NUCLEAR
Rapid Deployment on Missile Defense Is a Bad Idea
Russia Says Iran Arms Deals Won't Break Agreements
Russia To Obey Arms - Sales Agreement
Editorial Roundup
Chronology of the Year 2000
Russia defense minister visits Iran
Extension & History Of Phony Radiation Standards
Depleted Science in DU Debate?
NO LINK BETWEEN DEPLETED URANIUM, GULF WAR SYNDROME
Precise locations of DU use in Kosovo
World News in Brief
Spain begins testing Kosovo troops for uranium
European nations probe illnesses of troops in Balkans
Clinton: Still Talking to N.Korea, Statement Soon
Clinton N.Korea Visit Said Unlikely
Russia Launches ICBM From Barents Sea
U.S. Sees New Russian Missiles As Treaty Compliance
Russia Rocket Chief Warns U.S. on Missile Defense
Shift Seen in Russian Nuclear Policy
Missile deployment shows shift in nuclear strategy
AUGUST
Russians pick Lenin as 'man of the century,' Stalin as runner-up
Russia deploys new nuclear missiles
Repaired Ukraine Reactor Restarted
DECEMBER
Veterans Affairs Proposes Additional Aid for 'Atomic Veterans'
JULY
Nuclear Power's Future
Tribe seeks redress of illnesses
Opinions differ on possible nuclear reactions
Buried radioactive waste includes a grisly mix of castoffs
SEPTEMBER
Two Deputies Are Better Than One
STONINGTON: FISHERMEN SUE UTILITY
DOE wants to modernize oldest nuclear arms facility
DOE urges Oak Ridge upgrading
A Ferret Heads for His Den
DOE lacks funds for Test Site nuke storage
MILITARY
War, Drug Trade Cause Colombia Ecological Disaster
Colombian Troops May Leave a 2nd Rebel Zone
New Jersey
'Traffic': Teeming Mural of a War Fought and Lost
JANUARY
JUNE
NOVEMBER
U.N. Refugee Chief Reflects at the End of 10 Turbulent Years
MAY
Sierra Leone children may face U.N. charges
OCTOBER
States
OTHER
MAY
Where Darwin Mused, Strife Over Ecosystem
Horizon Organic Hails Release of Organic Regulations
ADVISORY/Rules for Organic Foods Released
US Extends Mandate for California Power Sales to Jan 5
States
Editorial Roundup
Davis meets with Greenspan, threatens utilities
SEPTEMBER
Bush Policy May Break WTO Deadlock
S. Korean police end bank workers' protest
Police kill two protesting unpopular Indian actor
ATF works on its battered reputation
INDONESIA: POLICE ALERT
FEBRUARY
Police storm women's prison
Washington
Cosmic radiation spurs U.S. air crews to action
DECEMBER
Highlights in history
Rumsfeld atop list to take over as CIA director
Peru says Montesinos under mafia protection
ACTIVISTS
APRIL
-------- NUCLEAR
Rapid Deployment on Missile Defense Is a Bad Idea
International Herald Tribune
Wednesday, December 27, 2000
James Lindsay and Michael O'Hanlon
http://www.iht.com/articles/5428.htm
WASHINGTON Proponents of national missile defense are urging President-elect George W. Bush to move quickly to deploy a system to protect the United States against potential ballistic missile attacks from Iraq, Iran, North Korea, and China. They argue that he will be making a major mistake if he lets his administration subject missile defense to a lengthy policy review. It will give opponents time to organize and inevitably entangle the issue in the 2002 congressional elections. Instead of waiting, they conclude, Mr. Bush should seize the moment. This assessment may tempt the new president. Mr. Bush could move quickly and adopt the Clinton administration's missile defense deployment schedule, which proposes beginning construction of a key radar in Alaska next year. If Moscow refused to revise the Anti Ballistic Missile Treaty to permit a nationwide defense, the United States could then withdraw from the treaty. Although a momentous step, President Bush could argue that he was merely following Bill Clinton's lead. By making deployment seem inevitable, Mr. Bush might overwhelm the domestic political opposition in the short term.
But from a longer term perspective, rapid deployment is a bad idea. It could leave the United States with a mediocre missile defense, strained relations with most European allies, and major problems with Moscow - not to mention Beijing. American national security could suffer, particularly if a brusque defensive deployment led Moscow to terminate bilateral programs to secure its frighteningly dilapidated inventory of nuclear warheads and materials. Such an outcome would eventually fracture whatever domestic political support for missile defense the Bush administration had enjoyed. Rather than moving quickly on missile defense, Mr. Bush should move sensibly.
He should remain unwavering in his commitment to defending the United States. But he does not need to commit immediately to a specific technology, or to take steps that would violate the ABM Treaty until 2002, or perhaps even 2003. He has time to proceed deliberately for four reasons:
•The threat is limited. Only Russia and China currently threaten the United States with long-range missiles, and both could almost surely counter any defense now on the drawing boards. The threat from North Korea, Iran, and Iraq is still probably several years off, or even longer.
•The Pentagon needs time to research other technologies. The Clinton administration focused its efforts on developing a system to shoot down warheads in space. That poses a daunting technological challenge, witness the system's two recent test failures. The Pentagon has not adequately investigated other technologies, most notably boost-phase interceptors. These would shoot down enemy missiles before they reached space, when they were easy to locate and when they presented large targets. Besides being less technologically challenging than a Clinton-style system, boost-phase defenses are also far less vulnerable to countermeasures. Boost-phase defenses based on land, sea, or in the air are also less likely to provoke Moscow. They must be based within a few hundred miles of the enemy missile launch point; hence, they cannot shoot down missiles launched from deep in Russia's interior.
•The Bush administration needs time to negotiate changes to the ABM Treaty. Persuading Moscow to revise that 1972 treaty to permit nationwide missile defense is far preferable to abandoning it. Withdrawal would harm U.S.-Russian relations - especially efforts to reduce offensive nuclear arms in both countries.
Even if Moscow says nyet in the end and the United States must withdraw, intensive negotiations would do more to assuage Moscow's worst-case security fears and to secure allied support for deploying a national missile defense than a capricious decision to abandon the treaty. But knowing in advance that Mr. Bush was firmly committed to deployment, and that he was also considering boost-phase defenses, Moscow might well agree to revise the treaty rather than face the prospect of unconstrained American national missile defenses.
The Bush administration should work to find a way to defend the allies too. The Clinton administration's proposed anti-missile system would protect the United States but not its allies. But leaving the allies unprotected seriously diminishes the system's strategic benefit. Saddam Hussein could blackmail the United States by threatening to destroy Paris or London or Tokyo - including the thousands of Americans living there - instead of New York or San Francisco.
Proponents of national missile defense are right that the Bush administration should be unyielding in its commitment to defend America. But that does not require immediate treaty-busting actions that favor unpromising defensive technologies. Acting resolutely should not mean rushing to failure.
The writers, senior fellows at the Brookings Institution in Washington, contributed this comment to the International Herald Tribune.
---
Russia Says Iran Arms Deals Won't Break Agreements
Reuters
December 27, 2000 Filed at 9:36 a.m. ET
By Jon Hemming
http://news.excite.com/news/r/001227/09/international-iran-russia-dc
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-iran-ru.html
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=237436
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Russia's Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev said Wednesday Moscow would not break international agreements by selling arms to Iran and insisted any deal would not ''prejudice a third country.''
His statement echoed an assurance he gave the United States earlier this month when he said Moscow would only sell defensive weapons to Iran.
U.S. concern over military ties between Moscow and Tehran rose recently when Russia decided to pull out of a 1995 pact in which it agreed not to sell conventional arms to Iran.
``Russia will not contravene international agreements,'' Iran's official IRNA news agency quoted Sergeyev as saying. ''Iranian-Russian military cooperation will not be to the prejudice of any third country.''
The Russian minister held talks with President Mohammad Khatami after which the Iranian leader said he was planning to pay an official visit to Moscow next year.
``The visit was an important landmark, the culmination of establishing and developing bilateral relations and the search for cooperation,'' Khatami said.
Washington says Tehran has an active nuclear arms program and supports anti-Western ``terrorist'' groups. Iran says it has no nuclear arms ambitions and that all work in the field is for peaceful purposes such as power generation.
U.S. officials have sought assurances that deals did not involve transfers of nuclear weapons technology or help to improve Iran's Sahab-3 missile, now in development with a range of about 1,500 km (1,000 miles).
They said Sergeyev told them Russia would only sell defensive arms to Iran, mostly spares for Soviet-era equipment. Meanwhile, Iran says that closer military cooperation with its giant northern neighbor is a ``must.''
The minister toured an Iranian missile plant and inspected short-range anti-tank and air-to-surface missiles. IRNA said the countries' positions on missile defense were ``close.'' But technology transfers were not on the agenda, a Russian defense ministry official said.
``No missile-technology supplies are being considered during the visit,'' Leonid Ivashov told reporters. ``What is at stake is only the delivery of conventional weapons.''
Asked about the U.S. objections, Sergeyev said: ``We are also not delighted about everything the Americans are doing.''
REGIONAL SECURITY
Russian officials said talks between Sergeyev and his Iranian counterpart Rear-Admiral Ali Shamkhani focused on regional security issues. Afghanistan, the Caspian Sea and Central Asia were on the agenda.
Both are unhappy not only about the expansion of U.S. and NATO influence in what they see as their backyard, but also the threat to stability posed by the Afghan Taliban militia in the overwhelmingly Muslim region.
``It is in our interests to live in peace and friendship in this region and settle difficult conflict situations,'' Sergeyev said. ``One state cannot do this. It is therefore necessary to find supporters, to find a common language and by joint political methods seek to settle conflicts.''
Russia is keen to cash in on a potentially lucrative Iranian arms market. Iran says it has a $10 billion budget surplus this year as a result of high oil prices.
---
Russia To Obey Arms - Sales Agreement
New York Times
December 27, 2000 Filed at 3:59 p.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iran-Russia.html
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Russia's defense minister said Wednesday his country will abide by international agreements concerning arms sales to Iran, but added that won't preclude some arms deals, the state news agency reported.
Making the first visit by a Russian defense minister to Iran since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Igor Sergeyev held a round of talks with Iranian military officials and said the countries' positions were close, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
Sergeyev later met with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, who described the visit of the Russian military delegation as ``an important landmark'' in relations between the two countries, IRNA said.
The visit comes amid American pressure on Russia not to sell arms to the Islamic republic.
When asked about the U.S. position, Sergeyev said ``we respect the opinion of each country but keep to our own interests,'' IRNA said.
Still, he said, ``Russia will not break international agreements,'' an apparent reference to international nuclear nonproliferation agreements. The Russian government has said it will not supply any hardware capable of creating or delivering weapons of mass destruction. Russia maintains that resumption of the Iranian arms trade is an ``internal affair.''
Russia alarmed Washington by announcing last month that it was abandoning a 1995 pledge not to sell tanks and other battlefield weapons to Iran. Washington, which accuses Tehran of sponsoring terrorism, is trying to persuade Moscow to change its mind and has threatened economic sanctions.
The United States and other countries also have raised concerns that Russia's construction of a nuclear power plant in Iran could give it access to materials and knowledge for making nuclear weapons. Both Moscow and Tehran have denied the claim.
Upon his arrival Tuesday, Sergeyev said neither Russia nor Iran would allow any country to prevent them from expanding their relations.
Iran, which has declared itself self-sufficient in missiles, has built and tested several missiles, including the Shahab-3, which has a range of 810 miles. Washington denounced a July test of the Shahab-3, which it said could reach Israel or U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia.
Iran also has built its own tanks, armored personnel carriers and a fighter plane.
---
Editorial Roundup
Associated Press
December 27, 2000 Filed at 3:51 p.m. ET
Excerpts from editorials in newspapers in the United States and abroad:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Editorial-Rdp.html?pagewanted=all
Dec. 24
The Bangkok Post, Thailand, on the Bush administration's policy toward Asia:
One searched the opening remarks in vain for further hints of how President Bush and Secretary of State Powell will deal with Asia. Perhaps they consider Asia to be a stable region at the moment. But Mr. Bush promised during the election campaign to boost presidential interest in Asia. He vowed to formulate unique policies for Japan and China, and to discard the Clinton policy of equal (arguably off-handed) treatment.
On our other flank, he promised to engage India and Pakistan in an effort to reduce and then eliminate nuclear arms and confrontation. This must be a primary goal of U.S. policy under Mr. Bush. In addition, the Americans and other nuclear powers must begin, seriously, to consider reductions of nuclear arsenals across the board -- and this includes China. The nuclear powers are entitled to defense. They also must answer the desire of most of the world for a secure peace without fear of weapons of mass destruction.
