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

-------- china

Chinese angry over support for US missile plan

Sydney Morning Herald
Date: 08/08/2000
By DAVID LAGUE, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0008/08/text/pageone2.html

China will intensify pressure on the Howard Government to drop its backing for United States research into a controversial ballistic missile shield when a top Beijing official visits Canberra next week.

The Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister, Mr Yang Jiechi, will deliver a protest from the Beijing leadership when he meets the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Downer, and other officials for talks starting on Tuesday.

Australia's support and co-operation into research on ballistic missile systems means that the Howard Government's carefully nurtured diplomatic and trade ties with China are under threat at a time of increasing regional instability.

If friction over the proposed US National Missile Defence shield (NMD) leads to serious tension, foreign policy experts expect that the Chinese leadership will signal that Australia's bid to win a $20 billion liquefied natural gas contract for power generation in southern China could be at risk.

However, it is understood that the Prime Minister, Mr Howard, and Mr Downer both sympathise with US proposals to deploy a missile shield and are likely to back Washington if President Clinton or his successor decide to deploy it.

They believe that it is reasonable for the US to seek to defend its cities from missile strikes from "rogue" States such as North Korea, Iran or Iraq.

Senior Chinese diplomats told the Herald that Mr Yang would be making Beijing's strongest protest yet after the official media last month condemned Australia's stand and China's Ambassador to Canberra, Mr Zhou Wenzhong, urged the Government to consider Australian interests rather than US security fears.

The Federal Opposition has also been strongly critical of the Government's support for missile defence research and the likelihood that electronic spy bases such as Pine Gap would be part of an NMD system.

The Opposition foreign affairs spokesman, Mr Laurie Brereton, said in a speech at the weekend that China had repeatedly warned that it would increase its nuclear missile force if the US deployed a NMD system. This could force India to build more missiles.

"If China boosts its arsenal, the prospects for future nuclear arms reductions will be dealt a severe blow," he said.

"NMD has the potential to trigger a new nuclear arms race and gravely undermine global disarmament and non-proliferation agreements," he said.

The Government is a key target for China's diplomatic offensive against NMD because Australia is one of the few US allies that have backed the NMD proposals.

For China, research into missile defence shield technology directly threatens its ambition to militarily dominate Taiwan and force reunification.

Beijing has been building up a strong ballistic missile force along its southern coast facing Taiwan at the same time as it modernises and expands its long range nuclear missile armoury.

Together, these missiles could give China the power to dominate Taiwan and deter US intervention if it opts to use force against the island.

However, an effective NMD system could blunt China's nuclear threat to US cities and boost the prospects for the successful deployment of a Theatre Missile Defence system that has also been proposed to protect US forces and their allies in the North Asia region. This TMD system would almost certainly cover Taiwan.

The Chinese Government is well aware that Australia has been actively co-operating with the US on research in TMD systems.

-------- india / pakistan

A NUCLEAR WAR FEARED POSSIBLE OVER KASHMIR

By JUDITH MILLER and JAMES RISEN
New York Times
August 8, 2000
The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/global/080800india-pakistan.html

India has increased security in Kashmir, fearing unrest before India's Independence Day Aug. 15. A soldier stood guard on Monday in Srinagar. Issue in Depth •<library/world/asia/india-pakistan-index.html>India and Pakistan ehind President Clinton's blunt warning last spring that South Asia was the world's most perilous region lay an assessment from American intelligence agencies that the likelihood of a war between India and Pakistan that could erupt into a nuclear conflict had increased significantly, according to officials with access to the secret intelligence.

The officials said that the Central Intelligence Agency and the nation's other intelligence organizations had reached their consensus after examining the nuclear capacities of both countries and the growing tensions between them, in particular over the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.

The assessment, known as a National Intelligence Estimate, began late last summer after Pakistan-backed militants crossed over the high mountain peaks of Kashmir into the Indian-controlled area of Kargil, setting off weeks of heavy fighting that included airstrikes.

At that time, the administration grew fearful that the conflict could escalate into a nuclear exchange, officials said, citing both states' relatively poor intelligence about each other's intentions and movements and their lack of direct communications.

"The Kargil episode really got everyone's attention," said George Perkovich, deputy director of the W. Alton Jones Foundation and the author of "India's Nuclear Bomb," published last year by the University of California.

Several analysts who took part in drafting the assessment said the report had succeeded in underscoring the importance of working to ease political tensions between two rivals that have fought three wars in the 50 years since their independence. In the past, the administration had focused mainly on trying to stop the development and spread of nuclear weapons on the subcontinent.

Last week, for instance, President Clinton talked by telephone with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee of India, who is due on a state visit next month, said Samuel R. Berger, the national security adviser. Mr. Berger added that he himself talks with Pakistan's military leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, as part of the dialogue with Islamabad.

President Clinton received the intelligence assessment shortly before his first visit to South Asia in March. And he clearly reflected the report's conclusions when he twice called the Indian subcontinent "the most dangerous place in the world." India's president scolded Mr. Clinton and called the description "alarmist."

After the Kargil episode, the assessment, which remains secret, concluded that there was a sharply increased chance of a nonnuclear military conflict between India and Pakistan, possibly erupting into a nuclear exchange.

The chances of such a nonnuclear conflict, one White House official said, were put in the "50-50 range."

"The likelihood of a nuclear conflict goes up and down," said another official. "It's less important to assign a probability to it than to warn senior officials that there is a serious threat here that demands immediate and focused attention and action."

The assessment contained no specific guidance on what the administration could do to reduce tensions, according to those familiar with the document. But Mr. Clinton and other top officials have urged senior Indian and Pakistani officials in public and private meetings to open a direct political dialogue and give up their nuclear programs, warning them of the growing peril of an accidental or deliberate nuclear exchange.

While administration officials agreed that Mr. Clinton's visit helped ease some tensions, neither country has signaled that it intends to halt development of the arsenals the two countries revealed to the world by exploding nuclear devices in quick succession in 1998.

India continues to see its nuclear arsenal as necessary for its status as an emerging power and to deter not only Pakistan but also neighboring China, a Pakistani ally. Pakistan, less populous and poorer than India, sees its nuclear force as essential to counterbalance its rival's larger conventional forces.

Additionally, analysts have warned that if American plans for a missile defense prompt China to build up its nuclear arsenal, still more momentum will be added to the arms race across the region.

While the president's visit has not prompted New Delhi or Islamabad to scale back its nuclear program, many experts say the trip and subsequent administration diplomacy have helped to nurture other positive political developments.

India has released some political prisoners related to Pakistani-backed militant groups in Kashmir, and last month one of the most important of those groups, the Hizbul Mujahedeen, declared a unilateral three-month cease-fire. The group opened talks with India on Friday. But diplomats and other experts still see the chances of a lasting breakthrough as low, and violence has continued in Kashmir.

Given the Kashmir dispute, diplomats and arms control experts see nuclear weapons on the subcontinent as particularly dangerous. India and Pakistan, unlike other nuclear powers -- for example, the United States and Russia -- share a common border, have had no sustained dialogue and lack even a framework to hold serious negotiations.

After Pakistan moved into Kargil, Pakistan's rhetoric grew increasingly harsh and India prepared to mobilize a significant force that could have led to a dramatic escalation, experts say.

"Kargil proved that having nuclear weapons would not deter new conflicts," Mr. Perkovich said. "It also showed that unless such conflicts themselves were prevented, the possibility of an accidental or deliberate nuclear exchange would also increase given both states' relatively poor systems of intelligence surveillance and nuclear command and control."

While neither private experts nor the American government has firm estimates of the size of the Indian and Pakistani nuclear arsenals, Mr. Perkovich estimates that India has produced enough plutonium for 60 weapons.

But he said he believed that India had far fewer actual bombs, "in the neighborhood of 35 weapons." In the event of a nuclear war, these would be delivered by aircraft. Pakistan has enough highly enriched uranium for roughly the same number of bombs, he added, and it could deliver them by a combination of bombers and missiles.

Stephen P. Cohen, a South Asian policy scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington, called the risk of nuclear conflict "serious" and "increasing." But the president's trip, he said, had succeeded in engaging Washington in the region, a development that was particularly important to India, which has long desired to be seen as an Asian power. "The president should have gone much earlier," he said.

Robert Oakley, a former ambassador to Pakistan, said that Washington may have inadvertently helped fuel Pakistan's nuclear ambitions and reduced American leverage over Islamabad by failing to resume economic and military assistance to Pakistan that Congress cut off in 1990 because of the Pakistani nuclear program.

Experts and diplomats said President Clinton had been determined to visit India after Mrs. Clinton and his daughter, Chelsea, toured the country in 1995, and when he finally went, in March, the trip was billed as a "war prevention trip," according to one participant in the intelligence assessment, which was begun with the two-month Kargil conflict that ended the previous July.

"Since the intelligence report concluded that the region demanded high-level attention to defuse tensions and prevent the outbreak of conflicts that could escalate, the politics of the trip dovetailed perfectly with the intelligence assessment," he said.

During his visit, in an address to the Indian Parliament, Mr. Clinton appealed to the "great nation of India" to give up its nuclear arsenal, and he urged India to take the lead in starting a dialogue with Pakistan.

Progress toward such a dialogue seemed to be building with a meeting of the two countries' prime ministers on their border in early 1999. But after the Kargil incursion, which came just months later, India's leadership felt betrayed.

Since Kargil, Pakistan's civilian government was overthrown in a military coup last October. Mr. Clinton met briefly with the leader, General Musharraf, after his much longer visit to India, but made no headway on a range of American concerns, including when Pakistan would return to democratic government.

Pakistan continues to maintain that it will not scale back its nuclear program unless India does so first.

While India has said that it will not be the first to use nuclear weapons in a conflict in the region, it has made clear it will respond if attacked. Indian officials brushed aside efforts by Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott to persuade them to join international talks aimed at ending the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons. And Prime Minister Vajpayee has steadfastly refused to renounce the country's nuclear arsenal, though he has pledged not to conduct further nuclear tests.

----

A Nuclear War Feared Possible Over Kashmir

New York Times
08/08/00
By JUDITH MILLER and JAMES RISEN
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/global/080800india-pakistan.html

Behind President Clinton's blunt warning last spring that South Asia was the world's most perilous region lay an assessment from American intelligence agencies that the likelihood of a war between India and Pakistan that could erupt into a nuclear conflict had increased significantly, according to officials with access to the secret intelligence.

The officials said that the Central Intelligence Agency and the nation's other intelligence organizations had reached their consensus after examining the nuclear capacities of both countries and the growing tensions between them, in particular over the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.

The assessment, known as a National Intelligence Estimate, began late last summer after Pakistan-backed militants crossed over the high mountain peaks of Kashmir into the Indian-controlled area of Kargil, setting off weeks of heavy fighting that included airstrikes.

At that time, the administration grew fearful that the conflict could escalate into a nuclear exchange, officials said, citing both states' relatively poor intelligence about each other's intentions and movements and their lack of direct communications.

"The Kargil episode really got everyone's attention," said George Perkovich, deputy director of the W. Alton Jones Foundation and the author of "India's Nuclear Bomb," published last year by the University of California.

Several analysts who took part in drafting the assessment said the report had succeeded in underscoring the importance of working to ease political tensions between two rivals that have fought three wars in the 50 years since their independence. In the past, the administration had focused mainly on trying to stop the development and spread of nuclear weapons on the subcontinent.

Last week, for instance, President Clinton talked by telephone with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee of India, who is due on a state visit next month, said Samuel R. Berger, the national security adviser. Mr. Berger added that he himself talks with Pakistan's military leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, as part of the dialogue with Islamabad.

President Clinton received the intelligence assessment shortly before his first visit to South Asia in March. And he clearly reflected the report's conclusions when he twice called the Indian subcontinent "the most dangerous place in the world." India's president scolded Mr. Clinton and called the description "alarmist."

After the Kargil episode, the assessment, which remains secret, concluded that there was a sharply increased chance of a nonnuclear military conflict between India and Pakistan, possibly erupting into a nuclear exchange.

The chances of such a nonnuclear conflict, one White House official said, were put in the "50-50 range."

"The likelihood of a nuclear conflict goes up and down," said another official. "It's less important to assign a probability to it than to warn senior officials that there is a serious threat here that demands immediate and focused attention and action."

The assessment contained no specific guidance on what the administration could do to reduce tensions, according to those familiar with the document. But Mr. Clinton and other top officials have urged senior Indian and Pakistani officials in public and private meetings to open a direct political dialogue and give up their nuclear programs, warning them of the growing peril of an accidental or deliberate nuclear exchange.

While administration officials agreed that Mr. Clinton's visit helped ease some tensions, neither country has signaled that it intends to halt development of the arsenals the two countries revealed to the world by exploding nuclear devices in quick succession in 1998.

India continues to see its nuclear arsenal as necessary for its status as an emerging power and to deter not only Pakistan but also neighboring China, a Pakistani ally. Pakistan, less populous and poorer than India, sees its nuclear force as essential to counterbalance its rival's larger conventional forces.

Additionally, analysts have warned that if American plans for a missile defense prompt China to build up its nuclear arsenal, still more momentum will be added to the arms race across the region.

While the president's visit has not prompted New Delhi or Islamabad to scale back its nuclear program, many experts say the trip and subsequent administration diplomacy have helped to nurture other positive political developments.

India has released some political prisoners related to Pakistani-backed militant groups in Kashmir, and last month one of the most important of those groups, the Hizbul Mujahedeen, declared a unilateral three-month cease-fire. The group opened talks with India on Friday. But diplomats and other experts still see the chances of a lasting breakthrough as low, and violence has continued in Kashmir.

Given the Kashmir dispute, diplomats and arms control experts see nuclear weapons on the subcontinent as particularly dangerous. India and Pakistan, unlike other nuclear powers -- for example, the United States and Russia -- share a common border, have had no sustained dialogue and lack even a framework to hold serious negotiations.

After Pakistan moved into Kargil, Pakistan's rhetoric grew increasingly harsh and India prepared to mobilize a significant force that could have led to a dramatic escalation, experts say.

"Kargil proved that having nuclear weapons would not deter new conflicts," Mr. Perkovich said. "It also showed that unless such conflicts themselves were prevented, the possibility of an accidental or deliberate nuclear exchange would also increase given both states' relatively poor systems of intelligence surveillance and nuclear command and control."

While neither private experts nor the American government has firm estimates of the size of the Indian and Pakistani nuclear arsenals, Mr. Perkovich estimates that India has produced enough plutonium for 60 weapons.

But he said he believed that India had far fewer actual bombs, "in the neighborhood of 35 weapons." In the event of a nuclear war, these would be delivered by aircraft. Pakistan has enough highly enriched uranium for roughly the same number of bombs, he added, and it could deliver them by a combination of bombers and missiles.

Stephen P. Cohen, a South Asian policy scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington, called the risk of nuclear conflict "serious" and "increasing." But the president's trip, he said, had succeeded in engaging Washington in the region, a development that was particularly important to India, which has long desired to be seen as an Asian power. "The president should have gone much earlier," he said.

Robert Oakley, a former ambassador to Pakistan, said that Washington may have inadvertently helped fuel Pakistan's nuclear ambitions and reduced American leverage over Islamabad by failing to resume economic and military assistance to Pakistan that Congress cut off in 1990 because of the Pakistani nuclear program.

Experts and diplomats said President Clinton had been determined to visit India after Mrs. Clinton and his daughter, Chelsea, toured the country in 1995, and when he finally went, in March, the trip was billed as a "war prevention trip," according to one participant in the intelligence assessment, which was begun with the two-month Kargil conflict that ended the previous July.

"Since the intelligence report concluded that the region demanded high-level attention to defuse tensions and prevent the outbreak of conflicts that could escalate, the politics of the trip dovetailed perfectly with the intelligence assessment," he said.

During his visit, in an address to the Indian Parliament, Mr. Clinton appealed to the "great nation of India" to give up its nuclear arsenal, and he urged India to take the lead in starting a dialogue with Pakistan.

Progress toward such a dialogue seemed to be building with a meeting of the two countries' prime ministers on their border in early 1999. But after the Kargil incursion, which came just months later, India's leadership felt betrayed.

Since Kargil, Pakistan's civilian government was overthrown in a military coup last October. Mr. Clinton met briefly with the leader, General Musharraf, after his much longer visit to India, but made no headway on a range of American concerns, including when Pakistan would return to democratic government.

Pakistan continues to maintain that it will not scale back its nuclear program unless India does so first.

While India has said that it will not be the first to use nuclear weapons in a conflict in the region, it has made clear it will respond if attacked. Indian officials brushed aside efforts by Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott to persuade them to join international talks aimed at ending the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons. And Prime Minister Vajpayee has steadfastly refused to renounce the country's nuclear arsenal, though he has pledged not to conduct further nuclear tests.

-------- japan

Japan's TEPCO restarts quake-hit nuclear reactor

August 8, 2000 Reuters
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7727

TOKYO - Japan's biggest utility, Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc, said yesterday it had restarted a 1,100-megawatt nuclear reactor after finding a rise in waste gas was due to a cracked pipe caused by an earthquake.

The reactor in Fukushima, about 250 kilometres (155 miles) northeast of Tokyo, was closed on July 21 after an earthquake under the seabed about 100 km northeast of Tokyo, and was restarted from Sunday.

Air crept into the system through a crack, resulting in an increase in waste gas - fumes from the nuclear generator.

"A crack of about two centimetres was discovered. We found the quake caused the crack, prompting the rise in waste gas," a TEPCO spokesman said.

No radiation leaked into the environment from the incident.

Three other TEPCO nuclear reactors - two at its Fukushima plants and one at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa in Niigata, some 300 km northeast of the capital - were shut in July due to malfunctions and the firm has not given any restart estimates.

Japan has 51 commercial nuclear reactors providing about 30 percent of the country's electricity, but public anger after several accidents over the past five years - including its worst disaster last September in which two uranium plant workers died - has forced delays in the government's nuclear programme.

TEPCO's shares ended the morning up 25 yen or 0.98 percent at 2,575 yen.

----

Lightning shuts Japanese reactor,no radiation leak

TOKYO, Aug 8 (Reuters)
From: Ndunlks@aol.com

A power loss possibly due to lightning shut a nuclear reactor in eastern Japan on Tuesday but there was no radiation leak, Japan Atomic Power Co said.

The 1.1-gigawatt reactor at the Tokai No. 2 power station in Ibaraki Prefecture about 140 km (90 miles) northeast of Tokyo had been operating at full capacity prior to the automatic shutdown at 4:05 p.m. (0705 GMT).

No further details were available as an investigation was under way, the company said in a statement.

Japanese nuclear power stations have had a series of unscheduled shutdowns since July, none of which have involved any radiation leak.

Japan's biggest utility, Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc, had four reactors shut in July due to malfunctions. It restarted a 1.1-gigawatt reactor in Fukushima, about 250 km (155 miles) northeast of Tokyo, on Sunday that was shut due to a rise in waste after a pipe was cracked by an earthquake.

No radiation leaked into the environment from the incident.

Japan has 51 commercial nuclear reactors providing about 30 percent of its electricity, but public anger after several accidents over the past five years -- including its worst disaster last September in which two uranium plant workers received fatal doses of radiation -- has forced delays in the government's nuclear programme.

----

Over 20 years of noise and fear from low-flying and NLP at U.S. Atsugi base

Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 17:17:45 +0900
From: Japan Press Service <jpspress@twics.com>
JPS 08-037

TOKYO AUG 8 JPS -- Touch-and-go exercises, low-flying exercises and night landing practice (NLP) by aircraft from U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk based at the U.S. Atsugi Naval Air Station in Kanagawa Prefecture are seriously disturbing citizens' lives. Akahata on August 8 reported:

On September 27, 1977, a U.S. Phantom jet aircraft crashed at a residence in Midori Ward (now Aoba Ward) in Yokohama City, killing two boys and their mother.

Akahata said the danger caused by the U.S. aircraft near the base has rather increased today.

From April 1952 to June 1998, 202 accidents were caused by U.S. military aircraft, such as crashes, dropping of equipments, oil leakage, emergency landings, and housing destruction.

This year, every index on noise level caused by these exercises is extremely high. Between January 1 and July 31 in a residential area one kilometer north of the base the Yamato City authorities monitored 18,054 times of loud noise above 70 decibel lasting five 5 seconds, with 122.7 decibel at the highest. This is an increase of 2,000 times than last year's (same term).

During the same period Yamato citizens made 1,188 telephone calls to the city office in protest against the exercises, a sharp increase over the last year's 1,268 calls, which was a record high during the past ten years.

These exercises are seriously disturbing school education, and making telephone calls and television sounds almost blanket, and making sudden cries for babies in nap.

In disregard of repeated protests by local municipalities, including seven cities surrounding the Atsugi Base (Yamato, Ayase, Zama, Ebina, Sagamihara, Fujisawa and Yokohama) and Atsugi, Isehara and Kawasaki cities in Kanagawa Prefecture and Machida City in Metropolitan Tokyo, the U.S. Forces continues these exercises.

Why do they continue these exercises at air zones over so densely populated area? In order to launch a first strike with carrier-borne aircraft in the Gulf area or in other areas, they are allowed to carry out low-flying exercises almost on all areas in Japan. Only the NLP schedule is notified to relevant municipalities in advance to the exercise.

Torao Shiiba, who filed a suit against U..S soldiers for damaging his family member with a burn in the 1977 crash, said:

"If the U.S. Atsugi Air Base and the U.S. aircraft carrier's homeport had not existed, we wouldn't have had such a misery. They are carrying out exercises over densely populated areas in Japan, which they never do in their country.

Similar accidents could happen at any time. Such an abnormal situation must be stopped." (end item)

-------- korea

U.S. Official Going to N. Korea

Reuters
August 8, 2000 Filed at 3:05 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-korea-u.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior U.S. official is on his way to Pyongyang for talks on how North Korea can get off the U.S. list of ``state sponsors of terrorism,'' the State Department said Tuesday.

Michael Sheehan, U.S. coordinator for counterterrorism, will hold talks in North Korea Wednesday and Thursday, building on a round which took place in New York in March.

``Ambassador Sheehan will again explain the steps the North must take to end its support for terrorism and, therefore, be considered for removal from the United States list of state sponsors of terrorism,'' State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told his daily briefing.

The main U.S. demands are that North Korea expel Japanese Red Army members who hijacked a Japanese airliner to North Korea in 1970 and make a public denunciation of ``terrorism.''

The State Department says North Korea is not known to have planned or carried out an international attack on civilians since a South Korean airliner was bombed in flight in 1987.

But its 1999 report on ``global terrorism'' cites a North Korean attempt in 1999 to kidnap a North Korean diplomat who defected in Thailand. It said the former diplomat's son was held hostage for two weeks.

``Some evidence suggests the DPRK (North Korea) in 1999 may have sold weapons directly or indirectly to terrorist groups,'' added the report, issued in April.

North Korea and the United States had planned Sheehan's visit after the March talks but the final arrangements were made when Secretary of State Madeleine Albright met North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun in Bangkok in July.

The countries on the list of ``state sponsors of terrorism'' are Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria. The governments on the list are not eligible for most forms of U.S. aid and the United States opposes multilateral loans to them.

If North Korea does get off the list, it would be only the second country removed since the list began in 1979, and the first since Iraq received a clean bill of health in 1982. Iraq went back on the list after it invaded Kuwait in 1990.

Sheehan's talks are part of an increasingly complex web of contacts between the United States and North Korea, covering missiles, Pyongyang's frozen nuclear programs and the future of the Korean peninsula.

After her talks with Paek in Bangkok, Albright said the meeting was a symbolically historic step away from what she called the sterility and hostility of the past.

-------- russia

Alarm Goes Off at Russian Reactor

Associated Press
08-08-00
From: Ndunlks@aol.com

MOSCOW (AP) - An emergency alarm went off Tuesday at a nuclear power plant in northwest Russia, but no radiation leaks were reported, officials said.

Experts said faulty electrical wiring within the alarm system apparently set off the signal, not a reactor problem, the ITAR-Tass news agency cited officials at the Leningrad Atomic Energy Station as saying.

The alarm went off at the No. 4 reactor of the plant in Sosnovy Bor near St. Petersburg, a spokesman with the Atomic Energy Ministry said. He had no information about the cause. The reactor was not in operation at the time.

The plant has four graphite-cooled reactors like the one that malfunctioned during an experiment in 1986, trigging the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Most newer reactors are water-cooled which is considered safer.

----

Alarm Goes Off at Russian Reactor

By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Russia-Nuclear.html

MOSCOW (AP) -- An emergency alarm went off Tuesday at a nuclear power plant in northwest Russia, but no radiation leaks were reported, officials said.

Experts said faulty electrical wiring within the alarm system apparently set off the signal, not a reactor problem, the ITAR-Tass news agency cited officials at the Leningrad Atomic Energy Station as saying.

The alarm went off at the No. 4 reactor of the plant in Sosnovy Bor near St. Petersburg, a spokesman with the Atomic Energy Ministry said. He had no information about the cause. The reactor was not in operation at the time.

The plant has four graphite-cooled reactors like the one that malfunctioned during an experiment in 1986, trigging the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Most newer reactors are water-cooled which is considered safer.

