on improving environment, safety, health, safeguards, or security performance."

Under the terms of the newly renegotiated Rocky Flats closure contract, the DOE has authority to fine Kaiser-Hill up to $250,000 for safety related violations during the long term decommissioning operation. Kaiser-Hill was fined for "category III" violations - the least severe of three penalty levels. The first penalty was a result of 13 incidents involving the improper handling and movement of materials throughout the Rocky Flats facility between February 1 and June 5. Several "near misses" in worker injuries were the result of damaging and/or destroying of containers of low-level radioactive waste and in the damaging and/or destroying of equipment and materials. The second fine assessed this week pertained to malfunctions between February 8 and 29 in the ventilation system in Rocky Flats Building 371, where all of the plant's plutonium and other special nuclear materials are being consolidated. A Kaiser-Hill electrician performing maintenance on a fan system potentially exposed six workers to airborne radioactivity, according to a June 30 DOE report. Kaiser-Hill president and CEO Bob Card said the penalties would motivate the company to do better.

----

Plant workers took bomb parts as souvenirs The candy dishes and paperweights were not radioactive.

Philaadelphia Inquirer
Thursday, July 13, 2000
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://web.philly.com/content/inquirer/2000/07/13/national/BOMB13.htm

DENVER - Workers at the former Rocky Flats weapons plant used nuclear bomb parts as candy dishes, paperweights and other knickknacks, according to an Energy Department inspector general's report.

The items, taken from trash bins after weapons production stopped at the plant in 1989, were not radioactive.

"Some folks want to have a souvenir or memento of what happened here," said Paul Golan, the Rocky Flats deputy manager.

The inspection also found sloppy inventory controls that have left some classified parts unaccounted for, according to the report, released last week. A spokeswoman for the inspector general's office declined to elaborate.

Thirty workers took parts, and at least one took a bomb part home, the report said. Most of the parts were displayed on desks at the site.

All were returned in 1998, about the same time that the Energy Department began its investigation.

Golan said the workers would not be disciplined because they believed the parts were trash.

Rocky Flats produced plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons for 40 years, until chronic safety problems halted production. Only cleanup workers are there now.

-------- maryland

Calvert Hopes to Attract Companies With New Office Complex

By Raymond McCaffrey
Washington Post
Thursday, July 13, 2000; Page M03
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-07/13/148l-071300-idx.html

... The county's largest taxpayer is the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, with $17.2 million in public utility taxes from the plant's owner expected in the coming fiscal year.

Officials have targeted high-tech companies as a new revenue source. A recent survey by the Calvert County Department of Economic Development found that roughly 90 percent of Calvert workers who commute to a job outside the county would rather work near home. The "commuter survey" showed that about a third of the 468 respondents listed technology as their "area of expertise."

That pool of workers and the proximity of the Patuxent River Naval Air Station are incentives to high-tech companies, particularly defense contractors, Vassallo said.

-------- new mexico

Relief Bill Approved for Los Alamos

July 13, 2000
By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-New-Mexico-Fires.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Clinton signed a bill Thursday to spend $661 million compensating governments, businesses and individuals for a devastating New Mexico wildfire set by the National Park Service.

The law sets up a $500 million fund to compensate fire victims in and around the city of Los Alamos, where more than 200 homes burned. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has 45 days to get the compensation program up and running.

``It is now incumbent on FEMA to act promptly and begin making right what went so wrong at the hands of the federal government in May,'' said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M.

The fire compensation is part of an $11.2 billion emergency spending bill that also includes funding for fighting drugs in Colombia and peacekeeping in Kosovo. Congress passed the measure just before leaving for the Independence Day recess.

Rep. Tom Udall, a Democrat whose district includes Los Alamos, said the $661 million compensation package is just the beginning.

``We're making a good start here, and we'll just have to see if we need any more,'' Udall said.

The National Park Service started a fire May 4 to clear brush in Bandelier National Monument. That fire got out of control and a backfire started to control the first got out of control itself, becoming the Cerro Grande fire that burned more than 47,000 acres.

The blaze -- the largest in New Mexico this century -- destroyed more than 200 homes in Los Alamos and burned over parts of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the nation's first nuclear weapons lab.

Park Service officials have acknowledged they are responsible for the fire and apologized. Bandelier Superintendent Roy Weaver retired this month and apologized to Los Alamos citizens for approving the original fire. Park Service officials have not determined whether anyone else will be disciplined.

-------- washington

Radiation Released During Fire at Hanford Nuclear Reservation

By Cat Lazaroff
July 13, 2000 (ENS)
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2000/2000L-07-13-06.html

RICHLAND, Washington, The fire that scorched the Hanford Nuclear Reservation last month did release plutonium and other radioactive elements into the atmosphere, the Department of Energy revealed Wednesday. Department officials said on the second day of the fire, June 29, that sampling conducted by radiation control teams "showed only background levels."

The agency now says the amounts of radiation released were small, and "should pose no public health risk."

The fire was started June 27 by a fatal car accident, and burned some 191,000 acres, about half the area of the Hanford site. (Photo by Nancy Wildung courtesy Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

http://ens.lycos.com/ens/pics12/hanfordfire1.jpg

The fire invaded the heart of the nuclear facility used from 1943 to 1989 to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons.

Earlier measurements by air sampling monitors within and around the reservation found no evidence that radiation had been released by the fire.

But a more sensitive test of an air sample from the 200 West area, located near the center of the 560 square mile reservation, turned up particles of plutonium. Some of the most dangerous radioactive wastes stored at Hanford are in the 200 West area.

Hanford spokesman Mike Talbot told ENS the fire reached out fingers of flame that came "within a quarter of a mile of the closest tank in the 200 West area."

One reading indicated that the plutonium shown in the sample came from right near the boundary of the 200 West area. This area contains tank farms holding nuclear waste in 177 underground storage tanks. It also contains a nuclear waste management facility, retired processing facilites, and a plutonium fininshing plant which has storage vaults and also areas which are used for stabilizing the remaining plutonium that is not yet in a form ready for storage vaults, Talbot said.

The Department of Energy says the fire burned over three closed waste management units - the B/C Cribs and the 216-S and 219-S Ponds - as it moved through the region south of the 200 Area.

The fire burned over the Arid Lands Ecology Reserve and skirted the western and southern edges of the 200 Areas (Map courtesy DOE)

http://ens.lycos.com/ens/pics12/hanfordmap1.gif

The fire came within a half mile of the site's 177 underground tanks of high level radioactive and chemical wastes.

The Department of Energy (DOE) said the source of the plutonium is not known, but that surface contamination could have been disturbed by the fire and the actions of firefighters.

An indication of plutonium-239/240 was detected on one of the samples above normal background levels.

But the amount of plutonium measured was "well below the level of concern" set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the DOE and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said Harry Boston, DOE's deputy manager at Hanford.

The federal standard for airborne plutonium sets a maximum limit of 2 x 10 to the power of minus two picocuries per cubic meter. The air sample from the 200 West area measured 6 x 10 to the power of minus 4 picocuries per cubic meter of plutonium.

The DOE said the amount of plutonium in the sample would only be enough to cause a three millirem exposure - if a person breathed that air for a full year. In contrast, the average X-ray examination exposes a person to 10 to 15 millirem. Workers at Hanford are given an upper limit of 100 millirem a year.

The Hanford fire burned three days and two nights. (Photo courtesy Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

http://ens.lycos.com/ens/pics12/hanfordfire4.jpg

In 34 other air samples, taken primarily in the 200 East and 200 West areas, authorities found alpha particles, which are released during the decay of radioactive substances. The DOE has yet to determine the source of those particles. Burned vegetation that absorbs radioactive particles is one potential source.

"We fully expect to see radioactivity," said Boston. "We fully expect it to be far below the levels of concern."

Earlier air monitoring tests used portable field equipment to rule out the possibility of an "imminent public health risk," said Debra McBaugh of the Washington Department of Health. The new results come from laboratory equipment designed to detect very low levels of radiation, but even these results should be considered preliminary, McBaugh said.

The DOE and state health department will continue testing air samples from both on and off site, McBaugh said.

"I'm confident there's not going to be a health risk problem," said McBaugh.

Plane drops flame retardant chemical on the Hanford fire. (Photo courtesy Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

http://ens.lycos.com/ens/pics12/hanfordfire5.jpg

Hanford is the most contaminated nuclear site in the nation. It contains roughly 60 percent of the country's entire volume of nuclear waste.

"This fire is a frightening reminder why we can not let Hanford delay cleanup of radioactive dumpsites or add more wastes to them, and why it is so dangerous when our hazardous waste laws are broken," said Gerald Pollet of Heart of America Northwest, a Hanford watchdog group.

The Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP), a group working to improve cleanups at the nation's nuclear weapons production facility waste sites, said the Hanford fire and the fire earlier this year at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico point to an urgent need to remove toxic contaminants from sites where they could be released by fire, floods or other natural events.

----

Hanford fire put plutonium into the air

Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Thursday, July 13, 2000
By LISA STIFFLER SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/hanf134.shtml
mailto:lisastiffler@seattle-pi.com

The fire that raged across the Hanford Nuclear Reservation released plutonium and other radioactive components into the air, raising concerns about human exposure and health risks.

Earlier reports indicated no radiation releases from the fire, which began June 27 and burned across three old radioactive waste-disposal sites -- a trench and two dried-up ponds. Yesterday, federal Department of Energy officials downplayed any health risks from the releases.

But others disagreed.

Plutonium "is extremely toxic . . .," said Dr. Tim Takaro a professor in the University of Washington's occupational and environmental medicine program. "If you get plutonium in the wrong place in the lung, that can cause cancer."

The plutonium particles turned up in an air sample from the eastern boundary of the 200 West area, near the central part of the 560-square-mile reservation, where some of Hanford's most dangerous waste is stored. The exact source of the plutonium is not known.

The measurement was "well below the level of concern" set by the federal government and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and did not pose a risk to firefighters or the public, Harry Boston, the federal Department of Energy's deputy manager at Hanford, said at a news conference yesterday.

The fire broke out after a fatal car accident and burned 191,000 acres before being contained several days later.

Expressed in technical terms, the plutonium detected measured 6 X 10 to the power of minus-4 picocuries per cubic meter. The federal standard is 2 X 10 to the power of minus-2 picocuries per cubic meter.

If someone were to breathe the higher amount of plutonium for a year, he or she would be exposed to 3 millirem of radiation. The average exposure from an X-ray is 10 to 15 millirem, and the limit of exposure for Hanford workers is 100 millirem a year.

But this was not reassuring for many.

"The point is that there is an exposure," said Takaro, who is also a member of the Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation, an organization promoting nuclear waste cleanup.

"This fire is sort of a wake up for us to get the site cleaned up."

By taking air samples after the fire, "it's difficult to say what the real exposure is. We have some measurement below the federal standard, but we don't know what people are exposed to," he said. "We have an incomplete picture."

Wayne Glines, senior technical adviser for the DOE, said authorities do not believe firefighters at the scene of the fire were exposed to radiation.

Urine samples have been collected and are being examined for radioactivity. Results will be available in six to eight weeks.

Alpha particles -- indicators of radioactive substances -- of a still-undetermined origin also showed up in 34 of 76 other samples, primarily from around the 200 East and West areas.

"This is a major admission of a threat to the health of the region and the firefighters who were there," said Gerald Pollet, director of the Hanford watchdog group Heart of America Northwest.

The Environmental Protection Agency regional headquarters said it was unable to comment on the DOE findings.

"We weren't notified and haven't had a chance to see their data," said Bill Dunbar, an agency spokesman. "And frankly, we're quite unhappy about finding this out hours after DOE made their finding public."

Nevertheless, EPA is waiting on its own test results.

Fourteen EPA emergency response specialists were flown in from Montgomery, Ala., and Las Vegas during the fire to assist regional radiation experts.

The EPA did extensive testing of "population centers, and sensitive ecological and agricultural areas" off the Hanford Reservation. Those results should be available later this week, Dunbar said.

"Our primary concern was to determine whether people in the communities off-site had been exposed to any radiation being carried by the smoke," said Jerry Leitch, EPA's radiation program manager in Seattle.

A network of 24 high-volume air samplers were set up as far away as Yakima and Walla Walla, Leitch said.

Analysis of those samples are being conducted at an EPA laboratory in Alabama.

Fire, wind and firefighting efforts could have stirred up surface contaminants at Hanford, which is the most contaminated nuclear site in the nation after 40 years of making plutonium for the country's nuclear arsenal.

"We fully expect to see radioactivity. We fully expect it to be far below the levels of concern," the DOE's Boston said.

And Glines of the DOE said it's "very difficult to say" what the exact source of the plutonium was and that the department would not try to pinpoint it.

"This is a very small amount that was stirred up," he said.

However, a possible source of radioactive material is a plant common to Hanford's desert environment, the Russian thistle. The plant has a very deep root that "can draw contaminants out of the soil," Takaro said.

"We know there is a lot of buried waste at Hanford," he said, adding that the contaminants end up in the leaves of the plants, which burn well.

Initial tests that found no radioactivity were described as "quick and dirty" by Debra McBaugh of the state Department of Health, meaning portable field equipment used at the time was designed to show whether there was an imminent health risk.

The new results came from subsequent testing with more sophisticated equipment in a laboratory designed to test for even lower levels of radiation. Boston noted that even these results are preliminary and many more tests and analyses were to be conducted.

McBaugh said it was unlikely the contaminants would move off site because the particles are heavier than air and fall to the ground.

The wind-driven fire, which at times moved as fast as 20 miles in 90 minutes, came within a half-mile of the high-level radioactive and chemical waste buried in the 200 West area.

Additional monitoring is planned on and around Hanford, McBaugh said.

"I'm confident there's not going to be a health risk problem," she said.

The Energy Department plans regular updates on the air, soil and vegetation monitoring, Boston said.

----

Plutonium released in fire Scorched contaminated soil no health threat, feds say

July 13, 2000
Ken Olsen - Staff writer
http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=071300&ID=s825939&cat=

Radioactive plutonium was released near nuclear waste storage tanks during the huge Hanford wildfire late last month, the U.S. Department of Energy said Wednesday.

The concentration, although 10 to 100 times above normal background levels, was too low to pose any health threat, the department said. If a person were to inhale an equivalent amount for a year, it would be only one-third to one-fifth of the dose from a dental X-ray, the department said.

But watchdog groups, some of which are conducting their own monitoring, say the fire-related hazards at Hanford may be understated and are only beginning.

When plutonium burns, it is transformed into tiny particles that can burrow into the lungs and inflict serious health problems, said Hisham Zerriffi of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research.

"Our preliminary results, just from field estimates, show elevated levels (of radioactivity) from the ash," said Tom Carpenter, with the Government Accountability Project's Seattle office.

"They are going to, I think, play games with words and couch things in ways that are reassuring to the public. I don't think they know enough to issue blanket reassurances."

Watchdog groups also warn that the greatest contamination risk is not from the fire, but windstorms that could spread radioactive dust from the denuded prairie. That's a significant problem where the June fire crossed old waste dumps, like a trench called the B-C Cribs.

Approximately 120 million gallons of high-level radioactive waste were dumped in the B-C trenches during the 1950s, said Bob Alvarez, former senior safety and environmental adviser to Energy Secretary Bill Richardson and now director of the Nuclear Policy Project. There's more radioactive waste in those cribs than in all of the Energy Department's nuclear site at Los Alamos, N.M.

"The fire destroyed a very important layer (of soil and vegetation) that keeps the contamination from resuspending," Alvarez said. "When the wind blows ... it can travel a great distance."

A 1975 Energy Department Report predicted a windborne release of up to 12 curies of strontium 90 and 3.2 curies of cesium 137 if a fire burned the entire crib area, Carpenter said. "That's a whopping amount of strontium."

His on-the-ground assessment shows a large area around the B-C cribs burned, he said.

Energy officials say aerial photos show the actual cribs didn't appear to burn. The fire was spotty in the immediate surrounding area, which also is contaminated, they said.

In any case, the Washington Department of Health agrees there is no risk.

"I'm very confident there isn't going to be any health problems," said Debra McBaugh, of the state Health Department. Still, it is going to install permanent air monitors downwind from the B-C cribs. And during high wind, additional air samples will be taken elsewhere in the area.

Energy Department officials held a briefing in Richland on Wednesday to release the latest findings from air samples taken during the wildfire late last month. The fire, started by an automobile accident, scorched 192,000 acres over the course of four days.

Air testing will continue at least until the vegetation grows back at the site. While the initial results show no threat to the public, it will take several months to do the detailed laboratory work that takes the analysis down to the lowest detectable levels of radioactivity.

"We fully expect to see radioactivity in the air samples," but nothing serious, said Harry Boston, deputy manager of Hanford. "We are using the data to refine the models to protect our workers, firefighters and the public."

Whatever the final data shows, the Government Accountability Project says the Energy Department deserves credit for the way it is handling the Hanford fire.

The Energy Department acknowledged the radioactive releases within weeks of the Hanford fire -- unlike the fire at its nuclear facility at Los Alamos, N.M., where it took months, Carpenter said. In addition, it's significant that the Energy Department allowed independent sampling by the Accountability Project.

"It's a significant step, no matter what we find," Carpenter said.

----

DOE: Fire stirred up radiation from surface contamination at Hanford
Hanford N-Site Called Safe Despite Fire

Thursday, July 13, 2000
By Linda Ashton of The Associated Press
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/news/oregonian/00/07/ap_51hanford13.frame
http://www.sltrib.com/07142000/utah/67051.htm

RICHLAND, Wash. -- The fire at the Hanford nuclear reservation last month churned up radioactive contaminants, including plutonium, but not to a level that would have posed health risks, the Department of Energy says.

The plutonium particles turned up in an air sample from the eastern boundary of the 200 West area, near the central part of the 560-square-mile reservation, where some of Hanford's most dangerous waste is stored.

The measurement was "well below the level of concern" set by the federal government and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and did not pose a risk to firefighters or the public, Harry Boston, DOE's deputy manager at Hanford, said at a news conference Wednesday.

Expressed in technical terms, the plutonium measured 6 X 10 to the power of minus-4 picocuries per cubic meter. The federal standard is 2 X 10 to the power of minus-2 picocuries per cubic meter.

In terms that are easier to understand, if someone were to breathe this amount of plutonium for a year, he or she would be exposed to 3 millirem of radiation. The average exposure from an X-ray is 10 to 15 millirem, and the limit of exposure for Hanford workers is 100 millirem a year.

Alpha particles -- indicators of radioactive substances -- of a still-undetermined origin also showed up in 34 of 76 other samples, primarily from around the 200 East and West areas.

Fire, wind and firefighting efforts could have stirred up surface contaminants at Hanford, which is the most contaminated nuclear site in the nation after 40 years of making plutonium for the country's nuclear arsenal.

"We fully expect to see radioactivity. We fully expect it to be far below the levels of concern," Boston said.

Initial monitoring on and off the Hanford site showed no signs of radioactive releases when the 191,000-acre range fire swept across the reservation at the end of June.

But those tests were described as "quick and dirty" by Debra McBaugh of the state Department of Health, meaning portable field equipment used at the time was designed to show whether there is an imminent health risk.

The new results came from subsequent testing with more sophisticated equipment in a laboratory designed to test for even lower levels of radiation. Boston noted that results were preliminary and many more tests and analyses were to be conducted.

McBaugh said it was unlikely the contaminants would move off site because the particles are heavier than air and fall to the ground.

The wind-driven fire, which at times moved as fast as 20 miles in 90 minutes, came within a half-mile of the high-level radioactive and chemical waste buried in the 200 West area.

Additional monitoring is planned on and around Hanford, McBaugh said.

"I'm confident there's not going to be a health risk problem," she said.

The Energy Department plans regular updates on the air, soil and vegetation monitoring, Boston said.

-------- us nuc politics

Law expands payment for radiation exposure
Clinton signs measure to help uranium miners, downwinders

Associated Press
July 13, 2000
http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=071300&ID=s825820&cat=

WASHINGTON _ A program that pays up to $100,000 to people sickened by Cold War-era uranium mining and nuclear tests will be dramatically expanded under a bill signed by President Clinton.

The changes augment a 1990 law giving payments to uranium miners and nuclear test downwinders -- people who lived in areas most affected by nuclear fallout from tests -- with cancer or other ailments linked to their radiation exposure.

The new law adds to the list of cancers that make people eligible for payments and broadens the categories of people who may apply.

The aim is to compensate those unknowingly exposed to radiation while working to develop the U.S. nuclear arsenal from World War II until 1971. Uranium miners often worked without any equipment to protect them from radioactivity, and above-ground nuclear tests in New Mexico and Nevada spread radioactive fallout across broad areas of the Southwest.

"The president believes that people who have gotten sick from radioactive fallout or uranium miners who were involved in the atomic weapons program should not have to jump through unnecessary hoops to be compensated," White House spokesman Jake Siewert said Wednesday.

As of March 1, the Justice Department had paid 3,302 claims worth $244 million under the 1990 law and denied another 3,500 claims. Up to 9,600 more people could get compensation with the changes, said Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, who backed the measure. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the program will cost $750 million during the next five years.

The law, signed late Monday, streamlines the application process, adds open-pit uranium miners and those who transported uranium to those eligible for compensation, and eliminates provisions that give less money to downwinders or miners who smoked.

It extends eligibility to uranium workers from South Dakota, North Dakota, Idaho, Oregon and Texas. The current law covers Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Washington state.

The new law also allows the federal government to spend up to $20 million a year for community health centers and state health departments to screen for claims.

----

Senate loosens computer-export curbs

July 13, 2000
By Carter Dougherty
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/business/default-2000713213557.htm

The Senate yesterday voted overwhelmingly to relax export controls on the powerful computers that have become ubiquitous in the digital era, despite worries that the machines could fuel foreign military buildups.

Lawmakers signed off on the legislation - a top priority of the computer industry - as the Senate remained mired in an increasingly contentious fight over how to proceed on a separate bill that could curtail American technology exports to China in response to its sales of weapons of mass destruction.

The Senate approved 86-11 an amendment to national-defense legislation that would reduce from 180 days to 60 days the time Congress has to review export-control changes made by the president. The provision does not actually open the way for exports of more powerful computers, but would smooth the way for the president to do so.

The Senate action virtually guarantees that the 60-day provision will become law. Last month, the House approved the same provision as part of its version of the defense bill.

The Clinton administration, though it wanted a 30-day provision, is willing to accept a 60-day rule, an administration official said.

"Today's vote is a big victory for the U.S. high-technology industry and for the jobs and economic growth that this important industry has generated," said Sen. Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who sponsored the legislation with Sen. Robert F. Bennett, Utah Republican.

The computer industry, which has chafed under what it considers unreasonably stringent export controls, welcomed the Senate vote as a step in the right direction, though it also wanted a 30-day review.

"The 180-day waiting period does little to bolster U.S. national security as foreign computer companies are free to sell the same computer systems that U.S. companies are restricted from exporting during the 180-day period," said Dan Hoydysh, a lobbyist for the Unisys Corp.

Computer giants including IBM, Sun Microsystems, Intel and Hewlett-Packard, which derive roughly half their sales from overseas markets, have pushed aggressively for changes to current rules as export controls bit into exports of off-the-shelf personal computers, work stations and servers. Computers such as those used by U.S. government laboratories to design and maintain nuclear weapons have remained under strict controls.

But Sen. Fred Thompson, the Tennessee Republican leading the charge on the proliferation legislation, charged that the change could harm U.S. national security.

"The Chinese . . . are specifically using our high-performance computers to enhance their own nuclear capabilities," he said. "Potentially, they will be used against our own country."

Mr. Thompson's bill, which had drawn the opposition of the White House, business groups and most Democrats, would squeeze exports of potentially sensitive technology to China if there was evidence that China is engaging in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The export-control legislation would ease the way for the next president to follow the Clinton administration's lead in adjusting computer-export controls as companies develop more powerful machines. Despite repeated controversies over exports to both China and Russia, the administration has pursued this strategy since 1995, arguing that exports are crucial to maintaining the American dominance of the computer industry.

But even before the legislation would take effect, the White House plans to announce further changes this month, an administration official said. But those changes would take effect at the end of the year, given the existing 180-day waiting period.

Currently, companies can freely export computers that can process up to 12,500 million theoretical operations per second. The White House announced this level in February, even though computer companies complained that the coming debut of Intel's Itanium microprocessor, which soon will replace a generation of Pentium chips, would boost the power of many machines well beyond the 12,500 MTOPS level.

-------- us nuc waste

Government halts sale of radioactive metals from weapons sites

Source: AP - AP Wire Service Jul 13 21:08
By H. JOSEF HEBERT
Associated Press Writer
From: Ndunlks@aol.com

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Energy Department took steps to ensure that radioactive metals are no longer recycled into braces, zippers, toys and other consumer products, ordering a halt to sales of thousands of tons of scrap metal left at nuclear weapons facilities.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said sales will not resume until weapons site managers can assure that the metals are free from any detectable radioactive contamination. He said that by year's end, he wanted a new standard to evaluate the material.

Supporters of the recycling program contend the levels of contamination are too low to pose a health and safety threat. Critics of such sales have argued that metals with any trace of contamination should not go into general commerce.

The Energy Department cannot say how much contaminated scrap metal already has been sold, although some estimates are ``in the low tens of thousands of tons'' over the years, according one government source, speaking on condition of anonymity. Records on such sales are incomplete, the official said.

``They don't know. They don't have an inventory on how much has gone out,'' agreed Richard Miller, an official of the paper Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers Union, which represents atomic plant workers. After the metal has gone into commerce, it is melted with other like metals and is not tracked, he said.

Richardson's decision to suspend further sales came six months after the department canceled plans to sell 6,000 tons of nickel from a defunct uranium enrichment plant near Oak Ridge, Tennessee, because of concern the contaminated metal would go freely into civilian commerce.

Thursday's announcement stops the expected sale to private buyers of about 15,000 tons of metal including steel, aluminum, copper, and nickel used in machinery, furniture and remnants of torn down buildings at closed weapons production facilities.

Over the long term, the department has planned to sell about 30,000 tons of metals annually over 20 years as part of the decommissioning of many of the facilities that made up the Cold War-era nuclear weapons production complex.

It was not immediately clear Thursday how much of that metal eventually will be sold for recycling when the new standard is established.

----

Govt. Ends Radioactive Metal Sales

Thursday July 13
By H. JOSEF HEBERT,
Associated Press Writer
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000713/pl/radioactive_scrap_1.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Energy Department took steps Thursday to ensure that radioactive metals are no longer recycled into braces, zippers, toys and other consumer products, ordering a halt to sales of thousands of tons of scrap metal left at nuclear weapons facilities.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said sales will not resume until weapons site managers can assure that the metals are free from any detectable radioactive contamination. He said that by year's end, he wanted a new standard to evaluate the material.

Supporters of the recycling program contend the levels of contamination are too low to pose a health and safety threat. Critics of such sales have argued that metals with any trace of contamination should not go into general commerce.

The Energy Department cannot say how much contaminated scrap metal already has been sold, although some estimates are ``in the low tens of thousands of tons'' over the years, according one government source, speaking on condition of anonymity. Records on such sales are incomplete, the official said.

``They don't know. They don't have an inventory on how much has gone out,'' agreed Richard Miller, an official of the paper Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers Union, which represents atomic plant workers. After the metal has gone into commerce, it is melted with other like metals and is not tracked, he said.

Richardson's decision to suspend further sales came six months after the department canceled plans to sell 6,000 tons of nickel from a defunct uranium enrichment plant near Oak Ridge, Tenn., because of concern the contaminated metal would go freely into civilian commerce.

Thursday's announcement stops the expected sale to private buyers of about 15,000 tons of metal including steel, aluminum, copper, and nickel used in machinery, furniture and remnants of torn down buildings at closed weapons production facilities.

Over the long term, the department has planned to sell about 30,000 tons of metals annually over 20 years as part of the decommissioning of many of the facilities that made up the Cold War-era nuclear weapons production complex.

It was not immediately clear Thursday how much of that metal eventually will be sold for recycling when the new standard is established.

Richardson said the department was studying the possibility of recycling much of the contaminated steel for reuse within the weapons complex for such things as storage crates for other contaminated material.

He said he was halting the sales ``to ensure American consumers that scrap metal released from Energy Department facilities for recycling contains no detectable contamination from departmental activities.''

``The suspension will remain in effect until our sites can confirm that they meet this new more rigorous standard,'' he said in a statement.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission for some time has been trying to develop a new minimum allowable contamination level for recycled material. It is not known when that standard will be issued.

Richardson's action drew mixed reaction from Capitol Hill.

Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., said it was ``a nonsensical decision'' that he said ignored scientific evidence that the level or radiation found in the metals to be recycled do not pose a health or environmental problem.

He accused Richardson of trying to ``pander ... to key constituencies'' - a reference to the steelworkers union and many environmentalists who have opposed the recycling.

Wamp, whose district includes the Oak Ridge facility, said the program's suspension will cost hundreds of jobs at Oak Ridge and in recycling businesses in Tennessee.

But Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., who was preparing to pursue legislation to suspend the recycling program, said Richardson's move was ``a responsible step to protect the health and safety of American citizens.''

Rep. Ron Klink, D-Pa., who also had criticized the recycling program, said the movement of contaminated metals threatened steelworkers as well as the public.

``Recycled scrap metals can end up in everything from cars to food containers,'' Klink said. ``Consumers have the right to know that when they use a skillet to make hamburgers or a kettle to boil pasta that these utensils will be free of radioactive contamination.''

----

Govt. Ends Radioactive Metal Sales

July 13, 2000
By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Radioactive-Scrap.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Energy Department took steps Thursday to ensure that radioactive metals are no longer recycled into braces, zippers, toys and other consumer products, ordering a halt to sales of thousands of tons of scrap metal left at nuclear weapons facilities.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said sales will not resume until weapons site managers can assure that the metals are free from any detectable radioactive contamination. He said that by year's end, he wanted a new standard to evaluate the material.

Supporters of the recycling program contend the levels of contamination are too low to pose a health and safety threat. Critics of such sales have argued that metals with any trace of contamination should not go into general commerce.

The Energy Department cannot say how much contaminated scrap metal already has been sold, although some estimates are ``in the low tens of thousands of tons'' over the years, according one government source, speaking on condition of anonymity. Records on such sales are incomplete, the official said.

``They don't know. They don't have an inventory on how much has gone out,'' agreed Richard Miller, an official of the paper Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers Union, which represents atomic plant workers. After the metal has gone into commerce, it is melted with other like metals and is not tracked, he said.

Richardson's decision to suspend further sales came six months after the department canceled plans to sell 6,000 tons of nickel from a defunct uranium enrichment plant near Oak Ridge, Tenn., because of concern the contaminated metal would go freely into civilian commerce.

Thursday's announcement stops the expected sale to private buyers of about 15,000 tons of metal including steel, aluminum, copper, and nickel used in machinery, furniture and remnants of torn down buildings at closed weapons production facilities.

Over the long term, the department has planned to sell about 30,000 tons of metals annually over 20 years as part of the decommissioning of many of the facilities that made up the Cold War-era nuclear weapons production complex.

It was not immediately clear Thursday how much of that metal eventually will be sold for recycling when the new standard is established.

Richardson said the department was studying the possibility of recycling much of the contaminated steel for reuse within the weapons complex for such things as storage crates for other contaminated material.

He said he was halting the sales ``to ensure American consumers that scrap metal released from Energy Department facilities for recycling contains no detectable contamination from departmental activities.''

``The suspension will remain in effect until our sites can confirm that they meet this new more rigorous standard,'' he said in a statement.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission for some time has been trying to develop a new minimum allowable contamination level for recycled material. It is not known when that standard will be issued.

Richardson's action drew mixed reaction from Capitol Hill.

Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., said it was ``a nonsensical decision'' that he said ignored scientific evidence that the level or radiation found in the metals to be recycled do not pose a health or environmental problem.

He accused Richardson of trying to ``pander ... to key constituencies'' -- a reference to the steelworkers union and many environmentalists who have opposed the recycling.

Wamp, whose district includes the Oak Ridge facility, said the program's suspension will cost hundreds of jobs at Oak Ridge and in recycling businesses in Tennessee.

But Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., who was preparing to pursue legislation to suspend the recycling program, said Richardson's move was ``a responsible step to protect the health and safety of American citizens.''

Rep. Ron Klink, D-Pa., who also had criticized the recycling program, said the movement of contaminated metals threatened steelworkers as well as the public.

``Recycled scrap metals can end up in everything from cars to food containers,'' Klink said. ``Consumers have the right to know that when they use a skillet to make hamburgers or a kettle to boil pasta that these utensils will be free of radioactive contamination.''

-------- u.s. nuc weapons

Air Force Base in California failed, and officials blamed a technical failure of the booster rocket, which was supposed to release a warhead-busting device called a ``kill vehicle." Senate defeats measure for more missile tests Clinton must decide later whether to deploy system

MSNBC
07/13/00
http://www.msnbc.com/news/432395.asp?cp1=1

WASHINGTON, July 13 - The national missile defense system got a little boost Thursday. In a key vote, the U.S. Senate narrowly rejected an effort to require more stringent and thorough testing of the system before the Pentagon builds it. So far, there have been three tests of the intercept program, and two have failed - one just five days ago.

SENATORS VOTED 52-48 to kill a measure requiring testing of the project against disguised weapons an adversary might use to penetrate the shield.

The disguised weapons, including decoy balloons and nuclear warheads shrouded in cooled metal, could confuse missiles launched to destroy them.

The proposal, offered as an amendment to a $310 billion defense authorization bill, also called for an independent panel to evaluate testing for the missile system, which has suffered several highly publicized failures.

"If we are to go forward with a national missile defense system, we should have honest, realistic testing for countermeasures so we can say to the American people your money is being well spent," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., principal sponsor of the measure.

President Clinton must decide later this year on whether to approve construction and deployment of the system, expected to cost $60 billion.

Clinton has faced strong pressure in Congress to take steps to build the shield, designed to protect the United States from limited attacks by so-called rogue states such as North Korea, Iran and Iraq.

But it is opposed by Russia and China, which say it violates the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty.

TEST FAILURES

Two of three Pentagon tests have failed to prove the system would work, most recently Saturday when an attempt to intercept and destroy a dummy warhead in space failed because the weapon did not separate from the second stage of its liftoff rocket. The malfunction shed little light on the system's feasibility, never giving the sophisticated radar, sensors and communications systems a chance to demonstrate their capabilities.

Critics say that a heat-seeking missile used to intercept an incoming missile carrying a nuclear, biological or chemical weapon could be easily confounded by simple countermeasures. A panel of prominent U.S. scientists recently said warheads could be enclosed in cooler shrouds or placed in balloons with numerous empty balloons deployed with them, making it impossible for the U.S. missile to select the right target.

The current tests do not gauge the system's effectiveness under realistic conditions, supporters of the Senate amendment said. "A good test asks tough questions. This test doesn't, it's make believe," said Minnesota Democratic Sen. Paul Wellstone.

But opponents said the amendment was unnecessary because testing against countermeasures was already planned. "This amendment is an unprecedented effort by the Senate to micromanage a weapons system testing program," said Republican Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, a leading proponent of the missile shield.

To have a system in place by the target date of 2005, the United States must make a decision this year so construction can begin on a radar system on Alaska's Shemya Island next spring.

Supporters of the proposal for more realistic testing said there was no need to rush into the decision. Some lawmakers have called on Clinton to leave the decision to the next president.

DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION BILL

The defense authorization bill, which the Senate was to vote on Thursday, would provide $1.9 billion for the missile defense program, more than double the amount authorized in fiscal 2000.

The bill, S. 2549, budgets nearly $310 billion, $4.5 billion more than the president requested and $19 billion more than for the current year, for weapons procurement, military readiness and personnel.

It includes a 3.7 percent pay raise for members of the military, $64 billion for procurement and $4.1 billion for operations in Bosnia, Kosovo and Southwest Asia.

The bill also includes an amendment, sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., to add offenses motivated by sexual orientation, sex or disability to the list of hate crimes covered under federal law.

The House version has provisions to improve the health care coverage of military retirees and expand their access to prescription drugs.

China
China has about 20 nuclear missiles capable of reaching the U.S., an arsenal regarded as primarily defensive. However, some believe a limited missile shield would be enough to invalidate China's small arsenal and spur Beijing to launch into a major nuclear weapons buildup.

Source: MSNBC.com and NBC News
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

---

Missile malfunction? It's not in the handbook, sir

13/07/2000
Sydney Morning Herald; UK guardian
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0007/13/text/features8.html

It has been a difficult few days for Lieutenant-General Ronald Kadish, director of the United States Ballistic Missile Defence Organisation. At the weekend he invited friends over to show them his new intercontinental missile defence shield, and isn't it always the way? The bloody thing didn't work. A Minuteman II was fired from southern California. Another missile was fired from 7,200 kilometres away in the middle of the Pacific Ocean to intercept the oncoming warhead, but apparently the necessary electronic signal was not received at the correct time, or something. That'll teach him not to read the manual beforehand.

It all happened so quickly; suddenly the missile was careering off target, billions of dollars of military hardware was heading in the wrong direction at 25,600 km/h and Kadish was frantically skimming through the chapter entitled Care of Your Minuteman Missile System.

Then his wife had a better idea: "Quick, phone the helpline!" And while the President was demanding to know what was going on, the poor general was stuck listening to a recorded message that said: "Thank you for calling the ICBM helpline. If you wish to purchase other Minuteman missile systems, press 1. If you are phoning about our direct debit payment plan, press 2. If your intercontinental missile has malfunctioned and is hurtling towards Southern California, press 3 and hold for an operator." Then they played a tinny version of Bolero as the general watched $US100 billion ($169 billion) go up in smoke.

It was the most expensive fireworks display of all time but it was a bit of a disappointment. Everyone went "Ooohhh" but there was no "Aaahhh". Not even Mrs Kadish's delicious mulled wine and the packet of sparklers could offer much consolation. Hundreds of people covered their eyes in embarrassed disbelief.

This is not the first time America's missile systems have missed their target. During the Gulf War, a great deal was made of the Patriot missile's ability to knock out the incoming Scuds. The Patriots were declared a huge success because out of 22 Scuds fired, 21 were intercepted. But this is where the US military uses a different language to the rest of us.

As everyone remembers, lots of Scuds got through and caused enormous damage. So a Pentagon spokesman was forced to explain that when they said "intercepted", they meant that the path of the Patriot crossed the path of the Scud, though not necessarily at the same time. So "intercepted" means "missed". If modern defence strategists had planned the D-Day landings, the Allied forces would have found themselves wading ashore somewhere in Spain.

Despite the US spending $122 billion in missile defence systems, it has yet to develop anything that actually defends anyone against missiles. Perhaps I'm being over-picky, but you would have thought that this wasn't really good enough. And even though it is no longer clear who is going to declare war on the world's only superpower, the man who may well be the next president, George W. Bush, remains a great supporter of the Stars Wars project. The US may have token enemies such as Iraq or Libya, but they're no more likely to launch intercontinental missile attacks than Darth Vader himself.

Of course, when it comes to military spending the cash is always available. They could launch an aircraft carrier that didn't float and still get funding for another one. Why is it that enormous amounts of taxpayers' money are always available for defence spending, and yet if it is education or health we have to help make up the shortfall ourselves? You don't get soldiers' wives organising summer fetes to raise money for much-needed nuclear warheads.

If the smart bombs were that smart they would decommission themselves and redirect the much-needed funding towards health, education and overseas aid. It wasn't the missile that missed the target this week. It was all that money that went up in smoke with it.

----

PSR Condemns National Missile Defense System

U.S. Newswire
13 Jul 12:28
http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/Current_Releases/0713-118.html

Physicians Groups Condemns NMD as "Wrong Prescription for America" To: National Desk Contact: Anne Gallivan of Physicians for Social Responsibility, 202-898-0150 ext 222

WASHINGTON, July 11 /U.S. Newswire/ -- In the wake of the disastrous failure of the third test of the National Missile Defense (NMD) system on July 7, 2000, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) will today introduce an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill which, if passed, would force the Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) to revamp its testing program. It also prevents deployment until NMD can be truly shown to work.

Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) today welcomed this move to prevent an ideological rush to deploy NMD and called on President Clinton to cancel plans to deploy the system by 2005.

"This major system failure shows NMD simply won't work. Even if it was technically perfect, NMD would be the wrong prescription for America," said Anne Gallivan, Associate Director for Security Programs. "This system will not protect a single American. The only certain answer to missile threats is disarmament negotiation and de-alerting of the thousands of missiles that threaten us."

Backing this call, PSR today publishes an Issue Brief on National Missile Defense, laying out the problems with the system that make it a disaster for American and global security. These include:

-- The false sense of security NMD gives military policy makers, encouraging them to take unilateral, aggressive action; -- The increased threat to US security by the undermining of 40 years of arms control; -- The waste of up to $120 billion on a non-functioning system; -- The provocation of an arms race with Russia and China.

"If the FDA approved a new drug partway through a testing program, after two out of three tests failed, its director and scientists would be fired. If I prescribed such a drug, I would be endangering my patients and should lose my license," said Peter Wilk, MD, President of PSR. "National Missile Defense is endangering millions of Americans, and its supporters should lose their license to practice at the polls in November."

In place of NMD, PSR is prescribing several genuine security measures to make America and the world a safer place. These are:

-- The immediate de-alerting of all nuclear arsenals, removing the possibility of an accidental launch; -- Cancellation of programs which could rekindle an arms race, such as NMD; -- The commencement of negotiations to reduce, and eventually eliminate, nuclear, biological and chemical weapon threats.

-----

CALLING A BOMB A BOMB

July 13, 2000,
Washington Post
By Mary McGrory; Page A03
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-07/13/226l-071300-idx.html

WASHINGTON -- The Democrats have been quiet since the failure of the latest nuclear missile defense test. It's good news, but they are not sure whether the president sees it that way, and they don't want to press him while he's conducting delicate negotiations at Camp David.

In the meantime, the air is filled with sophistries from missile defense fans, who are busy translating the failure into a "disappointment" and assuring us that the humiliating setback will not make the slightest difference in the mad rush to pour concrete now to meet a self-inflicted deadline of 2005, when, according to Pentagon calculations, North Korea will be targeting Detroit.

The lessening of that likelihood, evident in a summit meeting of North and South Korean leaders, was brushed aside. "There are other rogue states," they snap. The only official reaction was to change the designation of "rogue states" to "states of concern." North Korea hasn't tested since 1998, and plans are going forward for massive north and south family reunions.

Nuclear missile defense is not about foreign policy. Neither is it about technology. It's about religion. It's about being a Republican, about being an American. Belief in a defensive shield is an article of faith, a litmus test. A heretic in the GOP is someone who insists that the system work and be needed.

Republican demagoguery and presidential triangulation have taken the heart out of Democrats who know better. Republicans roar, "You don't want to defend your country against missile attacks?" and Democrats cower. The answer from 25 Nobel laureates is not that we don't want to, but that we can't.

The scientists have stepped into the political vacuum left by the Democrats. They have organized forums and seminars and letters to editors. They have formulated a reply to the GOP charge that it is immoral not to erect defenses against incoming missiles. Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist Ted Postol says it is more immoral to assure people that they will be entirely safe under a nuclear umbrella that will not protect them.

Defense Secretary William Cohen, a Republican, emitted a striking sophistry about the fiasco: "The test itself was a disappointment, but it was one of those failures that was least expected. ... That happens from time to time -- that you have a failure of something that's fairly routine."

That is a kind of logic that you can't apply at Wimbledon, which was happily going on at the same time. Say Venus Williams had tripped over a tennis ball and missed a shot. Would the judges have discounted it because it did not involve her backhand or serve or other basic elements of her game? I don't think so.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., made a more sensible comment: "It's hard to see how they can recommend a deployment decision on a missile system that doesn't work."

Dorgan is a forthright skeptic. He invited Frances FitzGerald, author of "Way Out There in the Blue," the history of Ronald Reagan and Star Wars, to address a group of dubious Democrats. She told them that Reagan had found the inspiration for the shield from the silver screen. In "Torn Curtain," a 1966 Alfred Hitchcock movie, Paul Newman pledges: "We will produce a defensive weapon that will make all nuclear weapons obsolete, and thereby abolish the terror of nuclear warfare." That is almost precisely the phrasing Reagan used in presenting his Strategic Defense Initiative, or Star Wars.

Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan, D-N.Y., points out that the failure of the kill vehicle to do its stuff gave President Clinton the perfect out. But Democrats don't know if the president wants it. He likes to have it both ways. While Clinton would like to avoid the opprobrium of being the Democratic commander in chief who broke ground for a space extravaganza historically resisted by his party, he does not want to give the Republicans a free shot at his chosen successor, Al Gore, for being "weak on defense."

Although old Democrats have trouble watching Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbot -- who as a journalist was a stellar proponent of arms control -- over in Moscow negotiating his heart out to sabotage the central arms control scroll, the ABM treaty, Clinton seems to expect some credit for resisting George W. Bush's grandiose scheme for a real, all-out Star Wars scenario.

Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota expects Democrats to speak up now, to preach the old Democratic gospel of diplomacy and deterrence. And Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., introduced a measure that calls for future tests to be conducted under conditions more truly representative of space when all hell is breaking loose. Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass., is pushing for hearings in the House so that Democrats can finally talk back.

----

New Research Analyzes the Game of Missile Interception

NewsEdge
July 13, 2000
http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=p0712073.000&level3=139501&date=20000713

HAIFA, Israel and NEW YORK, July 12 /PRNewswire/ via NewsEdge Corporation

War is never a game, but one expert has brought game theory to bear on defending against incoming ballistic missile attacks. This theory could help improve the accuracy of the Pentagon's National Missile Defense system, the scaled-down version of the "Star Wars" effort.

The idea of using game theory -- a mathematical field -- to help intercept incoming missiles came to Professor Josef Shinar at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology as Scud missiles rained down on Israeli targets during the 1991 Gulf War. These missiles disintegrated during reentry and followed unpredictable trajectories, making their interception difficult.

Shinar realized that while existing tactical ballistic missiles (TBMs) such as the Scud are designed to follow a fixed trajectory, it would not require a great technological leap to develop TBMs that can maneuver intentionally.

By performing evasive maneuvers as they home in on their targets, such ballistic missiles would be considerably more difficult to intercept than their fixed trajectory brethren, and defensive missiles designed to intercept non-maneuvering targets would be virtually useless against them.

In true gamesmanship fashion, Shinar applied the gambit of anticipating the development of maneuverable TBMs, and went about creating what he calls a "guidance law" that considers the worst evasive moves, thereby improving the homing accuracy of future defensive systems.

In doing so, Shinar applied what is known as "zero-sum pursuit-evasion game theory."

"A pursuit-evasion game is an intuitive otion indicating that one of the players of the game, called the pursuer, is chasing and wants to capture the other, called the evader. It is a game of two players only. Since the gain of one player is the loss of the other, the game is called a zero-sum game," explains Shinar.

"This notion is well suited to an interception scenario, where the pay-off is the probability of destruction of the ballistic missile," he adds. The interceptor missile (pursuer) wants to maximize this pay-off and the TBM (evader) wants to minimize it.

Though Shinar's guidance law was conceived against TBMs (with a range of about 600 to 1,200 miles), there is no theoretical reason why his law could not eventually be applied to longer-range incoming Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs. Computer simulations of his law have offered "very impressive results." He says the law could be easily incorporated into any already developed missile defense system.

The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology is Israel's leading scientific and technological center for applied research and education. It commands a worldwide reputation for its pioneering work in computer science, biotechnology, water-resource management, materials engineering, aerospace and medicine. The Technion's 19 faculties and 30 research centers and institutes in Haifa are home to 13,000 students and 700 faculty members.

Based in New York City, the American Technion Society is the leading American organization supporting higher education in Israel, with more than 20,000 supporters and 17 offices around the country.

--------

A Better Way to Build a Missile Defense

July 13, 2000
By RICHARD PERLE
http://www.nytimes.com/00/07/13/oped/13perl.html

WASHINGTON -- Far from lamenting last week's highly publicized test failure, advocates of a defense against ballistic missiles should rejoice. The move to deploy an ill-conceived system supported by the Clinton administration has been stymied, and the prospect of a far more effective defense is greatly increased.

The system that failed in Saturday's test conformed to the main provisions of the 1972 ABM treaty between the United States and the late Soviet Union. That treaty, which became defunct when the Soviet Union collapsed, expressly prohibits the deployment of national missile defenses and allows only a tiny, highly localized defense based on old, ground-based technology. So it is hardly surprising that a system designed to fit within it, like the one the Clinton administration is recommending, would turn out to be inadequate.

The system's inadequacy is inherent in its technology and architecture. It relies on a small number of ground-launched interceptors, based on U.S. territory, that must be maneuvered with astounding precision to collide with incoming warheads at closing speeds of 15,000 miles per hour.

Since each enemy missile may carry several nuclear warheads, along with a large number of decoys, the 100 interceptors could be overwhelmed. And the interceptors will have only one shot: there is no chance to fire a second time if an interceptor misses.

To make matters worse, the entire system depends on a small number of ground-based radars, including one located on Shemya Island in Alaska. If that single radar were destroyed, the entire system would be disabled.

Surely nations capable of building long-range ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads could damage or destroy a large, immobile radar on that frozen, barren island.

If this technology is so fragile, why build it when the potential exists for a far more effective missile defense system? Unfortunately, the Clinton administration's primary concern seems to be the defense of the ABM treaty.

Administration officials are prepared to subordinate military effectiveness to a 30-year-old treaty that they persist in calling a "cornerstone" of stability.

A more effective system, although inconsistent with the treaty, would intercept hostile missiles (or missiles launched accidentally) early in their flight, just after lift-off, during what is known as the "boost phase." Television viewers familiar with shuttle launches have seen the booster rockets lift the shuttle into space, plumes of flame burning brightly as the shuttle rises gracefully into space. Similar rockets can, and do, deliver nuclear warheads.

During the boost phase, missiles move relatively slowly. They are easy to pinpoint: the intense heat from their rocket motors is readily detected by sensors based on satellites. If hostile rockets are intercepted in the beginning, during the boost phase, as opposed to the "terminal" phase of the administration's system, there are neither decoys nor multiple warheads to contend with.

A successful intercept destroys all the warheads and all the decoys before they can be separated from the rocket that carries them into space.

Moreover, a properly configured missile defense system protects widely. A missile destroyed in the boost phase will never reach its intended target -- whether it is Washington or Paris or American forces abroad.

One approach to a national missile defense would be to deploy interceptors on navy ships, possibly on Aegis cruisers, which could then be positioned as necessary. Such a sea-based system might work together with lasers and other devices in space to provide a limited but technologically sophisticated system with global reach and effectiveness.

Opponents of a robust missile defense argue that it would encourage the proliferation of nuclear weapons and lead to instability.

The opposite is far more likely. Imagine a sharp rise in tension between India and Pakistan. Both countries have nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. Suppose the United States could dispatch an Aegis cruiser to the region with instructions to intercept any ballistic missile fired by either side. Such a capability in American hands would be highly stabilizing, reducing the likelihood of conflict, discouraging the use of offensive missiles, reassuring both sides.

Other nations, like Iran, Iraq and North Korea, are actively trying to acquire missiles capable of attacking the United States. They believe that acquiring even a single missile will catapult them into a select class of states capable of inflicting massive damage on the United States. Given time and money, a single missile, or even several, is not beyond their reach.

But suppose that we were to construct a defense that could intercept all the warheads and decoys carried by 100 or 200 enemy missiles. A Saddam Hussein or a Kim Jung Il would need that number to be confident he could land a missile on New York or Chicago or an allied capital. In that case, even a determined adversary might well throw up his hands and conclude that such a missile force is beyond his reach.

The best way to protect against a missile attack is to discourage our adversaries from investing in the missiles in the first place.

There can be no more powerful disincentive than to have a shield that guarantees their hugely expensive programs will fail. It is that shield, based on our most advanced technology -- not an outdated treaty -- that will protect us best.

Richard Perle, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, was assistant secretary for international security policy at the Defense Department from 1981 to 1987. He is an adviser to Gov. George W. Bush.

--------

Clinton Urged To Defer Missile Rule

July 13, 2000
By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Congress-Missile-Defense.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senior Senate Democrats urged the president Thursday to put off a decision on proceeding with a national anti-missile defense system, saying there are too few guarantees it would be technically feasible and enhance national security.

``I can't imagine that we would want to build something that didn't work,'' Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle said at a news conference where he was joined by the top Democrats on the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan and Joseph Biden of Delaware.

The issue arose less than a week after the second failure this year of a Pentagon missile defense test and just minutes after the Senate narrowly defeated a proposal requiring more thorough testing before the defense system could be built.

The Senate voted 52-48 to kill an amendment by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., to a bill authorizing defense programs that would have required the Pentagon to test the system's effectiveness against countermeasures -- balloon decoys and other devices an adversary might use to confuse an anti-missile rocket.

All Democrats supported the amendment. All but three Republicans -- Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine and Jim Jeffords of Vermont -- opposed it.

President Clinton had been expected to make a decision later this year on going ahead with a timetable that would have the system ready for use by the end of 2005. The land-based system, a much smaller version of the ``Star Wars'' space-based system envisioned by President Reagan in the 1980s, would be designed to stop a limited number of incoming missiles from hostile nations such as North Korea.

Clinton laid out four criteria for making a judgment: cost, the extent of the threat, operational effectiveness and the impact on national security.

All four are in dispute.

Supporters reject estimates the system would cost at least $60 billion while opponents say North Korea knows it would be suicidal to attack the United States.

The two test failures this year have brought the system's feasibility into question, and the strong opposition of Russia, China and some allies to a unilateral U.S. anti-missile system have raised questions about its benefit to national security.

``This system is not ready for prime time. No president, this one or the next, unless things change drastically, should in fact deploy this system,'' Biden said.

Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, a Pentagon spokesman, defended the timetable. ``The goal of having a system, a limited system, deployed by 2005 is responsive to the threat that we project to be in existence at that time,'' he said.

Defense Secretary William Cohen will make his recommendation soon to Clinton, although it will not be a simple yes or no on whether to go ahead, Quigley said.

``I don't think Secretary Cohen has put any bounds on his recommendations that he'll make to the president. If he thinks it's relevant information that will help the president make that decision, I'm certain he would not hesitate to provide it,'' he said.

The GOP-led Congress has strongly supported the system and generally shrugged off testing problems and warnings from Russia and China that such a shield would violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., a strong advocate of the system, said the Durbin amendment would cause unnecessary delays to ``a very important capability to defend our nation against a serious threat.'' He said the issue of countermeasures ``has been generated by wild accusations from some college professors who have long opposed missile defenses of any sort.''

But Durbin said Republicans ducked the question of whether a $60 billion missile system can be misled by a cheap decoy. ``They are afraid to admit that their multibillion-dollar theory may not work.''

The vote, said Daryl Kimball, director of the Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers, an arms-control advocacy group, ``shows that the ideological drive for missile defense is so strong that many senators are willing to move ahead even if the system does not work.''

The Senate bill is S. 2549.
Ballistic Missile Defense Organization http://www.acq.osd.mil/bmdo/bmdolink/html/
Union of Concerned Scientists: http://www.ucsusa.org/


-------- MILITARY (by country)

India and France to jointly manufacture 54 defense systems

Agence France-Presse
July 13, 2000
By Agence France-Presse
http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=b0712159.8rg&level3=788&date=20000713

New Delhi--July 12--India and France have identified 54 major armaments systems for joint production in the coming year, a defense ministry spokesman said Wednesday.

"We have honed in on 54 systems against only 15 produced jointly last year," the spokesman told AFP.

"It is an indication of the ever-expanding spectrum since both sides set up a joint defense committee two years ago."

Sources in the ministry said the systems to be jointly produced in India included attack submarines, avionics, air-to-air missiles and weapons guidance and sub-systems.

The spokesman declined to confirm specifics but said the stepped up cooperation followed a slew of military visits between India and France.

The latest was the July 5-7 visit of a top-level team, including the three service chiefs, to France.

The team visited the French submarine plant at Cherbourg and had talks with Defence Minister Alain Richard, French chief of army staff Jean-Pierre Kelche and secretary general of the foreign office Loic Hennekine.

Indian submarine lines have been idle ever since the last of the four indigenously produced German SSK class submarines rolled out in 1997.

Besides pitching for French submarine know-how, the Indian delegation also sought French expertise in the construction of the country's first indigenous 32,000 tonne aircraft carrier to replace the ageing British-built Vikrant, sources said.

France is also in the race for a 1.6 billion-dollar contract to supply advanced jet trainers (AJTs) to the Indian Air Force.

British Aerospace, with its "Hawk" jet trainer and France's Dassault Aviation with the "Alphajet" have emerged as the two main contenders to supply 66 military AJTs to the technology-starved Indian air force.

India has been seeking such a trainer since 1983 to cut down on frequent air crashes attributed to poor training of its military pilots.

In recent years, France has been emerging as a potential rival to Russia as a supplier of military hardware to India.

Defence Minister George Fernandes visited Moscow last month, amid talks for the purchase of T-90 tanks, Sukhoi jets to be manufactured in India and the transfer of a Russian aircraft carrier. End

---

Boeing hopes to supply C-17 military transport to Europeans

BridgeNews
July 13, 2000
By John Wright, BridgeNews
http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=b0712384.5rg&level3=788&date=20000713

Seattle--July 12--Boeing Co. is holding discussions with the French government about the possibility of leasing C-17 Globemaster III military transport aircraft used by the U.S. government and scheduled for delivery to Great Britain, a company spokesman said Wednesday.

The U.K. Ministry of Defense announced May 16 that it had decided to lease the four C-17s for the Royal Air Force starting next year. Boeing and the British government continue to negotiate the terms of that agreement.

Boeing is also shopping its airplane around to other potential buyers. In February 1999, the company said that it had submitted a C-17 proposal to Belgium, Britain, France and Spain.

"We are holding discussions with the French, but we're not ready to make a deal," said Boeing spokesman George Sillia. He said that those discussions could not be characterized as negotiations.

Boeing is also offering the C-17 to Canada, Australia and NATO, according to Sillia. He said that all those parties are considering the airplane, but "none are in hard negotiations."

While several European governments are considering the proposed Airbus A400M, that airplane would not be ready for another six or seven years. Boeing is ready to step in and sell or lease C-17s in the meantime, and the company believes that some governments would be well served by owning both airplanes, according to Sillia.

"We believe that if a C-17 is built, somebody's going to want it," he said.

Boeing lists its C-17s at about $150 million, while the smaller A400M will sell for about $80 million.

Although similar in size to a 747 commercial jetliner, the C-17 can use very short airstrips, even dirt if paving is unavailable. It has taken off on 425 meters and landed on 416 meters.

Boeing has delivered 63 C-17s to the U.S. Air Force. They are used for troop transport as well as carrying cargo; they can be converted from one use to the other in a matter of hours. The fuselage sits only five feet off the ground, so tanks and other heavy equipment can be rolled on and off the plane through a ramp in the rear.

The 174-foot-long airplanes, manufactured in Long Beach, Calif., have a loading width of 18 feet and can carry 80 tons of cargo.

Besides military missions, the airplane has also been used for disaster relief. End

-------- colombia

No Passage

by Frank Smyth
IntellectualCapital.com
Thursday, July 13, 2000
http://intellectualcapital.com/issues/issue391/item10001.asp

American officials and others say the United States learned vital lessons in El Salvador that policymakers are now applying in Colombia. The gist of this argument is that like in El Salvador, the United States support of the Colombia military will eventually force its rival guerillas to the negotiating table. Last week in IC, Benjamin Ryder Howe quoted the Colombian academic, Eduardo Pizarro, who said:

[T]he strategy [in El Salvador] was very successful. The guerrillas got nothing. In the end, they had to negotiate because of what United States did for the Salvadoran army.

Remember 1989

America's record in El Salvador suggests something else, however. In November 1989, two days after the Brandenberg Gate in the Berlin Wall was finally opened, the largest Cold War military battle in this hemisphere began in the tiny Central American republic.

By then, U.S. intelligence agencies had dismissed El Salvador's leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) as a waning force. "Although they have not been decisively beaten, the guerrillas, in our view, no longer have the capability to launch and sustain major offensives," reported the CIA in 1986 in a SECRET assessment. But Langley was wrong. Although U.S. officials received various indications by 1989 that the FMLN was planning a major offensive, they chose to ignore their own intelligence and told Washington not to worry about the expected guerrilla action. The result put many of the same officials at risk.

It began loudly at 8 p.m. on Nov. 11. My favorite story is of the State Department official who, while huddled on the white tile floor of a San Salvador Pizza Hut, proposed to his girlfriend minutes after gunfire broke out on Avenida Escalon. Although he had planned on waiting until after dinner to offer her the ring, he decided he had no time to waste as FMLN guerrillas and government forces exchanged gunfire outside. Just up the street, the U.S. military attache, Col. Wayne Wheeler, found himself barricaded inside his home with his family as guerrillas and government forces fought over Escalon Circle. A little farther north, CIA Station Chief Robert W. Hultslander briefly saw his residence on Avenida Capilla in the San Benito neighborhood taken over by the guerrillas who spared his life after learning his identity. (Hultslander is now a private consultant who publicizes his past CIA positions on the Web to attract clients for the Washington-based firm, Global Business Access, Ltd.)

The calm before the storm

One U.S. official who missed the 1989 offensive was David Passage, who helped run the U.S Embassy in El Salvador in the mid-1980s. This spring he wrote a paper for the U.S. Army War College about Colombia in which he claims to draw lessons from America's counterinsurgency experiences in both El Salvador and Vietnam. Ambassador Passage rightly explains the lesson of Vietnam that America applied in El Salvador: "The United States made clear [to Salvadoran authorities] that it was El Salvador's war, not ours, to be won or lost by Salvadorans."

But he attempts to draw a far less solid lesson from America's experience in El Salvador for Colombia. Like Pizarro, the Colombian political scientist, Passage argues in his paper: "El Salvador's armed forces improved their military performance to the point that the guerrillas ultimately concluded that they needed to negotiate a peace or risk being wiped out."

Passage left El Salvador in 1986 -- the same year as the aforementioned CIA SECRET assessment. The mid-1980s was the height of U.S. aid to El Salvador, made possible by the election of President Jose Napoleon Duarte. (Duarte is the only serving head of state who ever wrote his autobiography in a language foreign to his own nation.) Duarte was a consensus-building figure in the U.S. Congress where he provided a humanist face to an anti-communist cause. During Duarte's administration, the United States encouraged the Salvadoran military to stop killing suspected civilian supporters of the guerrillas and instead to target armed guerrillas themselves.

The success of the Duarte period, however, faded as quickly as his book did. Although crimes of war decreased at the same [time] that the U.S.-backed military made some battlefield gains, the advantages of U.S. firepower began to diminish once the FMLN adjusted to the new situation by breaking down their rebel concentrations into smaller, more mobile squads. In response, first the CIA and then U.S. Special Forces tried to train the Salvadoran military to also break down their large units into smaller, more mobile patrols. But the Salvadoran military never made an effective transition to small unit operations. The main reason was the lack of morale among Salvadoran soldiers, most of whom came from peasant families like most of the guerrillas.

The United States also backed civic action programs in El Salvador to help the military win popular support. But Army dentists fixing teeth in villages along with clowns handing balloons to children could never undo the damage done by previous military massacres. In the late 1980s, while the military was trying to gain ground in the countryside, the guerrillas were expanding their support bases among poor urban communities in San Salvador and other cities that they would later use as staging grounds for the November offensive.

After the fall

The seizure of San Salvador along with every other city in the country in 1989 took Salvadoran military officers along with their U.S. advisers by surprise. U.S. Army Major Eric Warren Buckland was a psychological operations specialist within the Salvadoran High Command. He said the offensive "was like the fall of Saigon." The strength and scope of the siege was so overwhelming that for the first four days of the offensive the Salvadoran High Command also feared that the country might fall.

The November offensive broke at a time of great debate within the High Command. Officers including the former military intelligence chief, Army Col. Juan Orlando Zepeda, were arguing that the military needed to reject American exhortations about human rights to once again repress suspected civilian supporters of the guerrillas. Late the evening of Nov. 15, the Salvadoran High Command, in a meeting presided over by Chief of Staff Col. Rene Emilio Ponce, decided to kill civilians, according to a U.N. Truth Commission report released four years later. Early the next morning, the Salvadoran military executed six Jesuit University priests, along with their housekeeper and her daughter. The offensive continued for more than another week.

Images of Jesuit corpses wearing pajamas on the bloodied campus grass resonated in Washington. The events of the time killed several myths that revisionists like Passage seem to have forgotten. One was that the Salvadoran High Command had allegedly grown above ordering the murders of civilians. Another busted myth was that rather than nearly "being wiped out," the guerrillas reached their peak of military strength in 1989, and they remained strong until a lasting cease-fire was signed in 1992.

A third denuded myth was that rather than being marginal, the guerrillas had considerable support. While the rebel offensive had failed to spark a popular insurrection as many guerrillas and a few of their leaders had hoped, it nonetheless showed that the rebels enjoyed enough sympathy among poor communities to smuggle food, arms and combatants into the capital along with every other city without being detected in most cases.

Long-term risk

The lesson of El Salvador is that the guerrillas could not be so easily wiped out, and that in the end the United States needed to pressure not them, but America's own allies in the Salvadoran military to reach a peace settlement. Washington favored a gradual military victory over the FMLN before its November 1989 offensive. After it and the Jesuit murders, Congress and President Bush together cut the Salvadoran military's aid in half, forcing the military to finally accept real negotiations with the FMLN.

Today, the United States is training and arming the Colombian armed forces with the hope they will eventually be in a better position to negotiate with their country's FARC guerrillas. That could take years and cause untold carnage. There is a better way.

One critic of the Colombia plan is the Bush administration's former Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America Bernard Aronson. Writing recently in The Washington Post, Aronson warns that Colombia's guerrillas need to be brought to the table sooner instead of later, and he addresses the example of El Salvador along with two other cases:

[A]s successive administrations have done with the PLO, the FMLN (in El Salvador) and the IRA, the United States needs to find a formula to talk with the Colombian guerrillas, and a cease-fire in our domestic political wars would make that possible.

America's domestic political warfare continues although the perceived foreign enemy has switched from communism to drugs. When shaping U.S. Colombia policy, no one should forget El Salvador's 1989 offensive or the U.S. officials who -- believing their own myths -- found themselves and their loved ones in danger. The lesson of El Salvador suggests that the United States should change policy to really support a negotiated settlement in Colombia now, not later.

Frank Smyth is a freelance journalist who covered El Salvador for CBS News Radio, The Economist and The Village Voice. He is co-author of Dialogue and Armed Conflict: Negotiating the Civil War in El Salvador, Johns Hopkins Foreign Policy Institute (1988), and El Salvador: Is Peace Possible? Prospects for Negotiations and U.S. Policy, The Washington Office on Latin America (1990). He is a contributing editor at IntellectualCapital.com, and his Web site is at www.franksmyth.com. Email <franksmyth@compuserve.com>

-------- dagestan

Bombs found in Dagestan reveal plans of terrorist acts.

NewsEdge
July 13, 2000
http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=v0712376.6ts&level3=2884&date=20000713

MAKHACHKALA, July 12 (Itar-Tass) via NewsEdge Corporation - The discovery of a large amount of explosive on the railway tracks in Dagestan proved security forces' suspicions that extremists were preparing terrorist acts in the republic.

They searched Makhachkala's airport for explosive devices on Tuesday and railway tracks on Wednesday, deputy head of Dagestan's division of the Federal Security Service (FSB), Ruslan Akhyayev, told Itar-Tass.

During one of such checks, security forces found 10 tanks from liquefied gas stuffed with 40 kilograms of explosives each. The tanks were found on the 68th kilometre of the Kizlyar-Karlanyurt (not far from Mutsal-Aul) railway line.

The tanks were connected by wire to a detonator in the nearby forest. zak/

-------- france

French Mirage Fighter Crashes

NewsEdge
July 13, 2000
http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=v0712062.3xi&level3=139498&date=20000713

PARIS (July 12) XINHUA via NewsEdge Corporation - A Mirage 2000-D fighter of the French air force crashed early Wednesday morning near Nancy, northeastern France, after it collided with another plane from the same air base, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

AFP quoted the Nancy-Ochey air base as saying that the accident took place during a night training mission which lasted from Tuesday morning till Wednesday morning.

The two pilots of the crashed plane were injured when they ejected themselves from the plane, which crashed into a forest not far from the air base.

The other plane involved in the accident returned to the base safe and sound, said AFP.

This is the second time in nearly two months that a Mirage fighter of the French air force crashed.

A Mirage 5 fighter crashed on April 6 in Corsica.

-------- hungary

Hungary says U.S. criticism of MiGs upgrade plan moved by

Associated Press
July 13, 2000
http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=h0712092.900&level3=139498&date=20000713

LISBON, Portugal (AP) _ Hungary accused the United States Wednesday of promoting its own commercial interests by criticizing Hungarian plans to upgrade its current fighter jets rather than buying new ones.

``Clearly there is a commercial element involved. We understand that different countries try to promote their own interests,'' Hungarian Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi told reporters in Lisbon.

Hungary last week announced plans to modernize 14 of its 27 Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jets to meet NATO standards. The work, estimated to cost dlrs 70 million, was assigned to German company Daimler-Chrysler Aerospace.

Martonyi stressed the decision still had to go through parliament. If it is approved, it would be bad news for U.S. giants Lockheed Martin and McDonell Douglas, which were hoping to sell state-of-the-art combat jets to Hungary.

Two Russian firms, Dasa and MiG, were also competing for the upgrade project.

The U.S. ambassador to Hungary, Peter Tufo, criticized the Hungarian plans, saying the aircraft would still not be deployable in any NATO action. Successive American ambassadors have lobbied the Hungarian governments to buy new combat aircraft.

``The Hungarian Parliament will take this decision in view of all the factors like NATO compatibility, financial resources, timing and all other related issues,'' Martonyi said.

Martonyi was in Lisbon for talks with Portugal's Foreign Minister Jaime Gama on bilateral relations.

-------- israel

Israel drops plan to sell radar system to Chinese

July 13, 2000
By Andrew Cain and David R. Sands
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-200071322140.htm

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, bowing to intense pressure from the Clinton administration and Congress, yesterday called off a $250 million contract to sell an airborne radar system to China.

The announcement came during Mr. Clinton's second day of summit discussions with Mr. Barak and PLO leader Yasser Arafat at Camp David.

Mr. Barak informed Chinese President Jiang Zemin by letter yesterday that Israel was currently unable to proceed with the Phalcon project, said Gadi Baltiansky, Mr. Barak's foreign policy spokesman.