---
Chronology of the Year 2000
Associated Press
December 27, 2000 Filed at 3:49 p.m. ET
A month-by-month look at notable news in 2000:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-YE-Chronology-2000.html?pagewanted=all
May 20
The five Security Council powers agree to eliminate their nuclear arsenals.
June 4
President Clinton and Russian President Putin end summit by conceding differences on missile defense, agreeing to dispose of weapons-grade plutonium, pledging early warning of missile and space launches.
-------
Russia defense minister visits Iran
InfoBeat News
Morning Coffee Edition
12/27/2000
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=405540395
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Russia's defense minister traveled to Iran on Tuesday to discuss increasing military cooperation and arms sales between the countries, despite U.S. pressure on Russia not to deal arms to the Islamic republic.
Igor Sergeyev is the first Russian defense minister to visit Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution. During his three-day visit, he was expected to meet Iranian President Mohammad Khatami.
Other issues to be discussed include the Afghanistan conflict and regional security issues, Russia officials said earlier.
On Monday, Iran's defense minister, Rear Adm. Ali Shamkhani, said that developing military relations with Russia was important to Iran.
Russia alarmed Washington by announcing in November that it was abandoning a 1995 pledge not to sell tanks and other battlefield weapons to Iran.
Washington, which accuses Tehran of sponsoring terrorism, is trying to persuade Moscow to change its mind and has threatened economic sanctions.
The Russian government has said it will not supply hardware capable of creating or delivering weapons of mass destruction, but maintains that resumption of arms sales to Iran is an ``internal affair.''
The United States and other countries also have raised concerns that Russia's construction of a nuclear power plant in Iran could give it access to materials and knowledge that could be used in making nuclear weapons. Moscow and Tehran deny the claim.
------
BEIR VII Study Extension & History Of Phony Radiation Standards
Comments on the History of Permissable Dose Standards
Wed, 27 Dec 2000
by Dr. Rosalie Bertell
http://www.geocities.com/mothersalert/bertell2.html
The BEIR[Biological Effects Of Ionizing Radiation] VII study has been extended two years in order that new information on the doses to the Japanese atomic bomb survivors can be developed and analyzed. The new anticipated date for completion of the study is October, 2003.
Rick Jostes National Academy of Sciences 2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20418 rjostes@nas.edu Phone [202] 334-2840 FAX [202] 334-1639
I thought people might be interested in a history of phony radiation standards in the USA courtesy of the US military & nuclear industry. This history & commentary is courtesy of Dr Rosalie Bertell.
-Bill Smirnow
In October 1945, after the US Occupation Force had taken over Japan, it was officially announced that there would be no more deaths at Hiroshima and Nagasaki due to the atomic bombs. Under the Occupation Force direction, no Japanese physicians or scientists were allowed to study the atomic bomb survivors, and no reporting about the survivors was allowed until the 1951 treaty was drawn up and signed in Tokyo.
In spite of these prohibitions and difficult circumstances, a Japanese Haematologist discovered the increase in leukemia among the survivors. It began within a year of the bombing. He reported this at a professional meeting and was roundly denounced by the US researchers in Hiroshima and Atomic Bomb Casualty Commissiion (now called the Radiation Effects Research Foundation).
The physician was sure he was right, and he persuaded a medical student to take two years off from his studies and document all of the atomic bomb victims with leukemia. This was a difficult job since they were being treated at many different hospitals. The student obtained blood slides for each patient and also verified where they were when the bombs were dropped. After two years of study, it was about five years after the boming at that time, the results of this study were released. The US researchers could no longer deny the fact, and they turned around and claimed credit for the research.
When the atomic bomb studies were actually set up, using persons identified in the 1950 Japanese census, they omitted counting these early, significantly increased number of cases. The Atomic bomb studies were not actually published with dose information until after the 1965 doses were devised by John Auxier of Oak Ridge Labs. These doses were, in 1980, denounced as wrong, and a new set of doses constructed in 1986. Although the justification for the new doses was improvement of the science, the journal Science gave a wonderful description of John Auxier's inability to produce the worksheets which showed the derivation of the dose estimates he had assigned. It seems that he lost these work sheets accidently to a shredder when he moved offices. This lead to the unanimous recommendation to lower permissible doses of radiation by the ICRP in 1990.
The US has still not lowered the permissible doses, and it also claims wrongly that its radiation protection standards, set in 1952, were based on Atomic bomb studies. This is, of couse absurd. Most people in the nuclear industry equate "legal" with "safe", and if you try to explain that even within permissible levels of exposure there is significant risk of radiation damage, they think you are "emotional" and "unscientific".
The US appears to have used its 1952 estimates of permissible doses for nuclear workers for the DU exposure in the Gulf War.
More about this history can be found in my book: "No Immediate Danger: Prognosis for a Radioactive Earth". The Women's Press, London UK, 1985. There are still copies around in libraries, but it was taken off of seller's shelves in 1995 because I hope to update it. I have copies available for $12.50 US if anyone would like one.
Dr. Rosalie Bertell
-------- depleted uranium
Depleted Science in DU Debate?
Radio Netherlands
27 November 2000
by our science editor Laura Durnford
http://www.rnw.nl/science/html/uranium001127.html
DU, Depleted Uranium, is used to harden missiles and has been under attack since its first use on the battlefields of the Gulf War in 1991. It's one suspect in the mystery of what causes Gulf War syndrome. Now Canada is being urged to take a leading position against DU, but at the same time, its Government scientists stand accused of misleading ex-servicemen.
At a recent International Conference on Depleted Uranium, held in Manchester, England, delegates called upon Canada to take the lead in a move to get DU banned. But they also criticised Canada's Government scientists, saying they were misleading ex-servicemen who are suffering from Gulf War Syndrome - a variety of mysterious ailments that some are now blaming on Depleted Uranium.
By-Product
DU is a concern because it's a by-product of the process that's used to make nuclear power fuel or nuclear weapons. Although 'depleted' of its powerfully radioactive component, DU does still contain minute traces of radioactivity. This is not why it's used in missiles though. In fact, DU is 1.7 times more dense than lead and this means that it can form the core of a shell which will easily penetrate steel armour of tanks and other military vehicles. The problem is that when a hardened missile strikes home, around 70% of the DU burns and oxidises, bursting into minute particles that can be inhaled or ingested as dust. This can be harmful because of the residual radioactivity of the DU, possibly leading to cancer, but also because uranium itself, as a heavy metal, is toxic and can lead to kidney failure and other health problems.
But Canadian, as well as British and US military experts have denounced the existence of so-called Gulf War Syndrome. They also say that studies have not shown veterans' health problems to be linked to DU, among other things.
Disputed Results
In Canada in particular, National Defence test results suggest that sick ex-servicemen are not suffering from DU poisoning. The tests looked for Uranium in urine samples. But the science behind these results was questioned by other researchers at the UK meeting. For example, Dr. Malcolm Hooper who's medical advisor to the British Gulf War veterans said, "They've not looked with the right instrumentation. They've not reported accurately their own results and they've used the wrong paradigm to interpret the data." Chris Busby, an epidemiologist from Wales added, "It's a sort of subterfuge perhaps, or at the best it's just a misunderstanding of the reality - because we're not concerned with the amount of Uranium in people's urine, we're concerned with the amount of Uranium particles lodged in people's lungs."
`Sensationalism´
On the other side of the debate US and Canadian government officials say that scientists who have called for a ban on weapons made with DU are part of the anti-nuclear movement and are using sensationalism to influence the public; Roger Caplan, deputy director of the US Government agency that's looking into Gulf War Syndrome said: "Frankly it's a step-child of the anti-nuke movement. I think it's just basically, 'we couldn't get the issue passed one way, so let's package it as Gulf War illness, perhaps now the veteran's group will rally behind us.'" And Canada's director of medical policy for the Department of National Defence, Dr. Ken Scott, says he doesn't understand how the critics could come to their conclusions after having seen so little of the information. "Conducting science through the media with results that are not published is not appropriate. There's always a danger of relying on people who may be very well meaning but who don't have the depth of understanding of what it is they're looking at."
Civilians Affected
Whatever the rights or wrongs of the scientific debate over Depleted Uranium and its connection to Gulf War Syndrome, lawyers say there's enough evidence to link the ill health of veterans to the almost 950 thousand DU missiles and shells fired. But it's not only ex-servicemen. Campaigners in Iraq say that almost 250 thousand civilians there have been affected, with the rate of leukaemia among Iraqi children rising sevenfold since the end of the conflict. Dr Hadu Ammash is a doctor in Iraq: "The incidence of cancer is more in the South where the battlefield is, where the still-contaminated areas exist." In addition, DU weapons were also deployed in Kosovo and there are fears that civilians and servicemen who served there may also experience ill effects. Iraqi cancer victims and American former soldiers suffering from Gulf War Syndrome are joining forces to sue the US government over the use of DU missiles. Former British military personnel will also be invited to join the action.
In the meantime, Canada stopped using its own DU weapons two years ago and has taken steps to deal with sick veterans, offering to pay for soldiers to be tested for DU exposure at independent American centres. However, Ottawa, like Washington, has so far rejected calls for a ban on weapons made from Depleted Uranium.
Links
International Action Center DU Education Project
http://www.iacenter.org/depleted/du.htm
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Feature 'Silver
http://www.tv.cbc.ca/national/pgminfo/du/index.html
Bullet: Depleted Uranium
http://www.tv.cbc.ca/national/pgminfo/du/index.html
National Radiological Protection Board information (UK)
http://www.nrpb.org.uk/D-uran.htm
Statistical Assessment Service
http://www.stats.org/newsletters/9803/du.htm
--------
NO LINK BETWEEN DEPLETED URANIUM, GULF WAR SYNDROME
"mitzi" <upthesun@cshore.com>
Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2000 16:24:41 -0000
Does anyone believe them? On another subject, is MTP/DU Network in contact with Dr. Arjun Makhijani's IEER organization? They are offering a packet covering the many contaminated military sites, plus information and advice on dealing with them for people directly or potentially affected by these sites. mailto:ieer@ieer.org Science for Democratic Action. Mitzi Bowman
---
Precise locations of DU use in Kosovo
From: uranium@t-online.de
Wed, 27 Dec 2000 22:50:37 +0100
NATO has unclassified the precise co-ordinates of 112 locations of possible depleted uranium ammunition use in Kosovo. The locations are given asco-ordinates of the topographic map (map not included).
View facsimile of "Data concerning the possible locations of depleted uranium ordnance expanded in Kosovo (grid co-ordinates)" at http://www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium/diss.html#DUKOSOVO
WISE Uranium Project
http://www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium
Peter Diehl E-Mail: uranium@t-online.de Am Schwedenteich 4, D-01477 Arnsdorf, Germany Phone: +49-35200-20737
-------- japan
World News in Brief
San Jose Mercury News
Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2000,
http://www0.mercurycenter.com/premium/world/docs/fordig27.htm
A reactor in the town that suffered Japan's worst nuclear accident was closed Tuesday to repair a 4-month-old leak in the cooling system, the operator of the plant in Tokaimura said.
--------
Spain begins testing Kosovo troops for uranium contamination
BBC Monitoring Service
The Financial Times
Dec 27, 2000
Text of report by Spanish national radio on 27 December [Presenter]
Hospitals in Zaragoza have begun carrying out medical tests on around 2,000 soldiers who have served in the former Yugoslavia. The check-ups include sample analysis and radiological tests to determine if there are any cases of haematological illnesses among these servicemen caused by the use of depleted uranium during the conflict in the Balkans. Marisa Marquez reports: [Marquez] Two thousand soldiers who have served in Bosnia and Kosovo have today begun medical check-ups in the military and Miguel Servet hospitals in Zaragoza. The aim is to find out if any of them have any illnesses connected to possible exposure to radioactivity. These tests will enable a study to be carried out to clear up the cause of the leukaemia which led to the death of the 22-year old soldier Antonio Gonzalez Lopez, who died in the Miguel Servet in October after spending four months in Macedonia and Kosovo. The haematologists are cautious about the cause of this quick death, which is very similar to those of other Portuguese and Italian soldiers who were also in the area.
