------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
*Putin Seeks Closer Ties With China
*Canada Applauds Delay of U.S. Missile Shield During Ivanov's Visit
*Steelworkers Support Thompson Amendment on China PNTR
*US-China Pact Set for Passage After Sanctions Fail
*Senate Defeats Last Major Obstacle to China Trade Bill
*Wavering Senators Feeling Pressure on China Trade Bill
*French military to probe Gulf syndrome
*India rejects U.S. suggestion for moratorium on fissile material production
*Indian Leader To Visit White House
*Iraq Warned on Arms Inspections
*U.S. Forswears Force Over Iraq Inspections
*Albright blames Saddam in arms flap
*Russia acquits nuclear dissenter Nikitin
*Russia's Highest Court Clears Nikitin of Treason
*Russia Finally Acquits Nuclear Dissenter Nikitin
*Russian troops get base's electricity back
*Russian Whistle Blower Acquitted
*RUSSIA: THE KURSK'S FUTURE
*Russian minister sees no need to raise Kursk
*How to cut energy prices
*William A. Nierenberg, 81, Physicist and Military Policy Adviser
*Los Alamos scientist freed
*Nuclear scientist Lee goes home after plea bargain
*Wen Ho Lee Freed Amid Apologies From Judge
*Wen Ho Lee Case: A Double Standard
*Nuke Scientist Wen Ho Lee Is Free
*U.S. and Lawyers for Scientist Battle Over Plea Deal
*Scientist Is Set Free After Guilty Plea on Lesser Charge
*Wen Ho Lee released from custody
*Strickland hammers nuclear commission for inaction on USEC
*USEC Finance Probe Ends
*Tennessee Valley Authority has no plans to increase electricity rates

MILITARY
*UK, US Split Over Colombia Drug War
*COLOMBIA: PEACE TALKS CONTINUE
*KASHMIR: CEASE-FIRE RULED OUT
*U.S. sanctions to blame for high oil prices-Iran
*Foundations control Iran's economy
*Despite Khatami's efforts, Tehran remains isolated
*IRAN: 18 CITED IN DISSIDENT SLAYINGS
*"Paper of Record" Distorts Record on Iraq Sanctions
*Republican Renegades Blamed for N.Irish Attacks
*Bomb found outside Belfast partisan's home
*U.S. and Japan Tackle Environmental Problems on Military Bases
*Kim Jong Il Trip to Seoul Set
*Koreas eye spring summit
*Russian Soldiers Arrested for Theft And Sale of S-300 Missile Parts
*Russia Signs World Criminal Court Treaty
*Russia Sets Out to Tackle '2003 Problem'
*Astronauts install batteries in space station
*Ukraine Foils Assassination Attempt
*UKRAINE: PUTIN DEATH PLOT FOILED
*World Corruption Index Shows an Image Isn't Rebuilt in a Day
*Annan Tells General Assembly to End Barriers
*Indonesia May Bar U.N. Inquiry in Staff Killing
*Albright Lobbies UN on Sudan Seat
*state has taken the Fox River lock system
*Sloppy sailors threaten Navy's urinals

OTHER
*Oil costs boost hydrogen into spotlight
*$8.4 MILLION IN GRANTS BOOSTS ENERGY EFFICIENCY RESEARCH
*UK wind power sets sail as fuel protests escalate
*TXU to purchase energy from 82.5-MW Texas wind farm
*Religious groups help clean up Texas
*Bush Accuses Gore of Neglecting National Parks
*Congress's Obligation to Nature
*A Showdown on Cleanup of the Hudson
*Mexico Leak Forces Evacuations
*Chlorine treatments eradicated a destructive non-native seaweed
*World Bank Approves AIDS Help
*Police Dept. Shake-Up
*U.S. Terrorism Prosecutors Deny Singling Out Muslims
*WASHINGTON: DEALING WITH BIOLOGICAL TERRORISM
*Terrorists' next deadly tool: Viruses

ACTIVISTS
*Bush Must Face Lawsuit Brought by Environmental Activists
*Aussie Economic Protests Wind Down
*Anti-Free-Trade Protests Disrupt Economic Forum in Melbourne
*"Blame your own governments!" Gulf tells petrol protesters
*Defiant UK Protesters Turn Back Fuel Tankers
*Fuel Standoff in Britain Eases, but Supply Still Short
*Protests continue despite gas deliveries
*Man in jail for vandalizing McDonald's
*"Dr. Laura" Debuts
*Unwitting advertisers pull spots from Dr. Laura


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

Putin Seeks Closer Ties With China

Associated Press
09/13/00
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Russia-China.html

MOSCOW (AP) -- Welcoming China's No. 2 leader to the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the two countries would sign a friendship treaty next year to strengthen their close ties.

Putin told Li Peng, the head of China's legislature, that relations were ``at their highest'' and stressed the importance of regular contacts. He said that a friendship treaty would be signed next year during a visit to Russia by Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

Putin and Li's talks focused on economic links and military cooperation, presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko said.

He said they discussed combating extremism and their joint opposition to U.S. plans to develop defenses against ballistic missiles, the Interfax news agency reported. The report gave no details.

Li arrived in Moscow on Monday on a nine-day Russian visit that will also take him to Novosibirsk in Siberia and to the Far Eastern port of Vladivostok.

After his meeting with Putin, Li was greeted with a bear hug by former President Boris Yeltsin. The Chinese leader visited Yeltsin, who resigned Dec. 31, at his country home outside Moscow, and praised his contribution to the warming of relations between their countries, Interfax and ITAR-Tass said.

Sino-Russian relations have improved in recent years, following decades of Soviet-era rivalry. China has become the No. 1 customer for Russia's ailing defense industries, purchasing billions of dollars worth of jets, missiles, submarines and destroyers.

Both countries oppose what they describe as a ``unipolar'' world, their term for alleged U.S. domination in global affairs.

-------- canada

Canada Applauds Delay of U.S. Missile Shield During Ivanov's Visit

Russia Today
Sep 13, 2000
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=198634

OTTAWA -- (Reuters) Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy said on Tuesday the decision to postpone the U.S. missile shield defense system would allow time to find alternatives to a plan that has been criticized by U.S. friends and foes alike.

Axworthy, an outspoken opponent of the U.S. national defense system, was speaking at a joint news conference in Ottawa with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, who said the system could weaken global security.

"It opens up a window for further work in developing alternatives to national missile defense, to continue working with American officials," Axworthy said of President Clinton's postponement of the program this month.

The United States is considering the system not so much to counter a Russian threat - it would not be able to cope with the thousands of Russian missiles that could be launched - as to ward off attacks by "rogue states" such as North Korea.

Russia has strenuously objected and has refused to agree to the changes the system would require in the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty - and that concerns Axworthy.

Axworthy said that during the "window of opportunity" the United States and Russia could work on the early warning center on missile launches that they have agreed to set up.

"(It) would really provide a global, multilateral form of prevention as opposed to a specific initiative such as a continental missile defense system that would still run counter to the ABM," Axworthy said.

The two ministers also discussed a planned visit to Canada by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Axworthy said a date has not yet been fixed, but Ivanov said there would be busy preparations over the next few months.

-------- china

Steelworkers Support Thompson Amendment on China PNTR

US Newswire
13 Sep 15:07
http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/Current_Releases/0913-136.html

Steelworkers Support Thompson Amendment on China PNTR Vote; Hill Letter Transmitted to Senate To: National Desk Contact: Gary Hubbard of the United Steelworkers of America, 202-778-4384

WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 /U.S. Newswire/ -- George Becker, President of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), announced his support for the U.S. Senate vote scheduled today for the Thompson-Torricelli Amendment to be part of the final bill granting China permanent status as a normal trading partner.

"The Steelworkers believe it is clear from this debate that the Thompson-Torricelli Amendment should be passed. We urge the Senate to standup and be counted, not for the money interests, but for the national interest," Becker wrote in a letter transmitted today to U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) and all other members of the Senate.

The amendment would require the administration to monitor China's record on the spread of nuclear, chemical, biological and missile technology, and would impose sanctions if there was evidence of violations for certain types of prohibited weaponry.

A complete text of the letter transmitted to the U.S. Senate by the USWA president follows:

Text of USWA Letter Supporting Thompson-Torricelli Amendment (Dated: September 13, 2000) (Transmitted individually to all U.S. Senators)

Dear Senator:

I listened last night to Republican Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee as he accurately described what is happening in the Senate over the issue of Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China (PNTR), and I agreed with him that the Senate should not trade away the national security of our country for some trading rights with the Peoples Republic of China. All summer long I've read in the newspapers story after story about the human rights violations of the communist government. Now that government tells us that they will block Taiwan's entry into the WTO. Yet with all of this evidence of China's appalling human rights record, its active participation in the proliferation of nuclear weapons and its growing threat to its neighbors, the United States Senate appears to be on the brink of surrendering to multinational business interests.

Senator Thompson said that the workers and farmers in his state would support his amendment against Chinese proliferation of nuclear arms - I AGREE. They, like other American workers and farmers, are patriots first and foremost. The United Steelworkers of America is made up of men and women who are patriotic and wholeheartedly support Senator Thompson's efforts to make the world a safer place by curbing the Peoples Republic of China. Our members realize that appeasement is never the way of true peace. Some day the technology that we have transferred to this rogue nation may very well kill the young men and women who have volunteered to defend our country.

Senator Thompson is right when he says that it is the obligation of the United States Senate to examine and debate these questions of national security. The Steelworkers believe it is clear from this debate that the Thompson-Torricelli Amendment should be passed. We urge the Senate to stand-up and be counted, not for the money interests but for the national interest. We urge you to pass the Thompson-Torricelli Amendment. (End of USWA letter).

---

US-China Pact Set for Passage After Sanctions Fail

Yahoo News
Wednesday September 13
By Adam Entous
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000913/pl/china_arms_dc_2.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Wednesday rejected a controversial plan to impose sanctions on China for its alleged role in weapons proliferation, clearing the way for final passage of President Clinton (news - web sites)'s landmark trade pact with Beijing after months of delay.

Vehemently opposed by the White House and pro-trade business groups, the nonproliferation amendment was seen as the last hurdle facing legislation that would grant permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) to China.

Lawmakers said the amendment's defeat, by a vote of 65-32, puts the trade bill on fast-track to final approval later this week or early next week. ``This clears the deck. It was the last hurdle,'' said Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, a vocal supporter of the trade bill, which won House of Representatives approval in May.

Once approved by the Senate and signed into law by the president, PNTR legislation would end the annual ritual of reviewing Beijing's trade status and guarantee Chinese goods the same low-tariff access to the U.S. market as products from nearly every other nation.

In exchange for the benefits, China has agreed to open a wide range of markets to U.S. businesses under the terms of an agreement setting the stage for Beijing to join the Geneva-based World Trade Organization (WTO) later this year.

Arms Dealers In Check

Supporters of the nonproliferation measure, proposed by Republican Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee and backed by Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi, argued that it was needed to keep Beijing arm dealers in check and prevent nations like Iran, Libya and North Korea from acquiring nuclear weapons.

China is ``engaging in activities that pose a mortal danger to the welfare of this country,'' Thompson said in urging senators to support the amendment, which called on Washington to impose sanctions on Chinese firms that proliferate nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.

North Carolina Republican Sen. Jesse Helms accused Beijing of helping ``tyrants and despots'' acquire new weapons technology ''which ultimately can be used to kill Americans.''

But Thompson faced stiff opposition after the White House and big business warned that the arms amendment could spark a backlash from Beijing, punish U.S. and European companies and doom permanent normal trade relations for the year.

``It would hurt America more than it would punish China,'' said Republican Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas. Democrat Joseph Biden of Delaware said Thompson's plan was a ``serious foreign policy mistake.''

Ahead of the vote, Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue even suggested that senators who supported Thompson would face a backlash from business in the November election.

If Thompson's or any other amendment was adopted by the Senate, the China trade bill would have to be sent back to a bitterly divided House. The House approved the trade bill after a heated battle between organized labor and big business, but is unlikely to do so again so close to the November election, many lawmakers said.

Top Priority

President Clinton has made passage of permanent normal trade relations for China a top legislative priority for his final year in office.

There is little doubt over the outcome of the final Senate vote, which could come as early as Thursday.

According to a Reuters poll of the 100-member Senate, 69 lawmakers said they would support or were likely to support permanent normal trade relations, more than enough to override a vote-blocking filibuster and ensure final passage.

During Wednesday's debate, the Senate rejected an amendment that would have helped U.S. companies and workers cope with increased imports from China. The Senate also defeated a measure that would have set up a U.S. commission to press China to eliminate trade in prisoners' organs.

In a victory for the White House, Republican Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona withdrew an amendment that would have prevented Beijing from enshrining in the WTO accession agreement its cherished ``one China'' policy, which considers Taiwan and the mainland as parts of a united China.

Kyl pulled the measure after meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky and receiving a letter from Clinton. In the letter, dated Sept 12, Clinton said he reiterated to Chinese President Jiang Zemin during their meeting in New York last week that ``my administration is firmly committed to Taiwan's accession to the WTO.''

``Based on our New York discussions with the Chinese, I am confident we have a common understanding that both China and Taiwan will be invited to accede to the WTO at the same WTO General Council session, and that Taiwan will join the WTO under the language agreed to in 1992, namely as the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan (commonly referred to as Chinese Taipei) ... The United States will not accept any other outcome,'' Clinton said in the letter to Senate leaders.

---

Senate Defeats Last Major Obstacle to China Trade Bill

New York Times
September 13, 2000
By ERIC SCHMITT and DAVID STOUT
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/13/continuous/14CND-CHIN.html

WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 -- The Senate today brushed aside the last significant obstacle against normal trade relations with China, rejecting a measure that would have imposed sanctions on Chinese companies caught exporting nuclear arms, long-range missiles and other deadly weapons.

The measure defeated today, in a bipartisan 65-to-32 vote, was an amendment to the overall trade bill. The amendment was sponsored by Senators Fred Thompson, Republican of Tennessee, and Robert G. Torricelli, Democrat of New Jersey.

The amendment's defeat clears the way for Senate passage of the trade-normalization bill - practically a foregone conclusion, since the legislation is believed to have the backing of 70 or more senators. Final passage of the bill could come before the weekend.

The Clinton administration and its allies had lobbied furiously against the Thompson-Torricelli amendment, arguing that it was folly to delay opening China's vast markets to American farmers and businessmen, and that the amendment might jeopardize American-Chinese relations and thus the cause of world peace.

Regardless of how the Senate votes, China will enter the World Trade Organization, which sets the rules for global commerce. But without the blessing of American lawmakers for its W.T.O. entry, China might have withheld trade benefits from Americans.

For years, American lawmakers renewed trade relations with China on a year-to-year basis, each time after reviewing China's human-rights record. Backers of that policy argued that it was a way of putting pressure on China to effect human-rights progress; opponents saw it as a cold war leftover that did little but aggravate the Chinese.

The House approved trade normalization with China in May by 237 to 197 after weeks of lobbying and furious debate.

Had the Thompson-Torricelli amendment passed in the Senate, the overall bill would have had to go back to the House, so that the amendment Senate version could be reconciled with what the House sought. Supporters of normal trade with China dreaded that prospect, fearing prolonged delays in this election year.

---

Wavering Senators Feeling Pressure on China Trade Bill

New York Times
September 13, 2000
By ERIC SCHMITT
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/13/world/13TRAD.html

WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 - Corporate leaders and several of President Clinton's cabinet officers intensified pressure today on wavering senators to reject an amendment that could jeopardize passage this year of a trade bill with China.

As the Senate girds for a crucial vote on the measure this week, supporters of legislation to establish permanent normal trading relations with China are pressing for a bill free of amendments. Those supporters say there is not enough time before Election Day to reconcile an amended Senate bill with the version that the House passed in May.

At a White House meeting with Congressional leaders today, Mr. Clinton urged speedy approval of an unamended bill. The measure is one of his top remaining foreign policy goals and a necessary step for American companies to benefit fully from a deal reached last year by the United States and China that paves the way for China's entry into the World Trade Organization. That 135-member trade group sets rules for global commerce.

At issue is an amendment sponsored by Senators Fred Thompson, Republican of Tennessee, and Robert G. Torricelli, Democrat of New Jersey, that would impose sanctions on Chinese companies if they were caught exporting nuclear, chemical or biological weapons or long-range missiles.

Defense Secretary William S. Cohen; Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers; Mr. Clinton's national security adviser, Samuel R. Berger; and the United States trade representative, Charlene Barshefsky, began telephoning senators today, arguing that the amendment would not only imperil the trade bill, but would also actually hamper American efforts to combat the spread of sophisticated weaponry.

Senate aides negotiated the timing of votes. Senators could take up Mr. Thompson's amendment on Wednesday or Thursday. Final passage of the overall bill, which has overwhelming support, could occur as early as Friday or as late as next Tuesday.

China will enter the W.T.O. no matter how the Senate votes. But without Congress's blessing, Beijing could withhold some of the trade benefits, including lower tariffs, from the American farmers and companies that it will extend to other members in the trade group.

Thomas J. Donohue, president of the United States Chamber of Commerce, warned of retribution against senators who support the Thompson- Torricelli measure.

"Should this vote get tangled up in the politics of nuclear proliferation and other amendments to the extent that it might not be passed," Mr. Donohue said, "I think that would have a very serious political implication for those who were a party to that action."

Senators easily dispatched several other amendments today, including those on prison labor and human rights in China, as well as subsidies from Beijing to Chinese companies. But on the floor and in news conferences, the focus was on the Thompson-Torricelli amendment. "This is the vote on P.N.T.R.," Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana said as he used the bill's abbreviation.

Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the Democratic leader, stated that opponents "have the votes to defeat Senator Thompson's amendment."

Even Mr. Thompson acknowledged that he faced an uphill battle. "We've always known it was going to be a tough vote," Mr. Thompson told reporters. "A lot of people are saying they would like to vote for it. But since it is on P.N.T.R., they're afraid it will complicate P.N.T.R."

Supporters said the measure was necessary to clamp down on Chinese exports of sophisticated weaponry to Iran, Libya, North Korea and Pakistan.

"What is especially troubling about the Chinese activities is that this sensitive assistance is going to the most dangerous nations in the most volatile areas of the world," said Mr. Torricelli.

Backers of the amendment scoffed at fears that amending the bill would doom the larger bill this year. "To say we cannot amend a bill that has been passed by the House would be the height of irresponsibility," said Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas.

But amendment critics, including farm-state Republicans, said it was senseless to jeopardize a trade bill that would lower barriers to China's vast markets. "Approval for this bill will keep the United States economically and diplomatically engaged with one-fifth of the world's population," said Senator Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas. "I cannot support a redundant and counterproductive amendment that would effectively kill this legislation."

-------- depleted uranium

French military to probe Gulf syndrome

CNN
September 13, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/09/13/france.syndrome.reut/index.html

PARIS, France (Reuters) -- France's defense minister, until now wary about reports of "Gulf War syndrome" among French veterans of the 1991 conflict, will ask for a parliamentary investigation on the issue, his office said on Tuesday.

Alain Richard will ask that a commission determine whether any of the 25,000 French military who served in the Gulf were exposed to exceptional health risks existed, the office said.

Richard's office also said the health ministry was assembling a group of independent medical experts to study the medical records of French troops who served in the Gulf.

The moves follows the recent creation of a veteran's group made up of some 80 veterans who say they suffer from mysterious ailments which they link to their Gulf War service.

Many U.S. and British Gulf War veterans complain of symptoms ranging from flu to chronic fatigue and asthma.

When the controversy first broke in France in May, army medical corps spokesman Colonel Michel Estripeau told reporters: "We don't say the syndrome does not exist, what we are saying is that we have no proof at the present time that any French soldier suffered from it."

A pensions board in the port of Toulon heard on Tuesday a complaint from the widow of a navy non-commissioned officer saying her husband died of cancer contracted during service in the Gulf conflict.

But the case was adjourned for further investigation after a lawyer for the state said the woman's husband last served in the Gulf in 1987-88 and not when the conflict took place in 1991.

-------- india / pakistan

India rejects U.S. suggestion for moratorium on fissile material production

The Hindu
Wednesday, September 13, 2000
By C. Raja Mohan
http://www.indiaserver.com/thehindu/2000/09/13/stories/02130005.htm

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 12. India has turned down a recent suggestion from the United States to consider a voluntary moratorium on the production of fissile material, informed sources here say.

On the eve of the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee's visit to the U.S., the Clinton administration had urged the Government to cap the size of its material stockpile for nuclear weapons. Rejecting the proposal, India reiterated its readiness to negotiate a verifiable and multilateral treaty to end the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons worldwide.

As the prospect for an early Indian signature on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty appeared to recede, the Clinton administration was looking for progress elsewhere on non-proliferation. But there was no give on the Indian side. India and the U.S. have agreed to disagree on nuclear issues, and are committed to an intensive engagement despite nuclear differences. It is unlikely that there will be any surprises on the nuclear front in Washington this week, when Mr. Vajpayee meets the U.S. President, Mr. Bill Clinton.

Any Indian decision to limit the size of its nuclear arsenal involves many major political and technical considerations and there was no question of the Government rushing into it. New Delhi has, however, committed itself in principle to negotiate a multilateral Fissile Materials Cut-off Treaty (FMCT) at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.

All the five declared nuclear weapons powers are already observing an informal ban on the production of weapons grade plutonium and highly enriched uranium.

An Indian moratorium, Washington argues, could have boosted the prospects of the treaty negotiations in Geneva as well as limit the nuclear arms race in the sub-continent. The Clinton administration is also pointing to the fact that Pakistan is on the verge of running the Khushab reactor, that will significantly increase its nuclear capabilities in the coming years.

The U.S. hopes it can persuade Pakistan to follow an Indian decision to end the production of nuclear material. An Indian moratorium will also be consistent with New Delhi's proclaimed policy of minimum nuclear deterrence, the U.S. argues.

The Government has said that a voluntary cut-off by any nation is not verifiable. India also points to the clandestine nature of the Pakistani nuclear programme and the history of intensive nuclear cooperation between China and Pakistan. This makes it difficult for India to believe that Pakistan will not cheat on a unilateral moratorium. New Delhi also believes its moratorium will have little effect on the disarmament talks in Geneva. The negotiations on the FMCT there have been stalled not by India, but China and Pakistan.

China's vehement opposition to the U.S. national missile defence programme has held up the initiation of any arms control talks in Geneva.

Pakistan has been insisting that the proposed FMCT must deal with not only future production of nuclear material but also the past stockpiles of enriched uranium and plutonium. This is unacceptable to India and many other nuclear weapons powers.

Progress in the Indo-U.S. nuclear dialogue may have to wait until the next administration takes charge in Washington and defines a new set of arms control objectives in the changed international context.

---

Indian Leader To Visit White House

Associated Press
September 13, 2000 Filed at 4:50 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-US-India.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Their differences over nuclear issues run deep but President Clinton is preparing an unusually warm reception for visiting Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee this week, reflecting the improved climate between the two countries.

Vajpayee will address a joint session of Congress on Thursday and will be received by Clinton on Friday at a ceremony on the White House South Lawn that will include a 19-gun salute. A gala dinner is planned for Sunday.

Vice President Al Gore will interrupt campaigning on Friday to be the host of a lunch for the Indian leader, who reportedly had a phone conversation in recent days with the GOP presidential nominee, George W. Bush.

Administration officials say Clinton wants to build on what they regard as Clinton's successful visit to India in March.

The warming atmosphere between the two countries permits them to deal more amiably with their differences, including U.S. unhappiness with the nuclear tests India carried out in 1998 and with India's refusal to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

India's position is that a decision on signing the treaty would be made only after Indians reach a political consensus on the nuclear issue. Clinton has called the Asian subcontinent ``perhaps the most dangerous place in the world.''

There is some resentment in India that not all of the U.S. sanctions imposed on India after the 1998 tests have been removed. The sanctions require the United States to oppose certain types Indian loan requests from international lending institutions and also bans sales of dual use technology to India. Pakistan also carried out nuclear tests in the same 1998 time frame and is subject to the same sanctions.

K. Subramanyam, chairman of India's National Security Advisory Board, said India would appreciate a lifting of some sanctions. If Clinton does so, he said, ``It would go down well with the Indian people who are finally overcoming their anti-American Cold War mindset.''

The 1998 tests sparked fears of an India-Pakistan nuclear confrontation particularly over the disputed territory of Kashmir.

Clinton, without offering to mediate, has been urging the two sides to undertake a serious effort to resolve the dispute.

As U.S. officials see it, settling the problem would eliminate the possibility of a nuclear war and also enable the two rivals to utilize their energy and resources in far more productive ways.

For most of 52 years since independence, India and the United States were on opposite sides of the Cold War divide, a situation Vajpayee sees as an anomaly. The world's two largest democracies, he has said, should be natural allies.

Kanti Bajpai, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, said Clinton's visit ``was a grand psychological and political success, and there has never been a better time for an Indian leader to deal and deliberate with Americans.''

Stephen Cohen, also of Brookings, says the ``specter of collapse'' that haunted India since independence ``has now passed and India is emerging as a great Asian power, joining China and Japan.'' He notes that economic reforms hold the promise of enabling India to realize its economic potential.

-------- iraq

Iraq Warned on Arms Inspections

New York Times
September 13, 2000
By CHRISTOPHER S. WREN
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/13/continuous/14CND-NATION.html

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 13 - France has warned Iraq not to expect any weakening of the Security Council's determination to send United Nations inspectors back into Iraq to eliminate weapons of mass destruction before sanctions can be lifted.

France's foreign minister, Hubert Vedrine, who has criticized the sanctions, nonetheless said today that he told Iraq's deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, that he would make "a very serious mistake" to think that an erosion of the Council's resolve would lead it to lift the sanctions, which were imposed when Iraqi forces occupied Kuwait in 1990.

"I in fact met with Tariq Aziz the day before yesterday, and I told him the only solution for Iraq was to comply with Resolution 1284 and to cooperate," Mr. Vedrine said during a breakfast interview with reporters.

The resolution, which the Security Council passed last Dec. 17, created a new arms inspection plan for Iraq. The previous inspection system collapsed in December 1998, when the American and British warplanes bombed Baghdad to punish Iraq's ruler Saddam Hussein for failing to cooperate.

As an incentive for Baghdad, the resolution lifted a ceiling on the amount of oil that it could sell abroad to buy food and other essentials, and also relaxed controls on the import of some other humanitarian supplies. Otherwise, the economic sanctions were kept in place.

Eleven of the 15 Security Council members voted for the resolution at the time. But France joined Russia, China and Malaysia in abstaining, prompting the Iraqis to infer that support for sanctions was waning.

The split emboldened Iraq to reject the Council's resolution. United Nations officials have been concerned that Iraq keeps balking in hopes of forcing a further dilution or even lifting of sanctions. Baghdad has refused to allow arms inspectors back into the country, though the new inspection commission's executive chairman, Hans Blix, says they are ready to begin inspections.

Mr. Aziz recently met several other diplomats at the United Nations besides Mr. Vedrine to assess the Security Council's mood. But Ewen Buchanan, Mr. Blix's spokesman, confirmed that "Aziz made no effort to come near Blix."

Mr. Vedrine, after meeting with Mr. Aziz, said he foresaw no short-term change in Iraq's refusal to comply. "I regret that," he added.

He told reporters today that France helped broker the 1999 resolution and abstained from the vote because the resolution could have been improved upon. France, which maintains commercial and diplomatic relations with Iraq, continues to abide by the resolution, he said.

The French foreign minister today called the sanctions "primitive," and "a cruel measure" in their impact on ordinary Iraqis, and "completely absurd" economically.

Nonetheless, Mr. Vedrine said, "we take the security concerns of Iraq's neighbors very seriously."

Kuwait's foreign minister, Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, urged in a speech to the General Assembly today that pressure be maintained on Iraq, which, he said, continued to reveal "non-peaceful intentions and policies of aggression" toward its neighbors.

"Indeed, it is regrettable that for 10 years now the government of Iraq has failed to meet its obligations under Security Council resolutions," the Kuwaiti foreign minister said.

---

U.S. Forswears Force Over Iraq Inspections

New York Times
September 13, 2000
By BARBARA CROSSETTE with STEVEN LEE MYERS
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/13/world/13IRAQ.html

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 12 - Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright said today that the United States would not use force to make Iraq allow the resumption of international arms inspections.

Dr. Albright, speaking with reporters after a speech to the opening session of the General Assembly, said there were still other "red lines" that Iraq would risk attack by crossing. "We do not want to see them reconstitute their weapons of mass destruction," she said, "and we don't want them to take action against the Kurds, and we don't want them to threaten the neighborhood."

But as for restarting arms inspections, Dr. Albright said, only President Saddam Hussein "can pick up the key to let himself out of the sanctions box." She said Iraq had to allow a new inspection commission under Hans Blix, a Swedish arms control expert, to start work; otherwise, the sanctions imposed in 1990 after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait would never be lifted.

Speaking to the General Assembly today, Dr. Albright urged member nations to "stand up to the campaign launched by Baghdad against the U.N.'s authority and international law."

"We must continue to do all we can to ease the hardships faced by Iraq's people," she said. "But we must also defend the integrity of this institution, our security and international law."

In answering questions from reporters, Dr. Albright said twice that force was not the answer to getting cooperation from President Hussein on arms inspections.

This signaled both to Iraq and to Council members that the United States would not raise the possibility of American force as the United Nations waits for the Iraqis to admit the new inspectors, who have been trained and are ready to go. This could come as a relief not only to Iraq, but also to those nations who say American threats can only complicate dealings with Mr. Hussein.

"I think that basically we have made it clear that it is essential for Baghdad to live up to its obligations, and we are opposed to it, using force," she said. "We have our red lines, and we have made those quite clear, and I think it is very important that somehow Saddam Hussein gets the message that he is the one out of step with the rest of the members."

Dr. Albright's remarks underscored the evolution in the administration's policy toward the use of force against Iraq. In December 1998, the United States and Britain launched four nights of air strikes to punish Mr. Hussein's government for its refusal to cooperate with the previous team of inspectors. Since then, the administration has grown increasingly reluctant to consider force, even though some intelligence reports have noted worrisome signs that Iraq's weapons programs have continued.

In Washington, officials said the use of force - even the threat - would undercut efforts to maintain an international consensus on keeping sanctions in place as long as Mr. Hussein resists new inspections. One official said the administration was prepared to accept Iraq's continued intransigence because that supports the American case.

"What we have said is, we're not ready to use force to get the inspectors into Iraq," an administration official said today. "That is not saying - if we have any evidence he's trying to reconstitute weapons of mass destructions - that we're not prepared to act."

In recent weeks, there has been a heightened sense of concern at the Pentagon and elsewhere in Washington that Iraq might be preparing to cross one of the "red lines" Dr. Albright spoke of today. Iraq's military has been conducting annual exercises, and intelligence officials have warned that some of the activity appeared to go beyond that of previous years, including unusual movements of armored weapons and aircraft, officials said.

"I would say there is just enough to warrant the extra level of attention we're giving it," but not yet enough to prompt the administration to act, a senior administration official said on Friday. In 1996, similar exercises in Iraq culminated when Iraqi troops stormed into the Kurdish enclave in the north.

The latest activity has prompted the Pentagon to put its forces on a heightened state of alert, including batteries of Patriot missiles based in Germany, which have been ordered to be ready to move quickly to Israel or other countries in the event of a confrontation with Iraq.

Dr. Albright's comments were not unexpected; diplomats at the United Nations say they believe that the Clinton administration does not want another confrontation in its waning months in office.

A comprehensive economic embargo was imposed on Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. Last December the Security Council, in creating the new Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, gave Iraq a plan under which sanctions could be suspended after a period of cooperation with inspectors on solving key disarmament tasks.

Iraq says that the decade-long embargo has led to the deaths of a million people because of scarcities of food, medicine and other goods. Some American and European groups are campaigning to end sanctions.

"While those groups may be well- meaning, they need to understand who the villain is," Dr. Albright said today. "The villain is Saddam Hussein. It is very, very simple."

---

Albright blames Saddam in arms flap

Washington Times
September 13, 2000
By Betsy Pisik THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://208.246.212.80/world/default-2000913235245.htm

NEW YORK - Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright yesterday criticized the Iraqi leadership for refusing to cooperate with U.N. officials, but ruled out military strikes to force compliance with U.N. resolutions.

Iraq has refused to issue visas or meet with officials of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (Unmovic), which is to investigate Baghdad's efforts to build or stockpile weapons of mass destruction.

"No," she said, when asked by reporters whether military force would be used to make Iraq comply. "We have said that they have a way of getting out of the sanctions box by letting Unmovic back in."

Crippling U.N. sanctions imposed on Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait in 1990 will not be lifted until weapons inspectors certify that Baghdad no longer has the capability to make or use proscribed chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, according to U.N. resolutions.

Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has said he will not let in the new arms inspection team, led by former Swedish Foreign Minister Hans Blix, arguing that Iraq has already destroyed its banned weapons of mass destruction.

Mrs. Albright, who was in New York to address the annual opening session of the U.N. General Assembly, said: "The key here is Doctor Blix and Unmovic and he has said he is ready to go in. It's a little bit like Alice in Wonderland. The key's on the table. All [Saddam] has to do is pick it up."

Mrs. Albright's remarks came one day after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan lamented that Baghdad had twice refused to allow independent U.N.-appointed experts to evaluate Iraq's humanitarian situation.

"In discussions with the United Nations, the government of Iraq has indicated that it does not intend to cooperate with or issue visas to such experts," he wrote in a report to the Security Council earlier this week.

The evaluation was requested by the Security Council at the urging of France and Russia, two of Iraq's strongest allies inside the organization.

The United States has said that as long as Saddam refuses to let the weapons inspectors in, sanctions will stay in place.

It has, however, threatened military action against Iraq if it tries to rebuild weapons of mass destruction, attacks the Kurdish population in the north or threatens its neighbors.

The United States and Britain bombed Iraq in December 1998, saying Saddam was obstructing the work of the inspectors, who left the country. No inspections have taken place since.

In an interview with The Washington Times on Monday, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said Baghdad would not cooperate with inspectors until the sanctions had been lifted, and allied forces ceased patrolling no-fly zones in the country's north and south.

"We are not discussing the last resolution of Unmovic," he said yesterday. "We are discussing oil-for-food and difficulties with the program."

As the standoff grinds on, Iraq has been selling increasingly valuable oil through the U.N. oil-for-food program, which allows the government to export billions of dollars worth of crude and refined oil every six months to purchase approved humanitarian goods.

The Baghdad-based coordinator of the program, Tun Myet, told reporters yesterday that Iraq could generate $10 billion for food, medicines and repairs if oil prices held to their nearly 10-year highs.

About two-thirds of that money is spent by the Iraqis on purchases approved by an international panel in New York. That panel has held up nearly $1.5 billion worth of contracts, saying that the materials or services could be used to assist proscribed weapons activities. Most of those holds have been placed by the Americans, according to U.N. officials and other diplomats.

But Mrs. Albright yesterday rejected criticisms from Baghdad and sympathetic parties.

"It is not the international community that is keeping the Iraqi children and people from eating. . . . The villain is Saddam Hussein," she said.

Mrs. Albright was one of the only speakers to broach the subject during yesterday's opening debate of the General Assembly, which was overshadowed by last week's Millennium Summit of presidents and prime ministers.

In her final speech in the Assembly chambers, Mrs. Albright said the Iraqi regime's strategy "is to ignore it's U.N. Charter obligations, and seek to preserve at all costs its capacity to produce the deadliest weapons humanity has ever known."

France, speaking on behalf of the European Union, did not mention Iraq yesterday, nor did Mr. Annan in his opening remarks.

Representatives of 183 nations will address the Assembly over the next two weeks, all but seven of them foreign ministers.

-------- russia

Russia acquits nuclear dissenter Nikitin

Environmental News Network
Wednesday, September 13, 2000
By Michael Steen, Reuters
http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2000/09/09132000/reu_Nikitin_31405.asp
http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2000/09/09132000/reu_Nikitin_31405.asp?P=2

Russia's Supreme Court today rejected a bid by prosecutors to reopen the long-running case of anti-nuclear activist Alexander Nikitin, acquitted of espionage charges.

To applause from the public gallery, a judge leading the court's presidium - the highest judicial body in Russia - finally put an end to prosecutors' attempts to reopen a trial for high treason that captured international attention.

"We've finished this case that's lasted five years and today I'm very happy," Nikitin told reporters outside the courtroom. "What happened was a celebration of law and justice."

The former navy captain was arrested in 1996 by the FSB security service, a successor to the Soviet-era KGB, after publishing information about radioactive pollution in Arctic seas in reports for the Norwegian environmental group Bellona.

He was imprisoned for 10 months before being freed pending trial.

The presidium's decision, confirming an earlier Supreme Court ruling, is final and marks the first ever acquittal of a Russian detained on charges of high treason in Soviet or post-Soviet times.

"This is a very, very small step toward creating a state ruled by law," Nikitin said.

Russia's General Prosecutor's office was accused last August by the U.S. State Department of "the appearance of political manipulation of the legal system" when it moved to review Nikitin's case.

He was acquitted by a St Petersburg court last year, a ruling later upheld by the Supreme Court.

Kursk submarine's nuclear reactors

Nikitin provided Bellona with information about the safety systems for "third generation" nuclear naval reactors similar to those fitted on board the Kursk submarine, which sank in the Barents Sea a month ago, killing all 118 crew members.

He also passed on details of the dumping of nuclear waste from 1965-89 and Soviet nuclear submarine accidents.

Prosecutors said this amounted to high treason, while Nikitin and Bellona said the information was of environmental importance and was not subject to Russian secrecy laws.

Frederic Hauge, the president of Bellona, said the court's decision showed Russia's constitution could beat the security services.

"We have shown young Russians that if you fight, you can win. And they need to see that in this country," he said.

Nikitin hugged and kissed friends and supporters and said he blamed his five-year-long legal battle on vested interest groups who had not come to terms with the end of the Soviet Union.

"There are still forces in this state who will not give ground. These are people living in the past, these are people who won't give us information which affects the environment and our health," he said.

He would live and work in Russia, he said, and continue to campaign on ecological issues for Bellona. Hauge said the group would see through a complaint filed by Nikitin to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

----

Russia's Highest Court Clears Nikitin of Treason

September 13, 2000 (ENS)
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/sep2000/2000L-09-13-01.html

MOSCOW, Russia, A former Russian Navy officer who reported on the risk of nuclear contamination from the submarines of Russia's Northern Fleet was completely cleared of treason charges today.

Aleksandr Nikitin was charged with high treason and disclosure of state secrets by the Russian Security Police, FSB, for co-authoring a report for the Norwegian environmental group Bellona about radioactive hazards in the Russian submarines based on the Kola Peninsula and at Severodvinsk.

Aleksandr Nikitin smiles outside the courthouse is Moscow after his acquittal. (Photos by Thomas Nilsen courtesy Bellona Foundation)

Nikitin maintained that all the information he provided was from publicly available documents. Bellona has claimed that "this information is of environmental importance and thus can not be a subject to secrecy under prevailing Russian legislation," while the prosecution has claimed that the information is of "no environmental relevance."

The court's decision today marks the first time in the history of the Russian Security Police, the successor of the KGB, that a person charged with high treason has been fully acquitted.

Nikitin was greatly relieved by the verdict. "Now I can focus on environmental work. The five year ordeal is finally over." he said.

First charged in 1996, Nikitin was fully acquitted in December 1999. The acquittal verdict was upheld by the Russian Supreme Court in April 2000.

But in May, the Prosecutor General's Office appealed the acquittal to the Presidium of the Supreme Court.

Inside the Moscow courtroom each side made its final statement today.

In a few words today the Supreme Court Presidium dismissed the appeal leaving the prosecutor no further legal avenues to pursue a case against Nikitin.

"The Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation rejects the appeal of the Prosecutor General in the case against Aleksandr Nikitin," announced Presidium chairman V. Lebedev. The decision is final and cannot be appealed.

The decision comes shortly after the environmental importance of the information in the Bellona report was confirmed by the sinking of a submarine from Russia's Northern Fleet, the Kursk. The submarine, its crew and its two nuclear reactors sank August 14 in the Barents Sea. Worried neighboring countries are monitoring closely for increases in radiation levels.

The court's ruling can be seen as a victory for the independence of the Russian judiciary. In a reversal of the position of the Russian judiciary in the past, Russian Courts are now guided by the law, and not by the needs of the security agencies or by the resident at the Kremlin, said Jon Gauslaa, Bellona's legal adviser, who was present in the courtroom today.

"What we were witnesses to, was not an ordinary court hearing. It was the final tug of war in an almost five year long struggle against the feared Russian secret police and its henchmen at the prosecutor's office," Gauslaa said.

"The fact that the acquittal verdict was upheld by the highest court authority in Russia increases its value greatly," Nikitin's lawyer Yuri Schmidt said. "The judges in Russia have been supported by this verdict. They will act more independently now."

"The victory is final. The clean-up work in the Russian Northern Fleet, which has been severely hampered by this process should now move on at a much faster pace," said Frederic Hauge, president of the Bellona Foundation. "This task seems almost easy, in comparison to fighting down the successor to the KGB."

According to the Bellona report at the core of the Nikitin case, in the period from 1950 to 1970, Russia's Northern Fleet grew from the smallest to the largest and most important of the four Soviet fleets. Six new naval bases some with nuclear submarine facilities were built on the Kola Peninsula from Zapadnaya Litsa in the west to Gremikha in the east. At the same time, five large naval yards were built on the Kola Peninsula and in Severodvinsk for the construction and maintenance of nuclear submarines.

Emerging from the courtroom, Nikitin is mobbed by reporters.

During the Cold War more than 240 nuclear submarines were put to operation within the Soviet Union. Today the Northern Fleet operates 67 nuclear submarines.

"Accidents within the reactors on board these submarines, or on some of the nuclear waste storage facilities located in the same fjord, may lead to radioactive contamination reaching the populations of both the Kola Peninsula and Northern Norway. Civilian Russian authorities are still [1995] not allowed entrance to these military bases to inspect the nuclear safety," stated the Bellona report.

Nikitin was particularly responsible for writing Chapter 8 of the report which addresses nuclear submarine accidents. He detailed incidents where nuclear submarines have sunk or where a partial or complete meltdown of the reactor has occurred with the subsequent release of radioactive material.

"The real challenge of today is to ensure secure demolishing and storage of all the submarines that have been and will be taken out of operation. The balance of these are today rusting in at the Naval bases along the Kola coast and in Severodvinsk," Bellona says in its report.

The complete Bellona report co-authored by Thomas Nilsen, Igor Kudrik and Alexandr Nikitin is available online at: http://www.bellona.no/imaker?id=10090&sub=1

----

Russia Finally Acquits Nuclear Dissenter Nikitin

Russia Today
Sep 13, 2000
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=198894§ion=default

MOSCOW -- (Reuters) Russia's Supreme Court rejected on Wednesday a bid by prosecutors to reopen the case of anti-nuclear activist Alexander Nikitin, acquitted of espionage charges, Interfax news agency reported.

The decision by the court's presidium, the highest judicial body in Russia, finally put an end to prosecutors' attempts to reopen a high-treason case that captured international attention.

The former navy captain was arrested in 1996 by the FSB security service, a successor to the Soviet-era KGB, after publishing information about radioactive pollution in Arctic seas in reports for the Norwegian environmental group Bellona.

Nikitin and Bellona say the information - including allegations that the Russian navy improperly stored and dumped nuclear waste - was of environmental importance and was not subject to Russian secrecy laws.

Nikitin was acquitted by a St Petersburg court last year and the Supreme Court upheld that ruling earlier this year. But the Prosecutor General's Office had asked the court's presidium to review the case.

The presidium's rulings are final and cannot be appealed.

The case has attracted attention, not least in the wake of last month's disaster onboard the nuclear submarine Kursk, in which the entire 118-man crew died and which raised questions about the safety of Russia's atomic-powered fleet.

The U.S. State Department has said the prosecutors' appeal gave "the appearance of political manipulation of the legal system". It said law enforcement agencies might be harassing government critics.

---

Russian troops get base's electricity back

Chicago Sun-Times
September 13, 2000
BY VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
Associated Press
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/russ13.html

MOSCOW--Under intense pressure to collect unpaid bills, a Russian electrical utility cut off power to a strategic missile base--which retaliated by sending troops to seize a switching station and turn the lights back on.

The drastic moves were a symptom of Russia's chronic web of nonpayment, in which large companies and government agencies don't pay cash for energy, raw materials and taxes--a habit that economists say drags down the economy.

A local branch of the national electricity utility, Unified Energy Systems, cut power Monday to a Strategic Rocket Forces base about 60 miles northeast of Moscow, saying it owed about $683,000.

"We have been pushing them for one year to pay for the energy on time, with no result," Yuri Kozlov, the head of the Teikovo power grid, said on RTR government television.

The military responded quickly, capturing a switching station. "We have orders not to let any operator switch off the power," said Lt. Sergei Nikiforov, who commanded the platoon that occupied the station.

The military later agreed to talks on settling debts and recalled the soldiers, and the utility agreed to keep the power on, according to a power company statement.

The company, which controls most of Russia's power grid, is a key link in a vast chain of barter, offsets and in-kind payments that economists say creates hidden subsidies that keep Soviet-era industrial dinosaurs alive for political reasons.

Dmitry Korshunov, the power company's spokesman in Moscow, said the cutoff had only affected non-combat units at the base, "and only after repeated warnings."

Institutions subjected to blackouts for unpaid bills in recent years have at times included hospitals, an air traffic control center, coal mines and a city sewage plant. In 1995, sailors at an Arctic submarine base forced engineers to turn the power back on at gunpoint after a cutoff threatened to disrupt the cooling system on a submarine's nuclear reactor.

Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov assailed this week's cutoff, saying it was "impermissible" becaues military bases were on a list of institutions that could not be cut off.

The electricity utility, headed by the government's former chief economic policy-maker, Anatoly Chubais, has been trying to collect unpaid bills, in part because it is facing pressure from natural gas giant Gazprom to pay its own bill for the gas it uses.

---

Russian Whistle Blower Acquitted

Associated Press
September 13, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Russia-Whistle-Blower.html

MOSCOW (AP) -- To the relief of environmental and human rights activists, Russia's Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the acquittal of an ex-navy officer accused of espionage for revealing the perils of decaying nuclear submarines.

The decision finally closed a case that had drawn international criticism as it dragged on for four years. Alexander Nikitin's cause was championed by environmental and other activists who accused the government of Soviet-style persecution.

``Today I am very happy,'' Nikitin told reporters after Wednesday's court ruling. ``What happened is a triumph of law and justice.''

Nikitin was arrested in 1996 for preparing a report on decaying nuclear warships for the Norwegian environmental group Bellona. The report described 52 Cold War-era submarines in a remote shipyard near Russia's border with Norway whose spent nuclear fuel could have leaked or exploded.

Russia's main intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service, accused Nikitin of sharing secret information with foreigners and he was jailed for nearly a year.

Supporters in Russia and abroad denounced the case as an attempt to intimidate environmental groups and set back freedom of speech.

A St. Petersburg court acquitted Nikitin in December, throwing out the espionage charges. The court ruled the information was not classified as secret at the time.

The Supreme Court upheld that ruling in April. But the Prosecutor General's office appealed, saying further investigation was needed. On Wednesday, the Presidium of the Supreme Court -- the court's highest body -- rejected the prosecutor's appeal, closing the case.

``Some people still remain in this country ... who are living in the past,'' Nikitin said. ``And these people resisted until the end. Today, a final line has been drawn.''

Amnesty International praised Wednesday's ruling, but warned that it doesn't mean rights are secure in Russia.

``We are delighted that Alexander Nikitin's long ordeal is finally at an end -- an ordeal he should never have had to undergo in the first place,'' the executive director of Amnesty USA, William F. Schulz, said in a statement. ``This decision should send a strong signal to President (Vladimir) Putin to urgently address the deteriorating human rights situation in Russia.''

Putin headed the Federal Security Service during much of the Nikitin case, but made little comment publicly except to say Nikitin was guilty. Putin has also said that ecological groups were providing cover for foreign spies.

But Putin has denied any crackdown on dissent, and some human rights activists say things are no worse under him than they were under Boris Yeltsin, who was president when Nikitin was arrested.

---

New York Times
September 13, 2000
World Briefings
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/13/world/13BRIE.html

RUSSIA: THE KURSK'S FUTURE The minister for atomic energy, Yevgeny Adamov, said it might be safer to leave the submarine Kursk in the Barents Sea rather than risk a nuclear accident by raising it. "From the point of view of the nuclear reactors, and the nuclear situation, there is no need to raise the submarine," he said. Environmental groups have warned of the risk of leaking radiation in adjacent fishing grounds. An aide to Mr. Adamov said he was concerned that cutting holes to retrieve crew remains could further weaken the vessel and make its raising more dangerous. Patrick E. Tyler (NYT)

----

Russian minister sees no need to raise Kursk

RUSSIA: September 13, 2000
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=8155

MOSCOW - Russia's minister for atomic energy said yesterday he saw no pressing reasons for raising the wreck of the Kursk nuclear submarine from the bottom of the Barents Sea, where it sank exactly a month ago.