China had given Israel a $250 million down payment for the first Phalcon aircraft, to be delivered in October 2001. China had an option to buy six more, which could have meant $2 billion in sales for Israel's largest defense company.

The decision was made with consideration of the need for a continued intimate relationship with the U.S. administration and the Congress, Mr. Baltiansky said.

Mr. Barak told Mr. Clinton of the decision Tuesday on the first day of the Middle East summit.

"We welcome the decision," White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said.

"We are pleased to see that they have taken our security concerns into account in making this decision."

Mr. Lockhart said he was unaware of any U.S. promise to compensate Israel for calling off the deal.

Rep. Sonny Callahan, Alabama Republican and chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations, had threatened to withhold $250 million in aid to Israel if it sold the radar system to China.

"Israel made the right decision today to cancel the Phalcon sale to China," Mr. Callahan said.

"For the sake of U.S. national security interests and, in fact, the national security interests of all our allies -such as Israel - I am glad this matter has been resolved."

But Israel, which receives $2.8 billion in annual U.S. aid, made it clear in the letter to China it hopes someday to complete the sale.

Israel will continue to look for ways to fulfill the deal with the understanding of the United States, according to Mr. Baltiansky.

"Israel sees great value in fostering and cultivating a relationship with China, and will continue to work towards this end."

In November, Israel announced its intention to sell China the Airborne Warning and Control System, known as AWACS. The radar system, to be installed on a Russian transport plane, would enable China to conduct long-range radar surveillance and monitor Taiwan's air force communications.

"It's not in the [Asia] region's interests to make that technology available, and we are pleased the Israelis responded to our interests," another White House official said at Camp David.

President Clinton initially expressed concern that the project would involve U.S. technology. But administration officials later said the project could upset the military balance in Asia.

In April, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen met with Mr. Barak in Jerusalem and said he disapproved of the proposed sale.

"The United States does not support the sale of this kind of technology to . . . China because of the potential of changing the strategic balance in that region," Mr. Cohen told reporters at the time.

"With tensions running as high as they are in China and Taiwan, we see this as being counterproductive."

Israel's ambassador, David Ivry, told The Washington Times in April that Israel's relations with the United States are more important than the sale.

"We have now a problem with the United States over the interests of the United States," Mr. Ivry said during a luncheon with editors and reporters.

"U.S. interests are more important than anything.

"Israel's national security depends on our relationship with the United States. We have to take into account U.S. interests and concerns."

Mr. Jiang visited Israel in mid-April and predicted the sale would go forward.

"About the aircraft, we spoke on that yesterday, and there will be a contract," Mr. Jiang told reporters.

Some Pentagon officials viewed the proposed sale with alarm. They feared China would use the radar system to threaten U.S. aircraft carriers and naval forces in the Pacific that would be called in to defend Taiwan in the event of an attack on the island by mainland forces.

U.S. intelligence first detected the outfitting of the Russian jet in Israel last October, raising concerns in the Clinton administration and in Congress.

Israel reportedly is concerned that canceling the contract could jeopardize potential deals with Turkey, India and South Korea.

Israel previously came under fire in 1990 when the CIA reported that it improperly transferred U.S. Patriot anti-missile technology to China.

----

Leaders Tackle `Core Issues' at Camp David Peace Talks

July 13, 2000
By DAVID STOUT
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/late/13cnd-summit.html

WASHINGTON, July 13 -- A day after the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, and the Palestinian leader, Yasir Arafat, held their first one-on-one meeting, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators wrestled today with the issues that have divided them for years as President Clinton left the talks to keep earlier commitments.

Leaving Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright to preside over the goings-on at Camp David, Md., Mr. Clinton journeyed to Baltimore to address the convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, asking the gathering to offer up "your prayers and your best wishes" for success in the Middle East summit talks.

After appearing at the N.A.A.C.P., the President went back to Washington to present a Congressional Gold Medal to the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, retired president of the University of Notre Dame, for his long participation in civil rights activities.

The President was expected to return to Camp David later in the day, and officials cautioned journalists following the Mideast talks not to infer anything from the near-total lack of information about the progress of the talks.

A State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, said Mr. Barak and Mr. Arafat met in the latter's cabin on Wednesday night. Before that, the two had met only in the presence of President Clinton.

Mr. Boucher said he could disclose nothing about the face-to-face meeting. He said only that the parties continue to grapple "with core issues." Those include the future of Jerusalem, the future of territory that has been disputed for years, the future of a Palestinian state -- and, implicitly, a past that has been marked by bloodshed and distrust.

Mr. Boucher was asked if the parties had drawn up any kind of document. "That's not something we can talk about," he said.

Mr. Boucher said meetings were continuing "in differing configurations," with various segments from both sides meeting on their own initiative in a "somewhat fluid" setting.

Mr. Boucher said the people at Camp David dined on Wednesday night on "Mediterranean barbecue," but he repeatedly emphasized that the informality did not make the issues any less difficult.

One newcomer to the talks was Dan Meridor, a senior parliamentarian and former Israeli justice and finance minister, who joined the sessions at the request of Prime Minister Barak.

And three senior members of the Palestine Liberation Organization -- men not necessarily loyal to Mr. Arafat -- hoped to confer with him later today. He was said to be eager to meet with them, too, but it was not clear where they would gather.

Only parties to the negotiations are allowed inside Camp David, and by mid-day there had been no request for security clearances for the three Palestinians.

--------

Israel Drops Plan to Sell Air Radar to China Military

July 13, 2000
By JANE PERLEZ
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/071300mideast-talks.html

THURMONT, Md., July 12 -- Israel announced today that it had canceled its sale of a sophisticated $250 million airborne radar system to China, a decision timed for the second day of the Camp David summit meeting and aimed at improving the mood in Congress, where heated opposition to the deal had threatened aid to the Israelis.

The move was carefully calibrated by Israeli officials so that they would be better poised to receive increased American military assistance if any peace accord is reached between the Palestinians and Israelis.

Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel informed Mr. Clinton of the decision Tuesday night when the two leaders met about six miles from here at Camp David, a spokesman for Mr. Barak said.

An Israeli statement said the deal, which had been under way for five years, was canceled "with consideration of the need for a continued intimate relationship with the United States administration and Congress."

Mr. Clinton, who said recently that he had spoken more than once to Mr. Barak about the administration's concern over Israel giving military help to the Chinese, welcomed the decision.

His spokesman, Joe Lockhart, said: "Israel has made a decision here; they took into account our security concerns. We appreciate that."

The cancellation was unlikely to have any direct effect on the workings of the summit meeting, where talks continued in what was described as an informal atmosphere of casual dress and simple gatherings at mealtime between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators. Despite the carefree atmosphere, Mr. Lockhart said that reaching a positive outcome was still going to be a struggle.

Mr. Clinton spent his second day with Mr. Barak and the Palestinian leader, Yasir Arafat, but was scheduled to take a break for a speech on Thursday before an N.A.A.C.P. meeting in Baltimore.

Pressure on Israel to cancel the Phalcon airborne radar had been building for weeks as senior members of Congress, including some considered sympathetic to Israel, publicly criticized the deal. The planned sale of military technology to China was particularly irritating, they said, given the strong military relationship between Israel and the United States.

Israel's assurances that it was not providing American technology to the Chinese did not mollify critics.

In announcing the cancellation, the Israelis avoided what could have been an embarrassing debate on the floor of the House of Representatives today, where the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Representative Sonny Callahan, Republican of Alabama, was preparing to bring up an amendment holding back $250 million in assistance to Israel.

Mr. Callahan said he was glad that "for the sake of United States national security interests and, in fact, in the national security interests of all our allies, such as Israel" that the sale had been canceled.

Mr. Callahan's proposal to hold back the money had already failed in his subcommittee. And the amendment was not expected to pass the House either. But each airing of the legislation provoked negative remarks against Israel at a time when the Barak government has been seeking more assistance.

One of Mr. Barak's objectives at Camp David is that Israel should come away with an upgraded military relationship with the United States as compensation for any risks it might encounter in compromising with the Palestinians. If a full peace accord is reached at Camp David, Israel expects to get a significant increase in its defense capabilities from the United States, including radar to detect missiles from Iran and Iraq. This year, of a $2.8 billion aid package to Israel, $1.98 billion was for military assistance.

Until quite recently, the Israeli government had tried to modify the sale with the Chinese to calm the increasing opposition in Congress. Israel has earned billions of dollars in arms sales to China in recent years, according to arms experts, and was reluctant to cut off the relationship.

In a letter to the Chinese president, Jiang Zemin, laying out the cancellation, Mr. Barak expressed the hope that there might be room for future cooperation, an Israeli official said today.

The letter was delivered on Monday in Beijing by the director general of the Ministry of Defense, Amos Yaron.

The Pentagon began protesting to the Israeli government late last year after a subsidiary of Israel Aircraft Industries mounted the radar system on a Russian-made cargo plane destined for the Chinese Air Force. The subsidiary, known as Elta, designed the Phalcon system for the Israeli Air Force. A Chinese-owned Ilyushin-76 outfitted with the radar has been parked at Ben-Gurion International Airport.

The Clinton administration said it was most concerned because the system would significantly increase the capabilities of the Chinese to track warplanes in and around the Taiwan Strait.

The Israeli argument that a closer relationship with the Chinese military would allow Israel to dissuade Beijing from supplying weaponry to Iran and Iraq did not win many converts in the United States.

In Congress today, there was wide support for the cancellation, but still caution. "This is not a note of victory," said Fred Downey, a legislative aide to Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut. "It's the Israelis coming to the right decision so we can discuss the upgraded security arrangement" that would come with a successful summit meeting.

Members of Congress were informed of the decision this morning by the Israeli ambassador to Washington, David Ivri, a former Israeli Air Force commander and a main architect of Israel's weapons sales to China since the mid-1990's.

-------- korea

G-8 Foreign Ministers Praise Koreas

July 13, 2000
By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-G-8-Foreign-Ministers.html

MIYAZAKI, Japan (AP) -- Foreign Ministers from the world's industrial powers on Thursday praised the thawing of ties on the Korean Peninsula and pledged to prevent the sources of global conflict.

During two days of talks to prepare for the July 21-23 summit of G-8 leaders on Okinawa, the ministers agreed on measures to snuff out conflicts before they erupt and to limit suffering when it breaks out.

``It is very important for G-8 countries to change their attitude to war and conflict,'' said Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy.

The steps outlined in a joint communique included blocking shipments of light weapons, keeping children out of battlefields, fighting the illegal trade of diamonds in Africa, training an international civil police force and promoting economic development in the Third World.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright remained at home because of the Mideast peace summit at Camp David and sent her deputy, Strobe Talbott, instead.

While discussing a wide range of global flash points from the Balkans to the Mideast, the ministers gave particular emphasis this year to Asia.

They highlighted the June summit between South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and the North's Kim Jong Il in which the two leaders agreed to work toward reunification as a major contribution to stability.

``We welcome the recent steps taken by North Korea toward dialogue with the international community,'' the ministers said in their communique.

Still, they urged the Stalinist North, with its missile and nuclear weapons programs, to take a ``constructive response to international concerns over security, nonproliferation, humanitarian and human rights issues.''

Talbott warned at a press conference following the meeting: ``The North Korea missile threat is a reality, a reality particularly palpable to host Japan.''

The ministers also expressed ``concern'' about constitutional amendments in Yugoslavia that would allow President Slobodan Milosevic to run for another term and downgrade Montenegro's status in the federation with Serbia.

The wording was considerably softer than many had expected. But Igor Ivanov, the foreign minister of traditional Serbian ally Russia, said, ``The wording chosen in the document reflects a serious approach.''

The ministers lauded Indonesia's efforts to implement economic and democratic reforms and said they would support efforts to stabilize provinces torn by ethnic and religious strife.

The ministers also stressed their commitment to strengthening the U.N. Security Council, a victory for Japan which has been lobbying for a permanent seat.

The foreign ministers held a breakfast meeting with representatives of developing countries before holding their last round of discussions at this southern seaside resort.

The G-8 ministers made a commitment to work with Third World countries on alleviating poverty, bridging the digital divide and preventing the spread of infectious diseases such as AIDS.

The meeting was the first dialogue with developing countries in the context of a gather of the G-8, which consists of the United States, Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Russia.

-------- kosovo

Aerial Surveillance in Kosovo

NewsEdge
July 13, 2000
By ROBERT H. REID Associated Press Writer
http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=h0712010.000&level3=788&date=20000713

PODUJEVO, Yugoslavia (AP) via NewsEdge Corporation - On a moonlit night, British soldiers on a hilltop near this northeastern Kosovo town peer into screens, watching vehicles and people moving about dozens of miles away as clearly as if it were day.

Along with German and American forces, 22 Battery of the 32 Royal Artillery Regiment, based in Larkhar, England, operates one of several unmanned airborne surveillance systems available to NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo.

The British Phoenix system, like its U.S. and German counterparts, allows the NATO-led Kosovo Force to watch for violations of the June 1999 agreement, under which international troops replaced Yugoslav soldiers and police following the 78-day Allied bombing campaign of Yugoslavia.

British officers refused to say whether the Phoenix, an aluminum-colored aircraft with a 15-foot wingspan that looks like a giant model plane, is used along the control zone that separates Kosovo from the rest of Serbia.

Traveling at 70 mph at an altitude of about 2,300 feet, the Phoenix is mounted with cameras that send back real time video from as far as 1.2 miles from the plane itself, a capability that could be used to keep track of any Yugoslav forces near the boundary.

Since the pictures are real-time, the images can alert troops on the ground to suspicious activity, such as ethnic Albanian extremists trying to transport illegal weapons by night. The cameras can make out individuals on the ground but not their faces.

Crews operating from a truck at a remote hillside about three miles from the boundary with Serbia can track the Phoenix's location and provide precise grid coordinates of any suspicious activity.

Maj. Sebastian Heath, commander of 22 Battery, said the real-time nature of the system means ground troops can respond instantly. Heath said the Phoenix was used during last month's NATO raids on secret ethnic Albanian weapons stockpiles in central Kosovo, which NATO commanders described as the biggest illegal weapons cache uncovered since the end of fighting last year.

``We could see them moving about so that we could say 'in that building there are people you need to get your hands on,''' Heath said.

NATO obtained mixed results from unmanned surveillance aircraft during the Kosovo war. Yugoslavia reported, and the alliance confirmed, that a number were brought down by ground fire.

Sensors on the Lynx or Gazelle helicopters are believed to be more detailed than those on the Phoenix.

In Kosovo, however, where the threat of hostile fire is minimal, the aircraft expands NATO's ability to keep watch and serves as a deterrent to those seeking to violate the peace agreement.

During a visit to the unit during a night operation Tuesday, reporters could see vehicles traveling down a darkened road west of Pristina as well as people crossing a field on foot.

``I enjoy it,'' said Bombadier Andrew Friendship, a 12-year veteran whose job is to track the aircraft's course. ``We had an old drone system before which only produced pictures after two hours. This is instantaneous, live.''

-------- puerto rico

UN Committee Supports End to U.S. Navy Bombing on Vieques

By Cat Lazaroff
July 13, 2000 (ENS)
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2000/2000L-07-13-07.html

NEW YORK, New York, A United Nations committee has decided to recommend that the organization officially urge the United States to stop military training activities on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, and return military lands there to Puerto Rico.

Vieques, seven miles off the east coast of Puerto Rico, is a resort island with a bioluminescent bay. (Photo courtesy Frank Bombino)

The resolution, approved Wednesday, marks the first time in 28 years that the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization has reached consensus on the issue of Puerto Rican sovereignty on Vieques.

Acting without a vote, the Special Committee approved a draft resolution under which the United Nations General Assembly would "encourage the U.S. government to order a halt to its armed forces' military drills and manoeuvres on the inhabited island of Vieques, return the occupied land to the Puerto Rican people, halt the persecution, arrests and harassment of peaceful demonstrators, respect their fundamental rights, and decontaminate the impact area."

For more than a year, hundreds of protesters have camped out on the U.S. Navy bombing ranges on Vieques to prevent the resumption of live fire ammunition training on the island. Training was halted in April 1999 after a stray bomb fired by an F-16 fighter killed a base security guard and injured four other Puerto Ricans.

On May 4, 2000, U.S. federal agents arrived in helicopters at dawn to remove more than 200 protesters. The protesters removed include grassroots community leaders, religious leaders, elected officials from Puerto Rico and the United States including two members of the U.S. Congress and members of the Puerto Rican Legislature; leaders of the Puerto Rican Independence party, students, union members, and well known artists.

Federal agent removes protesters from Vieques camp on May 4 (Photo courtesy Vieques, PR, a U.S. War Zone)

But that did not end the protests. Almost every week since early May, handfuls of protesters have been arrested from trespassing on Navy property. Activists claim the protesters have been sprayed with pepper spray and have suffered other abuses at the hands of federal agents and police.

The United Nations Special Committee, which works to ensure the rights of protectorates, colonies, and other non-self governing territories, heard testimony by several petitioners seeking an end to Navy training on Vieques. The Navy owns two-thirds of the 52 square mile (135 square kilometer) island and has conducted live fire training there since 1941.

Decades of military activities have destroyed coral reefs off the Vieques coast and left the island littered with bomb fragments, unexploded ordnance, and radioactive materials from depleted uranium ammunition. These environmental depredations have helped push many Puerto Ricans to support an end to the status of Puerto Rico as a U.S. protectorate.

Juan Maria Bras of Causa Comun Independentista (Proyecto Educativo Puertorriqueno) said the U.S. military had set off the Vieques crisis with the sole purpose of affirming the domination of Puerto Rico, despite the consensus in the commonwealth that it must cease its activity there. "In continuing military exercises on Vieques, raw force had prevailed against what was right," Bras said. "The Navy must end the bombing immediately and leave Vieques forever."

Amir Guadalupe, 2, throws a rock at the military guard post of Camp Garcia, the U.S. Navy's main entry point to the Live Impact Area (Photo courtesy Vieques Libre)

Venessa Ramos of the American Association of Jurists, said that her organization was defending the right of the people of Puerto Rico to gain self-determination and independence. She denounced the use and abuse of Vieques for military exercises, and referred to local authorities as "imperial lackeys" for their complicity. She also pointed out that some ammunition used on Vieques contained depleted uranium, and she condemned the arrests that had occurred in the protests caused by the deaths of inhabitants due to the military bombings.

Those carrying out civil disobedience represent the entire range of Puerto Rican citizens, she said. She requested that the Special Committee draft resolution order the unconditional withdrawal of military forces from Vieques and the return of control to Puerto Rico. And she called on U.S. President Bill Clinton to release Puerto Rican political prisoners. She asked the Special Committee to assist Puerto Rico in achieving sovereignty through a process that included a constituent assembly.

In the draft text it sent to the General Assembly, the Committee expressed its hope that President Clinton would release all Puerto Rican political prisoners serving sentences in U.S. prisons on cases related to the struggle for the independence of Puerto Rico. The group asked the Assembly to "reaffirm the international community's hope that the United States Government would assume the responsibility of expediting a process that would allow the Puerto Rican people to fully exercise their inalienable right to self determination and independence."

Under a December 1999 agreement between Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Rossello and President Clinton, residents of Vieques would have three years to hold a referendum to decide whether they want the bombing to continue on the island. In addition, inert bullets would take the place of live ordnance bombing.

February 21, 2000. Protesters against Navy bombing on Vieques march in San Juan, Puerto Rico (Photo courtesy Vieques Libre)

But Marisol Corretjer of Partido Nationalista de Puerto Rico said international law does not uphold the presence of the U.S. in Puerto Rico at all, as it derives from an act of aggression carried out in 1898. The act of aggression invalidated any preceding treaty, such as the Treaty of Paris, under which the U.S. acquired Puerto Rico. Rather than trying to perpetuate its colonial dominance, the U.S. must begin a genuine decolonization exercise, Corretjer said.

Wilma Reveron of the Comité Puerto Rico en la ONU, spoke of the widespread condemnation of the U.S. for evicting protesters from Vieques and resuming military training there. Many people had been imprisoned, and she "found it ironic that those who had raped women in Vieques, polluted its land, and destroyed its lagoons, fisheries, flora and fauna were not only free, but also protected by the whole federal justice system of the United States." That meant that the justice system was in the service of the Navy, Reveron argued, so the people of Puerto Rico had no legal recourse except through the United Nations.

Reveron pointed to the cancer rate of the Vieques population as perhaps the best dramatization of the situation of colonial peoples, whose right to life and health had been violated. The Vieques protests demonstrated the willingness of the Puerto Rican people to take action to change their status. They had joined together to say that not one more bomb should be loosed on the island and to demand that the Navy leave Vieques at once.

An MK-82 inert practice bomb sits on Monte David, the most heavily bombed area of Vieques, named for David Sanes Rodriguez who was killed by a mis-fired bomb last August. (Photo courtesy Vieques Libre)

Alfredo Marrero of the Comité Pro Rescate y Desarollo de Vieques, said Puerto Rico's colonial situation was most visible in Vieques. The island's situation demonstrated the most negative repercussions of United States colonialism. Many people had died in fights or as a result of bombs strewn all over the land. Vieques was contaminated with napalm, depleted uranium and other toxic materials in its water.

He said it had taken the Navy a long time to admit its use of depleted uranium. The Navy treated the population of Vieques like laboratory rats, Marrero said. The anti-Navy demonstrations had shown the unity of the Puerto Rican people and the consensus across all groups, ages and social strata.

----

UN Committee Supports End to U.S. Navy Bombing on Vieques

By Cat Lazaroff
July 13, 2000
ENS
From: Tara Thornton <cmorganizer@miltoxproj.org>

NEW YORK, New York, A United Nations committee has decided to recommend that the organization officially urge the United States to stop military training activities on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, and return military lands there to Puerto Rico.

Vieques, seven miles off the east coast of Puerto Rico, is a resort island with a bioluminescent bay. (Photo courtesy Frank Bombino) The resolution, approved Wednesday, marks the first time in 28 years that the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization has reached consensus on the issue of Puerto Rican sovereignty on Vieques. Acting without a vote, the Special Committee approved a draft resolution under which the United Nations General Assembly would "encourage the U.S. government to order a halt to its armed forces' military drills and manoeuvres on the inhabited island of Vieques, return the occupied land to the Puerto Rican people, halt the persecution, arrests and harassment of peaceful demonstrators, respect their fundamental rights, and decontaminate the impact area."

For more than a year, hundreds of protesters have camped out on the U.S. Navy bombing ranges on Vieques to prevent the resumption of live fire ammunition training on the island. Training was halted in April 1999 after a stray bomb fired by an F-16 fighter killed a base security guard and injured four other Puerto Ricans.

On May 4, 2000, U.S. federal agents arrived in helicopters at dawn to remove more than 200 protesters. The protesters removed include grassroots community leaders, religious leaders, elected officials from Puerto Rico and the United States including two members of the U.S. Congress and members of the Puerto Rican Legislature; leaders of the Puerto Rican Independence party, students, union members, and well known artists.

Federal agent removes protesters from Vieques camp on May 4 (Photo courtesy Vieques, PR, a U.S. War Zone) But that did not end the protests. Almost every week since early May, handfuls of protesters have been arrested from trespassing on Navy property. Activists claim the protesters have been sprayed with pepper spray and have suffered other abuses at the hands of federal agents and police. The United Nations Special Committee, which works to ensure the rights of protectorates, colonies, and other non-self governing territories, heard testimony by several petitioners seeking an end to Navy training on Vieques. The Navy owns two-thirds of the 52 square mile (135 square kilometer) island and has conducted live fire training there since 1941.

Decades of military activities have destroyed coral reefs off the Vieques coast and left the island littered with bomb fragments, unexploded ordnance, and radioactive materials from depleted uranium ammunition. These environmental depredations have helped push many Puerto Ricans to support an end to the status of Puerto Rico as a U.S. protectorate.

Juan Maria Bras of Causa Comun Independentista (Proyecto Educativo Puertorriqueno) said the U.S. military had set off the Vieques crisis with the sole purpose of affirming the domination of Puerto Rico, despite the consensus in the commonwealth that it must cease its activity there. "In continuing military exercises on Vieques, raw force had prevailed against what was right," Bras said. "The Navy must end the bombing immediately and leave Vieques forever."

Amir Guadalupe, 2, throws a rock at the military guard post of Camp Garcia, the U.S. Navy's main entry point to the Live Impact Area (Photo courtesy Vieques Libre) Venessa Ramos of the American Association of Jurists, said that her organization was defending the right of the people of Puerto Rico to gain self-determination and independence. She denounced the use and abuse of Vieques for military exercises, and referred to local authorities as "imperial lackeys" for their complicity. She also pointed out that some ammunition used on Vieques contained depleted uranium, and she condemned the arrests that had occurred in the protests caused by the deaths of inhabitants due to the military bombings. Those carrying out civil disobedience represent the entire range of Puerto Rican citizens, she said. She requested that the Special Committee draft resolution order the unconditional withdrawal of military forces from Vieques and the return of control to Puerto Rico. And she called on U.S. President Bill Clinton to release Puerto Rican political prisoners. She asked the Special Committee to assist Puerto Rico in achieving sovereignty through a process that included a constituent assembly.

In the draft text it sent to the General Assembly, the Committee expressed its hope that President Clinton would release all Puerto Rican political prisoners serving sentences in U.S. prisons on cases related to the struggle for the independence of Puerto Rico. The group asked the Assembly to "reaffirm the international community's hope that the United States Government would assume the responsibility of expediting a process that would allow the Puerto Rican people to fully exercise their inalienable right to self determination and independence."

Under a December 1999 agreement between Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Rossello and President Clinton, residents of Vieques would have three years to hold a referendum to decide whether they want the bombing to continue on the island. In addition, inert bullets would take the place of live ordnance bombing.

February 21, 2000. Protesters against Navy bombing on Vieques march in San Juan, Puerto Rico (Photo courtesy Vieques Libre) But Marisol Corretjer of Partido Nationalista de Puerto Rico said international law does not uphold the presence of the U.S. in Puerto Rico at all, as it derives from an act of aggression carried out in 1898. The act of aggression invalidated any preceding treaty, such as the Treaty of Paris, under which the U.S. acquired Puerto Rico. Rather than trying to perpetuate its colonial dominance, the U.S. must begin a genuine decolonization exercise, Corretjer said. Wilma Reveron of the Comité Puerto Rico en la ONU, spoke of the widespread condemnation of the U.S. for evicting protesters from Vieques and resuming military training there. Many people had been imprisoned, and she "found it ironic that those who had raped women in Vieques, polluted its land, and destroyed its lagoons, fisheries, flora and fauna were not only free, but also protected by the whole federal justice system of the United States." That meant that the justice system was in the service of the Navy, Reveron argued, so the people of Puerto Rico had no legal recourse except through the United Nations.

Reveron pointed to the cancer rate of the Vieques population as perhaps the best dramatization of the situation of colonial peoples, whose right to life and health had been violated. The Vieques protests demonstrated the willingness of the Puerto Rican people to take action to change their status. They had joined together to say that not one more bomb should be loosed on the island and to demand that the Navy leave Vieques at once.

An MK-82 inert practice bomb sits on Monte David, the most heavily bombed area of Vieques, named for David Sanes Rodriguez who was killed by a mis-fired bomb last August. (Photo courtesy Vieques Libre) Alfredo Marrero of the Comité Pro Rescate y Desarollo de Vieques, said Puerto Rico's colonial situation was most visible in Vieques. The island's situation demonstrated the most negative repercussions of United States colonialism. Many people had died in fights or as a result of bombs strewn all over the land. Vieques was contaminated with napalm, depleted uranium and other toxic materials in its water. He said it had taken the Navy a long time to admit its use of depleted uranium. The Navy treated the population of Vieques like laboratory rats, Marrero said. The anti-Navy demonstrations had shown the unity of the Puerto Rican people and the consensus across all groups, ages and social strata.

-------- russia

Putin Defends Heavy-Handed Policies

July 13, 2000
By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Russia-Putin.html

MOSCOW (AP) -- President Vladimir Putin defended his heavy-handed policies Thursday, saying Russia needs powerful authorities but would never become a police state.

The Russian leader has come under attack for allegedly stifling opposition-minded media and for his desire to increase the Kremlin's control over Russia's often unruly regional governors. In addition, Russia's tax police have targeted several powerful businesses -- a move Putin opponents say reflects the president's desire to crush the influential ``oligarchs'' who rule much of Russia's economy.

Putin defended the actions in an interview with the newspaper Izvestia, saying state mechanisms in Russia must be ``effective, and that means strong.''

``Today, when sweet living is over and we have passed from talk about order to establishing that order, we hear an outcry: This is a threat to freedom and democracy!'' Putin complained in the interview, to be published Friday. It was released in advance by Russian news agencies and broadcast in part on television.

``The building of a strong and effective state must not lead to violation of civil freedoms,'' Putin said. ``The course toward order must not be seen as the possibility to increase bureaucratic arbitrariness. Russia must not and shall not be a police state.''

Putin said many businessmen were simply used to breaking the law.

``While the state was loosening the reins in economy, tax evasion and other violations became widespread and common. As a result, many entrepreneurs today find themselves in a risky zone and have a potentially complex relationship with the law. So why shouldn't they be nervous?'' the president said.

The government, he argued, has taken steps to improve the business climate and has introduced a flat 13-percent income tax that would encourage business development if parliament approves it.

``In response, the state has the right to expect entrepreneurs to observe the rules of the game,'' he said.

He also devoted much time to explaining his bid to reform the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament that is composed of regional leaders, and otherwise curb the powers of regional officials.

If adopted, the plan would turn the Federation Council into a group of regionally appointed senators. The Council is locked in a bitter fight over the proposal with the lower house, the State Duma, which overwhelmingly backs Putin's proposals. The sides have formed a conciliatory commission, but it hasn't achieved anything yet.

``We are talking about returning federal powers to the center,'' Putin said.

He accused some regional leaders of stifling economic freedom, dividing regional businesses among insiders and strangling the media and public groups. While doing so, those very leaders blame Moscow for rights violations, Putin said.

``We don't want to rule everything from the center. But we also don't want to see arbitrariness of local officials who enjoy a complete lack of control,'' he said.

Putin, a former Soviet KGB operative who describes himself as a convinced democrat, said democracy in post-Soviet Russia was ``established from above'' and almost led to chaos.

``A short while ago, there were grounds to be concerned that freedom without limits would in the end destroy both the state and its citizens,'' he said. He added that Russians need not fear Kremlin efforts to build ``open and foreseeable'' state mechanisms to protect civil freedoms.

-------- u.s.

National Guard Cancels Chicken Kill After PETA Objects

By Steve Vogel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday , July 13, 2000
From: "Nancy A. Hey" <cattynancy@hotmail.com>

The Maryland National Guard has chickened out.

After receiving an animal cruelty complaint from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the Guard canceled plans to have soldiers kill chickens as part of survival training, held recently in Western Maryland.

"We're definitely pleased those chickens were spared a cruel death," said Cem Akin, a national PETA official at its headquarters in Norfolk. PETA sent a letter to the Maryland Guard on Friday praising its "compassionate decision to cancel the live animal portion of survival training."

About 75 Maryland National Guard soldiers participated in the survival training the weekend of June 24 and 25 at Camp Baker in Allegany County, learning how to build shelters, catch animals for food and evade detection.

"This isn't something we do because we want to go out and kill chickens," said Capt. Drew Sullins, a spokesman for the Maryland Guard. "It teaches them the most humane way to kill them and how to safely prepare it for consumption."

Brig. Gen. Steven Blum, commander of the Maryland Army National Guard, said: "It would not be unusual for us to get some chickens and rabbits and show soldiers how to catch them and kill them and prepare them. How do you give a city kid the confidence that they can do it if you don't show them how?"

But the Guard canceled the chicken portion of the exercise after PETA sent an "emergency fax" to Blum on June 23 protesting the plan. "These pointless exercises will result in nothing more than public outrage over the extreme suffering caused to dozens of docile animals," the letter said.

PETA learned of the planned exercise from a "whistleblower," Akin said.

"It was a one-time judgment call that we would rather not have the distraction of having PETA show up at our training," Sullins said. "It's unfortunate, given the fact that we're deploying a large number of Marylanders to Bosnia."

More than 125 Maryland Guard soldiers from the 629th Intelligence Battalion in Laurel are in Bosnia as part of the NATO peacekeeping mission. The Maryland and Virginia National Guards are preparing to deploy hundreds more soldiers next year when the 29th Infantry Division, a Guard unit based at Fort Belvoir in Fairfax County, takes command of the Bosnia operation.

The soldiers who participated in the survival training included members of the 29th Aviation Brigade, elements of which will be deploying to Bosnia with helicopters. Sullins said the survival training is particularly important for aircraft crew members. "If an aircraft were to go down and they were somehow stranded and didn't have access to food, who knows what would happen?" Sullins said.

But Akin said soldiers do not practice killing people and do not need to practice killing chickens, either.

"It just doesn't make sense for soldiers to practice killing chickens," Akin said. "A starving soldier, in the unlikely event he comes across a chicken on the battlefield, wouldn't have any trouble killing that chicken."

PETA's letter called on the Maryland Guard to forever cease killing chickens and other animals. "We are glad that you agree that these exercises benefit no one--least of all the animals who experience agonizing deaths--and hope you will issue a written policy prohibiting the use of live animals in future survival training exercises," the letter said.

But the Guard says a ban is unlikely. "Absolutely not," Sullins said. "We can't continue to deprive troops of the training they need."

Guard officials expressed exasperation at the PETA position, noting that thousands of chickens are slaughtered every day at the Purdue Farms operations on the Eastern Shore.

"It's okay for soldiers to kill people, but they can't kill chickens?" said a Guard officer. "What do they think happens to the rest of the chickens in the world?"

Military Matters appears every other week. Steve Vogel can be reached at vogels@washpost.com via e-mail.

----

http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/I2R?urn:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/2000/7/14/6.text.1

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary (Camp David, Maryland)

For Immediate Release July 13, 2000

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

Today I have signed into law H.R. 4425, the Military Construction Appropriations Act, FY 2001, Emergency Supplemental Act, FY 2000, and Cerro Grande Fire Supplemental, which provides funding for military construction and family housing programs of the Department of Defense (DoD), and urgently needed supplemental resources.

I am gratified that my Administration and the Congress were able to reach agreement on the FY 2000 supplemental legislation included in H.R. 4425. This important supplemental appropriation provides urgently needed resources to keep the peace and build stability in Kosovo, bolster democracy and reform elsewhere in Southeast Europe, support the Colombian government's fight against drug traffickers, provide needed home energy assistance for low-income families, provide further assistance to the victims of Hurricane Floyd and other natural disasters, including the crisis in Mozambique, and for other purposes.

I commend the Congress for providing the critical resources needed to continue our support for Plan Colombia, President Pastrana's strategy to address Colombia's national security, socioeconomic, and drug-related problems. The $1.3 billion provided underscores our commitment to support the fight against drug traffickers and benefits the United States by bringing greater peace and prosperity to an important American ally.

Nonetheless, I am concerned that certain provisions of the bill will limit the effectiveness of our assistance. Key initiatives, such as ground-based radar, secure field communications, and force protection are funded at levels below my request. Furthermore, the Congress substituted its own judgement for that of the U.S. and Colombian militaries, and provided funding for only 16 of the 30 Blackhawk helicopters requested for the Colombian Army, providing instead funding for 30 Huey II helicopters. The substitution of Huey IIs for Blackhawks creates logistical and pilot training problems for an already stretched infrastructure in Colombia, and fields a significantly less capable helicopter for the counterdrug mission.