--------
European nations probe illnesses of troops in Balkans
Boston Globe
12/27/2000
By Ciaran Giles, Associated Press
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/362/nation/European_nations_probe_illnesses_of_troops_in_Balkans+.shtml
MADRID - European NATO allies have begun checking whether their soldiers may have been exposed to dangerous levels of radiation from depleted uranium ammunition used by US warplanes in Kosovo last year. Spain said yesterday that initial tests were proving negative.
The Spanish Defense Ministry confirmed it would examine all 32,000 soldiers who have served in the Balkan region since 1992. A ministry spokesman said none of the first 5,000 soldiers screened for exposure in recent months had tested positive.
Portugal's Defense Ministry said yesterday that it would send a team of experts to Kosovo to check radiation levels on spent rounds, but did not foresee screening its 330 troops there.
Spain has just over 2,000 troops stationed in the Balkans, half of them in Kosovo.
Fears arose after NATO acknowledged early this year that US warplanes operating in Kosovo fired armor-piercing rounds containing depleted uranium during the alliance's 78-day bombing campaign in 1999.
Italian Defense Minister Sergio Mattarella said last week that Italy was investigating cancer cases among its soldiers from Kosovo and Bosnia to see if there is a link with the ammunition.
A UN team that went to Kosovo in November is doing a similar study and is expected to report its findings in February.
Twelve Italian soldiers who served in the Balkans have developed cancer. In addition, three peacekeepers who served in Bosnia died of leukemia last year. Four soldiers involved in aircraft maintenance have also died of cancer.
Pentagon spokesman Jim Turner said yesterday there have been no problems with leukemia or other illnesses among US troops who served in the Balkans. He said soldiers receive regular health checkups.
The Spanish Defense Ministry's medical chief, Colonel Luis Villalonga, said the health tests were designed to calm any fears among the troops. He said last week that Spanish Army studies coincided with others by allied forces that showed ''there has been no radioactive pollution.''
He said one case of a Spanish soldier dying of leukemia on returning home was unrelated. He said the soldier had been based in Macedonia, which was not directly involved in the war.
The Dutch Defense Ministry said it would keep abreast of Spanish and Italian inquiries via NATO. A spokesman said the ministry was looking into a National Soldiers' Union report about a peacekeeper with leukemia who served in Bosnia.
Earlier this year, the Yugoslav government reported that the region hit by uranium rounds in Kosovo stretched across a southwestern belt of the province. Most affected were areas surrounding towns such as Prizren, Urosevac, Djakovica, Decani, and the Djurakovac village, areas where Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, and US troops have been posted.
In its report, Yugoslavia claimed some 50,000 rounds had been fired, while NATO admitted to 31,000 rounds.
Iraq long has attributed an increase in rates of leukemia and other cancers, as well as neurological and muscular diseases, to the use of depleted uranium bombs during the Persian Gulf War. Official statistics show that the number of Iraqi children with cancer rose to 130,000 in 1997 from 32 in 1990.
Depleted uranium, which has low levels of radioactivity, is used in artillery shells because it is extremely dense and can pierce armor. On impact, the shells create an airborne dust.
Some specialists argue that uranium rounds are environmentally harmful.
-------- korea
Clinton: Still Talking to N.Korea, Statement Soon
Yahoo News
Politics News
Wednesday December 27 4:20 PM ET
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001227/pl/clinton_korea_dc_1.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Clinton (news - web sites), who had hoped to visit North Korea (news - web sites) before leaving office next month, said on Wednesday his administration was still in talks with Pyongyang and may make a statement on it soon.
South Korean (news - web sites) President Kim Dae-jung (news - web sites) said earlier in the day that Clinton was not expected to visit North Korea.
Clinton was asked about the comment and whether he would send an envoy if he decided not to go. ``We have been in touch with the North Koreans and I may have some more to say about that,'' Clinton told reporters in the Oval Office.
``I just have a limited number of days here before I leave office and I'm trying to get as much done as I can, including on that. I may have some more to say in the next few days.''
Madeleine Albright (news - web sites) made the first visit by a U.S. secretary of state to communist North Korea in October.
Since then, Clinton has expressed an interest in becoming the first U.S. president to travel to North Korea, hoping to seal a deal under which Pyongyang would stop producing and selling ballistic missiles in exchange for foreign assistance in launching satellites.
Last Friday the White House said Clinton was still evaluating whether to go ahead with a visit to North Korea, which once was seen as the world's most isolated state but has opened up somewhat over the past few years.
---
Clinton N.Korea Visit Said Unlikely
Associated Press
December 27, 2000 Filed at 6:22 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Koreas-Clinton.html
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea's president said Wednesday that President Clinton was unlikely to visit North Korea to seek a deal to defuse missile and other conflicts with the isolated communist country.
Kim Dae-jung, who won this year's Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to seek rapprochement with the North, had wanted Clinton to make a landmark visit to North Korea before he relinquishes the White House to George W. Bush in mid-January.
Some Seoul officials feared that Bush's new Republican government may slow down rapprochement with the North.
``Whether President Clinton will visit the North has been a matter of great interest for us,'' Kim said during a yearend news conference. ``As things stand now, however, we cannot have a big expectation on this.''
But Kim reiterated that he expected the Bush administration would not drastically change U.S. policy on North Korea and would endorse his ``sunshine'' policy of building reconciliation with the North.
He said he hoped to visit Washington as soon as possible to consult with Bush on North Korea.
The White House raised the possibility of a Clinton visit to North Korea more than two months ago. White House spokesman Jake Siewert said Friday that Clinton will make a judgment based on whether he thinks a trip would advance the process of curtailing Pyongyang's missile program.
A senior U.S. official said last week an envoy may be sent to North Korea to clarify Pyongyang's readiness to shut down its missile program. Many senior Republicans on Capitol Hill oppose a visit.
U.S officials have been trying to narrow differences on limiting the North's production and export of missiles and missile technology to warrant a Clinton visit to clinch a deal.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright met with North Korea's Kim Jong Il in October to try to pave a way for a Clinton visit. Follow-up missile talks were held in Kuala Lumpur, but no agreements were reached.
The United States is concerned about North Korean exports to Pakistan, Iran and other countries. The North Korean leader has indicated a willingness to curb missile development and missile exports in exchange for economic ties with the United States.
Also Wednesday, five South Korean negotiators arrived in North Korea to discuss rebuilding the North's dilapidated economy and providing it with badly needed electricity.
The South Koreans will hold three days of talks from Thursday on a North Korean demand that the South provide its Northern neighbors with 500,000 kilowatts of surplus electricity to help ease its severe power shortage.
Relations between the Koreas have improving significantly since a summit of their leaders in June, during which they agreed to seek economic cooperation and political reconciliation.
The two Koreas fought a 1950-53 war that ended without a peace treaty.
-------- russia
Russia Launches ICBM From Barents Sea
Russia Today
Dec 27, 2000
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=237437
MOSCOW -- (Agence France Presse) A Russian submarine successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile from the Barents Sea on Wednesday, the first such test since the Kursk nuclear submarine disaster last summer, military officials said.
The missile was launched by the Novomoskovsk at 11:00 am (0800 GMT) and successfully hit its target in Kamchatka, in Russia's far east, Northern Fleet spokesman Igor Degalo told AFP.
It was the first such test since the Kursk sank in the Barents Sea on August 12, killing all 118 sailors on board.
---
U.S. Sees New Russian Missiles As Treaty Compliance
Russia Today
Dec 27, 2000
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=237101
WASHINGTON -- (Reuters) The United States said on Tuesday it welcomed Russia's deployment of new Topol-M missiles as a sign that Russia was reshaping its nuclear missile arsenal to meet its commitments under the START 2 treaty.
U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said the deployment was part of the process of eliminating multiple-warhead missiles and replacing them with the Topol-Ms or SS-27s, which have only one warhead each, in line with its commitments under the 1993 treaty.
"So we support very much their efforts to prepare for a post-START 2 environment and that's exactly what you're reading about in these reports," he added.
A spokesman for Russian Strategic Missile Forces said its commander, Vladimir Yakovlev, attended a ceremony on Tuesday to put a third grouping of Topol-Ms into service.
The spokesman gave no details of the ceremony, which took place in the Saratov region on the Volga River. It was unclear how many Topol-Ms Russia is to deploy in total. The missiles can be mounted in silos, on trucks or on trains.
Russia has advertised the 47-ton Topol-M, which has a range of 10,000 km (6,200 miles), as a sophisticated weapon capable of breaking through any defense system.
Many in the Russian military see the missiles as a possible response to U.S. plans for a national missile shield.
---
Russia Rocket Chief Warns U.S. on Missile Defense
Associated Press
December 27, 2000 Filed at 11:04 a.m. ET
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-arms-ru.html
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001227/pl/arms_russia_dc_1.html
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Moscow will respond to any unilateral move by the incoming U.S. administration to deploy a national missile defense shield without Russia's consent, the head of the country's nuclear rocket force said on Wednesday.
``I am afraid that if that happens, then positive initiatives will, unfortunately, be lost,'' the Interfax news agency quoted General Vladimir Yakovlev as saying.
``Then we will simply be forced to speak in a different language and a different tone of voice,'' the Strategic Rocket Force commander said.
Yakovlev's comments were a direct response to Secretary of State-designate Colin Powell, a supporter of national missile defense known as NMD. Outgoing U.S. leader Bill Clinton ducked a decision on deployment of the ``Star Wars''-style missile shield.
Moscow has steadfastly refused to amend the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) which bans NMD, saying it would undermine Russia's own deterrent and trigger a new arms race that would suck in China.
President Vladimir Putin has vowed to tear up all arms control accords with Washington if it deploys the $60 billion dollar system regardless of Moscow's security concerns.
He has offered instead sharply lower nuclear arsenals and joint work on a non-strategic missile defense system.
Moscow believes that, and diplomacy, could provide adequate protection against ``rogue states'' like North Korea and Iraq, that the United States says it needs protection from.
ABM TARIFF
Last month, Yakovlev flagged a significant shift in Russia's position, saying Moscow could agree a fixed ABM tariff with the United States under which improved missile defense would be compensated for by cuts in offensive capacity.
The Foreign Ministry later played down the remarks.
Yakovlev's comments on Wednesday coincided with the successful test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile by the Novomoskovsk cruiser in the Barents Sea.
A spokesman for Russia's Strategic Rocket Force confirmed that the rocket, launched at 3 a.m. ESMT, had hit its target in the Kamchatka region in Russia's far east. But he declined to say whether the test involved one of Russia's sophisticated new Topol-M missiles which Yakovlev said could form the vanguard of any Russian response to NMD.
``The Topol-M gives us the possibility of a symmetrical and asymmetrical response to any breach of the START-2 or ABM treaties,'' Interfax quoted Yakovlev as saying.
The Topol-M, a 47-tonne, single warhead rocket with a range of 6,200 miles, is seen by Russia as capable of breaching any defense system.
---
Shift Seen in Russian Nuclear Policy
Reduced Missile Deployment Reflects Growing Primacy of Conventional Forces
Washington Post
Wednesday, December 27, 2000; Page A20
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52384-2000Dec26.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/12/27/MN157868.DTL
http://www.iht.com/articles/5450.htm
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis/web/vortex/display?slug=missile27&date=20001227
MOSCOW, Dec. 26 -- Russia officially deployed a new complement of its most modern strategic nuclear missiles, but in smaller numbers than in the past two years, suggesting a shift in priorities under President Vladimir Putin.
The single-warhead, silo-based Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile was designed to replace the aging Soviet-era multiple-warhead missiles in Russia's arsenal. In 1998 and 1999, Russia deployed 10 Topol-M missiles a year.
Only six of the new missiles were put in place today, and the cutback appears to be not only a response to budget pressures, but a change in priorities as well.
Alexander Pikayev, a nonproliferation and arms control specialist at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said the reduced deployment of missiles is "symbolically" important, marking a possible shift from expensive nuclear weapons and toward conventional, or nonnuclear, forces.
Putin has been refereeing a vigorous and sometimes public debate among Russia's top defense officials over the allocation of resources between nuclear and conventional arms. The chief of the general staff, Gen. Anatoly Kvashnin, has argued that Russia could do with far fewer nuclear warheads than envisioned by Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev, former head of the strategic missile forces. Kvashnin wants to direct money into building new high-tech conventional weapons.
The number of Russian nuclear warheads is expected to decline to 1,000 or fewer in the next five to seven years as a result of obsolescence and arms control treaties. A ceiling of 2,000 to 2,500 warheads would be called for under the prospective START III arms control treaty, still to be negotiated with the United States.
Putin has not accepted Kvashnin's recommendations for nuclear reductions to as few as 550 warheads, but he appears to be leaning away from heavy new investments in long-range nuclear missiles to keep the levels higher.