Russian officials have said they will recover the 118 bodies of the Kursk's crew. But the comments by Atomic Energy Minister Yevgeny Adamov were the first indication that the submarine, powered by two nuclear reactors, might be left on the seabed.

"From the point of view of the nuclear reactors, and the nuclear situation, there is no need to raise the submarine," Adamov said in televised comments.

He was also quoted by Interfax news agency as saying raising the submarine could itself create a radiation leak.

Russia has previously said it would consider ways of raising the 17,000-tonne Kursk, which was flooded after two explosions ripped through its bow on August 12.

Adamov would not be likely to take any decisions on whether or not to raise the submarine.

Environmentalists have said leaving the submarine where it is could be dangerous because sea water might gradually become contaminated if the reactors are in any way damaged.

The Russian navy says the Kursk's reactors shut down automatically shortly after it sank. Norwegian environmental group Bellona has said the Kursk's reactors are among the safest in the Russian fleet.

The company which built the Kursk has said it is planning to recover the bodies of the crew by cutting large holes in the side of the 505-feet-long (154-metre) submarine, to enable divers to enter its cavernous hull.

Russian officials have said the bodies should be recovered in the next couple of months.

The last submarine to sink with a Russian crew, the Soviet Komsomolets which went down off Norway's northern coast in 1989, was never recovered from the seabed. Forty-two of the 69-man crew died in that accident, and it sank with two nuclear-tipped torpedoes still on board.

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

How to cut energy prices

USA Today
09/13/00
http://www.usatoday.com/news/comment/columnists/freeman/ncjf91.htm

With electricity prices climbing in California and gasoline prices still close to their summer highs, media reports have focused on the usual villains - deregulation, overconsumption, corporate America and OPEC. For some reason, you rarely hear about the costs that government and the environmental movement add to our energy bills.

Speaking of OPEC, how much leverage do you think this crazy cartel would have if we encouraged energy production in the United States? These guys can't stick to their production quotas for five minutes before somebody starts cheating. If we're dependent on foreign oil from these clowns, it's in large part because we choose not to produce cheap energy at home.

You can argue that environmental regulations have benefits, that we shouldn't drill in certain areas or that communities should fight the arrival of a nuclear plant, but let's understand the consequences when we make energy costly and difficult to produce.

If we think high energy prices represent a problem, then let's examine the obvious contributors to this problem. Start with government. According to the Potomac Electric Power Company, which serves Maryland and Washington, D.C., taxes from the various levels of government add up to more than 20% of the average customer's bill. Bob Burns of the National Regulatory Research Institute at Ohio State University reports that in some states, taxes represent more than 25% of the average electric bill.

For gasoline, the costs may be even higher. According to the American Petroleum Institute, state, local and federal gasoline taxes add up to 42 cents a gallon for the average customer. That doesn't even include all the income and property taxes paid by oil companies, many of which are passed on to drivers.

Then you have the costs of regulation. It's tough to estimate the total amount that companies spend to comply with government rules and the lost opportunities resulting from various laws, but we know that we're talking about huge numbers. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that it costs Americans $150 billion each year to comply with federal environmental laws. "A big part of that relates to emission controls on the production of energy," says Paul Portney of Resources for the Future, a Washington think tank.

Then you have economic regulation - for example, when a local utility receives a government-protected monopoly. Various studies at the Department of Energy have estimated that electricity prices would fall anywhere from 6% to 13% with deregulation of the industry.

But wait, you say. We saw deregulation in California, and prices are rising. Yes, they deregulated the sale of energy, but not the creation of it. Try building a nuclear plant in California right now. With a growing economy and more people using information technology, electricity demands are rising. So in the absence of new supply, prices will rise. "Californians would have this problem with or without competition. They haven't built any new power plants in a decade," says Jerry Ellig, an economist at George Mason University in Virginia.

On top of regulation, I can't even begin to guess how much we spend on the costs of delay, obstruction and litigation when neighborhood and environmental groups protest plant construction or seek to tear down existing facilities.

The only ones happy with high energy prices are the environmentalists who believe higher costs discourage consumption. But they're fighting a losing battle. There's no way to reduce energy demand in a growing, high-tech economy. So environmentalists should embrace the one technology that provides cheap, reliable energy with no strip mines, no smog, no polluting emissions, no salmon shredded under dams and no clear-cutting of forests to make room for windmills. Personally, I'm skeptical of the notion that your SUV is destroying the planet, but for those who believe in the doomsday theories, it's time to go nuclear.

James Freeman writes the weekly TechnoPolitics column for Forbes.com. His column appears each Wednesday on USATODAY.com. To talk back to James Freeman, click here.

mailto:jamesfreeman@blackwellcorp.com

---

William A. Nierenberg, 81, Physicist and Military Policy Adviser

New York Times
September 13, 2000
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/13/national/13NIER.html

Dr. William A. Nierenberg, a physicist with a passion for the ocean who spent five decades striving to mesh science, technology and policy as an adviser to presidents, military agencies and NATO, died Sunday at his home in San Diego. He was 81.

The cause was cancer, according to a statement from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, of which Dr. Nierenberg was the director from 1965 to 1986.

From the 1950's until shortly before his death, he served on dozens of National Academy of Sciences committees, presidential commissions and panels examining issues as varied as what to do about acid rain and where to hide ballistic missiles.

More than many of his peers, Dr. Nierenberg gravitated toward the uncomfortable interface between science and politics, a tendency that, when combined with a rapid-fire, straight-talking manner, sometimes put him at odds with colleagues.

But any differences of opinion did not erode lifelong friendships, said Dr. Walter H. Munk, a research oceanographer at Scripps who knew Dr. Nierenberg for 40 years and debated him on issues like global warming, a theory that Dr. Nierenberg long held posed little immediate threat to human affairs.

When Dr. Nierenberg was appointed to run Scripps, Dr. Munk recalled, "there was some concern as to whether a nonoceanographer would do this job well." But, Dr. Munk added, "he fought hard for the institution."

While Dr. Nierenberg was director, Scripps pioneered several research projects, including extensive drilling surveys of the sea floor, which revealed much about the history of the oceans and the dynamics of the earth's crust, and studies of the interactions of the oceans and the atmosphere.

William Aaron Nierenberg was born in New York City on Feb. 13, 1919. According to the National Academy of Sciences, to which he was elected in 1971, he received three degrees in physics - his bachelor's degree from City College of New York in 1939 and his master's and doctorate from Columbia University in 1942 and 1947. At Columbia, he studied under I. I. Rabi, winner of the 1944 Nobel Prize in Physics.

While pursuing his degrees, Dr. Nierenberg served as a section leader on the Manhattan Project.

He taught briefly at the University of Michigan, but it was after he moved to the University of California at Berkeley in 1950 that he established his credentials in experimental physics. While there, he formed the Atomic Beam Laboratory and, from 1950 to 1965, his work resulted in more than 100 academic papers.

In the mid-1950's he took a break from physics and developed expertise in sonar and antisubmarine warfare, which he put to use advising government and military agencies on scientific questions related to national security.

From then on, his career focused on applying science to some purpose, be it national defense or measuring the risks posed by pollution.

From 1960 to 1962, he served as assistant secretary general for scientific affairs of NATO, and from 1962 into the 1980's he was a member of several groups that offered advice to the Pentagon and White House.

Dr. Nierenberg is survived by his wife, Edith; a son, Nicolas, of San Diego; a daughter, Victoria Nierenberg Tschinkel of Tallahassee, Fla.; and three grandchildren.

-------- new mexico

Los Alamos scientist freed

BBC News
Wednesday, 13 September, 2000
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_923000/923870.stm

Mr Lee's family has always maintained his innocence An American nuclear scientist, held for nine months in solitary confinement on charges of breaching national security, has walked free after pleading guilty to a single charge of improperly handling sensitive data.

An apologetic judge said the government's actions had "embarrassed our entire nation."

Judge James Parker said he is bound by the plea bargain agreement to sentence Mr Lee to 278 days, one day less than he already has served.

The BBC Washington correspondent says the agreement is a remarkable and embarrassing climbdown by the US Government, which has also been accused of racial motives in bringing the charges.

Mr Lee had been expected to be released on Monday, but this was delayed after lawyers failed to agree a deal

He had been charged with 59 counts of breaching national security at the Los Alamos nuclear weapons factory, and faced life in prison if convicted.

Cooperation

In exchange for Mr Lee's guilty plea the government dropped 58 counts against the Taiwan-born naturalised citizen.

Judge Parker said he was also sorry that the plea deal prevented disclosure of information that would have shed light on the reasons for Mr Lee's detention.

As part of the proposed deal, the scientist has agreed to cooperate with investigators as they try to confirm his account that he destroyed seven missing tape of computer data.

Mr Lee lost his job at the laboratory against a background of widespread allegations that he had compromised what were described as "the crown jewels" of US nuclear weapons technology.

Federal officials had suggested he had helped China to acquire US nuclear weapons technology.

But he was never charged with spying.

His cooperation brings to an end a three-year-old case that has been marked by claims that the scientist was unfairly singled out for investigation because of his race.

---

Nuclear scientist Lee goes home after plea bargain

CNN
September 13, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/2000/LAW/09/13/wenholee.free.02/index.html

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (CNN) -- Fired Los Alamos nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee was set free Wednesday and walked out of an Albuquerque federal court room 279 days after he was jailed for mishandling nuclear secrets.

http://www.cnn.com/2000/LAW/09/13/wenholee.free.02/map.new_mexico.albuquerque.jpg

Lee, 60, pleaded guilty to one felony count of downloading nuclear weapons design secrets to a non-secure computer at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. He read a statement in court in which he admitted using an unsecure computer to download a document relating to national defense onto a tape. He said he knew his possession of the tape outside the top-secret area where he worked was unauthorized.

As part of the deal, he also signed a statement under oath that he never intended to harm the United States and never passed the secrets he copied to any third party.

In exchange, federal prosecutors agreed to drop the remaining 58 counts, including almost 40 counts of "acting with intent to harm the United States," which could have landed Lee in prison for life.

U.S. District Judge James Parker then sentenced Lee to 278 days, one day less than he spent in solitary confinement. Parker sharply criticized the federal government's handling of the case and said Lee was held under demeaning conditions.

"I sincerely apologize to you, Dr. Lee, for the unfair manner in which you were held in custody by the executive branch," Parker said.

Applause erupted in the courtroom as the sentence was read.

Lee was reunited with his family in private after the sentence and smiled broadly as he left the courtroom.

"I am very happy to go home with my wife and my children today and I want to thank all the people who supported me," Lee said outside the courthouse. "Over the next few days, I plan to do some fishing."

Lee's son Chung Lee said he was thrilled by his father's release but still saddened by seeing his father shackled over the past year.

"Exactly a year ago, he was a spy and even two weeks ago they said it was dangerous for him to be released, and now he's a free man," he said.

Prosecutors pleased with outcome

After the hearing, prosecutors said the rigorous agreement would protect national security and help the government find out what happened to seven tapes that Lee used to download classified information.

"For the first time, Dr. Lee has agreed to tell us what he did with the tapes and to cooperate fully with us, something he has refused to do for approximately the last 18 months," U.S. Attorney Norman Bay said.

Bay said it was more important to find out what happens to the tapes than to win a long prison sentence for Lee.

He added that if Lee lies to investigators or fails to cooperate, the government can try him on the remaining charges.

When asked if the government owes Lee an apology for holding him in solitary confinement, lead prosecutor George Stamboulidis said, "Absolutely not."

"When you steal our nuclear secrets, we're not going to let you communicate with anyone and no American should expect that we would," he said.

Lee was fired last year by Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he worked in the top-secret X Division designing the nation's nuclear arsenal, amid government allegations China was spying on the lab's weapons designs. He was never charged with espionage but prosecutors had argued for months that he was a serious national security threat.

The investigation began as an offshoot of a fizzled Chinese espionage case, with government attorneys making dire accusations that Lee downloaded the "crown jewels" of U.S. nuclear science and might be poised to hand them over to another country.

The case began disintegrating last month at a renewed bail hearing. FBI agent Robert Messemer, whose testimony was key in initially denying Lee bail in December, said he repeatedly erred in that testimony. Defense experts also disputed the government's claim that the mishandled data contained vital defense secrets.

Calls for investigation

Some law professors have called for an investigation of the government's conduct in the case. One was already begun, then suspended for the expected trial, by a Senate subcommittee chaired by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, who says he will now resume it.

Lee's supporters and a number of Asian American groups have said Lee was targeted for prosecution because he is ethnic Chinese. Lee has filed a civil suit against the government that was delayed until after the criminal trial.

The government has denied that race is a factor.

CNN National Correspondent Tony Clark, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

---

Wen Ho Lee Freed Amid Apologies From Judge

Yahoo News
Wednesday September 13
By Marcus Kabel
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000913/ts/crime_scientist_dc_31.html

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (Reuters) - Former Los Alamos nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee was freed from nine months of solitary confinement on Wednesday with a judge apologizing to him and blasting the U.S. government for ``embarrassing our entire nation'' with the alleged spying for China case.

Government lawyers defended their actions, refusing to make any apologies and saying they had acted as they did to protect national security and stop one man from compiling his own ''personal library'' of U.S. nuclear secrets.

A relieved Dr Lee walked out of the courtroom smiling and told reporters, ``I am very happy to go home with my wife and children today and I want to say thank you to all the people who supported me. In the next few days I am going to go fishing.''

U.S. District Court Judge James Parker ordered the 60-year-old Taiwan-born scientist freed in a plea bargain in which Lee pleaded guilty to one felony count of downloading nuclear weapons design secrets to a non-secure computer at the Los Alamos laboratory.

Judge Parker had harsh and angry words for the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Energy. He said that the top levels of both departments ``have embarrassed our entire nation and each of us who is a citizen of it.''

He told Lee that as ``a member of the third branch of the U.S. government, the judiciary, the courts, I sincerely apologize to you ... for the unfair manner you were held in custody.''

He said he was misled by the government last November to order Lee held in solitary confinement, often in shackles.

The government had presented Lee as a threat to national security who had access to the ``crown jewels'' of U.S. nuclear secrets.

As part of the deal, Lee also signed a statement under oath that he never intended to harm the United States and never passed the secrets he copied to any third party. When the case first broke, Lee was held up as a possible spy for China -- but was never charged with espionage.

Many government critics saw the plea bargain as a face-saving gesture in an embarrassing situation for the government which has seen its case against Lee collapse over the last few weeks amid charges that it had targeted him as a possible spy for China because of his race.

In return for the guilty plea to one felony count, the government dropped all other charges including nearly 40 counts of ''acting with intents to harm the United States'' that could have landed Lee in prison for life.

Lee also promised to help the FBI verify his claims that he destroyed seven missing seven computer tapes of weapons data.

Lee was fired by Los Alamos National Laboratory last year amid government allegations that China was spying on the lab's weapons designs. Lee was never charged with espionage but was arrested last December on 59 counts of illegally copying design secrets, to which he pleaded not guilty.

Norman Bay, the Asian American who is U.S. Attorney for the district which includes Los Alamos, insisted to reporters that the case had nothing to do with race as many opponents of the prosecution have insisted.

``Mr. Lee was not prosecuted because of his race, he was prosecuted because of what he did. He compiled his own personal library of nuclear secrets, transferred from the secure side (of the computer) to the unsecure side. He then downloaded all information to 10 tapes, three of which have been recovered as result of our investigation and seven never recovered at all,'' Bay said as he and other prosecutors faced the press outside the court and defended their every action.

Bay added, ``I am proud to be a career federal prosecutor. I am especially proud, deeply proud to be an U.S. attorney under Janet Reno (news - web sites) ... This is a case about a man who mishandled huge amounts of nuclear data and got caught doing it.''

He added that justice was being served because for the first time, Lee had agreed to ``tell us what he did with the tapes ... something he refused to do for approximately the past 18 months.''

Bay said, ``We will have opportunity to fully debrief Dr Lee under oath. We also are able to polygraph him if he lies and the government can move to set aside the plea agreement and can also prosecute him for perjury or obstruction of justice.''

---

Wen Ho Lee Case: A Double Standard

New York Times
September 13, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/13/opinion/L13LEE.html

To the Editor:

It is interesting to note that the government's 59-count indictment against Dr. Wen Ho Lee has finally come down to a single charge of improperly downloading classified material onto an insecure computer (front page, Sept. 11), similar to the allegations levied against John M. Deutch, the former director of central intelligence.

In Mr. Deutch's case, however, no criminal charges were brought but he lost his security clearance. While Dr. Lee sat in a jail cell for nine months facing a life sentence, Mr. Deutch received a slap on the wrist.

We hope that the next time the government decides to prosecute someone for breaching national security, it applies one standard of justice and refrains from racial scapegoating.

CHRISTOPHER KUI Executive Director Asian Americans for Equality New York, Sept. 11, 2000

•To the Editor:

Re "Undoing the Damage of the Wen Ho Lee Case," by James Lilley (Op-Ed, Sept. 12): Ambassador Lilley hits the nail on the head when he writes, "The fact that China tries to recruit spies doesn't mean that Chinese-Americans as a group should be suspect."

Studies by United States intelligence agencies of people convicted of espionage over the last 20 years found that the vast majority of spies were motivated by anger and revenge, followed by financial greed. Ethnicity or ideology was an insignificant contributing factor.

Indeed, more than 95 percent of espionage cases involve white men, most of whom volunteer to spy on behalf of a foreign government. If United States nuclear secrets were passed to China, chances are the source was a disgruntled white government employee with overextended credit card bills who initiated contact with Chinese intelligence agents.

PETER LIFTON Lexington, Mass., Sept. 12, 2000 The writer is a former senior C.I.A. counterintelligence officer.

---

Nuke Scientist Wen Ho Lee Is Free

New York Times
September 13, 2000 Filed at 4:40 p.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/13AP-Scientist-Secrets.html

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- After nine months in solitary confinement, Wen Ho Lee pleaded guilty Wednesday to a single count of mishandling nuclear secrets and was set free by an apologetic judge who said the government's actions ``embarrassed our entire nation.''

U.S. District Judge James Parker was bound by the plea agreement to sentence the fired Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist to 278 days -- essentially, time served since his arrest last December.

Lee had been charged with 59 counts of breaching national security and faced life in prison if convicted. The rest of the charges were dropped.

``I sincerely apologize to you, Dr. Lee, for the unfair manner in which you were held in custody by the executive branch,'' Parker said.

Parker said the Departments of Justice and Energy ``have embarrassed our entire nation and each of us who is a citizen of it.''

A smiling Lee got cheers from supporters as he left the courthouse. He thanked them and said: ``I'm very happy to go home with my wife and children today. ... The next few days, I'm going fishing.'''

The judge said he was only sorry the plea agreement prevented disclosure of information that would have shed light on the reasons for the detention. Lee's supporters have said he was singled out as a Chinese-American.

The judge, who was appointed by President Reagan, said he did not blame the prosecutors.

``It is only the top decision-makers in the executive branch of the government, in particular the Department of Justice and the Department of Energy,'' he said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney George Stamboulidis said Lee did not deserve a government apology. He called the downloaded information ``a personal library'' of nuclear defense secrets.

``Which Americans among us would want us to turn our backs on that?'' he asked.

Lee read a statement in court in which he admitted using an unsecure computer to download a document relating to national defense onto a tape. He said he knew his possession of the tape outside of the top-secret area where he worked was unauthorized.

He pleaded guilty to having unauthorized possession of national defense materials -- the tapes.

Lee had agreed to cooperate with the government and tell them everything he knows about seven tapes.

The government said that the fate of the tapes was paramount, and that Lee's willingness to explain what happened to them was the turning point in 2-month-old plea discussions. Lee has said the tapes were destroyed.

Parker said both sides agreed to withdraw pending motions. That would include defense allegations of racial profiling and prosecutors' request before an appellate court to keep Lee jailed.

The investigation began as an offshoot of a fizzled Chinese espionage case, with government attorneys making dire accusations that Lee downloaded the ``crown jewels'' of U.S. nuclear weaponry science and might be poised to hand them over to a foreign power.

Lee, 60, beamed as he entered the courtroom for the hearing and signaled his son, Chung, with an OK sign. Lee's wife, Sylvia, also smiled as she arrived.

Cecelia Chang, a member of the steering committee for the Wen Ho Lee Defense Fund, was sobbing with happiness as she left the courtroom.

The judge, she said, ``just basically told us that the executive branch is to blame. He had the courage to say that and to apologize to Dr. Lee.

``That is the apology we have waited for from the government,'' Chang said. ``I would love to see the country follow his example.''

Nance Crow Sullivan, another Lee supporter, ran out of the courthouse door and screamed: ``Justice has been served.'' She returned to the courthouse with an American flag.

A group of Lee's Los Alamos neighbors had come to court in ``Free Wen Ho Lee Now'' T-shirts. The backs said: ``Los Alamos Scientist -- Is He Guilty Before Proven Innocent?''

A deal had been reached on Sunday. However, a hearing on the plea agreement Monday was delayed twice while attorneys wrangled over details. Parker finally recessed the hearing and gave attorneys Tuesday to work things out.

Stamboulidis, brought in from New York to handle the case, said the plea agreement provides protections for the government that a conviction at trial wouldn't have.

If Lee had been tried on the one count to which he pleaded, he could have spent eight years in prison without disclosing the handling of the tapes.

``There are powerful incentives built into this cooperation agreement for him to be truthful,'' Stamboulidis said.

Some law professors have called for an investigation of the government's conduct in the case. One was already begun, then suspended for the expected trial, by a Senate subcommittee chaired by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who says he will now resume it.

The case began disintegrating last month at a renewed bail hearing. FBI agent Robert Messemer, whose testimony was key in initially denying Lee bail in December, said he repeatedly erred in that testimony. Defense experts also disputed the government's claim that the mishandled data contained vital defense secrets.

On Tuesday, Washington-based Judicial Watch said it was suing Lee and others on behalf of Notra Trulock, a former Energy Department counterintelligence chief. Lee's lawyers have said Trulock was among those who unfairly singled Lee out.

Judicial Watch said Trulock, in a defamation complaint, alleged Lee and others ``scapegoated'' Trulock to divert attention from security lapses at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Lee's lawyers declined comment.

On the Net:
Supporters of Lee: http://www.wenholee.org

---

U.S. and Lawyers for Scientist Battle Over Plea Deal

New York Times
September 13, 2000
By JAMES STERNGOLD
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/13/national/13LAB.html

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 12 - The government and defense lawyers continued their 11th-hour battle today over how to interpret a plea agreement in which Wen Ho Lee, the former Los Alamos scientist, has admitted to one count of improperly downloading nuclear secrets in return for his freedom.

At the same time, officials began rounds of finger-pointing for the virtual collapse of the government's case.

John Kelly, the former United States attorney in Albuquerque who indicted Dr. Lee, and then left government to run for Congress, said in an interview that the indictment, which has been all but abandoned, had been approved not just by him but also by senior officials at the Justice and Energy Departments. It was a "team decision," Mr. Kelly said.

Some government officials blamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation for providing false testimony at pretrial hearings, which ultimately hurt the government's case. And one government lawyer said the Los Alamos National Laboratory had harmed the case by giving deeply conflicting views of the value of the weapons information Dr. Lee improperly downloaded.

In Albuquerque, the focus remained on negotiations over Dr. Lee's plea agreement.

Officials close to the case said several questions were still being debated: Can the investigators ask about any efforts by China to steal nuclear secrets? And can Dr. Lee be prosecuted for any other crime that comes to light in discussions with investigators?

The two sides in the case had made a surprise announcement on Sunday that the government was dropping 58 of its 59 charges against Dr. Lee in return for his agreement to plead guilty to the one felony charge of having illegally gathered and retained nuclear weapons secrets.

Under the agreement, Dr. Lee would be sentenced to the time he had already served in prison, nine months since he was arrested, but would serve no probation. He also agreed that he would cooperate with investigators and explain why he downloaded a huge amount of nuclear data and what he did with seven computer tapes of the information that have disappeared.

Judge James A. Parker set a hearing for 2 p.m. Monday in Federal District Court in Albuquerque, during which Dr. Lee had been expected to enter his plea and then walk free. But this routine hearing was twice delayed and then postponed until Wednesday morning because, the lawyers said, more details needed to be worked out.

Lawyers on both sides have refused to comment on their unexpected battle, but people with knowledge of the problem say it relates not to the terms of the actual agreement, which was already signed on Sunday, but to competing views of what Dr. Lee would tell the government investigators and what legal risks he might face for those disclosures.

In making the plea agreement final, Dr. Lee's attorneys made what is called a proffer, a description of what, in general terms, he would tell the investigators. Several people said the disagreement holding up Dr. Lee's release related to how far afield the government could go in its questioning.

Dr. Lee's lawyers have sought the narrowest interpretation of the deal, and have sought to protect him against additional prosecution, people with knowledge of the talks said. From the defense perspective, they said, it appeared that the government was trying to stiffen the terms of the deal at the last minute in order to avoid criticism that it gained little from this long and divisive case.

The government has insisted that Dr. Lee has to answer all questions and should be vulnerable to prosecution if he admits crimes outside of the downloading charge he is pleading guilty to, people close to the talks said.

Either way, Judge Parker hinted on Monday that if the two sides could not close this gap, he might simply order the government to live up to the signed plea deal, allow Dr. Lee to make his plea in court, and then free him.

With the perception growing that the case, in which Dr. Lee was initially suspected of being a spy for China, has collapsed under the weight of defense attorney attacks, many people sought to shift blame.

In another instance of finger-pointing, today in Virginia, Notra Trulock, who had investigated Dr. Lee for several years as the head of counterintelligence at the Energy Department, filed a defamation suit against Dr. Lee for having introduced affidavits accusing Mr. Trulock of singling out Dr. Lee because he is Chinese- American.

While the suit is aimed at Dr. Lee, Larry Klayman, the chairman of Judicial Watch, the conservative group that filed the suit, said its real focus was the Energy Department, which he said had unfairly smeared Mr. Trulock and bungled the investigation.

"This should scare the heck out of the Energy Department," Mr. Klayman said.

Stu Nagurka, a department spokesman, said, "The department is not a party to this lawsuit, and therefore we do not think it is appropriate to express our views about it."

Brian Sun, one of Dr. Lee's attorneys, said he had not yet seen the suit.

But in general, Mr. Sun said, "We do not place much stock in an effort that has more of a political motive."

In Albuquerque, Mr. Kelly, the former United States attorney, showed up in court on Monday to watch Dr. Lee's hearing and offered his own defense.

He described the plea deal as an "excellent outcome" because it forced Dr. Lee to answer questions about what he was doing with the secret data. But, he added, "It was a very painful prosecution in a lot of ways," and he insisted that the decision to initiate it was shared.

"I don't want to point a finger," said Mr. Kelly, who is now running for office in part on his record as the United States attorney. "I accept responsibility, but it was a team decision to move ahead on this."

---

Scientist Is Set Free After Guilty Plea on Lesser Charge

New York Times
September 13, 2000
By JAMES STERNGOLD
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/13/continuous/14CND-LAB.html

ALBUQUERQUE, Sept. 13 -- Dr. Wen Ho Lee, the former Los Alamos scientist accused of mishandling nuclear secrets, walked free from prison today under a plea agreement after the judge in the case apologized to him and called the prosecution an embarrassment.

Dr. Lee formally pleaded guilty to one count of improperly downloading nuclear secrets, a far cry from the 59-count indictment and earlier suggestions by the government that he had spied for China.

Judge James A. Parker accepted Dr. Lee's guilty plea to the single felony change and sentenced him to 278 days in prison, the time he has already served. He also fined Dr. Lee $100.

The judge apologized to Dr. Lee for the "unfair manner" of his incarceration and said the Department of Justice and Energy "have embarrassed our entire nation and each of us who is a citizen of it."

Federal officials defended keeping Dr. Lee in solitary confinement to limit his communication with outsiders.

"When you steal our nuclear secrets we are not going to let you communicate with anyone," said George A. Stamboulidis, an assistant United States attorney.

Prosecutors and Dr. Lee's lawyers reached agreement after Dr. Lee said he would withdraw allegations that he had been a victim of racial profiling and prosecutors said they would drop their request that he remain in prison.

The prosecution denied that Dr. Lee had been singled out for his ethnicity.

"Dr. Lee was not prosecuted for his race," said Norman C. Bay, another assistant United States attorney. "He was prosecuted for what he did.

"This case was not about race. It was about the actions of a man who mishandled huge amounts of classified data," Mr. Bay said. Under the plea agreement, prosecutors will be able to question Dr. Lee under oath and reinstate the charges if he is found to lie, prosecutors said.

"I'm very happy to go home with my wife and my children today," Mr. Lee said in brief remarks to reporters outside the courthouse. "I want to say thank-you to all the people who support me. I really appreciate it very, very much. In the next few days, I'm going fishing."

The deal was a defeat for the government, which had originally charged Mr. Lee in a 59-count indictment, and portrayed him as a spy for the Chinese government. As the case seemed to unravel in recent weeks, government officials suggested that Dr. Lee might instead have provided secrets to other governments. Ultimately he was not charged with espionage.

On Tuesday, even before the final deal was reached officials began placing blame for the virtual collapse of the government's case.

John Kelly, the former United States attorney in Albuquerque who indicted Dr. Lee, and then left government to run for Congress, said in an interview that the original indictment had been approved not just by him but also by senior officials at the Justice and Energy Departments. It was a "team decision," Mr. Kelly said.

Some government officials blamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation for providing false testimony at pretrial hearings, which ultimately hurt the government's case. And one government lawyer said the Los Alamos National Laboratory had harmed the case by giving deeply conflicting views of the value of the weapons information Dr. Lee improperly downloaded.

On Sunday, the government agreed to reduce the charges to one felony count of having illegally gathered and retained nuclear weapons secrets. But negotiations this week have delayed Mr. Lee's release. Friends and neighbors of Mr. Lee came to court again today in T-shirts that read "Free Wen Ho Lee Now."

Officials close to the case said the delay in completing the plea agreement was caused by several questions being debated among lawyers: Can the investigators ask about any efforts by China to steal nuclear secrets? And can Dr. Lee be prosecuted for any other crime that comes to light in discussions with investigators?

Under the agreement, Dr. Lee was sentenced to the time he had already served in prison, nine months since he was arrested, but would serve no probation. He also agreed that he would cooperate with investigators and explain why he downloaded a huge amount of nuclear data and what he did with seven computer tapes of the information that have disappeared.

"Justice was a winner today," Mr. Stamboulidis said.

Lawyers on both sides refused to comment Tuesday on their unexpected battle that delayed the final agreement. But people with knowledge of the problem say it relates not to the terms of the actual agreement, which was already signed on Sunday, but to competing views of what Dr. Lee would tell the government investigators and what legal risks he might face for those disclosures.

In making the plea agreement final, Dr. Lee's attorneys made what is called a proffer, a description of what, in general terms, he would tell the investigators. Several people said the disagreement holding up Dr. Lee's release related to how far afield the government could go in its questioning.

Dr. Lee's lawyers have sought the narrowest interpretation of the deal, and have sought to protect him against additional prosecution, people with knowledge of the talks said. From the defense perspective, they said, it appeared that the government was trying to stiffen the terms of the deal at the last minute in order to avoid criticism that it gained little from this long and divisive case.

The government has insisted that Dr. Lee has to answer all questions and should be vulnerable to prosecution if he admits crimes outside of the downloading charge he is pleading guilty to, people close to the talks said.

---

Wen Ho Lee released from custody

USA Today
09/13/00- Updated 03:51 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/ndswed03.htm

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - After nine months in solitary, Wen Ho Lee pleaded guilty Wednesday to just one count of mishandling nuclear secrets and was set free by an apologetic judge who said the government's actions ''embarrassed our entire nation.''

U.S. District Judge James Parker was bound by the plea agreement to sentence the fired Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist to 278 days - essentially, time served since his arrest last December.

Lee had been charged with 59 counts of breaching national security and faced life in prison if convicted.

''I sincerely apologize to you, Dr. Lee, for the unfair manner in which you were held in custody by the executive branch,'' Parker told him.

Parker said the Department of Justice and Energy ''have embarrassed our entire nation and each of us who is a citizen of it.''

The judge said he was only sorry the plea agreement prevented disclosure of information that would have shed light on the reasons for the detention. Lee's supporters have said he was singled out as a Chinese-American.

The judge said he did not blame the prosecutors.

''It is only the top decision-makers in the executive branch of the government, in particular the Department of Justice and the Department of Energy,'' he said.

A smiling Lee got cheers from supporters as he left the courthouse. He thanked them and said: ''I'm very happy to go home with my wife and children today. ... The next few days, I'm going fishing.'''

Earlier, Lee read a statement in court in which he admitted using an unsecure computer to download a document relating to national defense onto a tape. He said he knew his possession of the tape outside of the top-secret area where he worked was unauthorized.

He pleaded guilty to having unauthorized possession of, access to, or control over documents and writings related to national defense - that is, the tape.

Lee had agreed to cooperate with the government and tell them everything he knows about seven tapes.

The government said the fate of the tapes was paramount, and that Lee's willingness to explain what happened to them was the turning point in 2-month-old plea discussions.

Parker said both sides agreed to withdraw pending motions. That would include defense allegations of racial profiling and prosecutors' request before an appellate court to keep Lee jailed.

The investigation began as an offshoot of a fizzled Chinese espionage case, with government attorneys making dire accusations that Lee downloaded the ''crown jewels'' of U.S. nuclear weaponry science and might be poised to hand them over to a foreign power.

Lee, 60, beamed as he entered the courtroom for the hearing and signaled his son, Chung, with an OK sign. Lee's wife, Sylvia, also smiled as she arrived.

Cecelia Chang, a member of the steering committee for the Wen Ho Lee Defense Fund, was sobbing with happiness as she left the courtroom.

The judge, she said, ''just basically told us that the executive branch is to blame. He had the courage to say that and to apologize to Dr. Lee.

''That is the apology we have waited for from the government,'' Chang said. ''I would love to see the country follow his example.''

Nance Crow Sullivan, another Lee supporter, ran out of the courthouse door and screamed: ''Justice has been served.'' She returned to the courthouse with an American flag.

A group of Los Alamos neighbors of Lee's had come to court in ''Free Wen Ho Lee Now'' T-shirts. The backs said: ''Los Alamos Scientist - Is He Guilty Before Proven Innocent?''

A deal had been reached on Sunday. However, a hearing on the plea agreement Monday was delayed twice while attorneys wrangled over details. Parker finally recessed the hearing and gave attorneys Tuesday to work things out.

Assistant U.S. Attorney George Stamboulidis, brought in from New York to handle the case, said the plea agreement provides protections for the government that a conviction at trial wouldn't have.

If Lee had been tried on the one count to which he pleaded, he could have spent eight years in prison without disclosing the handling of the tapes.

''There are powerful incentives built into this cooperation agreement for him to be truthful,'' Stamboulidis said.

Some law professors have called for an investigation of the government's conduct in the case. One was already begun, then suspended for the expected trial, by a Senate subcommittee chaired by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who says he will now resume it.

The case began disintegrating last month at a renewed bail hearing. FBI agent Robert Messemer, whose testimony was key in initially denying Lee bail in December, said he repeatedly erred in that testimony. Defense experts also disputed the government's claim that the mishandled data contained vital defense secrets.

On Tuesday, Washington-based Judicial Watch said it was suing Lee and others on behalf of Notra Trulock, a former Energy Department counterintelligence chief. Lee's lawyers have said Trulock was among those who unfairly singled Lee out.

Judicial Watch said Trulock, in a defamation complaint, alleged Lee and others ''scapegoated'' Trulock to divert attention from security lapses at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Lee's lawyers declined comment.

-------- ohio

Strickland hammers nuclear commission for inaction on USEC

Columbus Dispatch
Wednesday, September 13, 2000
Jonathan Riskind Dispatch Washington Bureau
http://www.dispatch.com/news/newsfea00/sep00/419122.html

WASHINGTON -- A federal review of USEC's financial condition has painted a bleak picture of the privatized federal corporation's prospects for long-term survival, Rep. Ted Strickland said yesterday.

But the Lucasville Democrat said he's angry that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has decided against taking any action against the company that runs southern Ohio's soon-to- be-closed uranium-enrichment plant.

Strickland said a report by the commission suggests there are more scenarios where USEC is buried in a sea of red ink over the next few years than where USEC continues in its role as the country's sole producer of enriched uranium.

"This analysis lays out clearly that this industry is going down the tubes,'' he said.

Strickland says the report, not yet released publicly but outlined for lawmakers and their staffs in Capitol Hill briefings this week, is fodder for his contention that USEC should be taken back by the federal government.

A USEC spokesman said since the company has not seen the report, it could not comment. Spokesman Charles Yulish said a speech given last week by William H. Timbers, USEC president and chief executive officer, rebutted claims that the company is failing financially.

"The doom-and-gloom scenarios about USEC's prospects are greatly exaggerated,'' Timbers said in the speech at a conference on international nuclear-materials policy in Virginia.

"USEC certainly has taken its hits . . . (but) we are dealing with and resolving these problems as only a private-sector company is equipped to do -- a company that is still the global market leader with substantial cash flows and modest debt.''

USEC, formerly United States Enrichment Corp., runs the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio, and a sister facility in Paducah, Ky. The enriched uranium the plants produce is used as fuel for the nuclear-power plants that supply about 20 percent of the country's electricity.

USEC is shutting down the Piketon plant in June as part of cost- cutting efforts, and some critics have questioned whether it eventually will only broker material it buys from Russia and stop being a domestic producer at all.

"This confirms much of what I have been warning about,'' Strickland said of the commission's report. "The only way they (USEC) can make money is to become a broker of Russian (material) and cease operations.''

There isn't much chance of action this year on Strickland's proposal to re-federalize USEC, and the legislation's prospects next year in a new Congress and under a new president also are uncertain. However, Strickland said he hopes Congress will pass legislation next year preventing Piketon from closing its doors until Paducah has been certified as able to operate successfully.

A regulatory commission spokeswoman declined comment yesterday.

But a letter from commission Chairman Richard A. Meserve to Virginia Republican Tom Bliley, chairman of the House Commerce Committee, said a requirement for USEC to remain a "reliable and economical domestic source of enrichment services'' is not violated by USEC's financial condition.

That requirement pertained mainly to USEC not being bought out by a foreign entity, not to the company's ability to manufacture its product, Meserve said in the letter dated Monday and obtained by The Dispatch.

In any case, if the commission yanked USEC's license for not being financially sound, that would leave the country without a domestic source of enriched uranium, Meserve said.

"We do not believe that any further NRC study of the USEC situation is justified, particularly in view of the fact that (the) NRC is limited in the action it can take to address the maintenance of domestic enrichment services,'' Meserve said.

---

USEC Finance Probe Ends

Associated Press
September 13, 2000 Filed at 7:04 p.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-USEC-Finances.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission told lawmakers Tuesday it has completed a study of the U.S. Enrichment Corp.'s finances and ruled out further action.

USEC is the major world supplier of enriched uranium fuel for commercial nuclear power plants, the only uranium enrichment company in the United States. It supplies about three-fourths of the U.S. market and more than a third of the world's.

The company has been hurt by falling uranium prices. In the last year, it has laid off workers, seen its credit rating reduced to junk-bond level and decided to close one of its two enrichment facilities, the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio.

Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Ohio, has been trying to force the company not to close the Piketon plant. The NRC decision was a blow to Strickland's campaign.

In a letter to House Commerce Committee Chairman Tom Bliley, R-Va., the NRC's chairman noted the company financial problems but said there was no cause for action.

Because of the financial trouble, regulators were asked to examine whether USEC remained capable of fulfilling the legal requirement that it be a ``reliable and economical domestic source of enrichment services.''

If USEC were found unable to meet that requirement, the NRC could pull the company's certification. In the letter to Bliley, NRC Chairman Richard Meserve said doing that would ``shut down a domestic supply altogether and thus would not serve the ... broader statutory purpose.''

``On the basis of this recent review of USEC's financial situation, we conclude that we should not take action to modify, suspend or revoke the certificates of certification,'' Meserve wrote.

``We do not believe that any further NRC study of the USEC situation is justified, particularly in view of the fact that NRC is limited in the action it can take to address the maintenance of domestic enrichment services.''

USEC had insisted it would continue to be the reliable source of domestic uranium that the law requires.

Strickland, the Ohio congressman, said he disagrees with the NRC's interpretation of the requirement that USEC maintain a reliable domestic uranium industry. ``I don't know how they do that,'' he said. ``They have in a most illogical way chosen to interpret language in the privatization agreement.''

Bliley's staff has been gathering documents in preparation for a possible hearing into USEC's finances. As of Tuesday, a hearing had not been scheduled.

On the Net: USEC site: http://www.usec.com/home.html
Nuclear Regulatory Commission site:A http://www.nrc.gov/

-------- tennessee

USA Today
09/13/00
States
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Tennessee

Chattanooga - The Tennessee Valley Authority has no plans to increase electricity rates next year despite a growing demand, chairman Craven Crowell said. A hot and dry summer pushed demand for electricity to record levels in August. TVA's five nuclear reactors operated at full capacity during the summer.


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

-------- colombia

UK, US Split Over Colombia Drug War

Associated Press
September 13, 2000 Filed at 6:27 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Colombia-Britain-US.html

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- A split emerged Wednesday between Britain and the United States over the anti-drug war in Colombia, with a top British official criticizing the Clinton administration for pumping in military aid despite human rights violations.

British Cabinet Minister Mo Mowlam, one of the architects of the Northern Ireland peace accords, also voiced opposition to the widespread use of herbicides on drug crops -- a major component of the U.S.-backed strategy.

The statements reveal that opposition to the U.S.-backed military offensive stretches across the Atlantic. Neighboring Latin American countries already have expressed fears that the war on drugs will further destabilize the region. Colombian human rights groups have refused to accept U.S. aid as part of the plan, which they believe spends too much on the military and not enough on social programs.

Mowlam said Britain -- and most of Europe -- are withholding large amounts of aid in the anti-drug war unless Colombian security forces undergo further reforms.

Mowlam said she stressed that point in meetings this week with President Andres Pastrana and his military commanders.

``We forcibly underlined the importance of human rights to Europe, and to seeing any money,'' Mowlam said Wednesday at a breakfast with a dozen journalists at the British ambassador's residence.

European countries ``across the board'' decided at a conference in Madrid, Spain, in July to withhold substantial funds until more progress is made in human rights, Mowlam said.

Colombia had hoped to secure billions of dollars for its anti-drug campaign from conference participants. But only two European countries -- Spain and Norway -- pledged a total of $120 million.

The United States, meanwhile, is delivering $1.3 billion in mostly military aid. Clinton signed a waiver last month authorizing release of the aid even though Colombia fell short of meeting human rights requirements imposed by the U.S. Congress.

``I think it was unfortunate, to say the least,'' Mowlam said.

Jaime Ruiz, special adviser to Pastrana, said in a telephone interview that unless European nations contribute more money, Colombia will be hard-pressed to provide alternative development and other social programs while the drug war intensifies.

``In order to do what (Mowlam) wants, and what Europe wants and what we want, we need to have the funds,'' Ruiz said. ``In 15 years we haven't had any real money from Europe -- just a few million dollars.''

Ruiz acknowledged human rights abuses persist but said there have been improvements, noted by Mowlam herself.

There was no immediate comment from U.S. officials, but Clinton said last month that one reason he signed the waiver was Pastrana's commitment to protecting human rights. He noted that Pastrana has called for changes that will permit civil trials for allegations of military abuses of human rights.

Although Colombia falls far short of international human rights standards, Mowlam said the country is taking steps in the right direction, citing the removal of several military commanders linked to abuses and the growing number of arrests of members of paramilitary death squads.

``I think (Colombians) are moving along the road and have just started to make progress,'' Mowlam said, adding that if the trend continues, Britain would be inclined to vote to give Colombia funds from the European Commission.

Under the U.S. aid package, Colombian soldiers trained by elite U.S. troops are to fly into drug-producing regions aboard U.S.-supplied combat helicopters and take control of them from the rebels so that low-flying planes can spray the drug crops with herbicide.

Mowlam criticized the spraying, saying it would be acceptable to Britain only if vast drug plantations were targeted, and if no one lived near them.

The United States has energetically backed the spraying campaign -- often by Americans contracted by the State Department -- which targets small farmers' drug plots as well as large plantations.

On Tuesday, the local chief of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Leo Arreguin, observed as a crop duster sprayed loads of herbicide on small coca plantations in the jungles of southwest Colombia as helicopter gunships provided protection. Villages and food crops stood only about 300 feet away.

Mowlam said Britain wants spraying missions to be monitored, and opposes employing biological agents the United States has urged Colombia to use. Only glyphosate, the herbicide now used in Colombia, should be allowed, Mowlam said.

---

New York Times
September 13, 2000
World Briefings
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/13/world/13BRIE.html

COLOMBIA: PEACE TALKS CONTINUE After meeting in Paris with representatives of the government of Colombia and the country's second-largest guerrilla group, the five nations acting as intermediaries in the decades-old civil conflict said they would soon visit an area in Colombia controlled by the group, the Army of National Liberation. The delegation will include envoys from Cuba, France, Norway, Spain and Switzerland who have been involved in peace talks that have made little noticeable progress. Larry Rohter (NYT)

-------- india/pakistan

New York Times
September 13, 2000
World Briefings
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/13/world/13BRIE.html

KASHMIR: CEASE-FIRE RULED OUT The leader of the rebel Hizbul Mujahedeen, Syed Salahuddin, said he had ruled out any further cease-fire offers from his group and said it is up to India to make a move toward peace. Guerrillas have increased their attacks on Indian military units, while artillery exchanges have also intensified. Barry Bearak (NYT)

-------- iran

U.S. sanctions to blame for high oil prices-Iran

ABC News
09/13/2000
http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20000913_1250.html

TEHRAN, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh on Wednesday partly blamed U.S. sanctions on Iran and Libya for runaway oil prices, saying the embargos had reduced investment in energy. "American sanctions on certain oil-rich countries and a lack of sufficient investment have contributed to high oil prices. Oil consuming nations are paying for American policy," Zanganeh told reporters. He was referring to a 1996 U.S. law banning non-U.S. companies from investing in Iran and Libya"s energy sectors. Under a 1995 ruling, Washington also bans American firms from investing in Iran, mainly its rich oil and gas sector. Iran has had some success luring foreign firms, but many others are still hesitant, fearing U.S. sanctions.

Iran is in a rush to secure foreign investment to modernise its ageing industry and boost crude production capacity, as well as develop its huge untapped gas reserves. Some analysts say Iran, OPEC"s second largest producer, may be hard-pressed meeting frequent production increases by the organisation. But Zanganeh said Iran was able to produce more than four million barrels per day (bpd), which is still above Iran"s quota of 3.844 million bpd. "We must not lose our share of the world market and OPEC quota," he said. The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decided on Sunday to increase global crude supply by 800,000 bpd in an agreement due to take effect from October 1. Iran"s share of the increase is 120,000 bpd. The price of OPEC"s basket of seven crudes fell on Tuesday to $31.18 a barrel from $32.45 on Monday.

But Zanganeh stuck to Iran"s long-standing position that high prices were not responsible for low supply. "Despite an output increase to its highest level in 10 years, prices remain high. This shows high prices are due to factors other low supply," he said. "We knew it was not a shortage of supply that pushed up prices, but we had to show that OPEC was willing to help stablise the market." The minister said he was wary of periodic pressure on OPEC to raise output: "The world has too much expectation from OPEC. We produce about 40 percent of world oil, but they expect us to take responsibility for 100 percent of the market"s management. "When prices were down, no one felt sorry for us, but now the world expects us to take over and manage the market," he said, also complaining of high energy taxes in industrial states.

Zanganeh offered a "dialogue" between producing and consuming countries to reach a consensus on the oil market. He said OPEC would continue to raise production until prices returned to the organisation"s price band of $22-$28. He said Iran had $4 billion beyond expectation from oil exports in the first six months of the year which began on March 20, adding the windfall could reach $10 billion if prices remained at around $28 a barrel. Iran has established a special fund to save extra oil revenue and use the money when prices fall too low.

---

Foundations control Iran's economy

Washington Times
September 13, 2000
By Ben Barber
http://208.246.212.80/world/default-20009132355.htm

TEHRAN - Iran's economy is controlled by hidden, powerful merchants allied by marriage to powerful senior clergy, much as Italian merchant princes ran the city states of Florence and Venice in alliance with powerful clerics 500 years ago.

