------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
*Our nuclear programme is illegal
*Raytheon won a $75 million contract from the Navy
*Lockheed Martin Corp. will modernize control systems of the Air Force
*WHAT'S NEXT Mega-network: Strength in Numbers
*Prosecutor: Finding Lee's documents top priority in deal
*U.S. nuclear compensation bill may flounder
*Political Site Steps Back in Time
*Yucca Mountain Delays Could Cost U.S. Taxpayers Billions
*Boeing's development of newest anti-missile defense system
*A clinic where cancer patients underwent experimental treatments

MILITARY
*Bolivian chief cancels trip amid protests
*Under Pressure, Putin Postpones Military Cuts
*Russian Aircraft Carrier Now a Park
*Clinton Adviser Says U.S. Overreacted to Spy Fears
*Justice Officials Criticize Federal Judge in Lee Case
*Proposed Missile Defense Tested
*Crash of cruise missile investigated
*Death linked to anthrax vaccine
*Air Force Probes Nev. Missile Crash
*Two killed in Navy training crash
*Military officers boost funding requests
*A Four-Star Foreign Policy?

OTHER
*Ballard buys stake in QuestAir to get pure hydrogen
*UniSource Energy boosts solar power investment
*Red List of Threatened Species Reveals Global Extinction Crisis
*Grand jury indicts oil pipeline company
*a cancer-causing chemical element in drinking water
*Never clean enough?

ACTIVISTS
*Protesters claim victory as summit ends



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

-------- britain

Our nuclear programme is illegal
The high court is to examine a remarkable ruling against Trident

George Monbiot
Thursday September 28, 2000
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/comment/story/0%2C3604%2C374144%2C00.html

I was on my way to address a fringe meeting on political participation in Brighton on Tuesday when I encountered a large crowd marching along the seafront. Feeling that I should practice what I was about to preach, I joined it. I discovered that the rally had been convened by my old friends the Countryside Alliance.

I soon grasped the themes of the march, and I thought I would help out by shouting some fitting slogans: such as "bring back badger baiting", "back to the Middle Ages" and "feudalism now!" To my astonishment, far from applauding my sentiments, my fellow marchers first started jostling me, then requested an officer of the law to apprehend me. This he duly did, and cautioned me under section 5 of the 1986 Public Order Act. The act, the policeman told me, says that "anyone using words or signs likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to any other may be guilty of an offence".

I asked the policeman whether I would be committing an offence if the slogans I had been shouting had met with the approval of the crowd. He told me I would not. So the legality of my actions, I asked, depends on the political content of what I am saying? "In this case, sir, yes".

A few months ago I argued that our legal system was built on a pre-democratic framework. Since then, however, I have come across two cases of peaceful protesters being arrested or cautioned under the Justices of the Peace Act. This progressive measure was passed in 1361: it predates, in other words, not only democracy, but also parliament. Our legal system was established by a handful of propertied people, to defend them from the objections of those they had dispossessed. It has been used to suppress public participation ever since.

But now, thanks to a series of spectacular cases, Britain's feudal law is on the verge of falling apart. Last week, a jury decided that 28 Greenpeace activists had "lawful excuse" to destroy a field of GM maize. On the same day, a Manchester jury failed to reach a verdict in the case of two women who had partly destroyed a nuclear submarine. In October last year, a sheriff instructed the jury in Greenock court to acquit three women who had thrown all the Trident laboratory's computer equipment into Loch Goil. Having heard that Trident's 100-kiloton warheads could not be used selectively, but would inevitably kill millions of non-combatants if they were deployed, she explained that the women "were justified in thinking" that Trident "is an infringement of international and customary law" and that they had an "obligation in terms of international law to do whatever they could to stop the deployment and use of nuclear weapons in situations which could be construed as a threat".

Tomorrow, the legal implications of this remarkable judgment will be examined by the high court. The three women will argue that the new Human Rights Act will render the sheriff's judgment unchallengeable: Britain's nuclear programme has been declared illegal, and there is nothing that either the judiciary or the government can do about it. Though a complete absence of press coverage south of the border might suggest otherwise, this is surely one of the most significant legal cases ever to be heard in the British courts.

As the Human Rights Act looms into view, the government is beginning to panic. Concerned that juries are using their moral judgment to interpret the law, it seems to be doing all it can to shore up Britain's oppressive legal system. Protesters arrested for destroying a GM crop in Dorset this summer complain about what they perceive as overt political interference in the judicial process. While they were to have been tried for criminal damage, which would have brought them before a jury, the crown prosecution service has reduced the charges to aggravated trespass, which will be heard in a magistrates' court. The defendants are pressing for more serious charges, while the prosecution is arguing for leniency.

Jack Straw's attempts to limit trial by jury, which the Lords will start re-examining this week, are beginning to look less like a plan to save money and more like an effort to keep sensitive cases out of the hands of ordinary men and women, who might be moved to agree with the legal arguments raised against the excessive powers of the state and the corporations. This is not, after all, how the legal system is supposed to work.

But these are desperate, rearguard actions to defend a system which is becoming ever less capable of resisting democratic challenges. The next few months could, as a result, prove to be among the most exciting periods ever in British politics, as the weight of the law is turned against the very systems it was established to defend. Thanks to the challenges presented by a tiny number of courageous people, Britain may never be the same again.

g.monbiot@zetnet.co.uk

--------

-------- business

DIGEST

Compiled from reports by the Associated Press, Bloomberg News, Dow Jones News Service and Washington Post staff writers
Thursday , September 28, 2000 ; Page E01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A32814-2000Sep28&language=printer

Raytheon, the third-largest U.S. defense contractor, said it won a $75 million contract from the Navy to make 272 guidance systems for high-speed missiles. The systems would make the weapons more effective against surface-to-air missiles and would help replace those used during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.

---------

BUSINESS NOTES

Thursday, September 28, 2000 ; Page M10 Lockheed Contract
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A33481-2000Sep28&language=printer

Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin Corp. will modernize the air, missile and space command and control systems of the Air Force over the next 15 years in a new contract worth $1.5 billion.

The modernization effort is designed to upgrade and integrate the Air Force's 40 individually controlled operating systems into one technology infrastructure that will allow military commanders to handle duties in a more coordinated manner. It will enable them to respond more quickly to enemy action with improved strategic and tactical coordination.

-------- europe

WHAT'S NEXT Mega-network: Strength in Numbers

New York Times
September 27, 2000
By ROBERT HERCZ
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/28/technology/28NEXT.html

WHO makes the greatest demands on computer networks? Napster fans, real-time gamers, corporate video conferencers?

Ha. They're amateurs compared with your average particle physicist. Researchers are developing an entirely new kind of computer network to accommodate the data expected to come from the next-generation particle accelerator scheduled to go live in 2005 at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known by the French acronym CERN. Each year, the CERN accelerator, near Geneva, will generate a petabyte (one billion megabytes) of experimental data, all thirstily awaited by thousands of physicists in 30 countries.

Other scientific megaprojects will also be served by the new system. In time, the new network - GriPhyN (pronounced "griffin"), for Grid Physics Network - may transform the Internet.

GriPhyN will be far from the simple data delivery system familiar to users of the World Wide Web. It will be the first large- scale data grid, an intelligent network that will deliver not just raw data, but also the power to do challenging computations. To GriPhyN users, thousands of computers and millions of gigabytes of data will look like one single computing engine of unprecedented power.

If a physicist at the California Institute of Technology, for example, requested a particular analysis, GriPhyN would locate not just the data, but also sufficient computing power for the job. The data might be pulled from disk drives in a dozen different countries and sent to computers in a dozen others for processing, with only the final results reaching Caltech. If more than one copy of the data resided in the network, GriPhyN would make an intelligent choice, based on the expense of moving it, in deciding which copy to call up. If another scientist has already done some or all of the calculations, the network would know where to find the work. The whole process will be invisible to users, who will simply initiate requests and let GriPhyN attend to the details.

"We want be able to take advantage of resources that an individual may not have at any one institution," said Dr. Paul Avery, a high-energy physicist at the University of Florida and the lead scientist for GriPhyN, "a whole network of resources that he can bring to bear on a single problem. That way he can solve much larger-scale problems than can be solved today."

The project, led by the Universities of Florida and Chicago, has just received $11.9 million from the National Science Foundation for research and development. The network itself will cost another $70 million to build.

It will link scientists involved in four megascale projects in astronomy and physics: the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory and two experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN to find the origins of mass. The Sloan sky survey, based in New Mexico, has already begun mapping 100 million astronomical objects in one-quarter of the sky; next year, the gravitational-wave observatory, based in Louisiana and Washington, will start measuring the gravitational waves (predicted by Albert Einstein in 1916 but never directly observed) produced by violent events in the universe.

Perhaps it is no coincidence that CERN was also the birthplace of the World Wide Web. (Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first Web software at CERN in 1990 and 1991.) GriPhyN is an invention born of the same need for better tools for collaboration.

"We're desperate," Dr. Avery said. "The experiments at CERN require so much data movement that they actually need this grid system. It's not so much a good idea as a necessary one."

GriPhyN is not a hardware challenge. With Internet bandwidth doubling every year, scientists do not have to build a physical network; they can buy the capacity they need from Internet service providers. It is the software - the intelligence in the network - that will be difficult. The central task of keeping track of petabytes of data is far from trivial. GriPhyN researchers have decided to adopt a "virtual data" model, which means that, unknown to users, not everything offered in the data "catalog" will physically exist. Instead, data sets will be derived from other data on demand.

"As long as you have a recipe for creating the data, it doesn't have to actually exist," Dr. Avery said. "It might be much cheaper, if you have a lot of resources, to recalculate a lot of the raw data on the fly, rather than store it, because it may just be too big. In other cases, because it may be expensive to calculate, it may be much cheaper for you to store it in more than one place."

Of course, if multiple copies of data exist, GriPhyN will have to ensure that they are all kept current. In addition, the network has to be able to function even if pieces of it crash - if one processor or disk drive goes down, the network must not come to a halt. It must also be secure, able to identify authorized users and determine what they are allowed to do, and scalable, able to manage the load as the collection of data grows and new experiments, scientists and computers are added.

Grid computing is not a new idea. Last June, Globus, a software project for grid computing that has been in development since 1996, helped solve a 32-year-old mathematical challenge that was beyond the power of any single computer. More than 1,000 computers around the world, many of them desktop workstations, were tapped by the network, and the problem was solved in a week. Globus's tools will be also used by GriPhyN.

"Individual computers have become powerful enough that they're interesting resources," said Dr. Ian Foster, an associate professor of computer science at the University of Chicago who is a member of both the Globus and the GriPhyN teams. "You can take a lot of desktop machines and build clusters that have the capabilities of supercomputers."

That idea is already being introduced to millions of ordinary Internet users via projects like SETI@home, which uses the idle time of thousands of computers to analyze data from radio telescopes, looking for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence. Dr. Avery predicts that GriPhyN's far greater capabilities will attract wide interest, at first from other researchers, like biologists sharing information about gene and protein structures, and then from corporations that want to do things like extracting customer information from large databases. To service such companies, commercial grids might spring up.

"Computing will become more and more of a commodity," Dr. Avery said, "much like electricity is now. If you plug a toaster in, you don't care where the electricity comes from. In the same way, we're hoping that in the future you won't care where you get your computing from or your storage. You basically plug in, and you just expect some storage to take place or some computing to take place. It's an economy."

But even if that happens, ambitious computations will bump against limits. "Computing is always going to be a scarce resource," Dr. Avery said. "It will never be too cheap to meter."

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

-------- new mexico

Prosecutor: Finding Lee's documents top priority in deal

Washington Times
September 28, 2000
By Jerry Seper THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://208.246.212.80/national/default-2000928223414.htm

A federal prosecutor told a Senate subcommittee yesterday the government opted for a plea agreement with Wen Ho Lee after his attorneys threatened a "long slow death march" of a public trial that could have revealed top nuclear weapons secrets.

U.S. Attorney Norman Bay of New Mexico also defended the deal as necessary in ongoing efforts to find missing computer tapes illegally copied by Lee that contain sensitive nuclear weapons design and testing data.

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on administrative oversight and the courts, Mr. Bay echoed comments Tuesday by FBI Director Louis J. Freeh -who said a deal allowing Lee to plead guilty to one of 59 felony counts charged in an indictment was made for "one overarching reason: to find out what happened to the missing tapes."

Lee, 60, pleaded guilty this month to illegally transferring data on the design, manufacture and use of nuclear weapons from classified computers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico to an unsecured computer.

At least seven and as many as 14 tapes copied by Lee are still missing. Mr. Freeh called them part of Lee's "own secret, portable, personal trove of this nation's nuclear weapons secrets."

Meanwhile, George Tenet, director of the CIA, said yesterday that secrets downloaded by Lee could offer another country "a graduate course in nuclear weapons design" but not the means to actually build a bomb. In a written statement to the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, Mr. Tenet said the data could help primarily from a design perspective, providing insight and guidance in nuclear weapons design.

"The actual value of the information depends in large part on the capabilities of the country or group that received it," Mr. Tenet said, adding that the CIA did not play any decision-making role in the question of whether Lee should have been prosecuted.

During yesterday's subcommittee hearing, Chairman Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Republican, questioned the plea agreement and asked Mr. Bay and other Justice Department officials if a deal was possible prior to Lee's December 1999 arrest.

He noted that U.S. District Judge James Parker, who oversaw the case and apologized to Lee for his nine-month pretrial detention, said at a Sept. 13 sentencing hearing that Lee made a written offer in December 1998 saying he would explain the missing tapes under polygraph examination.

"What more did you get on Sept. 13 than an agreement to explain the missing tapes with the check of a polygraph examination?" Mr. Specter asked.

Mr. Bay said Lee's December 1998 offer did not contain an agreement to plead to any of the pending felony charges against him, and the offer only said Lee was willing to provide a proffer and take a polygraph. He also said he did not believe Judge Parker was aware of several discussions between the government and Lee's attorneys in the nine-month period after the indictment.

He said it would have been "very unusual" to have brought the judge "into any kind of pre-negotiations before the case was decided," adding that the judge's comments from the bench came as a "complete surprise to us."

"We dearly wish, Mr. Chairman, we had had the opportunity to talk to the court beforehand and to see what his specific concerns were, and to see whether or not we could allay them," Mr. Bay said. "But we went through this mediation process, and part of mediation is you resolve a case in the spirit of mediation. So, to be honest with you, I was very much blindsided by the judge's comments."

Regarding the final agreement, Mr. Bay said Lee promised to cooperate for a year and to sit for 10 days of debriefings over a three-week period. He also said the deal was structured in such a way that if Lee lies, he can be prosecuted for false statements, perjury and obstruction of justice. In addition, he said, the government can set aside the plea agreement and reinstate the 58 remaining counts.

Assistant Attorney General James Robinson, who heads the Justice Department's criminal division, said Lee's December 1999 offer to cooperate came on the "very day that the grand jury was returning its indictment." He said Lee's attorneys offered "very, very limited" cooperation and no way to test the validity of Lee's anticipated testimony.

Mr. Robinson said that during lengthy negotiations between Lee and the government, Lee was willing to provide information only in exchange for immunity and, at times, only in exchange for possible pleas to misdemeanors. He said the final agreement gives the government "the best hope" in locating the missing tapes.

-------- us nuc politics

U.S. nuclear compensation bill may flounder - DOE

USA: September 28, 2000
Story by Margarita Martin-Hidalgo
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=8367

WASHINGTON - A bill to compensate thousands of government nuclear workers who suffer from radiation-related diseases may fail to pass Congress this year because of disagreements over the $938 million cost, a top Department of Energy (DOE) official said.

Assistant Energy Secretary David Michaels said the bill was floundering in the House of Representatives because lawmakers view the five-year proposal for ailing former nuclear workers as too costly.

Michaels also criticised a House proposal to further examine the issue before making any payments.

"The offer proposed by the House of Representatives will require additional studies and legislation before a single dollar will be paid to a single worker," Michaels said.

"We do not think additional studies or legislation are needed," he added.

The Clinton administration and congressional Democrats are urging Republicans to pass the legislation before Congress ends its session in October.

"That is a callous disregard for the innocent victims who suffer from radiation-related illnesses," Sen. Richard Bryan, a Democrat from Nevada, told Reuters, referring to the House proposal.

A House official said lawmakers want a "common sense" compromise.

"We want to have a programme that helps these people without busting the budget," said John Feehery, spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican.

The Senate version of the legislation provided compensation of $200,000 per person or a surviving member, but the House version lacks any compensation provision, Bryan said.

About 600,000 employees worked at 16 major nuclear facilities and dozens of smaller sites around the country during World War II and the Cold War. Thousands were exposed to high levels of radiation and beryllium, and later developed diseases such as cancer and silicosis, Michaels said.

Nearly 6,000 cases of sick workers are known, and between 50 and 100 are expected to be reported every year, Michaels said.

Bryan said the Senate bill would give surviving former employees, including clerical workers, who have diseases caused by their exposure to the toxic substances about $200,000 each in compensation.

In cases where workers have since died, the family would be entitled to a lump sum payment in the same amount, he said.

In an unprecedented move, the U.S. government acknowledged in January that employees who participated in building the nation's nuclear arsenal had unusually higher cancer rates.

The Energy Department has released a list of government nuclear sites and private sub-contractors that produced nuclear weapons. Some of the workers in the 1940's and 1950s were exposed to radiation levels higher than the standard, the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, a private environmental watchdog group, said earlier this month.

----

Political Site Steps Back in Time

New York Times
September 28, 2000
By MATTHEW MIRAPAUL
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/28/technology/28GFLO.html

A new Web feature lets you compare TV commercials and pick a candidate: Ike or Adlai. The Living Room Candidate, an online version of a 1992 exhibition at the American Museum of the Moving Image (ammi.org), has compiled television campaign ads for presidential elections from 1952 to the present. The highlights include campy cartoons from the 1952 Eisenhower-Stevenson race and infamous attack ads from the campaigns of Lyndon B. Johnson (the ad that showed a little girl picking the petals of a daisy - until a nuclear bomb exploded) and George Bush (the Willie Horton ad). The Desktop Candidate area links to sites with TV ads from the 2000 race and archives with the 1996 campaigns' online efforts. Carl Goodman, the museum's curator of digital media, said visitors could examine "parallels between how politicians started to use the then-new medium of television and the kind of baby steps that are being taken now on the Internet." MATTHEW MIRAPAUL

-------- us nuc waste

Yucca Mountain Delays Could Cost U.S. Taxpayers Billions

By Brian Hansen
September 28, 2000 (ENS)
http://ens-news.com/ens/sep2000/2000L-09-28-15.html

WASHINGTON, DC, American taxpayers could be on the hook for some $80 billion in damages because of the U.S. Energy Department's contractual failure to dispose of the nation's ever growing piles of spent nuclear fuel. Republican lawmakers and nuclear power industry representatives issued the warning today during a sometimes combative Senate committee hearing.

The hearing, convened by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, came in the wake of a decision handed down by last month by the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.

The court decision clears the way for nuclear utilities to sue the U.S. government under the provisions of the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which required the Department of Energy to have a geologic repository in place to receive spent nuclear fuel by January of 1998.

Aerial view of Yucca Mountain, Nevada (Photo courtesy The Study Committee)

No such repository has yet been constructed, though the Department of Energy (DOE) is currently considering a site in western Nevada known as Yucca Mountain.

But until Yucca Mountain or another suitable facility is open for business, thousands of tons of spent nuclear fuel will continue to pile up at power companies and temporary DOE storage sites around the country, lamented Senator Frank Murkowski, an Alaska Republican who chairs the Energy and Natural Resources panel.

"This country is choking on its own nuclear waste," Murkowski said. "If we don't solve the problem of our spent nuclear fuel soon, the American taxpayer will bear the costs of the financial liability."

Alaska Senator Frank Murkowski (Photo courtesy Office of the Senator)

That liability - which was the basis of the court decision handed down last month - is associated with the monies that the DOE has long collected from the nuclear utilities and their subscribers.

The fees are placed in a special Nuclear Waste Fund that is intended to fund the construction of a permanent waste repository. To date, more than $17 billion in fees and interests have been paid into the fund.

The utilities maintain that those fees should be returned to them because a permanent waste repository has not yet been built. They also argue that the government should reimburse them for the tens of billions of dollars in expenses they continue to incur from having to store their wastes on site.

PECO Energy, a Pennsylvania based nuclear utility, reached a settlement agreement with the DOE in July. The first such agreement, the settlement applies only to PECO's Peach Bottom Plant but is intended to be a framework that can be applied to other nuclear power plants. Negotiations for the other plants will be conducted on a plant-by-plant basis.

Peach Bottom Unit #2 nuclear power plant (Photo courtesy Nuclear Regulatory Commission)

The settlement, which will reduce PECO's fees by some $80 million over the next ten years, amounts to a $55 million shortfall for the DOE's Nuclear Waste Fund.

That is very troubling for Murkowski, who wants the fund to be available for construction expenses at Yucca Mountain. Murkowski directed his displeasure with the PECO deal at Dr. Ivan Itkin, director of the Department of Energy's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management.

"You've jeopardized your construction fund," Murkowski thundered at Itkin. "That amount of revenue will not be available to the government to finish Yucca Mountain."

Itkin did his best to shrug off Murkowski's attacks, emphasizing that the key to moving ahead with the project is to ensure that Congress fully funds the DOE's budget proposal for the coming fiscal year.

The DOE has requested $437.5 million to complete the studies it says it needs to make an informed policy decision on the Yucca Mountain project, which is significantly more than the $351 million currently authorized by the Senate appropriations bill.

"At the lower funding level ... we will face significant delays in preparing a site recommendation," said Itkin. "A decision recommending the site could slip for up to a year, and submittal of a license application could slip several years."

Those delays would in turn push back the 2110 target date for accepting nuclear waste at the facility, Itkin said.

Technicians test the suitability of Yucca Mountain to contain the radiation from thousands of tons of high level nuclear waste. (Photo courtesy Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCWM))

Murkowski called that an unacceptable result, noting that further delays in completing the Yucca Mountain project would only increase the substantial financial liabilities that the government has already incurred to the nuclear utility industry.

However, the liabilities that would stem from further delays in the Yucca Mountain approval process would also have environmental repercussions, Murkowski said. If more nuclear plants are forced to shut down because they have nowhere to store their spent fuel, more fossil fuel fired power plants would have to be built in order to make up for the loss in electricity generation, Murkowski said.

"I don't know if the [Clinton] administration has gotten that message, Murkowski said. "It suggests to me that their decisions are being driven solely by an environmental concerns, and we have to have a balance."

The Energy Secretary will decide next year whether to recommend Yucca Mountain to President Clinton as the site for the permanent geological repository. Yucca Mountain is the only site under consideration by the DOE, which has spent some $7 billion on scientific studies at the site.

Deep inside Yucca Mountain, scientists inject a mixture of compressed air and a tracer gas into a borehole. Later, they recover the gases from a separate borehole. By knowing the distance between the boreholes and the travel time for the gas, they determine how fast fluids and gases move through the rock. (Photo courtesy OCWM)

Environmentalists have long maintained that the site would be unsuitable as a geologic repository, arguing that deadly radioactive contaminants would eventually leach out into groundwater flowing under the site.

Murkowski laid blame for the Yucca Mountain delays largely on the doorstep of President Bill Clinton, who earlier this year vetoed a bill that was designed to expedite the shipment of nuclear waste to the Nevada desert site.

Murkowski tried frantically to muster enough votes to override the President's veto, but the effort fell one vote short.

Environmentalists worked hard to defeat the bill, which they derisively dubbed "Mobile Chernobyl." The moniker referred to the Russian nuclear reactor that exploded in 1986 and sent a plume of radioactive particles around the world.

But regardless of the suitability of the site, the transportation program that would be needed to ship wastes to the site would also pose grave risks, activists and scientists note. According to the DOE's current plan, thousands of shipments of nuclear waste would roll down roadways in 43 states. Some 50 million people live within half a mile of the projected routes.

Environmentalists vow to again fight the "Mobile Chernobyl" proposal when it is raised again in Congress.

Nevada Governor Ken Guinn (Photo courtesy Office of the Governor)

But meanwhile, another potential roadblock to the Yucca Mountain project popped up last week, when Nevada Governor Ken Guinn announced that he will seek to pass a state law prohibiting the importation of water into Nevada for the purpose of building the nuclear waste repository.

A significant amount of water would be needed at the site for road building and dust suppression purposes as well as for drinking water.

"We will do everything within our means to see that the Yucca Mountain project dies of thirst," Guinn told the "Las Vegas Review-Journal" newspaper. "My message to the Department of Energy is clear. As long as I'm governor, I will explore every option and use every tool at my disposal to prevent a single drop of Nevada's water being used to create a nuclear waste dumping ground in our state."

Guinn said that a fine of $1 million per gallon of water would be a sufficient deterrent to the DOE.

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

USA Today
09/28/00
States
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Kansas

Wichita - Boeing's development of one of the nation's newest anti-missile defense systems won high praise from a top Air Force official. The Wichita plant is modifying seven 747-400 jets being transformed into aerial platforms for destroying missiles with lasers. During a visit to Boeing on Tuesday, Lawrence Delaney, assistant Air Force secretary for acquisitions, called work to date superb.

-------- nuc other

USA Today
09/28/00
States
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

New Jersey

Belleville - A clinic where cancer patients underwent experimental treatments was ordered to stop accepting new patients. The Garden State Cancer Center failed to monitor patients sickened by radioactive treatments, the Food and Drug Administration said in the order released Tuesday through its Web site. The clinic also conducted research without government approval, the FDA said.

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

-------- drug war

Bolivian chief cancels trip amid protests

Washington Times
September 28, 2000
World Scene Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://208.246.212.80/world/worldscene-2000928213928.htm

LA PAZ, Bolivia - Bolivia's President Hugo Banzer called off a one-week official visit to Japan yesterday to deal with a wave of protests including roadblocks by peasant coca-leaf farmers that have led to five deaths.

The five have been killed since Sunday when security forces tried to break up roadblocks by poor farmers protesting the government's U.S.-backed program to severely restrict cultivation of coca plants - the raw material of cocaine.

The 10 days of roadblocks have caused shortages of some products in major cities. They have been accompanied by separate protests by 130,000 teachers demanding a 50 percent wage increase, and by demonstrators demanding the repeal of a water-rights law, land rights for indigenous groups, the preservation of forests and new social-development efforts.

Mr. Banzer, a former military dictator who was democratically elected in 1997, decided he could not afford to leave the country Oct. 1-8 to visit Japan, said Information Minister Manfredo Kempff.

-------- russia

Under Pressure, Putin Postpones Military Cuts

New York Times
September 28, 2000
By PATRICK E. TYLER
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/28/world/28RUSS.html

MOSCOW, Sept. 27 - Facing opposition from his military commanders, President Vladimir V. Putin postponed plans today to cut the armed forces by a third and said "there will be no wholesale, massive reductions of the Russian armed forces."

Mr. Putin sounded a note of frustration at a meeting of his National Security Council with top military commanders present, saying, "We spend colossal resources on the military, and we allow the military budget to be wasted on peripheral issues that have nothing in common with either the army's combat readiness nor with its direct supplies."

Therefore, he added, "we don't have the right" to make "mechanical" reductions in forces, but rather need to streamline the efficiency of the military. And, he added, "we cannot any longer simply provide for the army's needs without also providing training with high technology and modern equipment."

His remarks seemed to undercut statements this month by Defense Minister Igor D. Sergeyev that between 2001 and 2003, Russian military ranks would be cut to 850,000 from the present level of 1.2 million, a reduction of just under one-third.

Mr. Putin said the issue of national defense could not be addressed "by sheer enthusiasm" in budget cutting, although he said the country was still spending far too much on the military establishment inherited from the Soviet Union. Military, law enforcement and security services take up about 35 percent of the Russian budget.

He said the leaders of all departments with military units had raised objections to the reduction plans disclosed by Marshal Sergeyev.

Prime Minister Mikhail M. Kasyanov and Sergei Ivanov, secretary to the security council, recommended today that Mr. Putin put off any decisions until November.

Mr. Putin said that despite the need for reductions, "our army must be mobile, effective, flexible and combat capable." But he added, "This does not mean that we have to follow the path of mechanical reduction."

Mr. Putin's remarks surprised some experts, coming as they did after the sinking of the nuclear submarine Kursk on Aug. 12 and the generally poor performance of the military in two inconclusive campaigns against the rebellious republic of Chechnya.

The public perception that poor maintenance and safety standards in the Russian fleet contributed to the loss of the Kursk's 118-member crew created strong political momentum for military reform, including cuts in standing forces, which have declined to 1.2 million today from more than 2 million a decade ago.

"I think Putin realizes that the only way he can eventually get a military that can do the job is to cut it drastically," said Dmitri V. Trenin, a former military officer and deputy director of the Moscow Carnegie Center.