The six missiles deployed today joined others previously sited near the Volga River city of Saratov. Pikayev said that producing six missiles a year probably would not yield major savings because such a small output is inefficient for a factory capable of making dozens or hundreds a year.
By comparison, the government of former prime minister Yevgeny Primakov was suggesting in early 1999 that Russia could and should deploy 30 new Topol-M missiles each year. That goal was never formally accepted, and it appears that Russia will not maintain the pace of even 10 new missiles a year.
The cost of the Topol-M program has not been made public. In general, Russia's fiscal situation is better than at any time in recent years because of windfall revenues from high global oil prices, but there is still competition over resources between branches of the military.
---
Missile deployment shows shift in nuclear strategy
San Jose Mercury News
Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2000
World News in Brief
http://www0.mercurycenter.com/premium/world/docs/fordig27.htm
Russia on Tuesday officially deployed a new unit of its most modern strategic nuclear weapon, but in smaller numbers than during the past two years, suggesting a shift in priorities under President Vladimir Putin.
The single-warhead, silo-based Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile is designed to replace the aging Soviet-era multiple-warhead missiles in Russia's arsenal. In 1998 and 1999, Russia deployed 10 such missiles a year.
However, the unit deployed Tuesday comprises only six missiles, and the decline appears to be not only a response to budget pressures but a change in priorities as well.
Alexander Pikayev, a non-proliferation and arms-control specialist at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said the reduced complement of missiles marked a possible shift away from expensive nuclear weapons and toward conventional forces.
---
Chronology of the Year 2000
Associated Press
December 27, 2000 Filed at 3:49 p.m. ET
A month-by-month look at notable news in 2000:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-YE-Chronology-2000.html?pagewanted=all
AUGUST
Aug. 14
President Clinton opens the 43rd Democratic National Convention. Russian navy says an explosion on a nuclear submarine has trapped crew members on the ocean floor.
Aug. 21
Rescue efforts to reach sunken Russian nuclear submarine end with divers announcing none of the 118 sailors survived.
---
Russians pick Lenin as 'man of the century,' Stalin as runner-up
Washington Times
December 27, 2000
http://www.washtimes.com/world/nobyline-20001227222638.htm
MOSCOW (AP) - Russians made Communist leader Vladimir Lenin their top choice as the nation's "man of the century," followed by dictator Josef Stalin, the Interfax news agency reported yesterday.
The poll asked 1,500 persons across Russia to name a choice without offering any suggestions.
After the Soviet leaders, human rights advocate and Nobel Prize winner Andrei Sakharov came in third, Interfax said. The first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, took fourth place, and Soviet reformer Mikhail Gorbachev was fifth, followed by actors and politicians from Russia's past.
Lenin won the most support, with 14 percent of respondents calling him the most important man of the 20th century, showing that many older Russians still revere him. Lenin's lasting popularity among the older generation also has been explained by years of Soviet propaganda, which lionized him.
Stalin received support from 9 percent of respondents despite a consensus among most Russians that he was a cruel dictator responsible for the deaths of millions in arbitrary executions and forced labor camps. Stalin is still respected by a small group of Russians who see him as a paragon of law and order.
Mr. Sakharov, a renowned nuclear physicist who drew attention to the cruelty of the Soviet system and became a symbol of his country's quest to shake off the legacy of communism, received support from 8 percent of respondents.
The Public Opinion Foundation polling agency conducted the survey Dec. 16. Many Russians consider 2001 to be the beginning of the new century, and pollsters apparently had that in mind when they conducted the survey.
In the United States, Time magazine named its "man of the century" last year. It selected Albert Einstein, identifying him as the pre-eminent scientist in a century dominated by science.
--------
Russia deploys new nuclear missiles
InfoBeat News
Morning Coffee Edition
12/27/2000
http://www.infobeat.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/IBFrontEnd.woa/wa/fullStory?article=405539661
MOSCOW (AP) - A third set of new intercontinental nuclear missiles was deployed Tuesday at a base in southwest Russia _ part of government efforts to make the rugged, hard-to-detect weapon the backbone of its nuclear forces.
A regiment at the Tatishchevo base in the Saratov region was equipped with the Topol-M single-warhead missiles, said Sergei Derevyashkin, a spokesman for the strategic missile force. He did not say how many missiles were deployed.
The U.S. State Department said it supported the deployment as part of an effort to replace missiles banned by the START II arms control treaty.
``We support very much their efforts to prepare for a post-START II environment,'' spokesman Philip Reeker said in Washington.
The small missile can be fired from a mobile launcher, making it harder to detect and more likely to survive a first strike in a nuclear war.
Some experts have said the Topol-M could be converted to carry several warheads, a change that would violate START II. But Russia has supported the treaty, and any modifications to the missile would likely strain its nuclear arms budget, which was already stretched thin by the original Topol-M project.
Russia already has 20 Topol-M missiles in service, 10 per regiment, deployed in 1998 and 1999.
Topol-M was designed to replace older missiles that have outlived their service or must be dismantled under START II, which was ratified by Russia's parliament earlier this year but is still awaiting final approval by the U.S. Senate.
Strategic Missile Force commander Vladimir Yakovlev hailed Tuesday's deployment. ``This is a major achievement ... against the background of limited financing,'' he said, according to Russian news reports.
-------- ukraine
Repaired Ukraine Reactor Restarted
New York Times
December 27, 2000
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Ukraine-Nuclear.html
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- A nuclear reactor at Ukraine's Yuzhna atomic power plant was restarted Wednesday after an unexpected shutdown for repairs, nuclear officials said.
Operators restarted the No. 2 reactor, whose leaking steam generator had been under repair since Dec. 7, the state Energoatom nuclear company said.
The plant's No. 1 reactor was halted for several hours following a malfunction in its electrical system and was restarted before dawn Tuesday.
Currently, 11 of 13 nuclear reactors at Ukraine's four atomic power plants are working, Energoatom said.
On Dec. 15, Ukraine permanently shut down the only working reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant following pressure from foreign governments and environmental groups.
Chernobyl was the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster when one of its reactors exploded in1986, sending a radioactive cloud over much of Europe.
---
Chronology of the Year 2000
Associated Press
December 27, 2000
Chronology of the Year 2000
A month-by-month look at notable news in 2000:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-YE-Chronology-2000.html?pagewanted=all
DECEMBER
Dec. 15
The long-troubled Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine is closed for good. Hillary Rodham Clinton agrees to an $8 million book deal with publisher Simon & Schuster for her White House memoirs.
-------- u.s. nuc workers
Veterans Affairs Proposes Additional Aid for 'Atomic Veterans'
Yahoo News
Wednesday December 27, 3:47 pm Eastern Time
Press Release
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001227/dc_va_atom.html
WASHINGTON, Dec. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Veterans exposed to radiation during their military service and diagnosed with cancer of the bone, brain, colon, lung, or ovary will have an easier time applying for, and receiving compensation for their illnesses, if proposed regulatory changes are approved.
Hershel W. Gober, Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA), proposed adding these cancers to the list of illnesses presumed to be connected to the military service of specific veterans, thereby lessening their burden of proof when seeking compensation.
``Veterans who were injured by radiation during their military service should receive fair and appropriate compensation,'' Gober said. ``No less than veterans who were wounded on the battlefield, they earned VA's support and the nation's gratitude.''
The proposed changes apply to those veterans who participated in ``radiation-risk activities'' while on active duty, during active service for training or inactive duty training as a member of a reserve component. Those activities include the occupation of Hiroshima or Nagasaki, internment as a POW in Japan, or onsite involvement in atmospheric nuclear weapons tests. People in this group are frequently called ``atomic veterans.''
In 1988, Congress established a presumption of service connection for 13 different cancers in veterans exposed to ``ionizing radiation,'' with later changes bringing the number to 16. Under provisions of the Radiation-Exposed Veterans Compensation Act (Pub. L. 100-321), veterans are presumed to be service connected if they participated in a radiation-risk activity and later developed one of the following diseases: leukemia (other than chronic lymphocytic leukemia), cancer of the thyroid, breast, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, pancreas, gall bladder, bile ducts, salivary gland, or urinary tract, multiple myeloma, lymphomas (except Hodgkin's disease), primary cancer of the liver (except if cirrhosis or hepatitis B is indicated), or bronchiolo-aveolar carcinoma.
The proposed changes would also expand the definition of ``radiation-risk activity'' to include exposure to radiation related to underground nuclear tests at Amchitka Island, Alaska, prior to January 1, 1974, and service at gaseous diffusion plants in Paducah, Ky., Portsmouth, Ohio, and Oak Ridge, Tenn. (area K25).
VA's proposed changes ensure equity in the treatment of veterans and federal civilians who are being provided benefits for the first time for health problems caused be radiation. These changes bring veterans benefits up to the same standards used for civilians under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) of 1990, as amended this year.
-------- u.s. nuc weapons
Chronology of the Year 2000
Associated Press
December 27, 2000 Filed at 3:49 p.m. ET
A month-by-month look at notable news in 2000:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-YE-Chronology-2000.html?pagewanted=all
JULY
July 8
The 13th International AIDS Conference opens in South Africa, the first time it is held on the worst-hit continent. U.S. missile interceptor misses target, raising possibility of major delay in Pentagon timetable for having an anti-missile defense system ready by 2006.
SEPTEMBER
Sept. 1
President Clinton defers decision on missile defense to his successor.
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
Nuclear Power's Future
New York Times
December 27, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/27/opinion/L27NUC.html
To the Editor:
The improved performance of American nuclear reactors in the 1990's is a result of concerted efforts to learn from experience and correct weaknesses in existing reactors (news article, Dec. 20).
Next-generation reactors embody major further improvements, featuring advanced safety features and economy. Two such reactors are operating in Japan and could be ordered here, public attitudes permitting. New reactors may or may not win out in a simple price competition, but they make sense if we attach a proper value to reducing emissions of pollutants, our dependence on energy imports and our vulnerability to oil and natural gas price rises.
A forward-looking energy policy should emphasize conservation, renewable sources and nuclear power.
DAVID BODANSKY Seattle, Dec. 21, 2000
The writer is emeritus professor of physics, University of Washington.
------- arizona
Deposits of ore, danger
Tribe seeks redress of illnesses tied to 'uranium home
Wed, 27 Dec 2000 18:11:51 EST
By Bill Papich, Globe Correspondent, 12/27/2000
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/362/nation/Deposits_of_ore_danger+.shtml
AK SPRINGS, Ariz. - On sandstone-layered hills overlooking this Navajo community in northeast Arizona, chunks of blown-apart rock cover the ground and shelter the small lizards hiding from hawks in the desert sky.
Below the hills are Navajo homes made of the same rocks, but all the homes are abandoned. The Navajo call these structures ''uranium homes,'' because they are made of uranium-ore waste rock blasted from the hills.
From the 1940s and into the 1970s, the Atomic Energy Commission oversaw the uranium mining that fueled America's nuclear-weapons arsenal during the Cold War. But the agency did not tell the people that their newfound building material could emit dangerous radiation.
Now they know, said Phil Harrison of the Navajo Uranium Radiation Victims Committee, which is seeking federal compensation for relatives of uranium miners who are sick.
''A lot of families are dealing with various illnesses,'' Harrison said, pointing to a yellow-greenish spot on a rock in the wall of one home. ''They all think it came from their exposure, but nobody can prove it. Kids are sick, mentally retarded, disabled. We need to find out who else is sick besides the miners.''
The Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency learned of the danger in the late 1970s and began replacing some of the houses. But that effort fizzled in the 1980s and lay dormant until the mid-1990s. Since then, the poorly funded, undermanned effort has been unable to learn the severity of the problem, and no one is sure how many buildings or people are affected.
Still, the scope of the lingering effects from the mines, and from the homes made from the cast-off rocks, is potentially vast.
Navajo men worked unprotected in some 1,300 mines across the 27,000-square-mile Navajo reservation, which covers parts of Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. Miners who developed lung cancer have each received $100,000 in compensation through the Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act, approved by Congress in 1990. President Clinton signed an executive order for an extra $50,000 per miner by July 2001.
But miners who suffer from other diseases do not qualify for compensation. The federal Indian Health Services agency, which administers health care on the reservation, does not recognize any link between disease and long-term residence in homes made of uranium-ore waste rock.
Until the Navajos realized the hazards of uranium ore, the rocks were considered a fringe benefit of the mines. The waste rocks were piled outside mine entryways, and the Navajos found that with a little chipping around the edges, these tan, relatively flat rocks made excellent building blocks. Miners often took rocks home after work, stockpiling them to use in building new homes.