A few dozen Islamic foundations called "bunyads" run hundreds of factories and farms - many seized from the late shah and his supporters after the monarchy was overthrown in 1979 - pay no taxes, and prop up the conservative Islamic revolutionary power centers.

"Ninety percent of the most modern industries are controlled by the bunyads - televisions, electronics, refrigerators," said economics professor Ali Rashid, a former vice president of the Central Bank of Iran.

"It's like a medieval domain. The bunyads pay no tax.

"Iran is controlled by a new ruling class - a 'nomenklatura' like the former regime in the Soviet Union."

One of the largest of the bunyads - the Foundation for the Disabled and Oppressed - estimated its stock value in 1996 at $10 billion, according to analyst Wilfried Buchta, a former German journalist and author of the study "Who Rules Iran?" published this spring by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

Bunyad spreads tentacles

Another foundation - the Imam Reza Foundation based in Mashhad - is more than 1,000 years old and runs the Shrine of the Eighth Imam, Iran's holiest site.

Since the Islamic revolution, it has spread its tentacles throughout Khorasan province, and owns 90 percent of the arable land, worth more than $20 billion, according to Mr. Buchta.

The Imam Reza bunyad also runs 56 companies, including factories, Iran's only Coca-Cola plant and two universities. It is the province's largest employer.

The leader of the Imam Reza Foundation since 1979 is Hojatoleslam Abbas Vaez Tabassi, whose daughter is married to the son of Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Mr. Vaez Tabassi's son, Naser -who is active in opening trade to Central Asia - is married to a daughter of the Ayatollah Khamenei, who appoints the heads of the foundations.

Naser Tabassi's role in the huge Mashhad-based bunyad includes "the procurement of the most modern weapons and nuclear technology," Mr. Buchta wrote.

Formerly ran charities

Bunyads have long been a tradition in Iran, running charities or religious shrines, such as the Shrine of the Eighth Imam in Mashhad near the Afghan border.

But they sprang into new economic prominence after the Islamic revolution in 1979, when properties of the ousted Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and those close to him were seized by the government and handed to the foundations.

"The foundations enjoy unlimited access to state funds . . . and do business outside the country in an uncontrolled manner," according to Mr. Buchta.

The bunyads are headed by clergy or influential people appointed by the Ayatollah Khamenei. These officials are often related by marriage or kinship to the merchants of the business network known as the bazaar, which controls retail, wholesale, import, export and commodity markets.

The head of another powerful bunyad was the former driver of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who inspired the Islamic revolution.

"All wealth and resources in the country are controlled by irresponsible people not accountable to government institutions," said Ali Rashidi, who formerly taught at Strayer College in Washington and at Northern Virginia Community College.

"Bazaaris run the show"

"With the bazaaris behind and the clergy in front, they grabbed the government and threw out those who made the revolution," he said in an interview.

"They appointed people who are not qualified, and therefore the system suffers from low performance, waste, misallocation of resources and a low rate of economic growth.

"Since the revolution, people with influence grabbed the factories, businesses and land. About 35 percent of the total productive resources are at their disposal. Another 40 [percent] to 45 percent are at the hands of the government. Together, they control 80 percent of the economy.

"The bazaaris control everything. They run the show," Mr. Rashidi continued. "The bazaaris control the Ministry of Commerce and the bunyads."

He said there are 123 bunyads.

The 1979 revolution was carried out by secular intellectuals as well as religious Iranians organized behind the Ayatollah Khomeini against the authoritarian, U.S.-installed shah. But power soon devolved to the merchants of the bazaars and hard-line clerics.

"The bazaaris pay no taxes, conduct trade with no records, control the black market, the money market and smuggling," said Mr. Rashidi, who has a doctorate in economics from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, and was barred by a panel of clerics from running for parliament.

Oil money spoken for

"The factories and the bunyads are run by the sons of the bazaaris who have the power to grant credit. Bazaaris buy up production of factories and farms and store it, releasing it gradually at higher and higher prices. It's a monopoly situation, not free enterprise.

"The government controls 90 percent of the foreign exchange, which is allocated by the central bank," Mr. Rashidi said.

"Oil production is 3.6 million barrels a day, of which 1.3 million are consumed inside Iran and the rest is exported. Oil income this year is predicted to increase from early estimates of $16 billion to about $21 billion due to the oil-price hike."

But the money is already spoken for. About $9 billion goes for imports of basic necessities, such as wheat, rice and sugar; $3 billion to $4 billion is spent on arms and munitions; another $2 billion goes to imports of raw materials and machine parts. The surplus oil income goes to pay about $6 billion toward Iran's foreign debts.

Thus, the portion of Iran's oil income that is spent internally sloshes around between the bunyads and the bazaar, rather than "trickling down" to ordinary Iranians.

Wealth amid poverty

The country presents a curious picture to outsiders. While wages are low, so are commodity prices and the biggest bank note has a face value of 10,000 real, worth about $1.20.

In Tehran, a city of 12 million, new apartment and office blocks crawl across the tan, dusty landscape rising toward the mountains on the north. This construction, and the proliferation of fancy shops in the northern part of the city, are fueled by oil money.

But many of Iran's 60 million people are without hope of amassing enough money to buy an apartment or house or start their own family or business.

Senior officials like the Ayatollah Khamenei and former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani say they intended to fix the economy, recognizing it is the primary concern of millions.

But according to analysts and observers, they are unwilling to make the bunyads pay taxes or to regulate them.]

The economic stalemate mirrors the political stalemate between reformers - elected by an overwhelming majority in February elections - and the hard-liners who control the economy, judiciary, security forces and what some call the real government of Iran.

---

Despite Khatami's efforts, Tehran remains isolated

Washington Times
September 13, 2000
By Ben Barber
http://208.246.212.80/world/default-200091323630.htm

TEHRAN - Iran's footprint in the world has been enormous since the Islamic Revolution of 1979: it has inspired Muslim fundamentalism, opposed America and Israel, funded terrorism in the Middle East and assassinated opposition leaders abroad.

As a result, Iran has found itself isolated from nearly everyone - the Western countries it reviles as tools of Zionism, as well as Muslim neighbors like Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia that it considers insufficiently Islamic.

In fact, Iran has better relations with largely Hindu India than with its Muslim neighbor Pakistan, mainly because Iran's Shi'ite brand of Islam is seen as an ancient rival and schismatic by the Sunni Muslims who predominate in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and most of the Muslim world.

Iran is also furious that Pakistan's ally, the Taleban government in Afghanistan, killed 10 Iranian diplomats and a journalist in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, in 1998.

Turkey is also angry with Iran, which it accuses of supporting Hezbollah fundamentalists who murdered secular intellectuals and have pushed to end Turkey's 70-year tradition of political secularism.

Egypt remains furious that Iran has named a major Tehran street after the killer of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat - honoring the assassin for avenging Mr. Sadat's peace deal with Israel.

In fact, Iran remains opposed to the very existence of Israel, nearly 10 years after the Palestinians, Egypt, Syria, Jordan and most of the Arab nations have accepted - albeit grudgingly -its existence.

Iran still funds Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah, which oppose Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's efforts to reach peace with Israel and are listed by the State Department as terrorist groups.

"Israel should not exist. There should be only Palestine," said former Iranian Vice President Hassan Ghafoorifard, currently a member of the Senior Council for the Cultural Revolution. "Jewish people would be free to live in Palestine.

"We don't believe in Israel. It is an illegal country."

But as with its economy and politics, Iran's foreign policy remains shrouded in mystery.

Iran's reformist president, Mohammed Khatami, calls for improved dialogue with other civilizations and speaks respectfully of America's democracy.

But then he backtracks, and speaks - as do the hard-liners opposed to his reforms inside Iran - of the need for Westerners to allow Iran to create its own Islamic democracy.

And finally Mr. Khatami -who appeared last week at the U.N. Millennium Summit in New York - has little real power over foreign policy.

"Foreign policy is in the hands of the hard-liners," said Davoud Hermidas Bavand, a professor of international law and political science at Iran's University of Supreme National Defense and two other schools.

"Khatami has called for detente and closer relations with Islamic states to get Iran out of political isolation. He has had a positive impact on Europe and the United States," which this year dropped import bans on Iranian carpets, pistachio nuts and caviar.

"But the hard-liners try to emasculate the process," said Mr. Bavand.

"They think that the reformers will get the benefit if Khatami improves relations on trips to Italy, France, Germany and New York."

When Mr. Khatami visits Europe, Iranian broadcast media, controlled by hard-liners, ignore him.

Finally, Iran, which Mr. Khatami last week in New York said was trying to improve relations with Russia, hopes to win some control over oil deposits recently discovered in the Caspian Sea off Kazakhstan.

But while Iranian officials say Iran should share 20 percent of the oil as one of the five Caspian littoral states, Russia and Kazakhstan claim the oil for themselves because it lies closest to their shores.

---

New York Times
September 13, 2000
World Briefings
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/13/world/13BRIE.html

MIDDLE EAST

IRAN: 18 CITED IN DISSIDENT SLAYINGS The judiciary has indicted 18 people, including senior intelligence officials, on charges of murdering dissidents, newspapers reported. They will stand trial in a military court for the murder of four intellectuals in 1998, a senior judiciary official was quoted as saying by the daily Hayat-e No. Other papers published similar reports. A key suspect, former Deputy Intelligence Minister Saeed Emami, died in custody last year, reportedly a suicide. (Reuters)

-------- iraq

ACTION ALERT: "Paper of Record" Distorts Record on Iraq Sanctions

FAIR Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
130 W. 25th Street New York, NY 10001
September 13, 2000
http://www.fair.org/activism/crossette-iraq.html

On September 12, the New York Times ran a blatantly biased front-page article by U.N. correspondent Barbara Crossette about Iraq's decision not to allow two teams of United Nations experts into Iraq to assess the effects of the sanctions. This article is only the latest example of Crossette's alarming willingness to repeat increasingly shrill-- and largely discredited-- charges from the U.S. State Department that the Iraqi government is sabotaging the U.N.'s relief work. (See www.fair.org/extra/0003/crossette-iraq.html)

Throughout the article, Crossette's reporting aims to give the impression that Iraq does not allow any outside experts to investigate humanitarian conditions inside the country. The headline reads, "Iraq Won't Let Outside Experts Assess Sanctions' Impact on Lives." The lead paragraph reported, "Iraq will not allow independent experts into the country to assess the living conditions of Iraqis a decade after economic sanctions were imposed, Secretary General Kofi Annan told the Security Council today."

Crossette anonymously quotes "a diplomat" who says, "They claim they can't get things done, but won't let anybody come in and fix it." She cites an anonymous "official" as saying that government repression has "made it almost impossible to work there." An anonymous "European diplomat" is quoted as saying that there are "fairly solid reports" that Iraq is exporting its medicines abroad, with no further evidence given. Crossette writes that "concern is growing" that "if no independent collection of information is possible, Iraq can continue to blame outsiders, particularly the United States, for illnesses and deaths from disease or malnutrition."

In fact, there are literally hundreds of outside experts in Iraq who regularly collect such information and have done so for years. They include officials from the World Health Organization, the World Food Program, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the United Nations Development Program, UNESCO, UNICEF and the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator's office in Baghdad. They make thousands of visits each year to water projects, power plants, farms, warehouses, mills, food distributors, schools, hospitals and ordinary homes.

The U.N.'s Baghdad office maintains a 150-person verification team, the Multidisciplinary Observer Unit, to inspect relief distribution. It also employs a Swiss auditing company on contract with the United Nations to verify humanitarian shipments. Not only do the Iraqi ministries cooperate with these groups, but the U.N. requires Iraq to pay for the operating expenses of these last two groups out of the proceeds used to buy food and medicine.

All of this is documented in the very same United Nations briefing that is the subject of Crossette's article. For example, the briefing describes a World Food Program study carried out this summer to investigate Iraq's system for transporting food. It "found most of the equipment...in a deplorable state, owing to age, poor maintenance and lack of spare parts." The investigators were "encouraged to learn, however, that the government of Iraq was already entering into contracts for the gradual replacement" of the aging equipment.

In July, a World Health Organization team visited an Iraqi medicine factory. "The observers reported that the plant would require substantial investment...to bring it up to international standards." The factory's Iraqi management "gave assurances that it will cooperate fully with the United Nations and that observation of its facilities can be carried out at any time, with or without prior notification," the Secretary General reported.

Several other examples of Iraq's cooperation with UN humanitarian workers were discussed in the report. Yet Crossette's article, based on the same report, sought to give exactly the opposite impression.

Last year, UNICEF worked with the Iraqi Ministry of Health on a comprehensive nationwide survey of child and maternal mortality. Ironically, the study was reported in the New York Times in an article by Barbara Crossette (8/13/99). It went unmentioned in yesterday's article.

In a December 1998 letter to the London Independent, Michael Stone, the outgoing chief of the U.N.'s Multidisciplinary Observation Unit wrote that British officials, like their American counterparts, "frequently state that the Iraqi leadership have diverted supplies under this [humanitarian] program. This is a serious error. Some 150 international observers, travelling throughout Iraq, reported to the United Nations Multidisciplinary Observer Unit, of which I was the head. At no time was any diversion recorded. I made this clear in our reports to the UN Secretary General, and he reported in writing to the Security Council accordingly."

Other top United Nations officials have also challenged the assertion that Iraq interferes in the relief effort. Former U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator Denis Halliday and his successor, Hans von Sponeck have both expressed frustration that the U.S. and British governments were putting out misleading information designed to make it appear that Iraq was sabotaging the U.N.'s relief work. Crossette has refused to cover their criticism (Hans von Sponeck, U.N. Press Briefing, 10/26/99; Denis Halliday, press release, 9/20/99).

Crossette's reporting is astonishingly selective. The Secretary General's briefing, which Crossette's article is based on, is a 90-day progress report that covers all aspects of the oil-for-food program. Typically, the Secretary General notes both improvements and problems in the ongoing program, praising and criticizing the Iraqis as necessary. But Crossette notes only the criticisms, inflating and distorting them out of all recognition.

Out of this week's 50-paragraph briefing, Crossette's entire front-page article is devoted exclusively to paragraphs 11 and 12, which note that Iraq declined to host the newly proposed teams of experts. She fails to mention that elsewhere in the briefing, Secretary General Kofi Annan praised Iraq for improvements in its nutrition program that were made in response to criticism Annan offered in a briefing last year.

In August 1999, Crossette wrote an entire article about that two-paragraph criticism, found in Annan's 104-paragraph briefing, which noted some flaws in Iraq's distribution of food supplies. Crossette trumpeted the comments as an example of the U.N.'s alleged exasperation with Iraq ("Do More to Aid Nourishment of Very Young, U.N. Tells Iraq," 8/24/99).

Since then, Iraq has implemented the changes that the Secretary General recommended. In this week's briefing, Annan praised the government for having followed his suggestions: "I welcome the decision by the Government of Iraq to increase considerably the allocations... to meet the food, nutrition and health requirements of the population.... [The steps taken by Iraq] are both welcome and in line with the recommendation contained in my supplementary report."

The praise went unmentioned in Crossette's September 12 article.

ACTION: Call on the New York Times to publish an editor's note clarifying two points: (1) that Iraq has hundreds of outside inspectors and experts verifying the humanitarian relief programs, contrary to the Times' front-page September 12 story; and (2) that United Nations humanitarian officials who dispute the charge that Iraq sabotages the U.N. aid programs should have been quoted in this story.

As always, please remember that your comments are taken more seriously if you maintain a polite tone. Please cc fair@fair.org with your correspondence.

CONTACT:

Barbara Crossette Bureau Chief, United Nations bcrosset@nytimes.com
Joseph Lelyveld Executive Editor letters@nytimes.com
To read the original New York Times article: www.fair.org/articles/crossette.html
To read the United Nations report discussed in the New York Times article, visit: www.un.org/Depts/oip/reports/phase890.html

-------- ireland

Republican Renegades Blamed for N.Irish Attacks

Yahoo News
Wednesday September 13 6:27 PM ET updated 6:27 PM ET Sep 13
By Martin Cowley
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000913/wl/irish_explosion_dc_2.html

BELFAST (Reuters) - Two explosions in 24 hours in Northern Ireland, blamed by police on dissident pro-Irish guerrillas, prompted a key Protestant politician to call on Wednesday for tighter security in the British-ruled province.

Police blamed renegade republicans hostile to a fragile peace drive for a mortar bomb attack on a police base in Armagh city and an earlier explosion at an army depot near Londonderry.

A policeman and a soldier narrowly escaped injury and were treated for severe shock, security authorities said.

``This was inevitable and worse could come,'' warned John Taylor, deputy leader of the powerful Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) which is in a four-party Protestant-Roman Catholic powersharing government created by the hard-won peace pact.

``We must be prepared for that,'' he said.

Audacious attacks blamed on Catholic republican dissidents came as Protestant guerrillas kept up infighting that has spread tension in pro-British ``loyalist'' zones and marred efforts for political stability after 30 years of communal conflict.

Two overnight bombings in a loyalist enclave had the marks of hardline Protestant feuding that has killed three men in a month, security sources said.

After talks in Washington with President Clinton (news - web sites), Northern Ireland's elected leaders -- Protestant First Minister David Trimble and Catholic Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon -- united in condemning of the latest flareups.

Mallon called the bomb blasts ``very worrying.'' Trimble said it was a sign there were still some not ready for peace.

A mortar bomb, launched from a specially modified van, crashed into a car park at a police station in Armagh city. Two 80-pound bombs failed to detonate fully at an army training camp at Magilligan in County Londonderry on Tuesday. One partly exploded when a soldier opened a door of a wooden hut, police said.

``This was an attempt by a republican terrorist group to inflict death and serious injury on members of the security forces,'' the police spokesman added.

Britain was adamant it would catch the culprits.

``We are not going to tolerate any action from any quarter to disrupt and destabilize the peace process,'' Peter Mandelson, London's cabinet minister for the region, told reporters.

---

Bomb found outside Belfast partisan's home

USA Today
09/13/00- Updated 03:05 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm#jak

BELFAST, Northern Ireland - A pipe bomb was found Tuesday night outside the Belfast home of a politician linked to one of the sides in a violent Protestant paramilitary feud, police said. The device was discovered outside the house of Billy Hutchinson, a Progressive Unionist Party member of the Northern Ireland assembly. The bomb did not go off, but several people were evacuated as bomb-disposal experts were called in. Hutchinson's party is linked to the Ulster Volunteer Force, an armed pro-British group whose feud with the rival Ulster Defense Association is blamed for three deaths and the shooting of an 11-year-old girl in the past month.

-------- japan

U.S. and Japan Tackle Environmental Problems on Military Bases

By Cat Lazaroff
WASHINGTON, DC, September 13, 2000 (ENS)
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/sep2000/2000L-09-13-06.html

The United States and Japan have agreed to work together to prevent pollution in and around American military bases in Japan.

Futenma Air Base, located in the midst of Futenma city, is slated to be relocated (Photo courtesy Okinawa Prefecture)

The announcement comes two weeks after Japan's government began a round of talks to discuss the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture.

"Our common goal is to ensure the health and safety of residents in communities adjacent to facilities and areas, as well as the personnel of the U.S. armed forces in Japan and their dependents," said U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Japan's Foreign Affairs Minister Yohei Kono, in a joint statement released Monday.

Albright and Kono emphasize that their two governments recognize the "increasing importance of protecting the environment," including preventing pollution on land used by the U.S. military under the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty.

U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (Photo courtesy U.S. State Department)

In cases where environmental contamination has already occurred, the U.S. "reconfirms its policy of immediately undertaking to remedy any contamination caused by U.S. armed forces in Japan that poses a known, imminent and substantial threat to human health."

Japan pledged to "take all available measures" to respond to "serious contamination" caused by sources outside U.S. bases.

The joint statement is likely to have its largest impact on the island of Okinawa, where most U.S. military bases are located. About 26,000 U.S. soldiers are based on the island.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Yohei Kono (Photo courtesy Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

U.S. military bases occupy 10 percent of Okinawa's land, and have long been targeted by local residents who say the bases produce too much noise and pollution.

In July, the major industrialized countries of the Group of Eight (G-8) met for their annual summit in Nago, a city in northern Okinawa. The site was chosen by Japan's leaders to help persuade local leaders that they should allow a controversial U.S. air base to move from Futenma - where it occupies the center of a town - to less populated Nago.

The U.S. agreed to relocate the base five years ago, after a 12 year old Okinawan girl was raped by three U.S. Marines.

But many Okinawa residents fear the relocation will cause more problems than it will solve. Environmentalists charge that soil runoff from the move will destroy coral reefs and endanger dugongs, a rare sea mammal related to the manatee.

Kadena Air Base, the largest U.S. air base in Asia (Photo courtesy Okinawa Prefecture)

At the G-8 summit, more than 25,0000 protesters formed a human chain around the Kadena air base in central Okinawa, the largest U.S. Air Force base in Asia. The bases cause too much pollution, traffic congestion and crime, the protesters charged.

On August 28, Japan's central government began meeting with the Okinawa prefectural government and local municipalities to discuss the relocation of the Futenma base to Nago, hoping to resolve concerns over the location and scale of the new base, and means of containing potential pollution from construction.

Some local factions are arguing for an offshore base, while others think coastal lands should be "reclaimed" for the base - a process that could destroy acres of existing wetlands. The talks are expected to take months to reach a consensus.

The final plans will be subject to the Japan Environmental Governing Standards, which all U.S. military bases on the island must meet.

G8 leaders plant a memorial tree (Photos courtesy government of Japan)

In practice, the U.S. says it sets environmental and safety standards on its Japan bases by selecting the most protective standards from the relevant U.S. and Japanese laws and regulations.

As a result, the environmental standards of U.S. armed forces facilities in Japan generally meet or exceed those set by relevant laws and regulations of Japan, the two countries said Monday.

The U.S. and Japan have now agreed to jointly review and update the Japan Environmental Governing Standards every two years, with a goal of ensuring that these standards are as protective as possible of the environment and human health.

Both countries say they will exchange information on environmental issues that could affect the health of Japanese citizens and U.S. armed forces in Japan. This process will include joint environmental surveys and monitoring of U.S. bases and the surrounding communities, and providing Japanese teams with "appropriate access" to U.S. occupied facilities in Japan.

The U.S. and Japan said they may establish joint working groups to discuss specific environmental issues as necessary.

-------- korea

Kim Jong Il Trip to Seoul Set

New York Times
September 13, 2000
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/13/world/13KORE.html

SEOUL, South Korea, Wednesday, Sept. 13 (AP) - Top Korean officials have agreed to arrange a visit by the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, to South Korea next spring, a state news agency said today.

The agreement was reached late Tuesday by Kim Yong Sun, a visiting envoy of the North Korean leader, and his South Korean counterpart, Lim Dong Won, Yonhap news agency said.

Separately, the two Koreas are expected to hold a first-ever meeting of defense ministers to discuss measures to ease tension late this month or early next month in Hong Kong, Yonhap said, citing unidentified government officials.

---

Koreas eye spring summit

World Scene Combined dispatches and staff reports
Washington Times
September 13, 2000
http://208.246.212.80/world/default-2000913221843.htm

SEOUL - Top Korean officials have agreed to arrange a visit by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to South Korea next spring, a news agency said.

The agreement was reached late yesterday by Kim Yong-sun, a visiting envoy of the North Korean leader, and his South Korean counterpart, Lim Dong-won, Yonhap news agency said.

Separately, the two Koreas are expected to hold a first meeting of defense ministers to discuss tension-easing measures late this month or early next month in Hong Kong, Yonhap reported, citing government officials.

Seoul officials were not immediately available for comment. The spring summit would be a follow-up to South Korean President Kim Dae-jung's trip to Pyongyang in June.

-------- russia

Russian Soldiers Arrested for Theft And Sale of S-300 Missile Parts

Russia Today
Sep 13, 2000
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=198639

MOSCOW, -- (Agence France Presse) Five Russian soldiers were arrested in Siberia for the theft and attempted sale of parts from S-300 ground-to-air missiles, Itar-Tass news agency reported Tuesday.

The daily paper Vremia Novosty said the soldiers were arrested in the Novosibursk region as they tried to sell a missile detonator containing platinum, gold and silver to two Armenians.

Other missiles parts were found when police searched the homes of the Armenians, the paper said.

The S-300 missile is one of Russia's most sophisticated and was sold in a 420 million dollar deal in 1997 to Cyprus. ( 2000 Agence France Presse)

---

Russia Signs World Criminal Court Treaty

Yahoo News
Wednesday September 13 4:01 PM ET updated 6:27 PM ET Sep 13
By Evelyn Leopold
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000913/wl/un_court_dc_1.html

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Russia's foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, on Wednesday signed the treaty creating the world's first international criminal court as Canada launched a global campaign to make the tribunal a reality.

Among the five permanent U.N. Security Council members, Russia joined Britain, which has signed the treaty, and France, which has both ratified and signed it. But the United States and China have not approved the statutes creating the court.

At least 60 countries must ratify the treaty before the court can be established. Only 19 have done so to date. Russia, which had been critical of the treaty, is the 112th country to sign.

The United States was one of seven countries that voted against setting up the court when 120 nations met in Rome in June 1998 to approve the tribunal's statutes that would prosecute individuals for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

Washington opposes the court unless there are air tight guarantees that U.S. servicemen would be excluded from its jurisdiction. So far chief advocates for the court, including Canada and nearly all European nations, contend they have made enough concessions to the U.S. position.

``To have such a great power as Russia sign the treaty provides enormous impetus to this historic initiative,'' said Williams Pace, head of the Coalition for an International Criminal Court, an umbrella organization of groups lobbying governments to approve the tribunal.

Canada's foreign minister, Lloyd Axworthy, also announced a campaign to promote implementation of the court and encourage countries to speed up ratification. He spoke of the new effort at a breakfast meeting of foreign ministers and other diplomats on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

Among other activities, Canada will provide experts for seminars on implementing the treaty in Africa, the South Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean.

``We are focusing on the critical task of obtaining the greatest number of signatures and ratifications to ensure the early entry into force of the statute,'' Axworthy said.

The 19 nations whose legislatures have approved the court are: Belgium, Belize, Botswana, Canada, Fiji, France, Ghana, Iceland, Italy, Lesotho, Luxembourg, Mali, New Zealand, Norway, San Marino, Senegal, Tajikistan, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela.

The court would be set up in The Hague, Netherlands. Unlike the existing International Court of Justice, or World Court, at The Hague, which hears cases between states, the ICC would try individuals accused of the world's most heinous crimes.

---

Russia Sets Out to Tackle '2003 Problem'

Yahoo News
Wednesday September 13 4:22 PM ET updated 6:27 PM ET Sep 13
By Andrei Shukshin
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000913/wl/russia_leadall_dc_1.html

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Parliamentary leaders and President Vladimir Putin agreed Wednesday to embark on a three-year crash course to thwart what they said was an anticipated chain of disasters due to hit the country in 2003.

``(These are) issues of extraordinary importance, strategic issues which may degenerate into a serious threat for the existence, I want to stress this, for the existence of Russia,'' former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov told reporters.

Some experts have singled out 2003 as the year when three problems -- a big debt bill, eroding infrastructure and an aging population -- could combine to throw Russia into turmoil.

Primakov, leader of the center-left OVR parliamentary faction, was one of several top members of the State Duma lower house of parliament to meet Putin in the Kremlin.

In addition to the ``2003 problem,'' the agenda included next year's budget and media freedom and ownership. Both sides agreed urgent measures had to be taken to avert the looming disaster.

Problems of Russia's crumbling industrial base were highlighted last month when a nuclear-powered submarine sank with the loss of all 118 crew on board and a daylong fire gutted Moscow's Ostankino television tower, a national symbol.

Putin said at the time the fire was proof of the dangerous condition of the Russian infrastructure.

A power shortage last weekend also forced officials to shut down nuclear reactors, including those at a giant, top-secret fuel reprocessing plant whose boss said that only staff discipline prevented a major crisis.

Pro-Kremlin Party Brought Up The 2003 Problem

Boris Gryzlov, leader of the pro-Kremlin Unity faction which was the first to raise the issue, said Russia would also have to deal in 2003 with a colossal $17 billion foreign debt payout and a massive population shrinkage.

Gryzlov said the problems had already been discussed with cabinet ministers and the parliamentarians had agreed with Putin to set up a commission to tackle the issue head-on.

``The question was discussed at length and the president approved our initiative and said he would dispatch representatives of his administration to the working group,'' Gryzlov said after the Kremlin meeting.

He said the commission could start work as early as Monday and suggested the government could alleviate the crisis by using budget windfalls, such as extra revenue from higher oil prices, on paying off straight away debts maturing in 2003.

Some observers said the 2003 deadline was rather artificial and might serve political purposes.

Dmitry Pinsker, Kremlin-watcher for the liberal weekly Itogi, said Kremlin spin doctors planned to make a fuss over the initiatives, in part to answer critics who charged them with inaction during the Kursk submarine disaster last month.

Economic analysts say Russia's financial and infrastructure problems are real, but picking a date is somewhat arbitrary.

``A lot here is artificial,'' Oleg Vyugin, a former first deputy finance minister and now executive vice president at Troika Dialog investment bank, told Reuters.

Russia is due to pay slightly more than $16 billion in debt payments that year, compared with $11.3 billion due in 2001, he said. But there was still plenty of room for restructuring.

``Everyone knows that the infrastructure is deteriorating, but that does not mean that this will all happen in 2003. The television tower burned up this year,'' he said.

Al Breach, an analyst with Goldman Sachs, said investors would applaud reform talk, however artificial the deadline.

``For these guys to be thinking three years ahead is pretty good,'' he said.

-------- space

Astronauts install batteries in space station

USA Today
09/13/00- Updated 12:48 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/digest/nd1.htm#air

SPACE CENTER, Houston - Space shuttle Atlantis' crew finished several home-improvement projects aboard the international space station early Wednesday, snapping new batteries into place and hauling gear into the growing outpost. Astronaut Edward Lu and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko finished sliding three new batteries into the station's latest addition, the Russian service module Zvezda. The astronauts and cosmonauts were impressed with the facility, which becomes home for three men starting in November. ''It's really beautiful. It's a brand-new facility, it's very, very roomy,'' shuttle commander Terrence Wilcutt said.

-------- ukraine

Ukraine Foils Assassination Attempt

Associated Press
September 13, 2000 Filed at 10:03 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Ukraine-Foiled-Attack.html

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- Ukrainian security agents foiled an attempt to kill Russian President Vladimir Putin during a visit last month, detaining and expelling several suspects, including some Chechens, Ukraine's security chief said.

The assassination attempt was planned for when Putin attended an Aug. 18-19 informal summit of nine leaders of former Soviet republics in the Crimean city of Yalta, said Leonid Derkach, head of the security services.

Derkach said Tuesday several foreign secret services -- but not those of any of the former Soviet republics -- had informed Ukraine about the planned attack, the Interfax news agency reported.

The Ukrainian security service passed the information along to Russia and detained several people on the Black Sea peninsula who were then expelled from Ukraine, said Derkach.

Earlier, Derkach had announced that an assassination plot had been broken up, but did not say against whom. Tuesday's statement was the first confirmation that Putin was the target.

In the earlier announcement, Derkach said four people from Russia's breakaway region of Chechnya and several from the Middle East were detained in connection with the foiled plot.

Chief spokesman for the Russian Federal Bodyguard Service, Sergei Devyatov, said Tuesday, ``We had information about a threat to the president'' during the summit. He said the bodyguard service and Ukrainian colleagues worked together to check out and thwart the threat. He gave no other details.

Russia's main intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service, refused to comment on the threat.

Russia is waging a war in Chechnya against separatist rebels, whom it claims are backed by Muslim extremists from abroad.

A Ukrainian security service spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, declined to elaborate on Derkach's statements, which were made in the eastern city of Dnipropetrovsk.

However, the spokesman confirmed that several ``partner secret services'' had informed the Ukrainian security service about plans to organize ``anti-social'' actions during the summit. He did not further characterize those actions.

Putin attended only the first day of meetings at the summit and left Ukraine late on the evening of Aug. 18, saying he had to be at home to deal with the Kursk nuclear submarine disaster.

---

New York Times
September 13, 2000
World Briefings
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/13/world/13BRIE.html

EUROPE

UKRAINE: PUTIN DEATH PLOT FOILED Tipped off by unidentified foreign intelligence services, Ukrainian agents foiled a bid to assassinate President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in Yalta last month, the head of Ukraine's security service said. At the time the security chief, Leonid Derkach, said four Chechens had been held, along with several Middle East residents. Russia has long asserted that Chechen rebels are supported by Middle East militants. Michael Wines (NYT)

-------- u.n.

World Corruption Index Shows an Image Isn't Rebuilt in a Day

New York Times
September 13, 2000
By BARBARA CROSSETTE
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/13/continuous/14CND-CORRUP.html

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 13 -- When a country gets the reputation of being deeply corrupt, it takes more than the election of a reform-minded government to improve its image, a new report from Transparency International said today.

Transparency International, an independent organization founded in 1995 by a group of former World Bank officials to expose corruption among public officials worldwide, uses the case of Nigeria to make this point in its 2000 Corruption Perception Index.

Nigeria, under President Olusegun Obasanjo, a former advisory council chairman of Transparency International, is still at the bottom of the corruption perceptions index, more than a year after the change of government that restored democracy after a period of corrupt military rule.

In part this low ranking is related to a change in this year's index, a measure of perceptions about corruption drawn from surveys by international economic organizations and risk analysts. For the first time, Transparency International used data from a three-year period, not a single year. Change takes time to register, the report says.

"Valiant efforts are being made by President Olusegun Obasanjo to force full-scale changes in a country whose people have been robbed by the grand corruption of their past leaders," said Peter Eigen, chairman of Transparency International, which now has chapters in more than 70 countries. "But the process of change initiated by the new president is barely 12 months old and so it is not surprising that Nigeria's C.P.I. score is virtually unchanged."

In the perception of business people, Transparency International found this year, officials in Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Indonesia and Angola are also at the bottom of the table, which ranks nations on a score of 10 for the cleanest to zero for the most corrupt. They all have scores below 2.

A number of nations seeking more trade and investment from the United States and Europe, among them China, Vietnam, India and Mexico, rank low, all below 3.5.

The ten cleanest nations in the perception of international business are Finland, Denmark, New Zealand, Sweden, Canada, Iceland, Norway, Singapore, the Netherlands and Britain. The United States is in 14th place, with 7.8 points on the 10-point scale. It ranks at about the same level as Austria, Hong Kong, Germany and Chile.

Ninety countries were included in the 2000 Corruption Perceptions Index, down from 98 last year. Some countries had to be eliminated because there was not enough information available for the lengthened three-year period. "Dropping out of the C.P.I. for lack of data is bad news for countries and may indicate reduced investor interest," Transparency International says in the introduction to its table.

Transparency International, under criticism in earlier years for focusing on bribe-taking officials rather than bribe-paying businesses, also began publishing a bribe payers' index last year. Another survey of bribe payers will be published next year.

The Corruption Perceptions Index is available on line at http://www.transparency.org/documents/cpi/2000/cpi2000.html#cpi. Transparency International is based in Berlin, with offices in London and Washington.

---

Annan Tells General Assembly to End Barriers

New York Times
September 13, 2000
By BARBARA CROSSETTE
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/13/world/13NATI.html

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 12 - Buoyed by support from world leaders last week for policies that would take the United Nations in new directions, Secretary General Kofi Annan delivered a tough message today to the opening session of the General Assembly debating season.

The General Assembly, with its delegations shaped by years of evasive and sometimes obstructionist diplomacy, is more often than not the wall where innovative ideas crash at the United Nations. Mr. Annan made that clear in his remarks.

This year, Mr. Annan wants action on reorganizing and strengthening the peacekeeping department and enlarging the Security Council to give it more diversity and a stronger voice for the developing nations. He wants the United Nations' limited money spent more effectively and a staff chosen for skills and expertise.

"Consensus is highly desirable, but it need not mean waiting for absolute unanimity on every subclause among 189 member states," he said. "The minority, often a very small minority, should not withhold its consent unreasonably. Whatever we think of the veto in the Security Council, it surely has no place in this assembly. We can no longer afford to operate always at the level of the lowest, and slowest, common denominator."

The session today included a moment of welcome and a speech of farewell. After years of anarchy, Somalia sent a president, Abdikassim Salad Hassan. Djibouti's leader, President Ismael Omar Guelleh, who organized talks that led to Mr. Hassan's election, asked him to stand, and said, "What a joy to see Somalia regain its rightful place in the community of nations!"

Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, ambassador to the United Nations for four years before her present post, spoke in support of the organization and backed its plans for stronger peacekeeping. Then, saying this was probably her last official speech here, she ended with a promise "to serve the cause of international progress and individual liberty not only for as long as I am in office, but for as long as I am alive."

In his speech, Mr. Annan defended his growing links with international business and a wide range of independent organizations and agencies that governments often consider gadflies. He said neither governments nor the United Nations could meet their goals alone.

"If the 20th century taught us anything," he said, it is that large-scale, centralized government does not work. It does not work at the national level, and it is less likely to work at the global level."

Behind the scenes at the summit meeting of nearly 150 heads of government and in separate sessions of Security Council members, Mr. Annan picked up considerable backing for his efforts to change the United Nations. He wants the lumbering organization to be in step with a globalizing economy and to be quicker to react to large-scale violations of human rights, even if that means intervening in a nation's internal affairs.

Today, he received public support from the European Union in a speech by Foreign Minister Hubert Védrine of France, which holds the European presidency until the end of the year. Mr. Védrine catalogued the 60,000 troops and 5,000 police officers whom Europe hopes to have ready by 2003 to send into international crises.

At the International Peace Academy in New York, a research organization that studies the United Nations, the president, David Malone, said Mr. Annan had emerged from the summit meeting strengthened.

"This provides him with some momentum to overcome apathy and parochial disputes among delegates, and inertia and misallocated resources in the secretariat," he said. "In a way, he is levitating above the whole organization, in the sense that he manages the Secretariat. But he's doing much more than that. He's successfully providing guidance to the organization that world leaders have now endorsed."

Mr. Malone, a Canadian diplomat, added: "What he's been able to do is develop a view of what the organization must do in years to come to salvage and rebuild its credibility that is politically attractive to leaders. But it requires compromises that diplomats will hate and some in the secretariat will resist."

Mr. Annan's term of office has two years to run. Diplomats are nearly unanimous in praising his steady hand over the last year, in opening the United Nations to strong criticism of peacekeeping operations for the sake of salvaging its credibility, in moving into new activities to defend human rights and in working in tandem with a global economic and technological revolution.

---

Indonesia May Bar U.N. Inquiry in Staff Killing

New York Times
September 13, 2000
By CHRISTOPHER S. WREN
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/13/world/13TIMO.html

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 12 - Indonesia's defense minister said today that his government would not meet with United Nations representatives when they visit Indonesia to look into the killings of three United Nations refugee workers in West Timor last week.

The minister, Mohammed Mafud, told journalists in Jakarta that the cabinet considered the incident an internal matter. The delegation, which is being sent by the Security Council, was expected to leave early next week.

"We will reject the presence of that mission," Mr. Mafud said, according to the news agency Agence France-Presse. "We will negotiate on our own, we will settle this on our own, a sovereign nation."

But President Abdurrahman Wahid said the minister had gone beyond his instructions, diplomats reported in New York. They said Indonesia's foreign minister, Alwi Abdurrahman Shihab, would convey his government's formal response on Wednesday morning.

Richard C. Holbrooke, the United States representative at the United Nations, predicted that the visit would go ahead. The visit's purpose, he said in a telephone interview, was not to embarrass the government but to offer help by directly expressing the Council's concerns. "This mission is to support the civilian leadership of Indonesia," he added.

The three workers for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees - Carlos Caceres-Collazo of Puerto Rico, Samson Aregehegn of Ethiopia and Pero Simundza of Croatia - were killed in Atambua, in West Timor, when a mob led by armed militia members stormed their office and battered and hacked them to death. The workers were unarmed. The attackers had been attending a funeral for a militia leader killed the day before.

Today the national police chief, Gen. Rusdihardjo, reported in Jakarta that five suspects had been arrested in the investigation into the death of the militia leader, Olivio Medonca, known as Moruk.

The Security Council, in a resolution on Friday, demanded that the Indonesian government take immediate steps to disarm and disband the undisciplined militias, which oppose independence for East Timor and are thought to get support from elements in the Indonesian military.

The three United Nations workers were in West Timor to assist refugees who fled militia predations in East Timor. The Council said United Nations workers, more than 400 of whom were evacuated from West Timor after the killings, would not return until the government showed that could guarantee their security.

---

Albright Lobbies UN on Sudan Seat

Washington Post
Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2000
By Barry Schweid AP Diplomatic Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20000913/aponline220506_000.htm

UNITED NATIONS -- Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is lobbying U.N. members to deny Sudan a seat on the U.N. Security Council.

The African country is an "unsuitable candidate," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Wednesday.

Boucher cited U.N. reports that Sudan had bombed areas in the country where U.N. relief operations were based.

He noted that the U.N. Charter specifically calls for "due regard" for the maintenance of international peace and stability.

An estimated 2 million people have been killed by fighting, starvation and disease as the mostly white and Arab government of Khartoum pursues a 17-year-old war against mostly Christian and animist black southerners.

The State Department, in a report last week surveying religious freedom around the world, ranked Sudan, along with Burma, China, Iran and Iraq, as among the "countries of particular concern" - the most unfavorable category.

Albright talked this week to foreign ministers from several African countries and elsewhere in her effort to bar Sudan, Boucher said.

The Organization of African Unity normally would pick the African country to take a rotating seat next year on the Security Council. The General Assembly customarily approves the choice of such regional groups.

But American officials said there was disagreement over whether Sudan had the support of a majority of African countries or was in competition with Mauritius, a democracy preferred by the United States.

Egypt, which is among the countries Albright has approached, was said to favor Sudan for a seat. Albright also has raised Sudan's suitability with Britain, France, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, said a senior U.S. official.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not say what positions those countries took or whether Albright expected to succeed.

Sudan is regarded by State Department officials as having one of Africa's worst human rights records. As a result, it is not under consideration for trade benefits.

Two years ago, U.S. cruise missiles destroyed a pharmaceutical plant believed to be linked to terrorist operations. Sudan has denied the claim.

Albright has made a point of urging support for human rights in speeches and talks with foreign ministers here for General Assembly sessions.

On Tuesday, the United States and seven other countries decided to form a human rights bloc to rally support for resolutions that promote democracy and to lobby against violations.

As such, they will try to rally opposition to a Security Council seat for Sudan, said a senior official Wednesday in describing the meeting.

The group, which calls itself "the democracy caucus," includes Chile, the Czech Republic, India, South Korea, Mali, Poland and Portugal, along with the United States.

The United States cannot veto Sudan from the Security Council.

Candidates for rotating seats on the council are selected by regional groups, and the 189-member General Assembly then votes for new council members. The council has five permanent members with veto powers - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - and 10 nonpermanent members who serve two-year terms. Five nonpermanent members are chosen every year.

French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine told a press breakfast Wednesday that Egypt and Ethiopia had jointly requested that the United Nations lift sanctions against Sudan.

Sudan's allies on the Security Council introduced a draft resolution on June 13 that would end limited sanctions imposed to force Khartoum to hand over suspects in the 1995 assassination attempt against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

The United States twice delayed discussion of the resolution. Facing a likely U.S. veto if the resolution were put to a vote, Sudan and the United States reached an agreement to put off the Security Council discussion on the resolution until mid-November.

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

USA Today
09/13/00
States
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Wisconsin

Appleton - The state has taken formal ownership of the Fox River lock system from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which closed the river to navigation in 1988. The Corps said the river was not an essential transportation route. Only three of the 17 locks built in the 1880s are still operational. The state plans to reopen the river to navigation after rebuilding the other locks

---

Sloppy sailors threaten Navy's urinals

Washington Times
September 13, 2000
By Rowan Scarborough
http://208.246.212.80/national/default-2000913235436.htm

The admiral in charge of Pacific fleet aviation wants the Navy to remove urinals from aircraft carriers and replace them with "gender neutral water closets."

A memo endorsed by Vice Adm. John B. Nathman states that "heads" - Navy lingo for restrooms - should be odor-free and offer one-size-fits-all commodes for male and female sailors aboard the Navy's 11 active carriers.

The change "results in greater flexibility in designating spaces to be used [by] women at sea," says the Sept. 11 memo from Navy Pacific air command to naval headquarters here, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times.

The Navy is studying whether to replace all porcelain urinals with the "Stainless Sanitary Space System" (S4) for reasons of cleanliness as well as sex equity.

It seems ships experience an "over spray" problem around the urinals that corrodes the surface, says a source familiar with the project. The urinals also are low-flow, which leads to pipe clogging and odors.

"The goal is to make all sanitary spaces gender neutral to facilitate changes in crew composition," the Navy memo says.

"Urinals are major maintenance burden for ships force as a result of calcium buildup, leaks and drain blockage. Urinal fixture, associated traps and piping are main source of offensive odors in heads affecting quality of life for sailors. Current fixture ratio do not support effective mixed gender accommodation management."

The toilet memo is not sitting well with all male officers.

"They won't be happy until we all have to sit down to pee," said one aviator, who asked not to be named. "This is the continuing feminization of the Navy."

The anti-urinal campaign is the latest bid to change shipboard culture since the Clinton administration opened virtually all combat ships to women in 1995. Two years ago, the Atlantic fleet surface ship commander banned nude sleeping, risque sunbathing and women wearing lingerie to bed. Aviators were ordered to clean up radio "call signs" and ready-room language so as not to offend female aviators.

"This message reflects [the command's] desire to have the urinals replaced," said Cmdr. Dave Koontz, a command spokesman. "The toilets are just so much easier to maintain and it does give a ship greater flexibility in future years to support varying number mixes of men and female crews."

He said that if a ship in the future takes on more women, it could simply switch a male head to a female one.

The S4 was designed by Northern Virginia-based Corrosion Engineering Services Inc. (CES). In a demonstration program, the company has overseen installation of a limited number of S4s in two carriers, the Kitty Hawk and Constellation, and two surface ships.

"The whole point of doing this is to reduce maintenance, to improve livability," CES spokeswoman Merritt Allen said. "Sometimes those spaces aren't very nice. They have a lot of moisture. The idea is just to make them nice to use and clean."

The stainless steel commode and fixtures are part of a larger program started by Navy Secretary Richard Danzig to reduce sailor workloads.

"We've gotten really good reports from both Kitty Hawk and Constellation," Mrs. Allen said. "The spaces that used to take two sailors eight hours to clean now are taking one sailor two hours to clean."

The Navy has a goal of assigning roughly 500 women to 5,000-sailor aircraft carriers. Cmdr. Koontz said some ships have attained that number while others have about 300 females.

Of 53,659 Navy women, 11,153 are assigned to ships. Of those, 4,358 are carrier sailors and another 1,281 serve on carrier air wings.

The job of replacing urinals with commodes is daunting. The 316-ship fleet sports more than 3,000 heads. Each S4 costs $187,000 to install and is designed to last at least 10 years.

The Navy said the S4 system may include urinals if commodes cannot be installed.

"The design calls for the removal of as many urinals as possible because urinals are a significant maintenance burden," said Capt. William D. Needham, director of maintenance process improvement at the Naval Sea Systems Command. "Urinals are especially prone to mineral buildup in their drain piping, which can lead to odors and eventual stoppage of the fixture's piping.

"An average sanitary space with six commodes, four showers and seven lavatories takes one sailor approximately four hours to clean," he said. "It is estimated that it takes no more than half that time to clean an S4 compartment."


-------- OTHER

-------- alternative energy

Oil costs boost hydrogen into spotlight

Wednesday, September 13, 2000
By Associated Press
http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2000/09/09132000/ap_hydro_31415.asp
http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2000/09/09132000/ap_hydro_31415.asp?P=2

Protests across Europe against rising oil prices have magnified the significance of what otherwise might be just a pie-in-the sky conference of tree huggers extolling the benefits of an alternative, environmentally friendly fuel.

Hyforum 2000 is the first global summit promoting hydrogen as "the ultimate energy system" capable of reducing both pollution and the global reliance on oil producing nations.

Beyond environmentally concerned scientists, big corporations such as oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell and automaker BMW are lining up to show support for the colorless, odorless gas as possibly the leading energy source of the new century.

"Because of growing consumption, it is expected that petroleum and natural gas production, fueling this economic boom, will peak around the years 2010 to 2020 and then start to decline," said T. Nejat Veziroglu, president of the International Association for Hydrogen Energy.

"Hydrogen is the logical next stage, because it is renewable, clean and very efficient," Veziroglu said during Monday's opening press conference. Nearly 600 energy experts from around the world are attending the forum, which ends Friday.

Hydrogen is one of the world's most plentiful elements - most commonly found bond with oxygen in the form of water. Because of that, its supplies are virtually limitless. But even hydrogen's biggest supporters admit hydrogen energy has its limits - beginning with price.