Mr. Trenin said he believed that Mr. Putin's decision to postpone his first round of cuts was more tactical than strategic. "He prefers caution and nonconfrontation in dealing with the military," he said. "Everyone knows that there is political support for improving defense, and that means cutting forces."

William E. Odom, a retired American general and longtime analyst of the Soviet and Russian military, expressed some doubt that Mr. Putin could carry through with significant cuts to forces or the defense budget.

"If you look at Putin's public statements about foreign policy and the military, they all have the element of saying Russia must be a strong military power," General Odom said. "Well, he is now being hoisted on that petard because Russia does not have the money to have a strong military."

Moreover, Mr. Putin as a former K.G.B. officer and director of its successor Federal Security Service, is indebted to the military and security services for political support, and the war in Chechnya was a crucial factor in his political rise.

At the Kremlin meeting, Mr. Ivanov, the security adviser, said Mr. Putin's decision was intended to give the military six more weeks to "calculate once again all the economic parameters of the reforms that will be carried out pretty soon."

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Russian Aircraft Carrier Now a Park

Associated Press
September 28, 2000 Filed at 3:27 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-China-Fun-Warship.html

SHENZHEN, China (AP) -- When word came of the aircraft carrier Minsk's imminent arrival at this city near Hong Kong, it fanned speculation that China's navy could be moving up a notch. A big notch.

False alarm.

The king-sized Russian ship looms ominously over a harbor full of traditional Chinese fishing boats, but it's retired and is here to make fun, not war.

The pride of the Soviet Union's Pacific Fleet during the Cold War, the Minsk is now an amusement park, its decks crammed with carnival attractions and souvenir booths.

Stripped of its armaments, engines and communications equipment, its only working weapons are coin-operated machine guns loaded with BB pellets which visitors can fire at balloons.

The Minsk was sold for scrap in 1995 to South Korea, which sold it on to China in 1998. When the 43,000-ton Kiev class vessel reached Shenzhen, some defense analysts and Hong Kong newspapers noted that China has long coveted an aircraft carrier to extend its military reach.

But Minsk World seems harmless enough, even if many of the military trappings of the 20-year-old ship are still there, such as two retired MiG-23 fighter jets, replicas of antisubmarine missiles and long-range antiship missiles.

``I am glad to see it kept intact as an aircraft carrier,'' said Sha Xiangyan, an onboard attendant dressed in a green uniform and black boots.

``It could have been turned into a disco or a casino,'' she said.

Not everybody is impressed.

Hong Kong-born Ng Ka-leung, 30, toured the ship with his family and scorned it as ``scrap iron dumped by the Russians.''

The Minsk Aircraft Carrier Industry Company Ltd., a private Chinese firm, bought the ship for $5 million, and spent nearly $28 million to turn it into an amusement park, said Chen Zhongqi, a company spokesman. Admission costs $12.

Only a handful of visitors were here one recent weekday. They included 8-year-old Tim Huang, binoculars dangling from his neck as he played commando, sneaking past uniformed guards on the deck.

``I am able to learn about warfare here,'' said Huang, adding he wants to become a soldier.

The compartment once used to store torpedoes has been turned into an air-conditioned cinema and gallery showing Russian achievements in warfare and space travel.

The gloomy hangar is enlivened by Russian female performers posing like James Bond girls, and tourists screaming in virtual spacecraft. There's a shopping complex and a display of Chinese tanks and anti-aircraft guns.

Shenzhen merchants are thrilled.

Liang Hong-gen, who runs a fruit and drinks store on the road to the park, said his sales are up by at least 50 percent.

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Clinton Adviser Says U.S. Overreacted to Spy Fears

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 28, 2000 ; Page A06
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A30129-2000Sep27?language=printer

The Clinton administration and Congress "have overshot the mark" in their reaction to security problems at Los Alamos and other national laboratories, President Clinton's chief science adviser said yesterday.

Neal Lane, a physicist and former head of the National Science Foundation, said there were some "problems involving security at the labs that needed fixing." But, he said, the government has overreacted by requiring polygraph exams for thousands of lab employees, restricting foreign travel by U.S. scientists and limiting visits by foreigners to the labs.

"The American people have been subjected to sensational allegations of Chinese espionage and lax security by the press over the past year or two, and to a congressional response that in many ways can only be described as 'Ready, Fire, Aim,' " Lane said at a National Academy of Sciences workshop on security issues.

Early this year, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson ordered polygraph exams to be given to about 800 key researchers and administrators involved with nuclear weapons. But under a congressional amendment passed last year, polygraph tests are required for all personnel who deal with sensitive nuclear materials, which will mean that more than 15,000 people need to be tested, said Catherine Eberwein, the counterintelligence chief of the National Nuclear Security Administration, a semiautonomous agency created by Congress to tighten security at the labs.

Lane, who consulted at Los Alamos in New Mexico and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California while he was a professor of physics at Rice University in the 1980s, said he was worried about the impact of the security crackdown "on the labs' ability to do their mission."

Lane also warned that strict security rules governing satellites -- which were established last year after allegations that China had gained military benefits from launching U.S.-built communication satellites -- have begun to be applied to universities doing unclassified, basic research using satellites.

"The satellite problem arises," he said, "because all satellites, including scientific satellites, because of their similarities to military satellites, are subject to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, which govern munitions exports from the United States."

Although those regulations are not supposed to apply to unclassified, basic research, universities that receive government funding fear they may be required to prevent foreign nationals from working on such projects, he said.

Lane compared the crackdown to the Reagan administration's effort to tighten control over research on such technologies as microelectronics. Some Reagan administration officials wanted to bar foreigners from any involvement in that research.

But even then, "at the height of the Cold War," the government "issued a directive affirming that free exchange of scientific ideas is a vital component in our economic and physical security" -- something so important "that it justified the risk that our adversary might receive some benefit as well," Lane said.

Today, he added, the goal is not to prevent a major power such as the Soviet Union from obtaining America's latest technology, but to keep mature technologies such as nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles out of the hands of smaller states. "We want to keep [potential adversaries] from catching up, say, to [what the United States had in] 1945 or maybe 1960 -- a much harder task, but one for which controls over fundamental research would be even less well suited," Lane said.

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Justice Officials Criticize Federal Judge in Lee Case

By David A. Vise
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 28, 2000 ; Page A06
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A29939-2000Sep27&language=printer

Justice Department officials fired back yesterday at the federal judge in New Mexico who delivered a stinging rebuke of the government's handling of the Wen Ho Lee case two weeks ago.

James Robinson, head of the Justice Department's criminal division, said U.S. District Judge James A. Parker's criticism was misguided. Norman Bay, the U.S. attorney for New Mexico, said the judge was unaware of plea negotiations in which Lee's lawyers had threatened to introduce U.S. nuclear secrets in the courtroom, a tactic known as "graymail."

"I've got great respect for Judge Parker, but don't know if he was aware of all of the discussions that had occurred between the parties," Bay told a Senate Judiciary Committee task force looking into the Lee case. "When we were sitting in the courtroom at sentencing, his comments came as a complete surprise to us. . . . To be honest with you, I was very much blindsided by the judge's comments."

On Sept. 13, Lee pleaded guilty to a single count of what had been a 59-count criminal indictment and was sentenced by Parker to the nine months he had already served in jail while awaiting trial for mishandling classified information at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Parker profusely apologized to the 60-year-old Taiwanese American scientist for the harsh conditions of his incarceration and lambasted the Justice Department and FBI, which the judge said had misled him and "embarrassed" the entire nation.

The judge's remarks prompted President Clinton to raise questions about Lee's pretrial incarceration and touched off a debate about whether the FBI and prosecutors had tried to coerce a confession from Lee.

Robinson said it is common in such cases for the government to agree to a plea bargain rather than risk the disclosure of national secrets in open court. "The fact that Judge Parker made this statement was a little unusual under the circumstances," Robinson said, adding that the judge seemed to be "making these comments for the galleries."

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee task force, questioned why the government lawyers did not enter into a plea bargain with Lee before he was indicted in December. Bay responded that until the final plea bargain, Lee had refused to answer questions under oath about what he did with roughly 400,000 pages of sensitive information that he had downloaded to computer tapes.

Bay also said that during the course of negotiations last May, an attorney for Lee threatened to take the government on a "long, slow death march" by forcing disclosure of nuclear secrets in open court.

"I still remember that phrase, 'long, slow death march,' because as I was sitting in our conference room . . . I'm hearing this defense lawyer tell us that he's going to bludgeon us," Bay said.

Specter shot back: "If somebody had told me, when I was a prosecuting attorney, they were going to put me on a long, slow death march, I'd say, 'Let's start walking,' " Specter said.

"I believe that," Bay replied.

Specter also questioned the conditions of Lee's confinement, including a light that was left burning in his cell 24 hours a day.

"I first learned of this a few days ago when I read about it in a newspaper," Bay said. "I've since made inquiries back in New Mexico, and I'm told that the light was a dull blue light, kind of like a night light, in Dr. Lee's room, and that the jail would use that just to make sure that if someone walked by and looked inside his cell, that they could make sure that he was there and that he was doing okay. I do know from having reviewed the correspondence in this case that we never received a complaint from defense counsel about the light."

Prosecutors also produced a memo saying that Lee told a jail-appointed monitor in March that he had no complaints about his conditions, other than wanting more fruit at meals. They acknowledged that defense lawyers had objected to Lee's being shackled during his daily hour of exercise, a practice that was discontinued after several months.

Specter asked whether Lee had been treated harshly and held in solitary confinement to coerce him into pleading guilty. Robinson insisted that he was held in solitary confinement to prevent him from communicating nuclear secrets to others, not to pressure him.

"It would be inappropriate to have a pretrial detainee put in prison for that purpose," he said. "That was not the purpose of the detention here."

Robinson also said that one factor in the government's agreement to the plea bargain was concern that Parker was about to let Lee out of jail on bail, which the Justice Department official said would have posed a risk to national security.

Robinson added that Lee benefited from strong defense lawyers who pushed "the envelope as far as they could to get the government to the point where the cost of proceeding would be outweighed by the cost of throwing in the towel."

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Proposed Missile Defense Tested

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Missile-Defense.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon conducted two tests Thursday of important elements of the proposed national missile defense system in preparation for another attempt to shoot down a target in space.

In the first test, a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., released 20 objects in flight to test the ability of a prototype ground-based radar to distinguish among them. In a real missile intercept mission, the radar's role would be to keep an intercepting missile on a collision path with its target and not allow it to be fooled by decoys around the target.

The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, the Pentagon office in charge of the program, said preliminary indications are that the prototype radar successfully distinguished among the 20 objects in space.

The radar is situated on Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean.

In the second test, conducted about two hours after the first, also involved a Minuteman III missile launched from Vandenberg. It was designed to test elements of the national missile defense system -- such as an ``in-flight interceptor communication system'' used to send information from the ground radar to the interceptor missile -- that will be used in the next attempt to shoot down a mock warhead in space.

Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said that next test is expected to be conducted early next year. Until recently that test was scheduled for November, but the timing has slipped due to technical problems.

The two previous intercept attempts failed, most recently in July.

On Sept. 1, President Clinton announced that more testing was needed before he could have enough confidence in the technical feasibility of national missile defense to authorize the start of construction. Clinton said it would be up to the next president to decide whether and when to go ahead. His decision effectively ended missile defense supporters' hope of having a system ready for use by 2005.

Bacon said Thursday's tests show that the Pentagon is moving ahead with development work even though deployment has been put off.

``We're on our normal schedule to continue development of a national missile defense system,'' he said.

On the Net: http://www.acq.osd.mil/bmdo/bmdolink/html/

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Crash of cruise missile investigated

USA Today
09/28/00
http://www.usatoday.com/news/digest/nd1.htm#retire

ELY, Nevada - The Air Force is investigating what caused a cruise missile with a dummy warhead to veer off course and crash during a test in the eastern Nevada desert. The missile launched from a B-52 bomber carried no explosives, a military spokesman said. No one was hurt when it hit the ground Wednesday morning about 50 miles south of Wendover, Nev., and the device was recovered by the Air Force.

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Death linked to anthrax vaccine

USA Today
09/28/00- Updated 09:42 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/digest/nd1.htm#retire

LANSING, Mich. - A medical examiner linked the death of a man to the 11 doses of the anthrax vaccine he received while working at the company that makes it. An autopsy showed that Richard Dunn had an ''inflammatory response'' to the vaccine throughout his body, contributing to his death last July. The military and Food and Drug Administration say the vaccine is safe, but some members of the military have refused to take it.

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Air Force Probes Nev. Missile Crash

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Missile-Crash.html

ELY, Nev. (AP) -- The Air Force is investigating what caused a cruise missile with a dummy warhead to veer off course and crash during a test in the eastern Nevada desert, a military spokeswoman said Thursday.

The missile launched from a B-52 bomber based in Minot, N.D., carried no explosives, said Lt. Col. Lisa Bogdanski, a public affairs official for the 388th Fighter Wing at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.

No one was hurt when it hit the ground Wednesday morning about 50 miles south of Wendover, Nev., she told the Ely Times.

Air Force officials in Utah did not immediately return telephone messages left by The Associated Press on Thursday.

The missile was launched ``as part of a routine weapons evaluation program'' and was on a preplanned flight path, Bogdanski said. It crashed shortly after the launch in a buffer zone separating the Defense Department bombing range from other federal land, she said.

The area is near the Goshute Indian Reservation along the Nevada-Utah border about 350 miles east of Reno. Most of the rest of the land in the area is high desert rangeland managed by the Bureau of Land Management.

The missile was recovered and transported to Hill Air Force Base, Bogdanski said.

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Two killed in Navy training crash

USA Today
09/28/00- Updated 09:42 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/digest/nd1.htm#retire

PENSACOLA, Fla. - An instructor and a student were killed Wednesday when a plane based out of Pensacola Naval Air Station crashed near Silverhill, Ala. The single-engine T-34C Turbo Mentor was on a training flight when it crashed about 20 miles northwest of the air station. A witness said he saw the plane spiral downward and later said it was destroyed as he arrived on the scene.

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Military officers boost funding requests

Wahington Times
September 28, 2000
By Rowan Scarborough
http://208.246.212.80/national/default-200092823226.htm

The nation's top military officers yesterday raised their requests for increased defense spending, saying a busy 10 years of wars and peacekeeping have required billions of added dollars to replace worn-out weapons.

At a Senate hearing on the military's readiness problems, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said "first to fight" troops overseas are in good shape, but their reinforcement units back home still suffer a lack of training, spare parts and equipment.

Gen. Henry Shelton, Joint Chiefs chairman, said a once-coveted target of $60 billion annually to buy new weapons and equipment is no longer adequate.

"One thing I think is obvious, and that is that $60 billion will not be enough to get the job done given our current strategy and force structure," Gen. Shelton told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "My message to you today is that you must accelerate the pace of replacing our rapidly deteriorating ships, aircraft, weapons and other essential military equipment."

The four-star officer said three-quarters of increased dollars for operations and maintenance - the readiness account - actually funded current operations instead of buying spare parts and repairing equipment.

Adm. Vern Clark, chief of naval operations, said his fleet of aircraft is the oldest in Navy history. He said he needs to buy about 180 planes a year to sustain the current force but has only enough money for 128. The fleet requires nine new ships a year to maintain a 300-plus ship Navy, but procures fewer than seven.

The chiefs declined to say how much more money they will seek. Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said Tuesday that the Pentagon already is slated to receive $180 billion in increases over five years through combined White House proposals and congressional add-ons.

The precise request, the chiefs said, will not be known until the Pentagon completes its Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) next year. The study sets the number of ships, fighter wings and other force structures needed to carry out the national military strategy of fighting two regional conflicts nearly simultaneously.

The chiefs of the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps and Navy shifted their testimony somewhat since first acknowledging a readiness shortfall two years ago. They said a quick infusion of new money had halted a decline in deployed forces. But they now worry about future preparedness as aircraft and other weapon systems continue to age.

"We have arrested the decline in readiness among our active units, or leveled off," Gen. Shelton said. "We should experience an increasing trend in readiness, yes."

Added Gen. Eric Shinseki, the top Army officer, "We have for years mortgaged our future readiness, this modernization effort, in order to assure that our soldiers had in the near term what it takes to fight and win decisively."

At one point, Committee Chairman John W. Warner, Virginia Republican, offered his partial solution. "You've got to be more assertive to cut down the rates of deployments," he said, a reference to the Clinton administration's sending troops on a record number of peacetime overseas missions in the 1990s.

Some of the chiefs seemed to give a less-optimistic assessment than Gen. Shelton's.

Adm. Clark said deployed carrier battle groups are in good shape, but sailors back home preparing for the next mission are "not where we want them to be." A recent Navy report on naval aviation said units have a "big problem" because of a lack of aircraft and bomb-target equipment for training pilots.

He said that although the Navy met recruiting goals for the past two years, retention of skilled sailors is too low, and the dropout rate is too high.

Gen. Michael Ryan, Air Force chief, testified the readiness rate of major combat units dropped 23 percent since 1996.

"I must tell you that Air Force readiness has not turned around," he said. "At best, these efforts have leveled off the decline. . . . Because we must assure the readiness of our engaged forces overseas, we have done it at the expense of our stateside units."

Republicans generally blame President Clinton for the drop-off. They say he cut five-year defense spending in 1993 by $126 billion, then sent the military on more than 50 overseas wars and peace-enforcement missions.

Democrats say the cuts began with President Bush after the Cold War, and that new spending is fixing the problems.

"Our operational tempo remains high," Gen. Ryan said. "Our people are still deploying over three times more often with a force 60 percent its former size."

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A Four-Star Foreign Policy?

By Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 28, 2000 ; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A31642-2000Sep27?language=printer

First of three articles

When the Pakistani army staged a coup last October, the Clinton administration sent a stern protest to the new, self-appointed ruler, Army Gen. Pervez Musharraf. A nuclear-capable, unstable nation had plunged into fresh turmoil, and Washington waited anxiously: How would Musharraf respond?

When the general finally placed his call, it was not to President Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen or the U.S. ambassador in Islamabad. Instead, Musharraf telephoned Marine Corps Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, who happened to be sitting with Cohen at an airfield in Egypt.

"Tony," Musharraf began, "I want to tell you what I'm doing . . ."

Zinni may not be a household name, but as the recent head of the U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East, the four-star general was among a quartet of American military leaders who have exerted more political influence abroad over the past three years than most civilian diplomats.

Zinni, along with Adm. Dennis C. Blair, Gen. Wesley K. Clark and Gen. Charles E. Wilhelm, served as regional commanders-in-chief, or CINCs. The CINC offices were expanded 14 years ago to promote efficiency by giving them command of operations involving the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines in assigned regions of the world. Since then, the CINCs (pronounced "sinks") have evolved into the modern-day equivalent of the Roman Empire's proconsuls--well-funded, semi-autonomous, unconventional centers of U.S. foreign policy.

In a decade when Congress significantly reduced the State Department and civilian foreign aid budgets, the CINCs have enjoyed a budgetary boom unscrutinized by Congress. There is no reliable accounting of the hundreds of millions of dollars the CINCs spend each year, and congressional oversight committees have not asked for one. The Pentagon intentionally keeps its classified, piecemeal version of their budgets out of Congress's hands.

The CINCs control headquarters budgets outside of Washington that total $380 million a year, more than twice what they had when the Cold War ended. They travel nonstop, oversee multimillion-dollar foreign study institutes and round-the-clock intelligence centers, host international conferences and direct disaster relief.

American generals and admirals, emissaries for 50 years of the world's strongest military, have long exercised independent influence abroad, and in doing so, they jockeyed with diplomats and intelligence agencies to shape U.S. foreign policy. But the swelling institution of the CINC has shifted this balance during the 1990s. Sheer budgetary prowess is one reason. Another is that the nature of post-Cold War U.S. military engagements, emphasizing peacekeeping and nation-building, has steadily pushed the uniformed CINCs into expanded diplomatic and political roles.

The pronounced role of the U.S. military is criticized in parts of the world--especially the Americas, Europe, the Philippines and Japan--where resentment runs deep over the conduct of U.S. forces on foreign soil. Human rights groups and some members of Congress believe the military already exercises too much foreign influence and that increased reliance on the Pentagon to solve complex problems is causing civilian agencies to atrophy. Conservatives charge that the diplomatic and nation-building missions drain resources and dull the armed services' ability to fight and win wars.

At a time when the U.S. presidential candidates are debating whether the military has been drawn too far away from its core mission of fighting wars, the rising authority and independence of the CINCs offer a little-examined twist on the issue.

Republican nominee George W. Bush has criticized the Clinton administration for diverting military resources to peacekeeping missions in Kosovo, Bosnia, Haiti and elsewhere. He argues that years of Pentagon budget cuts, combined with a heavy peacekeeping load, have hurt military readiness.

In fact, during the 1990s, the Clinton administration found it easier to win funding from a Republican-controlled Congress for foreign policy initiatives handled through the Pentagon rather than the State Department--an approach that Vice President Gore helped to shape.

The Clinton team was abetted by the CINCs themselves. Flanked on their travels by caravans of staff, welcomed by kings and prime ministers, these four CINCs came to believe by the new millennium that their own uniformed services were too parochial, that U.S. relations abroad suffer because the Pentagon's leadership foolishly shuns deep contact with the State Department. The National Security Council, they complain, is too small and ineffective to bring together competing bureaucracies, and too focused on crises to implement long-term strategies.

If today's Pentagon is too engaged in non-military missions, it is partly because the CINCs feel they need to fill a void.

"The system is badly broken," sighed Zinni one midnight in May, his eyes red from fatigue nine hours into a flight to Bahrain. "We use chewing gum and bailing wire to keep it together."

"I look longingly at the foreign affairs intelligentsia, but no one is addressing the cosmic issue; everyone's going tactical," said Blair, heading home one day from Indonesia. "What's the United States going to do with its superpowerhood? It drives me crazy. We're looking at our wake instead of looking ahead."

To assess the world of the CINCs, The Washington Post spent several months this year observing the work of Zinni, Clark, Wilhelm and Blair. All but Blair were in the final months of their tenure and have since retired, yet in their last days in the job they traveled frenetically--to Pacific and Central Asia, Europe, the Persian Gulf and Central America. During their trips, the four gave relatively unfettered access to meetings with staff and foreign dignitaries and granted hours of interviews in which they shared their views, vented disappointments and described their challenges.

Clark, until recently the commander of NATO and the U.S. European Command, hopscotched across Europe each week to help westernize former Soviet bloc countries.

Blair, the Mainer who heads the U.S. Pacific Command, made day-long flights across the international date line twice a month to promote multinational security pacts among Asian countries, an idea once opposed by the Pentagon and the State Department.

Wilhelm, head of the U.S. Southern Command, led a $30 million U.S. relief effort in Central America after Hurricane Mitch in 1998, then lobbied Congress to lift its informal prohibition on contact with the once Marxist Nicaraguan military. He became the first CINC on Nicaraguan soil in 20 years.

In Pakistan, Zinni, commander of the U.S. Central Command, pushed the Clinton administration to open the diplomatic door with Musharraf when many demanded it be slammed shut. Convinced that Pakistan could be a regional stabilizing force, he helped persuade Clinton to visit Musharraf in March. With Zinni's intervention, Musharraf turned over several suspected terrorists in secret sweeps around New Year's Day.

From vantage points thousands of miles from Washington, the CINCs see problems with some U.S. policies abroad and with their own Pentagon leadership.

"Washington reacts to Beltway issues," said Zinni, so influential in the Persian Gulf that one U.S. ambassador there half-jokingly compared him to God. "It doesn't mean anything out here."

The Unified Commands

The CINC position was created in 1947 as part of the newly formed Department of Defense, but the job did not become influential until after 1980, when five servicemen died in an aborted attempt to rescue American hostages in Tehran.

Gen. David Jones, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, complained that the disaster might have been averted if he had had the authority to order more qualified Air Force special warfare pilots to fly the mission from Navy ships.

Congress responded by passing the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986--over the opposition of the chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. Designed to override debilitating service rivalries, the law elevated the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to principal military adviser to the president. It gave the power to direct and unify weapons use, training and tactics from each service to the "unified combatant commands," a term for the commands run by the CINCs.

Their main job is to manage U.S. military operations in separate parts of the world. Clark directed the air war against Yugoslavia; Zinni led missile strikes against Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan; Blair would lead the response in the event of conflict between Taiwan and China, or between North and South Korea; Wilhelm, the only CINC without war plans on the shelf, would manage operations should Cuba implode.

Unlike the heads of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, who must answer to presidentially appointed civilian secretaries, the CINCs report directly to the secretary of defense and the president. Former defense secretary William Perry had a close relationship with most of the CINCs, but the more insular Cohen has delegated almost all contact with them to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Henry H. Shelton.

The CINCs' jobs always have been loaded with perks. They live in well-appointed homes, draw $135,000 salaries for terms that usually run three years and have lavish entertainment and travel budgets. But as the demands have broadened, the jobs have attracted a different breed--military leaders not known as company men.

Clark and Blair were Rhodes scholars and White House fellows. Clark was not the Army's candidate for a CINC job, and Blair left the Navy's inner circle for a year to work for the CIA. Zinni, one of the Marine Corps' most unconventional thinkers, got his job over the wishes of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. John M. Shalikashvili.

The 1986 legislation also cemented a tug-of-war for resources between the CINCs and the service chiefs. The CINCs in the European and Pacific commands have hundreds of thousands of troops at their disposal for armed conflicts. But in "peacetime engagements," they and the other CINCs must appeal to the service chiefs or to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs for troops and equipment. The CINCs complain bitterly about what they are allotted, but at the Pentagon's Army War Plans Division, staffers besieged with requests from the field voted tongue-in-cheek to rename themselves "The CINC Requirements Task Force," a sign that the CINCs' tug is felt within the very heart of the services.

Three CINCs have staffs as large as the executive office of the president. More people--about 1,100--work at the smallest CINC headquarters, the U.S. Southern Command, than the total assigned to the Americas at the State, Commerce, Treasury and Agriculture departments, the Pentagon's Joint Staff and the office of the secretary of defense.

The CINCs control their own aircraft, can call up a fleet of helicopters, and often travel with an entourage approaching 35. The commanders routinely are received by heads of state who offer gifts, share secrets and seek advice.

The CINCs spend $50 million a year on four foreign study institutes for U.S. and foreign officials. Another $20 million a year goes for conferences that include non-military topics such as environmental degradation, medical care, mine clearance, piracy, drug trafficking and policing. Each operates a huge intelligence center staffed 24 hours a day.

Bountiful resources and an open-ended mandate allow the CINCs to engage with tiny countries and on obscure foreign policy issues if they feel inspired.

Because Zinni loved the Seychelles, his staff spent untold hours finding old U.S. patrol boats the islands could use to equip a coast guard to ward off illegal fishermen. Clark wrangled $3.5 million from the Pentagon for a computer simulation to show leaders in the former East bloc the economic impact of their decisions.

Because Blair admires the Gurkhas of Nepal, he ordered his staff to help improve the elite troops' medical program. Since his groundbreaking first visit to Nicaragua, Wilhelm has returned four times and hundreds of U.S. troops followed for exercises.

"We got into Nicaragua on a tailwind supplied by a hurricane," Wilhelm laughed as he flew home recently from Central America.

Guiding Strategic Shifts

Since the end of the Cold War, the CINCs have helped shift America's strategic thinking. Privately, they hold strong opinions that sometimes differ sharply with the policies they are asked to carry out.

Wilhelm disagrees with the administration's hard-line stance on Cuba, now under a U.S. trade and diplomatic embargo. Several years ago, he publicly declared Cuba no longer a military threat, enraging anti-Castro groups in the United States.

Blair views China as less of a threat than Capitol Hill lawmakers think it is. His determination to open military dialogue with China has helped the administration weather congressional opposition.

Clark wanted the Balkans declared a "major theater war" zone so the services would get a funding commitment for Kosovo and Bosnia deployments. Some military leaders considered even entering the conflict a drain on U.S. troops.

The turf-conscious Pentagon discourages the CINCs from direct contact with other agencies. In July 1998, Shelton was furious with Clark for discussing a limited air strike against Yugoslavia with deputy national security adviser James Steinberg. Both Clark and Steinberg insisted that no specifics were revealed. To keep better control of the CINCs, Shelton began requiring them to file an hour-by-hour appointment schedule when visiting Washington. The rule stands today.

Zinni caught heat when he told a Senate panel that he opposed the Clinton administration's idea of funding an Iraqi opposition group to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Cohen prohibited him from holding on-the-record media interviews. Zinni remembers national security adviser Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger demanding, "What gives you the right to say that?"

" 'Well,' " Zinni recalls saying, " 'the First Amendment.' "

There are recurrent tussles among the CINCs too, especially when they sit down to adjust their empires, carving up continents like 19th-century European colonialists.

After a battle last year between the colonels of the Central and European commands, Zinni won five Central Asian nations because Clark's unruly territory had grown to 91 countries. When Zinni mounted a campaign to enlarge his Horn of Africa reach, Clark agreed to give him Kenya but hung on to Uganda.