In the Navajo Nation community of Teec Nos Pos, tribal member Carolyn Clark, 35, said her father built the uranium-ore house that she and her seven siblings grew up in. Her father was a uranium miner who committed suicide at 31, she said.
''I guess he had health problems, and he just decided to get it over with,'' Clark said. Now her daughter has cerebral palsy, which Clark believes may have something to do with the house.
Harrison's father, a uranium miner, died of lung cancer at 45. Harrison has kidney disease and awaits a transplant.
He recalls when his father, who toiled 20 years in the mines, came home from work and his mother shook out his clothes.
''Everything would be airborne,'' Harrison said. ''You eat with it, you drink with it. So practically everyone would be exposed.''
Sarah Benally, a member of the victims' committee, has a thyroid condition. As a child, she lived in a waste-rock house at Oak Springs and now believes that she and others who occupied the houses were harmed by near-constant radiation exposure and by inhaling and ingesting radioactive particles.
But the homes weren't the only threat, tribe members say. Navajo women cook bread in outdoor ovens, and an oven near Benally's house is made of uranium-ore waste rock that sheds particles when rocks crack from the heat.
''We didn't know these rocks were contaminated,'' Benally said, pointing to a wooden house with a foundation made from the rock.
The US Environmental Protection Agency has been conducting helicopter surveys of the area to measure radiation. Of the waste-rock structures currently used by Navajo families, the agency has so far identified two with dangerous radiation levels. One has 44 times the radiation considered acceptable by the EPA and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
''We're just at the tip of the iceberg,'' Derritch Watchman-Morre, executive director of the Navajo EPA, said of uranium homes she expects to be discovered.
''We want to remove the exposures, whether from waste-ore piles, homes, or foundations. But there's the [lack of] funding and convincing people there's a problem,'' said Watchman-Morre, whose office still uses typewriters.
The Navajo EPA receives funding from the EPA regional office in San Francisco. Watchman-Moore said the tribe hopes to get uranium mine areas listed as EPA Superfund sites, which would make them elegible for federal cleanups.
But the chance of a sparsely populated Navajo reservation area achieving Superfund status appears unlikely because Congress enacted the program with urban, industrial areas in mind.
''Potentially, we may list some of these sites on the Superfund,'' said Betsy Curnow, the EPA's regional manager for Superfund assessment, ''but this is a huge problem, a huge area, and we've got to make sure we're spending our money on the very worst problems out there.''
The legacy of uranium mining on the Navajo reservation is more than the destruction of the land and the health problems related to the mining, said Carol Markstrom, professor of child development and family studies at West Virginia University. She has identified post-traumatic stress syndrome among Navajos who not only have lost friends and relatives to poisoning from uranium mining but also lost their way of life.
For example, Markstrom said, areas that were used for gathering plants and herbs for healing ceremonies have been contaminated by uranium mine waste.
''It goes beyond contamination of your drinking water that could poison you or contamination of your livestock,'' she said. ''It's the fact that what is sacred is profaned, contaminated. What these people have here is a disaster.''
-------- idaho
Opinions differ on possible nuclear reactions
Wed, 27 Dec 2000 18:22:27 EST
By N.S. Nokkentved Times-News writer
http://www.magicvalley.com/timesnews/news/index.asp?view=news5</A>
TWIN FALLS -- A small runaway nuclear reaction might have gone unnoticed years ago in radioactive waste buried willy-nilly in eastern Idaho, some experts suggest.
Federal energy officials assert that the risk of such an event is not credible.
"We have found no evidence of a criticality ever having occurred out there," INEEL spokesman Nick Nichols said.
Yet state and federal environmental regulators say they have seen no evidence that would rule out an accidental nuclear reaction -- known as a criticality -- in the buried waste, either in the past or in the future.
Recent concerns about a criticality were raised when data gathered from radioactive waste in INEEL's controversial Pit 9 suggested some barrels might contain enough plutonium to support a spontaneous nuclear reaction.
In a worst-case scenario, an uncontrolled criticality might release radioactive materials into the air. It also could ignite other radioactive waste, and the resulting fire might lead to additional radioactive releases.
Consultants to the EPA wrote in a May report that "no conclusive evidence has been presented to date that places the future risk of nuclear criticality in the (burial waste site) at an insignificant level."
In early December, Energy Department and regulatory officials met to discuss the issue of criticality risks in the waste buried at the INEEL's Subsurface Disposal Area. Following that meeting, one consultant wrote that the INEEL assertions that no criticality happened while the burial ground was flooded should be supported by calculations, and monitoring data from before, during and after the event.
Sue Stiger, head of environmental cleanup at INEEL, said monitoring was in place that would have showed the evidence of a nuclear reaction.
"We would have been able to detect it," she said.
Plutonium-contaminated waste has been stored at INEEL for almost 50 years. More than 2 million cubic feet of such waste was dumped in pits and trenches -- including Pit 9 -- between 1954 and 1970.
INEEL officials are confident that the plutonium is spread out through the waste and doesn't present a risk of a spontaneous, uncontrolled nuclear reaction.
But that assertion is based on data from electronic probes sunk into Pit 9. That data is open to interpretation, said Wayne Pierre of the Seattle office of the Environmental Protection Agency and project manager for INEEL cleanup. Energy Department assertions about the waste are based on supposition, not on physical data, and the department has been reluctant to take actual physical samples, he said.
The possibility of a spontaneous, uncontrolled nuclear reaction becomes a regulatory concern when a barrel of waste has 267 grams of plutonium. And the sampling data suggests some barrels might have 200 to 1,000 grams of plutonium.
In a previous interview, Jerry Paulson, director of criticality safety at INEEL, said a nuclear criticality would require sufficient water in addition to the right amount of plutonium.
Water acts as a moderator, increasing the effectiveness and concentrating the reaction. Without the water, small amounts of plutonium are not likely to sustain a nuclear reaction, Paulson said.
But the buried waste pits and trenches at INEEL have flooded three times in the past, and those floods may have provided enough water.
The first flood was in February 1962, when two inches of rain fell on eight inches of snow in three days. With the topsoil still frozen, water collected in open waste pits and trenches.
Then in January 1969, snowdrifts blocked a drainage ditch dug following the earlier flood. Melting snow and rain once again filled open pits and trenches.
Again in 1982, flood waters inundated pits and trenches.
Chuck Broscious, head of the Environmental Defense Institute in Troy, suggests that two fires in a trench in 1966 and another fire in 1970 might have been the result of criticalities. Efforts to douse the third fire failed until a bulldozer operator covered the waste pile with dirt.
The fire was the result of spontaneous combustion of uranium waste, not a criticality, Stiger said.
INEEL's early decades of waste dumping are known for spotty record keeping. Inventories were incomplete, and radioactivity levels often were estimates rather than measurements.
Officials now have better records about what was actually sent to INEEL then they did a few years ago, Stigar said.
Criticality is something officials take very seriously, but officials at the December meeting agreed a criticality is not a concern at the INEEL radioactive waste disposal site, Stiger said.
Times-News writer N.S. Nokkentved can be reached at 733-0931, Ext. 237, or by e-mail niels@magicvalley.com
---
Buried radioactive waste includes a grisly mix of castoffs
Wed, 27 Dec 2000 18:24:38 EST
By N.S. Nokkentved Times-News writer
http://www.magicvalley.com/timesnews/news/index.asp?view=news6</A>
TWIN FALLS -- Official records of buried waste at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory include many bizarre items.
But federal Energy Department interviews with site employees in 1989 to 1991 turned up some downright grisly details.
Bill Kerr worked at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory from about 1957 through 1985. He was interviewed Oct. 29, 1990, according to documents newly obtained by the Times-News in a Freedom of Information Act request.
"Parts of human beings: their people in contamination ... figured the best way was to cut the finger off or the arm off, those are some the things that went into the sludge," Kerr said in the interview.
Sludge barrels and boxes shipped to Idaho were used to dispose of any extra low-level waste from the federal government's nuclear bomb factory at Rocky Flats in Colorado. That waste included 35-pound bottles of sodium cyanide, Kerr said.
"If they knew of anything that we couldn't figure out an easy way of getting rid of, we put into sludge barrels, sludge boxes," he said.
Kerr also noted that the internal organs of the three victims of the SL-1 reactor, which blew up in January 1961, were studied and then dumped into the INEEL burial ground.
"Some people think that the bodies were sent back home in lead-lined coffins," Kerr said. "Well part of it, maybe the outer husk was, but anything that could have been used for medical purposes, studies, were kept here and when they were through, those went into the burial ground."
The SL-1 reactor, an experimental low-power reactor, blew up when a control rod was pulled up too rapidly, creating a sudden power surge and steam explosion. The three men working on the reactor were killed.
Other gruesome garbage buried at INEEL includes barrels full of irradiated animal carcasses, including canaries, beagles and salmon, the result of radiological research at various West Coast universities, and drums of animal carcasses from the U.S. Nuclear Corp. in California.
Some of those research programs focused on gastrointestinal diagnosis, in which animals were fed various radioactive materials. Their droppings then were examined and wound up in barrels at INEEL labeled as radioactive animal feces -- nearly a ton of it.
Most of the waste buried at the INEEL was plutonium-contaminated waste from the nuclear weapons plant in Rocky Flats, Colo. The waste began arriving in April 1954. Manifests did not accompany the shipments. Instead, annual reports to INEEL listed only an estimated amount of radioactivity, not actual contents.
During a 1963 labor strike, waste was dumped haphazardly. Many containers were damaged, some leaked liquid -- despite an INEEL policy against burying liquid waste -- and some lids flew off containers.
Officials lost track of the waste.
The practices continued even after the strike was settled. The drums weren't expected to last anyway, and the government at the time had no plans to dig them up.
Until 1960, commercial solid radioactive waste was packed in steel drums and simply dumped in the ocean off both U.S. coasts. The Environmental Protection Agency reported in the 1970s that small amounts of plutonium have leaked from those barrels.
But the government decided to stop the ocean dumping because it was too costly.
That decision drove an Oakland, Calif., entrepreneur out of business. He had collected radioactive waste for sea disposal, and when he went broke in 1960 he left a shipping yard full of waste stacked in 55-gallon barrels.
Caravans of trucks brought it all to Idaho. INEEL officials didn't know what was in the barrels, just that it was radioactive waste.
In May 1960, the 88-acre "Burial Ground" became the "interim burial ground" for commercial low-level radioactive waste produced in the West. Many shipments to INEEL were simply labeled "radioactive waste" with no indications of their actual contents. Some waste producers shipped waste in secondhand barrels -- without changing the labels.
The commercial radioactive waste shipments stopped in August 1963. But the government continued to send Rocky Flats' waste to Idaho, where officials could keep an eye on it.
Following a scientific review of disposal practices and a public outcry in 1970, the dumping was halted.
Meanwhile, the waste still lies in rusting barrels and broken boxes buried in pits and trenches 580 feet above the Snake River Plain Aquifer, which supplies drinking and irrigation water to more than 200,000 people in southern Idaho.
Times-News writer N.S. Nokkentved can be reached at 733-0931, Ext. 237, or by e-mail niels@magicvalley.com
-------- new mexico
Chronology of the Year 2000
A month-by-month look at notable news in 2000:
Associated Press
December 27, 2000 Filed at 3:49 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-YE-Chronology-2000.html?pagewanted=all
SEPTEMBER
Sept. 13
Nine months after he was branded a threat to national security and put in solitary confinement, Los Alamos nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee is set free with an apology from a judge.
--------
Two Deputies Are Better Than One
Trulock's '60 Minutes' of Fame
Washington Post
Wednesday, December 27, 2000; Page A21
By Vernon Loeb and Steven Mufson
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53568-2000Dec26.html
Notra S. Trulock, the former Department of Energy intelligence chief who rose to prominence as the dogged force behind the Wen Ho Lee investigation, was back in the limelight 10 days ago on CBS's "60 Minutes."
During the broadcast, correspondent Leslie Stahl quoted "secret" FBI and Justice Department reviews of the case as concluding that Trulock had "fingered the Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory in New Mexico where Wen Ho Lee worked as the only possible source of [a nuclear warhead] leak to China."
Those "secret" reports notwithstanding, the man who actually says he fingered Los Alamos was not Trulock but Daniel J. Bruno, a DOE counterintelligence investigator who, at Trulock's behest, compiled a list of individuals he believed merited further scrutiny by the FBI, including Lee and his wife Sylvia.