As an energy source, it has long been viewed as an exotic fuel reserved for space travel.

Hydrogen's only exhaust is water vapor. That means no more clouds of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and other pollutants that are the byproducts of gasoline and are believed to contribute to global warming.

Munich-based car maker BMW is displaying its new hydrogen-powered car - a project long in the works on the assumption oil wells will eventually run dry and that environmental protection regulations will make gasoline engines obsolete.

BMW head of development, Burkhard Goeschel, told the conference that his company aims to have 20 percent of its cars hydrogen fueled by 2020.

Nearly all major car companies, including DaimlerChrysler, Ford, General Motors and Toyota, are working on similar programs - a development that would take the bite out of OPEC's grip on oil supplies.

Oil standard-bearer Royal Dutch/Shell was on hand at the conference to pitch its plan for a hydrogen-base future.

"We believe our customers will want to change to hydrogen in the future because it will have environmental and commercial advantages," said company chairman Mark Moody-Stuart.

Key to the new technology are so-called fuel-cells that produce electricity through a chemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen. The result is power to run vehicles with no pollution, water vapor being the main byproduct.

Hydrogen supporters say fuel cells will eventually power much more than just cars. They will also heat homes, light cities and even power such things as laptop computers and cell phones through tiny hydrogen packets.

Making fuel cells is expected to be a $350 million industry in North America alone by 2005.

Hydrogen is expensive at roughly $1.80 a liter, compared with a current pump price of 29 cents a liter for gasoline before taxes. Those prices are expected to come down, but only after energy companies build new hydrogen processing plants, develop new ways to transport and store the unstable chemical and create a network of hydrogen service stations.

All that could take decades and billions of dollars.

Advocates are split on how to adapt the new technology.

Oil companies favor a gradual phase in, with hydrogen created by splitting it off other hydrocarbon fuels such as natural gas or methanol, a process that still creates greenhouse gas byproducts.

Environmentalists are pushing for hydrogen creation through extraction from water, which has no byproducts.

And while BMW is already producing a hydrogen powered sports sedan that can reach 136 miles an hour, the tank needs to be refilled after every 217 miles. The car won't be for sale until the next five to seven years.

Still, participants see Hyforum 2000 as the opening blow in an increasingly nasty war against carbon-based fuels and cartels such as OPEC, which has a vested interest in keeping oil on top.

OPEC is "beginning to see the seed of threat to the future of oil," said Robert Priddle, executive director of the International Energy Agency.

Forum organizer Carl-Jochen Winter even called on the G-7 group of richest nations to form OHEC, or the Organization of Hydrogen Energy utilizing Countries, as a direct counterbalance to petroleum cartel OPEC.

"It will be a revolutionary change in the energy industry," the German researcher said about the coming wave of hydrogen-based fuels. "Hardly anybody talks about it, but it's only 20 years in the future."

----

$8.4 MILLION IN GRANTS BOOSTS ENERGY EFFICIENCY RESEARCH

September 13, 2000 (ENS)
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/sep2000/2000L-09-13-09.html

WASHINGTON, DC, The Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded $8.4 million in research grants to improve energy efficiency in commercial and residential buildings. The funding supports the first phase of 18 research and development projects aimed at reducing electricity consumption and pollution from heating and cooling systems. "By making these buildings more energy efficient, we are saving money, preventing power supply shortages and keeping the environment cleaner," said Energy Secretary Bill Richardson. "Residential and commercial buildings account for approximately 65 percent of the electricity and 40 percent of the natural gas used in the United States."

The research and development agreements will fund projects that target research and development activities in three broad areas:

Building Equipment: Energy conversion and control equipment for lighting, space heating, cooling, ventilation, cogeneration, or on-site power generation. Building Envelope: Construction materials and components for windows, walls, roofs and foundations. Whole Building Technologies: Integrate components and systems governing overall energy use of a building.

The projects will last from one to three years and have a potential total federal cost of about $18 million. The research will help develop technologies such as electricity producing fuel cells, electrically tinted windows, light emitting diode lamps, innovative heating and cooling concepts, and remote monitoring of building energy management systems. Project recipients will provide from 20 percent to more than 50 percent in additional funding through cost sharing agreements. The DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory will manage the projects. More information on the DOE's energy efficient buildings programs can be found at: www.eren.doe.gov/buildings/

----

UK wind power sets sail as fuel protests escalate

UK: September 13, 2000
Story by Ed Cropley
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=8143

DOUGLAS, Scotland - As crude oil prices soar near record highs and irate truckers blockade fuel refineries across Britain, power producers have never been better placed to promote one of nature's greatest energy sources - wind.

ScottishPower , already one of the largest windfarmers in the UK, said yesterday it plans to expand its wind farming operations to produce 10 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2010.

The company has already invested 100 million pounds in developing nine wind farms in the UK and Ireland.

By the end of next year, it hopes to be producing 128 megawatts of electricity from Scotland's wind - enough to power around 100,000 homes.

ScottishPower hopes to spend another 300 million by the end of the decade and crank up output from renewable resources to 500 MW.

Alan Mortimer, wind farm development specialist at ScottishPower, told Reuters that Scotland had the best wind in Europe for making electricity but was only just beginning to wake up to the fact.

"It's not just having the wind blow hard - it's about having consistent wind as well," Mortimer said.

And if you choose the right spots, he said a mere 800 to 900 state-of-the-art wind turbines, located in around 30 coastal and hilltop farms, could provide Scotland with ten percent of its total energy requirement.

"Just the slightest breeze is enough to start them idling, and they start to generate power in a wind of only two miles an hour," he said.

PUBLIC PERCEPTION STILL KEY

But even though Scotland's uniquely blustery climate should push it to the forefront of the windpower world, Mortimer said conservative public attitudes to windfarms - people perceive them as being unsightly and noisy - was holding the industry back.

In Denmark, for instance, Mortimer said wind farming was a centrepiece of everyday life - the country's fourth largest industry, employing some 15,000 people and producing 2,000 megawatts of electricity.

He also pointed to a recent System 3 survey of 430 people who live close to Scotland's five wind farms, which showed initial public fears usually proved to be ill-founded.

Together with a strong commitment by the Scottish Executive to streamlining the planning process, Mortimer said the time it took to set up wind farms should fall dramatically.

ScottishPower's newest installation at Dun Law, 20 miles south of Edinburgh sits either side of a busy main road, giving people a rare chance to get up close to the mighty 50-metre diameter turbines.

"We have been very pleasantly surprised by the response from the Dun Law farm," Mortimer said. "This is the first one that people have been able to drive through."

-------- environment

TXU to purchase energy from 82.5-MW Texas wind farm

USA: September 13, 2000
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=8144

NEW YORK - TXU Electric & Gas said Yesterday it will purchase renewable energy from a soon-to-be constructed 82.5-megawatt (MW) wind farm in West Texas, the company's third major purchase of wind power.

Dallas, Texas-based TXU's share of the project will be 31.5 MW, with an undisclosed share going to the Lower Colorado River Authority, the company said in statement.

National Wind Power Limited (NWP) and Orion Energy LLC are developing the Indian Mesa Wind Farm in Pecos County, which will begin with the installation of an initial 82.5-MW of Denmark's Vestas Wind turbines.

Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed.

Construction is expected to begin in mid-September, and TXU customers will begin receiving electricity from the project during the second quarter of 2001.

The wind farm will consist of 125 three-bladed wind turbines standing 165-feet tall with each blade approximately 75-feet long.

London, England-based NWP is a subsidiary of Innogy Plc, the UK energy business of National Power PLC . It is the largest developer, owner and operator of wind farms in the UK and jointly develops wind energy facilities in the U.S. with Oakland, Calif-based Orion Energy.

In July, TXU announced a contract to purchase renewable energy from a 160-MW wind farm in West Texas. The company also purchases power from a 40-MW wind farm near Big Spring.

TXU is one of the largest investor-owned energy services companies in the world with more than $40 billion in assets. TXU is a multinational leader in electric and natural gas services, merchant trading, energy marketing, telecommunications and other energy-related services.

TXU delivers energy to 11 million customers primarily in Texas, the UK, continental Europe and Australia.

----

Religious groups help clean up Texas

Wednesday, September 13, 2000
By Lucy Chubb
http://enn.com/news/enn-stories/2000/09/09132000/religionTX_31401.asp
http://enn.com/news/enn-stories/2000/09/09132000/religionTX_31401.asp?P=2

The Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission surprised the environmental community recently when it made a historic decision to address the problems of greenhouse gas emissions in the state and how it contributes to global warming.

TNRCC instructed its staff on Aug. 23 to begin researching and developing ideas for reducing emissions and to deliver their recommendations to the commission on Dec. 1, 2001.

While the work of conservation organizations was central to this landmark resolution, another important constituency was also involved: the religious community.

Texas Impact, a religious coalition made up of 36 Christian, Jewish and ecumenical groups from across the state, joined forces with the Sustainable Energy for Economic Development Coalition, Public Citizen and other environmental groups to file the formal petition regarding emissions monitoring that ultimately brought about the commission's decision.

Board members of the religious group were also featured in a radio and print advertising campaign that was launched prior to the Aug. 23 meeting of the TNRCC. This campaign is part of a project called coolTexas.net, a joint project of SEED Coalition, Public Citizen of Texas and Texas Impact.

The involvement of Texas Impact was fundamental to getting the commission to turn its attention to global warming issues, according to conservation groups that were involved.

"My belief is that it was pivotal in demonstrating to the commission that it's not just environmentalists that are concerned about global warming," said Tom "Smitty" Smith of Public Citizen Texas, "that religious people of various denominations are also concerned about global warming. For the conservative members of the TNRCC and the Texas Legislature, religious leaders are much better messengers than environmentalists."

Texas Impact offers a "much broader constituency than just environmentalists," said Peter Altman, executive director of SEED Coalition. "In Texas there are many, many people of faith. It's important to show diverse support for an environmental cause. This also communicates that global warming is a mainstream issue."

Many factors, such as the science concerning global warming, contributed to the TNRCC resolution, according to Altman. But, he said, "I certainly think that religious involvement was one these (factors)."

Concern about the environment is nothing new for religious groups, according to Bee Moorhead of Texas Impact. In the scriptures and basic beliefs of almost every denomination are found strong statements referring to the "stewardship of creation," she said.

But, she said, "religious communities are beginning to speak up more," and Texas Impact's involvement in the global warming ad campaign and petition is an excellent example of this growing involvement. There is an increasing awareness of the link between religion and environmentalism among groups across the country as well as in academia.

Both Altman and Moorhead foresee a long-lasting relationship between their two organizations.

"It's rare that organizations can come together for a short-run campaign and have a victory right off the bat," said Altman. "We intend to continue working together to promote an environmental agenda for Texas."

----

Bush Accuses Gore of Neglecting National Parks

Yahoo News
Wednesday September 13
By Arshad Mohammed
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000913/pl/campaign_bush_dc_189.html

MONROE, Wash. (Reuters) - Republican George W. Bush (news - web sites) on Wednesday accused his Democratic presidential rival Al Gore (news - web sites) of neglecting the national parks system, seeking to turn the vice president's environmental reputation against him.

The Texas governor, staying on message after weeks of distractions that have left him lagging Gore in a string of polls, pledged to eliminate what his campaign said was a $4.9 billion backlog of neglected maintenance in the parks system.

Standing on the banks of the Skykomish River, Bush also challenged Gore to take a stand on the issue of breaching Washington State's dams to help save the salmon, a sensitive issue in a state up for grabs in the Nov. 7 election.

``Under this administration the parks are in worse shape than ever before,'' Bush said on a cool morning that began shrouded in mist and ended splashed with sunshine.

``Sewage flows untreated into the lakes and streams of Yellowstone National Park. Civil war relics have been soaked by a leaky roof at Gettysburg,'' he added. ``For eight years, this administration has talked of environmentalism while our national parks are crumbling.''

Bush accused Gore and President Clinton (news - web sites) of greatly expanding federal lands during their 7 1/2 years in office while ignoring the needs of the vast tracts already under the government's care.

He pledged to better tend to the parks by directing the federal government to prioritize all major maintenance and resource protection projects by April 2001 and then working with Congress to come up with the money to carry it out.

Gore Campaign Calls Attack ``Laughable''

The Gore campaign rejected the accusations, and blasted Bush's environmental record in Texas.

``It's laughable that Bush would reinvent himself as an environmentalist when he let polluters rewrite Texas environmental laws so they wouldn't have to abide by them,'' said Gore spokeswoman Kym Spell. ``Bush's real environmental agenda is to open up wilderness areas to oil drilling.''

Bush delivered the attack after weeks of coverage of his verbal gaffes and questions about his television advertising and vice presidential choice have kept him on the defensive instead of stressing his message and helped to erode his standing in opinion polls.

A Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday found Gore leading the Texas governor by 46 to 39 percent, with Green Party candidate Ralph Nader (news - web sites) at 4 percent and Reform Party hopeful Pat Buchanan (news - web sites) scored 1 percent.

The Texas governor appeared unruffled by the polls, bantering with reporters and displaying his characteristic bounce in the middle of a five-day campaign swing through Florida, Missouri, Washington, California and New Mexico.

Tries To Broaden Support

Bush is trying to broaden his support by tackling issues traditionally seen as the province of the Democrats, including the environment, health care and education.

As he did earlier this summer, Bush challenged Gore to take a stand on the question of breaching dams to restore local salmon populations in the Northwest, an idea backed by many environmentalists but fought by power companies.

Before speaking, Bush took a tour of Haskell Slough, a 3 1/2 mile waterway near the Skykomish River where wild salmon have begun swimming for the first time in decades after a state, federal and private restoration project.

The Texas governor wants to leave the dams intact and said that he supported private efforts to restore the salmon. ``The federal government's role is to help, not to dictate,'' he said, sitting on a bale of hay by the waterway.

---

Congress's Obligation to Nature

New York Times
September 13, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/13/opinion/13WED2.html

Before adjourning next month, Congress should approve two of the most important conservation bills in many years. One bill, the Conservation and Reinvestment Act, would guarantee $45 billion over 15 years for a range of environmental purposes, including wilderness protection. The other could save the Everglades.

Both bills have made it through most of the hazardous committee process. Some fear they will not survive a floor vote because the Republicans may not want to give President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore two big election-year victories on the environmental front. In truth, these would be big victories for everyone, Republicans included, not least because several powerful Republican committee chairmen have been crucial to their progress so far. The biggest enemy now is inertia on the part of the Republican leadership.

Conservation and reinvestment: The Conservation and Reinvestment Act passed the House in May by a resounding margin. It would authorize nearly $3 billion a year for 15 years to acquire wilderness, restore damaged coastlines and estuaries and protect endangered species. The bill will not impose new taxes. It relies on the same mechanism that has long underwritten the government's main land acquisition program, the Land and Water Conservation Fund - royalties from offshore oil production.

The House bill was drafted largely by two members who rarely agree on anything - California's George Miller, a Democrat and staunch conservationist, and Alaska's Don Young, a Republican who has been fighting environmentalists for most of his career but who, nearing retirement, has done a surprising about-face. Similarly, in the Senate the conservative Frank Murkowski of Alaska and the liberal Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico steered the bill past property rights advocates on Mr. Murkowski's Natural Resources Committee. They also improved it along the way, earmarking more money for coastal restoration.

The Everglades: In early July, a Senate committee approved a blueprint for the most ambitious restoration project ever attempted in this country. The heart of the project is a vast new system of canals, levees and reservoirs designed to store and deliver Florida's copious rainwater to the Everglades, which is slowly dying for lack of fresh water. This undertaking will cost an estimated $8 billion over 20 years, shared by the federal government and Florida, and will also include land acquisition to provide buffer zones between the Everglades and Florida's expanding coastal cities.

The bill before Congress authorizes $1 billion for the first wave of projects. Gov. Jeb Bush has already promised $200 million, Florida's share of the first-year costs. The ball is now in Congress's court. The measure that emerged from committee in July, thanks largely to Senator Robert C. Smith, Republican of New Hampshire, is now ready for a floor vote in the Senate.

But a big push will be needed in the House, where no action has been taken. Fortunately for friends of the Everglades, the key house subcommittee is headed by Sherwood Boehlert, the upstate New Yorker who is one of his party's most committed environmentalists. But a surer route to success may be for the House to proceed directly to a floor vote on the Senate bill.

Before the end of the session, the appropriations committees in both houses must act so that the actual projects, especially those in the Everglades, can begin to move forward. But the crucial first step is to get the projects authorized. Years of work have gone into these measures. It would be a shame to waste this effort.

---

A Showdown on Cleanup of the Hudson Fight in Congress Could Delay Ruling

New York Times
September 13, 2000
By KIRK JOHNSON
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/13/science/13DRED.html

With only three months left before the Environmental Protection Agency is to release a decision on the decades-old problem of PCB contamination in the Hudson River, a fight in Congress that some politicians and E.P.A. officials say could delay the ruling yet again - perhaps into the next presidential administration - is reaching a showdown.

The House of Representatives passed a bill in June that would require the environmental agency to consider a study on the impact of dredging, now under way at the National Academy of Sciences, before authorizing any new dredging. The study, which is already running behind schedule, could push the E.P.A.'s ruling on the Hudson past the December deadline the agency had set, since it is considering dredging as a remedy.

In addition, opponents say the House bill would make dredging and other cleanup decisions much more cumbersome and complicated to undertake. The Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to take up its own version of the bill, which does not require the E.P.A. to consider the dredging study, today.

Resolving those differences in a House-Senate conference committee over the next month, Congressional staff members and lawmakers say, could bring many of the questions that have long swirled around the Hudson River cleanup - from the science of the clean-up to public opinion about it - into sharper focus.

"The Senate knows better than to delay the cleanup of the Hudson River," said Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, a Democrat of New Jersey and an Appropriations Committee member who fought against the dredging provision. "The real question now is whether the House will insist."

Opponents of the provision on the dredging study, including Mr. Lautenberg, say the legislation is tactical - an attempt by General Electric and its allies in Congress to delay further a possible order requiring the company to spend what could amount to a billion dollars or more cleaning up the chemicals it released into the river over three decades.

Supporters of the provision in the House bill say it is intended to make sure the agency bases its decisions on the most up-to-date science. They say that before the E.P.A. can make a carefully reasoned scientific decision about the Hudson, it must take into account what they say is the most thorough examination of the consequences of dredging: the National Academy study, which is specifically examining the implications of dredging pollutants from sediment.

The bill requires the E.P.A. not only to consider the Academy of Sciences study, but also to incorporate the findings in its decision-making process for other cleanups.

Agency officials say the bill's language on that point is so unclear and open to interpretation that the cleanups they order could be stymied by challenges in the courts. The bill, aimed not just at dredging but at all "invasive remedial technologies" used by the agency, could delay cleanup actions at 28 polluted sites in 14 states, they say.

Other uncertainties swirl in the background. The dredging study has been repeatedly delayed, for example, although a spokesman for the National Academy of Sciences said this week that it would probably meet its current deadline, Nov. 30, to send its findings to the E.P.A. President Clinton also indicated earlier this year that the dredging amendment language was unacceptable and could prompt a veto.

And now, the end-of-session legislative process itself could become a source of further delay, as Congress and the White House struggle to finish pending business before a proposed adjournment next month.

The problem the environmental agency will recommend methods for abating is a longstanding one. General Electric's factories in upstate New York released more than 500 tons of PCB's, or polychlorinated biphenyls - used in the manufacture of electric capacitors - into the upper Hudson between 1946 and 1977, under legal permits from the state. The PCB's found their way into the tissues of fish, and thus became a cancer risk to humans who eat the fish, the E.P.A. has concluded.

The chemicals also settled on the river bottom, and into the layers of silt and sediment that accumulate over time. Studies commissioned by General Electric have said that stirring up that silt by dredging will re- release the PCB's, which it says are now safely entombed. The environmental agency, while not definitely saying that it would order the river to be dredged, has said that PCB levels are not dropping fast enough to conclude that natural river burial has solved the problem.

---

Mexico Leak Forces Evacuations

Associated Press
September 13, 2000 Filed at 5:40 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Mexico-Pesticide-Leak.html

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Hundreds of people in central Mexico were evacuated and 120 were hospitalized after an accident at a pesticide factory released clouds of malathion pesticide, authorities said Wednesday.

The accident occurred late Tuesday at a plant owned by the Mexican chemical firm, Tekchem, in the agricultural hub of Salamanca, 200 miles northeast of Mexico City.

``People reported dizziness, vomiting, and skin and eye irritations,'' said Arturo Gutierrez, the civil defense director in Salamanca. ``The cloud was quite dense and large.''

About 1,100 people were evacuated, with about 500 taken to improvised shelters at government buildings in Salamanca. Most of them were able to return to their homes Wednesday after the two-mile-wide cloud dispersed.

Thirty-six people remained hospitalized Wednesday, and five of them were under close observation by doctors for more severe reactions to the gas.

Malathion is used in the United States to kill mosquitoes and a host of agricultural pests. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has said it doesn't pose a serious risk to most people, but the pesticide is suspected of sickening 123 people in Florida in 1999.

However, the quantity and density of the gas cloud involved in Tuesday's accident was apparently far above what people experience in normal spraying of the pesticide.

The accident occurred when emergency valves opened automatically after pressure rose in tanks holding malathion at the plant, Gutierrez said.

---

USA Today
09/13/00
States
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

California

Carlsbad - Chlorine treatments in a lagoon apparently eradicated a destructive non-native seaweed. Marine biologist Rachel Woodfield said all of the Caulerpa taxifolia are dying or dead. The seaweed, discovered earlier this year in a lagoon north of San Diego, can smother eelgrass and other plants that provide habitat and food for sea life.

Florida

Pensacola - Health officials are warning the public about swimming, boating or fishing in Bayou Grande near Pensacola, where the Navy spilled about 125,000 gallons of raw sewage. Authorities say the sewage was diverted into the bayou after a pumping station failed late Sunday at the Pensacola Naval Air Station. The station has since been fixed.

Idaho

Boise - A coalition of conservation groups proposed creating a 2.7 million-acre Owyhee-Bruneau Canyonlands national monument in southwestern Idaho, citing the area's geological, biological and historical values. Environmentalists called on Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and President Clinton to again invoke the Antiquities Act. Babbitt has said he will not recommend more Western lands as national monuments.

Indiana

Indianapolis - A law designed to give cities incentives to clean up sewer problems will face a court challenge. Cities that adopt long-term plans for controlling sewer problems can be excused from strict water-quality standards when rainy weather causes sewer overflows. Five environmental groups contend the statute is not a responsible solution.

Washington

Seattle - The National Marine Fisheries Service says it will defend its West Coast salmon protection rules against a lawsuit filed by environmentalists. Spokesman Brian Gorman says working through local land-use authorities to protect salmon streams is the best approach. Environmentalists say that method opens loopholes for developers.

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

World Bank Approves AIDS Help

Associated Press
September 13, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-World-Bank-AIDS.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The World Bank has approved $500 million in credits to help Africa combat the AIDS epidemic and will propose an additional $85 million to $100 million in loans for countries in the Caribbean.

The bank said the first two African countries to benefit will be Ethiopia and Kenya, which will receive $59.7 million and $50 million respectively.

``Last April we promised that no sensible AIDS program in Africa would want for funding,'' said Bank President James Wolfensohn in a statement Tuesday night announcing the credit. ``Today we deliver on that promise.

``We hope this program will help break the silence and inspire every country that needs help to ask for it,'' he said.

Nearly 25 million of the world's 34.5 million AIDS victims live in Africa and some 15 million Africans already have died from the disease.

U.N. experts estimate African countries need $1 billion to $3 billion a year to combat AIDS.

The bank said African countries will use the credits to increase prevention campaigns, establish treatment programs and deal with the burdens they will face as millions with the HIV virus develop AIDS over the next decade.

The announcement of bank funds for the Caribbean, which faces the highest rate of HIV infection outside sub-Saharan Africa, came at the end of an AIDS conference in Bridgetown, Barbados, on Tuesday.

-------- police

Police Dept. Shake-Up

New York Times
September 13, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/13/opinion/L13COP.html

To the Editor:

New York City's new police commissioner, Bernard B. Kerik, has decided to "clean house" by removing the highest ranking female officer in the Police Department from her command position in the Bronx, in his view to improve department leadership (news article, Sept. 7).

Was this action also an attempt to mollify the voices of the many disgruntled officers who have felt the effect of affirmative action?

It is unfortunate that the murder rate in the Bronx has increased recently. But leadership ability in the Police Department extends to peacekeeping as well as law enforcement, social service as well as crime-fighting. A limited view of leadership can be regressive, both in the present struggle to improve police-community relations and in the struggle to eliminate sexual discrimination in the work force.

SONDRA LEFTOFF New York, Sept. 8, 2000 The writer is an associate professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY.

-------- terrorism

U.S. Terrorism Prosecutors Deny Singling Out Muslims

New York Times
September 13, 2000
By BENJAMIN WEISER
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/13/nyregion/13TERR.html

The office of the chief federal prosecutor in Manhattan strongly denounced criticism this week that it had unfairly singled out Muslims during its broad investigation of Osama bin Laden, whom the authorities believe masterminded the bombings of two American embassies in East Africa in 1998.

Writing to a federal judge on Monday, the office of Mary Jo White, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, offered a blistering response to a defense lawyer's complaint that the civil and political rights of Muslims were being chilled, and that they were being "relentlessly hounded by the unfettered investigations" by Ms. White's office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Ms. White's office wrote, "We demand that those participating in the investigation and prosecution never tarnish Muslims as a group with the sins of a select few, and make prosecutive decisions based upon the conduct of persons, not their religion." The letter, sent to Judge Robert P. Patterson Jr. of Federal District Court in Manhattan, has not been filed publicly.

The letter came as Ms. White's office filed a new indictment in the terrorism case. The indictment charged a former taxi driver from Orlando, Fla., with perjury and criminal contempt for refusing to testify before a grand jury. The defendant, Ihab M. Ali, 38, had been held on civil contempt charges for 16 months at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Lower Manhattan for his refusal to testify in May 1999. He has defended his position on religious grounds.

In a hearing held last year, Mr. Ali said that the Koran taught Muslims to do nothing that "will cause harm to innocents." He said testifying would be regarded as "a betrayal of our beliefs as Muslims."

Prosecutors have offered few details about Mr. Ali. In the letter to Judge Patterson, Ms. White's office described Mr. Ali, a naturalized American citizen, as a sworn member of al Qaeda, which it says is a terrorist group led by Mr. bin Laden and "responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent people."

The indictment said that prosecutors were also seeking to determine if Mr. Ali was taking part in terrorist activities by al Qaeda when he trained as a pilot in Oklahoma in 1994, or when he traveled abroad.

Yesterday, Magistrate Judge Ronald L. Ellis of United States District Court in Manhattan ordered Mr. Ali held without bail pending further proceedings. In the brief hearing, Mr. Ali entered no plea. One of his lawyers, Ashraf W. Nubani, said by phone that his client denies any wrongdoing.

"I do know what Ihab's involvement is," Mr. Nubani said, "and it's nothing beyond association. And if that's a crime, then he's guilty."

Another lawyer, Louis M. Freeman, who represented Mr. Ali in court, said that his client "was looking forward to being released on bail."

It was a Sept. 4 letter from Mr. Nubani to Judge Patterson, who had originally ordered Mr. Ali sent to jail for civil contempt, that prompted the reply from Ms. White's office.

Mr. Nubani claimed that by imprisoning his client, the government "has succeeded in making him a martyr to the Muslim community," and was harassing other Muslims who were "peripheral and irrelevant" to the investigation.

Mr. Nubani also said that "under the pretext" of trying to solve the embassy bombings, the government "continues to stigmatize the Muslim community, and chills members of that community from enjoying their political and civil rights."

The response from Ms. White's office was written by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the lead prosecutor in the bin Laden investigation. He said that Mr. Ali was questioned "as a witness in an effort to solicit truthful testimony from him to bring others to justice."

"His refusal to comply," Mr. Fitzgerald wrote, "is nothing short of a crime, not a `political and civil right.' "

Mr. Fitzgerald said Mr. Nubani "slights the `Muslim community' (however he seeks to define it) by averring that the community supports the decision of a member of a terrorist group to break the law in an effort to keep silent about those responsible for mass murder."

"There are 1.2 billion people in the world who practice the Islamic faith," he continued. "The grand jury has indicted but 17 individuals for their roles in al Qaeda, including the mass murder of hundreds of civilians, and but one (1) al Qaeda member has been incarcerated for his unlawful contempt of court."

As to the embassy bombing case, "there is no pretext," Mr. Fitzgerald added. Those responsible, he said, "should, and will be, held responsible. And those like Ihab Ali, who break the law and frustrate the investigation, will also be held accountable for their actions."

Ms. White had no additional comment through a spokesman last night. Mr. Nubani said prosecutors were "banking on the ignorance of the general public" by asserting that only 17 Muslims were being prosecuted besides his client.

"My question is," he said, "how many subpoenas has the government issued since these investigations started? I just don't believe their argument."

---

New York Times
September 13, 2000
Metro Briefing
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/13/nyregion/13MBRF.html

WASHINGTON: DEALING WITH BIOLOGICAL TERRORISM A Federal General Accounting Office report on the New York region's response to the West Nile virus has concluded that government agencies are unprepared to deal with biological terrorism, Senator Charles E. Schumer said yesterday. Mr. Schumer vowed to ask Congress next year to double the $250 million now spent to combat biological terrorism. (NYT)

---

Terrorists' next deadly tool: Viruses

USA Today
09/12/00- Updated 11:14 AM ET
By Anita Manning, USA TODAY
http://usatoday.com/life/health/general/lhgen081.htm

When Michael Osterholm speaks of "the perfect storm," he's not talking about the weather. He's talking about what would happen if smallpox virus were let loose in an American city.

Nearly everyone in the world is susceptible, and supplies of vaccine are inadequate, so "even an accidental release of this virus into civilian populations would result in catastrophe," he writes in Living Terrors: What America Needs to Know to Survive the Coming Bioterrorist Catastrophe (Delacorte Press, $24.95).

Osterholm, a national expert on infectious disease and bioterrorism, says would-be terrorists have the means, motive and countless opportunities to inflict devastation on the world using any of dozens of dreaded biological threats: smallpox, anthrax, botulism and hemorrhagic fever viruses like Ebola, to name the most likely. He cites the coming together of three factors:

People who will do this. With the end of the Cold War has come an increase in extremist groups, religious cults and terrorists motivated by religious or political extremism.

Available infectious agents. Osterholm points to the ease with which scientists can obtain microorganisms from repositories that keep them for sale for research purposes.

The ability to deliver those agents. Until recently, such technology didn't exist.

Baker Spring, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, hasn't read Osterholm's book yet, but he agrees "there clearly are vulnerabilities" relating to the potential of biological attack.

But, Spring says, "it's important to keep in mind that while it's extremely easy to produce basic biological diseases, the germs and so forth, putting them in a deliverable form is not quite so easy."

Osterholm, a former state epidemiologist for Minnesota, says that's no longer true. Advances in aerosol technology and delivery systems make the tools of the terror trade widely available, from the corner drugstore to the Internet, he says.

Ivan Eland of the Cato Institute says incidents of terrorism are relatively rare. Since 1994, 11 Americans a year are killed, on average, in such events, most of them outside North America.

"Terrorism as a problem itself is going down," he says. "However, catastrophic terrorism, the incidents we've seen," such as the World Trade Center bombing and Tokyo subway attack, "were designed to kill a lot of people."

The potential for such incidents, Eland says, "is our top security threat."

Osterholm and co-author John Schwartz, a Washington Post reporter, present fictional scenarios for biological attack, such as an airplane dispersing microscopic anthrax spores over a football stadium or a former Soviet scientist who unleashes smallpox in a shopping mall during the Christmas rush. They then describe the chaos that would follow, as hospitals try to cope with thousands of sick people and not enough antibiotics or vaccine to go around.

Current defense policies, Osterholm argues, are focused on a military or police response to terrorism. That is appropriate for a chemical or bomb attack, he says, but in a biological attack, the first responders will be medical personnel, and there is no place in the USA that is fully prepared.

He urges that funding in defense programs be redirected toward bioterrorism planning, training and monitoring. And, he says, we need a stockpile of vaccines and antibiotics effective against the microbes most likely to be used in an attack.

The public health system needs to be built up so that it won't collapse under the first hint of trouble. While there is no way to completely guard against attack, he says, there is much that can be done to mitigate disaster. "If I didn't think we could do something about it, I'd have packed up and moved to northern Minnesota," he says. "This is not a book to frighten people out of their wits. It's a book to frighten people into their wits."


-------- activists

Bush Must Face Lawsuit Brought by Environmental Activists

By Brian Hansen
AUSTIN, Texas, September 13, 2000 (ENS)
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/sep2000/2000L-09-13-02.html

A Texas judge has rejected a motion to dismiss Republican presidential nominee Governor George W. Bush from a civil rights lawsuit brought by environmental groups and individual protesters.

The suit was filed against the Texas governor by citizens who were arrested and jailed last spring for protesting Bush's environmental policies on the public sidewalk in front of the Texas Governor's Mansion.

Texas Governor George W. Bush (Photo courtesy Office of the Governor)

The ruling handed down last week by Travis County Judge John Dietz means that Bush and other Texas officials could be compelled to stand trial this fall for allegedly infringing on the free speech rights of the non-violent environmental activists.

"Governor Bush is a named defendant in this lawsuit suit because he's responsible for what happened on the sidewalk in front of his house," said David Kahne, a Houston based attorney representing the activists. "We will be pushing hard to get a trial date set as soon as possible."

A spokeswoman for Bush's presidential campaign would not comment on the case, saying it is a "state matter" that would better be addressed by the Texas Governor's Office. Officials there have not returned phone calls to ENS.

The lawsuit stems from a series of incidents that occurred last spring, when citizens from across Texas rallied in front of the Governor's mansion to protest the controversial voluntary compliance program and a number of other measures that Bush had proposed be adopted for the states industrial polluters.

Some protesters represented the Texans United Education Fund while others were from Downwinders at Risk, a group which works to end kiln incineration of hazardous waste at the TXI cement plant in Midlothian, Texas.

The plaintiffs contend that after launching his bid for the White House, Bush conspired with the head of his state police protective detail to enact what the complaint calls an "unwritten" and "subjective" policy designed to keep the public sidewalk in front of the Governor's Mansion free and clear of protesters who attempted to call attention to Bush's environmental record.

The plaintiffs say that the "unwritten" policy was first implemented on March 11, 1999, when some two dozen environmentalists rallied outside of the mansion to protest a Bush backed plan that authorized a Texas company to burn hazardous waste.

The sign toting activists, many of whom were dressed in unique costumes designed to ridicule the plan, attempted to circulate petitions in opposition to the burning.

Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) police officers on duty that day refused to allow the environmentalists to circulate their petitions and gather signatures, the lawsuit contends. "Uniformed police officers and unidentified men in blue suits then told the activists to leave the sidewalk or be arrested," the complaint states.

Most of the protesters left the area as ordered. But one woman, who was dressed in a smokestack costume to illustrate her opposition to the Bush backed incineration plan, was arrested by a DPS officer as she was packing up her belongings and attempting to leave, the lawsuit contends.

The woman was handcuffed and placed in a squad car, but she was released a short time later after being told to "get off this property and do not come back," the complaint alleges. The Texas Governor's Mansion on Colorado Avenue in Austin. Built in 1856, it is the oldest continuously occupied executive residence west of the Mississippi. (Photo courtesy Office of the Governor)

But the environmentalists did come back. Two weeks later, about 50 activists rallied in front of the Governor's Mansion to voice their displeasure with Bush's proposal for a voluntary pollution compliance program, which was at the time being debated in the Texas state legislature.

As before, state police threatened to arrest people who did not leave the sidewalk. Most left because they could not risk arrest.

But Houston resident Rick Abraham did not leave fast enough to avoid arrest. Abraham was arrested and charged with "blocking a passageway," even though he was the only activist still standing on the public sidewalk at the time. Abraham was held in jail overnight.

Frustrated but unwilling to back down, the activists wrote to Bush and informed him that they would be returning to the public sidewalk to express their views on his environmental record. The activists assured Bush that they would not block the sidewalk or interfere with people going to and from the mansion, and they asked the governor to ask the DPS to respect their free speech rights.

But the letter had little effect, as DPS officers once again arrested several citizens who carried protest signs along the public sidewalk.

Meanwhile, as the environmentalists sat in a Travis County jail, Bush held a televised press conference in which he expressly stated his "support" for the exclusionary policy under which the protesters had been jailed.

"The rules have changed," said Bush, when asked why police officers excluded - and then arrested and jailed - people for walking peacefully on a public sidewalk. Bush said that he supported "the decision to change the rules," and that "people have just gotta understand what the rules are."

But when lawyers for the plaintiffs and the Texas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union requested written copies of the so-called new rules, they were informed by both the DPS and the Governor's Office that no such documents existed.

According to sworn testimony given by DPS Lieutenant Michael Escalante, the head of Bush's protective detail, the rules were changed shortly after the environmental protesters started to mobilize in front of the Governor's Mansion in March of 1999.

Kahne, who deposed Escalante for the pending civil case, said it is obvious that Bush instructed the DPS to arrest any environmentalists who protested in front of the Governor's Mansion.

"There's abundant evidence, starting with the fact that we have a document that shows how ... the state police were told that when they're ready to put these new rules into effect, check with the Governor's Office," Kahne said.

Attorneys for Bush have steadfastly denied the allegation in court, arguing that it was Escalante and the DPS - not Bush or the Governor's Office - who were responsible for the new access policy.

But Judge Dietz, an elected official of the Democratic Party, has twice rejected that argument. His ruling clears the way for Bush to be dragged into a free speech trial on the verge of a presidential election.

Abraham and the other activists who were arrested say that justice in their cases will not be served until the Republican presidential nominee is compelled to testify about the role he played - if any - in ordering their arrests.

"Governor Bush is responsible, whether he told law enforcement officers to silence his critics, or simply gave approval with a wink and a nod," said Abraham. "This says that he doesn't understand constitutional rights, or he doesn't believe in them. Either prospect is frightening."

None of the activists arrested for protesting in front of the mansion has been successfully prosecuted. Travis County Attorney Ken Oden decided not to pursue charges against some of the protesters, saying that they did not violate a state law against obstructing a public passageway, as the DPS had alleged.

Other environmental activists were arrested and jailed, but never charged. Austin resident Jim Baldauf who was arrested in front of the mansion on May 25, 1999, was jailed for 24 hours before being set free. Baldauf was never charged.

"Governor Bush thinks he's above the law," said Baldauf. "He's a hypocrite who brags about 'leadership' and preaches about 'personal accountability,' and then he says, 'I'm not responsible.'"

The DPS and its three commissioners, all Bush appointees, are also cited as defendants in the lawsuit. DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange had little to say about the case.

"Really the only thing that I'm going to be able to say is that because it's pending litigation, there's not really anything I can say," Mange said.

The details of the pending lawsuit notwithstanding, Mange declined to discuss the so-called new rules sidewalk access policy at all.

"That's all covered in the lawsuit, and there's not really anything I can say," Mange said. "I'm just not going to get into discussing it. This is something that's being handled down in the courthouse, and that's where I'm going to let it stay."

----

Aussie Economic Protests Wind Down

Associated Press
September 13, 2000 Filed at 2:26 p.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Australia-Economic-Summit.html

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Protesters linked hands Wednesday and walked one last time around the casino complex in Australia they had put under siege for three days to protest globalization.

But as the protest ended and police in this southern city breathed easier, their colleagues in Sydney were preparing for the demonstrators planning to target the 2000 Olympics, which will officially open Friday.

Protesters' attempts to blockade the third and final day of the World Economic Forum-sponsored Asia Pacific Economic Summit were foiled by dwindling numbers and an overwhelming police presence.

So instead they partied.

``We won,'' said Gabrielle Baker. ``Look at the lengths the police had to go to to get people into the conference.''

Hundreds of protesters marched, chanting and singing through downtown Melbourne, as bemused and amused office workers looked on.

The march, watched by hundreds of police, blocked traffic downtown but was peaceful, with protesters passing by several McDonald's restaurants without incident. The fast-food chain has been targeted by anti-globalization protests overseas.

``We are hoping to ... take our message into the city and to emphasize that we are here standing up for the majority of the world's people,'' said protester Jackie Lynch.

When the march arrived back at the Crown Casino complex, where the summit was taking place, protesters began an open-air dance party before creating their human chain and drifting away.

During the party, protesters began arranging to share cars to get to Sydney for protests scheduled on Friday.

Sydney police say they are ready and will not allow the Games to be affected.

``If they insist on this violent confrontation which we've seen in Melbourne over the last three days, we will act very, very firmly with them,'' New South Wales Police commissioner Peter Ryan said.

``We will not tolerate any disruption to the Olympic Games. We are not going to have Australia embarrassed further by these people.''

Early Wednesday, Melbourne police clashed briefly with protesters, as they had done on the first two days, but easily cleared a path for delegates to get into the conference, where they were discussing Asia's recovery from its recent economic woes.

Dozens of protesters and police were injured during the three-day protest.

Police said 25 officers were injured during the three days with cuts, bruises, back injuries and broken bones. At least 30 protesters suffered similar injuries.

A dozen protesters had been arrested and charged with offenses including assaulting police, criminal damage and hindering police.

Melbourne's most senior police officer, Chief Commissioner Neil Comrie, said his force would study video footage of the violence and may charge more people.

He accused outside agitators of inciting attacks on police.

``They were committing acts of violence, throwing missiles, throwing urine, spitting and generally conducting themselves in an appalling manner,'' Comrie said.

Protesters said they would be seeking an independent inquiry into what they described as police brutality toward protesters.

Organizer Stephen Jolly said the protest had been a success despite the violence and the failure of the group to stop delegates from entering the conference.

``Most importantly we've turned the WEF meeting here in Melbourne over the last three days into a sideshow,'' Jolly said. ``It's been what's happening outside the forum that's been on everybody's agenda.

``Our ideas, our actions here have been a great victory.''

---

Anti-Free-Trade Protests Disrupt Economic Forum in Melbourne

New York Times
September 13, 2000
By MARK LANDLER
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/13/world/13MELB.html

MELBOURNE, Australia, Sept. 12 - It was supposed to be a stimulating group chat about the global economy, held here a few days before the opening of the Olympics to allow the corporate executives, central bankers and other notables to hop over to Sydney for some world-class sport.

But in an eruption reminiscent of the violent protests at the World Trade Organization summit meeting in Seattle last November, thousands of protesters have tried to sabotage the meeting here of the World Economic Forum, clashing with riot police and blocking the conference site.

The meeting has gone ahead more or less as planned, though on Monday about a quarter of the 900 delegates could not get into the hotel where it was being held because demonstrators had formed a human chain across every entrance. This morning riot police, some on horses, swung truncheons at protesters to clear a path for the delegates' buses.

The organizers of the protests, a polyglot group of environmentalists and anti-free-trade activists, said that 50 people had been injured in the melee and that 11 were hospitalized. After seeming daunted by the crowd on Monday, the police used markedly stronger measures today.

"What we have had over the past few days is not peaceful protest but something verging on riot, where we have had ball bearings, marbles, screws, glass and urine thrown at police officers," said Andre Haermeyer, the police minister of the Victoria state government.

Australia's prime minister, John Howard, was forced to arrive at the site, the Crown Hotel and Casino, by boat because the police could not clear a path for his motorcade.

For the Australian government, the protests have been an ugly scene- setter for the Olympics, which start on Friday, competing for the attention of the international news media with the torch relay and other festive preparations in Sydney.

The protesters said they would rally at the Games as well, though it was difficult to imagine how an Olympic athlete could provoke as much outrage as a software billionaire like William H. Gates. Mr. Gates was the big name among speakers at the World Economic Forum, a private foundation whose last meeting, in Davos, Switzerland, was also disrupted by protests.

The roar of the crowd eventually drew a response from conference participants. Asked during a panel discussion what he thought about the protests, Mr. Gates said, "World trade, if you block it, the big losers will be the poor people of the world."

Christine Loh, a pro-democracy leader from Hong Kong who was turned back by the barricades, said: "I think it inconvenienced a lot of people, which is what the protesters wanted to do. They've managed to make people more aware of the issues. I think it has been successful."

Greg Grodecki, 19, an environmental science student from Brisbane, Australia, said the goal was not to shut down the meeting, but to discourage future ones. "We have been successful because these meetings are becoming too expensive, from a security point of view," he said.

As the delegates filed into buses at the end of today's session, the cost of the blockade became more evident. Riot police again cleared a path, and the cavalcade inched onto the street under a shower of epithets and plastic bottles. A helicopter with a search light hovered overhead. Afterward, ambulances lined up to treat a handful of injured demonstrators.

Mr. Gates was forced to cancel two outside events, both demonstrations of a new Microsoft product, when the police warned him not to cross the street to a nearby office building.

---

"Blame your own governments!" Gulf tells petrol protesters

Yahoo News
Wednesday, September 13 10:06 PM SGT
http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/article.html?s=asia/headlines/000913/world/afp/_Blame_your_own_governments___Gulf_tells_petrol_protesters.html

DUBAI, Sept 13 (AFP) - Europeans protesting at the high price of petrol will find little sympathy in the tax-free paradises of the Gulf where oil can be cheaper than water.

Emirati national Ahmad Saleh placed the woes of western consumers firmly on the shoulders of their respective governments' economic policies.

"Prices in Dubai are good. There are no taxes, but there shouldn't be as the United Arab Emirates is an oil-producing country and we are proud of that," Saleh said as a pump attendant filled his gleaming gas-guzzling American limousine.

"It is not the fault of OPEC, that's for sure. Oil prices are universal. It is the taxing system in place that makes the difference and hikes the prices," he said. "Blame your own governments."

With much of Western Europe gripped by protests over high fuel costs, residents in the oil-rich Gulf spurned criticism of OPEC and firmly blamed exorbitant taxes.

"I have just returned from my summer holidays in England," said one motorist. "I was absolutely horrified at the prices there. It cost three times as much to fill up a saloon car as it does my rather large four-wheel drive here."

"We could not run such a vehicle if we were to live back in Britain," she said. "(British Prime Minister) Tony Blair's in big trouble."

Blair, whose government is accused of cashing in on soaring world oil prices by keeping petrol taxes at an all-time high, has refused to budge, saying that he will not allow protesters to dictate economic policy.

"They have run out of petrol in my home village and the school buses can only run until Friday," said another Briton here. "I am glad I live here. Dubai could lose money on its low petrol prices but it suits us, the consumers."

She warned, however, that the Emirates' lack of taxation had encouraged the "cult of the car. They are cheap to buy and even cheaper to run."

For Santosh, who has worked at forecourts across Dubai for several years, reactions at the pumps from European expatriates have been vocal but amusing.

"They always have a laugh at the expense of those loved ones back in their home countries," chuckled the Indian, who has never owned a car, does not know how to drive and is bussed to and from work every morning and night.

Petrol prices throughout the Gulf remain incredibly low, and a sizeable car or jeep costs less than 15 dollars to fill up.

In the Emirates, a litre of petrol costs 28 cents, while in Kuwait it is 21 cents and in Iraq it can be as low as just one cent, although it may not be of great quality and a car is beyond many Iraqi budgets.

Baghdad's Oil Minister Amer Rashid has said that his ministry was "charging refinery and transport costs only, with petrol itself being freely provided since it is a resource that belongs to the people."

Kuwait's Finance Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah al-Sabah was quoted as saying Wednesday, meanwhile, that "we are not the cause of the current hike in oil prices ... but high taxes imposed by consuming countries on fuel."

"When oil prices dropped to seven dollars a barrel, no one from them cared about us. Is it halal (allowed) for them and haram (not allowed) for us?" Sheikh Ahmad asked.

Mahmud, a Kuwaiti national, said the protesters in Europe had got it right.

"It's good to see protesters in Europe placing blame on their governments for high taxes. At least they are not blaming OPEC for the hike," he said.

Well over half of Britain's 13,000 petrol (US: gasoline) stations have run dry, and many others are down to their last reserves as protesters continue to picket oil refineries and depots.

Protesters elsewhere in Europe, following on last week's French example, also took to the streets on Tuesday, with truckers, farmers, bus and taxi drivers blocking fuel depots and traffic on major roads.

The wave of protests was set off by a sharp increase in crude oil prices, which have been hovering near a 10-year high, despite OPEC's decision Sunday to hike output by 800,000 barrels a day from October 1 to cool the market.

The benchmark North Sea Brent crude price dipped below 32 dollars a barrel for October delivery in London Wednesday.

---

Defiant UK Protesters Turn Back Fuel Tankers

Yahoo News
Wednesday September 13
By Lyndsay Griffiths
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000913/ts/energy_europe_dc_10.html

LONDON (Reuters) - Truckers carried their fuel price protest to Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites)'s doorstep Wednesday and petrol tankers trying to break the blockade around British refineries were forced back by angry demonstrators.