I am pleased that the bill fully funds our request for military operations in Kosovo. We will work to ensure that the additional resources for readiness, military personnel, natural disaster recovery, defense healthcare, fuel, equipment upgrades, and intelligence support high priority activities within the Department of Defense.

I am disappointed that the bill does not include funding I requested for U.N. peacekeeping operations in the region, requested security and operational needs for embassies in Kosovo, or assistance for economic and democratic reforms in the region. The U.N. mission in Kosovo is performing an extraordinarily difficult but essential task of overseeing civilian administration until the people of Kosovo are able to assume that responsibility themselves. Secure facilities are needed in Kosovo to ensure the security of our employees serving U.S. interests and working to achieve lasting peace in the region. The requested funds support essential civilian infrastructure that would facilitate a prudent exit strategy for Kosovo and achieve long-term stability in the Balkans.

I am also disappointed that the bill does not include requested funding for the multilateral Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt reduction initiative. Debt relief is both a moral imperative and good economics. Each year, most countries eligible for the HIPC initiative spend more on foreign debt service than on health. In many, one in ten children dies before his or her first birthday, one in three is malnourished, the average adult has had only 3 years of schooling, and HIV infection rates are as high as 20 percent. The failure of the Congress to provide this funding will result in delays in imple-menting debt reduction for qualifying countries, especially those in Latin America that have implemented far-reaching economic reforms. Similarly, while I am pleased that the Congress provided some funding for reconstruction assistance to Mozambique and the other Southern African countries devastated by recent flooding, these countries require additional assistance to recover from natural disasters and continue their progress in implementing economic and democratic reforms.

I am disappointed that requested funding was not provided for a number of other important programs including:

-- Projects designated to strengthen our critical infrastructure.

-- The Ricky Ray Hemophilia Relief Trust Fund. This request was part of my plan, announced in the Mid-Session Review Budget, to fully fund the $750 million Trust Fund by FY 2001. I will work with the Congress to find other ways to achieve this goal. Delay in funding the Trust Fund will mean there will be fewer hemophiliacs with HIV alive to benefit from this program.

-- Summer jobs and other education and training opportunities for disadvantaged youth. The request would have ensured that our Nation's young adults were not left behind as States and local areas transition to the requirements of the Workforce Investment Act.

I am pleased that the bill provides $40 million included in our agreement with the Government of Puerto Rico related to the Navy training facility on the island of Vieques. This will be used for projects that will meet the health, environmental, and economic concerns of the residents as well as fund the referendum to determine the range's future.

I am especially pleased that this legislation includes over $300 million in relief funds for Hurricane Floyd and other natural disasters. It also includes $600 million I requested for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. This funding will provide needed assistance for low-income families.

The bill provides $661 million to address the consequences of the fires in Los Alamos, New Mexico, as well as $350 million for firefighting activities.

While the Congress dropped most of the objectionable riders from the bill, regrettably, the Congress has included several objectionable language provisions:

-- Most objectionable is an anti-environmental rider that was not in either the House or Senate version of the bill, which could significantly slow efforts to clean up the 20,000 bodies of water the States have identified as too polluted for fishing or swimming. Before this problematic prohibition became effective, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published its final clean water rule, which is the subject of this rider. In the final rule, EPA responded to many of the comments it received, including comments from the States and Members of Congress. The EPA rule grants to the States flexibility in deciding how reductions in water pollution can best be achieved, contains deadlines for the development of State clean water plans and additional time for achieving the pollution reductions States have chosen, and drops provisions that could require new permits for forestry, aquaculture, and animal feeding operations. Moreover, the rule's effective date coincides with the end of the congressional prohibition -- October 1, 2001. This delayed effective date will allow States to develop their plans during FY 2001, under existing clean water rules.

-- The bill also includes a rider that would delay until the end of the fiscal year environmental analysis of Central Arizona Project (CAP) water allocations that must be made before major Indian water rights settlements and litigation over the CAP repayment obligation can be finally resolved, thus jeopardizing these important settlements.

-- The bill includes riders to Colombia assistance, limiting the use of certain funds to support the initiative, placing caps on U.S. personnel, and requiring detailed certifications concerning Colombian compliance with specific human rights provisions and the Colombian drug eradication strategy. These riders may make it more difficult to provide effective assistance as drug traffickers change their tactics.

-- There is also a provision that would create a burdensome reporting requirement for the National Missile Defense Organization.

I am pleased that the Congress has decided not to include statutory language that would have interfered with the Department of the Army's management of the Army Corps of Engineers. The proposed legislative rider would have prevented the Secretary of the Army from clarifying the proper relationship between senior Corps of Engineers officials and the appointed civilian officials of the Army who have responsibility for overseeing the Corps of Engineers' activities. It is important and appropriate that the Congress has retained for these civilian officials, who are confirmed by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, the means to ensure a clear chain of command necessary for effective organization performance. Weakening this relationship statu-torily would raise serious constitutional issues that extend to civilian-military relationships far beyond the Corps of Engineers. I am concerned, however, about language included in the Conference Statement of the Managers setting out certain conditions related to these management issues. As this language does not prevent the Army from proceeding with management improvements, to the extent the Congress has requested additional consultation, this request will be fully honored. The Congress has also requested that the Army not move forward with these clarifying improvements until ongoing investigations regarding the Army Corps of Engineers are made available and considered. We take this language to refer to the Army Inspector General's investigation of matters related to the Upper Mississippi study, which is the only investigation the Army has underway regarding the Corps of Engineers. I am directing the Secretary of the Army to review potential implications of the Inspector General's investigation for the proposed reforms, to take them into account if relevant, and to consult with the Congress about these investigations as he proceeds with his management improvements.

The Act funds the vast majority of my request for military construction projects, the military housing program, and other quality-of-life projects for our military personnel and their families. The requested projects are critical to supporting military readiness and the quality of life of our soldiers and their families. However, I have several concerns with the bill:

-- Continuing a trend of the past few years, the Congress has not provided the requested level of construction funding for the Chemical Weapons Demilitarization program, an important national program. This year's reduction of my funding request by $20 million threatens the ability of the United States to meet the 2007 Chemical Weapons Convention deadline for the destruction of the U.S. stockpile of chemical weapons. The sooner these weapons are destroyed, the safer we will all be.

-- The Congress has chosen to add funds for projects that DoD has not identified as priorities. In particular, the bill includes $475 million for 83 projects that are not in DoD's Future Years Defense Program.

-- The Congress has again included a provision (section 124) that would prevent the use of funds provided by this Act for Partnership for Peace Programs in the New Independent States of the former Soviet Union. Although this provision would have no practical effect in the short term, I believe it could adversely affect U.S. foreign policy initiatives, aswell as future NATO-led operations, if it were to become a permanent fixture in future Military Construction Appropriations Acts.

Today, I am designating as emergency requirements the funds -- with two exceptions -- in the Act that the Congress has so designated. The exceptions are for the Department of Health and Human Services Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program and the Department of the Interior Wildland Fire Management program. The emergency designations are necessary so that urgently needed funds are available for critical needs.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON
THE WHITE HOUSE, July 13, 2000.

----

Two Killed in U.S. National Guard Helicopter Crash

NewsEdge
July 13, 2000
http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=v0712011.7xi&level3=788&date=20000713

WASHINGTON (July 11) XINHUA via NewsEdge Corporation - Two soldiers aboard a U.S. Army National Guard helicopter were killed as it crashed Monday night near Gila Bend in Arizona State, the United States, said reports reaching here Tuesday.

The reports quoted Captain Eileen Bienz of the Arizona Army National Guard as saying that the AH-64 Apache helicopter crashed on the Barry M. Goldwater Range at about 8 p.m. local time Monday during night exercises.

There have been at least 50 other severe crashes of Apaches reported since the first delivery of the helicopter to the Army in 1985, among which there have been 14 fatalities, including two deaths in Albania during a NATO training mission.

The Apache, which costs 14.5 million U.S. dollars each, is a twin- engine army attack helicopter developed by McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing).

The Apache carries a mix of three weapons systems: aerial rockets, a cannon that fires high-explosive ammunition, and Hellfire missiles. It has been claimed to be the best attack helicopter in the U.S. Army and is deployed both in the United States and abroad.

---

Northrop Grumman Business Unit Announces Executive Assignments

NewsEdge
July 13, 2000
http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=p0712175.301&level3=788&date=20000713

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., July 12 /PRNewswire/ via NewsEdge Corporation - Northrop Grumman Corporation's (NYSE: NOC) Integrated Systems and Aerostructures (ISA) sector announced four executive assignments at its Air Combat Systems (ACS) business area, effective immediately.

Thomas L. Williams was appointed vice president-Engineering, Logistics and Technology, replacing Brian L. Hunt, who retired. In his 24-year career with Northrop Grumman, Mr. Williams has held positions in design, engineering and integration on a number of advanced programs, including most recently vice president-Long Range Strike Integrated Product Team (IPT), which included management of the B-2 stealth bomber program. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in aeronautical engineering from Purdue University.

Paul A. Marchisotto was named vice president and IPT Leader for Long Range Strike, replacing Mr. Williams. During his 20 years with the company, Mr. Marchisotto has held engineering and management roles on several advanced programs, including the F/A-18 and most recently was program manager of Northrop Grumman's Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) team supporting the Lockheed Martin JSF program. Mr. Marchisotto holds a B.S. in aeronautical engineering from Rensselear Polytechnic Institute and an M.B.A. from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Replacing Mr. Marchisotto is Gerard A. "Duke" Dufresne, who was appointed vice president and IPT leader for the Northrop Grumman JSF team. Mr. Dufresne, who previously was vice president-Lean Operations and Quality Assurance, has held key management roles in his 13 years with the company, including vice president-Production for the B-2 program. He has a B.S. in aeronautical engineering from the U.S. Air Force Academy and an M.B.A. from the University of West Florida, Pensacola.

Christopher M. Hernandez was appointed to the new position of vice president and deputy IPT leader for Unmanned Systems, headquartered in San Diego, Calif. He will support Robert A. K. Mitchell, vice president and Unmanned Systems IPT leader, in managing the company's unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) programs, which include the Global Hawk high-altitude endurance reconnaissance system, the Fire Scout vertical takeoff and landing tactical UAV system, the Miniature Air-Launched Decoy and aerial targets. During Mr. Hernandez's 13 years with the company, he has made important contributions to aerospace advanced technology in a number of positions, including vice president and B-2 chief engineer and, most recently, vice president-Special Programs. He holds a B.S. in electrical and electronic engineering from California State University, Long Beach, and an M.S. in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Headquartered in Dallas, Tex., ISA is a premier aerospace systems integration enterprise. ISA has the capabilities to design, develop, integrate, produce and support complete systems, as well as airframe subsystems, for airborne surveillance and battle management aircraft, early warning aircraft, airborne electronic warfare aircraft, air combat aircraft, and commercial aerostructures.

SOURCE Northrop Grumman Corporation
CONTACT: Jim Hart of Northrop Grumman Corporation, 310-331-3616
Web site: http://www.northrop-grumman.com (NOC)

--- BridgeNews

US Business Brief: Paravant buys Catalina Research for $16 mln

July 13, 2000
By Bridge News
http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=b0712356.3rg&level3=788&date=20000713

New York--July 12--Paravant Inc., a maker of computers and electronics primarily for the military, announced Thursday it had acquired privately held Catalina Research Inc. in a deal that could be worth up to $16 million.

Under terms of the deal, Paravant will pay $14 million in cash for Colorado Springs, Colo.-based. Catalina. Additionally, Paravant will include a $2 million subordinated note which is tied to Catalina's performance over the next three years.

Catalina makes the world's fastest, low-latency Digital Signal Processor (DSP) chips and board products. DSP chips are designed for such tasks as signal intelligence, and radar and electronic intelligence.

Melbourne, Fla.-based Paravant fell 15.625 cents, or 5.26%, to $2.8125 on the Nasdaq stock exchange. End

---

Climb Inside the Virtual Cockpit of a Tornado Jet Fighter With MUSE Virtual Presence at SIGGRAPH 2000

NewsEdge
July 13, 2000
http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=p0712063.202&level3=788&date=20000713

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., July 12 /PRNewswire/ via NewsEdge Corporation - In a breakthrough integration of 3D graphics and virtual reality, MUSE Virtual Presence, a subsidiary of MUSE Technologies (Nasdaq: MUZE), will demonstrate a software-based training and simulation system designed for the UK's Royal Air Force at the upcoming SIGGRAPH 2000 exhibition. Details about the SIGGRAPH computer graphics trade show are available at http://www.musetech.com/siggraph/.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19990621/MUZELOGO)

Visitors to booth 219 at SIGGRAPH 2000 will be able to freely explore the virtual aircraft shell of the Royal Air Force's Tornado F3 jet fighter, actuate all moving surfaces as well as connect realistic test equipment to internal and external aircraft subsystems. Full cockpit details for both the pilot and navigator positions are available to users and include geometric and operable representations of toggle switches, safety covers, rotary switches, push buttons, pedals, throttles and joysticks.

The custom software application was developed for Alenia Marconi Systems as a virtual training environment system for the RAF and enables as many as eight students to be trained in basic and advanced Tornado avionics maintenance routines over a network. At SIGGRAPH, the system will be shown on the Panoram PV290 display, which integrates three side-by-side monitors into a single small footprint unit. Each screen presents different working views of the aircraft, avionics bays, line replaceable units and/or virtual test equipment.

Prof. Bob Stone, Scientific Director of MUSE Technologies, said, "To produce this level of visual and interactive fidelity, five of our VR developers were given a Tornado by the RAF for two full weeks. In that time, not only did our team measure the aircraft down to minute detail, but they also created over 2,000 digital and film images, backed up with many hours of digital video footage."

Two trainer and eight student workstations were installed at the Tornado Maintenance School at RAF Marham in the UK in late 1999, and two avionics courses began using the new system in the spring of 2000.

Initial analysis of the virtual training program conducted by Stone, an expert in human factors analysis, and RAF Chief Technician Neil Storey suggests a number of positive early results. The length of the new training course has been reduced from 13 weeks down to 9 weeks in contrast to earlier or related Tornado courses. In addition, with the old training method, only two students and an instructor could use the training system at a time. This created "down time" for students waiting to use the equipment. With the new virtual training system, eight students can use the system simultaneously, and there is literally no down time. Initial feedback from RAF trainers also suggests that students gain enhanced spatial and procedural knowledge in less time than students using the old training method.

About MUSE Technologies

MUSE Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: MUZE) is an international leader in the development of data visualization software and solutions. From headquarters in Albuquerque, NM and offices in Houston, Washington D.C., London, Manchester (UK) and Paris, the company and its subsidiaries, MUSE Virtual Presence and MUSE Federal Systems Group, provide a broad range of software, hardware, integration and development solutions to corporate and government customers in an array of industries. For more information on MUSE Technologies, call (800) 711-3899 write to info@musetech.com, or visit the company's Web site at www.musetech.com.

SOURCE MUSE Technologies, Inc.
CONTACT: Christina Ward of MUSE Technologies, Inc., 505-843-6873, media@musetech.com
Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19990621/MUZELOGO PRN Photo Desk, 888-776-6555 or 201-369-3467
Web site: http://www.musetech.com/siggraph
Web site: http://www.musetech.com (MUZE)

-------- -

Anthrax Vaccination Program Is Failing, Pentagon Admits

July 13, 2000
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/071300senate-anthrax.html

WASHINGTON, July 12 _ In unusually blunt language, Pentagon officials today acknowledged the failure of their ambitious policy to inoculate all military personnel against the deadly anthrax virus.

At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, witnesses described blunder after blunder in the Pentagon's two-and-a-half year program. The most severe was a shortage of the vaccine caused by the mismanagement and financial problems of the only company licensed to produce it -- a company in which a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff controls an 11 percent stake.

Simply put, the hearing highlighted the anatomy of a failure. "There are not immediate fixes," Maj. Gen. Randall L. West of the Marines, a senior Pentagon adviser on chemical and biological defense, said.

"We've got a crisis situation," Senator John W. Warner, the Virginia Republican and chairman of the committee, replied tersely. He urged the Pentagon to "sit down with these folks" at the BioPort Corporation, the troubled company based in Lansing, Mich., that makes the vaccine, and buy them out.

As a result of the vaccine shortage, the Pentagon is seeking a second drug company to make it. Thus far, officials said, there have been no takers.

And even if a second supplier agreed to take on the daunting task, it would take from two to four years to begin production, they added.

And because producing the vaccine is not very commercially profitable, the Pentagon will also decide by the end of the month whether to build its own plant, a process that would take five to seven years.

Senator Tim Hutchinson, Republican of Arkansas, called it a "mystery to this day" why the Pentagon had not built its own plant.

With much fanfare in late 1997, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen announced a plan to inoculate all 2.4 million active and reserve military personnel by 2003, because of the perceived threat of a biological weapons attack; though no country has used anthrax in battle, the Pentagon says 10 have the capability to make biological weapons. To prove his confidence in the safety of the vaccine, Mr. Cohen rolled up his sleeve for a full series of six shots.

Since then, about 445,000 military personnel have received at least one dose of the vaccine. But on Tuesday, the Pentagon said that because of dwindling stocks of the vaccine, it was curtailing the program to cover only military personnel it considered most at risk: those deployed near the borders of Iraq and North Korea.

Pentagon officials said today that the number of vaccinations it administered would drop from 75,000 a month to 14,000. Earlier this week, General West said the Pentagon only had 165,000 doses of the vaccine left.

While not offering a revised schedule for vaccinating all military personnel, officials today restated their intent to complete the program.

Deputy Secretary of Defense Rudy de Leon called the anthrax threat "immediate, real and constant." And when asked after the hearing whether the Pentagon was still committed to inoculate every man and woman on active or reserve duty, Adm. Craig Quigley, a Pentagon spokesman, said, "Absolutely."

Pentagon officials insist that the decision to curtail the inoculations had nothing to do with concerns among some service members that the vaccine is unsafe and can produce adverse reactions.

The witnesses today insisted that the vaccine was safe to take. Of two million doses given since 1990, 1,404 adverse reactions have been reported. Of those, 73 were considered "fatal, life-threatening or resulting in hospitalization or permanent disability," according to Kathryn C. Zoon, a senior biological weapons and vaccine expert for the Food and Drug Administration.

But she said that none of those cases "can be attributed to the vaccine with a high level of confidence."

Between 200 and 300 military personnel have refused to take the vaccine, questioning its safety and the legal right of the Pentagon to force them to submit to the injections.

Anthrax bacteria generally afflicts animals, especially sheep and cattle. But dry anthrax spores can be turned into weapons and are particularly dangerous because anthrax is a colorless, odorless, tasteless agent that can kill after it is inhaled only once.

Manufacture of the vaccine was halted in December after the F.D.A. found dozens of violations in safety, consistency, record-keeping and sterility in an inspection of the BioPort plant in Lansing, Mich. Retired Adm. William J. Crowe Jr., a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is an unpaid member of the BioPort board and controls an 11 percent stake in it.

The plant is scheduled to renew production after the F.D.A. gives final approval that the violations have been corrected.

According to a Pentagon audit completed in March, BioPort forecast a possible $18 million shortfall this year. Initially, the company sold the Pentagon the vaccine at $2.26 or $4.36 a dose, depending on the year of manufacture. The price jumped to $10.64 a dose last August as part of a deal that raised the Pentagon contract by $24 million, including an $18 million advance to help keep the company afloat.


-------- OTHER
-------- spying

Russia Officer Sentenced for Spying

NewsEdge
July 13, 2000
http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=h0712160.102&level3=36180&date=20000713

MOSCOW (AP) via NewsEdge Corporation - A Moscow court has sentenced a Russian military officer to four years in a penal colony for photographing top-secret documents and trying to sell them abroad, the Federal Security Service said Wednesday.

The officer in the Defense Ministry's scientific research institute used his security clearance to photograph papers that detailed developments in Russian military aircraft electronics, the service said.

It said the suspect, identified as Lt. Col. Sergei Avramenko, tried to take the documents to an unidentified foreign country in May 1996 and sell them, but was foiled by a counterintelligence operation.

Russia's RTR television reported that the secret service found proof of Avramenko's intentions some two years after seizing the documents from him. It said Avramenko had worked at the research facility for 15 years and decided to photograph the documents before retiring.

The service called the documents ``the object of primary aspiration of foreign secret services, whose leaking out beyond the borders of the country could have posed a serious threat to the security of the Russian Federation.''

Avramenko was convicted of state treason and sentenced to four years at a maximum-security penal colony, the Federal Security Service statement said.

In footage shown on RTR, Avramenko, clean-shaven and wearing a white shirt, said he disagreed with the verdict.

``This is not true,'' he said. ``They talk of disclosing state secrets (but) there was no damage whatsoever.''

Russia has gone through several spy scandals in recent years, expelling alleged spies from other countries and arresting Russian citizens it accused of espionage. It has held an American businessman in a Moscow jail since April on charges that he tried to buy information about submarine-launched torpedoes.

-------- terrorism

FSB warns of possible terrorist acts in Russia.

NewsEdge
July 13, 2000
http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=v0712371.6ts&level3=2884&date=20000713

MOSCOW, July 12 (Itar-Tass) via NewsEdge Corporation - Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said it has information indicating that international terrorists are preparing a series of terrorist acts.

The FSB warned Russian citizens that the threats of terrorists acts issued by Chechen and international terrorists are real and urge them to be vigilant.

The FSB is taking all the necessary "preventive measures to expose terrorists' designs and avert their implementation".



-------- activists

Ted Turner, Sam Nunn teaming up to reduce nuclear weapons threat

The Associated Press
7/13/00 3:17 PM

ATLANTA (AP) -- Ted Turner and former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn announced Thursday they are teaming up to create a foundation aimed at reducing the threat of nuclear weapons and materials worldwide.

The two Georgians said they will conduct a study, to be completed by the end of the year, "to determine the impact that a private organization with significant resources could have on reducing the nuclear threat."

Turner, the billionaire founder of Cable News Network and a Time Warner vice chairman, will pay about $500,000 for the study, said spokeswoman Maura Donlan.

Nunn and Charles B. Curtis, a former deputy secretary of energy, will supervise the study.

Nunn told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that, though the threat of an all-out nuclear war has diminished since the demise of the Soviet Union, he's concerned about nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists or "irresponsible nations."

"I think the threat of the use of a nuclear weapon by some group at some point in time in the next few years has gone up," said Nunn, a former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee who served 24 years in the Senate before retiring in 1997.

"Proliferation is occurring, nuclear knowledge is spreading," he said. "The ability to make nuclear weapons that was formerly mainly governments' is now spread through the Internet."

Turner is no stranger to philanthropic causes. In 1991, he created the Turner Foundation, which grants tens of millions of dollars annually to groups involved in protecting the environment and reducing population growth.

In 1997, he announced he would donate $1 billion over 10 years to United Nations projects. So far, $275 million has been given out worldwide to projects dealing with children's health, population and women's issues, peace and security, and the environment.

Nunn said the amount of money devoted to the nuclear threat foundation would depend on results of the study.

"Ted has made clear to me that he is talking about a very substantial commitment and very substantial resources," Nunn said. "He has talked in terms of an effort of what I would call unprecedented magnitude."

Turner, who was traveling and not available for comment, issued a statement saying discussions with experts have taught him two important things.

"First, in the post-Cold War era, the nuclear threat has become, in many ways, more complex and dangerous," he said. "Second, if we are to reduce the nuclear threat, we need to raise public awareness and inspire leadership and cooperation around the world."

Nunn said he has been involved in nuclear issues since 1974, when he visited a NATO tactical nuclear weapons base and concluded that preventing an accidental or unauthorized use of weapons presented a major challenge.

----

POLITICAL ORGANIZERS REACT IN DISMAY AT PHILADELPHIA POLICE ATTACK ON ARRESTEE Concerns expressed over potential confrontations during Republican National Convention

07/13/00
PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY
PHILADELPHIA DIRECT ACTION GROUP PRESS RELEASE

Contacts: Amy Kwasnicki cell: 215/219-2327; David Levy 718/447-0762 beeper 917/737-0022; Beka Economopoulos cell: 215/888-8833

Philadelphia, July 13--Organizers for the myriad protests against the Republican National Convention (RNC) expressed deep dismay and concern over the violent behavior of the Philadelphia Police Dept. in apprehending a criminal suspect yesterday. "This sort of outlaw behavior is precisely what we fear may happen when marches and non-violent civil disobedience take place during the GOP convention," said organizer Amy Kwasnicki, of the Philadelphia Direct Action Group (P-DAG). "For every murder or near-murder by the police, there are 5000 butts with a nightstick and threats of further harassment that go unreported. The Philadelphia Police, once again, have shown a blatant disregard for the law, and we are concerned for the health of our protesters. We have sworn to adhere to non-violent means of political expression. But this heinous act by the police shows yet again that it is an open question whether they will hold up their end of the bargain."

Yesterday, a wild car chase and gunbattle ended in a scene of police mob violence where, under the gaze of a news helicopter camera, a dozen officers punched and kicked the suspect, identified as Thomas Jones, while he was on the ground. He was listed in serious condition last night after surgery. The scene was eerily reminiscent of the Rodney King fiasco in Los Angeles, where officers were caught on tape attacking a suspect after he had already been handcuffed.

Jody Dodd, Campaign Organizer for the Phila. Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and for the Phila. American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), comments, "This is not just something that should be deeply disturbing for protesters. It's something that should be so for all Americans. I think it would behoove the Police Dept. to be on its absolute best behavior with the whole nation watching two weeks from now, given what has just happened."

P-DAG, WILPF and AFSC are part of a broad coalition of groups, called the R2K Network, which has planned a series of mass demonstrations leading up to and during the Republican National Convention to protest the existence of a sham democracy in America, where policy is bought and paid for by big money. Among the many issues to be focused on during the protests will be the corporate domination of policy, the inadequate health care system, campaign finance corruption, the criminalization of minorities, suppression of unions, and exploitation of the poor.

One day of the protests, Aug. 1st, is devoted specifically to the "criminal injustice" system, i.e., the prison-industrial complex, the death penalty and freedom for political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. The criminal injustice system was displayed in particularly graphic form yesterday and was perpetrated, as is so often the case, on an African American. Communities of color are disproportionately incarcerated and persecuted. Incidents like the brutalization of Thomas Jones are those to which P-DAG would like to draw attention on Aug. 1st. Unfortunately, those very people most affected by this issue, minorities who need to tell their own stories, are the ones who could be deterred by such manifestations of police brutality from coming out into the streets and making their voices heard.

For more information, visit <www.thepartysover.org>, <www.r2kphilly.org>, and <www.freemumia.com>

---
* NucNews Digest by OneList Subscribers

NucNews - Please circulate -- help educate! - http://prop1.org

1. PACE applauds Secretary Richardson's Decision to Block the Release of Radioacti
From: magnu96196@aol.com

2. Fw: New Turner/Nunn Nuke Foundation
From: "Vina Colley" <vcolley@earthlink.net>

3. FW: Victims of the Nuclear Age
From: "Viviane Lerner" <vlerner@interpac.net>

4. Defence Secy Cohen in Sydney Tomorrow - Let Him Know How You Feel about NMD/BMD
From: FoE Sydney - Nuclear Campaign <nonukes@foesyd.org.au>

6. Dr Eugene Malov: COLD FUSION MAY WORK, Infinite Energy Magazine, Web Site
From: "Bill Smirnow" <smirnowb@ix.netcom.com>

7. Govt. Ends Radioactive Metal Sales
From: magnu96196@aol.com

8. Paducah plant gets millions; more coming
From: magnu96196@aol.com

9. Water firms seek legal protection under plans for mass fluoridation
From: magnu96196@aol.com

10. G-8 ALLIES OPPOSE MISSILE SHIELD
From: "Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space" <globalnet@mindspring.com>

11. Ban on radioactive scrap may affect OR Wamp blasts move as 'nonsensical'
From: magnu96196@aol.com

12. Starmet---UF-6 to F processing
From: magnu96196@aol.com

13. NucNews 00/07/14 - "Cartoon of the week" nominations
From: Ellen Thomas <prop1@prop1.org>

14. DU and More:Voices of protest find an unexpected audience
From: Winston Weeks <wweeks@mail.aros.net>

15. Recycling suspension may cost 250 jobs
From: magnu96196@aol.com

16. Senate agrees to compensate some sick weapons plant workers
From: magnu96196@aol.com

17. Our Views: DOE chipping away at vital base of support
From: magnu96196@aol.com

18. Clinton signs legislation with $25 million for Y-12
From: magnu96196@aol.com

19. "Engineer a Verdict"
From: ivan buchbinder <pentaske@memes.com>

20. Redfield named new DOE deputy
From: magnu96196@aol.com

21. Senate Committee approves $2.5 million for new Mouse House
From: magnu96196@aol.com

22. DOE soliciting comments on Bethel Valley watershed
From: magnu96196@aol.com

24. 'Privatization' at DOE sites not working, report finds
From: magnu96196@aol.com

25. Senate committee approves projects for Paducah plant
From: magnu96196@aol.com

--------

Message: 1
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 20:33:43 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

PACE applauds Secretary Richardson's Decision to Block the Release of Radioactive Metals into Unrestricted Commerce

For Immediate Release,
July 13, 2000
Contact Lynn Baker, 615/834-8590

The Paper Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers Union (PACE) applauds the decision of the Secretary of Energy, Bill Richardson, to prohibit the release of radioactive metals into unrestricted commerce.

The Secretary's decision to restrict the release of surface contaminated metals into unrestricted commerce builds upon his January 12, 2000 prohibition on the free release of "volumetrically" contaminated metalsĂ¢Â€â€œthose metals contaminated with radiation that cannot be cleaned from beneath the surface.

"The Secretary has placed the national interest in protecting the safety of workers and consumers who manufacture and utilize recycled metals ahead of the interests of a few who have sold the DOE on dumping radioactive metals into commerce for use in everyday consumer products," noted James K. Phillips, Vice President for Government Affairs. " The Secretary should be regarded as a statesman because he has taken the unusual step of putting the public interest ahead of the interests of some within the Agency that he heads up."

"Through this action, this Secretary has done more to protect workers, consumers and the metals industry than any other Secretary in the history of the Energy Department," added Phillips.

PACE had brought suit against the DOE in 1997 to require an environmental impact statement on the plan to release of 126,000 tons of radiologically contaminated metals into commerce from the DOE's Oak Ridge, Tennessee K-25 uranium enrichment facility. The US Court of Appeals denied an appeal by PACE to require an EIS last week; however, the questionable policy of recycling radioactive metals was noted by Judge Gladys Kessler in her June 1999 lower court opinion:

"The potential for environmental harm is great," she wrote. "The process for decontaminated radioactive scrap is "entirely experimental at this stage" and it is "startling and worrisome that ... there has been no opportunity for public input or scrutiny on a matter of such grave importance."

PACE plans to take the Secretary's thoughtful policy to Congress to translate it into a legislation, so that this decision will not be unraveled in future Administrations. PACE represents 320,000 workers in the pulp, paper, oil, chemical, auto parts and nuclear energy industries.

--------

Message: 2
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 01:12:24 -0700
From: "Vina Colley" <vcolley@earthlink.net>

Ted Turner, Sam Nunn teaming up to reduce nuclear weapons threat
The Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) -- Ted Turner and former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn announced Thursday they are teaming up to create a foundation aimed at reducing the threat of nuclear weapons and materials worldwide.

The two Georgians said they will conduct a study, to be completed by the end of the year, "to determine the impact that a private organization with significant resources could have on reducing the nuclear threat."

Turner, the billionaire founder of Cable News Network and a Time Warner vice chairman, will pay about $500,000 for the study, said spokeswoman Maura Donlan.

Nunn and Charles B. Curtis, a former deputy secretary of energy, will supervise the study.

Nunn told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that, though the threat of an all-out nuclear war has diminished since the demise of the Soviet Union, he's concerned about nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists or "irresponsible nations."

"I think the threat of the use of a nuclear weapon by some group at some point in time in the next few years has gone up," said Nunn, a former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee who served 24 years in the Senate before retiring in 1997.

"Proliferation is occurring, nuclear knowledge is spreading," he said. "The ability to make nuclear weapons that was formerly mainly governments' is now spread through the Internet."

Turner is no stranger to philanthropic causes. In 1991, he created the Turner Foundation, which grants tens of millions of dollars annually to groups involved in protecting the environment and reducing population growth.

In 1997, he announced he would donate $1 billion over 10 years to United Nations projects. So far, $275 million has been given out worldwide to projects dealing with children's health, population and women's issues, peace and security, and the environment.

Nunn said the amount of money devoted to the nuclear threat foundation would depend on results of the study.

"Ted has made clear to me that he is talking about a very substantial commitment and very substantial resources," Nunn said. "He has talked in terms of an effort of what I would call unprecedented magnitude."

Turner, who was traveling and not available for comment, issued a statement saying discussions with experts have taught him two important things.

"First, in the post-Cold War era, the nuclear threat has become, in many ways, more complex and dangerous," he said. "Second, if we are to reduce the nuclear threat, we need to raise public awareness and inspire leadership and cooperation around the world."

Nunn said he has been involved in nuclear issues since 1974, when he visited a NATO tactical nuclear weapons base and concluded that preventing an accidental or unauthorized use of weapons presented a major challenge.

Susan Gordon, Director Alliance for Nuclear Accountability www.ananuclear.org 1914 N 34th, Suite #407, Seattle, WA 98103 ph 206-547-3175 fax 206-547-7158 ANA is a national alliance of organizations working to address issues of nuclear weapons production and waste clean-up.

------------

Message: 3
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 22:20:57 +0100
From: "Viviane Lerner" <vlerner@interpac.net>

Victims of the Nuclear Age

"Statistics are the people with the tears wiped away" stated one of the Rongelap people of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, who 'hosted' the United States Bikini nuclear testing in the 1950s. This is the story of many tears, and of a hard hearted mindset that laid down the degree of suffering and ill-health that would be the 'acceptable' price to pay for the world 'benefitting' from nuclear technology. -Dr. Rosalie Bertell, 2000

FYI- Janet

From: "Rosalie Bertell, Ph.D., GNSH" <drrbertell@home.com>

Dear Friends,

A corrected version of my estimate of nuclear victims since 1946 (not including the horrendous destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki) can be found on the web: www.ambassadors.net/opinions_nuclear.htm or enclosed as an attachment (RTF). The conservative estimate is 1.2 billion victims (cancers, genetic and teratogenic damage). I was unable to include the Gulf War vets because they are not yet acknowledged by UNSCEAR, so were not included in the Person Sievert doses estimated by UNSCEAR.

Amazing to realize that this damage has occurred without there being a nuclear war!