Relationships between a CINC and the countries in his "CINCdom" are heavily colored by history. The contrasts are most striking between Europe, where the United States has long been dominant in security matters, and Latin America, where governments have restricted contacts with the U.S. military because of past U.S. support of abusive regimes.

Traveling with Clark and Wilhelm illustrated these differences. At every stop, Clark sat with prime ministers and foreign ministers and spent as much time with civilian officials and diplomats as with military officers. Wilhelm's most substantive meetings were with his military counterparts; few political leaders sought him out.

Architect of Reform

In Bosnia and Kosovo, Clark used the autonomy and resources that have devolved to CINCs to push NATO troops toward a nation-building role unseen since the military's occupation of Europe and Japan after World War II.

Clark and his subordinates acknowledge that in Bosnia, much of what they did was off the books, the broadest interpretation of the military annexes to the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords, the agreement that ended the three-year war and sought to create a multi-ethnic, self-governing country.

With an aggressive commander of SFOR, Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs, Clark rewrote the military's Bosnia operational plan in 1998 to go beyond peacekeeping. His allies at the Pentagon and the State Department quietly sold it to the White House.

The new plan tried to make soldiers instruments in political reform. Commanders were encouraged to banish troublemakers and to direct international aid to reform-minded local leaders.

Clark wanted to form an anti-corruption team that would dismantle the Mafia-like organization that supports hard-line leaders. The mission required old-fashioned detective work. The Joint Chiefs of Staff opposed the idea, and the FBI initially declined to help. Clark persisted. He persuaded the State Department to pay for a gumshoe--a U.S. customs agent who had once worked for him in South America.

The anti-corruption team now includes Pentagon officers, Justice Department crime analysts and two battalions of Italian Carabinieri police.

Still, there is Pentagon ambivalence about the operation. Last year, on the eve of a raid aimed at disrupting illegal funding for radical Croat politicians, Cohen overrode Meigs's plan to dispatch a clandestine Navy SEAL team, judging it too risky. French troops went ahead anyway, netting computer tapes that helped demonstrate the Croatian government was funding hard-liners. The U.S. pullback highlighted tension between the activist CINC and his more cautious headquarters.

Clark's forceful approach was evident in April, when he traveled with his entourage and a Post reporter to a NATO base in Banja Luka in northeastern Bosnia to deliver a message to a dozen generals and colonels.

Clandestine Delta Force commandos, their index fingers near the triggers of assault rifles, bumped through the rough gray weather with him in a Black Hawk helicopter. A three-layered security perimeter surrounded him when he stepped out and dashed beneath the whirling rotary blades.

Inside, his darting charcoal eyes swept the room as he issued instructions. Use your martial law-like authority; "you can impose any law," he told the officers. Have your soldiers detain and chase out nationalist hard-liners. Find a pretext to search the offices of suspected criminals. Don't be afraid of disorder and isolated incidents of violence against NATO troops.

And most important, he said, don't ask or wait for leadership or direction from superiors in Washington, Paris, London, Rome or Ottawa.

"If you put this strategy down and circulate it," he said. "it's dead."

That attitude mirrored Clark's approach to the Kosovo war, where he pushed for more aggressive airstrikes and lobbied for a ground invasion the Army didn't support. "Never ask 'Mother, may I' " Clark said, "unless you know the answer."

At his retirement ceremony, Clark--ungracefully forced out on June 23 to accommodate his successor--jabbed the Army for what he views as its no-can-do attitude. "Time is passing the Army by," he said, as the Army chief of staff sat beside him. The Army leadership needs "a new mentality. . . . 'Give us a mission and send us in.' "

Cracking Open Doors

Clark ran operations in a region where the presence of U.S. troops is crucial to stability. In Central and South America, where many newly democratic nations have renounced ties to the U.S. military, Gen. Charles Wilhelm was just trying to gain his footing.

Hostility toward the U.S. military runs deep in the hemisphere, fostered over a century in which the U.S. government supported the oppressive armies of dictators and right-wing governments. For decades, the CINC was based in Panama, but the U.S. military presence was forced out in an expression of sovereignty when control of the Panama Canal was turned over to Panama. Nowadays, at the Pentagon, the Florida-based CINCSOUTH is known as the "stepsister CINC."

But the general with four combat medals from Vietnam said he intends to turn that around.

"The U.S. doesn't have a strategic vision for South America," he said. "I don't take it personally."

To fit his boot in the door, Wilhelm seized upon the U.S.-funded counternarcotics program in Latin America, which the Pentagon all but runs. In June, after rejections from Costa Rica and Peru, he went to El Salvador to seek support for a drug monitoring base. Leftist lawmakers in El Salvador do not want to renew ties with U.S. forces and argue that the country's armed forces need to concentrate on a serious crime explosion.

Wilhelm's allies, however, are the Salvadoran armed forces, who have remained close to the U.S. military in the decade since their civil war ended.

Surrounded by maps marked "Secreto" in the Joint Staff headquarters of El Salvador, Wilhelm laid out his strategy: "Opening the [logistics center] will make El Salvador the focal point of the counterdrug activities in Central America," he told three Salvadoran generals. "We realize, in a diplomatic sense, this plan is for counterdrug only. As a practical matter, all of us know this agreement will give us a superb opportunity to increase the contact with all our armed forces in a variety of ways."

"I hope," Wilhelm continued, "to further exploit this opportunity to provide modest support to you and your modernization efforts."

El Salvador needs help with strategic intelligence, equipment and training, Wilhelm was told. He took notes and instantly offered to host a meeting for police chiefs and military heads of Colombia, Peru and Bolivia so they could discuss joint police-soldier operations.

No country in Wilhelm's theater is threatened by a foreign enemy, and most border disputes and insurgencies are settled. But ask Wilhelm why the region merits a CINC and he whips out his historical chart showing the ebbs and flows of regional democracies. In Peru, Venezuela and elsewhere, there's enough backsliding to warrant U.S. military attention, he argued.

"Every military in the region is rethinking its role," he said. "I'd like to play a larger part in the actual restructuring of the militaries."

Through his own efforts and relations, he already is involved in Panama, El Salvador and Colombia.

In Panama, which abolished its armed forces in 1994, the Southern Command helped experts draft a national security strategy to protect commercial shipping and U.S. nuclear submarines that pass through the canal.

In a more urgent way, Wilhelm also took the lead on the military aspects of Plan Colombia, the U.S.-funded program to create brigades to retake territory controlled simultaneously by leftist rebels and drug traffickers. Neither Wilhelm nor the U.S. Army can be involved with the brigades as closely as they were with El Salvador's counterinsurgency war because Congress has forbidden direct U.S. military involvement. Instead, he must fight through Colombia's army, with its long record of ineptitude, corruption and human rights violations. Just last month the army shot and killed six young children who were on a school nature walk.

Wilhelm scotched a State Department plan to create as many as 15 counterdrug Colombian battalions and argued for three larger, more efficient units. At his insistence, the battalions will fit an American model, with scouts, mortars and forward support, psychological staff and intelligence operations.

He designed a Colombia Joint Intelligence Center, a multimillion-dollar project housed in a watertight tent with sandbag walls. Staffed jointly by U.S. and Colombian analysts, it looks at information collected by both countries.

Congress and the administration have funded a two-year anti-drug program. Wilhelm talks about a six-year strategy--one that will eventually demand more Colombian battalions and an even deeper commitment of U.S. funds and military expertise.

"It ain't no Vietnam," he said, with a slight North Carolina twang. "I wish it were, it would be easier."

Researcher Alice Crites contributed to this report.

-------- OTHER

-------- alternative energy

Ballard buys stake in QuestAir to get pure hydrogen

CANADA: September 28, 2000
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=8357

VANCOUVER - Ballard Power Systems Inc. said yesterday it had bought a $11.2-million stake in QuestAir Technologies Inc., a deal aimed at giving it access to technology to purify the hydrogen used by Ballard's fuel cells.

Ballard will own 10 percent of privately-held QuestAir, which is also developing and oxygen enrichment system Ballard hopes will make fuel cells more cost effective by improving power-generating capacity and reducing weight.

Fuel cells generate electricity from hydrogen using a chemical reaction. It is hailed as environmentally friendly technology because using certain fuel sources, the cell's only byproducts will be water and heat.

Both Ballard and QuestAir are based in the Vancouver area.

Ballard's shares were down C$2.30 at C$163.20 in late morning trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange. They have been as low as C$33 and as high as C$210.80 in the past 52 weeks. (Figures in U.S. dollars unless noted)

----

UniSource Energy boosts solar power investment

USA: September 28, 2000
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=8356

TUCSON, Ariz. - UniSource Energy Corp., parent of utility Tucson Electric Power, yesterday announced increased funding for its solar power subsidiary and moved its chief financial officer to oversee that business.

The company said it has agreed to provide an additional $26 million funding to Global Solar Energy, which is a subsidiary of UniSource unit Global Energy Solutions.

It also moved its chief financial officer, Ira Adler, to the post of president and chief executive officer of Global Energy Solutions, effective Oct. 1.

Adler will be replaced as CFO by Kevin Larson who is currently UniSource treasurer.

"Our solar energy business has reached a level of maturity that requires additional commitment of dollars and personnel," UniSource chairman, president and chief executive officer James Pignatelli said.

The company's shares were trading up 3/16 at $16-11/16 in late trading on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday.

-------- environment

Red List of Threatened Species Reveals Global Extinction Crisis

September 28, 2000 (ENS)
http://ens-news.com/ens/sep2000/2000L-09-28-03.html

GENEVA, Switzerland, Earth's most critically endangered animals and plants have disappeared very rapidly since 1996, the world's largest international conservation organisation reported today.

One in four mammal species and one in eight species of birds are facing a high risk of extinction in the near future, in almost all cases as a result of human activities. The total number of threatened animal species has increased from 5,205 to 5,435.

The 2000 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is released once every four years by IUCN - The World Conservation Union. The Red List is considered the most authoritative and comprehensive status assessment of global biodiversity.

Female Ethiopian Wolf greeting her cubs. The world's most threatened canid, the Ethiopian Wolf (Canis simensis), lives only in the highlands of Ethiopia. There are fewer than 400 adult individuals surviving. (Photo by Dada Gottelii courtesy IUCN)

Founded in 1948, the IUCN brings together 77 states, 112 government agencies, 735 non-governmental organizations, 35 affiliates, and some 10,000 scientists and experts from 181 countries in a worldwide partnership.

Drawing on all these sources of information, the Red List report uses scientific criteria to classify species into one of eight categories: Extinct, Extinct in the Wild, Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable, Lower Risk, Data Deficient and Not Evaluated.

A species is classed as threatened if it falls in the Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable categories.

"The fact that the number of critically endangered species has increased - mammals from 169 to 180; birds from 168 to 182 - was a jolting surprise, even to those already familiar with today's increasing threats to biodiversity. These findings should be taken very seriously by the global community," says Maritta von Bieberstein Koch-Weser, IUCN's director general.

The magnitude of risk, shown by movements to the higher risk categories, has increased, although the overall percentage of threatened mammals and birds has not greatly changed in four years, the IUCN found.

PRIMATES' STATUS PRECARIOUS

Primates such as apes and monkeys showed the greatest increase in the number of threatened mammals, from 96 to 116 species. Many changes were found to be caused by increased habitat loss and hunting, particularly the bushmeat trade.

Red-shanked Douc Langur (Pygathrix nemaeus) is an Endangered Asian colobine monkey found in south central Viet Nam and parts of neighboring Laos. It is threatened by habitat destruction and hunting for food and for body parts, used to prepare traditional medicines. (Photo by Bill Konstant courtesy IUCN)

The number of Critically Endangered primates increased from 13 to 19. Endangered primates number 46 today, up from 29 four years ago.

Russell Mittermeier, president of Conservation International and chair of IUCN's Primate Specialist Group says, "The Red List is solid documentation of the global extinction crisis, and it reveals just the tip of the iceberg." "Many wonderful creatures will be lost in the first few decades of the 21st century unless we greatly increase levels of support, involvement and commitment to conservation, he warns.

"Human and financial resources must be mobilised at between 10 and 100 times the current level to address this crisis, the Red List analysis urges.

Indonesia, India, Brazil and China are among the countries with the most threatened mammals and birds, while plant species are declining rapidly in South and Central America, Central and West Africa, and Southeast Asia.

Habitat loss and habitat degradation affect 89 percent of all threatened birds, 83 percent of mammals, and 91 percent of threatened plants assessed.

Habitats with the highest number of threatened mammals and birds are lowland and mountain tropical rainforest.

As in 1996, Indonesia has the highest number of threatened mammals, 135 species. India with 80 threatened mammal species and Brazil with 75 threatened species have moved ahead of China where 72 species are threatened.

FRAGILE FRESH WATER SPECIES

Freshwater habitats are "extremely vulnerable" with many threatened fish, reptile, amphibian and invertebrate species. Freshwater turtles, heavily exploited for food and medicinal use in Asia, went from 10 to 24 Critically Endangered species in the past four years.

Asian Three-striped Box Turtle (Cuora trifasciata) is one of the most Critically Endangered freshwater turtles in Asia. (Photo by Krut Buhlman courtesy IUCN)

"Hunting of these species is unregulated and unmanaged, and the harvest levels are far too high for the species to sustain," the IUCN warns. As populations disappear in Southeast Asia, there are signs that this trade is increasingly shifting to India and further afield to the Americas and Africa.

Other Asian species, such as snakes and salamanders, are also heavily exploited for use in traditional Chinese medicine, but the effects of this and other pressures on most of these species have not yet been assessed.

A number of amphibian species have shown rapid and unexplained disappearances, for example in Australia, Costa Rica, Panama and Puerto Rico, the IUCN reports.

The report points to "extremely serious deterioration" in the status of river dwelling species largely due to water development projects and other habitat changes. One of the major threats to lake dwelling species is introduced species. A systematic analysis of the status of these species will be undertaken in the next three years.

BIRDS AT RISK

BirdLife International produced the global status analysis that forms a major component of the Red List. The most significant changes have been in the albatrosses and petrels, with an increase from 32 to 55 threatened species.

Wandering Albatross (Diomedea exulans) is one of 16 albatross species identified as globally threatened in the 2000 Red List. (Photo by Tony Palliser courtesy IUCN)

Sixteen albatross species are now threatened compared to only three in 1996, as a result of longline fishing. Of the remaining five albatross species, four are now near-threatened. Threatened penguin species have doubled from five to 10. These increases reflect the growing threats to the marine environment," the IUCN reports.

BirdLife International has started an international campaign "Save the albatross: keeping the world's seabirds off the hook" to reduce the accidental bycatch of seabirds through longline fisheries adopting appropriate mitigation measures.

The Philippines, another biodiversity hotspot, has lost 97 percent of its original vegetation and has more Critically Endangered birds than any other country.

IMPERILLED PLANTS

The IUCN Red List includes 5,611 species of threatened plants, many of which are trees.

The total number of globally threatened plant species is still small in relation to the total number of plant species, but this is because most plant species have still not been assessed for their level of threat, IUCN says.

The only major plant group to have been comprehensively assessed is the conifers, of which 140 species, 16 percent of the total, are threatened.

Assessments undertaken by The Nature Conservancy, not yet incorporated in the Red List, indicate that one-third of the plant species in North America are threatened.

THE NUMBERS

In the last 500 years, human activity has forced 816 species to extinction or extinction in the wild.

Bastard Quiver tree (Aloe pillansii) is a Critically Endangered tree aloe living in the Richtersveld area of the Northern Cape, South Africa and southern Namibia. Fewer than 200 mature individuals survive. The species is the focus of a new survey and possible reintroduction program by members of the IUCN/SSC Southern African Plant Specialist Group. (Photo by Craig Hilton-Taylor courtesy IUCN)

One hundred and three extinctions have occurred since 1800, indicating an extinction rate 50 times greater than the natural rate. Many species are lost before they are discovered.

The 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals included 169 Critically Endangered and 315 Endangered mammals. The 2000 analysis now lists 180 Critically Endangered and 340 Endangered mammals.

For birds, there is an increase from 168 to 182 Critically Endangered and from 235 to 321 Endangered species.

A total of 18,276 species and subspecies are included in the 2000 Red List. Approximately 25 percent of reptiles, 20 percent of amphibians and 30 percent of fishes, mainly freshwater, so far assessed are listed as threatened.

Since only a small proportion of these groups has been assessed, the percentage of threatened species could be much higher, the IUCN says.

As well as classifying species according to their extinction risk, the Red List provides information on species range, population trends, main habitats, major threats and conservation measures, both already in place, and those needed. It allows insight into the processes driving extinction.

The release of the 2000 Red List comes a week before the second World Conservation Congress in Amman, Jordan, where members of IUCN will meet to define global conservation policy for the next four years, including ways of addressing the growing extinction crisis.

The 2000 IUCN Red List has been produced for the first time on CD-ROM and is searchable on its own website at http://www.redlist.org. The analysis is published as a booklet.

----

Grand jury indicts oil pipeline company

USA Today
09/28/00- Updated 06:33 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/ndsthu01.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted one of the nation's biggest oil pipeline companies, alleging it violated environmental laws at one of its Texas plants in a case involving a pollutant linked to cancer.

The indictment in Texas charges Koch Industries Inc., its subsidiary Koch Petroleum Group and four employees with 97 felonies for problems with the pollutant benzene at a Corpus Christi, Texas, plant dating to 1995.

The company self-disclosed the problems to Texas regulators, but the indictment alleges the company engaged in a conspiracy and made false statements to Texas officials.

''Companies that produce dangerous pollutants simply cannot focus on profit and efficiency at the expense of a community's health,'' Assistant Attorney General Lois Schiffer said in announcing the indictment.

Though Koch has been one of the Republican Party's most generous donors, the administration of Texas Gov. George W. Bush joined in the investigation and hailed the indictment.

''The Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission takes very seriously its responsibility to enforce all environmental laws to protect public health and the environment,'' commission executive director Jeff Saitas said.

The indictment charges Koch with violating the Clean Air Act by among other things failing to install required emission control devices in 1995 at its Corpus Christi refinery, and using a device to destroy benzene fumes that could not handle the high levels routed to it.

The Justice Department said the anti-pollution device ''would often shut down for extended periods of time.'' As a result, the refinery ''intentionally vented large amounts of untreated benzene fumes directly to the atmosphere,'' the department alleged.

The government also alleged the company didn't report the violations properly.

Benzene is a byproduct of the oil refining process that has been linked to cancer and has been considered a hazardous air pollutant by the federal government since 1977.

The Associated Press first reported last month that the government was pursuing the indictment against Koch, a half-million-dollar donor to the GOP.

In addition to the company, four employees were also charged by the grand jury, including a former plant manager, a company lawyer, a vice president who oversaw the plant and one of the environmental engineers.

Wichita, Kan.-based Koch disclosed the problems to Texas in 1995, fixed them within months, and has been in compliance on the benzene issue for more than four years, company officials have said.

The company and executive David Koch have donated at least $215,000 to the Republican Party this election, and its employees have chipped in $27,500 to Bush's presidential bid. In addition, the company has given $225,000 in political action committee donations to GOP congressional candidates.

The government first pursued a criminal investigation against Koch after a company whistleblower emerged in 1996.

A central focus of the investigation was Koch's choice of words in documents it filed with the government in early 1996 that declared the company ''maintains continuous compliance'' with the benzene reporting requirements of the Clean Air Act - without mentioning its earlier problems.

Koch has had previous environmental problems. Earlier this year, it settled a case involving oil leaks in six states with a record $35 million payment to the government. And it pleaded guilty in Minnesota to discharging oil into streams, paying an $8 million penalty.

The company is striving to change its image and this summer won praise for voluntarily committing to reduce ozone levels in Corpus Christi.

---

USA Today
09/28/00
States
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

California

Los Angeles - The City Council ordered a report on the findings of a task force examining a cancer-causing chemical element in drinking water. The Department of Water and Power has a month to report the findings of a state, federal and local task force on proposed tougher standards for chromium 6. The group has been meeting since late 1998. The chemical element was found in two dozen water wells in Los Angeles, Burbank and Glendale.

Idaho

Coeur d'Alene - The Environmental Protection Agency wants state officials to address public health concerns about agricultural field burning in light of a woman's fatal asthma attack the day after skies filled with a thick smoke. But the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality contends there is little the state can do beyond increasing awareness about pollution levels and getting better pollution-monitoring equipment.

---

Never clean enough?

Washington Times
EDITORIAL • September 28, 2000
http://208.246.212.80/op-ed/ed-house-2000928195925.htm

The enemy of the good is the perfect, as the saying goes - especially when it comes to air-quality standards. "Environmentalists" (a term that connotes "science" but which has more to do with advocacy) have been demanding that the Washington metropolitan area's rating of compliance with federal air-quality standards for ground-level ozone be downgraded - even though there were only two days this year when the area's air quality slipped below levels deemed healthful.

Earthjustice Legal Defense Club and the Sierra Club threatened to file suit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) if the agency failed to reclassify the metro area a "severe non-attainment area," based on those two days during which ozone standards were exceeded. "Even healthy children and adults can suffer lung damage from breathing the dirty air in this region," Sierra Club spokesman Mark Wenzler intoned.

Sounds awfully apocalyptic - until you go outside and actually breathe the air, which is cleaner in this area than it has been in decades, according to both EPA's own reckoning as well as authoritative studies, such as the American Automobile Association-commissioned work, "Clearing the air." In fact, those two days this year when the (already lowered) federal ground-level ozone standards were exceeded were not even full days. The way federal air-quality rules work, if air quality at a given monitoring location exceeds the standard for even one hour, the entire day is tossed into the "non-attainment" bin. So what we're talking about here is a grand total of perhaps a couple of hours out of the course of one entire year during which the region's air quality level slipped past the standard deemed "healthful" by EPA.

And yet, the self-styled "environmentalists" are insisting the region be reclassified as if it were choked by pollution and accordingly become subject to draconian regulatory intervention, which would become mandatory if the reclassification took place. Restrictions on the use of motor vehicles (mandatory carpooling, "on-off" days), more elaborate and costly anti-pollution technology on everything and everyone from dry cleaners to backyard barbecue grilling (none of which might appreciably improve air quality, by the way) would be required by law. And since it has been demonstrated that higher costs can be as unhealthful to people as pollution - even more so when the "pollution" is marginal or almost nonexistent - it seems as though the "environmentalists" are demanding that their pie-in-the-sky standards for absolutely pristine air be pursued irrespective of the actual threat to human health and regardless of the real-world costs to attain them.

Luckily, EPA is being more levelheaded - at least this time. "We think air quality is moving in the right direction in D.C., and it's unlikely that we'll conclude on the basis [of the two non-attainment days] that change is appropriate," said EPA Regional Administrator Bradley M. Graham. That's good news, based on sound science and the facts - for a change.

-------- activists

Protesters claim victory as summit ends

USA Today
09/28/00- Updated 09:10 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm#euro

PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Raging street riots strained the new spirit of cooperation, but the world's top capitalists insisted Thursday their annual money summit built commitment to boosting the livelihoods of the world's poor. ''We are trying to do a job that makes things better,'' said World Bank President James Wolfensohn. After it all ended, even Wolfensohn conceded the size of the annual summit, which attract up to 14,000 delegates from 182 nations, may have to be reassessed. But despite the mayhem, IMF and World Bank leaders were adamant they came closer to working with many more non-governmental organizations that don't resort to violence.

-------


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

1. $17 m in FY 2001 DOD Authorization House-Senate Conference Committee Report
From: easlavin@aol.com

2. House Armed Services Committee Hearing Postponed, No Hearings Oct 2-6
From: easlavin@aol.com

3. The Republican "Offer" Reported By Dispatch Reporter
From: easlavin@aol.com

4. Annual DOE "Lawbreaking Days" at Amelia Island Plantation, Florida
From: easlavin@aol.com

5. Live Broadcast of NRC Meeting Friday 9:30 AM Eastern Time
From: "Bill Smirnow"

6. NucNews 00/09/29 - Daybook; Presidential Candidates; Activist Announcements
From: Ellen Thomas

-----------

Message: 1
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000
From: easlavin@aol.com

$17 m in FY 2001 DOD Authorization House-Senate Conference Committee Report

Good afternoon: The House-Senate Conference Committee report filed yesterday -- September 27th: "includes $17,000,000 for the [Energy] Department's administrative costs associated with the proposed Energy Employees Compensation Initiative. These funds are not available until the program is authorized by law."

See excerpts below -- full text re: DOD/DOE spending bill is at www.loc.gov -- Thomas web site. DOE is flexing its muscles to try to control the program. With kindest regards,

Ed Slavin

--

ENVIRONMENT, SAFETY AND HEALTH (DEFENSE)

The conference agreement provides $125,567,000 for defense-related environment, safety and health activities. The conferees have provided $3,000,000 to establish a program at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas for Department-wide management of electronic records; $1,750,000 for the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky to undertake epidemiological studies of workers; $880,000 to provide medical screening for workers employed at the Amchitka nuclear weapons test site; and $500,000 for the State of Nevada to address deficiencies in the Cancer Registry, Vital Statistics, and Birth Defects Registry activities.

The conference agreement includes $17,000,000 for the Department's administrative costs associated with the proposed Energy Employees Compensation Initiative. These funds are not available until the program is authorized by law.

WORKER AND COMMUNITY TRANSITION

The conference agreement provides $24,500,000 for the worker and community transition program, including $2,100,000 for infrastructure improvements at the former Pinellas plant. The conferees expect that communities denied funds in fiscal year 2000 will be granted priority status in fiscal year 2001.

The conference agreement provides that no funds may be used to augment the $24,500,000 made available for obligation for severance payments and other benefits and community assistance grants unless the Department of Energy submits a reprogramming request subject to approval by the appropriate Congressional committees.

NATIONAL SECURITY PROGRAMS ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT

The conference agreement provides $25,000,000 for national security programs administrative support instead of $51,000,000 as proposed by the House and no funding as proposed by the Senate.

OFFICE OF HEARINGS AND APPEALS

The conference agreement provides $3,000,000 as proposed by the House and the Senate.

FUNDING ADJUSTMENTS

A reduction of $595,000 and the elimination of the $20,000,000 offset to user organizations for security investigations reflects the allocation of the safeguards and security amended budget request.

DEFENSE NUCLEAR WASTE DISPOSAL

The conference agreement provides $200,000,000 as proposed by the House instead of $292,000,000 as proposed by the Senate.

-----------

Message: 2
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000
From: easlavin@aol.com

House Armed Services Committee Hearing Postponed, No Hearings Oct 2-6

http://www.house.gov/hasc/schedules/

House Armed Services Committee - Hearing Schedule
September 28 - 10:00 - 2118 Rayburn - POSTPONED

Military Procurement Subcommittee hearing on occupational illness compensation for contractor and other employees of the Department of Energy.

Witnesses to be determined. There are no hearings scheduled for the week of October 2-6, 2000.

-----------

Message: 3
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000
From: easlavin@aol.com

The Republican "Offer" Reported By Dispatch Reporter

In a message dated 9/28/00 1:05:50 PM Eastern Daylight Time, vcolley@earthlink.net writes, quoting Dispatch article:

The compromise that House Republicans reportedly are offering would promise compensation for nuclear workers who contracted various cancers as a result of being exposed to radiation and other hazardous materials, but apparently not contain a guaranteed level of cash payments or health benefits. It would have the White House conduct a study to determine what the benefits would be and what government agency would administer them.

Good afternoon:

Here's the Republican offer:
1. Cancer only.
2. No guaranteed compensation.
3. No health benefits.
4. White House to "study" benefits and which agency to administer.

In Washington, this would ordinarily be called "passing the buck." However, few "bucks" are involved -- this is not even an illusory promise, but it leaves most persons injured by DOE uncovered -- victims of toxic chemicals, heavy metals, offsite exposures and non-cancer illnesses characteristic of exposure to mercury, cyanide and HF, chemicals loosed with profusion upon the environment of Oak Ridge. Is immunity for contractors still involved, I wonder?

IMHO, as long as the 106th Congress remains in Session, worker rights and remedies are in peril of violation by a close cousin of "Voodoo Economics,"a/k/a "trickle down economics": "Bovine Voodoo CONpensation."

With kindest regards, Ed Slavin

-----------

Message: 4
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000
From: easlavin@aol.com

October 2-5: Annual DOE "Lawbreaking Days" at Amelia Island Plantation, Florida

Joint CHE-Downwinders letter to Secretary of Energy Richardson about October 2-5: Annual DOE "Lawbreaking Days" at Amelia Island Plantation, Florida:

------

NOTICE OF FACA VIOLATIONS AT DOE-CONTRACTOR CONFERENCE Oct. 2-5
Date: 9/28/00 10:41:23 PM Eastern Daylight Time

From: EASlavin
EDWARD A. SLAVIN, JR.
P.O. Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
(904) 471-7023

September 28, 2000

Honorable Bill Richardson
Secretary of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20585 Via Fax

RE: NOTICE OF FACA VIOLATIONS AT DOE-CONTRACTOR CONFERENCE Oct. 2-5, 2000; FACA, FOIA AND SUNSHINE REQUEST FOR DOCUMENTS, MINUTES & TAPES

Dear Secretary Richardson:

President Clinton has said the definition of insanity is "doing the same old things and expecting different results." Assistant Secretary of Energy Carolyn Huntoon, DOE Oak Ridge Manager Leah Dever, Deputy Secretary T.J. Glauthier, and other top DOE managers will be speaking at a private gathering next week, twelfth in series of annual meetings DOE managers have attended in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). The repetition of these violations raises serious ethical questions about the poor judgment of top DOE officials. This situation requires your personal attention.