Much of Europe faced more chaos from fuel shortages and road blocks as truckers and farmers incensed by heavy fuel taxes on top of high crude oil prices staged another day of protests.

Blair, facing his sternest test since he took office in 1997, won a promise from the oil giants to do more to get supplies moving as the protests showed no sign of abating.

Hospitals in worst-hit areas canceled operations, and corpses piled up in morgues.

Banks ran short of cash.

Scores of tankers did manage to leave refineries overnight, but a Texaco spokesman said a convoy of seven tankers was forced back by demonstrators Wednesday despite a police escort.

``In any endeavor to resume deliveries, our priority has to be (driver) safety,'' the company spokesman said.

Two more tankers were stopped in southern England.

Providing fuel for emergency services was billed as the beginning of the end of a six-day-long crisis. But two in three of Britain's 13,000 filling stations stayed empty and retailers said it would take weeks to get supplies back to normal.

``The oil companies are moving. The police will do everything they can,'' said Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister) Gordon Brown. ``Supplies have now started to move and we will continue that.''

Protesters Hit Heart Of London

Angry that small amounts of fuel were seeping out of the blockaded refineries, truckers took their fury -- and trucks -- to the heart of London and vowed to stay put.

``These are the actions of desperate people,'' said trucker Steve Kelly in a convoy jamming Park Lane in the capital's West End. ``We can't go on like this. We are dying on our feet.''

With only 100 fuel tankers on the move -- 5,000 to 8,000 tankers supply garages on a normal day -- Britain looked set for many more days of acute shortages.

Stock prices slumped 1.5 percent, in part driven lower by oil turmoil, and supermarkets said rationing may be on its way.

A spokesman for London's metropolitan police said an exclusion zone had been set up around Westminster, the site of Blair's Downing Street residence and the houses of parliament.

He said police would allow demonstrators to march on foot to parliament if they wanted to stage a peaceful protest, but no vehicles would be allowed into the area.

Some of the hundreds of taxi drivers, truckers and farmers outside Manchester's giant Woodford fuel terminal threatened to blockade a soccer match at Manchester United's ``Theater of Dreams'' nearby.

United are to play Anderlecht in their opening Champions League game Wednesday evening at their Old Trafford stadium.

In Scotland, the Premier League said it might have to cancel weekend football matches because of the shortages.

In Britain tax and duties make up 76 percent of the price of unleaded petrol, which costs the UK motorist $4.50 a gallon.

Labor says it will not cut fuel taxes to ease a short-term crisis.

Crude prices dipped Wednesday. In London, October Brent was trading 71 cents weaker at $31.77 a barrel by 11:55 a.m. EDT.

In Germany, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder refused to bow to demands for cuts in fuel duties as German trucking firms promised a protest rally later this month.

A crowd of about 500 truckers, farmers and passers-by booed and whistled Schroeder when he arrived in the northwest city of Schwerin. Some 300 trucks and tractors sounded their horns to cries of ``capitalist pig'' and ``Schroeder must go.''

Belgian truckers blocked most of the entrances to Antwerp port, the second biggest in Europe, as part of a nationwide protest, port officials said.

``If it lasts for a couple of days, the damage could be catastrophic,'' said Robert Restiau, head of the Antwerp Port Federation representing the terminal's operators and users.

Ireland and Spain were both threatened with new action.

Poland's Association of International Hauliers said their 22,500 trucks would hold a slow-driving demonstration that would impede traffic on Poland's already overcrowded roads.

In Washington, White House spokesman Jake Siewert said the United States was monitoring oil markets as it examined ways to bring down petroleum prices and increase supplies.

``We are examining all our options and we have not taken anything off the table,'' Siewert said.

In Caracas, OPEC (news - web sites) President Ali Rodriguez said the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries could add an extra 2 million barrels per day to the market ``if necessary.''

Last Sunday the OPEC cartel agreed to increase output by three percent from October to try to calm volatile markets.

---

Fuel Standoff in Britain Eases, but Supply Still Short

New York Times
September 13, 2000
By WARREN HOGE
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/13/world/14CND-BRITAI.html

LONDON Sept. 13 -- Fuel tankers resumed limited deliveries from picketed refineries and storage depots Wednesday, but the crack in the siege that has left almost all the country's filling stations dry was doing little to restore the normality that Prime Minister Tony Blair has promised British motorists.

The flow of gasoline was estimated to be less than 10 percent of what is regularly scheduled, and almost all of it was designated for the vital services sector rather than the nation's gas pumps. The Petrol Retailers' Association warned it could be three weeks before Britain was back to normal.

The protests against high fuel prices that have presented Mr. Blair with the most serious domestic crisis of his three and a half years in office continued, with pickets monitoring the rigs exiting oil company properties and convoys of truckers tying up avenues and expressways across the country. At some locations drivers refused to take on oil out of sympathy with the protesters or fear of possible retaliation from them.

The protests, which caught the Blair government badly off guard, have been mounted by truckers and other workers claiming that rising fuel prices are putting them out of business. They have used the Internet to coordinate far-flung demonstrations and have attracted a good deal of sympathy from the British public despite the inconveniences they are causing.

"I heard Blair say he wouldn't cave in to the protesters, but he should know that 90 percent of the public are with them, not him," said Dave Cummings, a taxi driver in Edinburgh who said he only had a half tank of gas left and nowhere to refill. "Here we have all this oil in the North Sea, and we're paying the highest petrol prices in the world."

The demonstrators have succeeded in focusing blame for the crisis on Mr. Blair, and he cut short a tour of the Midlands on Tuesday to return to London and issue tough declarations that he would not capitulate to demands that taxes on fuel be reduced. The country's fuel tax, which amounts to 76.2 percent of the roughly $4.37 for a gallon of gas, is the highest in Europe.

Mr. Blair made a high-risk pledge to get the fuel situation "on the way back to normal" within 24 hours, and the protesters reacted with defiance of their own, promising in effect to make him eat his words. Mr. Blair is eager to appear decisive, aware of the power of popular protest in Britain to bring down governments. Mass actions in 1979 began the fall of the Labor administration of Prime Minister James Callaghan, and widespread protests to Margaret Thatcher's imposition of poll taxes speeded the end of her government.

Mr. Blair summoned oil company heads to 10 Downing Street on Wednesday for the second time in as many days, and they emerged saying they would do everything they could to free up deliveries. They had argued that they were unwilling to order drivers to make shipments because of fear for their safety. "We will be stepping this up as soon as possible to get back to normal," said Shell's chief executive, Malcolm Brinder, reading from a joint statement after the meeting.

The protests had been largely free of incidents until Wednesday when police were ordered to clear the paths for oil trucks and had to arrest some demonstrators. The protesters themselves have become more belligerent, with leaders taking photographs of departing tanker drivers and telling them the pictures would be posted on web sites if it was discovered that the fuel was delivered to commercial clients instead of the emergency services that the demonstrators have promised not to disrupt.

Sir John Evans of the Association of Chief Police Officers said he had been receiving reports of intimidation, though overall, he said, the demonstrations were not confrontational.

John Monks, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, condemned the protests as a "bosses blockade" and, citing a stark example, urged all union members to avoid participating in them. "Let me remind you of another occasion when trucks and lorries were used by the self-employed and the far-right to attack democracy," he told a Congress meeting in Glasgow. "That was in 1973 in Chile, and it started a chain of events which brought down the Allende government."

---

Protests continue despite gas deliveries

USA Today
09/13/00- Updated 03:05 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm#jak

LONDON - Fuel tankers escorted by police began to roll past protesters' barricades early Wednesday en route to Britain's fuel-starved gas pumps - the latest development in Europe-wide protests that have left pumps running dry and tempers flaring. There were two reports of bricks being thrown through the windshields of tanker trucks. While the disruption was worst in Britain, similar protests choked roadways along the borders of Belgium and the Netherlands. Germany and France, whose government made concessions to the strikers over the weekend, continued to have smaller protests.

---

Man in jail for vandalizing McDonald's

USA Today
09/13/00- Updated 03:05 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm#jak

MILLAU, France - A French sheep farmer who vandalized a McDonald's last year was convicted Wednesday and sentenced to three months in prison. Jose Bove has become a semi-folk hero for partially dismantling a McDonald's under construction in Aug. 1999 in his fight against what he calls rampant globalization. Bove calls it it the "McDomination" of the world and vows to continue the fight, despite going to jail. Mostly, Bove claims his attack on the fast food giant was in protest over U.S. sanctions on European delicacies, from foie gras to Roquefort cheese, for which Bove supplies milk.

---

"Dr. Laura" Debuts

Yahoo News
Wednesday September 13

Apparently, the protests make better drama than the TV show, as most post-show commentary focused more on the controversy surrounding Dr. Laura than on Dr. Laura itself.

Some 200 gay activists gathered outside Paramount Studios, the show's producer, shouting "Shame, shame, shame" and "two-four-six-eight, Schlessinger is full of hate," to protest the debut episode, which was taped a few weeks ago.

Schlessinger, who has been roundly criticized for calling homosexuals "deviant" and "biological errors," chose to avoid the subject altogether on her first installment, dealing instead with a less-controversial theme: teens and drugs.

"What is to blame?" Schlessinger asked at the beginning of the show. "Whatever it is, I'm sick of it, I'm very worried, and I want it stopped."

Late in the hour, she explored a Texas high school's policy of mandatory drug testing. When her Website poll revealed that 44 percent of respondents were against such a program, she said, "I think you guys gotta think a little more about the moral obligation involved here."

Well, maybe the show's advertisers are thinking about their moral obligations. Bally Total Fitness withdrew its advertising from Schlessinger's show, becoming the latest in a long list of companies to shy away from the program since gay activists launched a campaign to discourage sponsors from advertising on her TV and radio programs.

Recognizable names advertising during Monday's show were few and far between. Spots for Scott bathroom tissue, Summer's Eve and a Brummel & Brown sandwich spread were interspersed among ads from national marketers that sell products through toll-free 800 telephone numbers.

"This is not the first time a controversial talk show debuted with mainstream advertisers staying out," Joe Mandese, editor of The Myers Report, an industry newsletter, told The New York Times. "But this is not a good sign at launch."

Still, the show's producers are sticking by the doctor. "We continue to believe Dr. Laura is an advertiser-friendly program offering an attractive demographic for national advertisers," Paramount's Joel Berman said in a statement.

Advertiser-friendly or not, critics found Schlessinger's kid-glove approach a far cry from her feisty radio personality. "A kinder, gentler (if no less resolute) Dr. Laura made her TV debut smartly--without making waves," the Associated Press said.

The New York Post was a bit more blunt: "Unless Dr. Laura's energy level picks up in subsequent shows, Paramount won't have a new Judge Judy on its hands, it'll have a new Joy Browne!"

---

Unwitting advertisers pull spots from Dr. Laura

Yahoo News
Wednesday September 13
By Melissa Grego
Reuters/Variety REUTERS
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000913/en/television-drlaura_2.html

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - At least four advertisers, including wireless provider Verizon, have asked not to be featured during future episodes of ``Dr. Laura'' after their spots were unwittingly run during the syndicated talk show's premiere.

Radio moralist Laura Schlessinger (news - web sites)'s television debut on Monday averaged a 2.0 rating/7 share in preliminary, weighted metered-market data, according to Nielsen.

Ads for Verizon Online DSL aired in a handful of markets during the premiere, but these were unauthorized, a Verizon spokesman said. And the company has asked not to be associated with the program in the future.

Legal practice Jacoby & Meyers Legal Network, Bally's Total Fitness and Closet World also were unaware that their station-wide media buys would mean their ads would be scheduled during ``Dr. Laura.'' Once the companies found out, they requested the spots be pulled from the show.

In a statement Tuesday, Verizon declared, ``Verizon is not now and has never been a sponsor of the 'Dr. Laura' program, nor has Verizon authorized that ads for our company's products be placed by local stations in the 'Dr. Laura' programs.''

Verizon spokesman Peter Thonis said that the company's ad buys require pre-approval of which programs feature the commercials.

Since Verizon sees the placement of DSL ads in the ``Dr. Laura'' show as a violation of the agreements with the stations involved, the company will refuse to pay for those ads and will cancel the current ad buy for the DSL product on those stations, Thonis said.

As a result of the ads for Verizon that aired during ``Dr. Laura,'' the company was included on a list of ``Dr. Laura'' sponsors posted on the Web site StopDrLaura.com, established by groups advocating an advertising boycott of the show.

StopDrLaura.com has been at the vanguard of gay activist groups outraged by Schlessinger's on-air radio commentary referring to homosexuality as ``deviant'' and a ``biological error.''

The ``Dr. Laura'' TV show, produced and distributed by the Paramount Television Group, is being broadcast primarily by stations CBS-owned or affiliated stations nationwide.

Jacoby & Meyers was another unwitting advertiser during ``Dr. Laura'' on KCBS in Los Angeles. The legal practice purchases ad time through Denver-based Network Affiliates, which arranges to have spots air during the day for a general audience.

Unlike Verizon, the company does not require prior approval of programs it advertises on. Upon finding out that the company's spot landed on ``Dr. Laura,'' Jacoby & Meyers VP Mindy Gandin said she asked her buyer to ensure that the company's ads do not air during future episodes of ``Dr. Laura.''

``My daughter is gay, and I'm just as upset as anyone that our ads ran during 'Dr. Laura,''' Gandin said.

John Severino, president of CBS Television Stations and general manager of KCBS, could not be reached for comment regarding the ads.

A Bally's spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday that the company also had made a decision to instruct stations not to air Bally's ads on ``Dr. Laura'' after an ad ran in Washington, D.C. as part of a stationwide buy.

While ``Dr. Laura'' was the highest-rated new syndicated series to premiere Monday, it was down 33 percent from its lead-in.

-------

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

1. FBI PROBES NMD FRAUD
From: "Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space" <globalnet@mindspring.com>

2. NMD: From the Local to the Global, A FORUM
From: "Frida Berrigan" <BerrigaF@newschool.edu>

3. Final revised letter to Oak Ridger
From: easlavin@aol.com

4. Check out WCS and BUSH/TX PEER Home Page
From: easlavin@aol.com

5. Sign NIRS Petition Opposing Mobile Chernobyl, Lobby NRC Now
From: "Bill Smirnow" <smirnowb@ix.netcom.com>

6. NMD TEST JANUARY
From: "Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space" <globalnet@mindspring.com>

7. NMD and N-Weapon items Sept 7-12
From: FoE Sydney - Nuclear Campaign <nonukes@foesyd.org.au>

8. Protests spread across Europe
From: ivan buchbinder <pentaske@memes.com>

9. Multi-Billion Pound Black Hole...... BNFL
From: ivan buchbinder <pentaske@memes.com>

10. NucNews 00/09/13 - Daybook; Presidential Candidates; Activist Announcements
From: Ellen Thomas <prop1@prop1.org>

11. Strickland hammers nuclear commission for inaction on USEC
From: "Vina Colley" <vcolley@earthlink.net>

12. ARMY TESTS TMD LASER
From: "Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space" <globalnet@mindspring.com>

13. OCT 7 ACTIONS UPDATE
From: "Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space" <globalnet@mindspring.com>

15. I-131 EXPOSED POPULATIONS ACROSS THE COUNTRY HARMED BY ERRORS AND OMISSIONS
From: Steve Wagner <hanforddownwinder@yahoo.com>

16. United Nations First Committee Actions
From: FoE Sydney - Nuclear Campaign <nonukes@foesyd.org.au>

17. Risks and Nuclear Waste
From: ivan buchbinder <pentaske@memes.com>

18. NucNews 00/09/14 - Daybook; Presidential Candidates; Activist Announcements
From: Ellen Thomas <prop1@prop1.org>

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

Message: 1
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 09:34:29 -0400
From: "Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space" <globalnet@mindspring.com>

FBI PROBES NMD FRAUD
FBI probing TRW for missile defense-related fraud
Yahoo
Monday September 11
By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON, Sept 11 (Reuters) - The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into charges that military contracting giant TRW Inc. committed fraud and sought to cover it up in the U.S. national missile defence programme, an FBI letter made public Monday showed.

As many as 53 House Democrats had urged the FBI to investigate the allegations, which have been used by critics to assail as unworkable the so-called ``hit-to-kill´´ technology central to the anti-missile shield.

The FBI's action was disclosed in a July 31 letter from Thomas Kubic, deputy assistant director of the criminal investigative division, to Representative Dennis Kucinich, Democrat of Ohio, whose office released it Monday.

``I have asked the FBI´s Washington field office, in coordination with the Office of Inspector General, Department of Defence, to review the allegations contained in your letter and the material prepared by Professor Postol to determine if there is a violation of federal law under the FBI´s jurisdiction,´´ Kubic wrote.

Kucinich, in a June 15 letter co-signed by 52 of his colleagues, had urged FBI Director Louis Freeh to check whether the Pentagon acted properly in classifying as secret allegations of missile defence-related fraud and coverup made by Theodore Postol, an arms expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

As part of a detailed critique he sent to the White House, Postol had included a declassified document shared with him by Nira Schwartz, a senior physicist at TRW in 1995 and 1996.

Schwartz has charged that Cleveland-based TRW falsified work in an effort to portray a ``kill vehicle´´ on which it had been working as more capable than it actually would have been.

In the end, Boeing Co., the prime integrator for the proposed system of radar stations, satellites and ground-based interceptors, turned to a rival ``kill vehicle´´ made by Raytheon Co.

``The American people need an independent investigation of this matter to determine if the well-documented and serious allegations of fraud in the National Missile Defence system are true, and if a coverup of that fraud has taken place,´´ the congressional letter had said.

TRW spokesman Jay McCaffrey said the company was ``still not aware of any investigation by the FBI related to the charges alleged by Nira Schwartz.´´

Schwartz claims TRW fired her when she protested about alleged efforts to fudge test-flight data to hide flaws in the system's ability to discern warheads from decoys. She is suing TRW in Los Angeles.

``We have been found by many government agencies to have acted appropriately and we´re confident that any new investigation will once again validate TRW´s work on this project,´´ McCaffrey said. Defence Week, the first to report the FBI action, quoted unnamed government officials as saying the FBI was looking not so much into whether Postol's letter had been improperly classified as whether Schwartz's claims against the company had merit.

The Defence Criminal Investigative Service concluded that Schwartz's allegations warranted further review but a Pentagon advisory board in late 1998 defended TRW's work.

Schwartz said she was thrilled by news that the FBI was investigating. ``There is no other word for it,´´ she said in a telephone interview from Torrance, California. ``It is beyond my ability to carry this load without the help of the government,´´ referring to her case against TRW, the Pentagon´s ninth biggest supplier last year.

The FBI declined comment, saying it stood by the text of its letter to Kucinich, who also declined further comment.

President Clinton said on Sept. 1 that he would leave it to his successor to decide whether to start building a missile shield. He noted that the interceptor missile had knocked dummy warheads out of the sky just once in three attempts.

Postol, who alleges that the Pentagon colluded with TRW to put together fraudulent test documents, said he was very pleased that the FBI was investigating.

``What I don´t know is whether any of this is criminal because I´m not a laywer,´´ he said in a telephone interview. ``What I do know is it should be.´´

The Pentagon's top test official, Philip Coyle, said in an Aug. 11 reply to a query that he had seen ``no evidence of impropriety in the conduct´´ of national missile defence testing.

Bruce K. Gagnon Coordinator Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space PO Box 90083 Gainesville, FL. 32607 (352) 337-9274 http://www.space4peace.org globalnet@mindspring.com

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

Message: 2
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 10:12:39 -0400
From: "Frida Berrigan" <BerrigaF@newschool.edu>

NMD: From the Local to the Global, A FORUM
ONE AND ALL ARE INVITED TO THIS FREE AND PUBLIC FORUM
NATIONAL MISSILE DEFENSE: FROM THE LOCAL TO THE GLOBAL

Saturday, September 16th 11 AM- 4 PM

Graduate Faculty Building, Swayduck Auditorium 65 Fifth Avenue (between 13th and 14th streets)

The NY Metro Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and the World Policy Institute are have brought together a great line up of speakers, experts in a wide range of fields addressing economic, legal, congressional, media and local organizing aspects of NMD.

Speakers will include: Lucy Webster, Economists Allied for Arms Reduction John Burroughs, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy Bill Hartung and Michelle Ciarrocca, World Policy Institute Stephen Young, Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers Karl Grossman, SUNY Professor Stephanie Fraser, WILPF NY Metro.

This event will explain the history, the present and the future of the Star Wars plans, including the plans for militarizing outer space (with the U.S. dominating the heavens in the 21st century like the British dominated the seas in the 19th century). This seminar promises to be informative and exciting.

WILPF NY Metro will be making a video documentary from the seminar, which will be given to Congress at the beginning of next year by a delegation of WILPF women and other peace activists. To join in the organizing for the delegation to visit Congress, contact the Metro office at 212.533.2125.

Please print and post the attached flier to spread the word!!!

Frida Berrigan Research Associate, World Policy Institute 66 Fifth Ave., 9th Floor New York, NY 10011 ph 212.229.5430 x112 fax 212.229.5579

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

Message: 3
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 11:28:59 EDT
From: easlavin@aol.com

Final revised letter to Oak Ridger
Are Sick Workers "Worth More Dead Than Alive" to DOE?

To the Oak Ridger:
Be on guard. DOE, U.S. Senator Fred Dalton Thompson et al. may compromise away Oak Ridge workers' and residents' legal rights over the next several weeks, enacting a bad joke, a "lowball" nuclear weapons worker compensation bill, through secret deal-making.

See Coalition for a Healthy Environment and Downwinders web sites: http://www.che-or.org/ http://www.downwinders.org/victims.html

DOE and its contractors have one agenda. They seek to:

1. limit DOE worker compensation to a pittance, not even a widow's mite;

2. deny compensation for chemical and heavy metal injuries, sick children, genetic damage and local residents (Downwinders);

3. limit compensation to a narrow list of specified diseases;

4. divide and conquer their victims (as they have always done) and silence public debate about DOE's wrongdoing;

5. empower rank-and-file DOE employees (not independent DOL judges or juries) to decide workers' compensation, with the possibility of secret settlements;

6. deny their many victims their constitutional and legal rights to have cases decided by independent juries and independent administrative law judges (rather than faceless DOE bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.).

7. deny full discovery and subpoena power to victims; and

8. deny victims payment of legal fees as under Black Lung (instead allowing contingency fees to be taken from already small compensation checks).

DOE's pushy advocates are in an awful hurry for Congress to hurry up and decide the issue right now, just as evidence arises of contaminated K-25 drinking water and dozens of previously unknown DOE sites (where workers were never protected, monitored, warned or studied, as documented by USA TODAY). Other reckless actions will no doubt also be publicly exposed. Is that the rush in passing a bad bill this year?

DOE cynically delayed delivery of its draft compensation bill until May 2000.

DOE now seeks to push it through Congress without scrutiny, when members are anxious to start campaigning. This is the old military power game in reverse ("wait" and then "hurry up"). DOE proposes to "monetize" the value of human lives ruined by DOE toxicants with a bribe of $100,000 for each worker, dead or alive. (Other proposals would pay $200,000). The Congressional Budget Office estimates the total cost of compensation at $3 billion. Enacting unjustly low compensation -- particularly without lifetime health care -- would be wrong -- an undeserved "bargain" for DOE and its contractors and a disaster for sick workers, residents and families. For decades, DOE and its contractors spent much more money fighting workers' righteous cases than it would cost to settle them. In contrast to the CBO's $3 billion estimate, DOE environmental cleanup is projected to cost $200 billion. $35.1 billion is spent on nuclear weapons each year. DOE's $100,000 per life figure is insulting in light of the fact that American juries often award more than $200,000 in personal injury and wrongful death cases (sometimes millions).

Are DOE workers' disabling diseases and deaths worth less than those of persons who are injured, maimed or killed by drunk drivers, doctors or manufacturers that are found negligent or reckless? Does DOE mean to say to sick workers what the villain said to George Bailey in the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life": "You're worth more dead than alive?" So it would seem. In fact, investigating the trade in human body parts, the Chicago Tribune reported on May 22, 2000:

"One body can yield more than 130 pieces of tissue once it is extracted, sterilized, cut up, packaged and sold. The total worth of all the usable tissue in a body is more than $230,000. Because not all the tissue from a single donor is usually taken, the average market yield per cadaver is closer to $80,000, industry executives say." http://chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/article/0,2669,ART-44908,FF.html

DOE's legislative manipulations are both transparent and deeply offensive to all who value human life, and to those who suffer and need lifetime benefits and medical care. Where did DOE ever come up with that goofy $100,000 figure? Why should DOE employees get to sit in judgment on DOE's own wrongs?

Why shouldn't the polluting DOE contractors pay for compensation, just as coal companies pay a per-ton tax to finance Black Lung benefits? Why should Lockheed Martin make $350 million from Oak Ridge, cause much human misery and then walk away, paying nothing in compensation? (Still no answers yet from Sen. Thompson and DOE.)

Ms. Susan Arnold Kaplan published four letters from August 11, 2000 to September 11, 2000. She heaped praise on DOE for supposedly coming clean. She called on sick workers to stop questioning and criticizing DOE, accusing them of "pummeling," "name-calling," "finger-pointing" and "attacks." She called for an immediate halt to studies of worker health effects. She opposes efforts to learn about the past, including "witch hunts" (investigations) of management actions (September 11) and more studies of sick workers. Why? Since "risk analysis" techniques are often used to support or defeat a toxic tort claim, this could deny workers and residents the proof they may one day need in court.

I do agree that workers and residents should help guide studies to make them meaningful, and to assure that appropriate medical treatments are developed and provided with full informed consent. See Sections 9, 11 & 16 of the proposed Nuclear Weapons Workers Atomic Veterans and Residents Compensation and Health Act, on Downwinders website, developed in consultation with workers and residents.

In her September 11, 2000 letter, Ms. Kaplan opines that I am motivated by "lucrative attorney's fees and/or fame" and says: "I notice by Mr. Slavin's address in St. Augustine, Fla., that he doesn't (sic) have to worry about being impacted by any collateral damage in this community." This is as unkind as it is untrue. I lived in Clinton from 1981 to 1983, when I left to start law school in Memphis. All told, I have spent a total of one of the past ten years in East Tennessee, helping workers. In my youth, as Editor of the Appalachian Observer weekly newspaper, I asked questions and published information never available in Oak Ridge before. I toured ORNL radioactive and toxic waste areas and walked along East Fork Poplar Creek before those places were nationally known. We won declassification of the Oak Ridge mercury losses from DOE on May 11, 1983. I have hiked, swam and gone boating in Anderson County. I reckon I have been exposed to the air, land and water polluted by DOE and have seen friends die from it. In 1992, pursuant to DOE ORO and DOL court orders, I walked into contaminated ORNL buildings (for videotaping to document working conditions for DOL litigation). Every time I stay or work in Oak Ridge, my rheumatoid arthritis is adversely affected by the toxicants.

From my nearly 20 years of experience in Anderson County, I know first-hand that DOE is no friend of Oak Ridge workers and residents, to whom it has lied so often.

DOE now admits toxic materials have killed workers. Yet DOE proposes only flummery. DOE's legislation is, at best, a Kafkaesque nuclear compensation bill that is defective by design -- long on rhetoric and short on fairness, with no medical benefits, no independent health clinics, no hearings, no Administrative Procedure Act rights, no independent Administrative Law Judges, no appeal rights, no judicial review and no Due Process. DOE's bad bill is a snare and a delusion, not Due Process. It should be rejected in favor of a fair bill, as attorney Gene Joyce suggested, modeled on Black Lung compensation legislation. In my opinion, Congress should also reform the whistleblower laws to provide genuine protection for all who speak out about environmental, safety and health problems.

DOE's bill divides workers from residents, children from parents, and fails to compensate any chemical and heavy metal injury victims. Congress should not pass a "Trojan Horse" bill -- "CONpensation" that offers little and helps few.

With kindest regards,

Edward A. Slavin, Jr. P.O. Box 3084 St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084 (904) 471-7023

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

Message: 4
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 20:15:04 EDT
From: easlavin@aol.com

Check out WCS and BUSH/TX PEER Home Page

WCS and Bush A HREF="http://www.txpeer.org/toxictour/wcs.html"
TX PEER A HREF="http://www.txpeer.org/"

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

Message: 5
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 21:10:45 -0400
From: "Bill Smirnow" <smirnowb@ix.netcom.com>

Sign NIRS Petition Opposing Mobile Chernobyl, Lobby NRC Now

-Bill Smirnow

Stop the Mobile Chernobyl! No Nuke Dumps on Native American Lands!

Nuclear Utilities' "Private Fuel Storage" Would Transport 40,000 Tons of High-Level Nuclear Waste through Dozens of States to Dump on the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians Reservation in Utah.

Make Your Opposition Known to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Before the Public Comment Period Ends September 21, 2000:

1. Submit Comments on the NRCs Draft Environmental Impact Statement

2. Sign NIRS petition opposing the Private Fuel Storage plan (go to NIRS web site http://www.nirs.org/roadsrails/skullvalleypetition.htm)

3. Print NIRS petition, get it filled out, and send it to us ASAP.

See the bullets below for a quick list of suggestions you can use to write your own comments. We need to flood NRC with as much opposition as possible in the next two weeks!

Further down youll find background information and longer explanations of suggested comments. Call Kevin Kamps at NIRS (202.328.0002) if you have questions, or would like a copy of the DEIS, its executive summary, NIRS petition, or any additional info.

Mail your comments before Sept. 21st to:

Mr. David Meyer Chief, Rules and Directives Branch Division of Freedom of Information and Publications Services Office of Administration Mail Stop T-6D-59 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, D.C. 20555-0001

You can also submit comments on-line at http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/NUREGS/SR1714/index.html The DEIS itself is also available at this web site.

SUGGESTED COMMENTS (see below for full length explanations of each of these points)

1. NRC should hold public hearings in all the transport corridor States that would be impacted by PFS member company shipments. NRC plans none.

2. NRC should hold public hearings in all the transport corridor States that would be impacted by NON-member utilities which would nonetheless ship high-level waste to PFS. NRC plans none.

3. NRC should extend the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) public comment deadline at least 60 days.

4. A single severe rail cask accident could cause 115 latent cancer fatalities and cost tens or hundreds of billions of dollars to clean up. NRCs DEIS is severely deficient in not publishing such impacts.

5. NRC's DEIS fails to calculate the ADDED risks from PFS's proposal to ship contaminated casks back across the entire country to the reactors of origin without first dealing with the leaks.

6. NRC's DEIS does not adequately identify the "routine" (even if there are no accidents) doses to the public from these transport casks (mobile x-ray machines that cannot be turned off) rolling down the railroad tracks through American communities.

7. NRC's DEIS fails to deal with the possibility that this "interim storage site" could become a de facto permanent open air dump for high-level nuclear waste.

8. There is no need for NRC to license an away-from reactor dry cask storage facility, when it already licenses at-reactor facilities using the exact same technology. To ship the wastes to Utah simply adds the risks of transportation, while doing nothing to improve protection of public health, safety, and the environment.

9. NRC's statement in the DEIS that PFS has no environmental justice impacts is absurd. The repeated attempts to dump forever deadly high-level atomic wastes on Native American lands is environmental racism, pure and simple.

10. The DEIS does not address the cumulative impacts of adding a high-level nuclear waste dump to Skull Valley, which is already surrounded by numerous toxic facilities.

BACKGROUND

Since 1994, grassroots anti-nuclear groups have stopped the Mobile Chernobyl in its tracks on Capitol Hill. If these bills had become law, unprecedented numbers of high-level nuclear waste shipments could already be rolling through 43 States to Nevada, for temporary storage at the Nevada nuclear weapons test site till they could be buried in the leaking hole in the ground at Yucca Mountain. Although the Yucca Mountain dump is still far from defeated, this long uphill battle -- against the tens of millions of dollars of nuclear utility campaign contributions to Congress, in direct lobbying on Capitol Hill, and for nationwide ad campaigns -- represents a hard-won and tremendous victory for the anti-nuclear movement.

Because they have not succeeded in shoving "interim storage" down the throats of the people of Nevada, the nuclear utilities have quietly worked on a contingency plan - to shove "interim storage" down the throats of the people of Utah. "Plan B," however, is now on the fast track. Spearheaded by a consortium of 8 nuclear utility companies, this "Private Fuel Storage" (PFS) proposal would ship 200 rail casks per year of irradiated nuclear fuel assemblies across dozens of States to Utah, starting as early as 2003. A total of 4,000 giant casks, containing 40,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste, would be "temporarily" dumped on the reservation land of the small, impoverished Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians west of Salt Lake City. The NRC's Atomic Safety Licensing Board hearings are already well underway. At the same time, the NRC published its Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on June 21st, allowing only 90 days for public comment on a voluminous document that they have made difficult to obtain. The present deadline for public comments on the NRC's DEIS for PFS is September 21st. Only three hearings, all in Utah, have been held by NRC. Not a single hearing has been planned in any of the dozens of States that would serve as transport corridors for shipments of tens of thousands of tons of deadly high-level nuclear waste to Utah.

The 8 PFS member nuclear utility companies are: Consolidated Edison of New York (Indian Point reactors); Genoa Fuel Tech of Wisconsin (Dairyland/LaCrosse reactor); GPU Nuclear (Oyster Creek, NJ and Three Mile Island, PA); American Electric Power (Cook reactors, MI); Northern States Power of Minnesota (Prairie Island and Monticello reactors); Southern California Edison (San Onofre reactors); Southern Nuclear Operating Company (Vogtle and Hatch reactors in GA; Farley plant in AL); Florida Power and Light (two reactors at Turkey Point, two at St.Lucie). Holtech International, the cask manufacturer based in Marlton, NJ just outside Philadelphia, stands to make a pretty penny on the deal as well, selling several thousands of its storage and transport casks to PFS for use in Skull Valley.

Targeting Native American lands for nuclear waste dumps is a long and shameful tradition of the nuclear power industry and its cohorts in government. A case study in blatant environmental racism, the Dept. of Energy's "Nuclear Waste Negotiator" approached dozens of Native American tribes from 1987 to 1994, offering big money if tribes would only agree to become the "interim storage" site for the nation's high-level nuclear waste. NIRS and many others joined with Mescalero Apache activist Rufina Marie Laws in the mid-1990's in the long fight to defeat the Nuclear Waste Negotiator's scheme to dump high-level wastes on the Mescalero Apache reservation in New Mexico.

A non-Native attorney in Salt Lake City, standing to earn a lucrative percentage himself by serving as legal counsel to such a deal, alerted the tribal council of the Skull Valley Goshutes to the Nuclear Waste Negotiator's existence in September, 1989. The three member Skull Valley tribal council bit the bait, and has never let go since. Once the Nuclear Waste Negotiator was phased out by Congress, the nuclear power industry itself picked up the reins, with secretive, private contract negotiations with Skull Valley tribal council chairman Leon Bear.

According to tribal member and dump opponent Sammy Black Bear, tribal council chairman Leon Bear signed the lease agreement with PFS without the agreement of a majority of the tribal membership; now that PFS money is already flowing to the tribal council, Chairman Bear allegedly is using it to bribe additional tribal members to sign onto the lease agreement. Dump supporters receive PFS money, dump opponents do not, despite the tribal council's responsibility to disperse all tribal monies equitably. Sammy Black Bear is lead plaintiff along with 21 fellow tribal members in a lawsuit against the Bureau of Indian Affairs for rubber stamping the lease agreement between the tribal council and PFS despite the lack of proper majority approval within the tribe.

Also according to Sammy Black Bear, about a third of the 120 tribal members - mostly members of Leon Bear's own extended family - support the dump project; about a third - led by Sammy Black Bear and tribal member Margene Bullcreek - adamantly oppose the dump; the remaining third have remained silent. Margene Bullcreek believes many more tribal members would express opposition, but fear harassment and reprisals. She herself has been threatened with termination from the tribe; her children's monthly income disbursements from the tribal council have been cut off; her water has been cut off; her house has been ransacked, and computer files stolen; she has been silenced from speaking out against the dump at tribal council meetings. Sammy Black Bear claims to have had "warning shots" fired at him and his children on two occasions. Passions run deep because Private Fuel Storage (PFS) is offering the tribal council tens of millions of dollars. Sammy Black Bear is also leading the effort to develop economic alternatives to deadly nuclear waste on the reservation.

The Governor of Utah, Michael Leavitt, has adamantly opposed PFS from the very start, creating a "State Office of High-Level Nuclear Waste Storage Opposition." A new organization, Citizens Opposed to Radioactive Waste in Utah, formed in July in response to the NRC's DEIS public hearings in Salt Lake City and Grantsville. This diverse group is thoroughly bipartisan, boasting prominent Utah citizens, retired and current elected officials from both sides of the political aisle, as well as grassroots activists. In addition to this groundswell of opposition within Utah, a nationwide coalition opposed to Private Fuel Storage and the Mobile Chernobyl it would launch is forming in transport corridor States across the country. Plans have begun for a national Day of Action to Stop PFS and the Mobile Chernobyl it would launch.

For more information on how you can take part in the growing opposition to PFS, please contact me. In the meantime, the first action everyone can take is to submit comments to the NRC on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement before the September 21st deadline. Please see below for ideas you can use to compose your own comments.

If you live along rail routes to Yucca Mountain, chances are PFS shipments could pass through your community as well (go to http://www.ymp.gov/timeline/eis/routes/routemaps.htm to see Dept. of Energy's own projected transport routes to Yucca Mtn.). Thus, another action you can take is to contact your Members of the U.S. House and Senate, urging them to contact the NRC and demand public hearings in your community and a corresponding extension to the public comment period. Get plugged through to your Representative and Senators by phoning the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

---Kevin Kamps Nuclear Waste Specialist Nuclear Information & Resource Service 1424 16th Street NW, Suite 404 Washington, D.C. 20036 Phone: (202) 328-0002 Fax: (202) 462-2183 E-mail: kevin@n... Web: www.nirs.org

NIRS' SUGGESTIONS FOR COMMENTS TO NRC ON THE PFS DEIS

Please use these ideas to compose your own comments, and submit them before the Sept. 21st deadline:

1. The NRC has held only three public hearings, all in Utah. What about all the other States through which the 4,000 containers of highly radioactive waste would be transported? Communities in 18 corridor States - Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Wyoming - would be subjected to shipments of high-level atomic waste from reactors belonging to PFS member utilities bound for Utah. In fact, the very large proportion of the PFS shipments that would pass through Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and Wyoming would mean that these States would be nearly as heavily impacted by transport as would be Salt Lake City itself, which has had TWO public hearings. Why have none of these other States received a hearing? (for maps showing projected transport routes from PFS member utility nuclear reactors to Skull Valley, UT contact Kevin Kamps)

2. In addition, as the NRC DEIS case study of a high-level atomic waste shipment from the Maine Yankee nuclear reactor shows - once PFS opens its doors to non-member nuclear utilities' wastes (for a fee), dozens of more States could suddenly find themselves subject to unprecedented numbers of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel shipments and the associated risks to health, property, and the environment. The NRC has not consulted with nor even notified the public and elected officials in these States about the DEIS on PFS. Moving 40,000 tons of high-level atomic waste - nearly all that currently exists in the U.S. - beginning as early as 2003 constitutes such a significant federal action that communities along transportation routes deserve hearings just as much as the citizens of Utah.

3. Given that copies of the DEIS were not even readily available in Utah until well over a month into the public comment period, and that transport corridor States have not yet even been notified by NRC about the DEIS on PFS, NRC should extend the public comment period at least 60 days.

4. The NRC in its DEIS has not even published the environmental and economic impacts from severe accidents involving rail shipments bound for PFS. Using the federal government's own "RADTRAN 4" computer model and assuming the accident would take place in a "low-density" urban setting such as Salt Lake City, Dr. Marvin Resnikoff of Radioactive Waste Management Associates has calculated that a severe PFS rail shipment accident releasing just a small fraction of the radioactive contents of a cask carrying 5-year-old cooled nuclear fuel (which is legal to ship under NRC regulations) would result in over 115 latent cancer fatalities to exposed individuals; the economic costs of emergency response, evacuation, interdiction and clean-up (as much as clean-up is even possible) could be between $14 billion and $24 billion. Using the government's "RADTRAN 5" model, with its more in-depth economic cost analysis, Dr. Resnikoff calculated that a severe rail accident in a more dense urban area could lead to over $300 billion in economic costs. All economic impacts over $7 billion become the liability of the American taxpayer, under the Price-Anderson Act. The NRC must calculate and publish the full economic and health impacts from a severe accident in both urban and rural settings for all the projected transport routes. Full health impacts would include not only latent cancer fatalities, but non-fatal cancers, birth defects, genetic damage, lowered immunity, and other diseases. Again using conservative government models, Dr. Resnikoff predicts that 25 transport accidents with fully loaded casks bound for Skull Valley can be expected - many of them minor, but perhaps some severe.

5. Espousing a "Start Clean, Stay Clean" philosophy, PFS has no plan to build a "spent" fuel pool nor a hot cell for dealing with contaminated or defective casks at its "interim storage site" in Utah. The PFS proposal is to "return to sender" any problem casks, shipping the fully loaded containers back to the nuclear reactor from which they came. Contaminated casks are a very real issue: dozens of contamination incidents have occurred in the U.S. already, and innumerable more have occurred in Europe and Japan. Again using NRC's own case study of a shipment from Maine Yankee nuclear reactor to PFS, a single shipment of irradiated fuel could be sent to Utah. If found to be "unclean," it could then be shipped all the way back to Maine. Once "cleaned" there, it could be shipped back to Utah. Given the added distance shipped, this would increase transport risks threefold. Defective or contaminated casks would also represent higher risks than "perfect" casks. NRC's DEIS has not taken any of this into consideration. NRC has also not considered that rail cars with three axles (which PFS proposes to use because of the extremely heavy weight of its transport casks) have a higher accident rate than the standard two-axle rail cars.

6. NRC's DEIS has done a poor job of calculating radiation doses to the public from even "incident-free" transports. To completely contain all the radiation emanating from the waste would require so much dense shielding material such as lead that the container would be too heavy to transport. Thus, the rail shipment casks would be like mobile x-ray machines that cannot be turned off rolling down the tracks exposing everyone nearby to gamma and neutron radiation. For instance, a nearly 50 mile long stretch of Interstate 15 in Utah closely parallels the proposed rail route to Skull Valley, hugging the tracks to within a very short distance. A car driving next to a shipment of high-level waste could conceivably travel next to the "mobile x-ray machine that can't be turned off" for a full hour. How many other places across the country do the tracks hug the highways, or pass close by residential neighborhoods or business districts? The NRC does not address such specific questions about public exposures in its DEIS.

7. PFS and NRC call the proposed dump an "interim storage site" for high-level atomic waste - if one can call 40 years "temporary". But what if the Yucca Mountain, Nevada national permanent repository fails to open? At a number of points in the DEIS, NRC names Yucca Mtn. as the permanent dump, as if the decision has already been made. This is a shameful betrayal of NRC's promise to the people of Nevada that it would not license Yucca Mtn. until due process and scientific soundness were completely achieved and confirmed by a rigorous licensing regimen. The Dept. of Energy has not even completed its site characterization process at Yucca Mtn. - NRC's licensing process is still many years away, but it seems NRC has already given Yucca Mtn. the green light! Even if NRC were to license Yucca Mtn. despite its severe scientific shortcomings, its 63,000 metric ton capacity for commercial high-level waste cannot contain the 86,000 tons that are projected to exist in the U.S. by the year 2030. The excess wastes might very well remain in Utah - sitting out in the open under the sun, snow and rain - because there is no place else to take them.

8. There is absolutely no need for the PFS facility in Utah. Its proposed dry cask storage plan is the very same technology already in use at more than a dozen nuclear power plants across the U.S. The NRC has licensed at-reactor dry cask storage for up to 100 years. So what's with the rush to Skull Valley, UT with all the added transportation risks? It is true that dry casks already in use at reactors have suffered from early degradation and manufacturing defects. This is all the more reason to put the brakes on PFS - such problems with zero mile per hour, stationary storage casks at reactors are much less dangerous than similar problems with 70 mph transport casks traveling the rails through American communities. NRC regulations must be changed so that the public has a meaningful voice in at-reactor dry cask storage decisions, and so that dry casks at reactors are manufactured, used, and maintained to lower the inherent dangers as much as possible. In addition, the longer high-level wastes are allowed to cool down at the reactors where they presently are, the more they will radioactively decay and the less dangerous they will be to transport in the future, if and when scientifically sound means for off-site storage are found in the future.

9. NRC's DEIS states that there would be small impacts on environmental justice from the proposed PFS, that "there are no disproportionately high and adverse impacts on low income or minority populations," and that members of the Skull Valley Band would benefit from the PFS lease payments and employment. However, tribal chairman Leon Bear has already restricted PFS monies from traditional tribal members who oppose the dump. Given the pattern of targeting Native American tribes for high-level nuclear waste dumps, and the centuries of genocidal treatment of the Goshutes by white settlers, the State and federal governments, it is scandalous, shameful and absurd that NRC claim that dumping the entire current stockpile of high-level wastes on this reservation does not impact on environmental justice. PFS represents blatant environmental racism, irregardless of the lease payments to the tribal council. As Serpent River First Nation environmentalist Keith Lewis has said, looking at the toxic aftermath of 50 years of uranium mining on his people's Ontario reservation, "There is nothing moral about tempting a starving man with money." Utahns have also already suffered for decades as downwinders from nuclear weapons tests in Nevada. Decision-makers in Washington, D.C. at NRC's predecessor agency, the Atomic Energy Commission, found it expedient to inflict radiological health damage on the expendable, "low-use segments of the population" in predominantly rural, Mormon Utah. NRC's finding of no environmental justice impact from PFS adds insult to injury.

10. The reservation in Skull Valley, the tiny patch of land still left to the Goshutes from their once vast territory, is already surrounded by numerous toxic facilities such as U.S. Army nerve gas and chemical weapons incinerators, the Envirocare "low level" radioactive waste dump, a U.S. military biological weapons proving ground and bombing range, and a magnesium factory whose hydrochloric acid emissions make it one of the single worst air polluters in the country. NRC has not addressed the cumulative impacts upon the health of the Skull Valley Goshutes of adding a high-level nuclear waste dump on top of all these toxic facilities already spewing poisons into the air they breath. For the Skull Valley Goshutes, radioactivity would be the modern day small pox blanket.

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Message: 6
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 21:22:57 -0400
From: "Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space" <globalnet@mindspring.com>

NMD TEST JANUARY

Bruce,

The Baltimore Emergency Response Network [BERN] is calling for a demonstration at 12 noon on Route 29 and Johns Hopkins Road on Saturday, October 7. This is the highway near Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, which received 400 million from the Pentagon in FY 1999. The APL was #39 on the Pentagon's list of TOP 100 contractors.

Call Max at 410-323-7200 or 410-377-7987 or email mobuszewski@afsc.org to join us or to get more information.

Kagiso,

Max

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Message: 8
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 00:44:33 -0700
From: ivan buchbinder <pentaske@memes.com>

Protests spread across Europe

Y'all, We here in the ol US of A are still lulled by helplessness! What a disenfranchised people WE are.... or are the American people a sleeping giant? Later

http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000118613908976&rtmo=wAKitfib&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/00/9/13/wpet13.html

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Message: 9
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 01:08:38 -0700
From: ivan buchbinder <pentaske@memes.com>

Multi-Billion Pound Black Hole...... BNFL

Y'all, Here is an interesting scenario.... don't cha think?
"BNFL now stands as one of the costliest management fiascos in British history"
And the DOE hired them to work at Hanford...... Hmmmmmm.

Later http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/Environment/2000-09/sellafield100900.shtml

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Message: 10
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 07:56:54 -0400
From: Ellen Thomas <prop1@prop1.org>

NucNews 00/09/13 - Daybook; Presidential Candidates; Activist Announcements

[NucNews archives are posted through September 5, 2000 - http://prop1.org/nucnews/briefslv.htm.]

Important! -- Today, 6 p.m., come help prepare for the pending arrival of the Global Peace Walk in Washington, D.C. Please COME to the planning meeting at the Gray Panthers' office this evening at 6 p.m., 711 G St NW, basement. For details, contact Crispin Clarke <mailto:GPZONE2000@aol.com>. Walk URL: http://www.globalpeacenow.org

Washington Times Daybook, September 13, 2000, Agence France Presse http://www.washtimes.com/national/daybook-2000913222442.htm

10 a.m. - House Government Reform national security, veterans affairs and international relations subcommittee holds hearing to examine the status of negotiations to develop an enforcement protocol to the Biological Weapons Convention prohibiting the development, production and stockpiling of such weapons. Location: 2154 Rayburn House Office Building. Contact: 202/225-5074.