Rosalie Bertell

----

Victims of the Nuclear Age

"VICTIMS OF THE NUCLEAR AGE" Up to 1,300 million people have been killed, maimed or diseased by nuclear power since it's inception. The industry's figures massively underestimate the real cost of nuclear power, in an attempt to hide its victims from the world. Here, the author calculates the real number of victims of the nuclear age. By Dr. Rosalie Bertell

On the tenth anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, I was standing at a public meeting in Kiev, Ukraine, listening to the story of one of the firemen employed to clean up the site after the explosion. These workers took huge doses of radiation during this task, and their story is a terrifying one. About 600,000 men were conscripted as Chernobyl 'liquidators' [also called bio-robots']: farmers, factory workers, miners, and soldiers, as well as professionals like the firemen, from all across Russia. Some of these men lifted pieces of radioactive metal with their bare hands. They had to fight more than 300 fires created by the chunks of burning material spewed off by the inferno. After the fire was put out, they buried trucks, fire engines, cars and all sorts of personal belongings. They felled a forest and completely buried it, removed topsoil, bulldozed houses and filled all available clay-lined trenches with radioactive debris.

The minimum conscription time was 180 days, but many stayed for a year. Some were threatened with severe punishment to their families if they failed to stay and do their duty.

These 'liquidators' are now discarded and forgotten, many vainly trying to establish that the ill health most have suffered ever since 1986 is a result of their massive exposure to radiation. At the Centre for Radiation Research outside Kiev, there is an organization of former liquidators. This group reports that by 1995, 13,000 of their members had died- almost 20 percent of which deaths were suicides. About 70,000 members were estimated to be permanently disabled. But the members of this organization are the lucky ones. Because many former liquidators are now scattered throughout Russia, they neither have the benefit of the organization's special hospital, nor of membership of a survivor organization. They are known as the 'living dead.'

The fireman whose story I was listening to seemed to be an exception to this grim litany of illness and death. He was telling the meeting how pleased and excited he was that, for the first time in ten years, his blood test findings were in the normal range. I was standing next to a delegate from the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA]- the organisation charged with promoting the use of atomic energy. On hearing the fireman's story, he leaned over to me and said: "You see! We said these were only transient disorders". A rough translation of which might read: "Chernobyl? What's the problem?"

IGNORING THE VICTIMS

The IAEA delegate's attitude was perfectly in keeping with that of his organization which, along with the International Commission on Radiological Protection [ICRP] exists in practice largely to play down the effects of radiation on human health, and to shield the nuclear industry from compensation claims from workers and the public. The IAEA was set up in the late 1950s by he UN, to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and to promote the peaceful use of atomic energy- ironically, two contradictory objectives. The ICRP which evolved from the 1928 physician's organization, International Committee on X-Ray and Radium Protection, was set up in the nineteen fifties to explore the health effects of radiation and [theoretically] to protect the public from it. In fact, both organizations have come to serve the industry rather than the public.

The Chernobyl case is a classic example of the IAEA's inadequacy and questionable science. Despite massive evidence to the contrary, not least from the many thousands of victims themselves, the IAEA insists that only 32 people have so far died as a result of Chernobyl- those who died in the radiation ward of Hospital six in Moscow. All other deaths related to the disaster and its aftermath [and there have been many more than 10,000 in Ukraine alone according to the Minister of Health there] are ignored. Belarus had the highest fallout, and yet there is an international blackout among the IAEA and the rest of the "radiation protection community" on the suffering of its people.

The essential problem is that both the IAEA and the ICRP are dealing not with science but with politics and administration; not with public health but with maintaining an increasingly dubious industry. It is their interests, and those of the nuclear industry, to play down the health effects of radiation.

RESTRICTIVE DEFINITIONS

The main way in which the radiation protection industry has succeeded in hugely underrating the ill-health caused by nuclear power is by insisting on a group of extremely restrictive definitions as to what qualifies as a radiation-caused illness. For example, under IAEA's criteria:

If a radiation-caused cancer is not fatal, it is not counted in the IAEA's figures

If a cancer is initiated by another carcenogen, but accelerated or promoted by exposure to radiation, it is not counted.

If an auto-immune disease or any non-cancer is caused by radiation, it is not counted.

Radiation-damaged embryos or foetuses which result in miscarriage or stillbirth do not count

A congenitally blind, deaf or malformed child whose illnesses are radiation-related are not included in the figures because this is not genetic damage, but rather is teratogenic, and will not be passed on later to the child's offspring.

Causing the genetic predisposition to breast cancer or heart disease does not count since it is not a "serious genetic disease" in the Mendelian sense.

Even if radiation causes a fatal cancer in any one or serious genetic disease in a live born infant, it is discounted if the estimated radiation dose is below 100 mSv [mSv means millisievert,a measurement of radiation exposure. A nuclear worker is permitted between 20 and 50 mSv per year.]

Even if radiation causes a lung cancer, it does not count if the person smokes- in fact whenever there is a possibility of another cause, radiation cannot be blamed.

If all else fails, it is possible to average over the whole body the radiation dose which has actually been received by only one part of the body or even one organ, as for instance when radio-iodine concentrates in the thyroid. This arbitrary dilution of the dose will ensure that the 100 mSv cut-off point is not reached.

This is the technique used to dismiss the sickness of Gulf War veterans who inhaled small particles of ceramic uranium which stayed in their lungs for more than two years, and in their bodies for more than eight years, irradiating and damaging cells in a particular part of the body.

THE REAL VICTIMS

Despite the authorities' attempt at concealment, we can still begin to enumerate the real victims of the nuclear age. Although the calculations and statistics which I have brought to bear below do not include all of the human suffering that has been caused by the nuclear age, a closer look will show that the methodology is adequate for a first estimate of major damage. The magnitude of the harm already caused is startling, and even more so when we realise many types of damage have been omitted from this first estimate.

My estimate of radiation damage, induced cancer, whether fatal or non-fatal [excluding non-fatal skin cancer], genetic damage and serious congenital malformations and diseases will be included in the figures. Other lesser human damage is acknowledged but not estimated.

The nuclear industry uses the word "detriment" for the radiation damage which it considers to be important. I have broadened that list. Ultimately, whether or not one cares about the damage caused by radiation exposure, i.e. refers to it as "detriment", is a human, not a scientific question. Damage is damage, and causing an unwanted attack on someone's person or reproductive capacity is a violation of human rights. Such damage can be rated for importance, but it should not be arbitrarily ignored.

"Statistics are the people with the tears wiped away" stated one of the Rongelap people of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, who 'hosted' the United States Bikini nuclear testing in the 1950s. This is the story of many tears, and of a hard hearted mindset that laid down the degree of suffering and ill-health that would be the 'acceptable' price to pay for the world 'benefitting' from nuclear technology.

RISK ESTIMATES USED IN THIS ANALYSIS

In order to estimate the real victims of the nuclear industry [as oppossed to those figures enumerated by the ICRP, IAEA and other nuclear apologists] I will take the customary risk estimates, indicate their probable range of error, and then extend the definition to cover related events not recognized as 'detriments' by the regulators. For example, while the nuclear regulators only take fatal cancers into consideration as 'detriments', others, especially those who endure a non-fatal cancer, may find their suffering equally worthy of consideration. And limiting genetic effects to live born offspring does not wipe away the tears of a family that has endured a spontaneous miscarriage or stillbirth.

ESTIMATING THE FATAL AND NON-FATAL CANCER RISKS

In 1991, the ICRP concluded that the projected lifetime risk of fatal cancer for members of the population exposed to one Sievert whole-body radiation at a low dose rate, was between seven and 11 excess fatal cancers, and seven to eight excess fatalities for workers in the nuclear industry aged 25 to 64 years. We extend these estimates to non-fatal cancers by estimating the total number of cancers which were used by the ICRP in order to obtain their number of fatalities. We therefore estimate 16 fatal and non-fatal cancers if we exclude non-fatal skin cancers, or 26 if we count them. If the estimate of fatal cancers was too low by a factor of two then we can double these numbers.

The conservative estimate I will use for radiation induced cancer in this analysis is 16 per 100 Person Sieverts exposure, but the reader can adjust this estimate to suit other inclusions, exclusions or uncertainties.

ESTIMATING DAMAGE TO AN EMBRYO OR FOETUS

According to the BEIR Committee [Bilogical Effects of Ionizing Radiation] 1990 report, a dose of 150 mSv to human male testes will cause temporary sterility, and a single dose of 3.5 Sv will cause permanent sterility. According to the ICRP in 1991, just 5 mSv to the testes could cause damage to offspring - yet this dose was permitted yearly to members of the public, and ten times more was permitted to nuclear workers, in all countries prior to 1990. It continues today to be permitted yearly for nuclear workers in most countries.

Women carry with them all of the ova from birth which they will ever have. The threshold for permanent female sterilisation decreases with age, but in general about 650 mSv is considered to be the threshold for temporary sterility in women. However, after the Bravo event- the detonation of a hydrogen bomb at the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific in March 1954- the women of Rongelap Atoll experienced about five years of sterility. As they regained their fertility, they experienced faulty pregnancies, miscarrigies, stillbirths and damage to their offspring. Since some radionucleides can be retained in bone or fatty tissues, they are able to cross the placenta barrier and disrupt the developing embryo or foetus. Radionuclides in the mother's body can also be transferred to offspring in her breast milk.

The official nuclear industry definition of 'detriment' to offspring includes only serious genetic disease. It eliminates damage not judged to be serious, and all teratogenic diseases [those which are not passed on to offspring]. For example, radiation exposure in utero could cause a child to be blind or deaf, but that blindness or deafness would not be passed on to the child's offspring. This would be called teratogenic damage and not counted. Recently the 1990 BEIR committee made one small concession in recognizing mental retardation in children exposed to radiation during the fifth to 15th weeks of their mother's pregnancy. Radiation kills brain cells, causing both an underdeveloped brain [microcephaly] and mental retardation. For the individual child, BEIR estimates that a dose in utero of 100 to 500 mSv can cause a range of problems from poor school performance to severe mental retardation. This analysis considers both genetic and teratogenic damage to be "detrimental".

GENETIC DAMAGE

The U.N. Scientific Committee on the effects of Atomic Radiation [UNSCEAR] and BEIR both agree that a population of one million live births, with 100 Person Sieverts exposure to parents, will result in one to three genetic damage effects to offspring.

One can also use a second methodology to calculate genetic damage. The doubling dose for genetic effects [the dose that will cause twice as many genetic effects] is more contentious, with some geneticists claiming that it is 2.5 Sv, and others claiming much greater sensitivity with a 0.12 Sv doubling dose. If the total average dose to parents is 100 Person Sieverts, there will be 4 genetic effects per million live births if the doubling dose is 2.5 Sv, but there will be 83 such effects if the doubling dose is 0.12 Sv.

On the conservative side, we have taken 10 genetic effects to be the number of genetic effects for offspring of parents exposed to 100 Person Sieverts. ESTIMATE OF TERATOGENIC EFFECTS'

The damage to an embryo from ionizing radiation when in the womb is not ordinarily considered to be genetic (the exception would when the radiation damages the gentic material of the fetus). Such irradiation can lead to some 30 different congenital anomolies including permanent damage to the brain, mental deficiency, skull deformities, cleft palate, spina bifida, club-feet, genital deformities, growth retardation and childhood cancer. A total of all those effects, including those resulting in early embryonic or fetal mortality, amount to 46, of which 25 are in live born. I will use the conservative estimate 25 for congenital damage in this analysis.

When we summarise those risk estimates to be used in this analysis, we get 16 cancers, 10 genetic effects and 25 congenital effects in life born offspring for a mixed (age and sex) population of one million exposed to 100 Person Sieverts of ionizing radiation. This is a total of 51 "victims" for each 100 Person Sieverts exposure, of which 31.4% are assumed to be cancers, 19.6% are genetically damaged and 49% were congenitally damaged but both categories were live born.

The task now is to apply those numbers to the UNSCEAR estimate of nuclear radiation exposure to the global population, including atmospheric nuclear weapons testing and electricity production from nuclear power over the past half century.

The nuclear atmospheric weapon testing caused 1,138 million victims, with an additional 3.2 million due to nuclear weapon production.

Nuclear power has caused about 21 million victims and medical uses of radiation have produced another 4 million victims. There have been both military and civilian nuclear accidents producing 16 million and 15 million more victims respectively.

This gives a grand total of 1,200 million victims of the nuclear age. About 1,156 are military related, 36 million are related to nuclear reactors, and 4 million are related to medical use.

This Opinion Piece was prepared by Dr. Rosalie Bertell, President of the International Institute of Concern for Public Health, Toronto, Canada.

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Message: 4
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 18:28:43 +1000

From: FoE Sydney - Nuclear Campaign <nonukes@foesyd.org.au>

Defence Secy Cohen in Sydney Tomorrow - Let Him Know How You Feel about NMD/BMD

US Defence Secretary William Cohen will be arriving in the fair city of Sydney tomorrow.

On monday he'll be discussing a number of defence issues with foreign minister Downer and defence minister John Moore.

A number of Australian NGOs and two federal parliamentarians have put their names to a letter which asks that the US not proceed with NMD, and which draws Cohen's attention to the resolution passed recently (29 June) by the Senate in Canberra.

A similar letter has been sent to foreign minister Downer, asking him to make representations to Cohen on BMD.

Unfortunately the Australian government seems to want to be 'understanding' on BMD.

Secy Cohen has a fax number while he's in Australia.

It is 61-2-9221-0551. Write 'Defence Secy William S. Cohen, C/O Don Q. Washington ' on the fax.

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Message: 6
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 04:10:00 -0400
From: "Bill Smirnow" <smirnowb@ix.netcom.com>

Dr Eugene Malov: COLD FUSION MAY WORK, Infinite Energy Magazine, Web Site

Cold Fusion & "Infinite Energy" magazine http://www.infinite-energy.com & http://www.blacklightpower.com

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Message: 7
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 06:07:11 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Govt. Ends Radioactive Metal Sales
July 13, 2000
By H. JOSEF HEBERT,
Associated Press Writer
Source: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000713/pl/radioactive_scrap_1.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Energy Department took steps Thursday to ensure that radioactive metals are no longer recycled into braces, zippers, toys and other consumer products, ordering a halt to sales of thousands of tons of scrap metal left at nuclear weapons facilities.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said sales will not resume until weapons site managers can assure that the metals are free from any detectable radioactive contamination. He said that by year's end, he wanted a new standard to evaluate the material.

Supporters of the recycling program contend the levels of contamination are too low to pose a health and safety threat. Critics of such sales have argued that metals with any trace of contamination should not go into general commerce.

The Energy Department cannot say how much contaminated scrap metal already has been sold, although some estimates are ``in the low tens of thousands of tons'' over the years, according one government source, speaking on condition of anonymity. Records on such sales are incomplete, the official said.

``They don't know. They don't have an inventory on how much has gone out,'' agreed Richard Miller, an official of the paper Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers Union, which represents atomic plant workers. After the metal has gone into commerce, it is melted with other like metals and is not tracked, he said.

Richardson's decision to suspend further sales came six months after the department canceled plans to sell 6,000 tons of nickel from a defunct uranium enrichment plant near Oak Ridge, Tenn., because of concern the contaminated metal would go freely into civilian commerce.

Thursday's announcement stops the expected sale to private buyers of about 15,000 tons of metal including steel, aluminum, copper, and nickel used in machinery, furniture and remnants of torn down buildings at closed weapons production facilities.

Over the long term, the department has planned to sell about 30,000 tons of metals annually over 20 years as part of the decommissioning of many of the facilities that made up the Cold War-era nuclear weapons production complex.

It was not immediately clear Thursday how much of that metal eventually will be sold for recycling when the new standard is established.

Richardson said the department was studying the possibility of recycling much of the contaminated steel for reuse within the weapons complex for such things as storage crates for other contaminated material.

He said he was halting the sales ``to ensure American consumers that scrap metal released from Energy Department facilities for recycling contains no detectable contamination from departmental activities.''

``The suspension will remain in effect until our sites can confirm that they meet this new more rigorous standard,'' he said in a statement.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission for some time has been trying to develop a new minimum allowable contamination level for recycled material. It is not known when that standard will be issued.

Richardson's action drew mixed reaction from Capitol Hill.

Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., said it was ``a nonsensical decision'' that he said ignored scientific evidence that the level or radiation found in the metals to be recycled do not pose a health or environmental problem.

He accused Richardson of trying to ``pander ... to key constituencies'' - a reference to the steelworkers union and many environmentalists who have opposed the recycling.

Wamp, whose district includes the Oak Ridge facility, said the program's suspension will cost hundreds of jobs at Oak Ridge and in recycling businesses in Tennessee.

But Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., who was preparing to pursue legislation to suspend the recycling program, said Richardson's move was ``a responsible step to protect the health and safety of American citizens.''

Rep. Ron Klink, D-Pa., who also had criticized the recycling program, said the movement of contaminated metals threatened steelworkers as well as the public.

``Recycled scrap metals can end up in everything from cars to food containers,'' Klink said. ``Consumers have the right to know that when they use a skillet to make hamburgers or a kettle to boil pasta that these utensils will be free of radioactive contamination.''

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Message: 8
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 07:34:16 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Paducah plant gets millions; more coming
July 14, 2000
The Courier-Journal Home Page
http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2000/0007/14/000714nuke.html

Paducah plant gets millions; more coming Federal actions address health and environment By JAMES R. CARROLL The Courier-Journal

WASHINGTON -- In a flurry of signatures and votes, the executive and legislative branches of the federal government acted yesterday on a number of environmental and health fronts at the Paducah uranium plant. These were the developments at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue and at the Department of Energy:

President Clinton signed into law a supplemental spending bill that includes about $3 million for worker health screenings at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant and $8 million more this fiscal year for cleaning up contamination from radioactive and hazardous substances at the site. The measure includes money for similar tests and work at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant near Piketon, Ohio.

Environmental cleanup money for the Paducah plant for the next fiscal year and compensation to workers who may have been made sick by its operations both moved ahead in the Senate.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson announced that he was suspending a plan to recycle potentially contaminated scrap metal. Paducah at one time had counted on the revenue from the sale of contaminated nickel and other metals possibly containing low levels of radiation to help offset cleanup costs and provide jobs for displaced workers. The new money for health screenings means current workers now will be included in a program that previously covered only former workers. The pace of testing and the total number of people who can be evaluated also will be stepped up.

The full Senate approved a compensation package for employees of the Paducah plant and other Department of Energy facilities that could provide health benefits and $200,000 payments to those with job-related illnesses.

The compensation plan, part of a military authorization bill approved on a 97-3 vote, isn't in the clear yet. The House has put forward no such proposal in its own military measure. The two chambers will have to work out differences in a conference committee.

The plan is more generous than a Clinton administration proposal, but the White House has told congressional leaders it would support the broader package.

"The Senate today took a major step toward righting the wrongs of the Cold War by voting to compensate the thousands of people whose work to build America's nuclear defense has left them sick or dying," Richardson said in a statement.

Elsewhere on Capitol Hill, the Senate Appropriations Committee's energy and water development subcommittee approved $78 million for fiscal 2001 cleanup efforts at the Paducah site. That compares with about $71 million -- including the money Clinton just approved -- that will be spent on cleanup work this year.

The Senate measure includes an additional $33 million to build two plants, one at Paducah and one at its sister facility in Piketon, to convert depleted uranium into a more stable form for long-term storage. Thousands of tons of such uranium is being stored above ground in cylinders at Paducah.

The spending bill also contains $1.75 million for epidemiological studies of Paducah workers, studies that previously have never been conducted despite claims by employees that they have been afflicted by an unusual number of diseases, including cancer.

The studies would be conducted by the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky's School of Public Health.

"This analysis," said Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., a member of the appropriations panel who pushed for the spending, "is essential to developing an accurate evaluation of current and former workers in order to accurately determine who and to what extent individuals might have been exposed to radioactive material while working at the Paducah plant."

Anticipating the passage of the compensation legislation, the appropriations bill also includes $17 million for the first year of claims.

The subcommittee's action must be approved by the full Senate appropriations panel, then go to the full Senate. The House already has approved a spending bill with less Paducah cleanup money in it. Those differences, too, must be worked out in a House-Senate conference.

Scrap-metal dealers, environmental groups and plant workers had criticized an Energy Department plan to recycle contaminated nickel, steel, copper and aluminum recovered from machinery used to enrich uranium. The critics said they feared contamination could find its way into consumer products, from pots and pans to braces.

The scrap sale was held up last fall while the department looked at its options. At one time, such a sale was projected to generate $41 million at Paducah alone, all of which was to go to cleaning up a huge scrap yard.

Richardson said yesterday he was suspending the recycling plan "to ensure American consumers that scrap metal released from Energy Department facilities for recycling contains no detectable contamination from department activities."

"The suspension will remain in effect until our sites can confirm that they meet this new, more rigorous, standard," he said.

Richard Miller, policy consultant with the Paper, Allied Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers Union, which represents many workers at the Paducah plant, praised Richardson's move.

"It's incredibly responsible for him to do that," he said.

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Message: 9
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 07:50:27 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Water firms seek legal protection under plans for mass fluoridation
17 January 1999
By Linda Jackson, Consumer Affairs Correspondent
http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000118613908976&rtmo=lnwkPAut&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/99/1/17/ndent17.html

WATER companies are demanding protection from legal action for widening the use of fluoride in the nation's water supplies.

Ministers are being urged to introduce a get-out clause for the companies in exchange for the firms dropping their opposition to mass fluoridation, according to an internal water-industry document seen by The Telegraph. It shows that the companies are bracing themselves for a campaign of withholding bill payments and a flood of writs if mass fluoridation goes ahead.

In a Green Paper on public health, the Government has signalled its backing for wider use of fluoridation, which has been shown to cut the incidence of tooth decay. A White Paper was due to be published this month, but it is believed that a Cabinet split has delayed the report.

Anti-fluoride campaigners say that use of the chemical in drinking water amounts to mass medication and is potentially harmful. They point to research linking high doses of fluoride with bone disease and the early onset of senile dementia.

About 300 families whose children's teeth were allegedly damaged by fluoride are currently seeking legal aid to sue toothpaste manufacturers. Among them is Jackie Halter from King's Heath, Birmingham, whose 11-year-old twin daughters, Gabrielle and Ilana, both suffer from fluorosis, a staining of the teeth linked to excessive fluoride.

About 10 per cent of the population currently have fluoride added to their water. They live in areas that have pioneered fluoridation in Britain. But in recent years, the water companies have resisted widening the use of the chemical, fearing legal action by anti-fluoride groups.

The water-industry document calls on health officials to give "technical help" to water companies to resist claims from customers, adding that health authorities should be responsible for dealing with any legal actions. Cash must also be set aside for water companies facing the cost of any actions by opponents of fluoridation, including debt recovery, the document adds. It is understood that water firms have a list of health authorities' target cities likely to be fluoridated.

The British Fluoridation Society wants inner cities targeted. It says figures show that children in non-fluoridated areas are up to four times more likely to have teeth extracted due to tooth decay than those in fluoridated areas. Last November, the Acheson report into health inequalities, commissioned by the Government, also called for wider fluoridation, a move supported by 31 medical, dental and voluntary organisations.

Water UK, the industry's trade organisation, believes that the controversial decision to add fluoride to tap water should be made by health authorities rather than water companies. "Whichever way you look at it, this is a legal minefield," said Richard Venters, Water UK's legal adviser.

Health authorities have taken court action - unsuccessfully so far - to try to force companies to add fluoride. "One the other hand," he pointed out, "fluoridation is likely to result in court actions by anti-fluoride groups. Whichever way the water industry turns, it runs straight into the dock."

Mr Venters, who will discuss the issue this week with Tessa Jowell, the health minister, said that fluoridation was fraught with problems. He added that health authorities should be responsible for any costs involved in supplying water to people who, for any reason, could not drink water that was fluoridated.

"If the Department of Health and health authorities are to pursue a policy of fluoridation, they must take the lead and responsibility for fluoridation," he said. "They should not walk away. They should take the lead both in promoting it and defending it."

The National Pure Water Association urged the Government to hold a fully independent public inquiry into fluoridation. Jane Jones, a spokeswoman, said: "Until we know how much fluoride is being ingested in the food chain, it would be foolish and extremely dangerous to add fluoride to water. The safety margins are very small. We know there is massive opposition to this. I have people ringing me up all the time saying they will not pay their water bills if fluoride is added."

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Message: 10
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 08:52:31 -0400
From: "Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space" <globalnet@mindspring.com>

G-8 ALLIES OPPOSE MISSILE SHIELD
Allies Signal Opposition To a U.S. Missile Shield

By Doug Struck
Washington Post

MIYAZAKI, Japan - Foreign ministers meeting here put President Bill Clinton on notice Thursday that the national missile defense system he is pondering will not be welcomed by key allies. Meeting in advance of Mr. Clinton's trip to Okinawa next week for a Group of Eight summit meeting of major industrial countries, the foreign ministers

signaled that the president would find little sympathy at that meeting for American pursuit of an anti-missile program.

The ministers adopted a statement saying they are ''deeply concerned'' about missile proliferation, which many maintain would be the domino result of a new U.S. missile defense effort. And they urged ''preserving and strengthening'' the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty ''as a cornerstone of strategic stability.'' The Russian position is that the American system will violate the treaty.

''There are so many other ways we could be pursuing stability,'' the Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy of Canada said after the meeting. ''We have expressed very strong concerns that any movement of the National Missile Defense that abrogates the ABM Treaty would be wrong. We don't like anything that would further expand acceleration of missile capacity.''

Mr. Clinton has said he will decide soon whether to go ahead with development of the National Missile Defense system. He is expected to discuss the issue with President Vladimir Putin of Russia in Okinawa next week.

The G-8 foreign ministers, meeting here to prepare for the July 21-23 Okinawa summit meeting, did not name the U.S. project in their final communiquĂ(c). But in remarks to journalists afterward, several made clear their countries' wariness of the American program.

''All those who voiced their concerns to the Americans have stressed the need not to be disproportionate between the threat and the destabilizing possibilities'' of a defense program, Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine of France said.

The foreign ministers acknowledged that the issue would be largely left to the Clinton-Putin meetings next week. But the U.S. position was not helped by the absence of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who skipped this conference, to the consternation of the Japanese, to help with the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations at Camp David.

Her stand-in, Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, sought to keep a low profile. At a final news conference Thursday, he said Mr. Clinton would consider the views of U.S. allies in making his decision.

The foreign ministers did agree on a proposal to be adopted at Okinawa to help resolve conflicts.

The proposal calls for curbs on small-arms purchases, consideration of how to block the sale of ''blood diamonds'' mined in Africa and sold to finance fighting, increased training for civilian police sent by other countries into hot spots like East Timor, and a condemnation of the use of children as soldiers.

The foreign and finance ministers of the G-8 members, which include Japan, Canada, Italy, the United States, Britain, Russia, Germany and France, are meeting separately before the heads of state convene in Okinawa.

The conference in this southern Japanese resort elicited an extraordinary effort by Japan to prove its preparedness for the summit meeting. More than 5,000 police were mobilized, coast guard gunboats patrolled the coast, and thousands of volunteer guides and hotel staff stood at attention throughout the two-day meeting.

Representatives of developing nations in the Southern Hemisphere showed up to appeal for debt relief from the participants.

''We were pleasantly surprised'' by the reception to their request, said Nkosazana Zuma, foreign minister of South Africa. ''Clearly, it's in their own benefit that they are not the only rich nations. At the end of the day, they will have no market, and no one to sell their goods to'' if poverty grips developing countries, she said.

In their nine-page final statement, the foreign ministers also welcomed the recent summit meeting between South Korea and North Korea and encouraged Pyongyang's recent moves toward greater diplomatic openness.

The ministers said they were ''deeply concerned at the level of tension between India and Pakistan.'' They praised democratic advances in Indonesia and Iran and encouraged the Middle East peace process.

Bruce K. Gagnon Coordinator Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space PO Box 90083 Gainesville, FL. 32607 (352) 337-9274 http://www.globenet.free-online.co.uk globalnet@mindspring.com

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Message: 11
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 11:40:16 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Ban on radioactive scrap may affect OR
Wamp blasts move as 'nonsensical'

July 14, 2000
By Frank Munger,
News-Sentinel Oak Ridge bureau
http://www.knoxnews.com/new s/11779.shtml

OAK RIDGE -- U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson on Thursday halted the release of radioactive scrap metals at DOE sites nationwide, a policy move that could jeopardize BNFL's cleanup project in Oak Ridge. Richardson's order had been anticipated for months because of heavy pressure from the metals recycling industry, environmental groups and a union that had opposed the Oak Ridge project from its inception.

"I am making this decision to ensure American consumers that scrap metal released from Energy Department facilities for recycling contains no detectable contamination from departmental activities," Richardson said in a press statement. "The suspension will remain in effect until our sites can confirm that they can meet this new more rigorous standard."

The secretary previously barred the release of any nickel taken from the Oak Ridge facilities, even though the state of Tennessee had reviewed the recycling program and approved a permit that allowed BNFL to melt the metal and release it with small amounts of contamination mixed throughout.

The latest DOE order is broad-based and covers all metals with the potential for any nuclear contamination, whether it's internal or on the surface.

BNFL, a subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels, signed a $238 million contract with DOE in 1997 to clean up three huge buildings at the East Tennessee Technology Park, a former uranium-enrichment plant known as K-25.

The Oak Ridge contract was based on BNFL's ability to take ownership of metals stripped from old facilities and resell the material on the commercial market. Money from those sales was supposed to help subsidize the high cost of cleanup.

After Richardson's earlier moratorium on nickel sales, BNFL asked DOE for about $40 million to compensate it for the contractual change. That request is still under negotiation.

The impact of the broader ban is not clear, although some have suggested it undermines the premise of the BNFL contract and could skew the entire project.

BNFL and its Oak Ridge recycling unit, Manufacturing Sciences Corp., have already sold about 8 million pounds of metals cleaned up to acceptable levels under the previous policy. That volume, however, was only a small fraction of the thousands of tons that could have been sold on the open market if the project had been allowed to proceed.

Richardson said he was encouraging DOE's field managers to "think creatively" and come up with ways to recycle the contaminated metal for uses within the department, such as containers for nuclear waste.

A BNFL spokesman said Thursday the company had not received any official notification. BNFL and its contractors employ about 500 people on the cleanup project.

In a prepared statement, BNFL touted the progress being made at the Oak Ridge site and said, "This appears to be a decision that will have a significant impact on the project and is a departure from the existing contract baseline, but until we have had discussions with the department, we will continue working on the project as it currently stands."

Richard Miller, policy analyst with the Paper Allied-Industrial Chemical & Energy Workers, said Richardson deserves "a huge amount of credit" for taking steps to protect the health of American consumers and the integrity of the nation's metal recycling industry.

PACE, formerly known as the Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers Union, filed a lawsuit trying to stop the Oak Ridge project in its early stages. That suit, which claimed unsafe work practices, was unsuccessful, but the union has continued to push for greater restrictions on the recycling program.

"Building a market (for recycled metals) inside DOE is really smart," Miller said. "The fact of the matter is Richardson has done more than any other secretary in terms of establishing a rational policy for how to deal with radioactive metals."

U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., whose district includes Oak Ridge, was outraged by the action and dispatched a letter to Richardson saying it could cost many Tennesseans their jobs.

"I am dismayed by Secretary Richardson's nonsensical decision to ignore sound science and solid evidence in what is obviously an election-year effort to pander to and mobilize key constituencies," Wamp said in a press statement.

"Even worse, this politically motivated move will cost up to 250 jobs in the Oak Ridge area and impact more than 950 others in the metals recycling business in East Tennessee."

Wamp said the move would be costly to taxpayers, too, because the cost of storing and repackaging wastes will rise by $30 million or more.

Frank Munger may be reached at 865-482-9213 or twig1@knoxnews.infi.net.

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Message: 12
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 12:26:27 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Starmet---UF-6 to F processing

July 13, 2000
Company Press Release
Starmet Corporation

Starmet Corporation Announces Award of Department of Energy Contract to Commercialize Its Patented Technology For Electronics Materials Manufacturing

CONCORD, Mass., July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Starmet Corporation (Nasdaq: STMT - news) a Concord, Massachusetts based manufacturer of specialized metal products, today announced the recent award of a Phase II Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) contract by the Department of Energy to further develop methods for making high purity fluoride gases. These gases are valuable for chemical vapor deposition in the manufacture of photovoltaic and semiconductor devices.

This contract, valued at approximately $750,000 over two years, will assist in the full scale commercialization of Starmet's proprietary Fluorine Extraction Process (FEP(TM)) for the production of GeF4 and WF6. Germanium Tetrafluoride (GeF4) is used in the fabrication of silicon-germanium, a source of germanium for thin film photovoltaic devices, and as a selective fluorinating agent. Tungsten Hexafluoride (WF6) is used in producing Tungsten plugs for fabrication of semiconductor contacts and channels, among other critical applications.

Starmet's FEP(TM) technology can be directly applied to the recovery of the fluorine contained in the enormous stockpile of depleted uranium hexafluoride now in storage at DOE sites in Paducah, KY, Portsmouth, OH and Oak Ridge, TN. Other processes for converting depleted uranium hexafluoride to uranium oxide produce only low grade hydrofluoric acid. In contrast, Starmet has demonstrated, at pilot scale, production of high purity fluoride compounds valuable in electronics, chemical and metals manufacturing.

Production of other fluoride gases such as SiF4, BF3 and TiF4 and applications for these chemicals currently are being pursued to further enhance the value of this novel technology. Over the past two years, Starmet has been granted seven US Patents covering this new technology, and has three additional patent applications pending.

Special Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements:

Statements contained herein that are not statements of historical fact are ``forward-looking statements''. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning the relative economic benefits of this technology, competing processes and intended market applications.

Such forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions and involve a number of risks and uncertainties, and, accordingly, actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause such differences include, but are not limited to: the acceptance of the Company's products and services and the presence of competitors with greater technical, marketing and financial resources than the Company.

William T. Nachtrab, Ph.D. Vice President, Technology. (978) 369-5410 SOURCE: Starmet Corporation

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Message: 13
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 13:46:16 -0400
From: Ellen Thomas <prop1@prop1.org>

NucNews 00/07/14 - "Cartoon of the week" nominations

Hi, folks. Please send me your nominations (either photo attachments to email, or URL to be found) of good cartoons for the (so-far occasional) "NucNews Cartoons of the Week." Here are my nominations -

First, by Herblock, on July 12, 2000 - http://www.grassroots.com/scripts/editorial.dll?bfromind=1016&eeid=2738795&e etype=article&render=y&ck=&userid=163826638&userpw=.&uh=163826638,2,&ver=hb1.40 39ad6c8.jpg

Or do you prefer Mike Lubovich, of July 11 - http://www.grassroots.com/scripts/editorial.dll?bfromind=1017&eeid=2724192&e etype=article&render=y&ck=&userid=163826638&userpw=.&uh=163826638,2,&ver=hb1.40

lk0711d.bmd.test.gif

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Message: 14
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 13:10:36 -0600
From: Winston Weeks <wweeks@mail.aros.net>

Robert Fisk: The voices of protest find an unexpected audience in the US
14 July 2000
http://www.independent.co.uk/argument/Commentators/fisk140700.shtml

'Even in the United States it is sometimes possible to hear the unvarnished truth about the Middle East'

Just after Madeleine Albright, the US Secretary of State, made the commencement address at the University of California at Berkeley last month, a Palestinian student medallist, who had been invited to respond to the address, put aside the speech that she had prepared - a speech that had already been officially approved by the university - and decided, in her own words, to "talk from my heart".

Fadia Rafeedie is a courageous lady. In just a few short, eloquent paragraphs, she accused Albright - introduced to the audience as "the greatest woman of our times" - of lying by omission, of responsibility via UN sanctions for the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians, of failing to tell her audience that it was an American company that had supplied Saddam Hussein with his chemical weapons and the CIA that had earlier funded him. To the horror of the university authorities, who thought they had control of her address, Fadia Rafeedie even mentioned the unmentionable: that US-made depleted uranium munitions fired by the Americans in the 1991 Gulf war may be destroying the lives of thousands more Iraqis.