-------- South Africa

African National Congress Daily News Briefing
TODAY IN HISTORY (August 16)
AUGUST 16:

Highlights in Southern African history, compiled by Sapa

1988 - The Department of Foreign Affairs says South Africa will only sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty if it has full participation in the accord, including the right to trade in uranium and exchange nuclear technology.

-------- sweden

Swedish energy authority says ok to scrap 2nd nuke

August 8, 2000
Story by Tony Austin
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7718

STOCKHOLM - Sweden can afford to scrap a second nuclear reactor next year without jeopardising electricity supply through the now-deregulated energy market, the country's energy authority says.

A second reactor at Barseback in southern Sweden can be closed on schedule in July 2001, the authority said in a statement to the government released yesterday.

The Swedish government is expected to announce the next step in its programme to phase out nuclear power when it presents the autumn fine-tuning budget on September 20.

"We see no problem in closing down the reactor. Besides, a shutdown of Barseback 2 is central if the Swedish ecological targets are to be met," the energy authority said.

Deregulation of the Nordic power market means a country no longer needs to be entirely self-sufficient as Sweden can import electricity from Denmark or Norway at times of high demand.

Swedes voted in a referendum in 1980 to phase out nuclear power, fearing it might cause an environmental disaster, and switch instead to cleaner forms of energy including hydropower, biomass and wind power.

Nuclear energy from the 11 remaining reactors including Barseback 2 at present meets 47 percent of Sweden's electricity requirements, according to the energy authority. Hydroelectric schemes produce another 47 percent and conventional power stations account for the rest. Electricity produced by wind turbines represents only 0.3 percent of the total.

Environmentalists have warned that deregulation of the Nordic power market means, for instance, that Danish coal-burning power stations can sell cheap power, but the hidden social cost is higher carbon dioxide emissions.

-------- ukraine

Ukraine is thanked for renouncing nuclear weapons at a bi-Millennial

From: "Ross Wilcock" <arwilcock@sympatico.ca>
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 15:05:53 -0400

This letter was read in Ukrainian at a luncheon for 80 bishops & dignitaries in Zarvanytsia, Ukraine on July 23, 2000. An estimated 1,000,000 people came to Zarvanytsia where there has been a Marian tradition since 1240 AD. A PDF version with the Abolition 2000 Statement, photographs and background is available at www.pgs.ca/pages/mem/zarvan.pdf and more at www.pgs.ca/pages/memor0.html

Ross Wilcock arwilcock@sympatico.ca

July 14, 2000
Dear President Kuchma,

It is a privilege to honor Ukrainian contributions towards peace and goodwill at the bi-Millennial celebration in Zarvanytsia.

In May 1994, Ukraine gave leadership first in declaring by letter to the International Court of Justice that nuclear weapons are illegal. Ukraine inherited nuclear weapons that would have made it the third largest nuclear weapons state. In January 1996, Ukraine renounced nuclear weapons eliminating the Cold War nuclear inheritance in the presence of U.S. Defense Secretary William J. Perry, Ukraine Defense Minister Valeriy Shmarov and Russian Federation Defense Minister Pavel Grachev. This landmark event is exemplary invitation to all countries to proceed to complete nuclear abolition. Ukraine's significant step towards nuclear disarmament was important for all humanity. The Abolition 2000 Movement was encouraged.

The Abolition 2000 Coordinating Committee, Physicians for Global Survival, Canada and Science for Peace now thank and honor your country, Ukraine, for valued contributions towards peace. With gratitude we thank Ukraine, for wise leadership in the nuclear age, recognizing that nuclear war can never be won and must never be fought.

Ukraine made valuable contributions to international security by reducing the perceived level of threat and avoiding nuclear proliferation. As a mark of appreciation, the Abolition 2000 Movement adopted 'the Sunflower' (National Flower of Ukraine) as its emblem after the mentioned dignitaries jointly planted Sunflowers over missile silos to "Reap wheat, not war in Central Ukraine". Now, five years later, more than 2025 Civil Society Organizations and Municipalities around the world have to date endorsed The Abolition Statement and adopted the Sunflower logo.

Pope John Paul II once lamented a "defeat for humanity." Some observers of the nuclear age believe that nuclearism corrodes the soul. We see in our global village, many signs of soullessness. Nuclear states have used nuclearism as license to commit terrible atrocities using non-nuclear weapons. Inhumanity and barbarity directed even against women and children occurs still - wounding the conscience of humanity.

Faith has many faces. The Dalai Lama wrote in his autobiography: "Although I found my own Buddhist religion helpful in generating love and compassion, I am convinced that these qualities can be developed in anyone, with or without religion. I further believe that all religions pursue the same goals: those of cultivating goodness and bringing happiness to all human beings. Though the means might appear different, the ends are the same."

We rejoice in Ukraine's 'victory for humanity' 10 years after the Chernobyl tragedy through peaceful leadership in the spirit of Jesus teaching in the Sermon on the Mount "Blessed are the peacemakers." Eighty four pilgrims from Canada and the United States of America have come to Zarvanytsia to pray with you for the peace of Ukraine and of the whole world.

Mr. President, I am honored to present appreciation with thanks to Ukraine on behalf The Abolition 2000 Coordinating Committee, Physicians for Global Survival-Canadian IPPNW Affiliate, and Science for Peace.

Thank you.

Yours truly,

Dr. A.R. Wilcock mailto:arwilcock@sympatico.ca

Abolition Coordinating Committee: Janet Bloomfield UK, John Burrows USA, Jackie Cabasso USA, David Krieger USA, Carah Ong USA, Lars Pohlm Germany, Alice Slater USA, Alyn Ware New Zealand, Hiro Umbeiashi Japan, Ross Wilcock Canada.

Physicians for Global Survival, Canada: President Dr Neil Arya, past President Barbara Birkett.

Science for Peace: President Helmut Burkhardt.

-------- UN IAEA

U.N. Atomic Agency Is Threatened by Financial Crisis
U.S. Dues Arrears Could Force Cutbacks, Arms Monitor Says

August 08, 2000
By William Drozdiak
THE WASHINGTON POST
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-08/08/146l-080800-idx.html
http://www.msnbc.com/news/443190.asp?cp1=1
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/20000808/t000074100.html
http://web.philly.com/content/inquirer/2000/08/08/national/UN08.htm
http://www.iht.com/IHT/TODAY/WED/IN/atom.2.html

VIENNA, Aug. 8 - The U.N. agency responsible for preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons is facing a financial crisis and may soon have to cease key operations because the United States and other countries refuse to pay their bills on time, according to senior diplomats here.

THE INTERNATIONAL Atomic Energy Agency, which seeks to ensure that no country secretly diverts nuclear materials for bomb-making purposes, has already curtailed some aid projects and defaulted on $1 million in travel expenses, officials say. By the end of the month, they warn, the agency may not be able to meet its payroll.

"If this perilous situation continues, it could undermine critical safeguard operations that verify the safe uses of nuclear energy," said IAEA Director General Mohammed Baradei. "The U.S. Congress and others will then have to ask themselves hard questions about the damaging impact on important strategic interests." The United States covers about a quarter of the agency's $300 million annual budget.

The IAEA is pleading for faster payment at a time when Congress is considering building a national missile defense system - at a cost of more than $60 billion - that would attempt to shield the country from missile attacks by such countries as North Korea, which the Atomic Energy Agency closely monitors.

"It makes no sense to spend that amount of money on a future missile defense while neglecting simple, effective and much cheaper measures available right now to curtail the threat," said John B. Ritch, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. agencies in Vienna.

U.S. SEARCH FOR SOLUTIONS

Congressional officials say the United States is not stiffing the agency but sticking to a long-established schedule of paying dues in the fourth quarter of the calendar year, after Congress passes the budget for the new fiscal year.

"The U.S. fiscal year is not aligned with the United Nations' fiscal year," said Dan DuBray, spokesman for the House International Relations Committee. "That is hardly a new development. . . . What U.N. agencies are expected to do is coordinate and manage the funding" so that their operations are not disrupted.

A State Department spokesman said that the administration is trying to ease IAEA's cash crunch and is exploring whether the agency could borrow money from separate funds the United States gives it for technical activities and then repay that amount in October, when the regular U.S. payments are made.

The spokesman noted that the IAEA was able to meet its payroll last month only by delaying payment on the agency's Diners' Club credit cards.

Early this year, the Clinton administration worked out a compromise with the Republican-controlled Congress to pay more than $1 billion in back dues to the United Nations, but the deal left intact the two-decade-old U.S. practice of paying late in the year, rather than early, as provided for under U.N. regulations.

This policy has caused previous disruptions at the IAEA, which devotes about a third of its annual budget to monitoring nuclear facilities around the world. Its inspectors use electronic sensors, laboratory analysis and on-site observation to try to smoke out secret nuclear weapons development.

DWINDLING CASH FLOW

Many countries have complained about late U.S. payments, saying the tardiness places a heavier responsibility on them to sustain the agency's functions until the U.S. funds arrive. This year, several countries have adopted go-slow tactics of their own. France, for example, has delayed paying its share of nuclear-inspection costs because its U.N. peacekeeping duties have proven greater than expected. Other major donors, irritated by U.S. behavior, also have delayed their payments, officials here say.

The agency already has pared back programs that help countries in such fields as nuclear medicine and agriculture, agency officials say. These programs are often an inducement to allow "invasive" inspection of nuclear facilities; without the programs, officials contend, countries might be less likely to allow such inspections.

All in all, officials say, the agency is now facing the greatest financial crisis in its history. With $1 million in travel bills past due in the last month, the IAEA says it soon may have to depend on inspectors to carry out their work at their own expense.

DEADLINE APPROACHES

Aug. 25 is a major deadline for the agency; officials here are concerned it will not be able to meet the payroll for all its 2,100 employees. At that point, it would have to make decisions about whom to send home and whom to keep.

"IAEA nuclear safeguards are arguably the single most cost-effective expenditure for national security made by the United States," said Ritch, the U.S. envoy to the agency. "But when other countries act as undependably as Congress has mandated us to behave, the whole system verges on collapse."

One of the IAEA's missions is to maintain permanent on-site inspections of North Korea's nuclear reactors. The monitoring regime was accepted by the Pyongyang government as part of a 1994 deal with the United States that called for a total freeze on North Korean nuclear facilities. In return, the U.S. offered to provide heating oil to North Korea, while South Korea and Japan agreed to subsidize construction in the North of two modern nuclear reactors of Western design that do not produce materials conducive to making weapons.

STRONG MANDATE, NO MONEY

With $1 million in travel bills past due in the last month, the IAEA says it soon may have to depend on inspectors to carry out their work at their own expense.

The IAEA inspectors have served as the world's "eyes and ears" for the past six years to ensure that North Korea adheres to its pledge not to produce plutonium, a key ingredient in nuclear bombs.

Before being expelled from Iraq in 1998, IAEA inspectors managed to find and destroy a number of nuclear facilities that inspectors said were being secretly used by the government of President Saddam Hussein to build weapons. The discovery of Iraq's clandestine bomb-making project led to a significant expansion of the IAEA's inspection powers.

The stronger mandate has endowed the agency with authority to conduct "intrusive" examinations of nuclear facilities in every country in the world except the five declared nuclear powers - the United States, France, Russia, Britain and China - and three states that possess nuclear arsenals of undetermined capability - Israel, India and Pakistan.

Officials here say that the payment delays began during the first term of the Reagan administration. At the time, budget director David Stockman and Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations Elliot Abrams viewed the later payments as a means of achieving substantial budget savings.

Since then, the United States has supplied funds to U.N. agencies through a single annual appropriations bill that is supposed to be passed by Congress by Oct. 1. But often there are delays that mean the money reaches the United Nations even later than the final quarter of the year.

Staff writer Steven Mufson in Washington contributed to this report.

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

Former U.S. Nuclear Weapons Sites May Be Radioactive Forever

By Cat Lazaroff
August 8, 2000 ENS
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/aug2000/2000L-08-08-07.html

WASHINGTON, DC, The majority of America's current and former nuclear weapons sites will never be cleaned up enough to allow public use of the land, says a new report by the National Research Council. The study, released Monday, also warns that plans for guarding permanently contaminated sites are inadequate.

"At many sites, radiological and nonradiological hazardous wastes will remain, posing risks to humans and the environment for tens or even hundreds of thousands of years," the report says. "Complete elimination of unacceptable risks to humans and the environment will not be achieved, now or in the foreseeable future."

Radioactive wastes from storage tanks at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation have contaminated soil and groundwater (Photo courtesy DOE)

Almost 150 sites around the country are contaminated, a result of weapons production for the nuclear arms race. DOE has concluded that even after planned cleanup activities are completed - or found to be infeasible - at these so-called "legacy" waste sites, 109 of them will never be clean enough for unrestricted use.

The National Research Council report, commissioned by the Department of Energy (DOE), says that the only option may be to declare some of America's weapons sites as permanently off limits to public use. But the report also warns that the federal government lacks the money, technology and techniques to keep radioactive and chemical contaminants from spreading outside these areas, as they already have in some cases.

The DOE recently established the Office of Long-Term Stewardship to protect indefinitely the people and environment surrounding these sites - located in 27 states, Puerto Rico and territorial islands in the Pacific.

Details of the DOE's stewardship plans have yet to be specified, adequate funding has not been assured, and there is no convincing evidence that institutional controls - such as surveillance of radioactive and other hazardous wastes left at sites, security fences and deeds restricting land use - will prove reliable over the long run, the report warns.

"Many weaknesses in institutional controls and other stewardship activities arise from institutional fallabilities," said Thomas Leschine, associate professor at the University of Washington, Seattle, and chair of the National Research Council committee that wrote the report. "Understanding this and developing a highly reliable organizational model that anticipates failure while taking advantage of new opportunities for further remediation and isolation of contaminants remains a significant challenge for DOE."

Type II storage modules (foreground) at the Radioactive Waste Management Complex at the Idaho National Environmental and Engineering Laboratory (Photo courtesy INEEL)

"Moreover," added committee vice chair Mary English, research leader at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, "DOE must undertake long term institutional management of residually contaminated sites with the expectation that plans developed today will need to be periodically revisited."

DOE should begin immediately to plan for a broader management framework that balances reduction of existing contaminants, physical isolation of wastes, and caretaking activities such as monitoring of waste migration offsite, changes in the landscape, and human activity around the site, the committee advises.

Currently, DOE defines stewardship as something that begins after "closure" of a site when cleanup is considered to be finished. The National Research Council committee said stewardship should ideally begin while remediation strategies are still being formulated.

The Office of Long-Term Stewardship has just begun its planning, and is required by law to report to Congress on DOE's responsibilities by October 1.

Because the long term behavior of contaminants in the environment is unpredictable and physical barriers may break down, the committee is urging DOE to develop its stewardship plans under the assumption that "contaminant isolation eventually will fail." A precautionary approach should be adopted in which contaminant cleanup is emphasized to address risks to human health and the environment, the report says.

No single formula exists for successful management of these sites, and decisions are likely to be made under conditions of considerable uncertainty, the reports notes. The best long term management strategy overall appears to be one which avoids eliminating future options, takes contingencies into account, and "considers seriously the prospects of failure."

Today's scientific knowledge and institutional capabilities do not provide much confidence that containment of permanently contaminated sites will function as expected indefinitely, the report says.

DOE officials view the long term stewardship efforts that they have proposed so far - which are likely to rely heavily on surveillance, maintenance and record keeping - as relatively inexpensive compared with the cost for initial cleanups. But real costs cannot be estimated with any confidence since failures are likely to occur, the committee reports. The goal of long term institutional management should be to anticipate such failures and minimize the costs and risks associated with them.

An aerial view of Oak Ridge National Laboratory from 1998 (Photo courtesy ORNL)

Ongoing surveillance and environmental monitoring need to go beyond the boundaries of a site, the committee's report emphasizes. For example, DOE has begun annual checking of building permit requests around the Oak Ridge Reservation site in Tennessee after a nearby golf course attempted to use water from a contaminated aquifer.

In addition, proposed land use changes inside a site, such as the reuse of the former facility for a new manufacturing purpose, need to be carefully considered, the report warns.

"DOE should frankly acknowledge gaps in its technical capabilities and organizational deficiencies when explaining long-term institutional management plans to the public," the National Research Council committee said. In addition, the scientific basis for decisions should be clear, and the public should be actively engaged in the development of stewardship plans.

The full report can be ordered from: http://books.nap.edu/catalog/9943.html

----

PYROPROCESSING PLAN CALLED TOO DANGEROUS

August 8, 2000 (ENS)
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/aug2000/2000L-08-08-09.html

The Nuclear Control Institute and Idaho's Snake River Alliance have condemned a Department of Energy (DOE) plan to reprocess 26 metric tons of spent fuel from plutonium breeder reactors using an experimental technology known as "pyroprocessing." "Direct disposal of this breeder reactor fuel is consistent with environmental protection, nuclear non-proliferation and cost savings, while the pyroprocessing choice is unproven and dangerous," said Dr. Edwin Lyman, scientific director at the Washington-based Nuclear Control Institute, a non-profit organization which focuses on nuclear non-proliferation issues. "There is no technical justification for pyroprocessing breeder reactor fuel."

Pyroprocessing, also known as electrometallurgical treatment, is a spent fuel reprocessing technology first developed for the Integral Fast Reactor program, which was terminated by Congress in 1994. "Although billed by its promoters as a 'proliferation-resistant' technology because it doesn't separate pure weapons-usable plutonium if operated as designed, numerous reviews have identified ways in which it could be modified to do exactly that," said Beatrice Brailsford of the Snake River Alliance. DOE presented its preferred alternative for managing 60 metric tons (MT) of breeder fuel in the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Treatment and Management of Sodium-Bonded Spent Nuclear Fuel, which was released Friday. The 26 MT to be pyroprocessed consists of spent fuel from the shutdown Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) at Argonne National Laboratory-West. The 34 MT that is to be stored was discharged from the Fermi-I fast breeder reactor in Michigan, a sodium-cooled reactor shutdown in 1972. The Fermi fuel will be stored while DOE validates techniques other than reprocessing for preparing the fuel for direct disposal in a geologic repository.

----

REPORT WARNS OF PERPETUAL PERIL AT NUCLEAR SITES

By NORMAN KEMPSTER, Staff Writer,
Los Angeles Times,
Tuesday, August 8, 2000
From: Harsh Kapoor <aiindex@mnet.fr>

WASHINGTON--More than 100 nuclear weapon development sites in this country will never be free enough of radioactive debris to allow unrestricted public use, and the government has failed to develop adequate plans for their long-term management, according to a scientific study released Monday. The report, prepared by the National Research Council at the request of the U.S. Energy Department, says there is no convincing evidence that the government's existing plans for what amounts to perpetual oversight will prove reliable or that it can guarantee permanent funding to get the job done. The report says the department should assume that most systems it intends to use to contain radioactive waste "will eventually fail." Moreover, it notes, "much of our current knowledge of the long-term behavior of wastes . . . may eventually be proven wrong." Some of the sites covered by the report are small, such as mounds of uranium mine tailings in relatively remote areas. But the list includes such sprawling facilities as the Hanford reservation in Washington state, the Oak Ridge reservation in Tennessee, the Savannah River site in South Carolina and the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. And some involve severe contamination, such as underground tanks and burial sites containing high-level radioactive wastes. Nine of the sites are in California. Although none of them is regarded as heavily polluted, none is expected to be released for unrestricted public use, either. The National Research Council, an offshoot of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering, provides scientific and technical advice under a congressional charter. Its report is another dose of bad news for the Energy Department, which has been plagued by recent problems including security breaches at its nuclear laboratories, electric power shortages in California and a wildfire that menaced the Los Alamos nuclear lab. "DOE often makes a plan as if things were going to work, which don't always work. [The department's] planning assumption should be that things may turn out to be wrong," said Thomas Leschine, associate professor at the University of Washington and chairman of the committee that wrote the report. "You know, a day will come when someone forgets about that pile of waste and someone else comes along to build a house on it."

Steps Being Taken, Department Assures Gerald Boyd, a deputy assistant Energy secretary, said the report "makes a very good point that we have to think very hard about those residual contaminants for a very long time." But he insisted that the department is planning a long-term strategy for monitoring the sites and will continue to review the containment strategy to see that it is effective. Even over the long term, "I don't think there's any chance the federal government will renege on those responsibilities," he said. Of 144 facilities that played a role in the U.S. nuclear weapons programs, the Energy Department has concluded that 109 will never be clean enough to permit unrestricted use by the public. The department recently created an Office of Long-Term Stewardship to indefinitely oversee those sites, located in 27 states and on Puerto Rico and Pacific islands. At many sites, the Energy Department intends to rely on long-term surveillance, physical barriers such as fences and legal measures such as deed restrictions to protect the public and the surrounding environment from any residual contamination. Although that would appear to be a relatively low-cost strategy, the report says there is no way to estimate the total cost of such a program because no one knows what might go wrong or how long it will have to be in place. It says that the department has failed to consider the costs to society of containment failure, such as "aquifers becoming contaminated by residual wastes whose propensity for off-site migration was not understood at the time" active cleanup ended.

Cleanup Impossible or Too Costly at Some Sites Since some radioactive wastes remain dangerous for several thousand years, the problem is analogous to a waste-management program established during the Roman Empire. It is unlikely that the Romans would have been able to foresee conditions in today's world, but their waste products might still be poisoning the environment. The report says that the reasons most sites will not be completely cleansed are "technical, social, fiscal and political." Leschine elaborated in a telephone interview, explaining that a complete cleanup would be impossible at some sites and considered too expensive at others. "You lose the political will . . . to continue pouring money into the problem," he said. The reluctance of Congress to continue appropriating funds to clean up nuclear sites has an impact on the Energy Department's plans to monitor facilities that remain too "hot" for normal use. Congress usually appropriates money on an annual basis, not for programs that must be maintained for millenniums. "There is no assured funding," Leschine said. He noted that Tennessee recently established a trust fund to pay for perpetual monitoring at Oak Ridge. But there is no way to know whether that fund will last long enough. The report offers few specific suggestions beyond advising the department to be more flexible in its planning and to expect the unexpected. "The best decision strategy overall appears to be one that avoids foreclosing future options where sensible, takes contingencies into account wherever possible and takes seriously the prospects that failures . . . could have ramifications that a good steward would want to avoid," it says. "Today's scientific knowledge and technical and institutional capabilities are insufficient to provide much confidence that sites with residual risks will continue to function as expected for the time periods necessary." The California sites include the Energy Technology Engineering Center near Simi Valley, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory near San Francisco, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory near the UC Berkeley campus, the Sandia National Laboratories facility in Livermore and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center at Stanford University.

----

Report Warns of Perpetual Peril at Nuclear Sites

Los Angeles Times
Tuesday, August 8, 2000
By NORMAN KEMPSTER,
L.A. Times Staff Writer
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/updates/lat_nukes000808.htm
http://www.accessatlanta.com/partners/ajc/epaper/editions/tuesday/news_930934b4a23d42c10087.html
http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=080800&ID=s835940&cat=

WASHINGTON--More than 100 nuclear weapon development sites in this country will never be free enough of radioactive debris to allow unrestricted public use, and the government has failed to develop adequate plans for their long-term management, according to a scientific study released Monday.

The report, prepared by the National Research Council at the request of the U.S. Energy Department, says there is no convincing evidence that the government's existing plans for what amounts to perpetual oversight will prove reliable or that it can guarantee permanent funding to get the job done. The report says the department should assume that most systems it intends to use to contain radioactive waste "will eventually fail." Moreover, it notes, "much of our current knowledge of the long-term behavior of wastes . . . may eventually be proven wrong."

Some of the sites covered by the report are small, such as mounds of uranium mine tailings in relatively remote areas. But the list includes such sprawling facilities as the Hanford reservation in Washington state, the Oak Ridge reservation in Tennessee, the Savannah River site in South Carolina and the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. And some involve severe contamination, such as underground tanks and burial sites containing high-level radioactive wastes. Nine of the sites are in California. Although none of them is regarded as heavily polluted, none is expected to be released for unrestricted public use, either.

The National Research Council, an offshoot of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering, provides scientific and technical advice under a congressional charter. Its report is another dose of bad news for the Energy Department, which has been plagued by recent problems including security breaches at its nuclear laboratories, electric power shortages in California and a wildfire that menaced the Los Alamos nuclear lab. "DOE often makes a plan as if things were going to work, which don't always work. [The department's] planning assumption should be that things may turn out to be wrong," said Thomas Leschine, associate professor at the University of Washington and chairman of the committee that wrote the report. "You know, a day will come when someone forgets about that pile of waste and someone else comes along to build a house on it."

Steps Being Taken, Department Assures Gerald Boyd, a deputy assistant Energy secretary, said the report "makes a very good point that we have to think very hard about those residual contaminants for a very long time." But he insisted that the department is planning a long-term strategy for monitoring the sites and will continue to review the containment strategy to see that it is effective. Even over the long term, "I don't think there's any chance the federal government will renege on those responsibilities," he said. Of 144 facilities that played a role in the U.S. nuclear weapons programs, the Energy Department has concluded that 109 will never be clean enough to permit unrestricted use by the public.