But half of those individuals, Bruno has said publicly, worked at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, not Los Alamos. And when Bruno handed over his list to the FBI in the spring of 1996, he has said, he specifically told the bureau that it had to investigate DOE headquarters and the Pentagon -- because the leak could have just as easily come from there.
When he's not appearing on national television, Trulock -- who resigned from DOE in the summer of 1999 -- is director of media relations at the Free Congress Foundation.
-------- new york
New York Times
December 27, 2000
Metro News Briefs
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/27/nyregion/27MBRF.html?pagewanted=all
STONINGTON: FISHERMEN SUE UTILITY A State Superior Court judge has blocked an attempt to block the suit of two Stonington fishermen, who say the Millstone nuclear power station is killing fish. The fishermen, Alfred Maderia and Timothy Medeiros, sued for damages in April to recover business losses they attributed to the nuclear reactors, owned by Northeast Utilities. The suit argues that the reactors, in Waterford, are directly responsible for killing significant numbers of fish in Long Island Sound. Judge Joseph Q. Koletsky denied Northeast Utilities' motion to dismiss the suit on Friday. (AP)
------- tennessee
DOE wants to modernize oldest nuclear arms facility
Wed, 27 Dec 2000 18:14:06 EST
the Herald-Leader
Associated Press
http://www.kentuckyconnect.com/heraldleader/news/122700/statedocs/27weaponsplant.htm
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. The Cold War is over but the nation still needs its oldest nuclear weapons plant and should be prepared to bring it up to modern standards, a Department of Energy report says.
The draft environmental impact statement by DOE and the quasi-independent National Nuclear Security Administration comes on the eve of a major modernization of the Y-12 plant in Oak Ridge that could cost as much as $4 billion.
DOE is recommending an extensive makeover of the 4,000-employee, Manhattan Project-era Y-12 complex with new, yet smaller, manufacturing and storage facilities. The agency will be holding public hearings and seeking comment through Feb. 5.
---
DOE urges Oak Ridge upgrading
Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2000 18:17:28 EST
http://www.tennessean.com/local/archives/00/12/01528646.shtml?Element_ID=1528646
OAK RIDGE (AP) - The Cold War is over but the nation still needs its oldest nuclear weapons plant and should be prepared to bring it up to modern standards, a Department of Energy report says.
The draft environmental impact statement by DOE and the quasi-independent National Nuclear Security Administration comes on the eve of a major modernization of the Y-12 plant in Oak Ridge that could cost as much as $4 billion.
"Y-12, the oldest of the nation's nuclear weapons production facilities, now faces significant and diverse new challenges in its national security mission," the report said.
DOE is recommending an extensive makeover of the 4,000-employee, Manhattan Project-era Y-12 complex with new, yet smaller, manufacturing and storage facilities.
The agency will be holding public hearings and seeking comment through Feb. 5.
The manufacturing processes at Y-12 are at least two decades old, and funding cuts in recent years have left the plant with a growing list of needed repairs.
"DOE is faced with the following choices: continue to pursue expensive stopgap repair operations or invest sufficient capital in Y-12 to modernize technologies and facilities," the report said.
The Oak Ridge Environment Peace Alliance has regularly staged protests at the Y-12 gates urging the plant's closure. The report suggests that is not an option.
"The decision to continue the weapons production mission of Y-12 has already been made by DOE. ... Shutting down Y-12 is not a viable alternative at this time. The need for nuclear weapons has already been determined by the president and Congress and is beyond the scope of the (environmental impact statement)."
Ralph Hutchison and other leaders of the Oak Ridge Environment Peace Alliance did not return calls for comment yesterday.
Dr. Susan Gawarecki, executive director of the Oak Ridge Local Oversight Committee that evaluates environmental actions, said, "In a general sense, we are in favor of modernizing the facility."
However, she said the panel wants to be assured the cleanup of old, contaminated areas of the plant will be part of the process. "We recognize that if Y-12 is to continue its mission, it can't go on like it has been," she said.
Although the United States no longer designs new weapons or conducts nuclear tests, the government is committed to maintaining a nuclear deterrent.
That means ensuring existing weapons work and making new parts for them.
Y-12's primary mission is manufacturing parts for the MX missile system and storing highly enriched uranium used in warheads.
-------- us nuc politics
A Ferret Heads for His Den
Counterespionage Chief Edward Curran Has Given Up His Favorite Quarry: Spies
Washington Post
Wednesday, December 27, 2000; Page A21
By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53570-2000Dec26.html
He has been the government's espionage troubleshooter, a calming presence at the worst of times for the intelligence community. Now he wants some calm for himself.
Having taken charge of counterespionage at the CIA in the wake of the Aldrich H. Ames spy scandal and struggled for two years to tighten security at the Energy Department while the Wen Ho Lee investigation was underway, Edward J. Curran has retired after 38 years with the FBI.
Curran has left Washington for what he said in an interview is "a calmer life" in North Chittenden, Vt.
Ruddy, gray-haired and authoritative in manner, Curran was always outspoken. His comments last year on NBC's "Meet the Press" were particularly memorable in a city where government officials rarely speak their minds about the legislators who hold the purse strings.
Curran skewered the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, saying that Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) had failed to attend closed-door security briefings and had complained about lax security at the Energy Department, then denied funding to tighten the department's practices.
"I don't mind hard questions," Curran said, recalling closed sessions of the House and Senate intelligence committees during the Lee period. "But when the dustup was over," he said, "members such as [Rep. Norman D.] Dicks [D-Wash.] and [Sen. Bob] Kerrey [D-Neb.] gave us what we needed."
An FBI agent specializing in foreign counterintelligence since the 1970s, Curran rose to supervisor, then inspector and finally to a series of managerial jobs. At various phases of his FBI career, Curran was detailed to the Pentagon, the CIA and the Energy Department.
At the Pentagon, he labored over on-site nuclear inspections with the Soviet Union. At the CIA, he helped clean up after the devastation of Ames, who was accused of betraying more than 10 agents to Moscow. And at the Energy Department, he pushed new security procedures on reluctant scientists while simultaneously defending those scientists against harsher steps sought by some in Congress.
He's an encyclopedia of the major espionage cases of the last two decades. Curran worked with Ames, who then was a CIA case officer doing counterintelligence in New York City in the 1980s. He also followed the activities of the New York FBI counterintelligence squad when one of its agents was Edwin Earl Pitts, later convicted of helping Moscow. "It was one of the best squads we had, and suddenly their cases dried up," he said.
Curran considers the Wen Ho Lee case one of the worst examples of FBI counterespionage. If that investigation had been centered in New York, Washington or San Francisco, it would have been completed earlier and with a better result, Curran argues. The FBI field office in Albuquerque "didn't have the right people or the right tools," he said. "They did drugs, not counterintelligence."
When Curran, as the new chief of counterintelligence at the Energy Department, visited Albuquerque in early 1998, the agent in charge there was not even familiar with the Lee case. At the time, only three agents were working on the case; when it became public, more than 60 agents were put on it, Curran said.
In 1994, after the Ames case broke, Curran was picked by FBI Director Louis J. Freeh as head of counterespionage at the CIA. The CIA's own head of counterintelligence, Paul Redmond, was at loggerheads with the FBI's assistant director for national security, Robert M. "Bear" Bryant. At one point, the bureau threatened to arrest a CIA head of station in Germany for refusing to cooperate on another espionage case.
Against that background, Curran helped manage the two-year investigation of Harold J. Nicholson, a CIA officer who had been a chief of station in Rumania, deputy chief in Malaysia and was on his way to higher jobs in the agency's clandestine service.
The investigative problem was how to get FBI agents into CIA's headquarters building in Langley without any agency people knowing they were bugging Nicholson's office phone, putting a television camera in the ceiling, and even searching his car.
He said it took enormous effort by then-CIA Director John M. Deutch and his deputy -- now the agency's director, George J. Tenet -- to approve the clandestine searching of agency offices.
The last two years at the Energy Department, however, gave Curran some of his biggest highs and lows. He's proud of the structure he has set up, putting in a security system he said "was started from scratch." "Secretary [Bill] Richardson," he added, "has done everything we asked him to do, and he gets blamed for everything."
Congress, in Curran's view, has "politicized counterintelligence" by insisting that 17,000 Energy Department employees must be given polygraph exams "when at tops the figure ought to be 3,000." And after forcing the so-called lie detector tests on the department, he noted, some key legislators, including Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), began to oppose most polygraphing.
As Curran's departure approached, Richardson looked for a way to honor him. His solution was to name a new, bug-proof, top-secret conference room at Energy Department headquarters the Edward J. Curran Room.
-------- us nuc waste
DOE lacks funds for Test Site nuke storage
Las Vegas SUN
December 27, 2000
By Mary Manning <manning@lasvegassun.com>
If Congress next year approves temporarily storing nuclear waste in Nevada, the Department of Energy won't have funds for developing a storage facility at the Test Site.
The DOE had $85 million of taxpayers' money tucked away in the Defense Department fund to pay for temporary high-level nuclear waste storage near Yucca Mountain, the nation's only site under study as a permanent radioactive waste dump.
The money, which was dedicated for temporary storage, was the Defense Department's share earmarked for nuclear weapons waste.
But during this year's prolonged budget negotiations, $75 million of the funds were stripped from the DOE's budget, leaving $10 million for completing a site recommendation report next year.
Congressional staffers credit Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the second most powerful Democratic senator, for removing the bulk of the funds.
Congress first attempted to approve a plan to ship thousands of tons of highly radioactive waste to Nevada for temporary storage in 1996. The money was set aside in one of two funds, but never spent, because President Clinton vetoed any temporary storage bill that managed to pass.
Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., who was not in Congress at the time the original legislation was passed, said the remaining funds should go for transmutation, the process that converts deadly nuclear wastes into less harmful materials, or for recycling research, "either of which benefit the environment and the health of Nevada citizens."
The $85 million was contingent on Congress passing a temporary storage bill, said Michael O'Donovan, spokesman for Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., who opposed the funding.
Instead of having the money ready to construct the temporary facility, Congress must appropriate it again, giving Nevada's congressional members another area to fight the project. Without the money sitting in the fund, the process will be further delayed even if Congress gives the OK.
Transmutation did receive $4 million, given to UNLV for further research. Reid secured the funding in the Senate while Berkley protected the funding in the House.
The DOE has been under pressure from nuclear utilities to remove spent nuclear fuel from reactor sites.
Nuclear power plants have generated more than 40,000 tons of waste, most of it sitting in storage pools near nuclear power reactors at 76 sites in 34 states.
In addition to the 2,000 tons of waste generated each year by utilities, 100,000 gallons of nuclear waste from defense activities are stored in Idaho, Washington and South Carolina.
The DOE missed a 1998 deadline to take nuclear wastes off power plant sites, resulting in 13 lawsuits. A recent federal appeals court ruling allows the utilities to sue the DOE.
Although the DOE still has not completed studies for a permanent nuclear waste tomb at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, the $85 million was set aside so environmental studies at the site could begin immediately if and when Congress approves temporary storage in Nevada.
The money for nuclear waste management is collected in two funds. In order for the money to go to temporary storage, Congress must request it on an annual basis.
The first fund is fed by nuclear power customers, who pay one-tenth of a cent per kilowatt hour on their monthly utility bills. As of this year, $9.1 billion was available from nuclear electricity consumers.
The second fund comes from taxpayer dollars and covers radioactive wastes from Defense Department activities that contractors are cleaning up at hundreds of former nuclear weapons sites across the country. A total of $1.1 billion has accumulated in that fund to date.
The DOE cannot spend these funds without annual congressional approval for studies at Yucca Mountain, the proposed permanent nuclear repository for 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste, or for temporary nuclear waste storage.
Congress has attempted to send nuclear waste from commercial reactors to either the Nevada Test Site or to a location nearby Yucca Mountain since 1996, although interim storage is against current federal law in a state under study as a permanent waste repository.
For the past five years Nevada's congressional delegation blocked temporary nuclear waste storage, so the $85 million stayed in the defense fund, the DOE's annual reports to Congress said.
Congress has considered how much money to give the DOE each year for its nuclear waste activities. For 2001 the DOE has roughly $351 million for scientific studies at Yucca Mountain.