I write on behalf of the Utah Downwinders, the Coalition for a Healthy Environment of East Tennessee, Mr. Harry Williams of Knoxville, Tennessee, and Mrs. Sherrie Graham Farver of Oak Ridge (President and Treasurer of CHE, respectively) and other present and former DOE site workers and area residents. My clients and I are all deeply concerned about the longstanding Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) violations by the "celebrated" annual meetings of DOE and contractor officials on October 2-5, 2000 at the Amelia Island Plantation Resort in North Florida. (Exhibit A). This is an illegal meeting in violation of FACA. We request that you please order your DOE managers to halt their annual meetings with DOE Contractors at public expense, or arrange that the meetings be opened at once to all members of the public without charge.

Like the furtive adulterous lovers in the Alan Alda movie, Same Time Next Year, DOE and contractor managers huddle together every year, away from prying eyes, by the seashore. Cocktails and meals are "host[ed]" by DOE contractors, including BWXT, Fluor, Cogema, Waste Management, Westinghouse, Parsons, IT, TRW and MHF. (Exhibit A). This is a "gathering of the Who's Who in the federal cleanup business, where one is able to raise key concerns with key decisionmakers." (Exhibit A). That sounds like a meeting covered by FACA. DOE will "utilize" concerns without a FACA charter, without open public meetings, without tapes and transcripts and without a fairly balanced membership. Topics include worker safety issues: "Becoming Part of the Package," e.g., items that the Department of Energy long ignored at the public's peril.

DOE managers are utilizing the opinions of DOE Contractor management on a regular annual basis with no FACA charter, Federal Register notice, no requirement for fairly balanced membership, no transcripts and no open meetings -- every year for the past twelve years, discussing nuclear weapons plant cleanup issues in semitropical breezes at someone else's expense, spending other peoples' money. DOE managers "host[ed]" by the "Marching and Chowder Society" make contacts that will eventually yield them what all expect from this annual game of Beach Blanket Bingo. With the right deference, a high-paying Contractor job can be yours too, just as Secretary O'Leary took and just as so many DOE managers have taken in going to work for DOE Contractors, including Messrs. Pearman, LaGrone, Lawrence, Hall, Snyder, et al.

The public has a right to hear what DOE and its Contractors are talking about: this should be an open public meeting. Instead, the unclassified meeting is at a luxury resort, where participants pay up to $1600 (plus transportation, room and meals). Most participants' bills are paid by DOE or Contractor funds -- tax dollars at work and play in the sun and sand.

Since the program expressly indicates that the Contractors' advice and information is utilized by DOE and that is the entire purpose of the program, the de facto annual advisory committee meeting meets the "utilization test" of FACA. There is no "seaside resort" exemption in FACA for meetings with DOE's Contractors. DOE has violated FACA for years in Oak Ridge, where an illegal Martin Marietta advisory committee was "utilized" by DOE for nine years in violation of FACA until 1993, when Secretary O'Leary abolished the old committee. The FACA violation in quo has gone on for twelve years. FACA violations must halt now. These FACA violations are particularly offensive when the subject concerns the complex cleanup of pollution in places like Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where children were never told not to play in contaminated creeks, where mercury was placed in gardens, schools and ballfields, where the largest mercury "loss" in world history occurred in secret with no warnings to workers and residents, and where people are exposed to pollution from incinerators burning radioactive and toxic waste.

DOE managers are annually violating FACA together at an expensive resort in Florida, with the program indicating that meals, refreshments and cocktail hours are paid for by DOE Contractors, with DOE managers sharing liquor, food and lodging with Contractors.

DOE managers spend lavish amounts on yearly attendance at these conferences, at a resort remote from any DOE facility -- supping privately with Contractors DOE has never regulated strictly -- is at best an appearance of impropriety, calling the ethics of top DOE officials into disrepute. It is the moral equivalent of trade association antitrust violations by electrical equipment manufacturers, et al. or the hunting lodges and other favors provided by defense contractors. Martin Marietta Corp. v. Evening Star Newspaper, 417 F.Supp. 947 (D.D.C. 1976) (DOE contractor's unfounded libel suit dismissed, re: truthful Washington Star allegations of a "stag party" where prostitutes mingled with Generals, Admirals and other Defense Department personnel). Therefore, we request that no DOE employees accept any free hospitality or any money, service or other thing of value from contractors and that any meetings attended by DOE employees be announced in the Federal Register and declared open to the public and free of charge.

American citizens have a First Amendment right to "examine the proceedings" of these expensive meetings between DOE and its radioactive and toxic waste cleanup Contractors at the Plantation Resort as correspondents for the Downwinders of Utah and Coalition for a Healthy Environment online magazines. See, e.g., Tennessee Constitution, Article I, Section 19. We are advising law enforcement agencies of the illegal FACA-violating DOE-Contractor meeting going on at the Amelia Island Plantation Resort by copy of this letter. DOE has no right to exclude the public from its FACA-violating activities. DOE's spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for DOE and Contractor managers to attend this gathering makes any notion of "public participation" facetious, at best.

We request that DOE "drop the oyster and leave the wharf": DOE managers should stop wasting public funds on attending meetings to hear its Contractors' viewpoints from which the general public is excluded by high prices and remote locations at a ritzy Amelia Island resort. DOE should require that only annual leave and personal funds may be expended by DOE and Contractor employees and managers who attend this sort of meeting, not federal funds. This kind of snobbery and elitism is a relic of the AEC era. While the Weapons Complex Monitor may have "scholarships" for selected public interest group personnel, this is no substitute for open meetings that are open to all under FACA. In addition, it strongly appears that WCM handles scholarships in a discriminatory and arbitrary manner, with content restrictions, refusing scholarships to the most effective advocates regarding DOE's misconduct, while making them available to persons who "play ball" with DOE and do not discuss criminal prosecution and issues that make DOE management uncomfortable.

FOIA/FACA/Electronic FOIA Request

In addition, to prepare articles for print and electronic journalism, we hereby request pursuant to FACA and FOIA and the Electronic FOIA that all tapes, transcripts, minutes, notes, and briefing books from this and prior conferences, and all documents on DOE employees' participation in those conferences as speaker, guest or paid participant, along with copies of all travel authorizations and vouchers, invoices and checks for DOE and Contractor employees attending the conference for the past twelve years. We request these documents be disclosed immediately. It is our money that these DOE managers spend here to violate Sunshine principles in the Sunshine state. If sick workers and residents show up at your DOE managers' meetings next week, it will be secure in the knowledge that they have a First Amendment right to do so, and that if any of them are bothered or molested in any way by WCM or DOE, it will be a federal criminal civil rights violation, one attributable directly to DOE's insistence upon attending meetings for twelve years in violation of the Federal Advisory Committeee Act.

CONCLUSION

DOE now admits it killed and maimed workers, supporting the idea of compensation. DOE managers have control of billions of dollars of federal funds, mainly spent on government contractors. Contractors and DOE seek immunity and indemnity in poorly-drafted workers' compensation legislation DOE counsel drafted. Secretary O'Leary compared to the DOE complex to what your house would look like if you had a party every night for fifty years and never cleaned up. In the wake of contractor and DOE managers' once-secret, admittedly deadly deeds in managing DOE facilities, it is pure further folly for DOE and contractor managers to romp about in the sun and fun at public expense, while DOE is working with the Republicans in Congress to offer only crumbs to workers that DOE and contractors made sick, thumbing their noses at the public. These managers do not deserve such expensive rewards at the expense of the public fisc. Let the DOE "party" at public expense end.

The same DOE and contractor managers who use government funds to file Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation against DOE critics use DOE funds to entertain themselves at a conference that is so expensive that it excludes individuals who do not have their way paid by DOE. DOE and its Contractors must stop whining about public participation and stop violating the Federal Advisory Committee Act while excluding the public, year-in and year-out. They must stop violating FACA at a "legendary" seaside resort conference that is treated as a private club for Contractors and DOE officials to decide what to do about public demands for more items in the "package," such as "worker safety." (Exhibit A).

For discussions of DOE site management, there are fine auditoriums at every DOE site and DOE can save a lot of money, while inviting the public to hear what is being said. By canceling its expensive participation in the Amelia Island meetings with its contractors, perhaps the DOE can save enough money to pay for lifetime health care for some of its victims. As Justice Brandeis said, "sunlight is the best disinfectant."

Sincerely yours,
Edward A. Slavin, Jr.

http://www.exchangemonitor.com/cleanup.pdf

-----------

Message: 5
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000
From: "Bill Smirnow"

Live Broadcast of NRC Meeting Friday 9:30 AM Eastern Time
http://www.nrc.gov/live.html

Friday Sept. 29 at 9:30am the NRC will webcast for the first time a meeting on nuclear plant component safety revisions.

You need the Real Player to observe.

-----------

Message: 6
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000
From: Ellen Thomas

NucNews 00/09/29 - Daybook; Presidential Candidates; Activist Announcements

Friday Sept. 29 at 9:30am the NRC will webcast for the first time a meeting on nuclear plant component safety revisions! You need the Real Player to observe. http://www.nrc.gov/live.html [From: "Scott D Portzline" ]

Washington Times Daybook, September 29, 2000, Agence France Presse http://www.washtimes.com/national/daybook-2000929211840.htm [No "nuclear" news.]

Ukraine discussion - 9 a.m. - The National Press Club hosts a Morning Newsmaker news conference on "The Perception of Ukraine in America: Time for a Fresh View." The speaker is Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, ambassador of Ukraine. Location: National Press Club, 14th and F streets NW. Contact: 202/662-7593.

Arrival ceremony - 11:30 a.m. - The Defense Department hosts a full-honors arrival ceremony to welcome Slovenian Minister of Defense Janez Jansa to the Pentagon. Defense Secretary William S. Cohen participates. Location: River Parade Field, the Pentagon. Contact: 703/695-0169.

-- PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES

- George W. Bush - Saginaw, Michigan 10:00 a.m. - Remarks on energy policy, Wright-K Technology, 2025 East Genessee Avenue, Saginaw, Michigan 48601, (517) 752-3103 Dick Cheney - Jacksonville, Florida, 11:40 a.m. - Remarks on Military Readiness; Jacksonville Agricultural Fair Complex, Exhibit Hall A, 510 Fairgrounds Place, Jacksonville, Florida, (904) 353-0535

- Al Gore - DC 10:55 a.m. - Walks the grounds of the Audubon Naturalist Society, 8940 Jones Mill Road, Chevy Chase. 11 a.m. - Delivers remarks on his environment and energy policies, Audubon Naturalist Society.

- Ralph Nader - Nothing till Sunday, October 1 - http://www.votenader.org/campaignevents.html

-- ANNOUNCEMENTS --

- Tenth Anniversary of the Gulf War Memorial Service In recognition of the many thousands of U.S. and Coalition service-members and Iraqi civilians who lost their lives and health during the Persian Gulf War and the resultant enforcement of sanctions and the no-fly zone over Iraq, veterans from all across America will host individual candlelight vigils on the evening of Feb. 28th, 2001, the 10th anniversary of the cessation of offensive military operations. Candlelight vigils will be held at State Capitol/State House buildings, across the U.S. The significance of the candles is in remembrance of those who died during the war, those who returned physically and emotionally wounded, and those who remain sick, disabled, or who have died during the decade following the war as a result of their Gulf War injuries and illnesses.

These are the facts:

- By December 31, 1999, 136,031 Gulf War veterans were considered to be partially or completely disabled by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs -- 24% of those who served during the war.

- An additional 60,000 had filed claims which have been denied.

- 9,600 Gulf War veterans have died since the war.

- Nearly six hundred Kuwaitis and one American are still missing after ten years

- One million Iraqi civilians have died since the war.

[From: "Charles Sheehan-Miles" ]

- DU Study website - For inquiries regarding Depleted Uranium testing and the Uranium Medical Project see the website at www.umproject.org or email mailto:ump@umproject.org - [From: Mary Guzman (new)]

- Rad-UK is a new discussion group and message board dealing with all issues pertaining to the release of man-made ionising radiation, particularly in the UK, but also elsewhere in the world. Please use this space to post information about legislation, licensing hearings, campaigns, personal testimonies, conferences, useful scientific references, etc. The group has been set up with the understanding that current dose-risk estimates do not accurately reflect the real effects of internalised radionuclides. New egroup in the UK for those wanting to discuss general issues about radiation in the UK. To subscribe: http://www.egroups.com/group/rad-UK

- Ancient text, "Art of War" by Sun Tzu - full text posted online by Federation of American Scientists. This is required reading in military educational institutions, and a good primer for those who want to learn how to wage peace. http://www.fas.org/man/artofwar.htm

- Vieques Fast update - Article following press conference El Nuevo Día, Thursday, September 28, 2000 by José A. Delgado EFE Wire Service Agency National Day of Prayer for Vieques Promoted

WASHINGTON (EFE) - - Religious leaders and activist are calling this Monday for an International Day of Prayer and Fasting for Vieques in support of the Navy ceasing its bombing excercises. In a press conference, US citizen Andrés Thomas Conteris, who has fasted for 66 days, communicated that the 2 of October is a time for praying for peace for Vieques.

This day will take place following the March called for this coming Sunday in Vieques which will include acts of civil disobedience. Leaders of the Catholic, Methodist Churches and the National Council of Churches among others have supported the focus that this Monday be a time of prayer and fasting for peace in Vieques.

Thomas Conteris indicated that he will travel tomorrow, Friday, to Vieques to participate in the Sunday March and possibly take part in the acts of civil disobedience. Nevertheless, on Monday he will meet with civic and religious leaders in the struggle against the US Navy to decide if he should continue with his fast of 66 [70] days, for which he has been on water-only for 50 [these will be accurate on Oct. 2].

He has lost 60 pounds, since he started with 220 and now weighs 160. He is no longer focusing on the demand for President Clinton to hold a meeting with religious leaders opposed to military training on Vieques. "After speaking with Jeffrey Farrow for an hour on Wednesday evening (the person responsible for Puerto Rican affairs in the White House), I am convinced that the President will not grant a meeting.

In any case, Thomas Conteris indicated that if the leaders of the struggle against the Navy desire for him to continue the fast, the principle demand will be that the US Navy leave Vieques.

- Forwarded from a US activist in Prague..

On September 26, 2000, about twelve thousand people gathered in Prague to protest the policies of the IMF and the World Bank, demanding that the two institutions be shut down. It was a success - their meeting was seriously disrupted and their blatently exploitative policies were further brought to public attention.

On the morning of Sept. 26, people from all over the world attempted to approach the conference to bring their views directly to the delegates, but were blocked by an army of police. Clashes ensued, and many were arrested. Throughout the following night police retaliation took place. Anyone suspected of being a protester was stopped, arrested, and often beaten. By morning 422 people had been arrested, often for nothing more than walking down the street. Police were assisted in their persecution by Czech nazis, who chased and attacked anyone who looked like a protester, and helped to beat demonstrators while they were held in jail.

Today, Thursday Sept. 28, massive arrests are continuing. A non-violent demonstration took place in front of the Ministry of Interior against the police brutality and in solidarity with those arrested. Another 70 people were dragged away. Official police sources report 892 arrests so far. Many have been released, and their reports are horrifying. They activists are systematically beaten, denied access to phone, food, water, and bedding, and in at least at one police station nazis have been allowed into the cells to brutalize those being held. Often those released have been so traumatized that they try to get out of the country as soon as possible, preventing the recording of their evidence. The mainstream media, as always, are focusing on the property destruction, creating support for the police, shrouding the real issues, and increasing repression. They report "angry youth" attacking police instead of a more accurate picture of concerned citizens of the world standing up for an end to the IMF and World Bank's deliberate undermining of social and environmental justice. And so we need your help. The situation here is critical. The arrested need international solidarity. We beg you to send faxes and E-mails protesting the treatment of those arrested. Keep in mind that the vast majority of those arrested were incarcerated only because of their political conviction. The police must stop their brutality and release them immediately.If possible, organize a protest in front of the Embassies of the Czech Republic, the sooner the better. If there4s no Embassy in your town, there may be a Czech cultural center.

We thank you very much on behalf of the arrested activists, and on behalf of all of us here who are fighting for truth and justice.

Please send faxes and/or emails to - Office of Vaclav Havel, the President of the Czech Republic: 011 4202 24310855 (phone) - 011 4202 24373196 fax -

Ministry of the Interior 011 4202 61421115 (phone), 011-4202/6143 3552-3 (fax) - Press + PR dep

Ministry of Foreign Affaires / fax 0042/2/24182041

Office of Government

US Embassy in Czech Republic: 011 4202 57530663 (phone) - 011 4202 57532059 (fax)

Please send (e-)copies to mailto:th_fr@gmx.net (coordinator) (enquiries also) and fax 0042/2/6970395 - Yours, Initiative Against Economic Globalisation

- Shocking Human Rights Abuses Faced by Protestors in Jail Police Brutality Widespread, most severe for Czechs & Israelis

PRAGUE - In addition to the mass denial of the legal rights, individuals have faced extreme brutality in Czech Jails. Paul Rosenthal from Seattle Washington who was released this morning from the Olsanska jail in Prague after forty hours states, "What is happening inside the Czech jails is more than frightening. People have no rights,they are being beaten severely, they are disappearing. Women are being forced to strip in front of male guards and perform exercises. People with serious medical problems have been denied help." The following are accounts confirmed by people that have been released from jail:

· Women have been strip searched by male officers and have been forced to perform physical exercises for their enjoyment

· Many individuals are being denied water, food, and sleep; some are able to get food only if they pay guards, women and fascists are more likely to get water

· Many people released have reported that before reaching police stations, officers took individuals to isolated areas and beat them severely.

· Two Norwegians that went to a police station on Trisparni Street near Vlatavska to report a stolen mobile phone witnessed behind briefly opened doors that a number of people were handcuffed to the wall and being beaten severely. This has also been confirmed by many reports from released persons that in the processing rooms groups of 40 to 60 people were asked to spread eagle while they were beaten, heads were knocked back, legs were kicked in, and numbers of men had their groins twisted or punched. Additionally people handcuffed were tossed down stairs.

· There is one report that 22 people were crammed into a 4 square meter cell.

· 30 People were detained at the Olsanska jail in an outdoor courtyard overnight with no blankets or food. They were later moved to Balkova near Pilsen.

· Two Germans that were detained in Lupacova, Praha 3 on Wednesday for approximately eight hours were held with an Israeli, an American, a German, and an Italian. The Israeli had been beaten severely, had difficulty walking, a black eye, and likely had a broken rib. He has been denied medical attention

· People with diabetes were not fed, people that needed medication were not given it, the British Embassy had to intervene to get medication into the jail.

· A Norwegian woman held in jail with 30 other women witnessed a German woman with a badly injured leg where medics were denied.

· Right to legal representation and advice, right to interpreters, right to food and water, right to basic medical attention, and the right to a phone call have all been ignored on a widespread scale.

· Czechs and Israelis are being beaten more drastically and are being detained longer

· Many internationals are being moved from local stations to Balkova near Pilsen which has one of the worst human rights records in the Czech Republic.

Attention News and Assignment Editors FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 28, 2000

Contact: Chelsea Mozen 420 604 384452 or 02 6272349 To arrange interviews with witnesses recently released, contact Cyan IMMEDIATELY: 0605 879 504

INPEG International Press Agent - http://www.inpeg.org Office: 4202 2320830 Mobile: 420 604 384452 Press Center: Parizska 9, Praha 1 (202) 777-2646 x2570 - US voicemail/fax [Sender: SEAC-Announce@envirolink.org]

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


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

1. First Energy Discrimination
From: "Paul M. Blanch"

2. Ill N-workers to get second opinion from House GOP
From: magnu96196@aol.com

3. Thanks, judge, for a sane decision on Yucca water
From: magnu96196@aol.com

4. Guinn threatens $1 million-a-gallon fine if water imported for nuke dump
From: magnu96196@aol.com

5. Talks to resume on compensation for nuclear workers
From: magnu96196@aol.com

6. Election-year pressure may influence action on plan for nuclear workers
From: magnu96196@aol.com

7. Piketon health package revived
From: magnu96196@aol.com

8. IEER Newsletter online----Sept Issue
From: magnu96196@aol.com

9. Chemicals Implicated in Reduced Bone Formation in Gulf War Veterans
From: magnu96196@aol.com

10. USA TODAY-----Compensation a hot political issue
From: magnu96196@aol.com

11. Senator fumes at delays on worker-aid plan
From: magnu96196@aol.com

13. Live Broadcast of NRC Meeting Friday 9:30 AM Eastern Time
From: "Bill Smirnow"

14. Rothrock retires from DOE-ORO
From: magnu96196@aol.com

15. Committee OKs $627 million for Y-12
From: magnu96196@aol.com

16. BWXT Y-12 to host second review meeting Saturday
From: magnu96196@aol.com

17. WWII-era radioactive sludge tanks cleaned out
From: magnu96196@aol.com

18. Counties want more federal dollars
From: magnu96196@aol.com

19. Smyser: Bully for Y-12's new operating contractor but remember also its first
From: magnu96196@aol.com

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

Message: 1
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000
From: "Paul M. Blanch"

First Energy Discrimination

I e-mailed Bill Borchardt this inquiry yesterday. No response yet. Thanks,
Dave

-----

Good Day: I've heard from a reliable source that the NRC recently issued a letter to Shaw Pittman imposing a sanction of some sort. I've heard that this letter involved Shaw Pittman's, or an attorney for Shaw Pittman, work for First Energy in the Sutton/Doody discrimination cases.

I tried to find a copy of this letter in ADAMS, but was unable to find it. Given ADAMS many shortcomings, that failure does not mean that the letter is unavailable.

Has the NRC issued such a letter to Shaw Pittman? If so, is the letter publicly available? If so, what is its ascension number in ADAMS? On a related matter, I've confirmed from two NRC sources that the pre-decisional enforcement conference scheduled for October 6th (and for which I purchased non-refundable airline tickets) with FirstEnergy regarding the second Sutton discrimination event has been cancelled. NRC Region III told me that the cancellation was due to FirstEnergy firing its counsel in the matter last Friday. A reliable source told me that the fired counsel was Shaw Pittman.

I've told by NRC Region III that the NRC staff and FirstEnergy are negotiating a new date for the pre-decisional enforcement conference. I'm told by NRC Region III that Mr. Sutton is not included in these negotiations because he is not a party. Mr. Sutton has a letter dated August 23, 2000, from the NRC staff giving him up to one (1) hour during the pre-decisional enforcement conference to present his perspectives on the proceeding. That formal inclusion clearly makes Mr. Sutton more than a casual observer in the matter. I cannot understand why the NRC staff would not include Mr. Sutton in the negotiations for the makeup date for the cancelled enforcement conference, unless, of course, the NRC staff is implicitly conceding that it plans to give his input zero (0) value. I would hope that the NRC staff will make an effort to ensure that Mr. Sutton has a reasonable opportunity to attend the rescheduled conference. Excluding him from the negotiations is hardly fair given his standing in the matter.

Thank you for your attention to these matters,

Dave Lochbaum Nuclear Safety Engineer Union of Concerned Scientists 1707 H Street NW, Suite 600 Washington, DC 20006-3919 (202) 223-6133 x137 (202) 223-6162 fax website: www.ucsusa.org

----------

Message: 2
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Ill N-workers to get second opinion from House GOP

September 28, 2000
By Nancy Zuckerbrod,
Associated Press
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/15695.shtml

WASHINGTON -- If people who were sickened by working at nuclear weapons plants during the Cold War receive government compensation, it might have as much to do with politics as with compassion.

Lawmakers say House-Senate negotiations on a compensation plan -- an idea that has significant bipartisan support in Congress -- gained momentum Wednesday.

They broke down on Monday, but resumed the next day after Republicans such as Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson made stinging remarks accusing House GOP leaders of failing to negotiate in good faith. Republican House members said the issue could hurt them at the polls and possibly swing House control to the Democrats.

"There is a lot of pressure being put on the House and rightly so," said Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., who represents workers at the Oak Ridge nuclear reservation.

John Feehery, spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., acknowledged that the response from some GOP lawmakers prompted Republican leaders to go back to the bargaining table.

"It has given us a reason to change our mind and work toward getting a satisfactory conclusion," he said.

"Sometimes when constituents make their case in an election year, their voices are a little bit louder."

Last spring, the Energy Department reversed 50 years of federal policy by declaring that workers injured or killed by radiation at weapons plants should be compensated. The agency proposed minimum lump sum payments of $100,000.

The Senate later approved a measure calling for workers exposed to radiation and toxic chemicals to receive $200,000 in compensation from the federal government, plus health benefits, but House GOP leaders balked, expressing concern about an entitlement program whose costs were uncertain because it's not known how many workers would qualify.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the compensation proposal would cost $1.7 billion to cover approximately 4,000 workers over 10 years.

Among the places that are home to large groups of workers who might qualify for compensation are the key presidential election states of California, Ohio and Washington.

Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., who faces a tough re-election opponent in Democrat Brian Roy, has been pushing GOP House leaders to reach a compromise and redoubled his efforts after talks broke off.

"I'm sure they (GOP leaders) understand the politics of it, and that's why it's so puzzling," said Whitfield, whose district is home to the Paducah uranium enrichment plant. "The reality is if you don't pass important legislation, your opponent can always talk about it."

Wamp's Democratic opponent, Will Callaway, issued a news release shortly after talks broke down criticizing Wamp for not convincing GOP House leaders to back the compensation package.

----------

Message: 3
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Thanks, judge, for a sane decision on Yucca water

Reno Gazette-Journal
September 28th, 2000
http://www.rgj.com/news2/stories/opinion/970195105.html

Once in a while, it's nice to see Nevada get a significant victory in its struggle against the proposed nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain. And last week's federal court decision certainly was that, with U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt refusing to consider the Department of Energy's water-grab for its project.

The DOE, in its infinite capacity to go where it should not, had tried to seize control of the state's water authority. This happened after former state engineer Mike Turnipseed denied the DOE's request for 430 acre-feet a year - the amount that is needed to operate the high-level nuclear waste repository in southern Nevada. Turnipseed cited threats to public health, safety and Nevada's tourism-based economy. But since none of these has ever seemed to matter much to the DOE or to the dump's supporters in Congress, the DOE sued in federal court to take control of the water that has historically been considered to be under state jurisdiction.

This would be a tremendous setback to state authority, with ramifications all over the place. So it was with immense relief that Nevadans heard Judge Hunt declare that DOE has no constitutional right to usurp Nevada jurisdiction.

Hunt did, however, return the issue to a state court, where it will now be decided. We can only hope that the state court will also find that the DOE has no business in our water.

Of course, the DOE, in its typical high-handed fashion, declared a while back that if it can't get water rights, it will truck in all 430 acre-feet a year. This is equivalent to the water needed by 430 families of four or five people for an entire 12 months. So trucking in that much liquid would be quite an operation itself, bordering on the absurd. But then, what else is new?

----------

Message: 4
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Guinn threatens $1 million-a-gallon fine if water imported for nuke dump

By Brendan Riley
Associated Press
September 27th, 2000
http://www.rgj.com/news2/stories/news/970113116.html

Gov. Kenny Guinn threatened to impose $1 million-per-gallon fines for every gallon of water the federal Department of Energy tries to truck to a proposed nuclear dump site in southern Nevada.

Guinn issued the warning Tuesday after last week's ruling by a federal judge that state courts must decide whether the Energy Department can use ground water at Yucca Mountain for the dump.

That ruling was hailed as a major victory for the state in its fight against the high-level radioactive waste repository, which the DOE wants to operate 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Federal officials have said that without a right to pump water within the state, they could always resort to trucking the water in from outside Nevada.

Guinn said that to prevent such water imports, he will ask the 2001 Legislature to pass a law imposing the big fines. A $1 million-per-gallon fine "'would be a sufficient deterrent," Guinn said.

"I am determined to not allow them an end run around this federal court decision which is so important to this state,"' he said. "'We will do everything within our means to see that the Yucca Mountain project dies of thirst."'

State Conservation and Natural Resources chief Mike Turnipseed, whose ruling against the Energy Department's water-pumping efforts was preserved by U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt's decision Thursday, said the DOE wanted to pump as much as 140 million gallons a year for the dump.

Guinn joked that he'd settle for a $1 million-per-gallon fine on just 100 gallons of water. He added the fine is a serious proposal that's needed in light of an "'extremely aggressive"' effort by the DOE to keep the Yucca Mountain project moving ahead.