At almost the same time, on the other side of the US, a former Israeli soldier, James Ron, was baring his soul in the normally very pro-Israeli pages of the Boston Globe. As a member of a supposedly "(c)lite" Israeli paratroop unit operating in Lebanon in 1986, he wrote, he dragged a blindfolded middle-aged man into an alley and put him through a mock execution. He helped to ransack and pillage a Lebanese village. He watched his comrade kick a cup of scalding tea into the face of an old man. Then he put his rifle against the head of a 10-year-old Lebanese boy and put him, too, through a mock execution. "Let me begin", he wrote, "by asking forgiveness from the 10-year old whose name I never knew and from the village I no longer remember."

Two brave voices in a conformist land - one Palestinian, one Israeli - demonstrate that even in the US, it's sometimes possible to hear the unvarnished truth about the Middle East. I've railed against America's sheep-like subservience to the "moderate", pro-Israeli rules laid down by the State Department and CNN so often that I could scarcely believe what I was reading when Rafeedie's address and Ron's article arrived in Beirut. And you won't have read their words anywhere else. Real news is no longer news in the West, where only the clich(c)d peace-process-vs- terrorist-fanatics version of the Arab-Israeli conflict finds its way into print.

So it's worth studying these two astonishing contributions to the truth. In Rafeedie's case, her words were an act of faith. Several of her student colleagues - protesting at Albright's claim that UN sanctions against Iraq were necessary - had been hauled from the lecture theatre. "When [those] protesters were protesting," Rafeedie told the students listening to her, "it's not because they wanted to pick a fight with the woman whom you guys all happen - well, many of you - happen to love. She was introduced as the 'greatest woman of our times'. Now see, to me that's an insult. This woman is doing horrible things. She's allowing innocent people to suffer and to die. Iraq used to be the country in the Arab world that had the best medical services for its people, and now look at it. It's being obliterated."

Sharp lady that she is, Rafeedie spotted the need to disassociate herself from Saddam. "He's a brutal dictator and I agree with her [Albright], and I agree with many of you. We need to see who's responsible for how strong Saddam has gotten. When he was gassing the Kurds, he was gassing them using chemical weapons that were manufactured in Rochester, New York. And when he was fighting a long and protracted war with Iran, where one million people died, it was the CIA that was funding him."

Rafeedie was talking to people who would never have agreed with her. "I'm speaking to a crowd that gave a standing ovation to the woman who typifies everything against which I stand... and I think that if I achieve nothing else, if this makes you think a little bit about Iraq, think a little bit about US policy, I've succeeded." Some hope. But Rafeedie ended her extraordinary speech with an Arab slogan: "Fear not the path of the truth because of the lack of people walking on it."

Mr Ron was making a somewhat different point: that Israel will have to do more than just withdraw its soldiers from southern Lebanon if it is to be forgiven for what it did there. Such as the 10-year-old boy. "We forced his family into the kitchen and dragged him to a nearby orchard," he wrote. "My lieutenant pressed the child's face into the dirt while I jammed my rifle against his skull. Although the officer threatened to shoot his head off, the boy did not respond, even after we threatened to throw him from the roof of his three-storey home."

When Ron expressed "reservations" about this - a somewhat mild word under the circumstances - he was ridiculed. "Casual brutality was not limited to lower-income [Israeli] recruits. Omri, child of an intelligence officer, liked to fire bursts towards villagers peeking through doorways. Rafi, son of a liberal parliamentarian, kicked a cup of hot tea into an elderly man's face."

Ron recalled the civilian fatalities of Israel's invasions of Lebanon - almost 20,000 - and asked why Israel could not compensate those it had harmed. "If Israel will not do so on its own, the international community should pressure it to do so. If other countries can face up to their unpleasant pasts" - Ron mentioned El Salvador and South Africa - "why not Israel?"

Brave voices, as I said. Have no doubts - these are the voices of decent, genuinely moral people. Of course, it has to be said that Rafeedie was a bit braver than Ron. Her chances of academic progress are not going to be improved by her outburst at the awful Madeleine Albright. Ron, I should add, is an Israeli, an assistant professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University and a human-rights investigator. No one is going to disturb his academic tenure. And 14 years is, frankly, a long time to wait before spilling the beans.

But no, the real question is much simpler: why aren't non-Jewish and non-Arab Americans saying these things? Why aren't "ordinary" Americans - ie, those without a stake in the Middle East - asking these questions? Indeed, if the Boston Globe's own journalists had reported what Ron told the paper's readers, their dispatches would have remained unpublished. Rafeedie and Ron should take a bow: a Palestinian and an Israeli didn't worry that they were the only people walking down the path of truth. But why does it take such courage in America to tell the truth about the Middle East?

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Message: 15
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 15:47:17 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Recycling suspension may cost 250 jobs

July 14, 2000
by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff
http://www.oakridger.com/

Opinions are ranging from "it's too early to tell" to serious as officials began assessing how much Oak Ridge will be affected by U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson's suspending Thursday the release of potentially contaminated scrap metals from Department of Energy facilities.

The suspension is part of a new policy aimed at ensuring contaminated materials are not recycled into consumer products and at improving management of scrap materials at DOE sites.

In a press release, Richardson said the suspension will remain in effect until DOE sites can confirm that recycled metal would contain "no detectable contamination from departmental activities."

Radioactivity can be detected in nature from a variety of materials. Sources of radioactivity include rocks, soil and the human body.

DOE's metal recycling program has been under fire from environmental groups, criticized by the steel industry and targeted in a lawsuit by the Paper, Allied-industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers union. Concerns have centered on the free release of metals with radioactive contamination, which critics say could put the American public at risk if exposed while using ordinary household items made from the metals.

"I am challenging the department's managers to think creatively and come up with incentives to promote internal reuse and recycling," said Richardson, who also barred the release earlier this year of any nickel taken from Oak Ridge facilities.

Locally, DOE spokesman Frank Juan and Lawrence Young, executive director of the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee, said it will take some time to ascertain the impact of Richardson's decision on Oak Ridge.

"It's too early to tell," Juan said.

However, Susan Gawarecki, executive director of the Local Oversight Committee, an Oak Ridge group that reviews environmental activities for local governments, said Richardson's decision could "cause a lot of problems" at East Tennessee Technology Park where BNFL is under contract to clean up three gaseous diffusion processing plants at the Oak Ridge K-25 site.

That contract, awarded in 1997, requires BNFL dismantle, remove and decontaminate the process equipment and support systems materials within the three gaseous diffusion plant buildings. A provision in the contract allows the company to recycle the low-level radioactive metals and keep the money from sales of the metals.

When contacted for comment, BNFL officials issued a prepared statement addressing the company's reaction toward the suspension. It states BNFL has not received any notification or had any discussion with DOE officials as to what ramifications the suspension would have on the ETTP project.

However, the company's statement adds the suspension will have a "significant impact on the project and is a departure from the existing contract." BNFL is currently removing more than a million and a half pounds of materials from the three buildings on a weekly basis.

"For right now, it's business as usual," BNFL spokesman Norman Hammitt emphasized.

In Washington, D.C., Richardson's decision was bad news to at least one elected official. U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-3rd District, who has vocally opposed the suspension for several months, issued a press statement shortly after hearing about Richardson's official decision.

"I am dismayed by Secretary Richardson's nonsensical decision to ignore sound science and solid evidence in what is obviously an election-year effort to pander to and mobilize key constituencies," Wamp said. "Even worse, this politically motivated move will cost up to 250 jobs in the Oak Ridge area and impact more than 950 others at companies in the metals recycling business in East Tennessee.

"Not only does this blunder cost jobs, it will also cost the taxpayers money. Costs for the coming year could be increased by upwards of $30 million because recycling contractors will incur additional expenses for storing and repackaging wastes that would otherwise have been recycled."

Wamp said he was also "personally disappointed" that Richardson did not respond to a June 1 letter he wrote citing the scientific and factual arguments against the suspension. The letter warned Richardson that creating a moratorium on the recycling of the potentially contaminated metals would be a "lose-lose-lose" proposal.

However, when contacted for comment in early June, a DOE headquarters representative told The Oak Ridger that the moratorium was not set in stone and other options were under consideration.

In addition, a month before Wamp's letter was issued, The Oak Ridger reported the suspension was being considered, which a local DOE spokesman said was untrue.

Calls were placed to DOE headquarters in Washinton, D.C., and PACE for comments this morning, but no one was available for comment.

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Message: 16
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 15:49:27 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Senate agrees to compensate some sick weapons plant workers
July 14, 2000
by Katherine Rizzo Associated Press
http://www.oakridger.com/

WASHINGTON -- Nuclear weapons plant workers made ill by exposure to radiation, silica or beryllium could receive medical benefits and at least $200,000 apiece under legislation passed Thursday by the Senate.

However, lawmakers still must convince the House, which is concerned about the cost to taxpayers.

The compensation program for some of the people sickened while working at Department of Energy facilities was approved as part of a 97-3 Senate vote on a bill authorizing military programs.

"We owe our DOE workers this much," said Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., who added the proposal to the larger bill. "We have a long road ahead of us if we're going to ensure that this important compensation package stays in the bill that heads to the White House this fall."

Thompson represents Oak Ridge, Tenn., where some of the sick workers live.

There were no available estimates of how many workers would be covered, how many workers would be left out because their illnesses were caused by an excluded type of exposure, and what the eventual cost might be.

When a Clinton administration compensation plan was proposed, the Energy Department said about 3,000 people might qualify. Both plans cover workers with radiation-caused cancers and leave out those whose cancers were most likely related to exposure to chemicals.

A version of the military legislation that passed the House in May offered nothing for the sickened workers.

Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Ohio, whose district includes the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio, said there is sentiment in the House for doing the right thing but a concern about a potential cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.

"There is pretty general agreement that we ought to take care of people that have been hurt," he said. "The one question is whether they will feel the money's there."

Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., whose district includes the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, said the uncertain cost has been a large stumbling block for the House staffers who have been reviewing the Senate proposal.

"Any time you don't know the cost of a program, that's a problem," he said.

Resistance to creating any new entitlement, no matter how worthy the cause, is great enough that backers of a compensation program are focusing on getting House support for the Senate language rather than trying to include the left-out workers, both lawmakers said.

"This is the best chance that we have this year of establishing a compensation program for employees at these plants," Whitfield said.

The Energy Department has proposed minimum lump sum payments of $100,000 for employees of DOE contractors who contracted cancer as a result of radiation exposure at the weapons plants. The department estimated that compensation under its plan would cost about $520 million over the first five years.

During the Cold War, about 600,000 people worked at bomb-making and nuclear material plants across the country. It is difficult to determine exactly how many of them were sickened because chronic beryllium disease and many of the radiation-linked cancers take years and sometimes decades to surface.

Also Thursday, President Clinton signed into law a spending bill that includes $10 million for health screening of workers at the Piketon and Paducah plants, plus $16 million for cleaning up contamination at the two plants.

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Message: 17
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 15:52:51 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Our Views: DOE chipping away at vital base of support
July 14, 2000
Source: http://www.oakridger.com/

Back in May a Department of Energy public information spokesman called a report of a planned suspension on recycling of radioactive metals "inaccurate" in a May story in The Oak Ridger.

What the story did not report was the insistence of DOE officials, including from Washington, that the story The Oak Ridger was preparing was wrong and should not be printed.

We considered it highly suspect at the time that DOE Washington officials would voluntarily call this office to deny a story that had not yet even appeared. We were suspicious enough to go ahead with the story. So imagine our chagrin mixed with amusement when DOE Thursday faxed a release from Washington quoting Secretary Richardson as suspending the metals recycling program.

Dance all around the issue and say the department was carefully choosing its words,, but the fact is DOE lied, again, about an issue of considerable public interest locally. The decision could cost many jobs here.

And here we go again. A news story will reveal some action, or anticipated action, and DOE will dismiss it, will say the report is inaccurate, is taken out of context, is exaggerated. The agency has a long list of choice phrases to imply reporters are just not getting it right.

Yes, as a newspaper we make our own share of unassisted mistakes -- too often. But the news media, like the greater American public, must depend upon its government to be truthful and forthright in all things.

This is a DOE currently immersed in so much controversy that little lies here and there about comparatively trifling matters perhaps seem insignificant. But there is the bigger principle here of a government engaging in a pattern of defying accountability. Time was, in a more responsive Washington, when heads might roll over known falsehoods, big and small.

Little wonder that long-time DOE critics like Rep. John Kasich, chairman of the House Budget Committee, have in recent weeks stepped up their drumbeat to abandon efforts aimed at reinventing DOE in favor of abolishing this behemoth instead. "It's long past time for Department of Energy officials to drop their 'dog ate my homework' alibis,'" Rep. Kasich writes.

One of the greatest perils facing DOE is the loss of support from communities like Oak Ridge which are so dependent upon its largess. But, realistically, a discredited DOE is damaged goods for Oak Ridge. And if the agency is losing support, it has only itself to blame.

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Message: 18
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 15:56:34 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Clinton signs legislation with $25 million for Y-12
July 14, 2000
by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff
Source: http://www.oakridger.com/

A supplemental appropriations package which allots $25 million for the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant has been signed into effect by President Clinton.

The supplemental funding is attached to the fiscal year 2001 Military Construction Appropriations bill, which includes money for projects at several military operations. However, the $25 million for Y-12 will be available for use in fiscal year 2000.

"The $25 million is vitally needed for the continued work at Y-12," said Dick Kopper, press secretary for U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-3rd District. "Congressman Wamp is delighted the bill has been signed and the money is on its way. This culminates an effort he has been working on as hard as he can for many months."

U.S. Sens. Fred Thompson and Bill Frist, both Tennessee Republicans, worked closely with Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens to ensure this funding was maintained in the supplemental package, despite reports the funding might be dropped from the final bill.

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Message: 19
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 12:56:24 -0700
From: ivan buchbinder <pentaske@memes.com>

"Engineer a Verdict"

Y'all, Fellow dissents pay rapt attention to this article for it is Case in Point of the FASCIST BEAST and how it is consuming your "Unalienable Rights", "Truths held to be self evident" This is how the Dragon's lust works.... DO NOT BE SILENT!!

Later

http://dallasnews.com/waco/111411_waco_14tex.ART.html

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Message: 20
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 15:58:05 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Redfield named new DOE deputy
July 14, 2000
Source: http://www.oakridger.com/

Myrna Redfield has been selected as deputy group leader of the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Reservation Remediation Management Group in the Environmental Management office.

She will be responsible for overseeing the protection of the environment, safety and health of the public and the government and contractor personnel. She also will provide performance evaluations of management and operating and other prime contractors responsible for environmental restoration activities.

>From August 1993 to February 2000, Redfield served as team leader of the Paducah, DOE Environmental Management program. She was responsible for oversight of the Paducah Remedial Action and Waste Management programs and negotiating with state and federal regulators.

She joined DOE in 1991 as a safety engineer at Paducah. Prior to joining DOE, Redfield was an industrial engineer intern for three companies in Puerto Rico, including Bristol Myers-Squibb Co. and Jansen Pharmaceutical.

A native of Puerto Rico, Redfield received a bachelor of science degree in industrial engineering from the University of Puerto Rico.

Redfield and her husband, Bill, live in Oak Ridge. They have two children, Megan Ivellisse, 6, and Benjamin Gabriel, 3.

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Message: 21
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 15:59:51 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Senate Committee approves $2.5 million for new Mouse House
July 14, 2000
by Dale Macconnaughay Oak Ridger Staff
Source: http://www.oakridger.com/

Millions of mice housed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory were a step closer to gaining a new residence Friday.

The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water approved $2.5 million for construction of a new Mouse House at ORNL. The new Laboratory for Comparative and Functional Genomics will see the genetic mutant mice relocated in a new, modern facility.

"We desperately need a new facility if ORNL is to continue on the cutting edge of genetic research," Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.), said in a joint prepared statement with Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) from Washington.

The funding proposal now goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee before being heard on the floor of the full Senate.

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Message: 22
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 16:01:32 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

DOE soliciting comments on Bethel Valley watershed
July 14, 2000
by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff
http://www.oakridger.com/

The Department of Energy's proposed plan for environmental restoration activities planned within the Bethel Valley watershed will be the topic of a July 27 public meeting.

The purpose of the meeting is to identify the preferred alternatives for remediation of the Bethel Valley watershed, explain why these alternatives are preferred and describe other options that were considered. DOE is soliciting public review and comment on all the alternatives described, including those not listed as preferred.

The proposed plan summarizes results of environmental and engineering studies conducted for this area and describes the preferred alternative for environmental restoration measures in the Bethel Valley watershed.

This proposal includes demolition and removal of inactive facilities; removal of contaminated sediment from White Oak Creek, First Creek and Fifth Creek; extraction and treatment of groundwater to minimize further impacts to groundwater and to protect surface water; removal of contaminated surface soil; and land-use controls to prevent contact with buried waste, tanks, pipelines, subsurface soil and groundwater.

If implemented, the proposal is expected to restore all creeks and streams within the watershed to applicable environmental standards.

The public meeting will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, July 27, in the Einstein Conference Room of the Jacobs Technical Center at 125 Broadway.

Before and after the presentation, representatives from DOE, DOE contractors, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation will be available to discuss the plan and answer questions.

The proposed plan is available for review at DOE's Information Resource Center next to Big Ed's on Broadway. Comments about the plan may be sent to Myrna Redfield, DOE FFA project manager, DOE Oak Ridge Operations, P.O. Box 2001, Oak Ridge, Tenn. 37831. Deadline for receiving comments is Aug. 24.

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Message: 24
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 16:24:15 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

'Privatization' at DOE sites not working, report finds
7/14/2000
By John Stang Herald staff writer
http://www. tri-cityherald.com/news/2000/0714/story4.html

The Department of Energy's "privatization" concept has flopped so far, a recent federal General Accounting Office report concluded.

"DOE's privatization initiative has had little success in achieving cost savings, keeping the projects moving forward on schedule or getting improvements in contractors' performance," the report said.

The report covers the GAO's June 22 testimony to the U.S. House Commerce Committee's subcommittee on oversight and investigations. The GAO serves as the investigative arm of Congress.

The GAO looked at three DOE privatized projects -- including Hanford's troubled radioactive waste glassification project. The other two projects are at DOE's Idaho Falls site.

DOE designed the privatization concept for very long, complicated projects. Under the concept, the hired company would pay all upfront costs and would not be repaid for its expenses and profits until specific goals are met. The idea is to get private money invested in cleanup projects with federal money not being used until the goals are actually accomplished. This is supposed to be an incentive to get work done on time and within budget in nationwide cleanup programs notorious for delays and cost overruns.

However, DOE's two biggest privatization projects have failed, and a third is showing its first signs of struggling. These projects are:

n BNFL Inc.'s effort to build Hanford plants to convert the site's radioactive tank wastes into glass. Construction was supposed to begin in 2001, with glassification to run from 2007 to 2018. The original cost estimate was $6.9 billion -- which was supposed to be a $2.1 billion to $3.5 billion savings over using a conventional contract.

But the high financing costs for an 18-year project plus design changes caused BNFL to submit a revised $15.2 billion estimate in April. That led DOE to fire BNFL. DOE is trying to hire a new company under a more conventional contract by January 2001.

n Lockheed Martin's efforts to clean up a one-acre plutonium-laced burial site called "Pit 9" at DOE's Idaho Falls site.

The supposedly $200 million project was run from 1996 to 1999 and saved $134 million. But Lockheed's performance problems got it fired in 1998, with the cleanup work still not done. Now, DOE and Lockheed are fighting in court, with DOE trying to recover $54 million already paid to Lockheed, and the company claiming DOE owes it another $271 million.

n BNFL's efforts to set up a mixed waste treatment plant at Idaho Falls, to be operated from 2003 to 2018. This $876 million project is supposedly $670 million cheaper than what could be done under a conventional contract.

So far, DOE is happy with BNFL, but some permitting and legal problems could delay construction. The GAO is not sure if those problems could delay the overall project. Delays would likely increase the price tag, the report said.

The GAO found common problems at all three projects.

The required work grew in all three. The wastes had not been thoroughly studied. Some technical and regulatory issues were unresolved when plans were made. Schedules were unrealistic. DOE erroneously thought a privatized project's costs would not grow once it was started, the GAO concluded.

Also, the GAO noted all the contractors had major problems in lining up private investors -- other than their own companies -- to pay for the upfront costs while waiting several years for returns on their investments.

And in all three cases, DOE limited the options to set up and finance contracts -- comparing a privatized approach only with a conventional cost-reimbursement contract without performance incentives. That shut out many avenues and comparisons DOE should have explored, the GAO report said.

Finally, the GAO wondered if DOE effectively supervised a privatized contract, citing Hanford's tank waste project as an example. The GAO noted DOE became aware of BNFL's estimate approaching the $15 billion mark only a few weeks before it was submitted.

"This lack of awareness raises questions about the adequacy of DOE's expertise to oversee this aspect of the project," the report said.

---------

Message: 25
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 16:27:09 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Senate committee approves projects for Paducah plant
July 14, 2000
Paducah, Kentucky
Staff report
http://www.stat e.nv.us/nucwaste/news2000/nn10712.htm

The Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee has approved funding for the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, a new lock at Kentucky Dam, and continued construction of the Olmsted Lock and Dam. U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell said he was successful in removing funding from the bill for new construction on Reelfoot Lake in northwest Tennessee. The funding will be delayed until the Corps of Engineers determines if the project would cause flooding in Fulton County.

The Energy and Water Appropriations Bill includes three projects for the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant: $78 million from a decontamination and decommissioning fund that would be used for cleanup work, $33 million for depleted uranium conversion, and $1.75 million for an epidemiological study of workers that will be conducted by the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville.

The depleted uranium conversation allocation is $9 million more than had been previously approved. It will be used to plan and design a plant that would convert more than 60,000 cylinders of uranium hexafluoride into usable material.

The bill includes $27.7 million for construction of the new lock at Kentucky Dam and $53.1 million for continued construction of the Olmsted Lock and Dam on the Ohio River.

The funding must still be approved by the full Senate. The Senate bill is different than a bill previously approved by the House. The different version would be resolved by a joint House-Senate committee.

* NucNews Digest by OneList Subscribers

1. Fw: ENERGY DAILLY, July 12
From: "Vina Colley" <vcolley@earthlink.net>

2. Fw: Supercomputer fitted with new program to analyze workings of Yucca Mountain
From: "Vina Colley" <vcolley@earthlink.net>

3. Outrage Environmentalists and Consumer Groups
From: ivan buchbinder <pentaske@memes.com>

4. NUCLEAR POWER NEWS
From: "Bill Smirnow" <smirnowb@ix.netcom.com>

5. NucNews 00/07/13 - Daybook; Presidential Candidates
From: Ellen Thomas <prop1@prop1.org>

6. Hanford fire put plutonium into the air
From: Winston Weeks <wweeks@mail.aros.net>

7. Hanford contractors sued again
From: Winston Weeks <wweeks@mail.aros.net>

8. Our Views: Appeasement of radical fringe can't help Gore
From: magnu96196@aol.com

9. Richardson suspends metal recycling
From: magnu96196@aol.com

10. SNS fortunes double to $240 million . . . for now
From: magnu96196@aol.com

11. Many worked behind the scenes to retain Paducah's USEC plant
From: magnu96196@aol.com

12. EEI: USEC loss OK
From: magnu96196@aol.com

13. Problem found, cleanup continues
From: magnu96196@aol.com

14. Faults our reporting of TSCA meeting
From: magnu96196@aol.com

15. TVA gets Paducah contract
From: magnu96196@aol.com

16. Bomb Parts Said Used As Knickknacks
From: magnu96196@aol.com

17. Flats operator fined Kaiser-Hill violated DOE health, safety protocols
From: magnu96196@aol.com

18. Fire Stirs Safe Levels of Radiation
From: magnu96196@aol.com

19. DOE gets chewed out by House panel
From: magnu96196@aol.com

20. Hanford fire put plutonium into the air
From: magnu96196@aol.com

21. Fw: Cancer Study Deemphasizes Genes' Role
From: "Vina Colley" <vcolley@earthlink.net>

24. Another deadly legacy from the Cold War
From: magnu96196@aol.com

25. DEMOCRATS URGE CLINTON TO DELAY
From: "Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space" <globalnet@mindspring.com>

--------

Message: 1
Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2000 21:47:48 -0700
From: "Vina Colley" <vcolley@earthlink.net>

ENERGY DAILLY, July 12

EPA Issues Clean Water Rule, Gets Backing On Mercury Emission Analysis
BY CHRIS HOLLY

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol Browner, ignoring a congressional prohibition, signed a final rule Tuesday that would require states to take sweeping new steps-possibly including new controls on power plants-to reduce water pollution in more than 20,000 lakes, rivers and streams.

The new rule, bitterly opposed by electric utilities, farmers and other industries, would require for the first time comprehensive planning by state and local governments for virtually every water body in the country to stop run-off from farms and cities and other kinds of pollution from fouling America's waters. EPA said some 40 percent of U.S. water bodies remain polluted 25 years after the enactment of the Clean Water Act.

Congress last week quietly inserted a legislative rider in an emergency appropriations bill that would require Browner to hold off from signing and implementing the controversial rule for 18 months. But Browner persuaded President Clinton to allow her to sign the rule before he signed the appropriations bill, in effect sidestepping the congressional prohibition.

In a bow to legislators, however, the administration changed the regulation's implementation date to Oct. 1, 2001, the date stipulated by the rider. EPA also made changes to the rule intended to trigger a 60-day public review of the measure by Congress, a review Browner said she "welcomes."

The news came as the National Academy of Sciences Tuesday issued a long-awaited, congressionally mandated report on the health effects of mercury that validates approaches used by EPA in establishing a minimum daily "reference dose" of the highly toxic metal that a human could ingest over a lifetime without adverse effects.

In its report, a committee of NAS scientists using data sources similar to what EPA used calculated its own reference dose and arrived at the same number as EPA did. This is seen by environmentalists as validating EPA's efforts to comply with a court-ordered December deadline to decide whether to regulate mercury emissions from utilities.

Many sources inside and outside the industry think an agency decision to regulate utility mercury emissions is a virtual certainty, particularly with the release of the NAS report supporting the scientific underpinnings of the agency's actions on mercury to date. If the agency does decide to regulate utility mercury emissions, it is likely to take two years to do so.

"The key thing in all this is the difference between a reference dose and what an emissions limit for power plants is," said Paul Bailey, vice president, environmental affairs for the Edison Electric Institute said. "That's going to be the key step."

In addition, the report could have an impact on a recent EPA rulemaking in which the agency decided to regulate coal combustion wastes as non-hazardous wastes. In that rulemaking, EPA left a "placeholder" in which the agency said it might revisit its decision following publication of the NAS report. Environmentalists are pushing hard for EPA to take a second look at the coal waste rule.

Utilities fear EPA's new water regulation because it gives the states wide latitude in preventing water pollution. The rule, known as the TMDL rule, would require states to establish a "total maximum daily load" of a given pollutant that could flow into a particular river or lake without causing adverse effects.

States must establish these TMDLs, create a "budget" of the total amount of a given pollutant that can be emitted each day, and divide that amount by the number of sources to arrive at a daily pollution limit for each source.

Utilities worry that for nitrogen, for example, some states may try to squeeze extra nitrogen oxides air emissions reductions from them rather than require farmers to spend more money to prevent nitrogen fertilizer runoff.

Browner said "nothing in the rule would prevent a state from regulating pollution from any source" to meet a TMDL for nitrogen, for example. Charles Fox, assistant administrator for water, went further. "We expect states will be looking at a wide variety of sources for reductions," he said.

The administration decided to upgrade the rule to "major rule" status under the Congressional Review Act, allowing Congress 60 days to review the rule if it chooses. Congress could throw the rule out, although that is considered unlikely.

"The only real questions from today are, what changes did [EPA] make in the final rule and what will Congress do," Bailey said. "I don't know the answer to those questions."

--

DOE Officials: Post-Cold War Security Rollback Went Too Far
BY GEORGE LOBSENZ

Energy Department officials told Congress Tuesday DOE may have gone too far in the post-Cold War years to reduce controls on secret and top secret data and the department is now moving to reinstate some of those document accounting and tracking requirements.

At a House hearing, DOE and General Accounting Office investigators said DOE discontinued many data controls in the 1990s in order to reduce security costs, increase openness and comply with government-wide initiatives to promote data-handling uniformity among contractors.

Deputy Energy Secretary T.J. Glauthier, testifying before the House Commerce Committee's subcommittee on oversight and investigations, said DOE is reimposing some of those controls in the wake of the loss of sensitive computer disks at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Among the most outspoken critics of the post-Cold War security rollback was Sandia National Laboratories Director Paul Robinson, who said he and the directors of DOE's two other nuclear weapons laboratories were "never comfortable" with the abolition of document accountability requirements.

"With the change in accountability, DOE lost the ability to track who was accessing secret documents, a feature that had been a useful tool for counterintelligence analysis," Robinson said.

"While this change clearly saved money and made sense in the broader context of consistency across all federal agencies, it reduced our ability to quickly detect the absence of a document, and it eliminated our capability to formally monitor the access to secret classified matter."

Robinson said Sandia managers decided to keep the document accountability requirements, even after DOE told the lab it would no longer reimburse those costs.

He also said the three lab directors formally asked DOE headquarters in March 1999 to reinstate full document accountability, but the request was "submitted to the department's security bureaucracy and to our knowledge it has never emerged."

And Robinson noted he told Congress about his concerns at two separate 1999 hearings, but lawmakers took no action.

Glenn Podonsky, director of DOE's Office of Independent Oversight and Performance Assurance, also suggested the elimination of specific document control requirements contributed to an increasingly lax security environment. "Minimal security requirements that are subject to a wide range of interpretations for the purpose of implementation do not, as we have seen, enhance the security posture of our government," he said.

Also expressing concern about the post-Cold War relaxation of security standards in the DOE weapons complex was General John Gordon, the new head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, who testified before a House Armed Services Committee panel Tuesday.

It was Gordon's first appearance before Congress since taking over the NNSA, a semi-autonomous agency created within DOE by Congress to operate the weapons complex. Lawmakers hope the NNSA will provide more focused management of the complex.

Gordon, speaking before a special committee task force on the DOE nuclear weapons complex, said some of DOE's security problems could be traced to the time after the fall of the Berlin Wall when federal officials "turned our back on this issue."

He said DOE needs to set clearer security standards for the weapons labs, but ones that also respect scientists' need for free flow of information.

--

North Carolina Sued In Radioactive Waste Feud

The Southeast Compact Commission filed suit Monday against North Carolina in the U.S. Supreme Court demanding that the court enforce the commission's $90 million fine against the state for failing to follow through on commitments to host a low-level radioactive waste facility.

The suit is the latest-and strongest-salvo yet in the compact's longstanding battle with North Carolina, which canceled the project after a prolonged dispute with the regional waste disposal compact over funding.

After numerous delays and budget concerns, the compact commission cut off funding and North Carolina stopped work on the project.

Subsequently, two of the compact's member states asked the commission to impose sanctions on North Carolina. In July 1999, North Carolina decided to withdraw from the compact and claimed it was immune from sanctions because it was no longer a member of the compact.

The commission, however, went forward with proceedings against the state, eventually determining that the state was liable to return $80 million in funding provided for the site as well as $10 million in lost income, and interest and attorney fees.

The commission gave the state until Monday to respond to the sanctions; when North Carolina did not, the commission promptly filed suit, requesting the Supreme Court's intervention in the matter.

A spokesman for North Carolina's attorney general said the state will defend the suit but had not yet been served with the complaint and could not comment on the specifics.

Although the complaint acknowledges that the compact "does not provide an express mechanism for judicial review or relief," lawyers for the Southeast Compact note that the Supreme Court has previously stated that the compact does not preclude a state seeking judicial relief.

"Moreover, it is the only forum in which the [s]tates are guaranteed to receive a fair and impartial ruling," the compact's lawyers argued, since the case could not be heard in state courts and sending it to federal courts "will accomplish nothing but delay and expense."

The commission argued that the Supreme Court should consider the case because North Carolina's failure to abide by the compact's sanctions threatened the very tenets of the compact system.

"At a fundamental level, North Carolina's attempt to shirk the responsibilities it voluntarily assumed by becoming a member of the [c]ompact might have a chilling effect on other states in similar situations were North Carolina permitted to succeed," the commission warned.

"Were this [c]ourt to decline to exercise jurisdiction, the sanctions mechanism provided for in the [c]ompact would be rendered useless and the [s]tates would be without an alternative forum in which to enforce their claims."

Members of the compact are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee and Virginia. --TINA DAVIS

-- Kathy Crandall
Alliance for Nuclear Accountability Program Associate
Tel: (202) 833-4668 Fax: (202) 234-9536
kathycrandall@earthlink.net
http://www.ananuclear.org

-------

Message: 2
Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2000 22:37:00 -0700
From: "Vina Colley" <vcolley@earthlink.net>

Supercomputer fitted with new program to analyze workings of Yucca Mountain
Las Vegas SUN
July 12, 2000 at 11:47:38 PDT
By Mary Manning <manning@lasvegassun.com>
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2000/jul/12/510496078.html

A computer code that did not exist four months ago is a new secret weapon for Department of Energy scientists trying to prove Yucca Mountain will safely contain highly radioactive wastes.

The sophisticated program, completed in February, is being put to work puzzling out how water might behave inside the mountain hundreds of years into the future. Yucca is the only site being studied as a possible permanent repository for 77,000 tons of highly radioactive commercial and defense waste.

Eventually it also will be able to help scientists study underground natural gas and oil at other locations.

While most people think Yucca is a dry desert mound in the middle of nowhere, geochemist Bill Glassley has discovered 20 percent of its bulk contains water clinging inside pores, cracks and earthquake faults.

How water changes in its travels through Yucca's rock as a vapor and a liquid is the question put to a supercomputer called Blue Pacific. A team of scientists led by Glassley in February installed a new program into the supercomputer and packed it with conditions from Yucca Mountain's distant past.

At Yucca the team is using that information to try to answer some critical questions the DOE has not been able to address in its 15 years of research.

Could the water become acidic enough to corrode containers and allow deadly radiation to escape? Could salts dissolved in ground water corrode the containers?

"Nature has done a lot of experiments for us, as long or longer than the proposed repository," Glassley said. The supercomputer allows scientists to push Yucca's limits.

Scientists already know that heat as high as 212 degrees Fahrenheit from the buried nuclear waste containers will turn the trapped water into steam, allowing it to escape from the tunnels, Glassley said. But when the vapor reaches cooler rock, it will condense into liquid again and pick up minerals on its journey back toward the wastes.

The computer model so far has predicted that the dissolved minerals are mostly plain table salt and potassium chloride. Glassley said the computer model so far matches the few water samples taken from the mountain.

The computer also predicts that while the water recycles itself through the mountain over and over again, it grows less salty by spreading itself throughout the rock during the complex process.

"The results are very preliminary," Glassley said in a phone interview, noting that even with the new program, he gets nervous with forecasts beyond 500 years.