The department recently created an Office of Long-Term Stewardship to indefinitely oversee those sites, located in 27 states and on Puerto Rico and Pacific islands. At many sites, the Energy Department intends to rely on long-term surveillance, physical barriers such as fences and legal measures such as deed restrictions to protect the public and the surrounding environment from any residual contamination. Although that would appear to be a relatively low-cost strategy, the report says there is no way to estimate the total cost of such a program because no one knows what might go wrong or how long it will have to be in place. It says that the department has failed to consider the costs to society of containment failure, such as "aquifers becoming contaminated by residual wastes whose propensity for off-site migration was not understood at the time" active cleanup ended.

Cleanup Impossible or Too Costly at Some Sites

Since some radioactive wastes remain dangerous for several thousand years, the problem is analogous to a waste-management program established during the Roman Empire. It is unlikely that the Romans would have been able to foresee conditions in today's world, but their waste products might still be poisoning the environment. The report says that the reasons most sites will not be completely cleansed are "technical, social, fiscal and political." Leschine elaborated in a telephone interview, explaining that a complete cleanup would be impossible at some sites and considered too expensive at others. "You lose the political will . . . to continue pouring money into the problem," he said.

The reluctance of Congress to continue appropriating funds to clean up nuclear sites has an impact on the Energy Department's plans to monitor facilities that remain too "hot" for normal use. Congress usually appropriates money on an annual basis, not for programs that must be maintained for millenniums. "There is no assured funding," Leschine said. He noted that Tennessee recently established a trust fund to pay for perpetual monitoring at Oak Ridge. But there is no way to know whether that fund will last long enough.

The report offers few specific suggestions beyond advising the department to be more flexible in its planning and to expect the unexpected. "The best decision strategy overall appears to be one that avoids foreclosing future options where sensible, takes contingencies into account wherever possible and takes seriously the prospects that failures . . . could have ramifications that a good steward would want to avoid," it says. "Today's scientific knowledge and technical and institutional capabilities are insufficient to provide much confidence that sites with residual risks will continue to function as expected for the time periods necessary."

The California sites include the Energy Technology Engineering Center near Simi Valley, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory near San Francisco, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory near the UC Berkeley campus, the Sandia National Laboratories facility in Livermore and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center at Stanford University.

---

No quick solution for nuclear weapons sites, panel says
Scientists say that contaminated areas cannot be cleaned easily; nor can it be assumed they ever will be safe.

Philadelphia Inquirer
Tuesday, August 8, 2000
By H. Josef Hebert
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://web.philly.com/content/inquirer/2000/08/08/national/NUKE08.htm
http://www.pioneerplanet.com/seven-days/3/news/docs/036157.htm
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/news/oregonian/00/08/ap_31nuke08.frame
http://www.courierpress.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?200008/08+nuke080800_news.html+20000808

WASHINGTON - More than two-thirds of the government sites involved in decades of nuclear bomb production will never be completely cleaned of contamination, according to a study by the National Academy of Sciences.

"Long-term stewardship will be required for over 100 of the 144 waste sites," said the study released yesterday by a scientific panel examining government plans to deal with this legacy of the Cold War.

The panel warned that any plan for managing long-term isolation of contaminated sites should anticipate problems, because the likelihood of the containment "measures failing ... is relatively high."

The sites are in 27 states and range from the massive Hanford reservation in Washington state, where government reactors made plutonium for the first nuclear bombs, to portions of such federal research labs as Argonne in Illinois and Sandia in New Mexico.

The time for cleaning up the sites, contaminated with radiation and dangerous chemicals, ranges from several years to nearly 50 years, the panel said. And it said that continued stewardship of many of these sites would be required for decades after that.

Furthermore, any plan for dealing with these sites must be flexible with continued involvement by the federal government because "the likelihood that institutional management measure will fail at some point is relatively high," the report said.

The Energy Department requested that report as it develops long-term strategies cleaning up materials that in some cases are expected to remain dangerously radioactive for thousands of years.

"The academy did a good job at pointing out the many things we have to look at," said Gerald Boyd, deputy assistant energy secretary for science and technology.

Boyd said the department agreed that many of these sites could not be abandoned even after the contamination is clearly contained.

"We can't walk away from these sites," he said. "We can't turn our backs to them. That's what they are recommending to us, and that's what we're planning to do."

While some areas probably will never be clean enough to be used, other areas - or parts of facilities - are expected to be cleaned sufficiently of contamination for restricted uses, the scientists said.

Long-term management of the sites is full of uncertainties, the report said.

"At many sites, future risk from residual wastes cannot be predicted with any confidence because numerous underlying factors that influence the character, extent and severity of long-term risks are not well-understood," it said.

Thomas Leschine of the University of Washington, chairman of the committee that wrote the report, said the government model for long-term stewardship of these sites must be flexible and must anticipate failure.

Mary English, a researcher at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, and the committee's vice chair, said that any plans for these sites "will need to be periodically revisited" because of changing conditions and new technological developments.

----

Scientists say N-plant sites will be contaminated forever

Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Tuesday, August 8, 2000
POST-INTELLIGENCER NEWS SERVICES
http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/nook08.shtml

WASHINGTON -- The Hanford Nuclear Reservation and most other sites where the federal government built nuclear bombs will never be clean enough to allow public access to the land, and the plan for guarding those sites is inadequate, the National Academy of Sciences said yesterday.

"At many sites, radiological and nonradiological hazardous wastes will remain, posing risks to humans and the environment for tens or even hundreds of thousands of years," the report said. "Complete elimination of unacceptable risks to humans and the environment will not be achieved, now or in the foreseeable future."

The sites in 27 states range from the massive Hanford reservation near the Tri-Cities, where government reactors made plutonium for the first nuclear bombs, to portions of the nation's federal research labs such as Argonne in Illinois and Sandia in New Mexico.

The time for remediation of the sites, contaminated with radiation and dangerous chemicals, will range from several years to nearly 50 years in the case of Hanford. And for decades after that, continued stewardship of many sites will be required, the scientists said in a report released yesterday.

The idea that production of nuclear weapons has left "national sacrifice zones" the public can never again use is not a new concept. The term became common in environmental circles in the late 1980s, when the United States began recognizing the environmental legacy of World War II's Manhattan Project and of the Cold War.

But the academy's report, commissioned by the Department of Energy, goes a step further. It says the government could declare certain areas permanently off-limits, but lacks the technology, money and management techniques to prevent contamination from spreading.

In addition, some of the contaminants have already "migrated" outside plant boundaries and others will follow, the report said.

Thomas Leschine, the chairman of the committee that wrote the report, said site managers could use barbed wire and post guards at the sites.

But Leschine, an associate professor in the School of Marine Affairs at the University of Washington, added: "There's no assurance that we can maintain any of that control. It's one thing to put a fence up around something, but it's really something else to maintain it in perpetuity."

Controls on the use of some of the land are already breaking down, the report said. For example, in the early 1990s, the Department of Energy sold land near its Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee for use as a golf course, stipulating that the groundwater was contaminated and was not to be used. "Within a few years, however, DOE discovered that a well was being drilled to irrigate the golf course," the report said.

Leschine said the committee had found another case in which Energy had posted "no fishing" signs near Oak Ridge because of radiation contamination in a creek.

"The signs all got stolen, because the local high school kids thought they were nice things to have," he said. "Then there were months of protracted battles between the local authorities and the Department of Energy, over whose responsibility it was to replace the signs."

Gerald Boyd, Energy's deputy assistant secretary for science and technology, said his agency established a long-term stewardship office a year ago to cope with the problem, with about a dozen people working with engineers and planners at the various sites. The office was established soon after the department requested the National Academy of Sciences study, Boyd said.

Boyd said the department agrees that many of these sites cannot be abandoned even after the contamination is clearly contained.

"We can't walk away from these sites. We can't turn our backs to them. That's what they (the Academy) are recommending to us and that's what we're planning to do."

The report said no plan written now to minimize the spread of uncontained wastes would suffice over the tens, hundreds or even thousands of years that some of the contaminants would remain dangerous.

It urged the department to assume that engineered barriers like concrete and steel would eventually fail, and that most of what was known about the behavior of contaminants in air, soil or water might "eventually be proven wrong." The department needs a long-term program that "actively seeks out and applies new knowledge," the report said.

It recommended that clean-up be left to future generations at sites with low risks, or where technology might be developed in the future that would make the job more practical, and that priority should be given to sites where a delay would allow contamination to spread.

The report identified 144 sites where the department and its predecessors, notably the Atomic Energy Commission, processed nuclear materials, and it said that 109 of them would not be cleaned up enough for unrestricted release, because of insufficient money, technical skill or political will to do the job.

--------

Report Warns of Perpetual Peril at Nuclear Sites

By NORMAN KEMPSTER,
Times Staff Writer
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/20000808/t000074091.html http://www.sltrib.com/08082000/nation_w/10535.htm

WASHINGTON--More than 100 nuclear weapon development sites in this country will never be free enough of radioactive debris to allow unrestricted public use, and the government has failed to develop adequate plans for their long-term management, according to a scientific study released Monday.

The report, prepared by the National Research Council at the request of the U.S. Energy Department, says there is no convincing evidence that the government's existing plans for what amounts to perpetual oversight will prove reliable or that it can guarantee permanent funding to get the job done.

The report says the department should assume that most systems it intends to use to contain radioactive waste "will eventually fail." Moreover, it notes, "much of our current knowledge of the long-term behavior of wastes . . . may eventually be proven wrong."

Some of the sites covered by the report are small, such as mounds of uranium mine tailings in relatively remote areas. But the list includes such sprawling facilities as the Hanford reservation in Washington state, the Oak Ridge reservation in Tennessee, the Savannah River site in South Carolina and the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. And some involve severe contamination, such as underground tanks and burial sites containing high-level radioactive wastes.

Nine of the sites are in California. Although none of them is regarded as heavily polluted, none is expected to be released for unrestricted public use, either.

The National Research Council, an offshoot of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering, provides scientific and technical advice under a congressional charter. Its report is another dose of bad news for the Energy Department, which has been plagued by recent problems including security breaches at its nuclear laboratories, electric power shortages in California and a wildfire that menaced the Los Alamos nuclear lab.

"DOE often makes a plan as if things were going to work, which don't always work. [The department's] planning assumption should be that things may turn out to be wrong," said Thomas Leschine, associate professor at the University of Washington and chairman of the committee that wrote the report. "You know, a day will come when someone forgets about that pile of waste and someone else comes along to build a house on it."

Steps Being Taken, Department Assures Gerald Boyd, a deputy assistant Energy secretary, said the report "makes a very good point that we have to think very hard about those residual contaminants for a very long time." But he insisted that the department is planning a long-term strategy for monitoring the sites and will continue to review the containment strategy to see that it is effective. Even over the long term, "I don't think there's any chance the federal government will renege on those responsibilities," he said.

Of 144 facilities that played a role in the U.S. nuclear weapons programs, the Energy Department has concluded that 109 will never be clean enough to permit unrestricted use by the public. The department recently created an Office of Long-Term Stewardship to indefinitely oversee those sites, located in 27 states and on Puerto Rico and Pacific islands.

At many sites, the Energy Department intends to rely on long-term surveillance, physical barriers such as fences and legal measures such as deed restrictions to protect the public and the surrounding environment from any residual contamination.

Although that would appear to be a relatively low-cost strategy, the report says there is no way to estimate the total cost of such a program because no one knows what might go wrong or how long it will have to be in place. It says that the department has failed to consider the costs to society of containment failure, such as "aquifers becoming contaminated by residual wastes whose propensity for off-site migration was not understood at the time" active cleanup ended.

Cleanup Impossible or Too Costly at Some Sites Since some radioactive wastes remain dangerous for several thousand years, the problem is analogous to a waste-management program established during the Roman Empire. It is unlikely that the Romans would have been able to foresee conditions in today's world, but their waste products might still be poisoning the environment.

The report says that the reasons most sites will not be completely cleansed are "technical, social, fiscal and political."

Leschine elaborated in a telephone interview, explaining that a complete cleanup would be impossible at some sites and considered too expensive at others.

"You lose the political will . . . to continue pouring money into the problem," he said. The reluctance of Congress to continue appropriating funds to clean up nuclear sites has an impact on the Energy Department's plans to monitor facilities that remain too "hot" for normal use. Congress usually appropriates money on an annual basis, not for programs that must be maintained for millenniums.

"There is no assured funding," Leschine said. He noted that Tennessee recently established a trust fund to pay for perpetual monitoring at Oak Ridge. But there is no way to know whether that fund will last long enough.

The report offers few specific suggestions beyond advising the department to be more flexible in its planning and to expect the unexpected.

"The best decision strategy overall appears to be one that avoids foreclosing future options where sensible, takes contingencies into account wherever possible and takes seriously the prospects that failures . . . could have ramifications that a good steward would want to avoid," it says.

"Today's scientific knowledge and technical and institutional capabilities are insufficient to provide much confidence that sites with residual risks will continue to function as expected for the time periods necessary."

The California sites include the Energy Technology Engineering Center near Simi Valley, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory near San Francisco, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory near the UC Berkeley campus, the Sandia National Laboratories facility in Livermore and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center at Stanford University.

---

Nuclear Sites May Be Toxic in Perpetuity, Report Finds

New York Times
August 8, 2000
By MATTHEW L. WALD
http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/080800nuke-toxins.html

WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 -- Most of the sites where the federal government built nuclear bombs will never be cleaned up enough to allow public access to the land, and the plan for guarding sites that are permanently contaminated is inadequate, the National Academy of Sciences said today in a report.

"At many sites, radiological and nonradiological hazardous wastes will remain, posing risks to humans and the environment for tens or even hundreds of thousands of years," the report said. "Complete elimination of unacceptable risks to humans and the environment will not be achieved, now or in the foreseeable future."

The idea that the production of nuclear weapons has produced "national sacrifice zones," land that the public can never use again, is not new. The term became common in environmental circles in the late 1980's, when the United States began recognizing the environmental legacy of the Manhattan Project, the effort during World War II to develop atomic weapons, and the cold war.

But the report, commissioned by the Department of Energy, goes a step further. It says that the government can try to declare certain areas permanently off-limits, but that it lacks the technology, money and management techniques to prevent the contamination from spreading.

In addition, some of the contaminants have already "migrated" outside plant boundaries and others will follow, the report said.

Thomas M. Leschine, the chairman of the committee that wrote the report, said managers could use barbed wire and guards at the sites.

But Dr. Leschine, an associate professor in the School of Marine Affairs at the University of Washington, added: "There's no assurance that we can maintain any of that control. It's one thing to put a fence up around something, but it's really something else to maintain it in perpetuity."

Controls on the use of some of the land are already breaking down, the report said. For example, in the early 1990's, the Department of Energy sold land near its Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee for use as a golf course, stipulating that the groundwater was contaminated and was not to be used. "Within a few years, however, D.O.E. discovered that a well was being drilled to irrigate the golf course," the report said.

Dr. Leschine said the committee had found another case in which the Department of Energy had posted "no fishing" signs at a creek near Oak Ridge because of radiation contamination in the water.

"The signs all got stolen, because the local high school kids thought they were nice things to have," he said. "Then there were months of protracted battles between the local authorities and the Department of Energy, over whose responsibility it was to replace the signs."

At the Department of Energy, Gerald G. Boyd, the deputy assistant secretary for science and technology, said his agency established a long-term stewardship office a year ago to cope with the problem, with about a dozen people working with engineers and planners at the various sites. The office was established soon after the department requested the study from the National Academy of Sciences, Mr. Boyd said.

The department has accelerated its clean-up efforts, reduce the costs involved and minimize risks to surrounding communities, but a perfect cleanup is not possible, he said.

As an example of the breakdown of control, Dr. Leschine cited the fire that endangered the Los Alamos National Laboratory, in New Mexico, in May. The fire set the stage for mud slides in the coming rainy season that could contaminate the Rio Grande with radioactive and chemical toxins from the laboratory.

But the cause of the blaze was not natural or malicious; the fire was set by another government agency as part of its land-management efforts.

The report said that no plan written now to minimize the spread of uncontained wastes would suffice over the tens, hundreds or even thousands of years that some of the contaminants would remain dangerous.

It urged the department to assume that engineered barriers like concrete and steel would eventually fail, and that most of what was known about the behavior of contaminants in air, soil or water might "eventually be proven wrong." The department needs a long-term program that "actively seeks out and applies new knowledge," the report said.

The report identified 144 sites where the department and its predecessors, notably the Atomic Energy Commission, processed nuclear materials, and it said that 109 would not be cleaned up enough for unrestricted release, because of insufficient money, technical skill or political will to do the job.

---

Report Urges Long-Term Nuclear Site Stewardship

Associated Press
Tuesday, August 8, 2000; Page A08
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-Nuclear-Legacy.html http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-08/08/038l-080800-idx.html

More than two-thirds of the sites involved in decades of nuclear bomb production will never be completely cleaned of contamination, according to a study by the National Academy of Sciences.

"Long-term stewardship will be required for over 100 of the 144 waste sites," said a report released yesterday by a special panel examining government plans to deal with this legacy of the Cold War.

The scientific panel warned that any plan for managing long-term isolation of contaminated sites should anticipate problems because the likelihood of the containment "measures failing . . . is relatively high."

The sites, in 27 states, range from the massive Hanford reservation in Washington state, where government reactors made plutonium for the first nuclear bombs, to portions of the nation's federal research labs such as Argonne in Illinois and Sandia in New Mexico.

The report was requested by the Energy Department as it develops strategies for cleaning up materials that in some cases are expected to remain dangerously radioactive for thousands of years.

"The Academy did a good job at pointing out the many things we have to look at," said Gerald Boyd, the department's deputy assistant secretary for science and technology. He said the department agrees that many of these sites cannot be abandoned even after the contamination is contained.

Thomas Leschine of the University of Washington, chairman of the committee that wrote the report, said the model for long-term stewardship of these sites must be flexible and anticipate failure.

"Understanding this and developing a highly reliable organizational model that anticipates failure while taking advantage of new opportunities for further remediation and isolation of contaminants remains a significant challenge for DOE," said Leschine.

---

Unwanted Nuclear Legacy
Study: Most Weapons Facilities Permanently Contaminated

The Fast Flux Test Reactor on the Hanford nuclear reservation near Richland, Wash. A new study says two-thirds of the government sites involved in decades of nuclear bomb production, including Hanford, will never be completely cleaned of contamination. (Jackie Johnston/AP Photo)

By H. Josef Hebert
The Associated Press
http://www.journalstar.com/nation?story_id=1084&date=20000808&past=

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 - More than two-thirds of the government sites involved in decades of nuclear bomb production will never be completely cleaned of contamination, according to a study by the National Academy of Sciences.

"Long-term stewardship will be required for over 100 of the 144 waste sites," said the report released Monday by a special panel examining government plans to deal with this legacy of the Cold War years.

And the scientific panel warned that any plan for managing long-term isolation of contaminated sites should anticipate problems because the likelihood of the containment "measures failing ... is relatively high."

The sites are in 27 states and range from the massive Hanford reservation in Washington state, where government reactors made plutonium for the first nuclear bombs, to portions of the nation's federal research labs such as Argonne in Illinois and Sandia in New Mexico.

Under Constant Watch The time for remediation of the sites, contaminated with radiation and dangerous chemicals, range from several years to nearly 50 years. And for decades after that continued stewardship of many of these sites will be required, the scientists said.

Furthermore, any plan for dealing with these sites must be flexible with continued involvement by the federal government because "the likelihood that institutional management measure will fail at some point is relatively high," said the report.

The report was requested by the Energy Department as it develops long-term strategies cleaning up materials that in some cases are expected to remain dangerously radioactive for thousands of years.

"The Academy did a good job at pointing out the many things we have to look at," said Gerald Boyd, the department's deputy assistant secretary for science and technology.

Boyd said the department agrees that many of these sites cannot be abandoned even after the contamination is clearly contained.

"We can't walk away from these sites. We can't turn our backs to them. That's what they [the Academy] are recommending to us and that's what we're planning to do."

While some areas likely will never be clean enough to be used, other areas - or parts of facilities - are expected to be cleaned sufficiently of contamination for restricted uses, the scientists said.

The DOE strategy involves two stages: first containment of the contamination and remediation, a process already underway. Secondly, long-term "stewardship" of sites where residual contamination will be left for the foreseeable future, perhaps always.

Sites Have Uncertain Future But such long-term management is full of uncertainties, the report said.

"At many sites future risk from residual wastes cannot be predicted with any confidence because numerous underlying factors that influence the character, extent and severity of long-term risks are not well understood," said the report.

Thomas Leschine of the University of Washington, chairman of the committee that wrote the report, said that as a result the government model for long-term stewardship of these sites must be flexible and anticipate failure.

"Understanding this and developing a highly reliable organizational model that anticipates failure while taking advantage of new opportunities for further remediation and isolation of contaminants remains a significant challenge for DOE," said Leschine.

Mary English, a researcher at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, and the committee's vice chair, said that any plans for these sites "will need to be periodically revisited" because of changing conditions and new technological developments.

The Energy Department must "acknowledge gaps" in its technical capabilities today as they would be used to contain and isolate radioactive wastes hundreds of years into the future, the study said.

-------- connecticut

Nuclear Power Station To Be Sold

By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/f/AP-Nuclear-Sale.html

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Dominion Resources Inc. said Monday it will pay Northeast Utilities $1.3 billion for a nuclear power station in Connecticut.

The purchase of the Millstone Power Station near New London, Conn., includes approximately $105 million for nuclear fuel. The transaction is expected to be completed by April 2001.

Northeast Utilities, planning a merger with Consolidated Edison of New York to create the nation's largest electric and gas distribution company, put the Millstone facility on the block several months ago to comply with deregulation laws requiring it to divest power generating units. The company also has sold its fossil fuel plants in New England.

Dominion is the parent company of Virginia Power.

The deal will result in a 10 percent boost in Dominion's 20,000 megawatt electricity production capability. Dominion executives said Millstone will allow the company to increase its market share in New England significantly.

The purchase must be approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and public utility commissions in states affected by the transaction.

--------

2 Connecticut Reactors Sell for $1.3 Billion

New York Times
08/08/00
By MATTHEW L. WALD
http://www.nytimes.com/00/08/08/news/financial/ct-nuke.html

Dominion Resources said yesterday that it was buying two nuclear reactors at Millstone Point, near New London, Conn., for $1.3 billion, from Northeast Utilities. The buyers said the price was a record.

One reason for the high price, about $600 a kilowatt, is that all of the power sale contracts for the plants are to expire soon, leaving the buyers free to sell to whomever they choose at a time when tight capacity promises to make the market for electricity stronger.

Millstone 3 was among the last and the most expensive nuclear power plants completed in the United States, and the three-unit Millstone complex -- named for the mill stones that were once quarried at the site, in Waterford -- also has one of the most checkered operating histories. But Dominion officials said they were confident that with their experience in operating reactors, they would turn the two operable plants into reliable, low-cost producers.

Dominion, which is based in Richmond, Va., had unsuccessfully sought to buy the New York Power Authority's two reactors, Indian Point 3 and Fitzpatrick, last year. Northeast, which serves most of Connecticut and parts of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, is being acquired by the Consolidated Edison Company of New York.

But the reactors are orphans. When Con Ed made its offer, in October 1999, it said it would pay $25 a share for Northeast including Millstone but $26 a share without the reactors, thus giving them negative value.

The sale was conducted at the behest of state regulators, in an auction conducted by J. P. Morgan. Dominion officials said they did not know who the other bidders were.

Dominion said it hoped to close the deal next April. The company is buying all of Millstone 2 and 93.47 percent of Millstone 3; two minority owners are retaining their stake. Millstone 1, which is adjacent, was shut in 1995 because of operating problems and is being decommissioned.

In fact, all three plants were closed in 1995 and 1996 because of safety concerns in a case that shook up both the utility and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Operators at Unit 3 had routinely flouted rules on waiting for fuel to cool before moving it during refueling shutdowns.

Unit 3 was closed from 1996 until 1998, and Unit 2 from 1996 until 1999. Dominion, which runs four reactors that it built in Virginia, was hired by Northeast to assist in reopening them and worked at the site for two and a half years.

Thomas F. Farrell II, the chief executive of Dominon's power generation subsidiary, said in a telephone interview: "Some people don't feel comfortable with nuclear, I guess. We've had it for a long time, and we're very very good at it."

Mr. Farrell and James P. O'Hanlon, the president and chief operating officer of Dominion's generation subsidiary, said the company was eager to enter the competitive electric market in the Northeast and might sell directly to residential, commercial and industrial consumers.

"We're a very low-cost producer through our Virginia Power subsidiary, and I hope you will see similar performance in Connecticut," Mr. Farrell said.

Northeast has about 1,800 employees at the Millstone complex but plans to pare that number to 1,625 by the end of the year and has said it will reduce it further later on. Dominion said it would offer job and wage guarantees for one year after the deal closes.

Approval of the sale is required from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and various state agencies.

-------- kentucky

Hazards were concealed from uranium-plant workers, 2 new suits say
Lawyer says some got brain tumors from their jobs

By JAMES MALONE
The Paducah Courier-Journal
Tuesday, August 8, 2000

PADUCAH, Ky. -- Two lawsuits filed yesterday claim that the federal government and the companies it hired to run the Paducah uranium plant kept some of the dangers of the working conditions secret from employees. One suit says at least three workers contracted rare brain tumors.