DOE spokeswoman Gayle Fisher said the agency didn't comment after the federal court ruling last week and would have no comment on Guinn's proposal.

Hunt's ruling, that the DOE didn't have a constitutional right to usurp state jurisdiction on water rights, was hailed Monday by state Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa.

Del Papa said it means state courts instead of federal courts will determine whether Turnipseed acted properly in ruling against the DOE.

"'We now have a clear road to the Nevada Supreme Court, which will give that court the opportunity to weigh in on the question of whether the storage of nuclear waste in Nevada is against our public interest,"' Del Papa said.

Turnipseed, in denying the DOE's request for the ground water earlier this year, cited threats to public health, safety and Nevada's tourism-based economy. He was the state's water engineer at the time, and has since been elevated to the cabinet-level post of state conservation and natural resources director.

Yucca Mountain is the only national site being studied to store about 77,000 tons of high-level radioactive waste. If it is found scientifically suitable, the dump could open by 2010.

The DOE has temporary permission to use ground water to study Yucca Mountain through March 2002, but applied for permanent rights for more water to build and operate the dump.

The amount sought is equivalent to the amount of water needed to keep a 110-acre golf course irrigated each year, Turnipseed said.

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Message: 5
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Talks to resume on compensation for nuclear workers

9/27/2000
Associated Press
http://www.tennessean.com/sii/00/09/27/nuclear27.shtml

WASHINGTON -- A day after talks broke down, House leaders said yesterday they would resume negotiations with the Senate on a compensation plan for workers made sick by Cold War-era jobs in nuclear weapons plants.

A new House proposal was being drafted and will be presented to conferees on the Defense Authorization Act, said John Feehery, spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.

Hastert and other House Republican leaders were criticized harshly by Democrats from weapons-plant states and from some fellow Republicans, such as Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., after talks broke down Monday.

Thompson said "the House leadership refused to even consider the issue," and Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., called their failure to agree "callous disregard to people who gave their lives to this country."

Last spring, the Energy Department reversed 50 years of federal policy by declaring that workers injured or killed by radiation exposure at weapons plants should be compensated. The agency proposed minimum lump sum payments of $100,000.

When the Senate passed its version of the Defense Authorization Act, it included a provision awarding $200,000 plus health benefits to harmed workers.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the measure would cost $1.7 billion over 10 years, based on a Department of Energy estimate that at least 4,000 workers either contracted life-threatening diseases from radiation, silica or beryllium exposure or already have died from the diseases.

Wary of an entitlement program with uncertain costs, the House passed only a resolution recommending compensation.

During negotiations, senators backed off from the $200,000 offer and told the House they could accept $100,000 as the minimum payment if that would get the proposal passed.

House negotiators offered a $250 million down payment on a compensation program that would need to be set up in future legislation following additional study.

David Michaels, the Energy Department's top health official, said sick workers should not have to wait for more government study.

"For the last decade we've spent more than $150 million studying the health of workers at DOE sites," he said. "We don't think additional studies are needed, and we don't think additional legislations are needed."

The DOE has said most people likely to qualify for compensation would come from the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state; Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee; Savannah River Site in South Carolina; Nevada Test Site; Rocky Flats Complex in Colorado; Pantex Plant in Texas; Mound Plant and Fernald Environmental Management Project in Ohio; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California; Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico; and gaseous diffusion plants at Piketon, Ohio; Paducah, Ky.; and Oak Ridge.

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Message: 6
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Election-year pressure may influence action on plan for nuclear workers

9/28/2000
Associated Press
http://www.tennessean.com/sii/00/09/28/nuclear28.shtml

WASHINGTON -- If people who were sickened by working at nuclear weapons plants during the Cold War receive government compensation, it might have as much to do with politics as compassion.

Lawmakers say House-Senate negotiations on a compensation plan -- an idea that has significant bipartisan support in Congress -- gained momentum yesterday.

They broke down Monday but resumed the next day after Republicans such as Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson made stinging remarks accusing House GOP leaders of failing to negotiate in good faith.

Republican House members said the issue could hurt them at the polls and possibly swing House control to the Democrats.

"There is a lot of pressure being put on the House and rightly so," said Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., who represents workers at the Oak Ridge laboratory.

John Feehery, spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., acknowledged that the response from some GOP lawmakers prompted Republican leaders to go back to the bargaining table.

"Sometimes when constituents make their case in an election year, their voices are a little bit louder," he said.

Last spring, the Energy Department reversed 50 years of federal policy by declaring that workers injured or killed by radiation at weapons plants should be compensated. The agency proposed minimum lump sum payments of $100,000.

The Senate later approved a measure calling for workers exposed to radiation and toxic chemicals to receive $200,000 in compensation from the federal government, plus health benefits.

However, House GOP leaders balked, expressing concern about an entitlement program whose costs were uncertain because it's not known how many workers would qualify.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the compensation proposal would cost $1.7 billion to cover approximately 4,000 workers over 10 years.

Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., who faces a tough re-election opponent in Democrat Brian Roy, has been pushing GOP House leaders to reach a compromise, and he redoubled his efforts after talks broke off.

"I'm sure they (GOP leaders) understand the politics of it, and that's why it's so puzzling," said Whitfield, whose district is home to the Paducah uranium enrichment plant.

"The reality is if you don't pass important legislation, your opponent can always talk about it," he said.

Wamp's Democratic opponent, Will Callaway, issued a news release shortly after talks broke down that criticized Wamp for not convincing GOP House leaders to back the compensation package.

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Message: 7
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Piketon health package revived

September 28, 2000
Jonathan Riskind Dispatch Washington Bureau Chief
http://www.dispatch.com/news/newsfea00/sep00/437816.html

WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers worked furiously last night to resurrect a proposal to compensate sick nuclear workers, legislation that was declared dead for the year Monday.

But criticism from fellow Republicans prompted House GOP leaders to reopen negotiations. A compromise was being discussed late last night on Capitol Hill, but its fate remained far from certain, said a spokesman for Sen. George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio.

"Sen. Voinovich is cautiously optimistic we will be able to work something out,'' said Scott Milburn, his spokesman. "He is not interested in compromising to the point, though, that these workers are not going to get what they deserve.''

The Senate had included legislation in a military spending bill to grant $200,000 and lifetime health benefits to an estimated 4,000 to 6,000 Cold War-era nuclear workers who contracted cancer after being exposed to radiation and other hazardous materials. Among potential beneficiaries were workers at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, where weapons-grade uranium was produced.

Proponents said the legislation would cost about $1 billion over five years and $1.7 billion over 10 years, declining in cost as the population of eligible beneficiaries shrinks.

House GOP leaders booted the provision from a House-Senate conference committee considering the military spending bill, saying it could become too expensive.

Voinovich, R-Ohio; Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn.; and other proponents had slammed Speaker Dennis Hastert and other GOP House leaders.

In a letter to Hastert, R-Ill., this week, Voinovich said, "This is important, national legislation that the Republican Party should be able to claim credit for. It is time that we start acting on the compassion we are claiming.''

The compromise that House Republicans reportedly are offering would promise compensation for nuclear workers who contracted various cancers as a result of being exposed to radiation and other hazardous materials, but apparently not contain a guaranteed level of cash payments or health benefits.

It would have the White House conduct a study to determine what the benefits would be and what government agency would administer them.

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Message: 8
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000
From: magnu96196@aol.com
IEER Newsletter online----Sept Issue
Volume 8 Number 4 September 2000
Ionizing Radiation
COMBINED ISSUE of Science for Democratic Action and Energy & Security
http://www.ieer.org/sdafiles/vol_8/8-4/index.html

Articles: The Uranium Burden by Robert Brooks and Anita Seth Includes: Sites of Uranium Mining for Weapons Programs Top Ten Uranium Mines, 1997 Health Risks of Ionizing Radiation by David Sumner, Howard Hu, and Alistair Woodward

Features: Science for the Critical Masses: Measuring Radiation: Terminology and Units (includes a handy units table)

Measuring Radiation: Devices and Methods (includes photographs) Glossary of Radiation-Related Terms

"Dear Arjun"

"What exactly is Accelerator Transmutation of Waste? Some of the news articles and other materials seem to say that an accelerator is all that is required in order to transmute spent nuclear fuel into a more benign form of waste. Is this true?"

Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Comments to Outreach Coordinator: ieer@ieer.org Takoma Park, Maryland, USA

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Message: 9
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Chemicals Implicated in Reduced Bone Formation in Gulf War Veterans

By Pam Harrison
http://www.medscape.com/reuters/prof/2000/09/09.28/20000927clin023.html

TORONTO (Reuters Health) - Impaired bone formation has been identified in Gulf War veterans with symptoms of ill health, including musculoskeletal symptoms ascribed to the Gulf War syndrome, British researchers report. The findings were presented here during the 22nd annual meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.

Dr. Juliet Compston, of the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, and colleagues assessed eight undecalcified sections of bone taken on iliac crest bone biopsy from 17 British Gulf War veterans, mean age 35 years, who were involved in litigation related to symptoms ascribed to the Gulf War syndrome. Thirteen healthy, age-matched men served as controls.

"Basically what we found is that the cells which make bone are forming less well than normal and the rate at which bone is turning over is also very low [among veterans compared with controls]," Dr. Compston told Reuters Health in an interview. These changes may or may not predispose veterans to osteoporosis over the next few decades, she observed.

Interestingly, though, 14 of the 17 Gulf War veterans assessed reported a history of fracture, Dr. Compston said. While some of these fractures were definitely traumatic, "some seemed to be related to fragility, even though it's hard to be absolutely certain about this from history alone," she added.

Dr. Compston cautioned that the reduced bone formation observed in these veterans may have more to do with changes in lifestyle than exposure to multiple chemicals during the Gulf War. Veterans involved in the British study, for example, were not working, some of them drank quite heavily and some smoked, and they engaged in little physical activity.

"All of these factors in themselves could lead to abnormalities in bone," Dr. Compston noted, "so we cannot say from this work that the abnormalities we defined are directly related to the multiple chemical insults we know soldiers had in the Gulf War."

Nevertheless, she said, it is theoretically possible that the chemical exposure that veterans experienced during the Gulf War could interfere with cellular mechanisms that produce normal bone formation. Organophosphates, among other chemicals that veterans were exposed to during the war, can break down acetylcholine esterase and thus impair bone cell formation.

Dr. Compston also noted that, as other investigators have reported, farmers exposed to organophosphates in sheep dip have similar histomorphometic changes associated with reduced bone formation.

==========

Comments:

Looks like more of the fluoride effects. Folks living around OR also have these bone loss problems as well and they were drowned in HF leaking and other fluorides toxic releases for a few decades.

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Message: 10
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000
From: magnu96196@aol.com

USA TODAY-----Compensation a hot political issue

http://usatoday.com/news/poison/026.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) - If people who were sickened by working at nuclear weapons plants during the Cold War receive government compensation, it might have as much to with politics as compassion.

Lawmakers say House-Senate negotiations on a compensation plan - an idea that has significant bipartisan support in Congress - gained momentum Wednesday.

They broke down on Monday, but resumed the next day after Republicans such as Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson made stinging remarks accusing House GOP leaders of failing to negotiate in good faith. Republican House members said the issue could hurt them at the polls and possibly swing House control to the Democrats.

''There is a lot of pressure being put on the House and rightly so,'' said Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., who represents workers at the Oak Ridge nuclear reservation.

John Feehery, spokesman for speaker House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., acknowledged that the response from some GOP lawmakers prompted Republican leaders to go back to the bargaining table.

''It has given us a reason to change our mind and work toward getting a satisfactory conclusion,'' he said.

''Sometimes when constituents make their case in an election year, their voices are a little bit louder.''

Last spring, the Energy Department reversed 50 years of federal policy by declaring that workers injured or killed by radiation at weapons plants should be compensated. The agency proposed minimum lump sum payments of $100,000.

The Senate later approved a measure calling for workers exposed to radiation and toxic chemicals to receive $200,000 in compensation from the federal government, plus health benefits, but House GOP leaders balked, expressing concern about an entitlement program whose costs were uncertain because it's not known how many workers would qualify.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the compensation proposal would cost $1.7 billion to cover approximately 4,000 workers over 10 years.

Among the places that are home to large groups of workers who might qualify for compensation are the key presidential election states of California, Ohio and Washington.

Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., who faces a tough re-election opponent in Democrat Brian Roy, has been pushing GOP House leaders to reach a compromise and redoubled his efforts after talks broke off.

''I'm sure they (GOP leaders) understand the politics of it, and that's why it's so puzzling,'' said Whitfield, whose district is home to the Paducah uranium enrichment plant. ''The reality is if you don't pass important legislation, your opponent can always talk about it.''

Wamp's Democratic opponent, Will Callaway, issued a news release shortly after talks broke down criticizing Wamp for not convincing GOP House leaders to back the compensation package.

House Minority Whip David Bonior, D-Mich., said failure to approve a compensation plan says something about the ''compassionate conservatism'' Republicans have been touting.

''It's an excellent test of that, and we'll see how compassionate they are,'' Bonior said.

----------

Message: 11
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Senator fumes at delays on worker-aid plan

By Kathy Kiely, USA TODAY
http://usatoday.com/news/poison/025.htm

WASHINGTON - A senior Republican senator attacked some of his own party leaders Monday for blocking a federal assistance plan for workers who became sick building the nation's nuclear arsenal.

At the end of a day in which negotiations broke down over a program that would provide cash and medical coverage for the poisoned workers, Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., accused House Republican leaders of callousness.

"They apparently don't agree with us that people who are sick as a result of their service to our country deserve our help," Thompson said in a statement. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson called the breakdown of the talks "a great disappointment to our Cold War heroes."

At issue is a plan, backed by the Clinton administration and a bipartisan group of more than 100 members of Congress, to provide $200,000 and medical expenses for workers who were exposed to radioactivity and other toxins at government-owned or government-contracted plants.

A number of recent reports, including a series in USA TODAY, have documented that the government and private contractors knew about the dangerous exposures but never told workers. House Republican leaders have stymied an effort to secure speedy passage of a compensation program.

John Feehery, a spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, said his boss "has a lot of sympathy for these people, but this is something that needs to get done in a thoughtful way, not just at the last minute."

House Republican leaders are concerned that the cost of the program, currently estimated by the Congressional Budget Office at $1.7 billion over 10 years, could balloon out of control. They want a study to set strict criteria on who would be eligible for the aid.

Thompson, whose state includes the nuclear facility at Oak Ridge, and other supporters of the program are vowing to continue working for its enactment before Congress' adjournment Oct. 6. One Democrat, Rep. Ted Strickland of Ohio, said he and others might ask President Clinton to intervene.

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Message: 13
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000
From: "Bill Smirnow"

Live Broadcast of NRC Meeting Friday 9:30 AM Eastern Time

http://www.nrc.gov/live.html

Friday Sept. 29 at 9:30am the NRC will webcast for the first time a meeting on nuclear plant component safety revisions.

You need the Real Player to observe.

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Message: 14
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Rothrock retires from DOE-ORO

September 28, 2000
http://www.oakridger.com/

John D. Rothrock, director of the Operations Division of the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Operations Environment, Safety, Health and Emergency Management Office, has retired after 30 years of federal service.

Oak Ridge Operations Manager Leah Dever said, "John has been a valuable asset to ORO and has provided outstanding environment, safety and health support to our programs. I have enjoyed working with him. He will be missed."

Since 1998, when the Operations Division was established, Rothrock has been responsible for providing environment, safety and health operational support to ORO's line programs. From 1991 to 1998, Rothrock was the director of ORO's Safety and Health Division and was responsible for nuclear and non-nuclear safety for all ORO programs.

In 1980, Rothrock joined DOE as the plant representative and contracting officer representative at Goodyear Aerospace Corp. in Akron, Ohio, on the Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Program. Then in 1984, he transferred to Oak Ridge as the director of the Quality and Reliability Division with responsibility for ORO's quality assurance, maintenance management and in-house energy programs.

Prior to joining DOE, Rothrock served as a Signal Corps officer in the U.S. Army with service in Vietnam. From 1973 to 1975, he was an engineering intern in the Product Production Engineering Program, Army Development and Readiness Command, Red River Depot, in Texarkana, Texas. From 1975 to 1980, Rothrock served as an electronics engineer in system test and hardware engineering on the Patriot Missile System in Huntsville, Ala.

A native of Walla Walla, Wash., Rothrock received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Washington State University and a master's degree in industrial engineering from Texas A&M University.

Rothrock and his wife Amy, who is the Freedom of Information Act officer for ORO, live in Knoxville. They have two grown children, Tom and Alan.

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Message: 15
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Committee OKs $627 million for Y-12

September 28, 2000
by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff
http://www.oakridger.com/

It looks like the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant could get a $627 million facelift.

A conference committee of House and Senate members has OK'd the funding for the facility as part of the fiscal year 2001 Energy and Water Appropriations bill.

"This is the first major down payment on modernization," U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-3rd District, said this morning.

The Department of Energy has a long-range, extensive plan for Y-12, which includes building modern facilities and keeping the plant technologically current. Y-12 was constructed in 1943.

"This is an aging infrastructure," Wamp said. "We're going to have to do this for several years."

Also included in DOE's budget for the coming year is a request for money to begin construction on a new uranium storage building known as the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility.

Originally, $583 million was requested for Y-12, but Congress was able to add $44 million to that request. Y-12 received $439 million for the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

The news of Y-12's funding follows the announcement Tuesday afternoon that $278.5 million has been allotted for construction on the Spallation Neutron Source and $2.5 million has been allocated for the creation of a new Mouse House, what Wamp called "the second day of good news in a row for Oak Ridge." Wamp, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said the action by the conference committee means that DOE's Oak Ridge Operations will receive close to $2.3 billion in the coming year.

"I personally made a last-minute appeal to the House Energy and Water Subcommittee for this increased funding for Oak Ridge," Wamp said.

The conference committee has completed work on the report. It will now go to the full House and Senate for final action before being sent to President Clinton for his signature.

"These appropriations should pass Congress easily, and I expect President Clinton to sign the measure shortly," Wamp said.

Will Minter, Oak Ridge City Council member and chairman of the city's Economic Development Committee, this morning said he is excited about the money coming in to Oak Ridge.

"This is in fact our chance to reclaim our economic status," Minter said. "We must take advantage of this opportunity. It's critical we respond. We can't get news like this, sit back and wait for things to happen."

Minter said the city needs to start recruiting future residents by establishing an initiative to create more attractive housing in Oak Ridge.

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Message: 16
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000
From: magnu96196@aol.com

BWXT Y-12 to host second review meeting Saturday

September 28, 2000
http://www.oakridger.com/

The incoming managing contractor for the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant, BWXT Y-12, will host the second in a series of transition status review meetings at 8 a.m. Saturday in the club room of the Oak Ridge Mall.

These meetings are intended to provide employees and the public an opportunity to understand the process of transition, receive updates on the milestones reached and get answers to questions related to the new contractor. BWXT Y-12 -- an alliance between Bechtel National Inc. and BWX Technologies Inc. -- was awarded a five-year, $2.5 billion contract Aug. 31 to manage and operate the Y-12 Plant. It will assume full responsibility for the federal facility on Nov. 1.

This week's meeting will feature presentations on environmental safety and health, human resources and quality assurance. A period afterward is designated for questions and answers relating to the topics listed. The meeting is expected to last approximately an hour and 30 minutes.

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Message: 17
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000
From: magnu96196@aol.com

WWII-era radioactive sludge tanks cleaned out

September 28, 2000
by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff
http://www.oakridger.com/

A three-year, $80 million cleanup project at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been completed -- resulting in the removal of radioactive sludge from a series of underground storage tanks that were built as part of the Manhattan Project.

Removal of the radioactive sludge from the Gunite Tanks eliminates a potential risk to laboratory employees, the public and the environment, and represents a significant milestone in the environmental cleanup of ORNL, officials said.

Department of Energy Project Manager Stephanie Short stated in a press release that the Gunite Tanks Remediation Project was one of the top priorities for the Oak Ridge Reservation's Environmental Management Program because the radioactive waste contained in the tanks represented a significant risk to workers and the environment should the tanks leak or collapse.

The project, which eliminated the largest inventory of underground contaminants at ORNL's main plant area, was accomplished without accidents or injuries.

The tanks were constructed in 1943 of the concrete, sand and water mixture called gunite. The gunite was sprayed over a wire mesh and steel reinforcing rod frame. Six 170,000-gallon and two 42,500-gallon tanks were built.

The tanks were removed from service in the early 1970s, but still contained liquid waste and sludge. Waste removal operations were conducted in the early 1980s to remove most of the transuranic and mixed waste that had settled at the bottom of the tanks. While those efforts were successful, 87,000 gallons of sludge and 250,000 gallons of liquid containing 78,000 curies of radioactivity remained in the tanks.

The term transuranic refers to elements such as plutonium that have atomic numbers higher than that of uranium, and waste characterized as mixed consists of substances that are both radioactive and hazardous.

The three-year cleanup project, which was performed by UT-Battelle under a subcontract with Bechtel Jacobs Co., resulted in the removal of 99 percent of the waste and 95 percent of the contamination remaining in the tanks.

Officials said technologies utilized in the project may serve as a model for future DOE cleanup efforts.

Robotic and remotely operated equipment was used to clean the tanks and transfer the low-level liquid waste to new stainless steel storage tanks built for that purpose. A total of 30 technologies developed through DOE's technology development program were used in the project -- leading to a cost avoidance of $120 million and accelerating the tank cleanup by more than 10 years.

The empty tanks will be filled with grout. Eventually the waste will be treated on site and shipped to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico for disposal.

Short cited cooperation among DOE, the state of Tennessee, the Environmental Protection Agency, stakeholders and contractors as a key factor in the success of the Gunite Tanks Remediation Project.

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Message: 18
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Counties want more federal dollars

September 28, 2000
by Amy L. Lee Oak Ridger staff
http://www.oakridger.com/

Anderson and Roane counties would like to see the amount of federal money paid to local government in lieu of taxes increased -- and officials believe that should be done by increasing the assessed value of the federal property here.

The payments-in-lieu-of-tax money now is based on an assessment of $4,610 per acre -- a figure that has not changed since 1998.

If the figure were revised to be more in line with property appraisals done recently in both counties, local government would receive more -- perhaps much more -- from the Department of Energy.

The Local Government Federal Assistance Task Force, which is dealing with the payment-in-lieu-of-tax issue, met Monday in the Municipal Building.

The task force, composed of members from Anderson and Roane counties and Oak Ridge city governments, was formed to seek increased compensation from DOE because of unique situations the local region bears due to the federal agency's presence.

Amy Fitzgerald, special assistant to the Oak Ridge city manager, said one factor to be considered in reappraising DOE property for land transfer is that it must be considered under its original use, which was farmland. Thus, its valuation is significantly lower than had the land been serving a commercial or industrial use.

DOE property is appraised on an agricultural assessment, yet portions are being used for industrial purposes.

"If they really want to split hairs, that was the Wheat Community, which was a city with its own schools -- even its own college," said Roane County Executive Ken Yager.

Lost property tax revenue, the nuclear-related stigma perceived by people outside the area and the inability to market contaminated properties are the negative impacts officials cite as the reasons why they are seeking compensation.

"We get hung up a lot of times on the impacts," said Assistant City Manager Steve Jenkins. "But, they don't have the same hang-ups with Tennessee Eastman in Kingsport," he said referring to a similar situation in upper East Tennessee.

In 1998, the city of Kingsport received $7.2 million in property tax revenue from Tennessee Eastman. The company also pays a county property tax. The same year, the city of Oak Ridge received $700,000 from DOE.

"It's about how much tax they owe, not the impact," Jenkins said. "They owe money just like everyone else."

Oak Ridge Mayor Jerry Kuhaida said, "What we're looking at is the value of the property. When the tax bill went up 15 percent, we didn't start getting 15 percent more in in lieu of taxes."

Yager recommended the Roane and Anderson County property assessors "get together and come up with a number you can justify. Let's get that raised. We'd like to go ahead and get something done by the end of this year."

The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 23, in the city manager conference room of the Municipal Building. Roane County Property Assessor Teresa Kirkham and Anderson County Property Assessor Vernon Long are expected to present their recommendation to the task force at that time.

Yager has also drafted a letter to Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson, requesting an appointment with him to discuss reappropriations. Yager suggested that the fine of $1.045 million imposed on Lockheed Martin Energy Systems for violations of its Nuclear Safety Enforcement Program at the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant be distributed to the three local governments impacted by DOE operations.

"While our communities benefit significantly from the positive impact of the federal facilities in Oak Ridge, we also carry quite a burden," Yager said in the letter. "These funds could be used, for example, in Roane County to improve our Emergency Management program which has the responsibility to respond to any emergency in and/or affecting Roane County."

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Message: 19
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Smyser: Bully for Y-12's new operating contractor but remember also its first

September 28, 2000
http://www.oakridger.com/

The talk was about BWXT, surely one of the least pronounceable of Oak Ridge's superfluity of acronyms through the years. The new operating contractor for the Y-12 Plant would succeed Lockheed Martin, which had succeeded Martin Marietta, which had succeeded Union Carbide Nuclear.

"Which had succeeded Tennessee Eastman," an older member of the conversation group added.

"Who -- what -- is Tennessee Eastman?" a younger member asked, saying the name as though he didn't think he'd heard it correctly. He had.

Tennessee Eastman "was an extremely competent organization with much experience in chemical processes," Gen. Leslie R. Groves, commanding officer of the Manhattan Engineer District, wrote in his 1962 memoir, "Now It Can Be Told."

Tennessee Eastman, its plant just 100 miles northeast in Kingsport, was a subsidiary of Eastman Kodak of Rochester, N.Y., at that time -- the early 1940s -- considered one of the most efficient and innovative industries in the country. George Eastman, founder, was "the Bill Gates of his time," says Eugene Joyce, prominent retired local attorney and fellow Oak Ridger columnist ("Bar None"). Gene, not yet a law school graduate, was one Tennessee Eastman's earliest recruits for the Y-12 staff.

Richard G. Hewlett and Oscar E. Anderson Jr., in their history of the Manhattan Project, 1939 to 1946, tell how, after Stone & Webster was contracted to design and construct Y-12: "The selection of an operating contractor had no less priority in the mind of General Groves. For the same reasons which led to the swift negotiations with Union Carbide for the gaseous-diffusion plant, Groves solicited the advice of (E.O.) Lawrence and (John R.) Lotz ... Apparently Groves was using his associates merely to check a decision he had already made.

"The following morning, he placed a long-distance call to James C. White, vice president and general manager of the Tennessee Eastman Corporation. Groves was familiar with the company's accomplishments in constructing an explosives plant at the Holston Ordnance Works near Kingsport.

"White at once expressed his concern that the novelty of the process might rule out his company, which was primarily an operating unit for Eastman Kodak and did no fundamental research. Groves assured White that he was not looking for 'long beards.' He already had the pick of the academic brains and 'so many Ph.D's that he couldn't keep track of them.' What Groves wanted was a company with experience in industrial production. On January 5 (1943), after a long discussion with Groves in Rochester, White accepted the assignment."

(Aside: Contrast Gen. Groves' expedient, arbitrary selection of this first Y-12 operating contractor with the months-long discussions prior to selecting BWXT. And, just for fun, conjure the bombastic bureaucracy-baiting Manhattan Project chief tolerating the just-concluded contractor selection process.)

What White, at first, doubted Tennessee Eastman could handle was, of course, the electromagnetic process for the separation of uranium. And the process by virtue of which Y-12, under Tennessee Eastman operation, would, only two and a half years later (summer 1945), produce the U-235 which fueled the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, Aug. 6, 1945.

But only after overcoming serious difficulties and peaks and valleys of employment levels that make more recent fluctuations in Y-12 jobs gentle ripples by contrast. Y-12 began with about 5,000 employees, reaching more than 20,000 in late spring 1945 and then, in now layoff-hardened Oak Ridge's biggest layoff ever, dropping from 8,600 to 1,500 in early 1947. That drastic cutback came as the electromagnetic process for uranium separation was succeeded by the gaseous diffusion process at what then was known as K-25.

Key Tennessee Eastman personnel at Y-12 in its first years were Frederick R. Conklin, works manager; James G. McNally, assistant works manager in charge of production, and James Ellis, assistant works manager in charge of engineering. Also, Gen. Groves writes in his book, were two key men offsite "without whom the work could not have been accomplished," A.K. Chapman, executive vice president of the Eastman Kodak Co., and White.

There are still a significant number of early Tennessee Eastman Y-12 people in Oak Ridge and many remember the corporation for its progressive employee policies, savings and profit-sharing plans, for example. (Bill Wilcox, a true Oak Ridge Tennessee Eastman pioneer, is working on a chronology of early Y-12 events.)