Kalynda Tilges Nuclear Issues Coordinator Citizen Alert - Las Vegas P.O.Box 17173 Las Vegas, NV 89114 702-796-5662 702-796-4886 fax Kalynda@hotmail.com <http://citizenalert.org>
Citizen Alert - "A voice for the land and people of Nevada"
-------- MILITARY
-------- colombia
War, Drug Trade Cause Colombia Ecological Disaster
Yahoo News
World News
Wednesday December 27 6:17 PM ET
By Jude Webber
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001227/wl/environment_colombia_dc_2.html
BOGOTA (Reuters) - Warring leftist guerrillas and far-right paramilitaries, and the illegal drug trade in the world's top cocaine producer are causing an ecological disaster of ''unsuspected proportions'' in Colombia, according to an army report published on Wednesday.
The report, titled ``The scars on 'Mother Earth,''' said the rebel groups' tactic of blowing up oil pipelines had polluted the Andean nation's ecosystem with more than 2 million tons of crude oil in the last decade.
The drug trade, it said, contaminated the soil with 200,000 tons of chemicals a year and causing deforestation at a pace that was rapidly destroying the country's jungles.
``Guerrillas and paramilitaries have caused this ecological catastrophe which, ... if the current rate of deforestation continues, will turn half the country's jungles into pasture in 17 years,'' the report said, quoting Environment Ministry experts.
It said the heavily wooded regions of Amazonas, bordering Peru in the south, and Orinoquia, which borders Venezuela and Brazil in the east, were in were in ``imminent danger.''
Colombia is one of the world's five top countries in terms of water resources and biodiversity, the Environment Ministry says. No one there was available for comment on the report.
The army calculated that about 3,600 square miles of jungle and agricultural land had been lost in the past decade.
Although a tiny proportion of Colombia's total area of about 441,000 square miles, the destruction still represents ''ecological damage ... of unsuspected proportions,'' it said.
Colombia has been riven by four decades of strife -- the longest conflict in Latin America -- involving the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN), far-right paramilitary death squads and the army, which critics accuse of being linked to paramilitaries or turning a blind eye to their activities.
The war has claimed 35,000 lives in the past decade alone.
Crude And Coke
The United States believes the 17,000-strong FARC, Latin America's biggest rebel army, plays a dominant role in drug production.
Colombia is the source of 90 percent of the world's cocaine, with annual output of 520 tons, and it also produces 6 tons of heroin annually, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
Guerrillas have targeted oil, Colombia's main export, as a tactic in their war against the state, staging some 1,000 assaults on oil pipelines since 1986. The 5,000-strong ELN has been responsible for 80 percent of the assaults.
The army report, citing Environment Ministry figures, said crude oil had contaminated 1,625 miles of river, equivalent to the total length of Colombia's two biggest rivers, the Cauca and the Magdalena, with slicks of up to 112 miles in length.
The report called the drug trade ``one of the direct causes of the destruction of biodiversity,'' saying coca leaf, poppies and marijuana cultivation had caused serious deforestation.
It cited Colombia's human rights monitor's office as saying 3,300 square miles of jungle had been lost in the last 30 years.
Furthermore, it said some 200,000 tons a year of 28 types of chemicals used in the processing of coca leaf and poppies for cocaine and heroin were leaching into the water and soil.
---
Colombian Troops May Leave a 2nd Rebel Zone
New York Times
December 27, 2000
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/27/world/27COLO.html
BOGOTÁ, Colombia, Dec. 26 - The government said today that it was moving ahead on a program to establish a second demilitarized enclave for leftist rebels.
President Andrés Pastrana and other government officials met today with community leaders in Bolívar and Antioquia, north of Bogotá, to address concerns that setting up such a zone for the National Liberation Army, or E.L.N., could intensify the violence, rather than reduce it.
Over the weekend, Mr. Pastrana said the government had drafted plans to grant E.L.N., Colombia's second-largest rebel group, with about 5,000 members, an area similar to the tract of jungle ceded to the main rebel group two years ago. That was given as a gesture toward starting peace talks.
The National Liberation Army freed 42 policemen and soldiers before Christmas, crowning what both the rebels and government called positive talks in Cuba, the guerrilla group's ideological homeland. Those talks were the latest in a year of informal contacts.
The planned enclave has been the scene of fierce clashes between rebels and far-right paramilitary squads in Colombia's four-decade- old conflict.
Security forces say the largest group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, has used its area, which is off limits to the military until Jan. 31, to recruit fighters and to plot violent attacks.
The government has said, however, that an E.L.N. zone would be subject to stricter controls and even international monitoring.
The development minister, Augusto Ramírez, said that if agreement is reached on the second enclave, a national convention of civilian representatives, the Roman Catholic Church and the international community would start immediately to pave the way to full-scale talks with the rebels, which President Pastrana said he hoped could start within nine months.
Two years of talks with the FARC yielded scant progress before they ground to a halt last month; the rebels pulled out, demanding a government crackdown on paramilitary squads that oppose them. The stalemate has disappointed many people in Colombia, who express skepticism about the policy.
The FARC has until Jan. 31 to decide whether to resume talks. If it does not, the military would be free to return to that zone, which is the size of Switzerland.
The government and FARC leaders are to meet on Wednesday to discuss what would be the first prisoner exchange in years, a government official said. The government has refused an offer to trade about 450 hostages for 350 imprisoned rebels, but has broached the idea of releasing 20 prisoners to move the talks forward.
President Pastrana decided earlier this month to extend the demilitarized status of the FARC zone into the new year. But the government insisted on putting restrictions on the entry of people and supplies into the area.
-------- drug war
USA Today
12/27/00
States
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm
New Jersey
Middle Township - A feud between a podiatrist and a doctor who treats drug addiction has sparked a debate over the location of methadone clinics. The state Assembly is considering a bill that could restrict clinics to areas designated for businesses and would not allow them to be considered part of doctors' offices. The podiatrist said he opposed the clinic because of security concerns.
---
'Traffic': Teeming Mural of a War Fought and Lost
New York Times
December 27, 2000
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/27/arts/27TRAF.html?pagewanted=all
Steven Soderbergh's great, despairing squall of a film, "Traffic," may be the first Hollywood movie since Robert Altman's "Nashville" to infuse epic cinematic form with jittery new rhythms and a fresh, acid- washed palette.
The agitated pulse of the hand-held camerawork (by the director working under a pseudonym) that roughly elbows its way into the center of the action is perfectly suited to the film's hard-boiled subject, America's losing war on drugs. The color scheme sandwiches a few lush patches between sequences filmed in two hues - an icy blue and a sun-baked yellow-orange - that are as visually discordant as the forces doing battle.
Where Mr. Altman's masterpiece portrayed American culture as a jostling, twangy carnival of honky-tonk dreams, "Traffic" is a sprawling multicultural jazz symphony of clashing voices sounding variations of the same nagging discontent. The performances (in English and Spanish), by an ensemble from which not a false note issues, have the clarity and force of pithy instrumental solos insistently piercing through a dense cacophony.
The characters run the social gamut, from affluent United States government officials and wealthy drug lords on both sides of the United States border with Mexico and their fat-cat lawyers, to the foot soldiers doggedly toiling in a never-ending drug war.
The most indelible performances belong to Benicio Del Toro as a burly, eagle-eyed Mexican state policeman of pluck and resourcefulness who has the street smarts to wriggle out of almost any squeeze; Michael Douglas, as a conservative Ohio Supreme Court Justice who is appointed the country's new drug czar, and Erika Christensen, as his sullen drug-addicted teenage daughter. Catherine Zeta-Jones is also riveting as a wealthy, ruthless, Southern California matron who is unaware that her husband is a high-level drug smuggler until he is dragged out of their house by federal agents.
The movie, which jumps around from Tijuana to Cincinnati to Washington to San Diego, from a posh Ohio suburb to the inner city to the Mexican desert to the White House itself, offers a coolly scathing overview of the multibillion-dollar drug trade and the largely futile war being waged against it.
But as despairing as it is, "Traffic" is not cynical. It gives its isolated heroes in the trenches their due. One of these is Javier Rodriguez (Mr. Del Toro), a wily, good-hearted Mexican policeman who conspires with the Drug Enforcement Administration to bring down his own boss (Tomas Milian), a corrupt Mexican general who uses torture to get his way. Other heroes include a pair of D.E.A. undercover agents, Montel Gordon (Don Cheadle) and Ray Castro (Luis Guzman), who spend half their lives in cramped vans engaged in surveillance.
"Traffic" is an updated, Americanized version of a 1989 British television mini-series, "Traffik," that followed the drug trade from Pakistan to Britain. From an ambiguous, paranoically-charged opening desert sequence (reminiscent of the crop- dusting scene in "North by Northwest"), in which Javier and his partner, Manolo (Jacob Vargas), surrender a newly captured truckload of cocaine to the corrupt general, to a late scene in which an American agent risks his life to plant a bug in a dealer's mansion, "Traffic" is an utterly gripping, edge-of-your-seat thriller. Or rather it is several interwoven thrillers, each with its own tense rhythm and explosive payoff.
What these stories add up to is something grander and deeper than a virtuosic adventure film.
"Traffic" is a tragic cinematic mural of a war being fought and lost. That failure, the movie suggests, has a lot to do with greed and economic inequity (third world drug cartels have endless financial resources to fight back). But the ultimate culprit, the movie implies, is human nature. Waging a war against drugs isn't just a matter of combating corruption but of eradicating the basic human desire to "take the edge off," as Mr. Douglas's character, Robert Wakefield, says in defense of his nightly drink of Scotch. "Otherwise, I'd be dying of boredom," he adds.
"Traffic" is no friend of the government. When Wakefield returns from Washington, where he has been briefed by the president's chief of staff (Albert Finney) and other major Beltway players in the war, he describes the experience to his wife, Barbara (Amy Irving), and daughter, Caroline (Ms. Christensen), as like being "in Calcutta, surrounded by beggars wearing $1,500 suits who don't say `please' and `thank you.' "
While Wakefield is exploring this new turf, Caroline is rapidly succumbing to crack addiction under the tutelage of her cynical boyfriend, Seth (Topher Grace), her classmate at the exclusive Cincinnati Country Day School and as a scary a contemporary teenager as you're likely find in a recent movie. A high achiever who is sullen and angry beneath her preppy glass, Caroline quickly plummets to the bottom. Early scenes of her stoned friends sprawled around a fancy living room, drinking, sniffing cocaine and mumbling fuzzily about their discontents offer a devastating vision of youthful suburban ennui.
The movie does not shy away from portraying the pleasure of drugs, and Caroline's initiation into free-base cocaine by Seth is a voluptuous rush. Her head rolls back, and tears of joy trickle from her eyes as Seth repeats in a soothing voice, "You see? You see?" before making love to her. From that moment, Caroline is hooked, and she becomes a glazed- eyed baby-faced demon whose precipitous fall lands her in a seedy hotel under the thumb of the drug- dealing pimp who introduced her to heroin. As Wakefield tries desperately to wrest her from the gutter, this strand of the movie threatens to turn into a Charles Bronson-like vigilante drama. But the acting is so powerful that the scenes have documentary crediblity.
A parallel strain of the demonic runs through the story of Helena Ayala (Ms. Zeta-Jones), whose comfortable world begins falling apart the moment her drug-dealing husband, Carlos (Steven Bauer), is arrested. Six months pregnant and the mother of a young son, she finds herself a social outcast, her finances frozen, her son's life threatened by Carlos's creditors. "I want my old life back," she declares furiously to her husband over a prison telephone. Then, with coldblooded determination, she sets about getting it back by any means necessary.
Her key to getting it back lies in forestalling the testimony of Eduardo Ruiz (Miguel Ferrer), a midlevel drug dealer busted by Montel and Ray who is being held in protective custody as the key witness in Carlos's trial. A harsh realist who knows his chances of survival aren't great, Eduardo bitterly scoffs at his captors for "knowing the futility of what you're doing and doing it anyway," and his words resound through the movie. The film's most exciting scenes demonstrate the efficiency of the drug cartels at penetrating the most heavily guarded inner sanctum.
If "Traffic" illustrates how the underfunded, red-tape-bound good guys are no match against the enemy's superior resources, what makes the film more than a powerful thriller is its unflinching contemplation of human frailty. From Helena's take-no-prisoners schemes to stay rich, to a hired assassin tracked down in a gay bar and seduced into a trap, to Carlos's two-faced lawyer (Dennis Quaid), who is tempted to steal from his boss while he is behind bars, the film understands the sheer, brutal force of human desire.