Lawyer David R. Smith of Nashville, Tenn., filed suit in Paducah on behalf of three former workers, alleging that their jobs at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant caused the brain tumors, benign growths on the pituitary gland. The suit seeks $4 billion in damages and also requests class-action status for all of the plant's workers who developed tumors linked to radiation exposure.

In a class-action suit, one or more persons bring a legal action on behalf of themselves and a much larger group, who all have the same grounds for action. Claims made in filing any civil suit represent only one side of the situation.

The plaintiffs, James Dew of Gallatin, Tenn.; Jerome Vandeven of Paducah; and Betty Lynch of Paducah (on behalf of her late husband, Robert Edward Lynch) all worked at the plant decades ago. None of the plaintiffs was aware of his exposure to radiation until news reports published last fall, the suit alleged.

Dew worked at the plant from 1951 to 1988, spending time in a building where uranium compounds were processed and rising to become a top executive. He developed a pituitary tumor in 1964.

Vandeven, who died in 1986, was employed at the plant from 1955 to 1994 and had a pituitary tumor removed in 1984. Lynch, who worked there from 1952 to 1985, was diagnosed with a pituitary tumor in 1977 and had the gland removed in 1979.

"It's hard to say" how many workers have contracted occupational cancers, said Smith, the lawyer. But he claimed that the chances of getting pituitary cancer like his clients contracted are 20 in 1 million people and that the "epidemiological basis for a cause-effect relationship is exceedingly strong."

But Dr. George Zenger, a Louisville radiation oncologist and a former president of the Kentucky society of health physicists, said he is not aware of research linking radiation and pituitary adenomas, the benign tumors that affected the victims in the lawsuit. "We don't know their cause," he said.

The American Cancer Society's Web site says an inherited genetic defect causes 3 percent of the estimated 3,000 pituitary tumors diagnosed each year in the United States, but the cause of other cases is unknown.

According to the National Cancer Institute's Web site, there is strong evidence that high doses of radiation can cause brain and nervous-system cancers, but the evidence is not clear for lower doses, like the amounts to which plant workers were exposed.

The government does offer treatment "for pituitary lesions" for residents of the Marshall Islands who survived atomic-bomb testing in the Pacific, according to testimony on an Energy Department Web page.

Walter Perry, an Energy Department spokesman in Oak Ridge, Tenn., said the DOE had not been served with the suits. "But they will in no way affect the department's commitment to follow through on working to get compensation for sick workers and continuing the investigation that will shed light on what happened many years ago at Energy Department sites across the country ," Perry said. "Secretary (Bill) Richardson will continue to make those issues a top priority."

The three plaintiffs' medical records were examined by an unnamed international expert on tumors of the pituitary gland who concluded that "excessive, unlawful and non-consensual" radiation exposure at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant was "the cause of the plaintiffs' pituitary tumors," the complaint said.

Moreover, the Energy Department has already acknowledged that pituitary lesions can be linked to excessive radiation and such links also appear in medical and scientific literature, the suit alleges. The DOE said no studies show high rates of pituitary tumors among people who have been exposed to radiation.

As what it called another example of laxness, the suit said that from 1952 to 1984, the plant unit assigned to protect workers from radiation had only two to six employees to cover as many as 2,500 people.

The defendants in the suit are the former operators of the plant, Union Carbide and Martin Marietta, now Lockheed Martin; and three companies that produced reactor tails (spent reactor fuel) that was sent to Paducah for enrichment. That spent fuel allegedly contained dangerous amounts of trans-uranic elements, highly radioactive elements that include neptunium and plutonium. The companies are General Electric; National Lead of Ohio and its successor, NL Industries Inc.; and DuPont.

Other defendants are Richardson, the energy secretary; individuals with the Atomic Energy Commission; and managers and supervisors of the defendant companies.

A 9-month-old lawsuit requests class-action status for up to 10,000 present and former workers seeking $10 billion for being exposed to harmful radiation while working at the Paducah plant. Those same plaintiffs, in the second lawsuit filed yesterday, asked to hold more people and companies accountable. Although the former suit named companies as defendants, yesterday's suit attempts to hold accountable dozens of people in government, including Richardson and decision-makers with contractors and suppliers.

The plaintiffs are filing under the 1971 Bivens case that allows people deprived of their constitutional rights to sue the responsible parties for damages. It's also a legal avenue around any workers' compensation limitations that might restrict liability in the plaintiffs' other lawsuit filed last year in U.S. District Court in Paducah, said William McMurry of Louisville, a lawyer for the former workers and their families.

The suit says federal documents show a "conscious plan, agreement and conspiracy" between the Atomic Energy Commission and its successor, the Department of Energy, and the defendants "to expose workers to dangerous radioactive elements and conceal the hazards and risks."

The plaintiffs did not know they had been exposed until news accounts last year that cited the DOE's own reports showing a "climate of secrecy" existed about conditions at the plant, the suit alleges. The secrecy, the suit contends, violated the plaintiffs' "right to know" about their working conditions.

In particular, the suit cites remarks that Richardson made when he visited Paducah last September and apologized for the government's not being forthright about the risks employees had encountered.

Filed yesterday in federal court in Louisville, the new suit mirrors most of the allegations in the earlier one: that companies knew there was dangerous radiation at the plant and failed to warn and protect workers. But the newer suit goes further, and names as defendants supervisors and managers at the Paducah plant and officials of Union Carbide and Lockheed Martin (now Martin Marietta), the companies that ran the plant between 1952 and 1999.

As the earlier suit did, the new one also makes General Electric a defendant for producing nuclear fuel at the Hanford Reservation in Richland, Wash., that was sent to Paducah for processing and that contained dangerous transuranic elements absorbed during weapons production.

The defendants in McMurry's suit mirror those in the workers' suit over the pituitary tumors.

Both suits were filed a day before the first anniversary of an Aug. 8, 1999, article in the Washington Post that disclosed a secret whistle-blower lawsuit had been filed by three workers and the Natural Resources Defense Council. It alleged that former plant operators defrauded the government by collecting millions of dollars in bonuses by under-reporting radiation and pollution at the plant. The defendants denied the charges in the earlier class-action suit.

---

Alleged Conspiracy at Paducah Plant

The Associated Press,
08-08-00
From: Ndunlks@aol.com

PADUCAH, Ky. (AP) - Former workers at an Energy Department plant in Kentucky are seeking billions of dollars in damages for an alleged conspiracy between the government and plant managers to expose employees to radiation.

Attorneys filed two lawsuits Monday on the behalf of workers at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in western Kentucky.

The named defendants are former managers at the plant dating back to 1952; companies that once operated it; federal agencies; and Department of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson.

The defendants exposed workers to ``radiation and substances that were known to be harmful to humans,'' according to one suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Louisville.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of about 10,000 former plant workers, said attorney William F. McMurry. It seeks $5 billion each in compensatory and punitive damages.

The second suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Paducah, was filed on behalf of specific workers who sustained rare pituitary tumors ``as a result of excessive, unlawful and non-consensual exposures to radioactive substances including plutonium and neptunium.''

It seeks $2 billion each in compensatory and punitive damages.

The lawsuits seek help from Richardson to locate the names of former federal employees involved in the alleged conspiracy.

Richardson's spokeswoman declined to specifically comment on the suits.

``We have not yet been served with the lawsuits that were filed today, but they in no way affect the department's commitment to follow through on working to get compensation for sick nuclear workers and continuing the investigations that will shed light on what happened many years ago at Energy Department sites across the county,'' she said.

The lawsuits were filed a day before the one-year anniversary of a Washington Post article that the plant had unknowingly been handling highly radioactive metals for several years. That puts the lawsuits within the one-year statute of limitations when workers first learned about the alleged exposure.

Earlier lawsuits have sought money from the companies to clean up radioactive waste from the plant. The new suits speak to the alleged conspiracy by the government and others.

----

Alleged Conspiracy at Paducah Plant

New York Times
08/08/00
By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-Paducah-Plant.html

PADUCAH, Ky. (AP) -- Former workers at an Energy Department plant in Kentucky are seeking billions of dollars in damages for an alleged conspiracy between the government and plant managers to expose employees to radiation.

Attorneys filed two lawsuits Monday on the behalf of workers at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in western Kentucky.

The named defendants are former managers at the plant dating back to 1952; companies that once operated it; federal agencies; and Department of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson.

The defendants exposed workers to ``radiation and substances that were known to be harmful to humans,'' according to one suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Louisville.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of about 10,000 former plant workers, said attorney William F. McMurry. It seeks $5 billion each in compensatory and punitive damages.

The second suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Paducah, was filed on behalf of specific workers who sustained rare pituitary tumors ``as a result of excessive, unlawful and non-consensual exposures to radioactive substances including plutonium and neptunium.''

It seeks $2 billion each in compensatory and punitive damages.

The lawsuits seek help from Richardson to locate the names of former federal employees involved in the alleged conspiracy.

Richardson's spokeswoman declined to specifically comment on the suits.

``We have not yet been served with the lawsuits that were filed today, but they in no way affect the department's commitment to follow through on working to get compensation for sick nuclear workers and continuing the investigations that will shed light on what happened many years ago at Energy Department sites across the county,'' she said.

The lawsuits were filed a day before the one-year anniversary of a Washington Post article that the plant had unknowingly been handling highly radioactive metals for several years. That puts the lawsuits within the one-year statute of limitations when workers first learned about the alleged exposure.

Earlier lawsuits have sought money from the companies to clean up radioactive waste from the plant. The new suits speak to the alleged conspiracy by the government and others.

-------- idaho

DOE CRITICIZED FOR FAILURE TO SHUT DOWN IDAHO REACTOR

August 8, 2000 (ENS)
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/aug2000/2000L-08-08-09.html

In reaction to a critical report by the Department of Energy's (DOE) Inspector General, 37 public interest organizations are condemning the DOE's failure to close the Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR II) in Idaho. In 1994, Congress directed EBR II closed "as soon as possible," but that directive has not been carried out. The Inspector General found that just $55 million of the $444 million that Congress has allocated for termination activities went toward shutting down the reactor. The Congressional directive, supported by the Clinton administration, was to end the Advanced Liquid Metal Reactor (ALMR) program and close EBR II. EBR II is a sodium cooled reactor that "breeds" more plutonium than it consumes.

In an August 7 letter to Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, the public interest organizations echoed the sharp criticism of the DOE's own Inspector General. Included in the groups signing the letter were the Snake River Alliance, U.S. Public Interest Research Group, the Nuclear Control Institute, Natural Resources Defense Council, Federation of American Scientists, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability. Frank von Hippel, Professor of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, signed the organizations' letter and explained that "It is U.S. policy not to undertake or encourage reprocessing because it increases the danger of diversion of plutonium to weapons use." Tom Clements, executive director of the Nuclear Control Institute, said, "The U.S. wisely rejected plutonium breeder reactors and associated reprocessing of spent fuel, but the DOE has failed to ensure that both Congressional directive and U.S. non-proliferation policy are followed and that EBR II be shut down."

-------- maryland

USEC Promotes Phillip Sewell to Senior Vice President, Timothy Hansen to Vice President

Excite News
August 4, 2000
http://news.excite.com/news/bw/000804/md-usec

BETHESDA, Md. (BUSINESS WIRE) - USEC Inc. today announced the promotion of Phillip G. Sewell to Senior Vice President and Timothy B. Hansen to Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Corporate Secretary.

Sewell joined USEC in 1993 and has most recently served as Vice President for Corporate Development and International Trade and Security. In that capacity, he is responsible for the implementation of the Russian HEU contract, specific strategies related to identifying new business opportunities, and all international trade issues. In addition, Sewell has recently taken on the direction of USEC's advanced technology programs.

Hansen joined USEC in 1994 as Assistant General Counsel. He has most recently served as Deputy General Counsel and Corporate Secretary and is responsible for matters of securities and corporate law.

USEC Inc. (NYSE:USU) is the world's leading supplier of enriched uranium fuel for commercial nuclear power plants.

Contact: USEC Inc. Elizabeth Stuckle, 301/564-3399

-------- new mexico

Sandia Says Landfill Study Misused Data

Albuquerque Journal
Tuesday, August 8, 2000
By John Fleck Journal Staff Writer
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/97011news08-08-00.htm

An independent consultant misused data when he suggested a Sandia National Laboratories landfill might have leaked radioactive waste, lab officials said Monday in their first response to the consultant's report.

Extensive testing shows there is no contamination beneath Sandia's Mixed Waste Landfill, Sandia official Dick Fate said Monday evening at a meeting of members of the Sandia Citizen Advisory Board.

The board hired consultant Mark Baskaran to provide an independent assessment of Sandia's plan to build a cap over the landfill, leaving the waste in place rather than digging it up and disposing of it elsewhere.

Baskaran concluded that traces of uranium in ground water showed signs of man-made rather than natural origin. He also said plutonium showed similar signs that it might be from the landfill rather than from fallout from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests in Nevada or the Pacific.

Fate's comments, and a position paper delivered to the board members Monday, are Sandia's first public comments on Baskaran's report since it was made public last month.

Baskaran and Sandia agree that uranium was found in ground water beneath the landfill, and that it was barely detectable at levels that pose no current health threat.

They disagree about the uranium's origin.

Baskaran used Sandia test data to calculate ratios of two different types of uranium. They did not match those of natural uranium, he said, suggesting it might have leaked from the landfill.

Sandia disagrees. Uranium levels in ground water beneath the landfill are no higher than in a well far from the landfill, Sandia officials point out.

The uranium levels in the samples are too small for Baskaran to calculate meaningful ratios, Sandia officials say.

"The data are being used for something they weren't intended for," Fate said.

Sandia also disagrees with the plutonium finding.

Only five of "hundreds" of soil samples collected by Sandia over the years showed plutonium. Those five samples were retested by the state of New Mexico using more sensitive instruments, and no plutonium was found.

-------- new jersey

Radioactive Sources Identified at a Private Residence in New Jersey

US NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
August 8, 2000
http://www.nrc.gov/OPA/pn/pn100022.html

PRELIMINARY NOTIFICATION OF EVENT OR UNUSUAL OCCURRENCE PNO-I-00-022

This preliminary notification constitutes EARLY notice of events of POSSIBLE safety or public interest significance. The information is as initially received without verification or evaluation, and is basically all that is known by the Region I staff on this date.

Facility: Licensee Emergency Classification: Private Residence Notification of Unusual Event Gloucester City, New Jersey Alert Site Area Emergency Docket No.: 030-29462 General Emergency License No.: 45-23645-01NA X Not Applicable

On August 7, 2000, the NRC Region I office learned that radioactive sources were identified at a private residence in Gloucester City, NJ, where they had been buried in the yard. The sources are believed to be sealed radioactive sources used in the past for military applications. Although the radionuclide has not been identified at this point, it is most likely strontium-90. The sources were found by an individual using a metal detector, who contacted local emergency responders after reading the words "radioactive - poison" and "dispose of by burial" on the items. It is believed that some of the sources may have come from the former Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia, because a previous owner of the property was formerly employed there. The sources were re-buried in the area from which they had been removed, prior to Navy radiation safety personnel responding to the site on August 7.

Representatives of the Navy, the Army, Camden County, the State of New Jersey, the EPA, and the NRC Region I office met at the residence on the morning of August 8 to perform additional surveys for radioactive material. Radiation levels of 20 to 30 microR per hour were measured over some of the areas where the sources were re-buried. Four areas were excavated and a source removed from each area; a fifth excavation produced three sources. The sources are disks, about five centimeters in diameter and less than one centimeter thick, with a glass cap over a yellowish powder. The back of the disks are marked "U. S. Radium Corporation 3-54" and "radioactive poison". On contact, the disks measure about 70 microR per hour with a microR meter, and about 15,000 counts per minute with an instrument sensitive to beta emission. Radiation measurements of the excavated soil indicate that the surrounding soil may be slightly contaminated.

Navy representatives plan to survey the entire site with metal detectors and radiation detectors to find any other sources that may be buried on site. They expect to complete work at the site by August 11. They are also attempting to contact former property owners for additional information.

The State of New Jersey has been notified of this event. The information in this preliminary notification has been reviewed with the licensee. NRC Region I Office of Public Affairs is prepared to respond to inquiries.

This information is current as of 1:00 p.m. August 8.

Contact: Betsy Ullrich John McGrath (610) 337-5040 (610) 337-5069

-------- utah

Hatch Sets Meetings to Explain Radiation Compensation Act

Salt lake Tribune
Thursday, August 10, 2000
http://www.sltrib.com/08102000/utah/10982.htm

Sen. Orrin Hatch has scheduled five community meetings in Utah to explain new provisions of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act that President Clinton signed into law last month.

The bill, sponsored by the Utah Republican, makes it easier for those damaged by radiation during America's rush to build and test nuclear weapons to receive compensation.

Covered are those who developed certain diseases as a result of being exposed to radioactive fallout from open-air weapons tests at the Nevada Test Site and those who became sick after working in uranium mines, uranium mills or hauling uranium.

Hatch said some of his top staffers will explain who qualifies and how applications can be made for compensation.

The meetings will be held in:

-- Fillmore today from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Commission Chamber at the Millard County Administration Building.

-- Cedar City on Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at the Iron County Visitors Building.

-- St. George on Friday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Washington County Administration Building.

-- Sandy on Monday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., at 10000 S. Centennial Parkway, in the conference center room.

-- Richfield on Wednesday from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., at the auditorium of the Sevier County Administration Building.

-------- washington

Hanford air tainted at higher levels
Samples after fire show plutonium and now strontium-90 in greater amounts

Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Thursday, August 10, 2000
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF
http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/hanf103.shtml

Plutonium contamination in the highest levels detected so far has been found in air samples collected in a 10-day period after a fire in June scorched nearly half the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the U.S. Department of Energy announced yesterday.

In a related development, a second radioactive isotope -- strontium-90 -- has been found at elevated levels in sagebrush across the Columbia River from Hanford, according to results from the State Department of Health. The sample also was collected immediately after the fire.

Both radioactive materials were detected at levels below the threshold deemed hazardous to human health and below levels that would have triggered an emergency response, said Debra McBaugh of the state Health Department.

"It means it was correct not to evacuate people (from Hanford) . . . and it was correct to let those firefighters fight that fire," she said, responding to concerns that the firefighters were put at risk.

The detection of elevated levels of strontium-90 -- a byproduct of the production of nuclear fuel -- was a first. Strontium poses a health risk to humans because it is deposited in bones, where it can replace calcium and cause cancer.

Despite the elevated level of strontium-90, it's still "not a number that's a significant health risk," McBaugh said.

The Department of Energy has offered free testing to 700 firefighters who worked in areas where they might have been exposed to strontium-90. No results are available yet.

McBaugh said it's still unclear whether the strontium was dispersed in the fire or if it's fallout from weapons testing at Hanford in the 1960s and 1970s.

Plutonium was previously detected in air samples taken during and after the wildfire that burned nearly half of the 560-square-mile reservation in late June. The radioactive material has been found at multiple sites on the reservation and in neighboring cities.

The level of plutonium contamination announced yesterday was 0.0016 picocuries per cubic meter of air, which is 100 times higher than the annual average level of plutonium found in the area called 200 West. The site is where some of Hanford's most dangerous radioactive waste is stored underground.

Hanford was established during World War II to make plutonium for the atomic bomb and continued to do so for nuclear weapons until the 1980s. The Energy Department has said it expected some dispersal of radioactive material when wind, the fire, and firefighters and equipment stirred up surface contamination at Hanford, the nation's most-contaminated nuclear site.

But Gerald Pollet, director of Heart of America Northwest, a Hanford watchdog group in Seattle, contends the Energy Department is using sampling methods that dilute its findings of post-wildfire contamination and that it failed to properly warn firefighters and others of the radiation risks inherent in fighting the fire.

---

N-waste from Spain heads to Hanford

Tuesday, August 8, 2000,
by Craig Welch
Seattle Times staff reporter
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/local/html98/radi08m_20000808.html

An airplane load of low-level radioactive waste from Spain flew into Moses Lake yesterday, carrying 120 drums of contaminated material bound for a commercial dump at the Hanford nuclear reservation.

The collection of European trash - lightning-rod heads, smoke detectors, needles used in chemotherapy - is polluted with radium, a naturally occurring, cancer-causing element that decays to radon and lasts in the environment for 16,000 years. The shipment was loaded on trucks and will be repackaged and solidified in concrete before disposal.

The shipment comes at a time when the state has been warring with the federal government to ensure the reservation, already embroiled in the nation's most expensive environmental cleanup, doesn't become the country's chief nuclear landfill.

Yet the state's top politician said nothing could have been done to prevent the waste's arrival.

"To my shock, it has come to my attention that there is no federal regulatory authority over this kind of shipment," Gov. Gary Locke said in a statement yesterday.

"No legislation, no treaty agreement, nothing regulates this particular substance or where it comes from."

Because the radioactive material isn't man-made - like plutonium - it's not regulated by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Locke, state health officials and the private company that runs the dump site said the waste shipment was small, was properly handled and poses no health or environmental threat. The same type of material has been shipped from within the country to the site since it opened for permanent storage of radioactive garbage 35 years ago.

Locke also pointed out that while yesterday's shipment contains roughly 20 curies of radioactive isotopes - double what the Health Department says is disposed of at the site each year - the facility holds more than 15 million curies of radioactive isotopes.

But government officials and watchdog groups said the shipment raises serious questions about how much control the public has over buying and selling of waste for burial at Hanford. And they acknowledged there was little public discussion about the shipment.

"This is the type of material we accept every day or every week or every month," said John Erickson, director of the state Department of Health's division of radiation protection. "But I think there's some concern about the long-term implications of this."

Undisclosed amounts of foreign nuclear waste have been coming to Hanford through the years under secretly negotiated national-defense treaties, a byproduct of the Cold War. But this is the first shipment of foreign waste to come to the commercial site operated by U.S. Ecology, a private company and subsidiary of Boise-based American Ecology.

U.S. Ecology contracted with the Spanish Radioactive Waste Management in Madrid to dispose of the waste. It is the only site in the United States licensed to accept such material; Spain has no low-level-waste disposal of its own.

But the waste could be as hazardous as other low-level nuclear waste, said Gerald Pollet, executive director of the watchdog group Heart of America Northwest.

"This should be a huge policy issue," he said. "If we have a debate about taking it from elsewhere in the U.S., we sure as heck shouldn't be accepting it from around the world."

Last week Locke wrote to President Clinton, pointing out that neither federal officials nor the state have the authority to ban imports of foreign waste. He wants the federal government to provide oversight of the waste.

The state also received a commitment from American Ecology to neither accept nor seek such shipments from foreign governments again.

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

Coalition Groups Protests Missile Defense System

US Newswire
10 Aug 7:00
http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/Current_Releases/0810-101.html

Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers:
President Should Decide Not to Approve Construction of the Anti-Missile System

To: National Desk
Contact: Daryl Kimball 202-546-0795, ext. 136;
or Stephen Young, 202-546-0795, ext. 102,
both of the Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Citing additional program delays, critics of the proposed "limited" national missile defense system are calling on President Clinton not to authorize any action leading to deployment of the controversial system, including starting construction of a key anti-missile system radar site.

This week Pentagon officials acknowledged that interceptor booster rocket problems make it unlikely that they can meet their self-imposed 2005 deadline for operation of the proposed national missile defense system.

"The time has come for President Clinton to face the facts and decide not to deploy or begin construction of the Pentagon's costly and ineffective anti-missile scheme," said Daryl Kimball, Director of the Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers. "If the system cannot be deployed until well after 2005, construction can and should be delayed."

Nevertheless, Pentagon officials are likely to recommend that Clinton give a "limited green light" for the anti- missile system. This would reportedly include Presidential authorization of construction activities for a key anti-missile radar facility on Alaska's remote Shemya Island, while claiming that the final decision on deployment of the anti-missile system will be made by the next President.

"In order to justify beginning construction yet avoid having to withdraw formally from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, President Clinton may try to adopt a unilateral and counter-factual legal opinion that initiation of construction of the radar would not violate the "under construction" barrier in the Treaty until late 2001 or even early 2002," said John Rhinelander, former U.S. legal advisor for the ABM Treaty negotiations.

"With this legal chicanery, which Russia and our allies are sure to object to, Clinton would try to claim that his administration continues to adhere to the Treaty even as he sets the stage for his successor to violate it," added Rhinelander.

"For all practical purposes, authorizing construction of radars needed for the anti-missile system is a decision to deploy," said John Isaacs, President of Council for a Livable World. "The decision would create momentum that could not be easily reversed and it would severely limit the next President's options," he added.

"Rather using legal maneuvers to get out of another tight spot, the President should acknowledge that unresolved strategic, technical and political problems require that he decide not authorize construction of facilities for the purpose of the anti-missile system," said Isaacs.

"The latest technical delays underscore that President Clinton cannot responsibly decide to deploy on the basis of his own decision criteria," said Spurgeon Keeny, President of the Arms Control Association. "Authorization of initial construction is no longer justifiable due to the slippage of the arbitrary 2005 target date," he added.

"If the President decides to initiate construction of the anti-missile radar, it would be considered by the international community as a presumption of a deployment decision by the next administration. This would needlessly provoke immediate adverse consequences in our relations with Russia, China, and our NATO allies -- who oppose deployment -- and undermine prospects for further nuclear arms reductions, " warned Keeny.