But the first Y-12 operating contractor experienced dramatic ups and downs. There were critical problems at critical phases in the assembling of the never-before-assembled equipment. One example: In late 1943 as the first magnet coils were tested, moisture caused a major shutdown just as the process seemed on the verge of a successful start-up. A plan to correct the problem was developed but, meantime, 4,800 employees were idled.

As Richard Rhodes tells it in "The Making of the Atomic Bomb": "Tennessee Eastman's 4,800 employees reported for work in the shambles of gloomy halls. Rather than lose them from boredom the company scheduled classes, conferences, lectures, motion pictures, games. Serious men in double-breasted suits scouted the state for chess and checker sets."

There were also changing demands. From Hewlett and Anderson's "The New World": "Hopes for greater Y-12 production were more than offset by newer and higher estimates of the amount of U-235 needed for the bomb. In July (1944) Robert Oppenheimer, director of the new weapons laboratory at Los Alamos, New Mexico, reported that the median estimate of his scientists had roughly tripled. This three-fold increase prompted (Dr. James) Conant to admit to his diary that it was now nip and tuck whether Y-12 would ever produce enough material for a weapon in the present war."

And, on a more mundane but no less crucial challenge, Tennessee Eastman, as did all early Oak Ridge contractors, had to battle for adequate housing for its personnel in the then also under construction community of Oak Ridge.

>From "City Behind A Fence" by Charles Jackson and Charles Johnson: "In late 1943 and early 1944, completion of the first thousand houses had fallen behind projected schedule. ... Tennessee Eastman was livid and claimed that the second phase of Y-12 operations could not be started unless adequate personnel housing was provided."

Tennessee Eastman, as such, no longer exists in Kingsport, a city that grew to maturity during World War I (incorporated 1917) much as Oak Ridge was born of World War II. What remains in Kingsport is the Eastman Chemical Co., which manufactures fibers, filters and chemicals for Eastman Kodak in Rochester.

And there is another parallel. As Y-12 in recent years has gone through a major downsizing, so has Eastman Chemical, from 13,000 employees just a few years ago to 9,500 now. -- RDS

Richard D. Smyser is founding editor of The Oak Ridger.


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NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS

1 Piketon health package revived
2 AEP updates NRC on Cook Nuclear Power Plant
3 Industry opens exploratory talks on new nuclear power plants
4 NV'S GOVERNOR SET TO PUT THE PRICE OF N-WASTE-SITE WATER BEYOND REACH
5 DOE's Failure To Move Used Nuclear Fuel Could Cost Taxpayers
6 Chernobyl fallout sparks international collaboration
7 SWEDEN DELAYS REACTOR CLOSURE
8 James Lovelock: The man who changed the world
9 NUCLEAR POWER ON SHAKY GROUND IN JAPAN
10 Germany to Restart International Nuclear Shipments
11 Sierra Club ad denounces candidates for nuke stance
12 Our nuclear programme is illegal
13 'Ignorance' of Greens berated by scientist
14 Health Risks of Ionizing Radiation
15 Cook officials: Unit 2 at full power

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NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES

1 Piketon health package revived
Thursday, September 28, 2000
The Columbus Dispatch
JONATHAN RISKIND Dispatch Washington Bureau Chief

WASHINGTON--Lawmakers worked furiously last night to resurrect a proposal to compensate sick nuclear workers, legislation that was declared dead for the year Monday. But criticism from fellow Republicans prompted House GOP leaders to reopen negotiations. A compromise was being discussed late last night on Capitol Hill, but its fate remained far from certain, said a spokesman for Sen. George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio.

"Sen. Voinovich is cautiously optimistic we will be able to work something out,'' said Scott Milburn, his spokesman. "He is not interested in compromising to the point, though, that these workers are not going to get what they deserve.''

The Senate had included legislation in a military spending bill to grant $200,000 and lifetime health benefits to an estimated 4,000 to 6,000 Cold War-era nuclear workers who contracted cancer after being exposed to radiation and other hazardous materials. Among potential beneficiaries were workers at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, where weapons-grade uranium was produced.

Proponents said the legislation would cost about $1 billion over five years and $1.7 billion over 10 years, declining in cost as the population of eligible beneficiaries shrinks.

House GOP leaders booted the provision from a House-Senate conference committee considering the military spending bill, saying it could become too expensive.

Voinovich, R-Ohio; Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn.; and other proponents had slammed Speaker Dennis Hastert and other GOP House leaders.

In a letter to Hastert, R-Ill., this week, Voinovich said, "This is important, national legislation that the Republican Party should be able to claim credit for. It is time that we start acting on the compassion we are claiming.''

The compromise that House Republicans reportedly are offering would promise compensation for nuclear workers who contracted various cancers as a result of being exposed to radiation and other hazardous materials, but apparently not contain a guaranteed level of cash payments or health benefits.

It would have the White House conduct a study to determine what the benefits would be and what government agency would administer them.

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2 AEP Updates NRC on Cook Nuclear Plant
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 27, 3:31 PM EASTERN TIME
Press Release
SOURCE: American Electric Power

BRIDGMAN, Mich., Sept. 27 /PRNewswire/--Officials at American Electric Regulatory Commission today Cook Unit 2 has operated reliably and safely since its June restart while Cook Unit 1 remains on schedule for restart in the first quarter of 2001.

``The good performance of Unit 2 during this first 100-day period can be attributed to our focus on safety and quality during the rigorous restart effort,'' said Bob Powers, senior vice president - nuclear operations.

Powers said the official restart target date for Unit 1 remains first quarter 2001. However, due to good progress in the restart process, AEP is asking the NRC to prepare for the possibility of an earlier restart. ``Many variables may yet affect the restart schedule,'' Powers said. ``But we believe it is prudent to ensure that everyone is prepared in the event an early restart is feasible. In any event, our focus will continue to be safety and quality.''

Cook Unit 2 returned to service on June 25, reached full power on July 6, and has remained at full power for the ensuing period.

On July 27, AEP announced that Unit 1 would return to service in the first quarter of 2001.

The NRC is holding three public meetings concerning Cook today. This morning, a technical discussion of containment structural issues took place. In the afternoon, the topic was the restart schedule and licensing issues for Unit 1. This evening, NRC staff will detail the agency's new reactor oversight process.

Primary activities remaining for Unit 1 restart include restoration of the ice condenser system, structural modifications, refurbishment of motor- operated valves, and integrated pre-operational system testing.

AEP shut down both units in September 1997 because of questions raised about operability of safety systems.

Combined generating capacity for the two units is 2,110 megawatts, enough power to serve the needs of a city of about 1.2 million people.

American Electric Power is a multinational energy company based in Columbus, Ohio. AEP is one of the United States' largest generators of electricity with more than 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity. AEP is also one of the nation's leading wholesale energy marketers and traders. AEP delivers electricity to more than 4.8 million customers in 11 states--Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. The company serves more than 4 million customers outside the U.S. through holdings in Australia, Brazil, China, Mexico and the United Kingdom. Wholly owned subsidiaries are involved in power engineering and construction services, energy management and telecommunications.

News releases and other information about AEP can be found on the

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Although AEP believes that its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, any such statements may be influenced by factors that could cause actual outcomes and results to be materially different from those projected.

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3 Industry Opens Exploratory Talks on New Nuclear Power Plants
Nuclear Energy Institute
September 26, 2000-

Responding to the United States' growing need for reliable new electricity supplies, the nuclear energy industry has held the first of a series of exploratory discussions to identify the market conditions and business structures that could culminate in construction of a new nuclear power plant.

Joe F. Colvin, president and chief executive officer of the Nuclear Energy Institute, told reporters at a Sept. 20 luncheon that a new industry task force met in mid-September at NEI to begin identifying the key factors that would affect decisions on potential new nuclear plant orders. No timetable has been set for when new plants may be ordered, he said.

We see an increasing amount of interest in exploring options and trying to develop a business plan that could lead to a new plant order, Colvin said. We're not trying to say, ‘We want to build this model at this site.' We' re exploring what does it take and what kinds of rates of return and types of investment risk would one have to look at, and so on. And I just want to tell you there's a lot of energy that people are putting into trying to do that today.

The commercial nuclear energy industry has 103 reactors operating in 31 states. Five new reactors began generating electricity in the 1990s, the most recent being the Tennessee Valley Authority' s 1,158-megawatt Watts Bar 1 unit in eastern Tennessee in June 1996.

The nation's digitally driven economy is expected to increase electricity demand by 30 percent to 35 percent by 2010, according to the World Energy Council.

Separately, Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) and Arthur Andersen on Sept. 19 issued a report on electricity restructuring that states, Coal and nuclear power, commonly thought to be on the decline in terms of utilization, are surprisingly viable. The report, entitled Electric Power Trends 2001, further states, A trend toward higher plant values is due in part to expectations of improved nuclear plant performance.

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4 NV'S GOVERNOR SET TO PUT THE PRICE OF N-WASTE-SITE WATER BEYOND REACH

Edited by Paul Hersch Managing Editor,
Pollution Online

Nevada's Governor Kenny Guinn has threatened to impose a U.S.$1-million- per-gallon fine for every gallon of water the U.S. Department of Energy tries to truck to the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository site in southern Nevada, reported the Associated Press on Sept. 26.

Guinn issued the warning on the heels of a DOE statement it could resort to trucking the water in from outside Nevada were the state to deny it pumping privileges. The DOE's statement followed a ruling the week of Sept. 17 by a federal judge that any decision on whether the DOE may use groundwater at Yucca Mountain is a matter for the state courts.

Governor Guinn said that to prevent such water imports he would ask the 2001 legislature to pass a law imposing large fines. A $1-million- per-gallon fine "would be a sufficient deterrent," he said.

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5 DOE's Failure To Move Used Nuclear Fuel Could Cost Taxpayers Billions, Industry Executives Tell Congress

SEPTEMBER 28, 2000
Nuclear Energy Institute

WASHINGTON, D.C., Taxpayers needlessly could be forced to pay billions of dollars because of the federal government's failure to meet its legal obligation to move used nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear power plants, industry executives testified in Congress today. The Department of Energy (DOE) has the capability to begin moving used nuclear fuel but continues to breach contracts with companies to move fuel beginning January 1998, executives told the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

"The unfortunate reality is that the government's breach of its legal obligation to remove used nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear power plant sites was foreseeable and has the potential to cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars," said Marvin Fertel, senior vice president of business operations for the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI). "At the same time DOE was litigating issues related to its contractual and statutory obligation to take nuclear fuel, the Administration opposed legislation that provides a reasonable plan for DOE to meet its obligation."

The U.S. government has had the responsibility to manage used nuclear fuel since the 1950s. "The government has failed taxpayers and consumers for more than four decades," said John Rowe, chairman, president and chief executive officer at Chicago-based UNICOM. "These settlements do not expedite the day when the problem is resolved."

To date, the government's failure to take used nuclear fuel from power plants has triggered lawsuits by 12 electric utilities seeking in excess of $5 billion in damages. Additional lawsuits could be filed if the government continues to miss its contractual schedule for removing used fuel at other plant sites. In a development that led to today's hearing, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled on Aug. 31 that utilities' contracts with DOE do not preclude them from seeking damages in court.

"An alternative to prolonged litigation is readily at hand,” said Russell Mellor, president and chief executive officer of Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Co., one of the companies that has filed suit. "DOE can and should remove spent fuel from the Yankee companies' sites now. There is no legitimate basis for any further delay. "The Nuclear Waste Fund can and should be used to site and operate a central, temporary storage facility. Regardless of where DOE provides for storage, it has the clear authority and ability to begin removing spent fuel from reactor sites," Mellor said.

Fertel said DOE's ability to immediately meet its obligation does not hinge on the Yucca Mountain, Nev. site being studied for a permanent used-fuel repository.

"It is not necessary to have a completed permanent repository facility in order to fulfill that contractual obligation. In fact, DOE is and has been safely moving used nuclear fuel for years. DOE should begin mitigating potential taxpayer costs as soon as possible instead of waiting until 2010, when the permanent repository is scheduled to be completed."

Eighty of the nation's 103 commercial reactors, which meet one-fifth of U.S. electricity needs, will have run out of existing on-site storage for used fuel by 2010.

Fertel also urged Congress to ensure that the radiation protection standard for Yucca Mountain that will be issued by the Environmental Protection Agency is based on sound science. He emphasized that the EPA acknowledged in testimony before the House Commerce Committee in June that its proposed standard is based on policy, not science.

EPA's proposed 4-millirem groundwater standard has been criticized by the National Academy of Sciences and others on the grounds that it is less protective of the public health and adds unnecessarily to the costs of the Yucca Mountain project.

"At worst, the EPA standard could needlessly disqualify Yucca Mountain- and perhaps all other potential repository locations in the U.S.- resulting in a total failure of the repository program and costing taxpayers as much as $61 billion dollars,” Fertel said. “ Ironically, the result of imposing EPA's proposed standard also would be to frustrate the ability to meet our clean-air goals because nuclear energy is our country's largest source of emission- free electricity. I would think that is not an outcome we would expect the Environmental Protection Agency to pursue."

Although recent court decisions represent a clear victory for the Yankee companies and New England's electric ratepayers, Mellor said, they do not provide a solution to the region's used fuel storage challenge. The Department of Energy must still meet its statutory and contractual obligation.

In some cases, the potential liability burden to taxpayers will not be limited to the utility's cost of storing used fuel beyond DOE's removal schedules. For example, damages could be incurred if Xcel Energy's Prairie Island nuclear power plant in Minnesota were forced to shut down in 2007 because used fuel is not removed from the site. "Direct damages from DOE's failure to remove used fuel from Prairie Island will exceed $1 billion," said Xcel Energy Vice President David Sparby. "Even after this bill is paid, we will still need the federal government to institute a plan of action."

Also, damages could result if shutdown reactors, such as Yankee Atomic in Massachusetts, are prevented from completing timely and cost-effective decommissioning of their sites.

Unless DOE acts, Fertel said, taxpayers could be liable for more than $5 billion in damages from lawsuits already before the courts and potentially 10 times that amount. He suggested that a presidential decision to approve the Yucca Mountain site next year, coupled with passage of S. 1287, “can set the DOE program on a success path that would limit taxpayer liability and benefit consumers and the environment."

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6 Chernobyl fallout sparks international collaboration
Surgery Door
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 28, 8:54 AM

Scientists this week took one step nearer finding ways to prevent and treat radiation-related cancers. Since the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986, individual scientific groups around the world have been studying why the accident caused an increase in thyroid cancer in children. Now, a unique international project, announced this week in the journal Science, aims to speed discoveries in this area of medicine.

Cambridge University scientists based at Strangeways Research Laboratory are coordinating the project that will make samples of genetic material (RNA and DNA) extracted from Chernobyl-related thyroid cancers available for study in laboratories across the world. The international project is the first time experts in radiation carcinogenesis will be able to obtain cancerous material for study for which the cause is undisputed. Involved in the partnership are the governments of Belarus, Ukraine and the Russian Federation and the sponsors, the European Commission, the World Health Organization, the Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation of Japan and the National Cancer Institute of the United States.

Dr Thomas, one of the programme co-ordinators, said: "The Chernobyl accident has had unique consequences with an unexpected and large increase in childhood thyroid cancer. This resource will, for the first time, allow scientists across the world to collaborate in studies of a large number of tumours for which the cause is undisputed.

'Ultimately, we believe it will enable us to develop much more informed preventative and therapeutic strategies should another nuclear accident occur."

More than 4.5 million children living in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine were exposed to radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl accident in 1986. Children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of radiation and there has been a dramatic and continuing increase in thyroid cancer in children and adolescents in the areas with high levels of contamination.

Fallout from Chernobyl has increased childhood thyroid cancer to a rate of 90 per million per year in some areas the normal incidence is about 1 per million per year. The highest incidences are to be found in Southern Belarus, particularly in the region closest to the power plant, which was immediately in the path of the radioactive plume, and in Northern Ukraine.

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7 SWEDEN DELAYS REACTOR CLOSURE
By Nicholas George in Stockholm
September 27 2000

Sweden's plans to phase out nuclear power suffered a fresh setback on Wednesday when the government admitted it would have to delay the closure of a key reactor.

The Barsebäck 2 reactor, which is situated in the far south of the country, was earmarked to be closed by July next year but is now unlikely to be shut down before 2003 at the earliest.

Its closure has been postponed after government-backed schemes failed to make up the shortfall in electricity production.

Swedes voted in a referendum in 1980 to close the country's nuclear power plants after environmental impact concerns.

However, the wording of the commitment was vague and successive governments avoided taking action, largely because the country relies on nuclear power for about half of its electricity.

The first, and so far the only, reactor to be closed, was Barseback 1, which was shut permanently at the end of last November.

However, under the terms of a political agreement between the ruling Social Democrats and the Left and Centre parties, further closures can only take place when measures are in place to bridge any production shortfall.

Barsebäck 2 accounts for 2-3 per cent of the country's electricity production. This was to be replaced half by an increase in renewable energy sources such as wind power, and half by energy-saving measures.

The government said on Wednesday that although the amount of energy from renewable sources had exceeded targets it had been much more difficult than expected to implement energy-saving.

The main problem has been the sharp fall in electricity prices since the deregulation of the country's electricity market in the late 1990s. Quite simply, with traditional electric heating systems now cheap there has been little consumer incentive to invest in expensive new heating technologies.

Bo Diczfalusy, energy spokesman for the Federation of Swedish Industries said the latest development showed how difficult it was for a single country to control its energy policy when markets were deregulated.

He said the increase in renewable electricity sources such as wind power was the result of heavy government subsidies, with the real production costs from such sources 2-3 times higher than market prices.

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8 James Lovelock: The man who changed the world
By Michael McCarthy
28 September 2000
Independent

His theory of Gaia transformed our view of planet Earth - and made him a guru of the greens. But 30 years on, James Lovelock remains scornful of the movement that adopted him and would even welcome a supply of nuclear waste in his own back garden

"You're a champion of the chemical industry, a strong proponent of nuclear power and a supporter of MI5," I said to James Lovelock. "You're a pretty unlikely hero for the environment movement." He laughed. He giggled, actually. "Well, if you put it like that..." he said.

He is 80 now, though he looks sixtysomething, and it is 30 years since he conceived perhaps the most radically new way of looking at life on our planet since Darwin: Gaia. Lovelock suggested that the Earth itself was alive. It was in effect a great super-organism, he said, that could regulate itself chemically and atmospherically to keep itself fit for life, and had done so for billions of years.

The complex mechanism he put forward for the Earth's self-regulation might have remained in The Journal of Geophysical Research had he called it "the biocybernetic universal system tendency". But his neighbour in the village of Bowerchalke, Wiltshire, the Nobel Prize- winning novelist William Golding, suggested he name it after the Greek goddess of the Earth; and when Lovelock did, he found it brought him a vast new audience.

In Gaia he had conceived more than a radical idea: suddenly he had created a new persona, a reinvented Mother Earth able to inspire reverence and awe besides scientific curiosity. It was an almost religious metaphor, seized on by the generation which had just seen the first wonderful pictures of the Earth taken by the Apollo astronauts, the shimmering pastel-blue sphere hanging in infinite black space. Gaia seemed to reach out to the burgeoning environmental movement: Gaia was benign, she kept the Earth favourable to life, but she was not necessarily pro-human, and if humans offended her, she might well readjust things to do without them.

The shock for Lovelock was that it was the metaphor which found instant acceptance and gave him world fame, not the scientific theory, which was at first ignored. "It was a great surprise," he says, sitting in his present home-cum-laboratory, an old mill in Devon. "I was astonished that two thirds of the letters came from philosophers, new age people, theologians and clerics. Only a third came from scientists."

This wasn't what he'd hoped to achieve; above all, it was the theory he wished to be taken seriously. As his new autobiography recounts, Lovelock was anything but a green dreamer: he had spent his life working as a practical scientist, achieving eminence as a researcher, first with the National Institute for Medical Research and later with NASA, where he worked on the American space programme. Along the way he produced a series of inventions, including one, the electron capture detector which made possible the detection of pollution in the environment in the most minute amounts, and thus underpinned the green movement. It was an invention which gave him enough money to free himself from research institutes and set up as an independent. He had very little time for anything that wasn't absolutely, rigorously scientific, and that is one of the points where he and the green movement part company. "Their hearts are very much in the right place, " he says. "But they often get the science wrong, and you can't really be a green without being involved with science." He is exasperated, for example, by environmentalists' hostility to the chemical industry. "I find that side of the green movement that considers everything chemical as harmful, produced by a nasty organisation thinking only of its profits and never of the good of people or humankind, as rather absurd."

He feels the same about green hostility to nuclear power. "Fifty years ahead when the problems of the greenhouse effect really hit us hard, somebody is going to point a finger back at the greens and say, if we had nuclear power we wouldn't be in this mess now and whose fault was it? It was theirs."

Not even nuclear waste bothers him. "The waste is no problem at all. I made an offer to the British nuclear industry a long time ago that if they could arrange it, I would quite happily take a year's waste output of one of their major stations on this site here, and use it for heating. A year's output could be concentrated into a steel cylinder a metre long. It's not too difficult to build a concrete pit to shield you from any radiation. I wouldn't be frightened of it in the least. Furthermore, it would be very handy to have a porthole into which you could drop a chicken from the supermarket and wipe out all its salmonella - a marvellous way of sterilising food." By now Lovelock, who looks like a grey-haired imp, is not only warming to his theme, but there is a definite air of mischief about him. Yet he is totally serious.

And there are other aspects of his life which make him an unlikely fit for the label Green Guru. A socialist and conscientious objector during the Second World War, his sympathies slowly aligned with the Establishment, and when at the height of the Cold War the Security Service sought to draw on his expertise in inventing gadgets he responded enthusiastically. It would be an exaggeration to say he was the real- life equivalent of Q, James Bond's gadgeteer, but it is not an empty comparison. "I very much enjoyed my contact with MI5," he says.

It was with astonishment, therefore, that Lovelock found the Gaia hypothesis rejected by scientists but embraced by the alternative world. Yet perhaps it was his own doing: this most practical of men had been seduced by his own metaphor, speaking of Gaia as she, in highly personal terms, as if he were talking of a sentient being. He wryly recognises this now - "Who doesn't fall in love with a metaphor? Richard Dawkins fell in love with The Selfish Gene" - and over the last 30 years he has modified his language ("I've had to stop saying the Earth is alive") as the theory itself of the self- regulating planet has gradually been accepted by his scientific peers. "Yes, people have come round to the argument of Gaia, but they don't like the name. They call it Earth Systems Science."

Yet three decades on, Lovelock retains his twin vision of Gaia as Earth Goddess who should be respected and revered, as well as complex self-regulating mechanism. He fears that coming climate change may produce more drastic effects than people imagine as Gaia is perturbed, in the literal sense, by human actions; he can well contemplate the earth spinning on without people. Not that he is gloomy: he is serene at 80, hugely happy in a second marriage with an American 30 years his junior, Sandy Orchard. He simply sees through his unique metaphor, as the Greeks did, that the balance of things cannot be disturbed without consequences.

"Modern science has taken away from the authority of religion but has offered us nothing in the way of moral guidance in return," he says. "Gaia gives us something to which we are accountable. We're not here for ourselves alone."

'Homage to Gaia: the life of an independent scientist'
by James Lovelock, is published today by Oxford University Press, œ19.99

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9 NUCLEAR POWER ON SHAKY GROUND IN JAPAN
By Bayan Rahman and Emiko Terazono
September 27 2000

On Saturday the village of Tokaimura will re-live Japan's worst nuclear accident.

Residents and officials from the nuclear industry will take part in a drill to test improved mechanisms for coping with a nuclear accident.

The exercise will be held one year after an accident at a nuclear reprocessing plant in the village, 120km northeast of Tokyo, killed two workers and exposed 439 people to radiation.

Although the village's 34,000 inhabitants were shaken by the event, Tokaimura seems remarkably unaffected.

Farmers complain that they are unable to sell their vegetables because of the perceived risk of contamination, but otherwise the village seems to bear few scars.

However, while Tokaimura seems to have suffered relatively little, the nuclear industry is reeling and the wider repercussions are still being felt across Japan.

The accident and the government's mishandling of it came on the heels of several incidents involving sloppy working practices and a cover- up that have shattered public confidence in the industry.

At one time the promise of better amenities was enough to sway many communities to accept nuclear facilities on their doorstep.

Tokaimura's first nuclear facility was built in 1956 when there were 10,000 residents. "Now there are 34,000 people and we have roads, schools, libraries and community centres. We have benefited from nuclear power," admits Tadashi Teruyama, general manager at the village government office.

But a dramatic shift in opinion has led to public protests across Japan and some projects have been delayed. In one case, residents opposed to the building of a nuclear plant bought the proposed site to prevent the project from going ahead.

"Public opinion has changed greatly," said Michiaki Furukawa, professor at Yokkaichi University and a member of Citizens' Nuclear Information Centre.

"Although an accident on the scale of Chernobyl is unlikely, small accidents could happen again. We need to have better training, we need to look at the age of the plants - some of which are 30 years old - and we need to think about the possibility of earthquakes."

As recently as July this year three nuclear reactors were shut down in five days in Fukushima soon after an earthquake because of an increase in iodine in the reactor's water.

Although no radiation leaked outside the plant, the incident highlighted the danger in a country that suffers many minor earthquakes every year.

The government has taken several steps in the past year to allay the public's fears. It has increased the frequency of inspections of nuclear facilities and made progress towards greater public participation in the decision-making process.

It has passed a law offering more protection to "whistleblowers" (people who alert the authorities or the public to malpractice) and a law enabling the local and central government to take charge of the handling of a nuclear accident.

It has also invited opponents of nuclear plants to take part in the recent drafting of Japan's long-term nuclear policy proposal.

However, the impact of a number of accidents over the past five years has taken a toll on the government's plan to develop nuclear fast- breeder reactors.

An accident at the Monju fast-breeder reactor in December 1995, a fire at a waste-reprocessing plant in March 1997 and the Tokaimura accident last year have left the programme in limbo.

The number of nuclear power plants that Japanese power companies plan to build has also been slashed. Two years ago the Ministry of International Trade and Industry predicted that Japan would need 16 to 20 nuclear power plants by 2010. The figure is likely to drop to about 13, government officials say.

But Japan, which has no natural energy resources, relies on its 51 reactors for a third of its electricity and although the government says it plans to investigate alternative sources of energy, it has no plans to curb use of nuclear power dramatically.

As part of its effort to show its concerns on safety, the government plans to hold its own nuclear accident drill next month in which Yoshiro Mori, the prime minister, will be involved.

However, the government has a long way to go before it can restore public trust in the industry. "It has been a great shock to us that the safety of nuclear power has turned out to be a myth," said Mr Teruyama.

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10 Germany to Restart International Nuclear Shipments
Environment News Service:
September 27, 2000

BERLIN, GERMANY, (ENS) - Germany is to permit international shipments of spent nuclear fuel for the first time in more than two years, the country's radiation protection authority Bundesamt fur Strahlenschutz (BfS) has announced.

Environmental groups immediately promised massive protests. One demonstration has already taken place on Saturday at the Gorleben interim storage facility in Lower Saxony.

Under the BfS permit, eight spent fuel shipments are to be allowed this year, traveling from the power stations Stade, Biblis and Philippsburg to the La Hague reprocessing plant in France.

This is significantly fewer shipments than the nuclear industry's requested. It had sought permission for 54 shipments to the end of 2001.

According to the BfS, the limited permission was given after assurances were received that radiation limit values would be respected through the entire transport cycle.

April 1994, Ahauser station. The red railcars are specialized nuclear transport Castor containers carrying spent fuel. (Photo courtesy

Operators will be subject to new transport documentation rules, plus stricter requirements to report any radioactive contamination discovered.

The radiation agency also limited the permits because of "missing insurance proofs for the year 2001, which are a permission prerequisite." A further restriction was the availability of transportation containers to carry the spent fuel to the atomic power plants.

The German Environment Ministry stressed that a further condition was that all plutonium deriving from reprocessing should be recycled to prevent any plutonium surplus arising. This was an element of the nuclear power phaseout agreement reached in June.

All rail movements of spent nuclear fuel were banned by Germany in 1998 after discovery of widespread surface contamination.

France and Switzerland initially took similar action, but have both since allowed transports to restart.

The German government permitted domestic fuel transports to restart earlier this year.

Poster advertising Saturday's anti-nuclear demonstration at Gorleben (Photo courtesy BI)

On Saturday, a group of about 2,000 anti-nuclear demonstrators formed a large human X in a field near the temporary nuclear waste storage facility to symbolize their resistance to nuclear power generation and the inevitable radioactive waste it generates.

A prominent speaker at the demonstration was Jakob von Uexkuell, founder of the alternative Nobel prize.

Organized by the anti-nuclear group Bürgerinitiative Umweltschutz (BI) Lüchow-Dannenberg, the demonstrators came from across Germany and included representatives of large nature protection federations and doctors from International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.

BI said the Germany's ruling Red-Green coalition of the Social Democrats and Greens helps the nuclear power plant operators to "hush up" the problems posed by nuclear waste.