A theme that percolates throughout Stephen Gaghan's screenplay is a reflection on addiction and dependence. From Wakefield's nightly Scotch, to the two glasses of red wine Helena recommends to her friends over lunch at a fancy La Jolla restaurant, to Ray's chain smoking, to the druggy past of Wakefield's wife (was it experimentation or something more?), "Traffic" poses unanswerable questions about selfmedication, pleasure, dependency and addiction. One character, who early in the movie invokes the slogan "In vino veritas" while plying a paid assassin with red wine to coax information out of him, later commits suicide by injecting heroin.
In the end, Wakefield, exhausted and demoralized after all he has been through, delivers the White House address he's been instructed to prepare in a weary, halfhearted voice, mumbling words like "courage," "perseverance" and "new ideas" before announcing a new "10- point plan." But as we've been shown, there are no new ideas. Wakefield's speech ring hollow until the moment he pauses and wonders out loud, How can you wage a war against your own family?
That family, "Traffic" implies, is not just his own drug-addicted daughter but also a culture devoted to instant gratification and quick-fix pain relief. The drugs, after all, don't flow out from the United States into the third world, they flow in. For this is a culture in which, at the end of the day, millions of people, just like Wakefield, find themselves "dying of boredom."
"Traffic" is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It has scenes of violence (including torture), sexual situations and the preparation of free-base cocaine and drug injection.
TRAFFIC
Directed by Steven Soderbergh; written by Stephen Gaghan, based on "Traffik" created by Simon Moore, originally produced by Carnival Films for Channel 4 Television (Britain); director of photography, Peter Andrews; edited by Stephen Mirrione; music by Cliff Martinez; production designer, Philip Messina; produced by Edward Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz and Laura Bickford; released by USA Films. Running time: 147 minutes. This film is rated R.
WITH: Michael Douglas (Robert Wakefield), Don Cheadle (Montel Gordon), Benicio Del Toro (Javier Rodriguez), Luis Guzman (Ray Castro), Dennis Quaid (Arnie Metzger), Catherine Zeta-Jones (Helena Ayala), Steven Bauer (Carlos Ayala), Erika Christensen (Caroline Wakefield), Clifton Collins Jr. (Francisco Flores), Miguel Ferrer (Eduardo Ruiz), Topher Grace (Seth Abrahms), Amy Irving (Barbara Wakefield), Tomas Milian (General Arturo Salazar), Marisol Padilla Sanchez (Ana Sanchez), Jacob Vargas (Manolo Sanchez) and Albert Finney (Chief of Staff).
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Chronology of the Year 2000
A month-by-month look at notable news in 2000:
Associated Press
December 27, 2000 Filed at 3:49 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-YE-Chronology-2000.html?pagewanted=all
JANUARY
Jan. 25
Ten Myanmar insurgents who had captured a hospital and its staff are killed by Thai security forces.
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Chronology of the Year 2000
A month-by-month look at notable news in 2000:
Associated Press
December 27, 2000 Filed at 3:49 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-YE-Chronology-2000.html?pagewanted=all
JUNE
June 25
Live-fire training resumes on the Vieques, Puerto Rico, range in largest naval exercises since a fatal accident prompted yearlong occupation. Philip Morris buys Nabisco for $14.9 billion.
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Chronology of the Year 2000
A month-by-month look at notable news in 2000:
Associated Press
December 27, 2000 Filed at 3:49 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-YE-Chronology-2000.html?pagewanted=all
NOVEMBER
Nov. 2
An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts move into the international space station.
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U.N. Refugee Chief Reflects at the End of 10 Turbulent Years
New York Times
December 27, 2000
By ELIZABETH OLSON
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/27/world/27NATI.html
GENEVA, - With more than one million Europeans uprooted in the turmoil of World War II, the United Nations created a small refugee agency, with a few dozen staff members and a modest budget. It was to exist for just three years.
Fifty years later, the office of the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, based here, operates in 120 countries with a staff of more than 5,000 workers. As it celebrates its anniversary, the agency has an annual budget of nearly $1 billion to care for 22.3 million refugees.
Confronted with victims of ethnic conflicts and civil strife, especially in the decade since the cold war ended, the work has shifted from helping people who had fled Communism or other authoritarian governments. The repeated conflicts in the Balkans and the killing of more than a half million people in Rwanda in 1994 led the agency to expand its mandate.
At the helm for the last 10 years has been a soft-spoken Japanese academic, Sadako Ogata, 73, who is ending her tenure as commissioner.
The caseload has risen more than one-third from the nearly 15 million people when she arrived in 1991. Then, Mrs. Ogata was confronted with whether to help Iraqi Kurds who had fled other regions of the country to a haven under international protection in northern Iraq.
Previously, the agency's mission had been to help those who had fled their country. By helping the Kurds, the agency carved out new ground, working with military forces and helping internal refugees.
The course she set was repeatedly tested. The question of which international group is responsible for domestic refugees - there are up to 25 million from Afghanistan to Congo - has yet to be settled officially.
Mrs. Ogata's successor will be Ruud Lubbers, a former Dutch prime minister. He will be faced with steering the system as refugees are increasingly intermingled with economic migrants and as richer nations, particularly in Western Europe, are determined to limit the extent of asylum. In light of the recent killings of four workers, he will also be confronted with how to protect personnel.
Mrs. Ogata sought to highlight trouble spots by making dozens of visits, including more than 30 to Africa. The flight of more than one million Rwandans in 1994 convulsed the assistance network. The office was criticized for sheltering genocide suspects in refugee camps and dropped its long-held opposition to forced repatriation when Rwandans were returned from Tanzania.
No sooner did the situation in Africa begin stabilizing than the agency had another crisis, the hundreds of thousands of Kosovo Albanians who fled or were expelled by Serbian forces last year as NATO began its air campaign.
Looking back, Mrs. Ogata, in an interview with the agency magazine, Refugees, criticized actions of some international groups and governments. "Humanitarian action," she said, "became a fig leaf for political and military inaction." In Bosnia, "the international community eventually took punitive action against the Serbs. But it was very haphazard, an artificial war that only added to the human displacement. It was the same pattern in the early stages of the Kosovo emergency."
"The international response" to Rwanda, she said, "was even more tepid in comparison." The basic lesson to be drawn from that experience, she said, "is that when emergencies are very close to the doors of the big powers, they will do more."
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Chronology of the Year 2000
A month-by-month look at notable news in 2000:
Associated Press
December 27, 2000 Filed at 3:49 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-YE-Chronology-2000.html?pagewanted=all
MAY
May 15
Sierra Leone rebels holding 500 U.N. peacekeepers release 139 of their captives into Liberian custody.
JULY
July 15
The United Nations launches successful military operation help 222 Indian peacekeepers and 11 military observers break out of a rebel stronghold in Sierra Leone.
Sept. 6
The Millennium Summit, the largest gathering of world leaders in history, convenes at the United Nations. Thousands of pro-Indonesian militiamen and supporters storm a U.N. office in West Timor, killing three foreign staffers.
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Sierra Leone children may face U.N. charges
Washington Times
December 27, 2000
World Scene Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://www.washtimes.com/world/worldscene-2000122721315.htm
NEW YORK - A proposed war crimes court for Sierra Leone should be allowed to prosecute child soldiers, the U.N. Security Council said yesterday.
But in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the council also narrowed the court's jurisdiction to a point where many children would likely be excluded.
The council was responding to a U.N. plan for the court that has ignited debate in Sierra Leone and among children's rights advocates. The plan outlined ways in which children as young as 15 could be brought before the tribunal.
Sierra Leone's nine-year civil war has been especially brutal, with rebels hacking off the legs and arms of tens of thousands of people. An estimated 5,400 children fought in the war.
Congo seeks embargo against 2 neighbors
NEW YORK - Protesting recent military offensives by Rwanda and Uganda, Congo urged the U.N. Security Council yesterday to impose arms and trade embargoes against its two central African neighbors.
"My government urges the Security Council to react with vigor in keeping with its primary mission as guarantor of peace and international security," said Atokie Ileka, acting ambassador for the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Mr. Ileka, in a letter, said the 15-nation council should cut off arms shipments to Uganda and Rwanda, ban trade and financial dealings with the two nations and freeze diplomatic ties of both countries with U.N. member governments.
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Chronology of the Year 2000
A month-by-month look at notable news in 2000:
Associated Press
December 27, 2000 Filed at 3:49 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-YE-Chronology-2000.html?pagewanted=all
OCTOBER
Oct. 12
Terrorist bomb attack on USS Cole in Yemen; 17 sailors killed. Chinese writer Gao Xingjian wins Nobel literature prize.
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USA Today
12/27/00
States
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm
Arizona
Yuma - Two-thirds of the 90 AV-8B Harrier pilots at Marine Corps Air Station are grounded while engine repairs are made on 21 of the jets. The engine problem surfaced last July after a Harrier caught fire and crashed at Twentynine Palms, Calif. Repairs could be completed by mid-summer, allowing the pilots to return to their regular training schedules of 12 to 15 flights every 30 days.
Virginia
Norfolk - More first-term East Coast sailors are re-enlisting and fewer are leaving the Navy. Figures from the Atlantic Fleet show a 5% increase in first-term retention this year compared with last year. The Atlantic Fleet said 34% of its first-term sailors and 59% of second-term sailors re-enlisted this year. Its goal had been 38% and 54% respectively.
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Chronology of the Year 2000
A month-by-month look at notable news in 2000:
Associated Press
December 27, 2000 Filed at 3:49 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-YE-Chronology-2000.html?pagewanted=all
MAY
May 27
Freight cars loaded with hazardous chemicals explode in Eunice, La., forcing the evacuation of thousands.
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Where Darwin Mused, Strife Over Ecosystem
New York Times
December 27, 2000
By LARRY ROHTER
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/27/science/27GALA.html?pagewanted=all
PUERTO AYORA, Galápagos Islands, Dec. 25 - Here where exotic natural diversity led Charles Darwin to the theory of evolution and the notion of survival of the fittest, a new struggle is raging: fishermen unwilling to accept limits on their catch are openly and violently defying the Ecuadorean government's efforts to preserve a delicate and threatened ecosystem.
In recent weeks, fishermen have attacked conservation installations, blockaded ports and harassed tourist groups. On the island of Isabela, they even set the office of the Galápagos National Park ablaze, sacked the house of a park official and seized a group of rare giant tortoises from a breeding center there.
The fishermen and their allies, who include powerful commercial interests in mainland Ecuador, have been protesting a 1998 law that granted the residents of the Galápagos Islands greater autonomy. But the measure also established a marine reserve out to 40 miles offshore, prohibited fishing in that protected area to all but local residents using "artisanal" means and required them to abide by a quota system for lobster and sea cucumber.
"They are trying to destroy our livelihood with all of their rules and regulations," complained Leonardo Rosero Atocha, president of the fishermen's cooperative on Isabela, the poorest and most remote of the four inhabited Galápagos islands. "But we won't let them. This is our home. We know best what has to be done to preserve the environment and nobody has the right to come in here from the continent and run us out of business."
Scientists argue, however, that if the fishing is not limited, marine life here will eventually be fatally depleted. "Instead of living off the interest, these fishermen want to mine the capital," Carl Safina, vice president for marine conservation for the National Audubon Society, said in a telephone interview.
"One of the reasons that the Galápagos are so important is that they serve as a reference point for what undemolished nature looks like, and we need to preserve that," Dr. Safina said. "The real issue here is too many people, not enough resources, and the practice of a kind of fishing that takes out those resources much faster than they can recover."
Despite its image as an earthly paradise where bizarre creatures thrive and show no fear of man, the Galápagos have always been a difficult place for humans to live. The novelist Herman Melville likened these arid islands to "five and twenty heaps of cinders, dumped here and there," when he visited as a member of a whaling expedition in the 19th century, and little has changed in modern times.
Because of job opportunities here and increasing poverty on the Ecuadorean mainland, however, the population of the Galápagos, barely 1,000 people in 1950, has reached 16,000 and continues to grow at an estimated rate of 6 percent a year despite curbs on immigration included in the 1998 law.
International donors support research and conservation efforts here but the local population must depend on a central government that is nearly bankrupt, and the disparity has led to resentment. "Why do they send scientists to study iguanas instead of doctors to care for the human beings who live here?" asked Manuel Caiza, a fisherman on Isabela island. "That's insulting to us as human beings, that animals are valued more than we are."
As a result of last month's conflict, fishermen obtained an increase in this year's lobster quotas to 80 tons from 50 and an extension of the fishing season. Emboldened by that success, they are now pushing for wholesale revisions to the statute by demanding a year-round fishing calendar, use of long-line fishing, a lifting of the prohibition on shark fishing and abrogation of an agre