------

The Coalition is a non-partisan alliance of 17 of the nation's leading non-proliferation organizations working for a practical, step-by-step program to reduce the dangers of weapons of mass destruction. For more information, see the Coalition's on-line briefing book, "Pushing the Limits: the Decision on National Missile Defense," at http://www.crnd.org

---

Cohen Delays His Finding on Building Missile Radar

New York Times
August 8, 2000
By STEVEN LEE MYERS
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/global/080800missile-defense.html

WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 -- Defense Secretary William S. Cohen postponed his recommendation today to President Clinton on whether to proceed with a limited national missile defense, citing "a number of difficult issues" that still have to be resolved.

Mr. Cohen, who had been widely expected to make his recommendation to the White House this week, did not specify the reasons for the delay of at least a month.

Officials said the Pentagon and its Ballistic Missile Defense Organization had not reached a consensus on critical aspects of the program to build the antimissile system. Those aspects, discussed in a flurry of meetings at the Pentagon in the last week, include the costs of building the system, the building schedule and the need for new tests, the officials said.

"Components of the Department of Defense are currently completing their assessment of the program to develop a national missile defense system," Mr. Cohen said in a statement released this afternoon. "A number of difficult issues remain to be resolved before they can report to me."

Mr. Cohen said there was "no immediate or artificial deadline for a recommendation to the president," even though administration officials had previously indicated that Mr. Clinton would make his decision this summer or in the early fall.

At best, the postponement compresses the time left for Mr. Clinton to decide whether to continue with the system. It also means that he could be faced with a decision in the middle of a presidential election in which building a missile defense has emerged as a divisive issue. Mr. Cohen noted in his statement that "the president fully supports this approach," referring to the postponement.

Mr. Cohen and other officials have indicated that the administration could begin work on the system -- clearing ground in Alaska to build an advanced radar station -- without violating the Antiballistic Missile Treaty of 1972, the agreement between the United States and the former Soviet Union that prohibited national missile defenses.

That would leave the final decision on building the system -- with or without the agreement of the Russians -- until next year, when a new administration will take office.

To meet the Pentagon's schedule for building a system by 2005, a decision to award contracts has to be made this fall for work to begin in the spring at the radar site, on a remote island in the Aleutians, administration officials said.

Mr. Cohen's recommendation has been complicated by the failure of a crucial test of the system last month, the officials said. In that test, a high-speed "kill vehicle" that was supposed to have intercepted a dummy warhead in space failed to separate from its booster rocket. The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization has attributed the failure to an error in the rocket's "databus," which transmits signals to the the warhead, the officials said.

The officials played down the failure, saying it was caused by relatively old technology in the booster rockets that was not essential to the defensive system that the Pentagon is designing. Still, the failure denied the Pentagon critical information about the feasibility of the system that, one official said, could make it more difficult to argue for moving ahead.

"The part of the test that followed" the error "would have been useful," the official said.

The next test, scheduled for November, will almost certainly be postponed as officials make adjustments after the last failure.

In June, even before the failure of the test, an independent panel led by a retired Air Force general, Larry D. Welch, found that the proposed system was technologically feasible against an unsophisticated threat. The panel also recommended that additional tests be conducted before putting any system in the field.

One administration official said senior Pentagon and Ballistic Missile Defense Organization officials were divided over the need for more tests. Another official said delays in developing the new booster rockets for the system could also affect its deployment.

Several officials said they still expected Mr. Cohen to recommend moving ahead with the first steps of the system this year, keeping it on schedule for 2005, the year by which, intelligence officials said, North Korea could build a ballistic missile capable of hitting the United States.

One senior official said, however, that the date for putting a system into operation could still be pushed back.

<a name="military"></a>
-------- MILITARY (by country)

Big Russian Waterbomber Refused by Embattled U.S. Forest Service

By Neville Judd
August 8, 2000 (ENS)
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/aug2000/2000L-08-08-11.html

Faced with some of the worst forest fires in United States history, why would those in charge of fighting the fires not want the best waterbombers in their arsenal? That is the question Tom Robinson has yet to have answered by anyone in the seven firefighting agencies in three U.S. state departments represented at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

The Ilyushin 76 was heavily used by Soviet forces in Afghanistan. Today, it flies more peaceful missions, carrying relief aid to Mozambique and extinguishing forest fires in Europe. (Photo courtesy Global Emergency Response)

Robinson represents Global Emergency Response (GER), a government and industry consortium of U.S., Canadian and Russian agencies offering the services of one of the world's largest firefighting aircraft, the Russian made Ilyushin-76TD (Il-76).

GER wants the chance to prove the worth of the cargo and personnel carrier as a waterbomber in order to bid for firefighting contracts with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), part of the Agriculture Department. That is why the consortium is offering the Russian owned planes at cost, asking only that fuel and accommodation costs be reimbursed.

"It's a freebie," said Robinson. "Two Il-76 waterbombers are standing by in Moscow, ready for immediate deployment to the U.S., as soon as an official request is received."

It is not the first time, GER's offers of help have been turned down by the USFS, said Robinson.

The Il-76 carries more than three times the amount of fire retardant in gallons than the biggest plane listed in the USFS's air tanker fleet. It has extinguished forest fires in Greece and Turkey in the last two years, and received positive feedback from the USFS during a demonstration in the United Kingdom as long ago as 1994.

Without answers though, Robinson has formed his own conclusions about the Forest Service's reluctance to accept GER's help.

"It boils down to protectionism, traditionalism and liability," said Robinson. "The USFS refuses to use foreign assets to fight its wildfires. It would prefer to rely on its helicopters and World War II vintage aircraft with a fraction of the carrying capacity."

There has been little relief for firefighters battling the worst wild blazes in half a century. (Photo courtesy U.S. Forest Service)

"The agency is concerned about liability, given the lives lost and homes and property destroyed by wild fires in the last five years," Robinson speculated. "If the public knew what this plane [the Il-76] could do they would want to know why it has not been used. They would want to know why it wasn't used at Los Alamos this year," he said.

A fire deliberately set in May to clear brush near the Los Alamos National Laboratory burned out of control for over a week, scorching a large portion of the grounds of the nation's largest nuclear weapons research facility. Environmental testing of nuclear weapons systems takes place there, and the area is the home of the new Weapons Engineering Tritium Facility which develops and tests high explosives, plastics and adhesives.

"The issue highlights the mismanagement in the USFS and its lack of leadership. Now we have firefighters getting hurt and killed and barely trained soldiers trying to contain these fires," Robinson said.

A crew member who died in a helicopter crash during a fire in northeastern Nevada last Friday was buried today.

Jeremy Anderson, special assistant to Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck, denied the USFS is being petty about who it accepts help from.

"I'm aware of the Il-76 but I understand it needs bigger bases to land in, more fuel and logistical support that we don't have when resources are in such tight supply," said Anderson.

"Our first concern is firefighter safety and without clear operating guidelines this plane raises certain safety issues. Given the nature and the danger of what firefighters are facing, it's tough to take people off fires and on to new types of equipment."

Anderson said GER's offer would be better made during December and January, not during wildfire season. When ENS pointed out the offer to use the Il-76 had been made before, most notably for a forest fire that destroyed 500,000 acres of Florida forest in 1998, Anderson repeated that the offer came during the fire.

He did not rule out the Ilyushin's use in future fires. "There are folks interested in talking to Mr. Robinson," he said.

Anderson said protectionism has nothing to do with the issue. "Look at the faces of our firefighters on TV. We are trying everything we can to put these fires out."

Several geographic areas are experiencing major incidents "which have the potential to exhaust all agency fire resources," the Interagency Fire Center said today. The fires are costing $11.6 million a day to fight, the Center says.

Last week, one forest agency did look beyond its borders for help. The California Forestry Department contracted a 1940s Martin Mars tanker from Canada to fight its wildfires.

A Martin Mars dropping 7,200 gallons of fire retardant. (Photo courtesy Forest Industries Flying Tankers Ltd.)

The Hawaii Mars, one of only two Mars planes left in the world, holds 7,200 gallons (27,276 liters) of water, about two thirds the capacity of the Il-76's 11,000 gallon maximum. Its owner, British Columbia based Forest Industries Flying Tankers Ltd., would not divulge the cost of contracting a Martin Mars plane.

President Bill Clinton traveled to Idaho's Payette National Forest today to survey efforts to combat the Burgdorf Junction fire, one of 66 blazes currently burning in 11 states. This 24,951 acre fire is burning 23 miles north of McCall, Idaho. A battalion of U.S. Army soldiers from Fort Hood, Texas is among the 1,253 people working on this fire. It is considered 42 percent contained.

The President announced the release of $150 million in emergency funds to the Agriculture Department for firefighting efforts. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has authorized federal funds for fighting fires in Montana, Wyoming and Nevada this week.

USFS figures show 4,115,937 acres burned this year to date, including 68,236 acres Monday - almost double the 10 year average.

Robinson is now trying to bypass the USFS and is talking directly to the Defense Department about using the Il-76 to protect military bases threatened by the wild fires. "Maybe then the public will see how effective this plane is," he says hopefully.

-------- britain

UK Anti-Land mine Group Seeks Ban on Cluster Bombs

Reuters
August 8, 2000 Filed at 1:11 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-arms-cl.html

LONDON (Reuters) - A British anti-land mine group called on Tuesday for a global moratorium on cluster bombs, saying the weapons were indiscriminate and left a legacy of death long after they hit the ground.

The UK Working Group on Land mines, the British arm of the International Campaign to Ban Land mines, said cluster bombs had a disproportionate effect on civilians by blighting agricultural land and impeding reconstruction.

The weapons are dropped from planes or attached to missiles and rockets, blanketing a large area with scores of smaller anti-personnel or anti-tank ``bomblets.''

``The unexploded bomblets effectively turn into land mines, ready to detonate on contact, causing death and injury to civilians even many years after the war has ended,'' the group said in a statement accompanying its new report on the weapons.

``As many are brightly colored and the size of a drinks can, they are particularly attractive to children.''

The group demanded the creation of a new international law to make governments, armies and manufacturers accountable for the use of cluster bombs, with a global ban put in place until an in-depth review of their legality can be conducted.

Under its proposal, the law would include:

-- clearing unexploded bomblets and marking affected terrain after fighting ended;

-- compensating civilians and communities for deaths, wounds or economic fallout from the weapons;

-- handing over full records of cluster bomb deployment to the United Nations.

The UK Working Group on Land mines also challenged official statistics on how often the weapons failed to detonate, saying British figures of five percent were at least twice as high.

``Statistics on cluster bombs from Kosovo, the Gulf War, U.S. military trials, the Vietnam War and the British government's own figures from the Falklands conflict indicate failure rates that vary between nine and 30 percent,'' it said.

``The difference between a five and nine percent failure rate in Kosovo would mean over 3,000 more unexploded bombs.''

British defense minister John Spellar promised to study the report, saying: ``We are committed to minimizing both the post-conflict hazard and also collateral damage which may be caused by cluster bombs.''

In reacting to the report, he said: ``The UK and Allies have devoted large efforts to the clearance of unexploded ordnance in Kosovo. The UK has cleared an estimated 90 percent in its area of operations.''

And he said ``Many munitions cleared so far have in fact not been cluster bombs -- for example over 8,000 Serbian anti-personnel mines have been defused in Kosovo.''

The anti-land mine group said the military advantages of the weapons paled in comparison to their long-term effects.

``As time passes, the bomblets become harder to locate and, often, increasingly unstable,'' it said in the report. ``Further civilian deaths and injuries will continue to illustrate the uncontrollable and disproportionate nature of cluster bombs.''

-------- colombia

U.S. Helps Colombia Fight Drugs

By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Colombia-US-Troops.html

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- U.S. Special Forces have begun training Colombian soldiers at a jungle base, officials said Tuesday, as a $1.3-billion U.S. aid initiative to help Colombia fight drugs and rebels gets under way.

The 83 U.S. military personnel are working with members of a Colombian anti-narcotics battalion at Larandia military base, Colombian and U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity.

The base is in the Amazon River jungle only a two-hour drive from the main stronghold of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

The U.S. troops are barred from accompanying Colombian soldiers into combat. Although FARC has declared it will fight the anti-drug offensive, it has not threatened to attack the U.S. soldiers directly.

The U.S.-trained Colombian troops -- backed by donated Black Hawk and Huey combat helicopters -- are to seize vast swaths of drug-producing areas from FARC and other armed groups, which use drug proceeds to buy weapons.

Airplanes could then destroy the crops of coca and poppy, which produce cocaine and heroin respectively, by aerial spraying without risk of being shot down.

Washington's aim is to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and shore up Colombia's democratically elected government.

Under the aid package passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton last month, no more than 500 U.S. troops and 300 contractors can be in Colombia.

Underscoring Washington's stake in the anti-drug effort, Clinton is scheduled to visit Colombia on Aug. 30 -- the first trip by a U.S. president to Colombia since George Bush came in 1990.

Ahead of the visit, Clinton's chief adviser on drug policy, former Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, was scheduled to visit Colombia on Wednesday and Thursday to meet with Colombian President Andres Pastrana and review the aid program.

McCaffrey will be accompanied by Under Secretary of State Thomas Pickering and Gen. Charles Wilhelm, commander in chief of the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees military operations in Latin America.

One Colombian battalion previously trained under an earlier aid package is deployed at Tres Esquinas base near the heart of Colombia's coca-growing region. The two additional battalions to be trained under the current package were expected to also operate from Tres Esquinas.

The battalion in training is expected to be operational by December.

-------- iraq

50,000 children die each year as Saddam survives
Why is Ireland's voice not heard opposing the continuing UN sanctions in Iraq?

Irish Times
Tuesday, August 8, 2000
Niall Andrews
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/opinion/2000/0808/opt1.htm

The US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, is undoubtedly right when she says (The Irish Times, August 4th) that President Saddam Hussein of Iraq violated international law by invading Kuwait 10 years ago. The brutal assault on that nation broke every international and humanitarian law. Nobody disputes that.

She was not right when she said previously that the deaths of 50,000 children a year in Iraq since the imposition of sanctions is a price worth paying to get rid of Saddam Hussein.

Desert Storm could have finished Saddam Hussein and the Baghdad regime, but the world has never been told why this was never done. It might well be that when President Bush called a halt to hostilities south of Basra he feared the disintegration of Iraq as a unitary state if they moved on Baghdad and destroyed Saddam.

A break-up of Iraq would have had consequences for the entire region and, indeed, the Western world. More importantly, it would have imperilled the supply of oil to the West and endangered the state of Israel.

Mrs Albright knows that her government force-fed arms and the means to manufacture chemical weapons to Iraq in the eight-year war with Iran, in which hundreds of thousands of young men on both sides died. Saddam Hussein was her government's friend then.

Desert Storm in all its brutal force for a time united even Iran and Iraq in common cause.

On my recent visit to Iraq, it was not in the capacity of an apologist for either Saddam Hussein or Madeleine Albright, rather as one concerned for the welfare of an ancient civilisation, its people and the apparent destruction being brought about by constant conflict in the past two decades and the added imposition of sanctions.

What I witnessed were children dying, streets with raw sewage, hospitals with totally inadequate medical supplies, operating theatres with raw sewage, schools without books or pencils, doctors without modern textbooks and what in effect amounts to intellectual genocide. UN sanctions have caused the deaths of 1.5 million women, children and elderly in the 10 years since their introduction.

It simply is not a price worth paying. Mrs Albright and Britain are alone in the United Nations in insisting on keeping the sanctions in place in their present form.

To quote Denis Halliday, former UN humanitarian co-ordinator in Iraq from 1997 to 1998: "The war was always about controlling oil supplies, and never really about Kuwait. But Saddam's invasion of Kuwait, in breach of international law, provided the opportunity for showing American military muscle damaged by the Vietnam defeat, for experimentation with depleted uranium and for the destruction of Iraq combined with the impoverishment of the rich Arab world."

Mrs Albright says we must honour the memory of those who died as a result of Saddam's aggression by vowing never to permit it to happen again.

Well, how many died as a result of the Gulf War? Almost one million Iraqis but only 48 members of the allied forces. Sanctions have resulted in 1.5 million more deaths in 10 years. Who will honour their memory?

Every henhouse in Iraq has been combed and searched for weapons of mass destruction and none has been found, according to international verification sources. Yet the UN/US want to renew the searches for no other reason than to prolong the justification for the sanctions.

They would not have to look too much farther to find nuclear warheads and a capability to launch them - in Israel where Mordecai Vanunu still languishes in solitary confinement for telling the world about them 18 years ago in the Sun- day Times. In the course of my visit to Baghdad I met French and Italian embassy officials and the papal nuncio, who all felt the embargo had gone too far and appealed for Europe to intervene to end them.

Food rationing was introduced under the Food for Oil programme. The UN insisted on putting the system in place so that everyone would get their share. They then handed the computerised system over to the Baghdad authorities, who now control the distribution of every morsel of food to every citizen.

Say "Boo!" and you get no food.

Saddam Hussein remains in power today, stronger and more secure than ever before. The 20 million people of the great Iraqi civilisation would take at least two generations to recover from the sanctions if they were lifted today. Why do we allow this to continue?

Ireland has a small voice. Frank Aiken made it heard in the United Nations, fearlessly standing up to the United States in the past.

And today?

-------- russia

Russian Defense Ministry Probed

By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Russia-Fraud-Probe.html

MOSCOW (AP) -- The Russian military prosecutor's office said Tuesday it is investigating the Defense Ministry for possible embezzlement of $450 million -- an amount equal to nearly one-tenth of the ministry's 2000 budget.

Russian media reports have said that the Defense Ministry wired the money to a British-based company called United Energy International Ltd. in 1995 and 1996. The British company is a co-founder of Ukraine's energy monopoly, and the money was to pay for supplies of unspecified military and technical equipment from Ukraine, the reports said.

It was unknown if any of the equipment was ever delivered.

A spokesman at the main Russian military prosecutor's office, Sergei Ushakov, said a criminal probe was opened in March to trace the money. Ushakov would not confirm reports the funds were transferred to United Energy, saying that it was unclear where they were sent.

``It could have been a commercial deal, or it could have been a criminal deal,'' Ushakov said.

He added that the money could have been embezzled after it left the Defense Ministry, which may have acted in good faith. ``There is such a thing as commercial risk,'' Ushakov said.

The Moscow Times daily reported that the Defense Ministry's 2000 budget is $5 billion -- compared with about $268 billion in the United States. If the $450 million turns out to have been stolen, it would be a fraud case of an unprecedented scale for the Russian Defense Ministry.

Corruption is endemic in the Russian military, but no well-organized, large-scale embezzlement at the ministry has been reported in the past.

The Interfax news agency said that suspects include the head of the ministry's finance department Col. Gen. Georgy Oleinik, the department's chief accountant Maj. Gen. Yevgeny Datsko, and two other high-ranking finance officials, Maj. Gen. Anatoly Vorobyov and Maj. Gen. Leonid Gerasimenko.

Oleinik joined the finance department in 1996, making it unclear what role he could have played in the alleged fraud scheme, according to the Moscow Times.

-------- OTHER

-------- alternative energy

Eleven Companies Cultivate a Greener Power Market

August 8, 2000 (ENS)
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/aug2000/2000L-08-08-01.html

Eleven major companies based in the United States have formed the Green Power Market Development Group to develop corporate markets for 1,000 megawatts of renewable energy over the next decade.

The corporate members include DuPont, General Motors, IBM, Interface, Johnson & Johnson, Pitney Bowes, and Kinko's. In total, the 11 companies consume seven percent of the industrial energy used in the United States.

The Group announced its development plan at the start of the National Green Power Marketing Conference, a two day meeting that opened Monday in Denver.

The Green Power Market Development Group will work with two non-profit research organizations, the World Resources Institute of Washington, DC, and Business for Social Responsibility, of San Francisco, to develop the capacity for new green power. The cooperative relationship extends to several federal agencies and charitable foundations.

Some members of the Group have been working on cleaner power for years. Here shown is the General Motors 1997 Chevrolet S-10 electric pickup truck. (Photo courtesy GM)

The partnership members believe that such markets are essential to provide competitively priced energy that also protects the climate and reduces conventional air pollutants.

"In a time of major energy and environmental challenges, we are excited to see some of America's companies making a major commitment to green power," says Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson. "We're beginning to see a trend in corporate America's willingness to participate in competitive electric markets, in order to make a significant down payment on our environmental future."

The Group is exploring a variety of green energy options and identifying the purchase opportunities which are cost competitive. A collaborative approach will enable them to accelerate the development of mature green power markets that will benefit consumers and the environment.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson (green tie) gets a solar energy briefing from Larry Kazmerski, director of the National Center for Photovoltaics (Photo Warren Gretz courtesy National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL)

The members stress that this long term process will support market development over a ten year period. They hope to identify the first sources of cost competitive green power within a year, which will come from renewable sources and clean power technologies.

"We see the development of renewable energy markets and emerging technologies as essential to address environmental and energy issues," says Dennis Minano, a vice president and chief environment officer at GM. "Our participation in this partnership enables us to continue our dialogue with diverse groups committed to developing sound solutions."

"We have a corporate goal of 10 percent of our energy supply from renewable sources at competitive prices," adds Paul Tebo, a vice president at DuPont. "We're excited about participating in this group because we hope it will help us to meet that commitment."

U.S. power plants that burn fossil fuels are the single largest source of conventional air pollutants, and contribute to environmental and health problems as well as global climate change, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Installation of Westinghouse 600 kW wind turbine at the National Renewable Energy Lab's Wind Technology Center (Photo by Warren Gretz courtesy NREL)

Although there is a wide array of technically viable and environmentally preferable energy technologies, markets for these technologies are small and immature, and the Group will work together to foster market demand for environmentally and economically sound energy.

"Businesses have the human and financial resources to make a huge difference in the world's development path," explains Jonathan Lash, president of World Resources Institute and former co-chair of the President's Council for Sustainable Development. "It is inspiring to see companies acting now to help create a clean energy future."

"The decision by these major energy users to demonstrate market interest in green power is a major development made all the more important by the strains on the current power system evident in many parts of the U.S. this summer," adds Bob Dunn, president and CEO of Business for Social Responsibility.

In addition to the 11 corporate partners, the Group is working with the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Renewable Energy Policy Project, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Think Energy, Inc., the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Foundation, and the Energy Foundation.

-------- imf / world bank

An Effort by U.S. to Change the I.M.F. Is Set Back

New York Times
08/08/00
By JOSEPH KAHN
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/global/080800imf-limits.html

WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 -- Poor countries are fighting a proposal by the leading industrial nations to increase the cost of borrowing from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, dealing a blow to a campaign by Secretary of the Treasury Lawrence H. Summers to change the lending agencies.

The differences emerged today when Horst Köhler, the I.M.F.'s new managing director, chided Group of Seven finance ministers for announcing their desire to charge more for loans instead of working within the fund to build consensus on the issue. Several big nations that vote on loan decisions at the I.M.F. and the World Bank oppose the changes.

"The direction the G-7 have set up, I think, is right and should be considered carefully," Mr. Köhler said here, addressing a plan that had been endorsed by the wealthy nations in advance of their meeting of top leaders in Japan last month. "But it is now a problem because a big group of countries within the fund feels itself lectured by the presentation of these ideas. It makes things not easy."

Mr. Köhler's comments came after the fund's board rejected the proposal from the Group of Seven in an unpublicized, informal tally late last month, a board member said today. Only about half the board members, by voting power, sided with the Group of Seven, with 70 percent support required to change lending rates.

The board's decision was a setback for Mr. Summers, who has tried to change the way the I.M.F. works and has persuaded the Group of Seven -- Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada, in addition to the United States -- to endorse an increase in lending rates as an important element of his plan to overhaul the international agency.

The treasury secretary, responding in part to heavy criticism in Congress, has tried to change some of the fund's practices to address concerns that it has made mistakes while expanding its role in recent years.

The I.M.F. has repeatedly lent to a growing number of poor and modest-income nations, fought financial crises, helped the West transform Russia, and attached sweeping conditions to loans in an attempt to turn borrowers into efficient capitalists.

There appears to be broad agreement, especially among wealthy nations, that the fund should streamline its activities. But developing nations, which make up a substantial voting bloc on the fund's board and double as borrowers, do not want to pay more for their loans or to agree to apply for help less often.

Some board members from poor countries also disagreed with the reasons the Group of Seven gave for wanting to raise rates. The industrial nations said higher rates could make more money available for new lending and the forgiveness of debts of the poorest countries.

"This is a case of them asking the poor to help the poor," a board member said.

Speaking at the National Press Club, Mr. Köhler said he personally supported the idea of raising loan rates, but disagreed with the rich nations' decision to push for the changes outside the fund. He said the job of winning support had now become harder.

Mr. Köhler became managing director three months ago, after a protracted struggle that pitted the United States and several other nations against Germany. The Clinton administration effectively vetoed Germany's first choice of a candidate to head the I.M.F. before settling on Mr. Köhler, who is a former German government official.