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11 Sierra Club ad denounces candidates for nuke stance
September 27, 2000
BY LAUNCE RAKE
LAS VEGAS SUN

The Sierra Club announced Tuesday that it has launched an advertisement critical of Republican candidates John Ensign and Jon Porter.

The radio ad ties the two to a Republican platform plank that calls for sending nuclear waste to a proposed high-level repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Former Rep. Ensign is running for Senate against Democrat and trial lawyer Ed Bernstein. State Sen. Porter is running for Las Vegas' U.S. House seat against incumbent Democrat Shelley Berkley.

All the candidates have said they oppose putting a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain.

The Sierra Club in a release said Ensign and Porter "sat back and watched as Republicans adopted a platform that advocated sending nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain."

"It is frightening to think that Jon Porter's party would allow this radioactive waste to be dumped on Nevada," said Jessica Hodge, Sierra Club organizer in Southern Nevada. "Porter and Ensign should follow the Clinton administration's lead to block these efforts to foist the nation's nuclear waste on us."

As an "issue" ad, the radio message does not directly urge voters to vote Democratic on Nov. 7. The national organization's political arm has endorsed Vice President Al Gore, a Democrat, in the presidential race.

Hodge said the ad will run on three stations in Reno and three stations in Las Vegas. The effort will end Friday when the Sierra Club holds rallies with the them "Nevada is Not a Wasteland."

Josh Griffin, Porter campaign manager, fired back at the Sierra Club.

"Obviously, this is just a continuation of some politicians (who are) trying to make this a partisan issue," he said.

"Obviously this is a very competitive race, and Shelley Berkley will be pulling out all the stops to cling to her political seat," Griffin said, calling the ad "absurd."

Griffin reiterated charges that Berkley supported the nuclear waste dump in a 1999 vote on energy and water infrastructure funding. That bill included $800 million appropriation for work preparing the waste site.

Richard Urey, Berkley's chief of staff, rejected the Porter counterattack. The same bill cited by Griffin included money needed for critical flood control and infrastructure improvements for Nevada and nationwide, he said. And Berkley helped gather the critical votes in the House needed to sustain a presidential veto that stopped Yucca Mountain from moving forward earlier this year, Urey said. He called that vote this year "the real battle."

Urey criticized Porter for failing to criticize the Republican leadership's position on the waste dump during the candidate's speech at the Republican National Convention in August.

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12 Our nuclear programme is illegal
The high court is to examine a remarkable ruling against Trident
Guardian Unlimited
GEORGE MONBIOT
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 28, 2000

I was on my way to address a fringe meeting on political participation in Brighton on Tuesday when I encountered a large crowd marching along the seafront. Feeling that I should practice what I was about to preach, I joined it. I discovered that the rally had been convened by my old friends the Countryside Alliance.

I soon grasped the themes of the march, and I thought I would help out by shouting some fitting slogans: such as "bring back badger baiting", "back to the Middle Ages" and "feudalism now!" To my astonishment, far from applauding my sentiments, my fellow marchers first started jostling me, then requested an officer of the law to apprehend me. This he duly did, and cautioned me under section 5 of the 1986 Public Order Act. The act, the policeman told me, says that "anyone using words or signs likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to any other may be guilty of an offence".

I asked the policeman whether I would be committing an offence if the slogans I had been shouting had met with the approval of the crowd. He told me I would not. So the legality of my actions, I asked, depends on the political content of what I am saying? "In this case, sir, yes".

A few months ago I argued that our legal system was built on a pre- democratic framework. Since then, however, I have come across two cases of peaceful protesters being arrested or cautioned under the Justices of the Peace Act. This progressive measure was passed in 1361: it predates, in other words, not only democracy, but also parliament. Our legal system was established by a handful of propertied people, to defend them from the objections of those they had dispossessed. It has been used to suppress public participation ever since.

But now, thanks to a series of spectacular cases, Britain's feudal law is on the verge of falling apart. Last week, a jury decided that 28 Greenpeace activists had "lawful excuse" to destroy a field of GM maize. On the same day, a Manchester jury failed to reach a verdict in the case of two women who had partly destroyed a nuclear submarine. In October last year, a sheriff instructed the jury in Greenock court to acquit three women who had thrown all the Trident laboratory's computer equipment into Loch Goil. Having heard that Trident's 100- kiloton warheads could not be used selectively, but would inevitably kill millions of non-combatants if they were deployed, she explained that the women "were justified in thinking" that Trident "is an infringement of international and customary law" and that they had an "obligation in terms of international law to do whatever they could to stop the deployment and use of nuclear weapons in situations which could be construed as a threat".

Tomorrow, the legal implications of this remarkable judgment will be examined by the high court. The three women will argue that the new Human Rights Act will render the sheriff's judgment unchallengeable: Britain's nuclear programme has been declared illegal, and there is nothing that either the judiciary or the government can do about it. Though a complete absence of press coverage south of the border might suggest otherwise, this is surely one of the most significant legal cases ever to be heard in the British courts.

As the Human Rights Act looms into view, the government is beginning to panic. Concerned that juries are using their moral judgment to interpret the law, it seems to be doing all it can to shore up Britain's oppressive legal system. Protesters arrested for destroying a GM crop in Dorset this summer complain about what they perceive as overt political interference in the judicial process. While they were to have been tried for criminal damage, which would have brought them before a jury, the crown prosecution service has reduced the charges to aggravated trespass, which will be heard in a magistrates' court. The defendants are pressing for more serious charges, while the prosecution is arguing for leniency.

Jack Straw's attempts to limit trial by jury, which the Lords will start re-examining this week, are beginning to look less like a plan to save money and more like an effort to keep sensitive cases out of the hands of ordinary men and women, who might be moved to agree with the legal arguments raised against the excessive powers of the state and the corporations. This is not, after all, how the legal system is supposed to work.

But these are desperate, rearguard actions to defend a system which is becoming ever less capable of resisting democratic challenges. The next few months could, as a result, prove to be among the most exciting periods ever in British politics, as the weight of the law is turned against the very systems it was established to defend. Thanks to the challenges presented by a tiny number of courageous people, Britain may never be the same again.

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13 'Ignorance' of Greens berated by scientist
ISSUE 1952 Thursday 28 SEPTEMBER 2000
BY ROGER HIGHFIELD, SCIENCE EDITOR

AN independent scientist revered by Green groups attacks them today for their stance on nuclear power and GM food.

James Lovelock, 81, who is best known for his Gaia theory and the many environmental prizes he has won, said: "Too many Greens are not just ignorant of science, they hate science."

Named after the Greek goddess of Earth by the novelist William Golding, Gaia theory says that creatures, rocks, air and water interact in subtle ways to ensure the environment remains stable. Gaia has exerted great influence on the Green movement, but in Homage to Gaia: The Life of an Independent Scientist, published today, Lovelock says that he has "never been wholly on the side of environmentalism".

He likens Greens to "some global over-anxious mother figure who is so concerned about small risks that she ignores the real dangers". He wished they "would grow up" and focus on the real problem: "How can we feed, house and clothe the abundant human race without destroying the habitats of other creatures?"

Unlike most Greens, Lovelock backs nuclear energy. "Some time in the next century, when the adverse effects of climate change begin to bite, people will look back in anger at those who now so foolishly continue to pollute by burning fossil fuel instead of accepting the beneficence of nuclear power.

"Is our distrust of nuclear power and genetically modified food soundly based?" he asks, saying that his disenchantment with the Green movement is similar to that of Patrick Moore, the veteran environmentalist who accused it of abandoning science. "He was a founder of Greenpeace, but like me has an Orwellian view of the environmental lobbies as they are today."

One reason why Lovelock regards the Green movement "with mixed vexation and affection" is its obsession with the chemical industry. "To many Greens, if a chemical like methyl iodide or carbon disulphide comes from some dark satanic mill, it is by nature evil, but if it comes from organically grown or natural seaweed, it must be good and healthy. To me, as a scientist, it does not matter where it comes from. I am poisoned if I eat too much of it."

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14 Health Risks of Ionizing Radiation
IEER: Science for Democratic Action vol. 8 no. 4 /
Energy & Security No. 14: Ionizing Radiation
by David Sumner, Howard Hu, and Alistair Woodward1

Ionizing radiation can cause stochastic (random) and deterministic(or nonstochastic) effects. Deterministic effects appear if a minimum radiation dose is exceeded. Above that threshold, the effects are readily observed in most or all exposed people and the severity increases with dose. The occurrence and severity of a deterministic effect in any one individual are reasonably predictable. A radiation burn is an example of a deterministic effect.

In adults, nonstochastic effects dominate when the dose to the entire body is more than about one sievert. An exception is temporary sterility in the male, which can occur with a single absorbed dose to the testis of about 0.15 grays.2 [See Science for the Critical Masses for a description of radiation units and terms.] With respect to children, the threshold for congenital malformations and other developmental abnormalities has been estimated to be 0.25 grays of radiation exposure up to 28 days of gestation.

Single radiation doses over about 1 gray cause radiation sickness; acute effects include nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, sometimes accompanied by malaise, fever, and hemorrhage. The victim may die in a few hours, days, or weeks. Other acute effects can include sterility and radiation burns, depending on the absorbed dose and the rate of the exposure. The dose at which half the exposed population would die in sixty days without medical treatment is called the LD50 dose (LD for lethal dose, and 50 for 50 percent). It is about 4 sieverts for adults. The sixty-day period is sometimes explicitly identified, and the dose is then called the LD50/60 dose. In general, a number of different LD50 doses can be specified, depending on the number of days, T, after which the observations of death are cut off.

For radiation doses less than about 1 sievert, stochastic effects have been the greatest concern. The most important stochastic effects, cancer and inheritable genetic damage, may appear many years or decades after exposure. It is thought that there is no minimum threshold for these effects; as dose decreases the effects are still expected to occur, but with lower frequency. However, the uncertainties at low doses (10 millisieverts or less) are very large. Estimates of the magnitude of low-dose radiation effects have tended to rise over the years, but remain the subject of controversy.

Because ionizing radiation can damage the genetic material of virtually any cell, cancer can occur in many sites or tissues of the body. The actual effect depends in part on the route of exposure. For example, external radiation, such as X rays or gamma radiation, can affect DNA in blood-forming cells or in many organs in ways that cause cancers of these organs decades later. It should be noted that tissues vary in their sensitivity to radiation damage. For instance, muscles are less sensitive than bone marrow.

There are many pathways by which the body can be exposed to internal irradiation. Decay products of radon, which are present in an underground uranium mine, may be inhaled by miners and end up in their lungs. Particles of plutonium-239 or other actinides, which emit mostly high-LET alpha particles, may be inhaled and deposited on the epithelial lining of bronchi in the lung. A radiation dose from such exposure pathways increases the risk of lung cancer. In addition, soluble particles may be absorbed and distributed through the blood or lymph systems to other parts of the body. Some elements, such asradium, strontium, or iodine, tend to accumulate in certain organs. For example, iodine-131 delivers its principal ionizing radiation dose to the thyroid gland, making that the most likely site of a resultant cancer. Iodine-131 is also used to combat thyroid cancer, since the emitted radiation destroys the cancerous cells along with healthy ones. But when there is no disease in the thyroid, the radiation affects only healthy cells.

Estimating the Risk of Cancer from Ionizing Radiation

Various institutions have estimated the risk of cancer following exposures to ionizing radiation, particularly the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), the US National Academy of Sciences Committee on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation (BEIR), and the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). These estimates are derived mainly from studies of the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, and also from various groups of people given radiation for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes or who have been exposed at work, such as radium dial painters and uranium miners [see main article, The Uranium Burden].

Studies of survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki indicate statistically significant excess cancers for doses greater than 0.2 grays. These doses were delivered suddenly, following explosions. A number of problems arise when using such data to estimate cancer risks for lower doses of ionizing radiation or doses delivered in gradual increments.

The first problem is how to extrapolate the dose-response relationship down to low doses. It is usually assumed that a "linear no-threshold" model appliesthat is, the risk is directly proportional to dose, with no threshold. Because the main effect of low-dose radiation is the induction of cancer, and cancer is a common disease with many causes, it is not yet possible to verify the linear no-threshold model; nevertheless, there is considerable radiobiological evidence for this theory and it is generally used for public health protection purposes, such as setting standards.

The second problem is that some assumption has to be made about how calculations of cancer risk will change in the future. After all, more than half the Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors are still alive. At present, the data best fit a relative-risk model-that is, the cancer risk is proportional to the "spontaneous" or " natural" cancer risk. If this is correct, there will be an increasing number of radiation-induced cancers later in life.

A third problem is that the relative biological effectiveness of radiation depends partly on the energy of the radiation. For instance, data indicate that low energy neutrons and alpha particles may be more effective in producing biological damage than high energy particles (per unit of absorbed energy).3 Thus, assuming a constant quality factor, as is common practice, can sometimes yield an inaccurate estimate of the dose.

Finally, there are uncertainties related to the effect of low doses and low dose rates of low-LET radiation. The conclusion of the BEIR Committee, ICRP, and others is that low doses and dose rates of low- LET radiation are less effective in producing cancer, particularly leukemia, than would be expected based on linear extrapolation of data for low-LET radiation at high doses and high dose rates (i.e., the effect is nonlinear at low doses and dose rates). Unfortunately, the epidemiological database for evaluating the validity of DREF adjustments is sparse.

Despite these potential limitations, most cancer projections continue to utilize the cancer risk factors estimated by established radiological protection committees. Their current estimates are as follows: ÿ

UNSCEAR, 1993:4 0.11 fatal cancers per person-sievert for high doses (comparable to those experienced by the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings). For low doses, UNSCEAR states that " no single figure can be quoted" for the risk reduction factor, "but it is clear that the factor is small. The data from the Japanese studies suggest a factor not exceeding 2."5 For a population between the ages of 18 and 64 (corresponding to the ages of people in a typical industrial work force), a factor of 2 yields a fatal cancer risk at low dose rates of 0.04 per person-sievert.

BEIR Committee, 1990:6 0.08 fatal cancers per person-sievert for a single dose of 0.1 sievert, based on Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivor data. This figure is unadjusted for any reduction of risk at low dose rates.

ICRP, 1991:7 0.05 fatal cancers per person-sievert for the entire population and 0.04 fatal cancers per person-sievert for adult workers, with both estimates being for low doses and incorporating a dose rate reduction factor of 2.

The US Environmental Protection Agency uses a cancer incidence risk factor of 0.06 per person-sievert.8 Since the cancer incidence rate is about 50 percent greater than the cancer fatality rate, the implicit risk for fatal cancers is about 0.04 per person-sievert.

Estimates of the risk per unit dose may be revised substantially again (upward or downward). As the BEIR committee points out: ÿ

Most of the A-bomb survivors are still alive, and their mortality experience must be followed if reliable estimates of lifetime risk are to be made. This is particularly important for those survivors irradiated as children or in utero who are now entering the years of maximum cancer risk.9

Institute for Energy and Environmental Research
Takoma Park, Maryland, USA
SEPTEMBER 2000
ENDNOTES

1 Used with permission from Nuclear Wastelands, Arjun Makhijani, Howard Hu, and Katherine Yih, eds. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995), Chapter Four "Health Hazards of Nuclear Weapons Production." Also, this article appeared in IEER's global newsletter Energy & Security, no. 4 (1997).

2 1990 Recommendations of the International Committee on Radiological Protection. ICRP Publication 60. Annals of the ICRP, vol. 21, no. 1-3. Oxford, New York: Pergamon Press, 1991, p. 15.

3 National Research Council, Committee on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiations. Health Effects of Exposures to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation, BEIR V. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1990, pp. 27­30.

4 United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR). Sources, Effects, and Risks of Ionizing Radiation. New York: United Nations, 1993, pp. 16­17.

5 Ibid, p. 17.

6 National Research Council 1990, pp. 5­6.

7 ICRP 1991, pp. 69­70.

8 US Environmental Protection Agency. Issues Paper on Radiation Site Cleanup Regulations. EPA 402-R-93-084. Washington, D.C.: Office of Radiation and Indoor Air, September 1993, p. 7.

9 National Research Council 1990, p. 8.

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15 Cook officials: Unit 2 at full power
SouthBendTribune.com:
By MATTHEW S. GALBRAITH Tribune Staff Writer

MINOR GLITCHES SEEN SINCE RESTART IN EARLY JUNE
BY MATTHEW S. GALBRAITH TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Unit 1 restart predicted for mid-December

BRIDGMAN--Progress made so far suggests that Unit 1 at Donald C. Cook Nuclear Plant may be back on line by year's end, according to plant officials.

A timeline presented Wednesday to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's restart oversight panel showed the reactor hitting full power in mid-December--if no major snags occur along the way.

But that's a big "if" because problems are unpredictable and plant safety will not be compromised for a speedy restart, according to Robert Powers, senior vice president of nuclear generation for American Electric Power.

AEP, the plant owner, announced a revised schedule in July that put Unit 1's return to service in the first quarter of 2001.

On Wednesday, plant officials said several milestones had been completed or were ahead of schedule, such as the refurbishing of motor-operated valves and reloading of the ice condenser system.

Ice loading began in August and 40 percent of the unit's 1,944 ice baskets now are filled.

Plant officials also said they were confident that ongoing testing of containment structures would show design compliance.

Testing was done after system reviews done in 1998 and 1999 revealed missing and deficient calculations for post-accident pressure loads in the containment.

BRIDGMAN--Nearly 100 days at full power, with a few glitches, is how plant officials Wednesday assessed Donald C. Cook Nuclear Plant Unit 2 since restart.

"From my perspective, our performance thus far has been solid but not flawless," said Robert Powers, senior vice president of nuclear generation for American Electric Power, the plant owner.

Powers and the plant's management team provided an update on the performance of Unit 2 and restart progress on Unit 1 to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's restart oversight panel.

Both units were shut down in September 1997 due to questions about whether key safety systems would work as designed.

The subsequent finding of deteriorated ice condensers, which would absorb a massive steam buildup in an accident, led to the NRC fining AEP $500,000.

Restart costs to AEP shareholders now are estimated to be about $700 million.

Joe Pollock, plant manager, said malfunctioning equipment has been a problem since the reactor was restarted June 22 and reached full power in early July.

During power ascension in the early stages of startup, indicators showed the wrong bank of control rods pulled. The event was reported to the NRC and nearly led to a reactor shutdown.

Later, pumps had to be replaced in the essential service water and containment spray systems.

"There were a few bumps along the way," said Pollock, adding it was not unusual due to the long plant shutdown, physical changes made during the shutdown and new operating procedures.

Yet he and other plant officials were clearly pleased with the successful restart and long stretch at full power at a time when the plant's attention is divided operating one unit and restarting the other.

"We've fixed the plant and improved the design basis foundation," Pollock said.

A key to Unit 2's positive performance report, he added, is that AEP employees are running all aspects of the reactor operation.

During plant repairs, such as the rebuilding of the ice condenser system, the chain of command was complicated by the addition of outside contractors.

As of Wednesday, there were 1,325 AEP employees and 1,000 contract workers, according to Bill Schalk, plant spokesman.

Pollock said plant personnel are generating 1,300 to 1,500 condition reports a month, which is one of the reasons for a backlog of some 3,000 maintenance items.

Wednesday's restart oversight panel meeting was the last to be chaired by Jack Grobe.

Grobe, who will be replaced by Geoff Grant, said he anticipated a smooth transition.

"We'll continue to look at those issues," said Grobe.

In addition, plant performance indicators also will be figured into the NRC's new reactor oversight process as soon as enough comparative data is gathered.

Staff writer Matthew S. Galbraith: [*]mgalbraith@sbtinfo.com (219) 235-6359

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NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS

1 House, Senate to vote on $1.61 billion cleanup budget
2 BWXT Y-12 to host second review meeting Saturday
3 WWII-era radioactive sludge tanks cleaned out
4 Bully for Y-12's new operating contractor but remember also its
5 Nuclear-weapons bill faces deadline
6 Laser project gets funds
7 MACTEC Project to Dismantle 10 Highly Contaminated DOE Buildings
8 Letter to Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson
9 U.S., North Korea Resume Talks
10 N Korea Lambasts IAEA Over Nuclear Inspections - Agency
11 Russia Tests New Nuclear-Capable Missile
12 Workers Comp a Political Issue
13 Compensation a hot political issue
14 Election-year pressure may influence action on plan for nuclear
15 Talks to resume on compensation for nuclear workers
16 Committee OKs $627 million for Y-12

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NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARTICLES

1 House, Senate to vote on $1.61 billion cleanup budget
TRI-CITY HERALD
Wed, Sep 27, 2000
BY JOHN STANG HERALD STAFF WRITER

A roughly $1.61 billion Hanford cleanup budget for fiscal 2001 is on its way to a vote before the full House and Senate this week.

That budget emerged late Tuesday from a congressional conference committee, which hashed out differences between water and energy appropriations bills passed by the two chambers, according to congressional staff.

The House had sent a bill containing $1.58 billion for Hanford's cleanup into the committee talks--a bill that mirrored the Department of Energy's request. The Senate version included an extra $29 million to increase Hanford's 2001 cleanup budget to $1.61 billion.

The Senate wanted the extra money to help with a few key cleanup projects--demolishing and sealing Hanford's old reactors, removing spent nuclear fuel from the K Basins and converting plutonium into safer forms at the Plutonium Finishing Plant.

All 14 U.S. House members from Oregon and Washington pushed for the bigger Senate version.

Staffers for several members of the Northwest delegation cautioned there still could be full-floor fights over parts of the water and water appropriations legislation unrelated to Hanford--such as a dredging project on the Missouri River.

In broad strokes, the cleanup budget for fiscal 2001, which begins Sunday, looks likes this:

-- $755 million for DOE's Richland office, which manages all Hanford operations outside of the tank farms.

-- $759 million for DOE's Office of River Protection, which manages Hanford's tank farms and supervises the design, construction and eventual operation of the site's waste glassification plants. This money includes $97 million set aside in previous years from Hanford's now-defunct privatization program to build the glassification plants.

-- $96 million for Hanford programs controlled by DOE's Washington, D.C., headquarters. Much of this allocation would cover the salaries of the more than 500 DOE employees working at Hanford.

Even if Congress approves the budget and President Clinton approves it, the numbers are still tentative. DOE's Washington, D.C., headquarters reviews allocations to all of its projects after the president signs DOE's overall budget, and usually does some last-minute juggling.

Also, it is difficult to make an apples-to-apples comparison between the fiscal 2001 figures and Hanford's current $1.15 billion budget.

Another $106 million was added on top of this year's spending package for the so-called "set-aside" fund for glassification.

The major difference between the 2000 and 2001 budgets are that the set-aside concept is gone. Also, fiscal 2001 will be the first year that actual glassification plant construction will take place, which drastically increases the Office of River Protection's spending.

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2 BWXT Y-12 to host second review meeting Saturday
Oak Ridger Online
Thursday, September 28, 2000

The incoming managing contractor for the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant, BWXT Y-12, will host the second in a series of transition status review meetings at 8 a.m. Saturday in the club room of the Oak Ridge Mall.

These meetings are intended to provide employees and the public an opportunity to understand the process of transition, receive updates on the milestones reached and get answers to questions related to the new contractor. BWXT Y-12--an alliance between Bechtel National Inc. and BWX Technologies Inc.--was awarded a five-year, $2.5 billion contract Aug. 31 to manage and operate the Y-12 Plant. It will assume full responsibility for the federal facility on Nov. 1.

This week's meeting will feature presentations on environmental safety and health, human resources and quality assurance. A period afterward is designated for questions and answers relating to the topics listed. The meeting is expected to last approximately an hour and 30 minutes.

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3 WWII-era radioactive sludge tanks cleaned out
Oak Ridger Online
Thursday, September 28, 2000
BY PAUL PARSON Oak Ridger staff

A three-year, $80 million cleanup project at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been completed--resulting in the removal of radioactive sludge from a series of underground storage tanks that were built as part of the Manhattan Project.

Removal of the radioactive sludge from the Gunite Tanks eliminates a potential risk to laboratory employees, the public and the environment, and represents a significant milestone in the environmental cleanup of ORNL, officials said.

Department of Energy Project Manager Stephanie Short stated in a press release that the Gunite Tanks Remediation Project was one of the top priorities for the Oak Ridge Reservation's Environmental Management Program because the radioactive waste contained in the tanks represented a significant risk to workers and the environment should the tanks leak or collapse.

The project, which eliminated the largest inventory of underground contaminants at ORNL's main plant area, was accomplished without accidents or injuries.

The tanks were constructed in 1943 of the concrete, sand and water mixture called gunite. The gunite was sprayed over a wire mesh and steel reinforcing rod frame. Six 170,000-gallon and two 42,500-gallon tanks were built.

The tanks were removed from service in the early 1970s, but still contained liquid waste and sludge. Waste removal operations were conducted in the early 1980s to remove most of the transuranic and mixed waste that had settled at the bottom of the tanks. While those efforts were successful, 87,000 gallons of sludge and 250,000 gallons of liquid containing 78,000 curies of radioactivity remained in the tanks.

The term transuranic refers to elements such as plutonium that have atomic numbers higher than that of uranium, and waste characterized as mixed consists of substances that are both radioactive and hazardous.

The three-year cleanup project, which was performed by UT-Battelle under a subcontract with Bechtel Jacobs Co., resulted in the removal of 99 percent of the waste and 95 percent of the contamination remaining in the tanks.

Officials said technologies utilized in the project may serve as a model for future DOE cleanup efforts.

Robotic and remotely operated equipment was used to clean the tanks and transfer the low-level liquid waste to new stainless steel storage tanks built for that purpose. A total of 30 technologies developed through DOE's technology development program were used in the project -- leading to a cost avoidance of $120 million and accelerating the tank cleanup by more than 10 years.

The empty tanks will be filled with grout. Eventually the waste will be treated on site and shipped to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico for disposal.

Short cited cooperation among DOE, the state of Tennessee, the Environmental Protection Agency, stakeholders and contractors as a key factor in the success of the Gunite Tanks Remediation Project.

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4 Bully for Y-12's new operating contractor but remember also its first
OPINIONS
Oak Ridger Online
Thursday, September 28, 2000
Editor's License DICK SMYSER

The talk was about BWXT, surely one of the least pronounceable of Oak Ridge's superfluity of acronyms through the years. The new operating contractor for the Y-12 Plant would succeed Lockheed Martin, which had succeeded Martin Marietta, which had succeeded Union Carbide Nuclear.

"Which had succeeded Tennessee Eastman," an older member of the conversation group added.

"Who--what--is Tennessee Eastman?" a younger member asked, saying the name as though he didn't think he'd heard it correctly. He had.

Tennessee Eastman "was an extremely competent organization with much experience in chemical processes," Gen. Leslie R. Groves, commanding officer of the Manhattan Engineer District, wrote in his 1962 memoir, "Now It Can Be Told."

Tennessee Eastman, its plant just 100 miles northeast in Kingsport, was a subsidiary of Eastman Kodak of Rochester, N.Y., at that time -- the early 1940s--considered one of the most efficient and innovative industries in the country. George Eastman, founder, was "the Bill Gates of his time," says Eugene Joyce, prominent retired local attorney and fellow Oak Ridger columnist ("Bar None"). Gene, not yet a law school graduate, was one Tennessee Eastman's earliest recruits for the Y-12 staff.

Richard G. Hewlett and Oscar E. Anderson Jr., in their history of the Manhattan Project, 1939 to 1946, tell how, after Stone & Webster was contracted to design and construct Y-12: "The selection of an operating contractor had no less priority in the mind of General Groves. For the same reasons which led to the swift negotiations with Union Carbide for the gaseous-diffusion plant, Groves solicited the advice of (E.O.) Lawrence and (John R.) Lotz ... Apparently Groves was using his associates merely to check a decision he had already made.

"The following morning, he placed a long-distance call to James C. White, vice president and general manager of the Tennessee Eastman Corporation. Groves was familiar with the company's accomplishments in constructing an explosives plant at the Holston Ordnance Works near Kingsport.

"White at once expressed his concern that the novelty of the process might rule out his company, which was primarily an operating unit for Eastman Kodak and did no fundamental research. Groves assured White that he was not looking for 'long beards.' He already had the pick of the academic brains and 'so many Ph.D's that he couldn't keep track of them.' What Groves wanted was a company with experience in industrial production. On January 5 (1943), after a long discussion with Groves in Rochester, White accepted the assignment."

(Aside: Contrast Gen. Groves' expedient, arbitrary selection of this first Y-12 operating contractor with the months-long discussions prior to selecting BWXT. And, just for fun, conjure the bombastic bureaucracy-baiting Manhattan Project chief tolerating the just-concluded contractor selection process.)

What White, at first, doubted Tennessee Eastman could handle was, of course, the electromagnetic process for the separation of uranium. And the process by virtue of which Y-12, under Tennessee Eastman operation, would, only two and a half years later (summer 1945), produce the U-235 which fueled the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, Aug. 6, 1945.