2 p.m. - House Science space and aeronautics subcommittee holds hearing, "The State of NASA's Space Science Enterprise." Location: 2318 Rayburn House Office Building. Contact: 202/225-6371.

Global privacy summit - all day - Privacy Council, Privista and the Roosevelt Group present "The Global Privacy Summit." The opening keynote speaker is Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican. The luncheon speakers are Reps. James P. Moran, Virginia Democrat, and Asa Hutchinson, Arkansas Republican. Location: Omni Shoreham Hotel, 2500 Calvert St. NW. Contact: 703/683-5004, Ext. 107.

Indonesia discussion - 12:30 p.m. - The Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies hosts a discussion on the current foreign policy of the government of Indonesia. The speaker is Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Alwi Shibab. Location: Kenney Auditorium, Nitze Building, 1740 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Contact: 202/663-5626.

Land-mine detector news conference - 1:30 p.m. - Rep. Ron Klink, Pennsylvania Democrat, hosts a news conference to demonstrate a new portable land mine detector that will revolutionize land-mine detection technology. Officials from Loch Harris participate. Location: Capitol, House Triangle. Contact: 202/225-2565.

-- PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES --

- George W. Bush - 4:30 p.m. - Victory 2000 Rally, Asian Garden, Market, 9200 Bolsa Avenue, Westminster, California 6:30 p.m. - California Republican Party Reception, Hyatt Regency Irvine, 17900 Jamboree road, Irvine, California, (949) 975-1234, Salons C, D, and E

- Al Gore - this week Wednesday, Sept 13 - 4:00 pm - Rally welcoming Vice President Gore and Senator Lieberman to Boston, Rose Kennedy Garden at Christopher Columbus Park (Next to the Marriott Long Wharf on Atlantic Ave.) Tickets to preferred standing area are available Wednesday 9/13/00, 9 am to 3 pm, Massachusetts Democratic Party, 129 Portland St., 3rd fl (North Station area, one block from the Fleet Center), Boston, MA 02114 8:30 PM - MANCHESTER, NH: City Hall Plaza, Corner of Elm and Hanover in Downtown Manchester - 603-225-6699 or send email to mailto:democrat@ici.net

Thursday, Sept. 14 - Watch Al Gore on the David Letterman show

- Ralph Nader this week

Wednesday, Sept 13 - Los Angeles , CA 6:00 - 8:00 PM - Fundraising Reception with Ralph, Home of Carol and Frank Biondi,110 North Rockingham Avenue, Los Angeles, CA mailto:darci@votenader.org 8:00 PM - Nader Speech at University of Southern, California, Bovard Auditorium, doors open at 7:30 PM, Campus Contacts: Minta Ershaghi, 310-245-0255 and Todd Chretien, 510-333-4604

Thursday, Sept 14 - San Francisco and San Jose CA 2:00 PM - Nader Speech at San Francisco State University, McKenna Theatre Campus; Contacts: Leticia Arellano, 415-346-8418 and Todd Chretien, 510-333-4604 7 PM - Nader Speech at San Jose State University, Morris Dailey Auditorium; Campus Contacts: Dale Weaver, 408-504-5504 and Todd Chretien, 510-333-4604

[As I write this, the TV news is announcing that the Bush campaign included a subliminal "RATS" in its latest anti-Gore message, so I burst into laughter when I simultaneously read that Lynn Cheney will testify today in the Senate about "HOW THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY MARKETS VIOLENCE TO CHILDREN." Mrs. Cheney is quoted as saying, "The time has long passed when we can shrug off violence in the entertainment industry by saying it has no effect. It debases and degrades the culture our children are growing up in and the leaders of the entertainment industry have to face up to that and understand their responsibilities." Amen, and I hope Bush catches on. et]

-- ANNOUNCEMENTS --

- Report from Sydney (September 12, 2000) by Linda Gale, Australian Peace Committee (SA Branch) Inc., Web: www.peacecourier.com - mailto:r-grayle@msn.com.au

Well, I think I've been living in a parallel universe, because when I got home last night and watched the television news, I learned that the peaceful protest I'd attended for most of the day was in fact the scene of "mounting violence" as the "protest got out of hand". Strike me pink! Could this possibly be the same S11 protest that I'd been at?

Yes and no. The clashes between police and protesters did happen. In every case, the police charged the demonstrators with little or no warning, using force as a first option. Presumably they had decided that a warning to the crowd would more likely have led to the boosting of numbers at the pressure points rather than an orderly dispersal of the crowd. I think this was a fair assumption. Does it justify charging a crowd in a surprise attack? It seems that depends who you ask.... For those whose sisters, daughters, sons, relatives are there, don't worry. People are being sensible. There is lots of solidarity and support to spare. And there are many, many, many, many more people there than you'll see in the brief snatches of "violence" on TV tonight, all going about a peaceful protest. [Am I the only one who sees the similarities in training, tactics, and attitudes among police and press in Seattle, Toronto, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and now Sydney.....? Full report will be posted in NucNews archives under September 11th, "Activists' News." et]

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Message: 11
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 10:10:17 -0700
From: "Vina Colley" <vcolley@earthlink.net>

Strickland hammers nuclear commission for inaction on USEC
The Columbus Dispatch
Wednesday, September 13, 2000
Jonathan Riskind Dispatch Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- A federal review of USEC's financial condition has painted a bleak picture of the privatized federal corporation's prospects for long-term survival, Rep. Ted Strickland said yesterday.

But the Lucasville Democrat said he's angry that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has decided against taking any action against the company that runs southern Ohio's soon-to- be-closed uranium-enrichment plant.

Strickland said a report by the commission suggests there are more scenarios where USEC is buried in a sea of red ink over the next few years than where USEC continues in its role as the country's sole producer of enriched uranium.

"This analysis lays out clearly that this industry is going down the tubes,'' he said.

Strickland says the report, not yet released publicly but outlined for lawmakers and their staffs in Capitol Hill briefings this week, is fodder for his contention that USEC should be taken back by the federal government.

A USEC spokesman said since the company has not seen the report, it could not comment. Spokesman Charles Yulish said a speech given last week by William H. Timbers, USEC president and chief executive officer, rebutted claims that the company is failing financially.

"The doom-and-gloom scenarios about USEC's prospects are greatly exaggerated,'' Timbers said in the speech at a conference on international nuclear-materials policy in Virginia.

"USEC certainly has taken its hits . . . (but) we are dealing with and resolving these problems as only a private-sector company is equipped to do -- a company that is still the global market leader with substantial cash flows and modest debt.''

USEC, formerly United States Enrichment Corp., runs the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio, and a sister facility in Paducah, Ky. The enriched uranium the plants produce is used as fuel for the nuclear-power plants that supply about 20 percent of the country's electricity.

USEC is shutting down the Piketon plant in June as part of cost- cutting efforts, and some critics have questioned whether it eventually will only broker material it buys from Russia and stop being a domestic producer at all.

"This confirms much of what I have been warning about,'' Strickland said of the commission's report. "The only way they (USEC) can make money is to become a broker of Russian (material) and cease operations.''

There isn't much chance of action this year on Strickland's proposal to re-federalize USEC, and the legislation's prospects next year in a new Congress and under a new president also are uncertain. However, Strickland said he hopes Congress will pass legislation next year preventing Piketon from closing its doors until Paducah has been certified as able to operate successfully.

A regulatory commission spokeswoman declined comment yesterday.

But a letter from commission Chairman Richard A. Meserve to Virginia Republican Tom Bliley, chairman of the House Commerce Committee, said a requirement for USEC to remain a "reliable and economical domestic source of enrichment services'' is not violated by USEC's financial condition.

That requirement pertained mainly to USEC not being bought out by a foreign entity, not to the company's ability to manufacture its product, Meserve said in the letter dated Monday and obtained by The Dispatch.

In any case, if the commission yanked USEC's license for not being financially sound, that would leave the country without a domestic source of enriched uranium, Meserve said.

"We do not believe that any further NRC study of the USEC situation is justified, particularly in view of the fact that (the) NRC is limited in the action it can take to address the maintenance of domestic enrichment services,'' Meserve said.

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Message: 12
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 12:34:06 -0400
From: "Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space" <globalnet@mindspring.com>

ARMY TESTS TMD LASER
September 13, 2000
The Huntsville Times
By SHELBY G. SPIRES
Times Aerospace Writer

Army aims to refine new laser in tests Huntsville-managed weapon shooting at rockets at White Sands

HUNTSVILLE, AL.- Tests this week in New Mexico will allow scientists to further refine a Huntsville-managed laser weapon designed to shoot down artillery rockets.

The Tactical High Energy Laser, or THEL, is undergoing several tests a day at White Sands Missile Range. The tests are designed to further develop the laser system's capability to detect and shoot down multiple-launched artillery rockets.

The $200 million weapons system is managed by the Space and Missile Defense Command in Huntsville, and built for the Army by Cleveland-based TRW Inc. Space and Lasers Program Division. Space & Technology In one test Monday against a set of rockets, the laser shot down one and tracked and shot the second, but didn't destroy it. In a second test, THEL tracked one rocket in a two-rocket tracking test, but failed to track the second. Engineers were working to aim the laser as part of refining the tracking system.

''It's a testing process. They will be out there at White Sands all week shooting at rockets,'' said Marco Morales, an SMDC spokesman. THEL's challenge is to track several rockets at the same time. Scientists are working to refine the aim of the laser, building upon lessons learned by THEL engineers during two tests in June and August. This summer marked a series of successes for the 4-year-old THEL program. On June 6, THEL shot down a single rocket, and on Aug. 28 the demonstrator successfully shot down two Russian-made Katyusha rockets launched in succession. Those tests marked the first time a laser had been used to destroy a rocket in flight.

THEL uses a laser beam to heat the incoming enemy rockets until they explode. It is considered a medium-range, missile defense weapon. THEL is being funded jointly by the United States and Israel, with the Israeli interest focused on protecting its northern border from rocket attacks by Islamic fundamentalist groups. The Army is using THEL as a test bed to prove ground-based, laser missile defense weapons. THEL has a range of about 12 miles and costs about $3,000 per destroyed rocket to use, according to SMDC. Several more tests on the system will be conducted over the coming days, Morales said. The testing program may be extended.

Bruce K. Gagnon Coordinator Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space PO Box 90083 Gainesville, FL. 32607 (352) 337-9274 http://www.space4peace.org globalnet@mindspring.com

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Message: 13
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 14:01:56 -0400
From: "Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space" <globalnet@mindspring.com>

OCT 7 ACTIONS UPDATE
COAST TO COAST AND AROUND THE WORLD
OCTOBER 7 ACTIONS TO STOP MILITARIZATION OF SPACE STILL GROWING

The list of demonstration sites for the "International Day of Protest to Stop the Militarization of Space" is getting larger each day as we move closer to October 7. And there are still more events being organized at this moment!

Actions are planned at key U.S. Space Command bases, U.S. spy satellite installations, aerospace industry corporations, federal buildings, U.S. Embassies & Consulates, and in parks and downtown centers around the world. In one city, an all day space video showing will be held on cable TV.

When we begin to act together, people from different organizations -- people in different nations, we help create a shift in public thinking and global consciousness.

There is much to be done to stop the nuclearization and weaponization of space. We have to keep learning, sharing information, teaching others, protesting and demanding that the global political system keep space for peace. There can be no half measures, no compromises on the issue of moving the arms race into the heavens. We must oppose all research, development, testing, and deployment of space-based weapons. We must support an international ban on weapons in space. The resources of the world cannot be squandered on Star Wars.

The current October 7 action list is below:
* Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD)
* Asheville, NC (Downtown at Vance monument)
* Baku, Azerbaijan
* Bathe, Maine (Aegis destroyer construction)
* Beale AFB, CA (Key radar facility)
* Brookfield, CT
* Bucharest, Romania (American Embassy)
* Cambridge, England
* Cape Canaveral AFS, FL (Key launch facility)
* Chicago, IL (Kluzynski Federal Building)
* Colorado Springs, CO. (Space Command HQ)
* Edwards AFB, CA. (Key flight testing facility)
* Flic en Flac, Mauritius
* Fort Bragg, CA
* France
* Fylingdales, England (Key radar facility)
* Great Neck, NY (Grace Avenue Park)
* Hartford, CT (United Technologies HQ)
* Holland, MI
* Kalamazoo, MI
* Kathmandu, Nepal (U.S. Embassy)
* Kirtland AFB, NM (Key laser development center)
* Leicester, England
* London, England (U.S. Embassy)
* Los Angeles AFB, CA (Space-based laser directorate)
* Madison, WI
* Menwith Hill, England (Key radar facility)
* Nevada Test Site (Nuclear test site)
* New York, N.Y.
* Northampton, MA
* Pathanamthitta, India
* Penn State University
* Schwaebisch Gmuend (Germany)
* Seoul, Korea (TMD deployment sites)
* Stockton, CA
* St. Paul, MN (Lockheed Martin)
* Sydney, Australia (TMD testing expected in western Australia)
* Toronto, Canada (Oct 14 at U.S. Consulate)
* Tucson, AZ (Raytheon)
* Valley Forge, PA. (Lockheed Martin)
* Vandenberg AFB, CA (Key launch facility)
* Vancouver, Canada
* White House, Washington DC

October 7 Actions Int'l Sponsors:
* Abolition 2000
* Arab Coordination Center of NGO's (Egypt)
* Azerbaijan Women & Development Center
* Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (UK)
* Centre for Community Development & Environmental Research (Nepal)
* Civil Network for a Peaceful Korea (Seoul)
* Earth First Journal
* Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice
* Global Peace Walk 2000
* Grandmothers for Peace Int'l (Elk Grove, CA)
* Great Neck SANE/Peace Action (NY)
* Int'l Network on Disarmament & Globilization
* Le Mouvement de la Paix (France)
* LIFPL (Paris)
* Mauritius Action for Disarmament & Peace
* Mendocino Nuclear Peace Action Group (CA)
* Movement for Life & Peace (Buenos Aires)
* Norwegian Peace Alliance
* Nukewatch
* PACE (Canton, CT)
* Pacific Campaign for Disarmament & Security (Japan)
* Pacific Concerns Resource Centre (Fiji)
* Pax Christi Australia
* Pax Christi Florida
* Pax Christi USA
* Peace Action
* People for Nuclear Disarmament (Australia)
* Polk County Citizens for Peace & Justice (Lakeland, FL.)
* The Progressive
* U.S. Peace Council
* War Resisters League
* WILPF (Asheville, NC)
* WILPF (Canada Section)
* WILPF Int'l Secretariat (Geneva)

Please let us know if your group would like to be listed as an October 7 sponsor and where you will hold a local action on that date.

October 7 events are being held in collaboration with the War Resisters League's "Day Without the Pentagon" on October 14-16

Bruce K. Gagnon Coordinator Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space PO Box 90083 Gainesville, FL. 32607 (352) 337-9274 http://www.space4peace.org globalnet@mindspring.com

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Message: 15
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000
From: Steve Wagner <hanforddownwinder@yahoo.com>

I-131 EXPOSED POPULATIONS ACROSS THE COUNTRY HARMED BY ERRORS AND OMISSIONS IN ORHASP FINAL REPORT

September 13, 2000

Dear Mr. Voilleque, Dr. Moore, and Mr. Lipford,

As the primary author of this letter, allow me to introduce myself. I am a person who was born and raised in Richland, Washington, the community which borders on the Hanford nuclear weapons facility where plutonium was produced to trigger the atomic bombs detonated at Alamogordo, NM and then at Nagasaki, Japan in August of l945. The co-signers on this letter are members of I-131 exposed populations, exposed workers from within the DOE complex, and other citizens concerned about the welfare and basic human rights of multiply exposed populations.

This letter focuses upon the public's need and right to understand the full extent of their exposures to I-131 and other fallout contaminants and the health implications of these exposures. Allow me to provide a bit more background on why I am so concerned about the I-131 combined exposures at Oak Ridge. As you know, approximately 900,000 curies of I-131 were released from the Hanford facility during its years of plutonium production, and I was born and raised in the midst of the period of these releases.

As you are well aware, the thyroid uptakes radioiodine, which can have the result of thyroid disease or thyroid cancer. Childhood exposures result in almost twenty times the exposure of that received by adults, because the tiny, developing thyroid of an infant and child absorbs virtually all of the radioiodine over its decay time, delivering thereby a much larger dose than that received by an adult.

To make a long and very sad story short, I have developed autoimmune thyroiditis, my father (a nuclear engineer at Hanford) died from aggressive papillary thyroid cancer, and my mother developed both hypothyroidism and hyperparathyroidism prior to her death from an aggressive form of malignant melanoma last year. There is no history of thyroid disease in my extended family other than in the three of us who lived in the Hanford downwind area. I'm not drawing causal link conclusions here, I'm just stating the facts. Sometimes, the facts speak for themselves.

Over the last 14 years, I have volunteered a significant part of my life to Hanford-related health matters. In l996, those of us who are members of the Hanford Health Effects Subcommittee got to know Dr Hoffman, when he served as a member of the group of experts brought in by ATSDR to advise the agency on issues pertaining to the Hanford I-131 Medical Monitoring Program, then under development. My fellow public representatives and I have been consistently impressed by the forthrightness and honesty of Dr Hoffman and his firm, SENES Oak Ridge, which is reflected in their work. Their work in several important contexts on Hanford dose reconstruction and risk assessment has been thorough, honest, and clearly communicated to the public.

In this age of electronic communications, communities around the country impacted by combined I-131 releases are tied together, and very much aware of situations encountered by other exposed populations, particularly when the issues at hand are issues of shared importance to these communities. Multiple exposure sources of I-131 and the health risks accompanying those combined releases is a particularly important focus for the communities around Hanford, INEEL, Savannah River, and Oak Ridge. Radioiodine is also a very important radionuclide due to its release in significant quantities within Nevada Test Site fallout.

It is for this reason that the assessment of combined exposures and health risk from I-131 at Oak Ridge via the Oak Ridge Health Studies, with which you have had direct involvement, is receiving attention from exposed populations and others across the country. The information contained in the final ORHASP report was to address, as a significant component of the report, the health impacts of exposures to I-131 received by the communities surrounding Oak Ridge for the period 1944-56. Those exposures include exposure to the I-131 contained in NTS fallout.

Because of the direct bearing of the information contained in the final ORHASP report upon the assessment of exposure health outcome to other multiply I-131 exposed communities, it is essential that those of us like-exposed in other areas of the country oversee this process and request full and complete information on the potential I-131 exposures and health outcomes experienced by Oak Ridge communities.

This focus from other parts of the country upon the final ORHASP report is truly reminiscent of the situation in January of last year, when the draft Hanford Thyroid Disease Study of I-131 exposure health outcomes overstated its negative findings, and twenty-two citizen groups from around the country requested that the National Academies of Science conduct an extended assessment of the true statistical power and other aspects of this study. The implications of this study, which was later found by the NAS to be inconclusive at best, were of great import to all I-131 exposed populations around the country. The HTDS and its overstated conclusions became a unified focus of exposed populations around the country, just as the ORHASP final report, and the information it should present to exposed populations, is now a key concern.

We are aware of some very serious errors of fact and omissions of information within the final ORHASP report, which are of great significance to understanding the true health impacts of combined Oak Ridge plus NTS fallout I-131 exposures. We have done some detailed research into the facts of this situation, to assure that our understanding of the facts is accurate. We are now confident that our understanding accurately reflects what has occurred. We have described our concerns (see below) as members of I-131 multiply exposed populations and we have, as well, delineated the corrective action merited by these concerns.

I. UNCORRECTED INACCURACIES IN I-131 RELEASE AMOUNTS:

The task leader on the I-131 dose reconstruction component of the Oak Ridge health studies, SENES Oak Ridge, in March 25, l999, informed ChemRisk, ORHASP and the State of TN (Mr Patrick Lipford) in writing about potential deficiencies in the estimates of I-131 released from the RaLa operation at Oak Ridge. That letter from SENES Oak Ridge addressed the fact that the November l998 reconstructions of the total amount of I-131 released from the RaLa operations at X-10 were underestimated due to an overestimate of the efficiency of the caustic scrubber, particularly when the scrubber was operated with water rather than NaOH.

That correspondence from SENES has never been answered and no mention of these concerns appear in the final ORHASP report. Not only is this lack of response to this important correspondence highly unprofessional, importantly, it also impacts directly the estimated doses and health risk which will be provided to I-131 exposed populations living in the downwind area of Oak Ridge. That is wrong, and it is a wrong wrought upon all of us who have been exposed to I-131 and the other biologically significant radionuclides from individual AEC sites and from NTS and global fallout.

CORRECTIVE ACTION: The correspondence in question must be answered immediately and fully by ORHASP panel members and the ORHASP Chair, and by the State of TN.

It is our understanding that these inaccuracies, which have not been dealt with nor even mentioned in the final ORHASP report, may well have caused a large overestimate of the amount of I-131 released from a l954 accident at the facility, and extreme underestimation of the chronic amounts of I-131 released during routine operations. This, in turn, directly impacts the accuracy of the estimations of dose and health risk received by exposed members of the population, which in turn, can distort significantly the assessment of the health impact on Oak Ridge communities of the operations at Oak Ridge.

The population surrounding Oak Ridge has the right to public discussion of release amounts, examination of why this information was not included in the final ORHASP report, and appropriate corrective action.

II. SUGGESTIVE EVIDENCE OF INCREASED INCIDENCE OF THYROID CANCER IN COUNTIES SURROUNDING OAK RIDGE HAS BEEN SUPPRESSED:

It is very very significant to us, as members of I-131 exposed populations, that the discussion about indications in the State's disease registry of l988 to l995 of an excess incidence of thyroid cancer in counties bordering Oak Ridge, consistent with the overall findings for I-131 exposures from Oak Ridge (X-10) releases, was deleted from the extended summary of the final SENES Oak Ridge report of November l998 and not mentioned in the final ORHASP report of December 1999 and presented to the public in January of this year.

This is very important evidence of a possible significant health impact from Oak Ridge communities exposure to X-10 I-131 in combination with Nevada Test

Site fallout containing I-131. What are the grounds for removal of this crucial exposure health information from the final report?

CORRECTIVE ACTION: The failure to mention, discuss or follow-up on this information, essential to understanding the I-131 exposure health outcomes to Oak Ridge residents, has not been justified in any way. This has all the appearances of an attempt by those who redacted this information from the extended summary of the original final report of November l998, to suppress exposure health evidence relating to the community of Oak Ridge. This, again, is not just a violation of the right to know of exposed populations at Oak Ridge, it is a violation of the right of the public to availability of any evidence which pertains to the potential health impacts of certain estimated exposure levels of I-131. What has been suppressed at Oak Ridge impacts I-131 exposed populations throughout the nation.

We hereby request that Mr Voilleque, as Chair of the ORHASP, State of TN representatives to the Oak Ridge dose reconstruction, and panel members of the ORHASP, explain in a public forum why this crucial evidence was not discussed or mentioned in the final ORHASP report. It is our understanding that this situation was again documented in the memorandum sent to the ORHASP by SENES Oak Ridge, Inc on March 25, l999, which in turn has not ever received a written response. What exactly is the justification for suppressing this crucial evidence of potential health impact of I-131 exposures? Corrective action must be taken.

III. INFORMATION ON AUTOIMMUNE THYROIDITIS INDUCED BY COMBINED I-131 EXPOSURES NOT INCLUDED IN THE FINAL ORHASP REPORT:

The I-131 exposures received by communities surrounding the Oak Ridge facility were not just exposures to I-131 from Oak Ridge, but occurred in combination with exposures to I-131 contained in Nevada Test Site fallout which moved over the area during the same period, in addition to exposure to global fallout containing I-131. The health impact of these exposures is the health impact of Oak Ridge plus Nevada Test Site plus global fallout I-131 exposure, not just of one or the other exposure.

It is recognized that autoimmune thyroiditis can occur at I-131 doses including and greater than 20 rad. As a person with autoimmune thyroiditis, I am very well aware of the effects of untreated autoimmune thyroiditis. If a person with significant disease goes long enough without treatment, hypothyroid coma or cardiac arrest can result.

What is perhaps most interesting about the situation at Oak Ridge, especially with regard to the information presented in the draft Technical Reports of l996 and again in the final Technical Reports of l998 and l999 is that the added dose and accompanying health risk from the combined exposure to I-131 from Oak Ridge releases and from Nevada Test Site I-131 in fallout is addressed for the first time at any site at which dose reconstruction has been performed in the US. This important issue has been ignored within the final ORHASP report. Instead, fallout exposures are discussed as being larger than exposures from X-10 releases for those residing further from Oak Ridge than 38 km.

No mention is made about the increase in risk resulting from the combined exposures, although this has been a major issue of discussion since l996, and reported on in earlier drafts of the final technical reports as well as in the final technical reports (which have not received wide dissemination).

We have come to learn that the ORHASP chair, Mr. Voilleque, has been consistently opposed to the presentation of this information, and in fact ordered SENES in l995, not to look into fallout issues at all. We ask, what were his motives for refusing to have this important issue discussed? Has it been his influence as ORHASP chairman that has led to a final ORHASP report not including a discussion of the important issue of the total dose and risk from combined exposure to multiple sources of I-131?

Because communities exposed to I-131 from individual AEC facilities such as Hanford, INEEL, Savannah River and Oak Ridge were also exposed to I-131 contained in global fallout and Nevada Test Site fallout, the failure of the final ORHASP Report to include information on the added dose information presented within the SENES I-131 Report done within the Oak Ridge Health Study, has all the appearances of an intentional suppression of this information, so that Oak Ridge exposed communities will not understand that their I-131 doses are actually higher than the doses received from Oak Ridge alone.

Further, if the doses from Oak Ridge plus NTS I-131 are added together, the doses for some members of the exposed communities surrounding Oak Ridge are within the range in which autoimmune thyroiditis is recognized as a potential radiation induced health outcome. So, by refusing to discuss the importance of the added doses and risks from fallout and local releases of I-131 in the final ORHASP report, the public is kept in the dark about their true combined doses and the potential health outcomes, including autoimmune thyroiditis, of these combined exposures.

This situation at Oak Ridge is very very interesting to those of us who have worked on Hanford I-131 exposures and health outcomes therefrom over the years. For, we have faced the same resistance on the part of CDC and its primary contractor, the Radiological Assessments Corporation (a prime employer, coincidentally, of the Chair of the ORHASP, Mr Voilleque), to present us with our added I-131 doses and health risk from Hanford plus Nevada Test Site plus global fallout. MAYBE this is a coincidence, but the signs are ominous that some intentional deception of the exposed public is taking place on the part of the parties involved at multiple sites.

CORRECTIVE ACTION: The added doses from Oak Ridge plus Nevada Test Site I-131 must be provided in the form of individual dose estimates, with accompanying individual health risk from these exposures, to the multiply exposed populations around Oak Ridge.

IV. PROBABILITY OF CAUSATION FOR DIAGNOSED DISEASE NOT INCLUDED IN THE FINAL ORHASP REPORT:

Probability of causation (that is, the chance that exposure was the cause of a diagnosed disease) of a range of cancers, and of autoimmune thyroiditis at these combined dose ranges must be presented to exposed members of the public.

CORRECTIVE ACTION: Probability of causation estimates are given in the final SENES technical report, for X-10 releases, and for diagnosed cases of thyroid cancer and other neoplasms. These probability of causation estimates for diagnosed cases are not referred to in any of the summary material published thus far nor are they mentioned in the final ORHASP report. Without this information, being given only a numeric mrem or rem range for only Oak Ridge I-131 exposures, the public is essentially having the "wool pulled over their eyes," and intentionally kept from the knowledge of these exposures, and, if they already have one of these potentially radiogenic diseases, the probability that these diseases were caused by these combined exposures. This information must be added to the final ORHASP report, and presented to the public in any displays and informational sessions on Oak Ridge health impacts.

It is very very worrisome to think that this information suppression may be motivated by less than honest forces- fear of litigation if combined doses and health risk are understood, or possibly intent to suppress findings about public exposure and resultant health risk in order to preserve the economic reputation of the community of Oak Ridge.

We have seen this theme repeated in other former weapons complex sites- Hanford, INEEL, and other sites. The involuntarily exposed populations are made to fight for the truth of their exposures, just to gain the basic information we need in order to receive appropriate medical care and screening (if we are lucky enough to have health insurance which pays for preventive care like screening).

V. CONCLUSION

This memo points out omissions of facts, deletion of important exposure health related evidence, and avoidance of presenting the added doses and health risks to the people of Oak Ridge exposed to I-131 from X-10 in combination with I-131 contained in Nevada Test Site fallout and global fallout.

Through these omissions of fact and deletions of information from the SENES I-131 report, which is an important component of the Oak Ridge Health Studies, the public will be kept uninformed and unaware of the full extent of their exposures, and of the true possible health outcomes of these exposures.

There is another victim in this situation. We the I-131 exposed public have been deprived of essential information important to our understanding of I-131 health risk. That is bad enough. But, an honest scientist of integrity, and his firm, have received far worse treatment by those to whom correspondence on these crucial issues was addressed, those who never had even the courtesy to issue a response. You have hurt the public through your actions, and you have professionally and personally hurt Dr Hoffman and his colleagues at SENES Oak Ridge.

These omissions of crucial exposure information need to be corrected and corrected publicly. A public forum on these issues, advertised widely, should be held as soon as possible. Dr Hoffman and his colleagues deserve the courtesy of a detailed and thoughtful reply to the correspondence they have directed to you. They also deserve a public apology for the way they have been treated as the response to their effort to do the right and honest thing.

Also, because of the derogatory remarks published in the Knoxville Sentinel, without opportunity of a reply from Dr. Hoffman or SENES, and because of the fact that letters from the public contradictory to those remarks have not been published in that paper, it is of utmost importance that the Knoxville Sentinel set the record straight on the facts of this situation. A thorough and balanced article must be written to correct what now appears on its face as a negative indictment of SENES and Dr. Hoffman, ascribing economic motives to the issues they have raised in the public interest.

We would appreciate a response at the earliest opportunity to this memo, and a clear indicator of the date of a public forum for discussion of the issues raised herein. These issues are of import to all of us multiply exposed to I-131 and other radionuclides from former AEC facilities like Oak Ridge, from NTS fallout, and from global fallout sources.

Additionally, a long list of citizens from exposed communities have been waiting and waiting for more than a year now for the State of TN to respond to our request to receive the final (and unaltered) SENES Report on I-131, as issued in November of l998. Copies of this report were requested via Dr Jim Smith of CDC and Mr Patrick Lipford of the State of TN. We requested and received a presentation, at the joint health effects subcommittee meeting in Salt Lake City, a presentation on the SENES I-131 report, which includes detailed results of thyoid dose and risk for 41 locations within 38 km of Oak Ridge and includes excess thyroid cancer risks, relative risks of thyroid cancers and other neoplasms for both males and females, relative risks above background, and the probability of causation for reference individuals who have diagnosed cases of thyroid cancers and other neoplasms. This information is of direct pertinence to I-131 exposures at our sites. Why hasn't this report been provided to the public who have requested it?

Sincerely,

Ms. Trisha T. Pritikin, Esq. (Hanford Downwinder) (Daughter of Hanford Workers) e-mail: Triesq@aol.com

Ms. Peggy Adkins Chair, Save Our Cumberland Mountains Roane County Chapter e-mail: pmadkins@ext1.ag.utk.edu

Ms. Doris Baker (Nevada Test Site Downwinder) e-mail: mygene@fuse.net

Ms. Christine Baker Vogel (Hanford Downwinder)

Mr. Glenn Bell (Oak Ridge Worker) e-mail: wheezin2@aol.com

Ms. Jackie Kittrell, Esq. American Environmental Health Studies Project (Oak Ridge, TN) e-mail: jackieo@mindspring.com

Ms. Ivy McCollough (Oak Ridge Worker)

Ms. Gai Oglesbee (Hanford Worker) e-mail: c/o triesq@aol.com

Ms. Sandra Reid, R.N. Oak Ridge Health Liaison email: orhl@mindspring.com

Mr. "J" Preston Truman Director, Downwinders, Inc (Nevada Test Site Downwinder) e-mail: hermit@downwinders.org

Mr. Steve Wagner (Hanford Downwinder) e-mail: handforddownwinder@yahoo.com

The following are current or former members of CDC and/or ATSDR federally chartered citizen advisory panels. They sign and support this letter as private citizens.

Mr. Chuck Broscious Director, Environmental Defense Institute (Idaho Health Effects Subcommittee l995-l999) e-mail: roscious@mail.tds.net

Ms. Linda Keir (Hanford Downwinder) (Hanford Health Effects Subcommittee) e-mail: c/o triesq@aol.com

Ms. Marlene Nesary (Hanford Downwinder) (Hanford Health Effects Subcommittee) e-mail: c/o triesq@aol.com

Dr. Peter Rickards, D.P.M. (Idaho Health Effects Subcommittee) e-mail: nifty@micron.net

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Message: 16
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2000 17:29:55 +1000
From: FoE Sydney - Nuclear Campaign <nonukes@foesyd.org.au>

United Nations First Committee Actions

PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY

Reaching Critical Will Advisors and Friends,
Our First Committee work has begun.

The New Agenda Coalition met at Ministerial level today in New York and held a short press conference at 1 pm.

Anna Lindh, the Swedish Foreign Minister speaking on behalf of the group of Foreign Ministers from Brazil, Egypt, Ireland, New Zealand, Mexico, South Africa and Sweden said:

- the group had discussed both short-term and long-term initiatives, the short term being a resolution in the First Committee of the General Assembly, and the long-term being actions towards the next NPT Review Conference.

- the NPT was a success which was very much based on the New Agenda Coalition. This cooperation and success leads us to look forward to continue to work together in the future.

- from the 2000 NPT Review Conference there was a real recognition that nuclear weapons cannot be allowed to exist and this is an important step forward. But the fight is not won, there are obstacles and problems, and it is therefore important to now work for the implementation of the NPT commitments.

- the New Agenda Coalition states will therefore jointly and bi-laterally demarche on the capitals of the nuclear weapon states asking for the implementation of the 2000 NPT Review Conference commitments.

In essence, the New Agenda Coalition are strongly united and will continue to work together. The most immediate task is the First Committee resolution, and future initiatives towards the 2005 NPT Review Conference which, according to one Ambassador, includes the International Conference on Nuclear Dangers which was agreed to, in principle, by over 150 heads of state at the Millennium Summit.

--------

Below you will find the communique issued from this Ministerial Meeting. It is a useful tool to begin the lobbying work in support of the NAC resolution at this years General Assembly.

Please send this communique to your local press, or better still, political representative or foreign ministry. Add a covering letter asking how your government intends to vote for the New Agenda Coalition resolution, and how it intends to facilitate the implementation of the commitments made at the NPT Review Conference.

Last year the NAC resolution passed 111 to 13 against with 39 abstentions. If you are in any of these countries that voted against or abstained, your activity is particularly needed:

Against:
Bulgaria,
Estonia,
France,
Hungary,
India,
Israel,
Monaco,
Pakistan,
Poland,
Romania,
Russian Federation,
United Kingdom,
United States.

Abstain:
Albania,
Andorra,
Argentina,
Armenia,
Australia,
Azerbaijan,
Belgium,
Bhutan,
Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Canada,
China,
Czech Republic,
Denmark,
Federated States of Micronesia,
Finland,
Georgia,
Germany,
Greece,
Iceland,
Italy,
Japan,
Kazakhstan,
Latvia,
Lithuania,
Luxembourg,
Mauritius,
Myanmar,
Netherlands,
Norway,
Republic of Korea,
Republic of Moldova,
Slovakia,
Slovenia,
Spain,
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,
Turkey,
Ukraine,
Uzbekistan.

--------

Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the New Agenda Coalition Countries (Brazil, Egypt, Ireland, New Zealand, Mexico, South Africa, Sweden)

New York, 13 September, 2000
Communique

Meeting to review progress on their joint initiative Towards a Nuclear Weapon Free World: The Need For A New Agenda, the Ministers noted that their initiative had advanced the agenda for the total elimination of nuclear weapons. They stressed that this goal remains a matter of real urgency and must be delivered through an accelerated process of negotiations on all fronts.

The Ministers warmly welcomed the positive and substantial outcome of the 2000 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference. The unequivocal political undertaking given by the five nuclear weapon States "to accomplish the total elimination of nuclear arsenals" demonstrates a new determination to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons. Recognition that nuclear weapons cannot be allowed to exist indefinitely was a singular step forward.

This has been achieved against a background of limited progress in negotiations in the field of non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament, and a failure to grasp the opportunities of the post-cold war security environment. The programme of action agreed at the 2000 NPT Review Conference must now be implemented fully and progress reported regularly through the review mechanism o the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

The Ministers expressed concern at on-going challenges to the non-proliferation regime. they urged the international community to redouble its efforts to achieve universal adherence to NPT. They repeated their call on those three States, (India, Pakistan, Israel) which are not parties to the NPT and which operate unsafeguarded nuclear facilities, to accede to the Treaty as non-nuclear weapon States and to place their nuclear facilities under comprehensive IAEA safeguards.

They stressed the importance of full compliance with the provisions of the NPT.

The Ministers called for the early commencement of negotiations on nuclear arms reductions between the United States and the Russian Federation in light of the NPT outcome. They looked forward to early action by the five nuclear weapon States on the series of undertakings made by them at the NPT Review Conference. All States must contribute to the achievement of the objectives agreed at the Review Conference.

They called on the parties to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) to preserve its integrity and validity . They reiterated their call on them to refrain from the implementation of any measure that would undermine the Treaty's purpose. They encouraged them in this way to contribute to the creation of more favourable conditions for further negotiations on limiting strategic arms to which they have committed themselves at the NPT Review Conference.

In this context, they called on all States to refrain from decisions that could impact negatively on nuclear disarmament, lead to a new arms race or be inconsistent with the commitment to the total elimination of nuclear weapons.

The Ministers regretted that the agreement at the NPT Review Conference for the immediately establishment of a body to deal with nuclear disarmament in the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva has not yet been acted upon.

The Ministers underlined the importance of the NPT Review Conference agreement for the entry into force of the CTBT and the negotiation of a ban on the production of fissile material. They also welcomed the agreement to begin consideration of the broader verification regime that will be required in a world without nuclear weapons.

The Ministers concluded that international peace and stability can best be maintained and enhanced with the involvement of the international community as a whole. Multilateral engagement and further progress on disarmament is crucial to this . The Ministers would continue to pursue the New Agenda initiative with determination.

They announced that they will table a draft resolution at the First Committee of the 55th session of the United Nations General Assembly session.

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

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

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Message: 17
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2000 00:27:33 -0700
From: ivan buchbinder <pentaske@memes.com>

Subject: Risks and Nuclear Waste

Y'all, Seems like a valuable contact... anyone in touch with these folks?

Later http://www.umu.se/cerum/proj/info/subs/perception_nuclear_risks.shtml

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

Message: 18
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2000 09:19:50 -0400
From: Ellen Thomas <prop1@prop1.org>

NucNews 00/09/14 - Daybook; Presidential Candidates; Activist Announcements

Washington Times Daybook, September 14, 2000, Agence France Presse http://www.washtimes.com/national/daybook-2000914213158.htm

2 p.m. - Defense readiness - The Senate Budget Committee holds a hearing on a review of the Congressional Budget Office's unreleased new study, "Budgeting for Defense: Maintaining Today's Forces." Dan Crippen, CBO director, testifies. Location: 608 Dirksen Senate Office Building. Contact: 202/224-0642.

9:30 a.m. - Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee holds a hearing on the transportation of Alaska North Slope natural gas to market and to investigate the cost, environmental aspects and energy security implications to Alaska and the rest of the nation for alternative routes and projects. Location: 366 Dirksen Senate Office Building. Contact: 202/224-4971.

Vajpayee visit - all day - The Embassy of India sponsors a visit by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Highlights - 9:25 a.m. - Meets with House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, Capitol, Room H-210.

10 a.m. - Addresses a joint session of Congress, Capitol, House Chamber.

10:45 a.m. - Meets with Rep. Richard A. Gephardt, Missouri Democrat, Capitol, Room H-201.

11 a.m. - Meets with Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman, New York Republican, and members of the House International Relations Committee, Capitol, Room H-139.

11:15 a.m. - Meets with Sen. Jesse Helms, North Carolina Republican, and members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Capitol, Room S-116.

1 p.m. - Attends luncheon hosted by Reps. Gary L. Ackerman, New York Democrat, and James C. Greenwood, Pennsylvania Republican, and members of the Congressional Caucus on India, 345 Cannon House Office Building.

7 p.m. - Meets with think-tank representatives, Jackson Place Conference Center, Blair House, off Lafayette Square. Contact: 202/232-1540, 202/232-1543, 202/232-1543 or 202/232-1558.

1 p.m. - Issues forum, "Human Rights in the United States: The Unfinished Story - Current Political Prisoners - Victims of COINTELPRO," with Rep. Cynthia A. McKinney, Georgia Democrat, 2200 Rayburn House Office Building.

-- PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES --

- George W. Bush -

September 14 - Santa Ana, Pomona, and San Diego, CA

9:45 a.m. - Discuss education reform and closing the achievement gap, Santa Ana High School, 520 Walnut street, Santa Ana, California, (714) 567-4900

3:00 p.m. - Los Angeles County fair, Heritage Farm, 1101 West McKinley Avenue, Pomona, California, (909) 623-3111

7:15 p.m. - Victory 2000 Republican Party Reception, U. S. Grant Hotel, 326 Broadway, San Diego, California - 619-232-3121

Friday, September 15 - San Diego, CA and Albuquerque, NM

8:30 a.m. - Remarks on education, Central Elementary School, 4063 Polk Avenue, San Diego, California, (619) 281-6644

10:00 a.m. - POW/MIA Day Observance, Veterans Memorial Center and Museum, 2115 Park Boulevard, San Diego, California, (in Balboa Park), (619) 239-2300

5:00 p.m. - Albuquerque, New Mexico: Education: Closing the Achievement Gap, The University of New Mexico Continuing Education Conference Center, 1634 University Boulevard, NE, Albuquerque, New Mexico, (505) 277-5984

- Al Gore - September 14 - Watch Al Gore on the David Letterman show

- Ralph Nader - This Week Thursday, September 14 - Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose CA

12:00 - 1:00 PM - Nader Press Conference with California Nurses Association, 2000 Franklin St., Oakland , CA San Francisco , CA

3:00 - 4:00 PM - Nader Speech at San Francisco State University, McKenna Theatre Campus Contacts: Leticia Arellano, 415-346-8418 and Todd Chretien, 510-333-4604

5:30 - 6:30 PM - San Jose, CA, Press Conference, Wyndham Hotel 1350 North First Street (crossroad Gish), Room: Salon BNC

7:00 - 8:30 PM - Nader and Medea Benjamin Rally, Morris Daley Auditorium, San Jose State University - For more info, 415-701-1389

Friday, September 15 - Las Vegas, NV

11 AM - 12 PM - Nader Speech at UNLV, Moyer Student Union Ballroom (Capacity 800)

12:30 - 1:15 PM - Press Conference Over Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Site, Moyer Student Union Ballroom, UNLV

Saturday, Sept 16 - Mystic, CT - Washington, DC

5:00 - 7:00 PM - Talk on Renewable Energy and Reception with Winona LaDuke, CT Coalition Against Millstone Storefront, 13 Water Street, Contact: 860-572-7551

8:00 - 9:30 PM - Rally for DC Statehood, UDC Main Auditorium

Sunday, Sept 17 - Boston, MA

5:00 - 7:00 PM - Reception with Winona LaDuke, Boston, Massachusetts. For more info and to RSVP mailto:leslie@votenader.org

Wednesday, Sept 20 - Milwaukee and Madison, WI

1:00 PM - Milwaukee Rally with Ralph Nader and Michael Moore, Meeting w/ African-America and Latino Community Leaders, UW Milwaukee University, Student Union

5:00 PM - Madison Reception with Ralph Nader and Michael Moore, Madison Civic Center Starlight Room, 211 State Street - RSVP to Robert McChesney mailto:rwmcches@uiuc.edu

7:00 PM - Rally for Open Debates with Ralph Nader and Michael Moore, Orpheum, 216 State Street

Thursday, Sept 21 - Ann Arbor, Flint, and East Lansing, MI

12:30 PM - Ann Arbor Rally with Ralph Nader and Michael Moore, Michigan Theatre, 603 East Liberty For more information: Michigan Greens (248) 398-8104

5:00 PM - Flint Rally with Ralph Nader and Michael Moore, James H. Whiting Auditorium, 1241 East Kearsley St., For more, info:810.234.1984

7:00 PM - East Lansing Rally with Ralph Nader and Michael Moore, Michigan State University Auditorium at Farmlane and Auditorium Road, For more information: (248) 398-8104

Friday, September 22 - Minneapolis, MN

5:30 PM - Reception with Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke, Target Center Hospitality Suite; for more info and to RSVP mailto:leslie@votenader.org

- Pat Buchanan - various media events this week - http://www.gopatgo2000.com/schedule/

-- ANNOUNCEMENTS --

- SUPPORT THE PALESTINIAN RIGHT TO RETURN! GET ON THE BUS SEPTEMBER 16 TO WASHINGTON DC! Meet 11 am @ Freedom Plaza, March along Pennsylvania Ave., Rally in Lafayette Park

This Saturday, thousands from around the country will march and rally in Washington DC demanding the right of return for the more than 5 million Palestinian refugees who are still denied the basic human right to return to their homeland. This historic demonstration is organized by The Palestinian Right to Return Coalition, known by the Arabic name Al-Awda. There are coalitions organizing in many cities around the country who are also sending buses. Information: International Action Center, mailto:iacenter@iacenter.org - web: www.iacenter.org - phone: 212 633-6646 - fax: 212 633-2889.

CORRECTION from Australia: yesterday's message about the S11 demonstration was not from Sydney, but from Melbourne, forwarded by activists in Adelaide, all in different states of Australia. Thanks to Ron Gray <r-grayle@msn.com.au> for correcting the confusion.

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



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

1. LONG SEARCH Plant allegations need proof
From: magnu96196@aol.com

2. Strickland hammers nuclear commission for inaction on USEC
From: magnu96196@aol.com

3. Secretary supports sick workers -- Richardson announces $200 million renovation
From: magnu96196@aol.com

4. EU to sue Britain over Sellafield
From: magnu96196@aol.com

5. DOE chief pledges support for sick nuclear workers Renovation plan outlined for
From: magnu96196@aol.com

6. INEEL to recycle radioactive metal
From: magnu96196@aol.com

7. Nuclear Regulatory Commission finds no reason to further study USEC
From: magnu96196@aol.com

8. Jars labeled 'plutonium' found
From: magnu96196@aol.com

9. Mill owner to help pay part of cleanup
From: magnu96196@aol.com

10. Lab Reports Higher Radioactive Levels
From: magnu96196@aol.com

11. Cyanide, other poisons found in Los Alamos storm runoff
From: magnu96196@aol.com

12. Top nuclear official tours Pantex Plant
From: magnu96196@aol.com

13. Text: U.S. Energy Secretary Visits Russian Nuclear Storage Sites
From: magnu96196@aol.com

14. Metal recycling issue is profit over safety
From: magnu96196@aol.com

15. Our Views: DOE plans for ORNL exciting, but preliminary
From: magnu96196@aol.com

16. K-25 water samples found safe Tests prompted by employee concerns
From: magnu96196@aol.com

17. Panel OKs plan to transport waste
From: magnu96196@aol.com

18. Platts - Wednesday, September 13, 2000
From: "Paul Maser" <pmaser@govmail.state.nv.us>

----------

Message: 1
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 10:09:56 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

LONG SEARCH Plant allegations need proof

http://www.paducahsun.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?/200009/13+01Lt_editorial.html+20000913+editorial

LONG SEARCH Plant allegations need proof

In January, U.S. Attorney Steve Reed looked on as employees of Bechtel Jacobs Co. began digging a trench near an old landfill at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. Speaking to a group of reporters and other observers, Reed remarked, "What you see here is digging for the truth. We will take the truth ... and evidence and go wherever it requires us to go." Reed's words are worth remembering. A year ago the U.S. Justice Department launched an investigation into allegations contained in a whistle-blower's lawsuit filed by current and former plant employees against former operators of the uranium enrichment facility.

Last week Justice Department officials concluded one part of the wide-ranging investigation, announcing they found no evidence that contaminated drums were improperly buried in a landfill designated for nonhazardous waste.

The suit alleges that former plant operators, including Lockheed Martin Corp., lied about radioactive and chemical contamination to earn large performance bonuses from the U.S. Department of Energy. The contractors have denied those accusations.

Federal law enforcement officials are trying to get to the bottom of some of the more sensational charges about past activities at the plant. If the Justice Department finds there is merit to the lawsuit's claims, the agency will join the suit against the former contractors.

Reed identified the investigators' critical task in Paducah: finding the truth. In the past year, many allegations â€" some of them very credible â€" have been made concerning the plant's operations in the past and DOE's apparent failure to provide adequate oversight.