One surprise in the model came from results of the water's acid content. "Pure" water registers a 7 on the acid/alkaline scale known as pH. Very alkaline water is a 14. Very acidic water is a 1 or 2 on the scale. Yucca's water ranged between 4 and 8 -- a broad range that causes scientists concern.

"That's a big difference," Glassley said. If nuclear waste containers fail, the pH and the temperature become very important to what happens to the water inside the mountain, he said. Scientists may have to devise several different ways of dealing with water damage to canisters, depending on the alkaline or acidity levels.

Another problem is what happens to the radiation if that nuclear waste containers -- made of stainless steel with corrosion-resistant nickel-chromoly casings wrapped around them -- fail. The buried containers will be further protected by titanium-palladium drip shields to protect them from moving water.

The DOE has predicted a single container will fail in the first 10,000 years.

Livermore scientists plan to simulate 100 separate containers failings. They have already discovered that each tunnel housing the wastes reacts differently to changes in heat and water.

"It is a very challenging project and it is pushing the state of the art," Glassley said.

The computer simulation has not taken into account earthquakes or other natural disruptions, such as a hotter or wetter climate. That is one of the hardest problems to tackle in the new virtual geology, Glassley said.

If a nuclear waste repository is built at Yucca, scientists will have to monitor the buried containers for decades to see how the mountain behaves.

"All of the models, no matter how good, are not going to be good enough," Glassley said. "It is going to be an ongoing process."

--

Kalynda Tilges Nuclear Issues Coordinator
Citizen Alert
P.O.Box 17173
Las Vegas, NV 89114
Kalynda@wizard.com
702-796-5662 voice 702-796-4886 fax
<http://www.igc.org/citizenalert>
Citizen Alert "A Voice for the Land and People of Nevada"

----------

Message: 3
Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2000 23:09:21 -0700
From: ivan buchbinder <pentaske@memes.com>
Subject: Outrage Environmentalists and Consumer Groups

Y'all, Well, the Dragons illustrate once more how they can cram it down your gullet... Whether ..You.... Like ...It....Or...Not.
Later

http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000118613908976&rtmo=0iGJKKRq&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/00/7/13/nflur13.html

-----------

Message: 4
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 05:34:03 -0400
From: "Bill Smirnow" <smirnowb@ix.netcom.com>

NUCLEAR POWER NEWS
Czech Republic: Temelin Nuclear Plant Prepares To Go On-Line
By Tuck Wesolowsky
http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2000/07/F.RU.000712152757.html

After years of delays, it appears the Temelin nuclear plant in southern Bohemia will soon start producing power. But doubts remain about the plant's safety and whether the country even needs another nuclear plant. NCA's Tuck Wesolowsky reports.

Prague, 12 July 2000 (RFE/RL) -- For years, the only things to come out of the Temelin nuclear power plant in the southern Czech Republic were cost overruns and scheduling delays.

The four cooling towers loomed idle over an otherwise idyllic countryside some 100 kilometers south of the capital Prague, as engineers grappled with problems associated with grafting Western safety technology onto Soviet-era reactor hardware. The delays fed doubts over the project's viability and fears of a nuclear accident, should Temelin ever go into operation.

That day now appears to be fast approaching. The Czech government seems to be making up for lost time, with a series of quick moves over the past week making Temelin's future all but assured. Last week, workers began loading fuel into one of the two reactors at the plant, only three hours after the Czech Republic's State Office for Nuclear Safety gave permission.

Plant spokesman Milan Nebesar said 92 tons of nuclear fuel will be loaded in the plant's first reactor within 10 to 12 days. He said the fuel will be activated after another two months and the first power should be generated this fall. Temelin will then join the country's other nuclear power installation at Dukovany, which generates some 20 percent of the country's energy. CEZ, the majority state-owned utility, hopes the two plants will generate 30 percent of the country's energy in the future.

But public pressure is mounting for a referendum on the fate of the controversial power station. A group called Referendum 2000 -- which opposes the project -- has collected some 117,000 signatures supporting such a plebiscite, and it presented them to the Czech parliament on Tuesday. President Vaclav Havel has given his backing to the idea of a referendum, even though the country lacks legislation allowing for such a motion. Prime Minister Milos Zeman, who made a referendum on Temelin a key plank in his Social Democrats' party platform two years ago, now opposes it -- as do other leading politicians, like former premier Vaclav Klaus.

Klaus has long been one of the biggest backers of Temelin. It was his conservative government in 1993 that awarded the nuclear division of Westinghouse a contract to outfit Temelin with a state-of-the-art information and control system.

Critics have long feared that such an untested hybrid, fusing Soviet and Western technology, will only spell trouble. They say it also fails to address serious shortcomings of the Temelin reactor type -- the VVER-1000 -- namely, that its reactor vessel is too small, and its containment unit is not strong enough.

But Hans Meyer, a spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, says nuclear nightmares conjured up by Temelin are unfounded.

"I would say that the mix of Eastern and Western technology in that reactor is good, in the way that there are more eyes not only of one constructor, but also of other suppliers, that this plant will run safely," he says.

Nevertheless, there has been a flurry of diplomatic activity -- some would say quixotic -- to throw sand into the gears of Temelin. Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel sent a letter to Czech Prime Minister Zeman asking him to delay the start-up of the plant even while the fuel loading was under way.

Austria is displeased about the prospects of another Soviet-designed reactor on its doorstep. It fought a losing battle to halt Slovakia from finishing construction at the Mochovce nuclear power in 1998. That plant, too, is equipped with Soviet-designed reactors.

Austria, ostracized within the EU for its inclusion of a far-right party in the government, has found a ready ally against Temelin in Germany, where the Greens' anti-nuclear stance has already led to a German pledge to shut down its own nuclear installations within 32 years. German Environment Minister Juergen Trittin said the Czechs began fueling up Temelin before all questions on its safety had been answered. He also accused the Czechs of failing to uphold an agreement not to fuel the reactor until at least mid-August.

On Monday, the topic of Temelin was raised at a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels, mainly due to the prodding of Austrian Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner. The EU's executive body has been tasked with preparing a report on Temelin, although it's unclear what impact such a report would have. EU legislation does not allow for other members to interfere in the energy decisions of a sovereign state, a pointed repeated on Monday by the EU Commissioner for Enlargement Guenter Verheugen.

Temelin also raises economic as well as environmental concerns in the EU, as European parliamentarian Mercedes Echerer, an Austrian Green, points out.

"They already have much more energy than they need and they [the Czechs] have it much cheaper, and they definitely will also sell it within the EU. And that has to be looked at by the European Commission," she says.

The Czechs are already net exporters of energy, most of which is sent to Germany, as well as to Italy, Switzerland, and Slovenia. And with energy markets liberalizing, exports are bound to grow. The European Commission estimates that by 2003, third-party utilities will be responsible for 33 percent of electricity sales in the EU. The Czechs, along with Poland and Hungary, are well situated to take advantage of the newly evolving liberalized energy market, with all three connected to the Western electricity grid UCPTE.

Because countries like the Czech Republic lack the financial means to pay for their upgraded nuclear capacities, exports are seen as a way to pay back loans for the work. But will Temelin pay for itself? Critics say no. They contend Temelin will produce so much extra energy that the Czech Republic will be forced to sell the energy abroad at below cost.

Temelin has already cost the Czech government more than $2 billion. The final price tag could be as high as 3 billion. But the high costs should not have come as a complete surprise. Germany halted construction of two similar reactors in Stendal, in former East Germany, following reunification in 1990. Assessments showed that upgrading and finishing Stendal's VVER-1000 reactors -- the same found at Temelin -- would cost between $2,3 billion and $2,9 billion. For Germany, much better off financially than the Czech Republic, the cost was too high.

Most of the money hemorrhaging from Temelin has made its way to the Western nuclear lobby. Contracts in Central and Eastern Europe have been a boon for companies like Westinghouse and Siemens, which have faced hard times in the West in the wake of the 1986 Chornobyl accident and the 1979 accident at a Pennsylvania nuclear power plant at Three Mile Island.

The bidding for contracts at Temelin was fierce, and Westinghouse emerged the winner after what were seen as some dubious actions. Czech officials never fully explained why a second round of bidding -- a highly unusual move -- was called on the contract for the information and control system.

There is little risk for Westinghouse if anything goes wrong. It is only acting as a "supplier" at Temelin, while Czech company Skoda Praha is the main contractor. That means the Czechs assume all responsibility should the hybrid reactor malfunction.

The fact that the Czechs are already exporting and will export more energy if Temelin goes on line prompts the obvious question of whether the extra energy-generating capacity is needed. The government says a growing economy will need to be fed by more energy. But a team of international experts last year disagreed. They said that the Czech Republic, like other Central and Eastern European nations, is not very energy-efficient and could do more with the energy it has.

The rush to get Temelin up and running also comes as the state mulls selling its 67 percent stake in CEZ. There have been reports that the French energy concern, Electricite de France, may be interested. Getting the albatross (eds: in this context, heavy weight) that is Temelin off the neck of CEZ, makes the utility all the more attractive to future investors.

Whether the average Czech consumer needs Temelin is debatable. But with loans to repay and investors to attract, the utility CEZ certainly does.

---

Ukraine Will Go On Using Nuclear Energy Says Kuchma
Jul 12, 2000
Agence France Presse
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=177918§ion=CIS

LEIPZIG, Germany, Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma said Wednesday the country will complete two nuclear power stations under construction and go on using nuclear power after the closure this year of the ill-fated Chernobyl plant.

He was speaking after talks in Leipzig with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, whose government has decided to phase out nuclear energy and would like Ukraine to renounce its use too.

Kuchma said that the two power stations in question were 90 percent built. "We can in no way renounce using these reactors," he said after wide-ranging bilateral talks with Schroeder and other German ministers.

The Ukrainian president announced last month that the Chernobyl power station, one of whose reactors exploded with catastrophic consequences in 1986, would finally close down by December 15.

His government is seeking western financial credits for the completion of the two new power stations it is building.

Kuchma said Wednesday: "The reactors will be completed whatever the conditions -- to international standards and under international supervision."

He said if there had been no prospect of western financial credits Ukraine would have completed the plants long ago using its own resources.

The German government is opposed to using western credits for this purpose, Chancellor Schroeder reiterated Wednesday. He said Germany remained committed to helping Ukraine develop non-nuclear energy.

Germany last month hosted an international donors' conference to gather funds to help make the wrecked Chernobyl reactor safe. So far 715 million dollars (754 million euros) out of an estimated needed 788 million have been pledged.

--

PG&E whistle-blower's sorry saga
By Scott Winokur
EXAMINER STAFF REPORT
July 11, 2000
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/hotnews/stories/11/winokur.dtl

THE heating in my house died on a morning so raw and foggy you'd have thought it was December. The same day, I was at San Francisco's Public Utilities Commission when an official spoke of brownouts rolling down from the Northwest.

It seemed as if the energy grid was giving up the ghost. I was a happy guy.

I like rusticity and fear technology to the point that I'm not even comfortable with household electrical current. Nickel-cadmium batteries, cell phones and microwave ovens strike me as the devil's work. Anything atomic gives me an anxiety attack.

Near San Luis Obispo, many miles to the south, stands the controversial PG&E nuclear-powered plant called Diablo Canyon. Look at this domed two-unit structure the wrong way, utility critics warn, and it might go nuclear, like a mad monster of Greek myth.

PG&E swears it's safe, despite documented problems. But the bottom line for me is the fact that if Diablo Canyon blows up, melts down or goes sideways, it could be the equivalent of a homicidal next-door neighbor, fallout-wise. Chernobyl comes to mind.

PG&E whistle-blower Neil J. Aiken of Santa Maria is my current hero. For years, Aiken, a licensed senior reactor operator and onetime shift foreman, has battled with his former employer over safety issues. He says the company's bosses put profits first.

A prime example of this unholy tradeoff, Aiken claimed in a recent interview, are the plant's circuit breakers, about 200 sofa-sized contraptions he said assist in delivering emergency power and some operating power to safety-related equipment.

PG&E replaced original General Electric units with cheaper-to-maintain foreign equipment. According to Aiken, the new units are more likely to malfunction in an earthquake or accident.

"You could have multiple failures you wouldn't have experienced with the other circuit breakers," he warned.

So convinced is Aiken of the threat, he attended a shareholders' meeting in 1998 attempting to provide a written account of his concerns. Aiken's report, "Going Critical," which he was blocked from distributing, described a number of potentially grave technical problems and contained some sweeping pronouncements.

It accused the utility of "moral mismanagement" and a reliance on "defective equipment."

PG&E has had a simple, unequivocal response all along. It says Aiken is paranoid - clinically psychotic. It went so far as to hire a psychiatrist who declared the man mentally ill.

Greg Rueger, the utility's top nuclear officer, reaffirmed that position Monday, issuing a statement in which he reminded me that Aiken - who had been "a well-respected . . . employee" - had fared poorly on PG&E's government-mandated "fitness for duty" program.

Aiken was placed on leave - PG&E's kinder, gentler version of the gulag. His career was over. This is what they did to thought criminals in the Soviet Union.

"It floored me," Aiken said. "It's amazing the kind of pressure a corporation can put on you."

Where was the Nuclear Regulatory Commission? Off somewhere inking its rubber-stamp pad. It is the NRC, of course, that regulates nuclear power in the states, not agencies like the San Francisco or California public utilities commissions.

An NRC investigation, the agency reported May 19, concluded that PG&E's decision to crucify Aiken was "not motivated by retaliation for his having raised concerns." This came after the NRC had upheld more than a third of the over 50 alleged safety violations reported by Aiken.

But the federal government has many voices and the Labor Department also weighed in. Unlike the NRC, it isn't in bed with the people it regulates.

In December, the department ruled that Aiken had been mistreated. The utility had smeared him with "biased and incomplete evidence," it said.

He was entitled to $116,000 in back pay, legal bills and damages. PG&E appealed, then fired Aiken.

But the whistle-blower wasn't whipped. All the while, his 1999 lawsuit in San Francisco for wrongful termination and civil-rights violations was wending its way through court.

Aiken had sued here for two principal reasons, said his attorney, Robert Seldon of Washington, D.C.'s Project on Liberty and the Workplace: San Francisco is PG&E's hometown, and local courts are believed more likely to treat whistle-blowers kindly.

After fighting for months, PG&E backed down, agreeing to a secret settlement. It wrote a check intended to shut Aiken's mouth - a big check, I suspect, because it allowed him to retire at 55.

Aiken says he's history now.

"Don't emphasize what was done to me," he asked. "At this point, it's about current and future employees.

"There's a moral dilemma. If you have an employee who dares to hold them accountable, there's no protection. So people are reluctant to speak up." Not all, fortunately.

----

Citibank Loans $77M to Bulgaria
San Francisco Examiner
July 10, 2000
http://www.news.excite.com/news/ap/000710/09/bulgaria-citibank

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) - New York's Citibank approved a loan of $77 million Monday to help Bulgaria upgrade two reactors at its only nuclear power plant. The loan has a five-year grace period and will require two payments, at 10 years and 12 years. Citibank opened a branch Friday in Bulgaria.

Finance Minister Muravei Radev, who signed state guarantees for the loan, said the money would help the plant proceed with a modernization project for its two 1,000-megawatt reactors, which were installed in 1987.

The plant, located near Kozlodui, 125 miles north of Sofia, also has four 440-megawatt pressurized water units that were brought online between 1974 and 1982 and lack safety containment systems.

Bulgaria has bowed to European Union pressure to shut down the oldest two of the reactors by 2003 - two years before the scheduled end of their 30-year life spans.

An international consortium including Germany's Siemens AG, France's Framatome and Russia's Atomenergoexport has won a bid for the bulk of the $380 million upgrade program for the 1,000-megawatt reactors. The remaining work will be done by U.S.-based Westinghouse.

--

US, N.Korea Missile Talks End
July 12, 2000
By RANJAN ROY, Associated Press Writer
http://www.webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/ap/000712/23/int-us-nkorea-missile-talks

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - North Korea on Wednesday refused to stop developing missiles for self defense, claiming Washington has deployed "thousands of missiles" that threaten the communist state.

"That is why the United States has no right to make such unjust claims for the freeze of our missile capabilities," said Jang Chang Chon, head of North Korea's bureau on U.S. affairs.

Jang said that Pyongyang regards its missile program as part of its right to self-defense. However, North Korea remains willing to discuss the possibility of curbing exports of missile technology if paid enough.

"We clarified that we will continue our discussions on the condition that the U.S. gives compensation for our economic and political losses in case of suspension."

Negotiations over North Korea's missile program ended in a stalemate Wednesday, with the United States refusing to pay Pyongyang to curb exports of missile technology.

After three days of talks, the North Koreans restated their offer: $1 billion a year in exchange for a halt to missile technology exports. They also refused to stop developing such weapons for self-defense.

The talks were the first in 16 months, and chief U.S. negotiator, Robert Einhorn, assistant secretary of state for proliferation, said no breakthrough had been expected. They agreed to meet again at an undetermined time and location.

"The North Koreans should not be compensated for agreeing to stop conducting activities they should not be conducting in the first place," Einhorn said. "We are not prepared to pay cash compensation."

Einhorn indicated that the long-reclusive, impoverished country stood to gain far more politically and economically from a better security environment and normalized relations with Washington.

The United States claims North Korea is the world's top exporter of missile equipment and technology, to customers including Pakistan and Iran, and wants development and exports of missiles stopped.

Though Pyongyang has said it will not negotiate its right to develop defensive missiles, there are hopes it may be more flexible on exports, though they are a vital source of hard currency.

After rattling Asia in mid-1998 by test firing a missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean, North Korea recently agreed to a moratorium on long-range missile tests in exchange for an easing of U.S. sanctions.

It has opened official talks with Japan, moved to establish diplomatic relations with many countries in Asia and Europe, and joined a security forum of Southeast Asian nations.

The talks come amid increasing North Korean willingness to discuss defense issues, marked by the historic June summit between South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

This week's negotiations took on fresh importance in U.S. eyes after last weekend's failed test for the proposed American missile defense shield. Proponents of such tests say the United States needs to develop a way to defend itself from states including North Korea or Iraq.

In an unrelated development Wednesday, the Philippines and North Korea signed an agreement establishing diplomatic relations, opening the way for the Communist nation to participate in a regional security meeting later this month.

The two sides hailed the agreement as a significant milestone that took almost 25 years to achieve.

The Philippines had been the only Southeast Asian country without formal ties with North Korea.

----------

Message: 5 Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 07:53:10 -0400
From: Ellen Thomas <prop1@prop1.org>
Subject: NucNews 00/07/13 - Daybook; Presidential Candidates

1) Washington Daybook, by FIND/AFP and The Washington Times. http://www.washtimes.com/national/daybook-2000713211423.htm

10 a.m. - House Armed Services' military personnel subcommittee holds a hearing on Defense Department management of the anthrax vaccine immunization program. Deputy Defense Secretary Rudy de Leon testifies. Location: 2118 Rayburn House Office Building. Contact: 202/225-4151.

2 p.m. - Senate Appropriations' energy and water development subcommittee marks up the fiscal 2001 energy and water appropriations bill. Location: 124 Dirksen Senate Office Building. Contact: 202/224-3471.

2 p.m. - Senate Governmental Affairs' international security, proliferation and federal services subcommittee holds its annual postal oversight hearing. William Henderson, postmaster general, testifies. Location: 342 Dirksen Senate Office Building. Contact: 202/224-4751.

Rogue states briefing - 10 a.m. - The Brookings Institution hosts a briefing on a recent State Department report on rogue states and a book titled "Honey and Vinegar: Incentives, Sanctions and Foreign Policy." Location: Falk Auditorium, 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Contact: 202/797-6105.

Natural Gas and Renewable Energy Alliance news conference - 2 p.m. - The Business Council for Sustainable Energy holds a news conference to announce the formation of the Natural Gas and Renewable Energy Alliance. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson participates. Location: 2105 Rayburn House Office Building. Contact: 202/785-0507.

First Amendment discussion - 8:30 a.m. - The Freedom Forum's Newseum sponsors a discussion of "State of the First Amendment 2000," the third annual survey by the First Amendment Center of public attitudes about the First Amendment. Location: Rooftop Conference Center, Freedom Forum World Center, 1101 Wilson Blvd., Arlington. Contact: 703/284-2887.

Freedom lecture - 5:30 p.m. - The Cato Institute sponsors a lecture on "The Case for Freedom When No One Else Seems to Want It." The speaker is Charles Murray, Bradley Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Location: Capitol, Room HC-5. Contact: 202/218-4611.

PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES

Vice President Al Gore - Green Bay, WI Travels to Green Bay, Wis., for a campaign rally with Bill Bradley, former Democratic candidate for president, and Saginaw, Mich.

George W. Bush - Pittsburgh, PA 12:45 p.m. - Veterans of Foreign Wars Pennsylvania State Convention, Radisson Green Tree Grand Ballroom, 101 Marriott Drive, Pittsburgh, PA, 412/922-8400 6:30 p.m. - New Jersey Republican Party Reception, East Brunswick Hilton Hotel Ballrooms A, B & C , 3 Tower Center Boulevard, East Brunswick, NJ, 732/828-2000

Pat Buchanan - San Francisco, CA 1:00PM - Interview, The Ronn Owens Show, KGO/AM 810 San Francisco, Host: Bill Press 2:00PM - Interview, Radio America, The BQ View, Host: Blanquita Cullum

---------

Message: 6
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 08:40:39 -0600
From: Winston Weeks <wweeks@mail.aros.net>

Hanford fire put plutonium into the air
Thursday, July 13, 2000
By LISA STIFFLER SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com:80/local/hanf134.shtml

The fire that raged across the Hanford Nuclear Reservation released plutonium and other radioactive components into the air, raising concerns about human exposure and health risks.

Earlier reports indicated no radiation releases from the fire, which began June 27 and burned across three old radioactive waste-disposal sites -- a trench and two dried-up ponds. Yesterday, federal Department of Energy officials downplayed any health risks from the releases.

But others disagreed.

Plutonium "is extremely toxic . . .," said Dr. Tim Takaro a professor in the University of Washington's occupational and environmental medicine program. "If you get plutonium in the wrong place in the lung, that can cause cancer."

The plutonium particles turned up in an air sample from the eastern boundary of the 200 West area, near the central part of the 560-square-mile reservation, where some of Hanford's most dangerous waste is stored. The exact source of the plutonium is not known.

The measurement was "well below the level of concern" set by the federal government and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and did not pose a risk to firefighters or the public, Harry Boston, the federal Department of Energy's deputy manager at Hanford, said at a news conference yesterday.

The fire broke out after a fatal car accident and burned 191,000 acres before being contained several days later.

Expressed in technical terms, the plutonium detected measured 6 X 10 to the power of minus-4 picocuries per cubic meter. The federal standard is 2 X 10 to the power of minus-2 picocuries per cubic meter.

If someone were to breathe the higher amount of plutonium for a year, he or she would be exposed to 3 millirem of radiation. The average exposure from an X-ray is 10 to 15 millirem, and the limit of exposure for Hanford workers is 100 millirem a year.

But this was not reassuring for many.

"The point is that there is an exposure," said Takaro, who is also a member of the Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation, an organization promoting nuclear waste cleanup.

"This fire is sort of a wake up for us to get the site cleaned up."

By taking air samples after the fire, "it's difficult to say what the real exposure is. We have some measurement below the federal standard, but we don't know what people are exposed to," he said. "We have an incomplete picture."

Wayne Glines, senior technical adviser for the DOE, said authorities do not believe firefighters at the scene of the fire were exposed to radiation.

Urine samples have been collected and are being examined for radioactivity. Results will be available in six to eight weeks.

Alpha particles -- indicators of radioactive substances -- of a still-undetermined origin also showed up in 34 of 76 other samples, primarily from around the 200 East and West areas.

"This is a major admission of a threat to the health of the region and the firefighters who were there," said Gerald Pollet, director of the Hanford watchdog group Heart of America Northwest.

The Environmental Protection Agency regional headquarters said it was unable to comment on the DOE findings.

"We weren't notified and haven't had a chance to see their data," said Bill Dunbar, an agency spokesman. "And frankly, we're quite unhappy about finding this out hours after DOE made their finding public."

Nevertheless, EPA is waiting on its own test results.

Fourteen EPA emergency response specialists were flown in from Montgomery, Ala., and Las Vegas during the fire to assist regional radiation experts.

The EPA did extensive testing of "population centers, and sensitive ecological and agricultural areas" off the Hanford Reservation. Those results should be available later this week, Dunbar said.

"Our primary concern was to determine whether people in the communities off-site had been exposed to any radiation being carried by the smoke," said Jerry Leitch, EPA's radiation program manager in Seattle.

A network of 24 high-volume air samplers were set up as far away as Yakima and Walla Walla, Leitch said.

Analysis of those samples are being conducted at an EPA laboratory in Alabama.

Fire, wind and firefighting efforts could have stirred up surface contaminants at Hanford, which is the most contaminated nuclear site in the nation after 40 years of making plutonium for the country's nuclear arsenal.

"We fully expect to see radioactivity. We fully expect it to be far below the levels of concern," the DOE's Boston said.

And Glines of the DOE said it's "very difficult to say" what the exact source of the plutonium was and that the department would not try to pinpoint it.

"This is a very small amount that was stirred up," he said.

However, a possible source of radioactive material is a plant common to Hanford's desert environment, the Russian thistle. The plant has a very deep root that "can draw contaminants out of the soil," Takaro said.

"We know there is a lot of buried waste at Hanford," he said, adding that the contaminants end up in the leaves of the plants, which burn well.

Initial tests that found no radioactivity were described as "quick and dirty" by Debra McBaugh of the state Department of Health, meaning portable field equipment used at the time was designed to show whether there was an imminent health risk.

The new results came from subsequent testing with more sophisticated equipment in a laboratory designed to test for even lower levels of radiation. Boston noted that even these results are preliminary and many more tests and analyses were to be conducted.

McBaugh said it was unlikely the contaminants would move off site because the particles are heavier than air and fall to the ground.

The wind-driven fire, which at times moved as fast as 20 miles in 90 minutes, came within a half-mile of the high-level radioactive and chemical waste buried in the 200 West area.

Additional monitoring is planned on and around Hanford, McBaugh said.

"I'm confident there's not going to be a health risk problem," she said.

The Energy Department plans regular updates on the air, soil and vegetation monitoring, Boston said.

P-I reporter Lisa Stiffler can be reached at 206-448-8042 or lisastiffler@seattle-pi.com

P-I reporter Andrew Schneider contributed to this report, which also includes material from The Associated Press.

--------

Message: 7
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 08:45:40 -0600
From: Winston Weeks <wweeks@mail.aros.net>

Hanford contractors sued again
July 12, 2000
http://www.spokane.net:80/news-story-body.asp?Date=071200&ID=s825457&cat=

New claim seeks $100 billion from firms accused of exposing Richland-area people Related stories

Karen Dorn Steele - Staff writer

Spokane _ A new civil rights lawsuit seeks $100 billion in punitive damages from a dozen Hanford contractors accused of secretly exposing thousands of people to radiation.

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Spokane, says the contractors hired by the government to make plutonium for nuclear bombs "systematically and daily" exposed people living near Hanford to radiation releases in the 1940s and '50s.

That exposure "increased substantially" their risk of contracting thyroid disease or cancer, the complaint says.

Seventeen plaintiffs, including Karen L. Ray of Spokane, are named. Their lawyers are asking the court to expand the complaint to provide medical monitoring for up to 14,000 other exposed people.

The new plaintiffs all lived in or near Richland during Hanford's peak radiation emissions and suffer from a variety of radiation- related ailments, said attorney Bryan Coluccio of Seattle.

"Some of them had received medical care recently and were asked by their doctors where they'd lived and whether they'd had any radiation exposure. Most of them didn't know about the other lawsuits," Coluccio said.

The five firms bringing the new complaint also are involved in one of two other major Hanford downwinders' cases filed against the same contractors in 1990.

That case, named for lead defendant Louis Berg of Republic, Wash., is on appeal after U.S. District Judge Alan McDonald tossed out hundreds of claims last August.

One of the firms representing the new Hanford plaintiffs, Engstrom, Lipscomb & Lack of Los Angeles, also is involved in a sequel to the $300 million toxic tort case against California utility Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. featured in the recent Hollywood movie "Erin Brockovich."

The Hanford contractors named in the lawsuit include major companies hired by the U.S. government since the 1940s: E.I. DuPont De Nemours & Co.; General Electric Co.; UNC Nuclear Industries Inc.; Atlantic Richfield Co.; Atlantic Richfield Hanford Co.; Rockwell International Corp.; Fluor Daniel Hanford; Battelle Memorial Institute; Pacific Northwest Laboratory; CH2M Hill Hanford Group Inc.; Westinghouse Hanford Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp.

The civil complaint also names the Hanford Environmental Health Foundation Inc., which worked with the contractors to provide medical services at Hanford.

The defendants, who are being served with the complaint this week, could not be reached for comment late Tuesday.

The new case is initially assigned to U.S. District Judge Edward Shea of Richland.

•Karen Dorn Steele can be reached at 459 5462, or by e-mail at karend@spokesman.com.

--------

Message: 8
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 14:40:45 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Our Views: Appeasement of radical fringe can't help Gore
July 13, 2000
Source: http://www.oakridger.com/stories/index.html

As if poll numbers did not look bad enough for Al Gore early in the presidential campaign, this week protesting members of the Earth First! Environmental group seized the vice president's Knoxville campaign headquarters, bringing the candidate further humiliation in his own backyard and no doubt boosting the long-shot campaign of Ralph Nader.

The Earth First! members targeted Mr. Gore because, quite simply, he apparently is not enough of a zealot to suit their radical fringe tastes. Some of these folks are so bizarre, paranoid and self-centered as to believe the government monitored them as they camped in the mountains near Elizabethton in the days preceding their converging on Mr. Gore's Knoxville headquarters Monday. Let's think this one out slowly now. Would not a government spying on them have been able to thwart their sit-in at campaign headquarters, if by doing nothing more than locking the doors and sending campaign workers home before the protesters arrived?

Anyway, a bad situation was probably made worse by some of Mr. Gore's own supporters. For example, Knox County Democratic Party Chairman Wade Till told reporters the protesters should instead "be bothering Bush."

He misses the point by a logger's mile. The irony here is that Mr. Gore himself is viewed as something of an environmental kook by conservative Republicans. The fact that the vice president is not environmentally rabid enough for the folks at Earth First! should not be cause for appeasement by the vice president's supporters. Most respectable environmentalists dismiss Earth First! and its tactics; Mr. Gore's supporters seem more preoccupied by the electoral threat posed by Mr. Nader, who will in fact gather support from the disenfranchised Left.

But instead of trying to pass these unhappy folks off to George W. Bush, Gore loyalists might do well to study the Republican governor's better example. And, the fact is, Mr. Bush has arguably been more crafty and politically astute at distancing himself from the marginal elements that gather on the Right fringes of his own party.

---------

Message: 9
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 14:44:06 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Richardson suspends metal recycling
July 13, 2000
by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff
Source: http://www.oakridger.com/stories/index.html

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson suspended today the release of potentially contaminated scrap metals from Department of Energy nuclear facilities in an attempt to ensure contaminated materials are not recycled into consumer products, but the decision could impact Oak Ridge operations.

Richardson's decision is also aimed at improving DOE's management of scrap materials at its nuclear weapons production sites.

In a press release, Richardson stated his decision will remain in effect until the sites can confirm that they meet new, more rigorous standards.

"I am challenging the Department's managers to think creatively and come up with incentives to promote internal reuse and recycling," he said.

Richardson's decision comes more than a month after Congressman Zach Wamp, R-3rd District, sent a letter to Richardson stating that a "moratorium" on the recycling of radioactivity surface-contaminated metals would be a "lose-lose" proposal for Oak Ridge and for the American taxpayer.

More information on Richardson's decision and the impact it will have will be in Friday's edition of The Oak Ridger.

----------

Message: 10
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 14:47:53 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

SNS fortunes double to $240 million . . . for now
July 13, 2000
by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff
Source: http://www.oakridger.com/stories/index.html

A Senate subcommittee appropriations bill -- expected to be approved today -- contains $240 million for the Spallation Neutron Source -- just more than double the funds recommended by the House. SNS Executive Director David Moncton said this morning it's a promising sign for the project.

U.S. senators from Tennessee Bill Frist and Fred Thompson announced Wednesday afternoon the $240 million had been included in the fiscal year 2001 Energy and Water Appropriations bill.

"It's not official until the committee votes," Moncton said this morning. "But, this shows a huge commitment on the part of the Senate."

While still $38 million below what was sought by the Department of Energy for SNS, the Senate subcommittee's recommendation represents a significant increase over the House's $119 million figure suggested last month. DOE officials were hoping to secure $278 million for work this year on the $1.4 billion SNS project.

However, Moncton said those involved with the SNS are still hopeful the project will receive the requested $278 million in funding. If not, he is confident SNS will receive the $240 million, which would be better than last year when the project only received $100 million of the requested $214 million.

The funding requested for the SNS will go toward a variety of projects including construction a foundation for the facility.

Representative for Frist and Thompson said the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommit-tee plans to approve the bill this afternoon. Once the subcommittee approves the Energy and Water Appropriations bill, it will go to the full Senate for approval. Since the Senate and House will have different financial recommendations, a conference committee will work out the final amount. That amount will go to House and Senate for approval and then to the president.

The SNS, which will be built at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, will use a long beam of fast-moving neutrons to test a variety of materials. Researchers plan to reap the benefits of a better look at molecular structure, and officials anticipate around 1,000 scientists from across the world will visit the SNS each year to conduct experiments.

Construction on the project is expected to create an estimated 2,000 jobs, and 400 to 500 people will be required to support the SNS once the project is completed.

--------

Message: 11
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 14:54:06 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Many worked behind the scenes to retain Paducah's USEC plant

Source: http://www.paducahsun.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?/200007/13+016N_editorial.html+20000713+editorial
Letters to the Editor

USEC's decision to keep the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant operating is indeed good news for our community. The board and staff of the Greater Paducah Economic Development Council (GPEDC) are extremely grateful to USEC, and many others, that this decision was in our community's favor.

Many factors were evaluated to determine which of USEC's two sites held the greatest economic advantages for the company. A lot of behind-the-scenes work went into influencing these decisions. As with all confidential economic development projects, most efforts are undertaken without public attention.

We would be remiss not to mention the very personal commitment and efforts of Gov. Paul Patton and his deputy secretary of the executive cabinet, Jack Conway, in the endeavor to keep the Paducah plant open. For the past six months, Gov. Patton and Mr. Conway have led the efforts to retain USEC, working in concert with many, including GPEDC and the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development. The aggressiveness of Kentucky to attract and retain significant employers was demonstrated personally by our governor and for that we are extremely thankful.

Appreciation and thanks also needs to be given to Senators Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning, Congressman Ed Whitfield, and the Tennessee Valley Authority for their contributions to this very successful outcome.

While no one has a crystal ball and can predict what manufacturing challenges USEC will face in the future, without a doubt our community and state will be prepared to meet them. We stand a committed partner to USEC and will work diligently to ensure it maintains a significant, profitable, and vital presence in our community.

BILL JONES

------------

Message: 12
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 14:57:18 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

EEI: USEC loss OK
By Bill Bartleman bbartleman@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650
Source: http://www.paducahsun.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?/200007/13+0175_news.html+20000713+news

JOPPA, Ill.--Electric Energy Inc. may see financial benefit from the cancellation of a contract to sell electricity to the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. EEI Vice President Bob Powers said 40 percent of the power produced at the Joppa steam plant is used at the uranium enrichment plant in western McCracken County. He said it is sold at rates that are lower than open-market rates.