But only after overcoming serious difficulties and peaks and valleys of employment levels that make more recent fluctuations in Y-12 jobs gentle ripples by contrast. Y-12 began with about 5,000 employees, reaching more than 20,000 in late spring 1945 and then, in now layoff- hardened Oak Ridge's biggest layoff ever, dropping from 8,600 to 1,500 in early 1947. That drastic cutback came as the electromagnetic process for uranium separation was succeeded by the gaseous diffusion process at what then was known as K-25.

Key Tennessee Eastman personnel at Y-12 in its first years were Frederick R. Conklin, works manager; James G. McNally, assistant works manager in charge of production, and James Ellis, assistant works manager in charge of engineering. Also, Gen. Groves writes in his book, were two key men offsite "without whom the work could not have been accomplished, " A.K. Chapman, executive vice president of the Eastman Kodak Co., and White.

There are still a significant number of early Tennessee Eastman Y- 12 people in Oak Ridge and many remember the corporation for its progressive employee policies, savings and profit-sharing plans, for example. (Bill Wilcox, a true Oak Ridge Tennessee Eastman pioneer, is working on a chronology of early Y-12 events.)

But the first Y-12 operating contractor experienced dramatic ups and downs. There were critical problems at critical phases in the assembling of the never-before-assembled equipment. One example: In late 1943 as the first magnet coils were tested, moisture caused a major shutdown just as the process seemed on the verge of a successful start-up. A plan to correct the problem was developed but, meantime, 4,800 employees were idled.

As Richard Rhodes tells it in "The Making of the Atomic Bomb": "Tennessee Eastman's 4,800 employees reported for work in the shambles of gloomy halls. Rather than lose them from boredom the company scheduled classes, conferences, lectures, motion pictures, games. Serious men in double- breasted suits scouted the state for chess and checker sets."

There were also changing demands. From Hewlett and Anderson's "The New World": "Hopes for greater Y-12 production were more than offset by newer and higher estimates of the amount of U-235 needed for the bomb. In July (1944) Robert Oppenheimer, director of the new weapons laboratory at Los Alamos, New Mexico, reported that the median estimate of his scientists had roughly tripled. This three-fold increase prompted (Dr. James) Conant to admit to his diary that it was now nip and tuck whether Y-12 would ever produce enough material for a weapon in the present war."

And, on a more mundane but no less crucial challenge, Tennessee Eastman, as did all early Oak Ridge contractors, had to battle for adequate housing for its personnel in the then also under construction community of Oak Ridge.

>From "City Behind A Fence" by Charles Jackson and Charles Johnson: "In late 1943 and early 1944, completion of the first thousand houses had fallen behind projected schedule. ... Tennessee Eastman was livid and claimed that the second phase of Y-12 operations could not be started unless adequate personnel housing was provided."

Tennessee Eastman, as such, no longer exists in Kingsport, a city that grew to maturity during World War I (incorporated 1917) much as Oak Ridge was born of World War II. What remains in Kingsport is the Eastman Chemical Co., which manufactures fibers, filters and chemicals for Eastman Kodak in Rochester.

And there is another parallel. As Y-12 in recent years has gone through a major downsizing, so has Eastman Chemical, from 13,000 employees just a few years ago to 9,500 now.--RDS

Richard D. Smyser is founding editor of The Oak Ridger.

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5 Nuclear-weapons bill faces deadline
LAWMAKERS STRUGGLE TO AGREE TO LAW THAT WOULD COMPENSATE SICK WORKERS
The Augusta Chronicle
Graham FILE/STAFF
STAFF WRITER

Local lawmakers and federal officials scrambled Tuesday to revive near-dead legislation that would compensate sick workers at nuclear- weapons installations such as Savannah River Site.

``We're in sort of a no-man's land right now,'' said U.S. Rep. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., during a telephone interview from Washington. ``Several of us who have sites in our districts, we don't want to take no for an answer.''

Any move would have to come quickly because the legislation must pass before the new federal fiscal year begins at 12:01 a.m. Sunday.

The legislation, attached to the Defense Authorization Act, stalled Monday when House and Senate negotiators could not resolve differences between their versions of the plan.

The Senate already has approved one version of the compensation plan. Its proposal would benefit 4,000 to 6,000 workers during five years, at a cost of about $938 million, according to David Michaels, an assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Energy.

The House offered a bill that would support compensation but would leave the plan unfunded until more studies of the issue were completed.

Mr. Graham criticized both plans. He called the Senate plan too broad, but he termed the House's failure to provide funding ``unacceptable.''

``We need legislation this year that appropriates money to start helping to compensate workers,'' he said. ``We need to put together a program that's fair to both the worker and the taxpayer.

``We don't need to study this any more.''

Dr. Michaels also criticized the House's proposal.

``We don't think additional studies are needed, and we don't think additional legislation is needed,'' he said during a telephone interview. ``We know more about the health of these workers and what their needs are than any other group of workers in the country.''

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson is committed to starting a compensation program this year, Dr. Michaels said.

The assistant secretary would not rule out the possibility that the compensation package might be tied to another federal spending bill.

``He's looking at lots of options,'' Dr. Michaels said of the secretary.

There are about 600,000 current and former workers at nuclear-weapons sites, including about 100,000 at SRS. But it is unknown how many have become sick as a result of their work.

The Senate's plan would provide sick workers compensation for lost wages and medical benefits. Alternatively, workers could opt for a lump-sum payment of $200,000.

The plan would help workers with radiation-induced cancers and employees with illnesses caused by beryllium and other hazardous materials.

The compensation plan, first proposed two years ago, reversed 50 years of government denials that employees at nuclear-weapons plants were sickened by their jobs.

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6 Laser project gets funds
Thursday, September 28, 2000
ContraCostaTimes.com
By Andrea Widener TIMES STAFF WRITER

The National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory secured almost all of what it asked for from Congress

After months of uncertainty and heated debate, the National Ignition Facility received nearly all the funds Wednesday that officials had requested from Congress, a move that should keep the troubled project alive.

The laser project at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory will get $199 million during the 2001 federal fiscal year, $10 million less than project managers asked for but far above the $74.1 million both houses of Congress originally wanted to spend.

The announcement is surprisingly good news for the lab, which at one point faced the possibility that its largest project would be killed. The funding approved Wednesday will likely be enough to keep the project going until next year and prevent layoffs.

"Considering we were staring $74 (million) in the face, I think we're pleased," said Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo, who has been a strong NIF proponent.

The money, however, comes with a few congressional strings. The spending bill limits the use of $69 million until the lab and its federal overseer--the Department of Energy--create a new funding schedule and meet a stringent set of milestones.

"Quite frankly, NIF is mired in problems," Sen. Pete Domenici, R- N.M., who heads the Appropriations subcommittee that funds NIF, said in a statement. "We must hold DOE, the lab and its contractors more accountable for exorbitant cost overruns and other problems."

The congressional maneuvering that preserved NIF funding may be the first of several annual battles to cover the total $1 billion in cost overruns that have plagued the project since management and technical problems were uncovered last year. The laser, which is under construction, is designed to simulate the high-temperature, high-pressure conditions inside the sun or a nuclear weapon by focusing 192 massive laser beams on a rice-grain-sized pellet.

The project was a sticking point in negotiations to resolve differences between Senate and House versions of the bill funding many DOE projects, as well as many water projects nationwide. The final version may face both House and Senate votes today, but President Clinton has threatened to veto it because it includes funding for a controversial Missouri River construction project.

Opposition to NIF had been strong. Bills in both the Senate and the House have proposed limiting NIF funding, and others have criticized studies recommending the project go forward for their lack of independence.

"When it comes to wasteful spending, members of Congress bluster about it but you see little action, and this is a perfect example of that," said Keith Ashdown, a spokesperson for Taxpayers for Common Sense, which had supported providing only $74 million and a study of the project's merits. "We feel this is too expensive for just being a research project."

Many questions about the NIF remain unanswered, such as how much of the laser's funding will come from other nuclear weapons laboratories and whether the project will be the subject of another review.

"We look forward to seeing the specific recommendations of Congress and to working with the (DOE) to ensure that these recommendations are integrated into an effective path forward for NIF," Livermore lab director Bruce Tarter said in a statement.

A year ago, lab officials revealed that technical problems would put construction of the giant laser both overbudget and behind schedule. Several later reviews also showed that DOE and lab management problems were a significant factor in the overruns but recommended that the laser project go forward.

Just last week, the DOE said it would cost $1.05 billion to fix the laser, putting the total construction cost at $2.23 billion, with another $270 million in related research.

Andrea Widener covers science and the area's national labs.

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7 MACTEC Project to Dismantle 10 Highly Contaminated DOE Buildings Achieves First Milestone
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 27, 3:23
Press Release
BUSINESS WIRE

OAK RIDGE, Tenn.--MACTEC, Inc., under a $4.9 million contract with Bechtel Jacobs Company LLC to dismantle 10 buildings at the U.S. Department of Energy's East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP), accomplished its first major project milestone.

As part of the Main Plant Decontamination and Dismantlement (D& D) project, MACTEC, headquartered in Denver, Colo., has completed the removal of asbestos from ETTP building K-1301, which is contaminated with both radioactive and hazardous materials. The milestone was completed two days ahead of schedule and without any recordable accidents or safety violations.

``The facility posed a unique challenge since it is contaminated with mixed waste that contains both radioactive and hazardous components, '' said MACTEC Project Manager Doug Dypolt. ``The completion of this milestone is an important step in the cleanup of the East Tennessee Technology Park.''

The overall project calls for MACTEC to provide comprehensive D& D work for each of the 10 highly contaminated process buildings within the reindustrialized area of the ETTP, thereby addressing the legacy hazards remaining from processing radioactive materials in support of the Cold War effort.

MACTEC's responsibilities under the contract include work such as sampling, radiological surveying, decontamination, characterization, equipment removal, dismantlement, demolition, packaging, certification, transportation, and disposal of all waste and debris generated to provide a turnkey D&D project at the ETTP site.

Along with removing asbestos, the project, to be completed by the summer of 2002, also includes the removal of mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), beryllium, fluorine and an assortment of radiological contaminates including transuranics and other various radioactive and hazardous contaminates that exist throughout the structures.

The scope of the work also includes the development and implementation of a radiological safety program to release materials and structures from highly contaminated areas. Extensive programs have been established to dismantle each structure in a safe and controlled manner to maintain worker exposure as low as reasonably achievable and without disruption to neighboring operations.

With 77 offices, 2,300 employees around the country, and annual revenues of $325 million, MACTEC was ranked seventh among the top 100 DOE contractors nationwide. A July, 2000 issue of Engineering News-Record ranked MACTEC 10th in nuclear waste management and fourth in the top 20 all-environmental firms. Contact: MACTEC, Inc., Golden, Colo. Sarah Manion, 303/278-3100, ext. 4002

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8 Letter to Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson
September 18, 2000
Fast Flux Test Facility

Secretary Bill Richardson
Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, SW
Room 7A-257 Washington, DC 20585-0117

Dear Secretary Richardson:

We have reviewed the Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Accomplishing Expanded Civilian Nuclear Energy Research and Development and Isotope Production Missions in the United States, Including the Role of the Fast Flux Test Facility. Based on this review and in consideration of the NERAC Long Term Research and Development Plan and the Corradini Report entitled, "The Future of University Nuclear Engineering Programs and University Research & Training Reactors", we conclude that the FFTF should be restarted as soon as possible.

In our letter of August 18, 1999, the American Nuclear Society's position on the restart of FFTF was conditional on the basis that the funding not affect other future-looking nuclear energy programs. We also questioned the restart of FFTF since there was not an integrated national research and development strategy in which its mission could be defined. Additionally, we had concerns that the apparent justification for restart, as identified in the PNNL report, was the production of isotopes for which the economic basis was questionable.

In the intervening year several important events took place. The United States has lost another major research reactor facility due to the untimely shutdown of the Brookhaven High Flux Beam Reactor. It is also expected that DOE will shutdown the Brookhaven medical research reactor. This continual erosion of the U.S. research reactor capability severely damages our ability to develop technologies of the future and maintain the infrastructure necessary for U.S. leadership in nuclear science and technology. The NERAC long term R&D plan has been issued as has the Corradini Report which identifies the important research work that needs to be done and how the national laboratories can interface with universities to renew the interest of students in this field.

Based on the draft EIS, the Fast Flux Test Facility is the single facility that already can meet the needs of PU238 production for the space program, provide many isotopes for medical and industrial application, and be used for basic research for both fast and thermal flux applications. Although facility modifications would be required to perform these new tasks, the facility has unique attributes that allow such modifications without significant impact in performance. The other attraction of the utilization of the FFTF is that it already exists and therefore will not negatively impact the research missions of other facilities that are identified in the EIS.

Although costs were not identified in the EIS for the FFTF or other alternatives, the previous PNL report identifies costs for restoring the FFTF to service. DOE has promised that these funds will not be diverted from other DOE missions, which is an important concern of ANS and other commentors regarding restart. ANS believes the restart of the FFTF, when compared to other options for satisfying the many missions defined, will be the low cost alternative. This is based on the assumption that building any new facility is, in general, more expensive than modifying an existing facility for specific purposes.

ANS also believes the Hanford reservation has other unique assets that could be used in support of the DOE mission of research and development and isotope production which provides an added incentive to restart. As the DOE begins to look to the long term future, nuclear technologies for sustainable energy production will undoubtedly focus of fast spectrum reactors. The FFTF is the only U.S. facility that has the capability to perform such large scale research should the national political and technical consensus conclude that the future sustainable technology require such reactors.

For all these reasons, the American Nuclear Society supports restart of the Fast Flux Test Facility.

Sincerely yours,
James A. Lake President - 2000/2001
Andrew C. Kadak President - 1999/2000

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9 U.S., North Korea Resume Talks
LAS VEGAS SUN
September 27, 2000
ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK (AP)--The United States and North Korea opened a new round of talks Wednesday aimed at ending a stalemate over the communist state's development and export of missiles.

The talks, which are expected to last a few days, also will deal with U.S. allegations that North Korea sponsors terrorism and with the terms of an accord that froze North Korea's nuclear weapons program in exchange for two civilian reactors and supplies of energy, State Department officials said.

The U.S. special envoy for North Korea, Charles Kartman, said after nearly nine hours of talks Wednesday evening that he and Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan, who heads the North Korean delegation, would return to the U.S. mission to the United Nations on Thursday morning for another session.

He said there was a "good atmosphere" in the discussions and that during a working lunch at a nearby restaurant, the two sides talked about the Olympics.

"We congratulated each other on the performance of our teams," he said.

North Korea is believed to be capable of targeting virtually all of Japan as well as other Asian countries with its missiles. A potential long-range missile threat has been cited by the Clinton administration as one reason for considering a U.S. missile defense program--a decision President Bill Clinton has deferred to his successor.

The talks come amid slowly improving U.S.-North Korean relations following attempts at reconciliation between North and South Korea. South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and the North's reclusive leader, Kim Jong Il, held a summit meeting in June and there are plans for another one.

The previous round of missile talks ended in July with North Korea insisting its program was a sovereign exercise in self-defense, but also with indications from cash-strapped Pyongyang that it might curb the program in exchange for payments of about $1 billion a year.

The United States maintains that North Korea shouldn't be compensated for stopping a program it shouldn't be developing in the first place.

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10 N Korea Lambasts IAEA Over Nuclear Inspections - Agency
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28

SEOUL, South Korea (AP)--North Korea reiterated Thursday that it has no intention of allowing the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect its nuclear program in an attempt to ensure that the isolated communist country doesn't develop atomic bombs.

"We declared more than once that we have neither will nor ability to develop nuclear weapons and, therefore, there can be no `nuclear' suspicion in our country," said the North's official foreign news outlet, KCNA, monitored in Seoul.

North Korea is among the 187 nations committed to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which allows the IAEA to make sure their nuclear technology is used for peaceful purposes.

But the North has limited IAEA access to its facilities. And early last week the U.N. agency urged North Korea to allow inspection, saying it couldn't be sure that Pyongyang hadn't diverted technology to non-peaceful uses.

In 1994, Washington, fearful that the North Koreans were working on nuclear weapons, signed an agreement with Pyongyang in which the North agreed to freeze its nuclear program.

In return, a U.S.-led international consortium is building two nuclear reactors worth $4.6 billion in North Korea.

On Thursday, North Korea said the dispute between it and the IAEA was a plot by the U.S. to try to justify delays in building the two reactors.

Washington promised to build the first light-water reactor by 2003. Officials now admit privately that a delay of several years is inevitable.

IAEA officials say that North Korea must comply with terms of an IAEA safeguard agreement in order to receive key components of the light water reactor project.

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11 Russia Tests New Nuclear-Capable Missile
Russia Today
Reuters
Sep 28, 2000

MOSCOW, -- Russia on Wednesday conducted a second new test of its Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile, heralded by the military as the country's nuclear deterrent for the 21st century.

The Topol-M, referred to as SS-27 by NATO, was fired from a mobile missile launcher from Plesetsk in northern Russia to a target on the distant Kamchatka peninsula in the far east, Interfax news agency reported.

The test, the twelfth in total, was carried out a day after a Topol- M was successfully fired on the same trajectory out of a silo. The Topol-M was given final approval earlier this year as part of Russia's arsenal.

Russia says the missile, with a range of 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles) can break through any system such as the missile shield Washington is proposing to build, over Moscow's objections, to protect it against attacks by "rogue" states.

The test launches came as Russia debated how to reform its cash-strapped military, a sprawling colossus of 1.2 million troops and a lot of underused hardware.

President Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting of the advisory Security Council on Wednesday and reiterated his calls for the army to be reorganized to be more efficient.

"We spend colossal sums of money on the military," he said in televised comments. "And we also allow the military budget to be blurred by questions which have no direct link to military readiness of the army or to providing for its needs.

"Our army must be modern and flexible and mobile, battle ready."

Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev has proposed cutting the armed forces by almost a third by 2003, to around 800,000.

The sinking last month of the nuclear submarine Kursk highlighted the sorry state of the military's equipment and infrastructure.

Plans to downgrade the role of the Strategic Rocket Forces, which control Russia's land-based nuclear arsenal, have sparked a row between Sergeyev, their former commander, and his chief of staff, Anatoly Kvashnin, who wants to give priority and more money to conventional forces.

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12 Workers Comp a Political Issue
LAS VEGAS SUN
September 27, 2000
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP)--If people who were sickened by working at nuclear weapons plants during the Cold War receive government compensation, it might have as much to do with politics as compassion.

Lawmakers say House-Senate negotiations on a compensation plan - an idea that has significant bipartisan support in Congress - gained momentum Wednesday.

They broke down on Monday, but resumed the next day after Republicans such as Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson made stinging remarks accusing House GOP leaders of failing to negotiate in good faith. Republican House members said the issue could hurt them at the polls and possibly swing House control to the Democrats.

"There is a lot of pressure being put on the House and rightly so, " said Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., who represents workers at the Oak Ridge nuclear reservation.

John Feehery, spokesman for speaker House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., acknowledged that the response from some GOP lawmakers prompted Republican leaders to go back to the bargaining table.

"It has given us a reason to change our mind and work toward getting a satisfactory conclusion," he said.

"Sometimes when constituents make their case in an election year, their voices are a little bit louder."

Last spring, the Energy Department reversed 50 years of federal policy by declaring that workers injured or killed by radiation at weapons plants should be compensated. The agency proposed minimum lump sum payments of $100,000.

The Senate later approved a measure calling for workers exposed to radiation and toxic chemicals to receive $200,000 in compensation from the federal government, plus health benefits, but House GOP leaders balked, expressing concern about an entitlement program whose costs were uncertain because it's not known how many workers would qualify.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the compensation proposal would cost $1.7 billion to cover approximately 4,000 workers over 10 years.

Among the places that are home to large groups of workers who might qualify for compensation are the key presidential election states of California, Ohio and Washington.

Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., who faces a tough re-election opponent in Democrat Brian Roy, has been pushing GOP House leaders to reach a compromise and redoubled his efforts after talks broke off.

"I'm sure they (GOP leaders) understand the politics of it, and that's why it's so puzzling," said Whitfield, whose district is home to the Paducah uranium enrichment plant. "The reality is if you don't pass important legislation, your opponent can always talk about it."

Wamp's Democratic opponent, Will Callaway, issued a news release shortly after talks broke down criticizing Wamp for not convincing GOP House leaders to back the compensation package.

House Minority Whip David Bonior, D-Mich., said failure to approve a compensation plan says something about the "compassionate conservatism" Republicans have been touting.

"It's an excellent test of that, and we'll see how compassionate they are," Bonior said.

The bill numbers are HR675, HR3418, HR3478, HR3495, HR4263, HR4398, HR5189, SB2519

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13 Compensation a hot political issue
09/28/00

WASHINGTON (AP) - If people who were sickened by working at nuclear weapons plants during the Cold War receive government compensation, it might have as much to with politics as compassion.

Lawmakers say House-Senate negotiations on a compensation plan - an idea that has significant bipartisan support in Congress - gained momentum Wednesday.

They broke down on Monday, but resumed the next day after Republicans such as Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson made stinging remarks accusing House GOP leaders of failing to negotiate in good faith. Republican House members said the issue could hurt them at the polls and possibly swing House control to the Democrats.

''There is a lot of pressure being put on the House and rightly so, '' said Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., who represents workers at the Oak Ridge nuclear reservation.

John Feehery, spokesman for speaker House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., acknowledged that the response from some GOP lawmakers prompted Republican leaders to go back to the bargaining table.

''It has given us a reason to change our mind and work toward getting a satisfactory conclusion,'' he said.

''Sometimes when constituents make their case in an election year, their voices are a little bit louder.''

Last spring, the Energy Department reversed 50 years of federal policy by declaring that workers injured or killed by radiation at weapons plants should be compensated. The agency proposed minimum lump sum payments of $100,000.

The Senate later approved a measure calling for workers exposed to radiation and toxic chemicals to receive $200,000 in compensation from the federal government, plus health benefits, but House GOP leaders balked, expressing concern about an entitlement program whose costs were uncertain because it's not known how many workers would qualify.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the compensation proposal would cost $1.7 billion to cover approximately 4,000 workers over 10 years.

Among the places that are home to large groups of workers who might qualify for compensation are the key presidential election states of California, Ohio and Washington.

Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., who faces a tough re-election opponent in Democrat Brian Roy, has been pushing GOP House leaders to reach a compromise and redoubled his efforts after talks broke off.

''I'm sure they (GOP leaders) understand the politics of it, and that's why it's so puzzling,'' said Whitfield, whose district is home to the Paducah uranium enrichment plant. ''The reality is if you don't pass important legislation, your opponent can always talk about it.''

Wamp's Democratic opponent, Will Callaway, issued a news release shortly after talks broke down criticizing Wamp for not convincing GOP House leaders to back the compensation package.

House Minority Whip David Bonior, D-Mich., said failure to approve a compensation plan says something about the ''compassionate conservatism'' Republicans have been touting.

''It's an excellent test of that, and we'll see how compassionate they are,'' Bonior said.

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14 Election-year pressure may influence action on plan for nuclear workers -
The Tennessean
Thursday, 9/28/2000
Associated Press

WASHINGTON--If people who were sickened by working at nuclear weapons plants during the Cold War receive government compensation, it might have as much to do with politics as compassion.

Lawmakers say House-Senate negotiations on a compensation plan -- an idea that has significant bipartisan support in Congress--gained momentum yesterday.

They broke down Monday but resumed the next day after Republicans such as Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson made stinging remarks accusing House GOP leaders of failing to negotiate in good faith.

Republican House members said the issue could hurt them at the polls and possibly swing House control to the Democrats.

"There is a lot of pressure being put on the House and rightly so, " said Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., who represents workers at the Oak Ridge laboratory.

John Feehery, spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., acknowledged that the response from some GOP lawmakers prompted Republican leaders to go back to the bargaining table.

"Sometimes when constituents make their case in an election year, their voices are a little bit louder," he said.

Last spring, the Energy Department reversed 50 years of federal policy by declaring that workers injured or killed by radiation at weapons plants should be compensated. The agency proposed minimum lump sum payments of $100,000.

The Senate later approved a measure calling for workers exposed to radiation and toxic chemicals to receive $200,000 in compensation from the federal government, plus health benefits.

However, House GOP leaders balked, expressing concern about an entitlement program whose costs were uncertain because it's not known how many workers would qualify.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the compensation proposal would cost $1.7 billion to cover approximately 4,000 workers over 10 years.

Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., who faces a tough re-election opponent in Democrat Brian Roy, has been pushing GOP House leaders to reach a compromise, and he redoubled his efforts after talks broke off.

"I'm sure they (GOP leaders) understand the politics of it, and that's why it's so puzzling," said Whitfield, whose district is home to the Paducah uranium enrichment plant.

"The reality is if you don't pass important legislation, your opponent can always talk about it," he said.

Wamp's Democratic opponent, Will Callaway, issued a news release shortly after talks broke down that criticized Wamp for not convincing GOP House leaders to back the compensation package.

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15 Talks to resume on compensation for nuclear workers
The Tennessean
Wednesday, 9/27/2000
Associated Press

WASHINGTON--A day after talks broke down, House leaders said yesterday they would resume negotiations with the Senate on a compensation plan for workers made sick by Cold War-era jobs in nuclear weapons plants.

A new House proposal was being drafted and will be presented to conferees on the Defense Authorization Act, said John Feehery, spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.

Hastert and other House Republican leaders were criticized harshly by Democrats from weapons-plant states and from some fellow Republicans, such as Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., after talks broke down Monday.

Thompson said "the House leadership refused to even consider the issue," and Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., called their failure to agree "callous disregard to people who gave their lives to this country."

Last spring, the Energy Department reversed 50 years of federal policy by declaring that workers injured or killed by radiation exposure at weapons plants should be compensated. The agency proposed minimum lump sum payments of $100,000.

When the Senate passed its version of the Defense Authorization Act, it included a provision awarding $200,000 plus health benefits to harmed workers.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the measure would cost $1.7 billion over 10 years, based on a Department of Energy estimate that at least 4,000 workers either contracted life-threatening diseases from radiation, silica or beryllium exposure or already have died from the diseases.

Wary of an entitlement program with uncertain costs, the House passed only a resolution recommending compensation.

During negotiations, senators backed off from the $200,000 offer and told the House they could accept $100,000 as the minimum payment if that would get the proposal passed.

House negotiators offered a $250 million down payment on a compensation program that would need to be set up in future legislation following additional study.

David Michaels, the Energy Department's top health official, said sick workers should not have to wait for more government study.

"For the last decade we've spent more than $150 million studying the health of workers at DOE sites," he said. "We don't think additional studies are needed, and we don't think additional legislations are needed."

The DOE has said most people likely to qualify for compensation would come from the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state; Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee; Savannah River Site in South Carolina; Nevada Test Site; Rocky Flats Complex in Colorado; Pantex Plant in Texas; Mound Plant and Fernald Environmental Management Project in Ohio; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California; Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico; and gaseous diffusion plants at Piketon, Ohio; Paducah, Ky.; and Oak Ridge.

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16 Committee OKs $627 million for Y-12
Oak Ridger Online
Thursday, September 28, 2000
BY PAUL PARSON Oak Ridger staff

It looks like the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant could get a $627 million facelift.

A conference committee of House and Senate members has OK'd the funding for the facility as part of the fiscal year 2001 Energy and Water Appropriations bill.

"This is the first major down payment on modernization," U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-3rd District, said this morning.

The Department of Energy has a long-range, extensive plan for Y-12, which includes building modern facilities and keeping the plant technologically current. Y-12 was constructed in 1943.

"This is an aging infrastructure," Wamp said. "We're going to have to do this for several years."

Also included in DOE's budget for the coming year is a request for money to begin construction on a new uranium storage building known as the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility.

Originally, $583 million was requested for Y-12, but Congress was able to add $44 million to that request. Y-12 received $439 million for the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

The news of Y-12's funding follows the announcement Tuesday afternoon that $278.5 million has been allotted for construction on the Spallation Neutron Source and $2.5 million has been allocated for the creation of a new Mouse House, what Wamp called "the second day of good news in a row for Oak Ridge." Wamp, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said the action by the conference committee means that DOE's Oak Ridge Operations will receive close to $2.3 billion in the coming year.

"I personally made a last-minute appeal to the House Energy and Water Subcommittee for this increased funding for Oak Ridge," Wamp said.

The conference committee has completed work on the report. It will now go to the full House and Senate for final action before being sent to President Clinton for his signature.

"These appropriations should pass Congress easily, and I expect President Clinton to sign the measure shortly," Wamp said.

Will Minter, Oak Ridge City Council member and chairman of the city's Economic Development Committee, this morning said he is excited about the money coming in to Oak Ridge.

"This is in fact our chance to reclaim our economic status," Minter said. "We must take advantage of this opportunity. It's critical we respond. We can't get news like this, sit back and wait for things to happen."

Minter said the city needs to start recruiting future residents by establishing an initiative to create more attractive housing in Oak Ridge.