The evidence strongly indicates that, in some cases, workers in Paducah weren't informed that they were handling highly radioactive materials as well as moderately radioactive enriched uranium.

We now know that workers disassembled nuclear weapons without warheads at the plant and buried the weapons parts on the plant grounds.

We also know that the federal government â€" as federal officials now concede â€" kept a veil of Cold War secrecy over plant operations that were potentially hazardous to the health of plant workers and people who live near the facility.

But even with these revelations, there is a great deal that still is unknown about contamination at the plant. The search for the truth is ongoing, and unbiased observers will withhold judgment until all the evidence is in concerning the allegations in the various lawsuits and other reports of wrongdoing.

It's always risky to jump to conclusions based on claims made in a lawsuit. The Justice Department's "dig for the truth" at the closed landfill proves that.

One former worker told federal officials that contaminated drums were buried in the nonhazardous landfill. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Louisville told the Sun last week, "We have finished with that dig, and I can confirm that we found a railroad tie and some fence posts."

It needs emphasizing that the federal probe of the lawsuit's claims is far from over. Investigators are poring over plant records, interviewing current and former workers and checking other sites where illegal dumping allegedly occurred. The charges leveled against the former plant operators are serious, and deserve a thorough investigation. But the goal is to find the truth â€" not to prove a point. In the case of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, it's clear that uncovering the truth will be a long and complicated process.

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

Message: 2
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Strickland hammers nuclear commission for inaction on USEC

September 13, 2000
Jonathan Riskind Dispatch Washington Bureau
http://www.dispatch.com/news/newsfea00/sep00/419122.html

WASHINGTON -- A federal review of USEC's financial condition has painted a bleak picture of the privatized federal corporation's prospects for long-term survival, Rep. Ted Strickland said yesterday.

But the Lucasville Democrat said he's angry that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has decided against taking any action against the company that runs southern Ohio's soon-to- be-closed uranium-enrichment plant.

Strickland said a report by the commission suggests there are more scenarios where USEC is buried in a sea of red ink over the next few years than where USEC continues in its role as the country's sole producer of enriched uranium.

"This analysis lays out clearly that this industry is going down the tubes,'' he said.

Strickland says the report, not yet released publicly but outlined for lawmakers and their staffs in Capitol Hill briefings this week, is fodder for his contention that USEC should be taken back by the federal government.

A USEC spokesman said since the company has not seen the report, it could not comment. Spokesman Charles Yulish said a speech given last week by William H. Timbers, USEC president and chief executive officer, rebutted claims that the company is failing financially.

"The doom-and-gloom scenarios about USEC's prospects are greatly exaggerated,'' Timbers said in the speech at a conference on international nuclear-materials policy in Virginia.

"USEC certainly has taken its hits . . . (but) we are dealing with and resolving these problems as only a private-sector company is equipped to do -- a company that is still the global market leader with substantial cash flows and modest debt.''

USEC, formerly United States Enrichment Corp., runs the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio, and a sister facility in Paducah, Ky. The enriched uranium the plants produce is used as fuel for the nuclear-power plants that supply about 20 percent of the country's electricity.

USEC is shutting down the Piketon plant in June as part of cost- cutting efforts, and some critics have questioned whether it eventually will only broker material it buys from Russia and stop being a domestic producer at all.

"This confirms much of what I have been warning about,'' Strickland said of the commission's report. "The only way they (USEC) can make money is to become a broker of Russian (material) and cease operations.''

There isn't much chance of action this year on Strickland's proposal to re-federalize USEC, and the legislation's prospects next year in a new Congress and under a new president also are uncertain. However, Strickland said he hopes Congress will pass legislation next year preventing Piketon from closing its doors until Paducah has been certified as able to operate successfully.

A regulatory commission spokeswoman declined comment yesterday.

But a letter from commission Chairman Richard A. Meserve to Virginia Republican Tom Bliley, chairman of the House Commerce Committee, said a requirement for USEC to remain a "reliable and economical domestic source of enrichment services'' is not violated by USEC's financial condition.

That requirement pertained mainly to USEC not being bought out by a foreign entity, not to the company's ability to manufacture its product, Meserve said in the letter dated Monday and obtained by The Dispatch.

In any case, if the commission yanked USEC's license for not being financially sound, that would leave the country without a domestic source of enriched uranium, Meserve said.

"We do not believe that any further NRC study of the USEC situation is justified, particularly in view of the fact that (the) NRC is limited in the action it can take to address the maintenance of domestic enrichment services,'' Meserve said.

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

Message: 3
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Secretary supports sick workers -- Richardson announces $200 million renovation

September 12, 2000
by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff
http://www.oakridger.com/stories/091200/new_0912000037.html

While visiting Oak Ridge on Monday, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson made efforts to show his support for those employees of nuclear facilities who suffer from work-related illnesses.

To face the future, Richardson says, the past has to be confronted.

"We've got to deal with the Cold War and its costs," he said.

Richardson stopped by the Paper, Allied-industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers Union office to get a briefing on health screening programs for current and retired gaseous diffusion plant workers.

Tom Moser, medical screening coordinator for PACE, spoke to Richardson and Leah Dever, manager of DOE's Oak Ridge Operations office, about the Worker Health Protection Program.

The program provides health risk information, a medical exam and an educational workshop free of charge to people exposed to hazardous and radioactive materials while working for the Department of Energy. It is funded by DOE and led by PACE and Queens College City University of New York.

To participate in the Worker Health Protection Program, Moser said sick workers should call 1-888-241-1199.

While also in Oak Ridge, Richardson met with two sick former K-25 employees, Mack and Ann Orick, and the daughter of another sick worker, Vikki Hatfield.

The Oricks and Hatfield intend to testify this week before the House Judiciary Committee, which is governing the fate of the Senate sick worker compensation plan.

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

Richardson announces $200 million renovation

by Paul Parson
Oak Ridger staff

"May you go to heaven for your generosity, or may you go elsewhere for your exaggeration," Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said Monday afternoon -- shortly before announcing an almost $200 million renovation for Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The ORNL project, which is expected to begin in 2001, includes the construction of 11 major facilities and the renovation of several others over the next five years. The project was announced by Richardson during a press conference Monday afternoon at ORNL's Wigner Auditorium.

For the project to achieve realization, the Department of Energy, state of Tennessee and Battelle, the company that in partnership with the University of Tennessee manages ORNL, have joined forces to fund the modernization effort.

DOE is expected to contribute about $125 million while the state would provide $25 million and Battelle would give $50 million.

ORNL Director Bill Madia said the announcement was a "truly historic event" for the research facility and the city of Oak Ridge.

"Quite often the national laboratories are referred to as the crown jewels of the country," Madia said.

"Today, we're going to put this jewel in a new setting."

Gov. Don Sundquist added the announcement was a tremendous vote of confidence in ORNL's future.

The proposed facilities in ORNL's modernization plan include a new Mouse House, chemistry facilities, a facility for computational sciences and a facility to house the Oak Ridge Center for Advanced Studies.

When construction and renovation are completed in 2006, ORNL will have replaced 1.8 million square feet of outdated space with about 600,000 square feet of modern, energy-efficient buildings. Officials say this is good news considering more than half of the buildings at the federal facility were built during or immediately following World War II.

In addition to upgrading the ORNL's research capabilities, the modernization effort is expected to also reduce operating costs, improve safety and reduce energy consumption at the lab.

Madia said the modernization effort is just one of several projects that demonstrate the importance of ORNL. Other examples include the Spallation Neutron Source project and the lab's recently acquired supercomputers.

The federal government's funding of the ORNL modernization plan is subject to congressional approval.

ORNL, which is a a multiprogram science and technology laboratory, employs more than 4,000 people and is housed on a 58-square-mile site located on Bethel Valley Road.

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

Message: 4
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 10:45:54 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

EU to sue Britain over Sellafield

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Correspondent
10 September 2000
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/Environment/2000-09/sellafield10 0900.shtml

Britain is to be prosecuted by the European Commission over its plans secretly to dismantle the site at Sellafield of one of the world's worst nuclear accidents.

The court action, which charges Britain with flouting European safety regulations, has been kept so hush-hush in Whitehall that even Michael Meacher, the Environment Minister, was not informed.

The prosecution â€" over an accident which has killed an estimated 32 people â€" is the latest blow to British Nuclear Fuels, where a multi-billion- pound black hole is now developing.

With the company losing many lucrative overseas contracts this year after the Independent's revelations of falsified safety data, and accounts due this week showing a £7bn increase in decommissioning costs, BNFL now stands as one of the costliest management fiascos in British history.

News of the EU prosecution will intensify the pressure on ministers to reconsider their planned privatisation of the firm, which has already been postponed until 2002.

The EC prosecution centres on the number one plutonium producing pile, the site of the 1957 Windscale fire, which remains the world's worst ever nuclear plant accident until the Chernobyl catastrophe nearly 30 years later.

On 7 October of that year, an operator threw a switch too soon at the pile, which produced plutonium for Britain's nuclear arsenal, and the resulting fire burned uncontrolled for three days. An official study has estimated that some 32 Britons will have died of cancer over the following years as a result of the radioactive pollution.

Now the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UK AEA) is dismantling the pile â€" which it owns â€" and the molten radioactive core in one of the most difficult nuclear decontamination tasks ever undertaken. It has contracted the work to a consortium headed by BNFL.

But Britain failed to inform the European Commission of the plan, as it is obliged to do under European law. The Ministry of Defence insisted this was not necessary because the pile was a military installation and exempt from the law.

The Commission is taking the issue so seriously because it says the Ministry's position would exempt the operation from European safeguards.

Mr James Woolley, legal adviser to the Nuclear Free Local Authority's Steering Committee, says that this could allow the work to be done free of any regulations at all.

"At the very least the Government has been cutting corners in trying to evade the European law which is there to protect the health and safety of all of us," he said.

The Commission sent the Government two warnings, at the turn of the year and in April, and, when these had no effect, took the decision to prosecute on 5 July. It said late last week that the issue was now for the European Court to decide.

Yesterday, in an apparent about-turn, the Ministry of Defence said that it now accepted that the law should apply to the pile as "the materials removed from it no longer have any defensive significance".

The UK AEA said it was preparing to send the necessary information to the Commission and that it would do the work abiding by all the rules that applied to it.

Wednesday's judicial review looks into a decision by the Environment Agency to authorise the disposal of radioactive waste from the manufacture of new warheads for Trident missiles and the decommissioning old ones.

If successful it could put a halt to the operations

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

Message: 5
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000
From: magnu96196@aol.com

DOE chief pledges support for sick nuclear workers
Renovation plan outlined for ORNL

September 12, 2000
From Wire Reports
http://www.thedailytimes.com/news/rc091200.html

OAK RIDGE -- Energy Secretary Bill Richardson on Monday pledged continuing support for a compensation plan to benefit sick nuclear workers that is stalled in Congress.

He and Gov. Don Sundquist also outlined what could be the biggest construction project at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory complex since World War II.

`` In order to confront the past and greet the future we've got to deal with the Cold War and its costs,'' Richardson said in addressing the compensation plan before about 300 officials and politicians at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

`` The national security mission at Oak Ridge (and other DOE sites) made heroes of those who work here but it sent some into harm's way. They should be honored for their Cold War services.''

The Senate unanimously passed a compensation plan that would give government-paid medical care and a minimum of $200,000 apiece to workers who got sick at the shuttered K-25 uranium enrichment plant in Oak Ridge, sister plants in Piketon, Ohio, and Paducah, Ky., and other bomb-building installations.

But some lawmakers say the plan, which could cost more than $3 billion, is too expensive. Others say it doesn't go far enough.

`` The work is not going to be easy and it is not going to be cheap,'' Richardson said. ``And it won't make up for years of neglect or guarantee every worker a clean bill of health. But we have to do it.''

Meeting with sick workers

Richardson met privately with three activists, sick workers Ann and Mack Orick and the daughter of a sick worker, Vikki Hatfield, then introduced them during his speech to a standing ovation.

The Oricks and Hatfield said Richardson gave no hint the Clinton administration will accept anything less than the Senate compensation plan.

`` He is for the bill. He wants it to get through,'' Ann Orick said.

The Oricks and Hatfield intend to testify Thursday before the House Judiciary Committee, which is controlling the bill's fate.

`` It is not everything that we want,'' Hatfield said. ``But we are thrilled that we are making the first step.''

Hatfield said her father, Leon Meade, is dying of asbestos and beryllium exposure. Fifteen years after retiring from the Oak Ridge facilities, and 10 years after becoming ill, he has just received worker's compensation.

Ann Orick, who suffers various illnesses from myriad workplace exposures, won't be covered by the current plan, but her husband, who suffers from beryllium disease, would be compensated.

`` We are sick people. We don't have time to postpone things,'' she said.

Renovation plan for ORNL

Meanwhile, the Department of Energy, state of Tennessee and lab contractor Battelle are proposing a nearly $200 million renovation of ORNL over the next five years.

The project calls for 11 new buildings, some 600,000 square feet of modern, energy efficient space. In turn, some 1.8 million square feet of old buildings dating to the lab's creation in 1943 would be leveled.

`` We are asking our researchers to do world-class science in what can only be described as third-world facilities,'' lab director Bill Madia said. ``Today we are going to take a major step in changing that.''

Under a unique funding arrangement, the DOE would supply about $125 million, the state would provide about $26 million and Battelle would put in $50 million -- all for structures located on federal property.

First-of-their-kind land transfers are being worked out to put the land under the lab's control for periods of up to 50 years, before they would revert to DOE.

The General Assembly already has approved $8 million for the first of these buildings, a Joint Institute for Neutron Sciences. The building will work in conjunction with the $1.4 billion Spallation Neutron Source research project now under construction at the lab. The SNS is a linear accelerator expected to be used in creating new plastics, medicines and metals.

The state also will fund labs for biological sciences, computational sciences and advanced studies. All of these buildings will be available to the University of Tennessee, which manages the lab with Battelle.

Battelle's contribution will be in the form of loan guarantees to private developers to construct three new central buildings. Battelle would then occupy the buildings.

Comments:

Richardson supports help and compensation for sick workers only to a degree. Most of the compensation plan is written and designed by his DOE staffers and it does not even come close to compensation plans given to coal miners or black lung type legal precidents.

RIchardson is attempting to dictate the compensation game plan and is glad handing all the sick workers in hope of looking good. His compensation plans don't have pre-admissions of the HF, fluorides, or chemical health damage effects that not only damaged worker health, but that of communities and regions. No compensation is being offered for plant downwind health damaged communities or the wifes who were affected by contamination carried home.

The worker compensation plan is being drafted by the polluter that poisoned these persons in the first place and is a huge conflict of interest situation and one that violates edicts and common sense application of the justice system.

Congress needs to set up to have hearings that properly investigate these health effects and have an open call for testimony, not just a few selected individuals of their choosing.

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

Message: 6
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000
From: magnu96196@aol.com

INEEL to recycle radioactive metal

By Anne Minard Journal Staff Writer
http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/news2000/nn10771.htm

POCATELLO - Idaho could soon contribute radioactively contaminated metal to a newly revamped national recycling program.

The Department of Energy is studying ways to recycle radioactively contaminated scrap metals for use at DOE sites, rather than disposing of them as buried waste or in licensed receiving facilities.

DOE has maintained some recycling programs in the past, but suspended them all in July, prohibiting the release of any metal for recycling if it has detectable radiation. The suspension will continue through the end of the year, when the department expects to establish its recycling policy.

As a preliminary step, the DOE is seeking input from the metals industry in a potential project to recycle up to 60,000 tons of steel per year into waste containers or other items with restricted uses by the department.

The metal would come from department facilities that have been shut down and other environmental management activities across the DOE's large industrial complex.

One DOE official in Washington estimated that nationally, upwards of two million tons of scrap metal are in surplus storage and would be eligible for such a program.

"What we have in inventory now is stainless steel and carbon steel," said John Walsh, a spokesman at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. In all, the site holds more than 2,000 tons of scrap metals that are both contaminated and uncontaminated.

The re-evaluation of recycling policies followed a court battle waged last year by the Paper, Allied Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International (PACE) union in Oak Ridge over a radioactively-contaminated metals recycling program there.

While U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler ruled that the lawsuit could interfere with cleanup of a related Superfund site and was therefore illegal, she outlined clear concerns resulting from more than a year of full legal disclosure.

"The potential for environmental harm is great, especially given the unprecedented amount of hazardous material the Defendants (BNFL Inc.) seek to recycle," she wrote in the June 1999 document. She went on to write that BNFL had not provided evidence of the safety of recycling nickel from a nuclear plant, as opposed to other methods of disposal. "The court is further concerned by the fact that no national standard exists governing the unrestricted release of contaminated metals," the finding reads.

Anne Minard covers science and the environment for the Journal. She may be reached at 239-3168 or by e-mail at aminard@journalnet.com.

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

Message: 7
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Nuclear Regulatory Commission finds no reason to further study USEC

BY KATHERINE RIZZO
Associated Press Writer
http://www.ohio.com/bj/news/ohio/docs/027776.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission told lawmakers Tuesday that it has completed a study of the U.S. Enrichment Corp.'s finances and concluded there is no cause for any action.

USEC has been hurt by falling prices for the enriched uranium used by nuclear power plants.

In the last year, it has laid off workers, seen its credit rating reduced to junk bond level and decided to close one of the nation's two enrichment facilities: the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio.

The financial problems led the regulators to examine whether USEC remained able to fulfill a requirement that it be a ``reliable and economical domestic source of enrichment services.''

If USEC were found to no longer meet that requirement, the NRC could pull the company's certification.

But in the letter to House Commerce Committee Chairman Tom Bliley, R-Va, the NRC chief said doing that would ``shut down a domestic supply altogether and thus would not serve the ... broader statutory purpose.''

``On the basis of this recent review of USEC's financial situation, we conclude that we should not take action to modify, suspend or revoke the certificates of certification,'' Richard Meserve wrote.

``We do not believe that any further NRC study of the USEC situation is justified.''

USEC had insisted all along that it was and would continue to be the reliable source of domestic uranium that the law requires.

The NRC decision was a blow to efforts by Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Ohio, to stop the closure of the Piketon plant.

Strickland said he disagreed with the NRC's interpretation of the requirement that USEC maintain a reliable domestic uranium industry.

Bliley's staff has been gathering documents in preparation for a possible hearing into USEC's finances, but as of Tuesday a hearing had not been scheduled.

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

Message: 8
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 11:12:45 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Jars labeled 'plutonium' found

By Chris Bowman
Bee Staff Writer
Sept. 12, 2000
http://www.sacbee.com/news/news/local16_20000912.html


Environmental investigators at McClellan Air Force Base have unearthed three jars containing about one gallon of fluid labeled plutonium, a hazardous radioactive element produced in nuclear reactors, base officials said Monday. The discovery occurred last Wednesday in an exploratory dig of a landfill west of the runways that was last used in the mid-1960s, the officials said.

"The excavation site is contained, and there is no risk of public exposure to any contaminants," a McClellan news release stated.

Base officials said they knew the fenced-off 2-acre site was radioactive, based on low-level readings obtained six years ago.

But they expected the source to be radium 226, added to paint used on aircraft gauges and gun sights for night illumination, said Dawn Young, director of public affairs for the base.

Workers with URS Corp., the Air Force contractor for the site cleanup, found the jars in a 5-gallon container. The can contained three jars labeled "Pu," for plutonium, which in turn contained a gallon of fluid. A few 4-ounce vials of a powdery substance also were found.

The highest reading from material in the can was 300 millirems, or 0.3 rem, the average dose of radiation annually from the Earth's natural sources.

The site is one of many areas of environmental investigation and cleanup at the base.

Since it began excavation Aug. 21, URS Corp. has retrieved an estimated 100 55-gallon drums with radioactive hazard labels, Young said. The drums, in varying state of decay, contain laboratory glassware and other equipment.

"These drums were placed in rows and stacked on top of each other. They didn't just chuck them in," Young said.

A tip by a former base worker led to the discovery of the landfill in 1994. The worker recalled seeing bulldozers in the the mid-1950s digging a trench on the site at least 100 yards long.

A McClellan environmental project manager then surmised that the waste came from a secret laboratory operated by the 1155th Technical Operations Squadron, which collected air samples from near atmospheric nuclear tests.

-----------

Message: 9
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 11:15:29 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Mill owner to help pay part of cleanup

Associated Press
http://www.bouldernews.com/news/statewest/13luran.html

CAON CITY - Cotter Corp. has agreed to reimburse some of the money spent to clean up its uranium mill and surrounding land.

An official of the Environmental Protection Agency, which has spent more than $1 million to clean up the Superfund site in the last 16 years, felt the $52,500 settlement in federal court was the best deal the agency could get.

The Lakewood company did not admit liability for the cleanup under the settlement, signed Sept. 6.

"We naturally would like to collect more money, but don't have the necessary background to legitimize the claims," said Mike Risner, the EPA's regional legal enforcement director.

The mill, which operated from 1958 to 1987, produced uranium fuel for nuclear power plants. The process created dust and liquid waste that contaminated the area, including the Lincoln Park neighborhood between Caon City and the mill.

In the late 1980s, Cotter reached a settlement with the state health department for cleanup costs.

The company received permission to reopen the mill last year.

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

Message: 10
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 11:20:39 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Lab Reports Higher Radioactive Levels

September 12, 2000
By Dale Lezon Journal Staff Writer
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/122324news09-12-00.htm

Radioactive materials in soil in stormwater runoff from the area scorched by the Cerro Grande Fire deserve further study to determine possible health risks of long-term exposure, according to a report from the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The Aug. 29 report, which cites levels of radioactive material higher than observed before the fire, fuels concerns among some Wagon Mound area residents that fire debris from Los Alamos homes, destined for a private landfill near their community, could be a health threat.

"We want to have the ash and debris sampled for radioactive contaminants," said Kathleen Dudley, a member of the Concerned Citizens of Wagon Mound, a watchdog group.

The state Environment Department has so far declined to test the debris, saying it has no reason to believe it is radioactive.

Los Alamos National Laboratory has scheduled a public meeting with Department of Energy officials to discuss the report at 10 a.m. Friday at the DOE Los Alamos Area Office.

Los Alamos County contracted with a private company to clean up the neighborhoods burned in the fire, which destroyed more than 400 residences.

The company is hauling about 2,000 cubic yards of debris contaminated with asbestos to the Northeastern New Mexico Regional Landfill near Wagon Mound owned by Harold Daniels and operated by Herzog Environmental Inc. So far, between 68 percent and 75 percent of the asbestos-laden debris has been dumped at the landfill, according to the demolition contractor, David Mitchell Construction Inc.

The laboratory tested stormwater samples after the fire on and near lab property and soils in Guaje Canyon. Levels of cesium 137 and strontium 90, byproducts of nuclear experimentation, were found at higher levels after the fire, according to the lab report.

The radionuclide levels will need to be "further evaluated for long-term exposure risks," the report states.

"That is the reason we want the (debris) trucks stopped until testing is done," Dudley said. If levels were higher on and near the lab, they may be higher in the debris, Dudley said.

Bruce Gallaher of the lab's water quality and hydrology group said a team of health professionals, including members of the state Health Department, will review the report for possible health risks.

Gallaher said that radionuclides are present on plants and in the soils from decades of atmospheric nuclear testing. The fire appears to have caused the radionuclides to be concentrated in the burned soil, Gallaher said.

The stormwater tests were undertaken, in part, to understand the lab's possible contribution to area radionuclide levels, he said.

The lab reported some contaminants are known to emanate from the lab but were observed in samples taken prior to the May fire.

Dudley said her group wants Los Alamos County to pay to test the debris and for an independent scientist to analyze the data to make sure the material is not radioactive.

The county, however, is not the appropriate organization to pay for the testing and analysis, said County Manager Joe King.

If Dudley's group wants the debris tested they should apply to the federal Cerro Grande Fire Assistance Act for money to complete the testing, King said.

The act established a procedure for those who suffered losses in the fire to file claims against the government.

King said the county relied on the state Environment Department's assessment that the debris was not radioactive.

"If the state believes that further sampling is needed, we'll listen to the state," King said.

The state Environment Department will not test the residential fire debris for radioactivity, said Deputy Director Paul Ritzma. Nothing indicates the material is radioactive, he said.

The department screened the home sites for radioactivity and found uranium-containing rocks, radium clock faces and smoke detectors that showed radioactivity, he added. Those materials were removed and disposed of at a landfill site licensed to handle radioactive material.

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

Message: 11
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 11:18:03 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Cyanide, other poisons found in Los Alamos storm runoff

The Associated Press
http://www.abqtrib.com/news/091200_contamination.shtml

LOS ALAMOS -- Radioactive contaminants and other chemicals have been found in storm water running onto Los Alamos National Laboratory property.

Lab officials said Monday they believe the contaminants resulted from the Cerro Grande Fire in May, which burned more than 47,000 acres and left hundreds of residents homeless.

Bruce Gallaher, a hydrologist with the lab's Water Quality and Hydrology Group, said a team of experts will analyze the results to see whether the runoff could pose a health risk to anyone downstream from the lab.

"Initially, I don't think there is a health threat," Gallaher said.

Most likely, the contaminants will be extremely diluted and won't be a health problem, he said.

Lab and state Environment Department officials have been worried for months that flooding in the lab's many canyons after the Cerro Grande Fire could wash contaminants from decades of nuclear weapons work off lab property.

The worst of the contaminated material seems to be coming from the forest above the lab, officials said.

Tests of water samples taken this summer -- mostly following storms on June 28 and July 9 -- showed only small levels of contamination that could have come from the lab's weapons work, Gallaher said.

The radioactive contamination comes from worldwide nuclear fallout, Gallaher said, the result of years of nuclear testing across the globe.

Cyanide was also found in the runoff water in levels five times greater than the New Mexico standard for fishing waters. The state's safe level for cyanide is 22 micrograms per liter of water. Scientists found cyanide levels of 110 micrograms per liter in the Pajarito Canyon.

The lab doesn't use cyanide for its research. Instead, the cyanide could be coming from the residue of fire retardant used to fight the wildfire, Gallaher said. A cyanide compound is added to slurry to protect the tanks, to keep the slurry from hardening and to prevent the bombers from corroding.

The runoff samples also contained amounts of cesium-137, strontium-90 and plutonium greater than prefire levels. Lab officials said the radioactivity likely came from fallout from the 1950s and 1960s because the contaminated water was coming from headwaters above lab canyons in the mountains.

"The results indicate that the fire caused the transfer and concentrations of these radionuclides from the forest canopy and in the forest litter to the ashy layer of the burned surface soil," Gallaher said.

Lab environmental workers, as well as the Department of Energy Emergency Rehabilitation Team, will meet Friday to discuss the results of the water samples.

The state Environment Department also is monitoring the runoff in the lab canyons and elsewhere.

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

Message: 12
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 11:23:24 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Top nuclear official tours Pantex Plant

September 13, 2000
By JIM McBRIDE Globe-News Courts Writer
http://www.amarillonet.com/stories/091300/new_topnuclear.shtml

America's top nuclear security official on Tuesday defended scientists and workers at the nation's labs and weapons plants, but said the Energy Department must continue to sharpen its focus on security.

Gen. John A. Gordon, the first administrator of the new National Nuclear Security Administration, met with Amarillo media before touring the Pantex Plant.

Gordon, who once served as No. 2 man in the CIA and has extensive experience in the nuclear weapons arena, reports directly to Energy Secretary Bill Richardson and oversees the DOE's nuclear weapons operations.

The general, who also served as a physicist at DOE's Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, said lab scientists and others have been criticized in the wake of security gaffes at DOE labs, but he said most are hard-working professionals who take their jobs very seriously.

"I absolutely believe that the scientists at the labs, the folks that work at the plant here, they probably understand the ramifications of what their jobs are and the potential harm from the loss of that material perhaps better than any of us," he said. "I don't accept the premise that they don't understand and that they don't care."

Gordon said some DOE security procedures need to be clarified so scientists and workers better understand them. Sometimes the agency has forced workers to follow security policies that don't make sense, he said.

The DOE must continue improving its cybersecurity procedures to ensure nuclear information remains secret. Maintaining computer security is a difficult task, Gordon said, particularly as technology changes so rapidly.

DOE Web sites across the country face attacks from hackers trying to gain unauthorized access, he said.

"We need to protect that from the outside and we still need to be able to do our work in a security environment," he said "We need to find a way to do both the security and the needed work."

With the end of the Cold War, changes are coming across the weapons complex, Gordon said, but Pantex's role as the nation's primary weapons assembly and disassembly plant should remain secure.

"This is a vital center of the nuclear weapons enterprise and I don't see that changing in any measurable way," he said.

The United States is working closely with the Russian navy to secure nuclear weapons and safeguard nuclear materials at sites throughout the former Soviet Union, Gordon said.

"We're working with the institutes and design bureaus that have built these weapons in the past to make their sites smaller, bring some of their scientists out from behind the fence and put them into non-nuclear areas," he said.

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

Message: 13
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 11:25:48 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

U.S. Energy Secretary Visits Russian Nuclear Storage Sites

12 September 2000
http://usinfo.state.gov/cgi-bin/washfile/display.pl?p=/products/washfile/latest&f=00091203.wlt&t =/products/washfile/newsitem.shtml

Text: U.S. Energy Secretary Visits Russian Nuclear Storage Sites (Richardson Sept. 1: U.S.-Russian cooperation on spent fuel) (530)

Vladivostok, Russia - U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson visited spent nuclear fuel storage facilities in Vladivostok September 1, where he helped officially commission completed material protection control and accounting improvements.

"This is the latest chapter of the successful cooperation between the U.S. Energy Department and the Russian Navy," Richardson said. "I thank you for giving us another unique opportunity to visit important sites such as this one in our joint work. Continued access to sites is vital to our technical teams as they work with you to do the best, safest job possible."

Following is the text of Richardson's remarks, as prepared for delivery:

(begin text)

U.S. Department of Energy Washington, D.C.

SECRETARY OF ENERGY BILL RICHARDSON NAVAL SPENT FUEL STORAGE FACILITY - SITES 32 AND 34 Vladivostok, Russia
September 1, 2000

Prepared Remarks

This is an occasion for celebration, but one also of sadness. I first want to offer my personal condolences, and those of the American people, for the loss of the brave sailors aboard the Kursk. We in the United States sympathize deeply with your loss, as we have also felt the pain of such tragedies. The 1960s saw the sinking of the U.S. submarines the Thresher and the Scorpion, with great loss of life. We grieved then as you are grieving now. Our thoughts and prayers are with you during this difficult time.

This tragedy should remind us of the dangers we face and the grave importance of the urgent work that is needed to secure nuclear materials for the health and welfare of the world's people. That work we do today as we commission the completed Material Protection Control and Accountancy improvements for the Nuclear Fuel Storage Facilities at Sites 32 and 34. This is the latest chapter of the successful cooperation between the U.S. Energy Department and the Russian Navy.

I thank you for giving us another unique opportunity to visit important sites such as this one in our joint work. Continued access to sites is vital to our technical teams as they work with you to do the best, safest job possible.

With the Navy Northern Fleet Refueling Ship PM-63 and Site 49 Storage Facility commissioned last September, and with the Pacific fleet refueling ship PM-74 commissioned just yesterday, the U.S. Government and the Russian Federation have important models that show us how to contain costs for the Material Protection Control and Accountancy program while providing secure facilities in which to store proliferation-sensitive fuel.

Our cooperation in this sensitive arena requires a great deal of trust between our Russian colleagues and ourselves. Through sheer effort and a shared understanding of how important this work is to the security of both our nations, we have forged this trust.

The success of our joint cooperation here is further evidence that we can cooperate, no matter the sensitivity of the site, to achieve important results. Site 32, and Site 34, are models for our cooperation. Thank you.

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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

Message: 14
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 14:07:53 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Metal recycling issue is profit over safety

http://www.oakridger.com/

To The Oak Ridger:

I would again like to comment on the recycling moratorium issue. The SSAB's letter blasting Secretary Richardson's decision again affirms my prior comments, which state that the issue is, once again, profit over potential spread of contamination to the general public.

As I have stated before, I have no doubts that the technology exists to "clean up" these materials. However, two recent incidents in Japan and Great Britain serve to prove that mistakes happen, and controls can be circumvented.

The statement has been made that "No other industry is held to the stringent controls placed on the Department of Energy waste." I do not see that the "everybody else is doing it" attitude is productive, or protective.

The secretary offered an alternative plan of internal recycling, wherein containment vessels would be constructed for the more highly-contaminated wastes and other products within the DOE complex.

This would save virgin, uncontaminated metals for other uses.

Reference has been made, almost from the outset, that Secretary Richardson's move was politically motivated, yet I have heard no explanation of this accusation. I would think the political (and profiteering) argument could also be made from the other side, as well.

To draw a parallel, as beryllium use within the DOE/DOD complexes in weapons production, it is finding its way into more conventional uses in the public sector. And the newest wave of beryllium victims has already begun, such as in dental appliances, and companies using compounds with very minute amounts of beryllium alloys.

The 1-3 percent beryllium-copper alloys, such as used by Robertshaw, NGK and other manufacturers have already produced disease. Do we want to risk this with yet another potential contaminant, such as the recycled metals?

Glenn Bell 504 Michigan Ave.

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Message: 15
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Our Views: DOE plans for ORNL exciting, but preliminary

September 13, 2000
http://www.oakridger.com/

Certainly Oak Ridge and a wider East Tennessee area are hopeful that the Department of Energy will make good on an announced $200 million renovation of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, including replacement of outdated buildings with new state-of-the-art facilities.

The announcement at ORNL this week, by none other than Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, would see construction of 11 new facilities and the renovation of several others starting as early as next year.

But while we join the chorus of cheers among those hoping all of this can become reality, we also find it difficult to suspend the skepticism that necessarily accompanies conditional pronouncements.

Some will find that skepticism rooted in the fact that a rather partisan energy secretary chose just now to make the announcement in a state, and region, that should safely cast its votes for his boss come November, but that polls suggest is no sure thing. Mr. Richardson, once considered a vice presidential possibility, is not above playing politics, as the events leading to his suspension of radioactive metals recycling in Oak Ridge suggest.

But the hurdles facing realization of $200 million in renovations at ORNL may prove more subtle than all that.

For one thing, there is the not-so-little matter of congressional approval of funding for the ambitious renovations at ORNL. That DOE and the secretary are recommending it is, of course, a clear boost.

But, for another, there is the matter of coordinating state and UT-Battelle efforts toward completion of the project. This arrangement raises yet-unaddressed questions about the fine lines of using federal property to advance state-owned or privately financed lab facilities.

And, just to show that what goes around does come around, the issue of federal property and private financing renews an old debate about the need for the Department of Energy to return control of federally held lands to local control and ownership.

The renovations at the lab are by no means a done deal. But they do represent a promise from the energy secretary which, with the proper leadership, can be achieved and for which we will hold Secretary Richardson to his word.

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

Message: 16
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 14:18:49 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

K-25 water samples found safe Tests prompted by employee concerns

September 13, 2000
by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff
http://www.oakridger.com/

Water at the Oak Ridge K-25 Site is safe to drink.

Steven Wyatt, a Department of Energy spokesman, confirmed the safety of the water this morning. The complete details on the recent water sampling at the federal facility won't be available until early next week.

DOE's water sampling of the K-25 Site, which was conducted in early August, was a result of employee concerns that cross-connecting lines for sanitary, fire and cooling waters and steam and storm drains was a possible way employees could be exposed to hazardous materials at the site. Those concerns were voiced during a July 31 DOE public meeting.

Even before the water sampling began, local DOE officials insisted the water was safe.

The samples were taken by OMI, the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee's contractor for the water plant and distribution system. The federally funded CROET is responsible for ensuring effective reindustrialization of the K-25 site.

Representatives from the Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee, the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union and the Environmental Protection Agency were among those witnessing the sampling process.

Once the samples were taken, OMI and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation officials sealed the vials with specially marked tape for shipment to a state-certified laboratory for analysis. In addition, representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency conducted their own sampling of half of the 25 selected areas at the K-25 site.

Results from the EPA's sampling were not available.

Comments:

Appears the current water situation is not too bad, however, in the past it appears some buildings drinking water was connected to the fire water supplies and exposed persons to chromium and other additives. Testing should also include analisis of pipe and tank residues to see what the real history of tainted plant water has been. In the 80's, all of K-25 plant workers were drinking water with Sr-90 in it that was coming out of burial grounds at ORNL and contaminating the K-25 water intake.

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Message: 17
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 14:19:11 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Panel OKs plan to transport waste

September 13, 2000
by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff
http://www.oakridger.com/

Despite its flaws, a Department of Energy environmental assessment on the transportation of mixed waste received support Tuesday night from an Oak Ridge citizens' group.

The Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee's Citizen Advisory Panel approved a letter supporting DOE's efforts to dispose of the federal agency's low-level radioactive mixed waste at the appropriate facilities on or off of the reservation.

The mixed waste, which is a combination of radioactive waste and waste tainted by hazardous materials like chemicals or certain metals, would be transported via highways and railroads to various locations in the United States. These locations include both federally owned, DOE-operated facilities as well as commercial treatment and disposal facilities.

While DOE's environmental assessment analyzes the potential environmental consequences of the proposed action, it also contains several factual errors.

Those errors, which are addressed in the Citizen Advisory Panel's letter, include placing the Oak Ridge Reservation outside of Oak Ridge and incorrectly stating the Knoxville metropolitan area's compliance with new clean-air regulations.

Additionally, the citizen's group points out that the environmental assessment lacks specific details including maps and distance figures.

The Citizen Advisory Panel's letter will be sent to David Allen -- the National Environmental Policy Act officer in charge of the document.

Also at its meeting Tuesday in the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation facility in Oak Ridge, the Citizen Advisory Panel heard a presentation of the Bethel Valley watershed project and discussed DOE's draft programmatic environmental impact statement, which outlines the planned production of medical isotopes and fuel for NASA missions.

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Message: 18
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 16:24:21 -0700
From: "Paul Maser" <pmaser@govmail.state.nv.us>

Platts
Wednesday, September 13, 2000

Commentary & Analysis from Platts USEC's future appears tied to government cooperation Washington (NuclearFuel) Sept. 13

The USEC Inc. board of directors will meet this week without very much good news to chew over. The company, formed in 1998 when the U.S. government privatized the U.S. Enrichment Corp., has seen its stock price continue to languish in the range of $4.25 to $4.50 a share, after initially opening in July 1998 at $14.25. Senior management at the company expected a boost in the share price after deciding to cease operations at one of its two operating enrichment plants in June 2001. That didn't happen. But if Wall Street is saying that it wants to see better results before rewarding USEC, it is hard to see when those better results might appear. The company is still struggling to articulate a strategy for developing an advanced enrichment technology after canceling its atomic vapor laser isotope separation technology in 1999.

Although there are reports that DOE and USEC are about to announce some cooperation on centrifuge technology, the prospects for commercial deployment of U.S. centrifuges is considered highly uncertain. Prospects for buying centrifuges from competitors Urenco or Russia's Techsnabexport are considered equally uncertain by most observers. USEC was also hoping to have signed by now--and certainly by the end of the year--a more favorable follow-on contract with Russia for delivery of the enrichment component of blended-down weapons high-enriched uranium (HEU).

However, some analysts are saying that Russian officials are unlikely to sign that contract until a new administration is in place in Washington. One potential bright spot on the horizon for USEC might be a victory this November by Vice President Al Gore. (USEC CEO William Timbers has contributed to the Gore campaign.) If Gore wins, USEC is hoping that he will name a new Energy Secretary who is more favorably disposed to the company than is the current secretary, Bill Richardson.

USEC's Timbers, however, says the "doom and gloom scenarios about USEC's prospects are greatly exaggerated." In a presentation last week to a nuclear conference, he said the company is dealing with its current problems by reducing costs, increasing profitable revenues, and continuing to innovate and seize opportunities, including new partnerships. Timbers also said that USEC's future is brighter that some believe because the "U.S. needs a healthy USEC" to implement the HEU deal with Russia.

--

Barcelona (Nuclear News Flashes) September 13, 2000 Spanish nuclear workers postpone strike Strike action at three Spanish nuclear units has been postponed. Six hundred workers at Vandellos-2 and Asco-1 and -2 were expected to strike beginning today. However, unions representing the workers, who are calling for stable employment, and the companies involved have decided to resume talks. However, strike action could begin Friday if a settlement is not reached during negotiations tomorrow, said a union spokesman.

------

Washington (Nuclear News Flashes)--September 13, 2000 Nuclear Energy Institute announces reorganization The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) announced today a reorganization to ``better position nuclear energy'' in the competitive market. The NEI Nuclear Infrastructure Support & International Division, renamed the Business Op erations Division, will continue to be headed by Senior Vice President Marvin Fertel. The new division's responsibilities will include environmental policy and benchmarking programs. The materials license department will move to the Nuclear Generation Division, headed by Chief Nuclear Officer Ralph Beedle. Senior Director Steve Floyd will lead a new Regulatory Reform Department within the Nuclear Generation Division. Two programs, perform ance-based regulation and licensing activities, headed up, respectively by Tony Pietrangelo and Alex Marion, are now under Floyd's direction. Executive Vice President Angie Howard was named director of the newly created P olicy, Planning & External Affairs Division, which will coordinate public policy for the nuclear industry. Scott Peterson takes over Howard's previous post as director of the Communications Division.

--------

Washington (Nuclear News Flashes)--September 13, 2000 CP&L to begin pursuing plant license renewals Carolina Power & Light (CP&L) plans to begin submitting license renewal requests to the NRC in fourth quarter 2002 for its nuclear plants. The first submittal will be for Robinson-2, with one for Brunswick planned in 2004. CP&L also expects to seek relicensing for Harris, but has not set a date for a submittal. The operating license for Robinson-2 expires in 2010; for Brunswick-2 in 2014 and -1 in 2016; and Harris-1 in 2026. CP&L said it will not decide whether to seek relicensing for Crystal River-3 until its planned merger with current owner Florida Progress Corp. is completed.

--------

London (Nuclear News Flashes)--12Sep2000 Analysts await BNFL annual results

Analysts following British Nuclear Fuels plc's (BNFL) are hoping two key areas of concern are addressed when the company's annual results are released Sep 14. They hope the results along with a voluminous press release will shine substantially more light on the overall global operations of the huge nuclear fuel cycle operator, which has suffered a myriad of setbacks since the fall of 1999.

The premier area of interest is BNFLÂ's financial performance and how far short it falls from the strict targets set by the UK government, its sole shareholder, in July 1999 for its partial privatization--now scheduled for late 2002 at the earliest. For instance, on the US front, the UK's Department of Trade and Industry specified that BNFL "increase toward 15% the proportion of BNFL profits derived from the US business."

BNFL observers are also anxious to know whether BNFL will clarify its post-2004 strategy for the Thorp oxide reprocessing plant at Sellafield. The UK House of Commons' Trade and Industry Select Committee has pressed BNFL to incorporate a Thorp strategy into its new corporate plan promised this summer, but that corporate plan has yet to materialize.

--------

Washington (Nuclear News Flashes)--12Sep2000

Meserve says NRCÂ's move to new regs a challenge, NEI agrees NRC's transition to risk-informed standards from prescriptive, deterministic regulations is the agency's biggest challenge ahead, NRC Chairman Richard Meserve said today. He said the Inspector General's Office (IG) will p lay an important role in ensuring the agency stays on track as a "good steward of the financial resources before us." The IG's oversight will also provide another check that the agency is making changes in an open and scrutable manner, Meserve said.

His comments were made at the IG's annual information and planning conference, held under the theme "NRC's Regulatory Approach." At the same meeting, Nuclear Energy Institute President Joe Colvin gave NRC good marks for opening up its process for public input, especially during the development of its new regulatory oversight program.

But the recently implemented reforms in the reactor area are still having some trouble being implemented by inspectors at the plant level, Colvin said. He said inspectors "have to ensure compliance with all aspects of regulations," including some "deterministically based ones still sitting out there." He asserted the agency also has to "figure out how to develop the confidence to let go" of requirements that are no longer safety significant.


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


NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS

1 NRC finds no reason to further study USEC
2 Official details cancer risks of nuke shipments
3 Panel OKs plan to transport waste
4 Nevadans don't want waste
5 Testing continues in Hillcrest
6 NIRS and WISE/AMSTERDAM Announce Formal Affiliation
7 TRISM is Awarded 5 Year Contract From Department Of Energy;
8 CP&L Indicates Intention to Seek Relicensing For Nuclear Plants
9 Trojan Reactor Shipment Wins International Project of the Year Award
10 NRC Relocating Public Document Room Services From Washington,
11 A good defense against N-waste
12 Czech Republic: U.S. And Russian Officials Discuss Nuclear Waste
13 BNFL AND RUSSIA
14 Thai officials face probe over radiation leak
15 USEC Finance Probe Ends
16 Strickland hammers nuclear commission for inaction on USEC
17 Jars labeled 'plutonium' found

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

NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES

1 NRC finds no reason to further study USEC
Tuesday, September 12, 2000
BY KATHERINE RIZZO Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP)--The Nuclear Regulatory Commission told lawmakers Tuesday that it has completed a study of the U.S. Enrichment Corp.'s finances and concluded there is no cause for any action.

USEC has been hurt by falling prices for the enriched uranium used by nuclear power plants.

In the last year, it has laid off workers, seen its credit rating reduced to junk bond level and decided to close one of the nation's two enrichment facilities: the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio.

The financial problems led the regulators to examine whether USEC remained able to fulfill a requirement that it be a ``reliable and economical domestic source of enrichment services.''

If USEC were found to no longer meet that requirement, the NRC could pull the company's certification.

But in the letter to House Commerce Committee Chairman Tom Bliley, R-Va, the NRC chief said doing that would ``shut down a domestic supply altogether and thus would not serve the ... broader statutory purpose.''

``On the basis of this recent review of USEC's financial situation, we conclude that we should not take action to modify, suspend or revoke the certificates of certification,'' Richard Meserve wrote.

``We do not believe that any further NRC study of the USEC situation is justified.''

USEC had insisted all along that it was and would continue to be the reliable source of domestic uranium that the law requires.

The NRC decision was a blow to efforts by Rep. Ted Strickland, D- Ohio, to stop the closure of the Piketon plant.

Strickland said he disagreed with the NRC's interpretation of the requirement that USEC maintain a reliable domestic uranium industry.

Bliley's staff has been gathering documents in preparation for a possible hearing into USEC's finances, but as of Tuesday a hearing had not been scheduled.

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

2 Official details cancer risks of nuke shipments
September 12, 2000
BY MARY MANNING
LAS VEGAS SUN

High-level nuclear waste shipments to a proposed repository at Yucca Mountain would cause about 400 people nationwide to die from cancers over 34 years because of exposure to radiation, a state transportation consultant told a national scientific panel Monday.

Robert Halstead, a consultant to the state Agency for Nuclear Projects, told the National Research Council's Board on Radioactive Waste Management that between 356 and 432 people would contract a fatal cancer from exposure to the shipments.

The Department of Energy, which is charged with studying and ultimately building the repository if it is approved, estimates that 31 people would die from cancer during the 34 years that the waste would be shipped to Yucca.

Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is the only site being studied as a repository for 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste from commercial reactors and nuclear weapons sites. If it is found scientifically feasible, it could open by 2010.

The National Research Council board met in Washington, D.C., Monday to hear concerns about transporting nuclear waste through 43 states and past 53 million people living within two miles of road and rail routes.

The state reached its estimates using a DOE computer model, but assuming a worst-case scenario and using current population figures along the routes. The DOE estimates represent the low to average risk and use 1990 Census figures.

An accident along the roadways involving high-level nuclear waste would cost between $20 billion and $50 billion to clean up, Halstead said.

If the DOE relies on trains to haul the waste, the costs of a severe accident would skyrocket to between $63 billion and $108 billion, he said.

The DOE estimates a cleanup along roadways or rail lines would cost $10 billion to $20 billion.

Although no rail line leads to Yucca Mountain, the DOE and the state have studied the impacts from both train traffic and truck hauling.

Nevada officials said the DOE is underestimating the risks from such shipments in its report expected next summer.

Before Congress singled out Yucca as the sole site for study by the DOE as a repository, the DOE concluded that running a rail line to Yucca Mountain through U.S. Air Force bombing ranges could pose a risk.

The dangers from building a rail spur across U.S. Air Force gunnery property were "unfavorable," the DOE said.

The risks from such a rail spur had not been examined by the DOE at the time, according to its 1986 environmental assessment.

Compared with candidate repository sites in Mississippi, Texas, Utah and Washington, Yucca had the poorest access to national transportation routes, the most difficult rail access, the highest mileage, the highest transportation costs and the highest number of accidents, DOE found at the time.