The current contract expires in 2005. Powers, however, said his company would be willing to discuss an earlier cancellation that would allow EEI to sell all of its power to other customers at the going market rate, which would increase revenue.

USEC Inc., which operates the uranium plant, announced Tuesday that it has signed a 10-year power supply contract that will make the Tennessee Valley Authority its primary supplier. The new contract will save USEC millions of dollars and reduce operating costs. The TVA contract takes effect in September, and the amount of power purchased from TVA will increase as the EEI contract expires.

The Joppa Steam Plant was built 40 years ago to supply power to the uranium plant. Powers said that with recent changes in management and operations at the gaseous diffusion plant, EEI has been preparing for the eventual cancellation of the contract.

"We put together a strategic plan to get our costs down that included sacrifices by our board of directors and our employees," Powers said. "Those actions have made us very competitive and put us in a position for the future."

The plan also included finding other customers for its power. "There are plenty of customers out there for our power," he said.

Powers said it has been a good relationship with the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. He said the low-cost power provided by EEI helped to make the plant an efficient operation.

"We have kept the costs as low as we could for many years and are happy to have been a part of the gaseous diffusion plant's success," Powers said. "We congratulate USEC in getting a competitive contract. It is good for Paducah. We hope it improves USEC's financial position."

The Joppa Steam Plant has about 170 employees.

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Message: 13
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 14:59:15 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Problem found, cleanup continues
By Bill Bartleman bbartleman@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650
Source: http://www.paducahsun.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?/200007/13+0174_news.html+20000713+news

Workers prepare to move a bale of crushed drums at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant during a June demonstration.

The troubled baler being used to clean up 85,000 contaminated drums from "drum mountain" at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant worked perfectly Wednesday. "It put out 22 bales in 15 minutes," said Greg Cook, spokesman for Bechtel Jacobs Co., the contractor hired by the U.S. Department of Energy to do the work. By the end of the day, it produced about 60 bales, three times the number produced over the past three weeks.

"The engineers think they've found the problem," Cook said. "But we want to keep running it for a couple of days to make sure they are right." He said the problem will be disclosed when workers confirm it has been fixed.

The cleanup plan, developed after several months of study, involves dumping the drums onto a conveyor belt that carries them to a shredder and into a baler. The bales are then placed in special containers so they can be shipped to a hazardous waste burial site in Utah.

Cook said crush-and-bale cleanup work was being done Wednesday in "short spurts" because of the heat. He said workers are wearing protective clothing and respirators, which require frequent breaks in hot weather.

The drums were once used to store depleted uranium tetrafluoride, or UF4. Officials believe they have been a major source of groundwater contamination.

Cook said the fact that the shredder was working Wednesday won't stop engineers from preparing a contingency plan in case it stops working again. He said the plan should be ready by Friday.

"It has been frustrating," Cook said. "Everyone is surprised we're having a baler problem. When we started, they thought there might be problems with the shredder, but we haven't had a problem with that."

The removal of drum mountain, one of the most visible signs of pollution at the 47-year-old plant where uranium is enriched into nuclear fuel, is costing $7 million. Department of Energy officials have promised the work would be completed by the end of the year.

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Message: 14
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 15:06:01 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Subject: Faults our reporting of TSCA meeting
July 12, 2000
Souce: http://www.oakridger.com/

To The Oak Ridger:

In yesterday's Oak Ridger (June 28, 2000) there was an article by Paul Parson about the DOE/Bechtel Jacobs meeting near Kingston to discuss the TSCA Incinerator Notice of Intent to Comply with new national emissions standards. In this article, Mr. Parson stated, "No one voiced any objections to or approval of the new emission standards."

That statement totally misses the point and the purpose of the meeting. The national emissions standards have already been set -- by EPA, not by DOE -- so I assume that the time for voicing objections to or approval of them is long past.

Further, the purpose of Tuesday's meeting was to discuss how the TSCA Incinerator intends to comply with the new standards, not to discuss the standards themselves.

Evidently, Mr. Parson did not pay attention to or understand some of the questions being asked or the points being made. For example, the DOE/BJC/IT Corp. strategy is to meet the new standards by controlling feed rates and concentrations rather than by upgrading the facility.

Apparently, the assumption is that the TSCA Incinerator does not need to be upgraded because it will be shut down in 2003 and the waste will then be disposed of in commercial facilities. Problem is, these commercial facilities haven't been built yet and might not be.

Further, questions were asked at the meeting about whether there would be testing for acetonitrile and total fluorides and whether nearby vegetation would be tested, and concerns were raised about the loss of expertise in the TSCA Incinerator workforce.

Some of the knowledge and experience available in the past are no longer available because personnel who had worked on the project for years were kept on the Lockheed Martin payroll instead of being transitioned to Bechtel Jacobs and/or IT Corp. Therefore, it is not evident to me that DOE/BJC/IT have the ability and know-how to comply with the new emissions standards in the way that they are proposing.

However, I have decided to determine what issues remain to be addressed after the SSAB submits its comments on the Notice of Intent to Comply before I submit any additional formal comments (as I said at the meeting Tuesday night).

Finally, I raised concerns at the meeting about the subcontracting process for the upcoming TSCA Incinerator trial burn. The subcontract was a fixed-price, low-bid contract, which tends to discourage some of the most proficient and innovative bidders when the technical challenge is great because of the high risk of unforeseen costs.

In addition, some bidders complained that allowing IT Corp. to bid on the separate trial burn subcontract was unfair because IT Corp., which won the TSCA Incinerator operations and maintenance subcontract last year, obviously had "insider information."

I wonder if those complaints had any effect on the outcome of the bidding, since IT Corp. did not get the subcontract.

In summary, I think Mr. Parson should have had a better understanding of the purpose of the meeting and should have done a better job of reporting what was said.

Pamela Gillis Watson 134 Jarrett Lane

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Message: 15
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 15:05:51 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

TVA gets Paducah contract
July 12, 2000
Source: http://www.oakridger.com/
By Nancy Zuckerbrod Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Enrichment Corp. signed a 10-year contract with the Tennessee Valley Authority Tuesday to provide power to the uranium enrichment plant in Paducah, Ky.

The agreement calls for TVA to become USEC's primary electricity provider as other power supply contracts expire or are terminated.

USEC spokesman Charles Yulish declined to put a price tag on the deal, but said TVA put forth the most competitive bid.

"TVA offered us the best combination of factors in the deal," Yulish said.

He said USEC will get power from TVA at a fixed price, rather than paying market prices.

"This will allow us to have a predictable cost structure on electric power at Paducah without the market price volatility," Yulish said.

USEC decided last month to keep the Paducah plant open but to close its other uranium enrichment plant in Piketon, Ohio. Company officials cited power costs as a key factor.

That prompted Ohio Gov. Bob Taft to call on the Department of Energy to investigate whether TVA created a competitive disadvantage for the Ohio Valley Electric Corp., which supplies power to the Ohio plant.

TVA is an independent, government-owned corporation that no longer receives federally appropriated money from Congress. But a report released in May by the Energy Information Administration, part of the Department of Energy, stated that TVA receives special government benefits.

Though TVA bonds state that they are not backed by the government, the report concluded that such backing is implied. The result, according to the report, is a top rating for the utility's bonds. The report also said TVA has the advantage of being exempt from antitrust laws.

TVA officials point out that the utility has responsibilities that private companies do not have. These include flood control, navigation and economic development. TVA estimates it spends about $70 million annually on such activities.

This is not the only contract between TVA and USEC.

In January, they signed a $725 million deal for USEC to provide TVA with enriched uranium for its nuclear power plants.

----------

Message: 16
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 15:18:46 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Bomb Parts Said Used As Knickknacks
July 12, 2000
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/text/2000/jul/12/071200793.html

DENVER (AP) -- Workers at the former Rocky Flats weapons plant used nuclear bomb parts as candy dishes, paperweights and other knickknacks, according to a U.S. Energy Department inspector general's report.

The items, taken from trash bins after weapons production stopped at the plant in 1989, were not radioactive.

"Some folks want to have a souvenir or memento of what happened here," said Paul Golan, the Rocky Flats deputy manager.

The inspection also found sloppy inventory controls that has left some classified parts unaccounted for, according to the report, released last week. A spokeswoman for the inspector general's office declined to elaborate.

Thirty workers took parts, and at least one took a nuclear bomb part home, the report said.

Most were displayed on desks at the site, and all were returned in 1998. The Energy Department's investigation began at about the same time.

Golan said the workers would not be disciplined since they believed the parts were being thrown away.

Rocky Flats produced plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons for 40 years, until chronic safety problems halted production. The only workers at the plant now are there to clean it up.

------

Message: 17
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 15:26:45 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Flats operator fined Kaiser-Hill violated DOE health, safety protocols
July 13, 2000
By BRIAN HANSEN
Colorado Daily Staff Writer
http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/news2000/nn10710.htm

The U.S. Department of Energy this week levied $160,000 in safety-related penalties against the Kaiser-Hill Company, the private contractor carrying out the $4 billion contract to clean up and shut down the now-mothballed Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant.

The fines stemmed from two separate sets of incidents that occurred in recent months at the former bomb factory, both of which the DOE said illustrated Kaiser-Hill's "lack of focus on improving environment, safety, health, safeguards, or security performance" at the site.

"The health and safety of Rocky Flats employees is our first priority," said Barbara Mazurowski, manager of the DOE's Rocky Flats Field Office. "Our closure contract gives us the mechanism to take action before actual safety boundaries are compromised."

Under the terms of the Rocky Flats closure contract, the DOE has the authority to fine Kaiser-Hill up to $250,000 for safety-related violations that occur over the course of the long-term decommissioning operation. The incidents for which Kaiser-Hill was fined this week were classified as "category III" violations -- the least severe of the three penalty levels stipulated in the Rocky Flats closure contract.

Kaiser-Hill President and CEO Bob Card said the penalties would motivate the company to do better.

"Kaiser-Hill agreed to an unprecedented penalty structure in the new contract to help motivate us to achieve best-in-class safety across the board," Card said. "We welcome this additional incentive and regret that our performance required application in this case.

"We are committed to correct these deficiencies to ensure a safe environment for our workers," Card added.

The first of the two distinct penalties assessed against Kaiser-Hill this week was levied as a result of at least 13 incidents involving the improper handling and movement of materials throughout the Rocky Flats facility between Feb. 1 and June 5.

The DOE, in a June 30 memorandum, drew a number of conclusions after reviewing the 13 incidents. The DOE concluded that:

o The handling violations occurred in a number of different areas of the Rocky Flats site.

o The violations resulted in several "near misses" in worker injuries.

o The violations resulted in the damaging and/or destroying of containers of low-level radioactive waste.

o The violations resulted in the damaging and/or destroying of equipment and materials.

o The violations indicated a "general lack of discipline/formality of material movement operations" on the part of Kaiser-Hill.

The DOE also noted that Kaiser-Hill should have taken "more aggressive actions" to curb the materials-handling problems when they were first pointed out to the company last winter.

Initially, the DOE set the penalty for the materials-handling problems at $125,000. However, the DOE reduced the fine to $100,000 after considering Kaiser-Hill's efforts to improve its operating and training procedures.

The second fine assessed against the company this week pertained to a malfunctioning ventilation system in Rocky Flats Building 371, where all of the plant's plutonium and other special nuclear materials are currently being consolidated.

According to the DOE, Kaiser-Hill failed to take appropriate action to rectify "upsets" in the building's ventilation system, which malfunctioned several times between Feb. 8 and Feb. 29.

On Feb. 29, for example, an area of building 371 was contaminated with radiation in excess of 40,000 disintegrations per minute after Kaiser-Hill workers attempted to restore a filter in the building's ventilation system. While no radiation was released to the environment as a result of the incident, operations in the building had to be suspended while the area was decontaminated.

The DOE estimated that it cost $60,000 in labor to recover from the Feb. 29 event, which the government said resulted in the "unnecessary" exposure of workers to radioactivity and the generation of additional radioactive wastes.

Another ventilation-related incident occurred in Building 371 on Feb. 8, the DOE noted. That incident, which was caused by a Kaiser-Hill electrician performing maintenance on a fan system, potentially exposed six workers to airborne radioactivity, according to a June 30 DOE report. The report notes that while nasal smears indicated that the workers were not contaminated, Kaiser-Hill supervisors were not notified of the problem until sometime after it occurred.

Initially, the DOE determined that the ventilation problems warranted a $100,000 penalty. However, after considering a number of "mitigation factors" -- such as the fact that equipment failure contributed to the Feb. 29 incident, and that Kaiser-Hill did make efforts to evacuate workers from the contaminated area -- the DOE reduced the fine to $60,000.

"As the health and safety of our workers in my first priority, ensuring proper operation of ventilation systems in all nuclear facilities need to continue to be a high priority of Kaiser-Hill," wrote Mazurowski in the DOE's report. "Additionally, as operations and nuclear materials are consolidated in Building 371, it is extremely important that we establish a 'best-in-class' operational expectation of that facility."

The fines levied against Kaiser-Hill this week will be taken out of the company's next conditional incentive fee payment. The fines will also result in a downward adjustment of the total adjusted fee that the company will collect when the contract is completed.

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Message: 18
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 15:32:23 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Fire Stirs Safe Levels of Radiation
July 12, 2000
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/text/2000/jul/12/071200185.html

RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) -- The fire at Hanford nuclear reservation last month churned up radioactive contaminants, including plutonium, but not to levels that pose health risks, the Department of Energy said Wednesday.

The plutonium particles were detected in an air sample from a storage area of some of Hanford's most dangerous waste near the center of the 560-square-mile reservation.

The measurement was "well below the level of concern" set by the federal government and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and did not pose a risk to firefighters or the public, Harry Boston, DOE's deputy manager at Hanford, said at a news conference.

Breathing the measured amount of plutonium for a year would expose a person to 3 millirem of radiation. The limit of exposure for Hanford workers is 100 millirem a year.

Indicators of radioactivity also showed up in 34 of 76 other samples, most of them near the storage areas at the center of the reservation. Those substances could not be determined.

Hanford is the most contaminated nuclear site in the nation after 40 years of making plutonium for the country's nuclear arsenal.

-----

Message: 19
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 15:24:00 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

DOE gets chewed out by House panel
July 12, 2000
By Lisa Friedman
WASHINGTON BUREAU
http://search.newschoice.com/GPC_StoryDisplay.asp?story=d:\index\newsarchives\angts\fpg\2000 0712\345190_t1as612.txt&searchtext=nuclear

WASHINGTON -- Hamburger flippers at MacDonalds, clerks at 7-Eleven and librarians at the Menominee, Mich., public library all keep better track of their inventories than Department of Energy officials do with the nation's nuclear arsenal, members of Congress charged Tuesday.

One after another, both Republicans and Democrats at a House Commerce oversight hearing criticized DOE leaders as well as the directors of Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories in New Mexico and California's Lawrence Livermore laboratory. The verbal poundings were part of federal lawmakers' ongoing attempts to get to the bottom of security scandals that have plagued the labs, particularly Los Alamos, for months.

"I'm getting tired of having these hearings and not finding out who is responsible for these things," said Rep. Greg Ganske, R-Iowa.

Few answers surfaced Tuesday, but federal auditors did reveal a decade-long pattern of weakened security at the DOE. Fueled by a post-Cold War mood that called for more relaxed policies, minimum requirements for safeguarding secret documents were watered down or scrapped altogether beginning in 1992.

Lab employees no longer had to write unique identifying numbers on papers or receive written approval before copying information. Inventories were performed annually instead of twice a year. Scientists no longer had to verify each night that all top secret documents had been returned to the vault before they went home.

The changes reduced security costs and produced the then-desired "openness" at DOE laboratories. But over time, lab directors warned that the pendulum had swung too far.

"Where is the road back?" asked C. Paul Robinson, director of Sandia National Laboratory.

He and the other DOE officials vowed to find it.

Among a set of recommendations made Tuesday was to reinstitute requirements for a formal accountability system for certain types of classified information. Other proposals included:

Establishing clear guidelines for determining the importance of sensitive information.

Clarifying the DOE's need-to-know policy to better limit access to information.

Expand drug-testing and medical evaluations to ensure that everyone who handles nuclear secrets as well as weapons is "reliable and fit for duty."

Legislators Tuesday were skeptical of the recommendations. They noted a decade of weakened standards were still no excuse for the spate of security fiascos.

The latest debacle occurred at Los Alamos, where a computer hard drive containing information about nuclear terrorism vanished, only to reappear behind a photocopier days later.

Investigators have largely ruled out espionage, blaming the incident on careless staff and potentially criminal coverups.

But the fact that the hard drives were lost, not stolen, hasn't seemed to placate legislators.

"I don't think we should celebrate the fact that they were lost. I think we should be terrified," said Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-San Diego.

The University of California, which has managed the laboratories for more than 50 years, has taken much of the blame for security lapses. Several members of Congress have called for Energy Secretary Bill Richardson to tear up the university's contract, and several continued that call on Tuesday.

The DOE recently announced that critical changes indeed will be made to UC's contract. The agency plans to hire a private outside firm to manage security, while the university will maintain authority over scientific work.

The arrangement is still being ironed out, but several members of Congress said they are already skeptical. The Department of Energy already has created a sub-agency specifically to oversee security at the labs, but no one knows yet how a private agency will fit into the scheme of things.

Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Michigan, called the changes "cosmetic" and "another disaster waiting to happen," while Rep. Heather Wilson, R-New Mexico, said the plan "sounds pretty dysfunctional to me."

--------

Message: 20
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 15:29:59 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Hanford fire put plutonium into the air
July 13, 2000
By LISA STIFFLER SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/hanf134.shtml

The fire that raged across the Hanford Nuclear Reservation released plutonium and other radioactive components into the air, raising concerns about human exposure and health risks.

Earlier reports indicated no radiation releases from the fire, which began June 27 and burned across three old radioactive waste-disposal sites -- a trench and two dried-up ponds. Yesterday, federal Department of Energy officials downplayed any health risks from the releases.

But others disagreed.

Plutonium "is extremely toxic . . .," said Dr. Tim Takaro a professor in the University of Washington's occupational and environmental medicine program. "If you get plutonium in the wrong place in the lung, that can cause cancer."

The plutonium particles turned up in an air sample from the eastern boundary of the 200 West area, near the central part of the 560-square-mile reservation, where some of Hanford's most dangerous waste is stored. The exact source of the plutonium is not known.

The measurement was "well below the level of concern" set by the federal government and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and did not pose a risk to firefighters or the public, Harry Boston, the federal Department of Energy's deputy manager at Hanford, said at a news conference yesterday.

The fire broke out after a fatal car accident and burned 191,000 acres before being contained several days later.

Expressed in technical terms, the plutonium detected measured 6 X 10 to the power of minus-4 picocuries per cubic meter. The federal standard is 2 X 10 to the power of minus-2 picocuries per cubic meter.

If someone were to breathe the higher amount of plutonium for a year, he or she would be exposed to 3 millirem of radiation. The average exposure from an X-ray is 10 to 15 millirem, and the limit of exposure for Hanford workers is 100 millirem a year.

But this was not reassuring for many.

"The point is that there is an exposure," said Takaro, who is also a member of the Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation, an organization promoting nuclear waste cleanup.

"This fire is sort of a wake up for us to get the site cleaned up."

By taking air samples after the fire, "it's difficult to say what the real exposure is. We have some measurement below the federal standard, but we don't know what people are exposed to," he said. "We have an incomplete picture."

Wayne Glines, senior technical adviser for the DOE, said authorities do not believe firefighters at the scene of the fire were exposed to radiation.

Urine samples have been collected and are being examined for radioactivity. Results will be available in six to eight weeks.

Alpha particles -- indicators of radioactive substances -- of a still-undetermined origin also showed up in 34 of 76 other samples, primarily from around the 200 East and West areas.

"This is a major admission of a threat to the health of the region and the firefighters who were there," said Gerald Pollet, director of the Hanford watchdog group Heart of America Northwest.

The Environmental Protection Agency regional headquarters said it was unable to comment on the DOE findings.

"We weren't notified and haven't had a chance to see their data," said Bill Dunbar, an agency spokesman. "And frankly, we're quite unhappy about finding this out hours after DOE made their finding public."

Nevertheless, EPA is waiting on its own test results.

Fourteen EPA emergency response specialists were flown in from Montgomery, Ala., and Las Vegas during the fire to assist regional radiation experts.

The EPA did extensive testing of "population centers, and sensitive ecological and agricultural areas" off the Hanford Reservation. Those results should be available later this week, Dunbar said.

"Our primary concern was to determine whether people in the communities off-site had been exposed to any radiation being carried by the smoke," said Jerry Leitch, EPA's radiation program manager in Seattle.

A network of 24 high-volume air samplers were set up as far away as Yakima and Walla Walla, Leitch said.

Analysis of those samples are being conducted at an EPA laboratory in Alabama.

Fire, wind and firefighting efforts could have stirred up surface contaminants at Hanford, which is the most contaminated nuclear site in the nation after 40 years of making plutonium for the country's nuclear arsenal.

"We fully expect to see radioactivity. We fully expect it to be far below the levels of concern," the DOE's Boston said.

And Glines of the DOE said it's "very difficult to say" what the exact source of the plutonium was and that the department would not try to pinpoint it.

"This is a very small amount that was stirred up," he said.

However, a possible source of radioactive material is a plant common to Hanford's desert environment, the Russian thistle. The plant has a very deep root that "can draw contaminants out of the soil," Takaro said.

"We know there is a lot of buried waste at Hanford," he said, adding that the contaminants end up in the leaves of the plants, which burn well.

Initial tests that found no radioactivity were described as "quick and dirty" by Debra McBaugh of the state Department of Health, meaning portable field equipment used at the time was designed to show whether there was an imminent health risk.

The new results came from subsequent testing with more sophisticated equipment in a laboratory designed to test for even lower levels of radiation. Boston noted that even these results are preliminary and many more tests and analyses were to be conducted.

McBaugh said it was unlikely the contaminants would move off site because the particles are heavier than air and fall to the ground.

The wind-driven fire, which at times moved as fast as 20 miles in 90 minutes, came within a half-mile of the high-level radioactive and chemical waste buried in the 200 West area.

Additional monitoring is planned on and around Hanford, McBaugh said.

"I'm confident there's not going to be a health risk problem," she said.

The Energy Department plans regular updates on the air, soil and vegetation monitoring, Boston said.

P-I reporter Lisa Stiffler can be reached at 206-448-8042 or lisastiffler@seattle-pi.com

--------

Message: 21
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 17:09:15 -0700
From: "Vina Colley" <vcolley@earthlink.net>

Cancer Study Deemphasizes Genes' Role
By Rick Weiss Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 13, 2000 ; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31054-2000Jul12.html

The vast majority of cancers are caused not by inherited defects in people's genes, as many have come to believe in this age of genetics, but by environmental and behavioral factors such as chemical pollutants and unhealthy lifestyles, according to the largest cancer study ever to enter the "nature versus nurture" debate.

"Environmental factors are more important than gene factors, and that's important to remember, especially since everyone thinks that everything is solved now that we have the human genome in our computers," said Paul Lichtenstein of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, who led the giant study of 89,576 twins that is reported in today's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Scientists have long recognized that environmental factors play a notable causal role in many cancers. People from rural Asia, where breast and colon cancers are rare, gradually grow more likely to get those diseases after moving to the United States--the result of mostly unidentified environmental factors. People from Japan, where stomach cancer is common, see the risk of that disease decline after living in the United States for several years.

All told, however, the environmental contribution to cancer has been presumed by many experts to be as low as 50 percent. And given the recent revolution in molecular biology, much of the modern search for the causes of cancer has focused on genes.

To assess genetic and environmental contributions with unprecedented precision, Lichtenstein and co-workers from Finland and Denmark used detailed government records from their three countries to compare the incidence of 28 different kinds of cancer in identical and nonidentical twins. Identical twins share the same genes while nonidentical twins, on average, are just 50 percent genetically identical--the same level of relationship between most siblings and between parents and their offspring.

For every individual who had a cancer, the team checked whether his or her twin ever had the same kind of cancer. The difference between the identical and nonidentical twins gave a measure of the extent to which genes were to blame for each kind of cancer.

On average, environmental factors caused about twice as many cancers as inborn genetic factors. The study did not identify what exactly in the environment put people at risk for specific types of cancer, but researchers said cigarettes, poor diet, lack of exercise, radiation and pollution were among the prime culprits. Prostate cancer had the strongest genetic component, accounting for 42 percent of the risk, followed by colorectal (35 percent) and breast cancer (27 percent).

"In the current climate, there is this sense of fatalism on the part of the public with respect to genes. If your brother or mother has cancer, then you feel doomed," said Robert N. Hoover of the National Cancer Institute. However, Hoover said, the new data show that even an identical twin has about a 90 percent chance of not getting the same cancer as his or her affected twin. "I think that's a useful piece of information from this study, to get away from this fatalism."

At the same time, experts noted, the few genes that so far have been clearly linked to cancer account for just a small fraction of the 20 percent to 40 percent genetic contribution seen in the new study. That suggests that many cancer susceptibility genes have yet to be found--and that each probably contributes a small amount of risk to an individual, and so may be difficult to discover.

"This raises the question of why aren't we doing more to identify avoidable risk factors for cancer, including occupational exposures," said Devra Lee Davis, a cancer epidemiologist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. "You can't choose your parents. What you can do is control your exposures in your environment."

But geneticists said they see a glass one-third full, not two-thirds empty.

"It's certainly true that if you're in a deterministic camp, and many people have been migrating in that direction lately, it gives pause to see that . . . cancer is not hardwired in the genes," said Francis Collins, chief of the National Human Genome Research Institute. "But that should not make people believe that the genetic approach is not going to be useful. It's going to be incredibly useful."

Collins emphasized that all cancers are ultimately genetic in nature, since they all are caused by cells whose genes have become disrupted, either by inherited or acquired mutations. Thus, gene studies promise to shed important light on the basic mechanisms of cancer.

"Even a gene that makes a small contribution," Collins said, "might be the light bulb we've been waiting for to help us understand how cancer happens."

Hisham Zerriffi Senior Scientist Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER) 6935 Laurel Ave. Suite 204, Takoma Park, MD 20912 Phone: (301) 270-5500 Fax: (301) 270-3029 E-mail: hisham@ieer.org Web: http://www.ieer.org

----------

Message: 24
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 19:33:28 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Another deadly legacy from the Cold War
By LANCE GAY
Scripps Howard News Service
July 12, 2000

- With the end of the Cold War, the United States is facing a fresh nuclear headache: what to do with a growing stockpile of unwanted steel and other metals contaminated by low-level radiation.

The Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission say there isn't space in low-level radiation dumps already set up for hospital X-ray wastes to handle the estimated 3 million tons of radioactive metals once used in the structures where nuclear weapons were built and power plants were generating electricity.

So the government is considering plans to release some lightly contaminated metals into commercial recycling to be turned into such items as construction materials, cars, garden spades, baby carriages and frying pans.

Tons of contaminated metals already have been released on a "case by case" basis.

Labor unions, environmentalists and recyclers are fighting back, insisting that smelters won't handle anything with even low radiation levels. They argue that radioactive metal is valueless because there's no market for items made from it, no matter how small the dose or how cheap the product.

"People should be able to sit down to dinner without worrying their meals were cooked in contaminated pots,'' said Rep. Ron Klink, D-Pa.

Klink and 22 members of the congressional steel caucus have introduced legislation to block any further release of radioactive metals and to require the government to come up with a standard of what levels of radiation might be safe for the general public. The government has already issued standards for X-ray technicians and workers in nuclear power plants, but Klink said there is no government standard for what dosage of radiation might be safe for the general public.

Since the dangers of radiation are well known, "the risks are too high to ignore," Klink said. He said he's not a scientist, and doesn't know what radiation levels might be safe.

Environmentalists and workplace safety experts said there's little agreement among scientists over what levels of radioactivity above normal "background" levels are safe. Nor is there any government labeling requirement to tell consumers that the metals in their dinnerware, cars or baby carriages have radiation in them, Klink says.

Before considering any new regulations, however, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is waiting for the recommendations of a National Academy of Sciences panel of experts on levels of radioactivity in scrap metal that might be acceptable for public health reasons.

A June 1988 nuclear commission staff memo said any new rule should allow the unrestricted release of radioactive metal and other material in nuclear facilities, "based on realistic scenarios of health effects from low doses."

NRC spokeswoman Mindy Landau said the volume of materials used in nuclear plants over the last 50 years is increasing as nuclear power plants end their productive lifespans. The United States has not built a new nuclear power plant since the Three Mile Island accident in 1979.

Landau said that some closed weapons and nuclear power plants are "in storage" with radiation-contaminated equipment left on the site until the government issues new regulations. But she said other parts of closed plants not exposed to radiation are already being put into the recycling stream.

The Energy Department, which administers the nation's nuclear weapons plants, is also waiting for new nuclear commission rules before deciding what to do with an estimated 1.4 million tons of metals coming from dismantled weapons facilities.

"The commission wants to create some consistency and fold it under a regulatory scheme,'' Landau said.

Nuclear-contaminated metals have already shown up in some consumer products. Two years ago, a shipment of 38 cooking pots delivered to the shipyard in Newport News, Va., tripped off radiation monitors that the Navy uses to check all cargo. The pots were found to contain small amounts of cobalt-60, which measured well below the regulatory threshold for being a health hazard.

The year before, furniture maker La-Z-Boy recalled 6,000 recliners that were manufactured with Brazilian-made steel parts containing radiation.

The government has also approved some releases of radioactive building materials. In 1994, the Energy Department approved a proposal by the Energy Department's Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (cq) in California to release 140 tons of copper wire lightly contaminated with radioactive cobalt-60 to a local scrap metal recycler.

The recycling industry says those incidents are trivial compared to what will happen if the government dumps millions of tons of radioactive steel into the recycling stream. About 95 percent of the steel used in America is currently recycled.

Steve Larick, chairman of the radiation subcommittee for the Steel Manufacturers Association, said putting radioactive steel in the commercial stockpile would undermine public confidence in an industry that recycles more than $40 billion worth of steel a year.

"Once out of the gate and through several hands, it's going to lose its traceability" and contaminate other steel products that are radiation-free as the products are used and recycled. "Over time, it could cycle up and concentrate."

Larick, the environmental compliance supervisor for steelmaker SMI in Seguin, Texas, said that like most other American steel firms, his company won't handle any scrap metal that sets off monitors that detect discarded items made from radioactive materials like Cesium.

"You have to worry about protecting the people who work for you," Larick said. "Nobody wants to be around this stuff more than they have to."

He suggests the government should build its own smelters for radioactive metal and reprocess the material as steel for new nuclear reactors or containers for nuclear waste, using workers who are trained to handle radioactive materials.

Larick said federal regulators and nuclear power companies mistakenly believe the contaminated metal has some value. "But if it's got any radiation in it, there's not any value to it at all - it's really a negative value" because it will only end up in scrap yards after being refused by steel mills, he said.

Mike White, director of health and safety for the United Steelworkers Union of America, said his union's 600,000 members won't handle radioactive metals. "It's not safe to recycle,'' he said.

He said commercial steel mills aren't equipped to handle any levels of radiation and lack the necessary safety equipment.

But government plans are proceeding nonetheless. In May, Nuclear Regulatory Commission Commissioner Jeffrey Merrifield suggested using the radioactive steel for an oil pipeline being built under the Beaufort Sea in Alaska.

Diane D'Arriago, director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, a Washington environmental lobbying group, said the only safe course is for the government to keep control of the material, as it has done for the last 50 years. She said efforts to set a standard that allows any release of even lightly contaminated material will result in a calamity.

The nuclear commission argues that doses of radioactivity in low-level scrap is less than that in a chest X-ray or in the potassium content of table salt substitute. But D'Arragio says plutonium, cesium and strontium aren't natural but are manmade byproducts of the nuclear age.

"The floodgates are about to open," she said, "and once there is a standard, there's no way of stopping it from coming out."

(Contact Lance Gay at gayl(at)shns.com)

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Message: 25
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 19:32:51 -0400
From: "Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space" <globalnet@mindspring.com>

DEMOCRATS URGE CLINTON TO DELAY
Clinton Urged To Defer Missile Rule

Thursday July 13 3:53 PM ET
By JIM ABRAMS,
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senior Senate Democrats urged the president Thursday to put off a decision on proceeding with a national anti-missile defense system, saying there are too few guarantees it would be technically feasible and enhance national security.

``I can't imagine that we would want to build something that didn't work,'' Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle said at a news conference where he was joined by the top Democrats on the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan and Joseph Biden of Delaware.

The issue arose less than a week after the second failure this year of a Pentagon missile defense test and just minutes after the Senate narrowly defeated a proposal requiring more thorough testing before the defense system could be built.

The Senate voted 52-48 to kill an amendment by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., to a bill authorizing defense programs that would have required the Pentagon to test the system's effectiveness against countermeasures - balloon decoys and other devices an adversary might use to confuse an anti-missile rocket.

All Democrats supported the amendment. All but three Republicans - Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine and Jim Jeffords of Vermont - opposed it.

President Clinton had been expected to make a decision later this year on going ahead with a timetable that would have the system ready for use by the end of 2005. The land-based system, a much smaller version of the ``Star Wars'' space-based system envisioned by President Reagan in the 1980s, would be designed to stop a limited number of incoming missiles from hostile nations such as North Korea.

Clinton laid out four criteria for making a judgment: cost, the extent of the threat, operational effectiveness and the impact on national security.

All four are in dispute.

Supporters reject estimates the system would cost at least $60 billion while opponents say North Korea knows it would be suicidal to attack the United States.

The two test failures this year have brought the system's feasibility into question, and the strong opposition of Russia, China and some allies to a unilateral U.S. anti-missile system have raised questions about its benefit to national security.

``This system is not ready for prime time. No president, this one or the next, unless things change drastically, should in fact deploy this system,'' Biden said.

Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, a Pentagon spokesman, defended the timetable. ``The goal of having a system, a limited system, deployed by 2005 is responsive to the threat that we project to be in existence at that time,'' he said.

Defense Secretary William Cohen will make his recommendation soon to Clinton, although it will not be a simple yes or no on whether to go ahead, Quigley said.

``I don't think Secretary Cohen has put any bounds on his recommendations that he'll make to the president. If he thinks it's relevant information that will help the president make that decision, I'm certain he would not hesitate to provide it,'' he said.

The GOP-led Congress has strongly supported the system and generally shrugged off testing problems and warnings from Russia and China that such a shield would violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., a strong advocate of the system, said the Durbin amendment would cause unnecessary delays to ``a very important capability to defend our nation against a serious threat.'' He said the issue of countermeasures ``has been generated by wild accusations from some college professors who have long opposed missile defenses of any sort.''

But Durbin said Republicans ducked the question of whether a $60 billion missile system can be misled by a cheap decoy. ``They are afraid to admit that their multibillion-dollar theory may not work.''

The vote, said Daryl Kimball, director of the Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers, an arms-control advocacy group, ``shows that the ideological drive for missile defense is so strong that many senators are willing to move ahead even if the system does not work.''

Bruce K. Gagnon Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 90083 Gainesville, FL. 32607 (352) 337-9274
http://www.globenet.free-online.co.uk globalnet@mindspring.com