Mr. Köhler used his speech today to preview other elements of a plan he is working on to change the I.M.F. As he has signaled in the past, he said he intended to focus the fund primarily on broad economic management and to reduce overlapping activity with the World Bank, whose mandate includes fighting poverty and overhauling the way poor countries manage their economies. His ideas are broadly similar to those of Mr. Summers.

Some in the Group of Seven had expressed hope earlier that the I.M.F. and the World Bank would endorse pricing changes during their annual meeting in Prague late in September. But several fund officials said that was unlikely now. An official at the World Bank said that its board was also discussing lending rates but that there was no consensus to increase rates at this time.

A Treasury Department spokeswoman said the Group of Seven often agrees on changes to I.M.F. and World Bank policies among themselves before presenting them to the boards of the two institutions. She said the Clinton administration still hoped that the changes would be made. "We are glad that the managing director supports pricing reforms," the spokeswoman said. "It will be an important test of the I.M.F. to forge a consensus."

-------- police

New York Police Chief Resigns

By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-Police-Chief-Quits.html

NEW YORK (AP) -- New York City's police commissioner is stepping down after a four-year tenure marked by racial conflicts and a dramatic drop in crime.

Howard Safir announced his resignation Tuesday, saying he would take an executive position with an Atlanta-based security firm, ChoicePoint, focusing on the ways in which DNA can assist law enforcement efforts.

``I accomplished most of what I wanted to accomplish with the NYPD,'' Safir said. ``Crime is down ... and it's time to do something else.''

He said his decision had nothing to do with his prostate cancer, which he disclosed in May. ``It's treatable and it's curable,'' he said. ``I feel great.''

Safir, 58, was never as popular as his predecessor, William Bratton, who won over police officers as well as the public, and critics often accused Safir of being a puppet of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

A number of controversial incidents have dogged Safir and his department, including the 1997 beating and sodomy of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima by a white officer at a police station; the slaying of African immigrant Amadou Diallo in 1999, who was shot at 41 times by four white officers who mistook his wallet for a gun; and the fatal March shooting of a black unarmed security guard by a Hispanic undercover detective.

Giuliani defended Safir's reputation, insisting that complaints of excessive force and incidents in which police fired their weapons had both decreased during the last four years.

``We have outreached to the minority community more than ever,'' Safir added defensively.

Safir also drew criticism when he took an all-expenses-paid trip to the Academy Awards, courtesy of a Revlon executive friend, amid the protests over Diallo's death.

The number of people murdered in the city fell every year during Safir's tenure, except for a slight increase in 1999. In 1998, murders reached a low of 629, a number not seen in the city since the 1960s. In 1990, the city recorded 2,290 murders, the most in its history. Other categories of violent crime also fell.

Before making his formal announcement at City Hall, Safir gave a brief, private farewell to his troops at police headquarters. He thanked his executive staff and police brass citywide for their help, and was then given a standing ovation. His last day is Aug. 18.

Giuliani refused to discuss a potential successor.

-------- spying

US Worried About Detained American

New York Times
08/08/00
By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-US-Russia.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The health of a Pennsylvania businessman, who has bone cancer that is in remission, has deteriorated further since his arrest in Russia on spy charges four months ago, the State Department said Tuesday.

Spokesman Richard Boucher said U.S. officials have made clear to the Russian government their responsibility for the physical well-being of American citizens detained on their territory, including the Pennsylvanian, Edmund Pope.

``We've raised the issue repeatedly with senior Russian officials (and) raised it yesterday with the Russian Foreign Ministry,'' Boucher said.

``We have also asked permission to visit Mr. Pope as soon as possible with a physician, in order to perform an independent examination of his health. But to date, the Russian officials have denied this request,'' Boucher said.

U.S. consular officials have visited Pope eight times since his arrest. His wife, Sheryl, saw him last month in Moscow's Lefortovo Prison and said he has lost considerable weight.

He runs CERF Technologies International, a consulting firm in State College, Pa., that developed commercial contacts with Russian organizations. Pope was arrested in April and charged with stealing military secrets.

The State Department has not commented on the spy charges, consistent with long-standing policy on such cases.

However, Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., an expert on U.S.-Russian relations, has taken up Pope's case. He contends the arrest was an attempt by Russian authorities to show that they have clamped down on spying. He said recently that Pope was gathering information about a commercially advertised torpedo.

-------- activists

Philadelphia Rejects Leniency Call for Protesters

Yahoo News
Tuesday August 8 10:36 PM ET
By David Morgan
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000808/ts/campaign_protests_dc_1.html

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The Philadelphia district attorney on Tuesday flatly rejected a call for the dismissal of criminal charges against hundreds of protesters arrested during last week's Republican National Convention.

A group of defense lawyers held a news conference to demand that the administration of Mayor John Street negotiate with them over the fate of about 360 so-called R2K protesters who have been charged with misdemeanor or felony offenses.

Led by the National Lawyers Guild, a New York-based civil rights group, the lawyers called on District Attorney Lynne Abraham to dismiss criminal charges against nonviolent offenders and eliminate bail for an estimated 325 defendants who face misdemeanors.

The group also said it was prepared to riddle the city with civil rights lawsuits on behalf of each protester arrested, while protest organizers threatened a hunger strike if the city did not begin negotiating by noon EDT (1600 GMT) on Wednesday.

But Abraham's response was swift and unequivocal. ``Get a life,'' she said through a spokeswoman. ``It ain't gonna happen.''

About 390 people were arrested in Philadelphia last week on charges stemming from an Aug. 1 mass demonstration that tied up downtown traffic and spawned sporadic violence in which 15 police officers were injured and nearly 30 city vehicles vandalized.

Unlike Seattle and Washington, where charges against many demonstrators involved in protests were dropped, Philadelphia has vowed to throw the book at those taken into custody.

Only 30 have been charged with summary offenses, the equivalent of a traffic citation. Most face second-degree misdemeanor charges, punishable by up to two years in prison.

Singled Out Alleged Ringleaders

The city also singled out alleged ringleaders for arrest on conspiracy charges and set bail levels at unusually high levels of up to $1 million.

Meanwhile, Police Commissioner John Timoney has repeatedly called for a federal investigation of those behind protests in Philadelphia, claiming the same people helped organize violent demonstrations against the World Trade Organization last year in Seattle and the World Bank last April in Washington.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which provided protest organizers with legal counsel during the convention, angered many protest sympathizers last week by dismissing claims that protesters had been mistreated in jail.

On Tuesday, the ACLU failed to join the National Lawyers Guild's press conference but did issue a statement criticizing Timoney and Abraham for ``overreacting to the disruptions and vandalism'' on Aug. 1.

``It should be noted that many of these protesters were out there opposing the death penalty and Ms. Abraham's position as a prominent advocate of capital punishment,'' said Larry Frankel, executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania.

Police said that about 155 protesters remained in jail on Tuesday, all but 10 of them activists who have refused to give their names to police in a show of jail solidarity. Prosecutors have suggested they could be in jail for months.

But on Tuesday, 16 protesters were released on their own recognizance after dropping out of the solidarity effort.

Also freed was John Sellers, 33, who heads the Ruckus Society, a California-based group that schools activists in the art of civil disobedience. He was jailed for a week on a string of misdemeanor charges with bail set initially at $1 million. On Monday, a judge reduced that to $100,000 and he was able to walk free after posting a $10,000 cash bond.

Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Lisa Richette also reduced bail from $500,000 to $100,000 for another alleged protest ringleader, 19-year-old Terrence McGuckin of Philadelphia.

----

ASA POL: US- Peace event: Crane sculpture unveiled to honor Nagasaki victims+

Kyodo
August 8, 2000
http://home.kyodo.co.jp/cgi-bin/photoindex

WASHINGTON, On the 55th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki Tuesday, "The Peace Crane" was unveiled at the Josephine Butler Community Center in Washington DC.

The seven-and-one-half-foot sculpture is meant to commemorate victims of radiation, militarism, and violence. It was commissioned by the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE) with the help of the Hiroshima Nagasaki Day Committee.

New York artist Marjorie Kouns was commissioned by GRACE to create the sculpture. She chose to use "found objects" such as electrical cord, a lamp shade, chicken wire, and wooden spoons because "the objects taken for granted represent the people that were taken for granted when the bomb was dropped." The one thousand spoons which make up the crane's plumage are engraved with the names of victims of nuclear arms.

Among the speakers were Nihon Hidankyo executive Nobuo Miyake (71), who was sixteen and a student in Hiroshima when the bomb was dropped there, and Kumiko Tanaka (20), who is active in the American University Coalition for a Nuclear Free World.

Born in Kochi-ken and a student at Kyoto's Ritsumeikan, Tanaka first became interested in the nuclear arms cause one year ago when she attended the annual anniversary ceremony in Hiroshima and was brought to tears.

"I think it's important to have this kind of ceremony, to remember the victims" she said.

After the unveiling and the speeches, the attending group moved to Meridian Hill Park in time for a moment of silence and candlelight vigil at 10pm, the moment the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. ==Kyodo

----

Convention Protester's $1 Million Bail Pared

Washington Post
Tuesday, August 8, 2000 ; A15
Reuters
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51857-2000Aug7.html

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 7 -- A Philadelphia judge today reduced the $1 million bail of an alleged ringleader arrested in a police crackdown against protesters trying to disrupt last week's Republican National Convention, clearing the way for his release.

John Sellers, 33, who heads the Berkeley, Calif.-based Ruckus Society, was one of two protesters whose bail was originally set at $1 million. Charged with a string of misdemeanors, Sellers has remained in jail for six days because his family was unable to post the 10 percent cash bond required for his release.

But today, Common Pleas Judge Lisa Richette reduced bail to $100,000 during a hearing in which Sellers's parents and sister appeared on his behalf. That would allow him to walk free after posting a $10,000 cash bond.

Sellers was expected to be released on Tuesday. "Once we get the money, we'll figure out who to give it to," said his father, Franklin Sellers of Phoenixville, Pa.

As Ruckus Society executive director, Sellers oversees training programs that school activists in the art of nonviolent civil disobedience. His organization gained notoriety after training protesters who railed against the World Trade Organization last year in Seattle and the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C., in April.

Philadelphia authorities blamed him and other alleged protest leaders for Aug. 1 demonstrations marked by sporadic violence, which snarled downtown traffic, injured more than a dozen police officers and damaged nearly 30 city vehicles. Nearly 400 protesters were arrested.

"He was involved in a conspiracy to basically disrupt the whole city," said assistant District Attorney Joel Rosen.

Sellers has been arrested as a protester a half-dozen times since 1992, though not in Seattle or the District.

The second protester jailed on $1 million bail was identified as Kathleen Sorensen, 34, a leading figure in Philadelphia Direct Action Group, a coalition of activist groups including the Ruckus Society, which organized the Republican convention protests.

Sorensen, also a member of the AIDS advocacy group ACT UP Philadelphia, is charged with felonies including arson, riot, risking a catastrophe and conspiracy.

Protest organizers and defense lawyers have decried the unusually high bail settings as evidence of illegal detention. "These attempts to criminalize legitimate free speech will have a chilling effect on other forms of legitimate dissent in this country," said defense lawyer Paul Hetznecker.

Also today, Richette refused to lower a $500,000 bail requirement for a 20-year-old North Carolina man charged with assaulting Police Commissioner John Timoney.

All told, more than 100 protesters remained in jail after refusing to give their names in an act of so-called jail solidarity. Richette refused to negotiate with them. But she agreed that 16 who had decided to cooperate could be released on their own recognizance once their identities had been verified.

-------

OneList subscribers:

NucNews - Please circulate -- help educate! - http://prop1.org

1. Clinton aides back missile shield
From: "Viviane Lerner" <vlerner@interpac.net>

2. NucNews 00/08/08 - Daybook etc.
From: Ellen Thomas <prop1@prop1.org>

3. Fw: courier-journal story/more personal injury lawsuits at paducah
From: "Vina Colley" <vcolley@earthlink.net>

4. Never be Free
From: ivan buchbinder <pentaske@memes.com>

5. Ecosystems are in Danger of Collapse
From: ivan buchbinder <pentaske@memes.com>

-------------

Message: 1
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 02:28:37 +0100
From: "Viviane Lerner" <vlerner@interpac.net>

Clinton aides back missile shield

Jane Martinson in New York
Monday August 7, 2000
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4048558,00.html

Clinton aides back missile shield President to decide this week whether to approve construction of controversial 'son of star wars' system

The controversial US national missile defence system could move a step closer this week when Pentagon officials are expected to advise President Bill Clinton to approve the first stage of construction.

William Cohen, the defence secretary, is expected to tell Mr Clinton that he should give the system - dubbed son of star wars in reference to the cold war programme worked on by the Reagan administration - a limited green light on the advice of key Pentagon advisers.

The advisers were yesterday named by the Washington Post as Rudy de Leon, Mr Cohen's deputy, Jacques S Gansler, the department's under-secretary for acquisition, and Walter Slocombe and James Bodner, two policy advisers. They are all understood to believe that the president should approve the award of contracts this winter to keep alive the possibility of building the full system next year.

If Mr Clinton gives the proposed $60bn anti-missile shield the go-ahead after meeting Mr Cohen later this week he would still be passing the buck to his successor on whether or not to embrace the plan. The decision, one of the first and most controversial facing the new president, is expected to feature heavily in the November elections.

Washington's plans to erect a satellite-controlled defence shield designed to protect the US against long-range missiles launched by "rogue" states such as North Korea and Iran have been condemned in Russia and some parts of Europe, amid fears that they could reignite the arms race in Asia. Officials in Beijing have already warned that China would end cooperation on arms control measures and anti-proliferation efforts if the anti-missile shield were to be erected.

The defence system itself has also come under fire, after tests last month failed to shoot down dummy warheads over the Pacific. An official report on the failure, expected to be released on Thursday, largely blames a malfunctioning 10-year-old circuit board for preventing the release of the missile from the rocket launcher and ruining a $100m test, according to yesterday's Washington Post.

The Pentagon is understood to want to keep its options open as the country prepares for a new president. Its officials have argued that in order to have the anti-missile system in place by 2005 - when North Korea is expected to have built its own long-range missiles - construction of the proposed radar station would have to begin next summer. Construction contracts would then need to be awarded this winter to start work on the radar station to be built on a remote island in Alaska.

This initial phase of construction would pay for materials which could then be used for other defence projects if the next president decides to veto the system.

"Much of the stuff you're going to buy is stuff the Army Corps of Engineers could use somewhere else anyway," an official told the Post.

However, the go-ahead would represent a highly symbolic move for such a controversial project.

The government's lawyers have warned that the system would contravene the 1972 anti-ballistic missile treaty.

Mr Cohen could still make a different recommendation to the president, although he is unlikely to reject advice from senior staff members.

A spokesman for the defence department said the reports about Mr Cohen's recommendation were premature.

Mr Clinton is also expected to weigh up a "national intelligence estimate" on how other countries would respond to the US decision, as well as the current state of the threat from North Korea, which has moved closer to South Korea, its pro-western neighbour, in recent months.

George W Bush, the Republican party's presidential nominee, has already expressed a preference for "a more robust" national security system, without providing too many details of these plans.

----------

Message: 2
Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2000 07:44:35 -0400
From: Ellen Thomas <prop1@prop1.org>

NucNews 00/08/08 - Daybook etc.

1) Washington Daybook, Washington Times and AFP, August 8, 2000 http://www.washtimes.com/national/daybook-20008821525.htm

Nagasaki commemoration - Hiroshima/Nagasaki Peace Committee presents "Hibakusha" A-bomb survivors, Nobuo Miyake, 71, and Mike Miyake, 71, participating in Nagasaki 55th anniversary commemoration events. Highlights - 10 a.m. - Bruderhof Vigil, West Front, U.S. Capitol 7 p.m. - Nagasaki Remembrance with unveiling of Memorial "Peace Crane" Sculpture for Radiation Victims, Josephine Butler Community Center, 15th and Euclid streets NW Contact: 202-682-4282.

Town Hall meeting - 7 p.m. - Office of Rep. Albert R. Wynn, Maryland Democrat, holds a Town Hall meeting to discuss community concerns and important issues facing the nation. Location: Springbrook High School, 201 Valley Brook, Silver Spring. Contact: 202/225-8699.

2) Three Mile Island Petition to Carter

Bill Smirnow has posted an online petition to President Carter asking that he tell the truth about what he knows about Three Mile Island. Please sign! http://www.PetitionOnline.com/tmi/petition.html

3) Puerto Rico - FEDERAL COVER-UP OF NUCLEAR BOMB IN VIEQUES

In February 1995, Noticentro 4, the news program of Puerto Rico's TV station WAPA TV, aired a special report entitled RED ALERT, in which it denounced what history has confirmed. . .the problems caused by the presence of the U.S. Navy in Vieques, Puerto Rico and the consequences of its practices over Vieques.

The special report, RED ALERT, by renowned reporter Pedro Rosa Nales, unleashed the fury of the high command of the U.S. Navy in Puerto Rico, which tried to have the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) revoke the TV station's license. The Navy also accused Pedro Rosa Nales of having violated the Espionage Law, a charge which did not succeed before the U.S. Justice Department.

During that investigation, the reporter revealed an incident with a nuclear bomb in Vieques in the mid-60's. Now, five years after that special report, Noticentro 4 has new evidence that confirms that the incident with the nuclear bomb in Vieques did indeed occur and that the U.S. Government, including the U.S. Navy, covered up the facts.

Don't miss this important and powerful special report, RED ALERT II: THE COVER UP, starting this Wednesday August 9, 2000 at 5:00PM EST on WAPA TV's Noticentro 4 (first part), continuing on Thursday August 10 at 5:00PM (second part) and ending on Friday August 11 at 5:00PM (third and final part).

If you are in Puerto Rico, we recommend that you watch and tape this special report. If you are outside of Puerto Rico, you can watch this special report live, or later on that night, through the Internet by accessing Noticentro 4's website: http://noticentro.coqui.net. Your computer must have a sound card and the program Streamworks, which you can download and install for free following the instructions in Noticentro 4's website.

------------

Message: 3
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 09:56:13 -0700
From: "Vina Colley" <vcolley@earthlink.net>

Tuesday, August 8, 2000
The Courier-Journal

Hazards were concealed from uranium-plant workers, 2 new suits say Lawyer says some got brain tumors from their jobs By JAMES MALONE The Courier-Journal

PADUCAH, Ky. -- Two lawsuits filed yesterday claim that the federal government and the companies it hired to run the Paducah uranium plant kept some of the dangers of the working conditions secret from employees. One suit says at least three workers contracted rare brain tumors.

Lawyer David R. Smith of Nashville, Tenn., filed suit in Paducah on behalf of three former workers, alleging that their jobs at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant caused the brain tumors, benign growths on the pituitary gland. The suit seeks $4 billion in damages and also requests class-action status for all of the plant's workers who developed tumors linked to radiation exposure.

In a class-action suit, one or more persons bring a legal action on behalf of themselves and a much larger group, who all have the same grounds for action. Claims made in filing any civil suit represent only one side of the situation.

The plaintiffs, James Dew of Gallatin, Tenn.; Jerome Vandeven of Paducah; and Betty Lynch of Paducah (on behalf of her late husband, Robert Edward Lynch) all worked at the plant decades ago. None of the plaintiffs was aware of his exposure to radiation until news reports published last fall, the suit alleged.

Dew worked at the plant from 1951 to 1988, spending time in a building where uranium compounds were processed and rising to become a top executive. He developed a pituitary tumor in 1964.

Vandeven, who died in 1986, was employed at the plant from 1955 to 1994 and had a pituitary tumor removed in 1984. Lynch, who worked there from 1952 to 1985, was diagnosed with a pituitary tumor in 1977 and had the gland removed in 1979.

"It's hard to say" how many workers have contracted occupational cancers, said Smith, the lawyer. But he claimed that the chances of getting pituitary cancer like his clients contracted are 20 in 1 million people and that the "epidemiological basis for a cause-effect relationship is exceedingly strong."

But Dr. George Zenger, a Louisville radiation oncologist and a former president of the Kentucky society of health physicists, said he is not aware of research linking radiation and pituitary adenomas, the benign tumors that affected the victims in the lawsuit. "We don't know their cause," he said.

The American Cancer Society's Web site says an inherited genetic defect causes 3 percent of the estimated 3,000 pituitary tumors diagnosed each year in the United States, but the cause of other cases is unknown.

According to the National Cancer Institute's Web site, there is strong evidence that high doses of radiation can cause brain and nervous-system cancers, but the evidence is not clear for lower doses, like the amounts to which plant workers were exposed.

The government does offer treatment "for pituitary lesions" for residents of the Marshall Islands who survived atomic-bomb testing in the Pacific, according to testimony on an Energy Department Web page.

Walter Perry, an Energy Department spokesman in Oak Ridge, Tenn., said the DOE had not been served with the suits. "But they will in no way affect the department's commitment to follow through on working to get compensation for sick workers and continuing the investigation that will shed light on what happened many years ago at Energy Department sites across the country ," Perry said. "Secretary (Bill) Richardson will continue to make those issues a top priority."

The three plaintiffs' medical records were examined by an unnamed international expert on tumors of the pituitary gland who concluded that "excessive, unlawful and non-consensual" radiation exposure at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant was "the cause of the plaintiffs' pituitary tumors," the complaint said.

Moreover, the Energy Department has already acknowledged that pituitary lesions can be linked to excessive radiation and such links also appear in medical and scientific literature, the suit alleges. The DOE said no studies show high rates of pituitary tumors among people who have been exposed to radiation.

As what it called another example of laxness, the suit said that from 1952 to 1984, the plant unit assigned to protect workers from radiation had only two to six employees to cover as many as 2,500 people.

The defendants in the suit are the former operators of the plant, Union Carbide and Martin Marietta, now Lockheed Martin; and three companies that produced reactor tails (spent reactor fuel) that was sent to Paducah for enrichment. That spent fuel allegedly contained dangerous amounts of trans-uranic elements, highly radioactive elements that include neptunium and plutonium. The companies are General Electric; National Lead of Ohio and its successor, NL Industries Inc.; and DuPont.

Other defendants are Richardson, the energy secretary; individuals with the Atomic Energy Commission; and managers and supervisors of the defendant companies.

A 9-month-old lawsuit requests class-action status for up to 10,000 present and former workers seeking $10 billion for being exposed to harmful radiation while working at the Paducah plant. Those same plaintiffs, in the second lawsuit filed yesterday, asked to hold more people and companies accountable. Although the former suit named companies as defendants, yesterday's suit attempts to hold accountable dozens of people in government, including Richardson and decision-makers with contractors and suppliers.

The plaintiffs are filing under the 1971 Bivens case that allows people deprived of their constitutional rights to sue the responsible parties for damages. It's also a legal avenue around any workers' compensation limitations that might restrict liability in the plaintiffs' other lawsuit filed last year in U.S. District Court in Paducah, said William McMurry of Louisville, a lawyer for the former workers and their families.

The suit says federal documents show a "conscious plan, agreement and conspiracy" between the Atomic Energy Commission and its successor, the Department of Energy, and the defendants "to expose workers to dangerous radioactive elements and conceal the hazards and risks."

The plaintiffs did not know they had been exposed until news accounts last year that cited the DOE's own reports showing a "climate of secrecy" existed about conditions at the plant, the suit alleges. The secrecy, the suit contends, violated the plaintiffs' "right to know" about their working conditions.

In particular, the suit cites remarks that Richardson made when he visited Paducah last September and apologized for the government's not being forthright about the risks employees had encountered.

Filed yesterday in federal court in Louisville, the new suit mirrors most of the allegations in the earlier one: that companies knew there was dangerous radiation at the plant and failed to warn and protect workers. But the newer suit goes further, and names as defendants supervisors and managers at the Paducah plant and officials of Union Carbide and Lockheed Martin (now Martin Marietta), the companies that ran the plant between 1952 and 1999.

As the earlier suit did, the new one also makes General Electric a defendant for producing nuclear fuel at the Hanford Reservation in Richland, Wash., that was sent to Paducah for processing and that contained dangerous transuranic elements absorbed during weapons production.

The defendants in McMurry's suit mirror those in the workers' suit over the pituitary tumors.

Both suits were filed a day before the first anniversary of an Aug. 8, 1999, article in the Washington Post that disclosed a secret whistle-blower lawsuit had been filed by three workers and the Natural Resources Defense Council. It alleged that former plant operators defrauded the government by collecting millions of dollars in bonuses by under-reporting radiation and pollution at the plant. The defendants denied the charges in the earlier class-action suit.

--------------

Message: 4
Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2000 08:21:53 -0700
From: ivan buchbinder <pentaske@memes.com>
Subject: Never be Free

Y'all, So much for "Cleaning Up" Nuc waste eh! The Dragon's spin Doc's should be working overtime on this little Jem.
Later

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/updates/lat_nukes000808.htm http://www.nationalacademies.org/nrc/

--------------

Message: 5
Date: Wed, 09 Aug 2000 00:41:29 -0700
From: ivan buchbinder <pentaske@memes.com>

Ecosystems are in Danger of Collapse

Y'all, ARROGANCE, yes as we deal with Nuc issues, we are blinded by solipsism of the cause. Take a hard look at were YOU live .... your neighborhood. It is dying right before your eyes. WE are in DEEP SHIT!! Rachel Carson saw it coming years ago when she penned "Silent Spring" .