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3 Panel OKs plan to transport waste
Oak Ridger Online
Wednesday, September 13, 2000
Oak Ridger staff

Despite its flaws, a Department of Energy environmental assessment on the transportation of mixed waste received support Tuesday night from an Oak Ridge citizens' group.

The Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee's Citizen Advisory Panel approved a letter supporting DOE's efforts to dispose of the federal agency's low-level radioactive mixed waste at the appropriate facilities on or off of the reservation.

The mixed waste, which is a combination of radioactive waste and waste tainted by hazardous materials like chemicals or certain metals, would be transported via highways and railroads to various locations in the United States. These locations include both federally owned, DOE-operated facilities as well as commercial treatment and disposal facilities.

While DOE's environmental assessment analyzes the potential environmental consequences of the proposed action, it also contains several factual errors.

Those errors, which are addressed in the Citizen Advisory Panel's letter, include placing the Oak Ridge Reservation outside of Oak Ridge and incorrectly stating the Knoxville metropolitan area's compliance with new clean-air regulations.

Additionally, the citizen's group points out that the environmental assessment lacks specific details including maps and distance figures.

The Citizen Advisory Panel's letter will be sent to David Allen - - the National Environmental Policy Act officer in charge of the document.

Also at its meeting Tuesday in the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation facility in Oak Ridge, the Citizen Advisory Panel heard a presentation of the Bethel Valley watershed project and discussed DOE's draft programmatic environmental impact statement, which outlines the planned production of medical isotopes and fuel for NASA missions.

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4 Nevadans don't want waste
Wednesday, September 13, 2000

I just finished reading the letter from Steven T. Petersen, counsel to Rep. Jim Hansen, who responded to an earlier letter on the question of where to put our nuclear waste.

I grew up in the shadow of the nuclear test site. I lived a short 15-minute drive from Yucca Mountain. In fact you can see it from U.S. 95 that runs between Reno and Las Vegas. I even toured the facility once, which is probably more than Mr. Petersen can say. He's probably just read some reports.

When I was young, they would set off nuclear bombs on the test site and my house would shake. I grew up with the government spreading radiation all over my back yard and my state. I don't blame Utahns for wanting to keep the waste out of their state, but I think Mr. Petersen should realize the obvious - Nevadans don't want the waste either.

If people want nuclear power, let them deal with the waste. Nevada has had enough radioactive junk in its soil. Enough is enough. Those who create the radioactive waste should keep it.

JAY W. STEPHENS

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5 Testing continues in Hillcrest
Team sampling contamination

Wednesday 9/13/00
The Binghamton Press
BY TOM WILBER STAFF WRITER

The latest round of environmental testing at a federal depot in Hillcrest, including an area where pollution may have entered the adjoining neighborhood, is under way with results expected this winter.

The investigation, which includes sampling scheduled for today, is focusing on several areas of pollution found in previous testing across the 129-acre facility off Hoyt Avenue, flanked by residences and a Chenango Valley school. The depot stockpiles radioactive ores, heavy metal and other raw material for manufacturing during a national emergency.

The study, being overseen by Parsons Engineering with the help of Binghamton University faculty and graduate students, will address concerns about 465,000 pounds of mercury stored in Warehouse 11. Previous tests have found traces of mercury and other pollution on depot property outside the warehouse, and state environmental scientists fear it may be escaping the depot grounds.

A team from Binghamton University is scheduled to begin sampling a neighborhood pond flanking the northwest side of the depot today, said Lori Davidson, a spokeswoman for the depot. The team will look for mercury in sediments and soil, in water draining from the depot grounds, and in air venting from Warehouse 11.

Residents are generally satisfied with the depot investigation and recent attempts to inform the community about the facility, its contents and history by a series of open houses held at the depot, said Hillcrest resident Bruce Oldfield.

"Between what's going on with the depot investigation and the open houses, I think it has been very positive," said Oldfield, who serves on a citizens group working with state health and environmental officials. "We are moving ahead rapidly here. The pace is remarkable."

In addition to the mercury, previous tests have found traces of other types of pollution, including a class of chemicals called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, on areas on the outskirts of the depot grounds. The soil samples with the highest concentration of PAHs came from areas on the northeast side of the grounds where firefighters practiced extinguishing chemical fires, fueled by ink and oil.

Officials have said pollution at the depot will have to be cleaned, once testing is completed to determine the extent. But it is not an immediate health threat because it is in the ground, and the depot will not have to be closed.

"We are certain there are some areas (on depot grounds) where remediation will be necessary. After we go through this drill, we will have a better idea of what steps are appropriate," said John Reinders, a spokesman for the Defense Logistics Agency.

Mercury can damage organs and nervous systems. PAHs are known to cause cancer.

There is concern that traces of the chemicals, including the PAHs and mercury, have entered a pond within several hundred feet of residences on the west side of the property. In the past, the pond reportedly was used by the public for skating, parties and wading.

Health officials have said there is no evidence to show the pond is contaminated, and the threat of ice skaters or swimmers drowning presents more immediate safety issues than pollution.

The depot is part of several environmental and health studies in Hillcrest that began after six children there were diagnosed with cancer, most of them in 1997 and 1998. The cancers are not likely a matter of chance, health officials said, but they have not been able to link them to pollution or environmental causes.

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6 NIRS and WISE/AMSTERDAM Announce Formal Affiliation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 12, 2000
Contact: Michael Mariotte or Peer de Rijk 202-328-0002

NIRS AND WISE/AMSTERDAM ANNOUNCE FORMAL AFFILIATION
FUNCTIONAL MERGER WILL CREATE WORLD'S LARGEST, MOST EFFECTIVE ANTI- NUCLEAR/SUSTAINABLE ENERGY ORGANIZATION

FUNCTIONAL MERGER WILL CREATE WORLD'S LARGEST, MOST EFFECTIVE

ANTI-NUCLEAR/SUSTAINABLE ENERGY ORGANIZATION

The Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) and World Information Service on Energy/Amsterdam (WISE) announced in Washington, DC this afternoon that the two groups have agreed to a formal affiliation that will result in the creation of the world's largest anti-nuclear/ sustainable energy organization.

NIRS, the foremost anti-nuclear organization in the United States, with some 6,000 grassroots members, and WISE, with a dozen offices across the globe, both were founded in 1978. The two groups have followed parallel tracks over the years, often working closely together on selected issues and events.

But the new affiliation means that all of NIRS' and WISE's activities will be coordinated internationally, which both groups believe will result in a stronger, more cohesive and more effective message.

"Over the past three years, we've witnessed an absolutely incredible wave of mergers and consolidations in the nuclear power industry, " said Michael Mariotte, executive director of NIRS. "The nuclear power industry, in many ways a symbol of globalization gone amok, no longer answers to any nation or regulator. The affiliation of NIRS and WISE means that we will be able to more effectively challenge the power of the atomic industry."

"The future of the atomic power industry is increasingly being determined at the international level-through treaties, agreements and behind- the-scenes pacts," said Peer de Rijk of WISE/Amsterdam. "By combining our resources, we will be more effective at the international level. And by being able to concentrate our resources when needed, we will be more helpful to national groups as well.

The new NIRS/WISE organization will have two main offices, one in Washington, one in Amsterdam. The organization currently also has offices in North Carolina, Russia, Czech Republic, Belarus, Japan, Spain, Argentina, Slovak Republic, Australia, Sweden, Germany and Korea. The new organization has made full funding for these satellite offices a major priority. A separate organization, WISE-Paris, which does consulting, research and other work on energy and plutonium, is not part of the affiliation, although it is highly regarded by NIRS/WISE.

The NIRS/WISE affiliation is the result of a year's worth of discussion and negotiation and was approved unanimously by both the NIRS and WISE Board of Directors.

The first major project of the new group is to organize opposition to the proposed inclusion of nuclear power as a "Clean Development Mechanism" (CDM) in current international negotiations on the Kyoto climate change Protocol. Under this proposal, developing nations would receive greenhouse gas emissions "credits" by building new nuclear reactors in less-developed, less polluting countries.

"This CDM scheme is a slap in the face to those who believed the Kyoto Protocol might result in real environmental improvement," said Mariotte. "Trading greenhouse emissions for nuclear power is like trading toxic fumes for brown lung disease: neither option allows one to breathe."

Added Peer de Rijk, "Combating climate change doesn't mean we have to trade sunscreen for radiation suits. There are better ways of addressing our mutual energy future than by building atomic reactors with their deadly and inevitable radioactive waste."

NIRS/WISE promised a major campaign to derail industry efforts to include nuclear power in the current climate change talks, scheduled to reach a head in The Hague, Netherlands in November 2000, where NIRS/WISE said it would have a visible presence.

"Still," said Mariotte, "this is just the first step. The combined efforts of NIRS and WISE will far exceed the sum of their parts. The nuclear industry should beware: we don't care how big you get or how much you merge and consolidate-we intend to make the 21st Century the time for sustainable energy. Nuclear power is an obsolete 20th century technology, and it has no business trying to interfere with the future."

NIRS/WISE said its plans include rapid growth of both its core offices as well as its satellite offices across the globe. The organization also plans to establish new offices in other countries. NIRS/WISE will work on the gamut of nuclear-related issues currently plaguing the globe: from the proposed use of MOX (plutonium-based) fuel to radioactive "recycling" to atomic waste transport issues.

NIRS/WISE will use a variety of tactics, ranging from preparation of solid, well-researched reports, to legal action, large-scale public education and organizing campaigns, to non-violent civil disobedience, to attain its goals. The organization also expects to combine its newsletters, websites, and other means of information. --30-

Nuclear Information and Resource Service 1424 16th St NW, #404, Washington, DC 20036 nirsnet@nirs.org www.nirs.org

World Information Service on Energy/Amsterdam P.O. Box 59636, 1040LC, Amsterdam, The Netherlands wiseamster@antenna.nl www.antenna.nl/wise

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7 TRISM is Awarded 5 Year Contract From Department Of Energy;
Experience and Safety Record Play a Key Role

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 12,
Press Release
SOURCE: TRISM, Inc.

TRISM is Awarded 5 Year Contract From Department Of Energy; Experience and Safety Record Play a Key Role

ATLANTA, Sept. 12 /PRNewswire/--TRISM, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: in North America, announced today that their subsidiary, Tri-State Motor Transit (TSMT), in Joplin, MO, has been awarded a 5-year contract from the US Department of Energy (DOE) to transport radioactive waste from DOE generator sites throughout the United States to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, NM. The guaranteed value of the TSMT contract is $10.2 million with the potential to earn up to approximately $29 million.

Tri-State Motor Transit has been a carrier of radioactive materials for over 45 years. In 1953, Tri-State became the first motor carrier to receive a license from the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission to transport radioactive materials. Today, TSMT is the largest carrier of hazardous and radioactive materials in North America. In 1999, TSMT transported over 32,000 shipments of hazardous and radioactive materials covering over 34,000,000 miles.

TSMT was one of five carriers who submitted bids to the DOE for their proposal dated January 14, 2000. The award was based on the following criteria: Safety, past performance (experience), financial stability, and price. Tri-State Motor Transit has consistently beaten the national average for reportable accidents per million miles and has been rated as ``Excellent'' from the DOE Motor Carrier Evaluation Program.

Stated Chairman, President and CEO of TRISM, Inc., Edward L. McCormick, ``It took a lot of teamwork and effort to achieve this contract award. We look forward to providing the DOE and all of our customers the safe, efficient, and dependable service that they have come to expect and require.''

About TRISM, Inc.

the nation's leading transportation company specializing in the transportation of heavy weight, over-dimensional, environmental, and secured materials. The company operates a pool of more than 1,700 tractors and over 4,000 trailers throughout North America. The multiple specialized equipment in these fleets is designed to meet customers' varied transportation requirements.

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8 CP&L Indicates Intention to Seek Relicensing For Nuclear Plants

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 13
SOURCE: CP&L Energy, Inc.

RALEIGH, N.C., Sept. 13 /PRNewswire/--Carolina Power & Light this week indicated its intention to file with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in the future, seeking relicensing for nuclear plants in the Carolinas and Florida.

CP&L will make the first formal submittal to the NRC--seeking a 20-year license extension for the single-unit H.B. Robinson Nuclear Plant in Hartsville, S.C.--in the fourth quarter of 2002. The formal submittal will follow in 2004 for the two-unit Brunswick Nuclear Plant near Southport, N.C.

CP&L has not announced a date for a relicensing submittal on behalf of the Harris Nuclear Plant near New Hill, N.C., although the company does expect to seek a license extension at the Harris Plant in the future as well. The Harris Plant was the last CP& L nuclear plant to begin commercial operation, so its current 40- year operating license does not expire until 2026.

The Robinson filing schedule is one year earlier than previously announced. The current 40-year operating license for the Robinson Nuclear Plant, the first commercial nuclear power plant in the Southeast, expires in 2010. CP&L was able to advance the submittal schedule due to efficiencies identified from other utilities completing the process.

The Brunswick Plant's current operating licenses expire in 2014 for Unit 2 and 2016 for Unit 1.

The NRC has approved two license extensions this year--the first in the industry--for the two-unit Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Plant in Maryland and for the three-unit Oconee Nuclear Power Plant in South Carolina.

Providing informal notice to the NRC of the company's intended submittal schedule in advance is intended to assist the NRC in ensuring adequate resources to review the comprehensive relicensing request when it is filed. The formal submittal will include, among other documents, a supplement to a plant's environmental report and an evaluation of plant systems, structures and components to ensure that they will continue to perform as designed for the extended life of the plant, as well as equipment specification changes.

The 40-year original operating license term reflects the amortization period generally used by electric utility companies for large capital investments. The NRC did not base it on safety, technical or environmental issues.

CP&L's Chief Nuclear Officer C.S. ``Scotty'' Hinnant said extending the licenses at the company's nuclear plants provides continued benefits for customers. The company's nuclear power plants have set six consecutive annual production records, and in 1999 provided 46 percent of the electricity CP&L generated for its customers.

``CP&L's nuclear plants provide our most efficient form of electricity generation, and their increased emission-free output has played a decisive role in keeping electricity prices stable,'' Hinnant said. CP&L customers pay less for electricity today than they did 10 years ago, despite the fact that the cost of living has increased by more than 25 percent during that time.

``Our plants have an outstanding record for safety. And in our culture of continuous vigilance and improvement at CP&L, we recognize the need to demonstrate high performance every hour of every day. Given our commitment to ongoing high performance and safety, seeking license renewal for Robinson makes good sense for us and our customers.''

CP&L Energy and its subsidiaries provide electricity and energy services to 1.2 million customers in the Carolinas and natural gas to 166,000 customers in North Carolina. The company owns and operates 18 power plants in the Carolinas and Georgia.

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9 Trojan Reactor Shipment Wins International Project of the Year Award
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 12
BUSINESS WIRE
Press Release

PORTLAND, Ore.-- Sept. 12, 2000--Portland General Electric (PGE) is pleased to announce that it has received the 2000 PMI International Project of the Year Award today from the Project Management Institute (PMIR) for successfully completing the safe removal, shipment and burial of the Trojan nuclear plant's reactor vessel.

PMI is the leading nonprofit professional association in the area of project management, with more than 60,000 members worldwide. This prestigious international annual award honors the project team that demonstrates superior performance and execution of exemplary project management.

``We are deeply honored to receive this award which recognizes the innovative spirit of many dedicated and highly competent people who successfully executed this project,'' said Stephen Quennoz, PGE vice president, Nuclear Operations. ``This project demonstrates that with careful planning, hard work and the willingness to explore new methods, we can achieve great things.''

In August 1999, PGE transported the reactor vessel from the Trojan Nuclear Plant located in Rainier, Ore., to the U.S. Ecology low-level waste disposal site near Richland, Wash. The 1,020-ton reactor vessel package was filled with low-density concrete, removed from the decommissioned containment building and transported by barge 270 miles up the Columbia River to its final burial site. The project received international attention because it was the first time a commercial reactor of its size had passed through a major American city.

``We're pleased that our performance has been recognized by the project management industry,'' said Steve B. Nichols, project manager. ``We evaluated several options for decommissioning the reactor vessel and determined that shipping it in one piece by barge was the safest, most technically sound approach. This was a first of a kind effort and we're proud our work has been acknowledged.''

Nichols accepted the award today on behalf of PGE along with Michael B. Lackey, P.E., General Manager, Engineering and Decommissioning, at PMI's Annual Seminars and Symposium in Houston, Tx. The project was sponsored for the award by the PMI, Portland, Oregon Chapter.

Portland General Electric is a wholly owned subsidiary of Enron Corp., one of the world's leading integrated electricity, natural gas and communications companies. PGE is the single largest distributor of Oregon's electrical energy needs in one of the fastest growing economies in the nation. As a fully integrated utility, PGE serves more than 720,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in northwest

PMI has been dedicated to advancing the state of the art in managing projects for over 30 years. The organization establishes project management standards and provides educational programs and professional certification. More information about PMI may be obtained by calling the organization's headquarters at near Philadelphia, PA 610/356- Portland General Electric Kregg Arntson, 503/464-7695

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10 NRC Relocating Public Document Room Services From Washington, D.C. to Rockville, Maryland

NRC NEWS
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
TELEPHONE: 301/415-8200 WASHINGTON, DC 20555-001
No. 00-138
September 13, 2000

As first announced in March, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will relocate its Public Document Room from Washington, D.C., to the agency's Rockville, Maryland, headquarters this month. The move, which is expected to be completed by September 26, is designed to increase efficiency through the co-location of the facility at headquarters.

The Public Document Room (PDR) provides onsite and remote access to a comprehensive collection of publicly available NRC documents in paper, microfiche, or electronic format. The collection includes documents related to NRC licensing proceedings, Commission papers, inspection reports, correspondence on technical, legal and policy matters, and other significant decisions and actions. The PDR's service hours will remain the same: 7:45 a.m. - 4:15 p.m. for the Reading Room, and 8:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. for telephone inquiries.

The new site is located at 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland, on Marinelli Drive directly across from the White Flint Station on Metro's Red Line.

22 through September 25, the Agency Document Access and Management System (ADAMS), which offers members of the public access to agency documents directly from individual personal computers, will be available. Access to the Bibliographic Retrieval System, which includes agency documents that pre-date ADAMS, will be unavailable from September 21 - 25. Full service at the PDR will resume September 26 in its new location.

To check on the status of the move, please check the PDR's web site,

Before the move, the PDR staff is available at 202-634-3273 or 1- 800-397-4209. The phone number at the new location will be 301-415- 4PDR (4737), with the 800 number remaining the same.

The mailing address for the facility also will remain the same:
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Public Document Room, Washington, D.C. 20555. # # # # #

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11 A good defense against N-waste
Wednesday, September 13, 2000
DESERET NEWS EDITORIAL

Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, is on to something. He contends that building a nuclear storage facility in Utah's West Desert might force the closure of the 900,000-acre Utah Test and Training Range that the Air Force uses for bombing practice, air- to-air combat training and other military exercises.

The test range is key to national defense and it should be preserved by Congress, according to Hansen, who will sponsor a bill in Congress to do just that. Such legislation would render it too expensive for anyone to build a nuclear storage facility in or near the test range, such as the temporary disposal facility proposed by Private Fuel Storage to be sited on Skull Valley Goshute land.

As this page has repeatedly said, Utah doesn't want nuclear waste in its back yard, even "temporarily." It should be stored where it is created until a permanent repository is established. If Hansen's bill helps to accomplish that end, Congress should support it wholeheartedly.

Unlike the protests waged at regulatory agencies, Hansen's bill attacks the issue in the pocketbooks of private companies that handle nuclear waste. The bill would prevent a limited liability corporation from transporting high-level nuclear waste through a military zone unless it assumes full liability for any mishap. According to the governor's office, a rail accident involving such waste could range from $9 billion to $200 billion in cost. If the bill passes, Hansen believes no business would be willing to assume total liability for such an incident.

We hope he's right.

As Hansen's bill winds its way through Congress, Utahns who don't want their state turned into a waste dump need to continue to fight this proposed waste facility on other levels. They must continue to lobby county commissioners, federal and state regulatory agencies and other elected officials.

Credit Gov. Mike Leavitt for launching the High- Level Nuclear Waste Opposition Coordinating Council, to be headed by Salt Lake attorneys Frank Suitter and Dan Berman. The council will streamline the efforts of a number of organizations that oppose the Private Fuel Storage bid.

While some Utahns worry what impact siting a nuclear dump in Utah might pose for Utah's public safety and reputation, there is a larger issue at stake. If PFS succeeds in placing a "temporary" facility in Utah, will federal bureaucrats postpone approval of a permanent storage facility? Such a facility has been proposed for Yucca Mountain in Nevada, but President Clinton in April vetoed a bill that would have approved construction of the facility.

Utahns need to be crystal clear on this point. "Temporary" doesn't portend five, 10 or even 15 years. In the eyes of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, temporary means 20 years, with a possible extension of another 20 years.

Suppose PFS can operate on the Goshute reservation without incident for 40 years. Absent any other alternatives, it is highly conceivable the NRC would entertain permanent status.

Utah must not open the door to that possibility.

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12 Czech Republic: U.S. And Russian Officials Discuss Nuclear Waste Disposal
By Tony Wesolowsky
Radio Free Europe
Radio Liberty, Inc
http://www.rferl.org

One of the legacies of the Cold War was the dangerous nuclear waste left behind as the U.S. and the Soviet Union raced to develop nuclear weapons. Officials from both countries are meeting this week in the Czech capital Prague to look at ways to clean up the mess left behind.

Prague, 12 September 2000 (RFE/RL)--This week in Prague, officials from the U.S. Department of Energy are due to meet their Russian counterparts in what has become an annual event for the last 10 years.

Dr. Carolyn L. Huntoon, the assistant secretary for environmental management, told reporters at the start of talks today the meetings are an opportunity for officials to assess progress to date and to discuss further measures to clean up nuclear waste sites. There will also be a symposium looking at contamination in Central and Eastern Europe.

Gerald G. Boyd, deputy assistant for science and technology office of the U.S. Department of Energy, highlights the successes so far of cooperation between the Americans and the Russians:

"There's been a lot of progress made between U.S. and Russia on approaches and ways technologies can be used to deal with high-level waste. We've also worked with [the Russians] on things like decommissioning and decontaminating and dismantling facilities."

Boyd says Russian know-how and technology has been indispensable to tackling some of the more difficult issues surrounding nuclear waste cleanup. One of the biggest Russian contributions went into developing the "pulsating mixer pump," now being deployed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the United States. The pump is used to retrieve highly radioactive sludge containing cesium and strontium. The waste is then immobilized in ceramic or glass containers and stored.

Huntoon says, however, that Russia's financial difficulties leave Moscow struggling to meet the challenge of cleaning up nuclear waste. She says U.S. officials have much more expensive equipment at their disposal.

She recounts a recent meeting in Washington with a delegation from the Russian parliament (State Duma) in which the delegates expressed surprise at American know-how:

"We have this isolation project down in New Mexico in a salt mine deep in the ground [for storing] waste that has been put in containers for it to decay. Normally, this would take many years as you know. [The Duma delegation] was quite fascinated with that. [They] don't have that kind of capability, no place to put the waste once they get it."

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, U.S. scientists are continuing to assist in cleaning up the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. In 1996, both countries established the Chornobyl Center for Nuclear Safety, Radioactive Waste, and Radioecology. A few months ago, the Pioneer robot, jointly developed, was delivered to Chornobyl. It will descend into the sarcophagus, entombing the reactor.

"We believe what it can do is to provide a lot of characterization information of what's inside of that sarcophagus; it's not an environment to which you want to send human beings. [The robot] has the ability to do optical imaging. You can physically see what the inside looks like as well as taking radiation readings and sort of map the whole inside to determine what needs to be done."

Officials hope such state-of-the-art technology, and, more importantly, the sharing of it, will go a long ways to cleaning up the nuclear waste.

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13 BNFL AND RUSSIA
Ireland.com - The Irish Times - LETTERS
Wednesday, September 13, 2000

Sir, - Your Editorial "BNFL and Russia" (August 31st) speculates that BNFL may emerge as one of the leading companies to undertake decommissioning and other contracts to deal with Russia's legacy of nuclear waste and to bring Russian nuclear installations up to acceptable safety standards.

This prospect, you say, "is enough to make one's hair stand on end." You conclude by suggesting that BNFL could gain invaluable experience, technique and credibility and advance practice by starting off with Sellafield as a pilot decommissioning project.

We, the workforce, have become accustomed to harsh criticism and sometimes cheap shots directed at us, our company and our community over the past several months in the wake of the NII reports on safety standards at Sellafield and the MOX fuel data scandal.

We accept that much of the harsh criticism was deserved. As a workforce, we have acknowledged our own role in the crisis that engulfed our company and did so much damage to its reputation as a world-class nuclear company seeking to operate to the highest standards.

We have fought back. We set up the Sort Out Sellafield campaign with the leaders of our community. We have demanded change in the management of safety across this site from the company and from our political leaders.

We are implementing the company's scheduled programme to meet all the NII's recommendations. Contrary to the inference in your editorial, Sellafield has not remained static over the past several months. A great deal of progress has been made. That there is much more to be done in the coming months is recognised and acknowledged by everyone working on this site.

One area of our work of which we remain justifiably proud is our record on decommissioning old and redundant plant and facilities at Sellafield itself and other nuclear sites in the UK.

The experience gained in this work and the expertise acquired have been instrumental in the success of the company in competing for contracts to clean up the legacy of the Cold War in the United States as well as our work on many projects in Russia in cooperation with other European companies, some of which were listed in the article you published on August 30th. We do not have "pretensions towards expertise" in decommissioning work; we already have the expertise and the technologies, many developed through our experience of reprocessing at Sellafield, that apply to this work.

With respect to your views, we hope our company, BNFL, will ultimately play a major role in much-needed decommissioning and safety standards work in Russia - not just because that work needs to be urgently carried out, but also because we know that BNFL can make an invaluable contribution to the success of any such clean-up programme. - Yours, etc., JOHN KANE, SECRETARY, SELLAFIELD SHOP STEWARDS COMMITTEE, BNFL, SELLAFIELD, CUMBRIA.

ALL LETTERS SHOULD BE ADDRESSED: Letters to the Editor, The Irish Times, 10-16 D'Olier Street, Dublin 2.

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14 Thai officials face probe over radiation leak
Radio Australia News - 13/09/00:

Thailand's Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment says two atomic energy officials will face a disciplinary probe over their handling of Thailand's worst radiation leak that killed three people.

The two officials work for the state Office of Atomic Energy which was responsible for locating the leak and the clear-up operation.

Aspokesman for the Ministry says a committee found that the leak was caused because of the two officials' neglect.

The leak happened in February at a scrap yard in a suburb of Bangkok, where a cylinder of the isotope cobalt-60 from an old X-ray machine was opened up by workers who salvaged it without knowing what it was.

Three of them died of ailments caused by the radiation and at least eight more people were left in serious condition.

Most of the victims were scrap yard workers who suffered a rapid drop of white-blood cells, hair loss and burns.

Health authorities are still monitoring 500 local people including five pregnant women for possible medical problems from radiation. One of the women had an abortion four months into her pregnancy, fearing birth defects.

from Pacnews, Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Reuters which is copyright and cannot be reproduced.

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15 USEC Finance Probe Ends
LAS VEGAS SUN
September 12, 2000
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP)--The Nuclear Regulatory Commission told lawmakers Tuesday it has completed a study of the U.S. Enrichment Corp.'s finances and ruled out further action.

USEC is the major world supplier of enriched uranium fuel for commercial nuclear power plants, the only uranium enrichment company in the United States. It supplies about three-fourths of the U.S. market and more than a third of the world's.

The company has been hurt by falling uranium prices. In the last year, it has laid off workers, seen its credit rating reduced to junk-bond level and decided to close one of its two enrichment facilities, the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio.

Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Ohio, has been trying to force the company not to close the Piketon plant. The NRC decision was a blow to Strickland's campaign.

In a letter to House Commerce Committee Chairman Tom Bliley, R-Va., the NRC's chairman noted the company financial problems but said there was no cause for action.

Because of the financial trouble, regulators were asked to examine whether USEC remained capable of fulfilling the legal requirement that it be a "reliable and economical domestic source of enrichment services."

If USEC were found unable to meet that requirement, the NRC could pull the company's certification. In the letter to Bliley, NRC Chairman Richard Meserve said doing that would "shut down a domestic supply altogether and thus would not serve the ... broader statutory purpose."

"On the basis of this recent review of USEC's financial situation, we conclude that we should not take action to modify, suspend or revoke the certificates of certification," Meserve wrote.

"We do not believe that any further NRC study of the USEC situation is justified, particularly in view of the fact that NRC is limited in the action it can take to address the maintenance of domestic enrichment services."

USEC had insisted it would continue to be the reliable source of domestic uranium that the law requires.

Strickland, the Ohio congressman, said he disagrees with the NRC's interpretation of the requirement that USEC maintain a reliable domestic uranium industry. "I don't know how they do that," he said. "They have in a most illogical way chosen to interpret language in the privatization agreement."

Bliley's staff has been gathering documents in preparation for a possible hearing into USEC's finances. As of Tuesday, a hearing had not been scheduled.

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16 Strickland hammers nuclear commission for inaction on USEC
Wednesday, September 13, 2000
The Columbus Dispatch
JONATHAN RISKIND
Dispatch Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON--A federal review of USEC's financial condition has painted a bleak picture of the privatized federal corporation's prospects for long-term survival, Rep. Ted Strickland said yesterday.

But the Lucasville Democrat said he's angry that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has decided against taking any action against the company that runs southern Ohio's soon-to- be-closed uranium-enrichment plant.

Strickland said a report by the commission suggests there are more scenarios where USEC is buried in a sea of red ink over the next few years than where USEC continues in its role as the country's sole producer of enriched uranium.

"This analysis lays out clearly that this industry is going down the tubes,'' he said.

Strickland says the report, not yet released publicly but outlined for lawmakers and their staffs in Capitol Hill briefings this week, is fodder for his contention that USEC should be taken back by the federal government.

A USEC spokesman said since the company has not seen the report, it could not comment. Spokesman Charles Yulish said a speech given last week by William H. Timbers, USEC president and chief executive officer, rebutted claims that the company is failing financially.

"The doom-and-gloom scenarios about USEC's prospects are greatly exaggerated,'' Timbers said in the speech at a conference on international nuclear-materials policy in Virginia.

"USEC certainly has taken its hits . . . (but) we are dealing with and resolving these problems as only a private-sector company is equipped to do--a company that is still the global market leader with substantial cash flows and modest debt.''

USEC, formerly United States Enrichment Corp., runs the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio, and a sister facility in Paducah, Ky. The enriched uranium the plants produce is used as fuel for the nuclear-power plants that supply about 20 percent of the country's electricity.

USEC is shutting down the Piketon plant in June as part of cost- cutting efforts, and some critics have questioned whether it eventually will only broker material it buys from Russia and stop being a domestic producer at all.

"This confirms much of what I have been warning about,'' Strickland said of the commission's report. "The only way they (USEC) can make money is to become a broker of Russian (material) and cease operations.''

There isn't much chance of action this year on Strickland's proposal to re-federalize USEC, and the legislation's prospects next year in a new Congress and under a new president also are uncertain. However, Strickland said he hopes Congress will pass legislation next year preventing Piketon from closing its doors until Paducah has been certified as able to operate successfully.

A regulatory commission spokeswoman declined comment yesterday.

But a letter from commission Chairman Richard A. Meserve to Virginia Republican Tom Bliley, chairman of the House Commerce Committee, said a requirement for USEC to remain a "reliable and economical domestic source of enrichment services'' is not violated by USEC's financial condition.

That requirement pertained mainly to USEC not being bought out by a foreign entity, not to the company's ability to manufacture its product, Meserve said in the letter dated Monday and obtained by The Dispatch.

In any case, if the commission yanked USEC's license for not being financially sound, that would leave the country without a domestic source of enriched uranium, Meserve said.

"We do not believe that any further NRC study of the USEC situation is justified, particularly in view of the fact that (the) NRC is limited in the action it can take to address the maintenance of domestic enrichment services,'' Meserve said.

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NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS

1 Cantwell clarifies FFTF position at Pasco rally
2 INEEL to recycle radioactive metal
3 Lab Reports Higher Radioactive Levels
4 CYANIDE, OTHER POISONS FOUND IN LOS ALAMOS STORM RUNOFF
5 Lingering questions on lab's facelift
6 K-25 water samples found safe
7 Opinion - Our Views: DOE plans for ORNL exciting, but preliminary
8 DOE chief pledges support for sick nuclear workersRenovation
9 Mill owner to help pay part of cleanup
10 Top nuclear official tours Pantex Plant
11 U.S. Energy Secretary Visits Russian Nuclear Storage Sites
12 Whistleblower clears last hurdle
13 DOE must commit to river cleanup, officials say
14 Hanford uses new technique to pack plutonium

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NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES

1 Cantwell clarifies FFTF position at Pasco rally
TRI-CITY HERALD
Tue, Sep 12, 2000
BY CHRIS MULICK HERALD STAFF WRITER

Maria Cantwell made her third campaign stop in the Tri-Cities on Monday with next Tuesday's primary election looming to determine which Democrat will face U.S. Sen Slade Gorton in November.

About 70 supporters and organizers showed up at a rally at Pasco's Volunteer Park to hear the former state legislator, congresswoman and Internet executive make her pitch.

"Get charged up," she told the audience. "Go back and tell people we're going to get it done."

The only notable change in rhetoric was a further clarification of Cantwell's stand on a possible restart of Hanford's Fast Flux Test Facility. During an earlier trip to the Tri-Cities, Cantwell said she supported a restart for the production of medical isotopes.

But that drew criticism from the Hanford watchdog group Heart of America Northwest. This spring, Cantwell returned a survey sent out by the group saying she opposed a restart of the reactor. Campaign staffers later said there had been a misunderstanding and that Cantwell did support a restart.

On Monday, Cantwell said she wants to wait until a federal study to determine possible uses of the facility is completed before making a decision.

"I want the process to go through," Cantwell said. " Let's see what the research shows."

Washington Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn, Cantwell's opponent in the primary, opposes a restart of the experimental reactor, calling it a "solution looking for a problem."

Cantwell never mentioned Senn by name during her brief remarks, saving her few pointed remarks for Gorton.

"I think it's time for him to go," she said.

Cantwell talked of lowering prescription drug costs, reducing classroom sizes and learning more about Washington by taking bus tours of the state in her specially equipped tour bus.

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2 INEEL to recycle radioactive metal
Idaho State Journal
BY ANNE MINARD Journal Staff Writer

POCATELLO - Idaho could soon contribute radioactively contaminated metal to a newly revamped national recycling program.

The Department of Energy is studying ways to recycle radioactively contaminated scrap metals for use at DOE sites, rather than disposing of them as buried waste or in licensed receiving facilities.

DOE has maintained some recycling programs in the past, but suspended them all in July, prohibiting the release of any metal for recycling if it has detectable radiation. The suspension will continue through the end of the year, when the department expects to establish its recycling policy.

As a preliminary step, the DOE is seeking input from the metals industry in a potential project to recycle up to 60,000 tons of steel per year into waste containers or other items with restricted uses by the department.

The metal would come from department facilities that have been shut down and other environmental management activities across the DOE's large industrial complex.

One DOE official in Washington estimated that nationally, upwards of two million tons of scrap metal are in surplus storage and would be eligible for such a program.

"What we have in inventory now is stainless steel and carbon steel," said John Walsh, a spokesman at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. In all, the site holds more than 2, 000 tons of scrap metals that are both contaminated and uncontaminated. The re-evaluation of recycling policies followed a court battle waged last year by the Paper, Allied Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International (PACE) union in Oak Ridge over a radioactively-contaminated metals recycling program there.

While U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler ruled that the lawsuit could interfere with cleanup of a related Superfund site and was therefore illegal, she outlined clear concerns resulting from more than a year of full legal disclosure.

"The potential for environmental harm is great, especially given the unprecedented amount of hazardous material the Defendants (BNFL Inc.) seek to recycle," she wrote in the June 1999 document. She went on to write that BNFL had not provided evidence of the safety of recycling nickel from a nuclear plant, as opposed to other methods of disposal.

"The court is further concerned by the fact that no national standard exists governing the unrestricted release of contaminated metals," the finding reads.

Anne Minard covers science and the environment for the Journal. She may be reached at 239-3168 or by e-mail at aminard@journalnet.com.

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3 Lab Reports Higher Radioactive Levels
Tuesday, September 12, 2000
Albuquerque Journal--> BY DALE LEZON
Journal Staff Writer

Radioactive materials in soil in stormwater runoff from the area scorched by the Cerro Grande Fire deserve further study to determine possible health risks of long-term exposure, according to a report from the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The Aug. 29 report, which cites levels of radioactive material higher than observed before the fire, fuels concerns among some Wagon Mound area residents that fire debris from Los Alamos homes, destined for a private landfill near their community, could be a health threat.

"We want to have the ash and debris sampled for radioactive contaminants," said Kathleen Dudley, a member of the Concerned Citizens of Wagon Mound, a watchdog group.

The state Environment Department has so far declined to test the debris, saying it has no reason to believe it is radioactive.

Los Alamos National Laboratory has scheduled a public meeting with Department of Energy officials to discuss the report at 10 a.m. Friday at the DOE Los Alamos Area Office.

Los Alamos County contracted with a private company to clean up the neighborhoods burned in the fire, which destroyed more than 400 residences.

The company is hauling about 2,000 cubic yards of debris contaminated with asbestos to the Northeastern New Mexico Regional Landfill near Wagon Mound owned by Harold Daniels and operated by Herzog Environmental Inc. So far, between 68 percent and 75 percent of the asbestos-laden debris has been dumped at the landfill, according to the demolition contractor, David Mitchell Construction Inc.

The laboratory tested stormwater samples after the fire on and near lab property and soils in Guaje Canyon. Levels of cesium 137 and strontium 90, byproducts of nuclear experimentation, were found at higher levels after the fire, according to the lab report.

The radionuclide levels will need to be "further evaluated for long-term exposure risks," the report states.

"That is the reason we want the (debris) trucks stopped until testing is done," Dudley said. If levels were higher on and near the lab, they may be higher in the debris, Dudley said.

Bruce Gallaher of the lab's water quality and hydrology group said a team of health professionals, including members of the state Health Department, will review the report for possible health risks.

Gallaher said that radionuclides are present on plants and in the soils from decades of atmospheric nuclear testing. The fire appears to have caused the radionuclides to be concentrated in the burned soil, Gallaher said.

The stormwater tests were undertaken, in part, to understand the lab's possible contribution to area radionuclide levels, he said.

The lab reported some contaminants are known to emanate from the lab but were observed in samples taken prior to the May fire.

Dudley said her group wants Los Alamos County to pay to test the debris and for an independent scientist to analyze the data to make sure the material is not radioactive.

The county, however, is not the appropriate organization to pay for the testing and analysis, said County Manager Joe King.

If Dudley's group wants the debris tested they should apply to the federal Cerro Grande Fire Assistance Act for money to complete the testing, King said.

The act established a procedure for those who suffered losses in the fire to file claims against the government.

King said the county relied on the state Environment Department's assessment that the debris was not radioactive.

"If the state believes that further sampling is needed, we'll listen to the state," King said.

The state Environment Department will not test the residential fire debris for radioactivity, said Deputy Director Paul Ritzma. Nothing indicates the material is radioactive, he said.

The department screened the home sites for radioactivity and found uranium-containing rocks, radium clock faces and smoke detectors that showed radioactivity, he added. Those materials were removed and disposed of at a landfill site licensed to handle radioactive material.

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4 CYANIDE, OTHER POISONS FOUND IN LOS ALAMOS STORM RUNOFF
Albuquerque Tribune Online: News
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ALAMOS--Radioactive contaminants and other chemicals have been found in storm water running onto Los Alamos National Laboratory property.

Lab officials said Monday they believe the contaminants resulted from the Cerro Grande Fire in May, which burned more than 47,000 acres and left hundreds of residents homeless. Bruce Gallaher, a hydrologist with the lab's Water Quality and Hydrology Group, said a team of experts will analyze the results to see whether the runoff could pose a health risk to anyone downstream from the lab.

"Initially, I don't think there is a health threat," Gallaher said.

Most likely, the contaminants will be extremely diluted and won't be a health problem, he said. Lab and state Environment Department officials have been worried for months that flooding in the lab's many canyons after the Cerro Grande Fire could wash contaminants from decades of nuclear weapons work off lab property.

The worst of the contaminated material seems to be coming from the forest above the lab, officials said. Tests of water samples taken this summer -- mostly following storms on June 28 and July 9--showed only small levels of contamination that could have come from the lab's weapons work, Gallaher said.

The radioactive contamination comes from worldwide nuclear fallout, Gallaher said, the result of years of nuclear testing across the globe.

Cyanide was also found in the runoff water in levels five times greater than the New Mexico standard for fishing waters. The state's safe level for cyanide is 22 micrograms per liter of water. Scientists found cyanide levels of 110 micrograms per liter in the Pajarito Canyon.

The lab doesn't use cyanide for its research. Instead, the cyanide could be coming from the residue of fire retardant used to fight the wildfire, Gallaher said. A cyanide compound is added to slurry to protect the tanks, to keep the slurry from hardening and to prevent the bombers from corroding.

The runoff samples also contained amounts of cesium-137, strontium-90 and plutonium greater than prefire levels. Lab officials said the radioactivity likely came from fallout from the 1950s and 1960s because the contaminated water was coming from headwaters above lab canyons in the mountains.

"The results indicate that the fire caused the transfer and concentrations of these radionuclides from the forest canopy and in the forest litter to the ashy layer of the burned surface soil," Gallaher said.

Lab environmental workers, as well as the Department of Energy Emergency Rehabilitation Team, will meet Friday to discuss the results of the water samples.

The state Environment Department also is monitoring the runoff in the lab canyons and elsewhere.

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5 Lingering questions on lab's facelift
The Knoxville News-Sentinel

There was considerable hoopla in Oak Ridge this week with the visit by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, who gave a public endorsement to the modernization plans at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

As the secretary was quick to note, the complex negotiations on the project are by no means final, although he insisted, "It's going to happen."

While DOE is expected to fund more than half the $200 million, five- year effort, the state is pledging $26 million for four new facilities at the laboratory--a commitment put forth last year when the University of Tennessee got involved in the competition to manage the federal lab.

The X factor in ORNL's facelift is the use of private money.

There are many unanswered questions about the project, most of them regarding the use of federal property for state-owned or privately financed facilities at ORNL. That's been a no-no in the past, and DOE apparently is moving quite guardedly on the proposal put forth by UT-Battelle--the ambitious new manager of the national laboratory.

According to Jeff Smith, the lab's deputy director for operations, one likely scenario is for DOE to transfer the property to a not- for-profit company that would hold title to the lab land--thus enabling privately financed developments.

"It can't be UT-Battelle, but it would be a UT-Battelle subsidiary because eventually--once the facilities are developed and constructed in the private sector--UT-Battelle, the M&O (management and operating) contractor would want to lease those facilities to use them in support of the DOE missions.

"We can't lease to ourselves."

There also are reports that DOE wants the property to revert back to the federal government at some point, say 30 or 50 years down the road.

"We're still looking at how the ultimate disposition of the land will be addressed," Smith said.

Yet, the big thing is getting the land out of federal hands, according to Smith.

Why?

"Primarily so we can get the private money into it, because the private sector won't put the money into the game unless they have some control over the property, and that's kind of a first principle."

Battelle is offering to put up $50 million in loan guarantees to develop the private part of the new laboratory, assuming liability for some of the uncertainties inherent to dealing with the federal government and the federal budget process.

"We have to guarantee to the developers that the facility will be rentable for an extended period of time because you can't amortize an investment like that over a year or two," Smith said.

"The Department (of Energy) will not guarantee to anybody that they will lease those facilities more than one year at a time .... We expect to lease those facilities back to the Department for use in support of the mission here at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. If the Department chooses not to lease those facilities, and they're under no obligation to do so, someone is going to have to guarantee the developer they'll get their money out of the investment.

"Battelle makes that guarantee."

* Dr. Frank Akers, ORNL's national security chief, was instrumental in bringing Gen. Henry Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to town last week as part of the Distinguished Lecture Series.

Akers and Shelton are military pals and mutual admirers, having trained and served together. Akers, as he introduced the nation's top military officer, said Shelton was an ideal choice to talk about the concept of "technological overmatch."

ORNL's associate director used a popular film, "Raiders of the Lost Ark," to describe what he meant by technological overmatch. He asked scientists and engineers in the audience to recall a scene where Indiana Jones is taking on all comers with his bullwhip.

"Finally, a guy appears with two swords, and he's brandishing the swords, and the sunlight is glinting off the swords. Indiana Jones very calmly throws down his bullwhip, pulls out his pistol and shoots the guy. That is technological overmatch. That's what we try in every thing we do."

Once Shelton took the stage, he told Akers he wished he'd brought his pistol.

The general opened up with a little humor of his own.

"As I thought about what I wanted to talk about this morning, I was reminded of the story of a book report that a little boy wrote one time .... He wrote a book report on 'Julius Caesar.' 'Julius Caesar lived a long time ago. Julius Caesar was a general. Julius Caesar gave long speeches. They killed him.' With that in mind, I promise my comments this morning will be relatively brief."

He kept his promise.

Frank Munger covers the Department of Energy for the News-Sentinel. He can be reached at 423-482-9213 or at twig1@knoxnews.infi.net. This column is also available on the Web at www.knoxnews.com/editorsview/ munger/

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6 K-25 water samples found safe
TESTS PROMPTED BY EMPLOYEE CONCERNS
Oak Ridger Online
Wednesday, September 13, 2000
Oak Ridger staff

Water at the Oak Ridge K-25 Site is safe to drink.

Steven Wyatt, a Department of Energy spokesman, confirmed the safety of the water this morning. The complete details on the recent water sampling at the federal facility won't be available until early next week.

DOE's water sampling of the K-25 Site, which was conducted in early August, was a result of employee concerns that cross-connecting lines for sanitary, fire and cooling waters and steam and storm drains was a possible way employees could be exposed to hazardous materials at the site. Those concerns were voiced during a July 31 DOE public meeting.

Even before the water sampling began, local DOE officials insisted the water was safe.

The samples were taken by OMI, the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee's contractor for the water plant and distribution system. The federally funded CROET is responsible for ensuring effective reindustrialization of the K-25 site.

Representatives from the Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee, the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union and the Environmental Protection Agency were among those witnessing the sampling process.

Once the samples were taken, OMI and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation officials sealed the vials with specially marked tape for shipment to a state-certified laboratory for analysis. In addition, representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency conducted their own sampling of half of the 25 selected areas at the K-25 site.

Results from the EPA's sampling were not available.

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7 Opinion - Our Views: DOE plans for ORNL exciting, but preliminary
Oak Ridger Online
Wednesday, September 13, 2000

Certainly Oak Ridge and a wider East Tennessee area are hopeful that the Department of Energy will make good on an announced $200 million renovation of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, including replacement of outdated buildings with new state-of-the-art facilities.

The announcement at ORNL this week, by none other than Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, would see construction of 11 new facilities and the renovation of several others starting as early as next year.

But while we join the chorus of cheers among those hoping all of this can become reality, we also find it difficult to suspend the skepticism that necessarily accompanies conditional pronouncements.

Some will find that skepticism rooted in the fact that a rather partisan energy secretary chose just now to make the announcement in a state, and region, that should safely cast its votes for his boss come November, but that polls suggest is no sure thing. Mr. Richardson, once considered a vice presidential possibility, is not above playing politics, as the events leading to his suspension of radioactive metals recycling in Oak Ridge suggest.

But the hurdles facing realization of $200 million in renovations at ORNL may prove more subtle than all that.

For one thing, there is the not-so-little matter of congressional approval of funding for the ambitious renovations at ORNL. That DOE and the secretary are recommending it is, of course, a clear boost.

But, for another, there is the matter of coordinating state and UT- Battelle efforts toward completion of the project. This arrangement raises yet-unaddressed questions about the fine lines of using federal property to advance state-owned or privately financed lab facilities.

And, just to show that what goes around does come around, the issue of federal property and private financing renews an old debate about the need for the Department of Energy to return control of federally held lands to local control and ownership.

The renovations at the lab are by no means a done deal. But they do represent a promise from the energy secretary which, with the proper leadership, can be achieved and for which we will hold Secretary Richardson to his word.

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8 DOE chief pledges support for sick nuclear workers
Renovation plan outlined for ORNL -
Tuesday, September 12, 2000 From Wire Reports

OAK RIDGE--Energy Secretary Bill Richardson on Monday pledged continuing support for a compensation plan to benefit sick nuclear workers that is stalled in Congress.

He and Gov. Don Sundquist also outlined what could be the biggest construction project at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory complex since World War II.

`` In order to confront the past and greet the future we've got to deal with the Cold War and its costs,'' Richardson said in add