""...we have put poisonous and biologically potent chemicals indiscriminately into the hands of persons largely or wholly ignorant of their potentials for harm. We have subjected enormous numbers of people to contact with these poisons, without their consent and often without their knowledge. It is the public that is being asked to assume the risks that the insect controllers calculate. The public must decide whether it wishes to continue on the present road, and it can only do so when in full possession of the facts."

"The choice, after all, is ours to make. If, after having endured much, we have at last asserted our 'right to know,' and if, knowing, we have concluded that we are being asked to take senseless and frightening risks, then we should no longer accept the counsel of those who tell us that we must fill our world with poisonous chemicals; we should look about and see what other course is open to us." (Silent Spring, 1962)"

Well Droogies, wake up to the fact that this is a Holistic battle. There is hope if WE make the right choice.

Later "If we are not careful, we will end up in a world where the only things alive are the ones with a direct use to us. It is possible to survive in such a world for a while, although that's unlikely, but it's not one I want to live in"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000118613908976&rtmo=VPPjlVPx&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/00/8/9/neco09.html


===========================================================

DOEWatch List ----A Magnum-Opus Project ---
Subscribe online: http://www.onelist.com

1. Oak Ridge protesters won't be prosecuted
From: magnu96196@aol.com

2. Congressman: Reno a traitor
From: "Paul Maser" <pmaser@govmail.state.nv.us>

3. Platts: Tuesday, August 08, 2000
From: "Paul Maser" <pmaser@govmail.state.nv.us>

4. Hazards were concealed from uranium-plant workers, 2 new suits say
From: magnu96196@aol.com

5. Childhood Head and Neck Irradiation
From: magnu96196@aol.com

6. 2 DOE suits ask billions to ill workers
From: magnu96196@aol.com

7. Alleged Conspiracy at Paducah Plant
From: magnu96196@aol.com

8. DOE to buy back tainted metal from contractor
From: magnu96196@aol.com

9. Our Views: K-25 water testing attacks are premature
From: magnu96196@aol.com

10. DOE will buy back BNFL's recycled metals
From: magnu96196@aol.com

11. Y-12 protesters will not be prosecuted
From: magnu96196@aol.com

12. Pay up, city says to DOE
From: magnu96196@aol.com

13. Former Paducah workers' lawsuits seek billions
From: magnu96196@aol.com

14. Nuclear sites deemed risky; study faults long-term management plans
From: magnu96196@aol.com

--------

Message: 1
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 05:49:43 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Oak Ridge protesters won't be prosecuted
Activists wanted cases to go to court

August 8, 2000
By Frank Munger, News-Sentinel Oak Ridge bureau
Source: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/12944.shtml

OAK RIDGE -- The attorney general in Anderson County says he won't prosecute cases from Sunday's protest at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, and trespassing charges against 23 protesters apparently will be dismissed. District Attorney General Jim Ramsey made a similar ruling in April when state charges were brought against protesters trespassing at Y-12, and he warned Oak Ridge Police Chief David Beams in an Aug. 2 letter that he would not prosecute "minor infractions" arising from the Hiroshima Day protest.

"There is no sense playing into their hands by cooperating in civil disobedience to overcrowd our jails and the justice system," Ramsey wrote to Beams.

Beams said Monday that police mistakenly charged the protesters under the state statute for "criminal trespassing." He said the intent was to cite protesters with violations of a city ordinance.

"There was a miscommunication in the field," the police chief said.

Asked if police could refile charges against protesters who trespassed on federal property, using the city ordinance, Beams said, "We probably could, but we probably won't."

He said he had no objection to the cases being dismissed.

"Our concern is to maintain the peace and order at the demonstration ... and we're satisfied we did a good job of that," Beams said.

Ralph Hutchison, coordinator of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, which sponsored the protest, accused police of "abusing the legal system."

"When they charged people with the state charges, they had full knowledge they wouldn't be prosecuted," Hutchison said.

Lissa McLeod, one of the protesters arrested Sunday, said she's disappointed. She said Y-12 is violating international law by producing nuclear weapons, and peace activists want a chance to argue their case in a court.

"We're not going to stop just because the state chooses not to prosecute," the Lake City resident said. "We'll be out there again."

Frank Munger may be reached at 865-482-9213 or twig1@knoxnews.infi.net.

========

Comments:

This was not likely a mistaken communication, as Ramsey's position is well known. I personally think Ramsey wise in not mucking up the system with these show arrests. Even when they go to city court, it is a slap on the wrist small fine.

Seems like Lisa McLeod is the wife of Ralph H., and both live in Lake City. If they want some court action on illegal nukes, file in fed or international court.

For twelve years this parade has gone on, and the police are just outsmarting the activists these days. Oak Ridge is a DOE company town.

I'd be nice to stop making nukes one day, but with the current evolution of the humans, not too likely. Perhaps with efforts toward unified govt. and equal care for all citizens of the world-----it may one day be possible. The US can't even take care of its poor at levels equal to europe. US has hardly figured out that the way to control crime is to protect human rights and set minimum standards for prosperity. Right now the economy is driven in part by pollution and health impacts, which give rise to lowered learning, more violence, and profits for pollution industry and medicine. One day soon, the citizens should discover there is that link and design a health care system that impacts the govt, so the govt will police the polluters.

Which is more moral or realistic, show arrests about idealistic goals, or incremental progress on realistic current problems. We got into the entire Hitler thing over oppression of people and explotation of that. You address that, and you eliminate the need for nuke bombs. Till that is driven home, the problems will persist.

------------

Message: 2
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 06:17:45 -0700
From: "Paul Maser" <pmaser@govmail.state.nv.us>

Congressman: Reno a traitor

By Jon E. Dougherty
WorldNetDaily.com
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_dougherty/20000808_xnjdo_cong ressma.shtml

Congressman: Reno a traitor Traficant accuses U.S. attorney general of high treason, ties to organized crime

A U.S. congressman accused Attorney General Janet Reno of a range of illegalities, sexual improprieties and ties to the mob -- as well as treason -- on a national television news show last night. http://www.house.gov/traficant Rep. James Traficant, D-Ohio, who is currently under investigation by the FBI for his own alleged ties to organized crime, made the explosive charges on Fox News Channel's http://www.foxnews.com/channel/hannity_colmes.sml Hannity and Colmes program Monday.

Rep. James Traficant, D-Ohio

Accusing Reno of "treason" for her failure to appoint a special counsel to look into charges that China stole reams of sensitive nuclear weapons data from the United States, Traficant said he has "sworn affidavits" from unidentified sources claiming Reno has also had lesbian affairs, has frequented call girls and has engaged in substance abuse.

The fiery Ohio congressman told viewers that sources close to him "had videotaped evidence" of sexual improprieties as well as the testimony "of five police officers" who have "stopped Reno for substance abuse."

But Traficant was most adamant about his charges that Reno may have committed acts of treason against the United States.

"I'm accusing the attorney general of treason," he proclaimed. "She has set herself above the national security of this nation, and I'm going to attempt to get all the information out" to the general public. Traficant, who himself is http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_dougherty/20000707_xnjdo_traficant_.shtml under investigation by the FBI for alleged mob connections, denied that his charges were made to deflect attention from himself.

"Do you want Janet Reno to sue you?" asked show host Alan Colmes at one point.

"Go ahead, Ms. Reno, sue me," Traficant shot back. "Let's get this into a trial. Let's get it all out in the open."

On the crucial issue of suspected Chinese theft of U.S. nuclear weapons secrets, Traficant said the nation hasn't "had so much as a high school debate on the issue."

When questioned about the veracity of the affidavits, Traficant said he "didn't know" whether they were completely true or not, but added they were "important enough" to examine.

He also said the "entire Justice Department" has become little more than a vetting agency charged with concealing sensitive and potentially damaging information about alleged illegalities within the Clinton administration and, specifically, the department itself. "I also want to know -- is Ms. Reno subject to blackmail over this information, and does [President] Clinton have this information?" Traficant said. "Did the FBI ever look into these charges? What do they know?"

The Ohio congressman said he believed that because of the charges he outlined and those contained in the affidavits he claimed to have, Reno has failed to conduct serious investigations into Chinese nuclear weapons theft, as well as a range of other Clinton administration scandals.

"She's too compromised," he said, adding that she had been "fast- tracked into her attorney general's position" to start with. Traficant said Reno's alleged improprieties occurred while she was a Dade County (Miami, Fla.) state prosecutor and municipal judge. "None of this is about Democrats and Republicans," Traficant said. "It's about getting the truth to come out."

The Justice Department was not available for comment at press time. Meanwhile, FBI investigators http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_dougherty/20000707_xnjdo_traficant_.shtml are examining Traficant's own alleged ties to organized crime, something he says is politically motivated and unfounded.

The investigation stems from alleged decades-old ties between Traficant and mob figures from Youngstown, Ohio, where the congressman was once a county sheriff who, the FBI said, was elected with money donated from reputed organized crime figures. Traficant was arrested by the FBI in 1982, but at a trial in which he defended himself, the soon-to-be U.S. congressman beat the charges that he was tied to the mob, but later, in 1987, was charged and convicted of tax fraud in a case connected with the 1982 charges.

Other reputed mob figures with alleged ties to Traficant have already been indicted by the FBI. And, in an http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_fosterj_news/20000727_xnfoj_congressma.shtml earlier appearance July 26 on Hannity and Colmes, Traficant accused former Federal Bureau of Investigation division chief Stanley Peterson of being on the payroll of the mafia -- a charge he had previously made only in the House chamber, where he was protected against being charged with defamation.

"I have irrefutable evidence that the FBI was on the payroll of organized crime in my valley," he said. "And the FBI and the Justice Department never investigated Stanley Peterson. Now, I could be sued -- I'm on Hannity and Colmes. He (Peterson) was the chief of the division of the FBI in Youngstown, on the payroll of the mob, was appointed chief of police at the direction of the mob. They never had an investigation, and there are agents there right now who are on the payroll of the mob, and the Justice Department did nothing about it."

Traficant has also said he expects "any day now" to be indicted by the FBI, though no charges have yet been filed against him.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_fosterj_news/20000727_xnfoj_congressma.shtml Congressman alleges FBI-Mob connections

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_dougherty/20000707_xnjdo_traficant_.shtml Traficant, Riady, Starr aide probed

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_dougherty/20000406_xnjdo_proposed_a.shtml Proposed agency to investigate Justice

{HYPERLINK "mailto:jdougherty@worldnetdaily.com"}Jon E. Dougherty is a staff reporter for WorldNetDaily.

-----------

Message: 3
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 06:22:40 -0700
From: "Paul Maser" <pmaser@govmail.state.nv.us>

Platts: Nuclear News Flashes
Tuesday, August 08, 2000

Washington - FirstEnergy reportedly trying to buy GPU FirstEnergy Corp. is reportedly in talks to acquire GPU Inc. Neither company would comment today on the reports. FirstEnergy operates 16 power plants, including four nuclear reactors--Beaver Valley-1 and -2, Davis-Besse, and Perry. GPU has divested nearly all its generating assets. It sold Three Mile Island-1 last year to AmerGen and is completing another deal with AmerGen for the sale of Oyster Creek. The Oyster Creek transaction should close within a few days, said GPU spokesman Ned Raynolds. Meanwhile, he said, the company is committed to improving its transmission and distribution system and is looking to expand its nonregulated businesses.

Washington (Nuclear News Flashes)-August 7, 2000 Dominion Energy to buy Millstone for $1.3-billion cash Dominion Energy made the winning bid of $1.3-billion cash for Millstone. The deal includes $105-million for the fuel and $1.195- billion for the plant and related facilities, including the shutdown unit 1. Northeast Utilities is expected to transfer $768-million to Dominion at closing for decommissioning costs. The companies expect to close the deal in April 2001. The ongoing process of putting Millstone-1 into long-term storage will continue, according to a Dominion spokesman. Sources said there were some half-dozen bids for the plant, which has two operating units totaling a little more than 2,000 net megawatts. The winning bid was selected by consultant J.P. Morgan and Connecticut regulators. Dominion operates the North Anna and Surry plants, which total about 3,400 net MW.

Washington (Nuclear News Flashes) Aug. 4, 2000 California regulators launch probe of electricity shortages California regulators said yesterday they will investigate the state's wholesale electric market and the impact that market has on retail electric rates in San Diego Gas & Electric Co.'s (SDG&E) service area. "A combinati on of heat waves across the West, a drop in reserves, and significantly increased demand have accompanied much higher wholesale energy costs in the forward and real time energy markets," an order the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved said. Because SDG&E is no longer subject to a rate freeze, its "consumers are exposed directly to these volatile, and very high wholesale prices," it added. SDG&E retail rates have increased by as much as 80% even though the Independent System Operator, which operates the transmission system, reduced its price caps for real-time markets from $750 per megawatt (MW) to $250 per MW in an effort to control prices, the CPUC noted. It said it would coordinate and cooperate fully with the state Attorney General's Office on investigation matters outside its jurisdiction and that it will review potential remedies at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

-----------

Message: 4
Tue, 8 Aug 2000 10:03:12 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Hazards were concealed from uranium-plant workers, 2 new suits say
Lawyer says some got brain tumors from their jobs

August 8, 2000
By JAMES MALONE
The Courier-Journal
http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2000/0008/08/000808uran.html

PADUCAH, Ky. -- Two lawsuits filed yesterday claim that the federal government and the companies it hired to run the Paducah uranium plant kept some of the dangers of the working conditions secret from employees. One suit says at least three workers contracted rare brain tumors.

Lawyer David R. Smith of Nashville, Tenn., filed suit in Paducah on behalf of three former workers, alleging that their jobs at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant caused the brain tumors, benign growths on the pituitary gland. The suit seeks $4 billion in damages and also requests class-action status for all of the plant's workers who developed tumors linked to radiation exposure.

In a class-action suit, one or more persons bring a legal action on behalf of themselves and a much larger group, who all have the same grounds for action. Claims made in filing any civil suit represent only one side of the situation.

The plaintiffs, James Dew of Gallatin, Tenn.; Jerome Vandeven of Paducah; and Betty Lynch of Paducah (on behalf of her late husband, Robert Edward Lynch) all worked at the plant decades ago. None of the plaintiffs was aware of his exposure to radiation until news reports published last fall, the suit alleged.

Dew worked at the plant from 1951 to 1988, spending time in a building where uranium compounds were processed and rising to become a top executive. He developed a pituitary tumor in 1964.

Vandeven, who died in 1986, was employed at the plant from 1955 to 1994 and had a pituitary tumor removed in 1984. Lynch, who worked there from 1952 to 1985, was diagnosed with a pituitary tumor in 1977 and had the gland removed in 1979.

"It's hard to say" how many workers have contracted occupational cancers, said Smith, the lawyer. But he claimed that the chances of getting pituitary cancer like his clients contracted are 20 in 1 million people and that the "epidemiological basis for a cause-effect relationship is exceedingly strong."

But Dr. George Zenger, a Louisville radiation oncologist and a former president of the Kentucky society of health physicists, said he is not aware of research linking radiation and pituitary adenomas, the benign tumors that affected the victims in the lawsuit. "We don't know their cause," he said.

The American Cancer Society's Web site says an inherited genetic defect causes 3 percent of the estimated 3,000 pituitary tumors diagnosed each year in the United States, but the cause of other cases is unknown.

According to the National Cancer Institute's Web site, there is strong evidence that high doses of radiation can cause brain and nervous-system cancers, but the evidence is not clear for lower doses, like the amounts to which plant workers were exposed.

The government does offer treatment "for pituitary lesions" for residents of the Marshall Islands who survived atomic-bomb testing in the Pacific, according to testimony on an Energy Department Web page.

Walter Perry, an Energy Department spokesman in Oak Ridge, Tenn., said the DOE had not been served with the suits. "But they will in no way affect the department's commitment to follow through on working to get compensation for sick workers and continuing the investigation that will shed light on what happened many years ago at Energy Department sites across the country ," Perry said. "Secretary (Bill) Richardson will continue to make those issues a top priority."

The three plaintiffs' medical records were examined by an unnamed international expert on tumors of the pituitary gland who concluded that "excessive, unlawful and non-consensual" radiation exposure at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant was "the cause of the plaintiffs' pituitary tumors," the complaint said.

Moreover, the Energy Department has already acknowledged that pituitary lesions can be linked to excessive radiation and such links also appear in medical and scientific literature, the suit alleges. The DOE said no studies show high rates of pituitary tumors among people who have been exposed to radiation.

As what it called another example of laxness, the suit said that from 1952 to 1984, the plant unit assigned to protect workers from radiation had only two to six employees to cover as many as 2,500 people.

The defendants in the suit are the former operators of the plant, Union Carbide and Martin Marietta, now Lockheed Martin; and three companies that produced reactor tails (spent reactor fuel) that was sent to Paducah for enrichment. That spent fuel allegedly contained dangerous amounts of trans-uranic elements, highly radioactive elements that include neptunium and plutonium. The companies are General Electric; National Lead of Ohio and its successor, NL Industries Inc.; and DuPont.

Other defendants are Richardson, the energy secretary; individuals with the Atomic Energy Commission; and managers and supervisors of the defendant companies.

A 9-month-old lawsuit requests class-action status for up to 10,000 present and former workers seeking $10 billion for being exposed to harmful radiation while working at the Paducah plant. Those same plaintiffs, in the second lawsuit filed yesterday, asked to hold more people and companies accountable. Although the former suit named companies as defendants, yesterday's suit attempts to hold accountable dozens of people in government, including Richardson and decision-makers with contractors and suppliers.

The plaintiffs are filing under the 1971 Bivens case that allows people deprived of their constitutional rights to sue the responsible parties for damages. It's also a legal avenue around any workers' compensation limitations that might restrict liability in the plaintiffs' other lawsuit filed last year in U.S. District Court in Paducah, said William McMurry of Louisville, a lawyer for the former workers and their families.

The suit says federal documents show a "conscious plan, agreement and conspiracy" between the Atomic Energy Commission and its successor, the Department of Energy, and the defendants "to expose workers to dangerous radioactive elements and conceal the hazards and risks."

The plaintiffs did not know they had been exposed until news accounts last year that cited the DOE's own reports showing a "climate of secrecy" existed about conditions at the plant, the suit alleges. The secrecy, the suit contends, violated the plaintiffs' "right to know" about their working conditions.

In particular, the suit cites remarks that Richardson made when he visited Paducah last September and apologized for the government's not being forthright about the risks employees had encountered.

Filed yesterday in federal court in Louisville, the new suit mirrors most of the allegations in the earlier one: that companies knew there was dangerous radiation at the plant and failed to warn and protect workers. But the newer suit goes further, and names as defendants supervisors and managers at the Paducah plant and officials of Union Carbide and Lockheed Martin (now Martin Marietta), the companies that ran the plant between 1952 and 1999.

As the earlier suit did, the new one also makes General Electric a defendant for producing nuclear fuel at the Hanford Reservation in Richland, Wash., that was sent to Paducah for processing and that contained dangerous transuranic elements absorbed during weapons production.

The defendants in McMurry's suit mirror those in the workers' suit over the pituitary tumors.

Both suits were filed a day before the first anniversary of an Aug. 8, 1999, article in the Washington Post that disclosed a secret whistle-blower lawsuit had been filed by three workers and the Natural Resources Defense Council. It alleged that former plant operators defrauded the government by collecting millions of dollars in bonuses by under-reporting radiation and pollution at the plant. The defendants denied the charges in the earlier class-action suit.

----------

Message: 5
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 11:26:16 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Childhood Head and Neck Irradiation

http://www.thyroid.org/patient/brochur6.htm

Beginning in the 1920s and on through the mid-1960s, x-ray treatments found many special uses. Before antibiotics were available and in the absence of specific therapy, x-ray was generally considered a medically effective and safe procedure for treating inflamed tonsils, adenoids, lymph nodes, or an enlarged thymus gland. A number of other benign conditions were also treated, especially teenage acne.

In the early 1950s researchers began to note a relationship between external radiation to the head and neck in infancy and childhood and the later development of abnormalities of the thyroid gland. This observation was first suspected when a number of adult patients being treated for thyroid cancer reported that they had received head or neck x-ray treatments as children. The relationship was first thought to be coincidental. However, studies of patients known to have received neck irradiation were started, and a search was made to find such patients so that their thyroids might be examined carefully. When these studies established the relationship, x-ray therapy for benign conditions was discontinued. More recent studies indicate that x-ray therapy in childhood for malignant conditions (Hodgkin's disease, throat cancer, etc.) may also be associated with thyroid nodules, as well as causing more patients to develop hypothyroidism.

Patients exposed as children to x-ray therapy sometimes have irregularities in the thyroid gland and sometimes small, localized, enlarged areas called nodules. Thyroid nodules themselves are not unusual. Tiny ones (usually less than 1 cm in size) are present in up to 40% of the population. The overwhelming majority of palpable thyroid nodules pose no threat to the individual. They should, however, always be recognized and investigated since, in a small percentage of patients, thyroid cancer may be found.

The chances of a person exposed to therapeutic x-ray therapy developing a thyroid nodule is higher than in the general population; furthermore, a nodule in an exposed person has a higher chance of being malignant than a nodule in an unexposed person.

The majority of thyroid cancers are slow growing and may not cause symptons for a long period of time. Because of their very slow growth rate, there is rarely any need for patients to act precipitously in undertaking treatment. Thus, the patient has time to consider the treatment alternatives. Moreover, in most patients in whom thyroid cancer is diagnosed, complete cure is achieved by proper medical management and serious complications are unusual.

Because an association between early x-ray treatments to the head and neck and the later development of thyroid cancer has been clearly established, it is important that people who received these treatments have a careful thyroid examination and subsequent routine follow-up examinations of their thyroid gland for the rest of their lives.

Were You Really Exposed to X-Rays?

The first fact to determine is whether x-ray treatments were actually given to your face or neck area. This is sometimes difficult to determine, because patients either may not remember details of treatment carried out many years previously, or the information simply may no longer be available. It is useful to ask relatives to recall anything about the treatment. For example, treatments given in a doctorís office usually required between two and ten visits, usually were given with a large machine, and the patients usually remained alone in the procedure room during the treatment.

Sometimes, x-ray treatments for acne are confused with ultraviolet light treatment for acne. Although both were given by skin specialists (dermatologists), often an attendant remained in the room during the ultraviolet treatment (this was not usually the case with x-ray treatments).

X-ray treatments should not be confused with diagnostic x-ray pictures, such as chest or dental x-rays or thyroid scans, which have not been shown to have harmful after effects. Also, radiation treatments to the tonsils in the form of radium implants have not been associated with subsequent thyroid problems.

If at all possible, you should attempt to obtain hospital or doctorís records to be certain that radiation treatments did actually occur. Unfortunately, many records have been lost or discarded, since records usually are not retained longer than 15 to 20 years.

What Should You Do Next?

If it seems possible that you received such x-ray treatments, you should undergo a thyroid examination even if there is no obvious evidence of a thyroid problem. Usually, the first step is careful physical examination of the head and neck with direct palpation of the thyroid gland. If no definite abnormality is detected by an experienced examiner, no further tests may be needed. If doubt exists, thyroid ultrasound or radioiodine scanning may be performed to look for irregularities or areas of decreased function within the thyroid gland. These procedures are easy and safe to perform, with no pain or discomfort. They often provide useful information that may assist your physician in advising you about additional tests or treatments.

What If Thyroid Abnormalities are Found?

If a thyroid abnormality is found on physical examination, your physician may suggest various options. In some circumstances, a needle biopsy may be recommended. This simple and almost painless procedure can provide much useful information about the thyroid tissue that makes up the abnormality. Alternatively, your physician may recommend surgery, which not only removes the area in question, but also makes it possible to directly examine the rest of the thyroid and thereby be sure that cancer is not present in some other parts of the thyroid.

What About Thyroid Hormone Medication?

In some circumstances, especially when the history of neck irradiation is established but no nodule is found, some thyroid experts believe that thyroid hormone medication should be given to suppress the growth and function of the thyroid. This is especially true if the thyroid is enlarged or ìlumpy,î but no definite nodule is present, or if the patient had large doses of x-rays to the neck for cancer treatment.

When thyroid hormone medication is given, the pituitary is fooled into thinking that the thyroid is making too much hormone. To compensate, the pituitary decreases its output of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and, as a result, the stimulation to the thyroid gland is sharply reduced, putting the thyroid gland to rest. This state continues as long as the thyroid hormone is taken by the patient. Although some experts think that a resting thyroid gland is much less likely to produce thyroid nodules or cancer, there is, in fact, no firm evidence that this is the case in humans. However, since the medication is relatively free of side effects when given in the right dose, many physicians feel that the potential benefits outweigh the very low risks.

The patient who takes the correct amount of thyroid hormone feels no change in well-being and no symptoms of altered thyroid function. If at any time there is reason to discontinue the thyroid hormone pills ,the patientís own thyroid promptly will regain its normal function.

How Often Should You See Your Doctor?

If you have been exposed to neck radiation, either as a child or an adult, you should see your doctor on a regular basis throughout your life. This usually only means an annual examination of the thyroid gland, which can be done at the time of a regular general physical examination. Measurement of blood thyroid hormone and TSH levels is also considered desirable, to ensure those levels are in the normal range. Should hypothyroidism develop at any time, supplemental thyroid hormone treatment to restore thyroid blood levels to normal is essential.

Above all, if you think you may have received radiation treatments to the head and neck area in the past, talk to your physician about them and arrange to have a proper medical evaluation.

------------

Message: 6
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 13:14:09 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

2 DOE suits ask billions to ill workers
The new actions also call government officials as well as contractors to task for illnesses of employees at the Paducah plant.

By Joe Walker jwalker@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650
http://www.paducahsun.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?/200008/08+01o1_news.html+20000808+news

The third and fourth major federal lawsuits have been filed over contamination and alleged radiation poisoning of some workers at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. A 34-page suit, seeking $2 billion in compensatory and $2 billion in punitive damages, was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Paducah by attorney David R. Smith of Nashville, Tenn. It was filed on behalf of workers who sustained rare pituitary tumors ``as a result of excessive, unlawful and nonconsensual exposures to radioactive substances including plutonium and neptunium.´´

A similar suit was filed Monday in U.S. District in Louisville. That suit, filed by attorney William F. McMurry of Louisville, seeks $5 billion each in compensatory and punitive damages.

Each suit names Union Carbide Corp., Martin Marietta Corp., Martin Marietta Energy Systems Inc., Martin Marietta Utility Services Inc., Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Energy Systems Inc., Lockheed Martin Utility Services Inc., General Electric Co., E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., NL Industries Inc. and NLO Inc.

Carbide and Lockheed Martin are former plant contractors. GE, DuPont and National Lead ran nuclear fuel facilities that delivered contaminated material to the Paducah plant.

The Paducah suit names Energy Secretary Bill Richardson as a defendant - alleging government officials and their contractors conspired to poison uranium workers at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.

Plaintiffs are former plant workers James E. Dew and Jerome Vandeven, their wives, and Betty Jane Lynch, administrator of the estate of former plant employee Robert E. Lynch. Dew and Vandeven survived pituitary tumors, the suit claims, and Lynch died in 1986 after two pituitary surgeries and radiation-induced complications.

Smith said his suit differs from previous actions because it:

--Seeks to hold a class of government officials and their contractors individually accountable for radiation poisoning. The other two suits were against contractors only.

"The first suit theorized the government had been defrauded," Smith said. "I'm turning it around and saying quite the opposite. This suit alleges that the Atomic Energy Commission (DOE's predecessor) and its employees were a party to the fraud."

--Specifically names Richardson, who, since the previous suits were filed last year, has conducted lengthy investigations and admitted governmental wrongdoing. The lawsuit would require him to identify many unknown government workers who allegedly perpetuated the fraud.

"We're not suing him as being personally liable. We're serving the suit on him and saying he's the guy to identify these people," Smith said.

--Alleges workers' constitutional rights were violated by their being exposed to radiation and denied information about it. The suit names individual federal government officials in the same manner as a 1971 U.S. Supreme Court case permitted FBI agents to be sued for storming a house and beating up the occupants despite not having a search warrant, Smith said.

--Is a would-be class action for all workers who had cancer or rare pituitary tumors as a result of working at the plant. "It has been well-demonstrated that radiation has a particular affinity for the pituitary gland," the lawsuit alleges.

There were 3,000 to 10,000 people who worked at the plant from 1952 to 1998, but the actual number of people with pituitary tumors and radiation-induced cancers is unknown, the lawsuit says.

Dew, now of Gallatin, Tenn., worked at the plant from July 1951 to November 1988. He was process manager for the separation of uranium isotopes and finished his career as a senior staff member for the plant manager. He was diagnosed with a pituitary tumor in 1964 and underwent radiation treatment in 1965, the suit claims.

Vandeven, of Paducah, worked at the plant from 1955 to 1994 mainly in the inspection and plant engineering departments. He had surgery for a pituitary tumor in 1984.

Paducahan Lynch worked at the plant from 1952, when he was involved in enrichment operations, until 1985, when he received disability retirement. He had surgery in 1977 to remove a pituitary tumor and in 1979 to remove the entire gland when the tumor came back. The lawsuit alleges the men got sick from excessive exposure to radiation, including neptunium and plutonium that were contaminants in uranium from spent reactor fuel recycled by the plant.

After publicity mounted, the plaintiffs contacted Smith, who submitted their medical records to a "world leading expert" on pituitary tumors, the suit contends.

In an interview, Smith said he would not identify the expert until directed by a judge. "I just don't want to have him barraged with questions right now," Smith said.

Besides Richardson, 16 men employed by the Atomic Energy Commission or successor DOE are named as defendants. They are K.C. Brooks, Bernie Stiller, Ewart Nitschke, Shields Warren, Gordon Dean, John Nehemias, Arthur Schoen, "Mr. Greenlaff," Claire Palmiter, Charles Keller and Drs. Ernest Goodpasture, Allen Greg, John Bugher, William Lotz, C.S. Shoup and Donald Ross.

Brooks, Stiller and Nitschke were employed with the AEC at Paducah, Smith said. Because Nitschke died in 1987, his estate is a defendant.

A 1960 memo established that AEC officials, including Stiller and Nitschke, and the plant's health physics and hygiene department were aware of the potential hazards in contaminated uranium, particularly that of highly radioactive neptunium, the suit alleges.

Released by DOE, the memo states "there are possibly 300 people at Paducah who should be checked out, but they hesitate to proceed to intensive study because of the union's use of this as an excuse for hazard pay."

Keller is living in Oak Ridge, Tenn., but the whereabouts of the 14 other defendants, "or whether they are alive, is presently unknown," the suit says.

The two previous lawsuits were filed by Washington lawyer Joe Egan and McMurry. The Egan suit seeks to include DOE against the former contractors. McMurry, who filed a broader lawsuit that seeks to be a class action, is among five lawyers to join Smith's suit. McMurry said his latest suit was ``filed on behalf of the same workers and their families (as the first suit), however, it is against the federal government, the employees of the federal government who conspired with the contractors to expose these workers to harmful radiation without their consent or knowledge, which is a violation of the workers´ constitutional rights.´´

Egan's suit is pending a decision, expected later this year, by the government whether to join the action.

"I'm sure the court will consider consolidation, and I don't think this will add to the burden of the court," Smith said. "All these defendants are already in the other classes. This is a subclass that targets specific violations."

Richardson´s spokeswoman declined to specifically comment on the suits.

``We have not yet been served with the lawsuits that were filed today, but they in no way affect the department´s commitment to follow through on working to get compensation for sick nuclear workers and continuing the investigations that will shed light on what happened many years ago at Energy Department sites across the country,´´ she said.

--------

Message: 7
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 13:21:13 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Alleged Conspiracy at Paducah Plant

August 07, 2000
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/text/2000/aug/07/080800702.html

PADUCAH, Ky. (AP) -- Former workers at an Energy Department plant in Kentucky are seeking billions of dollars in damages for an alleged conspiracy between the government and plant managers to expose employees to radiation.

Attorneys filed two lawsuits Monday on the behalf of workers at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in western Kentucky.

The named defendants are former managers at the plant dating back to 1952; companies that once operated it; federal agencies; and Department of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson.

The defendants exposed workers to "radiation and substances that were known to be harmful to humans," according to one suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Louisville.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of about 10,000 former plant workers, said attorney William F. McMurry. It seeks $5 billion each in compensatory and punitive damages.

The second suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Paducah, was filed on behalf of specific workers who sustained rare pituitary tumors "as a result of excessive, unlawful and non-consensual exposures to radioactive substances including plutonium and neptunium."

It seeks $2 billion each in compensatory and punitive damages.

The lawsuits seek help from Richardson to locate the names of former federal employees involved in the alleged conspiracy.

Richardson's spokeswoman declined to specifically comment on the suits.

"We have not yet been served with the lawsuits that were filed today, but they in no way affect the department's commitment to follow through on working to get compensation for sick nuclear workers and continuing the investigations that will shed light on what happened many years ago at Energy Department sites across the county," she said.

The lawsuits were filed a day before the one-year anniversary of a Washington Post article that the plant had unknowingly been handling highly radioactive metals for several years. That puts the lawsuits within the one-year statute of limitations when workers first learned about the alleged exposure.

Earlier lawsuits have sought money from the companies to clean up radioactive waste from the plant. The new suits speak to the alleged conspiracy by the government and others.

-----------

Message: 8
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 13:28:02 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

DOE to buy back tainted metal from contractor

August 8, 2000
By Frank Munger,
News-Sentinel Oak Ridge bureau
http://www.knoxnews.com/business/12913.shtml

OAK RIDGE -- The U.S. Department of Energy has agreed to buy back recycled scrap metal from BNFL Inc., the Oak Ridge contractor barred earlier this year from selling potentially radioactive metal on the commercial market. The tentative agreement, expected to become official within the next week, will allow BNFL to continue cleanup activities at DOE's K-25 site and avoid the layoffs predicted last month when Energy Secretary Bill Richardson suspended the release of recycled scrap.

Robert Brown, a high-ranking official in DOE's Oak Ridge office, said the new plan should provide a short-term solution, at least until Secretary Richardson issues another order on the recycling program in late December.

"This is just an interim fix," Brown said Monday.

Recycling scrap metal was an integral part of the $238 million contract BNFL signed with DOE in 1997 to clean up three huge buildings once associated with the uranium-enrichment operation at the K-25 Site. BNFL, the American subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels, planned to recover some cleanup costs and make a profit by recycling contaminated metals stripped from the old buildings and by reselling the scrap on the commercial market.

Therefore, when Richardson stopped the release of any metals with potential contamination, some officials said it might jeopardize the entire BNFL cleanup project. U.S. Rep Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., blasted Richardson for making a "nonsensical" decision and said it would cost hundreds of jobs in East Tennessee.

BNFL and its recycling business, Manufacturing Sciences Corp., employ more than 800 people in Oak Ridge.

Jim McAnally, BNFL's Oak Ridge chief, said the company resumed normal cleanup operations at K-25 after sending workers home for one day last month when Richardson's recycling order went into effect.

"We're doing fine," McAnally said Monday. "From our perspective, the only thing that's changed is that DOE has become our customer instead of the scrap dealers."

McAnally said the Oak Ridge operation is the same as it was before the order, with contaminated metals being removed and sent to the Manufacturing Sciences recycling center on Kerr Hollow Road.

In the future, however, recycled metals will be delivered to a DOE storage site instead of being sold to local scrap dealers.

Brown said it's likely that DOE will sign a contract with Toxco, a private tenant at K-25, to store the recycled metals at its 10-acre site. Those arrangements are still under discussion, he said, noting that Toxco already has a scrap-yard permit.

The DOE official emphasized that the recycled material is not "dirty." He said it is the same metal that previously had been approved for commercial release by the state of Tennessee's radiological health division.

Richardson issued the order barring the release of the recycled metals at DOE nuclear sites after receiving pressure from a coalition of interest groups. Critics said the recycled metals contained some radioactivity and posed a health hazard to consumers. Others said the release of those metals could hurt the credibility of the metal-recycling industry.

DOE will purchase the recycled metal from BNFL at market value, using the same daily index that dictates the price paid by scrap dealers.

Brown and McAnally said the new arrangement regarding recycled metals does not include the nickel taken from the old buildings at K-25.

McAnally said the nickel components, which are highly classified, are being stored in a secure location at the cleanup facility.

Frank Munger can be reached at 865-482-9213 or twig1@knoxnews.infi.net.

-------------

Message: 9
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 14:31:44 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Our Views: K-25 water testing attacks are premature

August 8, 2000
http://www.oakridger.com/

Once again some Oak Ridgers find themselves at odds with the Department of Energy, this time over the legitimacy of planned water tests to determine whether water at the K-25 site may have been contaminated, thus contributing to worker illness.

A letter to Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, signed by 23 workers from the K-25 site, suggests that the department has a conflict where water testing is concerned. "Independence from DOE is essential to maintain the study's integrity and credibility," the letter states.

We could not agree more. But, in fact, the testing procedure in place, we believe, assures that independence and integrity. The Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee's independent contractor for the water plant will obtain samples and send them to a state-certified laboratory for analysis. This activity will be observed by state officials and other groups concerned about water safety.

That strikes us as sufficiently independent to guarantee the integrity of the findings. At the same time, we can imagine no reason why other interested parties, notably the concerned workers, should not be entitled to water sampling and testing of their own, so long as their methodology and science are open to the same scrutiny that is certain to greet DOE's efforts.

Of course, in some important ways Secretary Richardson has only himself to blame for the distrust and suspicions fanned among workers. It was Mr. Richardson, after all, who acted on the slimmest of science, outside of the political variety, in halting a metals recycling program here. This newspaper has offered DOE repeated opportunity to lay out the science supporting that decision, but to no avail. Is it any wonder that Secretary Richardson's credibility would ebb so?

Still, the Secretary's political considerations notwithstanding, there is no reason for others to adopt such sloppy standards where the issues at stake hold so much in balance.

Let the water tests proceed. The time to challenge the methodology, or the results, has not yet arrived.

---------

Message: 10
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 14:33:48 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

DOE will buy back BNFL's recycled metals
A solution to BNFL Inc.'s scrap metal woes is in the works.

by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff
August 8, 2000
Source: http://www.oakridger.com/

The Department of Energy has agreed to buy back the recycled materials affected by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson's recent moratorium aimed at ensuring that contaminated materials are not recycled into consumer products and at improving management of scrap materials at DOE sites.

"This approach was developed as a means of keeping the [dismantling and decontamination] work moving forward, while we await new directions from headquarters," DOE spokesman Steven Wyatt said this morning. "It also avoids a layoff, which is obviously very important. We will buy the metal and store at East Tennessee Technology Park. This approach protects the integrity of the contract with BNFL without massive modifications."

Regarding the cost of the buy-back, Wyatt said it will vary depending upon the market value on each particular day, based on the Birmingham metals market.

Wyatt said DOE has to complete a modification of the BNFL contract to reflect the current change and also complete negotiations with ToxCo, which leases 10 acres on the back part of the ETTP site. He added the state doesn't have a problem with storing material on the ToxCo site.

When announcing the moratorium, Richardson said it will remain in effect until DOE sites can confirm that recycled metal would contain "no detectable contamination from departmental activities."

BNFL Inc., which was awarded a contract in 1997 to clean up three gaseous diffusion plant buildings at the former K-25 site, now called ETTP, was affected most by Richardson's decision. A provision in the contract allows the company to recycle the low-level radioactive metals and keep the money from sales of the metals.

Before the suspension, BNFL was removing more than a million and a half pounds of materials weekly from its K-25 cleanup project.

DOE officials have told The Oak Ridger the moratorium was a result of more than six months of investigation, but they shared few details about who was consulted or what information was used in making the decision.

This moratorium marks the end of all metal being released for recycling from DOE sites. Earlier this year, Richardson suspended the release of volumetrically contaminated metals pending a decision by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission whether to establish those standards. Volumetrically contaminated metals are permeated with contamination rather than having it just on the surface. This issue is still under review by the NRC, and the moratorium remains in effect.

-----------

Message: 11
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 14:36:13 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Y-12 protesters will not be prosecuted

August 8, 2000
by Paul Parson and Beverly Majors Oak Ridger staff
Source: http://www.oakridger.com/

The 23 protesters arrested Sunday for trespassing at the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant won't be prosecuted by Anderson County's district attorney general and will not face punishment for their actions.

Those arrested were charged with criminal trespassing under a state statute, rather than under a city ordinance. However, District Attorney General Jim Ramsey is refusing to prosecute the protesters as he has in the past.

In a letter to Oak Ridge Police Chief David H. Beams dated Aug. 2, Ramsey wrote, "This office is prepared to prosecute felonies and serious misdemeanors such as assault arising out of these anticipated demonstrations, but we expect the city of Oak Ridge to use its city court and municipal ordinances to prosecute violations of minor infractions such as trespass or disturbing the peace."

Ramsey's letter adds, "There is no sense playing into their hands by cooperating in civil disobedience to overcrowd our jails and the justice system."

This morning, Beams said, "We don't have any objection to him dismissing the cases. [Ramsey] said he would do that all along."

Beams said the department's plan was to charge the protesters on city warrants but that there was an apparent miscommunication between the officers.

"We didn't intend to send the cases to the state," Beams said. "The cases will be dismissed and that will be the end of it."

Twenty Oak Ridge police officers and several Anderson County Sheriff's Department deputies were on the scene Sunday to prevent protesters from trespassing.

Before the 23 protesters were arrested, they read citations declaring plant officials were violating international law by continuing to produce nuclear warheads and then they crossed the boundary line leading into the Y-12 Plant.

Their actions were part of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance's 12th annual peace protest staged on the 55th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan.

-----------

Message: 12
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 14:40:13 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Subject: Pay up, city says to DOE

August 8, 2000
by Amy L. Lee Oak Ridger staff
Source: http://www.oakridger.com/

The City of Oak Ridge believes the federal government has been a bad tenant unwilling to pay its full share of "rent", and it wants to do something about that.

Oak Ridge City Council at its meeting Monday night unanimously passed a resolution that begins the process of seeking compensation from the Department of Energy for alleged damage to the city's economic development capabilities.

The final resolution, after much discussion, allows three council members appointed by Mayor Jerry Kuhaida to form a new ad hoc committee, the purpose of which "shall be ... to conduct a search for a legal and legislative firm to define possible alternatives for securing increased federal and/or state remuneration for Oak Ridge based upon the presence of the U.S. Department of Energy and its predecessor agencies in Oak Ridge, its actions and its failure to act, which have damaged the city's economic development capabilities," the resolution states.

Debate focused on whether to involve Roane and Anderson counties with the effort at this time, but as council member Pat Rush noted, "from past experience, I believe bringing (them) in would delay the process. I agree they should be involved (as progress continues)," Rush explained.

Although some council members sought to postpone the vote, Mayor Pro Tempore David Bradshaw urged council to move forward. "I would rather have a close vote for a powerful resolution than a unanimous vote for a weak one," he said.

The resolution asserts the long-term presence of DOE within the city limits has damaged the city's ability to successfully compete for industrial and other economic development in a free-market environment. Roane and Anderson counties are familiar with similar hindrances due to their proximity to Oak Ridge, as well as K-25 being located in the Roane County portion of Oak Ridge.

Not only does the resolution cite the difficulty of drawing business and industry to the city, it also states DOE's presence damages the city's ability "to market or tax properties that have been removed from the market by DOE" as well as properties contaminated by DOE operations and "are, therefore, unmarketable for economic development purposes."

In addition, the resolution states the city's "public image has been tarnished by public disclosures and accusations of the release of and residual presence of radioactive and other toxic materials, thereby further suppressing the marketability of Oak Ridge for economic development purposes."

Taking these factors into consideration, council determined the city "should identify potential legal and/or legislative alternatives to secure increased federal and/or state remuneration for Oak Ridge."

The committee will proceed with conducting a search for a legal and legislative firm to define possible alternatives for securing remuneration for the city based on DOE's continued presence and actions, as well as its failure to act, to make Oak Ridge a lucrative and attractive site for potential business and industry.

The committee will be selected at council's meeting on Monday, Aug. 21. The committee's charge will be further defined at that time; however, the initial resolution allows for $25,000 from the Economic Development Fund to be used for the search process.

In other business, City Manager Paul Boyer announced representatives from the city's consultants Lose & Associates will return in September to present a final report of their findings in regard to the City Center Master Plan. Lose & Associates conducted a public meeting last weekend beginning with a presentation Friday night and following with a workshop on Saturday.

Boyer said he counted about 50 citizens at the workshop on Saturday, slightly fewer than the 70 or 80 who attended Friday's session. Although attendance was not as high as had been hoped for, city officials remain optimistic about the overall plan to revitalize downtown.

Boyer referred to the plan as "very modern and upscale" and as one that "proposes some dramatic changes. This is a big decision for this community."

Included in the plans for developing the city center will be a senior enrichment center. Elder Citizens Advisory Board Chairman David McCoy made a brief presentation asking council to approve a resolution granting approval for the Oak Ridge architectural firm Adams Craft Herz Walker to begin the conceptualization and design of the facility.

Council approved the request 6-1, with Bradshaw opposing. Prior to council's approval of the request, council member Ray Evans said although he supported awarding the $90,000 contract to ACHW, he had a "problem with the timeliness of the resolution" and suggested they first would need to consider the final City Center Mater Plan. Bradshaw also noted a site had not been chosen.

However, McCoy asked that council charge the Elder Citizens Advisory Board with forming a committee to be involved in selecting a site.

Boyer reminded council the site selection should be cleared up within 30 days at the time of the consultant's final presentation next month.

------------

Message: 13
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 16:31:44 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Former Paducah workers' lawsuits seek billions

8/8/2000
Associated Press
http://www.tennessean.com/sii/00/08/08/paducah08.shtml

Two lawsuits filed yesterday on behalf of former workers at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky allege a conspiracy between the government and managers operating the plant to expose workers to radiation. Each seeks billions of dollars in damages.

The defendants named include former managers at the Western Kentucky plant dating back to 1952, companies that once operated it, federal agencies such as the Atomic Energy Commission and agency workers, as well as Department of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson.

The defendants "authorized, condoned, encouraged and/or knowingly acquiesced in exposing plaintiffs and others similarly situated to unreasonably dangerous ... and/or unlawful levels of radiation and substances that were known to be harmful to humans," according to one suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Louisville.

It was filed on behalf of about 10,000 former plant workers, said attorney William F. McMurry of Louisville. It seeks $5 billion each in compensatory and punitive damages.

The second suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Paducah, specifically was filed on behalf of workers who sustained rare pituitary tumors "as a result of excessive, unlawful and non-consensual exposures to radioactive substances including plutonium and neptunium."

It seeks $2 billion each in compensatory and punitive damages.

The suits seek help from Richardson to locate the names of former federal employees involved in the alleged conspiracy.

The Paducah plant was under the control of Oak Ridge officials until 1992.

Each suit names Union Carbide Corp., Martin Marietta Corp., Martin Marietta Energy Systems Inc., Martin Marietta Utility Services Inc., Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Energy Systems Inc., Lockheed Martin Utility Services Inc., General Electric Co., E.I. duPont de Nemours and Co., NL Industries Inc. and NLO Inc.

The Washington Post reported Aug. 8, 1999, that workers at the Paducah plant unknowingly had been handling highly radioactive metals for several years. The newspaper last year published details surrounding a lawsuit by former workers that sought money from the companies to clean up radioactive waste from the plant.

"It's filed on behalf of the same workers and their families (as the first suit); however, it is against the federal government, the employees of the federal government who conspired with the contractors to expose these workers to harmful radiation without their consent or knowledge, which is a violation of the workers' constitutional rights," McMurry said.

Yesterday's suits were filed a day before the one-year anniversary of the Post article so as to be within the one-year statute of limitations when workers first learned about the alleged exposure.

Some of the workers named in the suits have died, so the plaintiff is listed as the worker's estate. Likewise, the suits go so far as to name deceased managers as defendants and seeks damages from those individuals' estates.

Richardson's spokeswoman would not comment specifically on the suits.

"We have not yet been served with the lawsuits that were filed today, but they in no way affect the department's commitment to follow through on working to get compensation for sick nuclear workers and continuing the investigations that will shed light on what happened many years ago at Energy Department sites across the county," she said.

------------

Message: 14
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 16:34:56 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Nuclear sites deemed risky; study faults long-term management plans

8/8/2000
New York Times News Service
http://www.tennessean.com/sii/00/08/08/nuclear08.shtml

WASHINGTON -- Most of the sites where the federal government built nuclear bombs never will be cleaned up enough to allow public access to the land, and the plan for guarding sites that are permanently contaminated is inadequate, the National Academy of Sciences said yesterday.

"At many sites, radiological and nonradiological hazardous wastes will remain, posing risks to humans and the environment for tens or even hundreds of thousands of years," the report said. "Complete elimination of unacceptable risks to humans and the environment will not be achieved, now or in the foreseeable future."

The academy's report, which was commissioned by the Department of Energy, says the government can try to declare certain areas permanently off-limits, but it does not have the technology, money and management techniques to prevent the contamination from spreading.

In addition, some of the contaminants already have "migrated" outside plant boundaries and others will follow, the report said.

Thomas M. Leschine, the chairman of the committee that wrote the report, said site managers could use barbed wire and post guards at the sites.

But Leschine, an associate professor in the School of Marine Affairs at the University of Washington, added: "There's no assurance that we can maintain any of that control. It's one thing to put a fence up around something, but it's really something else to maintain it in perpetuity."

Controls on the use of some of the land already are breaking down, the report said. For example, in the early 1990s, the Department of Energy sold land near its Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee for use as a golf course, stipulating that the ground water was contaminated and was not to be used. "Within a few years, however, DOE discovered that a well was being drilled to irrigate the golf course," the report said.

Leschine said the committee had found another case in which the Department of Energy had posted "no fishing" signs at a creek near Oak Ridge because of radiation contamination in the water.

"The signs all got stolen because the local high school kids thought they were nice things to have," he said. "Then there were months of protracted battles between the local authorities and the Department of Energy over whose responsibility it was to replace the signs."

The department has accelerated efforts to clean up the sites, reduce the costs involved and minimize risks to surrounding communities, but a perfect cleanup is not possible, department official Gerald G. Boyd said.